Eugene Pit Bull Rescue on “Dog Whisperer” (Please Vote)

I recently adopted a brilliant Pit Bull puppy from Luv-a-Bull Rescue in Eugene, OR. My wife and I have become volunteers & advocates of this wonderful shelter. And now is a crucial time for a shout out. I am reaching out to my Pit Bull fellowship, all of you who have kept me involved since the release of my Pit Bull Blues song/video. And all we need is a handful of mouse clicks:

Luv-a-Bull needs help in the form of votes. Cesar Millan filmed an episode of “The Dog Whisperer.” The subject was an aggressive little Chihuahua named “El Diablo.” If you saw the it, you know that the message was VERY PIT BULL POSITIVE! (Pitties were the good guys for once.)

After it aired, Luv-a-bull adoption numbers went up!
Now, there is a contest for Favorite Episode. We need your vote! (click here) If the “Luv-a-Bull” episode wins, they’ll get much-needed publicity and positive press for Pit Bulls!

Also, the Cesar Millan Foundation may be in a position to lend support, which is needed now more than ever.

You can vote as often as you like! Send this link to your friends and family! Mount a campaign for “Chihuahuas From Hell”

Thank you.

Music’s Edge Rock Camp @ WOW

In mid-lockout session with Ebbage. He’s really cracking the whip. (Lead vocals completed for 4 songs in one day.) The early results suggest the best stuff I’ve ever done. Going into the second day with high hopes–gotta concentrate and be careful to keep the eye on the ball (As Ebbage says.)

But now I’m taking some time with my morning coffee at Muse in Seattle to think and talk about the second 2010 installment Music’s Edge Camp, at which I’ll be teaching all next week. (Monday the 7th through Friday the 13th.) This is the 3rd year for me. And each time it is an exhausting, rewarding and uplifting experience that I look forward to all year.

It’s directed by Tim McLaughlin. (One of my bandmates in The Blue Rebekahs.) It’s happening at WOW Hall. There’s still time to register, if you’re a kid in the Eugene, OR area between the ages of 10 & 17.

The other instructors are Zak Johnson and Ehren Ebbage.

Read more »

Shipe & Ebbage at work on the New Album

This morning, I’m in Seattle, with my bestest music buddy Ehren Ebbage, about to go into the studio for our 3rd of 4 stretches of work on the new Shipe album.

It remains untitled, but finally comes into creative focus as I understand where this material comes from, and who the character (or set of characters) is that makes this album. One of the songs is called “Love Belongs to Everyone,” which could to be a title cut. But I’m afraid it won’t do, because it’s one of those “means-the-opposite-of-what-it-says” lines, which nobody will get until they listen to the song a few times.

And besides, as Amy says, an album of that title, judged by its cover, will be easy to dismiss at first glance as a lazy collection of hippy, one-world, one-love musical platitudes. To that, I say, “What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?”

“Ha,” she retorts. “If only that was what you had to say.” (The song itself is as dark as any I’ve written, featuring a highly disturbed character. But at least the chorus is uplifting… uh… in a kind of mournful way… You’ll have to hear it, I guess, and you’ll see what I mean.)

She goes on to ask, “Are you making another Sudden & Merciless Joy?”

No, I’m not. But, yes, this album comes from a restless, worried place. It’s not the domestic placidity of Yellow House. After all, I was ungrounded, moving from Eugene to San Diego to Yellowstone and back to Eugene, enjoying life, but struggling to get leverage in my endeavors. I should have indulged in sunny California mellow melodies, and wide open Yellowstone Big Sky . But this guy went further inward than outward.

That said, I insist that he’s not so existential as SMJ. He’s more like the Blue Rebekah storyteller who lodges at Yellow House.

If that has you wondering how this album is going to sound, all I can say is, “me too.” I’m in the capable hands of Ebbage, and I trust him all the way. Together, we’ll make sure the whole thing makes a good damn bit of sense.

Story-Behind-the-Song (Underground Debutante)

Leona Laurie, music blogger extraordinaire, has a new forum called “Backstory.” (Actually, it’s her old “Story-Behind-the-Song” re-outfitted.)

I am honored to be featured for the second time. This time I reminisce about the opening single from my 2005 release John Shipe & The Blue Rebekahs.

Best New Bands–BackStory

New Pit Puppy

We got a new baby pit bull around here at West of Eden. His name is Otis. He loves the sound of the piano, settling himself down to help me work on new tunes for the new Shipe album (currently in pre-production with Ehren Ebbage).

We picked him up from Luv-a-Bull, a shelter & sanctuary here in Eugene, OR. Liesl Wilhardt, the hero who runs the place–compassionately and expertly–takes in orphaned Pit Bulls from all around North America. Likewise, people from all around the continent adopt from Luv-a-Bull.

Dyson & Crackerjack Highway

My old drummer, Dyson, from the Pollyanna Loves Cassandra days, has been working in San Francisco with Crackerjack Highway. He tells me that they’re touring the Northwest in late March. (I’m down for their Luckey’s show in Eugene on the 26th.

Back when Dyson joined up with Shipe Band in 2000, he came from a hot Eugene local progressive funk band (with Olem Alves, Asher Fulero & Zak Johnson). Shipe music didn’t exactly scratch that prog-funk itch, so it’s good to see him returning to it. I hasten to add that he has the super-evolved chops to meet the prog agenda. And he’s singing, to boot.

Sustained chart position

Some more good news: Yellow House remains on the EuroAmericana Chart for February.

Shipe Review in UK

I just got a favorable review in the UK, written by Paul Kerr for Americana UK. A lucid review that proves he gave Yellow House an honest handful of listenings.

Two things stand out which please me: First, he cites the pop/rock song “Promises” as one of the better songs on the CD. Other reviews either ignored it, or mentioned it in passing as “stylistic meandering” that veers away from the tidy semi-acoustic stuff on the rest of CD.

Second, he describes the writing as “naive and innocent.” This sounds like a slight, but I think he meant it in a good way. Plus, I think of such naivete as kind of a writer’s victory. I had been honing the writer’s skill of making a distinction between author and the character who is speaking. Previously, some Shipe tunes would be saturated with too much awareness. I wanted the Yellow House characters to speak from specific points-of-view, limited to the experiences portrayed in each song, while broader and deeper meanings would go un-said. In other words: more story-telling, and less poetic, emotional philosophizing (Not to mention all the dark cynical impulses that accompany all that agonized deep-thinking.)

The paradox is just how much work it takes to become so “naive and innocent.” (In the same way that Picasso spent 60 years learning how to paint like a child.)

Shipe on Americana Chart

I’ve been so busy, it almost escaped my notice: Yellow House is on an American Americana chart now.

3rd Coast Music’s Freeform American Roots Chart

Entering at #16, tied with Chuck Prophet.

I couldn’t be more pleased. DJ’s and programmers in this part of the Biz treat independent music with honest respect. Even those who reject Yellow House send me e-mails indicating that they gave it a seriously listen. If it doesn’t fit their repertoire, they usually pass it along to someone else who might run with it, laying the contact info on me as well.

Now that I’m wrapping up the international promo run, I finally have a partial-but-substantial list of North American outlets spinning the album. Read more »

Shipe Hits the Charts

This morning, I discovered that Yellow House opened on the Euro Americana charts at #13.

The songs getting the most airplay:
Hours Go By
Just in Time
Yellow House
Hipster
Honky Tonk Romans

“We Got a Situation,” “Elegant Failure,” and “Bleeding in Your Shoes” have snuck in a spin or two.

I have three professionals to thank for their help: Rachael Harrington from Emerging Artist Resources, Claire Flint from Three Seed Design, and my publicist Leona Laurie