Another Thao Song

On February 5, Thao Nguyen's band Thao & the Get Down Stay Down will release their new album We the Common via Ribbon Music. The follow-up to 2009's Know Better Learn Faster was produced by John Congleton (Modest Mouse, St. Vincent). One of the album's tracks, Kindness Be Conceived, is a duet with Joanna Newsom.

Thao pointed out on her Facebook page that the duet with Ms. Newsom and several other songs would not exist without the Hedgebrook Retreat.  Hedgebrook supports "visionary women writers whose stories and ideas shape our culture now and for generations to come."

Hedgebrook Retreat is located on Whidbey Island, about thirty-five miles northwest of Seattle. Situated on 48-acres of forest and meadow facing Puget Sound, the retreat hosts women writers from all over the world for residencies of two weeks to two months, at no cost to the writer. Residents are housed in six handcrafted cottages, where they spend their days in solitude – writing, reading, taking walks in the woods on the property, on nearby Double Bluff beach or trails around the island. In the evenings, they gather in the farmhouse kitchen to share a home-cooked gourmet meal, their work, their process and their stories. The women who come to Hedgebrook are writing in all genres, and are of all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds and levels of writing experience.

Update:  Meanwhile, Thao released a second hilarious installment in her Behind The Scenes, The Making of The Making Of . . . video series.  Who knew she was such a great comedian?