ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
The Mizzone family has three talented
sons and a clear star player -- 9-year-old Jonny Mizzone,
who looks like a Newsie and rocks the banjo like he's out to
upstage Bela Fleck. In this video, Jonny strums his
impossibly fast fingers to Ralph Stanley's' "How Mountain
Girls Can Love," alongside his brother Robbie, on fiddle,
and Tommy on guitar, who are very good, too, but have the
disadvantage of old age (12 and 14, respectively). The three
call themselves the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, and they're no
amateurs -- the boys have their own fancy website, a CD and
appeared on Letterman last year, performing "Flint Hill
Special." Catch them at bluegrass festivals this month and
get a preview below.
_________________
James Lee Stanley & Cliff
Eberhardt Classic Doors Tracks
James Lee Stanley
is a singer-songwriter who, outside of performing as a Chinese
Linguist in the United States Air Force, has been on stage his
whole life from the age of 14. He does 300 shows a year, year in
and year out, most often with co-writer
Cliff Eberhardt. Eberhardt is a fellow
Pennsylvanian who also found his calling early and has spent his
lifetime nurturing his musical inclinations in the folk geocenters of the U.S., eventually "finding himself" in New
York. He became a Windham Hill artist, releasing his album The Long Road in 1990, which featured a duet with Richie
Havens.
Somewhere along the line, Stanley apparently
hatched the idea of doing album-long acoustic versions of
classic songs by a particular artist. The cynical and urbane
readers of RARWRITER.com may be tempted to say, "So what - we
got a guy at our local bookstore doing that, and we always have
to ask him to turn it down..."
Anyway, Stanley's first tribute was to the
Rolling Stones (All Wood and Stones, 2007), which he
recorded as a duet with fellow folkie John Batdorf. That featured a high-profile studio
band that has become the basis for a second album of Doors
covers (All Wood and Doors, 2010), in duet with
Eberhardt: Peter Tork (The Monkees),
with whom Stanley toured in 2000; Timothy B Schmit
(Eagles); Laurence Juber (Paul
McCartney & Wings), Paul Barrere (Little Feat),and Scott Breadman (Rippingtons,
Lindsay Buckingham). Also in these sessions have been
Laura Halland and Chad
Watson (David Arkenstone, Janis Ian), and for the All Wood and Doors LP founding Doors members
JohnDensmore and
RobbyKrieger.
There is, of course, no money to be made touring
talent of that caliber and vintage - just the assisted living
costs would kill the deal - but Stanley and Eberhardt tour their
acoustic interpretations steadily, and there is a video example
of them at work below. This one features their take on "Light My
Fire", which is distinguished by a brief mid-verse modulation,
but is otherwise reflective of the original. One of the problems
one might expect with doing the Doors acoustically is that the
Doors were a notably non-acoustic act, driven by
Ray Manzarek's Gothic organ
sound and Robby Krieger's
innovations on electric guitar, which continues to be one of the
most under-recognized stretches of player/composer brilliance in
all of rock history.
The synchronicity those two guys achieved with
the sensual and poetically crooning space cadet
Jim Morrison and the
ultra-sensitive drummer John Densmore
was propulsive and distinctive in spirit and sound. It has never
been replicated in any original way since the death of Morrison,
its human voice, not even in the sound of the musical expression,
though Manzarek and slide guitarist Roy
Rogers had a successful album together last year (Translucent
Blues, Blind Pig label) in which Manzarek sounds a lot like
the guy we knew in the '60s, sometimes even imitating his
deceased soul mate.
The sound of the Doors was a brief shining nugget
in music history, but if one strips away the inspiration of
these tunes' originators, what do you really have?
"Light My Fire" is in a minor key and moody, and
acoustically fit nicely under the spell of
Jose Feliciano, who may have
done is most universally appreciated recording with that song,
so where does one go with it now? Stanley & Eberhardt do a
professional if somewhat uninspired version that ends really
strong, to the point that one wishes they had started there and
backed all that atmospheric stuff back into the tune. But watch
the video below and judge for yourself. - RAR
___________________
Ann Arbor, Michigan
The Ragbirds
By Ami Heinrich
After a highly successful 2011 The Ragbirds are kicking off a new year with
the release of their 4th studio effort, Travelin’ Machine on January 1st, 2012.
In this exciting new album the band has seamlessly blended a wide palette of
musical genres into a fresh and cohesive 10-track package that is full of life
and energy.
It’s rare to stumble upon a band that brings as much joy and creative flare
to their music as the Ragbirds. Led by the energetic front woman, Erin Zindle,
the band tastefully unites multi-cultural rhythms with a roots rock flavor that
is as captivating and flirty, as it is smart.
The five-piece project is clearly built around the multi-talented Zindle, who
is not only the singer and songwriter for the project, but also is proficient in
a range of stringed instruments. This classically trained violinist can aptly
pluck the eight-stringed mandolin, wield a wild accordion and rock the banjo
while maintaining lead vocals. Surrounding Zindle's earthy-sweet voice is the
whirlwind of a guitarist T.J. Zindle, dynamic bassist Brian Crist, drummer Loren
Kranz and standout percussionist Randall Moore.
Chock-full of radio-friendly material, Travelin’ Machine showcases the band’s
skills with adventurous lyrics and a unique blend of styles. The album kicks off
with the contagious opening track “Six Wheels” - an energetic song with
Afro-Cuban rhythms and a frisky pop melody that manages to linger in your head
all day long. The second track, “Following You” has obvious bluegrass influences
with just a charming wink of country twang.
Sweeping throughout the album is a breezy quality that makes you feel like
celebrating. Tracks like “Silence is Everywhere” and “Moribayassa (I’ll Fly
Away)” highlight the percussive prowess of the group with layers of thick drums
and sounds reminiscent of an African village. In “Learn to Shine” Zindle’s
beautiful voice leads a soaring reprise you will want to hear while you’re
driving towards a mountain sunset, while the lively Cajun-Zydeco-inspired “The
Bully” seems straight out of the bayou. The bands diversity shines in the unique
“Acrobats” – a Circus-waltz with haunting accordion undertones, while “Mercy of
the Sea” is a rock Sea-Chanty with a classic swagger. All and all the album
takes the listener on a great musical journey that is as inspiring as the world
landscape from which it is drawn.
Beginning January 1st Travelin’ Machine will hit on-line stores and boutique
music shops around the country. A bright and diverse addition to any music
collection, the album provides charming, danceable songs that will be embraced
by listeners of all ages.
For more information about the band or their forthcoming release, Travelin’
Machine, check-out their official website at
www.theragbirds.com .
________________
Hydroglide
Dingy...
Martin Sexton on the Lake
As
he readies to release a title track single from his new EP
Fall Like Rain, and prepares to launch a
January-February bus tour - and who but a snow-experienced
upstate-New Yorker would really do that? -
Martin Sexton is
regaining a low-voltage spotlight that has been on him for
almost 20 years. Back in 1992, Sexton put himself on the map
by selling 20,000 copies of his self-produced demo album
In the Journey. Since then, he has released studio LPs,
most recently 2010's Sugarcoating, an LP that NBC
anchor Brian Williams became sufficiently enamored with to
seek Martin out for an interview backstage at New York’s
Beacon Theatre. That interview is featured on MSNBC’s
BriTunes.
When the assets and
characteristics of an artist don't fall into standard
descriptions of styles and types, but somehow still work,
these people are often described as "forces of nature", and
Sexton is one such. Watch the video below and this comes
through loud and clear; a sort of effortless expression that
mixes innate rhythmic sense with an elevated capacity for
breathing life into a song. Close your eyes and listen to
this live performance, the back half of which is dusted with
the kind of magic that you've heard in certain Van Morrison or
Cat Stevens songs of yesteryear, or perhaps more recently
from the likes of Sean Hayes.
Billboard called Sexton’s
version of “Working Class Hero” for the Lennon
tribute/benefit in 2010 “chill-inspiring.” Released this
November as part of The 30th Annual John Lennon Tribute
album, the track is available on iTunes. The New York
Times noted that this artist “jumps beyond standard fare
on the strength of his voice, a blue-eyed soul man’s supple
instrument,” adding, “his unpretentious heartiness helps him
focus on every soul singer’s goal: to amplify the sound of
the ordinary heart.” Billboard called Sexton “The
real thing, people, a star with potential to permanently
affect the musical landscape and keep us entertained for
years to come.”
______________________________________________
The Devil Makes Three
Amazing claw hammer-and-harmony
with a distinctive lead vocal...
Over the past 7
years, The Devil Makes Three have garnered
fans the old school way - playing a city, making friends, conquering fans and
moving on. When they hit the next town, venues are packed with folks that heard
from a friend in a city that the band had played before. Because of this, The
Devil Makes Three have established thousands of die-hard and devout fans. The
Devil Makes Three are songwriter, guitar and vocalist Pete Bernhard, banjo player
Cooper McBean
and stand-up bassist Lucia Turino.
All three members migrated to Santa Cruz via New England. Fellow Vermonters,
Bernhard and McBean played in punk influenced bands back home but found a common
ground in acoustic, country and bluegrass inspired music. When they met New
Hampshire native Turino out west, she taught herself the stand-up bass and a
band was born.
RANDALL BRAMBLETT,
pictured above, is the multi-instrumentalist leader of the
Steve Winwood band, though his professional associations are many
and varied, and he has a career as a solo artist. The former
vocalist for the Capricorn Records' jazz-fusion band
Sea Leavell (guitarist
Davis Causey was also in
that band),
Bramblett
toured with
Gregg Allman
on his first
solo tour, and presently opens for Winwood and Bonnie Raitt,
while also playing with Widespread Panic.
Writer/photographer Bill Thames describes Bramblett's
most recent solo album, In The Meantime, as "a real
change of direction for Randall...he usually plays with a
pretty high powered, extremely tight, professional band, but
this is just him on a grand piano, standup bass, and drums
with brushes...like I said it's a real change, but he
decided to put together some music that he's written over
the years that doesn't really fit a 'band' album."
We also have a Randall Bramblett video streaming from
RARadio, which is well worth
checking out.
The
Explorers Club
The
Explorers Club, a band hailing from Charleston, SC, will be releasing
its sophomore set, “Grand Hotel,” in early spring 2012, with Mark Linett (who
just finished the mix on Beach Boys’ “SMiLE” for Capitol Records) mixing the
release. In advance of the release of “Grand Hotel,” the band has readied three
EP “suites” that will each feature one cover song not on the album, bundled with
two early “under-construction” (pre-Linett) mixes of tracks from the forthcoming
set. The second of the three suites, “The Carolinian Suite,” will be available
exclusively at Amazon MP3 for free on November 22, 2011. The remaining Suite
will be available in December, also for free, exclusively at Amazon MP3. The
first suite, “The Californian Suite,” went to #7 on the Amazon free downloads
chart.
The “Carolinian
Suite,” which comes out next week, reprises the Classics IV hit, “Stormy,” along
with originals “Sweet Delights” and “It’s No Use.” The “Californian Suite,”
which is already out, features the Burt Bacharach standard, “Walk On By,” along
with two Explorers Club originals (“Weight Of The World and “Summer Days, Summer
Nights”). The “New Yorker Suite,” which comes out in December, will feature the
Explorers Club’s take on the Vanity Fare opus, “Hitchin’ A Ride,” and it will be
tied to “Anticipatin’” and “Run, Run, Run,” the latter of which will later be
released to radio as the lead track from “Grand Hotel.”
“Grand Hotel” is
the long-anticipated follow-up to the band’s
close-your-eyes-and-you’d-swear-it-was-the-Beach Boys debut, “Freedom Wind,” and
was produced in Atlanta by band member Jason Brewer, along with co-producer Matt
Goldman. It features fifteen tracks that once again take listeners back in time
to a period when radio was laden with songs by Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert and
the Tijuana Brass, and pop mainstays like The Grass Roots.
The Explorers Club
is: Jason Brewer (guitars, keyboards,
vocals), Dave Ellis (guitars, mandolin,
accordion, percussion, vocals), Wally Reddington III
(bass, vocals), Justin James (guitar, steel
guitar, vocals), Paul Runyon (keyboards,
vocals), and Kyle Polk (drums). -
Krista Mettler
Whoever came up with the name
"Tangent Arc" may have been a little too smart for the room. A
tangent arc is a generic name for several types of halo arcs
that form as loci tangent to other halos; the halo of 22°
occasionally exhibits the horizontal and vertical tangent arcs,
and the halo of 46° exhibits the infralateral tangent arcs and
the supralateral tangent arcs. I had to look that up, but I love
what is implied by the name. The quintet
Tangent Arc is comprised of
young folks from the Lawrence, Kansas area, three of whom are
siblings, the children of former trucker-philosopher Don
Benda, whose writings have been featured on this site. They
were raised with some pretty strong religious beliefs, including
this idea that energies may react with other to create things
new and profound. Wade Kelly
(second from the left) is the nominal front man of the group,
the male vocalist. His half-brother
John Benda (middle) is the power drummer who adds the
foundation to the band's harmony vocals and grunge pop. In
Rachel Anderson, Kelly Heiman
and Lilly Guy, the boys have
some high-end support on the vocal and the rhythm front. John
Benda is a standout drummer, but the real kick in this band is
its writing skills, which are melodically sophisticated and play
slick with time signatures. There is a lot going on here in a
young band from the oasis that is Lawrence. Keep an eye on
Tangent Arc and check out their sound at
http://www.myspace.com/tangentarc. - RAR
___________
MAD BUFFALO
...SHOWS ITS PRIMARY COLORS ON NEW CD, RED AND BLUE,
ALBUM PAINTS VIVID PORTRAITS OF LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA
BIGFORK, MT – Out of the “Big Sky Country” comes the
new release from Mad Buffalo,
Red and Blue, which is being distributed nationally
by Burnside Distribution. Red and Blue follows the band’s
critically-acclaimed 2008 CD, Wilderness, which No
Depression called “beautifully fleshed out, with stellar
performances;” while Gritz said of the album: “This is a CD that
begs to be heard over and over again ... In a five star rating
system, this one gets six stars. Six stars beside a full harvest
moon hanging over a bison filled prairie. Good stuff.” And
Honest Tune summed up its review by stating, “Wilderness
is an outright jewel that gets better with every listen ... one
of the best roots-oriented releases of 2008.”
Backing singer/ songwriter/guitarist
Randy Riviere on the new album
is a stellar cast of Nashville musicians, including legendary
guitarist Reggie Young, as
well as Jack Holder (guitar,
keyboards, vocals), Kevin McKendree
(keyboards and vocals), James
Pennebaker (guitar, violin, mandolin, banjo),
Shane Dwight (vocals),
Dave Roe and
Craig Young (bass) and
Chad Cromwell (drums). The album was produced by
Chad Cromwell and Randy
Riviere and recorded at Cromwell’s Lamplight Studio in Primm
Springs, Tennessee.
Just like its predecessor, Red and Blue paints
sweeping and incisive song portraits of characters and stories
that are universal in their scope and appeal. As on Wilderness,
the music on Red and Blue was informed by the many years Randy
Riviere spent as a wildlife biologist working to protect our
rapidly diminishing landscape values. Riviere’s musical
influences range from The Beatles and Lynyrd Skynyrd to The Band
and Neil Young.
Unlike Wilderness, however, in several songs Red and Blue
takes an outsider’s view of the political polarization of our
country in the last several years. “The title track of Redand
Blue is really about the deteriorating political discourse in
our country,” says Randy Riviere. “It used to be that we could
have political conversations with folks with different
viewpoints and go have a beer with them afterwards and continue
to be best friends. Now it's kind of ‘my way or the highway’ and
only ‘true believers’ are allowed. And it’s gotten really nasty.
One side has its own news shows, the other side has its own news
shows – there’s just this big dichotomy now. And I think much of
this is a product of contrived efforts, mostly by big-money
America, to keep us divided and voting in specific ways.
Beyond the political explorations, there are songs on Red
and Blue that are influenced by Thoreau’s ideas about the
freedom of living simply, which resonated with Riviere and his
family, who have vowed to do all they can to live as self
sufficiently as possible. On the Riviere farm, you’ll find cows,
pigs, chickens, a sizable garden and some horses.
Sungha Jung is a South Korean
youngster and a gifted finger-style guitarist. His innate sense
of rhythm is wonderful, as is his almost preternatural calm, all
on full display in his video performances of tricky compositions
such as the "Mission Impossible" theme. The links following lead
to his MySpace site, YouTube videos, and his official Website.
Young Jung, who was brought to the
attention of RARWRITER.com by a high school classmate of RAR's
from 1968 - thank you Randy Makings - is endorsed by Lakewood
guitars.
Rich Man's War
Challenges Bums with Bombs
Atlanta,
Georgia – Ruf Records announces an October 7 release date
for Rich Man’s War: New Blues & Roots Songs of Peace and
Protest, a 12-song CD compilation of performances from a
dozen artists that brings the protest song art form into the 21st
century. Produced by Kenneth Bays, editor of the internationally
celebrated magazine Blues Revue, the new CD
includes performances from such established blues and roots
artists as Bob Brozman, Guitar Shorty, Norman & Nancy Blake,
Candye Kane, Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater, Michael Hill and Doug
MacLeod, as well as a number of rising stars in the blues field.
“The seeds for
Rich Man's War came out of the oft-repeated
argument that today’s blues music isn’t ‘about’ anything -- that
modern blues songs are all either about partying, romantic
entanglements, or about celebrating the blues itself,” says
Kenneth Bays. “I’d heard several people say that, and I knew
that it wasn’t true, that there was more to today’s blues music
than just those time-worn topics.
“In 2004, the
progressive political organization MoveOn.org put out a CD
called Future Soundtrack For America that
consisted of indie rock artists performing songs that were
politically themed -- some subtly so, others less subtly. Beyond
its message, though, it was just a great, enjoyable collection
of music that I found myself listening to over and over again.
I’ve always been a fan of the protest song genre, and I thought,
‘Why hasn’t somebody done one of these in the blues world? Is it
that there aren't enough great protest songs in blues?’”
With that idea,
Bays began a quest and discovered literally hundreds of recent
protest songs from blues artists both established and unknown.
He culled them down to those songs that were very clear in their
focus, that had an intelligent point to make, that were
performed with the greatest passion, and that were just plain
good to listen to. Because of space limitations, he wasn’t able
to include many of the others he uncovered.
“It was when I
started reaching out to the artists that I knew we had something
really good,” remembers Bays. “All the artists I contacted were
excited and enthusiastic about the CD, and many of them said
they’d waited a long time for a disc like this to come about.
New York bluesman Michael Hill called it ‘an important and
much-needed project.’ Matthew Skoller said ‘the blues world is
frightfully devoid of projects such as this, and I applaud you
for doing it.’ The artists were unanimous in allowing us to use
their songs.
“It bothers me
when people say that music and politics shouldn’t mix. If that
were the case, we wouldn’t have Bob Dylan. We wouldn’t have had
Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. And we wouldn’t have a lot of what
we now consider to be classics of the blues genre, either. Blues
music was born from a population voicing their frustration with
the great injustices perpetrated against them. So it’s only
natural that today’s blues artists would want to voice their
feelings about the injustices they observe today. It’s part of
the tradition.
“My greatest
hope is that blues artists will hear Rich Man’s War
and say, ‘You know, maybe it IS okay for me to sing about the
things I see going on in the world. Maybe it’s okay for me to
write about issues I believe in. Maybe somebody will listen.’”
Complete
Track Listing:
1)Bob Brozman – “Follow the Money”
2)Guitar Shorty – “We the People”
3)Norman & Nancy Blake – “Don’t Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons”
4)Matthew Skoller Band – “Handful of People”
5)David Evans – “Bring the Boys Back Home”
6)Candye Kane – “Jesus and Mohammed”
7)Charlie Wood & the New Memphis Underground – “You Don’t
Really Wanna Know”
8)Pat Boyack Band – “Mr. Wesola’s Lucky Number Dream Book
Part II”
9)Roy Zimmerman – “Chickenhawk”
10)Michael Hill – “Fear Itself”
11)Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater – “A Time for Peace”
Boston, Massachusetts
- Were RARWRITER.com to design a flag to symbolize dedication to
"the indie ethos", a concept of suspect but immediate coinage,
it would likely bear the image of Juliana Hatfield.
That's her striding Bigfoot style across the cover of her new
LP, the imaginatively titled How to Walk Away (on her
label Ye Olde Records). Juliana has been an inspiration to
independent types since bursting onto the scene 15 years ago
with a string of "modern rock" hits ("My Sister," "Spin The
Bottle," "Universal Heartbeat") and establishing herself as an
authentic rebel voice. "She was a willowy beauty with charming
shyness and a slightly tragic air," writes Boston writer Brett
Milano, in his book The Sound Of Our Town: A History Of
Boston Rock+Roll.
Juliana was and is every nerdish
rocker's fantasy, a gravelly intellectual and a disarmingly
sexual presence. Her mix of fearlessness and vulnerability,
mated to her razor ways with word play, her confessional nature
and girlish voice, her churlishness, and her iconic looks add up
to an explosive package. RARWRITER.com can't look away.
How to Walk Away was recorded
at Stratosphere Sound, the NYC studio co-owned by Adam
Schlesinger (Fountains Of Wayne), James Iha (formerly of
Smashing Pumpkins), and Andy Chase (of revered alt-rock/pop band
Ivy), who produced the album. The LP features guest appearances
by another of our favorite voices, Richard Butler of the
Psychedelic Furs, as well as Nada Surf's Matthew Caws.
Other featured guest musicians were Fountains Of Wayne guitarist
Jody Porter (some lead guitar); Jeff Hill, of Rufus Wainwright's
band, on bass; and Ethan Eubanks of the Grey Race on drums.
Tracy Bonham guested on violin, and Jason Hatfield, Juliana's
brother, played piano on two songs, which he co-wrote ("Remember
November" and "Such A Beautiful Girl").
Juliana has always made MP3s
available for download from her site, based on something she
calls "the Honor System", i.e.: "When a song is downloaded, you
will have an option. You can decide that ownership of this song
is your right and freely distribute the files to your friends
and to the people who also think it's their right, without
payment. Or, you can support the artist who wrote and recorded
this song and click the PayPal button at the top of the page and
send Juliana a contribution. The iTunes standard of $.99 per
song may seem too high for you, in which case you can send $.50
- though there is virtually nothing else you can buy legally for
$.50. Alternatively, you can think of the number of people with
whom you might share these files and give a multiple of $.99 for
each song you download." Go to
http://www.julianahatfield.com/downloads.htm.
Juliana has also had her memoir,
When I Grow Up, published last year (Wiley) and excerpts
from the book can be found at
http://www.julianahatfield.com/ch8.htm. True to her
songwriting style, her book is smart and free of artifice and
makes for interesting reading. In the photo below, she is
reading a selection from her book at Book Passage in the San
Francisco Ferry Terminal.
www.julianahatfield.com
Remember that line "you
had me at hello?" I think it was dialogue from Jerry MacGuire
that morphed into a Kenny Chesney country hit. Well, Juliana
Hatfield had me at "My Sister,"
which I found to be a welcome palliative to the morose grunge of the rock
of the early '90s. Then, upon further examination, I learned that the song
about a sister she never had only touched the surface of what Juliana
Hatfield is about.
The
girl-voice could fool you - or convince you to love her - but there is a
lot going on with Juliana. Now in her mid-30s, having survived the teen
worship that attended her around the time her tune "Spin the
Bottle" showed up in the movie Reality Bites, she is a
powerful blend of intelligence and experience. By turns insightful,
brittle, sarcastic and pained, she writes songs that are ripped from an
inner experience. Candid, revealing, to me she is the very voice of girl
alt-rock, but she is also far more than. She is a real musician
who explores the instruments she plays (guitar, bass, keyboards) and uses
unconventional means (odd tunings, innovative playing techniques) to get
her layered sound, which is typically coming from a relatively small unit.
And she is a skilled harmonist, which is obvious in most every one of her
tunes. She beds her soft, sweet voice in clearly conceived harmonies that
build to powerful swells.
Juliana
came into national prominence along with a wave of girl acts, including Liz
Phair and P.J. Harvey. She shows up here on the Links through
the work she did at Mark Hallman's Congress House studio.
ABOVE:
Exile in the Church of Juliana
Photo:
Danny Clinch
Photo:
Dylan Long
Photo:
Tom Dubé
LEFT: Juliana
started her career with a trio - the Blake Babies - and is back to working
in another - Some Girls, pictured here, who just released an LP. ABOVE:
Juliana on stage with Some Girls. BELOW (counterclockwise from left):
Juliana releases include Made In China (2005), In Exile Deo (2004),
Beautiful Creature (2000); Total System Failure (2000), Bed (1998), Only
Everything (1995), Spin the Bottle (1993), For the Birds (1993), My Sister
(1993), I See You (1992), Forever Baby (1992), Everybody Loves Me But You
(1992), Hey Babe (1992), and Gold Stars (2002).
THEFlaming Lips formed
in 1983, coming together rather quickly. Bandleader Wayne Coyne recalls
the early efforts. After leaving his $60 a week fish-frying job at Long
John Silver's, bandleader Wayne Coyne bought a Les Paul and formed
a band. "I learned to play fairly well within a couple of weeks,
and everyone thought I was going to be the next Hendrix or something. I
never really got much better than I was after those first two
weeks..." The Okies started gigging, inexplicably, in a black
R&B bar and playing what they thought of as "death rock"
before moving on to a transvestite club in Oklahoma City, called the Blue
Note. They started veering more toward punk and opening for Husker
Du, Black Flag and the Minutemen and began developing an
entertaining and energetic stage show that involved a lot of jumping
around, lying down to play, and generally knocking things over, then
eventually morphed into a costumed act. They remain one of the most
outlandish acts in rock.
Columbia,
South Carolina – Singer/songwriter Nick Pagliari is
touring behind his September release of Please and Thank You,
issued on his own Palagreeno Records, distributed nationally by
Burnside Distribution.
Born and raised in Memphis and
now based in Columbia, South Carolina, Nick Pagliari also lived
in Nashville for five years honing his songwriting craft, where
in 2003 he was voted Best Unsigned Songwriter in the reader’s
poll sponsored by the Nashville Scene weekly. Later as a member
and primary songwriter for the band Fairfax, he landed one of
his songs on the This is Americana: Volume One compilation CD
that included Willie Nelson, Alison Krauss & Union Station and
Lucinda Williams, among others. During his stay in Nashville, he
signed with Highland Music Publishing (SESAC). Pagliari also had
one of his songs, “Safe and Sound,” the title track from his
2007 EP, placed in the major motion picture, P.S. I Love You,
which starred Hillary Swank. In addition, 2007 saw the release
of Nick’s first full-length album, The Sail.
Nick Pagliari’s sound is a
wonderful mix of his Memphis and Nashville influences, and is a
perfect showcase for his powers as a storyteller. “This is a
people album,” Nick explains. “It’s about my life, the lives of
my friends and the characters I’ve developed to tell different
stories about struggle and romance, desire and change.”
Please and Thank You rocks and alternately rolls with the
Americana sounds recalling such groups as Uncle Tupelo, Wilco,
Son Volt and the Old 97’s. The album was produced by Scott
Hardin, Nick Pagliari and Jamie Dick and recorded/mixed at 747
Studios in Memphis with the exception of three tracks, which
were mixed at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis. Please
and Thank You is supported by a Triple A and Americana radio
campaign spearheaded by Reid Promotions, along with national
touring in such markets as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,
Detroit, Kansas City, Atlanta and Nashville. For more
information, visit www.nickpagliari.com and www.myspace.com/nickpagliari.
Leitchfield, Kentucky –
Feats Records has released singe/songwriter Will Callery’s
new CD, Rider Comin’ In, with national distribution
by Burnside Distribution.
Born in Terra Haute, Indiana, and
raised in Owensboro, Kentucky, Will Callery is a veteran
performer and songwriter who in his early career toured with
everyone from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Arlo Guthrie to David
Lindley and Taj Mahal. His music has been recorded and performed
by such artists as Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Norah
Jones. Callery’s biggest break as a songwriter came in 1975 when
Willie Nelson recorded one of Will’s songs, “Hands on the Wheel”
on his ground-breaking, multi-platinum-selling album, The
Red-Headed Stranger, which also went on to earn a Grammy®
nomination. “Hands on the Wheel” was also chosen as the title
song for the film, The Electric Horseman, which starred Robert
Redford and Jane Fonda. Will Callery was later signed to Lone
Star Records, Nelson’s Texas imprint for the Columbia label and
made frequent appearances at Willie’s annual Fourth of July
picnics. He can also be seen in the film, Heartworn Highways,
with Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, Steve Earle and Rodney
Crowell. In addition to his film work, Will has written songs
for such television shows as “St. Elsewhere” and “Northern
Exposure.”
Will Callery’s many days on the
road took their toll, however, and substance abuse problems led
him to withdraw from performing and writing in an effort to heal
his heart and soul. After working as a lumberjack in the
northwest for several years, he began to regain his desire to
record and perform again, settling back home in Kentucky.
Rider Comin’ In reunites Will
Callery with many of the musicians he’s worked with in the
studio and on tour, including guitarist Joe Forlini, who has
worked with Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker and Stevie Ray
Vaughan. Other players featured on the new CD include T. Gozney
Thornton on harmony vocals and harp, Greg Lowry on a multiple of
stringed instruments, Ted Sweeney on bass and Eddy Cantu on
drums. Long-time friend Jerry Jeff Walker makes a special guest
appearance performing a duet with Callery on a reprise of “Hands
on the Wheel,” the song that started it all for Will. Will
Callery will tour in support Rider Comin’ In, with
booking by Richard Sutton of The Sutton Agency (936-875-5696 –
office; 936-414-4380 - cell / rwsutton35@aol.com). Radio
promotion is being handled by Bill Wence Promotions
(615-776-2060 / billwencepro@earthlink.net). Will Callery is
managed by Brian Gavron (615-587-3323 / bgavron@comcast.net).
For more information, visit www.willcallery.com.
Tucson,
Arizona-based CALEXICO has been together since 1996. The band is
influenced by sources as diverse as Portugese fado, 50's jazz, gypsy or
romani music and its offshoots, 60's surf and twang from Link Wray to
country's Duane Eddy, the spaghetti western epics of Ennio Morricone and
dark indie rock singer songwriters like Smog, Richard Buckner, Will Oldham
and Vic Chesnutt. I had to include Calexico because they have a fresh
version out of one of my all-time favorite songs, Love's "Alone Again."
www.joelala.com joe
lalawas a name I used to
hear all the time from the Boulder guys I knew, because they all liked and
admired him. He was always involved in something interesting, a music,
television, movie or theater project. There was always a lot of energy
swirling around him, and had been from early in the evolution of rock.
Joe
helped put together Blues Image in his native Tampa, Florida before
moving on out west where among his compatriots was Buddy Zoloth,
who managed the band for a time. Blues Image had a big hit in 1970 with
"Ride, Captain, Ride." Joe was the percussionist and lead singer
on their song “Leaving My Troubles Behind.”
Around
1972, when Stephen Stills brought Manassas into existence in the Boulder
area, Joe Lala moved to Colorado for a time to be a part of that project.
Following the two-album career of Manassas, Joe worked with a string of
top bands, including The Eagles, The Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, Diana Ross, Dionne
Warwick, Barbara Streisand, John Couger Mellenkamp, Eric Clapton, Dr John,
and Herbie Hancock, among others.
"Joe accumulated 32 Gold
records, and 28 Platinum records during his music career. He played on the
movie soundtracks of “Saturday Night Fever”, “Staying Alive”,
“D.C. Cab”, “Streets of Fire”. “All The Right Moves”,
“Breathless”, “Defiance”, “The Lonely Guy”, and
“Airplane”.
"A severe case of carpal
tunnel syndrome ended Joe’s career as a percussionist, but it opened the
door to another way of life, acting. I know you have seen him in may
projects. His films include "Active Stealth", “Sugar Hill”,
“On Deadly Ground”, “Deep Sleep”, “Havana” with Robert
Redford, “Out For Justice”, “Marked For Death” “Eyewitness To
Murder” and “Born In East L. A.” plus many more.
"Joe has made many
appearances on TV shows like “Miami Vice”, “General Hospital”,
“Melrose Place”, “Seinfeld”, ”Hunter”, “Who’s The
Boss?”, and starred in a summer replacement show named “Knight &
Daye”. He portrayed another famous Ybor Citizen Dr. Ferdie Pacheco in
“Ali”, and co-starred with Andy Garcia in “For Love Or Country”
The Arturo Sandoval Story.
"Joe can be seen and heard
doing movies and commercials all over the country, and on cartoons where
he voices many characters. He still keeps his barbers license active,
“just in case”." - from his website
MUSICIAN: (ABOVE) Joe Lala
on stage.
________________
Joe has recently completed
recording of an album, which includes session work by Stephen Stills and
Richie Furay, who were once together in the legendary band Buffalo
Springfield.
MUSICIAN:
Recording with Crosby, Stills and Nash.
ACTOR:
ABOVE:
In Miami Vice (right).
FROM
LEFT: City of Angels, Joe
Lala and Gil Machin,
Former
Atlantic A&R guy Phillip Rauls
has a trunk load of photographs from his days in the record business. The
now-Washington State resident has launched a site where he
reminisces
about his experiences with some of the most well-known talent of the 20th
Century and he makes use of his ample photo album. The site is well worth
checking out.
FROM
RAULS' COLLECTION:Chris Hillman, Joe Lala, Stephen Stills
during the 1972 Manassas tour
Touring
with Manassas: Aboard the tour plane circa 1972, Phillip
Rauls and young Stills Road Manager Buddy
Zoloth express disbelief over a bad review.
Back
when Firefall was in its glory
in the 1970s, the band had two powerhouse players who gave the sound of
the band a quality that set it apart from the crowded country-rock field:
flash guitarist Jock Bartley,
who remains the band’s leader to this day, and multi-instrumentalist David
Muse. Georgia-native David was a high school-aged band mate of Rick
Roberts, who a decade later would become the songwriting force behind
Boulder-based Firefall. It was Roberts who brought David Muse into the
band and David’s contributions of depth and texture elevated the unit to
an elite musical level that put them on a par with Kenny Loggins and other
of their more sophisticated contemporaries.
When
the original Firefall disbanded in 1981, David left Colorado
for
California
and became an early contributor to the New Age revolution as defined by
such independent labels as Windham Hill, Hearts of Space, and Narada,
which were then kitchen table operations. David recorded Tonal
Alchemy - “space music” as David calls it. It was a logical
extension of the musical therapy he had perceived in early influences of
the competitive 19th century modernist French composers Achille-Claude
Debussy and Erik Satie. These two were fathers to the New Age sound,
though for different reasons. Debussy was a structural designer, working
in the Phrygian mode and using whole-tone scales to create lighter than
air ambient backgrounds. Satie, who wasn’t even comfortable calling
himself a musician, though he was a cabaret pianist, was initially a
deconstructionist radical, inclined toward the documentation of
“sounds,” though in his later works he became a structured contrapuntalist
while remaining decidedly a-formal.
All of this
seemed to speak to the horizon-gazing David Muse, who saw in New Age
What
David has over both of his New Age mentors is great ranging musicianship,
and in 1983 he started touring heavily with the decidedly earthy Marshall
Tucker Band (MTB), which he has continued to work with off and on ever
since, even counting a brief return to Firefall around the turn of the
millennium. He still speaks highly of Firefall and considers it his first
home, MTB his second. As if not already busy enough, David runs his own
unit, The David Muse Band, a
five-piece Firefall tribute band that performs the Firefall songbook in
clubs throughout the southeastern
U.S.
He is also headed into the studio in the next few months to record his
first smooth jazz CD.
David Muse has performed
with the Marshall Tucker Band since 1983
http://littlejoeblues.com/index.htm This is a wonderful website. Rob McLerran was a prominent bassist on the Boulder
scene, and all the musicians in Boulder knew his kids Joey and Jesse. Joey
was a music, and particular a blues, prodigy and as kids he and Jesse were a
popular Pearl Street Mall act. Jesse played the washboard, which he picked
up from his brother's Godfather Washboard Chaz Leary.
The McLerran family
left Boulder for Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1998 and after that there transpired a
series of events, mournful and tragic and victorious. I would encourage everyone to go to
this website and read the beautifully written and touching biography
there. This is a great family and Little Joe is the real deal as a
roots blues player. His dad is the real deal, too. Always has been.
Writes Robbie Mack:
"We are planning a brief tour of the Boulder area in late October.
We hope to see you then. Speaking of the Audience Magazine, one of
my favorite pieces of memorabilia is an Audience cover with Rob,
Paula Rangell and Washboard Chaz walking up Spruce Street by the
Boulderado. Those were the days. There are a million stories to
tell of those days. I am still in touch with Chaz, Paula, Spencer
Bohren, Rich Fifield and many others."
Little Joe has
several CDs available and if you are a fan of Piedmont blues you should have
these wonderful releases.
In January,
Little Joe and Robby Mack played the 2006 International Blues Challenge in
Memphis, Tennessee
Little
Joe/SON PIEDMONT MP3s
From
"Little Joe, Son Piedmont - The Hard Way,": Featuring Little
Joe "Son Piedmont" McLerran, guitar and vocals; Ray
Bonneville, harmonica; Lloyd Price, dobro and guitar; Robbie
Mack, bass and background vocals; David McKnight, drums.
Recorded 2005 at Cat House Studios, Fayetteville, Arkansas by David
McKnight
From "Son Piedmont and the Blues
Krewe": Featuring Little Joe "Son Piedmont" McLerran,
guitar and vocals; Washboard Jesse McLerran, percussion and vocals;
Robbie Mack, bass and background vocals; Dexter Payne, sax,
clarinet & harmonica; Big Mike T. Travelletti, harmonica.
Recorded 2003 at World Wind Studios Manfred, Oklahoma by Arron Poulson.
Robbie
Mack, Little Joe's bass-playing father, who was prominent on the Colorado
music scene when I was around in the late '70s and early '80s, noted
recently that he and I had been leading parallel lives, at least up to a
point. Writes Robbie - "One is
that my father was stationed at Scott AFB just about the time you were
born." I was born on Scott Air Force Base, right outside of East
St. Louis in Belleville, Illinois in 1952. "I (Robbie)
spent the 2nd grade in Belleville, IL just across the river from St.
Louis. My dad was in the Air National Guard and was called up during the
Korean War for stateside service and a Staff Sgt also." My dad was
a Staff Sergeant in Air Force, stationed at Scott AFB, and was a radio
instructor. "He (Rob's Dad) too was doing something with radio or
radar. Two, I married a gal 26 years
ago who was from Traer, Kansas about 5 miles from Atwood." I
graduated from high school in Atwood, Kansas. "She is the
mother of my children including Little Joe." Little Joe and Robbie
Mack were in Memphis earlier this month making a repeat appearance in the International
Blues Challenge. We won the regional competition
held in Tulsa this year. Last year we went to Memphis representing
the Oklahoma Blues Society out of Oklahoma City." Voting
for the Awards continues on through February, but I'll listen for and
announce the results. I'm sure Son Piedmont did well. There is a great
website for the Blues Foundation and that event at http://www.blues.org/ibc/.
This festival hosts top headlining acts, as well as the competition that
takes place among artists sponsored by Blues Foundation affiliates. San
Francisco's Tommy
Castro has been among the big time acts featured at the
festival.
Little Joe Blues Wins in Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee -
The ongoing story of "the Blues" is all over RARWRITER.com this
issue, as usual, ranging from rumors of its demise to paeans to
its inherent cultural value.
One of the nicer Blues stories of
this year was the win "Little Joe McLerran"
(aka "Little Joe Blues") took home to Oklahoma
this February from the 25th Annual International Blues
Challenge, held in Memphis. There he competed against 65
entrants in one of the nation's foremost blues events. He took
1st Place in the "Solo/Duo" category.
Little Joe is the son of bassist
Rob McLerran, who was a popular fixture on the Boulder,
Colorado music scene in the 1970s and '80s. Little Joe is a
Boulder native, and the McLerran family story of heartbreak and
family devotion is one of the most touching stories on this
site.
Little Joe has performed at the
Memphis event for a number of years and has always been a
popular draw, finishing high in the vote counts. He is to that
Blues manor born. Performing since he was a teen, Little Joe has
an authentic Piedmont sound.
Joey
DeLauro is a great performer/drummer/singer whose band The Smoking Section is
established in Tucson, Arizona. He has
toured with Michael Martin Murphey ("Wildfire"), Jerry Jeff
Walker ("Mr. Bojangles"), David Bromberg (renowned
guitarist and session player for Bob Dylan), Chris Daniels and The
Kings with Al Kooper (founder of
Blood, Sweat & Tears), among others.
CATSEYE:
Joey DeLauro was among the original members of the Boulder, Colorado-based
band Catseye. The Catseye story is common in a lot of respects - a band
comes close to getting a record deal but gets disappointed - but is made
different by the situation of the music community in which the band came
together. It's an interesting story and you can read Joey's remarks at Catseye
on the Archives page.
WARNER
LOGAN: Joey DeLauro offered some thoughts on Boulder music store
owner and raconteur Warner Logan, who died a few years back after
contributing as a foundation asset to the music community for years. You
can read Joey's remarks at Warner Logan
on the Archives page.
Joey was a fixture on the Boulder, Colorado music
scene for 30 years. Among the bands he played in was The Cheaters, that included
Rich Fifield and Michael O'Niel. With real pro players, The
Cheaters was a jam-band that had a lot of good nights, which means
something in that genre. There may be a reunion TBA.
Tucson
Musicians Show for Mike Tatum
Reprinted
from April 1, 2008 Artist News page
TUCSON
FRIENDS OF MIKE: PopularTucson, Arizona musician
Mike Tatum has been suffering from health problems of late. On April 13
some of Tucson's top attractions will gather at the Sakura for a benefit
show to help Mike defray medical expenses. Names
and band association, standing from left to right: Bin An
/Sakura owner, Jeff Shallen /Highrise, John Ankiewicz /Highrise, Kimberley
Kelly /KJLL AM 1330, Kevin Hiederman & Jim Holt /Joe Nelly &
Friends, Jamie /Neon Profit, Joe "Nelly" DeLauro/The Smokin'
Section, Alex Flores, Glen Valardi, Mike Blommer, & Carla Brownlee
/The Bad News Blues Band, Gary Roberts/The Smokin' Section Seated
left to right: Michael Issac/Mike Tatum Band, Vicki Nelson/VN&Friends,
David Dean & Plato/ Neon Profit, Chris Davis/The Rowdies, Randy
Prentice/The Smokin' Section.
Mike
Tatum, Tucson’s Original R&B Soulman
by John Ankiewicz
Blues, and it's derivatives, R&B and
jazz, have been touted as the only forms of truly American music. At about
the same time John Phillip Sousa was writing his famous march, "Stars
and Stripes Forever" (1896), black slaves were plunkin' banjos and
guitars, and beating drums to establish a new genre of folk music which
would eventually become knows as the blues. As the blues men moved north
to the labor-hungry factories of Kansas City, Chicago, and New York, they
brought with them this new form of music.
Several generations later, in the early
50's, the Tatum family migrated from Texas to Tucson. An extremely musical
family, 4 of their 5 sons played or sang. The youngest son, Mike grew up
in Tucson and learned music from his older brothers. By the 60's, Mike was
singing and playing guitar in a family band called "Little Dynamite
and the Fuses". Little Dynamite, a.k.a. Mike Tatum was a child
prodigy, and by the 70's Mike Tatum was the singing guitar player in the
premier Tucson soul band, the "Haze Express". Singing blues and
soul, the Haze express provided exciting R&B sounds to the
predominantly black air bases and army bases of Southern Arizona, not to
mention the juke joints, barbecue houses, and card rooms of Tulsa, Dallas,
Mobile, and Jackson in what was then known as the "Chitlin'
Circuit".
In 1974, on the cusp of the disco era, this
author met Mike Tatum when Mike's older brother "Doc" stepped
down from his role as bass player in the "Haze Express". What a
thrill and education for a Chicago bred white boy to play bass with the
band, and even though the band nicknamed me "school teacher" the
real learning came from Mike, who schooled me in subjects like how to
dance in rhythm with the beat, play funky licks, and in the principals of
being cool. Always quick to laugh and ready to jam, Mike Tatum set the
tone for musical success over the next 11 years on the road, where we
continued our alliance with groups like SilverTrain and Highrise. With his
funky guitar style and his soulfull voice, Mike Tatum was then-- and
continues to be-- the total R&B package.
Over the years Mike's versatility led him
to expand to a variety of different music styles, but underlying it all,
his soulfull vocal and guitar style showed through. As he made the
transition to the torrid disco and Latin dance clubs of the Southwest, his
musical prowess powered the ever popular "Highrise" band-a band
that from 1977 to 1998 set the gold standard for funky R&B, disco, and
soul, thrilling mixed audiences in 63 cities across the West, including
Juneau, Alaska. These days you will find Mike Tatum performing in Tucson
at Sakura's Japanese Restaurant (sushi and soul on the patio) and the
casinos, where he typically greets his audiences with his roaring laugh
and his golden voice. Mike Tatum is the "real deal", among the
last of the true "soul men" who brought R&B out of the
churches and into the public waves. Don't miss the "Mike Tatum
Band".
After
solo efforts and some experimentation with tape loops and odd time
signatures, former Uncle Tupelo founder Jay Farrar has reformed his
popular group Son Volt and returned to some electric guitar basics.
These
old Tufts University frat boys are Boston-based, but popular in the Bay
Area where people appreciate their experimentations. They change the
instrumentation on their songs from set to set, use odd tunings including
standard six string guitars tuned down to approximate a bass, and the
drummer plays even the cymbals with his hands. GUSTER is nutty as a
fruitcake, often likened material-wise to Jack Black's Tenacious
"D" and they are bright fun. They are politically engaged this
election season, driving around this spring on their Campus
Consciousness tour in bio-diesel fueled caravans. They are
environmental advocates.
Guster
bandmember Adam Gardner has teamed with Dave Scneider of the
Zambonis to form a decidedly Hebrew rock band called The LeeVees.
They have a CD out titled Hanukkah Rocks.
Christian
blues rocker sarah kelly was
recently nominated for a Grammy in the Best
Rock Or Rap Gospel Album category for her LP Where the Past Meets
Today. She was also nominated for a Rocky in the recent Rock City News
Awards in L.A. She is sort of undeniable as a pro songwriter, and she is a
strong singer, something of a belter. (Christianity Today says she
has a "Joplin-meets-Alanis Morissette
growl," which strike
me as revealing references. Aren't those guys going to get in trouble for
listening to those girls?)
Sarah
Kelly arrived on the Christian music scene with a Grammy nomination for
her first LP Take Me Away, so she has gone right to the top of a
niche market. Make no mistake, though, she's a rocker. As is often the case,
her blend of faith and gravel has been achieved through some pretty
grizzly experience, beyond even those typical of a traveling musician.
Again from
Christianity Today - "... behind
her smile and
platform of hope in Christ was an abusive past,
including a rape, that she hadn't yet dealt with—until recently."
www.vandaveer.net VANDAVEER
is the alter-ego of singer/songwriter Mark
Charles Heidinger, who is a RARWRITER.com "Featured Artist"
this edition.
For
Vandaveer, who seems stylistically in debt to actor Jonathan Pryce's
stylized persona of Mr. Dark in the 1983 movie adaptation of Ray
Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, Mark puts aside his
alt-rock in favor of a more acoustic-oriented folk sound. Vandaveer has
some things in common with '70s-era minimalist Leon Redbone. Where
Redbone, however, was all camp with character renditions of early 20th
Century Americana, Vandaveer spins grim carnival tales of murdered women
and random, suicidal violence, mixed with early Dylan sounding acoustic
ruminations.
www.myspace.com/foreversixteen juliejerkoff
ha! probably belongs on the Los Angeles or San Francisco links, but
I'll probably never know. (Ooops! I do now. She's from Ohio, of all
places.)
The elusive Internet star doesn't respond to my
emails and there's a part of me that says good for her. Better that she
stay mysterious. For those of you who don't know, juliejerkoff writes mean
but catchy pop tunes, about girls who are too easy and don't clean their
pores, and she performs these catchy ditties against a drum machine rhythm
track and some minimalist synth beds. She is sort of a guilty pleasure. I
had posted some deep insights into what juliejerkoff must mean in a media
mad society, and what her music says about 21st century international
citizens, but somehow it all got deleted when I fixed the broken link to
her site, and I'm not as clever this time around. Go to her site and hear
her tunes. She will titillate, fascinate, possibly infuriate, but I like
her. She's smart and clever and vicious in a high school "Tina
Fey" sort of way. She says she's only seventeen, which makes her a
schoolgirl, but on the strength of her bile she may be an acid poll
dancer. Or is the joke on us for even noticing? Judge for yourself, I've
fixed the link, and I would encourage you to check out juliejerkoff ha!
RAR NOTE:
julie jerkoff ha! - and I want a name just like that - doesn't make MP3s
available from her myspace site but you can listen there. I would suggest
"I Don't Give A" as the definitive track.
jaggedy
ann is an all girl rock band
from Las Vegas who scored an L.A. Rock City News nomination in the
girl band category. They are a hard rock band of the kind you hear on the
west coast - loud, full, tight, pro. They sound a little like Heart to me.
All
four of the Anns come from hard rock backgrounds, and their debut LP was
produced by AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd and recorded in New Zealand.
They have toured the Asia Pacific rather extensively, playing throughout New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong,
Singapore and the Philippines.
From
their website - "The
band consist of Gayla Dawn, with her sensual hard rockin' voice, Leona
Sharpe on guitar, with her ripping leads and riffs, Miss Claudia on
bass
guitar with her characteristic yet unique in the pocket style, and Holly on
the drums with her solid timing and versatile charisma."
I
bet that "versatile charisma" is a sight to see.
JAGGEDY
ANN MP3s:
Jaggedy Ann MP3s can be
heard from their myspace site.
Jaggedy Ann released Boiling Point in
2006, produced by AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd. The tracks sound alternatively
like Heart and a Scooby-Doo soundtrack, neither a bad place to be.
SWIG
received a nomination in the 2006 Rock City News Awards in L.A. in
the Outstanding New Band category, and for good reason. These guys,
really just vocalist Dave Bierman and Glenn Scanlan, who
plays guitar, bass and drums, write and perform some catchy rock that has
growl, bite and a current punk rock sound. They sound a little like the
Clash, I think, as well. I like these guys a lot, don't know much about
them. Go to their myspace and listen to their MP3s, which are really cool.
SWIG MP3s:
SWIG
has MP3s available for download from its myspace site.
Recently
RAR was in Vancouver, British Columbia attending an offsite meeting among
consultants for the corporation we all work for. There I saw a guy, whom I later
came to know as Mark
Heidinger, who sort of stood out among the crowd. With frowsy black
hair that curled forward around his face and a heavy, full beard that climbed
high on his cheeks to frame piercing blue eyes, my immediate impression was that
he had the romantic look of a Gypsy and only a musician would look so. Those
instincts turned out to be right.
Mark
Heidinger is a Lexington, Kentucky native, a transplant to Washington D.C.,
whose rock ambitions have been on display, and well received, for a while now -
certainly since 2003, when he and a quartet of Lexington friends working as The
Apparitions released an album, Oxygen Think Tank, that featured
Mark's vocals and showcased his songwriting talents. One local critic described
The Apparitions as "The Pixies on ecstacy," and the band's tracks
started showing up on that year's list of best indie acts.
No
sooner did The Apparitions establish a Lexington fan base than Heidinger and his
wife moved to Washington D.C. so she could enter a graduate program at
Georgetown. The Apparitions became a long-distance romance, with Heidinger
bouncing back and forth to work the band's Kentucky fan base and also cultivate
new fans on the east coast.
In
2005 The Apparitions released another well-received LP produced by Duane Lundy and
Tony Lash (Elliott
Heidinger
wasn't satisfied with the momentum growing around The Apparitions and joined the D.C. band These United States as a bassist,
supporting songwriter and band founder Jesse Elliott, in whom Heidinger
found a creative partner. Heidinger
and Elliott share an odd take on arranging and composition, both partial to
quirky, spare melodic romps that are strangely unconnected to any particular
music genre. There are times when some of the work of Jack White comes to mind
as being of similar cloth, but like White neither Heidinger or Elliott stay dead
centered on any particular pop idiom. They are the odd tandem partners exploring different
parallel universes. In fact, they have institutionalized the exploration through
the establishment, with another creative ally, Chris Walker, of their Federal
Reserve songwriter's collaborative. D.C. bands associated with the project
include Walker's band Kitty Hawk, as well as Revival, Rose, and
Heidinger's solo project Vandaveer
(see the Vandaveer profile on the Links at Large).
Mark
Heidinger continues to work with all of these musical units, though his focus
currently is his Vandaveer project. See the performance calendar for a listing
of his April performance dates.