Tag: singer songwriter

LISTEN: Kimberly Morgan York, “Another Lover”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Kimberly Morgan York
Hometown: Athens, Georgia
Song: “Another Lover”
Album: Keep on Goin’
Release Date: July 22, 2022

In Their Words: “You know rock ‘n’ roll and marriage is a difficult combination and always a little messy. This song was inspired by a workplace romance that occurred during a long separation from my then-husband. I was ready to leave the marriage, but we decided not to give up…to work things out. When we did, I had to put an end to the affair. The object of my short-lived affection was very quick to find my replacement….who happened to be another musician. I’m pretty sure that romance didn’t go very far or last very long either, but it broke my heart a little bit. The marriage for which I left the tryst also did not last.” — Kimberly Morgan York

Team Clermont · Kimberly Morgan York – “Another Lover”

Photo Credit: Adam Smith

BGS 5+5: The Bros. Landreth

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Artist: The Bros. Landreth
Hometown: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Latest Album: Come Morning

Answers provided by Joey Landreth

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

The answer to this question is different for Dave than it is for me. Dave came to music when he was a little bit older. Myself on the the other hand, I knew that I wanted to play music from a very early age. I remember telling my kindergarten teacher that I was going to be a keyboard player in a band when I grew up.

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

I struggle with writing a lot. I am very proud of our catalog of songs but I find songwriting to be the hardest thing about being an artist. Dave and I both got our starts in music as for-hire musicians. Side people. As such, I think we are more fluent expressing ourselves musically through our instruments and performing than through writing. So, I guess the short answer is the toughest time writing is every time writing!

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

We always do vocal warm ups. It’s something we started doing pre-show back in 2014 and have kept going since. Sometimes we’ll warm up for 15 minutes or sometimes for 45 minutes but we always do a little warming up.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

The best advice I ever got was from one of my mentors, Steve Bell. He said to me in the early days, “Don’t worry about making music for a particular person in mind. Make music for yourself first and then put your energy into finding likeminded folks.”

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

Not that often actually, though I do understand the impulse to do that! I write almost exclusively from the first person. As I mentioned before, writing songs is not my first language and I feel like telling stories about my own experiences or slight dramatizations of my own experiences to be far easier to tap into than stories that exist outside of myself. Or at least that’s how it feels for me!

Photo Credit: BnB Studios

Basic Folk – John Doe

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

John Doe’s career has gone from poetry to punk to country to acting to punk to folk and back again several times. Frontman for the extremely influential LA punk band X, John was there at the dawn of West Coast punk and has written about it (twice) in his books Under the Big Black Sun and More Fun in the New World. He actually sourced out most of the books’ chapters and had his friends and other people who were there give accounts, which makes them both pretty well rounded.

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John grew up mostly in Baltimore, under the influence of John Waters and Divine. He worked odd jobs and ran a poetry group there. He’d moved to Los Angeles in the mid 70’s and met his future X bandmates Exene, Billy Zoom and D.J. Bonebrake. John’s been in countless films and TV shows since 1987. He kind of stumbled into acting by getting an agent after he was in the indie film Border Radio. You may have seen him in films like Road House or Boogie Nights or series like Carnivale. He’s lived in Austin, Texas since 2017 and loves to tell people it’s terrible, so that no one else moves there.

John Doe’s latest album Fables in a Foreign Land takes place in the 1890’s and surrounds a young man who’s found himself alone in a cruel hard world. The album’s sound was developed through weekly jam sessions in his bassist’s backyard. This time around, John’s played up his interest in folk and roots music, all the while keeping that punk sensibility. He says, “These songs take place alone, wandering, searching and hungry accompanied by horses not machines.” And speaking of horses, John’s got a couple and it seems they’ve kept him grounded especially during the pandemic, so yeah, I ask the guy about his horses. That and we also talk about controlling the ego, listening to intuition, taking care of your physical health and his cameo in The Bodyguard (yes the Whitney Houston movie). Thanks Joe Doe!

Photo Credit: Todd V. Wolfson

WATCH: Ash & Eric, “Never Walking Out”

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Artist: Ash & Eric
Hometown: Worcester, Massachusetts
Song: “Never Walking Out”
Album: Sure
Release Date: May 6, 2022
Label: TPIH Music

In Their Words: “‘Never Walking Out’ is a snapshot story of the 60-year marriage between Eric’s grandparents (Dick & Brenda). Inspired by the performances of June & Johnny Cash, we unflinchingly address our highs and lows of life shared over decades. We imbued it with candor and humor so listeners can imagine a lively conversation as though we’re sitting across a table sharing a couple beers or cups of tea. The video features actual studio footage of our many takes at Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Massachusetts. One of our fans’ favorites, the heartbeat of this song, as with all songs on our new album, is our honest attempt to capture our dynamic chemistry, recorded in real time using just four microphones. After grabbing our favorite take, Eric added additional instrumentation including upright bass, high-strung guitar, percussion, and Mellotron to fill out a folk singer-songwriter vibe reminiscent of yesteryear. It was a very fun and cathartic process.” — Ash L’Esperance

Photo Credit: Tommy Vo

LISTEN: Kevin Andrew Prchal, “American Oblivion”

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Artist: Kevin Andrew Prchal
Hometown: Chicago
Song: “American Oblivion”
Album: Unknowing
Release Date: May 27, 2022

In Their Words: “I’m proud to call America my home. Its freedoms have afforded me experiences and opportunities so many around the world could only dream of. Its music changed me and set me down an infinite path of discovery and inspiration. Its people raised me, instilling in me values that are timeless and resilient. And its history, while stained, decorated with stories of courage, dissent and progress.

“But no matter which way you look at it, the past few years have been a sad chapter in American history. The pettiness, the righteousness, the abhorrent meanness displayed by everyone from strangers on the street, to quote-tweeting trolls, to the most celebrated public and political figures. And perhaps most concerning, the complete disregard for human life throughout what should have been a unifying front against a devastating global pandemic. Who or what you choose to blame for how we got here depends on where you get your news, but all I know is this place has been utterly unrecognizable.

“And so rather than dissolving into the outrage and noise, I did what any sensitive guy with a guitar would do: I found a quiet room and wrote a song about it. It’s a silly song. Absurd, even. But as the great Nina Simone once said, it’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times. How we move forward from this moment in oblivion, I don’t know. But there’s hope in remembering one thing: America’s story is still being written.” — Kevin Andrew Prchal

Photo Credit: Brett Rhoades

LISTEN: Adia Victoria, “In the Pines”

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Artist: Adia Victoria
Hometown: Mauldin, South Carolina; now Nashville
Song: “In the Pines”
Release Date: May 17, 2022

In Their Words: “In 2019, I spent an afternoon poring over the journal I kept during my junior year of high school in Mauldin, SC. Revisiting the frustrations and observations of my 16-year-old self would lead to the creation of ‘In the Pines’ — a song that tells the story of a teenage girl from a small conservative town whose slow slide towards self-destruction is recounted by her best friend. It is the all-too-familiar story of how young women desperately search in vain for escape from totalizing ideologies that define their lives and the lives around them. It is a young girl’s quest for autonomy via rebellion over her life. Failing that, she will ultimately have autonomy over her own death. The song centers the stories of those who fall victim to the ideologies of emotionally stunted men. I dedicate ‘In the Pines’ to every teenage girl who is desperately scratching at the walls of ideological imprisonment. It is a song that I hope reminds them that they are not alone in their hunt for freedom.” — Adia Victoria

Photo Credit: Huy Nguyen

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

LISTEN: Jess Jocoy, “Living in a Dying Town”

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Artist: Jess Jocoy
Hometown: Nashville via Bonney Lake, Washington
Song: “Living in a Dying Town”
Album: Let There Be No Despair
Release Date: May 20, 2022

In Their Words: “I had the honor of attending a songwriting camp up in the Catskills a few years ago, put on by The Milk Carton Kids (the Sad Songs Summer Camp). We were a couple days in and up till then I hadn’t really written anything I was proud of, but I was sitting in a workshop with another camper and he was sharing and asking for input on a song he’d written about change — a somewhat satirical piece if I remember correctly. This song didn’t have a title so I suggested ‘Living in a Dying Town.’ Much to my blessing, that title didn’t really fit his song, but it encouraged me to sit outside in a lawn chair after the workshop and write the initial version of ‘Living in a Dying Town’ in about 20 minutes or so. I labored over it for a few more hours, really digesting what I’d written and realized it was a song about my mom’s hometown, a small little copper mining town turned ghost town on the Arizona/Mexico border called Ajo. I grew up hearing stories of Ajo but have only traveled there a couple of times. Still, it’s one of those places that feels a part of you, if only through ancestry. It’s about the resilience of the ones who stay behind; the ones whose roots are planted too deep to dig up.” — Jess Jocoy

Photo Credit: Sam Wiseman

BGS 5+5: Aaron Raitiere

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Artist: Aaron Raitiere
Hometown: Danville, Kentucky
Latest Album: Single Wide Dreamer
Personal Nicknames: Rat

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

I was in high school and went to see a band called Leftover Salmon at the All Good Music Festival in Virginia. It was the first time I had ever seen grown people gettin’ wild in the mountains. A true mess of music, community, and insanity. Leftover took the stage and Vince Herman was dancing around with a big foam cheeseburger on his head. The band went into the traditional bluegrass song “Hot Corn, Cold Corn” and Vince grabbed a burlap sack full of corn and started throwing it at the crowd just yelling out “CORN!” — that was the moment I knew I wanted to be a musician. I couldn’t believe that guy was getting paid. What a job.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

The deals that take the longest to make are the deals that last the longest. And never write anything down on paper that you don’t want someone else to know.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

My mom just retired from 40 years as a Case Manager in the ER in Central Kentucky. When I was tryin’ to figure out what I wanted to do she always said she didn’t care what I did as long as I helped people. I try to help people with my songs. I think my mission statement would be “Help People.”

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

I’m a water baby. A lifetime swimmer. I prefer a river over a pond, lake, or an ocean. But most any water will do. I’ve got a spot I like to spend time at just north of Nashville. It’s quiet. Silence is golden, right?

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

The best songs are found in the truth. When I’m writing, the You is always Me or some version of a Me. It’s someone I can relate to. Someone with similar opinions and feelings. Someone I can write down what they are saying. It’s hard to hide behind anything anymore. People aren’t stupid, and there are cameras everywhere.

Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen

BGS 5+5: Lisa Morales

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Artist: Lisa Morales
Hometown: Grew up in Tucson. Live in Austin, TX/San Antonio, TX
Latest Album: El Amor No Es Cobarde

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

I always say music chose me, not the other way around. It was always around me. The family got together all the time and sang Mexican music, mostly rancheras since before I walked. My grandmother played classical piano at a performing level; my great-aunt was first chair violinist in the very first Tucson Symphony and my brother had a band in high school that was quite popular. When my father died I was 14 years old. I came home for lunch during school and wrote songs to grieve. I’m very lucky I had that release mechanism through music because it’s so hard to communicate at that age, let alone understand that the depression you are going through is grieving.

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

I did that in the past to hide but for the most part it’s just me naked in front of the world. I’ve learned that I’m not alone in going through life and its challenges, and in turn I can also help people know THEY are not alone in going through something similar.

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

All of them! Poetry was my communication with my mother since I can remember. She would quote all different Latin poets and writers to me: Garcia Lorca, Cervantes and stories about Juana La Loca. To Kill a Mockingbird and Little Women were books that influenced me in third grade. I went to Del Prado every Saturday as a kid living in Madrid — so yes (!) Art was fortunately pushed on us as children. Lyrics and music are the colors of my palette. My mother also owned bookstores. One of them was called the Antiquariat. It was rare books and she often had book signing parties there with authors and playwrights from all over the world. They would stay at our house and my sister and I would sing for them.

What has been the best advice you’ve received in your career so far?

I was 14 or 16, I had been so nervous sitting in on stage and asked when the nervousness will go away. Shep Cooke from the Stone Poneys told me, “It won’t! If it goes away then you don’t care about the audience!” So I learned how to channel it into energy.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I have had many, but one that stands out at this moment: I was on stage with my sister, Roberta, and we were singing a very old Mexican song. We looked to the side of the stage and every single member of Los Lobos was standing there watching us. Cool moment! There was a similar moment when we were playing a Country Jam, singing a country song I wrote, and off to the side of the stage watching our show was Alan Jackson. When artists stop to listen to you it feels as though you’ve moved them and possibly done something right. It’s wonderful to get a nod of approval from those you respect.

Oh, but last month was a beautiful moment. I was opening for Rodney Crowell. We had written a duet together last year but (due to Covid) recorded it separately in different cities. We worked it up backstage in Berkeley and performed it for the audience. That was special. My sister passed away in August so I’m sitting here recalling these wonderful moments on stage with her like when we were playing a festival in Colorado and the power went out. She looked at me and said, “Let’s go!” We became mariachis and went into the crowd — just us and our guitar player, David. That was unforgettable for all of us and the crowd. You could hear a pin drop and see the joy on people’s faces… well, I can still see that in my mind. Another was where we unconsciously swapped vocal parts and didn’t know it until it had passed then turned to each other and laughed. That’s magic on stage.

Photo Credit: Enrique Garza