Tea Newbs Blog

Sletter #3

Drift / islands. Accentuating currents to make danceable; eroding beaches for new castles. At the crossroads (the meaning of my name), surfing occurs. Seeking songs between castles and fathomless depth. Artifacts as signposts or portals, made idols by tradition.

Come to life. Not anticipating the fossil of a lung — is that impossible? The breath of song. Sometimes dusting off the oldies to find fresh air.

Hank Williams has always seemed like kind of a cartoon to me, but I recently sang one of his songs for the first time and it was a transmission. Ginsberg used to say a written poem is a blueprint for an energetic/emotional experience to be unlocked by some future person's body and breath. At the David Grisman 80th birthday bash, Joe Craven — the magical emcee “sound farmer” bongo player — said "All tradition begins as innovation. All innovation comes out of tradition."

Tonight I’m whining low

Head(y)line(s)

Evening poem

Morning poem

Tea Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 3

Listen on Spotify, and if you know how I can share a link for other platforms, please let me know!

I Felt the Evening Come Through the Window - Yves Jarvis \ Seismic - Mid-Air Thief \ Sunspot - Van 2 - Northampton, MA - 06/10/01 - Sunburned Hand Of The Man \ I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams \ Springtime Again - Sun Ra & His Arkestra \ Jerusalem - Simon Finn \ Ain't No Tellin' - Mississippi John Hurt \ Reservoir - Young Jesus \ My Bucket's Got A Hole In It - Hank Williams, Drifting Cowboys \ I Don't Love Nobody - Elizabeth Cotten \ Better Git It in Your Soul - Charles Mingus \ Dark Hollow - Bill Monroe, The Blue Grass Boys \ I Hear It's the Best - Sun City Girls \ Hillbilly French - The Savage Young Taterbug \ God Only Knows - The Langley Schools Music Project

Sletter #2

Rain returned after too-dry January — omega block over the Pacific Northwest, want for weeping — now, spring cometh. Mary my guitar back in my arms after long injury and repair — like rain returning to the skylight, the woods, reparenting softening bricks by drizzle, moss gently triumphs.

Get Wet and Keep Wondering

Bring on the flowers.

New(thing)!

Finished up work on a poetry chapbook, Outside and Inside, featuring poems I wrote here in Seattle from Dec '23–Feb '24. You can look through it here, or order a physical copy here.

The first poem in there (most are typed, easier to read) seems like a good way to mark the year of the snake (Losar Tashi Delek to those who observe!).

Tea Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 2

I wish I knew how to create a link for you to listen on any platform, but all I can share is a link for Spotify. If you know how, please let me know!

Newbin Time - Anastasia Coope \ Several More Happened - Pauline Oliveros, Timothy Hill \ YahhYahh MMANN YohhYohh IN ZINNT - Charlemagne Palestine \ Goatbrain - Goat \ Mistadobalina - Del The Funky Homosapien \ Athens New Guinea Gas Can Japan - Matmos \ I Cover The Waterfront (Live) - Billie Holiday \ Destination (Dr. Yusef Lateef) - Angel Bat Dawid \ Spiral in Houston - Frances Chang \ Four Leaf Clover - Peel Dream Magazine \ anything - Adrianne Lenker \ Body Stories - Pauline Oliveros \ Absolutely Cuckoo - The Magnetic Fields \ Earth Angels - Woo

Sletter #1

There is a show whose face is it anyway kind of energy and why not play with, and, not so secretly hope, that some engagement — as in face showing — may lead to face liking (not at all booking, though maybe shows) and more time supported to do it.

I was listening to Clark Coolidge and Bernadette Mayer and Coolidge said something about artistic impulse to do what you’re not allowed to — by your own rules or others’ — as in, Stein’s prohibition on memory and Mayer doing it like a score for improvisation. I feel a couple decades late to the festival.

Anyway, it may get easier or worse. It's just the name of waiting, discarded.

Open Studio

  • Music I’m in process with

  • Poems I’m in process with

Recently “Released”

  • Songs from the Box (2024)
    Songs written 2021-22; record in collaboration with Brady Newbill.
    It’s up on Bandcamp and all the streaming platforms.

DJ Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 1

I wish I knew how to create a link for you to listen on any platform, but all I can share is a link for Spotify. If you know how, please let me know!

Call Me Back - Martha Skye Murphy \ The Homesick Waltz - His Name Is Alive \ Breaking Bread - Matmos \ Moisture - The Residents \ Brain System - Matthew Shipp \ All Our Base Are Belong To Them - The Books \ Baby reign - DORIS \ Third Planet - Sun Ra, Sun Ra & His Arkestra \ Indiana - Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek \ Goin' down the Road Feeling Bad (Live) - Grateful Dead, Merle Saunders \ PS - The Books \ Semen Song for James Bidgood - Matmos \ flight fm - Joy Orbison \ You Sleep On - AGF, Craig Armstrong \ Midwinter Swimmers - The Innocence Mission