Happy Ath Fest Week! 

Below is a loose schedule of This Is American Music events, shows and other assorted can’t miss shows by friends.  

Thursday 6/20 

TIAM Ath Fest 40 Watt Kickoff Party w/ David Barbe & The Quick Hooks, Dana Swimmer, Tedo Stone, Brothers. 

Friday  6/21 

6:15 The District Attorneys on Pulaski Street Main Stage

7:00 White Violet on Hull Street Stage

7:30 Quiet Hounds on Pulaski Street Main Stage

9:00 Modern Skirts (FINAL SHOW) on Pulaski Street Stage

10:00 New Madrid @ 40 Watt

11:45 The Barlettas @ Georgia Theater (rooftop)

12:00 The Whigs @ 40 Watt

12:45 Tedo Stone @ The Green Room

Saturday 6/22

10:00 Blue Blood @ Georgia Theater

11:00 Party Dolls @ Little Kings

12:00 Ruby The Rabbitfoot @ Little Kings

1:00 Dana Swimmer @ Little Kings

12:30 Dead Confederate @ Georgia Theater

Sunday 6/23

6:30 St. Paul & The Broken Bones @ Hull Street Stage 

7:00 Patterson Hood & The Downtown Rumblers @ Pulaski Street Main Stage

Hurray For The Riff Raff - My Dearest Darkest Neighbor coming via This Is American Music / Mod Mobilian 7/1/13.

“These are songs I’ve gathered over the years. I’ve taken them with me wherever I go. For a musician who lives most of her life on the road, the songs you know and love are one of your only consistencies. They carry a feeling of home. These songs have been there for me in a dark hour. They’ve guided me down long roads that stretched through time. They have illuminated me on the human spirit, its unbreakable will, its strength and power.  The songwriters who’ve penned them have inspired me endlessly. I have studied them because I hope to never cease my education on how to write a good tune. I threw on two songs I’ve written that were building blocks for me. These are my attempts at the folk tradition of writing a song where someone else left off. I try to learn from the greats. These are soul songs, let’s sing them together. “  - Alynda lee Segarra

Track Listing

1. Delta Momma Blues (Written by Townes Van Zandt)                                                           

2. Fine and Mellow (Written by Billie Holiday, adapted by Alynda lee Segarra)                                 

3. My Morphine (Written by Gillian Welch)                                                                                

4. Black Jack Davey (Traditional)                                                                        

5. Western Cowboy (Written by Lead Belly arranged by Alynda lee Segarra)                           

6. Jealous Guy (Written by John Lennon)                                                                                

7. Just A Heart (Written by James Hand)                                                                                

8. Angel Ballad (Written by Alynda lee Segarra, based on the Gillian Welch composition “Ruination Day”)             

9. Cuckoo (Written by Alynda lee Segarra)                                                                              

10. People Talkin’ (Written by Lucinda Williams)                                                                    

11. River (Written by Joni Mitchell)                                                                                        

12. I’m Goin’ Away (Written by Elizabeth Cotten)                                                                  

13. Lonesome I Could Cry (Written by Hank Williams)                                                      

14. My Sweet Lord (Written by George Harrison)

Bonnie Whitmore - There I Go Again OUT TODAY!!!

Itunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/there-i-go-again/id652904344

Cd and/or download - http://bonniewhitmore.bandcamp.com/

 

Bonnie Whitmore’s last album had a body count and a title, Embers to Ashes, that implied a fiery finality. There are broken bones and hard lessons learned on Whitmore’s new album, but its title - There I Go Again - suggests less ominous themes.

“I feel like I’ve grown up a lot,” she says. “I turned 30 this year, and I’ve been in the business 15 of those years. Songwriting as a profession is a humbling career choice. To write songs that are accessible and relatable as possible required a level of maturity and focus that I have strived to attain on this record. It’s a less self-indulgent record then Embers. Embers To Ashes was what I needed to get through that period of my life. There I Go Again is a celebration of success and failure. Plus, nobody wants to hear two breakup albums in a row.”

Fittingly, the music also reflects a radiant change of direction. The rootsiness of Embers isn’t absent, but the songs on There I Go Again are decidedly less country sounding. Keyboards are played up in places a steel guitar might have inhabited, the drums are more prominent, and Whitmore lets her big voice run through some big, inviting choruses.

“We knew what we had in these songs,” says Whitmore. “It’s not the same Americana sound that we had with Embers. This one is a lot more put together, and I think it comes across as more polished. It’s definitely a pop record, and everyone loves a good pop record.”

She cites Tom Petty’s ability to balance the earthiness of roots music with hooky pop parts as the model she aspired to on the album. “He makes these amazingly awesome pop songs, but is also able to keep them within the lines. You could hear how beautiful the melodies are beyond the grit of rock and roll,” she says. “I struggle with the question - ‘who inspired you?’ - but Petty’s music has, and always will inspire me.”

Whitmore also credits her parents, both the music they chose to play at home in Denton and on the radio, and also her father’s band, which featured Whitmore starting at age 8, as well as her sister Eleanor.

By 15, Whitmore was playing professional gigs outside the family band. She played and sang in Hayes Carll’s band for a while, and recently she spent quite a bit of time touring and recording with the Mastersons, the husband/wife band featuring sister Eleanor and Houston native and guitarist Chris Masterson.

They’re good family to have: Both of them play on Whitmore’s albums, which Masterson produced.

There have been tough gigs for Whitmore along the way. She went to Kickstarter to finance the new record. There she included a video with some footage from a particularly undesirable gig performing in a sports bar beneath the glow of a giant flat-screen TV.

“Those gigs can be hard to take,” she says. “You’re playing three hours to a group of people that do not seem to realize you’re there. It can be a humbling, disheartening experience.”

But her album title speaks to a commitment to her music. “It seemed like a pretty good title for a second album,” she says. “It provides a sense of diving into the deep and seeing if it floats. That’s what an artist has to do when releasing music now. Nobody is really doing it for the money, we’re doing this because we love it, and that’s the only reason to do it at all. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. Sometimes you have three people come out to a show sometimes you have 300. To me it’s simple. I play music because it’s what I do. Those who want to hear it are what makes it worth it.” - andrew dansby

#WallBrains #Dorado #thisisamericanmusic

here’s a sweet little ditty from the Swim Team sung by Maggie.  

and just in case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s Dana Swimmer’s 2013 debut Veloce

6/15 Bottletree Cafe  - Birmingham, Alabama

Great Peacock - Dorado - Astral Plain Jane (ft. members of Cosmonaut on Vacation and Teen Getaway)

Bonnie Whitmore’s There I Go Again drops next Tuesday 6/11 on This Is American Music.  Check out the single “Too Much Too Soon” below.

Below is the first single off of Kent Goolsby’s debut full-length Trophies of Youth coming out via This Is American Music 8/6/13.  

Tedo Stone, Ciara…same thing.  Tedo’s Good Go Bad coming 7/9 on This Is American Music. 

Cosmonaut on Vacation / Future Primitives @ Parkside in Birmingham