Here’s a great live version of “You and I” from the great new Wilco album, Wilco (The Album). I’ve been meaning to review this for a while, but life and our impending move are taking up a lot of blogging time.
In the meantime . . .
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
One of the artists that I’ve been really excited about over the past year or so is Samantha Crain and her band The Midnight Shivers. In 2008, the band released a very, very good EP, “The River.” This got the buzz going for them and they made a lot of year-end best of lists. This April they released “Songs In The Night.” This truly excellent album has been getting a huge amount of play on my iPod. And fortunately for us, Samantha Crain and her band played the GrassRoots festival on Sunday at 4 PM. Led by Singer and songwriter, Samantha Crain, this is a band that’s taking their time and building a fan base. They play an infectious, melody driven blend of folk, alt-country, and rock all built around the songs and voice of Samantha Crain. Keep an eye on them because they seemed to be heading for great things. Dynamic Meter was fortunate and got the chance to talk with Samantha Crain a few weeks before the GrassRoots festival took place.
Photo by Sam Lamb Courtesy of Press Here Publicity
Dynamic Meter: You’re from Oklahoma. Did you grow up rural or urban?
Samantha Crain: Laughs. I don’t think there’s any part of Oklahoma that is urban. I grew up in a town; I didn’t grow up in the middle of nowhere. But it’s a small town.
DM: Do you think that had any influence on your music?
SC: Probably. I think more than anything it just influenced me to kind of have more of an imagination. There’s not a whole lot to do around where I grew up, so you’re sort of forced to entertain yourself. And so I think that’s where I started writing little stories and stuff like that. Even as a precursor to songwriting, I was just writing stories a lot.
DM: Yeah, you can see that story sense in songs like “The River.” They’re really story based. Was it a musical family?
SC: No, I got into music later. I was more into sports and stuff growing up. And I got into music when I got into college. And it was really self-motivated. I had to play guitar and decided out of boredom that I was going to teach myself how to play guitar and write songs.
DM: The band is really great. How did you guys meet?
SC: I did a couple of semesters of college and then I kind of quit college and went out to a musicians colony in Martha’s Vineyard and met Steve [Sebastian] who’s our electric guitar player out there. And he was also in that particular program. Jacob [Edwards] who is our drummer was Steve’s roommate in college. And Andy [Tanz who plays bass] was Jacob’s friend from back home. So it was each person who knew somebody who happened to play the instrument that we needed to form this band.
DM: Where did the name The Midnight Shivers come from? It seems really fitting when I think about a song like “ The River.” And I think shiver is even in the lyrics.
SC: Jacob came up with it. He used to sit around and think up band names . . . and I think that was just one of the many and we liked it and just went with it.
DM: It seems like you guys are pretty hot and getting a lot of notice. Does it feel like that to you? And how’s your career tracking?
SC: We are getting a lot of good press. But I don’t know if it has quite translated into show attendance. It’s kind of hard for me to tell because we’ve been opening for bands for the past couple tours. So it’s been a lot of their own fan base. So its kind of hard for me to gauge what our fan base looks like right now. But I don’t expect it to be huge or anything. I mean we’ve only been doing this for like two years. So I figure we still have our dues to pay before any success comes to us—which I’m completely fine with. I don’t want anything easy to come to us because I think we’d just kind of throw it away.
DM: You’re coming to Ithaca to play the GrassRoots Festival and it’s an afternoon set. How do these festival gigs differ from your club gigs?
SC: The main difference with festival gigs that I’ve still not gotten used to is the fact that you can see everybody that you’re playing to. ’Cause club gigs, the lights are usually shining in your face and you know there’s an audience there, but it’s a little less nerve wracking because you can’t see everyone’s eyes and expressions. But at the festival gigs you can see everybody. And there’s also that it’s a completely different atmosphere. You grow really accustomed to playing in a dark sort of place. And you go to these festivals and its like daylight and its windy outside or the stage is wobbly. There’s always something that you have to kind of overcome to play festival gigs. There a lot of fun but it’s just completely different.
DM: Who are you influences?
SC: I, right now, I’m really influenced by a musician named Cass McCombs. He sort of has this mystique about him the same way that Bob Dylan used to be for me. He used to be this really mysterious character and I read all these books and watched all these documentaries and then he sort of lost that god-like quality. And Cass McCombs sort of has that for me right now just because there’s not a lot of information out there about him. He’s just got these amazing records that you can listen to. He doesn’t do interviews with people, so there’s not anything you can read about him. He’s got this mysterious sort of quality that I haven’t been able to find in a long time. Plus his songs are really great.
DM: Was there a difference in the way you approached your two discs? Because the EP was sort of billed as a novel or novella. Did you approach the writing and recording of those differently?
SC: The EP was very deliberate and thought out. I’d been thinking about it . . . that I’d been wanting to do this for a long time. And it was very just planned out and kind of nit-picked over and probably too much time was spent on it. For what it was, it probably had the right amount of attention put to it. “Songs In the Night” was very just off the cuff. We recorded it all live in a room together. The songs weren’t written to be on this album together. They were just songs that I had that I wanted to record and they just happened to fit really well on a record together. There was nothing deliberate or contrived about “Songs In The Night.” It was very much just like we wanted to make a record that sounds like we sound live. And we want to do it in five days. So that’s the biggest difference that the first EP was really planned out and the second one was really just off the cuff and just happened to kind of make itself. We didn’t really have anything to go with . . . I don’t know. It really just created itself, which is something I think is really cool about it. Because there wasn’t a lot of labor put into it. It was just kind of this thing that happened really easily and organically.
DM: Yeah, a lot of the records I’ve liked recently have all been recorded live—and a lot of them in cabins. The Low Anthem and Delta Spirit . . . I mean those bands all recorded live and it just makes a better record I think. There’s some kind of freshness and it does translate through the digital file or whatever.
SC: It just depends on the band. If you’re a vibe-based band like we are, and probably like those bands are, then you have to capture that in the tape or you’ve kind of lost the part of that band. I mean there are some bands that do amazing things just single-tracking stuff. So it just really depends on the band. We just happen to be one of those bands that we have to catch sort of that vibe that’s going on.
DM: Great. So what’s next for you guys?
SC: A lot of touring. That’s pretty much all we’re doing these days.
DM: All right. Thank you very much for taking the time.
SC: No problem.
Samantha Crain & THe Midnight Shivers
The official title of the annual happening that takes place at the Trumansburg Fairgrounds every July is the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance. But, hey, we’re from here, so we just call it Grassroots. Need I say more for you to generally know what to expect? I think not. The specifics of this year’s festival are a different matter, though, and do need a little further description.
So what to expect at Grassroots 2009? Well, first off, you’ll find the great performers that play the festival every year. Sim Redmond Band, Donna the Buffalo, The Horseflies, and other great local performers such as Thousands of One, Hank Roberts, Kevin Kinsella, Jennie Stearns, Samite, and Mary Lorson will all be there. Just on its own, this is a killer group of musicians to get to see. But in total there are going to be 70+ groups playing at Grassroots between July 16 and 19—many of whom music fans would have to work pretty hard to see otherwise. And as w
ith every year, there are going to be a couple of killer headliners. This year it’s the super-tight soul band Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings on Friday and banjo legend Bela Fleck solo and with Oumou Sangaré and her band on Saturday.
- Bela Fleck with the Nakisenyi Women’s Group from Uganda
Dynamic Meter recently got the chance to ask Bela Fleck some questions about his music, career, and most recent (and fabulous) album, “Throw Down Your Heart, Tales From The Acoustic Planet, Africa Sessions.”
Dynamic Meter: What first drew you to the banjo?
Bela Fleck: I first heard it on the Beverly Hillbillies, and the sound blew my mind. I was growing up in New York City during the 60s folk boom, so there was banjo around, once I became aware of it.
DM: Your career has been so diverse, who are your influences?
BF: My influences include Earl Scruggs, Tony Trischka and all the great banjoists as well as many jazz players and classical composers, and musicians from around the world—Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Mile Davis, Chick Corea to name a few.
DM: How do you define your style?
BF: If I describe myself to a stranger, I say that I play banjo in unconventional settings such as jazz and classical music. Although I have a solid bluegrass schooling, the things that might set me apart would have to include a certain flexibility and daring. Also having a solid technique allows me to present my ideas with confidence.
DM: How did the new album, “Throw Down Your Heart” come about?
BF: I have wanted to go to Africa for a long time, to research the roots of the banjo. I also wanted to throw myself into a musically dangerous situation that I would have to rise to. And I have been loving acoustic traditional African music for a good while. In 2005 my group Bela Fleck and the Flecktones went on hiatus and I had the time to do something ambitious and time consuming.
DM: How was it recorded?
BF: We did much of the recording on location in town centers, outdoors, and in people’s homes, occasionally in recording studios, too. We had two small multi track recorders and mikes and we made some pretty amazing recordings in primitive situations, no power etc.
DM: How did you pick the musicians you recorded with?
BF: Some I picked before I went, and some I chose when I went to Africa. We always left a few days open for the unknown to have its way with us. Some of these unplanned sessions became highlights.
DM: “Throw Down Your Heart” is such a great image. What does it mean to you?
BF: Throw Down Your Heart is the literal translation for the town of Bagamoyo in Tanzania. This was where slaves were processed on their way east to the Arab
Countries. When the slaves saw the sea and the ships, they realized they would never see their homes again and ‘threw down their hearts’ in this place . . .
It is a haunting name, and very sad. When I used it for the project, I liked the power of it, and also the way it could have a variety of meanings, depending on the interpretation. I for instance ‘threw down my heart’ for African music, which could mean I fell in love with it.
DM: You made a documentary about your musical journey in Africa that led to the making of “Throw Down Your Heart.” Can you please talk about that?
BF: Yes. The album and the film are complimentary. There is some overlap, but the album is much more than a soundtrack, with much additional material, and the film is much more than a ‘making of’ doc. They each have their own point of view.
DM: For your show at The Grass Roots Festival, you’ll be playing solo and then joined by Oumou Sangaré and her band. This is a departure from your most widely know work with the Flecktones. How has it been to make this transition?
BF: I have performed now with several African artists since the making of the project. Recently I did a run of dates with the kora great Toumani Diabate, which was incredible. Earlier this year I had 4 artists over and we did several weeks of theatres in the US.
In January I did a concert with Oumou in Glasgow Scotland, our first and only one so far (at the time of this interview). Oumou is one of my favorite artists of all time, and I look forward to performing with her and also just watching her perform!
She very rarely tours in the US and I can’t encourage everyone enough to come and see her perform. The festival will be our 6th show, so I feel certain we will know what we are doing together!
Who are you listening to now?
BF: Check out a great new performer called Sarah Jarosz. She is great. I am listening to a lot of Indian music, due to my new friend Zakir Hussain’s influence. We will be playing together this year as well. In my iPod right now are Oscar Peterson and Stan Getz, Norman Blake and Tony Rice, and the new Dave Mathews album.
Thanks!
Bela
