Stuck inside of Norfolk with the Richmond blues

(MySpace photo of John Cephas)

Fans of acoustic blues here in Virginia have something to look forward to. The following is from a record company press release:

"On July 29, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will release 'Richmond Blues' by guitarist-singer John Cephas and his harmonica-player partner Phil Wiggins as part of the African American Legacy Recordings Series. 'Richmond Blues' traces the traditional Piedmont blues through its origins in the southeast Appalachians, from Richmond, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia, and showcases its thriving modern embodiment in the hands of Wiggins and Cephas, the most respected and well-known Piedmont blues musicians today ...

'Richmond Blues' is the duo's effort to document the Piedmont tradition and provide a musical roadmap for other aspiring musicians. Featuring original songs and traditional favorites, the album's 16 tracks, each carefully annotated, exemplifies the duo's skill as well as the enduring relevance of Piedmont music."

With the passing of the late, great John Jackson in 2002, Cephas and Wiggins are the Old Dominion's best-known acoustic bluesmen. I'm glad to hear they're embracing their Piedmont roots.

Torchin' Twang

(MySpace photo of Shifty's Teddy Dean Jr.)

The twin towers of Hampton y'alternative rock -- Pawn Shop Lifters and Shifty -- will stand together tonight at the Half Shell in Virginia Beach. From the two bands, you'll hear rockabilly, Southern rock, cocksure country and a dab of punk. So, what the hell? Why not head down Shore Drive for some string-bending, red-necking fun? Ethel would approve.

Soul of Richmond

(Marshall Costan and The Awesome Few at Satellite Ballroom in Charlottesville, March 12. Photo by PJ Sykes.)

Sunday's typically not the big night for rock 'n' roll in Hampton Roads. But there's something happening on a Sabbath in late June that grabbed my attention. Two local bands I'm digging -- the jump blues combo Rylo and art popsters Little Trooper -- will play The Naro Theater on June 29 along with a group I hadn't heard of until tonight: Marshall Costan and The Awesome Few. These guys from Richmond play folky rock with a shot of soul. Marshall's voice is clear and strong and his songwriting is sharp. Sounds like they'll be the perfect band to bridge the indie pop of Little Trooper with the gritty, rockabilly blues of Rylo. Check out the songs on Marshall's MySpace page. They're gooood.

Weekend Tip Sheet

It sounds like I'm making this up, but Ben Folds is going to play a Bonefish Grill in Newport News next week. At work today, we received a press release saying that Folds is taping a TV show at the restaurant on Thursday afternoon, starting about 2 p.m. While it's a private taping, the restaurant is giving away 50 pairs of tickets. If you're interested, you'll have to stop by a Bonefish location in Hampton Roads and enter for a drawing. I know all this sounds completely implausible, but I talked to the restaurant manager today and it's really happening.

Turning to the long holiday weekend, here are a few events to keep in mind:

Tonight (It's not too late if you can get your tail in gear), go see Pawnshop Lifters over at Baron's Pub in Portsmouth. The Taphouse has Gina Dalmas (probably on stage as I write this) and Seth Walker from Austin, Texas, playing blues and rockin' soul.

Saturday, Liberty IV in Newport News has a full night of hardcore planned. Performing will be Shipwreck Ad, Bracewar, Trapped Under Ice, Jerk City, Punchout (from Newport News), and Impulse. Action starts at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile The Taphouse has Action Habit and Churn. Music there starts about 10 p.m.

Enjoy your long, lovely weekend, y'all.

Cheated Again

(Bastards of Fate photo by Ricket Powell)
It's strange to me that Greenville, N.C. sometimes gets better underground rock shows that Hampton Roads. I don't want to sound like a whiner, but it's bothersome to me that bands that I want to see visit that town (home to East Carolina University) before coming to Norfolk. I guess it's the allure of the college kids. And I know, ODU is more of a commuter college so the bar scene here for younger bands can be anemic. But Jeez!
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll report another morsel of disappointment. It looks doubtful that The Bastards of Fate -- led by musical mad scientist Doug Cheatwood -- will be playing Richmond's Nara Sushi on June 7. Doug told me that the restaurant was double booked and that the date will probably be moved. I've never gotten to witness the Bastards' freak show, so this was bad news for me. Seems like we should be able to get a Bastards gig in Hampton Roads. Are you listening Josh and Dave from The Boot?
As a consolation prize, here's a link to a Bastards of Fate song straight from Doug himself.
Speaking of Richmond, a bunch of interesting bands are playing the garden of the Edgar Allan Poe Museum on May 31. Headliners are Mermaid Skeletons (who are releasing an EP called "The Darlings") and joining them will be Zak Hryciak and The Jungle Beat, David Shultz and The Skyline and The Young Sinclairs.

Bouncing Back

I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but it looks like the Los Angeles-based guitar-pop band Everybody Else is going to play the 40th Street Stage in Norfolk on June 14. That's a bit strange, since 40th Street Stage hasn't booked that many bands (hell, I don't know that it's booked any bands), but I've now seen the show listed in two places: Pollstar.com and Everybody Else's own MySpace page. Opening acts are We Shot the Moon and Waves on Waves.
Everybody Else is a power-pop group in the mold of Cheap Trick, or -- on some songs from their self-titled debut from last year -- a slightly more raspy Raspberries. They took their name from the Kinks song "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," so that tells you a little about where they're coming from.
While the group is based in L.A., there are some interesting Virginia connections. Drummer Mikey McCormack was previously in The Waking Hours, a band that moved from Richmond to Los Angeles almost a decade ago. While McCormack didn't play on The Waking Hours' debut disc released in 1999, but some sources peg him as a Virginian, too.

Parklife

(Toggle Switch photo)
I made it to the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival today to see Ampersand, a band that I had been told was worth seeing. Sure enough, they're a likable bunch of singers and players. While mostly a cover band, the group's musical skills and taste put them head-and-shoulders above the average band slogging though Dave Matthews and Matchbox 20 tunes. They're also a mostly-acoustic band, so they naturally rearrange covers in a fashion that's homespun, and yet with plenty of vocal and playing chops. The Ampersand quintet tackled bunch of varied and tasty tunes: "Heart of Glass" by Blondie "Blue" by The Jayhawks (a terrifically hard tune to pull off) as well as others by The Smiths, Johnny Cash and The Cure. There was at least one original tune in the bunch, but I didn't get to hear enough of it to say much about it.
Ampersand is fronted by Shay Roebuck on upright bass and his wife Martha Roebuck on vocals and guitar. The group is rounded out by the excellent (in this case acoustic) guitar player Greg Wikle as well as a drummer and keyboardist. You may remember Shea from The Hollowbodies. Martha fronted the band Falstaff a few years back.
Lovely harmonies, great and unpredictable song selection and strong, tasteful musicianship -- matched with a lovely, sun-drenched day at the park -- made my first Ampersand experience a good one.
They're scheduled to play Granby North May 31. Catch 'em if you can.

Highway 64 Revisited

It's always sorta strange to read about the South, or Virginia, or even Norfolk in a British magazine. But more often than you would think, I learn things about my own home from folks on the other side of the Atlantic. British music magazines cover American music better than American magazines in many cases. So I wasn't entirely surprised to read a piece in the April issue of Mojo that mentioned a 1959 trip to Norfolk by the famous folk song collector Alan Lomax. The story is a recollection by Shirley Collins, a British singer and banjo player, who accompanied Lomax on a song-catching expedition through Dixie. Their first stop? Norfolk.
"We got to Norfolk, the big seaport, and went into the black part of town and Alan left me in the car for an hour after dark while he went to a beer joint looking for shanty singer. I was just this little white face inside a big Buick outside a beer joint," Collins wrote. I'm guessing Lomax and Collins were somewhere on or near Church Street.
Collins doesn't say what else happened in Norfolk. They couple soon headed to the western part of the state to record Texas Gladden as well as Hobart and Preston Smith.
"Finding music was easy in Virginia," she wrote. "Wherever we went people would recommend us local musicians -- neighbors, tobacco farmers and others."

Way Out West

Tonight, I read about a compilation CD made up of tracks from bands in Virginia's west side (imagine "South Park" Cartman saying that). I recognized several bands, but mostly this will be a disc of discovery for me.
The disc is called "5 4 Whoa!" and it's released by a new label, Chimney Sweep Records. Some bands included in the comp are:
The Makeout
Social Studies
Abe Hensley
DARKHILLS
The Two Funerals
The Bastards of Fate
Lee Street Riots
Couchboy
Just Marshall
False Hope
Against the Norm
Illbotz
The Misled
The Lapdogs
Forensic Teens
Hostile 17
The Wading Girl
The House Floor

I ordered my copy right away from the record label's Web site. For a short story about Chimney Sweep Records, go here.

Odds and Ends

(Ralph Stanley image courtesy of thebluegrassblog.com)

Happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there and greetings to all you mother lovers.

I'll ask your indulgence of this stream-of-consciousness post. I've got several unrelated bits and pieces of news to report.

Item No. 1: Music journalist Don Harrison has a cover story in the latest Virginia Living magazine about bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley. I haven't sunk my teeth into it yet, but I expect it to be deeply satisfying.

Item No. 2: My Friday night music prowl was semi-successful as I got to hear Tokyo at The Boot, but arrived to late to hear The Villains at Tanner's Creek. Instead, I heard the rockin' rockabilly band Two Tone Cadillac. Tokyo proved to be a tight, competent quartet of bass and drums, keyboards and guitar. The Coldplay-Radiohead thing was in full effect, but they played so well and with so much passion, I can't knock them for it. I'll definitely see them again. Two Tone Cadillac is a trio that cranks out snarling, distorted rockabilly, complete with chugging upright bass, tattoos and one tall blond pompadour. They're not overly distinctive, but certainly devoted to the classic style.

Item No. 3: Mas Y Mas is preparing to release its "Proud Sponsors of Pepsi" LP and will play The Boot May 16 in honor of the occasion. Show starts at 10 pm and cover is a paltry $5.00. Here's an overview of what you'll get from the Mas Y Mas minister of information:

"1. NERVOUS HABITS (www.myspace.com/nervoushabits)
Kids still know a thing or two about crusty ol' punk rock and its
effect
on your beer belly.

2. NEW ROCK CHURCH OF FIRE (www.myspace.com/nrcof)
Fugazi, if they traded their politics in for a smoke machine made of a
pinata-dragon and matching jumpsuits, and were still good. And sold
T-shirts.

3. MAS Y MAS (www.rocksotough.com)
Our "Proud Sponsors of Pepsi" LP is coming out, and we're handing out
25
Silver Classics CDs to show-goers for free as well. We will be
providing a
power point on the food crisis, and how all your hedge fund money can
be
converted to straight ice for the nu-wave revolution.

4. THE HOUSE FLOOR.(www.myspace.com/thehousefloor)
Semi-local dance-pop powerhouse transplated for one night from the top
of
Airport Road in Blacksburg, they deliver live, and are our only
label-mates on www.soundfriends.org."

Item No. 4: Ampersand, a band recommended to me by my friend and neighbor Jim Roberts, is playing Stockley Gardens Arts Festival next Saturday 1:30-2:30. The group includes many (but apparently not all) members of old-time acoustic music combo Three Legged Back Porch Collective.

Weekend Update

(Tokyo photo from MySpace)

Friday night looks like a good one for live music in Naughty-By-Nawfuk.

Illadelphia's rambunctious Hoots and Hellmouth play at Town Point Park's TGIF bash. Then, for later evening entertainment, you've got two choices. Tanner's Creek has a show featuring the garage-ish, punkish, yet melodic Villains and Two Tone Cadillac. The Villains are set to go on first around 11 p.m., with the Two Tone boys to follow at midnight.
Meanwhile, over at The Boot, a presumably younger crowd will be enjoying some indie pop and folk from a threesome of acts. Here's what The Boot's site had to say about the show:

"What a fantastic little event this has turned into. It started as a seed and through watering and some tender loving care it has sprouted into a lovely and fragrant flower. North Carolina art-pop-n-rockers The Never will be bringing their cutesy blend of melodic pop to our stage. Knowing these guys for several years, they have never disappointed a crowd with their show. We have two beautiful locals on the bill with them as well. Tokyo, just released a new EP and will be performing their stylish blend of circus pop and Sarah Carter a haunting and charming folkstress."

I've yet to sample any sounds from The Never or Sarah Carter, but I can say that Tokyo is a combo out of Virginia Beach with a gift for melody and guitar drama. Radiohead and Coldplay are obvious reference points, but don't hold that against them. Since they're playing in the middle, I'm guessing they'll go on about the same time as The Villains.
I guess I'm going to have to try to hear a little of both.

T.J.'s Picks

(Rylo photo from MySpace)

T.J. the DJ's "Drivin' and Jivin'" show on WFOS-FM (88.7) is one of the bright spots on the Hampton Roads radio dial. T.J.'s show airs 2-4 p.m. Sundays and bubbles over with raw rockabilly and hard-hitting classic country.

I asked T.J. to tell me about some of his favorite bands in Hampton Roads. Here's what he told me:

"My favorite band around here is Rylo. First they are a bunch of awesome guys. Their music is unadulterated and gets everyone moving! Never a dull moment with them. They have worked with and played with some greats including Lindy Fralin (lindy fralin guitar pickups) who played on their newest album, Billy Horton who produced their newest album, and many greats who they have played with.

Another great band is the Trauma Dolls. This band features members of the now defunct Bottle Babies. It's just pure raw adrenaline and energy on stage. Great rock n roll band.

A band I have recently (within the last year) really gotten in to is the Pawn Shop Lifters. They are on the edgier side of Americana but do it all with their own twist. The recently released 5 song EP from them is amazing. The only thing they have let me down with is the fact they don't have a full length album out. But it's just a matter of time.

If you enjoy electronic music then Heretics In The Lab is really good. I have done sound for them a couple of times and they have always put on a great show and are all great guys.

As far as just plain rock goes I would have to go with Jay Rakes Band. They are all instrumental but this dude is sick on the guitar. And again he is super nice!

A band from around here that really got me into music is the Candy Snatchers. I used to sneak in to Cogan's back when I was 15 to see them play! If it wasn't for seeing them at an early age I think I would have been warped with the crap they play on the radio! [Other than on WFOS, of course -- Sam]

Oh and another band that I really love is 1888. They are amazing musicians, great folks and i love the fact that they have fused together americana, rock and indie to form their own unique sound."

Random Notes

(Crums singer Larry "Mud" May, here singing with the Candy Snatchers at South End Pub/ courtesy of Big Bobby & The Nightcaps MySpace page)

For my 100th post (that's right folks, I've reached the century mark) I'm going to throw out some observations from the past few days. I'll return to the less fragmented reporting later in the week.

First off, I'm happy to say that the Skye Zentz gig at the grand re-opening of the Norfolk Farm Market was relaxed and lovely. Miss Z sang what I think was a combination of newer tunes and songs from her CD "Legitimate Bohemia" while accompanying herself on acoustic guitar and ukulele. I particularly liked her uke-powered performance of "Persephone." Some of the Saturday morning shoppers didn't pay too much attention, but by the end of her short first set, several had clearly taken notice of her strong songs and pure, textured vocals. She's told me that she's planning to leave Hampton Roads later this summer, so catch her while you can.

Saturday night, I headed over to the Tanners Creek restaurant on Colley Ave. to hear the raucous Crums. It was my first time seeing a band there, although I'd been wanting to see a show at Tanners Creek ever since late last year when I learned that the place was booking bands on a semi-regular basis.
It was great to see so many old-time rockers in the crowd -- some of whom I hadn't seen in years. Clearly, not every 40 year old heads out to the suburbs for a life of soccer practices and PTA meetings.
Tanners Creek turns out to be a decent place to see a show. Sound was loud and clear. Access to the bar was easy. My only complaint is that there is not a true stage, so that it was hard to see the performers if you weren't in the first few ranks of onlookers. The bottom line, though, is I'll be heading back to Tanners Creek.

While at Tanners, I spoke with my neighbor Jim Roberts and he recommended to me a band called Ampersand, which, he said includes Martha Roebuck of the band Falstaff. Jim said the band covers a few tunes by the Jayhawks, so that's enough to make me want to check them out. I'm going to try to see them when they play Granby North on May 31.

Market Music

(Skye Zentz photo, MySpace)

Tomorrow morning, Norfolk's Farm Market reopens in a new, spiffy location, 2500 Church Street. For those of us who enjoy eating food, this is a stroke of good fortune. And the good luck doesn't end there. Some fine acoustic/folk musicians will be helping to set the celebratory mood tomorrow. Songwriting songbird Skye Zentz will do two sets, one at 10:30 a.m., the other at noon. Folk duo Amy Ferebee and Regina Sanford will play at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Stop by, grab some produce, spend some money and snack on some homemade music.