A good day to check out the new Felus Cremins Band album & other minor updates
Hello, dear friends!
To quote this extremely accurate tweet: in these times, I’m wishing that Providence may spare you and yours, and keep you in good health and good cheer, &c, &c.
So yes--I hope you’re all staying healthy and finding a sense of resilience in these exceedingly strange days. As April draws to a close, I mostly wanted to check in and say hi and let you know about a few things.
1. Bandcamp Promo
2. Podcast
3. Music Videos
BANDCAMP PROMO
Bandcamp started doing a lovely thing when the COVID-related shutdowns began; they’re periodically scheduling days when they promise to take no additional service charges or other cuts of an artist’s earnings on that particular day’s sales. (More about the what, why, and how of that on Bandcamp's blog over here, if you're interested.)
Brian and I are of course very fortunate to be in a position where we don’t have to depend on the money we make as the Felus Cremins Band, but still, if you’ve been thinking about downloading a copy of our most recent album, American Romantic Music, tomorrow, May 1 will be one of those waived-revenue-share days. You can find that album, as well as a few other goodies at https://feluscremins.bandcamp.com.
PODCAST
Otherwise, despite sheltering in place, I’m still cranking away with weekly releases of my podcast “I’ll Follow You.” You can find a list of all the past episodes on my blog here or just search for “I’ll Follow You” in all the main podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and Google Podcasts.
In the weeks since I sent out my previous newsletter, I’ve talked with
Michael Sherron about his training to be an art docent at the Phoenix Art Museum
David Higgins about his soon-to-be-published book on reverse colonization narratives
Paul Storiale about being a playwright and theater director in Los Angeles
Angie Yingst about making spiritual sense of trauma
Keiler Roberts about teaching and art and teaching art
Tony Trigilio about poetry and teaching and teaching poetry
Shiamin Kwa about perfume
Paul and Angie Lowe about their two different community theater productions of Jesus Christ Superstar
Erin the Psychic Witch about the opportunities for getting spiritually grounded during this time of coronavirus-related quarantine
Yuval Taylor about his wonderful recent book on the friendship between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston
and Brian again (the first repeat guest!) about our favorite books about music.
Whew! New episodes are usually posted on early Monday mornings if you want to be on the lookout for what's next.
MUSIC VIDEOS
Brian and I recently stumbled across some footage on YouTube of our old band Pet Theories from a fundraiser show we played at Schubas in late 2014. For that show we'd learned covers of four different Police songs, and the clip shows us doing the first two from our set, “Next to You” and “Driven to Tears.” We had no idea that the show had been recorded and definitely had no idea that this clip was up online. So it was a fun little treat to revisit. We sound really good! Hahaha.
And then earlier this month for the full pink moon on April 7, Brian and I recorded a short clip of ourselves in our living room playing a cover of--what else--Nick Drake’s classic song “Pink Moon.” You can catch a replay of that one over here.
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I miss you all! But I’m so glad that we can stay close to each other digitally for the time being. Until we can all emerge from quarantine, blinking into the light of day once more, please take good care of yourselves, and each other.
With love,