May 23, 2008
This is funny. Strange occurrences happen to me all the time and I’ve written about a few. This one ranks pretty high on the list.
So I have become a fan of Audrey Spillman and her music. And had discovered Matthew Perryman Jones, based on hearing from her that they had co-written a song together and that they were working in the studio together. I had seen him at Eddie’s Attic in November (see 11/3/07 Blog) and I knew he had one of his songs used on TV and had recently had some other songs used for the shows “Private Practice” and “Eli Stone”.
From songs I had purchased/downloaded off of his Myspace page, I really liked his music. I had also heard a concert of his in Nashville that was broadcast over the internet and really like some new songs that had not been recorded. So when I heard that he was playing Smith’s Olde Bar, I thought it would be a great concert to see. The Eddie’s show was acoustic, so the Smith’s show should be a little more rockin, with electric guitars and a full band.
So after work, I grabbed dinner and headed over. I got there a little late and went upstairs to find out no one was playing yet, so I hung out downstairs until it started. An odd group from Nashville opened the show, Parachute something? I couldn’t really get into the music. Based on the billing I wasn’t sure if Matthew was up next or if the other singer, Evan McHugh was. Evan had opened for Shawn Mullins at The Variety Playhouse show that I saw on 11/24/07.
Before the music started I noticed Bob Ephlin walk into the room at Smith’s Olde bar. Bob is the owner of Eddie’s Attic and I recognized him from all the times I’ve been to Eddie’s attic for shows. I had read somewhere that Matthew once worked and started out playing at Eddie’s attic, so I guess Bob was a fan of Matthew’s music. I thought it was cool to see the owner of a competing music venue at Smith’s Olde Bar to listen to a show. One of the phrases widely used at Eddie’s Attic is, “Live Music Matters”. Seeing the actions of it’s owner, I guess that rings true.
So Matthew goes on and the performance is phenomenal. Hearing him with a band is completely different from listening to him acoustic. So, in the middle of one of his breaks between songs, he’s tuning his guitar and he asks the crowd, “so who all here went to Tucker High School?” (or something similar) and a bunch of people scream out. I think I caught myself yell out too, then start to wonder, “wait, what did he say”? I went to Tucker High School, but I didn’t understand why Matthew was singling out THS in the crowd. He continued his performance, covering all the great songs on his current album and a few that will probably be on the album he releases in a few months.
MPJ’s set list:
Without a Clue
Don’t Fall in Love with Me
Amelia
Motherless Child
Waiting on the Light to Change
Echoes of Eden
Meghan’s Song
Feels Like Letting Go
Refuge
Save You
After his performance, I see him go over and talk with Bob and assume that they know each other pretty well. And actually as Bob was leaving he stopped and asked if I was someone he knew. I told him that I wasn’t the guy he named, but that I come to shows at his place and was actually there the night before to see Brandi Shearer. And he tells me that he is a fan of Matthew Perryman Jones, confirming my suspicions.
So I notice Matthew heading to the back of the room with a group of folks. The table back there was selling his CD, so I buy one (even though I purchased & downloaded most of him current album tracks online) so that I can get him to autograph it for me. I get his attention and ask for his autograph. He looks at me and says that I look familiar and where he might have seen me. I told him that I saw his show in November at Eddie’s Attic and that I’m also a fan of Audrey Spillman and that it was through her that I learned about him and his music. He immediately realizes that he recognizes me from a picture of Audrey and me that she has running on a slide show on her MySpace page. Then I ask him about the Tucker High School reference. And he tells me that he went to Tucker and that a lot of people in the crowd went to Tucker and came to see him play. I tell him that I went to Tucker and graduated in ’88. I said that it was too funny and he agreed. So to recap: to hear about and become a fan of Matthew Perryman Jones (a guy, I went to High School with), he had to move Nashville (years ago), befriend and co-write a song with Audrey Spillman, who I would ultimately become a fan of, and who would inform me about MPJ and his music. Weird, huh!? When I get home after the show, I look in my High School yearbook and find that when I was a Senior, Matt Jones was a Sub-freshman (we had 8-12 at Tucker, so 8th grade was sub-freshman). And I think I remember him based on the yearbook photo. Take away the beard and consider Matthew as a skinny 13 y/o kid. Since we were in different grades, it wasn’t like we hung out, but I definitely think I remember him from High School. Too strange and funny to categorize.
Posted by Tom under Main Blog,Matthew Perryman Jones,MPJ,Smith's Olde Bar | Comments (0)
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 22, 2008
I saw that Andy Zipf was coming to Atlanta to play a show. He had listed Atlanta as a tour stop at one time last year but removed it. And he had not been in the area to perform since I last saw him back in Feb ‘07 at the Devil Stole the Beat show. I have several of his songs that I had purchased off of his Myspace page, but there were some MP3’s he had listed on his DiscRevolt page that I wanted to get. The only way to download those songs was to purchase one of his DiscRevolt cards to get an account number and download the songs. I had not heard of 1*FIVE*0 and wasn’t quite sure how the show would be. So after work, I headed over to the location. 1*FIVE*0 is a clothes boutique located in the newly refurb’d westside of Atlanta. One of the owners of the shop is Leslie Fram, former Music Director/DJ at 99x. They set up a stage in the front window of the shop and have music shows. Proceeds from the show go to a local animal shelter. Andy was the 2nd act to go on. Considering the venue and crowd, Andy put on a phenomenal performance. The crowd didn’t get into his songs as much as they had at Smith’s Olde Bar. But that might have been because they were standing around clothes racks and display cases. After Andy’s performance, I was able to catch him and purchase the DiscRevolt cards. I purchased some things from the store (some folk art & other neat sundries they sold) I had to rush out because I wanted to get across town to see Brandi Shearer perform at Eddie’s Attic.
Posted by Tom under 1*FIVE*0,Andy Zipf,Main Blog | Comments (0)
May 10, 2008
So I had made my donation last week and had my ticket/pass to the last night of the Songs for Kids concert at Smith’s Olde Bar. I had a family commitment, so I wasn’t able to get there until after 11. But since I had a guaranteed ticket, I figured I’d have no problem getting in. When I entered Smith’s I saw a line waiting to get upstairs to the venue, so I walked around them figuring I could show my ticket and go on up. As I’m passing the line of people waiting to go up, I hear someone yell out my name. It turns out it’s Patrick Lochridge, the piano player in Audrey Spillman‘s band that I had seen the week before. He saw that I had my ticket, so I told him I would see him when he got upstairs. With my ticket I got right in with no problem. They were into the final 20, so I grabbed a spot to catch the show. The night I got my ticket, they had announced that Ceelo (of Gnarls Barkley fame) would be singing the last song, “Hey Jude”. But before they reached the final 10, Ceelo jumped on stage to perform #77 on the countdown, his own hit “Crazy”. This was an unexpected treat. Other great performers were there. Levi Lowrey (who I had seen the night before at Eddie’s Attic) was there and performed Garth Brook’s “Friends in Low Places”. A neighbor of mine, Masonic lodge brother of my Dad’s, and co-owner of my favorite Pizza place in Tucker (Enzo’s), Kenny Creswell was there playing drums. Kenny’s company provides a lot of the equipment for concerts, so I’m sure he provided most of what was on stage. I even caught where on one song, one of the volunteer drummers didn’t seem to know the song, so Kenny went over the top of him (and the guy ducked out) and Kenny finished the song. Peter Stroud (Atlanta guitarist who’s tours with Sheryl Crow and who I saw perform with Shawn Mullins at The Variety Playhouse) was pulled on stage to help play guitar for a lot of the rock ballads. Angie Aparo sang Don Mclean’s “American Pie”. Shawn Mullins performed John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Butch Walker performed Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian”. The final song, The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, was sung by Angie Aparo, with Kenny Creswell on drums, Peter Stroud on guitar, Butch Walker on keyboard, The group Heavy Mojo , and Backing vocal by Kevin Spencer and the Songs for Kids staff.
Words can’t reveal how incredible this concert was. If you missed it you missed out.
Video’s I found on youtube:
Ceelo performs “Crazy”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOhDCNd8uo
Closer clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oeOsVXM0Yko
Angie Aparo performs Don Mclean’s “American Pie”.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GBasgGrt3oM
Kiss’ “Rock N Roll All Nite” performed by Tim Smith. Peter Stroud, Kevin Spencer, & Kenny Creswell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wov4s2rnkPo
Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian” performed by Butch Walker, Kevin Spencer, Peter Stroud, Tim Smith, & Kenny Creswell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN18H-um1BE
The Beatles “Hey Jude”
Part 1:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-GE-uhgQxmQ
Part2:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y66k_ceR0RQ
Posted by Tom under Angie Aparo,Butch Walker,Ceelo,Levi Lowrey,Main Blog,Peter Stroud,Shawn Mullins,Smith's Olde Bar,Songs for Kids | 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)
May 3, 2008
500 Songs for kids. Josh Rifkin and his Songs for Kids foundation put on a yearly fundraiser at Smith’s Olde Bar. Last year they had a countdown of the top 500 songs (as listed by Rolling Stone Magazine) performed by local artists. This year they chose to do a countdown of the THE 500 GREATEST SING-A-LONG SONGS OF ALL TIME.
Here’s the list of songs:
http://www.songsforkidsfoundation.org/500songsforkidscountdown.asp
I don’t remember why I missed the concert last year. Audrey Spillman had been invited to sing and performed the Rolling Stones song “Wild Horses”. I remember hating that I had missed it. Audrey was invited back this year, so I went to check out the show.
This was the 3rd night so they were covering songs 400-351. The performances were great. Each act got to do a cover of one of the songs on the list. As I looked down the list I noticed #373 was (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin and I hoped that it was the song that Audrey was going to sing. Sure enough, when it came to that number in the countdown, Audrey and her piano player, Patrick Lochridge, walked up on stage to perform Aretha’s song. Here’s a video I was able to take with my digital camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3aCIgEQss
I love how the crowd reacts and gets into the song which causes a cool reaction from Audrey. After her song, I caught her off stage and got to talk with her and Patrick.
The concert was a fundraiser for the Songs for Kids charity, so they were taking donations there. They had a deal where if you donated over $100, you got a ticket, and guaranteed entry, to the final show. The list of performers for the final show was incredible, so I said what the hell, and made a donation. I had received my economic stimulus check into my checking account the day before so it seemed like the right thing to do with some of that money.
Posted by Tom under Audrey Spillman,Main Blog,Smith's Olde Bar,Songs for Kids | Comments (0)