Beck Song Reader Interview: Steve Lee

Get To Know Bands, Interviews 0 Comments

Anniversary Header

Hi.  It’s us again.  Ready for Saturday?  In preparation, we’ve already brought you articles/interviews with Ben Elkins of EL EL, Jared Corder of *repeat repeat, Milktooth, Daniel Ellsworth, Park Chisolm, and Anna Haas who will also be bringing Beck’s “Song Reader” sheet music to life.  Not to mention the spotlight we did of headliners Colorfeels.  Now, it is time for us to have some fun with Mr. Steve Lee.

There is more info about the party at this link here, or you can hop over to the Facebook page if that is more your speed. This thing is surely going to reach capacity, so make sure you get there early to celebrate this special night of music with us!

The legend of Steve Lee has lingered long around our hallowed halls (jesus, that sounds like a Harry Potter novel), but we only met Mr. Lee recently. The frame of reference for our meeting was at a recent 8 off 8th performance hosted by El El, and within minutes I was laughing hysterically. Steve’s current musical project is Yumzah which focuses on educational songs for children. Now, you might be saying the same thing I said before seeing them, “Why in the hell would I want to go see someone perform songs written for a two year old?” The reason why is that they are amazingly arranged, fun, tightly performed, energetic, danceable songs that have ear to ear smiles on the faces of the dancing audience (yes, apparently people in Nashville do dance sometimes).

After the set, Steve sat down to talk with us, and we immediately understood the legend of Steve Lee. His carefree sense of humor is contagious, and his creativity in even simple conversation punches you in the face. We immediately knew that we had to have him perform one of the songs from Beck’s Song Reader for our Second Anniversary Party on Saturday at The Basement.

You can read his entertaining interview, hear some Yumzah, and check out the hysterical commercial that Steve put together for Saturday night after the jump.
hilarity lives here

Beck Song Reader Interview: Anna Haas

Get To Know Bands, Interviews, Women Who Rock 0 Comments

Anniversary Header

It’s almost the day of the show, y’all. And we’re still bringing you insight into our  Two Year Anniversary Party this Saturday (May 25th) at The Basement. We’ve already brought you articles/interviews with Ben Elkins of EL EL, Jared Corder of *repeat repeat, Milktooth, Daniel Ellsworth, and Park Chisolm who will also be bringing Beck’s “Song Reader” sheet music to life.  Not to mention the spotlight we did of headliners Colorfeels.

There is more info about the party at this link here, or you can hop over to the Facebook page if that is more your speed. This thing is surely going to reach capacity, so make sure you get there early to celebrate this special night of music with us!

Today we spotlight Anna Haas. We love Anna Haas. If you need proof, check out our review of her recent show at The Basement. We love Anna so much, we asked if she would please, please, pretty please with sugar on top sing at our birthday party? And like a perfectly executed promposal (yes those are a thing) – she said “Yes!”

More on Anna after the Jump!

The East Nashville Music Chapters: The Gypsy Hombres

Get To Know Bands, Interviews, Music Calendar, News 0 Comments

This entry will launch a new series of blog entries dedicated to the musical people and places of my home-‘hood, East Nashville.  Stay tuned.  There will be interviews, stories, legends, rumors, and more!  Tia

If you have read my last artist feature about the Blackfoot Gypsies, you KNOW how much I love gypsies.

I think the most fascinating fact about them is that they are both the most romanticized and despised individuals in the world. Classic Literature and Opera provide examples. Sigh, Erik and Heathcliff. Esmerelda and Carmen! Gypsies have been labeled everything ranging from “’dangerous rogues” to “glamorous folk-artists”. Fascination and suspicion makes for some hot-ass music.

A typical Gyspy-music (also called Romani) ensemble includes violin/mandolin, accordion, bass, and most important: the guitar(s). Occasionally you’d get a clarinet in there when a violinist was absent: Hubert Rostaing! The legendary Gypsy-jazzer, Django Reinhardt certainly belongs in the guitar-god category with Page, Hendrix, Richards, and Van Halen. He was born in Belgium and raised among a tribe of Manouches in the town of Paris in 1910. At the age of 18, he was injured in a fire mishap that permanently damaged the ring finger and pinky of his left hand which forced him to create a new technique using his remaining two fingers in a time span of only 18 months. (He played all of his solos and chords with the index and middle finger). In 1934, he met the famous violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and formed the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Thus, Gypsy-jazz was born. Many cities all over the world have Hot Clubs of their own—San Francisco, Detriot, and New York, etc. East Nashville is no exception.

Click here to read about the Fiddler on Fatherland

Beck Song Reader Interview: Park Chisolm

Interviews, Music Calendar 0 Comments

Anniversary Header

Hey, it’s us again… still bringing you insight into our  Two Year Anniversary Party this Saturday (May 25th) at The Basement. We’ve already brought you articles/interviews with Ben Elkins of EL EL, Jared Corder of *repeat repeat, Milktooth, and Daniel Ellsworth who will also be bringing Beck’s “Song Reader” sheet music to life.  Not to mention the spotlight we did yesterday of headliners Colorfeels.  We’ll be spotlighting more of the folks that have joined our bill as we round out the week. But, right now, let’s talk about Park Chisolm.

Admittedly, I’m a good friend and a huge fan of Park Chisolm.  Park was one of the first friends I met upon moving to Nashville, and we have spent hours trading musical favorites in our limited free time since then.  Park has spent time as a singer-songwriter, sitting in for session work, recording artists in town, and performing all over the world playing guitar for Kevin Costner & The Modern West.  However, for a guy that some would attribute to the country music world, he has some of the most diverse musical tastes that you could possibly imagine.  To exemplify, the day I bought my (first) copy of Beck’s Song Reader, I took it straight to Park’s house to share my party idea with him.  We couldn’t be more excited to have him on board, and to see what he is going to do with his songs.

Our interview with Park Chisolm and some tunes are after the jump. There is more info about the party at this link here, or you can hop over to the Facebook page if that is more your speed. This thing is surely going to reach capacity, so make sure you get there early to celebrate this special night of music with us!
Interview and more here

[Hump Day Diversion] Jugga-life

Diversions 0 Comments

juggalos

Music is amazing, it brings people together and inspires community in a way almost nothing else can. I’m often reminded of a little pull-out quote from an article in Paste Magazine (from back when they were still a print entity) about Belle and Sebastian‘s Stuart Murdoch that reads: “When Murdoch started Belle and Sebastian, he wrote songs for daydreamers and eccentrics, the sort of music fans who’d do anything for human connection, the sort of fans who needed a voice on the radio to make them feel like they weren’t alone.”

And isn’t that what music is really all about? Feeling less alone in your experiences as you sing along in the car, wave your Iphone Zippo App in the sell-out crowd, post obsessively on Bonnaroo rumors message board threads, or regularly read a music blog like this one right here?

True music fans take their shit mad serious and the followings that have grown up around certain bands are beyond die-hard, not to mention the entire subcultures that have been spawned by a genre’s emergence on the musical landscape.

And so, dear readers – we take our first plunge into our diversion series of explorations into the Cult Of Musicality with the nearly inexplicable fandom that is the followers of Insane Clown Posse (or ICP for you Juggalos and Juggalettes out there). What is a Juggalo/lette you ask? Well, as one self-identifying Juggalette named “Maniac” puts it, the term may be defined as someone who is “down with the clown ’till they’re dead in the ground” — and that’s true fandom, friends.

Join The Gathering after the jump

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