Tag: Los Angeles
WATCH: Ethan Sherman, “Cup & Porch” (Live)
Artist: Ethan Sherman
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Song: “Cup & Porch”
Album: Indoor Vistas
Release Date: March 4, 2022
In Their Words: “This is one of the first tunes I wrote for this record. Broadly, it’s inspired by some musical ideas I’ve picked up listening to folks like Bryan Sutton and Béla Fleck over the years. One of the many things I love about their composing is the way they take timeless fiddle-tune-y themes through rhythmic mazes that seem totally arbitrary at first, but reveal themselves to be deceptively melody-driven the more you listen. That’s something I tried to do with this tune, as well as give everyone lots of room to improvise and play off each other within the arrangement.
“This new record (Indoor Vistas) was tracked remotely over lockdown, so this video session was one of the first times I’ve played these tunes with other musicians, in the same room, in real time! Joining me in this video are Gabe Witcher on fiddle, Greg Fleischut on mandolin, and Tim McNalley on bass. The album version features McNalley, Thomas Cassell, Matthew Davis, and Avery Merritt.” — Ethan Sherman
Photo Credit: Evan Zee
WATCH: Haroula Rose, “Time’s Fool”
Artist: Haroula Rose
Hometown: Chicago, now LA
Song: “Time’s Fool”
Album: Catch the Light
Release Date: June 2022
Label: Little Bliss/Tonetree
In Their Words: “It feels like so much about love has also to do with timing, not only in the external world but in our internal worlds, our own emotional maps so to speak. Sometimes we are open to things more fully, and other times we are not, but wish we could be or could have been. So this song is, in a sense, a plea for someone to be patient with one’s heart, having the knowledge that you might not be ready but want to be and could be, that becoming more intimate with someone is scary but beautiful sometimes and so requires some extra time or care.
“I wrote this song in the UK with Geoff Martyn during a songwriting residency in Sussex. It was quiet which is fitting since it is inspired by the Shakespeare Sonnet 116 that is perhaps most familiar to people from Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, which is one of my absolute favorite films:
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
“Molly Parden is singing the harmonies and callbacks. I love Molly’s voice so much. Trying some more close and dissonant harmonies felt really cool and organic. You can also hear me fingerpicking on the guitar, Omar Velasco on the second/higher guitar part, and the inimitable Greg Leisz on the pedal steel. I was so excited to have this group of musicians on this track.” — Haroula Rose
Photo Credit: Logan Fahey
WATCH: Sam Weber, “Here’s to the Future”
Artist: Sam Weber
Hometown: North Saanich, BC, Canada
Song: “Here’s to The Future”
Album: Get Free
Release Date: February 4, 2022
Label: Sonic Unyon
In Their Words: “Every album cycle brings one song that cuts me right to the core. Like a three-year cross-section of every complex life moment laid bare in the simplest words. Through confronting my deepest, heaviest truths through these songs I am able to see the world in a new way. ‘Here’s to the Future’ was that song for me, but also a toast and a prayer to the better and brighter days ahead. The first verse is sort of about leaving home and running from pain. The video is a compilation of Super 8 footage we took on some of my many drives from British Columbia, where I’m from, to LA where I am now.” — Sam Weber
Photo Credit: Jacob Boll
WATCH: Portair, “Alaska”
Artist: Portair
Hometown: Los Angeles via Australia
Song: “Alaska”
Album: The Ice That Breaks
Release Date: December 3, 2021
Label: Nettwerk
In Their Words: “The opening lyric is ‘I’ve never seen an Alaskan sky, I want to see it before I die.’ This song is written about my desire to be with nature, to be disconnected from the insane distractions and terrible habits of the modern world, and to be connected to the real world, which is nature. It’s about pursuing your dreams and truly living a life that is fulfilling. Sometimes we need to get away from the city and deal with our trauma in a way that comes naturally. It’s about living the best life you can, before you die.” — Portair
Photo Credit: Ashley Osborn
LISTEN: Carrie Biell, “California Baby”
Artist: Carrie Biell
Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Song: “California Baby”
Album: We Get Along
Release Date: February 11, 2022
In Their Words: “This is my pandemic song about feeling cooped up and isolated. I was missing travel and being around loved ones. I wanted to write a song that would feel good to listen to on a road trip in hopes it would give me a sense of traveling. I’m from California and had been feeling a lot of nostalgia for the state and missing my friends and family down there. I’ve always wanted to write a tribute to California and this was a fun one to write during a pandemic.” — Carrie Biell
Photo Credit: Cat Biell (Carrie’s twin sister)
LISTEN: The Whitmore Sisters, “The Ballad of Sissy & Porter”
Artist: The Whitmore Sisters
Hometown: residing in Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, California; from Denton, Texas
Song: “The Ballad of Sissy & Porter”
Album: Ghost Stories
Release Date: January 21, 2022
Label: Red House Records
In Their Words: “Several of the songs on Ghost Stories were inspired from the loss of friends. I penned this tune with Bonnie Montgomery via The House of Songs and it was inspired by the love and close friendship of Chris Porter, a singer-songwriter who died tragically on tour in 2016. Porter was many things to a lot of people, but his humor and his ability to spin a yarn was pretty remarkable. Even when you were present in the events of the story, Porter had a way of telling it that always seemed more interesting than what my mind could recall. The tall tales of Porter live on in the song that is dressed in Cajun fiddle from my sister Eleanor and accordion from Dirk Powell.” – Bonnie Whitmore
Photo Credit: Vanessa Dingwell
WATCH: Trousdale, “Always, Joni”
Artist: Trousdale
Hometown: Los Angeles BUT we’re all originally from different places (Georgia from Los Angeles; Lauren from Bay City, Michigan; Quinn from Saratoga Springs, New York)
Song: “Always, Joni”
Album: What Happiness Is
Release Date: November 12, 2021
In Their Words: “For me, ‘Always, Joni’ is about how a great song at the right time can break your heart in the best kind of way. I always sing it with a bit of joy mixed amongst the sadness, because Joni [Mitchell]’s music truly does break my heart and I can’t help but love it every time.” — Lauren
“I was going through a terrible heartbreak when we wrote this song. The thought of knowing that this person was going on living their life without the thought of me filled me with such a complicated emotion, I couldn’t see outside the pain. To me, ‘Always, Joni’ is a the release of suffering through the strength of honesty.” — Georgia
“When you have a band with three songwriters, you end up having certain songs that pull from an experience you yourself haven’t gone through. ‘Always, Joni’ feels like a song that doesn’t quite belong to me, but I can feel the pain that the three of us have collectively shared about, as well as all the joy and love and loss and pain that bleed out of Joni’s songs. To me, this song is a dedication to both Lauren and Georgia, and to Joni.” — Quinn
Photo credit: Caity Krone
The Show on the Road – Pokey LaFarge
This week, we bring you an in-depth dive with vintage roots-n-soul excavator and beloved Illinois-born songwriter Pokey LaFarge. With his trusty guitar on his lap during the talk, taped in his LA breakfast nook, we go through the making of his funky and cheerful new LP, In the Blossom of Their Shade.
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For the last decade and change, Pokey LaFarge (born Andrew Heissler in Bloomington-Normal) has crisscrossed the globe making his own brand of historic-minded, literary-tinged folk blues. Europe, especially, has become a second home. From his fashion sense, to his high-cutting delivery, LaFarge seems like he could have stepped out of a road show with Hank Williams and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and yet, rock luminaries like Jack White saw something deeper than just a player of old-time covers.
Out on his own from a young age, Pokey began busking to get by and soon teamed up with the South City Three to create his first run of albums in 2009. Opening for White got LaFarge in front of huge crowds, and standout records like the danceable Something In The Water (2015) and the darker Rock Bottom Rhapsody (2020) saw him transition from front-porch country folk to muscular jangly rock-n-soul.
If there are a few things that helped the new release In The Blossom of Their Shade come to be, they may have been falling in love again, rediscovering his faith in a higher power, and taking plenty of power naps during his songwriting sessions. During the pandemic, Pokey also began helping the local homeless community in LA.
Stick around to hear an exclusive acoustic performance of his single, “Get It ’Fore It’s Gone.”
Photo credit: Eliot Lee Hazel
WATCH: Katie Cole, “Short Story Long”
Artist: Katie Cole
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia, and lives in Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Short Story Long”
Release Date: October 15, 2021
In Their Words: “I wrote this song hoping to channel some old school Aretha and Otis, but applying a little more rootsy instrumentation. Honestly, it’s the first song I’ve penned where I take back my power in a relationship and call a spade a spade. I’ve had my share of relationships where I have tolerated too much for too long. So being familiar with the phrase of making a long story short, where you cut to the chase, I started thinking, ‘What if I could flip that to a short story long?’ where things get dragged out. Right then I knew this would have to be a fun and sassy song that really contrasts with my more acoustic and sparse songs. Luckily when my producer Howard Willing and I started tracking, he managed to bring in Cheap Trick’s bass player Tom Petersson to play on this song. I am really proud of this one!” — Katie Cole
Photo credit: Dire Image
