Abigail Washburn never set out to be a songwriter or a recording artist. So when she found herself on stage in a smoke filled
“During my Freshman year at
May 2008 marks
This will be a unique and special musical feast for
Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck play the Iron Horse on Saturday May 31st. Tickets Here.
While she may not have envisioned it early on, Sarah Lee Guthrie, the daughter of Arlo Guthrie and granddaughter of Woody Guthrie, ended up answering the call of family tradition, releasing her self-titled debut on the family-owned Rising Son Records in 2001. Careful observers will notice that her first recorded appearance was as a toddler vocalist on dad's 1981 album Power of Love. As an adolescent, she would also sing with her dad on the Grammy-nominated children's album Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs. In high school, however, she was more prone to listening to punk albums than thinking about a career as a folksinger. Nevertheless, she spent the years directly after high school on the road with Arlo, initially as road manager and then as part of the band. Her live debut was with family and friends at Carnegie Hall. In 1997, she met her future husband, Johnny Irion, once a member of North Carolina alterna-rockers Queen Sarah Saturday (as well as once a touring member of Dillon Fence). In 1999, Sarah Lee teamed up with Irion and Tao-Rodriguez-Seeger (who opens the show) to form the folk trio RIG (Rodriguez, Irion, and Guthrie). 
In 2001, besides releasing respective solo albums, Guthrie and Irion toured extensively as a duo, and in 2004, they entered the studio to record an album together. Produced in part by Gary Louris of the Jayhawks and featuring a number of alt-country luminaries lending support, Guthrie and Irion's Exploration was released by the roots-friendly Yep Roc label in the spring of 2005. The bloodlines have clearly not lost any of their musical DNA. Get your tickets here.
Barbara Keith began her career at the Café Wha? in Greenwich Village, following in the footsteps of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Cosby and many others who got their start in that hallowed dive. She was soon recording for MGM/Verve, A&M, and Warner Brothers. Her songs have been covered by such diverse artists as Tanya Tucker, Barbra Streisand, The Dillards, Melanie, Hank Snow, Lowell George and others. “The Bramble and the Rose” has become a folk standard – often receiving the ultimate compliment of being mistaken for a traditional song.
Her husband Doug Tibbles had a whole other life before drumming – A native of Los Angeles, he was a TV writer for such shows as “The Munsters”, “Bewitched”, “Andy Griffith”, “My Three Sons”, “Family Affair”, and many more.
Unhappy with show business in general, Barbara gave back her major label advance, Doug quit his one-day-old job as story editor for “Happy Days”, and they went underground. Doug took up drums and son John took up bass at age eleven. Reclusive by choice, the band moved from L.A. to Western Massachusetts to write and woodshed. They began playing the occasional show while recording in their cellar.
When best selling author Elmore Leonard (“Get Shorty”, “Jackie Brown”, “Out of Sight”) walked into the Troubadour in L.A. one night looking for inspiration for his sequel to “Get Shorty”, he discovered The Stone Coyotes.
They became the model for Chili Palmer’s next adventure, “Be Cool.” Leonard said, “It was music I could understand…straight ahead rock and roll with a twang. And there are good stories going on in the songs.” He included their lyrics in the book and dedicated it to them. He and the band made a string of appearances together around the country with a Words and Music Tour – from New York’s Mercury Lounge to L.A.’s Viper Room.
With support from XM Satellite Radio’s XCountry, along with loyal AAA and college stations, the band has built a strong following from New England to Texas, from coast to coast. On their own label, self-produced, no hype, no roadies, they have ridden hard on the Road Less Travelled - playing, writing and recording and releasing seven albums.
This Saturday, the band hits the Iron Horse stage to celebrate the release of their aptly titled new album "VIII." The show starts at 10pm, with opening duties being handled by Matt Silberstein (also of the Swill Merchants). For a ten spot, you really can't find a better rock show anywhere. Click here to buy tickets to see these local legends!
If Modest Mouse spent a year in a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit, they might emerge sounding like the delightful Brooklyn quartet Bishop Allen. That's not to say that these indie-poppers aren't a serious band. On their debut, Charm School, the foursome blend sharp, jangly guitars with catchy melodies and big choruses. Songwriters Justin Rice and Christian Rudder write cheeky lyrics and layer their tunes with handclaps and singalongs. The band's carefree attitude, along with their musicianship, make Charm School as addictive as it is playful. Add drummer Margaret Miller and bassist Bonnie Karin, and they enter indie elite. Karin's ethereal backing vocals complement Rice's perfectly -- propelling already memorable tracks into charmed harmonic bliss.
Opening the show is Philadelphia's The War on Drugs who create epic folk-pop songs that draw comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and the Arcade Fire. With the acclaimed self-released Barrel of Batteries EP, this quintet has already snagged a deal with indie label Secretly Canadian. Their full-length album Wagonwheel Blues is due out in June. Locals The True Jacqueline round out the bill. Get tickets HERE.
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The film my brother Sascha and I made in Africa has been showing at select film and music festivals. The response has been fantastic. We are still looking for distribution. You can keep track of
Look for
Touring has begun with
Our CD will be released on Netwwerk Records. It’s called Abigail Washburn and
So stay tuned and we’ll keep
George Carlin still enjoys sharing observations
After more than a half century on stage, George Carlin still makes a living doing what he loves - saying exactly what's on his mind.
The 70-year-old comedian will appear at the Calvin Theatre on Friday night and audiences can expect to see much of the material from his recent HBO special, "It's Bad for Ya," which debuted on March 1.
"I don't really have to create an HBO special, I just do my concerts. I do 80 of them, 90 of them every year. That's what I do for a living, that's what I do for my art. That's how I express myself, going out there and doing these things I've written, these ideas I have," said Carlin in a recent phone interview.
"Basically what HBO does is take a picture of my con cert and send it to your house. It's not an HBO show, it's a concert," said Carlin.
"It's Bad For Ya" was Carlin's 14th stand-up comedy special for the HBO network. Three of the specials have been nominated for Emmy awards and six have won CableAce awards.
Carlin, also a Grammy award-winning author, has published three best-selling books and is working on a fourth, "Circling the Drain," a collection of essays presenting Carlin's take on modern America.
"I've seen a lot of things and heard a lot of things. So I have experiences stored up in my head - impressions and ideas and reactions to things. And everything I see creates another new reaction. And when you're 70 you have richer reactions than you do when you're 20."
"That's what all writers do, write from their experience and imagination. I take my thoughts and impressions of things and certain things I really disagree with in our culture. There's things about American culture, American society, the American nation that I have issue with," said Carlin.
"So, some of them I bring out, I dramatize them, I put comedy in them, I put what I think of as entertaining language to them. I'm not talking about cursing, I'm just talking about good, solid rhetoric, and I try to express myself that way," he said.
Regarding the process of writing material and putting together a stage show, Carlin said he believes he's evolved over the course of time.
"I used to think of myself as a comedian who wrote all his own material. And then at some point, in the early 1990s, I discovered that I was a writer who performed his own material, which is a significant difference," he said.
Carlin, too, said that he feels more like an observer than a participant, feeling a level of detachment from the showbusiness industry as well as American society as a whole.
"The only thing I belong to is those show business unions - my performing, my Screen Actors Guild, my American Federation of Radio and Television Artists - those are the only things I belong to. And Triple A, in case my car breaks down," he said.
"I found at some point I had detached myself and divorced myself from the human race and American nation. Now, obviously, by definition I'm still part of them. But I don't consider myself to be, so it gives me a long distance observation post from which to watch them. And it gives me a disinterested point of view in that I have no stake in the outcome," he said.
Carlin also said that he has a full plate on the horizon, keeping himself busy with a number of different projects.
"I'm going to do another HBO special, most likely, and make it an even 15. I'm going to do another book, make a fourth book. And then I have a couple of books, one is a reminiscense, a memoir, whatever you want to call it. It's not quite an autobiography, but there's some looking back over a very, very pleasant and rich childhood," he said.
Carlin also said that he'd like to try writing a comic novel.
"And I'll probably still do some stand up, some performing, as long as I'm physically and mentally able. As long as I'm entertaining myself, I'll try to entertain them," he said.
Lou with the band, and with Steve Hunter who was the lead guitarist on the albums "Berlin" and "Rock and Roll Animal." (Photos by Dave Barnum, click to enlarge.)
Photos by Dave Barnum (click for full size)
In the tradition and spirit of the classic duets of the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, The Hunger Mountain Boys capture the authentic early-American acoustic sound and the fiery energy of such legendary duos as the Monroe Brothers and Delmore Brothers.
Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, The Wiyos deal in great vintage blues and spellbinding original songs. Think of the Asylum Street Spankers (who play the Horse on July 25th) crossed with vaudeville performers, plus a dash of Reverend Gary Davis and Skip James thrown in for good measure.The Wiyos are bringing an almost lost generation of music into a new era complete with old-time souls to truly expand anyone's musical experience.
Get tickets here.
Ladyhawk's foreboding guitar rock is drenched in a drunken, self-loathing stupor. The aggressive energy of their new record, Shots, erupts in the form of gritty dissonance and exuberant chaos. Bellowed choruses and surging guitar riffs contrast with hazy, tormented atmospherics, spawning a crusty creature of an album. The critically acclaimed and gloriously sloppy "S.T.H.D." recalls fellow Canadian band Wolf Parade, while other songs evoke Neil Young, Built to Spill, and sometimes-affiliate Black Mountain. This quartet of childhood friends from British Columbia locked themselves in an isolated farm house, with only their recording equipment, booze and a piss pot for company. They emerged two weeks later with the raw and spooky "Shots," released in March on Jagjaguwar Records. 
Opener Neva Dinova has been a staple in the Omaha scene since forming in the early nineties. Named after the grandmother of guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Jake Bellows (who often collaborates with Bright Eyes), the band produces a melancholic sound of dreamy opulence to match their poetic lyrics. -Alida Bystrom
