Upcoming album sketch artwork

Karen posted recently on Instagram a sketch that she's been working on for the next Innocence Mission album. Since this is just a "possible cover", this could be discarded. Either way, a new album is on the horizon as recording is still not yet complete according to her post.



"Hi Everyone. Almost finished recording, so just making sketches for a possible cover. Hope you are well."

A post shared by the innocence mission (@theinnocencemission) on "2017-05-20"
Source: Marco Regali, Facebook

New single "Trip" released as digital only track

Yesterday, the band released a digital only track titled "Trip" which includes former drummer Steve Brown. This was likely recorded during the My Room In The Trees timeframe when Steve Brown last appeared on a one-off track "Rain (Setting Out In The Leaf Boat)".

It's currently available at bandcamp.com and iTunes.

Working Musician Podcast interviews Mike Bitts

Working Musician Podcast is a new online podcast which launched in May and features Mike Bitts as their first guest.

Topics include:

•Early training on guitar, bass and drums
•College music pros and cons
•The business of jazz
•Performing in Japan
•Teaching
•Composing

You can hear the episode here.

"At Sea" comes to the US

The Japanese album release of Hello I Feel The Same sported a bonus track "At Sea". That track has found it's way onto the Korda 3 Komp CD. You can order the compilation CD from Korda Records or buy it digitally online here.

"Beginning the World" live

Last night on Facebook, I was chatting about a fan favorite, "Beginning the World" and it came up that there's no acoustic version.

Well, here are two live versions (you can right-click over each song to save the mp3's to your computer):

Live with keyboards - Hollywood, CA Club Lingerie 11/16/1991

Live without keyboards - Tin Angel Philadelphia, PA 4/9/1995

Cancelled: Chicago and Minneapolis!

The Innocence Mission posted the following on their Facebook page regarding their upcoming Chicago and Minneapolis performances:

"Dear friends in the Minneapolis and Chicago areas, We regret that due to family health and scheduling we are no longer able to make our brief trip to take part in the two Ocean Blue and Korda concerts, where we planned to play a few songs. These concerts will still take place, but if you had purchased tickets specifically for us, a refund should be available to you through the ticket vendor. If not please let us know. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."

Lancaster show review, photos and videos

So at the last minute I decided to go to Lancaster to see the show (Steinman Hall at the Ware Center). Karen's voice has strengthened since the last tour. After having an illness which affected her voice, it would seem that it's better than ever. Hopefully there will be some longer shows later this spring to announce. From what I understand, the seating capacity of 350 had filled up and some people had to wait outside until seats were made available.

Here was the setlist:

Brotherhood of Man
God Is Love
Tom on the Boulevard
Happy Birthday
Delware (Don Peris/Mike Bitts)
North American Field Song
Lakes of Canada
Beautiful Change

For the encore:

500 Miles
Bright As Yellow.

After the show, I met up with Don and Karen and there may be news to come regarding the demos from 1988-1996. Don shared this photo on Facebook with the caption: "Phase 1 of organizing and archiving. Cassettes! DATs are next."

He did not say for sure that the demos would be officially released, but he didn't give me a flat out no. So, fingers crossed, better quality versions of these may be in our future.

Photos from the show can be found here:

Here is a video of the entire show courtesy of Ray Reiff:

And here are scans from the festival magazine:

Ondarock interview

Italian website, Ondarock, has published a recent interview about Hello I Feel The Same with Karen Peris. You can check it out here.

Chicago show added to 2016 calendar

Update 3/3/2016: The Innocence Mission have cancelled and will not be playing with the Ocean Blue The Innocence Mission will be playing in Chicago with the Ocean Blue on March 19th at the Lincoln Hall. The show starts at 9pm and tickets can be purchased here.


Source: Chad Henson, Facebook.

Community site has been moved to a new Facebook group

I've moved the internal Community group to Facebook. It seems from an administration side and from convenience's sake it just makes sense.

Hit the "Community" button above or visit this link to join.