INsite Atlanta August 2020 Issue

AUGUST 2020

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VOL. 29, NO. 1 FREE

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Record Store Day Jefferson Starship Eliot Bronson

$5 COSTUME SALE! 100’s of Costumes for $5 through August

CONTENTS • AUGUST 2020 • VOLUME 29, NO. 1

28 R AT I N G CELEB

YEARS!

Atlanta’s

Entertainment Monthly

INTERVIEWS 09 Jefferson Starship 10 Eliot Bronson 11 Styx 12 Jayhawks 13 Jesse Colin Young

Cool Clothes • Cool People • Little 5 Points 428 Moreland Ave NE Atlanta (Next to Vortex) 404-523-0100 • Open 10am – 10pm(ish)

09

10

FEATURES 05 Record Store Day 07 ATL’s Best Tapas 08 2020 Releases

COLUMNS

11

03 Atlanta on a Dime 06 Movie Reviews 08 Station Streaming 14 Albums 13

insiteatlanta.com STAFF LISTING Publisher Steve Miller steve@insiteatlanta.com Art Director / Web Design Nick Tipton nick@insiteatlanta.com Managing Editor Lee Valentine Smith lee@insiteatlanta.com Local Events Editor Marci Miller marci@insiteatlanta.com Movie Editor Steve Warren s.warren@insiteatlanta.com Music Editor John Moore john@insiteatlanta.com

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Contributing Writers / Interns: Alex. S. Morrison, Dave Cohen, Benjamin Carr, Demarco Williams Advertising Sales Steve Miller (404) 308-5119 • ads@insiteatlanta.com MAILING ADDRESS P.O. Box 76483 Atlanta, GA 30358 WEBSITE • insiteatlanta.com Editorial content of INsite is the opinion of each writer and is not necessarily the opinion of INsite, its staff, or its advertisers. INsite does not knowingly accept false or misleading advertising or editorial content, nor do the publisher or editors of INsite assume responsibility should such advertising or editorial appear. No content, i.e., articles, graphics, designs and information (any and all) in this to publication may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from publisher.

AUGUST 2020

S! TING 28 YEAR CELEBRA

VOL. 29, NO. 1 FREE

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SC HO OL

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Please see our Tapas Guide on page 7!

PG 2 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

INSITEATLANTA.COM

Record Store Day Jefferson Starship Eliot Bronson

EVENTS HAPPENING FOR SMALL CHANGE IN ATLANTA

Know of a low cost event happening? Event@AtlantaOnADime.com

By Marci Miller

2020/21 Season Announced

ALLIANCE THEATRE

1280 Peachtree St. NE AllianceTheatre.org 404.733.4650 is season, the Alliance is reimagining how to gather, where to take the stage, and how a story comes to life. From drive-in movie style productions to socially-distanced shows on the Coca-Cola Stage and even a brand-new streaming platform, they are making meaningful, fun, and creative changes. e season will begin in November with the world premiere, A Very Terry Christmas, a delightful one-woman holiday cabaret featuring Broadway star Terry Burrell. e Alliance will then present a reimagined drive-in version of its annual production A Christmas Carol, staged for the first time as a live radio play.

In February 2021 the Alliance will produce a new staging of e New Black Play Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments. Produced in collaboration with Spelman College, HANDS UP depicts the realities of Black America from the perspective of varying genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

In April 2021 comes the world premiere musical Accidental Heroes – e Real Life Adventures of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Featuring a book by Academy Award winner Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Jersey Boys), an original score by Academy and Grammy Award winner T Bone Burnett and direction by two-time Tony Award winner Des McAnuff. Visit Alliancetheatre.org.

Friday, August 14

FERNBANK MUSEUM

767 Clifton Rd. 404.929.6300 Fernbankmuseum.org Who says you have to grow up? On August 14, Fernbank’s popular adults-only program, Fernbank After Dark, returns.

Offered the 2nd Friday of each month, Fernbank After Dark is back with a variety of unique and physically distanced afterhours experiences for grown-ups, including outdoor explorations in WildWoods, museum exhibits, live music, bars, tapas menus, and special, themed science programs. Exclusively for ages 21+, Fernbank After Dark is a safe and ideal event for date night, a safe way to enjoy a night out with friends, or a special experience for first-

time visitors. Each month’s theme is centered around a different area of science, with tailored and unique programming that is interactive and fun. Get tickets at FernbankMuseum.org/AfterDark.

Through Sunday, August 16

HIGH MUSEUM OF ART

1280 Peachtree St.Woodruff Arts Centre 404.733.4400; High.org Artist and master craftsman Joseph Tetteh-Ashong (Ghanaian, born 1947), also known as Paa Joe, is the most celebrated figurative coffin maker of his generation. is exhibition comprises a series of largescale, painted wood sculptures that represent architectural models of Gold Coast castles and forts, which served as way stations for more than six million Africans sold into slavery and sent to the Americas and the Caribbean. is marks the first time that these works will be shown in the southeast. Reserve tickets at High.org.

Exhibit runs through November 1

ALICE'S WONDERLAND REIMAGINED Atlanta Botanical Gardens Atlantabg.org 404.876.5859

Alice’s Wonderland is back at the Garden this summer, bigger and better than ever.

Venture down the rabbit hole with breathtaking new sculptures of the Red Queen and Alice herself. e exhibit features many of the enormous topiary-like sculptures from last year’s Imaginary Worlds: Alice’s Wonderland along with several new sculptures. In addition to the towering White Rabbit, sprawling chess board and heart “trees,” and Cheshire Cat perched nearby, look for a 16-foot Red Queen and an all-new 14-foot Alice rotating in the Howell Fountain pool as she plummets down the “rabbit hole.” e Garden is open Tuesday - Sunday, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. All guests must have timed tickets or member reservations. Masks are required.

FERNBANK AFTER DARK

August 14 Fernbank Museum FernbankMuseum.org

RECEIVE UPDATED EVENTS WEEKLY. SIGN UP BY EMAILING SUBSCRIPTIONS@ATLANTAONADIME.COM ENTER ON THE SUBJECT LINE: SIGN ME UP INSITE!

SAY HELLO TO SUMMER

WE’RE OPEN

Atlanta’s favorite adult science night, Fernbank After Dark, returns Friday, August 14 and continues the 2nd Friday of each month. Info at FernbankMuseum.org/After Dark.

A WORLD OF WOW Buy tickets at FernbankMuseum.org

Atlanta’s Science and Nature Experience insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 3

CONTINUING ED

OGLETHORPE UNIVERSITY

Offering a Brand New Certificate in Business Analytics

B

EGINNING IN FALL OF 2020, Oglethorpe’s Hammack School of Business will offer a Certificate in Business Analytics available to all enrolled undergraduate students, plus an online, fast-track version designed for working professionals.

Data analytics has become central to organizational decision-making. Companies, not-for-profit organizations and even government agencies use Big Data to identify both weaknesses and opportunities. “While data scientists are likely to be the primary drivers of the collection and analysis, all managers in all areas of the business and in all levels will need to understand the fundamentals,” says Dr. Lynn Guhde, who guided the development of the new program.

Experts who successfully deploy Big Data are in high demand. With the new certificate program, Oglethorpe students can now hone their skills in data analytics and earn a resume-boosting credential in this fast-growing field. And they’ll benefit, says Dr. Guhde, by becoming more competitive candidates for both desirable internships and career-launching jobs.

To earn the certificate, students will complete three courses: Business Analytics, Advanced Business Analytics, and Data Visualization. The first, taught by Dr. Guhde and Dr. Frank Pampush, covers the fundamentals of turning data into actionable intelligence—formulating a hypothesis, gathering data, analyzing the data, and

most importantly, making effective use of Microsoft Excel, on which nearly every business relies. The Advanced Business Analytics Course, taught by Dr. Pampush, provides the foundations of quantitative analysis, including developing a work flow, working with advanced software and wrangling the data into usable forms. The final course, Data Visualization, taught by Dr. Carrie Mata, teaches students to draw on both art and science to transform data into well-designed and easy-to-follow visualizations.

While the certificate is offered through the Hammack School of Business, any Oglethorpe student can benefit— business major or not. “From sociology, communications, politics, STEM and English, being able to interpret data or at the very least understand the reports that flow from data analysis will make all employees better equipped to make effective decisions and contribute to the success of the business,” says Dr. Guhde.

For similar reasons, the fast-track certificate program offers a game-changing career boost for adult learners in a huge variety of professions. Whether someone is interested in switching careers or advancing more rapidly in their current one, developing expertise in this critical skill can turn those aspirations into reality.

The fast-track program offers even more benefits to adult learners. It’s offered 100% online, so it’s accessible to working

Business analytics helps companies apply big data to everyday decisions, becoming more productive and more profitable. Experts are in high demand.

Now, you can join them!

In just 12 weeks, you can boost your resume, bring even more value to your organization, and put the power of big data to work for you.

BIG DATA:

THE COMPETITIVE EDGE TO ENHANCE YOUR CAREER • 100% online • Three 4-week courses • One flat discounted rate • Designed for working professionals like you

• Learn how to ask the right questions and explore the data • Make the most of Microsoft Excel’s data-wrangling features • Master the fundamentals of business statistics • Get to know essential software and programming tools • Create compelling data visualizations

DR. LYNN GUHDE, Mack A. Rikard Chair of Business & Economics

Oglethorpe University, Hammack School of Business; (800) 428-4484 • https://hsb. oglethorpe.edu/

COMING NEXT MONTH!

Oglethorpe University’s Fast-Track Certificate in Business Analytics:

You’ll learn everything you need to get started with Big Data:

professionals no matter where they are.

The full program is available at one flat, discounted fee. (Oglethorpe alumni receive an additional 20 percent discount!)

Graduates will earn 12 undergraduate course credits, which can also count toward a degree. And the three consecutive courses take just 12 weeks to complete.

While fast-track participants might be a thousand miles away from Oglethorpe’s campus, they’ll still experience the studentcentered mindset that makes an Oglethorpe education one-of-a-kind. “Whether we teach face-to-face or online, we connect with our students in a unique way, allowing our students to become engaged in the course and maximize learning,” says Dr. Guhde. “Even our online courses will be small classes, fewer than 20, allowing faculty and students to connect in ways not possible in classes of 100 or more.”

Students will remain engaged with their cohort for the duration of the 12-week program, making valuable friendships and connections in the field. The fast-track program begins September 8.

Ask your employer about opportunities for tuition assistance!

Fall festivalS Space: August 31 • Street: September 4

APPLY NOW: apply.oglethorpe.edu/apply PRIORITY DEADLINE: August 15 LEARN MORE: hsb.oglethorpe.edu

PG 4 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

CELEB 4484 Peachtree Rd, NE Atlanta, GA 30319

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28 YEARS!

Call Steve for Advertising (404) 308-5119

MUSIC

THE NEW FACE OF RECORD STORE DAY

Even with Masks, It’s All About the Music

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

R

ECORD STORE DAY WAS conceived in 2007 as a way for independent record store owners and employees to celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding individually owned record stores in the US and abroad. The first official Record Store Day actually took place on April 19, 2008. The events because almost carnival-type observances, often with live music, food, and plenty of social interaction.

But for RSD 2020, things are a little different.

The festivities are a little more subdued and social distancing and masks are encouraged and expected. But the show will go on. Spaced out into three separate months - August 29, September 26 and October 24 - the emphasis will be on finding the titles more than hanging out.

Locally, a number of the city’s best indie retailers are joining in the festivities including the two locations of Atlanta’s CD Warehouse. The owners are readying their stores for the newly subdued pilgrimage of music lovers. Overnight camping, once a staple of the event is discouraged but the stores will have plenty of stock on hand when the doors open. The 600 or so RSD releases are evenly divided across the three separate events. Previews of the diverse slate of offerings is available at www. recordstoreday.com.

INsite spoke with owner David Kirk at the Duluth CD Warehouse as he finalized his orders and plans for the event.

Tell us a little about the history of CD Warehouse.

CD Warehouse started out of Oklahoma and back in the ‘90s grew to over 300 stores worldwide. We opened our first store in Atlanta in ’94 and we now operate two metro locations, in Gwinnett and Cobb County.

Initially it was a dedicated CD store.

Yeah, back in the day it was all CDs. Used CDs were flying out of here. Everybody wanted to convert their collections over to disc. Then we got into DVDs and that morphed into Blu-Ray and then vinyl. Whatever format is out there selling, we’re here chasing.

The vinyl inclusion was a gradual process, right?

Yeah it began when vinyl started coming back. It never really went away but all artists weren’t doing vinyl releases. Some did, though. I think Pearl Jam kept going with vinyl. Then we started buying and selling it. Then vinyl really started coming back in popularity and that’s around the time when Record Store Day began.

The movement really revived interest in collectible records and promotional goodies, didn’t it?

It really did. It got people interested in all these new releases, many specifically tied to the Record Store Day promotion.

The Day has definite ties to the Atlanta music scene, too.

Yeah, Eric Levin down at Criminal Records in Little Five Points was one of the main guys in the formation of the event. It’s grown every year and the releases are just getting better and better. It has really brought a lot of attention to the small business who specialize in recorded music and entertainment. That’s good for us, because the market is continually changing. Stores are always rethinking their inventory. I think that actually

helps people find and support the indie stores even more than usual.

There’s a definite market for vinyl - obviously for hardcore collectors but now even pedestrian listeners are picking up on the trend.

Some people will always buy records because it’s just what they do. They collect. But it’s good to see younger people really getting into collecting vinyl, too. These deluxe packages are great for collectors and there’s also a trend for people to get in line and buy some of the limited-edition stuff.

How do you discourage reselling the items online?

We only sell one copy of any particular title to each customer. So they can’t come in and grab all the David Bowies, for example, and take them home to resell. Reselling the product is the direct opposite of what Record Store Day is all about, to me. It’s an in-the-moment thing - part impulse buy and part communal experience. It’s corol because you can look at the titles online, see pictures of the covers and the track listings and there’s often some special colored vinyl or inserts with each one. Glow-in-the-dark vinyl or multi-colored pressings to make each one unique.

There’s about 600 releases for the three Record Store Days combined and they’re all competing for everyone’s interest and that’s certainly good for the stores.

How do you select which titles you will have available in the store?

You can order as much as you want, but sometimes you might not get certain titles because some are so limited. A few of them are around 400 copies worldwide, so it just depends on what you get. We have a list and we’ll let the employees check off what seems interesting to them, then we have to estimate how many copies we need to order. We go by what customers are already asking for. That’s the great thing about having all the info online is that people start to get excited about some of them. With the limited amount of product available, it creates excitement on the morning of the events.

But this year is a little different.

Right, we are discouraging the overnight camping and we want everyone to practice the proper social distancing as the stand in line to get in. We’ll have a waiting line. One year the first person in line got here at 3:30 in the morning and we don’t even open until 10. I’ll usually come in by 8. We’ve had radio stations broadcasting on location here but this year, the idea is to just focus on the music. For this year’s Record Store Days, hopefully people will be talking to their friends online about which releases they want to get. But the comradery is still a part of it. People make friends based on the music they like.

Are you enforcing a policy on masks?

Yes, we are asking everyone to wear a mask and be considerate of the six-foot rule as well.

All the employees wear masks, too. I want it to be a fun but a safe environment for everyone.

Because of the safety factor, we are planning to allow only five customers in at a time. When someone leaves, then the next person can come in and shop. It’ll be a little different experience, but with the incredible titles available this year, I really think it’ll be worth the effort. This year is less about socializing and more about the music.

A little less of a party atmosphere but you’ll still find that really cool item for the collection.

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C E L E B R AT I N G

28 YEARS!

Check out our new website at insiteatlanta.com insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 5

MOVIES

Movie Reviews

BY STEVE WARREN

A

S THE PANDEMIC DRAGS ON, most movies are still only available through streaming. While release dates are constantly changing, we have included them along with known platforms in which they can be found. Most of the films reviewed will be available on DVD, some cable systems’ Video On Demand (VOD) menus, and some of the following: Amazon Prime, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes/Apple TV, Playstation Video, Vimeo, Vudu and Xbox/Microsoft Video.

RECENT RELEASES THE BIG UGLY (R)

 Who says there are no coincidences? Malcolm McDowell has his best film role in years and there are scenes where a bartender serves big glasses of milk spiked with – not drugs but alcohol, but to a Clockwork Orange fan it’s still Moloko-plus.

Ignore the first five minutes of The Big Ugly, which tries to be all moody and philosophical while giving us more exposition and introducing more characters than we can process. Trust me, it’ll make sense as it unfolds more gradually.

London crime boss Harris (McDowell) arrives in West Virginia (played by Kentucky because the tax incentives were better) to close a deal with environmentally-conscious oilman Preston (Ron Perlman), who can’t get financing from legal sources. Harris has money to launder and has done business with his friend Preston for 30 years. He brings along his enforcer, Neelyn (Vinnie Jones, doing some real acting after being best known as the muscle in Guy Ritchie’s films). The villain of the piece is Preston’s son Junior (Brandon Sklenar), who has to sleep with every pretty woman he sees, and there’s not much to choose from locally. After going through the ones who came with the Londoners he goes after bartender Kara (Leven Rambin), who happens to be seeing Junior’s best friend Will (Nicholas Braun), who is also Preston’s foreman. A death serves as the catalyst for some serious revenge drama. Writer-director Scott Wiper puts it all together in classic fashion in a film that might have been sadly overlooked under normal circumstances. Here’s hoping it does better now. If you want to drink to that, make mine Moloko plus.

RADIOACTIVE (PG-13) (Amazon Prime)

1/2 Some of you will see the title and anticipate an Imagine Dragons music video. Move along.

Nothing to see here. TCM fans who know what it’s about will expect a remake of 1943’s Madame Curie, which earned Greer Garson an Oscar nomination, perhaps spiced up a bit for

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY PG 6 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

modern tastes. The latter is closer to the truth, with Rosamund Pike acting up a storm in the leading role; but the sensibility is more Lifetime than TCM. On a relatively modest budget director Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis) crew has made a period film that spans several periods.

It begins during Marie Curie’s (Pike) last days in 1934, then flashes back to 1893, when as a young Polish immigrant she met Pierre Curie (Sam Riley), who would become her husband and collaborator. It’s clear that she’s the brains of the team, but when he’s offered the Nobel Prize in 1903 he has to fight to have her included. His acceptance speech suggests their work with radioactive elements could do more harm than good, reinforced by flashforwards to Hiroshima and Chernobyl. X-rays and cancer treatments show more positive outcomes. It’s an old movie trope that when a character coughs once, you know they’re going to die. Pierre coughs several times and makes it about to the middle of the film. Then Marie starts coughing. She says she has anemia and her exposure at work could be the cause of it. Still she raises their two daughters and wins a second Nobel Prize, all on her own.

Early on Marie is disparaged for being Polish and female, and she has to fight her way up each rung of the ladder. She’s justifiably bitter but her stubbornness and arrogance don’t make her a sympathetic heroine, except perhaps to the staunchest feminists. If it sounds like something you’ll like you probably will, but Radioactive and I didn’t have the right chemistry.

YES, GOD, YES (R)

 At an age when many teenagers are wondering when and to whom they will lose their virginity, some Catholics wonder if/when they will lose their virginity to themselves, because they’ve been taught masturbation is a mortal sin.

Filmed in Georgia, this “semi-autobiographical” feature debut from filmmaker Karen Maine, expanded from her short film, is the story of one 16-year-old Catholic girl, Alice (Natalia Dyer of Stranger Things), and her struggle against The Urge. Unlike most dramedies, the line between comedy and drama is not clear-cut here. I’ll wager young viewers who can relate to Alice will find it pretty dramatic, while the rest of us see a lot more humor in it. It’s set in the early 2000s, so the parents of today’s Alices will find it nostalgic. Although her Catholic school offers sex education – taught by a priest (Timothy Simons) who must inspire impure thoughts in some of the girls – Alice is exposed to a less judgmental view of the subject in an AOL chat room. Thoroughly confused, she goes on a fourday Kirkos retreat, where one surprise after another give her new ways of looking at life – through her own eyes. Dyer, with a heavy load to carry, makes you care for Alice. My biggest

RADIOACTIVE complaint about the movie is that the title should end in an exclamation point.

AUGUST 4 RED PENGUINS (PG-13)  Here’s one of those “You can’t make this stuff up!” documentaries. Don’t make the mistake of passing on it because you don’t like hockey. It’s about a hockey team but there’s almost no footage on the ice. It’s more like Dr. Strangelove than Slap Shot. Raised in Chicago as the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, writer-producer-director Gabe Polsky made another film about Russia’s Red Army hockey team in 2014. That was told from the players’ perspective and detailed how many of them defected to the U.S. and the NHL during the team’s glory days of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Packed with dry wit and a sense of irony, Red Penguins is essentially a sequel, focusing on the guys behind the scenes, about what happened to the team in the early ‘90s after the fall of the Soviet Union. With trade between our countries opening up, the Pittsburgh Penguins bought a half-interest in the Russian team. When they realized what a mess it was they hired marketer Steven Warshaw to bring back the crowds. He did so, with giveaways, a wacky mascot, a new logo, and strippers from the club under the arena entertaining at halftime.

Even Disney invested in the effort, seeing a potential plot for another Mighty Ducks movie, as well as a chance to promote their other projects. But the Russians were slicker than the ice in the rink, stealing money from the Americans in business as well as in the streets, where extortion and corruption were a way of life and “the mafia was the system.”

Russian “democracy” and “capitalism” were very different from America’s. Russian coaches and American businessmen give their versions of the story, but the way Polsky puts it together makes Red Penguins more entertaining than most recent fictional films.

AUGUST 7 THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY (R) 1/2 When I first saw the title I assumed The Burnt Orange Heresy was a political satire. Wrong.

But it does involve a public figure in his 70s who doesn’t realize he’s past his prime: Mick Jagger plays a major supporting role, and he’s fine in a rare straight acting appearance. Though not as good a con-job story as Parasite or The Good Liar, this one has its moments. It begins with art critic James Figueras (Danish actor Claes Bang, looking like he should be playing James Bond) lecturing a Milan audience about how easily they can be scammed. It’s our first warning that we shouldn’t believe anything we hear. James and Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki) hook up

but tell each other little about themselves that’s true. Soon they’re off to the Lake Como estate of art collector Joseph Cassidy (Jagger), who’s been sheltering reclusive artist Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland) since his home and studio burned down last year. Everyone has secrets and ulterior motives, and various revelations change our opinions of some characters (and theirs of each other) as we go along. Some of the surprises aren’t surprising enough but the story generally holds your interest; but as Cassidy says, “Never let a thing’s worth exceed its value.”

I don’t know how that ties in with this review, but it’s better than “An artist, an art critic and an art collector walk into a bar...,” which occurred to me because the movie gave me too much time to think

AUGUST 14 REBUILDING PARADISE (NR)  Is Ron Howard back in Mayberry? No, but the director has found an equivalent town for the setting of his new film. Unfortunately it took a tragedy to bring it to his attention. Not an Opie-oid epidemic, but “the deadliest fire in California history.” What became known as the “Campfire” began November 8, 2018, and wiped out the Northern California town of Paradise within hours, killing 85 and leaving 50,000 residents homeless. We see it in news reports and photos, some from the cell phones of people responding to a mandatory evacuation order. (If anyone said “I have a right to stay,” we don’t see it.) In mid-morning the sky was dark as night, despite the ring of flames surrounding the town and making escape difficult. The title aside, it takes some time to begin rebuilding; a lot of cleanup is needed first. People hunker down for months in tents, trailers, shelters and FEMA housing in towns several miles away; but they return to Paradise for celebrations like the lighting of a Christmas tree, a memorial to the lost, a lawsuit (featuring Erin Brockovich) against PG&E for starting the fire, and the graduation of the high school class of 2019. (I wonder how the class of 2020 celebrated.) Several recurring faces become familiar to us as the film progresses, helping us cityfolk understand how smalltowners can feel like they know everyone in town. There are, of course, a lot of tearjerking stories here. I was expecting a bit more inspiration about everyone pulling together, but at least they didn’t have time for political arguments. Some relocated but the folks we meet are waiting to return to their hometown, just as the majority of Mayberrians would do in a similar situation.

A final montage of other recent tragedies reminds us to take better care of this planet we’re living on.

See the rest of our movie reviews at insiteatlanta.com/movies.asp

In the Mood for . . . TAPAS!

Be st Of At lan ta

Popular Atlanta restaurants offering small plates Eclipse di Luna

764 Miami Circle 404.846.0449 4505 Ashford-Dunwoody 678.205.5862 eclipsediluna.com

Upon entering Eclipse di Luna you feel like you’ve been transported into an exotic locale.

The walls of their dining rooms at both locations can be opened up to allow for open air seating. Take in the festive, high-energy dining experience with an artsy setting as a backdrop. Both locations offer outdoor patios in addition to indoor dining.

With over two dozen tapas to choose from there is something to please any taste. Their cheese based tapas are great choice to start with. Try the Quesos Espanoles, a tasting of Spanish cheeses with assorted accompaniments. Eclipse di Luna features a variety of meat dishes like the Pollo a la Parilla, a chicken breast grilled and marinated with red pepper salad and avocado. On the beef side, The Brocheta de Bistee is a red wine marinated skirt steak skewered with chimichurri. There are also several seafood dishes to choose from including the Gambas al Ajillo which is sautéed shrimp & garlic with calabes pepper. Eclipse di Luna is a great choice for private parties and they offer a full service catering menu.

Agave Restaurant

242 Boulevard SE; Cabbagetown 404.588.0006 agaverestaurant.com

(20 01 -2 01 9)

NOW OPEN FOR DINE-IN!

We have taken measures to ensure your dining experience is safe and enjoyable as always.

See list of new guidelines websit on our website.

Agave blends eclectic southwestern cuisine, extensive tequila bar and wine list coupled with exceptional service to make this one of Atlanta's top restaurants.

They offer a wide arrange of small plates from calamari, southwestern shrimp & poblano spring rolls, smoked salmon tostadas and fan favorite Agave meatballs.

Agave restaurant is open for dine-in with responsible safety precautions implemented.

Among them include: staff to wear masks with their temperature taken daily; tables are spaced out and sanitized after each seating; no contact menus and disposable service ware used. Sign up for email alerts through their website for great dining deals & event info. Agave has two well vented, high ceiling dining rooms as well as covered patio.

Escorpion

800 Peachtree St. Midtown 678.666.5198 escorpionatl.com

This delightful Mexican restaurant from restaurateur Riccardo Ullio offers the same philosophy behind his successful Italian concepts – to offer guests authentic, indigenous flavors while incorporating the eclectic, modern vibe of Atlanta’s Midtown area.

Escorpion’s food and drink menus are rooted in indigenous flavors and culture. They offer a variety of tacos, each one unique and a classic. These include the Pastor (marinated pork, pineapple & caramelized onions); pan seared Baja Fish and Seta (poblano peppers and portobello mushrooms) as well as menu favorite - braised chicken Tinga.

Escorpion is also known for their tasty Antojitos (small street-inspired bites).

Escorpion’s fruitful drink menu features award-winning and nationally recognized craft cocktails and flights of tequila and mescal to enjoy while basking on the dark oak-wood patio that overlooks Atlanta’s beloved Peachtree Street.

Dining room is open while following strict CDC Guidelines with plenty of room to spread out on their outdoor patio. Now offering family-sized and pan portions for pickup or delivery.

Mediterranean Grill

N. Decatur Plaza 404.320.0101 Midtown 404.917.1100 East Cobb 678.996.0045 Athens 706.543.5000 mediterraneangrill.com

Mediterranean Grill has consistently been voted "Best Mediterranean" in Atlanta and is the place to go for authentic Mediterranean food.

They serve popular regional dishes like gyros, falafel, Greek salad, kabob and lamb shank.

You will find great Mediterranean tapas on the menu too. Start with one of their artfully prepared appetizers like Hummus, Baba Ganouj, Tabouleh Salad, Calamari or homemade Spanakopita.

Mediterranean Grill is currently offering carry-out and delivery and is also popular for catering. Their menu can be found online or by calling any of their four locations.

Loca Luna

550-C Amsterdam Ave. 404.875.4494 loca-luna.com

Loca Luna on Amsterdam Ave. directly on the East side of Piedmont Park, offers

VOTED BEST IN ATLANTA!

N. Decatur Plaza • 404.320.0101 Corner of N. Decatur & Clairmont

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CARRYOUT ORDER ONLINE! HOURS FOR STORES: Mon–Sat: 11am–9:30pm Sun: 11am–9pm www. mediterraneangrill .com

Authentic Middle Eastern and Greek Cuisine Cooked Fresh to Order • Call Ahead for Large Orders Midtown a refreshing alternative to conventional nightlife with an eclectic mix of tapas and cocktails complimented by award-winning live musicians. Whether you come for salsa lessons or Latin bands and first-rate DJs on the weekend, Loca Luna gives you something to look forward to any night of the week. The restaurant offers a spacious main dining room, ample bar/lounge area, tropical outdoor patio with Midtown skyline view.

Enjoy a wide range of tapas including Snapchat worthy selections like: Spanish Style Ribs, Pao de Queijo, Emapanda de Carne and Ceviche De Camarones.

Atlanta's Best Happy Hour is back on Thursdays and Fridays featuring half-off tapas & cocktails 4-6pm. Enjoy live Latin band afterwards. Come for Brunch on Saturday and Sunday with bottomless Mimosas and Sangrias all day long. They feature live Latin music every night on their large dance floor and the hottest DJ's spin late night on Fridays and Saturdays. There is plenty of free parking and free valet available.

Private party bookings are available for those large and small. insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 7

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SHOWS ADAPTED FROM BOOKS DON’T MISS THESE! The Boys Love Life

Looking Into the Mailbag & Find Four Albums Worthy of Attention

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

I

N THE CHAOS OF TODAY’S scattered world, it’s often easy to overlook a few new movies, books and records.

Hey, we know you’ve had other things on your mind the past few months. But a quick look at the incoming albums on our CD review pile can often reveal a few special treats. Here is a quick preview of three albums from past few months and a tantalizing peek at of one of August’s best new releases.

Marshall Chapman

Songs I Can’t Live Without

BY BENJAMIN CARR

B

OOKS CAN PROVIDE US WITH A variety of inspiration, helping us escape from the isolated lives we’ve led lately. And even when we don’t discover the stories on the page ourselves, some networks have created new, diverse programs from titles off the shelf.

The power of a good adaptation can expand the original work to include new subplots, reimagined characters and even give a story more life past its original last chapter.

From recent programs like Little Fires Everywhere to Brave New World, networks and streaming services draw much of their content from recent and classic works from a variety of genres.

PERRY MASON (HBO)

This is not your father’s Perry Mason. This is not your grandfather’s Perry Mason either.

But, damn, this mystery works.

Taking inspiration from the novels by Erle Stanley Gardner but branching into a new origin for the murder-solving lawyer, the HBO series stars Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk, Tatiana Maslany and John Lithgow.

At the beginning of the series, Mason isn’t even a lawyer yet. He’s a washed-up investigator at another lawyer’s behest. The case that kicks off the season is a creepy, violent baby kidnapping gone horribly wrong.

Soon, an innocent woman is accused of the crime.

Visually, the show is stunning. The cast, particularly Rhys, Rylance and Maslany, are superb. The direction is solid. Its design is beautiful. And the reimagining of the show’s characters as a more diverse, haunted group

of people is inspired.

This is must-see.

SWEET MAGNOLIAS (Netflix)

This feel good show, based upon the warm, cozy novels by Sherryl Woods, centers on three South Carolina women, lifelong friends who want to open a spa in a historic home in their hometown. Played by JoAnna Garcia Swisher (Reba), Brooke Elliott (Drop Dead Diva) and Tony winner Heather Headley, the characters are all warm, good Christian women who rise above gossip and scandal every episode to raise their families with love.

This show is so wholesome and cheesy that it feels more like a Hallmark or Lifetime project than something on Netflix. And the town itself is depicted as a cheesy, idyllic place where very little goes horribly wrong.

But Sweet Magnolias’ talented cast compels you to keep binging, even as your eyes roll at the inherent corniness.

It’s better than 7th Heaven and Fuller House.

NORMAL PEOPLE (Hulu)

Sally Rooney’s Irish romantic drama, based on her book, examines a single relationship between two kids as they evolve over a decade, exploring their sexuality and education in a world that seems certain to rip them apart.

It’s excellent stuff. New actor Paul Mescal delivers one of the year’s best performances, while also exuding tremendous sex appeal.

Daisy Edgar-Jones matches with him at every step. Their chemistry is combustible.

Most importantly, this show is about a lot of things, not just a love story. It deals with abuse, emotional trauma, sex, relationships, class disputes and maturity. This is also one of the year’s best.

Sweet Magnolias

PG 8 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

(Tallgirl Records) South Carolinaborn Chapman is known for keen observations and wry sense of humor on her own compositions, but she puts those aside on her latest release. In her able hands, a batch of her favorite songs becomes the sepia-toned soundtrack to a well-lived life. She didn’t go the obscure route for the collection, offering finely-honed renditions to a number of favorites from the great North American songbook. Stylistically, it’s like a playlist on shuffle with songs representing memories from New York, Tennessee, Detroit, Oklahoma and Canada. In lesser company, the selection could be rendered tedious due to the over-familiarity of the material. That’s not the case with Songs I Can’t Live Without.

Even album-opener “Tower Of Song” has never sounded more contemporary. Chapman shares Leonard Cohen’s love of quirky detail and her delivery brings the familiar story to life for a rendition that almost best’s the composer’s version. Likewise Bob Seger’s gritty road ode “Turn the Page” is a country mile ahead of the classic rock radio staple.

“Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” is stripped of the Phil Spector sheen and plays with astounding vulnerability. Tunes by Johnny Cash, Chet Baker, J.J. Cale, Bobby Charles and even Elvis Presley round out the wildly varied assortment of raw life stories.

For the finale, Chapman takes it all back home with a rousing and surprisingly timely rendition of the old gospel chestnut. “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands.”

Carla Olson

Have Harmony Will Travel 2

(Sunset Boulevard Records) Even if you think you know everything about modern music history, it’s a safe bet that Carla Olson would know a lot more. Not only does she know her roots, she knows the creators of those roots and has played with some of the most legendary masters of rock, pop and country. On the sequel to her previous memory bank of songs, Olson looks back at some of music that helped shape her enduring love of new wave and jangle-pop.

Each track features a different duet partner

and the roster reads like a who’s who of pop music history. Peter Case, James Intveld, John York (Byrds) and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield) are a few of the special guests.

The disc opens strong with a yearning take on Radney Foster’s “You Can Come Cryin’ To Me,” with a wonderful cameo by Juice Newton. Some of the finest songwriters are well-represented, with great selections from P.F. Sloan, Buddy Holly, Del Shannon, Gene Clark and Little Steven. Shannon’s galloping “Keep Searching,” heard here with her old friend Peter Case is one of the many highlights.

Bill Kirchen

The Proper Years

(Last Record Company) Among guitar aficionados, Bill Kirchen is a grand old sage of the Telecaster. He’s been burning up the fretboard since the late ‘60s, but his new collection looks back on a fairly recent swath of his career. In 2006, the former Commander Cody picker released a trio of underappreciated albums on the Proper Records label. Selections from Kirchen’s 2006 Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods album spiral effortlessly into tracks from the 2010 follow-up Word to the Wise, 2013’s Seeds and Stems. Combining the best of the now out of print albums on a big two-record package could be a confusing challenge for some artists but the resulting set plays like one long boozy night in a cozy little rock joint. Guests include his former tourmate Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello and a number of other luminaries from the nowdefunct label. Fans of wild Texas-style rock and roll shouldn’t miss this one.

Dan Penn

Living On Mercy

(Last Record Company) Penn is another one of those legendary songwriters, quick-witted and observational with a decidedly southern tilt. As he approaches 80, the Muscle Shoals soul burns brightly on his latest album. He’s best-known for undisputed classics such as “I’m Your Puppet,” “Cry Like a Baby,” and “The Dark End of the Street.” At this stage in his career, he could simply rerecord the hit but for his first new CD in over a quarter of a century, Penn is in a bit of a somber and reflective mood for 13 incredible new compositions. He includes a number of ruminations on love, but the album highlight is the intimate tale of a humble southern songwriter in “Down On Music Row.” But at Penn’s age, there’s no time to wallow in sadness and the fantastic title track harkens back to some his most clever soul stirrers.

It’s out this month and be sure to look for an in-depth interview with the soft-spoken troubadour in an upcoming INsite.

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“IT’S ABOUT TIME” FOR MOTHER OF THE SUN Jefferson Starship’s First Album in Twelve Years Embraces the Past

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

T

HE INTRICATE HISTORY OF Jefferson Starship reaches back into the catalog and personnel of Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Jefferson Airplane and deep into the San Francisco-based folk movement of the early ‘60s.

The last time this writer tripped back into history with the band was in the summer of 2006 after a show at the Variety Playhouse.

Two years later, they’d have a new lead singer and their first album in a decade, the underappreciated Jefferson’s Tree of Liberty.

Fast forward to August 2020, four years after the death of founder-songwriter-guitaristvocalist Paul Kantner, Jefferson Starship has a new album and is chompin’ at the proverbial bit to play it live. Mother Of The Sun offers a plethora of nods to the band’s extensive past with new anthems of empowerment, cautionary tales, love songs and plenty of extended space excursion instrumentals to complete the brash release.

With lyrical contributions from vocalist Grace Slick and appearances from former bassist Pete Sears, the record has a number of self-referential moments. Guitarist Jude Gold contributes an electric version of the Airplane’s 1967 classic “Embryonic Journey.”

Anchored by multi-instrumentalist-vocalist David Freiberg (a vet of the Airplane, Starship and Quicksilver Messenger Service) with longtime members Donny Baldwin (drums) and Chris Smith (keys) the current line-up includes guitarist Gold and incendiary lead singer Cathy Richardson.

INsite caught up with Freiberg by phone from his home in Marin County, California.

The first single, “It’s About Time” debuted last month and now the new album is set for release. All during a pandemic.

Yeah, it’ll be out on August 21, on actual objects you can hold in your hand - even vinyl if you want it.

It’s a good addition to the catalog. How do you think the songs fit into the legacy of the band?

I DON’T REALLY KNOW HOW TO DESCRIBE IT. I THINK IT’S FUN AGAIN BECAUSE WE’RE JUST DOING WHAT WE DO BEST.

We’ve been including some of these songs into the set - way back when people used to play shows for audiences - but we do selections from the whole catalog anyway so to us it’s just a natural fit. The crew that was left when Paul passed away has continued on and that bunch of people seem like my family now. It feels so great to be in a band where everybody is finally right on the same page.

That’s very rare for any band, but especially for a group with as much history as you represent.

It took a while to find these pieces of the history. But Paul is still a big influence on us all, too. I can hear him right now actually.

The previous album, Jefferson’s Tree Of Liberty was from a strange era for music but now here we are again, during an even weirder time for culture in general.

This is pretty much the strangest time. But it’s all been pretty strange when you think about what was going on in the ‘60s. But there’s definitely plenty of material to sing about again. It’s just what we feel are the obvious things to talk about. You know, “It’s About Time” is basically about acknowledging that it’s about time to let the women take over.

Before your days with the Airplane and then Starship, you were an active participant in protest movements. Are you watching the current developments?

Oh, I’m right with ‘em! I would be with them in person, but at my age, they had to hold me back from going to Oakland for the Black Lives Matter demonstration. I felt like I should’ve been there.

That’s right, but the Youngbloods had the hit. But I learned it from [songwriter] Dino Valenti before we plugged in, back when we were folksingers.

Jefferson Starship was even a part of the Occupy movement a while back.

Yeah me, Cathy, Chris and Donny went down to Wall Street and just got up on a rock and sang “Volunteers.” Totally unannounced. I don’t know how many people even knew who we were. I think most of them were too young.

Dino was actually a conduit to the whole Quicksilver Messenger Service formation.

Yeah it was people who’d gotten together to be a band with him - but then he ended up in jail for the horrible crime of having marijuana in his possession. Eventually he came back and was part of it. He was a colorful character.

Definitely one of those bigger-than-life people.

Do you think there can ever be another classic call-to-arms song like “Volunteers” or “Get Together?”

The way we did it was more of a call-todance, but yeah I think so. We’ve got “It’s About Time” and the next single is probably “What Are We Waiting For?” Those are both politically aware songs.

I saw a clip not too long ago where you are doing “Dino’s Song” at some outdoor show.

Yeah, we used to get together as David Freiberg’s Quicksilver, sometimes with my wife Linda Imperial and her band and then with some of the Starship people - because everybody loves playing those tunes.

The album has a good mix of stuff - from the anthems to the cautionary tales which were always hallmarks of the Jefferson canon.

Yeah and we still go from the sort of rocking anthems to the love songs. So we have a couple of love songs on the record, too.

A love song can be as political as it gets sometimes.

(Laughs) Yeah! We just need to step back and go, ‘Hey baby, we’re all the same. Come on!’ Really, I think everybody wants the same things. But some people are trying to use you to get to what they want.

I want to ask you about “Get Together.” I know you were around that song before it became a hit.

Yeah, Jesse Colin Young just re-did it, didn’t he? We still do it. I love that song. Jefferson Airplane did it first, I think.

Right around 1966.

Now that [co-founder] Gary Duncan has passed, is that the end of Quicksilver Messenger Service or will you bring those songs back out again?

I don’t know when I’d have time to do it. But right now I have all this time and I can’t do anything! I guess I could just sit here and make tapes by myself. I mean… tapes? Who makes tapes anymore anyway?

I loved the Quicksilver performance at Monterey Pop, even though it’s not in the official movie.

Yeah, we signed a contract to be in the movie but somehow they managed to put it in the CD later. I noticed they didn’t have time to remix it. The vocals are missing from the beginning of it but it was the ‘60s, come on. But you know, to tell you the truth I’m glad we’ve got some good stuff going on now. I’ve loved being in this band as much as I’ve loved being in any other band. I’m having a great time and I wish we could go play right now.

I want to ask you about the period when you actually walked away from the Jefferson Starship for a while. You’d been a part of the “crew” since 1970, but what happened in ’85 that made you say, ‘Ok that’s enough?’

It was mutual. I wasn’t doing anything in it and it had turned into something that I wasn’t.

They were using a lot of outside writers and the producer at the time [keyboardist Peter Wolf, not the J. Geils Band singer] was doing most of it. That’s not what I do. So I went back to playing with Gary Duncan for a while and I met my wife. I got into computers and built a studio at home. I did a bunch of stuff for local people and just enjoyed finding my way around.

You left when the legacy of the brand was in a bit of critical crisis. Thankfully, you avoided “We Built This City” and most of that era.

Looking back, what’s your take on that oftenmaligned stuff?

People do come to see us expecting to hear those songs. They might not know it was Starship, not Jefferson Starship but the thing is, “We Built This City” is definitely not the worst song that’s ever been written. Now it’s kinda fun to play songs from that time. It’s almost like thumbing your nose at it in a way, but we do take it seriously.

Now that you’re back in it, you’re continuing the legacy with plenty of full circles and fresh approaches.

Well when I left it just wasn’t fun anymore.

But when I came back everyone was friendly - and we were having a good time celebrating the music that we wrote. I don’t really know how to describe it. I think it’s fun again because we’re just doing what we do best.

Mother Of The Sun will be available at most retail music outlets on August 21. Limitededition CD and vinyl bundles will be offered at jeffersonstarship.com. insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 9

MUSIC

“THIS IS WHAT I DO”

Former Atlantan Eliot Bronson Fills the Empty Spaces

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

new stuff for the next one.

E HAS THE AMERICANA SEAL of approval thanks to several collaborations with super-producer Dave Cobb, but Eliot Bronson is much more than a typical Nashville artist.

The former Atlanta resident transcends labels and genre-traps with his fifth solo album. Initially inspired by the break-up of a relationship, the intensely personal journey depicted on Empty Spaces is a voyage of selfdiscovery and unlimited possibilities.

Released last month, the record presents interconnected vignettes that detail decidedly serious subject matter, but in conversation the affable singer-songwriter doesn’t take himself too seriously. Fans regularly see his wacky side on the weekly “I Love Your Guts” show, streamed on his Facebook page.

In late July, Rolling Stone selected the album’s lead track, ‘Let Me Go” as one of their weekly recommended country music picks. Bronson can’t tour at the moment but he’s currently enjoying a solid wave of positive critical reviews and glowing notices from fans around the world.

INsite caught up with Bronson by phone from his home in the artistic district of East Nashville.

You’ve had two years to write and then live with the songs on Empty Spaces. Now it’s out in the world. How does it feel to not have a CD release show?

It’s kinda weird. No big show, no tour - but you’re right, it is out in the world. Right now, all I can do is look at my computer and get messages about it and read a few reviews.

H

Many artists are saying a pandemic could be the best time to release a record. What do you think?

People are looking for beauty and I think a good song will probably resonate more deeply right now than ever. Plus, we don’t know how long this thing is going to last.

If you hold on to something because you’re waiting for the right time, you might be waiting a lot longer than you’d hoped. If you have art to share, I believe you should go ahead and put it out.

Artists need to create - even if it’s only for an audience of one, right?

Absolutely. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning. With this album, I started writing this batch of songs two years ago. I spent the last six months mixing, manufacturing and then putting together the plan. At this point, the thought of sitting on it would probably crush me.

Like much of your work, there’s a lot of emotional content. But it’s heavy stuff with a healing attitude.

To heal you have to want to get better. You need to make that decision first - almost before you do anything else. Then you can create and be inspired by the process. So this record was about wanting to get better, to connect and feel whole again.

You aren’t afraid to call this a ‘breakup’ record?

No, because that’s exactly what it is. But those emotions can lend themselves to many types of stories. So it probably works with what everybody is going through right now.

I wrote the songs that I needed to hear at the time. Internally I was at different places with each one. I look at each track as if they’re sort of little signposts along the way. Since it was what I wanted to hear, it didn’t become a collection of songs of wallowing. I was trying to pull myself out of a ditch. Hopefully that saved it from being too much to sort out for the listener.

PG 10 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

We both know plenty of artists who tend to wallow too much.

I’ve definitely been there! But this time the songs weren’t going to let me do it. The music was asking me to sing and write melodies and create arrangements - and that doesn’t really lend itself to lying around and moping.

You relocated from Atlanta to Nashville during the writing process. Did the move help you heal?

It absolutely helped but not in the way I’d first anticipated. Lots of people move to Nashville and the place is full of great artists of all kinds. The best of everybody is here.

Logically, you’d think it would help your game - to really step it up around all these talented folks. You can go into any bar and see all these amazing musicians every day.

But I discovered that a lot of these people weren’t really getting noticed. I watched a round of really great people; they had it all down, even the look. But I noticed people were kind of ignoring them. It dawned on me that the reason the audience didn’t really care for them was that the artists didn’t care. They weren’t caring about what they were singing.

It wasn’t really important to them. It dawned on me really clearly that I should be making art that I personally cared about. If you actually care, then you don’t have to worry about trying to up your own game. I finally realized that I had to be more “me.” I knew I could do that!

Was this when you were working on a batch of co-writes?

Yeah, I was co-writing every day for a while.

At the end of the day, I’d have a song or two that I’d co-written with some incredible musician. The songs were good but I didn’t really care about them. So I’d come home and sit down and write a song by myself that was just for me. Those songs piled up and that became Empty Spaces. I knew I had to double-down on the truest version of myself or I would’ve completely given up. I knew I’d never be the best hotshot of any kind. I only wanted to be the best Eliot I could be.

What are you going to do with all those cowritten songs?

I was so focused on getting a publishing deal that I wasn’t being true to myself. I have a bunch of songs from that time that are pretty decent. Some of them are really good, actually. I can definitely see someone singing them sometime, but probably not me. It reminded me that I didn’t get into this thing to make a buck. There are much easier ways to make a living. If I’m just looking for a path to get to money, then I should get out right now. That’s not what made me start doing this in the first place. Splitting my energy in half wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I decided I should make my own music. Not something to try to sell to someone else.

Do you still do the occasional co-write?

Sometimes but lately I’ve been busy getting this album ready so I haven’t had much time to do any writing at all.

With co-writes it’s a real effort and time commitment because you have to schedule everything so far in advance. But since this record came out, I can already feel it - in a few weeks I’ll be right back to writing more

TO HEAL YOU HAVE TO WANT TO GET BETTER. YOU NEED TO MAKE THAT DECISION FIRST – ALMOST BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE.

But you do have a weekly show to fall back on.

Yeah, I kinda got on the live streaming thing early. I started in mid-March and I’ve done one every week since then. It’s the “I Love Your Guts” series and I’ve actually put a lot of work into it to make it fun. There are theme shows; I’ll bring out different material.

It’s very low-tech but we do it as if it’s a late-night television show. It’s mostly all me singing songs but there’s a lot of interaction.

I’ll make up songs on the fly and put ‘em out there. It’s funny, I’ve got a pretty loyal viewership and people contribute. I’ve been able to sort of get by, primarily from doing the weekly show. A lot of us did a few live streaming shows before all this happened, but not like it is now. It seems like everybody is doing one these days but I realized early on that if people were going to support it, I’d have to be good at it. I knew I’d kinda need to get over myself. You’ve got to really put yourself out there and be willing to have fun with it all. I’ve made up songs and immediately put them out in the world to live forever on the internet. So far, it’s been a blast.

You originally came to Atlanta from your home in Baltimore. What brought you to town?

I played an open mic at Eddies around ‘05 and I thought, ‘Oh this place is cool.’ Pretty soon, I had the Brilliant Inventions duo with Josh Lamkin. We got management and toured. We fought pretty hard there for five years or so. Then he got smart and quit and I’ve been solo ever since. But see, I didn’t have any other choice. This is what I do.

Empty Spaces is available via music retailers or directly from the artist at eliotbronson.com.

MUSIC

FIRST SOLO FLIGHT

Styx Drummer Todd Sucherman Takes Centerstage with His Solo Debut

hear the final mixes. I think it’s going to blow people’s heads off.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

A

T FIRST LISTEN, IT MIGHT BE easy to assume Last Flight Home is a new release by some veteran British prog-rocker. All the elements are firmly in place - sophisticated arrangements, clever hooks, engaging storytelling, dynamic vocals and decidedly Beatlesque baroque flourishes.

It’s actually the debut album from singersongwriter Todd Sucherman, a wellrespected jazz drummer best-known as the heartbeat of Styx for the past two decades.

Sucherman recently called from his home near Austin, Texas to discuss the selfreleased record, his early influences and his enduring love of vinyl.

But back to your record. You did it in secret but the question is, what took you so long to do it in the first place?

That’s a very good question. I’ve been lucky to have been so busy for the last twenty-five years and I never had a clear concept of what I wanted to do. I assumed I’d do some sort of fusion project and I guess that’s probably what most people would have expected me to do, a drumcentered jazz fusion record. But that itch had been scratched and I was interested in writing songs, melodies and stories and they finally all unfolded on this album.

Did you have an initial concept or did the story unfold along with the melodies?

I was with an old friend, J. K. Harrison, just hanging out in Los Angeles and we wrote the title track in like thirty minutes.

It was one of those magical nights where it was like lightning back and forth. You always hope songwriting is that easy. It’s not. But that song sort of set the stage to keep going and see what happens. Like I said, if it fell apart, I just wouldn’t tell anybody about it. But I could see a path materializing. He’d been cajoling me for a while to do a record and I’d always go, ‘Nah. Thanks but no thanks.’ I didn’t think I could pull it off but he believed in me the whole time. So he dragged me along for the ride, I guess.

Last Flight Home seemed to arrive out of nowhere.

Well I basically did this album under cover of darkness. My own mother didn’t even know about it. I wasn’t sure that I would actually see it through. Then it just unfolded so naturally and organically, it wasn’t until mixing sessions that I really saw it in Technicolor, you know? I think I did it that way so in case I decided to pull out of the project, people wouldn’t go, ‘Hey whatever happened to that record?’ I could just go, ‘Uh, what record?’

Then there was a wacky little pandemic to contend with.

Yeah It was originally scheduled to be released in May. The record was done and manufactured and ready to go, then the Covid-19 situation hit. I kept thinking, ‘I can’t release a record during a global pandemic when people are just concerned about how they’re gonna keep the lights on.’

But then I had several close confidants say to me, ‘You know, maybe now’s the time for it.’ People need entertainment and new music and now they have the time to sit and listen to it the way we did in the ‘60s and ‘70s. You know, put headphones on and get lost inside the music. My wife agreed so I put the question out to my social pages. ‘Do I release this now, full steam ahead, or should I wait for brighter days?’

The response was resounding. I think 99.9 percent agreed that now is the time. So I set up the release date without a plan and that’s how it’s been going so far.

This record needs to be played all the way through like an old-fashioned LP and not just a collection of tracks.

That’s the way it was sequenced - with a definite side one and a side two. I even did a limited-edition vinyl to really prove the point. I’m still an album guy and I think a lot of music fans really enjoy the experience.

You can’t beat the ritual of playing a vinyl record.

A couple of months before this all hit, I invested in a good turntable and I’m glad I did. I hadn’t had one in thirty-plus years but I kept all my records. I’m not sure why but now I’m glad I did. It’s been fun to pull out the albums I had when I was a kid. I love that my daughter is able to see that music isn’t just something you can sort of conjure out of the air by request. It comes from these pieces of plastic! And the covers are often as essential as the music. I think

that’s why the rock bands, for example, that were fortunate enough to come from the ‘60s, ‘70s and even ‘80s, those people will always have an audience because of that tactile connection from the records.

People sat there, holding the product in their hands and looking at those covers. I think it’s probably harder for latter-day artists to build a long career when there’s nothing to hold because now it’s so easily forgettable. But if you sat there, maybe high as a kite, with Lamb Lies Down On Broadway or Quadrophenia in your hands, that feeling tends to stay with you forever.

Those cardboard jackets hold a lot of memories.

Yeah and it’s funny; I got emotional the other day. I pulled out a couple of albums that I know a needle hadn’t touched since I was in high school. It was like, ‘That is my Quadrophenia. Yes I know all the songs by heart but I learned them from that piece of vinyl. It’s like a photo album of memories.

I’m dumbfounded at how profound the whole experience can be. It’s like seeing your little league ball glove or something.

You are fortunate enough to be in

one of those bands that are definitely albumoriented. You’re playing those Styx memories to people who also share the vinyl experience.

You hit the nail on the head. It’s something I never take for granted.

I’m so fortunate to be in a band that, as long as everyone stays healthy and able to do it, there will always be an audience for us. Styx was fortunate to come at a time when those images you held in your hand or the posters you had on your wall stayed with you forever.

It’s especially rare that Styx is also a band that continues to make new music that is just as compelling as the classic pieces.

The Mission could have been released thirty years ago.

You know, we didn’t make new music for quite some time, but Tommy [Shaw] got inspired a couple of years ago and from that came the Mission and I think it’s an amazing piece of work. We put a lot of love into it. One of the things I’m disappointed about right now is that had life continued in a normal fashion, my drum tracks for the next Styx album would have been recorded last month in Nashville. But whenever it does happen, it’s going to be tremendous.

I can’t wait to play on it and I can’t wait to

Did the rest of the album flow effortlessly or was there a bit of a process?

It was just a matter of cobbling it all together. It was like we were in an excellent junkyard with a lot of brand-new parts to pick from. We just had to put it together in a way that worked.

Then you had to sing. People know who you are, but they’ve never really heard your voice.

And nobody is more surprised than I am, what it sounds like. I’ve worked with a number of great singers but actually singing was a real learning experience for me. I wasn’t afraid to be terrible and I think my appreciation for singing has intensified because of this album. It’s extraordinarily difficult to sing in tune, in time and tell a story at the same time.

You have a bit of a British rock thing going in the vocals.

I take that as a great compliment, actually.

I’ve always gravitated towards British and Australian bands. When people press me to describe this record, I have to step back a bit. But I guess at the core if it all is sophisticated pop rock. If you like Elbow, Jellyfish, XTC, Crowded House, you might like what I’m doing here. It came about so naturally, I just decided not to get in the way of it.

It’s definitely doesn’t sound contrived or forced.

I went into it with no expectations except can I release this album - or even play it for my family and friends - and be proud of it?

That was it.

Last Flight Home is available from toddsucherman.com. insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 11

MUSIC

DUO IN THE DESERT

Mark Olson & Ingunn Ringvold Release a New Harmonious Collaboration That’s been good for us because we love to eat at restaurants here and we love to camp.

We’ve even camped out on tour, to and from cities. So to us, touring can be just as inspirational as living here.

A lot of modern productions tend to sound shrill.

Mark: It’s intense. They’re doing it with all their compressors and everything, but I like the way recorded music sounded in 1968.

Travel does offer a whole new swath of inspiration.

Mark: Yeah, for us it comes from observation, times memory, divided by philosophy - with a little bit of fun in the music and lyrics. I enjoy just sitting down with a guitar in open tuning, because I’m not limiting myself by playing any certain progression. I think I’ve found there’s more of an openness in the development of a song now.

As so many people are saying now there’s time to enjoy a complete album uninterrupted, just like in the ‘60s.

Mark: I like that. We put a lot of thought into each song; there’s no filler or downtime.

We’ve actually worked on four full albums now and this is the way we like to do it. So in a way it’s a culmination of how we do things. I’ve written songs most of my life and Ingunn has played music for most of her life.

At this point, an album from us is a sort of a snapshot of where we are.

It sounds like you haven’t had a shortage of stimuli.

Mark: It’s very pleasurable. I do still talk about experiences from life but I try to turn them into short stories. Ingunn is great to work with because I can start some things, call her in and then we’ll do the bridges.

I pretty much do lyrics and choruses, but she comes up with these really cool string arrangements that add major musical themes to it. We’re a good team so it’s enjoyable to work with her.

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

M

ARK OLSON CO-FOUNDED The Jayhawks in the thriving Minneapolis music scene of 1985.

The band was embraced by commercial alternative radio and their catalog continues to be a benchmark of pre-“Americana” rock references.

Since 1997, Olson has focused on his love of rootsy folk songwriting - first with Victoria Williams in The Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers, then for a series of solo material, eventually joined by his wife since 2011, Norwegian-born singer-songwritermulti-instrumentalist Ingunn Ringvold.

The third collaboration from Olson and Ringvold is a moody, folk-pop excursion called Magdallen Accepts The Invitation.

Captured on a vintage Nagra field recorder, the album’s pastoral charm radiates like the desert sun that illuminated the duo’s original writing and tracking sessions.

INsite spoke with the melodious musicians by phone from their kitchen in Joshua Tree, California I’m asking everyone how they’re coping in these unusual times. How is life in the desert during a pandemic?

Mark: Well when we started this album, we had no idea what was coming. We’ve been staying home, pretty much. In the past, I’ve had gardens. Our August tour was delayed so now I’ve started a garden again. Here, you have to build these caged-fence barriers all along the sides and on the top to keep the critters out. I’ve planted two of them so far.

But we’re still rehearsing so that’s our other main activity right now. It’s always quiet out here but there’re people driving and walking so it’s not quite a ghost town. And we got a puppy!

Ingunn: Over the last few years, we’d been discussing having a dog. Then last fall, we got this Great Pyrenees puppy on my birthday. I’m so glad we got her but now we don’t know what we’ll do when we ever get PG 12 • August 2020 • insiteatlanta.com

to tour again.

Mark: She’s from a farm in Tehachapi and there was some kind of breeding mistake so she’s sort of a mixed breed. She even helps us in the garden, breaking up the soil. She just dives in!

The California desert is so much different than Minneapolis or Norway. Is it conducive to creativity for you?

Mark: As a musician, I’d been all over the place and I’d been looking for a place. In ’92, there’d been the Landers Earthquake out there and at first I actually ended up finding a place without water! The water had to be hauled in. I’ve fixed up two places now.

Never in my life did I ever imagine being able to afford a place in Minnesota. It was always out of my price range. But all-of-asudden I had a place with land around it. I could work on projects outdoors! So one way living here has been helpful is that I have a much more healthy lifestyle now.

Ingunn: I grew up in the country by the oceans with trees. The pace is so slow here. It’s wonderful at times and it can be annoying, too. But people are friendly here.

A lot of them work from home so when they do go somewhere they like to chat. Going to the grocery store is like a social thing now.

It’s like a small town but it’s a place where you can do all those things you wanted to do when you lived in a city. I really think the desert invites mystical thinking. The landscape is mystical but then you have all the interaction with the animals that live around here.

Peaceful animals and dangerous ones too, right?

Ingunn: Yes! We’ve had birds alarming us when a rattlesnake was nearby. It can be a dangerous place. You have to be safe, you have to always be aware. But you can spend a lot of time just contemplating things, too.

Mark: We got married in 2011 and we’ve been able to tour every year - until now.

Finding the right person to work with can make all the difference.

Mark: I never know what people think about songwriters. But for us, we’re very organized. When we’re writing songs, that’s what we are doing. When we’re rehearsing, that’s it. So each activity has its own time.

The way modern music is now, we’re our own engineers, too. I’m the analog engineer and Ingunn is the digital engineer. She does the artwork for the covers and I’m the person running around looking in the closets and boxes for things that make sense for album art.

The new album looks and - actually sounds like - it should’ve been released by Vanguard in the late ‘60s.

Mark: We actually went for that sound! I have all these old pre-amps so I’m definitely going for that kind of acoustic sound. My reasoning for that is probably because modern music just hits me too hard. Things are too loud and there’s a weird sort of focused energy. I like the folk recording technique, because it’s not as aggressive.

We’ve got a guy we work with who worked with the Wrecking Crew [award-winning producer John Schreiner], so he can spend his time on it. I’m really happy with it.

It’s a true team effort.

Mark: Yeah, a real husband and wife team.

But it’s like having any kind of business with your family. There are ups and downs but we work well together. We actually enjoy what we do - so that definitely helps.

Mark - as you obviously know, when you work with a bandmate, there can be some, shall we say, friction.

Mark: We spend every day together and there are people who have problems doing that but we don’t.

Ingunn: We definitely use our voices to express how we want things to be. Mark and I are both the oldest from our families, we’re used to making decisions and being in charge. There’s been times that Mark will say, ‘I’m doing this and it’s going on the record.’ Then a month later, I’ll listen to it and go, ‘Ok, you were right.’

Mark: Yeah, there’s definitely been songs where I’ve said, ‘We’re going forward with it and this is the way it’s going to be.’ But we’ve worked together for so long now that I can tell immediately if it’s going to work or not for us. On this one, I think it was “Elmira’s Fountain,” where I said, ‘We’re going to keep at this one.’

At this stage of your careers it must be artistically satisfying to be your own boss.

Mark: I think a lot of musicians - maybe all - are in this boat now. It’s not just because of the virus, it’s been this way for a while.

People are home recording or generally doing it themselves. They’re finally figuring out how to make records with whatever is handy. It’s a new era but I must say, we kinda like it.

Magdalen Accepts The Invitation is available from music retailers and through the link at markolsonmusic.com.

MUSIC

KEEPING IT “TOGETHER”

Singer-Songwriter Jesse Colin Young Looks Back on an Iconic Anthem of the ‘60s

BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH

A

S LEADER OF THE YOUNGBLOODS, SINGERsongwriter Jesse Colin Young sang the lead on “Get Together,” the undisputed anthem of the Summer of Love in 1967. Now, in celebration of the 50-year (plus) anniversary of the tune, Young has rerecorded it with a band of Berklee grads and special guest Steve Miller.

After a brief retirement a few years ago, the legendary musician-activist is now more active than ever, with Dreamers, a great new record released last year and as host of two new web series. Tripping On My Roots is a podcast that explores his myriad influences (Blind Willie, Little Richard, James Brown) with conversations and performances from Young and his like-minded folksinger pals including Arlo Guthrie and Taj Mahal. One Song At A Time is an intimate, solo You Tube series that - as the title suggests - examines one of his hits per episode.

INsite spoke with Young by phone from his home in South Carolina.

Even during a pandemic, your schedule is full. What ignited all of this current activity?

Well back in March, South By Southwest was cancelled. I’d really been looking forward to going out there and I’d been working on my show for six weeks. My touring for the last several years has been with a band and when I do that I’m just playing acoustic guitar, very simple. But when you take away the band, it’s a whole new thing.

With the cancellations, you suddenly had plenty of time on your hands.

Yeah, when the shelter in place thing came along, my wife Connie and I were looking at each other like, ‘Well it’s cool to stay safe but now what?’ We have a lovely house and dogs and woods to walk in. But it was like, ‘Really, what are we gonna do with all this time?’ She said, ‘Why don’t you go get your guitar and play Sugarbabe?’ She said she’d film it and put it up on the internet. She said, ‘Maybe it’ll cheer people up.’ So we did that for the next five days and it became part of our daily routine here in the house.

Artists and creative people in general have great ideas to do new projects but often no time to really do it right.

And that was always me! It’s been a wonderful gift from an awful disease.

That group experience led to a new album, as well.

By our fourth warm-up gig, I knew I wanted to record with this band. They were blowin’ me away. Then, as the riots were going on, we put up a new version of a medley I did originally in the ‘70s, of ‘What’s Goin’ On’ and ‘Mercy, Mercy Me.’

In a coffee house not far from Washington Square was where you first heard ‘Get Together,’ right?

Yeah, at the Café Au-Go-Go in the Village! The Youngbloods played there for nine months, just opening for whomever. We did it so we could rehearse in the afternoons.

The spirit is contagious and Dreamers the resulting album, is just as compelling as your classic early ‘70s stuff. As usual, it’s all over the map, stylistically.

I thought it was a good one, too. But you know, I go back to things like [1973’s] Song For Juli and even before that, where I would go from a Chuck Berry song to a song like ‘The Peace Song’ [originally from ’72, currently available via You Tube as a tribute to George Floyd].

One day, you heard the song being played?

One afternoon, I was thinking maybe we could go in and rehearse if it was dark. I got to the bottom of the stairs and Buzzy Linhart was onstage singing it. I’d seen him play with Tim Hardin but there he was with a band, singing ‘Get Together.’

Unlike a number of so-called heritage artists, you seem to have plenty left to say.

I do. But we were all struggling with some of the same things in the 1960s as we are today. On one hand it’s sad that we have come so little far, but we’re still here and maybe we can do it a little better this time.

BUT WE WERE ALL STRUGGLING WITH SOME OF THE SAME THINGS IN THE 1960S AS WE ARE TODAY. ON ONE HAND IT’S SAD THAT WE HAVE Sounds like you’ve found a good outlet for COME SO LITTLE FAR, BUT What a perfect time to look back at what could be a frustrating time.

WE’RE STILL HERE AND “Get Together.”

I think it’s what I do. I got an early call from It’s funny, I’ve been doing it all these years, MAYBE WE CAN DO IT A Rolling Stone because they’d started these but the new one I cut it one day that we had a In My Room shows on the internet and they LITTLE BETTER THIS TIME. That’s a very positive way to look at it.

Well there’s always a gift in things. To give it is easy. I play for five minutes and then it takes Connie two hours to get it ready to post.

had me on for a few songs. I guess it had something to do with “Get Together,” which was a hit in ’67 and ’69 and we just redid.

I want to talk more about “Get Together,” but while we’re on the subject of creating new music and new ways to present it, you’ve definitely been busier since you returned from retirement in 2016 than many constantly touring acts.

It’s been exciting for me. I’ve had this seven-piece band of young people in their twenties, including my son, all from Berklee College of Music. It’s been incredibly inspiring to play with them. We went to my son Tristan’s senior recital. I was just starting to write again and feeling that I was not done with it yet. When I heard them play, I immediately heard myself right in the middle of it. I told him about it and that I really wanted to put a new band together. It was like, ‘Come on, Dad. You know how much work that is?’ He kept saying no because he must’ve thought I wasn’t serious or I’d wake up the next day and go, ‘Yeah it’s just too much work.’ But that didn’t happen, so we did it. We played all of 2017 and went to SXSW after a tour up north.

day off. This is after we’d recorded Dreamers.

I just loved the way this band played the song.

These seven 20-somes loved it too. I called Sound Emporium there and said, ‘Is there any way we can get in and cut this?’

My friend there said someone had cancelled, so we took it.

Last fall, I knew we’d need it for this year. Then I spoke to Steve Miller and I said, ‘I’ve got this track and I want to finish it.’ He said, ‘I’m in.’

You’ve known Steve since San Francisco in the ‘60s.

Yeah! We actually came to the city around the same time in ’67.

I actually think of you as a San Francisco guy, but originally you were a real New York folkie.

Yeah, I was Washington Square and I saw people sitting around the fountain singing songs. I’d see them sitting out there from my window at school and I decided that I’d join ‘em. I’d seen the coffee house scene and I knew that something big was happening. It was all about guitars and songs and really saying something. So I was ready!

What was your initial reaction?

It hit me like a truck. A cosmic truck. It changed my life.

I literally felt my life change in that moment. It was like a ‘this way,” this way for your life, for your music. I took it into rehearsal the next day with the Youngbloods, so it was ready when we signed with RCA. It came out in ’67 and a commercial helped it hit nationwide a couple of years later.

It was a big hit in San Francisco in ’67, but we had a teenie audience in New York. It became a hit on the west coast in ’67 so it was a no-brainer that we’d move there. We knew we could work and make a living there. Then it really hit nationwide in ’69.

The writer, Dino Valenti, also made his mark in California.

Yeah it’s funny. He was a kind of a hero in the Village and he left that song there for us. A lot of people in the scene knew it - Buzzy, but also Ritchie Havens, the Kingston Trio and so many others.

The Jefferson Airplane recorded it in 1966 but no one else really put their stamp on it like you did.

The love affair I have with that song is so deep. To me, it’s poetry. I never get tired of it because it still moves me. I’m lucky to be able to sing these songs. This is the way I serve my community. This is how I serve my brothers in Vietnam, so I feel connected. Now it’s so easy to have an idea and by that night, a song is up there for everyone to enjoy. It’s a real treat for a songwriter.

Tripping On My Roots can be seen and heard at JesseeColinYoung.Com and via Apple and Spotify. One Song At A Time is available at YouTube. insiteatlanta.com • August 2020 • PG 13

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Fans of Boston garage rockers The Dogmatics were rewarded for their long suffering dedication (three decades and some change) when last year the band unexpectedly turned in a follow up record to their 1986 debut. That 5-track She’s The One EP found the band in prime form. It appears frontman Jerry Lehane still had something left in the tank as he’s just released his solo EP, five more tracks that fit nicely into the band’s sparse but still impressive collection of songs.

The garage rock, classic punk-spiked vibe here is pretty similar to the Dogmatic tunes: short, distortion-slathered tunes with boozy sing along choruses and hooks that stick with you long after then songs have stopped playing. The album starts off with the irreverent “Kiss My Tattoo,” the EP’s first single – a fun track but not the best. That distinction belongs to “All I Can Do,” the breezy, bluesy mid-tempo singalong that comes near the end of this tragically short record. It’s easily the catchiest song Lehane has ever written.

Here’s hoping the long-awaited Dogmatics follow up and now this solo release signal the opening shots of a much longer engagement.

The Jayhawks

XOXO (Sham/Thirty Tigers)

Minneapolis Americana vets have never been wildly inconsistent when it comes to putting out records. For fans of the band, it’s not unusual to wait five or more years between records, but ever since 2016’s Paging Mr. Proust, the band has been reliable turning out an album every other year. Their latest, XOXO, is right on schedule.

Like their 2018 effort, XOXO fits nicely aside Paging Mr. Proust offering a solid mix of inventive pop and modern folk, all wrapped in charming harmonies. Songs like the opening track, “The Forgotten Town” and “Homecoming” could have fit nicely onto classic Jayhawks’ records like Tomorrow the Green Grass or Hollywood Town Hall.

With three separate songwriters – founding members Gary Louris and Marc Perlman, drummer Tom O’Reagan and keyboardist Karen Grotberg – sometime writing collectively, sometimes writing songs solo, the album isn’t always cohesive. That doesn’t necessarily make the songs any less enjoyable, just a bit disjointed overall. And while the album is overall a solid addition to their cannon, overcomplicated arrangements and falsettos on a song like “Illuminate” and “Little Victories” just feel like a slog to get through.

Eleven albums into their career, you can’t blame the Jayhawks for wanting to tweak the template a bit and experiment with their music and writing. And most of the time that experiment pays off on XOXO... except for when it doesn’t.

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It’s a remarkable time to be a music fan, with just about every conceivable genre and subgenre at your disposal with just a few keystrokes.

But oddly enough, at a time when you can find everything from Pirate Metal to Christian Ska (both real music categories), there’s not a lot of

musicians in 2020 playing straight ahead blue collar Rock and Roll. With Tom Petty sadly dead three years now and Bruce Springsteen exploring his inner cowboy on his latest, Will Hoge is back to pick up the slack.

Tiny Little Movies, his twelfth record, is certainly not a big departure from the sound he’s been refining since 2001, but it also doesn’t need to be. Across 11 tracks, Hodge dips into swampy roots rock (“Is This All That You Wanted me For?”), soulful barroom stomps (“My Worst”) and the occasional slow tempo respites (“Even the River Rus Out of This Town,” “The Like of You”). The result will be satisfyingly comfortable to Hoge fans, but likely not stir much excitement beyond that group.

A dozen records into his career, Hoge has found his voice and is pretty content staying within the lines. There is the occasional surprise, like the powerful, gritty number “The Overthrow,” his most animated and lyrically inspired moment on the record. That’s not to say the rest of album is not filled with some solid tracks, its’ just that the “The Overthrow” is the most obvious standout moment here. Hoge’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, but two decades in and with a dedicated following Tiny Little Movies is bound to find a receptive audience.

Ben de la Cour

Shadow Land (Flour Sack Cape)

Ben de la Cour’s latest, Shadow Land, is a dark, often melancholy look at life and also happens to be a pitch perfect music for the dystopia we are currently living through. With a global pandemic cycling through towns causing death and economic uncertainty; racial inequalities finally getting the widespread media coverage it deserves while the voices of white supremacy fight and claw to continue to oppress; all the while a xenophobic lunatic in the White House watches it all burn and de la Cour’s masterful knack for digging into the darker aspects of life make this an ideal soundtrack to the summer of 2020.

The record starts out of the somber “God’s Only Son,” about a drifter with a God complex and then segues into the equally dark “High Heels Down the Holler,” both decent enough songs, but fail to properly serve as a prelude to what lies ahead. It’s when the album starts to move into faster tempo fare, like “In God We Trust… All Others Pay Cash” that de la Cour’s songwriting prowess starts to really take shape.

You’d be hard pressed to call any of these songs optimistic, but the striking title track and the Springsteen/Tom Waits hybrid “Amazing Grace (Slight Return)” spotlight his stellar ability to tell compelling character-driven stories in three-minute increments.

Elsewhere, “Basin Lounge” allows de la Cour to exercise his boogie woogie demons, the main character comes off like a modern day Jerry Lee Lewis who doesn’t care if you can see the traces of cocaine on his upper lip. The record ends with the one two punch of “Harmless Indian Medicine Blues,” the most understated and strongest song on the record and “Valley of the Moon,” a bluesy, trippy number that serves as an appropriate bookend to this eclectic record.

Released in a different time, Shadow Land may not have gotten the proper attention, but in 2020 it’s an ideal record to put on as the world spins off its axis.

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