I have been out to a few things recently, appropriately enough – you know, I am supposed to be a major ‘acoustic scene doggy’ but most of the time I don’t get out enough ... there ... is .... just TOO MUCH going on for one guy to make the whole scene.
Hmm, anyhow I have yet to make it out to
Sachsenheim at 7001 Denison Ave. CLE OH 44102 but I hear it’s really nice, so it won’t be too much longer before I get over there – they have a huge Chinese new year blowout planned for this coming Saturday Jan 28 so even if I can’t go YOU probably can! I think I read something about sitar music, in the phoenix coffee house room? Imagine that! Check the links embedded in here for more info.
And in regards to shows and scenes, lately
The Starloft has been in the thick of things, this woman Jennifer Adams is a one woman promotion machine and she is puttin’ on the dog so check out here site and her
myspace place to keep tabs on what is the hippness machine of Starloft. Gosh, starloft.com is a pretty dang cooly cool cleveland type of domain name, dontcha think?
And what is this weird colorful ad I found at
Barking Spider last night for an “improvish musical getogether” on Sunday Jan 29 at Barking Spider? It says that the evening starts with a drum jam and ands with a “tapestry of sound” or a “dungeon of noise – you decide” well, I have no idea, and the ad is a nice piece or artwork to singed R. LEWIS 06 whatever it is it sounds multi interesting.
So this weekend is full of cool hippness – just choose your fun from calm and quite to crazy and loud - and get a goin’ with your bad self.
And here are the quieter calmer and more introspective singer songwriterish acoustic options for those of you in the vicinity of University Circle and in the mood to simply sip lattes and surf the internet – stop into the serene environs of the University Circle Arabica.
UNIVERSITY CIRCLE ARABICA ON THE CASE WESTERN RESERVE CAMPUS
11300 JUNIPER ROAD CLEVELAND OHIO 44106 (216)791-0300
FEB. 2006 ACOUSTIC ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR
ALL SHOWS START AT 8:30PM UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTEDWednesday February 1
Acoustic Open Mic Night with host - Steve2.Net
http://www.steve2.netSteve2.Net is Steve Wilson – relocated from the Left Coast about 6 years ago and digging the Cleveland music scene as the Entertainment Coordinator and Open Mic Host at University Circle Arabica! This is an acoustic open mic – no electric instruments, drum kits, or amplifiers please – we provide microphones and a PA and we want to hear acoustic folk, blue grass, blues, new grass, classical, jazz, original acoustic music and poetry. We even have an acoustic piano!
Friday February 3
Neo Folk Singer Songwriters - Rebecca Wohlever & Ashley Brooke Toussant
http://www.myspace.com/ashleybrooketoussant
Join us for an evening of songwriters, acoustic guitars, and the pretty voices of singers Rebecca Wohlever & Ashley Brooke Toussant! Rebecca has absorbed the roads, rivers, lakes, lives and passions of rural Ohio and transformed them into an endearingly emotional spectrum of original song and sound. Ashley Toussant sings a mix of original and cover material in a unique breath tone as delicate and dreamy as a summer cloud or a desert mirage.
Saturday February 4
Aggressive Acoustic Folk - Jonathan Penn
http://www.wavethenavel.com/
Jonathan Penn is an Akron native with ten years of guitar under his pick. Though his music doesn’t follow a specific genre (except perhaps the self-invented category of “aggressive acoustic folk”), his influences include Radiohead, Dave Matthews, 100 Portraits, and many artists in between. His distinctive style is created by his repertoire of original music and his penchant for the slightly absurd. Jonathan has not only had the pleasure of performing in a number of venues in Northeast Ohio (The Barking Spider, Thursday’s Lounge, Fuel Lounge, Northside Club to name a few), but he’s had the opportunity to play international venues in Athens and Southeast Asia. His maxi single, Experimental Canvas, is available on iTunes, cdBaby.com, and here on wavethenavel.com. He has his B.S. in computer science, is working on a master’s degree, and lives in Akron with his wife, Colleen.
Thursday February 9
C.I.M. Alumni Pianist- Adam Whiting
http://www.adamwhiting.com/Adam Whiting is a staff accompanist at the Cleveland Institute of music; he was hired for this position upon graduation from CIM in the spring of 2005 with a double-masters degree in piano performance and accompanying. He was also hired this year as a Suzuki piano teacher at the Cleveland Music School Settlement. He is also returning to his previous accompanying posts at the Cleveland Music School Settlement (since 2004), the Sato Center for Suzuki Studies (since 2003), and the Oregon Suzuki Institute--one-week summer program--(since 2004). He attended the Oregon Suzuki Institute as a student for thirteen years; after a few years' hiatus, he returned in the summer of 2004 as a staff accompanist, at the invitation of the directors of the institute. At CIM, he studied solo piano with Daniel Shapiro; collaborative piano with Anita Pontremoli, head of the collaborative piano department; and cello with Merry Peckham, cellist of the Cavani String Quartet. He began piano lessons at age five with Sr. Patricia Baxter in the preparatory department of Marylhurst University. He dropped out of school in the middle of fourth grade in order to have more time to sleep and practice; his father homeschooled him. A few weeks before his fourteenth birthday, he began taking college classes, because his piano teachers, Sr. Patricia Baxter SNJM and Sr. Anne Cecile Daigle SNJM, announced that he was ready to benefit from music theory classes. After Sr. Anne Cecile’s death in 1998, he began taking lessons from Susan DeWitt Smith. In 2002, after seven years at Marylhurst University, he graduated with a BM in performance; he was only some paperwork short of also receiving an associate’s degree in mathematics from Clackamas Community College, where he took all his academic classes. Having worked with the Cavani string quartet for six summers at the Britt Chamber Strings Camp in Ashland, Oregon (five years as a cellist and the last year as the pianist of a pre-formed piano quartet) and thriving in the non-competitive, supportive, friendly, cooperative, joyous environment that the Cavani somehow created every year, he knew that CIM, their school of residence, was where he wanted to go. He auditioned only to CIM--not to a single other school--and was accepted into their master of music in piano performance program. A year later, seeking more collaborative and chamber music experiences, and impressed by Anita Pontremoli’s awareness of all of his non-solo projects, he doubled up his piano degree with CIM’s accompanying degree, adding an extra year to his projected stay at CIM.
Friday February 10
Folk Rock - John Fegy and Michael Johnson
http://www.myspace.com/johnfegyhttp://www.solfirestation.com/about.aspxhttp://www.myspace.com/solfire
John is a relative newcomer to the Cleveland Folk Rock scene, a veteran of rock bands and more recently many a late night open mic nights. He has produced a full length CD at Strangelove Recording and has recently been playing solo acoustic sets in the company of a variety of local folk rock acts such as Blue Vertaal and Broke Till Friday at well established institutions of acoustic entertainment such as the Winchester Music Hall and the Merry Arts in Lakewood Ohio.
From Michael's website: Michael Christopher Johnson began his musical career when his parents gave him his first instruments at the age of 11: his father's dusty old cornet and classical guitar. After his first lessons, his teachers saw the immense potential he had. Mike was soon studying classical guitar and jazz trumpet with some of the most respected music educators in the Cleveland area. Under their tutelage, he became an elite trumpet soloist in his high school jazz, marching, and orchestral bands, winning several awards, one of the most prestigious being nominated and then awarded the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. Later, Mike expanded his horizons into composing music and lyrics by drawing from influences as The Beatles, Dave Matthews Band, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Duke Ellington, Joni Mitchell, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Ben Harper. During his college years, Mike refined his skills in performance and composition by taking many of the most challenging classes in music. He also expanded his musical repertoire by learning the cello, mandolin, and dobro. Wanting to record his compositions, he quickly gained experience in recording and producing music through the tutorage of some Cleveland's finest producers and engineers. The culmination of Mike's talents, experiences, and passions was given a name: Solfire. Under this name, he promised himself that the goal would be to "pursue the worthy goal of creating music that would procure the best parts of all genres, and then let them ferment into a melting-pot of all the music that God created on this planet." From pop to jazz to rock, Solfire is starting to truly accomplish the goal Mike set out. "When I set out to create this band, I wanted to fulfill a dream of mine... creating the best music possible. I've have been truly blessed to have amazing people to work with like Michael Seifert [producer], and Lucas Wayne [collaborator]." Solfire has won praise from several award-winning artists such as legendary singer-songwriter and Ellis Paul collaborator Vance Gilbert. Vance described Mike's writing as "wonderfully catchy and lyrically meaningful melodies." Solfire has also gathered the interests of several major labels in both the secular and Christian markets. "I had a chance to be flown out to LA and experience the whole Hollywood scene," says Mike about his visit to Capitol Records. "It was definitely an eye opening experience... that's for sure." Mike's latest recording project is an EP with acclaimed Cleveland, Ohio producer Michael Seifert of Ante Up Audio and Take Manhattan Publishing, "Seifert approaches things like a chess match," says Johnson. "He's always thinking many moves ahead of what's on the board. He's a genius and I frankly couldn't think of anyone I'd trust more with my music."
Saturday February 11
Original Singer Songwriter - Nate Jones
Nate is a young local singer songwriter who has played the UCA a couple of times in the past and he continues to work diligently to write respectable original material, play entertaining cover songs, and gain a local following in Cleveland. Come out to UCA and listen to the ‘New Guard’ of acoustic folk music!
Wednesday February 15
Acoustic Open Mic Night with host - Steve2.Net
http://www.steve2.netSteve2.Net is Steve Wilson – relocated from the Left Coast about 6 years ago and digging the Cleveland music scene as the Entertainment Coordinator and Open Mic Host at University Circle Arabica! This is an acoustic open mic – please do not bring contraption drum kits (whole drum kits) or amplifiers – we provide microphones and a PA system to use - the acoustic open mic is geared to acoustic folk, blue grass, new grass, classical, jazz, original acoustic music and poetry. We even have an acoustic piano!
Friday February 17
Motor City Acoustic - Audra Kubat
http://www.audrakubat.com/
So much has been made of the Motor City rock and roll scene, and so many great bands have come out of Detroit, how about coming into UCA to hear the “unplugged” acoustic side of the Motor City with Detroit singer/songwriter and Times Beach Records recording artist Audra Kubat – she will be back in Cleveland this night for her second show at UCA. Audra is an established veteran of the music scene in Detroit MI and has many fans that flock to her local shows in the parks, bars, and cafes in and around Detroit where she plays regularly. Having her first CD “Elixir” produced by Rust Belt Studios Al Sutton started Audra on the long road to becoming an independent and fully realized singer songwriter of particular prowess and power. Audra is currently writing and planning her fourth full length CD with Times Beach Records and pulling together her summer tour. Don’t miss the opportunity to spend an evening with one of the Motor City’s most respected, prolific, established, popular and original female singer songwriters!
Saturday February 18
New Grass Duo - Brent Hopper & Brittany Reilly
Brent Hopper & Brittany Reilly share a passion of Bluegrass, Reggae, Country, Blues, and other old-time music influences, fusing them together acoustically... Smooth, flat-picking instrumentation and rhythmic sounds tie their vocal harmonies and musical dynamics together. They will be performing together this fall/winter as an acoustic roots duo around Ohio & the Mid-eastern regions and will be in the studio over the winter working on a new CD projected to be released in spring 2006.
Friday February 24
Lost Classics - Randy Martin
http://www.myspace.com/randymartinthelostclassicsRandy Martin is the lead singer and guitar player with Gorilla Danish. He began playing guitar in 1959. Three years ago, he was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and could no longer play bar chords. Rather than quit, he created an open tuning in the key of B. This unusual tuning and key matched his baritone voice. Over the last two years, he has been performing as a solo act (Randy Martin: The Lost Classics) perfecting his melody-finger slide finger-picking style and creating arrangements of somewhat forgotten R&B and R&R tunes from the 60s into an interesting presentation made further engaging by the information he delivers about the song writers between tunes. Musicians and non-musicians alike are attracted to his unusual styling. He has begun to hit the circuit around his home-base of Cleveland but has performed in Chicago and Milwaukee.
Saturday February 25
Celtic Duo - Emerald Frequency
http://www.emeraldfrequency.com/
Created in the fall of 2003, Emerald Frequency is a Cleveland based father/daughter duo. An indie Celtic band, they're grabbing attention of folks all over the North Eastern Ohio area, and beyond. They play everything from Ani DiFranco tunes to Irish folk songs to an occasional mediaeval melody here and there, not to mention their own original songs.
The Name: Though they're not a total Irish band, their influence and love of Ireland and its music is heard throughout a lot of what they play. In that case, they keep the thought of the Emerald Isle in the minds of the folks who come out to see them perform. (Hence the name: Emerald Frequency.)
