Howdy Folks - quick gig update:

We are very pleased to announce that in addition to our two shows in Leicester and Bedford we will also be opening for the fabulously talented Texas Swing band; The Quebe Sisters at the lovely venue The Luminaire on the Kilburn High Road. The gig is on TUESDAY august 3rd- my apologies as it said thursday on the mail shot - thanks to everyone who noticed and messaged me back!

It is not only great news that we have another show with one of our favourite groups around at the moment, but as it happens the 3rd August is also Hannah's birthday. So come on out to the Luminaire and buy her a Tequila!

In other news, our new record Femme Fatale will now be nationally released through proper Music Distribution on Monday 18th October... Stay tuned for exclusive promotional offers, as we will be making a handful of pre release deluxe album box sets... and you know you want one!

See you at a gig soon! TTHs

Howdy Folks! We just thought you might like to know that we are an official box to tick on your IBMA nominations form! This means that lots of you have already kindly nominated us for the Emerging Artist category and we wanted to say a big thank you for that firstly, and secondly we'd like to encourage you to keep voting for us. To get actually nominated would be a dream come true for the band and only you guys can make it happen! Thanks again for your support, we feel very proud to have got this far -I think we may be the only British group to get to this stage - please email if you know different!

Also, the release date of the new record has now changed to October 18th. However, we will be running special promotional 'early bird' deals nearer to the time, including a limited number of 'deluxe edition' album packs, which will be full of limited edition Toy Hearts goodies for you. More news soon, stay tuned!

We are very proud to announce that 'Femme Fatale' will be released in the UK on Monday September 6th. We will be releasing using our own label Wood Ville Music but we will be distributed nationally by Proper Music Distribution. Hurrah! Things are finally moving - we'll keep you posted!

Its only a little teaser, (with much much more to follow I promise!) but, I thought you folks might be interested in having a sneaky preview of some of the art/design work for the new record...
A release date will be announced very soon, so thanks for your patience and please keep watching this space!

The Toy Hearts will be making a welcome return to one of their favourite London venues: The Green Note. This wonderfully intimate and cosy gig is situated on Camden Parkway, close to legendary music venue The Dublin Castle pub. Audiences enjoy not only top notch entertainment from acoustic acts 5 nights a week, but can also munch on an excellent range of vegetarian tapas and varying daily specials... not to mention the fab Freedom organic larger which has always been a hit with The Hearts! Friday June 11th will see another performance from The Toy Hearts, featuring music from their eagerly awaited 3rd album 'Femme Fatale'.

Advance tickets cost £10 and are available from www.greennote.co.uk.
Table reservations are definitely advised as this show always sells out.
See you there folks!

Attention all guitar geeks! Get yourself down to your local newsagents folks, and bag a copy of June's Guitarist magazine! The Toy Hearts are really pleased to announce they have a whole page feature and photo in this established and respected international publication...

Sophia was thrilled to be interviewed recently by Guitarist Magazine's editor Mick Taylor, and even more so as the result is the article entitled "Brit Bluegrass Swing Sorority" on page 36 in this month's edition (see scan below). Sophia talks at length with Mick, discussing her choice of guitars, picks, strings and how she has developed her own style somewhere between the flatpicking and gypsy swing styles that have influenced and inspired her.

Howdy Folks! Are any of you in need of a bluegrass and swing fix this month?

Well, The Toy Hearts are pleased to announce that they will be performing a free gig at Carnivale in London on Thursday May 20th. Carnivale is a funky new bar, restaurant and venue, situated in a converted church off the Whitechapel Road in the east end. The evening starts from 8pm and remember folks this gig is FREE ENTRY, so you better be there!

CARNIVALE
2 White Church Lane
E1 7QR

For more information and listings check out:
www.carnivale.co.uk

Well, its been a while, perhaps even a whole year, but we are back at our old stomping ground to tear it up in Stirchley one more time! This sunday 25th April, we will be doing a special gig in honour of our good friend Bob's birthday -but note this is NOT a private party, any one is welcome so long as you'll part with £5 to get in! We're going to keep things traditional and will be doing two sets with a break in the middle, kicking the evening off about 9ish.

Hello Folks! So, here I am on the Yamaha trade Stand, on Saturday 10th April, at the first ever Irish National Guitar Festival. Its being held in the lovely little town of Drogheda just outside Dublin, by music retailers The Sound Shop. I am here to demo the NTX1200, a great new nylon string guitar as played by Paolo Nutini and Rodrigo of Mexican Duo Rodrigo y Gabriella. In fact, the guitar that Yamaha have given me is the actual guitar pictured in the Rodrigo y Gabriella, Yamaha advert!

It has come to my attention that I accidentally excluded a gig from the gig list on the final page of the newsletter... oops! So I will give it a special mention here:

The Toy Hearts will be performing at the first ever 'Bordergrass' festival held over two days in Herefordshire. We will be performing at the evening concert on Friday 30th April. The site of the festival is Hopelands, Weobley's Village Hall, Gadbridge Road, Weobley, HR4 8SN. Tickets are £35.00 for the weekend (£17 for a child aged 12 - 18) or £20.00 per night for the Friday and Saturday night concerts (£10 child) and £5.00 per person per night for camping. Contact the Bordergrass site www.bordergrass.co.uk for tickets.

The Toy Hearts are very pleased to announce that they are now fully endorsed by Bluechip Picks! All three of members of the band use a different pick from the range. Sophia uses the TD60 guitar pick, Hannah uses the 50 mandolin pick and Stewart uses the dobro/reso thumb pick, BCT-reso1M. What the band members love about these picks is that they have the closest consistent tone to using a real shell pick, but they don't wear down in the same way. Gone are the rough edges and so too the need for filing buffing and reshaping picks after each gig.

For more information on all the picks made by Blue chip please visit: www.bluechippick.net

When Sophia Johnson called by The Artist Suite to record a demo for the March edition of the Yamaha Download, we managed to grab 5 minutes with her to get just a little more info...

Easy stuff first - tell us a little more about you and just what you play.

My name's Sophia Johnson and my band is The Toy Hearts. I'd describe my playing style as a mixture of bluegrass and swing - I always describe it as trying to tread a line somewhere between Clarence White and Django Reinhardt. I've been playing for 20 years and instrument-wise use a Martin D28CW steel string, Gitane D500 gypsy jazz guitar and have just got my hands on a Yamaha NTX1200.

What's your history with nylon string guitars?

Hi everyone! Well, it seems to be February already, wow what happened to January?

Our 3rd album recorded in Nashville TN last month is being mastered, and we are very happy to reveal the title; it will be called 'Femme Fatale', which is the name of the song that Bryan Simpson from Cadillac Sky sings on with our Hannah. Continuing in the spooky theme it will have 13 tracks and is a significant move forward for the band in many ways... so expect the unexpected!

We are hoping for a release around May/June, followed by a UK tour and then back across the pond to the US of A. More news and information coming very soon - please check the gig guide to see where we are playing in the mean time - a newsletter is on its way also... so stay tuned folks!

All the hearts x

Hi there folks! Well, we've been in Nashville just over a week now and have been having a brilliant time, as usual, we love this town! Despite our initial nervousness, Ben Surratt our engineer was really welcoming and we settled right into his studio, which is a really great place in Inglewood called The Rec Room (see www.therecroom.com). We tracked the whole of our album (13 songs) in five and a half days. Phew! Now that our parts are done, we thought we'd let you know how it has been going…

Some fantastic things happened in the process of making this record. Firstly we have to mention David 'Beardy' Mayfield, our producer, whom has now been completely adopted into the honorary Johnson Family! He has kept us all smiling throughout and is a great source of inspiration to us - there is no one else we'd rather have producing our record and we know it is more than safe in your capable hands. David, you rock, its Official!

Tonight’s show in Kempten was a complete sell out, hurrah for the bluegrass Jambouree! The venue itself seemed to be some kind of school type facility, but at least there was plenty of space, and as a result lots of strings were changed. We had a close call when the saddle on Beverly’s 1940’s Gibson crumbled when she went to change her strings, but Woody happened to have a spare bone saddle, which he filed with Sophia’s glass nail file and fitted – totally saving the day, go Woody! It was nice to see Big Herbert make an appearance in the audience, and Sophia got her first piece of fan mail – A faxed picture of Django and Stephane and a note to say thanks for the great music last night!

Great show yesterday at the Amerika haus in Munich – I know we speak for all the bands in thanking the promoter Philip for his fantastic culinary skills – we all had a beautiful home made thai/asian type meal; beef and carrots in ginger for the carnivorous and tofu with vegetables for the veggies. Best food so far without a doubt the fresh coriander and thai basil rocked! A shot of Jack Daniels for all before the encore ensured a great end to the show! The Wednesday evening after show party literally reached new heights, when a complete stranger scaled the side of the hotel to reach our balcony. He was eventually ejected, though the partied continued with 2 huge bottles of red wine appearing along with 2 plates of Stollen cake, Yum! We also got to see Mike and Megan's brand new baby Luca on skype, ah the wonders of modern technology.