Tag: Los Angeles

LISTEN: Shane Alexander, “Everything as One”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Shane Alexander
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Everything as One”
Album: A Life Like Ours
Release Date: September 20, 2019

In Their Words: “I wrote the song with my good buddy and Grammy-winning producer, Rich Jacques. I came up with the guitar figure right away and we tried to put together stream of consciousness lyrics about how everything is connected. I had been listening to a lot of George Harrison’s solo stuff. The first few lines, ‘Eyes are wide with wonder, never torn asunder, all things come in threes’ just popped out and we were set off in a direction of listing in groups of threes, i.e. ‘Earth and sky and sea, moon and star and sun,’ etc. The production all centers around the guitar.” — Shane Alexander

Photo credit: Matt Pink

LISTEN: Staci Griesbach, “Blue Moon of Kentucky”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Staci Griesbach
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
Album: My Patsy Cline Songbook

In Their Words: “This classic country staple from Bill Monroe is one that has been covered by so many artists, we wanted to really take it in a new direction by adding more of a funk beat to it. The tempo and groove allow for the musicians to really dig in, and whenever I’m listening back to this, I find myself in the groove completely. Michele Weir helped me with the arrangement and first we started with the bass line. I knew I wanted something funky, but also that we could incorporate pedal steel, guitar and fiddle. Once we had that groove established with the bass line, we knew we had it.

“As I’m thinking about it, it could also be fun to do a little traditional bluegrass feel up front and then go into the funk or vice versa for the solos. Perhaps that’s something I’ll think about for the live performances. Again, to me, a good song can present a playground for many interpretations and that’s the joy of creativity right there at its purest form.” — Staci Griesbach

Photo credit: Kim Thiel

The Show On The Road – Leslie Stevens

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

The Show On The Road is back with cosmic California country singer-songwriter, Leslie Stevens.

LISTEN: APPLE PODCASTS • MP3

Host Z. Lupetin speaks with the deeply intuitive songwriter and cosmic country singer. On her much-awaited solo album, Sinner, Stevens has been creating viscerally vulnerable songs that, with her shimmering voice, seem to ache right through the speakers.

LISTEN: Anna Vogelzang, “Icarus”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Anna Vogelzang
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Icarus”
Album: Beacon
Release Date: August 9, 2019; Beacon releases October 4, 2019
Label: Paper Anchor Music

In Their Words: “‘Icarus’ came from a place of reveling in self-acceptance. We can spend so much of our lives looking outward — at something we want that we can’t have, at someone who seems to be doing better than we are, or even at a hypothetical future when things will be better, or maybe just different. The first line of the song hit me all at once — and seemed like the perfect way to practice presence. This song felt like it was showing up as a celebration of acceptance, an anthem about being ok with where you’re at.

We are saturated in a deep culture of wanting what others have — but if you stop to assess, is that something that you want for yourself? Did you even really want it in the first place? I feel like more than half of the time I didn’t. I’d just convinced myself that I did. I feel like the day I wrote this, the universe was telling me, “This is where you’re at. This is it, right now — why not celebrate it?” — Anna Vogelzang

Photo credit: Carla Coffing

WATCH: Manda Mosher, “Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Manda Mosher
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Single: “Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore”
Single Release Date: July 26, 2019
Label: Blackbird Record Label

In Their Words: “When I first heard John Moreland’s album In the Throes, his honest songwriting and delivery hit hard. ‘Nobody Gives a Damn About Songs Anymore’ resonated strongly with me as a songwriter and [it’s] a song I wanted to perform and record with CALICO the band. It didn’t come to fruition then, but made a lot of sense to record for my new solo record, which we’re making in my studio as my first run out as a co-producer with Eric Craig. You can pour your heart out into song to have it be either quickly consumed or ignored in the fast pace of our age… and then you add in the factors of the public at times being more interested in flashy appearances or production than the quality of a song itself which can bring on this feeling. BUT this song pretty much proves itself wrong because it’s so damn good.” — Manda Mosher

Photo credit: Shots by Morrison
Directed by: Bob Wayne
Edited by: Bob Wayne & Eric Craig

LISTEN: Valley Queen, “Razorblade” and “In the Garden”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Valley Queen
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Razorblade” // “In the Garden”
Album: Supergiant (Deluxe Edition)
Release Date: June 28, 2019
Label: Roll Call Records

In Their Words: “We have been looking forward to releasing these tracks, as they were recorded in the same sessions as our debut album, Supergiant. This pairing felt like the cool-down songs of the record and were recorded last, eventually [carving] it down to just the 12-string guitar and vocals on ‘In the Garden.’ They were some of the first written in various down and open tunings on the guitar, serving as our kind of working homage to [Led Zeppelin’s] ‘Rain Song.’ ‘Razorblade’ explores the entanglement of shame, intimacy, beauty, and dependency. ‘In the Garden’ meditates on feminine tranquility and experiential states of being.” — Natalie Carol, Valley Queen

Photo credit: Mark Cluney