May 22, 2008
I had seen Brandi Shearer perform in January and really liked her music. I had been listening to her CD on and off since that show. So when I saw that she was coming back to Atlanta, I tried to work out my schedule to see her again. She was playing Eddie’s Attic, so I knew the show would be a little more mellow and acoustic than the show I saw at Smith’s Olde Bar. I had wanted to catch Andy Zipf also that night and was hoping I could get across town in time to see Brandi. I knew if she was the opening performer, I was screwed. So I get there and Brandi has already started. It turns out she was the 2nd act. I missed hearing Quincy Coleman the opening act. I don’t think I missed too many of Brandi Songs and was able to catch most of her performance. She was great and I enjoyed hearing her with a new backing band. You just cannot beat a live performance. I had already bought Brandi’s CD and had her autograph it at her performance in January, so I talked to her after her performance to see when she was going to have another CD out. She seemed to enjoy Decatur, so hopefully she’ll be back soon.
After Brandi’s performance was Kate Walsh. Kate was from the UK and sang with a beautiful sweet voice. I bought Kate’s CD and got her to sign it after her show.
Posted by Tom under Brandi Shearer,Eddie's Attic,Kate Walsh,Main Blog | Comments (0)
May 9, 2008
Last week, when I had gone to see Jess Klein, I got there early and was hanging out at the bar. Eddie was there and I asked him who the singer was that they were playing over the speakers prior to the show. He told me it was Darrell Scott, one of his favorite performers that would be performing on 5/9. That seemed like incentive enough for me, so I bought a ticket to the show.
I had planned to have dinner with friends, so I was hoping that I wouldn’t miss too much of the show. When I got there, the opening act was already performing. Levi Lowrey opened for Darrell and his performance was amazing.
You never know what you might discover when going to see a live show. It was neat to see Levi as he seemed to be a huge fan of Darrell’s and seemed honored to be opening for him. Levi had only a few homemade CD’s (with handwritten song listings) which were sold out quickly. He could have sold a lot more based on the crowd’s reaction to his performance.
Darrell came on and was an incredible musician. I had not heard much about Darrell. From what I had read, he had written several successful songs that here performed by other artists. I thought he might play something I had heard before, but only played music he had released. Nonetheless his performance and musicianship were amazing.
Posted by Tom under Darrell Scott,Eddie's Attic,Levi Lowrey,Main Blog | Comments (0)
April 29, 2008
April has been a slow music month. I had not been to see anyone all month. Then I noticed a bulletin on 4/28 on Myspace that said that Jess Klein would be performing at Eddie’s Attic, Tuesday 4/29.
I didn’t remember seeing a notice prior to this and I’ve been waiting for Jess to come perform in Atlanta. I wasn’t sure if I could get my work done in time to see the show under the short notice. I had seen Jess perform when I lived in Hartford back in 2004. She opened for Vance Gilbert. A co-worker of mine in Hartford had been a fan of Jess and invited me along to the show. My co-worker described her music as “coffee house” music. Back then I was blown away by the large sound coming from this petite woman. That night I became a fan of both Jess and Vance. I bought her CD at that show and have listened to it occasionally over the years. And I had tried to keep track of her music and see when she might come play at a place near me. The show at Eddie’s was great. Jess has a soulful sound and sings from her heart. It was good to see her again. After the show I bought her new CD and got Jess to autograph it for me.
Jess was opening for an Irish singer named Damien Dempsey. I didn’t know anything about the guy before the show so I thought I’d stay and listen. I met 2 guys that had come down from Cincinnati just to see him, so I was curious to hear what he had. His music didn’t interest me. He was kinda scary. He was built like a football player and sang his songs in short mono-tone words. He played guitar well, but he had no melody in his lyrics. I saw a review that called him the “Bob Dylan” of Ireland, which seemed like an insult to Mr. Dylan.
Posted by Tom under Eddie's Attic,Jess Klein,Main Blog | Comments (0)
March 8, 2008
I received a notice through Myspace that Shawn Mullins was releasing his new CD in March. And he planned to have a release party/concert at Eddie’s Attic. Knowing how small the venue is, I knew that this was going to be a great show and a perfect opportunity to see Shawn. I knew with the lay-out Shawn would have to walk through the crowd to get on and off stage and that it would be a perfect opportunity to have him sign his new album. I contacted the friends that went to the Variety Playhouse show and found out approximately how many wanted to go. Tickets were going to be available online. So on the day and time they were for sale, I quickly got on and purchased a table with a few extra tickets. We didn’t have enough people for 2 tables and I figured we could work out who would sit at the table and switch off if needed.
When the day of the show arrived, we all met up in the side bar area before going into the concert room. They were selling the new Album, so we bought it before the concert. Shawn decided to make his album available on vinyl. If you bought the 2 record set, you also received the CD. I don’t have a record player anymore, but thought it would be cool to hear the songs on vinyl. Plus I know they now sell record players that have USB connections so that you can save them as MP3’s. They started letting people go in, so I went to see where our table was before the rest of the group. I must have been one of the first ones to order tickets because our table was real close to the stage. And we sat right next to the area where Shawn would go to get to the stage.
The concert was great. Shawn is such an amazing talent. He played several songs from the new album. Some we had heard from the Variety Playhouse concert in November. He played a few of his well known hits as well as some songs that had not been recorded. After his last song, he left the stage and walked off stage. Knowing there would be an encore; I didn’t try and get his autograph then. Cheers from the crowd, brought him back up on stage where he gave the audience what they wanted. As he walked off stage, I quickly got my sharpie and the album ready and had it ready for him as he walked by. He noticed me, stopped to sign his album and thanked us for buying it. What a great night of music.
Posted by Tom under Eddie's Attic,Main Blog,Shawn Mullins | Comments (0)
November 26, 2007
I saw Ellis Paul and Kristian Bush (of Sugarland) at Eddie’s Attic on 11/25. I had heard and am a fan of Ellis Paul and his music from when I lived in New England, but had never seen a show. I had seen Vance Gilbert in Hartford and he mentioned Ellis several times during his performance. So I checked out his music and liked what I heard. When I saw that Ellis was coming to the Attic, I bought a ticket and by chance got the ticket for the show he was doing with Kristian Bush (not really knowing who he was, I’m not into Country Music much). They did a similar show to what Matthew P.J. did at the attic (see Matthew Perryman Jones Blog), where it was “in the round”. They grabbed a local artist, Caroline Herring, to be their 3rd.
Caroline held her own between the CMA Award winning/Grammy nominated artist (Bush) and the Farrelly Bros. Movie Soundtrack/Boston Music award winning artist (Paul). Kristian would play mandolin on Caroline’s songs and it was unbelievable. It’s amazing to see such talented artists perform. I’m now a Kristian Bush & Caroline Herring fan
Youtube video’s of Caroline’s Performance @ Eddie’s Attic:
Devil Made a Mess
Song for Fay
Stone Cold World
Mistress
Paper Gown
Posted by Tom under Caroline Herring,Eddie's Attic,Ellis Paul,Kristian Bush,Main Blog | Comments (0)
November 14, 2007
So a back in June, Eddie’s Attic posted a MySpace Fan Showcase promotion asking that fans nominate their favorite Myspace artist to have them play a special free concert. Rules were that they couldn’t be signed with a label, they haven’t played the Attic already (other than Open Mic) and they where geographically viable to the venue.
After Audrey’s performance at Smith’s Olde bar in February for the “the devil stole the beat” concert, I had messaged her on Myspace as to how I could purchase her music. She was scheduled to perform at Eddie’s Attic on May 7th, so I also told her that I looked forward to seeing her again in Atlanta. She responded that she was working on putting a handful of songs that she had recorded onto a CD and that she would have them available by the 5/7 show. I went to the show and happened to catch her near the entrance after her performance and asked her how the CD was coming along. She immediately realized who I was and began apologizing for not having a CD available. She was still working on getting the songs together and she told me then that she would mail me a CD. The next day I got a message from her (she tracked down my original message to her) thanking me for coming to the show and saying how bad she felt that she didn’t have a CD for me, saying that she’s always good about keeping her word. In one of her messages, she told me that she always wanted to play at Eddie’s Attic and assumed that the best way to play there was to do an open mic.
So when the MySpace Fan Showcase promotion was posted in June, I immediately contacted Audrey to see if she’d be interested, since I knew she wanted to play there again and I knew that she qualified for the contest. She said that she was interested, so I submitted her name with a link to her page and music. And when the voting began I tried to get people to vote for her. When the final tally of votes was made, Audrey came in 6th. At first I was disappointed, but as it turned out, they took the top 9, so she was in! They had 3 separate Tuesday nights reserved in November for the 9 performances (3 each night).
Audrey’s show was on the 13th. As always, she was incredible. Even the other artists on the bill were amazed at her talent. I even received a personalized “thank you” from her while she was on stage, for the support I’ve given, which was really cool. And afterward we got to hang out and talk a bit.
I was able to purchase a CD from Mrs. Lochridge (Mom of Patrick Lochridge (Audrey’s keyboard player)) and have Audrey and Patrick autograph it for me. Audrey kept her word and got me a CD. It was an incredible night of great music from amazing people.
Posted by Tom under Audrey Spillman,Eddie's Attic,Main Blog | Comments (0)