New Album - Recording Tomorrow Night in Madison

For you Madison folks/Wisconsin folks/anyone else that felt like making a road trip this Friday, the live recording, full band show that was scheduled this Friday for the Cafe Montmartre is now being held at the Brink Lounge due to the unfortunate closing of the previous venue. The show will start at 9pm, and will be recorded for the new album, "John Statz & the Cheap Shots" , which will feature almost entirely new material. The cover charge is $8, and also playing are Chicago's fantastic Cameron McGill & What Army, and my good pal Jeremiah Nelson with his band, the Shifty Switches. Hope you can make it out!

Thanks to Rich Albertoni for the great article in the July 10th, 2009 edition of the Isthmus! Here is an excerpt:

"Since returning to the Madison area in 2006, Statz has built one of the most rigorous tour schedules of any Madison musician. This year, he'll be on the road at out-of-state destinations for more than four months. Later this summer, he'll embark on a four-week tour of Canada and the northeastern United States.

A double major in music and history at UW-Oshkosh, Statz frequently uses historical themes in his songwriting. With song titles like "Best Girl of '16" and "Letters from Southeast Asia," Statz sometimes takes on the persona of a war soldier in his compositions."

Read the whole article and interview here.

Videos from Ljubljana concert

So my father found these videos on YouTube the other day when he typed my name in, they are from my February 10th show at Tovarna Rog in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Rog is an old bike factory that has been taken over by squatters, and they have a really cool music venue set up there. The first video is of a brand new song I wrote on my way into Bosnia, its called "Night Train To Sarajevo", and I'm glad that someone captured the song. I also have a live recording of the whole concert, so I maybe I'll have to release that some day... "Live from Slovenia". Anyways, enjoy the videos!

Pt. 1: "Night Train to Sarajevo" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_-5S81d9aU&feature=related

Pt. 2: "Song and Dance Man" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrryhnL5jNY&feature=related