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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

Here’s a video I made of “Kids in Motion,” the YWCA of Asheville’s childhood obesity prevention initiative. It features a track off of Mad Tea Party’s 2005 CD, Flying Saucers – an old fiddle tune called  “Indian War Whoop.”

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Thursday Hooray!

My friend Rene Treece is a fantastic photographer/artist and all around inspiring person. She made this stop motion video with a sweet song by Deb Talan. It suits the blue but hopeful state I’ve been in (my “heart feels undone”). The video is called “Summer’s Never Over” though I am SO glad that autumn is [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

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Thursday Hooray!

I truly think one of the best performance groups in Asheville is the Runaway Circus. I was SO happy to see them at LAAFF the other day. They blow me away every time. They are superb jugglers, acrobats, comedians, musicians. They are a bit elusive to catch, so when I get wind of one of [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

When I first started playing music in the late 1990’s, one my most powerful musical inspirations was the Blue Rags. They’ve inspired many others, like the Avett Brothers and Scrappy Hamilton (now Truth & Salvage Co.) Nobody I’ve ever seen perform projects the kind of passion and power that those guys can. They are all [...]

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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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Thursday Hooray!

Reigning Sound rules. Their new album, “Love and Curses”, is out now. Get it!
Photo by our good buddy, Michael Traister, taken at Handcranked Letterpress.

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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!

I am so excited! Mad Tea Party gets to see our dear dear friends the Luminescent Orchestrii soon! We have known the “Lumiis” for years, and have had countless fun adventures and jams with them. Happily, we have ended up on the same booking agency (Charisma Artist) and record label (Nine Mile Records). This weekend we’ll be [...]

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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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Ooops!

I missed the “Thursday Hooray!” yesterday because I was packing/traveling/playing. Now Mad Tea Party is headed out to NYC, and I don’t have time to write/pick something out. SO I will return to that weekly feature next week. I just started doing it a short while ago. Does anyone have an opinion about? Like? Dislike? [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

I’m a big fan of Paleface. And Mad Tea Party has great fun doing shows with them. They have a new CD out, “The Show is on the Road“! Get it!

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Thursday Hooray!

Today’s Hooray goes out to Baby Gramps. I am excited that Mad Tea Party is sharing the stage with him this Saturday and Sunday (at Vashon Island and in Seattle). As I’ve written before, Baby Gramps is a singular musician, performer and creative spirit. We’re lucky to be friends with him.

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Thursday Hooray!

Today’s Hooray goes to the Boulder Acoustic Society, good buddies of ours from Colorado. They are great. Mad Tea Party is lucky to share the same booking agent (Charisma Artist Agency) and record label (Nine Mile Records) with them. BAS is also the host band of the Denver Uke Fest, which we had a blast being a part of [...]

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Thursday Hooray!

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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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