It's streaming right HERE. Please keep on SHARING it with your friends - it's a fantastic way for me to spread the word about this new batch of music. Welcome to all the new folks on the list.
Realign Your Mind is now available at iTunes and other digital outlets, including Amazon and Napster. More to come... I will have physical copies available at my shows this Fall.
AUGUST DATES
I'll be announcing Fall tourdates in the next email update, but I wanted to let you know about a few very cool dates coming up in August. On Thursday August 5th, I will be performing a solo set at the Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro NC opening for one of my fave songwriters, Freedy Johnston. My set is at 8 pm. This show is already sold out, sorry!
Q-BEX rides yet again on Thursday, August 12th! Drummer / maestro Jeff Sipe has corralled myself, Bassist Andy Ware, organist David McCracken, and Guitarist Cyril Lance for another Funk 'n' Soul throwdown at Greensboro NC's Blind Tiger
On Sunday, August 15th, I will be playing a solo set at the Pourhouse in Raleigh NC, as a part of the Friends For Hamid Benefit. Hamid is a beloved chef in Raleigh - yet another brave soul battling cancer who has fallen though the cracks in our health care system . Also performing will be Starmount, Jeanne Jolly, Maldura, Static Minds, Mommie, Richard Bacchus, and possibly a very special guest band. The show starts at 7 pm with a suggested $10 donation.
On Saturday, August 21st, I am very happy to be a part of NC Stars In the Round, A Shakori Hills Benefit at the festival site in Snow Camp NC. They are raising money to buy the land. I'ill be taking part in a Song Circle with some of my favorite area performers - John Howie Jr. ($2 Pistols), Katharine Whalen (Squirrel Nut Zippers), Justin Robinson (Carolina Chocolate Drops), Mary Johnson Rockers, and Alex Hall. Also appearing: Holy Ghost Tent Revival and Jack Maverick & His Wild Rebels. Advance tickets are available here - $10 in advance, $15 at the gate.
PRAGUE STORY
Wanted to give you a quick synopsis of my trip to the Czech Republic this Summer - I've had a lot of folks ask me about it. I'll start at the beginning.
After 12 hours of traveling, I arrived jetlagged to my host Bill Pixley's apartment - a top floor flat near the Dancing House (a landmark building set on the Vltava River, which runs through the heart of Prague). The apartment was buzzing with the dozen or so international twentysomethings that staff Bill's new startup social networking website, called Yornet.net
Yornet was sponsoring a stage at United Islands, a big annual international music festival in Prague. In addition to publicizing the launch of his site, Bill wanted to bring some of his favorite NC performers to the Yornet Stage. He lined up myself and Logie Meachum, a great blues singer out of Greensboro NC.
One of Bill's employees, an Australian named Daemos, put together a group of local ace musicians to back Logie and I at United Islands. The lineup: Dimitri from Siberia on Bass, Anar from Azerbaijan on Keytar, Ben From Britain on Sax, Byron from Maryland on Sax, and Tomas From Czech Republic on Drums. Many of these musicians spoke no english; as I scribbled out charts and we began to work through a first rehearsal, I was a little nervous that we might not be able to pull it off.
Three days later we were in front of a festival crowd of 2000 plus people, playing a set of HOBEX music together. It went swimmingly... the crowd loved it! HOBECZ International. As Logie joined us and we whipped the crowd into a frenzy with a set of his down home blues numbers, I was reminded once again just how incredibly lucky i am to do this. Thank you for that. Three encores later, We left the stage triumphant. Good times indeed!
The rest of the trip is a beautiful blur. Lots of duo and trio gigs with Logie in various bars and venues around town. A couple of nice Trunk Songs-style solo sets. Many impromptu sing-alongs and smiling faces. Jams with some great Prague-based musicians, including the talented Justin Lavash. Of course, some unforgettable sightseeing - Old Town Square, Astrological Clock, Old Jewish Quarter, Prague Castle, Cathedral of St. Vitus...
Bill told me I wouldn't want to leave, and he was right! I'm looking forward to my next trip to Prague, a truly gorgeous city with a vital culture and history. Can't wait to see all of the wonderful people i met there again. The best music trip I've taken in a long time. Here are some photos I took on one of the Festival days, if you'd like to check'em out.
Greg
If you'd like to listen to Trunk Songs, it's streaming at greghumphreys.net . If you'd like to buy Trunk Songs, Physical copies are available at our online store. Its available at Itunes, Emusic, Rhapsody, and other digital outlets; there will also be copies for sale at live shows. I created a cool lil' music video out of cell phone vids for the song "All You Know is Blue" from Trunk Songs. Check it out and see how many people / places you recognize - NSFW, though!
Trunk Songs has received some nice press -
News and Observer "...one of the definitive Chapel Hill anthems" - David Menconi
Independent Weekly "...these tracks prove Humphreys is capable of mostly anything" - Chris Parker
Yes Weekly "...yet another feather in the cap of a North Carolina treasure" - Ryan Snyder
Winston-Salem Journal "...a document of one man‘s musical journey and a quiet testimonial to musical integrity." - Ed Baumgardner
Mountain Xpress "...comes on like a gentle breeze but contains the power to knock the listener for a loop.." - Alli Marshall
Our Spring '09 Shakori Hills HOBEX performance is now available on Itunes, Emusic, Rhapsody and other digital services! Recorded by festival soundman John Lloyd, This is a great sounding set running though favorites from our various albums. Longtime bassist Andy Ware and I were joined by Guitarist Gibb Droll (Keller Williams, Brandi Carlile, Marc Broussard), Drummer Rob Ladd (Roger Daltrey, Don Henley, Pressure Boys, Don Dixon, Let's Active etc.), Organist David McCracken (Donna the Buffalo, Clifton Chenier), and vocalist / percussionist / Chapel-Hill favorite Taz Halloween. I have uploaded a track, Rollin' 4/16/09, to our Reverbnation music player at the HOBEX site, if you'd like to check it out!
Bull Session is out now! Gibb Droll and I recorded this acoustic EP earlier this year... It's culled from a few recording sessions at my home in Durham. featuring a great version of Gibb's song Birmingham, a lovely instrumental Cellophane Sunrise which features John Garris on Fiddle, and covers of Goodbye Baby (Baby Goodbye) and Blue Velvet. Also featured on the EP: my sister Ann Humphreys on backing vocals. Now available on Itunes, Rhapsody, Emusic and other digital outlets.
Taper Dan Schram has posted a nice recording of my recent solo Trunk Songs set opening for the Carolina Chocolate Drops at Cat's Cradle. It's on Archive.org - you can download or stream it right here! Hope you enjoy it.
A song from my Trunk Songs CD, Buttons and Strings, is on a new compilation release distributed by Redeye called Homegrown Music for the Soil. The proceeds from this compilation will benefit Feed the Farm, an organization created to help family farmers in NC. The track listing includes a great roster of central North Carolina artists: Tift Merritt, Midtown Dickens, Chatham County Line, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Megafaun, Mike Slaton and The wheels, Tres Chicas, Southern Culture on the Skids, The Proclivities, Two Dollar pistols, and The Moaners.
On the production front, I recorded most of the basic tracks for the new Dynamite Brothers CD Again. Tracks from the album have already appeared in the HBO series East Bound and Down and the CD has just been officially released. The album has a fantastic funk / soul / punk / garage hybrid sound - Check it out here! I recently finished recording and mixing an album called Counting Stars for a great local folk group called Humble Tripe; Counting Stars will soon to be released on 307 Knox Records. I've also been working on a strong batch of songs of my own for another solo release, and my sister Ann and I have been recording an EP together.
Our recent Bandtogether event with The Rosebuds, Chatham County Line, and Rusted Root raised over $ 125,000 for the Lucy Daniels Center. Joining me for our HOBEX Bandtogether set: Andy Ware on Bass, Rob Ladd on Drums, David McCracken on keys and Taz Halloween on vocals. To get a taste of this line-up, check out Tom Laney's youtube videos of Natural Child, Groove Baby, So Far Away, and Playin' Games from our April set at Shakori Hills Festival (also featuring the amazing guitarist Gibb Droll.)
One of my Dillon Fence songs, Living Room Scene, was recently named one of the 100 Greatest North Carolina songs by Yes! Weekly. Honored to be included. It's an interesting list - check it out if you're a fan of NC music.
I've been working on a follow-up to Trunk Songs; I have some new songs I'm really excited about. My recent solo set and interview for Sessions at Studio B is now archived at their site - surf over and have a listen.
I noticed the phrase "Trunk Songs" reading an Irving Berlin Biography and it stuck with me. In the heyday of Tin Pan Alley songwriting and Broadway musicals, working songwriters would toss their unused songs into a trunk. They would pull one of these songs out when a musical was in need of one more number.
Here are a handful of my own trunk songs, along with some new songs and a few favorite covers. This is the kind of set you might find me playing on my old Hummingbird around a festival campfire or in a late-night hotel room. These recordings were made during the Spring of 2008 with friends, in three impromptu sessions that capture that offhand spirit.
The majority of the CD is pulled from a session with old southeastern circuit mates Craig Honeycutt (Everything) and guitarist Gibb Droll (Keller Williams and WMDs, Brandi Carlile, Marc Broussard.) After a Saturday night cookout and jam session, Craig offered to record us at his house in Eagle Rock, CA. We ended up with some great versions of these songs, thanks to Gibb's sympathetic-yet-virtuosic guitar accompaniment.
The solo tracks were cut one afternoon by my friend Jim Brantley (The Rosebuds, Bull City) at his studio in Durham NC. The band tracks were also recorded in Durham NC - this time on my back porch with Chapel-Hill NC's resident bluegrass cats Big Fat Gap. You can hear crickets chirping, a dog collar jingling, and maybe a few cheap beer cans hitting the floor.
In the last 20 years fronting bands, I've often daydreamed of making quiet acoustic records... its been on my list of things to do. Sometimes, these decisions are made for you. These songs are meant to be universal. I write to be understood. Most of my songs over the years have started out on acoustic guitar, but these have decided to stay there. Trunk Songs - hope you enjoy them.
Here are a couple of reviews from Carla Kucinski Seward at GoTriad and Brian Tucker at Bootleg Magazine that are not online:
Bootleg Magazine - October 10th 2008 - by Brian Tucker
Greg Humphreys is a music staple in North Carolina, consistently creating music as a solo artist or in bands Dillon Fence and Hobex for two decades. But with each incarnation Humphreys maintains majestic beauty and heart - solidarity. Vocally he’s coarse and smooth, cool and whispered with a tinge of sass. He’s an old soul; bluesy and jazz entrenched, yet layered with as much citified essence as the cold dirt in the country.
Humphreys has always bridged regions with his own melodic sensibilities. On Trunk Songs Humphreys does something he’s always wanted - an album of acoustic numbers, some recorded with friends, others recorded in spare fashion. Whittling arrangements down centers Humphreys’ spirit and sound, stripping the ambiance of indy rock or the electric soul of albums like the Payback EP.
Trunk Songs places Humphreys where he really shines – alone and raw. Trunk Songs may be acoustic but it stands tall, sounding large. ‘I Cover the Waterfront’ elicits a New Orleans rich and soulful delivery, taking the standard and giving it a gentle rustic ambiance. ‘Buttons & Strings’ is tender and gentle, lovingly executed, sounding like James Taylor if he channeled Otis Redding. The bluesy ‘Natural Child’ is stripped, Humphreys’ voice forward and booming. There’s the elegant ‘Faded Beauty’ that exercises restraint against a background of melancholy. Humphreys sings tenderly, Do you dream of me / like I dream of you. He switches things up with the country slow walk of the banjo rich ‘Crazy as a Loon’.
The album is steeped in character and personality; note the lament for a good dog on ‘Old Shep’. At times a love letter to his musical past and a means to tie up loose ends, Humphreys has something with these Songs. Trunk Songs may or may not spark a new direction for Humphreys but it certainly adds another color to his palette in which to play around with.
GoTriad - September 25, 2008 - by Carla Kucinski Seward
While reading an Irving Berlin biography, the phrase "Trunk Songs" - unused songs tossed into a trunk - inspired Greg Humphreys to record his own trunk songs. Recorded at various locations, including his back porch, the album instantly engages the listener with its intimacy and rawness and Humphrey's soothing vocals. Humphreys, who is accustomed to fronting bands (Hobex), sounds right at home in this role. Favorite track: "One Song Away"
Here's Photographer Richard Cox's photo gallery of our May '08 HOBEX show with George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, if you'd like to check it out. Organizers Band Together raised over $100,000 for SAFEchild, a local non-profit child abuse prevention agency in Raleigh NC. Here are some pics by James Hill of our Festival for the Eno set - Andy, Russ, Dustin and I were joined by vocalist Taz Halloween and percussionist Brevan Hampden. Here's some smokin' YouTube video of Pink Champagne from our Summer on Trade Set, courtesy of Shawn Patch.
The project to catalog HOBEX live shows, demos, B-sides and rarities is going well. We'll be digitally releasing this material in the near future! More to come soon -
Have a listen to the HOBEX Live at The Garage, Winston-Salem NC 3/17/05 set via the stream and download links below - seems to have been a popular download at Archive.org lately.
1. Let Me Live 2. You Set Me Free 3. Natural Child 4. Inner City Blues 5. Something For You 6. Groove Baby 7. Slide 8. Sweet Thing
Taped by: joel at jamlivedotorg
Our 4/25/07 set at the WorkPlay Theater in Birmingham AL is the latest show to be added to the HOBEX Tapers' archive. Download and/or stream the show yourself at the link provided. Sounds good!
WFUV Words and Music from Studio A - HOBEX "Hobex has been working hard for over a decade, bringing its rock-soul blend from North Carolina to audiences around the country. The band's new CD is called 'Enlightened Soul,' and the guys took a pit stop from the road to share a few tunes from the album with Claudia Marshall. [4/13/07]"
WFUV Take Five - HOBEX "Despite the trials of record labels and the road, the North Carolina band Hobex is still in it for the music, and recently talked with Claudia Marshall about keeping going when the going gets tough. [5/1/07]"
Check out Push It (Off That Hill) from our recent WNKU Studio 89 performance, now posted on YouTube.
On its fourth full-length album, North Carolina soul-rock revivalists Hobex deliver a sweet, easy listen. The 10-track album is classic in every way. From the country-western swing of the title track to the laid-back retro feel of songwriter/frontman Greg Humphreys' production, there's a true respect for the rock and soul records of the '60s and '70s here.
There's the AM pop-rock of "Don't Waste Your Time (In Falling in Love)," which rides a lovely vocal melody. "Hold Tight!" and the guitar-driven closer, "Natural Child," boogie with a classic rock groove. Aside from a few sidelines into rock and country, it's delicious soul that rings throughout.
A big thank you to discerning DJs at the following radio stations who played Enlightened Soul.
KCRW Santa Monica CA
WNCW Spindale NC
WNKU Cincinnati OH
WFUV Bronx, NY
WBCX Gainesville GA
WCBE Columbus OH
WBER Penfield NY
KXCI Tuscon AZ
WXDU Durham NC
WTMD Towson MD
KSER Seattle WA
WQNR Auburn AL
WSGE Dallas NC
KBOO Portland OR
WCUW Worcester MA
WUTC Chattanooga TN
WCOM Carrboro NC
WQNR Auburn AL
WKNC Raleigh NC
KAOS Olympia WA
WQFS Greensboro NC
KDHX Saint Louis MO
WITR Rochester NY
WRUW Cleveland OH
KBOO Portland OR
WUNC 91.5 has my interview and acoustic performance from their daily program "The State Of Things" with Frank Stasio archived here, if you'd like hear me ramble about the band and play acoustic versions of songs from the new CD. Our taped performance backing Katharine Whalen on the World Cafe with David Dye is also archived online here.
Please check out this great compilation CD of North Carolina artists covering other North Carolina artists; proceeds go toward the fight against Cystic Fibrosis.
Wanted to tell you about a new collection of poetry and music by my friend, Shirlette Ammons. I co-wrote a song with Shirlette on the CD, John Anonymous, that accompanies her book of poetry, Matching Skin. Read all about it in thisIndependent Weekly article - some great musicians are involved in this project!
Free The Music
Don't Waste Your Time
Man And A Woman
Behind The Door
I'm Not Ashamed
You Set Me Free
Hold Tight!
Enlightened Soul
Push It (Off That Hill)
Natural Child
Here's a triple threat for ya: spicy soul-funk-jazz
that'll put taste buds on your eardrums. What
they've laid down here is an hour of untainted music-from-the-heart
that owes as much to
improvisation and intuition as it does to technique and calculation,
which is to say it has
soul, baby.
