The new Britchy album is here!

Folks, we did it. With your help I release a third album of original material, the debut recording for my acoustic americana duo with Richie Reinholdt, Britchy. Listen and order online at http://britchymusic.com. We were directly supported by your donations to a successful Kickstarter campaign, and we thank you. Our CD release party is June 8 up at the Ten Spoon Organic Winery. The Mountain Breathers open at 6pm and then Richie and I will play a special concert at 7pm. We have a busy schedule ahead. Summer is one of the wonderful times of the year when people love to hire musicians! So keep us in your mind if you ever need folky entertainers, and check out the schedule to see if we’re playing soon in your neck of the woods. Thanks, friends, and stay in touch!

Britchy on Kickstarter

“Montana folk duo Britchy features fine pickin’ and timeless writing. Help Britt and Richie record an album of original songs.” Please join our Kickstarter campaign. As of today, we’ve already had the pleasure of thanking 27 backers contributing $1,159. That’s amazing! Thanks so much! Please help us reach our goal so we can get to work in the studio. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1839886807/britchys-first-studio-album-together

New photos and notes from folkville

Updating websites is a winter sport. Finally, it became cold enough in Missoula.

My superstar Alaskan photographer, Jerry LaVine, came to visit us this fall and I want to share some of the amazing images he took. Partly I needed promotional photos for my acoustic americana duo Britchy. Also for the duo I play on the other side of the Continental Divide with Britt Smith. But mostly, we just wanted to have fun with the camera. I uploaded my faves to a new photo gallery.

And while I was at it, I made sure the tour schedule was up to date. Highlights include a handful of new Montana breweries plus increasing my presence in Missoula, Bozeman, and Helena. I’m also excited to bring Richie all the way to Anacortes, Washington to the Brown Lantern. It’s a super-fun venue for me and will be all the better with Richie. That’s on March 2 and I’ll be looking for a venue for us in Seattle on March 1. Please let me know if you have any ideas on that front!

Remember you can download my latest album at http://907Britt.com. Here is a free streaming audio player too.

 

As I usually toss in a video or two with my web updates, here is one I made this week at home.

 

And another one I made for my good friend Greg Boyd earlier in the summer.

Bound for Idaho

This month, we’re taking the Britchy show on the road. Now that I think about it, this will be our first time performing together out of state. Cool! Here’s the schedule.

• 907Britt solo 5:30pm-8:30pm in Moscow, ID at Andriette’s Bed, Book, and Bicycle for the artwalk (free admission)
• something about a festival in Weiser, ID? What was that? Hmm….
• Family concert in the Palouse: Britchy at the McCroskey House in Garfield, WA. 7pm all ages show. $8 Ticket price includes ice cream!
• Concert in St. Maries, ID: downtown at the Brickwall, 905 Main St. Gather at 6:30, show at 7 pm. Sponsored by the St. Maries Art Gallery & S.M.Art. Call 208.245.3560 for info. Tickets: $12.50. Coffee, beer and wine available. Sorry, no minors.
• Back in Missoula on June 29 it’s Britchy at Family Friendly Friday at the Top Hat, 6-8pm. Free free free. Beware the toddler mosh pit.
• Back to speaking of Idaho, I’ll be playing solo in Twin Falls, ID at the Anchor Bistro on August 22. More on that later.

Richie and I are filling up our summer calendar with all sorts of fun gigs. Check out the current schedule for more! Or better yet, subscribe to us on Facebook and get the latest. Here’s a video from a recent Britchy show at the Badlander in Missoula for Live and Local Tuesday. This is my original song, “Pretty Lies” and of course that’s the fabulous Richie Reinholdt on mandolin. Sure is a treat to play with him.

Crackdown, shakedown, sting. Whatever you want to call it.

Whatever you want to call it—”sting”, “crackdown”, or “shakedown”—the current system for collecting and distributing songwriting royalties is not working for the “little guys” like me and many of the venues I work in. Speaking of performing music, go ahead and stream my new album for free while you read this, eh? You don’t have to pay some large corporation headquartered in Nashville to do so. I wholly own my music and I give you permission right here right now.

Let me firmly establish I respect intellectual property rights. Especially because I write and perform music for a living, I agree with the laws of our country that ensure a creator-entrepreneur can share the windfall when someone else profits from songs they’ve published. When recordings are played on the radio or television even, both the composer and the folks who own the recording itself need to be compensated. Somehow.

James Krall took this photo at a community concert I played for the locals south of Healy, Alaska during tourism's off-season. Sometimes licensing groups hassle small events like these.

With millions of songs and billions of performances of them across the globe, how can we accomplish this? The idea of an organization like ASCAP is great, and came out in 1914 because it was needed. We must retool this system to reflect life in 2012, and to ensure it serves both the big and the little guy. A lot has changed for music in the last century. A lot has changed about us too. Access to instruments, technology, and learning tools has spawned a renaissance of independent recording and performing artists, who no longer need the assistance of record labels to get their products to market. The interconnected webified-on-Facebook world continues to provide surprise opportunities and challenges none of us envisioned even ten years ago. I have ideas to make it better and I’ll get to those, but first I want to explain the problem. I’ll start by describing the symptoms. Anecdotes from my personal experience reveal a system that is faltering at a local scale.

CD Release Concerts and Radio Appearances!

I kicked off the album release concert series last weekend in Anacortes and Friday Harbor, and I’ll finish it up in Alaska in April. In between, we’re folking it up right here in Montana. Here is the full schedule, which also includes three public radio appearances that you can stream from anywhere on the web! The fabulous Richie Reinholdt will accompany me for the Montana portions. If you can’t get to Montana to hear Richie and I play together as Britchy, then you can catch us online on one of the radio shows listed below.


Tuesday, February 28 on The Folk Show with John Meyers at 3pm(ish) on KUFM 89.1 in Missoula, or on the web at http://mtpr.org

On KBGA College Radio, Thursday, March 1 at 10pm with Larry Hirshberg and Downspout. Streaming at http://kbga.org or on your FM dial in Missoula at 89.9.

Friday, March 2 on The Trail in Missoula for the Local Lunch show and podcast, 12pm on 103.1 FM in Missoula and online at http://trail1033.com/

Saturday, March 3 at 6pm at the Ten Spoon Winery in Missoula.

In Bozeman, we’re doing Saturday, March 17 at Wild Joe’s Coffee at 7pm.

For the KGLT listening area in Southwest Montana, we’re joining Bob Butts on air at about 10:30am on Sunday, March 18. Stream at http://kglt.net or tune in to FM-91.1 in Bozeman.

Monday, April 2 I’m playing solo at Elim Cafe at 6pm on the Southside in Anchorage, Alaska.

And finally, for my friends in Fairbanks, a return to the College Coffeehouse at 7pm on Friday, April 6 and Two Rivers Lodge on Saturday, April 7th at 8pm.

Please have a listen online and remember you can order the hard copy or digital album directly from me at http://907Britt.com. Thanks, friends! I’m really proud of my new record and glad to share it with you. Please come to a show or listen on the radio. If we’re not already connected on Facebook, I’d love to hear from you that way too. Always looking for house concert hosts!

Sneak preview the new CD online

Free streaming audio! You can download too, of course. Official release party is 6pm March 3 at the Ten Spoon in Missoula. View the full schedule here. (Including April 6 at the College Coffeehouse in Fairbanks!)

The Painting

We recorded this video on September 15, 2011 in Missoula, Montana. I’m finally all settled into my new home and ready to start work in earnest on the new record I am making at AnimalTown Studios.

Still frame from the music video for The Painting

The mandolin player from the video, Dave Smith, says this is my best song yet. So I asked him to record it with me on YouTube. (Thanks, Dave!) I met Dave at the National Oldtime Fiddle Contest and Festival in Weiser, Idaho this summer. He’s fun to play with, and we’re doing a show together in his neck of the woods with Bruce Cannavaro on bass at the Undertown in Port Townsend, WA on Saturday, October 15.

Thanks for listening! Please be sure to post and share on Facebook if you use that tool. It makes a big difference in helping me spread the word about my music. Thanks for your support.

Download audio at http://907britt.bandcamp.com/track/the-painting.

THE PAINTING
words and music by Britt K. Arnesen

He traced all of our plans upon a canvas
An ordered mingling of lines
Tender like the first brush between us
Feathered, a sunset goodbye
And a finely painted face
Of some other lady
Whose picture don’t look like mine

Postcards and letters from their daydreams
Her young love and beauty made him blind
He traded our promises for her maybes
The mailbox a witness to his crime
And a neatly written name
Of some other lady
Whose song doesn’t sound like mine

Sorrow in the shadow of his freedom
He’d see heartache if he ever looked behind
Betrayal has a way of getting even
Hiding snakes in green grass on the other side
Where the painting hangs
In the home of some other lady
Whose colors don’t bleed like mine

A finely painted face
Of some other lady
Whose colors don’t fade like mine

Starry Night in HD

Thanks to Jerry LaVine of Connections Film and Video and Van Horn Ely of Anchorage, Alaska for their help in making such a beautiful video. I never would have thought of a waltzing guitar kaleidoscope!

Words and music by Britt K. Arnesen. Recorded live in Spenard, Alaska.

Download audio with Richie Reinholdt on bass and mandolin, and read lyrics at http://907britt.bandcamp.com/track/ciel-toil-lamour-myst-re.

Thanks for listening! Please be sure to post and share on Facebook if you use that tool.

Mama Never Took Me to Yellowstone

Mama never took me to Yellowstone
Papa never drove us to Rushmore
Nobody showed me the Redwood Forest
Guess I gotta get there on my own

I was listening to a bunch of John Prine before this came out of me during February Album Writing Month. It’s kind of an Alaska girl anthem. If the audio player above doesn’t show up or work, here is a link to Mama Never Took Me to Yellowstone. Read on to see the video and rest of the lyrics.