Mud Dauber Records

Mud Dauber haps. December is cold, yo.

2009-12-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

Greetings on this fine, cold holiday season-

What the heck? Nobody at Mud Dauber is playing an upcoming show? A completely empty schedule?

Ok, yes, we admit it. Nobody's playing. Folks will eventually be playing, but for now the calendar is as barren as... well, as the Barren Coast. But don't let that kill your holiday contact high, for there is a mighty force at Mud Dauber. What's been going on since we were last in touch? We'll tell ya...

Matthew Grimm & The Red Smear's new album, The Ghost of Rock & Roll, has so far entered the Euro Americana chart at #18, has reached #12 on the Roots Music Report Roots Rock chart, and is holding at #2 on the Roots Music Report Iowa chart!

The Mayflies' new album, A Thousand Small Things, has entered the Euro Americana Chart at #15, has entered the Freeform American Roots chart at #19, has reached #10 on the Roots Music Report Roots Country chart, and is holding at #1 on the Roots Music Report Iowa chart!

And Patrick Bloom's new album, Ghosts of Radio (yes, we see the "ghost" theme), has entered the Freeform American Roots chart at #22, has reached #5 on the Roots Music Report Iowa chart, and has entered the Euro Americana Chart at #8!

Not bad. Oh, and BeJae Fleming's LAST album, Destination Unimportant (from 2005) is STILL holding its own at #9 on the Roots Music Report Iowa chart. Yes, it's just that good. (Ok, it was released on Trailer Records at the time, but we're still proud).

Thanks so much for the ever lasting love and support. Mud Dauber is pushing Iowa into the ears of folks around the world, and we couldn't do it without you. Have a lovely solstice and remember, PBR is just as fine a drink as eggnog.

See you in 2010!

-The Mud Dauber Gang

Mud Dauber Haps (wuzzup?)

2009-05-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, that time again to fill your In Box up with yet MORE stuff. Because you don't already get enough, right? Well, it's sunny outside around these parts, the plants are growing, the garden needs hoeing, and the lawn needs mowing. Word.

This week y'all are invited to see The Mayflies bust down the doors in Iowa City with their official CD Release show. It's at The Yacht Club, and it'll be an event. Just check out the Mud Dauber calendar for more info (the 'Flies will be traveling about as well). The CD is a good'un, and it will most definitely make you crave beer. And the new album from Matthew Grimm and the Red Smear is available too, in all of its pop roots glory. Mmmm. Neither album is actively online yet, but you can always drop a note our way and those guys (yup, they're all guys) will get back with you. We'll be sure to post as soon as you can either buy a CD or download the records.

Thanks for being a part of our world. We love you and want to rub your feet.

Off Deadline

2009-03-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Off Deadline has published an article on the inner workings of Mud Dauber Records. Now you can see for your own self how unglamorous our little world can be...

Batty

2009-02-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

The boys in The Gilded Bats have been a busy bunch. Firstly, Nobert Sarsfield, crooner and sawer, did and interview with Garry Harrison, an essential Illinois fiddler and field recorder, that was published in The Old-Time Herald (Volume 11, Number 8, for those of you counting...), and a portion of the interview is available to view online. Go ahead and purchase it if you'd like to read the interview in full.

Bill Bryant, strummer and crooner, was chosen, along with his writing partner, Becky Peterson, as a finalist for the 2008 Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. They were flown to Los Angeles ("wow... the big city!...) to attend the awards ceremony. Word has it that Bill started a fight when the attendant at the free bar informed him that there was no moonshine available. Possums were tossed.

Finally, Andrew Epstein, frailer and crooner, is in Sudan, working on his doctorate and conducting research on youth, displacement, and education in Sudan. Andrew is a very smart, passionate man, and we hope that he will continue, when not playing banjo, to make the earth a hell of a lot better than it currently is. His amazing blog is called The Transubstantiator, and it's full of stories, pictures, and even poetry about his doings in Sudan. Read it immediately.

Ahhh... sweet banjo...

2009-02-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

A lovely article appeared in newspaper the Iowa City Press-Citizen, discussing banjo and how the instrument is being utilized by players in Iowa, including The Mayflies own Jon Eric. Also mentioned is Bob Black, one of our very favorite folks on this big earth, and a dang fine musician. The article can be read in full here...

August at the nest...

2008-08-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings Mud-misers,

What's going on at Mud Dauber Records? So glad you asked!

To start, The Gilded Bats will be playing at the majestic, historic, and super-amazing Englert Theatre in Iowa City, IA on Saturday, August 9th. Yup, this Saturday. Presented by the Iowa Friends of Old-Time Music, this ***FREE*** show will also feature Stones in the Field, the Escape the Floodwater Jug Band, and The Awful Purdies. Holy frickin' cow. It's at 7 pm. The only reason to not be there is because you hate cute puppies.

On top of reaching #14 on the Euro Americana chart and #10 on the Roots Music Report chart, Patrick Bloom has started to receive another round of national and international airplay for his current release, Moses. As a matter of fact, Carrie Delzoppo, lovely host of the radio show "The Cowboy's Sweetheart" in Byron Bay, Australia, will be featuring the album on her program this week. The show airs at 10:00 am Saturday, August 9th on Bay FM in Byron Bay, Australia. What's that? You're not planning to be Down Under this weekend? Then you can hear the show online at 7:00 pm central standard time in the states. To listen in, just go to BayFM's website at www.bayfm.org.

--Wait... that means that The Gilded Bats will be playing live, this Saturday August 9th at 7:00 pm, at the VERY SAME TIME that Patrick Bloom's album will be getting featured online? Uh... yes. Smack us with a wooden chair and call us Sally, but it's true.--

Meanwhile, Bloom's album Moses has been given great reviews (quick ones) by both Taproot Radio and Absolute Powerpop, and was recommended as a current best pick by Rootsy.nu.

And lastly, The Mayflies have been chosen as the Band of the Month on the Iowa Jam Band Society website. Be careful y'all... they may technically qualify as a "jam band", but they're a true roots phenom. They just happen to play their butts off. AND they'll be starting tracking for their NEW ALBUM this week! (Oooooh... look at all of those capitol letters). Songs to be recorded include those penned by band members Stacy Webster, Dave Lumberg, and Jon Eric, and five additional songs by Patrick Bloom will be included in there as well. Yessiree.

Patrick Bloom review from The Boudin Barndance

2008-07-28T06:57:00.000-07:00

From our pal Dan Ferguson, host of the lovely Boudin Barndance on WRIU in Rhode Island:

Patrick Bloom
Moses
Mud Dauber Records MD0002

Renowned singer/songwriter Greg Brown describes Moses from fellow Iowan Patrick Bloom as “..the music that scarecrows dance to when everyone else is asleep.” How to truly interpret that only Brown knows, but I’ve got to think said scrarecrows are digging this album. A rootsy affair, at its foundation is a collection of alluring melodies saddled with Bloom’s literate, lyrical touch. With the tuneful Moses, the Iowa-by-way-of-Long Island Bloom demonstrates a keen eye for detail and a narrative style that neatly mixes emotion with smarts. (Visit www.patrickbloom.com.)

Thanks Dan!

Coming soon to a stoner magazine near you...

2008-06-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

Ooooh, two posts in one day! How exciting. Or maybe we just don't have lives.

To what do y'all owe this honor? The Mayflies will have a print add in Relix magazine soon, and you get to see it here first:

How purdy. By the way, Relix isn't really a stoner magazine, but just a very cool music journal. Ahem.

It's a Cracker!

2008-06-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Patrick Bloom is a cracker. Nope, we're not just being crass... Miles Of Music, the online retail big momma of Alt.Country and Americana, has declared Patrick's album Moses to be a Cracker. In Miles Of Music language, that means that they 100% guarantee the album. Yup, you can actually return the dang thing if you don't like it. On top of that, here's the description they laid on the disc:

"There is an honesty and generosity in the way Patrick Bloom presents his carefully crafted studies of the human experience. They are stories about you and I. His subjects are not extraordinary, it is their ordinariness that makes them special. Bloom`s jangly folk-pop infuses every track with a gently beating heart creating a beautiful collection"

...we know, we know, you already saw it on the front page of the Mud Dauber website, but bragging rights is bragging rights.

Iowa is friggin' DROWNING.

2008-06-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Iowa has taken on water, man oh man. There have been a ton of aerial photos in the papers and they're all pretty stunning, but while they show the intensity of the devastation, they can't really comment on the personal hit our peeps have taken. So your pals at Mud Dauber Records would like to offer the video below. Andrew Sherburne, the publisher of Iowa City's local monthly indie mag Little Village, will take you on a brief tour of his flooded neighborhood and home. Our best wishes go out to Andrew, his wife, and all of the other folks who have taken a hit on this one. Actually, our best wishes go out to every person on the planet, but you get the point...

We'd also like to point out that Cedar Rapids, just 20 minutes north of Iowa City, was stomped. It's catastrophic up that way. The entire downtown area was submerged. Here's a pic from Liz Martin at The Gazette:The above photo is downtown Cedar Rapids. Jeebus in a handbag. Be safe.

The Gilded Bats Sing Out!

2008-05-29T15:42:00.001-07:00

More catch-up around these parts, and The Gilded Bats have done it again. Gone and made an impression. Sing Out! declares:

"The Gilded Bats bear witness to the fact that old-time music is alive and well in the upper Midwest. Great job!"

See the whole review here.

PopMatters adds:

"The members of The Gilded Bats play old time country stringband music with lots of pluck and a boisterous attitude."

See the whole thang here.

And howzabout Americana UK? They say this:

"The Gilded Bats certainly supply this energy and enough grit to prevent their recreation of an essentially historic genre from sounding too polite or like a mere museum piece."

Yup, more to read here.

We do loves our bats.

Catch-up time at Mud Dauber

2008-05-23T11:01:00.001-07:00

Time to play catch-up with y'all. The Mud Dauber family has been plenty busy, but we've been busy ourselves, which means that we haven't been telling you about their busyness. Terrible little cycle. So today we'll start with Patrick Bloom, who's album Moses has been steadily working its way through radio charts and positive critical reviews. Here's a list of said busyness since March (adoringly taken directly from his website):

5/23/08 Patrick discusses Moses on website Insurgent Country

5/22/08 Moses reviewed by Gazette

5/20/08 New Moses review on Italian site RootsHighway

5/16/08 Patrick gets rave review from BroadTexter

4/28/08 Moses receives 4 stars from Freight Train Boogie

4/17/08 Iowa City Press Citizen reviews Moses

4/8/08 Moses on Top 20 albums at WGDR, Vermont

4/6/08 Moses debuts at #14 on the Euro Americana Chart

4/4/08 Moses reviewed at Hooked On Music (translated w/ Google)

4/3/08 Moses on Ctrl. Alt. Country '10 Best Albums Of The Moment' (review here)

4/1/08 CD Baby chooses Moses as 'Editor's Pick'

3/20/08 Moses at #10 on the Roots Music Report Folk chart

...that should keep you coyotes busy for a while.

Iowa melts

2008-03-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

Ah yes. Will spring come? Will it come soon? Will Brad marry Angelina? Well, we don't rightly know. But meanwhile, here's some heat for you:

Nice, eh? And for more heat, tonight folks in Iowa City will have the rare and wonderful opportunity to see Iowa tunesmith BeJae Fleming performing for-frickin'-free at the Java House at 8:00 pm. Hers was the last album put out by Trailer before its demise, and she's a gem.

Rumor has it that The Mayflies are preparing to create another album. Dang. Watch out, 'cause somebody's gonna get hurt. Also, Patrick Bloom's new album Moses, debuted at #19 on the Roots Music Report Folk Chart last week and has remained there this week, snuggled right up against Greg Brown. Go Hawks.

Mud Dauber Records store!

2008-01-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

This'un is an overdue update, but those CD Baby issues have been resolved, and that snazzy new album from our own Gilded Bats can be purchased on the Mud Dauber Records store page or via their iTunes link. Pretty cool, eh?

The long awaited album from Patrick Bloom (formerly know as Patrick Brickel) is in the mail and on its way. The release will be on hold while the radio side of things is getting organized, but you might be able to get your greedy hands on a copy by signing up to Patrick's mailing list (rumor has it that the faithful will be rewarded...)

Gilded Bats... more updates

2007-11-09T13:07:00.001-08:00

A lovely review has been written by Jim Musser of the Iowa City Press Citizen. Here 'tis:

The Gilded Bats
The debut disc on artist/engineer/producer Patrick Bloom's new label, "The Gilded Bats" showcases a muscular, energetic old-time stringband that's steadily been expanding its profile in Eastern Iowa.
Composed of Norbert Sarsfield (fiddle), Andrew Epstein (banjo, jaw harp), Billy Bryant (guitar) and Chris Clark (washtub bass), The Gilded Bats apply their kinetic pickin' to an endearing set of 16 evergreens culled from the hill-country canon -- and everybody sings with gusto.
Befitting a band whose moniker was cribbed from the title of a 1966 novel by eccentric Gothic marvel Edward Gorey, the songs' subjects tend to be at least a tad bit twisted, as in the Holy Modal Rounders' "Give the Fiddler a Dram" -- "Pretty little girl with a red dress on/She took it off/I put it on/In come Johnny with the big boots on ..."
Funded in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council, "The Gilded Bats" is crisply played and sung, and the disc is brilliantly recorded and mastered (kudos to Justin Kennedy and Bloom), resulting in a freshly-packed barn dance that's ready to go.

... thanks Jim. We think that it's pretty swell too.

There's some sort of unusual hold up going on over at CD Baby, hence the dramatically long wait for the album to go online. They're great folks and they're working on it, so keep the faith, eh?

The Gilded Bats get a punk review.

2007-11-01T14:55:00.001-07:00

Ok, maybe this is just our opinion, but it sure seems like a punk review. Article A, the aforementioned review in the Daily Iowan, the fine newspaper of the University Of Iowa:

The Gilded Bats

** out of *****

To compare the Gilded Bats to bluegrass, think of what Sour Skittles are to candy - only hard-core fans can truly appreciate them. The rest of the public simply struggle to understand, while puckering their lips.

Playing "Old Time Bluegrass" to the point of turning off fans in its self-titled album, The Gilded Bats holds true to its style; while the Iowa City band's disregard of modern music decreases accessibility, its steadfastness increases genre creditability.

Paying tribute to its predecessors, the Bats includes covers of "Cumberland Gap" and "Cripple Creek," with little artistic modification but providing a somewhat boring look into the roots of its sound.

In its entirety, the album is an excellent time capsule to an era before electric influences, but at the same time, only true bluegrass connoisseurs and people over 60 will likely understand the style of music they play.

Cole's Pick: "Black-Eyed Susan"

- by Cole Cheney

So The Gilded Bats are like an inaccessible sour candy compared to true bluegrass, so only true bluegrass connoisseurs will like them? That doesn't really make sense. Comparing a band to Sour Skittles? Ok, it's a stretch, but we'll accept that. Cole, however, doesn't say that he/she thinks Sour Skittle suck, but that only "hardcore" fans will appreciate them. So it stands to reason that punk rockers can't like rockabilly, and Nirvana fans can't like Gillian Welch. And if you like Sun Ra's music, fuck you, 'cause nobody else understands it.

So here's the thing about The Gilded Bats. They aren't an esoteric mind experiment into what humans did before top 40 radio. And "genre creditability"? They play guitar, banjo, fiddle, and wash tub bass for chrissakes. Now here's our favorite line:

Playing "Old Time Bluegrass" to the point of turning off fans in its self-titled album, The Gilded Bats holds true to its style...

So there it is folks... the band is apparently turning off their fans because they're playing too much of the music that their fans love. An old time string band can only be good if they don't play old time music, or at least not too much of it. They better play modern, new time stuff. Maybe some break-beats would do the trick.

On another note, we're still waiting word from CD Baby of the availability of the album, so stop bugging us. (Get it? Bugging us?)

Welcome on out...

2007-10-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first posting from Mud Dauber Records. We already have a small family built up, but are salivating while we await the initial release from The Gilded Bats, which will also be the first official new release from the label. Meanwhile, currently available are previously released albums being embraced in the wings of Mud Dauber:

The Mayflies; Jerusalem Ridge

Patrick Bloom; (Songs From) The Pink Sofa

This album was released by Trailer Records (R.I.P.) under the name 'Patrick Brickel'. Don't be fooled. Same artist. Mud Dauber will be re-releasing the album under Bloom's name once this run finishes out. And on that note, you can pick up the album at $5 a pop if you purchase three copies.

Drop a line our way if you like, and keep your eyes open for new additions to the Mud Dauber family.