There are those that say “it can’t be done in this current market…”, there are those who throw words like “success”, “drive” and ”fame” around like common buffalo nickles. As Kevin Burdick’s business manager it is my pleasure to address you loyal and loving fans at this time, although the circumstances of this blog are not the most favorable.
Kevin has diligently spent this recent year in hardcore dedication to finding a happy medium of the above mentioned beliefs. We both feels that it can indeed be done… success, drive and fame… that is. In fact we believe even a greater potential for his music as well as his very name and reputation.
The search for this has come at a great “cost” and it is my responsibility to deliver the “bill”. I regret to inform all of you that Kevin Burdick will be canceling his October shows at Hotel Utah in San Francisco and The Quarter Note in San Jose. The mental, physical and spiritual strain on Kevin and the sheer time it involves has pushed Kevin into an emotional hibernation. His Filling Station shows in Magna this past week were essentially the tail end of a one year road tour across the western states. Living in a tour bus and traveling daily is just a fraction of what had Kevin virtually collapse from the wear and tear last week. It’s a culmination of all things; financial expenses with touring, dealing with untrustworthy people in the industry, releasing his new album and the loss of friends.
Sitting in mental, emotional and physical pain, and after a moment by himself last Saturday, August 23rd, he sought the advice of a close friend as well as his Medicine Man and Shaman. The desire for a break turned into a “need”.
The great news is that if most of you know Kevin as I do, he will soon awaken and the musical juggernaut will emerge from its slumber to again perform and bring you the music, passion, and entertainment you all love.
A special thanks to Overtone Records and Media in Hollywood, CA. Christian Ashton, CEO, is a blessing. He is a huge support for Kevin in his time of rest, stating “Kevin is the next big thing…”. Mr. Ashton’s professionalism and grace are unmatched, as he has gone out of his way to accommodate Kevin in a beautiful home in Hollywood, 3 blocks off Sunset Strip… The perfect place for a Rock Star to recollect and relax. With that kind of support from industry greats as well as incredible fans I believe Kevin’s hiatus to last only a short while.
Kevin will still be playing his Los Angeles shows at The Cat Club on the 5th and 12th of September, The Nocturnal (Club TRiP) on the 11th of September as well as a special show on September 9th at O’Brien’s Pub in Santa Monica. Please stay tuned for news on his recovery. Again, we love and care for you all and hope to feel your support, prayers, and best wishes.
If you couldn’t make The Filling Station show this last weekend, you did miss a high-energy, inspired performance from ‘yours truly.’ Luckily, one of my oldest friends and one of the top photographers in the country happened to be in the house, so you get to see the show through his eyes. Enjoy!
When Jedi of Opalhill Drive called me about doing a couple shows out in Magna, Utah at The Filling Station I was a little skeptical. Magna is a mining town and The Filling Station is known as a biker bar. After some discussion and a pretty good sales pitch, I thought, “What the hell.” And so, two months later there I stood at the aforementioned biker bar in the middle of mining town Utah, USA.
The crowd on Friday was very stand-offish. I had one lady yelling at me all night to do her random list of cover tunes and when I obliged to do one “Kevin Burdick Style” she was more pissed off that it didn’t sound like the original. You asked me for “Shook Me All Night Long” and I play the piano. What did you expect? Oh, AND I’M NOT A COVER BAND!!
Luckily, the Saturday night crowd was way more into the show, showing their appreciation with both applause and some dancing. I was so grateful to see some familiar faces had made the 20 minute trek out to support their own favorite local piano man. Saturday was also a little more challenging when my usual drummer, Chris Hancock, called in sick. Luckily, guitarist Chris Doucet (who happens to be one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met) filled in on the drums with no practice and virtually nailed all of the songs.
Highlights of the two-days included doing several improv songs with Jedi (lead singer of Opalhill Drive), who was able to think quickly on his feet and create some of the funniest freestyle lyrics I’ve heard. He was an absolute blast and the Opalhill Drive guys were a lot of fun to play with. I just really enjoyed them and was grateful to have made some new friends.
Big thanks to Jared and Rex Platt for stopping by the show and photographing, Ken Gray for handling the business side, V and E for handling merch sales, Chris/Chris/Brad for rocking the stage with me, and Opalhill Drive for being incredible hosts and just all around great guys to party with.
Live acoustic performance of “Tiny Dancer” at The Filling Station:
The Club Allure show in Sandy, Utah this last weekend was dubbed my “angriest show to date. ” After touring on-and-off since last October, I believe that the wear and tear of the road is finally beginning to show. Strangely enough, most people said it was one of my best and most intense shows they’d ever seen me put on.
Touring this much has been extremely gratifying. It’s always been a dream of mine. But it has taken it’s toll on my personal life - I’ve lost friendships that I failed to properly care for on the road, sacrificed chances at a normal relationship with a woman, and have felt betrayed by a number of people I considered family. I guess when you’re “out of site” you are technically “out of mind” for some people. Of course, my true friends try to make me feel better by saying thinks like, “they weren’t you’re real friends anyway.” Of course, this is probably true, but it doesn’t make the sting of loss and betrayal any easier to deal with. So this week I’ve been mourning the loss of some very important relationships and have been licking my wounds.
Fortunately, I’m always able to take my pain and situations that affect me into my songwriting. In spite of just releasing an album, I already have two new songs completed that have been inspired by these feelings of love and loss that I have been experiencing lately. I feel blessed to be able to have some clarity in these difficult moments with which I can write beautiful music. I actually performed one of these new songs, “Am I So Disposable?” at the Club Allure show to very rave reviews.
A big thanks to Keith Hubbard for stepping in on short notice with the bass guitar and also “The Rob” (who played drums on many of the tracks on the new CD) for filling in on the drums. Thanks also to Chris Doucet for his magnificent guitar work, even with one injured hand. Also thanks to Scoop Einer for promoting the show, Ken Gray for his management and support, and the myriad of fans who showed up to rock with me.
Note: All of the tracks from “We Are The Walking Wounded” are now available on iTunes. If you haven’t heard the album, do a search for me on iTunes and see what you think. It’s quite an achievement and the people who have picked up the album already say that they are in love with it.
I read an article about a baby that was born (yesterday) on 08.08.08 at 8:08 AM who weight 8.8 LBS (this is true). What’s crazy is we also gave birth to our own 8 pound baby late last night as we rocked Liquid Joe’s and delivered the new CD “We are The Walking Wounded” to a packed house!! It was a huge celebration and if you missed the show, you missed history in the making. I have been getting texts and messages all morning from friends and fans who picked up the CD at the show about ‘what an epic achievement it is’ - I may be biased, but I do think it’s my best work so far.
The show began last night with some new twists. I busted out my grand piano (a huge pain to set up), and instead of the drums in the back of the stage on the riser, we decided to put the piano up top. I also added a smoke machine and at the beginning of my set, during Cigarette Girl, it appeared as if my piano was on-fire as smoke began pouring out of it.
The highlights of the night included an improv song about my tender relationship with a donkey, a funny birthday song, a quick performance of the hidden track on the new CD, Chuck Thompson (the cellist who plays on several tracks on the CD) came up and played a couple songs with me on his cello, and really just having the opportunity to play for several hundred people at a packed Liquid Joe’s.
Big thanks to Brad Verrier (Bass), Chris Doucet (Guitars), Chris Hancock (Drums), Chuck Thompson (Cello), Ken Gray (My awesome business manager), Scoop (Promoter), Joel Pack (My Producer), Brittney (Our sexy merch girl), the Liquid Joe’s staff, The Better Life Band (for kicking off the show at short notice), and the many more people that supported this show and came out to rock with me.
Don’t forget, you only have until midnight tomorrow to order the new CD at the discounted $8.99 rate until it goes up to $12.99 Monday morning. Big thanks to the many people who have already ordered it. You should be receiving your signed copies later this week: http://www.kevinburdick.com/buy.html
Performance of the track, “Goodnight Darling, Goodnight” off the new album:
With this Northern California leg of our tour being complete, I took my attention from touring to relaxing. Jaime, a close friend of mine, flew in from Salt Lake City and Ken, Jaime and I hit the fields of grapes in Napa Valley in search of the perfect wine. It is beautiful countryside filled with incredible foods, beautiful scenery, and wonderful people. More importantly, it was a perfect and relaxing break from weeks of hard work, especially with the big CD release party in Salt Lake City just around the corner.
Not coincidentally, my great-grandpa’s 100th birthday party was Saturday in Yuba City, CA - so we finished our Napa Valley tour just in time to pull in and spend Saturday with Burdick relatives from all over the country. Women should be forwarned that we Burdick men live an extremely long time, so if you’re dating me for my money (ha-ha), I’m gonna out-live you!! Check out this photo of me, my nephew, my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather - 5 generations of stubborn Burdick men. Gotta love it!! I performed “Like a Star” off of my 2002 album for all my relatives and then spent a few minutes signing autographs and getting photos taken with my younger cousins in front of the tour bus before we hit the road for Salt Lake City. It was a great day and I’m definitely proud to be a Burdick.
The 8 AM soundcheck at today’s Wharf to Wharf show would not have felt so early if I hadn’t stayed up until 4 AM last night celebrating my birthday with friends, but so goes the life of a rockstar.
Let’s start with last night. Ken and I had a couple friends come up from Los Angeles to hang with us - George, a great guy who just happens to be homosexual and Mexican (both of which I’m supportive of) and Vero who happens to be hot, straight, and attached to nearly all of Ken’s man parts. So it wasn’t surprising that my birthday night turned into a 1-on-1 celebration with George while Ken had his own 1-on-1 thing going on. George and I ended up at a few bars on Castro Street in San Francisco (which is apparently a predominantly gay area of the city) and before I knew it, I was the meat in a giant homosexual danceclub sandwich. Luckily I am very comfortable with who I am, and so I just rolled with it as I had 6 gay men dancing around me, grinding against me, and making me their sex object. Ladies I now know how you feel. Needless to say it was my own “Night at the Roxbury” moment. What I learned is that I am a sex object, not just to women, but also to some dudes apparently, and that is flattering. Let it be known that Kevin is cool with men and women and their individual sexual preferences. However, let it also ring forth across the land that Kevin Burdick is totally straight and is only attracted sexually to the ladies and the boobies.
So, after my birthday celebration we pulled into the area of the Wharf to Wharf Festival in Santa Cruz and slept at about 4:00 AM this morning. Big thanks to Ken Gray for driving while I attempted to sleep. We got up around 7:50 AM and quickly started setting up. To give you an idea, the Wharf to Wharf Festival centers around a 12ish mile race that wraps around Santa Cruz from the boardwalk across the city. There are a number of bands that entertain the runners and the townspeople throughout the city-wide festival. We got to introduce the music of Kevin Burdick to 15,000+ people today and it was a lot of fun.
The highlights were some of the improv songs we did, and also playing with Max and Dave here in San Fran, which is always a highlight in itself. One improv song in particular that makes me chuckle was “It’s not too late to win” which I sang to the people in the very back of the race about not giving up. I reminded them that, although they were in “14,235th place” it wasn’t too late for them to win it all - especially if we could figure out how to teleport them to the finish line using techniques I’d learned on Star Trek. Funny stuff - I really don’t know where it comes from, even at 8 AM.
Being on-tour isn’t always just shows and partying. There is plenty of downtime and this week, while waiting for my big “Wharf to Wharf Festival” show in Santa Cruz, we have had our share of it. I’ve written two more songs in the tour bus (with business manager Ken Gray even chipping in with some lyrics), we’ve tried a myriad of local California restaurants, we’ve been kicked out of two parking lots (it’s tough to find parking for this 31-foot monstrosity sometimes and FYI the Santa Cruz Safeway guys are total dicks), we’ve played a ridiculous amount of video games, spent countless hours at the 24-hour fitness, and have made some great strides with booking for September and October.
So yesterday, when decided to finally get out of the tour bus and wander the streets of Santa Cruz randomly (labelling it ‘Adventure Day’) we decided to film the momentous occasion and share it with all of you - see below. Consequently, we did find a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ restaurant in Santa Cruz called the Peach Garden which was some of the best Chinese food I’ve had in a long time.
PS A quick reminder, only 2 more weeks to order the new CD “We Are The Walking Wounded” at the discounted pre-sale rate: http://www.kevinburdick.com/buy.html
Pulling up to The Cantankerous Fish I expected to see a small bar mixed with a Long John Silvers and a Joe’s Crab Shack; instead what I got was a sexy high-end restaurant with some of the most delicious food I’d ever eaten. The bar/restaurant pulled out the all star treatment for us, letting us park the tour bus directly out in front, giving us free drinks, and expensive meals for pennies on the dollar. It was a lot of fun.
The crowd at the show was incredibly gracious and we sold a ton of merchandise. We watched people finish their meals and stay for an hour or so after just to hear more music - I was very appreciative. Non-customers stopped on the street and huddled in groups to hear more. Over the evening we probably played to 200 - 250 people. I have to admit that people in Northern California really appreciate their artists (and I really appreciate the people of Northern California). My experience with the shows up here have been some of the best performances to date.
Big thanks to Max on drums and Dave on bass (two of the coolest cats ever and I’m proud to be playing with them), Ken Gray my ever faithful tour and business manager, the staff at the Cantankerous Fish, Jennifer for having booked the show, and Dusty the inflatable punching clown for haunting my dreams as I sleep (you start to get a little cabin fever living in a tour bus for a month).
We are pleased to announce that Kevin Burdick has been chosen to represent GlobalComrades.com as their featured artist to the world. This is as much a testament to his global appeal as a recording artist as it is an endorsement of his deep desire to make a difference.
Global Comrades has been years in development and was created to allow people from around the globe to get to know each other in an environment of friendship and tolerance - an environment free of government influence and persuasion. By providing globally conscious individuals the opportunity to interact directly, they hope to bring down barriers created by borders and opposing beliefs - to unite a collective voice for the greater good of humankind.
Dan Felsing, the spokesperson of GlobalComrades.com, had this to say about making Kevin their first featured comrade on the site. ”We are pleased to introduce Kevin to a global market. His music is both personal and human and is indicative of the types of things we are trying to do on a universal level here at the site.”
Kevin is pleased to be the focused artist and musical spokesperson for the site - the concepts and ideals behind the website all support the things Kevin has tried to do with his music - break down barriers, tell personal and universal stories, and help people to connect. Kevin has already uploaded a number of mp3s to the site, including a sneak peek at the new album “We are The Walking Wounded” with a track featured only on the Global Comrades site called “Goodnight Darling, Goodnight.”
There are those that say “it can’t be done in this current market…”, there are those who throw words like “success”, “drive” and ”fame” around like common buffalo nickles. As Kevin Burdick’s business manager it is my pleasure to address you loyal and loving fans at this time, although the circumstances of this blog are not the most favorable. 
The search for this has come at a great “cost” and it is my responsibility to deliver the “bill”. I regret to inform all of you that Kevin Burdick will be canceling his October shows at Hotel Utah in San Francisco and The Quarter Note in San Jose. The mental, physical and spiritual strain on Kevin and the sheer time it involves has pushed Kevin into an emotional hibernation. His Filling Station shows in Magna this past week were essentially the tail end of a one year road tour across the western states. Living in a tour bus and traveling daily is just a fraction of what had Kevin virtually collapse from the wear and tear last week. It’s a culmination of all things; financial expenses with touring, dealing with untrustworthy people in the industry, releasing his new album and the loss of friends. 
Kevin will still be playing his Los Angeles shows at The Cat Club on the 5th and 12th of September, The Nocturnal (Club TRiP) on the 11th of September as well as a special show on September 9th at O’Brien’s Pub in Santa Monica. Please stay tuned for news on his recovery. Again, we love and care for you all and hope to feel your support, prayers, and best wishes.
