Staring down the flood

Budapest, Hungary - Feb. 2009

Staring down the flood...

at first, more like casually glancing at a trickle.
Patience.

The Budapest Sessions - EP Available Now, Free!

The Budapest Sessions will be released on January 10th, 2011 for “pay what you want download” at johnstatz.bandcamp.com.

In the early months of 2009, singer-songwriter John Statz embarked on his first European tour, playing shows in five European cities, including Budapest, Hungary. He was fortunate there to meet Adam Szabo, a local producer (Budabeat Studios), and during the few days in town they recorded some new songs, hoping to use them on a future album release. In November of that year, tracking started back in Wisconsin for Ghost Towns, John’s first full-band album. Though that project was already underway, another recording session was undertaken at Budabeat with Adam, from which two tracks made it on to Ghost Towns: “Julija” and “Night Train to Sarajevo”. After that album’s release, there remained six unreleased tracks from the “Budapest Sessions”, comprised of two new songs, unheard on any other recordings, and four alternate, acoustic versions of released tracks.

Though the recordings are sparse in production, a couple of them feature some local Hungarian musicians on electric guitar and percussion, and even a child’s harmonies on one tune. Budapest is an amazingly resilient and beautiful city, having been utterly destroyed in World War II, yet rebuilt, lovely on the banks of the Danube, and fascinating in its differences to most other places in Europe. Those influences were constantly internalized during the two visits, and projected outwardly during The Budapest Sessions.

Track Listing:

1.Call Me Last (new song) – 2010 session
2.Jackson Hole (Budapest version) – 2009 session
3.Our Love Was Made For Canada (Budapest version) – 2010 session
4.Dear Friend (new song) – 2009 session
5.Disclaimer (Budapest version) – 2009 session
6.Everything To Me (Budapest version) – 2009 session

*cover artwork by Heidi Keyes (www.heidikeyesart.com)

Serious Budapest

My host Adam had seen "Avatar" in Hungarian, but wanted to see it again in English, and I had never seen it, so we went to a real Budapest shopping mall and donned our 3D glasses.  The movie looked really cool, though I can't say much for the plot or the dialogue.  Too bad I couldn't keep the glasses.


My gig in Budapest: at iF Kavezo, played here last time as well.  Adam took this shot from a balcony up above.


Adam has a studio built in his basement (Budabeat Studios), and so we did some recording there for an EP that I hope to release sometime this spring.  We recorded some brand new songs, including one that I started writing in Slovenia and just finished that very morning before the session, "Julija".  Also, a Neil Young cover, "Long May You Run".


Recording vocals and guitar together.  You can already check out a demo version of the new song, "Julija" at Adam's website, Budabeat.hu, so take a listen if you wish!  The song is about a famous Slovenian muse I learned about last year when I was in Ljubljana, and the name Julija is actually pronounced like "Yoo-Lee-Ya".  And the cheesy toy keyboard solos you hear in the song were made by...


...this cheesy toy keyboard!  I thought that the sounds were pretty cool.  I don't know that we will leave them in the final version, but it was fun for the session, anyways.  Let me know what you think!

Back in Budapest

Some pictures from my sightseeing in Budapest, enjoy!


The great market hall in Pest.  Wonderful place to come in the mornings and get some baked goods for breakfast.  They also have some really crazy looking meats here, many that I would be very apprehensive about (pigs noses, cow heart, straight-up pork fat, and many other unknown items).


St. Stephen's Cathedral, pretty sure its the biggest church in Budapest, but its not as old as it looks, just over 100 years old.  I went inside where they have the shriveled up hand of St. Stephen on display.  Its kind of cool, not sure if its really his, but cool to see a gruesome centuries old hand.

The Hungarian Parliament building, enormous and built when Hungary still ruled half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Check out my posting from last year in Budapest back in the archives, I took some cool pictures from across the Danube.


This Hungarian flag with a hole cut out is a symbol for the 1956 revolution against the Soviet Union.  The Soviets placed their own communist symbol in the middle of the flag, and later on it became a symbol of the revolution to cut out the symbol in the center.  This particular flag is part of a memorial to commemorate the protesters who were killed by Soviet snipers when they amassed in front of Parliament in '56.  In that uprising, Hungary won its independence only for a few days, until Soviet tanks came rolling into Budapest and took over once again.


The Chain Bridge, Budapest's first bridge over the Danube.  It was destroyed in World War II, and I saw many crazy pictures of the city's destruction in a museum I visited.  One haunting picture was of this bridge, collapsed into the Danube, with only the towers standing.  

Wow, my blog post today was kind of a downer, huh?  Well, I assure you, Budapest is a fun place, and a lively city, and there are more pictures to come!

Euro Vacay/Tour Starts Tomorrow

Playing Rolf's house concert last year in Prague

Happy Holidays, everyone!  Tomorrow my family (parents and brother) and I will be catching a plane in Chicago bound for Rome, Italy.  The four of us are spending a week and a half together in Italy, visiting Rome, Florence, Venice, and Cortina, and then they are flying home and I will begin my tour from there.  

After leaving Italy on January 8th I will catch the night train to Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I play my first gig the next night.  From there on I will head to Budapest, Hungary to play a show and do a bit of recording with my friend Adam, and on to 5 or 6 more countries after that before flying out of Paris on February 2nd.  I will be trying to keep this blog current with pictures from the travels just like last year, so stay tuned!  Here are the tourdates I have booked right now, and I might add one or two more at this point.

• Jan. 9 - Tovarna Rog, Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Jan. 12 - recording in Budapest with Hungarian engineer Adam Szabo
• Jan. 13 - iF Kavezo, Budapest, Hungary
• Jan. 15 - Subterrarium, Vienna, Austria
• Jan. 17 - Rolf's House Concert, Prague, Czech Republic
• Jan. 19 - Subway To Peter, Chemnitz, Germany
• Jan. 21 - Spatz Und Wal, Unna, Germany
• Jan. 22 - Cafe Hilde, Berlin, Germany
• Jan. 23 - Alice's House Concert, Berlin, Germany
• Jan. 24 - Mobile Blues Club, Hamburg, Germany
• Jan. 25 - Pony Bar, Hamburg, Germany
• Jan. 28 - Gisele's House Concert, Antwerpen, Belgium
• Jan. 29 - Bar Fabiola, Gent, Belgium
• Jan. 30 - Caitlin's House Concert, Bordeaux, France

If you are nearby in Europe, please stop by a show!  If it is a house concert, send me an email (johnstatz@johnstatz.com) and I can get you more info.  Also, please send any friends or family members that are in Europe out to a concert.  

On one last, unrelated note, the American music scene lost a great songwriter today, Athens, GA's Vic Chesnutt.  R.I.P., Vic, you were a truly original songwriting voice.

Press Release for the US/Canada Tour

Here is the press release as it was sent to the media:

John Statz + Jeremiah Nelson Canadian/US Tour Announcement

Wisconsin songwriters John Statz and Jeremiah Nelson will be kicking off their co-billed 3 week Canadian and Eastern US tour this month including a stop at The International Folk Festival in Quebec, as well as Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, NYC and pile of other shows (see schedule at links below). Back in January John hopped the pond to play some shows around eastern Europe and recorded a batch of new tunes in Budapest with local players. The results are stellar new sound... (Hungarian Americana?). He's offering a free download of "Jackson Hole". Jeremiah has been assembling a catalog of new tunes and gigging constantly the last year. He'll be breaking in some of the new material on the road as well as promoting "Take Me Down the Interstate", his 2008 release. Download "Spaceships" free.

links/downloads:

http://myspace.com/johnstatz
http://myspace.com/jeremiahnelsonmusic

Budapest - Finale

Budapest's Chain Bridge. I believe it is the oldest of the bridges crossing the Danube, and the most important. I think also that it may have been built in 1896...

Another sunset shot of the Chain Bridge

Ahhh, Budapest at sunset... beautiful

A view of the Castle and the Danube

Adam and I sharing a hookah at Inverzium after my last gig in Budapest. Adam, you are the man, thanks for good times!

Budapest Pt. 3

If there is ONE thing you do when you visit Budapest, you have to visit one of the thermal baths. I'll admit, it was a bit intimidating at first to think of hurdling the language barrier involved in buying the entry ticket and swimming with a bunch of Hungarians, but once I got in it was pure relaxation. Budapest is all about the good life!

Performing at iF Kavezo. It was a really fun concert, and thanks to all of the couchsurfers that made it out!

Adam and his home recording studio. We recorded four songs one morning, and he is going to "eastern europ-ize" the tunes for me.

Laying down some vocals.

The Parliament building again, this time from across the Danube. This shot gives you a better scale of how massive this building is.

Budapest Pt. 2

"John, a picture of a McDonald's? Seriously?" Well folks, this isn't just any McDonald's, this is the FIRST McDonald's east of the Iron Curtain. The first to exist in any of the Soviet Union's satellite states during the Cold War. That makes it a historical McDonald's, so take that!

During World War II Hungary allied itself with Germany hoping to keep its independence. Later on in the war Hungary was taken over by its own brand of Nazis, the Arrow Cross regime, who made up for lost time by immediately executing Jews here on the banks of the Danube River. The bodies were then simply pushed into the river. These bronze-cast shoes are a monument to the victims of the Arrow Cross regime, who died on this spot during the war. It lies right between the river and...

Parliament. Hungary's massive Parliament building is bigger than the country needs. It was built in, wait for it... 1896, when Hungary ruled half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Back then, it made sense for Budapest to have such a massive building to run the far reaches of the empire. Now, its just too darn big, and I believe that the current Parliament only uses one half of the building.

This is the Terror Museum, where you can learn all about the oppressive Arrow Cross and Soviet regimes. Unfortunately, it was closed on the day I walked by, but I think that the building looks pretty cool.

Heroe's Square. Also built in 1896 to show off all of the heroic leaders in Hungarian history. At the time it was made, Hungary was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire still, so to the right there were many Austrian "heroes". Those have all been replaced by Hungarian faces since the end of World War I and the dissolution of the empire.