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October 16, 2009
Friday |
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From the Couch House Concert Series (2009.03)
Susan Cowsill
The singer/songwriter made her initial mark on popular culture at the tender
age of eight with The Cowsills, the 60s family pop group that not only scored Top Ten singles
The Rain, the Park and Other Things, Hair and We Can Fly
but also served as the real-life inspiration for TV's fictional Partridge
Family. During Susan’s decade with roots-pop supergroup The Continental
Drifters, she won the hearts of discerning listeners with her impassioned vocals
and personally-charged songwriting, gracing three widely-acclaimed albums and a
decade’s worth of riveting performances. Cowsill's vocal talents have
beautifully supported recordings from artists as diverse as Dwight Twilley, Redd
Kross, The Smithereens, Giant Sand, Nanci Griffith, Carlene Carter and Jules
Shear, while her compositions have been covered by The Bangles and Hootie and
the Blowfish.
"This year's South by Southwest (SXSW) featured a cornucopia of high profile
New Orleans acts, but one of the most moving Louisiana showcases came from the
Susan Cowsill band ... promoting her first album JUST BELIEVE IT. Cowsill's set
was a bravura performance that proved this late-blooming star has finally come
into her own ... Cowsill has played SXSW before and the difference was
remarkable. In the past, there was fragility to her stage presence, as if she
didn't fully realize that she could break your heart or make you smile just by
opening her mouth. Her voice is one of those numinous instruments that a small
handful of people possess, a unique combination of physical characteristics,
mental discipline and a passion that wells up from some hidden recess of human
emotion." ~John Swenson
– Offbeat Magazine
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March 26, 2009
Thursday |
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From the Couch House Concert Series (2009.02)
Jeff and Vida Band
Vida's powerful
vocals and driving 1942 Gibson J-45 guitar with Jeff's rock-n-roll approach to
mandolin and guitar gets crowds feet stomping, and "is about as perfect a
combination as you're likely to find." Performing original songs spanning from
Appalachian bluegrass to alternative country, New Orleans's well-known acoustic
roots act Jeff & Vida have recently relocated to Nashville. After three
studio recordings and years of rigorous touring nationally and internationally,
Jeff & Vida have found a creative musical setting with their newest band.
Jeff and Vida's past performances include the Ryman Auditorium, New Orleans Jazz
& Heritage Festival, and the Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival in Ireland, and
they were featured in a New York Times article titled Nashville’s
Band of Outsiders in September
2007.
"In a City that values its rhinestones, Jeff and Vida are managing to make music that is real and true. Theirs are the songs that you long to hear late at night on the interstate, in poolhalls and smokey whiskey bars.
– New York Times
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March 6, 2009
Friday |
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From the Couch House Concert Series (2009.01)
Colin Lake
In the summer of 2001, while on a month-long motorcycle trip to Alaska and
Canada's Northwest Territories, Colin Lake quietly began to craft a style and
sound that would not come to fruition for many years.
At the time, Colin was a novice guitar player and songwriter who had yet to
even really sing, and the 'band' that he was forming in his head was little more
than a fantasy. Over the next several years, however, Colin put more and more
weight into his craft, becoming a proficient songwriter as well as a remarkably
soulful vocalist and lap-slide guitar player.
In early 2007, Colin released his debut album, Wax
Wane, a blues-infused romp through love, death, and politico that
included a slew of well-crafted original tunes alongside covers of Bukka White
and Chris Whitley, one of Colin's strongest modern influences.
Later that year, Lake won the 2007 Telluride Acoustic Blues Competition and
would prove himself as a stellar solo blues performer to his largest audience
yet.
Meanwhile, back in Portland, the sound that Lake had been dreaming of years
earlier had taken shape and was now hitting its stride in the form of
"Welbottom", the band that Colin formed in 2006 when he enlisted bass player
Kevin Marcotte and drummer Jason Stewart – a monster rythym section steeped in
blues, funk, and jazz.
In October of 2007, Colin Lake & Wellbottom retreated to the Cascade
Mountains of Washington to record their new album, Bullet. Tracked over two days and recorded live in one
room, the album features over an hour of epic tunes and uncanny interplay, along
with Lake's best songwriting and vocal performances to date.
Recently released and warmly received, Bullet is
sure to propel Lake and his band into a realm that he could only dream of as he
rode north six years ago.
"...superb songwriting and vocal style bolstered by scorching slide-guitar and
driving grooves... Colin Lake and Wellbottom will blow your mind."
– Rebecca Thoreson, The Telluride Watch
"In concert, Lake was a revelation; sitting, almost buddha-like, centering a
caldron of sound, casually signaling the band with a simple glance, beaming as
he played his laptop slide and easing into vocals that would have Lowell
George's ghost nodding approval."
– Music journalist Zaph Mann
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October 18, 2008
Saturday |
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AMP 502
Alexandria Zoo
The
Felice Brothers
The Felice Brothers got
their start as a band playing in the New York City Subway, but their
musical experience started much earlier. The sons of a carpenter they
would play together on Sundays at their father's afternoon barbecues.
They stayed in a little apartment in Brooklyn and would play
at the Subway stations near 42nd. Street and Union Square in Greenwich
Village. Now they tour the country, traveling in their "Short
Bus".
"No one is doing what
Felice is doing."
– BBC
Radio/London
Deer
Tick
Deer
Tick
began in December of 2004 in the bedroom of Providence, Rhode Island
native, John McCauley. With a tape recorder and a nylon string guitar,
he did what most anybody would do; he made tapes for his friends. Much
has changed since then, but the attitude remains the same.
John
McCauley recruited two other Rhode Island natives, namely
Dennis
Ryan (drums) and Chris Ryan (bass), as well as Andrew Tobiassen (lead
guitar). The band now tours nationally and internationally
and
rest is history in the making.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q:
Are Chris and
Dennis Ryan related?
A:
Yes, they are brothers.
Q:
Is John
McCauley related to Matthew McConaughey?
A:
Yes, they are cousins.
Q:
Was Chris Ryan
temporarily replaced by a man named Sandyman?
A:
Yes, on March 30th, 2008 at the Mercury Lounge in New York City.
Sandyman stole the money they made at the door so Deer Tick hired Chris
back. |
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April 12 , 2008
Saturday |
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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
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June 9 , 2007
Saturday |
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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.
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February 21 , 2007
Wednesday
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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
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November 4 , 2006
Saturday
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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.
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June 3, 2006
Saturday
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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." |
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October 29, 2005
Saturday
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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.
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. |
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June 18,
2005
Saturday
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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. |
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November
6, 2004
Saturday
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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. |
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May 22,
2004
Saturday
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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. |
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