By Carey Hereford

Olivia Evans is a 15-year-old sophomore at Mountain Brook High school in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the daughter of
country music star Sara Evans and has been raised in the shadow of the country music scene. Now, as her voice has developed, she is ready to focus on her own music career. Olivia has honed her skills as the lead vocals for several high school bands, but following this interview she is going out on her own as a solo artist. Recently, she spoke with us about living a life surrounded with music, Beyoncé and staying true to herself.

By Brent Thompson

 

Lucero frontman Ben Nichols became a husband and father since Lucero recorded its last studio album, but he’s still in touch with his past and the South’s darker side. On the band’s new release Among The Ghosts [Thirty Tigers], Nichols and company address divorce, drowning, the devil and – hence the title – ghosts and haunting. Recorded with engineer/producer Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Drive-By Truckers), Among The Ghosts was recorded in the band’s hometown of Memphis at Sam Phillips Recording Service. Opting for a more streamlined approach than on previous releases, Lucero gives a fresh take on its sound, but with a familiarity that will appeal to its existing and diehard fan base.

By Brent Thompson

Charlottesville, Va. has a rich musical history and Kendall Street Company is a band that has grown its fan base beyond the city’s fertile scene. Formed by two University of Virginia students in 2013, the sextet has garnered a following in the Mid-Atlantic states and now has its sights set on the Southeast. The band – Birmingham native Andrew King, Louis Smith, Brian Roy, Ryan Wood, Ben Laderberg and Jake Vanaman – is set to release its third full-length album, RemoteVision, this fall. On Saturday, August 25, Kendall Street Company will perform at WorkPlay. Kate and the Howlers will open the 8 p.m. show. Recently, we spoke with Kendall Street Company about writing, recording, modern technology and blurred genre lines.

Birmingham Stages: Are all of the band members University of Virginia students?

Andrew King: All of us went to UVa. but Jake, our saxophone player, and I are still there and doing our best to get out as soon as possible.

Birmingham Stages: How do you balance student life and touring life?

King: During the summer it’s not an issue – we hit it hard and this is all I do. During the year, we do the “weekend warrior” thing.

Birmingham Stages: We understand that the band is set to release a new album. What can you tell us about it?

King: It’s a three-part release. The first part comes out September 1, the second part comes out October 2 and the third part comes out November 3. They’re all very different  – they’re themed differently. It’s a haiku – five songs, seven songs and five songs. We’ve been doing this promotion thing where we post a haiku everyday on our Facebook page.

Birmingham Stages: The structured release schedule you just described is a great example of how artists can distribute music these days on their own terms. If you will, talk about how your band uses technology and current distribution methods to release material.

Brian Roy: We like to do it a little bit differently. This is our third record – we released our first one in 2016 and in 2017 we released Space For Days. We’d been writing throughout that process and we decided that we had songs that themed well together, but had a lot of different sounds. We were thinking that the modern landscape is different. You’re not limited to recording on physical media like vinyl which limits the amount of time you can put on a record, but also people have limited attention spans with the use of modern technology.

We thought that we would go and record these 17 songs together and would release it as a three-part album. So, it’s one album called RemoteVision and that title talks about each part of the record and it’s all tied together. It’s nice to be able to release it in those three parts and use modern technology so that people can listen to each part one-at-a-time.

Birmingham Stages: Staying on the topic of the modern musical climate, how do you separate yourselves from the crowd in a time where literally anyone can record, distribute and promote music?

Jake Vanaman: We’re just trying to be us, honestly. I think that has worked really well the last two years. We just bring our best A-game to every show and try to communicate well with the audience. We’re not playing any roles – that’s just who we are.

Roy: To add to that, we try to keep it really fun and we just want to be having fun onstage. We feel like if we’re having fun, then the audience will be having fun. We throw curveballs at each other onstage and we’re trying to follow each other. We all have a lot of influences and we try to listen to a lot of different music from all over the world and here in the States – different genres and new stuff that is coming out – and try to learn from that.

Louis Smith: One of the things that’s really unique about us is we are a band where everyone is kind of the leader at different points – the live show, songwriting, in the studio and decision-making. We all work together as a very cohesive unit. We disagree on some things, but we all respect each other’s opinions and I think that’s unique in this day and age. We’re trying to keep the idea of “band” alive and we try to portray that in our music and our social media outreach.

Vanaman: On RemoteVision, four people are writing lyrics to these songs. There’s a lot of input coming from everywhere in the band.

Birmingham Stages: With respect to songwriting, how do you approach the creative process?

Ben Laderberg: There are multiple methods. Sometimes we sit down and start jamming for a while and maybe nothing will happen. Other times, someone will being in this really cool theme and someone will pick up on it and we will turn that theme into a cohesive song. Most of the time, one person works on an idea and they’ll share it with one other person in the band to get their input. Eventually, it turns into a full song where everybody’s part develops naturally.

Birmingham Stages: Are the songs on RemoteVision newer compositions, older songs or a mixture of both?

Laderberg: There were a few songs we had fully worked out before even our last record was released to songs that were written a few weeks before to finish up the 17 [tracks].

Birmingham Stages: Do songs still continue to evolve while you are in the recording studio?

Roy: Definitely. We like to come into the studio with completed songs, but also an open mind. So, we’re open to things changing at the eleventh hour or to things being moved around. We like to come prepared – the studio isn’t inexpensive – but there’s an atmosphere in the studio and you want to capture that atmosphere in the music and the songs themselves. I think it’s part of what gives an album good cohesion. We try to capture a moment in the band, which is why we like releasing one [album] every year. We’re always writing new material and we want to be able to get in there and capture a moment. Songs evolve even after we release them. If you come to our live show, we’ll play songs from our older records and they might sound totally different. We switch it up to keep it fun for us and engaging for our audiences at the same time.

Birmingham Stages: How do songs stay fresh to you after you’ve performed them dozens of times?

Smith: Probably the best example is a song called “Cars” – it’s our biggest hit on Spotify. We haven’t gotten tired of playing it and one of the reasons is we’ll mix different songs into “Cars.” We start with the song “Jessica” by The Allman Brothers and we’ve tossed in [System of a Down ‘s] “Chop Suey!” and [Three Dog Night’s] “Joy To The World.” There’s a spot in the song that’s open to “What are we feeling tonight?” and it’s a surprise for us sometimes.

Birmingham Stages: It seems that now is a good time to be forging your career given that genre lines are blurred more than ever.

Roy: That’s exactly right. I’m the first one to say that [the term] “genre” is dead. We’ve talked about this as a band and not everyone totally agrees with that in every way, but what’s so great about the digital age in music is that we can listen to music that comes from Nigeria and Latin America and we have available access to those things. If you ever get bored with what you’re hearing on the radio, online you can get access to music from other places and that access is really valuable to keep what you’re learning fresh.

Birmingham Stages: Andrew, I know you’re looking forward to playing in front of your hometown crowd on August 25.

King: Absolutely! We just added Kate and the Howlers to the bill and I want to say that we’re really excited to be playing with them.

Kendall Street Company will perform at WorkPlay on Saturday, August 25. Kate and the Howlers will open the 8 p.m. Advance tickets to the 18+ show are $10 – two tickets for $15 – and can be purchased at www.workplay.com.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

 

 

Photos by Adam Johnson 

Umphrey’s McGee performed to a sold-out crowd at Avondale Brewing Co. on Sunday night. The show included a surprise guest appearance by Taylor Hicks and an inspired opening set by Spafford. We were on hand to capture the excitement!

A conversation with drummer and founding member Kurt Sodergren

By Brent Thompson

An 80-year-old and an 8-year-old can equally enjoy a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show – how many bands can make that claim? Formed 25 years ago in Southern California, the swing revivalists have performed more than 2,800 live shows – including appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center and the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXIII – while releasing 11 albums and being prominently featured in the 1996 Vince Vaughn film Swingers. On Thursday, August 9, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will perform at the Lyric Theatre. Recently, drummer and founding member Kurt Sodergren spoke with us by phone about swing, the road and the unifying power of music.

Birmingham Stages: Kurt, thanks for your time. Where are you right now?

Kurt Sodergren: We are home. Summer’s not been as busy as normal. It’s been kind of nice because I’ve gotten to spend a lot of time with family.

Birmingham Stages: A lot of artists I interview these days discuss adjusting their touring schedules to spend more time at home.

Sodergren: We actually just had a band meeting and talked about that very thing. Everyone wanted to do what we needed to do to make a living, but we didn’t want to go overboard and get burnt out. It really helped us a lot when we made that change.

Birmingham Stages: What first comes to mind when you reflect on 25 years of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy?

Sodergren: Where’d the time go? It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. It seemed like it happened so fast, but I guess it didn’t because we started touring in a van and probably drove to New York and back three times in that van – we still have it, actually. It seems like a blur right now, but we put a lot of time in to get to where we are and it was always a lot of fun. There was never a question about whether we wanted to continue to do it. Even now, there’s no end in sight that I can see.

Birmingham Stages: There has to be a satisfaction – and even some job security – to playing a timeless form of music.

Sodergren: Oh, for sure. There are whole generations of families that come out. There are people who brought their kids in utero and now the kids are 12 or 13. It’s an American art form, so it’s pretty great to be involved in it.

Birmingham Stages: When the band started, did you ever think that you would be responsible for starting a revival and that your band would turn future generations on to swing music?

Sodergren: That’s a lot of kudos and I don’t think we can accept all of them because there are other bands. We do think that what we’re doing is unique and the energy we bring to the stage is definitely one-of-a-kind. We were just doing it for the love of the music. It was Scott’s [Morris, guitarist and vocalist] idea  – we were playing heavy blues at the time in a trio and he said he wanted to change and start playing swing. It was a little confusing to me, but I was into the sound – it feels really good. It’s great to bring the music to people that don’t normally like to go out. That’s the way I grew up – going out to see music. It would be a shame if people stopped doing that, so if we can have any part of people still going out and having a great time – or if someone’s having a bad day, they come see us and it becomes a great day – we’re happy.

Birmingham Stages: To the point of having a great time, it’s nice to see a show that provides an escape from the world around us. Obviously, a lot of great music has been made using politics and world issues as platforms, but sometimes it just needs to be about fun.

Sodergren: I agree. To the point of politics, I think there are always things that can bring people together and music is one of them and food as well. No matter what someone’s opinions are about what’s going on in the world or who they support, I think that music is a place where we can all come together and agree. That’s really super important, especially now when people are so divided. That’s why we’re an apolitical band – we’ve played for a lot of different Presidents and were excited to do it.

Birmingham Stages: If I understand correctly, swing music is in your blood as your grandfather was a musician.

Sodergren: He got drafted two weeks shy of his 38th birthday into World War II and played sax, so I think that saved him. He spent most of it playing for soldiers on R&R and officers’ parties and so forth. He enjoyed it but he missed my dad and my grandma for a year. So, whenever I’m on the road for two weeks and get homesick I try to keep a little perspective [laughs].

Birmingham Stages: How do you view the current climate and model that exists for musicians?

Sodergen: When we first started, we did two music videos and they were pretty pricey. They got played on MTV and VH1. Now, we record our own for peanuts. Our latest video, “Why Me?,” is on Youtube. It has a lot of views and we did it ourselves in Andy’s [Rowley, saxophonist and vocalist] house. On the other side, there’s not a lot of money to be made selling records like there used to be – unless you’re Taylor Swift or someone like that – so our bread and butter is the live show. We bring merch with us and it definitely helps pay the bills. It’s a double-edged sword.

Birmingham Stages: As a drummer, are you out scouring music stores for new gear or do you basically stick with what you already have?

Sodergren: I used to really enjoy it. That’s one thing Scott and I did when we first met – we would go to music shops. There’s a local place here in town that had a lot of vintage gear and I was super into it. But I’ve got five kits now – I’ve pared it down a little bit. I have one I bring on the road and one in my rehearsal room and it’s exactly what I want, so I really don’t spend a lot of time now looking for new stuff; I have a lot of friends that do. I try to get into the drum room everyday to practice, but I don’t think much about the gear.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy will perform at the Lyric Theatre on Thursday, August 9. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $27.50 – $42.50 and can be purchased at www.lyricbham.com.

By Brent Thompson

The Sloss Music & Arts Festival (July 14 & 15) offered its most diverse lineup to date. Hip-Hop, Americana, Electronica, Country and beyond were all represented at this year’s event. We were on hand to capture the excitement!

 

Artist Photos (Top to Bottom): Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Vance Joy, Aracde Fire, 21 Savage, Nikki Lane, Griz, Margo Price

 

 

By Brent Thompson

Rayland Baxter has only released three full-length albums, but it seems his career has extended for much longer (that statement is meant as a compliment). The son of renowned multi-instrumentalist Bucky Baxter [Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, R.E.M.], Rayland writes songs that declare him wise beyond his years. His latest album, Wide Awake [ATO Records], finds the singer/songwriter addressing the universal theme of decision-making over its 10 tracks. On Friday, July 20, Baxter will perform at Saturn. Okey Dokey and Brett Bigelow will open the 8 p.m. show. Recently, Baxter spoke with us by phone about Wide Awake, isolation and pop songs.

Birmingham Stages: Rayland, thanks for your time. We are looking forward to your show at Saturn.

Rayland Baxter: It’s going to be awesome – the best green room in the United States. The bands can stay there when they play there.

Birmingham Stages: We are really enjoying Wide Awake. If you will, talk about the creation of it.

Baxter: The oldest song is “Casanova” and that song I wrote on the way up to Lollapalooza four years ago to see Cage The Elephant. I wrote it in the back seat of my buddy’s car and it sat around because it was out of my style. Other than that song, most of these songs came to life up in Franklin, Ky. – where I lived the winter before last – at my friend’s studio called Thunder Sound. At the time, it was just becoming a studio and it was in an old rubber band factory. I was in the clerk’s office living with a Wurlitzer and an acoustic guitar by myself. I stayed there for three months straight and wrote about five albums’ worth of songs.

Birmingham Stages: Did you enjoy the isolation surrounding that process?

Baxter: I loved it – I’ve spent a lot of time up there since then. I love being by myself and I love writing and diving into my mind and following the greats and trying to make my footsteps a little different than theirs.

Birmingham Stages: Would you like to write in that same environment again?

Baxter: I’ll do that again and I’m preparing by taking voice notes on my phone and dating and labeling them. When I get time to write, I’ll go back to that room and test it out again. Kentucky’s maybe my favorite state. I love cornfields from being a Field of Dreams fan as a kid – the mystery of the cornfield. Thunder Sound is surrounded by cornfields and orchards and the stars.

Birmingham Stages: The press release for Wide Awake mentions the album’s recurring theme of decision-making. If you will, talk about the material’s lyrical content.

Baxter: We’re all faced with decisions – thousands upon thousands of them a day from how tight to tie my shoe, should I open my mouth, should I have an opinion. All of these decisions. Humans make decisions and it’s our legacy we leave behind. I’m just exploring my mind and humanity.

Birmingham Stages: Your lyrics somehow manage to sound personal and universal at the same time.

Baxter: We’re all feeling the same things on some level. That’s why pop songs are fun to listen to – they talk about middle of the road issues like love, loss, right and wrong. It takes a special pairing of words and melody to cut through the crust of the same old shit that’s being poured out. I love the pop form of a song on a Beatles level. I want people to hear my point because it’s there point as well.

Rayland Baxter will perform at Saturn on Friday, July 20. Okey Dokey and Brett Bigelow will open the 8 p.m. show. Advance tickets to the 18+ show are $13 and can be purchased at www.saturnbirmingham.com.

Photo Credit: Shevin Lainez

By Brent Thompson

Music can take listeners to faraway places and Noah and Josh Thompson are living proof. Growing up in Mobile, Ala., the brothers and guitarists took to the exotic sounds of Flamenco, Latin Jazz and Gypsy Jazz. These days, the Thompson brothers comprise the instrumental duo Roman Street (named for a street in the Alps). On Saturday, July 21, Roman Street will appear on the bill of the Eric Essix CD Release Concert at the Lyric Theatre. Recently, the Thompson brothers spoke with us by phone about speaking through your instrument and creating the latest Roman Street album, Bohemia.

Birmingham Stages: Noah and Josh, thanks for your time. If you will, talk about your writing process and how that process applied to the creation of Bohemia. Were the album’s songs newer compositions, older ones or a combination of both?

Noah Thompson: Josh and I both composed a little independently on this one, but most of the material was made for that album.

Josh Thompson: We work on each other’s songs, but I wrote the majority of mine – four or five of them – for the CD. I have a loop station at my house and every week or so I’ll go work on an idea. I’ll look back and find something I made two years ago that I forgot about and I’ll listen to it. There are one or two pieces on this CD where the ideas predate the CD by two or three years, so it’s a little bit of a mix of old and new stuff.

Birmingham Stages: Being from the Southern U.S., how did the two of you get turned on to World Music, Gypsy Jazz and Flamenco?

NT: There’s a story I like to tell because we get asked that question a lot. Josh and I grew up here and went to high school here and went to college in the South. Our parents are really musical and we had different types of music played around our house when we were younger. I just frankly was bored with learning the normal stuff that aspiring guitar players learn around here – Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimmy Buffett and Dave Matthews. Not that it’s a knock on that music, but I always found the Spanish and European stuff so much more challenging and interesting. I never thought that I’d be playing it professionally – I just liked the way it sounded and the way it made me feel. The rubber hit the road when Josh and I met a guitar duo called Tonic Strings – they were here coming through the South and we heard it and fell in love with it and the rest is history.

Birmingham Stages: These days, people can easily find Jazz via satellite radio, Internet and iTunes. How do you feel about the state of Jazz in the era of these modern outlets?

NT: We don’t play a mainstream genre of music, especially in the American South. But I think the way people consume music has helped us. People keep coming to see Josh and I play because they like to see guitar players improvise and play onstage and we have a good time and jam. I think people have become more open-minded given the way people consume music these days.

Birmingham Stages: This may be an odd question, but is there a sense of relief in playing instrumental music? By that I mean having no pressure to tie lyrical content to your music.

JT: I think that Noah and I realized pretty early that vocals were not our forte [laughs]. We weren’t born with that gift. It was great to find out that you could still have a fulfilling career as an instrumental musician – there was a relief with that. The whole point is to make the instrument speak. That’s the highest praise you can get – people come see you and say, “You can really make that instrument talk.”

NT: [Writing lyrics] is challenging. I’ve tried to put some lyrics to our songs – that’s a completely different skill set that some people have. But, like Josh said, I love the fact that people dig instrumental music and enjoy it in a different way. With instrumental music, people can make of it what they want – you don’t have people telling you a story. We’re just giving them rhythms and sounds. The same song will make people feel chill or elated.

Live at the Lyric: Eric Essix CD Release Concert with special guest Roman Street takes place on Saturday, July 21. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $20 – $30 and can be purchased at www.lyricbham.com.

By Brent Thompson

 

An incredible roster of national and regional acts will converge on Birmingham this weekend for Sloss Music & Arts Festival 2018. Sloss Furnaces – The Steel City landmark – will provide the backdrop for the event that takes place on July 14-15. Visit www.slossfest.com to purchase weekend and single-day passes.

By Brent Thompson

Jerry Castle took his frustration of the 2016 election results into the recording studio and created an upbeat album for troubled and confusing times. The result, Brand New Hello [My World Records], is a collection that weaves a story of despair and redemption over its 14 tracks. On Thursday, July 12, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter – by way of Virginia – will perform at The Nick in a double-bill show with Iron Mike Norton. Recently, Castle corresponded with us via email about Brand New Hello, songwriting and the notion of creating full albums in a singles-driven musical climate.

Birmingham Stages: Your bio mentions the election being the inspiration for the material on Brand New Hello. Were all of the songs written after the election or had some of the songs been around for awhile?

Jerry Castle: I wrote one song before the election, “Watered Down Wine,” and the rest were written after. I felt like it fit into the story line of the album so I included it. I started writing the rest of the songs the day after the election and wrote the majority of them by the end of 2016. It’s the quickest I’ve ever written an album.

Birmingham Stages: Brand New Hello plays like an upbeat-sounding album for troubled times in our country. Was that approach intentional or did the songs just come out that way?

Castle: I wouldn’t say that my intent was to be upbeat during troubled times but that’s the way it came out. I did feel a bigger divide in our country than I’ve experienced in my lifetime. Like a lot of other Americans, I was overwhelmed with politics. I poured that frustration into writing and recording this album. I think there was a therapeutic element to the process. I knew that I wanted to learn to program and explore songwriting via that avenue, so I did. I learned to program while writing the songs and in recording them in the studio. It had a real impact on the overall vibe of the album. On at least half of the songs on the album, I wrote the music before writing the lyrics. Historically, that’s highly unusual for me.

Birmingham Stages: How would you describe your writing process? Do you continually lay down ideas or do you shelve writing while on tour?

Castle: I’m continually keeping track of my ideas, usually on my phone, but I’m not sitting down, digging in and hashing out those ideas. I’ll let a song idea unfold as much as it naturally does but then I’ll leave it until I’m ready to do the work. Editing is hard work and it’s really time consuming. I have to be in the right mindset to do it.

Birmingham Stages: Do songs still evolve even after you take them into the studio – for example, does the finished product ever come out darker, brighter, more sparse or more full than you would have originally thought?

Castle: Oh absolutely! I try not to get overly tied to ideas until I’m in a studio setting. What the life or vibe of a song should be seems to become more apparent in a studio setting.

Birmingham Stages: How do songs stay fresh and relevant for you even after you’ve played them dozens of times?

Castle: Frankly, I’ve always had a hard time with that and it has probably hurt my career a bit. Generally speaking, I support my albums via touring for three to four months and then I’m so burned out on playing the same songs over and over, that I get off of the road and start writing another record. I’ve put out five albums over the past eight years. I’m addicted to the feeling of hope that a new song seems to bring me.  So once I tap into that, I usually abandon the touring part and focus on recording a new album. I’m really trying to make a focused effort this time around to ease into the Brand New Hello tour. I want to give this album a real chance to be heard and that just can’t happen when you support an album for such a short amount of time.

As far as things that I’m doing in the live show to help avoid burning out so quickly on this tour, I’ve included a fair amount of improvisational sections in the set. That unpredictability creates an energy that forces me to stay in the moment. Being that the new album has more up-tempo songs than previous albums, I think that energy helps to keep things fun.

Birmingham Stages: Some artists say the current climate – Youtube, iTunes, satellite radio – is great for artists given that fans have so many avenues to access music. Some artists say for that same reason it’s difficult to separate yourself from the crowd and be heard. How do you feel about the current climate?

Castle: I don’t think there’s a clear-cut answer. There are benefits to the current music environment and there are negatives.  It’s like the Wild West these days in that there are less steadfast industry rules than ever. It has never been easier for an artist to put out music and I think that’s good for singer/songwriters and bands that are truly approaching their music as art.  However, with that comes over-saturation. I think one of the big negatives to the current environment is that full-length albums seem to be more of an antiquated way of putting out music. I think a lot fewer singer/songwriters and bands are capable of consistently putting out full-length albums. I think if you take a look at artists that do, you’ll find an overall higher quality of music than an artist that only puts out singles. Artistically, you learn so much more through the process of putting out entire albums.

At the end of the day, I think that you still separate yourself from the fray by being great live.  You don’t ever want someone to come and see you live and leave saying “that’s not as good as the record.”

Jerry Castle will perform at The Nick on Thursday, July 12. Doors open at 9 p.m. and showtime is 10 p.m. Tickets to the 21+ show are $6 and can be purchased at www.thenickrocks.com.

Photo Credit: Joshua Black Wilkins