For Immediate Release: October 1st, 2014 Press contact: Ben Weaver, benweaver651@gmail.com or 612.481.3775 Hymie's Records Contact: Laura Hoenack, lhoenack@hymiesrecords.com or 612.729.8890 ! !

Announcing Ben Weaver's I Would Rather Be a Buffalo LP release and "It's All the River" bike

tour.

“Americana full of weary determination and aphoristic clarity, somewhere between the Band and Tom Waits.” —The New York

Times ! 

Celebrating the new album release by songwriter, poet, environmental & bicycle advocate Ben Weaver as he brings all of these communities together for a truly engaged and engaging tour. Weaver will do his whole tour entirely by bike beginning the long trek from Minneapolis to New Orleans in support of the new LP release. With his guitar and banjo he'll travel 50-100 miles between each tour stop. The journalist & novelists Jonathan Miles (What Not, Dear American Airlines, NY Times, etc.) will accompany Ben on his tour as he joins environmental groups (such as the Mississippi River Fund, Leopold Heritage Group, Quapaw Canoe Company) to clean up sections of the river, participate in prairie restoration projects,  and plant native species. Along the way, Ben will be collecting and re-distributing seeds, poetry, and stories. This tour will find Ben curating stewardship-based, variety-style events with musicians, writers, farmers, and artists. And his performances will take place on farms, in bookstores, at bike shops, and music venues. !

To listen to the album and read a Q&A about the project with Ben Weaver, visit tour co-sponsor Banjo Brother's Bikes website. Also, please scroll down for the full press release, media images, and bio. !!!!

ALBUM and Artist Book RELEASE: !Limited to 500 vinyl copies, I Would Rather Be A Buffalo will be released by Hymie’s Records and come packaged in a letter-press printed jacket designed and produced by Ben Weaver and Monica Edwards Larson of Sister Black Press. The cover image was done by Gaylord Schanilec. !!

Additionally, Ben hand-bound a selection from his long poem, Ragged Ass Joy into a printing of 250 artist books that will be available on the tour. !Both the artist book and the vinyl LP will include a digital download code, which fans can immediately access online with their purchase starting October 10th, 2014. !!!!IT’S ALL THE RIVER DEPARTS MINNEAPOLIS OCTOBER 20th:

!Tour information here with additional events between Minneapolis & New Orleans TBA. !ABOUT BEN WEAVER & I Would Rather Be a Buffalo: I Would Rather Be A Buffalo is Ben Weaver’s 8th musical release. The album was recorded over the course of two days at Four Sisters Farm, near Rochester, MN. Engineered by Tom Herbers, and features Mike Lewis on upright bass and tenor.  

In addition to his recording career, Ben spent 5 years cooking in farm to table kitchens and learning whole hog butchery and charcuterie. Ben has also published two poetry collections—Hand Me Downs Can Be Haunted and The Talking Comes Later. His short story Humaneque was included in the anthology Amplified: Fiction from Leading Alt-County, Indie Rock and Folk Musicians alongside works by Jim White, Patty Larkin, Rhett Miller, Laura Veirs, Mary Gauthier and others. Ben is currently working on a third poetry collection, a book-length poem titled Ragged Ass Joy. A letterpress excerpt of Ragged Ass Joy will be available as a part of this tour.    !RELEVANT LINKS: Ben Weaver Hymie's Records Pictures Available for Media Use !TOUR SPONSORS: !Angry Catfish Bicycles Banjo Brothers Salsa Cycles Swerve Bunyan Velo Search and State !MEDIA REQUESTS: For interviews, additional press materials, to request a preview of the full album I Would Rather Be a Buffalo or an excerpt from the artist book "Ragged Ass Joy," contact Laura Hoenack at Hymies Records, Laura Hoenack, lhoenack@hymiesrecords.com or 612.729.8890 or Ben Weaver at benweaver651@gmail.com