Hello friends,

       What an incredible next couple of weeks. I’m going to throw that out there in advance. I have the enormous privilege and pleasure to play with three people I respect and admire, and quite frankly, I think they’re all kind of cute.

Joey Ryan, Lelia Broussard and I were sitting in a hot tub eating bbq and being cool cats a couple of months ago, we said to ourselves, “selves, we should play shows together.” I’m so glad we decided to act on it. So we’re gonna do a couple of shows together up the coast of California. I’ve thought of names for the brief tour, but any and all ideas I have make me sound way too excited.

“the totes awesome-possum tour”

“the ridiculously good looking tour”

“Why there’s hope for music tour”

“Knock knock, who’s there? Your face is melted…tour”

 

You can weigh in on your favorite and submit some of your own ideas. I’m going to have key chains made, or better yet, commemorative plates, Franklin mint style. I’ve invited Jamie Drake to play with us on some southern California dates as well. If you haven’t heard her do pop over to her myspace, she’s got a song called, “plumbline” that will wreck you.

 

So here are the dates and specifics. I can’t wait to see old faces and make new friends, and as always if you have friends near where we’re playing and think that we’d be their jam do let them know about us.

 

July 22nd Hotel Cafe Los Angeles, CA

http://www.hotelcafe.com/

July 23rd Union Room San Francisco, CA

http://www.theunionroom.com/

July 24th House Concert, Monterey CA (email booking@leliasmusic.com to reserve a seat)

July 29th The Brickwall at JA Studios, Fresno, CA.

www.facebook.com/brickwallmusic

July 30th Viento y Agua Long Beach CA*with Jamie Drake

http://www.vientoyaguacoffeehouse.com/

July 31st Lestats in San Diego CA*with Jamie Drake

http://www.lestats.com/

August 1st Zoey's in Ventura CA*with Jamie Drake

http://www.zoeyscafe.com/

I have never been good at making money, or to look at the glass as half-full, I have always been not good at making money. And I do stick to what I’m good at. It has been hard to stick to my guns on this one. People come by with piles of cash and beg for me to take it, “No thank you”, I’ll say with a big smirk of my face. “I’ve taken an unofficial vow of poverty so I can look down on rich people”. This works like gangbusters, usually they walk away with their wheelbarrows full of currency in tow, downtrodden, beaten, and there I am self-righteous on my dunghill with a dirty yet resolute face of calm and splendor. Actually it’s more like this;

Every First and Fifteenth, every month, I half squint my eyes as I log into my online banking site. It’s the same look on my face as you would get from removing a bandage to look at how a scab is healing. It’s never good. Not that I’ve always been a broke-ass-broke-a-dee broker. There have been occations that I’ve had money. Not Many, but a few.

I swore that I’d invest it, or practice the art of frugality (which for me kind of looks a lot like being a cheep miser), but that never really holds. Something always comes up. A car starts to make a funny noise or a perfectly normal computer decides to be a glorified paper weight until further notice. No kidding, one time I got a part on a tv show and the very day my check came in the mail for 750 bucks my dentist sent me a bill for a root canal, $745.49, I spent the remaining $4.51 at taco bell.

 

Now I know the counter argument to this already, What would’ve it been like if I hadn’t had the $750 to begin with?

I’ve heard that. a lot. I know that the right way to look at the situation is to be thankful, that God is filling in the gaps I don’t even know will be there. But still, I had toys I wanted to buy with that, good ones too. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself that I wasn’t going to make rent. And yet here I sit in my house, not on the street. I’m incredibly fortunate. I know there are others, perhaps some of you reading this right now who can’t count yourselves as lucky.

 So in an effort to not be poor and not be a victim of my bills I’ve decided to fight the power. You heard me, Fight the Power. My first foe that I went toe-to-toe with was AT&T. Of course this being the 21^st century, I filmed it and put it up on youtube.

 

upcoming gigs

Next week I've got a new but good friend Brian Elmquist coming into town. His music is powerful and he is a gem. We're playing a free, check that, Free show at Crane's Tavern in Hollywood next week July 7th @ 10PM. here's the address yo

1611 North El Centro Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90028-6458

 

Now for those of you in California I have the pleasure of performing with Lelia Broussard and Joey Ryan on a mini-tour of this, my favorite, the Golden State Dates are listed below

July 22nd Hotel Cafe Los Angeles
July 23rd Union Room San Francisco
July 24th Monterey CA House Concert
July 29th Fresno CA House Concert
July30th Cafe Viento Y Agua Long Beach
July 31st Lestats San Diego
August 1st Zoey's Ventura

If you're in any one of these areas or near them please do come out. I cannot say enough good things about the Joey and Lelia, and I'm truly honored to be sharing the stage with them. As always know that I love and appreciate you and your support. And I hope this finds you full of hope for the future and love for the now. I just became a hippie right then. ok. bye. 

Jake

 

Let's get connected friends.

I’ve been watching the Olympics non-stop. Now I’m not a sports fan by any stretch of the imagination, I watch the superbowl for the commercials and the Half-time show, I thought that Fantasy football meant that mythological creatures were involved, but there’s something about the Olympics that sucks me in like a black hole for the two glorious weeks they grace our televisions. The Closing ceremony always gives me the feeling of the last day of camp, You know that you’ll see these people again, but it will be a long and boring season of Baseball scandals and football player arrests before you can watch your beloved curling/biathaloning/speedskating buffet of human interest stories. You see, with the typical professional sports, for me at least, feel like they’re trying to stab my eyes with product placements. It overshadows the spirit of competition, the driving, striving urge to break world records for the sake of humanity’s betterment.
The Olympics have that in spades, it’s People doing things that no one else has ever done. Every time you turn the TV on. Pretty Cool. Oh, and someone is always recovering from an injury while Bob Costas weaves a tale of triumph and heartache, like watching various versions of an 80’s sports movie. I. freaking. love. it.

I also was given the opportunity to work on a track with Ben Lee and Fiona Apple for Margaret Cho’s upcoming album, she was a sweetheart and gracious beyond measure. And she liked my banjo playing. So she’s good in my book. Her record should be coming out this Fall, Look for it!!!

In recent press the music/Culture hub www.Bloginity.com ran a feature on me, they’re some solid journalists/hepcats with a lot going on for them, and I'm proud they lent their talents to a story on yours truly.

For The Los Angelites I’m Playing Thursday March 4th at 7PM, go to www.hotelcafe.com for more info. East coast, I’m flirting with coming out to see you. But it always helps to have people persuade me, Any thoughts on where you want to see me, or if you want to host a house concert give a shout out back to info@jakenewton.com

That's all for now friends, Now back to Bob Costas.
Jake