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.

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Thursday Hooray!

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Chicken Walk

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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!

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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HRW 09 Video

I finished my field recording video from the 2009 Heavy Rebel Weekender recently. Understandably, I didn’t get any footage from our Mad Tea Party set on Saturday night there. Anyway, here it is:

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Blues Slip In

This is a video from our “big” show in Manhattan (note the roaring applause). It’s my song “Blues Slip In” from Mad Tea Party’s latest release, FOUND A REASON. It’s an upbeat ditty about feeling down (I’ll post the lyrics below). Sort of fitting for the situation that night. Thanks to Dan for filming it.
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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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Memorial Music

Jason’s cousin Mckenzie Humphreys posted a few videos from Tim Krekel’s memorial celebration at the Vernon Club. Here’s Mad Tea Party joined by Gus Cutty (Jason’s bro), Henry Westmoreland (tuba) and Jake Hollifield (keyboard):

And here’s Mad Tea Party and the Tim Krekel Orchestra (TKO):

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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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Can’t Help Myself

I almost can’t believe Mad Tea Party is heading back out on tour tomorrow. The past week has been hectic. Right now I totally need to pack, but it’s so hard to motivate for that. This tour we’re going north – Virginia, New York City (3 shows), Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Connecticut. The details are [...]

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Tour Video: Seattle

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Tour Video: Sunbanks

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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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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!

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!

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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Thursday Hooray!

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Handcranked Letterpress

The Handcranked Letterpress Company is one of the places Jason works when he’s not playing with Mad Tea Party. Started by Lance Wille (of Reigning Sound) and his wife Suzie Millions, Handcranked makes collectible ephemera for bands, festivals, friends, and even Obama. They hand-set all of their type and hand-carve most of the images they [...]

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Respect the Van

I never watch TV (we don’t have it at our house), but last weekend in Wilmington I caught a little at Sarah and Heath’s house. I happened to see this commerical, and though I don’t promote corporations as a rule, I wanted to post it. Because it’s clever, and because Mad Tea Party really does love [...]

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