Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers First Tour to Hit Kentucky

As a child of the “Bluegrass State” I, of course, rebelled against the sounds of banjos, fiddles and mandolins as soon as I got control of the radio dial in our car. This rebellion lasted through my angst-filled high school years and about halfway into my college freshman year. It was in this year that I had a professor who required his students attend Woodsongs: Old Time Radio Hour. I went with a group of friends so that I could sit in the back, talk through the performance and, with any luck, sneak out a little early. As fate would have it, my friends and I had chosen a special day at Woodsongs that cost 10 dollars instead of the usual 5 because there was a big name band on the bill. After having driven over an hour to get to the performance we, begrudgingly, did pay the double admission that we were charged.
I honestly cannot tell you who the big name band was that caused the ticket price spike but I do remember vividly the opening act. At the beginning of the show onto the stage walked, not an old man in overalls and cowboy boots but, 6 young men only a little bit older than me wearing clothes that I would wear. This got my attention but it was their musical style, I was later informed that it is called Alt. Country, which really grabbed and held me through the performance. This band was called The Infamous Stringdusters. These young men had opened my eyes to a style that I had always shrugged off as outdated or boring leading me to other artists like Chris Thile, Gillian Welch, Dirk Powell and many more.
This story does have relevance to the blog. It was in this time of discovery that the members of Nickel Creek decided to go their separate ways and try their hand at solo careers. Chris Thile was the artist that I followed most closely after leaving the band. His solo album was enjoyable but, when I heard that he was teaming up with one of the founding members of the Alt. country band that sparked my conversion: The Infamous Stringdusters, I knew that, together, they would bring their style of music to new highs. Their new band, The Punch Brothers, are going on tour this fall and will be visiting Kentucky as a part of the Alltech Fortnight Festival! Getting to see these two, as well as 3 other virtuosic musicians in a very intimate setting will be a truly great experience that I look forward to!

Until next time,
The Intern

"The Great Lady of Soul" Brings The Who to Tears.

As far as tributes go, the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors for The Who was among the best that I have seen. This star studded tribute brought honorees Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to tears multiple times but none of the performances were as moving as Bettye LaVette’s cover of The Who’s Former hit, “Love Reign”. This performance made many in a younger generation, which is infatuated with the classic rock of the 1970’s, stand up and take notice of an artist, and really a genre, that has been almost forgotten about. I know when I watched the performance, I was moved by her soulful rendition of this classic song.
Recently gaining the nickname “The Great Lady of Soul”, Bettye LaVette has had a tumultuous career filled with more emotional highs and lows than last night’s Steelers game. Fortunately, LaVette never gave up on her career; even after her studio mysteriously decided not to release an album that she had just recorded with “the Swampers” in Muscle Shoals in 1972. This incident, while devastating her emotionally, did not cause her to give up on her dreams. The album was later bought by another label and released in 2000, with high acclaim, as Souvenirs. Souvenirs is now regarded as one of the top 5 albums that every fan of Soul music should own.
I am personally excited to see “the Great Lady of Soul” perform in person. I have seen her on the Kennedy Center Honors, Barack Obama’s Inauguration Celebration and a benefit concert with Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney and I think that it will be a see her in the intimate setting of the Singletary Center’s theater. In my opinion, there is no soul singer that has bridged so many styles of music with her albums. Her voice is moving and soulful, fitting perfectly into many different genres; though it always carries with it the same emotional dedication that she shows to her music. It is no wonder that she could take a classic rock song written by someone else and so make it her own that the original artists were brought to tears.

The Intern

Hot New Band "Love and Theft" to Open for Jason Aldean, Miranda Lambert

Any band you talk to, if there is a problem on tour, they immediately blame their lead singer. I have spoken to several of my friends, who spend 80% of their year touring with their respective bands, and they all say the same thing, “yeah, it was a great tour except…” What follows that “except” is 100% of the time a complaint about the lead singer being unmanageable on the tour. Because this happens to everyone I know who is in a band, I assume that it is a universal phenomenon. Lead singers simply must be unmanageable. If I have a popular band who tours constantly I would have to assume that the lead singer would cause problems that would borderline tear the band apart but we would always finish the tour and solidify the band relationships afterwards. It is the same story every time.
Enter Love and Theft. For those of you who have not heard of them, Love and Theft is a three man band from Nashville, TN. They are, as you might expect from their city of origin, a new country band.
What is interesting about this band?
They are all lead singers!
Listening to their music from the studio this works very well. The positives of having three band members that all have the ability to lead their own band vocally are endless. They produce harmonies that are very seldom heard and are rooted deeply in the country music of old. The driving force of this band is not a drumbeat, like the current Pop-country scene, it is harmonic vocals and guitars (did I mention they all also play guitar?). Three lead singers who all play guitar! This made me question; what is it like on tour?
If I have heard nothing but complaints from bands about their lead singers on tour, I had to ask myself how this band of three lead singers, who all play guitar, make it through their tours without killing each other. The only other band that I remember having success on tour with three lead singers is Hanson but even they played different instruments.
Surprisingly to me, Love and Theft has thoroughly enjoyed all of their tours according to their interviews. They claim to love playing music together. The closeness of the band, in my opinion, leads to a great chemistry in the studio and on stage. With their single “Runaway” hitting #18 on the country charts, Love and Theft are poised to rock Applebees Park on Sept. 25th where they will be opening for Jason Aldean and Miranda Lambert, the best concert value of the year!

The Intern