Even onstage in all his open-mike glory, the singer-songwriter is nowhere as cool as Bill

My blogging buddy girlofwords has always said that the main reason for blogs is shameless self-promotion,  so here’s an opportunity for me to be self-indulgent. Bill Meredith, local-music columnist at The Palm Beach Post, has been finding a way to mention me in print annually four years running, but this year was something special.  Shortly after March of this year, when I tied for first place in a political songwriting contest at Havana Hideout (pictured above),  Bill noticed the lyrics for my latest award-winning composition when I posted them on Facebook and decided they were worthy of a write-up. A phone interview with him resulted in a column-leading artist profile, complete with picture (shown above). While the online version isn’t quite as grand as what appeared in the paper, the text is the same, so feel free to see what the fuss is all about. And while you’re at it, feel free to come out to my next gig at The Living Room, Catalina Center, 1709 North Congress Avenue,  Boynton Beach, Sat. August 21st, 8:30 to 11:30 p.m…

B-Liminal frontman Bryce Rutkowski brings the music to the masses at the 2009 edition of Sunfest . The reggae/rock band will perform Jan. 14th in West Palm Beach at Art After Dark, the Norton Gallery's monthly after-hours event

Back during my time in Orlando, one of my favourite non-tourist things was to go to Third Thursdays, an after-hours event put on by the Orlando Museum of Art that brought wine, hors d’oeuvres, music and mingling into the museum on a monthly basis.  So having been back in Palm Beach for several years now, I was delighted last year when West Palm’s premier art museum, The Norton Gallery, began put on a similar event.  Art After Dark takes place on the second Thursday of every month, running from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.  I was part of a big crowd at the inaugral event last summer, and, much to the delight of AAD organizer Belle Forino, I’ve been a faithful attendee ever since.              

The nice thing about Art After Dark is that it showcases art in many forms.  In addition to the obvious access to the Norton’s exhibits, AAD has also featured films (including the ballet classic The Red Shoes) and, of particular interest to us Types, music, almost always live. The inaugral event featured local singer-songwriter made good, John Ralston. The following month featured an acoustic  solo performance by Pete Byrne, lead singer of the British New Wave group Naked Eyes. Since then, other performers have included the local jazz-rock band Ruling Mercury,  Miami street performer Jesse Jackson (no relation to the civil-rights activist) and local jazz vocalist SAMM, who performed a riveting set in December with only a bass accompaniment.          

This month’s event (taking place Jan. 14th) features a performance by local reggae/rock sensation B-Liminal. Formed in 2008 by members of local favourites Boxelder and Doorway 27, this band has toured in support of artists such as Bunny Wailer and Arrested Development. B-Liminal also played a main-stage gig at the 2009 edition of  Sunfest, West Palm Beach’s art/music festival. Their performance runs from 7:00-8:30.        

Parachute

[ Typist Notes: Back in May I saw Parachute perform in West Palm Beach as part of a new-artist showcase for the radio station 97.9 WRMF. The group returns to Palm Beach Sat. Dec. 5th to participate in yet another WRMF function, the No-Snow Ball being held at Boston's in Delray Beach. For further details on this free concert, consult the radio station's website]             

The initial phase of this Charlottesville, Virginia pop/rock band’s existence followed a typical trajectory. Formed by a group of  high-school classmates in 2004 (and originally named Sparky’s Flaw after a friend of the band), the line-up then consisted of Will Anderson (lead vocals, guitars, piano), Johnny Stubblefield (drums), Alex Hargrave (bass) and Kit French (saxaphone, keyboards). The bandmates went on to attend the University of Virginia,  where frontman Anderson met guitarist Nate McFarland, who joined the band in 2007. But since being signed to Mercury/Island Def Jam Music Group, the band has been promoted in a more non-traditional way, with songs placed in Nivea moisturizer commercials and in episodes for television series such as One Tree Hill and 90210.        

The tracks  for this the group’s major-label debut had a number of producers, the most notable being veteran helmsman John Shanks whose extensive resume includes Stevie Nicks and The Corrs,  and stretches all the way back to the mid-’90s. But, as is the case with most multi-producer efforts, some tracks work better than others.  The opening track, ”All That I Am”  (produced by Chris Keup and Stewart Myers) goes from a quiet intro to full-throttle in a matter of seconds, and while it does ease up eventually, overall the song could have benefitted from a lighter, more dynamic touch. The following track, “Back Again” (produced by John Field) is rendered with a sound that is highly reminiscent of Matchbox Twenty. But Shanks delivers on the awkwardly-titled “She (For Liz) “ ; the ’70s-style piano-driven sound allows the song to breathe, resulting in one of the best tracks of this album,  even with its somewhat abrupt ending. And the mid-tempo rocker “Ghost” (produced by the group itself) benefits from a clever aural metaphor: the song’s title lyric (“Let me be your ghost”) is echoed after each chorus, as if the song itself was being haunted.    

Most of the songs were penned by Anderson, whose lyrical ability is perhaps best showcased on the ballad “The Mess I Made”. Anyone familiar with romantic regret will relate to lines such as “Should’ve  kissed you there/Should’ve held your face/Should’ve watched those eyes/Instead of run in place”. The album’s memorable single “She Is Love” appears twice in this collection,  as both a full-band version and as a slower, acoustic-guitar ballad. The full-band version is both the better rendition of this song and the best track on this album.    

Overall, this album is very listenable, but one wonders how it would have sounded with more sympathetic, less intrusive production. Someone like Sheryl Crow, John Shank’s old client and collaborator, might have given the album a more acoustic sound which would be more in tune with the group’s live sound. Hopefully such a production approach will be considered for the group’s next release.     

The Pretty Faces, Boca Raton, April 28, 2009. (l-r) Hannah Thorslund, Jeph Thorslund, Tom Thorslund

I. Hometowns and Birthdates

“Once you answer these [questions], you never have to [do so] again.”

Type Writer: I’m gonna start off with some biographical questions; once you answer these, you never have to answer them again [laughs]

Jeph:[laughs] Okay! [They’ll be] documented.

Type Writer: Exactly. So, I believe I read in the Miami New-Times that you guys moved here from Waterloo [a university town in Ontario, Canada]. Is that where you grew up?

Jeph: More or less. Tom and I were born in Mississauga, which is outside of Toronto, and I was ten years old [when]  we moved to Waterloo, which is an hour away, and we lived another ten years there.

Type Writer: And you, Hannah?

Hannah: I moved around a lot, [but]  I lived the longest  in Waterloo. I was born in Newfoundland, which is a place Canadians like to make fun of. [laughs]

Type Writer: You’re a Newfie? [derogatory term for people from Newfoundland]  I know about Newfies! [laughs]

Hannah: Yeah, that explains a lot. And now I’m blonde, so I just have everything have working against me.

Jeph: She’s a blonde Newfie.

Type Writer: Blonde but  not for much longer, right? [Typist Notes: At the time of this interview, Hannah had already announced she was returning to her natural brunette colour shortly]

Hannah: Not for [much longer]! [But] it gave me an excuse for a while.

Jeph: [Now] you’re gonna have to [just] rely on being a Newfie.

Type Writer: Tom, you’re the younger of the  –

Tom: Yeah, I’m the youngest. [Hannah]’s twenty-eight days older than me.

Type Writer: Oh, so you’re the youngest in the band too? [Tom is the younger of the two Thorslund brothers]

Tom: Yeah.

Hannah: Not that I ever rub that in his face.

Tom: Ever.

Hannah: I have twenty-eight days over you.

Tom: I don’t mind. I learn so much.[Hannah laughs]

Type Writer: So when’s your birthdays?

Tom: [Hannah’s] September 1^st and I’m September 29^th.

Type Writer: I’m September 29^th.

Tom and Hannah:  Really?

Type Writer: Yeah, yeah.

Tom: Creepy.

Jeph: [laughs] We didn’t plan that.

Type Writer: Yeah, I’m calling b******t on this whole thing.

[Hannah, Jeph and Tom laugh]

Type Writer: Man, you guys are playing me.

II.   What’s in a (punk-rock) name?

“He gets mad when I don’t [spell] it [that way].”

Type Writer:  So, is Jeph short for something?

Jeph: Ah, no.  Jeffrey [laughs]

Type Writer: It’s an unusual spelling, that’s why I had to ask.

Jeph: It’s my punk-rock spelling.

Hannah: [laughs] He gets mad when I don’t [spell] it [that way].

Jeph: [I thought,] I gotta create a name like Iggy Pop, but then I just changed the spelling of my own name.

Type Writer:  Perry Farell did that. You know, “peripheral”. It took me years to figure that out.

Jeph: I figured that out just now.

Hannah: Well, I made my name a palindrome. Not quite as cool.

Type Writer: That’s going a bit too [far]. I’m not sure which is worse, Tom co-opting my birthday –

[Jeph laughs]

Type Writer: — or you making a palindrome out of your name, that seems to be a bit too much.

  III. Hannah and Jeph

“I [would see] her when I would go back to Canada to visit family. That’s when we started to get closer.”

Type Writer: Okay, Hannah and Jeph, did you guys meet musically,  socially, academically…?

Jeph: Socially. We were friends for quite a while in Waterloo, and then Tom and I moved away, then I [would see] her when I would go back to Canada to visit family. That’s when we started to get closer.

Type Writer:  So you guys met socially but you both happen to be musicians?

Hannah: Not at the time. I was fourteen or something, and I started to play guitar [then] and [to write] songs, but I never told [Jeph]. But he always had a band. It wasn’t until he came back [to visit] that I actually played some stuff [for him.]

  IV.              Tom and Jeph

” ‘Oh, guitar is way too hard; I guess I’ll end up being the keyboard player of the band’ “

Type Writer:  So I take it [Tom and Jeph] grew up playing instruments?

Tom: Yeah. I was banging on pots and pans…  so I kinda had to buy drums.

Type Writer: And your parents were cool enough to let you learn the drums?

Tom: Yeah. They were more than down. They were very patient. [Jeph laughs]

Hannah: They tried to prevent it as long as possible.

Jeph: [Our] dad was into bands when he was younger too; he played bass and sang, usually. And I… took piano lessons for a while, but I didn’t really have too much fun with that. I kinda thought, “Oh, guitar is way too hard; I guess I’ll end up being the keyboard player of the band”, but I never really thought that was that cool. I just kinda thought that was my lot.

Type Writer: So technically, piano was your first instrument?

Jeph: Yeah, I guess so.

Tom: Technically, mine too.

Type Writer: Oh, yeah?

Tom: I didn’t stick with it that long.

Jeph: Then I started playing some bass, because my dad had [one]. And, you know, it’s one note at a time, and I sorta played some Green Day songs and stuff like that when I was a teenager. And then it was,like, [to dad]  “Okay, teach me some chords”. So my dad taught me some chords.

Type Writer: So your dad was mostly a bass player then?

Jeph: Yeah, and he played guitar too. Mostly acoustic guitar, he just kinda  –

Hannah:  [He’s been] playing the same five songs his whole life. [laughs]

Jeph: Yeah, [he’d] sing the same five songs over and over again. Paul McCartney and stuff. [laughs]                                                                         

  ******

[Coming Soon: PartII -- Influences]

Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Shauna Sweeney graced the Sunfest stage with her presence and a talented group of  musicians known collectively as The Shauna Sweeney Band. Wasting no time, Shauna and her band kicked off their performance with one of Shauna’s strongest songs,  ”Catch The Light”, a mid-tempo rocker from her CD “Cliffjumping”.

The entire set consisted of Shauna’s compositions, which tend to center on the vagaries of love. In the ballad “A Little Less Perfect” the narrator is reluctant to commit to her amour, despite his good qualities; the subject of the earthy ballad  ”Dear Jeremiah” seems to be cut from the same cloth.  Also, “Too Late” is an uptempo elegy to a relationship that fails to achieve the longevity of  the couple on the other side of the restaurant celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. But other songs performed, such as “Worth It” and ”Don’t Ask Why”,  reflect a more hopeful outlook on love.

(l-r) Jason Montero (acoustic guitar), Ben and Shauna (acoustic guitar)

 Throughout the set, Shauna alternated between playing acoustic guitar or djembe to accompany her powerful vocals. Assisting her was a competent crew of musicians with whom she has played, in one capacity or another,  for years: Ben Seffner (electric guitar, mandolin), Jason Montero (rhythm and lead acoustic guitar),  Brett Segal (drums), Chris Bonelli (bass), and Shaen Huser (percussion)

Percussionist Shaen Huser, right after putting a saucy cymbal in its place

Not only was Shauna supremely comfortable during her performance, conversing with the sizable mid-afternoon audience in between songs, she also attempted to do something which I’ve never seen at Sunfest: an onstage encore. Unfortunately, the festival powers-that-be prevented Shauna from satisfying requests from fans in the crowds for one of their favourites. Overall, Shauna’s set was a nice combination of talent and confidence from all concerned, so hopefully this will be just the first of several Sunfest performances for the Shauna Sweeney Band.

Ben, Shauna and Chris Bonelli

The Riddim Twins (photo credit: Daniel Miller)

Day 4, Sat. May 2, 2009 — Sly & Robbie: Reggae’s most famous rhythm section took to the stage in the middle of a sunny afternoon and immediately transported the audience to an atmospheric dimension of mysterious dub.  Accompanied by a spare horn section, consisting of trumpet and sax, with the trumpet player doubling as a vocalist for a number of the songs, drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare ran through their thirty-year catalogue of hits produced either for their own label’s band (The Taxi Gang) or for other artists. Songs like “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot”, “Ballistic Affair”, “Arlene”, “Shine-Eye Gal” and “Revolution” highlighted the duo’s heyday of the late ’70s and early ’80s when they dominated the Jamaican singles charts.  The second half of most of these songs would essentially be the dub version of the track; Dunbar, almost hidden behind his cymbals, would crouch down while tapping out intricate reverb-drenched rhythms, while Shakespeare stood in front of the drum kit in a long, black leather coat, playing what can only be described as lead bass. For the Dawn Penn hit “You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)”  the bassist even took his frontman pose to the surprising next step by handling the lead vocal. This was reggae at its best, and Sly & Robbie demonstrated quite ably why their reggae skills are in demand to this day.

Gin Blossoms:

Guitarist Scotty Johnson of the Gin Blossoms is the only band member naive enough to bring his instrument to a bad neighbourhood

 

 

Paul Green School of Rock: Saving Rock’n'Roll One Kid at a Time

 Friday May 1st, Day 3

Paul Green School of Rock: Sunfest has always had activities and music geared towards the younger set during the weekend portion of the festival, and this year was no exception. Set up near one of the festival entrances was an area called Youth Park. And it was on its stage that students of the Palm Beach franchise of the Paul Green School of Rock reigned supreme all weekend,  drawing on their varied repertoire of classic-rock hits. In the weekends prior to Sunfest, the SOR put on a pair of concerts covering material by AC/DC and The Beatles respectively,  and selections from this material featured prominently during their Friday performance. Highlights include “Come Together” and “I Am The Walrus” from the Fab Four’s catalogue, and “Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)”, an early AC/DC classic. Also noteworthy was the SOR’s performance of Deep Purple’s “Hush” to close out that evening’s show.

Rock 'n' Roll means never having to have good table manners

Collective Soul: This Georgia-based quintet began its performance on with a couple of relatively obscure tracks, so they seemed compelled to sell this material with a lot of cliched larger-than-life stage gestures. All that fell away, however, once the band moved into its first big hit “Shine”. As the audience sang along with this ’90s rock hit, the band finally seemed to relax and enjoy the moment, and other hits such as  ”December” and “The World I Know” quickly followed. The band also featured a couple tracks from its upcoming release, and if this material is any indication of the album as a whole, it should be a good one. This concert was also a good reminder that the band has continued to enjoy airplay well past its original heyday in the mid ’90s, as the latter part of the performance featured hits such as  ”Run”, best known from the soundtrack for the film “Varsity Blues”, and 2004′s uptempo “Better Now”. All in all, an entertaining show for the crowd gathered by the Intracoastal.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like some ugly free clip art

Sweet Baby James covered all the bases during his Sunfest appearance

Day 2, Thursday, April 30th: Surprisingly for a singer-songwriter with a 40-year career, James Taylor chose to start his Sunfest set with two songs not written by him and unfamiliar to most of his fans. But these songs (including The Silhouettes’ “Get A Job” and the spiritual “Wasn’t That A Mighty Storm”) were actually selections from his recent cover releases,  entitled, appropriately enough, “Covers” and “Other Covers”.

But after the supportive nod to his latest releases, Taylor immediately plunged into the material the festival audience had come to hear: his impressive catalogue of hits, drawn mostly from his releases in the 1970s. And his versatile eight-person band was more than up to the challenge of supporting him in great renditions of these hits. At the end of ”Country Road”, for example, background vocalist Andrea Zonn from Nashville pulled out a violin and transformed the quiet ballad into a bluegrass fiddling jam. Bluesy electric guitar solos by Bob Mann added Claptonesque touches to songs as disparate as “Mexico” and “Steamroller”. And the ballad “Shower The People” was the beneficiary of an passionate improvised vocal coda by Arnold McCuller.

But even without the sterling support, chances are the audience will still have loved this set, simply because of the sheer familiarity of the material performed.  Taylor’s version of Carole King’s “You’ve Got A Friend” is so beloved, the crowd turned it into a spontaneous singalong. And “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) performed during the first encore, had the entire audience clapping along the lanky guitarist’s rendition. Taylor also engaged in gorgeous versions of signature tunes such as “Sweet Baby James”, “Up On The Roof”, “Every Day”, “Carolina on My Mind” and, of course, his best-known ballad, the autobiographical “Fire and Rain.”

One more encore, featuring the haunting “You Can Close Your Eyes” capped off a concert that was, at various times, surprisingly energetic, undoubtedly inspiring and unbelievably warm. Unquestionably one of the highlights of this year’s festival.