Many years later

Friends,

On Saturday, October 7, the Billy Price Band and I will head for Richmond, Virginia for my first Richmond appearance in many years at the 30th annual High On the Hog barbecue festival in Libby Hill Park, along with the Bopcats, Memphis Rockabilly Band, and the Good Humor Band. Later the same night, we will be playing at J.M. Randalls in Williamsburg, VA, with two shows beginning at 10:00 pm.

The last time I played High on the Hog was in 1983 with Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band, shortly before we recorded our third album, Live, at the Wax Museum in Washington, DC. As fortune would have it, two former members of the Keystone Rhythm Band from those days, Tom Valentine (bass) and David Ray Dodd (drums) will be playing with the Billy Price Band in Richmond and Williamsburg on October 7. As fortune would also have it, we have just released the aforementioned live album along with Free at Last from 1988 on a single CD: Live & Free at Last on Bonedog Records (BDRCD-21) is now available on our Web site. I'm especially pleased that Free at Last is available again after being out of stock for the past couple of years.


And speaking of recordings, please don't forget about East End Avenue, the latest CD from the Billy Price Band, which continues to amass sales, rave reviews, and worldwide airplay. I'm also happy to report that East End Avenue is now available for download from Apple iTunes.

Upcoming appearances by the BP Band closer to home include festivals in Butler (this Saturday), Scottdale (this Sunday), and Bedford PA; club dates in Arnold, Blawnox (good ol Moondog's), Bridgeville, and White Oak, PA; and shows in Upper Marlboro, MD and in New Castle, DE for the Diamond State Blues Society. Please see our schedule for full details.

Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you soon!

Soulfully yours,
Billy Price

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August 27 email newsletter

Friends,

As you make your plans for the coming Labor Day weekend, if you are anywhere near Johnstown, Pennsylvania, I urge you to consider the Johnstown FolkFest. I make this recommendation not only because we are playing on Sunday evening, September 3 at 6:30 pm, but also because I think that the FolkFest is one of the best free music festivals in the nation, and I want more people to know about it.

Rebecca and I got to hear the great Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings at the FolkFest last year, and also had a ball listening to the Red Elvises. (I also recall eating some righteous crab cakes.) This year's lineup, in addition to me and the Billy Price Band, includes Sleepy LaBeef, Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience, Bonerama, Maia Sharp, the Lee Boys, Joe Grushecky & the Houserockers, the Eric Tessmer Band, the Gamble Brothers Band, and the Gospel Lights.

I also want to let you know that we will be releasing a new compilation CD on Bonedog Records of two recordings from the Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band catalog: Live (recorded at the Wax Museum in Washington, DC in 1984) and Free at Last from 1988, which has been out of print for a couple of years now. Both recordings in their entirety will now be available on a single CD. Watch for another email from me when this new CD is available for sale in a few weeks. And if you don't have East End Avenue yet, what are you waiting for?

Finally, a note to Virginians out there on the list: We're playing at the 30th annual High on the Hog pig roast on October 7 in Richmond, and then later the same night, we will be at J.M. Randalls in Williamsburg, VA. For more upcoming dates, please see our schedule page, where our schedule is always up to date.

Soulfully yours,
Billy Price

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August 9 email newsletter

Friends,

We're excited about our upcoming first-ever performance at World Cafe Live (www.worldcafelive.com) in Philadelphia. We have heard nothing but raves about this club, and we're hoping that many of you will plan to be with us on Friday, August 18. Opening the 7:30 pm show will be Vinyl Shockley (http://store.itsaboutmusic.com/vinylshockley.html). So wear your dancing shoes and come prepared for a great night of music!

We've been having a great summer of gigs, performing songs from our new CD, East End Avenue, which is available online at www.billyprice.com/cds.html. We've been gratified by all the positive reviews that the CD has been receiving so far--you can read them at www.billyprice.com/reviews.html.

Here are some excerpts from a review by Thomas Cullen III in BluesRag, the newsletter of the Baltimore Blues Society:

"East End Avenue is, by far, his best album for a number of reasons...Not only is Price in excellent voice throughout, crooning and hollering with equal aplomb, his current band is his best since the much beloved Keystone Rhythm Band of the 1980s...These impeccably crafted songs are performed with fervor, panache, and scintillating soul...East End Avenue succeeds on every level and is Billy Price’s finest moment on record. Not only is it an essential purchase for his fans, it’s also a great introduction for those unfamiliar with the East Coast King of Blue-Eyed Soul."

Damn! I'll take that any day!

So please put us on your entertainment calendar for Friday, August 18 and help us build a fire in Philadelphia, PA. You can buy tickets in advance at http://tickets.worldcafelive.com/eventperformances.asp?evt=1369. If you can't make it to Philly on the 18th, our full schedule is always up to date online at www.billyprice.schedule.html.

Soulfully yours,
Billy Price

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July 5 email newsletter

Friends,

We're getting ready to bring the new music from our recently released CD, East End Avenue, along with all of your old favorites, to a gig near you (we hope) sometime this summer.

This coming weekend, we'll be traveling to North Carolina for gigs at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro on Friday, July 7 and the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines on Saturday, July 8. We'll be at the Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis, MD on Saturday, July 15 for a CD release party (hurry--tickets are going fast), and we'll be in Eastern Pennsylvania in Reading, PA on Friday, July 21 and at the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Friday, August 18. For central Pennsylvanians, we'll be in Altoona, PA at Burgi's Roundhouse on Saturday, August 5.

We will also not be neglecting our hometown fans in Pittsburgh. See us with up-and-coming blues star Grace Potter at Hartwood Acres on Sunday, July 30; at the Rhythm House in Bridgeville on Saturday, August 26; or at a Friday noon concert downtown near the County Courthouse on Friday, August 11. You can also tune in to WYEP, 91.3 FM at noon on Tuesday, July 25, where we'll be performing live over the airwaves (WYEP has been all over East End Avenue, playing the title song and "Soul Sailin'," among others), or come to Borders in Monroeville on Sunday, July 23 and hear me and BP Band keyboard player Jimmy Britton do an unplugged set, sign autographs, and answer questions about the new CD or anything else.

For more information about any of these dates, please see our schedule page at www.billyprice.com/schedule.html.

Finally, here's what a reviewer at Amazon.com wrote about East End Avenue:

"Well, I've been waiting for this kind of top shelf original material (13 of the 14 songs) from Billy Price for a long time. Not that a majority of his previous output hasn't been worth hearing repeatedly, it has--the often incomparable southern soul rarities that he'd been singing since his college days in the late sixties and early seventies, the same material that he still performs. Now, with 'East End Avenue' he and his stellar band (man, give that drummer some!) have achieved parity with that vast collection of songs he has performed over the last tour decades."

For those who don't have it yet, East End Avenue is available at www.billyprice.com/cds.html. Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you sometime this summer!

Soulfully yours,
Billy Price

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