Did you miss our Bull Run show in March — or did you enjoy it so much that you want more? Well, we’ve got great video from the night’s performance to share with you.

We’ve loaded them up right here on the website click here to watch. Or you can visit our YouTube page which has the most recent videos and more from past performances as well.

Enjoy and see you soon,
Amy

P.S. Here’s the latest edition of our newsletter if you haven’t seen it yet.

I went to dinner at the new Village Smokehouse restaurant in Lowell this past weekend. It’s the sister restaurant of the well-known Village Smokehouse in Brookline.

I noticed they have live music on Thursday nights and I thought, “Hey! My band goes perfect with BBQ” and chatted with the manager.

The long and short of it — we are playing there on Thursday, May 7 from 9 p.m. to close. There is no cover and it’s a really cool space (with great BBQ!). So come on out!

More info about the venue

The band and I will be playing at a great event coming up on April 26 at Romaine’s Restaurant in Northboro, MA. Richard Romaine and friends are a throwing a big party to raise money to help children with autism. While I would like to say that they best part is the band, I have to admit that all-you-can-eat BBQ sounds pretty darn good!

Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children.

For more details on BarbeCure, check out www.barbecure.org

Our next show at the Bull Run in Shirley, MA is only a few weeks away–Saturday, March 28. I recently got the CD from our show in September. Take a listen! I’ve updated my MySpace page with five live songs. Listen here.

The band and I have a great show prepared for the 28th. We’ve got some new music including:

• Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice (the Susan Tedeschi version)
• I Feel Lucky by Mary Chapin Carpenter
• The Etta James version of Hound Dog
• The Robert Johnson blues song The Last Fair Deal (done Keb Mo style) and
• I Still Miss Someone by Johnny Cash

Save a few bucks by getting tickets before the show. They are $12 in advance and $15 on the day. You know $6 is a pretty big deal in this economy, so give the Bull Run a call at 877-536-7190! Consider it beer money. : )

See you soon. And enjoy the music!

Amy and the rascals

Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascal’s next show is on March 28 at the Bull Run Restaurant in Shirley, Mass. We should be safe from snow at that point. Of course, you never know in New England!

I’m fired up about this show. We are going to perform some new music (new to us at least). You can expect to hear many of the songs we’ve been performing including: Red Dirt Girl by Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt’s Love Me Like a Man and Angel from Montgomery, Move it On Over by Hank Williams, The Johnny Cash trio Big River, Folsom Prison and Walking the Blues.

Plus, you’ll hear newly added songs by Patty Loveless, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Susan Tedeschi, Alison Krauss & Robert Plant and more from Bonnie and Emmylou.

It’s going to be a great night of music. I can’t wait for it and I hope you will be there to enjoy! Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. You can buy yours by calling 877-536-7190. Visit the Bull Run website for more information.

If you haven’t checked out our YouTube channel, you can now. You’ll see several videos from the Bull Run performance in September and from our recent December performance at J.P. O’Hanlon’s.

Best wishes for a GREAT 2009!

Amy

For starters, we had a great show last night at J.P. O’Hanlon’s in Ayer. We packed the house with 60 people (max capacity) and had a ton of fun. Thanks to a few fired up folks in the audience who got the whole crowd going, we did our first double encore. The feedback after the show was great. People were asking, “When are you playing again?” I love that question! There was even a couple from New Hampshire that saw us at a show in Milford and made the trek to Ayer.

What’s next for the band? We are going to be in Western Mass for First Night. We are one of the bands in the line up for Starry Starry Night in Orange, MA. If you happen to be out in that neck of the woods, stop by!

Last bit of news: we’ve got a new date at the Bull Run in Shirley. It’s Saturday, March 28. I’m working on a show that’s going to mix things up a bit. More details to come soon. I promise it’s going to be a really, really good time.

Looking to get out of the house and have some fun? Come out and see me and the band on December 6 at J.P. O’Hanlon’s in Ayer, Mass. It’s a great venue, everyone gets a good seat and you’ll love the food. Please call 978-772-9282 to reserve your seats. Seating is limited (only 60 seats). I look forward to seeing you there.

If you’ve been to one of my shows, you’ve heard Fred Bement go to town on the harmonica. The guy can play! Well Fred recently connected me with a friend of his who was interested in collaborating. His name is Jeff Purchon. He’s the nicest guy and is an incredibly talented guitar player with some heavy duty experience under his belt. Here’s a little blurb from his resume…

Jeff moved to London to become professional guitarist at age 21. He toured with Noel Redding (ex Jimi Hendrix), Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull) and in his career has jammed / gigged with Robert Palmer, Ginger Baker, Buddy Miles, Steve Holly (Wings) and many others.

Jeff has recorded in major studios including Abbey Road, Sun Studios (London), De Lane Lea, Roundhouse, Trident, Air London etc. In the 80’s in the US he founded and toured with Memphis Train, a Boston-based blues band playing at the Crossroads music festival in Nashville, House of Blues and other prestigious gigs.

These days Jeff still jams in three continents with various bands depending where he is. At the last Austin NAMM show in 2007, Jeff played with Buddy Miles and Vernon Reid of Living Color.

Pretty impressive.

This past Thursday night I joined Jeff and four guys that he pulled together-Ron Pastore on bass, Glenn Watkins on keys, Stanley Swan on drums, and another guy (name escapes me) on the organ-and over an hour we worked on four songs. We headed over to the Acton Jazz Cafe’s blues jam and rocked the house.

One of the guys recorded a few of the songs and sent them around today. While the mix isn’t great (and I was struggling to hear myself in the monitor), you can get a good sense of how we sounded.

Here’s Love Me Like a Man written by Chris Smither…

I should have more recordings to share (from the practice soon). I will post them here as well.

I hope to do something with these guys again at some point and will let you know when I do!

One thing I’ve learned about musicians is that they usually have several different “projects” going on at the same time. This means that they play in a number of bands. I’ve become one of those people and I have to admit, it’s kind of fun. You have your main focus, which for me is Amy Black and the Red Clay Rascals, and then you get involved with other projects as you get to know different musicians.

A perfect example of this is what’s happening on November 15. Andy Sicard and Bob Sevigny play in my band, the Red Clay Rascals, but they also have their own band, The Goodtime Stringband (formerly the Goodtime Charlies) and have been playing with that group for the past few years. They play A LOT.  A few weeks ago they invited me and my sister Corrie to sing with them at a bluegrass church service and just this past week. Andy asked us to join them for a show on November 15 in Milford, NH at the library.

It’s going to be a fun night. Andy and Bob along with Al Stapleford and fiddle player, Rich Hamilton, both of the Stillhouse Jammers, will start the night with their music and then the second set will be made up of my songs. Corrie and I will sing together on most and she will take a few solos as well.

The best part (for you) is the event is FREE. So, come on out to hear Andy, Bob, Rich, Al and me and Corrie make some beautiful music! I promise you will be glad you did : )

I’ve been a bad blogger. I haven’t written since September 25. I do have some good excuses though. I just started a new job (I’m a marketer by day and some times by night too) and have been pretty focused on that. AND I’ve been waiting to get the audio from the Bull Run show so I can share it with you. I’m keeping the faith that I’m going to get it. Also, I’ve got some good video from the night, but am experiencing some technical difficulties. I will spare you the details.

Thanks to one of the people in the audience (Hans Nuecke from Germany) on the night of September 26, I do have some photos to share. I’m not looking my supermodel best : ), although I think Bob Sevigny might be. The photos did a great job of capturing the night. My personal favorite is of Jon Cumming (banjo and dobro). I love it so much, I’m putting it on the site. I’m sure Jon will love me for that.

I’m not giving up hope that I will have video and audio to post. Also, many have been asking me when we are playing again. I’m working on that and hope to have a few dates to pass on soon. In the meantime, I’m still doing some singing. Andy Sicard (bass and mando) pulled me into a bluegrass gig at a church in Medford, MA today and I got to sing with my sister Corrie–always a treat. Andy did promise us a complimentary BBQ dinner, but I ended up eating a burrito in Davis Square instead. Still yummy. : )

Oh, I didn’t mention that the Bull Run show on September 26 was great! It was a rainy night and the first of the presidential debates was on. We still had 110 people out. If you were one of them, thanks so much for coming.

Stay tuned for show dates (video and audio).

Amy