Happy New Year!   After some much needed rest and practice time, I’m back in action this weekend with a SOLD OUT solo show at The Circle of Friends in Franklin, MA, opening for the lovely and talented Lori McKenna.  I will, of course, be bringing my favorite bass player Craig Akin with me.  Next week we’ll be joined by Pete Kennedy for another SOLD OUT show in NYC at Music on 4.  Those guys always push me to new limits, so there’s no telling what will happen, except that it’ll be a blast.  I feel like maybe I should book a few more solo gigs!  It seems to be working out!  If you don’t already have tickets to one of those, try coming out to Winterjam on 1/14 where I’ll be playing with a few of my favorite acts.

I am so grateful to find out that my CD “Hope” landed at #15 on the 2011 Folk DJ Chart!  Red Molly landed at the #10 spot and snagged the #5 artist of the year slot too! For me, 2011 was the year for recording and releasing new material, both with the band and on my own.  2012 will be the year to practice my buns off, learn new techniques, practice, write a slew of new songs, and practice some more.  Let’s get to it!

What a ride this year has been!  I can’t even count the number of places I went with Red Molly.  Then putting out a brand new solo CD AND a new Red Molly CD!  Needless to say, I am really enjoying a little time off at home in beautiful Jersey City.

Reso-summit was the perfect inspiration to setup a regular practice routine at home.  I’ve been working on ear training, scales all over the neck of my Dobro, figuring out melodies of my favorite songs, and trying to make my Dobro sound like a real voice.  Today I even got back in the saddle for a little writing.  Though I think I may have to write a dozen or more clunkers before the good ones come along.

I’ve got a few really fun solo shows coming up in January- including an unplugged NYC house concert that is always a blast (with Pete Kennedy and Craig Akin!), opening for Lori McKenna up in Franklin, MA, and doing my part at Winterjam 2012 in Westchester, NY.   Hope to see you there!  Happy Holidays everyone!

Well the new Red Molly CD Light in the Sky was released last month and is already doing great on the charts- #1 album and artist on Folk DJ for October, and debuting on the Americana Top 40 Chart at #31!  We’ve got a tour of the mid-west and then our final hometown tour of the year.  I’m off to Resosummit this month, to sing in the “Backing Up a Vocalist” workshops.  It’s always so amazing to spend time with other Dobro players, learning from the best and going home with new ideas and lots of stuff to practice.  This time I get to perform a bit too, with my friends Greg Booth and Orville Johnson in a one-hour song swap.  Should be quite a hoot!

I’ll mark the end of my touring season with one final solo show at Perks & Corks in Rhode Island, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Marc Douglas Berardo and I split this show last year and had so much fun we decided to make it a tradition!  Craig Akin will be joining us on upright bass this time and I’m hoping our favorite squeezebox player will show up too!  I’ll never forget playing “Too Soon” with him last year- it gave me chills.

Abbie

Hooray!  The new Red Molly CD Light in the Sky is out!  You can listen to it and get your own copy on CDBaby or iTunes.  We’re super excited about sharing it with everyone and will be doing a slew of CD release shows.  For the one in NYC at Rockwood Music Hall (11/17), we’re planning to play the songs from the album, in order!  Fun.

In other fun news, my solo CD Hope is now on Pandora!  I hope you’ll add my name to your station there.  Just for fun, I made a station with just my name, to see what other kinds of artists out there have similar music.  It’s really amazing what those Pandora people come up with and I’ve already found several albums I need to get my hands on (like Kevin Welch’s You Can’t Save Everybody).  How they manage to keep it free, I have no idea, but I’m grateful.

Abbie

I write to you from Sisters, Oregon, in the heart of the Deschutes National Forest.  Tomorrow I get to play two sets at the Sisters Folk Festival with Red Molly, but today I get to just enjoy the woods!  It’s so peaceful and quiet here.  The town is named after the Three Sisters mountains that dominate its western skyline, which makes this female trio feel pretty well at home.

It’s great to have a day of rest here and there.  Things are really gearing up for the release of Red Molly’s latest CD Light in the Sky on October 4th.  We’re planning a big CD-stuffing party at my place to get copies out to about 450 of our favorite DJs around the country and abroad.  The new stickers arrived last week and new T-shirts are on their way.  Every Tuesday until the release, we’re sharing something fun with our fans via Facebook and our website.

Later this month we’ll head down to North Carolina, to play shows in some of the areas most most hard-hit by hurricane Irene.  I truly hope we can give those good folks a little break from the stress and work they’ve been dealing with.

Until then,

Abbie

I don’t know who said March was a lion.  I think it should be July. It was a whirlwind for me- going from Maine to Falcon Ridge in NY and then down to Swannanoa, NC for my second year of teaching melody writing and “getting unstuck” for songwriters.  What an amazing month!  I am well on my way to “elite” frequent flyer status!  I’ve already been to California this month and really look forward to my first trip to Kansas next week.  :)

Friday was the U.S. release of the Indian blockbuster film Aarakshan.  Unlike most Indian film music, this score includes sweet sounds of the Dobro and banjo (as well as acoustic guitar) by yours truly.  I have yet to hear or see the whole thing, but I’m quite excited to make my film music debut!

On the T.V. front, my song “Break it Slow” (the first track off my latest CD Hope) has been chosen for the pilot of new show on A&E called “Fishmongers.”  It is sort of like Deadliest Catch, meets Hard Core Pawn, meets Goodfellas with humor that feels like it is ‘live from the Borscht belt’.  Holy cow.  How could this show not be a huge hit?  I might actually have to buy a television.  (Just kidding)

Reviews for Hope keep rolling in and making me jump up and down with happiness.  People in the biz tell you not to read your own press, but sometimes it’s nice!

And finally, at the home front, I’ve started reading music again.  In high school it was my dream to become a classical flutist.  That dream has changed shape over the years, and I never thought reading music would ever be something I do again.  Dobro music isn’t ever really written out (except with TAB) and I don’t have any Dobro player friends who read music or find any need to.  But as I was looking for creative ways to learn my instrument better, Craig (my bass player) suggested I try sight-reading my old flute books.  I gave him every excuse and reason it would be too hard- I mean you have to look at the Dobro, how can you read music at the same time?  Well after all the excuses, I went ahead and tried it.  He was right.  It’s amazing.  I’m learning so much and at the same time I feel like I got a little bit of that dream back.  I LOVE reading music.  It’s incredibly fulfilling.  And yes, I’m learning the notes all the way up the fretboard too, but at this point that’s almost an afterthought because it’s just so FUN.  Thanks Craig.  :)

Abbie