If you haven’t noticed, we had a bit of a makeover here on AR last week.  Hope you enjoy the new, simple layout.  In addition, I am hopeful that my work induced, six month hiatus is coming to an end which will free up more time in my schedule.  Von, John and Don are the full time writers now and I plan to focus on more on cool concepts around music and technology since we have a fair number of visitors that are full time, traveling musicians.

Live Shows From Peter Cooper & Eric Brace  // Ted Russell Kamp on StageIt.com

Tonight I had an invite for something that caught my attenion. It’s a website / service called StageIt.com.  It’s a simple concept, your favorite artist broadcasts a live show and you watch / listen while at the same time offering up tips, buying merchandise or possibly chip in for a ticket (in some cases).  I love this concept, however live video and music never seems to shine through like a live show. That being said, I hold out some promise for this concept as it gets harder to get out to live shows on a regular basis.  If the musicians stick to informal, acoustic settings I think this could be a lot of fun.  I recognize two shows that I’ll be checking out over the next few days.  Ted Russell Kamp on 5/10 @ 8PM and at the same time Eric Brace & Peter Cooper who will be performing a separate show.  Speaking of Eric & Peter, I recently caught their interview on Bob Edwards on XM which was fantastic. 

Anyway, for all of you other musicians let me know if you end up broadcasting a show on StageIt.com and I’ll check it out.  I have a few artists I’d love to see up here soon.

Gregg Geil

If the year ended today my favorite cd of the year would be Yellow Tag Mondays, the national debut cd by The Farewell Drifters.  A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to be in Arlington Virginia on a night that Eric Brace (the nicest guy in Americana in my opinion) was playing with his band Last Train Home at their "home", the IOTA Club.  The warmup band that night was The Farewell Drifters.  After their great performance I asked lead singer Zach Bevill if he had any copies of their upcoming cd with him.  Fortunately he did, and I've really come to love this disc.  As I have said before on this sight, I'm really excited by the young Americana bands that have come out; notably Belleville Outfit, and now these guys.  They lean toward the bluegrass side of Americana; mandolin, fiddle, guitar, upright bass and no drums and lots of harmony vocals.  They call their music fittingly "Alt-Bluegrass for the masses..."  Their live performance was energetic and tight, which is also fortunately the type of performance I found on the disc when I got home! All the tunes on the disc were written by various combinations of  band-members except one cover, a beautiful rendering of Lennon and McCartney's For No One.  Their very catchy upbeat tune Everybody Is Talking would vie for my favorite song of the year!  Try to listen to this tune and not bob your head and tap your toe, I dare ya! There are plenty of highlights on this 14 tune disc, including  All We Need and River Song.  This is truly a stellar cd by an excellent young band who I hope is around a long time!