The E.Normus Trio Local Record Release Party Thursday, August 2, 2012 with J.Ray Goes Beatnik! Back Stage at the LAB (The Lexington Ave Brewery)
Asheville, NC
On Thursday, August 2nd, E.Normus Trio will celebrate the release of their first record “Love and Barbiturates” with a live concert and video taping at the LAB. J.Ray Goes Beatnik opens the show.
Born of a weekly Sunday jam session at the now-closed Joli Rouge in Asheville, North Carolina, the E. Normus Trio has been a project of Jay Sanders and Steve Alford since they met playing “Rhapsody in Blue” in 2007. Contrary to speculation, the group is not named for its exotic instrumentation and the ranges they provide, but is instead the pedigreed namesake of Alford’s sizeable leonberger, Norman E. Normus. As a puppy, Norman was a regular listener at those Sunday sessions.
Originally taking an almost whimsical approach to the bare bones horn/bass/drums jazz trio concept, the sound of the group began a major transformation with Sanders’ switch from acoustic bass to the N/S Stick, an 8-string multi-mode instrument that covers the ranges of both a bass and a guitar. At the heart of the huge sound generated by the group is Sanders’ ability to take on two roles at once, covering what would normally be played separately by both a bassist and guitar player. This “one brain controlling two voices,” as Alford calls it, creates an eerie effect in the sound, and results in a symbiosis that is simply unachievable with bass and guitar played individually. This nucleus paired with Alford’s vocalized and primal lead voice, six octaves of sweeping clarinet range, creates a sonic palette unlike any other trio out there. To this mix, add Michael W. Davis, who brings incredible jazz sensitivity coupled with huge power generated not by volume, but with an utterly superhuman control of the time.
Compared to many studio projects these days, Love and Barbiturates was recorded with very little overdubbing. The contra-bass clarinet and alto clarinet on “The Long Boots of Age” are an obvious example of studio magic, but amazingly enough the album is recreated live by the group with very little variance in texture and layering. The debate is still ongoing as to whether this is a jazz, rock, or soul record, or something new altogether. As music genre labels are generally the product of hindsight, that debate will be discussed and determined by others.
“Galen Kipar casually refers to himself as a ‘trout ninja.’ But his real art is the musical blending of folk, classical, jazz, and blues into what one might call neo-bluegrass or Appalachian jazz. Nathan Oravec profiles Kipar on Gazette.net, where the musician and fly fisher describes the link between water and music: ’Water, particularly rivers, have many different currents. Music is the same way,’ he says. ‘Music has many different currents, and they all work together. Maybe that’s a little far-fetched, but it’s something that’s always fascinated me.’” –Midcurrent
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“[The Scenic Route is] Hard-hitting like a determined trout on the end of the line.” –WV Gazette
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“In Asheville, fans call his act a ‘small-scale symphony.’ It’s probably more like chamber folk/pop, sometimes reminiscent of Adrian Belew’s quieter moods,” –Tad Dickens, Roanoke Times
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“I could easily picture myself finding a secluded stream high on the mountain and lying in the warm sun as the Galen Kipar Project played softly in the background. Maybe I can talk them into hiking with me one day, with instruments in hand, of course. I would even offer to carry a few things.” –Jeremiah Greer, Magazine 33
Asheville’s Moses Atwood will be teaming up with Johnson’s Crossroad for a Co-Bill at the Lexington Ave. Brewery on Friday, March 30th.
Moses will be celebrating the release of his NEW album One Bright Boat. Joining Moses for his set will be Dave Mack on bass, Jacob Baumann on Drums, Evan Martin on Guitar, and other special guests! Moses will also be sitting in with Johnson’s Crossroad (JXR) for a song or two.
Johnson’s Crossroad has a lot in store this year and are going to be heading back in the studio to record a 3rd album. Their 2011 release Mockingbird was voted #7 on WNCW’s Top 20 Regional Albums! Having played around 140 shows in 2011, they continue on their travels and are performing Merlefest for the 3rd year in a row and were added to the John Hartford Memorial Fest in IN and Band Lands Bluegrass in WV in 2012!
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Moses Atwood sets sail with sophomore effort, One Bright Boat It’s been four years since singer/songwriter Moses Atwood (also known for his work with Johnson’s Crossroad and The Overflow Jug Band) released his self-titled debut. That was in 2008; suddenly last fall Atwood decided it was time to put together his new collection of songs, One Bright Boat. So he rounded up a group of musicians and headed to Waking Studio, the new digs of Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog) in Philadelphia. There, Atwood and company knocked out the nine tracks in a mere week. The songs, he says, were culled from the years since his first album. While some date back to when he lived in Maine, most were written in North Carolina over the last few years.
Atwood choose Waking Studio because he wanted to take his musicians (including Michael Libramento of Floating Action) out of their routines. And it was time: “I’d found so many ways of circumventing the actual making of the record that I was like, ‘book the dates, get the people and do it.'” A week is a push, but, Atwood says, “Limitations are a really valuable thing in any artistic process — how many limitations and how you impose them is the trick.”
One Bright Boat doesn’t sound pressured or hurried. It opens with rollicking piano, the easy jingle of tambourine and tasteful flourishes of guitar. Atwood’s voice is what colors in the picture, relaxed and rich, rising effortlessly in a warm baritone.
“I’m tired of being the sad man, tired of all the sad songs. I’m tired of living my life like I’ve done something wrong,” he imparts on the spirit-lifting, cloud- parting title track.
If Atwood’s first record paid homage to his troubadour heroes (Woody Guthrie, Utah Phillips), One Bright Boat is less road-weary and more refined as Atwood leaves the minstrel role for that of bandleader in the style of Van Morrison and Randy Newman.
Running like a current through the record is Atwood’s talent for telling a story in fleeting images and washes of sound. These aren’t ballads but modern song-sketches of places longed for and passed through, people met and parted with, time passing. There’s space on each track — an easy flow of tides and waltzes (“California”), of pedal steel accents and Atwood’s comfortable flannel- and-bourbon vocal polished with (on “At Last”) gospel and brass.
“In recording, I feel like you’re recreating or capturing a moment in time,” says Atwood. “With modern recording you’re at constant great risk of losing the value of the moment, losing the essence of what you’ve got going on. But if you go all for capturing the moment, you don’t have a record, you just have a live performance. There’s a balance that the best records achieve.”
For a young artist, Atwood comes admirably close to that balance. It’s an album that rings both fresh and familiar, of-a-time and timeless. With One Bright Boat, Atwood’s ship comes in.
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Johnson’s Crossroad has been described by friends and fans as everything from “Appalachian Soul” to “Hillbilly Metal.”
The band blends blues, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, and Appalachian Old Time for a sound that The Daily Times’ Steve Wildsmith calls “both mournful and jubilant, breezy and graveyard serious.” He goes on to comment that frontman Paul Johnson’s voice “barely rises above a growl, but he stretches that sound to encompass the experience of a train-hopping hobo and the wisdom of an old man recalling loves lost and wars fought from the porch of a backwoods cabin.”
Their 2011 album Mockingbird puts songwriter Paul Johnson in line with names like Guy Clark or Zac Brown and his powerful voice evokes memories of folk stars like Taj Mahal or Burl Ives. The Wilmington Star News describes, “It’s gruff and easygoing, like a mix of Tom Waits and Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem.“ AmericanaUKexclaims, “With ‘Mockingbird’ Johnson’s Crossroad seem to have just proved themselves to be one of the finest Roots rockers around right now.” The album was voted the #7 Regional albums of 2012 by WNCW!
The sincerity of Johnson’s songs and simplicity of his lyrics make you want to pour a brew, put your feet up or head to the hills. Asheville’s Bold Life call the band a “treat to see live” and says that, “Paul Johnson has a knack for creating powerful visuals with straightforward lyrics.” Dobro, mandolin and fiddle back up Johnson’s clean lyrics on some, other times its simple finger picking to a folksong.
“I like to keep the words simple,” said Paul Johnson. “I try and follow Hank Williams as much as possible, let the words tell the story and the music back it up,” Johnson said. His inspiration is simple yet intently focused. “I was born in the mountains of West Virginia, I’ve always been in the mountains all my life,” said Johnson who now calls Asheville, NC home.
“This is what I’ve always wanted to do, travel around and pick guitar,” said Johnson, who writes the majority of the songs for Johnson’s Crossroad. Watching his back is mandolin player Keith Minguez, a strong friendship at the core of the group.
“In 1998 I met Paul and I saw John Hartford on my first visit to MerleFest, it was life changing” said Minguez. Then in 2004 he had enough, “I was 30, living in Florida, drinking with my dad’s buddies and they all said the same thing, ‘drink scotch and water and never stop chasing your dream.’” He called Paul and in 13 hours was at his door with mandolin in hand. “If Keith wasn’t around nothing would get done,” laughed Johnson. Friends Corey Lee McQuade (Dobro, banjo, harmonies) and Moses Atwood (keyboard, Dobro, harmonies) sit in on variety of gigs, and often other friends join in support Johnson’s constant search for great sound.
The band is returning to Blue Ridge Big Sky Music Studio (appropriately topping a peak above Moravian Falls, NC) to record their 3rd album in 2012. Who could resist after the experience they had last time around? It’s where they’re comfortable, it’s where everything is comfortable. Making music with friends, fans and family. At the studio, it’s a drive to the county line to get a little cell reception and distraction is not so digital, just were they need to be. They are looking for an early 2013 release and will be spending time over the summer and fall getting the next one just right, working again with John Adair as Engineer and Producer.
Since their first album Blood in Black and White they’ve won spots at national events like Merlefest, Floyd Fest, Music City Roots and Bristol Rhythm and Roots, with tours to the Northeast and Midwest that continue throughout 2012. Years playing the road to empty rooms have passed. Johnson’s Crossroad travels on with over 150 shows and a world of mountains ahead to climb.
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Check out this video of Moses with JXR performing the song “Louisiana” that is on One Bright Boat.
Effortlessly crafting a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, and blues, the Galen Kipar Project has been hailed as “complex yet accessible” and “cohesive and poignant” with “experimental folk masterpieces.” Based in Asheville, in 2011 GKP released their fourth album The Scenic Route which features the unique sonorous sound that has become the band’s trademark. GKP is vocalist Galen Kipar on guitars & harmonica, Lyndsay Pruett on violin & vocals, Jeremy Young on drum kit, Ben Portwood on upright bass & vocals, along with with frequent guest Aaron Ballance on dobro and lap steel. “This is folk and blues done so well, with bits of jazz and funk thrown in making it that much more enjoyable,” states Origivation Magazine.
Galen’s other endeavor keeps him on the water as he serves as a fly fishing guide with Curtis Wright Outfitters to Western North Carolina which has over 3000 miles of Trout waters and streams. He gets much of his inspiration for songwriting while standing waist deep in a river. If fans would like to go fishing with Galen this summer and talk music, they can visit www.curtiswrightoutfitters.com.
True to his inspiration, Galen sings in the song Riversong, “Headin’ on down to the waterside, gonna take some time, to rest my mind. Gonna break there, gonna stay there. For a moment there, I’ll sigh.” Water is a consistent theme in his uplifting music that WNC Magazine describes as, “intricate and memorable, sophisticated and relaxed.
The GKP was featured on WNCW’s 2010 Crowd Around the Mic Compilation CD with artists such as Darrell Scott, Jeff Sipe and Ike Stubblefield, Muddy Waters Reunion Band, Drivin & Cryin’ and Jim Lauderdale. Their hit October Snow was used in a commercial promoting the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) and the WNC Farmers Market Association and was also a finalist in the Google TV for All Contest. ASAP has released a Spring 2011 video for the farmer’s market with one of GKP’s songs at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg-82R0QB7U.
Here is a video interview and show clips from the last time GKP played the LAB by Jeremiah Greer Live:
Galen Kipar Project. Photo by Jake Pelham- Folktography.
Effortlessly crafting a fusion of folk, classical, jazz, and blues, the Galen Kipar Project has been hailed as “complex yet accessible” and “cohesive and poignant” with “experimental folk masterpieces.” Based in Asheville, GKP recently released their fourth album in five years The Scenic Route which features the unique sonorous sound that has become the band’s trademark. GKP is vocalist Galen Kipar on guitars & harmonica, Lyndsay Pruett on violin & vocals, Jeremy Young on drum kit, Ben Portwood on upright bass & vocals, along with with frequent guest Aaron Ballance on dobro and lap steel. “This is folk and blues done so well, with bits of jazz and funk thrown in making it that much more enjoyable,” states Origivation Magazine.
Galen Kipar Project did a recent interview Jeremiah Greer Live at their show at the Lexington Ave Brewery (The LAB) in Asheville, NC. Check out the interview as well as clip from the show here:
HATCH is a biannual four-day experience that energizes creative professionals and thought leaders who are serious about transforming their ideas and talents into bold action, while inspiring others to do the same.
During HATCH, local studios, galleries, theaters, concert halls, and other select locations throughout downtown Asheville host experiential exhibits, panels, workshops, and networking events. The energy of HATCH surrounds and engages you. HATCH is unique because attendees and sponsors are part of the creative process. Everyone attending has intimate access to influential industry professionals across a range of creative disciplines.
HATCH 2011 will bring over 70 top professionals from seven creative fields to Asheville to act as mentors in film, music, fashion, journalism, photography, architecture, and design & technology. The magic of HATCH comes to life when cross-disciplinary explorations lead to exposure within the creative community, expansion of ideas & actions, and evolution of creative visions.
HATCH is actively engaged in fulfilling the following core initiatives:
Spotlighting innovators and solutions for better living.
Creating a potent network of thought leaders who can affect change
Discussing how emerging technologies are affecting our planet
Increasing academic innovation through furthering school/community collaborations
More about the Music Panels and Music Workshops is below and in more detail at the website. More information about the other creative fields represented (Film, Tech, Photo, etc) can be found at http://hatchexperience.com. You can purchase tickets to attend multiple HATCH panels, workshop and other events at the website: http://hatchexperience.com/tickets
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MUSIC: Vision // Music ReMIX
Hatch Music: Remix Everything
Join HATCH for ongoing collaborations with the music community and participate in spontaneous creation. There are several Music Panels and Workshops with discussions on how technology is changing our interactions with music. Find out about more about the at http://hatchexperience.com/music/
GROUNDBREAKERS: Have Your Music Remixed
Hatch is seeking song submissions for bands for Hatch Remix. Be selected as a Music Groundbreaker and work on a remix of your music with New York City’s DJ Nickodemus and producer Moreno Visini aka Zeb, the Spy From Cairo. Songs should be submitted by Saturday, April 8th and will be considered on quality and the vision that Nickodemus and Moreno Visini have on creating a final remix during HATCH. The winning band(s) will also have the opportunity to work alongside the remixers and will have full rights to release the remix for commercial or promotional purposes as long as they attribute HATCH, Nickodemus, Moreno Visini, Echo Mountain Studio and any engineers. All genres are encouraged to join. Upload Your Song Here
Schedule of Music events by day:
Wednesday, April 13th: 7 pm ~ Music Video Asheville~ Fine Arts Theatre
A showcase highlighting the pairing of Asheville musicians and filmmakers
Thursday, April 14th: 5 pm – 7 pm ~Music Conversation: What’s Working From Who’s Working Workshop ~ Echo Mountain Recording Studio (API)
Join Asheville-based musicians and industry pros for a discussion about making money making music. This is a great opportunity to network with your peers that are musicians, publicists, agents, club bookers and festivals reps and discuss making a living in the music industry.
Thursday, April 14th: 7 pm Doors, 8 pm Show ~Ben Sollee Live In Concert with special guest~ Lexington Ave Brewery (LAB) Backroom
Ben Sollee is a classically trained pop cellist who explores contemporary folk music in an urbanized world. He will release his new album entitled Inclusions on May 10th, 2011.* A limited number of tickets will be on sale soon for $20.
Friday, April 15th: 9pm – 12 am ~ Hatch Networking Party ~ TBA Venue
Join Hatch attendees, mentors and groundbreakers for a networking event and music performances from HATCH Participants.
Friday, April 15th: 1 pm ~ Panel: Music Remixed ~ Innovators Lounge (Jubilee Downstairs, 46 Wall St)
Everything is changing for music fans, musicians and the music business. Remix and rethink your perceptions about music. Panelists will explore the changing landscape of music discovery, listening, creation and marketing. Mentors featured on the panel include:
Ben Sollee ~ Cellist, activist, songwriter, performer.
Malcolm Campbell ~ Publisher, Spin Magazine.
Molly Nagel ~ General Manager, Music Allies / former VP of Artist Development at Sugar Hill Records.
DJ Nickodemus ~ Producer, remixer, label owner and NYC’s longest running dance music party promoter.
Tor Hansen ~ Co-Owner: Redeye Distribution / Yep Roc Music Group.
Saturday, April 16th: 9pm – 12 am ~HATCH Closing Party ~ On Broadway
Celebrate the spirit of HACTH with new friends, HATCH attendees, mentors and groundbreakers for a networking event and music performances.
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