The Council of Magickal Arts has been hosting Beltane and Samhain gatherings for many years, and they've been great! But over the last five years or so the membership has grown to over 1200 while the land we camp on can only hold about 500 or so comfortably. So we decided we had to get our own land! Over the last two years members have been donating whatever they could and last night we raised the remaining cash needed for a down payment!

The CMA Land Fund benefit drew over 200 people, all of which had a great time! Appearing were Leo the Raft, Trickster, Dana Davis, and Velvet Hammer . Trickster played some old favorites like Move Over Jehova and Summer Vacation, then broke out some new material. The entire place was dancing along with the new Loke E. karaoke song W-I-C-C-A. One song, Pagan Night Out, was so new, the beautiful goddess Wildflower had to hold lyrics sheets so Trickster could remember the words which had just been written a few hours earlier! An awesome time had by all!!

Loke E. Coyote is back in the studio again and recording lots of new material. We hope to have a five song EP available in time for Panthea Con and a full length CD sometime in the spring or early summer. Speaking of CD's, Wiccabilly Circus now carries disks from some of Diana's other bands. Check em out!!

We just got back from the Samhain gathering put on by the Council of Magickal Arts, and boy howdy did we ever have fun! A months long drought in central Texas caused a burn ban which forbade all open fires, including candles and charcoal grills. Did that stop us? Of course not! A band of enterprising Pagans took up a collection and then went on a quest for fire. They soon returned with a totally badass propane setup and the revel fire was lit!

Loke E. Coyote played a great set including several new tunes like Labor Day of Love, Eeyore's Birthday Party, Casting Circle and Djembe Cowboy. The next day we were invited to play Djembe Cowboy for the Drummers and Dancers Society who then asked us if we would do the song at their next workshop. Of course we said "yes, and please pass that jug of mead over here".

This Labor Day, some 150-200 Pagans and other freedom loving people squared off against a hateful preacher who advocates killing witches. By the end of the day, not one Pagan had acted anything but friendly and the forces of hate and ingorance were driven off, not with anger and fear, but with song and dance! You can check out the whole story at Texas Pagan Awareness Online (TPAO) and in the new Loke E. Coyote song Labor Day of Love. The party, uh, I mean demonstration, took place at New Age Connection in Copperas Cove which just happens to carry Loke E. Coyote CD's. Trickster did a solo set of Loke E. tunes for the troops (including real Wiccan US Army troops!) and kicked off a powerful crowd singalong of the Star Spangled Banner on kazoo.

More airplay for Loke E. Coyote on the Subgenius Hour of Slack as the Reverend Ivan Stang spins Super Miss Cheeevious and the Chant Rant from Rhythms of Spring, on Hour of Slack #697! He rants about Pagans and Subgeniuses and even credits "Rev Trickster" in the notes! Praise Bob! Hail Connie! Thanks Ivan!

Did you know there's a Pagan radio show on shortwave radio? I kid you not! It's called Pagan Potpourri and it airs Fridays from 4:30-5PM (EST?). It's broadcast on WBCQ out of Maine by WICA Broadcasting. I don't know what the frequency is and neither does Kevin, but if you have a shortwave radio you probably know how to find out! Anyway, they are airing Pagan Zydeco on September 17th and more Loke E. in the future!

While up at Starwood, we had the pleasure of meeting the Reverend Ivan Stang from the Church of the Subgenius. We donated a copy of Rhythms of Spring to the Church and pointed out that several songs, in particular the Loke E. Chant Rant, Bob Marleycorn Must Die and Witch War all mention the Reverend J.R. "Bob" Dobbs and are therefore Subgenius hymns. Ivan must have liked it because he played Witch War on the Subgenius Hour of Slack!

Our Rhythms of Spring live CD arrived in plenty of time for the Independance Day release! It came out great (if we do say so ourselves - and we do) and you really should buy a copy. If you mail ordered Rhythms during July and haven't received it yet, that's cause we were on Pagapalooza tour and just got back. Your disks will ship by the end of this week and since you've been so patient, maybe you'll get a little something extra.

Morrigan Records has just released Fire & Stone Pagan Rock Volume 1, a compilation of music from nine Pagan rock bands including Loke E. Coyote! We just got our hands on it yesterday and it is an awesome disk! Loke E.'s real proud to be included with so many other fine Pagan musicians and we think you should hear em all! You can mail order Fire & Stone from us or order it online thru amazon.com. You can hear much of this disk on WPBN, the Wicca/Pagan Broadcast Network's current rotation. Check out Morrigan's web site for audio clips and more info!

Well, Pagapalooza 1999 Northeast was most successful! We had a great time warming up for the Pyrates Royal at Cerridwen's Coffee House and then had a total blast for two weeks at Brushwood Folklore Center for Sirius Rising and Starwood!

Loke E. became the house band at the Brushwood Bar, performing several sets, hosting open mics and free for all jams. And what an incredible amount of jamming we did too! With the likes of Kenny Klein, Full Gael, Brigid's Brood, Einstein's Secret Orchestra and Mummer's Wren, how could we do otherwise? Trickster also stumbled upon a jug band workshop and ended up doing the most ridiculous kazoo and washboard version of Iron Man ever! And you know what Bob says! If you missed the naked harmonica jam, too bad for you!

We sent a copy of Mischief 101 to WPBN, the Wicca/Pagan Broadcast Network and they are airing Super Miss Cheeevious and the Chant Rant on their current rotation! It's the second song on the first segment. WPBN's Talisman Winterhawk also wrote a review of Mischief 101 in the Denver Pentagram . WPBN is a great place to listen to Pagan music and talk on the internet and they even have a video feed. The Pentagram is an online Pagan e-zine packed with interesting stuff. Check it all out!

Loke E. Coyote is also preparing for the Northeast leg of Pagapalooza 1999. We'll be playing at Cerridwen's Coffee House, Sirius Rising and Starwood! We may also be playing a party in upstate New York and one or two other surprise shows. Keep an eye on our schedule of upcoming gigs for the latest details.

Word on Rhythms of Spring is that everything is on or ahead of schedule for the Independence Day release! order by Fourth of July and get a bonus copy of Blessed Freebee at no additional charge!!

Heartland Pagan Festival was awesome! Sunday night's Pagapalooza main stage lineup was Loke E. Coyote, Elvendrums and Uncle Dirty Toes. Nothing but fun was had by all, especially us since we were celebrating the anniversary of Diana and Trickster's first meeting at last year's fest! Loke E.'s come a long way since then! We've even begun our own traditions (like the audience singing 99 Bottles of Mead on the Wall and sharing a drink with us before we finish playing Summer Vacation).

Saturday night's Bardic Circle was also a blast! We showed up to listen, but a bunch of elves with drums and a guy wailing on digereedoo convinced us we had to jam too! So Loke E. Coyote, Elvendrums and lots of other musicians, poets, storytellers and clowns entertained the wee folk until the wee hours. Shouldabeenthere!!

Before we left for Heartland we stopped at Fed-Ex and shipped out the master disk and artwork for our live CD Rhythms of Spring. Release date has been set for Independence Day 1999 (that's Fourth of July in case you slept thru history class). This enhanced CD will also include the lyrics to all ten songs right on the disk! It comes in an ecowise yet sturdy package and we've even thrown in some naked titties!!

As a special bonus, anyone who has preordered Rhythms of Spring will get an additional CD, Blessed Freebee, as a thank you gift. This disk will not be available for purchase and contains outtakes and cover tunes which we can't or won't sell. If you preordered at CMA Beltane (before we announced Blessed Freebee) don't worry - you're included!

Well, OK, this isn't exactly true..........YET! But the possibiliy exists! This Sunday May 2 is the O'Henry annual Pun-Off and Loke E. is entered as a contestant in the "punniest of show" category. We'll be pun-ishing rock god Jimi Hendrix with a wicca'd version of Voodoo Chile and with any luck we'll be most victorious. And Letterman's people have asked the Pun-Off folks to send them a video of the winning act. That's gonna be us, so make sure your cable bill is up to date and catch Loke E. on Letterman!!

We had the best time this past weekend at the Council of Magickal Arts Beltane gathering! Loke E. was to play at 10pm Saturday night but Friday's band Six Mile Bridge arrived too late to play their slot and agreed to open up for us. Good thing since everybody showed up at 10pm Pagan Standard. The crowd had a fine time too, singing along on Revel Fire while Trickster played slide guitar with a kazoo. When we did the "99 Bottles of Mead" part of Summer Vacation, the crowd was down to 96 bottles before we got them to stop!! Speaking of which, the mead tasting contest went very well with Griffin's raspberry taking the prize. At Tiny's suggestion we opened up the judging so everyone could have some. CMA's told us they want us back at Brigid's Crossing for Samhain and on the main stage next Beltane! See you there!!

What a great way to open the festival season! The Rhythms of Spring gathering hosted by Betwixt & Between was more fun, music, family and drumming than a barrel full of Monk E.s (that's Loke E.'s cousin on his mom's side - he's the wildest party guy in the whole monastery). People danced in the rain and the music went on til almost dawn. When event organizers tried to end the concert, the crowd demanded Loke E. Coyote continue, and so we did! A live CD is in the works and should be ready in time for Heartland. We also hear B & B is planning another Pagapalooza event in July. We'll keep you posted.

Enough chomping at the bit! The Loke E. Coyote CD single "Mischief 101" can now be had! It's got Super Miss Chievious / Chant Rant and Pagan Zydeco and comes in five delicious colors: lime, strawberry, tangerine, blueberry and everclear. A limited amount of disks will be available at Rhythms of Spring for the festival price of only $5. I bet you want to buy one !!

Well we had a great time recording it and you will have a great time listening and dancing to it! With the incredibly talented Ginger at the ADAT controls, Loke E. Coyote has finally committed some of our music to CD!! The songs are Super Miss Chievious , complete with a Chant Rant , and Pagan Zydeco . We had so much fun that our most awesome backup singer Toni broke out laughing on the last take. We left it in cause we're that kind of band. These two cuts will appear on the Fire and Stone Pagan Rock compilation CD due out next month. We're also planning to have these songs available on a CD single in time for Rhythms of Spring.

We've had a chance to check out the audience tape from our recent unplugged gig at Austin Pagan Night Out and it is sounding good! We're editing it down now and will have a tape available in the next few weeks. Songs on the tape will be: Loke E. Chant Rant, Hooka Looka, What I Did On My Summer Vacation , Cums the Inquisitor , Move Over Jehova , Wiccabilly Boogie , Little Black Tip Cauldron and Pagan Zydeco . This will be a genuine collector's item, an accoustic batch of Loke E. Coyote fun!

We began recording last night at Velvet Eagle Studios and things are going great! Production was slowed a bit because we were so busy dancing and having a fine time, but we managed to lay down a huge amount of music. Velvet Hammer percussion giant Nighthawk sat in on djembe and really rocked the session. Diana nailed her cello part on the very first try and beat an awesome rhythm on Lynda's ashiko. Trickster rapped, ranted and wailed on harmonicas and washboards. The finished song will appear on the Pagan Rock compilation CD which is due out around Beltane.

Well this was truly a great gig and the very first stop on the Pagapalooza 1999 tour. The crowd was so large that people in the back could not even hear the band was playing! A great turnout and most excellent party with Loke E. Coyote jamming up a heap of fun! Half the band's proceeds went to the CMA Land Fund to help purchase a site where Pagans from central Texas and elsewhere can gather for ritual and celebration. Several members of the Pagan supergroup Velvet Hammer were spotted among the crowd. By the way - we're not at liberty to release any names yet but we may have some very special guest musicians at our Rhythms of Spring gig. ROS will be an awesome gathering and we'll be recording for a live CD. Sign up early and be a part of Pagan rock history.

Check our schedule for upcoming gigs

Here's our press releases since we started saving them...

2/12/1999 - Loke E. Coyote Unplugged at Austin PNO

2/18/1999 - Rhythms of Spring