Surprise!

My newest CD, Low Rent District, arrived last evening, a full twelve days ahead of schedule. That's good news, because now I am certain I will have a supply on hand when I visit England next month. But there is also a downside, which is that I wasn't prepared to have them so soon. I still need to write a press release, design a flyer, and prepare a promotional mailing. I thought I would have more time, but I don't.

So let me make this short and sweet. If you want a copy of Low Rent District, it should be available from CD Baby within the next couple of weeks. (Please click here to see if it's available yet.) Otherwise, you have to see me in person. I will eventually have additional distributors, but not until November, at the earliest.

Before I forget, here's a little information about the CD. There are eighteen tracks, including one which I recorded live at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York last year. Eight of the songs are one I wrote myself in various traditional folk styles, and four are my arrangements of traditional folk songs. The remaining tracks include a cowboy song from 1911, a Carter Family song, a song by contemporary songwriter Si Kahn, two little known Woody Guthrie songs, and Woody's version of a traditional Gospel song. The eighteen tracks encompass quite a variety of genres, styles, themes, and moods. You will find ragtime, Gospel, blues, old-time country music, union songs, peace songs, an Anglo-Irish version of an ancient Scottish ballad, and much more. The title song is about urban gentrification and the loss of affordable goods, services, and housing.

If you want to hear a little preview of the CD, the title song and two others, The Sante Fe Trail and I Know You Rider, are still availble on the SoundClick website where you can listen to them on-line or download them for free.

I should also add that Low Rent District features vocal and/or instrumental accompaniment by Hillel Arnold, Jaque DuPree, Carl Fortunato, Alan Friend, Robin Greenstein, Allen Hopkins, Ray Korona, Laura Munzer, Anne Price, and Gina Tlamsa. Each is a talented musician in his or her own right.

One last thing, if I had to pick one favorite song from the CD it would have to be The October Waltz, which tells the true story of how I met my wife Marilyn in 1968. My second favorite? It's a seventeen-way tie among all the rest.

--- Steve