Press release starts here:

The bands new album, Almanac, is set for release on March 16th through Authentic Records and included on this unique album is a poignant song called “Wrecking Ball”.  Eerily, the lyrics reflect much of what is happening right now with the victims and rescue workers after the devastating earthquake struck Haiti earlier this week.  “If we stand together….” sings frontman Mike Butterworth.  “All we really want is to stand united. All we really need is to just hold on, And we’ll withstand colliding with this human wrecking ball… If I could take away the things that bring you pain; if I could make the sun shine through the pouring rain.”

Moved by the images coming from the devastated country, the band was determined to help in any way possible. Spontaneously, the band entered their studio this morning to re-work a new, live version of “Wrecking Ball.”  It was all streamed live for their fans to watch and experience as they recorded as well. You can see the process by clicking: www.thenadas.com/tv. Singer/guitarist Jason Walsmith has also edited a video montage of images from the riddled Haiti. This moving tribute can be seen here.

The new version of “Wrecking Ball” will be available through the bands website, starting today, with all proceeds being donated directly to “Yele Haiti”, a charity begun in 2005 by the Haitian musician, Wyclef Jean.  The song will be priced at $1.00 and there is an option for additional voluntary contributions.

The Nadas Year-Long ‘Almanac’ Recording Project Reaches Completion by Geoff Woods for Silicon Prairie News

Des Moines-based roots rockers, The Nadas, took an innovative approach to the process of making their latest album, Almanac. I recently sat down with Jason Walsmith, one of the band’s founders, at the Authentic Records music label’s Beaverdale offices to discuss the process.

Jason explained the idea to me, “Normally, we’d go into the studio and spend two or three months of contiguous time, as much as possible, working on a record. This one, we decided we would write, record, and release one song per month over the course of 2009. So, we started in January and we’ve done one song a month ever since.”

They didn’t set out to create a chronicle of news events but rather to engage their audience over the long-term in an innovative way. Additionally, the end result is a retrospective look at how the happenings of each month of 2009 influenced their writing process. “We just wanted to see how the year influenced us,” Jason explained. “The songs still are personal but on a little bit more general topics. I could go back – and I’m excited to do this after I digest it for awhile – and see what influenced what.”

Fan engagement is the main reason they undertook the project. According to Jason, “We were just trying to come up with a way to keep our audience engaged while we were working on another record. It seems like it’s harder and harder to keep people’s attention these days. Normally, we’d do a record every couple of years but we knew that we’d lose people so we just wanted to continuously keep them engaged”.

They also used Almanac to experiment with new technologies to increase the interaction between the band and their fans, as well as bring the fans closer to each other. Almanac was presented through a Wordpress blog, with the traditional text and image posts, but also quite a bit of video. First available as a live stream and later as archived content, The Nadas let fans directly access the song writing and recording sessions as well as interviews with external media outlets.

Some of the interaction technology was more successful than others and Jason is excited to take what they learned through Almanac and apply it to the band’s day-to-day life. They’ve already started by streaming their regular live shows through Ustream. “We’ve been streaming almost all of our shows and we’ve built up a pretty good fan base on there. They’re our regular fans, if we go to their town they show up, but when we’re not in their town they log on and watch the stream at night. They’ve built their own little community there…which is awesome”.

The songwriting and recording for Almanac is now complete and the album has a release date set of March 2, 2010, however, you can still subscribe to the project to have access to songs, videos, and other information right now, or, take a sneak peak with this login:

• Website: thenadas.com/almanac
• Username: SPN
• Password: december09

Check out the interview below to see Jason’s thoughts on the Almanac project, interacting with the audience through nascent media technologies, the recent Nada Silent Night charity event, and the renaissance in the Des Moines music scene.

She Swings, She Sways – Wasted Love Songs by Darius for Oliver di Place

She Swings, She Sways is a six piece band. Between them, they can top the usual drums and bass with twin acoustic guitars plus electric guitar and piano. Or acoustic guitar with two electric guitars and trumpet. They can add in a mandolin or harmonica. And guests on the album bring fiddle, pedal steel, and French horn into the mix. The bass player plays a stand up bass, but sometimes he bows it instead of the usual plucking. So She Swings, She Sways can use a lot of different musical textures. They do so, but with great subtlety, and the whole thing holds together beautifully. But Wasted Love Songs is an album that rewards repeated listens, because there is so much going on musically. Some songs are mostly acoustic, while others rock out. Sometimes both things happen in the same song. There is even the occasional waltz.

John Gordon is the main songwriter and lead vocalist. He manages all of this beautifully. The pacing of the album allows for the building and release of dramatic tension, both within the individual songs, and in their sequencing.

And what could be more dramatic than love? On the back cover of the album, each of the eleven songs is dedicated to a different woman. The album opens with a declaration of love, What I Wouldn’t Do, and closes with an apology for all the wrongs committed in a relationship, Even So. In between, Gordon takes us on a journey through the adventures that relationships can be. Gordon is a brave narrator, taking on some difficult subjects with delicacy, but also with honesty. He Loves Me depicts a woman who seeks a white knight to rescue her from an abusive relationship. In Ryan’s Song, a woman must decide whether to try to make a relationship with a drug addict work; there are hints that he may be in recovery by the end of the song. But I was most impressed with Evelyn’s Green and Highway.

In Evelyn’s Green, a man offers comfort to a woman who is dying of an unnamed disease. It is clear that the narrator knows she will not recover, but he lies to her about the seriousness of the situation. Perhaps he lies to himself, in hopes that it will be true. The listener must decide whether to forgive this man for his false assurances. It is clear, however, that he does it to try to comfort the woman he genuinely loves.

Highway gives us a young American on a brief visit to Ireland. He has read in Chaucer and Kerouac about sexual liasons that always seem to result in great pleasure for both parties. Sure enough, he meets a young woman, and they wind up sleeping together. It is necessary for John Gordon to describe the sex scene. He does this discreetly but effectively, but we know that it goes badly. And the narrator must leave for home the next day, so there is no time for him to make it right. The kicker is that he is telling all of this to the young woman’s brother. Is this a final gesture of apology?
So here is a collection of three or four minute songs with rich musical textures and emotional complexity that I would expect to find in a much longer work. Either way, as I said earlier, Wasted Love Songs is an album that offers great rewards for repeated listens. That is a rare thing, to be treasured.

Bonne Finken & The Collective performing Feist’s My Moon, My Man at the Vaudeville Mews in Des Moines, IA. You think that’s good? Check out Bonne Finken and the Collective’s other live performances.