WORKS V takes place this Friday (Jan 15) January 13, 2010

CHECK THE PRESS RELEASE:
WORKS V is an annual art exhibition/event produced by Intown Church and Portland City Art. This will be Intown Church’s fifth year hosting the event and our first year partnering with Portland City Art, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving and promoting local artists. The focus of the evening will be celebrating the incredible and diverse art and culture our city has to offer. It will feature a curated gallery of up to 20 incredibly talented local visual artists exhibiting and selling their painting, sculpture, photography, film, and fine crafts in the gothic atmosphere of The Old Church, one of Portland’s oldest buildings. This year will feature special musical guests DOLOREAN, DERBY, and RACHEL TAYLOR BROWN. A beer and wine garden will be provided, as well as light food prepared by a local chef. Last year, over 400 people walked through the gallery, speaking to the artists and performers, enjoying great beer, wine, and amazing food.

WORKS V is not a religious event, but a gift to and a promotion of the tremendous arts community here in Portland. This year the proceeds will be benefiting Portland City Art, Dinner and a Movie, and the Oregon Food Bank.

When: Friday, January 15, 2010. 7-11 pm
Where: The Old Church (Downtown, SW 11th Avenue & Clay St.)
Cost: $10 at the door / $5 with a canned good for Oregon Food Bank or a pair of socks for Dinner and a Movie

DOLOREAN PLAYS FIRST. STARTS AROUND 7 PM.

DEC/JAN/FEB SHOWS December 7, 2009

Portland, OR – Fri, December 11 @ Dante’s with Richmond Fontaine
Portland, OR – Sat, December 12 @ Mississippi Studios (Al James solo set before J. TIllman and Pearly Gate Music)
Portland, OR – Fri, January 15 @ Old Church
Portland, OR – Thurs, January 21 @ Laurelthirst Pub with Barton Carroll
Seattle, WA – Sat, January 23 @ Sunset Tavern with Barton Carroll
Portland, OR – Thurs, Feb 11 @ The Woods with Rauelsson

Old Habits Die Hard November 2, 2009

I’m a creature of habit and there are two things I always do when I fly… One is to buy a copy of the New Yorker in the airport. The other is to choose ginger ale as my in-flight beverage. So I was beyond excited to be sipping Canada Dry on my flight home from NYC and read a glowing review of Richmond Fontaine’s latest album in the magazine’s “Pop Notes” section…

-Richmond Fontaine, a Portland-based band led by the singer-songwriter Willy Vlautin, has just released “We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River” (Arena Rock), its ninth record and one of its best. The band is one of the finest proponents of what is sometimes called alt-country but is more properly described as woozy roots music, and Vlautin, who is also an acclaimed novelist, specializes in the telling detail. Often this results in compact narratives—on “The Boyfriends,” one of the album’s standouts, a guy meets a girl at a bar, accompanies her home, goes to bed with her, and is interrupted by the appearance of her young son (“I ain’t like that,” Vlautin’s protagonist wails). The character sketch “43” uses a few taut lines to sketch a portrait of a man slowly being strangled by debt. None of the songs here are throwaways, and several—the openhearted plaint “Maybe We Were Both Born Blue,” the crepuscular boxing tale “The Pull”—are tours de force. (Ben Greenman)

…Which reminded me that we have a show with Richmond Fontaine coming up. It’s a rescheduled performance for their album release show which was cancelled last month because frontman Willy Vlautin was sick. This show will be incredible. Can’t wait… (It’ll likely be our last show of 2009 and one of the few until our next album “The Unfazed” is out in the Spring)

Portland, OR / Friday Dec. 11th
@ Dante’s (Richmond Fontaine Album Release show)

THE GREEN MANALISHI TOUR OCT 19-24th October 5, 2009

It’s been quite awhile since Dolorean played out East… Looking forward to these shows in October with Deer Tick, Holy Sons, Chris Denny and Paleo:
Oct 19 / Chapel Hill/ Local 506
Oct 20 / Washington DC / Black Cat Backstage
Oct 21 / Baltimore / Sonar
Oct 22 / New York City / Bowery Ballroom
Oct 23 / Providence / Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
Oct 24 / Boston / Harper’s Ferry

Yes it’s quite a bill and a whole mess of music to try an pull off each night, but it should be a blast. This tour serves as a showcase for Partisan Record’s roster that will be releasing albums next year. Partisan will be releasing Dolorean’s next album called “The Unfazed” in the spring of 2010…

Al James solo tour with Richmond Fontaine August 24, 2009

The fantastic Richmond Fontaine has invited me to open up for them on part of their upcoming tour. Check the dates below:

September 12 Bedford – Civic
September 14 Bristol – St Bonaventures
September 15 Nottingham – Maze
September 16 Manchester -Academy 3
September 17 London – Garage
September 18 Paris – La Java
September 19 Amsterdam – Paradiso

Starts This Week! August 3, 2009

PS… The Legendary Michael Hurley will be playing on Wed. August 5th at 8PM after our set. Plan to stick around…

HOTT AUGUST NIGHTS! July 20, 2009

That’s right!!! Dolorean is back at THE LAURELTHIRST PUBLIC HOUSE for shows in August. Same time as the May shows (6-8 PM). We’ll be there with two sets each night, every Wednesday in August (the 5th, 12th, 19th, & 26th). Now that we’ve got the hang of these happy hour shows we’ll mix it up… new set-lists, new covers, maybe even some friends dropping by… As always- no cover, and as always we’re happy to deliver the pulsing-folk-jass-cosmic-heat for these HOTT AUGUST NIGHTS!!!

and…

This Friday, July 24th, we’re headlining at Mississippi Studios in support of Democracy Lab- an online forum that promotes open source politics. Show starts at 8 PM. Celilo and Dave McGraw & Crow Wing will be on the bill as well. Ticket details here.

Solo house show in Edmonds, WA June 9, 2009

If you’re in the Seattle area this is a chance to head north and catch a solo-dolo set… Some new songs, some oldies, covers, requests… Small intimate house show without mics and amps. 10 dollar cover ensures that I can cut a check to the recording studio and engineers the following week as we finish up tracking the new dolorean album.
Hope to see you there!

you can secure a ticket by emailing Tara the promoter:
artistrystudios at gmail.com

Al James The Unfazed
6/18/2009 7:30 PM at Rosewood Manor
8104 220th St, Edmonds, Washington
Cost: $10.00
BYOChampagne