"Holy shit! Thanks, guys!"
 

The lead singer now known as Suzanne Santo (right) seemed genuinely stunned by the enthusiastic reception she and Honeyhoney co-founder Ben Jaffe received two songs into their set as support onJames Morrison's headlining stop at theFox Theatre in Boulder, Colorado,
on May 8.
 

They were only two songs into a 34-minute set, just finishing "Back to You," one of their popular tour fixtures that is nowhere to be found on their two long-playing studio releases
 

Even though Honeyhoney was the opening act, college students, aging hipsters and a few graybeards formed an impressively long line down 13th Street more than an hour before the doors opened, either sensing greatness in their midst or hoping to catch the Next Big Thing before they fade away. Crowds don't often start filling up the Fox until after the first group has finished.
 

The groundswell of support is growing for these sharp-looking pair of platonic friends since the release of Billy Jack, their star-making record released through Lost Highway. That's the cool country branch of Universal with an impressive roster of artists that includes Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson and the Jayhawks. After critically acclaimed stops at SXSW and Coachella, Honeyhoney continues to attract a beehive of activity around them.
 

They'll start the summer festival season over Memorial Day weekend at Sasquatch among a formidable group of artists, including Jack White, the Shins and Bon Iver, support Sheryl Crow in July, then cap off the month at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival.
 

That's quite a heady agenda for a pretty pair so unpretentious that they walked their way from the cozy Fox lobby through the crowd to the stage, smiles on their faces and instruments in their hands. If only they could resolve this love/hate relationship with capitalizing/lowercasing their group name.

Santo, still wearing her short black dress with the tiny white polka dots, kept fans engaged afterward by signing autographs or conversing pleasantly more than an hour after the start of Morrison's white-soul-brother-from-an-English-mother act.
 

Perhaps it's unfair to use that example and an eight-song live performance as a gauge to predict enduring success for a couple of players leading a dual existence. But the smart money here is on Honeyhoney making more of a lasting impression than their groundbreaking predecessors from L.A.
 

Somehow, lone justice will prevail.

For the full article, go to Huffingtonpost.com 

» www.huffingtonpost.com

A Conversation with honeyhoney's Suzanne Santo & Ben Jaffe by The Huffington Post:

Mike Ragogna: Hey, honeyhoney, our traditional kickoff question seems to involve beverages, so what you're drinking today?

Ben Jaffe: This is diet coke, coconut water, mango flavored. We're drinking in SXSW in the lovely Texas air. (Note: This interview took place at SXSW)

MR: Excellent. So what's going on with honeyhoney?

Suzanne Santo: I'm having a really good time. It's overwhelming, but also, every minute is incredibly stimulating, there's so much to see. 6th Street looks like an orgy.

MR: It is an orgy.

SS: I think it is. But I'm really recognizing the importance of hydration and little naps.

BJ: Catnaps.

MR: You're on a very cool label. You've got the whole apparatus.

SS: They're also really attractive. I don't know if people know that collectively, as a group, they are very attractive people.

BJ: But not just in a shallow way, inside and out. These are people that go down to the mat for you.

MR: Fount Lynch, who's sitting to our left, what do you think of these guys?

Fount Lynch: They are the best-looking band on the label.

SS: Why don't we just turn this relationship into a physical one? (laughs)

For the full interview, go to huffingtonpost.com

CityBeat interviewd Honeyhoney about their latest album, "Billy Jack."

Honeyhoney is an up-and-coming group out of Los Angeles that offers a soulful, folksy sound that has led to comparisons to The Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons. A combination of Suzanne Santo's strong voice and banjo/fiddle playing and the voice and guitar of Ben Jaffe, honeyhoney's sound (despite the comparisons) is a unique hybrid that has been intriguing audiences since last October's release of "Billy Jack" and the subsequent relentless touring.

The pair spoke with CityBeat by phone to promote Saturday's performance in Cincinnati at Bogart's (in the club's "Front Room").

CityBeat: I picked up your latest album in the fall when Billy Jack was released and I love it. I saw you were also previewed in Country Weekly in the fall and I just wanted to ask if you consider yourself a Country band.

Ben Jaffe: We don’t but that is kind of a genre that has been thrown at us now, of course, not in a bad way. I should have said "tossed gently to us" and we caught it. It has been a kind of interesting opportunity because we have had a lot of trouble aligning ourselves with a specific group. Everyone says “It sounds like this” or “not enough this” or “not enough that.” I think we are really happy to be embraced by Country people and we love to play in front of them, but I don’t think we call ourselves a Country band.

CB: It’s actually a hard genre to break into. I cover all kinds of music and it’s one of the harder types of music to get the fans to rally around you.

BJ: Completely. And it’s such a citadel, there is a real industry around it so I think that explains why it is tough to make a wave and whatever little ripple we are making is cool and we like to pursue it. Actually, it is interesting, Jamey Johnson was at one of our shows the other day and he expressed some support for us and we might play some shows with him so it kind of seems like it is pulling us in, like in Godfather: Part II.

To read more about CityBeat's interview with Honeyhoney, check out citybeat.com

"As Santo observes early on, “things are rarely ever what they seem.” While Billy Jack’s redneck title seems to suggest that Honeyhoney have smoothed over all of their weirder tendencies, that’s fairly inaccurate, even if the pair’s eccentricities are more subtle and less self-conscious this time around. Instrumentally, Santo and Jaffe are mostly neck-deep in twang (Santo’s wonderful banjo counter-melodies are particularly great), and their classic country influences shine blindingly through (Their unified harmonies on the bouncy “I Don’t Mind” echo The Everly Brothers). But Billy Jack never sounds dated or placid: The gorgeous six-strings and pedal-steel layers that build and climb in the instrumental climax of “Turn That Finger Around” are downright psychedelic. Meanwhile, their slower, jazzier coffee-shop reveries like “LA River” and “All On You” are fairly lightweight by this album’s previously excellent precedent, even if they are quite lovely as they drip along."

  LOST HIGHWAY/FONTANA TO RELEASE INDIE ROOTS

DUO HONEYHONEY’S BILLY JACK ON OCTOBER 24^TH 

******

41-Date Nationwide Fall U.S. “Ten Buck Tour” with 

Joshua James Launches September 21^st in Scottsdale, AZ  

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 22, 2011 – Bubbling up from the underground of the Los Angeles music scene with an indelible Nashville-influenced sound, indie roots duo honeyhoney have announced that veteran label Lost Highway will release their new full-length album, Billy Jack.  Set to drop October 24^th on honeyhoney Records/Lost Highway through Fontana Distribution, Billy Jack finds twenty-something musicians Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe threading sweet melodies with big acoustic guitar sounds, percussive banjos and countrified fiddles.  

“It’s with great pleasure that we welcome honeyhoney into our musical family,” said Luke Lewis, President, Lost Highway Records.  “They are such an incredibly talented pair of musicians, and we’re proud to make Lost Highway the home for their unique brand of Americana as they launch a promising career.”

“We are truly honored to be working with a record company that we respect so much, and it’s a goddamn dream to be under the same musical roof as some of the artists we look up to the most in the music industry,” said Suzanne Santo of honeyhoney. “We can't wait to do them proud." 

Produced primarily by Raymond Richards (Local Natives), Billy Jack evokes California's hippie Dust Bowl fringe. Overall, honeyhoney’s music contains a strong pull of Woody Guthrie-esque folk, vintage Buffalo Springfield, glints of Gram Parsons and bits of Bonnie Raitt's early blues, along with Rickie Lee Jones reality and Bakersfield Saturday nights. Not country, not folk, not rock, it is a hybrid that defies exact definition.  

To support the release of Billy Jack, the pair will take their full band on the road for a 41-date nationwide “Ten Buck Tour,” a co-headlining trek with indie folk singer-songwriter Joshua James that begins on September 21^st—with all tickets priced at $10 or less (service charge and walk-ups not included).  In advance of the tour, honeyhoney will perform a slot at the Sunset Junction Festival on “The Hotel Cafe Presents" stage in Los Angeles at 6:30 pm on Sunday, August 28^th.  

HONEYHONEY 2011 “TEN BUCK TOUR” DATES

DATE CITY    VENUE

September 21 Albuquerque, NM Low Spirits

September 24 Houston, TX         Fitzgerald’s Downstairs

September 25 Austin, TX                 Stubb’s Jr.

September 26 Dallas, TX                 Prophet Bar at Kessler Theatre

September 28 Nashville, TN          12^th & Porter

September 29 Birmingham, AL           Zydeco

October 1                Atlanta, GA         Smith’s

October 2         St. Petersburg, FL         Local 662

October 3        Orlando, FL         Plaza

October 4         Jacksonville, FL    Jack Rabbits

October 6         Raleigh, NC         The Pour House

October 7         Charlotte, NC         The Evening Muse

October 8         Richmond, VA The Camel

October 10 Charlottesville, VA The Southern

October 12 Boston, MA         Café 939

October 13 New York, NY         Mercury Lounge

October 14 Vienna, VA         Jammin’ Java

October 15 Annapolis, MD Rams Head On Stage

October 16 Philadelphia, PA         Tin Angel

October 18 Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall

October 19 Pittsburgh, PA Club Café Live

October 20 Cleveland, OH         The Grog Shop

October 22 Indianapolis, IN    Radio Radio

October 23 Ann Arbor, MI         The Blind Pig

October 25 Chicago, IL         Schubas

October 26 Milwaukee, WI    Shank Hall

October 27 Madison, WI        The Frequency

October 29 Minneapolis, MN        Fine Line Music Café

October 30 TBA                TBA

October 31 Omaha, NE        The Waiting Room

November 2 Denver, CO        Soiled Dove

November 3 Aspen, CO                The Belly-Up

November 4 Salt Lake City, UT        State Theatre

November 6 Seattle, WA        Nectar Lounge

November 7 Portland, OR        Backspace

November 8 Eugene, OR        John Henry’s 

November 10 San Francisco, CA        Hotel Utah

November 11 Santa Barbara, CA        Soho

November 13 Los Angeles, CA   The Troubadour 

# # #

Review copies of Billy Jack are available upon request.

 E-mail or call the media contacts below to receive a download or CD.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Erik Stein, 818-761-4645, estein@solters.com

Renee Harrison, 323-798-5129, queenrenee@hotmail.com