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Thanks to everyone who came out to our last round of shows in the UK, Ireland, and Sweden (the very first Woodpigeon shows in Scandinavia, yo). Extra Special Thanks to the great new bands and performers we met and shared the stage with along the way — Music for Dead Birds, Dag för Dag, Beardfish, Stuart Silver, Serafina, Murray Lachlan Young, and on and on … It was great to premiere a couple of new songs for everyone, and collaborate with some new pals too.

I rode my pal Hampus’ bike through Stockholm the other day, and wandered through a children’s library, looking at the best-designed kids’ books I’ve ever seen. We planted potatoes in Hampus’ garden allotment with Phoenix on the portable stereo, and found ourselves dancing until the wee hours of the morning to Daedelus at the Normal Books publishing party. Three weeks before, we stopped through Bulgaria in search of gypsy folk music and hand-knit slippers, and a visit to the rather awe-inspiring Rila Monastery up in the mountains. En route to Ireland, we took the ferry from Holyhead, Wales, a tiny settlement worth exploring if you ever get the chance. In Cardiff, our hosts Liz and Ryan of the band The School took impeccable care of us (including a visit to Spiller Records, the world’s oldest record shop).

Woodpigeon’s coming back overseas for some nice festival (and otherwise) action in July and August, and we’ll announce all of that soon. First up, however, we’ll be broadcasting live from NXNE on CBC on 20 June from The Legendary Horseshoe in Toronto, then heading home for our first hometown show in ages at Sled Island 2009 (sharing the stage with The Alberta Rural Advantage, our friends Knots, and long-time hero-figure Mt. Eerie). It seems like we’re playing London more than Calgary lately — and it’s time to make up for it.

It’s nice to see the sun out in Calgary, and the bike paths full of cyclists. Hope it’s sunny where you are too.

Anyway. On to business: WP’s first proper tour of Ireland, and our first date in Wales, as well as a spot on the annual Phrased & Confused tour, focused on lyric-writing and the collision between words and music. It’s a chance to hit some of the UK’s smaller centers, not to mention an interesting opportunity to premiere some new works. For the first time on a tour longer than 3 days in duration, our producer Arran Fisher will also be coming along, so we’re sure to have some interesting recordings to share with you all at some point in the summer.

But! Before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s the P&C dates:

09 May: South Hill Park - Bracknell, UK
10 May: Cross Kings - London, UK
11 May: Norwich Arts Centre - Norwich, UK
12 May: Arc - Stockton on Tees, UK
13 May: Assembly Rooms - Derby, UK
14 May: Exeter Phoenix - Exeter, UK

Secondly, WP will be appearing once again at this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton (May 15-16). You’ll most likely find us down on the beach throughout the days (and nights) of the festival.

Then it’s off to Ireland (and Wales):

18 May: Roisin Dubh - Galway, IE
19 May: Auntie Annie’s - Belfast, N. IE
20 May: The Academy 2 - Dublin, IE
21 May: Cyprus Avenue - Cork, IE
23 May: Clwb Ifor Bach - Cardiff, WALES

As for the summer, there’s a few things coming up that we’re rather excited about, but for the time being here’s just a hint of what we’ll be up to (first up, for our Canadian friends):

17-21 June: NXNE - Toronto, ON
24-27 June: Sled Island - Calgary, AB
17-19 July: South Country Fair - Fort MacLeod, AB

(And then for our European ones):

25 July: Trowbridge Village Fest - Wiltshire, UK
15 August: Way Out West Fest - Göteborg, SE
16 August: Summer Sundae - Leicester, UK

And yes. There’s more to come. Join us, won’t you?

01.
We self-released a new album entitled Treasury Library Canada that we’re selling at shows and through this here website. The reviews have been swell. There’s only 1,000, and just 4 days since releasing it we’ve already sold over 300 of them. Get ‘em quick! Click here! Or check it out soon on zunior.com, where you’ll also get an exclusive bonus disc’s worth of remixes and a other things.

02.
We finished all of the tracking for another album that we’re going to have done up and ready for early 2009. Mixing finishes in the next couple of weeks. The record’s called Die Stadt Muzikanten and it’s based at least in part on the Bremen folk tale of the same name (but different spelling). We just like the way it looks as two separate words better.

03.
We played a show at Sled Island 2008 with Kris Ellestad and Grizzly Bear. Holy cripes. This week Grizzly Bear’s touring with Radiohead. Weird.

04.
The phone rang and a voice on the other side said, “I’m with Calexico. They’re hoping you’ll do some shows with them,” and so we did. Toronto’s MOD Club and Montreal’s Le National Theatre were both lovely, and at the latter show WP came out and helped out on an epic cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Going to Acapulco’. Here’s a shot from the back of the venue.

05.
We played at the Calgary Folk Festival alongside our new friends Julie Doiron, Calexico, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, and Basia Bulat. It was also time to bring out some new songs, so we unveiled ‘Thumbtacks & Glue’, which we’re pretty excited about. Here’s one of the best songs of the year, no doubt (‘In The Night’ by Basia Bulat from her album ‘Oh, My Darling’):

Woodpigeon will also be at the Regina Folk Fest 8-10 August, 2008!

06.
Songbook UK’s also bringing with it a new online EP single for Chorus of Wolves, released 06 October 2008.

01. chorus of wolves
02. matty john chyzyk
03. camera-man
04. oberkampf [from the Houndstooth EP]

07.
Songbook UK will be released in the UK on 29 September and in Continental Europe shortly afterwards. We’ll be celebrating the release with a UK tour and a few dates in Germany and Sweden too. So far those dates (with more to come) are:

06 September 2008 - THE LUMINAIRE, London, UK
07 September 2008 - ARTS CENTRE, Colchester, UK
08 September 2008 - THE CAPTAIN’S REST, Glasgow, Scotland w/ Eagleowl
10 September 2008 - TRIPOD, Dublin, Ireland w/ Calexico
11 September 2008 - QUEEN’S HALL, Edinburgh, Scotland w/ Calexico
12 September 2008 - ACADEMY, Oxford, UK w/ Calexico
13 September 2008 - LEADMILL, Sheffield, UK w/ Calexico
14 September 2008 - THE END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL, Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset, UK
16 September 2008 - THE LAMP, Hull, UK
17 September 2008 - THE JUNCTION, York, UK
18 September 2008 - CUMBERLAND ARMS, Newcastle, UK
19 September 2008 - THE BODEGA, Nottingham, UK
24 September 2008 - SCHLACHTHOF, Wiesbaden, Germany w/ Gravenhurst
25 September 2008 - SCHOKOLADEN, Berlin, Germany w/ Ghostmice
04 October 2008 - ABENDSEGLER, Feldberg, Germany
08.
Soon, soon, soon, another new EP. It’s entitled Balladeer, and it’s pretty different. Yes yes. Part of our annual series of free download-only records. And by annual, we mean we’re going to do one every year. At least. Some of the things sure to be on it: ‘I Want To See You Again’ (which we’ve been playing at the past few shows), ‘Music Belongs To Those Who Make It’, ‘The Two Amelias’, and ‘I Am Your Balladeer’. Maybe a couple more too.

09.
Spreepark’s finishing up the recording of another record entitled Slow Jamz. All the songs are dirty. We’ll be sure to tell you when that one’s done and ready too. Another 8 songs recorded up at Vasa Park, a tiny Swedish settlement in Northern Alberta. There’s even an actual Swedish telephone booth there, and we recorded in the main room of the dance hall underneath posters of King Carl Gustav & family. Some of the songs: ‘Vasa Park Lullabye’, ‘The Fall of the Berlin Wall’, and ‘To My Left, The West, And To The Right, You, Beautiful You, Oh So Far Away In The East’. You can still get both We’re Reinventing Music and The Gaysian Invasion albums for free from spreeparktheband.com.

10.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but that’s more than enough for now.

xox,
 W.P.