December 1, 2007

Your present is here! Now both Vetivers albums are free for download on paulsolecki.com. Let me know what you think of these forgotten classics...

In other news, I've arranged and recorded some music for a production of The Merchant of Venice opening on Wednesday at the Half Moon Theatre in Cork. Please don't listen to the Vetivers albums on your mp3 players during the performance!

November 21, 2007

Both Vetivers albums, Lights and Twelve O'Clock In All The World, are being rereleased, and the best part is they'll be free! As a special Christmas present from PaulSolecki.com, you'll be able to download both rare albums on this web site starting on December 1st. Lights was originally released in December 1999 and features 10 of my original songs, along with 4 by Jimmy March and one by Patrick Danko. 2002's Twelve O'Clock In All The World features 14 of my songs (including one co-written with Ben Champion and Clyde "Sweet Balls" Kim), and one of Clyde's originals. I'll give you something better next year...

November 6, 2007

No news... yet. I'm having a little practice on Sunday with a potential new band, hopefully something will come of it. Also working on starting another musical venture with good ol' Mick from The Great Egress. I've also been putting a lot of work into the programming of my online radio station, Paul's Cork and Beyond. In the meantime, Ankica and I just visited Antonio in Venice! More soon...

August 4, 2007

Just a quick summer update. I haven't been playing any gigs lately, just concentrating on songwriting so far this summer. Hopefully I'll have a lot of interesting new stuff the next time I perform. A couple days ago I moved into a new house after four years in my old one, so now I have a nice view of the Lough from my bedroom windows. My mom recently came for her first visit to Ireland so we did a bit of exploring, both here and in the south of Spain and even a bit of Morocco and Gibraltar. And in about a month I'm taking a quick trip to Poland to meet up with my dad. More when something actually happens...

May 5, 2007

Well, it's all over. The Great Egress had our last gig last Saturday, and soon Jon will leave Ireland and the band will be no more. Kalle, Mick, and I plan to continue, but we're not sure yet who we can get to replace Jon or what the new band will be called. I'll be sad to see Jon go.

On the bright side, it's a nice early summer in Ireland, and college is almost over so the usual summertime adventures will start again. The first big event is the visit of my good friend Jim Kelly, who was in the bands Carnivorous Grass and The Vetivers with me back in Kansas. We're hoping to have a mini Carnivorous Grass reunion gig while he's here. And tonight I'm off to see Loudon Wainwright III in concert!

April 10, 2007

Lots has happened! Last month marked the debut of my brand new country band The Bad Young Girls! That's us just after we finished playing. Frances on bass, Kalle on drums, Robbie on lead guitar and lap steel, and me. Was a big success, and we've got more coming up, but we're waiting until The Great Egress play our last gig before we get started.

Speaking of The Great Egress, Mick's song Da Da Da has been given the full studio treatment and is out on a new compilation CD, Open/Play/Listen. It's a great CD all around but of course Mick's song is my favorite.

Had a few vacations lately as usual, with a trip to the north of England for a week then I spent Easter Weekend as I do every year, in Kilcrohane!

February 24, 2007

Just got back from a great trip to Sweden! It was freezing and snowing the entire time, but what do you expect?! Stayed with good ol' Swedish Andy, who I hadn't seen in three years. Thanks Andy!

When I got back I had an email from Neil Young's Living With War web site about a song I recently submitted about fellow Cork musician Hank Wedel. Now if you check out the site you'll see my complete lyrics printed right on page 1 of the site! Wow, thanks for the inspiration, Hank! My music isn't too political very often, but I have pretty strong feelings about everything going on, as I imagine everybody does... I appreciate America a lot more since I left but know there are lots of things to fix, and I think music can help as it has throughout recent history. So go to the site and check out the songs! There are a lot of good ones, a lot of ok ones, and a lot of really strange ones... Just click on a few random ones and you're sure to get inspired!

February 2, 2007

I'm sad to announce that preperation is underway for the farewell gig of The Great Egress. Our bassist and most prolific songwriter Jon Clark is unfortunately leaving Cork in May after staying much longer than he expected to. Don't worry though, we're planning something special for the last gig and there will be a few last chances to catch the best band from Cork, Kansas, Finland, and New Zealand in the world...

I'm also starting a country band with the great young guitarist Robbie Barron, who has music in his genes (no, not jeans), and we're having our first practice this weekend. In the meantime I'm just busy with college and work and I've been writing a bunch of new songs. Last month I spent a week exploring Portugal and in a couple weeks I'm off to Sweden! Got a few gigs coming up, with The Great Egress and solo, and hopefully one with my new college band at one of the upcoming CSN gigs. See you soon...