Suwannee Spring Reunion Schedule Announced! The Infamous Stringdusters ft. Molly Tuttle, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon – March 23-26

THE 5TH SUWANNEE SPRING REUNION

MARCH 23-26, 2023

SPIRIT OF THE SUWANNEE MUSIC PARK IN LIVE OAK, FLORIDA

FEATURING 
The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle 
Sam Bush – Leftover Salmon – Steep Canyon Rangers 
The Earls of Leicester – Peter Rowan – Donna the Buffalo – Sierra Hull
Keller Williams – Jim Lauderdale – Jon Stickley Trio – and more!

DAILY SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED! 
Tickets on sale at → www.suwanneespringreunion.com  

LIVE OAK, FL — Suwannee Spring Reunion takes place Thursday through Sunday, March 23-26, 2023 at The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, FL. Suwannee Spring Reunion is truly a gem of a festival where festival goers experience four days and nights of music rooted in Americana, newgrass, bluegrass, folk, blues, and more. Slip into Spring in the most fabulous of ways—making memories with friends old and new while gathering under the gorgeous, mossy live oak trees in this picturesque setting in the midst of a friendly, family-style environment! 

Suwannee Spring Reunion will feature music on multiple stages including the beloved tree lined Amphitheater Stage, the Porch Stage, the Dance Tent Stage, and the Music Hall Stage. There will be workshops by a wide range of performers at the festival on the Music Farmers Stage, jam sessions at Slopryland and Bill Monroe Shrine, as well as pickin’ parties throughout the campgrounds. The Vending Village will feature a wide variety of arts and crafts, as well as culinary pleasures, with a strong emphasis on original creations and unique items sure to satisfy all.  

We are thrilled to announce the full schedule of events → suwanneespringreunion.com/schedule

Thursday: Sierra Hull performs the sunset slot on the Amphitheater Stage, preceded by Peter Rowan and followed with a Leftover Salmon late-night set. Armchair Boogie kicks off the festival music at 4pm! Others performing Thursday include John Mailander’s Forecast, Mile Twelve, and Hattie & Joe Craven on the Porch Stage. 

Free Range Strange and Sloppy Joe will be performing Thursday sets on the Music Hall Stage. 

Friday sees Sam Bush,The Earls of Leicester, Keller Williams, Donna the Buffalo, Big Richard, Caleb Caudle and more on The Amphitheater and Porch Stages. Jon Stickley Trio closes out the night on the Porch, followed by another late-night set with Leftover Salmon on the Amphitheater Stage. Two other stages open on Friday—The Dance Tent and Music Farmers Stages—bring more music from Peter Rowan, Armchair Boogie, Roy Book Binder, The Grass in Dead, The Ain’t Sisters, Shawn Camp & Verlon Thompson doing the songs of Guy Clark, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, Mile Twelve, Sloppy Joe, and Quartermoon. 

The Music Farmers Stage will have hands-on workshops with Rev Jeff Mosier (banjo), Jared Womack (Dobro), Hattie & Joe Craven (‘Singing with Soul’), Tom Nelly (guitar), and Roy Book Binder (blues guitar). 

Saturday is just as stacked between the five stages. The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle will play the Amp Stage evening slot, preceded by the Steep Canyon Rangers and followed by a  late-night set with Donna the Buffalo. We’ll see daytime Amphitheater Stage sets by Jon Stickley Trio (they’ll also be late-night on the Dance Tent Stage), Big Richard (also post-sunset on Dance Tent Stage), Hattie & Joe Craven (also on the Dance Tent Stage), and Medicine Springs. Others performing through the festival include Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble, Jim Lauderdale with Donna the Buffalo, Habanero Honeys, Lee Hunter & The Gatherers, and further music from Verlon Thompson (including a set with Jim Lauderdale on the Music Hall Stage), Roy Book Binder, Free Range Strange, Caleb Caudle, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, Shawn Camp, and Quartermoon. 

Workshops for Saturday include Brett Bass (Building Speed for Bluegrass Guitar), Barry Sager (harmonica), Tom Nelly (guitar), workshop with Joe Craven and a Sloppy Joe Jam set. 

Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus will host a Kids Talent Show Saturday morning on the Music Farmers Stage. 

Vassar Sunday brings it all in reunion-style and, as always, Donna the Buffalo will host the closing jam on The Amphitheater Stage– bringing up a plethora of guest performers who performed through the weekend. Sunday brings full sets by Jim Lauderdale Band, Verlon Thompson & John Mailander, Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble, The Grass Is Dead, The Ain’t Sisters, Belle & The Band, Roy Book Binder, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, and Quartermoon. Tania & The Moon Tunes opens with the morning slot on the Amphitheater Stage with fantastic kids performances.

Serendipitous moments seem to spring forth like wildflowers and so many of these incredible musicians have been returning to the park for a long time, often referring to it as a “Soul Retreat” of sorts. It is called a “reunion” for a reason and because of that there’s always an exciting amount of “surprise” stage collaborations between the musicians performing! 

The woods light up to the sounds of campground pickin’ and performers can often be found joining right along with attendees around the campfires. The park itself is a place where kids of all ages can remember why they fell in love with the magic mixture of sights, sounds, and sensations that constitutes a weekend of paradise that is the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. Matching the history on the stage, longtime park hosts, Beth and Randy Judy, are partnering with the Spirit of the Suwannee to make sure that every piece needed to make an epic weekend of music and fun is in place and ready to write the new entries for this new legend. Suwannee Spring Reunion (and its sister festival Suwannee Roots Revival which takes place in October) hold the space for a special couple of music-filled weekends to look forward to and back upon with laughter and love in your heart.

Tickets are on sale now. Suwannee Spring Reunion offers a multi-day Weekend Ticket that includes festival admission for four days of music, as well as primitive camping on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Children 12 and under are free if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Advance Tier 4 Tickets are on sale now, priced at $200 (includes fees and taxes). Student /Military Early Bird are $185 (includes fees and taxes). Prices advance to Tier 5 on Monday, March 6, so get your tickets now! An additional event car pass is now required to bring a car into the campground—Advance Car Pass: $15 or $20 at the Gate. For complete ticket information and to purchase tickets, visit www.suwanneespringreunion.com/Tickets/.

SOSMP offers guest comforts including a general store, full service restaurant, free showers, indoor bathrooms, and water stations. Upgraded camping, including RV hook ups and cabin rentals, as well as golf cart rentals are currently on sale. Reservations may be made by calling the Park office at (386) 364­-1683. SOSMP is located between Jacksonville, Florida & Tallahassee, Florida about 30 minutes south of the Georgia State line, about 45 minutes north of Gainesville and is host to a variety of events. Please visit the park’s web site at www.musicliveshere.com for further information. 

Suwannee Spring Reunion 2023 Lineup

The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle
Sam Bush
Leftover Salmon
Steep Canyon Rangers
The Earls of Leicester
Peter Rowan
Donna the Buffalo
Sierra Hull
Keller Williams
Jim Lauderdale
Jon Stickley Trio
Verlon Thompson
Shawn Camp
Roy Book Binder
Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble
The Grass Is Dead
Big Richard
Hattie Craven & Joe Craven
John Mailander’s Forecast
Armchair Boogie
Caleb Caudle
Mile Twelve
The Ain’t Sisters
Medicine Springs
Lee Hunter & The Gatherers
Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp
Quartermoon
Sloppy Joe
Belle & The Band
Free Range Strange
Habanero Honeys
Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus

For more information, tickets, and to reserve camping, please visit www.suwanneespringreunion.com. 

Read Full Post »

Bill Scorzari Releases 3 Acoustic Singles to Accompany ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’

Bill Scorzari Releases 3 Acoustic Singles to Accompany ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’

“I – 70 East (Acoustic)” – Out THIS FRIDAY February 17

“The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic)” – AVAILABLE NOW! 

“Multnomah Falls (Acoustic)” – Out March 10

HUNTINGTON, NY —  With a rich, raspy voice and a remarkable ear for lyrics and composition, prolific songwriter Bill Scorzari is thrilled to release three acoustic versions of songs featured on his most recent album, The Crosswinds of Kansas (Independently Released Aug 2022): “The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic),” “I-70 East (Acoustic),” and “Multnomah Falls (Acoustic).” 

“Now that we’ve started a new year (Happy New Year!), it’s great to be able to look back at the good things that have come out of all of the effort we put into The Crosswinds of Kansas… It’s been a long road and I’m so grateful to everyone who has made it all possible,” says Bill. “As a thank you to everyone who has listened to and enjoyed the songs, I decided to release new versions of three tracks from the album, which I’ve re-recorded in a singer-songwriter style, with just acoustic guitar and vocals.”

The album was listed in Americana UK’s Top Albums of 2022! Mark Whitfield writes, “The simple use of imagery and clever phraseology make it a very poignant record at times… The pain on some tracks is visceral in its honesty—and Scorzari’s voice is the perfect match for these substantial songs.” 

Today (2/13), Americana UK premiered “1-70 East (Acoustic)” here: https://americana-uk.com/track-premiere-bill-scorzari-i-70-east-acoustic 

“Bill Scorzari has captured the sonic embodiment of the Tolkien quote ‘not all who wander are lost’ with each album he’s released, yet The Crosswinds of Kansas bleeds this sentiment with each chord and word. The vivid storytelling balances delicately on masterful musicianship to create a massively memorable album,” writes Nanobot Rock in their Top 10 Discoveries of 2022.

These stripped down versions reflect more of what seeing Bill perform live and solo is like, and had been requested by a handful of terrestrial radio stations. Recorded at his First Thunder Recording Studio in Huntington, NY, the abridged songs were mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master Studio in Nashville in 2022.

“The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic)” is the first of the three songs released—Hear it now at  https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/i-70-east-acoustic. Glide Magazine premiered the album version and wrote, “With its melancholy tone, Scorzari lends his gritty vocals to a work of dark Americana roots music…  a song that carries a stirring energy and a haunting tale.” Americana Highways’ John Apice wrote, “‘The Broken Heart Side of the Road,’ is pure Bill. Precise, an impressive composition that’s subtle & striking. Bullseye.” 

“I-70 East (Acoustic)” will be out February 17. Americana Highways’s Melissa Clarke calls it a, “song of the anguished parallels between an elderly mother fading and passing on, and a lover’s betrayal. He’s captured such pain. And the beauty of a Rose.” 

“Multnomah Falls (Acoustic)” weaves a chronicle of a rainy day’s hike into an account of the trials of change and transcendence. It will be out March 10. 

FervorCoulee’s Donald Tepylske says, “The poetic rhythm of Scorzari’s lyrics is most impressive… Scorzari doesn’t do conventional… Each song envelopes the listener, sharing its secrets and truths.” Jim Hynes of Glide Magazine seems to concur, “To be sure, one needs solitude to appreciate his literate craft, a blend of prose and poetry put to music, a Walt Whitman of sorts for our times… With Scorzari, one hangs not just onto every word, but just about every breath.” 

We hope that listeners will be as moved by the acoustic renditions as these folks were by the originals. Bill has also started working on a new album! It is too early to say when it might be finished; so stay tuned to Bill’s social media for more information as things start to gather momentum and move forward.

More about Bill Scorzari: Born and raised in New York, Bill transformed his life as a New York Trial Attorney to a new life as a full-time musician beginning around 2011. He has independently released four studio albums including 2014’s Just the Same, 2017’s Through These Waves (Produced by Jonah Tolchin at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville), 2019’s Now I’m Free (Produced by Neilson Hubbard at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville), and The 2022’s Crosswinds of Kansas (Co-Produced with Neilson Hubbard at First Thunder Recording and Skinny Elephant Recording). Some of the musical artists that can be heard on Bill’s albums include Fats Kaplin, Eamon McLoughlin, Matt Menefee, Will Kimbrough, Michael Rinne, Dan Mitchell, Juan Solarzano, Brent Burke, Marie Lewey, Cindy Richardson Walker, Joachim Cooder, Kim Richie, Chris Scruggs, Laur Joamets, Jonah Tolchin, Erin Rae, John Estes, and Kyle Tuttle, among others.

Scorzari’s music has been well received by the press over the years with nods from those mentioned above in addition to Billboard, Acoustic Guitar, No Depression, The Bluegrass Situation, The Boot, Music City Magazine, Music Mecca, Making A Scene!, The Aquarian Weekly’s Rant ‘n’ Roll, Country Standard Time, The Alternate Root, DittyTV, Beyond A Song, Australia’s Listening Through The Lens, Alt Country Netherlands, and more.   

His music can be heard on the airwaves across the country and beyond! The Crosswinds of Kansas made a handful of DJs’ Year End Lists including KPFA Radio’s Tim Lynch, XPN’s Chuck Elliot, KVMR’s Kim Rogers, WFPK’s Michael Young, and WWSP’s Jim Canales. In 2022, Bill did in depth interviews with WVTF’s Luke Church, Beyond A Song’s Rich Reardin, High Plains Public Radio’s This Is the Place with host Jenny Inzerilo, and The Long Island Sound Podcast with Steve Yusko. The Crosswinds of Kansas peaked at #4 on the Alt. Country Specialty Chart, hit #36 on the Folk DJ Chart, and #85 on The Americana Music Chart. Some of Scorzari’s top spins come from Americana Boogie Radio; WBCM in Bristol, VA; WVMO in Madison, WI; KNOW in St Paul, MN; and KSYM in San Antonio, TX. 

If you have not yet heard The Crosswind of Kansas, listen here https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/the-crosswinds-of-kansas.  
For more information, updates and tour dates, visit ww

Read Full Post »

Suwannee Spring Reunion w/ The Infamous Stringdusters ft. Molly Tuttle, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon – March 23-26

ANNOUNCING THE 5TH SUWANNEE SPRING REUNION

MARCH 23-26, 2023

THE SPIRIT OF SUWANNEE MUSIC PARK IN LIVE OAK, FLORIDA

FEATURING 
The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle – Sam Bush – Leftover Salmon – Steep Canyon Rangers – The Earls of Leicester – Peter Rowan – Donna the Buffalo – Sierra Hull – Keller Williams – Jim Lauderdale – Jon Stickley Trio – and more!

Early Bird Tickets on sale now at → www.suwanneespringreunion.com  

LIVE OAK, FL — Suwannee Spring Reunion takes place Thursday through Sunday, March 23-26, 2023 at The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, FL. Slip into Spring in the most fabulous of ways—making memories with friends old and new while gathering under the gorgeous, mossy live oak trees in this picturesque setting for four days and nights of music rooted in Americana, newgrass, bluegrass, folk, blues, and more!

Suwannee Spring Reunion is excited to announce the 2023 lineup which features The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Steep Canyon Rangers, The Earls of Leicester, Peter Rowan, Donna the Buffalo, Sierra Hull, Keller Williams, Jim Lauderdale, Jon Stickley Trio, Verlon Thompson, Roy Book Binder, Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble, The Grass Is Dead, Big Richard, Hattie Craven & Joe Craven, John Mailander’s Forecast, Armchair Boogie, Caleb Caudle, Mile Twelve, The Ain’t Sisters, Medicine Springs, Lee Hunter & The Gatherers, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, Quartermoon, Sloppy Joe, Belle & The Band, Free Range Strange, Habanero Honeys, and Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus.

Suwannee Spring Reunion will feature music on multiple stages including the beloved tree lined Amphitheater Stage, the Porch Stage, the Dance Tent Stage, and the Music Hall. There will be workshops by a wide range of performers at the festival on the Music Farmers Stage, jam sessions at Slopryland and Bill Monroe Shrine, as well as pickin’ parties throughout the campgrounds. 

This family-friendly festival has a lot of fun for the little ones too! Complete with a kids area tucked accessibly into the woods, with open areas for running, and a kids parade at the end of the weekend led by Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus. The Vending Village will feature a wide variety of arts and crafts, as well as culinary pleasures, with a strong emphasis on original creations and unique items sure to satisfy all.  

The park itself is a place where kids of all ages can remember why they fell in love with the magic mixture of sights, sounds, and sensations that constitutes a weekend of paradise that is the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park. Matching the history on the stage, longtime park hosts, Randy and Beth Judy, are partnering with the Spirit of the Suwannee to make sure that every piece needed to make an epic weekend of music and fun is in place and ready to write the new entries for this new legend.

Americana UK writer, Mike Fiorito, writes “Making our way into the park… I was immediately struck by the beauty of the place: majestic cypresses and oaks draped with Spanish moss and swaying in the breeze… There is an air of joy and familiarity about the whole thing. People come together for one reason: to listen to fantastic music acts in a beautiful environment. There were all kinds of people at the event: older people, younger people, families, hippies, Deadheads, men, women, and children.” 

MusicFestNews’ Betsie Green calls it, “a festival all about the love of roots music and the people who make and support that music. From the epic campfire jams to the small and intimate workshops, there was an abundance of opportunities to be IN the music. This is true for the festivillians and musicians alike. Being able to get up close and personal with the music in such an open and collaborative environment sets a standard that most other festivals can only dream of.” 

“You can feel the musical history floating through the air and you have people full of intention, both onstage and out in the crowd that are there with respect for the past but also there for the now,” says Live And Listen’s Brett Hutchins. 

Suwannee Spring Reunion (and its sister festival Suwannee Roots Revival which takes place in October) hold the space for a special couple of music-filled weekends to look forward to and back upon with laughter and love in your heart. Many of the artists look forward to returning each year just as much as the attendees! The atmosphere and the people that gather are uplifting and warmhearted—the perfect end caps to the long festival season. 

Tickets are on sale now. Suwannee Spring Reunion offers a multi-day Weekend Ticket that includes festival admission for four days of music, as well as primitive camping on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Children 12 and under are free if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Tier 2 Early Bird Tickets are on sale now through Wednesday, December 14th priced at $155 (includes fees and taxes). Student /Military Early Bird are $144 (includes fees and taxes). Tier 3 Early Bird Ticket price of $175 ($160 military/Student) begins Thursday, Dec 15. Get your tickets before the Early Bird Tier2 ends! An additional event car pass is now required to bring a car into the campground—Advance Car Pass: $15 or $20 at the Gate. For complete ticket information and to purchase tickets, visit www.suwanneespringreunion.com/Tickets/.

SOSMP offers guest comforts including a general store, full service restaurant, free showers, indoor bathrooms, and water stations. Upgraded camping, including RV hook ups and cabin rentals, as well as golf cart rentals are currently on sale. Reservations may be made by calling the Park office at (386) 364­-1683. SOSMP is located between Jacksonville, Florida & Tallahassee, Florida about 30 minutes south of the Georgia State line, about 45 minutes north of Gainesville and is host to a variety of events. Please visit the park’s web site at www.musicliveshere.com for further information.

Suwannee Spring Reunion 2023 Lineup

The Infamous Stringdusters featuring Molly Tuttle

Sam Bush

Leftover Salmon

Steep Canyon Rangers

The Earls of Leicester

Peter Rowan

Donna the Buffalo

Sierra Hull

Keller Williams

Jim Lauderdale

Jon Stickley Trio

Verlon Thompson

Roy Book Binder

Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble

The Grass Is Dead

Big Richard

Hattie Craven & Joe Craven

John Mailander’s Forecast

Armchair Boogie

Caleb Caudle

Mile Twelve

The Ain’t Sisters

Medicine Springs

Lee Hunter & The Gatherers

Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp

Quartermoon

Sloppy Joe

Belle & The Band

Free Range Strange

Habanero Honeys

Tania & Magic Moon Traveling Circus

For more information, tickets, and to reserve camping, please visit www.suwanneespringreunion.com. 

Read Full Post »

Damn Tall Buildings Independently Release ‘Sleeping Dogs’ – Vibrant, Rootsy, and Vivid

https://damntallbuildings.hearnow.com/sleeping-dogs

Witty and Engaging, Damn Tall Buildings
Independently Release Sleeping Dogs Sept 9

Stream/ Order Sleeping Dogs Today

What Folks Are Saying:

“Brooklyn indie folk trio Damn Tall Buildings have been making their way through the Americana world, releasing a trio of albums fusing roots rock, bluegrass, and swing. In their early days, the band busked together, and today their style captures that same ragtag charm and breezy joy, blending unassuming presentation with narrative observations on the mundanities of daily life.” 
—Under the Radar, Caleb Campbell

“With the title song defying conventional wisdom by advising ‘Don’t you let them sleeping dogs lie,’ Damn Tall Buildings delivers an album that is anything but conventional, guaranteed to be played on repeat.” 
—No Depression, Nancy Posey

“The group is damn close to excellence with songs like ‘Cold Rain.’ Here the performance is precise & the vocals resonate with vibrancy… ‘Lemons’ is mindful of the late John Hartford & expressive… They’re an engaging trio & they indeed know what they’re doing. What’s an added value is their original music is well-written & executed.”  —Americana Highways, John Apice

“I found their music to be energizing as they sing as witnesses into the world they explore”  —The Long Island Sound Podcast, Steve Yusko

“If you were needing a reason to stomp your feet (other than a tantrum), we have one.” —Dallas Observer

BROOKLYN, NY — Damn Tall Buildings are thrilled to independently release their 3rd album, Sleeping Dogs today, Sept 9. Bluegrass, roots rock, old time, and vintage swing are among the influences on this acoustic Americana trio. Whether sharing lead vocals and instrumental solos or blending their voices into loose, joyous harmony, the three members of Damn Tall Buildings—multi-instrumentalist and primary lyricist Max Capistran (guitar and banjo), bassist Sasha Dubyk, and fiddler Avery Ballotta—delight in entertaining. For a handful of tracks on the album, they brought in special guests on trumpet, drums, flutes, lap steel, and keys to add to their dynamic sound.

Damn Tall Buildings
Photos by Joe Angelini

Sleeping Dogs is a bop about looking things smack-dab-right-in-the-face and is essentially about how it has become almost impossible to not be constantly influenced by current events, media, and all of the other things that surround you in your day-to-day life.

Damn Tall Buildings produced and recorded the record themselves, back and forth between Sasha’s parents house in the south Jersey shore and in Max and Sasha’s apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. After recording, they sent their tracks to Dan Cardinal [Darlingside, Lula Wiles, Josh Ritter] at Dimension Sound Studios in Jamaica Plain, MA to mix and master. Dan also played keyboard on the title track, adding to the texture of the song.

Max says, “With us taking the recording process into our own hands, we were able to set our studio up wherever we saw fit, which completely changed the recording process for us… With this new arrangement we were able to really take our time, which gave us more freedom to really explore the songs without the pressure of running out of studio days. We all love the beach, the ocean and surfing, so we set up shop at the house smack-dab in the middle of hurricane season in the northeast, so we were literally doing takes, then running out to the beach to catch some of the finest waves New Jersey has to offer. I’m pretty sure Hurricane Larry deserves co-producer credits, actually.”

The album opens with, “What A Nice Life,” which has some extra pep to balance out the darker “I-don’t-know-who-I-am-anymore” lyrics: “And it’s been feeling mighty lonesome now that winter’s coming on… Not sure who I’ve been lately… But holy sh*t can barely stand me.” This is followed by an old timey, swingin’ “Dark Window Panes,” in which they ponder a pending apocalypse, accompanied by longtime friend and maestro of sound Garrett Eaton [Dana Williams, Gracie and Rachel] on trumpet.

“Podcast” was premiered by Under the Radar who writes, “With ‘Podcast’ the band leans further into their sun-lit harmonies, rugged instrumentation, and lively performances… they deliver some deliciously biting lyrics, taking shots at the entertainment industry’s complacency as the world rushes to its end: ‘Sleeping on the ground/Thinking you’re so profound/Your podcast sucks and I think I hate you…Your bio says your an artist/Filtering all your garbage/Do you know what you’re even saying?’”

The velvety and rejuvenating “Cold Rain” was premiered by AmericanaUK who calls it, “music that is determinedly of Now.” For the song, they are joined by mandolin wizard Dylan McCarthy (a longtime DTB collaborator and 2019 Rockygrass Mandolin Champion) and rock-steady drummer Micah Cowher [STOMP in NYC]. Cowher also lays down the beat on the catchy “Sweet Girl,” with its chorus, “I am not myself, I am everyone else,” which became what the band calls, “the motto for the record; It’s basically our new anthem.” 

Damn Tall Buildings calls Sleeping Dogs, “an exploration to the depths of oneself to discover who we truly are… maybe it really is as simple as buying some new shoes, and feeling really good wearing ‘em, while you cruise down the block on the sunny side of the street.” 

You can hear this cheery sentiment echoed in the deep groove and colorful melodies of “Lemons,” in which the virtuosic flute playing of Anh Phung [Twisted Pine] elevates the song to a new level. This fresh energy can also be felt as the sunshine slips in on “Patio.”

The mid-tempo shuffle “Painter” illustrates a re-emergence into the world, with a regained sense of self with its lyrics—“But I’ve got some new shoes baby, and I’m feeling so fine… And it looks like we’ve got blue skies honey, coming up a’ down the line.” Lars Thorson [Kane Brown], an adjunct member of DTB since the beginning, brings the magic of the lap steel to this track.

They slow things down a bit in an ode to waiting, “Quietly Heartbreaking,” written on a beautiful rainy day, and the gentle “My Baby.” Avery wrote “My Baby” for his partner in both life and music (and soon-to-be-wife), Emily Gervaise Moran [Aurora Birch]; to hear her guitar sing over the bridge really brings everything full circle in sound and spirit.

The album closes out with the title track, “Sleeping Dogs,” pulling from the old proverb—“Don’t you let them sleeping dogs lie”—the song emphasizes the theme of the album: don’t ignore life, get out there and live it, take pleasure and meaning from the little things that keep us all connected and growing.

The trio is individually from all over the United States (New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Montana), but were born as a band while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA in 2013. They started as buskers on Newbury Street in Boston, started touring nationally, and then moved the band to Brooklyn in 2017. Max says, “Brooklyn has an endless influence on our music. Yemeni music on iPhone speakers at the deli. Reggaeton from the street side auto shop across the street rattling our window panes. West African guitar rhythms on the walk to the train. It’s insane. We love it.”

Damn Tall Buildings
Photos by Joe Angelini

Since their busking days, they’ve made two albums—Cure-All (2014) and Don’t Look Down (2019)—and released a self-titled EP in 2015. The band’s music has been praised by publications such as Bluegrass Today, PopMatters, The Boot, Saving Country Music, The Boston Globe, The Alternate Root, Folk Radio UK and more.

Damn Tall Building says, “Our innate desire is to connect with people on a level that’s beyond day-to-day interaction. Our hope is that the joy that making this music brings us will somehow get passed along to the people listening, which they can then take with them to pass along to someone else. It’s a shared celebration of positive energy, and that’s what keeps us cooking.”

Damn Tall Buildings on Tour

9/9 Fri – Coppell Arts Center – Coppell, TX
9/10 Sat – Cactus Cafe – Austin, TX 
9/15-17 Thu-Sat – Walnut Valley Music Festival – Winfield, KS
9/27-29 Tue-Thu – IBMA Bluegrass Ramble – Raleigh, NC
9/29 Thu – The Ramkat – Winston Salem, NC
9/30 Fri – Bourgie Nights – Wilmington, NC
10/1 Sat – IBMA Wide Open Bluegrass Festival – Martin St. Stage – Raleigh, NC
10/13 Thu – Parlor Room – Northampton, MA
10/15 Sat – Glastonbury Apple Harvest & Music Festival – Glastonbury, CT
10/16 Sun – 118 North – Wayne, PA
10/20 Thu – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY
10/21 Fri – City Winery – Boston, MA
11/10 Thu – Prius Hall-Ball State University – Muncie, IN
11/11 Fri – Thrasher Opera House – Green Lake, WI

Website: www.damntallbuildings.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DamnTallBuildings 
Twitter: @DamnTallTweets
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gramtallbuildings 
YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/damntallbuildings

Read Full Post »

Folk Alley Premieres Anya Hinkle and Akira Satake’s New Single “Coming Home”—Out Friday 7/29

Anya Hinkle and Akira Satake Release New Single “Coming Home”
Released July 29

“The song harkens to childhood and summer scenes—baseball, shooting stars, an ‘evening train,’ and the nostalgic scent of mama’s home cooking…”
—First Listen at Folk Alley

Presave “Coming Home” →
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/anyahinkle/coming-home-feat-akira-satake

Hinkle Tours Colorado in August
(See the full list of tour date below)

ASHEVILLE, NC — Born in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, Anya Hinkle’s music is steeped in the tones of folk and bluegrass, and seasoned by travels across the world with her vivid storytelling, vibrant musicianship, and arresting honesty. 

For her latest single, Hinkle teamed up with Japanese banjoist and composer Akira Satake to release “Coming Home,” a nostalgic and spare song with echoes of a childhood summer in Japan. The single will be out July 29 and is available to presave now. 

Folk Alley’s Kim Ruehl calls the song a “beautiful collaboration” and premiered the lyric video for “Coming Home” saying, “Satake’s inimitable banjo rolls paces in the background, supporting and holding aloft Hinkle’s poetic lyricism with pride, like a summer flower in a child’s fist.”

Akira Satake & Anya Hinkle

Anya says, “Akira had written a beautiful instrumental called ‘Coming Home’ and asked me to write lyrics to go with it. When I asked him what the song was about, he shared some memories of his childhood in Osaka, Japan. I tried to capture the details of the sounds, sights, tastes, and smells of Japan in late summer—children playing baseball in the city, the smells of food cooking as you wander through narrow alleys, the sounds of bicycles and trains, the resounding songs of cicadas. It’s a pleasure collaborating again with Akira.” 

This is the second release of a Hinkle/Satake collaboration; the first, “Hills of Swannanoa,” which appears on Hinkle’s album Eden and Her Borderlands (Organic Records 2021), won runner-up in the 18th International Acoustic Music Awards song competition in the country/bluegrass category. In 2019, she won the MerleFest Chris Austin song contest and was a finalist in the Hazel Dickens songwriting competition for her song “Ballad of Zona Abston.” 

PopMatters calls Hinkle, “A burgeoning force behind the Appalachian roots revival,” and AmericanaUK writes, “Certainly striking, certainly beautiful… everything one could look for in a bluegrass-tinged Americana.”

Anya began her recording career in 2007 for the Virginia Folklife label, The Crooked Road, before moving to Asheville, NC, where she founded bands Dehlia Low (Rebel Records) and Tellico (Organic Records). She released the first full-length album under her own name, Eden and Her Borderlands, in July 2021 to favorable reviews from the genre’s top media outlets including No Depression, Folk Alley, and PopMatters, with features in The Bluegrass Situation, Americana Highways, and more. Several songs placed on Spotify editorial playlists such as Indigo and Grass Roots, and the album was “Bubblin’ Up” on the Americana Radio Chart.

Anya has recorded some 10 albums in various collaborations both in the US and Japan, and in March 2022, she released a single, “Nightingale (соловейко) – Bootleg for Peace,” that raised over $2,000 for Ukrainian relief. Hinkle is currently working on her second studio album under her name, slated for release in 2023.

Just back from her second European tour in May 2022, Anya tours regionally and nationally as well as extensively in Japan. She has played stages at MerleFest, Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival, La Roche Bluegrass Festival (France), Bristol Rhythm & Roots, and has supported/performed with Mipso, John Doyle, Malcolm Holcombe, The Stray Birds, and many others. 

Anya will be touring through Colorado this summer, including appearances at Red Rocks Summer on the Plaza Music Series, joined by her cousin, Denver-based bassist Troy Robey [Taarka, Jake Leg].

See Anya Hinkle’s tour dates below and catch up on her latest news at www.anyahinkle.com,  instagram.com/anyahinkle.music, and facebook.com/anyahinkle.music. Check out her Youtube and Spotify for more music.

Anya Hinkle
Photo by WW Reaves

Anya Hinkle on Tour:
8/4 Thu – The Purple Onion – Saluda, NC w/ Julian Pinelli
8/5 Fri – Jones House – Boone, NC w/ Andrew Finn Magill

Colorado Dates
8/9 Tue – KGNU 88.5 FM & 1390 AM – Boulder, CO
8/9 Tue – Five Points Live! – Denver, CO *
8/10 Wed –  A Church – Salida, CO *
8/11 Thu – Wallis House Concert – Carbondale, CO *
8/12 Fri – Healthy Rhythm Listening Room – Montrose *
8/13-14 Sat-Sun – Red Rocks Summer on the Plaza Music Series – Morrison, CO
8/14 Sun – Old Town House Concerts – Colorado Springs, CO *
8/17 Wed – Gold Hill Inn – Boulder, CO
8/18 Thu – Listening At The Legion – Estes Park, CO*
8/19 Fri – The Post – Denver, CO *
8/20 Sat – Woodie Fisher – Denver, CO *
*with Troy Robey on Bass

Further shows:
9/11 Sun – Charlotte Folk Society – Charlotte, NC
9/23 Fri – Oskar Blues Brewery – Brevard, NC
10/1 Sat – Ol’ Front Porch Music Festival 2022 – Oriental, NC
10/2 Sun – Schoolkids Records – Raleigh, NC

Read Full Post »

Bill Scorzari Releases “The Broken Heart Side of the Road” from Upcoming Album: The Crosswinds of Kansas

Watch the Music Video for “The Broken Heart Side of The Road”

Bill Scorzari Releases 2nd Single
“The Broken Heart Side of the Road”
From Upcoming Album: The Crosswinds of Kansas

“With its melancholy tone, Scorzari lends his gritty vocals to a work of dark Americana roots music. Mandolin, banjo, and fiddle add to the rustic imagery of the lyrics, while a lonesome Dobro and soulful background vocals give the tune a sense of spirituality and depth. The result is a song that carries a stirring energy and a haunting tale.”—Glide Magazine – Song Premiere

“The Broken Heart Side of the Road” is Available Now

The Crosswinds of Kansas is Independently Released Aug 19

Pre-order The Crosswinds of Kansas

“Thirteen tracks at well over an hour provides plenty of evidence that Scorzari’s message is powerful and profound. The raspy, emotive voice and the chanting ruminations throughout are a joy… The Crosswinds of Kansas therefore has many vivid and sometimes dark stories to tell… [It] is an indisputable triumph and presented in a lavish, detailed CD package, which was an utter joy to review.” —Rob Dickens’ Listening Through The Lens

HUNTINGTON, NY — Today, Bill Scorzari is excited to release “The Broken Heart Side of the Road” as the 2nd single (and 2nd music video) from his upcoming album, The Crosswinds of Kansas (independently released Aug 19). In “The Broken Heart Side of the Road,” Scorzari recounts a hard tale of the destruction of a relationship, set to traditional roots music. 

He tells Glide Magazine, “I started writing ‘The Broken Heart Side of the Road’ back in 2015 and then it kind of fell off my radar for a while. When I returned to New York after the end of the Now I’m Free tour in 2019, I found that it fit really well with the other songs I was writing at the time, and so I made a few changes to the lyrics and reworked the song structure until it felt right. The lyrics sprouted right out of the chord progression and, at least on some level, are grounded in time I spent in my childhood, learning from my dad how to plant and care for growing things. I especially loved being able to work a lyric into the first chorus, about the risks of planting corn too early in the season. ‘And then a cold rain in the morning corkscrewed my cold-planted corn, and then half my crop took twice the time to grow.’” 

Bill recorded the acoustic guitar and vocal tracks for “The Broken Heart Side of the Road” (and much of the 13-track album) in his studio—First Thunder— in New York in late 2020. In mid 2021, after many people had gotten vaccinated and it appeared to be relatively safe to travel again, Bill drove to Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville, TN (where he previously recorded Now I’m Free 2019) and met with album Co-Producer Neilson Hubbard (drums, percussion), Michael Rinne (upright bass), Fats Kaplin (fiddle), Matt Menefee (banjo), Brent Burke (Dobro), Will Kimbrough (mandolin), and Engineer Dylan Alldredge to record their parts live there together for the song. Later, in September of 2021, Bill returned to Nashville to work with Dylan on the final mixes and they recorded Marie Lewey and Cindy Richardson Walker, a/k/a The Shoals Sisters, singing the backing vocals to “The Broken Heart Side of the Road.” Lewy and Walker recorded backing vocals for a few of the other tracks. For some of the other songs, Rinne also plays electric bass, in addition to his upright, and Kaplin adds his richly melodic and rhythmic sensibilities on pedal steel guitar, and viola, in addition to his fiddle.

Album & Lyric Book Art & Design:
Anna Berman

Other musicians who joined in for the recording of The Crosswinds of Kansas during the Nashville sessions include Danny Mitchell on Hammond B3 organ and piano with a masterfully cinematic approach; Juan Solorzano on electric, slide, and baritone guitars with flawless technique and heart wrenching phrasing; Grand Ole Opry staff fiddle player Eamon McLoughlin; accomplished cellist Chelsea McGough; acclaimed banjo player Kyle Tuttle; and gifted vocalist Mia Rose Lynne on harmony vocals.

Much of The Crosswinds of Kansas was inspired by his Now I’m Free Tour in 2019—which had become a journey of self discovery, with Bill ultimately arriving at a new awareness and desire to adapt and continue to create. He made his way from the east coast, toward, and around the west coast and back, traveling under two full moons, visiting waterfalls, hiking, climbing, pondering and processing his life experiences of loss, gain and change, and at times composed haiku as a way to pass the time. The tour came to a sudden early end as Bill learned of the decline in the health of his then 94 year old mother. 

The album begins with “I-70 East,” an electric-guitar-driven song that came to him while driving home from the Now I’m Free Tour. Scorzari sings, “Then, came the crosswinds of Kansas unleashed, and it pushed me hard, north and south, all down I-70 east… As I tore home to my mother, before her health, it would fail, at 94, I felt another love leaving me lost, like a nail in a cross.”

Bill says, “When I wrote ‘I-70 East,’ I immediately knew that it was going to be the first track on this new album, even before I wrote the others, and when you cue up this record, it’ll be the first song that you hear when the music begins.” It was also the first single released from the album. Americana Highways premiered the music video for the song and says, “He’s captured such pain. And the beauty of a Rose.”

The 13 original tracks on The Crosswinds of Kansas have many stories to tell including the enlightened “All Behind Me Now,” the life-affirming “1, 2, 3, Jump,” the fast-moving acoustic jam of “A Ghost, My Hat and My Coat,” and the rhythmic, semi-autobiographical, sound-collage “The Measure of a Man.” 

Bill says, “I found that a lot of the songs on this record wound up having an upbeat feel, even when the lyrical content wasn’t necessarily upbeat, or at least not primarily or entirely so. It’s a very satisfying thing when that happens, like positivity shining through and prevailing over our struggles with adversity.”

In the rootsy “The Broken Heart Side of the Road” Scorzari recounts the destruction of a relationship, while the upbeat “Multnomah Falls” weaves a rainy day’s hike into a story of the trials of change and transcendence, and the orchestral “Oceans In Your Eyes” recounts perilous navigation through enchanted waters. The wistful melody and promising lyrics of “Patience and Time” bring a haunting nostalgia which reemerges as the central theme of the hypnotic, plaintive “Try, Try Again,” and prescience triumphs in 

uncertain circumstance in the folksy “Not Should’ve Known.”

“Inside My Heart” features a mix of contemporary and Indigenous instruments and opens with the bell chime of a Tibetan singing bowl, a cluster of claw-hammer banjo notes, and a Native American flute flourish, while “Tryin’,Tryin’,Tryin’,Tryin’,” the final track on the album, has an intriguing story behind it which resulted in Bill learning Navajo from the flutemaker for the song, a Navajo man named Ty Allison and his friends.

Photography by Jacob Blickenstaff

Bill Scorzari is a New York native, with a richly raspy voice and a stellar ear for lyrics and composition. At a later age, he transformed his life as a New York Trial Attorney, to a new life as an accomplished, full-time musician. His discography includes four full-length albums: Just the Same (2014), Through These Waves (2017), and Now I’m Free (2019)—-all independently released to critical acclaim. Acoustic Guitar’s Pat Moran wrote, “New York-based singer-songwriter Bill Scorzari transcends titles like songwriter or poet. He catapults past categories into a dark, ruminative, and ultimately life-affirming realm where family folklore, memories, pain, prayer, and incantation meet.” Scorzari dives deeper into these themes with his 4th studio album, The Crosswinds of Kansas, which will be out on August 19.

For more information, updates and tour dates, visit www.BillScorzari.com. 

Pre-order The Crosswinds of Kansas at https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/the-crosswinds-of-kansas. 

Bill Scorzari — The Crosswinds of Kansas
Track Listing & Credits:
1.) I-70 East (3:16)
2.) Inside My Heart (5:09)
3.) All Behind Me Now (6:01)
4.) Multnomah Falls (4:21)
5.) Oceans In Your Eyes (4:14)
6.) Not Should’ve Known (5:23)
7.) The Broken Heart Side of the Road (4:38)
8.) A Ghost, My Hat and My Coat (4:23)
9.) Patience and Time (6:15)
10.) 1, 2, 3, Jump (6:29)
11.) Try, Try Again (5:17)
12.) The Measure of a Man (4:02)
13.) Tryin’, Tryin’,Tryin’,Tryin’ (11:56)

Read Full Post »

Vibrant, Rootsy, and Vivid, Damn Tall Buildings Release 1st Single From ‘Sleeping Dogs’- Out 9/9

Vibrant, Rootsy, and Vivid, Damn Tall Buildings
Independently Release Their 3rd Album
Sleeping Dogs Sept 9

1st Single “Cold Rain” Out Today 
https://damntallbuildings.hearnow.com/cold-rain

Presave/ Preorder Sleeping Dogs

“Virtually unmatched energy and enthusiasm, underpinned by intelligent songs that don’t skimp on the infectiousness… The musicianship is smart and skilled, but still playful and groove savvy”
—Saving Country Music

“The Carter Family for the millennial generation” —The Boston Globe

“The natural groove made by a string band seriously happy with the music they are making speaks louder than words” —The Alternate Root

Brooklyn, NY — Acoustic Americana trio fed on bluegrass, roots rock, old time, and vintage swing, Damn Tall Buildings are excited to release their 3rd album, Sleeping Dogs, on September 9. Whether sharing lead vocals and instrumental solos or blending their voices into loose, joyous harmony, the three members of Damn Tall Buildings—multi-instrumentalist and primary lyricist Max Capistran (guitar and banjo), bassist Sasha Dubyk, and fiddler Avery Ballotta—delight in entertaining.

Witty and engaging, Damn Tall Buildings’ energizing music finds beauty and glory in the mundane workaday struggle of everyday life: time keeps passing and the seasons come and go, you scroll too much, you smoke too much, you lose yourself, only to sit with yourself and find yourself again, you laugh with your friends, and you look out the window and dream about what else might be out there. It all keeps coming around. You carry on, intent on flourishing and thriving. This is what Damn Tall Buildings sings about, what they seek to share with their audience.

Sleeping Dogs is a bop about looking things smack-dab-right-in-the-face and is essentially about how it has become almost impossible to not be constantly influenced by current events, media, and all of the other things that surround you in your day-to-day life.

Sleeping Dogs opener, “What A Nice Life,” has some extra pep to balance out the darker “I-don’t-know-who-I-am-anymore” lyrics. The old timey, swingin’ “Dark Window Panes” (which adds Garrett Eaton [Dana Williams, Gracie and Rachel] on trumpet) and “Podcast” see the band pondering a pending apocalypse.

1st Single “Cold Rain” Out Today 
damntallbuildings.hearnow.com/cold-rain

The velvety and rejuvenating “Cold Rain” is the album’s first single, and was premiered by AmericanaUK who calls it, “music that is determinedly of Now.” For the song, they are joined by mandolin wizard Dylan McCarthy (2019 Rockygrass Mandolin Champion) and rock-steady drummer Micah Cowher [STOMP in NYC]. Micah also lays down the beat on the catchy “Sweet Girl,” with its chorus, “I am not myself, I am everyone else,” which became what the band calls, “the motto for the record; It’s basically our new anthem.” 

Damn Tall Buildings calls Sleeping Dogs, “an exploration to the depths of oneself to discover who we truly are… maybe it really is as simple as buying some new shoes, and feeling really good wearing ‘em, while you cruise down the block on the sunny side of the street.” You can hear this cheery sentiment echoed in the deep groove and colorful melodies of “Lemons,” in which the virtuosic flute playing of Anh Phung [Twisted Pine] elevates the song to a new level. This fresh energy can also be felt as the sunshine slips in on “Patio.”

The mid-tempo shuffle “Painter” illustrates a re-emergence into the world; with Lars Thorson [Kane Brown] bringing the magic of the lap steel to this track. They slow things down a bit in a rainy day ode to waiting, “Quietly Heartbreaking,” and the gentle “My Baby.”

The album closes with the title track, “Sleeping Dogs,” pulling from the old proverb—“Don’t you let them sleeping dogs lie”—the song emphasizes the theme of the album: don’t ignore life, get out there and live it, take pleasure and meaning from the little things that keep us all connected and growing.

Self produced and recorded, the album was mixed & mastered by Dan Cardinal [Darlingside, Lula Wiles, Josh Ritter] at Dimension Sound Studios. Dan also played keyboard on the title track, adding to the texture of the song.

The trio is individually from all over the United States (New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Montana), but were born as a band while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA in 2013. They started as buskers on Newbury Street in Boston, started touring nationally, and then moved the band to Brooklyn in 2017. Since their busking days, they’ve made two albums—Cure-All (2014) and Don’t Look Down (2019)—and released a self-titled EP in 2015. 

Sleeping Dogs Track Listing
1.) What A Nice Life – 3:02^
2.) Dark Window Panes – 1:56
3.) Podcast – 3:40
4.) Cold Rain – 3:31^
5.) Lemons – 2:3
6.) My Baby – 4:19
7.) Patio – 2:25 
8.) Painter – 2:27
9.) Quietly Heartbreaking – 3:40
10.) Sweet Girl – 2:56
11.) Sleeping Dogs – 2:58
^FCC Warning

www.damntallbuildings.com
www.facebook.com/DamnTallBuildings 
Twitter: @DamnTallTweets
Instagram: @gramtallbuildings
YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/damntallbuildings 

Damn Tall Buildings on Tour:

7/15 Fri – Towne Crier – Beacon, NY
7/16 Sat – The R Bar – Asbury Park, NJ
7/20 Wed – Rockwood Music Hall – New York, NY
7/23-24 Sat-Sun – Hiawatha Music Festival – Marquette, MI 
7/28-29 Thu-Fri – Ossipee Valley Music Festival – S. Hiram, ME
7/31 Sat – The Word Barn – Exeter, NH
8/4 Thu – Kent Summer Concert Series – Kent, WA
8/6 Sat – Hart House Concert – Beaverton, OR
8/7 Sun – Yachats Commons Building – Yachats, OR
8/10 Wed – The Royal Room (w/ Carly Ann Calbero) – Seattle, WA
8/12-14 Fri-Sun – Bear Creek Folk Festival – Grand Prairie, AB, Canada
9/3 Sat – Rettich Preserve @ Madison Land Trust – Madison, CT
9/9 Fri – Coppell Arts Center – Coppell, TX
9/10 Sat – Cactus Cafe – Austin, TX 
9/15-17 Thu-Sat – Walnut Valley Music Festival – Winfield, KS
9/27-29 Tue-Thu – IBMA Bluegrass Ramble – Raleigh, NC
9/30 Fri – Bourgie Nights – Wilmington, NC
10/1 Sat – IBMA Wide Open Bluegrass Festival – Martin St. Stage  – Raleigh, NC
10/13 Thu – Parlor Room – Northampton, MA
10/15 Sat – Glastonbury Apple Harvest & Music Festival – Glastonbury, CT
10/16 Sun – 118 North – Wayne, PA
11/10 Thu – Prius Hall-Ball State University – Muncie, IN
11/11 Fri – Thrasher Opera House – Green Lake, WI

Read Full Post »

Bill Scorzari Independently Releases ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’ —Co-Produced by Neilson Hubbard 8/19— 1st Single Out Now

Bill Scorzari Independently Releases
The Crosswinds of Kansas
August 19, 2022

First Single “I-70 East” Available Now at Spotify,Amazon, and Apple

The Musicians:
Bill Scorzari, Brent Burke, Cindy Richardson Walker and Marie Lewey a/k/a “The Shoals Sisters,” Chelsea McGough, Danny Mitchell, Eamon McLoughlin, Fats Kaplin, Juan Solorzano, Kyle Tuttle, Matt Menefee, Mia Rose Lynne, Michael Rinne, Neilson Hubbard, Ty Allison, Will Kimbrough 

Co-Produced by Scorzari and Hubbard,
The Crosswinds of Kansas Was Recorded in Two Locations:
First Thunder Recording Studios by Scorzari in Huntington, NY
and Skinny Elephant Recording by Engineer Dylan Alldredge in Nashville

HUNTINGTON, NY — “New York-based singer-songwriter Bill Scorzari transcends titles like songwriter or poet. He catapults past categories into a dark, ruminative, and ultimately life-affirming realm where family folklore, memories, pain, prayer, and incantation meet,” says Acoustic Guitar. Scorzari, a prolific songwriter, has taken his craft to new heights and deeper depths with his 4th studio album, The Crosswinds of Kansas which will be independently released on August 19.

Much of The Crosswinds of Kansas was inspired by his three-month-long Now I’m Free Tour in 2019—which had become a journey of self discovery, with Bill ultimately arriving at a new awareness and desire to adapt and continue to create. He had made his way from the east coast, toward, and around the west coast and back, traveling under two full moons, visiting waterfalls, hiking, climbing, pondering and processing his life experiences of loss, gain and change, and at times composed haiku as a way to pass the time on the long drives between performances, until the tour came to an unexpected early end when Bill learned of the sudden decline in the health of his then 94 year old mother back home in NY.

Bill started his four-day drive home back east from California; when he got to Kansas on the second day, the winds were blowing so hard North and South across I-70 East that he had to fight the steering wheel for hours just to keep his car going straight down the highway. He stopped in Hays, KS for the night and woke up the next morning with a sore neck and arms from wrestling those tenacious crosswinds the day before. The following lines came to him while he was driving, “Then, came the crosswinds of Kansas unleashed, and it pushed me hard, north and south, all down I-70 east… As I tore home to my mother, before her health, it would fail, at 94, I felt another love leaving me lost, like a nail in a cross.”

Bill says, “When I wrote ‘I-70 East,’ I immediately knew that it was going to be the first track on this new album, even before I wrote the others, and when you cue up this record, it’ll be the first song that you hear when the music begins.” “I-70 East” is the first single to be released and is available now to stream or purchase → https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/i-70-east. Americana Highways premiered the music video for the song and says, “He’s captured such pain. And the beauty of a Rose.”

After arriving back home in NY and securing 24-hour care for his mom in late 2019, Bill took a deep breath, and began to write. Some of the songs were new creations and some were reworkings of songs from his back catalog which also fit well within the themes and moods of what was becoming the new album. He spent the early days of the Covid lockdown finishing the songs, gathering the right instruments to fit the music, and building out his studio—First Thunder— where he recorded much of the album. All the while, he continued to share time with his mom daily, until she passed at home on Christmas Day 2020 with Bill and family at her bedside, less than seven weeks before her 96th Birthday. 

With Scorzari drawing inspiration from a full palette of moods and emotions, the 13 original tracks on The Crosswinds of Kansas have many stories to tell— some confront the darker emotions head-on. Bill says, “I found that a lot of the songs on this record wound up having an upbeat feel, even when the lyrical content wasn’t necessarily upbeat, or at least not primarily or entirely so. It’s a very satisfying thing when that happens, like positivity shining through and prevailing over our struggles with adversity.”  

Scorzari recounts a hard tale of the destruction of a relationship in the rootsy “The Broken Heart Side of the Road,” while “Multnomah Falls” weaves a chronicle of a rainy day’s hike into an account of the trials of change and transcendence set to cascading mandolin lines. The orchestral “Oceans In Your Eyes” recounts a perilous navigation through an enchanted captivation, and a wistfully nostalgic “Patience and Time” haunts with lyrics, “… and I don’t think there’s anything that’s ever been as ‘this much’ on my mind. And with each day that’s passed I’m holding fast to patience and time, ‘cause nothing can outlast patience and time.”

Nostalgia is revisited in the hypnotic “Try, Try Again” and “Not Should’ve Known” presents a combination of uncertainty and prescience with its lyrics, “I’m just waitin’ for the courage to accept what I can’t change. Still, I can’t help but worry ‘bout how sometimes things turn strange and how with every situation that confronts me to my core, there comes a realization that I seem to have had before… what if I knew, and not should’ve known?” 

With the electric-guitar-driven opening track ”I-70 East,” the transcendent “All Behind Me Now,” the uplifting “1, 2, 3, Jump,” the fast-moving acoustic jam of “A Ghost, My Hat and My Coat,” and the rhythmic, semi-autobiographical, sound-collage that is “The Measure of a Man,” Scorzari achieves a beautiful balance in this new collections of songs.

Bringing a mix of contemporary and Indigenous instruments, “Inside My Heart” opens with the bell chime of a Tibetan singing bowl, a cluster of claw-hammer banjo notes and a Native American flute flourish, while the intriguing backstory of the making of the album finds Bill learning his lyrics in Navajo from a Navajo flutemaker named Ty Allison and his friends, and recording those lyrics, and the two flutes made by Ty, onto the final track, “Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’.” 

Bill says of learning Navajo, “It was an incredible honor for me. Beyond words. I’m also going to very candidly say that it was, however, no small task, and something that I would not have been able to do without the patient teaching, support and encouragement by, and friendship of Ty, Caleb and David. It is a connection that I will always cherish.”

The album was recorded in two locations—beginning in 2020 at First Thunder Recording Studios in Huntington, NY, by Scorzari during the Covid outbreak and through the continued lockdown into 2021, and continuing at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville, TN, by Engineer Dylan Alldredge in 2021 and again in 2022. 

Acclaimed record producer, film director, film producer, singer-songwriter, and photographer, Neilson Hubbard joined Bill as Co-Producer during the Nashville sessions, and also played drums and/or percussion on all of the tracks. Bill says, “Neilson has, among many other things, produced records for Mary Gauthier, Sam Baker, Kim Richey, and others, and his musical and production sense is spot on, and it appears to be effortlessly so. The man has a gift, and I am so very grateful for his friendship and for his many great talents which he has shared with me over the past several years.”

The musicians who joined in for the recording of The Crosswinds of Kansas include the following folks who, along with Scorzari and Hubbard, make up the band’s core: Michael Rinne [Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowel, Jack White, Miranda Lambert] brings his impeccable musical sense and technique on upright and electric bass as the perfect foundation for these new songs; Danny Mitchell [Miranda Lambert] played Hammond B3 Organ and Piano on this record with a masterfully cinematic approach; Fats Kaplin [John Prine, Jack White, Nancy Griffith] added his richly melodic and rhythmic sensibilities playing pedal steel guitar, fiddle, and viola; and Juan Solorzano plays electric, slide, and baritone guitars with flawless technique and heart wrenching phrasing.

Bill Scorzari. Photography by Jacob Blickenstaff 

Additional players joining in on several tracks during the summer 2021 Nashville sessions include Matt Menefee [Bela Fleck, Dan Auerbach, Ricky Skaggs] AKA “Matt, TheBanjoPlayer” on banjo; world class Dobro player Brent Burke [Rhonda Vincent and The Rage]; the multi-talented Will Kimbrough on mandolin; accomplished cellist Chelsea McGough; acclaimed banjo player Kyle Tuttle; and gifted vocalist Mia Rose Lynne on harmony vocals. 

Later, in September of 2021, Bill returned to Nashville to work with Dylan on the final mixes. But before doing so, he brought in a few other stellar musicians to wrap up the final recordings including Eamon McLoughlin [Staff Fiddle Player at The Grand Ole Opry, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell] who played violin on 2 songs, and the incomparable Marie Lewey and Cindy Richardson Walker [AKA The Shoals Sisters] who sang backing vocals on 4 songs.

In early 2022, Bill recorded some backing vocal and harmony vocal tracks for the song, “Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’” at his studio in New York. For the final piece to complete the record, he asked Ty to send him a short cell phone recording of himself singing a Navajo chant, which Bill edited to make it sound like a historically older recording before adding it in at the end of the song. It’s also the very last sound on the album. Bill says, “When I was done and listened back to it, the song (and the album) felt complete, and the history it has gathered is abundant and beautiful.”

Bill says, “For me, the journey that had begun in 2019 (and in many respects, much earlier), became a journey into the depths of my soul, not just in a nebulous aspirational or conceptual sense, but in its fruition, and this album is a record of many of the ways in which it has all unfolded for me so far. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have occupied my time with this effort and for the opportunity to continue to participate in the dance that is life, through this pandemic and beyond.”

He continues, “It has been an arduous and relentless trek to the ultimate discovery that we are here simply to dwell in the experience of being human and to come to know that wherever that experience may take us, and to whatever heights or depths we may rise or fall in it, it is all nothing less than an unspeakably generous and miraculous gift of life and great love.”

More about Bill Scorzari: 

Bill Scorzari is a New York native, with a richly raspy voice and a stellar ear for lyrics and composition. At a later age, he transformed his life as a New York Trial Lawyer, to a new life as an accomplished, full-time musician. To date, his discography includes four full-length albums: Just the Same (2014), Through These Waves (2017), and Now I’m Free (2019)—-all independently released to critical acclaim.

Through These Waves landed on many Top-Ten-Albums-of-2017 lists including Folk Alley and Elmore Magazine, with Elmore saying, “…this is a must hear for singer-songwriter aficionados.” More recently, Now I’m Free was premiered by Billboard, with an exclusive interview by Gary Graff who described the album as “delicately nuanced” with “detailed arrangements” and Glide Magazine’s Jim Hynes wrote, “Like them [Dylan, Waits, Kristofferson, and Sam Baker] too, Scorzari’s facility with words and poetic flair, instills a calming wisdom and creaks of hope among the dark.”

More information can be found at: www.billscorzari.com.

Pre-order The Crosswinds of Kansas at https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/the-crosswinds-of-kansas. 

Album Art & Design by Anna Berman

www.billscorzari.com

Read Full Post »

Suwannee Roots Revival Oct 13-16 w/ JJ Grey & Mofro, Punch Brothers, Peter Rowan and more

Initial Lineup Announced for the 6th Suwannee Roots Revival 

October 13-16, 2022 at the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, FL

JJ Grey & Mofro –  Punch Brothers
Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band – Donna the Buffalo – Kitchen Dwellers
Jon Stickley Trio – Jim Lauderdale – Seth Walker
Verlon Thompson – Shawn Camp – Joe Craven
and more!

Tickets → suwanneerootsrevival.com/tickets

LIVE OAK, FL — The 6th Suwannee Roots Revival takes place Thursday, October 13 – Sunday, October 16 at the renowned Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, Florida. We are thrilled to announce an initial lineup of incredible musicians for 2022 including JJ Grey & Mofro, Punch Brothers, Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band, Donna the Buffalo, Kitchen Dwellers, Jon Stickley Trio, Jim Lauderdale, Seth Walker, Verlon Thompson, Shawn Camp, Joe Craven, Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble, The Grass Is Dead, Ralph Roddenbery & the HighRoad, Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp, Nicholas Edward Williams, Sloppy Joe, Quartermoon, The Fried Turkeys, Tania & the Magic Moon Traveling Circus, and more to be announced!

Suwannee Roots Revival focuses on showcasing established as well as up-and-coming roots musicians throughout a weekend laced with community based fun, growing friendships, laughing families, and that feel-good feeling you get from hanging out in such a beautiful natural setting.

“Creating a lineup has always seemed like painting a musical picture to me,” says Festival Director Beth Judy. “The work in progress for this year’s Suwannee Roots Revival is taking shape nicely starting with the vivid and unique hues of JJ Grey & Mofro and Punch Brothers to complement the colorful collection of artists we’re blessed to have joining us. I look forward to the completion of this work of art very soon and I’m thrilled at the choices on my musical palate. I can’t wait to share the final product with you!” 

Suwannee Roots Revival is jam-packed with stellar music and dance on multiple stages throughout the weekend. This family-friendly festival includes four days of music, camping, yoga, music workshops, a Kids Tent, as well as campground pickin’ sessions. Set in the midst of 800 acres of Spanish moss-draped oak and cypress trees along the Suwannee River, the venue is a playground for endless activities such as swimming, canoeing, kayaking, disc golf, and biking. 

Placing a strong emphasis on embracing the traditions that have made the park a national treasure, there will be a wide array of arts & crafts as well as culinary delights ranging from healthy to decadent in the Vending Village. Hands-on and performance workshops will be held throughout the weekend with a variety of artists set to perform. The park itself is a place where kids of all ages can remember why they fell in love with the magic mixture of sights, sounds, and sensations that constitutes a weekend of paradise that is the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.

Tickets are on sale now. Suwannee Roots Revival offers a multi-day Weekend Ticket that includes festival admission for four days of music, as well as primitive camping on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Children 12 and under are free if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Early Bird Tickets are $140 (includes fees and taxes); Student / Military Early Bird are $130 (with a valid ID). Get your tickets quickly because there is a limited supply before the Early Bird Tier will sell out and they rise to the next pricing tier automatically—Early Bird Tier 2 Tickets at $175. An additional event car pass is now required to bring a car into the campground. Advance Car Pass: $15 or $20 at the Gate. For complete ticket information and to purchase tickets, visit suwanneerootsrevival.com/tickets/.

SOSMP offers guest comforts including a general store, full service restaurant, free showers, indoor bathrooms, and water stations. Upgraded camping, including RV hook ups and cabin rentals, as well as golf cart rentals are currently on sale. Reservations may be made by calling the Park office at (386) 364­-1683. SOSMP is located between Jacksonville, Florida & Tallahassee, Florida about 30 minutes south of the Georgia State line, about 45 minutes north of Gainesville and is host to a variety of events. Please visit the park’s web site at www.musicliveshere.com for further information.

Suwannee Roots Revival 2022 Initial Lineup
JJ Grey & Mofro
Punch Brothers
Peter Rowan’s Bluegrass Band
Donna the Buffalo
Kitchen Dwellers
Jon Stickley Trio
Jim Lauderdale
Seth Walker
Verlon Thompson
Shawn Camp
Joe Craven
Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble
The Grass Is Dead
Ralph Roddenbery & the HighRoad
Nikki Talley & Jason Sharp
Nicholas Edward Williams
Sloppy Joe
Quartermoon
The Fried Turkeys
Tania & the Magic Moon Traveling Circus
& more to be announced!

For more information, tickets, and to reserve camping, please visit www.suwanneerootsrevival.com.
Also visit us on a www.facebook.com/suwanneeroots, Twitter & Instagram: @SuwanneeRoots (#SuwanneeRoots).

Read Full Post »

Suwannee Spring Reunion Schedule Announced— Greensky Bluegrass, Trampled By Turtles, Yonder Mountain String Band, Sierra Hull

THE 4TH SUWANNEE SPRING REUNION
MARCH 17-20, 2022
THE SPIRIT OF SUWANNEE MUSIC PARK IN LIVE OAK, FLORIDA

FEATURING 
Greensky Bluegrass – Trampled By Turtles
Yonder Mountain String Band – Sierra Hull
Peter Rowan – Donna The Buffalo
Jim Lauderdale – Verlon Thompson
Roy Book Binder – Jon Stickley Trio – and more

Tickets on sale now at → www.suwanneespringreunion.com 
Early bird ticket price ends Tuesday, March 8 

SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED!

LIVE OAK, FL — Suwannee Spring Reunion is thrilled to kick off the Spring season Thursday through Sunday, March 17-20, 2022. Folks of all ages will be gathering under the gorgeous, mossy live oak laden grounds of The Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) in Live Oak, FL for this beloved festival tradition. For four days and nights this family-friendly festival is home to early morning sing-a-longs and night time musical pyrotechnics from the park’s stellar cast of alumni and new favorites hosting a range of original music rooted Americana—Bluegrass, Newgrass, Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Blues, and more. Literally something for everyone!

The Suwannee Spring Reunion 2022 lineup features Greensky Bluegrass, Trampled By Turtles, Yonder Mountain String Band, Sierra Hull, Peter Rowan, Donna The Buffalo, Jim Lauderdale, and more. There will be music on four stages and plenty of music in the campground with jamming at Slopryland and the Bill Monroe Shrine as well as camp pickin’ parties. Hands-on and performance workshops will be held throughout the weekend with a variety of artists set to perform.  

The full schedule of events has been announced and can be found at www.suwanneespringreunion.com/schedule. 

Yonder Mountain String Band closes out the Amphitheater Stage Thursday Night with a two hour set from 11pm-1am, following Sierra Hull’s set on the stage from 8:30pm-10pm. In between them, Jon Stickley Trio will stun with a riveting set on the Porch Stage. The festival kicks off with an opening set by The Grass Is Dead at 4pm and other highlights in Thursday’s already jam-packed day include Jim Lauderdale, Mike + Ruthy, The Applebutter Express, The Firewater Tent Revival, and Two Foot Level.

Greensky Bluegrass headlines Friday night at 9:30pm on the Amphitheater Stage with Donna the Buffalo playing the sunset set (6:45pm) and Jon Stickley Trio closing out the latenight from 12:30-2am. Highlights of others performing around the festival Friday include Rev. Jeff Mosier Ensemble, Verlon Thompson, and Chatham County Line on the Porch Stage; Free Range Strange, Two Foot Level, Nikki Talley, and a closing set by The Grass Is Dead in the Music Tent Stage; and on The Music Farmers Stage: a sing-a-long harmony workshop with Mike + Ruthy (of The Mammals), a banjo workshop with Rev. Jeff Mosier, and a blues guitar workshop with Roy Book Binder.

Saturday night headliners are Trampled By Turtles at 9:30pm on the Amphitheater Stage. Peter Rowan plays at 7pm (He will also perform at 1pm on the Porch Stage) and Donna the Buffalo closes out the stage with a late night power set; Songs From The Road Band and Chatham County Line play the Amphitheater Stage in the daytime. Other Saturday highlights include Town Mountain, Fireside Collective, and Tony Furtado with Luke Price on the Porch Stage; a closing set on the Music Tent Stage by Songs From The Road Band—following sets by Quartermoon, Jon Stickley Trio, and Verlon Thomson; and on the Music Farmers Stage sets by The Low Crows and Free Range Strange as well as workshops with Tom Nelly (guitar) and Tony Furtado with Luke Price (banjo and fiddle).

Sunday will always be known as Vassar Sunday in honor of the late and great Vassar Clements who used to frequent the festivities at the park. Donna the Buffalo will close out the festival on The Amphitheater Stage and as is their fashion– they will host a number of folks to perform along with them in a closing jam. Who knows who will end up on stage?! Others set to play Sunday across the festival include Town Mountain, Peter Rowan, Verlon Thomspon, Rev. Jeff Mosier, and more.

“Back in early March 2020, we were on the cusp of things closing down because of COVID-19. The pressure to make the eventual decision to cancel the festival was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done,” says Beth Judy, Festival Director. “That makes it so much more thrilling for the Suwannee Spring Reunion to finally be happening again after two years of not being able to put it on because of the pandemic. This incredible lineup has many of the acts slated to happen back then, plus a few more to sweeten the pot!” 

Placing a strong emphasis on embracing the traditions that have made the park a national treasure, there will be a wide array of arts & crafts as well as an array of culinary delights ranging from healthy to decadent in the Vending Village. The park itself is a place where kids of all ages can remember why they fell in love with the magic mixture of sights, sounds, and sensations that constitutes a weekend of paradise that is the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park.

Tickets are on sale now. Suwannee Spring Reunion offers a multi-day Weekend Ticket that includes festival admission for four days of music, as well as primitive camping on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Children 12 and under are free if accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Early Bird Tickets are on sale now with a price of $175 (includes fees and taxes); Student / Military Early Bird are $160 (with a valid ID). Get your tickets before the Early Bird Tier ends good through March 8, 2022. An additional event car pass is now required to bring a car into the campground. Advance Car Pass: $15 or $20 at the Gate. For complete ticket information and to purchase tickets, visit www.suwanneespringreunion.com/Tickets/. 

SOSMP offers guest comforts including a general store, full service restaurant, free showers, indoor bathrooms, and water stations. Upgraded camping, including RV hook ups and cabin rentals, as well as golf cart rentals are currently on sale. Reservations may be made by calling the Park office at (386) 364­-1683. SOSMP is located between Jacksonville, Florida & Tallahassee, Florida about 30 minutes south of the Georgia State line, about 45 minutes north of Gainesville and is host to a variety of events. Please visit the park’s web site at www.musicliveshere.com for further information.

Suwannee Spring Reunion 2022
Greensky Bluegrass
Trampled By Turtles
Yonder Mountain String Band
Sierra Hull
Peter Rowan
Donna The Buffalo
Jim Lauderdale 
Verlon Thompson
Roy Book Binder
Jon Stickley Trio
Town Mountain
Chatham County Line
Fireside Collective
Rev Jeff Mosier Ensemble
Songs From The Road Band
The Grass Is Dead
Tony Furtado with Luke Price
Two Foot Level
Mike + Ruthy 
Nikki Talley
Quartermoon
Sloppy Joe
The Low Crows
The Applebutter Express
Free Range Strange
Firewater Tent Revival
Habanero Honeys
Tania & The Magic Moon Traveling Circus

For more information, tickets, and to reserve camping, please visit www.suwannee spring reunion.com.

Read Full Post »