Northern Roots

The peepers are done, and even the tree frogs are quiet tonight. I’m sure they’ll be back, but we’re into crickets now, the loneliest sound of all except for the toads who sing who knows when and only a little bit why. Probably for some of the same reasons the rest of us do, though it’s just a guess. Here, by request, is a video of me singing Tom Dooley with some frogs.

I’m wondering why there was a story about me in the local paper when we have the most lovely and cheerful man who picks up our trash here and I don’t imagine many of us know much about him. Maybe he has a blog too. Are you out there? In any case, we go on leaving these little archival traces that will probably last a short while, at least until the electricity goes out, or maybe longer if someone copies, pastes, prints and hides them in a box somewhere.

I have a number of musical things coming up. A show in Cambridge, MA on June 14, recording for a CD that may come out next year if there are still CDs then, festival gigs in New England and the Czech Republic, anticipated but unknown musical encounters in Serbia and Bosnia, more recording and then trips to the Midwest, West Coast and Ireland in the fall. There’s also a live solo CD recorded last year in Namest nad Oslavou coming out in July, plans for more work with Omar Sosa and other friends, waiting for the release of the film Behold the Earth and the CD of The Old Burying Ground.

Most recently I’ve been at Northfire studio with Peter Irvine and Eliza Cavanaugh working to finish a recording I started a while back with Peter, Rani Arbo and Laura Risk. It’s a solo/band thing that takes up the Northern Roots banner where Cordelia’s Dad left off, featuring Josh Billings on fife and great fife. It’s a new thing for me, recording with imaginary friends playing made up instruments. I’m very excited about it though, having gone through a period of relative disinterest. It will probably be called “Soul of the January Hills,” and the band name will be “Tim Eriksen and the something or others.” I got to the point long ago where everything started sounding like a band name, and they all sounded bad. The Red Bed Spread. The Sandwich Bags. Squirrel Hair. Staple Gun, Drawer Pulls, Gray Morning, Window Pane, Hippy Neighbors. What about “Tim Eriksen and the Not That Cow, the One Next To Its”? Let me know if you have any great ideas.

You are cordially invited to:
Tim Eriksen Solo Acoustic
Club Passim
Cambridge, MA
June 14, 7:30pm
$20/18