We Swoon for June (part 1 of 2)

Hiya everybody!

We've had a spectacular bundle of shows over the past month so I figured I'd give a recap for anyone who couldn't make it- you were there in spirit :)- and a big huge THANK YOU to everyone that could.  (We're also still planning a write-up of our tour in May.... remember that?  When that happened?  If you don't, it's not your fault.  But we're gonna tell you about it, I swear!)

We dove into June at Mad City Coffee, a lovely and HUGE coffeeshop in Columbia, MD where we did an acoustic set on a lovely summer night.  They have a big patio and huge windows, which all makes for a terribly pleasant evening.  Late in the set, the floor got a little lonely, so our buddies Chris and Neha got a very intimate show right at their table. We're excited to go back on July 31st, this time with bass, bodhran, and amplification :)

Next came the Celebrate Fairfax! Festival, which was extremely hot, but run by some of the nicest people on the planet.  We had a killer time playing and watching the other musicians, which included Olivia Mancini, Cady Finlayson & Vita Tanga, Mercury in Summer, and KC & The Sunshine Band!  We also got to ride in a golf-cart, which probably shouldn't be so pleasing but is always a bucket'o'fun!

Then we returned to Common Grounds: A Fair Trade Coffee House in Salisbury, MD.  We played to a full and appreciative room full that we can't wait to go back to, including our buddy Daric that we met the first time we played there, who knows our favorite Kentucky fingerpicker Jerry Belsak!  Small world :)  We also got to play to another musician (always a pleasure), one Joy Miller, who just released her first CD and we're all super excited about it.  We've had a blast hanging out with her and her awesome kids, Luke and Jenna, at both our Salisbury shows :)

We camped at the beautiful Lake Somerset Campground that night with nefarious Neha, one of our best friends and favorite people, hiding sips from a delicious brown bottle and stargazing to our hearts' content.  Then we swam and sunned at Chincoteague for one whole glorious day.

We wrapped up that amazing weekend at The Wonderland Ballroom, our favorite spot in DC.  We got to see The Nice Trys do their very first show with a drumkit, manned by Patrick Frank.  He also plays with World's Fair, another killer local group.  Patrick uses a drum with a tube going into its innards that he can blow into to change the pitch (so cool!!!).  The Nice Trys have always been awesome but they really blew the walls down that night- a crazy-tight set and energy through the roof.  We had a blast.

Ian Walters tore it up on piano for our set, falling right into our weird songs as if he'd been playing them for years.  He can back you up, he can solo, he can play straight, he can play crazy, and he can play aaaallll night long.  The man is a genius, as well as as one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.  And he plays around DC all the time so please catch a show- you'll only be sorry you didn't do it sooner.

We got to meet and hang out with so many awesome people that night- Patrick's friends Ali and Ashley, Dan and Wednesday (coolest music-lovers in town!), Matt Kelley of the Idle Americans, Bill and Alissa of Star FK Radium, the list goes on.  Thanks for coming out, everybody!

And one last note about that night- I almost reset the high score on their Ms. Pac Man machine.  That is a life goal of mine (this is Blythe, not Willie- I wouldn't dare pin such nerdiness on him).  They have my very favorite machine- MS. Pac Man (way better with the bow- regular Pac Man doesn't have different level layouts!), joystick instead of rollerball, pac-booster always on.  *Droool*  Here's my proof.  13,930 points short.  That's less than half a level, folks.

Our Monocacy Monocle Write-up!!

Hi guys!


We got an awesome write-up in the local newspaper, The Monocacy Monocle, for our show this past weekend at Cugini's, the greatest pizza place ever (that we are fortunate to live just a few blocks from). Sweet!
 

Center Stage: Getting The Party Started

June 25th, 2010
by Dominique Agnew


Are you looking for angst? Do you want someone to wallow in your tears with you? Maybe you're angry and need to rage against the evil machinations around you. Well, some groups provide the songs and the emotions to commiserate with you, but don't expect any heavy lifting from The Galt Line. Guitarist Willie Gammell remarks, "We don't talk about our feelings very much." His cohort in crime, Blythe Crawford, sums it up succinctly, "We're just trying to throw a party."

 Getting people moving is what they're all about, and moving around is what they've been doing a lot of, as well. Both Willie and Blythe hail from the Poolesville area, but lately, they've been everywhere but Poolesville. About three years ago, they had separately made their way to New York seeking individual opportunities, Willie with his guitar and possible session work, Blythe with the theater. Fate brought them together, and the music grew. "We didn't know what it would be," says Blythe, "but we pushed towards the music we liked." With Blythe contributing vocals, the ukulele (she acquired one from a production of "Sex! Drugs! And Ukuleles!), and leg percussion that she wears made out of bottle caps, the duo have created a unique American style- "a conglomeration of all American styles," adds Willie- fusing the blues, jazz, gypsy jazz, honky-tonk, country, bluegrass, and more.

 With their desire for the touring life, Willie and Blythe decided that being in New York wasn't as important as they thought and that Poolesville could be an equally effective home base. When they perform in the area, Brian Truesdale joins them on bass and Mary Kate Schneider on the bodhran. While they tour, the call on people in their touring area for backup instruments; however, they've expanded their call to include more instruments, hoping to go for the large dance band feel. They've announced openings for horns and keyboards, as well as percussion and bass.


The dynamic duo has just finished a successful tour of the Midwest and the South, and after playing the D.C. metro area for the summer, they plan to start another tour in September.


They will be performing at Cugini's on June 26th from 8:00p.m. to 11:00p.m. Catch them while you can, and get ready to dance.
 
 
Thank you for such an awesome article, Dominique! It can be rare for us to find someone who really gets what we're going for. So with a tip of the hat, we raise our glasses to you!

What's Up WV: A Kick-Arse Blog with a Kick-Arse Purpose

Hi Guys-

Just want to let you know about this awesome blog, What's Up WV, run by this awesome guy Graye.

This is from his myspace:

"After getting frustrated searching through tons of sites just trying to figure out what was happening 1 weekend - I decided to give it my best and attempt to gather all the event information out there and put it all in one site - so I started WhatsUpWV.

Relatively soon it became necessary to branch festivals, sports, music and then arts into their own sites - since it simply was too much information for 1 calendar.

So that's what I do - really just trying to get info to people so they can get out and support West Virginia music, festivals, sports and arts."


This fine fellow is doing a ton of work to provide a wonderful and FREE service, and he was kind enough to include us in his admirable endeavors:
http://www.music.whatsupwv.com/2010/05/galt-line/


He runs his main site: http://www.whatsupwv.com/

And a myspace page: www.myspace.com/WhatsUpWV


Anyone doing either has an idea of how much work it takes to keep these things current.

So give him some hits, find something awesome to do, and leave him a comment or something for helping us find the party!

A Zesty Zombie-Jesus Day!

First off, Happy Easter, everybody!
Truth be told, I was forgetting it was Easter all day. 
We woke up to a lovely donut and coffee breakfast with my mother then braved the beautiful weather and went to DC.

We started with a pit-stop at the National Gallery of Art.  They've installed this wild hyperspace-y tunnel between the east and west wings:

Then we checked out their latest exhibit, The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting and Sculpture, 1600–1700.  We saw all kinds of grisly paintings and bloody sculptures of the King of Kings and some doe-eyed saints.  It was pretty awesome and definitely made us want to go look at some flowers :)

They've lost a lot of blooms but are still pretty damn pretty.

And the people-watching makes it.

I got pretty good at sneaking pictures.  If the band falls through, I'm definitely going back to school for a BA in stalking.

We also found this awesome memorial for the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.

It's been there since 1976 but it's kinda hidden.  Go look for it.

ALL the trashcans were like this.  I pity the clean-up crew...

We found this bizarre courtyard with this bizarre sculpture at the EPA headquarters....

And a bizzare-er one...

After prowling the town, we ended the night at The Wonderland Ballroom

where we saw two AWESOME performers:  Danni Rosner and Bonnie Leigh.

We sat around drinking Paulaner Hefeweizen (yum!!!) with Ian of The Swampkeepers, who will be joining us on keys for our June 20th show at Wonderland- definitely not to be missed! 
We also met his buddy Matt of Idle Americans and Big Boy Little.  Give a listen!

Now I'm closing the night with Blazing Saddles and checking out a couple new bands we learned about:
The Martinis
Mates of State


Hope your holiday was as good as ours!
Aufiderzein!
Blythe

Yesterday, April 2nd, 2010: A Date which will Live in Awesome Infamy...

We just had a faaaaaaaaaaantastic Friday night at The New Deal Cafe, the slickest spot in Greenbelt.

The evening started out with the masterful musical stylings of John Guernsey, accomplished pianist and artist who charmed us all with a hip jazz set.

After an eloquent introduction by Rebecca, we dove into slightly-more-relaxed-than-usual electric set to a kind and appreciative crowd.  We were feeling easy and loose, in the perfect mood to throw in a few new songs, including the non-rehearsed Craziest Man in the Room- we're definitely keeping that one in the set!
We also covered R. Crumb's River Blues, a sweet, sultry tune suggested by our buddy Rob- thanks for that one!
 
The Greenbelt audience has a well-won reputation of enthusiasm and generosity.  They clapped at all the solos (that doesn't happen everywhere!), took lots of demo CDs and even bought a few shirts, which I'm still smiling about.  Tom sported his T all night at the bar- thank you again, if you're reading this!
We did find ourselves sadly short on sizes so to those of you that couldn't get one this go-round, we'll make sure to have them for you next time!

We got to talk to a heap of really nice people after we played.  Thanks to Andy and Barbara for the name suggestions on the bottle caps!
Andy's name: The Shimmy Shin Shakers
Barbara's: The Shin Jinglers

Both spectacular- make 'em stick, folks!

And MUCH to my surprise and joy, we got a special request for a Sailing recording!  That's an odd number that came out of nowhere...  I think I was gazing out a window at work when it popped into my head.  Willie and Brian have always stood behind it (they rock it until it bleeds!  Seriously cool- the 2nd half is always my favorite!), even Mary Kate was won over early on.  Still, it never quite seemed to fit with the rest of our stuff.  But by golly, somebody out there likes it!  They even complimented the lyrics, which thrilled me to pieces (here I admit to you few readers, I've never been sailing!  But Willie talks about it a lot so it's been the subject of frequent daydreaming).  So we're recording it a.s.a.p. and it goes out to you, Peter and Katie!!!  Katie also very kindly compared me to Mary Prankster, an big compliment I had not expected and am extremely grateful for :)
Fun fact from Peter: the Sargasso Sea (which is one of The Galt Line's favorite Nice Trys songs!) is a real place in the Atlantic ocean- it's where elvers (baby eels!) come from!  Wild!


We also met the drummer/vocalist of The Fabulous Hubcaps last night.  They're a dynamite rock'n'roll band- you should definitely give a listen.


The Nice Trys, soon to be The Big Howdy, went on next.  If you haven't heard them yet, you are missing out!  Stellar songwriting combined with killer stage presence and musicianship, all slathered in creativity- still just doesn't quite do justice.  They're awesome.  You have to see them!
In fact, they're playing NEXT SUNDAY 4/11 at New Deal, so go check them out!
You might even catch their heckling stalker, a curmudgeonly tag-along that says rude things to the world and is a show in and of himself.


The Nice Trys had a bunch of new songs last night that are still playing through my head and they've posted new recordings HERE.
Thank you Connie for pouring some mighty fine beers that kept us company through their set!  Everyone go try the Milk Stout!  It's amazing!
And thank you, Frank, for running sound!  You were extremely helpful!
 
 
So all in all, a spectacular night.  Can't wait to do it again.  If you haven't been to The New Deal Cafe, you should definitely go.
 
Cheers,
Blythe