November, 2021 - "Nature Will Have Her Way" Video just published!

Dear Friends - As COP26 in Glasgow winds down with plenty of talk but little action on the climate crisis taken so far, we're excited to release a video version of our latest single "Nature Will Have Her Way".

Please take a moment to enjoy the music and humor, but do take heed... Watch it now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-FsiZXEHbSw

Peace & Love, Penny & Slim

"Nature Will Have Her Way" and a new Gamba video

 

Dear Friends, As the crazy continues, hope this finds you all well and enjoying life.

Dark humor alert: We've just released a new web-based single called "Nature Will Have Her Way".  It features Penny singing a tune by Slim, a breezy jazz-pop bossa nova with a comic but dire warning for humanity. It should be available on all the major streaming services soon, but you can listen and/or download it (free) here now: https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/NatureWillHaveHerWay/

Also, we recently uploaded a new video from Penny's viola da gamba session in our project studio earlier this month.  This one is "Touch Me Lightly" by Tobias Hume: https://youtu.be/En3dn-V0R3M

That's it for now. Peace & Love, Penny & Slim

August, 2021 - Just when we thought we were out of the woods edition

Dear Friends -

Hope this finds you safe from the virus and its growing list of variants -- there is some nasty stuff going around! Please protect yourselves and your loved ones as best you can.

Meanwhile, some fun music stuff to report:

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For our Santa Cruz friends, it's Gambas At The Blitzer! Come see Penny this Saturday afternoon (Aug. 14) at the R. Blitzer Gallery. In a rare treat, she'll be performing solo viola da gamba in the art gallery from 1 to 2pm. Please See Details Below...

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Since our previous newsletter, we uploaded a video of ourselves performing an instrumental version of Neil Sedaka's "Laughter In The Rain", recorded live in our project studio: https://youtu.be/cNk0CLVk2_A

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For our harmonicist friends Slim presented a workshop for HarmonicaUK's "Chromatic Weekend" back in June, which was on Zoom (again) this year. The topic was "Clean Mic'ing & Processing Techniques for Chromatic Harmonica (Live & Studio)" and should you be interested, the replay is here: https://youtu.be/wthzlshpVBs At the tail end of the workshop Slim played a bunch of harmonica choruses on "Bye Bye Blackbird", this link skips all of the preceding talk if you'd just like to hear some playin': https://youtu.be/wthzlshpVBs?t=4153

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Gambas at the Blitzer
August 14, 2021
Saturday, 1 - 2pm

•  Penny Hanna, viola da gamba, performs renaissance and baroque music by Hume, Simpson, Bach, Marais, Abel & Kühnel in the gallery

• Exhibit of viola da gambas and early guitars by luthier Charles Sutton

• Exhibit of paintings by Frank Galuszka

R. Blitzer Gallery
2801 Mission Street (2nd floor)
Santa Cruz, CA
rblitzergallery.com
(831) 458-1217
 

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That's it for now, do take care!

Peace & Love,

- Slim & Penny

This Life We've Had

Slim & Penny at Ralph's Showplace, Oakland, CA - 1973

 Howdy Friends -

This year has already brought many changes in our lives. We're very sad to have just lost Penny's sister and former bandmate Maggie Reynolds (memorial page is here: https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/MaggieMemorialPage/), but we're happy that there's new leadership in D.C. and grateful for the vaccine.

We're also happy to release our latest web single "This Life We've Had" into the wild today.  Yet another love song written for Penny, this one for her 2020 birthday (perhaps in a few years we'll have a Birthday Sessions Vol. 2?).

Listen and/or download here:

https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/ThisLifeWeveHad/

Hope this finds you all happy, healthy, and looking forward to somewhat more normal times ahead...

- Slim & Penny

December 2020: New Music & Holiday Greetings

 Hi Folks -

As we leave the tumultuous year of 2020 behind us (good riddance!), we have for you a new upbeat instrumental "Above & Below" -- wishing for the world (and all of you) a brighter and better year ahead. This Brazilian-flavored tune features chromatic harmonica, pedal steel, sax and guitar with Penny on electric bass and alto sax and Slim on the other instruments.  We hope it helps to put a smile on your face...

Listen or download here:

https://slimandpenny.com/web/articles/AboveAndBelow/

Have a wonderful holiday and new year ahead!

- Penny & Slim

August 2020: Well, I guess this really is the new normal...

Dear Friends -

I'd like to begin by wishing you all the very best during these extremely troubling times.

At the outset of the pandemic I was guessing we'd be locked down for three months or so at worst. Boy was that wishful thinking! So here we are in the new normal, which includes an uncertain future and probably financial devastation and/or sickness and/or death for so many. And at a time when we need to pull together, not just as a country but worldwide (and not only because of the pandemic, but to deal with climate change), we see the opposite.

Having said that, we all still need to find joy in the life we have. Penny & I have been having fun practicing and playing music with each other. In addition to our nightly duo rehearsals, we've also been working on our jazz chops (on various instruments). Ever since I retired from my day gig I've been trying to fill in the holes in my musical knowledge as well as in my technique and what I've discovered is that some of those holes are pretty deep -- lots of work to do!

"Slidin' 'Round"

And we're of course still recording. We've just put this new Western Swing (ish) tune on our website called "Slidin' 'Round". It's my first attempt at a pedal steel guitar instrumental and it's dedicated to the pedal steel players we were fortunate enough to work with back in the 70's including Whitney Eisenwinter, Mark Erlewine, Billy Marshall, John Ely, and (much more recently) the incredible Bobby Black. You guys put these sounds into my head and I'm forever grateful!

Click Here To Listen

Stay safe and vote early!!!

- Slim

April 2020 - New Music in the Time of COVID19

Hi Folks -

Sending warm greetings to all our friends during these very strange times, hope this finds you well and making the best of, or at least coping with, the various current world and national crises.
 

At the same time, we're delighted to announce the release of our new CD "The Birthday Sessions", which has been in the works for a few years now.  You may have heard some of these tunes on our website or on YouTube already but all of them have now been tweaked, remixed, and mastered for the CD.

Some of the tunes have a primarily Brazilian jazz influence , while others are kind of country. There are a couple of swing tunes and a couple that defy easy categorization. Penny and I played all the instruments and there's lots of chromatic harmonica and pedal steel guitar (my latest musical hobby) as well as some clarinet in addition to our usual array of guitars, basses, and various virtual keyboard and percussion instruments. These are all songs that I wrote. The ones with lyrics were written as birthday presents for Penny. They're personal, from the heart, and in some cases humorous. I'm also delighted that Penny agreed to sing a couple of them (in this sense she's re-gifted them to me).

You can listen to or download the album free of charge or order the CD at the link below. And as of today, the album is available on all the major streaming services.

Listen, download, or order here.

And do check out PT Gazell's wonderful review of the album here.

Peace & Love,

- Slim