I just got back to London from my tour in the NW of the US and the showcase I played in New Orleans.  It was an absolutely amazing experience, and a lot of exciting things have come of it, some of which I hope to be able to share with you soon!  Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support me and my music - I had such a blast.

As most of you know, I am working on a new album, which is likely to cost well over $10,000 for studio, musician, and producer costs.  I was able to record my first album, ‘Another City’, very inexpensively by recording in the middle of the night, and with the help of many friends from Berklee College of Music.  This time, I don’t have those resources at my disposal, and I need your help!

So… I’m using a site called Pledge Music, where you can preorder the new CD, or choose from a menu of other things I thought you might like.  You can just donate if you prefer!  When you order any of these items, you will get a copy of the new CD when it’s done, as well as access to exclusive updates, videos, and songs that I’ll be posting throughout the process.  You do need to create a user account, but the site is secure and your credit card won’t be charged until the project has reached it’s target.  There’s a video on the project page explaining the concept:

Pledge here: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/brookeparrott

I am so excited to share these new songs with you, and I hope that you will take the time to check out my project on Pledge Music.  I could not continue to make music if it weren’t for your support over the years — I can’t thank you enough!  Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

See a live video of my new song ‘If You Don’t Know’ (featuring old bandmates Wes and Asha!) by clicking here.

For Londoners, my first show back in town is at the Slaughtered Lamb next Wednesday, Sept. 8th, with long-time friend Annie & the Beekeepers.

Thank you so much!

Brooke

On Monday, I played a show with John Parish at Monto Water Rats in London - definitely one of my favorite gigs in London to date.  Not only did loads of my lovely friends and fans come out to support me, but it was just a great atmosphere in general; everyone seemed to be out for the enjoyment of it all.  In a scene that can sometimes be filled with I’ve-seen-it-all-nothing-impresses-me types, it was so refreshing to have such an enthusiastic and musically-appreciative crowd.  I truly enjoyed playing the show and talking to everyone afterwards!

Photo credit: Devin Hunt

In other exciting news, today I got my copy of Maverick Magazine in the mail!  Inherently enough exciting by itself, this one happens to contain a two page feature on me.  It’s really nicely written, and I’m so pleased that they chose to write about me and my music.  Some quotes, as written by Laura Bethell:

“A devastatingly gorgeous debut”

“A warm passionate voice that is soft in approach and straight to the point in tone”

“Another song on the album, Rest, shoots sparks through the soul with its sentimentality and a story that is stirring”

If you’d like to get your own copy of the article, just go to Maverick’s website and use the code MAV971 to get a discount.

Hello!  You may or may not know that I have been playing gigs like crazy around London.  Last week, I played at the legendary Jazz Cafe, opening for the equally legendary Robert Forster from the Go-Betweens.  When I first arrived at the venue for soundcheck, keyboard in tow, imagine my surprise and delight to see a Steinway grand piano on stage!  When I asked the sound engineer, “is it easier for me to just play the real piano?”, he responded with the caveat, “but it hasn’t been tuned since yesterday”, to which I responded, “I think it’ll be okay”.  Perhaps I should start building up a rider (backstage and show requirements) similar to Rihanna’s.  ”Must have daily tuned Steinway grand piano.”

Now, it’s nearly time to hit the road in the Pacific Northwest!!  I’ll be on tour at the following places:

• Eugene: 11 Aug, Sam Bond’s Garage, 8:30pm
• Portland: 16 Aug, Atlantis Lounge @ Mississippi Pizza Pub, 7:30pm
• Seattle: 17 Aug, JewelBox Theater, 6pm

And as if that weren’t enough already, I’ll be playing as a showcased artist at the Cutting Edge Music Conference in New Orleans at the end of August… exciting stuff!  I’ll leave you with a recent photo from my show with Lauren Pritchard at Hoxton Underbelly:

Don’t forget, you’ve got 24 hours left to vote for me! http://bit.ly/cBukIb

In case you missed it, I’m reposting the exclusive goodies here for a limited time:

• Elliott Smith - Between the Bars cover
• Brooke Parrott - Give Me A Something
• Sarah Siskind - Lovin’s For Fools (video)
• Brooke Parrott - Sweet & Kinda Crazy (old co-write!)
• Brooke Parrott - Can’t Because I Won’t

Thank you so much for your continued support!

1. Go to http://www.greenman.net/user/register and fill out your info.
2. Check your email address, and click the link in the confirmation email they send you.
3. Click “MY ACCOUNT” at the top of the page
4. Change your password and click the “Save” button
5. Go to my page (http://bit.ly/cBukIb) and click “vote for this band”!

I’m up to #19 right now, but I need your help to get to the top 5!  Thanks for the support

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 :: Hoxton Underbelly :: London w/ Orlando Vaughan

You can say “I’m going” here: http://www.songkick.com/concerts/4672991-brooke-parrott-at-underbelly-hoxton

Secondly, I thought you might want to see some photos from recent gigs at the Regal Room and Old Queen’s Head.  You can even see the progression that my haircuts are taking :)  Photos were taken by Andy Sheard:

Brooke Parrott live at Regal Room London

Brooke Parrott live at Old Queen's Head London

You see her car on Maple Street, a parking ticket there / Neon green on rusted blue, a violating flair / You think for a moment you might leave a note, just to say “how are you, dear” / But you don’t have a pen, and you can’t bear to hear if there’s…

Someone beside her she can’t wait to wake, the unstated promise of a love yet to make / Every woman loves like she chooses to, maybe she just doesn’t love you / Maybe she just doesn’t love you

At the grocery store she fills her cart, more than is enough / Picks things up and puts them down, wondering ‘was it love?’ / No way to know if the right thing was done, or if she was too naive / All she knows and can feel is the depth of her need for…

Someone beside her she can’t wait to wake, the unstated promise of a love yet to make / Every woman loves like she chooses to, maybe she just doesn’t love you

You could tell her she renders you undone / You could kiss her and plead til she sees / But it looks likely, you’re just not meant to be, the…

Someone beside her she can’t wait to wake, the unstated promise of a love yet to make / Every woman loves like she chooses to, maybe she just doesn’t love you / Every woman loves like she chooses to, maybe she just doesn’t love you / Maybe she just doesn’t love you

Here’s a photo that the very talented Brad (his website is here) took at the gig:

This week I also had a co-write with a songwriter named Paul McKendrick who I met at an ASCAP workshop a few months ago.  It’s always a bit of a strange process to write with someone that you haven’t spent time with before, but this one turned out really great.  Paul came to my gig on Wednesday as well, and while sitting at the table looking at the venue’s flyer (with my name on it), Paul asked me “Do you keep these?”.  I said that no, I don’t usually, but sometimes I take a photo of them.  From there we developed the idea of a song about someone who doesn’t have the space to collect mementos from their life, since they move around a lot (read: me), and have to collect photos of these memories instead of the real thing.  I’ll post it here when it’s done!

This week my album was finally analyzed and posted on Pandora - you can now listen to “Brooke Parrott radio” here…!

]]> http://www.brookeparrott.com/pandora-a-co-write/feed http://www.brookeparrott.com/new-song-streaming-gig http://www.brookeparrott.com/new-song-streaming-gig#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:42:32 +0000 admin http://brookeparrott.com/?p=83 Time goes too quickly these days!  London’s been treating me quite well (and I say things like “quite” now), and I am definitely enjoying my time here.  It has so much to offer!

If you haven’t made it out to any of my gigs yet, there are more coming up, you can always check my Songkick or MySpace pages to see what’s coming up.  For those that are not in London, you can watch a live stream of my recent gig at the lovely Regal Room at http://bit.ly/9todyC .  Just click the clock and enter Feb 5, 2010 around 9:25pm, and watch from there.  I play 2 different sets, so it’s worth checking out the other acts that played in between - they were great!

I just finished a new song called “Can’t Because I Won’t”, which you can check out on my Facebook page here.  It’s just a rough demo, but I figured you guys needed a treat after waiting so long for new material to get posted!  Speaking of that, I have been writing pretty much constantly these days, and I feel like I’m starting to fall back into old (good) habits.  You should be seeing lots more stuff getting posted soon.

Thanks for your support!  I’ll leave you with a review from Maverick’s March issue:

]]> http://www.brookeparrott.com/new-song-streaming-gig/feed http://www.brookeparrott.com/another-city-available-now-on-spotify http://www.brookeparrott.com/another-city-available-now-on-spotify#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:11:17 +0000 admin http://brookeparrott.com/?p=79 For all of you Europeans and American expats, I have a little treat for you!

Recently, my debut album “Another City” was added to Spotify’s catalogue, so you can now listen to it for FREE if you are in the UK, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Spain or France.  For those that are unfamiliar (if you live in Europe, I’m not sure how that would be possible) Spotify is a music streaming service which allows you to listen to anything on demand without having to download mp3s or pay any money.  Great, right?

Go here to download Spotify and then here to listen to my album.

Happy listening!

Brooke