I hear that train a-comin'!

Comrades!

  Holy smokes!  I can't believe it's less than a week till we all start this crazy Planetary Jam!

Got a few items of news that applies to you!

First off, the song is out!  Yep, kinda doing a quiet release before the tour.  I'll start yelling soon, but wanted to give you a preview of the track.  This one has my lead guitar on it - the one that we're all going to collaborate on will sound different, because everyone is invited to send in sounds!  So, here's the mix with my guitar:

https://soundcloud.com/joshurban/planetary-jam

And without lead guitar (guitar players, this is great for figuring out what you'll send in.)  https://soundcloud.com/joshurban/planetary-jam-no-lead-guitar

Hey comrades, want a chart for how the rhythm guitar works?  Here's the tune!

Of course, ALL musicians are invited to send in sounds, not just guitar players!

Special forces!

I've been having fun with the new cameras.  (Special thanks to tour sponsor Positive Impact Magazine for sending me one!  I'll be using it as a broom guitar cam!)  Here's a crazy video for you comrades...who wants to be part of the SPECIAL FORCES for the video?


OK, gotta run and do some more tour prep...like choreograph an amazingly silly dance for the official video!  Oh yes, Zumba has ruined me!

Tour Dates (at least a few of them)  

NYC - 8/1, 8/2.  Busking in midtown Manhattan.  Staying at the Herald Square Hotel.  THANK YOU FOR THE SPONSORSHIP!  I'll be tweeting locations @dontJoshMe

Philly  8/3.  Rittenhouse Square in the morning, Suburban SEPTA station from 12-3 pm, Love Park 3:30-6:30 pm

Online at Google + Hangouts Monday-Thursday, times TBA

Charlottesville 8/8  private show at the UVA medical center, then busking on the downtown mall from 5:30-7:30.

Charlotte 8/9  busking at the corner of Trade and Tryon, and nearby, all day.  Tweeting locations @dontJoshMe

Richmond  8/10  in front of Main Street Amtrak Station, 3:30-5:30

Online at Google + Hangouts Monday-Thursday, times TBA

Alexandria, Waldorf, Baltimore, DC...working on that, but the jams will be epic, and announced shortly!


Rock on, comrades, and see you on tour soon!

- Josh

Hello, Rockers!

  I hope everyone is getting as excited as I am about the upcoming tour.  One of the things I love about these projects is how interactive they are.  It's not only me on tour, but everyone!  I was mowing the back yard just now.  It was dusk, and the lightning bugs twinkled in the June night.  I'm sure I did a terrible job as far as landscaping goes, but it sure was pleasant.  After a day of sending press releases and recording tracks for the song, I thought about the project as the mower threw out sheets of dewy grass into the gathering darkness.

  There is something so punk rock about playing street music.  I went busking, as it's called, this past Friday evening.  I was joined by two young guitar comrades, and we jammed and hollered and entertained the people passing by as their mom and grandma watched and clapped along.  To be right in the street, and right in the middle of humanity, face to face and singing along...there's a magic in that.

  I look forward to harnessing some of this magic, and inviting people to join me to do the same as the tour rolls from city to city and propagates over the internet.

  It seems to me as this magic, and this spirit, is exactly what's called for in taking steps towards where most of us want to go, towards a more peaceful and happy world.  The division around us seems to grow daily. In addition to the war and violence, there's plain ol' hostility and intolerance towards our fellow citizens, even in the most innocuous ways.  Simplified answers to complex problems appear superimposed on photos as they show up on Facebook, and the news that trends is, at best, that of one person telling another off.

  The street is, in many ways, a perfect metaphor of the World.  As I stand there in the grit and the grime, the sea of humanity swirls around me.  Everyone is hurrying to where they have to go, not realizing that their neighbor, while different, has the same fears and hopes hanging over them like so many clouds and rays of sunshine, like an afternoon in the Appalachian mountains as the light plays over the landscape.

  So, the street seems an ideal place to stand firmly in the "rock stance", like Jack Black taught in School of Rock, and begin to play, gradually getting louder in a song that unites, singing "Hey brotha, commence the jam!"

  I'm looking forward to jamming with everyone, in cities and towns along the east coast, and worldwide on the Internet.  Let's get face to face with each other, and say "HI!  You're cool."  Let's start building those bridges right here, right now, in the middle of the street, on the subway platform, in line at the grocery store...

Let's start this jam!

Now, off to do more press releases...

- Josh  

A video!

Comrades!  It's 42 days till the first train departs, and MAN I'm getting excited!

Here's the official tour video!

And have you seen the site that Mazuzu.com built for the project?  www.JoshUrban.com/JURT

Plus, just added another week to the trip.  I'll be playing extended shows in Alexandria, DC, and Baltimore during the third weekend of August, as well as doing a bunch of online stuff during that week!  WOOO!

Big thanks to the sponsors who have signed on so far.  These comrades rock!  Thanks to Island Music Company, JTV Digital, We Spin, Mazuzu.com, Positive Impact Magazine, Bone Sigh Arts, and The Herald Square Hotel!

Talk to you soon - gotta go work on tour stuff!

- Josh 

JURT 2014 is a GO!

Hey rockers!

  I hope you're ready to hit the rails again, because the 2014 Josh Urban Rail Tour is gearing up, and man oh man, it's going to be epic!  Here's the official press release that just came out about an hour ago:

For Release 6/25/14 or later

Musician Josh Urban set to ignite Planetary Jam Session, take World on Tour.

Washington, DC: Us people will talk. Now, for the first time, we can – to anyone, anywhere. We are the pioneers in an era of ultra-connectedness. Friendships are formed halfway around the planet, and translation software breaks down language barriers. Yet much division and strife remains. Enter musician Josh Urban with an idea: Instead of arguing – let's jam! “When you look at it one way, we're really all in the same 'band'” states Urban, making the point that most people are after similar goals of happiness and a fulfilling life. Kicking off an international project on the 4^th of July, Urban aims to highlight the unity of humanity instead of the division so commonly seen. His goal: a worldwide “jam session” and tour for everyone, musician and non. His strategy: a collaborative music video.

The Rail Tour

Building the video in several phases, Urban will be touring east coast cities by train, much like a blues musician of olden days, playing street corners and subways, filming the journey, hosting impromptu jam sessions on the street, and taking the world on tour with him through collaborative social media. He'll be playing his new song We're in the band , available for download from iTunes and JoshUrban.com. People in each city are invited and encouraged to come to the jams and appear in the video. He'll be using a home-built guitar converted from a broom – tying into a special theme of the music video.

It's sweeping the world!

People the world over, musician and non, are invited to video themselves playing “broom guitar” (air guitar with a broom) to Urban's new song We're in the band. They would then post it to social media using the hashtag #JURT (Josh Urban Rail Tour) to jump on the global stage, tagging it back to the tour and including it in the official video. Don't want to shoot a video? No problem! Post a photo of yourself or a friend playing broom guitar back to the tour to show that you're in the band. No matter where you are, you're on tour – invite your friends! The worldwide jam is sweeping the planet!

Diversity

As a counterpart to the unifying theme of brooms, Josh suggests that participants include something in the video to illustrate who they are, such as auto enthusiasts appearing in front of their car, animal people with their pets, etc Additionally, musicians are invited to send in music parts for the We're in the Band, adding to the existing song. Urban will be collecting sound samples of his rail journey, and mixing that with guest artists' contributions for the soundtrack to the final video. “Music has shown me such respect for people I formerly considered enemies. I'd like to scale that up to the international. If we start seeing each other as “band-mates”, maybe we can realize that like good musicians, we can listen and learn from each other. Instead of arguing – let's jam!”

Schedule

Kicking off on the 4^th of July, a symbolic day of unity and freedom, and running through the 14^th, the tour will make stops in Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, Waldorf, MD, Charlottesville, VA, Charlotte, NC, Richmond, VA, Philadelphia, PA, and New York, NY, as well as online concerts and venues TBA.

Everyone is invited to participate, either at the in-person jam sessions, or by posting a video or photo of themselves dancing to the new song, playing that broom guitar, of course! Use the hashtag #JURT (for Josh Urban Rail Tour) to show the world that you're in the band!

Contact: 240-682-2801, www.JoshUrban.com management@joshurban.com @DontJoshMe Facebook.com/officialJosh

Tour Stories - Part I - A Tangible Currency

Hey rockers!


It's with honor that I announce my guest blog series on Positive Impact Magazine. WOOO! They asked me to write some guest posts, and I've been chronicling the adventures on the rails from a human perspective and the view from the search for Good. I hope you enjoy!


A Tangible Currency

Many life changes happen in a flash, yet are disguised as ordinary events in the course of a day, played by unsuspecting actors, almost as a cosmic joke from an invisible casting department.
One of these lessons hit me in the face recently. I’m a rock musician, but one of my side “gigs” is a DJ. Through a strange series of events, I’ve found myself the host of my Classic Radio Hour show, where I bring my speakers and other sound equipment to assisted living communities and nursing homes, setting up to play Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, and other hits from a bygone era. I sit at my DJ table, and join the appreciative audience in listening as I spin the tracks of old. It’s quite moving to see people soak up the songs of their prime, and to hear their stories after the show.
One day, however, things took a different turn. The show was at a larger facility that, in addition to housing seniors, hosts an adult day care center. The mix of audience ages can create an unusual dynamic. One of the younger clients of the facility (let’s call her Sally) loves to dance to a favorite song that I have for her each time (the track is decidedly not Frank Sinatra.) Sally is standing in front of the room, as is her custom, dancing joyfully and charmingly off beat to the song, the personification of the fierce happiness that music brings us, no matter how “different” or “normal” we are.




“Mildred” was sitting in her wheelchair, and was probably having a hard day. Perhaps she was in a lot of pain, sad, or lonely. Whatever the cause for her discomfort, she was not enjoying the song, and was certainly not enjoying Sally’s dancing. ”Stop it! Sit down!” she shrieked.
Continue reading...

As the dust settles...

Hello, everyone!

  Wow, it's been just over a month since the tour ended, and ...what a trip!  

  So many trains, so many faces, and so much good found in the world.  From the 15th floor of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, to the pitch black outside the window on the southbound night train through rural Virginia (the train conductor remembered me from the last tour!), there was good, music, new friends, lessons, and a rockin' fun time all around.  Check out this recording from a hospital in Raleigh, NC.  I got to talking to a teenage patient after the show, and turns out he's a fantastic guitar player.  He's playing the acoustic guitar, and I'm on the cigar box guitar here, live from the hospital lobby, recorded right on my cell phone.

  I'd like to thank each and every one of you for being part of this worldwide, interactive Search for Good, and I can't wait to do it again.  Thanks for looking out for the bright things in the world, and posting it back online.  It was really very cool, and quite inspiring.  Thank you.

                                         A pint-sized audience enjoyed the concert assembly,
                                      and the 5th grade chorus singing along to a blues song!

Bowling with the Vliet family - they treated me like royalty
on the Raleigh tour stop!

  Another good thing:  The media!  You know, they're always getting slammed in the news (the irony of this is  just dawning on me), which is a bummer.  The reporters, editors, writers, radio show hosts, and TV folks that I had the privilege of working with were consummate professionals, a joy to work with, and very glad to share the news of good in the world with their audience. Thank you, everyone!

 

With Mariana N. of ReverbNation outside of
Wakemed Children's Hospital, Raleigh, NC

 
  And speaking of media, I'm honored to announce that I've been invited to write a guest blog for Positive Impact Magazine!  I'm currently writing a series about the tour, and I think you might enjoy it.  I'm outlining the tour in detail, and sharing the stories and lessons I learned while spending time searching for Good. Here's the series so far.  There's also other guest blogs happening, too!  ReverNation, Dotted Music.com, and JTV Digital all have been way cool to host some of my writings!

  The good news keeps rolling in, too.  On Thursday, the 4th of July, I released Onward on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, and all the other major stores with distribution from my new friends in France, JTV Digital.  If you missed the tour version of the album, check it out here!  

             

  So, what's next?  Well, I'm still getting caught up, but stay tuned for a Flickr gallery of the tour shots, a brand new podcast, with the first few episodes featuring audio from my tour journal I kept in mp3 format on the rails, and a radio campaign for the new album.  Let's get this thing charting, baby!

  But most of that is shop talk.  I'll be doing something interactive again soon. See, I was walking up the sidewalk to my house the other night, and through the hushed summer forest, I thought I heard the lonely whistle of the night train making it's way up the opposite shore along the Potomac river.

  And I knew it was almost time to start planning the next adventure with you.

See you soon!

- Josh

 

Mid-Tour Update

Hello, everyone!

  WOW, what a fun tour so far!  I've been rockin' out in places like NYC, Philly, DC, Alexandria, Mt. Vernon, and Waldorf, and am about to hop on the train to Charlottesville and points south tomorrow.  Check out this great write up the tour got in a Charlottesville paper:  http://www.c-ville.com/arts-pick-the-search-for-good-tour/#.UagcKkBJOAh

NEAT!

YOU'VE been rockin' the whole world, finding good EVERYWHERE!  Awesome!  Keep up the amazing work, and keep on posting things back to that hashtag #JURT (Josh Urban Rail Tour), or join the Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/359591340827641/

Here's a video for ya:




Off to get some sleep!  Looking forward to playing the UVA Cancer Center at Charlottesville tomorrow.

See ya on tour!

- Josh