Lost in the Trees Tour Diary

Our resident folk orchestra, Lost in the Trees, just returned from a short tour centered around a performance at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. The journey began and ended in Chapel Hill, with a wonderful hometown performance in the historic Gerrard Hall on the University of North Carolina's campus. The Independent's Scan blog asked the band to document their travels, and they obliged. Check out Lost in the Trees two part tour diary here and here, complete with text and photographs.

The tour diary was posted before last night's show at Gerrard Hall, but UNC's wonderful newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, documented the occasion wonderfully. Read the preview article, a few words on their Song of the Week, Lost in the Trees' "Fireplace", a review of the performance and see some lovely photographs below.



Lost in the Trees return from the road poised to work on their new record, the follow up to last year's All Alone in an Empty House, with acclaimed producer Scott Solter (The Mountain Goats, Pattern is Movement, Midtown Dickens). The band will play one more show in 2009: December 6 at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, previewing new material before committing it to tape this Winter.

Video: Embarrassing Fruits on Sessions at Studio B

Embarrassing Fruits appeared on local news station NBC17 today as a part of the ongoing Sessions at Studio B series, making their local network news live debut. The band played a few songs and had a short interview about their past, present and future. Watch it above, or check it out at Music.MyNC.

Adopt A Highway #5

For the uninitiated, let me explain. A couple years ago, The Trekky Records Collective posed a question: Why is it that only law firms and church groups get to adopt highways? We wanted a highway of our own, to raise in our own image. The highway we never had. When given a chance to select our highway, we of course chose North Greensboro St. in Carrboro, NC. The busiest highway in Carrboro. So now we are charged with the noble stewardship of two miles of road and sidewalk, jutting through Carrboro like a ANTM catwalk. Every couple months we assemble and clean.

Adopt A Highway #5 was a classic cleaning. We picked up little pieces of paper, received hurried "Thank You!"s from Carrboro Vegans, found a skateboard without wheels, half of a Pokemon card, a Teva sandal and (I think) our spiritual beings. Keep Carrboro Green, Y'all!

Video: Lost in the Trees - "Love On My Side" @ Shakori Hills

Here's Lost in the Trees playing "Love On My Side", a song that rarely makes it into the live set, at the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival a couple weeks ago. This video shows Trees' Ari Picker and Will Hackney rehearsing the song behind the stage shortly before performing, spliced in with the actual performance from the show. Enjoy! And check out Lost in the Trees on tour, dates below.

Lost in the Trees tour to CMJ

Lost in the Trees have been invited to play the infamous CMJ Music Marathon for the first time and they can't wait to be 10 more people making New York City an overcrowded circus. The band has added a few more dates at their favorite places on the East Coast to make a nice little mini-tour, capped off by a hometown show in the historic Gerrard Hall in Chapel Hill, NC. Dates below:

10-21 Charlottesville, VA - Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
10-22 Washington, DC - DC9
10-23 New York, NY - CMJ/Paste Magazine Showcase at The Living Room*
10-24 Boston, MA - Cafe 939
10-25 Freehold, NJ - The Studio
10-28 Chapel Hill, NC - Gerrard Hall (UNC)
*=with The Love Language

Trekky Records' Guide to Shakori: Fall 2009

Every Spring and Fall, our hippie festival fix is satiated by the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival in Silk Hope, NC. There's just something about drum circles, hula hoops and noodle dancing that you can't deny. If you're planning on heading down this weekend, here's our official endorsements for what bands to catch.

THURSDAY

5:15PM | Midtown Dickens (Meadow Stage)

Hot off the release of their brilliant new album (which I happen to play on...conflict of interest?) Midtown Dickens are winning hearts all over. They'll be right at home at Shakori, slinging banjos and wielding mouth harps with utter joy. This is the very first performance of the whole festival! Don't miss it.

FRIDAY

3:30PM | Butterflies (Cabaret Tent)

Josh Kimbrough's tender, jazzy post-rock may seem an odd fit for a Grassroots festival, but look no further than the influence of Libba Cotten's incredible finger-picking style to see that Butterflies have folk in their veins, as well. This will be Butterflies' second time appearing at the festival and they will be a refreshing jolt of something different on Friday afternoon. They'll be augmented with mandolin for the first time ever. Should be a very special performance.

SATURDAY

2:30PM | The Never (Meadow Stage)

Shakori's favorite sons return to the festival they've seen grow through its infancy. The Never bring their sunny, elegant, sometimes haunting pop music to the giant Meadow Stage. Ye shall here their harmonies across the land!

6:00PM | Chatham County Line (Meadow Stage)

One of North Carolina's best authentic bluegrass bands, Chatham County Line spin classic country tunes in a way that feels modern without trying to reinvent the wheel. There's a reason there are so many bands with guitars, banjos, mandolins and three part harmonies.

10:30PM | Lost in the Trees (Grove Stage)

Trekky's preferred giant folk-orchestra Lost in the Trees return to Shakori for their third time. This late night performance will be utterly picturesque, with Ari Picker's precious symphonic compositions at center stage.

Videos: TRK @ Milltown: An Evening with the Trekky Records Collective

Here's some moving picture highlights from our recent TRK @ Milltown showcase party.



Butterflies' Josh Kimbrough covering "Don't Know Much" by Aaron Neville and Linda Ronstadt.



Will Hackney (Trekky Records, Lost in the Trees) playing a rare solo performance.



Lost in the Trees performing a mostly unplugged version of "Walk Around the Lake".



The Trekky Mafia covering Empirikal Evaden$e's cover of Embarrassing Fruits' "Willing Partner".