The wait is over, live music is back!

Photo by Kevin Umlauf.

Happy June,

Summer's here! After a long year of Zoom meetings, being at home, and watching music almost exclusively on our screens, we're happy to say that live music is finally returning!! (And don't we all deserve some live music in our lives?!)

We're excited to announce that we have quite a few in-person shows booked for the summer(!!), with stops all around Massachusetts, and also in Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont! And for those of you that live farther away, we have some online shows you can enjoy, too!

Online Events:

• Daryl's House on Saturday 7/10 – you can attend either in person or online, just buy a ticket on their website!
• Facebook Live Concert on Sunday, June 27th – join us for our next livestream concert! (More info below + RSVP link.)

Join us this Sunday for our Mother's Day Livestream!

Happy May!

This month we are excited to have slightly more things going on than last month! (See below for more info!)

• First, some very exciting news, our album Meet Me In The Middle was nominated for an Independent Blues Award, and you can help us win by voting! 
• Then this Sunday, 5/9 is our Mother's Day Livestream Concert!
• Also, Jim and I just got our vaccines(!), and with venues slowly opening we have actually booked a few in person shows starting this month!
• And there's still time to book a backyard concert with us!

This weekend – don't miss the Vila do Conde Blues Festival!

Tune in April 16th at 5pm (Eastern US Time) for Erin Harpe CBD's appearance at the Villa Sessions - Vila do Conde Blues Festival in Portugal! The three-day festival is free and online this year, and you can watch it from anywhere in the world on the festival's YouTube channel! (See the fest's Facebook event for the full lineup!)

Click here to Subscribe, so you get the notification!

We'll also be sharing the livestream Friday on our Facebook page, where you'll be able to write comments, and we will be commenting back!

Our next Facebook Live Concert is on 4/11!

Sunday, April 11th, join us for the next installment of our monthly free Facebook Live concert, featuring our Country Blues Duo! Join us from 2-3:30pm (EDT) for Erin & Jim’s April Livestream! We've got an hour and a half of music, news, and catching up to do! Bring your dancin' shoes!!

Watch at our Facebook Pages & on Boxford CableTV!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

We can't wait to see you there!

Sound Waves Magazine Cover Story!

I'm a cover girl!!! It's a big honor to be gracing the cover of the April 2021 issue of Sound Waves Magazine! Thanks to Bill Harriman for a fun interview – and a fabulous article!

“Erin Harpe has a timeless quality about her. Maybe it is her signature look with a flower in her hair and the fishnet stockings, a look that would have worked in any decade over the past century. Or maybe it is her virtuoso finger picking guitar style or the way she can play the slide guitar like some of the recent greats such as Bonnie Raitt or Rory Block. Or maybe it is her beautiful singing voice, especially when she is covering the old-time blues music of Memphis Minnie or Sippie Wallace with a confidence and sass that might remind you of Maria Muldaur. Her style is both endearing and enduring. ...”

Click to read the full article!

Our next live-stream concert is coming up Sunday, March 14th at 2pm!

March Merch Madness Sale!

This month we're having a special MARCH MERCH MADNESS SALE! Check out our store to get 30-70% OFF until March 31st! Get great deals on all our albums CD's & LP's, as well as all t-shirts, masks, hats, kazoos, posters, stickers, koozies & all other merch!

Save on Erin Harpe Merch here!

Spring Forward with us Live on 3/14!

Sunday, March 14th – the day the clocks spring forward – we're celebrating with a special Facebook Live concert featuring the Country Blues Duo! Join us from 2-3:30pm (EST) for Erin & Jim’s Spring Forward Livestream. Just don't forget to set your clock forward before bed the night before, or you might miss it! To be safe, be sure to RSVP at our Facebook event, that way you'll get the reminders!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

We can't wait to see you there!

MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE Album News:

“One can play the roots country blues differently, louder or faster, to try to impress and dazzle. But nobody today plays and sings it better.”
-Frank Matheis, Living Blues

“‘Meet Me In The Middle’ is one of those albums that has bags of quality, a generally cracking range of tracks and an old-school, acoustic blues mastery that is seldom found these days.”
-Iain Patience

“⭐⭐⭐ Erin Harpe is an unmannered singer and assured guitarist, with an assertive touch and a firm grasp of country blues idiom”
-MOJO

Click here to see all of our full album reviews!

More exciting album news: writer Frank Matheis, who is both a friend and a great scholar of the Piedmont blues, has reviewed MEET ME IN THE MIDDLE in the January issue of Living Blues Magazine(!!!) – and he has some very nice things to say! (He also co-wrote a fantastic book about “DC's Homemade Blues”  with Phil Wiggins called Sweet Bitter Blues.) Here's the review, including some background, and his judgement that this album is HOT!

From Living Blues:

“One can play the roots country blues differently, louder or faster, to try to impress and dazzle. But nobody today plays and sings it better.”

Whatever is going on here is hard to capture in words. It’s genuine, passionate, totally convincing, and outright joyous, a pure listening pleasure, today’s country blues at its very best. Afficianados of the raw, true, and deep acoustic blues can rejoice: Erin Harpe is back and she can sing the tattoos right off your arm. 

The acoustic blues is not typically defined as “hot,” and adjective usually reserved for jazz from the early 20th century. Any poor writer destined to review her new CD, Meet Me In The Middle, will have to grapple for descriptive verbiage that does not seem to overly gush accolades, no matter how well-deserved. Words of praise from the usual music critic vocabulary could fit, but none muster it quite perfectly to summarize the album. Old clichés “lightning in a bottle” or “you’ll need a cold shower” would be too easy. “Hot” does it.” 

I want to thank you very much for being there with us this year! This week, I found myself looking back at this nutty year, a historic one, and I wanted to share my musical year in review with you. A little warning, it's long, but hey, it was a longgg year (and lots happened)!

PS. If you don't have time to read it now, see you Thursday 12/31 at 7pm EST for Erin & Jim's New Years Eve 2021 Livestream!) 

And now, for an interesting read, here are my highlights from the past 12 months...

2020, what a crazy year, and I’m sure we can all agree – it’s good to see it end! But it wasn’t all bad... Despite the pandemic, the lock-down, and the many other unpleasantnesses including losing all our gigs, we still found ways to continue to make music and create a sense of connectedness and community. We started live streaming (and did over 60 online shows!), we recorded our first CBD album (quarantined at home) – both of which got us wide attention and support all over the world! We look back at the year that was 2020 with a lot of gratitude, some sadness, and a lot of love. Here’s our 2020 Year in Review! 

Big news!

Not only did our new album, Meet Me In The Middle, get reviewed in the latest edition of MOJO magazine – we got 3 out of 4 stars! Not bad, for our first time appearing in this fantastic global music mag!! Check that off my bucket list! Here's what they said:

⭐⭐⭐

“Erin Harpe is an unmannered singer and assured guitarist, with an assertive touch and a firm grasp of country blues idiom, revealed in performances of Memphis Minnie’s What’s The Matter With The Mill and Lucille Bogan’s I Hate That Train Called The M&O. Among her original compositions, One Fine Day is set to the gorgeous melody of the old parlour guitar piece Spanish Fandango.” 

I immediately thought, “they're right, I don't have any manners”, but then I looked up unmannered (we don't really use that word over here...), and I guess it's a compliment, meaning “not affected or artificial in style.”

Photo by Joe Harrington.

Happy November!

It's only a few days since the release of my new album Meet Me In The Middle, which I have already told you all about, so I wanted to share some of the other things I'm doing – album-related and otherwise! First off, I've re-vamped my website, and added a new ABOUT page, so you can get to know more about me, my story, and my music! I was interviewed by writer Lorne Behrman, who did this lovely new bio for me, which covers just about everything there is to know about my history and music, and how it lead me to go back to my roots and make an acoustic blues album! Read it at erinharpe.com/about, and while you're at it have a look around...

I've updated the STORE and MUSIC pages with the new album and new merch, so feel free to give them a gander too (and grab your copy if you haven't yet!)... And there is a brand new store item – Wazoo Kazoo Horns are now available! Upgrade your kazoo to the “professional model”, like mine! Makes the kazoo louder, plus it looks really cool! Get them for $3 each at my store, where we also have new masks, t-shirts, koozies, and lots more!

Besides that, I've been busy with sending out your orders of the new album & merch (thank you!!!), sorting through the many photos and videos we took during the making of the album, and finding time to play around with TikTok (follow me to see my first TikTok vid!)! I'm planning to share lots of this new content so click for the links

"Almost enough to prove the existence of God!" -Paris-Move

"Killer stuff throughout." -Midwest Record

THE NEW ALBUM IS OUT!!!

Our new album Meet Me In The Middle is now out! Here are the links where you can find it:

• BUY the CD and other great new merch at our STORE!
• DOWNLOAD at our MUSIC page!
• CLICK below to LISTEN on your favorite streaming service:
  • Spotify
  • YouTube Music
  • Amazon Music
  • Apple Music
  • Deezer
  • Pandora
  • Tidal
  • Download on iTunes

Every stream, purchase and download that we get helps! We are truly grateful for your support!!

This album was a true labor of love, produced totally independently, and we're already getting feedback from fans and critics alike saying it's the best album we've made yet, and I think you're going to love it too. Here are a few ways you can help us get the word out about the new album: share this blog post to friends & family you think might like the music, share my linktr.ee with links to the album (below), listen to the album on your favorite streaming service (and add it to a playlist!), or buy the album for yourself or as a gift for someone you love!

Counting down the days until album release day...

There's just a few days left until we release our new album, Meet Me In The Middle! Friday's the BIG DAY, and we're celebrating with our first live stream concert in a while – our Album Release Party – on release day, Friday, October 30th at 8pm (Eastern Standard Time)! We're planning to play all the songs from the album, plus a few more of your favorite songs. The free show will be streaming on Facebook as well as Instagram Live – so mark your calendar and/or set a reminder, and we look forward to seeing you there!

RSVP on Facebook!

Recording this album is what got us through a strange summer without many gigs, stuck at home because of Covid-19. Since we couldn't leave the house much, it was great to have a project to keep us busy, and looking back, I'm really thankful that I finally had the time to make this album – my first full acoustic album in 12 years!

A still photo from our new MUSIC VIDEO – All Night Long! WATCH IT NOW!!

Tuesday, Sept. 29th we celebrated the release of the first single – All Night Long – from our new album “Meet Me In The Middle” (coming out October 30th on VizzTone/Juicy Juju Records! You can pre-order it here.)! You can now purchase the song as a single, and listen to it on your favorite streaming service!

We're also pleased to announce that our brand new MUSIC VIDEO for the song is out now, and was premiered by American Blues Scene! Jim and I enjoyed getting out and making this video recently with our friend, videographer Dave Geissler, on a beautiful day in Franklin Park, right here in our neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, MA.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT!

Here's my cover design for the new album, Meet Me In The Middle!

We’re excited to announce that PRE-ORDERS have begun for our new country blues duo album, “Meet Me In The Middle”! Every pre-order comes with an immediate download of the first song, “All Night Long”! Pre-order the digital album, CD's, cool new merch – new CBD logo T-shirts (mens & womens styles) and masks, new Erin Harpe signature kazoos, signed posters – or choose a special Koozie Bundle! Click the link below to check it all out, and find out  more about the new album, see the liner notes, and the artwork!

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!

It's August, my birth month! (Not that I'm one of those people that celebrates the whole month, LOL!) But I do love August. Usually, I'd be out doing a tour with the band, maybe playing a festival or two... but this year it's all about stay-cations, working in the studio, and trying to find time to take a little walk (when it's not too hot out!!!). Jim and I have been buzzing around, getting ready to release a new album -- our first release in two years(!), and my first full acoustic album in 12 years (which is hard to believe!). Fingerstyle acoustic blues is where it all started for me, so I'm really excited to share this very personal and intimate album with you!

We're pleased to announce that the new album, Meet Me In The Middle, will officially be released October 30th on VizzTone/Juicy Juju Records! Pre-sales start September 1st, so next month we'll be revealing all the great pre-order options, including new merch, a seat at our private live-streamed album release party concert (date TBA), posters, CD's, vinyl LP's, T-shirts, kazoo's, early access to the album and more, so stay tuned...

In other news (more details below):

• Speaking of merch, our summer clearance sale is still happening (50% off everything in our stores!)
• We have TWO shows this month!
• You can hire us for a Curbside Concert!
• Our Wednesday Live Stream Concerts continue on Wednesdays!

Another month has passed in lock-down... but we've been keeping really busy, and have lots to share. For the last few weeks Jim and I have been working hard in our studio on the new Country Blues Duo album, and we think it sounds pretty great! In fact, we just sent it off to today to our engineer, Pete Weiss, to mix. The album is set to be released in October on VizzTone, and we'll be doing lots of fun stuff leading up to the release, more on that soon...

Since we need to make some space in our "storeroom" for CD's and other album-related merch, we've decided to have a big summer merch sale! We've added a few new items to our online stores, like new t-shirt designs, check them out, and get yourself something nice! All items are 50% off until August 31st (no coupon code necessary). The store links are below, along with all our other news tidbits: show news, Curbside Concerts, Augusta Blues Week, and our July live streaming schedule. Enjoy, and we hope to "see" you soon!

Merch Sale!

Visit our merch stores now and get half off! There's lots to choose from, check out the product lists below.

Erin Harpe Store - CD's, vinyl, T-shirts, instructional guitar DVD's, T-shirts, tank tops, girly T's, trucker hats, beanie hats, patches, flask/shotglass sets, cheap sunglasses, pins, bottle opener keychains, koozies, signed posters, and stickers! Click here to go to the Erin Harpe Store!

Wow, June is here already, and the world is becoming crazier than ever. I hope that somehow some meaningful change can come out of all this. Please stay safe out there! Here in Boston, we've been busy getting some stuff accomplished around the home/studio, and we've been thankful to be staying connected to you twice a week for our Wi-Five Live concerts.

My last month was all about guitar workshops. I want to thank everyone who attended my Intro To Country Blues Guitar online workshop! It was such a success that I plan on doing another one (I'll announce it next month!). I also put together two guitar workshops for Augusta Blues Week. All you budding musicians and blues lovers should consider signing up for this great program, which usually takes place in the mountains of West Virginia, but this year has moved online. Check it out/sign up here!

This month Jim and I have a new project, and we're really excited to get it started and share it with you! We are recording our first acoustic CBD album! We've been wanting to record our Country Blues Duo for a while, and coincidentally we find ourselves stuck at home together, with no touring, so it makes perfect sense. Stay tuned for more announcements about the upcoming pre-sale and release date!

Guitarists! Take your guitar playing to a whole new level with my online Intro To Country Blues Guitar Workshop, coming up on Saturday, May 16th from 2-3:30pm (Eastern Standard Time). This is an online workshop, so you can attend from anywhere! In this fun 90-minute live streamed Zoom workshop, you'll learn basic country blues fingerpicking skills and techniques. This is an intro level class, great for guitarists that are already familiar with first position chords, who want to spice up their playing. It's going to be lots of fun, and you'll come away able to play a new song! 

Country blues guitar involves picking out a bass line with your thumb, while simultaneously picking the melody with your fingers, creating a full sound that's almost like two guitars being played at once. In this workshop, I’ll share secrets about how to get your thumb and fingers coordinated, teach you some helpful exercises, and show you a song or two that showcase these techniques. Plus, so that you can continue your practice, you’ll get downloadable tablature and mp3s for the exercises and songs from this workshop – free to all who attend! 

If you're new to fingerpicking guitar, or need to brush-up on the basics, this class is ideal for you! I’m keeping the cost low for this workshop, just $29. Register now at my website to reserve your spot! 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER for my workshop!

We'd like to invite you to join us again this month, as we expand to one hour long concerts, twice a week. Tune in Sundays at 2pm and Wednesdays at 7pm (EST)!

Where to watch:

➡️ Watch and COMMENT at our Facebook page: Facebook.com/ErinHarpe.Blues

➡️ Watch at www.BoxfordCableTV.com

➡️ Tune to Comcast Ch 8 or Verizon Ch 45 in Boxford MA and surrounding communities!

THANK YOU SPONSORS!

You guys are so awesome! We're sending out BIG THANK YOUS to all our sponsors, who have sent us tips through Venmo and PayPal. Thanks for helping support indie music during this tough time!

We also want to thank Boxford Cable TV for sponsoring our live concerts, and featuring us on their station! If you are not on Facebook, you can tune in to our shows on their stations in Massachusetts, and also at their website www.BoxfordCableTV.com.

You can sponsor our live stream through Venmo at @ErinHarpe or Paypal to Paypal.me/JuicyJujuRecords or juicyjujurecords@gmail.com (send to "friends & family", that way they won't charge us a percentage). Thanks!!!

News from ERIN HARPE & the DELTA SWINGERS, LOVEWHIP, and ERIN HARPE CBD

It's April, and we're all home, so come live stream with us!

Hey there,

Hope you're doing okay! We're all fine, at the moment anyway. The worldwide Corona virus pandemic has us avoiding social gatherings, so for the time being I'm stuck at home here in Boston with Jim and Elwood the cat (who is loving this, by the way). We miss you all!

As you may have seen on Facebook, we started doing daily live stream concerts every day, right after all our gigs were cancelled for the next month and beyond. We wanted to be able to connect with you, and "going live" being the new thing, we wanted to try it. Well, we're happy to report that we loved going live, and we even made the Boston Herald because of it! Thanks to music writer Brett Milano for interviewing me. Check out this his article about musicians in this time of live streaming. (Thanks Satch Romano for the posting the pic below!) And I want to sincerely thank everyone who's been tuning in, commenting, and sponsoring our live stream shows!

With all our upcoming April shows cancelled due to the Corona virus, we're now doing regular streaming concerts! Hope to see you Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm (Eastern Daylight Time)! Let's get together for tunes and togetherness 💕 meet us on Facebook at Erin Harpe – Blues, or click https://www.facebook.com/ErinHarpe.blues/live/ to see all our live concert recordings!

If you are able, you can SPONSOR OUR LIVESTREAM: 

Venmo: @ErinHarpe 

PayPal (send to "friends & family") to: 

paypal.me/JuicyJujuRecords 

We love you guys, and hope you're doing well, staying safe at home! Thanks for joining us!! Leave a comment (I'll see it live if you post on the Erin Harpe - Blues page!). 

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

xo,

Erin & Jim

Hey there everybody! With the COVID-19 situation, many of our live gigs have been cancelled, so we're going to be going live quite a bit in the coming weeks and months. You can tune in at my Facebook Page, Erin Harpe – Blues (make sure you're following us so you get the updates!). 

The first one is tonight, Sunday 3/15, from 7 until 7:30pm, Eastern Standard Time. Hope to see you there!

You can send a tip in any amount and SPONSOR OUR STREAM at:

Venmo (send to @ErinHarpe)

or

PayPal to papal.me/JuicyJujuRecords

Thanks, and hope to see you there tonight for a STEAMING good time! (That was a typo, but I'm going with it!)

xoxo,

Erin

 Country Blues Video Wednesdays...

My latest project is a weekly country blues guitar video series, which I'm pretty excited about! Every Wednesday I'll be uploading a new solo acoustic blues video – just me and my guitar, playing acoustic country blues songs in the style I grew up learning from my dad, Neil Harpe (check out his cool vintage guitar website StellaGuitars.com for a little more about my dad and what he's up to). This week's video is of Willie Brown's “Mississippi Blues” – click here to watch it! So far there are three videos in the series, see them all in this YouTube playlist:

WATCH ON YOUTUBE!*

WATCH ON FACEBOOK!**

*If you love YOUTUBE, hit “SUBSCRIBE”, so you'll know when the next one is up!

**You can also “LIKE” my new Facebook page Country Blues Guitar Lessons for updates! 

Our next big hometown show is coming up on Saturday, February 1st with Erin Harpe & the Delta Swingers at The Porch Southern Fare & Juke Joint in Medford, MA! If you haven't checked out this cool new venue yet, you definitely should! They have fantastic food, amazing drinks, and a great dance floor. Not to mention free parking! (Or you can take the Orange Line to Wellington Station and take the free shuttle to Rivers Edge!) $10. Located at 175 River's Edge Dr., Medford, MA.

GET TICKETS

Hope to see you Boston friends!!!