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

Shipe Hitting Global Airwaves, Charts?

The ramp-up for Yellow House promotion has been a long slow march. After being treated so well by regional radio, we sent our little precious around the country and the world. The news trickles in; so far, Yellow House gets love and airplay in more than 50 locations. (That covers a lot of space–the whole world if you count streaming internet.)

Several songs are rotating on playlists. The DJ’s have nice things to say, lending votes for the FAR reporting charts.

Radio Crystal Blue, has Yellow House listed at 13 on their top 100 for the year.

Stay tuned for more data and a list of stations.

Shipe Year in Review

The start of 2009 found me in North San Diego County. In the middle of my Yellow House run, it seemed a mistake to up-and-leave headquarters just to get out of Northwest rain. Sure, we lived on the beach, and the sunny weather was awesome, but they don’t have much of an original singer/songwriter scene in that surfer strip between L. A. & S. D.

What they do have, however, is a great Irish scene. Irish bands and Irish pubs. (Gentlemen from Flogging Molly reside there.) I was lucky to fall in with these folks. Ned Giblin, of Brehon Law, invited me to play Wednesdays at his pubs, J.J. Landers and R. O’Sullivan’s. So, I had regular gigs and a close look at a timeless style of music. (The influence of Ned and his cohort David Lally is bound to show on my next album.)

In Oceanside, I befriended Doug Whorly and several of his showcases at McCabe’s, where I met the lovely and talented road warrioress Jacqui Foreman. She honored me by covering my “Faith in the Man.”

It was at a Whorly showcase where my wife, Amy Wray, filmed the video of me covering The Pretender’s “Brass in Pocket.”

I didn’t bother working the L.A. scene. Too big, and like different country. But at the urging of my publicist Leona, I played a couple times at The Gypsy Den in Orange County. (Once with Trevor Davis.)

We lived down the beach from football star Junior Seau, who has a beautiful blue Pit Bull named Rocky. I mention the dog, because it was about this time that my connection to the international Pit Bull community really deepened. I was getting daily e-mails from dog lovers about my song “Pit Bull Blues,” which I gave out freely to anyone engaged in canine care and rescue. Soon, videographer Jeff Fleiss contacted me with the idea of making a video. By spring, he had hauled me up to L.A., filming me in front of the Coliseum amidst 25 Pit Bulls and their trainer, Dogman. He put it together with some excellent footage taken by Amy, and boom… there was a sweet video… still getting legs on the web.

Read more »