Tag: New York City

LISTEN: Claire Hawkins, “The Name”

Posted on by Justin Hiltner

Artist: Claire Hawkins
Hometown: New York, New York
Song: “The Name”
Album: The Name
Release Date: August 4, 2023

In Their Words: “My music has taken me to some incredible places over the years. From a DIY European tour performing in youth hostels and shooting music videos in Ireland, to recording demos in Thailand and writing songs as an artist-in-residence in France, I’m certainly no stranger to being on the move. I wrote this song in my hometown of New York City during a period of transition following two years living in Dublin, Ireland. ‘The Name’ came from a place of yearning and addressing the challenges that come from following your personal North Star, even when it leads you away from the pack. Coming home after a long time away is always an interesting moment for reflection, and one of the perks of being a songwriter is getting to reflect on these moments again and again.” – Claire Hawkins

Photo Credit: Geraldine Smyth

LISTEN: Melanie MacLaren, “Tourist”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Melanie MacLaren
Hometown: New York, New York
Song: “Tourist”
Album: Tourist
Release Date: April 20, 2023

In Their Words: “I wrote ‘Tourist’ for my nieces and nephews during a time when we were all grieving an unimaginable loss in our family. Most of the songs I’d written during that period were songs I kept to myself because they just felt bleak and counterproductive, and I thought if I was going to write about this at all (and go so far as to record it), I should write a song that lyrically and musically provides some comfort; otherwise it felt wrong. Overall the song is here to say that most everything is temporary, but that there are some things out there that we don’t understand that are true and eternal.

“The love between a parent and child I think can be one of those things — it stays with you when you leave or when the person that loved you leaves. If it’s true, then it stays. The title is kind of a riff on that, talking about something serious in a really corny way. All the songs on the record deal with similar themes — memory, family, loss — and when I wrote this song I realized that they’re all actually about grief in some way or other, and learning how to come to terms with loss by ascribing value to things that are fleeting. Because all things are, but that doesn’t make them pointless.” — Melanie MacLaren

Melanie MacLaren · Tourist (unreleased)

Photo Credit: Liza Epprecht

LISTEN: Jono Manson, “Make It Through to Spring”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jono Manson
Hometown: New York City (currently living in Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Song: “Make It Through to Spring”
Album: Stars Enough To Guide Me
Release Date: March 31, 2023
Label: Blue Rose

In Their Words: “The seed for this song came in the depths of last winter, during a particularly cold spell while I was bundled up, taking our dog for her morning walk. While passing along the banks of the Santa Fe river, I noticed water still flowing, under the ice. I took this as a reminder that even in the darkest days of winter new life lies waiting, under the ice, beneath the frozen ground. I wrote most of the lyric that day. I then sent what I had to my long-time collaborator George Breakfast who lives in London, and we passed it back and forth until the song was done.” — Jono Manson

Photo Credit: William Coupon

WATCH: Nefesh Mountain, “Revival”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Nefesh Mountain
Hometown: New York City
Song: “Revival”
Album: Revival: The East Nashville Sessions (Spring 2023)
Label: Eden Sky Music

In Their Words: “We’ve gone through so much these past few years, both as a band and as a family! We released two albums, welcomed our baby girl Willow into the world, and toured all while slowly turning the sonic dial of our sound and live shows, adding more extended solos, compositions, and jams. I kept hearing drums and electric guitars in our music, and maybe it’s having this beautiful baby in our lives but I keep going back to the music that I grew up on — bluegrass, yes, and also Hendrix, The Beatles, Zeppelin, Dylan, and The Allman Brothers! I always say there are no rules to our music, no boxes we need to be stuck in, and ‘Revival’ is the first of many new songs and sounds for us in 2023 and beyond.” — Eric Lindberg, Nefesh Mountain

“We live in a world with so much blatant antisemitism and racism, but despite this hate we wanted to pick up thematically where our last album left off — singing nonetheless from a place of love, forward motion, and hope. ‘Revival’ is a classic Allman Brothers tune that we’ve always loved and responded to … about radical LOVE and how music can bring us together. The line that spoke to us the most was ‘We’re in a revolution, don’t you know we’re right. When everyone is singing, there will be no one left to fight.'” — Doni Zasloff, Nefesh Mountain

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

LISTEN: Matthew Check, “Old Wooden Floor”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Matthew Check
Hometown: Newtown, Pennsylvania
Song: “Old Wooden Floor”
Album: Without a Throne
Release Date: September 30, 2022

In Their Words: “Just the other week on August 17, 2022, I celebrated eight years of sobriety and ‘Old Wooden Floor’ is the first song I’ve ever written exclusively about my life as a drinker before I got sober. Unlike some of my songs where I take liberties with things that have happened to me, or where I might obscure certain details with esoterics, the story in ‘Old Wooden Floor’ is basically an autobiographical recounting of what my daily life was like in the final months of my drinking.

“My alcoholism was progressive. For much of my early adult life, I was able to have fun and handle my affairs well. But by my early 30s the hangovers and blackouts were not only awful, but got seemingly worse with every day, week and month that transpired. I knew on a certain level that I wasn’t in control of my own actions anymore. I’d wake up hungover, promising myself not to drink again, only to repeat the same behavior.

“The lyric in the song, ‘Those neon lights are calling / At the corner liquor store’ is literally about the liquor store on the corner of East 90th Street and Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just by my old apartment. And the lyric, ‘Like the sirens in their mystery on some far distant shore / There’s nobody left to tie me down…’ describes how it was for me. No matter how much I wanted to stop drinking, due to events that had transpired on a previous evening (sometimes because I couldn’t even remember what had happened the night before, in fact), I always felt compelled by some indescribable darkness and loneliness inside of me that was comforted by getting drunk.

“Many years later, as a sober musician, I consider myself lucky that spending time around alcohol often doesn’t bother me (that isn’t always the case with some). In the beginning as I was figuring out life without alcohol, it was of course difficult. But once I finally redirected my habits and activities, I found not only that I could play music without drinking, but that I was an even better musician without any alcohol at all. For me this is one of the greatest gifts of sobriety because more than any other thing in the world, I am a musician and a songwriter.” — Matthew Check

Photo Credit: Natia Cinco

WATCH: Fantastic Cat, “Ain’t This the Strangest Town”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Fantastic Cat (Don DiLego, Brian Dunne, Anthony D’Amato, Mike Montali)
Hometown: New York, New York
Song: “Ain’t This the Strangest Town”
Album: The Very Best of Fantastic Cat
Release Date: July 29, 2022
Label: Blue Rose Music

In Their Words: “‘Ain’t This the Strangest Town’ is one of those songs that came pretty quick after a late night out in New York City. It’s sort of a love song to all the incredible strangers we meet not only there, but in all of our towns, big and small. The germ of the Fantastic Cat idea had just started and it felt like a song that played to the strengths of the band and everyone’s abilities to swap instruments and contribute on so many levels together. We only did a couple takes and what you hear is pretty much everyone picking up the closest instrument and figuring it out in real time. It was a great bonding day for the band in the studio.” — Don DiLego, Fantastic Cat

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

Basic Folk – Steve Forbert

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Steve Forbert is not a dramatic person. His stories are fairly straightforward even though he’s lived a pretty incredible life, which began in Meridian, MS as a young musician.

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In the hometown of Jimmie Rodgers, Steve found a great guitar teacher in Virginia Shine Harvey, who claimed she was a relation to the famous singing brakeman. Ms. Harvey taught Steve music through performance and connected him to other young musicians in the area, who then went on to form a couple of bands. He left his town for New York City in his early 20’s where he pounded the pavement as a singer-songwriter for a couple years before catching a break. During his climb upwards, Forbert found acceptance in New York’s punk scene, especially at the historic CBGB’s where club owner Hilly Kristal gave him a chance and introduced him to his manager. From there, Steve went on to start making records. His second album, Jackrabbit Slim, gave him his hit song, “Romeo’s Tune,” which he credits giving him his career and “a ticket into the show.” He’s releasing his latest, Moving Through America, with more character studies and focuses on life’s oddities.

It’s not easy to get Steve to talk about himself and his reflections, but he’s up for giving it a shot. He wrote a memoir in 2018, Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock, which sounds like it was a challenge for him to revisit and write about his past – not because it seems like it was filled with mistakes and scandal, but because it was sooo much about himself. He seems grateful for the opportunity to still have a career and does not take it for granted. He also makes some very hip and hot music references in our conversation: like bringing up rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Jack Harlow. Color me impressed, Steve Forbert is watching the Billboard Hot 100.

Photo Credit: Marcus Maddox

Basic Folk – Amy Correia

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

LA-based singer-songwriter Amy Correia will tell you that she is not a prolific writer, which… okay maybe she doesn’t write a million songs in one year, but holy crap, those songs and that voice will wallop you. Originally from Lakeville, Massachusetts, Amy’s musical roots lay in New York City’s Lower East Side in a scene that produced Jeff Buckley, Richard Julian and Jesse Harris.

 

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She discovered her musical voice while recovering from a back injury her junior year of college. She was actually a big fan of laying in bed and doing nothing but writing songs and playing around on her guitar. After college, she was playing around and got offered a major label deal, recorded an album with seven different producers and countless musicians, left her label and signed another deal, which would eventually become the place where she released her debut, Carnival Love, in the year 2000. Another album followed in 2004 (fan funded) and another in 2010 (also fan funded). She opened for big acts like Chrissie Hynde, John Hiatt, Richard Thompson and Marc Cohn. She started living in Boston, fully embraced by “a collective of musicians who uplifted her with their creative camaraderie,” which included Kimon Kirk who turned out to be one of her most important friends and collaborators.

Kimon encouraged Amy to record this new batch of songs on her latest release, the EP As We Are, which just came out in March 2022. During our conversation, Amy revealed that the recording session took place in 2015, but she wasn’t ready to release the music until now. Kimon had persuaded her to revisit the songs during the pandemic and the plan was set in motion for the EP. We also discussed Amy’s connection to spirituality, her affinity and experience in the theater world and letting go of control. She also opens up about her relationship to her singing voice, which is so special and always digs deep in me every time I hear it. I hope you enjoy this wonderful and vulnerable conversation with Amy Correia!

Photo Credit: Chris Strother

WATCH: Abbie Gardner, “Born in the City”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Abbie Gardner
Hometown: Jersey City, New Jersey
Song: “Born in the City”
Album: DobroSinger
Release Date: May 13, 2022

In Their Words: “This song started with the lick — a slinky little chromatic pattern I’d been messing around with on Dobro. I brought it to Will Kimbrough and we built the song around it. He had just warmed up some rice & beans for lunch when I’d arrived. We got to talking about our mutual love of Ry Cooder and other influences. I told him how I grew up near NYC, in a community that celebrated cultural differences as something special. All of these things ended up in the song, happily! I like that this song brings together a back-porch vibe with some big-city chromatic slide guitar licks. The contrasting combination is kind of like me — playing this traditionally male bluegrass instrument, but doing it as a woman, in Jersey City within view of the Empire State Building.” — Abbie Gardner

Photo Credit: Neale Eckstein

GIVEAWAY: Enter to Win Tickets to Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves @ Irish Arts Center (NYC) 3/19

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Grab tickets to the rest of the festivities at the Bluegrass Situation Presents: A St. Patrick’s Day Festival at New York’s New Irish Arts Center, with de Groot and Hargreaves participating in an opening night jam session with fiddler-banjoist Jake Blount and traditional dancer Nic Gareiss on March 17 as well as a headlining show from Blount and Gareiss on March 18.