Taking a modern twist on American roots music, the Vinegar Flies blend traditional blues, country, old time, originals, and bluegrass into a snafu of contemporary music.
If there were an East Nashville Music Hall of Fame, Amelia White would already be in it. The now-famous scene was in its formative days when White arrived from Boston in the early 2000s and became a fixture at the Family Wash. She’s been a leading light in America’s most musical zip code ever since, even as she’s developed a reputation in the rest of the U.S. and Europe as a first-rate songwriter. She helped define and refine the core folk-rock sound of Americana, yet her band’s energetic pulse never outshines her carefully wrought lyrics. She’s a poet who’s been compared to more famous songwriters for years; now, it would be more appropriate to use her as a benchmark.
White’s seventh album, Rhythm of the Rain, due out January 25, 2019, is a volume of ruminations and short stories written largely during a tour in the U.K. in 2016. There, at a distance and with a sense of helplessness, she watched America’s political system and her values attacked from within. Then the project was recorded by East Nashville sonic maestro Dave Coleman (The Coal Men) in an emotionally wrenching four days between White losing her mother and marrying her partner. Roots music is a journal of love and loss, and Rhythm of the Rain couldn’t be a more potent dispatch.
“As a songwriter, I feel obliged to tell the stories that are coming through in the air to me in my world whether it’s personal or political or both. That can be hard,” White says. “The antenna is always on. Man, you’ve got to feel a lot. It’s a heavy load sometimes.”
She’s shared shows with the likes of Brandy Clark, Asleep at the Wheel, John Prine, and Justin Townes Earle, as well as performed for a handful of folks in unknown cafes. “There was a point in my career where I realized you have to go out and knock on doors with your songs,” she allows. “They need to be sung for people and that means a relentless tour schedule. If I were a trucker I’d be rich.”
The 12-song collection opens with a sunny snap of drums and a slurry steel-like guitar figure, in keeping with the electric punch that’s always been a key part of White’s sound. Then “Little Cloud Over Little Rock” zooms in on a scene in a bar in Middle America, where White lets telling details evoke a situation full of mixed emotions, of resignation and perseverance. White has always gleaned song inspiration through talking with people in the cities she visits. “I find that if I truly open up on stage, people come and want to tell me about the skeletons in their closet.”
The artist balances bitterness and grace in the farewell song “Mother of Mine.” She says that after her mother’s passing, “I wrote a letter to her — a really honest letter, and of course a song came about.” “She wanted me to be ‘a classic little girl’ and that’s not what she got. I could never say these words to her face, and now she’ll hate me from the grave,” White adds with a wistful laugh.
In a timely tune, White gives a sexist music industry the back of her hand in “Free Advice,” a song that came about after repeated DJs asked her about her age, “Would you ask Bob Dylan that? In “Said it Like a King” (written with Lori McKenna ) personal, religious and political bullies are exposed. True or Not ( written post Women’s March on Washington ) transmutes the despair of the worlds unfairness into a “peaceful battle cry.”
Though she lives in one of those famous blue islands in a red state, local evangelical bigotry was enough to prompt “How It Feels” as a celebration and affirmation of her marriage. She notes, “It’s tough growing up gay in the South — in the past year it feels like they are trying to shove us back in the closet.”
Amelia White doesn’t chase opportunities. She chases songs and gives her entire focus to the listeners and fans who show up, year after year, to commune with her music. Her songs and co-writes have been recorded by some of the great names of Americana music; Anne McCue, Julie Christensen, Wild Ponies, and Tony Furtado. “When faced with whether to go out in Nashville and schmooze, or take a walk and start a song in my head I’d always choose the SONG,” she says. “And sometimes I feel that I pay for that.”
Yet we listeners are the ones getting something of value.
–Craig Havighurst
British singer-songwriter Bobby Long emerged from London’s club scene with a reputation for creating memorable songs inhabited by hauntingly poetic lyrics. He relocated to New York in 2009 and has since released four CDs inhabited by powerful original material: A Winter Tale (2011)—an homage to his acoustic roots; Wishbone (2013)—a gritty opus that showcases his sorrow-filled voice and stellar guitar playing; the critically-acclaimed Ode to Thinking (2015, Compass Records), which applies his varied musical influences to a compelling collection of original songs, and the latest, Sultans, arriving on March 1, 2019.
Of him, one writer recently wrote: “Bobby Long is a British-born singer-songwriter who wraps his voice around the truth without judgment, melancholy without tears. His gentle guitar style allows for his plaintive and honest lyrics to crash like thunder. It’s the blues with a solution. There are many comparisons to be made, but toss those aside for a moment won’t you and leave it to the man, his guitar, and you.”
Additionally, Long has published two volumes of poetry—Losing My Brotherhood (2012) and Losing My Misery (2016), both available from Amazon and other retailers.
Vermont based, Massachusetts raised singer-songwriter Joe Sabourin has been releasing music under the moniker My Mother’s Moustache for over three years. Sabourin mixes a dynamic and precise approach to the guitar with emotional, experience-driven lyrics.
Drawing from a well of musical experiences that includes performing Folk, Bluegrass, Americana, and Celtic music, he conjures up a sound that you think you’ve heard, but never experienced quite like this: a fusion of Folk music and any other genre that comes knocking. The band’s new music drives Sabourin’s writing deeper and deeper into his songwriting roots, pushing the delicate balance between instruments and voices to the forefront. Ian Koeller and Chris Tranten round out the troupe, both lending their knack for supporting the song. All three members of the band show that the song is most important, but are also more than competent to step out a little bit when the time is right.
Whether solo, duo, or with a full band the focus is always on the creation of a sonic atmosphere where songs can grow and transform based on the moment, mood, or room, so the music takes on a new edge each time it is performed.
Joe Sabourin / Guitar and Vocals
Chris Tranten / Bass
Ian Koeller / Drums and Percussion
Boston’s own Twisted Pine [Boston Music Awards Americana Artist of 2021] has been on the road all summer. Now the band is looking forward to a hometown play at Passim. They return packing new work, faves, and covers. Can’t wait to see you there!
Twisted Pine has been praised by NPR for their “upbeat, poppy vibe; energetic, driving rhythms; and virtuosic solos.” Their skyrocketing pandemic release Right Now [Signature Sounds Recordings] ranges limitless from bluegrass to funk, jazz, pop, and soul. Twisted Pine is Kathleen Parks on five-string fiddle and lead vocals, Dan Bui on mandolin, Chris Sartori on upright bass, and Anh Phung on flute. “Twisted Pine doesn’t just break the rules, they rewrite them,” writes Glide.
“They were once bluegrass,” writes The Boston Globe, “but … this Boston band has become something else, a wider version of string band, boundary jumpers akin to outfits like Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek, and Crooked Still.” Photo: Blake Hannahson, in Telluride, CO
Over the past decade, Austin-based troubadour Rebecca Loebe has been steadily building her audience the old fashioned way: driving hundreds of thousands of miles in an old station wagon, performing in listening rooms and theaters across the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, and the UK. During her last radio interview in England, an announcer for the BBC declared “Your voice should be available for free on the National Health!”
Her singing voice landed her on national television when she was cast on the first season of NBC’s The Voice. Ask her about that experience and she’ll proudly tell you that, since her mentorship with Adam Levine, “His career has really skyrocketed and I’m just so proud of that boy.”
Lately she’s been indulging a sneaky pastime. “I like to write catchy songs about topics that are meaningful to me, but use fun hooks to put words in people’s mouths.” She admits, “My favorite thing is to get people singing along before they even realize they’re singing about women’s equality or their own self-worth.”
In 2019, she released her fifth studio album, her first collaboration with the Grammy nominated Houston-based record label Blue Corn Music. The genre-bending album borrows equally from the worlds of intimate folk, ear wormy pop, and no-holds-barred Americana.
Refusing to pledge allegiance to any single genre was a creative gamble that has paid off in a big way: Give Up Your Ghosts has received the best press of Loebe’s career including praise from Billboard, Rolling Stone, and legendary rock critic Dave Marsh, who said: “Once I put it on I couldn’t take it off.”
Recently, Rebecca has spent her time recently writing, recording, performing online, and launching a Youtube series about what really goes on behind the scenes in the lives and careers of independent musicians. She also got a dog, so if you hate puppy pictures, make sure not to look at her social media.
David Champagne just won’t go away. His slippery blues-punk guitar playing and unpredictable lyricism was conceived out of rolling loose leaf cigarettes with pages from Old Testament in the alley behind the Stillwater, Oklahoma U-Tote-M.
David Champagne is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. His most prominent band was Treat Her Right. He grew up in Kansas City, and after spending time in New York and California, he moved to Boston where he became a longtime fixture on the local music scene. Around the turn of the 1980s, he was in Shane Champagne, which Trouser Press described as being like Graham Parker’s band, the Rumour. This group issued several singles. Alcott was also in Pink Cadillac, “a sharp rockabilly-cum-rock’n’roll trio” that released one EP in 1983.
In Treat Her Right, Champagne’s “tremulous slide guitar” provided part of the band’s distinctive quality, as Nashville music journalist Robert K. Oermann put it. People magazine wrote that Champagne mimicked the moaning vocal-slide guitar interplay that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page did so well in the early days of Led Zeppelin. That article also noted how Champagne and Mark Sandman wrote “bona-fide bad luck songs with a wink.”
Whereas Sandman achieved greater fame with Morphine, Champagne was not in the limelight after Treat Her Right disbanded. Yet he continues to perform in the Boston area under his stage name. In recent years, his project has been called Agnostic Gospel. His wife Katie has been his partner in some of his musical endeavors.
Playing songs both new and old, Pretty Saro burst into New England Bluegrass scene in 2016. Since then the group has been honing in on their love for traditional music and contemporary songwriting. Dynamic arrangements and high energy performances take the listener on a journey through their personal experiences. Devon Gardner (Fiddle), Alex Formento (Guitar), and Joe Everrett (Bass) bring together their wide array of musical backgrounds to create a sound that builds on the foundation made by the heros who came before them.
The band has appeared on the stages of Grey Fox, Ossissipee Valley Music Festival, Freshgrass, Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, and many more. They frequently play all around the New England area at places like Club Passim, The Burren, Nick-a-Nees, Zenbarn, and other lovely venues as well.
Late one Sunday night in October 2003, Session Americana had its first jam around a table in the back of Toad in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Looking back, the group has had a natural, almost inevitable evolution from a loose bunch of friends sitting around swapping songs in a bar, to a hot-ticket weekly residency, to a touring collective. Along the way, the band has made nine records (so far), played clubs and festivals across the U.S. and Europe, and developed deep collaborative bonds with a wide community of musicians. Session Americana’s diligent avoidance of music business “shoulds” has led the band down a quirky and joyful path through the music world. The result is evident in the musical prowess the players and singers bring to every show. Swapping instruments, trading off lead vocals and sharing songwriting credits, Session Americana is constantly exploring new collaborations and touring like a band out of time, always searching for a welcoming and homey venue, a long lunch with old friends, and a good glass of wine.
SESSION AMERICANA is musicians’ musicians: a cast of top-shelf players, singers, and writers who tour internationally, taking their own songs, plus hundreds more from the American songbook, on the road. Whether you catch Session Americana in a rock hall or on a festival stage, you’ll be a part of the intimate, raucous scene these players built years ago at Toad, the neighborhood bar where it all began in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“It’s right there in the name for this ultra-gifted, rotating collective of singers and multi-instrumentalists. And sprawl is a good word when it comes to the Boston-based group’s raucous live shows, which were initially built around the community concept of traditional Irish seisiúns. The group… expertly blends vintage American roots music styles — from country to jazz to rock — in a rowdy but deft fashion.”- Rolling Stone
2017 NewSong Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner Crys Matthews blends Americana, folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass and funk into a bold, complex performance steeped in traditional melodies and punctuated by honest, original lyrics. Her two newest releases, The Imagineers and an EP, Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers showcase two sides of Matthews’ dynamic songwriting: The Imagineers is a selection of thoughtful songs about love and life; Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers tackles social justice themes. Songs from both projects have already won her recognition and awards including: the opportunity to perform twice at Sundance Film Festival’s ASCAP Music Cafe in Park City, UT; the People Music Network’s Social Justice Songs contest at the 2017 Northeast Regional Folk Alliance; and an official showcase at Folk Alliance International 2018 to name a few.
Equally at home in an acoustic listening room as she is on stage at large music festivals, as well as a prolific lyricist and composer, Matthews has found inspiration in her surroundings; from driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains to the compelling and heart-breaking love story of Richard and Mildred Loving. Thoughtful, realistic and emotional, Matthews’ songs speak to the voice of our generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul.
