Audra K. updated her website recently - it's really nice to read a few words from her, she writes that she is in Brooklyn NY and has an apartment! Sweeeet! She explains she is looking for work, and will be playing guitar and singing in The Big City for about the next six months or so. She also writes that her new album is completed - Audra is such a hot singer/songwriter talent and I like her so much ... I can't wait to hear the new songs!!


Laura Webster at U.C. Arabica this weekend - if you get the chance to stop by on Sat. night please do, Laura has a really pretty voice and she is a graceful talent - check out her website for pictures and more biographical information.


Kate Voegele at U.C. Arabica Sat. Oct. 30th for an acoustic show and she will bring with her a couple of other musicians for this show - Will Voegele and perhaps an electric guitarist. I am excited about this show and a little nervous because I want Kate to have a good crowd to play to and latley the neighborhood (Barking Spider and Arabica) have been a little bit slow at night - at least on the nights I have been over there. So, if you read this and you can make it out please come to hear Kate, she is a really bright young songwriting talent and her voice is ... there is so much already written about her songwriting and her voice - just google her name and see what you find. I have been digging the K.V. EP "The Other Side" - check out her site, it was recently re-designed and it looks really good!!


Kate Morrissey called me recently to setup a show at U.C.A. for Friday Jan. 28th - gee, thats Next Year!! She has a show at the Barking Spider that weekend so I really won't have any excuse not to make one of the nights - Kate has played the U.C.A. a couple of times and I have not yet managed to get to the shop for one of her shows - uhm, I have listened to the samples of the music on her site, and I have also noted with much appreciation that she has a really nice phone voice.




Kristine Jackson has tentativly agreed to play a solo acoustic show at U.C.A November 11 - Kristine is a fabulous young blues singer and she is also a working horn player - she was a member of the local group "Blues On Purpose" and she has played horn with many blues greats including Cleveland's own Robert Lockwood - she has lots of top-notch real-world experience as a horn player and now she is fronting her own act as a singer, I have her demo, I listen to it frequently - it's really good!



OK, well this is just a preview of what's coming up - I need to work on getting the whole November calendar up. In November U.C.A. will host shows with Chelsea and Allen, "Flip Side" (with Beth Hyland), Ryan Anderson, and Ben Jacobs as well as Adam Zadok and Xela and John Toula. The calendar is coming .....

I have been on hiatus from work (took some badly needed vacation time) and have been listening to some music and I have some news items to share with you:

OPEN MIC:
Open Mic at the Arabica University Circle has been going really well this past few weeks and I want to thank all those who come to play and hang out: Matt Rayl, Terry Writz, Dan Rose, David Mansfield, Dan and Ben, and Dan and Lee and finally Dan and George. A special thank you to Jim Snively for not only making his own Open Mic very special but for making the effort to come out and make other events happen. And thanks to Ben Jacobs for bringing in his original songs and his friends. Thank you to Miriam for putting up with all the ‘cavernous’ sound issues - please keep coming to Open Mic, OK? Thanks Angelisa for coming out to play last week even though it was late I enjoyed listening to you and I hope to see you again.

AUDRA KUBAT:
You may or may not know that I am a HUGE Audra Kubat fan and that she is moving to NYC, I am going to miss seeing her here in Cleveland once in a while. I went to her biter sweet going away party this past weekend in Detroit and I got to say I felt only a little out of place not knowing anyone there (other than Audra) – I was the only out-of-state fan to be invited to the party. But everyone was friendly and nice, the crowd was composed of totally eclectic hipsters of all ages and the music, of course, was really fantastic. I noticed Audra was a little bit nervous – maybe because her parents were in the audience? I met Audra’s brother Chris, but I neglected to make a pointed effort to introduce myself to her parents. I got a really cool poster and I met a nice girl there by the name of Gwen Joy and I hope maybe she might read this and if she does, well I gave her my web site address, maybe she will contact me, but probably not. Anyhow, Audra is wrapping up her second full length CD release with Times Beach and she told me it would be done very soon – probably done by now. How exciting! I cannot wait to hear it!

SPECIAL EVENT:
I have an associate in Lakewood who owns and operates a really nice full-service recording studio – perhaps you are familiar with Strangelove Recording? Adam Probert is the engineer and the owner operator of Strangelove and he has done tons of work with bands around town, releasing several compilations CD’s along the way. Adam is interested in finding and recording acoustic talent and is looking for ways to promote his studio. So, after batting a couple of ideas around, we have decided to coordinate a live recording event at the U.C. Arabica and we have even decided a date: Saturday December 18 2004. For this date Strangelove and U.C. Arabica will co-host an evening of music at the café with anywhere from 5 to 8 acoustic acts (to be decided upon in the very near future). Each act will have about twenty minutes to play a TFA (Totally Freaking Acoustic) set. Each act will be recorded, free of charge and professionally, with a mobile 16-track studio setup. Please stay tuned for more details as to which acts will be included in this very special event.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Here are a few things I have been listening to:

NEIL JACOBS: Neil is a local resident guitar player of astounding talent – I heard him for the first time at the Lakewood Arts Festival this past summer and I won a CD and only recently started listening to it. It is full of the most amazing acoustic twelve string guitar playing I have ever heard. According to the bio, Neil has traveled the world playing the guitar and the music on this CD ‘World Blue’ is nothing short of simple brilliance.

JOHN MONTGOMERY: Just got this CD in a press kit from John and – wow! John has a really gorgeous voice talent and his writing is superb – maybe when he comes out here he will make a stop at the U.C. Arabica.

MIRANDA’S MOON: These guys are friends of mine and I just got a copy of the most recent complete ‘demo’ CD and it is a rock and roll boner for sure! The guitar sounds are alternately clear and springy (in that glass tube way, you know) then growling, lush and punchy crunchy with plenty of edge. The drums are sounding great, even from my little speakers, the cymbals get plenty of mix and the snare and bass drums are both really well represented. The bass guitar sounds are clear and tight punchy, course my home speakers are just itty bitsy things so I don’t get all that fat low end but overall this is a really great sounding mix. Finally, the raspy and keening whining vocals are delivered right into the center of everything just as pretty as a picture. These songs are all very different from one another and this is not your typical homogenous sounding rock music, it’s sort of equal parts bashing garage and melancholy geek rock and it takes a few listens to get below the surface of MIRANDA’S MOON. My only complaint is that the lyrics are not printed on the CD insert.

KATE VOEGELE: Kate’s CD ‘The Other Side’ has top notch production values applied to it – it just a huge sounding CD with crystal clear sparkling warm acoustic guitars and dirty clean Fender sounding electric guitars. There are sweeping keyboard sounds, accordions, organs and assorted ‘orchestrations’ – no effort was sparred in putting this work together, it’s a jewel with Kate’s sinuous voice glowing at its center. I can’t really say much more that hasn’t probably already been said, Kate has had this ‘demo’ CD heard by some of the music industries top producers and I guess she is well on her way to making a full length CD sometime in the very near future. I imagine she will sign some kind of lucrative record deal before she is twenty years of age.

BASICALLY BLUE/ACOUSTICALLY BLUE: I really dig Kristine Jackson’s voice and on this demo CD she sounds dusky, honeyed, serious, sweet and sexy and green enough to sound ‘cute’ in the way one might apply the word to a playful and purring young kitten. The full band cuts are clean and groovy funky with sweet orchestration and really nice big brassy horn parts and some horn solos (Kristine is also a trumpet player). I also like the relaxed sounding acoustic tracks on this CD and hope Zack and Kristine will be able to play the U.C. Arabica some night.


I am so certain there were some other things on my mind, but now I dunno what they might have been.
Until later, have a nice … whatever it is you have.

Hey y'all - Chris Nekvinda and Veronica Darby are coming out to Tremont Art Walk this Friday (tommorrow) - they will jam a T.F.A. set at the good Eye Candy Gallery on Professor Ave. - its gonna be a good time, Eye Candy always has a good night during art walk with lots of foot traffic and bottles of wine and finger foods - I have heard that Will Cheshier might stop by (I have heard that Will's sister owns the gallery next door to Eye Candy) and we will hope to see more than a few friends of Nekvinda and Darby come round. Oh, dig this - Bill Morrissey is in town tonight, if you aren't going to the Beachland to hear the mellow acoustic sounds of Bill's music than you might enjoy a nice MP3 ("If you dont want me") from his site off of the album 'Songs of Mississippi John hurt'. Here is a cool link to an online archive (www.archive.org) of live recorded shows - I pulled in an entire show (350MB worth) of 'lost in america' live at Grog shop and it sounds great!! I also got a few other goodies, its worth checking it out.

Hey y'all, I don't have allot of time for this bloggin' thing tonight - but I think I have to post some really cool links - here is something about Elliott Smith and a new recording that is being released by ANTI records of material he was just completing before his death in 2003 and there are a couple of really nice MP3 songs to go with the brief news - wow, I hope these links stay up for awhile the songs are so nice and just pure Elliott loveliness. The actual text of the article/blurb is under the album picture under the heading 'RELATED NEWS'. Looks like the release date is slated for later this month..