Alexandria Music Project

April 12 , 2008 Saturday		AMP 501 Red River Amphitheater Grupo Fantasma The finest and funkiest latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade, continues to ride the momentum of an enormous 2007 into the new year. From their critically acclaimed performances with Prince in London this past August (their first trip overseas and in front of 20,000 people) to a national airing on PBS’s Austin City Limits television program, the band continues to expand their musical horizons and earth-shattering live shows. Other significant accomplishments include NPR features on Latino USA and Song of the Day, recording of a BBC Radio session at the infamous Maide Valle Studio in London, the Fantasma horn section performing at clubs and festivals with indie-rock stalwarts Spoon, licensing of albums for distribution in Europe, and several guest spots on international releases. *"Real musicians playing real music."* – Prince AWARDS • 2007 Premios de Musica Latina (Univision Awards) Best Latin Rock • 2007 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band • 2006 Premios de Musica Latina (Univision Awards) Best Band • 2006 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band • 2006 Austin Music Awards: Best Horns • 2005 Premios de Musica Latina (Univision Awards) Best Latin Rock • 2005 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band • 2005 Austin Music Awards: Best Horns • 2004 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band • 2003 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band • 2002 Austin Music Awards: Best Latin Band The Iguanas, purveyors of an irresistible blend of roots rock, Crescent City R&B, swamp pop, and Tex-Mex, define themselves by a certain sexy and genuine New Orleans swing. By that we're not talking four-on-the-floor walking and hi-hat sizzle. The band instead offers ample supplies of grease, grit, dance-floor grace, and, now more than ever, lyric-writing gravitas. The group's first studio disc since 1999's Sugar Town, and fifth since playing its initial shows thirteen years ago, isn't as much of a party disc, as, say, its eponymous 1993 debut, or the following year's Nuevo Boogaloo. The Iguanas' latest recording, a reunion with their first producer, Justin Niebank (Eric Clapton, Phish, John Hiatt, Blues Traveler), is a little bit fiesta, with pieces like saxophones-barking stomper "Flame On"; the sneaky, snaking "Zacatecas"; grungy six-string blast "I Dig You"; and the insistent Latin groove of "Un Avion," one of several pieces sung in Spanish. - Miami New Times
October 13 , 2007 Saturday		AMP 402 Red River Amphitheater Big Sam's Funky Nation Presiding over his Funky Nation is Big Sam, a big man with an impeccable urban fashion sense, who blows the funk out of his trombone and refuses to let the audience sit still. Between solos and trombone riffs, Big Sam second-lines (a uniquely New Orleans style of street-dance) and gets the crowd going both in movement and in replies to his call-and-response MC-style. A talented group of jazz-trained musicians makes up the Funky Nation, bringing with them the improv-style associated with jazz and the horn-heavy front section that's the hallmark of big band funk. Groovesect In June 2007, Groovesect was voted New Orlean's Best Funk Band by "Where Yat" magazine. They placed second in that magazine's Best Contemporary Jazz category. Drawing influences from Medeski Martin and Wood, Soulive, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, Grant Green, The Meters, Stevie Wonder and Jimmy Smith, Groovesect brings a unique blend of jazz, funk and rock to the musical table. Groovesect is definitely a band to watch for.
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June 9 , 2007 Saturday		AMP 401 Red River Amphitheater The Drams Jam packed with brawny, spirited, hands-in-the-air rockers, stirring anthems and harrowing ventures exploring a culture sapped by hollow heroes and soul-killing, high-tech crapola, The Drams careen out of Texas with Jubilee Dive—a welcome jolt of rockyroll that is fresh and vital even as it flaunts an effortless command of time-tested rock maneuvers. Fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Brent Best, The Drams’ lineup merges lead guitarist Jess Barr and drummer Tony Harper (from Best’s long-running, alt-everything mavericks, Slobberbone) with singer/keyboardist Chad Stockslager and singer/bassist Keith Killoren (both from Dallas’ Budapest One), and while fans of Best’s previous work won’t be thrown completely for a loop, The Drams’ soaring vocal harmonies, expanded instrumental range and ebullient, hook-laden rock’n’pop adventurousness have taken it all to a new, invigorating level. The Bottle Rockets THE BOTTLE ROCKETS remain one of the most steel-solid bands amongst the greatest of rural-rock trailblazers. The St. Louis, Missouri outfit long regarded and adored as THE workingman's rock band have hit a creative high water mark with a new homecoming record that is at once their most spirited and finely honed. Zoysia is the latest sample of the Bottle Rockets' tenaciousness, their eighth album and second release on Bloodshot Records. Produced by Jeff Powell at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis and captured largely in two or three takes in a city with its own kind of groove. Coming out on the heels of a litany of knee-jerking changes measuring 4-years deep, this album finds the band (Brian Henneman --guitar/ vocals, Mark Ortmann --drums, John Horton --guitar, and newest and final member, Keith Voegele bass/vocals) the proudest they've ever been of any other recorded works. The Bottle Rockets channel some serious cascading Crazy Horse squall, they nail the scruffy romantic, dirty fingernail rock of the Midwest and soak up the soulful vibes that ooze from the cement blocks in Memphis studios. Lyrically, the band's underdog outlook finds the optimism and the resignation behind worlds faraway, or just on the other side of the screen door. Add it all up and what you get is something that's all its own, something that is pure Bottle Rockets.

February 21 , 2007 Wednesday		HOUSE CONCERT SERIES: AMP 001 Alex 1805 (A.K.A. Four Corners) - 912 Third Street, Alexandria The Can Kickers Old Timey Riot Music for Dancing: "Someday, after the bombs fall and the electrical grid topples over, when theres no juice for our stereos and we'll have to ransack those yellowed books of sheet music for entertainment, the Can Kickers will roam from one punk rock squat to the next, thrashing away at acoustic guitar, banjo, fiddle, and minimal drumkit, and we'll all recognize the fury and painfully-learned truth and sheer weird timelessness in these ancient songs they've been rolling out. That's the great thing about the Can Kickers, a trio playing older-than-dirt American folk tunes with the energy of a punk band. Recognizing the malleability of these songs, thier recent four-song record contains plenty of references to the War on Terrorism and the Bush administration, but only in passing--Danny Spurr sings like a man steeped in sin and the knowledge of its wages, all moonshine and damnation and no regrets; politics here are just something to acknowledge and shake ones head at while passing the jug around. And after all, after the apocalypse, what more will we be able to do whatever happens on the other side of the mountain?" - New Haven Advocate "With barely a breath between songs, the trio ran through a set of punky bluegrass. It was a night of standout drummers- we couldn't decide whether Can Kickers drummer Doug Schaefer's frenzy was more seizure or demonic possession. (Then he pulled out the washboard, and all bets were off.) The Can Kickers are about as high-energy as it gets, and by the end of their set they had drawn some listeners out of their chairs to the front of the stage. They closed with the traditional ditty "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?," drenching it in lightning-quick banjo, fiddle and drums. We were tapping our feet until earl-aye in the morning." - Nashville Scene Show Review

November 4 , 2006 Saturday		AMP 302 Red River Amphitheater Glossary The quality (and quantity) of bands that come out of the little "holler" of Murfreesboro, TN shouldn't surprise anyone. With one of the nations' top recording programs in town at Middle Tennessee State University, the place is bound to be a hotbed for bands, musicians-to-be, and probably quite a few has-beens as well. Notable successful and somewhat-successful regionals include The Katies, The Features, and Fluid Ounces/Seth Timbs. Not to be lost in the local shuffle are the land's purveyors of thinking-man's southern rock, kicked-up and dirtied-down Americana, and just about every term that rock critics are tossing about for "alt-country" these days. Listen up, Glossary is your new band. Scott Miller and the Commonwealth Mr. Miller is this year's Ryan Adams, a talented singer-songwriter emerging from a cult band (the V-Roys) with an astonishingly good solo album (Sugar Hill). The only difference is that Mr. Adams weeps better, while Mr. Miller rocks better. (The Year in Pop and Jazz: The Critics' Choices, New York Times, Dec. 23, 2001). *Uncut Magazine Review* Review of Thus Always to Tyrants, Uncut Magazine, October 2001 If Scott Miller sounds like a surrogate Steve Earle, it's hardly surprising, Miller was part of the late lamented V-Roys, whose albums were produced by Earle, and his first solo album strongly bears the great man's influence. The blend of rock guitars, muscular melodies, roots sensibility and brutally honest lyrics make it an outstanding debut, and "Absolution" ranks as one of the great drinking songs of our time. Spirited, sassy and visceral, Billboard reckons it's the best roots-rock album of the year. They may not be far wrong.

June 3, 2006 Saturday		AMP 301 Red River Amphitheater Two Cow Garage "Let's get this out of the way right up front. Two Cow Garage is everything I imagine Uncle Tupelo must have been back in the day. The UT comparison is inevitable because these kids play the same sort of punk country. The UT comparison is unavoidable because lead singer Micah Schnabel has a great voice that splits the difference between Farrar and Tweedy, but with a growl reminiscent of Steve Earle at his best." --Jeff Sabatini, Glorious Noise (Chicago) May 19, 2003 The Gourds "There is just absolutely no way to categorize this music, these songs, without tearing up the English language. On any given night, in any given bar, somewhere out in Eugene or Amarillo or Jacksonville or Lincoln. In New York city, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle or Austin. One can sit listening to a Gourds show without a clue as to where in the hell it's gonna go. They are quilters in the true sense of the word. Scraps, fragments, leftovers, images strung together in a continuous scrabble of sheets draped over old wood like charm. This is first and foremost a music of joy. From there it is anybody's guess what the friggin' hell it is."

October 29, 2005 Saturday		AMP 202 Red River Amphitheater MOFRO Mofro’s second album, and latest release, Lochloosa, is being released on Swampland Records via Robert Randolph’s record label through Warner Brothers. The album was produced and recorded by Dan Prothero (Fog City Records). Lochloosa carries on a conversation started by its predecessor, Blackwater (also produced by Prothero). From the pensive workings of “The Wrong Side” to the gloomy haunts of “10,000 Islands” to the happy memories of the title track to the outright defiance of “Dirtfloorcracker,” one immediately gets the impression that Mofro isn’t about genre hopping. MOFRO is about soul. Richard Review

June 18, 2005 Saturday		AMP 201 Alexandria Zoo Bluerunners 5:30pm Lafayette, Louisiana’s Bluerunners blend Cajun culture with punk energy and country, blues, and roots-rock sounds. Their new recording, Honey Slides, combines tough grooves, serious playing, soulful vocals, and incisive songwriting in a perfect balance that offers one of the most distinctive sounds in American music. A superior piece of roots music. THE BOSS LOVES THE BLUERUNNERS: On his current "Devils and Dust" tour, Bruce Springsteen has personally selected the songs to be used as the "walk-in music" before he hits the stage. Three selections from the latest Bluerunners album (Honey Slides) are among Bruce's picks ("Voodoo Mens and Voodoo Dolls," "Ghost of a Girl" and "Big Head"). Furthermore, only Bob Dylan has more songs than the Bluerunners on the Boss' playlist! For all the latest Bluerunners news, head to Bluerunners.com; for Bruce's entire playlist, log on to BruceSpringsteen.net. "When I reviewed the Bluerunners' first album in 1991, I heard a lot of Scotty Moore and J. Geils Band amid the Dewey Balfa and Clifton Chenier in their electric gumbo. On Honey Slides, the Lafayette band stirs in more of everything zydeco bounce, voodoo blues, the rugged poetry of Cajun living and loving -- in perfect, original proportion." Fricke, David, Rolling Stone, June 2, 2005. Trish Murphy 8:30pm - 10:00pm The Austin Chronicle has summed up the album and Trish's talents best: "A striking tableau of empowerment, whimsicality, and longing set to rich, rootsy textures, Girls firmly secures Murphy's place in the upper echelon of Austin singer-songwriters." And it's the songs on Girls Get In Free that are the real stars. From the first notes of the jangly set opener "All I Want" to the defiant "The Trouble With Trouble" to the impassioned country rocker "Crying As Fast As I Can" to the bittersweet atmospheric "I Don't Want To Believe," this is easily Trish's best work to date.

November 6, 2004 Saturday		AMP 102 Downtown Amphitheater The Boondogs 5:00pm - 6:30pm The ones who, like those early pioneers, can't be classified, who don't fit in - well, these are the rebels now, and the leaders of this pack are the boondogs. Sparrows 6:45pm - 8:15pm Rock and roll music the way it is supposed to be made, think Stones or Bowie from the 1970s, but new and great with amazing lyrics thrown in for good measure. Eric Lindell 8:30pm - 10:00pm Lindell has taken the New Orleans club scene by storm, impressing with both a quiet reverence and a dive-bar credibility that translates into funky roots music at its zenith.

May 22, 2004 Saturday		AMP 101 Alexandria Zoological Park Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes 5:30pm - 6:30pm Up and comers and the reigning funk/rock kings of New Orleans at the moment. The Myrtles 6:45pm - 8:15pm Alternative country or indie-rock with a little twang mixed in Baton Rouge style. Theresa Andersson Group 8:30pm - 10:00pm Funky New Orleans pop-rock overlayed with electric fiddle.