Hello, there.  Welcome to the first solo act era “new album” post.  Salim and I are currently wrapping up my second solo album, A Cosmic Joke, and the first with a producer other than myself.  It’s been an intriguing venture creatively, and it’s quite different from anything I’ve done.  I suppose it’s probably closer to my first solo album Summer Reverb than anything The Slack or Olospo ever did, but it still feels like a new direction for me.  I’m excited and anxious about where it’s all gonna go.  

Here’s a video of me performing at the Kessler Theater in Oak Cliff last Friday.  The song is called “I’m Immune” and it’s on the new album, which I’m looking to release in August.  I’ll keep you posted on details for release dates and live performances.

Hope you like it, and thanks for listening.

CH 3/29/10 

Yes, yes…The Slack stops here…we’ll be playing our last show of The Deep End 2010 media blitz record-breaking world tour (of Dallas) tonight at The Granada Theater, opening for the great Cas Haley and his band.  We play at 9pm sharp, so get there early, and stick around for a great night of music.   If you miss it, you suck!

Check out our great jumbotron photos from our American Airlines Center gig last week, playing at the Stars game.  That was cool.  If you have the ability to play an arena any time soon, I highly recommend it.  It was kinda weird, like opening for somebody who used to be huge…it wasn’t sold out, and not everyone was paying attention to us, but there were many thousands of people there, hearing our original music and seeing our faces and name on the big screen.  I could certainly get used to playing arenas.  Oh well.

Tonight should be fun…though we had originally hoped to reunite with our original bassist Dave The Shazo and perform Abbey Road in its entirety for you tonight, alas, we couldn’t coordinate our schedules.  So maybe that’ll give us a reason to get the band back together, you know…whenever.  

In the meantime, keep your eyes open for A Cosmic Joke, my new Salim Nourallah-produced solo album, set for release this fall.   

Thanks…see you tonight?

CH 3/19/10 

The Slack will be performing at Trees in Deep Ellum tonight at 10pm, for a KDGE contest and a chance to open Edgefest.   Online voting happens now and you can vote until it ends tonight at 6pm…vote here: http://www.kdge.com/pages/local/

As for the show, here’s the lineup for tonight:  Johnny Lloyd Rollins 8pm; Andrew Tinker 9pm; THE SLACK - 10pm; Fate Lions 11pm

Eric and I also play in Johnny’s band, so get there early and check us out.

Thanks for listening,

CH 2/25/10

Wanna see this guy playing the violin (and ten other instruments)?  Well, here’s your chance.  For tonight, I will be joined by him at the Opening Bell at South Side On Lamar, circa 8:30pm, for an acoustic set.  And what will be played?  Who knows?  Usually when Eric and I get together for this sort of thing, anything goes.

This will be our “naked cd release”, as it were…we will have copies of our new Slack album The Deep End, so if you’re into that sort of thing, then please join us and enjoy whatever it is that we have to offer!

CH 2/12/10

PERFORMANCE ALERT!

The Slack plays tonight at the City Tavern in downtown Dallas, on Main Street.  The Charming Gardeners will open the show around 9:30pm, led by Marc Solomon and Amy Curnow…followed by the amazing Kenny Withrow and his Electro-magnetics…and finally, we Slackers will take the stage whenever they’re done.  And we will play until we are told to leave.   Or until we get sick of each other.

Please do us all a favor and attend.  Or else.

CH 2/5/10

Performance alert! We’re playing TONIGHT at Good Records (on Greenville Avenue), starting around 7:30pm.

We go on right after the legendary Exene Cervenka and we’ll be playing a set to further hype our new record.  Please come out and join us!

CH 1/28/10

Hey, check out the video of us from KXT last Thursday.  It was early.  We look tired.  But we brought the folk…unfortunately without our boy Sluth, who was rehearsing with Earth Wind And Fire for their upcoming tour.

But hey, three outta four ain’t bad.

CH 1/26/10

Good morning, good morning, good morning-ah!

Many, many thanks to everyone who came out to Sons Of Hermann on Friday to help us celebrate the Deep End release party.  And extra thanks to those who watched us the following night in Denton.  I’ve gotta admit, it’s pretty fun to get out and play with this band again.  It seems like it’s been forever.  And though we certainly had a few kinks along the way, it felt pretty good.  My new Gretsch is a bit of a beast to control, but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

For those who missed it, or just had no idea what we were playing, here’s the setlist: What If, Infatuations Never Last > The FIne Art Of Bleeding > Truth And Fiction, The Deep End, You Deserve Better, Fair (with horns), Follow On (with horns), The Talk (with horns), Indier Than Thou > Pipe Dream, Uncle Pen, Frostbite, Feeling Stronger Every Day (with horns), Maybe Heaven, Rocks Off (with horns).

In addition to our new album tracks (and one measly cut from the first record), we pulled out covers by Ben Folds, Bill Monroe, Chicago Transit Authority, and the Stones.  Our horn section deserves a huge round of applause: Micah Bell and Tyler Mire on the trumpets, as well as A.G. Robeson and Michael Lawson on the trombones.  And of course, some seriously deep gratitude goes to our boy Sluthy for his hard work arranging and transcribing the horn parts.  Hopefully we’ll find some Youtube clips of that stuff soon.

Speaking of Youtube, now that The Deep End is officially out, hopefully we’ll have an ending for our movie.  Yes, our movie.  Check it out…for those who haven’t seen it…here’s a trailer for a Slack documentary on the making of The Deep End, filmed by our friend Kevin Huckabee.  I don’t know when it’s gonna be finished, but now we have an ending.  I guess we just need to include the new songs :)

Finally, we’ll be at Good Records this Thursday evening, around 7:30, playing a set.  We go on right after the legendary Exene Cervenka (from X), so get there early and stick around for us.

Thanks again!

CH 1/25/10

EMBARRASSING QUOTE UPDATE: Isn’t it funny how I say that “the best band in the world is probably some band that nobody knows” and it sounds as if I’m talking about us?  Now that’s comedy.

This is your final reminder.  Tonight is The Deep End cd release party.  Sons Of Hermann Hall.  Elm Street in Deep Ellum.  Dave Little Meltdown at 9:30.  Slack at 10:30.  Rock and/or roll will be made.

Please join us.  Thank you.

CH 1/22/10

And off we go. The Deep End is officially released in stores today. Maybe we’ll sell one.   You could be that one sale.   What’s it gonna take?

While you ponder, there are many things brewing.

1. We’ll be on KXT this Thursday morning, January 21, at 10am, playing live in the studio.   They’ve been kind enough to give us some airplay lately, and we’re really excited to be able to do some radio promotion.  Kinda makes us feel important.

2. We’ve been getting some press for the record.  Check out the following links:

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2010/jan/18/album-review-slacks-em-deep-endem/

http://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/story/1873584.html

http://ghostofblindlemon.blogspot.com/2010/01/cutting-idol-records-some-slack.html

3. I’ve been making the rounds, talking about the record with various radio folk. Here’s a track-by-track podcast I just did with Paul Slavens at KXT.

http://www.kera.org/artandseek/content/2010/01/18/track-by-track-the-slack/

And an interview I did with Winston Edmondson for CNN Radio (it’s about 8 minutes in, after all the Obama bashing)…

http://projectinnovation.net/2010-01-13.cfm

Finally…PLEASE come to our cd release show this Friday night at Sons Of Hermann Hall in Dallas.  It’s gonna be a great night.  Many thanks to my buddy Darin for making the posters.

See you there.

CH 1/19/10

Hey everyone, check out CNN Radio 1190 AM today at 3pm, as I’ll be talking to Winston Edmondson on-air about The Deep End.

You can listen online at:

http://www.facebook.com/l/42e85;cnn1190.com

Thanks!

CH 1/13/10