NEWS

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The Nouveaux Honkies Release “TNH Live at Sun”

The Nouveaux Honkies have announced the release of their latest CD on Bluzpik Rekerdz, “TNH Live at Sun”, which was recorded at world famous Sun Studios in Memphis, TN on February 6, 2009. Executive Producer Jim Nestor remarked “This CD is another step in the band’s progression of their forward marching attitude towards being ready to perform anywhere, anytime. These tunes were created in one of the most hallowed halls of musical creativity in the history of recorded music”.

I had an opportunity to sit down with guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tim O’Donnell recently to speak to him about the new release.

LG-Tim, thanks for taking the time to sit down with me, I know you're a busy guy these days.
TO-Thanks for taking the time to listen to what’s going on in Honkyville.
 
LG-How did this project come about?
TO-We had a tour in Feb 09 that took us through the Southeast.  The previous two years we competed in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and in 09 we wanted to be there but didn't want to be in the competition. So with the help of Dennis Brooks and others that we met in Memphis the previous years, we got some gigs on Beale Street so we could stay in touch with the folks we met the year before and show them we are still out doing what we do.  While we were in Memphis we realized we were playing at night so I said, “Hey man lets record at Sun, lets go in like men and record a live album”, and the band was hip to it so we went in and set up and played some rockin’ roll for an hour and got some songs I thought were cool out of it.  I also knew it was the right thing to do because I got horribly sick the day we left on tour and I believe that good things don't come easy. We even mention that dirty devil getting a hold of me in a song we sung on the spot called “Memphis Bound”.
 
LG-What did it feel like recording at Sun Studios surrounded by all that history and the pictures of Elvis looking down on you?
TO-At first as with any session I got nervous.  We got all our sounds and levels and I realized we aren't fixing mistakes so I better play good.  We played a Junior Parker song called "Feelin Good" to warm up.  The engineer was setting levels and didn't record but got excited and came out of the control room.  That made us excited and then I took a final look at all the pics on the wall and thought about all the cats that had been through there.  I ran out to the truck and jotted down some lyrics for the song "Memphis Bound" that came to mind and rushed back in and started rollin'. 
 
LG-What is your favorite cut on the CD and why?
TO-I have to say "Mystery Train" is the cut I like.  It is probably because up into that point when we played that song live I always felt it was so busy and frantic when we did it.  I decided to do the intro like the original Junior Parker version from back in 53'.  I think it maybe threw the band for a loop and everyone really listened and didn't overplay.  I like music that is simple.  We did one take of that song and I knew it was a good one.  I could feel it syncopate right.  I was playing some half Floyd Murphy/Danny Gatton riff and Beck ran down this trippy Scotty Moore thing with tinges of Junior Parker harp lines.  Mike just played straight solid 2 and Phil laid down a clicky train beat and when it came together it just felt nice and everything sat in its own place with nobody stepping on anyone else. 
 
LG-What does the near future look like for the band? What tours are coming up this summer and what is the next project for TNH in the studio?
TO-The future looks really swell.  The band gets tighter and more focused every show.  We just did Sunfest in South Florida and Stringbreak in Brooksville.  We run all the way up to Maine this summer and are doing Rhythm and Roots in R.I., Rodeo Bar in NYC,NY (my birth place and home to lots of rowdy friends), Greenwood Blues Cruise and South Florida International Blues Festival.  We also look forward to all the other stops along the way and seeing all the folks we have previously met when we are out on the road. I can't wait to see some of the bands we are playing with like Jerry Douglas, Asleep at the Wheel, the Duhks, Hot Tuna, Joe Bonamassa, and tons of others on these shows.  I also feel the band is carving out a more focused niche and crossing over into some other listening audiences.  I love to be on the road.  The band is officially 3 years old this summer and we are just getting started.  I don't like to look ahead too far on tours because the tour in July when we hit the road again is to go put on the best and most entertaining show we are capable of for that tour.  I like to take it on a day by day basis.  We get up and get ready and do our best that day.  We want to make music that makes people feel something, not put music out there that makes people feel nothing at all.  We have been recording loads of songs in our home studio and arranging for our next full length album and I have been collaborating with some guys that have some great stuff as well.  There isn't any shortage of music for us to play.  I ultimately think the future holds what we put into it.  We sit on our butts and we get butt or we go out and honk till it is the honk heard round the world.  The only thing that can stop us is ourselves.   
 

The Nouveaux Honkies will be performing the new CD, “TNH Live at Sun” live in its entirety at the following CD Release Shows:

5/26-Bostons on the Beach-Delray Beach

5/29-The Wave Lounge-Stuart

6/1-The Lucky Pig Lounge @ Bubbalous-Orlando

6/5-Van Dyke Café-Miami Beach

6/7-Earls Hideaway-Sebastian

6/12-Rosey Baby-Lauderhill

tnhband.com

bluzpik.com

 

 

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The Honkies

 

Notes from the NE-On the Road with TNH 8/27-8/31/09

By Leo Gale

Photos

My partner Jim Nestor & I had been planning and saving our dollars for this trip for months. We have sent the band out on the road many times in the past and now it was our turn to see a tour from a first hand perspective. Jim has seen many tours with various different bands in his 30 plus years in and out of the business, my experience on the road has consisted of a few Memphis trips, a week in the Keys with Joey Gilmore a few years ago, and a couple quickie weekend getaways with TNH. As a manager and agent I was looking forward to the experience of seeing the end result of everyone’s hard work in person. The fans just get to see the final product; Rebecca’s sunny smile, Tim wailing away on the guitar, and the band carrying the crowd up and down the full range of emotions throughout the night. But what the average person in the audience doesn’t realize is how much planning and preparation goes into a two week tour. The band, agents, Bluzpik staff, promoters, friends of the band, sound companies, and many others have been working on the booking, rehearsals, logistics, routing, etc for over six months to try and nail down the perfect tour. Of course in reality, that never happens. As much as one tries to think of everything that could possibly happen, there are always hiccups in every plan, and it was time to see that live and in color.

Our adventure started off smoothly, a 4:45a.m. cell phone alarm got me going, picked up my partner at 6 and made it to the airport by 6:30 to catch an 8:00 flight to Boston’s Logan airport. The flight was smooth and we arrived safely at the location of where the 9/11 horror began. We picked up a rental car (the Dodge sports car was “not available” so we ended up with a red minivan!) and after a quick stop for lunch and supplies in Boston we were off to our first gig in Narragansett, RI, about a 2 hour drive to The Towers, which was the venue for that day (thetowersri.com). The Honkies had actually begun the tour two nights earlier on Fire Island/Ocean Beach, NY and had completed two very successful gigs before we caught up with them in Rhode Island. The Towers is a former 19th century fort on the coast that has been transformed into an entertainment facility. It was a beautiful cool evening, a welcome relief to the humid South Florida summer. The event was unique and not exactly what we anticipated, but an enthusiastic and appreciative group of about 60 friendly folks came out to see TNH and dance the Thursday night away. It was a weekly “dance hall” style event that the community puts on throughout the summer. Other bands that have played in this music series include Roomful of Blues and Duke Robillard.

The next day we hit the road for the four hour drive to New York City. Everyone involved with the band has been excited with anticipation since Steve, one of our booking agents called months ago from Nashville with the great news that we were confirmed at The Rodeo Bar in NYC. And the reality did not disappoint. I had only been in the city two times for half a day each previously so just to glimpse the city while driving over the bridge was exciting for me. We arrived at the venue late afternoon and were disappointed to see no posters up although I had sent those months ago. So we improvised and the manager helped us tape up flyers. The bar was crowded with a Friday evening happy hour in full swing. The band arrived and after we loaded in we did a little exploring ending up at world famous McSorleys Irish Pub where we quaffed a few black & whites (the only beer served there!). We arrived back at the venue around 10pm to meet the soundman and the place was already crowded. Surprisingly, the whole front section by the stage was filled with people who had either seen the band before in South Florida or talked to someone who had. By 11pm show time the Rodeo Bar (rodeobar.com) was packed with hundreds of people and stayed that way through most of the night until after 2am. The band put on a great show. I’ve seen them hundreds of times at this point and that was one of their greatest performances yet. Special guest drummer Justin Headley, on loan from the Sauceboss band inspired TNH to new levels and Rebecca, Tim & Mike responded enthusiastically. It seemed like at that moment in time the band was not only playing well but having tremendous fun doing it. The crowd was going crazy and the staff and management of the bar were busy all night and pleased with the turnout. One manager remarked that “it was their busiest Friday night in quite a while”. A long day, night and morning ended around 3am on the corner of 3rd & Lexington when the band hit the road to travel to a hotel north of the city two hours to get within striking distance of the next day’s gig in Portsmouth, NH. So far so good, right?...

…not so quick. The next day around high noon brought the news that the show in Portsmouth that night was rained out due to a tropical storm!? The irony of a Florida band getting rained out by a tropical storm in the NE is comical. I had never heard of a tropical storm hitting New Hampshire before but when you’re on the road 1,300 miles from home you have to role with the punches and get creative. Most of us were tired and hung over from the night before so luckily Ben, the promoter and our friend from NH, Paul acted quickly, and four hours later we had an alternate (indoor) gig lined up. A few problems arose since the band was routed in the direction of Portsmouth and the new gig was in Wolfeboro and we had to figure out some new logistics for the drummer’s travel plans. But the revised plans were set in motion, the new gig came off successfully, and it all turned out fine in the end. And the promoter put us all up in a beautiful newly restored resort on Lake Winnipesaukee, the Wolfeboro Inn (wolfeboroinn.com) so the warm hospitality more than made up for the minor inconveniences. Sunday brought sunshine, a great breakfast in downtown Wolfeboro at Strawberry Fields, and a meet and greet/acoustic performance at an art gallery in the afternoon. The show that night started at 7pm and was under a big white tent behind the hotel that was used for a wedding the day before. After a brief thunderstorm at the beginning of the performance the weather cleared and over 200 people enjoyed a sold out show until 10pm. And an after show party in the hotel bar coupled together with an after-after party in the gazebo behind the hotel kept us all entertained until the early morning hours.

Monday, August 31st came too quick and it was time for the Bluzpik team to return home. The band went on to spend a few days in New York before performing at a major festival in Rhode Island the following weekend headlined by Hot Tuna, Asleep at the Wheel and many other national acts. TNH received rave reviews at the Rhythm & Roots Festival and made many great contacts and new friends. All in all, the tour was a great success and was another step up the ladder for this great band who is the pride of the Treasure Coast. TNH will be on the road again the first half of October touring the Southeast before returning home for most of November and December. Please visit TNHband.com or myspace.com/bluzpik for current show information and updates.

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Patti and Blues Alliance members,

Sorry I haven't been in touch much lately. I've been very busy performing everywhere East of the Mississippi, and am working on a new, all-original CD. I have been to 18 states so far this year! In June alone, I had gigs in FL, GA, MS, TN, IN, OH, NY, PA, WV, VA, NC, SC. My summer tour is over and has been very successful, and now I'll be in Florida until late August. I will be leaving at that time for a European tour, but here are the Treasure Coast gigs this month:

Fri, July 10- Tapps Pub, Melbourne
Sat, July 11-Charity Event, Port saint Lucie ( for forgotton soldirs outreach )
Sun, July 12- Horsefeathers, Hobe Sound (my first time there!)
Fri, July 17- Bodega Blue, Vero Beach
Sat, July 25- Exodus, Port Saint Lucie (grand opening weekend of their new, giant, venue! festival there all weekend, and their using one of my tunes for the commercial on Jack FM)
Thurs, July 30- Carson's, Stuart, (it's been packed with people the past few times I've played there, so get there early!)

My full calender with more details is here: www.myspace.com/bprestage

Here's what they're saying nationally, about a Blues musician who got his start right here with the Blues Alliance of the Treasure Coast (all of these are newspaper clippings from June '09):

FROM PITTSBURG, PA:

One-man bands are a fine tradition in the blues, although there aren't too many around any more. One that I'd never heard before is Ben Prestage, out of Florida, where he's been honing his blues skills with swampy, gritty, singing and playing -- on a specially made drum kit and sometimes, a cigar-box guitar with a fierce slide.

Prestage was a 2008 International Blues Challenge runner-up in the solo/duo category, and a listen to his latest double CD -- "Live at Pineapple Willy's" -- shows why.

The man comes from a deep blue musical family -- his great-grandmother was a vaudeville musician who toured with Al Jolson and in medicine shows. Her daughter was a boogie pianist. His grandfather was a Mississippi sharecropper who turned Prestage onto the sounds and culture of Mississippi and blues. Of his background, Prestage says: "When I was growing up there was only one kind of music in the house. Whether it was played on an instrument or an old recording, it was blues."

Ben's blues are a fascinating blend of acoustic old-timey music, down-home blues, and nicely crafted original tunes. If you set them to some scratchy background noise, they could easily have been ripped from old 78s.

There's enough variation in the styles and the songs here that the one-man band backing doesn't get monotonous. Prestage is a dexterous picker and talented guitarist, so there's plenty of different music styles to go around.

He also picks up on a few classic blues as well, from the deliciously salacious Mississippi John Hurt tune, "Candy Man," to Muddy Waters fine old "Can't Be Satisfied," with some appropriate slide work, and the Robert Johnson warhorse, "32-20 Blues." Here's a sample of "If You're a Viper"

This is a fine little album. It's fun to play sides like these and get the kind of real enjoyment that you get from discovering something fresh and new. Ben Prestage may not be a household word, but his music should be welcome in every blues household.

This is a live CD, recorded, as the title implies, at someplace called Pineapple Willy's. Anyplace with that name has to be a fine blues bar, so I looked it up and found that it's in Panama City Beach, Fla., founded by a guy named -- Panama Willy -- with a rum drink of the same name. Sounds like it could well be the southern branch of the BlueNotes World Headquarters.

Jim White, Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Blues Notes)

FROM BUFFALO, NY:
"Prestage has made a reputation on lighting things up on stage, so those with the preconception that the blues are dull are sure to be blown away. Armed with a host of homemade guitars, a foot operated drum set, and a distinctive southern growl, he blasts an electrified mix of swamp and delta blues." -ARTVOICE MAGAZINE

ROANOKE, VA:
“He's got the guitar and drums locked into his own internal clock.”

CHARLOTTE, NC:

"Ben Prestage racks up amps-load of cred with his Beale Street country blues shuffling along to vocals that channel Tom Waits growl and the accompanying cacophonous picking and percussion."

I'm also getting ready for my first European tour which will be in August/September! I'll be flying into Amsterdam and playing all over the Netherlands and Belgium at (Ge) Varenwinkel Festival, coffeehouses (which I hear differ from those in the States), and Blues Bars!

Come on out and see some of the new stuff I'm doing if you haven't seen me in a while. I've added Steel-Guitar, Banjo and fiddle and harmonica to my show in the past year... Also, If you come out during the month of July and show your Blues Allianace membership card, you'll recieve any of my CDs for $5! (limit one of each CD per customer!) That's 4 CDs for $20 per Alliance member!!! ps... all of these CDs have been in regular rotation on XM and Sirius Radio's Bluesville Station!

I'll see y'all this month, and THANKS AGAIN BLUES ALLIANCE OF THE TREASURE COAST, for all of your hard work in supporting this All-American artform we call the BLUES!!!!
-Ben Prestage

 

 

 

Elaine Romano, Steve Anderson winner of our guitar raffle, and Cougar.

Honkie Raffle

 

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