You can download “In the Bleak Midwinter” plus all our other Christmas songs here: http://numbersandletters.bandcamp.com/album/merry-christmas-songs

*** N&L is playing a big show on Wednesday (Dec. 21). We’re the meat in a Racing Heart and Pony Of Good Tidings sandwich. We play at 9pm and, yes, there will be Christmas songs, you betcha. More information and tickets can be found at the Union Hall website. The lineup this time includes me, Joe “Dasher” Lops, Justin “Dancer” Keller, Zachary “Prancer” Eichenhorn and Pete “Bruiser” Maness.

*** I will be interviewed live on Conversations LIVE/Conversations Magazine radio tomorrow (Dec. 20) at 6pm. Cyrus and I will be talking about the music industry, Christmas music, splitting time between being a critic and a musician and, probably, dinosaurs. More info here: www.blogtalkradio.com/conversationswithmusic

*** Sounds From A Room has posted their recording of N&L, live and live-streaming from Glasgow, Scotland in October. Check out four N&L songs, performed with the help of Joe Rattray and James Apollo. Jamesy also plays a set of his songs at the end. Video from that performance is forthcoming. Download or stream it here: http://8tracks.com/sofarsounds/sofarsounds-glasgow-oct-11-mix

*** Many thanks to NYC’s Church of the Advent Hope, who invited us to play their Holiday Benefit Concert again this year. The event raised thousands and thousands of dollars, to go toward the Tropical Health Alliance Foundation’s Visually Impaired Persons Project. That organization literally gives sight to the blind. Read more and donate here: http://www.thaf.org/WWW.THAF.ORG/OUR_PROJECTS.html

*** We’re trying very, very hard to finish the album. Just recently, Mike Brenner (Marah, Badly Drawn Boy, Magnolia Electric Co.) contributed some pedal steel tracks to “Run Downhill” and “Don’t Say It Was Me.” Joe Peretore has started mixing. It’s all still kinda exciting.

SoFar selects musicians to perform in stripped-down settings, each act playing a handful of songs. What we love about them is that these shows are performed in living rooms, not loud clubs, for fans that just want to enjoy acoustic music in a non-traditional setting.

Numbers And Letters played some new and old songs, including “Ghost,” “Dark Adam,” “Canyon or a Mountain” and “Run Downhill.” N&L’s Scotland tourmate James Apollo also did his own set. It was awesome. We did some drankin’.

Thanks a million again to SoFar, who will be posting the video companion soon!

http://8tracks.com/mixes/433348/player_v3

Numbers And Letters took a break from shows so that we could breathe, and make some headway on recording and other projects. Now, it’s a time to sow…

+ N&L at The PIT, TONIGHT – Many of you know Beth White, who has long and lovingly supported the band. What you should know is that Beth White is one of the funniest people on the planet, and performs in improv comedy troupe ThunderHead, at the Peoples Improv Theater. She also got married to N&L’s own Joe Lops just this month. Tonight (Friday, Sept. 23), Joe, Pete and I will be supporting ThunderHead’s Prov-Rock show at the main stage at the PIT Theater. Come show your support: for Beth, for us, for the power of love despite Joe’s diversions into experimental mustacheaism. 11pm, 123 E. 24th St. (Park/Lex), NYC, $5. http://on.fb.me/qfJF2a

+ N&L’s first overseas tour, feat. James Apollo – We’re finally taking the act over the ocean, Oct. 10-17. We have been booked for a number of dates in Scotland. Do you have friends in Scotland? We want to meet them. And by we, I mean myself, adoptive kindred James Apollo and Joe Rattray, the talented bassist from Scotland’s own Admiral Fallow. We have stops in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Thurso, Inverness… please help us spread the word? http://on.fb.me/rnSppC

+ T-shirts, holy smokes – A wise man once told me, “People like band t-shirts and sometimes they help to maintain debts incurred by the costs of recording music albums.” What that jackhole failed to tell me — but I figured it out! — is that people like a good-looking tees. Enter our pal Josh Levitt, who pumped out some astounding designs. I’ll be launching a shop soon to hock our wares, but you can see the designs at this link and claim your red or gray t-shirt early, $15 a pop. Original posters forthcoming. http://on.fb.me/oAFUN4

+ Recording update – We are in the home stretch. This weekend, folks like Ward Williams, Patrick McClellan, Christopher Weingarten, Kevin Fagen and our own Pete and Joe will gently lay down with microphones and breed sweet, sweet tracks. I know Clifton has been eyeballin’ a straight-up, weeks-long love-in. We’ll throw a baby shower — better known as an album release party — before you know it.

Be our friend, our fan. I can tell you things: http://www.facebook.com/numbersandletters

What is Prov-Rock? It’s improv comedy meeting teh rock. ThunderHead — helmed in part by Joe’s newly minted wife (and funniest person on the planet) Beth White — is the group and Peoples Improv Theater is the place.

Joe, Katie and Pete will take the stage around 11pm for a few songs, then there’s comedy, then there’s more music. It all goes ’til midnight, and if you’re lucky, you’ll see our new T-SHIRTS. Holy crap.

The PIT is at 123 24th Street, between Lexington and Park in Manhattan.

The track was made out of a dare, sort of: Clifton said I should try writing a straight-forward tune, for once. Joe told me I should try writing a love song where I don’t kill anybody.

This is a result. It’s for all the various.

Ward Williams (Jump Little Children) on cello and Pete Maness on bass are featured.

Since the tour in May, N&L has been focusing almost solely on finishing the album. Just this past weekend, them Tin Pan boys came in and slapped some stank onto “Broken Road.” Stefan also stepped up to the plate on “Sad Ocean Song” and brought the creepiest noises. It pleased me so.

We’ll continue that track until late August, then off to mixing she goes.

I think we’ve settled on an album title, which we’re not ready to reveal yet…

But some of the imagery will be utilized in some new merch…

That will join us in SCOTLAND.

Yes, N&L is going international for the first time this October. We’ve been brushing up our brogue and upping our tolerance. Justin said he may learn to dance. Bless him.

But you’ll also see a new puppy, adopted from Mercury Lounge on March 20. It’s a cover of Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus,” and featuring the Tin Pan Boys:

North Carolina was fantastic and just the kind of sorta-solo tour I needed. Thanks for the level pool table, Asheville, and the BBQ, Charlotte, and the burrito, Johnson City, and the good company Black Mountain, and the impressive beer lists, Greensboro, and…

Numbers And Letters plays a small acoustic show in Brooklyn on May 27 at the Way Station, then at the Cake Shop in Manhattan on June 3. Our first Boston show is on June 6 and will feature guest bassist Kendall Eddy! We are borrowing him from Racing Heart, thanks boys.

One fun fact is my little cousin Ryan Hasty is joining me for each night, playing a little guitar. Ladies: he’s a Death Cab fan (so sensitive!) and is rather tall and is single, single, single.

Tonight (May 16) is Johnston City, Tenn., tomorrow (Tuesday) is Black Mountain, NC and Thursday is Greensboro.

All dates and locales and other information can be found here:
http://www.numbersandlettersmusic.com/shows.html

If anybody in Asheville knows a fun open music night on Wednesday, we’re flexible: because we’re staying here.

Happy Holy Week, this one’s for Friday and the weekend.

Thanks to Justin Keller and Joe Lops for making me sound good.