We just did a very intimate show in a South Portland woodshop with one of my favorite artists this past year, Christy Armstrong. I’ve seen her twice and am so moved each time. The morning after playing, I drove up to Montreal and saw Dirty Three at Le Gésu. So writing here on Monday, I’m full of weird beautiful feelings and images—colorful exhaustion and gratitude.
A few upcoming local shows to point out:
May 13, 2026 – Portland, ME @ WMPG Local Motives radio show (Chico States)
May 25, 2026 – Portland, ME @ The Apohadion (Chico States) w/ John Andrews, Lisa Liza
June 3, 2026 – Portland, ME @ Longfellow Square (solo) – This one will be me, playing more improvisational stuff, as the “featured” set during an open mic.
We’re not sure how it happened, but I Saw A Galloping Horse Cover No Ground was included in The Best Country Music on Bandcamp for November 2025! I was personally very happy to see it listed next to a release by Eiderdown Records, who put out really wonderful stuff, including a new favorite On A Moonlit Hill In Slovenia by Lori Goldston. We’re feeling very grateful and excited for upcoming things, including a brief New England tour in early March.
We were fortunate to get a song premier at The Ugly Hug, a Chicago-based music journal started by Shea Roney. Since that publication, I’ve paid attention to the blog and they are hustling! It’s exciting to see new ground-up journalism show its face in the era of social media and press consolidation. They’re doing small festivals, riding along documenting tours, lots. I really respect what they’re doing.
This is another Chicago-based blog, running through Substack. Josh Terry is from Michigan 🙌. Beautiful writing and a project I want to connect with more intimately. I wonder if Terry brushed shoulders with any of the Michigan bands I came-of-age with. I like this, about the album: “it’s the platonic ideal of No Expectations-core: clever, freewheelin,’ and a little drunk.” More about platonic ideals please…
This was by far the most astute reading of Joe’s songwriting—and personal-public world—also, by far the most entertaining writing. The Bollard is Portland’s progressive alt-weekly, run by Chris Busby, and Busby either did great research or just very much vibes with what Joe puts down. I’ve known Joe for 11 or 12 years and I haven’t caught the cultural references, hidden meanings, or even explicit meanings that Busby caught. If there’s one album review to read, it’s this one—which is cool, because it’s also from the source closest to home in Maine.
Spain?! This is fun! Joe speaks Spanish but this came by way of the Butte, MT label that put out the record, Anything Bagel. It’s a small label doing very handmade work (see the beautiful tapes they screen-printed for us), but they’ve really done a ton to promote our band. Feeling very very grateful for that too. Like The Ugly Hug, they’re another example of this generation’s music-loving people working hard to steer us from an empty culture of irreverent consumption—toward one where music is exciting and really matters to you through time.
We were really happy to be the first song! on Rosy Overdrive’s November 2025 playlist, with Doda. Not only were we included, we had a nice write-up that connected us to some other artists Rosy Overdrive elevates. I was happy to see the second song was Idle Ray, a project of Fred Thomas’ that goes back to a summer I lived in Michigan. Maggie and Luke and I spent a lot of that 2018 summer together (we three were Raw Honey then) and Maggie was recording Riverbed with Fred as an engineer. We practiced all the time and did a few very interesting shows near Ann Arbor. The most special to me was playing with Idle Ray and Simon Joyner at Ziggy’s in Ypsilanti. At that show, Idle Ray was just a tape player with pre-recorded material and an unmic’d classical guitar. The sound, to me, fit the conditions of the room so much better than a PA could. I wish I could see that format again.
All these bands are super talented and pull out new emotions in their songs—yet each leave space for you to sleep soundly that night. Can’t wait for Saturday at Hi-Fidelity.
Chico States’ new album, I Saw A Galloping Horse Cover No Ground, will drop at midnight Wednesday. If you’re near Portland, please come join us Thursday with good friends Dee Dee Sea, the very gracious and talented Alex Cholewa (Number One Babe), and Will Lawrence of Felice Brothers.
Thank you to The Ugly Hug, the 2 yr. old music journal from Chicago started by Shea Roney, for premiering Chico States’ first single for I Saw A Galloping Horse Cover No Ground. Can’t wait for October 23rd. Come to Blue in Portland for the release show!
![Black and white comic-style drawings and a handmade cardboard model of a train. Text reads, "at 'Bandsaw 3' [address] April 10th - 7PM $10-15 PWYC. Showbill April 10, 2020. Sable Island Pony, Silvie's Okay, Christy Armstrong, Chico States."](https://halfvividsongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/chico-states-sable-island-pointy-silvies-okay-christy-armstrong-bandsaw-3-april-10-2026.jpg)
