Yesterday I played a solo set out in Winchester at Willow Grove that was part of a brand new music festival that we will hopefully see grow and happen again for many years to come. The setting was gorgeous with a picturesque lake and willow trees as the backdrop to the stages, and the weather was just about as lovely as anyone could hope for on a summer's day in Virginia. I got to see a lot of great RVA friends perform as well as some different bands from elsewhere around Virginia whom I hadn't seen live before. All in all it was great day out of town.  

My set was one of the last of the day, after sunset, and myself along with two other more experimental acts performed within the confines of an old stone barn foundation. It was pretty magical and for me it was nice as it had the intimacy of playing a house show or small venue... while still being outside and having the stars and clouds visible overhead. As is often the case when I perform, I really let the surroundings inform the music, so between the stone and the dirt and all the new faces it made for a pretty epic set. Huge thanks to all the festival organizers, all the bands and everyone who came out for making it it such a wonderful day!

So last year I recorded the album Is This Chocolate? for my good friends Dumb Waiter. This year, they got together with some other friends and made this video. I can't take any credit for it, but oh my goodness it's ridiculously brilliant, so i figured I'd pass the word on. Enjoy!

I recently finished some mastering work for my friends the New Turks for their new self titled EP which will be available on Cassette.  Normally I'm fairly reserved when it comes to mastering and don't partake in the "loud wars" as it were but with this one I wanted the recording to sound as brutal as these guys sound live, So I pushed it as far as I could and it sounds ridiculously intense. They straight up killed it on these songs. enjoy:

At the end of April I met up with my good friends Lobo Marino at Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville to record a collection of live kirtan music. We set up in a former schoolhouse and tracked these songs with members of the community filling in on group vocals and percussion, and the one and only Jessika Blanks joined up with us to lay down some violin tracks as well. We managed to get everything tracked within a day and then later incorporated some field recordings that Jameson and Laney had captured while in India. It was a pretty moving experience for me, and the songs ended up sounding lovely. Please give it a listen, and if you can manage, please pay whatever you want for the download as 100% of the online proceeds go to Vagdevi Children's Art School in India. Buying music only helps make more music. Thank you for listening.