Have you ever asked yourself “when will Nathan play another live show?” I’ve been asking myself that same question for months and I finally have an answer:
It’s my first show since last November (holy crap!), and I have to thank my friend Sam Russell for dragging me out of my baby-laden torpor for this. I’ve never played solo at The Tractor before, but I’m rested and ready for action.
And, in case your eyes glazed over at my last, overly-long post, I recently uploaded a less-than-recent live show from 2010; it’s free, so whad’ya got to lose?
Oh, and I’ve been in the mood to write again, so I scraped the barnacles off my blog and made sure she’s sea-worthy. While my time to make music has been limited, at least I can write about it.
From early 2010 until our final show at the end of June 2011, The Dark Pioneers & I played at The Skylark in West Seattle a whopping five times. Four of those shows were actually recorded on a multi-track digital workstation by Charlie, the Skylark’s house engineer. For the longest time, I held on to the notion that I’d one day release a live compilation that drew material from all four of those performances.
Well…I had an awakening last month while listening and tracking the best songs from that stockpile–and what a painstaking (and sometimes physically painful) process it was, hearing the highs and lows of our live show over time. Once the involuntary cringing stopped, I was able to conclude two things:
1) Our April show back in 2010 was…not great…BUT pretty damn entertaining and so full of in-jokes and references specific to that particular night that it seemed futile to do anything other than present the show as a single piece, warts and all. (Okay, I shaved a few of those warts off in the editing process.)
2) Aside from a few jewels found in our June 2010 and February 2011 shows, the final Dark Pioneers show in June 2011 was actually the best of the bunch. We went out in style, it would seem.
So what to do? My friend Eddie Williams, who had previously recorded my solo debut, The Dead Leaves Sing, had already mixed that April 2010 show nearly two years ago, and it’s been sitting on my hard drive ever since. Now that I’ve decided to let it all go as one piece, I’ve made it available as a free download. Full details are over on the ARCANA page, or you can just _click here_ to download the zip archive (MP3s, plus a pdf file with photos and credits).
Our final show will be mixed and released as part of a bigger package later this year. In the meantime, I’ll be busy mixing and editing Argot, Vol. 2, which will (hopefully) see the light in a couple of months. And, like our first volume in the Argot series, it will be a free download on Bandcamp.com.
I’m still kicking, just kicking quietly at the moment. Baby Ethan is the focus right now, but I’m still actively making music. While things are most quiet on the live front, my spare, quiet moments have been filled with crafting a few audible goods for you to collect and enjoy. I also continue to work on new material for a future show and refine projects started with The Dark Pioneers (and, boy howdy, did we have a lot of unfinished musical business).
So let it be written, so let it be done: my wife and I welcomed Ethan Cormac Anderson into the world on January 28th and, depending on who I’ve asked, it will either be 6 months to 5 years before I can expect a good night’s sleep again. It’s equally amazing and terrifying to have this adorable little weirdo in my life and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
No shows for the immediate future, though I may be back in action come March. In the meantime, I’ve taken up whittling, which leaves a surprising amount of wood shavings all over the damn carpet. Maybe I should get a wood shed.
Happy Holidays and stuff. This is my last missive from 2011 and there are two things to tell you about January (i.e. the month where I lose mind):
1) For the next two weeks, I will be knee-deep in Seattle Shakespeare Company’s production of Coriolanus (stop giggling!), working as sound designer and music supervisor on one of Shakespeare’s least produced plays (though it was nice of Ralph “Don’t call me Voldemort” Fiennes to direct and release his big screen adaptation in January, too).
All performances are at the Seattle Center House Theatre, January 4-29; ticket and calendar info can be found here.
2) And, I guess the biggest news to be shared is that my wife and I have a duo project that will drop on/around January 22nd–okay, maybe DROPPED is the wrong word–because you don’t want to drop a baby!
Yes, I’m about to enter a new era of sleepless nights and poor parental judgment and, since I’ve know about the impending Life Changing Event since May, now you know why I was hesitant to revive The Dark Pioneers right after Sam’s departure; I know as soon as the band was back up and running, we would have to hit the pause button for a while. So far, my live calendar remains empty and will likely stay that way until spring; I also have this huge stockpile of unreleased music that’s growing fallow on my hard drive…guess that will have to keep a while longer since, you know…BABY!
Whoa? It’s December already? Time for an update before we’re already
ringing in a new year and I become a daaah…well, we’ll get to that later in the month.
My one and only show for December will be at The Tractor in Ballard on December 17th–and what a show it will be! I’ll be part of the 9th Annual Double-Album Christmas Benefit Show for MUSICARES. The album is ‘Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs’ by Derek and the Dominos, played in its entirety, in order, and featuring a different band or artist for every song.
SAT, December 17th @ 9pm The Tractor ($10 adv or $12 doors/21+)
5213 Ballard Ave NW, Seattle, WA
feat. BLUE SPARK, KIM VIRANT, MIKE McCREADY (Pearl Jam), THE JELLY ROLLERS, JEFF FIELDER, SEAN BATES (HalloQueen), ANDREW McKEAG (P.U.S.A.), JAMES APOLLO & HIS SWEET UNKNOWN, THE GLASS NOTES, NATHAN WADE,PERSEPHONE, SAM RUSSELL, STAR ANNA & THE LAUGHING DOGS, and more! All proceeds benefit MusiCares. These shows usually sell out, so consider advance tickets to make sure you get in!
My friend Sam Russel and I will be sitting in with James Apollo’s band for the night, and vice versa (btw, I’m playing “Tell The Truth”). There are a hell of lot of great guitarists playing that night, so I better get my sh*t together. (I’m imagining a scenario where I blow a Duane Allman-inspired slide solo while Mike McCready, Jeff Fielder, and Andrew McKeag all give me the stink-eye over their cans of PBR.)
Happy Holidays, folks! I’ll check in once last time this year with info on my next theatre production (Shakespeare’s ‘Coriolanus’) and a very important announcement.
It’s mid-October already? I guess I better let you know a few things about this and that:
Cornish College of the Arts presents
‘El Paso Blue’ by Octavia Solis
Directed by Aimee Bruneau
October 25-29th & 31st @ 7:30pm doors
October 30th early show @ 6:30pm doors
9th Avenue Studios/Studio One
427 9th Avenue N, Seattle ,WA
$10 General Admission
$5 Cornish Community w/ID and Senior Citizens
I’ll perform live original music alongside the cast for this Cornish production, as well as arranging songs created for the show by Michael Hawkeye Herman.
SAT, November 5th @ 9pm Shadowland (21+/FREE)
4458 California Ave SW, Seattle, WA
Nathan solo show w/Lincoln Barr (of Red Jacket Mine)
And then it’s my last show of the year with long-time pal/verbal sparring partner Lincoln Barr. Shadowland is in the heart of West Seattle, and I hear the food is excellent (so appetites are as welcome as you are).
Well, I’ve sort of made good on my promise to take a long vacation; masochist that I am, however, I’ve spent most of my time off moonlighting as a theatre composer and sound designer. It’s been a couple of years since I rode the old theatre horse, but I’m happy to announce that the show I’ve been working on opens tonight AND features music by The Dark Pioneers (recorded earlier this year).
Book-It Repertory Theatre Presents:
Border Songs by Jim Lynch
Adapted by Bryan Willis (w/David Quicksall)
Directed By David Quicksall
The show runs September 17th - October 9th and peformed in the Seattle Center House Theatre (305 Harrison Street, Seattle, WA). For tickets and info, the Book-It website has you covered.
And since I’ve already saddled up, I’ve signed on to do two more shows guaranteed to keep me busy through January 2012. More on that soon (plus a solo show in November), but to continue the horse metaphor…there’s this EP I keep alluding to that has yet to be released…
Egan’s is a small, cabaret style club located in Ballard, and I’m excited to (literally) share the stage with my friends Andrew and Dawn. We’ll be playing “in the round,” so we’ll all be on stage at once, trading songs and collaborating on each others music when we can.
It’s an early show (7-8:30), so we have to start on time to make way for an event at 9pm. Seating is very limited while excellent food & drinks are available; perhaps consider it a good night out for dinner and a show. Bonus: you’ll be on your way home before 9! Come join us for a one-of-a-kind evening and my last show until…who knows when.
...are Seattle’s purveyors of apocalyptic Americana, hitching the rusted scraps of American roots music to a battered pick-up truck and dragging it across a broken 21st Century landscape. It’s a cinematic trip down a desolate highway as the dashboard rattles apart and the truck radio blasts songs of murder, drug abuse, and Biblical arcana. Learn more.
