By Brent Thompson

On Thursday, September 28, Jazz pianist Joey Alexander took the stage at the Alys Stephens Center. Backed by bassist Scott Colley and drummer Willie Jones, III, the 14-year-old prodigy displayed the talent that has made the Jazz world take note (Herbie Hancock and Wynton Marsalis are both enthusiastic Alexander supporters). The concert took place on the eve of Alexander’s live release, Joey.Monk.Live!, a tribute album to the music of Thelonious Monk. Birmingham Stages was at the Stephens Center to capture this season’s last installment of “The Essentials” series.

 

 

 

 

 

Images from Nashville’s annual genre-defying festival 

Photos By Brent Thompson

The term “Americana” is delightfully undefinable, blending Pop, Rock, Country, Bluegrass and Singer/Songwriter sounds into a brand that is diverse and cohesive at the same time. Each September, a troop of national touring acts descends upon Nashville for AmericanaFest, a non-stop parade of shows (even by Music City standards). This year’s festival took place from September 12-17 and Birmingham Stages was there to capture the event.

Whitney Rose at American Legion Post #82

 

Deer Tick at The Station Inn

Darlingside at The Anchor

Iron & Wine at The Station Inn

Will Kimbrough at The Westin Hotel’s L27

Load-out at American Legion Post #82

Closing time at The Station Inn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sister trio performs at Iron City on the heels of new release, Stay Awake

By Brent Thompson

Photo Credit: Chloe Horseman

To say that the past three years have been a whirlwind for Joseph is an understatement. Since self-releasing its debut album Native Dreamer Kin in 2014, the trio – sisters Natalie Closner Schepman, Allison Closner and Meegan Closner – has performed at festivals including Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Newport Folk Festival and Glastonbury in addition to TV appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, NBC’s Today and Later…with Jools Holland. Earlier this month, Joseph – named as a tribute to the town of Joseph, Oregon and the trio’s grandfather, Jo – released Stay Awake (ATO Records). The seven-track EP addresses the current political and cultural climate with a blend of new songs, remixes of old songs and a cover of Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World.” Currently, the band is on a headlining tour that brings them to Iron City on Friday, September 29.  The all-ages show is presented by Birmingham Mountain Radio. Recently, we spoke with Schepman by phone from Washington, D.C. on opening day of the Stay Awake tour.

Birmingham Stages: Natalie, thanks for your time. If you will, talk about the creation of Stay Awake.

Natalie Closner Schepman: It’s so fun to get to talk about this – I haven’t had any interviews yet.  The songs for this EP have really just happened in the last couple of months with the exceptions of “Planets” and “Lifted Away” – those are both remixes of older songs from other albums. There’s a lot to feel in the current state of things and it really made us write. These songs are a response to everything.

Birmingham Stages: Did you feel any extra pressure in making this album given the success of [2016 release] I’m Alone, No You’re Not?

NCS: It’s a great question. I’m not ready to stop growing yet – you have to make the thing that is the truest and if that resonates with an audience, then great. If it doesn’t, hopefully you’ll at least believe in it yourself because that’s the important thing.

Birmingham Stages: Do your songs continue to evolve even after you take them into the recording studio? For example, do they sometimes come out brighter or darker than you had originally envisioned?

NCS: Yeah, absolutely. For these songs, we didn’t do a lot of pre-production for them. Meegan and Ally weren’t around for the preparation of it – it was just me and our producer, Andrew [Stonestreet]. We brought them in and really didn’t know what it was going to be until we got into the studio. Once we did, we made a lot of different decisions. You start by being in control of the song and, by the end of things, the song kind of tells you how it needs to be addressed and what it’s trying to say. It’s changed a little bit since setting it up for the live show as well.

Birmingham Stages: Are you still writing as we speak? How does your process tend to work?

NCS: It’s just such a spark – you can’t plan it necessarily. A lot of people do sit down and say, “I’m going to write a song today,” but we are writing all the time. In the last year we hadn’t stumbled upon anything that felt great until recently and then all of the sudden those songs were coming.

Birmingham Stages: How do you feel about forging your career in the era of Youtube, satellite radio and iTunes? Do any pros or cons of the current climate jump out at you?

NCS: It’s worked in our favor as a brand new band. Previously, we would have needed to be championed by an A&R person at a record label and radio stations. But the way things are now, it feels a lot more democratic. I like that it’s up to us to cut through.

Birmingham Mountain Radio presents Joseph at Iron City on Friday, September 29. Liza Anne will open the 8 p.m. all-ages show. Advance tickets are $20 and can be purchased at www.ironcitybham.com. 

By Brent Thompson

On Friday, September 15, Freshwater Land Trust will host the 9th annual Land Aid event at Avondale Brewing Company. Featuring headline act The Wild Feathers, the evening will also feature the music of The Delta Saints and David Borne’. Doors open at 6:30 p.m and the music begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 – $30 day of the event – and can be purchased at www.freshwaterlandtrust.org/land-aid-2017.

Singer/songwriter brings his Witness tour to Saturn on October 26

By Brent Thompson

Photo Credit: Thomas Baltes

An impromptu trip to Mexico proved more fruitful than Benjamin Booker could have ever imagined. The singer/songwriter emerged from the trip with the foundation for Witness, the follow-up album to his highly-acclaimed self-titled debut. Featuring guest vocalist Mavis Staples on the title track, Witness mines the same gritty territory as Booker’s debut release with – as he readily admits – more introspective material. On Thursday, October 26, Booker will return to Birmingham to perform at Saturn. She Keeps Bees will open the 9 .m. show. Recently, Booker spoke to us by phone from his Los Angeles home as he prepared for his current tour.

Birmingham Stages: Benjamin, thanks for your time. If you will, talk about your upcoming tour in support of Witness.

Benjamin Booker: It’s going to be a long one – two months. I believe Birmingham is going to be the last show, so it’ll probably be the best show.

Birmingham Stages: How did the material come together for Witness?

BB: It was pretty quick. I went to Mexico for a month – I didn’t know if I was going to be writing or not. On the plane ride, the outline for the album came along and when I got to Mexico City I ended up writing most of the album when I was there. It doesn’t always work like that, but I’m realizing that there’s not one way that it works. You have to figure it out every time.

Birmingham Stages: Are you currently writing and laying down ideas?

BB: I’m definitely [writing]. If you do this thing and you’re passionate, it’s hard to escape it. It can be a problem sometimes – constantly thinking about it – but I love it. It can annoy the people around you [laughs].

Birmingham Stages: How did you come to work with Mavis Staples on the new album?

BB: I wrote a song with her for her last album, so I had met her and talked to her on the phone. It came time to find a singer with a strong voice and we said, “We’re not going to get a stronger voice than Mavis – let’s ask her.” We did and she said “Yes.” She’s really cool and always down to work with younger bands and new people. She’s been busy this year working with a lot of people, so we were lucky to get her. She’s a legend but one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Birmingham Stages: Is there a nutshell way to sum up the whirlwind your life has become?

BB: One of the things that I learned from Mavis was to take the time to enjoy it. She’s older and she told me that she was fixed on spending time with family and friends and enjoying the days. It’s something that I’ve been working on and I’m trying to get better at it.

Birmingham Stages: In this day and age, how do you reconcile instant accessibility and the instant purchasing ability of consumers with the flood of content created by artists on the Internet and social media?

BB: I don’t get asked that question very often. At the time I started, there wasn’t anybody doing what I was doing in New Orleans – it was a small scene. If I had started in New York, Chicago or L.A., I don’t know if I would be doing it. The location was really helpful. It is difficult to separate yourself – I think that you just have to not worry about other people. When you do that, you lose a little bit of your personality. It is a good time to be a musician for a lot of reasons. You have a lot more freedom as an artist now to do the things you want to do.

Birmingham Stages: Regardless of technology, the live show is still the live show and you seem to embrace that part of it.

BB: That’s the most important part for me – that’s when I fell in love with the bands that are my favorites. We always try to make it special and connect with the people.

Benjamin Booker will perform at Saturn on Thursday, October 26. She Keeps Bees will open the 18+ show. Showtime is 9 p.m. Advance tickets are $18 and can be purchased at www.saturnbirmingham.com. 

Duo brings Wendigo tour to WorkPlay Theatre on September 7

By Brent Thompson

Photo Credit: Daniel N. Johnson

The trademark rich harmonies and sophisticated instrumentation found on Wendigo – the new release by Penny & Sparrow – belie the album’s undertones of darkness and world-weariness. The duo – Kyle Jahnke and Andy Baxter – expands its musical platform on the satisfying follow-up to 2016’s Let A Lover Drown You as violins, violas and French horns sit alongside lap steel and slide guitars. WorkPlay Theatre will provide the optimal listening-room setting for Penny & Sparrow when the band performs there on Thursday, September 7. Lowland Hum will open the 8 p.m. show. Tickets are $15 – $55 for VIP experience – and can be purchased at www.workplay.com.

It’s no stretch to call Charlemagne Records a Birmingham landmark and a musical institution. For 40 years, the Southside store has provided music lovers a cozy and welcoming setting to browse through its extensive collection of CDs and vinyl. On Thursday, September 7, Charlemagne will host an anniversary celebration at Trim Tab Brewing. Featuring live music, prizes and a pop-up store, the event will take place from 6 to 10 p.m.

Singer/songwriter releases Undone, a stripped-down collection of familiar songs

By Brent Thompson

Photo Credit: Becky Fluke

Since releasing his 2000 debut recording on his own label, Sean McConnell has embodied the hard-working, D.I.Y. singer/songwriter. In 2016, the Massachusetts native and Nashville resident released a self-titled album on Rounder Records. The songs from that album are now seeing a second release on McConnell’s upcoming album, Undone (September 8). An acoustic track-by-track re-recording (plus a new duet track with Lori McKenna) of the self-titled album, Undone finds McConnell taking the songs back to their original forms – performed by one man and his guitar. On Friday, September 22, McConnell will return to Birmingham to perform at WorkPlay. Recently, McConnell spoke to us by phone from his Nashville home.

Birmingham Stages: Sean, thanks for your time. How long had the idea been brewing to re-record and release these songs acoustically?

Sean McConnell: It’s always been there since we worked on the self-titled record that it’s based on. Because of the nature of the songs, I always heard it in that world as well. I felt like it was a collection that you could strip down and it would stand up on its own. I’m a sucker for acoustic records and I grew up listening to a lot of that, so it was a real treat to get to revisit the songs and see them that way.

Birmingham Stages: What did you learn or remember about these songs when you re-recorded them?

SM: The funny thing is that they sound like they did the first time because I write on an acoustic guitar or piano. So it kind of sounds the way the songs sounded before we made the self-titled record, so it kind of came full circle in a way. I play mostly solo acoustic during the year, so when we hopped in the studio I’d already played the songs about 100 times [laughs].

Birmingham Stages: You have a duet track with Lori McKenna (“Nothing On You”) on the new album. How did your collaboration with her come about?

SM: We’ve known each other for a number of years and we both come from Massachusetts – she still lives there. I was a fan first and we met through songwriting and became friends. We’ve been writing and being on each other’s records for five or six years now. It was a real honor to have her on this record.

Birmingham Stages: Are you still writing and laying down new ideas as we speak?

SM: I’m always writing and I’m definitely actively writing for the next record right now. I write a lot at my house and I write a lot on the road. It’s a bits-and-pieces thing but sometimes lightning strikes and it all happens in one moment, which is always a nice treat.

Birmingham Stages: If you will, talk about the co-writing environment in Nashville and your place in it.

SM: There’s a lot of co-writing in Nashville – people co-write every day up here. It’s very much a part of the process. I dabble in that but I do a lot less of it than I used to. For my records, I tend to gravitate toward songs I’ve written by myself.

Birmingham Stages: In this day and age, how do you reconcile the instant accessibility – and instant purchasing ability – of listeners with the over-saturation created by the fact that anyone with a website can release an album?

SM: That’s a good question. I think those are both true at the same time. It’s an amazing time to be putting out music and anyone can hear it anywhere in the world and it’s a truly powerful tool. It creates the floodgates, but I don’t see that as a negative. The more creativity the better and music has its own way of finding who’s supposed to listen to it.

Sean McConnell will perform at WorkPlay on Friday, September 22. Tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $10 and can be purchased at www.workplay.com.

Singer/songwriter brings Trinity Lane tour to The Nick

By Brent Thompson

There’s an old adage that dark personal moments can be catalysts for the creation of great art, and Lilly Hiatt has validated that statement with the release of her latest album, Trinity Lane [New West Records]. Dealing with autobiographical subject matter including alcohol abuse, failed relationships and her mother’s suicide, Hiatt  – the daughter of stalwart singer/songwriter John Hiatt – leaves no wound unopened across the album’s 12 tracks. On Saturday, September 23, Hiatt will return to Birmingham to perform at The Nick. Recently, she spoke to Birmingham Stages by phone from her East Nashville home.

Birmingham Stages: Lilly, thanks for your time. Trinity Lane is being called your most personal album yet. Do you agree with that description and, if so, why was now the right time to make this record?

Lilly Hiatt: I probably do agree with that and I think it was the easiest because I was in a period of being capable of being more honest with myself than I’d been previously. It was easy to go there in the songs.

Birmingham Stages: Over what time period were the songs written?

Hiatt: Most of them came last summer. There were a couple that I’d written before that like “So Much You Don’t Know” and “See Ya Later.” The bulk of them came in a three-month period. It was an inspired period – I had a lot of space and a lot of time to myself and I was emotionally distraught. The songwriting was a really nice tool and crutch to have through all of that, basically. It takes what it takes to get where you need to go.

Birmingham Stages: You’ve seen a lot of changes in your hometown of Nashville in recent years.

Hiatt: I grew up in Franklin – about 20 miles south. I went to college in Colorado and moved back home in 2006. Nashville had a lot of cool Rock & Roll and Indie stuff going on and I’ve watched that continue to bud. I think Nashville has always gone a lot deeper than “Country Music U.S.A.”  – you just had to look a lot harder for it and now you don’t.

Birmingham Stages: Are you still writing songs and laying down ideas at this time? How does your writing process typically work?

Hiatt: I don’t really have a specific method to the madness, but I do have a really good memory. Something impacts me and I document it and when I get to a point where I’m about to explode, I write a song. I also do really well with a deadline, so I like a little bit of pressure.

Birmingham Stages: How did you come to work with [Trinity Lane producer and Shovels & Rope member] Michael Trent?

Hiatt: This really great woman at the label I’m on, New West, suggested him and got that idea rolling. I was intrigued by that because I knew Michael and his wife and I thought it was a cool and different direction to take. So, we started talking and had a couple of great conversations before I said, “OK, let’s do it.”

Birmingham Stages: Do your songs continue to evolve or change in mood or feel even after you take them into the recording studio?

Hiatt: Totally. I write these melancholy Folk songs and I want to amp them up so I find a cool band that can rock them out a little harder than I can on my own. Michael really brightened things up and took it to a different level than we as a band could take it, which is really exciting. Everybody puts their level of bedazzlement on it until you’ve got a finished tune. My favorite thing is to find people that just tap in and you become limitless as to where it can go.

Birmingham Stages: Did growing up in a musical household prepare you for your career or was the music business too different when your father came along to be applicable in today’s model?

Hiatt: I feel extremely fortunate to have a father, not only that I’m close with, but has also navigated the tricky music industry. I’ve sought out plenty of advice from him and we talk about music itself and how to write better songs and keep that first and foremost. That’s really what it’s about.

Lilly Hiatt will perform at The Nick on Saturday, September 23. Will Stewart and Ryan Sobb (with Taylor Hunnicutt) will open the 10 p.m. show. Advance tickets are $10 and can be purchased at www.thenickrocks.com.

You can count on improvisational music, loyal fans and a stellar light show at an Umphrey’s McGee concert. The band’s Birmingham show on August 17 delivered in all areas. [Photo credits: Adam Johnson]