Riff Journal | Summer 2019| Issue 18 by Riff Journal

alternate (Tunings) Universe

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS 4 FEATURE: EVOLUTION OF A

SONGWRITER

A conversation with Ellis Paul on the Evolution of the Singer-Songwriter

16 FEATURE: 50 GIFTED 4

Riff Journal’s short list of just 50 singersongwriters you should know

102 LESSON: ELLIS PAUL

On writing your first draft and song concept

106 LESSON: VICKI GENFAN

Strumming patterns you should know to give chord progressions life

110 LESSON: ADAM LEVY

Tips for staying artful while supporting a singer with your guitar

114 LESSON: CHRISTIE LENÉE 102

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On creative Fingerstyle approaches to spark creativity

118 LESSON: COREY CONGILIO

Find some rhythm and groove to support the band or when writing your own tunes

122 LESSON: ROBBIE CALVO

A beginning approach towards songwriting

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KATIE ANNE MITCHELL Artist Editorial Coordinator

Singer-songwriter (and creative universalist) Katie Anne thrives on artfully wrangling a multitude of creative elements and immersing herself in the love of a good songwriter. This issue couldn’t have come to fruition without her. www.katieannemitchell.com

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RIFF BAND

A WORD FROM THE PUBLISHER P HOTO BY ALI S O N HAS BACH

ALISON HASBACH Editor-in-Chief

BRAD WENDKOS Publisher

JEFF SCHEETZ Educational Department Editor

AMBER NICOLINI Creative Director

TOMMY JAMIN Studio Department Editor

KATIE MITCHELL Artist Editorial Coordinator

KYLER THOMANN Music Editor

s record sales plummeted over the past 15 years, concert ticket sales exploded from roughly $1-billion dollars in 1990, to an alltime high of over $8-billion today. Paralleling that trend, tickets are more expensive than ever and thus, artists are compelled to give their audiences more visual and audio bang for their hard-earned buck. Elaborate stages, light shows, pyrotechnics, back-up singers, dancers, horn sections, state-ofthe art audio gear, and all the eye and ear candy that will fit in a fleet of 18-wheelers have become practically compulsory today for most touring bands and artists. On the other hand, singer-songwriters can captivate an audience of thousands with just a guitar and a song. And they’ve been doing that for the last 50 years.

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Singer-songwriters don’t have to be virtuoso guitar players (although many are). Singersongwriters don’t even have to be exceptional singers (many are of course). It’s their songs that make the magic happen. Ellis Paul is one of the 50 singer-songwriters featured in this special edition of Riff that make that magic happen every night.

“A song is an art form. It’s a reflection of life in a way that brings insight, emotional response, and a connection between the singer-songwriter and the listener. When done right, I feel like it’s this universal thing that no matter how specific the song is to the artist that’s writing it and singing it, it somehow reflects on your own life and your own struggles as a human being. Your own joys, sorrows, successes, failures. Those are the songs that are the best, that speak to all of us, despite the fact that they’re written by someone else.” There are hundreds, if not thousands of gifted singer-songwriters you should know. The 50 we’ve chosen here represent a cross-section of styles and approaches. Some of these artists are well established. Some are just getting started. They all make the magic happen. This Riff is for you.

Brad Wendkos || Head Smoke Jumper

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Foreword and interview by Brad Wendkos Words of Wisdom from Ellis Paul Photos by Alison Hasbach

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P H OTOS BY A L IS ON H AS BACH

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Come gather ‘round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then you better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A Changin’

Bob wasn’t singing about the music business back in ’64 but that first verse certainly sums up the landscape for artists today. And “if your time is worth savin’” as a singer-songwriter, you will find some sage advice peppered throughout the following interview with Ellis Paul.

Over the years, Ellis has mentored and taught the craft of songwriting to hundreds of songwriters through his workshops, retreats and one-on-one sessions. We’re privileged to have Ellis leading the charge here at TrueFire as we embrace the singersongwriter category of education.

Since 1990, Ellis Paul has toured extensively playing festivals, colleges, and clubs on the North American music circuit and in Europe. He has performed over 5,000 shows. Twenty albums of his own music were recorded for both Rounder and Black Wolf Records. Ellis has been the winner of 15 Boston Music Awards and was given an Honorary PHD for Letters for his writing by the University of Maine.

Given his accomplished career as a professional singer-songwriter and his vast experience navigating the various iterations of the music business including these present challenging times, who better than Ellis to ask what it takes to be a successful singer-songwriter today? - Brad Wendkos

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How has the singer-songwriter scene evolved from the ‘50s to present day? In the 1950s, it was a lot of Tin Pan Alleystyle songs. Popular music was Big Band era—Sinatra and The Rat Pack (songwriters working mainly out of New York). I don’t think Nashville had produced the Music Row that we know of today at that point, but Tin Pan Alley was definitely thriving. Irving Berlin was alive. It was post-war and the songs that were being written were in many ways meant to sort of heal and celebrate and bring the country back to the center-place. Within that, there was a contingent of people who were like Pete Seeger and the folkies. They started to gather around this idea of more shared wealth and it was the days of communist-scaring and Pete Seeger was blacklisted and that kind of thing was going on in that period as well in the late 40s, early 50s. The McCarthy Era scared out a lot of the folkies. Fortunately, rebellion was happening on the rock and roll side of things and people like Chubby Checker and Elvis Presley were starting to emerge. And rock and roll, even though it didn’t deal with a ton of political issues at that point, the music itself was anti-establishment and the writers were singing about sex-drenched innuendo and double entendre. All that stuff was somehow working its way into popular music and popular radio. The emergence of black artists was happening as well within that, which is great. All of the blues forms and rock and roll forms were happening and giving birth in the 50s. Then the 60s happened. The first part of the 60s obviously was the folk boom. Dylan came out in the early 60s. And Peter, Paul and Mary were probably the biggest pop act in like 1962-63 worldwide. So, they were selling an extraordinary amount of records. The music was pretty community-based kind of content songs.

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It’s interesting that that when the Beatles broke, it kind of killed that sort of sing-along version of folk music that has become so popular and suddenly rock and roll was art. It took a few years for them to get to the point where they were putting up Sgt. Pepper. It was released in 1967. Instead of that fourchord blues, rock and roll thing that Chuck Berry was doing, suddenly there were seven chords and these amazing melodies. That gave birth to the singer-songwriter movement led by artists like Joni Mitchell and Dylan, experimental rock and Neil Young popping out and all of the more singersongwriter folks in the 70s that emerged-Carol King, for example. That was more about expressing yourself and doing it artfully, combining the content of what those older folk songs were with self-expression, like the Beatles were doing. And James Taylor was emerging. The 70s were more about the singer-songwriter and you weren’t getting the Tin Pan Alley-style songs in the mix like they were in the 50s and 60s. It became more about an artist who is writing for themselves and performing as themselves, as artists like Simon Garfunkel, James Taylor, John Prine emerged and so on. End of the 70s, the disco era is kicking in and punk music was coming to the fore, which ultimately kind of put a clamp on the singer-songwriter thing. One guy with an acoustic guitar singing songs and one guy on a piano singing the songs became less of what was happening on radio. The 80s was post-disco. Michael Jackson sort of led that whole decade. Again, the songs became a lot more about production, a lot more about production value, less about the content of the song and more about the hook of the song and the danceability of the song. I feel like in the 80s, the singer-songwriter was lost. And then Tracy Chapman broke in

“There’s a place for singer-songwriters out there on the American folk circuit. The Americana thing is thriving, and a lot of songwriters and touring bands. Bands are really hard to keep going. You have to be pretty extraordinary to be successful in a band because the expenses are so high tourwise and the Internet has completely changed the focus of record labels. So independent music is what most of us are doing at this point (myself included). “

the late 80s, and kicked off a new boom that happened in the Northeast in the U.S. In that boom was Suzanne Vega and all of the Boston area, New York area singer-songwriters that started reaching out and spreading through the web of the U.S. on the folk circuit. Patty Griffin was there, Martin Sexton, Darrell Scott, the list goes on and on. And then John Gorka, Shawn Colvin, those people in Boston emerged.

and in radio stations in Boston. Lots of New York playing this kind of music.

There were radio stations playing singersongwriters that were commercial stations. For a while in Boston, I got more airplay than Aerosmith. I would go out to a theater in town and there’d be a thousand people there to see one man and the guitar. It was a pretty special time for all of us there.

And then, in the 2000s the movie “Brother, Where Art Thou?” came out from the Coen Brothers and it had an Americana soundtrack, which is sort of a mix between country and bluegrass. That was the biggest record of the year. It won Record of the Year at the Grammys. It sold like four or 5 million copies. Suddenly, the singer-songwriter was less cool and trios playing banjos, mandolins and acoustic guitars became the cool thing. Everyone was wearing flannel and beards. Suddenly, the shift in the American songwriter movement was more towards Americana, less towards the pensiveness of the singer-songwriter.

In the 90s, there were clubs in every corner in the Northeast. You could play in churches and in theaters and colleges, nightclubs, bars. Everybody was presenting folk music,

There’s a place for singer-songwriters out there on the American folk circuit. The Americana thing is thriving, and a lot of songwriters and touring bands. Bands are really hard to keep

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going. You have to be pretty extraordinary to be successful in a band because the expenses are so high tour-wise and the Internet has completely changed the focus of record labels. So independent music is what most of us are doing at this point (myself included). I was signed to a record label in the 90s and put out seven albums. But now it’s about YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and Spotify. This is the challenge of where we are now. We are at a cultural crossroads that have taken music out of the hands of the few and given it to the hands of the many. Which means more people can actively engage in it. The music business is no longer reserved just for the talents of a handful of artists who were lucky enough to get signed and have a major label behind them.

We are at a cultural crossroads that have taken music out of the hands of the few and given it to the hands of the many. Which means more people can actively engage in it.

Today, hundreds of thousands of artists can forge a career for themselves. There are singer-songwriters that are not even touring. Some of them are just playing from their home and putting their music up on Spotify. And doing YouTube videos and Facebook Live and they’re managing to collect an Internet audience springing in a trickle of money, maybe not enough to live on, but they’re having access to tens of thousands of people. I see some of these videos of musicians doing cover songs of popular music that are coming out on the top 40. Then they do an acoustic version of the song the second it hits the charts and they’re getting 200,000 to 300,000 hits on those songs. There’s all these ways to engage as a musician with the Internet. But it starts with

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great songs, then it goes to great performing, and then it goes to great marketing and social media and getting your songs recorded well. That’s a lot of layers. Unfortunately, for better or for worse, all of that is in the hands of the creator now: The creator of the music. The burden is pretty great, but you don’t have to leave your home though to have access to people and that’s a beautiful thing. So, I’m doing shows from my living room and 400 people from around the world tuning in on their laptops and computers in their homes and watching me play, which is extraordinary. I don’t even have to leave the house to make a little bit of money and entertain people. To think you can do that from a cell phone is just remarkable.

What does it take to be a singersongwriter today? The days of earning a living from record sales alone are long gone. And relying on your label to handle promotion, marketing, and all of the myriad business tasks associated with touring and selling records is likewise a thing of the past for the vast majority of artists. In fact, even having a label is rarity today. So today, how do you be an artist when the majority of your time, 90% of your time, is tactically at a computer screen and trying to make Facebook posts and book your own shows and be your own record label and be your own videographer? And, how do you do that — and be successful at it — while nurturing your creativity, writing, recording songs, and touring extensively to earn a living?!

So, how do you do that? Today, I released a video and it’s going out to the world for the new album and I recorded it with my cell phone and edited it on my laptop and didn’t spend a dime on it and it’s a great video. It’s going out to the world and will probably have 40,000-50,000 hits on it in a week or so. There was no intermediary really involved in it, other than just the promotion person I hired to get the word out. So, it’s all on me. The song was written by me and

I somewhat feel like the successful singer-songwriters of today are the ones who are not just amazing songwriters, but also really good at social media and managing their own business. I think you have to, if you want to really make it today as an artist, recorded by me. I did the video. The album is owned by me. All the money is going back to me. But, if this was on Atlantic Records, that same moment might be seen by 500,000 to 5 million people. And so yeah, I’m in control. I get to do all the choices. I love the creativity, but I don’t know that we’re going to get a James Taylor or a Joni Mitchell in our culture again because it’s just so hard for songwriters. I somewhat feel like the successful singersongwriters of today are the ones who are not just amazing songwriters, but also really good at social media and managing their own business. I think you have to, if you want to really make it today as an artist, you have to be a good business person. You have to be organized, you have to have your creativity feed into your business style and your postings and in your photographs. You have to allow that creativity that you’ve been pouring into the songs to pour into your business presentation. In order to have impact, it’s like the only way you can really be heard.

While technology certainly had a role in dismantling the traditional music business of record sales and royalties, you seem to be fighting fire with fire by using technology to replace those lost revenues? Yeah. That’s certainly true. When records sales left, about a third of my income left as well. There used to be stores that would sell 10,000-20,000 records of mine every year, and then I would sell 10,000-20,000 records, and all that income is now gone. So how I’ve made up for it, is by stretching out, doing things that are outside of

the normal definition of what a songwriter does. I look at myself and my business now as a media company and I managed to replace much of that lost record sales income with online income -teaching at TrueFire, hosting camps and retreats, doing online concerts, having online subscription channels, creating teaching tools like my posters, and all of the other stuff that I’m doing. I can do a lot of it from home, which is really, really great. In fact, on the way here to speak at SERFA, I put a cell phone on a stand in my car and I did my TrueFire channel video in the car. I think it came out great and so did my students. I just said, “Listen, this is why videos are important. I’m releasing a video tomorrow and here’s the story.” My audience loved it!

You often refer to yourself not only as a singer-songwriter but also as a media company. What do you mean by that? I feel like I’m a very creative person. I have been from the very beginning of my life and all the way through school with my parents fostering that creativity and helping to make that happen. Now, it’s clear that my role in life is not as a touring singer-songwriter. It’s more of a media company. That’s the only way you’re going to have success in this technological era that we’ve entered. You can’t call yourself a singer-songwriter and expect to be successful just based on that thing that you do of writing songs and touring. You are the person that’s getting the music out now.

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I have been from the very beginning of my life and all the way through school with my parents fostering that creativity and helping to make that happen. Now, it’s clear that my role in life is not as a touring singersongwriter. It’s more of a media company. You are the record label and manager. You’re guiding the booking. You’re doing everything. Then you’re doing videos and marketing and all of that stuff. I decided that if I’m creative as a songwriter, why can’t I be creative as a business? As a media company? So, I started focusing on really creative storytelling and creative presentation.

singer-songwriter need to cultivate?

All of the video music videos that I’ve been working on, they’ve got to be creative partners with the content of the song. The more I’m in control of that, and the more I’m the one guiding it, the more I feel the fingerprint of my DNA is there as an artist. I want that to be in every branch of the media company that I’m creating. That means books, videos, songs, posters, art, and albums. That’s what I produce. I produce content.

I’m about to put out a new record. I’ve already done three videos for it. I’ve spent a total of $450 for three videos so far. So I’m doing it basically all in-house. I just bought cameras and I’ve learned video editing and developed a better understanding of storytelling as a video maker.

Teaching people online, doing courses for TrueFire, I’m mentoring people one-on-one online. I want that to be part of the media thing and that obviously involves video and recordings. I want to tell my story not just as a songwriter, but as a media company. My hirings from here on out are going to be based on who is media savvy that can support this mission of my new company. It’s not going to be who can make me the best songwriter in the world and the most famous, it’s going to be who’s going to be a great partner in making all the branches of this media company reach out into the world and share my creative life, which has evolved way beyond just my songs.

Beyond song craft, what other skills, technical or otherwise, does today’s

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Well, certainly video is really important. You’re running a media business. Your home audio recording skills, of course, have to be great for your own music. Those skills are really important for home demos and stuff. But also, the video aspect is really important.

As a songwriter, you visually tell stories through lyrics and music and kicking that skill into the video-making is really important to sell yourself and to sell your songs and to sell your albums with. That’s a really, really important thing to know. Understanding the Internet and all of the relevant search words and how that science works with your postings is also a really important thing. Understanding social media and how to effectively use it, how to speak from the heart while you’re doing it, rather than just selling, selling, selling. All of those things are really important skills.

Given the demise of record sales and royalties from those sales, is mailbox money still attainable for artists? Yes, while mailbox money from record sales may be declining, it’s still achievable. For me, mailbox money represents my songs working for me rather than me working for my songs. It’s the difference between me filling

my car with a bunch of CDs and hauling ass around the country selling these songs.

What are other ways that artists today can generate that lost mailbox money?

It’s the songs themselves working in a way, like in a movie, television, or advertisement and we put them out in the world, suddenly you get this check in the mail from your Performance Organization, SESAC or BMI and you made $3,000 in the Netherlands because somehow that song found support across the ocean and is earning income for you, which is really, really great.

Today, you get mailbox money through streaming and airplay, and that’s about sending out your CDs to radio stations and making sure you’re set up on Spotify and Amazon and iTunes. That’s an obviously good thing to do and sometimes it’s only a trickle of money.

So, coming up with ideas where you can get that kind of income. Amazon is really great. I’ve put out children’s books and sold a couple of children’s books online through a publisher, which brings in royalties for me. The CDs themselves bring in royalty, although that’s getting less and less as CDs go out of fashion. Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, all of those bring in a trickle of money. If you’re lucky enough, and you have a song that breaks, that gets a couple million plays on YouTube. We can make $4,000-$8,000 dollars from that attention and that’s an amazing thing.

So, the dream, of course, is that if something were to happen to you and you can’t travel, you can’t be there on the road, or you have a kid that gets sick, and how do you make money? Having that mailbox money is sort of like a safety net. It will help you in retirement. It’ll help you.

You can go online and register your songs at various libraries that are screened by moviemakers and television advertisers and who are searching for songs to be used in film and music and the music in advertisements and things like that. That’s good. You can teach, obviously, as I’m doing on TrueFire, and get a dedicated fanbase through your teaching skills and mentorship. I think that’s very valuable in sharing your information with people. I think that one-on-one, it’s really valuable to people who are looking to get better at music. So teaching is really great. Performing online, again, like Concert Window, taking advantage of YouTube in a way to generate income, using AdSharing on YouTube videos. I lead vacation trips to Alaska to Ireland, to Maine. I lead a group of vacationers out every year and do music at night for them. Then I have a working vacation during the day, which is great. And obviously I use my other art skills. Anything I’m creative at, I’m monetizing somehow.

How are you generating mailbox money through online mentoring and teaching? I produce interactive video courses on songwriting with TrueFire, which are sold online and generate royalty income. I produced teaching posters for songwriters that, in a glance, can give people inspiration for the day as they go about the task of writing. So, that creates Amazon orders and more revenue. I’m teaching and mentoring people through my channel on TrueFire, which generates

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subscription revenues. I’m just building it, but I feel like my songwriter channel is a place for people to go and have a touchstone with a community of other songwriters where, especially if they’re isolated, they don’t have access to other people who are doing this kind of art. They can go, they can see how one songwriter is living his life and what that looks like and get a little mentorship from me and maybe insight into how to be a better musician on their end.

Give us a glimpse of what life on the road looks like for a singersongwriter just starting out? Well, you start with recorded music, creating a website for yourself where you can establish some sort of business identity and brand online to reference for getting shows and for fans to go out and get information on you.

It’s sort of that tree falling in the forest thing. If it makes a sound and there’s no one there to hear it, is there a sound to be heard? That’s the same way music is.

So, you go out and record an album, you create a website around your business, and then you send that album out, probably these days as an EPK with a photograph, some videos of you online that you’ve put up on YouTube.

Then you start making cold calls and emails to venues that you know do original music to try and get some work. Then, a lot of people will get a string of shows that go out for two or three weeks and jump in their car and they do their first tour that way. They go play to 10 to 15, sometimes 30 people on a good night. House concerts, coffee shops, maybe an opener for a national act at a club or two. But that takes hours and hours and hours of many fruitless emails that go out and they’re so frustrating cause no one responds to them.

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But, over time, you build your reputation with those venues and you become a regular at those venues. And the fruit of that work pays off when people start showing up more and more. The more you go, the more they come. So, it starts with a 10-person audience, goes to 25, and it goes to 35 by the third year. By the fifth year you have 75. Then, suddenly, there are 150 people there. You’ve built your audience simply through album sales at the shows, a little bit of Spotify, YouTube play. Then suddenly that same circuit where you were only making $200 a night the first trip through and now you’re making $1,000 to $2,000 a night. And that’s the bestcase scenario. It rarely goes that smoothly for everybody, but it’s pretty much the way I worked.

What advice would you give to an aspiring singer-songwriter? Well, number one, it all starts with songs. It’s all driven by the quality of your songs. They have to be honest, they have to be well crafted, and they have to be produced in a way that makes people respond emotionally to them. Everything that you do is based on those things. Then you have to organize your business. Ask yourself what do you want to do? How do you want to live within a career of being a songwriter? What does that life look like to you? What are your goals? What are your lifestyle choices? That’s going to be different for everybody. I would strongly suggest creating community around you, finding other songwriters who are in your space, finding mentors who are beyond you in both age and experience who can keep your mistakes to a minimum. They can tell you what mistakes they made. They can make your learning curve quicker. Take classes, go to retreats, go to these music conferences, and meet people because it’s about information, it’s not just about doing this from home and looking on the Internet and thinking all the answers are there. I think you need to get one-on-one with people who are doing this like you are and like what you want to be

A song is an art form. It’s a reflection of life in a way that brings insight, emotional response, and a connection between the singer-songwriter and the listener. When done right, I feel like it’s this universal thing that no matter how specific the song is to the artist that’s writing it and singing it, it somehow reflects on your own life and your own struggles as a human being, including your own joys, sorrows, successes, failures. Those are the songs that are the best, that speak to all of us, despite the fact that they’re written by someone else. doing. You need to learn from each other. Fortunately, with songwriters, it’s a pretty great community for finding those people and people are generally willing to share. It’s competitive, and it can be as cutthroat as any other kind of competitive business, but there are friendships to be made and great experiences to be had. Believe me, the payoff of those things, the friendships, the experiences far outweighs the money that you’re ever going to make, whether you’re Paul McCartney or Ellis Paul. It’s those connections and the lifestyle of

living in very, very creative life. There’s no monetary value you can put on it. Then, learn how to use social media, because every songwriter from this date on has got to be a master of that part of their business in order to be heard, and in order to have those great songs heard because a great song that’s written but not put out there properly. It’s sort of that tree falling in the forest thing. If it makes a sound and there’s no one there to hear it, is there a sound to be heard? That’s the same way music is.

By Ellis Paul

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“THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF TRULY GIFTED SINGERSONGWRITERS ENCHANTING THE EARS OF LISTENERS ALL OVER THE WORLD. SO, HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE TO COME UP WITH A SHORT LIST OF JUST 50 ARTISTS YOU SHOULD KNOW? SHORT ANSWER…IT’S NOT. PLEASE CONSIDER THESE 50 AS JUST A START. A GOOD START, BUT JUST A START.”

here are thousands of truly gifted singer-songwriters enchanting the ears of listeners all over the world. So, how is it even possible to come up with a short list of just 50 artists you should know? Short answer…it’s not. Please consider these 50 as just a start. A good start, but just a start.

How did we come up with these particular 50? We didn’t use record sales, ticket sales, social media stats or any of the other metrics typically used when putting lists like this together. So how did we do it? With a “little help from our friends.” Every singer-songwriter featured here was highly touted as a ‘singer-songwriter you should know’ by other singer-songwriters. Who better to curate this collection?! Our hope of course is that you’ll be as blown away as we are by the talent you’ll find on the following pages. Enjoy their music, visit their websites, jump into their social network, and see them in concert — join the celebration of song!

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P H OTO BY A L IS ON H AS BAC H - T RUEF I RE

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“THE STUDY OF SONGCRAFT IS BOUNDLESS BECAUSE IT COMPRISES SO MANY ELEMENTS — PROSODY, RHYTHM, STORYTELLING, HARMONY, AND MORE.” - ADAM LEVY

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

ADAM LEVY Adam Levy is best known as a consummate guitarist/sideman (Norah Jones, Tracy Chapman, Lisa Loeb), but he’s no less gifted as a singer/songwriter. He’s recorded several albums of his original songs, and his songs and co-writes have been recorded by other acclaimed artists as well—including Norah Jones and Chris Difford (Squeeze). He has taught songwriting at NYU, USC, and Los Angeles College of Music.

LISTEN ‘Flood it With Light’ ADAM LEVY

WATCH ‘Got my Joy’ ADAM LEVY

‘What the Day Will Bring’ ADAM LEVY

‘I Put A Spell on You’ ADAM LEVY

CONNECT

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“THERE IS NO ‘FORMULA’ TO WRITE A SONG...THERE IS HURT, JOY, FRUSTRATION, TEARS, THE DARKEST OF DARK AND THE BRIGHTEST OF BRIGHT; THERE IS EMOTIONAL TURMOIL AND TRIUMPH AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. TO BE A SONGWRITER IS TO EXPLORE THE DEEPEST PARTS OF YOUR BEING AND MAKE A SOUNDTRACK OUT OF IT...YOU ARE NAKED AND EXPOSED...AND THEN FOR SOME INSANE REASON THAT I CAN’T COMPREHEND, YOU DECIDE TO SHOW THAT PART OF YOURSELF TO THE WORLD.” - ARIANA GILLIS

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PHOTO BY DAVID GILL IS

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

ARIANA GILLIS Hailing from just outside Toronto, Ariana Gillis began taking singing lessons at the age of six, but she was hardly thrilled. So, her father encouraged her to write her own material and learn to play the guitar. At 17, Gillis made an immediate impact on the Canadian Folk music scene, winning Songwriter of the Year at the 2009 Niagara Music Awards, followed by Female Vocalist and Album of the Year in 2010, as well as 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award, Young Performer of the Year. She networked at music conferences, which led to a quick, two-song performance for Dave Marsh in a stairwell in Memphis. Marsh then played Gillis on his Sirius XM radio show, which caught the attention of Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. Fast forward a year later — Buddy Miller witnessed Ariana perform at the City Winery in Nashville experiencing first hand the conviction and power of her song writing, singing and stage presence. This ultimately brought them together to create the album, “The Maze”. Recorded live-off-the-floor in Nashville at Buddy’s studio – this album features lyrics and performances that feel both natural and strangely unique all at once.

LISTEN

WATCH

‘Dirt Gets Dirty’

‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ (Cover)

‘Dream Street’

ARIANA GILLIS

ARIANA GILLIS & BUDDY MILLER

ARIANA GILLIS

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18 P HOTO BY S U ZIE KAP LAN

“SONG WRITING HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY RELEASE. AS A CHILD IT WAS CREATING A MELODY OR DRAWING A PICTURE. IT HAS ALWAYS GIVEN ME A SENSE OF PEACE WHEN THINGS DON’T QUITE FEEL RIGHT INSIDE. I TRY TO KEEP IT REAL, HONEST AND DIRECTLY FROM THE HEART. IT IS SOMETHING I TREASURE AND WILL CONTINUE TO LEARN.“ - ANDREA

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

BEAT ROOT REVIVAL

“THE BEAUTY OF SONGWRITING IS IT IS A PERSONAL EXPRESSION THAT, ONCE SHARED, ALLOWS YOU TO CONNECT WITH OTHERS IN A MANNER THAT CONVERSATION NEVER WILL. ITS ESCAPISM AND INCLUSIVENESS ALL IN ONE SITTING.”

Got the BEAT, ROOTED in old music and creating a REVIVAL! Comprised of multi-instrumentalists Ben Jones from Kent, England and Belfast, Ireland native Andrea Magee, the duo has been taking American audiences by storm with their utterly original sonic amalgam of folk, rock, country, and traditional Irish sounds. After landing in America 5 years ago, Beat Root Revival has stolen the hearts of captive audiences, most recently as support for the Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds and Christmas tour. Also touring as the opening act for Brian Setzer, The Fixx and Nashville’s ABC’s TV star Jonathan Jackson.

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- BEN

LISTEN ‘Don’t Clip My Wings’ BEAT ROOT REVIVAL

WATCH ‘Come Together’

‘Up (Official Music Video)’

‘Come on Over - Live & Acoustic’

BEAT ROOT REVIVAL

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PHOTO BY YV E AS SA D 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

BIRDS OF CHICAGO Led by JT Nero and Allison Russell, Birds of Chicago are known for their seamless combination of rock n’ roll meets “near perfect Americana” (No Depression). Their most recent album, Love in Wartime is a rock and roll suite with impressive cinematic sweep. NPR praised, “Nero and Russell play folk-rock with impressionistic flourishes and

LISTEN ‘Superlover’ BIRDS OF CHICAGO

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

gospel warmth, lent unexpected extravagance by Russell’s singing...” Co-produced by Nero and Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), it evokes epic efforts of the 60’s and 70’s, with love as the undeniable through-line, and finds Nero and Russell continuing to create joyously urgent rock songs with deep lyricism, gut-punch singing and fevered musicality.

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‘Superlover’

‘American Flowers’

BIRDS OF CHICAGO

“WRITING SONGS, WHEN IT FEELS RIGHT, FEELS MORE LIKE A HUNT THEN A CONSTRUCTION. I DON’T KNOW IF OTHER WRITERS HAVE THIS FEELING — I SUSPECT THEY DO — BUT IT STARTS WITH A FRAGMENT OF A PHRASE OR MELODY — JUST A COUPLE WORDS, OR EVEN CONSONANT/VOWEL SOUNDS...AND FOR WHATEVER REASON, THAT PARTICULAR FRAGMENT WILL COME WITH A RUSH OF ANTICIPATION, A PREMONITION OF THE WHOLE SONG. AND IN THAT MOMENT, IT’S NOT A QUESTION OF WRITING THE SONG, IT’S A QUESTION OF RUNNING IT DOWN...A WEIRD MAGICAL CERTAINTY THAT THERE IS, IN FACT, A WHOLE SONG OUT THERE. YOU SAW THE TIP OF THE WHALE’S TAIL. THERE’S NO QUESTION THAT THERE’S A WHOLE WHALE THERE. YOU JUST HAVE TO GO GET IT. WAIT, THAT MAKES ME A WHALER! THAT’S TERRIBLE! LET’S SWITCH IT TO A GREAT MARLIN, FLASHING OUT OF THE WATER FOR A SECOND. THAT’S BETTER. ANYWAY, THAT FEELING, THAT SPLIT SECOND OF EXCITEMENT AND CERTAINTY — THAT’S THE DRUG. THE PART OF THE WHOLE DEAL I COULD NEVER GIVE UP.” - JT NERO

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PHOTOS BY E LLY LU CAS

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

BLAIR DUNLOP Blair Dunlop, award-winning British singer-songwriter and guitarist, has now released 4 albums 2 EP’s and toured around the globe. All of this in a short 5-year career is astounding alone but what sets Blair apart from his peers is the lyrical and musical maturity with which he writes. His third album Gilded was released in May 2016 on his own label – Gilded Wings – and was widely acclaimed gaining BBC Radio 2 Playlist status for the two single releases (‘The Egoist’ and ‘356’). Prior to this Blair released his acclaimed album House Of Jacks in mid 2014 which lived up to the promise of his 2012 debut Blight and Blossom (the quality of which contributed to his winning the BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award). Blair has now cemented his place as one of Britain’s most exciting talents... 2018 Blair saw the release of his 4th album Notes From An Island on his own label to rave reviews.

LISTEN ‘Sweet on You’ BLAIR DUNLOP

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‘Spices from the East’

‘Within My Citadel’

BLAIR DUNLOP

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“WHILE IT’S TRUE, AS WITH ANYTHING, THAT THERE IS A TECHNICAL CONSIDERATION WHEN EVALUATING GOOD SONGWRITING, SENTIMENT AND DELIVERY ARE AT LEAST EQUALLY SO, GIVEN THAT SUBJECTIVITY IS A UNIVERSAL PILLAR OF ANY ART. THERE ARE NO RULES, AND THE MARRIAGE BETWEEN MELODY AND WORD IS COMPLEX AND DISTINCT FROM SONG TO SONG, BUT THE UNIVERSAL BINDING FACTOR IS PERFORMANCE - OR RATHER, RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ARTIST AND SONG. THERE IS GREAT HIGH ART AND THERE IS GREAT LOW ART, BUT WRITE IT FOR A REASON AND YOU’RE HALFWAY THERE.” - BLAIR DUNLOP

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

CAROLINE SPENCE

Nashville-based singer/songwriter Caroline Spence unveils her third full-length album, Mint Condition – her debut release on Rounder Records. Following her critically acclaimed 2017 release, Spades & Roses, Mint Condition is an album narrated by people in various states of searching. With sincere poetic clarity, Spence plays directly to the heart of Americana: her unapologetically-authentic and emotionally resonating lyrics, delivered through an ethereal songbirds voice, are both engaging and disarming. Each of the eleven songs on Mint Condition imparts a kinetic energy, fused together by spirit of collaboration. The sole co-written track on the album “Song About A City” finds Spence collaborating with Nashvillebased artist Ashley Ray, and Emmylou Harris makes a guest vocal appearance on the title track. Mint Condition was produced by Dan Knobler at Goosehead Palace and mixed by Gary Paczosa in Nashville, TN, and is available May 3, 2019.

PHOTO BY A NGE LINA CASTILLO

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LISTEN ‘Who’s Gonna Make My Mistakes’ CAROLINE SPENCE

WATCH ‘Mint Condition // The Bluegrass Situation’

‘Long Haul’ Folk Alley Sessions at 30A

CAROLINE SPENCE

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

‘Sit Here and Love Me’ Folk Alley Sessions at 30A CAROLINE SPENCE

“TO ME, THE CRAFT OF SONGWRITING IS ABOUT THE DISCIPLINE IT TAKES TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERY SINGLE WORD AND MELODIC MOMENT, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, IS SERVING A PURPOSE AND ALSO, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE WILLINGNESS TO BE VULNERABLE AND HONEST OVER AND OVER AGAIN EACH TIME YOU SIT DOWN TO WRITE. IF YOU WRITE FOR A RHYME AND NOT A REASON, YOUR SONG ISN’T GOING TO HIT AS HARD.” - CAROLINE SPENCE

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

CARY MORIN

“I ENJOY CREATING PAINTINGS, THAT YOU CAN ONLY SEE WITH YOUR IMAGINATION.”

PHOTO BY GRETCHEN TROOP PHOTOGRAPHY

- CAREY MORIN

“One of the best pickers on the scene,” Morin brings together the great musical traditions of America like no other. Deft fingerstyle guitar, vocals that convey melodic elation and gritty world-weariness, Morin crafts a style often characterized as full-throttle Native Americana. Morin hails from Montana, relocating to Colorado in the early 80’s, where he currently resides. Morin has toured Europe, Canada, Japan, and the U.S. as a solo artist and as a member of The Pura Fé Trio. “A man and a guitar, a lot of soul, and an understanding of the history of soulful men with guitars in American music can sometimes achieve this kind of timelessness in their work,” comments Richard Higgs (Public Radio Tulsa).

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WATCH ‘Laid Back’ - New West Festival August 2018 CARY MORIN

LISTEN ‘When I Rise’ CAREY MORIN

Live at the Kinney Family Farm CARY MORIN

‘Cradle To The Grave” CARY MORIN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“SONGWRITING BEGINS WITH THE GROOVE, THE BEAT, THE PULSE OF AN IDEA. LYRICS AND MELODY COME AFTER THAT.” - CHRIS KASPER

P H OTO BY KILEY RYA N 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

CHRIS KASPER A song can be best attested for, not by catchy words & phrase, but more so by association. Kasper has kept good company opening for, lyric-tossing & sitting in with the likes of Amos Lee, The Wood Brothers, and G Love. They hand-picked him out of a sea of songwriters to support multiple country-wide tours since 2013, when he released Bagabones. His music sips from the cool and refreshing waters of soulful songwriters, old bluesmen, sonic architects, fine poetry & a well-traveled spirit.

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WATCH ‘City by the Sea’ CHRIS KASPER

‘Moving West’ CHRIS KASPER

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‘City by the Sea’ CHRIS KASPER

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“THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO APPROACH WRITING A MELODY OR AN INSTRUMENTAL PIECE OF MUSIC. THE MORE TYPES OF MUSIC YOU LISTEN TO, THE MORE INSPIRATION YOU MAY HAVE. THE MORE TYPES OF SCALES YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH, THE MORE MELODIC IDEAS YOU’LL HAVE. THE MORE TYPES OF CHORDS YOU KNOW, THE MORE MUSICAL SETTINGS YOU’LL CREATE.” - MARCY MARXER “THINK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SONG THAT IS MEANINGFUL TO YOU PERSONALLY, AND ONE THAT WILL RESONATE WITH OTHERS. WRITE AS MANY SONGS AS YOU CAN AND WANT TO AND BE PREPARED NOT TO SING THEM ALL. GOOD WRITERS HAVE LOTS OF SONGS IN PROGRESS AND LOTS OF SONGS THAT THEY WRITE AND MOVE ON FROM. THAT’S PART OF THE PROCESS.” - CATHY FINK

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY ALISON H AS BAC H - TR U E FIR E 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

CATHY & MARCY Two-Time Grammy® Award Winners, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer are master musicians with a career spanning over 35 years. Their superb harmonies are backed by instrumental virtuosity on the guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, and many other instruments. An eclectic folk festival on their own terms, their repertoire ranges from classic country to western swing, gypsy jazz to bluegrass, and old-time string band to contemporary folk including some original gems. Their versatility defies a brief description, perhaps “well rounded Americana” does it best. Cathy & Marcy have performed at hundreds of bluegrass and folk festivals and taught at close to 100 music camps. The Washington Area Music Association has recognized the duo with over 60 WAMMIE Awards for folk, bluegrass and children’s music. They have performed with Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel, Tom Paxton, Patsy Montana, Riders in the Sky and a wide range of musical luminaries. They are happily known as “social music conductors” ready to start a jam session, a community sing or to create a music camp helping others learn to play and sing. Past students include Kaki King and Rhiannon Giddens. Through their long relationship with the Music Center at Strathmore they collaborated with positive hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon. They continue to mentor up-and-coming artists on navigating the professional music world.

LISTEN ‘Shout and Shine’ CATHY FINK & MARCY MARXER

WATCH ‘Chilly Winds’ CATHY FINK & MARCY MARXER

‘My Huge Mistake’ CATHY FINK & MARCY MARXER

‘Goodbye Anne Glory at the Meeting House Cello Banjo’ CATHY FINK & MARCY MARXER

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ALISON HASBACH - TR U E FIR E

“SONGWRITING IS ORGANIC THERAPY FOR BOTH WRITERS AND LISTENERS. IT IS THE STORY OF OUR LIVES AND THE WORLD AROUND US TRANSCENDING THROUGH MUSIC AND MELODY. SIMPLY LISTEN, PRACTICE AND KEEP SHOWING UP. THE SONGS WILL COME.” - CHRISTIE LENÉE

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

CHRISTIE LENÉE Singer, songwriter and renowned fingerstyle guitarist Christie Lenée is more than a musician – she’s an experience. Symphonic compositions flow from her fingertips effortlessly, with sound ranging from transcendental folk-pop to virtuosic instrumentals. Christie is often described as “Michael Hedges meets Joni Mitchell and Dave Matthews,” integrating melodic pop lyricism with catchy hooks and percussive, harmonic textures. As an Official Showcase Artist at Folk Alliance International consistently logging a number of major festivals, events, opera houses and theaters nationwide, Christie Lenée performs with radiant joy that awes crowds and inspires fellow musicians. She recently told Digital Journal that “years ago, I set my intention to be an inspirational songwriter, though over time I’ve come to realize that inspiration comes in many forms. Talking about the dark and the light, the beauty and moments of pain are all forms of inspiration.” Christie has shared stages with Tommy Emmanuel, Tim Reynolds (Dave Matthews Band), Andy McKee, and Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) to name a few, who have all raved about her talents. Her first place victory in the acclaimed 2017 International Fingerstyle Guitar Championship has earned her featured coverage in Guitar Player Magazine, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and Premier Guitar. She has released five albums, with STAY one of three finalists for “Best CD of 2016” (Indie Acoustic Project Awards). The album includes three instrumentals produced by Grammy Award Winning producer Will Ackerman, founder of Windham Hill Records, and a music video for the title track supporting a movement on suicide prevention.

LISTEN ‘Call My Heart Back Home’ CHRISTINE LENÉE

WATCH ‘Song For Michael Pukac’ Solo Instrumental CHRISTINE LENÉE

‘Breath of Spring’ - Music City Roots CHRISTINE LENÉE

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

DAN BERN

Dan Bern is soon to release a powerful new record, Regent Street, which will be his 27th release since 1997, including studio albums, EPs, live albums, kids albums. He wrote and co-wrote many of the songs for the Judd Apatow movies “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and “Get Him to the Greek.” He wrote and performed the songs for the cartoon “The Stinky and Dirty Show,” completing its 2nd season on Amazon Prime. He has an internet radio station, “Radio Free Bernstein,” and a detective story podcast: “10,000 Crappy Songs.” His notable songs are “Jerusalem,” “Marilyn Monroe,” “God Said No,” “Tiger Woods,” and “Beautiful Ride.”

LISTEN ‘Regent Street’ DAN BERN

WATCH Live @ Folk Alliance 2014 DAN BERN

‘Jerusalem’ DAN BERN

‘Estelle’ DAN BERN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY DAN IEL LE TAIT

“SONGWRITING IS THE BIGGEST PLAYING FIELD THERE IS, EVEN BIGGER THAN MOVIES... AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR CATERING.” - DAN BERN

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

PHOTO BY J IM M C GUIRE

DARRELL SCOTT

“TO ME GREAT SONGS ARE NOT ABOUT CRAFT - GREAT SONGS ARE ABOUT ART.” - DARRELL SCOTT

Multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Darrell Scott mines and cultivates the everyday moment, taking the rote, menial, mundane, and allowing it to be surreal, ever poignant, and candidly honest, lilting, blooming, and resonating. The words he fosters allow us to make sense of the world, what is at stake here, and our place in it. And ultimately, Darrell knows the sole truth of life is that love is all that matters, (we don’t always get it right), but that’s the instinctive and requisite circuitous allure of things, why we forever chase it, and why it is held sacred. Darrell Scott comes from a musical family with a father who had him smitten with guitars by the age of 4, alongside a brother who played Jerry Reed style as well. From there, things only ramped up with literature and poetry endeavors while a student at Tufts University, along with playing his way through life. This would never change. After recently touring with Robert Plant and the Zac Brown Band (2 years with each), and producing albums for Malcolm Holcomb and Guy Clark and being named “songwriter of the year” for both ASCAP and NSAI, these days ﬁnd him roaming his Tennessee wilderness acreage hiking along the small river, creating delicious meals with food raised on his property and playing music. He often leads songwriting workshops to help people tell their own truths with their stories, and is as busy as always writing, producing, performing, and just plain fully immersing himself in life.

LISTEN ‘Love is the Reason’ DARRELL SCOTT

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‘Family Tree’ Concerts from Blue Rock Live DARRELL SCOTT

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“SONGWRITING IS A LIMITLESS CHANCE TO EXPRESS THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS, GATHER THEM IN ONE PLACE TO LOOK AT, STUDY AND SHARE THEM WITH OTHER PEOPLE THAT SEE AND FEEL THE SAME THINGS JUST FROM A DIFFERENT POINT ON LIFE’S ROLLERCOASTER.” - DANIEL CHAMPAGNE P H OTO BY D ON N A G R E E N

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

DANIEL CHAMPAGNE One reviewer recently wrote – “Daniel Champagne exudes a natural ease on stage, as he sings poignant lyrics and beautifully crafted melodies that invariably whisk the heart up with grand romanticism. Coupled with an exhilarating guitar talent that transcends mere acoustic playing to replicate a whole band, Champagne is just magical.” (themusic. com.au) The story goes that the young Australian singer, songwriter and one-of-a-kind guitar virtuoso first picked up his instrument of choice as a five-year-old following in the footsteps of a musical father. He began writing songs at 12, training classically throughout his teens and performing solo wherever he could, honing his craft and developing what would become the dynamite live show that he is renowned for today. At 18 he left school, turned professional and hit the road. The next five years saw him traversing North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, New Zealand and of course, his homeland Australia playing such festivals as Vancouver and Mariposa Folk (Canada), Belgium’s Labadoux Festival and Australia’s Woodford, Falls Festival, Port Fairy Folk Festival and the legendary Byron Bay Bluesfest. As well as touring and sharing stages with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Judy Collins, INXS, John Butler, KT Tunstall and Ani DiFranco, Jake Shimabukuro, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Tommy Emmanuel, Albert Lee and Kaki King – all of this while writing, producing and independently releasing two EPs, Gypsy Moon Volumes 1 and 2, his first long player Pint of Mystery (2011), My Own Design (2009) and Wide Eyed and Open (2010), and the Real Live offering in 2012. His latest full length release Fault Lines (2017) is available now and his new project, Satellite City EP (2018) is comprised of three singles, “Satellite City” (out Sept 14), “Indigo” (out Oct 12), and “The Great Divide” (out Nov 1).

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‘Supernova’ DANIEL CHAMPAGNE

WATCH ‘Supernova’

‘Fade To Black‘

DANIEL CHAMPAGNE

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PH OTO BY TY H E LBAC H

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

DEAD HORSES By bridging generations of fans together on the singularity of one message – hope – Dead Horses have organically become the face and sound of Wisconsin’s burgeoning music scene. At a time when Nashville has once again become the center of the industry’s attention, a couple of Midwest kids with acoustic instruments in hand are traveling a path well worn across the country, sharing stories that are unflinchingly honest in their portrayal of modern American life, yet optimistic in its faith in brighter days to come. Described by NPR Music as “evocative, empathetic storytelling,” Dead Horses earned a spot in No Depression’s “Best Roots Music Albums of 2018” list, and Rolling Stone Country declared the band an “Artist You Need to Know.”

LISTEN ‘Family Tapes’ DEAD HORSES

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

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WATCH ‘Family Tapes’ - Folk Alley Sessions DEAD HORSES

‘When the Roses Bloom Again’ DEAD HORSES

“IF YOU’RE WRITING, HOPEFULLY IT FEELS JUST LIKE A PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO SAY TO YOURSELF, ‘THIS IS SOMETHING I DO.’ FOR ME, THE SONG NEVER ENDS, NOR DOES THE STORY. YOU JUST WRITE, AND THEN YOU TAKE IT AND SHAPE IT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU END UP WORKING WITH AND PERFORMING WITH OTHER PEOPLE. WE RECENTLY FINISHED A RECORD, AND NOW I’M TRYING TO SIT DOWN AND RETHINK HOW OUR PROCESS WORKS. I REALLY WANT TO HONE IN; I’D LIKE IT TO BE MORE DELIBERATE, TO REALLY MAKE HOW WE COMMUNICATE EFFICIENT SO WE HAVE MORE SPACE TO BE CREATIVE TOGETHER. I’M NOT SURE HOW TO DO THAT YET, AND I THINK PART OF THAT IS GOING TO RELATE TO HOW WE RECORD IT. I’M THINKING ABOUT HOW, IF THE SONGS GET BORN AT HOME WITH ME, AND THEN THEY GET RE-BORN AGAIN WHEN I RECORD IT WITH THE BAND; HOW DOES THAT CHANGE THE MUSIC? SHOULD WE BE SITTING AND TALKING ABOUT EVERY NOTE, OR DOES IT GET WRITTEN BY PLAYING IT? FOLK MUSIC IS USUALLY SIMPLE AND EASY TO LEARN AT FIRST, AND THEN IT GETS REBORN EVERY TIME IT’S PLAYED. I LOOK AT WHAT PAUL SIMON DOES—HOLY SHIT. HE’LL WORK ON A SONG FOR YEARS AND JUST REALLY SIT WITH IT. I LOVE THAT. I LOVE WRITING AND PEOPLE CREATING STUFF TOGETHER, AND ALL THE DIFFERENT WAYS, DIFFERENT PEOPLE DO THAT. IT ALL MAKES ME FEEL LIKE IT’S OKAY TO BE A HUMAN.” - SARAH VOS (FRONTWOMAN OF DEAD HORSES) RIFF

“I WRITE THE EMOTION, NOT THE CONCLUSION. SONGWRITING IS ABOUT RELATING A STORY OR EMOTION TO A LISTENER. EVERY COMPONENT OF A SONG MUST WORK TOGETHER SO AN AUDIENCE CAN FEEL THE STORY THE SONG IS TRYING TO TELL.” - DIANA CHITTESTER

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

DIANA CHITTESTER Diana Chittester stands on stage with an arsenal of acoustic guitars. Whether solo or with her 4-piece band, the show is always brought to life with her signature percussive multi-part playing, mimicking a full band on a solo acoustic guitar, without the use of a looper. She blends her intricate fingerpicking guitar style with intelligent and articulate lyrics. The personal stories and vulnerability Diana shares on stage resonate with audiences as she invites them along on her journey.

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LISTEN ‘Paradox’ DIANA CHITTESTER

WATCH ‘Paradox’ (Official) DIANA CHITTESTER

‘Freedom’ (Original) Live DIANA CHITTESTER

‘Storyteller’ Live, Full Band DIANA CHITTESTER

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P H OTO BY EV ERY ANG LE PHOTO G RAP HY

RIFF

PHOTO BY AL ISON HASBAC H - TR U E FIR E

“WRITING HAS A WAY OF AFFIRMING MY REASON TO BE HERE. IT KEEPS AWAY THE DARKNESS, IT BRINGS ADVENTURE INTO MY LIFE AND BONDS ME TO A COMMUNITY THAT I LOVE.” - ELLIS PAUL

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

ELLIS PAUL Ellis Paul is a songwriter, teacher, author, and illustrator. Since 1990, he has toured extensively playing festivals, colleges, and clubs on the North American music circuit and in Europe. He has performed over 5,000 shows. Twenty albums of his own music were recorded for both Rounder and Black Wolf Records, his latest is called The Storyteller’s Suitcase on his own imprint, Rosella records, released May 31. His songs are stories of the human condition and of people at some kind of personal crossroads in their lives. He is an adept arranger on guitar and piano, though mainly known for his crafted lyrics and storytelling. He was raised in Northern Maine and currently resides in Charlottesville, VA. His songs have appeared in numerous television shows and blockbuster films (Shallow Hal; Me, Myself, and Irene; Hall Pass). He has written successfully in many genres - folk, pop, rock, even in co-writing for country stars (Sugarland, Jack Ingram, Lindsay Ell), in addition to writing for film, children’s music and even holiday songs. Ellis has been the winner of 15 Boston Music Awards and was given an Honorary PHD for Letters for his writing by the University of Maine. He received the Alumni Arts Award from Boston College. He is member of the Maine Music Hall of Fame. He is a Kerrville New Folk Winner, A Falcon Ridge Folk Festival New Artist Winner, Over the years, Ellis has mentored and taught the craft of songwriting to hundreds of songwriters through his workshops, retreats and one-on-one sessions. HIs teaching posters on Performance, Song Creation and Song Editing hang in the writing rooms of over a thousand songwriters and serve as daily inspiration for their work. He also founded The New England Songwriters Retreat in 2015, which is a four-day gathering of songwriters and instructors in Chester, CT held over the Labor Day weekend.

LISTEN ‘I Ain’t No Jesus’ ELLIS PAUL

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‘I Ain’t No Jesus’ ELLIS PAUL

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“ONE OF THE BEST THINGS ABOUT COUNTRY MUSIC WAS THAT IT WAS ADULT MUSIC. IT WAS REAL MUSIC THAT DEALT WITH HARD ISSUES IN LIFE SO THAT PEOPLE GOING THROUGH THOSE THINGS DIDN’T FEEL SO ALONE.” - ERIN ENDERLIN

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

ERIN ENDERLIN The last few years have been especially busy for singersongwriter Erin Enderlin. While she first turned heads as a godsend to those aching for an artist with some golden-era country backbone, Enderlin’s acclaimed 2017 record Whiskeytown Crier cemented her as something even more: a literary songwriter and superb vocal stylist with a knack for sharply drawn––and often sad––characters. Named a member of the 2018 CMT Next Women of Country class and recipient of the Arkansas Country Music Awards Songwriter and Album of the Year trophies, she has surged to the forefront of new artists rooted in the genre’s rich history. Enderlin is also a go-to writer for stars looking for heavyweight country with classic panache––Alan Jackson’s “Monday Morning Church,”

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Lee Ann Womack’s “Last Call,” Luke Bryan’s “You Don’t Know Jack” and a host of other songs recorded by Randy Travis, Joey + Rory, Reba McEntire, Terri Clark, Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, and more are all Enderlin-penned. In a twist that stretches the possibilities of storytelling through song, Enderlin plans to release four EPs throughout 2019, with each three-track collection driven by a single character. The first EP, Chapter 1: Tonight I Don’t Give a Damn, is slated for release April 26. “I’m obsessed with characters, and the idea of being able to take that to the next level really appeals to me,” she says. “It’s ambitious,” she says with a laugh before adding, “but I do think it’s going to be something really cool.”

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‘Tonight I Don’t Give A Damn’ ERIN ENDERLIN

WATCH ‘Broken’

‘Till It’s Gone’

‘Tonight I Don’t Give A Damn’

ERIN ENDERLIN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY RYA N NO LA N

PHOTO BY R O B S H A NNA H A N

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“WRITING SONGS IS THE WAY I NAVIGATE MY LIFE. IT’S A MEDITATION AND A PATH OF CONSTANT DISCOVERY.” - GLEN PHILLIPS

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

GLEN PHILLIPS Glen Phillips co-founded the band Toad the Wet Sprocket at age 14 and started touring the country at age 18. He has released numerous solo and collaborative records, including WPA and MAS with members of Nickel Creek. He continues to tour and write, as well as now leading community singing circles.

LISTEN ‘Nobody’s Gonna Get Hurt’ GLEN PHILLIPS

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‘Leaving Oldtown’ GLEN PHILLIPS

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“I THINK I'VE TRULY FALLEN IN LOVE WITH THE STORYTELLING ASPECT OF SONGWRITING OVER THE YEARS. I LOVE TO MAKE THE STORY THE CENTERPIECE AND WORK FROM THERE. WRITING SONGS IN THIS WAY HAS CHANGED ME ON A PERSONAL LEVEL, IN MY DAY-TODAY NON-MUSICAL LIFE. IT'S TRAINED MY BRAIN TO CONSTANTLY LOOK AT THINGS THROUGH A STORYTELLING LENS, AND I REALLY LOVE COLLECTING MATERIAL THROUGHOUT MY DAY THAT I MIGHT USE LATER IN A SONG. I NEVER KNOW WHAT WEIRD LITTLE INTERACTION OR EXPERIENCE IS GOING TO END UP IN A SONG. LIVING WITH ‘SONGWRITER BRAIN’ KEEPS ME ENGAGED IN MY OWN LIFE IN A WAY THAT KEEPS BOREDOM AT BAY.” - HEATHER MALONEY

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

HEATHER MALONEY

LISTEN ‘All In Your Name’ HEATHER MALONEY

WATCH ‘All In Your Name’ HEATHER MALONEY

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PHOTO BY SC OTT H O U S LEY

Some albums are monoliths, compressed under the weight of a singular circumstance bearing down on an artist. Heather Maloney’s Soil in the Sky is a collective memory. Stitched together from personal and universal ecstasy, loss both intimate and ancient, Maloney’s fourth full-length release is a collage of tremulous folk, existential ballads, and assertive rock. Taken as a whole, it’s a constellation that looks a lot like life. The artist holds the center. The Massachusetts-based “writer songsinger” found music in the midst of three years at a meditation center, honing a sound moored in days of silent reflection and reverence for storytellers like Joni, Rilke and Ken Burns. On Soil in the Sky, she takes us to the midwest’s existential crisis, a barstool scooching against fate, a make-my-day reckoning with society’s old guard. They’re roads less traveled and she keeps good company. Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith lends a distinctive duet to “We Were Together,” a rare love song from Maloney that nods to a Walt Whitman poem; Maloney and Rachel Price form a harmonic Voltron on “Enigma,” a triumphant uppercut to oppressive power structures. The album is sonically rounded out by an all-star cast of players including longtime collaborator Ryan Hommel, Griffin Goldsmith, Jared Olevsky, Reed Sutherland, Dave Eggar and Jay Ungar. In sound and sentiment, these 12 songs cover an immense amount of territory. But they’re all powered by the same source. There’s a spiritual thread throughout the record. That inspiration doesn’t necessarily come from above --Maloney has a patchwork metaphysical support system --but from all around: the glow of humanity gathered in the people and places that lap out in our wake. Heather has toured nationally as a headliner as well as in support of acts like Lake Street Dive, Shakey Graves, Gary Clark Jr., Colin Hay, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and many more. The New York Times called her music “utterly gorgeous, visceral” and SPIN Magazine described her as “stunning, breathy, and starkly memorable”. Soil In The Sky is out on 6/14 via Signature Sounds. RIFF

P HOTO BY IS MA E L QU IN TANI LLA I I I

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“WHEN I WAS YOUNGER I THOUGHT OF SONGWRITING AS A MAGICAL BLESSING THAT IS BESTOWED ONLY UPON SPECIAL, CHOSEN PEOPLE. SINCE THAT TIME I’VE LEARNED I AM COMPLETELY WRONG. SONGWRITING IS A MUSCLE THAT MUST BE WORKED. WHEN ONE STARTS OFF, THE SONGS MAY BE KITSCHY AND RATHER UNORGANIZED, BUT WITH TIME, ONE WILL FIND THEIR VOICE AND CHANNEL IT. I’VE EXPERIENCED IT WITH MYSELF AND I’VE SEEN IT IN OTHER PEOPLE, LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING ABOUT THIS PRACTICE, HOWEVER, IS THAT NO MATTER WHERE ONE IS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT THEY ARE STILL MAKING MUSIC.” - JACKIE VENSON

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JACKIE VENSON Enthralled with music since the age of 8, this young singer/songwriter/musician instantly captures your attention with a vibrant musical soul and passionate control of her instruments that reach far beyond her age. As she mindfully blends Blues, Rock, R&B, Soul and more with her introspective lyrics, the message is clear – when you’re listening to Jackie, you hear the “Truth in Music”. Her live performances revisit what makes music so powerful: emotion and passion. She thrives without the flash, instead favoring a clean sound, genuine soul, and meaningful connection with her audience. Music is not only what Venson does – it’s who she is!

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‘Witchcraft’ JACKIE VENSON

WATCH ‘Rollin’ On’ Live at Shady Grove JACKIE VENSON

‘Always Free’ (Live)

‘Transcends’ (Live)

JACKIE VENSON

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“SONGWRITING HELPS ME TO CAREFULLY EXPRESS WHAT I WANT TO SAY IN TIMES WHEN I CAN’T MAKE SENSE OF ANYTHING IN MY HEAD. I LIKE HAVING A FORMULA: VERSES, CHORUS, BRIDGE. WHEN I PUT IT ALL DOWN ON PAPER, THE SONG TYPICALLY INFORMS ME OF MY EXPERIENCE, WHICH HELPS ME TO PROCESS MY PAIN AND RELEASE THE POISON INSIDE. IT ALLOWS ME TO TAKE MY POWER BACK. WHEN I SHARE THOSE VULNERABLE SONGS, OTHERS COME UP TO ME AND SAY ‘ME, TOO’ AND I KNOW THAT I’M NOT ALONE. THE SONGS HAVE SAVED MY LIFE OVER AND OVER AGAIN BY REMINDING ME THAT I DO TRULY BELONG IN THE WORLD.” - JAIMEE HARRIS

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JAIMEE HARRIS Jaimee Harris is poised to become the next queen of Americana-Folk, a slightly edgier Emmylou Harris for the younger generation. Her soon-to-be released debut album draws comparisons to Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams, and Kathleen Edwards – all writers who know how to craft a heartbreakingly beautiful song with just enough grit to keep you enthralled. Harris writes about the basic human experience in a way that is simple, poetic, and often painfully relatable. Harris’s talent has impressed artists and critics alike. Jimmy LaFave deemed her his “new favorite” and Peter Blackstock of the AustinAmerican Statesman called her “one of Austin’s most promising young singer-songwriters.” “She’s quick to pay homage to her musical heroes, but Jaimee Harris is her own person, with her own voice. She’s got a natural songwriter’s instinct for the hard truth, and a voice that brings them home with a visceral punch. Pay attention.” - Gretchen Peters

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‘Red Rescue’ JAIMEE HARRIS

WATCH ‘Depressive State’

‘Snow White Knuckles’

‘Come Sun, Come Rain’

JAIMEE HARRIS

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

P H OTO BY B R A N D ON AG U ILA R

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P H OTO BY MAT Q U OTE

“KEEP WORKING ON A SONG UNTIL EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF IT DELIGHTS YOU. IF YOU’RE NOT DANCING, GRINNING, LAUGHING OR CRYING, IT ISN’T FINISHED YET.” - JAKE MORLEY

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JAKE MORLEY Born and raised in London UK, Jake Morley is one of the best lap-style guitar players in the world. Combining guitar, piano and drums into one instrument with seemingly impossible dexterity, he is an artist to be seen as well as heard. Working with world-renowned producers, debut album Many Fish To Fry (2012) brought to mind Paul Simon and Newton Faulkner with unpretentious lyrics, hooky melodies and implausible guitar playing. The richly-layered production of follow-up The Manual (2016) leaned more on Elbow or Gotye. His sound matured, whilst maintaining its unique directness and his capacity for big tunes. Songs from both albums have been played across national and regional UK Radio and playlisted on Canadian CBC national radio. Jake has performed live on national television both in the UK and Canada. He’s also clocked up hundreds of worldwide stages and shows from Aberystwyth to Zurich, with sell-out shows at London’s Bush Hall, Canada’s biggest festivals and support slots at the Hammersmith Apollo.

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LISTEN ‘Ghostess’ JAKE MORELY

WATCH ‘Falter’ JAKE MORELY

‘Freddie Laid the Smackdown’ JAKE MORELY

‘Lionchild’ JAKE MORELY

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“IN MY HEART STANDS A SCARECROW IF HE’S HURT HE DOESN’T SAY SO AND HE CHASES EVERYTHING HE LOVES AWAY BUT AT NIGHT WHEN ITS COLDER THERE’S A BLUEBIRD ON HIS SHOULDER AND HE WHISPERS THAT HE’LL HOLD HER ONE BRIGHT DAY DON’T I FEEL LIKE SOMETHING WHEN YOU’RE HERE DON’T I FEEL MY LUNGS LOSING AIR DON’T I FEEL LIKE I CAN SHOW YOU I’M THE ONE YOU CAN GO TO WHEN YOU NEED ANOTHER HEARTBEAT NEAR DON’T I FEEL LIKE SOMETHING WHEN YOU’RE HERE.” - JOHN FULLBRIGHT

P H OTO BY KATE BU R N

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JOHN FULLBRIGHT Oklahoma singer-songwriter John Fullbright got his start at the legendary Blue Door Listening Room in Oklahoma City. It was there that he recorded a live album and found his base, opening for many other writers including fellow Oklahomans Kevin Welch and Jimmy Webb. His 2012 studio debut, From the Ground Up, received a Grammy nomination for Americana Album of the Year, and later that year he won ASCAP’s Harold Adamson Award for lyric writing. In 2014, John released the critically acclaimed album Songs, toured all over America and the UK, and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. “I never came into this with a whole lot of expectations,” says Fullbright. “I just wanted to write really good songs, and with that outlook, everything else is a perk. The fact that we went to LA and played “Gawd Above” in front of a

starstudded audience [at the GRAMMY pretel concert], never in my life would I have imagined that.” That plainspoken approach is part of what’s fueled the young Oklahoman’s remarkable rise. Since those hectic early years, John Fullbright has been concentrating on his live performances, either in his new hometown of Tulsa, or during weekend runs across the country. As he once sang on “I’ve Got All The Time In The World,” John Fullbright isn’t about chasing fame in a hurry. He is more steady than that. Newer songs are beginning to appear in concert and someday a new recording will appear. But honestly those are just earmarks. John Fullbright belongs on a stage where his musical instincts shine.

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PHOTO BY AL ISON HASBAC H - TR U E FIR E

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“I’VE ALWAYS FOUND IT EASIER TO MAKE UP SONGS, RATHER THAN LEARN EXISTING MUSIC VERBATIM. PERHAPS THIS IS DUE TO MY NATURE OF REASONING, NOT BY ANALOGY, BUT BY FIRST PRINCIPALS. IN OTHER WORDS, HEARING A SONG FOR WHAT IT REALLY IS, RATHER THAN APPRECIATING IT FOR BEING ANALOGOUS TO SOMETHING ELSE. I THINK THE MOST INTERESTING CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS THROUGH HISTORY DO THIS, LEONARDO DA VINCI, EINSTEIN, ARISTOTLE, DYLAN, ELON MUSK - AND I THINK IT IS EMPOWERING TO CONSIDER THE PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF HOMOLOGOUS THINKING AS SONGWRITERS. SOCIAL PROOF IS A COGNITIVE BIAS TO WHICH WE’VE BECOME EVOLUTIONARILY ADAPTED, FOR GOOD REASON, HOWEVER, FOR CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS AND INNOVATORS, IT IS IMPORTANT TO REALIZE THAT SEEKING IT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO FUNDAMENTALLY UNDERMINE THE POWER OF YOUR WORK.” - JOE ROBINSON

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JOE ROBINSON Joe Robinson is a true force in the pantheon of exceptional artists in modern music, and he has joined an exclusive group of elite performers whose impact continues to shape our unique American musical culture. On Robinson’s seminal new album, Undertones, the Australian native continues to awe and delight with soulful and utterly brilliant, finely crafted songs on both acoustic and electric guitar, and has come into his own as a lyricist. As The Washington Post recently observed, “It’s hard not to imagine him rivaling the popularity of say, John Mayer in coming years.” There is no doubt that Robinson is at the top of his game, boldly stepping up with mind-bending chord work, solos that literally redefine what can be milked from a guitar, and inspired, melodic singing in his signature tenor voice. “Creating Undertones was truly a labor of love for me,” Robinson reflects. “I elected to produce and mix this album myself. Having been quite busy as a session musician over the past few years, I felt I knew how to get the musical performances I wanted down on tape, so the whole process felt really natural.”

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Robinson has been performing so much of his life that he’s had a lot of time to delve into the emotional process of recording, and takes an unusually philosophical approach to creating music. “Undertones represents the many shades of the human experience. There are songs about love, pain, faith, story songs, satirical moments, and archetypal representations of behavioral truth.” “I am enamored with the Taoist worldview, as was Bruce Lee, a man I admire a lot. Through this lens, one is exposed to the polarizing elements of our world—the whole world views the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly. The whole world recognizes the good as the good, yet this is only the bad. Thus, something and nothing produce each other. The difficult and the easy complement each other—note and sound harmonize with one another. It seems everything in our world can be deconstructed in this way. Everything has an undertone.” “The more I play music, the less I need to think about it. The less I need to think about it, the more I feel that I can dedicate myself to experiencing the undertones of harmony, rhythm, melody, rhyme and narrative.”

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‘(Do You Want It) To Be Me’ JOE ROBINSON

WATCH ‘Let The Guitar Do The Talkin’ (Live at Sweetwater)

‘(Do You Want It) To Be Me’ Undertones, Performance

‘Mindless’ Undertones, Performance

JOE ROBINSON

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE Once compared to a man who wears many suits, in thirty-two short years Justin Townes Earle has experienced more than most, both personally and professionally. Between releasing four full-lengthcritically-acclaimed albums, constant touring, multiple stints in rehab, a new found sobriety, being born Steve Earle’s son, amicable and notso-amicable break-ups with record labels, and facing the trials and tribulations of everyday life, it’s safe to say JTE has quite the story to tell. His fifth album (and first ever on Vagrant Records) serves as the perfect platform for such narrations. Entitled Single Mothers, the album is comprised of ten tracks that showcase exactly why Justin Townes Earle is considered a forefather of Contemporary Americana. As a recently married, sober man JTE writes from a point of maturity and content we’ve not seen before on past records. “One day I just realized it’s not cool to die young, and it’s even less cool to die after 30,” Justin states as he reflects on a life past and his newly found clarity. What he’s created is an album that’s raw, honest and personal in a way he hasn’t touched upon since his debut EP, Yuma.

Co-produced along-side longtime engineer Adam Bednarik, Single Mothers shines in a world of pop-culture driven Americana records. “I don’t really know what Americana means anymore,” Justin laughs. “That’s not a slant on Americana, it’s just become a very unclassifiable genre. It’s gone seemingly pop. There are good parts to that, but it’s getting to a point where it won’t be able to redeem itself if it doesn’t slow down. Just like everything that gets popular.” With his heart and soul still rooted in Nashville, Single Mothers shows Justin’s continued combination of catchy songs and authenticity. “As I’ve gotten older my anger comes from a very different place. It’s more rational and mature. I guess that comes along with clarity,” JTE reflects. Single Mothers finds Justin dealing with past struggles and anger with more ease than ever before. Creating a nostalgic feeling with the return to his signature sound, JTE takes listeners on a journey through some of his most personal stories yet on what can only be described as an authentic country record.

WATCH ‘Frightened by the Sound’

‘Appalachian Nightmare’

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

P H OTO BY J OS H UA B LAC K W ILK I NS

“SONGWRITING CAN’T BE TAUGHT. SONGWRITERS ARE BORN WITH IT, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU DON’T HAVE A HELL OF A LOT TO LEARN.” - JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

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P H OTO BY A L EX B E R G E R

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

KORBY LENKER Long-time East Nashville resident Korby Lenker was born in Idaho on the Snake River Canyon, about a mile from Evel Knieval’s failed motorcycle jump of the 1970s. His smart, heartfelt, quirky songs have won several songwriting awards, and he continues to tour internationally. A published author, Korby’s first book, Medium Hero, was released in 2015 on Turner Publishing to warm reviews from such sources as National Book Award-winning author Tim O’Brien, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and Kirkus Reviews. Korby’s latest project is a scripted web series called, Morse Code, which he created, produces and stars. The Tennessean dubbed it “quirky and dryly funny”. The 4th episode premiered in May 2019.

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‘If You Love Somebody’ KORBY LENKER

WATCH ‘Friend and a Friend’ featuring Molly Tuttle KORBY LENKER

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

‘I Feel What I Feel’ (Morse Code Episode 2)

‘Boomerang’ (Morse Code Episode 1)

KORBY LENKER

“FOR ME, SONGWRITING ISN’T SEPARATE FROM PLAYING AND SINGING. THEY ALL GO TOGETHER. THAT’S PROBABLY WHY I’M A SINGER-SONGWRITER, AND NOT A PURE SONGWRITER. I’M NOT SAYING THIS IS THE BEST WAY OR THE RIGHT WAY, IT’S JUST WHAT MAKES SENSE TO ME. CREATIVITY ISN’T SOMETHING YOU DO FOR A FEW HOURS A DAY. IT’S A LIFESTYLE. THE WAY YOU EAT BREAKFAST WILL INFLUENCE THE NEXT SONG YOU WRITE, OR WHETHER YOU CALLED THAT FRIEND IN A MOMENT OF NEED…THAT’S GOING TO BE CONNECTED IN SOME WAY TO A CHORD PROGRESSION YOU MIGHT COME UP WITH. YOU ARE ALWAYS SHAPING WHO YOU ARE, AND WHO YOU ARE, BECOMES WHAT YOU CREATE.” - KORBY LENKER

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FROM SONG “LIVING ROOM, NY” OFF OF THE ALBUM THE BIG FREEZE

“I WANT TO WRING MY HANDS IN OPEN ELEVATORS A SHAKY FINGER, I AM PUSHING THE DOOR OPEN BUTTON I WANT TO FEEL THE URGE TO PRESS AGAINST MY NEIGHBORS WHILE I KEEP YOU IN MY MIND I KEEP YOU IN MY MIND ALL OF THE TIME HERE IN THE WAITING ROOM IN THE WAITING ROOM IN THE WAITING ROOM ONE IS MOVING, ONE IS STANDING” - LAURA STEVENSON

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY R AC H E L BR E NNEC KE 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

LAURA STEVENSON If gravity is strong enough, at the end of time our universe will collapse, pulling all of existence back down to infinitesimal size, like before the Big Bang. But if expansion outpaces gravity, eventually the universe will be cold and empty - all light, heat, and connection will be gone. That possibility is called The Big Freeze. Recorded in her childhood home during the dead of winter, The Big Freeze represents a pivotal step for New York songwriter Laura Stevenson. Despite her pedigree in the punk and indie rock scenes, and the occasional inclusion of a backing band (like the sprightly, C86-inspired pop track “Dermatillomania”), for the first time on record Stevenson’s voice and guitar are in clear and highlighted focus. It is a natural aesthetic choice for the musician, who has often toured as a solo act and who pulls influence from the great American songbook, and a choice that plays to the core strength and organic beauty of her writing. And though it is easily the darkest and most emotionally-devastating album of Stevenson’s career, it is also without a doubt her most powerful. Stevenson is a songwriter whose strengths have gone unsung for far too long, but The Big Freeze is likely to change that. At times you will be reminded of classic American songwriters from both the mainstream and the fringe, whether it’s Jason Molina, Judee Sill, Harry Nilsson or Dolly Parton. But always you will be reminded of the power of the human voice (and a single guitar) to invoke the universe. Or in this case, it’s end.

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‘Living Room, NY’ LAURA STEVENSON

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PHOTO BY M ATT BAR NES PHOTO GR APHY

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

“I HAVE UNCHAINED ALL THE PRISONERS FROM MY BASEMENT AND FREED THE GHOSTS FROM MY ATTIC. I WAS THE GUY WHO ENDED UP HOLDING THE KEYS TO THEIR FREEDOM. IT WAS ME WHO LET THEM OUT. IT’S A JOB THAT NO ONE ELSE COULD DO AND ONE THAT COMES WITH GREAT CONSEQUENCE BECAUSE THESE GHOSTS AND PRISONERS ARE STANDING AROUND ME NOW ALL DAY, ALL NIGHT LONG. I TOLD MY TRUTH THE WAY I HEARD IT AND THE WAY I REMEMBERED IT AND THAT’S ALL I HAVE. EVERYTHING ELSE IS BULLSHIT.” - LEE HARVEY OSMOND

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LEE HARVEY OSMOND Tom Wilson is the best-selling author of Beautiful Scars as well as a three-time Juno winning Canadian musician with multiple gold records. He has written for and recorded songs with Sarah McLachlan, City and Colour, Jason Isbell, Colin James, Lucinda Williams, Billy Ray Cyrus, Mavis Staples and The Rankin Family. His band, Junkhouse, has scored eleven top-ten hits, and his iconic, Americana-fueled Blackie and the Rodeo Kings was widely publicized for its presence on George Bush’s iPod. Tom’s most recent incarnation, Lee Harvey Osmond, has received extensive praise and airplay throughout the United States. His art has shown in galleries in New York City, Vancouver, Toronto and more recently, The National Gallery in Ottawa. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

LISTEN ‘Mohawk’ LEE HARVEY OSMOND

WATCH Tom Wilson / Lee Harvey Osmond at Massey Hall, Toronto LEE HARVEY OSMOND

‘Forty Light Years’ LEE HARVEY OSMOND

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“MOST RECENTLY I HAVE BEEN WRITING WITHOUT GENRE IN MIND, I HAVE FOUND THIS TO BE INCREDIBLY FREEING AND ALLOWED BY CREATIVE PROCESS MUCH MORE FLUIDITY. IT’S EASY TO GET STUCK ON ONE LITTLE CORNER OF A SONG, BUT MY ADVICE IS TO KEEP PUSHING THROUGH AND MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THAT PREVIOUS TRICKY CORNER WILL HAVE MUCH MORE CLARITY UPON COMPLETION OF THE REST OF THE LYRICS/MUSIC IT’S OFTEN A BIT OF A PUZZLE!” - HANNAH READ

PHOTO BY M ARK W IC KEN S

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

HANNAH READ Hailing from Scotland and now based in Brooklyn, Hannah Read is a versatile multi-instrumentalist widely recognized on the international stage. She’s best known for her fiddle playing, songwriting and was recently described as one of “the finest singers of the day” in the UK’s MOJO Magazine. Hannah leads her own band and is an in-demand collaborator on both sides of the Atlantic, including one part of the critically acclaimed British folk super-group, Songs of Separation, winners of “Album of the Year” at the 2017 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Her original songs are largely influenced by the people, places and landscapes she has encountered along the way, as well as musings of home, travel, love and loss - as can be heard on her critically acclaimed new album Way Out I’ll Wander (Hudson Records) which is compiled of “nine gorgeous originals” (The Guardian).

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‘The Hudson Sessions’ HANNAH READ

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PHOTO BY LAU R A E . PA RTA IN

“SONGS, ON THEIR HIGHEST LEVEL, SHOWS A PERSON’S INSIDES, ON THE OUTSIDE. THIS RESONATES INSIDE THE LISTENER, AND CAN CHANGE A HEART. A CHANGED HEART CAN CHANGE A MIND. A CHANGED MIND CAN CHANGE A PERSON. A CHANGED PERSON IS WHAT CHANGES THE WORLD.” - MARY GAUTHIER

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MARY GAUTHIER Every day. Every single day, which means some days are better and some much worse. Every day, on average, twenty-two veterans commit suicide. Every day. That number does not include drug overdoses or car wrecks or any of the more inventive ways somebody might less obviously choose to die. It seems trivial to suggest those lives might be saved — healed, even — by a song. By the process of writing a song. And yet.

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

And yet there is nothing trivial about Mary Gauthier’s tenth album, Rifles & Rosary Beads (Thirty Tigers), all eleven songs co-written with and for wounded veterans. Eleven of the nearly four hundred songs that highly accomplished songwriters have co-written as part of the five-year-old Songwriting With: Soldiers program. Participants of the program have shared that the experience of songwriting was life-changing for them, some even said life-saving. Something about writing that song — telling that story — is healing. What program co-founder Smith calls “post-traumatic- growth”. Gauthier’s first nine albums presented extraordinary confessional songs, deeply personal, profoundly emotional pieces ranging from “I Drink,” a blunt accounting of addiction, to “March 11, 1962,” the day she was born — and relinquished to an

orphanage — to “Worthy,” in which the singer finally understands she is deserving of love. Maybe that’s where the confessional song cycle ends, for she has midwifed these eleven new songs in careful collaboration with other souls whose struggle is urgent, immediate, and palpable. And none are about her. Each song on Rifles & Rosary Beads is a gut punch: deceptively simple and emotionally complex. From the opening “Soldiering On” (“What saves you in the battle/Can kill you at home”) to “Bullet Holes in the Sky” (“They thank me for my service/And wave their little flags/They genuflect on Sundays/And yes, they’d send us back”), while “Iraq” depicts the helpless horror of a female military mechanic being dehumanized and sexually harassed by fellow soldiers. Darrell Scott, returning from one of Smith’s first retreats, called and told Mary she needed to participate. “I felt unqualified,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about the military, I was terrified of fucking it up. I didn’t feel I knew how to be in the presence of that much trauma without being afraid. But Darrell knew I could do it. Turns out, I was able to sit with the veterans with a sense of calmness and help them articulate their suffering without fear. I was shocked by that. And I took to it.” It has become a calling. “My job as a songwriter is to find that thing a soul needs to say,” Mary says. “Each retreat brings together a dozen or so soldiers and four songwriters, three songs each in two days. We don’t have a choice. We have to stay focused, listen carefully, and make sure every veteran gets their own song. And we always do.” “None of the veterans are artists. They don’t write songs, they don’t know that songs can be used to move trauma. Their understanding of song doesn’t include that. For me it’s been the whole damn deal. Songwriting saved me. It’s what I think the best songs do, help articulate the ineffable, make the invisible visible, creating resonance, so that people, (including the songwriter) don’t feel alone.”

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The impact of these songs becomes visible quickly, unexpectedly. Featured in the TV series “Nashville,” the Bluebird Cafe now prospers as a tourist destination. The room fills twice a night with people thrilled to be in the presence of real live Nashville songwriters. Who, in turn, are thrilled to be in the presence of a paying audience that can do nothing to advance their careers, save give a genuine response to their songs. The gentleman at the next table has handsome white hair and a hundred-dollar casual shirt, and almost certainly had no idea who Mary Gauthier was, nor what her songs might be about, when he came out of the sunlight into the darkened listening room. He knows, now. Thick, manicured fingers cover his face, trying to catch his slow tears. His wife sits close, watches carefully, but knows better than to touch him. He is not alone in that small audience. Every day we are touched by the veterans in our lives, whether we know it or not. Every single day. Even if it’s only the guy on Main Street, in the wheelchair, with the flag. Every single day. And, yes, a song may be the answer. “Because the results are so dramatic, this could work for other traumas,” Mary says. “Trauma is the epidemic. You say opioid, I say trauma epidemic. As an addict, I know addiction is self-medication because of suffering, and beneath that pain is always trauma. Underneath so much of the problems in the world is trauma, it’s the central issue humanity is dealing with. We’ve found something powerful here, that brings hope to people who are hurting. So they are truly seen, and know they are not alone.”

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‘The War After the War’ MARY GAUTHIER

WATCH ‘Bullet Holes In The Sky’

‘Saved by A Song’

‘The War After The War’

MARY GAUTHIER

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P H OTO BY ALIS ON N A R R O

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“I TRY TO WRITE EVERYDAY. BUT I NEVER TRY TO WRITE A GOOD SONG, JUST A SONG. WRITING BAD SONGS, AND FINISHING A BAD SONG, KNOWING IT IS BAD, CAN BE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I DO IN DEVELOPING MY CRAFT.” - MATT THE ELECTRICIAN

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MATT THE ELECTRICIAN Despite the name, Matt the Electrician is no longer an electrician, focusing instead on a music career that has spanned the course of two decades, a dozen records, and thousands of shows. His music, however, remains rooted in his blue-collar beginnings, with lyricism that embraces the day-to-day, the mundane, the beauty of the ordinary. Before moving to Austin, TX and launching his career as a working-class folk musician, Matt Sever grew up on the West Coast. His parents played John Denver and Pete Seeger songs on the family record player, and Matt spent his earliest years surrounded by the things that would later fill his own music: acoustic guitars, timeless melodies, lyrics that celebrated the joys and heartaches of everyday life, and — above all else — a strong work ethic. That work ethic served him well in the mid-1990s, when he moved to Austin in search of new horizons and better opportunities. Matt was already playing music by then, and in need of a steady day job, he began working as an electrician, spending his days wiring houses in the Texas heat. Once quitting time came, he’d grab his guitar and drive himself to an evening show, usually taking the stage in his work boots and sweaty clothes. “Hi! I’m Matt the Electrician,” he’d tell the crowd, hoping his occupation would help explain his appearance. The name stuck, even after his growing fan base at home, as well as abroad, allowed him to hang up his pliers for good. Matt’s most recent release, a double CD called The Doubles, is the culmination of a 2-year vinyl 45 collaborative project.

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‘The Bear’ MATT THE ELECTRICIAN

WATCH ‘Got Your Back’

‘California’

MATT THE ELECTRICIAN

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P H OTO BY A L IS SA A N D E R S ON

FROM SONG “PAINTER OF TYGERS” FROM HER LATEST EP GHOST FORESTS “OH, PAINTER OF TYGERS YOU TOLD HER THAT YOU CAN’T KEEP ME HERE YOUR NAME IS LIKE A MESSENGER REMEMBERED FROM THE DISTANCE ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE FEATHER BANKS I FELT THE PACIFIC TRY TO TURN ME UPSIDE DOWN WINDOWS AND EVERCLEAR IN PIECES UPON THE GROUND IN LOVELY PENS THE SOUL WINDS DOWN TO A VOICE THAT’S JUST HANGING AROUND” - MEG BAIRD

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MEG BAIRD Meg Baird’s last decade would be remarkable by any artist’s standards. She co-founded and recorded three albums with Espers — one of the most distinctive and hypnotic bands of the century’s first decade. She also recorded three solo LPs for Drag City.

LISTEN ‘Painter of Tygers’ MEG BAIRD, MARY LATTIMORE

WATCH ‘Don’t Weigh Down the Light’ MEG BAIRD

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P HOTOO BY IB R A AC KE

“FOR ME, WRITING SONGS IS A MIX OF DISCIPLINE AND MYSTERY. THE DISCIPLINE IS SHOWING UP TO THE STUDIO EVERY DAY. THE MYSTERY IS THE ACT OF DREAMING THEM UP, THE STATE OF BEING WHERE THE SONGS COME TO YOU. SOMETIMES THE GOOD MELODIES JUST KNOCK ON THE DOOR AND YOU HAVE TO CATCH THEM. I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED WHAT LEONARD COHEN ARTICULATED SO WELL...’IF I KNEW WHERE THE GOOD SONGS CAME FROM, I’D GO THERE MORE OFTEN’.” - MEKLIT HADERO

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MEKLIT HADERO Meklit is an Ethio-American vocalist, songwriter, composer and cultural activist, making music that sways between cultures and continents. Known for her electric stage presence and innovative take on Ethio-Jazz, Meklit has rocked stages on four continents and counting. She is a National Geographic Explorer, a TED Senior Fellow, Co-Founder of the Nile Project, and an 2019 Artist-in-Residence at both Harvard University and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She has received musical commissions from Lincoln Center and the MAP Fund, and is a featured singer in the UN Women theme song. Meklit’s TED Talk has been watched by more than 1.2 million people, and her music videos air daily on Ethiopian National Television. Meklit’s latest album, When the People Move, the Music Moves Too (Six Degrees Records) was named amongst the 100 Best Albums of 2017 by the Sunday Times UK, and one of the Best Soul Albums of 2017 by Bandcamp.

LISTEN ‘Supernova’ MEKLIT HADERO

WATCH ‘Supernova’ MEKLIT HADERO

‘I Want to Sing For Them All’ MEKLIT HADERO

‘Kemekem (I Like Your Afro)’ MEKLIT HADERO

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P HOTO BY P H IL S H A R P

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MICHAEL KIWANUKA “Michael Kiwanuka’s second album, Love & Hate, is a sustained, stylized plunge into despair: plaints of isolation, doubt, lovelessness, racial injustice, longing, hopelessness and a certain resolve despite it all” - The New York Times “British singer Michael Kiwanuka did more than just broaden his sound on his second album. He created a whole new musical hybrid: Spaghetti Western Soul.” - Entertainment Weekly “Kiwanuka’s vocals are as tender as ever, yet laced with a heavy dose of attitude. This is full-throated soul with swagger.” - NPR Soulful and raw, Londoner Michael Kiwanuka’s critically-acclaimed debut album Home Again (April 2012) staked his claim on the list of great British singer-songwriters. As a body of work, Home Again was a genredefying nod to the heritage names of soul, and reinforced the real strength of young British music talent. Having taken a deep breath and relaxed into his musical approach, Kiwanuka is back, and has delivered his eagerly anticipated second album - and it packs a powerful punch. If his last album was about returning home again, this is about leaving it behind and stepping out – and finding himself outside his comfort zone. Love & Hate is an outward-looking, drenched with emotional density and rich, soulful production at the helm.

WATCH ‘Cold Little Heart’ (Live Session Video) MICHAEL KIWANUKA

‘Love & Hate’ (Official Music Video)

‘The Final Frame’ (Live at Rak Studios

MICHAEL KIWANUKA

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MIKE RIZZI WATCH

After 30 plus years behind the drum kit, sessions working or touring nationally with bands of all genres, including John Driskell Hopkins Band, Tony Lewis (Vocalist/ bass from the Outfield), The Bloody Wolves of Venice, Peter Searcy, Ed Roland & The Sweet Tea Project, Five Eight and Sonia Leigh to name a few, Rizzi now steps out front and releases his debut solo record Appreciate What Remains, co-Produced with John Driskell Hopkins of the Zac Brown Band. An album dedicated and conceptually written about his undying love for his son Kaden, who lives in Holland. Twelve heartfelt and emotionally charged songs written about the challenges of distance, hopes, dreams, losses and lessons in life. His debut video, “Great Divide,” was picked up by CMT, staying in the TOP 10 for 9 weeks, topping at #4.

‘Great Divide’ MIKE RIZZI

‘Baby! The Bloody Wolves of Venice’ MIKE RIZZI

‘Your Love - Tony Lewis of the Outfield’ MIKE RIZZI

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‘Eventually’ MIKE RIZZI

P H OTO BY J OLI E LO RE N P H OTO GR A P H Y

“MY SONGS USUALLY START WITH A MELODY IDEA ATTACHED TO A THOUGHT. THE WAY I ARRIVE AT A SUBJECT, THOUGH, IS SOMETHING I’VE EITHER EXPERIENCED OR WITNESSED. I DO WALK AROUND WITH MY EYES AND EARS WIDE OPEN FOR THE NEXT SONG TO ARRIVE. WHEN IT DOES, IT’S USUALLY VERY PERSONAL.”

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

- MIKE RIZZI

“SONGWRITING IS AN ART, ONE I HAVE NOT MASTERED. THERE ARE MANY STYLES AND IDEAS FOR WRITING A GOOD SONG, MY BEST SONGS ARE PERSONAL AND SEVERELY HONEST. I AM THE MAIN ARTIST FOR MY SONGS AND I HAVE TO SING THESE SONGS NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. IF THE WORDS ARE DISHONEST OR THROWN TOGETHER, I WON’T BE ABLE TO SING THEM WITH INTENTION. I TRY TO WRITE SONGS THAT I KNOW I CAN SING WITH CONVICTION.” - MIKE ZITO PHOTO BY ALISON HASBACH - TRUEFIRE

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MIKE ZITO Hailing from Texas, Mike Zito is an American blues guitarist and producer. He has released 15 of his own records and has won 3 Blues Music Awards. A celebrated producer, Zito has produced 25 albums to date and counts records by Samantha Fish, Ally Venable and Albert Castiglia among some of his favorites. With partner Guy Hale, Zito has started Gulf Coast Records and will be releasing discs by Albert Castiglia, Billy Price and Tony Capanella in 2019.

WATCH ‘Dirty Blonde’ MIKE ZITO

‘I Smell Trouble’ MIKE ZITO

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‘Treat Like A Dog’ MIKE ZITO

MIKE ZITO

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

MONTE MONTGOMERY You can call it prescient or predetermined, but when Terry Lickona, undisputed tastemaker and producer of Austin City Limits, plucked a then relatively unknown guitar talent to tape a segment of the legendary show, one had the sense that this was just the beginning. Since that jaw dropping performance, Monte Montgomery has embarked on an almost fantasy like rock and roll roller coaster ride filled with dizzying accomplishments and mind blowing accolades. Named one of the “Top 50 All-Time Greatest Guitar Players” by Guitar Player Magazine, he’s been called everything from “guitar-god” to the “answer to the Fermi Paradox”. Still, despite the six-string notoriety, Monte is not content to rest on his musical laurels. “I’ve resisted temptation to be just that guitar gunslinger from Austin, Texas,” says Monte. “I strive to have more depth, to be more layered as an artist, songwriter and singer.” With the release of his latest CD Monte Montgomery, he is cementing his place as not just some blazingly electrified acoustic guitar playing freak of nature, but also a rare and true triple threat; songwriter, singer and master musician. “I want my music to be accessible to everyone,” says Monte. Accessible it is, but he’s still managed to make a record that is uncompromising. The virtuoso-like trademark guitar licks and arrangements you’d expect from Monte are there, forming the rich and colorful aural backdrop for his insightful songwriting and amazing voice. The end result, in a day of homogenized, digitalized, and processed music, is that this new project stands out as a throw back to the great pop rock records of the past. Recorded live at the legendary Masterlink

LISTEN ‘At the End of Goodbye’ MONTE MONTGOMERY

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

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Studio, the textured, deep, rich, nuanced and just plain rocking 12 tracks run the gamut, showcasing Monte’s stylistic diversity beginning with the opening album track “River”, an almost primal seven minute dark bluesy roots rocker, and ending with “Midlife Matinee” a wistful ballad that soulfully explores the turning points and crossroads of life, love and loss. In between, it’s a mix of dark, edgy rock to light, breezy pop-like melodies. There’s the pure rocker “Can’t Fool Everyone” and the jazzy, vibey “Could’ve Loved You Forever”. And just when you think you’ve got him pegged, Monte changes it up to leave you breathless with the sensual, lyrical, Latin-tinged “Moonlight Tango.” To do that Monte enlisted the help of the hip, rock producer John Billings and Rob Clark, Grammy nominated Neil Young and CSN&Y recording engineer. “In the past my records were made in my hometown of Austin”, says Monte. “We went to a larger [studio] room in Nashville for this one which, with some very clever microphone placement techniques from Rob and John, enabled us all to set up in the same room and just play each song straight through. These are live takes, band tracks and no overdubs, with the only exception being some different instrument parts (string section and B3) added later to some tracks.” These accomplishments are quite a distance from Birmingham, Alabama where Monte learned to play piano and trumpet. At the age of 12 Monte moved to Texas to live with his mom, a singer/songwriter who instilled in him a passion for music and a taste of the life he was destined to lead as he sang and performed with her in Hill Country picking parlors.

PHOTO BY AL ISON HASBAC H - TRUEFIRE

“PERCHED LIKE A GUARDIAN UNAFRAID TO FALL OUTSIDE THE PARLIAMENT SOLDIERS ON THE WALL TRANSFIXED, THE AUDIENCE IRIDESCENT WINGS LOST NOT THE EVIDENCE OF WHAT IT ALL MEANS AND IN THIS MOMENT TIME STANDS STILL FOR THIS REVELATION OVERSPILL AND THE DRAGONFLY IS WELL AWARE STANDING IN ONE PLACE TOO LONG GETS YOU NOWHERE” - MONTE MONTGOMERY

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P HOTO BY KYL IE W IL K ERS O N

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

OVER THE RHINE When you listen to Over the Rhine, the supremely talented musical couple comprised of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, you quickly fall under the spell of Karin’s timeless voice “which has the power to stop the world in its tracks” (Performing Songwriter). But then the songs start hitting you. Paste magazine writes, “Over the Rhine creates true confessional masterpieces that know neither border nor boundary” and included Bergquist and Detweiler in their list of 100 Best Living Songwriters. Rolling Stone recently wrote, Over the Rhine is a band “with no sign of fatigue, whose moment has finally arrived.” That’s quite a sentiment for a band celebrating 30 years of writing, recording, and life on the road. But as Karin Bergquist states, “There is still so much music left to be made.” Love & Revelation, the brand new album from Over the Rhine, is a record for right now. The songs have been rigorously road tested and burst at the seams with loss, lament, and resilient hope. The LA Times writes, “The Ohio based husband and wife duo has long been making soul-nourishing music, and the richness only deepens.”

LISTEN ‘Los Lunas’ OVER THE RHINE

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

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“IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES, IT FEELS LIKE WE NEED MUSIC MORE THAN EVER. SONGS CAN RE-INVITE PEOPLE BACK INTO A REAL CONVERSATION. SONGS CAN PROVIDE A SAFE CONTAINER FOR THE CONFLICTED EMOTIONS MANY OF US ARE FEELING. AND WE’VE HEARD IT OVER AND OVER: MUSIC HEALS.” - LINFORD DETWEILER

“’LOS LUNAS’ IS A SONG THAT I HAD BEEN WORKING ON FOR SEVERAL YEARS. IT ENDED UP BEING THE FIRST TRACK ON OUR NEW RECORD. THE NARRATOR IN THE SONG STATES A SIMPLE FACT AT THE OUTSET: I CRIED... AND SO WE CAME TO REALIZE THAT LOSS IS ONE OF THE UNDENIABLE THEMES ON THIS RECORD. WE ARE GRIEVING. AND I THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE. WE’VE LOST LOVED ONES. WE’VE SEEN OUR FRIENDS STRUGGLING WITH LOSS –THE LOSS OF A CHILD, OR PARTNER. WE’VE STOOD WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS AS THEY STRUGGLED WITH CHRONIC ILLNESS, OR A SCARY-AS-HELL CANCER DIAGNOSIS. AND AS WILLIE NELSON RECENTLY SAID IN ONE OF HIS NEW SONGS, ‘IT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU GET OVER, IT’S JUST SOMETHING YOU GET THROUGH.’ A LOT OF THESE NEW SONGS ARE COMING TO TERMS WITH OUR REALIZATION THAT CERTAIN LOSSES WILL BE CARRIED WITH US FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES. THEN WE KNOW A LOT OF PEOPLE TURN ON THE NEWS AND ARE IN SHOCK AT WHAT THEY ARE SEEING. BENEATH THAT SHOCK IS GRIEF. WE ARE GRIEVING THE FACT THAT WE AREN’T QUITE SURE WHO WE ARE ANY MORE AS AMERICANS. THINGS ARE SHIFTING AND BEING REVEALED. ONE FRIEND RECENTLY ASKED, ‘HOW COULD ANYONE WITH A SOUL NOT GRIEVE?’ MAYBE WE ARE GRIEVING THE FACT THAT WE THOUGHT WE WERE BETTER THAN THIS.” - KARIN BERGQUIST

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P H OTO BY R O D NEY BU R S IE L

“SONGWRITING FOR ME IS A LOT LIKE TENDING A GARDEN THAT’S LARGELY GONE WILD. I TAKE MY EVERYDAY MENTAL EXPERIENCE (CONVERSING WITH THE PEOPLE I MEET IN MY TRAVELS, LISTENING TO NPR AND PODCASTS, READING POETRY AND NOVELS AND NONFICTION, LISTENING TO MUSIC) AND THAT ACCUMULATES ON THE GROUND OF MY MIND AS A SORT OF WILD MULCH, AND THEN THE SONGS SEEM TO FLOWER UP OUT OF THAT.” - PETER MULVEY SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

PETER MULVEY Peter Mulvey has been a songwriter, road-dog, raconteur and almost-poet since before he can remember. Raised working-class Catholic on the Northwest side of Milwaukee, he took a semester in Ireland, and immediately began cutting classes to busk on Grafton Street in Dublin and hitchhike through the country, finding whatever gigs he could. Back stateside, he spent a couple years gigging in the Midwest before lighting out for Boston, where he returned to busking (this time in the subway) and coffeehouses. Small shows led to larger shows, which eventually led to regional and then national and international touring. The wheels have not stopped since. Eighteen records, one illustrated book, thousands of live performances, a TEDx talk, a decadeslong association with the National Youth Science Camp, opening for luminaries such as Ani DiFranco, Emmylou Harris, and Chuck Prophet, appearances on NPR, an annual autumn tour by bicycle, emceeing festivals, hosting his own

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boutique festival (the Lamplighter Sessions, in Boston and Wisconsin)… Mulvey never stops. He has built his life’s work on collaboration and on an instinct for the eclectic and the vital. He folds everything he encounters into his work: poetry, social justice, scientific literacy, and a deeply abiding humanism are all on plain display in his art. Early in 2017, a series of upheavals found Mulvey living through a winter in a friend’s empty house in the small Midwestern town of Fort Atkinson. Unmoored and lost in the middle of his life, walking hours each day, sometimes with friends but most often alone, along the frozen marsh of the Bark river and through the wintry oak savannah nearby. The songs came in fast and strange and vivid. At night he wrote them down at a table in the spare house, just a mile from the Cafe Carpe (which Mulvey describes as his spiritual home). These songs became his new record, There Is Another World, a vivid dreamscape of imagistic, haiku-like auditory sketches, within which are plenty of wrenching, haunting, and even sweet songs.

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‘Fool’s Errand’ PETER MULVEY

WATCH ‘Paste Studio Session’ PETER MULVEY

‘The Other Morning Over Coffee’ Folk Alley Sessions

TED Talk: ‘Why Intelligent Life Hasn’t Contacted Us’

PETER MULVEY

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

RAINBOW GIRLS Rainbow Girls are an eclectic trio hailing from the golden countryside just north of California’s Bay Area. Vanessa May, Erin Chapin, and Caitlin Gowdey seamlessly combine soul-touching harmonies, vari-textured instrumentals, and poignant lyrical content into a beautiful sonic tapestry. Throughout their performance, voices are paired with an ever-changing amalgamation of acoustic and slide guitar, keys, upright bass, harmonica, and an array of vocal techniques creating an engaging and often emotionally moving live show. Their music delves deeply into themes of the human experience: hopeful love, honest self-reflection, and pursuits of social justice. Their debut album as a trio, American Dream, crystallizes these ideas in acoustic amber, encapsulating a beautiful new direction for their ever-evolving sound. Originally formed in Santa Barbara, CA in 2010, the Rainbow Girls have spread their musical wings both internationally and domestically, from busking on the streets of Europe to playing pubs and theaters in the UK, to house concerts, festivals, and shows in the US.

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‘American Dream’ RAINBOW GIRLS

WATCH ‘Can We Keep this Love Alive’

‘Down Home Girl’ (Cover)

‘American Dream’

RAINBOW GIRLS

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

FROM TITLE TRACK “AMERICAN DREAM”:

“IT’S NICE TO HAVE A PLAN FOR GROWING OLD UNFATHOMABLE LUXURY, A PLAN FOR GROWING OLD IT HITS YOU ALL AT ONCE THAT YOU WISH THAT YOU’D BEEN TOLD CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE AND THEN YOU’RE KICKED OUT IN THE COLD BUT EVERYONE’S WORTH SOMETHING AND IT’S NOT THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD” - RAINBOW GIRLS

PHOTOS BY MO LLY MC C O R MIC K

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PHOTO BY BR IA N INGR A M

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“I’VE BEEN ON THE ROAD AS A FULL-TIME TOURING SONGWRITER FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS. MY FAVORITE PART ABOUT IT IS THE TIME I GET TO SPEND ONSTAGE EVERY NIGHT, THAT MOMENT WHEN A SONG LEAVES MY BODY AND ENTERS THE MIND OF MY AUDIENCE. AT THAT POINT, IT’S NO LONGER JUST ABOUT THE EXPERIENCES OR FEELINGS THAT INSPIRED ME TO WRITE THE SONG...ONCE IT’S OUT THERE, THE AUDIENCES TAKES IT IN AND IT BECOMES SOMETHING NEW AND DIFFERENT TO THEM, SOMETHING I’LL NEVER FULLY KNOW, FILTERED THROUGH THEIR LIVES, EXPERIENCES, AND EMOTIONS. I FIND THAT ONE LITTLE MOMENT OF TRANSITION TO BE INCREDIBLY THRILLING, AND THAT’S WHAT KEEPS ME ON THE ROAD, TRAVELING THOUSANDS OF MILES PER YEAR, LEARNING HOW TO USE A NEW SHOWER EVERY MORNING.” - REBECCA LOEBE 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

REBECCA LOEBE Rebecca Loebe is on a mission. “I like to write catchy songs about topics that are meaningful to me, but use fun hooks to put words in people’s mouths.” She admits, “My favorite thing is to get people singing along before they even realize they’re singing about women’s equality or their own self-worth.” The Austin-based troubadour has won multiple awards for her songwriting and was recently told by an announcer for the BBC that her voice “should be available free on the National Health!” Over the past decade, she’s been steadily building her audience the old-fashioned way: driving hundreds of thousands of miles in an old station wagon, performing in listening rooms and theaters across the US, Canada, Japan, Europe and the UK. Along the way, she’s released five full-length albums

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including her most recent effort Give Up Your Ghosts, her first collaboration with Houston-based indie label Blue Corn Music (Ruthie Foster, Wood & Wire, Sarah Borges). The new genre-bending album borrows equally from the worlds of intimate folk, ear wormy pop, and no-holds-barred Americana. Refusing to pledge allegiance to any single genre was a creative gamble that has paid off in a big way: Give Up Your Ghosts has received the best press of Loebe’s career including praise from Billboard, Rolling Stone and legendary rock critic Dave Marsh, who said, “Once I put it on, I couldn’t take it off.” Don’t miss this chance to see Rebecca Loebe touring nationally with her full band, all across the United States and Europe throughout 2019.

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‘Growing Up’ REBECCA LOEBE

WATCH ‘Got Away’ Live with a Full Band REBECCA LOEBE

‘Ghosts’

‘Tattoo’

REBECCA LOEBE

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

RORY BLOCK Heralded as “a living landmark” (Berkeley Express), “a national treasure” (Guitar Extra), and “one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists” (Blues Revue), Rory Block has committed her life and her career to preserving the Delta blues tradition and bringing it to life for 21st century audiences around the world. A traditionalist and an innovator at the same time, she wields a fiery and haunting guitar and vocal style that redefines the boundaries of acoustic blues and folk. The New York Times declared: “Her playing is perfect, her singing otherworldly as she wrestles with ghosts, shadows and legends.” Born in Princeton, NJ, Aurora “Rory” Block grew up in Manhattan a family with Bohemian leanings. Her father owned a Greenwich Village sandal shop, where musicians like Bob Dylan, Maria Muldaur and John Sebastian all made occasional appearances. The rich and diverse Village scene was a constant influence on her cultural sensibilities. She was playing guitar by age ten, and by her early teens she was sitting in on the Sunday jam sessions in Washington Square Park. During these years, her life was touched – and profoundly changed – by personal encounters with some of the earliest and most influential Delta blues masters of the 20th century. She made frequent visits to the Bronx, where she learned her first lessons in blues and gospel music from the Reverend Gary Davis. She swapped stories and guitar licks with seminal bluesman Son House, Robert Johnson’s mentor (“He kept asking, ‘Where did she learn to play like this?’”). She visited Skip James in the hospital after his cancer surgery. She traveled to Washington, DC, to visit with Mississippi John Hurt and absorb first-hand his technique and his creativity.

years later.” I now realize how lucky I was to be there, in the right place at the right time. I thought everyone knew these incredible men, these blues geniuses who wrote the book. I later realized how fleeting it was, and how even more precious.” The world finally started taking notice in the early 1990s, and Block scored numerous awards throughout the decade. Her visibility overseas increased dramatically when Best Blues and Originals, fueled by the single “Lovin’ Whiskey,” went gold in parts of Europe. She brought home Blues Music Awards four years in a row – two for Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year, and two for Best Acoustic Blues Album of the Year. Then in 1997, she won the Blues Music Award for The Lady and Mr. Johnson, a tribute to Robert Johnson, taking home Acoustic Album of the Year. Today, after more than twenty highly acclaimed releases and five Blues Music Awards, Block is at the absolute height of her creative powers, bringing a world full of life lessons to bear on what she calls “a total celebration of my beloved instrument and best friend, the guitar.” Her newest project, titled The Mentor Series, is a growing collection of tribute albums to the blues masters she knew in person. Her most recent release A Woman’s Soul: A Tribute to Bessie Smith received high praise from Midwest Record – Chicago writer Christ Spector “...all Grammy voters within the view of my words ought to make a point of moving down the ballot to the blues category this year and giving Black the sugar that belongs in her bowl. The mantle has been passed to the new empress of the blues.” Beyond guitar, Block has also recently published her successful autobiography When a Woman Gets the Blues heralded by TV/Radio host Steve Bryant as “The most enjoyable biography I’ve read in years. Rory’s phenomenal life story comes alive in a wonderfully woven tapestry of prose, photos and the poetry of the blues.”

“This period seemed to last forever,” Block recalls nearly forty

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‘Lovin’ Whiskey’ RORY BLOCK

WATCH Bonnie Raitt & Rory Block on Stage RORY BLOCK

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

‘Preachin’ Blues’ RORY BLOCK

‘If I Had Possession Over the Judgment Day’ RORY BLOCK

PHOTO BY SHON N A VAL ESKA

PULLED FROM LOVIN WHISKEY FROM “I’VE GOT A ROCK IN MY SOCK”

“WELL, THEY TELL YOU ON THE TELEPHONE TO LET HIM GO, I SAID THEY TELL YOU HE’S A SINKING SHIP, AND HE’S TRYING TO PULL YOU DOWN, DON’ T YOU KNOW THAT EVERY TIME YOU CALL ME UP AND SAY YOU WANT ME BACK, YOU KNOW YOU BREAK MY HEART, YOU WANT ME TO COME BACK HOME AND TRY AGAIN, YOU WANT ME TO MAKE A BRAND NEW START, WELL, IF WISDOM SAYS TO LET HIM GO, THEN IT’S HELL, BECAUSE YOU JUST DON’T KNOW, UNTIL YOU’VE TRIED TO LOVE A MAN WHO’S LOVIN’ WHISKEY, LOVIN’ WHISKEY...” - RORY BLOCK RIFF

PHOTO BY N EILSON HUBBARD

“WORKING HARD ON THE CRAFT OF SONGWRITING IS IMPORTANT, BUT I CAN’T SAY I’VE EVER EARNED A GOOD SONG. THEY ALL COME AS GIFTS. WRITING IS LIKE TRYING TO FIT THE KEY IN THE DOOR AFTER A NIGHT OF HEAVY DRINKING. SOMETIMES YOU GET LUCKY AND YOU GET TO GO SLEEP IN YOUR BED, BUT SOMETIMES YOU END UP SLEEPING ON THE PORCH. EVENTUALLY YOU LEARN LITTLE TRICKS LIKE LEAVING THE PORCH LIGHT ON WHEN YOU LEAVE THE HOUSE, OR PATIENCE.” - RYAN CULWELL 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

RYAN CULWELL When Ryan Culwell released his critically acclaimed 2015 album Flatlands, Rolling Stone hailed the collection as both “gorgeous and bleak,” and the intervening years of the Texas native’s life could be described in similarly contradictory terms. Culwell has touched the top and scraped the bottom, known true joy and faced pure sorrow, been blessed with luck and cursed by tough breaks. He welcomed daughters number three and four into the world, only to nearly lose his life working odd jobs just to make ends meet. It’s been a beautiful, brutal time for Culwell, one that he’s woven into the fabric of his most stunning songs yet with The Last American, his third album and debut release for Missing Piece Records. Recorded in his adopted hometown of Nashville, the collection showcases Culwell at his

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finest, crafting poignant portraits of ordinary folks just trying to get by, men and women doing their best to make it through the day with dignity and self-respect in these trying times. “When I grew up and started traveling around the country, I began seeing certain truths in people’s struggles and pains, and I realized that the America that was given to me wasn’t what I’d been told it was,” Culwell reflects. “The patriotism that my father passed down didn’t have anywhere to land because that America simply didn’t exist. I’m a father myself now, and I think part of the inspiration for these songs was to try and give my children the tools to love this country for what it is and what it can be, to provide them with an accurate picture of where they are and what it means to love and hope and have empathy.”

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‘Can You Hear Me’

‘The Last American’

RYAN CULWELL

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“THE PRACTICE OF WRITING SONGS HAS BEEN SOMETHING BETWEEN A MENTOR AND A MANTRA FOR ME. IT’S WORK THAT CONTINUES TO FIND NEW WAYS TO WORK ON ME. I’M A GRATEFUL SERVANT.” - SETH GLIER

PHOTO BY GMD TH R E E 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

SETH GLIER Seth Glier (pronounced “Gleer”) recorded his new album, Birds, in an airy loft in western Massachusetts outfitted with a grand piano and floor-to-ceiling windows. Birds roost just outside those windows, on the roof of the converted mill building where he lives, and they became his sympathetic audience while Glier made the album. “I felt a tremendous amount of comfort talking to the birds,” he says, “I’d check in with them regularly to see how they thought things were going so far.”

and loss, but also strength and resilience; doubt and dismay, but also a sense of optimism as Glier confronts heavy topics and wrestles them into the daylight. The album began taking shape after Glier lost his brother, Jamie, who died in October 2015, and inspired a TED Talk performance that Glier gave in 2016. The songs range from personal to political, and are bound together by the awareness that our world is a fragile place. Birds is Glier’s latest album in a burgeoning career that has included a Grammy nomination and touring with artists such as Ani DiFranco and Marc Cohn.

Birds is steeped in conflict and contradiction; there’s grief

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‘I’m Still Looking’ SETH GLIER

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50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

STEPHEN KELLOGG Over the last decade, New England native Stephen Kellogg has performed more than 1500 concerts around the world, raised thousands of dollars for causes close to his heart, been named Armed Forces Entertainer of the Year, and penned singles for artists like platinum selling rock band O.A.R and American Idol winner Nick Fradiani. Stephen’s most recent writing work with legendary guitarist Robert Randolph led to a 2017 Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Blues Record.” He’s also had his songs covered by international major label acts and released ten studio albums of his own yielding hundreds of thousands of ticket and record sales. A father of four and married to his high school sweetheart, filmmaker Peter Harding was so moved by the everyman nature of Kellogg’s story that he made a documentary called Last Man Standing, which went on to become an Amazon exclusive film. In recent years, Kellogg has added authorship and speaking to his resume as well. He delivered a TEDx Talk on job satisfaction, the keynote speech for the prestigious photography summit WRKSHP, and was invited to speak to the students at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO on the topics of social justice and ‘finding your voice.’ He has appeared as a contributing author in several publications and in the fall of 2019, Wetware Media will be publishing his first full length book entitled, Objects in the Mirror: A Storyteller’s Take On What Matters Most. Kellogg’s newest studio album, Objects in the Mirror, was recorded over the course of a single week in Nashville, TN. Produced by Will Hoge and featuring

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twelve songs that explore American life in 2018, the decision was made to track the band live, keeping the results in tact with minimal overdubs. “I wanted to make an album that sounded and felt like the ones I grew up loving; Bob Seger and Cat Stevens, Tom Petty and Rod Stewart. Emotional records where the songs relate to each other and the lyrics are front and center. That’s my true north.” Kellogg’s emotion has never been in question with one music blogger succinctly describing his music as ‘a beautiful display of—well, his heart.” And as for the lyrics, Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz can be heard singing their praises on his ‘Underwater Sunshine’ podcasts. While Stephen Kellogg may have remained underneath the radar for some in the mainstream, he has succeeded in building a meaningful career alongside many of the best in the business. He’s sung duets with Sara Bareilles, Josh Ritter, Rosanne Cash, and Pat Monahan of Train and participated in the 2018 “Garden Of Dreams’ concert at the Beacon Theater. His music has found its way onto the Billboard charts and been featured in numerous films and TV shows. Whether performing solo or with a band, Kellogg’s soul and energy fuel one of the most dynamic shows anywhere. “With beautifully written songs and an engaging personality”, The Michigan Daily reports, “Kellogg appears as if he was born on stage, taking the spotlight and using it to his advantage, but never letting go of his connection with the audience.” A master storyteller in his prime, he will spend much of 2019 where he’s always been at home…the road.

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‘Prayers’ STEPHEN KELLOGG

WATCH ‘High High, Low Lows’ STEPHEN KELLOGG

‘I Can’t Get No (Job) Satisfaction’ at TEDx Concordia UPortland STEPHEN KELLOGG

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY SEAN PORTWOO D

“THE THING ABOUT SONGWRITING IS THAT IT’S NEVER FELT LIKE AN OPTION. IT’S BEEN MORE OF A FUNDAMENTAL NECESSITY IN ORDER FOR ME TO FUNCTION IN THE WORLD. THE WORDS COME THROUGH THIS CHANNEL AND ALMOST ANNOUNCE THEMSELVES LIKE, ‘WRITE ME DOWN...NOW!’ THEN, BECAUSE OF THEM, I’LL FEEL LIKE I CAN KEEP MOVING. THE FACT THAT IT BECAME MY OCCUPATION HAS BEEN A PLEASANT BYPRODUCT OF SOMETHING I WAS GOING TO BE DOING ANYWAY FOR MY OWN MENTAL HEALTH. IN TERMS OF THE CRAFT, YOU OBSERVE HOW GREAT SONGS ARE PUT TOGETHER AND WHAT NOT, BUT THEN, GENERALLY SPEAKING, YOU THROW ALL THAT OUT AND DO WHATEVER FEELS RIGHT TO YOU.” - STEPHEN KELLOGG

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P H OTOZ BY LAU R A PA RTA IN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“THERE ARE NO RULES FOR SONGWRITING. DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. EXPERIMENT. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. FIND YOUR OWN VOICE. BE FEARLESS. IF YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING WORTHWHILE, YOUR AUDIENCE WILL FIND YOU. MAKE IT A HABIT. LEARN OTHER PEOPLE’S SONGS THAT ARE OUTSIDE OF YOUR WHEELHOUSE. LEARN SONGS WITH WEIRD CHORDS AND PRACTICE THEM WITH RECKLESS ABANDON. TRY STRANGE GUITAR TUNINGS AND MAKE MISTAKES. MISTAKES LEAD TO UNEXPECTED MELODIES AND SONGS. REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN. THIS AIN’T ROCKET SCIENCE. IT’S PLAYTIME!” - STEVE POLTZ

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

STEVE POLTZ In 20 years since his full-length solo debut, One Left Shoe, Steve Poltz has blessed the world’s ears with thirteen solo records, spanning the acclaimed 2010 Dreamhouse and most recently, Shine On in 2019. NPR summed it up best, “Critics and fans alike now regard Poltz as a talented and prolific songwriter.” Evoking themes of “hope, love, contemplation, celebration of Wednesday, pharmacists, and the fact that windows are not inanimate objects and they sometimes have conversations with each other,” Shine On represents Steve at his most inspired and insightful. The opener and title track pairs a delicate vocal with lithely plucked acoustic strings as he urges everyone to, “Shine on, shine on.”

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‘Ballin’ on A Wednesday’ STEVE POLTZ

WATCH ‘Born in A Band’ STEVE POLTZ

‘Hey God I’ll Trade You Donald Trump’ Leonard Cohen

‘Folk Singer’ STEVE POLTZ

STEVE POLTZ

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P H OTO BY A ND R EA BE H R E ND S

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

TREY HENSLEY Trey Hensley is a Grammy-Nominated guitarist/singer/songwriter from Nashville, TN. He has performed with and opened for a diverse list of artists including Marty Stuart, Johnny and June Carter Cash, Earl Scruggs, Tommy Emmanuel, Taj Mahal, Peter Frampton, and Charlie Daniels to name a few. Trey currently performs in a duo with award-winning dobro player Rob Ickes. The duo currently has two albums out together, with a third album to be released in September 2019 on Compass Records.

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‘That’s What Leaving’s For’ TREY HENSLEY

WATCH ‘Born With the Blues’

‘That’s What Leaving’s For’

TREY HENSLEY

TREY HENSLEY & ROB ICKES

‘Everywhere I Go is a Long Way From Home’ TREY HENSLEY & ROB ICKES

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“MY APPROACH FOR SONGWRITING ISN’T NECESSARILY FORMULAIC. HOWEVER, THE INSPIRATION FOR MY SONGS TEND TO COME FROM MY DAY TO DAY LIFE -EVEN THOUGH MY SONGS ARE NOT ALWAYS ABOUT MY LIFE. FOR EXAMPLE, I LOVE BEING ABLE TO TAKE A SEEMINGLY INSIGNIFICANT THOUGHT OR COMMENT FROM A RANDOM CONVERSATION AND BUILD A STORY AROUND IT. MORE RECENTLY, I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED COLLABORATIVE WRITING. I HAVE HAD THE CHANCE TO WRITE WITH SOME OF THE BEST IN THE INDUSTRY AND THIS OPPORTUNITY HAS ALLOWED ME TO GROW TREMENDOUSLY AS A WRITER. AS ARTISTS, WE TEND TO WANT TO HOLD OUR WORK CLOSELY TO OUR CHEST AND ONLY SHARE WHEN IT FEELS ‘PERFECT’, SO WORKING WITH OTHER SONGWRITERS HAS PUSHED ME OUTSIDE OF MY COMFORT ZONE IN ADDITION TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING.” - TREY HENSLEY

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“SOMETIMES IT TAKES YOUR WHOLE LIFETIME TO SOUND LIKE YOURSELF.” - VANCE GILBERT

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

VANCE GILBERT

“SOMETIMES IT TAKES YOUR WHOLE LIFETIME TO SOUND LIKE YOURSELF.”

PHOTO BY J EFF FASAN O

- VANCE GILBERT

Vance Gilbert burst onto the singer/songwriter scene in the early 90’s when buzz started spreading in the folk clubs of Boston about an ex-multicultural arts teacher who was knocking ‘em dead at open mics. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Vance started out hoping to be a jazz singer, and then discovered his affinity for the storytelling sensibilities of acoustic folk music. Once word got out about Gilbert’s stage-owning singing and playing, Shawn Colvin invited him to be special guest on her Fat City tour. Noted not only for being the ever- consummate performer, Gilbert has recorded 13 albums, including 5 for Philo/Rounder Records. Along with being opener of choice for artists as varied as Arlo Guthrie and Anita Baker, 2006 and 2007 found Gilbert opening 140+ shows for comedian George Carlin. Most recently he’s the opener of choice for Paul Reiser, the Milk Carton Kids, and the Subdudes, along with his own acoustic music-touring schedule. Considered by many to be an integral part of the national folk scene, Gilbert’s approach to the acoustic singer-songwriter idiom is significant. Gilbert’s compositions, while frequently employing sophisticated melodies and harmonies that attest to his jazz roots, remain sublime attestations to the storyteller’s craft. He even has a tune on a Grammy-Nominated children’s album. How rounded is that?

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WATCH ‘Unfamiliar Moon’ VANCE GILBERT

‘Goodbye Pluto’ VANCE GILBERT

‘Old White Men’ VANCE GILBERT

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‘Unfamiliar Moon’ VANCE GILBERT

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“AS A SONGWRITER/COMPOSER I’VE ALWAYS BEEN MOST SUCCESSFUL AND GRATIFIED TAKING AN ‘OUTSIDE THE BOX’ APPROACH. THERE ARE NO RULES. THERE IS JUST EXPRESSING WHAT IS ON YOUR MIND OR IN YOUR HEART AS AUTHENTICALLY AS POSSIBLE. DIG DEEP, DON’T SETTLE. FIND NEW WAYS TO SAY THE SAME OLD THINGS. COLLABORATE, CELEBRATE...BE YOU!” - VICKI GENFAN 50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

VICKI GENFAN Winner of Guitar Player Magazine’s “Guitar Superstar” award in 2008, Vicki plays her own percussive style of “slap-tap’” acoustic guitar, and has been showcased as one of the world’s top guitarists at festivals such as The International Montreal Jazz Festival, Germany’s Open Strings Guitar Festival, Italy’s Soave Guitar Festival and hundreds of venues and performing arts centers across the US and abroad. In addition to being a dazzling instrumentalist, Vicki is an award-winning singer/songwriter with a high-energy stage presence. Combining folk, jazz, pop, soul and world music, whether covering the tunes of others or presenting her own compositions, Vicki’s distinctive style pushes the boundaries of the singer/songwriter genre into new territories. With 7 instructional products and 6 CDs, Vicki can be found hopping between continents for concerts, master classes and clinics.

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‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ VICKI GENFAN

WATCH ‘Blow Out That Flame’

‘Atomic Reshuffle’

‘One By One’

VICKI GENFAN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

PHOTO BY A LIS O N H AS BAC H - TR U E FIR E

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P H OTO BY A L IS ON H AS BAC H - T R UEF I RE

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

“SONGWRITING HAS ALWAYS FELT LIKE A JOURNEY TO ME, WITH THE SONGS BEING THE HOUSES I’VE VISITED ALONG THE WAY.” - WILLY PORTER

50 GIFTED SINGER-SONGWRITERS YOU MUST KNOW

WILLY PORTER Searching for the shaman that lives inside the guitar has led Willy Porter on a musical and personal odyssey spanning over two decades, 11 albums, and multiple continents. He has literally logged millions of miles across America, Canada, the UK, and Europe, touring solo, as well as with various incarnations of the Willy Porter Band and in support of artists like Tori Amos, Paul Simon, Jethro Tull, Sting, and Jeff Beck. Porter’s journey remains defined by an independent drive to evolve as a musician and human, affording him the freedom to create the next song on his own terms. Equally accomplished as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, Porter’s songs weave a universal perspective about the questions, struggles, and triumphs of human existence. His live shows are guitar-driven events--equal parts grit, soul, and muscle--that are electrifying, dynamic, and wholly original in the way that Porter’s voice blends and fuses with his virtuoso fret work. In addition to making a life in music, Willy makes an impact in the local and global communities he visits. He has supported food sustainability, international peace efforts, and domestic assault advocacy for various organizations as well as promoting messages of inclusivity and service through his music and partnerships.

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SONG FACTORY: THE SONG GROWS UP BY ELLIS PAUL

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INNOCENCE & THE AFTERLIFE BY ELLIS PAUL Here’s the acorn to the oak tree story of my song, “The Innocence and the Afterlife”. This song came from the guitar first. It was a Celtic styled pattern I fell into one day that sounded both very somber and beautiful, like it could played at an Irish funeral. I decided to bring my father’s death into it, and I remembered the day I explained his passing to my daughter who was five and how beautiful that conversation was. That became the idea for the lyric. The challenge here was making it believable. Vulnerable. So I start with, “This is my true life story.” It’s a universal conversation parents have with their kids about the passing of loved ones. But not many songs have been written about that moment. That makes it unique, and why it should be heard. It’s a private conversation but one we all have with our children. It’s universal in that way. I explain how the song drifted across the wheel and became refined draft to draft. The poetry was important. The flow of the words had to be in a perfect dance with the flow of the melody. The key was how the phrasing and melody weaved together like a braid.

‘The Innocence & the Afterlife’ First Draft Song Concept

‘The Innocence & the Afterlife’ Mission Statement

‘The Innocence & the Afterlife’ Final Version Performance

ELLIS PAUL

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS E L L I S PA U L

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INNOCENCE & THE AFTERLIFE

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LESSONS E L L I S PA U L

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS E L L I S PA U L

INNOCENCE & THE AFTERLIFE (CONTINUED) /

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30 STRUMMING PATTERNS YOU MUST KNOW BY VICKI GENFAN

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STRUMMING PATTERNS BY VICKI GENFAN These lessons are designed to equip you with essential strumming patterns for jamming, accompaniment, cover tunes, and original compositions. And of course, there are a ton more in the full course.

‘Folk Hip Pattern 8’

‘Pop R&B Pattern 20’

‘Jazzy Pop Pattern 24’

VICKI GENFAN

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS VICKI GENFAN

Folk Hip Pattern 8

Music by Vicki Genfan Transcribed by Glen Morgan

FOLK HIP: PATTERN 8

= 85 0:27 D

2 3 2

0 0 0 0

0 2 2 2

0 0 0 0

0 1 0 2

VIDEO LESSON ‘Folk Hip Pattern 8’ VICKI GENFAN

0 0 0 0

3 3 0 0 3

3 3 0 0

0 0 0 0

2 3 2 0

DESCRIPTION Folk Hip: I’m using a D-A-C-G progression. This pattern has a cool hip hop, laid back feel and can easily be used in folk, rock, or pop. Notice if you are anchoring your right hand in order to have more control in hitting the single bass notes. Whether you are or not, just take the time to practice slowly so you can gain accuracy without adding any extra tension in your right hand. EXAMPLE Practice changing chords just a bit early in order to get to the next chord in time. In this pattern that means the last eighth note in the measure may be played more like a chicken scratch than actual notes.

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LESSONS VICKI GENFAN

Pop R&B Pattern 20

Music by Vicki Genfan Transcribed by Glen Morgan

POP R&B: PATTERN 20

= 90 0:28

C m

G m7

4 1

4 5 6 6

4 4 4

F m7

2 3 4 4

VIDEO LESSON ‘Pop R&B Pattern 20’ VICKI GENFAN

2 3 4 4

2 2 2 2

2 2 2

DESCRIPTION Pop R&B: This pattern is based on the funky R&B pattern we’ve done, but I’ve added a bass line. I’m using the same chords as before, C#m-G#m7-BmF#m7. Once you get it down, see if you can come up with your own ideas for making that bass line move and connect chords. I’ve used 8th notes, but try some 16th note lines and hammer ons. It’s particularly funky when those bass notes are a bit muted with the right hand palm. EXAMPLE

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LESSONS VICKI GENFAN

Jazzy Pop Pattern 24

Music by Vicki Genfan Transcribed by Glen Morgan

JAZZY POP: PATTERN 24

= 112 0:35

Emaj9 6

1 2

3 4

0 7 8 6 7 0

X X X X

0 7 8 6 7 0

8 6 7 0

X X X X

0 7 8 6 7 0

0 5 7 7 X 7

X X X X

Bm11 5

0 5 7 7 X 7

X X X X

7 7 X 7

0 5 7 7 X 7

X X X X

Emaj9 6

1 2

3 4

DESCRIPTION

VIDEO LESSON ‘Jazzy Pop Pattern 24’ VICKI GENFAN

0 7 8 6 7 0

Jazzy Pop: I’m using EMaj9 - BminorSus4. They’re both moveable chord forms, but make sure you mute the high and low E strings if they don’t fit with the chord. In both versions, make sure you use left hand muting. Make sure you watch the palm mute with my right hand on beats 2 and 4. Try this pattern with all kinds of songs - pop, folk, soft rock or any style you want! EXAMPLE 0 7 8 6 7 0

X X X X

8 6 7 0

0 7 8 6 7 0

X X X X

0 7 8 6 7 0

1/2

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30 SINGER SIDEMAN LICKS YOU MUST KNOW BY ADAM LEVY

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SIDEMAN LICKS YOU MUST KNOW BY ADAM LEVY Supporting a songwriter as the sideman in a duo or band situation is an artful skill that can be very challenging. Usually, there’s a rhythm guitarist -- perhaps the singer -- playing fairly simple chords and rhythms. Your job as the sideman is to color and embellish the performance of the song without distracting the audience’s attention. Adam Levy’s collection of Songwriter Sideman Licks is an essential, versatile vocabulary of rhythm parts, fills, and single-note lines for anyone performing or recording in a sideman capacity. Here are a few lesson studies:

‘Cascade’

‘Busy Body’

‘Wide Angle Lick’

ADAM LEVY

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS ADAM LEVY

CASCADE

VIDEO LESSON â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Cascadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ADAM LEVY

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DESCRIPTION Cascade - Capoing halfway up the fretboard is a great way to get up and out of the way of another guitarist (the singer/songwriter, for example) whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strumming chords in open position. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the primary tactic here. Remember, Capo VII means the chord shapes seem to be in the key of G but youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re actually in the key of D, a fifth higher. Also, this lick is spacious â&#x20AC;&#x201D; leaving plenty of room for other elements in an arrangement (voice, bass, drums, and so on). EXAMPLE

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LESSONS ADAM LEVY

Busy Body

Music by Adam Levy

Lick 3 Dropped D 6=D

BUSY BODY

= 90 ��(D)

D 10

(C)

D 1

(G)

Cadd9 8

G 7

2 3

3 4

10 10 11

5 7 7

8 8 9

7 8 7

(D)

3 3 4

3 5

(A)

D 10

D 1

A 5

3 3

10 10 11

5 7 7

VIDEO LESSON ‘Busy Body’ ADAM LEVY

1 2

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

A5 1

5 7

5 5 6

5 7

5 4

DESCRIPTION Busy Body - Sometimes the job of a side-person is to add energy to the overall groove. If someone is already holding down the basic chords with a steady pulse, a rhythmic second part like this one can keep things moving. Utilizing 2 and 3-part voicings — in the middle or upper-middle register — can keep the harmony from becoming cluttered. EXAMPLE

5 7

3 5

LESSONS ADAM LEVY

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VIDEO LESSON â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Wide Angle Lickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ADAM LEVY

DESCRIPTION Wide Angle - The chord shapes here are spread wide. The effect is more orchestral than guitaristic. You can make it sound even more so by using a volume pedal (or the volume control on your guitar) to swell into each chord.

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CREATIVE FINGERSTYLE GUITAR FOR SONGWRITERS BY CHRISTIE LENÉE

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SLIDIN’ SPICY G GROOVE BY CHRISTIE LENĖE I’ll show you creative fingerstyle approaches to spark songwriting ideas and excite your guitar playing. In the upcoming performances I’ll be giving you a couple of nice workouts with some slides and harmonics, but remember, these exercises are just examples for you to build from. You should be taking the concepts here and applying them to some of your own progressions and grooves. That’s how you’ll find yourself turning practice time into songwriting time. Remember, your practice time should be creative and fun, so hopefully some of the ideas here are a little bit new to you and maybe some of the patterns are even a bit challenging. Take the time to learn these etudes, and apply some of the concepts to your own ideas.

‘Slidin’ Spicy G Groove’ Performance

‘Slidin’ Spicy G Groove’ Breakdown

CHRISTIE LENÉE

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS CHRISTIE LENÃ&#x2030;E

SLIDINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; SPICY G GROOVE

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LESSONS CHRISTIE LENÃ&#x2030;E

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

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ACOUSTIC RYTHM GUITAR PLAYBOOK BY COREY CONGILIO

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ACOUSTIC SELECTIONS BY COREY CONGILIO Most acoustic guitar players, including working pros and even accomplished singer-songwriters, have a very limited vocabulary of rhythm patterns and grooves. Having a comprehensive range of strumming patterns at your command translates into many more opportunities for playing with other musicians, getting gigs, all while expanding your creative potential for composing your own music. Here are a few lesson studies (there’s more in the full course):

‘Good Together’ Demonstration

‘Acousta Soul’ Demonstration

‘Outlaw Vibes’ Demonstration

COREY CONGILIO

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

GOOD TOGETHER

VIDEO LESSON â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Good Togetherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Demonstration COREY CONGILIO

DESCRIPTION Good Together - Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll start slowly here by just introducing the Am7 to Fmaj/C chords. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen this 16th note rhythm before, so your right hand should be primed and ready! EXAMPLE

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LESSONS COREY CONGILIO

ACOUSTA SOUL

VIDEO LESSON â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Acousta Soulâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Demonstration COREY CONGILIO

DESCRIPTION Acousta Soul - This is the kind of riff based idea I might play on electric guitar, but it sounds every bit as good on acoustic guitar. Once again, familiar chord changes here, so really focus on the riff. Once you get it, you wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wanna stop playing it! EXAMPLE ! "

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

LESSONS

COREY CONGILIO

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OUTLAW VIBES

1 23 -4

VIDEO LESSON â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Outlaw Vibesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Demonstration COREY CONGILIO

DESCRIPTION Outlaw Vibes - Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got another Drop D example here with â&#x20AC;&#x153;Outlaw Vibesâ&#x20AC;?. This is a classic outlaw country style chord progression. Think Waylon Jennings, Charlie Daniels, and David Allan Coe for this example.

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WRITE YOUR FIRST SONG

BY ROBBIE CALVO

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WRITE YOUR FIRST SONG (FIRST STEPS) BY ROBBIE CALVO Anyone can write a song! And that’s exactly what you will do with Write Your First Song, an extraordinarily intuitive step-by-step guide from singer-songwriter, Nashville producer, and top TrueFire educator Robbie Calvo. In this step-by-step guide to songwriting, you’re going to learn how to develop all of the skills needed to create original music, including guitar Instrumentals and complete songs with lyrics. These are a few good lesson studies to get you started: Choosing a Groove - Let’s take a listen to a few different groove options for your song. We’ll look at a straight eighth feel to start, then some variations on the groove: a swing 16th feel, 6/8 feel, etc. Sweet Notes / Developing Melody - “Sweet notes” are the notes found in your chords. This is an ideal place to find and create melodies. More often than not, the chords will even suggest melodies to you. Let’s take one of our progressions and explore that a little bit with you. Let’s take a C major chord and play it. The notes that make up that chord are: C - E - G. You can use those 3 notes to start writing melodies over that chord. You can use any of the other notes from the C major scale too, but the 3 chord tones will sound the strongest and sound resolved when you land on them over that chord. I call chord tones “sweet notes” and use them all the time to write melodic hooks and motifs in my music. Now let’s take another chord and repeat the process. A minor 7 = A - C - E - G. Using those 4 notes over the A minor 7 chord is going to be a great place to start writing super strong melodic hooks.

SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

Let’s add in one more example so that you can really hear how powerful this approach is: F Major 7 = F - A - C - E. Let’s sing those tones against the chord. Sounds great, doesn’t it? OK, now I’m going to play those 3 chords as a progression and sing chord tones over the chords. These are simple ideas that are great starting points for more complex melodies should you want to get deeper. Most songs however are super simple melodically...so don’t feel pressured to write more detailed lines. Simple sweet notes are always good. The Chorus Lyric & Hook / Crafting Lyrics - The chorus is the hook...the title...the message of the song. This is the section of the song that the audience will relate to most. Make your chorus memorable and easy to sing. Here’s the chorus to my song: I’m the O.N.E. in lonely I’m the one doing solitary time I don’t answer the door Pick up the phone I just sit in the dark, like nobody’s home It’s just me and your memory I’m the O.N.E. in lonely So far we know that the singer is falling apart because his partner has left him...he’s alone, lonely...now I want to write a bridge with some semblance of hope in it...a cry for forgiveness or hope that they might get back together...let’s take a look at the bridge. EXAMPLE

LESSONS R O B B I E C A LV O

I’M THE O.N.E. IN LONELY &DOYR +HIINHU VERSE:

CHORUS:

VERSE:

There’s a half-drunk cup of coffee Your lipstick on the rim There’s still a dip in your side of the bed There’s a hint of your perfume Still haunting every room Funny, it’s like you never left... I’m The O.N.E. In Lonely I’m The one doing solitary time I don’t answer the door Pick up the phone I just sit in the dark, like nobody’s home It’s just me and your memory I’m the O.N.E. In Lonely I’ve lost 7 pounds Without even trying It’s only 10.00am And there’s Bourbon on my breath I’m talking to myself, not making any sense Me and the house are both a mess…

CHORUS: BRIDGE:

Don’t you think it’s time To put our differences aside And try to save the love we stand to lose Say we might could Baby, someday soon Talk about giving ‘Us’ one more try

CHORUS: VIDEO LESSONS ‘Choosing A Groove’ ROBBIE CALVO

‘Sweet Notes / Developing Melody’

‘The Chorus Lyric Hook’ ROBBIE CALVO

ROBBIE CALVO

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RIFFAGE: VOLUME 16

RIFFAGE: VOLUME 16 In this very special edition of Riffage, we have a compilation featuring 50 Singer-Songwriters You Should Know to stream via Spotify or Download. Enjoy the music and be inspired!

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SUMMER 2019 | ISSUE 18

| ONLINE LINK DIRECTORY | RIFFJOURNAL.COM/LINKS-V18

RIFFAGE: VOLUME 16

BEHIND THE MIX We can’t say it enough — the not-so-secret ingredients of TrueFire are the artists and educators that we are privileged to collaborate with. Not just amazingly talented educators, they are also brilliant composers, arrangers and recording artists in their own right. Enjoy their music and please visit their websites and social media networks.

Adam Levy (Flood it with Light)

Korby Lenker (If You Love Somebody)

Ariana Gillis (Dirt Gets Dirty)

Laura Stevenson (Living Room, NY)

Beat Root Revival (Don’t Clip My Wings)

Lee Harvey Osmond (Mohawk)

Birds of Chicago (Super Lover)

Lomelda (Hannah Read) (Alexander)

Blair Dunlop (Sweet On You)

Mary Gauthier (The War After the War)

Caroline Spence (When I Rise)

Matt the Electrician (The Bear)

Cary Morin (Don’t Clip My Wings)

Meg Baird * Streaming Only

Cathy & Marcy (Shout and Shine)

Meklit Hadero (Supernova)

Chris Kasper (City By The Sea)

Michael Kiwanuka * Streaming Only

Christie Lenée ( Call My Heart Back Home)

Mike Rizzi (Eventually)

Dan Bern (Regent Street)

Mike Zito (Gone to Texas)

Daniel Champagne (Supernova)

Monte Montgomery (At the End of Goodbye)

Darrell Scott (Love is the Reason)

Over the Rhine (Los Lunas)

Dead Horses (Family Tapes)

Peter Mulvey (Fool’s Errand)

Diana Chittester (Paradox)

Rainbow Girls (American Dream)

Ellis Paul (I Ain’t No Jesus)

Rebecca Loebe (Growing Up)

Erin Enderlin (Tonight I Don’t Give A Damn)

Rory Block (Lovin’ Whiskey)

Glen Phillips (Nobody’s Gonna Get Hurt)

Ryan Culwell (Can You Hear Me)

Heather Maloney (All in Your Name)

Seth Glier (Water on Fire)

Jackie Venson (Witchcraft)

Stephen Kellogg (Prayers)

Jaimee Harris (Red Rescue)

Steve Poltz (Ballin’ On a Wednesday)

Jake Morley (Ghostess)

Trey Hensley (That’s What Leaving’s For)

Joe Robinson (Do You Want It)

Vance Gilbert (Unfamiliar Moon)

John Fullbright * Streaming Only

Vicki Genfan (Don’t Give Up on Me)

Justin Townes Earle * Streaming Only

Willy Porter (Human Kindness)

| ONLINE LINK DIRECTORY | RIFFJOURNAL.COM/LINKS-V18

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