2012 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR w/ Counting Crows
Oct 23 – The Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY
Oct 25 - Roseland Ballroom – New York, NY
Oct 26 – The Paramount – Huntington, NY
Oct 28 – nTelos Wireless Pavilion – Charlottesville, VA
Nov 1 – Mizner Park Amphitheater – Boca Raton, FL
Nov 4 – Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL
Nov 7 – Mahalia Jackson Theatre – New Orleans, LA
Nov 9 – Winstar Casino – Thackerville, OK
Nov 10 – Stubb's – Austin, TX
Nov 11 – Bayou Music Center – Houston, TX
Nov 14 – Kiva Auditorium – Albuquerque, NM
Nov 16 – AVA Amphitheatre, Tuscon, AZ
Nov 20 – Nob Hill Masonic Center – San Francisco, CA
Nov 24 – The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA

Tender Mercies is a side project, of a sort, that includes two Counting Crows -- Dan Vickrey on guitar and vocals and drummer Jim Bogios. The band's origins actually go back 20 years, to the time when Vickrey first came to the San Francisco Bay Area. One of the first people he met was Patrick Winningham, who was the manager of the Hotel Utah, one of the best singer/songwriter venues in San Francisco. Winningham was also a songwriter and enlisted Vickrey, and bass player Kurt Stevenson, for the group that became Tender Mercies. In 1993, Vickrey joined the Counting Crows on second guitar. In the early days, the Crows augmented their set list with tunes written by Vickrey and Winningham. One of them, "Four White Stallions," actually appeared on the Crows album New Amsterdam: Live at the Heineken Music Hall. When the Crows went on hiatus in 2010, Vickrey set up a bedroom studio, rounded up his old bandmates, and cut this album. With the exception of a long electric guitar freakout on "Scarecrow," the music on this album fits easily into the folk/Americana bag. Its stripped-down sound keeps the focus on the excellent lyrics, haunting melodies, and low-key virtuosity of the assembled players: Vickrey, Bogios, Stevenson (who also plays mandolin, slide guitar, and fiddle), and the original instigator, Patrick Winningham, on guitar and vocals. Vickrey's "Safe and Sound," a celebration of love's healing power, opens the record on a high note that suggests the work of the Band or early Van Morrison. The compassionate "Angeline" sums up the life of a single young woman struggling to get by with a child and no prospects. Stevenson's unsettling slide guitar adds extra emotional frisson to "Almighty Trial." It's an anti-gospel song with a mysterious lyric that explores life's tribulations with an unsettling dose of dark humor. "Riding Blind" has one of the album's strongest lyrics and suggests a mystic country ballad in its music and performance. Winningham sings "I had a whiskey straight for breakfast/I had a whiskey now for lunch/Need a sober straight decision/But all I got was a drunken hunch" with the straight-faced resignation that gives the song, and the entire record, its understated power. ~ j. poet

Personnel: Dan Vickrey, Patrick Winningham (vocals, guitar); Kurt Stevenson (vocals, slide guitar, mandolin, violin); Jim Bogios (vocals, drums, percussion); Dan Eisenberg (keyboards).

CONTACT
Tom Grover BIery | grover@thecollective-la.com | 3233701565
Ana Guillen | guillen@thecollective-la.com | 3104187965
Mikelle Schwartz | mikelle@thecollective-la.com | 3233701514