My name is Seth Whitney, and I am a Heathen. My job as a Heathen is to travel around the world with four other Heathens, playing music for people and spreading as much joy and happiness to others as we can collectively muster up.
This week marks a ten year landmark in my life, as it was ten years ago yesterday that I set out from my hometown of Olympia, Washington, to Austin Texas, where I hoped to pursue an education in playing live music. My goal was to live there for a few years, play as much as possible, and move back home stocked with some good experiences and a foundation in performing live. What I ended up getting was more than I expected, and the education continues today. The only difference is, now I call Austin home.
That’s not to say that I don’t hold the Northwest close to my heart still. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss the people and beautiful things that make the Northwest so special, and this week being an anniversary of sorts, has made me very nostalgic. That’s why “The Band of Heathens” debut in the Northwest is even more profound to me.
On Aug. 3rd, we will be playing for the first time in Seattle, and the next day in my hometown of Olympia Washington. I wasn’t aware of how important this would become for me, but in reaching out on various social networks to let people know about the shows, I have reconnected with a lot of old friends and even family that I somehow lost track of living so far away. To top it all off, my birthday is on Aug. 3rd, and though I won’t reveal my age, let’s just say it’s a big one. I can’t imagine a better place to celebrate than in Seattle and Olympia.
At first I thought this all to be a coincidence, this convergence of events if you will. Ten years to the week, my work taking me back to the NW, it all falling on my birthday, dogs and cats living together…what a great blog this would make?
The truth is, I don’t think it is a coincidence anymore. I think we all make this stuff happen for ourselves, and in the end, your heart always takes you where you need to go if you are listening. For me, I needed to be in the Northwest this week.
I think I’ll keep listening to my heart.

Seth

Please come and join us:

August 3rd, 2010
The Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA.
Opener starts at 9pm — Tickets still available

August 4th, 2010
The State Theater, Olympia, WA.
7pm showtime — SOLD OUT
9:30pm showtime — Tickets still available

Colorado is great as always. Good seeing old friends in Carbondale, Denver, Frisco, Telluride and Durango. Some highlights were the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride and blowing the electricity out of half the town of Carbondale at Mountain Fair. Luckily Harley grabbed a megaphone and jumped onstage for a 20 minute, literally-unplugged set before the tie-dye wearing police department got the electricity back on to finish the set. Thanks to Jane Bachrach for the photo.

It’s been good hitting some new spots in Idaho and right now we’re enjoying the Sawtooth Mountains in Stanely, Idaho. The Sawtooth Music Festival is one of the most beautiful sights we’ve seen. TIme to go help Johnny fly his kite and then play a rock and roll show in paradise.

Hope to see you in Washington, Oregon, Chicago or California in the next couple weeks.

Peace,
The BOH

Fat's at Tipitina's

Last night we played Tipitina’s in New Orleans as our last stop opening shows for our friends JJ Grey and Mofro. It’s been great getting to hang with these guys and playing shows through the southeast for the last couple weeks. Playing for a bunch of new fans and then getting to hang out and enjoy Mofro’s set every night has been a great change up for a couple weeks. It was good catching up with Scott and Megan in Atlanta, our old friends Kevin and Kerry in Oxford, and hanging with our friends from the Magpies after the show in New Orleans. Thanks for the good times and generosity.

In Atlanta we had a few days off to rent a rehearsal space and workout some new songs for the next album. We’re excited about the new material and the direction it’s heading. Looking forward to having some more time off to dig into some more of the new tunes and get ready to go back in the studio some time this year.

Some highlights in fine southern cuisine along the way have been the fine people and many desserts at the Brick Street Diner in Greenville, South Carolina; the Ajax Diner in Oxford, Mississippi; and watching Marvin (aka “Word”) at the Camellia Grill in New Orleans spank the calories out of a piece of pecan pie with a spatula before dousing it with butter. We’re fatter and happier thanks to all of you.

Also, in true Stab Whitney fashion, Seth acquired a new butterfly knife at a Stuckey’s truck stop, so watch out. He wields it like a fluttering black belt assassin.

Tonight we’re in Scott/Lafayette, Louisiana, and tomorrow we’re back to La Porte, Texas before heading home for a week off to charge the batteries. Then it’s back to Europe for a couple weeks of shows.

Thanks to JJ and Mofro and all the Mofro fans for a great tour through the college towns of the deep south. And special thanks to all you BOH fans for coming out and representing too. We hope to be back in the fall.

I’ll be home by derby time, so please save me a seat.
Mint juleps on the outfield grass, the old south tastes so sweet.

Until next time,

G

Sitting backstage in Chicago about an hour before the show. It’s been a good 12 day run out to the east coast and up through the midwest. Good to get back to some places we’ve been before and to reach some new cities we haven’t been to. Lots of radio stops, which have been good, and the shows have been good. Some better than others, but we’re having a good time after taking a week off at the end of October.

The tour started with our tour manager/sound guy Alex forgetting his wallet in Austin. We realized this about an hour north of Austin, and decided that it would be best for him to go almost two weeks without his wallet than to turn around and add a couple hours to our already 15 hour drive to Tennessee. So far he’s doing alright. Ran into one problem when a bar wouldn’t let him in until they saw his ID, which he didn’t have, but he overcame the adversity with a wink and a smile, and his characteristic, “What up, baby!” and they let him in.

Besides that, not much to update. It was beautiful driving into Chicago today watching the setting sun shine down on the city skyline. We were onstage when the Austin City Limits episode aired in North Carolina, but it’s been great hearing feedback from everybody who watched. I think it’s still airing in different areas over the course of the next two weeks.

We’ve met some interesting folks on the way too. Most notably, a large bearded dude with a trucker hat that said, “Low Card”, who burst into our private backstage room in Bloomington, Indiana and exclaimed, “Hi, I’m Crash. I’ve only known about you guys for two months, but you’re my favorite band. Wanna get high?”

Alright, time to get our minds straight before the show. Gotta run. Thanks for checking in. Hope to see you soon.

Looking forward to the Thanksgiving / BOH Birthday Bash at Momo’s on Nov 27.

The BOH

This week we had the privilege of spending a day with David Becker. He is nearing the end of a 40 day period of “funemployment” before starting work at a law firm. Each of the 40 days he is challenging himself to do something new, interesting, unique, completely absurd, or something that he has always wanted to do but never had the time, motivation or cojones to do. You should read his blog. It’s really funny.

On day 35 he chose to spend a day with a rock ‘n’ roll band on the road. We were the lucky band he chose to spend time with. Read more here. Some pretty funny stuff. Good video footage near the end too.

www.thefortydays.com

Thanks David. You’re as cool as it gets.

We’ve had some memorable shows this past week and a half in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Some highlights so far have been playing the Mile High Festival in Denver where we also got to catch the Black Keys, Paolo Nutini, and India.Arie; a show at a great little theater in Durango called the Abbey Theater; Villapalooza and a day off with our friends in Carbondale going white water rafting; a show in Aspen on the mountain at Snowmass where we played L.A. County Blues in the town where Hunter S. Thompson ran for mayor against the “long-hair”; and it was great hanging with our friends after a show in Park City last night. In Durango, Seth took everybody’s money in a late night poker tournament with a bunch of the staff from the Abbey Theater. Needless to say, it’s been a good tour so far.

We just arrived in California after a long day driving across Utah and Nevada. We made a stop at the Bonneville Salt Flats where they set all the land speed records. Pretty amazing. That’s about it for now. Looking forward to this weeks shows here in California.

Packed house at Antones tonight. Playing with Hayes Carll and the crowd got here early to check out the set.

After finally getting over our German jet lag, we’ve been back to work for a week before taking a week off for the Holidays. This week we had shows with the Resentments, Bruce Hughes, and with the Randy Rogers Band. This week some of us are headed out of town and some of us are sticking around Austin drinking egg nog by the gallon. We’ve been writing some new songs, trying to get some studio time in, and having a good time looking forward to next year. After a couple more shows right around New Years we’ll be off to Colorado for a couple weeks, and then back to Germany and the Netherlands for three weeks. What can we say, we love ice and snow.

Our manager Ethan Bessey has done a great job of compiling live show recordings over the course of the past year and now we’re giving those recordings away through the “Extras” link on our website. Check them out. We’ll try to keep adding live shows as we get them, as well as any video we find on youtube that tickles our fancy. So go download all you want. Spread the word. And if you have any videos, live recordings, or photos we’d love to see them. Don’t be afraid to send them our way and our management will try to get them up on the site. Send an email to info@bandofheathens.com.

Here is some video footage from our recent shows in Germany:

Also, I thought this was pretty cool. A few days ago we started getting emails and phone calls from people at Billboard in New York. I guess the album is charting on some kind of Heatseeker chart and some indie music charts. Not sure what all that means, but it sounds great to me. Check it out:

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=Top+Heatseekers

It’s been a great year. It’s been a blast recording and releasing our first studio album as the Heathens, touring all over the country and Europe, and meeting so many true music fans everywhere we go. Kindred spirits all around. Thanks for spreading the word like a like a hurricane this year.

Warm regards and egg nog from The Band of Heathens!

The River in Reverse… Aka a reverse travelogue.

Just finished playing our first gig overseas and it was good fun.

We performed for about 2 1/2 hours, capped off with a funky little encore of
40 Days – I’ve Got a Feeling – Jenny Was a Keeper.

Some rock n roll, some acoustic, a little bit for everyone.

We had a near-capacity audience at a very cool venue (Tonenburg). Imagine a centuries old castle, complete with overhanging balcony and exposed beam work, stocked with the finest German beers on ice and you’d be in the ballpark.

The crowd was very generous, both listening and being actively involved and vocal.

We rolled into town from Frankfurt at about 4pm, enough time to grab a coffee and some dinner before soundcheck. A 3+ hour ride in our new Black “Darth Vader” model sprinter had us in good comfort and space.

Thomas, our tour manager met us at the airport and got us on our way… I’m really happy that we have someone to help us navigate this whole journey, I could see it being a nightmare otherwise. Let’s just say our German isn’t anywhere near… ummmm…. passable? Yeah, it’s actually just useless. The only bummer is that he didn’t meet us with a sign that had our band name misspelled (see Spinal Tap for the reference).

Besides being a good driver, Thomas seems like a really cool guy, looking out for our best interests, and you can never really have too much of that.

Lots of flying, checking bags and walking through airports proceeded our arrival in Europe. In a nutshell it went like this in reverse. Frankfurt>Washington, D.C.> Austin. Bad food, good vibes being sent to our guitars in the baggage area, and sleep deprivation were the order of the day(s).

Was that all confusing enough for you? Good I’m glad, I feel the same way. I actually thought it would be a neat gimmick to try and write something in reverse chronological order… It was harder than I thought, and probably less effective than I thought it would be when I started… But I’m too far in to stop now, so it’s what you’re stuck with if you’re still reading!

Time for some sleep.

I’m so tired I haven’t slept a wink
I’m so tired my mind is on the brink
I wonder should I get up and fix
myself a drink
No, no, no.

Wishing you were on the road here with us.

Love,
TBOH

Sitting here in a food induced semi-hallucinatory state, I’ve had a chance to just let my mind wander for a few minutes… Turkey legs, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy;

Sorry I digress.

You always hear people talking about “the source,” or their search for the truth, the most concentrated and potent form of something.  As musicians, we are constantly looking for it.  The pure moments, unadulterated by our everyday thoughts, the crowd, or the really bad food we ate just before taking the stage.

The reality is, there are sources all around us, it’s just usually a matter of tuning in and blocking out everything else.  Sometimes that is easier said than done.  However, once in a great while, you get hit smack in the face with it.  That was the experience I had last week performing with The African Children’s Choir.

There are gigs on the calendar that are circled, that you look forward to, just hoping and expecting something special or magical to occur on that night.  Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t.  Oftentimes you have expectations of what is to be and they are not fulfilled.  On a rare occasion, you have high expectations and they are not only met, they are surpassed and you’re able to capture a moment and freeze it, if only for a few seconds.

We were lucky enough to be self-appointed music directors for this shin-dig down at the Parish in Austin.  Some of our friends like Guy Forsyth, Carolyn Wonderland and Kacey Crowley, blew us away with their great songs and performance style.  In addition, we had the opportunity to back up Bob Schneider on a few songs.  That alone should have been enough of a musical feast to stuff us, but there was more.

The African Children’s Choir, consisting of about 25  eight to ten year olds from Uganda took the stage and absolutely blew everyone away.  We were fortunate enough to close the show with Bob Dylan’s I Shall Be Released, with those angelic voices singing right along with us.  Their musicality was absolutely impeccable and their spirit was so positive and contagious it was impossible to not break into a full smile.

They were the source.

As a young kid, I remember having these really intense moments that made me realize the power of music and the beauty of that gift.  It was something that made you feel connected to the world around you, no matter how old you were or where you were from or what you looked like.  In that instant you were part of the team, part of the clan, part of THE SONG.  It’s that same song that’s been going on for thousands of years all over the world.  It’s all of the colors of the rainbow and the whole spectrum of emotions rolled up into a giant ball.

Like many other things, as you get older sometimes it’s harder to notice it or take part in it.  It’s always there, it’s just a matter of opening the channel to receive it.  Everytime we put on our instruments, we’re doing everything we can to be a part of that moment and of that song.

I hope that some of you in attendance at the show felt this, I know I did.  Thank you to the African Children’s Choir for reminding us about IT.  Here’s to seeking the source and finding it whenever it is available.

Thanks for taking the trip with us.

Peace and Happy Thanksgiving,

Ed