Hello and Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year to you! Hope that
2001 is a great year and slightly slower than 2000 seemed to be for
us here in Velvet Janes world. What a crazy year it has been!

I sat down and began to write some of the things that I am thankful
for the past year, and the things I feel that I and we have achieved
over this past 12 months. It sure made the year seem like a big one.

- Toured nationally with Ani DiFranco
- 3 Australian Velvet Janes Tours
- Recorded our first live album
- Launched that album Australia wide, and have begun to distribute it
in the US
- Got our US visas!
- Succesfully moved to San Francisco
- Survived

and the list goes on. It did somewhat encourage my soul in the middle
of such big changes.

So, here we are now. I am busily putting together our tours for the
USA for May and Aug/Sept, Rose and Kerrie are in Australia busily
putting together our next Australian tour in February and we are all
very excited about this next year. Very excited to be at last hitting
the US in a bigger and better way and at last, being able to get out
and visit alot more places. It has been somewhat daunting as this
country is so damn big, and we haven't yet found an agent or agents
that we are happy to work with and who is happy to work with us,
YET..but oh the things one can learn, when one has too! It truely
means we remain independant all the way and we work with other like
minded folk who are also truely independant all the way.

We have been invited this year to perform in Australia at the Port
Fairy Folk Festival and the Blue Mountains Folk Festival, and we are
busily putting together shows on the East Coast around those dates.
At this stage we are only hitting Adelaide, Sydney & Melbourne and
will be doing a concert performance as well as a candlelight show in
each State, with festivals on each side! It will be a fast and
furious tour with not much time in between. We are trying to set up
another tour at the end of year that will definately cover alot wider
ground. We will keep you notified as we go!

Our cds are busily selling out at www.cdbaby.com , which is pretty
exciting and what a great company they have been to sell our stock
through..couldn't have asked for better! Oh and they are also
available at www.chaosmusic.com in Australia or at the 78's records
website too.

In between tours I have started to pursue solo shows in and around
California. The first show last I did scared the proverbial shit out
of me as I took that first note and noticed something missing..but I
have committed myself to getting over that feeling this year and have
started to connect with folks all over San Francisco who are
committed to putting female singer/songwriter shows together. I will
be putting shows as they come, on our website at:
www.velvetjanes.com/mardi.htm

So, that is us now. Wherever you are, I hope that you have praised
yourself for your year and we both wish you a great 2001. Thanks, as
always for your support..and a big welcome to those new people on the
list..we are glad to have you along for the ride.

Till next time


Mardi & Rose
The Velvet Janes
www.velvetjanes.com