-
Off The Stage: Jack The Radio
Photo credit: Samarco Photography For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates a band’s path to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
North Carolina roots rockers Jack The Radio are gearing up to release their new LP Creatures on July 10th. Fronted by singer/songwriter George Hage (vocals, guitar) and joined by Danny Johnson (guitar, keyboard, lap steel, vocals), Dan Grinder (bass), and Kevin Rader (Drums, Vocals), the band seeks to remind us through their work that even though the world is polarized, we can find commonality in the fact that we’re all creatures of this earth who have the strength to overcome what’s ahead. Not only is there an album on the way, but Hage got to stretch his creative muscles even further, incorporating his passion for design by crafting a companion comic book called Jack The Radio: Creatures Anthology. “For me, the visual art is an extension of music,” says Hage. “Some people connect and retain more through sound and some better through sight and the combination can have even more of an impact than either on their own.” Hage told us what he’s been up to lately, and how he and the band have been maintaining their sanity:
“I’ve heard folks say life throws you curveballs. If that’s the case, then this one hit us in the head, and we’ve woken up in an alternate timeline where concerts are only happening online and most of the country is closed. But I find my comfort in knowing people still crave art and people still want to interact and engage while at home – maybe even more than before. We all want to maintain a level of normalcy, and listening to music can be a big part of that.
It’s definitely been an adjustment not being able to interact in person and not being able to play or see shows. Our spring and summer dates have been canceled or postponed. We’re starting to hear rumblings about postponements in the fall as well, so the best we can do is accept change and adapt. With our new album Creatures coming July 10th, the band has been working on more digital content, like performance videos from our individual homes. We’ve also been having weekly FaceTime sessions to stay connected as a band. This new normal has given us the opportunity to engage with people in Portland and NYC through virtual concerts while sitting in North Carolina. Traditionally we’d have to travel for those same events.
We’re very lucky this pandemic hit in a time where we can easily connect with one another. Right now I’m working with a director in Portland who’s working with a visual effects artist in Los Angeles to animate our ‘Creatures’ music video using artwork from a comic I created with thirty artists from eight countries around the world. All during this global pandemic. I was hesitant at first to ask people about the project thinking they would have more critical things to focus on, but I quickly realized we all want to work. We need to create.
I’m maintaining my normal through creative projects. The band and I have been busy preparing for the album release and many aspects within that. I’m also scoring a podcast with Capital Broadcasting and creating album art for Yarn, Jason Adamo, t-shirt designs for Szlachetka, and artwork for Red Hat Amphitheater despite several festival and venue design projects being postponed. And thanks to my amazing wife I find time to get outside. A nice byproduct of being home is our daily walks. Love ‘em! “Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Premiere: “Hometown Boys” by Brian Callihan
Photo: Ford Fairchild Nashville’s Brian Callihan has written songs with artists like David Lee Murphy, Josh Thompson, and Mo Pitney, and his songs have been performed by the likes of Cole Swindell, Dylan Scott, Trent Tomlinson, and Halfway To Hazard. As an artist, he released his debut EP Broke It Down earlier this year, and has performed at several stellar festivals including CMA Fest and the Key West Songwriters Festival.
Maybe it’s because it’s the 4th of July weekend. Maybe it’s because our world is in turmoil without a clear end to the chaos in sight. Maybe it’s because hard times make some of us – who were privileged enough to have fond memories of our upbringing – long for the innocence of childhood when the world didn’t seem so scary. We’re feeling super nostalgic here at Mother Church Pew today, with a little help from “Hometown Boys,” Callihan’s new single set for release on July 3rd.
“‘Hometown Boys’ is a song I wrote with Micheal Sprinkle and Justin Lantz. If you grew up in a small town then you will be able to relate to this song,” explains Callihan, who originally hails from South Georgia farm country. “It’s a good-natured, down to earth song about good people doing good things.”
The 90s-esque country style of “Hometown Boys” reminds me of family reunions, barefoot summers, and the familiarity of friends who’d known me my entire life. Callihan’s voice beautifully embodies the idea of a “hometown boy,” outwardly stoic, inwardly complex, and full of heart – it has the ability to transport us to times on the outskirts of memory, but ones we’re glad we haven’t forgotten.
Without further ado, Mother Church Pew proudly presents “Hometown Boys” by Brian Callihan:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Off The Stage: Vance Gilbert
For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates a band’s path to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
When looking at the website of Massachusetts-based folk maestro Vance Gilbert, there’s a tab called “rants.” That’s how we knew Vance Gilbert was our kind of guy. He’s the best kind of storyteller – an emotive and defiant speaker – or singer – of profound truths. He’s been described thusly: “If Joni Mitchell and Richie Havens had a love child, with Rodney Dangerfield as the midwife, the results might have been something close to the great Vance Gilbert.” We tried, but we just can’t top that.
In January, and before life as we’d always known it was changed forever, Gilbert released his latest collection of tunes, Good Good Man. With tracks like “Pie & Whiskey,” “Cousin Shelly’s Station Wagon,” “Zombie Pattycake,” and “Another Great Day Above Ground,” the album is nothing short of a superbly entertaining yet simultaneously poignant listen. We were thrilled when he offered to share with us a pandemic-related anecdote:
“So, about this science of aerosol droplet dissemination and its confrontational cousin, mask shaming. Charlie Baker, level-headed governor of Massachusetts, close-listener to his Department Of Public Health (where my nurse practitioner-trained Deborah works), and privy to all up-to-date national epidemiological sensibility, has decreed, and I quote, that people sport ‘masks or face coverings in public places where they cannot socially distance from others.’ OK, he didn’t say ‘sport,’ but still, masked lady, with the black Shepherd all the way across this lonely street, waaaaay past six or even 12 or even 20 feet, when I said good morning to you and you actually sneered ‘Hello’ with a look down your nose….OK I get it. I’ll greet someone a little less judgy.
My aged Standard Poodle Bessie and I then pass that elderly Latino man working in his garden. My brother. I feel a kinship with this man as we are both of some slight color. I’m African-American. He’s….what he is. I want to rush home and get my guitar and play ‘Guantanamera’ in my oh most imperfectly-honed, phonetically-learned Spanish ever. I see him so very into his work, probably humming some Tejano song behind his mask. I interrupt him with another sprightly ‘Good Morning!’ from my quiver of cheer.
Wide-eyed, he looks at me with one hand on his hoe, and gesticulates with his hand to the mask on his face, then points at me. I give him the thumbs up. He glares. I know some of the Spanish language’s words. But rather than go to them, I do my hands apart like I’m saying ‘keep distance’ and I smile, nodding vigorously. He shakes his head no, points angrily at his mask and damnationally back at me. I finally throw my Deborah out into the middle of the street: ‘My wife….. Public Health nurse. She says….. distance good!’ I figure that if I leave vowels out I’ll be far better understood. Oh dear, is there such a thing as a ‘gringo negro’? I just made that up. Am I a privileged one of those? Will I look more earth-salt if I tell him I’m a musician?
He motions back at his mask slowly, like some strange Latino/Kabuki theatre scene-ending gesture, raises his hand and points at me accusingly again like some angry Our Town Stage Manager, and says ‘EVERYBODY!’Did I mention that I don’t speak any Spanish? What is that thing they say – ‘musicians have a natural affinity for learning languages’? Maybe. I had two years of junior high French. I can ask for an apple or the bathroom in a few languages. And God help me, I’m in deep Golden Delicious McIntosh poop if I ever get flustered and confuse them. But I had about had it up to the proverbial here with my poor-assed ASL (yes I know a few words in that language too) so I made the hands apart gesture again and said in my finest Spanish (see above re: Spanish language skills) ‘Sir, six feet is just fine, thank you!!! And it came out thusly: ‘ Señor! Siete zappatos mwuay bueno, gracias!’
Yessir. I told him, yes I did. ‘Sir, seven shoes is very good, thank you.’ That old geezer hombre has been served. Where’s that lady with the black Shepherd?”
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Off The Stage: Amelia White
For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates a band’s path to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
In 2019, East Nashville music scene pioneer Amelia White released her seventh album, Rhythm Of The Rain; written in the shocking wake of the 2016 election, the album is a prime example of how songwriters process their observations of society, holding up the reflective mirror of storytelling and perspective. At the beginning of quarantine, White endured a harrowing trip home from a canceled Australian tour; as she’s sheltered-in-place, she’s turned quarantine into a muse of sorts, hosting her own Facebook Live Stream Series called “Home On the Strange,” and rediscovered the joy in quiet moments and simple pleasures:
The panic rose like a slow tide in my tour mates and I around March 13th. The first gig of our Australia tour had cancelled, it was one of the anchor dates, a festival.
Meanwhile, back home, my wife was getting increasingly anxious for me to call the tour and make the long journey back. We feared getting stuck in Australia. Flight rebooking was hell, and those tense two days driving from Sidney to Melbourne sucked all the joy out of the first two weeks. After a blur of travel, I found myself standing in the airport with a tattered, dirty bandana over my nose and mouth. Will Kimbrough had returned home ten days earlier on a nearly empty flight – I was not so lucky. Cramped in the middle seat of the middle aisle on a packed plane, I pretty much resigned myself to catching Covid-19, which didn’t seem as scary as the thought of being stuck in a foreign land with the small sum in my bank account. I arrived in Nashville after a couple of eerie layovers in empty airports. I felt like a wastebasket.
I remember taking a long shower and crashing into bed numb. Home felt like heaven, even if my wife had a low-grade fever herself. She was my person, and I just didn’t care. We could be sick together. As my euphoria and relief at being home subsided, the unsettling reality set in, No gigs, no hopping down to the 5 Spot to kiss a ring, hear a chord, have Bob pour me a Diet Coke and ask, “how the hell was Australia.” Then came the call from my manager: “I don’t know when we’ll be able to release your new album.” The past summer, Kim Richey had produced an album for me and it seriously is the finest thing I’ve ever made. This was a bitter pill.
How have I managed? What has saved me? In a lot of ways, this jarring time has had the same unfamiliarity of my early sobriety a few years back. Everything felt foreign, I was crawling out of my skin, and at the same time just happy to be alive. Coming home from the tour had a “pink cloud” very similar to the first month without a drink. I thought my desire to write would dry up, but it became even more compelling. In the last few months, I’ve jumped headfirst into songs. I tinker away in that deadly quiet spot. My repetitive thinking slows until the outside world no longer exists. The “off-kilter vibe” of the pandemic works for my muse, who seems to love the dramatic. This sweet escape has been free of distractions and other obligations.
We’d taken in a roommate who had lost her home in the tornado. The plan had been she’d stay until I returned from Australia. By the time I got home and into my 14-day quarantine, it was clear she had to wait it out with us. We sheltered together, an unlikely family here on a stationary boat on a strange sea. I recovered from jet lag and woke up every day amazed I hadn’t contracted the virus flying across the world. Luckily our home had enough space for us all to exist. My wife burrowed in her office zooming into her grueling science job/grad program, and down the hall, I shut myself in with kitty’s litter box. Songs and poems were growing as was a garden I planted in the back yard. It only takes a tiny seed to grow food, faith, and acceptance. I watched the buds sprout and decided to believe we were gonna be alright.
I’ve always thought of making food as the earthy sister to writing songs. Cooking helped me with the discomfort of the situation and made our little family happy. The three of us fell into a routine of nightly meals and laughter. We dropped the needle on Townes, Otis Redding, and Linda Ronstadt and sang along. I cooked, they cleaned, and we relaxed into a slower, gentler way. On weekends, it was pancakes, bacon eggs, and gospel. Just like getting sober, it became necessary to live a day at a time, otherwise, I’d fall into anxiety and worry. Every night our three animals took to climbing into bed with my wife and me. Who knows if it was the lack of space or their instinctual need to comfort us? My big pal Kanga (a seventy-five pound Lab/ Australian Shepherd mix ) willingly joined me on long walks three and sometimes four times a day. She had not a worry about the pandemic. I found myself able to access her level and be fully present in nature. Her grass rolling and creek dipping brought me great joy.
As Nashville slowly re-opens I almost dread the old familiar pressures. This strange time has brought a fresh perspective. The meditation practice I’ve been talking about for years has finally become a daily thing. I’m finding I have more with less and have been able to buy groceries with tips thanks to fans joining my weekly live stream show. Not one of us knows what will happen next, and that’s an uneasy reality. Death and economic ruin have visited too many people, and I hate that we lost John Prine. Nashville’s grandpa mentor lived to create, and that brought so much happiness to all. In my brief encounter with him at a show years back, I sensed he truly understood how to lean into the moment. Today, I really resonate with the wacky message of “Spanish Pipedream.” Anything that brings me closer to a Prine song I count as a true blessing.
Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, go to the country, build yourself a home. Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own. – John Prine
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Off The Stage: The Imaginaries
Photo Credit: Reagan Elkins For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates a band’s path to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
Oklahoma-based husband/wife duo Shane Henry (guitar, vocals) and Maggie McClure (keys, piano, vocals), who together make music as The Imaginaries, have had their share of setbacks over the past several months. They’ve both come through medical procedures and illness, had multiple stops and starts with their debut album release and tour bookings/cancellations, and now are faced with the world on pause because of Covid-19. Through all of the heartache and disappointment, they are ready for a revival – figuratively and literally, with the release of their new single out today, aptly titled “Revival.” Recently, band member McClure filled us in on how they’ve been holding up during these interesting times:
Like it has been for many, this has been such a strange season for us. We were selected to open for the entire Brian Setzer Orchestra Christmas Rocks! Tour (25 nationwide dates) back in November-December 2019, when two days before the first show, the whole thing got canceled because Brian had a severe case of tinnitus. In January, I had to have an invasive gum surgery which kept me from singing for two months. During my recovery time, we worked on booking as many shows as possible for the spring and summer of 2020.
Not singing for two months was really hard for me. We were so ready to play our first festival show on March 14, the week that everything started to shut down due to Covid-19, including the festival we were booked to play. Since then, we’ve had about 20 gig cancellations for 2020; it’s super strange that we have yet to play a single live show in front of a live audience in 2020. We really miss playing live shows. Starting around March 14 we felt the need to do a video to update our fans and play a song or two. The response to that video was so overwhelmingly positive and well-received, we thought, ‘Maybe we should do this more often.’ We saw fellow musician friends start to do live stream shows online, watched quite a few, took notes, and decided to start “Quarantunes,” a Facebook Live Concert Series of our own. Having this bi-weekly/weekly show to do was a little stressful at first, but the more we do, the easier it flows, and the more we realize how good it is for our souls to be doing the shows. Not only are we interacting personally with fans all over the world, but we are also getting to perform (and although it’s not the same as a live show with a live audience at a venue/festival, etc., it’s still just as exciting and fulfilling). It’s been a lot of fun taking requests from fans, working up new cover songs, and re-visiting songs from our solo catalogs.
“Quarantunes” has been very therapeutic for us and I honestly think we probably would have had a much harder time through this quarantine experience if we didn’t do this. It has held us accountable to our fans and to each other. It’s also kept us playing and kept us tight as a duo. We’ve also been a part of about five live stream shows outside of our own series, including shows with Rockwood Music Hall in NYC and The Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles (Monday Monday), which have all been a blast. We really feel like every live stream show we do is an opportunity to bring some hope and light into peoples’ lives, and we are honored to have that opportunity.
Outside of “Quarantunes,” to keep our sanity, we’ve been getting outside a lot. We love playing with our dogs and have enjoyed the extra time with them. We’ve also enjoyed spending more time with family (whether it’s in person or via Facetime). We have a few duplexes that we have set up as nightly rentals on Airbnb. When Covid-19 hit, all our Airbnb bookings were canceled, but it’s starting to pick back up now, thankfully. Shane has been doing some really hard labor-intensive work, and he also thoroughly enjoys working on his classic Chevy pick-up truck/s. I have been cooking and baking more often than normal. I’ve had a lot of fun experimenting with making new dishes and trying recipes I had always wanted to try but ‘didn’t have the time’ to explore until now. I’ve also been teaching a handful of piano/voice/songwriting lessons weekly via Facetime/Skype, which has helped me keep my sanity. Together, we’ve been in our studio finishing up and working on new material. We’ve also been finishing up some videos that we started filming before Covid-19, and have been working on a few new videos as well. We’ve been a little inconsistent with exercising, but try to work out regularly each week. We’ve also been pretty religious about taking our vitamins and supplements every day!
Another very important aspect of our lives that helps us keep our sanity is our faith. Prayer has been instrumental in helping us maintain balance and clarity. It’s also been really important for us to intentionally connect as a married couple during this time. It’s easy to just exist in the same place and drift through the days, so we are making an effort to not let that happen. Through it all, we are doing everything we can to stay positive, be creative, and push forward.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Off The Stage: Emily Duff
For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates artists’ paths to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
Emily Duff, who recently released her new album Born on the Ground, is quarantining in her New York City apartment with her family; she shares with us scenes from life in the pandemic epicenter, the repercussions of having to cancel her upcoming international tour, and how she’s keeping herself sane:
Friday the 13th. More specifically, Friday, March 13. That was the day I was supposed to board a flight to London to kick off my 2020 UK Tour to launch my new record, Born on the Ground. I had finally made a record with Brooklyn Producer, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel and I was really excited to take these songs back to England and Scotland where I had enjoyed a very successful run of shows the year before with my gospel album, Hallelujah Hello. My tour manager, Janice Moore, had organized a brilliant assortment of venues & house concerts that took me up and down the UK. Janice was the driver, my band guitarist Scott would be shotgun co-pilot, and I was luxuriously left alone in the backseat to stare out the window, enjoying the beautiful English and Scottish countrysides, resting until we would pull into town where I would jump on stage and “do my thing,” tell my stories through songs I had written. I am a performing songwriter and I live in NYC, the epicenter of our current Covid-19 pandemic.
I never got on that plane. I honestly started having reservations (pun intended) two weeks before, but I kept my mouth closed and decided to wait and see what developed. Monday, March 9th, I knew it was time to discuss, so I called Janice and we considered our options. Scott confessed that he was unnerved about getting on an airplane but would do whatever I decided. Wow, that’s trust. I had lots to be worried about you see. I am not just a performing songwriter. I am somebody’s wife and the mother of two. If I was to fall ill, get quarantined or stuck in the UK away from my family, that would be bad. Very bad. Rock n’ Roll and life on the road is great – it’s a vacation away from my responsibilities at home and a return to my past “wild life” – and I do it very well. I LOVE it, but it is a very difficult path that can definitely wear you out. You MUST be healthy, strong and wise to survive. And that is why most, unfortunately don’t. Motherhood builds a mighty road dog.
Making the decision to not go on tour was easy. What came next, not so much. The entire world was busy coming to similar conclusions and seemed to all be on the phone at once trying to cancel travel plans. Tuesday morning I spent 4 hours on hold praying that I might get a refund on the $1,300 round trip airline tickets. I had wisely bought travel insurance so I thought I was good to go. No, not this time. A Global Pandemic is not included in the “money-back guarantee.” I did, however, manage to get credit for the tickets so when I am ready to travel, whenever that might be, they will be paid for…..but I needed the cash. Publicity expenses for the tour had already been paid for. Out of my pocket. The recording of the new album (studio, musicians, producer, engineer, mixing, mastering, cartage, meals, etc.) was paid for. Out of my pocket. The duplication of the CDs was paid for. Out of my pocket. Making a great record costs money. Touring is where you recoup that money already paid out. Canceling a tour will definitely set you back. But it’s only money…..
That same Friday the 13th I told my children that they were not going to school. NYC had not made the decision to close schools yet, but I had. If it wasn’t safe for me to get on an airplane and go on tour, it was not safe for my children to get on a city bus or subway, and go to 6th and 9th grade on the East side of Manhattan. So much was unknown so my husband and I decided to shut it down and start “sheltering in place,” which was declared a week later. We have been in limbo since Friday the 13th, an iconic and ironic date marker for sure, but we are all artists so we are constantly producing. Since we have been home I have not stopped working as a musician, writer, mother, wife and retired NYC chef and former restaurant owner. Yes, I was a chef. You want to be stuck at home with a chef…and go on the road with one too.
I play guitar and write every day. Sometimes all day. It keeps me sane. Songs of course, but also a column for an audio magazine, Tone Audio, about music and the songs I am loving. I write for various cooking blogs, Family2Table, help other chefs write their cookbooks and teach cooking to private clients – now via video lessons. I do a Facebook Live Stream every Sunday at 4pm and post a video recorded cover song every Friday morning on Facebook and Instagram. My film editor husband and I just shot a music video for one of the songs for my new record, get ready for it…”WE AIN’T GOIN’ NOWHERE” – will the irony ever end?
My children are busy being artists too and keeping up with school as best they can, online. They have both celebrated birthdays in captivity and we made the best of it in our 340 square foot apartment in Greenwich Village. Yes, we all live in a space that small…..Even in the epicenter of viral insanity, where I have lost too many friends and colleagues to speak about here….we are finding our little piece of peace. Artists find beauty. We create in isolation and we are quite used to times of scarcity. We live for our needs and not our wants. Guitars are necessary friends right now.
This time is not the best of times, but it’s far from the worst. I will not profess Dickensian depression and angst over here. As a matter of fact, I am starting to think that we are the luckiest people in the world. We are healthy. We are happy. We have more than we need and we are doing our best to share that with our neighbors who have less. We have each other and that love and connection between us grows stronger every day, solid and born firmly on the ground to sustain these trials and uncertainties. We are passing this test and awaiting further instructions. No doubt, a new record will be written about this too. Stay tuned…..
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Video Premiere: “Muddy Water” by The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
Photo Credit: Grant Westhoff Over the years, Mother Church Pew has had the privilege of getting to know Los Angeles-based collective The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers – we even did a live session with them in our favorite tattoo shop in Nashville. Now, the band is back with new tunes – their latest, “Muddy Water,” was inspired by the waterways and landscapes of the Midwest, and is a call to reject materialism and embrace nature. And really, what better time to get back to nature than now, even though nature is currently showing us its own personal gun show, but, I digress.
The verses feature languid pedal steel by guest musician Jeremy Long, eliciting the serenity one can feel by just sitting next to a river. To capture the choruses, producer Matt Wignall arranged the singers in various horseshoe shapes around his “costs more than your entire album” U47 clone condenser mic. “I’ve been baptized in the Muddy Water, Hallelujah!” The chorus rings out, emphasizing that sometimes you just need to turn your back on civilization and run straight into the arms of the woods.
“The music video was mostly shot on one of these ‘escapes’ out into nature,” says guitarist Jeremy Horton. A drive “way out to Arkansas” to shoot a bonafide Midwest river was out of the question, so Horton and bandleader Will Wadsworth packed up their fishing rods, gunned up the I-5 past Bakersfield, and headed into the southernmost part of the Sierra Nevadas to the Kern River. The video also includes some live footage taken at one of the bands’ last shows before the shutdown at the Hi Hat in Los Angeles filmed by Britney Cherry.
The video is a welcome glimpse of adventure and life before the ‘Rona, while the song showcases the band’s signature vocal power, foot-stomping rhythms, and all-around irresistibility, and We. Are. Here. For. It.
Without further ado, MCP proudly presents “Muddy Water,” the new video from The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers:
-
Off The Stage: Nathan Kalish
Photo credit: Amy Thorne For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates artists’ paths to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
Alt-country artist Nathan Kalish released his tenth LP, Songs For Nobody, on April 10th. On Songs For Nobody, the curious wanderer and son of a missionary has taken his astute observations and made a gritty collection of tunes exploring everything from America’s culture of corporate greed to the emotional strain that life on the road can bring. Like the troubadours who have come before, Kalish forgoes finger-pointing, using his music as a mirror to reflect the state of society to his listeners. Kalish, who normally would be on tour at this time, has been quarantining in Michigan; he has started a weekly live stream series called “Coffee Van Kalish” which airs each Saturday morning from his van at 7:30 a.m. ET (Joshua Ray Walker joins him this week!). Kalish recently told us what he’s been up to in Michigan farm country:
“Sometimes, I catch myself staring across one of the four empty farm fields on each side of the old schoolhouse where I’m staying in Michigan; sometimes, I probably don’t catch myself doing that. It’s been unseasonably cold this year and the old brick building is heated by a wood stove. Since I’ve been here, we have burned through almost two cords of wood. I stack it and occasionally chop the larger pieces down to a more practical size for the stove.
My main companion has been a deaf dog named Dori. I couldn’t remember her name for the first few weeks and it didn’t matter because she doesn’t respond to my calls anyway. I recently released my new album with all the fixin’s and my tour would have started this week. It’s hard to think about the two years of work I put into this project to just see the pinnacle of my effort be erased by coincidence.
In a way, it’s kind of a relief because I don’t have to be disappointed by low turnout or album sales. As a small business owner, I am being forced to take a rest which is something I would never do on my own. The album has been getting really good reviews, better then I expected. On the other hand, I get sad because I regret missing all the great shows that would have happened. It’s a constant back and forth between these two sentiments until my morning coffee is finished.
While cooking, walking the dog four times day, bathing, and playing guitar for four to six hours a day or until my hands hurt, I live a pretty busy and fulfilling life. Occasionally, at night, the wind comes over the fields so hard it shakes the house and startles me. It’s a reminder of the tornado I woke up during a few months ago in Nashville, where I usually live, that destroyed my apartment complex. At the time that seemed like an apocalyptic anomaly, these things just seem like an everyday phenomenon now.
Each Monday, I put the mask on and drive into the small town of Vicksburg where I send CDs out to people around the world who have placed orders. I am very grateful to my friend for letting me use this place to recharge my energy. She has been picking up extra hours at the hospital as a nurse a couple of hours away. Working 12-hour shifts day after day, she only comes around maybe once every week for a day or two. I have been finding my purpose in domestic tasks which is good for me. Without purpose, I start to get depressed. It’s amazing how much time you can fill with even with the simplest of daily tasks. I am very grateful for all the folks who have listened to the new album or ordered a hard copy. I haven’t received a stimulus check yet so that has been a much-needed revenue.
I have had a good time doing the live stream concerts, at first it was pretty strange but now I look forward to the connection it creates. I read that Tennessee is opening back up next week so I plan on driving back down and attempting to put some sort of life together until the next adventure begins. Hopefully, I can get back on the road when it’s safe and play music again.”Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
-
Premiere: “When You Don’t Fight” by Darlin’ Brando (ft. Edith Freni)
After college, Virginia-bred songwriter and drummer Brandon Goldstein, who makes music under the moniker Darlin’ Brando, found his tribe amongst the thriving Los Angeles country and Americana music scene, drumming for local artists and honing his songwriting craft. Many moves and a divorce later, Goldstein found himself in Nashville at a low point where he decided to conquer his mess of personal demons and introduce the world to Darlin’ Brando. Playing drums with neo-traditional country artist, Tommy Ash, and frequenting off-Broadway honky-tonk gems like the American Legion Post 82 and The Nashville Palace was both therapy for Darlin’ Brando and research for Also Too…, his forthcoming debut set for release on June 19th.
Today, Darlin’ Brando, who is once again stationed in Los Angeles, unveils the second single from the album, “When You Don’t Fight,” which features backing vocals from his new wife, playwright, Edith Freni. “Edith contributed to the writing as well,” he says. “This is supposed to be our sassy Tammy and George or Conway and Loretta duet with the music to match.”
“‘When You Don’t Fight’ is a PSA offering bad relationship advice,” he continues. “One of my ex-girlfriends used to complain that I avoided confrontation and arguments — both of which, I get, are signs of a healthy partnership. I thought it would be funny to write a song that takes that idea to an extreme and endorses verbal sparring matches in public and fighting tooth and nail to get in the last word.”
With its playful pedal steel and classic country feel, “When You Don’t Fight” is the soundtrack for a two-stepper’s honky-tonk heaven. It’s time to pull on your Wranglers and ropers, hop in the truck, fire up the CB radio, and tell Smokey that Darlin’ Brando is on the move.
“When You Don’t Fight” is out on May 22nd, but you can check it out here first:
-
Off The Stage: Ashley Jordan
For most casual fans of music, the forty-five minutes that a band spends on the stage is all they can see. However, when the guitar cases are closed and the venue’s floor is littered with empty beer cans and trash, most bands load their gear into the van and return back to their normal lives.
Mother Church Pew’s Off The Stage is a series that celebrates artists’ paths to where they are and the things they do behind the scenes to stay there.
On May 1st, Grammy-nominated country artist Ashley Jordan released an emotional new single “Still Hear Him Talking” about her struggle after losing two beloved grandparents. The lyrics convey that even in the darkest of times, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel and no one is truly alone. And it’s a message, delivered in Jordan’s angelic voice against an anthemic sonic landscape, that bears particular poignancy at the moment. She told us about making and releasing music during lockdown, and how she knows her grandpa is smiling on her from above:
“In the end of 2019, I was in the recording studio in Nashville, Tennessee recording some new songs – which eventually turned into a 10-song album. Our plans were to finish the songs and start shopping them with labels in early 2020. Then a series of unfortunate events occurred: My producer became quite ill and was hospitalized so our plans were postponed a few weeks. Then Nashville was hit by a serious tornado – and then the pandemic hit. It was a triple punch and felt like a message from above that we needed to move in a different path. Like for most musicians, it was a time of initial fear for our loved ones and the world, followed by regrouping and figuring out how to keep moving forward despite the fact that all our shows, festivals, and touring were being canceled – one by one.
I know that everyone is facing a similar dilemma – but I think for musicians who are accustomed to being out in crowds and being very public, the quarantine was especially difficult and career-altering. We book our shows sometimes a year in advance – so a simple postponement and/or cancellation is devastating to the long term picture. As a band, we typically rehearse at least once a week and have consistent shows – and suddenly we all went into quarantine and watched helplessly as everything shut down. The sudden separation really pulls you inward.
For me as a musician, changing gears meant that instead of shopping labels, we began looking at my collection of songs that had just been completed in the recording studio and deciding on a new direction. I was quite aware that my grandpa, who had recently passed away, had been sending me messages and hope because an unexpected monetary gift he left for me allowed me to complete more songs than I had originally budgeted – and one of the new songs I had written was with him in mind. At the last minute in the studio, I played the song for my producer called ‘Still Hear Him Talking’ and was told, ‘You have to record that song as your last song.’ I was so emotional singing it – and the song seemed to have an impact on everyone who listened in on the recording session.
When the pandemic hit hard – my team and I felt that we needed to release one song from the collection while we waited for the world to open up again. It seemed that ‘Still Hear Him Talking’ needed to be ‘out there’ because the words were so poignant given the difficult times everyone was facing and I hope that this song will bring some peace to people who listen and perhaps have felt the same way. I have felt this strong sense that everything had come together (with my grandpa watching from above) for this song to be released as a single right now – even though it wasn’t originally planned that way at all!
Everyone in our industry is likely trying to rethink how they get their music out there – these are definitely trying times. We’ve been live streaming on Facebook and talking with people on Zoom and Facetime – whatever it takes to stay connected. I think that maybe everything will shift a bit even once we get back to a new normal – so being flexible and willing to embrace new technology and new pathways to our audiences is going to be a part of the shift. The one thing that remains: music offers hope and distraction when the world has gone crazy – so we need to keep putting it out there!
On a personal note, being surrounded by loved ones and my awesome dogs is the greatest blessing during the pandemic. It really makes you realize what’s truly important – and I guess a shift in perspective is never a bad thing!”
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify