Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

Sept 8 – MFNW, Portland, OR- Mississippi Studios
Sept 10 – MFNW, Portland, OR – Burnside Party @ Rontoms 6pm
Sept 15 – Manchester Academy 3
Sept 16 – Oxford – Bullingdon Arms
Sept 17 – Exeter – The Phoenix
Sept 18 – Winchester – SXSC Festival at the Railway
Sept 19 – Bristol – The Tunnels
Sept 20 – Sheffield – The Greystones
Sept 21 – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
Sept 22 – Glasgow – Stereo
Sept 23 – Newcastle – Cluny
Sept 24 – Bedford – The Civic
Sept 25 – Nottingham – The Glee Club
Sept 26 – Norwich  – Arts Centre
Sept 27 – Scala, London. Richmond Fontaine perform “Post to Wire” and “The High Country” in full
Sept 28 – Antwerp – Twix
Sept 29 – Groningen, NL – Vera
Sept 30 – Oberhausen, DE – Druckluft
Oct 1 – Amsterdam – Paradiso
Oct 2 – Brighton – Coalition
Oct 6 – Seattle, WA – Sunset Tavern
Oct 7 – Portland, OR – Star Theater
Oct 19 – Cadiz, ES -  Edificio Constitución 1812
Oct 20 – Murcia, ES – 12 y 1/2
Oct 21- Santander, ES – black bird
Oct 22 – Vigo, ES – la iguana
Oct 23 – Madrid, ES – siroco
Oct 25 – Freiburg, DE – Cafe Atlantik w/ 22 Pistepirkko
Oct 26 – DE – TBC
Oct 27 – Munster, DE – Gleis 22 w/Pistepirkko
Oct 28 – Bremen, DE – MS Treue
Oct 29 – Berlin, DE – White Trash
Oct 30 – Svendborg, DK – Kulturhus
Oct 31 – Norderstedt, DE – Music Star
Nov 1 – Copenhagen, DK – KB18
Nov 2 – Malmo, SE – KB
Nov 3 – Stockholm, SE – Debasser Slusssen
Nov 4 – Dublin, IE – Work Mans Club Dublin
Nov 5 – Cork, IE – Cyprus Ave
Nov 6 – Kilkenny, IE – Cleere’s
Nov 7 – Belfast, UK – Empire
Nov 8 – Galway, IE – Roisin Dubh
Nov 9 – Trondheim, NO – Credo (Willy & Dan duo show)
Nov 10 – Oslo, NO – Mono  (Willy & Dan duo show)
Nov 11 – UK tbc
Nov 12 – Liverpool Americana UK Festival (Willy & Dan duo show)

Willy and the RF boys are gearing up for The High Country tour overseas. But first, they’re plaing two shows in Portland this week for Music Fest NW. Amy Boone (The Damnations) will be along for these gigs, singing The Girl parts from The High Country, and playing keyboards. See the events page for dates.

Meanwhile, today Willy is off to Holland to promote the release of Lean on Pete there (see events page for info).

Richmond Fontaine just wrapped up recording on their tenth studio album, The High Country, which is set to release in September 2011. Tour dates TBA. Check back at the RF site or Willy’s Events page.

If you haven’t already done so, please vote for Willy and Lean on Pete for the Oregon Book Awards Peoples Choice Award, to be announced April 25. Voting ends on the 18th. Your support is most appreciated!

Lean on Pete is also eligible for the People’s Choice Award, for which you can vote here. Voting closes April 18. Fingers crossed…

Eileen Battersby’s Books of the Year (Irish Times)
Hot Press #1 Book of the Year
The Oregonian’s Best Books of 2010
Roddy Doyle’s favorite books of the year (The Guardian)
Chicago Sun Times “Our Favorite Books of the Year”
Uncut’s top ten books of the year
RTE, “10 from ’10, the Books of the Year”
and #3 on The Independent’s 50 Best Winter Reads

Next weekend RF will be playing at Satyricon with Fernando and Bingo. It’ll be one of the last gigs there before the building is demolished. Word is Fontaine will be dusting off some vintage material for this one. Come on down and say farewell to Portland’s greatest ruck club, Friday Oct 15.

Willy and Richmond Fontaine are looking forward to a mellow summer, but will be appearing at Edinburgh International Book Festival, Pickathon, and Sisters Folk Festival. Check the events page for dates.

npr-atc-smiths

‘As one boy’s journey, Lean on Pete is as real as blood: as a novel it is remarkable. Willy Vlautin, romantic and realist, has written something special that will make you shudder, weep, rage and wonder at how such things happen and do, and how some individuals such as Charley can suffer them, absorb the grief, and somehow survive. How good is contemporary US fiction? This good: catch your breath good.’
Eileen Battersby, Irish Times

‘Lean on Pete confirms his status as one of the most emotionally charged writers in America … Spare, dry, ingenuous, his prose is quickly compelling … Vlautin’s characters, memorable however curtailed their cameos might be, become a sketchbook of America … It’s a dark tale, lit with sporadic flashes of redeeming brilliance, told with aching compassion. There’s music in the stark writing, the urban clamour or Portland giving way to the keening twang of the open spaces. The band has to be a hobby now. Vlautin is a writer.’
Sunday Herald

‘Lean On Pete is an archetypal American novel, Huck Finn for the crystal-meth generation. If there’s the occasional touch of sentimentality, it’s hard-earned and welcome. This is a sad, often brutal, but oddly beautiful portrait of an America that’s forgotten only because we choose not to remember its continuing existence.’ Independent

UPDATE: SOLD! Yes indeed the coconut pirate has sold to some lucky bloke. Envious, aren’t you?

Cheers & Happy Holidays!

Willy has been invited to the Sanibel Island Writers Conference in November. We’re pretty sure it will be warmer there than in Scappoose, so he’ll be there with bells on. He’ll be teaching a workshop and doing a reading (and perhaps a song or two if he has any voice left after the current tour and sickness).

Happy Autumn. It hit hard today here in the not-so-pacific Northwest.

Thanks.

Two good reasons to check out the new Minus 5 record Killingsworth: first of all, it’s a great record and secondly, Willy co-wrote the lyrics to the song “Big Beat Up Moon” with legendary musician and all-around cool guy Scott McCaughey. Click here for more info.

Willy and the Fontaine boys have just completed their new CD We Used To Think The Freeway Sounded Like A River. The album will be released in late August in the UK and in the fall in the US and Europe. Tour dates to come. The nice folks at Trash Aesthetics are putting out a 7-inch of “You Can Move Back Here” from the new album plus an exclusive song “Now You Know It Too”. The 7-inch is a cool package, featuring a screen-printed, hand colored cover and a great short-short story from Willy.

Another cool tidbit: Willy is one of three writers selected by the BBC to write a short story based on a Tom Waits song. Willy’s story is called Muriel and it will be read on BBC radio later this summer. Details to come.

And finally, Willy’s third novel Lean On Pete is complete and headed for the presses in the US and UK. Release dates are set for winter 2010. This is a good one, folks… some are saying it’s his best yet.

Stay tuned for details on release dates, gigs, readings, etc.
Cheers

Willy and Dan had a great time in Germany and would like to thank the actresses who read at the events – Nicolette Krebitz, Lesley Malton, and Maren Rahmann – and everyone who came out to support. Special thanks to the great people at Berlin Verlag!

Actress Nicolette Krebitz read NORTHLINE for a German audiobook. Click here to learn more about the making of the CD.

If you’re ever in Regensburg please go to Buchhandlung Dombrowsky to buy your books. Danke Ulrich!

Thanks, and Merry Christmas to all.

If you haven’t yet got a copy, Willy’s offering a Christmas special through December 24. Get a signed copy of Northline (or The Motel Life) and he’ll throw in A Jockey’s Christmas for only $5!

Happy Holidays