Saturday, November 19, 2011

Kickstarter thank-you and a new 2nd solo album

WOW! A huge and heartfelt THANK YOU to all 207 supporters who contributed to my Kickstarter solo record fund! We had an incredible 2 weeks....a dream come true for this totally indie, no record label havin' guitar player. Already raging in the recording studio ... So many of the songs are already written and quite a few are tracked, but I still have weeks and months to go.

I've definitely abandoned my blog for too long. I have bits and pieces of things that I've started on my laptop but I just haven't taken the time to sit down and publish them or set up this blog the way I'd like. Mostly all I want to do is book studio days. As many days as I can, to get this 2nd Johnny Hickman solo album going before Cracker touring hits in December, spring, and all sweltering summer.

For now I'm posting most of my thoughts on Facebook and will resurrect this blog when the record gets a lot farther along. Thanks again everyone for DOUBLING my fund raising goal! Gratefully and humbly yours,  Johnny

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Hickman-Dalton Gang Vol. II, release party, videos!

Hello friends, although I don't really blog here on a regular basis I do plan to bring the blog back to life in the next year or so. In addition to Cracker and my plans to get another solo album off the ground, many of my fans know that I also have a country side project with my Colorado buddy Jim Dalton. As many of you know I lived in Bakersfield for a while and am a big fan of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, etc. I guess that releasing Cracker Countrysides with David back in 2003 wasn't enough to get the country out of my system. It's in my blood and so it's been great to have a fellow country-loving collaborator to work with when I'm home from the road.

Jim and I released The Hickman-Dalton Gang Volume I CD back in 2006, and I'm proud to say we found the time to record another album, The Hickman-Dalton Gang Volume II and it's available on CD, iTunes, Amazon, etc. today! Our sound is very much old-school, alt- or outlaw country to me, nothing like the slick stuff that comes out of Nashvegas. Hickman-Dalton Gang may not be every Cracker fan's cup of tea if you aren't a country music fan, but if you dig the twangy side of Cracker, I invite you to check this side project out.

We will be having a CD release party at the Soiled Dove Underground in Denver on July 1st and I hope to see some of you there. No news on other shows or the videos we keep talking about making, because Jim is so busy with Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and of course I have a ton of Cracker dates on the books as well.

Update: December 6, 2011: Back in November we had a HDG hootenanny featuring Jim Dalton, yours truly, Jeremy Lawton, Tony Nascar, Chris "Pelon" Helvey and guest Jimmy Stelling. We invited about 75 friends and folks from the FoCo music scene, my wife and our friends made a great spread of food, and we rolled in kegs of New Belgium and other liquid treats. Fort Collins film maker Tomas Herrera captured it all on film for the video to "Construction Man," a song from Hickman-Dalton Gang Volume II. It was pure lighthearted whiskey-infused fun in the sun. Check out on YouTube, out today!