gerry mckeveny: News

Yes, I've been procrastinating. It's what I do best! Be that as it may, the summer dates have now been posted on the calendar page. I'm sure there are more dates coming, so check in from time to time for updates. Above all, I'm thrilled at the prospect of bumping into y'all at some of the prettiest places on Long Island. See you soon!

Back in the late '80s I played the then-thriving Tri-State Country Circuit. At roughly the same time, a journeyman songwriter was riding the wave of a commercial breakthrough that would end up being the first country lp to spawn 5(!)#1 singles. I had a lot of fun singing and playing those tunes, and remain a fan of Rodney Crowell to this day. That shining moment in mainstream country music was all too brief, as artists such as Crowell, Steve Earle and Dwight Yoakam were displaced by the generic cowboy-hatted crooners who dominate to this day. The good news is that all of those artists remain vital and active today, as was amply evidenced by Rodney Crowell's masterful show at the Boulton Center last night. You really had to be there-if you missed it this time, don't miss it again. Commercial trends come and go. Great songwriting is timeless. 'nuff said.

An old friend-and sometime student-left a message on my machine this morning to check out the obituaries in today's Newsday. Doing so I discovered, sadly, that Artie Traum had passed away.

I met Artie in the midst of a brutal heatwave in the summer of 2000. I was attending Penny Nichols' wonderful Summersongs retreat in Ashokan, New York and Artie was one of the faculty.

From the outset he was generous with his time, praise and advice. With his help and encouragement I was able to record and produce Healing Season a little over a year later. For his very valuable input he never asked for a penny.

There are fewer and fewer guys like Artie in this world-let alone the music business. He'll be missed.

Thanks, Artie. Rest in peace.

I'll be posting the dates on the calendar within a couple of days but, frankly, a lot of them will be familiar to Fugitves fans-Mondays at Smith Point, alternating Tuesdays at Meschutt, Wednesdays at Cupsogue. I'll also be appearing solo on a slew of winery dates-and the Fugitives will be at Greenport's historic Claudio's for the most dates we've done there in several years. Of course, there's the Southampton 4th of July Parade...and the Mattituck Street Fair...

Speaking of Claudio's, we were just there on Sunday and had the privilege of riding out a wicked thunderstorm on the dock. Check it out on YouTube. Just type "Neil Capolongo" in the search box and select "Just Another Gig" from his list.

I'm thrilled to say that I have three new songs available for download. "Broken Wide Open", "Silver Star" and "Waltz For Mary Jean" were all recently recorded at Water Street Studio in Catskill, New York and benefit greatly from the engineering and production skills of Bobby "Icon" Eichorn and the lovely backing vocals of Maria Ornelas. Just click the Myspace link on the links page to check 'em out!

Earlier this week I put in some hours at Water Street Studios in Catskill, NY recording a couple of my new tunes with Bobby "Icon" Eichorn at the controls. Bob and I met back in the early 80s when we were both working at a music store on Long Island. He's gone on to build an impressive resume as a songwriter, composer, player, producer and go-to-guy for such artists as Carly Simon and the remarkable Richard Thompson It was challenging and revealing to work with someone with such experience, such highly developed skills and such acute ears. I hope to have the tunes available for download by the end of April.

How good can a musician-singer-songwriter-performer get? For an answer to that question, I suggest you go see Richard Thompson. This past Saturday night at Huntington's IMAC(a great venue)Mr. Thompson-aided and abetted by Debra Dobkin and Judith Owen-took the audience on a musical journey through the work of a diverse array of artists that included King Richard I, Cole Porter, The Kinks and Nelly Furtado. Through it all this particular road-worn music business vet was entertained, dazzled and moved-and all of this without one of the greatest songwriters of all time playing a single one of his own tunes!

Awe-inspiring...

I'm excited to say that you can now listen to this old Fugitives chestnut on the music page-I'm hoping to make it available for download soon. It was loads of fun recording our four-song demo on 2-inch 24-track tape all those summers ago-and fun to listen to now. enjoy!

It thrills me to be able to say that the 2nd Annual Oysterman's Breast Cancer Benefit was a resounding success. Kudos to the staff of Oysterman's, the other bands-the Neighborhood, the Stanton Anderson Band, Three Chord Monty, and Blues Box-and to all who came and listened. See y'all next year!

Congratulations to Don Alder from Vancouver, B.C. on his win at this year's International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. It was my first year participating in the competition and I felt so privileged to be among so many fine guitarists.
Many had travelled much further than I had to be there-though I think the distance award has to go to Yu Watanabe, the Japanese Fingerstyle Champion, who had come all the way from Tokyo along with Hidenori Okada, another excellent guitarist, when our paths converged on the flight to Wichita from Chicago O'Hare.
I offer my heartfelt thanks to all the other guitarists in the competition-as well as such performers as Tommy Emmanuel, Pete Huttlinger and Beppe Gambetta-for entertaining and inspiring me. See you all next year!

I'm thrilled to announce that my first booking of the coming year is at the Grounds and Sounds Cafe-a new series being held at the Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of Stony Brook. For more info check out http//:groundsandsounds.uufsb.org(see links page.) See you there!

Look on the photos page for some shots of my new guitar-built for me by my good friend the very gifted Scott MacDonald. Months and months of hard work and caring craftsmanship have yielded me this extraordinarily beautiful instrument. Even better, I've had a chance to get used to it before my set at Bradstock Sept. 2, my concert at the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library on Sept.6 and my participation in the International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas on Sept. 13. Who's doing better than me?

Check out yours truly along with my fellow Fugitives playing "I'm Tore Down" at Meschutt Beach!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNar7nHje-0

Once again, it will be my pleasure and privilege to perform at Bradstock, Sunday, September 2nd. More info to follow!

Congratulations to my old friend Marty Attridge for the appearance of his song "If You Ain't Got The Money" on a recent episode of "Without A Trace". Look for some of his other tunes on iTunes under the band name Who Are Those Guys?

Tune into 89.5 on your FM dial on Tuesday, May 22nd at 4 p.m. in order to hear yours truly playing a few tunes with my buddy Robert Steven Williams in a live broadcast from Connecticut's outstanding WPKN.

My pal Robert Steven Williams has just told me that his song "Jersey Cowboy" from his I Am Not My Job cd was featured on Car Talk on NPR a couple of weeks ago. a)I'm happy for my friend having one of his songs get some attention, and b)the song features a burning Strat solo by an outstanding and criminally underrated guitarist who shall remain nameless...a solo which, of course, is not featured on the NPR broadcast. But seriously, I think it's pretty cool, don't you?

Listen to a rough version of a brand new instrumental-"Waltz For Mary Jean" on the Music page.

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be returning to perform at the Bayport-Blue Point Public Library this coming September 6th.
I'll be playing stuff from both CDs and a whole bunch of new stuff-hopefully some things not yet even written!

I'm excited at the prospect of playing a show at the Rockwood Music Hall this May 2nd at 8:00 p.m. with my good friend Robert Steven Williams. The venue is at 196 Allen St. in Manhattan-between East Houston and Stanton. I played a lot of the guitars on Robert's cd I Am Not My Job-and I'm sure he'll be playing some of those songs, as well as some new ones. I'll be playing stuff not only from High Road and Healing Season, but also some new stuff. It should be a blast. See you there!