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Edie's Blog

The summer has passed me by 

Figured I'd better hurry up and write a little quickie blog so that there's at least one entry for August.

Been keeping a low profile music-wise, but having a little fun checking out the off-the-beaten-path film stuff Hollywood has to offer. Found a great cinema hangout (other than the Cinema Bar) over at the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax. They even serve free Tecate beer! Diggin' it so much, I'm gonna become a member.

In honor of all the Beatlemania going on these days surrounding the upcoming release of the Beatle Rock Band game, the fine folks at Cinefamily are presenting their British Invasion program at the Silent Movie Theater every Thursday night starting this week (9/3/09). They're even gonna play the Beatle Rock Band game on the big screen. Sounds like fun.

I highly recommend checking this particular cinema scene out!

Star Sighting: Elvis Costello at Amoeba Records 

FINALLY! I got to reap the benefits of living in L.A.

Last week, 6/22/09 to be exact, I saw Elvis Costello perform a free show at Amoeba Records THE COOLEST record store in Hollywood AND it was worth every minute of my 4 hour wait.

First, I'll start out this entry with a really good Elvis photo from Amoeba's website and then post pictures from my sucky camera.


I ran into some friends there (shout out to Cleo, Laura, Doug & Kent) and made some new ones too. Pictured below are my Cinema pals Laura and Doug and Steve, a jazz guitarist I met while standing in line along Ivar.




I LOVED THIS SHOW! Elvis performed mostly new material from his latest album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane and a really cool Grateful Dead cover of "A Friend Of The Devil."

And now, the show from the perspective of my sucky camera.


This in-store concert and Elvis's new CD has truly inspired me right now. My favorites are "Down Among The Wine And Spirits," "My All Time Doll," "Crooked Line" and "Sulphur To Sugarcane."

Here's a good crowd shot courtesy of Amoeba.com:


My inner-teenager was so thrilled that with the purchase of a CD you get a free (and way cool) Elvis Amoeba poster plus Elvis's autograph on any one item you choose. I had him sign my poster. Picture taking wasn't allowed in the autograph line, but I was able to sneak this one.



All in all a very fun event! Thanks Amoeba Records and Elvis!!!




In other news, I'm in the beginning stages of recording my DIY mini-CD. It's going pretty good too. Gonna lay low performing solo-wise to dedicate time to recording, but will be playing a few gigs with Murphy's Flaw.

Hopefully, July will have more entries than lately.

Entry #17 I'm going to Disneyland! 

"Edie, now that you've made your solo debut at The Cinema Bar and became 2nd fiddle at The Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest what's next?" I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!



That's right people. I'm going to Disneyland thanks to my dear friends Mikey, Tom F, JR, Guy and Chris. Great birthday gift guys, THANKS!

Whew! What a whirlwind week. It all started with the debut solo/birthday show (5/13), then the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest (5/17) and finally Murphy's Flaw concert at Braemar Country Club (5/19).

Well the birthday gig was FUN. So many friends came to cheer me on as I mixed up the set with fiddle tunes, some butchered rock covers and my original stuff. Check out the YouTube clip (courtesy of Richard Greene, thanks Richard!) from the 5/13 show on my new video page.

Special thanks to my sister Christy, who brought the best cake ever, Dan Janisch who totally rocked my birthday night, the guys in my band Peter Kavanaugh, Million Dollar Dan and John Bryan and especially to everyone who came and showed such love and support. Thank you!

It's official. I'm second fiddle according to the judges at The Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest.



I played "Indiana Waltz" by Richard Greene and was backed up my Murphy's Flaw bandmates George Biner (1st place winner in adv. flatpick guitar & 3rd place backup guitar) and Paul Dorn (2nd place winner in backup bass). What a thrill and an honor.

Entry #16 Spinal Tap Unwigged and Unplugged RAWKED! 

The Unwigged and Unplugged show at the Wiltern RAWKED tonight!

They played all the classics like Hell Hole, Sex Farm, Big Bottom, Bitch School, Old Joe's PlaceA Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow, A Mighty Wind and a very cool Rolling Stones cover Start Me Up.

Couldn't resist the merch table. Here's me rocking in my Spinal Tap hoodie, although now I wish I bought the Big Bottom underwear like my sister did.

Entry #15 Spinal Tap Unplugged 

My concert tickets for Unwigged and Unplugged at the Wiltern arrived this morning. Woo-hoo! The show is tomorrow (Sunday 4/26) night and my sister Christy and I can't wait!

Unwigged and Unplugged is Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. You know, the Spinal Tap dudes! To celebrate the 25th anniversary of This Is Spinal Tap, the famous trio is currently on tour performing all their Spinal Tap and Folksmen (A Mighty Wind) hits acoustically and it goes a little like this . . .



It's been a while since my last post. Been busy working on my new website ediemurphy.com which is up now! My blog is up on the website too.

My next post will likely be about the Unwigged show. I love everything about those guys. I dig what the do! When I grow up I wanna be Harry Shearer.

Entry #14 Happy Easter 

Happy Easter everyone! Thought I'd make a quick little post to brag about my friend Peter Kavanaugh. I'm so thrilled that Pete will be playing guitar for my big solo debut, and even more thrilled to discover that he's a songwriter too!

His tune "Pendulum Swing" aired on the Discovery Channel's show Time Warp ("Blades and Volts" episode) last Wednesday. Pete and his band we're also IN the episode too. Way Hollywood!!

So I proudly introduce to my under-a-dozen blog readers, Peter Kavanaugh's "Pendulum Swing" featuring Todd Eckart and Laura Jo DeWitt on vocals and the The Phat Cat Swinger horn section.



And if you're a swinging gate like me, I highly recommended this swingingest dance hall over in Pasadena with live swing music from none other than The Phat Cat Swingers with Peter Kavanaugh on guitar. See ya there, daddy-o!!

Saturday 4/25/09
7:30 - 11:00 pm
Pasadena Baptist Church
75 N. Marengo Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91101
Cost: $15.00

Get there at 7:30 if you want a fun, easy and quick swing dance lesson!!

Join 4Shared Now!

Entry #13 Hollywood hangout to close the weekend 

Another Hollywood live music venue that I enjoy supporting is The Grand Ole Echo over at the Echo, a cool club in that hipster neighborhood Echo Park. The GOE kicks off it's new season today.

My friend Christine Ortega will emcee today's big event and sing a few tunes too. The show will feature: Old Californio releasing their new record, Whispering Pines opening and the pride of the Golden State, I See Hawks In LA closing the night.

In between sets, head outside to the back porch for burgers on the grill and live acoustic music from banjo player Tommy Santee Claws.

The GOE is a free all ages show held every Sunday from 5 - 9 pm through the end of summer at The Echo, 1822 Sunset in Echo Park.

See ya there!

Entry #12 London calling 

Happy April Fools Day everybody! What better way to spend it than doing taxes while watching all the G-20 hullabaloo in London.

Yep, this fool is tackling her finances while watching Londoners attack the Royal Bank Of Scotland and the GOP announce their budget proposal on MSNBC.

Right now the President and First Lady are heading over to 10 Downing Street for the G-20 dinner prepared by Jamie Oliver aka The Naked Chef.


It's wild seeing the throngs of protesters crowd the streets of London given that I was there exactly a year ago. It was a very quiet time then, and also very expensive. It was a little over 2 US dollars to 1 British pound. Now it's $1.43 to £1.00.


These are my pics of London I took last spring, including a sucky self-protrait in front of Buckingham Palace.

Entry #11 Where Is My Mind? 

Well, I'm still busy making charts and demos for the guys. Thought I'd be done by now, but have 3 more songs to go. Hoping to knock out 2 later today.

My sister Christy insisted I post my latest DIY recording demo that I sent to the boys for reference. So here it is, my version of The Pixies Where Is My Mind? along with some web pics I found from surfin' the 'net.

BTW, I got the chords from a terrific fan site, FrankBlack.net, which has an awesome TABS section of pretty much everything Frank Black did as a solo artist and as Black Francis with The Pixies. So, thanks for the tab Derek (ProverbialCereal)!

This tune served as my introduction to barre chords. As you can hear, the G# chord gets botched a couple of times.

FYI for you younger hipsters, this song came out originally in '88 on the The Pixies Surfer Rosa album (pictured) and not from the Fight Club movie soundtrack, though a great film nonetheless; and a cool use of the tune!

Geesh, this entry took a lot of time. I couldn't figure out how to upload an mp3 on Blogger and went to the trouble of creating a dang video instead. The upload took forever too! OMG! Kinda wonder if it was at all worth it. Gonna look into maybe starting a podcast or something on this blog.

Entry #10 Happy Pi Day and Happy Birthday Albert Einstein! 


Ah yes, yet another geek reference. Oddly enough, I was terrible at math and science which makes me a dumb geek, but a geek nonetheless.

Shout out to my 3 followers . . . THANKS! Woo hoo! I'm on my way to internet stardom.

In other news, I'm so happy to announce that Dan Janisch will be headlining my birthday show May 13 at The Cinema Bar. His latest CD Medicine Man is really, really good so go ahead and buy it. I'm a big Dan fan and looking forward to his new album due out this spring, which means soon. Yay!

My sister and I are heading out to Taix in Echo Park for Dan's show tonight. Christy is uber fussy when it comes to music and doesn't like local music EXCEPT for Dan Janisch. Now there's an endorsement!

Been busy compiling my set list for the big birthday show. Hoping to finish all my charts and demo recordings for the guys by the end of this weekend.

Happy Pi Day everybody! I'll be celebrating with a visit to the infamous House Of Pies in Los Feliz.
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