You were warned! And now it’s happened: Phil’s new CD, DO NOT INSERT IN EAR CANAL, is ready and available for purchase. It’s been Coming Soon for like a year, and it has arrived. It’s shrinkwrapped and ready to sell. The actual release date is Sep 8, 2009, but you can buy your copy sooner if you meet up with Phil at a gig or something.
On, or shortly after, the release date, you’ll be able to buy the CD, or download it digitally, at the usual sites. More on that in a later update.
DO NOT INSERT IN EAR CANAL has fourteen songs on it, recorded live, including stuff you’ve seen on YouTube like The Hoosegow and Stupid, and of course the staggering mini-opera Ugly Little Pizza, featuring Aubrey Richmond on violin and a sixteen-voice choir, bringing the album to a thunderous climax that would make Wagner envious, or at least giggly.
Here’s what that looked like:
And Phil’s got three appearances coming up this month. All very different, each in a different price range, and each extremely wonderful in its own way:
• Fri Sep 4, 10:30 pm: ¡Viva Luis! at the ComedySportz Theatre. Yep, it’s a benefit to help one of LA’s funniest improvisers pay his medical bills. Improv, standup comedy, and a set by Phil. Myles Nye will tap dance during The Hoosegow! To find out all about it and buy tickets (they’re $25), click here.
• Sat Sep 19, all day: Phil fronts the comedy-bluegrass band Billy Hill and the Hillbillies at Disneyland. Five shows, starting from 11 am to 5:15 pm, at the Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland. Expensive, but look at it this way: they also have expensive food.
• Sun Sep 20, 2 pm: the free one! (Donations are gladly accepted.) It’s Comedy Music Day at Dana Charnofsky’s Songwriter Sanctum series at The Church In Ocean Park, Santa Monica. Phil will play a half-hour set, sharing the bill with some funny acts he really likes, such as Dale LaDuke and the very R-rated Eric Schwartz, and some that he’s never seen but which sound great, such as Elizabeth Grey and Ukulele Bartt. It’s at 235 Hill St, Santa Monica, 90405 (just off Main St. on the corner of Hill and 2nd). Dana says bring quarters for metered parking.
Phil’s website: www.philwardmusic.com
You can always send Phil an email at phil@philwardmusic.com, and you can always be removed from Phil’s mailing list by sending him an email with “Please, I beg you, no more” in the subject line.