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From RICK and
THE JAMES BOYS
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SUMMER 2010
Hello again everybody. We’re working on "LUST AND LOVE" and will soon have an announcement regarding that. In the meantime, don’t forget to visit our MySpace page and search “The James Boys on Helena Records” — then scroll down to “Download Our Music” for a free download. As usual, we want to wish all of you the best with particular good wishes to everyone in the Gulf of Mexico region. These people, and the wildlife, and ultimately all of us, are experiencing one of the worst disasters mankind has ever created for itself and all other living creatures. THE JAMES BOYS want everyone to help out by, at the very least, learning as much as possible about the situation. We have friends and loved ones in the Gulf region and I have a long personal history with the Gulf. There’s no place on Earth I love any more than anywhere on the Gulf of Mexico, be that Stateside or out of the USA. The real and heartbreaking devastation is something we all need to look at as we make sure to not bury our heads in the sand. You know, if mankind brings ruination to the oceans, from where life itself sprang, then we will certainly be facing our own potential extinction. Perhaps those people who have made a mantra of “Drill, baby, drill !” have been rethinking their ideas. We certainly hope so. And to all those human beings and wildlife that are suffering as I write this I want to further say that myself and THE JAMES BOYS will see you very soon. We love the Gulf — Unconditionally! You still are a wonderful place. Can’t wait to make some music in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, the Yucatan, the Islands — you have weathered many storms, you will this one too. And we urge everyone else to continue to travel to and enjoy the Gulf of Mexico … As always—Rick SPRING 2010 So, first of all, congratulations are in order for DEREK SIVERS, the founder and former CEO of CDBaby, and his beautiful new bride SAJ. Derek is a great guy, a true entrepreneur, and friend. We wish all the best to a man who has created pathways for countless others to find happiness. He deserves all happiness in return. May your marriage to the lovely Saj flower and grow through time. And bassist Ed "The German Mauser" Strauser is about to become a dad for the second time. We wish he and his wife smooth sailing. Ed couldn't make our Springfield, Illinois show and we missed him. To all the rest of you, "LUST AND LOVE" will be complete soon and we look forward to its release. And we, as well, hope to see all of you soon. That goes for those of you in the ever-expanding list of countries that we have discovered to be regular visitors to this site, as well as those same people being buyers of TJB tracks. Thank you. If any of you, in any part of the globe, would like to inquire about THE JAMES BOYS appearing live, then contact 615-752-2612 or email jim@helenarecords.com. Best always —Rick HOLIDAY SEASON 2009 Hello again ... As the end of this year approaches, I want to thank all our friends and fans for a memorable year. We hope to make the first year of the new decade one in which we can perform outside the U.S. for the first time and say hello and thank you, in person, in many languages. But I'll say hello right now to our friends in the Ukraine and the Russian Federation who have regularly visited the website. Thanks for the ongoing interest. The folks at Helena inform me that we also have regular visitors from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Lithuania and Seychelles and the U.K. I know it's true because we have had steady sales on iTunes Europe, U.K., Canada and Australia. And I know about the Internet radio play in those places as well as South America. A good deal of this is, of course, due to the late Johnnie Johnson's remarkable duet tracks with us—but the "Rocker" album also sells and gets airplay in those faraway lands. We're very grateful and are always in awe of the power of music to bring the human race together. We hope to play live in all those places and as it says throughout this website—if any of you, in any part of the globe, would like to inquire about THE JAMES BOYS appearing live, then contact 615-752-2612 or email jim@helenarecords.com. Have a great Holiday Season —Rick LABOR DAY 2009 Greetings to all. Hope you've had A few words to those who attended THE JAMES BOYS concert at the Amphitheatre in Kirkwood, MO. We have to apologize for the delay in our Security's response to the rude, selfish, and aggressive behavior of the fans and connections of the group that fronted for us. These people, with no concern whatsoever, trampled on the rights of the people who paid good money to see us. Our team was a bit slow to respond and that will never happen again, I promise you. I have to personally apologize, as well, because if I had known from my vantage point on the stage the things that were happening out in the house, which I heard about later, I would have verbally confronted the offenders myself. It's sad that there are people who, apparently, could not care less about basic politeness and consideration of others. We wish the best for that band but their fans owe everyone else an apology. I'll be back soon with updates about THE JAMES BOYS' forthcoming release on Helena Records which will be called "Lust and Love" ... February 2009 Hey guys and gals — Our Valentine's Concert at The Focal Point in St. Louis was a sell out. Thanks to all of you who came out during the midst of this terrible economic crunch we are in. We are grateful to each and every one of you and hope you had a wonderful time. That was our kickoff to the 09 performance schedule and we hope to see many of you in person at Fairs & Festivals, concerts, etc. around the country the rest of this year. The night of the show was also keyboardist Roger Wainwright's birthday and we had a laugh surprising him with a cake. (He thought we had forgotten) Then there was the young man, Dustin Taber, who staged a surprise proposal to his girlfriend via our show. (she said yes) It was such a great night! Looking ahead we also will be trying to ready our next release "Lust and Love" for an 09 debut. Some of the songs from that forthcoming release seemed to go over pretty well, like "The Day Pookie Played the Hustle", "The Small of Her Back", and "I'm in the Mood". I don't know when we'll be back in the studio for sure but updates will be posted here. In the meantime, we hope you have enjoyed our current release "A Really Good Rocker". All the best to each and every one of you —Rick of TJB October 2008 Greetings everybody— Best—Rick July 2008 Hey gang- It's great to be back here at the Helena website and we promise to be in better communication in the future. And why am I posting this to all of you, the fans and friends of THE JAMES BOYS? Because, at long last, the album is complete!!! The tentative title "A Really Good Rocker" did, in fact, become the real title and I'll tell you what, I will let the album do the talking for us—rather than toot our horn with a load of hyperbole and hoopla. All I will say is that I hope you like it and find some value in it because, after all, it is for you. As an artist, I seek to do what I love to do and "give it" to the world (but we have to sell it because we need to eat too) in hopes that it will bring something positive to people—some fun, some laughter, some heat, some passion, something to make you think, something to entertain. As musicians, myself and all the others also seek to do what we love to do which is to play with power and precision, and with some soul. I hope this record brings all of that and more to the table. You will be able to get the physical CD at CDBaby.com or download us at iTunes and all the rest of the online stores. Wishing all of you all the very best—Rick of TJB August 2007 Greetings from James Boy land— It's been awhile since there's been an update here but there's been a couple of newsbreaks. First of all, THE JAMES BOYS CD, tentatively titled "A Really Good Rocker", is ready to be recorded now. I suppose, once we're finished, we'll have to face the same thing that The second big news item is that there's been quite a good deal of radio play around the country, and around the world, for the tracks with the late great Johnnie Johnson and we're very thankful. The tracks are certainly historical, certainly feature spectacular performance by Johnnie and the others and I'm certainly, therefore, not surprised that there's a very good feedback from Maine to California (and the songs are not bad either, thank you very much)… See you soon I hope—Rick August 2006 Here's some free publicity for Keith Richards and Stephanie Bennett, the producers of "Hail, Hail Rock and Roll"—they've released, at long last, their documentary movie on DVD on behalf of the 20th anniversary of the film. Music fans around the planet can, one more time, see the incredible performance ability of Johnnie. I've wondered what took so long for this to be on DVD. I suspect we'd have to ask Chuck about that one. You know, the director of that docu-movie was none other than Taylor Hackford, who would go on to direct the multiple Academy Award winning movie "Ray". Pretty good choice by Keith and Stephanie! Keith Richards is as solid of a human being as there is. He made absolutely sure, during that movie, that Johnnie received the kind of credit and recognition he had so long been denied. Beyond that, there are no words to describe what a champion he was, and is, in regard to his selfless drive to help Johnnie obtain what he deserved. People like Keith Richards and Johnnie Johnson are the rarest to come around in this world. Back to THE JAMES BOYS… once again I sign off and say that we hope to see you all soon. All the best—Rick of TJB May 2006 Folks, the big news in JAMES BOY-LAND is that we are up on a few of the digital download sites now including the biggest in the industry Itunes. All you have to do is search on "The James Boys and Johnnie Johnson" and you'll be taken to our display where you can access each track for a mere 99 cents. I know we're also up at AOL’s MusicNow as well as Rhapsody. Soon, we'll be at all the major sites including Napster, MusicNet, MSN Music, Sony Connect, Arvato, Daiki and many others. I really like the AOL site as they have up a nice bio and photo of us. You know the entire music industry is, all at the same time, trying to get with the new world of digital downloading and that's like trying to pour the ocean into a glass. These sites have tech people making their hourly wage and trying to do all of this manually. Of course they're literally overwhelmed at the volume of tracks they must program into their systems. We've just had to be patient as the big powers in the industry, the major labels and artists that can sell hundreds of thousands of tracks have first priority. Well, we aim to become a top priority for them too—and with your help we'll have that accomplished when, in the near future, THE JAMES BOYS' full CD comes out. In the meantime you can get these historical tracks we did with Johnnie, which are now regarded as collector's item (I'm talking about the actual physical CD) at CDBaby.com—and we thank those of you that have already. Hope to see you all someday soon. All the best—Rick of TJB March 2006 Hello out there! As I send this message, myself and THE JAMES BOYS are quite frustrated at the time lag that exists when artists try to get their work to the world in today's new environment. I'm talking about how long it takes Itunes, MusicNow, Rhapsody, etc. to get recordings into their library so as to be available for consumer downloading. Right now it's been about four weeks or so since our distributor got these tracks we did with Johnnie Johnson to the various on-line retail stores—but as you can see, since you're visiting this website, you can get the hard-copy CD at CDBaby.com… Speaking of the great "JJ"—I want to say that I personally, as the songwriter of "A Dose of Rock and Roll", just feel very fortunate that Johnnie would appear on that record and lay down something that is that spectacular for all the world to experience. He sure was the guy that showed everyone else how to play the original "Rock and Roll"on piano—if they could! Not many could even imitate him. The power in his playing was something to behold, I can tell you. People that know say that in the early rock days his live performances with Chuck Berry were very much like what you see in the movie "Hail, Hail Rock and Roll"—never a clinker from Johnnie's piano, never the slightest mistake. And it was the same until the end. When he was playing live, he was like the best of the studio guys. That's a tough thing because of all the distractions you experience on stage. But, there's no such thing as a "Take 2" when you're playing live. It's "Take 1" only. And I can assure you all that all the publicity you've ever heard about him is probably understated. He was a better person and greater musician than anything that's ever been written or said about him would tell you. It's nearly a year since he left this world's stage and I sure wish he was still here-and what an understatement that is. As for THE JAMES BOYS—we're looking forward to an album release in the not too distant future-not sure when exactly—but soon. Also, we're looking forward to seeing you all by performing this year wherever our schedule takes us. As for me I can say very simply that I look forward to what I love as much as anything in life which is making music—be that in the studio or in live performance. All the best—Rick BACK TO HELENA RECORDS HOME PAGE
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