Tag: Los Angeles
LISTEN: Shane Alexander, “Everything as One”
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
GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win Tickets to The Dead South @ the Belasco Theater (LA) 11/27
LISTEN: Staci Griesbach, “Blue Moon of Kentucky”
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
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.
GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win Tickets to Mandolin Orange @ The Theatre at Ace Hotel (LA) 1/11
LISTEN: Anna Vogelzang, “Icarus”
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”
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
