Greetings there from early November.  We live on a street lined with giant oaks.  A light breeze and some rain has completely showered the neighborhood in wet leaves.  I think the lawn is out there somewhere and I hope that lump in the street is my car.  I predict this situation is going to command the better part of my Sunday.

"Highballs For The Lowbrow"  crept up to #4 for Roots Music artists residing in Oregon.  Bill Frater gave me a spin on his excellent show http://www.freighttrainboogie.com/ and KBCS in Seattle is giving it regular spins.

What else....oh, nothing much.....I've learned that guy I used to know with the tallest mohawk you have ever seen, has turned into a raging right winger.  It's a screwball world, ask Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman.

Well on to those leaves, take care

Colin

Whew it has been some kind of month with summertime weddings up the ying yang and setling into some new digs here in the Heart Of The Valley.  First off Highballs for the Lowbrow recently received some play on KBCS, a fine radio station with a large protruding frequency tower situated somewhere in the Seattle vicinity. That is great news and hopefully when I get a chance to do some more blatent self promotion, there will be more radio ads of the album.   In the meantime I have been foiled by a crafty nemesis.  Emily from the fine blog Translinguistic Other has begun a lively thread calling for the boycott of the new album based on some disparaging remarks I made in the song "Drunk Music For Drunk People".  I couldn't agree with her more and will be the first to assist her.  No one knows better how to prevent my music from being heard by the masses then I. At any rate, I am happy to be indoctrinated into the blogosphere and thank her for addressing this sensitive topic

Hope this finds you all well and until next time...

No Depression featured an review of Highballs for the Lowbrow by Ed Karn as posted below. Thanks Ed!

Also the album went to #22 on the Freeform American Roots Chart. 

Originally posted at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries

So last week I wrote that after listening to Colin Spring's 2005 release How I Came To Cry These Tears Of Cool I went to CDBABY and bought his new album Highballs for the Lowbrow and it's been spinning in the iPOD since then and every time I listen I hear something new and I like the album more and more! In case you've forgotten or didn't read the previous post, I found Colin's name on the FAR Chart tied for 22 with a bunch of other artists. The album title sounded interesting so I thought I'd give him a try and I am glad I did. At first the album seemed a little to rock pop for me but that changed when I really started listening to the lyrics. The other thing I really like is that each song has a different sound from the hard driving "Good Looking Man" to the closing cover of "Chevy Van". Again to refresh or inform from his website:

Colin Spring is an Oregon based singer/songwriter who plays music influenced by folk, rock, and Americana. He has just finished his fifth album, Highballs For The Lowbrow. It was recorded partly at home and partly at the Recovery Room in Seattle with Engineer/Producer Graig Markel over the last two years.
Colin was finalist at the prestigious Dave Carter Memorial Songwriting Contest at the Sisters Folk Festival and has opened for Americana icon and Juno Winner Fred Eaglesmith several times (and has twice MC’d Fred’s annual Southern Picnic in Ontario, Canada)

Balancing folk-rock intelligence and indie rock swagger, Colin Spring blossoms on his fourth album…a master of heartfelt story-songs in the tradition of vintage Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.-All Music Guide John D. Luerssen (author River Edge, The Weezer Story)

Like many albums I like just about every song but the tracks that stand a little higher than the others include: "Drunk Music for Drunk People", "Sad Seaside Town" (reminds me of some Jersey Shore towns), "Reservation Strays" and "Low Hanging Fruit" (probably my favorite track)

Great lyrics from Low Hanging Fruit:

There's a truck over turned in Calexico,
eight migrants inside,
eight crosses by the freeway
just on the California side
and your not going to find compassion
in the words of a minuteman
cause he left all those back in the marshy bogs
when he came home from Vietnam
and you can pick at the gaps in the border,
but you can kick the dirt with your boot
but to pick at the poor for just being poor
you're picking at low hanging fruit,
your picking at low hanging fruit.......

and the song gets better check out the full song at his website! Or other songs at his myspace page.

Colin Fielding of the Folk and Roots Show on (96.5 inner fm) Sundays 5-7pm Streaming Live www.innerfm.org.au has taken a liking to the new album and is in the process of tranforming me into an international sensation.  Also Cat at www.RadioFreeAmericana.com has an excellent program that you should check out.  Also "Highballs for the Lowbrow" Is #8 on the KEXP Americana Charts.

That's all the news, holding steady in the heart of the valley.

Don Slack of KEXP in Seattle gave Highballs a nice write up on the website and then threw that sucker into rotation.  You can read all about it right here.

Featured Reviews

Colin Spring - Highballs for the Lowbrow (self-released)

This former Seattle singer-songwriter is now living in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. His first album in five years was mostly recorded in Seattle with Graig Markel, and it sounds like his strongest record yet, with a lively folk-rock sound ranging from acoustic ballads to full-on rockers and smart, insightful lyrics that address the personal and the political with wit and humor.

My new album, the first in...gulp....five years is entitled Highballs For The Lowbrow.  Thanks to everyone that has given it a listen or purchased a track.  I really appreciate it.
As mentioned on the home page,  we had the fortune of being able to record with Larry Knechtel.  Larry was a member of the Wrecking Crew, a group of LA based studio musicians that played on enumerable hits.  He also won a Grammy for doing the piano arrangement on Bridge Over Trouble Water and was a member of the group Bread.  For an incomplete discography (no one knows, not even Larry himself, everything that he contributed too) click here.

Also I would like to mention that one of my absolute favorite all time songwriters, and a great guy that has helped me out immensely, had his network television debut the other night.  Click here to watch a youtube video of Fred Eaglesmith on Dave Letterman. Fred has let me open for him several times and I am really happy that he got an opportunity to expand his exposure because he is truly an amazing artist and performer.