Thursday Hooray!

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Thursday Hooray!

The other day Jason and I were watching a couple of videos our friend Flash took of Jason’s new side project, Krek & the Kurmudgeons. “This is really great,” I said. “Maybe we could be a Thursday Hooray sometime,” he said, somewhat sheepishly. What a goofball! Of course I’d already planned to feature them before [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

Truth & Salvage Co. is a band from L.A. Most of their members used to be in an Asheville band called Scrappy Hamilton. One of their members (Joe Edel) used to be in an Asheville band called Mad Tea Party. I love them dearly, and their new band kicks ass. We’re opening for Truth & [...]

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Wilds of Vermont

On Monday we stopped by Otter Creek Brewing, which happens to be in Middlebury. Their organic Wolaver’s Oatmeal Stout is a Mad Tea Party favorite.
Then we disappeared into the wilds of Vermont for two days of the great outdoors, swimming, hiking, healthy food, inspiring people, and hours and hours of music.
Tuesday night we played a [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

Well, I’m behind on my documentation of this tour, but I’ll catch up soon. I do have a minute to post a Thursday Hooray. The Horse Flies are a long time favorite of mine. Jeff Claus is one my my ukulele inspirations. I was so stoked to see them play at FloydFest the other weekend. [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

Last Thursday I went to see Cary Fridley & Down South at the Grey Eagle. It was a release show for Cary’s excellent new EP “Fare You Well“, her first ever recording of original songs. It was truly one of the best shows I’ve been to in awhile. Such world class singing and playing!
When I [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

This week’s Hooray goes out to Pete Yorko, one-man-band. Mad Tea Party met Pete at the Heavy Rebel Weekender last year. We didn’t get to see him play, but he gave us a CD, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Of course we’re partial to one-man-bands. We finally got to see him perform at HRW last weekend, and he was GREAT. His [...]

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Singing in the Band

This is a video from June 14th of the last song Tim performed with his band TKO (and Jason), “State of Grace”. He played the same song acoustically a few days before he died. Powerful, sad, beautiful.

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Good Stuff

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Sensational Seattle

We woke up on late on Sunday morning and ventured out to see Seattle.
First we stopped by the Fremont flea market and walked along the river. Jason got some records (including The Ventures!) and I got a ring. Cort’s wife Kia was at the Ballard street market selling veggies for Nash’s Organic Farms (which we [...]

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Red Bicycle

It was sad to leave the Sunbanks Festival on Saturday, though we were looking forward to hooking up with Baby Gramps for the last two shows of our tour.
Our drive to Seattle took us through the snow-capped Cascade Mountains and more impressive scenery.
We barely made the ferry that would get us to our show on [...]

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Someday Lounge

Jason and I slept in on Wednesday, of course. Then we went for a long, invigorating walk through Cort’s neighborhood and down by Seattle Lake. Seattle is such a beautiful city. After coffee (yeah for west coast coffee!) and lunch we headed down to Portland, OR.
The trip took longer than we expected because of crazy [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

Floating Action (with members of Ice Cream) has a great new album out!

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Ice Cream

Tuesday night I went a house show up the street from where I live. [I definitely would say it was a house "show", not a house "concert". "House concert" makes me think more of the folk/singer-songwriter/acoustic scene. House concerts as I've experienced them cater to a middle-aged "listening" crowd, and are held early in the [...]

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The Overtakers

The Overtakers (Ruben, Ruth and Leroy Brooks) are a wonderful mento band from Jamaica. I’ve known the Brooks for several years, and even had the eye-opening experience of visiting their “yard” in the ghetto in Jamaica. They are sweet, good people. Mad Tea Party has been on the same bill as the Overtakers at a [...]

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Record Store Day

Asheville may be better known for bluegrass or jam band music or even pop, but we are lucky to be home to one of the greatest garage rock bands out there today – the Reigning Sound. On Friday Mad Tea Party celebrated “Record Store Day” (the poster in the photo is direct from Handcranked Letterpress) [...]

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Luckiest Angel

On Thursday Caroline and I went to a “Music Curators” panel that was part of the HATCH Asheville festival. To be honest, I found the panel meandering, myopic, and off-topic. There were only (white) men on the panel (all super nice guys, I’m sure). And there was only time for one question from the audience. [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

OK, so this is the first of what I hope is a weekly installment on Ukulele Rockstar, “Thursday Hooray!” Every Thursday I plan on sharing something – mostly music – that I am excited about. I just discovered Tres Bien! a great band that manages to strongly incorporate 50’s and 60’s rock influences while still [...]

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Live Green Festival

Sarah cooked up a big breakfast for us on Saturday morning (we get spoiled silly at her house), then we headed out. Our first stop was the beach, which was lovely.
We were in Wilmington to play the inaugural Live Green Music & Arts Festival. The festival, a fundraiser for the non-profit Where We Live, was [...]

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Star Bar

The Star Bar in Atlanta is totally rad. We LOVED it. It was one of the best venues we’ve played. It has a hip atmosphere – with a retro feel, crazy stuffed foxes in display cases, and a giant Elvis shrine (in an old bank vault) that was really impressive. I liked the layout of [...]

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Truth & Salvage Co.

My dear friends in L.A. have a band, Truth & Salvage Co., that is having great L.A. music-biz-type success. They totally deserve it. They are super talented and have busted their asses. The Truth & Salvage bass player is no other than Joe Edel who played with Mad Tea Party for all of 2007 and [...]

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Kubla Kahn

The Doo-Nanny, an inspiring folk art happening hosted by Butch Anthony in Seale, AL, is planned for this weekend. Here’s a video from last year featuring Mad Tea Party, Shaker Maisy, Bob Seven and Phil Cheney.

The video was taken by Bucketman, a great artist who passed away last year. The song [...]

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King Kahn & The Shrines

King Kahn & The Shrines put on a spectacular show. Mad Tea Party has been listening to (and loving) their records for awhile so I was super excited to see them live last Thursday at the Orange Peel. They certainly lived up to (and exceeded) my expectations.

I once heard someone describe King Kahn as an [...]

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