By Brent Thompson

Coming through the pandemic and the release of his last album for Elektra Records – 2021’s Maybe We Never Die – Anderson East was admittedly and understandably jaded with life as a musician. But a 2023 trip to famed producer Dave Cobb’s studio in Savannah, Ga. proved to be a turning point for the singer/songwriter. The recording sessions with Cobb yielded Worthy, East’s latest release and his debut album for Rounder Records. Those familiar with the catalog of the Alabama-native-turned-Nashville-resident will still find a unique blend of R&B, soul and rock in his music. But, lyrically, there are more prevalent themes of gratitude, acceptance and optimism to be found than any of his previous releases. On Thursday, September 4, East will returns Birmingham to perform in the Workplay Soundstage. Recently, he spoke with us by phone from his Nashville home.

Southern Stages: Anderson, thanks for your time today. With several albums in your catalog at this point, how do you construct your live set lists these days?

Anderson East: Very selfishly [laughs]. I have a really difficult time lying, especially the older I get. If I’m not having a good time, it’s pretty apparent. Luckily, the things that I like are what people are there to see anyway. It’s mainly just what feels good and what’s enjoyable.

Southern Stages: How would you describe your writing process? Do you write when inspiration strikes or do you write on a schedule?

East: Nowadays I write for a lot of other artists and it’s pretty much every day.

Southern Stages: Once you’ve written a song, how do you determine if it’s a fit for you or another artist?

East: It’s usually pretty apparent. With this record in particular, there were a lot of songs that were intended to be for other people. After a certain period of time went by, I realized I was injecting a little too much of myself in there – it felt a little too personal. Going back to the selfish thing, I’d think, “I like that one.”

Southern Stages: Some artists tell me this is a great time to be in your position with multiple outlets and instant accessibility to music. Others say, for those same reasons, it can be difficult to be found among the crowd. How do you feel about the current industry climate?

East: I think both of those things are true, but I feel the most creative I’ve ever felt. I’m the happiest musically I’ve ever been and I’m consistently inspired and impressed by other people who are doing it. I think there is really great music coming out and great songs being written. There’s always this struggle about the good old days and in some ways things were easier. I think it’s pretty incredible right now. I think it’s only going to get better. I think if we talked long enough, I could argue against that point but I have a lot of optimism the artistic community will keep thriving going forward.

Live Nation Presents Anderson East in the Workplay Soundstage on Thursday, September 4. Benny G will open the 7:30 p.m. show. Advance tickets are $38.70 and can be purchased at www.workplay.com. 

By Brent Thompson

Though Muscle Shoals – the catch-all term for the tri-city area of Muscle Shoals, Florence and Sheffield, Ala. – is widely recognized as one of America’s music hubs, a detailed history of its legendary scene has gone surprisingly untold. The stellar 2013 Muscle Shoals documentary film helped remedy the situation, but there is always more to the story.

In November, music scholar Rob Bowman will release Land of a Thousand Sessions: The Complete Muscle Shoals Story 1951-1985 via Malaco Records.  Bowman, best known for his Stax biography, Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, has gone to painstaking detail in telling the story of the “Hit Recording Capital of the World.” Focusing on the area’s recording heyday and running nearly 750 pages, Bowman has conducted research and interviews like no other writer on this subject.

www.malaco.com

 

The lineup poster says it all! Sloss Furnaces is the setting for the Iron Hills Music Festival on October 11 and 12. The national historic landmark will provide a dramatic setting for two incredible days of music. The festival is especially proud to include Birmingham-based – and national touring act – Mountain Grass Unit on the bill. Ticket information and festival details can be found at www.ironhillscountry.com.

 

By Brent Thompson

It doesn’t seem possible that Hayes Carll has just released his 10th album, but that’s where we find him on his latest, We’re Only Human (Hwy 87 Records). Given this milestone in his recording career, it’s somehow fitting that we hear a more intimate, introspective side of the 49-year-old singer/songwriter on this release. He’s always sung an honest tune, but We’re Only Human reveals an even more personal side of him. Co-produced by Gordy Quist (Band of Heathens), the album’s 10 tracks deal with matters of forgiveness, trust, peace and grace. All easy and lighthearted topics, right? Hardly. But Hayes boils these themes down into layman’s terms for the listener, which has always been one of his strong suits. Keep writing and singing Hayes – we can’t wait to hear the next ten releases.

By Brent Thompson

If you’ve been anywhere near a radio in the past 40 years, then you know the music of Toto, Christopher Cross and Men at Work. On Monday, July 21, these three legendary acts helped christen the inaugural summer of Birmingham’s Coca-Cola Amphitheater. The 9,300-seat Live Nation venue was engulfed with hits including “Africa,” Rosanna,” “Ride Like the Wind,” “Sailing,” “Down Under” and “Overkill” – plus many more – during the four hour-plus show. We were there to capture this evening of timeless music.

www.coca-colaamphitheater.com

www.livenation.com

 

By Brent Thompson

When Gregg Allman and his band took the stage of Washington D.C.’s venue The Bayou in 1984, the Allman Brothers Band was at a crossroads. Allman’s stalwart, namesake band had seen its third straight disappointing release and its future was uncertain. Fortunately, Allman had a parallel solo career alongside the ABB and provided the vocals of many of the band’s hits. Backed by a crack band – including brothers Dan and Frankie Toler – One Night in D.C. May 15, 1984 (Sawrite Records) finds Allman in strong voice. In addition to well-traveled classics including “Dreams,” “Melissa,” “Midnight Rider” and “Trouble No More,” the set includes two songs from the yet-to-be-released I’m No Angel album, “Yours for the Asking” and “Faces Without Names.” The only track that may grow tiresome to the casual fan (and consumes over 17 minutes of the album’s space) is “Matthew’s Arrival,” but Allman completists will appreciate its inclusion. Let’s hope that other posthumous vault recordings will continue to be released by this legendary artist.

By Brent Thompson

On Tuesday, June 17, the Gibson Garage Nashville hosted a special performance and Q&A with Marcus King. The event launched the vocalist/guitarist’s signature Gibson ES-345 model, the second Gibson guitar to bear King’s signature. The cherry-red ES-345 is based on a family heirloom of King’s that belonged to his grandfather. Taking song requests from the audience, King performed to an enthusiastic and packed house.

 

By Brent Thompson

For the past 50 years, the music of Heart has been integral to the fabric of American music. The group’s hit catalog, which includes “Crazy On You,” “Barracuda,” “These Dreams,” “What About Love,” and “Alone,” is a mainstay on rock and pop radio stations. in 2013, the band – fronted by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson – was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On Friday, June 20, Heart will return to Birmingham to perform at Legacy Arena at The BJCC. Recently, guitarist/vocalist Nancy Wilson spoke with us by phone during a tour break.

Southern Stages: Nancy, thanks for your time. Where are you right now?

Nancy Wilson: We’re at home at home and about to go on the road again for the second leg of our tour this year. I’ve been home a few weeks and I’m ready to get out there again and do another month on the road.

Southern Stages: Where are you based these days?

Wilson: I live in Santa Rosa [California] now – I used to live in L.A. Ann lives in Nashville and a lot of the band guys live in Nashville. I used to live in Seattle – me and Ann used to be from Seattle and a couple of the guys that we play with are from Seattle, so we are kind of a West Coast contingent. We rehearse in Nashville.

Southern Stages: With such a large catalog of songs at the band’s disposal, how are tour setlists comprised these days?

Wilson: It’s not very easy. One thing we always try to do is reduce the number of Led Zeppelin songs we all want to play [laughs] because it’s really fun to play them and we’re pretty good at playing them. We try not to play too many Zeppelin songs and we try to switch up some of the Heart stuff that people haven’t heard for a little while, although of course we keep the expected songs that are really cool songs and that’s why people love them. We keep the obvious big hits in there. This time, we’ve learned a song I used to sing called “Love Mistake” – we’ll see if that one flies and another one called “Down On Me” and we’ll see if that flies live. We’ll get together in Atlantic City in a couple of days and figure that out.

Southern Stages: Of course, your hit songs have stood the test of time. But, with that said, how do those songs stay fresh to you after you’ve performed them literally thousands of times?

Wilson: Something like “These Dreams” has gone through a lot of different mutations where I play mandolin or no guitar whatsoever and we’ve used percussion loops, but everything we do is 100% live now. I’m playing acoustic guitar on “These Dreams” nowadays. It’s just one of those things where you have a really capable band who are multi-instrumental and can sing harmonies. You’ve the capability to pull off all of the songs without any prerecording whatsoever – it’s all human. Sometimes it’s interesting the way people respond to that because if I make a mistake or we have to have to start a song over, people go, “Wow that’s so cool!” [laughs] because it’s real and it’s actually happening with skin in the game, 100% live and it’s super human that way. There aren’t a lot of rock bands left in the world – if you want to see a real one, come see us.

Southern Stages: I would assume that you are seeing several generations of fans at your shows these days. Is that a fair statement?

Wilson: Yeah, it’s really true. On the last tour, we did a bunch of arenas and after a couple of weeks out we started seeing more college kids coming out and people bringing their own small kids out and it was great. It was a lot of full houses with multi-generations and you’ve got to love that because it speaks so well for the songs. There was a Hollywood actor that came to the New York Radio City show and she brought her two little kids  – a six and twelve year-old – because her husband is such a fan and he wanted to expose a rock show to his little kids before you can’t see it anymore and while rock bands still roam the earth.

Southern Stages: Are you at liberty to say the actor’s name?

Wilson: It’s a friend now – Anne Hathaway. I Just didn’t want to be a name-dropper. We’ve stayed in touch and it’s really cool.

Southern Stages: Are you still writing and laying down ideas?

Wilson: I always to continue to craft lyrics and guitar ideas in my notes on my phone. You wake up sometimes and you have this melody and you try to catch it before it drifts away. I have a new song which is a duet with Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie which is on a re-release of my solo album You and Me. It’s going to be at the Heart merch booth on the next tour this year. We are going to put it on a label and get it released, but right now it’s a rarity on my solo album called “A Million Goodbyes.” I worked on it with Sue Ennis, who’s a longtime collaborator.

Southern Stages: As a guitarist, are you a gear head? Do you spend time combing music stores looking for guitars, amps and effects?

Wilson: I’m not a gear head at all. I have a couple of pedals and I lean on my guitar tech. I don’t like to think about the gear and I don’t like to have a big pedal board in front of me. I more of a songwriter in the way I approach playing, so it’s really the delivery of the body of the song and the expression of the performance of it that’s more important to me than any sound. I appreciate the gear heads and I wish I could know more about the gear – I just kind of glaze over on the gear thing. People ask me, “What kind of strings do you use?” and I say, “The silver kind” [laughs].

Southern Stages: You have been in a unique position of having your sister by your side throughout your career.

Wilson: It’s really a wonderful thing to have your sister out – it’s a family business and it’s been that way since we started. Even before we were Heart, we were doing little bands and getting people together to play. We have a third sister who’s older and she had kids really young. She might have been in the band too because we were always a musical family. There’s a lot of dramatic bullshit that swirls around us, but when we’re onstage it’s a safe place to have the magical spell – the beautiful gravity that happens with just the two of us relating musically. That’s pretty timeless and that’s what it’s all about for me. I don’t really buy into the business drama that swirls around. Once a decade there’s an issue like that, but we get past it and we get our music done and that’s what we’re doing now.

On Friday, June 20, Heart will perform at Legacy Arena at The BJCC. Tickets to the 7:30 p.m. show can be purchased through Ticketmaster.

By Brent Thompson

 

A fixture on the Americana music scene, David Ramirez has been releasing albums for more than 15 years. Currently, the Austin, Texas-based singer/songwriter is touring in support of his latest release, All the Not So Gentle Reminders (Blue Corn Music). On Saturday, April 19, Ramirez will perform at the Woodlawn Theatre. Recently, he spoke with us by phone from a tour stop in Atlanta.

Southern Stages: David, thanks for your time. Has your tour started yet?

David Ramirez: We’ve been out for a few days now – we are in Atlanta. It’s nice to play some of these new tunes live.

Southern Stages: We are really enjoying All the Not So Gentle Reminders. Are these songs newer compositions, older ones or a mixture of both?

Ramirez: Everything is relatively new. I started writing two years ago and everything was written for the record. There have been some musical ideas that I’d been fiddling around with a couple of years before, but everything else is relatively new.

Southern Stages: Over what period of time was the album recorded?

Ramirez: It was January and February of 2024.

Southern Stages: Do songs continue to evolve once you being them into the studio for recording?

Ramirez: For this record, it was the most pre-production I’d ever done. I pretty much knew exactly how I wanted it to go, but it’s important to stay flexible. There were some pretty big changes that happened at the eleventh hour and you have to be willing to say, “Hey, maybe I was wrong.” Things like tempos and endings changed. The ending of “Twin Sized Beds” was completely improvised on the spot. We were tracking as much as we could live and our friend James Westley Essary on piano felt led by the spirit to pursue that outro. It was a pretty magical moment and we kept it.

Southern Stages: How would you describe your writing process? Do you write on the road or shelve it until you get home?

Ramirez: I shelve it. If something comes to mind I’ll scribble it down. When I was younger, I wanted to be the guy that writes for eight hours a day but it’s important to live my life and do other things.

Southern Stages: How do you feel about the industry climate in the era of Spotify, YouTube, satellite radio and other modern outlets?

Ramirez: Depends on the day [laughs]. I’ve been trying to live in a space where I’m mindful of my motivation. When my motivation is the love for the craft, then it’s a really good day and I’m grateful for where I am in the world of show business. Sometimes my motivation slips and I find myself expecting more than I’m receiving and I get grumpier on those days. I don’t feel like any of us deserve anything, so when something shows up it’s more reason to be thankful. I try to live right there in the moment.

Southern Stages: With a large catalog of songs under your belt now, how do you comprise your setlists these days?

Ramirez: With the band it’s easier because I have to give them a set – 20 or 30 songs that we might potentially play. That keeps it in a nice little box, if you will. For solo sets, I like to wing it and that can get very fun and exciting to recall some song I wrote 15 years ago. I’ll be in Europe in May and I’ll be solo, so I’m really excited to go through some really old songs. And, with a new record out, I’d like to play those songs as much as possible.

You Should Be Listening Presents: David Ramirez at the Woodlawn Theatre on Saturday, April 19. Advance tickets to the 8 p.m. show are $21 and can be purchased at www.woodlawntheatrebham.com.

 

 

By Ben Belden

This is my time at Jessica Pratt. Hello … Jessica. Acknowledgment of the openers – Merce Lemon (I don’t not know how to pronounce Merce correctly … I believe). Ok, ok, ok … if you guys could bear with me here, it would be greatly appreciated. My brain has been on build, engineer mode for the past month. Honestly, I like build mode. I am like, actually, happy now too which is a strange feeling but cool, I guess. I feel my creative juices are dwindling (if they were even present in the first place). I used to be able to write, so this is my best shot at articulating my experience at Jessica Pratt. Saturn … cool venue.

If you are reading this, I ask (reader) for a favor. I want (reader) to think. Think of the most intimidatingly nonchalant person you know. Can you please do that for me?

 

Insert moment of silence while we dwell.

 

Sweet, are we good? I sure hope so, being “good” is a nice feeling, I guess. Ok, so that person in your head right now. The epitome of aura. The definition of relaxed. The person you are thinking of, yes, lets enhance that by … hmmm, say a couple (a bunch) of points. The result we get, Jessica Pratt.

Jessica is suave. California calm. A warm presence. Almost reserved. Observant. Beautiful, white hair. High protruding cheek bones. Black. Black clothes. The look of an indie queen. Throughout the experience, she sat. Her “notes” in front. Into her world. A simple aesthetic. With a saxophonist behind, a percussionist (also) behind, a pianist lookers left, and a bassist (I think it was a bass) lookers right. Sophisticated. Sophisticated was the intention. High quality music. Cream of the crop musicians. Relaxed. To say the least, it was a nice night. Intimate and warm.

My introduction into the world of Jessica Pratt was through another (oof, sorry). Another meaning ASAP Rocky. This immersion came from “HIGHJACK” (ASAP Rocky) in which Jessica is featured. The end of HIGHJACK is a dream, ascending, with Jessica Pratt providing angelica. Visualization … makes me want to reconvene. To apologize for everything. Lots to apologize for. Thank you Rocky and “HIGHJACK” for allowing me to become comfortable. Comfortable with Jessica. The proceeding months leading to Saturn (yes, the planet) had Life Is, World on a String, The Last Year, Moon Dude, Better Hate. It is better not to hate but sometimes necessary, I guess.

I could not tell you the setlist from last night. I can tell you it was nice. Sleepy. A wholesome feeling. I felt not anxious, but breezy and composed. Thank you, Jessica, for giving me (us) this feeling. Thank you, NY new friend, for talking nonsense with me in rain after. Talking Sonic Youth, Talking Heads, Ramones. This man is as NY as it gets, I was all for it. To reiterate, it was a nice night. Thank you.

Ok … this is much more to say but, for now, I am done. See you soon Jessica Pratt.