Michael K. & the Populists: News

If you've never been to ROEDOWN... well... what can I say. It's an experience. It's like the rural version of The Preakness... but MORE. Whereas at Preakness you can expect to find an infield of morbidly intoxicated nearing-adulthood college students getting sunburned beyond recognition, at ROEDOWN you'll see friends and family just hanging out, sippin' a brew, eating a burger and enjoying the scenic countryside, the horse racing and THE MUSIC. It really is a great time. The only mitigating factor every year is THE WEATHER. Ah yes. The weather. Being that ROEDOWN is always held in early-mid April, the Maryland weather always plays a factor. 2005 & 2006 were might temperate... 2007 (on Easter Sunday!) was miserable. This year, I'm forecasting NICE weather. So, here's the deal. We show up and slap all our equipment/PA on a plywood stage set in front of a big red barn and then proceed to... um... ROCK!! -ok, only between horse races. When we're NOT rockin' we're hangin'. Drinking beverages... eating good food... talking with good and NEW friends. It's a party, people. Plain and Simple. If you can make it, we'd love to have you. If you can't... there's always NEXT YEAR!!! Here's the scoop:
http://michaelk101.com/guest/ROEDOWN2008.pdf

Hey, check out the newest Austin Grill in Rockville with me tomorrow night. I'll be playing a singer/songwriter showcase hosted by Bob Sima. Austin Grill has great food and a nice vibe.

36 Maryland Avenue, Unit A
Rockville, MD 20850
301-838-4281
http://www.myspace.com/austingrillrockville

Hey kiddies!

The band has been busy in the studio trying to get together some songs for a CD. In the meantime, check out our myspace page and the new upcoming gigs on the calendar!

Just some quick shout-outs...

Happy Birthday to my beautiful baby girl, Cadence. She is the big "3" today. Time flies... I can still remember anticipating her first steps. Now she's faster on her feet than her old man. You can see pictures of Cadence and my son, Lucas here: http://www.am-fm.org -click on the Rock-n-Roll Golf Tournment Pictures link. Lucas and Cadence are the blondies.

Happy Birthday to me tomorrow!! August 10th. I'm a few years past 21. We'll leave it at that.

And then there's August 11th.... I picked this day -the day after my birthday- to make one of the smartest decisions of my entire life. Five years ago on this day, I married my soul mate and best friend, Asa. Knowing how minds get feeble with time, I thought it was smart to make it the day after my birthday so that I'd never forget it. But the truth is I'm reminded every day how blessed I am to have her in my life. She's a terrific mother and a wonderful wife. And anyone who has her as a friend -as I do- will agree it is indeed a privilege and an adventure!

Now to all you other August Birthday and Anniversary Honorees, CONGRATS! I hope you're as happy and blessed as I am.

See you at the next show:
http://www.Michaelk101.com/courtyardgig.JPG

Time flies! It'll be August soon; can you believe that? I swear the older I get, the faster time flies. And summer is my favorite time of year by far. I can deal with the humidity, the heat, the mosquitoes... all that more so than snow and cold weather. The warm weather and sunny days energize me. Ah well, there's still time to catch some warm weather shows. Check the calendar and I hope to see you soon! In the meantime, check out some cool links:

http://www.penseyeview.com
http://myspace.com/coldhotcrash
http://myspace.com/jandtodd
http://myspace.com/armyofme

With all the sadness and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is
worth reflecting on the death of a very important person (which
almost went unnoticed recently).

Larry LaPrise, the man that wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at
the age of 93.

The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.

They put his left leg in....... And then the trouble started.

(Shut up. You know it's funny.)

Thanks to all the new friends that said "hi" at the CWF Summer Fest as well as the Marriott Courtyard Gig. What a great turnout! And great weather too. You guys really energized our spirits so look forwar to more great shows coming up!

Ah, a whole day of great live music, awesome food, cold beer, and a wide variety of arts & crafts... Yes, it's that again... Eastport-a-Rockin' #11. We'll be there. Will You?
Here's a secret... there's an afterparty... a Luau... at Heroes Pub in West Annapolis.

Keep checking the Heroes Myspace page... http://myspace.com/heroespubannapolis

And, uh, check out
http://eastportarockin.com

Michael K. & the Populists will be opening for Jimmies Chicken Shack THIS FRIDAY @ The Whiskey 1803 in Annapolis. You can purchase the tickets NOW - ONLINE - Here:
http://www.missiontix.com/index.cfm?venue=-wk

Find out more about The Whiskey 1803 - Annapolis's freshest, rockingest new live music venue here:

http://www.myspace.com/whiskey1803info

Michael K. & the Populists will be opening for JIMMIES CHICKEN SHACK at The Whiskey, 1803 West Street (upstairs from BF Biggens) in Annapolis. THIS FRIDAY! Doors open @ 9pm sharp and it's $12 to get in. GET THERE EARLY - Jimmies Chicken Shack usually sells these small venues out quickly. Also playing, a band called "86 the Effort" --

Check out The Whiskey's Myspace Page for all the info and more great upcoming shows. ->
http://www.myspace.com/whiskey1803info

click the link below to visit our MySpace page and ADD US AS FRIENDS!
http://MySpace.com/MichaelKandthePopulists

New pix from our Rams Head Onstage Show and the 8x10 club in Baltimore. I'll be posting new pictures as they come in from our fab photog. Mr. Charles Funk -- http://charlesfunk.com

Keep checking back -- we have TONS of pix!

It was an amazing set, an amazing show, an amazing night. We opened for the fabulous Jordan Page on Thursday night at Rams Head Onstage in Annapolis. The turnout of people was phenominal and you could almost taste the zen energy and love in the room. Despite a bunch of technical problems discovered at soundcheck (most notably, my amp died), we pulled off an amazing set of 10 originals that pretty much brought the house down and put everying in a great frame of mind for Jordan.
Thanks Jordan!
Thanks Rams Head!
Thanks to everyone who came out... we plan to do again soon... this time as the headlining act.

Join us for a full band show at the Rams Head Onstage in Annapolis as we open for the fabulously talented JORDAN PAGE (http://www.JordanPageMusic.com). THURSDAY, 5 APRIL 2007
Doors open at 8pm. BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW at http://tickets.ramsheadonstage.com -- they're only $13.50 and there's GREAT seats available NOW. Help us give Zack -our new guitar player- a real NAPTOWN welcome! Hear some new tunes!

Welcome Mr. Zack Hart. The newest member of Michael K. & the Populists. He replaces the magnificent Brian Baker as "Head Axe Slinger" and, although he's got a big pair of shoes to fill, he's already proven he's here to rock.

Hey we had a blast playing Eastport-a-Rockin' last Saturday. We made some many new
fans and saw so many good friends, it was great! I know some may have not been able
to be there, but I have a treat for you. How about a nice picture slide show which
pretty much sums up the entire day? Joseph Allen, a photographer out of Virginia
was the official photographer of Eastport-a-Rockin' 2006. He documented the entire
day on film (er- digital). You can watch the slide show by clicking the link below:

http://www.jallenimages.com/img_ear.htm

NOTICE THE SONG USED IN THE BACKGROUND?!

Yes, Mr. Allen was very impressed with the band and my music and actually called to
asked if he could use "Beginning of Love" for the slide show. He also asked if he
could use "Romeo" for another slide show he did for a charity Polo Match called the
Courage Cup. You can check that slide show out here:

http://www.jallenimages.com/img_cc.htm

Now while we're on the subject of links, I figured I'd share a few with you:

BUY MY TUNES on iTUNES:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=4385998

BUY MY TUNES on CDBaby.com:
http://cdbaby.com/michaelk

BUY MY TUNES on Amazon.com:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playListId=4385998

LISTEN TO ME LIVE IN CHICAGO!:
http://uncommonground.com/radio_hif.m3u

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Gigs
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Last but not least, here's we're you can come hear the music:

Friday, July 7th, 2006
Ramshead Beach House, Rehoboth - http://ramsheadtavern.com
Populists Rock the Beach House - 9pm
Rehoboth, DE
Price: $0

Full band show at the new Ramshead Beach House in Rehoboth.

Friday, July 14th, 2006
Heroes Pub in West Annapolis - http://heroespub.com
Michael K. @ Heroes - 10pm
1 Riverview Ave
Annapolis, MD
410-573-1996
Price: $0

Acoustic gig.

Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
Gena's Place - http://genasplace.com
Singer/Songwriter Night - 7pm
Price: Something to eat or drink

This is a VERY cool, VERY exclusive singer/songwriter night hosted at a local
singer/songwriter's house in Eastport, MD. If you want to go, CALL ME 410-961-6799
or EMAIL ME.

Brian and I did our best to Rock the Fish tonight, but that ever illusive "vibe" was nowhere to be found. Right off the bat, we were instructed by the management to "keep it mellow for the first hour" so as not to annoy the late dinner crowd. It's kinda hard to get the people into what you're doing when you're playing all mellow stuff for the first hour. To top things off, Rockfish took my favorite food -fried calamari- off the menu. I was bummed. But hey, we didn't let that get us down. Some old friend hung out, we played, people danced, all-in-all it was a good night. Not the best night, mind you, but still a good night. Next up... NYC on Sunday.

A thousand THANKS to all (50 or so) that came out to Austin Grill in Silver Spring last night to hang with the band. It was a 'trial' gig for us there and I think it's safe to say we'll be back there. Special thanks to Jeff and Tali for arranging the surprise birthday party for Donna. Stay tuned for upcoming gigs there!

Today, the band played at the outside pavilion @ Clyde's in Columbia. It was hot. It was humid. It even rained for a short time. But it was fun and we had a lot of friends come out to keep us company. THANKS!

Brian and I played "The Back Room" at Woodfire in Severna Park tonight. The place was really small and it was our first time playing this room. Luckily we had a lot of friends show up to keep us company. Aside from our friends, the crowd was older but still pretty receptive to the music. We look forward to getting back there again to play. Thanks to everyone who came out.