- Nigel Egg - Blog

Dilemma! (20101117)

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:28:02 -0800

Here’s my dilemma of the day. I got in the car this morning and the windshield was covered in frost. This wouldn’t normally be a occurrence of dilemmic proportion, but I didn’t have a scraper and I needed to get to work. What could I use to scrape with? Aha! I have 5 CDs, in their cases, in the little cubby hole in the dash – I decide to use one to scrape the windshield. But which one? My own CD, Big Bang Baby Boom? No way. OK, here’s my friend David Hanners’ new CD, but that won’t work because it has the cardboard type of case and wouldn’t scrape, just get soggy. Whitey Johnson I refuse to use, because come on, I paid full price AND postage from CD Baby, and if Whitey (Gary Nicholson) found out, he might set lawyers after me. So that leaves CDs by Larry Suess and Waylon Jennings. Waylon’s Dreaming My Dreams is on my top-ten-of-all-time list. I have cried real tears listening to this album. It would be tantamount to celebrating black communion to use it as an ice scraper. Larry Suess, on the other hand, is a friend; he sang on my CD, he played backup guitar for me at the Songwriters meeting last month, where he gave me this copy of his latest labor of love, Tempered Steel. How could I ever look him in the eye again after abusing his trust? Well, I’ll manage somehow, I’m thinking to myself. (To be continued…)

One gig coming up – I’m playing in town for the first time in three months! Saturday, November 27^th at the Riverview Cafe and Wine Bar in South Minneapolis with Richard Kronick on upright bass. Click the underlined link for map, menus, reviews, etc. We’ll start at 8pm.

(Note - My December date in Delano has moved to Saturday, January 15th so we could get Billy McLaughlin’s Christmas Show scheduled at The Three Crows.)

So you probably realized that my car did, in fact, make it to Duluth and back. It was cool to get so many helpful emails back from you with mechanical advice! All but one from men, incidentally. I wonder if responses to my “dilemma” will be skewed, gender-wise… Oh, come on, did you really think I’m capable of such treachery? My dilemma was resolved because I vacillated so long that the car warmed up and defrosted the windshield. Phew!

Hope to see you at the Riverview!
Thanks,
Nigel.

P.S. I have a new song up on YouTube – Tax On The Blues. My contribution to reducing the deficit.
P.P.S. I’m posting my newsletters in the Blog section of the website if you’d like to read any of the old ones.

Disaster flirts, or is it me? (20101104 newsletter)

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 20:52:43 -0700

My car is making a funny noise, a vibration, and I think it might be the water pump. I see coolant down there, for one thing. It does stop vibrating once the engine is over 2500 rpm. I should get it fixed. But I have to drive up to Duluth tomorrow for an afternoon radio appearance (sounds wrong, but I do show up, and thereby appear. You, however, can only listen) on KUMD, and a gig at Amazing Grace in the evening. My first tendency is to just cross my fingers and hope for the best. There isn’t time to take the car in and get fixed before tomorrow morning. If the water pump blows, I’m stranded. I could rent a car, but then I won’t be able to have a cigar on the drive back tomorrow night. Or on the way up for that matter. Possibly two cigars if I drive slow!

I think the best thing is to leave five hours early, just in case. After all, I’ll be on 35W all the way, which is as close to civilization as you can get between here and Duluth, and Enterprise would come and pick me up if necessary. That way I can indulge my need to court disaster but still satisfy the greater need to play the gigs. Jeez, I need to find better ways to live on the edge.

Friday 11/5 at 2pm – Live From Studio A at KUMD 103.3FM, streaming at http://www.kumd.org/

Friday 11/5 at 8pm Amazing Grace Bakery and Cafe in Duluth

(click underlined link for map)

Coming up next week – Friday 11/12 at The White Horse in St Cloud (10pm). Richard Kronick will play upright bass, Martin Wolfe on percussion. The White Horse has an Originals Only policy - we’ll be playing some tunes that are a little more “out there”.

Back in town for Thanksgiving – at The Riverview Café and Wine Bar on Saturday 11/27. More about that in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’m posting a couple of videos from the recording of Big Bang Baby Boom on www.nigelegg.com – it’s the Genuine Baby Boomer Chorus session! Check the “News” section.

As always, if you want to change your email address or discontinue receiving my semi-monthly newsletter, just click on the link below.

Thanks for your support!

Nigel

When harmonica hygiene relaxes

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 20:54:15 -0700

I am willing to suffer to bring you good music and I can prove it.
I travelled down to Winona last weekend to play at the Acoustic Cafe. I was setting up on stage and suddenly realized I had forgotten my harmonica case. Panic. I mean, I play a lot of harp in my live show! The local music store was closed. But to the rescue came Dedrick! This local musician overheard me phoning to try and scrounge up some harps, ran home, and returned with a couple of harps he hadn’t played for years.
Harmonicas are a fairly disgusting instrument as far as germs go – little food pieces lodge inside and there really isn’t a good way to get them out. But they do, eventually, work loose. On a good day, the dried up morsels exit the harmonica on a note where I am blowing outwards. But half of the notes are produced when sucking inwards. That might not be so bad if the resulting projectile came from your own mouth in the first place.

OK, I’ll stop there. I just pretended it was insects flying into my mouth because the truth would have been much worse (and many insects are edible).

I’ll have my own, freshly laundered set of harps for these upcoming gigs:
Friday Oct 1st in North Branch, MN at Jitterbeans 7-9pm
Thursday Oct 7th at The Acoustic Cafe in Eau Claire, WI. 7-9pm
No cover charge at either place. Click on the underlined link for directions, menus and so on.

A couple of people commented that when you download my music from iTunes, you don't get the CD artwork except for the front cover. The inside of the CD booklet has lyrics, info on the musicians and so on, and Troy's art work is really great. So - I'll post them all on my web site for anyone to download.

I'm taking the rest of October to focus on writing – I have over fifty partially-written songs and I have to clear the decks to get in the right frame of mind to finish songs. Next gig is November in Duluth.

Thanks!

Nigel.

This guy must be good - he's from somewhere else!

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:55:31 -0700

When you see that a musician from out of town has come to play locally, does that make you more interested in hearing him or her? It’s not logical at all, but I do have that bias myself, and I’m hoping other people do too - all my gigs are out of town the next few weeks!

Maybe it’s just a thing where you know you can see the local musician some other time, so you put it off because, let’s face it, there’s plenty of other great music out there. But when you know it’s now or never, you’re more inclined to go? Whatever.

This weekend I have two gigs in Iowa. I’ll be playing with my friends Eric Coleman and Isaac Norman (aka Longshadowmen) at both venues. They are amazing songwriters and performers from the Ames / Des Moines area, and kindly agreed to be the opening acts so I can be the star from out of town!

Click the venue names for information, addresses and so on.

Friday Sept 17th – The Ames Progressive. Early show starts at 5:00pm, with Eric Coleman and Longshadowmen opening.

Sat Sept 18th – The Ritual Cafe in Des Moines, 7:00-10:00pm.

I head south again the following week, playing as a solo act, but I’ll still be thinking I am really special because I had to drive a ways to get there!

Friday Sept 24th – The Acoustic Cafe in Winona, Minnesota. 8:00-10:30

Saturday Sept 25th – The Main Entrance in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin, 9:00-1:00

It would be really crazy if you were to show up. I don’t think I’d travel that far to see you. But perhaps you have a cousin in Des Moines you haven’t seen in a while…or you’ve heard that the scene at the Main Entrance is some kind of 60’s throwback and you missed the original…or maybe you have a friend in Winona you could forward this email to?

Thanks for reading!

Nigel.

www.nigelegg.com

Awards day at Dusty's

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 20:57:08 -0700

This will be our last Sunday afternoon at Dusty’s now that Vikings season is starting up. So it is time for the Awards Show! We have one person with perfect attendance (so far). This surely deserves acknowledgement (or perhaps medical attention?) and there are awards for best posture on bar stool, top contributor to bar profits, meanest bartender, etc. And a free latex glove for everyone to wear during you-know-what! I have a big box of gloves, so come on down!

Here’s the schedule for the next couple of weeks.

Saturday 8/28 8pm at The E-Squared Café and wine bar in Brainerd, $3 cover (Nigel solo). A new venue that I've heard great things about from musician friends. ks , and try the food!

Sunday 8/29 2-5pm at Dusty’s Bar in NE Minneapolis, no cover (Nigel and Richard Kronick on bass)

Wednesday 9/1 7-8:30pm at Father Hennepin Bluffs Park (outdoor at Stone Arch Bridge, no cover) (Nigel and Richard)

I'll put up some mp3 files (free download) after the Dusty's Awards Day and probably some pictures of people during the you-know-what . It's all on the new and improved nigelegg.com

(Editor's note - we were too party-minded to take picures or turn the recorder on, sorry!)

Thanks,

It makes you think

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:58:28 -0700

If you are travelling in a spaceship at the speed of light and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?

It was a nice surprise this week to discover a review of the CD Release Party in Blue Monday Monthly by Rayce Hardy! (click underlined words to follow link)

Another good discovery – my new web site is averaging over 300 hits per day. To celebrate, there is a free download for you of "It Takes a Twelve-Pack to Make Me Cry" on the Music page. This tune is not on the CD, it is a demo version I made last year – could be a collectors’ item because I’ve changed some words since then. No, NOT the garbage collector!

I have 4 Minneapolis gigs in 8 days coming up. It would warm the cockles of my heart to see you at any of them! Click underlined links for addresses, reviews and so on,

Sunday, August 8th 2:00-5:00pm Dusty’s Bar, NE Mpls

Tuesday, August 10^th7:00pm Bryant Square Park, Uptown (outdoor)

Saturday, August 14^th 2:00pm In-store performance at Cheapo Records in Uptown

Sunday, August 15th 2:00-5:00pm Back at Dusty’s Bar

Thanks,

Nigel

This time last year (video)

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:15:52 -0700

I was heading up to Mahtowa for the weekend for the 2009 Highway 61 Folks festival . I don't know what's happening this year - there may be a singer/songwriter contest but I didn't get a notice about it.

Anyway, here are a couple of videos from last year's competition

When Brunch is Not Enough

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:59:40 -0700

Sometimes, not often, but sometimes, Sunday brunch doesn't quite satisfy what you might be hankering for. For times such as these there is Nigel Egg and Friends at Dusty's Bar every Sunday afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00.

No rush, sit back and let your brunch settle in your stomach and hey, if that contented, I-had-a-good-brunch feeling comes a-creeping over you, well just stay home and milk it - this is obviously not a Nigel Egg and Friends kind of Sunday for you.

But if you still feel like the wolf is at your door, the world is spinning backwards, or you need a little something you can’t quite put your finger on, here is a map, here is a sample of the music you’ll find there, now dagnab it, get in the car and come on over!

The CD Release Party at the 331 Club was a HUGE success last Friday – thank you to everyone that came, packed the house and celebrated with us! If you were intending to come, but that contented, I-had-a-good-whatever feeling was upon you and you couldn’t move a muscle for fear it would depart, never fear – the whole evening was videotaped and I’ll have videos up on YouTube soon. There are a bunch of photos on Facebook already (if you have more, please post them!)

On Thursday July 29^th I’ll be playing one of the best venues in the Twin Cities – The Lake Harriet Bandshell, with Martin Wolfe on percussion. The concert begins at 7:30 and goes until 9:00pm. The Minneapolis Parks department has music there every evening in the summer – check the schedule here.

Thank you for listening!

Nigel.

P.S. If you’d prefer not to receive these emails, or would like me to send them to a different address, just hit Reply and let me know.