on april shows and global warming

first off, you can always check www.myspace.com/jonbraman for the most up to date show listings and new song posts...

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who's been coming out to shows and buying cd's and spreading the word in the past month or so...like a solar-powered little engine that could i keeep chugging away, i think i can i think i can, with more than a few moments of sheer uke-hoperiffic bouncing-bliss along the way. No full-blown gig-by-gig diary here...but a couple highlights (DANGER unedited rambling unlicensed-blogger at work):

Northeast Climate Conference at Yale: a cozy swaying swarm of college+high school climate warriors hailing from canada to maryland all rocking to me and lisette and this great kid (if you're out there...tell me your name again) who just hopped onto a drum set, the boomiest most gothic chapel I've ever played in, no breaks between songs, just jamming and riffing new hooks, scatting, lisette getting into it, amazing audience participation on my "get the motherfucker out: RIGHT NOW" trick. yeah. what can i say? it feels pretty good to be on edge of the wave of clean-energy inevitably sweeping the nation...it's building, it's building...even Time magazine thinks global warming's newsworthy...damn, that night was a sorely needed shot of hope to my leafy-future-father-heart. as scary as it is, despite all our smarts and big talk, to be continually pushing our atmosphere (not to mention our woods and oceans and swamps and deserts and grasslands and cities and farms) toward the breaking point of no-fucking return, i really believe, ludacris as it sounds, that we could pull together and take a real stab at stopping the worst...at least if josh and billy and meg and matt and david bronzstein have anything to say about it....so chin up everyone (like me) who's kids may live in a world sans glaciers but with monthly killer storms + droughts + malaria in new england. chin up and then go join the movement: www.climatecampaign.org

Potter's House Shaw EcoVillage Benefit: after more than a couple DC shows at which less than 5 folks showed up with the express intention of hearing me (others may have unknowingly walked into that dubious predicament) I decided to try to do some actual promotion, and to focus on this show in particular: I dropped the bomb on a bunch of neighborhood listserves, emailed every earthday related group in DC I could think of, littered area record and book stores with some new slick posters + flyers my aunt margo of studio D (www.thestudiod.org) helped me put together, got some little blurbs in DC North, the Dupont Current, a surprise listing in OnTAPs Mr. Joel's DC shows, even a myspace event invitation, not to mention a 4 foot poster of me and lisette on the window of the potter's house in adam's morgan, and guess what? it worked... we had almost 40 folks show up, including a whole bunch I'd never set eyes on before, raised $300+ for shaw ecovillage and got taped for "Songs of Significance," a live music show on Fairfax public access cable! If you live in Fairfax County, check it out on cable channel 10 on Monday, May 8th, at 11:00 AM; Tuesday, May 9th, at 9:00 PM; and Saturday, May 13th, at 2:00 PM. Let me know if you get to see it!

R&R in NYC: this place was a trip...black and white shiny couches, $300 bottles of something, red velvet rope at the door, from the moment we arrived i think they decided we weren't rock and roll enough for them (get it? R&R =rock and roll, it took me a little while)...they had double-booked the slot and were pushing us to start before they opened the doors! luckily i stalled until most of our eager fans, friends, family, etc. (my dad and cousin joel are a mean promotion team, geez!) got downstairs. the stage actually had a curtain, which made us feel very famous + I wore my grey hat, which makes me feel cooler than i actually am. it was a short set but we played hard and the audience, though a little stunned by the chop chop attitude of the place, was focused. in my opinion, we rocked. just nailed it. and they seemed to like us more since we brought a good crowd. then afterwards we followed julie to this prohibition era bar through a small cellar door and a time-warp across the street from the free-jazz-klezmer spot Tonic i played at in college on the lower east side. that's ny for ya. next one in ny (may 20th with david A at freebird) will be free.

African American family celebration at the national zoo: i was signed up to play at 12, after Baba C, but by 12:15 the stage was still empty, and the zoo soggy and cold...i heard some rumors that things might clear up so I waited it out in the great ape-house. orangutans have unbelievable hair, not to mention those throat pouches. what would you do if you had a throat pouch? it's something i think about often...ah, the possibilities...despite my soaking socks and a thin, shivery crowd, I did end up playing, a short set after Baba C and his troupe of story-telling/acting boys. Baba C gave me the sweetest intro a white ukulele-rapper could have possibly hoped for, and to top it all off, Strong Rhythm (aka Steve), one of the kids who played djembe with Baba C, joined me on my songs. they don't call him strong rhythm for nothing! Wow! That kid rocked, by the time i'd gotten through one measure of each song he'd picked up the feel perfectly and was putting my bounce-o-meter reading way higher than it had ever been before...if only he was 10 years older, we'd have a band...but we'll stay in touch and hopefully jam again. if only i had gotten into hip hop 15 years earlier, ah... thanks again, Baba C and Strong Rhythm ...hope to see you guys again soon.

you can see this kind of thing is new for me...if you made it this far, thanks. let me know if this is interesting, or what else you'd like to know.