Shows in New England and Actual England

Hi everyone!

I have a handful of performances coming up in the northeast (followed by a couple extras a bit farther afield), and thought I'd write a short note to make you aware of them all in case any of you might be able to come. Of particular interest are a few spots I haven't played in for a little while, like my old hometown of Boston or the southern Berkshires, as well as a very fun opening gig I'll be doing in Maine next weekend. Click the links for ticketing/other info:

1/25 NORWOOD, MA -- Appalachian Mountain Club Annual Summit (I'll be giving a presentation called "Reflecting Place in Music," which will be a sort of lecture-performance fusion; register for the Summit here to attend my workshop and a day's worth of others, too.)

1/31 SHEFFIELD, MA -- Dewey Hall

2/1 PORTLAND, ME -- One Longfellow Square (supporting Honeysuckle) 

2/6 CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Lilypad

2/8 BURLINGTON, VT -- Light Club Lamp Shop

2/9 OTTAWA, ON -- House Concert

2/10 GUELPH, ON — Community Music Guelph

2/11 TORONTO, ON — Viewmont Series

2/13 TRAVERSE CITY, MI -- Front Street Writers

2/15 MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- House Concert

2/19 TREMPEALEAU, WI -- Trempealeau Hotel

2/25 DURHAM, NC -- House Concert

As always, full details for all my performances (as well as the most updated schedule -- shows sometimes get tacked on at the last minute) can be found at www.bencosgrove.com/shows.

I've just returned from my first-ever tour in the UK, which was a major experiment for me, but one that was highly enjoyable and surprisingly successful: in the process of playing a whole bunch of small shows all over southern England (many of them facilitated by the wonderful people at Sofar Sounds), I met a lot of really wonderful people, poked around dozens of quirky little villages, successfully drove around on the left side of the road for hundreds of miles without killing anybody(!), hiked around some hills in the rain, drank good tea and bad beer, witnessed several incredible sunsets, and admired some cool museums and very old rocks. I even got to pay a staggering amount of money to a rental car company after my car was vandalized by an unseen stranger during my very last performance, which is to say that I was able to contribute meaningfully to the British economy while there. (Relatedly, this is probably a great period of time for you to consider buying things from me if you've ever had the urge to do so.)

With the exception of that one incident, though, it was a brilliant trip, and I'm extremely grateful to all the individuals and organizations that helped me to pull it off. And if you're one of the hundreds of British people who now find themselves new members of this mailing list, welcome! It was great to meet you, I apologize for mispronouncing most of the place names in your country, and I'll absolutely be coming back over to your island as soon as I can.

The rest of my schedule this spring will be a little less chaotic than usual: I've built up a huge backlog of unrecorded new music and I'll be spending some time in a couple different studios in February and March, with an eye to having some new recordings out in the vaguely near future. (Follow me on Spotify if this prospect interests you.) I'm also at work on a couple other musical and non-musical projects, about which I hope to have news to report to you in the coming months, so please stay tuned for that as well.

In other news, I recently finished this great book about how outrageous it is that you can't just walk wherever you want in America (it turns out this is easier in other countries, as I found when I just walked through a few fields to visit Stonehenge -- perfectly legally -- after arriving ten minutes too late to buy a ticket), and am now delightedly romping through this wonderful book of essays. I am also wildly obsessed with this new album and with the mesmerizing, dense work of this oddly mythical-looking Ukrainian pianist.

Oh -- and obviously, if you want to keep in touch or keep tabs on where I am and what I'm doing, please feel free to follow me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or one of those things.

Thanks, as always, for all your support, everybody. I hope you're all well, and I hope to see you soon. 

All best from balmy coastal Maine,
Ben