It’s a brand new year, a brand new decade, and for some reason it brings me back to how I felt the first day of first grade…  with my brand new pencils and a black and white composition book waiting to be filled.  What can I say, it was an exciting day for me!

The new Red Molly CD “James” is being duplicated and I can’t wait to share it with the world.  My Dad, Herb Gardner, is our special guest piano player and I’ve got a couple originals on the record that I’m really happy with.  Getting our friends involved is always a thrill for me, this time we recorded one of Anthony da Costa’s songs (The Last Call) and have Fred Gillen, Jr. singing a duet (Gulf Coast Highway).  Lots of other great surprises, stay tuned for the release!

So excited to announce that my song “The Mind of a Soldier” (Grand prize winning song in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest) will be played on Lufthansa airlines in January and February on all their international flights!  The song is literally “taking off!”  Let me know if you hear it!

This month, Pat Wictor releases his new CD “Livin’ Ever Lovin’ LIVE” featuring a jazzy little duet that we co-wrote, called “A Little Love is Gonna Do.”  We’ll play it live at John Platt’s Sunday Breakfast on January 10th, so listen for the live performance and interview online or at 90.7 FM in the NYC area.  We’ll do a bunch of songs live together at the Living Room on January 12th at the Under The Radar Series.  Also on the bill is Dala- a lovely female duo from Canada.

I’m happy to announce that the Christmas duet I wrote and recorded with Anthony da Costa has made it to the #5 slot on the Folk DJ charts for December!  It’s called “We Need a Little Christmas” and was included on the Hudson Harding sampler.  Available on iTunes as a download, along with my grumpy song “Burn Down the Christmas Tree.”

Happy New Year!

Abbie

I’m so happy to have a brand new website!  We just went live on 12/6, so please be patient as I fill everything in.  Some great shows coming up this month, hope to see you there!

Abbie

I’m headed down to ResoSummit in a couple of days- the annual Dobro conference with Rob Ickes, Sally Van Meter, Mike Witcher, Cindy Cashdollar and more! I’m excited to be the vocalist for the “Backing up a Singer” workshops and psyched to learn new techniques, meet new friends and basically overload myself on the Dobro for 3 days!! My new single “Nellie” is now available for download on iTunes and CD Baby! I recorded this track as a prize for winning last year’s American Songwriter Magazine’s Annual Lyric Contest. They flew me down to Nashville all fancy and this is what I did with my day in the studio. The song is sort of pop-oriented and it didn’t fit in with my other folky or bluesy stuff. I’m really glad I got a chance to record it professionally and release it as a single. The cover art was made on an ipod with the Doodle Buddy application! Stay tuned for a 2-song Christmas release, as well.

Pre-orders just opened up for the new Red Molly CD.” We’re putting the finishing touches on it and have some fancy photos for the cover, too. Sort of non-folky, considering we’re wearing floor-length gowns, but we had fun with it.

October’s Slide Session with Brooks Williams was the last at Googie’s Lounge. It was a great place to get my little project started over the past year. Now I’m re-thinking the series and hoping to take it to a whole other level! But first I have to go pack up my Dobro, load my iPod with Jerry Douglas tracks, and get ready for Nashville! When I come back I’ve got my first solo gig of the season at Columbia University’s Postcrypt Coffeehouse (11/14).

Back in the studio with Red Molly! So exciting! Our third full-length album is well underway, though we only started on the last day of September. Everyday I take the PATH train from Grove Street to the World Trade Center. I walk up from the lower levels of that station that is constantly changing, several floors down, but the sun streams in and the concrete is still in pieces, some old and some new. With my Dobro on my back, I pass tourists who stare at that hole and take pictures. And I walk up out of it, not needing to look because it’s still a bruise for me. Maybe when it’s fixed that part of me will be fixed, too. I walk up about 10 blocks to the studio and sing, listen, play, listen, and listen some more. Then 8-10 hours later, I walk back, with all those sounds in my head and all of that hope in my heart.