Beth Thornley

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2010-04-29T08:58:00.001-07:00

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live performance video/spring tour 2010 highlights

2010-03-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

I had a blast on the road and I'm ready to go again. It's been so much fun promoting the new album. We're planning on doing a few more special things with it so stay tuned. I don't always post the reviews or news because I don't want to send too many emails, but if you're curious, my website is a good place to check in to see what's going on. Also, facebook is great for staying in touch. If we're not friends at facebook, please come on over!

Before I fill you in on the tour, I've posted a video of a live performance of "Wash U Clean" from our CD release show. You can see it on facebook or on You Tube.

Our tour began in San Diego and ended in Sacramento. We did 10 shows in 14 days. Cheese-Its and chocolate was my road food of choice and it's probably good that we weren't on the road longer, but I figure hauling the gear around burns extra calories so it's OK.

William Shatner was a great help to us on the road. We used Priceline for our hotel booking and we got some good deals.

Did you know hotel movies are more expensive than On Demand? What's up with that? But I couldn't resist watching "Crazy Heart". After watching the movie, I felt like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes and drunk a fifth of whiskey just by seeing Jeff Bridges play the role of a singer/songwriter road dog. And yeah, when he emptied his "pee" jug, I was a little jealous that I couldn't do that.

We drove up the 101 highway for most of this tour. It has been raining in California for the past couple of months and the rolling hills and farm land were lush, green and beautiful. We could have been in Ireland. Not only were there the usual cows and horses, but there were sheep, goats and llamas - not something I get to see everyday. The poppies (California state flower!) and other wildflowers were doing their wild thing and added a blanket of color along the side of the road and over the hills.

We played in a lot of different kinds of venues - rock clubs, coffee houses, cafes and art galleries. I can't say that we had any crazy experiences this time around; (well, truthfully I can't tell you about them......yet) but everything went smoothly. While we were in the Monterey area we went to the Monterey Aquarium. I love watching the otters and penguins. They have a new seahorse exhibit there and it's SO pony! You have to check it out. ;-)

And finally, I have to say that touring with Michael Miller and opening for him was a great experience. Thank you, Michael, for being such a great tour buddy; and remember to love everyone.

Pictures from the tour at facebook.

Oh yeah, one little thing; if you have the album and you like it, please feel free to rate it and/or leave a review at iTunes! And if you don't have it, you can hear the entire album and get the physical CD from my website and/or download it from the usual places.

Thanks for reading this far!

Rock on,

Beth

2010-02-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

Last night kicked off my West Coast Tour (w/ Michael
Miller) at Lestat's in San Diego. It's a great place to hear music.
Louie, the sound guy there, rules. Thanks, Louie!

They have a big marquee outside and they put my name in it! Awesome!

Next stop, Hollywood, and then it's up the coast to Ventura and beyond!

CD available now! Tour info, too!

2010-02-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

Good news! The new album is available! The physical CD is available here at my website (see the music page) and the digital tracks are available from iTunes, as well as the other usual places.

If you'd like to see a couple of pictures from the album release show, I've posted them on my music page at facebook.

For those of you in LA who might have missed the album release show last weekend, we've got another Los Angeles date at Crane's in Hollywood. I also have a tour coming up. Check out the tour schedule below. I will be opening for my very talented friend, Michael Miller.

West Coast Tour Dates

Sun. 2/21 Lestat's in San Diego 8pm

Wed. 2/24 Cranes in Hollywood 10pm

Thurs. 2/25 Zoey's in Ventura 8pm

Sat. 2/27 Gypsy Den in Santa Ana 8:30pm

Tues. 3/2 SOhO in Santa Barbara 8:45pm

Wed. 3/3 Last Stage West in Atascadero 8pm

Thurs. 3/4 The Alternative Cafe in Seaside 8pm

Fri. 3/5 Red Rock in Mountain View 8pm

Sun. 3/7 Luna's in Sacramento 8pm

We may have more dates to add. You can always go to my website for details and new information.

Thanks for reading this far! Thanks for your interest and support. Some of you have already started buying the CD. I don't even know how you knew about it -- the newsletter hadn't even gone out yet!! Thanks so much!

New CD, album release show, west coast tour

2010-01-22T22:18:00.001-08:00

Great news! Today, I looked out onto my front porch and there had been delivered my brand new CDs. It's a good thing, too, because my CD release show is in 2 weeks. The new album is called "Wash U Clean". Here's the scoop...........

1. The CD release show is at Hotel Cafe on Sat., Feb. 6, @ 9pm. To get in for half price, just say the secret password, "nice monkey", and it's $5 instead of $10. We'll have an extra, extra large band that night.

2. The physical CDs will be available for the first time at the CD release show. After that, they'll be available on my website, and sometime in late Feb., the digital tracks will be available for download in all the usual places. Don't worry, I'll remind you. :-)

3. You can preview some of the songs from "Wash U Clean" at my new website. Go to the music page at http://www.beththornley.com/ and check 'em out. Every week I'll upload another one or two songs for you to hear.

4. And, I'll be doing a tour up the coast of California, opening for my good friend Michael Miller. I'm thrilled because his music is fantastic and so is he. His most recent album is getting some well deserved rave reviews. http://www.myspace.com/michaelmillercrusade

2/21 Lestat's in San Diego

2/25 Zoey's in Ventura

2/27 Gypsy Den in Santa Ana

3/2 SOhO in Santa Barbara
3/3 Last Stage West in San Luis Obispo

3/5 Red Rock in San Jose

3/7 Luna's in Sacramento

Thanks for reading this far. We'd love to see you at the show.

2009-12-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hello wonderful people on my mailing list!
First of all, happy holidays. Thank goodness it's time for a collective break, eh? It's nice when the world slows down for just a minute of two.

And yes, as you can see from the subject of this email, I made it to the front page "feature" section of You Tube. Not as "beth thornley" but as a member (and a tear is coming to my eye as I say this because I'm so proud), as a member of the Bowen Beer Bottle Band. You can see it on You Tube before it's moved from the front page (it's up for only a few more hours). Or, if you want to see it AND get the scoop on how it all happened - check it out here --http://bowenbeerbottleband.wordpress.com/ (I pop up in the back row, 4th from the left.)

Thanks Matt and Summer Bowen, for putting it all together. It was so much fun. (btw - for those of you who see the Beth Thornley band play live, Matt is the violinist/guitarist/keyboardist/glockenspiel-ist that plays in my band.)

I have some album news for you. I sent everything off to be duplicated/replicated/printed, etc..... about 5 days ago. That means that in about 2 weeks I'll have CDs for you. I will send out an email in January letting you know where you can hear it and how you can buy it. I'm very excited about the album and I hope you will be, too.

The CD release show will be in Los Angeles at Hotel Cafe on Feb. 6, 2010. I'm also planning a west coast tour in March.

And in recent news, "You're Right Where" (from the My Glass Eye album) was heard in the television series "The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty". It is airing currently.

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks so much for your interest. Stay warm. Drink some hot apple cidar. And mostly, peace to you all.
Beth

Grand Canyon!

2009-09-07T10:11:00.001-07:00

I promised a picture or two when I returned from the Grand Canyon! We had a great time and I wish I didn't have to get back to reality so soon. It's hard to get ready for a vacation - you know, getting someone to take care of the cats, doing enough laundry so that I can pack clean clothes, decided what books to take, unloading half of the makeup bag so that there's room for clothes in the suitcase, crossing fingers that the plants don't die while I'm gone, cleaning out the fridge so there are no surprises when I get home -- you know, all of that. And while I'm getting ready to go out of town I'm thinking it's too much trouble. But, then, when I finally go, it's so nice to not answer a phone, or water a plant or feed a cat (sorry kitties, but sometimes your meows can be annoying!) or make a bed or clean a bathtub. I'm really glad I left. I'm really glad I made it to the Grand Canyon because I had never seen it. And, oh yeah, we stopped by Vegas, too. Have I mentioned that I love playing black jack? Do you think it's all the extra oxygen they pump into the casinos? Can we go again now? Screw the plants, the cats, the fridge, the packing - let's just get in the car and go!

a couple o' things.......

2009-08-23T19:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let you know about a couple of cool things.

1. I made Esquire Magazine's "Ultimate Cover Song List" -- TWICE! Once for the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby" and again for Joe Jackson's "Got The Time". I'm one of many, but just being on that list is pretty cool. If you're curious about them, you can hear the full length versions at my website: www.beththornley.com/music. Both songs were on my last album, "My Glass Eye". You can see Esquire Magazine's article about cover songs and the ultimate list here: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/music/cover-songs-list-082009?src=rss

2. A song of mine, "I Will Lie", will be in an indie film that's coming out on August 28th. It's called "Play the Game". Paul Campbell will topline the cast of this movie. Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts and Marla Sokoloff also star in this romantic comedy. Marc Feinberg wrote and directed the film, which follows a single guy who teaches his widowed grandfather how to hit on girls.

3. Album news: The album will be ready in October. It will be available to anyone on this email list at that time. However, the official release date will be January 2010 and that's when the general public will be able to get it. I'm still very excited about it. I wish it weren't taking so long, but it's the way this business goes. Music and construction projects, I guess; always over time and over budget.

4. For those of you in the LA area, I will be playing a show at Hotel Cafe on October 6. That's a Tuesday and it's at 8pm. We're going to play old songs, new songs and maybe some covers. Think of it as a warm-up to the CD release in January.

I hope you're having a good summer! In a couple of weeks, I will be looking at the Grand Canyon for the first time ever. I can't wait. I'll take some pictures and send them to you.

Album Update

2009-08-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

The new album will be finished in October. Not too far off my last prediction! But, because October starts pushing up against the holidays, I'm going to hold it until January '10. My publicist is very happy she's going to have a little more time with it before it's released. Also, there might be some exciting news attached to the album. I can't say anything about it now but as soon as I can, I'll let you know. I need a little time with that, too.

A bit of good news though, I plan on playing some shows this fall. We'll do old and new material. Then, in January, we'll have a CD release show.

And, finally, I decided to make the album title "Wash U Clean". At least that's what it is for today. ;-)

Thanks for reading this! Thanks for your interest! Rock on!

new album coming soon

2009-06-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hellooooooo out there!

It's been awhile. My bad. I've been under the studio rock. It took longer than we thought. That's no surprise though. Albums are like construction projects -- they always go longer and cost more than anyone predicts.

But I'm writing to let you know that we're nearly done and I should have something in hand by July/Aug. '09. We will finish tracking this week and then it's mix and master time. The artwork is nearly finished, too. Here's an example of something we're thinking of using for one of the album pages:

I've also just started up over at Facebook. Come find me and write on the wall!

The Getty gig and 2008

2008-01-09T13:49:00.000-08:00

I'm way overdue (again) in my blogging. Who knew it would be so difficult to do? I like typing. But I don't think I like editing. Takes too long. Makes me think too hard.

I wanted to tell you about the Getty experience. I had so much fun that I'm having a hard time removing my MySpace picture that advertises it. It was one of the most creatively satisfying things I’ve gotten to do as a songwriter. Once, I got to sing at Carnegie Hall in NYC, and it was great, but that was in a choir with, like, 100 other people and we were singing Mozart. But back to the Getty. I loved the event. It happened like this - I was asked to write a song about an exhibition they have going on there. There were 11 other songwriters that were also asked to write a song and so the Getty was able to turn it into a concert. Everyone played their one song. The concert hall there is amazing. I got to play a really nice 7 ft. grand piano. I LOVED it. Let me tell you, it's been a long time since I played an instrument that fine. I played the hell out of it. I was hoping to break a string on it but didn’t. It would not have been cool, anyway, so it was good that I didn't. Did you know it's actually really easy to break strings on grand pianos? It’s not hard. You just have to know how to do it. In the interest of grand pianos everywhere, I'm not going to tell you how.

My holidays were lovely and too short. I'm back to writing songs. I finished one right before the holidays and now I'm staring at a blank piece of paper. For me, that's always the hardest part. I've got an idea, though, that will hopefully turn into a song soon. At least I hope so. The blank paper is blinding.

I didn't send out a 2007 newsletter. But in case you’re interested, I played some shows, wrote some songs and placed a few things in a few TV shows. I almost have enough new material for the next album and I hope to have something by fall-ish of this year.

I already like 2008. It has all even numbers. It feels comfortable; like you could cozy up to it. It’s gonna be a good year.

I just found the comments

2007-07-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm new at the blog thing. I just found some lovely comments left for me by people from like 6, even 9 months ago. I'm sorry I didn't respond! I'm not a snob! I'm just a bit behind. I'll be better.

Juror #10

2007-07-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

I got a summons to report for jury duty a couple of weeks ago. I didn't want to go but there was no way out of it. I don't know about anywhere else, but here in Los Angeles, you can't get out of it anymore. You HAVE to go down there.

I got picked to be on a jury.

I was super bummed. I kept trying to think of things to say during jury selection to make the lawyers think I was a nut. But I couldn't think of anything. To make a long story short, after the trial got started, I loved it. I really did.

The trial was about a restaurant owner (located just a few blocks from me it turns out) who was being sued by the person who owned the land the restaurant was on. We found in favor of the restaurant owner (defendant).

Honestly, the land owner was evil. If we could have fined or punished the land owner, we would have but we didn't have that power.

The jury was a wonderful mix of people from all walks of life. It was a great experience. If you get called to do jury duty, GO! It's fun.

If you live in LA and want to know the name of the restaurant, write me and I'll tell you. I had never set foot in the restaurant before the trial, but I went after. It's a great place to eat and I'll keep going back.

a cat, 4 dogs, 2 goats and a horse.

2007-01-31T09:32:00.000-08:00

And I thought I was going to be a good blogger!

Ha! It takes far more discipline than I've got to do this regularly. I can't believe how long it's been between posts but, I do have a couple things on my mind and I'm finally getting around to typing.

I had the best New Year's Eve I've ever had. On New Year's Eve, I found myself taking a walk with a cat, 4 dogs, 2 goats and a horse. I'm not kidding. I went to a friend's ranch and they all accompanied us while we fed the other animals. It was so cool. None of the animals were on a leash or a lead; they were all just super cool and walked with us. And then later, more people came to the ranch. We had a fantastic dinner and then played music right up until midnight. It was a great midnight. I usually hate New Year's Eve but not this one. This one was a keeper. See the picture below. My back is to the camera. I'm playing accordion but it's in my lap so you can't see it.

We had a show last week at Temple Bar in Santa Monica (1/23/07). On the same bill that night was Dirty Martini (a wonderful band that was on tour down from Portland, OR) and the lovely and talented songwriter, Lily Wilson, with her very fine band). It was my first time playing there. I now LOVE the Temple Bar. The sound guy, Swan, was incredible. The manager was so helpful and gave me all the bottles of water I could ever drink on stage. My band played, the room was full and it couldn't have gone better. Well, maybe Rob's solo opening of "Mr. Lovely" could have gone better but making mistakes when you can hide behind the band is for pussies! Actually, we all had a good laugh and when it came around the next time, he nailed it. And, if I had remembered to hand my camera to someone to take some pictures, that would have been better, too. We're planning our next big show in late March/early April. In the meantime, Rob and I will do some acoustic duo gigs.

I also wanted to tell you about a wonderful blog that I've found that is actually being written regularly and is very entertaining. Check out http://byebyebuy.blogspot.com. Read it from the beginning (she only started on Jan. 1 so there's not much catching up to do). It's a lot of fun.

The only other thing I can think to add is that I'm letting my hair grow. It's getting really long. I'm sure that no one other than me is excited about this. I'm excited about it because my hair hasn't been long since I was in the 8th grade. In 8th grade I first chopped it off and it's been short pretty much ever since. New pictures soon of it blowing in the wind.

And maybe even a blog before another 4 months have passed.

I don't know who you all were, but I love you.

2006-09-08T15:46:00.000-07:00

We packed the house at Molly's last Tuesday night.

The first song was our wacky tango (accordion and megaphone included) followed by our quirky waltz (we added glockenspiel and Maria Scherer on cello). Then we ROCKED (arena anthem style) with Beautiful Lie and then went into our Delta Blues song (crickets and guest guitar picker, Tim Fagan, accompanied). A little later, Jeff Lane sat in and sang backing vocals on a couple of tunes. Karen Teperberg (drums) and Vivi Rama (bass) did their usual awesome thing. Rotten Robbie was there playing all kinds of instruments and gadgets. As for me, I did some singing and playing too, but most importantly, I did it while wearing a mini-skirt and heels. I hope to post some pics soon.

The new album has gotten some great reviews. Here's a bit of what All Music Guide had to say:

"Be it aggresive punk rock or a rich piano and cello ballad, the jerky rhythms of alt-rock or even a melancholy tango, Thornley feels at home."

It has been a blast promoting the new album and I loved pulling out all the stops. We'll play another full band show in a couple of months or 3. In the meantime, I'll be playing some solo and duo shows. Stay tuned!

I'll have some bugs with that.

2006-08-21T14:15:00.000-07:00

Rob and I took a road trip/gig to San Francisco. We played an office gig for Keyboard Magazine. They had already written a fine review of the album so I wasn't trying to score favors. We drove up the 5 north and got on the other side of the grapevine around 7:30pm when we were suddenly barraged by millions of bugs swarming/tripping the sunset fantastic. It sounded like rain but it was bugs. Here's a picture of the aftermath (it's kind of hard to see, but this was done in less than a minute).

Ewwwwwwwww!

Accompanying it was the smell of the cows. There are lots of cows up there. I happen to like how cows smell, but this was particularly strong.

On the 5 north there are many radio stations that play classic rock. Rob and I never heard anything recorded after 1980 the entire way up. It was pretty awesome - Lots of Boston, Zepplin, Yes, The Who, Bad Frickin' Finger, but the second time around on "Brown-Eyed Girl" was more than we could take.

We start running low on gas but we're close to our destination. We only need to cross the Bay Bridge and get to our hotel - a mere mile or so on the other side. The car signals that we have enough gas to go 18 more miles. "Plenty, I thought; we only have to cross a 2-mile bridge and we're home free"! We get to the bridge at midnight and there's a huge traffic jam. Construction and a car accident has the traffic at a crawl. Who are all these people and what are they doing out on a Wednesday night? We should have cruised at lightning speed across that bridge and into a gas station but nooooooooo - it was just like LA in rush hour. Can I never escape it? The gas indicator read 18, then 15, then 12 then 10 then 5 miles left in the tank. Rob was pretty freaked... Ok, ok, enough with the drama. We made it to a gas station.

We got to the hotel. It's 1:00 am now. We unload the gear from the car. Ugh. Where the f*&k are the roadies? Nowhere. Nowhere.

Next day. We load up (again - where are the frickin' roadies?) and go to Keyboard Magazine. We didnn't eat dinner the night before and we haven't had breakfast. A block away from our destination, we spot a bagel shop. We duck in to get a little something to eat. Rob orders a pizza bagel. I'm kinda thinking that's gross for 10:30 AM but whatever. We get it to go. We get to the car and something starts smelling really bad. It's the pizza bagel. It smells horrible. But Rob has to eat. We pull into the parking lot of Keyboard and go in to scope out the place. Rob is carrying his bagel and planning on eating it quickly. Before he has a chance, we run into the main dudes at Keyboard. We're doing the chit-chat thing and Rob's bagel finally smells up the place so bad that I feel like I have to say something. Everybody acknowledges that it's the worst smelling bagel they have ever smelled. He tosses it in a can far from the main office.

The odor-emitting inedible in question:

The people at Keyboard are a lovely group of musicians/journalists who made us feel enormously welcome - even though we had a smelly pizza bagel smell about us. We played our show in the lobby. People from the magazine, along with Bass Player, Guitar Player and surrounding offices stopped in. They video taped it but I don't know when it will post. We had a great time. We went to lunch and had some excellent sushi. I've never had a bad meal in SF and this was no different. We hung out with Ernie Rideout, Steve Fortner and Mike Gallant of Keyboard. They were great.

We go back to the hotel, and, you guessed it, unloaded the gear. Again, no roadies. Later we went to a very fine dinner at 2223 Market Street with friends. The next day we get up and drive home. Pictures are posted of our stop at Rotten Robbies because Rob is often very rotten. We took a couple of pictures of us riding along in the car. We had a great time. We had to get back to real life way too soon.

photoshoot

2006-06-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

My first ever photo session for a national magazine was SO much more fun than when I usually have my picture taken. When I usually have my picture taken, it's by Rob (producer and bandmate) because he knows a little about cameras. And though he's come up with some good shots, it's usually a long and laborious process and most of the time we end up laughing at how dorky I look.

When the pros showed up, my first response was that I felt like throwing up. I was nervous. After all, they're probably going to laugh at how dorky I am. But they didn't laugh. And the photographer seemed to be happy so I was happy. Everybody was happy and at the end of the day I made margaritas and then we all went out to dinner. It really was a wonderful day. Everybody was so nice and fun to be with. The pictures are for Hallmark's debut magazine. It will be a Sept./Oct. issue that will hit the stands in August. Look for me - I'll be the dorky one (but I'll be very well lit and framed beautifully!).

I thought about throwing a tantrum or two. I thought about insisting that I have a large trailer even though they were taking the pictures at my house. I thought about demanding clustered water. But I didn't. I hope they weren't disappointed.

underwear and megaphones

2006-05-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

The show is over but the party isn't. We had a great time last weekend playing our "We Finally Finished the CD" gig in LA. Rob showed everyone his underwear. We also managed to play a few songs. Along with the usual instruments we had glockenspiel, megaphone, cello and accordion. Next time we're bringing the kitchen sink. Check out the pictures on MySpace.com/beththornley. I also finally posted the zombie pictures from the Rob Giles music video shoot, too.

trampoline moments

2006-04-12T22:06:00.000-07:00

I used to belong to the Y. I had a class there that I was a part of. First you swim and then you go to the gym. On this particular day after swimming, they had set up the trampoline for us. I love the trampoline. So I hurried out of my wet bathing suit so I could get out to the gym. Somehow I hadn't packed my usual gym clothes and only had a dress to put on. But that's not the bad part. The bad part is that I also hadn't packed any underwear (I had worn the bathing suit under the dress to get there). You guessed it. That day I jumped on the tramp in a dress without my underwear. I held the dress down though - arms firmly pressed to my sides; hands tightly holding the hem of the dress in place. I don't think anyone guessed. Oh yeah - I was 5 years old.

mimes, clowns and zombies - oh my.

2006-04-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

As I said in an earlier post, now that the album is finished I have a little more time on the weekends. I'm happy to report that this past weekend I had enough spare time to be a downtrodden mime getting beat up by wicked clowns. After that I was a zombie in a fight with the other undead over a bone - all in the same afternoon. It was awesome. Oh yeah, it was for a friend's music video. Pictures at MySpace soon.

I'm no Scrooge.

2006-03-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

This was the first weekend in about a year and a half that I didn't work on the album. I finally had some time to do a couple things I've been putting off - like taking down the Christmas lights. From 2004. Some friends had even dropped some not-so-subtle hints about it. Yeah, I know it's March 2006 but I hadn't turned them on since February so cut me some slack. Besides, the lights make me happy. The ones in the backyard are staying up.

smells so new!

2006-03-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

It's not everyday I get to post a new website with new tunes. But today is the day. It even smells new. It's got that "new CD/website" smell. Take a deep breath. See! There it is. Hope you like it! The new website and CD that is. And if you like the smell too, then all the better.