Voices to hear

Blues Reunion: African, American and European Musicians Connect and Transform America’s Quintessential Music on Putumayo’s African Blues

2012-05-25T05:00:00.000-05:00

The blues has long been about storytelling, about raising a voice from the margins and edges of American life. As it spread from the Deep South to Chicago and beyond, the blues incorporated a powerful musical groove which has influenced music around the world. Now, musicians are reaching across the Atlantic and finding that they have a common story to tell in shades of blue.

Putumayo’s African Blues chronicles the return of the blues to its African motherland. It also demonstrates the burgeoning connections between West and East African musicians and performers from the blues’ traditional heartland in the U.S., as well as converts in Europe—and shows how these connections are revolutionizing traditions on both continents.

Taj Mahal, together with the Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar, gets down and deep in a slow-burning meditation on the beauties of Dhow Countries. Mali’sIssa Babayogo brings his characteristic, sparkling knack for gritty, melodic grooves. The ever-evolvingPlaying for Change band—this time featuring hip desert rockers Tinariwen and Keb Mo—reveals how globally malleable a good old 12-bar blues can be. And as always, the collection is filled with engaging new discoveries like hard-hitting Tuareg singer-songwriter Amar Sundy, unfolding and grooving collaborations like the Belgian-Malian project Kalaban Coura and the unexpected blend of Mali Latino.

“It’s like two halves of a circle,” muses Putumayo head Dan Storper, a passionate collector of music from around the world. “The blues’ roots are in Africa but emerged and evolved as a powerful musical style in America. Now they’re reuniting in new and exciting ways.”

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“When we worked on Mali to Memphis, we recognized the powerful connection between the bluesy music of West Africa and the Mississippi Delta,” explains Dan “That began my search for American and African blues and blues-influenced music and led to a series of successful CDs including Mississippi Blues, American Blues and Blues Around the World.”

Storper, a blues fan who lives in New Orleans and his staff found a growing number of collaborative projects based on close musical friendships British guitarist Ramon Goose teamed up with kora (West African bridge-harp) whiz Diabel Cissokho (“Totoumo”), while respected Latin keyboard player and producer Alex Wilson found the sweet spot where Afro-Latin beats and roaring organ lines jive with kora, percussion, and other sounds from West Africa (Mali Latino’s “Ni Koh Bedy”).

As the various currents of blues have flowed back together—the developments in the U.S. and Europe, and African musicians’ responses to the American blues records that arrived midcentury—a new depth and richness have come to this storied musical form.

“It’s natural since the collaborations between Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba, George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo,” reflects Storper. “There’s something magical when two musical cultures collide and bring the best of each world to a song.”

Simply Six: Kim Lyons

2012-05-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew
they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed
Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan
half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

I don't know if there was one defining moment. I always loved to sing. When I was a little girl I would put on my white go go boots and sing "These Boots ArenMade For Walking" by Nancy Sinatra. I would use a hair brush for a microphone and stomp around the house singing. I don't think I ever stopped! I actually still perform that song when I play out

2 . When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of

your favorites?

I'm a huge music buff. I'm always listening to music when I'm not writing or performing. I love to listen to singer/songwriters first and foremost. Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, Joy Lynn White, Darrell Scott and John Prine are some of my favorites. If the average person picked up my iPod they probably wouldn't have heard of most of the artists on it. I love discovering new music. I want to be able to hear the lyrics and I love story songs that pull you in. Most of mine tell a story.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record

or live?

Gosh. That's a hard one. I guess if I had to pick one moment that was true awesomeness for me it would be playing in a pro writers round at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, TN. I was invited to play a 2 hour show with 3 other pro writers. You can only play there by invitation and you have to go through an audition process. I was asked without having to audition. We played to a sold out crowd. In fact, I took some family and friends and there was no room for them to sit. We didn't know you needed reservations. I sold all of the CDs I brought with me that night. And, I was asked back to play another pro show there. It was one of my goals and I accomplished it much earlier than I had anticipated.

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to?

How much can music influence current events?

I absolutely think music can change the world. It really depends on how you write it and perform it. You can touch people through music, even if it's just one person at a time. I wrote a song with my friend Jill Fair called "I Know". It's a song we wrote about an abused woman who ended up at a women's shelter and the help she found. I played it at a Festival once and a woman came up to me and say "Thanks, I'm going through that and your song made me realize there is help out there". She went on to tell me she was going to go to a shelter and I gave her information on how to do that. I also wrote a song titled "Real Men Wear Pink" as a breast cancer awareness fundraiser. It talks about that behind the scenes support person who is so important. I have had many men approach me telling me they didnt know what to do till they heard that song. It completely changed their role as caregivers to their wives.

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected

your career as a musician?

Technology has been wonderful for me. I can now record a decent demo on GarageBand. I love it! You can copyright a song in 10 minutes. You can get your music on Internet radio stations. I have fans from all over the world thanks to Internet stations. Unsigned artists such as myself can finally get our music heard. And then you have the capability to buy digital downloads. I love that! I discover new music all the time that I would have never heard otherwise. And I always buy my music legally. Even as a listener and not just an artist, I love it. I really like going to Amazon or iTunes and pulling up an artist I like. Then I always scroll down to the section that says "people who bought that also bought...". I have found some fabulous unknown artists that way.

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of

shoes would you be?

This is the hardest question. I had to think about this one. I'm a very grounded and down to earth person. I'm always the optimist and always trying to cheer someone else up. However I like a little bling and frill in my life too. So I'm going to say I'm a pair of leather yellow flats with a bow on the toe. Is that too specific? Ha ha. Being the shoe freak that I am, you kind of stumped me a little on this one. So am I ready for Barbara Walters now? Ha ha.

Video Wednesday

2012-05-23T10:40:00.000-05:00

Mia Borders performing the Bill Withers' classic at Jazz Fest.

Singing the Travels: Imani Uzuri Finds the Bold Heart and Global Soul of Home on The Gypsy Diaries

2012-05-23T05:00:00.001-05:00

The mysterious figure on the moonlit railway platform, the passerby on the dusty road are not strangers; they are friends and fellow travelers.

And to stunning vocalist and thoughtful, globally-inspired composer Imani Uzuri, they spark melodies and musical connections. With the beautiful growl of a blueswoman and the sweetness of a nightingale, Uzuri finds the deep ties that bind her rural Carolina roots to Eastern Europe and North Africa, that bind the purr of sitar strings and the ripple of Japanese folk flute to African-American traditions and the international arts underground.

Born of worldly travels and spiritual travails, Uzuri’s rich acoustic songs onThe Gypsy Diaries (release: June 5, 2012) find fresh settings for unifying human experiences: the loss of loved ones, the joy of discovering, the alienation and shifts of moving, meeting, and departing. Riveting live, Uzuri will celebrate her new album on June 1 at Joe’s Pub in New York.

The introspective, gentler companion to Uzuri’s high-voltage debut, Her Holy Water, Uzuri paints images of travel—the chance meeting, the surprise connection—and reflects in global tones on the nature of distance, love, and our shared, transcendent moments.

Imani Uzuri Shares Stories and Musical Journeys on her New album "The Gypsy Diaries" from imani uzuri on Vimeo.{full story below}

Uzuri grew up dreaming of travel, reading adventure novels and poetry under the pecan trees of her idyllic early years in rural North Carolina.

Visions of other lands and other worlds entwined with the musical roots that formed the foundation of Uzuri’s intensely focused approach to evoking places and moments with her powerful yet subtle voice. The old Spirituals, the gospel music she heard in her small country church and from her extended family, in particular from her formidable grandmother, sunk in deep.

“I feel like my granny’s sensibility shaped me. She had an off-key joyful voice, and every morning she would wake up and start the day singing,” Uzuri remembers fondly. “Her music was about praising and gratitude. She taught me that the intention of singing is to express.”

Uzuri honors her foremother, who passed as Uzuri began working on the album, in a profound, bittersweet tribute on “Soul Still Sings.” She takes the lessons her grandmother imparted to heart with in her keen storytelling: Her compelling voice sketches conjured trysts on train platforms (“Meet Me at the Station”) and prayers on a mountaintop (“I Sing the Blues”).

Following the inspiration to travel and explore the country, Uzuri found herself in New York, where that long-felt connection between roots and the world’s roads came to life. She fell in love with artists like Mailian diva Oumou Sangare’s beckoning, soaring voice, with the praise and ecstasy she heard in Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s music.

“The first time I was introduced to Nusrat’s music, I felt like it was gospel music,” Uzuri recounts. “I didn’t know what he was saying but I understood. Just before his death, I got to see him perform at a Sufi community concert, and it was like a charismatic church service. The integrity and passion was the same.” Uzuri’s open, curious ear has made her an eclectic bandleader who loves to gather stellar multicultural male and female musicians and to bring together unexpected instruments, from sitar and daf to acoustic guitar and cello. Yet the mosaic approach feels seamless, drawn together by Uzuri’s compelling and versatile voice.

Along with her personal musical travels, Uzuri also began exploring the world, traveling to Japan, Brazil, Russia, Ethiopia, Hungary, to perform with artists like Bill Laswell and Ethiopian singer Gigi, and as a solo artist. “I moved to New York, and traveling became a part of my life as an artist,” Uzuri reflects, “I started getting all these calls. There’s an artistic underground that spans the globe, and I became part of it. It sustained me. ”

On her travels, she sang favorite Spirituals to newfound friends in Moroccan casbahs, visited sacred islands and busy street corners, wondered at resonant churches. As she wandered, Uzuri was fascinated by the fertile tension between separation and connection. And by a feeling of unexpected familiarity that ran through it all: “I heard this euphony of sound pouring out of St. Basil’s on Red Square,” Uzuri recalls. “I went in and sound was washing over me. It felt familiar; I understood the intentionality, the vibration. Everyone who was listening felt it.”

The isolation of travel—the railways, transitional spaces, roads and crossroads—intersected with a tangible unity Uzuri felt with the Russian villagers she met, with the Roma musicians she jammed with, with the flowers vendor on the Turkish street.

“As part of a collaboration I did in Hungary with Romany musicians, I was taught to sing a Roma lament in Hungarian. I was struck once again by this sense of similarity”—an emotional similarity tangible in the gorgeous ballad, “Lament,” rich with echoes of Roberta Flack. “If you’re transmitting joy or sadness, it’s about sharing the truth of that with the voice. That’s where you feel the connection and integrity.”

Joy and sadness play throughout The Gypsy Diaries. The playful mirth of the Caribbean-inflected “You Know Me You Love Me” alternates with the reflective, stirring “Beautiful.” The blues-inflected sounds of a modern-day field holler, “Gathering”, and a swaying call of lovingkindness, “Dream Child,” contrast with the fierce assertions of “Whisperings (We Are Whole).”

“Ultimately, this album is about finding my place through the traveling,” Uzuri explains, “the communion, the loneliness, victories, sadness, losses, euphorias, revelations, transformations coming to understand that I am always here: home."

Spotlight: Natty Fox

2012-05-22T05:30:00.000-05:00


	Music Promotion via MusicSubmit.com


Webpage: http://www.nattyfox.com
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Description: Natty Fox is a high energy and fun rock band that is guaranteed to bring the house down. Our songs are catchy and loud, while having an uplifting and positive message.
Biography: Natty Fox is a melting pot of musical talent and influences. The band includes Jones Nelson (lead singer), Rod Bre (lead guitar), Danny Thompson (rhythm guitar, manager), Kyle Lords (bass guitar), and Erik Anderson (drums). Rod, Jones, and Danny had been jamming for some time, all the while looking for the right drummer and bass player to complete their musical vision. Kyle was working on a separate project, but was having a hard time completing his band also, so he joined forces with Jones, Danny, and Rod. Later, Rod met Erik at the music school, where they both taught. He soon after joined the band and Natty Fox was off and running. The musicians have been influenced by bands such as Alter Bridge, Slash, Shinedown, Tool, AC/DC, U2, Green Day and many more. The wide range of influence creates a sound that is unique and appealing to a large demographic. Listener feedback suggest that fans of Natty Fox also like bands such as Wolfmother, Jet, Def Leopard, Pearl Jam, Shinedown, and Van Halen, among others.
Press Release:

Channeling Zappa in Tirana: Edgy Rock Virtuosity Meets East Balkan Brilliance on Choban Elektrik

2012-05-22T05:00:00.000-05:00

If a prog rock power trio had ever sprung up in the mountains of Albania, it would have sounded like Brooklyn’s Choban Elektrik (“Electric Shepherds”). Using the vintage grit and funk of Hammond organs and Fender Rhodes to open up new facets of Albanian, Macedonian, Greek, and Armenian tunes, the band makes this unlikely pairing feel organic and obvious, thanks to their intense focus and anything-goes approach.
“We never set out to do this,” explains masterful keyboard player and arranger Jordan Shapiro. “But I’d bring in songs I learned in Balkan singing class or at the Balkan music camps, and we’d play them, just like anything else we’d tackle as a trio, as if they were jazz, funk, or rock.”
The results burst with crackling distorted guitar lines ripping through odd Albanian meters (“Beratche from Prespa”), traditional Greek dance tunes gone deeply funky (“Koftos”), and mysteriously dreamy space-outs for Caucasus wedding parties (the wonderfully titled “Mom Bar”). Slow-burning melodies unwind as whammy bars and Leslie speakers take old songs in a radically new, highly catchy direction.
Choban Elektric will celebrate the release of the new CD at the Rock Shopon May 16, 2012, joined by Which Way East (featuring violinist Jesse Kotansky and singer Eva Salina Primack from the Choban CD) and Raya Brass Band (featuring Don Godwin, engineer of Choban CD).
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“I had no exposure to world music my entire upbringing,” says Shapiro, who trained intensively as a classical pianist and oboe player. “My parents loved classical music and Broadway shows. This was the last thing I’d ever have imagined doing.”
Conservatory trained in piano and guitar performance and jazz studies, Shapiro arrived in New York and soon found himself working hard; like many multi-instrumentalist pros, Shapiro spent a decade performing in a diverse array of bands, as core member and as sideman. He started a progressive bluegrass band, Astrograss. He joined a Zappa tribute ensemble (which included original members of Zappa’s band), Project/Object, where he met Choban’s bassist, Dave Johnsen.
Like the rock maverick, Shapiro was always hungry for new musical challenges. He got wind of the Balkan scene, as many of his friends had gotten into playing music from Eastern Europe. After hearing some music at a party, he headed to the Golden Festival, New York’s annual gathering of Balkan fans and top performers. “It inspired me to get an accordion,” Shapiro recalls. “Lugging around vintage keyboards is not nearly as much fun.”
It was the unexpected beginning of a new, powerful passion. A year later, Shapiro found himself in a circle of twenty accordionists of all levels, staring amazed at the quicksilver technique and fluid ornamentation of Albanian accordionist Raif Hyseni (composer of “Steve’s Gajda”). He was hooked.
“Raif teaches by ear. He started playing a tune, this beautiful Albanian folk song,” remembers Shapiro. “That was a new thing for me, to be right in front of someone playing this complicated melody. I hadn’t done that kind of music by ear at that point.”
But beyond Hyseni’s stunning chops and easy grace, he opened Shapiro’s eyes to the East European approach to improvisation. Hyseni emphasized that soloists had room to express and expand on the theme. He pushed Shapiro to find his own, Balkan voice when playing. Over a year of subsequent lessons, Shapiro picked up not only Hyseni’s trove of melodies; he also explored the possibilities—both traditional and radical—suggested by the repertoire.
Though he first perfected tunes like “Valle e Shqipërisë së Mesme” on the accordion, Shapiro soon tried things out on his collection of vintage organs and keyboards. During frequent sessions, Shapiro worked closely with Johnsen (bass) and multifaceted percussionist Phil Kester (who plays everything from drums to riq to tuned bronze alloys). The trio discovered that songs meant for very different instruments and different contexts fit perfectly into their wide-ranging world of post-rock complexity and improvisatory pleasures.
With all the drive ofa power trio, they dove into the odd meters and nimble melody lines. Johnsen brought his flexibility and ability to make sense out of complexity, while Kester drew on his chops and musicality, combining hand percussion and marimba to create a percussive soundscape reflecting his early childhood fascination with the Greek music in his community.
Bending and blending genres is a major part of recent developments in Balkan roots music back in Europe, as well, like the jazz-inflected traditional arrangements of Bulgarian accordion master Petar Ralchev that inspired Choban’s grooving “Kopanitsa.” They opened up jams that fully showcase the keys’ timbre and that segue gorgeously into stirring songs like “Çobankat” (where Kotansky’s sweeping violin and Primack’s rich vocals form the perfect counterpoint to Shapiro’s psychedelic solos).
“The album starts off with a thirty-second exploration, an improvisation,” muses Shapiro. “It shows off the Fender Rhodes. But then it shifts into a different key and the traditional melody Raif taught me. That transition really reflects our approach beautifully.”

Brit Jazzy Post-Rockers GET THE BLESSING Return With Their Third Album OC DC Released June 12th 2012 on Naim Jazz

2012-05-21T05:00:00.000-05:00

Out June 12th 2012 on Naim Jazz Records

OC DC finds Get The Blessing elbowing their way out of easy categorisation. The Bristol (UK) based four-
piece have deftly ploughed their jazzy post-rock furrow since the release of their debut All Is Yes back in 2008, drawing enthusiastic comparisons to similarly inventive acts like Tortoise and Polar Bear. The follow-up, 2009’s Bugs In Amber, cemented their affable rapport with critics and fans alike, and further defied the boundaries and boxes that were placed around them - the Metro claimed in its glowing review that, “Occasionally you hear a jazz album that you know would shift truckloads of units if only it weren’t labelled ‘jazz’. Bugs In Amber is just such a disc.”

From the upbeat rollicking title track that kicks off proceedings, to the lilting cinematic closer Pentopia, OC DC exudes energy and invention at every turn. As sax player Jake McMurchie suggests, “It's both more esoteric, more physica l and more carefully crafted”, whilst retaining the band’s signature blend of strong melodic ideas, ferocious rhythmic hooks, tight compositional structures, and freewheeling improvisations. Trumpeter Pete Judge agrees: “It’s less afraid to be itself than it used to be”. A particular highlight is the unexpected guest cameo by legendary composer & musician Robert Wyatt – a delicious wordless chorale on the languid American Meccano, recorded in a Lincolnshire studio open to the sounds of birdsong and passing vehicles.

Get The Blessing wear their jazz credentials lightly but defiantly. A shared love of legendary saxophonist
Ornette Coleman’s early quartet inspired their boldly monophonic instrumentation. The intricate but absolutely rock-solid rhythm section forms the glue that holds Get The Blessing together, with the dual sax and trumpet frontline working with the bass to create melodies and harmonies.

Alongside their jazz roots, Get The Blessing’s multiple other influences are also evident. Speaking of their 2008 BBC Jazz Award win for Best New Album with All Is Yes, bassist Jim Barr says, “We were total outsiders, the punk entry.” Comparisons with punk aren’t too far-fetched either, from the band’s often thrashing rhythms and rocking riffs to their irreverent and mischievous attitude. At the same time, their music carries a genuine emotional punch, and is as capable of delicacy as it is of visceral power. This is not ‘difficult’ music by any stretch; neither is it merely simple.

Drummer Clive Deamer and bassist Jim Barr have long provided the low-end rumbles and stuttering beats for trip-hop legends Portishead, and Deamer has recently been recruited by none other than Radiohead as their second live drummer for 2012 (he’s also an established partner of Robert Plant, Roni Size, Hawkwind, Je ff Beck and several other contemporary luminaries). Not that the rest of the band are worried. “They are borrowing Clive in the hope that it will make them sound like Get The Blessing,” says Barr with a smile; “No chance!”

With guest turns from Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley as well as Robert Wyatt, and influences including
astronomy, psychology, Borges, and food, OC DC grabs the listener by the lapels and sets off joyously once more into the sonic wilderness. To further explore Get The Blessing’s fascinating and idiosyncratic musical world...

Spotlight: Pig Farmer

2012-05-20T10:25:00.000-05:00


	Music Promotion via MusicSubmit.com


Webpage: http://www.pigfarmerband.com
Location: Savannah, Missouri, usa
Description: Punk-a-billy, tater mashin' music with a little country fried gravy poured on top and digested at the Pig Pen.
Biography: ARTIST OVERVIEW - Americana Artist, Pig Farmer, based out of St. Joseph, MO, travels in support of their album projects. The current show offers original compositions along side a large repertoire of Classics Country and Rock. Performing as an electric quartet and with special guest artists, Pig Farmer proves again and again why they are a unique, respected and appreciated artist. Makin' Bacon was recorded at "The Studio" Savannah, MO Produced by Pig Farmer Mixed by Jimmy Hellerich Mastering and Replication by Oasis, Photo and Graphic design by Cody Maag The Pig Farmer Band: Jimmy Hellerich- Lead Vocal, Guitar & Harp, Jason Riley - Lead Guitar, Ben Liemkuler - Bass, Jay Albright- Drums, Kevin Snowden - Keyboards “Makin’ Bacon” is the newest addition in the Pig Farmer discography and was released in the fall of 2011. The four previous albums were all cut in Nashville, TN while “Makin’ Bacon” was recorded at the newly refurbished “The Studio” in Savannah, MO. The album contains 9 original tunes written by the great and powerful wizard of Pig Farmer, James P. Hellerich. There’s also one re-make of Johnny Cash’s “Frankie’s Man Johnny”. The lead track off the record was written on a return trip from a rehab center in Texas and the album is filled with songs of a personal nature and true-to-life stories. “I was setting in the rehab family counseling center looking all around. There was a Millionaire setting next to me and a Mother who worked at Wal-Mart on the other side. There must have been a 50 sets of families, from all walks of life, there to help a loved one with their addiction. I listened to all their stories of how addiction has affected their life. A great rumbling in my spirit began to stir and on the way home “Catch His Name” was born.” – Jimmy Hellerich The album represents a sound and continuing saga of an American songwriter telling like he sees it with a down-home, Midwestern perspective. The album is available on CDBaby, ITunes, Amazon.com and at the band’s live performances.
Press Release: “Makin’ Bacon” is the newest addition in the Pig Farmer discography and was released in the fall of 2011. The four previous albums were all cut in Nashville, TN while “Makin’ Bacon” was recorded at the newly refurbished “The Studio” in Savannah, MO. The album contains 9 original tunes written by the great and powerful wizard of Pig Farmer, James P. Hellerich. There’s also one re-make of Johnny Cash’s “Frankie’s Man Johnny”. The lead track off the record was written on a return trip from a rehab center in Texas and the album is filled with songs of a personal nature and true-to-life stories. “I was setting in the rehab family counseling center looking all around. There was a Millionaire setting next to me and a Mother who worked at Wal-Mart on the other side. There must have been a 50 sets of families, from all walks of life, there to help a loved one with their addiction. I listened to all their stories of how addiction has affected their life. A great rumbling in my spirit began to stir and on the way home “Catch His Name” was born.” – Jimmy Hellerich The album represents a sound and continuing saga of an American songwriter telling like he sees it with a down-home, Midwestern perspective. The album is available on CDBaby, ITunes, Amazon.com and at the band’s live performances. Makin' Bacon was recorded at "The Studio" Savannah, MO Produced by Pig Farmer Mixed by Jimmy Hellerich Mastering and Replication by Oasis, Photo and Graphic design by Cody Maag The Pig Farmer Band: Jimmy Hellerich- Lead Vocal, Guitar & Harp, Jason Riley - Lead Guitar, Ben Liemkuler - Bass, Jay Albright- Drums, Kevin Snowden - Keyboards

Amazon.com Widgets

Mysterious Hybrid: Sarah Aroeste Unleashes Ladino’s Sensuous Feminist Power in Original Songs on Gracia

2012-05-20T10:20:00.000-05:00

That’s right: Feminist rock in Ladino. The Judeo-Spanish language born in the Middle Ages is the perfect vehicle for articulating an utterly contemporary sensuality, defiance, wisdom, and love. It’s a living language, a lively tradition heard in a generation of new voices from New York to Jerusalem.

One voice leads them: American-born Ladino singer and songwriter Sarah Aroeste, who has spent a decade expanding the possibilities of contemporary Ladino song. The classically trained, pop-savvy vocalist channels generations of poets and wild women in a slow-burning, passionately produced original works on Gracia (Aroeste Music; May 22, 2012). Backed by flickers of flamenco and gorgeous pan-Mediterranean melodies, by lush strings and purring guitars, Aroeste’s airy, potent voice and intense engagement with her lyrics invigorate age-old wedding songs, hot love ballads, and tributes to history’s unsung heroines.

“It doesn’t matter that 99.99% of the world doesn’t understand Ladino,” Aroeste explains. “The themes are universal, the same themes people explore today: going off to war, unrequited love, crushes, death, family dynamics. The music has crossed geographic boundaries and political ones, and the songs are often very celebratory of women--and very sexy.”

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“Too often, Ladino singers sing without really understanding the lyrics,” Aroeste reflects. “They sing the music because of its undeniable value as a tradition we all want to preserve. But I think if more people took the time to really examine and dig into the lyrics, they might see a different, more complex and intellectual side of the music. That’s why our treatment of the songs on Gracia is extremely detailed, finely crafted, and layered: Each one really tells a complex story.”

In original songs, Aroeste tells the neglected story of Dona Gracia Naci, a 15th-century Spanish answer to Harriet Tubman, who boldly saved Jewish families from the Inquisition (“Gracia”), who epitomizes the strength and courage of our foremothers. “It’s a Ladino feminist anthem of sorts,” smiles Aroeste, whose poetic tribute to Gracia is framed by a stirring sample of Gloria Steinem.

Using a traditional ballad as a springboard for her own poetry, Aroeste reimagines the wanderings of her Sephardic ancestors—and her own journey to discover her roots—through the eyes of the traditional figure of the morena, the dark-eyed nomad girl, traveling for centuries and drained of her beauty by a harsh world in “Chika Morena.”

Aroeste has a true passion for telling these stories, for the wry wit, pithy idioms, and poetic force of Ladino lyrics. Her own tale winds through family history, lost and joyously found. Aroeste grew up in New Jersey, but understood early that there was something a bit different about her heritage. “I remember visiting my great uncles and grandparents in Florida when I was five or so,” Aroeste recalls. “I was sitting in the front seat of one of their cars and playing around with the preset radio buttons. They were all set to Spanish language stations. I didn’t understand it completely at the time, but I carried that with me, that we had a unique tradition.”

This tradition was part of a longer legacy, the culture of Spanish Jews (like the beautiful 11th-century poetry Aroeste brings to life in “El Leon Ferido”). Subsequently forced from Spain in the late 15th century, they scattered across Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean. Though their language, customs, and music retained an Iberian core, they continued to develop under the influence of the many tongues and cultures surrounding the tight-knit families and communities. The result is a strikingly rich, multifaceted world of words and sounds.

“Ladino itself is so beautiful. It’s a truly pan-Mediterranean language, a mysterious hybrid,” says Aroeste. “Based in pre-1492 Castilian Spanish, over the years it absorbed bits and pieces of languages from the different countries where Jews settled. My family ended up in Greece and today’s Macedonia. Our version of Ladino is Castilian Spanish mixed with Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish and Hebrew.”

Aroeste, after learning repertoire in Ladino while studying classical voice in Israel, soon found herself drawn to the language of her roots. She taught herself Ladino, researched Sephardic songs, learned everything she could. She hung out with Ladino poets in Israel. She watched klezmer take off, but was stunned to see few artists working with Sephardic traditions.

So Aroeste singlehandedly set out to change that, setting aside her opera ambitions and forging her own path. She picked up a dusty guitar and started crafting Ladino rock songs. The move was unexpected, but perfectly logical: Ladino songs have enough grit, humor, and open sensuality to match any rock hit. Girls fall for bad boys, follow their lusty hearts, argue with parents about their amours.

“There’s a certain sensuality that came with the music and rhythms I began to explore,” Aroeste notes. “A lot of the folk songs don’t shy away from sex and love. I always really admired that.” Songs like the unusually dark rendition of “Avre Este Abajour Bijou” burn with unabashed desire, a side brought out by Aroeste and collaborator/producer Shai Bachar’s voluptuous orchestration and sly arrangement.

Aroeste’s openness to her roots’ sexier sides raised some eyebrows initially, but the singer-songwriter worked for years to forge a new sound for ancient roots and has proven a bellwether for a new generation of Ladino creativity. She remains one of the very few artists who compose and sing their own works, “I feel the music in a different, very personal way,” she states, “and there’s so much beauty and irreverence and humor in this music. I want the world to hear it.”

Coming Up on Music on the Couch

2012-05-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Monday, May 21, 2012
10pm Eastern; 9pm Central; 8pm Mountain; 7pm Pacific

We will take your calls and questions for both guests at 1.347.633.9400

The live interactive chat room opens 20 minutes before show time. Follow this link HERE and click on the Chat Now icon.

Come hang with the fans and musicians who visit each week.

Hope you had time to check out some pictures from the BMAs. they can be found at http://goo.gl/cZk6s

Also, check out the upcoming schedule. We are thrilled to be previewing THREE new albums in the coming weeks!

Come Sit On The Couch With
Musicians You Should Know

THIS WEEK:

SISTA MONICA

and

RON TANSKI

Sit On The Couch

SISTA MONICA

Monica Parker affectionately known as Sista Monica Parker "the lioness of the blues" recently gained national TV placement of her music on the Fox channel. Her original song "Show Me What You're Working With" was on the hit show So You Think You Can Dance finale show August 11, 2011.

She was also nominated for a 2012 Blues Music Award for "Best Soul Blues Female Artist".

With 11 albums under her belt, Monica is no new-comer. Her latest is a collection of gut-belting blues and soul entitled Living In The Danger Zone.

I will chat with Monica about her career as we listen to her tunes.

RON TANSKI

Ron was a participant in the 2012 International Blues Challenge and caused a buzz on the street with his performances.

Ron's debut CD Dragged You Downcharted at #3 on the RMR Blues Music Radio Top 40 and was in the top 100 Most Radio Played Blues CD's of 2011.

Ron's worked with greats like Albert Lee, Phil Gates and the late JJ "Bad Boy" Jones and was the first "White Boy" house piano player at the famous Lindberg's Blues Club

Ron will be bringing some new music with him from his forth-coming album..

The Shiz Reaches Their Goal!

2012-05-17T00:20:00.004-05:00

I think the headline says it all. Thanks to everyone that contributed to their kickstarter campaign.

Anders Osborne: Black Tar

2012-05-17T00:16:00.002-05:00

Yiddish Dada of the Mediterranean: Kabbalah’s Irrepressible Post-Klezmer Beats and Multicultural Mayhem

2012-05-17T00:14:00.000-05:00

The siren in the red dress, brandishing a bow and a bullhorn, whispers sweet nothings in your ear while an MC raps in a sadly neglected, vividly colorful language. The vintage-toned melodies, trip-hop vibes, and hard-hitting trance-inducing African rhythms swirl through the Marseilles night.

It’s Kabbalah, purveyors of Yiddish Dada and the irrepressible denizens of Southern France’s multicultural, musically adventuresome hub. They kick out the old-school European jams and conjure a world where Yiddish culture is fresh, hip, and full-on quirky.

On Boxes, Bagels & Elephants the five-piece group brings a theatrical flair and hip, carnivalesque edge to original songs in Yiddish (and English and French and Russian). Surf-rock guitars and North African answers to mandolins, vibes and samples, fables of integrating elephants and devilish warnings collide for a defiantly unique, unstoppable good time.

Kabbalah is touring the U.S. for the first time, dashing through New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Santa Rosa, and Santa Cruz in May/June, 2012.

{full story below}

An elegant, classically trained violinist who wields a mean bullhorn. A bassist who can swing soukou or makossa while singing klezmer. A jazz guitarist who often breaks out the North African mandole. A free-styling, typewriter-banging, hard-bopping sax player. A cool cat in shades with his drumsticks on the pulse of Marseilles.

The members of Kabbalah’s Dada-esque motley crew have more in common than meets the eye. They all started out in the Marseilles jazz scene, playing around and sitting in. They all have hyphenated backgrounds: Polish-Algerian, Cameroonian-Caribbean, German-Jewish. They were all migrants to the Mediterranean port, swinging in from St. Petersburg, Dortmund, and Martinique.

“We were all jazz musicians, but not only that, and we met on the jazz scene,” explains sax player and spoken word artist Uli Wolters, a German-born hip-hop fan turned Marseilles multi-instrumentalist. “Everyone has different influences—hip hop, rock, traditional music from Africa—so we naturally integrated all this into the music. It was hard to find exactly what worked, not to go too far astray in all those crazy directions. It took a while for us to get to something we all loved.”

“The group started out under the influence of jazz and klezmer at first,” comments Kabbalah instigator, Polish-Algerian guitarist Steph Galeski. “Then, as we began write our own songs, our repertoire went in a more contemporary direction. But these first influences remain important because they were there when the group first came together. It’s what united us at first, even if now we’re taking more musical liberties.”

These sonic liberties resulted in dubbed-out cabaret numbers (“7 Worlds”), North African-inflected fables of integration and intolerance (“Elephant Mentsh”), sepia-toned klezmer riffs with wry samples and a burst of English free-styling (“Devil”), old-school rap meets swooping strings and complicated endearments (“Mein Sugar Pie”). And perhaps one of the sexier songs ever penned in Yiddish, complete with a wink at trip hop (“Love Shnorer”).

Yet there’s a single, unexpected thread that ties together the diversity and diverging ideas: Yiddish, a language some of the musicians heard from their grandparents that seemed simple on the surface—but proved surprisingly tough to approach.

Kabbalah knows, however: The language is no gimmick. It’s central to understanding and playing the music. “If you’re inspired by Eastern European music, you have to take the language along with the music,” Galeski reflects.

“We didn’t want to simply arrange and sing old lyrics because, sadly, everything stopped at one, single point in Europe, for well-known historical reasons,” adds Wolters. “We wanted to write about what’s going on now, today.”

“That makes sense,” Galeski adds, “because Yiddish was the language of the quotidian, of everyday life in Jewish Europe.”

The band’s use of Yiddish is not simply about cultural context, historical experiments, or reviving an almost lost linguistic and sonic world. The band pushes to find new connections, new resonances that show just how lively, fresh, and broadly appealing the long lineage of Jewish European culture can be. From weathering festival stages in the middle of Breton barnyards (a true story) to launching passionate sing-a-longs in Poland, Kabbalah knows how to get the party started, no matter who’s in the audience.

“We’re not just trying to reach the community. Half the band isn’t Jewish. We want to appeal to people who aren’t purists, who may not even know Yiddish when they hear it, who ask, ‘Hey, what language is that?’” Wolters notes. “It’s about the music itself; we just happen to write songs in Yiddish.”

Spotlight: Aria Cortes

2012-05-17T00:10:00.002-05:00


	Music Promotion via MusicSubmit.com


Webpage: http://www.ariacortes.com
Location: Bronx, NY, United States
Description: Aria is a young latina Modern Country Artist from NY.
Biography: Aria is a young latina Modern Country Artist from NY. I know what you're thinking, a Country Artist from NY and latina to boot? Once you learn a little about Aria, you soon learn that it's not as odd as it may sound. Aria has been singing practically since she could start talking and one of her earliest moments on video was of her singing a Britney Spears song. She grew up in a very musical environment and she and her little sister were always putting on little concerts for her family. Her family has always encouraged her musical dreams and ambitions. With her father being a musician and singer, she grew up having been exposed to everything from rock to pop to latin to country and this comes through in her vocal abilities. Following in her Dad's genes, she grew up with a natural ability to sing and perform virtually any style. She began writing songs at an early age. She plays piano, guitar and is learning the mandolin. While rock and pop are what she grew up on, it was the pureness and genuineness of country music that guided her to what type of music she would want to pursue as a career. As Aria says, "I love that almost every song has a deeper meaning and any person can relate to the songs. The songs are always heartfelt and nothing ever seems faked or forced. I think that’s the best part of country music. When I was growing up and while writing songs, I think that helped me decide that I wanted to someday be a country singer. I could just be the nerdy, crazy, young girl that I am and I wouldn’t have to change to be anything that I’m not." That pureness and genuineness of Country Music is something very important to this smart young girl who is not only a straight A student but a devout Catholic and self professed Daddy's girl. With Modern Country artists that she admires such as Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, The Band Perry, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Gretchen Wilson, Kellie Pickler, etc., she saw and heard that she could be country yet still have a little of the rock/pop sound that she also loves. While Aria's surname is not Cortes, it also is not just a stage name but rather a tribute to her beloved grandmother who sadly passed away in 2009. Family as you can tell means a lot to Aria and she is very appreciative of all the support and love they have shown her in regards to her dreams and ambitions. Based on a combination of her image, talent, personality and ambition she was offered an Artist Development deal by World Conquest Management at age 12 and she spent a year working on all it takes to be an artist. At the ripe age of 13 she was signed to World Conquest Records and began working on her debut album titled "Daydreaming", which was released in September 2011. With an album full of songs about self-belief, family and more, this hardworking talented young artist hopes to show the music world that she is an artist that is going to be around for a long time. As the public will see once they get to know her, success couldn't happen to a nicer girl. © 2012 World Conquest Records
Press Release:

Video Wednesday

2012-05-17T00:07:00.001-05:00

Today we feature Mary Gauthier and "Mercy Now."

Coming Up On Music on the Couch

2012-05-09T22:42:00.000-05:00

Monday, May 14, 2012
10pm Eastern; 9pm Central; 8pm Mountain; 7pm Pacific

We will take your calls and questions for both guests at 1.347.633.9400

The live interactive chat room opens 20 minutes before show time.

CLICK Here for the Direct Link For The Show (scroll down to see chat room)

Come hang with the fans and musicians who visit each week.

Come Sit On The Couch With
"Musicians You Should Know"

THIS WEEK:

Southern Rock/R&B Legends this evening!

Jimmy Hall
&
Tommy Talton

Sit On The Couch

JIMMY HALL

First, Jimmy Hall joins me. Jimmy was born in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in Mobile by a musical family steeped in gospel tradition.

At the age of 20, he moved to Macon, Georgia with his newly formed band, Wet Willie, and was signed by Capricorn Records.

Now Jimmy Hall is continuing the southern musical tradition by fronting a new incarceration of Wet Willie including Jack Hall, Donna Hall Foster, T.K. Lively, Ric Seymour, Ricky Chancey and Bobby Mobley.

His soulful voice is richer than ever and you can be sure the best is still to come.

The band released new music in January and we will hear some of this while we discuss his long, illustrious career.

TOMMY TALTON

Then Tommy Talton takes his seat on The Couch.

Tommy Talton was a founding member of Capricorn Records group Cowboy. While in Macon, GA through most of the 70s, Talton was a studio musician recording with artists such as Bonnie Bramlett, Corky Lang (West, Bruce and Lang, Mountain), Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Clarence Carter and many more.

Talton continues to tour with The Tommy Talton Band and Cowboy (reunited in 2010), as a solo act in intimate listening rooms, and as a special guest with many other well known, accomplished musicians and bands.

What a wild ride this great slide guitar player has had and we will get a chance to discuss the good and the bad with him while listening to some of his music.

Spotlight: The Vinyl Plane

2012-05-09T22:37:00.000-05:00


	Music Promotion via MusicSubmit.com


Webpage: http://www.thevinylplane.com
Location: Uniondale, NY, US
Description: The Vinyl Plane is a rock band; five talented musicians with a distinct “throwback” sound. Some call it southern fried blues?rock, with a dash of Neil Young, a slice of Humble Pie, a sniff of Joe Walsh, some cargo from the Drive?By Truckers and benea
Biography: Dave Seubert is the singer and harmonica player. Dave played in acoustic and electric bands in college and enjoyed it so much; he left school to pursue a career in music. He was in a band called “Unmarked” when Keith’s brother Sean introduced him to Keith Obenauer in September of 2006. Unmarked was falling apart and Keith had some great songs Dave couldn’t wait to write some lyrics for. Two months later, Dave and Keith started The Headie Berrie as a four piece band. When the band had some woes, they decided it was time to shake things up and add another guitar. Keith's brother, Sean Obenauer, was an obvious choice. Dave had heard him playing guitar and asked him if he would join the band because he had great chops. Joe Giani had played bass guitar in many bands before, but was looking for something different. Joe is a very talented musician and is essential to the fine tuning of the band's music. The band's named changed to The Vinyl Plane, upon the addition of Joe. After many failed attempts to find it, they still needed that final piece of the puzzle. They found it in Steve Mazz, the drummer. Steve, had been a good friend of the band and happened to have some time in his busy drum schedule to come down for an audition. The minute he started playing, the other band members knew that their long, exhaustive search for the right drummer had ended. Apparently, Steve's search was over too, because he dropped all his other bands for, what he called "what I've been looking for:"- The Vinyl Plane.
Press Release: “People like to complain about the current state of music ... how it's going techno (...since the 80's...), or how shallow it's become (...not that the Archies were any better...) or how it's all alt rockish where nobody can play their instruments (...Little Richard has confessed to only being able to play in one key...). For the nostalgic, what happened to the line of development stemming from 70's classic rock? Where's the real blues players & not just guitarists who play blues scales? Where's the music that follows the influence of the Black Crowes instead of Nirvana or Lynard Skynard instead of Black Sabbath? Is there a band out there that has keyboard breaks that aren't meandering lost in classically influenced prog tunnels? Well, if any of the above is on your to find list then you'll enjoy this little EP.” Aaron Joy - Roman Midnight Music “The Vinyl Plane are a bunch of indie rockers from Uniondale, New York with a psychadelic/Southern rock sound. The lads have 2 albums and an EP just out. I’m digging their groove and their Twitter feed is hilarious, especially the alternate definitions for T.V.P. (“Turbulent Vision Premonitions”…good one!). You can check them out on MySpace and catch them live if you’re in Hicksville on April 23rd. Wait, is that really a place? ” Christine (Sticketgiant.com) - StickerGiant's Blog of Stickers. “Fortune is smiling on the Vinyl Plane in 2010. “Alcyon Playground,” one of the three bonus tracks added to this Long Island quintet’s second album, blends soaring harmonic guitars, great singing and tight playing from one of New York’s hottest young bands. The group has already written seven new tracks for their third album, to be released this fall. www.myspace.com/thevinylplane” Relix Radio - Relix Magazine “(DISCLAIMER: T.V.P. WAS FORMERLY CALLED THE HEADIE BERRIE) Long Island quintet The Headie Berrie return with a freewheeling full-length follow-up to their recent four-song EP. "Morning Toast" further fleshes out their love of hardened jam rock with an emphasis on guitar heroics and vocal histrionics, playing the riffs like they own them (even if Hendrix and Clapton really do) while implementing the harmonica in key spots with the attitude that the love is still free and the drugs are still pure believed by all. Referencing everyone from Phish to Blues Traveler to Mother Love Bone ("Musicism"), The Headie Berrie boasts a brother guitar duo whose intriguing interplay never gets stale, bolstering their boisterous brand of modern boogie rock with shards of straw-chewin' country and a dash of revolution rock a la Credence Clearwater Revival to smooth out this topsy-turvy tie-dyed tirade ("Souless Shoe")........ ” Mike (SOS) - Rough Edge: The Headie Berrie CD Review “(DISCLAIMER BEFORE ARTICLE: THE VINYL PLANE WAS FORMERLY THE HEADIE BERRIE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMZ9N3zccps&feature=g-all-u&context=G2013791FAAAAAAAAAAA

Video Wednesday

2012-05-09T22:33:00.000-05:00

A video of Olga Wilhelmine at this year's French Quarter Festival.

Anders Osborne: Louisiana Gold

2012-05-07T22:23:00.001-05:00

Notes from the (Immigrant) Underground: Harmonia Reveals America’s Evocative, Unheralded East European Sounds

2012-05-07T21:48:00.004-05:00

Can you keep a secret?
There’s a party going on you’ve never heard about, every weekend. Behind unmarked doors and down basement stairs, dancers dressed to the nines whip around in joyful circles, shout for more when the tune stops, and teenagers trade centuries-old dance steps all night long.
It’s the immigrant underground, where a living mix of Old and New World musical culture jumps and twirls in the old hearts of rustbelt cities or in backwoods retreats. The tunes may change, but the roots stay the same, as generations of Americans keep their heritage thriving and welcome new, wildly talented players into their midst. Players who have wowed Carnegie Hall as soloists with major orchestras one night—and rocked a community ball the next.
The house band for this unsung scene: Cleveland’s Harmonia, a trans-European ensemble of crack musicians who know the music from the banks of the Danube to the Carpathians’ eastern forests like the back of their hands. On Hidden Legacy (FolkSounds Records; May 22, 2012), the group beckons with six-foot-long shepherd flutes and bluesy laments, with upbeat dance suites and smoldering Romani (Gypsy) numbers.
“You strike up a csardas or kolomyjka, and people go nuts,” exclaims accordionist and Harmonia founder Walt Mahovlich. “The people in the audience may be third or fourth generation, but when the band starts up, they just won’t let us stop. It’s great to be part of making sure that this stays a living tradition. You can’t keep it alive without great musicians.”
{full story below}
Harmonia reveals the layers of tradition that have evolved as decades of immigrants arrived in American cities from Eastern Europe: the social dances of Hungary and Croatia, the beloved gypsy serenades that once graced supper clubs from Budapest to Cleveland, the acoustic virtuosity of formally trained post-Cold War émigrés.
Mahovlich, a third-generation American, grew up marveling at the Grape Harvest Festival parades that once ran down Buckeye Road, the main drag of Cleveland’s Hungarian neighborhood. He grew up hearing his mother’s favorite Hungarian songs and savoring the music at Croatian picnics thanks to his father. After leaving Cleveland for college, Mahovlich got so homesick that he headed back to the city and began playing clarinet and accordion for community events, catching Slavic, Hungarian, Romani, or Romanian music every weekend. The music varied widely—and evolved as new waves of immigrants came, settled, and raised families.
One thing stayed constant, however: Wherever there were good musicians, community life was, and remained, vibrant. “Back then, you could easily hop from a dance to a party and hear all kinds of groups from different ethnic backgrounds,” Mahovlich notes. “The same thing holds today, actually, though the ethnic communities have become more spread out.”
Mahovlich eventually met up with violinist Steven Greenman, who had just come back from a whirlwind performance tour in Europe, and the two immediately hit it off. They connected with Hungarian Roma (Gypsy) bassist and mentor, the late Jozsef Varga, and the trio began playing gigs regularly.
And at just the right time: when an influx of new immigrants from across the former East Bloc arrived in Midwestern cities. This new crop came with both stunning musical educations and traditional songs in tow. Mahovlich and Greenman ran into cimbalom whiz Alexander Fedoriouk at a music jam in Pittsburgh. Though they came from different East European traditions, “I knew I wanted to play with him from the first moment he struck the strings,” laughs Mahovlich.
Fedoriouk hailed from a town in Western Ukraine (Kolomyia) famous for its dances and its Carpathian mountain music. There, Fedoriouk paid his dues in villages so remote, he had to hike in with his cimbalom on his back. His striking skill won him a spot in the Kiev Conservatory, and an international reputation. Invited to tour the U.S. in the 1990s, Fedoriouk decided to stay, eventually pursuing a degree in ethnomusicology, jamming in Gypsy jazz circles, collaborating with contemporary composers and symphony orchestras, and performing with jazz greats like Herbie Mann.
As more and more traditionally rooted musicians with conservatory training arrived in the U.S., Harmonia continued to gather virtuosi with diverse ethnic backgrounds and a shared devotion to Eastern Europe’s spirited sounds. Harmonia features sopilka (Ukrainian flute) and panpipe player Andrei Pidkivka (his soulful paying heard on “Mother’s Lament”); and violinist Jozef Janis (whose Gypsy training shows in the fiery lead fiddle on “Songs from Vojvodina”). The group also recruited musicians proficient on instruments rarely heard on the American stage, like the Slovak fujara, a traditional shepherds flute six feet long, played in rippling cadences by bassist Branislav Brinarsky on “Slovak Shepherd’s Song”.
”Harmonia really became complete,” says Mahovlich, when versatile and savvy vocalist Beata Begeniova joined. Originally from a culturally distinct and mountainous area of Slovakia, Begeniova inherited a deep folk tradition and unique song trove. Begeniova can belt out open-voiced traditional tunes from her Rusyn heritage (“Forgive Me, Mother”), or purr through the swooping contours of Romani ballads like “Road of the Roma/Djelem, Djelem.”
Though sometimes pensive or rootsy, Harmonia brings a polish and flair to dance numbers—traditional suites of couple dances from Transylvania, or round dances from Romania—that only a hardworking dance band can achieve. Drawing on their diverse experience (Brinarsky, for example, has a hard rock band), Harmonia find subtle ways to elevate songs at the center of community dances and events to a thrilling mastery. “Romanian Ritual Dances,” an ancient ceremony that is now a symbol of Romanian-American identity, features joyful melodies and expert fiddle lines that would delight Taraf de Haidouks.
Whether keeping the party going at a formal dress ball or getting young fans dancing around the bonfire, Harmonia finds fresh moments in the oldest of forms, dusting off dances like the polka and turning them into crowd pleasers. “Some people think this kind of music is only popular among the older generations of immigrants, but that’s just not true,” Mahovlich states. “Our biggest supporters in the community and most enthusiastic fans at shows are young.”
“Someone writes a pop tune and it’s gone. But this music is still with us and still popular,” smiles Fedoriouk. “You could have heard the music on the album, the music we perform, centuries ago. We put our little twist on things, but the core, the root remains the same.”

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12 Days To GO

2012-05-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

C'mon we're still a long ways from the goal line on this one.

Spotlight: Patricia Silverberg

2012-05-07T21:37:00.000-05:00


	Music Promotion via MusicSubmit.com


Webpage: http://www.patriciasilverberg.com
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.A.
Description: Patricia Silverberg is a raw intelligent powerful folk rock artist with the emotive essences of Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman. Her poetically profound lyrics are gracefully teamed with her percussive guitar styling.
Biography: Patricia Silverberg is a raw intelligent powerful folk rock artist with the emotive essences of Natalie Merchant and Tracy Chapman. Her poetically profound lyrics are gracefully teamed with her percussive guitar styling. Her 2012 release, Don’t Look Back, is an expressive musical journey about rising from the chaotic streets of NYC to standing strong in one’s own skin while looking at the reality of love and life. Patricia originally hails from NYC. She began playing the guitar at the age of five and studied voice with several Broadway veterans. Within Arizona, she has been personally invited to many events including performing on the main stage at Pride in the Pines where she opened for Chaka Khan and Sophie B. Hawkins who described her voice as amazing and appeared on the same stage as such legends as Martha Wash and Tiffany. In addition to Pride in the Pines, Patricia has performed at dozens of venues including Flagstaff's premiere artist showcase Heritage Square, Border's, Phoenix Pride, WestGate City Center, Desert Ridge Marketplace, and tons of folk festivals, street festivals, coffee houses, cafes, and bars. She also has been a featured artist on KKNT's Arizona Music Cafe. Outside of Arizona, Patricia showcased at the International Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis and performed at the San Diego Pride Festival. She also has been invited to showcases in New York City and Los Angeles. She recently won featured airplay on NYC’s Radio Crystal Blue 2009 Airplay Vote and ranked in the 10 top against well-established Indie artists such as Melissa Ferrick. She has not only been on the playlist of Radio Crystal Blue but also NetteRadio, Celebrate Radio, Women's Radio, Radio Phoenix, Whole Wheat Radio, iSpinner, Indie Music Sample, Citrus Groove Radio, Amaz Radio, Volta Radio, and has been heard all around the world on Live365.

Amazon.com Widgets

Simply Six: Tom Fuller Band

2012-05-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

I THINK MY MOMENT WAS AN EVOLVING THING. PROBABLY THAT CRITICAL THING THAT GOT ME, WAS WHEN I WROTE A TUNE AND GOT AN EMAIL MONTHS LATER AFTER I HAD RECORDED IT. IT WAS FROM SOMEONE I DIDN'T KNOW, WHO EXPRESSED HOW THE SONG HELPED HIM GET OVER A DEEP HURT AND GAVE HIM THE FREEDOM TO REJOIN LIFE. I KNEW THEN, THAT I WAS ON A MISSION. WITH ONE FAN AT A TIME.

When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? I'M ALL OVER THE MAP. I LISTEN TO NEW AND OLD. Who are some of your favorites?

LITTLE FEAT, KLAATU, OASIS, OTIS DAY AND THE KNIGHTS, CHEAP TRICK.

What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

RECORDING WITH PAUL MCCARTNEY GUYS, PLAYING THE CAVERN CLUB IN LIVERPOOL, ANYTIME I GO INTO THE STUDIO OR GO ON STAGE WITH MY MATES.

Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to?

ABSOLUTELY. CAN ALSO HEAL PEOPLE BESIDES THE WORLD. How much can music influence current events? I DONT KNOW, BUT I KNOW IT CAN HELP.

How has technology affected the music industry?

ON ONE HAND MADE IT EASIER, ON ONE HAND DESTROYED IT.How has technology affected your career as a musician? I KEEP LEARNING NEW TRICKS. HAVE A HARD ENOUGH TIME STAYING CURRENT.:)

Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?

IF ITS WARM OUT, PROBABLY FLIPS. SIMPLE AND EASY. IF ITS COLD, BOOTS OR CHUCK TAYLORS.

Migratory Funk: The Celebratory, Border-Free Back-and-Forth Sounds of LoCura on Semilla Caminante and on Tour, Spring 2012

2012-05-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Drive down a barely noticed dirt road, in the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais or deep in the hills of gold rush country. Turn right at Granada, left when you hit Havana, and you’ll find there’s a party going on. There’s a bike-powered sound system, a friendly mosh pit, blasts of bright brass, skanking bass, flamenco flourishes, and a big slice of madness that’s simultaneously the musical cure for alienation and loss.

At the center is San Francisco’s LoCura, a band that crafts upbeat anthems and chronicles the round-trip travels of Latin and American sounds. Movement between continents informs the lush variety of LoCura’s tunes on Semilla Caminante, inspired by ida y vuelta, the notion in flamenco of musical forms that have traveled to the New World and returned transformed.

“We mix everything from funk to son cubano into our own songs, to show how diverse our communities have become and to show the common roots these different styles have,” smiles LoCura singer Katalina Miletich. “Semilla Caminante, the idea of ‘traveling seed,’ is a reminder of this movement, this interchange, and of the creative resistance that continues to transform our lives and is tangible in our musical expressions.”

LoCura’s jubilant sound of resistance and restored connections will be traveling up the West Coast this spring, as the group embarks on its first major tour of the region. Cities include San Diego, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento.

{full story below}

LoCura may rock one of the more traditional flamenco palos (“Desde las Entrañas”) or a full-on, punked-out ska anthem for occupiers (“Squatter’s Song”). They can throw a party while celebrating the power and activism of Latinas (“Guerriller@s”) or toss out a growling, tongue-in-cheek critique of self-absorbed greed (“To’ Pa’ Mi”).

“One big inspiration for the ways we consciously and unconsciously connect different music is this idea that styles and rhythms travel from Africa and Europe to South America, Cuba, America, mixing with French, Italian, indigenous sounds, and then travel back,” Miletich notes. “Culture is alive in so many different ways, and shows up in different places to tell a story.”

LoCura’s members have experienced this transformation firsthand. Born and raised in Spain, Miletich landed in the small California town of Angel’s Camp to visit family, and was soon “at loose ends, not sure what to with myself,” she recounts. She had no idea she was about to become the lead singer for an eccentric local band. Though she had a background in theater, she had never done any singing or songwriting in her life.

Then one night, Miletich wound up at a wild party, way down a rural dirt road. “There was this band in these crazy costumes, these amazing, fun people,” recalls Miletich fondly. “I thought, ‘This is what I’ve been looking for.’” Before long, she found herself gripping a mic and free-styling in Spanish. The band asked her to join on the spot.

Guitarist and bassist Bob Sanders also happened to be playing with the band that night. A native of the Sierra foothills, he had gotten hooked on flamenco early. He met Miletich, and it was an instant musical connection. After the crazy night in the hills, he and Miletich struck up a close musical friendship. They eventually moved to the Bay Area. There, they founded LoCura.

Miletich and Sanders found inspiration at the intersection of Bay Area bohemia and the active, outspoken Latino arts community. They played packed arts spaces and Occupy camps with bike-powered speakers. In this fertile community of artists, they found Flamenco dancer Stephanie Narvaez, renegade klezmer/reggae bassist Izzy, "el Rumbero de la Mission" Sergio Duran, San Francisco native and trumpeter extraordinaire Danny Cao, and, most recently, drummer Carrie Jahde.

LoCura’s roots also lie deep in the literary, innovative voices of San Francisco’s Latino artists, writers like multilingual poet Agustin Palacios (who penned the lyrics that became “Manzanilla) “Being raised bicultural by an American father in Spain and learning my own form of Spanglish, it was impacting to arrive to California and find validation and common experiences in Chicano culture,” Miletich muses. Her lyrics dance between languages on soulful songs like “Préndela.”

The band itself has traveled between scenes, between packed art venues and major festivals, between Mission street corners (where they’ve debuted songs like “Te sigo”) and storied plazas in Granada, where they traded licks and lived with Gitano street musicians. Marked by Miletich's infectious voice and way with words, the band has grown from a trio to a bumping seven-piece band. Channeling the genre-defying, Latin-rooted spirit of musicians like flamenco innovators Ojos de Brujo or bold songstress Lila Downs, LoCura has shared the stage with everyone from reggae scion Ziggy Marley to the global bass music masters Beats Antique. They have sold out Bay Area venues like The Great American Music Hall and The Independent.

“LoCura's music is filled with a sense of longing and hope. We want to evoke a world without borders, a time where we begin to recognize each other and our common grounds,” Miletich reflects. “With our music we hope to bring people from diverse experiences together in one space of celebration and reflection, and open up dialogue.”
http://www.worldmusicwire.com/

Simply Six: Gene Butler

2012-05-06T04:00:00.000-05:00

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew
they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed
Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan
half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

when i was a little kid in macon, georgia, i used to sneak out of the church i was attending and run down to the afro-american church three blocks away. i'd sit outside on the steps of that church and listen to the gospel choir through the open doors. the way those amazing voices made me feel is hard to explain. it was like i was transported from this world and into a different world where everything was safe and all dreams were allowed and encouraged. there was a higher power at work and i wanted to be a part of it. and it was while sitting on those steps that i decided i wanted to be a singer.

2 . When you’re not creating music what are you listening   to? Who are some of

your favorites?

i listen to so many different types of music that it's damn near impossible to list them all. there is hardly any kind of music i don't give a listen. however, some of my favorite singers are john prine, merle haggard, dwight yoakum, adele, tonny bennet, k.d. lang, bruce springstein, andrea bocelli, and the list goes on and on.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record

or live?

i'd have to say that one of my greatest moments was when i was in the studio doing my first album and all of a sudden i looked around and there were five musicians and two engineers all working as hard as they could on a song that i wrote. the only words that came to mind was "holy crap!"

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something   to listen   to?

How much can music influence current events?

it's been said that "music is the international language" and i believe that to be true. go to a neal diamond concert or a john prine concert, look around at all the different types of people and for two hours or more there is "peace" among us. no war, no hunger, no greed, no suffering....just the beautiful, singular language of the music. life would be so much better if the whole world attended the same concert at the same time.

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected

your career as a musician? since i don't have a clue as to how to fix a car, build a ship, cook lobster thermidor, run a bank, or run for office, i'd have to say my career as a musician is about the only career i have a handle on.

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of

shoes would you be? actually, i'd be a barbara walters type of shoe. that way i'd get to ask the questions.