Voices to hear: March 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

SIMPLY SIX: Mary LaSang

Mary is a singer/songwriter/bandmember/bass player from Louisiana. She was a member of Cowboy Mouth for awhile. She performs with Paul Sanchez and the Rolling Road Show. She is a member of the new group The Kinky Tuscaderos. She says she likes being a member of a group and has put plans for her solo album on hold for the moment. Hopefully she'll reconsider that thought and continue work on her solo album. Go to her MySpace Page and check out how good she is as an artist in her own right.

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

I'd say it was during the first and only performance of my first band, The Electric Bananas. I was 8 and thought I had I convinced 3 of my brothers to sing and dance to "The Locomotion". We rehearsed; we held bananas for mics. When I left to knock on my neighbors' doors to tell them of our upcoming performance, to which a few came, my brothers bailed out on me. I performed as a solo act, with the philosophy of "the show must go on" already burned into my young little psyche. I think I watched too many episode of The Banana Splits.

2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?

I am a music fan first; that's what feeds my inspiration as a writer. I have great friends who turn me onto lots of new music in all genres. In my car right now, I have been listening to MIA, Santogold, Lupe' Fiasco, Blur, The Sugarcubes, Lucinda Williams, Keane, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The White Stripes, Beck - I could go on and on. I think the newest genre I've been turned on to is hip hop, and rap. Great rhythm is to be found there.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

I haven't had that one defining, career changing moment on record yet. I feel it's coming soon though.

As far as live, I'd have to say that I have 2: the first was when my Mom, who had Alzheimer's, came with my family to see me perform. It was hard for her to be away from her familiar surroundings, but my Dad (her caretaker) wanted to come to my performance. My Mom stood there and watched me perform, quietly, proudly, and content for the entire hour and a half. That moment told me so much about the power of music, an effect of me playing it, and how much I was loved.

The second moment came while I was performing at a festival, right before Velvet Revolver. I looked back offstage, and saw Duff McKagan watching us. He caught my eye to give me the thumbs up. Still amazes me.

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How much can music influence current events?

I'm not sure if life imitates art, or art imitates life. I think both to be true. I believe that music can and does change moments in the world, in small and large ways. I helped build a school in Tanzania by performing at a fundraiser with Susan Cowsill. That performance raised the money. I also played at a small, rural festival in Germany, where most of the people spoke no English - but I'll be damned if they didn't know every word to John Denver's "Country Road", which we got pressured into playing, when they spontaneously broke into the song as an encore. It warmed my heart, as I'm sure it does others. Moments like that help bring peace, even for just a minute. Makes life more tolerable and lovable.
Music changes the whole world. All art does.

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?

Music downloading affected all of us. In our unsigned case, it also helps get our music out across the world. I hate that record companies took such a big hit, which in turn made bands take a huge hit. I'm hopeful, and appreciative about things like myspace, which has connected us with numerous gigs, and quite possibly to the funding of my upcoming cd (due to a blog I posted!). Technology has forced us to change - that's always hard. But it seems to be good for our purposes.

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?

Chuck Taylors!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

SONG OF THE WEEK

This week we present another New Orleans native John Boutte. Every year John gets more praise as more people recognize how good he is. The first Jazz Fest after Katrina he gave one of the most powerful shows of the event. Combine Sam Cooke with Nat King Cole and throw in a gumbo of New Orleans sounds and experiences and you might get someone like John Boutte. Here he is singing "City of New Orleans."

CDs vs. Digital

Image via Wikipedia

Maybe it's my age, I've from the pre-digital age, but I prefer to have the actual CD. I like looking at the cover, reading the linear notes, holding the cd in my hand. Of course it shouldn't surprise anyone that I like vinyl albums even more, but you can't listen to a vinyl album in your car.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a Luddite. I don't hate technology. I love technology. My Ipod is one of my favorite items that I own. Where else can I store 15,000 plus and counting songs in one tiny device and have it with me where ever I go. Yes, I would be devastated if I lost all my CDs and Vinyl Albums to a hurricane (can you tell I'm from New Orleans, our first thought of a natural disaster is a hurricane) or other natural disaster, but at least I would have the music and in the end that's what counts.

But there's something about holding the music in your hands. Opening that cd case (if you can get it opened, they make them about as impermeable as Fort Knox) and pulling it out and marveling at the fact that this tiny little disc holds some great music. I'm one of those people that read all the linear notes too. I want to see who the artist thanks, who helped them, where they recorded the songs...I know kind of dorky, but that's just me.

The music industry is losing sales as if it was the Titanic trying to bail water out with a kids play bucket. Everyday you read the gloomy news about how bad sales on CDs are down. More and more big box stores are either closing, Tower anyone, or cutting back on the amount of music they carry. Most big box stores like Best Buy and Walmart basically carried music more of a device to just pull people into their stores with the hope that they would buy more once they got there. The music wasn't really there to make that much of a profit. But these stores are realizing that the music doesn't have that much of a draw on people now days.

I have to ask though, is it a tail wagging the dog type thing? If they cut back on the selections they carry than they're going to cause people not to venture in looking for the music. I know it's not that simple, but it's definitely not helping.

It's making it where you almost have to buy the music digitally. As you can tell from this site I'm a fan of music that's not considered mainstream or artists that aren't in the top 20, heck they aren't even in the top 200. It used to be I could go to Borders or a few other places and find a lot of these artists. Now when I want to find something that isn't a Big Name or being pushed by the Record Companies in the hope of becoming a Big Name I can't. No matter how hard I search I simply can't find the physical album.

Before I continue I have to say that I don't hate digital music. And I'm talking about legal digital music, not downloading songs off the internet and not paying for them, that's another whole post. I'm talking about getting the music from I Tunes or E Music or someplace like that. I enjoy the fact that I can download a song from somewhere and have it right that moment. But I like the option of having the choice of buying the album if I want.

Nowdays that choice is being taken away. As it gets harder and harder to find the album, or if you do the album is so expensive, it just gets so much easier to buy it as a digital download. From I Tunes you can buy almost any album for $9.99 (and I've read that the record companies have finally gotten them to offer albums for sell for more)and when I find that album I've been looking for somewhere and it's going to cost me close to twenty dollars, what choice do I have? I'll pay some more for the actual album, I just Buddy and Julie Miller's Written in Chalk for twelve dollars at Best Buy when I could have bought it off I Tunes for ten dollars and I don't mind. If I had bought it as a download I wouldn't have had the nice package it came in and the cool booklet in the cd. But when the price starts almost doubling I'm going towards digital.

I've been looking for Kelly Hogan cds for I don't know how long. I never can seem to find them. I went to I Tunes and they had both of them just waiting for me to purchase them. There are mail order sites, and some good ones with reasonable prices. I used to oder from Miles of Music but they went under. CD Baby is a really good one, with lots of great music with good prices and one I would recommend. But when you start adding postage and handling in to some of the prices from mail order, again the price starts to go up compared to the digital version. For under twenty dollars a month I get to download fifty songs from E Music.

The record companies don't help the situation when they continue to raise the price of cds and put out albums that people only want a couple songs off. It makes it easier for someone to want to just download the songs they want. Whatever happened to wanting to put out "albums", not just a collection of songs. Artists used to worry about all the songs on an album, what order to put them in, which ones to include, how the whole album sounded. Now too many just are content to make sure there are a couple good hits on the album. It doesn't help the sales of albums.

If these trends continue I can see a time when cds are almost non existence. If you want to buy music you're going to have to want to buy it in a digital format. Which in the long run, it's all about the music, and I have to appluad the fact that digital does make it easier to find stuff and getting the music is what's important. It's just that I'll feel a little sadder not to have the album itself sitting on my shelf.

SIMPLY SIX: Amber Rubarth

Amber is a singer from New York.

1. For many artists, they cite a defining moment for themselves when they knew they wanted to be a singer. For many it was the appearance of Elvis on the Ed Sullivan show, to another generation it was the Beatles’ appearance on Sullivan half a decade later. Is there such a defining moment for you?

My defining moment was in a wood sculpture studio in Nevada, where I had been an apprentice for 3 years, my mentor there told me the most important thing he ever learned was to follow your number one passion, that you will not be truly great, nor serve your purpose in the world, if you don't do that fully. I put down the chainsaw (yeah, it was chainsaw sculpture) and told him thank you, i quit... and was on my way to becoming a singer and songwriter. I feel lucky he gave me this advice and I've never regretted taking it.

2. When you’re not creating music what are you listening to? Who are some of your favorites?

Tom Waits. Josh Ritter. Bob Dylan. Louis Armstrong. Lots of indie music... a guy named Andi Almqvist from Sweden who is great, a girl in Vermont named Anais Mitchell, just got Jesse Dee's album "Bittersweet Batch" (he's from Boston) and it's rocking my world. Ezra Furman, Adam Levy, Paul Brill, Jay Nash. Randy Newman. WHOA. I just saw him last night at Carnegie Hall, his new album is my favorite of the year.

3. What would you say is your greatest moment so far as an artist, either on record or live?

Oy. I feel like my writing has been what I've focused on most lately... there are certain songs I'm very proud of like "Easy To Think" and "In the Creases" and "Washing Day" that I'm very proud of the songs and recordings. Live, the greatest moments are when I forget I'm performing and am able to just connect fully with the audience, where it feels like it's an equal give and take and everyone's on the same plane.

4. Do you believe music can change the world or is just something to listen to? How much can music influence current events?

Yes yes yes yes yes.... artists always lead the way to changes. A change is gonna come. Dylan protest songs. Artists speak for the current state of the world and can build huge momentum for change, on a global level or personal level (both equally important I think).

5. How has technology affected the music industry? How has technology affected your career as a musician?

I love it. All about it. I guess I got into music right as the whole digital age came to be, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I feel like it's made it so each person can customize what they want to listen to much more and that raises the quality overall of independent music, you have to create something great if you're going to stand out.

6. Now for my Barbara Walters question: If you were a pair of shoes what type of shoes would you be?

Green shoes that are too small to wear now but you keep them tucked away in your closet because the boy you liked a long time ago suggested you get a pair of green shoes (and you did).

Amazon.com Widgets

Saturday, March 21, 2009

SONG OF THE WEEK

Gina Villalobos singing "So Much For Dying"