Old masters, young voices too………Maybe you’ve heard someone say “Make A Joyful Noise”. This is that. Second Sundays in Dayton.
If you had been there, at Yellow Cab on a Sunday early evening, you would have heart this unearthly blending of voices that is Vivian. We recorded it, but we didn't capture it. For example, we toned down the part where there was deafening feedback at one point. This band, with its back-to-a-better-time vibe, is subtle, sincere, rapturous and heartfelt, not to mention beautiful. Here's a set that hints at what Vivian offers.
Dayton has had a difficult summer. The kind of summer that is life changing. Many of us are singer/songwriters in Dayton. Here's an example where one member of our community, Bill McIntyre, has written a song. As we can see, some of the change will be for the good.
Man, this guy plays with joy. He's the bass player in the Roadside Attraction Band. He plays in other bands. He fronts a band sometimes. Marceia has got one of those voices that can handle soul sounds, and he writes songs that could be anthems given the right circumstances.
This night is an impromptu band. You'll hear them searching for the groove sometimes, which is the great thing about these sessions. You get to sit in on the creative process.
These are Marceia's songs but they are instantly familiar, a quality that a lot of great music has.
Paige Beller on stage is more like some sort of event than it is just a set. It's an incident. The old word "happening" seems to apply. You don't want to sit back and let the sound wash over you when Paige is playing, you want to lean forward and pay close attention. Is she really on the floor playing a toy piano? Is she really playing a drum with her knee? That lyric, she said WHAT?" Her attention is everywhere and it requires that yours should be too. Here she's playing a guitar, playing separate drums with each foot while standing, singing, looping vocals...there is something jarring about the way she plays with time, the tone on her Strat is damned near industrial but then she makes chord and note choices that astonish. Watching musicians watch Paige is a show in itself, they do doubletakes. She opens this set with a drums and voice figuration through a looper. We'll tell you the opening piece is called "Drag Me, Kicking Screaming" so that you can prepare yourself to hear it.
It goes without saying that you do not want to follow Paige Beller, so when we staged Live at Yellow Cab with Paige and friends, she went last. For podcast purposes, we put her up front. You might even want to hit pause when she's done, but you really should hear Chase Duncan and Zack Frost because they are fine performers and songwriters and again they have some surprises for you. Here's a clue. Zack has a business card. Not many musicians do. His card lists his job title as Existential Office Punk.
Whenever Kyleen's name comes up in the cast and crew shared thread for Roadside Attraction, someone always says "I just love her". And why not? Her smile is 1000 watts, she's awash in life force, and she's got musical chops. She'll fingerpick something quiet in a listening room or front a barhouse rock band, she'll play her Casino through loopers and become her own orchestra. And yes! she sings. Believe it.
So we created an environment where Kyleen and a pair of good buddies - Matt Bauman and Eric Barnett - who are also singer/songwriters could play together in the round. This group gives us truly amazing work, real great songcraft. This is insider stuff, not something that civilians get to hear very often. They could be sitting around in a studio, playing around a campfire, enjoying themselves before or after hours in a music venue. They inspire one another. You can hear it. This is fine stuff for a long drive when you want to feel good about life.
This is a great time of the year to listen for big voices. Morning birds sing and nocturnal animals hoot and howl. The wind moves in the forests and the hollows, down city streets singing loud between buildings. It's a good time to listen to the big voice of Georgia Goad too.
He has a vast musical knowledge (check out "The Jewel Case" Thursdays at WYSO). Tod is a great educator and engaging host at the same time. He's able to do that because he has a tremendous stage presence. And by the way, he can make that Stratocaster speak in multiple languages and dialects. But he's leaving town. We caught him on his way out. Lucky for all of us.
People tell stories about music and musicians. That's how musicians become legends. Sharon Lane is a legend already. The people who were there at Yellow Cab will talk about this night. Sharon can hold the stage with just her voice and piano, but she can put any sort of band around her and deliver a gut punch result. The house band played with her and you can hear Sharon teach the songs to the band on the fly.
Music is a great being and you can hear and feel it moving through the room, through the band, through the artists, through generations. It happened live at Yellow Cab on a Second Sunday in January.
Charles Hartman fronts an ever changing cast of players called Old News. Here he's with the Roadside Attraction house band, Rich Reuter, Marceia Cornwell, Eric Reith, Matt Byanski, Khrys Blank. It's got that great vibe of a kind of tribal music - people who are very good getting together to make something happen.
Harmonica Neil has a day job. He's a philosophy professor. He's also a student and purveyor of guitar/harmonica blues. His sons sometimes play with him, as they did here. The very energetic Todd the Fox also joined in. Sundays in late spring are good.
Psychedelic Music is still happening. The power trio is still the right tooling. Rock on.
Nasty Bingo is a band of 8 or so. They're one of the best and best known bands in the area. Sometimes a few of the band members play a show without the full band. They call that Mini Bingo. The less formal setup allows the players to dig a little deeper into the music, stretch and play more. They had fun. You can hear it.
DO NOT MISS THIS.
Anna was a guest on Roadside Attraction and the show had gotten fairly raucous when it was her turn to play. So this skinny little high schooler with a ukulele in her hands stepped up to the mike and plucked a single note, then everything in the room came to a full stop.
She did a set for Live at Yellow Cab, and brought her mom on stage. Their take on Brian Wilson's "In My Room" is a must hear. And oh yeah, she's a great songwriter too.
Someone in the audience said, "20 years from now you'll say, 'I saw her when she was in high school'."
Dennis Rotterman is a guitar man. He works on them and plays with them and sings over them. He's been doing this for a while. Long enough that you can tell it's a permanent part of him now.
Here's a guy who carries on the timeless traditions of roots music. He performs with a few different bands and sings on the front porch with his family. We've caught him here as a singer songwriter and it is well worth a listen.
This band is perfectly named. Their music conjures up images of big vistas, open roads, and inner lives.
Great songwriting and harmonies. A sound of their own.
