Mercy Lounge
Nashville, TN
Contact: amanda@Lafamos.com Website: http://nettierose.com The Players: Nettie Rose Freed, vocals, guitar; Fred Sokolow, guitar, lapsteel; Johnny “Spazz” Hatton, bass; Lynn Shipley Sokolow, banjo. Username: Nettierose
Musicianship: The players follow Rose’s lead, framing their singer in a well of deep colored bass that buzzes and thunks and a banjo that resounds beatifically. Rose’s western songs are unpretentiously poetic, breezy, uplifting with a slight but palpable tang of sorrow sung in a voice that’s warm and slightly amused and stylistically adaptable to any backing band. Performance: Nashville’s musical landscape is an admixture of historical, vibrantly charming camp and inspired young contemporaries. In the former category is The Billy Block Show, a live radio concert series in the same spirit as the Grand Ole Opry that fueled the fire of many a rising artist. Rose’s performance fit the spirit; she possessed a playful showmanship onstage from behind a thick curtain of waist-length hair. The
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NETTIE ROSE
performer danced and interacted with her band with an understatedly compelling West Coast charisma. Her songs were accessible, easily listenable Americana about “people she knows,” and yet…I kept forgetting her voice, which sounded young and small within a palatial body of sound. Summary: When Nettie Rose’s vocals grow into her music, her songs will be
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Material: Hank Williams could be standing in on some of these songs, which, true to country-western form, are careless in their buoyancy, heartfelt in their emotiveness and timeless in their—if not infinite wisdom, then at least relevance. Nettie Rose’s songs are strengthened with the input of Nashville songwriters and sustained by their topical and universal nature.
unquestionable as genuine American stories. But people have been writing and singing those stories since they could figure out how to pluck a guitar, so some brand of poignancy in the delivery is crucial. Rose is without a doubt emphatic and earnest in her singing, but you find yourself wanting her voice itself to be abrasive, or strikingly sweet, or gravelly, or otherwise outstanding to hold up against a timeless genre of songwriting. – Jessica Pace
Cambridge, MA
Material: A folksy duo split between Boston and North Carolina, Humble Tripe embody the philosophy of less is more. Belting out tales of longing, grandmas, institutional oppression and acrobats, their unadorned lyrics splashed with acoustic guitar, violin and mandolin paint panoramas of sadness tinged by a subterranean layer of hope. The creeping miasma of broken dreams embodied by their slow-moving compositions is interspersed with humorous between-song banter.
HUMBLE TRIPE
Musicianship: Luby and Green effortlessly strum their respective instruments, filling the space with a reassuring, humanitarian spirit. Yet it’s Luby’s moonshine vocals that elevate their sound beyond the typical heartlandvia-metro hipster effort. His simply executed, mellifluous cooing rubs an emotional nerve, while Green’s elegant violin and mandolin plucking conjures images of fairies frolicking beneath a crescent moon.
followers, the pair concluded the release tour for their sophomore CD in high fashion with their trademark delicately crafted arrangements. Their secret sauce, meanwhile, lied within their natural comic abilities. Despite confessing to a moment of stage fright, they kept the crowd in stitches spinning tales of separation anxiety, lesbian chain-smoking motorcycle gangs and nearly coming to fisticuffs with an intoxicated fan.
Performance: Humble Tripe are the sort of act that work best in intimate settings. Performing at an art gallery before a tiny gathering of
Summary: One could be forgiven for labeling Humble Tripe a coffee house act, but doing so would discount their sound’s extraordinary
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musicconnection.com
beauty. The act’s sole failing is that, by their own admission, they only have one fast song. Though they may not find themselves inclined to stray beyond their wheelhouse, this duo would do well to push themselves beyond their comfort zone. As they are, Luby and Green’s particular brand of understated, sensitive Americana will appeal to a specific discriminating audience. Questions of widespread acceptance aside, Humble Tripe remain an authentic voice amid a galaxy of synthetic phonies. – Andy Kaufmann
ANDY KAUFMANN
Contact: humbletripe@gmail.com Web: http://humbletripe.com The Players: Shawn Luby, guitar, lead vocals; Stud Green, violin, mandolin, harmony vocals Username: humbletripe