Cambridge, MA country-folk band Bell & The Bees are playing a handful of East Coast dates over the next few weeks in celebration of the release of their debut CD Meadowtapes.

The band is playing a free show at Goodbye Blue Monday in Brooklyn on December 8th. Bell & The Bees are going on at 10PM and they will be joined by Brooklyn's Yellowbirds (featuring Sam Cohen from Apollo Sunshine) at 11pm. Yellowbirds will play a special acoustic set.

The next night, December 9th, the band is playing Sidewalk Cafe in the East Village. The set time for this show is 8PM. This show is also free (2-drink minimum).

The band's new disc Meadowtapes is available as a digital download via Bandcamp for $7.00.

Last summer, we recorded seven songs live to tape in an old carriage house that sits beside Bakers Meadow in Andover, Massachusetts.

We weren't the first bees to come to this carriage house. In the months before we arrived, it was teeming with honeybees--thousands had made their nests within the mint green walls. As you walked in, you could hear their steady, collective hum. This was a good place for bees to continue making music.

For two sweltering August days we gathered with our instruments in front of a picture window, looking out into a forest of oak trees, while friend Carter Tanton rolled the tape. And while we were unfettered by the humidity and mosquito bites, our decidedly sensitive tape became seriously hot and bothered. Flying to Europe in a matter of hours, Carter manned the boards determined that we leave with all 7 songs intact. And with the deft swab of a q-tip or two, that is just what we did.

In the following weeks, the fragile tape continued to shed. Thankfully, a lightbulb popped into Martin's mind, ushering the wonderful Elio Deluca into the fold. He saved our tape, and we had a blast mixing the record during our visits to his amazing Soul Shop studio in Medford.

Our last stop brought us to Soundmirror in Jamaica Plain on a lovely spring day. After spotting an E.L.O. safety tape perched on a file cabinet, we knew we were in the right place! (ELO turned out to be a local classical orchestra, but don't mind that). The wonderful Mark Donahue mastered and brought everything together.