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NEWS -
FEBRUARY 16 2013
Hiya folks! I know you've been refreshing this page every 15 minutes since we last updated it in August, and your lucky day is here because I finally have some stuff to tell you about! Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, breakfast is keeping warm in the oven.
This month, we have a small handful of really exciting activity. This weekend we're in the Ottawa area playing for all the lovely people in this part of the world. Yesterday we played at Le Hibou, a fantastic restaurant/venue in Wakefield, QC, and tonight we're at the Old Town Hall in Almonte, ON for the Folkus Concert Series. It's winter here and the crowds are fantastic! Not only was last night in Wakefield totally sold out, but we were treated to slow-cooked ribs after the show, which made us feel like kings!
Next weekend we're gearing up for the International Folk Alliance conference, which is taking place in Toronto this year! We've had some fantastic times at that conference the past couple of years when it was in Memphis and it's exciting that the party is coming to home turf. Folk Alliance is about connecting with fancy industry people but it's also an amazing opportunity for us to get to see and hang out with so many of our friends from around the country and the world. We have an official showcase and a slew of private ones, and we're all trying to get more than enough sleep in the meantime to get prepared for the madness we know is coming.
Then our good friends Lake Street Dive from the U.S. are coming to Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern on February 28th and we'll be sharing the bill with them. It's really an honour to get to play with these guys, they're totally next-level. Your attendance at this show is compulsory! Don't miss it.
If you're wondering what everyone's been up to since last you heard from us, well, let me tell you! Adam has been in Europe for the past couple of months touring with Jenny Ritter, who is an amazing singer-songwriter and a pillar of the extended Fish & Bird family. Taylor went on tour in Alberta and BC with his new duo project Bull Kelp. Bull Kelp's first album is due to be released March 15th on Fiddle Head Records, and you can currently download two of the songs from it for FREE at bullkelp.bandcamp.com.
We're also currently assembling all the little puzzle pieces to get ready for F&B album number FOUR, and that is something that has us all really jazzed. We're enthused about this new batch of songs and we think you're gonna like them too. Come see us this month and we'll play 'em for ya!
Watch this space for more news!
Love,
Taylor/Fish & Bird
AUGUST 2012 - WHAT A GOOD SUMMER!
Hey folks!
Summer has been beautiful to us! Here's a great shot of Taylor at the Winnipeg Folk Fest in July (taken by Ken Berg). Winnipeg started festival season for us, and we had a blast! All of July was fantastic, taking us to Arts on the Fly in Horsefly, BC, where we got to hang out with our friends Jason & Pharis Romero, and then up to the Northwest Territories for Folk On The Rocks, where Taylor won $35 playing dice backstage with members of Ohbijou and Timber Timbre, and practised his pro-wrestling moves on Patrick M'Gonigle of The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra. Finally, the Kispiox Valley Music Festival near Smithers, BC was a magical time getting to hang out with a lot of our really good pals, including Jenny Ritter, Hannah Epperson, David Simard, and lots more.
Now we're taking a short breather but we'll resume our summer touring with a couple shows in Winnipeg on August 21st, the Peterborough Folk Festival on August 25th. Then in September and October we have lots in store for Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes, including two festivals in Nova Scotia! Keep an eye on our "shows" page as details unfold.
-Taylor
MAY 4 2012 - SUMMER DATES, TRACKS ON TRACKS!
Taylor Ashton here with a Fish & Bird update! 2012 has been crazy for us! We've spent the majority of the year in separate corners of the continent, but still managed to get together for some incredibly fun times, and play for a lot of new ears! In February, we all went to Memphis, TN for the International Folk Alliance conference. The following month we convened briefly in BC to play at one of Vancouver's most renowned rock venues, the Commodore Ballroom, opening for Spirit of the West. We're almost halfway through the year and so far it's been great!
TRACKS ON TRACKS! (we need your help and it only takes 1 second!)
As an amazing bonus, we've been nominated to take part in CBC's Tracks on Tracks project! What this means is that we could be taking the train across the country with a handful of other bands for a modern-day festival express rock & roll experience, ending with an appearance at the NXNE festival in Toronto! We were on the longlist, then the shortlist, then the top 25, and thanks to the internet voting of countless awesome souls, we are now in the TOP TEN! Essentially meaning we are one of the top ten bands of all time! (That's what it means right? I'm not so good at math) This is the crucial last stage, and I'd like to extend a gracious plea to our mailing list and anybody reading this to kindly vote for us! It only takes a second, and every computer gets a vote! Home computer, work computer, laptop, cell phone, work cell phone, your friend's cell phone. This would be an amazing opportunity! Every member of the band other than Ben has played on the train before in smaller ensembles, but Tracks on Tracks takes the concept to a whole new level of awesomeness! Your votes mean a lot to us!
SUMMER DATES!
It's summer and it means that Adam, Ryan, Ben, Natalie, and I will be getting together soon to play shows. It's gonna be great to get back on the road and back into the swing of things. We have a ton of great shows lined up for western Canada in May and June (plus a festival in the states in the middle of that!) and then in July we have some really exciting festival appearances coming up, including the Winnipeg Folk Fest! I hope we see you this summer! Check the Gigs page for dates!! August is shaping up and we've got some things in the works for the east, and some things in the states, so stay tuned!
Love you all!
Taylor
P.S.
Although the band isn't officially performing, we will all be at the amazing Campbell Bay Music Festival, and you should probably come. Go to http://campbellbaymusicfest.com to see the kickass lineup and for more info! It's the most fun ever!
FEBRUARY 13 2012
WOAH! ANOTHER AWESOME VID!
Hey friends, look what I just found on the internet! Here's another sweet video captured during our latest jaunt, in January in BC. Nat and I both woke up at 4AM Manitoba time the day that this video was shot around 1PM in Victoria on the backporch of the Solstice Cafe!
Effigy - Fish & Bird from Daniel Pender on Vimeo.
Thanks to Shaw TV for filming that! Looks great and sounds great too.
Can't wait to get the band back together again in Memphis in a couple weeks!
To freedom!
Taylor
FEBRUARY 11 2012
NATALIE BOHRN, FOLK ALLIANCE, ST. PATRICK'S DAY, KINGSGATE CHORUS!
Taylor here, in Toronto, with a long overdue news update! First of all, let me introduce to you our new recruit, Ms Natalie Bohrn on the upright bass! We met Natalie in PEI at the Funk the Dunk festival last summer, and then again later the same summer at her home town festival, the Brandon Folk Music & Art Festival. She blew us away, so when the position opened up we called and offered her a job! In January we all convened in BC for a handful of shows and to rehearse. The video above was taken in Victoria at the Solstice Cafe by Aaron Mercer. It was Natalie's first show with us and it grooved splendidly! Unfortunately we were too busy with rehearsals and shows to get around to a proper photoshoot while the 5 of us were all in one place, so hopefully you won't find it too confusing that there's still pictures of our old bassist, Zoe Guigueno, all over the website. (Zoe will be touring with our dear friends the Crooked Brothers this summer by the way, on their European tour!)
Anyway, here's an article from the Times Colonist about our Victoria show, which has a great picture of the new lineup. Natalie's a wonderful addition to the band and I think you're all going to love her.
Next time we're all going to be in the same place is later this month at the Folk Alliance conference in Memphis TN. We loved it there so much last year we decided to go back. These music conferences are a crazy convergence of insane musicians and it's sure to be a great time. Lots of our friends will be there, and maybe we'll go to Al Green's church on Sunday morning.
In other amazing news, we'll be playing at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on March 17th, opening for our friends Spirit of the West! We're excited to be playing at one of Canada's legendary clubs with one of Canada's finest alternative folk bands on one of the craziest party days of the year! Get your tickets now! This will sell out and you don't want to miss it!
Also, here's something sweet: Our dear friend Jenny Ritter is an artist and singer/songwriter living in Vancouver. Formerly of the Gruff, she is now working on a solo career and also leads a pretty sweet project called the Kingsgate Chorus. They just recorded a Fish & Bird song, how cool is that! Listen up! I feel extremely tickled.
You should also check out their sweet Bruce Springsteen cover!
Big love to all of y'all
Taylor
OCTOBER 12 2011
CONFERENCES, A HANDFUL OF SHOWS, AND A LINEUP CHANGE!
Hi folks, fun stuff coming up in the next couple of weeks! We'll be converging from our separate outposts across the continent to perform an official showcase at the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference in Niagara Falls, ON, followed by a show at C'est What in Toronto, and then we will all fly to Vancouver to play at Cafe Deux Soleils, and then up to Whitehorse to play at the BreakOut West festival/conference, and at the Western Canadian Music Awards ceremony. Read all the fine deets on the gigs page!
The neat thing is that this year, we are the only band who have been nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award, invited to perform at the BreakOut West conference, and invited to perform an official showcase at OCFF. Pretty fancy! A trifecta of potential success!
We are also sad to announce that this set of shows will be the last to feature the amazingly talented Zoe Guigueno on upright bass. Zoe is leaving the band to focus on other musical and non-musical pursuits. We wish her well and she wishes us well too! In November she will be touring with Anna Atkinson. She is also a creative force in the Toronto-based band Words Around the Waist, and they will certainly be seeing a lot more of her now!
Fish & Bird's next stint of live shows will be a cross-country tour starting mid-May 2012. Who will be playing bass? Watch this space for news!
Lots of love to everybody!
Taylor
JULY 5 2011
OUR DAMN VAN, WCMA NOMINATION, AND SUMMER FESTIVALS!
Well, about an hour into our summer tour we starting hearing an awful noise from our big white van and we had to leave it in a shop in Abbotsford. Determined not to miss gigs, we pulled out all the stops! We abducted our friend Josh and his little car, and our tour manager Rob borrowed his parents' minivan, and by golly, we got back on the road. We played on Canada Day in Grand Forks opening for the Sadies, and made it to a little festival called SoulFest in Twin Butte, AB, and played in Lethbridge. Now we have a couple days off before we resume our summer tour (in our repaired van), which takes us to many more fests (check the gigs page).
Also, good news! The new album has been nominated in the category of Best Roots Album for a Western Canadian Music Award! Check out their website!
Love
Taylor
APRIL 25 2011
THE NEW CD!!
We finally have it - hundreds upon hundreds of copies of the new album, Every Whisper is a Shout Across the Void! We had a great time releasing it on the west coast, and we also had our CBC Canada Live concert air nationwide on the radio. It can still be heard on-demand here. We had such a good time taping this! It will be airing on TV in the summer. Stay tuned for the exact date and time. Send us an email at info@fishandbird.ca with the subject "Mailing List" to be kept up-to-date about things like that.
Tonight we play at the Ironwood in Calgary, thus marking the start of many, many shows on our Cross-Canada CD release tour! Check out our gigs page for a full(ish) listing that will be updated whenever something new comes up.
Also - Exclaim! digs our album. The album will be available to purchase online soon. Watch this space for details.
Love you all! Pray for our tour van!
Taylor
APRIL 4 2011 - CD RELEASE / CROSS CANADA TOUR
Well folks, we are releasing our CD in Victoria, BC on April 20th at the Metro Theatre. The CD, called "Every Whisper Is A Shout Across The Void" is our best record yet, and it's all done! Adam worked like a maniac making sure everything about it sounds great - he engineered, produced, and mixed it, and brought in the help of a couple seasoned pros - Adrian Dolan to help with mixing, and Joby Baker to master it. The artwork is all finished, and the plant in Surrey is working on making boxes and boxes of these things for us. It's a good feeling! We're doing a huge number of shows across the country and bringing Every Whisper along. Can't wait to bring it to you, wherever you are! Check our gigs page to see where we're playing nearest you!
To hear the album's lead single, "Well Run Dry", go to our music page!
Also, Roots Music Canada got a sneak peak of the album, read their wonderful review here.
Spring is upon us friends, rejoice!
Taylor
FEB 8 2011 - CBC LIVE TAPING / WEST COAST SHOWS / FOLK ALLIANCE
Only 2 days til our big TV and radio taping at CBC studios in Vancouver with Spirit of the West frontman John Mann. Email rsvp.vancouver@cbc.ca to reserve a seat. My understanding is that the free tickets are almost out and it has now gone to waitlist, or something to that effect. Shoot them an email! The show takes place at 700 Hamilton St at 7pm on Thursday Feb 10th.
We have a couple more west coast shows: Feb 11th in Abbotsford, and Feb 12th in Victoria. More deets on our gigs page!
After that, the entire band is off to Memphis, Tenessee to showcase for a bunch of fancy industry people at the Folk Alliance Conference! This is where we hope to meet a wealthy business tycoon in a nudie suit and a 10-gallon-hat who loves our music and wants to sponsor us all to live as artists for the rest of our lives so we never have to worry about money again. That or some festival directors!
Hope everybody's winter isn't too depressing!
Taylor
JAN 19 2011 - NEW WEBSITE! NEW ALBUM! BIG NEWS!!
Wow! Brand spankin' new Fish & Bird website. Big thanks to our banjo player Taylor for putting in the hard work to get this online, and for creepily referring to himself in the third person!
The 3rd album is on the way. Adam worked his butt off recording this sucker, and he's in the process of working his butt off getting the whole thing ready for you to hear. You'll notice a music player at the top of this page, where you can listen to the song "Well Run Dry" which will be appearing on it! More details on that album - including art, name, exact release date, etc - to come. Stay tuned! Email info@fishandbird.ca with the subject "mailing list" if you want to keep informed. Or click the little facebook icon at the top of this page, most of our big news goes there!
Wahoo!