Elmwood: Nashville, TN
LDE met Elmwood in Indianapolis, IN in July and have been fans ever since. The very talented quartet from Nashville, TN has a great sound and were instantly impressed with their choice of notes
and how cool they were. They are on tour next month with O.A.R. across the country so try and catch them if you can.
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Elmwood Official Homepage
Elmwood Myspace
From The Elmwood Website
Rusty Kelly - Guitars/Vocals
Nash Johnson - Bass/Vocals
Derek Haight - Saxophone
Donnie Marple - Drums
Elmwood has a sound that is uniquely their own, a sound that has a distinctive and curious character to it. They are classified as rock, but there are a lot more flavors to them than just a single genre of music. Drummer Donnie Marple, and saxophonist Derek Haight bring jazz elements to the group. Nash Johnson's melodious and funky bass lines lay underneath Rusty Kelly's unique acoustic guitar playing. All these diverse elements intensely and passionately coalesce when they perform live. Their debut album, Dreaming Little Thing, was produced by the renowned Alan Shacklock (Meat Loaf, Roger Daltrey, Protomen) and is now available on iTunes Music Store.
Center Hill: Roanoke, VA
Chris Bruno and Doug Perdue from Center Hill became friends in early 2000. Since they met, the two have been playing, recording, and working on live music together. In 2008, Doug
formed his band Center Hill with "a simple collaboration of a few Hidden Valley and Cave Spring High teachers. It has sprouted into a full fledged act with shows around the East Coast playing original music and a few cover songs." LDE has enjoyed, and looks forward to
more shows with CH.
Center Hill Myspace
From The Center Hill Website
David Christianson - Lead Vocals, Keyboards
Doug Perdue - Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
Glen Gray - Tenor, Alto, and Baritone Saxophones
Josh DeGeorge - Bass, Backing Vocals
Lincoln Humphry - Drums
Center Hill started as a simple collaboration of a few Hidden Valley and Cave Spring High teachers. It has sprouted into a full fledged act with shows around the East Coast playing original music and a few cover songs. Center Hill is based out of Roanoke, VA, but willing to consider booking across the US, mostly East Coast. Lately we have enjoyed playing most weekends of the summer at the Sand Dunes Resort in Mytle Beach, SC.
Lionize: Wheaton, MD
Lionize have been friends of LDE for so long, it's almost hard to count the years. From their Rock beginnings to their current funky Rock Reggae music, Lionize has always put on great shows utilizing
powerful vocals from Nate Bergman, skillful performances by Chris Brooks, Hank Upton, and Mel Randolph, and all around cool songwriting. Catch them during their US summer tour opening for Clutch.
Lionize Home Page
Lionize Myspace
From The Lionize Website
Henry Upton - Bass / Vox
Nate Bergman - Guitar / Vox
Mel Randolph - Drums
Chris Brooks - Keys / Vox
Tim Sult - Lead Guitar
Hailing from Silver Spring, MD, Lionize has set out to create a distinct sound in reggae and rock. By blending an organ and groove-heavy stoner rock sound with a deep bass and sharp skanking exploration of pulsating, dark reggae, Lionize adds a fresh spin on an old genre. Recorded in Kingston, Jamaica by Sidney Mills of Steel Pulse, Space Pope and the Glass Machine features guitar work from Tim Sult of Clutch to add a new dimension to their sound. Lionize have honed their skills on multiple tours with Steel Pulse and Clutch, most notably by tricking the rowdy metal crowds night after night into dancing along to the songs contained on Space Pope. Space Pope and the Glass Machine contains thirteen tracks of laid back reggae, with an interesting take on Bad Brains classic "I and I Survive" to close the album.
Juniper Lane: Arlington, VA
We have been good friends with Eddie, Viv, Chris and Brian for years and
years. Phil first met these guys at the Millennium Music Conference in 2002
and he was immediately into their sound. Throughout the years, Juniper Lane
and LDE have shared bills together and supported each other's music and carriers. Check out
their song "Cracks In The Pavement". These guys are fantastic and we love them!
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Juniper Lane Home Page
Juniper Lane's Myspace
From The Junpier Lane Website
For the better part of the past seven years, Juniper Lane has been protesting the misconception that bands cannot create a diverse range of well-crafted songs while putting forth an unmistakably signature sound. Straddling the line between indie and mainstream rock, Juniper Lane tames the identity crisis others face head on with their new album Wake From Yourself.
"Being bonded to a genre is a definite boon and will help you gain easier acceptance, but at the same time, at what expense? What kind of artistic compromise did you have to make for that acceptance?" asks drummer/vocalist Eddie Pasa. "I believe we've been able to straddle that line between genre-fitting and eclectic without having to sacrifice making music the way we want to, and that's what I'm most happy about being in this band."
Juniper Lane has toured extensively on the East Coast, including performances at the 9:30 Club and DC's 99.1 WHFStival, as well as performing in-studios for commercial radio stations such as DC 101 and 98 Rock in Baltimore and live television performances. Wake From Yourself finds the band working with producer/mixer Ted Comerford (Zox, Army of Me) and mixer Jeff Juliano (John Mayer, Lifehouse).
On Wake From Yourself, Juniper Lane is revealed as an even more inspired and motivated version of themselves. On the new album, Vivion Smith, who is responsible for penning all lyrics, delves into the complications of rediscovering one's direction when faced with life-altering experiences - whether it be falling in love or breaking away from a painful past.
Juniper Lane is Vivion Smith (vocals/keyboards), Chris Bonavia (guitar), Brian Frederick (bass), Eddie Pasa (drums/vocals), and John Athayde (guitar/keyboards).
PRAISE FOR JUNIPER LANE:
"...plays polished, radio-ready rock with all the right nods to U2 and Coldplay... this is definitely music to hear on the radio... the total package..." - WashingtonPost.com
"...following the trends set by British bands like U2 and Coldplay..." - Arlington Connection
"...cryptic, polished dark pop firmly rooted in but not too derivative of '80s modern-rock... fronted by [Vivion]'s alternately operatic and fragile vocals and [Chris]'s chimy but melodic strums... ready to kick radio and live ass." - OnTap Magazine
The Hudsons: Austin, TX
The Hudsons are a great folk group from Austin, TX that we met at a college performance in Texas. We hit it off as friends, broke bread that night, still keep in touch and wish them
well with their careers, hoping to pair up at a show sometime soon. They are described as having "spent the last eight years performing, recording and promoting their own brand of
acoustic music to an audience built the old-fashioned way...driving from town to town and putting on outstanding shows."
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The Hudsons Home Page
The Hudsons Myspace
From The Hudsons Website
Hudson Mueller, vox, guitar, harmonica, uke
Brian Hudson, vox, guitar
The story of The Hudsons is not a fairy tale. They are not the sort of band you'd watch a VH1 biopic about on a Sunday afternoon. The cigar-smoking-guy in the long white limo has yet to show up at one of their gigs and make their wildest dreams come true. Yet somehow they've managed to do without all that.
The Hudsons, based in Austin, Texas, have spent the last eight years performing, recording and promoting their own brand of acoustic music to an audience built the old-fashioned way - by driving from town to town and putting on outstanding shows.
Brian Hudson and Hudson Mueller share more than just a name. They both play acoustic guitar. And they both love a good song. It's this love of the song that has kept them together for eight years. They've released three albums on their own Beans and Rice label. And they've won several awards (Kerrville songwriting champs two-years running, and an Austin Music Award for Best Folk Band '06-'07).
In 2007, the Hudsons found a musical soul-mate in violinist Leah Zeger. When she's not playing in the Austin symphony she joins the boys. She adds beauty and sophistication with her violin and voice.
Brian and Hudson started sharing their homespun songs with each other at the original Waterloo Icehouse around the turn of the millennium. To this day, Waterloo remains the Hudsons' headquarters. If the band is in town on a Thursday night, they'll undoubtedly be at the Waterloo trying out their new material on an excited and loyal group of friends and fans.
When Friday rolls around, the Hudsons saddle up their trusty mini-van (affectionately dubbed Big Hud) and hit the road. A standard weekend may take them to College Station, Houston, Galveston, or the Hill Country. But the Hudsons isn't just a Texas phenomenon. They've been everywhere: Santa Fe, NM; New York City; Ontario. And everywhere they go, the Hudsons impress and inspire audiences, leaving a trail of CDs and koozies in their wake.
Carbon Leaf: Richmond, VA
Carbon Leaf is a Richmond, VA area band that LDE has had the privilege of performing with on several occasions. Their unique sound caught the ears of us early on, and for years has caught the
ears of fans across the country. To describe their sound would be as difficult as answering the same question about our band, but their official web site just says... "Carbon Leaf is a rock band with many influences." Well said!
Carbon Leaf Home Page
Carbon Leaf Myspace
From the Carbon Leaf Website
Barry Privett -vocal, guitar
Carter Gravatt - guitars, mandolin
Jordan Medas - basses
Jason Neal - drums
Terry Clark - guitars
Plenty of longtime Carbon Leaf fans will notice that on the group’s two most recent CDs, 2004’s “Indian Summer” and the newly released “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat,” there’s an obvious absence of the sound that once got Carbon Leaf labeled by some as a Celtic/bluegrass band.
It’s not that Carbon Leaf wanted to abandon its Celtic roots or had forgotten about that influence. It’s just that the last time the band got its “Irish” up, the results were less than enthralling.
“The albums are decidedly non-Celtic,” Carbon Leaf singer Barry Privett saidin a recent phone interview. “They weren’t intended to get us out of that
(Celtic) box so much that we had kind of grown tired of that box. For‘Indian Summer’ we had written probably 22 songs to see which ones would make the cut. A lot of the songs had that Celtic influence, but we had already kind of been mining that territory for a few years. The songs that we had written that had that influence just didn’t feel inspired anymore.”
As a result, “Indian Summer” and especially “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” have emphasized Carbon Leaf’s rock and pop influences.
The direction is apparent with tracks such as “Learn to Fly,” “A Girl and Her Horse” and “Under the Wire,” which all feature strong pop melodies. The rootsier side of Carbon Leaf, meanwhile, shows on acoustic-leaning tunes such as “The War Was in Color” and “Block of Wood,” while on “Comfort” and “Texas Stars,” the group rocks a bit more briskly.
The more pronounced rock and pop influences surfaced on “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” ---- the band’s seventh CD ---- for a variety of reasons, Privett said, including the fast pace that surrounded the writing and recording of the CD.
After spending January writing material for the CD, the band faced a tight schedule for recording. The band, which also includes Carter Gravatt (guitar/mandolin), Terry Clark (guitar), Jordan Medas (bass) and Scott Milstead (drums), had only three weeks for the session and a couple of weeks for overdubs.
This meant there wasn’t time to be too fussy with the basic tracks for “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” or to do much additional recording during the overdub sessions ---- a situation that led to a leaner, more rocking sound on the CD.
This more direct sound, though, wasn’t unplanned. The group went into “Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat” wanting to create songs that were shorter and more tightly constructed than on its first several albums.
They found an ally in that mission in Peter Collins, a producer whose resume includes projects with Bon Jovi, Elton John and Rush.
“He’s kind of pop oriented (in his) approach to song structure,” Privett said. “We tend to write long intros and a solo and a bridge and maybe a second bridge. We’ll add lots of pieces to songs. He kind of is the opposite. So we had to work with him (on arrangements). And we were in agreement. We wanted to try something a little different, shorter songs and little bit more focus on getting more into a smaller time frame.”
The shift toward more of a rock-pop sound should help Carbon Leaf further expand its audience.
For about a dozen years, the Richmond, Va.-based band has been used to earning fans the hard way ---- one show at a time. For the first nine years of its career, Carbon Leaf was a do-it-yourself band in the purest sense of the term. The group self-released its first five CDs and was self-managed, self-booked and self-promoted.
But things began to accelerate for the band in 2002 when it won the Coca-Cola New Music Award for the song “The Boxer,” off of the band’s fifth and final self-released CD, “Echo Echo.” Part of the prize was the opportunity to become one of the rare unsigned bands to ever play on the American Music Awards.
The exposure from the award and the AMA performance enabled the group to attract a manager, booking agent, publicist and lawyer, while extensive touring coupled with the increased media attention from the group’s AMA performance and some scattered radio play for “The Boxer” helped raise Carbon Leaf’s profile.
Eventually record labels started to check out the group, and after once again funding the recording of “Indian Summer” itself, Carbon Leaf signed to Vanguard Records, which released the CD in 2004. Privett said it was time to put the distribution and marketing capabilities of a record company behind the band.
The move so far seems to have worked. The song “Life Less Ordinary” off “Indian Summer” became a modest adult radio hit and gave Carbon Leaf its first taste of mainstream exposure.
“You probably end up making less money (than) the setup as an independent band, but you get more exposure,” Privett said. “So we were ready to take that risk, knowing there’s not a whole lot to lose. You can always go back to being independent if it doesn't work out."
Karen Savoca: New York, NY
Karen Savoca Home Page
Karen Savoca Myspace
From the Karen Savoca Website
Born in Bergen County, New Jersey, Karen Savoca's baby diary reads "20 months, knows 6 songs." At the age of five, Karen was the emcee of her kindergarten play. Karen's mom had been a big-band singer and the featured vocalist on a nightly TV show in Fresno, so it was no surprise that her little girl was always dancing and singing. At the age of ten, Karen bought her first album... it was Life, by Sly and The Family Stone.
Although she'd always wanted to play the drums, she was given piano lessons instead. At thirteen Karen's family built a log home on a mountain top in upstate New York. Her new friends were astonished at her ability to learn the lyrics to any song in just one listening. At fifteen, she bought herself a guitar with saved birthday money, and when no one was around she would write songs. Living on a mountain offered plenty of solitude for a little poet, and she wrote privately for many years. During High School she was a frequent soloist in the choir, and earned leading roles in both dramatic and musical plays. Her expressive alto was soon sought out by regional musicians, where she was finally free to choose her repertoire.
Knowing that she wanted to pursue a musical career, she attended Syracuse University's Crouse College of Music. She enjoyed her Classical studies, but to someone who had already found her own true voice, the operatic vocal training was far too restrictive. After two years as a music major she switched to Elementary Ed where she developed passionate views about education. During that time she continued to perform with several groups on campus and throughout the city.
Pete Heitzman, was born in Syracuse, New York and was long known as one the region's premier guitarists. He spent several years touring the US playing in rock and country bands. On a visit home he went to a club to hear a friend play and Karen was the new singer. Their powerful chemistry was evident right from the start. They jammed all night, Pete joined the band the next day and the two have been together ever since.
Karen and Pete soon moved to New York City where they gigged, worked strange temp jobs, wrote songs, and accumulated recording gear. After four years in the city they returned to central New York where they converted an 1890's church into a recording studio.
With their return came the decision that they would now perform only Karen's songs. This was a bold move in a club scene that was years from being supportive of original music. Karen and Pete formed the Mind's Eye which featured a revolving membership of some of the best musicians in the area.The Mind's Eye played every Monday at a club just off the Syracuse University campus. Karen played a Hohner Clavinet, hand percussion, and finally got herself a conga drum. Their fans danced and improvised in a call and response style, often developing elaborate contrapuntal routines.
Walkin' The Bridge appeared in 1988, and charmed T-Bone Wolk into collaborating for On The River Road in 1993. The song, "Language Of Love" was chosen out of 3,500 entries to win the Grand Prize in MUSICIAN Magazine's Best Unsigned Band Contest in 1995.
The duo split off from the band to develop their unique, spare sound, but somehow retained the pulse of their dance band. By now Savoca's vision as a composer was in full bloom, and after many years of pleading, Heitzman finally convinced her that they should perform under her name. In 1997 they signed with a major talent agency and began their travels. 1998's Sunday In Nandua was an artistic milestone, and was added to many radio playlists across the country and abroad.
Karen's appearance on the contemporary folk scene says more about the broad-minded audience of folk than it does about her music. The duo's live performances are uplifting and hypnotic, they put some funk in the folk. At the Vancouver Folk Festival '99, as the Sunday sun was setting, for the first time in 22 years, 10 thousand people inexplicably removed their shoes and waved them over their heads.
Playing conga and hand percussion, Karen infuses the music with her love of Soul, R&B, and World rhythms. Together she and innovative guitarist Pete Heitzman have been described as a self-contained mini-band with "the fearlessness of a high-wire act working without a net." It's an elusive mix... melodic, funky and spontaneous.
2003's LIVE AT THE BLACK SHEEP (Alcove), is an unrehearsed and riveting collection of original and traditional songs by the triple-bill of Greg Brown, Garnet Rogers, and Savoca Duo. This is the first time they'd performed together. This exciting and challenging round-robin style song swap reveals not only the well-known strengths of each featured singer, but also the intuitive and supportive talents of these musicians as accompanists.
In 2002, the duo appeared on three CDs...their own ALL MY EXCUSES (Alcove Records) Displays their spare and distinctive vocal, percussion & guitar style, Excuses also features some backing vocals by Greg Brown and the phenomenal bass work of T-Bone Wolk.
Also that year was MILK OF THE MOON (Red House 2002), by two-time Grammy nominee, Greg Brown. This critically acclaimed CD was co-produced by Greg, Karen & Pete during a nine day session at their 1896 renovated church and home studio in rural upstate New York. Twelve new songs, several of which were written out on the porch just moments before they were recorded.
The third Savoca recording in 2002 appeared on a GOING DRIFTLESS, Women's Tribute to Greg Brown (Red House). The lineup includes Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Ani DiFranco, Cheryl Wheeler, Joan Baez, Lucy Kaplansky, Stacey Earle, Victoria Williams, Eliza Gilkyson, Gillian Welch (and more) each singing one of their favorite GB tunes. Karen sang Two Little Feet. Proceeds are benefitting breast cancer research.
In 2003 Savoca's version of Two Little Feet also appears on the Earth Justice Benefit CD WHERE WE LIVE (Higher Octave/EMI) ~ Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Rubén Blades, Mose Allison, Captain Beefheart, John Hammond (with Tom Waits), Pops Staples (with Ry Cooder), Maria Muldaur (with Bonnie Raitt), Willie Nelson, Sweet Honey In The Rock, Norah Jones, The Neville Brothers, Karen Savoca, Los Lobos, Michael Franti & Spearhead.
Karen's newest release, IN THE DIRT (2006), was captured in a fiery two day session with Heitzman and Wolk.
Karen and Pete have scored several feature-length films for writer/director James Savoca, Including Sleepwalk, and The Crooked Corner.
Virginia Coalition: Fairfax, VA
Virginia Coalition, (VACO) are a Washington DC based band that has
been one of LDE's favorites to perform with for years. These guys have
been touring and recording music for over twelve years and we really
respect and admire their work ethic and songwriting. We always look
forward to taking the stage with our friends in VACO and we wish them the
best of luck with "Home This Year," their new studio disc, produced by
Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Matt Nathanson).
Virginia Coalition Home Page
Virginia Coalition Myspace
From the Virginia Coalition Website
Andy Poliakoff - (vocals/guitar)
Paul Ottinger - (keyboard/guitar/vocals/percussion)
Jarrett Nicolay - (bass/guitar/vocals)
Virginia Coalition is a band that has made its reputation with the blazing energy of its live shows and ability to play almost any style of music. Home This Year sees the band moving in a new direction. They've blended their diverse influences into a sound all their own with a maturity and attention to detail that shines on every track.
The band's core members - Andy Poliakoff, lead vocals, guitar; Paul Ottinger, keyboards, percussion, guitar, vocals and Jarrett Nicolay, bass, guitar, banjo, vocals - have always delighted fans with their ability to confound expectations. On previous albums, their songs often featured arrangements that veered off in unanticipated directions moving from funk to rock, from go go to soul. "It's good being eclectic," says Poliakoff, the band's main lyricist and frequent spokesperson. "It keeps you on your toes musically, and it's fun, but we wanted to get back to some serious songwriting. In the past few years, we were writing for the live shows, endless groove things that are far from what we wrote when we were starting out. We wanted to get back to that original creative impulse and focus on our songwriting."
The band ventured cross country to California and got to work, challenging themselves to find a more emotionally intense means of expression. "There's a value to the time you put into a project," Poliakoff explains. "We didn't allow ourselves to be satisfied with the first, or even third version of a song. We're getting older, and we wanted more than bombast. We wanted to look outside ourselves and find something more reflective, more truthful, more universal, to open a new chapter in the band's songwriting history." For the first time, they collaborated with other songwriters, including Brooklyn folk-rocker Ari Hest, New Orleans-based bluesman Anders Osborne, Maia Sharp who wrote "A Home" for the Dixie Chicks, David Ryan Harris who's performed with John Mayer and the album's Producer, Marshall Altman (Marc Broussard, Matt Nathanson).
"Marshall is a phenomenal musician," Poliakoff says. "His ability to tweak the arrangements and get us deeper into the music and our emotions was outstanding. He was there the whole time, pushing us to do better." Ottinger adds his praise: "He's a strong songwriter and arranger. Every time you'd pick up a guitar and sing, he'd get down to every hook, every chord, every lyric. 'Is that a strong emotion?' 'Is that what you really want to say?' He helped us blend all our influences into a voice that's new, but still reflects our past."
The songs on Home This Year showcase the band's remarkable growth as both musicians and songwriters. The title track is a tale of the loneliness and yearning that haunts the road. "Being on the road away from your family and friends for a long period can be tangibly painful," sites Poliakoff, "'Home This Year' embodies that sentiment and how singing about it can help make you feel closer to home."
"Sing Along," written with Altman, is an uplifting, anthemic song, on which Poliakoff delivers one of his most soulful vocals, both tender and passionate. It is also the first tune theyve ever cut with a string section. "It was written with a conscious desire to connect with the audience," Poliakoff explains. "We play music, but we're not different from our audience. We don't want people to idolize us, we want to get people to have a sense of togetherness."
"Not Scared," penned with Hest, is the most political track on the album, although its message of love across racial lines is subtle and nuanced. "The song had to remain small and honest for the story to be conveyed sincerely," says Nicolay. "So we used small scale acoustic guitars from the 1960's and kept the focus on the words and melody."
"Santa Fe," the first song the band wrote together for the album, is a rootsy song with a pop sensibility, full of chiming guitars (with guest Eric Robinson), tasteful mandolin (supplied by Dave Immergluck of Counting Crows), country flavored piano, banjo played in an unorthodox, non-bluegrass style and a driving beat (provided by Aaron Sterling) that brings it all together. "It's a reminder that every moment is fleeting," says Poliakoff. "Just when you've got something figured out, it seems to slip away."
Long-time Virginia Coalition fans may be surprised by the group's evolution from 'spontaneous anything goes' band to introspective, soul-searching songwriters, but its a change the band welcomes. "We've known each other for 15 years now, and while the music is still getting better, we don't want to keep writing the same song over and over," Poliakoff states firmly. "I'm proud to be part of a group of three friends who have gone from the basement and garage to maturity and making music that speaks from the heart. It's a struggle to make a great album, but we welcomed the opportunity to reinvent ourselves while staying true to the core of what we do."
Virginia Coalition started building a buzz in their hometown of Alexandria, Virginia in the late '90s, releasing their first album, The Colors of the Sound, in 1998. But the three principals are life long friends who have known each other since high school, and in the case of Ottinger and Nicolay, since junior high. Ottinger wanted to be in a band since he was five years old, when his mother let him paint his face like Paul Stanley of Kiss and play air guitar with a tennis racket. Poliakoff had a guitar-playing cousin, who inspired him in the 4th grade. When he was 14, his mother was struck with cancer and eventually died; music and singing provided him with an emotional release. Nicolay's father played classical guitar. Although he was intimidated, he'd sneak away from the family and pick out melodies on his own.
By 2003 the band had three independent albums in their pocket and maintained an intense touring schedule, selling some 60,000 albums, mostly from the edge of the stage. Bluhammock Music inked the band and released OK to Go in 2004, as they moved from regional to national tours. Last year's Live at The 9:30 Club finally captured the band's live intensity and set in motion the musical soul searching that produced Home This Year.
Taking the music back to their songwriting roots on Home This Year has imbued the trio with a new sense of purpose. The gigs they've been doing to prepare for the album release have been drawing raves, leaving fans awed with their emotional and musical intensity. With this new album in hand, the band is ready to write the next chapter in the history of Virginia Coalition.
