Spring is here and I rsquo;m on the road again! Here rsquo;s my spring 2007 tour schedule:
in San Diego, California
Sunday April 22, 4 to 4:45 PM at the Beer Garden Stage between 35th Street and Mansfield Street on Adams Avenue in the Normal Heights area of San Diego. .
I will be performing solo (vocal/guitar) psychedelic folk, Hawaiian slack key guitar, and folky jazz blues, most of it original songs. I rsquo;ll have all the stuff from available there for sale, too.
JAPAN TOUR!
!
April 30 ldquo;Living on the Earth Festival rdquo; in Kumamoto town on the island of Kyushu. Small event, but I rsquo;m the star!
May 4 or 5 ldquo;Rainbow Festival rdquo; at Aso Mountain on the island of Kyushu. I rsquo;ll be performing a 45 minute set of my songs (as above) but with a band. =^) !
! The festival is using the Living on the Earth cover goddess as the poster graphic!
May 6 through 8th: Three shows on the island of Kyushu touring with the band .
On May 6th in the Isahaya district of Nagasaki. On May 7th in the Sasachou district of Nagasaki. On May 8th in the Yobiko area of Saga City.
May 19 and 20 ldquo;Natural High rdquo; Festival at Doshi on Honshu island (about two hours from Tokyo). 45 minute set of my songs (as above) but with a different band! Plus I lead a redux of the I did at the same location last October for Artist Power Bank.
And it all gets filmed for the Eco-Words television show, which airs nightly on BS Asahi TV, a station watched by half of the households in Japan.
June 17 ldquo;Living on the Earth Festival rdquo; at in North Tokyo. This time, TWO 45 minute sets (9 to 11 PM), with yet a third band!
Other events are still in the offing, and will be posted when they gel, along with details on the events above.
Cover layout with bleed borders and the original drawings for Living on the Earth.
I created the drawings, lettering and layout for in 1969 and 1970, at the ages of 19, 20 and 21.
The Bookworks, Bay Area distributor Book People rsquo;s publishing imprint, released it in September 1970 as their second title ever. They sold out the initial printing of 10,000 copies in two weeks. rsquo;s review: ldquo;This could be the best book in this catalog.
It is a book for people. If you are a person, it is for you. rdquo;
In April 1971, Vintage Books/Random House released the second edition, which became the first paperback ever on the New York Times Bestseller List.
Publishers Weekly had never seen a book design like this one before, and published a with illustrations from the book to note this. Dozens of books with derivative book designs, illustrations and themes appeared on the market within a year, and continue to appear to this day.
I am preparing to sell the original layout as an archival manuscript (I retain the copyright of the content), and thought you might like to see what the artwork looks like now, after 37 years in the same little blue suitcase inwhich I delivered it to The Bookworks in the spring of 1970. It rsquo;s moved to Hawaii from California twice with me.
The pages in the center of the book aren rsquo;t as yellowed as the cover and front pages, probably because they weren rsquo;t as subject to the acidity of the packaging in which they were stored. The rubber cement used in layout work in those pre-computer days left stains, as did the white correction fluid.
When I updated the information in Living on the Earth for in 1999 (which, with minor changes, was also the 4th edition in 2003), I clearly could not re-use the original layout, so I took apart two pristine copies of the Vintage/Random House second edition and used the pages to lay out the revised edition, still using Rapidograph pen, scissors, rubber cement and correction fluid as I did in 1970.
One of the most noted updates in the revised edition was the layout on marijuana and hemp.
I realized soon after moving to Maui in 1974 and inhaling the extra-strong product available there, that it made my nasal passages swell shut, obliging me to breathe through my mouth and wonder how long until this uncomfortable side effect would wear off. So I quit smoking pot. When I updated the text twenty-five years later, I had to find and interview someone who still grew it commercially to improve the instructions.
I also learned the usefulness of hemp, even without the medicinal effects of . Hemp preceeded petroleum as the material of choice for almost everything useful. Canvas, which propelled ships across the ocean, derives its name from cannibis.
Some environmentalists think we'll be back to using hemp on a large scale after .
Living on the Earth was initially shelved in the under Home Economics, Handicrafts and Outdoor Living, but the 2000 Random House edition was categorized under Spirituality and Healthy Living, and the 2003 Gibbs Smith edition as a Reference Book.
All of the above, would be my guess. I didn rsquo;t create it for a publisher. I made it as a gift to my fellow communards at .
However, the Universe had other plans.
If you would like to make a bid on the collection (221 8.5 by 11 handlettered and illustrated pages plus the cover layout) or would like to connect me with a person or organization you think would like to buy it, please contact me via the feedback on this website.
reason I don rsquo;t have to write another is . What a on making and growing things by hand!
She rsquo;s the goddess of DIY.
Yes, she is a billionaire media mogul with a reputed nasty temper who served time for insider trading. I personally that think she, of all the billionaires with nasty tempers who have done illegal things, was prosecuted was because .
I mean, compare her transgressions to those of, say, . Nobody died. Nobody even got an ingrown toenail.
I have to love a writer who reports that an unwanted scarf with four mismatched earrings or charms sewn to the corners becomes the perfect cover for a punch bowl on a hot buggy day. I made one immediately.
On March 9, 2003, the wrote about me:
ldquo;As the Martha Stewart of the hippie age, Alicia Bay Laurel wrote the book on living in do-it-yourself harmony with Mother Nature.
rdquo;
It rsquo;s not the first time I rsquo;ve been compared to Martha Stewart, and no shame there. Whatever else you may say about her, Martha Stewart brought self-reliance, organic gardening, craft-making from recycled stuff, folk art, goat cheese and wabi-sabi to mainstream media.
When I was growing up in the lsquo;fifties in Los Angeles, my family had lots of art, books, and art books.
I pored over them, studying in particular ink line drawings of that were both naive and sophisticated, both organic and surreal. Here are seven artists whose art influenced my drawing style:
showed me the beauty of cursive script as a graphic element. My mother took art classes from her at .
I've long loved the cartoons, illustrations, wit and political views of Jules Pfeiffer, but, to my astonishment, today I am unable to locate his bio on the web, nor examples of his cartoons, including his famous modern dancer.
On Saturday, January 27th, 2007. I played two hours of my music at the , a supremely hip small eatery on Grand Avenue in the downtown arts district of Phoenix, functioning as a second living room for the boho denizens of the neighborhood. Musician Chris Warmuth, who lent me a PA system which he gallantly carried from house to car to club to car to house for me, ran into half a dozen friends while we were there.
My new friend Sarah Curtis came to this show, too, to sell stuff from my table while I was playing.
This being a CD release party for my most recent recording, I played and sang ten jazz, blues and gospel songs and two jazz standards from , accompanied by a version of the final mix from the CD that excluded my recorded vocal and guitar parts.
Well, all but one song. was recorded (outside of a time signature), improvised in the studio by me, upright bassist , and percussionist Enzo Tedesco, all of us playing at the same time. In order to perform the song with the recording minus my voice, I would have had to memorize the entire improvisation and duplicate exactly what I sang on the recording.
That kind of misses the whole point of doing an , which is to spontaneously create music together that has never existed before. So, Nature Boy was relegated to being played (as a finished recording) during one of my breaks.
I played on an elevated stage surrounded by wonderful , whose show lasted the month of January. After my second set, Chris, Sarah and I had a delicious meal at the bar. Check out .
I brought a full panoply of my wares, and Gina, the manager at the Paisley Violin, offered to keep the table set up and sell the goods on it during the week to help publicize my second show at the Paisley, next Friday, February 2nd, from 7 to 8 PM on the evening of the .
Friday, January 26, 2007. I visit Andy Olson and Cheryl Sweet at , their home-based local and internet radio station, for an .
Andy Olson is a veteran DJ of the early 1970 rsquo;s FM radio revolution, which, he told me, played a big part in creating the singer/songwriter phenomenon of those days. The commercial stations on AM wouldn rsquo;t play the thoughtful, political and psychedelic music that was born of the consciousness boom of the late 1960 rsquo;s, but a bunch of maverick DJs used the unwanted FM bandwiths of the time to promote these songs. After they proved there was a large listening audience for the new singer/songwriters, the big labels began to pick them up and the commercial stations began to play them.
Andy and Cheryl in the recording studio of Radio Free Phoenix.
However, now that a few media megaliths own the great bulk of the radio stations and play only whatever the big record companies are promoting, a similar revolution is taking place on the . Maverick DJs are playing , that is, self-produced recordings by singer/songwriters that do not conform to the commercial norm.
That's me. Thanks to artist for giving a copy of to Cheryl Sweet last summer, and to DJs and for playing four cuts from the CD ever since. Andy told me that, since many commercial stations simply computerize their programs and no live DJ actually chooses or comments upon the music, in-studio radio interviews with musicians rarely air.
But on non-commercial station programming and on Internet radio, the DJs and hosts welcome all kinds of content, including live interviews.
Considering the service that independent stations render to the community, they ought to be well-funded. However, most are running on scarce donations and volunteer work.
Cheryl works nights as a cardiac nurse in a local emergency room, in addition to hosting her own radio show and, with Andy, raising four children. The station owes its continuation to her efforts. Andy predicts that with the expansion of to cover entire cities, Internet radio will one day be as ubiquitous as conventional radio.
I loved being interviewed by Andy Olson and I hope you rsquo;ll enjoy listening to us. Click to pick up a podcast of it.
Peace Girl Poster 11 x 17 $10 plus $5 shipping in a tube (in USA, please email me for postage to other countries.)
SHIPPING CHARGES in the USA: The shipping charge of $3 per book in the online store robot is incorrect. I'm still waiting for my web designer to fix that.
For now, here's shipping within the USA: Book or T-shirt (priority mail) $5, CD (first class mail) $3, Print (first class mail) $10, Poster (first class mail) $5.
HOW TO PAY ME: Please email me (using the CONTACT button, third item down on the menu on the left below the two CD covers) and I'll give you my Paypal account email to pay with a credit card or my mailing address to send me a postal money order, whichever works better for you.
EXPRESS SHIPPING AND SHIPPING OUTSIDE THE USA: For Express Mail, UPS or shipping orders outside the USA, please email me and I'll figure out the amount for shipping (use the CONTACT button in the list on the left below the CD covers).
Outside the USA, shipping for most books and T-shirts will be $11, CDs $6, Print or Poster $20.
SHIPPING ADDRESS: I will need the shipping address to send the item.
INSCRIPTION: Autographing of all items is FREE, but by request only.
Please tell me to whom, if anyone, you'd like the item inscribed.
William Shakespeare rsquo;s The Tempest: A New Age Version, by Michael Fleck, illustrated by Alicia Bay Laurel, mint condition first edition (1978) $35
See at the top of the Shortcuts menu on the left? There's a button that says Purchase.
Click on that and you'll get a choice of Albums, Books, and Posters. Click on Albums, and then select the one you want to purchase. That will take you to a page that has a BUY NOW link at the bottom.
Click on it, and you're in the shopping cart. Our only payment option online is Paypal, but, if you email me from the contact button, I will give you a mailing address, and you can pay me by postal money order instead if you like.
Please be sure to give me your shipping address and to whom you'd like your CD (and/or book) inscribed.
My inscription is the bonus for buying directly from me.
If you'd rather pay by credit card without using Paypal, just go to my CD pages at CDbaby.com.
These pages also offer you two minute samples of the songs:
If you'd like to download one or more songs or buy a whole CD as a download (without the packaging), just go to Apple iTunes, select Power Search, type my name in the artist space, leave all the other fields blank and click on Search, and you'll get a page with all three of my CDs. They are also available from about 30 other music digital download sites.
Woo hoo!
My first two CDs are now fully up on iTunes, meaning that now you can buy just one song if you like, for 99 cents mdash;or the whole CD, minus the packaging, for $9.99. Apple iTunes lets you listen to a minute of each song before you buy.
However at you get TWO minutes of each song mdash;at least on the page. They have promised they rsquo;d get around to posting samples of every song on eventually. When I first posted the two CDs in 2001, CD Baby was only offering samples of four songs per CD.
Now they offer samples of ALL the songs, as you will see on their page for . On CD Baby, what you buy is the physical CD, with all its glorious artwork and liner notes.
in London.
Dear Alicia,
Just a quick note from London. I have reviewed your last CD at ejazznews.com.
It is excellent. As I wrote in the review, by far one of the best for 2006.
I get close to 20 CDs a week sent to me, but yours stood out because of its transparently high level of musicianship and sincerity - qualities which are very rarely found combined these days.
Kind Regards,
Alicia Bay Laurel: What Living rsquo;s All About, Jazz Blues Other Moist Situations (IWS)
With a provocative title like this one, Ms. Laurel will certainly catch the attention of any reviewer! This is most certainly one of the most audacious, heartfelt and honest discs I rsquo;ve put in my CD player for the year.
Alicia (who sounds like the artistic love child of Joan Baez and Tom Waits) brings a folk-singer rsquo;s sensibility to bear on jazz and pulls no punches: On America The Blues, she declaims: America, the beautiful/you rsquo;re thorny as a rose:/Radiation, global warming/Poisoned food from GMOs./ She also sings a delightful version of Eden Ahbez rsquo;s Nature Boy. The accompaniment from guitarist Nels Cline, bass player John B.
Williams and pianist Rick Olson is divine.
by psychedelic folk radio DJ, Gerald Van Waes. His show, Psyche Van Het Folk, is on Radio Centraal, Antwerp, Belgium.
Like one of my favourite heartfelt singer-songwriter singers (Heather McLeod with 'Funny Thing', 1997), also Alicia went to more towards (slightly standard) jazz territories, but as a former hippie, it is clear this is not done as a compromise to please/tease a public. Her interpretations (-most songs are self penned-) are with great feelings, and a certain light happiness beyond each other idea or emotion. She describes the style mix well on the cover as jazz, blues and other moist situations .
With additionally a a bit of New Orleans influence on Floozy Tune , and a bit of gospel on Doctor Sun and Nurse Water (about what the environment of Hawaii did to her), she wrote inspired something between jazz and jazz-blues and something else soulful. I like the idea on America the blues saying America, don't wave that flag to con us with your jive..
. ..
we're all family on this planet .. (Just imagine how America is built upon so many nationalities and bought talents from everywhere, unfortunately mostly still chosen from what are seen as the trustworthy countries and areas (so practically still excluding preferably the French, Spanish, and several Arab-speaking countries and native Indians for economic concurrence, racist, nowadays partly religious, and a few other reasons).
. Potentionally I realize America still has all opportunities and a certain openness to experiment for those who succeed to start to participate in the system. This track, like a few tunes elsewhere has some, for me, rather amusing freaky electric avant-garde guitar by Nels Cline (Wilco,.
.). Alicia, for having experienced a certain earthbound process, matured, she still has the happiest aspects of the hippie; this sum must having benefited the soul and music of the singer, who on her recent photograph on the back cover still looks 25 or so, so I guess the message of this lies somewhere as a benefit hidden in the music.
Rather brilliant as an interpretation I think is Nature Boy (originally by Nat King Cole, but also covered by Grace Slick), in an emotionally calm contrapoint-driven moody jazz style, with the help of John B. Williams on upright bass and Enzo Tedesco on other instruments. A really fine and enjoyable album.
Alicia is a self-proclaimed ldquo;hippie chick rdquo; who I met through (drummer) Joe Gallivan. She had a hit book back in the 60s called [stay tuned for title ndash; forgot it], which she says ldquo;was in practically every hippie commune outhouse in the west rdquo; (no doubt right next to ldquo;Be Here Now rdquo;!).
This is, I believe, self-released, and is quite an odd but strangely entertaining, original, and disarming recording. It has a some amazing L.A.
-based session/jazz players like (saxophonist) Doug Webb, who reaches beyond his Coltrane-esque tenor to turn in some beautiful post-Desmond alto, brilliant drummer Kendall Kay, and bassist John B. Williams, whom many may remember as the Fender player on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson for many years. There is a choir on here!
The songs are sort of 1920s-30s era swing, acoustic swing blues, and hellip; Well anyway, when someone like Alicia asks me to do tons of Hendrix-inspired shrieking and psych looping ( ldquo;America The Blues rdquo;) or fuzzed out adversarial commentary ( ldquo;It rsquo;s Not Fair rdquo;), I figure that when the disc comes out that the stuff will, as it usually is, be buried or cut out altogether. I was amazed when I heard this that Alicia REALLY WANTED these sounds and that THEY ARE REALLY LOUD! I don rsquo;t know what people who know my music will think of this, but there is something so wry and self-deprecatingly amusing about Alicia rsquo;s hippie anthems, protest songs, and tales of failed romance that I find myself grinning.
Hmmmm hellip;.Oh yes, I also play slide, lap steel, and acoustic guitar on this. I rsquo;m on 4 or 5 tracks.
Hello, Alicia!
As you know, What Living rsquo;s All About will be included in Performing Songwriter Magazine rsquo;s May 2007 issue as one of our Top 12 DIY Picks.
rdquo;[Alicia Bay] Laurel rsquo;s jazzy Earth-mama sound will seduce and inspire, while lyrics divulge what living rsquo;s really all about.
rdquo;
This issue will be sent to subscribers the first of May, and available on newsstands shortly thereafter. It can also be pre-ordered online at , beginning early April.
Congratulations, and much continued success with your music.
Best,
Caroline Davis
I think this is a very creative record with a lot of wonderful ideas and performances and some pretty extraordinary playing, and endearing vocals all over the place. I like it a lot!!
I liked all the songs much better on the second listen. A keeper. Good work.
The album is eclectic, diverse musical styles. Therefore, I can relate to it! What holds it altogether is Alicia rsquo;s musical lsquo;personae rsquo; ndash; the complex character she is creating, through her voice and ideas.
As you get to know this character more and more, as the songs and ideas progress, you trust her more and it allows you to enter more easily into whatever type of musical style is coming next. (Also this trust is a reason to want to go back and listen again.) Also the IDEAS are clear.
The lead vocals are strong with a lot of presence. The musicians are all brilliant and the soloing is tasteful and creative ndash; no cliches or stumbling around musically anywhere to be found.
Re: Nature Boy.
I believe that if you can take the listener to a unique Hilltop, and give them a view that they will never forget, even ONCE in a recording or performance, that is enough. One brilliant moment builds a bridge of trust between you and them that will allow them to be more open to whatever you do from then on, even if they don rsquo;t relate or understand it. (You may never be able to take them to that High Point again but it doesn rsquo;t matter ndash; it rsquo;s like great sex or great playing- you may not be able to LIVE with that person, but you will NEVER forget that encounter.
) This track took me to that Hill. I feel different now about the whole recording.
Re: I Could Write a Book.
This track is the track where I first gasped: genius! What an amazing idea. A track like this makes me have to listen to the whole CD over again to see if I missed anything the first time around on those opening tracks.
A totally inspired idea that works. No one else has ever done something like this with a standard. Perfect.
I played this one for Lin. She liked it a lot, too. (She didn rsquo;t think her publisher would like it though!
ha ha!
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