AMY ANNELLE: news

Ahoj Friends, from the post-apocolyptic jungle of Central Texas.

This is so: sixty days of rain early in the growing season has got
all the green things expanding to extraordinary proportions. The
okra's twelve feet tall. The pecan trees are hanging heavy, gravid
with tasty nuts, succumbing to gravity.

And, when speaking of climatic irregularities, one can't help but
address the attendant Butterfly Explosion. They're here in such great
number and variety--yellow orange white, neon green velvet black and
powdery blue--tiny and vulerable, drinking from a mud puddle, or
enormous and slow, fluttering with such bravado, it almost warrants
stopping in the garden to shoot the shit with them.

Lest we dismiss the Lepidoteran* bretheren as another
precipitation-induced anomality, we ought to consult the elders for
some insight. The Blackfeet people say the butterflies bring you a
dream. The Irish think they're human souls waiting to pass through
purgatory. The Maya thought them dead warriors in disguise. What is
going on, winged harbingers? Perhaps this: the River Styx is
overflowing its banks, and so souls flow freely, to and fro. Could
you dig being a butterfly? after you die. Flying around, high on
flower nectar you sucked up with your curly tongue, seeing ultraviolet
secrets with your compound eyes?

* * * * * *

Well the High Plains and Peaks Western US Tour was an epic ramble
through the unconventional venues, river canyons, mountain passes and
cottonwood plateaus of America's Left Half. Rolling with master
musicians and beloved friends Michael Hurley and Ralph White, pulling
notes from instruments on friendly stages or by campfirefight,
sleeping under the stars, hearing the earth twitch and groan below its
thin skin. Nobody got sick, abducted by aliens (though they were
observed by the full moon above the Snake River Valley, two days prior
to our crossing of it) or left for dead at a Greyhound Station,
freedom tickets flowed at a sustainable velocity from doorman to
gastank, and you: people, I tell you! You are great. Kisses and
cosmic gratuities go out to all of you who set up the shows and those
who came and joined in; and those who took us into house, shack, bus
or driveway, shared gifts from the garden, home cookin' and
conversation...THANK YOU!

Michael Hurley's brand new long player "The Ancestral Swamp" is out
now. When you get in then seatsprings creak their greeting. The
dashboard's big enough to hold everything and there's windows in
places you usually can't see through. This birdsong carries clear
above the din of the creek, so you'd best get your vinyl while you
can, kids. Tweet!

http://www.midheaven.com/artists/hurley.michael.html
I have posted a photo zine of our tour here:
http://highplainssigh.com/photos.html
a Sleepography here:
http://highplainssigh.com/news.html
Howard Wyman in Crawdaddy:
"They played with every bit of gumption as they would by the fire or
in front of a crowd of thousands"
Read the rest of his review of the rest of our San Francisco show
here:
http://crawdaddy.wolfgangsvault.com/Article.aspx?id=3056
* * * * * *

Thanks to the miraculous union of a hand-held cassette player and a
USB cable, I was able to post an MP3 of the April '07 live performance
by The Places Fractal Folk Trio (Amy Annelle, Joshua Housh, and George
D'Anunzio) on Michael Leahy's KDVS "Cool As Folk" program. The
fidelity of which you may find intriguing:

http://highplainssigh.com/music.html
And finally, an update on Ralph's dog Stella, the Rattlesnake Bit
Catahoula Dog. It's been a week now and she's definitely out of the
woods! Thank you for your well-wishing!

Fare Forward, Voyagers!
xxamy annellexx

*Lepidotera: scientific order of butterflies, moths, and skippers

DAY 1 Copper Breaks area overlooking pond,Texas Panhandle
DAY 2 a rock cove near Black Mesa and Rabbitear Mountain, Oklahoma Panhandle
DAY 3 clapboard bunkhouse near Ridgetop Nature Trail, Oklahoma Panhandle
DAY 4 fake-lake campground outside Greeley, CO
DAY 5 loft with pine paneling and red shag carpet over Joe Carducci's kitchen, Centennial, WY
DAY 6 back bedroom of double-wide next to venue, lots of brown things and deer paraphanalia. LaPorte, CO
DAY 7 Carducci's again
DAY 8, 9 downstairs guest bedroom at edge of white carpet field, Fitzpatrick house, Lakewood, CO
DAY 10 under the stars in a Cottonwood Flat, Green River's banks, Western WY. Woke to psychedelic pelicans fishing in the river. For real.
DAY 11 couch in back room, Clayton's Mormon brick house, Salt Lake City, UT
DAY 12 in the midst of a coyote dance party, Snake River Valley, Oregon/Idaho border
DAY 13 pallet on the floor, a hat full of plums from the trees outside, Seattle, WA
DAY 14 between the circus tent and the scrapwood shack at Andy Piper's freak compound, Bellingham WA
DAY 15 Next to Big Bertha the tube radio on Snock's couch, Astoria, OR
DAY 16 next to Dave Reisch's 1947 bus home, Freak Mountain, Tualatin Mountains, OR
DAY 17 bank of a Coast Range River next to onery drunk family, Oregon
DAY 18 on the street in front of friendly house, Davis, CA
DAY 19, DAY 20 below the wainscotting and asymmetrical oval ceiling in Jen and Quinn's apartment, San Francisco
DAY 21 Josh & Yuri's rock and roll laundry room, Oakland, CA
DAY 22 Parham's guest room amidst the moving boxes, Los Gatos, CA
DAY 23 Tinder-dry oak copse at Cerro Alto, above Morro Bay, Central CA. seriously hassled by blue jays.
DAY 24 Cottonwood and willow flat in Los Padres National forest near Ventucopa,CA (two weeks after it burned). They grow persimmons, carrots, and asian pears in that valley!
DAY 25 Drove all night across the desert
DAY 26 Sandy cedar and juniper flats in Kaibob National Forest near the Lowline train tracks. North of Ash Fork, AZ (Flagstone quarrying town)
DAY 27 Flat spot on a dirt road next to the Hat Rock, above the San Juan River Canyon, edge of Navajo Nation
DAY 28, 29 edge of Dark Canyon Primitive Area, Manti-La Sal National Forest (near Bears Ears Mountain), Southeast Utah.
DAY 30 Scott's house above Durango, CO
DAY 31 the only motel room sleep, edge of Llano Estecado, Lubbock TX
DAY 32 End of a lonesome county road near O.H. Ivee Reservoir. Oilfields/Rattlesnake/Restless Spirit Habitat. Hill Country, Runnels County, TX

Ahoj friends, old and new!

there are many of you!

this trip has been different.

From the moment we left Austin, the sky has been swarming with storm
clouds, raptors and glorious sunsets. Our first gift was a surprise
gig in perhaps the deepest valley of America, in the shadow of the
Black Mesa where New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas
quietly ponder each other. At the senior citizen's potluck dinner we
played for the folks, including the 95 year old valley matriarch.
Cowboys and girls waltzed along with our unamplified instruments as
the funnel clouds and the double rainbow give way to a most contented
dark. That night we slept in a clapboard bunkhouse (discretely left
unlocked), but an obstacle for the game trails of bobcats, coyotes and
mule deer. Everybody around there works hard to get by.

The Upland Breakdown brought us into America's Mongolian high
steppes. Velvety golden green mountainsides, old friends, puffy
clouds and getitin' gone music. 1920s rock and roll, odes to the muse
and post-cajun psychedelia. Souled American drops it down to C, and
every sound vibration's like it's taken mescaline. Deepest song
telling and a van that holds everything (rolling now we are, with the
master!)

Then Denver show at the gallery was a door buster! And the next
night: a surprise house concert in the old style. I am surprised and
honored to be playing music for (along with folks in their teens
twenties thirties etc) folks in their sixties, seventies, eighties and
beyond. It's not every night you get to shoot the shit with someone
who ran their airplane into a tree over New Guinea in WWII. No sir.


We've just begun, now we hope to see you next...shows added in SF and
Bellingham, WA.

Thanks to all so far for the good times and hospitality, and

Fare Forward, Voyagers!
xxthe placesxx

THE PLACES HIGH PLAINS AND PEAKS WESTERN TOUR

Most of the dates are with the legendary vanner and master song
teller MICHAEL HURLEY www.myspace.com/kornbred07

All dates with proto-folk enigma and river brother RALPH WHITE
myspace.com/ralphewhite
* * * * * * * * *

AUG 31 BURT'S TIKI LOUNGE Salt Lake City, UT
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White, Pink Nasty

SEPT 2 LAST CHANCE BARN DANCE Trout Lake, WA
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White with Bingo Dream Band, Freak
Mountain Ramblers, & lots more freaks and dreamers

SEPT 3 TRACTOR TAVERN Ballard (Seattle), WA
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White

SEPT 4 GREEN FROG Bellingham, WA
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White, Lone Bird

SEPT 5 FORT GEORGE TAVERN Astoria, OR
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White

SEPT 6 LAUREL THIRST Portland, OR
Michael Hurley, The Places, Ralph White

SEPT 8 DELTA OF VENUS Davis, CA
The Places, Ralph White, Garrett Pierce

SEPT 9 HOUSE CONCERT San Francisco, CA
The Places, Ralph White, Garrett Pierce
(999 Steiner at 9 PM)

SEPT 11 HOTEL UTAH San Francisco, CA
The Places, Ralph White, Dave Mihaly's Shimmering Thieves

SEPT 12 RHYTHM Nevada City, CA
The Places, Ralph White, Tractor Operator

...and shows in the works for Los Angeles, Durango, CO and Marfa,
TX...

Fare Forward, Voyagers!
xxamy annellexx

-----------------------------------

a cosmic high-five from the Austin Chronicle:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Music/?subject=oid%3A526642
"A folksinger in the truest sense, Annelle and her high, lonesome,
pretty voice seem to be from no particular time--more like many of
them at once. Resembling someone who might've been hopping trains with
Woody Guthrie, she transmits ages of American troubadour traditions in
her performances. But if one of her roles is as a medium, it's hardly
a passive feat; the songs come from and go in all directions."--Mike
Wolf, Music Editor, TimeOut New York

"What longtime Austinite and former Bad Liver Ralph White puts on
albums and onstage is so mind-boggling and vast, it forces those of us
in the description business down a treacherous path" (Darcie Stevens,
Austin Chronicle)

iridium's good for electrical contacts and exterminating dinosaurs.
it cannot be attacked by acids, but can be attacked by molten salts.
it's named after the latin word for 'rainbow'. rare in the earth's
core, o lowly non-radioactive, non-noble gas, it is common in
meteorites. what i'm trying to say is: don't rule anything out. the
lowly rarity could be the end of thee, flung down from the heavens in
vast quantities, blotting out your sun.

CALCULATIONS FROM THE SPACE LATTICE: this serves to alert the Jandek
fans in the house that Places fiddler and soloist extrordinaire Ralph
White will be joining Jandek's backing band for one concert:

SATURDAY JULY 21
RALPH WHITE accompanying JANDEK
(the rest of the band being Susan Alcorn, Will Johnson and Ryan
Williams)
ROSE MARINE THEATER
FORT WORTH, TEXAS

which will be filmed for a future documentary, and the whole story is
told here:

http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/xl/2007/06/0628xlmusic.html
Ralph White's here:
www.myspace.com/ralphewhite
if you don't know Jandek, or dislike silvery white transitional
metals, please disregard this message.

Fare Forward, Voyagers!

xxamy annellexx
THE PLACES

Ahoj, friends!

An airplane has taken the rubes and our instruments to New York City!
Back to the land of the mosquecycle and sycamore and 3-legged dog,
humans displaying infinite variations of aggression, compassion,
transcention.

On the airplane we learnt from the tiny TV screens how hippos do kill
but don't eat human flesh. and if you do, don't eat the brain,
because you can catch a disease that makes you wobbly and eventually,
die.

Dig: there is an article about the Places today in Billboard
Magazine:

"Annelle makes music borne up from
the land. Keen, empathetic observers, they seem to move, like ghosts,
through walls and locked doors and into the homes and lives of men and
women they'll never be, yet whose stories are somehow always in part
their own -- and our own."

READ THE WHOLE BILLBOARD ARTICLE HERE:
"http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/hear_now/index.jsp
AND this most luminous TOP LIVE SHOWS PREVIEW from TimeOut NY:

"A folksinger in the truest sense, Annelle and her high, lonesome,
pretty voice seem to be from no particular time--more like many of
them at once. Resembling someone who might've been hopping trains with
Woody Guthrie, she transmits ages of American troubadour traditions in
her performances. But if one of her roles is as a medium, it's hardly
a passive feat; the songs come from and go in all directions."--Mike
Wolf, Music Editor

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/9050/the-places
COME OUT, NEW YORK CITYZENS!

Thursday 7/12
SOUND FIX RECORDS
free in-store performance
9:30 RALPH WHITE
10:30 THE PLACES
110 Bedford Ave.
(718) 388-8090
www.soundfixrecords.com
FRIDAY 7/13
JOE'S PUB
ADVANCE TICKETS/SHOW PREVIEW HERE:
http://www.joespub.com/caltool/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail&performanceID=3166 9 PM RAPLH WHITE
9:4 PM THE PLACES
425 Lafayette
New York, NY
(212) 539-8770

SATURDAY 7/14
HOUSE CONCERT & BONFIRE/HOUSE FIRE & BONCERT
Germantown, NY (2 hrs north of NYC)
new friends, email for details.

Write if you are in NYC and might like to have a good old-fashioned
house concert on Monday.

Fare Forward, Voyagers!

xxamy annellexx
THE PLACES

we've gassed up the captain and will be morosely combusting the
petrified remains of dearly departed precambrian creatures* all the
way to LA...

that's LOUISIANA, friends

combustion engines are no longer viable.
perhaps that van's best left behind in the bayou.
as a frame for to hang thickening wisteria vines and leatherflower.
a nest for the black-masked racer and canebrake rattlesnake.
and we'll walk one foot at a time through the devilwoods and
ironwoods and pineywoods.
from texas to louisiana.
from louisiana to texas.
where to find the refrains and remains of blind mamie forehand,
dennis mcgee, sadie coeurville, king solomon hill and little hat
jones.

annelle, ralph the third, and arrow the whip-tailed butterfly hound
are coming to New Orleans, and we can't wait to see you

THE PLACES
RALPH WHITE
LADYBABYMISS (MISS O. from A PARTICULARLY VICIOUS RUMOR)
DENISE BONUS
June 17

10 PM
The Dragon's Den
435 Esplanade Ave
New Orleans, LA 70116
504 945 7744


p.s. ralph just got on the myspace, why not go over and say hello and
make friends
myspace.com/ralphewhite

FARE FORWARD, VOYAGERS!
xxamy annellexx

crucible (def. 3): a place, time, or situation characterized by the
confluence of powerful forces.

*Geologists report that sediments in Oman provide evidence of an
extinction 542 million years ago, the "Precambrian Gap") possibly
brought on when the deep sea disgorged noxious waters, which set the
stage for the proliferation of wild and wonderful life forms that
followed. (it's nothing personal. think of the wild and wonderful
life forms that may follow the next disgorging of noxious waters)

it was a cold and starry dark, a month or so back at brenda's shack,
which is unlike any other home base ever created. brenda is an
extrordinary creature who's gone to great lengths to create a suitable
habitat. a pad with the appropriate paramaters, paleattes and
textures. there's furs and claws, adornments from a dozen decades and
a dozen foreign lands. it's a mongolian yurt in an urban yard, there's
lamb and millet and lentils from a propane stove and small glasses of
red wine and kombucha tea. the books that line the walls all have red
spines. a gentlemen who knows what's best might follow a sign
suggesting a climb to the top of the loft.

the inestimable jolie holland was there that night. the evening was
whiled away in gentle celebration. jolie and i got to trading songs.
and jana and brenda and chris drury were listening, and chris is a
filmmaker, so his camera saw things, and secretly captured these
twilit pixels:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lrA2I7NLnXE
it's a video of an unreleased song of mine called "Everyone Has
Spoken". that's jolie's guitar and her lovely visage in the
background, and brenda's belongings abstrusely illuminating
everything.

-----------------


TimeOut New York's Mike Wolf wrote about our Manhattan Island show:

http://highplainssigh.com/press.html
some photos from that Continental Tour With No Middle are up:

http://highplainssigh.com/photos.html
and my apologies to those of you in the middle who wrote me
saying..."hey! what's this no middle shit???!" we'll play extra good
for you when we do come through this summer, and bring you a brown bag
of sweetcorn from a farmer's market.

in the meantime. we've seen the leaf cathedral opening outside.
while i was gone, green came to be the dominant shade. there's water
flowing in the creeks and everything looks alive. and it's all a lie.
my man is leaving. i'm tired of weeping, i'm tired of moaning. i'll
be here watching for his ghost in the hallway, and recording its
reaction when i call it by name.

Forward, As Ever, Dear Voyagers,
xxamy annellexx

Come on out, New York Cityzens!

The Places Forests and Caves Trio featuring Ralph E. White (with Danny Barnes and Mark Rubin, a core member of the Bad Livers) plays fiddle and hellhound banjo; Jude Webre (Places class of 2001 alum) in the upright bass arena; with Amy Annelle and her '33 Gibson L-00 (which recently won a cage match with Delta Airlines):

Thursday 3.29
THE PLACES
with CASTANETS
Show Venue has moved to ***PALACE TAVERN***which, conveniently, is around the corner from the original venue (the lutheran church) 206 Nassau @ Russell| Greenpoint, Brooklyn
G-Nassau or L-Graham | 8pm | all ages | $7 | 718-383-9848 www.toddpnyc.com
Friday 3.30 THE PLACES (8:30) with RALPH E. WHITE (7:30) GOOGIE'S LOUNGE upstairs at the Living Room this is an intimate listening room and there is no cover. i think they have a 1 drink minimum. if you don't drink that is cool we will buy you a ginger ale! yes those are separeate 1 hour sets by the places and ralph white. don't miss ralph or you'll be real sorry.
please come early and settle in, settle in.
154 Ludlow || between stanton & rivington
http://www.livingroomny.com/googies.html
The Village Voice recommends us:
http://www.villagevoice.com/nycguide/ev107685,6.html
...Ralph White is also playing a 7:30 solo set at the Rodeo Bar (375 3rd Ave on the Big Island of Manhattan) on Sunday 4.1--i might sit in on a song or two--no foolin'!

Ahoj, Friends, I say as I gaze at the remains of the late Cenozoic
Tualitin Mountains. known locally as "the Portland West Hills", or
"where the rich people live". obliquely crossing the anticline.
intersecting several concealed faults inferred at the surface. We've
Followed the Fault Lines as far as reality would allow, then passed
the threshold, and no temblor has transpired. geological time will
tell.

The Follow the Fault Lines Spring 2007 West Coast Tour reverberates
nonetheless. Joshua Housh and George D'Anunzio (the Places West Coast
Strings and Skins Band rhythm section) are angels with muscles and
moustaches. feral and hysterical and fearless. you will hear more
from us.

In the meantime i will be posting two very different live recordings
(the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco, and an unamplified stomp & shout
set and interview on Michael Leahy's KDVS "Cool As Folk" show) right
here:

http://highplainssigh.com/music.html
But all in all: great shows with great bands! Eternal hangs with
dear friends we don't get to see near enough, and new ones too. Thank
you very kindly to all who put us up/put up with us!

From the natural habitats of desert rats and baby rattlesnakes to
that of the hordes of hipsters with hangovers riding around on
bicycles, in no time flat. eternal pacific ocean, graduations of
floral and faunal zones and transmissions from the enigmatic Ladybug
Poet. Midnight Jams with local teenagers and an ominous visit from a
Methamphetamine-fueled, demon-mask wearing neighbor at the break of
dawn. A chance interaction with a Brazilian Cupid amidst the
shattered innerds of a massacred accordion at a san franciscan
intersection. Pictographic evidence will be up soon at:

http://highplainssigh.com/photos.html
A special cosmic high-five to Eric and his wife, who came all the way
from Phoenix to see the Portland show.

hell it's already time to board a redeye plane to cross the continent
and bring some more music out the ether on the other side:

The Places Forests and Caves Pressure Drop Trio featuring Ralph E.
White (he of the Bad Livers, back in The Day) plays fiddle and
hellhound banjo; Jude Webre (Places class of 2001 alum) in the upright
bass arena; with Amy Annelle and her '33 Gibson L-00 (which recently
won a cage match with Delta Airlines):

Thursday 3.29
THE PLACES
with CASTANETS, SHAPES & SIZES
Lutheran Church of the Messiah
129 Russell St @ Nassau | Greenpoint, Brooklyn
G-Nassau or L-Graham | 8pm | all ages | $tba | no phone
www.toddpnyc.com
----->>JUST ADDED<<-----Friday 3.30 THE PLACES (8:30)
with the inestimable RALPH E. WHITE (7:30)
GOOGIE'S LOUNGE upstairs at the Living Room
this is an intimate listening room and there is no cover. i think
they have a 1 drink minimum. if you don't drink that is cool we will
buy you a ginger ale! yes those are separeate 1 hour sets by the
places and ralph e. white. don't miss ralph or you'll be real sorry.
please come early and settle in, settle in.
154 Ludlow || between stanton & rivington
http://www.livingroomny.com/googies.html
The Village Voice recommends us:
http://www.villagevoice.com/nycguide/ev107685,6.html
...Ralph White is also playing a 7:30 solo set at the Rodeo Bar (375
3rd Ave on the Big Island of Manhattan) on Sunday 4.1--i might sit in
on a song or two--no foolin'!

Come on out, New York Cityzens!

and Fare Forward, Voyagers Everywhere!
xxamy annellexx
mail-order 'SONGS FOR CREEPS'
brand new original album by the Places
http://highplainssigh.com/products.html Critic's Choice/Best Ten Albums of 2006, Billboard Magazine


"...wonderfully weird, macabre songs about fading love, murderous
intentions, seers and midnight explorations" ~~Peter Linblad, Goldmine
Magazine

"...consistently eschews the tried-and-true...a prog-pastoralist
vortex of charm"~~Rod Smith, Timeout NY

"Conventionally this record might be folk, psychadelic,
avant-pop--more or less undefinable--but most of all it's got a grip
on the sprawling, strange, optimistic, terrifying feel of open-road
America."~~David Snyder, IndieFolkForever
---------------------

"well, there's intelligence, and there's wisdom...that's why in D&D,
they're two different scores"~~Paul Brainard

HEAR, YE:

HERE BE THE PLACES CONTINENTAL TOUR, A CONTINENT WITH NO MIDDLE:

the first leg follows the fault lines of our grinding tectonic
plates. below the large state somebody named california. will we be
vibrated by a temblor issuing from deep within the molten core? sure.
it's happened before.

The Places West Coast Strings and Skins Variant Featuring Joshua
Housch on 1949 Kay Upright Arco Bass, George D'Anunzio on small drum
kit with all the trappings; with Amy Annelle and her masochistic 1933
Gibson L-00

SUN 3.18 DAN'S BACK PORCH, OAKLAND, CA (Temescal Sector) if you know
Dan S. who just moved into a new pad, then you know where to go.

MON 3.19 PIONEERTOWN (JOSHUA TREE, CA) @ PAPPY & HARRIETS !did not
burn in the big fire, thank the stars!, with Bingo Dream Band

TUE 3.20 SAN DIEGO, CA @ KAVA LOUNGE with the inestimable Bunky and
Roxy Jones (and don't bemoan me if i run away to a canyon on the baja
peninsula and immerse in a desert hot spring for the rest of
eternity--proximity, proximity)

WED 3.21 LOMPOC, CA (flower seed and secret surf beach Capitol of the
World) @ SUGAR MAGNOLIA'S with Le Petit Protest

THUR 3.22 SAN FRANCISCO, CA (an urban assemblage that quakes and
burns right on schedule, according to Geologic Time) @ RICKSHAW STOP
with Okay, Michael Musika

FRI 3.23 DAVIS, CA Live Performance on Michael Leahy's "Cool As Folk"
on KDVS at 11:30; listen live on kdvs.org
then an evening show at DELTA OF VENUS with Le Petit Protest, 'Oogie


SAT 3.24 PORTLAND, OR @ TOWNE LOUNGE oh lord good to see you again,
port town, and with deer friends Zak Riles (Grails) and Pseudosix

SUN 3.25 PORTLAND, OR TBA
it's not official yet, it's going to be cool, but terrifying.
-------------------------------

PERIGRINATE, THEN, TO THE COLONIAL MORASS:
The Places East Coast Woodsy Sparseness Variant featuring Ralph White
on precambrian fiddle and hellhound banjo; Jude Webre on 1932 Czech
Flatblack Upright Bass; with Amy Annelle and the best posessed guitar
in the world

THURS 3.29 BROOKLYN, NY @ LUTHERAN CHURCH OF THEE MESSIAH with
Castanets, Shapes & Sizes

a few more NY/PA shows to come...write if you'd like to set something
up cause me just might be able...will send another missive with news
of the rubes...the full complement of High Plains Sigh Musical
Releases, factory manufactured and handmade beauties, will be
available for your perusal...and we look forward to seeing you!

THANK YOU to the music makers, the receptors, and the vessel: A
SALUTE TO THE SONG at the Peacock last week was a pleasure to behold.
a finer constellation could not have been conjured.

Fare Forward, Voyagers!

xxannelleski and the real fantasy placesxx

...A reminder about the show Wednesday in Austin, TX. hope you can
make it...

we're doing it again, people, I tell you. High Plains Sigh Presents
another evening of freeform live music, this time featuring original
song makers in a listening environment. Friends one and all, seekers
and freaks, bushwhacking crooked and beautiful paths to the top of
the
mountain.

if you'll be in Austin for SXSW, this is the only places
performance.
It is an independent event, All are Welcome. please come early and
stay...just don't miss this convergence of mavericks.

HIGH PLAINS SIGH PRESENTS:
a SALUTE to the SONG
short sets by song makers
with peculiar vernaculars



Wed 3.14 8 PM--close
Peacock Lounge (21+)
515 E. Pedernales
"Back East" Austin, TX
512.276.8979


NO SXSW WRISTBAND NECESSARY and no cover charge, but donations
accepted for traveling bands. the order might change, please check
www.highplainssigh.com for details.

8:00 GARRETT PIERCE & MATT BAUER (San Francisco, CA)
www.garretpierce.com, www.matbauermusic.com FREE-FORMED
CONSCIOUSNESS.

8:30 RALPH WIHTE (Austin, TX) www.ralphwhite.com PRECAMBRIAN FIDDLE/BANJO/KALIMBA SHREDDER.

9:00 LANA REBEL (Portland, OR/Tucson, AZ)
www.juanitafamilyandfriends.net SWEETLY DOOMED FREQUENCIES OF HONKATONK COUNTRY.

9:30 Dave and Walker from ARBOURETUM (Baltimore, MD)
www.thrilljockey.com ASTRAL GUITAR AND ABANDONED BUILDINGS SINGING.

10:00 TENLONS FORT (Georgetown, TX) www.tenlonsfort.com FILMMAKER, HEARTBREAKER, A TIME WARP TO TOWNES' TEXAS.

10:30 THE PLACES (ponds/plateus/plains) www.highplainssigh.com SINGIN' AND STOMPIN' THE FRACTAL HIGH STEPPES BLUES.

11:00 Red Hunter from PETER & THE WOLF (Austin, TX)
www.whiskeyandapples.com ENIGMA, CHEATER OF DEATH AT SEA.

11:30 LONE BIRD www.myspace.com/lonebird (Everson, WA) ONE MAN
CREATURE BAND ROVES THE LAND.

12:00 CHANEQUES VIAJEROS (Black Rock Desert, NV) ABSYNTHIAN ORIGINALS
FROM SAM AND DYLAN OF "THAT DAMNED BAND"
www.myspace.com/thatdamnedband
12:30 PLUTONIUM FARMER (under a rootwad on the banks of Boggy Creek)
MULTI-TONAL COUNTRY MAYHEM.
-----------------------------
what's this? a freshly minted batch of the handmade covers album,
FAWNS WITH FANGS: Selections From the Dark Heart of the Thicket!
you can order yours here:
ww.highplainssigh.com in the SHOPPIN' sector

Fare Forward, Voyagers!
xxannelleskixx

The first High Plains Sigh Presents night at The Peacock was a gas. We're doing it again, with quite a different lineup of freeform entertainment.
2.22.07
9 PM
PEACOCK LOUNGE
515 EAST PEDERNALES ST.
"back east" AUSTIN, TX
Again there will be DJs digging deep into their record collections to spin unconventional/unintentional psychedelia and strange and excellent old folk music from around the world; with tangential voyages into finnish death metal and the american underground; and large-scale projections by austin visual artists.

LIVE MUSIC SETS BY:
gypsy road veteran and world-class Indian musician Oliver Rajamani (10:30)
fractal folk songmaking outfit The Places (11:30)
and a late night performance by Miss Angeliska and her esoteric Ocean Harp (12:30)


LINK FOR OLIVER RAJAMANI: www.oliverrajmani.com LINK FOR THE PLACES: www.highplainssigh.com

short bios:
" Oliver Rajamani is certainly a rare breed. When most artists spend their lifetime mastering one style of music or instrument, Rajamani is comfortable with many. Indian, Middle Eastern, and Gypsy music from percussion instruments to strings to voice and composition have come to him with much ease. Hailing from India, Rajamani has the magic and spirit of the Indian music and the fire and passion of the Gypsy music in his blood and it flows naturally out of him as one can see at his live shows. Rajamani has done extensive traveling in Greece and Israel studying the Roma Gypsy communities and their music as well as Greek and Arabic music, and has also worked in the U.N. body representing the Roma Gypsys. He performs on the Indian lute, oud, dumbek, deff, cajon, flamenco guitar, rubab and tabla in addition to his extraordinary vocals"

THURSDAY JANUARY 25 9 PM
HIGH PLAINS SIGH Warmly Invites You To
An Evening of Freaky Sounds and SIghts From Around Our Planet (and some from outer space)
DJs will dig deep into the stacks to play thee UNINTENTIONAL AND UNCONVENTIONAL PSYCHEDELIA: death chants, war whoops and mind blowers from mysterious lands.
LIVE MUSIC from That Damned Band and The Places Reeds & Strings VIbrational Assemblage
Special Late Night Psychedelic Kalimba & Mbira Set by Ralph E. White
"News Flash" Puppet Show by Low Rent
Large-Scale Out There video projections all night
Peacock Lounge Austin, Texas USA
515 East Pedernales

Ahoj Friends, from Six Feet Under the Underground!

This transmission emanates from the old pecan groves and flood plains
of Deepest East Austin. This street dead ends into a wash and a draw,
the beds of which are littered with rusty rebar, wheeless tricycles
and flat basketballs. And along their banks, arterial game trails
and bum nest eddies swirl in the urban forest. Turn around three
times to flatten the grass and lay your ass down to rest a while,
child. It's been one long haul, escaping those high plains.

We're brought to the brink again of a year. Revolved about the sun
again. And the lives lived by golden hours on lovers' isles, water
rushing the rock below your feet and you all the while watching the
light as it falls down the far bank and illuminites the tree leaves
to electric green.

Tiny claws clutch those twigs and branches. That thicket there's
where SONGS FOR CREEPS has found some friendly ears...recessed deep
in the skull, picking up the subharmonic frequencies of the earth's
rotation, aren't you, my feathered friends?

And in a feat of uncommon endurance, a single copy strayed far from
the flyway and made its way to a lady writer's desk in a skyscraper
in New York. And, lo: SONGS FOR CREEPS flickers among the BILLBOARD
MAGAZINE Critic's Choice/Top Ten Albums of 2006, alongside Neil
Young, Thom Yorke, Sonic Youth and TV On The Radio. A bloody
miracle, did you hear that ice breaking? Did you see the elegant
formation fly overhead?

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/yearend/2006/top10/staff_5.jsp#visakowitz
This honor may or may not translate into lavishly appointed tour
buses, personal masseuses and rapping the Gnostic Gospels with Sufjan
Stevens in the Green Room. Witness: a quantity of my own blood packed
in ice. 29 vials of it, waiting to be analyzed by one of the legions
of morbidly obese chain-smoking phlebotomists employed by the
clinical research facility where i just spent two of the longest
goddamned days and nights of my life. The place is like a hospital
and a jail with bad food and worse movies. Somebody make me a
t-shirt please, I SURVIVED 29 BLOOD DRAWS IN 15 HOURS, my first
in-house drug study for money was completed, anemically, the day
before christmas. A wash and a draw, and ten whole minutes to kill
before they do it again. I got sentimental sending off so much blood
into the unknown. I blacked out once and cried once. They wake you
up three hours before dawn.

I considered attaching photos of the bruises, but dismissed the
notion as gratuitous.

I'll cry instead, of albums for sale: SONGS FOR CREEPS! And all the
others that came before. Get 'em while they're hot. Get 'em when
they're not. Real, physical beauties, double and triple gatefolds,
saturated colors. Lyrics! Your hands are required to deliver these
missives to your ears, they cost ten dollars plus two dollars for the
mailman, they are worth every penny, and are only available through
the High Plains Sigh Handmade Music Boutique and Psychic Apothecary.
Delivered to your door!

http://highplainssigh.com/products.html
The online store is set up for paypal, but if you'd prefer to use old
fashioned currency or check please do send to:

AMY ANNELLE
HIGH PLAINS SIGH
1127 WALTON LANE
AUSTIN, TX 78721

You can also get your copy of the very limited edition handmade
covers album FAWNS WITH FANGS: SELECTIONS FROM THE DARK HEART OF THE
THICKET. This is a special batch with four secret bonus tracks! The
folks at Pitchdork said of this album, in a word: "excellent". No
really, that's the only word they said.

Elsewhere, the magnetos spark and burn. A west coast tour, with the
Real Places Fantasy Trio, is shaping up for mid-March. And late
March, a hop back to New, Improved York. Europe in June? Believe
it. The first split 7" vinyl from High Plains Sigh coming to you in
early 2007. Cause you know by 2012 the CD will be eliminated. The
idiot who invented jewel cases will finally meet his eternal
hellfire. It'll be all vinyl and downloads. Fire up your turntables.

To address the more urgent events on the space-time continuum: a
show right here in Austin on Friday. I am very pleased to play with
psychedelic fiddle/banjo/kalimba conjurer Ralph White. Ralph once
hung his hat with the Bad Livers, and now hangs it on abandoned
islands in the Little Colorado River, where he draws detailed star
charts and may very well be making the world's first low-frequency
field recordings of heavy metal concerts twelve miles distant.

THE PLACES and RALPH E. WHITE
FRIDAY 12/29 at rock o'clock ! !
THE PARLOR
100B E. NORTH LOOP, Austin, Texas
(512) 454-8965
http://www.myspace.com/theparlor
Lastly, here is an excerpt from Goldmine Magazine's lovely review of
SONGS FOR CREEPS, in which my songs are likened to the "bastard child
of P.J. Harvey and Tom Waits"...a complex and delicate conception that
might involve a whiskey moondrunk, a rowboat, a retrograde Jupiter,
and a giant Celtic vulva floating ominously over a levee:

"a starkly beautiful collection of dark avant-folk wanderings that
can be eerily quiet and breathtakingly beautiful, Songs For Creeps
mirrors the nomadic lifestyle of its maker. Known to sleep overnight
in flop houses and trailer parks during long stretches of time on the
road, Annelle's inspiration comes from places even creeps fear to
tread...wonderfully weird, macabre songs about fading love, murderous
intentions, seers and midnight explorations"~~Peter Linblad, Goldmine
Magazine

A funny polish broad did the last blood draw the other night at the
research facility, she gave me her pierogi dough recipe. I made
three kinds for the Solstace Party: venison, sauerkraut/mushroom and
potato pierogi. In honor of the Polish broads who bore me. And I
don't mean boring I mean borned!

bring in the new and

Fare Forward, Voyagers!

xxamy annellexx

"I'll come stand at a typewriter in your corner

and shoot murderous words at the birds outside"

The new original Places album SONGS FOR CREEPS is here!

"a truly compelling and unusual collection of recordings...highly recommended" (Rating: 5+++) Don Seven, babysue/LMNOP

Planet Earth (that means international, y'all): mail order this triple-gatefold-sleeved beauty at www.highplainssigh.com ----------

To those who lost faith: farewell, farewell
To you who'd hear, lonely travelers all*: my tale to tell.

This is not for you, Precious Protector of the Image. Lost in your hall of mirrors. SONGS FOR CREEPS does not dig you. It sees you, and it wants to be seen!

This is for you: half-right rambler, sentence server: watch enough white lines go by, and you go blind.

That's when I started to see,

and THIS IS WHAT I SAW.

SONGS FOR CREEPS sings the song of you who labor too long at the task, and fail, and you never had it easy.

You: waking in the dead of night to a dream lover's departure, his kiss is still on your lips.

(You can't do nothin' right. You wear all your fears here, on the outside)

YOU GIVE ME THE CREEPS

You're standing there, in the glare of the spot light, holding the wrong hand.

SONGS FOR CREEPS understands; see? It's standing there, holding a hand too. The grasping one that thrust up from the grave it just dug. The enemy--that terror--may have been utterly conquered, but it is missed, now that it's not around.

(I did not mean any harm)

It will come back, because you let it come back.

(Stars of the third and fourth magnitude, your light dims as you measure your brother.
You've been had by savage masters: jealousy and anger.
Don't you see? Now love is all that's left)

----------

ORDER INFO:

EASIEST
mail order now with PayPal

just click the button at www.highplainssigh.com
PLAN B
please send $12 cash or check by October 9 to:
AMY ANNELLE/HIGH PLAINS SIGH

c/o 2401 Coronado St.
Austin, TX 78702 USA

SONGS FOR CREEPS official release date is October 10 but mail orders will be filled immediately.

After October 10 the album will continue to be available via mail order here at www.highplainssigh.com and probably elsewhere too. For those of you who like to keep it abstract, you will be able to download at ITunes, Napster etc. We will be selling these physical beauties at shows on our tour of the US as a trio in October 9--November 25. The Places Full Band Fantasy Sound, with Adam Kriney and Tom Hand, and I will write again soon to announce tour dates.

SONGS FOR CREEPS all songs ©2006 by Amy Annelle (BMI Make/Do Music) with Special Guests: Andy Piper, Paul Brainard, Brian Beattie and Jay Pellicci.

Produced with Brian Beattie and Jay Pellicci; mastered by Billy Stull. Original album art and design by E*Rock.

----------
track listing:

MINERS LIE!
BLESSED SPEED
THE LION'S SHARE
MY WEARY EYE
MERCY ME
GOLD TO GREEN
THE DAMN INSANE ASYLUM
THE NATURAL ARC
I'M A-GONE DOWN TO THE GREEN FIELDS
SUCH AS THE EARTH (NEVEROFF'S FATE)
WORSE AND WISE
----------

Fare Forward, Voyagers!
and peace to you too,

LOVE
xxthe placesxx

*"Farewell, Farewell" ©1969 by Richard Thompson

Salutations from the fourth pseudo-squat of mine here on the High Plains. This latest place I stay takes a great deal more effort to find something to like about it than did those preceding it. Rather than give up on it, I'd like to try and tell you something about it.

The edifice is a post-war former rental that borders the little-considered eastern front of the city. Then comes this nothing suburb, named for a night sky phenomenon, the consummation of the stranger qualities of solar radiation and atmospheric gases, seen by our eyes as streamers, folds or arches of colored light. The pretense is referenced--though in the abstract, perhaps--in the neon tubes of motel signs and lounges along Deepest East Colfax Avenue. The Wagon Wheel, The Stockman, The Arrow, The Flair.

Colfax is US Highway 40, and these motels paved what was once the bleary-eyed High Plains Traveler's preferred route to the heart of the Dead-Hearted City. That is, until Eisenhower's new Nuclear Warhead Superhighways steered the travelers clear, onto fast blue ribbons skirting the hypocenter. Now the old motels just sit there, brick and mortar, getting older. I am of the mind that nothing good comes to pass nowadays in those numberless rooms. There is survival, sure, but it's transacted in blowjobs and dime bags. I see the artifacts of these survival acts while taking my dog for walks, crossing parking lots and alleys. One thing I know: there's fucking and scoring galore on the streets of Northwest Aurora.

The rest of this burb could not be more different: vast flat expanses of tract house boxes, developed from the remains of the obsolete airport and shuttered air force base. Distracted young fathers follow toddlers as they circumnavigate the block on some little plastic vehicle, the fathers mourning the death of their dream self, that faded last stab at explorer or pioneer. My circuit doesn't take me much to these newly minted parts of town, except to jump onto an unprotected wireless signal (ever harder to find these days!) to send some words to you. So I'll write just what happens near here, on the corner where 18th street should be, but isn't:

HELP HELP came the suspicious cry, and I crossed the street to find out why. And I find two bored bird dogs pacing the fence line, sharing the yard with a yellow-headed amazon penned in his outdoor aviary. Don't be fooled by the approximations of our orations. Look at the naked claws and cold eye. That yard is host to a dinosaur with feathers, and a weird sense of humor!

Sadly, the Giant Metal Butterflies of DuPont have proved to be just that. Their natural habitat does not extend past Sand Creek, or the manmade boundary of Eisenhower's Interstate 70 (All underpasses having been engineered to accomodate the exact height of a Mobile Missle in transit). DuPont was host to innumerable specimens of Giant Metal Butterflies. If you looked closely they could be found on any block, family groups affixed in the sixties to the sides of the company houses, and fading gracefully now in the prairie sun. But just a few miles south in this night-sky phenomena town, I have seen but the slightst ripple of their influence: a single hand-painted weathered wooden butterly straight out of Wood Shop Class, nailed to a dead tree, missing the bottom half of one wing.

The clouds develop the same way every day on summer afternoons. Blowing down from the foothills and mountains, it's some sort of updraft made visible by these towering, growing cumulus columns, swiftly moving East despite their gravidity. Sucking heat energy from the vacant plains of the old Arsenal and shooting bitter forks of lightning at the tract house boxes. There may be a curtain of rain, which the air often reclaims before it can hit the the browning sod or the tiny sticks of trees stuck optimistically in what was once the footprint of an Air Force Runway.

In the park near here there can be found at any hour of the day, men relaxing in the grass under a shade tree. A crew set up early today in the picnic shelter. "Hey sister, what kind of dog is that?" "This is a mutt." "She said it's a mutt. That's a sewer hound! What you got there is a SEWER HOUND". Mutt masters, take note: what you got is a SEWER HOUND.

Well this was an experiment to see if I could shake off some orneriness and remember change is coming, and it's coming soon. And sure enough since writing it I've been blessed by visits from five traveling friends in as many days. Plus I got fired from the shitty restaurant job I've been trying to hold down. It's not exactly the grandiose promises of a chain letter: it's better.

The ciccadas are about ready to crawl out from a long spell under the dark bark.

The new Places album 'Songs For Creeps' is due back from the factory August 8th. Though the official release date is October 10, it can be mail ordered by you before then, dear mailing list deer. I'll be sending an email with all the details very soon. And dates are being confirmed for The Places' Full Band Fantasy Sound US tour October 9 to November 28.

I'll be playing a show with my friends Sarah T and the Love Letter Band on August 4. It's at Chielle, Sarah's handmade clothing store on 3333 E. Colfax Avenue in Denver. I'll also be playing a few more in August, including the Upland Breakdown Festival with Michael Hurley in Centennial, Wyoming!, oh, the geology!, which is sponsored by Arthur Magazine, the best magazine ever. Please check the web page for details.

There it goes.

Fare Forward, Voyagers!

xxamy annellexx

please visit www.highplainssigh.com,
new interstellar HQ for The Places

throw out the hardware. let's do it right.

and ahoj from my new handle.

this is the first transmission, once removed from ye olde hotmaille account.
i grew weary of the mysterious transmissions: from ho:RNY hoUsewives, CIaLis purveyors, trustees of a surprise inheritance from the republic of benin requesting that i send them cash money to prove i'm "serious", various and sundry assholes.

here at high plains sigh, there are no such invasions. only puffy clouds, train tracks, drunk butterflies. birds singing like a waterfall and lightning brain-storm communications. citizen's band radio humming over the prairie dog town sprawl. killer dogs. raptors! the bones have been picked. there's news of a friendly show:

BIG OLD PARTY IN SARAH'S BACKYARD
(CRAWL SPACE)
JUNE 16
with

the places
amy rau
esther hernandez
somebody and somebody
porlolo
little adam
rachel pollard

Denver, Colorado
Inca Street/7th,
somewhere in the crumbly sector south of downtown
8 p.m.

I understand this will not be feasable for most of you. If you live in Denver, and do not know Inca Street Sarah's backyard, you could ride your bike down Inca street and look for people smoking on a porch.

other news. The First High Plains Sigh release is the covers album FAWNS WITH FANGS: Selections From the Dark Heart of the Thicket. and it is making like the runt that survived. Top 20 at WNUR this week in Chicago? true. adding awkward dark splotches to the set lists of various venerable disc jockeys (they wear tight pants and carry crops to smack the flanks of stubborn, bloody music) at WFMU in New York? you bet. playing tetris with the smart kids on Princeton University's WPRB? it is. thank you for letting these songs into your brain waves and nerve endings.

it has also made its way over to thailand, spain, denmark, japan and antarctica, among other places...it was a long shot, and it hit something, somewhere, and i think that thing kind of likes it.

soon, very soon, very very soon i will write to you about the coming new original album called SONGS FOR CREEPS. it is at the factory RIGHT NOW getting made. this album is so close to my heart that releasing it will be like releasing some rare wild rehabilitated creature back into the wilderness at dusk, and it turning back to look at me one last time, and not wanting to reach out to it because i know it is better off free, even if it dies that very same night, and then it turns and flies or gambols off into the unknown. i have posted a few songs for you to hear. here. in the HEAR sector.

and in the photo gallery, documentary of the Giant Metal Butterflies of DuPont.

do you know what i mean?

then there's the tour.

october onward.

it will be the Fantasy Places Home Planet Sound Whole Band, and we will be pioneering through the material on SONGS FOR CREEPS and the frontiers of space/time/70s cocaine country, deep cuts and moldy oldies, and the shows might even be in the paper. we will join forces with illustrious/lascivious/genius/not famous friends along the way. If you would like us to come to your town, especially if it is out of the way, or has unusual local fauna, or is near the woods or a pond or estuary, or if your kind eats some peculiar regional thing for breakfast, or if you are in another freaking country, or have written in the past about playing a show together, please drop a line to

drifter@highplainssigh.com

also write if you just want to say hello: 'ahoj' in the czech tongue.

so now without me even noticing, the sky has darkened from the gloaming into to a black field of stars and with that, i bid you adieu and

FARE FORWARD

xxamy annelle.

Listen to the whole darn album in the HEAR section...

GREETINGS from the rarified air that drafts behind the traveling people.

I have hauled balls in The Captain, back up the light brown prairie and plains. Up there right now are exquisite specimens of raptors riding thermals, striking prey and sulking in the bare branches of trees. There are pheasants dorking across the road. There is a smoky little prairie fire burning on the border of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Right now there is a pack of 12 dogs living in a yard behind the Texline grain elevator like Lord of the Flies, but with dogs instead of kids. In that yard there is even a hill of dirt, the top of which sits the Lord Dog King. I wanted to get close for pictures but the fence wasn't all that high and I imagine all that'd be left of me after that would be a pile of bones getting buried in holes and gnawed on. I wanted to put their picutre here for you to see, and one of a volcano with a UFO cloud too, but I can't get the dang camera to work right.

But there are some pictures of us playing in Austin! If you were looking for love this year you went to the EASTSIDE and found it. Yes the East Side Parties Ruled…FXFY'all, FXFU, and the rad San Franciscans running the Rambler Stage off the back of their '80 Chevy Box Van http://www.rockinvan.com/rambler.html
While in Austin, we also mastered the new Places album, 'Songs For Creeps'. With the help of the live oaks, lily pads, horny squirrels and a gentle, ancient force emanating from behind a curtained stage in Clovis, New Mexico. to be heard by you, but soon! wait for the sun to hit its zenith.

I got back here to the cowboy town just in time to see the next-door neighbor get carted away in an ambulance. Red white and blue lights dancing around, the block looked like the disco of suffering…and now. a few hours later. I am bleary-eyed, cooking breakfasts for the prisoners.

Please drop a line with what's new with you, and fare forward, voyagers!

GREETINGS FROM SIX FEET UNDER THE UNDERGROUND!
hello from the cowboy town. home of many endearingly sleazy liquor stores with signs with log letters or rope letters. birthplace of the trench coat mafia. from the street, open flames can be seen behind the greasy windows of the columbine steak house. for a second you can even see the CNN ticker on the t.v.
but down in texas, our friend Lana Rebel's puttin' on the first annual Fuck By Fuck Y'all, the rowdy old country cousin of FXFU, which is the third finger, once removed, to the more unsavory aspects of SXSW. hear down there, the ciccadas already are stirring under the bark of trees, and the buzz sounds to me like: 'C'MON DOWN, EVERYBODY GONNA BE DOWN, PET THE BABIES AND KISS THE DOGS, PLAY SOME MUSIC, NOTHING TWIXT HERE AND THERE BUT TRAIN TRACKS, PUFFY CLOUDS, EQUIDISTANT HAWKS AND A HIGH PLAINS SIGH.'

The Places (Amy Annelle with Andy Piper and Paul Brainard) play FXFY'all FRIDAY 3/17 at the Typewriter Museum, Austin, TX.

Also there will be a friendly afternoon show at the Spider House SATURDAY 3/18 at 1:00 p.m.
and who knows what all else we'll get into.

for times, band listings etc for these and all upcoming shows, please visit the oh-so-user-friendly
myspace.com/theplacesamyannelle

fare forward, voyagers! xxaaxx

'FAWNS WITH FANGS: Selections From the Dark Heart of the Thicket'

"The Places have compiled a covers album. This is not the premeditated studio covers album. more of an accidental self-portrait, drawn from a pile of live recordings and home 4-track sessions. Songs that have always been and always will be, by Ronnie Lane, Bert Jansch, Michael Hurley, Elliott Smith, Syd Barrett, The Pretty Things and double-crossed mountain women on their deathbeds, as heard through the Places. Mostly live performances from the independent radio stations, tavern and tap room stages of this cursed plane. Also a couple hard-to-find album tracks, which had been secreted at the end, behind episodes of silence. Handmade and numbered in gatefold sleeve w/ booklet."

TO ORDER :
this album is MAIL ORDER ONLY
through a message: myspace.com/theplacesamyannelle

or by sending an email to:

highplainssigh@gmail.com

$10, postage paid.
you can also use THE PAYPAL if you wish to use the future technology... the account is highplainssigh@gmail.com


Giant anteaters, giant squids and creatures overseas, do not be discouraged! It can be done.


FAWNS WITH FANGS:
SELECTIONS FROM THE DARK HEART OF THE THICKET
by the places

JUST A BUM michael hurley
SICKLE CLOWNS the pretty things
ONE MORNING IN MAY traditional
FRIENDS led zeppelin
HALF RIGHT heatmiser
BIG LOG robert plant
LATE NIGHT syd barrett
IT'S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE bob dylan
DEED I DO bert jansch
ANYMORE FOR ANYMORE ronnie lane
ANOTHER SLEEP SONG graham nash
DON'T SING LOVE SONGS (SILVER DAGGER) traditional
NO NAME #3 elliott smith

the gory details:
--just a bum 2005 recorded in chamber of wonder, austin, texas by brian beattie to ¼" tape
--sickle clowns 2005 recorded in one room country little shack, austin texas by amy annelle to 4 track cassette and mixed by brian beattie
--one morning in may 2005 live on KUT radio austin, texas engineered by clif hargrove
--friends 2003 live at dunes portland, oregon recorded by todd barnes
--half-right 1999 recorded des moines, iowa by mike gustafson in the apartment over the liquor store
--big log 2005 live on WPRB radio princeton, new jersey engineered by jon solomon
--late night 2000 recorded in the ghost of laundry rules, portland oregon by amy annelle to 4 track cassette and mixed by larry crane
--it's all over now, baby blue 2005 live on WPRB radio princeton, new jersey engineered by jon Solomon
--deed I do 2003 live at dunes portland, oregon recorded by todd barnes
--anymore for anymore 2005 live on WPRB radio princeton, new jersey engineered by jon Solomon
--another sleep song 2003 live on KBOO radio portland, oregon recordist unknown
--don't sing love songs 2005 live on WPRB radio princeton, new jersey engineered by jon Solomon
--no name #3 2005 recorded in freaky brown and pink room, austin texas by amy annelle to 4 track cassette, mixed by brian beattie
MUSICIANS: amy annelle (guitar, vocals, dulcimer, drums, percussion), andy piper (percussion, tenor slide guitar), jason sands (drums), timothy horner (fiddle), jude webre (electric bass, lap steel), dylan reilly (upright bass, harmonica). THANK YOU to the songwriters for writing these songs and thank you recordists and engineers for recording these versions. thank you to the places past and present for playing them with me. thank you michelle for having the idea. thank you josh and mark in chicago for getting it rolling. thank you rob and chad in portland and thank you joe and matt in denver for helping reel 'er in. thank you for listening.

THE WILLING CONSENT OF THE SATELLITES
hail, weary travelers of the space-time continuum:
this summer was an endless one that stretched on into fall.
nature freaked, seasons ceased to be.
see, what should have been the Last Butterfly turned into the Last Last 
Butterfly and finally the Last Last LAST Butterfly,
pale yellow beat and bored there
in the drainage ditch beside the Interstate (November 7th).
it was like an old person who had lived longer than they'd ever intended.
filling the hours and looking for a drink from a flower
that had withered the week before.
i wouldn't have even seen this record holder, had the Pennsylvania state trooper
not pulled me over to ask me probing questions about controlled substances, and 'could his dog sniff my van'.
i declined, as his dog didn't look like it liked to 'party'.
now it's now. the season did change.
mother nature's having panic attacks.
flames floods and swirling currents.
up on the High Plains here the prairie fires light up the dark
...and then again it's been ten below zero
and the prairie dogs town doors
froze shut from what?
prairie dog breath condensation?
hawk drool? yes.
watch for those shadows.
2005 went out, like a light
...2006 begins with other forces.
a cloud of friendly giant moths
with powdery wings is due to arrive any time.
they are carrying me to each side of the continent, but soon:
AMY ANNELLE solo with MICHAEL HURLEY, THE FINCHES
Tuesday, Jan 17 at Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco
http://www.cafedunord.com/?temp=calendar
http://www.robotwisdom.com/jorn/hurley.html
http://www.finchesmusic.com/ AMY ANNELLE with OKAY, SUSURRUS STATION
Thursday, Jan 18 at Hemlock Tavern, San Francsico
http://www.tagteammedia.com/artist_okay.htm
http://www.susurrusstation.com/ AMY ANNELLE solo WITH COLIN MELOY, LAURA VEIRS
Thursday, January 26 at The Town Hall, New York
http://www.the-townhall-nyc.org/
www.decemberists.com
www.lauraveirs.com THE PLACES, LEWIS & CLARKE, VAGUE ANGELS (chris leo)
and DRAGON TURTLE Saturday, January 28 at Three Moons, Deleware Water Gap, PA
'in the heart of the spooky Poconos'
http://lewisandclarkemusic.com/
http://onlyangels.free.fr/interviews/l/chrisleo.htm
http://brianlightbody.com/dragonturtle.html a high-five to Places [drummer-->US-->east-->capricorn/earth] Adam Kriney:
The Wire Magazine 'crost the pond realizes his Owl Sounds record "Cows On Mushrooms" is one of the best Jazz/Improv recordings from that year, there, see it fading?
g'won and get at www.vorg.net and finally:
a mysterious force emanating from a broom closet
in the condemned sub-basement of the brill building
has siezed one of my songs and its interpretation is being sold,
with the willing consent of the satellites (but not mine!), as a 
'downloadable cell phone ring tone'.
that wasn't supposed to happen but neither was a lot of other things.
modify the parameters of your phone so vibrate comes off like 'stun'.
[like the gun]
wouldn't that be fun?

Dear Creatures,
The visas of a band due to tour here from the Czech republic did not come through--fallen, perhaps between an almond-colored file cabinet and a cubicle wall in a five-story cement office building on the outskirts of Usti nad Labem?-- but fear not! free-spirited musical mercenaries THE PLACES, consisting of AMY ANNELLE and improv/out rock drummer ADAM KRINEY would hate to see a midwest music venue fall still. hell we'll play the salad bar at the Sizzler in Ponca City on a Tuesday Night if it means we get to find out what lurks in the Valley of the Vapors.
[We hate flourescent lights and shatter every cursed pulsing tube we can.]
THE PLACES MIDWEST TOUR DATES:
TU 10.18 BLOOMINGTON, IN @ BLUEBIRD
WE 10.19 INDIANAPOLIS, IN @ MELODY INN with the Abner Trio
TH 10.20 CHAMPAIGN, IL @ U OF IL / COURTYARD CAFE with Jim-Yoshii PileUp
FR 10.21 MEMPHIS, TN
SA 10.23 HOT SPRINGS, AK @ VALLEY OF THE VAPORS FESTIVAL
MO 10.24 OKLAHOMA CITY @ CONSERVATORY with the Mae-Shi
TU 10.25 KANSAS CITY @ RECORD BAR
WE 10.26 DES MOINES, IA @ VAUDEVILLE MEWS w/ Autumn Project
TH 10.27 ST. PAUL, MN @ TURF CLUB W/ Pocahontas County Bluegrass Band
FR 10.28 CHICAGO, IL @ SCHUBAS with Del Rey
-------------------->>>Adam plays in Owl Sounds and other aural freekouts, and he runs a label called Color Sounds "weird fucking musik, psych freak out jams, noisy tones, scorched improv/free-jazz, and out soundz"...here:
http://vorg.net/csr/index.html

Hello friends from a smokey valley in eastern Pennsylvania. Vultures have been seen circling above the worksite. Ration cards, day labouring on the border between 'ain't no more coal' and 'ain't no more steel'. Rrrrrrrrrright across the road I am from Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians' abandoned World Headquarters, The Castle Inn Music Hall.
Are you with me? Fred Waring had a huge band and choral group that made pop music and toured the world from the 1920s until 1984. That's when Fred had his stroke, and traveled on. I used to have a 5,000 gram 10" record of his group that was just a beautiful, black-and white one-microphoned teetotalin' chiffon and cufflinked time-warp. Grandmas could argue from the grave or brown velvet La-Z-Boy about the relative merits of Lawrence Welk and his bubble machine, and Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians. He hung with the heavies, like Frank Sinatra. cross him and you might wake up with cement boots on, catching your breath between the pier and the water. Fred Waring's performance hall is but a ghost hall now--nobody smoking cigarettes and drinking highballs in the grand foyer, nobody warming up in the little tile-floored warm-up rooms. The acoustics however are FANTASTIC, and remain intact. And so we were, in the darkest hours the other night, recording some songs courtesy of a pried-open window and a very long extension cord, man it was sounding good when we met the state trooper. The time warp was over and the ghosts took off. We saw handcuffs and the back of the cruiser. The cop said it was a felony and assumed that we were smoking crack up there. Smoking crack in Fred Waring's abandned rehearsal hall??? This is the Poconos. I would think the place saw more martini blackouts than crack rocks.

creatures,
if you can believe the way things are looking right now, just a few hours after the mist was hanging off the whole of manhattan island and glowing red and green off a few skyscraper lights of questionable aesthetic, then all the little golden lights underneath the glowing mists beating back the dark for some of your fellow creatures lodged in quarters of those endless tall buildings, and the whole of it reflecting off of the east river to just send it all into the truly sublime...if this is your reality, then you'll see that our friend Michael Hurley a.k.a. SNOCK will be making like a Places, sitting in playing free fiddle and foot stomps. That's today folks.
4:30 TODAY SATURDAY SEPTEMBER WHATEVER-IT-IS
the places with michael hurley
mazarin
the mighty flashlight
arbouretum
168 DELANCEY in the basement
LOWER EAST SIDE
MANHATTAN ISLAND
NEW YORK.