Just a quick note to let you all know that I'll be down in Austin for the big SXSW festival this year. I'll be eating a bunch of free tacos and also doing a few shows:

Monday - 03/15 - Flipnotics 1601 Barton Springs Rd. 8:00pm

I'll be traveling to Scotland this summer (late July - mid August) for a tour with two of my closest friends and favorite songwriters:

Ian Thomas Parks & Nels Andrews

Hi friends. Just wanted to let you know that I've been selected to go to Scotland at the end of this month for the Burnsong. Burnsong's objective is to promote, nurture and encourage songwriting in Scotland. During this year of Homecoming -- inspired by the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland's national poet -- I will be taking part in a week-long songwriters' retreat capped off by the "Big Gig" playing for MSPs at the Scottish Parliament. So if you know any MSPs, ask them to show up on November 30th.

Hi everybody. 'The Pleistocene EP' is coming along nicely thanks to the capable ears and imagination of my friend and Pleistocene producer, Matt Bauer. Matt will probably kill me, but I've put up a rough mix of one of the tracks. It's far from finished, but should at least give you an idea of what to expect. Listen here.

The television show, One Tree Hill has decided to put my song, 'Devil May Dance' into this season's premiere episode! It's really nice of the folks over at 'One Tree Hill' to use my song in their show, and extra nice of them to put it in the first scene of the new season's premiere. So make sure to tune in on Monday, September 14th at 8pm on The CW Network.

AJ has been selected for a Falcon Ridge / Grassy Hill Emerging Artist Showcase at this year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in Hillsdale, NY. It's quite an honor and we're very excited for AJ to make his Falcon Ridge debut!

We've finally managed to convince AJ to get on Facebook and twitter. Connect with him on Facebook and follow him on twitter at @iHobo.

AJ and Nels Andrews have started a new video blog together. So far there are about 8 posts up. Watch the videos, post comments, subscribe and share with your friends.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CursingKerouac

We are pleased to announce that AJ has been invited back to Memphis, TN to perform at the 2009 International Folk Alliance Conference. As we receive more details regarding his official performance, we'll be sure to let you know.

A. J. & His Strange Pilgrims recently performed as part of the live Dutch radio show, Desmet Live. You can (for the next couple of weeks) listen or watch their performances online. Simply visit this link, and click the link that says 'Beluister de hele uitzending online' in order to listen. To watch the show follow the link that says 'Bekijk het eerste uur van de uitzending online'. This is the first hour, and the band's performances are at around 2:50 and 41:30.

AJ & His Pilgrims are headed to the Netherlands next week for a brief tour supporting their former #1 record, 'Revelation'. The tour will culminate with a performance at the Blue Highways Festival in Utrecht. The dates follow: Hope to see you all there.

Thu April 10 - Desmet Live @ Café Desmet - Amsterdam, NL
Sat April 12 - Nix BBBluesclub - Enschede, NL
Sun April 13 - C.P. Roepaen - Ottersum, NL
Wed April 16 - Cafe de Amer - Amen, NL
Thu April 17 - Paradiso - Amsterdam, NL
Sat April 19 - Blue Highways Festival - Utrecht, NL

Find more details on the tour page.

AJ & His Strange Pilgrims have been selected for an Official Showcase at Folk Alliance 2008 to be held in Memphis, Feb. 20 - 23rd. They'll also be performing in several 'guerilla' showcases throughout the week. Hope to see you there.

Paste Magazine's podcast (The Culture Club) features AJ's song, 'Freezing Car' in episode #63. Check it out at www.pastemagazine.com/cultureclub.

AJ has been asked to perform his song 'Chemicals' (track 5 on the new record, 'Revelation') at the Williamsburg Live Songwriting Competition in Brooklyn, NY. The first round takes place at The Lucky Cat in Brooklyn on November 6th. See the shows page for more details.

'Music of Coal: Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields' -- the amazing 2-disc set that AJ contributed his original song, 'Black Lung' to -- has been nominated for three Grammy Awards! The final round of nominations happens in December. We'll keep you posted as to whether or not the record makes it all the way. Congratulations to Jack Wright, Ron Short and all of those producers and artists who were involved in this mammoth undertaking!

As part of the Paste Beat -- an in-flight entertainment program produced by Paste Magazine exclusively for American Airlines -- AJ's song 'Devil May Dance' will be included as part of American's in-flight entertainment for the month of December, 2007. Once you fly Roach, you never fly coach.

AJ's newest record is now available for pre-order on the following websites:

Amazon

Miles of Music

Elderly Instruments

AJ will be featured as one of the '4 to watch' in the November issue of Paste Magazine. In addition his song, 'Devil May Dance' (track #2 from 'Revelation') will be featured on the CD sampler that is included with the November issue. Thanks to all the good people at Paste for they're great magazine and for their continued support for AJ and other great indie artists.

We've recently made available a live recording of AJ and his trio performing their version of Jacques Brel's incredible song, 'Amsterdam', on the Dutch talk show, 'Desmet Live'. The recording was made in front of a live studio audience in Amsterdam on May 31st, 2007. Visit the music page now to hear it for yourself!

We here at RoachMusic Headquarters feel just awful that the new full-length album, 'Revelation' is still not available in the US, but has been widely available in Europe for six months now. We're working hard to get it out properly here in the US and hope to make it available to North American fans by Autumn of this year. In the meantime, take a listen to an early version of one of AJ's side projects, 'The Poplar Tree'. 'The Poplar Tree' is a lo-fi concept album all about love, lust, murder and revenge.

A recording of AJ's song, 'Black Lung' will be featured on a double disc various artists release entitled 'Music of Coal: Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields'. Black Lung was recorded in December of 2005 at Maggard Studios in Big Stone Gap, Virgina and features Shawn Lane (Blue Highway) on mandolin Bill Smith on bass and Ron Short on fiddle and slide guitar.

AJ will be performing twice in New York before heading to Austin for SXSW.

Wednesday, March 7th 2007 @ Googies Lounge (The upstairs lounge in The Living Room) at 154 Ludlow. 9:30pm.

Thursday, March 8th 2007 @ Banjo Jim's at the corner of 9th St. and Avenue C 7pm with Nels Andrews.

AJ will be performing in Austin, TX at the ComboPlate Booking Roster Party on Wednesday, March 14th. The ComboPlate Booking Roster Party is always one of the best SXSW parties of the week and takes place outside at Guero's at 1412 S Congress Ave. AJ's set will be at 4:40pm.

AJ's newest release, 'Revelation' is #1 on the Euro-Americana Album Chart for the month of December! The record is #5 on the Freeform American Roots (FAR) Chart. 'Revelation' has also made it's debut on the Americana and Roots Top 13 at #8!

Many thanks to our friends in Holland who have sent us several new reviews of 'Revelation'. No one here at RoachMusic headquarters speaks Dutch, but we think the record is being well-received. If you do speak Dutch, you can check the reviews out on our review page. If you're feeling particularly inspired, you could even do some translating :). We sure would appreciate it! NOTE: babelfish.altavista.org translations from Dutch to English -- while not very sensible -- are often times hilarious.