Birthday badminton BBQ!

Pendleton

I'm on a little road trip today with Brittain Ashford and Matt Sheehy
to Pendleton for a little concert at the Great Pacific.

'nade

Coming up roses

Brittain and I took some pics in the rose garden.

Flier

We are drinking fine Cali beers in the California sun at the Zeitgeist
in San Francisco.

Map to Hod Manor

If you are ever in the area.

Hod

This is Hod. Hod played with us at the Perg last night and let us stay
at his amazing home up in the mountains above Santa Cruz. His space
has everything including a nameless cat, deer antlers, a Chinese
dragon head, two drum kits, a loft bedroom and so much art. It was
beautiful and Hod is beautiful.

Santa Cruz

We just arrived in Santa Cruz after a 9 hour drive from Eugene Oregon.
We are dehydrated, salty and excited to be in California.

Huge thanks to Fred and the fine people of The Wandering Goat for
taking care of us last night.

Now we will eat our veggies at Saturn.

Food Fight!

Vegan jerky makes Brittain smile.

French Toast

Glock Off

Meyercord vs. Brittain in Eugene

Day Two: Caterina Winery

I seem to have left my camera in the car for the Caterina show. Patrick and the Platform Booking crew did a great job of promoting this show. We had write ups in a couple of the local papers and the weather cooperated with us so we performed out on the patio with our good friends Johanna Kunin and Karli Fairbanks.

We drove most of the day for this show, but we took some time off on the road to visit Thorp and pick up some delicious cherries!

Day One: Bremerton Eagle's Hall

We started our tour on Friday the 13th. Not a good omen, but we had a great time playing with our French friends, Flowers from the Man Who Shot Your Cousin, and our new friends from Olympia, June Madrona. A sweet, young woman named Grace set up the show for us at the Bremerton Eagles Hall. The venue was welcoming and the audience was very receptive.

Day Three: Coeur d'Alene

We were scheduled to play at Calypsos Coffee in Coeur d'Alene on Sunday evening and we stayed with Brittain's grandparents for the night. Her family's place is so comfortable and it has a spectacular view that overlooks Lake Coeur d'Alene.

I took the picture above while Brittain was tuning her mountain dulcimer on the porch. It was our 2nd chance to rehearse on this tour. We haven't played together much yet, so there were still a couple of rough patches to work out in our set. Also, we were the only act playing Calypsos that night, so Brittain taught me a new song to fill out our repertoire.

Calypsos is a relatively new business and they have a great space. Unfortunately, the papers listed the show for the wrong night and there was no other promotion for the event. We played the set to the small audience and had a great time all the same.

Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin

Morgan & Erwan came out to Washington state from Paris to share their moody and gentle folk. The PA system at the Eagle's Hall was pretty shot, in fact, it was a small amplifier intended for karaoke which wouldn't have been so bad, but the the tweeters were blown on the accompanying speaker cabinets. So Erwan ended up running the vocals through my Bassman amp. It worked out pretty nicely.

Your Radio Sucks!

Matt's music if featured in the 25th episode of the Portland Mercury's Your Radio Sucks! podcast. This episode is the first episode that features only Portland artists. Check out the podcast page here or click below to listen now. Support local music.

Top Down

After a great show at the Doug Fir and a breakfast at the Screen Door,
Kaz and Ari caught a ride back to Seattle with my brother. The weather
was perfect for a drive with the convertible top down.

Tigerphobia Press

Matt Sheehy's debut album got some very nice write ups in the Willamette Week, LocalCut (the WW's music blog), and The Portland Mercury. Matt also did an interview with the Oregonian, so there might be a feature in the Friday issue. Here are links to said press:


Ned Lannamann, "Tanks and Space Stations: Oh, and Some Seriously Good Music", Portland Mercury, June 5, 2008.

It's a beautiful album, on which every tune is spectacularly good; the songwriting is potent, emotional, poetic, and engaging, with catchy melodies and inventive arrangements. You'll find yourself sharing it with friends like a joyful secret, or singing it out loud in the car, or putting a song on a mixtape for someone to whom you need to say something important but can't quite put it into words. Sheehy has done the work of processing all the difficult emotions, and the acoustic-based songs on Tigerphobia are the wholly pleasurable result.

Amy McCullough, Music Listings (WW Recommended Pick), Willamette Week, June 4, 2008.

[NO-SHAME POP] Local songwriter Matt Sheehy has a ridiculous knack for melody. Songs like "Go Missing" and "Lunatics," for instance—both from his longtime-coming full-length debut Tigerphobia—are immediately familiar. But Sheehy's catchiness doesn't feel dirty.

Amy McCullough, "Cut Of The Day: Daily MP3 From The Best Local Bands", Willamette Week, LocalCut, June 5, 2008

I’ve often said that Sheehy’s electro-acoustic stylings remind me of John Vanderslice, with his vocals recalling Chris Martin (Coldplay) and Rob Crowe (Pinback) at times. But “About Piano” takes all those supposed influences and dulls ‘em down a bit—allowing Sheehy to come into his own, loud and clear.

Got Tigerphobia?

That's right you can buy your copy of Tigerphobia, Matt Sheehy's debut CD, today or if you prefer you can come down to the Doug Fir this Saturday (June 7th) to see Matt and a full band play the release party show and pick up a copy of the CD in person.