NPR Tiny Desk Concert (Updated)
We will be playing one of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts tomorrow, October 16th, at 4:30PM. This means that we’ll be huddled around Bob Boilen’s desk, playing a few acoustic versions of songs from Rook. It’s good to be on the road in America again, especially since this probably marks the end of this year’s major touring in the USA. The fall colors are beautiful here in the northeast. UPDATED: NPR has this performance archived here.
Snow Leopard Digital EP October 14th
September Europe/UK (photos by Kevin)
Some photos from the Sept. Europe tour – photos by Kevin Schneider.
Robin Woods, MBE
Congratulations go to my dear friend Robin Woods, who is almost single-handedly responsible for my interest in birds (and especially in the odd, charming predator known as the Johnny Rook). On September 10, while SW was playing in Amsterdam, Robin was awarded the honor of an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his decades of work on behalf of the islands’ wildlife.
KEXP On-air Performance 7/24 1:30PM
Attention nor’westers: If you’re in Seattle (or on the internet anywhere), you can hear us play a scaled-down set live on on KEXP 90.3 at 1:30 PM tomorrow. And then come on down to the show at Nectar Lounge in the evening for the whole shebang.
Update from Johnny Rook
photo by coldengrey I’m writing from cool, foggy San Francisco, where we’re in the midst of our west coast dates with the lovely and gracious men and women of team Coldplay. In LA at the Forum they housed us in the Lakers’ old locker room – suffice it to say that the natural reverb in the […]
East Coast Tour (June)
We’re packing our last bags tonight for our second round of touring in the USA – this time, headlining on the east coast/midwest (dates on the shows page). We’ll have some more details from the road, but in the meantime we’ve been honored to work with many excellent musicians at the showcases and on the tour with Clinic. A special shout-out is due here to our masked brethren – suffice it so say that you haven’t lived until you’ve crammed a bemused and amiable bunch of Liverpudlians into the back of your pickup truck and driven them to the barbecue joint in Austin.
SW Presents Rook Live May 5th (NYC) & May 29th (Austin)
On Monday, May 5th and Thursday, May 29th, Shearwater will premiere Rook in special concerts at the beautiful Florence Gould Concert Hall at Manhattan’s French Institute and The Parish in Austin, Texas. For both shows, we will be joined by a string quartet, woodwinds, trumpets, and a harpist, and will play our new album in its entirety, along with a set of older songs.
R.I.P. Zoe
Last year, Soundcheck magazine lured me into an interview by promising that I could meet writer Emily Strong’s pet Eclectus parrot, Zoe. Eclectus parrots are bright and beautiful, and males and females are so different in appearance that they were once thought to be different species. They are also increasingly uncommon on their home turf in and around Irian Jaya (New Guinea), where they live in (alas) mature tropical forests. Like most large parrots, they can live a really long time, 40-50 years or more.
