Jonathan's Cd Release Party The Cd release party last night at Jonathan's was a great success, despite being up against the end of Thanksgiving weekend and the Patriots game. We had a better than expected turnout and sold quite a few Cd's. The band sounded great and the crowd loved it. Thanks to all of those who made it out for the party last night. We've also been getting quite a few internet sales. It's nice to see people are taking advantage of our secure ordering. You can pay with any major credit card or Paypal, and it's done through Paypal's secure site. to order direct just follow this link to our site. We also accept checks and money orders. the snail mail address is on the order page. Our CD's are now available on CD Baby for those of you who may not feel comfortable ordering directly from us. They are still available through our secure online store and payments can be paid for by Credit Card through Paypal. This does not require you to be a Paypal member and is completely secure. CD Baby is an alternative for those of you who prefer not to deal with Paypal. ALERT!!! Lex & Joe's BLUESWING will be playing every Mon this summer at THE INN ON THE BLUES in York Beach. We hope to capture some of the "pound vibe" from years gone by. We start on May 29. Blueswing is Lex & Joe with Jon Ross(bass & guitar) and Per Hanson(drums). OLD NEWS: Here's an e-mail we received from Dale Robin Lockman. Friend, musician, critic, booking agent: DaleRobin said... HI everyone, This is Dale Robin, and I would like to congratulate Lex and Joe on a CD that really captures their live sound. Also captures the breadth of their repertoire -- from Swing to Folk and a bunch of stuff in-between. Great music with big energy! The artwork, done by Julia is exquisite! I wrote about the CD in my weekly column in the York County Coast Star and it should appear in the Living Arts section on Thursday, July 7. I am proud to know these guys and call them friends. I'll be selling CDs on Monday night, so come with lots of dough! See ya there! Dale Robin Here's a copy of the Press Release for the new CD: Live at the Chicory House. Seacoast musicians Lex Romane and Joe Riillo announce the release of their new recording “Live at the Chicory House” to be celebrated with a CD release party at Joe Allen Restaurant in Ogunquit on Monday July 11 at 9pm. Free and open to the public. The new release, which was recorded in Lex’s hometown of Wilkes Barre,Pa. includes a wide range of jazz and blues selections; from Hoagy Charmichael’s “Old Rockin’ Chair” to Lazy Lester’s “Sugar Coated Love”, Lex and Joe cover some of the most popular selections from the heyday of the jazz and swing era in American music. The CD also includes originals by both Romane and Riillo. The CD will be available at the duo’s website: www.lexandjoe.com, at Bull Moose Records in Portland, Portsmouth and Sanford and at Joe Allen Restaurant. CD UPDATE: We've just added a secure shopping cart system through PayPal to the site. You don't have to be a Paypal member and can pay securely with any major credit card. We appologize for the inconvenience caused by or online ordering system being down for the last few months. So you can order securely now by clicking here. As always we'll be at the York Harbor Inn every Sunday from 7-10. We'll be going on our fifth year there and it's turned into a nice little home room for us. We also an occasional weekend gig there so check our online schedule or sign up for our calendar and receive one in the mail. The Joe Allen opening party was excellent. Great turnout of local support. Victor's food was great, and the band with Per Hansen and Jon Ross was rockin'. Celeb's spotted in the crowd: Joyce Anderson and Peter Black. Tony and Judy from Gypsy Sweethearts made an appearance. Not to mention Joe Allen himself, and of course, Taylor and Heidi. Stephen and Elise of Donnersmith Studios and Patrick Mcnamara were there so it had the feel of an art opening as well. We kicked off the Monday nights on the 23rd. It was a light turnout, but with the weather assuming Biblical proportions it's to be expected. Hopefully Memorial Day will fare better weather wise. Come on down and check it out. It's gotta stop raining sometime. There are a lot of changes at the reseaurant this year, including an art installation by our friends from Donnersmith Studios and Patrick McNamara. The place looks great and the comestibles will be great as always. So come and join us for our second season there on Monday nights. The radio show last night (4/5) at WMPG was a lot of fun. Thanks to Paul for having us on. Let us know if you tuned in. So far we've heard from people in PA, NM, and AZ who listened on the World Wide Web. Nice to know something is still free in the New Republic. The Chicory House gig was great and we got a very good live recording out of it. We're editing and mastering it and hopefully will have a brand new live album in the near future. Thanks to Steve Ludwig for engineering the live mix. And thanks to all of our loyal fans in Wilkes-barre for coming out and supporting us. We did the opening party at Tempo Bistro in Waltham, MA with special guests Jay Giels. He was having a CD release party for his new Jazz album. It was a real blast (and Jay and Jerry were very nice to us--we even exchanged CD's). Lots of great music and great food. We started our every Friday gig last week and the place was packed. Anyone in the area should come down and check it out (it's only an hour from Portsmouth). They were just featured on the Boston News Chronicle show and we're hoping it will turn out to be a great new area for us to play. Lex has been having some success with his new solo Cd-"Diggin' Dusty Diamonds"-He has been getting some "airplay" in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,Bethlehem, Wilkes-Barre all in Pennsylvania. Also on Public radio in NewHampshire and Maine. Lex has just returned from a trip to the coal regions of norteasten Pa where he played (along with Jon Ross) at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in scranton Pa. He was part of a program marking the 45th anniversary of the Knox Mine Disaster. Lex's song about the disaster was very well received. There was an over flow crowd with local TV coverage. Also appearing on the program were historian Dr Robert Wolensky and local public radio person. Erika Funke. This was a great thrill as Erika is an old childhood friend of Lex's. Lex (along with fabulous musician Jon Ross) also played a concert at the old Grove Theater at Lake Nuangola Pa. This show was also a great success as old friends came out to celebrate the new CD. If you haven't purchased a copy of the new Cd, you can order it from our order page. LKC Lex has some more good new!! He was nominated in 4 different catagories in the readers poll of Jam Magazine. Lex's CD "Diggin' Dusty Diamonds" was nominated for the album of the year-Lex's song-"Livin' on Borrowed Time" was nominated for song of the year-Lex was nominated as Folk Artist of the Year and Male Artist of the year. Also Rick Watson was nominated as engineer of the year. He engineered Lex's CD and the Angel Band CD. You can vote in the readers poll by going to www.jammusicmagazine.com You can still hear the last Blueswing gig Live From Vinny's on the website. Just click on the Sound Archives link. Anyone who still doesn't have a copy of "Willie's Pad", "Coaltown Blues", or "What's All These Blues About" can order them online from our new SECURE site. So get out the credit card and click on LEX and JOE'S SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM. We just received our first On-line CD review. The E-zine is DOWNEAST REVIEWS. Don't forget to check the LEX and JOE'S HOT LINKSon our Website. In case you haven't noticed, we have been changing the website almost daily, so be sure to log on frequently for updates, and the new: "Latest Lex and Joe News" feature. As part of the improvements, we now have a database for e-mail addresses. So log on and go to the MAILING LIST and enter your e-mail address. You can get up to the minute news sent right to your e-mailbox. Also, don't forget to check our website for LIVE SOUND CLIPS. These sound clips will be updated on a regular basis, so keep checking for new ones.