Thursday Hooray!

The Red Stick Ramblers are top notch. And, since we hung out with a couple members of the band last night and played a show where most of this video was filmed and which is the town they are singing about in the song, I thought it would be most appropriate to post today. More on the aforementioned show soon. 

It begins at the Flying Monkey

Right now I am in the middle of a very exciting Gulf Coast & More tour and wondering how I will find the energy/time to blog about what has happened so far, not to mention what is yet to happen on this tour. New Orleans in particular was chock full of juicy adventures. But I am pretty committed to at least give you an overview of what we’ve experienced, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning. It may take me a week or more for me to bang this all out here. 

We started out at the Flying Monkey in Huntsville, Alabama. The Flying Monkey is a terrific non-profit arts center with funky stores, artist studios, and a theater (where we performed). The tables around the theater had been decorated with props right out of Alice in Wonderland. It created a storybook atmosphere, for sure. 

Our friend Rita Burkholder, aka Helen Keller’s Ukulele, opened up the show. She was joined by Shawn Webster on bass and percussion. Rita’s songs and singing and playing are simply beautiful. Her set was mesmerizing.

The Mad Tea Party followed with our rockin’ tunes. After the show, we chatted with the nicest people. Then we went to Rita’s cozy house which was full of instruments and art. A truly creative space. I can happily say that we have had some incredible hosts on this tour, Rita being one of them. We slept well, and woke ready for the journey to New Orleans. After a delicious breakfast, we hit the road.

Thursday Hooray!

Today (Thursday) Mad Tea Party heads out on an 11-day southern tour. Our first stop is Huntsville, and our next stop is New Orleans, where we have 3 gigs planned. I am so excited to go to New Orleans I decided to feature a New Orleans musician for the Thursday Hooray. It was very dificult to decide what to feature, since there is there is so much incredible music from the Crescent City, but I decided on Fats Domino. This is one of my favorite songs – it gets played in the Mad Tea van all the time, and on vinyl at the house.

Hell-raising on Halloween

Dang! I still almost have to pinch myself to believe that Mad Tea Party got to open for Southern Culture on the Skids on Halloween. I guess if you stick with something long enough, things that at one point seemed like a virtual impossibility can come true. Like getting to open for one of my favorite bands on my favorite holiday.

Jason and I have made a lot of sacrifices and shed a lot of tears in the pursuit of a sustainable career as musicians. I would not say that trying to make it as ukulele/one-man-band duo playing mostly original songs is the easiest path to take. But I will say that nights like Saturday night help fuel us to continue holding the torch for Mad Tea Party.

We didn’t know what to expect as we drove down the mountain to the show, but it turns out that the Catawba Valley Brewing Company in Morganton, NC is a really nice place. And it has fantastic sound (thanks Josh and L.P.!). The show was sold out and the crowd was in full Halloween regalia and ready to party. We nailed our set (the great sound and the receptive crowd made it easy). It was the culmination of our push to promote ZOMBIE BOOGIE, so the songs from the EP took on extra significance. And it was extra fun to play “Zombie Boogie” and to look out and see zombies dancing along to it.

Once we were finished, we got to hang out and listen to a stellar band (and, admittedly, to enjoy the Catawba Valley Brewing Company’s excellent beer). Throughout the night we got tons of feedback from folks who really liked our music. One guy even said, “You guys give me hope,” and went on to compliment our uniqueness. It was all very affirming. Southern Culture on the Skids ROCKED it, as usual. Boy do I LOVE them! I took this photo from backstage. Rick got a bunch of folks up to dance on the stage. It was mayhem. Completely delightful mayhem. I wish I had taken more photos of the awesome costumes there (including ours), but honestly I was too busy playing and dancing.

After the show, we hung out a long time shooting the shit with the Southern Culture crew. Finally we headed back to Asheville and landed at a friend’s party. The party was raging when we arrived and we were jacked from an exciting show. So we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, hanging with a dinosaur and a turtle and a skeleton and other assorted costumed creatures.

Two with Toubab Krewe

On Thursday and Friday Mad Tea Party had the good fortune of opening up for our friends Toubab Krewe in Charleston (at the Pour House) and in Charlotte (at the Neighborhood Theater). We are very happy they asked us to be on those bills, because we had SUCH a great time with them. The venues and crowds both nights were top notch. The show in Charleston was extra special to me because my dear friend Amanda and her partner Tasha were there to cheer us on.

On Friday before the Charlotte show we stopped by WSGE to help them with their fund drive. Earlier in the day WNCW aired a live performance we taped the week before. I have to get up on my soapbox for a moment: I can’t express enough how important public radio stations are. They are crucial to the cultural vitality of our country. They do so much for independent musicians. I sure hope you support your favorites!

Jason and I are both huge fans of Toubab Krewe – they are super-talented musicians. Not to mention the fact that they are all the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. They are experiencing great success in their career and they totally deserve it. Jason sat in with them on fiddle both nights, which was awesome. I took some video which I will try and post soon though I have been slack on video editing lately, sorry. We’re getting a Mac soon so hopefully I will get inspired by it. Anyway, I got to play before great crowds and to dance to one of my favorite bands two nights in a row. Can’t beat that.

Here’s a random story: We drove home after the show in Charlotte. I think we pulled into Asheville around 3:45 am in the morning or so. As we drove up Chestnut Avenue, we saw a guy lying in the street with his bike between his legs, not moving. Of course horrible things ran through our minds as we stopped and jumped out of the van. Jason ran to the guy and I dialed 911. But it just took a moment to realize that he had not been hit by a car (though he would have if he stayed there), but certainly had been hitting the bottle. I guess he just passed out while riding home. We asked him where he was heading and he told us. It didn’t seem like he was going to be able to make it so we put his bike in the van and drove him home. At one point he said, “Who are you guys? Angels?” He works downtown. I wonder if he’ll recognize us when we see him around. Probably not. Maybe when he sees us he’ll think he’s seeing ghosts. It was a bizarre way to start Halloween.

I believe we are exactly where we are supposed to be at any given moment.

Happy Halloween!

Mad Tea & Classic Cars

My friend Lydia See took this fantastic photo of us at the Hellbilly Hootenanny…

Thursday Hooray!

Recently Jason and I watched Anvil! The Story of Anvil which is a great documentary about a heavy metal band. I rarely watch movies, but when I do documentaries are my favorite. This will probably one of the few movies I’ll ever include in a “Thursday Hooray!” Anyway, we were really struck by how much of ourselves we saw in Anvil. The same type of things happen to so many bands and musicians, no matter what the genre. It’s really fascinating.

On a side note, we were stoked when the very popular Rue Morgue Radio included “Zombie Boogie” on a recent show – and that Anvil’s song “Metal on Metal” was on the same show! Thanks to Zombie Boogie, Mad Tea Party is starting to make our way into uncharted territories, for sure.

Persistance

On Saturday night Mad Tea Party played in Wilmington, NC. We saw this boat before our set and felt like it was a sign. Jason and I are sticking to this crazy path.

Truthfully, it wasn’t my most favorite night ever, but there were some rockers at the show whose reaction to our songs affirmed that we are kickin’ butt musically.

On Sunday morning we had a peaceful walk on the beach. That is, until this huge crazy pit bull that was ignoring it’s owners almost attacked us. We got to our van safely and high-tailed it back to the mountains.

Hub-Bub

We had a wonderful time in on Friday night! Mad Tea Party performed at The Showroom at Hub-Bub, a super cool art/performance spot in Spartanburg. The show started out fun, but mellow, but evolved over the evening into a RAGING dance party. I can’t thank the fantastic crew of folks who were there enough for being so wide open and wild. We got to turn it up full throttle, which felt great.

Elvis, Ami, Jason

Top Show

Our show this Saturday at the Soapbox in Wilmington, NC was listed as a “Top Show” in the Star News. How nice! And they used the great marionette photo that Scott McCormick took of us.

Here’s what John Staton writes:

“First of all, they’re not that kind of Tea Party. Second of all, one of these days I’ll write a feature about this awesome Asheville duo – Ami Worthen (vocals, ukulele, guitar) and Jason Krekel (vocals, guitar, fiddle, foot drums) – that’s bringing songs from its new album ‘Zombie Boogie‘ to town. The title track is a uke-driven rockabilly tune about a teenybopper who’s devoured by a zombie. ‘You Really Spooked Me‘ is a garage rock screamer with more than a lotta soul. Sounds like it’s party time.”

Details:

9 p.m. (doors) Saturday
255 N. Front St. (ground floor),
downtown Wilmington.
With Sarah Blacker. $7.
www.TheMadTeaParty.com
www.MySpace.com/TheMadTeaParty

Thursday Hooray!

Today’s Thursday Hooray is…YOU! The kind, intelligent readers of Ukulele Rockstar (and supporters of Mad Tea Party). It means a lot to me that you find enjoyment from this blog. I certainly enjoy writing it. So, to celebrate moving along this path together, I am going to hold another drawing – for (of course) a copy of ZOMBIE BOOGIE! To enter, post a comment about what you are going to be for Halloween and/or the best thing that happened to you since last Halloween. Ready, set, go!

I’ll pick the winner on Tuesday night.

Jason Waxes Poetic about Vinyl

Here’s a nice article that just came out:

Asheville, N.C.-based duo Mad Tea Party will crash
The Showroom for a performance Friday night.

By DAN ARMONAITIS
For the Spartanburg Herald-Journal
Published: Thursday, October 22, 2009

Much like the creatures that Mad Tea Party sings about on the title track to its new EP, “Zombie Boogie,” vinyl is back from the dead.

The wild and wacky Asheville, N.C.-based duo — consisting of guitarist Jason Krekel and ukulele player Ami Worthen — put out its new four-song, Halloween-themed release on a 7-inch, 33 RPM vinyl record.

“Putting out vinyl is as much for ourselves as it is for the public,” Krekel said. “Even though a lot more people are starting to appreciate vinyl, it still isn’t at the level where you can promote it like a CD. We still have to burn some CDs to send to radio stations because a lot of them don’t play vinyl.”

Mad Tea Party has also come up with a solution for its fans who don’t own a turntable. With the purchase of the record, a code will be provided for easy online access to digital downloads of the material plus a bonus track.

The ultra-cool picture sleeve that accompanies the EP is a Krekel creation, utilizing another old-school medium — letterpress printing.

“I kind of did that for people who might not be able to listen to records, figuring they might be inspired to have (the EP) because an original piece of art comes along with it,” Krekel said. “It’s a linoleum print. I carved it out and handset the type.”

Vinyl seems a perfect fit for a band that specializes in hillbilly-flavored, 1960s-style garage rock akin to that of cult favorites Southern Culture on the Skids.

“I’ve got some great old records from the ’50s and ’60s that still sound better than any digital CD I have of the same artist,” Krekel said. “The Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds,’ to me, sounds so much better with some pops and scratches than it does remastered digitally. “There’s just something cool about records. It feels like a time machine when you put those things on the turntable.”

Regardless of the format, the music on “Zombie Boogie” is what makes the release special. Just in time for Halloween, Mad Tea Party has provided a revved-up collection that seems custom made for a party.

The title track was written by Worthen, and Krekel provided an original song called “You Spooked Me.” Henry Westmoreland of the Squirrel Nut Zippers plays a blistering baritone saxophone on the EP, which also includes a pair of obscure cover tunes.

“We had it in our heads for like two years that we wanted to do a Halloween record,” Krekel said. “Ami kind of capitalized on the zombie craze with her song, and I went for sort of an homage to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and King Kahn & the Shrines with mine.”

Earlier this year, Krekel lost his father Tim, a lifelong musician who wrote songs that were recorded by such artists as Rick Nelson, Jason and the Scorchers, Delbert McClinton and Patty Loveless.

“Whenever I saw my dad, it was usually in the context of a gig,” Krekel said. “He lived his life completely for the single enjoyment of being a musician and never compromised. And, for me, that’s very inspiring.”

Want to go?
Who: Mad Tea Party
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: The Showroom, 149 S. Daniel Morgan Ave.
Tickets: $8 (advance), $10
Information: 582-0056 or www.hub-bub.com

Hey ya’ll!

Looks like I have some new visitors to this little blog via Boing Boing!

Welcome! Stick around – things are just starting to get really really interesting around here.

Don’t you want to watch a couple of earnest outsiders pursue their dream?

Misfit rockers we are, and we truly love you.

Click 646

Last weekend Mad Tea Party played the Click 646 Photography Festival in Greenwood, South Carolina.

We were glad to find out that the Two Man Gentleman Band and William F. Gibbs were playing the same event. They are all nice, talented guys. Friday we performed outside, but on Saturday the cold, wet weather drove all of the acts inside.We appreciated the dancers during our set.

The event was very classy, though the turnout was small. To be expected for a first time event of this sort in a small town like Greenwood. We had a nice time nonetheless. That’s about it.

Fall

It’s a Killer Jive

I just put together this video of “Zombie Boogie” set to footage taken by Phil Cheney of Mad Tea Party playing the song at the Doo-Nanny earlier this year. (Jake Hollifield is up there on stage with us, though he’s not on the audio track.) Enjoy.

Thursday Hooray!

Well, I missed the Thursday Hooray last week because I have yet to figure out how to blog from my phone. Last week I mostly wanted to shout out about how happy I am that it’s fall. What a great season. This week, however, I present to you Locos Por Juana, who I was lucky enough to see play at the Shakori Hills Festival last weekend. I danced my butt off to them. Videos never do justice to the real thing in my opinion, but here is one to give you a taste of the high energy fusion of latin music and ska and hip hop they throw at people.

Dixie Classic Fair

On Sunday at 1:00 pm Mad Tea Party rocked the Dixie Classic Fair in Winston-Salem. We had a few lovely long-time fans at our set (thanks SO much for coming out), and we made a few new ones by the end of the show. The sound was terrific (thanks Jimmy) and the weather was nice. After we played, we walked around and checked out the rides and the animals and the diverse crowd and the disgusting food. Good times.

Fall Shakori

The Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival is always special, and this Fall was no exception. Jason and I got there on Friday night with plenty of time to catch up with friends, and to hear Preston Frank (a wonderful accordion player from Louisiana) play. Zydeco dancing is joy-inducing. We stayed up way too late.

On Saturday Mad Tea Party hosted a Ukulele Support Group at the festival. It was the third U.S.G. we’ve facilitated, and once again it was sweet and enjoyable. It is always so neat to hear about people’s creative paths and what led them to the ukulele. It’s also neat to hear the different ways the folks that already knew how to play approach the instrument. My buddy Caroline Pond showed up in time to help me teach my song “Ukulele Girls” to the group. Warm fuzzies all around, for real.

Lots of folks I knew performed at the Fall Shakori, and I was glad to hear many of them play over the weekend. Two Man Gentleman Band, Donna the Buffalo, Possum Jenkins, Cristabel & the Jons, and Kellin Watson, to name a few.

Our set was right before dusk on the Grove Stage, a lovely wooden stage at the bottom of a hill. I am happy to say that I truly feel like we delivered the goods. The crowd was totally awesome and there were dancers and smilers and the weather was nice and we had a blast. Caroline saved the day bringing her fiddle up to the stage when the pick up on Jason’s fiddle broke during our set. And my friend Alexis hawked our merch while we played, which was a big help to us. We are blessed by such a supportive community.

After our set, we bopped around the festival, listening to music, dancing, enjoying being outside, catching up with old friends, jamming, etc, etc, etc.

We stayed up late on Saturday night, too, even though we had an early gig on Sunday. But we don’t get to be at festivals with our friends every weekend so we tried to squeeze as much as we could out of the time we did have there.

I think we did.

The Southern with Southern Culture

Last Thursday Mad Tea Party had the distinct pleasure of opening for Southern Culture on the Skids at the Southern, a new club in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Boy did we have a great time that night! For one, we were very satisfied by our set. Jason and I were on our game, and the crowd was super fun and responsive. We sold a bunch of merch, which we were very grateful for. Of course, it makes sense that a band as badass as the SCOTS would have ultra-cool fans. It was awesome to get to see them perform. They tore it up that night, as always. Totally inspiring! Really really. We didn’t want to it to end. Though we did get to have lots of laughs and shop talk after the show, which was a treat. Late in the night SCOTS bass player Mary Huff showed me her new ukulele. Watch out world, you know she’s gonna be a shredder on it. She and I did a fine rendition of “Eight Days a Week” backstage before parting ways.

We are very lucky to have 3 more shows on the books opening for SCOTS – Halloween (so exciting) at the Catawba Valley Brewing Company, Asheville at the Grey Eagle on December 4th and Chapel Hill (their hometown!) at the Cats Cradle on December 5th. What a thrill.

Zombie Boogie!

October is here, and Mad Tea Party is releasing a Halloween EP this month – ZOMBIE BOOGIE. We are stoked about it. You can purchase the 7″ and/or downloads NOW through our website, www.themadteaparty.com. Of course the most fun place to pick up a copy is at a show.  We are also making copies available at stores in Asheville including the Costume Shop, Static Age, Harvest Records and Karmasonics. Oh, and online at places like Amazon and iTunes. We thank you in advance for your support of this venture.

Here’s more about ZOMBIE BOOGIE:

The EP is a collectible 33 rpm 7” vinyl record with an artistic/disturbing letterpress cover created at Hand-cranked Letterpress in Asheville, NC. The four tracks on the EP capture Mad Tea Party at our most raw and rockin’. As an added treat, we are joined by Henry Westmoreland (sax) for a couple of tracks. With two originals and two obscure covers, ZOMBIE BOOGIE is certain to get you in the mood for the Halloween season. Brave souls who dare to purchase the vinyl record also receive a download card to get mp3s of all four songs, plus a surprise bonus song.

The time has come for some crazy, chilling uke-abilly music.

And look at this!

Mad Tea Party has a full month of ZOMBIE BOOGIE release shows:

Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Southern – Charlottesville, VA
Opening for Southern Culture on the Skids

Saturday, October 10, 2009
Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival

Sunday, October 11, 2009
Dixie Classic Fair – Winston-Salem, NC

October 16 -17, 2009
Click 646 Festival – Greenwood, SC

Friday, October 23, 2009
Hub-Bub – Spartanburg, SC

Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Soapbox – Wilmington, NC

Thursday, October 29, 2009
Pour House – Charleston, SC
Opening for Toubab Krewe

Friday, October 30, 2009
Neighborhood Theatre – Charlotte, NC
Opening for Toubab Krewe

Saturday, October 31, 2009 – Halloween!
Catawba Valley Brewing Co. – Morganton, NC
Opening for Southern Culture on the Skids