Americana Rhythm Music Magazine #89

January 2021

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January 2021

Staying Visible, Staying Connected I have been scratching my head over what to write about in this On The Road article while not being ‘on the road.’ It is indeed a strange time for touring musicians. Like most of us roaddog touring artists, the dates and tours are cancelled. Even at that, no one is sure how 2021 will play out. So the question for me has been; and is now how do you stay present and alive in your fans eyes? There is the concern of income of course, but there is also the question of how to stay current and keep yourself in demand for when COVID is behind us and it is ok to resume touring?

Americana Rhythm is published six times a year. All correspondence should be sent to PO Box 45, Bridgewater VA, 22812 or CONTRIBUTORS email to greg@americanarhythm.com. Copies of Americana Ed Tutwiler Rhythm are made available free at various pick up locations within Wayne Erbsen the publication’s region. Subscriptions are available inside the United Donna Ulisse States (only) for $24 US currency made payable by check or Mike Aiken money order sent to, Subscriptions at PO Box 45, Bridgewater, Andrew McKnight VA, 22812. Foreign subscription requests should be sent to Emily Kresky greg@americanarhythm.com. Copyright 2019. All rights reDon Brown served. Reproduction of any content, artwork or photographs DISTRIBUTION is strictly prohibited without permission of the publisher or origi- North River Publishing Integrated Music Media nal owner. All advertising material subject to approval.

PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Greg E. Tutwiler Associate Editor Ed Tutwiler MARKETING & PROMOTION Mark Barreres (GrassRootsNetworking.com) Letters, Comments, Suggestions ADVERTISING greg@americanarhythm.com Business office 540-433-0360 www.americanarhythm.com advertising@americanarhythm.com

For me, I decided to release and promote four videos between February and October. Most were videos I had already produced like “Virginia,” but had not been promoted well because of touring.

Promotion ran on Vevo and YouTube, but I also spent time reaching out to my fan base personally to share with them. In addition, I wrote and videoed a new, topical song called, “Got Me A Mask.” This was on a lark. One guitar, one voice, shot in the cockpit of our floating home, Ocean Girl. After reviewing it; and showing it to a small group of friends, business folks and fans we thought that the reaction was positive enough to turn it into an official music video. One of these friends (who is very creative and edits video for a living) came up with the idea to invite fans and musician friends to send in pictures of themselves sporting their masks to incorporate in the video. It worked!

We used our newsletter and social media to reach out, and the results were overwhelming! From a

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promotion standpoint, we had a ‘buy in.’ The video became a part of everyone’s whole, not just mine. Fans from the USA, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Canada, and Belgium became a part of the message. And in just two weeks, the video had over 100,000 views.

I do not mind sharing that it was hard to get motivated to write, let alone a positive pandemic song.

The whole process gave me a reason to create, a reason to reach out to fans, a way to share something positive, and it worked. We connected without me going to their town to play a show.

Today finds us gearing up to release and promote an existing holiday video and tune called “Almost Christmas.” Again, this is one I have not promoted before and couldn’t justify the time or expense. This year being a different year, I am looking forward to seeing how it goes over. The promotion starts December 4th on YouTube.

Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Many of you embraced the livestreaming route. I really have not but am about to stream a show for the Savannah Folk Music Society, also on December 4th.

Check out our Facebook page (/ MikeandAmyAiken) to tune in.

I sure do miss being on those highways and planes. It is what I should be doing. But until it is cool to be back out there, take care of yourselves and be extra good to one another.

Happy Holidays!

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January 2021

The Gospel Choir

By Edward Tutwiler

Did you ever ponder the origin of things and wonder why some things, although quite similar, have small differences. No? That probably is a good thing because I have this worrisome habit, and it troubles me sleepless sometimes.

Let me tell you about my latest quixotic quest and the particular windmill involved.

As a child of the 40s and 50s, I attended a little country church located at the base of a small Appalachian mountain and sang in the church choir with a group of kin and friends. We sang from tattered, soft-cover hymn books whose copyright date predated me by 50 plus years. The notes were shaped but we did not know shape-note singing. In fact, there were probably not three of us who could read music notes of any kind. We learned these old hymns by listening to a lady pick out the melody on an old up-right piano while my great aunt kept time by waving her hand.

Nevertheless, we were listenable in our mountain twanged sounding way, which leads me to wondering if the style of our singing was considered gospel singing—thus starting my latest trip down a rabbit hole.

African-American Roots Gospel music in general has its roots in southern US AfricanAmerican Christian churches of the late 1800s. The folks who made up these congregations gradually combined aspects of various music styles into their worship services and created a unique sound. They combined traditional hymns, spiritual songs (songs of hope orally, handed down by folks from their enslaved past), and sacred songs of the day all accompanied by

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lively foot and hand rhythms.

This mix achieved a unique sounding worship music that had dominant vocals, strong harmony, lively rhythm, and Christian lyrics. In time, it became known as gospel music.

gospel music. Dorsey was a jazz pianist and composer and worked for Chicago’s Pilgrim Baptist Church. In the 1930s, he

Gospel means good news, and gospel music instills good feelings in listeners that leaves them with a desire to tell others about the listening experience. Thus, gospel music helped spread Christian ideals throughout the land.

Gospel music was and is first choir music. The types of music sung by a gospel choir is a calland-response format similar to that used in traditional hymns and sacred songs. The call and response is a phrasing format in which two different phrases are heard with the second phrase being a direct comment on or in response to the first. An example would be the verse/chorus structure in hymns. Enslaved Africans brought call and response music with them when they were forcefully imported into their new existence.

Father Dorsey Many sources name Thomas A. Dorsey as the father of modern

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created a new style of gospel music which combined blues and jazz with the traditional style of gospel music of the day thus creating a new art form that became known as gospel blues. After a period of rejection, this style ultimately became accepted as the new traditional gospel music style.

Gospel blues combines evangelistic lyrics with blues instrumentation.

Gospel music evolved over time into several sub-styles.

These include: quartet style gospel where a small number of male vocalists sing music together with tight harmonies; traditional gospel that has a basic sound best suited for choir singing; contemporary gospel that places a strong emphasis on solo artists and rarely includes a choir; and praise and worship gospel that combines both contemporary and traditional gospel into a format where a song leader and a small group of singers lead a congregation in singing.

January 2021

It did not take long for this genre of music to find appeal way beyond its origins. In the social structure of the segregated south with its severe racial divide that was particularly felt in the division between black and white churches, white congregations gradually adapted this black gospel sound into a separate hybrid sound that is now referred to as southern gospel music.

Southern Gospel 1910 Southern gospel music is mostly performed by a male quartet or sometimes by a mixed or same sex duet or trio group. Some musicologists date the establishment of southern gospel music as a separate musical genre sometime near the year 1910 when a professional quartet was formed and employed to sell songbooks for the James D. Vaughan Music Publishing Company. Others, however, claim this style of music existed for at least 35 years prior to that time frame. Nevertheless, southern gospel music originated as an all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up. The early quartets were typically accompanied by a piano or guitar or sometimes a banjo. As it evolved as an art form, full bands were added. In the present day,

accompaniment is often via prerecorded media.

In its present evolution, southern gospel music also has several substyles. These include: southern gospel lead/harmony singing as performed by traditional all-male quartets and also by mixed sex trios; progressive southern gospel, which is really Christian country music that is sometimes

getting saved and celebrating newfound freedom in Christ.”

That certainly describes the songs we sang back then from those old frayed soft-cover song books.

While our choir did sing gospel songs, we did not have any rhythm going on—no hand clapping and swaying—so we were not a traditional gospel music choir. Also, being the staunch United Brethren that we were, we certainly did not employ any devil’s instruments such as guitars or banjos for accompaniment. Thus, we were not a bluegrass group. Further, I doubt any of us would have

known a lead or harmony part if we heard one so this rules out southern gospel singing even if some of us did form into quartets or duets from time to time.

I guess we will just leave it at this: we were a group of poor folks who loved to sing gospel songs at the top of our mountain twanged voices accompanied by an old outof-tune piano. Maybe that made us just country folk who loved to sing gospel songs. Maybe we were a country gospel choir before any of us knew what that term meant

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marketed as country gospel; and bluegrass gospel music. Bluegrass gospel is simply southern gospel music performed by a bluegrass band using bluegrass arrangements and instruments, and sang with high pitched harmonies.

Back to my quest to determine what style of singing we did long ago in that old country church at the base of that mountain—I guess I am still not sure.

Celebrating Freedom In an essay on the web site music camp.info/resources/gospelsongs-hymns, John D, Martin wrote, “Gospel songs are generally defined as songs with a refrain, written during the past two centuries. Growing out of camp meetings and mass revivals, these songs focus on

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January 2021

The New Upside Down This was supposed to be my best musical year; my biggest tour schedule, the most packed songwriting workshops, the year I padded my songwriting partnerships with new cowriters. Well, I am living proof that the best laid plans can be overturned by the will of the world. Since March of 2020, I have watched with horror as all of my tour dates have cancelled.

With trembling hands I had to send back thousands of dollars to hopeful workshop students and cancel them until life is safe again, and who knows when that will be. Co-writing is not happening for fear of being shut up in

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small quarters for most of a day with other writers. We are all at the mercy of this thing that showed up and decided to kick like a mule. So, what was a girl like me, filled with the urge to write supposed to do with this much free time on my hands?

A Brighter Approach Shortly after the major shutdown on March 12, 2020, I decided to take a brighter approach and create a gratitude list on my personal FaceBook page of five things I was grateful for or just five mundane things

going on in my day. I also asked folks to join me on this journey. At first there were a few brave souls that wrote but little by little they let it go and I forged on alone. I thought I might let it go by the wayside too but I started getting private messages telling me how much my encouragement meant and to please continue them. I am now on day 237 (or farther along as you read this), and it’s so much a part of my new routine that I cannot imagine giving them up at this point. Each morning I brew a cup of strong coffee, lift my little dog up and put him by my side, get my keyboard in my lap and start the challenge of talking about the ordinary.

I am finding the more I do the daily writings the better I get at taking the nearly boring ingredients of my everyday life and gleaning the humor that shimmers in my world. I see a laugh in most everything I do. Suddenly I am not a dull person. In a split second, a stray goat shows up in my back yard with a pot bellied pig and starts eating all my bird food and voila, I have so much to write about the next day. It’s just that easy, lol. There are faithful

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readers that love the posts, leaving comments and thumbs up every day and I realize in some new twist that I am entertaining an audience in a whole new way.

Keeping You Engaged When the world starts back up again and music is ready to hit the road, I wonder how different we will be. I wonder if things will ever truly go back to the way it was or will we be so used to the way it is by then that we just morph into the “new” way of things?

I guess we won’t know until we get there and most likely by then the world will know most of how things run on the Wee Farm. I’ll wake up tomorrow and let you know what my yesterday was like and hopefully keep you engaged enough to seek me out every now and then. The songwriter in me is always looking for a way to spin the words rattling around in my noggin, to tell a story even if the words come down without rhymes or chords.

Maybe this new upside down world has a plan for me...just maybe. Stay safe, stay healthy and be grateful! www.donnaulisse.com

January 2021

Jake Workman Growing up Out West in Utah, Jake Workman never expected, much less aimed to be, an internationally recognized musician. Yet today he’s held the coveted lead guitar position with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder for half a decade and recently snagged the International Bluegrass Music Assocation’s 2020 Guitar Player of the Year award, a rarity for a first-time nominee in this worldwide pool of voters and players.

“In Utah there aren’t a lot of great bluegrass players, and it’s surprising that a person would learn bluegrass really well coming from this state,” Workman says from his home near Salt Lake City, where he started out playing rock n’ roll as an adolescent. His fire for learning bluegrass was stoked at the weekly Rocky Mountain Pizza jam, where he discovered “little pockets” of grass-oriented musicians. Soon, he was navigating the Western festival scene as a hungry young picker.

“I would go out to Wintergrass near Seattle and just stay in the hotel all weekend, jamming. I didn’t even know who was playing on stage,” he confesses.

So how did Skaggs find him, and did he ever dream that he would get a call like that? “I would jam along with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder records. I’d hear Cody Kilby tearing it up and think ‘Am I ever going to play that fast?’ I kept working on it. I never was shooting to be in the band, but I just wanted to be as good as those guys if I could be.”

Eventually Workman found that he had developed his own technique for playing at Skaggs’ signature lightning tempos with control and relaxation. “But when the job came around, I had no

idea it was coming. On my phone, I saw a Facebook notification from Ricky Skaggs— I couldn’t believe it was real.”

Skaggs hired Workman over the phone without an audition, but with heavyweight recommendations from Kentucky Thunder alums Cody Kilby and Bryan Sutton. Workman says he mused, ‘How am I going to do this from Utah?’ He’d turned down previous offers from other Nashville-based artists, because he didn’t want to uproot from his Utah community.

He began his new job in December 2015 by flying to meet the band; he moved to Nashville in 2016. “I didn’t ever think I would live in Nashville,” Workman explains, “but when Ricky called, it’s like ‘How do you say no to that?!’”

Touring with Skaggs has proven to be “a great gig for me— probably more astounding than winning my IBMA award was seeing Ricky’s message pop up on my phone,” Workman remarks.

That’s saying a lot, considering Workman was stunned when his name was announced in October.

He doesn’t think he was the “most popular guitar player” on the list, judging by social media numbers. However, he intuits that his 2019 guitar-centered album, “Landmark,” put him on the map for voters who were considering his recent contributions to the flatpicking world.

And what inspired this successful recording of original guitar music? “After playing with Ricky for a while I thought, I’d love to be coming out to the CD table after the show with a product that represents exactly what you’re hearing me do onstage, just playing guitar. I’d been writing for several years, and I wanted it to be instrumental—a good picker’s record.” He says he titled his collection ‘Landmark,’ like a “time-stamp: this is me in 2019. I had a vibe, a sound, a feel, a way of writing.”

Workman was able to work on his tunes in auditoriums, waiting for soundcheck on the road. He also uses this downtime for honing his guitar skills and

warming up for shows. But when time is short—how can Workman hop out of the bus and perform at high velocity with accuracy and confidence? “I have a lot of muscle memory built into my hands at this point. We’ll call them ‘cop-out licks’—stuff that I can just sling out there that I’ll nail and play well. If I want to do something bold and daring, likely it’s because I have plenty of warm-up time to get to that point. If it’s one of those days when the bus pulls up 5 minutes before we play, I’m not going to warm up much; but when I do warm up for those types of shows, I don’t sit backstage and shred. I warm up slowly. There’s something to be said about calibration: how tight do I hold my pick, where’s my arm, is my shoulder tense, am I letting it fall on the guitar. I’ll just calibrate.”

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Listeners may wonder what’s going through Workman’s mind when he is executing his powerhouse solos. Has he planned them out, in any general sense? Is he freely improvising?

“I played these songs so many times. They channel into something after a while; there are no two nights that are identical, but I do have templates, especially on the fast ones. I’ve worked them up, or they’ve worked themselves up just by repetition.

If I’m having a rough day, I can fall back on a solo I’ve done before. But if the crowd is awesome, and it’s one of those warmed up days, and I’m feeling bold and confident, I’ll go for the craziness. That’s what’s fun, even if there’s risk involved, and I miss a string. Even if I played a show perfectly but all I used the whole show was the same cop-out stuff I’ve used before, the same note-for-note solo, I may have just played great…but I don’t have as much excitement in my heart afterwards. I have a letdown feeling, to be honest. I think, ‘Dang it, I should’ve been bold, I should’ve gone for something, captured the moment; what was in my heart tonight?’ I chickened out, and I don’t want to do that, but sometimes it’s hard to have that mental energy to be brave. And I don’t have it every day.”

During this period of tour cancellations, Workman has relocated, at least temporarily, back to his Utah community, where he teaches lessons full time from home and continues his own study of the guitar. “There’s so much to learn, it never ends,” he muses. “Sometimes I’m excited for the challenge, but often I think, ‘Why can’t I just know everything already?’” And yet—considering his own description of the unpredictable thrill of the boldness that fills his heart on his daring days, perhaps ‘knowing it all’ would leave nothing for that chance.

Jake uses Blue Chip picks. You can check out Jake and his music here; www.jakeworkman.com

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January 2021

Thanks to our partnership with ReverbNation (www.reverbnation.com) we are honored to give you a peak at a few of the nation’s hardest working indie artists. Each month we select one entry to showcase for you here. Enjoy!

THIS MONTH’S FEATURE:

By Greg Tutwiler

Kenny Curcio

www.kennycurciomusic.com “Summertime Sunrise,” “Cherry Cola,” and “The World Is Watching.” He’s shared the stage with multi-platinum Country artist Gary Allen and Country star Corey Smith, and performed at the House of Blues and the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City, NJ. He has become known around the Greater Philadelphia area as a popular country/Americana voice.

FEATURE ARTISTS Philadelphia, PA singer songwriter Kenny Curcio’s life changed forever when his dad gave him a guitar for a Christmas present.

“When I was 12 years old my father bought me a guitar,” Kenny said. “He was sick at the time, and a few months after that Christmas he unfortunately passed away. The guitar was the last gift I received from him, but it has been the greatest gift. It has helped me through many tough times and has also brought many great times and people into my life that I would have otherwise not met. It was a tragic circumstance on how I got started, but it turned into a blessing, and I am just grateful to be playing and sharing my music because of it.”

Influenced By The Classics Kenny developed his playing skills through high school and college. He naturally migrated to songwriting, and it quickly became his favorite part. He expressed his words through the musical influences he was exposed to at the time.

“Growing up, I was influenced by CCR, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry, and the Rolling Stones to name a few; pretty much

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anything my Dad listened to at the time, that’s the music I grew up on.

It included a lot of Classic Rock and Southern Rock, along with some 90’s rock influences as well, such as STP, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana,” Kenny recalled.

Making music became serious for Kenny while in college when he connected with a former band of his, Whiskey Train. “We played a ton of local and regional shows and toured a bit, and wrote and recorded a lot of original songs,” he said. “I gained a lot of experience with performing and recording, and within the music industry as a whole.”

As his experience and sound matured, he naturally started writing more in that style. “My songs are within the country, blues rock and folk genres’,” he said. “I think country music, in recent years, has crossed over into some mainstream rock/pop and blues styles, which also fits my sound.”

“I am getting ready to release my 5th single of 2020, “Us In The USA,” he told us. “It will release on November 27th, and I am really excited about it. It’s a song that has a very powerful message and one that I really believe in.”

“I mostly write from the heart,” Kenny exclaimed. “I try to be as honest and as real as I can. I think when you approach a song from that perspective, the music finds a way to craft itself around it, and usually resonates with the listener the most. My songwriting process is different every time, so there’s no single approach I take. I get inspired by experiences I have had and ideas on what is happening around the world, or a melody or guitar riff that I think is cool.

Writing is a lot of fun, and in the past year I have connected with a lot of Nashville writers that I am grateful to get to work with.”

Working On Number Five Kenny has written and coproduced four band albums that generated several noted singles including, 2019’s “American Soldier,” “Hometown Heart,” and 2020 singles, “Scroll,”

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Ready To Get Back Out There Kenny says he, like so many other musicians, is ready for the world to open back up to the traveling musician. “I’m looking forward to a fresh start and the opportunity to share new music with fans that are eager to hear it and be a part of a live show,” he said. “With covid, there has been time to reset and recharge, and I think once things are back to normal, there will be a surge in new opportunities to connect with more fans.”

“Let’s work together and help one another,” he expressed. “Let’s accept each other’s differences and work to build each other up. Let’s not focus on what divides us, but on what brings us together. We are meant to be united, so let’s put back the Us In The USA. My wish is for peace, hope, and love to all ”

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January 2021

3D Immersive Audio – where Technology meets Art!

By Dennis Kole

Music becomes the soundtrack of our lives, but what if you could change the channel and experience audio in a new, more immersive way? A new example of technological innovation and creative artistry is currently transforming the audio landscape and providing new opportunities to give your ears wings to fly.

This is an exciting time for music lovers. 3D Immersive audio is not necessarily “better” than traditional stereo audio – but it is different. When you look at a beautiful painting you might prefer oils to watercolors. You might prefer the dimensional feeling of a Van Gogh or Monet to the smoothness of a Rembrandt or a Botticelli, but each format offers its unique attractions and experience.

Where It Came From This new trend initially began with much earlier efforts to deliver multichannel audio through expensive home audio systems. The cost was prohibitive, and consumer acceptance was quite poor. As movie theaters embraced superior sound systems for

cinema, the move towards developing similar audio systems for home cinema contributed to a renewed interest in this idea. This was accelerated by the ongoing development of various gaming systems combined with the emerging platforms of augmented and virtual reality systems, where truly immersive “it feels like I’m really there” audio became highly desirable.

Streaming services are the primary way in which music is being consumed. All of the major streaming services have only recently begun to offer 3D superior quality audio content. The major labels are now in the process of offering new projects by artists such as Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers in both 3D and stereo formats, and they are also working to retroactively create 3D mixes of many of the songs in their existing catalogs.

Amazon is currently heavily promoting its branded Echo 3D speaker system and Firestick technology to try and capture the inhome audio market for 3D applications. Sony Music is working

on a headphone based system, Sony 360 Reality Audio, to also compete in this arena.

contrast of each individual element while still enjoying the overall taste and experience of the whole blend.

The Nitty Gritty

The technology includes using sophisticated audio processing programs to place the various instrument tracks and vocal stems in the desired space within the audio soundscape. In addition to this, various mixing tools and techniques such as reverb, delay and panning are used on each component of the mix, and then again in the overall mastering of song, to create a finished work. This represents both a technical and an artistic achievement, as the artist and the mixing/mastering sound engineer are able to work together to create a truly immersive audio experience for the listener.

In essence, 3D audio describes ways to seperate a common left/right stereo mix audio track into multiple dimensions so that up/down, right/ left, front/back and even behind are all possibilities! The audio field in a traditional stereo mix projects forward from the listener like a cone. By contrast, the spatialized 3D audio distributes the sound throughout all the available audio landscape such that the individual voices and instruments each occupy their own “space” or location within this immersive landscape. This more closely resembles how we actually experience sound in the real world and helps to turn listening to music into an immersive, participatory experience. An analogy is found in cooking: if you are creating a salsa or a soup by using a blender, everything tastes smooth and uniform, but it is difficult to distinguish and appreciate the individual components of the recipe. By contrast, if you take the time to cut up the individual components into discrete “chunks” you can better experience and enjoy the taste and

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As the holiday season approaches, consider taking a trip out of your head and into your world in a way that only 3D immersive audio can offer – 3D immersive audio, you can’t leave home without it

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Dennis is one half of the duo, Raveis Kole.

Check out their new 3D Immersive experimental project here at www.raveiskole.com. And see their story on page 13 in this issue, and also at www.raveiskole.com.

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January 2021

The Sounds Of Sugarcane Jane In the ast issue we profiled a pair of artists who made up the duet group billed as Sugarcane Jane.

Digging around a bit and watching several You Tube® videos on the internet, revealed a musical pair that has an oldies sounding southern rock vibe that captured my ears. Their music is a combination of simple and direct lyrical expression and soulful harmonies layered on a rock tinged country sound.

Sugarcane Jane is Anthony Crawford and Savana Lee—a husband/wife duet team who call the southern Alabama Gulf Coast home. Together and individually they possess decades of rich musical experience. Let me tell you a bit about this talented pair.

Where I’m From Anthony Crawford was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and from the age of 18 has pursued a career

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in music. This career path has led from Opryland to the Grand Ole Opry with Roy Acuff. He has toured with Sonny James, Neil Young, Steve Winwood, Vince Gill, and Dwight Yoakam.

Presently he and Savana record

and tour as the duo, Surgarcane Jane. In addition, he has his own recording studio in Loxley, Alabama, Admiral Bean Studio, where he produces recordings for other artists as well as his own projects.

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By Edward Tutwiler

Savana was raised along Alabama’s Gulf Coast but soon found herself heading to Nashville, TN for the life of a songwriter and recording artist.

While living in Nashville, she spent her time writing and performing at the Bluebird Cafe, Broken Spoke, and Douglas Corner. Savana’s dreams of being a singer/songwriter eventually were replaced by a five-year position managing the respected Deepfield Studio, recording the works of other artists. Savana met Anthony while he was recording his own tracks at Deepfield Studio. He later recruited her to sing a few demos for him, which led to the two forming a lasting friendship. Finding the office work to be wearing her down, Savana moved back home. She reported, “I took it easy for a while, and started playing my music and getting back into that.

Anthony moved down not long

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after. About January of 2009, we started playing together although he was still touring with Neil Young part of the year. We would play locally when he got home from the road. We were just

having fun playing around the beach scene.” The two eventually married and started a family and settled into a lifestyle that included a 10-year musical

partnership of performing and recording.

Playin’ With Dwight In 2019, they got a call to join a Dwight Yoakam tour as an

opening act. This required that they form a band so they rounded up some of Anthony’s childhood friends who were great musicians and called them The Bucket

Fillers. Why the odd name? Here is Anthony’s explanation, “We wanted to just be out there putting good vibes in people’s buckets. There is a book we read to our kids. The title of the book included the words bucket filler and told the story that folks could fill someone’s bucket with either good stuff or bad stuff. We wanted to fill their buckets with good stuff.” Anthony continued, “At different times Savana and I have had different configurations of a band but the nucleus of who we are is just Savana and me. It is based around our harmony and that is our approach to writing songs.”

When pointed out to Anthony that the recording that they just released, Ruffled Feathers; Songs in the Key of Me, was reported to have been completed in a week, He expanded upon that theme, “Yes that is right. This current record is our 10th studio recording plus I have four or five solo records. There is a lot of music flowing through our veins all the

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time. Most of the projects we put together come together quickly but this one was very special. It was fueled by the emotions of the current environment. It is not a total political record or anything but I felt a spirit moving inside of me that I call my holy spirit because at times I have had a difficult time writing lyrics. I am usually a music person. I normally write the music first but this time I wrote everything all at the same time. The music and the words fit together without even trying. I did very little rewriting or anything. The words just came to continued on page 12

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Sugarcane Jane continued from page 11 me as if my spirit was writing them and keeping me out of the way. We had nine songs in six days, and I added a previously written instrumental. Savana did the graphics for the cover in one day and in my opinion it is one of the best designs that we have in all of our CDs.” They recorded, mixed, and mastered the recording in Crawford’s Admiral Bean Studio.

He described the setup there, “We have a nice analog console, a sound workshop, and a 34channel mixing console. Plus, we have a lot of vintage microphones and guitars. This setup gives us a lot of analog gear that we can use to make the sound we want to achieve.”

Recording Old School There is something special that artists can derive from old analog gear. Anyone old enough to remember the 70s and 80s music and how that music felt to the listener knows that there is a

magic to that. It is hard to capture that feel with the modern digital recording tools. Anthony agreed and expanded upon the idea by saying, “It becomes obvious when one listens to the drum sound of the 60s and 70s recordings. Often folks just use sample drums on present day music. I learned a lot from my relationship with Neil Young. I learned a lot about recording just by being in the room with those great engineers and musicians and the way they thought about music. They did not over edit to make the sound perfect. They let the recording breathe and be what it was. Doing that is a big part of getting the sound—just do not over think it. Do not be a perfectionist with it. People edit out the magic when they edit out all the imperfections. Something that sounds a little funky when you put it down might sound fantastic when you put another part with it. You can not over edit.

If you do, you remove the magic.”

The backbone of this latest recording reflects the duo’s conservative beliefs. Anthony explained, “We have been ambiguous people, and folks knew little about us other than they thought we could sing well.

In these peculiar times we noticed that folks must be one side or the other so on this record we just came out a bit on the side of how we felt about things. But we want folks to understand our main message is about tolerance of everyone and their opinions and trying to be thoughtful about other people. This is where we stand—just be tolerant of others and be kind hearted about how you reply to other people.”

We suggest you check out their web page www.sugarcanejane.com. To get a quick ear taste of their music, search out two of my Sugarcane Jane picks on the YouTube.com web site: “Cabin on the Hill” and “Southern State of” Mind”. Tell me you do not hear the vintage echo of those southern rockers from long ago

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Aly Cook New Zealand’s Aly Cook’s most recent CD, Caught In The Middle, saw it’s first single, “Red Dirt Road Trip,” land at number one on both the Country Songs Top 40 Australian Airplay Chart, and the Ta s m a n i a n independent Country Airplay Chart – not to shabby for an album project that was completely crowd funded.

Her passion for performing and songwriting spills over into her desire to help others as well. Not only has Aly helped forge the artist agency, Key 2 Artist Promotions, but also she was named twice as a finalist for NEXT New Zealand Woman of the Year, in 2011 and 2016, for her contribution to the Arts.

Aly’s musical exposure started early. Her father was an opera singer with the Guildhall School of Music in London. She started her musical training on classical piano around the age of seven. “I’m glad for that training because it makes me think of things musically from the chord and theory perspective,” she noted.

When she was 19, Aly took a job with a promoter writing tour posters, and eventually booking the tours as well. “I did it because I knew it would teach me about the music industry from the other side,” she recalled. “So my life has been, and is now rotating between being a musician and being a publicist, promoter, and tour coordinator.”

Aly says her music has been influenced by artists like Neil Young and Bonnie Raitt. “I love country, and I love roots and blues too,” she said. “I have eclectic tastes, so I just tend to write where it falls.

‘Red Dirt Road Trip’ was a signature song for me because I’m always traveling across to Australia, and of course there are lots of long, red dirt roads.”

Caught In The Middle was a culmination of Aly’s writing with Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup. (Graham was the drummer for the 80s band, The Angels, known as Angel City in the US). He is well known today in Australia for his production work. “We just started writing together,” Aly said, “and that’s how the album came about; we gradually got enough music to put it together.” The second single, “Not Pretty Enough,” reached the top 10, as well as did the third single, “Cold Wind.”

To find out more, visit www.alycook.com.au

Raveis Kole Laurie Raveis, Dennis Kole are an Americana / Indie Folk duo based in Bellingham, Washington. Their synergy as a singer/songwriter couple has allowed them to craft a unique sound blending what they call “Southern California freedom,” with a sprinkling of “Middle Eastern mystery, European panache, and a gypsy’s adventurous spirit.”

Laurie and Dennis actually met in a jam class at a guitar festival some years ago. “After the classes, we would stay around late and jam together,” Laurie remembered. “I would play drums and he would play guitar, and then we’d switch around. We just found ourselves having a lot of fun.”

They had each traveled to Montana for the camp. At the conclusion, Laurie and Dennis returned to there prospective homes and proceeded to correspond by telephone and email.

“We have a song called ‘Holding On To A Rainbow,’ Dennis said. “It originated when I was riding my bike along a lake one gray day, and saw a rainbow. Thinking of how I felt about Laurie and her being the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, I began to write a song about it.”

The song really got wings when Laurie and Dennis began to share it back and forth via email. “Dennis would write a line, and then I would write a line,” Laurie recalled. “So it really is a part of both of us.”

That song was released on their debut CD in 2016, Electric Blue Dandelion, which debuted at number eleven on the Billboard Heatseakers Chart.

“Laurie has a wonderful sense of humor that immediately shines through,” Dennis said. She also has a sort of a quirky way of looking at things, which I share. I think we both like to put common things together in uncommon ways, and that is a strong part of the basis for our music and our songwriting chemistry.”

This Frontier Needs Heros When singer-songwriter Brad Lauretti performs publicly, he bills himself under the moniker, This Frontier Needs Heroes. He’s released four albums under that title, and is currently releasing the fifth, Go With The Flow.

Brad started out like many young men, playing in high school bands with his friends. He didn’t start taking the craft of writing songs seriously until he got to college. He continued to stay active musically with various different bands throughout his 20s, and even spent some time as a duet with his sister. “It eventually whittled down to just me as a solo act, especially while touring,” he said.

For musical influences, Brad’s dad played the piano some, but he recalls, “Growing up in an Italian/ American house, we mostly listened to Frank Sinatra all the time. My mom was from South Carolina, and she loved groups like the Eagles, and the Allman Brothers; However, when I heard Woody Guthrie, that’s when I really started thinking, ‘wow; I really could write a song.’ Songwriting felt more accessible all of a sudden.”

Brad has now spent the last 10 years touring all over the world, and his Woody Guthrie revelation actually led him to the opportunity to perform at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, as well as, Folk Alliance International, Nordic Folk Alliance, Live at Heart, Magnolia Festival, Hickey Fest, Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, and Gram Parsons Guitar Pull, just to name a few. In 2020, he is currently a finalist in the Chris Austin Songwriting contest sponsored by Merlefest (Rescheduled to mid-September, 2021), and was the winner of the Artsville Songwriting Contest. He is also the founder of the Stetson Kennedy Songwriter Residency.

The latest project from Raveis Kole is what they deem an “audio experimental album.” “These songs have been re-mastered from their original stereo format to create an enhanced 3D immersive experience,” Dennis said. The album 3D Immersive released on October 23rd.

“I have always viewed my music as a continuum,” he said. “Go With The Flow is probably the most country tinged record I’ve released, so far. After spending the last few years in Nashville, going out every night listening to music, I think a lot of those indie/folk/country influences spilled over into my own song writing. I try to make every album different and not stay in one particular style.”

To find out more, visit www.raveiskole.com

To find out more, visit www.thisfrontierneedsheroes.org

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January 2021

Listen to the expanded interviews at www.spreaker.com/show/ americana-music-profiles, or search Americana Music Profiles

on all of these Podcast platforms!

Christopher Griffiths Christopher Griffiths’ childhood dream was to grow up and become a rock star. Growing up in the cold winters of Michigan, he had a lot of time indoors to fantasize about such things. He didn’t have to wait long though, as he began playing in bands when he was just nine years old.

Christopher attended Berklee College of Music in Boston before moving near Nashville (Murfreesboro) at the age of 22, where he has lived for the past 17 years, pursuing a professional music career. “I’ve been a sideman for different bands for years,” he said.

“I’m also a producer and songwriter. I think we all are in one aspect or another,” he laughed, “but that’s how I pay the bills.”

Christopher is a multi-instrument musician, playing bass, guitar, keys, synth, harmonica, mandolin and upright bass. “Give me an hour and a bottle of scotch and I’ll learn to play something,” he once joked. He balances his time now between playing bass for Will Hoge, and working on his own material.

His latest single release, “Take On You,” has proceeds earmarked for one of his passion projects, L.A, Animal Rescue. “I was talking to my sister, Cindy Drummond one night,” he said, “and she was telling stories of her time working with the L.A. Animal Rescue. She’s an actor, but still finds a lot of time to donate and help stray animals. Having lived half my life as a stray animal, I sat down that night and wrote something I thought conveyed that feeling - the moment of adoption.”

The single is part of an upcoming CD project called, Lime Lake Road, which is also the title of the next single to be released. It’s a song about where Christopher grew up and the struggles of his dad dealing with cancer.

Christopher’s music slides perfectly under the Americana umbrella with it’s rootsy, country, folksy feel. “Americana is so open-armed, anti-competitive, and it has such a community feel to it,” he said.

“We all come together wherever we are, and I think people really dig that. You can just see it on their faces.”

To find out more, visit www.christophergriffithsmusic.com

14

John Vento Although John Vento is a self proclaimed “latebloomer” to the professional music scene, he didn’t waste anytime playing catch-up with the caliber of his music. His 2019 album, Love, Lust and Other Wreckage, earned him the IMEA Award for Best Americana Album. And the single, “Rainbows And Lightning,” reached the Top 20 on the iTunes Canada charts.

While in his younger days, John dabbled in cover bands here and there; however his focus was on career and family. “The music thing was always deep, deep within me though,” John recalled. In his early 40s, John started writing poems as lyrics. “I turned to some of my musician friends to get help with the musical composition aspect of them,” he said. Doing that began the creative endeavors of his original music, and as John puts it, “Began the title wave, and the craziness, and I’ve never stopped since.”

That beginning was 19 years ago, and John has been constantly writing and recording the whole time since.

“It’s now a daily activity to work on creating music in one way or another,” he said.

John has been a business owner for a long time as well, and it’s quite clear that he’s blessed with a great staff that affords him a ton of freedom to pursue his creative passion. “I wouldn’t call it a full time venture, but my fellow corporate workers probably would,” he mused. “There is often a significant percentage of every day that is devoted to music. However, not to disrespect my fellow musicians that are grinding every day to try to make a living at this, that’s not me. I’m lucky in that respect.”

Justin Howl December 1st, 2020 marks the release date for the sophomore project, Wanderlust, from Chicago based blues and roots singer, Justin Howl. Blues Blast Magazine called him a “strong singer” whose tunes “will strike a chord with you.” Justin is a one-manband. He is singer, songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. While he acknowledges a debt to the Chicago blues influence, he says, “I’m more drawn to the North Mississippi style because of its hypnotic quality. I think it’s also my way of going back home through the music. I find myself doing something similar with the literature of William Faulkner, who’s also from that region.”

Justin began playing music while he was a grad student at the University of Chicago. “Partly as a way to take a break from my studies, but also because I enjoyed it,” Justin said. “In one of my classes, I met a drummer, and he had a colleague that was a bass player who had a friend that was a guitarist. I was beginning to write songs and sing at open mic nights around town. I decided that maybe we could start recording some of the songs I had written. Eventually, a friend said they had heard that we were putting a band together.

I didn’t really think of it that way. We were just recording some of my songs,” he said.

In actuality, the band members had never all played together. When recording they had each laid down their parts separately. Nevertheless, they took a gig to play a house party anyway, and it really clicked.

For several years they played around town, but after a while, the band members went their separate ways.

However, the tracks they recorded became Justin’s first album release, Justin Howl and the Salty Dogs.

“America,” the first song from the Brick By Brick project, was released on November 1st.

Justin graduated in 2016, and with no real prospects of an academic job, he decided to drive to Oxford, Mississippi to attend the annual Faulkner conference.

He had not toured with his music outside of Chicago, so it seemed like a good opportunity to book some gigs along the way. “It actually became my first tour. After the first night I realized that I could actually do this for a living,” he said. He’s been touring ever since. Justin now resides in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago where he pursues music fulltime and is anticipating the release of his second project.

To find out more, visit www.johnvento.com

To find out more, visit www.justinhowl.com

John’s new project is a concept album of sorts. It’s called Brick By Brick. They are releasing the singles one at a time, one each month, like building a project, brick by brick. John is not a musician though. He states, “I’m not a guitar player or a pianist; I’m a singer and a songwriter. I really pride myself on composition and arrangements. I’m also not a solo artist. I collaborate a whole lot too.”

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Ryan Warner Columbus, Ohio musician, Ryan Warner, taught himself how to play guitar in 1996 as a freshman in college. “It took me a while to get through college though,” Ryan recalled. “Every time I started making headway in school it seemed like my music took off. I would be playing music three or four nights a week, and then not go to class very often,” he laughed. “But it was a lot of fun.”

He eventually went on to minor in Classical Guitar for a year at the University of Toledo where he also studied black and white film p h o t o g r a p h y.

While working in the dark room there, he developed a love for film photography and eventually created a series of prints of the underground DJ scene in Toledo, Ohio.

Ryan also plays banjo, harmonica, and percussion.

His real passion is for writing though. He is not only a songwriter, but also dabbles in poetry, haikus, and short stories as well; and deep inside he knows there’s a novel in the making.

Ryan says his all time favorite band that influences his music is the Grateful Dead. “I think it’s really because they matched storytelling lyrics with improv jam, jazz, country, and blues.”

“Songwriting didn’t manifest itself for me until five or six years later – after college,” Ryan recalled.

“I had a bunch of friends who were poets, and I would go to their poetry readings. I started figuring out that besides guitar music, the one thing that drew me to music was the lyrics. If the lyrics weren’t very good, the song didn’t hold my attention.”

Thomm Jutz

Ten Penny Gypsy

Growing up in the Black Forest of Germany, Thomm Jutz didn’t have many opportunities to be exposed to American music.

When he was 10 years old however, he stumbled across a country music show on the American Forces Network. Not long after, he found a TV show called “Country Time With Freddy Quinn.” It featured a guest artist from Nashville. Something inside Thomm woke up and made a lasting connection with that style of music. Thomm eventually found his way to America, and more specifically, Nashville, Tennessee, where he could immerse himself in the music of the American South and pursue his dream of becoming a songwriter.

Little Rock, Arkansas’ Justin Patterson and Laura Lynn Danley both had solo music careers prior to discovering each other 10 years ago at a songwriting festival. That musical connection led them to collaborative efforts in songwriting, and eventually forming the duo, Ten Penny Gypsy, in 2017.

He arrived in Nashville in 2003, and quickly established himself as a first-rate guitarist. He’s toured with Nanci Griffith, Mary Gauthier, Kim Richey, Eric Brace & Peter Cooper and others.

He’s written songs for many bluegrass acts like Chris Jones & the Night Drivers, Terry Baucom & the Dukes of Drive, Irene Kelley, and more. Six of his songs have landed in the number one position, and over 200 have been featured in TV, movie, and advertising positions. He was nominated for Songwriter of the Year three years in a row by the IBMA in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

That very first album was nominated for the album of the year with the Arkansas Country Music Awards. “We were pretty excited and grateful to have that attention,” Lynn commented.

Thomm commented once about his song writing; “I’ve studied this part of the world intensely for nearly all of my life, and at the risk of sounding preposterous, I’ve learned that sometimes an outsider might be better at explaining that place back to its very people.”

When Ryan’s previous band broke up, he focused his attention on songwriting for a solo project he had in mind. Several of those songs are expected to be on his upcoming album release. “I figure now is the time to pull out a bunch of songs and start laying them down in the studio and get them recorded. I already have songs for the next album too, so hopefully in January I’ll start working on that one as well,” Ryan said.

In March of 2020, he released, To Live In Two Worlds – Volume 1, and has just recently released the follow up to that, To Live In Two Worlds – Volume 2. “A couple of years ago I figured out that I had all this material that was much better suited for myself than other artists,” he told us. “So, I just started putting out my own records. With these new releases, they really reflect musically how I live physically in two different worlds; one in my mind creatively with my love of history, and the other as a musician living in the present world.”

To find out more, visit www.ryanwarnermusic.com

To find out more, visit www.thommjutz.com

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Justin told me, “We were working on songs for what we wanted to be our first album and we happened to get a demo in the hands of Anthony Crawford of Sugarcane Jane.

Crawford said, ‘the songs are great, how would you like to come to my house and make an album?’ That’s how our self titled debut album came to be.”

Prior to coming together, both Justin and Lynn had their own styles and influences that have made up the unique rootsy, Americana sound that comes through on Ten Penny Gypsy’s music. “Mine comes from getting started on country music as a young kid,” Justin said. “And I was very influenced by the 70s singer/songwriter sound of James Taylor. One of the very first songbooks I ever had were those of John Denver. He was a tremendous songwriter, and I have to give him credit, because it obviously helped in my style.”

Lynn grew up singing in a gospel quartet with her brothers. “As an adult songwriter, I’ve come to love storytelling,” Lynn said. “The sound that we’ve created with Ten Penny Gypsy, I think is absolutely the best of both of us.”

Their latest release and second full-length album is Fugitive Heart. It is once again produced by Anthony Crawford. Justin penned seven of the original songs of the album’s eclectic, upbeat combination of Americana and Country/Blues sounds, and says, “I don’t think it is coincidence that these songs came together at this time to form such a poignant collection. There’s no doubt they belong in 2020.”

To find out more, visit www.tenpennygypsy.com

15

January 2021

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Shayne Cook Shayne Cook has spent most of his musical career playing in other people’s bands. He decided it was time for his own project. His debut LP, Epiphonetics, introduces us to an impressive nine song collection of original material. When speaking about the songs on his record, Shayne said, “The music is a look on how our take on the world comes from our path – the way that we interact with the world and how it shapes us.”

Melbourne, Australia is home base for this Brisbane born singer-songwriter. “Music has always been a part of my life, but I guess it just took me a long time to get to this point,” he said. “I’ve been predominately a guitarist in other people’s bands until now. I was a bit of a late bloomer getting into the writing and singing side. I took the voice on as another instrument. I suppose it’s always been in me to do this, but I also went down the path of getting the real job until it just burned me not to do it,” he recalled. “A couple years ago I left my job, and here I am.”

Shayne said his mother tells him that he’s always been “a songer,” as he calls it. However he didn’t pick up the guitar until he was 16. “When I did pick it up, I never put it down,” he said. “When I finally stepped away from the day job, it was to step into a solo music career. The late bloomer aspect for me is that I really wanted to pursue a career as a writer and singer of my own songs,” he said.

Banjo Bones Banjo Bones is a native of Puerto Rico, but has spent nearly half of his life in the US; with the last 10 years or so in Sacramento, CA where he now calls home.

His career in music spans nearly 40 years with five albums to his credit, and a sixth one just released on October 31st called, Lucifer’s Hand.

It was a vacation to Virginia and a chance visit to a jam session that exposed Banjo to Bluegrass music, and thus altered the flavor of his music entirely.

Originally leaning towards the punk rock style, Banjo now plays more of what he calls “the dark side of Americana.”

He combines elements of roots music that borrows in equal portions from rock, blues, country, jazz, and folk. Described as a “whiskey i n f u s e d philosopher, frustrated poet, and wannabe cowboy, Banjo Bones takes listeners on a journey filled with the musical landscape equivalent to Death Valley, as told by a pallet of characters that would be perfectly at home in a Fante or Bukowski book.”

Banjo says he’s usually up at 5:30 in the morning and dedicates the first two hours of his morning to writing.

“Whether I have something or not, I write, every day” he said. “A lot of it’s crap and ends up on the cutting room floor, but some of it is good. What I end up with is a data base of lyrics and rough ideas of songs. Then when I get this feeling that I’ve got an album of material, I got to work on it.”

While talking about one of the tracks, “City Fire Lights,” from the album, Shayne said, “I always felt music was my calling and at time felt it was slipping away … Turns out there is no such thing as the right time, and you can spend all your time waiting for the right time.”

For his latest release, Banjo took a central theme and wove it into a collection of tracks taking a look at the religious idea that everything bad is blamed on the devil. Banjo’s assertion is that, “rather than prescribing to dogmatic ideas of evil being authorized by the devil himself, we should instead look within to understand the evil we think, do and say.”

Shayne also owns a recording studio in Brisbane, Australia where he does production work for other artists as well.

“I tend to resent anything that’s fear based,” he said.

“I guess I’ve never grown out of my punk rock days, and I just resist all that stuff,” he laughed.

To find out more, visit www.shaynecook.com

To find out more, visit www.banjobones.com

16

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Ed Taylor Collective Ed Taylor Collective (The ETC) is the latest musical venture for Auckland, NZ based Country/ Americana guitarist, Ed Taylor.

Although Ed has been a guitarist for the better part of his life, including attending the Auckland University School Of Music, majoring in Classical Guitar Performance in 1996, he didn’t start writing songs until about 10 years ago. That addition to his musical quiver earned him a semi-finalist spot in the USA International Songwriting Competition in 2019.

After spending most of his musical career collaborating with others, he finally realized he wanted to do his own thing in 2019. “I wanted complete artistic control over my songs,” he said recently, “and I wanted to use the best musicians I had come across over my 20 years of being a professional musician in Auckland, to perform them.”

In 1997 Ed placed first in the Auckland Classical Guitar Competition. In the early 2000s, Ed studied jazz privately with some of New Zealand’s finest jazz musicians. He also spent time playing in bluegrass, folk, pop, and country bands along the way. “I grew up listening to Bob Dylan, Dire Straits and Paul Simon,” he recalled, “and as I have gotten older, I have found myself being drawn back to that style of music.”

For this new iteration of Ed’s music career, he’s the exclusive songwriter. “I then invite musicians I’ve played with over the years in to the project to do whatever is necessary,” he said.

Although Ed says he doesn’t have a title for his new album yet, he’s three quarters of the way finished with it. The first single just released called, “M&C Shuffle.” As you might have guessed, it’s a country line-dance song that Ed wrote and recorded at the beginning of 2020. “It came about after playing at the Howick RSA for a line-dancing crew called M&C Line dancing,” Ed recalled. “The name refers to Merylin and Catherine (M&C) who run the group and teach regular classes. I decided that it would be fun to write a song for the ladies; one they could choreograph a dance to; and then we made a video for it.”

To find out more, visit www.edtaylorcollective.com

January 2021

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Fuzzy & The Rustbelts Buffalo New York is “a good ol’ rust belt city,” as Fuzzy tells it, and thus the name of his band, Fuzzy & The Rustbelts. Fuzzy was 15 when he picked up the guitar. “The only reason I wanted to do that was to write a song for my girlfriend at the time,” he laughed. But it was pure passion after that when it came to music. “I look at music like a drug almost,” he exclaimed. “It’s like I can’t kick it. No matter how many breaks I take, I always go back to it. This time though, we made it stick.”

For Fuzzy, music is still a side hustle, but he says he puts almost full time work into his music these days. “We’ve got a special group of people together for this band,” he exclaimed. “I haven’t worked with a finer group of people.”

“One of the things I like about Americana is that you can bounce from folk, to country, to rock, and it’s okay,” he said.

The Grassifieds Jim Grubbs grew up on a small family farm in Alabama where he loved to listen to his dad and brother play guitar. Jim says he actually has a treasured photograph of his dad from taken in 1946, holding a guitar when he was just a young man. “He played that guitar all my life, and all of his life. He just passed away last summer at 92,” Jim said. “So I was always around it. When I was really small, he and my brother would pick guitars, and my dad would sing. They would put me on the spoons. I did learn some rhythm from that,” he laughed.

“When my brother moved away, I sort of inherited a guitar,” Jim said. “My dad taught me, “Wildwood Flower,” and “The Steel Guitar Rag.” From that point on I took over, and learned all I could learn for the next 30 years.”

The Little Wretches Robert Wagner’s music roots run back a few years. He says he was part of what would be considered the first wave of punk rock in Pittsburg, PA. “I’ve lived in the Philly area since 2009, but I still bleed black and gold,” he laughed. “The first wave of punk music didn’t really hit Pittsburg until 1978 or 1979 – I was 18 or 19 at the time – and part of the little punk scene which mainly revolved around college students. That era of music gave people like me, who always dreamed of playing in a band but didn’t think it was feasible, or know how to get started – punk rock made that possible,” he recalled.

Robert recalls having the songwriting spirit in his heart even before he was in a real band. “My older cousin said The Beatles were the best musicians because they wrote their own songs, so he and I built guitars from scraps of plywood, two-by-fours, nails and rubber bands and started writing our own songs,” Robert said. “Even before I was dreaming about being in a band, I was writing. I was writing poetry and character sketches and things like that,” he said.

“Deep down in my heart I was writing song lyrics.”

Fuzzy & The Rustbelts were born from a place where lyrics and music form an all American experience. Stories take center stage and transport listeners to another place. They have created a sound that appeals to a wide audience, with a sound that Fuzzy says, “chugs along like a freight train and lifts you up, offering hope and a chance to begin again.”

Over time, family and work life became a priority and music took a back seat; however, a 2006 tonsillectomy gave Jim some extra down time on his hands. Always fascinated by the use of mandolin in certain country groups, Jim picked it up during his recovery. It helped take his mind off the bouts of pain between pain medications. Four weeks later, he was playing efficient enough to invite some music friends over for a jam session.

In 2018, the band was a top two finalist in the Buffalo Country Radio 106.5 WYRK Taste of Country Hometown Riser Competition. In late 2019, they debuted their first music video and had it featured on DittyTV. In December 2019 they won Buffalo Country Radio 106.5 WYRK’s 2019 - 2020 Taste of Country Hometown Riser Competition.

Brothers Greg and Joel Barnett joined him on guitar and banjo for the first of what became a weekly picking party filled with traditional bluegrass. Six months later, with the addition of a couple of talented friends on bass and vocals, The Grassifieds opened for beach music icons The Embers in a “mountainsto-sea” concert at the Ft. Hamby Amphitheater in Wilkesboro, NC.

Presently, the band has three new singles that were released this fall; “Go For A Ride,” “Long Lost Wind.” The song “Perfect” comes out on December 4th. In February 2021, all three will be released as an EP, with the intention to release a few music videos in the spring of 2021.

Surprisingly, as popular as The Grassifieds became, they never released a CD. Finally, the circumstances of 2020 afforded them the time to record and release their debut CD as a band. What We Are, features a few originals, along with several covers, including a few honoring the classic 50s group know as The Church Brothers.

Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped him from writing songs and making music. His latest project from his band The Little Wretches, Undesirables And Anarchists, goes from edgy folk to almost fringe punk with a unique, softer Americana tint over the lot. “I’m a writer, first and foremost,” Robert said. “And if the music is too loud, the listener is going to miss most of what you intend your lyrics to say. So you have to find a way to get your voice across to the listener – and one of the ways to do that is to turn the guitars down.”

To find out more, visit www.fuzzyandtherustbelts.com

To find out more, visit www.thegrassifieds.com

To find out more, visit www.littlewretches.com

www.AmericanaRhythm.com

Robert continued to play music, and along the way cultivate a work life when necessary. He said he feels like that if you don’t consider your music full time, you’re not really serious about it. He’s been in an indie band and chased opportunities for success including potential record label deals, but there always seemed to be something getting in the way.

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January 2021

Music From The National Scene

Music From Your Neighbors

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elcome to the last edition of SPINS for 2020.

Whew! We made it!

Here’s to 2021 being better for all of us! Artists are still making music, and we’re still here to tell you about it! So check these out! Please tell ‘em we sent you. Support your favorite musician so they can keep making the music.

Many of these fine folks also have a live stream feed.

Got one you want us to consider? send it to: Uncle Woody The Spin Doctor PO Box 45 Bridgewater, VA 22812

Becky Buller

Flashback

Distance And Time www.beckybuller.com Songwriter band leader, fiddler, and vocalist; Becky Buller has earned seven IBMA awards in the last four years - most recently 2020’s Song of the Year for “Chicago Barn Dance.” Her latest will surely gain equal praise

Blues Around My Cabin

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Adam Hurt

Jim Ratts and Runaway Express

www.fbband.com

Back To The Earth

Flashback is one of those industry supergroups that’s stood the test of time, even with numerous line-up changes. Featured on the latest; Stuart Wyrick, Don Rigsby, Curt Chapman, and Richard Bennett

Small Towns www.runawayexpress.com This pet project has been simmering in Jim Ratts home studio since 1998. We’re glad he finally brought it out to share!

As a musical storyteller, this set is snuggled in, as it’s title suggests, a small town feel

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www.adamhurt.com

Purely instrumental - Adam delightfully shares his skills on the gourd banjo on this sophomore project, Back To Earth.

Deemed a “banjo virtuoso” by the Washington Post, Adam invites other noted musicians including Ricky Skaggs

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Mick Hayes

Tara Dente

Margie Singleton

Truth In The Mind

Never Mind

www.justinmoses.com

My Claim To Fame www.movetheneedlemusic.com

www.taradente.com

www.margiesingletonmusic.com

Hot on the heals of his 2020 IBMA Resophonic Guitar Player of the Year award, Justin Moses releases his latest collection. It’s a testament to his diverse talents as he takes on the mixing , production, and engineering tasks for this record

Recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Mick Hayes latest album, My Claim To Fame, has that unmistakable, distinctive sound rooted all the way through. Using as much vintage equipment as possible, Mick said, “I just had to get out of the way”

Tara got her professional start in 2012. She was nominated for the Asbury Music Award in 2014, and Top Female Acoustic Act in 2016. For her third CD, Truth In The Wind, Tara draws deeper within to connect with dreams, tenderness, passion, and bravery

Fans of classic country music will perhaps know Margie Singleton - she charted a dozen songs in the 60s and 70s including duets with George Jones and Faron Young. At 85, she sounds like a woman half her age. Never Mind is well worth a listen

Are You Ready? www.dannybrooksmusic.com Texas based, Blues and Memphis style R&B artist Danny Brooks has been in the music business since the early 70s. His latest, blusey, Are You Ready, sees him pairing with new friend and vocalist Lil Miss Debi

Antonio Andrade Lucky In Love

Justin Moses Fall Like Rain

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Danny Brooks & Lil Miss Debi

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Ben Reel

Jim Stanard

The Nashville Calling

Color Outside The Lines

Wes Corbett Cascade

Maple Run Band Maple Run Band

www.benreel.com

www.jimstanardmusic.com

www.wescorbett.com

www.maplerunband.com

www.lifeshakes.com

This is the debut album forthe Alt. Country / Folk Rock Maple Run Band. Their signature sound is led by the vocal harmonies of Trevor Crist (guitar) and Nicole Valcour (drums). We think you’ll enjoy this feel good set of music

Lucky In Love is Antonio Andrade’s 6th CD project; his 3rd since 2014 when he retired from full time work. This is Antonio’s interpretation of music greats such as Gregg Allman, Tom Waits, and Karla Bonoff. It’s a spirited brand of rocking folk music

The Nashville Calling is the lastest release from Irish roots rocker Ben Reel. This project was laid down complete in three days, all live takes. It’s Ben’s ninth album in 20 years as a professional musician. Fan of Celtic/ Americana? You’ll dig this

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Color Outside The Lines is Jim Stanard’s sophomore follow up to his acclaimed debute release, Bucket List. Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and his daughter, Bethany lend their voices to this solid Americana / Folk collection. Great Job Jim

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Wes picked up a banjo as a teenager, growing up to be a key player in Boston’s vibrant music scene as an instructor at the Berklee College of Music. Cascade features a decade’s worth of Wes’s original music, with the help of producer, Chris Eldridge

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You can send new Americana CD releases for consideration to PO Box 45, Bridgewater, VA, 22812 / greg@americanarhythm.com

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www.AmericanaRhythm.com

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January 2021

By Greg Tutwiler

The World Will Break Your Heart Jersey City, NJ’s Gary Van Miert says he has always had an interest in music, especially that point where blues, country and gospel music intersect. A fan of the Elvis Presley, Ernest Tubbs era of music that came out of Sun Studios in Memphis in the 1950’s, Gary said, “they captured lightning in a bottle and changed the world.”

The playing of music for Gary was mostly a hobby until his early 50s when he decided to start pursuing his passion professionally. His offering now comes to us as the band, The Sensational Country Blues Wonders, and their first album of original material, The World Will Break Your Heart,” heads your way on November 13, 2020.

“This was something I always thought I’d like to do when I retired,” Gary told us. “There was this amazing art and music scene going on in Jersey City and Hoboken New Jersey, so I just decided I wasn’t going to wait any longer.”

Gary discovered a lot of the great blues and country singers through listening to Elvis’ cover songs. “I’m a

big Carl Perkins fan too,” he said.

“When I was five years old I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, that’s what got me started.” As he got older and interest grew, he started tracing the music to its origins. “I realized that the Beatles had recorded three Carl Perkins songs. And Carl had been influenced by Hank Williams, so I went out and bought Hank’s records – so that’s how the process came about.”

Gary and his band made a name for themselves by donning the period clothing and performing sets of those classic tunes. He’s become a local cult figure in his area of the country where he honed his skills playing nightclubs in New Jersey, Manhattan, Brooklyn and the like. They’ve played all types of venues too, including cemeteries, lumberyards, mansions, and even a department store. Along the way, they’ve opened for nationally known artists such as Marshall Crenshaw, Evan Dando, and The Smithereens.

www.AmericanaRhythm.com

The World Will Break Your Heart is Gary’s first album of original songs.

“I have my own unique interpretation of American roots music,” he said.

“Classic country music from the 50s and 60s, down-home spiritual songs from the golden age of gospel, and time-honored blues numbers that go back to the greats hailing from Mississippi and Chicago. I combine all these elements to create a unique musical experience.”

“I attempted to write my own songs when I was younger and they weren’t very good,” Gary said. “I think what’s working for me now is life experience and a greater understanding of music.

With age, I’ve broadened my horizons and developed an appreciation for many different genres of music. If the songs I’ve written are any good, it’s because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Gary also hosts his own broadcast program created for his local library.

He gets to talk about the history of this music he loves, and then demonstrate the songs in a half hour, weekly show.

Check out Gary’s music at www.GaryVanMiert.com

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