Lonesome Banjo Chronicles

Review of Bill Scorzari's "Through These Waves"

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 15:27:00 +0000

I'm not sure how often albums as compelling as Bill Scorzari's Through These Waves appear in my life, but I'll take a guess at about once every two years...maybe three. Through These Waves is unlike any other album you'll hear in 2017, and if there is any justice in this world Scorzari will become a well-known name within the world of Americana and folk music.

Scorzari recorded his sophomore album in the legendary East Nashville Bomb Shelter studio, with producer Jonah Tolchin. Recorded through a vintage 1970s MCI console and mixed to tape, the album possesses a deeply rich sound that seems to physically surround you with an earthy, hypnotizing warmth.

"A Dream Of You" starts the album as a meditative, trance-like rhythm with percussion, bowed strings, and a lap steel weaving through each other with a relaxed interdependence as they eventually get tied together with Scorzari's acoustic guitar. As Scorzari starts singing, one quickly realizes this album is going to be a unique and singular experience. His voice, deep and raspy, quickly reminds you of Tom Waits and Malcolm Holcombe, but there's never a moment where you wonder if you're getting the complete and genuine voice of Bill Scorzari. The Waits and Holcombe vocal comparisons will come quick and easy, but the similarities are purely coincidental. A singer--or any artist for that matter--on this level of artist expression can only exist through their complete honesty. Anything less is quickly dismissed as contrived.

What makes this album so special--and digs into a more appropriate Waits connection--is that Scorzari does not come to us to be a musician, instead using the language of music as a mere tool to lay bare his soul and comfort us with the universal vulnerability of the human experience. Artists that have this ability are rare--Waits, Dylan, Cohen, and today's John Moreland and Jason Isbell--and aren't musicians so much as world-class poets that happened to pick up a guitar. Again, it's impossible to join this club by only being 99% genuine.

A deep bow goes to Jonah Tolchin and the cast of studio musicians assembled for this project. Each song has its own unique identity with layers of interesting combinations of familiar instruments playing unfamiliar rhythms and voicing. It's as if each musician dropped their bag of licks at the door and came to the songs with a blank slate to discover their specific soul and personality.

Each year you hope to find an album that you can't stop talking about and that you find excuses to bring up in normal conversation because you can't get it out of your head. Through These Waves will be that album for many of us. It transcends the normal process of "listening to music," and becomes a portal to that deep soulful connection to humanity that we search for in so many (often self-destructive) ways.

It's like that moment
When you first realize
That everyone you know
Is hurting just as much as you
And no one really knows
Just what to do

Yeah, they're all just as messed up as you are
They're all just as effed up as you are

And you will always be
Until you own it
As far as I can see
And when I say you
I mean me....me

"I Can Carry This"

Great poets don't run from the pain, they embrace it, they transform it, and they grow from it; in doing so, they allow us to, as well.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Introduction to the 3 bands I'll be working with in the upcoming year.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 14:11:00 +0000

Howdy Everyone!

As Big Daddy Love is winding down from constant touring, I've been trying on different hats for the next phase of my life. Mostly I've been writing articles, creating podcasts, and helping other bands grow their careers. Out of those three, one of them feels completely natural to me--helping other bands.

I've decided to put my years of music industry experience to use by working with three groups that I'm absolutely passionate about. These three groups are similar in that they all create music on par with the best-of-the-best in today's vibrant southern music scene. The only thing separating these artists with festival headliners is how many people know about them.

That's where I come in. BDL was extremely lucky in how fast we moved up through the southeastern music scene, and I hope to use that experience to do the same with them.

Here are the three artists. Please find some time and play ALL of these videos and let me know what you think!

Hank, Pattie, and the Current
An all-star group in every sense of the phrase, this new group out of Raleigh, NC had a huge showing at this year's IBMA festival. Boasting a wealth of three lead singers, four songwriters, and a banjo player that has turned the ear of both Bela Fleck and Jens Kruger, these guys and gal are a powerhouse group. Keep up with them here.

The instrumental at the end of this half-set, "Sundown," is on the first ballot for Grammy nominations.

Aaron Burdett
Many of you know Aaron from the years of following BDL. Aaron has played a good number of shows with us and I've always worked hard to turn people onto his music. No Depression magazine wrote “A lot of great male voices have come from North Carolina including Eric Church, James Taylor, Randy Travis and Don Williams. With the release of 'Tinderbox,' Aaron Burdett has proven this his name needs to be added to that list.” –Rick Amburgey, No Depression
Follow Aaron here.

Here's a preview of one of his new songs he will be recording in the coming months.

Aaron Burdett - Something Out Of Nothing from Moonlight Mile Productions on Vimeo.

Kevin Maines

This guy--Holy Moly. When I first heard the music of Kevin Maines all I could think was "Why is this guy not on main stage of FloydFest?" Throughout the years of traveling around this country we've been handed dozens upon dozens of CDs. Many of them were good, a few were great, but American Hustle by Kevin Maines was the best. You can download this album for free HERE. Do It.
Follow Kevin here.

These tracks will be on his upcoming album

Kevin called me one day and said he was going to attempt Stapleton's "Sometimes I Cry" for a studio compilation project. I said, "Good luck, but you should have a backup plan ready." A few weeks later he sent me this. I knew his voice was good. I didn't know it was this good.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Ep. 14 of LBC podcast -- Calvin Ballenger

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 11:51:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, check out the explanation at the bottom of the page**

Imagine getting a text from a friend saying "You're internet famous." Then imagine finding out that it's from a viral meme that you didn't create, know nothing about, and claims that you're a Trump supporter....when you're not.

That's what happened to Texan Calvin Ballenger.

This Guy >>>>>>>

Now...imagine creating a Trump meme of a crazy-looking guy with two assault rifles that goes viral. Now imagine crazy-looking guy with assault rifles tracking you down.

That's what happened to me.

This whole situation could have gone bad pretty quickly, but it didn't. Calvin was cool and open to talking and I was, to say the least, apologetic and conciliatory.

In this podcast, we discuss what it was like for him to become "internet famous," the current political climate, and what people on the border towns actually think about Trump's plan to build a YUGE wall.

Download from iTunes here (and subscribe in your podcasts app!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from Soundcloud below

The picture of Calvin with two assault rifles was originally taken on the set of an independent movie he was working on called "Tejano" by up-and-coming filmmaker David Blue Garcia.

The process of creating this amazingly beautiful independent film is explained here (and it's worth your time to check it out).
Also here and here

Why I made my FIRST FEATURE FILM in my Home town from David Blue Garcia on Vimeo.

Keep up with Calvin:
Instagram
Facebook

________________________________
Thanks to our sponsor Lincoln Theatre of Raleigh, NC.
Check out their music schedule and website here.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "Lonesome Banjo Chronicles." If you click "subscribe," the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, or the Stitcher App and search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles, and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Travers Brothership's newest release "A Way To Survive" is a powerhouse album.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 12:51:00 +0000

Travers Brothership is experiencing their "Golden Age" says Kyle Travers, half of the twin brother team that leads this impressively soulful project. One only has to spend 10 seconds listening to their new, kickstarter fan-funded album A Way To Survive to believe him.

Boasting the wealth of four songwriters within the band, A Way To Survive takes us back decades to the golden age of rock and roll, when albums were meant to be listened to in one complete sitting. To when bands enjoyed the process of recording and used the recorded album format as a jump-off point for creativity and experimentation. To when the song was a mere starting point, and layers of instrumental interplay were recorded with both care and thoughtful intention.

A Way To Survive opens with "Hold My Name," written and sung by bassist Josh Clark. The teasingly soft bass, organ, and guitar intro lays a quick foundation for the punctuated horn lines to announce the fully realized musical experience that's about to take place. Clark's voice is on the front lines of the Southern Soul and R&B revolution taking place in today's live music scene, with singers like Paul Janeway from St Paul and The Broken Bones.

Listening to A Way To Survive, you can't escape the feeling that this album wasn't made in today's times. It was somehow unearthed from the early 70s, when vocals and song structure were as important, and many times more important, than instrumental prowess. Before prog-rock and jambands, songs were based around the other-world sense of hearing human voices work together. From The Beatles to The Doobie Brothers, you connected with those voices first, simply because the voice is universal. Travers Brothership is reminding us of this lost art.

"Time Will Slip Away," written by Eric Travers, who's primarily on drums, (they regularly switch instruments) is a funk-bass driven rocker that features their "secret weapon," Ian McIsaac, on both keys and percussion. "We didn't want to over-produce it," says Kyle Travers, "but we wanted to add some elements that took it away from the bare-bones Brothership." Half way through, the song morphs into a conga-led percussive breakdown that builds up into the inter-weaving of organ and guitar phrases. A subtle tease of the longer jams you'll find in the Travers Brothership live shows.

While many bands place their stripped down acoustic track at the end of the album, these guys made the bold choice to feature it directly in the middle of the A-side. As a counterbalance to the more complex arrangements, "The Road Interlude" is a two chord groovy meditation on the late night drives and existential adventures of band life throughout the southeastern United States.

Few albums in the last couple of decades have brought forth the spirit of Muscle Shoals as A Way To Survive does here. The guys in Travers Brothership make the complex sound simple, and have the patience and discipline to allow the simple to sound complex--a universal artistic goal that few achieve. Kyle is correct: this is their "Golden Age." All their efforts, along with recording engineer Matt Williams in his studio Eagle Room, have produced an album powerful enough to raise their sound from the southeast into the national scene. There are hundreds of great bands aiming for the major leagues, but few of them bring such a complete package as Travers Brothership. In this horse race, I've found where I'm putting my money.
Find Travers Brothership tour dates here.

Listen to the Lonesome Banjo Chronicles podcast with Kyle Travers here (for iphone) or here (for android)

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Ep. 13 of LBC Podcast -- Kyle Travers of the Travers Brothership

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 12:48:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, check out the explanation at the bottom of the page**

In this episode, I catch up with Kyle Travers, one of the twin brothers that leads the Asheville based band Travers Brothership.

This is a band you're almost guaranteed to love from the moment you hear the first song. A funky, soulful, southern inspired groove that uses horn lines and 4-part harmonies with ease and playfulness.

We talk about how their dad inspired them to dive headfirst into music and how removing the ego is the best way to create great moments in the studio.

Download from iTunes here (and subscribe in your podcasts app!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from Soundcloud below

We listen to 5 songs from their new album "A Way To Survive"
1. Hold My Name -- 14:38
2. Time Will Slip Away -- 37:37
3. Be Here Now -- 57:03
4. The Road Interlude -- 1:22:34
5. Clothes On My Back -- 1:24:25

____________________________________________________________________
This is our last week of partnering with Front Porch Fest for 2016. The festival is Sept 2-4 and my band, Big Daddy Love, will be playing Saturday evening from 7:00-8:30pm.
We want to thank them for everything and look forward to seeing everyone there this weekend!

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "Lonesome Banjo Chronicles." If you click "subscribe," the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, or the Stitcher App and search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles, and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

The Religious Right's Last Gasp by Kerry Walters

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 17:51:00 +0000

Kerry Walters, author of over 40 books in philosophy, theology, and history, explains how the Religious Right has usurped Christianity in its insatiable quest for power and social control. As the number of people who regularly attend church plummets, and the number of people claiming "none" for religious preference rises, we look in many directions for the causes. The marriage of Christianity and the extreme conservatism of the Religious Right is not the lone reason, but will be seen as one of the main ones.

The Religious Right's Last Gasp

--Kerry Walters

I can think of nothing that’s done more damage to American Christianity than the Religious Right.

Despite what the movement’s prophets sanctimoniously shout from their pulpits, it’s not secular humanism, gay marriage, abortion, the ACLU, evolution, porn, or the ban against school prayer that’s most eroded Christianity in this country.

What’s emptied churches is the unseemly ambition of Religious Right leaders like Jerry Falwell (father and son), James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, and Franklin Graham to crown themselves moral police and political powerbrokers. Make no mistake about it: politics is the tail that wags this dog. From Day One, the Religious Right cynically hijacked Jesus as a front man for its political agenda.

But the Religious Right has now jettisoned any pretense to being genuinely Christian. How else to explain its embrace of a presidential candidate who’s as far from being a Christian as a starfish is from being a star? The endorsement has the feel of a last-ditch, at-any-cost attempt to hold onto the political power the movement’s enjoyed for nearly forty years.

God willing, it’s the Religious Right’s final gasp.

I don’t say this because I’m one of those liberal Christians who, as a clerical colleague of mine hyperbolically states, “believe whatever they want to as long as it makes them feel good.” I’m actually a pretty traditional Christian, although not, perhaps, enough of one for my conservative friends and certainly too much of one for my liberal friends.

I subscribe to what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity”: a holding fast to central doctrines, identifiable through revelation and reason, coupled with a willingness to welcome or at least hear out a wide breadth of moral, spiritual, and theological positions. Mere Christianity embraces the humble spirit of St. Augustine’s “in necessary things unity; in uncertain things freedom; in everything charity.”

Augustine’s counsel sticks in the craw of the Religious Right, whose leaders demand lockstep fidelity to the political goals they morph into “Christian” principles.

When challenged, the Religious Right exhibits the denunciatory spirit of the Taliban, even if it stops short of the latter’s nasty practices. From the 1979 launch of the Moral Majority to the present day, the movement has thunderously called down God’s judgment on anyone who refuses to embrace That Old Time Religion version of Christianity it hucksters for political gain.

For all its Bible-thumping, the Religious Right shows scant respect for scripture, cherry-picking scriptural passages that best fit its social and political agenda and ignoring others.

Both Testaments, for example, call for radical hospitality to the stranger. The Religious Right wants to close the borders.

Jewish and Christian Scripture obliges us to care for the orphaned, widowed, and poor. The Religious Right despises “welfare bums.”

The two Testaments consistently warn against the abuse of power, while offering only a handful of observations about sexual conduct. The Religious Right obsesses over sexual morality to the point of lechery, but remains relatively silent about social injustice.

Jesus’ moral teachings in the Gospels center on nonviolent love. The Religious Right never saw a weapons procurement bill it didn’t back.

Again and again, despite its biblical rhetoric, the Religious Right favors Caesar over God. This arrogant doublespeak has not gone unnoticed, and it’s undermined the credibility of Christianity in America.

Because the media can’t seem to get enough of the Religious Right’s antics—after all, reportage of outrageous sectarian positions makes for good copy—thousands of otherwise thoughtful people now believe that the Religious Right and Christianity are synonymous. Thanks to this confusion, those who otherwise might have explored the faith with open minds and hearts are repelled by it.

Moreover, national surveys routinely reveal that Millennials turn away from Christianity primarily because they’re turned off by the Religious Right’s joyless puritanism. Data also show that a sizable portion of once-churched Christians―”nones”―leave because of the Religious Right’s splenetic intolerance and transparent politicking.

But the good news is that the tide seems to be turning. The Religious Right’s jaundiced presidential endorsement can’t but reveal the movement for what it is: an unscrupulous political machine that has nothing to do with genuine Christianity and everything to do with lust for power. This exposure surely numbers its days.

Now, for we mere Christians, begins the uphill work of rehabilitating the faith that the Religious Right so besmirched.
--Kerry Walters

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Ep. 12 of LBC Podcast -- Jeff Jackson, NC State Senator, 37th District

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 11:21:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, check out the explanation at the bottom of the page**

Jeff Jackson in Afganistan

In this episode, we talk with Senator Jeff Jackson of NC Senate District 37. Jeff talks about the realities of being a Democratic Senator in a state government that's beholden to far right interests and how he's fighting for an independent commission to redraw district lines to better reflect the bipartisan realities of the state.

Jeff talks about how a master's degree in philosophy and his experience as a state prosecutor make him a better senator. He also breaks down the North Carolina gubernatorial election and gives tips on finding the humanity in local politics.

Download the podcast from iTunes here (subscribe in your podcasts app on your iPhone!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from Soundcloud below.

In the podcast, we listen to the speech Jeff gave to the general assembly about the unfairness of releasing budgets written without any minority input. If you don't listen to the full podcast, at least listen to this speech.

_________________
We want to thank our two sponsors this week:
The Photobooth: by Andy Cox Photography
This is a full-service mobile portrait studio. Unlike those other "touch-screen" boxes they offer a professional studio photography experience with a professionally trained photographer. Prints are produced within minutes of a portrait session so that guests can leave after a session with a souvenir.

Front Porch Fest: Sept 2-4 near Stuart, VA.
Headliners include Zach Deputy, The Hip Abduction, Laura Reed, Trongone Band and Big Daddy Love.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "Lonesome Banjo Chronicles." If you click "subscribe," the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles, and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Jerry Garcia Symphonic Celebration featuring Warren Haynes, Bethel, NY, 8/6/16 FULL SHOW

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 18:41:00 +0000

Set 1:
Dark Star
Bird Song
Crazy Fingers
Shakedown Street
Here Comes Sunshine
China Cat Sunflower
Scarlet Begonias
Morning Dew

Set 2:
Uncle John's Band
Touch of Grey
Days Between
West L.A. Fadeaway
Drums
Blues for Allah
Terrapin Station
Slipknot!
Terrapin Refrain
Encore:
Ripple

--Brian Paul Swenk

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The Best Music, Shows, and Books of the Summer (2016)

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:11:00 +0000

Will 2016 go down in history as "The Year of Donald Trump" or "The Year of Stranger Things?"

One is about a horrific monster from the netherworld with a distorted, blood-sucking face coming up to feed on the weak, and the other is a fantastic 80s throwback TV show that everyone is raving about.

In fact, 2016 is a great year to experience American culture through art, music, and storytelling.

Here are a few highlights:

Television:
Stranger Things (Netflix) -- If I had gotten this article together 3 weeks ago, I would have been in front of at least some of you on the near-perfection of this show. But at this point, you've either watched it or are planning to watch it. This show deserves all of the accolades being thrown at it, but I'll just add this: whatever show you're currently into will immediately take a backseat until you finish Stranger Things. It's not just a show of great writing and acting, but it's just so damn fun from beginning to end.

Mr Robot -- A dark, stylistic show that explores the fine line between genius and madness while throwing in some computer hacking, S&M, and anti-corporatism to keep things interesting and topical.

The Americans -- After hearing this show consistently mentioned in the "best of" conversations, we started watching it and are in the middle of the 2nd season. It definitely lives up to the hype and does a great job blurring the lines of what we hold to be true in the Cold War.

Music:
Phish 2016 Summer Tour-- While Dead and Company were receiving all the attention of the jam band community, little ole Phish was quietly moving from East to West playing some of the best shows of their career. The only question left to be asked is, "Is 2016 the best tour ever or just one of the best?" Many are comparing it to their mid-90s tours, and as far as energy goes, they are comparable, but in my opinion, for pure inspired on-the-spot creativity, 2016 will go down as the best yet. If you love Phish, do whatever you can to get the recordings--especially shows from SPAC, The Gorge, and San Francisco. The band played 205 songs in 20 shows, 84 of them were only played once during the tour. The Phish is on The Fire.

7/15/16 The Gorge Amphitheater, George, WA, Full Show

Dead and Company -- of course. This formation has exceeded even the highest expectations in both the quality of music and, even more surprisingly, the acceptance from the Deadhead community that holds the playing of Garcia on a sacred level. Oteil and Mayer have proved to be the perfect combination to revive the original spirit of the music, much like Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks did for the Allman Brothers.

Small Music Festivals -- With many national festivals canceling for financial reasons, smaller, local festivals are growing by giving fans and bands a more engaging experience. Find one near you and take a chance with it.

Book:
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari -- This book was first published in English in 2014 and has slowly made its way up to the national level by being featured on various NPR shows and being consistently labeled a "must-read" by intellectual explorers. Most recently Bill Gates included it on his "10 books to take if you were marooned on a desert island" list.

Harari is an expert at conveying the grand historical theories with ease and excitement. But unlike many experts, Harari is not afraid to argue his opinions with confidence, knowing he doesn't have the watertight evidence to fully back them up. I love when smart people are willing to take intellectual chances; even when you see the obvious holes in the arguments, you're still better off for experiencing them fully. This aligns with one of the greatest questions you can ask someone: What do you believe that you can't prove?

Tribe by Sebastian Junger. Junger is one of the many writers listing Sapiens as one of the most important books of modern times, and Tribe is basically a spinoff of it. Junger explores the deep psychological and emotional connection soldiers form with each other during battle. We assume war must be the worst experience possible, but why do so many returning soldiers want to go back? Junger believes that the bonds formed within a combat unit tap into the evolution of millions of years of tribal living, and the tight emotional connections are powerful enough to overcome the daily danger and possible death.

Podcasts:
Revisionist History, by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise of this great show is to look back at events and institutions with fresh eyes and discover hidden truths about their functions and societal effects. The first three episodes look at education, from gifted inner-city kids to the multi-million dollar university donations. You won't look at college costs the same way. In one of the more compelling episodes, Gladwell investigates with "stuck accelerator" phenomenon in vehicles that was responsible for over a dozen deaths and billions of dollars of fines and recalls. Be sure to start from the first episode.

Also:
Trumpcast by Jacob Weisberg. As bad as things are in today's Presidential race, the rise of Trump can teach us more about who we are and what we want, both good and bad, politically and culturally than any other event. This podcast does a great job exploring every angle, and hearing trump impersonator John Di Domenico read his actual tweets is worth the download alone.

Outside of the political climate, 2016 is a great year for American music, arts, and culture. We are experiencing a true Golden Age of Writing that's easily accessible in television, podcasts, fiction, and non-fiction. Each discovery leads to another mind-blowing book, show, or set of ideas and theories from some of the most fascinating minds alive. In the age of the internet, there's no excuse not to find them and enjoy every second.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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The Reality of Voting 3rd party in 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:05:00 +0000

As this country chooses a President, we are faced with deciding between two candidates that both have historically high negative ratings. If you go anywhere near social media political posts you'll notice people are practically screaming their refusal to vote for either Trump or Clinton and will, instead, vote 3rd party. In most elections these well-intentioned voting protesters are brushed aside beside the 9/11 truthers and chemtrail conspiracy theorists. In some years, when a 3rd party actually influences an election, such as Perot in 1992 and Nader in 2000, the 3rd party voters rest easy thinking they've sent a strong message to the party elites that will fundamentally reshape the party, which, unfortunately, never seems to happen.

But in 2016, with serial-liar and sociopath Donald Trump one election mishap away from being able to launch nuclear weapons toward someone that insulted him on twitter, the 3rd party voting option becomes a matter of public safety (and for once we can use that phrase in the literal sense.)

Writer Clay Shirky has written the best piece about what 3rd party voting actually means that I've seen yet. Good writing has the power to alter your choice or behavior, great writing has the power to blow through the walls of the reinforcing narratives we continuously tell ourselves so we can make a more enlightened decision. This, I believe, is the latter.

There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote

By Clay Shirky

(Italics emphasis mine)

We’re in the season of protest vote advocacy, with writers of all political stripes making arguments for third-party candidates (Jill Stein, Gary Johnson), write-in votes (Bernie Sanders, Rod Silva), or refusing to vote altogether (#NeverTrump, #BernieOrBust.) For all the eloquence and passion and rage in these arguments, however, they suffer from a common flaw: there is no such thing as a protest vote.

The authors of these pieces rarely line up their preferred Presidential voting strategies — third-party, write-in, refusal — with the electoral system as it actually exists. In 2016, that system will offer 130 million or so voters just three options:

A. I prefer Donald Trump be President, rather than Hillary Clinton.
B. I prefer Hillary Clinton be President, rather than Donald Trump.
C. Whatever everybody else decides is OK with me.

That’s it. Those are the choices. All strategies other than a preference for Trump over Clinton or vice-versa reduce to Option C.

People who believe in protest votes do so because they confuse sending a message with receiving one. You can send any message you like: “I think Jill Stein should be President” or “I think David Duke should be President” or “I think Park Eunsol should be President.”

Similarly, you can send any message you like by not voting. You can say you are sitting out the election because both parties are neo-liberal or because an election without Lyndon LaRouche is a sham or because 9/11 was an inside job. The story you tell yourself about your political commitments are yours to construct.

But it doesn’t matter what message you think you are sending, because no one will receive it. No one is listening. The system is set up so that every choice other than ‘R’ or ‘D’ boils down to “I defer to the judgement of my fellow citizens.” It’s easy to argue that our system shouldn’t work like that. It’s impossible to argue it doesn’t work like that.

This is frustrating, of course, but that’s how our Presidential elections are set up. Democracies alternate the coalition in power, but different systems do so in different ways. In multi-party systems, voters get the satisfaction of voting for smaller, ideologically purer factions — environmental parties, anti-immigrant parties, and so on. The impure compromises come when those factions are forced to form coalitions large enough to govern. The inevitable tradeoffs are part of the governing process, not the electoral process.

In America, by contrast, the coalitions are the parties. Our system also produces alternation of power, and requires compromises among competing interests, but those compromises happen within long-standing caucuses; issues come and go, but the two parties remain. This forces the citizens themselves to get involved in the disappointing tradeoffs, rather than learning about them after the fact. No one gets what they want in a democracy; two-party systems simply rub voters’ noses in that fact.

People who plan to throw away their vote on Option C usually argue that their imagined protest won’t be futile, by offering one of three theories of change: their protest will work as a boycott, or as a defection, or as a step to third-party victory.

The first theory of change, the boycott, assumes that if people simply refuse to vote, it will threaten the establishment with loss of legitimacy. This will in turn cause that establishment to become more responsive to the demands of the boycotters.

Boycotts can work in countries where voting is mandatory, because not voting can be an act of civil disobedience. In the United States, however, voting is not and has never been required. (Our elites have always preferred minimal participation, and laziness is a cheaper tool than suppression.) In Presidential elections, non-voters always outnumber voters who choose the winning candidate. With that much passive non-participation, active non-participation gets lost.

The second theory of change is defection, where voters believe they can force a loss on either the Democrats or the Republicans, and thus make that party adopt their preferred policies, rather than face another such loss in the future.

Damage from defection has sometimes happened, as with James Weaver taking votes from Benjamin Harrison in 1892, but the two most widely-discussed recent cases — Ross Perot taking votes from George H.W. Bush in 1992 and Ralph Nader from Al Gore in 2000 — are not clear cut. In Perot’s case, he drew votes from Clinton and Bush; in Nader’s case, it’s not obvious how many of his voters would otherwise have stayed home.

Furthermore, even in rare cases where there was the damage, the losing parties did not heed the defecting voters: the Republicans did not become notably friendlier to urban workers after Weaver, nor did the Democrats become more notably anti-corporate from the perceived threat of Nader.

The third theory of change from protest voting is the obvious one: outright victory. This has never happened. Third-party candidates come in third, for the obvious reason.

In two centuries of American politics, only 54 such candidates have ever received over one vote in a hundred. None won, and the only second place loss, Teddy Roosevelt, had already been President twice, before he ran as an outsider against his hand-picked successor, William Taft. He failed at the election, but succeeded in splitting the Republican vote so badly a Democrat became President for the first time in twenty years.

It’s clear why third-party candidates want votes, but it’s not clear why voters would want third parties. The Green Party, for example, hasn’t elected so much as a member of Congress, much less fielded a credible Presidential candidate, and their organization does no actual environmental work. Greenpeace helps the environment more in any given week than the Green Party has in its entire existence, a problem common to third parties generally. If you’re a Libertarian, you’re better off donating to Cato than voting for Gary Johnson. If you’re a paleoconservative, you’re better off donating to the Rockford Institute than voting for Darrell Castle.

This is the legacy of protest votes: None of the proposed theories of change change anything. Boycotts don’t work, since non-voting is a normal case. Defection elects the greater of two evils from the voter’s point of view — and that’s if it works — while doing little to the parties. And victory never happens; not one third-party candidate has ever won, or come close. Advocates of wasted votes don’t bring up this record of universal failure, because their votes aren’t about changing political results. They’re about salving wounded pride.

Throwing away your vote on a message no one will hear, and which will change no outcome, is sometimes presented as ‘voting your conscience’, but that’s got it exactly backwards; your conscience is what keeps you from doing things that feel good to you but hurt other people. Citizens who vote for third-party candidates, write-in candidates, or nobody aren’t voting their conscience, they are voting their ego, unable to accept that a system they find personally disheartening actually applies to them.

The people advocating protest votes believe they deserve a choice that aligns closely with their political preferences. With 130 million voters, hundreds of issues, and just two candidates, this idea doesn’t even make mathematical sense, much less political sense. No matter who you are, voting isn’t about you. You are not promised a candidate you love, or even like, because no one is guaranteed that. Presidential voting is an exercise in distinguishing the lesser of two evils. Making that choice is all that’s asked of us, and all that’s on offer.

Picking the lesser of two evils is an easy choice to dislike (who likes it?) but when a winning candidate has to appeal to 65 million or so citizens with diverse interests, that’s a forced move for most voters most of the time. People who choose Option C aren’t being purer about their political choices — they’ve abandoned politics altogether. (The strategy of voting third-party in safely red or blue states just makes this explicit; those voters only indulge their fantasy that their vote will make a difference if they’re guaranteed it won’t.)

None of this creates an obligation to vote, or to vote for one of the two viable candidates. It is, famously, a free country, and you can vote for anyone you like, or for no one. But if you do, don’t kid yourself — and certainly don’t try to kid anyone else — that you are creating some kind of positive political change. Noisily opting out as a way of demonstrating your pique is an understandable human act. It’s just not a political act. It’s an elaborate way of making the rest of us do the work of deciding.

__________________________________________________________________________

We don't need a 3rd party revolution, we need a voting revolution in the primaries and in the state and local races. We need to support strong, principled leaders year after year, not the attention seeking political whores that only pop up every 4 years to suckle on the anger of the American people. I guarantee that if you make the effort you will find young, smart, hardworking people in your state legislature that are barely clinging on to their office because so few people vote in non-presidential years. If you want a political revolution, that's where we should start.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Top 5 Greatest Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 13:34:00 +0000

Writer Aamna Mohdin ranked the top 5 opening ceremonies for Quartz.

From hundreds of riders on horseback dramatically galloping into the stadium to the thunderous beats performed meticulously by 2,008 tightly ranked drummers, host cities pull out all the stops to set the right tone for the Olympic Games.

The opening ceremony provides host cities the opportunity to put their culture and history on the world stage and these ceremonies have only grown more exorbitant over the years. This is Quartz’s guide to the top five ceremonies in modern Olympic history.

It’s Rio’s turn very soon–but how will compete with some of these?

5. Los Angeles, 1984

The 1984 Games were historic in many ways. They were the first not to be sponsored by the government and the only Olympic Games to have ever turned a profit. This dramatic change in the way the Olympics were financed, with public and private finances merged, brought in an unprecedented amount of corporate sponsorships, which had some impact on the ceremony.

The (perhaps biased) Los Angeles Times described it as the “greatest opening ceremony in Olympics history” and with a guy flying in with a jet pack, it’s easy to see why. Highlights of the ceremony include 84 pianists playing “Rhapsody in Blue” and composer John Williams’s theme for the Olympiad, “Olympic Fanfare and Theme”, which won him a Grammy and went on to become the signature musical theme for the Olympics.

4. Sydney, 2000

The ceremony began with a lone horseman galloping into the stadium, followed by another 120 horsemen flying the Olympic flags. The almost dream-like opening ceremony paid tribute to Australia’s natural beauty,provided indigenous Australians with their biggest-ever stage, and rocked the stadium with tap dancers moving to beats brought by immigrants from Africa, South America, and Asia.

The ceremony went down so well in Australia that one national journalist jokingly called for drug tests to be administered to “whoever conceived such an incredibly intricate and colorful arrangement.”

3. Moscow, 1980

Though only 81 nations took part in the 1980 Olympic Games the largest boycott in the history of the Olympic movement—the opening ceremony in the Soviet capital was a huge spectacle.

Over 16,000 athletes, as well as amateur and professional performers, participated in the performance. The opening included a mosaic sequence on the stadium’s eastern stands, created by thousands of participants holding sets of a painted panel, and an epic human pyramid.

2. London, 2012

The London opening ceremony was watched by an estimated worldwide television audience of 900 million. It was, as one American journalist put it, “the world’s biggest inside joke.” With a surprise-acting debut from a sky-diving queen—accompanied by her corgis and James Bond—a tribute to the state-run National Health Service, and a swarm of Mary Poppins, the opening ceremony was a tongue-in-cheek take of what it means to be British—and the people loved every moment of it.

One politician labeled it “leftie multicultural crap” and demanded more Rollings Stones and Shakespeare—he was swatted down by his own prime minister.

1. Beijing, 2008
What else was it going to be?

The Beijing opening ceremony was—without a doubt—the greatest spectacle in Olympic history. At 8 o’clock sharp, the ceremony began with a spectacular performance by 2,008 drummers—all perfectly in-sync. It also included a minor scandal as a cute girl singing was revealed to be lip-syncing, after the real singer was revealed to be unattractive enough to broadcast to the world.

The ceremony highlighted China’s greatest inventions and sent a clear message to the rest of the world: we’re powerful, we’re rich, and we’re daring you to beat what many described as “the greatest show on earth.” No-one has yet to match it.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Ep. 11 of LBC Podcast--Lee Crumpton of Home Grown Music Network

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 01:19:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, check out the explanation at the bottom of the page**

In this episode we talk to Lee Crumpton, the owner of Home Grown Music Network. Lee has been one of the most influential people in the southeastern music scene for the last 20 years. He talks about chasing down his passion for music by becoming a DJ--both the party and radio kind--at an early age and how that led him to forming a record label and working with some of the best bands in the nation.

We also talk about what it takes for bands to expand their reach beyond just a couple of states, as well as what he sees for the future of his company.

We listen to three songs:
"Damn!" by The Motet
"The Shadow" by The College Conservatory of Music featuring Fareed Haque and the music of Garage Mahal
"Roll River" by the first band Lee ever worked with, Purple School Bus

Download from iTunes here (and subscribe in your podcasts app!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from Soundcloud below

________________________________________________________
We want to thank our two sponsors this week:
The Photobooth: by Andy Cox Photography
This is a full-service mobile portrait studio. Unlike those other "touch-screen" boxes they offer a professional studio photography experience with a professionally trained photographer. Prints are produced within minutes of a portrait session so that guests can leave after a session with a souvenir.

Front Porch Fest: Sept 2-4 near Stuart, VA.
Headliners include Zach Deputy, The Hip Abduction, Laura Reed, Trongone Band and Big Daddy Love.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
Facebook
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "lonesome banjo chronicles." If you click "subscribe" the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Sarah Jarosz's new album Undercurrent is a pivotal marker in her career

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 13:42:00 +0000

Sarah Jarosz could possibly be tired of Gillian Welch comparisons (although probably not), but her music is so emotionally complex and sonically mature there just aren’t many other comparisons to be made. Her latest, Undercurrent (Sugar Hill Records), shows a singer/songwriter that’s willing to explore the depths of life, both internal and external, and craft timeless melodies around her discoveries. The bluegrassy roots out front in her early work are used sparingly here, heard more as subtle foundations, which allows her voice and raw melodic approach to carry the songs. What is out front is Sarah’s confidence and ease of exposing the nerve endings scraped raw by the ephemeral nature of young love, both true and forbidden.

I guess I'll stand right here and hold my tongue
Maybe I'm not the only one
'Cause do you feel this undercurrent
And the changing of the tides?
When I'm with you, baby
We've got everything to hide
--Everything To Hide

One of her most impressive abilities is to take under-represented acoustic instruments; such as an octave mandolin, cello, and open-back banjo, and bring forth sonically fresh sounds that are directly in the Americana music landscape, but also weave in and out of the terrestrial and angelic. (Again, there’s only one other musician comparable here--it must be lonely at the top for these two.)

Jarosz’s singing voice, which, in my opinion, seems to be overshadowed by her songwriting and instrumental abilities, is so full and natural that it easily carries the stripped down nature of these songs. In “Take Another Turn” her voice exudes the confidence of an eternal seeker “What does it mean to be hungry? / Hungry and hunting and wild / And only the best will allow you to rest / till you’re hungry again come the morning time”

In the tracks “Back Of My Mind” and “Comin' Undone” Jarosz slyly introduces us to her electric side with a pedal steel, an electric guitar, and a B3 organ, all composed and played with such taste and patience you’d be forgiven for not being consciously aware of their presence. The effect is an underlying sense of young American angst with all the genuine honesty you’d expect out of the 25 year old Jarosz.

Undercurrent is not an album about love, it’s an album that confronts the loss of love as coming-of-age requirement to be faced head-on before any possibility of real love can be realized. It’s an album that knows nothing real can ever be gained through starry-eyed romanticism, but that only embracing and understanding the depths of heartbreak can we learn who we truly are and where we are going. The realism of the emotional revelations and the surprising reminder of how much “new” can still be found within these “old” instruments makes this album not just a success, but a pivotal marker in Sarah’s long career ahead.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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______________________________________________________________

Be sure to check out the Lonesome Banjo sponsors:
The Photobooth: by Andy Cox Photography
This is a full-service mobile portrait studio specializing in festivals and private events. Unlike those other "touch-screen" boxes, they offer a professional studio photography experience with a professionally trained photographer. Prints are produced within minutes of a portrait session so that guests can leave after a session with a souvenir.

FloydFest-- July 27-31st takes place right off the blue ridge parkway near Floyd VA
Featuring Greg Allman, Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornesby, Nathaniel Rateliff, Greensky Bluegrass, The Wood Brothers, Shaky Graves. And Leftover Salmon

Front Porch Fest -- near Stuart VA, Sept 2-4. Headliners include Zach Deputy, The Hip Abduction, Laura Reed, Trongone Band and Big Daddy Love

The Groove and Fusion of Hip Bones' new album "The Moose Lodge Sessions"

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Tue, 26 Jul 2016 19:42:00 +0000

This review was written for HomeGrown Music Network. Buy the Hip Bones latest album, The Moose Lodge Sessions here.

While many bands in today’s music scene claim cross-cultural and multi-genre influences, few pull it off with the ease and mastery of Hip Bones. They proudly promote some of the more interesting and apt descriptions of their music: renegade jazz, psychedelic funk, and monsters of the mashup. If you look closely, you’ll notice the album is put out on “Groosion Records,” a playful mashup of “groove” and “fusion,” the groove being the most apparent in the first 5 seconds of hitting play.

Hip Bones is made up of sax man and flutist Gary Schwantes, who also is co-producer and writes their original material; drummer Robin Tolleson, a co-producer and top drummer in the Asheville, NC scene (as well as a writer for Modern Drummer Magazine); and two bass players, Jake Wolf and Shannon Hoover. Wolf and Hoover share the touring and recording load and at times can be seen together on-stage deep in a double-bass blowout.

The opening of the album features drums and bass so solid and groovy that you can rightly assume the entire album will be something special. The opening track, “P-Stomp” (Stream this song at bottom of the page) is a Schwantes original and establishes the vision of this work as one that flirts around jazz structure and melodies without losing the danceable and very engaging rhythm and funk foundation.

It’s hard to pick out a highlight of an EP this solid, but the cover of Radiohead’s “High and Dry” could be the leading contender. While rhythmically staying true to the original laid-back vibe, Schwantes’ soprano saxophone work exposes the delicate melody to be even stronger than the Radiohead original. Some say that to cover a song you have to make it better than the original, which is not always true; to cover a song you have to find some aspect of the song and make it better, which is exactly what Schwantes does here with his punctuated phrasing of the melody. “One of the things that's always been a trademark of Hip Bones,” says Tolleson, “is to borrow from popular music and deconstruct it with a jazz attitude. We've had Beatles, Cream, Hendrix, Sting, the O'Jays, and Stevie Wonder covers on previous CDs. I like it when people don't quite get what it is at first but know it in a way--then when they realize what the song is it's like they're rewarded twice.” As a testament to the “fusion” of their “groosion,” they bring in Columbia, SC rapper Preach Jacobs to lyrically dance around the chorus and verse. The effect is subtle but seems to be the final missing piece of the puzzle, one that you didn’t even know was missing until it appears--artistry at its finest. (See Soundcloud link below)

To reach into the other side of the southern music spectrum they bring in banjo player Andy Pond (Snake Oil Medicine Show, Future Man) for some backup rhythm work on “Country Chicken,” another Schwantes original tune. Schwantes’ original songs walk a fine line of jazz phrasings that will keep the interest of earnest jazz fans, with driving, danceable grooves that’s easily accessible for fans of rock and funk. One of the cohesive factors of the musicians in Hip Bones seems to be the ability to play over everyone’s head without the need to. “We've kind of always wanted to camouflage [our jazz chops] in Hip Bones, writing and arranging with strong melodic content and keeping the rhythms strong, solid, and funky, even danceable frequently. Simplicity is beautiful. Emotion. That's what I love. Creative ways to play strong grooves. We try to avoid traditional jazz forms too -- it's interesting to vary it, interact, but remember we're playing for people,” says Tolleson.

The album ends with the monumental Grateful Dead classic “Dark Star,” featuring legendary soul singer Sidney Barnes (The Rotary Connection) on vocals. The tight drum/bass connection that starts the album and remains a constant foundation throughout jumps to the forefront on this track. Much like “High and Dry,” they find and explore an aspect of this song, the deep looping bass line and pulsating groove of the drums, that is not fully realized in the original. The combination of the flute and sax, along with Barnes’ soulful and very respectful rendition of the verses, results in a rendition that stays true enough to the original to satisfy the purist Deadhead while still being new and refreshing.

The Moose Lodge Sessions is an album that you only need one button for: play. The length of the EP is just over 34 minutes and every moment seems to be played with ease and soul. To find out more about Hip Bones and their first three albums, visit www.hipbones.net.

---------------------------------------------
Be sure to check out the Lonesome Banjo sponsors:
The Photobooth: by Andy Cox Photography
This is a full-service mobile portrait studio specializing in festivals and private events. Unlike those other "touch-screen" boxes, they offer a professional studio photography experience with a professionally trained photographer. Prints are produced within minutes of a portrait session so that guests can leave after a session with a souvenir.

FloydFest-- July 27-31st takes place right off the blue ridge parkway near Floyd VA
Featuring Greg Allman, Warren Haynes, Bruce Hornesby, Nathaniel Rateliff, Greensky Bluegrass, The Wood Brothers, Shaky Graves. And Leftover Salmon

Front Porch Fest -- near Stuart VA, Sept 2-4. Headliners include Zach Deputy, The Hip Abduction, Laura Reed, Trongone Band and Big Daddy Love

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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Ep. 10 of LBC Podcast -- Sam Calhoun from FloydFest

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 12:52:00 +0000

**If you are new to podcasts, check out the explanation and instructions at the bottom of the page**

In this episode we talk to Sam Calhoun about being one of five full time, year-around employees of FloydFest.

Download from iTunes here (and subscribe in the Podcast app on your phone!)
Or stream from Soundcloud at the bottom of the page

Sam Calhoun with co-founders Erika Johnson and Kris Hodges

Between being a stage actor in NYC, putting on hippy music festivals in Boone, NC, and trying to single-handedly change the mission of a small town newspaper, Sam's experience within the American arts and culture scene is both unique and expansive.

He talks about what happens behind the scenes at the festival, what it costs to pay all the bands, and how FloydFest almost became too commercial one year and how they've made changes to not let that happen again.

We check out three bands playing the festival this year:
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats "SOB" 32:32
Con Brio "Never Be The Same" 49:53
Femi Kuti "Dem Bobo" 1:16:32

Download from iTunes here (Subscribe in the podcast app on your phone!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from Soundcloud below.

The beautiful timber-framed Main Stage set within the Blue Ridge Mountains

_________________________________________________________________________________
A big thanks goes out to the main sponsor of this show, Photobooth: by Andy Cox Photography

Andy Cox Photography is a proud sponsor of FloydFest for the second year, and will be located on the left-hand side of the main stage of vendor row. They will be offering three different instant print products: classic photostrips, a 4x6 photo collage, and single 4x6 prints, all branded with the FloydFest logo and artwork. VIP's should look for their free print coupons in their VIP swag bags!

And don't forget to check out these Lonesome Banjo Chronicles partners:
The Big What? Festival: July 21-23 near Mebane, NC

The Front Porch Festival: Sept 2-4 near Stuart, VA.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "lonesome banjo chronicles." If you click "subscribe" the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Ep. 9 of LBC Podcast-- Nick MacDaniels of Big Something and The Big What? Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:48:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, there is an explanation at the bottom of the page**

In this week's episode we talk with Nick MacDaniels, singer and guitarist from the Burlington, NC band Big Something.

Nick talks about what it takes to balance the growth of a band as well as running their festival, The Big What?.

He describes how the festival got started and what it's like behind the scenes. He also talks about what's the most important lessons he's learned, and why he thinks The Big What? experience is unique for both fans and musicians.

He also tells us about the worst moment Big Something has had onstage and how they overcame it.

Nick chose three bands from this year's festival to feature:
Turkuaz from Brooklyn, NY -- "X.Y.Z" 15:21
Dr. Bacon from Asheville, NC -- "When I'm Gone" 29:16
Spiritual Rez from Boston, MA -- "Bring It On" 40:52

We also listen to one of the first Big Something songs ever written, "A Simple Vision" 53:24

Download from iTunes here (subscribe in the podcast app on your iPhone!)
Android phones download from Stitcher
Or stream from soundcloud below

A big thanks to Floyd Fest for making us an official partner last week! Floyd Fest is consistently voted as one of the best southeastern experiences by numerous publications every year.
This year's headliners include: Greg Allman, Bruce Hornsby, Greensky Bluegrass, The Wood Bros, Warren Haynes, Railroad Earth, Femi Kuti and Positive Force, and many others.
This year's festival is July 27-31st. Check out www.floydfest.com for more info.

A spotify playlist highlighting bands both past and present from the festival: The Big What?

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone, you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "lonesome banjo chronicles." If you click "subscribe" the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Ep 8 of LBC Podcast with Nikki Talley

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Fri, 01 Jul 2016 15:24:00 +0000

**If you're new to podcasts, scroll to the bottom for instructions on listening and downloading**

In this episode I talk with Nikki Talley, a singer/songwriter that has spent the last four years living in a van with her husband Jason Sharp.

Most musicians say they live in a van or bus, but Nikki and Jason gave up a good job and their house to become full time musical vagabonds--a dream many have, but few would ever attempt.

They were recently profiled by the site TinyHouseTinyFootprint.com, which featured some of Jason's great photography.

We talk about their decision to go to the Telluride Songwriting Contest and why placing second might have been better than placing first. Nikki also talks about having 500 songs written and how the idea of success changes as we get older.

We listen to four songs:
"Travelin On" 25:28
"Rainy Day" 51:11
"Railroad Boy" 1:05:11
"Go Out On The Water" 1:21:08

Download from iTunes here (And subscribe in your podcast app!)
Android phones download from Stitcher.
Or scroll down to stream from Soundcloud

This episode is brought to you by "The Big What?". A NC music festival hosted by Big Something that takes place July 21-23 near Mebane, NC. Featured headliners include: Turkuaz, Spiritual Rez, Dr. Bacon, The Werks, and Pigeons Playing Pingpong.

And also by Floyd Fest. A World Music festival that features outdoor experiences such as Mtn biking, river floats, disc golf, and daily hikes.
Consistently listed as one of the top festival experiences of the east coast, Floyd Fest 16 will feature: Greg Allman, Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes, Leftover Salmon, Greensky Bluegrass, Shaky Graves, Nathaniel Rateliff, Railroad Earth, The Wood Bros, and many others.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
Facebook
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***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "lonesome banjo chronicles." If you click "subscribe" the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for Lonesome Banjo Chronicles and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

Ep. 7 of LBC Podcast with Pattie Hopkins Kinlaw

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 12:59:00 +0000

***If you are new to podcasts here is a quick explanation. Podcasts are basically a recorded radio/audio show that can be downloaded and/or streamed to your phone, tablet, or computer. If you have an iPhone you have a podcast app on there already. Open it and search "lonesome banjo chronicles." If you click "subscribe" the latest episode will download automatically when you're connected to wifi, or you can manually download any episode whenever you like. If you have any other type of phone, download the Soundcloud app, search for LBC and you can stream from there. Hope this helps. Thanks for the support!***

In the seventh episode of the Lonesome Banjo Chronicles podcast I talk with Pattie Hopkins Kinlaw, the fiddler for the up-and-coming band Hank, Pattie, and The Current.

We talk about her passion for both learning and teaching music, how the Suzuki violin method works, what she's learned by traveling to Ireland, and of course about her new band gearing up for a busy summer of festivals.

As you'll hear, this was a fun conversation. Pattie is passionate, good natured, funny, curious, and very well spoken. The music she's creating with her new band could quickly take them into the national spotlight--it's really that good.

We listen to 4 tracks from the new album:
Losing My Mind -- 12:47
Pipop -- 27:10
All I Remember -- 36:54
Sundown -- 43:14

Download the episode from iTunes here (And subscribe in your podcast app on your phone!)
Or stream from soundcloud below

Scroll down to see their music video for "Losing My Mind"

We have two sponsors this week:
Front Porch Fest: A roots music festival near Stuart VA that takes place September 2-4. Visit their site for more information and ticket purchasing.

Bluegrass Today: The top online source for up-to-date bluegrass news, reviews, and profiles.
Sign up for the daily email newsletter.

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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Ep. 6 LBC Podcast-- Jonathan Scales

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 22 Jun 2016 21:22:00 +0000

In this episode I talk with Jonathan Scales, an amazingly talented steel pans player and all around great guy, about building his career and realizing his dreams.
We also talk about the state of jazz music in America and Europe and how Victor Wooten inspired him to write musical novels instead of short stories.

We are debuting two unreleased songs during this episode, as well as a funky bass-driven tune from his last album Mixtape Symphony. At the end of the episode I add a song we recorded together for his first album One Track Mind. As you'll hear, I initially didn't think I could play the song because of its complexity, but he talked me into it.

Track Listing:
This Is The Last Hurray 24:58
We Came Through The Storm 38:12
Desert(Encore) 52:00
Pan Grass 1:03:29

Download from iTunes here (subscribe in your podcast app!)

Or stream from Soundcloud below:

--Brian Paul Swenk

If you enjoy, please sign the email list on the left and follow:
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Ep. 5 of LBC Podcast: Chris Prutting from Front Porch Fest

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 14:07:00 +0000

To listen: download from iTunes here (and please subscribe using the podcast app!)
Or stream from soundcloud below.

In this episode, I talk with Chris Prutting, the owner of the Front Porch Fest, about his experience of putting on a music festival for 8 years.
We talk about how the festival got started, why he's been successful, and what kind of management style he uses to create a sense of family and community. Chris offers advice for people wanting to start their own festival and talks about why some of the big festivals have been failing lately.

Chris chose 3 songs by artists playing The Front Porch Fest this year:
"Home" by Zach Deputy 25:50
"Children of the Sun" by The Hip Abduction 38:34
"Nashville Flood" by Big Daddy Love 54:29

--Brian Paul Swenk

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John Moreland: One Of The Best Singer/Songwriters Of Our Time

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 17:56:00 +0000

Most of us know what it is like to find music that we fall in love with, but every now and then we find an artist that completely consumes us. We discover a person or group that somehow has the right emotional combination to fully invade our beings. You don’t so much listen to them as experience them and willingly do so over and over on a daily basis without building the normal sonic fatigue.

I’ve spent several weeks trying to think of a way to describe my love for John Moreland’s music. Saying it’s “great” means nothing--there are a lot of great singers today. Words like transcendent and redemptive come close but still fall short of the effect Moreland has had on me. Nevertheless, I’ll try.

The Tulsa, OK singer/songwriter released his third solo album, High On Tulsa Heat, in the spring of 2015. The album follows his 2013 release of In The Throes, which caught the attention of Jason Isbell as he took Moreland on tour with him, the FX show Sons of Anarchy as they featured three of his songs, and even MSNBC host Rachel Maddow who tweeted, “If the American music business made any sense, guys like John Moreland would be household names.”

While the record selling business is in a deadly tailspin with no end in sight, the record making business--with musical genius and production wizardry a mere phone call away in any city--is alive and well. But Moreland, like many of the great singer-songwriters, strips his albums down to the core, where every word, every phrase, and every note seems to drip with depth. He seems to be allergic to the idea of magic as an escape route within his art, whether with digital recording trickery or by gimmicky beer/truck/girl metaphors just bland enough to reach the lowest common denominator of pop country music listeners.

Many of Moreland’s songs use heartbreak and lost love as the foundation for his message--a topic that is both universal and, in average hands, worn out. But in exploring the pain of heartbreak, Moreland focuses on an unspoken truth of how we create so much of our identity within the other person. He expresses that the pain of losing ourselves, of who we think we are, is ultimately more devastating than losing someone else.

Well babe, I’m afraid I lost it before you knew I had it

I only wanted one thing and I put my faith in magic

I threw my love into the ocean and I found it in the sand

I need you to tell me who I am

Moreland was in hardcore and heavy metal bands through his childhood until he discovered his father’s record collection, which included Tom Petty, CCR, Neil Young, and Steve Earle. Earle’s 2004 release, The Revolution Starts Now, with the track “Rich Man’s War” was like a “punch in the chest,” says Moreland.

Moreland’s singing voice alternates between the soulful bluesy grit of Steve Earle and the lonesome plaintiveness of Neil Young. It’s a voice almost without equal in today’s music. When Moreland opens his song, “Cherokee,” with “I guess I got a taste for poison / I’ve given up on ever bein’ well,” you immediately know this is not any type of character study. You are in his skin and you are going to walk down this road with him.

Official video for "Cherokee"

Simply put, Moreland expresses the pain of being human better than any musician I’ve heard in a long time. While so much art is escapist--mental tricks so we forget who we are--Moreland dives into the human experience, embracing it and swallowing it whole, only to give it back to us in a pure, distilled form. It’s the musical equivalent of reading Kerouac when you’re 20 and discovering the undercurrent of the American soul with both its beautiful tragedies and redemptive desires.

National TV debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Moreland’s career has picked up speed since his fall appearance on Stephen Colbert, and he’s getting consistent recognition from Rolling Stone Country in their best new artists and best albums you haven’t heard yet lists, but, as of now, it doesn’t seem like he will explode through the scene the way Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, and Chris Stapleton have. Kyle “The Triggerman” Coroneos, writer for the site Saving Country Music, and one-man “bro-country” wrecking machine, argues that his lack of production on his albums is holding him back. He writes, “Yes the songwriting here ranks somewhere between top shelf and unmatched, but the production and recording of the effort teeters somewhere between lazy and uninspired, making for a project that is hard to engage in cover to cover, giving little delineation between songs, and suffering from a blandness that will unfortunately and unnecessarily limit the size of the audience the album will appeal to.” Maybe he’s right about the lack of production limiting the size of his audience; I don’t know. What I am sure of though is that I’m hearing something in Moreland’s music that Coroneos does not. His inability to engage fully with the album is only matched by my inability to disengage myself from the album and listen to something else.

I have no idea if anyone else will hear Moreland the same way I do. Most probably won’t, and that’s ok, but I do hope everyone finds their own John Moreland. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s a powerful moment when it does.

--Brian Paul Swenk

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"Hang Me In The Tulsa Stars" Live at SXSW

"You Don't Care Enough For Me To Cry" Music City Roots

New Podcast featuring Blake Christiana of Yarn

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 14:08:00 +0000

The latest podcast features a great conversation with Blake Christiana from the band Yarn.
We talk about his experiences playing country music in NYC, his night with John Oats, being both optimistic and pessimistic in the music industry, and about their new album This Is The Year.

We listen to 3 new songs:
16:30 --Carolina Heart
33:52 --This is the Year
46:37 --LoveHate

You can download from iTunes here. (Please subscribe in podcasts app!)

Or stream from Soundcloud:

--Brian Paul Swenk

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New Podcast with guitarist Josh Boyd of Medicated Sunfish

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 12:44:00 +0000

I talk with Josh Boyd from the Wilmington, NC band Medicated Sunfish. We listen to 4 tracks from their new EP

You can download here from iTunes (And subscribe in the podcasts app!)

Or stream from Soundcloud:

--Brian Paul Swenk

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In Search of Garaj Mahal is possibly the best instrumental album of 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Wed, 25 May 2016 12:06:00 +0000

In August of 2011, the jazz-fusion/funk band Garaj Mahal put out this statement, “After 11 years of touring, nine albums recorded and roughly 1000 shows played, the East/West coast band Garaj Mahal has put an end to its appearances. There are no plans for future shows.”

But thankfully the artistic universe has unwritten laws about never allowing music this groundbreaking to completely disappear.

Fareed Haque, the band’s leader and overall guitar virtuoso was approached by Scott Belck, the head of the CCM Jazz Orchestra (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music). “When [he] approached me at a gig about a Garaj Mahal big band album I thought he was joking at first. Then I realized this cat knew all our tunes! He seriously wanted to play our music arranged and performed by his orchestra!! Then debut it at Lincoln Center, play it all over the country, record an album. And here it is.” If the recorded project wasn't impressive enough, the CCM Jazz Orchestra is a student ensemble. Yes, you read that correctly. These students are playing with the timing and mojo of the soul/funk masters.

In Search of Garaj Mahal does what many thought impossible: raise their music up not one, but several notches. Garaj Mahal was always a small band playing complex and genre bending compositions, sounding much larger than four people on stage. They were true road warriors, playing venues and festivals of every size around the country, and except for guest sit-ins and festival jams, they were never able to explore the orchestral possibilities of their music. It only takes a minute into the first tune, “Chester The Pester,” to realize how fertile this music is for the big band treatment.

“Chester The Pester” receives the full CCM Jazz Orchestra treatment as the horn lines pile onto each other before going into the signature funky groove Garaj Mahal is known for. The song alternates between sparse, drum/bass driven syncopation, laying the foundation for quick bluesy solos and interwoven horns that are gleefully counter-punching each other.

“The Shadow” brings the original four piece Garaj Mahal sound out front and shows why this band became headliners of nationally known festivals such as Floydfest, High Sierra, and Smilefest. When most instrumental bands choose between complexity and groove, “The Shadow” shows that in the right hands, they can be one and the same.

The fourth track, “Uneven Mantra,” is just that: uneven. Played in odd timings and featuring the Indian/Pakistanian instrument the Tabla, it shows why Haque was voted “Best World Guitar Player” in Guitar Player magazine’s 2009 reader’s choice awards. His ease within the Ravi Shankar style of rhythms and melodies is both infectious and graspable for western ears.

There’s only one question surrounding this release, and that is whether or not it is the best instrumental album of 2016. My prediction is that it will be--for anyone that hears it, that is. A project featuring the music of a 5-year defunct band that was well known mostly within the jamband circuit probably won’t make it to the national, year-end awards ceremonies this winter--and that’s too bad. I’d love to put this album head-to-head with any big label releases of 2016. Not only would it come out on top, I firmly believe, but this album is so inventive, funky, interesting, and fun, that it could go head-to-head with anything that comes out this decade and compete--it’s that good. If you’re one of the few people that wholly connect with bands and musicians like Jeff Beck, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Frank Zappa, Shakti with John McLaughlin, The Count Basie Orchestra, and all of the jazz greats, you’ll love this album. You can purchase the album from HomeGrown Music Network

--Brian Paul Swenk

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Medicated Sunfish--a refreshing sound for the NC jamband scene.

noreply@blogger.com (Brian Swenk) — Mon, 23 May 2016 21:39:00 +0000

Medicated Sunfish is a young band out of Wilmington, NC that has the talent, creativity, and soul to rise to the top of the NC jamband scene. Their first release is a self-titled 5 song EP that has a sense of maturity and polish rarely seen in bands this early in their career.

The EP features two distinct personalities of the band, both growing directly from their musical influences--the syncopated ska rhythms of Sublime and the pure energy and passion of Rage Against The Machine. While these influences are out front and obvious, their ability to play with both precision and deep-pocketed groove keeps their sound genuine and honest. When some bands are constantly reaching for the sound of their influences, Medicated Sunfish nails it from the start and uses it as a starting point for their creativity.

The first half of the album, which follows a soft, ethereal minute of instrumental opening (nice touch!) are based around a distinct and solid ska rhythm laid down by drummer Alex Lee and bassist Jimmy Fallon (Yes, his real name. Current bassist is now Derek Lane). In fact, there’s hardly any point in the album that Lee’s drumming doesn’t stand out as being exceptional. Lee comes from a heavy metal background, and guitarist Josh Boyd credits him with much of their groove and powerful sound, “He’s always yelling at people to stay in the pocket and don’t step on each other’s toes,” laughs Josh. “He’s taught us that less is more and to emphasize the space between the notes.”

Another wise decision by the band was to work with veteran music producer Karen Kane who was recognized as “North Carolina’s Producer of the Year” in 2013. “Medicated Sunfish is a young band without any studio experience BUT because of the level of talent, the studio production went very, very well,” says Karen. “The creativity within the band was very high and I thoroughly enjoyed guiding them in the right direction throughout many months of working together.”

My prediction of Medicated Sunfish’s expedient rise through the southeastern jamband scene is not because of their ability to meet the qualifications of what typical jambands are, but instead to ignore them. The vocals are the most obvious example of this. All too often singing is an afterthought to overstated instrumental prowess, but Medicated Sunfish has a dedicated vocalist in Isaac Clowers that brings a refreshing and much-needed balance to what we’re used to within the scene. Clowers’ sense of melody and phrasing alternate between floating above the music at times and providing memorable hooks that you’ll catch yourself humming for hours after listening.

The second half the EP hits you with a Tarantino-esque surprise ending, as the band morphs into another huge influence with their Rage Against The Machine-inspired passion and drive. Again, in the context of the southeastern scene that they are currently traveling through, this is a welcome and refreshing surprise. “Maker,” the 4th track (not including the instrumental opener) is the one that sticks with you long after you’ve listened to it. Guitarist Josh Boyd takes us back a few decades when distortion and tight riffs were the backbone of many great metal songs as he works his way through this journey.

The final track, “Minor Ave,” brings in Jared Sales as a guest vocalist. His crisp hip-hop style phrasing works perfectly as the song builds to frenetic crescendo with Sales singing the refrain, “I try to give you the truth but y’all ain’t ready for it!”

If Medicated Sunfish is the next phase of the southeastern jamband scene, then I’ll just say, “We’re ready for it.”

Purchase their album from HomeGrown Music Network

--Brian Paul Swenk

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