Feliz Navidad, Mis Hormigas!
I dunno. I must have under-contributed. A bell-ringing Santa on the street today gave me not only the hairy eyeball, but four "hos" instead of three. And I could have sworn he slid a comma in there, between the last two. Hmph. Onward.
I know, I know. it's been quite a spell since we've had coffee, and my apologies for that. Please allow me to re-ingratiate myself in the most egregious fashion imaginable by reaching into my big bag of toys and dragging out a couple of online goodies that no music lover like your own bad self should be without:
 Fluffy's Xmas Malady - stop by the ol' home-away-from-home page to pick this one up. Once you've laid ears on it, you'll want to forward it to simply everyone. Ohhhhhh, yeah.
Vow-of-Silence Monks Do The Hallelujah Chorus - Brilliant stuff, performed by high school kids. There's hope, Friends. There really is.
If I may so suggest, please play both of these links all the way through. They get more and more ... well ... more as they go along.
But truth be told, the apologies of a couple of paragraphs ago are only half-hearted. This past couple of months has been the longest stretch that I've been off the road for almost 9 years, and it has been simply terrific to really land for a while. A non-insignificant amount of the down time has been spent getting reacquainted with friends in both the real and virtual realms. I've always been blessed with breadth of acquaintanceship, and it has been especially sweet this past little while to add depth. Thanks to both local and online pals for that.
And as the young people say, "It's all good." That chronic sawdust in my shoes is starting to make my feet itchy again, and it looks like I'll be back out there on the highways and byways a goodly portion of this entire next year. More on that in just a bit. But first, back to the gifties:
TABLATURE FER FREE
Tablature is a system of music notation different from standard music notation, and easier, presumably, because it provides a semi-graphical depiction of where a guitarist is supposed to put his/her left-hand fingers. I have posted a PDF of my own arrangement of Angels We Have Heard On High on my home page. It's a real kitchen-sink affair, this one. It's got everything. It's got melancholy, it's got finger-snappy. It's got jazzy, it's got churchy. It's got dead simple and it's got fricking-finger-busting complicated. As either Oscar Wilde or Bernie Madoff once said, "Nothing succeeds like excess." You make the call.
 GUITAR FOR SALE
After many happy years, thousands upon thousands of road miles and hundreds of gigs (including the Weirbacks' fabled Hillside Set at Merlefest) I'm putting my trusty Collings 000-1E up on the auction block at eBay. Oh, it's still a truly fabulous guitar, all right. But I just don't find myself playing it enough to warrant keeping it. Somebody somewhere should be playing the daylights out of this baby every day. Feel free to e-mail me for details, and, like I say, look for it on eBay in the next little while. I'll also soon be listing another couple of refugees from The Island Of Misfit Guitars,* both vintage Rickenbacker lap-steels in original tres-tweedy cases. Mighty tasty.
 NILES CANYON HOLIDAY TRAIN OF LIGHTS
Imagine, if you will, a half dozen or so restored vintage railroad cars of several different eras decorated inside and out with several hundred thousand watts-worth of Christmas lights blazing down the rather steep-walled California canyon where all of the Bronco Billy silent movies were filmed in the early part of the previous century. In fact, Niles was Hollywood before Hollywood was Hollywood. For the third year running I've had a very good fortune to do a few strolling-minstrel gigs aboard the Niles Canyon Railroad Holiday Train of Lights. What a right royal blast, strolling from car to car, playing and singing Christmas and train tunes, goofing on Bing Crosby and Johnny Cash, jawing and riffing with the passengers, and absolutely awash in the Christmas spirit. Little old Niles really is The Town Time Forgot. It's a part of the city of Fremont, technically, and one of the best-kept secrets in the Bay Area. Googlemaps it and go, says I.
 GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND
Two dear friends of mine, Walter Strauss and Corinne West, have been touring Great Britain and Ireland for a couple of years now, and they have very graciously not consumed all of the Guinness and Smithwick's there, they have also turned me on to their gig contacts in those latitudes. In anticipation of a fall tour, I've fired up a publicity and promotion campaign, with lots of lovely radio airplay and reviews & features due out in primo Brit music mags Maverick and Uncut. As here, and as always, I will be hunting up house concerts as well as festivals and regular venues, so if you've got any acoustic music-loving pals over thatway that you think might be interested in hosting an itinerant American guitar picker, by all means give me a shout. In the meantime I'll practice not giggling when I say "Knock me up." Tee hee.
 ONLINE MERCANTILE
"Howdy, late-night movie lovers! Crazy Stevie is the man who says II must be CRAAAAAZY! From now through New Year's New Year's New Year's, I'm selling my Ten-in-One album for only $13.00! Just think of the savings! These prices are INSAAAAAAAANE!!!'"
Crazy Stevie must be stopped. Rest assured, Gentle Reader, that he will be pink-slipped pronto come the new year, and that we'll be looking for someone terribly tasteful and urbane to flog the living daylights out of the CDs instead. Maybe Leonard Pinth-Garnell could use the gig.
 You'll find another obscure little link on the home page ... the "Merchandise" button is a veritable virtual backwater eddy, one so utterly untouched that even I have forgotten where it goes. Whoo doggies. Will you look at that?! It goes to a site where you can buy all kinds of - as kindly as I can phrase it - crazy crap. And lucky you, all items sport the StevieCoyleDotCom logo. Lordy, there's T-shirts and hoodies and wall clocks and pet food bowls and even dental floss, as you can see here. As Major TJ "King" Kong said in the final reel of Dr. Strangelove, "Shoot, a feller could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff." You bet.
 SOCIAL MEDIA
The word "friend" is now a verb. Did you know that? So if you're one of the mean, rotten Old People that stole Facebook right out from under the college kids and high-schoolers, look me up over there and stop on by to borrow a virtual cup of virtual sugar. "Tweeting," too, is still what the little birdies do, and it has had until recently a vernacular usage that was acceptable only amongst teenage boys of all ages. But now people Tweet in front of dozens or hundreds. Thousands, sometimes, even. Contributors are limited to 140 characters per Tweet, which is really tough on us folks of Irish extraction. But if you are a fellow denizen of the Blurt-o-sphere stop on by and "follow" me. Good gravy ... shades of "Tommy"...
 HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARDS
Who knows how these things happen, but to whomever slipped whatever in whomever else's drink, I'm grateful for the fact that my little valse Parisienne Rue Du Romie was recently nominated in the Instrumental category of the Hollywood Music In Media Awards. I decided to attend the festivities in So Cal, and my expectations were exceeded. The gala dinner was shrimp and cocktail sauce, and rather ... ummm ... venerable shrimp at that. There was lots of glitz, lots of glam, beaucoup bling, a walk on the red carpet and an actual awards show that lacked in polish what it made up for in sheer vapidness. Oddly, the fellow who won this category wasn't even nominated for it. Bud Frump, his name was, if memory serves. Anybody heard of him?
This turn-and-burn adventure was capped to perfection next morning by the notably utter lack of hot water in my four-star hotel. I knew I should have stuck with the Mulder-and-Scully motels I've grown accustomed to over the years. But if nothing else, the trip up and down Hwy 5 provided an opportunity to visit the wonderfully gritty little town of Lost Hills and my favorite road sign ever.
There's just no following that, so I'll sign off. Thank you for your forbearance.
Really and truly, all the very best to you and yours.
Joyeux Noel and Heaux Heaux Heaux!
Stevie Coyle
http://www.steviecoyle.com
http://www.facebook.com/steviecoyle
* Clearly a reference to the 1964 Rankin-Bass Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer special. Bonus points to those who can recall the name of Hermey, the elf who wanted to be a dentist.**
** Oops. Never mind. Dang.
"... moments of absolute beauty ... I defy anyone to listen to this through just the once; there's a distinct urge to play it over again and again." Allan Wilkinson, Northern Sky"I listened to your CD: It's brilliant! I really mean that. I found it to be an incredibly visual experience ... I was enamored by its continuity - the way you occupied the spaces between songs was extraordinary: What a trip! I'll shout that from the rooftops! " Barry "The Fish" Melton, da Web "Like the works of the great musicians, back when they were in the artist business, not the music business, it doesn't fit in any genre ... There isn't just one joker in this deck: all the cards are twisted. Inquiring minds who like their music to take them new places, will love it." Brad Kava, Bay Area Music Critic At Large "... ambitious and impressive solo debut ... imaginative, intelligent, clever, highly skilled musically and fearlessly conceived in the spirit of 'Sgt. Pepper's' ... 'Ten-In-One' deserves repeated listening, and takes its place in my collection as one of the finest albums I've heard this year." Paul Liberatore, Marin Independent Journal"If Stevie’s first solo project is any indication, he’s just started releasing great music. The hipness of ... “Train on the Brain”... the bitter-sweetness of “Last Song For You” ... the mature mastery of instrumentals like “Rue du Romie,” all make for a complete tapestry of moods." Mokai, Folk Blues Guitar Obsession
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