So, much has happened this year, and I don’t have enough time to tell you about all of it, but I wanted to give you guys a quick update on what’s going on in the world of Bro. Stephen (because a lot is going on!).

I played a few recently shows that I probably neglected to mention on here. After the Simon Joyner show I played a crazy sold-out show at Headliner’s in Louisville with one of the fastest growing bands I’ve ever seen (and for good reason): Louisville’s Houndmouth. What a wild night. Too bad I started getting deathly ill that morning.

Also, just a week or two ago, I (along with guitar-slinging Ben) played an amazing, intimate show with Richard Buckner at The General Store. More on that in a sec.

No more shows are on the schedule at the moment, but I am working very hard prepping multiple releases. So far it looks like 4 of them (not all full-lengths but a couple are!), maybe 5 or 6 depending on how things pan out. I’m trying to focus on getting one done first though. You know how I am at these things. I’m excited about all of them.

Also, this fall I started putting on shows at my house which I affectionately call The General Store. So far I’ve been able to host amazing shows that have featured folks like Richard Buckner, Advance Base, Kalispell, Cheyenne Marie Mize, and Telephobia. The next one is coming up in February and I couldn’t be more excited about it. It features my favorite songwriter of all time. That will all get announced properly soon. Check out the Facebook page and think about coming by for a show some time. They have been really great so far!

Also, it seems that people are still enjoying Baptist Girls! A number of websites have been calling it one of the best records of 2012. Even Amazon.com has joined in and said that! You can see all of them at the freshly updated Baptist Girls page.

Also, I was in a fashion magazine a few weeks back. Huzzah!

Hello there friends. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve updated you all on what has been going on in the world of Bro. Stephen. My apologies. I have been using my time wisely though (I think) and I have some new things to tell you. Some exciting things I believe. First off, I have a round of new shows coming up and I think you’ll be happy to see who will be on these shows. There will be some shows with some old friends like Cheyenne Mize, Kalispell and John Davey, but also the great songwriters Laura Marling and Simon Joyner. Exciting stuff indeed.

09.30.12 | Lafayette, IN | House Show w/ Kalispell, John Davey

10.01.12 | Louisville, KY | The General Store (1264 S. Shelby St #1) w/ Cheyenne Mize, Kalispell

10.02.12 | Bloomington, IN | Bear’s Place w/ Kalispell, John Davey

10.20.12 | Louisville, KY | Zanzabar w/ Laura Marling [tickets]

11.11.12 | Louisville, KY | Quill’s w/ Simon Joyner

What do you do with the 15 minutes each day when you’re not writing songs? – Everyone Ever

I get this question all of the time. And here’s the answer: wine stuff.

On Tuesday of this week I passed the Level One Sommelier Exam. I’ve been studying hard for several months for this (and the exams to follow) and it’s incredibly gratifying to have passed this first big step. Like music, wine is a tool I use to understand the world around me. Understanding a wine’s geographical positioning, it’s soil, the weather, the way it was maintain, etc can give you a great appreciation for what the wine is even if you don’t particularly care for the flavors. Learning to appreciate the people around me based on the elements that have made them who they are is a great quality that I really work to get to. And like a Master Sommelier explained to me after I passed my first exam, “It’s a long road, but a good one.”

Be well my friends.

xoxoxoxo

Scott

Hey guys!

I am back in Louisville after tour and I’m back at work trying hard to get back to normal and get over this pesky sinus infection that showed up to party and doesn’t seem to want to leave. However, after letting the dust settle just a little bit, I actually have quite a few new shows to tell you all about. They are all in the Kentucky and Indiana but more touring is planned for later on this summer so let me know if you want to see Bro. Stephen in your town.

Without further ado, here are some dates for you.

04.16.12 | Bloomington, IN | The Pourhouse w/ Anna Vogelzang, Chad Serhal
04.20.12 | Louisville, KY | Record Store Day Midnight Sale @ Please & Thank You w/ Whistle Peak
04.28.12 | Indianapolis, IN | Indy Alliance w/ New Terrors (record release!), Everything Looks Like Coyotes
05.20.12 | Louisville, KY | Uncle Slaytons w/ Dark Dark Dark

I hope you are all enjoying Baptist Girls, but if somehow you haven’t had the chance to pick up your own copy yet, then you definitely still can buy it on vinyl or CD at your local record store or from XRA Records here. Of course, you can still listen to the record on Spotify or on Bandcamp or all of those other places where it’s available to stream.

I definitely have more for all of you soon and I am definitely staying busy making sure that the hits and all the treats keep coming. I miss all of you and can’t wait to see everyone again soon.

xoxoxo,

Scott

4 weeks of shows. 1 week of SXSW. 4 days of vacation. countless emails. unending friendships. 1 tour mate. 0 car accidents. 0 parking tickets. 0 discouraging shows. lots of records sold. 6 or 7 records purchased. about 500 hours of podcasts. a wealth of new gratitude.

Tour is over and the miles on my car have really been racking up. I am currently taking a couple days of vacation to recuperate from all of the traveling and incessant on-the-go, but I am happy to say that the firstBaptist Girls tour of 2012 was a rousing success. There were so many great shows where I got to meet so many new folks and see some dear dear friends. I can’t thank everyone enough for helping make this tour far and away the best tour I’ve ever done. It feels really great to build on the success of past tours and share this new record with so many people who had not heard it before. I am certainly tired and raspy and excited to crawl back home and get back to things and people that keep me anchored.

Before I show you a few of my favorite pictures from the tour, I wanted to let you know about my return to the fore with show coming up in Louisville, KY that will very much be a special one for me. On May 20th, I will be playing a show with the incredible Minneapolis band Dark Dark Dark. The show is at Uncle Slayton’s and if you know anything about Dark Dark Dark, then I’m sure you are beyond excited. You can buy tickets to the show here. You should do that.

Here are a few photos from tour:

I got to hang out with Mr. Anthony T. from GemsonVHS while I was in Nashville a few days back and we recorded some videos for all of you lovely folks. We hope you like them. Feel free to let the GemsonVHS folks know how much you like them and check out their other video work too! They’ve done some great work with great friends of mine like John Davey, Laura Balke, and Moorhound.

Without further ado,

“Patrons Of The Arts”

“Tears On Tape”

Feb. 17^th | Bloomington, IN @ In-store @ Landlocked w/ Lydia Loveless

Feb. 17^th | Bloomington, IN @ Record Release Show at Russian Recording w/ Mike Adams At His Honest Weight and Busman’s Holiday

Feb. 18^th | Muncie, IN @ Village Green Records w/ State Park

Feb. 19^th | South Bend, IN @ Quincy’s w/ John Davey

Feb. 20^th | Grand Rapids, MI @ 815 Watson St SE w/ Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), Nathan K (limited seating! Email danclimie@gmail.com for a spot on the guest list)

Feb. 21^st | Lansing, MI @ Deep Pink w/ Nathan K, Those Willows

Feb. 22^nd | Kalamazoo, MI @ No Fun House w/ Glowfriends

Feb. 23^rd | Ypsilanti, MI @ Woodruff’s w/ Gun Lake

Feb. 24^th | Toledo, OH @ In-store  @ Culture Clash

Feb. 24th | West Lafayette, IN @ Greyhouse

Feb. 25^th | Indianapolis, IN @ LUNA Music w/ husband&wife, Rodeo Ruby Love, and Metavari

Feb. 26^th | Nashville, TN @ The Dirks’ House w/ Seth Wood, Mackenzie Scott

Feb. 27^th | St. Louis, MO @ The Heavy Anchor w/ Arthur and The Librarians

Feb. 28^th | Bowling Green, KY @ tba w/ Brooks Ritter, Great State

March 1^st | Springfield, IL @ Missy’s House w/ John Davey

March 2^nd | Peoria, IL @ 2020 House w/ Rory Toelle and The Old Adage

March 4^th | Milwaukee, WI @ Linneman’s w/ Golden Coins, Paul

March 5^th | Minneapolis, MN @ Steady Print Shop w/ Kalispell

March 6^th | Eau Claire, WI @ The Mouse Trap w/ Kalispell

March 8^th | Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR w/ Molly Sullivan

March 9th | Ft. Wayne, IN @ The Dash-In w/ Lee Miles

March 10th | Lexington, KY @ CD Central In-store

March 11^th | Louisville, KY @ RYE on Market

March 13^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 14^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 15^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 16^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 17^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

Directed by Torlando Hakes

Starring the comic book making skills of Lyndsey Taylor.

Baptist Girls is officially in stores today! Please, please, please go down to your local record shop and pick it up or tell them to order it if they haven’t. There are a number of awesome stores who will definitely have it in stock and in their listening stations soon so you should definitely hit up these cool stores like Birdland in Virginia Beach, CD Central in Lexington KY, Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, Landlocked in Bloomington IN, Criminal in Atlanta, End of An Ear in Austin, Grimey’s in Nashville, or even M-Theory in San Diego. There are lots more where that came from, but the message is go out and pick it up from your record store if you can. If they don’t have it, they can easily order it.

Definitely go pick one up at a local record store, but if for some reason you don’t like having beautiful things in your hands, you can still score some super high-quality digital files on the XRA Bandcamp! Also, you can, of course, still get it at the XRA Webstore.

I will talk more about my thoughts on the record in a second, but wanted to share some tour dates with you! Do you like tour dates? ‘Cause I’ve got them. Tell a friend, tell a frenemy, tell a family member, tell a shut-in. I’m coming your way if you life in the Midwest and I can’t wait to see everyone!

(This list will be updated often so keep checking out the tour page!)

Feb. 17^th | Bloomington, IN @ In-store @ Landlocked w/ Lydia Loveless

Feb. 17^th | Bloomington, IN @ Record Release Show at Russian Recording w/ Mike Adams At His Honest Weight

Feb. 18^th | Muncie, IN @ Village Green Records w/ State Park

Feb. 19^th | South Bend, IN @ Quincy’s w/ John Davey

Feb. 20^th | Grand Rapids, MI @ 815 Watson St SE w/ Fred Thomas (Saturday Looks Good to Me), Nathan K (limited seating! Email danclimie@gmail.com for a spot on the guest list)

Feb. 21^st | Lansing, MI @ tba w/ Nathan K

Feb. 22^nd | Kalamazoo, MI @ No Fun House w/ Glowfriends

Feb. 23^rd | Ypsilanti, MI @ Woodruff’s w/ Gun Lake

Feb. 24^th | Toledo, OH @ In-store  @ Culture Clash

Feb. 25^th | Indianapolis, IN @ tba

Feb. 26^th | Nashville, TN @ The Dirks’ House w/ Seth Wood

Feb. 27^th | St. Louis, MO @ The Heavy Anchor

Feb. 28^th | Bowling Green, KY @ tba

March 1^st | Springfield, IL @ tba

March 2^nd | Peoria, IL @ 2020 House

March 4^th | Milwaukee, WI @ Linneman’s w/ Golden Coins, Jay Flash

March 5^th | Minneapolis, MN @ tba w/ Kalispell

March 6^th | Eau Claire, WI @ The Mouse Trap w/ Kalispell

March 8^th | Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR w/ Molly Sullivan

March 11^th | Louisville, KY @ tba

March 13^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 14^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 15^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 16^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

March 17^th | Austin, TX @ SXSW

Now for some thoughts on the record:

I almost can’t believe it. I started recording Baptist Girls back in September of 2009 with Mike Adams and Adam Jessup in Warsaw, IN in a converted chicken barn. I’m not quite sure what happened between then and now, but apparently I did enough to have this record come out. It’s Release Day! I’m really like a proud Dad over here. I can’t begin to tell you how nice it is to not have to tell you that my full-length will be out soon. I’ve been saying that since the first BS tour in ’09. I wasn’t lying or trying to sound cooler than I am (which is totally not cool), but I really thought it was so close that whole time.

I have found out recently that I’m pretty badly mistaken when it comes to a lot of big things. It has taken me over 2 years to make Baptist Girls a reality and those 2+ years have been some of the weirdest, hardest, depressing, and fun times in my life. I have met so many good and kind people over the last few years who have been so incredibly supportive of me (and my music) and I definitely don’t deserve having such great friends.

If Mike and Adam weren’t so great at recording, the record wouldn’t sound good. If Dave wasn’t so good at laying out artwork and fixing up old photos, then the record wouldn’t look cool. If Laura wasn’t a really incredible artist with a delicate sensibility and eye for capturing powerful moments then there wouldn’t be an awesome comic book coming your way. If Cheyenne and Dixon weren’t really profound musicians and masters of their craft, the record wouldn’t be as colored as it is. If my dear friends Sean and Brittanie didn’t let me sleep in their upstairs for free for countless weeks I would have spent a lot of nights sleeping in my car. If an almost innumerable number of folks wouldn’t have given a chance to some guy they didn’t know and booked a show for Bro. Stephen, I absolutely wouldn’t be where I am right now (which is a really healthy and exciting place). I’m not trying to be super sappy, but I really have been blessed with the people around me and  it’s ever so evident when a lot of people’s hard work makes it possible for me to create a record that is really meaningful to me and very much the record I always wanted to make. Thanks for making it possible guys.

xoxoxo,

Scott

You can now officially pre-order my record ‘Baptist Girls’ from Crossroads of America Records and you can do it right here: http://www.xrarecords.com/catalog/baptist-girls/

All of the pre-orders are shipping out right away so get on it. Also, let you record store know that they should stock it in their store and that they can order it from their distributor.

I’ll write a lot more about this soon and let you know a few of the reasons why this is one of the most special things I’ve ever done.

Thank you so much for even reading this and for being a friend.

All the best,

Scott | Bro. Stephen

I just wanted to let you all know about a few things.

First up, my good buddy Jared at Flannelgraph Records asked me to be a part of his annual instrumental Christmas record this year and it is available for download now. 100% of the proceeds go to Stepping Stones which is a Bloomington, IN-based non-profit that helps teenagers who are experiencing homelessness. Obviously, this is about more than music this time. Also, the songs on this thing are GOOD. Top-notch bands like Dirty Beaches, Dolorean, Burnt Ones, Frank Lenz (Starflyer 59) Mike Adams At His Honest Weight, Sleeping Bag, Homecomings, and more (including yours truly) all contributed instrumental songs invoking what the holidays mean to them. My song is called “Donuts” and I’m really, really happy with it. I’m really just proud to be a part of this awesome comp.

Also, I’m playing a show next weekend and its a doozy! It’s Stay Young Fest in Ft. Wayne, IN and I’ll be playing alongside folks like Frontier(s), Brett Detar (The Juliana Theory), Metavari, Frank Schweikhardt, and lots more. It’ll be a good time friends. Please come on out if you are able.

Also, I have lot of wonderful things to share with you soon. Please keep your ears to the ground and I’ll try to make sure that the buffalo come soon.

xoxox,

Brother Stephen