As you may know, we had a little guitar swap occur in 2009.  When Jeremy chose to leave the band the rest of us were stuck deciding whether to hang up our hats and call Japhy Ryder done OR to find the perfect guitar player to fill out the roster again.  Thankfully we opted to hire our friend Zack duPont and what a difference he has made in our sound as well as in our lives.
Zack duPont is a class act.

That said, Z doesn’t spend all of his time tinkering away on the new Japhy Ryder material.  He’s in fact one of Vermont’s finest up and coming singer songwriters.  Don’t be shocked, just because he sticks to instrumental shredding with us does not mean that his vocal chords aren’t fully capable of melting your face. Z’s first solo record “Paths” was released in early January 2010, and has thus far received stellar reviews across the Northeast.

Check him out over at www.zackdupontmusic.com or even better, at one of his solo gigs.

Like we said in the spring, we took the summer off of almost all things Japhy.  Pat and Josh spent the summer playing Reggae with Vermont’s own ‘Pulse Prophets’ while Will escaped into central NY seclusion, Jason hiked the length of Vermont and Zach continued to shred with everyone that he could (that’s what he does folks – he’s a shredder).

While technically on our Japhy vacation, Will and I continued to make moves on this new record of ours.  While yes we wanted it done last spring, we’ve kept finding ways of making it better.  In July we invited our friends Timothy K Hull and Tom Morse to add an extra pair of horns to a few tracks.  After that all work on the album got pushed back due to equipment breaking, ie: the mixing board shat the bed.  The good news is that its back and we plan on continuing the process to get this album done in the very near future.

Also in the making right now is the fabled Live at Nectar’s album that we recorded in the fall of 2008.  This album will be the last release featuring former guitarist Jeremy Kizina.  The disc has been finished, it’s pretty fantastic, and is in the hands of the folks at Nectar’s.  Due to contract arrangements, we can’t put this album out until they do… so we don’t really know when that will happen.  For the time being, you can listen to one of the tracks from this album right here
(head on over to japhyryder.com and check out the audio)

We’re playing a monthly gig at Parima in Burlington and adding a few one off gigs in the Vermont area around those, but there are no plans of anything crazy in the near future.  While working on this album there is not a lot of traveling going on.  Once its done, we might be back at hitting the road.

So there it is, Japhy Ryder version 2.0 shall make our official debut on April 2 to start the Ropeadope sponsored ‘Homedown Throwdown Tour’ in Philadelphia.  The tour then heads to Boston and ends with our hometown debut at Higher Ground on 4/4.

Here’s a little taste of what this new version of Japhy Ryder has to offer.

(head on over to japhyryder.com and check out the audio)

(if you are using Firefox and this sounds like a broken cassette player,
you can download the file – Tightrope)

Well, big changes are afoot in the Japhy Ryder camp.  Founding member and longtime guitarist for Japhy Ryder, Jeremy Kizina, has decided it is time for him to move on and pursue the next phase in his life.  While we are saddened by Jeremy’s departure, we fully understand and support him in his decision.  Furthermore, we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Naturally, this has raised many important questions about the future of the band.  Although we are all still very excited about making music together, there will definitely be a shift in focus as we make room in our lives for everything that has taken a back seat for the past several years.  As of this time, we have put booking on hold while we figure things out, although we are keeping the following gigs which were previously booked with our friends from Ropeadope:

Thursday, 4/2/09, World Café Live, Philadelphia PA
Friday, 4/3/09, Lizard Lounge, Boston MA
Saturday, 4/4/09, Higher Ground, S. Burlington VT

Other than these dates, you can catch us performing around the Burlington area with Will’s side project, W.E.S.T., most notably in support of The New Deal at Higher Ground on Thursday, February 19.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has come out to shows and supported us throughout the years and apologize to those who looked forward to the shows we were forced to cancel.  Most of all we would like to thank Jeremy for his dedication, inspiration, and comradeship as well as Jeremy’s family for the support, generosity, and hospitality they have shown us time and again in our travels.

We will be sure to keep everyone updated as we continue to figure out how we will proceed.  YES we will proceed, it may just take a little bit of time to arrange how.  Thanks again, and we hope to see you all in the near future,

Jay, Pat, and Will