Acoustic Arts International News

Blue Coast Records Announces Contest for a Spot on Upcoming Recording

2008-07-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

Blue Coast Records is announcing a contest for one position on the upcoming Blue Coast Collection. In association with Sonic Bids, staff members from Blue Coast Records will evaluate talent from around the world to choose the upcoming Emerging Artist spot. The disc will be recorded in 2009 and released later that year. For details, please click on the link below.

Sonicbids.com

"Through the years, we have been exposed to extraordinary talent. It's overwhelming at times. We believe Sonic Bids provides us an interesting solution to organizing the talented artists for us and reaching beyond our usual group. If you have a friend you think is capable of extraordinary studio performances, please send them to our link." says founder and producer, Cookie Marenco.

Blue Coast will be announcing a decision at the end of Sept 2008.

Houston Jones Mid April 2008 Newsletter - KFOG Appearance, Noe Valley Ministry Show and a special note from Peter Tucker!

2008-04-18T03:23:00.001-07:00

Hear Houston Jones LIVE on KFOG 104.5 FM San Francisco, April 25 7am

Special Concert at Noe Valley Ministry to Benefit Music in the Schools, April 26 8pm
Buy tickets here!

Mid April Newsletter for Houston Jones, released by Acoustic Arts International 041708

Written by Peter Tucker, drummer, Houston Jones
Thank You for Forwarding to Friends!

Well - I can't avoid it anymore - the time has finally come for me to write a newsletter. I guess I'm supposed to give you a little insight into what makes Peter Tucker tick. Some of you know that my other main interest in life besides music is astronomy. I worked for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for 15 years. I mostly ran the mail order catalog but did get to do some actual science. I co-authored a planetarium show script, have done meteor shower counts and collected data for the A.A.V.S.O (American Association of Variable Star Observers). My real love is observation with telescopes and binoculars. If you can get away from the bay area light pollution on a clear moonless night it's amazing what you can see with even a modest size telescope.

The band has been on a short hiatus while Travis works as music director for the original stage version of "Lost Highway" - the story of Hank Williams. Travis played the lead role a couple of times in the past (I even got to be the drummer in one show) - but he has since "grown out" of the role (if you know what i mean). The bass player has a key role in the story so they ended up hiring a professional actor to play the part. The only problem is he can't play the bass - so Travis has had to teach him every song by rote by making a bunch of marks on the side of the neck.

The good news is the rest of the band has been working on some great new material, Chris has a few more and Henry and Glenn are working on a couple of instrumentals. The other news is that "Cowards Game" had dropped to around #250 on Neil Young's anti-war website but recently resurged to #94! Keep those votes coming!

- Peter Tucker

Purchase Advance copy of the New CD, Calico Heart
Complete List of Houston Jones Appearances

Click to access links below for directions and more information

April 17
Thursday 7 pm
Caffe Trieste
2500 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley
(Houston, Jones and Jacques)
Get Map

April 18
Friday 8 pm
Dana Street Roasting Company
744 W. Dana Street, Mountain View
Get Map

April 20
Sunday 2:30 pm
Inyo Council for the Arts Spring Concert
137 South Main St., Bishop
Get Map

April 21
Monday
Private Event
Las Vegas, Nevada

April 25

Friday 7 am
KFOG 104.5 FM San Francisco
Live Performance and Interview on the KFOG Morning Show

April 26
Saturday 8:15 pm
Noe Valley Ministry
Noe Valley Music Series
1021 Sanchez St. (at 23rd St.), San Francisco
Get Map
Buy Tickets

May 3
Saturday 8 pm
Armando's
707 Marina Vista Avenue, Martinez
Get Map

May 9
Friday 1 pm
Dixon May Fair
655 South First Street, Dixon
Get Map
Buy Tickets

May 10
Saturday 8 pm
Mission City Coffee Roasting Company
2221 The Alameda, Santa Clara
Chojo Mojo with Hojo
for ticket information, call 831-475-4938 or email: brundle@attglobal.net
Get Map

Acoustic Arts International
Revolutionizing Managment, Marketing and Sales for Acoustic Musicians
mailinglist@acousticartsinternational.com

Houston Jones Early March 2008 Newsletter - Moving up Neil Young's chart, Monterey Live, Rancho Nicasio and a special note from Chris Kee!

2008-02-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Help support Cowards' Game on Neil Young's Living With War Today

Purchase Tickets for Houston Jones at Monterey Live - Saturday March 1

Houston Jones at Rancho Nicasio - Sunday March 2

Early March Newsletter for Houston Jones, released by Acoustic Arts International 022708
Written by Chris Kee, bassist/songwriter, Houston Jones
Thank you for Forwarding to Friends!

Well, we're back from a quick spin through the Central Coast of California; we'd like to thank the folks at the San Luis Obispo Folk Society, KCBX, and all those people that came out to see us, mostly sight unseen, at the Coalesce Bookstore and Castoro Cellars. I must say as the voice of moderation, that I wondered about the wisdom of booking this band into a winery, but once we locked Travis and Peter out of the tasting room, everything went swimmingly. And thanks, too, to everyone who came out on a stormy Sunday to see us at the Little Fox in Redwood City. For those of you who missed the Academy Awards and came to see us instead, we had our own little red carpet event before the show: the video of Henry in that off-the-shoulder gown is probably making the rounds on YouTube by now.

On a more serious note, our song Coward's Game is making some serious noise over at Neil Young's Living With War website. A bunch of musicians have posted songs there--over 2,000--which are ranked by number of plays. Cowards' Game entered the chart at the bottom, and got up to 120. We'd be most grateful if those of you who know their way around the internets, to quote our prez, would go to the site and click on the tune--the more clicks, the higher we go on the chart. Here's the link---www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.html.

And finally, just a note on some upcoming gigs: we're at the delightful Monterey Live on 3/1, and at our home away from home, the Rancho Nicasio on 3/2. Details, as always, at the website, houstonjones.com.

- Chris Kee

Purchase Advance copy of the New CD, Calico Heart
Complete List of Houston Jones Appearances

Click to access links below for directions and more information

February 29
Friday 8 pm
Caffe Trieste
2500 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley
Get Map

March 1
Saturday 9:30 pm
Monterey Live
414 Alvarado Street, Monterey
Get Map

March 2
Sunday 5 pm
Rancho Nicasio
1 Old Rancheria Rd., Nicasio
Get Map

March 8
Saturday 8 pm
McGrath's Irish Pub
1539 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
Get Map

March 14
Friday 8 pm
Black Oak Casino
19400 Tuolumne Road North, Tuolumne
with the Infamous Stringdusters
Get Map

March 15
Saturday 9 pm
The Old Stan
177 South Washington Street, Sonora
Get Map

March 21
Friday 8 pm
Dana Street Roasting Company
744 W. Dana Street, Mountain View
Get Map

March 22
Saturday 2 pm
San Gregorio Country Store
Highway 84 and Stage Road, San Gregorio
Get Map

It's a Crumb's Life... Newsletter,Wrap Up 2/07 to 2/08

2008-02-18T13:58:00.000-08:00

Written by Cookie
Sunday, 17 February 2008
FOR ALL THE LINKS, GO TO
www.cookiemarenco.com

Hi friends, it's been awhile since I've been in touch. Thought I'd send a note. Hope you send a noteThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it about what you're doing also! Got a new home base where you can visit all the activities at once! You can bookmark there for a future read, signup for an RSS feed when I publish again or check in for the next obnoxious article i'll write for EQ.

Most of you know I've been producing again at OTR and have trained a whole new group of engineers. While I've gone back to analog tape and I'm LOVING it, our new crew brings life to our computer, internet and graphics ability. The site needs some rejuvenating since it still has pictures of the red carpet, now removed, but check back soon! Our staff, led by Patrick O'Connor (GM, IT, computer systems, graphics, web management), now has Tim as our new house engineer, Ezra in sales and Josh in new media, all capable of engineering and interfacing with the challenges of internet audio. Like the days of the View, the new crew (Ezra, Tim and Josh) have started their own production company offering great rates out of OTR called Destination Sound.

Next month, we will be opening the top floor for additional production rooms available for long term rental and adding Final Cut Pro. With YouTube and MySpace we felt that adding video services was a good move. EQ magazine has used us for educational videos taking advantage of our video screen green walls. Look for OTR Studios or the piano micing section of EQ TV. Alex de Grassi came by to shoot a video playing on a 39 stringed harp guitar.

Last year we released our proprietary silver cable for mic and speaker use to great acclaim. We manufactured a limited run of high end ipod/computer cables that greatly increase the frequency response. Still some available if you are interested. We've also taken to selling the gear of manufacturers we love (like Millennia) and vintage synthesizers/gear. There's a whole world of geekdom out there and we love it! Call us at 650 595 8475 or Patrick 650 759 1357.

Blue Coast Records had a remarkable first year. As a tribute to Jean Marie Reynaud's 40th year in audio (he's father of my production partner, Jean Claude) we debuted last March at the Paris HiFi Show receiving incredible reviews. Acoustic Sounds, a HiFi resellers took over a targeted sales campaign to HiFi dealers internationally. We sold out our first pressing of the SACD in 6 weeks. At the New York HiFi Show and Rocky Mountain HiFi Show, we made many new friends in the manufacturing world who's high performance gear benefitted from our ultimate audio quality. At year's end, we were sponsored by Laufer Teknik to attend THE SHOW at CES. In mid March, Blue Coast Collection will have it's USA street release through Burnside Distribution. Our second release (Art Lande- Solo Piano Lullabies) is ready for manufacturing and we have 2 more to follow.

Since I'm the queen of dead formats and cutting edge internet technology, I'm pleased to announce we will be releasing the Blue Coast Collection on vinyl later this year. Meanwhile, if you'd like a sneak peak at what's coming and what's been, here's five songs you can download for a penny! We also have a video montage of the Blue Coast Collection. Many thanks to Cathy Stonehill at Phoenix Edit and Jim Farber, who edited the video that brings back so many wonderful memories of the recording. It's 4 minutes and takes a long time to download, but worth it. More to come!

The last gap we had to fill in out plot for acoustic music world domination was the support team that takes care of all the details allowing us to create the music and get it to the fans. With the bottom dropping out of the music industry methods of publicity, promotion, and sales have changed radically. In January 2008 we unveiled Acoustic Arts International to fill this gap experienced by ourselves, most of the musicians I work with, and just about everyone who is trying to have a career in music. If you're overwhelmed with the details of your music career and have been thinking about hiring an assistant, this might be the service you're looking for.

Hiring Penny Sur to be the Grande Dame of organization, publicity and promotion has been a godsend. Patrick works on the internet interfaces, graphics and structure. I oversee as artist representative and brand enforcer reaching out to my many industry friends for advise or special services. Like the major labels, we will supervise a responsible group of interns who carry the load of the details and keep costs down. Response has been incredible. We're already working on tour publicity, web management, marketing tools, graphics, mailing list organization, newsletters, and press releases for a number of our artists ... barely having time to put up our own website!

Below is a shortened description off our website. I'm really happy to include these management, marketing and sales functions that encourage long relationships with people we know and love. We're also thrilled to be a triple bottomline company that interfaces all our artists with non profit associations of merit.

Thanks to all for a terrific 2007 and more to come in 2008.
Cookie Marenco

Houston Jones Mid Feb 2008 Newsletter-- events, new products and a special note from Travis Jones!

2008-02-13T07:06:00.000-08:00

Mid February Newsletter for Houston Jones, released by Acoustic Arts International 021308
Written by Travis Jones, lead singer, Houston Jones
Thank you for Forwarding to Friends!

Special Concert Tix Little Fox Theatre on February 24th – proceeds will benefit Veterans for Peace - tix link

Yes, the boat. little did i know in 2000 when i came down here to work with Glenn how this journey would unfold for the two of us and now for the entire band - and for you, our family! we're glad to be on this ride together. my apologies if this newsletter is a bit long; there's lots to talk about.

Houston Jones has some new and exciting things in the works that we want all of you to know about: we are now a part of 'Acoustic Arts International', an organization that you're going to be hearing a lot about from us and from the media - more on that another time, but let's just say that we're excited about the prospects of being associated with some amazing music industry professionals and a roster of great artists from around the bay area and the country!!! AAI will be representing Houston Jones and providing us with state of the art promotion and publicity, tour support, and professional development....(its about time, huh? I've been dying for some development in my life)....be looking for more details as they become available....speaking of details:

we want to thank all of our extended family (that's all of you, by the way) for coming out and supporting us at our first performance at the famous 'Last Day Saloon' in Santa Rosa...it was a packed house, and those of you who missed it will have to ask those who were there just how magical it was! Henry was back from injured reserve, and although he's not 100%, he's still the most amazing 7-fingered keyboardist in the world. And we had a wonderful show at the Lark Theatre - thanks to all of you regulars who braved the elements; It's a beautiful theatre and we're told that we'll be back at the Lark sometime again this year. You may have noticed that we're introducing new original tunes in our repetoire. Yep, Chris is at it again. Let us know what you think....heck, I've even got 3 new tunes coming out in the next month or so. I think the powers in the cosmic universe have turned on our creative taps and left them running - - at this rate, we'll have to do another album this year to keep up - - maybe not a bad idea?

we've got a real barn-burner of a show at the Little Fox Theatre on February 24th. Chris Webster – www.chriswebstermusic.com (of Mumbo Gumbo fame) will be with us for that one and some of the proceeds will benefit Veterans for Peace (www.veteransforpeace.org) . put this date on your calendar - its not to be missed. www.foxdream.com

several of you have asked how you can help us: well, here are some thoughts: 1). put the word out -to friends/family/co workers/blogs/email lists, and then make sure you come to gigs as often as you're able...i know we're all busy with our lives but music is a way for us all to connect and keeps us feeling like the family that we've become over the years. 2). radio - a lot of you are telling us that you're hearing us on kfog's 'acoustic sunrise/sunset' and other stations....that's great, and we really want to thank Rosalie and all the dj's for playing Houston Jones.....we'd like to ask any/all of you who can, and who have the time and inclination, to call local radio stations and ask them to play your favorite Houston Jones songs....a partial list: kvmr, kfog, kpfa, kalw, kpig, kkup, kusp...if you think of, or know of, other stations let us know...if they don't have our music, we'll get it to them. 3) email lists and blogs: several of you have told us that you frequent myspace, facebook, and other Internet sites and blogs....if you have a profile at any of these sites and they ask you to list your favorite music or bands, we'd be honored to be associated with you....also, certain festivals and festival promoters pay close attention to the activity on their blogs (strawberry music festival, telluride bluegrass, live oak, kate wolfe) - - and often, the suggestion by fans that a group or artist play the festival gets results. we'd love to see a blog blitz on the strawberry blog suggesting that Houston Jones appear for a 2008 encore performance!!
http://strawberry.freescruz.com/

ok, that's quite enough for now....be watching for next weeks letter from ???? who's next?? you'll have to tune in to the next week for 'My Face Don't Fit Your Fryin' Pan No More', or 'More Songs in the Life of Kee'......bless your hearts - we love you.

Travis Jones - aboard the S.V. Fandango in Alameda Ca

Purchase Advance copy of the New CD, Calico Heart
Little Fox Press Release
Complete List of Houston Jones Appearances

Click to access links below for directions and more information

February 15

Friday 7 pm
San Luis Obispo Folk Music Society
SLOFolks Concert Series - Coalesce Bookstore
845 Main Street, Morro Bay
Tickets, Info: 805-722-2880
Get Map

February 16

Saturday 2 pm
KCBX 90.1 FM San Luis Obispo
Performance (recorded at noon) on the "Minstrel Songs" Show, with Sonnie Brown, hostess. Also broadcast on:
89.5 FM Santa Barbara; 90.9 FM Santa Ynez Valley, Avila Beach, Cambria; 91.1 FM Cayucos; 95.1 FM Lompoc

February 16

Saturday 7:30 pm
San Luis Obispo Folk Music Society
SLOFolks Concert Series - Castoro Cellars
1315 North Bethel Road, Templeton CA
Tickets, Info: Local 805-238-0725 or tollfree 888-326-3463
Get Map

February 21

Thursday 9 pm
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market Street, San Francisco
with Rancho Deluxe and 77 El Deora
Get Map

February 22

Friday 12:30 pm
KZSU 90.1 FM Stanford
Live Performance on the "That's Not Bluegrass" Show, with Sarah Bellum, hostess

February 24

Sunday 7 pm
Little Fox Theatre
2209 Broadway, Redwood City
Concert to benefit Veterans for Peace
(with Mumbo Gumbo's Chris Webster)
AAI PRESS RELEASE
Get Map

February 29

Friday 8 pm
Caffe Trieste
2500 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley
Get Map

March 1

Saturday 9:30 pm
Monterey Live
414 Alvarado Street, Monterey
Get Map

March 2

Sunday 5 pm
Rancho Nicasio
1 Old Rancheria Rd., Nicasio
Get Map

March 8
Saturday 8 pm
McGrath's Irish Pub
1539 Lincoln Avenue, Alameda
Get Map

Acoustic Arts International (AAI) is revolutionizing management, marketing, and sales
for acoustic musicians targeting both real and virtual worlds while contributing to the economic,
social and environmental outcome of our efforts.
Email AAI - acousticartsinternational@gmail.com