Good holiday upon you all!
Well, I am writing this on November 28, the turkey eaten, the machine that is the True Olympians marching on toward our Olympia: A True Story album and getting honed for:
Tom Dyer & The True Olympians +
THURSDAY, 23 DECEMBER 2021
7pm-10pm Free Show – All ages welcome
Masks must be worn at all times when social distancing of six feet or more is not possible.
McMenamins Elks Temple
565 Broadway, Tacoma
………..
You recall I told you, Virginia, no GMR Xmas album this year. I said the show would quite be enuff.
Woke up this morning with a whole new brain and decided to make a beautiful new release, The True Olympians Holiday Collection. I knew that everyone who went to the show would want a fine memento of the glorious event and that those of you who found Tacoma to simply be a field too far would want a sweet taste – eureka! And great Jumping Jehoshaphat!
I decided to make a one-disk release of all the True Olympians Xmas singles, add in a couple of my Christmas songs which we will be playing in Tacoma and finally some other jolly tracks released by band members in the last year or so. True Olympians’ Joe and Lisa even decided to cut a brand-new beautiful track with Joe’s old pal Bob Hart this week just for this album.
So much joy! When I first had the idea, I was just thinking download and streaming. At 9:30am today, Brother Joe convinced me to make CDs. To make this even more improbable, handsome drummer man Michael had the ridiculous idea to go shoot festive photos at the JC Penny photo studio – we did it this week. Suddenly, I had a home for this plethora of mirthful pictures. CD art! Let the partridge and the pipers rejoice!
And yes, you read right, Lisa Ceazan has joined the band on soulful vocals. In addition to harmonies, she is doing the kickin’ lead on “People of The Water” and other to be named trax. Someone is gonna ask, is she from Oly? The answer is heck no – she moved here. As I have stated before, being a True Olympian is not about where you went to high school, it is about the purity of your heart and mind!
So there it is. The miracle of Christmas, writ small!
In other True Olympian news:
A track from the Olympia: A True Story album has seen the official light of day. “It’s Mud,” featuring the languorous Arrington de Dionyso on bass clarinet, has been released on Ball of Wax #66. I expect I will be releasing a few singles this year as we head toward completion of this mighty beast.
The math: there are currently 16 songs completed, another 7 nearly completed, 10 that are written which will get recorded around the first of the year – and another 4-7 songs that exist as rough ideas. I plan extensive liner notes, so that will be a bit of work as well. We’ve had some pretty groovy guest appearances on the album like Arrington, The Oly Mountain Boys, Dave Harvey from Nudity, fiddle beast Lisa Ornstein, with several more in the offing. It is kind of wild to have so many loose ends on such a big project that has taken so long already. I guess I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.
This is FUN!
Jim of Seattle decided to listen to the entire GMR catalog (a pretty damn big undertaking) and pick his favorites for Spotify playlists. I will be featuring some of them in the coming months, but I thought I better start with this one!
Spotify – My Absolute Holiday Favorites
In other exciting news, we have two new slabs of Green Pajama’s vinyl available just in time for holiday shopping. Seven Fathoms Down And Falling gets its first vinyl release, with a gorgeous new cover by Susan Kelly. And the hauntingly sweet “She’s Still Bewitching Me.” We also have the first-ever vinyl, 2 LP expanded (20 songs!) Indian Winter singles collection, with previously unreleased material. So good!
Both of these Pajama classics are very limited quantities and are selling briskly, so do not be dawdlin’.
Beyond that, we wish you all a wonderful and healthy holiday season – see you in Tacoma!
Tom – Dec. 2021
