Independent's Day

Episode 225: ID FFWD with Steve Dawson

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 17:00:00 -0000

Steve Dawson first joined us on Independent's Day almost exactly ten years ago for episode 112. He has been a busy guy in the interim; continuing to teach at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, releasing albums with his Funeral Bonsai Wedding project, and continuing to produce a string of excellent solo albums. His newest, Ghosts, mines the pliable human perception of time and finds Dawson backed by some of Chicago's best musicians. The overall effect of Ghosts is as if James Taylor and Jackson Browne shacked up in a house in Memphis or Muscle Shoals, grinding out catchy, breezy songs with a healthy helping of blue-eyed soul.

Episode 224: ID FFWD with Freedy Johnston

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 15:14:16 -0000

Freedy Johnston’s Can You Fly album landed on a number of 1992 best-of lists, with legendary music critic Robert Christgau calling it "a perfect album” and penning the following about the record: “Contained, mature, realistic in philosophy and aesthetic, its every song a model of open-ended lyrical detail and lithe, sly melodicism, it's a flat-out monument of singer-songwriterdom--up there with Randy Newman's 12 Songs, Joni Mitchell's For the Roses, and other such prepunk artifacts.” Not too shabby. But the peak of Johnston’s fame came with the 1995 single “Bad Reputation” from the follow-album, This Perfect World, produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, et al). Johnston has been out there slogging it out ever since, releasing an ongoing career’s worth of albums filled with incisive songs delivered in his trademark reedy tenor voice. Johnston first joined us on Independent’s Day for episode #62 in December of 2012, and he was kind enough to return just in time for the release of his brand-new album, Back On the Road to You (Forty Below Records - 9/9/22). Joe and Freedy had a wide-ranging discussion that ranged from the making his new album, the perils of social media in a divided society, and how eager he is to get back on the road to play shows after being sidelined by the Covid-19 pandemic. He also treated us to three exclusive live performances of “There Goes a Brooklyn Girl,” “Somewhere Love,” and “Tryin’ to Move On” - three new gems from Back On the Road to You.

Episode 223: ID FFWD with Dan Navarro

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 20:52:09 -0000

Dan Navarro had just launched his post-Lowen and Navarro solo career when he first joined us on Independent's Day for episode #103 back in March of 2014. Now he's back with his second solo album, Horizon Line. Between dates on his never-ending solo tour and a stop by The Grammy Museum for a special Q&A show, he dropped by the ID World Headquarters to tape a new FFWD episode in order to share some stories and a batch of new songs. Dan is never at a loss for words, and there is a lot to be learned from his approach to life and music.

Episode 222: The Whitmore Sisters

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 17:15:00 -0000

Perhaps there exists nothing more beautiful than when beauty is mixed with sadness. Add in some world-class musical talent, the type of harmony singing only possible between siblings, and the benefit of the 10,000-foot view of life gleaned by formative years in flying machines and you have a starting point for The Whitmore Sisters. The elder, Eleanor, has been making music for years as one-half of The Mastersons and performing and recording as a member of Steve Earle’s band, the Dukes. The younger of the pair, Bonnie, has been making a name for herself with a number of solo albums full of fearless songwriting and tours with the likes of James McMurtry. Although close, the Whitmore sisters hadn’t recorded together in an official capacity until the Covid-19 pandemic presented a silver lining opportunity in the form of a self-imposed Covid bubble of isolation and time away from their normally-busy schedules as working musicians. With music touring, recording, and nearly everything else shut down, Elanor’s husband, guitarist Chris Masterson, challenged Elanor and Bonnie to use the break wisely and finally get to work as a duo in order to feature their ample talents. With Masterson producing, The Whitmore Sisters conjured their debut album, Ghost Stories, in the midst of shutdowns and once-in-a-century uncertainty, and the results are self-evident and reflective of both their upbringing and their status as roots rock royalty. The Whitmore Sisters’ father was a Navy pilot and folk singer, and the album’s opener, “Learn to Fly,” reflects life as experienced in the unmatched freedom and peril of flight. As for the other half of their family tree, their mother was an opera singer, which makes for the perfect bloodline to imbue the real-life tragedy of the loss of a pair of Bonnie’s former romantic partners - one of whom was singer Justin Townes Earle, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 2020 - into songs like “Friends We Leave Behind.” There is also a take on their friend Aaron Lee Tasjan’s “Big Heart Sick Mind” and a cover of the Paul McCartney-penned and Everly Brothers-sung “On the Wings of a Nightingale” to complement their original compositions. Ghost Stories has the beauty, the sadness, the wings, and the joy of life in its eleven songs, standing as a strong and long-overdue debut from The Whitmore Sisters.

Episode 221: Elizabeth Goodfellow

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 22:54:06 -0000

Drummer, percussionist, and multi-instrumentalist Elizabeth Goodfellow has built a career for herself out of playing with an ever-growing number of innovative artists. You may have seen her onstage or heard her on records by Iron and Wine, Madison Cunningham, Calexico, Orkesta Mendoza, the indie-pop supergroup called boygenius made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, the New York-based jazz ensemble The Hot Sardines, and the recently multiple Grammy-nominated Allison Russell. She brings a creative approach and a studied work ethic to her collaborations that are rare in the music industry, and indeed nearly any other discipline. When you’re as good as Goodfellow is, people take notice – and it’s the kind of devotion to her craft that earned her a feature in Modern Drummer magazine in 2018. And if that’s not enough, she has more recently added the titles of singer, songwriter, and composer to her impressive list of talents. Her compositions feature the marimba, angular vocal melodies, and personally fearless lyrics, as well as exploring the creative possibilities of audio looping and sampling technology in a whole new way. Utilizing the ability to layer sounds in real time during a performance, it would be easy to overlook the degree of difficulty in Goodfellow’s mesmerizing percussive soundscapes. But go ahead and get lost in her songs. It’s a hell of a ride and it’s worth every mallet strike. She released a vinyl single in 2021 called “Terror and Trust,” a title that could serve as a mission statement for her unique and courageous approach to making music. She makes it look easy, but it is assuredly not.

Episode 220: Leeann Skoda

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 18:37:52 -0000

Nashville is a town filled with great singers and great songwriters, and certain rare artists are endowed with exemplary gifts in both endeavors. Leeann Skoda is just that kind of artist, and although she’s from Arizona and currently calls Los Angeles home, she chose Nashville as the setting to record her new EP, Lucky Penny. While it’s true that Skoda cut her teeth singing choral music and the kinds of country standards that comprise the foundation of every storied building on Music Row, her musical evolution on Lucky Penny reveals that her palette is infinitely more varied than yet another cookie cutter country singer in a sequined shirt. Sure, she can pull off a convincing Emmylou, Maybelle Carter, or Sheryl Crow - and she’s been doing so for years both with her own songs as well as a hired gun session singer - but the adventurous soundscapes of her new direction are more indicative of a Fumbling Towards Ecstasy-era Sarah McLachlan or even Radiohead’s pioneering The Bends or OK Computer albums. The five gems on Lucky Penny were written during an especially inspired artistic period fomented by a month-long songwriting challenge with a friend, and the self-imposed ambitious parameters of turning out new songs day by day paid off in spades. Skoda makes both the writing and the singing sound easy, but they most certainly are not. Making rare gifts sound easy is the hallmark of a true artist.

Episode 219: David Burchfield

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:23:41 -0000

Anyone who has ever attempted to entertain an audience with only their voice and an acoustic guitar faces a daunting task. Both the guitar and the human voice to be sure are versatile and dynamic instruments, but it can be a serious challenge to pique and retain the interest of listeners without the driving beat of a drummer or the pyrotechnics of an accomplished lead guitarist or saxophone player - especially in the Internet age, when performers find themselves competing with a world of entertainment options in their listeners’ pockets. Solo performers had damn well better have good songs and an engaging presence, and Rocky Mountain troubadour David Burchfield is a natural in this setting. Burchfield cut his teeth playing in churches in his native Kansas, but it was during collegiate summers when he learned how to connect with an audience in an intimate setting by swapping songs around mountain campfires. A detour into a teaching career was redirected back to music after a nighttime scooter trip to the store resulted in a harrowing accident that left Burchfield bruised, but with a newfound sense of life’s fleeting brevity. His new lease on life and its associated perspective became a fortunate outcome for both Burchfield and his listeners, as he is adept at quickly and elegantly interpreting both life’s grandiose and intimate moments into song. Now fully rededicated to songwriting and performing, Burchfield’s newest album, State to State, is full of gems. Songs like “Glad I Got Out Of There” connect the things the author loves about the people and places of his formative home with what happens when a soul discovers that home can also be somewhere else life has delivered you. And on a recent tour, Burchfield found himself in Los Angeles for the first time, where he discovered that California’s largest city was something far more complex and nuanced than his expectations - and he wrote a song about that, too. It is a rare gift to be so close to one’s muse.

Episode 218: Benjamin Jaffe

Thu, 12 Mar 2020 02:00:00 -0000

Benjamin Jaffe spent over ten years as half of the Americana duo HONEYHONEY, making acclaimed records and crisscrossing the country playing catchy and memorable songs for dedicated fans. But every band has a life cycle, and after more than a decade of steady grinding, HONEYHONEY’s indefinite hiatus left Jaffe in the challenging position of having not been the primary singer in his former outfit. But the lemonade in this situation is that Jaffe is an incredibly gifted singer, songwriter, and performer in his own right, and shedding the conventions and expectations of a band meant that he was standing at the threshold of a musical tabula rasa. Jaffe took the ball and ran with it, and his newfound freedom to explore any and all disparate influences is evident on his solo debut album, Oh, Wild Ocean of Love. With Jaffe playing nearly all the instruments himself, smooth crooning rubs up against aggressive electric guitars, pithy and clever lyrics delve confidently into subjects familiar to fans of the best of American songwriters, and a rich sonic palate may surprise fans more accustomed to hearing an Americana stomp out of Jaffe and Co. Benjamin Jaffe’s new solo direction places him in the company of Father John Misty’s wry observations, Jeff Buckley’s emotive vocal prowess, and Rufus Wainwright’s compositional bonafides.

Episode 217: Geoff Pearlman

Thu, 23 Jan 2020 03:00:00 -0000

It was a concert by glam rock juggernauts Kiss that opened a 9-year-old Geoff Pearlman’s eyes to the possibilities of a life in music. Guitar lessons soon followed, as did a series of high school rock and roll bands playing the usual Rush and Van Halen covers. But when most kids were picking traditionally sensible collegiate career paths, Pearlman turned into the wind and signed up at Boston’s Berklee College of Music - a breeding ground for legitimate musicians and a unique place to learn the particulars of the craft. After all, a profusion of musicians can play some guitar, but it is a select few who put in the work to dig in and play the instrument beyond what’s necessary to accompany themselves. A significant percentage of Berklee students leave before finishing a degree program, launching themselves into work opportunities - but Pearlman stuck around and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in professional music in 1991. He gigged in San Francisco for several years before settling in Los Angeles, a town with a rich history of talented sessions players. Pearlman’s hard work continues to pay off, as his list of credits includes Norah Jones, Shelby Lynne, Jakob Dylan, Linda Perry, Syd Straw, George Drakoulias, Joan Osborne, Marc Ribot, Don Was, Disney’s High School Musical albums, and music written for for the Travel Channel, The Food Network, Fuller House, Jag, and more. His most recent high-profile gig was playing guitar in the house band in the 2019 film Echo in the Canyon, a documentary about the fertile late 60s music scene in Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon. Echo in the Canyon found Pearlman sharing the screen and stage with some of the most respected and well-known musicians in history. Although Pearlman maintains a busy schedule working with other artists and producers, he continues to release his own albums to showcase his writing and performing. His new release, Lost in the Satellites, provides an interesting what-if glimpse into what modern pop music could sound like if the music industry hadn’t been waylaid at the mumble rap exit. Lost in the Satellites is sonically rich and packed with great songs, inventive arranging, and performances by Pearlman and other musicians devoted to putting in the work necessary to be great at what they do.

Episode 216: Robbie Fulks

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 23:39:10 -0000

Robbie Fulks is a sort of latter-day Renaissance Man. After spending his formative years in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia, Fulks eventually settled in Chicago - where his fresh take on American roots music established his status as one of the progenitors of what would become the alt-country genre. Fulks’ fearless and uncompromising approach to his art is exemplified by a longtime association with insurgent country record label Bloodshot Records and a friendly working relationship with firebrand Chicago-based producer and engineer Steve Albini. In the last twenty-plus years, Fulks has released thirteen albums of his own, as well as accompanied numerous other artists both onstage and in the studio. Fulks is also known as a music journalist, having penned a blog and had his writing published in GQ, Blender, Chicago Reader and elsewhere. When he wasn’t playing, recording, or writing, Fulks has hosted an XM satellite radio interview and performance program and spent twelve years teaching at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. But it is Fulks’ whip-smart songwriting, high lonesome Buddy Miller-esque vocals, and facile and inventive guitar work that first earned him fans in Chicago’s underground country music scene, and it’s what keeps them coming back to shows across the country.

Episode 215: Monks of Doom

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 22:34:59 -0000

In the great and colossal tree of music there are many, many branches - and out toward the tall leaves on the side that faces the highway to psychedelic oblivion there exists bands and artists that truly follow their own sun regardless which way the wind blows. Monks of Doom grew out of the late-80s California experimental music scene that birthed one of the original indie rock juggernauts, Camper Van Beethoven. As Camper started to build a fan base and garner industry attention, it seems that the band's peculiar blend of gypsies-on-acid folk and angular psychedelic pop weren't quite experimental enough for Camper members Victor Krummenacher (bass), Greg Lisher (guitar), Chris Pedersen (drums), and Chris Molla (guitar) - the latter of whom was soon replaced by their friend, session musician and eventual member of Counting Crows, David Immergluck (guitar). Indicative of their fearless approach to creating music, Monks of Doom's 1987 first album Soundtrack to the Film 'Breakfast on the Beach of Deception' was a mix of improvisational instrumentals and quirky songs from a movie that didn't actually exist. After the dissolution of Camper Van Beethoven in 1990, Monks of Doom entered an artificially fertile period that saw the release of two albums and an EP in the span of less than a year. But even with a devoted fan base across the country, the grind of relentless indie-level touring and minimal label support took its toll and the band amicably split in 1992. Solo projects from Krummenacher and Lisher followed, and a 1998 send-off performance after Pedersen announced a move to Australia put the band once again in the same room, fomenting an atmosphere for Monks of Doom's legendary chemistry. The good vibes were an epiphany for the band, and perhaps inspired by the reformation of Camper Van Beethoven in 2004, Krummenacher, Lisher, Immergluck and Pedersen figured out what they already knew - that Monks of Doom makes music on their own terms, when and where they want - and the band has been sporadically active ever since. The band's most recent album, 2018's The Bronte Pin, is another beautifully strange chapter for a musical ensemble built to expressly exemplify being beautiful and strange.

Episode 214: ID FFWD with Ted Russell Kamp

Thu, 11 Apr 2019 02:00:00 -0000

The hardest working man in Los Angeles, Ted Russell Kamp, dropped by Joe Armstrong's Studio Tropico with his bull fiddle and some ace musicians in tow for a Fast-Forward episode of Independent's Day. With Brian Whelan, John Schreffler, and Jamie Douglass grooving behind him, Ted tore the roof off the studio with a greasy version of his new song "Tail Light Shine" from his new album Walkin' Shoes. Ted's positive energy is palpable, and the conversation was wide-ranging and entertaining.

Episode 213: Mara Connor

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 03:00:00 -0000

Mara Connor is a delight; she's a young singer/songwriter with the perfect bona fides to match her breezy Southern California vibe. Connor was born in Los Angeles to middle-western parents whose California dreams were big enough for them to chase them west. She studied theater in college in New York but changed tacks when she started performing with live music ensembles and she learned how audiences respond when you're playing yourself instead of a character. Now back in Los Angeles, Connor began working on her debut record and honing her songwriting chops, and although she's new to the game, she's artistically ahead of the curve. Connor's penchant for the heydays of California folk rock is evident in spades on her advance releases. The video for her premiere single, "No Fun," plays like a love song to the Laurel Canyon scene from long before she was born - the wardrobe, the roller skates, the pool parties, the yellow-sunset lens filter, the color palette, a clever nod to The Graduate, and the other star of the show - a powder blue bomber of a convertible - are all a stylistic time machine set in the pleasant valley Sunday world of an eternal summer California afternoon. In both her songs and in the "No Fun" video, it wouldn't be a stretch to expect Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, or Linda Ronstadt to be hiding just around a corner. Mara Connor is such a talented young artist with such a clear artistic vision, one can't help but wonder where she will go next.

Episode 212: The Teskey Brothers

Thu, 19 Jul 2018 02:00:00 -0000

The Teskey Brothers have been grinding it out in the bars and festivals in their hometown near Melbourne, Australia for a decade. While it's true that the four-piece is comprised of young devotees of the classic era of American soul and R and B, their reverence for the genre is far deeper than mere imitation. It's simple enough to learn some tried-and-true chord progressions and lean hard on the blue notes, but to so faithfully capture the elusive vibe of the 60s Muscle Shoals sound exhibits a musical maturity far beyond their twenty-something perspective. The Teskey Brothers - two proper Teskey siblings, along with a pair of musical blood brothers accompanying them on bass and drums - recorded their debut album, Half Mile Harvest, in their own studio - utilizing vintage recording gear to add an extra level of realism to their take on old-school soul music. When singer Josh Teskey's vocals distort - intentionally - on songs like "Pain and Misery," it's because he and his band mates took the time to learn the archaic manner in which Otis Redding's microphone distorted on the kinds of classic recordings that made legends of artists like himself, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and others. With this preternatural affinity for stylistic restraint and obvious inherent talent, it's easy to see why The Teskey Brothers' brand of soul music has transcended their home country and landed with a welcome triple-meter bang in America.

Episode 211: Syd Straw

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 02:00:00 -0000

Syd Straw released her first album, Surprise, in 1989. The record was full of earnest, broken-hearted songs with an impressive range for a new artist. The album's earthy tone landed Straw at the leading edge of the alternative country curve, and it led a seemingly open-ended invitation for Straw to lend her vocals to some of the best in the business. To name a few, Straw has been onstage and on records with Los Lobos, Wilco, Dave Alvin, Loudon Wainwright III, Leo Kottke, Rickie Lee Jones, Matthew Sweet, Van Dyke Parks, Freedy Johnston, James McMurtry, Marc Ribot, David Sanborn, Was Not Was, Victoria Williams, the dBs, Jimmer Podrasky, and The Golden Palominos. Subsequent albums followed in 1996, 2005 and 2008, and although releases may have been spread out, the quality of Straw's output never suffered. Although Straw is perhaps best known for her vocals, the unique and indelible spirit that she brings to a song or a project is what makes her a legend. She is quirky, to be sure, but she's also endearing, pleasantly sardonic and always creative - a perfect combination for a singular artist.

Episode 210: Davey Meshell and the TransAtlantics

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 02:00:00 -0000

When Davey Meshell recently started a new band, the name choice was obvious; the handpicked members of the TransAtlantics spent their respective formative years on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean - in places ranging from New York and Maine, to Scotland and the Isle of Man. But the thing that unites them under one flag is a shared love of the classic era of American soul music. Meshell is best known around Los Angeles for fronting his black-leather band, the Neighborhood Bullys, which has a raw and uncompromising approach to rock and roll music. Meshell is at once affable and intense, and he grew up in a musical family - establishing himself as a go-to bass player for a number of well-known artists both in the studio and on the road. But Meshell's not-so-secret weapon is his powerful tenor voice, and it's that soulful howling that provided the genesis for the TransAtlantics. Whereas the Bullys' stock-in-trade is amped-up energy and catchy songs delivered at paint-stripping volume, the TransAtlantics turn down the amps to let the grooves and melodies shine. Most importantly, the TransAtlantics are a BAND. Each player was selected by Meshell specifically to complement both the songs as well as the other players. And like any soul band worth its mettle, the TransAtlantics lineup is comprised of tasteful and accomplished players that astutely cover the elements essential to the style. And as for that style, although the band uses classic soul as their guiding star, they're not afraid to veer off and explore a bit of genre-bending stylistic territory in order to keep things fresh - both for them and for their fans. Rock and roll and soul music have always been kissing cousins, and Davey Meshell and the TransAtlantics are ready to testify that both are alive and well in the new millennium.

Episode 209: Chris Stills

Thu, 05 Apr 2018 02:00:00 -0000

Chris Stills' brand-new record, Don't Be Afraid, plays like chronicle of a man who has forged his own identity out of a lifetime of unique experiences. Stills' family business is music, but that doesn't guarantee success or even acumen; stripes must be earned, and Stills doesn't take anything for granted. Chris Stills' parents are from two different continents with two distinct cultures, and he spent his formative years in both America and in France. After graduating from high school at the American School in Paris, Stills moved to Los Angeles and eventually to New York, playing in bands and honing his songwriting and performing chops. He garnered enough attention to get himself signed by Atlantic records and released his first album in 1998, after which he then hit the road - playing shows with The Jayhawks and Ryan Adams. Another album followed in 2005, and Stills found stage work in France - playing the role of Julius Caesar in a popular French musical, as well as landing a part in a 2010 French film. Between acting gigs, Stills kept himself busy by releasing an EP and recording yet another full album of his own music, but after a label shakeup he scrapped the entire project and returned to Los Angeles. Once again stateside after years of work in France, Stills released an EP in the U.S. in 2012 and found some TV work with a role in Season 4 of Showtime's Shameless. But it's his latest release, Don't Be Afraid, which distills Stills' experience into his most cohesive artistic statement to date. There are breezy, early 60s California pop songs, trancelike Laurel Canyon flower power meditations, stacked Woodstock-era vocal harmonies, a bit of Rufus Wainwright-style orchestral Broadway pop, Ryan Adams-influenced guitar rock, and an incisive indictment of the chaos of America's divisive new-millennium identity crisis that only someone with an outsider's perspective can capture with clarity. The record is anchored by Stills' versatile and assured tenor - it's the kind of voice that could turn heads at any karaoke bar in the world with ten seconds of a Jeff Buckley tune. Stills has the talent, the songs, and the voice, and Don't Be Afraid exhibits all of them in top form.

Episode 208: Chihana

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Chihana acquired her affinity for traditional blues and rock music from her parents' music collection - which would be pretty orthodox if it weren't for the fact that she grew up in Japan. She's a rare bird to be sure, but her fans don't listen to her solely because of the curiosity factor of being a young Japanese woman playing a traditionally western style of music - it's because she's good at doing so. To listen to her music, there are times when it isn't immediately apparent if she is singing in English or Japanese, which is a testament to both the ability of music to transcend cultural barriers as well as Chihana's obvious and considerable talent. Chihana's next goal is to conquer the American music scene, which, given that she is devoted enough to regularly tour her homeland of Japan by public transportation, should provide a suitable challenge for this unique artist.

Episode 207: Jason Scott

Thu, 30 Nov 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Jason Scott is a songwriter who has built his growing career in music into a cottage industry, with a full schedule and an entire network of musicians based in his native Oklahoma and surrounding states. Some of the gigs are wedding gigs, sure, but don't let that fool you. Scott is no Murph and the Magictones. He's a very talented young artist with a perfectly-tuned ear for narrative detail. It's the sort of fertile territory currently being mined by rising Americana star Jason Isbell - and the comparison is apt. Both writers are staunchly devoted to hewing closely to honesty at all costs; and both have a preternatural knack for telling a big story with the smallest of moments. Scott has figured out a unique business model that allows him to help finance his original songwriting with wedding gigs, and his ever-expanding tours are a proof of concept that there is a market for artists to do weddings that are far more artistically gratifying than yet another DJ spinning "The Hokey Pokey" for the billionth time. Scott even offers a service where he will write and record an original song for a bride and groom, which he then produces in his own studio. It's an innovative approach, and one that could help a lot more musicians avoid the drudgery of a soul-sucking day job. Scott's new EP, Living Rooms, serves as an introduction to a very talented new artist and is as a cautionary tale to any musician to leave no stone unturned when it comes to innovative ways of making a living in music.

Episode 206: ID FFWD with Jeff Crosby

Sat, 18 Nov 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Jeff Crosby stopped by the ID World HQ to remind everyone how he knows his way around a song. Crosby dispenses wisdom he heard about advice for musicians ("Just don't get good at anything else.") and his move to Nashville reminded him how where you live affects your songwriting. He also talks about what happens when you get sick in Mexico, his new record - Postcards from Magdalena - and plays an in-studio version of "The Best $25 I Ever Spent."

Episode 205: Leslie Stevens

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Leslie Stevens has one of those voices - it's a perfectly engaging throwback to Patsy Cline and the golden age of Nashville's musical matriarchy. It's the kind of voice that sounds good singing anything, and she's a natural with a melody. But the thing that keeps people coming back to Stevens is her songwriting. In conversation, when she's not giving a quick-witted running comedic commentary of the world we all share, Stevens can be almost quiet. Ask her about herself, and her sentences get shorter still. But when the topic of the art and avocation of songwriting comes up, Stevens lights up like a firefly - and for good reason, because behind all that elegant vocal phrasing is a powerhouse songwriter who has been known to teach advanced songwriting classes at Los Angeles College of Music. She's amassed quite a resume over the last few years, including two albums with the backup band she calls The Badgers, lending her voice to projects with Brian Wilson, Father John Misty and Jonathan Wilson, several placements in television and movies - as well as a new album due in 2018.

Episode 204: ID FFWD with Loch & Key

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 02:00:00 -0000

Sean and Leyla from Los Angeles' quietest duo, Loch and Key, stopped by the ID World HQ to talk about the changes in their world since 2010's Jupiter's Guide for Submariners - big events like a marriage, law school, passing the bar exam pushed music to the future a bit, but they're back with ID artist Kip Boardman in tow to help Sean and Leyla fill out their hushed duo sound. Joe and the group talked about self-producing their own music with Sean playing all the instruments, and where Leyla finds inspiration for her dreamy lyrics. They shared an in-studio version of a new song called "Deep Space."

Episode 203: Sam Marine

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Sam Marine played in bands in his native Gainesville, Florida and New York City before landing Los Angeles a few years back. His brand-new Big Dark City EP is Marine's third release, and on it he has perfected his particular brand of muscular, country-tinged rock and roll. Call it Americana if you wish, but the genre has always overlapped the straight-ahead, cranked-amp jangle of the classic rockers. Marine knows this, and he smartly recruited Los Angeles' rising star Brian Whelan to produce Big Dark City. The result pulls no punches and takes no prisoners. While he's not on the road or gigging around town, Marine works as a bartender, and the cast of characters and late night lifestyle of the world's second oldest profession provides him with ample inspiration for his songwriting. The title track is a swaggering mid-tempo rocker that sounds like a lost Steve Earle classic. "Dawn Come and Gone" serves up a ramped-up, four-on-the-floor stomp tempo and showcases Marine's confident vocals with a bit of Sun Records-era slapback echo. Both of the first two songs are astute observations of American society's late night outsider spaces that are often haunted by bartenders, artists, insomniacs and musicians - and it's palpable that Marine knows them well. The remaining three tracks on Big Dark City take a page from Drive-By Truckers' best work with narratives of hard luck situations set in any-state, any-year rural America. The only complaint about Big Dark City is that it is an EP rather than a full-length release - and it's fitting that he is getting some traction in the music scene, because Marine shares a bit of whatever is in the Gainesville water that made Tom Petty's Heartbreakers one of the best bands in the world.

Episode 202: Davey and The Midnights

Thu, 05 Oct 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Davey and the Midnights are a band. Sure, Davey Allen's name is featured front and center - and for good reason. His tight vibrato tenor and accessible songs are the focal point of the ensemble. But the Midnights are a band like Tom Petty's Heartbreakers or Bruce Springsteen's E. Street Band. Something special happens when they get together and settle into a groove. And although their music is billed as a sort of countrified rock, there certainly is a pocket to what they do. Once they get going, the band sits somewhere in the middle ground between the Grateful Dead and Little Feat, with a bit of traditional west coast country mixed in. Allen strums the acoustic guitar while he sings, guitarist Gregg Cahill's Telecaster picking owes more than a casual nod to Jerry Garcia without wandering off on extensive and meandering improvisational explorations, Brandon Conway's pedal steel employs a bit of the shimmery Leslie rotating speaker effect - making his instrument sound akin to a Hammond B3 organ at times, Corey Dawson's loping bass lines anchor the band and explores spaces for stepping out with an appropriate lick, and Allen's childhood friend Mike "Mambo" Sanson's snappy work on the drum kit provides an edgy rock and roll spark that keeps everything moving. These young players are fine instrumentalists, and the sum of their talented parts really does make a synergistic whole. Davey and the Midnights haven't yet released their debut album, but they sound as if they're long past their sophomore jinx. It doesn't hurt that Allen's day job is playing keyboards for the legendary Eric Burdon of the Animals. Allen obviously is learning from one of the best and carrying the torch with style and aplomb.

Episode 201: Mojo Monkeys

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 03:00:00 -0000

David Raven, Billy Watts and Taras Prodaniuk make their living making other people sound good. Their collective credits include albums and tours with Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, June Carter Cash, Lucinda Williams, Mike Ness, Dixie Chicks, Richard Thompson, Jim Lauderdale, Peter Himmelman, Buck Owens, T-Bone Burnett and countless others. They're journeymen in top form, they're still on the journey, and they've been friends for decades. After spending so much time backing up other artists, they long ago decided to start their own trio, Mojo Monkeys, as a place to get their collective musical rocks off. The years of hard work shows in Mojo Monkeys. Unconstricted by a big name on a marquee, these guys can follow their own muse. There are funky grooves, and expert lines that duck in and out of a greasy and spicy New Orleans-influenced musical stew. For all their chops, the band never veers into ponderous wanking territory. Put another way, Mojo Monkeys isn't a side project that provides a bleeder valve for gratuitous sideman musical eccentricities, it's a place where three friends who happen to be expert musicians can share their common love for making music. Their mutual affection shines through, as does the reverence for the material they create together. Raven takes the lion's share of the lead vocals, standing at a hybrid upright drum set that allows him to better engage the audience by not being confined to a drum riser back between the amps. Watts' harmonic motion on his pale green Gretsch finds him delivering the perfect licks in all the right places, and Prodaniuk's snaky bass lines provide counterpoint as well as doing an exemplary job doing what the most astute bassists do best - which is making sure that the whole thing hangs together. Their new record, Swerve On, continues the groovy, danceable tack that Mojo Monkeys have defined for themselves over the course of their several records, and throws in a bit of The Band's eclectic sensibilities for good measure. It's hard not to smile when they do what they do, because Mojo Monkeys' music is fun, plain and simple.

Episode 200: Double Naught Spy Car

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Musicians make music for all manner of reasons, and Los Angeles' Double Naught Spy Car is what happens when four ace players get together to make music for themselves. To hear them doing their thing, one might think that the band has an identity crisis. Disparate styles crash against one another like an iceberg and an ocean liner - and the delicious challenge is watching the whole thing stay afloat. Begging a mixed metaphor or two, it's a musical high wire act that is a thrill to experience or perhaps a perfectly noir-twisted soundtrack to a Charles Bukowski acid trip. At a cursory listen, Double Naught Spy Car sounds like an instrumental surf band with a Zappa jones. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Lacques' lefty lap steel provides both dreamy "Sleepwalk"-esque melodies and ethereal atmospheric shades. Marcus Watkins' space invaders analog delay screeches, ripping solos and gusty chording complements Lacques' unique and individual approach. Bassist Marc Doten provides a solid foundation from which to improvise as well as taking some flights of his own, and drummer Joe Berardi keeps the tempos moving with a push and pull that helps the whole ensemble cook. But if you go deeper, it's all there: rock and roll, jazz, funk, blues, and whatever else suits the ensemble's collective fancy - sometimes all within the same song. Their new sixth album, Moof, exhibits their stature in the Los Angeles music scene with their ability to invite other legendary players to contribute; among them: Nels Cline, Mike Watt, Joe Baiza, Danny McGough, Sara Adrizzoni, and a host of others. All in all, Moof - and the ethos of Double Naught Spy car - is an ode to how great music can be when an ensemble has the courage to jump together into the ether, and in doing so, take their audience on a wondrous ride.

Episode 199: Suzanne Santo

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe have been making music as HoneyHoney since 2006, and they have three albums and incalculable touring miles under their belt. After over ten years of grinding it out side by side and making honest headway in the music business, the duo decided to get a little breathing room. Both Jaffe and Santo have things to say on their own, and Santo's stellar new Ruby Red is the first of these releases. Santo's solo flight started when artist and producer Butch Walker saw her play at a show and asked her to contribute to a project on which he was working. The collaboration was fruitful, and it led to Santo tapping Walker to produce her first record under her own name. That new record, Ruby Red, is evocative, haunting, and replete with a dark undercurrent that echoes the California-style stark sunshine noir that HoneyHoney long ago established as a leitmotif. Ruby Red's ten songs (plus a bonus acoustic version of the rocker, "Regrets") positively smack of longing - of both an emotional and a carnal nature. Walker's production crackles - drums snap, guitars grind and screech, and keyboard pedal tones set a stage for Santo's scorching vocals and melodic violin work. Santo's lyrics pull no punches and spare no lives; she knows the effect of a vulgar word or brazen tease when it lands on her listeners' ears. But if you ask Santo what Ruby Red is about - for all its lust, longing, blood and fire - she will tell you that the record is about accountability - a fine and resonant topic for an artist striking out on their own and finding that their wings will carry them as far as they're willing to go.

Episode 198: Ben Bostick

Thu, 10 Aug 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Ben Bostick's gritty baritone is reminiscent of Eddie Vedder fronting a Bakersfield roadhouse house band, and his songs run the gamut from heartfelt, aching ballads to uptempo ruminations on rural bravado and youthful sexual escapades. But Bostick is no bumpkin or bro country pretty boy; he grew up in the Carolina boondocks and studied English at New York University - and it is that juxtaposition of backwoods guilelessness and urban polish that has refined his lyrical approach to songwriting. He knows that a great writer must both ably write and sing a song in the voice of a narrator that may or may not reflect their own perspective. Bostick is more than willing to work for his success - either by slogging away at the kinds of typical backbreaking menial jobs that struggling artists take to subsidize their dreams - or more recently by busking for tips hours a day, several days a week on the Santa Monica pier and playing paying gigs far and wide. He's paid his dues playing varying styles of music as well - among them rock and funk - before settling on the current, progressive, songwriting-based country that suits him well. He knows when to dial up the genre-stretching, new millennium Nashville stylings of the holy trinity of modern country songwriting - Isbell, Simpson and Stapleton - but he also knows when to stick to the basics and tip a dusty hat to the masters of the genre - Cash, Jennings and Haggard. As a case in point, Bostick spends the first 37 minutes of his new, eponymously-titled album hitting all the right notes - stylistically and otherwise - before ending the final song, Erin is Blue, by dropping an unexpected, over-the-top fuzzed-out guitar chord that would make David Gilmour proud. It's a perfectly left-field production choice, and it sets Bostick up nicely for some more courageous sonic exploration as his career blossoms.

Episode 197: Ronan Chris Murphy

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Sometimes, when people set off down a path in life, the universe presents an alternate path. And sometimes, that alternate path turns out to be better suited for the person anyway. As a youngster, Ronan Chris Murphy dreamed of being a rock star, but as soon as he started playing in bands, he also found himself tinkering with nascent home recording technology - which at the time consisted largely of tabletop analog cassette multi-track recorders. Bands need demos, after all. His performing career was by no means a failure; Murphy managed to parlay his stature in the vibrant punk scene in his native Washington D.C. into tours - sharing stages with acts like Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Gwar and The Rollins Band. As he rode around in a van rocking America city by city, Murphy's reputation as a producer and audio engineer continued to grow. At some point, Murphy had a watershed realization - that he got as big a thrill behind the studio mixing board as he did onstage, and he began to focus his energies on the recording process. It wasn't long before he was working with some of those same well known bands with which he'd shared stages - helping them find the exact right sound for their albums. Record production is a sort of voodoo art, after all, and Murphy was able to combine his passion for all aspects and all styles of music with his creative approach to recording technology. Like any person who is serious about their avocation, Murphy followed the work and found himself living in different cities and on different continents before he eventually settled in Los Angeles and opened his flagship studio, Veneto West. Along the way he founded Recording Boot Camp, a weeklong crash course in making good music sound great using the essential tools of the trade - including a discerning ear. Two and a half decades later, Murphy's approach remains the same… to help artists make albums that defy trends and define their sound.

Episode 196: Gerry Spehar

Thu, 13 Jul 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Gerry Spehar's story is unlike many others'. The first part is pretty standard for a young, aspiring musician; he started out on a Stella guitar given to him by a kindly uncle, honed his chops and hit the road. There was some success - he bummed around Europe, playing anywhere that would have him, and he then returned home and formed The Spehar Brothers with his brother George. They worked hard, earned fans and opened for artists like Boz Scaggs and Townes Van Zandt - but Spehar hadn't built the kind of career that prevented him from leaving the popular duo not long after he and his wife Sue learned that they had a second child on the way. Spehar's selfless, courageous choice brought him another kind of success, this time in the banking world, thus providing a stable, financially secure life for his family and affording him the ability to buy a home as well as a nice guitar. He never stopped tinkering with songs, however, and when their kids were grown, Spehar and Sue began to write songs together, filling their compositions with imagery, characters, and real world experiences derived from their formative years growing up in the wilds of the Colorado Rocky Mountains as well as their own adventures traveling in the American West. But even after returning to music in earnest after a three-decade detour and tapping Los Angeles' legendary band I See Hawks in L.A. to flesh out his songs in the studio, Spehar learned that life has a way of changing your tune. Sue passed away from cancer during the final stages of producing his long-awaited comeback album, I Hold Gravity. Her shadow and her spirit loom large over that now-completed album, and Spehar has dedicated his reinvigorated music career to the memory of Sue - his life partner and creative muse. I Hold Gravity is beautiful and fearless and it presents the kind of wisdom and perspective that can only come from someone who has the benefit of experience, and who knows that tragedy is part of life.

Episode 195: Michael Ubaldini

Thu, 29 Jun 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Michael Ubaldini is a maverick. Stylistically, he could be called a number of things, rocker, traditionalist, punk sympathizer, rockabilly aficionado, renegade country artist - along with a dozen others. Over the course of his multiple-decade career, he has shared stages with some heavy hitters - Lucinda Williams, Brian Setzer, Leon Russell, Jerry Lee Lewis, Southside Johnny, John Hammond Jr., Peter Case, Billy Zoom, John Doe, The Stray Cats, John Waite, Johnny Rivers, The Cramps, and Dave Alvin among them. Often clad in a classic black leather jacket, Ubaldini is a bit of a geographical anomaly; he looks like he just stepped off the stage at New York's legendary and much-missed CBGB, but he makes his home in Orange County, California - Los Angeles' bucolic neighbor to the south. Ulbadini's take on Americana and roots music assuredly is more New York attitude than midwestern college rock, but the sunshine and palm trees haven't mellowed Ubaldini's attitude one single sneer. He's as prolific as he's ever been, and his shows and albums range from solo, unplugged roots rock rave-ups to raucous, electrified full band affairs.

Episode 194: Dan Janisch

Thu, 15 Jun 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Dan Janisch is an affable enigma. He has been around the block, and he's still at it - writing solid songs and playing shows - beholden to no one. He has always operated a bit apart from the mainstream, so much so that he has built a career out of being an outsider. He comprises one third of the songwriting team of the Los Angeles local supergroup, Jolenes, and he has albums of his own. But it's Janisch's Renaissance man lifestyle that helps to paint the legend of his maverick status. He's not content to simply crank out great songs or play solid guitar parts. He is a natural craftsman and a tinkerer who is not afraid to deconstruct things to see how they work, so when Janisch plays those great songs, he might just be doing so with a guitar he built or an amplifier he assembled. Janisch wears his influences on his sleeve, which leads to inevitable comparisons to a number of other artists, and at this stage in his career his voice is eerily reminiscent of an alt-country Neil Diamond - and that's not a bad thing.

Episode 193: ID FFWD with Pi Jacobs

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 02:00:00 -0000

Pi Jacobs first joined us on Independent's Day in December of 2012, and she has been busy like a bee in the intervening years. She talks about how she got her record deal and how that has changed things in her music career, how her origins in Northern California inspired her new album A Little Blue, and she and Hall Brothers play the song "Weed and Wine."

Episode 192: Eli Wulfmeier

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Most musicians can readily tell you about their influences, but the best musicians can tell you who it was that influenced their influences; they're always going a step farther back in time and they know full well that all of us here in the current age are standing on the shoulders of the shoulders of giants. The genre of classic rock casts a long shadow, and six decades on from Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, teenagers of the new millennium are just as apt to want a turntable and a laptop as an electric guitar, but many songs from the heyday of rock and roll have found a second life in video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, as well as in beer commercials. Eli Wulfmeier grew up in Michigan, but he sounds like an apple that fell directly off the Allman Brothers' tree. On guitar, Wulfmeier's trick bag is full of tried and true rock and roll licks and he executes them with a smooth flair and tasteful approach that can at times lean toward the incendiary. Vocally, he shows an affinity for the amped up blue-eyed soul of the best legacy rock singers. After spending the last decade in California, honing his guitar chops by playing with the likes of Shelby Lynne, Joe Purdy, Leslie Stevens and Jonny Fritz, Wulfmeier has formed a new trio of his own to allow him to showcase his considerable talents as a songwriter, guitarist and singer. That trio, called Leroy From the North, has a style that is not quite jam band territory, but the three-piece format does allow him the flexibility to improvise and change arrangements on the fly. Wulfmeier hews close enough to the elemental building blocks of rock that his songs, singing and guitar playing sound comfortably familiar, and he's got enough talent in his approach that it still sounds fresh.

Episode 191: Vitamin String Quartet

Thu, 18 May 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Soon after modern pop music supplanted jazz and classical styles as the predominant music for the masses, musicians were arranging pop standards with classical instrumentation. The quality and musical merits of these reverse-engineered explorations ranged from dubious - think elevator music - to the avant-garde. But at its best, the genre both exposes people otherwise not predisposed to like classical music to a new art form as well as illuminates the musical legitimacy of a style derided in highbrow circles as merely 'pop' music. Los Angeles' Vitamin String Quartet started out nearly 20 years ago as a sort of side project for a record label. Although it features long-running members, it isn't a fixed ensemble; it's more like a sports franchise that plays games with a rotating cast of players. But the quality of the VSQ performers remains high, and the ensemble has evolved from its more musically open origins to taking on the unique challenge of arranging, rock, pop, metal, punk, techo, country and hip-hop songs solely for the four instruments that comprise a string quartet - cello, viola and a pair of violins. The Internet age has been good to Vitamin String Quartet, and the group has ably capitalized on the new paradigm of the way music is distributed and enjoyed. The ensemble has managed to move over 3.8 million downloads, 1 million compact discs and it maintains an active YouTube page with well over a thousand videos - with new content being released regularly. Unsurprisingly, VSQ's unique and adventurous arrangements have found their way into numerous TV shows and fans can even buy sheet music for some pieces. In short, Vitamin String Quartet has grown into a sort of cottage industry. With this much content, pick a band - you're sure to find music by at least one of your favorite artists in the Vitamin String Quartet catalog.

Episode 190: Sam Morrow

Thu, 04 May 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Sam Morrow's take on Americana mines the rich depths of the lineage of Southern Rock and renegade Country with his meaty voice front and center. Morrow's delivery is powerful and gritty - the kind of voice that could sing the phonebook and make it sound like an anthem. Stylistically, there are shades of Cash, Waylon and Merle on both his albums to date, and Morrow's early struggles with substance abuse have given him a hard-won perspective on the demons that haunt frail and fallible human souls that he shares with his idols. But along with shades of the Mount Rushmore faces of roots rock, Morrow also includes influences and colors that show his age; he's still young and he grew up in a mashup world without record store bins to keep artists in a stylistic boxes. He's not afraid to throw a Radiohead cover up on YouTube. Morrow's vocal command reflects hints of a sort of backwoods Jeff Buckley, and his instrumentation and arrangements have a groove that is definitely more Memphis than Nashville or Austin. There is a bit of bounce and boogie in the drums - and pulsing, groovy Hammond B3 lines provide a counterpoint to Morrow's passionate ruminations. The masters of the trade approach their songs with a fearlessness to tell the stark truth about whatever story they're telling, and Morrow shares this honest, no-BS approach. Many ears are no doubt eagerly awaiting his forthcoming new album.

Episode 189: Eric Kufs

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Eric Kufs got his start in a New York indie-folk trio called Common Rotation. He and his bandmates - Adam Busch and Jordan Katz - were childhood friends who had come of age together, started a band, forged an original sound and established themselves with relentless tours and several albums. Before long, their hard work had paid off and they'd collaborated with the likes of They Might Be Giants, Indigo Girls and Dan Bern. When Busch's acting career picked up speed in California, the trio decided to uproot the entire ensemble and Kufs and Katz relocated to Los Angeles with Busch. The saturated scene in LA prompted Kufs to find new ways to make a living at music. Sometimes, necessity is the mother of reinvention. Kufs started playing hours-long busking gigs on Santa Monica's highly trafficked 3rd Street Promenade shopping and dining district. The gigs were not theater shows where a captive audience sat and listened politely in their seats, but the transient nature of the steady stream of passersby provided Kufs with an opportunity disguised as a challenge. Kufs had always been prolific - he already had nearly a thousand original songs in his repertoire - and he now complemented his sizable catalog of originals with reimagined cover songs, providing yet another opportunity to expand on his considerable talent as a singer, guitarist and songwriter. The extended sets allowed him time to experiment; he could essentially profile the shoppers and revelers passing by and cater his song selection to garner the most attention. After all, attention meant tips and tips is income. It's an important lesson to learn that only foolhardy performers neglect to read their audiences. Years on in California, Kufs is still at it, making a living in music with his unique blend of folk and blue-eyed soul. With Common Rotation currently on hiatus, Kufs has established himself as a solo performer in his own right with a new EP called Sense and Nonsense in Psychology, Part One and a steady performance calendar.

Episode 188: ID FFWD with Ted Wulfers

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 02:00:00 -0000

Los Angeles-based, Chicago born and bred artist Ted Wulfers dropped by the Independent's Day Worth HQ to talk about how the Cubs 2016 World Series victory after a 108-year drought inspired a song that changed his music career, and got him into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Wulfers played his watershed song, "The Cubs Won It All In Two-Thousand-Sixteen" and also talks about his new record that features the ukulele.

Episode 187: Dorian Taj

Thu, 06 Apr 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Chicago's Dorian Taj has indie rock bonafides for which a lot of artists would trade their black Converse hi-tops; he got his start in a hardcore punk band, has worked with Bob Mould, released records on Steve Albini's imprint over the course of his several-album career and he knows his way around an Econoline, but he's more than just a pretty face grimacing at a low-slung guitar. Taj also has a way with a song, and he serves up just the right amount of crafty writing to elevate his music above the noisy fray. His vocals are delivered in a Dylan-meets-Westerberg sneer and he has always made the smart play by surrounding himself with solid players. He's that rare artist that hits all the right career notes seemingly without trying. And all of this would be moot without witnessing the dervish of energy that is a Dorian Taj show. Bands of all styles the world over could learn a thing or two from the manner in which Taj can captivate an audience.

Episode 186: Matt Jaffe and The Distractions

Thu, 23 Mar 2017 03:00:00 -0000

There really isn't such a thing as precociousness in the music business. One only needs to consider that the Beatles averaged about twenty-two and a half years of age and were already seasoned pros in England when they played their American debut on Ed Sullivan in 1964. Enter California's Matt Jaffe. Jaffe is young - on the cusp of twenty-two - but he's talented, motivated and he's more than willing to put in the work necessary to make a name for himself. Jaffe started on violin at age five and had picked up the guitar and started to write his own songs by the time he was ten. A scant few years later, before he was finished with high school, Jaffe's repertoire featured no fewer than fifty of his own compositions and he'd already started amassing songwriting and performing awards in his Bay Area home. After graduation, Jaffe flipped coasts and started college at Yale University - but soon found that his true calling lay in music, so he dropped out after three semesters and applied his usual unstoppable focus and drive to a full-time music career. Jaffe's dedication has begun to pay off, with an EP, a full-length record and national tours already on his resume - along with a regular band he calls The Distractions. And it all makes sense when people see the confident manner in which Jaffe and his band burn up a stage. The truest fans are earned, and Matt Jaffe and The Distractions' high-energy rock shows bear shades of other acts that are revered both for their smarts and their performance savvy; The Replacements, Elvis Costello and The Clash come to mind. So clap or get out of the way, because there is no stopping Matt Jaffe.

Episode 185: ID FFWD with Sarah Kramer

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Sarah Kramer dropped by the ID studios to get us caught up on her musical journey, her new album, Matter of Time, how she learned how differently musicians are treated while playing in Europe after a recent tour to Spain. She plays a song about her childhood home called "Way Back Home."

Episode 184: Dan Phelps

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 03:00:00 -0000

As a youngster, Dan Phelps grew up in the shadow of the music business - quite literally. Phelps' father was the founder of the Full Sail Recording Workshop, which has since grown into Full Sail University, a technical school that has taught thousands of people how to make a living in the music, film and television industries. With that much gear and talent around, it is no surprise that the younger Phelps took to music at a young age. He started with drums and eventually switched to guitar, developing an avant-garde and experimental style that has been a trademark for his entire career. Phelps has maintained a true artist's path, lending his talents as a composer, producer, guitarist, audio engineer and performer to a wide range of artists and situations - with the common thread being his collaborators' willingness to be open-minded in their approach to making music. The last few years have found Phelps diving deeper into his explorations of improvisational composition. His custom-made guitar and laptop-based performance workstation has several unique modifications that allow him to blend electronic music and live recording technology with the full range of expression of the guitar into unique soundscapes that are different every single time. Imagine a one-man electronica jam band that can take you on a musical journey for four minutes, four hours or anywhere in between. Phelps' foray into live performance technology shows that the seemingly limitless powers of advanced technology can most certainly be used for good.

Episode 183: Susan Tunney

Thu, 09 Feb 2017 03:00:00 -0000

A precocious Susan Tunney was stuffed into a corset and practicing her dialect for a period piece in her college's theater program when she had an epiphany. A voice in her head said something akin to, "What am I doing up here pretending to be somebody else?" That moment of artistic clarity found her leaving school and heading back to her native Chicago where she had the good fortune to land in middle of the heyday of the city's fertile 90s music scene. She formed a band called Adamjack with her best friend Sophie Lee and they set about doing what bands do: writing songs, playing shows and making albums. In short order, they'd built a solid following both locally and on the road and the band was selling out top tier venues in Chicago. After Lee quit the band to attend to a family health crisis, Tunney moved to New York City and eventually back to Chicago, releasing music under her own name all the while. But a life in music can be hard on one's constitution and years of the grind prompted Tunney to step away from the business and move to Los Angeles to focus on family. But when you're a songwriter, the relentless muse keeps sending inspiration whether or not you think you're listening, and before long Tunney was back writing songs, assembling a band and releasing new material. California has been good for Tunney, and her new songs showcase both her raspy alto as well as her deft hand at turning a phrase.

Episode 182: ID FFWD with Rick Shea

Thu, 02 Feb 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Ace guitarist and songwriter Rich Shea talk about his new record, playing local shows, life on the road, sideman work, his yearly gig on a moving train with Dave Alvin, Peter Case, John Doe called Roots on the Rails. He played a song called "Goodbye Alberta," which may wind up as the title track on his next record.

Episode 181: David Luning

Thu, 26 Jan 2017 03:00:00 -0000

David Luning and his band are earning their accolades in the best way possible - simply by being good at what they do and by working hard. After high school, Luning left his hometown in Northern California and set out to study film scoring at Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music. Things were going just fine until he happened to hear a John Prine record at a college party. Prine's seemingly effortless, enigmatic and elegantly simple songwriting style was a personal epiphany for Luning, and it set him on an entirely new tack. After convincing his parents that he needed to drop out of school to pursue this new career, Luning leaned hard into the craft of writing and performing. It wasn't long before he'd assembled a band, released an album and hit the road. That self-released first record, Just Drop On By, put him on the radar of listeners and music supervisors alike, and Luning's music began to land placements in movies and TV shows. All the while, Luning and his stalwart band were logging miles playing shows across the country, raising their profile and getting out in front of even more new fans. The beginning of 2017 finds Luning poised to release his sophomore album, Restless, and the record is a step forward in both writing and performing skill. After a quick spin, it's evident that Luning shares some of his mentor's approach; his songs - like Prine's - are delivered in a deceivingly simple style that comes across as unadorned truth. Luning's melodies are catchy and hummable, and not a syllable or guitar lick is wasted. It's a refreshing and mature listen in a world of overly-quantized and auto-tuned artists all desperately and loudly vying for attention.

Episode 180: Emily Zuzik

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 03:00:00 -0000

Emily Zuzik's career in the performing arts is a study in diversification. At varying times, she can call herself a singer, songwriter, guitarist, actress and model - and she has had success at each of these related-but-distinct pursuits. Zuzik has released several records of her own music that range in style from a Sheryl Crow-esque rootsy-rock vibe to a hip-hopping blend of Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette and Beck. Her vocals have been heard on NBC, WB Interactive and she has collaborated with Moby and sung with Blue Man Group. Her newest project is an EP of electronic music called Angelenos created with Tim Lefebvre that is reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan-fronted Massive Attack. No matter the genre, it's Zuzik's dynamic voice that ties it all together, ranging from a sweet melody to a sultry sneer in a matter of beats. Zuzik somehow even found her way onto a book cover; you can see her likeness wearing a bikini and wielding a spear gun on the cover of a now-out-of-print Penguin Paperback edition of James Bond's Thunderball. As if all these accomplishments weren't enough, Zuzik proudly bears the self-appointed title of 'Rocker Mom,' which means that aside from following her muse and sharing her gifts as a musician, she has the most important job of all. Because anyone who knows anything about moms knows that it's a 24/365 gig.

Episode 179: Mad Revival

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 03:00:00 -0000

A dictionary definition of the word 'revival' goes something like: 'restoration to life, consciousness, vigor, strength, etc.' - and this isn't too far from the truth when describing the Los Angeles-based band, Mad Revival. The former half of their name is derived from the ethos of their frontman, Australian-born Nic Capelle, whose stage persona is an oddly pleasing blend of a field-hollering bluesman and a sanguine carnival barker. Which leaves the revival half, and its associated images of a kind of traveling tent celebration designed to conjure the spirit. Put them together and you have Mad Revival's amped up blues, the gospel of which they preach with a willingness to blend genres into an nearly indescribable mashup. Sometimes they sound like Howlin' Wolf fronting the Beastie Boys, and other times their twin guitar riffing pays homage to Led Zeppelin by way of James Brown. Aside from their originality, it's Mad Revival's work ethic that is their greatest asset. They work hard on their music, and the dedication to their craft is palpable at their live shows, where it is almost impossible to not get at least some part of your body moving. Mad Revival has a new EP due in early 2017, and expect to be hearing more about them. Our overly-autotuned, digitized and quantized world needs more bands like Mad Revival - keeping it real by being the real deal.

Episode 178: Tony Gilkyson

Thu, 01 Dec 2016 03:00:00 -0000

If you want to know what a life well lived in the music business sounds like, give a listen to Tony Gilkyson. Graced with both innate talent and a supportive musical family, Gilkyson has served the muse well - from his own compositions to backing up Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, K.D. Lang, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dave Alvin and countless others. Gilkyson is perhaps best known for a facile, country-tinged style on the guitar, but he also spent a decade playing punk music in the band X, exemplifying the fact that the best musicians spend less time differentiating between musical styles and instead let their playing do the talking. Fans of The Big Lebowski, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line and All the King's Men have heard Gilkyson's guitar contributions as accompaniment on the big screen, and artists like Eleni Mandell and Chuck E. Weiss have tapped him as a producer. In conversation, Gilkyson is soft-spoken, and he measures his words like a taciturn southern father whose wisdom is parsed out in economical gems - much like his guitar playing - and when signing, his voice in an unorthodox tenor with equal parts Neil Young and wayward space cowboy. The man has been known to hang with Tom Waits, and any band would do well to study a bit of Gilkyson to learn how it's done. Or better yet, hire him and get the real thing.

Episode 177: Jolenes

Thu, 17 Nov 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Supergroups come in all sizes, at least that's the convention behind Los Angeles' Jolenes. The three songwriters that form the heart of the band each have their own outfit; Grant Langston's stalwart band is called the Supermodels, David Serby fronts The Latest Scam, Dan Janisch has a group that plays under his own name and the fourth member, drummer Dale Daniel, is a veteran of the Los Angeles music scene - and their collective resume features a dozen or more albums and countless shows between them. So what brought these busy guys together and inspired them to add yet another responsibility to their schedules? The answer is friendship and an undying love for country music. The Jolenes' communal songwriting arrangement allows these three writers and bandleaders to abdicate the responsibility of being the boss by sharing that load with other artists who they call their friends. Rather than simply playing different arrangements of songs from their respective catalogs or leaning on covers, the Jolenes sit in a room - together - with guitars and some beer and hammer out ideas in the round - and it's this fun, communal approach that is evident in the new songs written specifically for the band. The group's lineage draws a lot of water right out of the gate in the Los Angeles music scene - further allowing them to largely sidestep the rigmarole of scrapping around to book the good gigs. When asked, the guys in the Jolenes will say that they're having too much fun to yet think too much about making an album. Once you hear them, you may hope that they change their minds.

Episode 176: AJ Hobbs

Thu, 03 Nov 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Musician AJ Hobbs plays a sort of neo-traditionalist country music that reflects his origins in the desert east of Los Angeles. Hobbs' childhood home in Riverside County, California was a dusty, back-road tumbleweed junction long before the area grew up to be knows as Southern California's conservative 'Inland Empire' - an area which seemed a world away from the more laid-back coastal towns just over the western horizon. Hobbs learned firsthand just how disparate the two towns were when his mother packed up the family - sans dad - and moved to Orange County near the ocean. Hobbs didn't fit in with the surfer crowd, and he found solace in a couple of habits picked up from his wayward, hard-drinking father. The first of these inherited traits was music; after hearing country icons like Waylon, Willie, old school R&B and gospel at home, Hobbs picked up the guitar and began to write songs. But along with this musical inspiration came his father's penchant for drinking and other associated bad behavior. Hobbs worked hard to earn success in the music industry, but addiction helped his self-destructive demons grow along with his reputation as a stalwart performer. Perhaps miraculously, Hobbs didn't wind up in jail or dead before he managed to get the wheels back on the track. As he prepares to release his debut full-length album in early 2017, his band is as hot as ever and Hobbs is poised to live up to his honky-tonk potential.

Episode 175: ID FFWD with Tim Easton

Fri, 28 Oct 2016 02:00:00 -0000

The last time hard core troubadour Tim Easton was on Independent's Day, he was kind enough to open his Nashville home to us and we recorded an interview and some in his basement. This time, Tim was touring through Los Angeles, and he made time to drop by the ID World HQ and get us caught up on his artistic endeavors. Tim talked about busking in Europe with Beck in 1991, a lack of empathy in American society, and he played a 2016 election call-to-arms song. "Don't Spectate, Participate."

Episode 174: Stumpwaller

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Stumpwaller is a Los Angeles-based band fronted by a native Alabamian with a penchant for preaching the gospel of rock and roll and outlaw country in the style of a raucous tent revival. Singer Myk Watford's affinity for Civil War-era murder ballads and southern mythology might seem out of place in Southern California, but the rest of the band ably amps up the volume and tempos so that Watford can allow the spirit to move through him and flat out refuse to let a jaded audience remain so. In an era in which wooly beards and retro clothing are the standard-issue uniform for many indie bands who flirt with the ghost of Johnny Cash, Stumpwaller's suit vests always have a pocket for a flask. Because they know that the eternal truth about the balance between Saturday night and Sunday morning is that it reflects the eternal struggle between good and evil - as well as how humanity is at once stuck in the balance and careening its way to its next church pew or juke joint. Stumpwaller has a new record on the way, and their new songs are moving their sound farther from the blistering psychobilly of their origin story and expanding it in creative ways.

Episode 173: Peter Himmelman

Thu, 06 Oct 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman has parlayed his successful career in music into a cottage industry. He got his start in the mid-1980s, long before the Internet revolutionized how people make, distribute and listen to music, and he has continued to evolve by constantly finding new ways to tap into the creative well. Himmelman is prolific, but he has been able to maintain a high level of craftsmanship in his songs by balancing quality and quantity, and through his highly improvisatory live performances - at which he has been known to regularly make up new songs on the fly. His impeccable work ethic has been paying dividends for years; he has been nominated for an Emmy, a Grammy and numerous other awards. He has scored music for television and movies and released dozens of songs through his Himmelvaults project. But Himmelman is far from all-business. Along with his diversified creative endeavors he wisely has kept his priorities in check by making the logical sacrifices necessary to maintain a healthy family and home life. When traditional revenue streams began to dry up in the age of streaming and file-sharing, Himmelman's fortuitous and timely epiphany was to found Big Muse, a consulting company that helps organizations like McDonald's, the Gap and Banana Republic foster team-building and leadership through creativity. Himmelman's newest project is a book called Let Me Out, for which the subtitle neatly sums up the intended goal; Unlock Your Creative Mind and Bring Your Ideas to Life. In Let Me Out, Himmelman peels back the curtain to share some of his secrets to help readers get out of their own way when it comes to the creative process. And who better to pen a book on channeling creativity than Peter Himmelman, who has made an avocation out of keeping up his creative output while deftly surfing the changes of life, music and technology.

Episode 172: Lasers Lasers Birmingham

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Lasers Lasers Birmingham is the sort of thing that happens when an experienced musician tests positive for country after years of slogging it out as a sideman in indie bands from the hills of Missouri to the deserts of Arizona. Alex Owen is Lasers Lasers Birmingham, and after recording his first cassette-only demo on his own - including playing all the instruments himself - Owen decided that his new batch of songs that would become the new EP Royal Blue necessitated third-person musical colors. Fortunately, a cadre of seasoned L.A. players was eager to pick up the phone when Owen called. Royal Blue is a quick tour of Lasers Lasers Birmingham's musical universe, and over the course of its four songs, gently strummed acoustic guitar, Hammond organ, barroom piano, pedal steel guitar, brushed snare drum, and burning Telecaster licks all have ample space to shine. But this isn't Nashville country, nor is it Austin country, Midwestern punk country, or even neo-traditionalist L.A./Bakersfield country. Lasers Lasers Birmingham's brand of country music is country for the Internet age; it is fully confident in mixing subgenres, slightly tongue-in-cheek, smart, melodic and self-assured in its delivery. It's a pleasing mashup of several flavors of country in an age when one can sample widely disparate styles of music with a few swipes on their smart phone. Owen's lyrical approach is Dylan-esque, but his laid back, almost laconic vocal delivery is less affected and features layered harmonies that owe more to the best moments in the Eagles' catalog. There is also a hint of blue-eyed soul on Royal Blue that nods toward Van Morrison's early 70s classics, and it fits right in there. All in all, Alex Owen and Lasers Lasers Birmingham's specific influences are hard to peg, but easy to listen to.

Episode 171: ID FFWD with Andrea Hamilton

Thu, 18 Aug 2016 02:00:00 -0000

Andrea Hamilton drops back into Joe Armstrong's Studio Tropico for an Independent's Day FFWD episode. She talks about how artists can make solid income writing music for TV and advertising placements, how prolific she is, and she plays a song called "Better Together."

Episode 170: Dan Korn

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 03:00:00 -0000

The United States and Great Britain have a long history of circuitous and reciprocal cultural influence. Rural American blues musicians begat an entire generation of British guitar players in the 1960s and the stream continues to flow both ways. Singer-songwriter Dan Korn is part of the newer Internet-native generations to tap into this artistic bonhomie. His songs are hushed and consonant, with no small hat tip to the king of underappreciated British folk singers, Nick Drake. But Korn isn't afraid to fill out his sound with electric guitars and other traditional rock and roll instrumentation in order to provide dynamic contrast. And his songs provide ample opportunities for songwriting and arranging malleability - because inhumed in these lilting melodies and airy fingerpicked acoustic guitar parts are sharp, incisive lyrics that reveal an honesty and a keen sense of detail that Korn wisely uses to help keep the songs from becoming too precious. The ten songs that make up his new album, Of the Sea, provide a fitting metaphor for Korn to explore themes of love, escape and mortality.

Episode 169: ID FFWD with Leftover Cuties

Thu, 04 Aug 2016 02:00:00 -0000

Leftover Cuties drop back into Independent's Day's World HQ more than five years and talk about what they have in common with Pink Floyd. They've remained active despite frontwoman Shirli McAllen's brush with mortality, and are bouncing back with new music. McAllen and the boys played an appropriately-named tune called "Happy Song."

Episode 168: Austin McCutchen

Thu, 28 Jul 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Austin McCutchen is a rambler; a young singer-songwriter who wanders - and who wanders with intent - and the characters, experiences and epiphanies large and small that he has along the way form the backbones of his traditionalist country songs. McCutchen wears a hat and boots, but he's no modern urban cowboy country-pop poster boy. There is dirt on his boots and sweat on the brim of his hat and his songs have a timeless quality that make them feel instantly familiar; it's the kind of authenticity that Detroit co-opts and tries to use to sell pickup trucks. McCutchen's rich baritone is the voice of a trustworthy narrator - a man whose heartache and vulnerability is palpable in the verses and whose resignation and wisdom quietly ambles around by the refrain. His writing is the kind of open-spaces Americana found in the tradition of country singers who favor the mountains of the American west over Nashville or the plains of Texas. It's a style that makes grand subjects sound intimate and small subjects sound grand, and it's all delivered in an understated, economical delivery in which no word is wasted. McCutchen is still working on his debut full-length album, but he has already established himself among the best of Los Angeles' next generation of talented artists.

Episode 167: Nellie Clay

Thu, 14 Jul 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Nellie Clay came to Nashville by way of rural Alaska, where she'd spent the better part of the last decade living more or less off the grid. In remote parts of the world without modern conveniences and distractions like electricity and televisions people are forced to entertain themselves - and one another - in the manner in which humans have been doing so since time immemorial, by passing around instruments and singing songs. Clay had fallen into this sort of primitive existence after years of restoring early Russian paintings in Minnesota. A vacation to America's largest and northernmost state planted a seed in her soul that would soon grow into a limitless forest with a magnetic pull that she felt called to inhabit. In short order, Clay gave away most of her possessions and lit out for Alaska. In that simpler, Thoreauvian setting she experienced a musical rebirth that was kindled by the rich, local campfire folk music scene. When numerous musicians travelling through town urged Clay to consider a move to Nashville she took heed and uprooted herself once again. Since arriving in Music City, USA - where the local music scene is currently white-hot - she has assembled a crack band that brings her crafty songs to life. Clay possesses a torch and twang, tight-vibrato alto voice that was custom-made for slapback echo, and the aching in her melodies reflects the downtrodden, wandering characters that inhabit her songs. For now, at least, Nellie Clay's musical true north is a little farther south in Tennessee, and in the two short years she has spent in Nashville, she has established herself at the legendary songwriters' foundry, The Bluebird Cafe, and released a new album with a title that could serve as her personal mission statement, Never Did What I Shoulda Done.

Episode 166: Sean Hickey

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Classical music composer Sean Hickey grew up like so many musicians of his generation - forming a band with his friends and blasting Van Halen covers to anyone who would listen, but Hickey's musical calling ran both deeper and wider than the pop and rock music that was en vogue during his formative years. He studied jazz guitar and composition in college and began working for a music publishing house in his native Michigan until he decided that writing world-class music necessitated moving to a world class city. Since taking up residence in New York City, his career as an in-demand composer has flourished, and Hickey now has a steady schedule of performances around the world. He has composed symphonies, concertos, pieces for string trios and quartets, music for a children's play, a film score, as well as receiving eight consecutive ASCAP awards. In the last two years alone his works have been performed in New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Washington, Russia, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Indonesia and Brazil. In short, Sean Hickey is legit, and he continues to write new compositions as his name has become widely known in classical music circles. And if all this isn't enough, Hickey moonlights as a published author of travel and adventure pieces and a lecturer on career options for composers.

Episode 165: ID FFWD with Amy Blaschke

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 20:21:00 -0000

Amy Blaschke drops by Independent's Day's HQ - Studio Tropico - to talk about her new record, Breaking the Blues, a follow-up to her excellent 2015 album, Opaline. Joe and Amy talk about how she turned lemons into lemonade by allowing creativity to flourish during a time of ill health.

Episode 164: Fairbanks and the Lonesome Light

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Fairbanks and the Lonesome Light got their start when two Texas natives found themselves playing in different ensembles in the Austin music scene. When Erik Flores and Amelia Rose Logan closed the circle and decided to work together, both music and romance blossomed and the pair wound up in Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood - an artistically-fertile enclave which is currently the home of a rich and vibrant west coast-style of Americana music. Now based once again in familiar surroundings back in Austin, Flores and Logan have assembled a six-piece band to fully realize their musical vision. Texas flavors and influences abound on their eponymous debut; there are dusty boots, faded jeans, wistful waltzes, at least one snake tattoo, burning Telecaster licks, tequila, and aching and broken-hearted two-part harmonies - all of which is set against an expansive sky. Best of all, Fairbanks and the Lonesome Light's songs hold up to these tried-and-true topics that make up the best of the earnest-but-blurry line where country music and rock and roll are kissing cousins.

Episode 163: Mia Dyson

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Saying that you are famous in a faraway country is both a punchline and a ruse used by many performers to cover for a lackluster career at home. Australia's Mia Dyson was born the daughter of a blues musician and guitar luthier, and she made the jump from listening to her parents' well-curated record collection to being an established singer, songwriter and guitarist by the time she was 22 years old. Her formative years were spent in a bucolic beach community outside of Melbourne; not the usual breeding ground for the gutsy blues and roots music that would make her famous in her homeland. Her debut album, Cold Water, created enough buzz to send her on international tours to several continents where she played major festivals, sat in with the Mothers of Invention and opened for Ani DiFranco in New York's Central Park. Back home, she supported Eric Clapton on a sold out Australian tour and was making a respectable living as a musician. But the allure of success in the US was a siren call, so Dyson moved to Boston and established some American roots while continuing to tour relentlessly. As her reputation grew, more opportunities came her way, and Dyson stuck to her guns when choosing her path. It takes a gutsy artist to leave a situation with a famous producer on the table, but that's just what Dyson did when a project with Eurythmics mastermind producer Dave Stewart didn't feel right to her. Her powerful raspy voice, clever and catchy songs and facile, assured guitar playing make Dyson a unique performer in a world of cookie-cutter female pop stars - and audiences can sense that they're witnessing the real deal when she steps to the mic and lays into a powerful yell over a muscular guitar lick. Now based in Los Angeles, Mia Dyson continues to make waves in the States, while still retaining a high enough profile to return to Australia to go on successful tours to subsidize her conquest of America. She's big in Japan, so to speak, and that's the best of both worlds.

Episode 162: ID FFWD with Patrolled By Radar

Thu, 26 May 2016 02:00:00 -0000

The unstoppable Jay Souza brings his rocking outfit, Patrolled By Radar, back to Joe Armstrong's Tropico Station studio to talk about the band's new record, Cool Your Jets, which was produced by Pete Curry from Los Straitjackets.

Episode 161: David Serby

Thu, 19 May 2016 03:00:00 -0000

David Serby is a stalwart member of Los Angeles' vibrant roots music community. He's a local boy, born in North Hollywood, and aside from leading his own band (The Latest Scam) and playing bass for other artists, Serby co-founded The California Roots Union, an advocacy group with a stated mission of "preserving and promoting the California roots music scene, upholding its long legacy and fostering new talent." It's enough to make any mortal musician tired just thinking about it. When asked if he's something other than mortal, or if, perhaps, his days have an extra hour or two, and Serby will politely demur - but his resume speaks otherwise. He is a prolific songwriter who has released five albums to date, the most recent of which is an eponymous double-disc set comprised of twenty songs that were culled from the fifty-odd songs he'd complied since his prior record. The David Serby and The Latest Scam record also marked a stylistic shift from the reputation he'd built as a country musician with a closet jones for acoustic folk. Inspired by the 80s British rock band Rockpile, Serby turned up the amps and jacked up the tempos in order to find a sonic palette that would allow him to express any Beatles, Stones, Ramones and Elvis Costello influences that had snuck in along with the Merle, Cash, Buck and Hank during his formative years. His band stepped up to the challenge and the record came with instructions to "PLAY LOUD" - thereby illuminating the blurred line between rock and country music that has evolved into the modern alternative country movement - a subgenre that now comes complete with its own awards show put on by the Americana Music Association, a distinct Grammy category and a growing fan base of people searching for authenticity in the digital music millennium. With feet planted firmly in both camps, David Serby has always had a front row seat at the party at the house where he has always lived.

Episode 160: Michael Chinworth

Thu, 05 May 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Michael Chinworth spent his formative years in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and rural Indiana before landing at Bennington College in Vermont to study music composition. After graduation, he was looking for a bigger pond with more opportunities and he decided to send himself packing to New York City. But after five years grinding it out in bands in Brooklyn and beyond, an opportunity presented itself in Vermont and Chinworth found himself back in the Green Mountain State a wiser young man. With his new album, Rudder Songs, Chinworth showcases his considerable skills as a vocalist and exhibits his angular chops on the piano while interpreting ten Ben Folds-meets-Steely Dan songs composed by his prolific friend, Trevor Wilson, along with an original composition of his own. While many artists would be content to take a lightweight digital keyboard on tour, Chinworth recently crossed the country playing a series of dates while remaining dutifully devoted to carrying a cumbersome Rhodes piano to every gig. And it's this kind of real-deal commitment that shows through in Michael Chinworth's music.

Episode 159: ID FFWD with Nocona

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 02:00:00 -0000

The hard-twanging crew from Nocona circled back around to the Independent's Day World HQ to talk about their new album, Long Gone Song.

Episode 158: El Twanguero

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 03:00:00 -0000

El Twanguero's blend of American western swing, gypsy jazz and the folk music of his native Spain is a simmering musical tour de force that he serves up hot. You don't take up the stage name El Twanguero if you can't play the guitar, and play he does. Tempos are ramped up, fingers race up and down the guitar neck and countless hours of practice are evident when he performs. El Twanguero's effortless and blistering performance style is a testament to what happens when innate talent is polished and focused by diligent hard work, and his discipline has paid off in spades. He has recorded five albums and toured internationally - including Europe, and both the North and South American continents. He has earned two Latin Grammy awards and an impressive list of accolades that laud his pioneering work in his own brand of Latin twang. El Twanguero exemplifies what might be a virtuoso's most important accomplishment - making it look easy. But El Twanguero is a professional at the top of his game. Don't try this at home.

Episode 157: Fergheart

Thu, 07 Apr 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Fergheart’s Craig Ferguson is an accomplished musician with well over a thousand gigs to his credit. He leads an award-winning bluegrass ensemble, has spent seven years backing roots music mashup master Cliff Wagner, has numerous performance credits on live television and over fifty placements on film and TV. Through innate talent and hard work, Ferguson has established himself as a go-to player in Los Angeles and beyond. But the hustle of a new-millennium career in music can take its toll, and Ferguson recently found himself suffering from a bit of technophobia, as the constant din of the Internet became more of a bane than a benefit. So he turned once again to music, forming Fergheart to provide an ensemble to showcase his own laid-back brand of breezy, soulful folk music. In Fergheart, Ferguson slows down the frenetic modern pace and uses songs as time machines to glide back to a simpler time when humans played real instruments on well-crafted songs with ambling tempos and hummable melodies. When Ferguson needed players to make Fergheart live and breathe, he called ace musicians like David Sutton and Butch Norton, who, aside from comprising the instrumental band Buick 6, are most famous for backing up alt-country journeywoman Lucinda Williams. Ferguson’s voice is an easy baritone, and he deploys it on melodies that exist like a sculpture in the framework of his compositions – with everything not essential to the song stripped deftly away. But it’s Ferguson’s guitar playing that speaks most clearly to the simpler sound for which he was searching – on his vinyl EP, My Retro Weekend, he coaxes warm, tremolo-drenched tones out of his vintage Gibson hollow body guitar that should provide a welcome anodyne in this hyper-connected world.

Episode 156: ID FFWD with Brian Whelan

Sat, 02 Apr 2016 02:00:00 -0000

Brian Whelan drops by the ID World HQ studio and talks about his difficult decision to leave his steady gig playing in Dwight Yoakam's band in order to focus on building a career as an artist in his own right. As always, Brian brings great songs, great conversation, heaps of talent, and an honest approach to his art.

Episode 155: Sean Watkins

Thu, 24 Mar 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Sean Watkins has been a professional musician since he wasn't yet old enough to drive. Along with his talented sister, Sara, Watkins formed the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek after meeting mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile at a pizza parlor bluegrass jam in North County, San Diego when they were still kids in 1990. The chemistry between the three young musicians was rare and palpable, and it wasn't long before bluegrass stalwart Alison Krauss was producing what would become their third album. After expanding their sound over their next two releases and winning a Grammy for This Side, Nickel Creek went on a hiatus for seven years, returning with their acclaimed fifth album, A Dotted Line in 2014. Never one to let dust settle, Watkins regularly has multiple projects going at any time, with the ongoing decade-plus residency at Los Angeles' Largo - billed as The Watkins Family Hour - as the center of a musical universe that has included Jon Brion, Fiona Apple, Benmont Tench, Greg Leisz, Don Heffington, Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket and other musical luminaries. Beyond his virtuosic guitar playing and a trademark tenor voice, a hallmark of Watkins' career has been his maturation as a songwriter. Although his early solo releases allowed him to experiment and expand his sonic palette beyond the acoustic setting of Nickel Creek, Watkins has evolved into an accomplished songwriter with his own unique voice. His brand-new album, What to Fear, finds Watkins turning his sharp eye and emotional compass to bittersweet ruminations of failed relationships, narrators who may or may not have the best intentions and incisive indictments of our modern society's penchant for false goals, misguided gods and an unwitting desire to seek solace in the comfort of fear. Through it all, Watkins' impeccable guitar playing and support from his infinitely talented friends make What to Fear a satisfying listen - and, like all his musical endeavors, yet another testament to the virtue of collaboration.

Episode 154: L.A. Choral Lab

Thu, 10 Mar 2016 03:00:00 -0000

In 2014, composer and pianist Michael Alfera was struggling with life choices and had an epiphany while hiking with a friend. He'd been looking for a new path in his life and his friend asked him some version of that telling question, "What would you do with your life if money wasn't an issue?" In answering, Alfera's truth tumbled out - he would start a choir. Inspired by the clarity of pursuing a crazy idea, he dug out some numbers of the many professional singers he knew around Los Angeles. "Would you be interested in being part of a new choral ensemble?" was his elevator pitch, and nearly every person he contacted said that they'd love to sing in Alfera's group. Over and over, he heard singers say that although they had many opportunities to sing, they missed the kind of challenging, mostly a capella choral music they'd sung in college and that they just didn't have a place to do it. Clearly, the interest was there on the part of the performers, but would there be an audience for a new choral ensemble in Los Angeles? Just two years later, the group, given the ambitious name the L.A. Choral Lab, does several concerts a year and is going strong. As conductor and musical director, Alfera curates the repertoire to suit the 22 mixed voices that comprise its members and selects pieces that represent the many variations of choral music from different eras in history. But it's L.A. Choral Lab's stated mission to break with the staid, familiar tradition of choral music and focus on works from new composers and inventive, unconventional performance spaces to give "unique, transformative performances" that make the group exceptional. The L.A. Choral Lab is ensuring that choral music has relevance in the new millennium.

Episode 153: Sarah Kramer

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Sarah Kramer is a rare bird. Her principal is trumpet, and her mastery of that instrument has earned her a career in which she has rubbed elbows and shared stages with legends like Bo Diddley, Leonard Cohen and Levon Helm. She got her start in New Jersey, studied music in college in New York City and spent some time in Taos, New Mexico, but she soon found that she suffered from a sort of musical diaspora. Through all her travels, the music and culture of New Orleans felt most like home, so she relocated to the Crescent City and immersed herself in the local scene. For eight years, she played every style she could manage - blues, jazz, latin, brass band, reggae, klezmer, alternative rock - as well as fronting her own band, The Sarah Kramer Project. She was living the dream and making a living in music, but the seeker in her implored her to push herself out of her comfort zone, so she relocated to Los Angeles and began to focus on her own unique style of songwriting and composition. Her 2013 solo release, Home, shows off her considerable talent as a musical force who defies any box in which you might try to put her. Kramer’s music is not quite folk, not quite indie and far too adventurous to lump her in with typical singer/songwriter conventions. Home starts in familiar territory, with tremolo guitars, vocals and other standard-issue tools of the trade, and just when the listener thinks they’ve got Kramer pegged, the horns sneak in - weaving in and out of the arrangements and adding fresh timbres that owe a debt more to impressionist painters than to her beloved New Orleans rhythms. Kramer is currently working on a new record, and given her resume and the caliber of players that pick up the phone when she calls, it won’t be anything but great.

Episode 152: Chris Laterzo

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Take one look at Los Angeles-based musician Chris Laterzo and you'll have a pretty good idea what his music sounds like. He's scruffy, with unkempt hair, a 4-day shave and a sleepy-eyed grin; he could easily be a character from one of his own travelling songs who stumbled out of the van and into the desert to chase a butterfly. But Laterzo is no slacker dope - there is a bit of Renaissance Man in his musings, and although he pays his bills with a teacher's salary when he's not on the road, his overall affect is that he's a sage moonlighting as a teacher and not the other way around. Laterzo's five albums are filled with rockers, twangers and waltzes, and like Neil Young, the legacy artist that serves as his stylistic magnetic north, Laterzo is equally comfortable singing about spaceships as he is the juniper and pinon blurring past his window on an all-night drive to the next gig. The usual complement of Americana instrumentation is on full display on his newest release, West Coast Sound; acoustic and electric guitars jangle and grind, pedal steel swells lean into choruses, drums sit pleasingly just behind the beat and Laterzo's warbly tenor - equally capable of doing justice to soft, vulnerable ballads and roadhouse rockers - shines down upon all of it.

Episode 151: Circe Link and Christian Nesmith

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Technology has changed nearly everything about the way music is made and enjoyed, and it's easy to lament the ways in which it divides and exploits artists. Illegal downloading and questionable revenue dispensation from streaming services have seen artists' incomes plummet, and label support has all but vanished in the new paradigm. It's enough to make musicians hang up their hats and consider getting out of the racket altogether - but there is a light side of The Force. The proliferation of affordable digital audio and video recording gear has made it easier than ever for artists to make high-quality music at home, and the Internet and social media allow innovative artists to find their fans and reach them directly. Circe Link and her partner, Christian Nesmith, would likely have had a successful career in music in any era, but they've built a substantial fan base by capitalizing on these new channels better than most performers in the new millennium. Link has nearly ten albums in her catalog and Nesmith's formidable skills as a guitarist and arranger have accelerated Link's prolific tendencies as a songwriter. Although their most recent album, Bird's Amazing Odyssey & The Meaning of Tea, was released in 2015, the pair were already ahead of themselves assembling an album of 18 cover songs called Side Orders - complete with accompanying videos - compiled from the over 90 songs on their YouTube channel. And if that isn't enough output to appease the ever-hungry maw of the God of Content, Link and Nesmith host regular live video streaming concerts complete with their full band and production staff. And it's with that full band that Circe Link and Christian Nesmith shine brightest because they smartly surround themselves with top-notch players that help them realize the full potential of their adventurous arrangements; guitars flirt with Beatles and Pet Sounds interplay, a pair of background singers provide 'ear candy' vocals and the rhythm section keeps everything on track and moving forward whether the song is a breezy country blues or a prog-folk hat tip to circus music. But mostly, the expansive and expanding musical universe that Link and Nesmith have created is just plain fun.

Episode 150: Simone White

Thu, 14 Jan 2016 03:00:00 -0000

Simone White comes by her musical talent honestly; her grandmother performed in burlesque shows, her grandfather wrote poetry, her mother played folk music and her aunt wrote pop songs. With this kind of pedigree, it is no surprise that White's quirky compositions display the kind of assured quality earned by generations in the arts. Though born in Hawaii and currently residing in California, White's music bears no distinctly American geographical earmarks. Instead, electronic textures blend with hushed guitars to create a prescient sonic palette over which she sings introspective lyrics in a hushed, breathy voice. The effect is vaguely and satisfyingly British, which makes sense given that she is signed to the Honest Jon's Record Company, a record label that is run by the English artist Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz. There also are stylistic nods to artists as disparate as hushed folk hero Nick Drake and boundary-smashing St. Vincent spread across White's four albums, making her music at once modern and timeless - and also making her developing career a respectable contribution to the family trade.

Episode 149: Risa Binder

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 03:00:00 -0000

In the world of music, earnestness can be passe, or even perceived as inauthentic. Care too much, or smile with anything other than a sultry or irreverent sneer and you can lose your cred; but there is another way. Singer and songwriter Risa Binder started her career in music in New York City, but she soon found herself saving up money from waitressing shifts for trips to Nashville, Tennessee. There, in the undisputed epicenter of country music, she immersed herself in the local music scene and earned what she refers to as a graduate degree in the genre by making the rounds at songwriters' circles and frequenting the Bluebird Cafe - the legendary proving ground for both aspiring and established songwriters. And it's here that her indelible spirit and unfailing positivity come into play. It could be said that Binder's avocation is happiness and music is merely her medium, and she is perfectly comfortable in the stylistic nexus between country and pop music that is ruling country music in the new millennium. She has earned scores of fans by engaging them with a positive message and spreading the good vibes around with events like her post-show "sweet and greet" events, where she talks with concertgoers, signs autographs and shares treats from local bakeries. Binder's first album, Paper Heart, was released in 2011 and since then she has earned an Emmy nomination and had singles reach the country charts. She built on that success with an EP called Nashville in 2014 and is currently working on her next full-length album. Risa Binder is proof that the good girl can win, especially if they wear a sense of earnestness like a badge of honor.

Episode 148: Angela Easterling

Thu, 03 Dec 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Angela Easterling currently lives on a South Carolina farm that has been in her family since 1791. In a nation of transplants and immigrants that’s nearly an eternity, and this grounding connection with the land permeates her music with a sense of the realities of the beauty, joy, tragedy and drudgery of what makes up a life. Easterling didn’t always make the family farm her home - she was brave and crazy enough to move to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams in music, but the parable of finding that what one is looking can be under one’s feet is certainly applicable to her career. Easterling knows the value of hard work, and over the course of several albums her songs have earned her accolades in songwriting circles as well as topped the Americana Top 40 chart. Though her most recent album, Common Law Wife, was recorded in Nashville, her new batch of songs finds Easterling singing about the life she has created on that farm in South Carolina with her partner, facile guitarist Brandon Turner, and their growing family. Sometimes, your dreams don’t turn out the way you planned; sometimes, they turn out better.

Episode 147: Don Heffington

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Drummer and musician Don Heffington’s credit list is so long as to be nearly unprintable. He started out in the early 1970s, and he has had a steady career since, backing up artists of all stripes - from lesser known bands to numerous acts who have become household names. A fractional sampling from his resume includes Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Joe Walsh, Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks, Buddy Miller, k.d. lang, The Wallflowers, Sheryl Crow, Dwight Yoakam, Joe Cocker and countless others, so it’s no wonder his phone continues to ring. It isn’t so much flash that he brings to a recording session or live gig, but more of an affable, no-BS approach to making music that makes it easy to have him around. On top of steady session work, one of his current regular gigs is playing drums for the reigning kings and queens of the scene at Los Angeles’ Largo, The Watkins Family Hour, where Heffington shares the communal and creative vibe with former Nickel Creek members Sara and Sean Watkins, along with Fiona Apple, Benmont Tench, Greg Leisz and Sebastian Steinberg. But it’s Heffington’s new album, Gloryland, that allows space to get him out from behind the drumkit and in front of the mic singing almost-spoken word vocals on ten of his quirky but incisive original compositions. Imagine Tom Waits as a tall, lank, well-traveled and friendly train conductor with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Episode 146: Tawny Ellis

Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Tawny Ellis was on tour in 2014 when she and and her band passed through Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Unlike other small southern towns, Muscle Shoals is well known due to its rich musical history that is anchored by legendary recording studios. Both FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio - as well as the group of local musicians that became the back up band for the equally legendary artists that recorded there - call the sleepy, backwoods southern town home. The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, Bob Seger and Rod Stewart are just some of the names from the list of musicians who have made the trek to Muscle Shoals to make music. Knowing this history, Ellis had some time in her schedule for a stop and decided to take a tour of FAME Studios. The building at FAME isn’t very large and at the end of the short tour Ellis asked if she could meet FAME owner and co-founder Rick Hall, who she had caught a glimpse of as they walked around the facility. Hall agreed to meet them, and after a short chat he asked simply, “Are you going to record here?” What started out as an afternoon diversion set Ellis on a challenge to finish the tour, write some new songs and return to FAME to record them ten days later. The result is Ghosts of the Low Country, a new four-song EP that captures Ellis doing what she does best - singing Americana-esque songs with her sultry Emmylou-meets-Patsy Cline voice and playing ethereal lap steel, accompanied by her musical partner, Gio Loria.

Episode 145: Adam Levy

Thu, 22 Oct 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Few musicians get to experience the kind of career ride Adam Levy has had. It all started simply enough; Levy was a young, talented jazz guitarist who grew up in Los Angeles and had lived on both coasts - playing with numerous artists and earning some accolades for his smoky blues licks on Tracy Chapman’s hit, “Give Me One Reason.” After a few more moves Levy found himself in San Francisco writing for Guitar Player magazine. Not a bad regular gig in a field where regular gigs come dear. A strange confluence of events then set him on a path that would sound like a yarn had it not come to pass. It was sparked by an e-mail from a little-known performer he’d played with in New York, along with a rare and uncannily good deal on an apartment in Manhattan and a cross-country tag along ride. That e-mail was from Norah Jones, with whom Levy had been playing gigs before he left for the West coast. She was headed into the studio to record her debut album for the Blue Note label and she asked him to come to New York and play some guitar. When it was released, Come Away With Me captured the zeitgeist of America in the aftermath of the September 11th terror attacks, sold millions of copies and won Jones eight Grammys in 2003 - and it also launched Jones, Levy and the other musicians in her band into the rarified air unique to multi-platinum artists. Levy played with Jones’ Handsome Band for six years and two more albums before setting off on his own. Levy has kept busy since, relocating back to his native California, releasing several albums and chairing the guitar department at Los Angeles College of Music. Levy’s deft, tasteful, slowhand guitar style has also been heard on recordings by Ani DiFranco, Amos Lee and numerous others, and his newest project is a quartet of top-notch musicians including Rich Hinman, Jay Bellarose and Jennifer Condos that can be found playing entertaining and unpretentious gigs around Los Angeles.

Episode 144: Nicky Corbett

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Some people just have a voice - a natural talent that is evident as soon as they open their mouth to sing a phrase. It is a very intimate thing - after all, the human voice is the only instrument that every person carries around with them everywhere they go. Whether they’re any good at it or not, everyone can sing in the shower. Some of that distinctive sound of a person’s voice is natural talent, but the best vocalists make it look easy even though they may have spent countless hours learning the craft of singing. Nicky Corbett is that kind of singer. She was blessed with a naturally pleasing voice and she learned how to use it at a young age in her native Canada. Early in her career she found herself signed to a development deal, and long after relocating to Los Angeles she continues to work with some of the best musicians in the business.

Episode 143: Susan James

Thu, 24 Sep 2015 03:00:00 -0000

“Ten thousand dollars,” was the utterly random guess a young Susan James gave to a circumspect fan at a California Bay Area show when he inquired how much money it would take for her to make an album. At that point in her career, James had finished college, been bitten by the songwriting bug and was kicking around Palo Alto playing shows. She’d fallen into a regular gig at a bar and had started to build a small following, but her path forward wasn’t clear. That shy fan turned out to be Burrell Smith, an early engineer at Apple who’d made a fortune designing components for the nascent Macintosh computer. Smith showed up at one of James’ shows soon thereafter with a bag containing $9,999.00 and shyly gave it to her - ample funds for her to launch her career with her first record. Five albums and numerous international tours later, James is still at it, crafting songs in the rich tradition of California psychedelic folk/rock. But her new album, Sea Glass, represents a major leap forward in sonic exploration for James. Eschewing her principal instrument - the guitar - and composing on the piano forced her into a decidedly uncomfortable but inspired position, and the results exemplify her courageousness as an artist. Lyrically, a pair of songs with nautical motifs allows James to explore themes of conservation - both emotionally and ecologically. Sonically, Sea Glass creates an expansive realm by utilizing a diverse instrumental palette; along with the standard-issue guitars, bass and drums; marimba, strings, harpsichord and layered Leonard Cohen-style female backing vocals combine to make the album an orchestral pop masterpiece. The ten songs on Sea Glass are flower power music for a new, complex age.

Episode 142: Scrote

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 03:00:00 -0000

There are an awful lot of guitar players in the known universe. Indeed, part of the instrument’s popularity can be attributed to its accessibility. Pick up a pawn shop six-string, learn a few hackneyed chords, throw a few words together, dime out your amp and you’re fronting a band in a matter of months. Even some of the most well known performers possess not much more than a remedial understanding of the guitar’s capabilities. But some guitarists devote their lives to this enigmatic instrument and they not only master it, but they keep pushing boundaries as far as what it is capable of doing. Scrote is just that sort of gifted guitar player. He’s based in Los Angeles, but he has toured the world and worked with artists like Jackson Browne, No Doubt, Benmont Tench, Reeves Gabrels, Van Dyke Parks and myriad others. Scrote is a searcher, playing multiple styles of music in different ensembles as well as producing albums and working as a musical director for tours and other projects. One of his current bands is called Double Bari Sax Attack!, and it sounds just as you might imagine it might - avant garde guitar, high energy vocals, driving drums and a pair of guttural baritone saxophones that play rhythmic and melodic figures as well as wailing solos. And if that’s not enough badassery for you, Scrote sometimes scalesup the lineup to a Quadruple Bari Sax Attack!

Episode 141: The Clowns Will Eat Me

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Just a few short months ago, musician and high school student Mason Summit had been accepted to college and was set to leave Los Angeles and study something far more sensible than music at a far away school. But his passion for music got the best of him and Summit switched tacks to songwriting. While the rest of his newly graduated classmates are packing up their laptops and lava lamps this late summer and heading off to college, Summit will stay closer to home, study songwriting and focus on his burgeoning music career. One of those classmates is guitarist, singer and songwriter Spencer Shapeero, who graduated a year before Summit and skipped town to the east coast to study music at Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music. Early in middle school, Shapeero and Summit struck up their friendship based on a shared affinity for crafty songwriting and the pair formed a duo called The Clowns Will Eat Me to allow them both a creative outlet and a harmony voice. Both musicians are active in multiple projects but the two friends have a certain simpatico that shows in their music when they work together. Lead vocals are shared - sometimes between lines of verses - and their harmonic structures are informed by a mutual love for art-pop masters like Elliott Smith and Jon Brion.

Episode 140: Bryan McPherson

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Singer Bryan McPherson has a tattoo of the unmistakable silhouette of United States of America on his right arm - the contiguous 48 states, at least. This may seem a strange idiosyncrasy for an artist who is largely considered a protest singer. Truly, McPherson pulls no punches when pointing out the darker side of his homeland, and given the dynamic, folk-punk delivery of his songs about the labor movement, race relations, income inequality, women’s rights, gay rights and other causes of the oppressed and marginalized, it is nearly impossible to not be moved by his message. His agile and shouted tenor, uptempo guitar playing and frenetic harmonica accompaniment are reminiscent of an amped up Woody Guthrie - or maybe Dylan on speed - and McPherson is fearless about taking his message to the people, logging thousands of miles playing solo shows from coast to coast and sleeping in his van along the way. If there is a salient criticism of modern activism it is that it lacks heart and focus, but Bryan McPherson has both of these things in spades - because it’s when he slows down his tempos, dials down his rage and delivers stark, first-person songs about love and the loss of loved ones that his strong, vulnerable and indelible heart shines through. McPherson’s new album, Wedgewood, was recorded in a rustic studio near an abandoned gold mine in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains - a long way from his hometown of Boston. The collection of songs was named for the brand of wood burning stove that he tended to stay warm, and the theme of fire imparts the music with a palpable feeling of searing change. Bryan McPherson may be a slightly anachronistic protest singer in the Internet Age, but he is offering no vague indictments of those in power, he’s as real as they come. A keen eye will reveal that there are no state lines or red or blue ink to divide the country on McPherson’s tattoo, and that’s an apt reminder for all of those singing and fighting for a better world.

Episode 139: Lee Pardini

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 03:00:00 -0000

A lot of kids dream of a career in music, and when they do they often imagine themselves in the spotlight at center stage with thousands of eyes fixed on their every move, but there are many people making a living in music whose names are not on the marquee. In fact, for every Madonna, there are dozens of musicians who have played in her band over the years. If you want to work, learn and do everything you can - the diversification of skill sets is an essential way to get more gigs - especially given the luck factor involved in eking out a practical living in the arts. Lee Pardini is a top notch multi-instrumentalist who has taken this ethos to heart. He studied jazz piano in college at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, but he also picked up the bass guitar along the way so he could play with a wider range of artists. And play, he has - Pardini has backed up artists like Shelby Lynne, Jonathan Wilson and Nick Waterhouse - along with just about everyone else in the pro circuit in the Los Angeles music community. What is it that Pardini brings to a band? Virtuosic chops, for starters, but perhaps even more importantly he brings an egalitarian perspective on music styles and an eager disposition. After all, nobody wants to ride around in a bus all summer with a jerk. Along with making everyone else sound good, Pardini is also an accomplished songwriter whose piano compositions are nimble and inventive. So the next time you’re at a show, pay attention to those players in the dim lights; they may be the next headliner ticket you buy.

Episode 138: Anna Maria Rosales

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Anna Maria Rosales spent her formative years playing bass in bands in her native El Paso, Texas, worked her way into a gig touring internationally playing bass, and spent three years on the road in Europe and both North and South America. Bona-fides like those would be enough to constitute a pretty solid career as a performer and make a body homesick, but by 2006, Rosales found herself back in El Paso with a palpable sense of oft-trod hometown grass growing under her feet. When she got word of an audition for a gig in Los Angeles, Rosales packed up her bass and her suitcase and bought a ticket on an overnight train headed west. During the audition, she executed a classic case of tactical omission - she never told the bandleader that she didn’t live in L.A., figuring that she’d cross that bridge if she got the job. She got the gig, solved the new problem by putting down roots in California and immersed herself in the music scene of her new hometown. While playing all those gigs on bass, Rosales’ strong back-up vocals prompted many people to encourage her to step up to the mic and release an album under her own name, and her new record, Washed Up On Your Shore, finally puts her front and center. Years of paying dues on stages in L.A. and around the world allowed her to get top notch players to contribute to the record, and they provide the perfect setting to showcase her pleasing and earthy alto. But it was the tragedy of losing her sister to breast cancer in 2013 that gives the album gravitas by leaving a giant hole in her life that Rosales could only begin to fill with the healing power of music.

Episode 137: Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen

Thu, 02 Jul 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen each had independently successful careers in music long before they met. Frechette was a Canadian folk singer who logged thousands of miles a year playing his 1,300-plus original songs and writing hit singles for bands like The Duhks and others. Classically-trained violinist Laurel Thomsen had built a reputation as a go-to player for ensembles ranging from full symphonies to singer-songwriters - as well as teaching lessons all over the world via Skype and hosting the popular Violin Geek podcast from her home in California. Dan first heard Laurel’s playing on YouTube by happenstance and the pair started collaborating remotely; Dan would send Laurel songs via e-mail and she would overdub parts and send them back. Dan loved the accompaniment Laurel added to his songs, and Laurel found Dan’s songs to be richly diverse musical gems with enough harmonic space for her to contribute. Their phone discussions about music evolved into long discussions about life and their friendship grew. After three albums of remote collaboration, the pair decided to see if their chemistry worked in person and they scheduled a set of tour dates in California, hitting the stage for the first show less than 24 hours after meeting face to face for the very first time. Their connection was palpable and immediately evident to both the pair of performers and their audience, and Frechette and Thomsen have been a duo ever since - logging over 130 concerts in 2013 alone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their musical partnership blossomed into a romantic one as well, and on the rare occasions when they’re not on the road, Frechette and Thomsen both call California’s beautiful central coast home. Dan and Laurel have a brand-new album called New Disguise and they continue to maintain a relentless live performance schedule.

Episode 136: the black watch

Thu, 18 Jun 2015 03:00:00 -0000

The longevity of the band the black watch is a testament to tenacity and persistence. Originally from Santa Barbara, California, singer, guitarist and songwriter John Andrew Fredrick developed a strong case of musical anglophilia, but in addition to the standard issue Beatles influence, he incorporated bits and pieces from a wide range of British artists into the sound of the band. As the primary songwriter, Fredrick has been the only constant member in the 20-plus-year career of the black watch, and it his artistic vision that has kept the band moving forward through multiple lineup changes. More recent black watch material has a sound that is reminiscent of the best of 80s British pop, and the band provides a classic example as for why American bands so often look to their counterparts in Britain to see how it’s done. Fredrick’s vocals sneer, guitars grind with a driving jangle and his lyrics illustrate an ability to walk the line between the inherent elegant simplicity of pop music and a command of the language indicative of his PhD in English. Fredrick and the black watch are set to play a national tour in the summer of 2015 and they’re finishing up a brand new record called Highs & Lows that is slated for an early 2016 release.

Episode 135: Claire Holley

Thu, 04 Jun 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Given her genteel demeanor and diminutive stature, it would be easy to mistake Claire Holley for a southern debutante rather than an astute artist with considerable talents as a singer, songwriter, performer and composer. Holley possesses an innate ability to make people feel at ease, and she captivates audiences when she combines her warm spirit with a beautifully natural way of singing. Over the last two decades, the Mississippi born and bred Holley has released several albums that range in style from intimate, acoustic settings to traditional hymns, children’s songs, holiday music and full band releases, but her new album, Time in the Middle, expands her sound into some new, sonically complex territory reminiscent of producer Pierre Marchand’s work with Sarah McLachlan. One of the more remarkable aspects about her new album is that this expansive sonic palette was created by just Holley and a pair of carefully selected multi-instrumentalists, Dan Phelps and Jonathan Kingham. The trio holed up in a world-class studio in the rural Northern California town of Ferndale, and the isolation yielded a focused album that will feel familiar to her devoted fans while simultaneously taking a few risks that pay rich, artistic rewards. If Holley’s angelic voice is what pulls listeners in, it’s her keen eye for detail in her lyrics that keeps them coming back.

Episode 134: Amy Blaschke

Thu, 21 May 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Amy Blaschke sings with the voice of an angel who has spent a lot of time looking after earnest, lonely people with broken hearts. Her singing voice isn’t exactly airy - it is too grounded in alto earthiness to abide flights of vapid soprano fancy. But neither is it husky, because it possesses far too much buoyancy to keep her enchanting melodies from doing anything but soaring. The eleven songs that make up Blaschke’s upcoming fifth album, Opaline, veer from strutting, triple meter Neko Case blues to gentle, fingerpicked indie folk songs that sound like lost Nick Drake classics - with a heavy helping of breezy 60s pop to bind it all together. Blaschke’s melodies share the same balance of the consonant and dissonant aspects of Drake’s music, and producer Brian Whelan’s deft touch brings everything into a soft focus that lets Blashke’s new batch of songs shine in their best light. On the whole, Opaline seems borne of a world in which Wilco releases an album of Stephen Sondheim’s most revered songs. It would be hard for listeners to not fall in love with Blashke’s Opaline, and to fall in love with her for making it.

Episode 133: Kip Boardman

Thu, 07 May 2015 03:00:00 -0000

The story behind Los Angeles artist Kip Boardman’s newest album started with the band he’d assembled for a gig at Los Angeles’ legendary West Side hole-in-the-wall dive bar and music venue, The Cinema Bar. As is often the case, the night of the gig a group of stellar musicians wound up playing yet another exceptional show for fifteen people; such is the life of a musician. But one of those lucky people in the audience that night in 2013 was longtime Brian Wilson percussionist Nelson Bragg, who also happened to own a small record label. The band was hot, the songs were good and Bragg was impressed enough to approach Boardman after the show and ask him if he thought he could replicate that magic and energy in a recording studio. Boardman smartly said that he could and the pair decided to make an album together. In a stroke of logical inspiration, Boardman and Bragg took the exact same players from the Cinema Bar show into the studio and track the songs completely live in order to capture as much of the live show lightning as possible into the studio bottle. The result is Boardman, ten songs that swing, smolder, groove and stay out of their own way. Boardman’s reedy tenor doesn’t so much soar over this group of tasteful, seasoned musicians as it lilts across the surface - ducking, meandering and inviting the listener to come along for the ride. Imagine Neil Young fronting The Grateful Dead if Jerry and company were playing in tune and in time. Boardman’s economical dry wit and clever smirk are in full display on the album that bears his name, and when the needle reaches the center groove at the end of side two, it just feels right to flip it over and start again.

Episode 132: Phoebe Bridgers

Thu, 30 Apr 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Phoebe Bridgers was already writing solid songs and making the rounds of L.A. music venues when she got cast in a commercial for Apple’s iPhone 5S in early 2014. The ad depicted numerous musicians in different settings using the new smartphone to assemble a song. While other musicians in the spot tuned a bass in a studio, plugged in a guitar to busk in a subway, tumbled into a driving drum beat and staged an interactive performance art piece, Bridgers’ face and voice were prominently featured singing the chorus of the Pixies’ song, “Gigantic” - essentially starring in a television commercial likely seen by millions. In the Internet age, this is just the kind of facetime that launches careers. People Googled Bridgers and her star began to rise. Fortunately for her, she has the talent and a growing number of well-crafted songs to justify the buzz. Bridgers’ writing chops are years beyond her youthful voice, and it is this combination of sweetness and wisdom that sets her apart from her peers in a city filled with aspiring performers. Phoebe Bridgers and her songs are subtle and powerful, tender and commanding, vulnerable and confident - and she is unafraid to be all of these things at once.

Episode 131: Johnzo West

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Musician Johnzo West once spent a summer on a movie shoot in Detroit, Michigan after being hired to teach an actor how to play guitar - or at least how to fake it convincingly enough on screen. Like music, making movies is a hurry-up-and-wait affair with a goodly amount of downtime, and West found himself palling around with the young actress and musician Miley Cyrus, who was trying her hand on the big screen after the phenomenal success of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel. Between takes, the pair would sing classic country songs and West was immediately impressed with the Cyrus’ natural country singing talent - which was different from the pop persona that made her a megastar. Those downtime collaborations led to West accompanying Cyrus on a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic song, “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” that was featured on the album, Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International. The single and the round of television appearances that followed raised West’s profile, but he had been making music long before he paired up with his famous friend. Since his move west to California from his native Indiana, West has released a pair of albums along with a brand new EP called The Cause and the Cure in February of 2015. Whether stripped down and acoustic or fully fleshed out, West’s music is reminiscent of the sepia-toned glory days of California’s Laurel Canyon sound.

Episode 130: Michael Hays

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Musician Michael Hays has come a long way since his formative years amidst the humid pines of southern Mississippi. Just about the time when many of his classmates clung to their roots and started families, Hays set out for Austin, Texas - the fertile musical mecca that doubles as the capital of Lone Star State. He did what nearly all young guitar players do… he started bands and worked odd jobs to keep himself fed. But Hays soon figured out that as cool and supportive as Austin was, he needed an even bigger pond to hold his aspirations, so he packed up his life and continued west to California. Los Angeles’ complex and diverse music scene offered myriad opportunities and Hays availed himself of as many as he could find. He became a founding member of the venerable local band, The Larks, and taught guitar lessons and repaired accordions to pay the rent. One band led to another, and he wound up doing stints in the Neighborhood Bullys and We Were Indians as well as contributing to Richard Thompson’s Sweet Warrior album. Recently, in the fall of 2014, Hays released his first proper, eponymously titled, full-length solo album. The twelve tracks that make up the record showcase Hays’ considerable talents as both a guitarist and a writer of inventive Elliott Smith-meets-Wilco melancholy pop. Guitar tones veer from classic tube amp grit to 12-string jangle and then off to atonal Robert Quine atmospherics. Tight and inventive Big Star-esque chord changes give way to familiar and comfortable grooves with just enough country-flavored pedal steel to ground the whole hotwired experience. Also in 2014, Hays relocated back to Austin, but his new music makes it obvious that he has deep and enduring musical roots in Southern California.

Episode 129: Christian Smedstrom

Thu, 05 Mar 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Musician Christian Smedstrom is from Sweden, which is a long way from the rural American South - where the style of blues music that is his stock and trade originated in a cultural soup of African music, spirituals, field hollers and folk music. But music truly is the universal language, and when a young Smedstrom heard the blues music playing on his father’s turntable, he was instantly mesmerized by the emotive power of the deceptively complex and elegantly simple art form. Smedstrom picked up the guitar and kept at it long enough to eke out a career playing his songs with his band, the 2120s. Even though he was playing shows relentlessly across Europe he wasn’t quite a full-time performer - but modern musicians have a more egalitarian idea of success, and Smedstrom’s nordic blues found its way into American television programs and advertising campaigns, providing a welcome boost to his profile and affording him the opportunity to begin playing shows in the U.S. Smedstrom’s style ranges from solo acoustic blues to more amped-up, Cream-inspired power trio jams that can be heard on FX’s gritty Sons of Anarchy series. He has two full-length albums, a pair of EPs and a handful of singles available - and he’s always churning out more music. Not bad for a bluesman from Europe’s Great White North.

Episode 128: ID FFWD with Brian Whelan

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Brian Whelan was one of the very first guests on Independent’s Day, stopping by our studios for the second episode way back on March 9th, 2011. At the time, he was making the rounds in a number of Los Angeles bands and building a reputation as a formidable player on a number of instruments. That reputation put his name on the short list of players being considered for a vacancy in maverick country legend Dwight Yoakam’s band. Yoakam needed a versatile musician who could sing harmonies and cover parts on several instruments, including keyboards, accordion, guitar and pedal steel guitar. But Whelan had never really played the latter, a complicated beast of an instrument that requires all four of a pedal steel player’s arms and legs to make its characteristically weepy and lonesome sound. Yoakam met with Whelan and asked the younger musician if he thought he could learn how to play pedal steel for the gig. Whelan wisely replied, “Yes,” and in doing so, he stepped into the role of a full-time member of Yoakam’s band that would find him playing years of top-tier shows and recording on two of Yoakam’s albums. Whelan, who used to be called “The Kid” in Los Angeles music circles, summarily skipped a few grades and got paid to earn what is tantamount to a PhD in real-world music by apprenticing with one of the masters of modern country and western music. And now, after four years, Whelan has taken the courageous steps to leave Yoakam’s band and strike out on his own. After all, no matter how good the gig is, your name will never be on the marquee if the spotlight is always on the other guy.

Episode 127: Mason Summit

Thu, 05 Feb 2015 03:00:00 -0000

“The kids are alright!” How many times have we heard that since The Who coined that amped-up pop aphorism on their 1965 debut album? The more ‘half empty’ set of every established generation seem convinced that the subsequent generation has no talent and no respect for their elders. Could it be the obligation of every generation to piss off those who came before? But time irrevocably marches on and great music continues to be made. Enter Mason Summit, a singer/songwriter who is still in high school and has two albums to his credit. Let that sink in for a minute. While his classmates were teepeeing their teachers’ houses or spending endless hours playing video games, Summit was playing legendary live music venues in Los Angeles and recording and honing his skills as an emerging songwriter. Summit’s songs are sharp and accessible, his guitar playing is pleasantly frenetic and his melodies and vocals show that he has done his homework by studying the masters of the craft of songwriting. So just forget all that stuff about Mason Summit being young. He is talented and motivated and has already earned his stripes - and if he keeps up his moving and shaking, future generations of young musicians will likely be studying his songs one day.

Episode 126: Jason Charles Miller

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 03:00:00 -0000

Jason Charles Miller began his career as the singer of a successful hard rock band called Godhead. Just how successful? Godhead has sold over 250,000 records to date - a very healthy sum for an age in which young people just don’t buy music anymore. Godhead was the first band signed to Marilyn Manson’s label, Posthuman Records; they released several albums, headlined their own tours and shared bills with Manson, Linkin Park, GWAR, Disturbed and others, and Miller reveled in the life of a front man in a rock band. And then things changed when he tested positive for the “C” word - country. There had always been a lot more to Miller than tattoos, attitude and powerful vocals; he had long been a dedicated student of the art of songcraft, and few genres of music celebrate the skill of the pure songwriter like country music. Nashville’s Music Row turns out a steady stream of new songs in seemingly perpetual motion, and Miller found that his unique skill set lent itself perfectly to this work ethic. Along the way Miller also learned to diversify, parlaying his successes in music into additional work as an in-demand voice over artist with over 60 credits to his name, with dozens more appearances in video games and live action productions. Unsurprisingly, Miller is a very busy man, and he holds dual citizenship in Nashville and in Los Angeles, where he owns and manages his own recording facility, Central Command Studios.

Episode 125: Brad Peterson

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0000

The word ‘maverick’ gets thrown around a lot; politicians, cowboys, designers and others have all been labeled as such when a soul sets itself apart from the mean in order to find out what is truly possible. Singer/songwriter Brad Peterson exemplifies the ethos of the independent, intrepid musician better than almost anyone. Growing up in New Jersey and suburban Chicago, Peterson was experimenting with recording his own original songs as soon as he figured out how to work his tabletop cassette recorder before he was even ten years old. Throughout the late 80s and 90s he evolved through a series of stylistic shifts - from frenetic new wave pop to blue-eyed soul and a kind of nostalgic and organic folky rock - with his powerful and emotive voice establishing an anchor to hold it all together. Over time, his songs got better and he played in a number of bands with increasingly larger spheres of influence. Stages got bigger - as did the crowds in front of them - and Peterson eventually rubbed elbows with some of his heroes; Bono, Jeff Buckley, Sufjan Stevens, Edie Brickell and others. But as the Internet eroded the foundations of the music business in the new millennium, Peterson found it nearly impossible to make a living in music. He had long been recording and releasing albums on his own using the rapidly expanding capabilities of recording software, and he had an epiphany - technology could allow him to continue to turn out incredibly inventive music without being beholden to the traditional model of the music business. By giving away his music, he found himself free as well. After several albums of original material produced completely on his own, Peterson’s style has settled into a catchy and inventive mixture of the Beatles, The Beach Boys and bits of any and everything else that inspires him. His brand new EP, Fleur-de-Lis, finds Peterson’s voice, style and songs as maverick as ever.

Episode 124: Funkyjenn

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Anyone who has said that girls can’t rock has never heard Funkyjenn sing. This Los Angeles-based chanteuse doesn’t ‘rock’ in the sexually objectified Lita Ford kind of way, but in the storied tradition of women like Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin who had enough power to not merely hang with the boys in the band - but to lead them with a commanding presence at center stage. Funkyjenn has the soul, the chops and the personality to front a group of top notch players, and although she is a thoroughly modern woman there is a kind of raw sexuality to what she’s doing - and it’s the same rhythmic bump and grind that inspired the progenitors of rock and blues music. But aside from her powerful voice, it’s her collaborative nature that sets her apart from the legions of chick singers leaning hard on the blue notes. Funkyjenn knows that filling up her band with the best players available is a pillar of success in music, and she involves those players every step of the way - from the writing of songs to the hours hammering them out in the studio, and finally onstage, where an audience can innately feel it when a band is hot and tight. She has a brand-new Christmas album called Sing to the Angels that will truly bring some rock around your Christmas tree this holiday season.

Episode 123: Christian Gregory

Thu, 20 Nov 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Christian Gregory’s blue-eyed soul comes by way of his home, which is immersed in Britain's rich musical heritage. He’s certainly not the first resident of the U.K. to slip a little Motown and Memphis into his sound - Van Morrison practically invented the genre long before Gregory was born and rock bands have been getting funky since they learned to count to four - but Gregory’s syncopated rhythms are drawn from the funkier side of soul, and like so many young artists in the new paradigm, his music displays his keen ability to look back while pushing forward. And steering clear of the over processed, over auto-tuned and overproduced style that is currently en vogue in the R & B world serves him well. Once you strip away the trappings of modern pop, what remains is the same stuff that makes old school funk, soul and rhythm and blues music classic and timeless. Snake-y grooves, funky comping and bedroom-falsetto crooning provide the perfect balance of style and substance that is essential for music in which The Groove is king. Gregory has a new E.P. called Count On You and he’s making significant international inroads by playing gigs across the United States in addition to back in his home in England.

Episode 122: Hannah Aldridge

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Hannah Aldridge is steeped in what Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood calls “The Southern Thing” - a phrase that tries to summarize the living, breathing duality of the rich and troubled history of the American South. Aldridge is based in Nashville these days, but she spent her formative years in the fertile musical turf near Muscle Shoals, Alabama - about 125 miles south of her current home. Muscle Shoals is a small, backwoods southern river town that happens to have long been a legendary destination for world-class musicians. Something in the muddy water seeps into the souls of the people who live and record in Muscle Shoals - and that inexplicable magic winds up in the records cut there. Aldridge’s apple didn’t fall far from the talent tree - her father is noted songwriter and musician Walt Aldridge - but the younger Aldridge has more than enough keen observations in her gritty songs and confidence in her sweet and rural voice to earn her her own hard-won stripes. She writes from the perspective of a strong woman in a setting where the men talk big, but seldom do the honorable, righteous or even logical thing. Hannah Aldridge flatly inhabits the characters in her songs - a woman peculiarly tranquil about her dwindling days on death row, the daughter of a vengeful preacher who will not abide her abuse, the mother of a young son with a box of special rocks under his bed - and gives them all a voice that sounds alive and real. And it is this songwriting authenticity that raises her above the throng of Americana singer-songwriters of either gender. She has a new album called Razor Wire and is already working on songs for a follow-up release.

Episode 121: We Are Kings and Queens

Thu, 16 Oct 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Crafting an album that defines a decade isn’t an easy thing to do, but Radiohead most definitely raised the bar for all modern rock bands when they released OK Computer in 1997. The band had worked up to that wildly creative period over two previous albums, starting as a more straight-ahead British band before evolving into something wholly new. Eventually, it seems that Radiohead got bored with being Radiohead and completely cast away their guitar-driven origins and focused on experimental music. But what if OK Computer was the starting point for a band that never lost its romance with the guitar? Los Angeles’ We Are Kings And Queens wears their Radiohead influence proudly, and they’ve got the atmospheric songs and musical chops to live up to the inevitable comparisons. Guitarist Benjamin Hancock has the prerequisite colossal pedalboard that is essential for conjuring otherworldly soundscapes, and he uses it with a deft touch. The band’s hypnotic drums and bass provide the perfect rhythmic counterpoint to vocalist Jonathan Mahan’s emotional tenor. We Are Kings And Queens know the value of juxtaposing a brooding melody with the roar of a dynamic and anthemic arrangement, and the band has the rare mixture of courage and talent to create music that is at once beautiful and powerful.

Episode 120: Caspar Sonnet

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Experimental art can be an acquired taste, but once it gets into your head nothing else will do. Classical composer John Cage built a career on doing things differently, and The Beatles transformed from a garage band ripping off Chuck Berry to the biggest band that ever was by experimenting with just how far a pop song could be pushed into unknown sonic territory. Caspar Sonnet’s music exists in a world that is at least partially free of the conventions of what most people recognize as pop music. In Sonnet’s world, song structures do not conform to traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus forms and melodies are juxtaposed against a richer harmonic palette that most ears find familiar. Listening to Caspar Sonnet’s music can be jarring at first, but if listeners have the courage to abandon comfortable conventions there is a discordant beauty lurking below the surface. It helps that Sonnet is talented enough to both sing his angular melodies and accompany himself on instruments that have been modified to fit into his mold-less mold - ukuleles are played through amplifiers with a bevy of effects, a lap slide dobro is played a manner that is anything but blues and guitars are “prepared” in ways similar to the manner in which avant-garde classical composers modify instruments to evoke sounds that their inventors likely could never have dreamed possible. So open your ears and expand your mind to a new definition of what music can be, because Caspar Sonnet will take you there if you’re willing to tag along.

Episode 119: Jeff Crosby

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 03:00:00 -0000

There are a million people out there with a guitar and a voice making music, but Jeff Crosby is a diamond in the rough. After spending his formative years in Idaho, Crosby set out to establish himself as a professional musician the honest way, by playing his music in front of fans on the road… anywhere that would take him. By 2014, a decade of sacrifice and commitment to a strong work ethic is beginning to pay off. Two songs from his debut EP, Silent Conversations, recently found their way into episodes of the FX network’s gritty series, Sons of Anarchy, and in short order Crosby noticed that more and more people were showing up at gigs - even in far off places like rural Canada. With the kind of visibility a hit show provides, Crosby’s natural talent and well-worn songs are earning him even more fans. But it’s Crosby’s voice that is his not-so-secret weapon. His singing style is confident and familiar, and it perfectly suits his songs of traveling and longing. Most interestingly, when listening to Jeff Crosby perform, one gets the impression that he can sing a lot more notes than he does, and it’s this maturity that draws earned comparisons to the upper echelon of 70s rock and country bands. Crosby and his band, The Refugees, have a brand-new full-length record called All Nighter, and he’s sure to be playing a show near you before long - wherever you may live. So, get this record and check out a Jeff Crosby show as soon as you can - they are more than worth it.

Episode 118: Calico The Band

Thu, 04 Sep 2014 03:00:00 -0000

When people think of the home of country music, they tend to think of Nashville, or maybe Texas, or even anywhere a weepy pedal steel guitar crackles out of the radio of a pickup truck on any of America’s endless dirt and gravel back roads. But way over the horizon, past where the sun sets over red clay and sagebrush, California has long served as a key Western outpost for sturm and twang. Beatified saints of country music like Woody Guthrie and Gram Parsons earned their bona fides in California, and latter-day legends like Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Dwight Yoakam made damn sure that Southern California was more than a whistle stop on the country map. The new Los Angeles band comprised of the already-established musicians Kirsten Proffit, Manda Mosher and Aubrey Richmond gave themselves some big boots to fill when they named their new trio Calico the band - a portmanteau of ‘California’ and ‘country.’ The thing is, the women of Calico the band are far more than just pretty faces in Scully shirts. All three are accomplished writers, singers and instrumentalists - and they approach Calico the band as a true collective, with each member checking their ego and bringing exactly what is necessary to serve their songs. Eagles and CSN-style harmonies abound and lead vocal duties are shared, sometimes within the same song. Their brand new album, Rancho California, is a sort of treatise on how to do modern country right - with one foot tapping to a traditional two-step and the other pulling the genre forward into a world where a band comprised of three talented women isn’t a gimmick. In Calico the band, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and these women are exceptional parts.

Episode 117: Rick Solem

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Music is woven into the city of New Orleans in a way that should make every other city in the world envious. A stroll through the French Quarter is like being given a well-curated iPod stuck permanently on shuffle. But it isn’t just a big show for the tourists. Nearly every take on the human experience has passed through New Orleans, headed one way or another on the Mississippi River - a wide and muddy artery that makes up the heart of America - and it has all seeped into the lives and the songs of the Crescent City. Musician Rick Solem spent some of his formative years in Minnesota - at the very headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi - but he was brought to California when he was only three years old and missed his first chance to get caught in the current that was destined for New Orleans. He made his way through school, studied classical music and and started a career playing the piano. At some point, he met and jammed with the famed New Orleans pianist and cultural emissary, Dr. John, but still Solem missed the boat. At a session, when another musician heard that Solem had met a string of the New Orleans musical royalty over a period of years, he told Solem that it was a sign that he, too should learn the ways of the boogie-woogie Force. So Solem applied the diligence gleaned from playing years of classical music to learning the piano stylings of Dr. John, Professor Longhair and others who made New Orleans famous… and it paid off. Rick Solem’s swampy songs are fun and entertaining and his playing is downright virtuosic - and he makes it look easy.

Episode 116: Jaime Wyatt

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Jaime Wyatt is what you might imagine Otis Redding would sound like if he had been a young, attractive and talented female singer/songwriter. Her soulful voice leans on the same blue notes and husky timbre that gave Redding his distinctive and instantly recognizable style. Wyatt’s timeless white woman blues also draws heavily from harder-rocking influences – she could just as easily slide into the arena rock shoes of original AC/DC front man Bon Scott - and fill them amply. But there is a bit of red dirt twang mixed into her songs as well, and this rust-colored rural influence lands Wyatt squarely in the Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris camp, and she can handle that yoke, too. It is hard to write a fresh blues-rock song this late in the game, but give a spin to her music and it will soon be evident that Wyatt knows her way around a song as well as around a bluesy melody. And if that’s not enough, Wyatt is also a solid guitar player. Not a know-enough-chords-to-get-through-a-song-or-two guitar player, but a genuine, bona fide instrumentalist who will prop up a cowboy boot on a stage monitor and rip off a screaming solo right along side the boys in the band. Her new album, This is Jaime Wyatt, is due out in the fall of 2014 and you’ll be able to find her on stages across the country, promoting it with raucous live shows that will leave no doubt that rock and roll is very much alive as long as Jaime Wyatt has a guitar in her hands.

Episode 115: The Walcotts

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 03:00:00 -0000

American roots music is currently having a Renaissance of sorts, with bands across the country and across the pond ditching their Les Pauls and Marshall half stacks in favor of acoustic instruments, beards and bowler hats. There are a lot of ways to bring a little bit of yesterday to the new millennium when it comes to music, and Los Angeles’ The Walcotts have staked their claim on a rustic mixture of roadhouse blues, Memphis soul, swampy delta jazz and underground Nashville twang. And all of this sounds as if it has been stirred together by a spoon lifted from the kitchen of The Big Pink - the Hudson Valley house where Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson hung out with Bob Dylan and wrote the bulk of The Band’s debut album. Singer and guitarist Tom Cusimano is the master of ceremonies, and the large band he leads isn’t limited in the least to folk instrumentation; there are Telecasters and tube amps, piano and Hammond organ, trumpet, trombone, pedal steel guitar, fiddle and a healthy helping of female vocals. But it’s the bass and drums that keeps things in The Walcotts grooving and lively, and it’s this New Orleans-style focus on booty-shaking rhythms that helps them avoid the more sullen territory mined by some Americana bands. The Walcotts are positively rollicking, and with all the buzz they’ve generated in a short amount of time, it likely won’t be long before they’re rollicking in front of bigger and bigger crowds.

Episode 114: Chris Ridenhour

Sat, 09 Aug 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Every now and again, an event happens that captures the zeitgeist of America. Charles Lindbergh’s seminal 1927 crossing of the Atlantic in his rickety airplane was a major milestone in American history, and it brought the young pilot a level of fame that was theretofore unimaginable. Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon in 1969 riveted not just a nation, but the entirety of humankind. And on July 11th, 2013, the Syfy network released a made-for-TV movie called Sharknado. The plot - by all accounts utterly and intentionally absurd - was based on the occurrence of a series of disastrous tornadoes (water spouts, more accurately) that sucked up untold numbers of sharks and deposited them on the streets of Los Angeles; carnage and camp ensued. Far from the first of its kind, something about the low budget disaster flick transfixed a goodly number of Americans, a few of whom took to Twitter about Sharknado. A buzz turned into a roar and the movie was re-aired more than once on Syfy, even making the jump from small screens to the big screen in 200 movie theaters in cities nationwide by August. The inevitable sequel, Sharknado 2: The Second One, followed on July 30, 2014 and made an even bigger social media splash with 1 billion impressions on Twitter, making it one of the top trending topics on social media. Musician and composer Chris Ridenhour has been scoring movies for the film studio, The Asylum - who released both Sharknado and Sharknado 2 - for years, turning around scores very quickly in keeping with their traditional insanely tight production schedules. To Ridenhour, the first Sharknado was just another scoring project, and after working tirelessly for years without a break, he took his family on vacation and let someone else compose music for the film. Who could have known that the popularity of Sharknado would explode like no Syfy movie ever had? But the airborne sharks are back for Sharknado 2, and so is Ridenhour, who provided the score for yet another toothy disaster that has transfixed America. Maybe it’s not a man on the moon, but it is good fun.

Episode 113: Gann Brewer

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Lots of artists like to sing about wandering, but few log the kind of actual miles that Mississippi-born singer/songwriter Gann Brewer does. Brewer is a rambler in the truest sense of the word. Ask him where his home is, and he’ll pause to ponder the question, because the answer might be hard for him to figure. He has been known to hang his hat in New York City and California, but never for long. Mostly, he has spent the last twenty years spinning wheels and spinning yarns with his original songs, penned in the tradition of of the trailblazers of his genre. World-class wanderers like Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Woody Guthrie, John Prine, Guy Clark, Mississippi John Hurt, and Hank Williams all come to mind. Fully seven of the fourteen songs on his sophomore album, titled Peddlers & Ghosts, name check specific places in their titles, and the characters in his songs that ground Brewer - and inspire him to leave again - could only be conjured by meeting real people somewhere along the way from one show to another. And those shows have been plentiful, seventy-five in 2013 alone, spread out over several continents. The road is his master, and Gann Brewer serves it well, but the road takes care of him, in turn. His Southern disposition gives him the ability to observe and participate at the same time, and his performances take place wherever he happens to pull his trusty Gibson acoustic out of his weathered guitar case. Brewer is a citizen of the world, and he’ll bring you a bit of all of it if you let him.

Episode 112: Steve Dawson of Dolly Varden

Thu, 29 May 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Chicago’s Dolly Varden is a band that could be called local legends, but the 5-piece has accomplished too much over 19 years, six albums and numerous shows across the U.S. and overseas to be relegated to mere local status. One half of the songwriting team that fronts Dolly Varden is guitarist and vocalist Steve Dawson. Dawson was born in California and raised in Idaho, but he is Chicago through and through - and his brilliant songs and gentle tenor perfectly reflect the complex, friendly and often frozen city that has long been his home. Dolly Varden has some big plans in the works for their 20th anniversary next year, but Dawson has a very busy schedule of his own. His new side project, Funeral Bonsai Wedding, is a based on a wholly new and improvisational approach that builds on his solid pair of solo albums, Sweet Is The Anchor and I Will Miss The Trumpets And The Drums, both of which are filled with exquisitely crafted songs that deftly include elements of classic country, old school pop and blue-eyed soul. The new band will open the Millennium Park Downtown Sound New Music Mondays summer concert series at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion - Chicago’s beautiful lakefront outdoor music venue - on Monday, June 2nd, sharing the stage with another Chicago legend, Robbie Fulks. In addition to the new band and Dolly Varden’s upcoming anniversary, Dawson’s day job is helping to instruct the next generation of budding songwriters how to turn their ideas into great music by teaching songwriting and guitar classes at Chicago’s legendary Old Town School of Folk Music.

Episode 111: Rich McCulley

Thu, 22 May 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Rich McCulley’s approach to life might well be called “the Tao of Rock.” After spending his formative years playing in bands and touring out of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, McCulley fell into working at a recording studio in Fresno. When he outgrew that gig, he relocated to Los Angeles and started his own recording studio, Red Hill Recording. Fast forward to 2014 and he’s a successful songwriter, engineer, guitarist and producer with several albums under his belt and his commitment to not forcing things is as strong and easygoing as ever. It has worked out well for him. His songs are well-crafted and his studio and stage calendar is as busy as he wants it to be. His rolodex is full of some of Los Angeles’ top musicians, and when he calls, they pick up the phone. Songs he wrote or co-wrote have been heard in TV shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Cold Case” and in movies like “Little Birds” and “Donner Pass.” There are hundreds of gigs on his resume, but these days he spends more of his days closer to home to have some much deserved time with his growing family. It’s an enviable position to find oneself, but McCulley doesn’t let it go to his head. He just keeps making great music.

Episode 110: The Skip Heller Quintet

Thu, 15 May 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Skip Heller is a walking encyclopedia - a comprehensive repository of information about music that spans the width and breadth of more artists, songs and history than most music fans will ever even know exists. And it’s not just trivia. Heller knows music like a savant sports statistician knows who had the best batting average in the 1948 World Series. It’s a kind of reverence when someone knows who built the house we are all living in. But Heller is not just an academic, he’s an active player, composer and arranger who fronts more than one ensemble that bears his name; for the past few years he has been billed as the Skip Heller Trio, the Skip Heller Quintet, Skip Heller and The Hollywood Blues Destroyers and he has worked with scores more. Heller’s Quintet is a group of accomplished players which allow him to fully explore his more recent stylistic forays into ‘countrypolitan’ swing and jazzy blues and he leads them like a master conductor. Nothing less than excellence is required, and the band strives to meet his exacting expectations. Given his extensive experience, his originals sound like standards, and standards - played by whatever combination of crack musicians he has assembled for the particular gig - sound like originals. It’s a blessedly anachronistic thing Heller has going, and it’s a sort of national treasure that he is playing the role of guardian of traditional styles with nary hint of twee irony or flash-in-the-pan posturing.

Episode 109: The Far West

Thu, 01 May 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Music allows us to time travel. Put on a song that we loved in high school and we are right there, dancing nervously and closely in the gym or cruising out of the parking lot at 2:50pm with the stereo blaring. And some music takes you to a specific place even if you were never there. The Far West plays music that would sound right coming out of a Chevy’s AM radio in Joshua Tree, California in 1972. Singer Lee Briante’s John Prine-worthy, croaky baritone is out front, but all five members of The Far West play like they’re making music at the same time, which seems like a rare commodity in the new millenium. They have an affinity for recording their music live in non-traditional spaces… a garage, a VFW hall… and that practice delivers an authenticity that transfers from their live shows to their albums and back again. They have the classic lineup of two guitars, bass, drums and keyboards, and this instrumentation serves them - and their music - well. Close your eyes and spin their new album, Any Day Now, and you’ll soon find your mind wandering and riding the backroads of American roots music, sitting broken-hearted on a wheel well in the bed of a rusty pickup truck. There aren’t a lot of surprises here, but sometimes it’s nice to know where you’re going. Just relax, feel the wind in your hair and enjoy the ride.

Episode 108: FinleyKnight

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Whoever said that nice guys finish last had obviously never been to the American Midwest. Plenty of heartland dwellers accomplish amazing things in the world without being jerks, and the Chicago-based duo, FinleyKnight, exemplifies the idea that affability can produce great music. FinleyKnight is comprised of two brothers, John and Connor Detjen, who create their music with a fearless approach that incorporates any and all technological accouterments. There are drums and guitars aplenty, but they share the expansive sonic space of FinleyKnight with loops, drum machines, synthesizers and anything else that the composers can get their hands on. The result informs the listener that these guys grew up in a mashup world in which they are natives to the types of modern technology used to make music in entirely new ways. Working with producer/drummer Joey Waronker on their eponymous full-length debut album brought a new focus on rhythm to FinleyKnight’s sound, so thumping, ticking beats keep the soundscapes from getting bogged down in dreamy synth-land. The FinleyKnight album will be available everywhere on May 6th, 2014, and it is a triumph in the realm of nice guys making good – and making good music.

Episode 107: Eleni Mendell

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Eleni Mandell has managed to carve out a decent career for herself in the last 15 years. She’s a native of Los Angeles, and that geographical good fortune afforded her the opportunity to immerse herself in the rich musical scene of Southern California during her formative years. Now that she’s been at it awhile, fans might not make the connection between her elegantly simple songs adorned with acoustic guitars and the underground punk and rock shows she grew up frequenting. Along the way, she has worked with music-savant producer Jon Brion, guitarists Nels Cline and Tony Gilkyson, drummer/producer Joey Waronker and the back up band on her new record, Let’s Fly A Kite, was borrowed from none other than Nick Lowe. Over the years, Mandell has been compared to such diverse artists as PJ Harvey, X, Patsy Cline and Tom Waits and her life and career have continued to evolve. In addition to guitars and merch, Mandell now takes along a set of twins when she hits the road, and the shift in perspective is evident on Let’s Fly A Kite. Motherhood has brought a new-found focus to Mandell’s music because there simply isn’t the time to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike when little people need to be clothed, fed and entertained. The evolution is a logical one, and it suits her music just fine. The twelve songs on Let’s Fly A Kite are playful and focused and her evolution as an artist has been welcomed by critics, fans and the artist herself.

Episode 106: James Byous

Sat, 05 Apr 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Every now and again, a young musician comes along who makes you go, "Damn!" Something about the way they turn a rhyme or phrase a melody feels utterly natural in a way that is seldom seen or heard. James Byous is that kid. But really, he’s hardly a kid, because his music exudes both a musical maturity and a sensual, blue-eyed soul that belies his 25 years. He’s soft-spoken, but articulate. He knows his music history enough to know that we’re all standing on the shoulders of giants, but he’s talented and confident enough to sing every song as as if were his own. He can hold his own on guitar, and he writes his own catchy songs, too. The eleven songs that comprise his debut album, Broken Ghost, show a range that would be rare for an artist of any age. But above all, Byous is blessed with a facile tenor voice that, in a style of music more prone to vocal gymnastics than his breezy acoustic pop, would be just another platform for excessive autotuning. Justin Timberlake could learn a thing or two from Byous’ pitch-perfect balance of restraint and gusto - because just because you can, it doesn’t mean you should. And if you really want to get a feel for what James Byous is capable of, sit with him in a room with a couple acoustic of guitars and a bottle of wine. If you’ve ever felt that modern music has lost its way, Byous is the perfect anodyne.

Episode 105: Anny Celsi

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Geography can be a strange thing for a musician. Artists sometimes play the same hometown venues repeatedly trying to build a following but draw far bigger crowds in faraway towns when they’re on the road. And some artists find that American audiences simply may not get them at all. In 2006, Paste magazine included Singer/songwriter Josh Ritter in its list of “100 Greatest Living Songwriters,” but not long before Ritter had lived in several states and played numerous open mic nights in relative obscurity until a short tour in Ireland found him selling out of his records and his shows. With a growing, loyal fanbase overseas, Ritter was then able to parlay that into bigger success in America. Songwriter Anny Celsi lives in Los Angeles, but, like Ritter, her frequent trips to Europe have earned her a strong international fan base. Sure, she still plays here in the States, but she has built up a solid network of fans, musicians and promoters halfway around the globe that brings her four albums worth of incisive and catchy songs to a much wider audience. And the miles and hard work have paid off - over four albums, Celsi has been compared to Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams, Suzanne Vega and others, she has played festivals like SXSW and International Pop Overthrow and been nominated for an L.A. Weekly Music Award. Her most recent album, January, was released in 2013 and it is full of the kind of observant songs her fans have come to expect. And she already has her tickets to Europe.

Episode 104: Jimmer Podrasky

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:00:00 -0000

More than once, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “There are no second acts in American lives.” Scholars have long debated what the author meant by that statement, but regardless of intent or implication, when taken literally it can be a stark reality for some people. Jimmer Podrasky’s first act opened when he cast himself as the leader of the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania band, The Rave-Ups - a band that deftly mixed country, rock and other styles of music before doing so became an avocation for the bands who would be labeled as the progenitors of alternative country music. The Rave-Ups had enough regional buzz to warrant a move to Los Angeles, but it didn’t last. When the other three members opted to return to Pittsburgh, Podrasky stayed, assembled a new lineup and continued to record, play shows and court record labels. At one point, all four members of the band worked in the mailroom at A&M records and they rehearsed in the basement afterhours. When Podrasky began dating her sister, actress Molly Ringwald became a friend of the band and created a pop culture footnote when she inscribed The Rave-Ups’ name on her three-ring binder in the 1986 John Hughes movie, Pretty in Pink. In a bewildering turn of fate, although The Rave-Ups had two songs featured in the movie as well as appearing in scene, neither cut made it onto the soundtrack of the coming of age classic. The band garnered critical accolades but struggled to achieve mainstream success and they officially split up in 1992. The Rave-Ups played occasional shows in the ensuing years, but Podrasky took a two decade-plus break from recording to focus on being a father to Chance, the son he’d had with Beth Ringwald. The near-collapse of the American economy in the autumn of 2008 found Podrasky being laid off from his job as a script reader and an incredible run of misfortune befell him. As Podrasky struggled to find work, he lost his apartment, his dog died and Chance struggled with addiction. At one point, the Podrasky’s were living in a car parked in a friend’s driveway and a phone call led to a three-day stint in a mental institution when a concerned relative mistook Podrasky’s depressed musings for suicidal intent. A chance encounter with actor/musician Robbie Rist marked a turn in Podrasky’s fortunes. Although he hadn’t been recording, Podrasky never stopped writing songs and there were now hundreds to choose from when producer and Dwight Yoakam drummer, Mitch Marine began sorting through them to find the ringers that would eventually comprise Podrasky’s long overdue new record, the aptly named The Would-Be Plans. When listening to the ten songs on The Would-Be Plans, a case could be made that Podrasky was so far ahead of the curve that only by 2014 can listeners finally and fully appreciate his genius songcraft. Podrasky’s confident and cocky vocals haven’t lost a step and the record simply crackles with pitch-perfect accompaniment by a band comprised of ace players. It’s a hell of a second act, and one that might make Fitzgerald smile and shake his hips.

Episode 103: Dan Navarro

Thu, 06 Mar 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Lowen and Navarro were a beloved acoustic duo with an unorthodox genesis and a premature end. Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro’s initial success came when they composed the song, “We Belong,” which would become a major chart hit for Pat Benatar in 1984. They started actively performing together in 1987 and grew their audience the old-fashioned way - by connecting with their audience at hundreds of shows and releasing ten albums over fifteen years before Lowen was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2004. They continued to work together until 2009, when Lowen’s condition had deteriorated to the point where he needed to focus on his health. But even before his partner was forced to step away from performing, Navarro had begun to do what any person for whom music was a compulsion would do, which was to forge ahead. He wasn’t without self-doubts about how he could be a viable artist on his own after such a long, fruitful and musically intimate partnership, but the fans kept coming. And so did the songs. By early 2014, Navarro’s schedule is as busy as ever – touring at a national level, serving on the boards of SAG-AFTRA, Folk Alliance and others, advocating for performer’s rights in Washington D.C. and preparing to release his first studio album of new material since Eric Lowen’s passing in 2012. Along with the upcoming Shed My Skin album, Navarro also released an acoustic album comprised of demos called Skinless in late 2013 that serves as a confident primer on what Navarro is capable of on his own. And it’s really good.

Episode 102: Doug Pettibone

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 03:00:00 -0000

In the music world, ‘sideman’ is a term used to describe a member of a band who supports the main act. Their employment can range from a single gig to a long, steady career with a single marquee artist. Their job is to make their employer sound good, and the amount of attention they receive can also vary widely – from nameless jobbers to players who have made supporting other artists their primary claim to fame and source of income. It can be a great gig, because the members of the band can go to the mall without being mobbed while their boss suffers the trappings of fame. Guitarist Doug Pettibone has been the right-hand-man for revered songwriter Lucinda Williams for over a decade, accompanying her both in the studio and onstage. Although playing in Lucinda’s band is his main gig, he has also worked with a long list of household names, not the least of which are Keith Richards, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Norah Jones, Sting, Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, Jewel and Tift Merritt. But Pettibone is far being from the kind of sideman that just plays guitar next to the singer. He also writes, produces and plays a multitude of instruments with a near virtuosic flair. All of these skills are showcased on his brand new album, Gone, released in February of 2014. Far from being the vanity project of a journeyman guitarist, Gone finds Pettibone showcasing his considerable skills as an artist in his own right. All the amazing guitar parts and tones that are the hallmark of Pettibone’s playing are evident on Gone, and the liner notes read like a who’s who of top echelon musicians. Perhaps most pleasantly surprising is the confidence of his vocals as the songs veer from breezy Southern California Byrds-style pop to blues of both the jazzy and down and dirty kind.

Episode 101: Rod Melancon

Thu, 20 Feb 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Generations of American kids have whiled away countless hours of high school study hall periods longing to get out of their hometowns. Some of them never do, instead getting their names inscribed on local bar stools and sending their children to the same teachers in the same halls where they once dreamed of a bigger life. But some of them do get out - making their way to some city on a coast where they feel they have a better shot at getting traction on their dreams. And sometimes, once they get the kind of perspective that can only be gleaned by a change of scenery, they look back on their hometown with a new set of eyes. Rod Melancon grew up in the rural bayous of southern Louisiana in an unincorporated town too small for a school. He did the things that boys do; playing sports, chasing girls and acting in school plays, and it was the latter of these pursuits that sent him West. He had a little success with his acting, but it was a cathartic moment back in Louisiana that took place when he watched the emotional reaction his grandfather had to a gift of a Hank Williams album that drew Melancon to songwriting. He took that transformative experience back to Los Angeles and started populating his songs with characters and artifacts from his hometown. His new album, Parish Lines, plays like Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska on steroids. The cars and the girls are here, as are the tragedy, comedy and braggadocio of a young man pushing hard on the seams of his small town. But there is also something else - a reverence for his formative surroundings that he might have been blind to had he never left. Striking that balance is hard, and Melancon manages to pull it off - weaving enough detail and intimacy into his songs to give them gravitas but also providing enough universality so that listeners everywhere are taken back to their own never ending hours cooped up in study halls. Melancon is an astute observer for being in his mid-twenties, and if he can keep growing as a writer there are a lot more really great songs ahead

Episode 100: Independent's Day 100th Episode

Thu, 13 Feb 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Independent's Day celebrated its 100th episode with a live event at Chloe's at Golden Road brewing on Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014. Many of the artists who have been guests on ID played live sets, including Brian Whelan, Jess Penner, Loch & Key, Little Lonely, Pi Jacobs, Big Harp, Alias Means and many more. The episode is compiled from live interviews conducted that night as well as some short discussions with past guests at the Independent's Day World Headquarters. Artists featured in the interviews includes Jess Penner, Eugene Edwards, Davey Meshell of The Neighborhood Bullys, Brian Whelan, Ted Wulfers, Mike Chylinski of Arrow Highway, Big Harp, Joe Jencks, Loch &Key, Andy Creighton of The World Record, John Hoskinson, Sarah Barker, Robbie Rist, Jason Taylorson and Ray Argyle of Sunken Ships.

Episode 99: Tim Easton

Thu, 06 Feb 2014 03:00:00 -0000

Although New York and Los Angeles are the twin capitals of the music industry, the center of the Western music universe shifts from time to time as one style or another catches the public’s fancy. Places like Chicago, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, Athens, Georgia and other towns have all had their turn as the hottest place to be if you wanted to be part of the newest scene. But nestled in the red dirt and pines along the Cumberland River, Nashville, Tennessee has always been the holy ghost of the music industry trinity – especially for songwriters and country music. Home to the Grand Ole Opry, The Ryman Auditorium, and countless recording studios, publishing houses and record labels, Nashville has truly earned the moniker, “Music City, U.S.A.,” and it has been especially hot in recent years. Along with the country music establishment, increasing numbers of non-country artists like Jack White, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys and scores of underground artists call Nashville home, and the hit ABC series, Nashville, has only added fuel to the fire. Nashville’s temperate climate and affordable livability add to the draw for artists tired of the rat race on the coasts. After getting a start in Ohio, living an international troubadour’s life and spending years in Joshua Tree, California, songwriter Tim Easton relocated to Nashville in recent years. Stylistically, it was a logical move; Easton has always had a bluesy twang to his top-notch songs and deft guitar playing. He already had a successful career going before he arrived, with at least nine records in his discography, when Nashville got into his blood and he released the 50s rock/Sun Studios-inspired Not Cool in 2013. His new hometown suits him well, and with results like this maybe more artists should consider a new home in the 615 area code.

Episode 98: The Moth & the Flame

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 03:00:00 -0000

The origins of electronic music can be traced back to the origins of electronic technology itself. As soon as tinkerers started creating sounds with synthesized instruments, writers started experimenting and composing music with them. Wholly new styles were created, and more forward thinking established artists started incorporating electronic elements into their new music. Robert Moog brought the first commercially available synthesizer to market in 1965, and it soon found its way onto albums by household names like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors – along with anyone else with the wherewithal to create art by turning a bunch of knobs. Synthesizers became a cornerstone in progressive rock and evolving electronic technology continued to revolutionize music and the way it was made throughout the ensuing decades. By 2014, younger musicians have grown up in a world where this technology has always existed. The Moth & the Flame is a Los Angeles-based band that approaches their music like a tabula rasa – a blank slate upon which they indiscriminately add elements of traditional and electronic instruments. The result is catchy, ethereal, driving and haunting. They established their style on their eponymous full-length debut in 2011, and followed it up with a six-song EP named Ampersand in late 2013. Not content to coast, The Moth & the Flame are planning on releasing a brand new record in 2014 that will likely see their fan base continue to grow.

Episode 97: George Stanford

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Musicians have been leaving their hometowns for greener pastures for decades. The allure of a bigger city with more opportunity can be a beacon to performers from towns with a handful of stoplights. And there just aren’t as many recoding studios and music business executives in America’s innumerable small towns as there are in New York, Los Angeles and Nashville. But sometimes, an artist from a big city moves to another one for other reasons. A change of scenery can do wonders for artistic inspiration. And some people make the journey because they discover that they share more of a kinship with people from other places with different ways of going about their lives. Or perhaps they’re just tired of shoveling snow. Songwriter George Stanford is originally from Philadelphia, and he first came to Los Angeles to make a record. But when the record was finished something made him stay, and in the six and a half years since he came west he has put down some serious roots here among the palm trees and gentle ocean breezes. He has one full-length album and two EPs under his belt and he is currently putting the finishing touches on his sophomore release. His songs are a mixture of styles, but they are all anchored with his soulful tenor voice and a slightly unorthodox style on the guitar.

Episode 96: Phil Parlapiano

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 03:00:00 -0000

If you want to play a lot of music, don’t learn how to play the guitar. The thing is, everyone knows how to play guitar. From Eddie Van Halen on down to the bartender at your local pub (who might be as good a player as Eddie without the lucky breaks), they all know how to play the guitar. It’s no wonder; the instrument is affordable, portable, versatile and powerful. Learn three chords and you’re off to conquer the world. But this ubiquity makes it hard to get a paying gig as a guitar player, so the people who chisel out a decades long career in music often find a niche for themselves by playing other instruments. Bass players get gigs. Piano players get gigs. Pedal steel players really get gigs. The cornerstone of Phil Parlapiano’s long and successful career in music started because he knew how to play an instrument that used to be the punch line to numerous musician jokes – the accordion. When combined with his chops on more traditional keyboard instruments like piano and Hammond organ, Parlapiano and his squeezebox became a first call go-to guy in the early 1990s and he never looked back. He has a list of credits that includes some of the best in the business - John Prine, Rod Stewart, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Tracy Chapman, Lowen and Navarro, Joan Baez, Jon Bon Jovi and Toad the Wet Sprocket to name just a few. He released a new solo album of original material in 2013 called The Mordacious Mr. Squeeze and continues to back up household names on stage and in the studio. Other players might be advised to stand next to him in hopes that some of that talent rubs off them. Oh yeah, he plays guitar, too.

Episode 95: Dan Bern

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Being compared to Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie is one thing, and lots of musicians have borne that lofty burden. But it’s entirely another to live up to the reasons Dylan and Guthrie can be referred to with a single name. Modern day troubadour Dan Bern has earned a place at the grown up songwriter’s table many times over. He’s prolific, having written hundreds of songs. His deft use of language spans from seemingly tossed off simple songs in which his incisive wit cuts right through the pretensions of lesser writers, to political parables and revelatory personal reflections – all of which are delivered with a captivating but affable stage presence. He has released nearly twenty albums since he got his start in the mid-90s and continues to write and perform all over the country. His latest release is an eight-song collection of songs about Hannukuh, called, appropriately, Hannukuh Songs. Bern thankfully avoids the typical egregious sins of musical excess that plague many Christmas albums, and instead delivers a handful of short, simple songs that serve as a sort of primer for the Festival of Lights. Traditional Jewish foods and rituals, some religious history lessons, family recollections, a whimsical take on the various spellings for the holiday and the tale of a Jewish trucker who spends his Hannukuh at Waffle House restaurants while traveling around the American South – are all given the same stripped down, acoustic folk treatment. You won’t hear a lot of Hannukuh songs while shopping at the mall this holiday season, but all the artists who release schlocky Christmas albums year after year could learn a lot from Bern’s perfect mix of whimsy, heart and wit.

Episode 94: Jeremiah Sammartano

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 03:00:00 -0000

A little known fact of the music business is that usually only top echelon artists make significant income from selling records. A few well known musicians have laid bare the math in books and essays about the inequities of the industry, and the Internet age has decimated record sales, perhaps forever. Fortunately, there are other revenue streams – merchandise, synchronization rights, television, film and advertising placements – something has to keep the big wheels turning. But there is another way to keep musicians in food, shelter and whiskey… and that’s touring. Musicians performed live for hundreds of years before the technology emerged to record any sound at all. In the modern age, as traditional record sales are a fraction of what they were just a few years ago, many artists take their show on the road to both their music to more fans and make a living in the process. Enter Jeremiah Sammartano, who regularly packs up his guitar and hits the road – from his home state of California, throughout the Southwest, all the way to east of the Mississippi and even to the United Kingdom. His blues-influenced songs and slide guitar playing are accessible to music fans from coast to coast and when he comes to town, they show up. And the funny thing is that selling records while on the road is a key strategy for musicians to keep gas in their tanks, food in their bellies and whiskey for the show. Sammartano has three albums, a 2011 Emmy nomination from scoring the music for a documentary, and he just returned from yet another tour.

Episode 93: The Native Sibling

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Siblings can be rivals, competing for attention and sometimes taking their conflicts to open warfare. Add the pressures of fame and creative tension and legendary skirmishes are born. Ray and Dave Davies from the Kinks used to get in fistfights both onstage and off, and they are far from the only examples of sibling strife in the music business. But siblings can also work together and create a whole that is even greater than the sum of what would otherwise be non-blood relation parts. The siblings that make up the Los Angeles-based duo, The Native Sibling, Ryan and Kaylee Williams, grew up in pastoral Santa Cruz, California. But it wasn’t until Ryan visited Kaylee while she was studying in Ireland that their creative collaboration would begin to germinate. Kaylee had been moonlighting singing traditional folk songs in local pubs when Ryan took a break from his busy schedule as a professional guitarist to visit her. There, some 5,000 miles from their homes in California, their musical paths had converged and they realized that they had found themselves at a point where the new songs that were spilling out necessitated making music together. They dubbed their collaboration The Native Sibling and released an EP, toured up and down the California coast and then raised funds for a full-length album. The result will be 2014’s Letters Kept To Ourselves, and the record features sparse, acoustic instrumentation, shared melodies and warm harmonies on ten songs that speak to the kind of unique artistic perspective that sibling cooperation can generate.

Episode 92: Jonathan Clark

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 03:00:00 -0000

What, exactly, denotes success in the music business? Is it making a handsome living without a day job? Is it playing for thousands of adoring fans? Is it selling millions of records? Or is it something more elusive, like writing great songs regardless who hears them or staying true to your artistic vision whether or not you sell lots of tickets? Jonathan Clark might have something to say about all these questions. Clark is perhaps best known as a successful session vocalist and bass player – his current marquee gig is playing in genre-busing country star Dwight Yoakam’s crack band, but he has also backed up heavy hitters like Glen Frey, Don Henley and Joe Walsh from The Eagles, Michael McDonald, Peter Cetera, Laura Brannigan and Christopher Cross. But Clark is not simply the guy who provides harmony vocals and the low end for household names. His most recent release, I’m Just Sayin’, should convince any nonbelievers that Clark is a top-notch artist in his own right. The twelve songs on the record are catchy and expertly produced, and they are delivered with his confident and accessible voice. Jonathan Clark is, simply put, a success by any measure.

Episode 91: Mike Chylinski of Arrow Highway

Thu, 17 Oct 2013 03:00:00 -0000

In some circles, musicians joke about whether or not drummers are musicians at all. Sure, some drummer sing (Don Henley and Phil Collins come to mind) and some drummers redefine the art of the instrument, but some of those people behind the kit on the riser at center stage are a lot more versatile than a glorified metronome. Mike Chylinski is just this kind of artist. After co-founding the London-based dream pop band, Drugstore in 1993, Chylinski decided to go a lot farther down the road of his artistic journey. He set off to document landscapes, both in photography and in instrumental sonic tapestries. The photographs were exhibited recently in Switzerland and Atlanta… and the music eventually took on the name of his newest solo project, Arrow Highway. The instrumentals on Arrow Highway are evocative of U2 and Peter Gabriel producer Daniel Lanois’ stark soundscapes, and they’ve provided a picture-perfect accompaniment to projects by National Public Radio. The first album features and 11-song cycle and will be available for download in September 2013.

Episode 90: Colin Gilmore

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Having a famous last name might open a few doors in the music business, but when your pedigree is in the realm of hallowed Texas singer/songwriters, that name doesn’t buy you the respect essential to your own success. Those stripes must be earned. Such is the case of Colin Gilmore. His shares the last name of his father, Jimmie Dale – a singer, songwriter and guitarist, member of The Flatlanders and sometime actor who played a bowling opponent to The Dude and Walter in the 1998 Coen Brothers film, The Big Lebowski. Colin grew up in Lubbock, Texas, and as much as there must be something in the water in that west Texas town that breeds good writers, there is also something in Colin Gilmore’s blood that gives him a leg up on his songwriting contemporaries. For his recently released third album, The Wild and Hollow, he found inspiration in both Austin and Chicago and the expanded palate is palpable in the material. More importantly, he’s earning his stripes the old fashioned way – by becoming a Texas troubadour in his own right and traveling around the country with his guitar and ever-growing repertoire of songs.

Episode 89: Hem

Thu, 19 Sep 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Brooklyn, New York-based Hem arrived on the music scene not with a bang, but with a whisper. Composer Dan Messé, along with guitarists Steve Curtis and Gary Maurer, had begun working on a new band, but they needed a singer. An ad placed in the Village Voice got them a large number of responses, but none of them quite fit the hushed, gentle and melodic music they were creating. Weeks later, a self-professed non-professional singer named Sally Ellyson responded to the ad almost apologetically, sending Messé a tape of herself singing a capella lullabies that she had recorded for the newborn son of a friend. Her natural and unadorned voice fit the music perfectly, and Hem was born. The band’s 2000 debut, Rabbit Songs, featured timeless string arrangements alongside traditional folk instrumentation, and their beautiful whisper caught the ear of NPR and Entertainment Weekly, as well as earning them scores of new fans. Their profile received another big boost when Liberty Mutual used a track from Rabbit Songs in a national advertising campaign. Eveningland followed a few years later and it expanded the lushness of their sound with a full symphony recorded in Slovakia. 2006s Funnel Cloud found them exploring a more “countrypolitan” sound that featured a bit more drum set. They scored a 2009 production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in Central Park and eventually began work on their most recent album, 2013s Departure and Farewell. The stark beauty of Hem’s music is unparalleled in today’s music scene, and we can only hope that the band doesn’t make good on the title of their new album.

Episode 88: Little Lonely

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 03:00:00 -0000

If you could change your name, would you? Artists take stage names for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes it’s because their given name doesn’t fit easily on a theater marquee – one might speculate that that’s why Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. is known to us as John Denver. Having a different name also can allow artists to create a character for themselves that gives them the freedom to explore varying musical styles or gain a third-person perspective on the familiar world they inhabit in everyday life. Los Angeles-based Little Lonely’s given name is just fine, and she has been performing under it for most of her life - stylistically sticking fairly close to a kind of performance art neo-traditionalist country music. But for her brand new pseudonymous and eponymous album, she smartly assumed a new moniker, and with the help of wunderkind producer and multi-instrumentalist, Sean Hoffman, forged a sophisticated identity that suits the strong new material. Hoffman’s deft guiding hand helps Little Lonely hit all the right marks, as well as providing what Daniel Lanois calls “elements of danger” that differentiate the album from countless other female singer-songwriter albums; a searing guitar solo or two, synthesizer lines that fit because they shouldn’t, and ambient sound effects that give listeners a strong sense of place. But it’s Little Lonely’s distinctive voice that cuts through all of this, tipping a cosmic cowboy hat to torch and twang while retaining her signature theatrical emotive scope.

Episode 87: Tom Freund

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Today’s music world is filled with exceedingly talented artists who are not easily placed in a stylistic box. Maybe they’re too twangy to be categorized as ‘rock,’ or not commercial or vapid enough to be called ‘pop.’ Or maybe they’re just too damn good to fit into the new corporate structure of modern music. Tom Freund is just this kind of artist. He spent the 90s as a member of the indie-cult institution, The Silos, and began releasing albums under his own name in 1998. Since then, he has racked up an impressive list of accolades from rags like The New York Times and The Washington Post and made music with his musical confidante Ben Harper, as well as artists like Jackson Brown, Greg Leisz, jazz organ virtuoso Jimmy Smith, Graham Parker, Brett Dennen and Mandy Moore. Freund can shift easily between instruments like guitar, piano, ukulele, upright and electric bass and sing his insightful and catchy songs in a slightly raspy tenor that wins over even jaded Los Angeles audiences. He has a brand new live album called “The Stronghold Tapes” and will be touring internationally to support it.

Episode 86: Mark Spencer of Son Volt

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 03:00:00 -0000

The life of a musician is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. Be in the lobby at 9am or you will be left behind - so you can wait for the bus - on which you will sit for the next 8 hours as you drive from state to state, town to town and gig to gig. Mark Spencer is the kind of musician who knows this mantra all too well. He has been a professional musician for most of his adult life, starting out as member of alt-country pioneers The Blood Oranges before joining Uncle Tupelo founder Jay Farrar's solo tours, a gig that eventually evolved into his present job as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist for Son Volt. There have been a lot more gigs along the way, in the studio and onstage with artists like Lisa Loeb, Freedy Johnston, Jim Lauderdale, Wanda Jackson and a host of others. He produces artists out of his Brooklyn studio, The Tape Kitchen, and can be found on the road this year touring to promote Son Volt's latest album "Honky Tonk." Spencer also recorded "Honky Tonk" in Son Volt's hometown of St. Louis - as well as in his studio - and also learned how to play the pedal steel guitar to ensure the album stayed true to Farrar's goal to pay homage to the Bakersfield style of country music. I had a chance to catch up with Spencer after a Son Volt soundcheck at The Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach, California as the band was wrapping up the Southwest leg of the Honky Tonk Tour.

Episode 85: Ted Wulfers

Thu, 25 Jul 2013 03:00:00 -0000

If you look up the phrase 'Renaissance man' while flipping through a dictionary, it will describe such a person as someone "who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field." Being a professional musician in the new music paradigm fairly requires a level of acumen in diverse disciplines. Even artists with management need to be versed in social media, recording technology and the Internet, in addition to being accomplished musicians with a tireless and diligent work ethic. And being a successful musician also takes luck, and luck favors the prepared. Ted Wulfers is just that sort of artist. He has recorded five albums in eight years, including Lucky No. 7, which was released in January of 2013. He tours nationally as well as holding court at a weekly residency in Los Angeles, while splitting his time between L.A. and his hometown of Chicago. Wulfers owns and manages his own vintage recording studio, makes appearances on other artists' albums, scores music for video games, and still found time to catch a fish sizable enough to be featured in an exhibit in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. His live shows are sometimes a Springsteen-esque three to four hours in length, and if you want to learn how to earn a living in music, listen up, but stay out of Ted Wulfers' way.

Episode 84: Alias Means

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 03:00:00 -0000

The element of quirkiness can be an important aspect of an artist's music, and their personality. Some bands take it to the bank - think They Might Be Giants or Barenaked Ladies. Other bands add a bit of quirk to a very deft hand at songwriting and jump-start their career from there. Todd Snider's uber-clever "Beer Run" got him the attention, the laughs and the accolades necessary to build a solid career, and he's still renowned for a clever turn of phrase. But when you start off going for laughs, it can be hard to be taken seriously when it's time to tackle more serious subject matter in song. But for some artists, a Crispin Glover-like sense of quirk is simply their natural state of being, and that's just the unique territory of Los Angeles' Alias Means. Perhaps only an artist truly native to L.A.'s eclectic Silverlake neighborhood could so readily manage Means' somewhat illogical balance between quirk and heart. And maybe this driven lack of self-consciousness is the result of his newfound perspective on mortality after recently surviving a near-fatal head injury. Although it may provide some motivation, bouncing back from a major trauma does not solve the age-old challenges of financing an independent record. For that, Means employed his own quirky solution and raised the money by gambling at casinos. The show must go on, so they say, by any means necessary. His debut full-length, sin-financed record, Light Matter, will be released on August 27th.

Episode 83: Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Borne of the back woods of Appalachia, bluegrass became a distinct musical style when Bill Monroe combined elements of traditional Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English music with a uniquely American influence and took his show on the road for a career that spanned 60 years. Monroe played this style of music he'd largely invented until the time of his death in 1996. But there are other towering figures in the genre who are still performing in 2013 - currently an octogenarian, Ralph Stanley won a Grammy for his version of "O Death" from the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack in 2002 and is still going strong. Younger generations of musicians have followed in Monroe and Stanley's footsteps - sometimes expanding bluegrass and sometimes sticking close to the traditionalist style. Los Angeles' Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band is a new ensemble that falls more into the latter camp of tried and true bluegrass instrumentation, but also pushes its boundaries just a little by reworking some classic rock songs to fit into a more conventional bluegrass framework. The results bring a fresh kind of familiarity to new fans that might not know standards like "Pretty Polly" but do know Neil Young songs. Rocky Neck Bluegrass Band has one EP available, a full performance schedule and they took first place in the California Bluegrass Association's "Great 48 Showcase Showdown" in 2012.

Episode 82: Mitch Marine - Drummer for Dwight Yoakam

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:00:00 -0000

There is no doubt that being a professional musician means taking all kinds of gigs. Gigs can be recording dates, playing live shows, teaching and performing in more unorthodox venues under sometimes-dubious circumstances - anything to keep at it. One type of gig that nearly all musicians strive and starve for is called "the gravy gig" - a type of regular, well-paying situation that frequently brings in a reliable income and allows them the relative freedom to pursue other musical goals without as much concern for its profitability. Drummer Mitch Marine had been in the music business for nearly two decades when he got the call to join country pioneer Dwight Yoakam's band. Since then, Marine has recorded four albums with Yoakam, including 2012's acclaimed "3 Pears," and played hundreds of shows all over the world. It's a class-A gravy gig, and Marine has used the stability that comes with playing with a major artist to build a respectable career as a producer and session drummer with a growing list of artists to his credit and a keen ear for polishing the music artists he produces the perfect amount.

Episode 81: Joy Kills Sorrow

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Joy Kills Sorrow was formed in Boston's fertile folk scene in 2005. Their lineup is pretty standard for a string band - guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright bass and vocals, but they are anything but an old-time string band. They retain the virtuosic tendencies of their bluegrass forefathers, but they are pushing the boundaries of a style not known for its avant-garde aspects. Also akin to the progenitors of bluegrass, their tempos can also set barns on fire, but there is something decidedly modern about the way Joy Kills Sorrow arranges the original songs that fill their two albums. They share more in common with mandolin prodigy, Chris Thile's post-Nickel Creek ensemble, Punch Brothers than they do with Bill Monroe, but they are savvy enough musicians to know that they are standing on the shoulders of giants. Every member of the band is a standout on their respective instrument, and they already have an impressive number of awards to their credit. With the band stacked with so many badass players it would be hard for their music to sound any other way. Their brand new EP, Wide Awake, pushes their unplugged sound farther into some louder and amped up indie rock territory, further expanding their already diverse musical universe.

Episode 80: Dave Gleason

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Along with Les Paul, Leo Fender is widely known to be one of the two fathers of the modern electric guitar. Leo's Stratocaster model, still made today by the company that bears his name, is one of the most iconic designs in music history. But before the venerable Strat, Fender created the Esquire, which later changed names to the Broadcaster and eventually the Telecaster. Over the decades, this elegant but utilitarian block of wood and metal has become the standard issue instrument for country guitar players - so much so that hot country guitar players are commonly referred to as "Tele pickers." Dave Gleason is just this sort of picker who exemplifies today's brand of amped up, anti-establishment country with both style and substance. But there is more to this story - in the late 1960s, a couple musicians and tinkerers figured out a way to modify the Telecaster by routing out the backs of the instrument and installing a set of springs and levers that would allow players to bend strings and faithfully reproduce the lonesome, weepier pedal steely-style licks that are the hallmark of country and western music. With this invention, the B-bender Tele was born and with it a whole new style of playing. Gleason also is adept at this rare kind of Tele picking, and that puts him in high demand by country bands and audiences alike. He has a handful of solid albums that feature his writing and playing and he's always busy onstage. So, get out and see Dave Gleason play - and don't let that tear fall in your beer as you get up to hit the dance floor.

Episode 79: Big Harp

Thu, 30 May 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Maturing as a musician is a peculiar process. Young bands often have a reputation for playing too loud or too fast. But maturity doesn't necessarily mean quieter or softer songs; it can mean simply that a band or artist's sound evolves over time as their lives inevitably change. Stagnation can spell artistic doom for a musician and some artists have leveraged their evolution into a long and successful career. The duo that makes up Los Angeles' Big Harp are most certainly grownups. They are married and have children, but their inventive brand of indie-noise-folk is anything but grown up boring. Singer/guitarist Chris Senseney's insightful stories are delivered in a warm baritone that is evocative of some strange but effective hybrid of Lyle Lovett and Leonard Cohen. Stefanie Drootin-Senseney's vocals provide a breathy sweetness that complements the sour of her partner's gruff musings, while her fuzzed-out bass brings a whimsical edge that keeps the whole operation from drifting too far into ponderous, introspective songwriter territory. And no matter how they're dressed up in their DIY production, the ten songs on their sophomore release, "Chain Letters" all find a different way to please your music palate.

Episode 78: Nicole Gordon

Thu, 23 May 2013 03:00:00 -0000

The job of a back up singer can be a thankless one. They check their egos at the door and use their considerable talent to make the artist whose name is on the marquee sound good. It can be a great gig, but there is seldom much in the way of glory. After all, who remembers the name of the women who scat sang Pink Floyd's "Great Gig in the Sky" or the emotional climax of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter?" (Clare Torry and Merry Clayton for those keeping score at home.) But in the industry it is common knowledge that these vocalists in the shadows can often sing circles around their employers and have solid careers of their own. Grammy winner Sheryl Crow got her start singing backup vocals for the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and Don Henley before she took center stage. And such is the case for Nicole Gordon. She has a long list of credits supporting other artists and her powerful and dynamic voice has been the sound of numerous film and TV projects and commercial spots. She's also a quite capable writer with a handful of albums, and she regularly travels to the songwriting Mecca of Nashville to flex her writing chops. She is living proof that there is more than one way to make a living in the music business.

Episode 77: Ben Reddell

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:00:00 -0000

The music business has come full circle when it comes to releasing music on singles vs. albums. The Brill Building artists plugged songs one at a time, and for decades, it was singles that drove the industry. And then the 70s singer-songwriters and prog rock bands came along, and that meant that albums were meant to be enjoyed as a whole, with each track telling a small part of a bigger story. But there was always a stepchild of this either/or format - the EP. EP stands for 'extended play' and these releases are usually comprised of 4-5 songs - longer than a single but shorter than a full-length album. Artists and labels make them for various reasons - for live tracks, to bridge a long gap between albums - and always to keep an artist fresh in the public's mind. The dominance of Internet downloading in today's music retail environment has brought singles back to the forefront as consumers cherry pick albums for the tracks the like best. But the EP is making a comeback as well. Putting together a handful of songs is a simpler proposition for independent artists than making a whole record, and that same logic prompted Los Angeles' Ben Reddell to issue his debut as an EP. It has what any album should; great songs, good sounds and solid performances. Reddell's music is steeped in the good stuff of 70s rock and roll, and we're already looking forward to what a full-length record from him will sound like.

Episode 76: Tim Reid, Jr.

Thu, 09 May 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Artists reveal their influences in myriad ways. Ask any performer or writer about their music and they'll invariably point you toward who got them excited about making their own music. When Eric Clapton was receiving deifying graffiti accolades around London in the 1960s, he was unabashed about paying tribute to the blues masters from whom he copped his licks. Garage bands are no different, and "three chords and the truth" is pretty familiar territory for amped up teenagers looking for a channel for their existential angst. But when your influences are off the jazz variety, simply aping them is a far more complicated proposition, and such is the case with Tim Reid, Jr. A quick spin of his new, sophomore album, Not Much Else to Do, will smack you upside the head with Reid's unfailing devotion to the unquestioned progenitor of 1970s jazz/funk/geek-rock, Donald Fagen and Steely Dan. But this is no easy feat. Dipping your toes into these hallowed and pitch-perfect waters means that you had damn well better have your chops in order - in writing, arranging, recording and performing this complicated music. Reid moves confidently in this universe and all the elements are in place. So, tune in, turn down and jazz it up.

Episode 75: Record Store Day - Part II, Michael Kurtz, co-founder of Record Store Day

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Great ideas start small. One man. One problem. One idea. Six years ago the music business was in a freefall. Corporate record stores were going out of business seemingly daily and independent record stores were struggling to keep their doors open. And then a small group of record aficionados and independent record store owners got together and hatched a great idea. A day designed to foment interest in record stores by connecting bands and fans in their common love of music. A day intended to stir the coals of interest in the archaic but uber-cool vinyl record format. A day to celebrate all that is cool about independent record stores. A day called Record Store Day. It started small - a handful of stores and several exclusive releases. By 2013, Record Store Day is celebrated annually on the third Saturday in April and it features hundreds of exclusive releases by artists large and small in thousands of record stores worldwide. Michael Kurtz was one of those co-founders of Record Store Day and part of that great idea was his. He watched the retail music business dying and he didn?t like what he saw. So the seeds were sown, and then they grew, and now, on Record Store Day 2013, music fans around the world can drop into their neighborhood record store on a Saturday in April, catch a rocking in-store performance by a great band, pick up a stack of vinyl records and celebrate all that is right with the world.

Episode 74: Record Store Day - Part I, Lance Barresi of Permanent Records

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Six years ago, a dedicated group of vinyl aficionados and independent record store owners got together and launched an event called 'Record Store Day' - just about the time that corporate record stores were going bankrupt. Heavy metal juggernaut, Metallica, was one of the first bands to get on board, signing autographs and giving away t-shirts to 500 fans at a Bay Area record store for the event in 2008. By 2013, Record Store Day - celebrated annually on the third Saturday in April - has exploded into an international event celebrated at thousands of independent music retailers worldwide. Here in Los Angeles' Eagle Rock neighborhood, Permanent Records co-owners Lance Barresi and Liz Tooley run the sister store to their Chicago-based flagship used record store of the same name. Like many independent record stores, Permanent Records' Record Store Day events will feature in-store performances, meet and greets with artists, and a place where music fans can hang out and talk about their favorite bands and buy exclusive releases. Artists ranging from neighborhood garage bands to industry heavyweights like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen issue special releases for the event every year. I spoke with Barresi about how Permanent Records will celebrate RSD on April 20th, 2013, what the event has done for indie record stores and how some hardcore vinyl devotees line up as many as four hours before the store opens on Record Store Day.

Episode 73: Kevin Bowe

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Minneapolis, Minnesota may call to mind long, dark winters and Garrison Keillor's weekly paean to sensible Midwestern values, A Prairie Home Companion, but the city has always had a very rich musical tradition. This fertile scene is home to respected artists like The Replacements, Husker Du, The Jayhawks, Semisonic and The Purple One himself - Prince. Go ahead and add hometown artist Kevin Bowe to that list of top-notch talent from The City of Lakes. Since 1995, Bowe has played or written seemingly with every artist in The Twin Cities and several from far beyond. His credits include co-writing with Etta James and Lynyrd Skynyrd, recording and touring with Paul Westerberg and Freedy Johnston, scoring spots for ESPN and a thousand other gigs, sessions, songs and TV placements that we just don't have the space to list. His most recent record - recorded with his band, The Okemah Prophets - is called Natchez Trace, and it is a solid effort that showcases Bowe's considerable skills as a writer, producer, instrumentalist and performer.

Episode 72: Ted Russell Kamp

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Musicians can't choose the specific gig, song or happenstance that will bring them notoriety or a payday hit. Indeed, many artists have their fingers in a lot of pies - a sideman gig here, a songwriting contribution or guest spot there. After growing up back east, Los Angeles' Ted Russell Kamp's first big breaks came as the bass player for artists like Shooter Jennings and Wilson Phillips, but he is far from the kind of guy content to hold down the low end in the shadows next to the drum riser. He has eight albums of his own under his belt and the newest, Night Owl, was just released in early 2013. Kamp has infused Night Owl with the hard-won wisdom of hundreds of shows in smoky bars from the Atlantic to the Pacific - and far beyond - and a keen ear for a memorable turn of phrase. Kamp has made a lot of friends along the way, and the credits on all his albums read like a who's who of top-notch players and writers. Such a journeyman work ethic has served him well as his reputation as a solo artist continues to grow and the world discovers a rare talent.

Episode 71: Greg Garrison - bassist for Leftover Salmon

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Building a career in music can be an inexact process. The influence of luck cannot be overstated. But luck, as they say, favors the prepared, and being prepared means hard work. Leftover Salmon bassist Greg Garrison's luck in the music business certainly can be attributed to diligent hard work, but also to the fact that he is supremely talented. After graduating from college, Garrison left his home state of Illinois and settled in the beautiful and musically rich territory of Colorado where he worked his way through a series of bands while getting a master's, and eventually a PhD in bass. Paying his dues led him to a regular gig with pseudo-bluegrass jam band legends, Leftover Salmon, and hundreds of shows and several albums ensued. As if that accomplishment wasn't enough, Garrison was also a founding member of mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile's post-Nickel Creek ensemble, Punch Brothers. Garrison is equally at home playing upright or electric bass and he easily and deftly bridges the gap between jazz and improvised roots music.

Episode 70: Nocona

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Alt-country pioneers Uncle Tupelo might not have been the first band to find the common ground between punk and country music, but the little band from Belleville, Illinois grafted loud guitars onto up-tempo two-steps and fired a shot heard round the world for a lot of young songwriters. In that same raw, but rural tradition, the Los Angeles-based band, Nocona, would be right at home on Chicago's Bloodshot records - a label that many insurgent country bands have called home for nearly 20 years. Nocona might be new to the scene, but their lineage can be traced back to a pair of other Southern California bands that share a Jones for both George Jones and Minor Threat - Paladino and Old Californio. The new group got its start when guitarist and vocalist Chris Isom found himself with a handful of new songs while Paladino took a break after a year of touring. The result is a new band with a brand new record that eschews the broken hearted, tear-in-my-beer aspects of honky-tonk and instead pours considerable energy into ramped up tempos that share as much with Black Flag as they do The Man in Black.

Episode 69: Dave Porter - Composer for AMC's Breaking Bad

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 03:00:00 -0000

With film and television, as with so many other things, music can completely change the mood of an experience. Music can enhance action or drama, imbue a sense of foreboding or elation or provide that tiny extra push needed to draw a tear from a viewer's eye. In the world of AMC's hit drama, Breaking Bad, composer Dave Porter has wholly unique and challenging world to fill with his soundtrack. The downward spiral of Breaking Bad's protagonist from a terminally ill chemistry teacher patsy to a murderous and power hungry drug lord wraps up its fifth and final season this summer, and Porter has scored every single episode. His music has brought the disparate worlds of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman a sense of otherworldly and gritty gravitas with a palette of sounds that mixes vintage analog synthesizers and unorthodox instruments - and like any good film scorer, he does it quickly, creatively and with a journeyman's work ethic.

Episode 68: The Stone Foxes

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 03:00:00 -0000

One of the most important aspects of music is a catchy chorus - the singalong nugget of a tune that gets into your head and you just can't get it out. But there is another element in some harder rock songs that is just as important. It's called a riff, and riffs form the cornerstone of many of rock and roll's best-known tunes. Led Zeppelin may not have invented the riff as they are commonly known but they perfected and trafficked in them in a manner that launched the careers of innumerable disciples. The San Francisco-based band, The Stone Foxes, also build their songs around cocksure bluesy riffs, but they add a bit of 21st century cross pollinization to their brand of rock and roll. Guitars chug along bathed in spring reverb, Green Bullet harmonica yelps out of cranked small tube amps, foot stomps and handclaps keep time and choruses shouted in unison give the audiences something to sing along with. They've just released a new album in February of 2013 and they're bringing their message to the people with a string of national tour dates.

Episode 67: The Show Ponies

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Some bands have one singer to handle all the lead vocals, and other acts build their sound around a pair of singers who arrange their parts so that they aren't just a lead part and accompanying harmony line. In the latter case, the pair of parts are written to work together as a sort of co-lead vocal. The paired singers in bands like The Indigo Girls and The Jayhawks continue to blend their voices in ways that make a whole that is musically stronger than the sum of its parts. The Los Angeles-based band, The Show Ponies, build their songs around the intertwined vocals of Clayton Chaney and Andi Schrock - and their band is certainly stronger for it. Their bio bills them as "a folk band with bluegrass and old tyme tendencies," - and that's 'tyme' with a 'y.' Their prevalent use of fiddle steers them towards bluegrass but their inclusion of drums pulls them back. Like so many bands of the new millennium, The Show Ponies dump all their influences into a pot and serve up the stew without being overly concerned about what to call what they've made.

Episode 66: Stephen Sowan

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 03:00:00 -0000

The electric guitar has been the weapon of choice for rock and roll artists since the early pickers discovered that their amps really did go to eleven. Since that time, the more tasteful and contientious guitarists have elevated the art of guitar tone - how the guitar sounds - to high art. To some players, how their guitar sounds is as important as the notes they play. By ever so carefully selecting the proper guitar with just the right pickups, matching it to the perfect tube amplifier and running it through a few choice foot pedals the instrument can soar like Gilmour, wheeze like Neil, sing like Knopfler, chime like The Edge or howl like Eddie. Artists diligently cultivate their own sound and eke out a sonic identity to separate them from the countless other axe slingers. Some guitarists and producers specialize in arranging electric guitars and parts so that each has a specific place in the final mix. Enter Stephen Sowan. He's a young singer, songwriter and guitarist who is set to release his debut album, "Looks Like Nothing." Sowan's songs seem torn right from the best pages of the rock and roll instruction book and he imbues them with warm, grinding guitars played with a gentle and confident touch that belie his rookie status. His grasp of the finer points of guitar tone is impressive, his songs are solid and his playing is tasteful - and all this sets him apart from the crowd.

Episode 65: The Dustbowl Revival

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Perhaps the most aptly-named band in music history, The Dustbowl Revival is everything that their clever name implies. It all started as a small string band focused on playing anachronistic music styles that were popular in the early 20th century - pre-bop jazz, swing, jump, blues, gospel, bluegrass and folk. Founder Zach Lupetin took the show on the road on numerous tours up the West coast and as the band's following grew in number so did the band itself. By 2013, The Dustbowl Revival has evolved into a sort of musical collective where any given show might include eight or more performers rambling along on vocals, guitars, drums, mandolin, kazoo, trombone, trumpet, washboard, clarinet, fiddle, pedal steel guitar, harmonica, banjo, accordion, tambourine, euphonium, tuba, upright bass and whatever else might be handy. The result is a musical mashup of anything remotely considered to be 'old-timey' that is at once retro and fresh. But most importantly, it is fun. The performers love making this music and it shows. With a handful of records under their belt and a new one on the way, their audiences continue to grow and tours are going farther afield. The Dustbowl Revival is making a joyful noise here in the future by taking us back to a time in the past when real musicians gathered around a single microphone to play real music for real people.

Episode 64: Dinosaur Horses

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 03:00:00 -0000

After arriving in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, Neil Young made a name for himself by introducing the world to a simple, haunting and idiosyncratic brand of music that mixed gentle acoustic guitars, visceral fuzzed-out electric guitars, lonesome harmonica and cryptic lyrics sung in a warbled tenor. Whether or not this sonic territory was what Los Angeles' Dinosaur Horses were aiming for with their debut record, "So Much For That," they succeeded in spades. Imitation may be a divine form of flattery, but there is a reverence in this music that comes not from a calculated mimicry but from a perhaps subconscious desire to make the most honest music possible by Dinosaur Horses' leader, Angelo Felder. Dinosaur Horses have the geographic credentials in order - they hail from the woody and tranquil Topanga Canyon area just outside of Los Angeles - and the ten songs on this record simply reek of a raw, unpretentious authenticity that would sound right at home drifting out of the windows of a sun-bleached Topanga cabin.

Episode 63: Lindi Ortega

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 03:00:00 -0000

Although Austin may have laid claim to the title of the "live music capitol of the world," there really is only one town where musicians with a hardcore jones for country music make their pilgrimage. Native Canadian Lindi Ortega had already made a name for herself up north, releasing a pair of EPs and a record that racked up a pair of Juno award nominations when she arrived in Nashville. But once in Guitar Town she hit the red ground running, enlisting fellow Canadian journeyman musician Colin Linden to produce her newest record, "Cigarettes and Truckstops." The result is a set of ten songs that play like Dolly Parton on steroids. There are nods to the female forebears of torch and twang - Emmylou, Loretta, Tammy and Patsy (all the demigoddesses that should be on Music City's Mount Rushmore) but Ortega is also a writer of substance who is not afraid to singlehandedly attempt to pull country music into the 21st century by questioning the authority of Nashville's politically incorrect establishment. Her songs pull no punches, but they are dressed up in enough sequins that the good ol' boys may be too entranced by her voice and charming stage presence to know they're being rendered archaic. And you simply must hear her smoldering take on The Man in Black's "Ring of Fire." If Ortega is the future of country music, we can't wait to see where we're going.

Episode 62: Freedy Johnston

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:00:00 -0000

After spending his formative years in the small central Kansas town of Kinsley (population 1,457), Freedy Johnston followed the tried and true path of many musicians - he went away to college and then dropped out to chase his dreams. A sign in his hometown had a pair of arrows that pointed in either direction towards New York City and San Francisco, and the former became the place Johnston put down new roots, believing so strongly in his path that he sold part of the family farm to finance his music career. Since then, Johnston has come light years beyond his mythic back-story. His second album, "Can You Fly," rightfully earned its way onto many of 1992's best-of lists and earned him accolades from Rolling Stone and Spin. A major label contract followed and subsequent albums were produced by the likes of Butch Vig and T-Bone Burnett. Johnston's compositions are filled with a keen eye for detail, assured melodies sung in his slightly raspy tenor and an elegant simplicity that is akin to John Prine's ability to imbue deeper meaning through subtlety and an ever-present humanity. Johnston has certainly earned his title of a songwriter's songwriter and he continues to make honest and excellent music the old fashioned way here in the new music paradigm.

Episode 61: Pi Jacobs

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Pi Jacobs' confident but tasteful singing style is a breath of fresh air in an age of diva singers who have themselves convinced that they're getting paid by the note. She can torch it up with the best of them with blue note runs, a bit of grit and strategically placed vibrato, and her songs are custom fit to showcase a respect for musical integrity. This approach has served her well: her songs have been placed over 60 times in television, film and advertising spots. So odds are if you haven't heard of her you have heard her music. She has four albums under her belt and a new record on the way in early 2013 that pushes her music into some new territory thanks to collaboration with producer Eugene Toale, who marries his background in hip hop with Jacobs' accessible brand of smoldering new millennium rock.

Episode 60: First Circuit

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:00:00 -0000

The pedal steel guitar is usually an instrument reserved for country and western music. Its complicated, pitch-changing levers and pedals, volume swells and lack of frets gives the high and lonesome music of rural America its distinctive weepy sound. But some artists push the instrument into new territory, notably uber-producer Daniel Lanois, who creates lush soundscapes with his ethereal pedal steel playing. The Los Angeles based band, First Circuit, falls somewhere in between. At its heart, the band's sound is reminiscent of a lot of British bands in your record collection... maybe a less experimental Radiohead or more muscular Coldplay. But it is their use of pedal steel that sets them apart from other would-be British pop rock emulators. First Circuit's pedal steel guitarist, Kevin Milner, juxtaposes his fairly traditional steel playing with singer Adam Kurtz' adventurous songwriting and the result is a pleasing blend that just makes sense.

Episode 59: Walla

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Pop music has changed a lot over the years. Charts that used to be full of artists like Bobby Vinton, The Beatles and eventually Madonna and Michael Jackson are now ruled by the likes of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. Dictionary.com defines pop music as "Music of general appeal to teenagers; a bland watered-down version of rock and roll with more rhythm and harmony and an emphasis on romantic love." Not exactly a glowing description. But at its heart pop music is music designed to be catchy and instantly memorable, and creating it is harder than it sounds. The new-ish Los Angeles based band, WALLA, unlike so many of their peers, eschew the trappings of the fertile local 'indie' scene and readily embrace the pop tradition the way it's served up in the new millennium. The synths are here, as are economical arrangements, danceable tempos, catchy, simple lyrics and bit of disco for good measure.

Episode 58: Grant Langston

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Although it can seem so by people who don't like it, country music is not a singular, boot-and-hat-wearing monolith. When viewed close up, there are as many variations and subgenres in the style as there are diverse artists are who invented them. And although Nashville is the undisputed epicenter for what is commonly known as 'country,' some of the more colorful, eccentric and original characters have always had a hard time fitting into Nashville's rigid confines. Enter Grant Langston. Langston grew up a mere 125 miles south of the Ryman Auditorium in the sleepy, rural, red dirt town of Hartselle, Alabama. But when it came time to move to a place big enough to hold his ambitious dreams in music, Nashville just didn't seem right for his hybridized brand of country that mixes healthy doses of rock, pop and bits of other styles into a cohesive and catchy blend. In Nashville, Langston might be a square peg, but in Los Angeles he fits right into the same diverse and healthy local twang scene where it is OK that Dwight Yoakam eats sushi. Langston has five studio albums and one live album under his belt and we hope he never stops.

Episode 57: The Henry Clay People

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Rock riffs, punk attitude and snappy arrangements are the stock and trade of Los Angeles' Henry Clay People. The band is led by brothers Joey and Andy Siara, and these guys know their way around a song, and they know their way around a van, as they've been burning up the miles and stages all across the country since 2005 playing at high profile gigs like Lollapalooza, SXSW, Austin City Limits Festival, Coachella and Sasquatch Music Festival. Along the way they've shared bills with Silversun Pickups and Drive-By Truckers.

Episode 56: SHEL

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 03:00:00 -0000

The entertainment business is full of family acts, from the legacy acts (Jacksons) to the married (Sonny and Cher, Ike and Tina Turner)... from the schmaltzy (The Osmonds) to the semi-fictionalized (The Von Trapp Family Singers). There is simply something special to the sound of a group of people who share family bloodlines or nuptial vows and musical kinship. The Ft. Collins, Colorado band SHEL is far from a novelty act. Sure, the band consists of a quartet of sisters - Sarah, Hannah, Eva and Liza Holbrook, but their claim to musical viability is bona fide. All four Holbrook sisters were homeschooled and classically trained in the ways of music and this exceedingly unique approach to life and art shows in both their songs and performances. The oldest of the sisters is only 24, but the musical maturity of SHEL is more akin to the sum of their ages, which is 86 in case you're keeping score. Their eponymous album is their first full-length release and it showcases their inventive songs and considerable talent as performers.

Episode 55: Mark Lane

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Anyone who has ever tried to write a song or record an album knows the amount of work that goes into getting the seed of an idea from an artist's head, onto tape and into the ears of fans. But the best music happens when all this work sounds effortless and the finished product sounds at once fresh and familiar. Los Angeles' musical fixture Mark Lane's sophomore record, Something New, accomplishes that sonorous dichotomy in spades. Lane is a pop craftsman, and in his music his influences make their appearances known and then duck in and out of his deft arrangements as the whole thing pulls you forward. There may be hints of the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello and Elliott Smith in Lane's songs but the record is aptly named. Something New sounds the way it does because Mark Lane played nearly every instrument in its eleven tracks. Maybe Lane is overachieving, but the result is a slice of pure pop genius.

Episode 54: Everett Coast

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Musicians have been pairing up for centuries; Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were far from the first musicians to realize the utility of having another voice to complement their own. But writing and performing with another person adds more than just another voice to one's music - it provides another person to share the spoils and tribulations of being in a band. Despite all the glamorous music videos and pie in the sky dreams of limousines and guitar-shaped pools, a life in music can mean a lot of lonely stretches of highway and feast or famine periods of income. But perhaps most importantly, having another voice adds a whole other dimension to a single melody, and that is the blessed element of harmony. Danny Byrne and Josh Misko comprise a Los Angeles-based duo called Everett Coast. Both musicians were independent acoustic guitarists, singers and songwriters when they were introduced to one another by a teacher at Musician’s Institute in Hollywood in 2011. Each decided they liked what they heard out of the other and they decided to join forces and form a band. In Everett Coast, Byrne and Misko harmonize well, and their feel good songs bounce along to a groovy beat that gets audiences moving and singing along. Everett Coast has a pair of EPs available and they maintain an active performance schedule up and down the West Coast.

Episode 53: Brother Sun

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 03:00:00 -0000

The history of music is full of 'supergroups' - which is when a group of artists who already have established careers decide to band together and form a new group. Sometimes they work - Led Zeppelin was comprised of some of England's top studio musicians from the late 1960s. And sometimes they don't... like the Los Angeles Lakers' talent-overloaded 2003-2004 team that failed to deliver a championship. And then there is the newish folk group Brother Sun, and they qualify as a sort of folk music supergroup. Pat Wictor, Joe Jencks and Greg Greenway already had separate and successful careers in the folk genre. They each toured, recorded albums and made a living in the music business. All three artists knew each other from the folk music circuit, and before long they realized that perhaps they could garner more attention as a band than as solo artists. Doing so meant checking egos at the door and doing what bands do, which is sharing the spoils as well as the hard work of being in a band. By 2012 Brother Sun has already established itself as a folk supergroup of sorts. One look at their calendar will tell you they are booked months in advance. Score one for teamwork.

Episode 52: Skyline Drive

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Topanga Canyon is a slice of rugged wildness carved out of the dry Santa Monica mountains just miles from Los Angeles' expansive sprawl. The canyon is one of the only undammed watersheds in the area and that sense of unchecked natural beauty has permeated the culture of the area and fostered an exceedingly rich musical tradition. Current Topanga resident Derek Thomas uses the moniker 'Skyline Drive' for his newest project, and the collection of dusty songs on the upcoming record "Topanga Ranch Motel" - due out in October 2012 - fits right in with the numerous musicians and creative types who have called Topanga home. And this puts Thomas and Skyline Drive in a hallowed category that also includes revered artists like Woody Guthrie, Neil Young, Gram Parsons, Jim Morrison, Little Feat, Van Morrison, Billy Preston, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell and actor Will Geer. Thomas is up to the task, and his songs amply hold the weight of such famous and talented predecessors. The songs on Topanga Ranch Motel reside in that fertile sweet spot where raspy vocals, bittersweet lyrics and mature and earthy arrangements make the music sound timeless.

Episode 51: John Lafayette Ramey

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Being a musician means that you sometimes have to work another job to pay the bills. The history of rock music is replete with career balancing acts of one kind of another. Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a janitor. Van Halen's original front man David Lee Roth was a hospital orderly. Rap empress Queen Latifah worked at Burger King. And then there is Los Angeles' John Lafayette Ramey, a singer and songwriter with a pile of catchy, slightly countrified and self deprecating songs spread over a pair of records. His debut album arrived in 2006 and another is on the way, scheduled for a late summer 2012 release. But Ramey also spends some of his busy days as a sports broadcaster for UCLA baseball and UC Riverside basketball - the kind of jobs that a lot of kids who aren't dreaming about being rock stars dream of having. Sports and music have sometimes made strange bedfellows, but Ramey is equally adept at both disciplines. But who will call the games when Ramey hits it big with his music career?

Episode 50: Whispering Pines

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Once upon a time, before the universe was digitized, people made and listened to music using analog technology. On one end, artists, producers and engineers recorded on analog tape and they incorporated the medium's limitations into their process. Tape is hissy, but it is forgiving - and it can make music sound dynamic and close to the listener. And on the other end, long before people could put their entire music collection on a device smaller than a pack of cigarettes, music fans listened to their favorite albums by placing black vinyl discs on a turntable and setting a needle in a groove. Vinyl is scratchy, but it is an experience. The vinyl devotees in Los Angeles' Whispering Pines know their way around this archaic but romantic analog technology and they aren't afraid to use it. Their eponymous sophomore record was recorded on glorious 2-inch analog tape and will be released in the autumn of 2012. The record is replete with carefully crafted songs that hearken back to the days of classic rock guitars, whirring Hammond organs, rattling drums and slapback echo. And if you close your eyes and listen, you can easily envision their name spinning around the middle of that black vinyl disc at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute.

Episode 49: Laura Warshauer

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 03:00:00 -0000

It is said that you can take the measure of a person by the company they keep, and if this adage holds water then Laura Warshauer is an extremely talented young woman. Her list of cronies includes uber-drummer Kenny Aronoff and Roy Bittan of Bruce Springsteen's venerable East Street Band - as well as a cadre of other well-respected musicians and music producers. She can also list The Prince of Wales and his bride, Kate Middleton as friends from her college days at The University of St. Andrews in Scotland. And since those halcyon days, Warhsauer has been burning up stages around the world with her powerful voice that belies her diminutive stature. In 2010, BMI and the Songwriter?s Hall of Fame awarded her the inaugural Holly Prize. Her first album, "The Pink Chariot Mixtape," was released in 2011 and she spent part of 2012 touring with Austin's favorite acoustic and funky stalwart, Bob Schneider. Warshauer is most certainly on her way.

Episode 48: Cities

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Every generation of young musicians builds upon the ones who came before them. In the case of bands like The Beatles or Led Zeppelin, today's young acts are standing on the shoulders of giants. But musicians find inspiration in nonlinear patterns. Front man Bobby Oliver of the Los Angeles-based band Cities cites singer and songwriter Chris Carrabba of the emo kingpins Dashboard Confessional as the reason he began playing guitar. Indeed, today's nascent songwriters have a much larger palette of artists from which to draw inspiration. We're living in a mash-up world, and this approach is evident in artists like Beck, who has incorporated wildly disparate influences into a cohesive whole. As for Cities, they're doing right by their predecessors by embracing the same things that made them great - namely, learning how to write well-crafted songs with catchy melodies.

Episode 47: Adam Cohen

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:00:00 -0000

An essential part of the human condition is the innate desire to distinguish oneself from one's parents. Doing so can be hard enough when your father works at a steel mill, but when your father is one of the most highly respected songwriters and musicians in the world, he can cast a long shadow on your own accomplishments. Adam Cohen, son of the legendary Leonard Cohen, learned this the hard way. The younger Cohen spent years and three albums running away from his father's legacy before he decided to not only accept, but to embrace his lineage and make an album that frees him to be what he is - the uniquely talented son of a master songsmith. Adam Cohen's new album, "Like a Man," is full of incisive songs that prove that the son of an original artist can be an original artist in his own right.

Episode 46: Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls

Thu, 31 May 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Twangy rock and roll is a good thing. Twangy rock and roll in ¾ time is a better thing. And Twangy rock and roll in ¾ time with accordions is even better still. Maybe even exquisite. Put all three together and add a bit of swagger and you have the music of Jason Heath and the Greedy Souls. But Heath and his band are not just another whiskey-soaked troupe of rock musicians with a jones for country music. They put their money where their mouth is by doing a lot more than merely singing about the downtrodden - they actually devote their personal time to furthering causes like Los Angeles' Midnight Mission and The Danny Fund - the latter of which was created to raise awareness in the fight against melanoma which took the life of band member Jason Federici's father Danny Federici, the longtime member of Bruce Springsteen's East Street Band, in 2008. With their hearts on their sleeves, their amps on eleven and an earnestness that can only come from genuine empathy, Jason Heath and his band are bona-fide.

Episode 45: Kim Grant

Thu, 24 May 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Sometimes, the genesis of a music scene can be traced back to one person who believes in a band, style or idea so thoroughly that their sheer force of will generates enough buzz to make it a reality. Los Angeles' patron saint of twang Kim Grant is just that sort of person. After cutting her music industry teeth at the famed Green Dolphin Street club in her hometown of Chicago, Grant relocated to LA and set about championing the style nearest and dearest to her heart - a genre known to adherents as Alt-Country, Americana or No Depression. In 2009 she formed a PR company called KG Music Press to help spread the word about L.A.'s underground country community in a manner honest enough to honor the genre's unpretentious forebears. But Grant's highest profile vehicle for promoting the extensive number of top-notch roots music artists in Southern California is an ongoing Sunday evening concert series at The Echo affectionately named The Grand Ole Echo. The 7th season of this weekly event runs through September 30th, 2012, is packed with excellent music and admission is free.

Episode 44: Grace Webber

Thu, 10 May 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Brooklyn, New York-based singer and songwriter Grace Weber is living the dream of many a young girl from countless small towns who dream of making a big noise in the big city. She has come a long way since she joined Inner City Youth Gospel Choir in her hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the tender age of ten. Weber has earned her way with a work ethic commonly found in people with Midwestern roots. With talent and tenacity Weber has racked up an impressive list of credits and a growing legion of fans. She has made appearances on NPR's Mountain Stage and The Oprah Winfrey Show, and even managed to get a song on Starbuck's playlist, which can be found in rotation in the coffee behemoth's 10,000-plus locations in the U.S. Weber's debut album, Hope and Heart, is filled with bouncy, soulful songs with some vocal shades reminiscent of smoky throwback female singers like Adele and Joss Stone.

Episode 43: The Burn Riffs

Thu, 03 May 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Two guitars, bass and drums is standard issue rock band territory, so it's often other, more intangible factors that make or break a new act. Usually, it's some indescribable voodoo combination of luck and hard work that gets a band noticed. Luck, as they say, favors the prepared, and that's where the hard work comes in. For the Los Angeles based band, The Burn Riffs, hedging their bets and courting that sometimes-elusive luck starts with a strong work ethic and innovative ideas - ideas like making a music video shot entirely on fans' cell phone video cameras. So far, the approach seems to be working. The Burn Riffs recently performed an exclusive set at Yahoo! Music's world HQ, joining the short list of bands that includes bands like Mumford & Sons to perform in that venue.

Episode 42: Jess Penner

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Once upon a time, musicians and songwriters shied away from having their music associated with a product or service in a TV commercial. Remember the revolutionary uproar about Nike using a Beatles song to sell running shoes in 1987? Some major artists still hold fast like a bulwark for what they perceive to be artistic integrity. It's easy for Bruce Springsteen to turn down Ford or Chevrolet - he doesn't need the money. But things have changed, especially for new artists. With the decline of things like artist development at record labels and plummeting record sales in the rising tide of digital downloading, artists have had to innovate and find new revenue streams. Singer/songwriter Jess Penner exemplifies this new approach with style, rectitude and heart. Her solo music is a pleasing mash up of folk and quirky electronic pop and from the studio in her home, her catchy songs have found their way into more television programs, advertisements and movies than we have space to list. But Penner isn't just a shill trying to sell you something. Her songs sound good on TV because they're joyous, catchy, smartly penned and they're sung with her sweet and youthful voice.

Episode 41: Cody Hudock

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Cody Hudock, like so many young musicians, started a band to attract the attention of girls. After slogging it out playing keyboards in the LA-based indie band, Marvelous Toy, he ended up finding one to marry - his wife, Joanna, who now sings with him in his semi-eponymous band, Cody the Band. His music is filled with pop hooks, inventive chord changes and a fresh approach to musical self-awareness.

Episode 40: Andrea Hamilton

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Folk-pop chanteuse Andrea Hamilton was well on her way to a successful music career when she was stricken with a mysterious ailment while returning from a tour in Vietnam. Doctors and specialists couldn't seem to determine just what it was, but they did tell her that she'd never sing again. Not content to give up on her dream, Hamilton put her trust in her faith and her conviction that she would continue to do what she felt she was destined to do - which was to share her passion for writing incisive, hopeful and heartfelt songs - and that she'd be the one singing them. This hell-and-back-again story is replete with hope, and Hamilton used it as inspiration for her latest album, Slow Miracle.

Episode 39: Alyssa Graham

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0000

When jazz-influenced singer Alyssa Graham set out to record her new record, Lock, Stock & Soul, she opted to do something few artists attempt in the age of recording albums on laptops. Rather than build the album track by track by overdubbing, she and her producer assembled a group of talented musicians and put them in a room. Together. At the same time. This live-in-the-studio vibe permeates the record and gives it an authenticity typically found on albums by artists she lists as influences. There are shades of James Taylor, and her idols Neil Young, Nick Drake and Bob Dylan, and collaborations with MeShell Ndegeocello, David Garza and Jesse Harris - the latter of which is best known for penning key tracks on Norah Jones' multi-platinum debut - all of which saves the record from being a mere throwback to Graham's singer/songwriter forebears.

Episode 38: Craig Elkins

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Craig Elkins' story is a familiar one in the new music universe. Elkins was a founding member of the band Huffamoose, which played the main stage at Woodstock in 1994, got signed to Interscope Records, cracked Billboard's charts, played on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and garnered some effusive praise from rock impresario and film director Cameron Crowe. But despite the impressive resume, Huffamoose folded. Elkins kept hacking away at songs without his band and found some success getting his music into film and television shows. Now, Elkins is back with a new record called "I Love You" - and it features quirky vocals with a hint of an Elvis Costello vibrato, swaggering groves and roadhouse piano that share space with intimate ballads and enough tongue-in-cheek lyrics to offset some earnestly twangy pedal steel. It's a satisfying musical experience, and although we're not sure he left, we're happy Elkins is back.

Episode 37: HoneyHoney

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:00:00 -0000

HoneyHoney is 4th generation country music. Maybe even 5th or more. Their musical thread goes back to early American rural styles and moves forward through time picking up the best elements of every twist and turn of America's other, twangier indigenous music style until it arrives fully formed in our modern hybridized and decentralized musical universe. At its heart, HoneyHoney is a duo comprised of soulful chanteuse Suzanne Santo and singer/guitarist Ben Jaffe - and their new record, Billy Jack, is the band's 2nd full-length album since their formation in 2008. Sonically, HoneyHoney takes a page from Allison Krauss' pristine bluegrass and scrawls all over it with Santo's smoky alto and Jaffe's gritty guitars and sparse vocal harmonies. The overall effect is what you might imagine Edith Piaf would have sounded like had she been born in an Alabama holler, complete with a moonshine still and ample inspiration for lyrics about the down and out.

Episode 36: Sunken Ships

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Singer/songwriter Ray Argyle and his band, Sunken Ships, have a sort of musical identity crisis. They bill themselves as playing "a darker shade of folk," but it's their disparate influences that wrest for prominence in their sound. Sunken Ships flirts with organic Americana elements - the standard-issue acoustic guitars are here, but there is something else churning just under the surface. The band draws inspiration from folky Brit bands, dark pop and mopey folk and it all has a sheen of sweet musical frosting on top to keep their songs from getting too macabre. All in all, it just works.

Episode 35: Scott Bennett

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Scott Bennett's musical resume reads like no other in the business. There are few aspects of the music industry that he hasn't dabbled in... successfully. He has fronted acclaimed rock bands like A Fine Mess and The Falling Wallendas in his hometown of Chicago. He honed his skills as a first rate multi-instrumentalist on buzzy albums like Liz Phair's "Whitechocolatespaceegg" and The Flaming Lips' "The Soft Bulletin." He has scored for films and TV commercials, where his clients include household names like McDonald's, Disney, Budweiser, Miller, Subway, 7-Up, Gatorade, Kraft and Ford. His songs have been featured in TV shows like "Charmed," "Beverly Hills 90210," "The Bold and the Beautiful," and "The Young and the Restless" - and got himself nominated for an Emmy Award along the way. He even managed to find his way onto Broadway, playing guitar and keyboards for the Pulitzer and Tony award winning Broadway show, "Rent". But it was his work with Beach Boys' mastermind Brian Wilson on the legendary "Smile" album that brought Bennett international acclaim. Wilson found Bennett's contributions to the re-recorded seminal Beach Boys album in 2004 to be indispensable - and while playing in Wilson's crack back up band, Bennett wound up sharing stages with Elton John, Billy Joel, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, The Who, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Paul McCartney. And Bennett is still adding to that resume by continuing to release solo albums and producing new artists like girl power trio EZ Tiger.

Episode 34: Joe Jencks

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Joe Jencks is one of God's own prototypes. He's an award winning, internationally touring, full-time performer and songwriter. He has played venues ranging from intimate house concerts all the way up to New York's Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. He has shared stages with Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, John McCutcheon and countless others. Jencks has seven acclaimed albums under his belt, and another with his new trio, Brother Sun - and he spends hundreds of days a year on the road bringing his earnest and indelible spirit and music to fans old and new. And if that isn't enough, he is also an educator and has devoted his life to social justice and labor causes. If you'd like to know how to build a career in music, listen up. Joe Jencks is the real deal.

Episode 33: Geronimo Getty

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0000

Geronimo Getty's scratchy indie-folk plays like the love child of Billy Bragg and John Lee Hooker. Gritty slide guitar wrestles with a perfectly off-kilter fiddle. Loping bass lines snake through the mix between stabs from cracking snare snaps and ramshackle hi-hat flurries. And holding the whole thing together as it careens forward is the band's creative conscience, singer and guitarist Aaron Kyle.

Episode 32: Countless Thousands

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:00:00 -0000

The sound that the three-piece band Countless Thousands makes can only be described as aggressive-uptempo-hard geek-rock. But words don't adequately describe what these guys do with their instruments. They're punk, but refined; loud, but tight; aggressive, but articulate - and they're anything but boring. And maybe this should be expected from a band fronted but a man who has assumed the name "Danger Van Gorder." Throw in a jazz legend and a drum geek with a penchant for Civil War reenactments and you have Countless Thousands.

Episode 31: Brokedown in Bakersfield

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:00:00 -0000

In some circles, the names Merle, Buck and Gram don't require surnames. They're patron saints of a style of music that continues to inspire countless imitators - and although imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, Brokedown in Bakersfield is no cheap knock off. Assembled from the cream of the crop of Bay Area musicians, the 6-piece band's set list reads like the whiskey stained jukebox selection of a Nashville honky tonk circa 1972 - and they approach these classic songs with nothing less than reverence. All the key elements are here: two steps, Scully shirts, weepy pedal steel guitar, tear jerking harmonies and snappy Telecaster chicken picking. The band is fronted by the husband and wife duo of Motherhips' frontman Tim Bluhm and Gramblers chanteuse Nicki Bluhm - and the bearded Blum's laconic baritone blends perfectly with his wife's breathy and respectful channeling of Loretta Lynn. Backing them up are Telecaster twanger Scott Law and Lebo, Steve Adams and Dave Brogan from the funky San Francisco band ALO. Listening to this band's amped up take on classic country brings to mind another adage... if you're going to steal, steal from the best... or better still, just be the best.

Episode 30: Manhattan Murder Mystery

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Riffs, snappy songs, raw vocals and post-punk attitude are what the Los Angeles-based band Manhattan Murder Mystery brings to their powerful music. Somewhere between the bottle that singer and guitarist Matt Teardrop turns to for inspiration and the pathos of a hardscrabble life of heartbreak lies the emotional center of the band. They joined us straight from a video shoot for their song, Owen Hart, off their self-titled sophomore record.

Episode 29: Tony Piscotti

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Tony Piscotti is an intricate guitarist and inventive songwriter. Not intricate-bad, as in ponderous or pretentious, but intricate-good, because his catchy and facile compositions draw you in. Not one to just strum a G-chord under his lilting melodies, Piscotti isn't afraid to explore alternate tunings on his acoustic guitar in order to establish a song as truly original. But Piscotti is also a seeker, from his beginnings in a successful college rock band, to his astute and beautiful 2003 solo release, Soapbox Parade, and then pushing his own playing by picking up the electric guitar in earnest and providing harmonic texture and a bit of twang in the Chicago-based band, Northern Magnolia.

Episode 28: The World Record

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Andy Creighton gets around, and by that we mean that he plays in a number of buzzy LA bands - among them Apex Manor, Big Search and The Parsons Red Heads. Somehow, he still has time to front his own project called The World Record. Stylistically, The World Record resides somewhere in the neighborhood of the king of the garage rockers, The Kinks. But they aren't derivative of any band in particular. Instead they incorporate elements of pop, rock and indie styles into their confident and infectiously catchy songs.

Episode 27: Brandon Schott

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:00:00 -0000

In the world of crafty pop songwriters, there is a rift between devotees of The Beatles' watershed, Sgt. Pepper's, and those who think that the more innovative album was The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. Scruffy songsmiths have spent countless hours in bars debating the relative merits of both albums over clove cigarettes and cheap beer. Los Angeles-based singer and songwriter Brandon Schott is evidence that the influence of both albums can peacefully coexist. Schott's fourth album of pop gems, 13 Satellites, arrives in October 2011 - and it is full of clever musical twists and layered harmony vocals. The album was fully produced at his home studio, exemplifying just how much artists can do DIY-style.

Episode 26: Monica Lewis

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Try and imagine a simpler time - a time before on-demand entertainment and endless digital distractions. One might call it a golden age, and legendary singer and actress Monica Lewis was there for all of it. A true Hollywood beauty with bona fide talent, Lewis was known as "America's Singing Sweetheart," and her resume includes turns with more stars than even Carl Sagan might've imagined. She worked with Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. She shared stages with Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart. She appeared on the very first Ed Sullivan Show. She ran with the likes of Dean Martin, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman and Ted Kennedy. She dated Ronald Reagan and Kirk Douglas. Yeah, that Ronald Reagan. She lived a life of glamour from New York to Beverly Hills and enchanted people in every town in between. Lewis will join us to shine a light of her own and share stories of a life in the entertainment business that may also be found in her new memoir, "Hollywood Through My Eyes."

Episode 25: Brian Felsen of CDBaby

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 03:00:00 -0000

CDBaby is a beautiful anomaly. As the music industry has contracted and become a bastion of seemingly soulless corporate behemoths, the little website that founder Derek Sivers created in 1997 to start selling his music online has grown to handle CD sales and digital downloads for nearly 300,000 artists - and they did so by embodying a genuinely independent ethos. CDBaby is based on the notion that music and artists should come first - and this admirable position saw them grow while other industry stalwarts were collapsing like a house of cards. President Brian Felsen took over the helm in 2008 after Sivers sold CDBaby to the replication company DiscMakers. The CDBaby umbrella that Felsen wields also includes managing BookBaby and HostBaby. But Felsen is not just another suit - he is a working artist as well, having produced photographic art, poetry, plays and a documentary film.

Episode 24: Neighborhood Bullys

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Just like The Dude, out there taking it easy for all of us sinners, The Neighborhood Bullys have taken up the flag of no-BS rock and roll for the good of everyone. In a world of manufactured synth-pop divas, wannabe metalheads and softhearted boys wearing eyeliner, the Bullys' elemental ethos is a breath of fresh air that hits you with gale force. Raw doesn't begin to cover it. The Bullys' ringleader, Davey Meshell, is a veteran of the LA scene - and his approach to music is primal. Meshell holds the careening ensemble together with his rock stance bass playing while singing a Memphis shriek over the top. A pair of untamed guitar players flanks him, belching out solos and riffs made of lightning and broken glass. Behind them all, aptly sitting on a throne, drummer Mike Sessa plays his kit like he's throwing it down a flight of stairs. The whole thing hangs together in a way that makes you understand that the world needs the Neighborhood Bullys - keeping it real. Literally.

Episode 23: Glen Iris

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:00:00 -0000

The origin of Glen Iris can be traced to the symbiotic relationship between poet and singer Debbie Miller and musician Steve Marr. Miller's carefully penned poems longed for music to inhabit and Marr's songs and melodies lacked lyrics to help them fly. When they met in 2007, they quickly discovered that their combined talents formed a cohesive whole. The duo worked up a pile of songs and played them at any venue that would have them - shaking out the lineup of accompanying players that would eventually become the six-piece band on their self-titled debut album. Glen Iris' sound is an enthusiastic take on modern pop that is replete with singalong melodies and inventive arranging.

Episode 22: Jack Littman

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 03:00:00 -0000

LA native Jack Littman started off being inspired by classic rock stalwarts like Neil Young, Bob Marley and Roy Orbison. But Littman is also part of the new generation of artists who grew up with ever present hip-hop and alternative styles on the radio. Since looking back wasn't enough, Littman dumped all his influences, old and new, into a blender and set it on "high." The result is a pleasing mish mash of the state of music in 2011. His music uses David Gray's acoustic guitar-over-techno-beats pop as a jumping off point for a ride during which you have no idea where the song will turn next.

Episode 21: Nikki Lang

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Singer and songwriter Nikki Lang is indeed young, but her comfortable and confident style shows more promise than many artists twice her age. Since penning her first song by the age of twelve, Lang has been on a tear - touring far beyond her hometown of Los Angeles, recording an EP called Feel Better and working with some heavy hitters in the industry. As she approaches her twenties, Lang is slated to open for Kool and the Gang, record a new EP, perform in front of thousands at Los Angeles' Free to Be festival and play a series of shows up the California coast.

Episode 20: Nick Bobetsky of Plaid Elephant Management

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Bobetsky loves independent music and he pulls no punches when talking about the changes in the music business. His dynamic company, Plaid Elephant, provides artists with a wide range of services: from consulting to music management, music supervision and music licensing. He has watched the industry change around him and kept abreast of the latest trends in how artists are using new channels to find their audience. Bobetksy has got a lot to say about how artists can successfully navigate the new model and get themselves heard.

Episode 19: Don Bodin

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Bodin got his start like a lot of kids did, woodshedding guitar in his bedroom for hours and playing in local bands. But Bodin had bigger plans. After a stint producing bands such as Kill Hannah and American Jet Set in Chicago, Bodin packed up and moved to Los Angeles with the goal of getting his music on the big screen - and he has succeeded. In addition to his acclaimed film and television scoring work, Bodin has continued to release independent instrumental albums; his most recent is The Radioactive Werewolf and other Tales from the Southwest.

Episode 18: Eugene Edwards

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Edwards is a Los Angeles-based songwriter, indie pop journeyman, performer, guitarist, vocalist, actor and consummate frontman who leads his eponymous Eugene Edwards Band. Eugene and his band espouse a Springsteen-esque work ethic combined with an Elvis Costello sensibility.

Episode 17: Morgan Margolis and Bruce Duff of Knitting Factory Records

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:00:00 -0000

The new media environment is a tumultuous place. Many companies are holding on by diversifying - record labels aren’t just making records anymore. Morgan Margolis and Bruce Duff have eked out careers in a business that started out as a live music venue. Knitting Factory then branched out into the record business and artist management. How do they keep expanding their media universe when the rest of the industry is contracting? Tune in to Independent’s Day and see.

Episode 16: Marc Nathan

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Nathan has the kind of experience in the music business that is at once rare and common. He hustled his way in working for a record label when he was only 15 years old and rode the wave of the heyday of rock & roll. Since his early start he has worked in A & R, promotions, artist management and for a major music electronics company. His dance card includes turns with Sire Records, Playboy's Beserkley imprint, RCA, IRS, Atco, Atlantic and Universal Music Group. In short, he has been around the block and has a wealth of knowledge to share. Listen up, folks, Marc will tell us the straight dope about a career in the music business.

Episode 15: Calexico co-founder John Convertino

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Calexico is the seminal desert noir band. Their music is a melting pot where traditional Latin and southwestern elements of mariachi, conjunto, cumbia and Tejano styles peacefully and harmoniously coexist with alt-country, indie rock and a trace of jazz. Founded in 1996 by singer Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino at the University of California - Irvine when the pair met while Convertino was playing in the group Giant Sand, Calexico started as a side project and grew to its current six members and an identity all its own. John will join us from his home in Tuscon, Arizona and we'll talk about the process behind recording the soundtrack for Circo - a documentary about a century-old Mexican circus.

Episode 14: Loch and Key

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Sean Hoffman's brilliantly facile guitar work and Leyla Akdogan's hushed vocals form the nucleus of the duo Loch and Key. Their debut album, Jupiter's Guide for Submariners, is a love song to the artistically area just north of downtown Los Angeles. Their ethereal mix of bossa nova, folk and pop perfectly complements the band's beautifully endearing visual artwork.

Episode 13: Patrolled By Radar

Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Singer-songwriter Jay Souza and his quartet are journeymen on the LA music scene. They play a confident and catchy amalgam of folk, rock, country, blues and soul that is cohesive enough to make people think that it's really just one style - rock and roll. Their core sound flirts with both rock and country without making the other feel jealous. They tour nationally; have released several albums over their storied career and played over 1000 live shows… and counting. Souza and his band dropped by the ID studios to play tracks from there brand new album, Be Happy, just released on Knitting Factory Records.

Episode 12: Correatown

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Correatown is the brainchild of singer and writer Angela Correa. The band is an anomaly in the fertile scene centered in Los Angeles’ east side and Echo Park area. Rather than flirting with the traditional twangy folk and indie rock of the local bands, Correatown molds its complex sound out of washy guitars, pop-y synths and ethereal harmonies. The amalgam is catchy, creative and just a bit haunting. The band’s brand new EP, “Etch the Line” is being released today – both digitally and on vinyl at select Independent record stores.

Episode 11: Ross Flournoy

Thu, 26 May 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Flournoy first made waves on the LA scene with The Brokedown - the band that eventually would become indie darlings The Broken West. The Broken West toured nationally and garnered critical praise and a loyal fan base. When the band folded in 2009, Flournoy cured a case of writer's block with a little help from NPR and then picked up where he'd left off and founded Apex Manor. Ross will join us live in the studio to perform live on-air and talk about musical reinvention.

Episode 10: Rick Shea

Thu, 19 May 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Rick Shea is a journeyman guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, producer, writer and singer who wields his Telecastser with a deft touch reminiscent of Mark Knopfler and the best of Bakersfield twangers. He grew up in San Bernardino, California, back when the town was an outpost at the very farthest reaches of Los Angeles’ empire. San Bernardino in 1978 was still home to honky-tonks and truck stops where country music found fertile ground. He cut his teeth playing folk music in coffeehouses and soon found work in the country music scene, sometimes playing 7 nights a week. Aside from his work with alt-country pioneer Dave Alvin and R.E.M., Shea has recorded several albums of his own songs and still actively plays around the southwest and beyond with his band, The Losin’ End. His newest record, “Shelter Valley Blues,” includes performances from members of Los Lobos.

Episode 9: Dafni

Thu, 12 May 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Dafni is a singer/songwriter who centers her melting pot of folk, jazz, pop and other styles with her breezy vocals and several albums’ worth of accessible songs. She'’s a true professional with a work ethic that gets her scores of gigs while other musicians are still trying to decide which hat to wear to their shows. She’s a modern day renaissance woman who holds advanced degrees in psychology and chemistry and maintains a rigorous exercise regimen on top of her busy career in music. (Makes one wonder when she sleeps, if at all.) Her musical aspirations brought her from her sleepy hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to her new home in Los Angeles where she fronts a regular band and can be found playing throughout the city.

Episode 8: Maxim Ludwig

Thu, 05 May 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Ludwig is the bastard son of a Born To Run-era Bruce Springsteen and country rock pioneer Gram Parsons. In other words, his music is replete with roots rock earnestness in a time when wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve may not be in fashion. His confident melodies will get you singing along in no time and his able backup band, The Santa Fe Seven, will get your feet moving… or at least hoisting a lighter right before their encore. Maxim and The Santa Fe Seven have been tearing up Los Angeles in the last couple years and have just returned from a very buzz-y trip to SXSW this March where they opened up for Duran Duran.

Episode 7: Mason AKA Jason Taylorson

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Mason is a man of many talents. Aside from being an artist, musician and music producer, he made a name for himself by building a music scene centered around the Taix 321 Lounge, located within the Taix French Restaurant in Echo Park. Mason built this scene the only way an honest working guy from Chicago could… by building it from the ground up. As building blocks he used top-notch bands from the growing East Los Angeles area. He made unlikely bedfellows of artists playing rock, electronic, experimental, jazz, folk, Americana, country, rockabilly, garage, alternative, and indie rock genres. Until his departure in 2010, Taix was a place where a discerning music fan could waltz in, pay no cover, take a seat at the bar and catch a high quality, buzzworthy band nearly any night of the week.

Episode 6: Omar D. Brancato

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Omar D. Brancato is a musical chameleon... he can be found writing, arranging and recording band and theme park arrangements in his studio, odibeestudios. You can find him onstage acting and playing bass simultaneously in the musical: Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. And if that isn't enough, you just might find him putting on a little make up and rocking out in grand style playing bass in techno-industrial rock band, Carbon 9.

Episode 5: Leftover Cuties

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Leftover Cuties play infectious Edith Piaf-influenced modern cabaret pop. They'’re starting to make waves around town… their music can be heard on FX’s Justified and Showtime’s The Big C, starring Laura Linney. They have an EP called “Game Called Life” and will be releasing their full-length debut, “Places to Go” (produced by Tony Berg: Peter Gabriel, Edie Brickell, Michael Penn and Aimee Mann) on May 31st, 2011. The full 5-piece band joined us in-studio to perform live.

Episode 4: John Hoskinson

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Hoskinson is a songwriter’s songwriter whose most recent record is Pancho Fantastico. The album is a tour de force of crafty songwriting, unforgettable melodies and Hoskinson’s signature vocal style.

Episode 3: Robbie Rist

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Robbie is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, actor, voiceover artist, radio personality and all around interesting guy who possesses a manic wit and an unparalleled level of verbosity.

Episode 2: Brian Whelan

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Brian is perhaps the youngest journeyman on the LA music scene, racking up an impressive list of credits as a band member and sideman with artists like The Broken West, Mike Stinson, Randy Weeks, Tony Gilkyson, Eugene Edwards, Dwight Yoakam and a host of others. He has stepped out of the shadow next to the drum riser, swapped his bass for a Telecaster and put together a new band called Wheelhouse in order to showcase his considerable talents as a singer, songwriter and performer.

Episode 1: Jason Mandell of The Coals

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:00:00 -0000

Mandell writes Townes Van Zandt-inspired songs for the new millennium - backed by a tasteful and musically mature band. Mandell’s songs about world-weary ramblings are laid on the dusty but hallowed altar in the House of Gram. The Coals’ new CD, Bring Your Love On Back. includes guest vocals by Sarah Watkins of Nickel Creek.