Geese

I'll be migrating over to Wordpress this week. Nobody uses Blogger. Not that it really will make that much of a difference in our lives or anyone else's lives.

We're playing at the Brandeis University Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts this Sunday - we're on the Shapiro Stage from 2:30-2:45. Come if you're in the Boston area! Game plan is Lark in the Morning (new song), Laverne's Wedding (both of those songs will feature Jeff's fancy, shiny new Celtic instruments), Gypsy Rover and Johnson's Motor Car. Wooo!

We love Chris Collins at the Nonsense Society.

- G

Heave Away! Summer Tour 2011

That's right.

We're stoked to announce our plans for the summer of 2011! For those who are in close contact with us, this isn't really news, but the band is embarking on a Northeast summer tour starting at the end of June! Our percussionists will be working at music programs or NASA programs (Yeah, ask Chris Jasinski about that the next time you see him!), so Jeff, David, Chris V and myself are going to load up two minivans with our stuff and we'll be going through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, and North Carolina - at least. As you can see, our tour poster is a work in progress, and we are halfway booked for the entire summer. We will be taking a break in the middle of the tour - otherwise, we might kill each other. Actually, David has commitments on Long Island, Chris V has to move in with his girlfriend, Jeff's best friend is getting married, and I'm going to hang out with my mommy and daddy.

If you can believe it, booking a tour yourself is a really difficult process. We have really embraced the DIY mentality and work ethic that has been an attitude of a lot of our favorite musicians, and we've been emailing and calling venues, family, and friends for months lining these gigs up. Seeing it all together is really exciting, and we're still confident that we can fill the vacant spots in our schedule.

That said, if you know anyone in the areas not yet filled, or any places you think we'd be a good fit, LET US KNOW! We're using all of our connections to make this tour a reality and we'd appreciate any help anyone has to offer. We're currently still looking for venues between 7/4 and 7/6 in New England and 8/1-8/3 in Virginia.

We had the pleasure of playing a show with AOI from Brooklyn and Dr. Caterwaul's Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps at The Outer Space in Hamden, CT on April 10. It was a wonderfully weird bill of folk music - Traditional Celtic folk, Miscellaneous folk (Fiddle, cello, banjo, accordion, percussion), and Spanish Medieval Music. It was a trip to play with them, and I hope AOI takes it as a compliment when I say that they are legitimate, crazy, smelly Brooklyn musicians who put on a wonderful and entertaining show. Hopefully we'll get a chance to play with those bands again.


University of Hartford's Spring Fling hosted us last Thursday, where we blared across the Village Lawn. I did not sing "Little Beggarman."


The four of us sans percussionists also just came back from a road trip to Potsdam, NY, where we played a house party for our Crane School of Music/SUNY Potsdam friends. It was an absolute blast and easily the most insane gig we've ever played. None of us were singing by the end - we were only shouting. And we did "I Saw Three Ships" as an encore. It was wonderful.


Jeff and I are currently on April vacation from our schools - Jeff is taking the time to buy more stringed instruments, I'm trying to get more tour things organized and our publicity up to date. More updates on our progress to follow.


Come see us play at Brandeis University in Waltham on Sunday, May 1 at the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts! We'll be playing at the Shapiro Campus Center Theater at their Folkfest from 2:30-2:45. We'll be displaying our best original arrangements...probably Lark in the Morning (new tune), Rising of the Moon, Next Market Day, and maybe an instrumental set or Johnson's Motor Car. We'll figure it out. Maybe the day of the event.


Happy April! We love you!

- G

Thy songs were made for the pure and free

It's been a wild March!

We played on the radio in Worcester, bars in East Hartford, Simsbury, Hartford, Wethersfield, Avon, a house party in West Hartford, venues in Middletown, the University of Hartford campus (twice), and we'll wrap up our March in Somers for a benefit concert at Somers Congregational Church.

We've gotten to play for a huge variety of audiences who have enjoyed a good drink, heard us talk about our lives, sat through our awkward stage presence, and I've mostly noticed how far we've come as a band in the past year and a half.

The other night, David and Chris V and I sat together in our living room and listened to the very first recordings we did together. We set up my Macbook in a room on the fourth floor of Hartt and recorded our rehearsal. We played "When Can We Get Married," which actually doesn't sound that different from when we do it now (Except Chris doesn't play whistle up the octave and I can strum a little quieter), "Finnegan's Wake," "Cunla," "Carlow," "Lukey's Boat" (with Jeff fudging the melody as an intro, then David coming in, then myself coming in) and "Rocky Road to Dublin," with a painfully long and clunky guitar intro.

We've come a long way. We've all grown musically, individually and as an ensemble, and we keep finding ourselves mentioned around the northeast.

Thanks a lot to everyone who comes out and supports us. It's been a fantastic musical experience for all of us and we're excited to see how far it takes us.

- G

Next year, we're buying David a new shirt.

St. Patrick's Day Season Plans!

Happy St. Patrick's week, everyone! Come see us - we're playing all over Connecticut!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011
La Paloma Coffee House, Hartford CT - 7 PM - $5 suggested donation
Info

Thursday, March 17, 2011
St. Patrick's Day Show
Catcher's Sports Bar, Wethersfield CT - 8-11 PM - $5
Info

Friday, March 18, 2011
Hessian Lion Bar, Avon CT - 10 PM-1 AM - No cover
Info

Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Buttonwood Tree, Middletown CT - 7:30 PM
Info

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Hawk's Nest at the University of Hartford - 9-10:30 PM
Info

Friday, March 25th, 2011
Sigma Alpha Iota Benefit for Life Concert (Headlining) - 7:30 PM
Hartt School of Music, West Hartford CT
Info

Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Somers Congregational Church, Somers CT - 4 PM - $10
Info

We had a great time up in Massachusetts for our live show on WICN with Nick Noble, and we played at the Prospect Café in East Hartford on Saturday and the Old Well Tavern in Simsbury last night. We're having a blast, playing some new stuff, and we'll be rocking out all week! 

Special thanks to everyone who tuned into our webcast a few weeks back - it was a really neat experiment and we were really pleased! Definitely something we'll try again in the future for our fans who don't live in the northeast.

- G

Webcast concert this Friday!

This Friday! We'll have a small in-house audience and (hopefully) a large internet audience! There will be a chat room, so please watch and drop us a line and chat with us! We'll be playing some old favorites, some tracks off of "Sunshine and Shadow," and a couple of new tunes that we'll be playing a lot in the coming month!

The members of the band have been referring to the second week of March as "the beginning of the end"...of course this isn't serious, but we will be gigging once every three days in March, and Matt and I will be starting our second student teaching placements and Chris V and Jeff will be continuing their full time teaching placements and Chris J and David will be playing and preparing for recitals and concerts. But it'll be a blast.

Collage was a blast...lots of positive feedback from faculty, fellow students, audience members. Definitely an incredibly silly and positive opportunity for us to spread our music!

Other future plans include video recordings (we'll probably be recording the webcast concert to put online), a gig in Albany at the beginning of March, possible entrance into the Folgers' Jingle Contest, and a ridiculously crazy March calendar. Check out our list of upcoming events HERE to see when we'll be playing closest to you!

- G