Well, for over two years, I’ve looked to establish a separate presence for music-only articles on Mandrake FM. Well, you know what? The music podcasts and articles are moving…back to the main blog, Mandrake Society Radio. Music is a part of me and my community’s story, so like a return to the beginning my main blog, the music mixtapes and the new Take Three section will now be hosted there, with the music podcast interviews split between there and posted at popolio.com. These changes are effective today, June 1, 2009. Please change your blogroll links to www.popolio.com, which has an Austin and Dallas music focus as well as regional/national music, and www.mandrakesocietyradio.com, which focus on more Dallas music and issues as well as regional/national music and issues. Thanks for supporting this blog experiment.

The blog interview feature on Mandrake FM is now going to be called ‘Take Three’, just so that you have just a quick taste of a new artist to add to your daily soundtrack. This week, we start off with an R&B Dance artist from the United Kingdom. If you’re an artist interested in being highlighted on the Take Three section, just write me at mandrakesociety[at]gmail.com.

Take One:

Artist: Richard Alexander Davis
Genre: Soul/R&B/Dance (Think a cross between the more upbeat moments of Luther Vandross and Seal)
Latest release: Lovin’ You Direct from Lovetown Records (Indie)
Main Website: http://www.myspace.com/richardalexanderdavis
Quick Bio: [From his MySpace Page] Based in the UK, Richard is a classically trained vocalist, pianist and songwriter that’s been in the music business for thirty years. During the early 1980’s Richard worked with talented American musicians playing the Funk and Soul standards of the time on the club circuit. During his career Richard has worked alongside artists such as XTC, Tears For Fears, The JALN Band, Tom Robinson, Nick Stracker, Wilko Johnson, Eddy Grant, The Night Crawlers, Omar and Rick Clarke.

Take Two:
From his upcoming June release, here’s “High From Your Lovin’”.

Take Three:
MFM: What’s been your experience with soul audiences from North America compared to the UK?

RAD: Very good, Soul audiences seem to be much more appreciative than audiences of other music styles, this seems to be the case worldwide.

MFM: What was your musical inspiration at the time of recording your latest CD?

RAD: Old Skool all the way!! Lot’s of late 70’s and early 80’s Soul and Funk tunes, obscure and well known, plus some more recent Dance grooves.

MFM: Compared to your long career in music, what’s one nugget of truth you should share with a fellow artist who’s just developing their craft?

RAD: Work as hard as you can, it will pay off in the end, and that hard work teaches you so much about music.

It’s a rock-pop mood today with some slight detours, so here’s the playlist:

Dove Hunter – What Turns Inside
Gregory Douglass – Cathedrals
Hong Kong in the 60’s – Fox’s Wedding
Levi Kreis – Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
N’Dambi – Young Lady
Wendy and Lisa – Niagara Falls
Mid*One – Easy Come and Easy Go
Darci Monet – Jezebel

Ugh! I hate when this happens.

Only one of my favorite Swedish groups since Komeda, Little Dragon, hits House of Blues in Dallas on Sunday, May 17th, opening for TV on the Radio and I won’t be able to be there! Cruel, cruel that I didn’t plan in time for this show!

Their 2007 debut was only one of the year’s best for me, mainly because of the soulful vocal stylings of Yukimi Nagano. And they’ll probably be doing songs their forthcoming project which I am eagerly awaiting. Damn!

Well, I guess videos will have to do for now. *sniff *

Bringing both a throaty rock vocal, as well as a soft acoustic touch, songwriter, Darci Monet’s Fusion drops on May 12th, 2009. Just in case the name doesn’t ring a bell with you, she is a songwriting partner of Levi Kreis, whom we’ve just featured here and on popolio.com.

Take a listen to the single, “Jezebel”, from Fusion.

Catch more at her website, http://www.darcimonet.com.

..at least that’s the word I’m hearing underground. If you want to hear the truth on it, listen to Stefine Rachel’s Blog Talk Radio show, VIP, tonight at 9:30 C.S.T, RFTW lead vocalist, Melvin Riley, will be a special guest.

Until then, 80’s R&B fans, while you get ready to do your best, “Oh Sheila”, impression, prepare to hear the other goodies from Melvin like the following cuts:

Bringing adult/contemporary and jazz, here’s today’s playlist:

“Street Sound” by Pimps of Joytime
“Hold On” by Nathan Haines feat. Tama Waipara and Joel Haines
“The Optimist” by Stan Harrison
“Fractions” by Timeline
“Beautiful fate” by Astronauts of Antiquity
“For My Children’s Love” by Finley Quaye
“Sixty-Five” by Roland Satterwhite

Photo by Terri Johnson / Tripe Fire Photography

While discussing the songwriting and recording process between The Gospel and Where I Belong, Levi shares his experience in embracing religious diversity and confronting anti-gay rhethoric within the Christian Church. Enjoy the interview and catch more music and photos(!) of Levi at his website.

Also, my cockatiel, Stinky, makes a special cameo. He likes Levi, too.

Freddie has a great podcast conversation with R&B/soul artist, Wayna. She talks about her recent Grammy nomination for her interpolation of Minnie Riperton’s “Lovin’ You”, from her 2008 disc, Higher Ground. However, it’s the song, “Billieclub”, that the most ironic success for her. That’s because she was arrested at a Houston airport soon after her performance at SXSW for carrying an actual billy club that she uses in her act while performing the song. Listen as she shares her experience with that ordeal.

She also calls the popolio pop quiz one of her favorite interviews so far, and I think that’s very cool! Good on you, Freddie!

After I received the tweet from Pete Freedman about the bands having to move inside because of noise, I figured I’d get on down to Good Records to see what the fuss was about. This past Saturday was Record Store Day and Good Records 9th Birthday celebration. I always seemed to miss the store when I go to Greenville, so seeing the black tarp and stage set up helped me identify the store for the first time .

I stepped into the store and heard Jack With One Eye. They gave a energetically noisy and dramatic live pop set, mainly because their drummer was a absolute beast! Dove Hunter also had a guy killing it on the drums and holding solid grooves in concert with the bassist. It’s so great to see new (to me) bands live that you want to see perform again. And the fact that they’re local makes the deal even sweeter. Hip-hop soul crew, Dem Southernfolkz also had a good show, however I’d love to catch them again with a live bass player, which I think would really fill out their live sound.

The Cannabinoids featuring Erykah Badu were on the outdoor stage surprisingly, only because I thought it got shut down earlier. However, I knew that with the level of synthetic bass, squonks, and squeal being mixed live on the stage it would only be a matter of time before Dallas Police would shut it down again. Before DPD arrived though, Ms. Badu gave a solid vocal performance of her hits, “On & On” , mixed with “…& On” (from Mama’s Gun), and “Appletree”. The only misstep I painfully noticed were the chords in “On & On”, which were just plain wrong! This wasn’t about jazz dissonance, this was “I don’t know the chords!”. A frightful musical moment in an otherwise grooving improvisational set.

All good things came to a end with the Dallas Police shutting it down, even the inside bands. Boo on them for real! However, thank you Tim and Good Records gang, Taco Joint, and Monster Energy for a very nice Record Store Day!