My blog has been looking really sparse lately – mainly because I’m too lazy to write blog entries – hey,  it takes a lot of effort!  Who knew being engaging and interesting and witty AND grammatically correct was so hard?

So in an effort to blog more regularly (without really trying) I’ve decided to post some of my drawings.  It’s a mode of  communication that doesn’t require much effort on my part since I’m doodling whenever there’s a pen in my hand…and it probably ends up being way more honest than using language.

Here’s something I’ve had lying around on a little scrap of paper for awhile.

I’ve been meaning to do something with it but I really am lazy – and whenever I try to re-draw or paint things I’ve previously drawn they end up losing something along the way.

We have devised a plan for the future. Most people wait until retirement to indulge in this kind of awesomeness, but we’ve decided to save 30-odd years and do it as soon as possible.

We want to live full time in an RV – actually a travel trailer to be more precise – the kind that you tow behind your vehicle.

That way we can live on the road rent-free, playing wherever we can find a gig, whether it be in New York or Nebraska…and our living space won’t be that much smaller than our current NYC apartment.

That’s the plan.

We got our first review in a major publication this month, yay! Here’s what the good folks at Keyboard Magazine have to say about Go Call the Captain:

“Largely dark but tinged with playfulness, Go Call the Captain tastily combines wistful folk, mellow rock, and pinches of gypsy jazz and bluegrass into a compelling compilation of tightly written tunes. Anchored by Elie Brangbour’s lithe bass, Eleanor Kleiner’s voice floats above largely acoustic textures, bringing to mind Sarah McLachlan or a melancholic Amy Lee; tracks like “Something Might Happen” and “Las Vegas” buoy up her voice further on rolling beds of acoustic piano. The title track, another piano-driven tune, is a highlight, simultaneously bringing to mind Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and the eclectic work of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. Though it dwells in the shadows, Go Call the Captain is ultimately uplifting — not an easy task to pull off by even the most skilled of ensembles. Well worth a listen.”

The day has finally arrived for us to lovingly release our music into the great, wide world! “Go Call the Captain” comes out today on Modern Vintage Recordings and we are so proud.

So much great energy has been wrapped up in this project – from start to finish.  The songs on this album span the entire life of The Whispering Tree – “Something Might Happen” was written before we had ever played a show together, and “Soon” was written a few weeks before we started recording.

And now our ten babies are all grown up!
We conceived them, birthed them, nursed them and now they are going on their merry little way! I couldn’t be happier for them – and for the world to get to experience their magnificence (yes, I am a proud parent but that doesn’t mean my children aren’t every bit as incredible as I say they are!)

Now I must put an abrupt end to this child analogy because I’m going to tell you where you can buy the album – and selling my kids just doesn’t have a good ring to it.

At amazon

On iTunes

Or you can pick up a hard copy at our FREE full band show tonight (4/6) at 9pm at Pete’s Candy Store.

While I’ve got your attention – don’t forget about our extra special CD release performance at the Folk Art Museum on April 30th from 5:30 – 7:30. (RSVP@folkartmuseum.org)

Hope we get to see you all soon!

To celebrate the release of our new album, “Go Call the Captain,” we are going to have an AMAZING CD release show at the Folk Art Museum (www.folkartmuseum.org) on April 30th from 5:30 – 7:30 (Since this isn’t a club we will actually be starting at 5:30.)

I tend to say “you don’t want to miss this”  a lot – but this time I’m going to say it in bold, caps, underlined italics with an exclamation point just so you know how serious I am: YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS THIS!

We are going to be playing with our wonderful little drummer boy, Chris Schultz, and the amazing Dan Tirer on guitar.  We are also working on getting some mandolin/lap steel action going on with the spectacularly talented Clifton Hyde – our original guitar player.

Please RSVP@folkartmuseum.org

See you there!

The imagery and metaphor of the ocean is featured heavily in pretty much all of the songs on our upcoming album – hence the title “Go Call the Captain.”  It is also featured in our spectacular album art.

I don’t know how to say this and sound normal, so I’m not even going to try: Being born into this world was like drowning (how I know this is another story – a really good one, too.)  Being suddenly surrounded by this reality was jarring, to say the least, and I think I have been working through the trauma of birth since…well, since I was born, and this theme is apparent throughout the album.

Not only have I been writing about this for awhile, I have also been drawing and painting houses floating in water for a really long time.

Our EP pictures a house in the water and for our new album I wanted to keep exploring that image.

The house is our human selves, our lives, everything we know, can talk about, can think about, can begin to conceptualize.  And the ocean is everything else.  And we are IN it but we don’t really know it.  There’s all this other stuff happening beyond the small reality we are focused in – we are floating in it, on it, we could reach out and touch it if we wanted to – but we usually just stay in our little houses.

So here’s the original painting I did.  Some people (cough cough) thought it was too amateurish so we started looking for a “real” artist to better convey this concept.

I’m actually really happy that we did, because we found Vitaly Umansky, and what he came up with was really quite perfect.

So here’s our amazing album art:

You can check out Vitaly’s work at his website, he is really spectacular: Vitaly Umansky Illustration