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PLAYING OUT LOUD! BR549 - Blues On the Farm, Pumpbottom
Farm, Appledram - Thursday June 22. BR549 come to Pumpbottom Farm with a brand new album, "Dog Days," which they will no doubt be plugging in their act. "We called the record "Dog Days" because it seemed like the end of something, and the beginning of something else," explained vocalist/guitarist Chuck Mead. "It’s the start of a different way of thinking about BR549 and a different way of thinking about our lives and music." The album, produced by John Keane (known for his work with R.E.M., Uncle Tupelo, and Widespread Panic) and recorded at Keane’s famed studio in Athens, Georgia, showcases 11 uncompromising songs from a band with fearsome instrumental chops and their own left field point-of-view. Now a lean four-piece comprising Mead, multi-instrumentalist Don Herron, drummer/vocalist Shaw Wilson and new bassist/vocalist Mark Miller, BR549 is a band defiantly reborn. "It’s 10 years since we started this, and we’ve been through a lot recently," says Mead. "On this record, we wanted – and needed – to do something that was beyond the norm." The band were formed in the mid-90s on Nashville’s Lower Broadway where the original quintet began playing marathon sets in the window of bar/bootery Robert’s Western World. The band was quickly signed by Arista, for whom they recorded three acclaimed albums and one legendary EP. By the end of the decade, they’d earned three GRAMMY nominations, performed all over network television, and toured internationally with acts ranging from Faith Hill & Tim McGraw to Ani DeFranco and The Black Crowes. Yet following the 2001 release of their sole Sony album, the band was rocked by the departure of original bassist Jay McDowell and co-founder/co-lead vocalist Gary Bennett. The group disbanded, and Chuck, Shaw and Donnie returned to Lower Broadway to
play weekly gigs with badass musical collective The Hillbilly All-Stars. "It was a real test of our abilities as a family," admits Mead. "Donnie went on the road with Dylan. Shaw moved to Arizona. I’d moved on to other projects. But for us, BR549 had always been something that needs to be respected and nothing we could ever take lightly." After recruiting new bassist Mark Miller, the band finally convened in Athens to record in a way they never had before. "In the past, we’d always made a record coming off the road, with songs we’d been played for weeks and sometimes months on tour," Chuck remembers. "But this time, we were all coming in fresh, making the record then and there. "Dog Days" is an album that’s truly in the moment." "Dog Days" is a mixture of
bluegrass, country, blues and gospel which includes a track featuring Elvis
Presley’s longtime backing vocalists, The Jordanaires. Chuck Mead sums up the
band’s current position by saying: "We never sold millions and millions of
records, but we’ve sold enough to continue to do what we do, and because we
never did bullshit anybody, we still have friends and fans from the very
beginning. We still work our asses off, and there were plenty of times we’ve
played 300 dates a year. We were always willing to do Also appearing at Blues On The Farm are: Marcus Malone, The Pat Savage Band,
Popa Chubby, Otis Grand Big Blues Band, Mike Sanchez Rhythm & Blues Revue, Guy
Tortora Band, The Gutter Brothers, Danni Leigh Band, Sam Kelly's Station House,
Connie Lush & Blues Shouter, Sherman Robertson, Ray Bonneville, Giles, Beth
Garner, David Migden, Nuru Kane, Guy Davis and the Flying Rockets. See
www.bluesonthefarm.co.uk for booking details. Beth Garner - Mr Kyps, Poole - Thursday
June 22. Beth Garner and her identical twin Linda were born in February1978. Raised in Dallas, now living in Austin, Texas, Beth has been on the road for eleven years. Beth has been surrounded by music all her life, and started playing the guitar at a very early age. When she was 14 she was accepted into Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, studying jazz guitar and music theory with lunch and prom-buddy Norah Jones. Beth was playing with young pros and gigging professionally by the time she was 17 at local blues clubs, and went on to do a number of music courses, concentrating particularly on jazz and blues. Beth has worked with the best, from opening for Jimmy Vaughan to
touring with Danny Federici of Bruce Springsteen's E Street band to recording
with the Reverend Horton Heat for the soundtrack of the Sony movie 'Auto Focus.'
Now with her own band, The Hullabalues, Beth is currently touring the UK to
promote the release of her second album'Addictions,' recorded in Austin, Texas
and released earlier this year. The CD contains 13 tracks including 10 original
songs by Beth.
Regina Spektor - Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth - Tuesday
June 27. Now based in New York, Regina was born in Moscow, back in the days before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The only daughter of a musically inclined family – her mother taught music, while her dad was a violinist and a photographer – young Regina began her piano lessons at 6, studying and practicing on a Petrof piano given to her mother by her grandfather. In 1989, soon after Mikhail Gorbachev began his policy of perestroika, she and her parents immigrated to the Bronx, New York City. While leaving the Soviet Union was cause for celebration, it was understood that once the Spektors arrived in America, Regina would no longer be able to study music. “We had to sell the piano because we weren't allowed to bring anything foreign-made out of Russia,” says Regina, “It was considered Soviet property. I was so sad.” She tried to maintain her musical chops by playing on an out of tune piano in the basement of their local synagogue, but most often practiced on windowsills and tabletops. One fortuitous evening, her father struck up a conversation on the subway with a professional concert violinist by the name of Samuel Marder. Marder invited the Spektors to his Riverdale house to hear him and his wife, Manhattan School of Music professor Sonia Vargas, play a private recital. “I went up to Sonia and asked her, ‘Can you be my teacher?' and she said, ‘Of course,'” Regina recalls. “She ended up being my teacher until I was 17. The Japanese have a proverb: whenever the student is ready, the teacher appears. In a lot of ways, that’s how my life has been, there's been this kind of harmony with things – I wrote a few songs, then someone heard me and offered me a show; I decided I was ready to tour and then I went on tour with the Strokes. It makes you live your whole life differently. You can’t just sit around, getting angry because you think you're ready. If you were really ready, things would be happening.” Regina first began composing songs in her 16th year when she went to Israel as part of an arts scholarship. As she and her fellow travellers hiked in the desert, Regina would make up little songs and melodies to fill the time. “I noticed that some kids would always try to hike next to me and ask me to sing particular songs that I had made up,” she recalls. “So I started trying to remember them. By the end of the trip, all these kids were telling me that I had to write songs! The way I got into music was totally backwards,” she says, “I’d write a song and someone would tell me, ‘That sounds like Joni Mitchell,' and I'd go, ‘Who?'” After completing her studies, Regina began playing her first gigs, drawing a local following for her increasingly powerful material. Later she teamed up with jazz bassist Chris Kuffner to record her first collection of songs, dubbed “ 11:11.” She did an initial run of a thousand copies, which she sold at gigs as a way of supplementing her limited income. Still based in the Bronx she continued working in a variety of secretarial jobs during the day and gigging in the evenings. Eventually on Christmas Day 2001, Joe Mendelson, the co-owner of the Living Room, one of her regular venues, invited her to his studio to record as many songs as she could, if only to archive her many compositions. After recording the tracks, David Poe advised her to master a dozen songs and slap on a cover – the resulting CD, simply dubbed “SONGS,” became Spektor’s calling card, drawing critical praise and enough commercial success to support her admittedly frugal lifestyle. Her next album, “Soviet Kitsch” really put her on the map. Though many of the album's most striking moments are spare, stark solo pieces,it also sees Regina accompanied by the Brighton-based art-punk combo, Kill Kenada, while other tracks feature contributions from some of NYC’s finest musicians, including guitarist Oren Bloedow, bass legend Graham Maby and cellist Jane Scarpantoni. When The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas heard the album he was so impressed he invited Regina to join his band on their sold-out North American tour. Since she was still an unsigned artist, Regina had to cover all of her own expenses, from cross-country airfares to nightly hotel stays. “It opened my eyes to a lot of things you only see in the media,” she says. “It was pretty surreal and educational at the same time.”
In addition to the live dates, Casablancas also invited Spektor to record a song
with The Strokes, “Post Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men,” which appeared as the
B-side to their “Reptilia” single. Touring with the Strokes also introduced her
to Kings Of Leon, who asked her to support them on their European tour.
Dhoad Gypsies - Wiltshire Music Centre,
Bradford-on-Avon - Saturday June 17. It is in the wild and magnificent Thar desert in the north-western Indian province of Rajhastan - the land which inspired the Maharajas to build their sumptuous palaces reminiscent of a “thousand and one nights” - that the Dhoad family ancestry is rooted. The original land of gypsies, numerous troubadours and wandering musicians who went from town to town entertaining princes and their courtiers. It is a land of ancient music and spiritual tradition, the birthplace of a wealth of cultural traditions and know-how which have been passed down through the ages, from generation to generation, by poets, musicians, dancers and fakirs. The heritage they have bequeathed is spiritual, artistic and musical, and has inspired a way of life in which love, happiness, suffering and death are all expressed through song.
The music of the Dhoad gypsies is a music of ecstasy, of majestic climaxes,
punctuated by the gentle gestures of breathtaking tunes. An authentic and
magical experience. Dhoad brings to life the passion and epic heroism of their
forefathers, and their harmonies transform the monotony of everyday life with
the enchanting sounds of the desert. The troupe who will be entertaining at
Wiltshire Music Centre bring together a number of talented musicians, all
Rajasthani, but from different communities, religions (muslim and hindu), and
different artistic castes; they comprise the sapera-kalbelya (‘fakirs’, dancers,
and snake charmers), the langas (poets), the manganyar (troubadours) and
musicians.
Jim Condie - Eastney RMA Tavern, Southsea - Thursday
June 22. Although he first picked up a guitar at the age of 14, Jim thought his big break had come in 1981when he got a gig backing Lena Zavaroni. Flushed with success, Jim immediately stepped into a duo with Edinburgh legend Tam White, who Alexis Korner rated as "the greatest undiscovered blues talent of our time". Between them, they built up a ten-piece Rhythm 'n' Blues band, The Dexters, which, with its blend of raw-edged blues and sophisticated Ray Charles inspired jazz/ R'n'B, took Scotland and the North by storm. In their time, they recorded two albums and made countless BBC radio and TV broadcasts, but they finally ground to a halt in 1987. During the next four years Jim worked with, among others, Van Morrison, Ali Farka Touré, Charlie Musselwhite, Tracy Nelson, Lowell Fulson, Louisiana Red, Jo Ann Kelly, Carey Bell, Johnny M ars, and Phil Guy. Also at this time, he became composer David MacNiven's first choice on guitar and lap steel on most of the soundtracks to come out the BBC Glasgow's comedy unit. You could hear his distinctive sound on "Rab C Nesbitt", "Naked Video", "City Lights", "Only The Lonely", and many other shows, and for ITV John Byrne's “Your Cheatin' Heart,” where his lap steel is in evidence. In1989, Jim formed The Rootsies Duo with blues singer/ harp-player Ron Tait, a brilliant but self-destructive Paul Rodgers soundalike. After a couple of years they became the busiest and most popular blues act in town - in 1992 performing over 280 gigs! They recorded two albums, and opened for some of the biggest names in the blues, before Ron's love of "the juice of the barley & hops" took over.
In August 2001, Jim joined the legendary Amos Garrett on tour. For this, he
formed a band consisting of Ted McKenna (ex-Alex Harvey and Rory Gallagher) on
drums, Alan Thomson (John Martyn and The Hellecasters) on bass and Jim on Some of the other performers for whom Jim has worked are: Jack Bruce; Lulu, Sam Brown, Sugar Blue, The Soup Dragons, Lurie Bell, Buffy Sainte Marie, Otis Spann, Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup, Larry Johnson, Michael Jerome Browne ,Terry Neason, Mose Scarlett, Penny Lang, Tim Harrison, Tom Ovans, Michael Marra, Jackson Delta and Buzz Thomson from Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks. Bands he has worked with have included among their personnel: Boz Burrell (from Bad Company); Davie Paton (from Pilot, Elton John Band); Ted McKenna (from SAHB, Rory Gallagher); Alan Thomson (from John Martyn, Rick Wakeman); Peter Vettese (from Jethro Tull, Cher, Bee Gees); Foss Paterson (from John Martyn Band); Mike Travis (from Solaris, Gilgamesh); Brian Kellock (BBC Jazz Musician of the Year 2002); Alan Darby (from Robert Palmer & Eric Clapton's bands); Neil Drinkwater and June Boyce (from Van Morrison 's band.
Monica Vasconcelos - Theatre Royal, Winchester -
Thursday June 29. The attractive singer and composer Mônica Vasconcelos began her career in Sâo Paulo, where she was born. She performed in bars, clubs, at parties and at festivals when 17 years old. At the age of 18 she went to study publishing at Sâo Paulo University. During her university years she worked on jingles for TV and radio, and recorded many backing vocals, before joining the vocal/drama group Beijo, which specialized in large vocal arrangements of Brazilian and world music and recorded a CD in 1991. In 1992 Mônica came to England, forming Nóis two years later. They released their first album in 1996. In 1998 Nóis was awarded a grant by the Arts Council and the band toured England and were one of the highlights at Brecon Jazz 98. The following year they played the prestigious Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Singing with her small ensemble, the quartet As Meninas, Monica has also been featured on Radio One' s Andy Kershaw Show and Radio 3' s Night Waves Programme. Apart from her own projects Mônica has also recorded for a number of London based musicians, amongst them pianist Roland Perrin, saxophonist John O'Neall and singer Ashley Slater (Freak Power). In 1966 she toured England singing alongside Norma Winstone, Christine Tobin and Jacqui Dankworth as part of saxophonist Tim Garland's Songs Of Love And Liberty project. Nóis means "US" in Brazilian Portuguese, and Monica’s band is comprised of musicians from Brazil, England, Germany, Italy and Mozambique who share a passion for the music of Brazil. The music of Nois is highly varied: from the northeast of Brazil comes the frevo, baiao, xote, maracatu and afoxe. From the southeast comes the choro, samba, bossa nova and there are many other styles.
The band lineup is as follows:
Joe Satriani - Bournemouth Pavilion, Bournemouth -
Wednesday June 21. Joe first started studying music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer in 1974, and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing. During the 1970's, Satriani al so began teaching guitar, with his most notable student being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai. In 1978, he moved to Berkeley, California to pursue a music career. He continued to teach guitar there, and his students included David Bryson David Bryson (Counting Crows), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Larry LaLonde (Primus), Phil Kettner (Laaz Rockit) and Charlie Hunter. When his friend and former student Steve Vai gained fame playing with David Lee Roth in 1986, Vai raved about Satriani in several interviews with guitar magazines. In 1987, Satriani's second album “Surfing With the Alien” produced popular radio hits, and was the first all-instrumental release to chart so highly in many years. Satriani also toured Australia and New Zealand with Mick Jagger in support of the Rolling Stones singer's solo album. In 1989, Satriani released the album “Flying in a Blue Dream.” The album sold well, particularly in Texas. “One Big Rush” was featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie “Say Anything.” “The Forgotten Part II” was featured on a Labatt Blue commercial in Canada in 1993. “Big Bad Moon” one of Joe's few singles was a big hit in 1991-1992. In 1992, Satriani released “The Extremist,” his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful CD to date. Radio stations across the country were quick to pick up on “Summer Song,” while “Crying,” “Friends” and the title track were regional hits. In late 1993 Satriani joined Deep Purple as a short-term replacement for departed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the band's Japanese tour. The concerts were such a success Satriani was asked to join the band permanently, although his long-term contract with Sony prevented this happening. In 1996, he formed G3, a concert tour featuring three instrumental rock guitarists originally Satriani, Vai and Eric Johnson. The G3 tour has continued periodically since its inaugural version, where Satriani and Vai are returning members, featured with a floating third member, including Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Kenny Wayne Shepherd , Robert Fripp and more. Satriani is also credited on many other albums, including guitar duties with Alice Cooper, Spinal Tap, Blue Öyster Cult and many others, including countless guitar heroes-style albums. In 2003, he played lead guitar on The Yardbirds CD “Birdland.” In 2006 he guested on several tracks for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan’s solo CD/DVD dual disc “Gillan's Inn.” |
Featured artists:
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Southampton's No 1 recording studio
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One
of the South’s best festivals kicks off on Thursday June 22. Blues On The Farm,
at Pumpbottom Farm, Appledram near Chichester stretches over four days, and
provides the opportunity to see some class blues acts. Topping the bill on the
last day, Sunday June 25 are BR549, a country rock outfit from Georgia, USA who,
despite a number of personnel shifts during their ten year history have become
an established band.
Fans
of Americana, blues and rock get all three in one if they go to see Beth Garner
at Mr Kyps in Poole, Dorset on Thursday June 22 or head east to Blues On The
Farm near Chichester a few days later on Sunday June 25. Beth is playing both
gigs with her band The Hullabalues.
Quirky
singer, composer and pianist Regina Spektor plays a gig at the Wedgewood Rooms
in Portsmouth on Tuesday June 27. Regina is an artist who can’t really be
labelled - her songs include jazz, punk and classical influences.
Fancy
a bit of stirring gypsy music? Then get along to the Wiltshire Music Centre at
Bradford-on-Avon on Saturday June 17 when the Dhoad Gypsies from Rajasthan are
putting on a spectacular show.
Scottish
blues singer Jim Condie who plays at the Eastney RMA Tavern in Southsea on
Thursday June 22 may not be a household name, but his CV is impressive.
The
sound of Brazil comes to the Theatre Royal in Winchester on Thursday June 29
when Monica Vasconcelos and her band Nois will be performing sambas, Bossa Nova
and many other Latin musical styles.
Rock
guitarist Joe Satriani plays a gig at Bournemouth Pavilion on Wednesday June 21.
Originally inspired to play guitar when he was aged 14 after hearing that Jimi
Hendrix had died, Joe went on to play and teach guitar with some of the greats
of rock.
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All content is provided on a "as is" basis & no responsibility is taken for any inaccuracies. |