Decemberists HQ here with your first Not Specifically Decemberists-Related Update of 2013! Although The Decemberists continue to be in collective stasis, that doesn’t mean we don’t have news that’s worthy of your generous inbox hospitality.
First, Colin will perform at three great folk-leaning festivals this summer which will mark his first official solo sets in a very long time. He’ll be at Winnipeg Folk Festival in mid-July, Newport Folk Festival in late July (which also happens to feature Black Prairie on the lineup, who we’ll discuss shortly), and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, CO in mid-August. More details can be found below.
In addition to these festival dates, Colin will be one of many on hand to celebrate Robyn Hitchcock’s 60th birthday at VIVA HITCHCOCK! on May 2nd at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Headlined by Hitchcock and the Venus 3 (Scott McCaughey, Bill Rieflin and Peter Buck), the evening will also feature performances by Amanda Palmer, Rhett Miller, Young Fresh Fellows, Andy Cabic (of Vetiver), Eric D. Johnson (of Fruit Bats), and Sean Nelson with Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) as MC. Keep an eye out for our very own John Moen on drums with the house band throughout the show. Tickets are on sale now.
You can catch Jenny, Nate, Funk, and John tonight as Black Prairie makes its network television debut on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC at 11:35 pm ET. While likely not what they’ll choose to play on air, you can watch their recent Led Zeppelin cover recorded at SiriusXM’s The Loft here. One can only hope their TV debut goes better than the band’s session at so-called music blog Up In The Branches. You can keep further abreast of Black Prairie’s happenings, live and otherwise, by joining their mailing list.
This has admittedly been a North American-centric email so we have something of particular interest to our European friends (apologies to everywhere else… it’s hard to please everyone!). All merchandise in the European Decemberists Shop is now 50% off! The sale includes some classic tees and hoodies, along with some special items from previous European tours. Check it out here.