Party Like It's 2009: December Tour Dates, Recaps, Holiday Merch OfferTuesday, November 17, 2009 Greetings, Torilings. That's sort of like Earthlings, but you get the idea. The year is speeding to a close, and you know what that means! Tons of December tour dates. From now till New Year's, it's on! Here's the skinny. A few big shows to watch for: The Nashville Birthday Bash and Grimey's In-Store (free cupcakes!), The 3rd Annual Hometown Holiday Bash, Two big-time benefit concerts in Gainesville, The Annual SPR Thanksdrinking Day Ball, BIg New Year's Show in Louisville, And our first time in Arizona, starting TOMORROW. Full schedule posted here. Happy Holiday offer to you, 'cause we love you. Any order placed through the Tori Store between now and December 18th will also receive a free bonus dropcard, compete with extra songs, music videos, interviews, and other goodies. If you're ordering for a friend, we'll even include a personalized gift card. Just ask. Already have Scorpion and all the other albums at home? Remember that the new DVD, Tori Sparks: Live at the Rutledge is a 45-minute extravaganza of rock... and totally fits in stockings. Just sayin'. MIDWEST and THE CAROLINAS: Revisiting good friends and meeting new faces in Bloomington, Indy, Chicago, Toledo. Played at Ft. Wayne's most rockin' rock club, and in Covington, played an arts center with floor-to-ceiling stained glass windows, jello shots, and a massive pipe organ. Survived a rockslide and 20-degree weather, opened for Malcom Holcomb and ate Thai food at 2am. Saw a rainbow and met Georige Gershwin's great-nephew. Played at colleges and learned the meaning of ecopragmatism. Thanks to the Shelby Star and others for the write-ups. WEST COAST: The West Coast tour and CT dates were a madcap ride as always. Highlights included getting to play an in-store at the original Tower Records location in Sacramento, the Halloween Bash, first time in Olympia, full band show in Seattle, first time in Vancouver, New Hampshire, more. I got to see a belly dancing show, eat Peruvian food, get lost in multiple Chinatowns, hung out in a cell at Alcatraz, fell very ill after a 13-hr drive, translated French to English and back during a mid-flight medical emergency, rode down Sunset Strip at midnight on a motorcycle, got a purple hat in San Francisco, went to the Jimi Hendrix Experience Music Project. Played the Associated General Contractors Awards in Nashville, and they thought it was cool that I know what rebar is. Ha. Thanks to The Stranger in Seattle and to Crossbridge for the newspaper features, KATU AM Northwest for the TV interview, all the supportive radio stations - you know who you are! Only two days off in 32 days. Coming Soon... A mobile version of ToriSparks.com will be launched in January! Very excited to be working with When I'm Mobile. Access to the smartphone-ready version of the site will include an exclusive free download, not available anywhere else! Please stay tuned. Next year's tour dates include revisiting north, south, east, west, and central United States and Canada - including never-before-played states such as Kansas, Montana, Quebec more — and touring in Europe (England, Ireland, France, to be continued). Schedules and details to come in January 2010. Merry Early Holiday Season, Happy New Year's! Remember that when the big sparkling ball drops in my garish and beloved Times Square, I'll be toasting to your health, and hopefully, excessive happiness. Prost! Possibly Grammy Noms, Microsoft Feature, iPhone App, Free Stuff for Tour Aid, MoreTuesday, October 13, 2009 Featured on Microsoft's Windows Media Player homepage! Thanks to ReverbNation and Microsoft for supporting independent music. See the press release here. Also! Scorpion is up for six possible Grammy nominations crazy, I know. While Record of the Year is way more likely to go to, say, Springsteen, Best Contemporary Folk Album and Best New Artist are with your help! -- possibilities. NARAS members, I'd appreciate your vote. Thank you for your consideration. The September tour(s) and Dewey Beach Music Conference were a blast, thank you to friends and fans and associates who made the trek possible. Special thanks to Vikki Walls. Huge Upper Midwest and West Coast tours starting October 11th and 26th, respectively. Dates posted now! (Can't wait for the big Halloween Bash in San Francisco, just wait till you see my costume. Mwahahahaaaa.) We really need help spreading the word for this month's shows, so please drop us a line if you're interested in getting some cool free stuff in exchange for helping to rally the troops, hang posters, or generally spread the word. See you on the road! Guess who has an iPhone App? (Springsteen, again. Tori too!) Games, puzzles, photos, music, instant access to tour dates, all the insider info available at the click of an Apple product. Awesome. New Yorkers! Thank you for making the Bitter End show and the Best Buy in-store a blowout couple of shows. Photos are posted online at MySpace, Facebook, the like, now. Speaking of stores, I'd like to ask you a favor - stop by local record store J&R Music World and pick up your copy of Scorpion. Nashville! Please grab a copy of the album from Grimey's. Pretty please, support your local record store so that they can afford to keep supporting indie touring artists. West Coast, don't feel neglected. You can get your copy at Canyon Way (Newport OR), Dimple Records and R5 Records (Sacramento), Music Millennium 60 (Portland) Rasputin Music (Berkeley), Amoeba (San Fran and Los Angeles), more. Last but not least, I surreptitiously snuck into the studio with Steve Bowman and David Henry and Will Kimbrough for two straight days. Sweaty, exhausted, happy. Working on a top-secret project details to come.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Indie Music Stores, NewSong Regionals (Vote!), Tour Dates for Fall TuesdayTuesday, 25 August 2009Thanks to NewSong for choosing “Penny on a Rail” as a Southeast Regional Finalist. People's Choice Voting is open NOW. I'd appreciate it if you'd vote. Twenty seconds of your time = instant gratitude and good karma. Results announced August 31st. Speaking of, “Penny on a Rail” is an excerpt from the upcoming DVD, Tori Sparks: Live at the Rutledge. More clips are viewable on YouTube. The DVD will be available through the website, as well in Nashville’s Curious Heart Emporium. New site to launch this week (at long last). Touring like a crazy lady! Just confirmed a zillion shows in September, October, and November – more added daily as I battle the booking monster. Complete schedule (so far) is here. From Seattle to Arizona to New York to Chapel Hill to Tampa to wherever, we’ll be there. Indie Music Stores Unite! The Scorpion in the Story is now available exclusively at Grimey’s in Nashville. Other indie music establishments carrying the new album include Amoeba (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Rasputin (San Francisco), J&R (New York), R5 (Sacramento), Dimple (Sacramento), Melody (Washington DC), Earshot (Greenville), Easy Street (Seattle), Silver Platters (Seattle), Millennium Music 60 (Portland), and others. Support local music, support local record stores. You could order it from Best Buy or Amazon, but if you have the choice, please get it from these guys. Much love. Press rolling along: Reviews (Roots Music Report, Billings Gazette, Heaven Magazine) , interviews (MusicToGoUSA, others), music video features and more galore. Special thanks to MSSVision for always promoting/supporting the music vids, including the Merry Go-Round music video, and concert footage of ”Tigers Mouth”. It’s not easy work to be an indie broadcaster. Cheers. Americana Radio Charts Top 100, Interviews, July Tour RecapSunday, 19 July 2009ChartingScorpion is at #95 (and climbing) on the Americana Terrestrial Radio Chart! Thank you for keeping the requests coming. Download the album at iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Rhapsody, all other digital download sites! I won't be mad if you even download it twice. In other news, "Tall Towers" from the new record is on the Paste Magazine New Music Sampler this month. Yay. Thanks to everyone at Paste for rocking my socks off, and for being nice folks, too. InterviewsSpecial thanks NBC 10 in Philadelphia for the wonderful live interview. I was soooo tired, but it was soooo worth it. A live recording of a to-be-released bonus song (shhh!) will air regionally on NBC immediately following Saturday Night Live, date TBA. Thanks to Michael Buckley and Voices of the Bay on WRNR103 in ....Annapolis..... The taped interview will air later this month. Check out the live interview on Down Home Cookin' with Larry T on WKIX in Florida here. (Big supporter of all 3 albums. Thanks Larry! I owe you a popsicle!) Watch the Random Acts of Music episode, live from Henry J Production studios in Canton. Lastly, Playback feature! Fun. Just wrapped up the whirlwind July run!A few highlights: Raising money for Hungry for Music at the benefit concert in DC, playing the packed-out SESAC showcase at the Rockwood Music Hall, eating a massive Ruben at Katz’s Deli, meeting the founders of MSSVision after all their support, staying in an old Gothic church-turned-art-center in Rome, hearing stories about the Miami mob while in Ithaca, driving through gorgeous hill country, www.jefffasano.com, Rhyne’s shaved head, Mick’s talking cat, sharing the stage with multiple Aussies, the Focus Music Concert, seeing so many incomparable friends and associates, picking up a last-minute showcase in a burlesque club. (All clothes stayed on, by the way.) A few lowlights: Getting towed in Manhattan, being harassed by a creepy cop at the North American Motor Inn (itwas like being in that Samuel L. Jackson movie), $150+ spent in tolls, an 8 hr drive from DC to Boston turning into 11 hrs in traffic, internet troubles, Easton gig getting pulled 45 min before sound check, running out of socks. (I bought more, it’s ok.) NYC (gets its very own category): The city was its usual, weird, gorgeous, exciting, bloody, wonderful self. Five shows in four days, meetings, museums, met so many incredible people, saw great friends new and old, wandered into an amazing French restaurant (owner spontaneously brings out champagne for lunch). Saw the city from the roof, explored the lower east side, fell in love at least three times. Still coming down. Specialest of thanks to rock divas Left on Red. Only a few shows planned in August as we prep for some truly exciting, big stuff coming up in the fall… I can’t tell you what it is yet, ‘cause then I’d have to kill you. (So, best that I save it for later.) Please stay tuned. More tour dates – literally all over the country and in ..Europe.. – to be announced in the coming weeks. And, 'cause I want to, I’m recommending a few tasty soon-to-be addictions that will make you wanna slap yo’ mama. So, eat this… some can be found all over, and some are region-specific. Cricket Soda (DC), Salsa at Cantina Laredo (Nashville), Rick's Cheesesteaks (Philadelphia). Mariage Tea (NYC), White Sangria (Pittsburgh), Utz Sourdough Preztels (Ithaca), Stuffed Dates (Harrisburg), Fried Mushrooms (Bloomington), Dunkin Donuts #5 Combo (Boston), Las Paletas – any flavor! (Nashville), Le Paris Sandwich and the Violet Macaron at Macaron Café (NYC), Beaujolais (Annapolis). The Scorpion in the Story AVAILABLE NOW, Merry Go-Round Music Video, moreTuesday, 16 June 2009 The new album is out at last, for real, not kidding this time. Grab your copy online, on iTunes, or anywhere CDs are sold. (Distributed through Burnside Distribution out of Portland.) Pre-ordering is now closed, thank you to everyone who grabbed their early special edition. The deluxe edition of the album as well as all-new Scorpion merch will be available on the new-and-purple, er, -improved, version of ToriSparks.com, to launch on June 30th! Want to win a signed special edition of Scorpion? Click here. Contest runs through July 1st. Also see contest banners on CMJ.com, Tripwire, and Pitchfork. Download Tall Towers® FREE this week at CMJÃÂs Download This. Thanks to Jewly Hight and the Nashville Scene for the Critics Pick on the CD + Music Video Release Extravaganza in Nashville. The show was an absolutely smashing success. We recorded it live ñ footage posted soon ñ and raised a ton of money for VH1's Save the Music Foundation. Thanks again to the local sponsors, to the indelible inedible Tori Sparktaculous band, and to everyone who helped make it a blow-out evening. Special thanks to emcee Shannon Cain. Drumroll, please! The ìMerry Go-Roundî music video is posted now. Ta-da. Click for pure unadulterated wackiness. More early reviews and features from Folkwax, Music News Nashville,, and a music video feature by the Shelby Star. And weÃÂre just getting started – keep those requests coming. Save PASTE, T-Minus 16 Days, OTA
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New Album in Progress, Folk Alliance 2009, SESAC |
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Yes, it's true! We're back in the studio through January. This will be the second project in collaboration with producer David Henry. Stay tuned for news of the new album, The Scorpion in the Story, due out in June 2009. Preorders will be made available soon, exclusively through ToriSparks.com. New PRO! The word on the street is that Tori has left ASCAP to join SESAC, the world’s fiercest little performing rights organization. In celebration, she has started her second publishing company, Wry Toast Publishing. Yes, you heard me right. Never fear, Hand Over Foot will still remain a part of the Glass Mountain family. Just announced! Tori will be playing an official Performance Alley Showcase at the 2009 Folk Alliance in Memphis. Check in with the tour dates fairy for details. Happy New Year from Tori and Glass Mountain Records! |
Out of Oh-Eight and Into Oh-Nine, Breaking News
Goodbye to oh-eight, hello-oh-oh-nine. What a mad, beautiful, strange, complicated year! Thanks for taking the journey with me.
Stocking stuffers, whoohoo. Place your orders through the Tori Store by December 17th if you’d like to guarantee delivery by Christmas. All orders will receive a free gift of Tori Sparks’ Christmas song, “Hope for Me,” with purchase.
The rest of December holds only a few shows, as most of the month will be spent prepping to go back into the studio, and eating candy canes. The Bluebird show was lovely – still to come are the Benefit Concert for University Hospital at the Agora Theater in Cleveland, as well as a special, one-time-only preview of the new album at an intimate house concert in Sarasota, FL. Please email me if you’d like to attend: info@glassmountainrecords.com.
Thanks to Random Music Group for inviting me to write two courses on indie album promotion and on booking/touring for their educational program, ProMusicU. Their advisory board includes university professors, hit songwriters, touring performers, music publishers and representatives of performing rights organizations and record labels. The program will debut in universities and private organizations in March 2009.
More press! Yes, still. We’re still getting some late reviews, trickling in at the close of the year. Thanks to Unsigned Magazine for the fantastic write-up and New Artist Feature.
The Moozikoo “Best of Indie” Compilation has been released! Whoo. Tracks include “Cold War,” as well as songs by Emily Overstreet, One For Jude, Spinous, Evan Seleven and more. Click here to check it out.
NOTE: In answer to the many emails I’ve received, the Grammy nominations didn’t happen. I know, I know, but before you get upset… it’s a convoluted process, and has a lot to do with famousness and politics and such. It was a compliment to be included on the long list, even if the short list wasn’t meant to be this year. Thanks so much for all of the support and the inquiries, you guys are fabulous.
Merry politically-correct-Holiday-Season, the Happiest of New Years’ to us all!
Possible Grammy Noms, Headlining GoGirls Music Fest, Tori Sparks Interviews
Tori Sparks, her album Under This Yellow Sun, and her single “Cold War” are all in the running for Grammy nominations in six categories, including Best New Artist. The Recording Academy will voteDecember. Fingers crossed, rabbit’s foot in your pocket, and voodoo dolls all dressed to the nines… on the potential nominees, and the shortlist will be announced in
Tori Sparks and Her Fantabulous Band are set to headline the GoGirls Music Festival on November 25th at 3rd & Lindsley in Nashville. Local sponsors include Prime Cut Studio and more. All proceeds from the show, including raffle and silent auctions, go to benefit the United Network for Organ Sharing. This will be the last TS and HFB show of ’08 , before they go back into the studio – stay tuned for news of the upcoming new album. (Shhh, the news isn’t out yet -- it’s a secret.)
Tori’s Birthday Bash show has been cancelled, but don’t cry – we’re replacing it with a just-as-cool, in-the-round early show extravanganza on December 6th at the Bluebird Café. Also appearing: Amylase Publishing songwriters Joe Doyle, Joel Shewmake, and more.
Just announced! “Cold War” will be included on the Moozikoo “Best of Indie” Compilation 2008, a digital download package featuring the most of the mostest in independent rock and folk music. See the Muzikoo website for details and upcoming release date.
The West Coast and East Coast Tours were wild and fun. Too many highlights to list! Special thanks to all of the local press who helped to make each show such a success. You can hear interviews with Tori on Radio Crystal Blue (New York, NY), The Indie Pool (San Francisco, CA), Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour (Lexington, KY) with Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones, Insight on Sacramento Public Radio, more. Catch write-ups, critics’ picks, and interviews with the Boston Phoenix, The Stranger, The Beat, the Whidbey Record, many more. News Channel 5 in San Diego and other TV clips to come this week, so keep yo’ eyeballz peeled to YouTube.
The previously planned December European Tour has been postponed until 2009, details TBA.
Tori would also like to announce that the next time they make a James Bond movie, she totally wants to be in it. That’s all.
Tori to Speak at New Music Siminar and Music Row Group Seminar, Skope Magazine Feature, Fall Tour
Fresh from a speaking engagement at the Music Business Program at the University of Georgia, Tori Sparks is now slated to speak at the New Music Seminar in Cleveland (November 1st), and at the Music Row Group Seminar in Nashville (January 2009, rescheduled from October 11th). The Music Row Group Seminaris a monthly event that hosts industry guest-speakers in a Q&A session for an audience of songwriters and performing artists.
The New Music Seminar is an annual conference composed of daytime panels and nighttime showcases, and aims to bring together artists and industry under one roof. Other panelists will include Gaby Acevedo (President of SRC/Universal Motown Records), Leslie Arredondo (MTV Networks Music and Media Licensing), Kevin Lyman (Producer of the Vans Warped Tour), Nicole Bilzerian (Marketing Manager for Zomba Label Group), and more.
Thanks to Skope Magazine for the lovely interview and feature -- look for it in Skope in December, as well as a review from affiliate Grateful Web.
Final West Coast Tour Dates announced! Click here for a full calendar. From San Diego straight up the coast to Seattle, then on over to Wisconsin. Two concerts each in Los Angeles and San Francisco, folks! This is the first time in many of these cities, so any bit of help… er, helps. A lot. In exchange for your promotional elbow grease, we'll hook you up with free cds, teeshirts, and gratis admission for you and a guest to any and all Tori shows of your choosing. If you're interested in helping to spread the word (online, or by putting up fliers around your city), please email info@glassmountainrecords.com with the subject header "Street Team".
A very small quantity of Shakin' in my Bootlegs: Vol. 2 is still available, so please drop us a line nowif you'd like one of the last few copies. Email: merch@torisparks.com. As always, there will be no reprinting of the bootlegs series – each one is signed and numbered. Yay.
Performing Songwriter, Creative Loafing Reviews, Summer/Fall Tour, Guest Appearances
Thanks to Creative Loafing and Performing Songwriter for the fantastic reviews of Under This Yellow Sun. PF named “Caged Bird” in their list of Top 12 DIY Downloads.
Guest appearances and cuts! Tori co-wrote the lead-off track “Blackbird” on Americana darling Caroline Brewer’s debut record, A Me-Shaped Hole. The album hits the streets on July 28th. Also, look for Tori’s duets with DW DeHart on “Pale Sorghum Lo-Fi Blues” (from Pale Sorghum Lo-Fi Blues, released in May 2008), and Jeff Kuykendall, on his upcoming single “Mr. Bickle” (to be released in Fall 2008).
August tour dates announced! The Upper Midwest leg of the ’08 tour, as well as a few very special shows in Nashville (Lightning 100 Nashville Sunday Night Live Broadcast) and Lexington (Woodsongs Old-Time Radio Hour). Partial September dates (and beyond) also posted. More added weekly.
Thanks to the Crossing Borders radio show for hosting a special Sunday live concert and taping, which will air on WVBR (NY) in late fall 2008, dates TBA. Watch a couple of YouTube clips from the show here (“Trouble”)… and here (“Cold War”).
Early Concert Announcement: Tori will play in NYC at the Knitting Factory in November, thanks to Under This Yellow Sun leaping to #60 and climbing on the Radio Crystal Blue 2008 Chart. All attendees with receive a free CD with entry.
25,000 Copies Sold at Universal France, Summer Tour Dates...
So, I decided to start writing my news posts in iambic pentameter, a la Shakespeare, but then I realized… that would be waaaaaay ridiculous.
According to Universal Music France, the double-disc Country Vol. 2 compilation featuring "Cold War" has sold 25,000 copies as of June 1, 2008. That's a bunch. I'm kind of excited. Thanks to everyone in Europe who decided to indulge in a little international Americana, Blues,twangy Soul. Special kudos to Jean Claude Paulin de Besset, the director of the compilations department. Stay tuned for news of a Tori European Tour for December 2008!
Thanks to Woodsongs affiliate BlueHighways TV for adding the "Cold War" music video into rotation.
Lots of July and (partial) August Tour Dates announced! TN, OH, NY, PA, WV, KY, NC, others. These include festivals and benefit concerts, whoo-hoo. Also to come in August: OH, MI, IL, IN, MO, more, so please check back in a couple of weeks. September, October, and November will cover the East Coast, West Coast, and Southeast, respectively. Stay tuned!
NOTE TO FANS AND FRIENDS: Thanks for your patience and for your requests to come on back ASAP. I can only make it to each part of the country/world about once a year these days, so this summer and fall is THE time to come out and hear some of the new songs not yet recorded. The next local show might not be till '09. Just sayin'. Thank you again for your support and for spreading the word. Mwah. Messy kisses for you.
Be sure and pick up your copy of Southeast Performer Magazine, which mentions the inclusion of "Cold War" on the Paste Magazine New Music Sampler in the "News" section of their June issue.
Thanks to NPR member stations WFPK (Louisville) and WUTC (Chattanooga) interviews and in-studios this month. Viva la NPR! Suport your local radio station.
Damn, there's more news, but this is getting long…
