SXSE

WARNING: Shameless self-promotion in this post.

In my mind I've been thinking of offering my assistance to my familyfriends (these friends are family too, so henceforth, when i say family or friends i mean they are one entity). I have a small, but growing number of contacts in the Carolina music scene who I could share, along with a hung connection to encouraging my demographic to participate in a wonderful organization.

A brief description and video.

SouthxSoutheast Website

"The South by Southeast Music Feast is a local non-profit/charitable organization formed in 2003 by a group of Myrtle Beach, SC area music lovers and educators to preserve and promote American music not usually heard in traditional venues.

Our mission is to provide assistance and support to local music education programs, with our goal being to offset some costs associated with the musical education of young people in our area. In this time of budget cuts and strangulation of funding for the arts, our goal is to help young people in their pursuit of the joys of music."





My two cents.
I'd like to be the one to tap in to advertising and raising awareness through social media (as it is now being called) such as this blog, Facebook, and Myspace. We have a website, but it's not likely that it gets much traffic. I know that there going to be some changes in the way its run business wise that will hopefully keep us afloat, and Weekly Surge, a magazine in Myrtle Beach, recently published an amazing article telling our story and really promoting us well. View it here.

http://achangeoftune.blogspot.com

Chills

Thanks to Dr. Robbin's American Pop Music class junior year, I've been well acquainted with a version of "Hound Dog" that gives me chills. Yes. I know how could Elvis singing "Hound Dog" give me chills? How could just the song? There's nothing incredible moving or special about the song except for one woman.
The meaning of the song wasn't fully clear to me until I heard Big Mama Thornton sing it. It's incredible. On NPR today I discovered a video of her that I'd never seen before. I started listening and chills just moved through my body.

Check it out.

http://achangeoftune.blogspot.com/

Grace like rain

Part of being involved in arts education is being aware in greater detail than usual of the personal lives of those you are working with. And with that, seeing the accomplishments of students who have endured not only their daily artistic struggles but their own personal trials, both their deepest emtions and with their relationships with those around them.

I rarely find myself in tears during a classical music performance. However, when I do, there are is some amount of knowledge that is not obvious about the performer or the situation surrounding the event. Last week when the kids from the Academy program at the summer SC Governor's School for the Arts gave their recitals, I had the privilege of attending 3 out of the 4 music recitals. On Friday, I found myself wiping my eyes as one of the girls in my building sang her sweet, but broken heart out.

Prior to coming to Governor's school she had experienced a tremendous loss in her family, there were multiple deaths, including her mother. I watched her during those two weeks, struggle to find her place between her friends who cared for her and her deep sadness and depression. There were some difficult nights for her, but when the last night of the program came around, it appeared that she had gone through the program with no problem. She gave what was probably the best performance of her life.

My tears were a mix of being so taken by her talent and a level of pride in her victory. I was reminded in that moment of what makes it all worth it. My roll as a residential life counselor is perhaps not as important to her artistic development per se, but I think that the nurturing of the spirit, which falls in the realm of my duties, is essential to the nurturing of the artist. I love my job. I love being a part of the artistic growth of kids. I love working with kids in general, but to see them excell in the arts, and continue to impress me with their passion and professionalism, makes it so worth it.

I'm looking forward to that same feeling as I watch the Discovery program recitals next week.

Music+Camping=The Music Camp

Image credit: John Grubbs

The Duhks, the Belleville Outfit, the Infamous String Dusters, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Boombox, Donna the Buffalo, Casey Driessen, and many others came together for two days of incredible music and beautiful weather in the South Carolina foothills. The crowd braved the heat during the daylight hours finding seeting in the shade and keeping their cooler's close. But at night was when the real heat was turned on. The majority of the crowd, old and young, swelled toward the stage and the energy created by the music fed the crowd's dancing and singing. In turn, the bands truly responded to the excitement and festive spirit of the audience. Bathing suits, body paint, and beers were the name of the game along with swimming with friends in the river to keep cool and rinse of the dirt and sweat of the day after the music was over.

The low-key nature of the festival gave the musicians the ability to relax into the jovial atmostphere of the hot southern hills, frequently making guest appearances with one another during sets and dancing with festival goers during late night concerts. The bands, especially the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, encouraged audiences to be participatory, even calling them up on stage.

I spent the weekend at a fledgling music festival in Spartanburg called The Music Camp. The majority of attendees set up camp in the field and forest that surrounded the festival grounds. Tents and campers created temporary community of individuals dedicated to loving music and the outdoors.

Donna the Buffalo kicked off the night on Friday with their rollicking, exhuberant zydeco and Americana got the crowd dancing. The energy snowballed as The Duhks launched headlong into an incredible set. I happened to meet a little girl named Katie that had been seeing Duhks concerts since their first singer, Jessi. She sang along to all of the songs and new all about the band members. Luckily, her love of music has led her to take violin lessons. I hope to see her again.

After The Duhks played overtime, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band of New Orleans continued the French/American/Canadian/African connections. They invited Ms. Sarah Dugas of the Duhks to sing with them, and eventually several audience members to dance during a call and response style blues jam.

The Infamous String Dusters lead the crowd into the nighttime on Saturday, preparing the way for hometown favorites and organizers of the very special festival, the Belleville Outfit. The band features 3 members who are Spartanburg natives. Rob and Jeff took it upon themselves to use their connections to bring together the people and the bands. The crowd was incredibly appreciative of their hard work and their music. Heartfelt thanks were made and the audience really soaked up their amazing set.

A change of pace came for the last set of the festival. Even when Boombox was setting up, it was clear this would be a differnt set than those before it. Electronic music equipment filled the stage and only one guitar. No fiddles or banjos. The main lights went down and beat rose from an unseen instrument as the color filled the stage. The dancing changed and so did the mood. Everyone danced themselves into exhaustion until just around 2am before everything fell silent for the night.

It's safe to say that it was a hit and I think everyone's looking forward to seeing something just as spectacular next year.

Videos involving friends.

The first is of Ben Sollee's bike tour to Bonnaroo. His travel companions are a set of siblings I grew up with. They both now reside in California and flew out to KY to film and accompany Ben on his Oxfam Bike tour. One of my favorite parts of the clip is towards the end when Katie and Marty try Ale-8 for the first time. I love Ale-8. I was blessed with a roommate from Kentucky that introduced me to it. We had it at our junior recital reception rather than punch. Yum. 

On a more serious note, what Ben is doing should be something other musicians consider following. Taking up a cause to make the world a better place. The Duhks already have their Green Duhks campaign, and I would challenge others to act similarly. It's just as important as making beautiful music.

Ben Sollee bike tour day 1 - Lexington to Frankfort from marty benson on Vimeo.

Continuing with the local connections is a video featuring two guys who have a long time friendship, Jim and Charlie. They both play in a band with my uncle Sam Hannaford called The Chainsaws.  

You can read Randall Hill's blog and watch the video here. The blog is brought to you by our local news paper The Sun News.  

The offshoots of musicians who play in and with The Chainsaws have been instrumental in my development as a musician and as a person. Their passion and talent has inspired me, and it is with thanks that I am writing this blog in the first place. 

Overload

Tonight you can listen to or watch Dave Matthews Band on at least 3 different pieces of technology all at once. Hulu and Fuse have teamed up to bring their concert live online from The Beacon Theater in New York. For those lucky enough to have a large digital cable package, it can be watched on the Fuse channel. And finally for those that pay for radio, it is on Sirius on Dave Matthew's own Sirius Satellite Radio channel. Additionally, if you haven't gotten enough yet, you can get the iTunes Pass for the new album. Comes with lots of extras and automatic downloads. 

Falling off the wagon

I fell off for a bit.  Back now. 

I guess I can talk about what's been happening in my own musical life. 

For starters, I dreaded the day that I had to give a senior recital. An hours worth of music, all by myself. Second of all, I had no idea at the end of junior year what I wanted to be, or if I even wanted to sing anymore.  Over the summer last year I broke my arm working at Asbury Hills. It was so frustrating, not because I broke my arm, but because I felt like I was missing my opportunities of reaching kids at camp. Being away from Asbury made me appreciated being there even more, and then returning and finding myself in roles I had not anticipated, I began to explore my own spiritual growth and mission. In the final weeks I was called on to lead singing. I had only had a few days training and had only been back enough to have 2 weeks of campers.  

In the fall I decided I wanted to approach singing differently. I really learned over the summer, and in reflecting about my four years of experience in my church job, that I don't sing because I want to be a performer. I don't sing because I want to share interesting literature. Those are are just parts of what being a singer is to me. I've long believed that I experience my spirituality through music. And that my faith and my music are inextricable things. This lead me to choose an all sacred recital. 

My recital ended up truly being a culmination of many different aspects of singing. Especially when it came to those that attended. 

From camp there was Karl. He had been my closest co-counselor throughout the summer. 

Both my voice students that I teach were there along with their families, Kelly and Sha. 

Some of the girls from children's choir at church, the Dowlings, Shannon and Kara. 

Also from church were Brennan, my boss, and Rev. Roy Cole. 

Merlefest 2009

A Quick Photo Tour

Please clean filter

This one goes out to my vocal pedagogy teacher, Dr. Macphail. Everyday upon turning on the projector in the room, it always said, "Please Clean Filter" on the screen. So this first paragraph of The Dirty Projectors from SXSW 2009 goes out to here. 

The Projectors, courageously lead by David Longstreth are youthfully avant guard and thought provoking in their approach to music making. At times they are rather raucous and their direction is unclear, but in the moment where you feel you are loosing it, something happens that refocuses your attention. Whether that is a sudden monophonic melodic vocalise backed by a simple beat or a steady ostinato guitar riff The Dirty Projectors are sure to keep it interesting and listen-able. (kind of like drinkability...listenabilty)

NPR SXSW Coverage

This second paragraph goes out to my dear friend, Kristina Lewis, pianist, contralto and hippy extraodinaire. 

I just gave her Neko Case's new album, Middle Cyclone and I told her about The Decemberist's new album The Hazards of Love. So... she should check it out. 

The Hazards of Love made me think about my recent studies in music history, both classical and popular. 

I want to talk about concept albums, song cycles, rock operas, rap operas, and finally folk operas. 

Origins:

In Italy in the 1500s there were a group of artists, philosophers, and musicians that got together to promote their causes. As a result they created a dramma per musica event called and Intermezzo that was intended to be preformed in between a larger event. It was a hit, and the form eventually expanded into what we now know as opera. 

This concept of dramma per musica, the telling of story through song, has permeated Western music ever since.

The term "concept album" have been thrown about in pop music since The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. They produced the first concept album in 1966. This meant that all the songs were meant to go together in a particular order due to the story or images they portray. Like a song cycle or an opera. Later examples were to follow with The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and most notably the "rock opera" Tommy by The Who. 

We have Beethoven to thank for the first song cycle. 

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

Thao was a favorite from the moment my roommate played a song that was a Song of the Day on Minnesota Public Radio last year. 

I miss the set today as it was played live because I was in class, but luckily the performance is now archived on NPR.org. 

You can catch the show there, or when the All Songs Considered podcast is posted. The set is quite short, and full of energy and quirkiness. 

Photo from NPR site. Joel Didriksen kingpinphoto.com

"Bob Boilen is boiling hot" -Thao Nguyen

She's right. I love him, but I want his job when he retires/dies/looses his voice. 

I started my application for internships at various places today including NPR. It would be a dream job to work there. I'm also applying to Smithsonian Folkways and Oxford American. 

In other SXSW news, my friend Ross is there, and I'm so jealous I could strangle him. Follow the man on Twitter. 

I had a good time networking a bit last night in the chat room for the live performances on NPR. I'm going to work on my networking skills as much as possible in the next few months. 

Brain Overload

Tonight i listened to the Avett Brothers and The Decemberists live from SXSW in Austin streaming on NPR. I also got up to the minute Twitter feeds, and chatted in the NPR chat room. I loved listening to the commentary from Bob and Robin after the double encore. They played the entirety of their new album, and then 2 encores. The crowd just wouldn't let them go, and the chat room folks listening online didn't want the show to end either.

Awesomeness.

Thoughts and anticipation: "4 days of total sensory overload"

The folks at NPR put together the Austin 100. A list of their favorites, of songs they would listen to again. It's part of a new continuous mix of 100 favs they'll keep current. What a great time and event to launch the initiative. Beautifully, some of the songs are also available as MP3s on the SXSW website!
Bob Boilen and Stephen Thomas rock my socks. I love how excited they get when they talk about it.

(on a random note, I just noticed that NPR Music and iTunes have almost the same color background.
A list of old favorites, new interests, and names I like.

Personal Old Standbys (some new-ish folk that have been on my radar much longer than others)
The Decemberists
The Avett Brothers
Thao Ngyuen with the Get Down Stay Down, surprisingly discovered by my roommate when one of their songs was a song of the day on MPR (minnesota)
Phosphorescent one of Eric's recommendations last year
Okkervil River
Beach House
M. Ward, caught my eye while working with another favorite, the beautiful and talented Zooey Deschanel

Been around a while, but not as familiar with
Laura Gibson
Nellie McKay

It's that time of year...

South by South West!!!!!!!

This is the who's who of new music. I'd love to have a press pass one day for this festival.


Although SxSW is a series of interactive multimedia festivals, the big even for me is obviously the music festival. Since I'm an almost religious follower of NPR music, and a fan of Bob Boilen and his radio show cohorts who host a special every year on NPR.org I'm more diligent in listening and scoping this year.

So I'll be reporting on my favorites that are coming through the tube.

If he has to reach way down...

Upgrade!
I'm learning to be internet and computer savvy bit by bit.
Todays lesson is adding audio to a blog.


We'll see how this goes.


Jesus Will Pick You Up | Upload Music


Ok so now that we have successfully embedded music, I'll tell you a bit about it.
This is a group of ladies, including my friends Nell, her daughter Hasee, my sister and myself. But the bulk of the group, including the leader consists of the Bellamy Sisters. A group of 9 sisters born and raised write where I was. They belong to a family of 14 all told.

I posted this because southern roots music has been on my mind. And this is a fine example that it is still alive and kicking just as much as bluegrass is.

Popular World Music: More Hip Hop and Rap

Brazil

A Filial

Found these guys while listening to The World Cafe on NPR. The discussion about their geographical placement is interesting.

The Brazilian government has also invested in the life of the countries hip hop culture.

Read the story in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/arts/music/14gil.html

Popular World Music: Hip Hop and Rap in France and Germany

I think what I wanted more of in my ethnomusicology class was more discussion about popular music in other cultures and not just the indigenous, classical or folk music.

I was listening to a neat performance on NPR that sparked me Googling French rap/hip hop and R&B.
I found various videos on YouTube including some playlists people had made of their favorite French rap videos.
Artists I came across were Kaysha, La Brigade, K-Reen, and several others.
Read more on Wikipedia.
While there is some presence of promiscuous sexuality in the videos and lyrics. It appears that most rappers tend to gravitate towards social and political issues in their songs.

Another think I found interesting between French and German rap is that the leading German rappers are white. In France, they are actually black. You can see and hear a little bit of the difference in the French and American, because the black culture in France is different from that in the US. On the other side of that German rap is almost identical except for the white artist part.

Below are a few of the videos I found most interesting.
Kaysha and K-Reen. Notice K-Reen (the female) and her clothing. That would never appear in the US. But that is juxtaposed with the very American styling for the scene with Kaysha. He has the "look" and the dancers and the car. Very typical of the American style.




La Brigade, very politically charged with strong visual images. Even if you don't understand the words, the message is pretty clear in the sound and the video.





Over the past few semesters in my German class with the much loved Mirko Hall, we were not only introduced to the language but also contemporary culture.
This included several showings of videos by top rappers in Germany. Mainly Sido and B-Tight.

The first videos ars of Sido, the top selling rapper in Germany. He's famous for this odd mask he wears.






Next is B-Tight. Warning this one is a little racy. B-tight is like Barack Obama, he is "mullato." Neither fully black nor white.
The embedding for all the B-Tight videos has been disabled by Aggro Records. So here is the link. Ich bin's


Ok. there you have a crash course...

Brief Update.

My photographs are up on The Lovell Sister's website.

They'll be performing along side all the big guns at both Merlefest and Bonnaroo this year!!!


http://www.lovellsistersband.com/photos/live-shots

4th row: second from left,
5th row: 1st pic,
6th row: 1st and last pics,
7th row: first pic

Thoughts on writing a research paper in 20 days

My advice to future professional musicians is simply to choose wisely.

As you go through your musical training, just as you do in life, really listen to what you gut, mind, and heart are telling you about what you are doing artistically. If you find yourself contemplating other majors, or trying to figure out what else you can be doing, don't feel pressured to always remain in what you're doing because people tell you that you can.

I spent 3 years with a voice teacher who kept telling me I could have a big career if I wanted it.
That's great and fabulous news. Right?
Well, yes. If you want to be an opera singer.
I tried it. I did some work on actual operas, preparing a role, working on some scenes. I did well with it, but simultaneously I was always online exploring other concentrations in music and the arts in general.
I didn't listen to myself early enough. I kept feeling pressured to pursue performance, and ignored what my gut was telling me.

So...here I am, having made the decision just a few months ago to become a musicologist rather than a singer, writing a 12-page research paper in 20 days

Here are some thoughts on that experience and what I've learned.

Exploit your resources. This sounds "wrong," but trust me it's not as bad as it sounds. Use your librarian's knowledge, and scourer the brain of your professors for information and ideas.

Make a rough schedule, and try to be as reasonable about your free time, and try to stick with the plan.

Make sure you're in a class and frontload the paper. This way you have a professor as a resource, and an ever-growing abundance on the time period you choose. The bonus is that you're done with your paper when everyone else is flipping out near exam time.

Focus your topic as you research. If it's a time period you aren't as familiar with. Start reading as much as you can and take notes. Be sure to write down the bibliographical information of the sources you use. As you take notes and get ideas, keep track of where your info is coming from. This will help later when you are documenting and formatting.

Don't misplace that style manual you were required to buy freshman year. Make sure it stays on your shelf every year.

And work a little bit whenever you have free time.

Like A Version

I spent sometime over the weekend with my friend Kaung exchanging favorite YouTube videos and exploring our iTunes libraries. I found myself sharing lots of covers of songs.
A list:
"When Doves Cry" (Prince cover) Damien Rice
A beautiful cover. Rice's voice has so much depth and emotion it brings a new color and meaning to the piece

"A Case of You" (Joni Mitchell cover) Prince
He leaves out the first verse. My favorite verse, but his classic falsetto really makes the song his own.

"Sweet Home Alabama" (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover) The Leningrad Cowboys
Just funny. Worth a view on YouTube. Europeans are strange. They're so good, but I don't think they'd survive working in the U.S.

"Teardrop" (Massive Attack cover) and "Heartbeats" (The Knife cover) Jose Gonzales
Gonzales is a highly skilled guitarist from Sweden. He has two arrangements of pop electronica songs.

"The One I Love" (R.E.M. cover) and "Free Man in Paris" (Joni Mitchell) Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan rocks, and folks.

"Lithium" (Nirvana cover) The Polyphonic Spree
Note for note this cover is almost dead on, except for the fact that there are a choir of voices rather than Kurt Cobain.

"Irreplaceable" (Beyonce cover) Sugarland
At one of the music awards shows last year. Almost better than the original, even when Beyonce herself came out to join them. On YouTube as well.

"Sadie Hawkins Dance" (Reliant K cover) The Bluegrass Tribute
Silly.

"Jolene" (Dolly Parton cover) The White Stripes
Just fun.

Back! I'm going to revive and maintain

Rebecca and Jessica Lovell
Originally uploaded by alienpodgeranium

I had the most amazing weekend.
Thursday night I went up to Asheville to The Grey Eagle. I got to see The Lovell Sisters. Their band is made up of 3 sisters all under the age of 25, and some younger than 20, plus a guitar player and bassist.
I also got to see Asheville's own Kellin Watson along with her band and friends Zach John Blew, whose twin identical I later embarrassed myself in front of, and Tania Elizabeth of The Duhks.
The Duhks played a killer set on Thursday night. It was supposed to be a "seated" show. But Leonard Podolak, banjo player and preverbal glue for the band, managed to quickly get everyone on their feet. By the end of the night the audience had removed all the chairs in the front along with couches so they could stand and dance.
Afterwards I got to meet both Leonard and lead singer Sarah Dugas (she's french canadian...doo-gah). They were so sweet. I told them I would be there for the Friday night show too and that I was bringing family.

Friday night at The Neighborhood Theater the floor was already set for people to stand and dance. (someone learned) I stood stage left again so I could see Leonard and Sarah. I was able to get great pictures all night. I didn't have the space at The Grey Eagle.
At the end Leonard made a thanking, bowing gesture to me from the stage and mouthed "thank you for coming again." He almost walked off the stage where there were no steps. We had a little quiet giggle.
I introduced my dad and uncle, got to chat with all of the band and have them sign my t-shirt.

A few my photographs from the weekend that I am so proud of. View the rest on my Flickr







I also met The Lovell Sisters. Jessica gave me her email so that I could send her my pictures.