A little note to musicians, artists and appreciators of both.

I have been very blessed in my life, with support, community and drive. However like most people, I have a tendency from time to time, to stop and wonder, where I am going and why I am doing what I am doing. After returning home from a month long tour with This Way to the Egress, Voltaire, and Hellblinki, I have had a difficult time adjusting back to a "commoners" way of living. Do not get me wrong I have a wonderful job, I have about 30 students who I teach music lessons to weekly, but I have been contemplating my need to be constantly involved in a traveling gypsy band and music and art of any kind.

Faced with issues like lack of money and not necessarily doing the most "responsible" of things, one does have to survive, and having a place to live, visiting the doctor, and things of such require money and in our country we are born and bred to work for more "things", come home stuff ourselves with cheap unhealthy food in front of the computer or television.

I have been feeling rather discouraged with the struggle of being and artist and musician in this way of life. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep a balance, and I have encountered more then a couple of times a feeling of being a "degenerate" or like I am Living in a fantasy world from those who don't understand my choices. It seems more and more, the arts and music are cut from school and lives. Funding is difficult to acquire if you aren't willing to put yourself into thousands of dollars worth of debt at a college that forces you to study in fields you have no interest in pursuing and more and more it seems like the benefits of being creative get pushed aside.

Today and every day I am reminded of the amazing things the arts do for people and families. I have watched my students and their abilities grow and with that comes a sense of accomplishment and confidence for them. I may not, now or ever, understand why the choice of being a musician or artist is not nurtured in our society, but I will continue on and hope that I will one day offer a haven and financial boosts to anyone who is passionate in their choice to make this an avid way of life. Many Many thanks to anyone who has supported This Way to the Egress, or any one in the arts, surrendering their "cushy" 9-5 jobs, working around the clock for little to no pay, studying until your fingertips are numb, making it a point to continue to to produce in a world where CEO's reign. I leave you with this quote,"Without music life would be a mistake"- F. Nietzsche    

Upcoming tour announced at DORIANS PARLOR 1st Anniversary ( & Taylors Birthday too)

photo by Adam and Vanessa Cohen

July 16th 2011 marked the celebration of one of EGRESS' dearest friends and biggest supporter, Gil Cnaan. It was the one year anniversary of his brain-child, Dorians Parlor and also happened to be our very own TYRANT TAYLOR's birthday, AND the new egress tour vans Maiden Voyage. 

 We loaded her up with a crew of nine and shuddled down the turnpike to philadelphia for the events celebration.

All around the evening was a blast and there was a wonderful turnout! We took the stage at 11ish and played our 40 minute set with some new additions on Cal, on trombone and John, on trumpet! After our usual set of shananigans, and hooligans we had  a birthday cake extravaganza. Shortly after, Voltaire took the stage and inbetween  playing a number of songs off his up coming "all star" album he announced that We will be accompanying him on tour tis fall!! We. ARE. Very. Excited.

    Amoung the excitment id have to say the following were my favorite parts of the evening:
1. the wonderful singing of happy birthday to taylor by our friends and fans of dorians!
2. the amazing gift that our very dear friends and partners adam and vanessa cohen gave taylor. which consisted of a beautiful collage of pictures from all of our excursions together.
3. seeing the enjoyment from the friends, fans, and newbees in the audience during our set.

Anywho, all around it was a splendid time, but now its back to work for we are working on 2 new eps for the tour this fall as well as new songs and antics!!! BWAHAHAHAHA see you in September!

This Way to Our RECORD Release & our wonderful friends!!!

Photo by M.J McCauley @ www.mjmccauley.com

On June 24th 2011, This Way to the Egress and our Wonderful troupe of Performers, friends, Supporters and frequent offenders gathered at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park N.J for our Debut record Release of "This Delicious Cabaret"!!  I have to say, I am still astonished that it has come and gone.
It was a really long couple of weeks leading up to the event, by the time the day had come us egressians were over tired, overwhelmed and desperately trying to be over organized. Regardless, the evening went with out a hitch. We had doubled our kickstarter goal (many thanks to all who helped) and were surrounded by bowling, dancing and all around silliness!

apart of the bill that evening was NY based, Amour Obscur and Hellblinki made the trek all the way from N.C. we started the evening off with a pre doors fire show in front of the lanes ,since we weren't going to allow it to totally rain on our parade. Our wonderful group of friends performed their daring talents while the rest of us musicians played some songs and I have to say that M.J McCauley got some amazing shots ( the photos in this blog)

                                            Elliot Inman and RenDI

                                                  Catalina Askew

                                             Little Miss Rollerhoops

                                                       Vaudevie

All around we had a F**kin blast and have begun recording our next album. A million thanks to all who have joined us for that evening!!!!

We are gearing up for 7/16/11 Tyrant Taylors Birthday at the year anniversary of Dorians Parlor with Voltaire!!! Hope to see you there!!

SPWF 2011 and The Fire 2/22 Jason Webley & Eliza Rickman 5/24 Frenchy and The Punk & Extraordinary Contraptions

I found myself sunday after noon before our trek to philly watching boston based band What Time Is It Mr Fox with a tear in my eye. I still am absolutely astonished by the passion and skill of the musicians and performers

 I am so lucky and blessed to share the stage with!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Egress performed both friday and saturday at SPWF with our splendid troupe of loyal friends Catalina Askew, Rio, Viktor Devonne, Little Miss Rollerhoops and crew and were joined on the stage by ENSMB on "Jump in the Line" where the entire room burst out into a conga line!!! as well as Rivolta Silenziosa by HUMANWINE, (which on mine and Taylors part was a little rough around the words.)  It was a blast and a half and simply cannot wait to do it again!!!!!!!!!!
We were so honored when ENSMB asked us back during their set that evening on the main stage, where we had a repeat conga line, I got to burst out from behind the piano on accordion for jump in the line where I got to run around the audience and enjoy the show from a whole new perspective in the heart of it all, the crowd.

     Then sunday rolled around, Taylor and I set out for Philly in support of Jason Webley and Eliza Rickman. The show was the perfect way to end such a crazy weekend. Eliza was charming and capturing and Jason was beautiful as always, i couldn't help but to get teary eyed when he spoke so sincerely about being on the road for 13 yrs and how much it meant to him,
 it brought my picture so much clearer as to why i am here doing what we here at Egress do.............................
it's the communities we build, the people we meet and the musicians and artists we can perform along side while doing so.

    As if the night couldn't of gotten any better, the adorable and prolific Mary Bichner from Box Five was booked to play after us. So Much to our surprise we got to catch her playing BOX FIVE tunes solo. She was so charming and comical and left me humming her tune "unpredictable" the rest of the night. If you haven't heard it, i highly suggest you check it out!

Anywho, We ran off to play with FRENCHY and The PUNk and the Extraordinary Contraptions last night at The Fire! Much to my surprise the crowd was rowdey and danced even on a tuesday night at 11 pm. Thank you so much to all of you awesome peeps that donated their time and practice to their art and have invited us to join you along the way!!!!

NEXT STOP,.... RECORD RELEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS & ENSMB cover "Jump In The Line"

Fri, 4/1/11 @tway2theegress will be releasing our single &quo... on Twitpic

http://twitpic.com/4elyxm This Friday 4/1/11 This Way to the Egress will be releasing our Single "Delicious Cabaret" off our upcoming album. Purchase your copy & Enter to win a free Cd upon album release date, Admission tickets for the album Release Show and Some Free Merch!! A splendid show awaits you fully equipped with sideshow, Dancers, and Burlesque!!!

This Way to Sarah: "A Series of Unfortunate Recitals" in Review

This Way to Sarah: "A Series of Unfortunate Recitals" in Review

"A Series of Unfortunate Recitals" in Review

Alas, it is March 2nd, we have seen Joe Black off to the airport and all of our gear is still in disarray. It has all came and wen t so fast and I simply cannot wait to do it again! Writing this blog however i realize i need a lap top so I can blog these things as they are happening.
 I was going to write a summary of the entire trip but I realized shortly afterwards that I simply wouldn't be able to go into the detail about our where abouts and characters along the way so I am doing it in three blogs,.....

"A Series Of Unfortunate Recitals go South"
"Something WICKED comes to A Series Of Unfortunate Recitals"
"Our Last Shows and My 28th Birthday"

So there you have it, please stay tuned for as soon as i can include some pictures to these blogs they will be posted!!

luv & sLopPy KisSeZ
Lady Egress

I know its dark so the order is from left to right
Tyrant Taylor , Saddle Sarah, JOE BLACK, Mischief Mat
and of course Chester in Front!!!!

"A Series Of Unfortunate Recitals Tour" w MISTER JOE BLACK & This Way to the Egress

Well Ladies and Germs, the time has arrived! We are kicking off the new year with our Series of Unfortunate Recitals Tour and i am here to tell you all about it!!
We have many wonderful friends joining us on the bill, BirdEatsBaby our dear friends HELLBLINKI, Our Partners in Crime The Honor Amongst Thieves Circus Sideshow, The Clockwork Dolls, The absinthe Drinkers and more!!! We'll have a variety show hosted at The Red Palace, a lovely little sideshow venue in D.C with Burlesque, sideshow and more!

Inbetween all of these dates I am really excited to get back in the studio again with MR BLACK!  Last april he had an extended stay with us Due to the Ash cloud taking over the world and I had the most splendid time. He's a delight to work with and even more entertaining to watch, in fact during our set at The SlipperRoom NYC he joined us by doing back up on our song "SAINT" but my favorite part of that day was when we met at a little divey resturant and Taylor and him were practicing it after which we did some brief street performing.

All and all it was a Fantabulous time and I simply cannot wait to do it again. 

The most grand of all the Shows will be at this years Wicked Faire where sat Night we will be given a 2 hour Variety show slot with a performance and also Hosted by MR JOE BLACK with music and antics by This Way to the Egress, sideshow, burlesque, comedy, escape acts, puppet shows, polka dots and more!! Follow the link attached for the events page with show date listings more details will be posted as the time approaches!!!!

Love and sLopPy kiSseZ

Lady Egress

A Series Of Unfortunate RecitalsEvent Page

MISTER JOE BLACK OFFICIAL WEBSITE