“Like Lucinda Williams in a Carhartt jacket, Christy Hays works rugged metaphors into emotionally charged country folk.” (Austin Chronicle). Christy Hays’ music has folk and country tinges, thoughtfully penned stories and a full band sound that is both driving alt country and moody folk rock. Christy Hays has released two full length albums and two EP’s since 2009.
Christy Hays’ two recent EPs, O’ Montana and Caliche, reflect both the singer/songwriter’s complicated, dual nature and the sounds of the many places she’s called home. O’ Montana is a gorgeous folk and country-flavored solo collection and a natural progression from Hays’ 2012 album Drought. Caliche, on the other hand, is a band effort that indulges Hays’ occasional desire to plug-in and rock out. The result is an Americana rock and roll record with an occasional psychedelic flourish. Hays’ band, also called Caliche, came together after she met and formed a years-long partnership with the talented Lauren Gurgiolo of the Octopus Project (and a former guitarist with Okkervil River). Bassist Geena Spigarelli and drummer Andrew Gerfers bolster Caliche’s sound. Despite the difference in approach and musical styles, both EPs capture Hays’ distinctive artistic voice. Her songs resonate with a vulnerable rawness that exposes her emotional baggage and scar tissue, but never veer into self-pity. There is a sense of underlying optimism in her music and resiliency in her voice. Hays’ greatest source of inspiration is nature and wide-open spaces, themes often developed in her songs.
The nomadic Hays, who arrived in Austin after an extended stint in Nashville, often tours her former stomping grounds of Alaska, where she lived for nearly five years doing a variety of odd jobs, including a couple summers working as a river guide and living in a cabin with no electricity or running water. A native of the small central Illinois town of Tuscola, Hays can also escape the faster pace of Austin and find a quiet space to write in Butte, Montana. She recently purchased a house that wasn’t actually for sale when she stumbled across it and bonded with its owner, a nationally-acclaimed writer. He negotiated a generous deal with Hays when she shared her vision of the house as an artists’ retreat. Hays has graced stages throughout the U.S. and toured internationally. She’s been an official performer at SXSW, and she’s worked with the likes of Bruce Robison and Hayes Carll.
Hays has also collaborated with some of the top talent in Austin, including The Carper Family, Jonathan Terrell, Ali Holder, Brennen Leigh, and members of Wood and Wire. Hays grew up listening to ‘60s and ‘70s rock and country and ‘90s alternative, before being turned onto singer-songwriters like Patty Griffin, Kasey Chambers, and Kathleen Edwards. But from the beginning, she was inspired by her musician father Steve Hays, whose first guitar (“a lovely, vintage Gibson”) she still plays today. Fans of artists like Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Joe Pug, the Old 97’s and Neil Young will find much to love in the music of Christy Hays. (The above written courtesy of Travis Truitt for ChristyHays.com.)
The talented singer/songwriter has quickly made Southwest Montana her home away from home, performing at countless venues in her relatively short tenure under the Big Sky. In anticipation of a handful of more upcoming local shows, The Rolling Zone was able to get Christy on the phone during her trek north from her Texas base. Despite a quick loss of cell service, the itinerant musician shared some stories of life always on the road and how fully committing herself to the craft has shaped her future.
Visit her on the web at ChristyHays.com.
“Beautiful music, beautiful souls. These are the priceless experiences that hold true worth in this journey.”
BrightSide Blue is a duo from Nevada City that combines heart and soul filled vocals with virtuosic guitar-work to create brilliantly colored, original musical portraits. Songs that combine diverse elements of folk, jazz, blues, and world music are delivered with the couple’s unique brand of energy and sensitivity, leaving audiences smiling and spellbound.
Visit them on the web here: https://www.brightsideblue.com/press.
***Save the date! Release party at the Longstaff House Thursday,
August 1st at 7pm with Russ Nasset opening. Admission by donation, pay
as you can.***
Britchy is Missoula’s all-original acoustic americana duo, featuring
the fine pickin and timeless songwriting of Richie Reinholdt and Britt
Arnesen. They have just completed their fourth studio album together.
Learn more at http://britchymusic.com
Terry Robb is hailed as one of the finest acoustic guitarists on the international scene and a virtuoso of acoustic blues guitar. His signature fingerpicking style landed him in the Oregon Music Hall of Fame and earned him international acclaim from worldwide audiences, esteemed music critics and his distinguished peers. In his latest album Confessin My Dues, Robb draws on his deep knowledge of Delta blues, ragtime and swing in 13 original compositions ranging from blistering instrumental blues and stunning ragtime fingerpicking to soulful singing backed by a powerhouse rhythm section. From country blues to Coltrane, ragtime to Hendrix, Americana to American Primitivism, Confessin’ My Dues will captivate listeners with its melodic and rhythmic invention and musical virtuosity. “Confessin’ My Dues is yet another example of Terry Robb doing what he does best – leaving us with a sense of awe and joy with every note he plays. It’s a winning formula that continues to lead the pack.” – Cascade Blues Association
WEBSITE: http://www.terryrobb.com/
WIKIPEDIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Robb
HIGH-RES PHOTOS: http://bit.ly/TerryRobbPromoPhotos
VIDEOS:
- Solo Medley: “How A Free Man Feels” (acoustic guitar and vocals) & “Butch Holler Stomp” (instrumental acoustic guitar): http://bit.ly/ConfessinMyDuesSoloMedley
- “Judge Boushay Blues” (slide guitar and vocals): http://bit.ly/TR-JudgeBoushayBlues
“Cool On The Bloom” exclusive for Vintage Guitar Magazine (instrumental acoustic guitar): http://bit.ly/TerryRobbVintageGuitarVideo
MASONTOWN
A new and enchanting sound has emerged from the hotbed of the Colorado roots music scene. Masontown, a young band with a concept as timeless as the Rocky Mountains, has alighted onto a bluegrass community that has already produced some of the best that the acoustic music world has to offer. But Colorado, and the wider world of modern music, hasn’t quite heard this yet.
A lauded fiddle champion and classical violinist. A veteran bluegrass mandolin player and composer. One of Colorado’s jazz guitar greats reborn as a flatpicking sensation. An upright bassist with roots running deep in the classical and jazz traditions. These are the individual elements that come together to create Masontown.
Masontown’s sound is a exciting take on the American acoustic tradition. At once fresh and familiar, the group unites the sounds of bluegrass, old-time, folk, and new acoustic music into a sonic melting pot that hearkens back to our deep musical traditions while remaining defiantly modern in conception. Echoes of the poignant exploration of the Matt Flinner Trio blend with the fierce drive of Bill Monroe and the plaintive song-craft of Cahalen Morrison and Eli West. It’s no surprise that the members of Masontown have shared the stage with many of these musical icons that their sound evokes.
The listening halls and dance floors of Colorado have already begun to hail the arrival of this new force in the acoustic music community. Masontown is a band on the move, driven to delight the ears, touch the hearts, and move the feet of generations of music lovers in Colorado and far beyond.
Soon after arriving in Seattle, Jason McCue was ready to quit performing music for good.
After exploring Philadelphia’s voluminous DIY scene while studying for a year at Drexel University, the alt-folk songwriter moved across the country and enrolled at Seattle University. Armed with a guitar and a batch of quirky acoustic numbers, a not-so-confident McCue tepidly set out to break into Seattle’s house-show circuit. It didn’t go so well.
The young transplant, who grew up in a small Pennsylvania town, landed spots on two “huge” house shows in front of about 90 people. While larger more up-tempo bands got the ready-to-party crowd moving, they were largely indifferent to his spindly solo folk songs.
“I went into it thinking, ‘Yeah cool, so many people will see me!’ ” recalls the 21-year-old, bellied up at a Cherry Street Coffee House near campus. “But it was really 10 people who were watching me and then 80 people who were partying.”
However, since those rocky first Seattle gigs, McCue has been on a creative tear, releasing four albums in the past two years, including his new “PANGAEA” LP due Friday, March 9, via Portland’s Fluff & Gravy Records. He plays a release show Friday in Washington Hall’s Lodge Room, a venue chosen in part because he’s still getting comfortable playing Seattle’s more raucous bar scene.
The more friends the self-described introvert made, the more he explored his new city, and with subsequent shows found pockets of the Seattle scene more his speed. Eventually, McCue hooked up with a loose collective of creative Seattle University students called Friends and Friends of Friends, which threw house shows and other “artsy events where people could be themselves.”
Visit him on the web here: https://www.facebook.com/jasonmccuemusic/.
Sally Jablonsky grew up playing music with her family, hiking around in the desert singing cowboy songs, and learning the old tunes from her extended family at festivals and camps. As well as being firmly rooted in the Appalachian fiddle tradition, she writes new songs that are crooked, lonesome, and true. In the Pony Club, Sally plays electric guitar, fiddle, and sings harmonies.
Milo Krims hails from many places-New York and Southern California, among others, and started playing music as a teenager in punk bands. Later he joined up with the oldtime string band, the Peach Colored Jug Smugglers, and toured the country. In his ongoing solo project, Ripe Mangos, he softly shreds on the electric guitar, and sings of wind, wood, ghosts, and being. In the Pony Club, Milo plays guitar, snare drum, and sings lead.
Sally and Milo are the core members of the Misty Mountain Pony Club, with moonlighters such as Ruthie and Eugene Jablonsky, Charley and Peter Gurche, T Scot Wilburn, Jenny Anne Mannan, and Duane Becker. With tight harmonies and a dedication to craftsmanship, the club honors the fiddle tunes and country songs of older times. Having been steeped in traditional American music, their original songs carry that thread of richness and complexity