By Brent Thompson

Folk and R&B don’t cross paths very often, but Penny & Sparrow effectively blends the two genres together on its latest release, Finch. Over the course of the album’s 11 tracks, the duo (Andy Baxter and Kyle Jahnke) layers in soulful textures while retaining its musical identity. On Sunday, October 6, Penny & Sparrow will perform at Saturn with Caroline Spence opening the 8 p.m. show. Recently, Baxter spoke with us by phone as the band traveled from New York City to Pittsburgh.

Birmingham Stages: Andy, thanks for your time. We are looking forward to your return to Birmingham.

Andy Baxter: Looking forward to coming back to Birmingham. We just did an in-store at Seasick [Records] and it was great.

Birmingham Stages: You must be pleased by the great response that Finch has received.

Baxter: We have been excited about that. It’s been nice to have so many people say such nice things. It’s been good.

Birmingham Stages: How did the album’s material take shape?

Baxter: All of these songs were new songs – they hadn’t been lingering from old songs. Some of the melodic ideas might have been, but for the most part they were all created during the season of writing after [2017 release] Wendigo. We wrote songs out of that surplus and then pieced them all together and didn’t really know what they were all about until we looked at them from a bird’s-eye view after we wrote them and recorded them. So it was after we’d written everything that we said, “Oh, I guess the songs are about change.” That’s how we came up with the name Finch – a nod to Darwin’s finches and the evolutionary changes of the Galapagos Islands. That was what the album sort of came to be.

Birmingham Stages: Does 11th-hour tweaking take place even after you enter the recording studio?

Baxter: Oh, I think that there’s a fair amount of 11th-hour tweaking. There were two songs where we did the majority of the work – they weren’t going to make the record – in the last two days of the studio and they came to fruition. So, that’s a great example of 11th-hour tweaking.

Birmingham Stages: How does your band’s songwriting process work? Is there a typical pattern?

Baxter: Typically, Kyle comes up with melodies first. He creates it and sends me a voice memo of him singing random words and gibberish to the melody that he has made up. I start piecing together words and playing mad libs to the melodies that he has sent. From there, we just do the editing process back-and-forth. This record has been one that we wrote totally separate – he wrote the melodies in Texas and I wrote words in Alabama and we would cross-reference and cross-edit when we came together in the studio.

Birmingham Stages: Are you able to write while you’re on the road?

Baxter: We do on occasion. Kyle’s been working on melodies and he’ll try out ideas when we warm-up and soundcheck and get my random feedback. We haven’t recorded on the road in a while other than little voice memo ideas.

Birmingham Stages: Where are you and Kyle based these days?

Baxter: I live in Florence, AL and Kyle is in Waco, TX. I’m originally from Ft. Worth and Kyle’s from Dallas. We met in college – we both went to the University of Texas in Austin.

Birmingham Stages: What prompted your move to Alabama?

Baxter: We moved there to co-write and work with John Paul White on a record and that’s what brought us to the Shoals originally. We just made friends there and wanted to stay.

Birmingham Stages: How do you feel about the current musical climate in the age of Spotify, iTunes, satellite radio and other modern outlets?

Baxter: I think that technological advancements are unavoidable so you either learn how to deal with it, adapt to it and use it to your ability or it leaves you behind. For us, it’s done a lot of good – there are so many avenues to get music in the hands of people that never would have heard it. But this is a really strange time because it’s evolving so quickly. It’s about paying attention to what temperature the water is and making sure you know how to swim in it.

Birmingham Stages: It seems that even if artists can self-record and self-release albums, they still have to get out and tour behind them. Separating yourselves in the live setting is one of the strengths of your band.

Baxter: I appreciate that. That’s the way we’ve wanted to separate ourselves. When we get asked about advice for upcoming artists, we say there’s no substitute for playing shows. Go sing for people and play the same show if it’s in front of 6, 60 or 600.

Penny & Sparrow will perform at Saturn on Sunday, October 6. Caroline Spence will open the 8 p.m. show. Advance tickets to the 18+ show are $17 and can be purchased at www.saturnbirmingham.com.

By Brent Thompson

The Record Company is a prime example of a band forging its way in the modern music industry. Recording and mixing its debut full-length debut album [2016’s Grammy-nominated Give It Back To You] in its Los Angeles living room, the trio quickly garnered exposure via heavy rotation on satellite radio. In 2018, the band – Chris Vos, Alex Stiff and Marc Cazorla – released All Of This Life, 10-track collection that mines the raw, blues-based sound of its predecessor. On Friday, October 4, The Record Company will perform with Blackberry Smoke at Avondale Brewing Company. Recently, vocalist/guitarist Vos spoke with us by phone from his California home.

Birmingham Stages: Chris, thanks for your time. We are enjoying All Of This Life.

Chris Vos: Thanks. It was fun to make and it’s fun to see these songs get out there. It’s been a cool experience.

Birmingham Stages: I can only imagine the whirlwind your life has been since the release of Give It Back To You.

Vos: It’s all good. You can’t work to create chaos by being a musician and, when it happens, not enjoy it. It’s a crazy life but – to paraphrase Willie Nelson – it’s my life.

Birmingham Stages: With the touring and promotion demands that surrounded Give It Back To You, was it a challenge to write material for All Of This Life?

Vos: You get better at it. To borrow another phrase, you make hay while the sun shines. If you’re going to wait around for conditions to be perfect to sit down and write a song, those days are gone. If you want to continue to be out there, you have to continue writing and taking information. It’s just having your antenna up every day. Back in the day, you’d carry a pad and paper in your pocket and if an idea hit you you’d get it down. But now we’ve got these [digital] voice memos and you get it down on there – it’s a nice little tool to have. You have to be listening to your soul and mind at all times because they go by real quick. Inspiration does not knock loudly all the time.

Birmingham Stages: Were the songs on All Of This Life newer compositions, older ones or a mixture of both?

Vos: Most of it was brand new. There were a couple that were concepts that had laid around for a bit. There were song fragments and lyrics that had been laying around. Sometimes you’ll have a lyric or a melody that you feel like is good but you can’t find the personality of the song yet. You try to beat your head against the wall in those moments, but sometimes the song just isn’t ready to be born yet so you move on to the next idea.

Birmingham Stages: When you take songs into the recording studio, is there ongoing tweaking that takes place?

Vos: I think it’s different on every record. For All Of This Life, we had a release date set and we hit the deadline and we said, “That’s that.” Deadlines sometimes are good because you can sit and horse around with something forever. We tend to be more of a “let it be what it is” kind of band, but as you go on in your career you never know what will happen.

Birmingham Stages: Some artists say this is a great time to be in your position given the technology and the instant accessibility it brings. Others say it’s a difficult time to be found among the crowd given the clutter that technology creates. How do you feel about the current climate?

Vos: The one thing I’m always hesitant to think about is the concept of the good old days. I don’t think it was ever easy is my point. Back in the day, there were gatekeepers telling us what’s cool and what’s not cool and they controlled the whole game. A band like us probably wouldn’t have had much of a chance to get out there. I wasn’t making music when people bought music so I didn’t get the benefit of that. I’ve never had checks just rolling into my mailbox. I’m of the era where you put out a record so you can go play shows.

It’s a complicated question. Everybody has a chance and I see a lot of diverse artists out there. Artists I meet these days are not motivated by money. I think musicians that are out there truly love what they do and they do it because they don’t want to do anything else. They are looking to be fulfilled spiritually and musically. You just have to get in there and work hard.

The Record Company will perform with Blackberry Smoke at Avondale Brewing Company on Friday, October 4. Advance tickets to the 6:30 p.m. show are $35 – $40 day of the show – and can be purchased at avondalebrewing.com.

By Brent Thompson

Greatest hits filled the air when Hall & Oates performed at Oak Mountain Amphitheatre on September 24. The best-selling duo of all time performed “Rich Girl,” “Sara Smile,” “One On One,” “Private Eyes” and “Kiss On My List” – among other pop radio staples – over a 16-song set.

By Brent Thompson

It’s our favorite week of the year and it’s an easy drive from Birmingham. Each September, a throng of talented artists descend on Nashville for the weeklong Americana Music Festival & Conference (AmericanaFest). Legends and newcomers alike blanket the city’s venues, rooftop bars, hotels and restaurants, prompting frustration that you can’t be everywhere at the same time.

By Carey Hereford

The term “Americana” befits Will Hoge as the musical genre is as definably indefinable as the singer/songwriter’s familiar-yet-fresh sound. For more than 20 years, Hoge has garnered a loyal fan base via word-of-mouth and incessant touring. Since leaving Western Kentucky University to pursue a full-time career in music, Hoge has released a steady stream of albums and has a new record slated for release in 2020. On Wednesday, September 25, he will perform at WorkPlay Theatre with Stephen Kellogg. Recently, we spoke with Hoge by phone.

Birmingham Stages: Thank you for your time Will. Who was your biggest musical influence growing up and how does that compare to who influences you now?

Will Hoge: Oh, I don’t know, the biggest thing for me is just as a fan. I mean it wasn’t necessarily any particular artist. My dad had this really great record collection growing up, he had everything from the early ’60s through the mid ’70s. He kind of had all of the great stuff in my opinion. Whether that was singer-songwriters or country stuff or rock stuff, he had everything. I just grew up with this really great appreciation for what I like to consider great music. Genre of music didn’t necessarily matter. I like that artist would go out there and put themselves on the line for the music – that’s what always interested me as a kid. That still interest me to this day – I don’t think the general concept hasn’t changed much for me.

Birmingham Stages: How does your writing process work and where do you tend to find inspiration?

Hoge: The inspiration for me is just daily life and that’s a constant thing. I think when was younger it was just trying to write songs about love or whatever it was when you were feeling 18 years old. Now that changes a little bit – there are kids and marriage [and] all sorts of things that could factor into this. Life is the inspiration. From there, the process is almost chaotic. You know you have all these thoughts that swirl around and then you, hopefully, sit still long enough where you can get a cool melody or cool lyric idea and you scramble to get them down and out as quickly as possible.

Birmingham Stages: How old were you when you wrote your first song?

Hoge: Aw man, first attempt was probably in like fifth or sixth grade, but I didn’t even play music at that point. I didn’t start playing guitar until I was about 17. Think I was trying to do it a little before that. I was 16 or 17 when I got my first guitar and I was learning like ​”Sweet Home Alabama.”  ​That was the first thing a guy kinda wrote out chords for me in a history class. From there I started to write songs pretty quickly. They weren’t very good, but I was trying my best.

Birmingham Stages: Do you feel obligated to play songs in your sets or do you play the songs you want to play?

Hoge: One thing I like about having done this for so long, I think there is a trust between the crowd and audience that they have come to see a great show. I don’t think the audience comes to hear a song in particular. That’s the beauty of not really having a bunch of hits – I don’t have the obligation to play any particular song. My favorite thing is when people leave and say “Man, that was one of the best shows I have ever seen and he didn’t even play this song or that song.” That’s really the biggest compliment I think you can get.

Birmingham Stages: When you are making a record, how do you choose which songs are going to be singles?

Hoge: I differ most of the times to other people on that kind of stuff – I just don’t know anymore. One, there is not much places for singles, – Americana as a format, they just put your whole record out at once. Then people get to pick and choose what they want to listen to which I think is great. That is one of the places where I try to listen more than lead, then I just get to go play the songs.

Birmingham Stages: What song of yours do you see as unfinished and still needs more work?

Hoge: Oh, everything. We are going to start a new record new week, start on the 11th (of September). So I’ve got 11 of them right there were I can think of that I need to be finishing in the next four or five days. So, those are the ones that I am focused on currently.

Birmingham Stages: Your recent record, My American Dream, was released in 2018. What made you feel like you were ready to start a new record? When do you plan to release your next record?

Hoge: I had a pretty decent batch of songs that I felt like kinda could make two records actually and I went in feeling pretty bold about it. But then, when we went in for pre-production, I realized that I like all of these songs and they all need to be released. There was a batch of them that fit together and then a batch of them that went together in another way. So we are concentrating on these 11 right now. I think that the album will be released in the first quarter of next year.

Birmingham Stages: So what kind of music might be found in your playlist right now?

Hoge: Man, I’m all over the place, like all of that stuff that I mentioned earlier. I try to listen to friends of mine and people that are putting out new records and spend some time there. I’ve got twelve and nine year old little boys that bring a whole different element of what there listening to. Things that I have never heard of or would have never found. So it’s a pretty healthy dose of all sorts of music.

Birmingham Stages: What do you consider your greatest musical achievement or failure?

Hoge: My greatest achievement I’d have to say is that I’m still here doing this, 20 years-plus of not having to do anything else – I’ve felt really fortunate about that. But, as far as failures, it’s kinda cliche to say but failure don’t really matter – it’s kinda about what you do afterwards that defines you. I just feel very lucky to be able to keep getting back up.

Will Hoge and Stephen Kellogg will perform at WorkPlay Theatre on Wednesday, September 25. Advance tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $25 and can be purchased at www.workplay.com.

By Brent Thompson

The term “Power Pop” is synonymous with melodic, hook-laden songs performed with a rock & roll attitude. Big Star, The Raspberries, Badfinger and Todd Rundgren were early torchbearers in the genre and – for more than 30 years (has it really been more than 30 years?) – Matthew Sweet has been at the forefront of the movement. In addition to releasing a wealth of solo material, the singer/guitarist has been involved in projects with Susanna Hoffs, Shawn Mullins and Pete Droge among others. On Tuesday, September 17, Sweet will perform at Saturn with People Years opening the 8 p.m. show. Advance tickets to the 18+ show are $20 and can be purchased at www.saturnbirmingham.com.

By Langston Hereford and Brent Thompson

Judging by an enthusiastic and capacity-filled crowd at Oak Mountain Amphitheatre, the music world has missed Hootie. On Friday, September 6, Hootie & The Blowfish and Barenaked Ladies brought its Group Therapy Tour to Pelham. Hits from the ’90s – alongside some well-chosen covers – filled the night as concertgoers recited song lyrics word-for-word.

By Brent Thompson

Texan Jesse Dayton was raised on a diverse host of musical influences and now he’s revisiting the songs that inspired him. On Mixtape Volume 1 [Blue Elan Records], Dayton stretches himself by covering a wealth of stylistic ground. Gordon Lightfoot (“If You Could Read My Mind”), The Cars (“Just What I Needed”), Jackson Browne (“Redneck Friend”) and AC/DC (“Whole Lotta Rosie”) are all fair game here and Dayton sounds up to the challenge. In fact, Dayton accomplishes the most difficult task of placing his own stamp on familiar, well-worn material. As we delve into Mixtape Volume 1, we can also take heart that a new set of listeners will be introduced to these songs.

By Brent Thompson

On Thursday, August 22, the bird and the bee held a mesmerized crowd in its collective hand at Saturn. Blending originals with well-crafted versions of Van Halen and Hall & Oates covers, the band already has fans begging for a quick return to Birmingham.

By Adam Johnson

Coca-Cola Roxy Setlist 8-3-19:

1. Cumberland Blues
2. Folsom Prison Blues
3. Isis
4. G-Love Rap
5. Go Crazy
6. Immigrant Song
7. Not Coming Down
8. Haze
9. Who You Calling Scared?
10. Time
11. ATL
12. Seat of My Pants
13. Silver Sun Encore:
14. Wind It Up
15. Tailspin