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Not only do we have a ton of amazing stuff coming up next week (all of which is available for pre-order), but we've got a quartet of must-have discs from Charlie Wheeler Band, Stanley Maxwell, The Heavy, and The Herbaliser. Check out the latest news at The Dancing Tree!

After years of selling and giving away thousands live recordings, Zach Deputy and his musical partner Paul Kearns are excited to share this studio recording with fans.

     "At times it seemed like it would never come out," said Zach Deputy. "I was touring non-stop and couldn't find more than a day in a row to record in Atlanta." This album represents one of the many musical facets of Zach Deputy. Fans know that Zach and Paul perform as a duo, with Zach creating next generation live looping, accompanied by Kearns on percussion, to create a full band sound. Out Of The Water, on the other hand, features a full compliment of some of the South's top musicians, including Mose Davis on Hammond B-3 organ (The Isley Brothers, Funkedelic, David Ruffin, etc.), bassist Sam Sims (Maxwell, Michael Jackson, kd Lang, etc.) and drummer Sonny Emory (Earth Wind & Fire, Steely Dan, B-52s, etc.). Despite the accomplished sidemen available to him, Zach Deputy still plays all of the instruments on some tracks, and is credited with vocals, acoustic, electric, slide and treated guitars, bass, keyboards, synths, drums, percussion and marimba on the recording, in addition to writing all of the words and music. He also lent a hand in the production, from engineering to mixing, and is the co-producer of the album.

    Moving seamlessly from sultry R&B to soulful funk to love ballads, Out Of The Water offers 12 tracks that capture Zach Deputy's diverse musical and cultural influences. A South Carolina native, Deputy's family tree has Puerto Rican and Cruzan roots. Thus, the tropical sounds of Calypso and dancehall rhythms coexist happily with hip hop and rock beats, all forming a foundation for the dexterous guitar work and multiple octave vocal stylings of this talented young artist. Often at a loss for describing his own music, Zach Deputy addresses his influences in his comical way: "I was inspired by Bobby McFerrin and James Brown, but blown away by Ray Charles. I like to think of my music as the illegitimate bastard child of these three greats, raised by Michael Jackson in a beachside shack on St. Croix." Unheard in these references is Deputy's love of old school conscious hip hop, but this can be found live and on the record, as Zach can flow with the best of them, improvising smooth lyrical gymnastics as easily as he jams on his instrument.

   Out Of The Water will be available online at iTunes, Rhapsody, eMusic, Napster, GrooveMobile and Groupy Tunes in time for the official release date. Out Of The Water will also be available at select retailers through the Homegrown Music Network's (HGMN) distribution service. Of course, the best place to buy it is at a show. Zach Deputy will be touring non-stop in support of the new release, from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, Miami to Minneapolis to Montreal and all stops in between. Pre-orders are available through zachdeputy.com, cdfreedom.com and homegrownmusic.net. For more info. a complete tour schedule and much more, visit www.zachdeputy.com.

YarmonyGrass explores the lineage of jamgrass and fosters its development for future generations of music lovers; and is a tribute to the influence and legacy of groundbreaking Colorado bands who have created their own brands of music via rootsy song-writing, cross-genre exploration, and world-class musicianship.

This year is sure to be the biggest in the festival's three-year history, with an incredible lineup composed of some of the biggest names in the jamgrass community. Headliners include Railroad Earth (2 nights), Hot Buttered Rum, Peter Rowan & Friends, and Strings for Industry featuring Darol Anger, Tye North, Scott Law and special guest, Michael Kang. While a SCI reunion concert isn't in the cards, we're excited to welcome several of their projects including The Emmitt-Nershi Band, Kyle Hollingsworth, Honkytonk Homeslice Electric (with Keith Moseley & Christian Teele), and EOTO with Michael Kang.

Copper Mountain Resort is located in the heart of the Rockies, just 77 miles from Denver offering summer hiking, biking, rafting, and golf. Surrounded by national forest, with mild sunny days and cool crisp nights, Copper Mountain is the perfect setting for this outdoor jamgrass festival. Enjoy three days of music with resort-style lodging, outdoor activities and nearby camping at what is quickly becoming a new summer tradition for jamgrass lovers nationwide.

YarmonyGrass and The Conscious Alliance (www.ConsciousAlliance.org) are proud to announce that we will be hosting our first Annual Food Drive to benefit The Summit Foundation. All patrons that donate 10 non-perishable food items will receive a free limited edition YarmonyGrass poster created by rock artist, Robert Marx(www.MarxMarx.com)! The Conscious Alliance always encourages food donations to be low-sodium health food oriented products. Donations of Ramen Noodles will not be accepted in exchange for the poster.

 

Tickets: A limited quantity of $99 Early-Bird 3-day tickets are available. Advance 3-day tickets are $120, with a regular ticket price of $140. Single-day tickets, Yarmony Revival Tent tickets, and a variety of VIP and Lodging packages are available. Ticket prices subject to service fees. On sale Saturday, May 10th at 10am MST thru www.yarmonygrass.com, by phone at 866.464.2626, or in person at Colorado King Sooper & select City Market locations.

In the southeast many mountains in WV and other beautiful places are sacrificed to generate cheap electricity for millions of people. The results are ecologically devastating to the local ecosystems and the burning coal releases millions of tons of CO2 into atmosphere contributing to global warming and air pollution.  Until enough renewable and clean energy sources are put in place - the best way to reduce the negative effects of coal-fired electricity is to reduce the amount of energy we consume.

On that note our company began an initiative to see how much we can cut our electric use. I'll explain what we've done and give you the initial results.  As more data (aka electric bills) comes in I'll keep you updated on our ongoing progress. My personal goal is to achieve a 50% reduction.

When we first moved into this location - electric baseboard was the only form of heating.  Those first bills were enormous (well over $200/month in the winter). We quickly discovered that electric baseboard heating was one of the most inefficient forms of heating.  In quick order we added some propane heaters to the mix and reduced our heating costs greatly early on.  When our central air conditioner died the next summer, we opted for a high efficiently heat pump/AC - a good move! Now we only use a few gallons of propane each year to help out on the coldest days or when there are power outages.

We replaced all the windows with double pane vinyl windows - which are a huge improvement over the original uber-drafty ones.

OK. Keep in mind that all of the above was implemented before we started our new greening initiative, so the results will only show the changes we've made recently (since Feb 2008).  Here's what we've done since then:

We have installed Compact Florescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) into most of the fixtures in our office and home.  We've been putting them into the most used fixtures first and will gradually eliminate all standard incandescent bulbs. 

We also installed a water heater blanket insulator to help save on that energy cost - these run under $20 and are something anyone can install. Heating hot water uses a lot more energy than most realize and making that process more efficient is wise.

We installed an attic fan to vent hot air in the summer - reducing cooling costs and increasing roof life.

We added power strips to computers, entertainment centers and other areas so that phantom power loads are eliminated when not in use by switching off the power strips. We now shut down all of the computers each evening after we're done working and the files have backed up.

We installed a programmable thermostat allowing the air conditioning to turn down automatically when not needed. 

We blew in approximately 1200lbs of recycled cellulose fiber insulation into attic increasing the insulation depth from about 5 inches to about 12 inches.  If you find that your attic is lacking adequate insulation you can do this too.  My wife & I completed it on a Saturday. Your local Home Depot or Lowes will rent you the blower for free if you purchase a certain amount of insulation (we used about 2x as much as required for the free rental).

In addition to the projects above we also educated our employees on ways to conserve (like turning off monitors, lights, printers, stereo etc when not in use). Sherry, Trevor & I attended a Renewable Energy Class offered by our local community college.  This course taught us many of the principals we're now putting into motion.  There's also a plethora of great books on the subject.  One that I recommend that covers many subjects is the Solar Living Sourcebook from www.realgoods.com .

 

RESULTS!

March 2008- bill shows we reduced our AVG KWH/day from 54 in 2007 to 42 in 2008 that's a 22% decrease!

April 2008 - 48 KWH/day to 33 a 31% decrease!

May 2008 - 42 KWh/day to 23 a 45% decrease!!!

June 2008 - 54 KWH/day to 42 a  22 % decrease!  Multiple triple digit record high temps this month cut into savings percentage.

July 2008 - 62 KWH/day to 39 a 37% decrease!

In July we installed solar collectors to heat our hot water and replaced our old 1992 refridgerator with a new Energy Star model. 

August 2008 - 67 KWH/day to 32 a 52% decrease!  Goal achieved!

Ocotber 2008 - 45 KWH/day to 23 a 49% decrease.

We hope you'll learn from our examples and decrease your carbon footprint as well!

- by Lee Crumpton