My year in review

Music is a powerful thing, and it is something i truly love. Follow the link below to the place I get to share my thoughts about what i love: music.

From my family to yours I wish you all a Merry Christams, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.

https://cincymusic.com/blog/2017/12/my-year-in-review

Kristen Ford: Music Ingrained

https://cincymusic.com/blog/2017/10/kristen-ford-music-engrained



I had the sheer joy and pleasure of writing this piece on someone i think folks should know a lot more of. That someone is Kristen Ford. She, on most all of her previous records, was a one woman show, but on her new release she had a band join her. Plus, she is just an interesting person. Hope you dig the conversation we had.

Tom Petty

Tom Petty: Enough Said

by: Moose Gronholm

              Within the worldwide songbook there are artists who have written songs that you never forget. From Elvis to Beyonce and everything in between and all around, but there is one artist who doesn't necessarily stand out nor is flashy enough to garner much attention, and that person is Tom Petty. There are more than forty songs that he has written that as soon as the first note is played you scratch your head and say to yourself "i know this song." And then there are thirty nine others that you sing along too as loud as you want in the comforts of your car or shower, or at home in general. You grew up with these songs. Maybe after breaking up with a significant other these songs helped you through some dark moments. Or, maybe driving cross country or driving in general one of these songs came on and you turned it up as loud as it could go because it was good tune. Within the lexicon of life Tom Petty has a song about it. The songs never went over your head, but dealt with complex issues. Hard moments in life spelled out through a regular person's pen. If Bob Dylan is Shakespeare with a guitar then Tom Petty is like William Carlos Williams. And, we are only talking lyrically. Add in the musicianship of the Heartbreakers and you have the recipe for greatness. They seemingly fused rock with reggae at points, both in Tom's delivery of the lyrics to the melody driving the song. At the end of the day though they were a rock band, and they put together a vault of music that we can listen to with reverence. 

             Tom Petty is gone from our lives, but the archive of songs that he has left us is vast. From the mid 70's to the present, over 40 years of songs and albums, and a cameo appearance in The Postman. The first super group comprised of himself, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne also known as The Traveling Wilburys. Tom Petty, at least for me, has been part of my life since i was kid. There was a greatest hits album and Wildflowers which i listened too and I wasn't quite sure if i liked it, but i knew that there was something to this that i did like. And with music videos all the rage back then it really set in motion my joy of and for him. As I have grown older, and grown into a person who enjoys the lyrics and story within those lyrics more than the music, Tom Petty has grown on me like a flower that has finally bloomed or like a whisky that finally becomes of age. 

His passing while, untimely as it is, but is there any time that it isn't? While he has passed let's revel and bask in his music like lizards in the sun. I know i will. 

Lilly Hiatt: Trinity Lane

https://cincymusic.com/blog/2017/10/lilly-hiatt-trinity-lane


I had the absolute pleasure reviewing Lilly Hiatt's new record "Trinity Lane." I truly believe she is onto some great things. This record is as honest as any country-ish record out there now, or at least i believe so. If you are into that kind of sound or just honest songwriting I highly recommend this album. I do not compare artists to other artists as i feel that takes away from the artist you trying to make the comparison for, and puts too much weight on their shoulders to be something they are not. What i will say, is what i said two sentences previous is that: if you like honest songwriting with a country-fied sound you will like this.

She will be at the Southgate House this evening: October 6th, and if you are in the area it is definitley worth going to. Just follow the link above.

Conor Oberst: Ruminations and Salutations via cincymusic.com

https://cincymusic.com/blog/2017/09/conor-oberst-ruminations-and-salutations

Arlo Mckinley & The Loneseome Sound

Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound

Review by: Moose

      In the fall of 2011 Tim Carr put together a band with some friends and throughout the past three years members have often changed, but lucky for us he has found what works. Arlo McKinley is there name, and it was more or less taken from Tim's two grandfather's Arlo and McKinley. Enlisting the help of Tyler Lockard on upright bass, and Brian Pumphrey on drums they have found themselves at a most inopportune time to record an album. After a tribute show in December for Hank Williams Tim Carr and Kelly Thomas had a conversation about recording an album, and on a snowy day in February upstairs at the new Southgate House the recording was beginning. With Tyler on upright, Brian on drums, and some help from Sarah Davis on keys and vocals, Sylvia Mitchell on viola, harmonica, and a truly lonesome violin, last but certainly not least Zach Rowe who plays adds an electric guitar that is swampy but keeps within the country style at the core of this band. Over six hours they hammered these songs out and while that may sound fast, the album by no means does not have that feeling.

      The record from start to finish is good old country blues. Tim's vocals and songwriting shine through the melodies and arrangements of these good old fashioned country songs. The opening track "I've Got Her" opens with a harmonica that brings a chill, then the electric guitar brings it flavor, and with Tim's vocal rounding it all out brings the opening of this album to a start. Sit back and listen and let the songs swim around through your mind because the album has only just begun. The melodies and arrangements blend eloquently into a melodic sea of some heart break and just some good old fashioned country. Tim told me recently that "the main reason I write music is to tell my story to whoever wants to listen, and I honestly believe it is what I was put here to do." Through those next nine tracks his reasoning becomes more clear.

     This album is merely a starting point for these folks who have a brought a breath of fresh air to country music, and just music in general. "Time in Bars" is a song on the album and in that song Tim sings a lyric "I've got a story to tell," and its all there. It is all laid out in for the listener to simply, if anything, appreciate some damn good songwriting. Arlo McKinley and The Lonesome Sound are bringing to us an album that breathes something new into the music world. That new is songwriting and the music in general is the catalyst to tell this story.

      Arlo McKinley and The Lonesome Sound will be releasing their album "Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound" in the very place they recorded the album just a few months ago. They will be at The Southgate House Revival upstairs in the Revival Room where over six hours they struck that humble chord that lives inside all of us, and especially them and that chord has been unleashed and now its time to watch these folks shine. If you find yourself in Newport on Saturday head on over to the Southgate House: Revival and go upstairs to simply listen to a man tell a story through some songs.



Lazarus: Rock n Roll Heart

Lazarus: Rock n Roll Heart

A review by: Moose

            Lazarus Nichols has a new record out called “Rock n Roll Heart” which is a title that pretty much sums him up. The traditions he grew up around, and with, were anything but rock n roll but he came to age in the prime of rock n roll, but with a family steeped in the traditions of folk music. Lazarus has put together forty minutes worth of ten songs that combine storytelling and the traditional sound from his youth.

            His grandparents moved the family from West Virginia to Ohio in the early sixties, and the family carried the musical tradition with them. According to Lazarus “Every time the family would get together there would be a meal and, eventually my Granny would get the banjo out and she and my Mom and her sisters would sing.” Lazarus went on to say “And if you’ve heard it, the way shaped note harmonies sound when everyone singing is Kin, you know it….there’s an authenticity to it that can’t be faked.” Nope it truly cannot be faked, and he, Lazarus may not have carried along those traditions on this record, well maybe not outright, but subliminally he has. On the song “Promise Not to Tell” there is a sound mimicking, or not, the sound of bones clicking. Bones now are made of wood, well some of them at least, and are sort of played like spoons. The violin as well is a nice nod to those days way back when.

            However, this record is not about yesteryear, it is more or less a reflection on where Lazarus has come, and where he is gone, but most importantly where he is heading towards. Four years ago he was pushing 40 and suddenly had this urge to create music, again. I say again because life had come about and many years before this. When his wife and him decided to get married and have children Lazarus decided and in his own words “I gave it up (music). My choice. Right or wrong. I didn’t want to be the aging punk rocking, bartending dad. So, we did the suburban thing, I did the W-2 thing.”  His wife whom he says “I’ve been deliriously happily married for nearly 17 years” has been his biggest supporter, and even pushing 40 with a mortgage and two daughters in their teens she was standing beside him. This record, with me taking some artistic liberty here, would be me saying that is sort of his tip of the cap or homage to his muse. Because with their love, and him lying in wait the art that he was able to create on these ten tracks is the “worthwhile art (being brought) into this world” that we now have the pleasure of listening to. It’s sort of like a good wine. You don’t just mash the grapes and drink, no you have to let it age and breathe a little. Lazarus was under no pressure to put out this record. If there was any it was on him. With the simple idea of wanting to become a full time musician in hand the ten songs were created.

            Without my artistic liberty I would recommend this record to anyone willing to give a guy with gravel in his voice, and a story to tell a listen.  It truly is as simple as that. Lazarus and the band are booked pretty heavily which he is excited about. To simply bring these songs in front of new faces and new listeners, and one of those is this guy. I typically like pretty much anything I listen to, but this record had that something else to it. That something else isn’t for me to decide I’d just say listen to it, go and see him, or both. My last question to Lazarus was why music? Of all things to do why this? And I will let him close this out. Go see him, and or give him a listen, and hopefully you have the same reaction I did, or better, and now Lazarus:

            Good question. A hard question... I grew up believing in the magic of music. From those earliest memories of 4 part harmonies, to the time I spent following the Grateful Dead, to my days as a bar rat during the 90s post punk explosion of indie rock... I believed. I believed that music was transformative. And it was, and still is. We live in a golden age of music! Technology has allowed the independent musician to record and distribute music affordably, just as much as it has allowed listeners to seek out the music that they want to listen to. And, I feel that the true “voices” are found and heard.

            As for me? Well, I feel like I’ve stumbled upon something. Love... and magic. And, since all musicians are at least minor magicians, it is incumbent upon me to cast my spells. We live in a transformative age and music, if anything can, will be what moves us forward.