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October 19, 2008

Beth Amsel E-Newsletter Vol. 8, No. 10

I. Featured Show
II. Salutations
III. The Good Stuff

I. Featured Show
6th Annual Home Town Show!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Unity Church of Boulder
2855 Folsom Street, Boulder, CO 80304
303-442-1411
8pm • $12.00

II. Salutations
Hello lovelies!
Autumn has come on with an icy bang up here in Nederland. The remaining aspen leaves are tenuously clinging to their posts, but with the recent wet snow and cold wind, it looks as if they are not long for this world. So does summer go!

As many of you have noticed (and have e-mailed me), I have been touring quite a bit less as of late and appear to be performing more infrequently. It is true that I am not quite the road warrior I once was, but have no fear, I'm not yet hanging up my highway shoes. I continue to write and sing, but have taken a step back or two this year to work not only on a semi-autobiographical novel but also a new on-line journal for social commentary and political critique called The Flutter Effect. Look for The Flutter Effect to go live Tuesday, October 28th, exactly a week before the Presidential election. As for the nascent book, well, I am hoping you'll be able to have something in your hands by the end of 2009. I warn you in advance, it's rated R.

In other musical news, I have had the incredible pleasure this summer of sitting in with just about the greatest bunch of guys, Todd Adelman and The Love Handles. Todd writes like the bastard child of Tom Waits and Gram Parsons with a little Stephen Stills thrown in for melodic measure. His band, The Love Handles, features the incomparable Greg Shochet, on guitar and mandolin, and the all too fine Bret Billings on pedal steel (both borrowed from Halden Wofford's Hi- Beams), plus the newly added Don Ambory on Stratocaster. Yours truly gets to be the girl singer! I haven't yet brought out the red sequined dress and paper fan, but it could happen. For those of you in the Denver/Boulder area interested coming out to see the band (with me in a whole new capacity), you can join Todd's mailing list by dropping him a line here. We're heading into the studio later this month to record a new record ready for Christmas. I'll keep you posted.

With autumn comes my 6th Annual Home Town Show in Boulder on Friday, Nov. 7th. I planned it this year to land just three days after the Presidential election as I can think of no better time to bring the community together to celebrate change! There will be new songs, new stories, and some very old favorites. Apparently, Unity Church of Boulder, where the concert is being held, has just installed a Jumbotron. I kid you not. I don't think I'll be using it, but with or without an enormous video feed behind me, together we'll celebrate the end of an era.

I hope this finds you and your loved ones very, very well and that Autumn is coming on beautifully wherever this may find you. Thank you for your support over the years. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a great group of listeners!
xo
Beth

III. The Good Stuff
Music: The Killers, All These Things That I Have Done. I can not, for the life of me, stop listening to this song. Although it is three years old, I just got wind of it through the bizarre film, Southland tales, where Justin Timberlake lip-synchs it during a whacked out drug dream. If you need something to get you going in the morning, this is it.
Books: The Known World, by Edward P. Jones. After reading All Aunt Hager's Children and being astounded not only by the content but the prose itself, I recently bought The Known World. Focusing on American slavery, the story is is not an easy read, but the prose is pitch perfect.
TV: True Blood, Sundays on HBO. I know, I know, a racy vampire murder mystery? Created by Alan Ball (of the incomparable, if sometimes depressing, Six Feet Under) and based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charliane Harris, True Blood is certainly a new twist on the genre. The gore remains, but so does a good deal of Harris's brand of off kilter humor and her modern take on civil rights. Apart from Mad Men, this is my current fav.

Posted by bethamsel at October 19, 2008 11:59 AM