Tag: California

LISTEN: Chelsea Williams, “Cornerstone”

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Artist: Chelsea Williams
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Cornerstone”
Album: Beautiful & Strange
Release Date: May 8, 2020
Label: Blue Élan Records

In Their Words: “Not all of my songs are heartache and drinking songs… just most of them. ‘Cornerstone’ is a real shift from this, it’s more of a ‘heartache gone wrong’ song. It tells the story of a girl who is used to being dealt all the wrong cards. When her luck changes she must learn to trust the universe and trust the new happiness she’s found.” — Chelsea Williams

Photo credit: Piper Ferguson

WATCH: Alec Lytle & Them Rounders, “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”

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Artist: Alec Lytle & Them Rounders
Hometown: Woodside, California
Song: “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” (Paul Simon cover)
Album: The Remains of Sunday
Release Date: April 17, 2020
Label: CEN/The Orchard

In Their Words: “There is a bit of an interesting story around the album cut; it was fully recorded live, no overdubs. The band was in the live room at Sound City Studios and I was in the reverb chamber. The chamber is a huge, empty, concrete vault normally used to add reverb and echo to the mix in a very natural way. So I sat in there, hearing the band over headphones. No light, total blackness. All that echo and reverb is because of the space I’m sitting in. This is the same reverb chamber that became famous from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours that was recorded there too.

“I chose to put this song on the record after sitting with it for about six months. My sister passed away recently after a brutal battle with cancer. She loved music, she was the first person I ever heard play guitar and sing, she sang the soprano part when my sisters and I would sing together. I played this song at her memorial service because my family and I felt like this song represented how we want to remember her. I decided to include it on the record as a marker for her… a testament to her memory.

“Dylan Day (guitarist/Jackson Browne, Jenny Lewis, Beck) was spending a few days at our house in November. We had just finished playing and recording some other songs in our living room when we noticed the light starting to fade at the end of the day. Dylan and I decided to play the song outside our back door while the sunset over the forest. It was a one-take thing… filmed and recorded in a matter of minutes. This was likely only the second time Dylan and I played this song… the first time for the record, and then this time behind our house.” — Alec Lytle

Photo credit: Scott McKissen

LISTEN: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers, “Leave Town”

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Artist: The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Leave Town”
Album: I Will Rise
Release Date: TBD (2020)

From the Artist: “‘Leave Town’ is an anthem for the brokenhearted. It’s a cathartic crying out for a change. This song is about dealing with the emotional aftermath of a bad breakup and holding onto hope for a new beginning. Steeped in American roots music, the song is built on a foundation of foot stomps, hand claps, and good old-fashioned shouting. The fierce choruses are sung by a full choir. The pedal steel, organ, and 12-string guitars weave themselves into the song and set a backdrop for a mellow lead vocal on the verses. ‘Leave Town’ is about wanting to get away from anything familiar… including oneself.” — Will Wadsworth, The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers

Photo credit: Grant Westhoff

BGS 5+5: Mapache

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Artist: Mapache (Sam Blasucci and Clay Finch)
Hometown: Glendale, California
Latest Album: From Liberty Street
Rejected band names: La Cabañita, Sam & Clay, Clam. Not sure why we thought Mapache was any better than the rest.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

All of the above really. Everything going in and out of the psyche is what we tend to be writing in our songs. The books we read play a big role in what we write, things like Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus, Kon-Tiki, Charlotte’s Web, Christian Wiman’s Joy anthology. Lots of films, too, like young Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Frozen II, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Seems Like Old Times, and lots of others.

Other art forms like gardening and painting as well. I’ve only recently started painting and I know that it looks dreadful to anyone else who sees my finished products, but they look nice to me and allow me to open up in other ways that eventually come back around in their turn to our music as well. — Sam

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Not until after our second record was recorded and we had been traveling and playing music for about four years. It’s a lot of questioning constantly of whether or not this is really what I want to do and I’m happy about that. I think it has taken time for me to realize that it is actually something I can do. I feel like now I’m committed to it and that I really do want to do it because it feels right. But I won’t ever really stop wondering. I think the wondering is what gives you the reason to do it anyway.

Many musical moments in the past have lead me to love music the way I do now. Raffi in my crib, hearing my dad’s guitar solos, our first battle of the bands in high school, our first time recording anything or trying to learn how to sing harmonies — those are all growing pains for me musically. Painful in some ways looking at the level of our talent back then but definitely key in figuring out our taste and what we want to do with music. — Sam

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I think my favorite moment on stage happens fairly often: It’s when Sam and I look at each other and start laughing, usually mid-song, and I think it’s because in the same weird moment we sort of realize how strange and funny and awesome playing music on a stage is. Some other favorite moments were playing in Spain and having the crowd sing along to our songs in Spanish, having Jonathan Richman watch us play a set, sharing the stage with Beachwood Sparks, and anytime we get to play in Big Sur. — Clay

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I spend a lot of time in the ocean. This leaves me pretty sunburned and sleepy a lot of the time, and when it’s really good I see waves rolling when I close my eyes. Feeling like this and playing music is the best. — Clay

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

The best pairing of food and music is at El Compadre in Echo Park where you can watch Trio Los Principes and eat beans and chips and drink flaming margaritas. The trio is truly one of the most badass bands in LA. Sam and I like to go like to meet up with our buddy Tim Hill there and plot world domination and watch Dodgers games. — Clay

Photo courtesy of Mapache

Jesse Daniel: ‘Rollin’ On’ After Rocky Times

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To quote the title of his new album, Jesse Daniel is indeed rollin’ on, moving past the setbacks of his past and now celebrating three years sober. One thing that hasn’t changed? His dedication to classic country music. With its echoes of Buck Owens, Ray Price, and other legends of the ‘50s, Rollin’ On simply extends the traditional country sound Daniel explored on his self-titled debut album in 2018. He recorded it in San Antonio with producer Tommy Detamore.

“I’ve been telling people that the record I did before was songs that I had written over a period of years that dealt with a lot of past stuff,” he says. “This one has some of that, but it’s a lot more about moving forward, and to me, even physically driving, moving forward. It’s symbolic of that. I think it naturally fell into place with the theme of this record.”

That drive is evident in “Tar Snakes,” “The Mayo and the Mustard,” and the rousing title track. He knows something about mileage, too. Raised in a rural mountain town near Santa Cruz, California, and now living in Austin, Texas, Daniel caught up with BGS during a tour stop in Nashville.

BGS: I hear a positive attitude coming through several of these songs, like “If You Ain’t Happy Now (You Never Will Be)” as an example. Do you consider yourself an optimist, or in a pretty good place these days?

JD: Yeah, definitely. I’ve been a pessimist before in my life. I know what that’s like, but at this point, yeah, I definitely consider myself an optimist. And that song, it’s funny, the title of the song might seem almost like a slam on someone or something. When you listen to the lyrics, I wrote that song as a reminder to myself. You could have everything in the world and still be miserable if you’re not focusing on the here and now and what matters.

At what point did you begin to write songs?

I’ve been writing songs and short stories since I was a young kid in elementary school, and I would always write wild stories. You know, I had a crazy imagination as a kid, and then I got into punk rock when I was in my teen years. And country songwriting and writing in this style started as a cathartic thing because I always loved country music, but it naturally progressed.

How do you progress from punk to country? How did that happen?

I’ve seen there’s a common thread. I’ve talked to a lot of other musicians who play country music now that were into punk rock, and I think that there’s something about the spirit of it that was similar, that called me to it. …For me, I was introduced when I was really young to Buck Owens and Hank Williams and guys like that, and I always loved that music. There’s a lot of older punk rock guys that I knew that were listening to Black Flag and things like that. But they were also listening to old Hank Williams records. I got influenced by that. To me, it was almost the turning point, a maturity thing. I didn’t feel quite as angry, and even if I was, I wanted to do something constructive about it. And that, to me, was a more constructive form of expression.

Do you remember when you wrote your first country song you liked?

Mm-hmm [Affirmative]. I had been writing for a while and none of them really got completely finished. They were all ideas and things that turned into other things later on. But the first one that I finished that I remember liking was a song called “Don’t Push Your Luck.” I wrote that in a hospital bed in a rehabilitation center in Oakland, California. I was going through a lot of rough times in my life, and that was the head of everything where I decided to really start pouring myself into that. That was the first country song I was ever really proud of.

Was there a turning point where you got healthy or decided to take care of yourself?

Definitely, yeah. There was a guy who was in that program, and he worked there, and he’d come in and play guitar for us. I was sick for about a week detoxing, and I would hear him playing guitar in the other room. He’d come in playing Hank Williams songs and Emmylou Harris and all kinds of classic country songs. I went in and talked to him when I started feeling good enough to get up and walk around. I remember I said, “Man, I want to play music like you someday and do what you’re doing and play country music.” And he was like, “Why don’t you?” And he said it matter-of-fact, just like that. It really stuck with me and I always looked at that as a big turning point when he said that.

So I was sitting at a diner in Austin the other day, and I see this guy walk by, and I knew it was that guy, looked just like him. So I chased him down the street and it turned out that was the guy who told me that. He lives in Austin now, and I told him, “You changed my life, man. You really set this whole thing that I’m doing in motion.” And he is actually a musician and he’s going to sit in with us, hopefully, coming up at a couple of our shows. Pretty crazy twist of fate.

The musicianship on this record is really good. You and Tommy must’ve gotten along pretty well. What do you like about working with somebody a few generations older than you?

I’ve always had an affinity for older people and picking people’s brains, and I figured that it’s life experience. There’s something I can usually learn from those people, and with Tommy, that was definitely the case. He was full of stories and wisdom and experience. So yeah, working with him, with his age and experience, was awesome. Not to say that somebody younger wouldn’t have been great, too. My partner Jodi always jokes around that I will go someplace, and I’ll find the nearest 89-year-old person, and I’ll latch onto them. We’ll be hanging out and catching up.

Are you a bluegrass fan?

Yeah, I love bluegrass.

Tell me about how you discovered bluegrass music.

Oh, man. Actually there’s a lot of bluegrass where I grew up, up in the mountains and stuff, and there’s tons of players. But I first got my hands on a bluegrass compilation from a teacher I had, and she had a bunch of burned CDs. And one of them was a bluegrass mix. I remember she put it on one day, and my ears perked up. I was like, “I love that.” And it was Flatt & Scruggs, or something like that. I ended up borrowing it from her and taking it home and listening to it. I didn’t even know who all the artists were, but that was my intro to bluegrass. And then, over the years, I got exposed to it a lot growing up there.

How did you learn about who the artists were? Did you just start buying records?

Yeah, exactly. Buying records and finding records. I used to shop in the bargain bins a lot, and they had a bargain bluegrass section and country section at the local record shop. So I’d find a lot of stuff there. A lot of the guys that I’ve had in my bands over the years have also been bluegrass players. They’ve introduced me to a lot of that stuff. There’s also a really big old-time scene in Santa Cruz, so there’s an overlap with the old-time and bluegrass.

“Son of the San Lorenzo” is a neat way to close the record. It seems like a very personal song. What was on your mind when you were writing that?

“Son of the San Lorenzo” was really autobiographical. More than any of the other ones on the record, I think that is the most about myself and where I grew up in the San Lorenzo Valley. I didn’t mention it in the song outright, but I’ve had a lot of friends that I grew up with from that area pass away in the last four or five years. There’s a whole lot of drugs in that area, and that song was about leaving that area and leaving not those people, but those issues and past things behind. I’m glad that was the last one on the record, too. That’s why we put it there. It’s like a cathartic, moving forward type of thing.

Photo credit: Molly Gisholm

LISTEN: Elijah Ocean, “Good Clean Livin'”

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Artist: Elijah Ocean
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Good Clean Livin'”
Album: Blue Jeans & Barstools
Release Date: May 1, 2020

In Their Words: “I wrote this song a few years back while working a casino in Las Vegas. It started from a snippet of a conversation I overheard and ended up being about an addicted gambler who finds salvation through the modern American dream. I originally recorded a version for my barn record, but it didn’t make the cut. So I wound up recycling the pedal steel (played by my good friend Philip Sterk in Nashville) and re-tracking everything else in my home studio in LA. I was basically trying to find some middle ground between The Byrds and Alan Jackson.” — Elijah Ocean

Photo credit: Sean Rosenthal

Avi Kaplan Comes Full Circle to Folk Roots on Solo EP, ‘I’ll Get By’

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Growing up near the Sequoia forests of Northern California, Avi Kaplan gravitated toward the low-key albums by John Denver, Bill Withers, and Simon & Garfunkel in his parents’ CD collection. But in time, the term “low-key” took on a whole new meaning as his baritone voice dropped dramatically upon starting high school. Suddenly possessing a clear, thundering bass range, Kaplan discovered a newfound confidence and rare vocal ability that ultimately led him away from the dream of becoming a choral director to joining the a cappella group Pentatonix.

After six years as a member of that Grammy Award-winning group, Kaplan parted ways with Pentatonix in 2017 and essentially went off the grid for a year. Now living in a cabin in the woods outside of Nashville, he is ready to reconnect to his roots — as he did on his new album, I’ll Get By. With a speaking voice that’s as resonant as you’d expect, Kaplan caught up with BGS by phone.

BGS: I’ve read that you had an early interest in folk music, so I was curious to know if you’d consider this is a full-circle moment, coming back to the music that you grew up loving?

AK: Oh yeah, absolutely. I grew up listening to it and it’s always the music that I’ve listened to throughout my life. And it’s always the music that I’ve written as well. I had a departure when I went and did the Pentatonix thing, but it definitely is a full-circle thing. It’s really surreal for me.

You released “Change on the Rise” about a year ago and it sent you on the path to this record. Why did you choose that song to usher in this stage of your career?

In the past I’ve written a lot of songs that are softer and maybe on the prettier side. A little fire, a little less power, and more about the soft, serene beauty of folk music. I really wanted to come back with something that just had a little more fire in it, because it was really reflective of where I was in my life. I felt like I really got my fire back. I didn’t want to come back with something people had already heard from me. Even then, people hadn’t heard much from me in general, when it came to a solo voice, or my voice out of its lower register. So I wanted to come back strong.

What was on your mind when you wrote “I’ll Get By”? That seems like an anthem of this record.

Thanks, man. Whenever I write a song, I don’t listen to it for a while. Then I come back and listen to it again so I can hear it on fresh ears, without the critical ear. When you’re in the writing situation, you’re criticizing everything you’re doing, so I had to get myself out of that. And when I listened to it again, I got emotional. It was something that really felt special to me. It felt really strong to me. It felt like it was conveying exactly what I was going through at that time, and hopefully something that would help other people get through the same type of thing.

On another song, “Chains,” there’s a lyrical reference to needing peace, and phrases similar to that. Were you needing peace and quiet to keep on going?

Oh yeah, absolutely. I was living in L.A. for about seven years and I’m just not a city guy in general. But when I wasn’t in L.A., I was touring non-stop. I was always going, so I really feel like I lost myself and I lost touch with the things that I loved the most – hanging out with my family, being in nature, all that stuff. … It was about a year after I left the group that I really started delving into writing. I wanted to do some healing first, but even through that, I was still healing just from a lot of stuff I was going through. So yeah, absolutely I was in that spot.

What did that healing process look like for you? What were you doing that year?

Well, I left the group and I just took some time to do the time to do the things that I’ve been longing to do. So I camped a bunch. I moved out of L.A. and moved into a cabin in Tennessee. But before that, I went back out to the Sequoias, where I’m from, and did a camping trip there. I did a lot of time in the Eastern Sierras and the Mojave Desert, and up in the mountain lakes.

I also went to Holland. I went to Germany and did a bunch of nature stuff. Then I went to Israel and I went hiking out there as well. So, I kind of went all over and just got away from everything as much as I possibly could. I just sought out to heal and find myself again, and just do work on myself. It was really important at that time. It was something that I needed more than I even knew.

Why did Tennessee become the place you ultimately settled?

I knew that I wanted to do music still. And really Nashville is the only music city where you can drive like 15 minutes outside the city and be in the country. And that’s where I wanted to be. That was a huge reason and also my sister lives out here. Also, with the music that I’m doing, I would say it’s more of a hub than I would say L.A. or New York anyway.

So, all signs pointed that way. I never had a doubt in my mind either. It was like, “OK, now it’s time for me to move out to Tennessee. I need to get a cabin out there and be in the forest.” It was all very clear to me what I needed to do. I didn’t exactly know how I was going to get into a place where I was good again, but I knew that’s where I needed to go to do it.

You mentioned earlier that you’re singing in a different part of your range on this record. But not a lot of people can sing as low as you. When did you realize you can do something that very few people can do?

It was my freshman year of high school. I joined the choir when I was in eighth grade but I was a baritone back then. And over that summer between eighth grade and freshman year, my voice changed big time. So I remember coming to the choir room and my choral director was extremely excited to hear my voice because it’s hard to find basses and that’s very much needed in choir. So he was a huge inspiration for me and a huge advocate for me. He helped me realize how different it was and how I could utilize it. I owe a lot to him, definitely.

It sounds like music education in your school is a cornerstone of your development.

That’s huge for me. Now I run a summer camp for high schoolers based around harmony and a cappella, music, songwriting, and all that, because that was such a huge inspiration to me. It changed the course of my whole life. It’s always been something that’s been important for me. Before I joined the group I was on track to be a choral director. I was also studying opera, but being a choral director was the dream, just because it had such an impact on me.

Was country music an influence for you growing up?

I didn’t listen to actual country, like Garth Brooks and that type of thing, but I loved bluegrass. I loved John Denver. Bluegrass is more of what I listened to when I was younger. And the Sons of the Pioneers, old-school country. There was actually a band in my hometown that was very similar to them called that Sons of the San Joaquin that I listened to a lot.

What was your entrance point into bluegrass?

I really started delving into it when I was a bit older. What’s funny is that I got on the Bluegrass Situation’s YouTube channel and I just went down a rabbit hole. I was blown away by some of the newgrass that was going on, and by some of the old-school. I think one of my favorite videos that you did was the one of Tim O’Brien. That blew me away. I love it so much! I would watch it all the time.

Then I started getting into Hot Rize, and an album with Tim O’Brien with Darrell Scott, and then I got into Elephant Revival, then Mandolin Orange, and I kept going down and down and down. I really delved into it and fell in love with it even more because it felt like my roots. I had grown up with that kind of thing, but I had gotten into more of the contemporary modern folk with Iron & Wine and Bon Iver.

I’m a huge fan of bluegrass and I tell people all the time that bluegrass musicians are world-class musicians. They are truly virtuosic. So unbelievably talented. It’s amazing to hear music that I love with such virtuosic musicians. That is something that is always very inspiring to me – a musician’s musician, someone who is really amazing at their craft. And that is definitely what bluegrass is about.

I wanted to ask about auditioning people for your band. What are you looking for when you pick a band?

I’m always looking for vocals. Harmonies. That’s the most important thing to me. Especially with my music, it’s not the toughest stuff to do, instrumentally speaking. With this album, the drums are actually more complex than I thought they were going to be, but at the end of the day, it’s nothing crazy. The harmonies are really where I’m looking for the strength. Yeah, that’s it – harmonies, 100 percent, all the way.

Photo credit: Bree Marie Fish

WATCH: Laurie Lewis, “Troubled Times” (Feat. Leah Wollenberg)

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Artist: Laurie Lewis
Hometown: Berkeley, California
Song: “Troubled Times”
Album: and Laurie Lewis
Release Date: March 27, 2020

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Troubled Times’ about twenty years ago, I think, in other troubled times than we are experiencing now. But I never sang the song out in public more than about three times. I honestly feel like I was waiting for the right ‘voice to sing in harmony,’ and when Leah and I started singing together, I think I found my match. I have been friends with her parents (jazz guitarist Mike Wollenberg and artist Jenny Bloomfield) since before she was born, and have known her since then, watching her grow into a fearless jazz violinist and terrific Irish fiddler. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but when I heard her sing a piece of a song sitting around the dinner table one night, my ears really perked up. Maybe it’s because Leah has heard my voice her whole life that she is able to get a positively familial blend. Whatever it is, I’ll take it.” — Laurie Lewis

Photo credit: Jeff Fasano

BGS 5+5: Anna Lynch

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Artist: Anna Lynch
Hometown: Sebastopol, California
Latest Album: Apples in the Fall EP
Release Date: March 13, 2020
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My name is pretty short so I have never really had a nickname… although when trying to get my attention both my mother and friends will use my middle name. Nothing quite like hearing someone yell “Margarita!” across a room. My middle name is really Margarita, and it was my grandmother’s first name.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Patty Griffin, hands down. I heard a song that was included on some American folk compilation in high school, then bought her 1000 Kisses album and walked the tiny streets of my hometown crying about some boy who didn’t love me back while simultaneously begging the universe to let me be her when I grew up and moved away from that town.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Honestly, though I have been on stage a lot, the memory that will be with me forever is playing the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley with my dad when I was 5. My dad was always a musician and performed a lot. Being a kid I just thought he hung the moon and jumped at the chance to perform my favorite Bob Reid song at the open mic my dad played every week.

We had agreed to split the words, until dad, mid-song, left me hanging to finish the song by myself. I remember being angry he didn’t feed me the words like he said he would, but then I remember the crowd cheering and feeling proud of myself. Call it an addiction, a bug, a calling. My dad knew exactly what he was doing. He probably created a monster.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I am secretly a huge WWII history buff. My great uncle was in the war and left me with an amazing curiosity for the life he lived before I met him. He was also a lifelong artist, and though most of his works were abstract paintings, while he was in the war he would sketch the people and scenery around him. We have notebooks upon notebooks of sketches he made during that time; some are even made on the backs of old maps. In a weird twist of interest I have started embroidering these sketches. It’s relaxing in a way and also a way to connect with him a bit.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Oh man, the ones you haven’t heard yet… Songs are like little word children you let into the world, some you wish you had worked on more before you let them out into the big scary world, some come out as they should and some just don’t see the light of day.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I have written a few “story” songs. I use them as more a vehicle than anything. It is really hard to create an emotive work and perform it like a song, like a conversation, if you come right out of the gate saying, “Hi, my name is Anna, I’m a little depressed but that’s OK, also I love walking on a beach for hours alone, hoppy beer, sad songs, staying up late, waking up before anyone else in the house, WWII documentaries, dark jokes, old wood, playing acoustic bass, strong coffee, cotton sweaters, salted butter, gas stoves, handmade mugs and watching who splits the last cookie on the plate in half….” Not exactly a place to start a conversation. I use story songs as a sort of place to hide real things in plain sight. I hide little bits to make it both more “palatable” for me and more relatable to an audience.

Photo credit: Jessie McCall – Little Green Eyes Media

LISTEN: Love Me in the Dark, “Old Soul”

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Artist: Love Me in the Dark
Hometown: Venice, California
Song: “Old Soul”
Album: Love Me in the Dark
Release Date: February 14, 2020

In Their Words: “‘Old Soul’ was written in Nashville, in our friend Keb’ Mo’s home studio. Steve had been messing around in a new guitar tuning (borrowed from Ry Cooder) and the song flowed from there. The lyrics are inspired by several of our hallowed places, the North Woods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and other forests that still contain ‘old growth.’ The language was chosen to sound hymn-like and spiritual. It was also important that the recording be authentic and traditional sounding, while still fresh. It starts with a capella vocals, the signature Love Me in the Dark interwoven harmony, sparse and vulnerable, and grew gradually with the addition of elements like steel guitar, upright bass, harmonium and piano, a treatment that made it the perfect opening track for this debut album.” — Heather Donovan, Love Me in the Dark

Photo credit: Thomas Brodahl