I have to apologize to Ms. Hanson as I am just getting around to listening to her song "Everything in Between' and kicking my own ass for not listening sooner.
Hanson’s voice has a certain rare quality to it that is hard
to attain and come by. A certain buried innocence mixed with a jazzy maturity
that most singers only learn through playing smoky dives for years on end. It
is a very nice fusion of the two qualities that creates a really excellent
vocal.
I dig the construction of the track. Starting out simple
with a voice and acoustic guitar, and slow building pieces on as the melody
progresses until its full tilt with drums, guitars, violins and the whole
shebang. Although it is a full sounding track, it still has a mid tempo and
relaxed feel to the song. The sonic quality certainly has a commercial appeal
in its arrangement, something you could hear on local college radio or on some
CW show…which is a good thing. It shows range and depth of songwriting skill
and I credit Jesse for that.
All in all, I dig this track. A bit less “roots” that I
normally hit on here on the blog, but I think we could all use some pop
influence every so often. Shine a bit of light heartedness on our usual
sorrowful plucked instruments, right? I think this gal has a lot going on for
herself. A truly wonderful voice and talented songwriter, plus she plays a
handful of instruments which is always a plus in my book.
Sarah Borrello recently landed on my list of favorite records of 2013 at number 3, was in the running for "Most Bad Ass Local Rocker" in the BIG RED Recognitions, and has generally just been grabbing my (and everyone elses) attention all over the Northeast and beyond. I just found out that she released a 6 track (well, one of them is a mash-up of 3 tracks, so more like 9 tracks) live record that was recorded at MIT back in October.
Borrello does three things right for me in this release: 1) She released a live recording "officially"-or at least made it accessible for people to listen to. Something I have said time and time again all artists should do. That way we know what we are in for when we come see you for the first time and you can't hide behind production. Note: Borrello's high energy, soul driven vocals do anything but hide! 2) She takes a cover tune and completely owns it makes it her own. and 3) The girl just plain kicks ass.
Here is my First Listen review...where I listen all the way through once and regurgitate my thoughts here for you to read up on.
The record kicks of with that mash up tune of three different songs in one 17ish minute track. Starting mainly acapella but still completely captivating, I am so encapsulated in this girl's voice that I hardly notice when a faint drum thumping enters somewhere into the track, then a mean riff follows and finally the second tune in the medley comes in hard. There is a nice break down in their as well, with Borrello telling the crowd that "they don't bite...too much" in an effort to get folks to crowd in closer.
'Stranglehold' was a track from Borrello's latest record 'Exit' that really stuck with me long afterwards
and the live version is no different. The band starts with a pretty funny blues turnaround into this heavier feel of a song. When that chorus line "oh no, I got it so bad..." comes around I am floored and really "in it". Very emotional and heavy songs and performances this lady throws forth at her audience.
Sarah definitely has a strong bluesy influence, but theres some heavier alterative stuff in there as well. She dances a real fine line between genres, sometimes showing jamband influences in those breakdowns, sometimes showing the delta blues influences, and some psychadelic-Jopinesque influences as well. I am not sure you can really pigeon hole this young lady to a specific sound. I think the funniest part of the recording is the banter between tracks and to really see Borrello's personality shine through. She is such a powerhouse of a performer it is great to witness her lighter, joking side between tracks. The band has a great feel and vibe to them, you can tell everyone is having a great time on stage and it shows in the performance and sound.
Every so often I really like to shed some light on some really creative, talented, and creative folks within the music scene. In this case, those two folks happen to be Connor Millican and Corey Pane of Idlewilde Creations (http://www.idlewildecreations.com/ ). Connor and Corey started off as two dudes with some cameras, some musical acquaintances and a really good eye for capturing the live emotion of a song. That soon developed into churning out really incredible, well produced music videos and episodes of their Old Guitar series (which happens to be one of the coolest concepts I think I have ever heard of in the music community). I caught up with Connor to ask some questions about that series, current projects, and what the future holds for the multi-media duo.
1. So, you guys have been doing this thing for quite
some time now and made a good name for yourself. Tell the good folks who don’t
know about Idlewilde Creations what you guys do and who you are?
CM: IdleWilde Creations is a video production company
focusing on developing innovative entertainment content for musicians. It
all started a little over a year ago when my friend from high school, visual
artist Corey Pane and I decided to start making videos for a friends' band.
We didn't have any experience in video production, but through trial and
error we figured out how to make high quality videos. Soon we realized how many
musicians out there needed digital content to help grow their public identity.
We also realized that these artists are working within a very limited
budget. We decided to start a company, and called it IdleWilde Creations.
Our vision was to work with musicians who may have budget constraints,
but have no shortage of talent. Now we work with a handful of great
musicians on a variety of levels, from singer-songwriters filming their first
small budget music video, to documenting weekend-long festivals like New
England Americana Festival in Harvard Square, in Boston, MA.
2. One of the big projects you guys have been working on is
The Old Guitar series. I think this is such
an interesting and excellent
concept. An old, beat up guitar played by a ton of really excellent musicians.
Leveling the playing field, as they say, to really highlight the songwriting and
performance of the artist. Who have been some of your favorite artists to shoot
so far? How about favorite locations?
CM: The Old Guitar video series was just one of those ideas
that crept up on us. After we found the guitar, an old 1960's Kay
acoustic, we filmed a few episodes and before we knew it people were contacting
us to be a part of the project. It happened pretty fast like that, and
right under our noses. Although we do work very hard to get out to the
musicians and edit the videos, all paid for out of pocket by us, the guitar
really does most of the work. We just put it in the hands of musicians and
film, and magic tends to happen. One of those magical times happened on a
trip out to Martha's Vineyard to film an episodes of The Old Guitar with Nina
Violet and her sister Marciana Jones. We had never been to the island
before, and Marciana picked us up with musicians Willy Mason as a passenger.
We hadn't planned to film with Willy, but after driving around for a
while we ended up in a forest of creaky pine trees where we filmed an
on-the-spot performance of Willy's song "Slow and Steady" accompanied
by Marciana on the Harpsichord and vocals. When we are with musicians who are
enthusiastic and creative, anything can happen, and that spontaneous creativity
is what we want to document. Moments like those are what keep the project
alive, and musicians like Willy Mason, Nina Violet, and Marciana Jones are why
we keep doing this for free.
3. How would an artist get in touch with you guys about
being featured in an Old Guitar episode?
CM: If you want to play The Old Guitar, get in touch with us.
The only thing we ask is that your music be original. You can reach
me, Connor Millican at (860)-841-7705 or you can email us at idlewildecreations@gmail.com
4. Corey has also been doing portraits from each
session and they look insanely awesome. How did that come about? How have the
artists been reacting to the incredible drawings?
CM: Corey Pane is a videographer for The Old Guitar, but he
also is a very talented artist, and he portrays each musician who has filmed an
episode with us in the form of a pencil drawing. For a lot of the
artists, it is an added bonus, and they are really excited to see how it comes
out. His photo-realistic style of drawing is truly incredible, and these
drawings add a depth to the project that I never would have imagined.
Check out Corey's artwork at www.coreypane.com
5. I think one of the most important parts of the production
group is that you guys are musicians yourself and you understand and can work
with the musicians you are shooting, drawing, recording, etc. Do you feel like
that plays a big role in your desire to push Idlewilde forward? Has it been
beneficial? Also…tell us about your own band, Wise Old Moon a bit.
CM: Both Corey and I come from a musical background, and I
think that does play a big part in our vision of working with musicians.
We understand the needs of different artists, and we also know that one
product a musician desires could be completely different from the next.
While the biggest focus for us right now is idleWilde Creations, our work
together filming and producing videos extends beyond that world and blends with
our passion of making music together. Corey is the percussionist in our
band Wise Old Moon, and I sing and play guitar. The two worlds of music
and video production blending really is a great fit. Recently we were hired by
a great band, The Meadows Brothers, to produce some videos, and a few months
later we had booked a concert together. As we build this creative
relationship, I feel it will lead to great things not only with their video
projects, but with our musical collaboration as well. Look out for a
summer tour featuring Wise Old Moon and The Meadows Brothers! You can see
the work we did for them here:
The Meadows Brothers "A Train Makes A Sad, Sad
Sound"
TheMeadowsBrothers
"A Train Makes a Sad, Sad Sound" copyright 2013
Written by Ian Meadows Video by Idlewilde Creations- Connor Millican and Corey
Pane www.meadowsbrothers.com facebook.com/themeadowsbrothers
www.idlewildecreations.com
6. So, what does the future hold for you guys? Any
dream collaborations? Where do you see the brand of Idlewilde heading?
CM: IdleWilde Creations is undergoing some big changes right
now. We're creating an online store for The Old Guitar where we'll be
putting up T-shirts and other merchandise. We've got at least two new
episodes of The Old Guitar coming out before the end of this year. We
have a few projects that are in the process of being edited, including a
promotional video for a band from Rhode Island, as well as a concert video of a
65 person multi-generational choir from Boston. We're working on
revamping our website to feature our latest and greatest, and we have some work
lined up to do video production for some commercial businesses. In the
future, we plan on continuing our work with The Old Guitar, as well as looking
for more musicians who are interested in affordable, high quality video work.
I referred to The Coloradas recent release as "an
Americana genre masterpiece" and I still stand by that statement to this
day. There is something about the simplicity of these recordings that really
strikes a chord with me. The songwriting is the most important part of these
songs. They stand on their own without fancy frills or editing, yet the playing
and arrangements are still impeccable. I caught up with Roy Davis of the band to answer a few questions...check them out below
1. So, who are you, what do you do, why are you here? Give
the fine readers the low down on The Coloradas...
RD: The Coloradas are Bernie Nye and myself. We have been
playing music together in various forms since high school, but the last two
records have been a collaboration of his and my songwriting, with string band
arrangements. The result usually lands somewhere between bluegrass, old-time,
and blues music. These records are The Coloradas (self-titled), released
in 2012, and Big Empty, released in October of this year.
2. There is a real nice juxtaposition between both of you in
the group (and of course adding a plethora of talented friends helps), your
writing styles, and how you sonically mix to create the sound that is the band.
How do you guys really foster that successfully? Do you ever find it difficult
to find the sweet spot when arranging songs?
RD: Arranging songs is tricky, and something I think
we get better at every time we make a new recording. Bernie and I write songs
separately, never together. So when one of us brings their song to the other,
we usually have very strong opinions of how we want it to sound. But to get it
from that point to a collaboration (which is the spirit of our group), it takes
a certain amount of compromise and an open mind to new ideas. The new album,
Big Empty, is mostly sparse duo arrangements, with a little help from Joe
Walsh, the best mandolinist in the universe. We tried to make the focus on the
songs themselves as much as we could.
3. Your most recent release, Big Empty, has seen some good
press (including here on RLR). How did the recording of this come about? There
is a real "the listener is right there in the room" kind of
production to the entire record that is all too often unseen in the music
industry. I felt it to be extremely endearing, raw, and emotion driven. What
made you guys take that approach?
RD: When we decided to make a new record, there was some
debate about whether to go into a studio (such as I have in the past with my
solo records), or to record it ourselves at our home studio, like we did with
our self-titled album last year. We decided to do it ourselves. There's pros
and cons to that kind of recording: you have lots of time to work on
arrangements, practice the tunes, scrap tunes and start over, and make
everything sound the way you want it. You also have a lot of time to nitpick,
have disagreements, and over think things, which if you're not careful can
result in a lifeless album. We ended up recording the album down in Philadelphia,
where Bernie was living for a few months. We were working in his apartment,
which had tall ceilings, very little furniture, and wood floors. So they were
very "live" sounding rooms. Lots of natural reverb, which we loved.
We really focused on making the album sound like the listener is at an
unamplified acoustic performance, because that's our favorite way to experience
music.
4. You boys have a big show coming up in Boston at one of
the most noted listening rooms in the country, Club Passim. Sell us on why they
should be at that show!
RD: January 7th will be our second time performing at Club
Passim. It's a beautiful little listening room in Cambridge, exactly the kind
of place we love to play. The sound is great, it's cozy, and the people that come
out are passionate about hearing original folk and roots music. Passim has been
hosting these types of concerts for 50 years, so they know how to put on a
show. The bill in January is going to be great, we're joined by our good pal
and excellent songwriter Brian Carroll, who will playing in a duo with banjoist
Mark Whitaker. Also, our friend from New York, Elijah Ocean, will be
performing. His group just got back from a 3 month full US tour, and Elijah's
songs are the best thing coming out of NYC. He just recorded his second
Daytrotter Session, which is a way cool live recording blog out of Illinois. So
folks can head over to Daytrotter or Elijah's website to check him out.
Portland, Boston, and NYC will all be represented. Should be a fun night.
5. Ok, so plug anything else you have coming up in the next
few months/ what else.
RD: We have a full list of shows over at www.thecoloradas.com!
We'll be playing regionally this winter and in Germany and Austria in
April. This will be our third trip to Europe, both of our albums have been
released on vinyl on german label Hometown Caravan. We'll have copies of the
album LP's and CD's at the Passim show, and they can be ordered through our
website, itunes, or a zillion other stupid websites that sell music.
This process was cut from the fabric of this music community. Your peers and fans nominated you (the musician) and you put out the word for those same people to cast their opinion forth on the survey. I had little to nothing to do with this aside from setting up a survey for that information to be entered into and then typing these results into a blog post. I mean it when I say I hate calling the below list the "winners" because I truly feel what makes OUR music community so much more unique and special than other regions is the support and love that we have throughout it. So, 'your choices', yeah, winners, yeah they are that too, but so aren't all of the folks nominated and all the folks who voted and did the nominating.
Every single one of you reading this is amazing (especially all the wonderful musicians who were a part of this thing). I was able to truly realize how much I completely and wholeheartedly love this town and the music scene within based on the conflicting feelings of how much I wanted to release the results and let people know vs. not wanting to post it because I wanted everyone on the list to be chosen and celebrated. This community really means the world to me.
I don't really have much else to say, except here it isand thank you all for supporting local music, it's the best damn thing this world has going.
Keep on keepin' on,
Your friendly neighborhood Red Line Roots
P.S. Still up in the air if we will have an 'official' gathering to celebrate. I definitely want to put together a Red Line presents kind of show in the future, but when that will happen is TBD.
-------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Female Songwriter-
Danielle Miraglia
http://www.daniellem.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Male Songwriter -
Ian Fitzgerald
http://ianfitzgerald.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Picker: Guitar -Literally, down the the exact same number of votes with all of the votes that came in...we have a dead on tie (only time this happened) for your favorite local picker and those gents are:
Andy Cambria
http://andycambria.com/
Mark Kilianski
www.markkilianski.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Picker: Banjo
-
Maggie Mackay
http://maggiemackaybanjo.wordpress.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Picker: Mandolin -
Joe Walsh
http://skinnyelephantmusic.com/
-------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local Fiddler-
Eva Walsh
http://www.evawalsh.com/ -------------------------------------------------- Favorite Local "Too much (or never enough) twang" guitarist-
Duke Levine
http://dukelevine.com/ -------------------------------------------------- The Multi-player-
For those of you who have not yet heard, Dave Lamb of the wonderful band Brown Bird was diagnosed with Leukemia around 6 months back. In what I consider to be one of the most beautiful displays of family and community, the surrounding fans of BBs music, fellow musicians, and total strangers pitched in what they could to help with the huge burden that the band would face through medical bills. While its been a rough road so far, both Dave and MorganEve check in with their friends and fans and have seemed very optimistic. There is still some rockiness ahead, but a few local musicians are continuing to try and help out these great people...I caught up with Ian Fitzgerald to talk about a benefit show he is organizing at Club Passim on January 6th to raise some additional funds for Dave.
1) Ian, you are hosting/organizing/playing in show to
benefit Dave and MorganEve of brown bird. Give us the lowdown on the time,
place, etc.
IF: The show will be at Club Passim on Monday, January
6, 2014 at 8pm. We have 14 acts, each of whom will cover a song by Brown Bird.
Tickets are only $15 and are on sale now.
2) So, I know there is a Providence/RI songwriter kind of
connection between yourself and brown bird, but what else was a deciding factor
in putting together this show?
IF: I went to my first Brown Bird show eight years ago in
Northampton, and I've connected and reconnected and crossed paths with the band
many times since. Primarily, I'm a fan: I admire their work and how they do
that work. When I was growing up, it was not uncommon for the people in my
community to raise funds for a person or a family who had encountered hard
times, particularly when those hard times were a result of illness. We're doing
the same thing here in the music community. A number of benefit shows have been
held already; this is my attempt to contribute.
3) There seems to be a great variety of musicians that are
involved in this. Some that I would expect to see on a bill like this and
others that I seemed somewhat surprised to see. How did you come up with this crew
of people to pay tribute to our friends in brown bird and raise funds for this
cause?
IF: I knew that because of the nature of the show, with each
performer playing one song, that the lineup would naturally consist of New
England musicians; fortunately, that dovetailed with the community aspect I had
in mind. From there, I wanted some performers who are close to Dave and
MorganEve and some who are fans who love and want to pay tribute to their
music. For as important as the fundraising aspect is, I think it's important
for people to remember how great this band's music is.
4) With so many great musicians in one place one has to
assume there will be collaborations out the wazoo. Anything you can let the
fine folks in on? Who would you like to see collaborate on a brown bird tune?
IF: Some of the performers have mentioned to me a few
collaborations that are in the works. Folks will have to come out to the show,
though, to find out who winds up on stage together.
5) Finally, sell us on why everyone should attend this
gig…you know, aside from coming to watch you play brown bird tunes.
IF: Coming to watch me play would be the least of the
reasons for people to attend. The lineup is full of musicians who are not only
gracious enough to have agreed to be a part of this but who are wonderful
performers. Those who don't know everyone in the lineup are bound to walk away
fans of someone new. And best of all, we'll be raising money to help Dave and
MorganEve get through until we can all go see them play a show again.
More information at the links below, but you can catch all the following artists paying tribute and playing some of their favorite Brown Bird tunes on January 6th!
The Low Anthem Jonah Tolchin Dan Blakeslee Audrey Ryan Vudu Sister James Maple Patrick Coman Haunt The House Allysen Callery Brian Carroll Jenee Halstead Chadley Kolb Eric Lichter Ian Fitzgerald
