Today is the day that we’ve been waiting for, and we are excited to finally share some news with you that we have wanted to share for SO long! We are taking the next step in our musical journey by giving ourselves a collective name as a duo. We feel that this step represents our commitment to the music we create together; music that we have grown to love, and that has taken us this far.

It is with so much love and appreciation for those that have supported our journey thus far, that we share this news with you. Amanda Lucas & Audrey Cecil are now…drumroll…no, the name isn’t drumroll…kazoo solo…had to talk Amanda out of that one…here it is:

Bridge 19

“Amanda Lucas & Audrey Cecil” are now officially “Bridge 19.”

We hope you like it! We do.

Now that this formality is out of the way, here’s the scoop:

We began the musical part of this journey a year ago when we started writing songs for a new album together. We begin recording our album at the end of the month. We are excited to say the least! Studio work is such an interesting thing: so many highs and lows, frustrations and triumphs, stress and FUN. We. Are. PUMPED! If all goes according to plan, we’ll be releasing our record in the spring, and following that up with some touring to support the release.

The least we can say to our supporters is thank you. The most we can do for our supporters is to pour our heart and soul into this music, and we will.

Now for the particulars. We have a new website! Please check it out:

www.bridge19.com

Until January, this will just be a landing page, and in the new year, we will beef it up to a FULL site. ALL of our “Amanda Lucas & Audrey Cecil” web presence will GO AWAY on January 1, 2012. PLEASE check out our new website, like our Bridge 19 Facebook page, and join our mailing list.

Speaking of keeping in touch, we will be in touch with you again very soon with more news!

In the coming months we will be working diligently to make our plan a
reality, which as of now, will result in a ALAC record in spring 2012.
In the meantime, the best thing you can do for us is to continue to
come to our shows and support us. (Which we GREATLY APPRECIATE!) We
will be giving you more information in the future about how you can
become a part of this project. 

Once we release our new album, we plan to get back on the road
visiting some of our favorite U.S. towns and hopefully lots of new
ones. 

See our show schedule below. 

May 8, 2011 Sunday 8:00 PM Bearno’s in the Highlands Louisville, KY
May 12, 2011 Thursday 8:00 PM Mulligans Louisville, KY
May 13, 2011 Friday 8:30 PM 6 Friends Cafe Lexington, KY
May 18, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
May 27, 2011 Friday 8:30 PM 6 Friends Cafe Lexington, KY
Jun 8, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Jun 15, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Jun 25, 2011 Saturday 8:30 PM 6 Friends Cafe Lexington, KY
Jun 29, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Jul 3, 2011 Sunday TBA Crescent Hill Arts and Music Festival
Louisville, KY
Jul 13, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Jul 20, 2011 Wednesday 12:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Aug 3, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Aug 24, 2011 Wednesday 7:00 PM Captain’s Quarters Louisville, KY
Sep 18, 2011 Sunday 2:00 PM Equus Run Vineyards Midway, KY

Please come see us!

We hope wherever you are, you are enjoying some reasonably fair weather. We are still waiting for spring to re-appear after a short visit from “shorts-weather” a couple weeks ago (which was promptly followed by an inch of snow). True story.

After a much needed cut-back phase in our booking over the winter months, we have a long list of BRAND NEW SONGS, and a NEW plan for 2011/2012; which includes a NEW (and the first ever) ALAC record, touring, and some other fun-ness that we are really super excited about and can’t wait to share with you. Be patient, it’s coming soon! :) We are super psyched.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the last several months, which is included a writing retreat (the source of said new songs), our first trip to the Folk Alliance (wow), and a fun little project we invented we called “ALAC-grams”! “ALAC-grams” was our first venture in raising money to put out our first duo record. We will continue to come up with fun little ways for us to try to save funds for this project. If you have any ideas for this, PLEASE let us know! We love hearing from you and it’s important to us that you find value in what we do!

Over the last couple weeks, we have hulled ourselves in a room for many hours, arranging these new songs and recording some home demos to prepare for studio time. As we go along, we get more and more excited about (and better at ) writing together and making these songs truly come alive and put our stamp on them. As we go forward, and bring them to the band; we look to have some great new material for all of you! I know we have said it 100 times, now but we are EXCITED to get these things out in the open and let them breathe!

CALENDAR

Please do check out our updated show calendar at www.alac-music.com . We have renewed our summer residency at Captain Quarters in Louisville, and have added several new shows on the calendar. A mini-tour south with a stop in Bowling Green, and a few in Nashville in April is included; along with a trip north to Cincinnati, among others. We really hope to see you out there.

Please please do stay in touch, and we’ll keep you posted on up and coming things.

Be in touch, friends!

A and A

P.S. If you haven’t already done so, please like our band page on Facebook. This will be our main form of communication on Facebook, and affords us lots of new options! http://www.facebook.com/amandalucasandaudreycecil

Now for the interesting stuff, eh?  VALENTINE”S DAY ALAC-GRAMS!!! Show the one you love….that you’re awesome.

ALAC is hosting a special Valentine’s Day Service for YOU! Along with this being a fundraiser for the beginning stages of our new duo record, this is a way for ALAC to come into YOUR HOME (or wherever you choose) and do something especially for Y-O-U. This Valentine’s Day weekend, ALAC will video record or perform LIVE for you a love-influenced ditty for someone you love; your Hubby, Wife, Lovah, Best Buddy, Self, Mom, Dad, Sis, Bro, Friend, Neighbor, Dog Walker, ANYONE! Maybe even a choice ditty for an ex? You can make a donation for this service on PayPal with all proceeds going towards our upcoming record.

Choose a service from the list below, donate accordingly,  and we will do the rest!

$10 Videogram – cover song of your choice that we know

$10 Videogram – original ALAC song

$15 Videogram – cover song we learn for you – please email us an MP3

$15 Videogram – your poem put to music

$20 Videogram – SONG WRITTEN JUST FOR YOU! – 30 seconds to 1 minute

$30 On Location – cover song we know

$30 On Location – original ALAC song

$35 On Location – cover song we learn for you

$35 On Location – your poem set to music

$40 On Location – song written just for you

If you live within a 30 mile radius of Louisville, we can perform on location! Performance times will be February 12, between 6-10 pm. For those of you who forget Valentine’s Day, we can do on location performances on Tuesday February 15, between 6-10 pm. If you live outside of Louisville, we can arrange a Skype performance during this same time frame.

Otherwise, performances will be recorded and you will be sent a youtube link on Sunday February 13 with your personal singing gram. You can present to your special someone on V-DAY!

Please follow this link to make your donation:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=LN8JLV8L4LXLC

Once you are on the paypal site, there is an area where you can include special instructions. Please include which service you would like w/ any special instructions. You only have 40 characters to use in that form. If you have specific details that can’t fit in that space, please go ahead and put in your payment, submit it, then email us your details at:  alacmusic@yahoo.com

If you would like us to perform on location, let us know the address and time (Saturday February 12, between 6-10 pm or Tuesday February 15, between 6-10 pm).

If you would like us to send a youtube link, please include which email address you would like us to send the link to.

This is going to be fun…join us, won’t you?

-A & A

Happy Holidays from ALAC

In no particular order:

Airplanes, cause we love them (now)

Driving – cause that’s all we do

Crumpets – cause they are yummy

Lilith Fair – cause we PLAYED IT!!!

Seattle – cause went there, and we love it

Driving – cause we drive

Taylor Swift – cause she’s Tay Tay

9 volt batteries – cause we use A LOT of them, and we can never seem to find any

Driving – cause we drive and drive

Brandi Carlile – cause we love her

Trailers – cause we use them and need to buy one

Iphones – cause we both have one

Driving – cause um, we drive a lot

Michigan – cause we keep going back

Skinny jeans – cause they are fun to talk about

90’s and classic country music – cause we are experts

The list goes on and on…

So, we realize we have been out of touch (blog-wise) lately, but it’s not because we don’t think about you. WE DO! We have been BUUUUUSYYYY, and loving it! The past summer and fall has been probably the most crazy, enlightening, and fun of our career so far. We got to do so much, and we are grateful and humbled by every single second of our globetrotting adventures! The above list is just a small taste of what we did on what little downtime we had, most of which happened in the car on our way to the next show! And below is a small visual taste of what that last several months have been like for us! Enjoy:

Sweaty at KPF

Sarah and Lilith

BBQ and Bourbon festival

The Band at the Kenducky Derby

Michigan Womyns Music Festival

See??? Driving…

Slot machines in Vegas

Rainier (we went there too)

ALAC w/ Brandi Carlile

Lake Michigan

Ok, nextly. We are slightly concerned over this. There seemed to be a theme this summer of us being visited by large cartoon-like foul creatures…birds. We wonder what this means….do you know??????????

Case #1 – us w/ Hootin’ Annie at the Harvest Hootenanny Music Festival

Case #2 – The band w/ Ducky at the Kenducky Derby (Drummer Andy was both afraid and excited to see ducky)…

Case #3 – That’s right, Dougy came to watch us perform in Michigan

As you can see, Drummer Rhonda was a little chilled at Dougys arrival

Case #4-And finally, the famous Finn from Pike Place in Seattle

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN???!!!!

If anyone knows of any foul/bird related omens, please let us know if we should be afraid. On a good note, all the birds were extremely receptive and friendly, and we haven’t found any feathers in our guitar cases yet.

Ok, now that we are all caught up, let’s talk about the future! After a whirlwind of a summer and fall, ALAC is taking some time to write some new songs, to get them all tidied up for you, and start looking at studio time for a duo record! Exciting right? We certainly are pumped. We are ready to get all these songs that have been percolating over the last months written down and arranged. We are taking a writing retreat (in a cabin in the woods) in the next couple of weeks to stimulate our creativity and get some much needed seclusion just for a couple days to be productive (then we have invited some friends to the cabin to get some much needed FUN accomplished)! We can’t wait. Stay tuned to our website and Facebook, we plan to try to get some rough recording and/or videos of some new material down to share with you guys.

As always, thanks for your support everyone. Thanks to you, we have been afforded amazing opportunities lately. We have played some amazing shows, been on some really cool TV shows, and traveled our butts off because of you. We don’t take you for granted.

Much much love.

Audrey and Amanda

The Strictly Global Lilith 2010 episode will air on over 30 million TV screens across the United States, and will bring viewers fantastic interviews and music videos from emerging talent. Click here to learn more about the featured artists.

http://www.ourstage.com/blog/2010/09/17/lilith-winners-to-be-featured-on-national-television-show-strictly-global/

ALAC’s music video for the song “Move On” will be featured on the show. Click on the link below to check out the official video for “Move On.”

Official Music Video for Move On

Singer-songwriter Sara Swenson performed at the Kansas City stop of the festival alongside artists the likes of Emmylou Harris, Heart, Sarah McLachlan, and Ingrid Michaelson. “It was an unforgettable experience, from the buzz of interviews and excitement of fans beforehand to the fun photos and feedback afterward,” recalls Swenson. “It was a dream to be on the same bill as Sarah McLachlan and the other ladies on the Lilith Tour, and both playing a set to an attentive and enthusiastic audience on a secondary stage and sharing the big stage with all of the headlining artists for the finale were experiences I’ll never forget.”

Recently, singer-songwriters Amanda Lucas and Audrey Cecil combined forces to perform and write as a duo. At their Lilith performance in Indianapolis, Cecil and Lucas played songs to “the largest crowd on the tour for the first performer of the day.” “Playing at Lilith Fair has created more of a buzz than we have ever experienced up to this point,” commented the duo. “By the time we were two songs in, our stage area was packed. Since returning from Lilith fair, we have had constant fan requests/chatter on our social networking sites and web page.” In the upcoming year, Cecil and Lucas have plans to record their first album together and hit the road to play dates in many US cities.

In St. Louis, songwriting duo Airplanes performed for new faces and learned a little about the festival business. “Performing at Lilith was pretty much one of the best things that has happened in our short career so far. It was a really nice opportunity to perform with some great artists and to perform to crowds that we may not have been able to perform before otherwise. It gave us a really cool opportunity to gain a new fan base in a sense. I really learned that it takes a lot of hard work from everybody to really get a show of this magnitude up and running. From the sound people, to security, to both festival and artist staffs, it takes a real team to make the shows so awesome and so fun.”

At the end of the day, each winning artist had the opportunity to perform a special finale on stage with all the other acts on the bill. Katie Todd, winner for Chicago, recalls the experience: “I really enjoyed the sense of camaraderie amongst all of the musicians. For the finale, Sarah McLachlan had all of the artists who performed that day up on the main stage singing ‘Because the Night’ by Patti Smith, and I’m still on a high from that experience.” You can watch a video of Todd onstage with McLachlan, Heart and Mary J. Blige, to name a few, here.

HILLVIEW – Amanda Lucas grew up participating in the two things she enjoyed most: softball and music.

Both led her to a long and successful friendship with Audrey Cecil. The two now perform live music together and plan to record an album later this year.

Neither anticipated the biggest news of their lives this summer: The singer/songwriters were selected to perform at the Lilith Fair concert in Indianapolis.

Lilith Fair is a touring showcase of female musical artists. The concept was co-founded by singer Sarah McLachlan in the 1990s to help promote women in music.

After a 10-year hiatus, Lilith Fair returned in 2010 with more than 30 concerts throughout the United States and Canada. Various shows include headliners ranging from Colbie Caillat, Selena Gomez, Heart and Sheryl Crow to Kelly Clarkson, Martina McBride, Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn.

Each show features 11 acts ranging from international artists such as McLachlin to local and regional acts such as Lucas and Cecil.

McLachlan is scheduled to perform in Indianapolis, along with Suzanne Vega, Mary J. Blige and Miranda Lambert.

Lucas and Cecil earned the honor by winning an online contest via www.ourstage.com, a Web site devoted to promoting independent music artists and allowing fans to listen and select which artists they enjoy most.

“These Web sites have really opened the door for artists to get their music out there,” Lucas said.

On a whim, the duo decided to enter the Lilith Fair contest. Lucas said about 70 acts entered the contest, with fans voting for the top 20 through the first round.

Lucas and Cecil entered their duo version of a song, “Chance”, that originally appeared on Lucas’ album.

“We just kind of did it aimlessly,” Lucas said of the contest. “We were number four in the first week without even telling our fans.”

A panel of judges narrowed the field of 20 to 10 prior to selecting a winner. Lucas received a call at her day job on June 21.

“I immediately said, ‘…you just made my life’. But I couldn’t tell anyone until the press release in two days,” Lucas recalled. “I was dancing around and screaming in my office and co-workers were looking at me, but I couldn’t tell them.”

Lucas and Cecil first met at age 10, playing together on a fast-pitch softball team in Valley Station called the Dixie Dynamite.

After six years Lucas began playing softball for Bullitt East High School. From there she attended Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia.

Lucas and Cecil met again through college softball, competing against one another as Cecil played for Spalding University.

The two always pursued their musical interests. Two years after college graduation they met again on MySpace. At the time Cecil had recorded and released an album with her band, Two Cent Penny. The band consisted of Cecil on guitar and Bullitt Countian Rob Gable on bass.

“(Cecil) saw that I played music and asked if I would be interested in playing with them,” said Lucas. “We hit it off, I joined them and we became a trio.”

Lucas was writing and recording songs for an independent solo album when she and Cecil became an official duo in December 2007. The album, “Half Empty”, was released in June 2008. Cecil performed with Lucas during live shows supporting Lucas’ album.

Cecil would release her own self-titled solo album through One Horse Records in March 2010. Lucas now returns the favor, helping to perform Cecil’s songs.

The duo, now billed as Amanda Lucas and Audrey Cecil, performed more than 150 live shows in 2009. Primarily a regional act, they’ve performed as far away as Atlanta and Michigan. They are scheduled to perform in September at a charity benefit in Seattle hosted by musical artist Brandi Carlile.

Gable still accompanies the duo on bass, along with Richard Hendrix on drums. Keyboardist Leah Sproul Palatie, who assisted with Cecil’s solo album, will join the band on stage at Lilith Fair.

Lucas and Cecil will open the show in Indianapolis on the Village Stage. They will play 30 minutes, featuring three songs each from their solo albums.

At the end of the day the duo will join the other acts on stage for a special encore. They will have an opportunity to meet and greet during lunch for the artists.

Following the show Lucas and Cecil are scheduled to perform during an after-party at Mo’s Irish Pub. Lucas said they were invited by Cari Ray, the artist that finished second to them in the contest.

“If you help each other out… that’s just the way to go,” Lucas said.

The duo fuses a Folk/Pop sound out of Cecil’s Folk background and Lucas’ lean toward Rock.

“We’ve taken both to create something that we both enjoy doing,” Lucas said. “Audrey added a lot of harmony to my songs. They sound different live.”

The artists hope to capture that live feel on their upcoming album.

“I think there’s an energy that comes from playing live,” said Lucas. “We draw energy from one another.”

Lucas and Cecil’s once-in-a-lifetime performance takes place Tuesday during the Lilith Fair concert at Verizon Wireless Music Center in Indianapolis. They are scheduled to perform between 2:50 and 3:20.

For more information on Amanda Lucas and Audrey Cecil go to www.alac-music.com. For information on the Lilith Fair tour visit www.lilithfair.com. Also see www.ourstage.com for information on independent musical artists and special contests.