The Ooks of Hazard :: Kids (MGMT Cover)

I really enjoy this group! One of my students sent me a link to see the video, and then it was passed on again to me by a fellow staff member. There's something pretty magical about a bunch of older folks covering MGMT's popular hit, "Kids" ON UKULELES!

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this song and hopefully this group will put out some more fabulous covers and originals :) Until then, I'll keep listening to this one.

Rachel Harrington

Today I'm straying from the theme of local music, and instead sharing some really excellent folk/bluegrass from Oregon. Rachel Harrington is a really excellent singer-songwriter, and I'll let her website bio speak for itself.

"Reared among the Pentecostal pines of Oregon, Rachel Harrington has been doing things in the wrong order for quite some time. She’d had extensive radio play before performing her live show, and she was opening for Grammy winners and nominees before releasing her first record."http://www.rachelharrington.net/home.html

My housemate and I were washing dishes last night and she played some songs off of Rachel Harrington's second cd, "City of Refuge." You can listen to some of those tracks at Rachel's myspace page. I highly recommend listening to the track Karen Kane over on myspace.

Her voice reminds me of a little Lucinda Williams, a little Gillian Welch, and a little Pieta Brown. Videos on youtube mostly feature her and the talented mandolin player Zak Borden who sings with her as well. So here are three enjoyable videos I found on youtube. I also recommend checking out her myspace to hear some of her songs that are a little more fleshed out musically, including some really tasteful use of panning if you're using headphones.

Shallow Grave :: Roe Family Singers

My first band of choice for Local Music Month is the Roe Family Singers, one of my favorite Twin Cities bands. What started as the husband and wife duo of Kim and Quillan Roe has expanded to an 8-member crew of old-timey fabulousness, complete with autoharp, washboard, banjo, saw, mandolin, harmonica, bass, fiddle, and dulcimer, just to name a few! Their sound comes from a different time and place, heavily influenced by old American folk, bluegrass, and roots music. If I imagine a family vacation to old Appalachia with the Carter family, it sounds a lot like the Roe Family Singers.

You can catch the every Monday night at the 331 Club, a great little corner bar up in NE Minneapolis. Playing a combination of their own songs and covering classic old-timey tunes from Hank Williams to Joan Carter Cash to old American folk, they are always a total pleasure to watch. And they are darn nice. Really. I've met members of the band, and these are good people. Always free and always guaranteed to please, I totally recommend hitting up one of these shows. The Roe Family Singers will also be playing the opening weekend of the Art Shanty Projects on Medicine Lake (January 18, 2 pm, Black Box Shanty). If you've never been, the Art Shanty Projects are a funky, fun, and frosty art event that isn't to be missed! I can't think of anything more quintessentially Minnesotan.

I'm choosing the song "Shallow Grave", from their 2005 self-released EP Andronicus. There's nothing quite like a song about a jilted woman killing her husband, especially when it includes the bone-chilling whir of a saw.



Support those local artists!

XOXO
Kim

A Night in the Box

Local music. So I reached really deep into my musical library, and I found A Night in the Box. They are a really energetic indie bluegrass/rock/folk group that puts on really great live shows. They're actually playing tonight at the 331 Club New Year's Party. Or you can catch them at the Acadia on January 23rd, The Kitty Kat Club on January 30th, or at the Cedar on February 8th.

If foot stomping, hand clapping, guitar driven, banjo and violen laden music is your thing, A Night in the Box delivers pretty excellent electric bluegrass. Most of the songs are catchy, and make me feel like putting on my best button up plaid shirt and singing along.

I couldn't find much of their stuff, even on imeem, so I recommend checking out their myspace page. In particular, I really recommend listening to "The Hustle" on myspace.

A Night in the Box

Ring Around the Moon :: Elephant Revival

Today's guest blog is from Kathryn.

So this past weekend I had the pleasure of a fun-filled music weekend. Although I saw the Indigo Girls with Bitch and Ferron on Sunday and it was a very good show (and they played some new music from their self-produced album out in winter because they were dropped from their major label-BOO!). However, I am writing because I saw a great local-ish band on Friday night, Elephant Revival Concept and I want people to know about them, check them out, and love them too.

I was at Ye Old Rock Inn (local bluegrass bar) in Estes Park and saw a really great band called Elephant Revival who are self-described as Experimental/Americana/Folk but with an amazing bluegrass/roots twist. They are out of Nederland, Colorado-which to most people in these parts is Hippie-ville and just down the road from the EP. I hate to attribute a band's wealth to one person but honestly one of their female vocalists, Bonnie Paine, is AMAZING-and she plays the washboard, which is one of the coolest things EVER to watch. Her original band from Oklahoma is My-Tea Kind and they are also really good and different-an obscure folk rock group.

The band combines fiddle, acoustic guitar, upright bass, the cello, electric banjo, and even djembe and the occasional saw to create their unique sound. One moment they may be busting out a roots reggae tune, the next they are playing Irish Celtic folk music, and yet can also pick a traditional bluegrass song with the best of them. Seeing them live was a fantastic experience also because the crowd is so into them and loves to kick their heels up and dance to whatever they might be playing at the moment. ER are inspired by the crowd and it is obvious the crowd also becomes pretty inspired throughout the course of the show by the music coming from the stage.

I am going to choose the song Ring Around the Moon for my Song of the Day because it showcases Paine's soulful and slightly eerie vocal stylings-however, I am not convinced that this is the best representative of their music as a whole since they are so multi-talented. If you get a chance to hit their myspace page I would highly recommend the semi-political song A Part, and the Reel Mckay Wedding. I can't find the lyrics but I'm not sure they are necessary. Just hear the song, let it wash (board) over you and become entranced by the incredible talents of Elephant Revival.

Here is a video of that Ring Around the Moon:



But I also want to provide another video from Nederland's Frozen Dead Guy Days where they played and you can see how completely different the music is and there's also a really amazing washboard solo:



So if you like your bluegrass with altitude as I do then listen to them, let them make you feel happy and then buy their stuff so that they can continue!

Melody Allegra Berger the Hallowing Harpies

(i apologize for the lateness in this post...things have been a little crazy, but now it is finally settling down...b/c i finished my thesis!!! whoo hooo!!!)

back to business...

i first encountered melody allegra berger at the michigan womyn's music festival...but i just didn't realize it yet. i saw her come out on erin mckeown's set and jam out on the violin.

berger has also performed at MichFest with the likes of bitch!!!

but the awesomeness does not stop there friends. berger is also the editor of an independent feminst zine for teens, called the f-word. she started this zine when she was a senior at Temple University in Philadelphia, majoring in Women's Studies.

and if being an editor and musician wasn't enough to make someone feel extremely busy, berger was approached by Sage (the publishing company) to compile a book about the 'third wave' of feminism. berger, feeling frustrated that this mentality and habit of trying to box the feminist movement into waves appropriately titled the anthology: We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists

i ran into her last week when she was leading a discussion with students at American University about feminism in today's current political climate and had the privilege to hang out with her over food and drink afterwards...which is when i found out her other identities as a rockin musician!

in short, berger freakin rocks my socks. she is a busy woman and she is gettin shit done. so, please, please, please check out her zine and her book after you check out her kickin tunes!

back to the music.

berger's style is definitely worthy of hootenannies, as it is full of sassy bluegrass licks and kicks. i wasn't really able to pick which of her songs that i enjoyed the most, because they are all freakin fantastic, so i will let y'all decide for yourselves. but if you like fiddles, banjos, mandolins, and upright basses, then you'll dig her tunes.

she gets together with some fabulous pickers from the Philadelphia area, also known as the howling harpies :)

they're so up and coming that there aren't even any youtube videos of them or links to songs on any other website. so you will have to check out berger's myspace page HERE.

i hope y'all will enjoy her music as much as i do, as well as the other work that berger is doing. check it all out and rock on!

the end.
<3, meggo

(me and berger...doin some glamor shots poses)