Holiday Makeover

Hello, and welcome to our special Christmasized web site. Just another reason that I love our web designer, Lisa Jacobi (www.lisawebsites.com), who also plays with the band Steel String Session.
As you can see we do have a Christmas single out, available in the download form only (that pretty much ruins it as a stocking stuffer idea, but we’re keeping up with the times and it reduces clutter on Christmas Day!). It’s a song that I co-wrote with songwriting legends Dixie and Tom T. Hall called “Kentucky Noel“.

Meanwhile, our new CD collection on Rebel Records, Lost Souls and Free Spirits,  is due out at the end of February, with CDs going out to radio stations at the end of January. We won’t have any for sale on line until then, but you have a one-time only chance to buy an advance copy of the CD coming up on December 8th. We will have some on hand for our last show of 2011 at The Whippoorwill in Gallatin, TN next Thursday, December 8th. It’s our first time to play there as a band, and we hear it’s a great place for music. It came highly recommended by Donna Ulisse, who has played there often, and Ned Luberecki has played there with Stephen Mougin, and he agreed. So come on out if you can. Details are on the tour dates page. Our next show will not be until we play Music City Roots on February 1st.

Speaking of Music City Roots scanning through some pictures of the past year, I came across this one of the whole cast of that show the night we played the first time, including Claire Lynch and band, Jim Lauderdale, and Ned Luberecki doing his banjo balancing act.

Have a great holiday season, and don’t forget to take time out of the busy season to smell the egg nog.
- Chris   P.S. Here’s the link to my latest Bluegrass Today column.

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New Releases

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from the new CD "Lost Souls and Free Spirits - The Rebel Collection Old & New" from Rebel Records. Available to radio stations via New Cuts of Bluegrass and Airplay Direct. Continue reading
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Top 5 single and new baby

I want to wish all of our friends, fans and family a very happy Thanksgiving weekend. I’ve timed things badly again this year missing both Canadian and U.S. Thanksgivings by being in the wrong country at the wrong time. As a consequence, I’m celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving in Canada by going to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert in Dawson Creek, BC. What this means is that you can justify that second helping of turkey and sweet potatoes because you’re just having my portion for me!

We’re excited to report that our new single, “Final Farewell” has rocketed into the Bluegrass Today top 5!  We want to thank DJs and radio programmers around the country and around the world for that support.

In other news, we are very pleased with our new association with Roe Entertainment. We have recently added a bunch of new tour dates which are now posted on our tour dates page. Roe Entertainment also has new contact info and a redesigned web site. Just click on the “For Bookings” page to link to that.

Last but certainly not least, a new Night Driver baby was born this month. Mark, Mary and Finn Stoffel welcomed young Oliver James Stoffel into their family (see very cute photo below). I’m certain that Olie will be a very polite child, since he patiently waited until after our recent Station Inn show to enter the world. Thanks, Olie, and welcome to the family! Congratulations, Mark and Mary!

Oliver James Stoffel

 

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Back From Europe

We have returned from a short but good tour of Italy and Switzerland. Mark Stoffel wasn’t able to go, so we called on the outstanding services of Red Wine’s Martino Coppo on mandolin. Martino was also very kind in offering hospitality and acting as tour guide while we were in his home town of Genoa. Some pictures are below and more can be found on my Facebook page (see link on home page).

Single update: Our brand new advance single, “Final Farewell” from our forthcoming Rebel collection CD, Lost Souls and Free Spirits, is already getting airplay around the country and around the world. If you’re a radio broadcaster and don’t yet have a copy, there’s a direct link to it on Airplay Direct on the home page or right here:

http://airplaydirect.com/music/ChrisJonesandtheNightDrivers/

Any DJs who would like some short audio clips of me talking about the song, please email me at chris@chrisjonesmusic.com, and I can send the files to you.

I’m in northern Alberta at the moment, but I’ll be returning soon to Nashville, where we’ll be playing The Station Inn this coming Thursday, November 3rd. It’s our first time there in quite a while, and our first “in town” appearance since September. Come on out of you’re anywhere nearby.

Our new agent, Jim Roe, of Roe Entertainment is doing a great job. I’ve posted some of our new dates for 2012 just this week.

3 Night Drivers on the streets of downtown Genoa, Italy

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New Single, European Tour

Sorry for the very short post. I’m in an internet cafe in Vernazza, Italy. Pictures will follow when I can. All is well. Out tour wraps up in a few days in Switzerland. Just a reminder for radio stations that our new single “Final Farewell” is available on Airplay Direct. Just click on the link on my home page. Ciao for now!

 

Chris

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New Single Released

As the IBMA World of Bluegrass begins, I have lots to report: First of all, the first single from our upcoming CD on Rebel Records has been released. It’s called “Final Farewell”, and it’s available on the bluegrass single compilation CD “New Cuts of Bluegrass”. Radio stations may also download a CD quality version from Airplay Direct. We have a link on the home page, but here it is again: http://airplaydirect.com/music/ChrisJonesandtheNightDrivers/

Also, any DJs that would like to receive some audio clips of me talking briefly about the song, just email me at my management email address: dmaartists@comcast.net and request the audio clips.

Now for everyone else, you’ll have to request the song of your favourite DJ, because the song will not be available for public download until the CD is released. Our CD, which will be a compilation of some of our best Rebel material through the years, plus new tracks, was originally going to be titled “Not a Tribute to Bill Monroe” (kidding), but finally we settled on “Lost Souls and Free Spirits”. We chose this to honor our friend, the late Harley Allen. It’s a line from one of his songs, “A Train That Never Slows Down”, which will be included on the CD

The next 2 weeks will be action packed, to say the least. I’ll give you the final update on our World of Bluegrass activities in my next post.

A note about the new Bluegrass Blog launch: The Bluegrass Blog is undergoing a total revamping and will be called Bluegrass Today. Some IT trouble (that I would never understand, since I don’t actually know what “IT” stands for) delayed the initial launch, but now they say it should be up and running by Friday the 23rd. It looks like it’s going to be a really good site and a great source of bluegrass information. I’m excited that I’m going to be contributing a weekly column for them too. I should have something there on the first day. If you go to www.thebluegrassblog.com, you’ll be redirected to the site.

More news soon about the IBMA and our upcoming Italian tour.

Chris

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Labor Day News

Happy Labor Day (or Labour Day, where I am right now in Canada),

The Night Drivers and I are taking a few weeks off of the road. I am spending time with family in Alberta, enjoying what are the last few days of summer.

We’re very pleased to announce that we have a brand new single coming out early this month. It will be available on the radio CD service “New Cuts of Bluegrass”, and as soon as it becomes available for purchase, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, I hope you hear it on the air somewhere. The song is called “Final Farewell”, and it was cowritten by me and Jon Weisberger. The song will be one of the new tracks included on a “best of” project coming out on Rebel Records called Lost Souls and Free Spirits. The title comes from a line of the chorus of “Train That Never Slows Down”, one of the songs on the CD, which was written by the late Harley Allen.

IBMA week will be upon us soon. We’re kicking off the week with an appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame as part of a celebration that’s happening there on the Saturday before (see our tour dates page). We’ll also be playing a Rebel Records after hours showcase on Wednesday of IBMA week, and we’ll play Monday night for our annual performance at Tom T. and Dixie Hall’s Good Home Grown Music showcase.

Have a great Labor/Labour Day weekend!

Below is a photo of the band from our recent appearance at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival.


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It’s Better Underground!

We had a great time in Gettysburg on Thursday. We enjoyed playing there and enjoyed listening to our roster mates at Roe Entertainment: Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper and The Lonesome River Band. My Bluegrass Junction show tomorrow (Saturday, noon to 6PM eastern) will be from backstage at the festival (note: there didn’t used to be a backstage at Gettysburg, one of the big changes I noticed since I was last there), and I’ll have interviews of Mike Hartgrove from the Lonesome River Band, Michael Cleveland, and Lorraine Jordan and Tommy Long from Carolina Road.

Speaking of Roe Entertainment roster mates, we’ll be performing tomorrow (Saturday the 20th) with Dale Ann Bradley at Bluegrass Underground, which takes place at the Cumberland Caverns near McMinnville, TN. We’ve never been there, but we’re told it’s a great place to play. Apparently bluegrass music sounds way better underground (all bluegrass events would be held underground if it were practical). This is a WSM radio internet and public TV taping, so if you don’t have a chance to be there in person, you may have a chance to catch it in one of those above ground forms. We’re very excited to be playing this series for the first time. http://bluegrassunderground.com

New CD update: our new “best of” collection on Rebel Records, which will feature some new tracks, is going to be released a little later than originally planned. We’re now looking at a possible November release date, but we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, one of the new tracks, “Final Farewell”,  will be made available to radio as a single by mid-September, via the CD radio service “New Cuts of Bluegrass”. “Final Farewell” is a new song that Jon Weisberger and I co-wrote.

By the way, Jon and I will be playing this coming Tuesday night at the downtown Nashville music club The Rutledge. We’ll be there with other pickers and singers who participated in “The 1861 Project”. I’ll be singing the 2 songs that I recorded on the album, both of which were co-written by Jon Weisberger, Charlie Stefl and album producer Thomm Jutz. Our start time at The Rutledge is 7:00 PM.

Jon Weisberger and Mark Stoffel presenting breakfast

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