June 2024 Newsletter - “Summer's Here & Hydrangea are FIRE!!!”
Hello, friends! Even if you don't love summer as much as I do, you have to admit that the talk of the season is the hydrangea, right?! They happen to be my favorite flower (I know - I'm obsessed with blue and that's much of the reason, but they're also soo.. FLUFFY!!!), but driving or biking around and spotting the enormous mop-top heads and vibrant colors has become a new hobby. Countless articles are being written about why it's such a great hydrangea season (wet and warm winter/spring), but I wonder if it feels all the more meaningful because last year they all died! Hibernated? Barely a bloom to be found! And, as often happens when I come here to write a newsletter, I'm realizing as I type that I may be sympathizing with the hydrangea, as I also had a rough summer last year, filled with grief and self-doubt and loss of spirit… only to come back this summer and feel like I'm blooming again and thriving again and excited again! So, maybe I'm appreciating these gorgeous, thriving hydrangea with even more gratitude for what they've been through :)
I am not a botanist or florist and didn't really come to here to write about flora, but this is what happens when I hit the keyboard and treat it like a journal entry! Onward with the news: yesterday, we hit the recording studio for some final tracks and reimagining of a couple songs for the upcoming EP, and I even got to play percussion on a pasta pot filled with (the exact right amount of) water. (Being married to a drummer for almost 12 years has clearly worn off, but I AM for-hire if anyone needs weird percussion sounds that they can't quite figure out ;) Ed Lucie on bass and Mike Connors on drums added to our title track “Exhale” to make it the title track and epic tune it needs to be. Can't wait to share on November 1st!
Then, I've got 2 shows in the next 2 weeks:
* Wed, July 3rd (Independence Day Eve!) - Songwriters in the Round at the Rooted Café at Arts at the Armory in Somerville, MA
7pm - 8:30pm - I'll be hosting this time and can't wait to hear Gabriella Simpkins, JJ Slater, and Sam Bergquist share their songs. No cover, $10- $20 donation suggested
* (just announced) Wed, July 10th - 8pm - Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA - I'll be playing a solo opening set (about 45 mins) for the incredible Dayna Kurtz and Robert Maché from New Orleans. $12/$15 at door
I'll be coming to your inbox next month to remind you of the other exciting shows, but please feel free to check out the SHOWS page to purchase tix ahead of time for the Sept 14th house concert (limited amount of tickets!) and Nov 1 EP Release Show at City Winery Boston… I have a feeling we will sell out both! And, I'll leave you with a video below that I recorded on the deck a couple weeks ago. Couldn't help myself - it's one I've been singing since I was a wee one and is by one of my greatest musical heroes, James Taylor. Hope you are thriving like the hydrangea, and if you're not… hang on, dear ones - you will reemerge one day soon.
xx Britt
May 2024 Newsletter - “Hummingbirds and Exhales”
Greetings on this Memorial Day, the unofficial start to my favorite season as well as a day of remembering… hope you are spending it exactly as you wish. I haven't haunted your inboxes in a while (specifically, since BEFORE our ridiculously fun single release show at Lizard Lounge on March 1st!) and wanted to share my excitement over what's to come and what we've been up to!
The Lizard Lounge show was, quite possibly, my favorite show ever - we had up to 9 people on stage at once, but Mike (the setlist master) had assembled a set that flowed incredibly well, with our bandmates coming and going, adding horns, taking away cello, adding back in some keys… I swear I was able to attain the sought-after but infrequently-achieved “flow state” as we played our hearts out and had SO. MUCH. FUN. And ya know the best part? Y'all showed UP for us! It was such a full-circle moment, getting to play at a place where I'd timidly started doing open mics and where I now was looking out at people I'd met when I first moved to Boston, waitressing at Johnny D's in Somerville and trying to understand the singer/songwriter scene… It was all LOVE. :) And the unreal musicianship of my bandmates? Holy crap - I'm so lucky, and I know it.
So, since y'all showed up for us, we sold the place out (woohoo!) and guess what? I was able to parlay that into getting a show at a BFD (to me, anyway!) venue - City Winery Boston on Friday, November 1st! It will be announced on their site and tix go on sale this Wed, May 29 to members, and general public on Fri, May 31st. People seem to have a lot of opinions online about that place as a venue, but I couldn't be more thrilled that we'll be playing in the really cool smaller room (The Haymarket Lounge) that holds 75 peeps. I'll be back in your inbox with more details and links (that will be updated on my SHOWS page), but I wanted to share this because I've decided to make it an EP Release Show with the full band. Maybe you're saying, “but, Britt - I thought you were working on a 4th full album??” And, you'd be correct! When I booked this gig, I wondered if I could finish a few more songs and get it all together to be an album release, maybe a good little push for me… but, I soon realized that I don't do great with the timed creative deadlines (see my newsletter after the all-day New Year's Day workshop “write 10 songs in one day” experiment), and even more importantly, the new stuff I'm working on feels different and like it will belong in a different part of my life. Some of the tunes on this 6-song EP we've been playing for 4 years already, and I wanted to get these out there, as fully-formed as possible, and with the title track “Exhale” being just that… I'm letting it all out, letting it all go. Then starting fresh on a new chapter.
I can't thank you enough for the support and positivity - last year brought a real “low” that I was able to pull out from, and now I feel… free? excited? grateful? I've only got a few shows this summer, as we finish recording and finalizing these EP tunes, but if you're free, check out the SHOWS page for all the details:
*Friday, May 31st - The Wellington in Belmont, MA - I'll be filling in for half of the “Malin” duo and playing a few originals and singing a whole bunch of 90's covers with my old friend, Dave Moore. 8-10pm, no cover
*Wed, July 3rd - Rooted Café at Arts at the Armory - Somerville, MA - 7pm-8:30 - I'll be back at the Songwriters in the Round at this lovely venue and event, and I'll be hosting it this time - come here 4 singer/songwriters play and talk about our songs or answer questions from each other and the audience
*Sat, Sept 14 - Borrowed House Concerts - Plaistow, NH/Haverhill, MA - 7pm - we are thrilled to be back (as a trio with Ed on bass and Mike on drums) with “Dynamic Dee” being the coordinator of this fun house concert series, tix are $20 and the address of the house is disclosed upon purchase
This is way too long. Sorry about that. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far - can't wait to share new music with you, and here's a link to “Take Your Own Ride” if you happened to miss it when it dropped. ;) Thanks to all of you who purchased it directly from my website - it means a lot! Hope to see you soon…. xx Britt
Feb 2024 Newsletter: "Shhhhh… You get to hear it first!"
Hello, out there! I'm counting down the minutes til “Take Your Own Ride” gets launched on Friday, but as promised to all of you who've been such kind supporters and joined the newsletter list… HERE's a private link to the video and full song a day early! I am not suffering under the illusion that I'm akin to the likes of Beyoncé or Taylor, and I know there isn't exactly CLAMOR! and BATED BREATH! awaiting this song by my band and me ("who's Britt Connors??)"… but, it's all I got, and I hope you like it :)
It'll be up on all the platforms tomorrow, and the video will be made public, but especially since Spotify has made us little musicians even MORE at the bottom of the heap and created algorithms to keep us there, I'd LOVE you forever if you went over to my HOME page on Friday and purchased the tune (if you like it!) for as little as $0.99 - then go stream all you like on those things, and maybe I'll be amongst some of the musicians I so admire on a Pandora et al. station?!
So excited to then be playing The Lizard Lounge to celebrate this song and others on Friday, March 1 - tix still available for our full-band, 3-horn, cello, James Rohr -ified party!
And one more mention since I probably won't be coming back to your inbox for a bit… I'll be back at the Songwriters in the Round at Rooted Café at the Armory in Somerville, MA on Wed March 20th 7pm-8:30 and I'll get to play the happy host for the first time, leading some convos between tunes with 3 other incredible musicians. I have been loving this series, and it'll be my 4th time with a totally different crew!
Can't wait to see you out there and finish writing and recording songs for this next album… more to come and a final THANK YOU!! xx Britt
Jan 2024 Newsletter: "Single Release and Lizard Lounge"!"
Hello, friends! It's a little late, but I'll still wish you a Happy New Year! Last time I showed up in your inbox, I tried to hold myself accountable by announcing to y'all that I was about to take a 7-hour New Year's Day workshop called “Write 10 Songs in One Day.” And, kind readers, while I did not finish a single song that day, I did learn some valuable lessons:
#1 seven hours is waaaaaaaayy too long for me to be doing such a task
#2 the leader, Naomi Westwater, is amazing and I'm in awe of how she led us while still writing and participating
#3 I just need to keep showing up. It's ok to be slow. And I kept coming back to the fact that I need to have less DOING and more BEING this year. That's my goal.
2024 has already been a more musical year for me, and I'm Just. So. Excited. about getting new music out there!! In early January, we got back into Woolly Mammoth Sound in Waltham, MA with our engineer pal, Dave Westner, and recorded 3 more tunes. I feel like it's the best music I've ever made, and my bandmates, with their openness and creativity and immense talent, have pushed these songs beyond what I ever could have imagined.
Now, back to the SUSPENSE to keep you interested! (if you're still reading?) My first-ever single with video comes out Friday, February 23rd! I like to think of “Take Your Own Ride” as kind of a banger, so I hope it inspires you to tap your feet or move your bodies. HERE is a little teaser preview for you. BUT! Because you are so kind to be on my mailing list, I will send an email to you on Thursday, Feb 22 with a private link to the video so that you can be among the first to watch it before it goes public. It will be available on all the usual platforms, including the musician-soul-crushing streamy ones, and I hope you listen to it there… but, I'll also have it available for purchase right on my HOME page if you wanna support us little people - it means so much when people go directly to the artist to purchase music in addition to the streaming :)
Finally, we get to play a Single Release Party Show on the following Friday, March 1st at 9pm at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA with Special Guest, James Rohr, who plays on the new track! We will have a 3-horn section and the full band and plan to rock your socks off with some new and old tunes. Hope to see local folks at this funky and iconic venue that I've never gotten to headline before. Tickets and more info HERE.
I can't thank you enough for the kind words and support here and on social media - this little turtle is still plugging along and will continue to do so, no matter what, but it sure is nice to have some companions on the path :)
xx Britt
(header/single artwork photo by Sam Sawdon)
(Gill Aharon, Andrew Stern, Britt, Mike Connors, Ed Lucie at Woolly Mammoth Sound)
Dec 2024 Newsletter: “Shortest Day of the Whole Entire Year”
Happy Winter Solstice to you, friends! I am writing to you on this day, the shortest day of the whole entire year, with hopes that you are finding some peace and comfort in a time at which there is a lot of NOT that, locally and globally. I always mark this occasion as a hopeful one, knowing we'll be letting more light in as the days go forward, even if my beloved warm summery days are still a distant glimmer. December always ends up kicking my arse and not leaving me much time for music, so I'm forcing myself to dive deep in January with something terrifying and wonderful as well as something more just wonderful…
I signed up for a virtual workshop on New Year's Day through Club Passim. It's a 7-hour workshop (nope, that's not a typo- SEVEN hours) during which we have the goal of “Writing 10 Songs in One Day” and which is led by the inspiring Naomi Westwater. Now, dear readers, I am a SLOW songwriter. We're talking takes-me-four-to-six-years-to-write-a-full-album sort of slow. Turtle Pace. I am TERRIFIED to take this workshop. What if people realize that I don't know what the hell I'm doing? What if I can't even write a single song?? As soon as I recognized my fear of this workshop, I decided I have no choice but to do this. You're supposed to do something you're scared of everyday or something, right? I'm gonna say that this'll count for the year, especially since it's on New Year's Day! My fear is slowly morphing into excitement as I reframe it… what if I actually do write even one song that I hadn't written? What if I write more than one song? 10?! (seems that's pushing it, but hey…) What if this cracks me into a better flow of writing that helps me to take less than 4 years to write a whole record? What have I got to lose? Nothing :) And so, I will let you know how this goes.
So, less terrifying but also exciting is a show 2 days later:
* Wed, Jan 3rd - Songwriters in the Round at the Arts at the Armory's Rooted Cafe - Somerville, MA 7pm - 8:30. This will be my third time at this event with a different group of songwriters, including the amazing host and curator, David Scott. SO fun and inspiring to play and then hear other talented folks in the same hour-and-a-half. Love to see you if you're around!
AND, I can finally announce that I'll be releasing my first single with a video on Friday, February 23rd… with a release party show at The Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA on Friday, March 1st! I've never headlined a show at this funky and iconic basement venue, and I can't wait to get the whole band out, with our fantastic friend James Rohr (Blue Ribbons) doing a solo set to open up. Whoah. You don't wanna miss that!
More info and teaser video to come, but in the meantime, may you find more light and more love this new season and new year. December is my time to show gratitude to the beautiful people in my life, and I extend that to y'all - thanks for reading and supporting art and music. Let's all keep making things :)
xx Britt
Oct 2023 Newsletter: “In the Round, Libraries, and… Sophie B Hawkins??”