Where have we been?
We didn’t fall off the face of the earth, friends! We’ve been busy with other projects, but now that we’re in the full swing of Summer, look for a new single from us out on Skybucket, soon. Hint: It’s a cover song. Second Hint: It’s of another Skybucket Artist. We’ve been peeking out of hiding, planning future shows and making radio appearances. Soon, we hope to be back on the road to visit some of our favorite Southern towns. We’ll holler back once we have some dates!
In the meantime, check out some of Janet’s other projects’ work:
Teen Getaway – The new full length from Teen Getaway, co-fronted by Janet and James P. Fahy (First Kentucky Post, Blood On The Knobs) is out on the great This Is American Music. Get it now!
Wooden Wand - Janet’s been on tour much of the past few months with Wooden Wand as a keyboardist/bassist/backing vocalist both in Europe and the US. Wooden Wand will be releasing the third album recorded with the stellar lineup of Birmingham musicians in October, Wooden Wand and the World War IV. Out on Three Lobed.
Happy New Year!
Upcoming Shows, A Brand New Video and so much more!
We’re super excited about kicking off 2013 with a couple of shows in our favorite towns and a brand new video for our second single off of Ring!
We’re looking very forward to upcoming shows at the spectacular Maxine’s in Hot Springs, Arkansas with the great Adam Faucett on January 19th, and at the seat of the thriving Mobile music scene, Alabama Music Box with one of our favorites, El Cantador, on February 1st. After that, we will be celebrating for the entire weekend with all our label mates on February 8 & 9 10 wonderful years of Skybucket Records. Be sure to check out both nights of that party if you can make it to Birmingham’s Bottletree Cafe that weekend. Janet will make an appearance singing with Barton Carroll and playing in Through the Sparks on the 8th, and finally Delicate Cutters will be playing selections from all three of their albums on Saturday night. Other great artists on tap are Belle Adair, Terry Ohms & Them, Vulture Whale, The Magic Math and Brad Armstrong (13 Ghosts.) It’s a can’t-miss weekend!
Shot by our very own uber-talented drummer, Chance Shirley, the video for “Tilt-a-Whirl” stars a bright young friend of the band who is a talented Birmingham artist, herself. (Watch out, world!) Blurt-Online debuted the video for us, which was truly a thrill for us, so make sure to check it out!
All the members of Delicate Cutters participate in quite a bit of other music ventures, ranging from traditional Irish music (Kevin) to classical art-music composition (Brian) to raucous bar-room tunes (Chance, Kevin) to beautiful and intricate pop (Brian, Chance.) For the last year and a half, Janet has been playing keys, singing backup and occasionally picking up other instruments to back the great American songwriter, Wooden Wand, whose newest album, Blood Oaths of the New Blues has just hit the shelves in the US and in Europe. Make sure to give it a listen. Be on the lookout for Janet to be along for the ride for Wooden Wand tour dates in the US and overseas very soon!
Winding Down 2012
As Autumn arrives here in the Deep South, the Cutters are winding down after a busy Summer of releases, shows, touring, etc. We’ll have a couple more shows before the year is up, with a new track from Ring hitting the airwaves, as well as a video for that song showing up on the web in just a few weeks!
As we reflect on our recent East Coast tour, we all feel humbled by the kindness we encountered along the way. In fact, some of the folks we met on the road have been staying in touch with us. That – as much as anything – makes us want to get back out there as soon as we can! Thanks to everyone who gave us such a warm welcome out there. We hope we get to see you all again very soon.
With that in mind, we’ll be back on the road some in the Mid-South and Gulf Coast in January and February, so be on the lookout for dates in the coming weeks. Beyond that, we hope to be in the midwest and mid-Atlantic this Spring and early Summer.
For now, Happy October. Make sure to check us out with our good friend Jeffrey Lewis at Workplay if you’re in the Birmingham area on 10/30. It’s ALL AGES, so come one and all!
Generosity
We had a small audience for our Durham, NC, show at Motorco on Monday, but you wouldn’t know it from our merch sales and tips for the night. Which brings up an important point–if you see a show by a touring band and have a good time, spend a few bucks on a t-shirt or CD. That little bit of money from your purchase means more to the band than you know.
We spent the night in Durham and left Tuesday for Philadelphia. It was a long day of driving, but we got to see a bit of Virginia, DC, Maryland, and Delaware, and the weather was fantastic. And we had Janet DJ’ing some great New York bands on the Spotify.
No gig in Philly, but we got to spend the evening with our friends Paul and Greg who put us up for the evening in their amazing home, which is basically the ground floor of a historic mansion. We walked down to a pub (the Northern Star, I think it was) where I got a world-class grilled cheese. Then we walked off dinner, taking the long way around the city back to Paul and Greg’s.
We closed out the evening with a little whiskey and some good tunes via Paul and Greg’s turntable.
At the moment, we’re in the ol’ Honda Element, on the way to New York City. Brooklyn, specifically, where we’ll be playing at Roots Cafe tonight. If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by. Or catch us in Manhattan tomorrow at Pianos.
Thanks again to Paul, Greg, and everyone in Durham for their generosity. And here’s a photo of one of Paul and Greg’s kitties inspecting the gear in the back of our Element.
(Posted via Chance’s iPhone.)
Video premiere on Vevo.com!
You never know what’s going to happen in this business from one day to the next, but today we have a video premiere on VEVO. We’re featured on the front page of their site alongside some pretty hefty names! (Aimee Mann and Wye Oak, for example.) Of course, we’re not nearly as polished and beautiful as some of our fellow artists, but the video is quite lovely and was shot by Janet’s longtime friend John David Hall and edited by Maureen Corley. A truly humbling experience. More thanks…
The September tour
We’re two and a half days into our tour of the east coast–that will take us to New York City and back home–and are already having a great time.
On Saturday, we left our base of operations in Birmingham, AL, for the Earl in Atlanta, GA, where we were lucky enough to play with two excellent (and friendly) bands, Midnight Risers and Villain Family. The audience included our pal John David Hall, who shot the music video for “You Want Her,” which should be out soon. And before the gig, the Earl treated us to some great pub food.
Brian’s wife and frequent Cutter guest singer Jill Deaver was able to drive over for the show, so we had some extra harmonies on “You Want Her,” “Warm Day in April,” and “Tilt-a-Whirl.”
Here are a couple of photos I snapped of the Risers and Villain Fam…
On Sunday, we took a leisurely drive up to Greenville, a beautiful town in South Carolina. I mean, they have a waterfall right in the middle of town.
Here we are on an awesome Greenville walking bridge…
We got more good pub food at the Velo Fellow–our venue for the night–along with some good beer (Session), Mexican Cokes (real sugar!), and a house cocktail called the “Mint Romney.”
Many thanks to Modern Man–who shared the bill with us–and the kind audience. And extra special thanks to George and Zach Reyes, who promoted the show and provided so much hospitality to us.
After the show we pulled up a bunch of good old school blues tunes on Spotify and drove about halfway to Durham, NC, where we’ll be playing our Monday night show at Motorco.
(Posted via Chance’s iPhone.)
Uncut Magazine debuts “You Want Her”
Uncut Magazine has debuted the first single from our upcoming album, Ring, on the compilation included with their August issue! Hitting stands everywhere later this week. Look for more news about “You Want Her” including free downloads and a music video premier soon!
Many thanks are owed
As you may now be aware, we started a Kickstarter campaign as a litmus test to see whether we should press vinyl for our upcoming release, Ring. We really wanted a vinyl release of this record, but we figured if our fans wanted it too, it would be a no-brainer. We got lots of preorders for Ring on our Kickstarter, but we also got some truly above and beyond support from a few of our biggest fans. We can’t tell you what your generosity means to us. We hope that all the goodies and incentives we promised with the Kickstarter is a start, though.
So look out for Ring, recorded at Ol Elegante and produced by Lester Nuby III, to be released on Skybucket Records on August 14th, digitally, on CD and vinyl!
Thank you times one hundred million.
April’s big news
April is already a month filled with exciting news, no foolin’! First of all, we have two exciting shows coming up. The first with the lovely Driftwood Singers on Easter Sunday evening is at Birmingham’s favorite dive, The Nick. The following weekend will find us in the midst of one of the South’s newest festivals, Southsounds Music Festival, in Mobile, Alabama. So many great bands from around the region are on the roster, so if you know anyone in the bay area or Eastern gulf coast region, make sure to tell them to find their way there! We’re scheduled for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon!
As you may know, Janet has been working for the last year and a half with one of the greatest songwriters in America, James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand. She performed on the album Briarwood released in 2011, and just finished recording on another Wooden Wand album earlier this year. Having now done two tours with WW, she and James have made great friends. As a result, she sent him an early copy of the upcoming Ring. James loved it so much, he mentioned it in Magnet Magazine this week! This is a huge honor for the band to have such an endorsement.
Look for two more Wooden Wand shows with James, Janet and the entire gang from the most recent recording in May in Nashville and Louisville opening for none other than Lee Ranaldo! More details on that soon, so keep checking back!
Returning to the stage in our home state…
Dear everyone,
I’m back from an adventurous tour as the backup musician for the amazing, prolific wordsmith, Wooden Wand. Together, WW and I shared the bill and a tour vehicle with anti-folk wonderment Jeffrey Lewis, whose unflappable good nature stood as an inspiration for the two of us as we faced tour debacle after tour debacle, all revolving around broken down vehicles and the “merriment” of SXSW.
It was a great honor to tour with each of these men, whose wisdom was invaluable, whose sense of humor was limitless, and whose songwriting and performing was truly inspiring. I found myself continuously humbled by their mighty talents and keen minds. I am so grateful to have had three of the most strenuous tour weeks of my career with these two guys, both of whom I miss sorely, already.
That said, it’s a great thing to be back in my hometown, rehearsing with Delicate Cutters! We’re gearing up for some home state shows, beginning in the town where we were born, Montevallo, AL, this Saturday, March 31 at Eclipse Coffee & Books. After that, you can catch us at The Nick on Sunday, April 8th with The Driftwood Singers. Next, we’ll be at the Southsounds Music Festival on April 14th and 15th in Mobile. More dates will be announced very soon!
Stay in touch!
Janet & Delicate Cutters