You will see a couple of familiar faces in the September edition of the San Diego Troubadour. In Cathryn Beeks' Listen Local section she interviews Kyle and Brian. Their conversation touches on the band's most recent LP, 4 Days in the Valley, the two videos the band has completed for the record, and how the musicians in the band have managed to put up with each other for so long. Brian and Kyle also manage a moment to thank Cathryn for her many contributions to the San Diego music scene. Cathryn was kind…

On April 30, Wookie Garcia was proud to attend the 33rd Annual San Diego Music Awards show at Humphreys by the Bay. It was first of all, a gathering of the Wookie family, those who participated in the creation of our 4 Days in the Valley record. Second, it was an opportunity to hang with our fellow local musicians, many of whom we've known for years, some we've just met recently. It was a fun night honoring winners and nominees, listening to a variety of musical styles, and raising a record amount for the…

Our newest video will have its YouTube premiere at midnight! Emily Ince has once again crafted an artful visual to accompany our song “Where the Trees Reach the Sky.” Brother Kellen Ince stars in the narrative, playing a young Tom Waits walking around Waits' old stomping grounds in Chula Vista. The band, featuring guest drummer Bob Sheehan, performs beneath some really tall trees. Watch it on repeat all day long if you like, but remember to head out to Navajo Live for the SDMA Showcase at 8.

The April edition of the San Diego Troubadour is out and features a review of Wookie Garcia's latest release 4 Days in the Valley. Thanks to Emily Bartell, who wrote the piece, which highlights several of the album's songs, describing them musically, lyrically, and even emotionally. Read for yourself at the link, and make sure to listen to the record yourself if you haven't already.

Wookie Garcia will be part of a San Diego Music Awards Nominee Showcase at Navajo Live on Friday April 26. We will play first at 8 pm, and four more nominated bands will follow.  This event is one of a few such showcases throughout the city that will take place in the week leading up to the actual awards show at Humphreys by the Bay on Tuesday April 30. A reminder too that voting in all categories is continuing daily through 5pm March 27. If you haven't yet voted today, please do so. Remember our favorite…

Thanks to Tim Pyles for including our song “Empty Out My Head” on his radio program Stomping Grounds earlier this week. The radio show features local artists and bands from Orange County to Tijuana and plays Monday nights on KNSJ 98.1 which is archived here.

Cathryn Beeks, the guiding force behind Listen Local, has completed a comprehensive playlist featuring all the artists nominated in next month's San Diego Music Awards. Let's see…there's 25 categories and 7 nominees in each, so that's…that's a lot of songs. The playlists are broken down into the specific categories, so you can listen to 1 genre or award type, then consider your personal favorite to vote for (Wookie Garcia is an excellent choice in the Indie/Alternative Album category BTW). Speaking of…

Here is the link again for the San Diego Music Awards page. Almost right at the top is the voting link for the nominated artists. Click there and you can open a dropdown menu in each category. Seven worthy artists are nominated in each category, so vote for all your favs (one vote per category, of course). May we suggest in the Indie/Alternative Album of the Year category a vote for Wookie Garcia 4 Days in the Valley? Type your name and email at the end and submit. It's that easy. In fact, it's so easy…

Wookie Garcia is proud to announce our inclusion in the 33rd annual presentation of the San Diego Music Awards. On February 26 our name was heard on the SDMA live presentation of the nominating announcement. 4 Days in the Valley is listed along with 6 other nominees in the 2023 Indie/Alternative Album category. As in years past, the winners will ultimately be decided on (at least in part) by you, the audience, the fans! There will be voting on the awards site set up soon. Of course we will follow up with…

After an unfortunate and unexpected delay, the 4 Days in the Valley discs will begin shipping on Thursday January 11! To those who have been waiting patiently to receive your purchase, thanks. We appreciate your support. To those who haven't yet made a purchase and still like your music on CD, the opportunity to purchase 1 (or more) is now yours! If you like to collect cool album artwork, you'll have your own copy of Sophie Kelly's front and back cover drawings. Just follow the link here.

Have you heard it yet? It's been playing non-stop at our houses since midnight. It's 4 Days in the Valley, and it's out now! You may listen here on our own site. 

If you listen on this page, go ahead and click the ‘lyrics’ link. Doing so will let you sing along (as expected), but it will also let you check out the song-by-song musician credits. The CD won't even let you do that. Speaking of the CD, those slippery little discs are still being manufactured as we write this. Give us about 2 more weeks on those…

Wookie Garcia has released our final preview single from the upcoming album 4 Days in the Valley. The track is called Meter and Rhyme, and it is currently streaming on our site as well as others around the web. The mostly acoustic song features Jessy Greene on violin, and Ben Peeler on lap steel and pedal steel guitar. Listen here on the 4 Days in the Valley pre-order page!

Our second single from 4 Days in the Valley is out streaming at all the usual places. The song is called Where the Trees Reach the Sky and is an upbeat rocker featuring Bob Sheehan on drums, Rami Jaffee on organ, and background singer Kristin Mooney. The “Tommy” referred to in the first line is indeed Chula Vista legend Tom Waits who figures prominently through each of the song's verses. Only three weeks left until 4 Days in the Valley is released. The pre-sale continues here.

Wookie Garcia's resident writer/director Emily Ince has produced the first music video for our new record 4 Days in the Valley. The film chronicles a day in the life of a frazzled homeowner who just can't seem to get out of the way of his neighborhood association rep. At least until they unexpectedly find some common ground. The “HOA Man” is played by Joey Kirkpatrick, and cinematography is by Mason Cazalet. Now playing on the band's YouTube page!

Our first single release ever, HOA Man, is now streaming everywhere including our own /4-days-in-the-valley-digital-album-pre-sale page. And while you're listening, you may also pre-order our new record 4 Days in the Valley which releases on Black Friday November 24. Downloads will deliver to purchasers on the release date.

Our new record, 4 Days in the Valley will drop Friday November 24. The album will be available as either a CD or a download or, of course, both! We will offer fans a pre-sale opportunity here on our website that will begin Friday October 13. This is the product of the same sessions documented here from this past February on. So that means this has all come together much quicker than we are known for. These twelve songs have all been written since our last release, Stand the Fall, in 2019. Many of these…

There you have it. Now we have something to call our upcoming album as we discuss the recording with our friends and fans. A title for our new record. We decided the best way to commemorate the 4 great days we spent in the San Fernando Valley back in February was to put it right in the name. Movie buffs may recognize the name also pays tribute to a not-to-be-forgotten movie from back in the nineties. 

When we last talked about the new Wookie recording there was still a few items to be decided on, much less acted on. We had completed the audio portion of the product without having given much thought to the CD itself, so we have spent the summer working on that. Now we think we've got that part covered too. Artwork that's actually art on the cover, pics and credits on the inside, a CD for folks who listen to their tunes that way, and streaming practically everywhere if that's your preference. In fact, we…

Work is ongoing on Wookie Garcia's third album, which just like its predecessors will be released on CD as well as a digital download.  We did have the ‘is a CD really needed anymore’ discussion, but for now we think it's best to offer it. The band also considered the possibility of pressing a LP of this new collection, but those plans are on hold for now. It seems that the 50-minute length of the album is not a good fit on a modern two-sided record. The band was not interested in trying to decide which 1…

Recording is officially complete on our project begun back in February. Our producer, Rami Jaffee, enlisted a few of his friends to add some final touches to our new record. Of course, he played organ, electric piano, mellotron and/or accordion all tracks.  Jessy Greene (Wilco, Jayhawks) has now contributed to all three Wookie Garcia albums and once again played violin. Ben Peeler (Mavericks, Wallflowers) played lap steel and pedal steel and performed on three tracks, and finally, Kristin Mooney (Peter…

Listening, listening, listening…this is what Wookie Garcia has been up to these last couple of weeks.  We have been listening nonstop to basic tracks, overdubs, and rough mixes of our newest recording. Oliver, our mixing engineer, has been hard at work incorporating guest overdubs into the band tracks to create a seamless overall sound. We think it's safe to say that most of the songs are nearing final mix status as we write this. 

This is the first time our group has worked with an outside producer on a…

Wookie Garcia and a few of our closest friends have gathered twice in the past month to work on the band's latest recording. More than half of the 12 tracks have received additional vocals-some harmonies, some oohs and aahs. With this in the can, we also added a little more guitar and called it a day. Thanks to Rob and Satellite Studio West, and Mike at Earthling Studios for their time and attention.

Meanwhile, back in LA, our producer/keyboardist Rami and engineer Oliver are also at work on this project…

In February, the band (and a few close friends) spent a Los Angeles weekend recording basic tracks for our next CD release. Basic tracks generally mean the band as we sound live: guitar; bass; drums and vocals. To this we had time left over to add some additional guitar parts and various percussion instruments (shaker, tambourine etc.). We exceeded our own high expectations, leaving town after four days with 12 almost completed songs. At least they seemed almost completed after starting from scratch. 

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