Peter Siegel | Radical Roots Music

October 2, 2009 | Comments Off

Dr. Kent: My next guest on the show is kind of hand-in-glove with similar kind of music: Peter Siegel has an incredible brand of music that he calls ‘Radical Roots’ music. Welcome to the show, Peter Siegel.

Peter Siegel: Thank you very much.

Dr. Kent: Good to talk to you again. I love your music. Give me a nutshell of how you came into this radical roots.

Peter Siegel: [Laughs] I kind of have some radical roots; I’ve got communist grandparents, and socialist uncles, and all sorts of stuff like that. I grew up in New York City area. My parents were very active in the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, which kind of put me in touch with people like Pete Seeger and all the folk singers that hang around the old sloop on the Hudson River. So that was kind of my childhood. Although my grandfather was a radical, he was a classical violinist, and he wasn’t too fond of the fact that I was playing folk music, but [laughs], it was his radicalism, and his music sort of manifested itself in my folk music later on.

Dr. Kent: The only words more hated among conservatives than ‘liberal’ are of course ‘communist’ and ’socialist.’ We’re going into every realm on this show so far. What do you think about this madness happening these days?

Peter Siegel: [Laughs] Which madness? There’s so much madness.

Dr. Kent: The healthcare madness. It’s insane. My first guest, Roy Zimmerman, mentioned the fellow who was hanged with the ‘feds’ on his chest. It’s madness!

Peter Siegel: I know, it is madness. It’s just, I don’t know, there’s just so much rhetoric out there. I just feel like there’s so much of a lack of information that the powers that be are capitalizing on, or the right wing is capitalizing on. The one thing the left has never really done in this country is capitalize on ignorance the way that I think the right does right now. I think my personal way of dealing with that is to, not so much ‘tune out,’ but sort of bring it home a little bit more, and not think about what’s going on in the national and international level, but just sort of focus more on staying local, and just trying to sow as many seeds as I can as close to home as I can, which is probably one of the most radical ideas you can possibly have, is to stay home [laughs].

Dr. Kent: Absolutely. So I’m going to start off here, let’s talk about your song, ‘Boxed Up.’ Give me an intro for that.

Peter Siegel: Well, I wrote the song on the plane ride home from Chicago, and it was sort of a song originally just about my own feeling about being boxed in by my economic situation. Actually, my wife, who’s a writer, did a blog entry recently that - what did she say? - her entry was ‘Not Poor Enough.’ I feel like that’s been my position through most of my life. I’m a member of the middle class, but I’m not poor enough to sort of be eligible for any kind of health, and I’m not rich enough to really feel like I can do anything, but I’m sort of boxed in by the way society’s constructed right now. So that kind of led to writing this song.

Dr. Kent: Perfect song for this healthcare situation.

Peter Siegel: Exactly. It’s the perfect thing. The idea kind of expanded to how we’re boxed in by all of our own notions of ourselves. There’s just so many ways you can take a song that I feel like I need to write another song in the same theme, but just expand on it even more. The song was partially written by my wife as well. When I got home from that plane ride (she’s also an English teacher), she saw my laptop and when I wasn’t looking edited the song, so now she’s got credit for half the song as well. There it is: ‘Boxed In.’

Dr. Kent: Very nice. So let’s listen to ‘Boxed Up’ by Peter Siegel.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: Great tune from Peter Siegel, called ‘Boxed Up.’ Beautiful song, great sound to it. Thanks so much for that. What album’s that off of?

Peter Siegel: That’s off of an album called ‘Living in Rome.’ It just came out last year. ‘Living in Rome’s’ sort of the reference to the Empire, our own empire.

Dr. Kent: Indeed. Are you stewing in a whole new set of songs with all these new things happening?

Peter Siegel: I am, and I’m not. I’ve been steering away from a lot of the same direct political commentary that I used to write. I used to sort of furiously write down songs as I’d bubble over looking at the state of the world. These days, I take a little bit of time to sort of reflect on it, and maybe think of stories that just bring out the emotions of the moment instead of stating the way things are. I think, ‘Boxed Up’ is sort of a step in that direction. But I tend to sort of look at the people around me and write songs about what their stories are, and how that is a reflection of the way that things are in the world. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘easy,’ but I could probably sit down and write down a nice little protest song about our healthcare debacle for a protest happening tomorrow if I wanted to. I’ve actually come up with a couple of those here and there, but whenever I do that, I don’t feel like they’re worth recording. I feel like, that’s a nice little song for the moment, and we’ll just let that take it’s course and fade away with the moment.

Dr. Kent: So on that note, I do want to talk to you again in the future. I love your music, I love the concepts. As we wrap up here, I’m going to listen to ‘Polka Dot Bathing Suit.’ And of course we can check out Peter Siegel’s music on PeterSiegel.com, and there’s some great photos up there, and music and all the rest of that info. So tell me about that song, and then we’ll talk to you next time.

Peter Siegel: It’s my one attempt at a pop song. That’s all I can say. There’s nothing to it. I wrote it about my wife in her polka dot bathing suit next to our house and the green river where we often skinny dip. You know you need to write a song like that, and I did.

Dr. Kent: Awesome. ‘Polka Dot Bathing Suit,’ Peter Siegel. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Peter Siegel: Thanks so much for having me, I appreciate it.

Dr. Kent: We’ll talk to you the next time. Here we go: ‘Polka Dot Bathing Suit’ by Peter Siegel.

[Music]

Dr. Kent: That was a great tune by Peter Siegel. He told us that that was his attempt at writing a pop song. A great little tune, ‘Polka Dot Bathing Suit.’ He wrote about his wife’s bathing suit. Very touching and sweet.

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

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

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

Susan Oetgen | Likeness to Lily

September 14, 2009 | Comments Off

Interview with Likeness to Lily [26:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From their website:

Elegant and epic, realist and romantic, foreign and familiar - Likeness to Lily is a Brooklyn-based New Music quartet with a flair for telling syncopated stories in the patois of post-modern pop. Vocalist Susan Oetgen’s classically poetic melodies come from the heart of everyday life and love, and find pulse and passion in the jazz-inspired rhythms, harmonies and compositional savoir-faire of pianist Tony Melone, drummer Evan Pazner and bassist Ian M. Riggs.

Since forming in 2003, Likeness to Lily has performed regularly in the downtown music clubs of New York City, recently venturing forth to appear in concert series and performing arts venues along the East Coast, notably on the Vermont Arts Exchange’s Basement Music Series in N. Bennington, VT, and the Hump Day Groovz Series at Washington, DC’s Busboys & Poets. In 2005, Likeness to Lily independently recorded and released their debut record, Solitude’s Dollhouse, which features the song ‘Jewelia’, as heard on A&E Television’s prime-time reality show, Random 1.

In March 2008, Likeness to Lily premiered an original multimedia song-cycle entitled Bazm-o-Razm on the Brooklyn Philharmonic’s Music off the Walls series at the Brooklyn Museum, featuring chamber musicians from the Brooklyn Philharmonic, visual images by artist Justin Waldstein, Iraq War photos by Pulitzer Prize-nominee Alan Chin, and choreography by Sahar Javedani. Bazm-o-Razm was reprised at The Performance Project @ University Settlement in May 2008, and will be performed again on December 5, 2008 at Galapagos Art Space, for the occasion of Likeness to Lily’s Farewell, Recruit CD release. Farewell, Recruit contains the complete music of Bazm-o-Razm, as well 6 other original songs that integrate the dramatic depth of opera with tight, but conversational, song arrangements and ageless acoustic appeal.

For the full discography, see Music.
For a printable, downloadable presskit, see Booking.