The “Hope” CD release shows were such a blast.  By the Turning Point we had a full band, including Pete Kennedy on guitar, Craig Akin on bass, and Ben Wittman on drums!  What fun to slide and sing over such a bed of awesome sounds.  These guys really know how to back way off on a ballad, get into a groove, take the spotlight when I toss it over to them and then stop on a dime.  Lucky lucky lucky me!  See new photos here.

I’ll be touring around the country with Red Molly all summer with very little time for another solo band show until the Fall, but rest assured, we’ll be playing together again later this year.  Until then, I’m off to CO, NC, CA, KS, OK, NH, ME, VT, NY, OR…  holy frequent flyer miles batman.  And we’ll be releasing the latest Red Molly CD at the end of the Summer, beginning of Fall.  Stay tuned for a free pre-release download.

A highlight for this month will be heading down to the Swannanoa Gathering in North Carolina to teach songwriting.  It will be my second year teaching melody writing and “getting unstuck.”  After last year’s experience I’m really excited and ready to work with these great, dedicated songwriters.  I think it will give my own writing a push as well.  Especially alongside the other instructors:  Kathy Mattea, Janis Ian, Patty Larkin, Tom Paxton, Jack Williams and more!

Abbie

“Hope” has been in the top 10 on the Folk DJ Charts for 2 months now!  We’ve got a couple more CD release shows this month and they just keep building.  On June 19th I get to play the lovely Jalopy Theater in Brooklyn- this time with my favorite drummer Ben Wittman and Craig (on bass as always).  Dobro, bass and drums!  I’ve recorded with Ben for three different CDs now and it always changes things.  Having a steady rockin’ groove to play lead over & sing over…  well there’s nothing like it.  It opens up the possibilities and the sound.  On June 30th at the Turning Point, Pete Kennedy (electric guitar) joins us to make a FULL band!  I’m super excited for this show.  The Turning Point is my old stomping ground- I actually went to high school with the bartender!  We’re splitting the night with my buddy Marc Douglas Berardo, so I’d think there will be some unexpected collaboration and tons of laughs.

On the home front, the Mollies are putting the finishing touches on the new Red Molly CD.  We took pictures last week and are finalizing the mixes.  I can’t wait to share it!!  Stay tuned for some preview tracks and news on the release.  Meanwhile, I’m getting really into learning the banjo!  With a little help from my friends Louis (Stonehoney), Andrew (Roosevelt Dime), and Josh Josh (Newfound Road), I’m learning so much about picking patterns, chords, and the spirit of this thing.  It’s so different from Dobro, but in a really complementary way.  The loaner Gibson I’m using is not something I can easily lift, so I’m having a Trap-door banjo converted to a 5-string by the lovely folks at George Banjos.  I can hardly wait to have an instrument that feels right in my hands.  I’ll have Louis to thank for that part.  :)

Abbie

Just back from Merlefest, where I literally brushed elbows with Robert Plant and sat on the side of the stage while Jerry Douglas rocked out on Dobro and electric slide with Viktor Krauss and Omar Hakim!  Totally inspiring.  Red Molly played 4 sets and made a ton of new fans, while enjoying the most amazing weather for one amazing festival.  On the way home, I got a text from my radio promoter and friend that my new record, Hope, is #3 on the Folk DJ Charts for April!  WOW!  I’m so thrilled that the DJ’s are enjoying my record and playing cuts from it on their shows.  I realize that so many of the DJs are volunteering their time, sifting through stacks of CDs, talking into a microphone in an empty studio wondering if anyone is listening… all just out of love for music.  So to all you DJs out there- it’s an honor that you took the time to listen to my CD.  Thank you!!

This is all great timing.  I have two CD release shows this coming weekend.  Pete Kennedy is joining Craig and I for these shows, so we’re bound to have even more fun than we did at the April shows.  Pete and Craig are some of the best musicians I’ve ever had the honor of playing with.  And seeing what Jerry Douglas could do with just a drummer, bassist and Dobro…  well, it pumped me up and gave me ideas!  I’ve got a new pickup in my National guitar and special guests Beaucoup Blue and Phil Minissale are coming to Sunday’s gig to sit in.  All that’s left to do now is unpack.

Abbie

5/7 Lewisboro, NY

5/8 Newtown, PA

5/29 Cambridge, MA

It’s OUT!  Here’s the link to preview and order and even post your own review of my brand spankin’ new CD “Hope.”

Talking about the record, Acoustic Live Publisher, Richard Cuccaro says, “Abbie Gardner shows her prodigious writing chops in her new album, Hope. Tales of love and loss, both gritty and sweet, ride the back of her by-now familiar, formidable slide guitar licks. She channels Lucinda and Bonnie, but remains pure Abbie.”

The first release show was last night at Rockwood Music Hall, but I really think this project will grow and get better & better.  What a challenge to play Dobro and sing without a guitar player to hold down the chords!  But my upright bassist, Craig Akin, completely shines in this type of a configuration and I know it will push my musicality to keep at it.  I’m heartened by this book I have about incredibly successful people who tried crazy things and just kept at it until they succeeded.  Walt Disney went bankrupt several times, Van Gogh only sold ONE painting out of the hundreds he made, and Fred Astaire’s first audition read “Can’t sing, can’t act, can dance a little.”  Doesn’t that make you feel hopeful and inspired?  Works for me!

Meanwhile, in Red Molly land, we’re full steam ahead with our next album!  The full band rehearsal went great and we head into the studio to lay down all the instrumental tracks together in NYC on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I’m really excited about this batch of songs, which includes two of my new originals and a re-written traditional song, among others.  This will be our first with Molly Venter, too!  I am quite lucky to have this much music in my life.

Hey Everyone!

I’m excited to announce the release of my third solo album “Hope” on April 1, 2011!

To celebrate, I’m offering a free download right here on the homepage of my website.  I’m really excited about this CD.  It’s my first solo CD in five years!  I’ve done three Red Molly recordings since then and have learned a ton about recording, singing, writing and most of all, on my instrument.  When I recorded “Honey on my Grave” I had been playing dobro for less than a year.  I will always have so much to learn, but this CD was a nice chance to dig in and get my chops together.  As for the songs, many of them have my characteristically dark or bluesy feel.  But the title track (Hope) is more of a folk ballad, with overlapping cello and harmonies, but no slide work at all.  I feel like the songs revolve around Hope, both the song and the idea.  Rather than having all hopeful songs, this CD reflects the glimmer of hope we all look for when in the midst of darkness.  The struggle between love and heartache, hope and despair.

Enjoy this first preview track!  I’ll release a second one mid-month.  And I can hardly wait to play these songs live at my first two shows on the Hope Tour:

Abbie

So, my new solo CD “Hope” is all mixed and mastered and sent in to be duplicated!  The tentative release date is April 1st and I’ll be kicking it off with two hometown solo shows with Craig Akin on bass- April 1st at Rockwood Music Hall and April 10th in beautiful Jersey City!  I’m excited to share the new songs and try them out with this duo of upright bass and dobro.  I used my new green National steel guitar for the “round neck” guitar parts on the record and will have that at shows too.  It brings such a nice rusty ol’ sound to these songs.  Trading solos with just bass and dobro is something I’m really getting into, too.  There’s an openness to the sound with only 2 instruments, especially when neither of them is strumming away full time and both are basically fretless.  We recorded an instrumental (my first!) on this new record that I’m so psyched about.  Leading up to the release date I’m going to post that as a free download, especially to all the dobro and resonator websites online.  Check back here for updates on what other songs I will give sneak peaks on!

Even Groundhog’s Day was pushed back, due to the snow!  Come on out to the big jazz jam this Monday 2/14 at The Bickford Theater in Morristown.  We’ll blindfold that groundhog if we have to, so Spring comes sooner!

Happy New Year!!

I’m excited about this one.  After a short break, Red Molly’s back in the saddle, learning new songs, polishing off some older fan favorites and figuring out how to make our touring life even better.  We head to California this month and as much as I have been enjoying New Jersey’s massive amounts of snow, I’m looking forward to going back out West.

The new solo record is mostly recorded- just a little more tweaking and mixing and packaging before it’s out there in the world for everyone to hear.   Right now it’s a sleeping little secret.  And I am amazed at how much I’ve learned in the process.  I finished a song after re-writing it more than 5 times over 2 years, heard my arrangement ideas come to life, sang my solos and then picked them out on Dobro (great for my ears!), gathered ideas when I had none, wrote things I couldn’t play and then learned to play them, and so much more.  A big part of it was finding ways to keep my energy up with exercise and sleep instead of more coffee.  Obvious, I guess, but some things you need to learn more than once.

Coming up:  The Annual Groundhog’s Day Jam w/Herb Gardner!  2/1/11

Hey Everybody!

It’s an exciting day for me!  Today is the first day of recording my new solo record!  I’m headed in to NYC this afternoon with my new green National steel guitar (round neck) and my Dobro squareneck (really a Scheerhorn Wechter with a Beard Cone).  Ben Wittman is on drums, Craig Akin on upright bass, Herb Gardner (my dad) on piano and Sarah Gardner (my sister) on organ.  We’ll be laying down all the band tracks together- hopefully 7 of them today, 4 more tomorrow!  I like keeping the band together for that part, so it really SOUNDS like a band.  Then I’ll go back in to record my solos, add electric lap steel, and carefully record my vocals & harmonies.  Oh and the lovely Emily Hope Price will be in next week to lay down some sweet cello parts.  YAY!

The songs on this project came to me in very different ways, but they’re all pulled together by some mixture of darkness and light, at least in my eyes.  And today, my job is to get these instruments to reflect the same thing.  The National steel feels pretty perfect for that, even though I’ve only had it in my hands for a few weeks.  What a sound!

I’ve been listening to the Wood Brothers, Tom Waits, Ry Cooder, and Bonnie Raitt for the sound and style I want, but who knows if that’s what will come out once it’s mixed with all my other influences.

Ok, time to pack up and go!  I’ll keep you updated on the release date and gigs to support this album.  Wish me luck!

Abbie

PS- Thursday 12/16 I’ll be at Banjo Jim’s (NY, NY) doing a show with Pete Kennedy!  I’ll also be sitting in with Beaucoup Blue and Phil Minissale on 12/18 at Chaplin’s (Spring City, PA).

Wow, I’ve been to Alaska and back again in the past month.   Tomorrow night I get to play Irving Plaza with Red Molly as part of the Woody Guthrie Tribute and Benefit Concert for Huntington’s Disease.   October was extra special because I got to play some shows with my dad- a swing dance in Poughkeepsie and a daytime concert in Cedar Grove.   There is something about playing for dancers that has always made me happy.   I can tell if we’re getting it right, just by watching them react.   Also, there is simply NOTHING like playing music with your own father.   I’m a lucky girl.

This month I’m doing more Red Molly shows and gearing up for a new solo record.   I’ll be going into Mark Dann’s studio in NYC this December and using some of my favorite musicians.   I’m only sure of about half of the songs, but there is nothing like booking studio time to get you in the mode of writing and rehearsing!!   Jonathan Byrd is one of my favorite new co-writers.   Wow, he is GOOD with the lyrics, I tell you.   It’s been several years since I recorded a solo CD, and I really hope to deliver the best of what I have to offer right now.   I’m thinking pretty Dobro heavy, with a lot of groove, but shoot me an email if you have specific ideas of what you want to hear.   I’m really excited by this new batch of tunes and how I can get out there to perform them, too!

Abbie