Big Announcement:

Weatherbeard's Here!

After 25 years waiting in the wings, our new Weatherbeard CDs have arrived! We're holding a series of performances to celebrate. The official national release date is Jan. 2011, but Vermonters & fans can get it now for $12, same as all our CDs.

Release Performance Schedule - mark your calendar

Sunday Dec 5 - 7:00
Montpelier Unitarian Church
$7 adults, $3.50 kids One admission waived per CD purchase
130 Main Street Montpelier
directions

Friday Dec 10- 7:00
Lovin' Cup Cafe Johnson
$7 adults, $3.50 kids One admission waived per CD purchase
38 Lower Main W Johnson (802) 635-7423
directions

Saturday Dec 11 - 7:30
Burlington North End Studio
$7 adults, $3.50 kids* One admission waived per CD purchase
294 North Winooski Ave Burlington (802) 863-6713
directions

Sunday Dec 12 - 4:00
Putney Sandglass Theater
$8 -- CDs 1/3 off
17 Kimball Hl, Putney (802) 387-4051
directions

ALSO

Saturday Dec 18 - 10:30
Montpelier (music only, but we'll have CDs)
Capitol City Farmer's market

Thursday Dec 30 - 7:30
Plymouth - Hawk Mountain Resort

Friday Dec 31 - 5:00
Burlington First Night

WHAT THE HECK IS WEATHERBEARD? Leanne's brother asks.

Twenty-five odd years ago, we brought out our first recording. Notice I say "we," and "our," despite the fact that this is a solo album.We hadn't figured out how to tell stories together yet so it's all my voice, but Leanne's ideas had already begun to take hold (especially in Rapunzel), and the whole production would never have come together without her help, input, and support.

We sold a bunch of these on cassette. It got excellent notices and acquired hard-core, die-hard fans, at least one of whom now listens to it with his son three times a week, he says.

The performances have held up well, but somehow we never get around to making a CD of them until now. We hereby liberate it from the slough of lost cassettes, and release it into the digital cloud, where I hope it outlives me, and where in any case I seem to be increasingly outsourcing much of my cognitive activity.

WHAT ARE THESE RELEASE EVENTS?

My cousin Kate regrets that she can't come. Well of course she can't, she's in Oregon. About half of our list can't come to these kinds of things, hope you don't mind hearing about them anyway.

These are celebratory performances. We'll be having a good time and doing all we can to make sure you will too. But we decided they should be shows rather than parties-- when we throw a party (we've found) we're too distracted to give a really tight performance. So, 4 focused live storytelling shows around the state, each with time after for schmoozing, CD signing, and whatnot.

I'll perform Weatherbeard, all 30 minutes of it. Leanne and I will tell some together, play music together, and indulge in miscellaneous shorter bits and pieces. It all adds up to a solid evening's (or afternoon's) entertainment.

PLUS there will be surprises, door prizes, & I don't know, maybe apple pieses. This is something of a milestone for us. and for me (Tim) in particular. Please come out if you can, and help us go whoopee.

We've kept the admission fee comparable to a neighborhood movie, and will let you in free if you buy a CD.

Not to be too crass here, but of course we're selling CDs. How shall I say this? Well, just come right out with it I guess. Our story recordings are really good gifts. We make them to stay useful over a long time; the whole family enjoys them, kids don't outgrow them, and they stand up well under repeated listening. We aren't tired of telling a single one of our tales, and we continue to get reports from people who are still playing the heck out of stuff we brought out decades ago, so it's a gift that can last for years and years and years.

The Rest of the Newsletter

Fall was great, now it ebbs. Our cat has moved indoors. The light will work its way back up to this point again in just a couple of months, then quickly get much brighter. In between, we have Thanksgiving leftovers, soup, twinkling lights, snow, hot baths, visible breath, Yule, long dark cold starry sleepy nights, warm fires & hot water bottles, delicious oranges & grapefruits, and the opening of a New Year. All pleasures well worth a wallow.

Let's not try not to think too much about the driving. Except when driving of course.

We're On YouTube. We wanted to have this ready for Halloween, or at least Nov 2nd. But better late than never. Here's our first YouTube storytelling, "The Water of Life." --a short but entertaining Mexican folktale about poverty and death. Tim Azarian filmed, edited, and formatted it. We can't watch it online, our computers and operating systems are too old (almost ten! gasp!) but we've seen it, and like it. Tell us what you think-- should we do more of them?

"Gypsy Soldier/Vampire Princess" For those who heard the first half this Halloween, you'll be glad to know that we have the whole thing now, and will be telling it in its entirety many times in the future. We think it's a good'n: funny, a little spooky, sardonic in that Eastern European way, with a strong Gypsy feel. A really good conclusion, too, and so timely for a timeless old tale.

One of the challenges of working on our own (especially for undisciplined types like me) is that we report to nobody, and so certain things sometimes never get done. I started this newsletter last January with a new years resolution to try to stay in better touch with the folks who enjoy our work, and was able to keep that resolution at least in part because I went public with it. Now you guys are somebody I can report to. So:

Music Resolution. We will record new music tracks in the first half of January, and post at least one of them as a free download for our friends and fans. We will have a new music album available by the end of 2011.

Four Corners School House. Some of you may remember our original plan to record The King and the Thrush at this place, but at the last minute I decided it was too echo-ey and switched. Well we finally told some stories there as part of a benefit with fellow East Montpelierites Benedict Koehler, Hilari Farrington, and Colin McCaffrey.

It turns out to be a perfect small storytelling venue for 30-50 people. Despite my earlier misgivings, once an audience is in there, acoustics are excellent for spoken-word. (Benedict had told me so, but I was too overwrought to listen.) Not sure when or what, but we'll be doing something there for sure, it's too sweet to resist, and right around the corner.

COMING UP

Jan/Feb
School Residency in Braintree VT

Mid March (St. Pat's) & Mid April
Schools shows in MA, RI, CT
(if you live there, talk to us about possible bookings)

June 24-26
Old Songs Festival, Vorheesville NY

June 28- July 6
Oregon library tour-- coast, Portland, Southeast

	Old Fans of Weatherbeard Write Hi, Tim. My aunt gave me your Weatherbeard cassette in the 1980s. When I opened it I didn't think of it as something special, but I have never forgotten it. I went to your website, and now I am really looking forward to hearing it again. After 20 or 25 years it has always stuck with me. Craig L. A CD! Yayyyyyy! It is the best recorded story ever. We listen to it 3x a week. Sam B.