Rosi Golan | Singer and Songwriter

October 1, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Rosi Golan [11:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From her website:

Rosi Golan is an Israeli born singer songwriter who has made many stops in her travels, including Germany, Paris, and finally ending up in Los Angeles at the age of nine, where she grew up. During her travels, she not only managed to hone her infectiously melodic songwriting, but also learned to speak three languages fluently: French, Hebrew and English.

Rosi is indeed a long way from home, but certainly in the right place to showcase her unique talent for rich, dark melodies and a voice that not only draws you in, but still haunts you the next day. While living in Los Angeles, Rosi was inundated with creative lessons from violin, to voice, to acting. At 19, she decided to focus on singing and picked up her first guitar, teaching herself to play and write songs. Six weeks later, she was performing at her first open microphone. Since then, Rosi has played the Acoustic Playhouse, Molly Malones, The Whiskey and Genghis Cohen in Los Angeles, and The Bitter End, The Living Room, Rockwood Music Hall and CBs Gallery in New York City.

In the past few years, Rosi has worked with a number of acclaimed writers and producers from all over the world, including Jeff Cohen, Boots, Richard Cuason, Nate Campany, Tim Gordine, Richard Lobb, Pete Gordeno, Marc Swersky, Robert Conley, etc.

But it’s her continuing collaboration with singer/songwriter Jamie Hartman (Ben’s Brother) that has yielded numerous songs, including the single “Let Me Out,” from Ben’s Brother debut CD (Relentless/EMI/Virgin). The song was recently featured on an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Rosi was recently mentioned in Billboard Magazine. She was the winner of the first ASCAP Robert Allen Award for songwriting excellence, for which she performed at Lincoln Center. Finally settled in New York, Rosi has already kick-started the momentum that launches careers.

Posted by jamie | Filed Under Concerts in Your Home, Pop, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Peter Siegel | Radical Roots Music

September 30, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Peter Siegel [15:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From his website:

Peter’s music is a melting pot of radical Americana. With roots in the Hudson Valley of New York, Peter was raised on Phil Ochs, lefty Jewish politics, the post 60’s environmental activism of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Pete Seeger, the old time square dance scene, Warner Brothers cartoons, Jimi Hendrix, and 70’s and 80’s pop. Put that together in a warm stew and you’ve got the mix that is Peter Siegel’s Radical Roots music.

The story began as a red diaper grandchild was trained by his violinist grandfather classically at the age of 3. From there, piano and classical guitar were corrupted by the 70’s folk scene in New York. Somewhere in between there was an awkward new wave mullet BUT in the last ten years Peter’s work as a singer songwriter, music teacher, kids’ performer composer, and player of roots music and fiddle tunes on a whole mess of stringed instruments has earned him acclaim locally and around the nation.

As a father and activist, thinking and acting locally come first. Traveling’s gotta, and will happen, but staying around home and biking to a gig is even better!

Posted by jamie | Filed Under Pop, Concerts in Your Home, Bluegrass, Comedy, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, Folk, PODCAST

Roy Zimmerman | Satirical Singer and Songwriter

September 29, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Roy Zimmerman [13:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From Wikipedia:

Roy Zimmerman is a Californian satirical singer-songwriter and guitarist with outspoken left-wing opinions.

In the early 1980s, he wrote a series of satirical musical reviews which were presented in association with the San Jose Repertory Theatre, including “YUP!” (1984) “Up the YUP” (1985) and “YUP it UP!” (1986). The musicals parodied the excesses of the evolving Silicon Valley culture associated with the term Young Urban Professionals: hence “YUP.” The songs from these reviews — like “Teen-age Computer Tycoon” and “The Bay Area Crawl” and “I Want to Be in a Pepsi Commercial” — have remained in the memory of Bay Area professionals long after they, and Silicon Valley, have ceased to be young.

He was the founder of the Southern California folk quartet The Foremen, which performed at the national conventions of both major American political parties in 1996. Zimmerman then went on to become a solo act, writing and performing humorous songs on increasingly political subjects. Zimmerman said, “There’s nothing funny about World Peace. Social Justice never killed at the Comedy Store. If we ever attain a worldwide consciousness of peace and justice, I’ll be happily out of a job. But as long as there’s poverty, war, bigotry, ignorance, greed, lust and paranoia, I’ve got a career.”

Zimmerman performed his song “Chickenhawk,” an indictment of those who approve of militarism as long as they and no one they know has to be directly involved, at the counter-events to the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. His songs are played regularly on the Doctor Demento show.

Roy Zimmerman lives and works in Marin County with his wife and frequent collaborator, Melanie Harby, and their sons Joe and Sam.

Posted by jamie | Filed Under Concerts in Your Home, Comedy, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Wayne Gratz | Pianist

September 26, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: Welcome back to Sound Authors. On this show, I talk to both Sound Authors and Authors of Sound. I’m especially excited about the show’s new relationship with Concerts in Your Home, which is a wonderful place online that helps to feature artists by creating house concerts around their music, all across the country. Some amazing artists do these house concerts. My guest on the show today is one of those amazing artists; his name is Wayne Gratz. Welcome to the show.

Wayne Gratz: Yes, hi, Kent, how are you?

Dr. Kent: Great. And am I pronouncing your last name correctly?

Wayne Gratz: You are.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful. We’re going to listen to a couple tracks from your album. Let’s talk first about one of the tracks, then we’ll listen to it. It’s called ‘Two Views.’

Wayne Gratz: Yes. That track is actually the title track from the album ‘Two Views,’ which is my latest album that just came out. Basically that album is kind of about my childhood, and how I was building all of these memories as a child, and how much different they look when you get older and look back on your childhood. A lot of those songs on that particular album are about some of my childhood memories. Like I said, ‘Two Views’ is the title track on the album.

Dr. Kent: When you’re composing these songs, how do you go about doing that?

Wayne Gratz: Most of the time, my songs start out with improvisations, with maybe a melody. I have a recording studio in my house, and I also have a piano in my house, so a lot of times I’ll get a melody and I’ll just turn the tape recorder on and I’ll do a lot of improvisation on a melody. That’s basically how I write my songs now a’days.

Dr. Kent: So let’s listen to ‘Two Views,’ from the album ‘Two Views.’ Then we’ll be back, and we’ll talk to Wayne in just a second again. Here we go.

Wayne Gratz: Awesome, thanks.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: What a beautiful track from Wayne Gratz, from his newest album called ‘Two Views,’ and that’s the title track. What a beautiful song there.

Wayne Gratz: Oh well, thank you, appreciate it.

Dr. Kent: You’ve got your recording studio in your own house for a lot of stuff, how do you go about recording the final version?

Wayne Gratz: What I do is I actually use Pro Tools. I think most musicians are familiar with that. There was a time when you had to go into a big studio and spend a lot of money. The technology now a’days is so good that you can have a home-studio and get really high quality CDs. Basically, my piano’s in my living room and I put some really good mikes on it, and I send it into the computer, and when I get a track that I really like, I hang onto it, and I do very, very little editing. That’s the thing with doing everything digitally: you have the option of editing things out, but I usually like to get one good take and just keep it. I don’t really like to edit a whole lot. That takes you through the whole process.

Dr. Kent: How about the sound? Do you have to do much reverb added to it, or do you just get that from the mikes?

Wayne Gratz: I add a little bit of reverb to it, things that are called “plug ins” now, that are actual virtual, on the computer. I use just a touch of reverb; I try not to use too much, so the ambient is just right on.

Dr. Kent: What was the process like when you were doing some of the Narada stuff, ten years ago plus? Did you go into the studio with them? How was that process different for you?

Wayne Gratz: First of all, the whole album was written on a demo, and then, the process of about six weeks of going somewhere, either to Portland or Milwaukee, so it was really a big process. A lot of times, a producer [was] involved, and an executive producer [was] involved. Then you’d have to go into the studio totally prepared; you couldn’t really waste a lot of time. Recording was so much different back then, in those days. It’s just so much more relaxed now to be able to record at home at your own leisure. When you write a song, you have an idea, and your piano’s right in front of you, and it can be instantly put on a CD. It’s just so much better now.

Dr. Kent: How’s your career changed from then ’till now? New age piano is something that kind of did pretty well in the 90s, or piano in general. Some people always love it. What do you do as a career musician to keep it going?

Wayne Gratz: I try to do as many concerts as I can in a year. I haven’t been doing that many. I try to write as often as possible, and spend time at the piano, and writing some new music. You’re right that the market has slowed down, no doubt. It seems I have more time on my hands to write, and that’s what I’m doing.

Dr. Kent: Tell me, just for a tiny little couple seconds, tell me about this Concerts in Your Home project. You are one of the members of that.

Wayne Gratz: Yes. Concerts in Your Home: I’ve done a couple of them, and both of them were just fantastic experiences. You get to meet a lot of people. You’re one-on-one with people, and it’s usually in a really nice, intimate atmosphere. It’s fantastic. I would like to do four of them a week [laughs].

Dr. Kent: Right. And that’s the thing about piano; I’ve been a couple times to Carnegie Hall and I’ve heard piano in there, and it’s not amplified. It sounds gorgeous in that hall. A piano in a parlor has a different sound, and there’s so many different possible sounds you can get out of this instrument. What kind of piano do you have at your house?

Wayne Gratz: I have a Yamaha C7.

Dr. Kent: Do you have people come and tweak it, and make it in tune all the time?

Wayne Gratz: Yes, I have a piano tuner technician who’s been my piano tuner technician for probably 15 years. I haven’t had the piano that long, but I’ve had other pianos before that one, and he’s always taken care of my pianos.

Dr. Kent: It’s a different sound you’re trying to get out of it than say Tom Waits, or something.

Wayne Gratz: Yes, I guess you could say that. A pop sounding piano’s probably a little bit brighter, a little crisper. Yes, it would probably be voiced a little bit different in Tom Waits’ studio than it would be in my studio.

Dr. Kent: Cool. You said that track ‘Two Views’ had to do with your childhood, and I know you were brought up in North Carolina.

Wayne Gratz: Actually, I was raised in Pennsylvania. I was born in North Carolina, and I was raised in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Kent: Were you raised in the city or the country?

Wayne Gratz: I was raised in suburbia.

Dr. Kent: Suburbia, nice. What kind of echoes of your childhood find themselves in your music. What kind of music were you listening to? Was it rock, pop, folk music, classical? What was it all?

Wayne Gratz: All of the above. When I was a teenager, I was listening to people like Guess and Pink Floyd. Probably my biggest influence was Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Keith Emerson. When I was younger than that I actually was playing guitar, I was listening to Grand Funk Railroad. A lot of classic rock I was listening to when I was a teenager. Before that, I took piano lessons for a while, so it was kind of simplified classical. I didn’t take piano for that long, but I did dabble in classical a little bit when I was younger.

Dr. Kent: What is the difference between classical piano, purely in technique? A lot of folks have had piano lessons as kids. What’s the difference between that and what’s classified as new age piano, and what you classify it as? What do you call your own piano playing?

Wayne Gratz: I describe it as pretty, sort of, folky, sometimes mellow, thought-provoking, and classical, more on the adagio side. A lot of classical music is really, really difficult to play, and my music’s pretty simple to play. I try to keep it as simple as possible. It’s just the way I write. That’s probably the way that would be.

Dr. Kent: It’s a lot of melody, right?

Wayne Gratz: Yes, it’s a lot about melody, and especially linear melodies. Nice chord voicings that are really pleasant to the ear, and sometimes they don’t go from chord to chord; sometimes you can let the chord ring, so people can think about the chord that they’re hearing. There’s some things that are different.

Dr. Kent: What kind of different experiences have you had in music? I know you’re part of a band as well, and you’ve dabbled in guitar. What else are you involved in?

Wayne Gratz: I play in a band that actually plays party music. We play everything from blues to jazz, to Led Zeppelin. Other things I do, I enjoy computers, I enjoy doing website design. Probably the computer I would have to say is my second; it’s actually what I went to school for.

Dr. Kent: Really? Where do you do website design?

Wayne Gratz: I maintain my website, and I’ve done a few others. It’s something that I’ve learned over the past year. I don’t do it a whole lot; I do it more for a hobby than I do for any kind of trying to make a living at it.

Dr. Kent: Cool, and we can check that out, of course. His website is www.waynegratz.com. And Concerts in Your Home: book a house concert; sounds like he likes them. Those are www.concertsinyourhome.com. You can book him and some other great folks on there. They’re kind of partners of ours now, and that’s fun. It’s been fun chatting with you about your music. Tell me what you’re working on next.

Wayne Gratz: I’m actually playing a concert next week, and right now I’m practicing for it.

Dr. Kent: Cool, and doing some of the solo stuff?

Wayne Gratz: Yes, we’re doing a concert in Walhalla, South Carolina in an auditorium up there; it’s with David Roth, and David Nevue. Currently, that’s what I’m working on.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful. Where can we find out more about your music? Obviously there’s your website.

Wayne Gratz: The website, and also, we sell CDs on the website. We sell some sheet music on the website, and if the music isn’t on the website, it’s downloadable at all the major Internet stores: iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, all the major stores. Even the Narada stuff is still on there. So, it’s really, really easy to get.

Dr. Kent: Very cool. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. Give me just a nutshell about this other song we’re going to listen to going out here, called ‘Waters Flowing Softly.’

Wayne Gratz: Yes, ‘Waters Flowing Softly’ is a song that I did. I did a soundtrack for a Thomas Kinkade DVD, and this song was inspired by one of his paintings.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful. So we’re going to listen to that going out, and go check out Wayne Gratz at www.waynegratz.com, or Narada, or on iTunes, or Concerts in Your Home, a whole bunch of places. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you.

Wayne Gratz: Kent, thank you very much.

Dr. Kent: All right, let’s listen to ‘Waters Flowing Softly,’ like he said, featured on a Thomas Kinkade DVD. You can go pick that up and listen to it firsthand. But here it is, and then we’ll talk to you again after the song’s over. ‘Waters Flowing Softly’ by Wayne Gratz.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That’s a beautiful track from Wayne Gratz. His latest album is ‘Two Views.’ Go check him out online at www.waynegratz.com, or on www.concertsinyourhome.com, where you can actually book him for a house concert if he’s in your area. What a beautiful song, and you can hear that on Thomas Kinkade’s DVD as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and pick up a great book, and a great CD, and we’ll talk to you the next time. We’re actually going to be here once a day now, at 3 p.m., so tune in every day. We’re going to be recasting hundreds of old great shows we’ve had with people like Billy Collins, and all sorts of folks like that, so tune in once a day at 3 p.m., and then live again a week from now on Friday, and we’ll be talking to a bunch of new folks then. So pick up a great book, and be safe. We’ll talk to you soon.

Posted by jamie | Filed Under Concerts in Your Home, TRANSCRIPTS, Folk, Classical, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW

John Abrams | The Abrams Brothers, Viva La Vida

September 19, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: What a great tune, Viva La Vida. Of course, it’s a Cold Play song, and what a version of it, it’s awesome. And I’ve heard that it’s going to be, or already has been, on CMT, and I’m welcoming to the show John from the Abrams Brothers. Welcome to the show.

John Abrams: Hey there, how are you guys?

Dr. Kent: Pretty good. So tell me, tell me about this song, Viva La Vida. I have not heard that before, and it’s pretty exciting. This was on CMT?

John Abrams: It’s going to be coming out on CMT this Monday in the United States, and this coming Saturday in Canada, and it’s a song by Cold Play that was released by those guys. They’re a British rock band. It was released last summer by Cold Play, and we’re certainly big Cold Play fans. So we decided to do a country rock version of the song and put it on the Internet last summer, and stirred up a whole bunch of buzz with CMT and a whole bunch of other people, and we’re really excited about it because it’s a great song. We love to sing it and play it.

Dr. Kent: And the sound is absolutely awesome. It’s driven by a banjo in it. Who’s playing the banjo?

John Abrams: Oh, that’s Brandon Green. He actually, he played banjo with us last year and he’s a fantastic musician, and he recorded the part with us when we did the single last summer.

Dr. Kent: That’s wonderful, and tell me about this, the core of this group, of course, you’re the Abrams Brothers, and a cousin. Are you guys all still together then, in the group?

John Abrams: Yeah, yeah. James and I are the brothers, he’s 16 and I’m 18 and we grew up playing bluegrass music, and we certainly love that. That’s our accord, and also gospel music, we have a lot of reaching gospel. But this is actually a very, as you can probably already tell, it’s a very family oriented thing. We’re actually the fourth generation playing roots and gospel music in our family, on the road actually, the fourth generation on the road. So that’s a pretty exciting tradition to carry on. And we’re joined by our cousin Eli on the bass and our family travels with us on the road. Our grandparents, they help drive the bus and cook and clean and cut our hair and run the merchandise table, and we have a great thing going, we’re really excited about it.

Dr. Kent: So they must be all pretty pumped that this thing is happening on CMT on Monday?

John Abrams: Yeah, it’s really exciting. We’re just really glad that we can bring our roots and bluegrass music and take it into a contemporary setting and have it recognized by other people in the industry, and also the fans and people who listen to it. They’re, they seem to be relating to it, and we really appreciate our generation latching onto a great tradition, but just kind of packaged in a newer way.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about the three of you. Who does what?

John Abrams: Well I’m John Abrams, I’m 18, I play, I play acoustic guitar and electric guitar and also I do a lot of the lead vocals, and some harmony singing. My brother James plays a lot of fiddle, a little bit of guitar, and he’s a 16 year old, and he does a lot of the singing as well And then we’re also turned by our cousin Elijah, he’s 18 and he plays the electric and upright bass. And we have a drummer. Ethan Myers, and a banjo player whose name is Nick Picianini, and that’s pretty much everyone that goes out. We’re also joined by our producer, Chris Brown. He produced the album Blue on Brown that we put out a little over a year ago. He plays keys with us on the road sometimes. So we kind of have a, I guess you could say a bluegrass, rock, country group that goes out together, and that creates the Abrams Brothers style.

Dr. Kent: And I wanted to play a song here, if you want to wait on the line, because the album Blue on Brown was what drew me to you in the first place. I’m a huge Arlo Guthrie fan, as you guys obviously are as well. This is an album of Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Tell me about that album, Blue on Brown.

John Abrams: Yeah, we’re just, we’re really excited to be able to record a whole bunch of great material, great songwriting material. Both of them are fantastic writers. And we originally were just going to do a whole bunch of bluegrass versions of their songs, but two years ago now, a little over two years ago we met our producer Chris Brown, and he produced the Mild Man Tribute To Steve Goodman album, actually, for the Goodman family. And of course the song City of New Orleans is on that. We recorded the song by Steve Goodman, City of New Orleans, which certainly was an Arlo Guthrie hit as well. And we met Chris because of our mutual affection for the song, and he lives just near where we live, on Molt lsland, just off of Kingston, Ontario, which is our home town. And we connected with him, and ever since we’ve been making music together. So that’s kind of the story of Blue on Brown album, but all those are great songs, and we’re really excited to be able to perform them and carry them on in the Abrams Brothers way for a generation that might not have been exposed to them.

Dr. Kent: Well, if you want to hang on the line, I’d love to listen to the whole track of City of New Orleans. It’s about five minutes, so you could probably go and have a snack and then brush your teeth and come back, but we’re all excited to listen to City of New Orleans, where it all started with this album Blue on Brown. Here we go.

(music)

Dr. Kent: That’s a great tune, it’s called City of New Orleans. Of course, that’s a famous tune by Steve Goodman that was covered first by Arlo Guthrie, and this is a version that was recorded by the Abrams Brothers. The label is UFO Music, United For Opportunity is the name of the label, and it is their work that they did with all sorts of amazing musicians. And Arlo Guthrie, who most famously said that, “They’re too young to sound that good,” and we’re going to get John back on the line, John Abrams, and that’ll take just a second for that. And then we’re going to listen to another track from the album, which will be called Gotta Serve Somebody. The album is, of course, both Dylan songs and Arlo Guthrie songs, and the album’s called Blue on Brown. We’re having a little bit of technical difficulties, hold on just one minute. And do I have John on the line?

John Abrams: Hello? I’m here.

Dr. Kent: Hey there, John, how are you doing?

John Abrams: Good, how are you guys?

Dr. Kent: We lost you for a second there, that’s our fault.

John Abrams: Hey, yeah.

Dr. Kent: But we listened to the whole track of the City of New Orleans. Great tune. Not the easiest song to play the first time you pick it up.

John Abrams: Sure, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of chords in that one, but we wanted to learn it exactly how, really, we listened to Arlo Guthrie’s version cause of course it was our tribute to Arlo Guthrie, but you know, it’s just, it’s one of those timeless songs, one of those memorable songs. It doesn’t matter which generation listens to it, as long as you bring it into that new generation in context. This is just one of those timeless songs, and I just, I really think a timeless song the way it’s written, the way the melody is, is a timeless song (inaudible) for years and years.

Dr. Kent: How do you compare these Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie songs to, you know, Cold Play? Do you guys just pick up on great music and say, “Let’s try this one?”

John Abrams: I’m sorry?

Dr. Kent: Do you just pick up on any kind of music and say, “Hey guys, let’s try this one,” like the, you know you played the Cold Play song at the beginning, Viva La Vida. These are Dylan songs and Arlo Guthrie songs. What won’t you guys try?

John Abrams: Oh yeah, no, that’s a great question. We like to try all kinds of different styles of music and different songs from different genres. And to us it’s all about taking a song and the writing and what was done before and bringing it into our sound, in the Abrams Brother’s music. And that’s certainly that combination of bluegrass and the contemporary styles, like rock and country. So yeah, the Viva La Vida song, the City of New Orleans song, these are less covered than us doing our own version of the song that’s already been (inaudible). Actually, the Viva La Vida song didn’t become a hit on our album of all original material, but we’re working on that now, songs that we’ve (inaudible). So we’re excited about that conversation.

Dr. Kent: That is fun, yeah, and there’s nothing better than kicking it off with a CMT appearance, that’s on Monday. So folks should check out on CMT and see if they can see the Abrams Brothers. Otherwise, you know, there’s a lot of places people can find out about you. Where can folks go online?

John Abrams: Yeah, you can go on www.abramsbrothers.com and we’re also on Facebook, MySpace, I think on Twitter now, yeah, I know we’re on Twitter now, and YouTube, and we like to update those all the time and try to keep in contact with everybody. So yeah, and eventually it will be up, the brand new website will be up in the next couple of days with the base for video and we’re really excited about that. So you can check us out again at www.theabramsbrothers.com.

Dr. Kent: And how about, what’s your take, I mean, it was a horrible day yesterday for music. You know, I grew up hearing Michael Jackson. What your take on the passing of the King of op?

John Abrams: Yeah, I mean, you know, I haven’t been watching the news a whole lot at all, but just, I’m hearing about his passing last night. I mean, he had incredible talent, and it’s a real loss because he was a, left a legacy of fantastic song, memorial songs and good music. So yeah, he will definitely be missed around the world, yeah I think we’re all pretty sad.

Dr. Kent: Well, it’s been a pleasure speaking to John Abrams, the Abrams Brothers on a ride, a ride to the top, I think. They’ve got a great sound and some amazing tunes, I can’t wait to hear their new album with original tunes. The sound on Viva La Vida is amazing, and we’re going to listen going out to another song from their Blue on Brown album. It’s called Gotta Serve Somebody, of course, Bob Dylan song. And than you so much for chatting with me, John.

John Abrams: Thank you so much. It’s been a real pleasure, and hope you enjoyed the songs.

Dr. Kent: And everybody tune in on CMT on Monday, and see if they can find the Abrams Brothers.

You have a great day.

Dr. Kent: You too. Now let’s listen to Gotta Serve Somebody by the Abrams Brothers. Here it is.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Pop, Bluegrass, TRANSCRIPTS, Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW

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