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Between the Notes Music Blog
April 14, 2010
Garett Brennan featured on Craig Stewart's blog prior to the April 15 live radio show. Click below to read the full blog.
Three Pin Artist Featured on 1% for the Planet Compilation
March 2010
Three Pin Records' Garett Brennan & the Great Salt Licks have been featured on 1% for the Planet's Vol 1 compilation alongside other reknown artists such as: Jack Johnson, G.Love, Josh Ritter, Patty Griffin, Jackson Brown and others. This album is a fundraising for organizations across the world working on preserve and protecting the natural spaces where we play and the resources we use to live our lives. The compilation features Brennan's song All Those Times that was recording during the Huckleberry Tree sessions but didn't make the cut for the album. It features Foghorn's Sammy Lind on clawhammer banjo, Tony Furtado on slide guitar, Scott Law on mandolin, Jon Nuefeld on guitar, Will Amend on bass, Megan Slankard on harmonies.
Footage from Climate Ride 2009
Oct. 5, 2009
Garett Brennan and the Great Salt Licks at Climate Ride 2009 from Pride Wright on Vimeo.
Wednesday Sept. 30, 2009
Garett Brennan & the Great Salt Licks, Caleb Klauder & Foghorn Stringband
[ROOTS FOLKIE] Garett Brennan's 2005 album, Little Cottonwood, found him mostly alone in a mountaintop cabin. Apparently, it put him in a sociable mood. Because for his latest album, Huckleberry Tree, Brennan has assembled the Great Salt Licks, a fantasy team of Portland roots players. Sammy Lind (Foghorn Stringband), Jon Neufeld (Jackstraw), Will Amend (Echo Helstrom), pickin' wizards Tony Furtado and Scott Law, and gifted drummer Drew Shoals—plus guests Paul Brainard and Lewi Longmire—lay down a lush bed of strings for Brennan's laid-back, scratchy-voiced songs and some impressive harmonica playing. JEFF ROSENBERG. Mississippi Studios 8 pm. $10. 21+.
Huckleberry Tree Release Dates Set
Portland + NYC-DC (on bikes!)
Sept. 19, 2009
Portland Release! - Sunday 10/4 at 7pm with the Foghorn Trio - $10
The Portland Release is right around the corner on October 4th at Mississippi Studios. The show will feature Jon Neufeld from Jackstraw, Sammy Lind and Caleb Klauder from Foghorn Stringband, Will Amend, Eben Dickinson and the fine Jed Wilson on Wurlitzer. Caleb and the Foghorn Trio will kick the night off with a series of ballads and old cajun/mountain tunes before joining us for our set. You can hear tracks from the new record here.
Since we haven't played the new space at Mississippi Studios since the remodel, we are very excited to finally christen these songs (and some new ones) with you all there. This album has been a long time in the making and we'd be thrilled to see you there. Please pass this along to any and all your friends in the Portland area. Tickets will be $10 and I'll have plenty of copies of Huckleberry Tree, as well our 2005 release Little Cottonwood. For any of you readers out there who are fans of author Bill McKibben, I thought you'd like to know that he's been loving the record and just sent over a quote about the new album:
"Hotter than a July day indeed! These are songs for our moment in time, and for changing our times!"
East Coast Release - NYC to DC (on bikes!)
Leading up to the Portland release on Oct. 4th, The Great Salt Licks Trio (Jon Neufeld, Will Amend and myself) will be riding 320 miles on our bikes from NYC to DC over the course of 5 days to release the album and raise awarenes around climate and clean energy solutions.
This ride is a little crazy, but it's for a good cause! It's also a fundraiser for Focus the Nation where I serve as the national director (which also explains why I haven't been playing out over the last few months!). If you're interested in chipping into the cause you can visit Garett's fundraising page here. Over the last 2 years, Focus the Nation mobilized more than 250,000 young people all over the country and connected them with their mayors, Senators and other leaders to build the will for clean energy solutions in their communities.
If you know folks in the below towns, Garett and the Great Salt Licks trio featuring Will Amend and Jon Neufeld will be playing free shows on the following nights:
9/26 - Princeton University (Princeton, NJ) McKosh Hall - 7:30pm
9/27 - YMCA camp area: 400 E. Pothouse Rd, Phoenixville, PA - 5:30pm
9/28 - Camp Andrews, 1226 Silver Spring Rd, Holtwood, PA - 5:30pm
9/29 - Pearlstone Conference & Retreat Center 5425 Mt. Gilead Rd, Reisterstown, MD - 5:30pm
9/30 - Steps of the Capitol Lawn, Washington, DC
Footage of cutting Hospital Halls
Film by Jesse Blanchard
Huckleberry Tree from kingcabbage on Vimeo.
From the 1% for the Planet Blog
6/15/09 8:00am
by Grady O
Huckleberry Tree. Yeah, that’s right - Huckleberry.
That’s the name of the new album from Garett Brennan and the Great Salt Licks
and it’s chock full of goodness. Tunes like ‘Joy Sweet Joy’, ‘Down the Line’, or ‘Too Old to Dream’ will all put you in a very nice place.
While the music’s darn good, it’s more than tunes that connect Huckleberry Tree to 1% for the Planet. In addition to being a friend of ours, and one of the funky freshest humans we know, Garett is a 1% member, committing 1% of the sales of his music to environmental non-profit groups. He’s also the Executive Director of Focus The Nation, a 1% recipient non-profit organization that’s leading the charge for civic engagement around the issues of clean energy and bold and just climate policy.
As if all that weren’t enough, Garett donated a song to our upcoming 1% CD project, one that will help us spread the 1% message far and wide (stay tuned!). AND, he entertained the crowds for us at this past winter’s Outdoor Retailer tradeshow in Salt Lake City. Need another connection? Garett was a founding artist of 1% member Clif Bar’s GreenNotes team, a fantastic crew of musicians committed to greening their touring and educating fans about sustainable lifestyles.
Okay, lovefest over. Don’t check out Huckleberry Tree ‘cause he’s our pal or the things he’s doing for the environmental movement. Check it out ‘cause it’s some truly fine almost-summertime music. It’s been echoing through the 1% office for the last few days and we can’t get enough.
Go, Garett, go!
4/28/09 8:00am
Huckleberry Tree
Garett Brennan's new record, "Huckleberry Tree," is now out and ready for all. We are currently working with Garett and the new band The Great Salt Licks to build a touring schedule over the summer and fall to release the album. Please stay tuned for show dates, or contact us if you are interested in hosting a house concert in your area.
Here is a snippet from Garett's liner notes:
"There is a thriving old-time, roots music scene where I live in Portland, Oregon. And some of the country’s finest curators and keepers of this sound call it home. So as the writing of Huckleberry Tree matured, I embarked on countless hours of listening to pickers and players huddled in corners of smokey pubs playing their hearts out—seeding a re-appreciation, love and preservation of old mountain music. After months of this, I began assembling a crew I now call “The Great Salt Licks” to bring Huckleberry Tree to life. They are Sammy Lind of the Foghorn Stringband, Jon Neufeld of Jackstraw, Tony Furtado, Scott Law, Drew Shoals and Will Amend. With their help, we created a record that deconstructs and rebuilds the pieces that make up that American sound."
Listen to songs from Huckleberry Tree.
Pancake Preacher Live in the Sierra Foothills
Check out the tunes from Huckleberry Tree
Obama Pledges leadership on Climate Change
Clif Green Notes to release compilation
Here is a stream of the tune in case you'd like to check it out.
And a list of the players featured:
Tony Furtado - banjo, harmonies
Scott Law - mandolin
Sammy Lind - fiddle
Jon Neufeld - guitar
Will Amend - bass
Drew Shoals - drums
Jim Brunberg - harmonies
Garett Brennan - vocals, guitar, tambourine
You can check out the Green Notes Program at www.clifgreennotes.com
2/18/08
Rough Mix + AK photos + TIME Magazine
For the last 6 months, Garett Brennan has been working on his new record, featuring Tony Furtado, Scott Law, Sammy Lind (Foghorn Stringband), Jon Neufeld, Will Amend and Drew Shoals. Here is a rough mix we thought you'd like of Rye Whiskey Tea with Scott on Electric guitar. The Album is due out in Fall 2008. We'll keep you posted.
Click here to listen to a rough mix of Rye Whiskey Tea!
In addition to working on his new record, Garett and the Three Pin PR crew spent the Fall and Winter helping organize Focus The Nation, a teach-in on Global Warming Solutions that occurred on more than 1900 campuses nationwide. The largest teach-in in US history! In addition to local stories in every major daily across the country, Three Pin also successfully placed stories in publications like TIME, Newsweek, The New York Times, The LA Times, MSNBC, CNN.com, The Christian Science Monitor and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Here is a link to a story in TIME Magazine.
After wrapping up Focus the Nation, Garett hightailed it up to Hope, Alaska to visit his brother Sean and do some crazy backcountry tele skiing. Check out photos in our Garden of Wonders Gallery here.
New music + slide show from Three Pin Records
Three Pin Records is proud to announce its two newest releases: The Blueprint of Soul by Teddy Presberg and The Prophet, The Panhandler and The Moon by Raina Rose.
We also have a slide show video of the Little Cottonwood Recording sessions up on Garett Brennan's myspace account. Visit www.myspace.com/garettbrennan.
Bridgeport Brewing + Huckaman & The Haymakers = your new summer theme song (and beer)!
PORTLAND, Ore. - (April 20, 2007) Bridgeport Brewing is proud to support some of the country's finest acoustic and bluegrass musicians who call Portland, Oregon home. A few months ago, Bridgeport approached Three Pin Records seeking contact information for the fabulous and fictitious Huckaman & The Haymakers: which includes Tony Furtado on banjo, Scott Law on mandolin, Jackstraw's Jon Neufeld and Jesse Withers on lead guitar and bass, Jim Brunberg on harmonies and Garett Brennan on vocals, guitar and harmonica.
We kindly told them that could be tough, especially finding Huckaman. He doesn't own a computer, he's notorious for loosing his cell phone chargers and he's recently taken up an affinity for studying animal husbandry.
Bridgeport heard rumor about their song "Huckaman's Ode to Portland" (an ode to the microbrew capital of the world) and wanted to offer the song as an exclusive download for beer lovers everywhere as a way to celebrate their new summer seasonal beer: Haymaker.
Huckaman & The Haymakers were tough to track down, but we eventually rounded them up, fed them beer, blackberries and bacon and cut the hot new single, "Huckaman's Ode to Portland" at Mississippi Studios.
Bridgeport's Haymaker Extra Pale Ale will be available in stores throughout Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Northern California, Washington and Oregon by Early May.
It is rumored that Huckaman will make an appearance to perform the song live at the Haymaker Launch Party on May 3rd at the Bridgeport Brewery in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District.
For more information and to download the song, please visit www.bridgeportbrew.com
Making Music, Combating Carbon
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=116553765751360500
Garden of Wonders Theme Song premieres in Florida
Garett Brennan's "Garden of Wonders" theme song premiered in Ft. Lauderdale, FL on December 11 at the Injury Free Coalition for Kids' annual obesity prevention conference. Garett performed the song after a presentation by Abernethy Elementary's Wellness Coordinator, Jill Kuehler. Kuehler presented the collaborative Farm-to-School, from-scratch kitchen research by Ecotrust, OHSU and the Injury Free Coalition for Kids. To listen to the Garden of Wonders theme song, click below.
Garden of Wonders song with kids
Photo caption: Fifth graders, Emma Brown, Maggie Rose, Kaleigh Turner, Cali Hodge and Garett Brennan singing the “Garden of Wonders” theme song.
The Garden of Wonders © 2006 Garett Brennan
We’re gonna sing a little song about a place we love the most it’s right next to our playground but it ain’t the compost – unh unh no way jose, but you’re close it’s a very special place where all your dreams just may come true where seeds go from plant to flower to fruit to scratch kitchen then my belly oh so yummy in my belly the first word rhymes with pardon and the second rhymes with thunder Chorus Oh it’s the Garden of Wonders, yeah In the Garden of Wonders all your dreams come true uh huh, oh yeah, uh huh, oh yeah
[Season Verses]
1. In fall we eat squash and corn and beans, sweet potatoes, apples and pears …and then it grows, grows, grows to winter)
2. In winter we eat kale and chard and leafy greens while the rest of the garden is sleeping…and it sleeps, sleeps, sleeps till spring)
3. In spring we eat red radishes and snap peas and plant all sorts of flowers to bring bees…and it grows, grows, grows to summer).
4. In summer we eat beets and plums and tomatoes, straw, black, blue and raspberries. …and then it’s time to go, time to go, time to go back to school, to… …the Garden of Wonders, yeah In the Garden of Wonders all your dreams come true it’s our favorite place at school uh huh, oh yeah, uh huh, oh yeah
Ecotrust will celebrate five years of being the change
By: Spencer Heinz of "The Oregonian"
David Griswold felt a twinge of concern. This was back in 2001, and he was scouting for space for his organic coffee-importing business inside a deeply ecological Portland building under construction at the time. The guide mentioned that the building wouldn't have full walls between many tenants.
"Kind of crazy," Griswold recalls thinking. He imagined chaos from immersion with drastically disparate companies, from bank to pizza shop to pharmacy. But the project manager persuaded him with thinking that went like this:
It will not be too loud. Builders will create low- or no-walled places -- working, meeting and dining nooks called "spontaneous interaction spaces." It will be egalitarian, with equal access to light. As such, employees of all kinds will bump into one another and plant fresh thoughts.
Five years later, Griswold, president of Sustainable Harvest specialty coffee importers, is a believer.
"It works," he says.
His experience is typical inside the Ecotrust Building, a three-story "green" structure at 721 N.W. Ninth Ave. On Saturday, Ecotrust will host a public fair -- the Salmon Nation Block Party -- inside and outside the building. The party will celebrate the building's fifth anniversary while calling attention to what's happening to local forests, waters and lands.
Formally known as Ecotrust's Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, the 1895 warehouse reopened five years ago this month as a bottom-to-top renovation with the latest environmental-building features and a profitable tenant mix of what managers describe as "the three pillars that create a community" -- nonprofits, private businesses and government combined with an environmental mission.
They say the idea is to help spread the idea of a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable ecosystem, throughout the city, nation and world.
To Ecotrust founder and President Spencer Beebe and his colleagues, Salmon Nation represents a concept and a place. The concept is of sharing the planet, the place is wherever salmon run. They see salmon runs as barometers of the health of humans, other creatures and the economy.
The symbolism starts in the lobby with a lectern-size log of century-old Douglas fir. It features a signup booklet for becoming a citizen of Salmon Nation with the pledge:
"I believe that where I live matters. I believe that there is enough for everyone. I recognize that we all live downstream of one another and are thus interconnected. I am a Citizen of Salmon Nation and I pledge to live here like I mean it!"
Building engineer Mike Wilson makes the morning rounds. He walks past tenant businesses such as Pearl Pharmacy, Patagonia, ShoreBank Pacific, World Cup Coffee. He mentions energy-saving fluorescent lighting, a computerized system that cools the building in summer by drawing in night-chilled air, and Hot Lips Pizza's process of capturing pizza-oven warmth to heat water.
Urban Works Real Estate principal Craig Sweitzer, the commercial real estate broker who helped situate some of Ecotrust's ground-floor tenants several years ago, says the Ecotrust building and renovated Brewery Blocks show that tenants will be attracted to old buildings with environmentally sound materials. The idea isn't lost on other developers, large and small, he says: "Kind of like a snowball effect."
The Ecotrust Building's materials include recycled paints, original doors reframed as partial dividers between offices, and parking lot plants and bioswales to help filter and guide rainwater into the city's storm water drains.
Emalee Assenberg, the building's gardener, stands on the rain-catching eco-roof and studies the parking lot below.
"If every urban parking lot looked like this, what a different America we'd have," she says. "What a different world we'd have."
Spencer Heinz: 503-221-8072; spencerheinz@news.oregonian.com
REPORT: 32 percent of Americans still not famous
www.theonion.com/content/node/38921
Willamette Week Album Review
http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6959
Little Cottonwood - Garett Brennan (Three Pin) Local songwriter climbs mountain, takes advantage of energy bars for you.
[FOLK] Garett Brennan had two bright ideas for his new album, Little Cottonwood. One was to haul a bunch of microphones and digital recording gear 8,500 feet up a mountain outside Salt Lake City, to a little log cabin that would serve as his studio. The second was to get Clif Bar to underwrite the whole deal as a marketing tool, no doubt helping foot the bill to bring former Windham Hill producer Cookie Marenco up the mountain to helm the sessions.
"Been lazy too long," goes the album's first line, and the unhurried,
loping pace of most songs here suggests that's not changing anytime soon. Much like an archetypal ski bum, Brennan's songs flee from structure, full of asymmetrical verses and irregular line lengths, and avoiding rhyme like it's avian flu. Brennan's clearly following the speak-singing storytelling style of Greg Brown or Tom Waits, but so far, his voice lacks their gravelly gravitas.
One thing the album does a remarkable job of is reproducing the environment in which it was made. The digital recording captures not only the well-played acoustic instruments but the rushing river outside the cabin with astounding clarity, providing a calming continuity that flows through the album. Eventually, on "These Knees (Thunder)," the location itself takes the lead, as a thunderclap enters right on cue with the instrumental's first verse, and a hailstorm joins in as the second verse begins, proceeding to wail as if taking a solo. If you can't afford your own mountain cabin, this album will take you right there.
JEFF ROSENBERG.
Clif Bar Sponsors Portland-Based Musician Garett Brennan:"Keep It Simple Tour" Hits Selct Cities
Little Cottonwood features Brennan´s original folk songs. Shortly after being selected as first alternate at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour songwriting competition, Brennan cut the record this past June in a log cabin at 8500 ft, at the top of Little Cottonwood Canyon, where the small town of Alta, Utah sits. Brennan was raised at the base of the canyon where he and his four younger brothers grew up tele-skiing at Alta. The peacefulness and beauty of the area was an inspiration for the pace of the album and the approach of how to record it.
Cookie Marenco, of Blue Coast Records (formerly with Windham Hill), lent her expert ear and soft touch as producer of the album, choosing to record it entirely and completely acoustic. No headphones. No overdubs. Just a series of carefully placed microphones to capture the subtleties of Brennan´s voice, the guitars, the log structure, and the raging river just outside the cabin. Keep it simple. Rick Clark from Mix Magazine calls it "intimate artistry that trusts the power of the space between the notes as much as words and chords he chooses."
According to Brian Doyle, Northwest author, editor of Portland Magazine, and frequent contributor to Harper´s, Little Cottonwood is an "aural collection of short stories…a record that is somehow gracefully and substantively in and of and about and a hymn to and a cry for the American West, which is still wonderfully a place crammed with the geography of hope, as my boy Wallace Stegner said, and also, seems to me sometimes, on one of them shocking clear brilliantly lit redolent with cedar and sage days, the most possible planet for human beans to finally rise to their best and most delicious selves."
With this project, Clif Bar & Co. and founder Gary Erickson have blended two of their passions -- music and the environment -- to help Brennan and other musicians such as Dave Matthews combat global warming. Clif Bar's green music initiative is part of a companywide commitment to sustaining its business, brands, people, community and the planet. Based in Berkeley, Calif., Clif Bar & Co. is a leading maker of all-natural and
organic energy and nutrition foods committed to sustainability from the field to the final product.
"As a musician and an environmentalist, these partnerships were a natural for me," said Erickson, a jazz trumpeter and avid outdoorsman. "By teaming up with like-minded acts and festivals, we can talk with music lovers about global warming and other environmental issues. Plus, we can do it in a proactive way that´s informative without being preachy."
Little Cottonwood received climate neutral status through The Climate Trust's (a Portland area non-profit) high quality offset project portfolio, which includes renewables, forest sequestration, energy efficiency and transportation efficiency projects and programs. In addition, the CD sleeve is printed on 100% recycled paper using soy-based inks. As Clif Bar does with its Clif Nectar fruit and nut bar, a portion of the proceeds from the CD's sales will be donated to the Organic Farming Research Foundation based in Santa Cruz, CA through Three Pin Records´ 1% For The Planet business alliance.
Clif Bar´s support of Brennan and other musical acts is part of a larger, national trend. As music is increasingly digitized and democratized, the old structures for music production and promotion are crumbling, being replaced by new business models and a whole new roster of players. A growing number of brands that started out with no connection to music are rushing in to help build their brands.
Such large corporations as Wal-Mart, Yahoo!, McDonald´s and Sony are using music as a significant branding tool. Vans Shoes has hopped aboard, sponsoring the famed, hard-rock Warped Tour. Blimpie´s sub shops and other retailers are selling big fountain drinks with CDs by Alanis Morissette and others, simply attached to the lids. Meanwhile, Starbucks essentially has created its own music label.
Brennan was a perfect fit for Clif Bar. He is a down-to-earth Alta skier and musician, who´s day job is at the first green built hospital in the West. This unique partnership allows Clif and Brennan to tell their stories to the active, outdoor, music-loving crowd.
To date, the national tour includes Brennan performing with artists such as Peter Rowan, Sonny Landreth, Keith Greeninger, and Boston-area favorites Rachel McCartney and Anne Heaton. During the tour, Brennan will perform in Washington, D.C., Boston, Burlington, Boulder, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Alta, UT.
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For more information, check out www.onepercentfortheplanet.org
Clif Bar Helps Rock Music Green Up Its Act This Summer
Clif Bar & Co. has created special environmental partnerships with the Dave Matthews Band, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, indie band Cloud Cult and singer/songwriter Garett Brennan. The eco-friendly food maker is providing fans a way to offset the CO2 they create by driving cars to attend live shows. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and major cause of global warming. The company is also giving promoters and musicians ways to offset CO2 created by generating power for lights and equipment at live shows, as well as to run personal electronics while on tour. Finally, Clif Bar & Co. is giving Brennan a way to save trees and offset the energy used to produce a new CD.
"As a musician and an environmentalist, these partnerships were a natural for me," said Erickson, a jazz trumpeter and avid outdoorsman. "By teaming up with like-minded acts and festivals, we can talk with music lovers about global warming and other environmental issues. Plus, we can do it in a proactive way that´s informative without being preachy."
Clif Bar & Co.'s innovative partnerships present real solutions to the environmental impact of music performance, production and attendance. For example, its "Cool Tags" program enables rock fans to reduce the impact their concert travel has on global warming. Through a Clif Bar partnership with NativeEnergy, concertgoers can purchase wind energy credits to offset the amount of CO2 they generate driving to and from shows. For each $2 Cool Tag, a concert attendee can offset approximately 300 miles of car travel.
Clif Bar partnerships during the 2005 summer concert season include:
- Dave Matthews Band – Cool Tags will be offered at the Clif Bar booth during the July 30-31 shows at Randall's Island in New York City.
- Cloud Cult – For this Minneapolis indie-band´s ongoing 2005 summer tour, Clif Bar helped purchase enough wind energy and plant enough trees to offset the entire estimated amount of CO2 emissions created by the tour. In addition, Clif Bar & Co. helped purchase and install solar panels on the group´s tour van, which is powering band members´ mobile phones and computers as they cross the country.
- Garett Brennan – Clif Bar helped this Portland native's upcoming CD, Little Cottonwood, receive climate neutral status through The Climate Trust's high quality offset project portfolio which includes renewables, forest sequestration, energy efficiency and transportation efficiency projects and programs. In addition, the CD sleeve is made with recycled paper and the liner notes are printed using soy-based inks. As Clif Bar does with its Clif Nectar fruit and nut bar, a portion of the proceeds from the CD's sales will be donated to the Organic Farming Research Foundation through the 1% For The Planet business alliance.
- Bonnaroo – Through a partnership with NativeEnergy, Clif Bar purchased enough wind credits to offset the estimated 732 tons of CO2 generated in the production of this annual multi-day festival, which drew 80,000 fans in June to Manchester, Tenn. The Clif Bar team also was present in its biodiesel van to sell 750 Cool Tags, offsetting an estimated 116 tons of CO2—equivalent to 233,000 miles of auto travel—generated by concertgoers getting to and from the event.
Clif Bar & Co.'s green music initiative is part of a companywide commitment to sustaining its business, brands, people, community and the planet. Based in Berkeley, Calif., Clif Bar & Co. is a leading maker of all-natural and organic energy and nutrition foods committed to sustainability from the field to the final product. To learn more, visit http://www.clifbar.com.
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