Michael Merenda: News

Great show with AA Bondy and Elvis Perkins last night in Woodstock.

Carried Will in my left arm for too long and I'm paying the price today!

Still working on the new record.

Will is snoring.

Mommy and Daddy are both online.

We got High Speed internet this week.

Might change the strings on my guitar. Must play some guitar first.

Massachusetts tomorrow.

Mike and Ruthy,
"The Honeymoon Agenda,"
www.mikeandruthy.com

Ever wish that Simon and Garfunkel were still out playing? Or that Art Garfunkel was replaced by Fiona Apple? Well, rejoice because Mike and Ruthy have arrived.

Their album "The Honeymoon Agenda," is full of covers — Lou Reed, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan all have their works featured.

But the best songs on the album are the ones written by Mike and Ruthy Merenda. Is there a higher compliment than to have your own works trump those by such legendary artists?

The first song on the album, "All the Time," is perhaps the best song of them all.

- Ben Bulkeley

For all you folks who spend days and weeks hanging out around the news page here at mm.com, I figured I send a little update out there. The update is that all things michael merenda music related are going to be shifting toward Mike and Ruthy land for the next little while as we prepare for the release of our very first duo recording, entitled "The Honeymoon Agenda." We're both very excited and enthusiastic about releasing this cd before (and after) our first born child arrives on the scene in early February!

So, I'll continue updating the calendar here, but you can also peruse the following sites for up to the minute tour updates, new photos, and new music:

http://www/myspace.com/mikeandruthy

http://www.mikeandruthy.com

thanks to everyone for listening and see you out there!

yr pal,
mike

"Soldier for the Prince" on the rise!!

Whatever you people are doing, it's working!!

When I checked today my song "Soldier for the Prince" had moved up to #112 on Neil Young's "living with war today," Songs on the Times page. You folks pushed the song from the end of the list to the top! I'm overjoyed!

Keep up the good work! Send your friends this link and see how many more hits we can get on there!

http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/lwwsongspage.html

(And while you're at it, check out some of my friends who are also on the page: Bagdhad Blues - Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion; Sally Two Step - Chris Merenda; Bombs Away - Todd Mack)

Thanks to all you listeners for supporting me out in cyberspace!

-Mike

Hoorah! Soldier for the Prince was added to Neil Young's "Living with War" page of current protest songs! I'm thrilled. You can go the page and clink my song and vote me up the ladder (i think)

thanks everyone.

-mike

http://www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/lwwsongspage.html

howdy friends,

I'm home from an incredible tour of Australia where i met heaps of nice people and played a hell of a lot of music.

I also managed to get a snocap account sorted out while I was on the road so now my entire catalogue is available for download right here at michaelmerenda.com. my own little personal itunes.

check it out and thanks for listening!

Mike Merenda of the NYC folk-rock band the Mammals was joined by his new wife, Mammals fiddler Ruth Ungar Merenda; he also had a kick drum to accompany him. Although Mike was in theory there to support his new solo album, Quiver (Humble Abode), the duo focused on tracks from an album they’d recorded just the week before called The Honeymoon Agenda. Merenda’s solo efforts are often politically charged, but in this set, romance trumped politics. He opened with “The Diamond Ring Rag,” a song written to see whether Ruth could play certain fingerings on her fiddle wearing said ring. The two traded vocal duties in a cover-laden set that included songs by Feist, Bob Dylan, Aaron Ross, Tom Waits, and Etta James as well as a striking version of the Velvets’ “I’ll Be Your Mirror.” Merenda closed with Dylan’s “Desolation Row,” nailing every verse in the epic tune, and the duo encored with “Haircut Money” from the first Mammals disc — a fitting end to a night that began with a discussion of salon etiquette.
-Jeff Breeze

this is an excerpt from a woodstock house concert The Plaid Brothers (Mike & Chirs Merenda, Robert S. Blake) did back in Feb 07.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=foZraXNWxSU

"Merenda is one of the best songwriters of his generation - literate, political, melodic, alternately angry and satirical and sensual.” - Michael Simmons, High Times

Ruthy and I recorded our debut duo album this past January called The Honeymoon Agenda.

Songs include:
I'll Be Your Mirror
(Velvet Underground)

All the Time (M. Merenda)

I'll Keep it With Mine (B. Dylan)

A Head is Better than a Leg (M. Merenda)

For This Love (M. Merenda)

Long Way Home (T. Waits)

Diamond Ring Rag
(M. Merenda / R. Merenda)

I'm Goin' to Get My Baby Outta Jail
(L. Chandler)

Somethin' Got a Hold of Me (Etta James)

Beg & Borrow (R. Merenda)

Whimsical/Hysterical/Suburban
(A. Ross)

Short While (C. Little)

www.masslive.com

www.masslive.com/music/bands

(Thanks to Kristen Beam and Mark Schwaber.)

Music to make you 'Quiver'
By J.L. Stevens


Michael Merenda's new solo album is beautiful not just for its hints of Nick Drake and Beatles-like "Quiver," but for all the songs with intelligent lyrics you can actually hear and understand. While I hate to taint this album with the following statement, yes, this is the same songwriter who was in the '90s ska band Skarotum. Oh what giant steps he's taken.

http://feedback.blogs.masslive.com/default.asp?item=431774

"Quiver"

humble abode records

Michael Merenda is somewhat an enigma to me. Part wildly loose and creative rock drummer (with Spouse), part campfire traditionalist (The Mammals) and part gentle and humorous healer (his politically and almost spiritually driven solo records). His most recent offering being the latter. A contemplative, mature and downright endearing record that consists of purely acoustic instruments. Well, there's some organ on the record performed by the scarily flawless Ken Maiuri. Some electric guitars played by the engineer/producer Jose Ayerve. But for the most part this record is a hushed whisper.

Knowing that Michael and his long time partner Ruth Ungar (daughter of renowned performer, Jay Ungar) recently tied the knot helps me fully realize what this record is. I'm listening to the finger picked, gentle lush of "Quiver" and thinking that it's Simon and Garfunkel at their finest, darkest moments. Though their lyrics were often uplifting, the music was often downtrodden and acrimonious. Much like Michael's new offering. It would be a throw away review to say that this record is only that. It's so much more. It's stories of ghosts, military men, the sea and the hero. Who's who? I can't tell you for sure, but I can tell you this.

I have to personalize reviews (I know everyone does, music is completely subjective after all). Knowing Michael like I do, I got this record half way through. Never mind the gorgeous, hushed performances and production. Forget the lilting, bare bones instrumentation. You can even forget the lovely hand drawn, paper packaging. This record is those things, most certainly. But you know what it really is? It's a proposal. To Ruth.

Take a section of "Holiest of ghosts"

"I went to the river. I did not know what for. I knew my days were numbered but I did not know the score. Sing for me once before I go. I will be your holiest of ghosts."

There's also biting, political shards. You may think to yourself, how can this record be a proposal if it's filled with lines like this from "Dead feathers"?

"'Kiss my a__ you S.O.B.' I love to say these words to the smiling corporatocracy profiteering off fried birds."

That's just my point. It's filled with all of Michael. His whole being. Whispered to a lover. Funny, sad, sweet, scathing and for the raucous closer "Shake this mess around" he finishes the record by getting high with his best friend at a concert. The reception, I suppose.

I don't know whether or not Michael has even considered such a thing. But for me, he's a bedside storyteller. Lying lips to neck. Whispering to his love "I'm here. I'll always be right here. All of me." It gives me goosebumps to think how utterly brilliant and beautiful that is. Congrats Michael and Ruth. Not only on this amazing record, but for sharing all this love with us. I'm proud to call you both my friends.

You can see Michael Merenda at The Basement in Northampton on Saturday, February 10th 2007. 9PM. 21+ Performing with Michael are Jose Ayerve, Robert S. Blake and Chris Merenda.

posted by Mark Schwaber

Dan Bern, Michael Merenda

Doug Fir | 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663 [map]
[SINGER-SONGWRITER] Every decade has its state-of-the-art folk-rock band. This decade's is the Mammals, most often noted for featuring Pete Seeger's grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and fiddler Jay Ungar's daughter Ruth. But the band's secret threat is songwriter Michael Merenda, seemingly descended not just from one famous folkie, but the entire folk tradition itself. His songs range from sensitive, breathy ballads to audibly grinning political broadsides. He opens tonight for Dan Bern—this decade's state-of-the-art troubadour. JEFF ROSENBERG. Doug Fir. 9 pm. $12. 21+.

if anyone's listening, bern show #1 rocked. thanks to cool audience and to thanks to dan and paul and dave and marla at the mobius

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrFEniemj0c

I just found this clip on youtube. it's from a show in Warwick, NY with the Armedalite Rifles. Ruth's on the drums, I'm on the mic

Michael Merenda, 'Quiver'
Written by Christopher Hislop   
Wednesday, 01 November 2006

Humble Abode 
The packaging which houses Michael Merenda’s latest record, “Quiver,” speaks volumes to the type of musician Merenda is. He and fiancée Ruth Ungar (both a part of the well-known string-band The Mammals) hand-folded the case, complete with a flap and slot to keep it closed (à la a cereal box), and it features artwork hand drawn by Ungar herself. Merenda is hard working, crafty and talented.

The opener “Crutch” proves the point, showcasing Merenda’s writing prowess and complementing harmonies by Merenda and Ungar as they sing: “Falling down ain’t easy / But it takes your mind off, that old crutch / This world may be crazy / It was never meant to hold this much, to hold this much, to hold this much, to hold this much....” Ungar also adds a tasty Neil Young-esque harmonica bit in-between verses, mixing nicely with Merenda’s subtle finger-picked acoustic guitar.

“Quiver” is stamped with the “Humble Abode” label that has been the home to past Mammals records and all of Merenda’s solo efforts, as well. It’s Merenda’s third solo release, and his most focused and polished piece of work yet. He mixes traditional folk influence, including his experiences with The Mammals, and warps them into catchy folk-rock tunes, sometimes reminiscent of a children’s song for us bigger kids. His voice, often sounding like that of a young lad, is the perfect complement for these “storytelling” compositions. The lyrical style is powerful and poignant, too, as evidenced on “The Engine & The Emergency Brake.”

Merenda quietly sings over  his intricately plucked acoustic, while backed by Ken Maiuri’s lush organ playing which sits somewhere in the background: “My Body it was faithful, My mind it was on fire / Some say it’s the devil, But I know its desire / My Body it was patient, my mind wouldn’t let it go / I need a vacation, Go be somewhere all alone / Her body was a temple, Her mind was a trap / We’d go a million miles an hour just tryin’ to take a nap / I knew all the risks, All the comfort that’s at stake / In the end the engine was just stronger than the emergency brake…” It’s one of the album’s many highlights, but “Quiver” is a solid effort from front to back.

You can find Michael Merenda playing a rare solo gig as part of the Hush Hush Sweet Harlot music series at the Red Door on Monday, November 6. Find him online at www.michaelmerenda.com for more information and to purchase CDs.
—Ch

Well, folks, it's late, I'm a bit snoozy, the chimney sweep is coming n the morning and Imust be off to bed. However, I somply cannot rest until I write some short little thank you note to every body down at Magnloia Festival dwn in Live Oak, FL. Performers and audience, vendors and organizers. Thanks ou all for a memorable weekend and for gifting ruthy and I such wonderful vibes for our two performances. I'll be looking for the sets online. I hope they're out there . . .

I just received my final shipment of QUIVER fixin's in the mail today. (ie Ruth and I folded and assembled the first 100 copies of my new cd QUIVER.)

I'll be sending copies out to the mammals online distributor and cdbaby / iTunes this week. For those of you who simply can not wait, drop me, Michael Merenda, a check for 15 bucks, include your mailing address, and I'll put one in the mail for you!

michael merenda
987 rte 28a
west hurley, ny
12491

It looks and sounds as good as I had hoped. I hope you agree!

As always, thanks for yr support!

mike

Well, this certainly is news. Good news! I'm pleased to announce that I'll be opening a handful of shows for the brilliant Dan Bern this November in the Northwest. Details are at my TOUR page. As my friend Seth Bernard pointed outto me (seth recently opened for Dan): "You can say ANYTHING to a Dan Bern audience." It's definitely another step towards a dream come true. I simply can't wait. And while I'm out thereI'm gonna set up a few shows with my buddies Robert Blake and Brendan Phillips.

Go West, Young man!

mjmjr