Hey everyone,
please stay home and stay safe. I have no news for you. I’ve just been at home with my family, making leather stuff, cooking, hanging out and enjoying life. It’s been great! I hope you’re enjoying this strange and scary time as well! If you get discouraged, just remember it won’t last forever and when we’re through it, we will all have endured it together. Pretty cool…
Love, Jonny
EVERY SHOW - FULL BAND TOUR WITH MY L.A. BAND OF HOT SHIT YOUNG BUCKS!!!!!
8/18 L.A. at Taix - Main Stage at 7:30 pm --- FREE
8/19 L.A. at The Echo - 8:30 pm --- FREE
9/28 Minneapolis, MN with FIAMMA - TICKETS!!!!
9/29 Bailey's Harbour, WI - FREEEEE Door County Brewing
9/30 Appleton, WI - TBA!
10/1 Davenport, IA - TICKETS!!! with Izaak Opatz
10/2 Evanston, IL - Space with Michaela Anne TICKETS!!!!
10/3 Milwaukee, WI - Good City Brewing TICKETS!!!!!
02.23 Knoxville, TN - Bijou Theatre *
02.24 Blacksburg, VA - Lyric Theatre *
02.25 Charlottesville, VA - The Southern *
02.28 Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle *
03.01 Wilmington, NC - Throne Theatre *
03.02 Charlotte
03.03 Saxapahaw, NC - Haw River Ballroom *
03.04 Chattanooga, TN - Revelry Room *
03.05 Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay *
03.22 Glasgow (UK) @ O2 ABC2 Glasgow
03.24 Bristol (UK) @ The Exchange
03.26 London (UK) @ The Moth Club
03.28 Krefeld (DE) @ Kulturrampe
03.29 Amsterdam (NL) @ Paradiso
03.30 Utrecht (NL) @ Molen de Ster presented by Ekko
03.31 Rotterdam (NL) @ V11 presented by Rotown
04.04 Gothenburg (SWE) @ Pustervik
04.06 Oslo (NO) @ Buckleys
04.07 Malmö (SWE) @ Folk å Rock
04.08 Borlänge (SWE) @ Broken Dreams
04.09 Stockholm (SWE) @ Southside Bar
AUSTRALIA AFTER THAT!!!!!!!!!
* with Margo price
I've been very very busy lately and I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the custom orders (this is a great problem to have, I know). To try and appeal to more and more people, I'm trying my hand at mass producing some select items. First up is a batch of wallets. This series is called Swimming Women. This is the first design and the hand sewn ones are $150 and I should have some machine sewn ones shortly for $100. Once these sell out I plan on making a whole new design.
Next up will be a round of denim chore coats! Stay tuned!
***If you're interested in selling our stuff in your retail shop, please get in touch with me dadcountryleather@gmail.com
After a good 6 years in Nashville, I think I’m done. I’m saying this from a new leather working shop in my friends garage here in Los Angeles. So to say that I think I’m done isn’t that accurate. Long gone would put it better. I think Nashville got a lil too L.A. for me. I know it seems funny to move to the place that reminds you of what you don’t like about the place you’re leaving BUT hear me out. I like transparency and honesty. Nashville has always been a rough, shitty little town. It was hard and you only went there if you really cared. There was nothing to eat after 8 pm and nobody did much but sit around and write songs. It was cheap, slow, friendly and frustrating (if you had any ambition to do anything else).
In the past three years, it’s shifted quite a bit. At first it was exciting. People were actually paying attention to our lil town and it made me proud. Then the bros discovered the dive bars and showed up in limos. They came in droves from some Alabama college campus, sprayed Axe body spray all over everything, high fived a lot and took a lot of pictures. The next phase was “to hell with this, I’m out of here”. After I left, I was all like “ahh man” and when I got to Los Angeles the other day I was all like “home at last”.
To celebrate my landing in L.A. I’d like to announce that I’m playing The Bluegrass Situation on Saturday, Oct. 3rd. It’s gonna be great but I’m only playing for 15 minutes so get there early! I’m also planning on renting out a booth to sell some leather goods. I don’t know if they have any room left or not but if they do, I’ll be out there all day long. Come say hi and get fitted for a strap!
Check out what they had to say about this lil ole leatherworker at The Bluegrass Situation
http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/go-behind-scenes-jonny-fritzs-leathermaking-side-hustle
Joshua Shoemaker has done it again! He just made our new band Traveller another video. This time for our new song Western Movies. Check it out
Jonny is heading back to Australia in October with buddies Robert Ellis, Dawes, Joshua Hedley, Shelly Colvin, Sam Outlaw and others for the 2nd annual Out On The Weekend Festival
Tickets are available here:
Melbourne – https://outontheweekend.ticketscout.com.au/gigs/4290/OOTW15
The new hit TV show Who’s That Singing (also known as Nashville’s Only TV Show) is now live on YouTube. The first “episode” features Jonny and The Almond Brothers and Robert Ellis playing Ain’t it Your Birthday.
I started a new band with Robert Ellis and Cory Chisel. We named the project after Robert E. Lee’s horse Traveller. We’ll be playing a mix of our own songs and some that we’ve written together. It’ll be a fun tour. We’re bringing a full band with us so expect a real show! This probably won’t happen again!
July 22nd – Charlottesville, VA – The Southern – featuring a special screening of Heartworn Highways 6:00 pm
July 23rd – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl – opening for Langhorne Slim $15 6:00 pm
July 24th – Warwick, NY – Scheuermann Farms – Free Summer Festival 6:00 pm
July 25th – Newport, RI – Newport Folk Festival
July 26th – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s – Doors at 8:00 $13/$15
July 27th – Washington, D.C. – The Hamilton – Doors at 6:30 $17/$23
July 28th – Columbus – Rumba – Doors at 6:00 $13.50
July 29th – Evanston, IL – Space – Doors at 8:00 $15-$25
July 31st – Memphis, TN – Levitt Shell
Aug., 1st – Waverly, AL – Wickles Pickles Annual Tomato Showdown
Aug., 2nd – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
Holy crap, America, am I ever happy to be back! India was very trying and incredibly difficult. There will be a lot to show you all and tell everyone about, but not quite yet. For now I just want to eat BBQ everyday and drink iced coffee. I know I’m a brat, just let me enjoy it for a minute.
In the meantime I want to clear out some old merchandise for very cheap! We are giving away glow in the dark t-shirts for $5! And if you’re special, you might just get a free XXL sized shirt along with your order!!! Head on over to the merch page to see what I mean.
We also have a few shows coming up next week:
4/28 Bowling Green, KY – Warehouse at Mount Victor with Robert Ellis
4/29 Nashville, TN – The Stone Fox with Robert Ellis
5/1 Guthrie, Ok – Queen of The Prairie Festival
6/14 – NYC, NY – Big Apple BBQ – FREE!
OCTOBER
16 – AUCKLAND, NZ – Tuning Fork
18 – MELBOURNE, VIC – Out On The Weekend Festival
21 – MELBOURNE, VIC – Toff In Town
22 – MELBOURNE, VIC – Northcote Social Club
23 – SYDNEY, NSW – Newtown Social Club
25 – BYRON BAY, NSW – The Roadhouse
26 – BRISBANE, QLD – The Brightside
29 – LOS ANGELES, CA – The Echo
30 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA – The Chapel
all dates with with Robert Ellis
Dad Country is the ersatz debut of Jonny Fritz, but it’s actually his third album: He recorded the first two under the name Jonny Corndawg. I enjoyed his 2011 albumDown on the Bikini Line, but it’s so much slighter, so much sillier and more risqué, that at first I didn’t connect the two. From the new album’s first seconds, Jonny Fritz sounds more intense and pained.
“Goodbye Summer” opens the record cheerfully — the guy seems like he’s having fun, even if he’s a little wasted. Although the pace remains generally upbeat and Fritz’s tenor stays fairly bright, the underlying mood is darker.
In “Fever Dreams,” a song about having the flu, Fritz wails about wanting to call his manager. And when you listen closely, you realize this record could be classified as that cliché of clichés: a plaint about the musician’s life. And yet Fritz often makes his songs — about hanging with the wrong crowd and driving 250 miles to a hometown that’s lost to him forever — seem pretty universal.
According to Fritz, this album has a backstory: the year he spent trying to salvage the relationship memorialized here in at least three songs. One is called “Shut Up”; another is “Have You Ever Wanted to Die?” But tempos being what they are, the saddest track of all is the slowest, “All We Do Is Complain.” Fritz isn’t silly anymore.
