...that my song "Everyone Belongs to Someone" would fit perfectly on the soundtrack of Zach Braff's big, new post-Garden State movie. Being featured alongside The National, Flaming Lips and The Shins sounds mighty fine to me! Let's do this, Zach!
-- Earl
Starting April 28th in Tacoma, WA, I'll be heading out on my first ever Living Room Show Tour! Confirmed cities include Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, San Francisco, Cambria, San Diego and Los Angeles, with MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!
Click here for tickets and info:
Check back soon for more show announcements!!!
Shelby
On March 3rd I had the honor of opening for Benjamin Gibbard again, this time at his alma mater, Western Washington University. The crowd was stellar and a crew of some WWU's best and brightest sat me down for an interview pre-show to talk about my creative process and future plans. They made a super sweet little vid! Check it...
-- Earl
So stoked for this show. Tickets will go FAST. Get on it!
-- Earl
The fine folks over at Fretboard Journal invited me to swing by their offices and play a song for their awesome "12 Days of Fretboard" event. I'm honored to have been featured alongside Benjamin Gibbard and Joseph Arthur for Days 1 - 3, and rumor has it there are more badass artists yet to come! See the video below for a sneak-peek of my new song "Swift Arrows" off the forthcoming album.
Twelve Days of Fretboard: Shelby Earl from fretboardjournal on Vimeo.
Come celebrate a stellar 2012 with us!
Happy Holidays!
My bandmates and I got together one wintery afternoon in Nov. of last year and recorded this Christmas tune I'd just written. It's about staying in Seattle for the holidays, with the community I love, for the first time in years (my mom lives in Cali, so to Cali I usually go!). We lit candles, ate home-made Christmas cookies, sipped our coffees, threw sounds on tape, and goofed off in all directions - it was a joyous day.
We didn't have much time to get the recording out into the world before Christmas (and I had no time to get it mastered), so I've gone back and gotten it all fancied up in time for the 2012 holly-days. Now the sound quality will stand up to the rest of your digital catalog and you can spin this bad boy all season long. PLUS, it's only $1!
Download "This Christmas Is For Us": This Christmas Is For Us (Re-mastered), by Shelby Earlshelbyearl.bandcamp.com
Happy tree-trimming!
-- Earl
Get your scarves and sweaters on and oochie over to The Crocodile on Wed, Nov. 28th! I'm playing a a Gigs4Good/Team Up for Nonprofits event called "Wintersong," where a bunch of great local bands will play their favorite winter-themed jams. I'm cooking up a coupla fun co-llabs for the night and would love to see you there!
All proceeds from the event go to TUfNP/G4G so they can continue their great work (check them out if you aren't familliar!). The line-up also includes local fav's Ivan & Alyosha, Tea Cozies, Tom Eddy, Ben Fisher, Kevin Long, Naomi Wachira and Tony Kevin Jr.!
You can pick up your very own tickets here: http://thecrocodile.com/events/6620073/ivan-alyosha
-- Earl
Here's what's crackin' thus far (more announcements to come!):
Enjoy every minute of this beautiful season and I hope to see you at a show!
-- Earl
Recording vocals. Pic by Damien Jurado.Well, we did it. We tracked about 95% of 14 songs in 7.5 DAYS(!). Damien tracked his latest (GENIUS) record, Maraqopa, in just 3 days so this probably doesn't feel *quite* as revolutionary to him, but I am STUNNED and AMAZED. I thought for sure we would have tons of stuff to re-do or tweak or add, but as of now it seems that we do not. We listened through all 14 songs at the end of the week and there were big smiles all around. Not only did we make something beautiful together, but there was SO MUCH JOY in the making. How did we do it in such a short amount of time? We did it live, in single takes, with all the "mistakes" left IN. This is how people used to make records. This is how Damien Jurado makes records now. And the resulting sound has SO MUCH LIFE IN IT, it's astounding.
I am a new artist after this experience.
Below are a few highlights from the final tracking days. Stay tuned for news on mixing, mastering and eventual album release plans!
The fabulous Barry Uhl (a member of Damien's band) came in and added lots of spooky/bendy bits to the songs with his UNBELIEVABLE collection of keyboards!
G. Mula rockin' some bermudas at Avast Studio even though we were inside for 12 hours that day. 
Buddy, pal, bandmate, brilliant backing vocalist, Anna-Lisa Notter, working her magic on some harmonies!
Dylan Rieck, cello genius, making the songs sound EPIC! 
A choir of pals including: Lauren Daniels, Eric Elbogen, Cristina Bautista, Tony Kevin Jr., Daniel Williams, Ben Obee, Salomon Navarro, Cam Shaw, Kika Westoff, Ragan Crowe, Kris Orlowski, and Sam Hatch. Making the songs EVEN MORE EPIC! 
D.J. and I listening back to the group vox. Ear candy! Photo by Cam Shaw.
Faustine added a bunch of percussion on the last day - including castanets, which she learned to play ON THE SPOT!
Damien Jurado adding his HEARTBREAKING voice to a few songs. Goosebumps to the max!
Ragan Crowe, adding some last-minute 12 string guitar to one song to make it EXTRA lush! 
A moment of joy and excitement for yours truly. Captured by Cristina Bautista. 
The final scene on the final night at Columbia City Theater. I miss it already!
New music coming your way!
-- Earl
(Pic of Damien and me on the 2nd day!)I've kept this news in my hat for a while now because Damien Jurado is blowing up (though to many of us he's always been HUGE) and I was terrified he was going to call me up and say "Bob Dylan is taking me on tour and I can't produce your record after all," but THANKS BE, the scheduling fates have aligned and we were able to start recording together this week (YAYAYAYAYAY!)! We are now just 4 1/2 days in to the process and it's already been a magical experience - for everyone involved. Damien is a wonderfully supportive, strong, and creative force in the studio, and I am growing immensely as an artist working with him. Songs are evolving, fears/insecurities are falling away, and I am becoming increasingly more and more excited about this collection of songs.
I'm so grateful.
I absolutely cannot WAIT to share the love and magic with you all! Here are a few shoddy iPhone pics from our time at Columbia City Theater this week. More pals are coming in next week to lend their respective talents to the project so stay tuned for news and updates!
(Me on my guitar/vocal recording perch!)
(The fabulous Ben Obee - aka "The Commander" - layin' down sick bass lines!)
(The brilliant and lovable Faustine Hudson tracking drums and looking *shockingly* like the Mona Lisa!)
(The fearless and talented Jacob James came in and SLAYED the piano on songs he hardly knew - it was insane!)
(Eric Howk, guitar maestro & Gary Mula, engineer extraordinaire - two GEMS of humanity!)
(The guitar slayers, Eric Howk and Ragan Crowe - aka "Howk & Crowe" - admiring their small arsenal of guitars and gear)
(Columbia City Theater, our recording home all week. What a beaute!)
-- Earl
Rally your co-workers! Grab a sack lunch! Put some sunblock on! As for our part, we'll be playing a bunch of jams off Burn the Boats as well a boatload of the new songs we're about to start recording (next week)!
This will be the last full-band Seattle show until September! DON'T MISS IT!
Thursday, July 19th @ 12PM *sharp* - City Hall Plaza, Downtown Seattle
See you there!
-- Earl
Dear lord, 9AM is too early for me to be awake, much less singing live on the radio. But I rallied, dragged myself out of bed, and husked my way through some tunes for the lovely folks over at Seattle's new Jet City Stream. Here's some video footage of my mangled, tangled, and bedraggled morning self playing a new song called "Grown Up Things."
Smooches.
-- Earl
Tomorrow night - Thursday, June 14th - I'll play MY LAST NIGHTTIME SHOW FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS (takin' a break to make a record!) with two FANTASTIC artists at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard. My pal Mark Pickerel will start the show around 9PM with some skilled solo jams, then I'll play a set with full band (we'll be debuting NEW SONGS!!!), and the fabulous Amy Lavere (out of Memphis) will close out the night with her mad stand-up-bass skills. Here's a little taste of what she's about:
Hope to see you!
-- Earl
Seattle has a new internet-only radio station called Jet City Stream, which was started by a few of our city's most well-known music taste-makers (eg. Shawn Stewart, Marco Collins, and Heidi May!). I'm excited to join them live in the studio BRIGHT AND EARLY Tuesday morning (June 12th) to play a few solo acoustic jams. Tune in, wherever you are!
It's been a rough couple of days here in Seattle. Yesterday, May 30th 2012, a man with a gun walked into a coffee shop/music venue and killed 4 people, two of whom were well-known and loved members of the local music community. The sadness is overwhelming and the seeming randomness of it all (in what is usually such a peaceful city) has shaken many of us to our core. In contrast, just two short days ago, Paste Magazine posted a list of "12 Washington Bands You Should Listen to Now" and we were all feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about our city. I, along with a bunch of other pals, felt really honored to have been included on the list. But in light of yesterday's tragedy, my excitement has lost some of it's luster. Don't get me wrong, I'm still stoked about the shout-out, but it has a different flavor today - more of an "unbelievably grateful to be alive and doing what I love" flavor than an "I feel cool for being on this list" flavor. I believe this is known as "perspective"?
I could go on and on, but instead I'll just say THANK YOU, Paste Mag, for showing some love for our city at just the right time...
-- Earl
-- Earl
Loudon Wainwright III is an absolute master songwriter and performer. Last year when I played with him I got taken to SCHOOL and I'm looking forward to another such formative experience this Sunday night at the Triple Door (there are still tix available!) when I open for him again. Don't miss this one - trust me!
Loudon is not only a brilliant artist himself, but he also happens to be the papa of one of my musical heroes, Rufus Wainwright, and his two super talented sisters, Lucy and Martha. They're all playing a big Wainwright Family show in NYC this Friday, before he heads out West for our Triple Door show. Read all about it here in the NY Times.
Here is Loudon doing one of his *perfectly* heartbreaking songs...
See you Sunday night!
-- Shelby
