Holiday Greetings

Happy Holidays Folk!

To steal a phrase from my You Tube buddy Bill Goudy (outdoor living, cooking, fishing, exploration and so forth)... man, oh, man!

It (2017) has been another whirlwind year! So here is an update from Jamie Slate & The Crew.

1) The Art Arch Show found some steam with exclusive interviews on You Tube --damn fun-- a 6 week run as a radio show on KB Radio --more damn fun-- and even a run on Spreaker as a podcast with more exclusive interviews. Most of those are rather funny and include some great music you may have never heard before. I put the show into hibernation (YT is back in Winter 2018/Spring 2018) but continue the #artarch enterprise with a #new item, Spotify M-F playlists! Find Jamie James Slate on Spotify and follow the #artarch lists, which are chock full of quality indie artists and awesome songs. Or just follow me on twitter and look for the #artarch posts.

2) Sloppy Bud Grass. Well, we went for it. The Charts. We even had some air play on reporting stations for the AMA charts. We just did not have the budget to get enough air play to bust into the Top 40. In the meantime, "He's Ridin' an Old Mare" and "Tracy" --both on the original release-- have become very popular songs in our local live market. And we typically rock the house with "Greenhouse Blues" every show as well. You can hear the original release here.

3) Playing Live. Ha ha ha, if you have never been to a live show from Slate & Rev Rich you are in for a surprise. We swap vocal duties. We change genres from one song to the next. We change instruments with me moving back and forth from acoustic guitar to bass, and Rich moving back and forth from acoustic guitar to electric guitar. It certainly is not boring. And practice, yeah we practice quite a bit so we can play intricate stuff easily live. Our market is slowly expanding and will continue to do so in 2018.

And my second consecutive eastern Virginia run has led to bookings for Summer 2018.  We hope to make a 10-11 day run for 6-7 shows in July. We are definitely going, just have not finished the bookings yet.

I was asked why I took this approach. That is, why build a base in central NC, then go all the way to eastern VA to build another base? The simple answer is, I am from eastern VA and have a lot of music connections there. But, in addition to that, the group has always planned to be a regional I-85 act. So, in 2018 we continue to build our metro-Charlotte base and do the eastern Virginia run. In 2019, we will fill it in with Raleigh and Richmond --giving us a show market from Charlotte to Greensboro to Raleigh to Richmond and then east to the Alantic, and most likely into the DelMarVa area of the coast. Once that is done, major strategy one will be complete. Phase two will be to head down I-85 towards Atlanta, until we get there.

4) How come nothing was released in 2017? Uh, Sloppy Bud Grass was released and there was a major effort to break the charts. We have already begun recording the next release, but have decided to release them as singles with a B-side. Once that reaches 8 songs total, we will likely do a compilation album with those 8 songs plus some live recordings. That will likely occur in 2019.

--and here are a few more questions I have been asked in recent months by various friends and associates with answers you may be interested in, per se--

Are you going to write the songs as you go? Ha, ha, ha. Well, I have already written a lot more than 8 that have never been recorded. But these songs will be folk-roots based, me and an acoustic playing through some high end expensive microphones. Think Bob Dylan meets John Prine. I would not be surprised if new songs are written by me before we finish the project. Heck, the first two songs were written within the last month, and one is already mixed.

Why are you doing a folk release? Because I have already done a pop release, a rock/wave release, an alternative release, a southern rock release, and an Americana/roots release. Plus, I need something I can sell at my solo shows that actually reflect what the fans hear live.

Are you going to stick with a folk/roots approach? As a solo artist, yes.

Well, thanks for reading through my friends, and I truly wish you all a peaceful and relaxing Holiday Season!

~~peace ~jamie