Friday, December 5, 2008

Notes from The Underground (or the tube, actually)

Hello music lovers.
I am at about the 1/2 way point of the European cd release tour for Poor Man's Paradise and it is going great, or smashingly (as they say in the UK).

I played last night at a great folk room called the Green Note in historic Camden Town - smack dab in the middle of London. It was a great show - and I hooked up with an old friend, another great American musician - Kevin Montgomery. (www.kevinmontgomery.com). Kevin just finished a pretty amazing 50 states in 50 days tour of the US, so it was great to catch up with him.

And here is a little tip for other musicians coming through London - they love the mandolin. Maybe it's the troubadour/bard history of England, but they simply LOVE the mandolin. My solo mandolin version of 'Old Folks Blues' from the new record was called brilliant by at least 6 different people.

I also recorded a live set that will be broadcast on the radio by the great Barry Marshall-Everitt. His show www.totalrock.com is one of the great roots music and Americana stations broadcast out of England. We also shared some good old fashioned lamb stew with wis wife, the incredibly talented Bex Marshall.

Another great night of music was up in Northeast London. I worked with some great promoters - Stephen and Allison who put on a weekly night at a great pub called The Sheepwalk. The night is called What's Cookin'. If you are in London on a Wednesday - you must go to this night. Great bands, great people, and a great music loving and listening audience. I was also excited to play here because it is just a few miles away from St. Albans (which i, of course, mispronounced) - the home of the great British rock band, The Zombies. I debuted a Zombies cover tune for them to pay my respects to the British and thank them on the night of my first UK show on my own.

And this morning, I flew to Gothenburg, Sweden. I am excited to be back here, having played here with Shooter Jennings in April of '07, (and it is just as cold as I remembered it). I am loving the traveling and the playing, and the whole making friends and fans around the world idea - but it would be nice if I could bring the weather of L.A. with me everywhere I went.

And the next phase of the tour is 5 shows in Norway and Sweden with the great Swedish band, Little Green, playing as my back-up band. Then back to Spain where I will be joined for 4 shows by some old friends and musicians from L.A. so we can bring the TRK experience to the good people of Spain in all it's glory.

Thanks for reading - and enjoying the music.
Please check out the specific tour dates on my myspace page or regular website.

And please check out www.tedrussellkamp.com
It is now the only place in America where you can officially buy the new CD ! ! !
The official release date in the US will be Feb 17. So be the first one on your cyber-block to get online and get the new disc. (I worked very hard on it to try to make it very good).
and please sign up to be on the official Ted email list for more updates about shows and music in general.
thanks so much
Hej Da (which is Swedish for good bye - until next time)
Ted

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hello music lovers,
As some of you may know, I am in the middle of a European tour which is the cd release tour for Poor Man's Paradise. The shows are going wonderfully so I wanted to take a minute out and share some of the good news about the first stop on the tour, Paris.

Top 10 things to do in Paris:
10. play my first real gig in France at the very cool and historic Cafe de la Danse.
9. be the opening act for, and then get to hang out with, Gary Louris and Mark Olson - who started the great roots rock band the Jayhawks.
8. be a tourist - stop by the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.
7. run into a great singer songwriter i played with long ago: Chris Stills, who is actually living in Paris and is about to star in a musical version of the life of Julius Caesar (in French).
6. hang out with family.
5. see some art - there was a great exhibit on Picasso at the D'Orsay Museum.
4. do some radio interviews. - with Johnny Da Piedade fro his show Big Cactus Country which is broadcast out of Disneyland Paris. I was slightly bummed that the giant Mickey Mouse did not have a beret. I also had a great afternoon with Lucie Blanc Dumont who runs the great French roots music site Lucky Honky Tonk.
3. run into an old friend from NY completely by accident and share a bottle of great French wine in a cool cafe.
2. have a drink where my Dad used to drink in the 60's.
1. alternate between trying to fit in and then let yourself completely stick out like every other ugly American.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Blog #2

Hello Music Lovers,
Welcome to the debut of the new TRK website. We have lots of cool features here including this very blog, where I will be checking in and giving updates on the latest news from the road and the studio. 

The new record, Poor Man's Paradise, will be coming out on November 25 in Europe and on February 10 in the U.S. with distribution through Dualtone Records and Proper in the UK.

We will kick off the release with a 3 week tour of Europe this November and December with stop in Spain, France, England, Sweden and Norway. We will be joining Gary Louris and Mark Olson of the Jayhawks for several shows in Paris and Spain, and Sweden's own Little Green through Scandinavia. In early '09, we will hit the road in States too, so be sure to check back here on the website's tour page or the myspace - www.myspace.com/tedrussellkamp - for all the dates, venues, and details.

And don't forget to check out the new Radio TRK on the home page of tedrussellkamp.com where you can tune in to some of the some featured songs including a new acoustic version of a song from the forthcoming record. It is called 'Let Love Do The Rest'. I wrote this one with a great L.A. singer songwriter David Serby. It is a little soul, a little country, and very moody. The song relates to how I feel - so often it gets hard to make good choices when we are surrounded by stress and bills and not wanting to have our heart broken (again!), but at the end of the day, the best way to find a little peace and happiness is often to just stop over-thinking things and just get out of the way, letting love do the rest...

We will also be adding more songs from the new record every so often to the site and we will keep updating you here. And please don't forget to sign up for the mailing list so we can keep you posted on new tour dates and when and where the new record will be available. We will start selling advance copies and taking pre-orders in the next few weeks.

Here is a huge thank you and a shout out to Franco and Al at pixxar.com for designing and putting this site together.

And thank you for supporting the cause of independent music in America. Hope to see you or hear from you soon.

TRK

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Welcome to the new Website - The first Blog

Ted featured in Bass Player Magazine!
Read on the BassPlayer website.

Review of Divisidero from Folkworld: - one of the most respected roots music publications in Europe!

Translated from the German. Original here. "The native New Yorker Ted Russell Kamp has today a domicile in Los Angeles, however is almost continuously on the road. Thus his CD was taken up "Divisadero" - some fine work done also on the road, in hotel rooms, in the living room to LA or also in the route bus. Kamp is even a talented multi-instrument musician, beside singing and his main instrument, bass, also plays guitars - inclusive Lap Steel guitar - plays Bouzouki, mandoline, accordion, Wurlitzer, Hammond organ, Perkussion, trumpet and trombone. He worked with different outstanding musicians together and individually, in order to give to the 11 self-compositions the necessary variety. Varied is also the selection of the songs. It gives quiet Country Ballads, which press on the tear gland, over slow bluesey Road Songs up to rockin' Blues pieces, rhythmic Country Songs and jazzey undertone to everything. My favorite is: A bluesy Country Ballad, "Gypsy's Tune", with which beside Kamps winsome singing, particularly stands out with the pedal Steel guitar of Eric Heywood. The funky Blues slash Road Song "Another One Night Stand", which is brilliant with the interaction of Kamp's guitar, piano (Brian Wheelan) and Drums (Mike Sessa) and the great rhythm. Kamp plays with Shooter Jennings in his band the 357's and his friend joins for a song. With the jazzy "Better Before You Were Big time" unite the singing of the two mad musicians with the sound of Michael Webb's Hammond organ and Kamps horn. And with the Road Song "The Road Keeps Getting Longer" produces 357 bandmate Leroy Powell at the Dobro, Kamp at the banjo and Jennings at the Piano a create a melancholy tendency. Ted Russell Kamp becomes of North star Entertainment as the brightest new star of the Americana genre. I think that this praise is quite earned. Solid music history connects itself with mad compositions, excellent singing and simple however perfect arrangements."
- Adolf 'gorhand' Goriup, FolkWorld.eu