Lean on Pete, live

Great event at the Roundhouse in Camden last night, Willy read from his just published third novel and played four songs (including 'Laramie, Wyoming' - the song in which Charley the protagonist of Lean on Pete first appeared - and 'The Water Wars') and then chatted with the extremely gracious and generous Mark Billingham. A great night, a full room and he sold and signed all the copies of the book there, nice work!
You can buy Lean on Pete here, or even better go see him on the road, all tour dates are in my earlier post or at the band's website, Richmond Fontaine

LEAN ON PETE

Here are those dates, come along...

Feb 9 - Willy solo music and reading @ Roundhouse-London
Feb 10 - Willy solo music and reading @ Cardiff Arts Institute-Cardiff, Wales
Feb 11 - Willy solo music and reading @ The Victoria-Birmingham
Feb 12 - Willy solo music and reading @ Captains Rest-Glasgow



And all of this prefigures the return of Richmond Fontaine, for a full UK and European tour, which will include some special book promotional duties in Ireland. Full details at the Richmond Fontaine website.

LEAN ON PETE by Willy Vlautin

here's a great promo video for Willy Vlautin's brilliant third novel, out early Feb. Willy will be here in the UK for a short promotional reading/acoustic tour on publication, ahead of the full band's tour in March. Details of all that to follow next week.

Instrumental...

recorded at Calexico's Wavelab studios this is a great instrumental from Richmond Fontaine's last record but one (Thirteen Cities). Not only do the band feature in the book, but there's a list from frontman Willy Vlautin too, 'Riding with Lowell George...'

Paul Newman Saves the Night - free 'Northline' downloads

I wrote here at xmas about the gorgeous soundtrack that was included with the first edition of Willy Vlautin's brilliant second novel Northline . The lovely new pbk edition doesn't include the soundtrack, sadly, but i do have two of the songs here to download:

Northline, Theme

Paul Newman Saves the Night

The Hang the DJ top spot for '08!

And so my two standout albums of the year: Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago has been much written about and debated but it’s an album i’ve loved since getting an early copy on import from the US. The story behind the album’s genesis seems too romantic for some people, but for me it’s just a great album – sad and bruised and hopeful all to once – that has been a genuine word of mouth success. It hasn’t been hugely marketed, as sometimes happens (yet, at least), it wasn’t mined for singles and spin offs, it was just allowed to sit there and be talked about and discovered. His live shows too were stunning, i saw him twice and the songs seemed at once the same and different as you saw them played by his three piece band. Top marks from me.

My second record of the year is the Northline Soundtrack by Willy Vlautin & Paul Brainard, a forty minute instrumental album that accompanied Vlautin's sophomore novel published back in February (which is the only original soundtrack i know by the author of a published novel). I do admit to a bit of a bias here, having worked on the novel, but this is a beautiful piece of music – think Ry Cooder’s Paris, Texas meets Ennio Morricone and you’re in the right dusty field. Fans of Richmond Fontaine will know all about Paul Brainard’s pedal steel playing (also with the Sadies, M. Ward etc.) but the arrangements he and Vlautin came up with for acoustic guitar, steel, drums, harmonica and trumpet were gorgeous, evocative and moving – from the haunting title theme and its refrain to ‘Doc Holidays’ , ‘Paul Newman Saves the Night’ and on. This is still only currently available with the original edition of the novel, but if this is your kind of thing you should really track it down (and the novel is a stunner too), here's a taster...

Willy Vlautin on Willie Nelson, Oregon State Fair Aug 29 2008

I try to see the old time country greats whenever they get near Oregon, but there aren’t many left. Merle Haggard just canceled his tour through this area because of health problems and Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Buck Owens are all now gone. But Willie Nelson is still at it and played the state fair in Salem, Oregon this summer. His lead guitar player recently retired, his drummer is so old he can only play a few songs at a time, and Willie was just back from carpel tunnel surgery. I didn’t know what to expect, but with his hands free of pain the 75 year old played guitar like an acid cowboy Django Reinhardt for over two hours. He carries the band on his back and brings together hippies and punk rockers and rednecks and musos and old people. They’re all there just to see him, and they all leave saying the same thing. “I didn’t know he was that good of a guitar player.” Willie Nelson is the last of the old greats, please go see him while you can ‘cause even Willie can’t live forever.

Willy Vlautin Site

A Jockey's Christmas

Novelist, Richmond Fontaine frontman, Hang the DJ contributor (and dodgy horse-rider) Willy Vlautin has a great spoken word Xmas story just out - with backing music from Paul Brainard and others. I highly recommend it, and great cover art from Nate Beaty too



for more info. and details on how to buy click here Richmond Fontaine site