NEWS / Upcomming Shows:

Ahoy Friends!
We are happy to announce the haphazard release of the third Birch Book album: “A Hand Full Of Days” released through Little Somebody Records.  They are at press at present and we are busily preparing the special editions…
In hopes of procuring needed utilities dedicated to this September’s tour, we offer the standard letterpress and embroidered hardbound limited (50 copies) editions for your special order at this time here:  http://www.ingowanring.com/BB3.html 
The album of 14 songs features contrabass and electric bass guitar by Pascale Humbert (Woven Hand, Lilium) and pedal steel guitar & Hammond organ by Ron Walker along with the infamous confabulations and aural consummations you may or may not have come to expect from the faithfully wayward wanderer who panders his miscellanea under the appellations of “BIRCH BOOK” and “In Gowan Ring”.
The limited (50 copies) hand embroidered hardbound edition features binding and marbled paper from Papyrus bindery, Tamil Nadu and was fabricated whilst on peripatetic sojourn there in 2007/2008. Also includes hand stamped materials and tea stained muslin bag along with an otherwise unobtainable live CDR recording of Birch Book while on tour with Woven Hand, December 2008. (Features Dean Thomas (A Knife that Fell from the Sky) on electric guitar and Ordy Garrison (Woven Hand) on drums.)
Orders are first-come, first-served (as marked by Paypal received time) and shipped out August 31st.
Expect more information in the next weeks regarding In Gowan Ring European confirmed live dates for the month of September.  We are still looking to fill some dates in Germany 10th to 14th September -  in case you would like to put on a venue or house show please contact: lune@ingowanring.com
We also have need of a van (though we have a very nice, experienced fellow to drive it) if you know where we could borrow, inexpensively rent or buy one in Europe let us know…

there yet be time for sowing seed...

Ahoy Friends!
Along with the quickening presence of the sun comes the necessity to take one’s care in remembrance of preservation…
But it is still spring and there yet be time for sowing seed: I’ve just yesterday managed to get some cherry tomatoes, zucchini squash, carrots and arugula in the yielding ground – may they grow well…
Along with such endeavors we also seek to plant seeds of opportunity to visit our friends in far off lands, to wit: an autumnal European tour to stretch the compass of France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden & Norway; to take place in the harvesting season of this coming September 2009. If you would like to find a way for In Gowan Ring to visit your town with a performance during this affair please write to us soon at: lune@ingowanring.com
In regard to this undertaking we are looking for a driver/assistant to help us get around with our accoutrements – please write to us here for details if you know of any available the first three weeks in September. They are sure to be richly rewarded in experience if not in monetary recompense – though the position is of course a paid one, albeit modestly.
We will soon have more information with regard to new releases etc. for 2009 - There will be something after all this time!
Best wishes,
-B’ee (June 1st 2009)

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.
-D.Thomas

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

…The End is the Beginning …
As it seemed we were finishing up our travels we find that they begin again…
1> Birch Book will be making support performances for Woven Hand (www.wovenhand.com ) on the following 14 dates:
25.11.    Austria – Salzburg, Rockhouse
26.11.    Check Republic - Prague, Archa Theatre
27.11.    Austria - Wien, WUK
28.11.  Italy – Milan, Musicdrome
29.11.    Italy - Ravenna, Bronson
30.11.    Italy - Padova, Unwound
02.12.    Germany - Dresden, BeatPol
03.12.    Germany - Berlin, ColumbiaClub
04.12.    Belgium - Leuven, Het Depot
05.12.    Netherlands - Utrecht, Tivoli
06.12.  Germany - Geislingen,  Rätschenmühle,
07.12.  Switzerland - Bern, ISC Club
09.12.    Switzerland - Lausanne, Les Docks
10.12.    France - Toulon, L’Omega Live
We’ll be playing as a three piece with Dean Thomas (electric guitar) and Iain Taylor (bodhran, percussion).  Please come out if you can get a ticket.
2> Also, we’ll be looking for crash sleepover space for four nice people on the first 7 dates, eg:  Salzburg, Prague, Wien, Milan, Ravenna, Padova & Dresden.  If you have space for us or know of someone who could help us out in this way we would be much obliged and should have something to offer in recompense = please write: b@ingowanring.com .
3>New Mailorder availability:  We have some copies of the live cd with Maja Elliott from last year’s shows in Portugal available:  http://www.ingowanring.com/LuneMusic.htm .
Also, a few more Exists & Entrances boxes have been unearthed from the slightly extended pressing of earlier this year.  Not all t-shirt sizes & colors are available but please write to: igr@ingowanring.com if interested in this. 
We should be back in stock with Hazel Steps at end of year.
4> We look forward to burrowing into personal projects, deep spaces and liminal lucubrations for the hibernation season, emerging with, perhaps, a renewed sense of purpose as the next year unfolds…
Wishing you an abyss of contemplative wonder,
Bee>Birch Book / In Gowan Ring on Tour August through November - Dates are below and will be filling in with clarification as the time comes.

> The Exists and Entrances series has been re-issued as collected volumes on 2 cds through Ahnstern in Austria.
Available at the LUNE MUSIC mailorder site: www.lunemusic.com
More Info regarding this release here: http://www.steinklang-records.at/shop/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=1258

>In Gowan Ring vinyl debut: "On a brand new Clear Spot owned label, the first release in an unbelievable series of 10”es, featuring some of the most legendary sessions recorded by Berry Kamer for the internationally highly rated VPRO radio show ‘Dwars’. In Gowan Ring visited the VPRO studios in June, 2003 and the result was this otherworldly collection of folk songs, with gorgeous medieval elements, friendly pastoral atmospheres and the vibe of the late psychedelic era. A breathtaking first title of what’s bound to become a historic series of vinyl releases." For sale at www.LuneMusic.com

The Green Pear Guitar is finished and in use! see pictures from the newly updates instrumetn gallery here: http://www.ingowanring.com/InstGallery.htm
we hope to have some of the in process pictures up at later date, but we're too tired at the moment...

>'Diaspora' appears on 'Mind The Gap' vol 67 sampler from Gonzo Circus Magazine in Belgium : Mind The Gap vol 67

>Latest Album: "Fortune & Folly"

Assuming the allegorical emblems of The Wheel of Fortune and The Traveling Fool, Fortune & Folly distills the introspections of a perennial rambler reckoning 'the Bitter and the Bliss' of The Road Less Traveled; Brooding layers of sound and sense yield a spectral ethereality thick with the visionary allusions of a haunted wanderer bent upon a mythic path…

Album Info & Audio Samples Here

More Album information and pictures of special editions here.

"a master-work of contemplative genius by an artist at the peak of his songwriting powers." - Barl Fire [full review here]

"Fortune & Folly" is an album that must be experienced. Atmospheric and almost downright spooky, its melancholy is rich, while the harmonies are thick and juicy. Addictive." - J-Sin for Smothernet [full review here]

"Birch Book writes music that is almost painfully pleasurable to listen to. This is still true folk music in the striking power of its simplicity. The relationship of artist and guitar is noticeably intimate and the vocals drift gently, sometimes barely - deliberately - out of the shadows. The listener's mind is caressed and the soul is stirred." - UpchuckUndergrind, fishcomcollective [full review here]

More Reviews Here:
Left Hip - KPSU - All About Jazz - Sea of Tranquility - Psychedelic Folk Review - NE Performer - Unbroken Circle - Heathen Harvest - Smother

21 September - ***SOLD OUT*** Oslo, Norway Maridalen kirke, with Maja Elliott http://myhome.iolfree.ie/~lightbulb/Maja/index.html
info: www.myspace.com/maridalenchapel
POSTER HERE
22 September - Gothenburg, Sweden at Atlante Theatre.  This will be a short showcase along with other acts from various disciplines.
28 September - Copenhagen, DK - Private house show with Sarah Hepburn -For invitation write: s.hepburn@gmail.com
29 September - Copenhagen, DK - at http://www.artandcolour.dk/
For Info Write: mikkel@phillip.se
October:
PAGAN FOLK FESTIVAL with   FAUN (Ger), SIEBEN (UK) & IN GOWAN RING (USA)

05.10. Österreich - Wien Szene 
06.10. München (81671) - Elserhalle (with Afterparty)
07.10. Schweiz - Luzern - Sedel
09.10. Leipzig (04103) - Werk 2
10.10. Hannover - Musikzentrum
11.10. Berlin (10435) - Kesselhaus 
12.10. Holland - Utrecht - Tivoli (with Afterparty)
13.10. Kaiserslautern (67659) - Kammgarn
More EU:
26 october Antwerp - Belgium - opening for Ataraxia - INFO HERE

PERFORMANCE HISTORY IS HERE