TOrcH: News

We hit our beloved basement again this Friday in full force. Joining us will be Evan Jacobs on piano and David Chenu on sax. These fantastically talented fellows are always a delight to play with, and I'm sure you'll love them as well...not to mention the Mighty Chris Vestre and Big Jon Greene.

I will be there as M.C. and for dramatic interpretation.

We will have CDs available and the Elephant will happily sell you adult refreshment.

Bring your friends, bring your wallets. Bring your friends' wallets.

The good folks at LUNA-fine music club in San Antonio called us for an EMERGENCY SHOW this Friday! So if you have an EMERGENCY, I suggest you come to our show this Friday. We'll take care of everything.

-s

We played a fantastic wedding reception at Los Patios in San Antonio this weekend. The venue was beautiful, the sound was perfect, the couple and family were warm and friendly and having a great time. We were honored to be a part of the festivities. Congratulations Joe and Carola!!!

Our new band photo (left) was taken by Inked Fingers Fotography's Carli Bitting-Kiene. Isn't she wonderful!? I love this picture. You can get more info on Carli and her work at
http://inkedfingers.com/aboutus.aspx

SXSW was a lot of fun this year. Chris Vestre's show at the Elephant Room was a Wower. Jon and Seela got to be a part of Sean Hayes band.
http://www.seanhayesmusic.com/home.htm
As well as playing some shows with Matt the Electrician and even a Seela and Friends show at the Gingerman.
http://www.matttheelectrician.com
Our good friends Spottiswoode and his Enemies were in town for a few shows, one particularly lethal performance at the Saxon Pub. The building is still a buzz...
http://www.spottiswoode.com/
Good times were had, no one got hurt. Success!!

Love is still in the air. If you didn't catch is yesterday, there's
always tonight. We will be at LUNA tonight for your
listening/dancing/swooning pleasure. Bring a date. Bring many.
Start a triangle, or get out of one. Do what you must.

-Hearts,
TOrcH


Friday, Feb. 15th
TOrcH at LUNA fine music club
6740 San Pedro, San Antonio, TX
9pm
$6 cover.

Yup, the night before New Year's eve, which we all know is when the
real party happens.

Bring your leftover family. Your new girlfriend, your boss, Your
tired, hungry...leave the sick ones at home, please. We are bringing
( in addition to the noise ) David Chenu and Evan Jacobs. We are
excited to be joined by these two Giants of Mad, Mad Skills as they
will surely cause TOrcH to engage into Full Force Mode.


You'll have to see it to believe it.

TOrcH
Sunday, December 30th
9:30 -1:30
The Elephant Room
315 Congress Ave.
Austin TEXAS!



PS: A Poem for Reeds

Your doors are closed
Perhaps even locked
Our gigs are cancelled
and that kind of sucks
It's really a shame
it makes us sad
that you are no longer
because we had
a really good time playing there that one night and you were so nice
to us and the wine was fantastic.

the end

It's Christmas party season. You want us to play yours? Send an email to info@sweethoneytree.com

Have you seen the new look of LUNA in San Antonio??!! Holy cows! Marcos has done a fantastic job of re-vamping the arrangement of this already deadly-hip establishment. We are looking forward to playing there in 2008...and now, we'll be facing the bar....

" The group steps beyond paint-by-numbers covers, investing each track with palpable passion, invigorating chemistry, and spellbinding tightness. " Adam Harrington, Whiperin & Hollerin (UK)

"Indeed, we are Charmed by this delightful mixture of jazz standards and original compositions. So smooth is the interaction between singer Seela Misra and her bandmates that you nearly don’t notice the passing of decades between one arrangement to another." Kyrby Raine Shotgun (web)

...read the rest on our "reviews" page.

And don't forget that YOU can write a review of the CD on our CD baby page. Just go to http://www.cdbaby.com/torch3 and add your thoughts to the reviews section.

KGSR IS PLAYING TORCH! 107.1 KGSR here in Austin is playing TOrcH as part of their "Sounds Like Austin" file. They are currently playing "What You Got?" from our latest album, "Charmed". Yippee! Call or Email them to thank them for playing TOrcH and let them know what track from the new record you'd like to hear...and to play us more, more, more!!!

go to http://www.kgsr.com for more details.

Beau Sample plays bass on the last track of our new record, "Charmed", but you wouldn't know it because I missed the lack of his name on the credits when I did the final proof. Huge apologies to Beau, who you can see perform with Elana James in Austin and around the world. He also plays occasionally with TOrcH conspirator, David Chenu and even less often (though hopefully that will change) with his own group, The Impressment Gang. We recorded "Charmed: The Happy Song" on a bit of a whim as a pitch to Old Navy. They were looking for a happy, old-timey, Springtime song for a new commercial campaing and Luke (of LUKE HITS) asked me if I'd like to try writing and recording one. Thus, the happy song was born.

That's right, folks. Tell your friends, your mom, your mom's friends and yourself. You can now purchase "Charmed", the new CD from TOrcH on line at CD baby.

How? just go to:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/torch3
It's that easy.
A baby could do it.

We got our first review of the new album and it's a good one! A big thank you to Jim Beal, Jr. at the San Antonio Express News. Here's a peice:


"Charmed" is a beautiful piece of work. The song selection; the live/studio mixture; guests including Newcomb, bassists Chris Maresh and Mike Porter, keyboard player Evan Jacobs, saxophonist David Chenu and trumpeter Ephraim Owens; and the confident vocal work of Misra make for a compelling disc that transcends boundaries, genres and generations.

Check out the whole thing on our Press page. You'll be able to get the CD on CDBABY in a couple days. I'll post the link here when it's up and running.
Hope to see you one of the CD release shows this weekend!

Last night we played live on KVRX's Local Live Show. I listened to the recording and I am extremely happy w/ it. Excpect to see it around soon. This Wednesday afternoon Chris and I will be on Non-Breaking Space at 3:00 on KOOP radio. You can tune in at 91.7fm or listen from anywhere at KOOP.org

It was delivered to my door yesterday. they look lovely. I'll take them to Waterloo today, End of an Ear tomorrow. Our "release party" is at LUNA in San Antonio on May 25th (Friday) and the Elephant on May 27th (Sunday). Come on out, get a CD...heck, get two or three.

HMV, a giant record store in Japan, has featured us on their website. The new record will be released on April 18th over there (and they are calling it "Charm" instead of "Charmed")
here's the link:
http://www.hmv.co.jp/news/article/704030045

pretty cool...
they printed an interview I did with them. I bet you can't read it. If you're just dying to know what it says, email me and I'll send you a transcript.

info@sweethoneytree.com

Just go to http://myspace.com/torchmusicpage

We've got 3 tracks from the new CD
"Charmed" up for you to check out. Let us know what you think!

In addition to Seela, Jon and Chris, the new CD features: Evan Jacobs (Tacks, the Boy Disaster), David Chenu, Ephraim Ownes (Blaze), Chris Maresh (Eric Johnson), Beau Sample and Mike Porter. This CD was produced by us, recorded at Top Hat Studio and LIVE at the Elephant Room, and half of the songs are written by Seela and Chris. Look for a CD release party at the end of April.

...in other, non-related, not-really-news...

I found this site where you can age yourself based on how much you hate your job. Age-O-Matic
You've got to check it out.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/age-o-matic/

it's the same people who brought you monkey mail.
http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/

New songs! New studio! New ideas! The new TOrcH record will be out this Spring!

Oh, so many things have been going on lately, where do I begin...

Well, the lovely Miss Anita O'Day past away on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 87. Though we never met, she will be missed. I have been studying her for many years. I am a huge fan and shameless "imitator". Check out her site for clips from a documentary shot over the last 4 years.
http://www.anitaoday.com

TOrcH recorded our Elephant Room show in October. We start mixing today w/ John and Mary over at Top Hat in Austin. Hopefully we'll be in the studio to do some more in December. Find out more about Top Hat Recorders at
http://www.tophatrecorders.com

Chris Vestre has fininshed mixing his new record. Help him come up w/ an album title at http://www.chrisvestre.com

That's pretty much all we've been thinking about since John Harvey and Mary Podio of TopHat recording studio recorded our Elephant Room show this past Sunday. Mike Porter, David Chenu, Ephraim Owens, Jon, Chris and Me....that was the line up. It was the day after DayLight Savings Day...
I have long balked the tiring effects of a one hour time change. Said balking shall cease. I was BEAT! After the show I played in Dallas the night before, waking up at 8 and doing a 4 hour show in the basement I passed out the second my head hit the pillow.
This weekend I will get to take a listen and I'll let you know right away if it's a keeper. Hopefully we'll get to jump on some studio recording for the next TOrcH record, also. We'll keep you informed as things progress. Happy November, y'all.

I have not updated the news for quite some time, so I shall get to it right now while I have a minute...
We are planning on recording our October 29th show at the Elephant Room in Austin. John Harvey and Mary Podio, the kind folks at TopHat Recording, will be doing the honors. We are hoping to get something to go on the new record....did I say new record?

...yes, the hope is to have something out by December, but we're not going to push it just for a deadline's sake. Some new songs and covers (perhaps a cover of a fellow Austinite's song)...so keep your eyes open for that later this year and come on down to the show and have your clapping and drinking recorded for all the world to hear.

Chris Vestre has been in the studio working on his follow up to "Jazz Camp" which will include fellow Torchian Jon Greene on drums. Jon has been busy playing drums for Matt the Electrician, Walter Tragert, Craig Ross, Jud Newcomb, and a pile of other folks. Seela just got off the road with Matt the Electrician and is still doing a weekly Tuesday gig of original material at Cedar Street Courtyard.

They finally opened their eyes and booked him!!

If you didn't hear me going on and on about Chris' SXSW show, if you have not seen the Mohawk, Chris' fashion manifestation of his current songwriting style, if you've been totally satisfied with the crap you hear on the radio....then perhaps you don't already know.

This is NOT a show to miss.

the band is BIG and the TUNES can handle it.

find out more at
http://www.chrisvestre.com

Tuesday, April 18th
the Elephant Room
315 congress ave
9:30 -1:30
free show