Venus Zine caught up with her for a pre-tour interview — find out what she had to say:

Catherine on Venus Zine

Catherine’s Interview

“People in the Hole” Music Video

At the beginning of October I went straight from North Carolina to Brussels and started a European tour with COME GATHER ROUND US — the band I am in with Jon Neufeld, Mike Danner and the Challenge of Feral Green (aka my husband). We played Brussels, Ghent, Silly, Lille, Berlin, Karlsruhe and a few other cities and towns, shifting between bars, theaters and houses. It was the first time we’ve managed to get all four of us out on the road together and it was incredible. The shock of the tour was a sold-out show in Barcelona, where we had never before played so much as a note!

December brought a homecoming tour to England, where I had the opportunity to revel in the beauty of sparsity… acoustic shows with a bit of accompaniment from TCOFG. It was so good to reconnect with folks in the UK — they are true music lovers. There were many great moments but the one that springs to mind is taking over a quiet pub to play a few songs to two young girls who had mistakenly bought tickets and traveled a long way to attend an over-21 show that they were not allowed into. One girl was crying when she found out they weren’t allowed in, which almost made me cry… I was so relieved when the promoter suggested I could play them songs somewhere else… so we walked down the road and found an establishment that was less choosey about their clientele : )

OK, gotta run… next episode is the Mexican tour — for real : )

Shows are free and open to all ages. See the ‘Tours’ page for details.

We drove to Chico yesterday from Freshwater, CA. It’s a gorgeous, curvy drive through the mountains, and I slept through most of it, my head wobbling side to side with each turn. Staying up til 3 in the morning stuffing envelopes a couple nights before we left for tour has meant that both me and my fella are catching up on a lot of sleep in the car. We also forgot our CD player and our car radio only works intermittently, so it has been a very peaceful environment in our car… sometimes to the detriment of wakeful driving : 0

My band COME GATHER ROUND US been to the Eureka/Arcata area a bunch of times to play, sometimes as part of Eureka ArtsAlive, and sometimes at house shows put on by our good friend Mark in a beautiful, sleepy former hippie commune in Freshwater. Playing at Mosgo’s was the first gig I’d played in a venue in Arcata, and it was the first time in solo-artist guise. The local radio station KHUM gave me some hype, which is awesome. Also Ray, the booker at Mosgo’s, booked a local teenage phenom to open the show, and she brought loads of devoted friends. So it was a packed house, and I really enjoyed it. Great sound too.

Day before, we’d rushed into an in-store at CD world in Eugene right when we were supposed to start playing. There were a few folks there waiting — the crowd swelled to 10 at a highpoint — and the sound guy had never done sound before, so we got started with only a touch of blood curdling feedback to prepare peeps for the mellow folk we were bringing. It is often hard to get an atmosphere going under the harsh fluorescent lighting of the a music store, and this was no exception. The people were super nice, but we only sold 2 CDs, and apparently, we have to get in touch with them at some point in the future to receive the rich $14 recompense for our performance : )

I was lucky to have met a fella named John a month or two back (when playing the bike music festival) who lives at the Sheila Jackson Coop on campus in Eugene, so we had a nice place to stay with a huge communal kitchen. Supplemented some delicious roasted veggies brought from our garden (eggplant, green pepper) with brown rice and delicious morrocan lentils we found in the fridge – yum yum yum. Also some marionberry pie from Shari’s.

Driving part of the way to San Luis Obispo a little later today, and we hope to find a grotty roadside motel to hole away in for the evening… hoping for a movie of the week…

it has been a wonderful summer — my husband’s little person (my step-little person) has been here, so there have been many trips to the river, the woods, the sea… taking advantage of the natural wealth in oregon.  yes, for those of you who may not know, i am living in portland, oregon now. portland is fantastic, and our first real summer here (we were travelling most of last summer) has been blissful.

i am still waiting for the tomatoes i planted to ripen — some anana orange, some brandywine, some beefsteak — the waiting is making me crazy, i must admit. they are big and beautiful and juicy looking and… green. WHEN WILL IT HAPPEN???

also been working my tail off to get the album ready, a US tour booked and so on and so forth… i am doing the east and west coasts of the US in October and planning some dates for the UK in december. (will let you know when i know about those : ).

ok, gotta run… more soon.

xx

c

It is centered around my new album. I recorded “People in the Hole” at the Mill Studios in Norfolk, England with an amazing cast of musicians. There were late nights driving home,  listening to Janice Long on Radio 2, chilly mornings waiting for the space heaters to warm the eight-sided windmill… Jonny Cole (engineer) and Sebastian Rogers (producer) were there every step of the way.

I am so proud and excited to be presenting these songs to you, exactly as I would like them to be heard. Listen to them on the player to the right.

Right now, this album is not available anywhere but here. You can order a pre-release copy, directly from me, and be among the first to breathe a breath that puffs this lantern of song a bit higher into the sky.

I will sign and number the limited run of pre-release copies, and you will receive the CD in a beautiful matte eco-wallet, as well as an MP3 version of the album, downloadable immediately. Copies ordered between now and Sept. 20 will be shipped by the end of September, and received well before the album is available at other retailers.

SORRY! PRE-RELEASE EDITION IS SOLD OUT!!!