Been a while

I always feel like it's been a while since I last posted...probably cuz I am busy. Well, X-Mas happened, nothing too exciting except I got some money to pay for an electric guitar amp, which I bought today. Wow I think I got a really good deal it's a Fender Super-Sonic (sweet name!) and it was $512 and I had $515 in my bank to get it, ha nice! I was going to get a blues junior which are $500 new..pahh, this one blows that amp out of the water..so pumped! So that was sweet and I played on that some today, need to do more of that tomorrow it was a busy day I got a lot done I feel like, at least. Andy and I had an interview with Mr. Pete Vogel who is putting a documentary about the music scene in Columbus together. We played together in Matt Monta's band and he is a suuuper awesome guy and a huge cheerleader for C-Bus. I am so excited he is doing this documentary and from what I have seen it looks like it is going to be awesome. So then I went to record some violin with Jessie Barr at his house/studio. We worked on a Beatles/Paul song called "Junk" that Jessie had recorded with Joey Hebdo and John Elliot..great version and am excited to hear the final product. Then over to Ruby's for the Tuesday Evan Oberla jam session....great fucking time! The first song we played was kinda reggae-ish and Tony G. Finesse and Ollie Hightower freestyled back and fourth over it, good shit. The second song I played was Jessie Barr singing a Bob Marley tune (I did not recognize wtf?) and it had the crowd dancing, always fun when you have never played together and you can get the people dancing. Good freaking day and night, wow just awesome. Tomorrow Joey Hebdo and I shoot a video for The Columbus Duets Project out February 25th along with the ASB cd release...busy busy busy year in 2011 can't wait! Enough links? Well go visit them already!

Long time no see..sorry!

Sorry sorry, I know I have not updated in a while. I never know who I am talking to on this blog, is it future me? Hopefully someone finds this blog useful, entertaining, or maybe so annoying and stupid they keep coming back to see what other idiotic things I post. Well it's been a while. What has happened in the past few months. I went on a cruise with my bro and had a great time...thought briefly about shipping off to see and playing music. Not that someone offered me a job, but I thought about it on the ship, that would be an interesting job, hopefully I would be able to keep my soul while doing it. A lot of the musicians on board looked like they hated life and I hope that I will never ever be like that. ASB had a great show with Ed Mcgee/Tan Beer Band and Jahman Brahman at Woodlands. Kevin Smith came in and did lights and he is soo awesome it was a great night ending in the whole crowd singing a couple of our songs along with us. Also chants of "Andy Fucking Shaw"...that was hilarious, we are going to make t-shirts by the way. But the main thing I want to talk about is this weekend which was The Columbus Songwriter Sessions.

So a few of us came up with this idea a few months ago and we ran with it. Let's get a bunch of bands together and showcase them in a stripped down almost MTV Unplugged kind of way in a theater. So we rented the VanFleet Theater in Olde Town East (also called the Columbus Performing Arts Center), got a ton of sponsors, lined the bands up, worked our asses of promoting and did it. This event was SO AWESOME and now that we are done to me it's like a no brainer, DUH, this is it. This is music, this is Columbus, this is my life and how it will now go from here...and it will just get BETTER. I worked really effing hard along with Phillip Fox, Andy, Jesse Henry, and Kerry Henderson and we really pulled this thing off. Though I wanted the first night to be sold out (as I should) it was 75 people from doing that, around there...it was a GREAT night. The audience was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Jesse Henry's new band "Jesse Henry and the Great Divide" in my opinion really stole the show the first night. Steven, Chris, Caleb, Jake, and Jesse playing some of Jesse's tunes, some gospel, and bluegrass all in a traditional bluegrass style around one mic. They are fabulous players and Jesse is just an amazing performer, wordsmith, and presence. I love that the music goes from sad to happy to funny to just a party where you want to stomp your feet. I feel like that is my next goal as a songwriter to write a song that gets people moving and or laughing...I don't feel I have really accomplished that yet. Jesse is so talented and such a nice guy, I can't wait to collaborate with him more and I know it will happen. Phillip Fox was great too, this was the first time I saw his whole band and it was a great show indeed. I love the Floorwalkers and always have it was really fun sitting in with them especially in this format. Ben on upright, Kerry on mando or guitar, Tom on djembe/snare, and Jon singing of course. I played some fiddle on some of their lesser known tunes like "Some Love" and "Whatever It Is" love hearing Ben sing.

This weekend just felt like this is how it is supposed to be. People come to the show to see music and to listen. They sit and they watch quietly and they clap at the end. Yes, it sounds odd that this is not how it normally is as a musician but it is not. Noisy corners in restaurants with the manager telling you to turn down, bars where people come to hook up and get drunk and yell "freebird" at you, windy, wet, rainy streets where people throw pennies at you..maybe it sounds dramatic but I have been in all of those situations. I could get on a big rant about how no wonder musicians become alcoholics or are stuck in dead end jobs to pay rent while trying to make it as a musician on the side. I hear the story so many times and I see so many fucking talented people that are just hopeless and it's really sad. Anyway, this weekend was a shining glimmer of hope for music. I am not saying I don't have hope for music cuz I do and always have and will. I am in control of my own career and this is why my brother and I (with help of others) set up things like the CSS because we are in control and we are not going to wait for anybody to help us out. It's just nice to see other musicians in this environment all sharing the stage, singing together, getting along backstage, shaking hands, sharing a laugh and just being who we should be in the environment we deserve. No distractions, just here for music. Phew..I think I am going to write a song now! :) Thanks again for all who came and check The Columbus Songwriter Sessions out on facebook we will do this again. Also there should be some video footage soon and audio so I will try to post when it comes.

Make Yourself

So I think a lot about "making yourself"...kinda like Incubus said. I am a big proponent of just going and doing it, no excuses. Another quote that has influenced me a TON is "Be the change you wish to see in the world" -Mahatma Gandhi. It just makes sense to me, if you want something to change you have to change yourself and lead by example, others will follow. So I have been trying really hard to do this for a long time.

The music scene in Columbus is great, and one way to make it even better is to do things you "wish" would happen in Columbus. There are a ton of people already doing this in this town that's why I think it is great. The Rock Potluck is a night where a bunch of musicians get together from different bands and all form a band for one night, rehearse 2 covers, and write one original and then do a concert all in a day/night. It is pretty awesome. Cowtown Round at Rumba Cafe every Monday puts two of C-Bus' best songwriters (in my opinion) Jesse Henry and Jason Quicksall on stage together with another songwriter (sometimes local, sometimes not) and has them rotate songs in an acoustic fashion. A lot of times the musicians will spontaneously collaborate on stage and it's magical. There are plenty of other examples.

So my brother and I have been trying to do different things that we feel are missing or that are just cool and maybe other people will catch on. We house musicians from out of state and do house concerts for them. Plan it out, people come over, eat, talk, listen to live music, and usually they tip the traveling musicians a good amount/buy their cds and hopefully become life long fans. We also do songwriter nights where we invite a group of local musicians over to play acoustic songs in the round, eat, laugh, share,,,,getting the idea? This creates community and allows people to be introduced in a non bar setting, just musicians. It is a great networking night and just always awesome in general. The next project we are embarking on is South By Southwest in Autin Texas in March 2011. We are gathering a group of Columbus' best to do a showcase down in Texas. Andy and our good friend Genean are going down this next weekend to secure a venue. This is going to be a great thing for Columbus in general and the idea is to promote the city through the event. Columbus bands, Columbus beer, Columbus sponsors of all kind but really celebrating the music of C-Bus. I am really excited for the next year and I guess the whole point of this blog is help others and you will end up helping yourself. You will also feel good and meet a lot of cool people, hopefully in the end it will come back but if not you know you helped a bunch of others. And I am not saying I am awesome or I helped anyone but and I rule..just saying that this is my journey and I really have enjoyed it.

I often get frustrated when people say they "want to be professional musicians" but then opportunities come up and they just have other priorities or what not. I am all for doing music on the level you want but don't say you want to be professional and act like it takes no work. It takes a ton of work, tenacity, sweat, blood, tears, being really poor, and I just sometimes find that people don't understand that. That being said, I love creating my own success, opportunities, and allowing others to be a part of it. Lead by example rather than saying "you suck, I am not including you". I will include you as long as you put the work in with me and we work together. Anyway, now I feel like I am just rambling. In the mean time check out the house concert we are doing November 3rd with Raina Rose and Rebecca Loebe

More adventures

So an update on some of the things happening in my musical world. A great happy hour with Shaw Brothers at Woodlands happened September 1st thanks for all who came out and thanks to Michael Miller from LA for playing with us. Mellissa Fraley had a great debut at the open mic right after our happy hour set. Myself, Andyman Hopkins, and Adam Cummins backed her up and she sounded really good! Look for her in the future she is gonna be big! :) ASB played at Hookahville for the first time..that was awesome! I got to meet Anthony "AC" Cole the drummer for JJ Grey and Mofro, really nice and humble guy and incredible drummer. I have always loved Mofro and the drums that came with and never knew till recently who it was. I slipped him an ASB cd, hopefully he listens to it, who knows. JJ Grey and Mofro played a great set at Hookahville and I was upset at the crowd size. The crowd for Kottonmouth Kings was bigger and I just think that's a shame cuz Mofro is really good. Not to say Kottonmouth Kings aren't good, they do their thing but in my opinion Mofro puts on a better show. ASB played right between arguably the two biggest bands at the festival (well besides Hookah) but as far as national acclaim, we were between the two biggest bands. It was an honor to play and Hookah RIPPED there set on Saturday night. Ok so after Hookah was our marathon gig week,,,I actually love these weeks though they are tiring I feel just very productive and like a real professional musician, ha. So here is a run down. Sunday house party, Monday Upper Arlington Labor Day arts festival, Tuesday Pearl Market with Shaw Bros, Wednesday another Woodlands happy hour, Thursday Rumba with ASB/Wet Darlings/Molehill from Chicago (nice set guys!), Friday off (phew), Saturday at One Eyed Jacks in Dayton which was really fun despite feeling kinda sick, and tonight we are playing in Granville for Nat Reebs open mic as the featured artist, just Andy and me that will be fun..forget the name of the bar sorry!

Few things, the house party ruled thanks so much to everyone that made us feel welcome and despite this being a charity thing (our name was entered and someone bid on this house concert for a charity event) we were tipped over 200 bucks! Amazing! UA labor day fest was awesome thanks to all who came out early to see Andy and me it was fun playing that big of a stage with the duo. Bill Patterson, no joke you are fucking awesome at guitar. The Wet Darlings in general are just a perfect combo with Jenny Lute's obviously good vocals, Aaron Bishara's solid rocking drumming, Joe's highly under-rated solid as hell groove bass playing, and Bill being this architect with feedback and strange pedals that have to be held on music stands..it's just a killer killer band. I am really happy to see them having the success that they have seen because for one they are bad ass, and I know the brothers Patterson have been working a long time and they deserve every bit of success they get. Molehill, you guys were awesome too thanks for coming in I hope to play more shows with you in the future! Thanks to Rory (spelling?) the chef at One Eyed Jacks, Sayaka, Ellen, and all the other awesome staff for making us feel really welcome and the compliments were also really nice. We hope to continue to play OEJ in Dayton and bring the thunder every time! Phew, hears to next week!

Ahh..time flies

So I am not very good at updating this..ugh. What happened since the last time I posted. Wafflepalooza 2010....for one. This time it was more epic than last. Activity books were colored in, Speak Easy Three from Buffalo NY opened up, 3 waffle stations with like...5 cooks (with official WFLPLZA aprons) a menu including such favs as the Elvis Waffle which was bananas, peanutbutter, bacon, and honey..yeah I said bacon plus a lot of other musically named treats. My favorite (name that is) since I named it was the Rick James waffle..which was a plain waffle with powdered sugar, go ahead and do the math yourself.

My dad's happy hour retirement party at Woodlands was a success with the Shaw Brothers playing and Zoe's cupcakes, oh yeah good stuff. I think we even got a house concert out of it which is always a plus! After that show we went to the Black Keys concert. I got tickets at the LAST minute from my good friend Christina, thanks Christina!!! :) The concert was really good and Ginger got to go with me. I actually liked when they brought in the other players on bass and drums to fill it out a bit, it did not take away but it gave it a little extra oomph. I like them both too but it was cool to see a little more gusto behind them, just enough.

Tony's bar in Newark with ASB on the 14th. Pretty good crowd eventually, it was a bit empty at first. Kenny filled in on bass and did a really good job. We had some people come out to see us that actually knew who we were (thanks Ashley!) and invited us to a party afterward. We were all pretty tired but we went and enjoyed some Bud Lights and I personally enjoyed the hot tub, everyone else were being wimps! Who cares that the girl with the bloody foot got into the hot tub? Ha..ok that's gross but oh well it was fun I figure the heat killed all those germs..I'm still alive so I'm good. I felt slightly bad for the kid who was sitting on the side of the hot tub with his legs in the water that kept falling off...but like a trooper he kept getting right back on top of that tub, even though he would fall off two minutes later. Good times, good times.

August 20th we played at Rumba for the Keith Jenkins and Moving Parts CD Release. Matt Monta and HCB played and it was a bit weird seeing them play with a different fiddle player. Pete, ya did a good job! Now there are two Petes in the band..ha! I felt like our set was just reallly good that night. High energy and the room was packed full of our fans so that was nice. I like playing Rumba cuz usually we get a really good crowd and it's just so high energy. It was nice being able to play a short set and then go relax for once!

I also played two farmers markets, a nursing home, a frat bar, a benefit concert, a Jamaican themed party (including food..yum) at a country club in Chillicothe, and a hippie music festival called Ohmstead in which there was some excellent people watching to be had. My favorite was the older woman with the random drum that she danced with and went up to people at random to have them play on it and that was their ticket for her to leave you alone...ha. Thanks to the Ohms who had us out I really liked the festival and we all had a great time! Thanks to everyone else who set us up any of the previous mentioned gigs or anyone who came with us, good times by all. So this week starts my crazy gig week where I am playing today, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday (Fridays gig got cancelled..phew). Look for us on facebook search Andy Shaw Band and Shaw Brothers for our schedules! Whewwwww.

Spikedrivers at Goodale Park 2010

Spikedrivers at Goodale Park 2010

Columbus is cool in that if someone has an idea they usually can just do it. I read in the Columbus Alive today about a woman named Nikki Portman who was in Brooklyn recently and happened upon a thing called Brooklyn Flea. She thought she would bring the hipster friendly open air market idea to Columbus so she did just that. I attended Summer Flea, she kinda stole the name but she gets some points for some originality and it was really awesome. This is a music blog and this is a bit off topic but the one thing missing was in fact music. It seems like everything that I have been waiting for in C-Bus or everything I see in different cities I think is cool happens to come here like the week after I am thinking of it. In this case I was in Washington D.C. like maybe a year or two ago and was thinking man we really need some cool open air flea type hodge podge markets where people can just set up their shit (pardon my French) and just sell. Nice work Nikki Portman, and like I said my suggestion is just to add maybe a small acoustic act who can just either busk, you pay them (ideal) and have them bring a small p.a., or heck have a stage. Switch the acts up every time you do it and you are good to go. I was thinking about these types of markets and cool things to do, they are not just for us C-Bussers but for tourists. The more stuff we have going on all the time the more people will WANT to come visit this awesome city and happen upon something cool and in that realize the amazing stuff going on here every day that you may have to hunt to find otherwise. Anyway fun times. So before I went to Summer Flea I enjoyed some great FREE music at Goodale Park Music Series. The Spikedrivers are one of my fav bands in C-Bus and I keep thinking they are going to break up. They are all kinda all over the place, heck Megan lives in New York and John Boerstler just got a new liver, I guess it's more of a fear then anything because I love them so much! The people in the band are all so down to earth especially Megan and Jesse (the ones I know the most) and I can't say enough good things. So they keep on playing and I love it, somehow Megan finds the time to drive/fly back and fourth from NYC, you crazy Megan. Here are two little clips from today I took on my iPod nano, yes they have video cameras on them now. The audio is ok, but the video aint bad for a thinner-than-a-pencil heavy-as-a-spoon camera.

Knoxville, Nashville, Cinci, and beyond

So I have been gone for a week..just got back from Kentucky with my girlfriend Ginger visiting her family and her home town of Hazard Kentucky where she grew up. Lots of small little towns including Whitesburg, Jenkins, Kona, Millstone, and more. I learned a lot about the area, culture, coal towns, and it was really great. Now this is a music blog Chris start talking about music. Well we went to a bar called Summit City Lounge in Whitesburg. We heard it was the "liberal" "Hippie" bar in town so we checked it out, naturally. In fact it was pretty much the only bar in Whitesburg so it made sense to go. The first night we were there was a Tuesday and the characters were of all age and even some people from New Zealand were there. We heard there was karaoke going on so I told Ginger we have to stay and see what's going on with that. Wow, long story short these people can SING. We met a man named Fred and at one point the Karaoke machine was not working and Fred sang an acapella song probably one he learned in church and it was beautiful. He then continued to sing some country tunes in a beautiful deep voice. A slew of other people came up and sang right on key, right with the timing, and even in tune with the harmonies on the pre-recorded karaoke tracks. I thought karaoke was supposed to be drunk people that have never sung before..not the case in Whitesburg! Ok there was like one guy that was drunk and could not sing but everyone else was shockingly good. So the next night was the open mic that we had heard about previously online and then people were talking about it that Tuesday. Oh, I forgot I actually sang a Semisonic song called "Secret Smile" ..my first karaoke experience, I think I did alright! So I took my guitar into Summit City the next night and saw a ton of instruments all over, the place was more full then the night before and it was pretty full on a Tuesday. Apparently this is a hot open mic..or one of the only mics in the..I don't know tri-county area? We had metal, rap, folk, indie, jazz (flute! I might add), singer songwriters, young, old, experienced, inexperienced. From the night before we thought it would be all country little did we know the only bluegrass we heard was from a group from NEW ZEALAND!? Oh yeah and I played too, it was great I think I really won the room over I got a bunch of hugs after ward and some really nice comments about my voice so thank you all for accepting my music in a different town! Now I am not one to sterotype..I will ask Ginger if anything what to expect when going to her own home town and Ginger was shocked at the diversity and the talent. I was surprised myself that there was not more country or mountain music even in a "hippie" bar. So anyway, great times, great people and amazing scenery. I plan to go back to Summit City and play with Shaw Brothers really soon, we got several offers of people that said they'd let us stay at there house (heck, the bar itself houses musicians in the appartment above) and cook for us..woohee! I heart Kentucky.

So to go back in time Andy Shaw Band took a trip to Knoxville and played at this place called the Longbranch Saloon. Despite the bartender being ALSO the sound man we had a fun time playing. Ben Johnson filled in for Matt on bass and he did a great job. We met up with Keith Moody and his band and they also played with us. I love Keith Moody and his crew Steve and Manny they are such nice guys and very very hard workers. I learn so much every time I play with them they really are just nice guys and are willing to help us out so much. We played the next night in Nashville at The 5 Spot which is a really cool bar with awesome staff and cool lights made out of drums strewn all over the place. They have great food, a great stage, and a great sound system. The drum set they had in house was pissing me off cuz the hi hat stand and snare stand kept moving, that is my only gripe..but it was my fault for not just playing my own set since I had it in the car. The crowd was great and we just had a really fun time in Nashville hanging with Steve Wolfe meeting some of his friends partying at his house and playing with his dogs. Thanks for letting us stay Steve..reallly appreciate it! The next night we traveled to Cincinnati and played with The Ohms. We are playing The Ohmstead festival in August and thought it would be a good opportunity to promote that show and get in with their crowd a bit. They put on a hell of a show in their home town and were really nice down to earth guys. I especially loved the bass player "Psycho D"..or Donovan. He is actually a friend of Andyman Hopkins so I know he is good people. He is a bad ass bass player and knows exactly how to groove the bass reggae style, looove it. I look forward to the Ohmstead festival and the tix are only $25 for three nights!

Oh so after we had our mini (mini) tour we had some songwriters over to the Shaw house for a songwriter night. We have been doing these for maybe a year now? Every couple of months we invite as many songwriters as we can over and just share songs. We basically go one by one and then other musicians can join in while a songwriter is playing. This past Sunday was an AWESOME songwriter night where everyone ended up jamming on everyones songs. My favorite was when The Judah Method (aka Quinton) was rapping and all of us with our acoustic instruments (ok I ended up plugging in my electric guitar and doing some fun stuff on there) joined in with Andyman on the upright bass, Adam Cummins on brushes, and others on their respective acoustics some playing some beating on the side of the thing...it was a really cool experience. Zach Whitney is one of my favorite new singer songwriters. New to Columbus that is, he spent ten years I believe in Austin honing his craft. This man can work a room like no other and I can really learn a lot from him. When he plays, everyone listens. Zach knows how to project for one, he looks in the eyes of his listeners for two, and he plays guitar well, sings well, and has amazing lyrics that people can relate to. He has a song about his hometown becoming a suburb and them putting up a Target and man it just hit close to home. You hear songs about growing up in the country and the fast pace of the city but this song just hit straight to my experience. The suburbs are kind of that in between thing. When we were kids it was just a small little town (Gahanna where I grew up was a village, not yet a city) and little by little you see trees being cut down, farms being erased, fruit stands leaving, and the Target, and the mall, and the downfall (in my opinion) of what makes these little towns great. Now I love Target but I also love going and buying fruit from a farmer and looking at the beautiful field filled with deer across the road and that stuff can not be replaced, not for a looong time. So amazing songwriter night and I can't wait for the next one. That's it for now..phew long post!

Busy week!

Wow, it's all I have been saying to myself just a busy week for me. I got a call from Andyman Hopkins who is a recent addition to the Columbus music scene to play a gig with him on Friday in Dayton at One Eyed Jacks. I have never played a gig with him and was hoping he would make the call to ask me! So we will be playing with Adam Cummings, and Ian Hummel as the Slick City Ramblers doing mostly old school country covers with a few originals peppered in. We rehearsed Monday night and it went really well so I am pumped! Tuesday I went to the Taj Mahal open mic which is just really awesome, a young but very enthusiastic crowd just looking for music. I love playing this open mic run by Andy Gallagher of Trains Across the Sea fame. There was some crazy stuff that happened too inluding some 20's/30's style gypsy jazz and a touring band from Minnesota that included an accordian, banjo, fiddle, two guitars, a bass drum, a floor tom, and a keyboard..it was great! I have video to share soon. Wednesday was open mic at Woodlands and another greeaat night of music, I feel like I see 5 people every time I go out that I have never heard of and that blow me away. Phillip Allen was one of them, wow amazing songwriter/voice/guitar playing. So subtle in his guitar playing and the Martin he was rocking just sounded great. That in combination with Jason Quicksall working the sound board made a great night. Another guy who is great and I know but had not seen play (annoyingly) is Zach Whitney. He did this song and had the whole audience singing along, wow I envy that ability to work the crowd. "paper plates around the kitchen table and barbecue in the frying pan...." That's all I remember but it was a greaaat tune. Also I saw Phillip Fox who has been doing a wonderful job at Woodlands (I have booked him a few times) but I unfortunately had only heard him through online live videos he has done and recordings. It was nice to see him live as well and he did a greeat job. Man..it really is insane on how much good music there is in this town. If you are a fan and understand how good the music is here please tell someone, invite them to a show, pay their cover one time, have them come to an open mic..it's just oozing with talent and people need to know. I feel like it's getting there but there is no reason why Columbus and Austin shouldn't be in the same sentence when talking about music scenes. I stopped by Rumba to catch Zach Deputy last night after I snuck out of the open mic. This guy was surrounded by a fortress of gear and he used it well. Loop pedals, four mics, a couple drum machines, a guitar of course, some other gadgest I don't know what they do. He played some Michael Jackson sounding tunes (very well I might add) some Virgin Islands sounding island music, some Bob Marley and some funky tunes all together. This guy has a ton of talent.

Thursday is tonight I played at Lucky's with Theo Perry. Andy was on the road scouting out venues/vacationing/playing open mics and networking so it was just us. We actually had like 15 or more people come up and compliment us individually which is really nice. People don't always clap there but they definitely like it so that is cool. I am always trying to find the perfect song to get people going. I even got requests for Citizen Cope so I am going to have to learn some of that for sure, along with Sublime (duh..college crowd) and Guster..also makes sense.

Friday I had a solo show at Woodlands 5p-7p on the patio the first time they have done this. I had a good time but I felt like my voice was not up to par and singing 2 hours by yourself with an ok feeling voice is not all fun and games obviously. I did enjoy playing for the people though. Some songs I really felt went better than others. Overall a really good experience for me especially not playing out solo a ton. I then went on to Dayton with the Slick City Ramblers which is Andyman Hopkins, Adam Cummins, and Ian Hummel and I were the two "guests". Ian did a lot of the lead singing cuz Andy was playing bass. We did a bunch of old school country covers, I especially love the trucking one...ok there are like 1000 trucking songs, I can't remember the name but I love it. Andy and Ian eventually switched roles and Andy sang a bunch of great songs some original some not. Adam played brushes on the snare most of the night and then switched to cahon, sometimes we played a little cahon/brushes combo and that was really kicking. I tried to play bass for a song and quickly gave it to Andy..ha it was terrible. Overall a fun night we even got the crowd into it as at first they were kind of dead. One Eyed Jacks is always a great place to play..so many nice people and the staff is great, can't wait to play again with ASB.

So Saturday no gigs, I sleep and rest...that will be nice my voice was almost completely gone last night after the gig so I will try to drink lots of fluids and rest up to be able to sing next week. Phewwww what a nice long busy week, till next time America.

John Elliot House Show

House Concert, Cowtown

Man good good weekend. Unfortunately I missed the Surly Girl Parking Lot Blowout but you can check out highlights on donewaiting.com. I did however have a great weekend with shows of my own, ASB, Shaw Bros which I talked about in the last post. Sunday night we had a house concert with John Elliot who is from Minnesota originally and no is not the Floorwalker. I met John and Raina Rose at Rumba about two years ago Eric Nassau had told me about the show and I just loved their stuff. I followed both of them online through mailing lists and when we went to SXSW I caught up with them and told them both if they ever wanted to do a house show I was totally down. So Sunday we did it and it was well..I said it was great already! John's songs are brutally honest, sad at times, and very funny at other times. In the same breath he will make you laugh and then make you think. "Grandpa cheated all the time, grandpa told 'em where to sign kept his family alive...grandpa sat on the lake, grandpa ate a sandwich". "It's like I never learned to love no one ever walked me through it no one taught me how to do it no one told me that it's real and it's not enough to feel and it's not enough to promise and it's not enough to try".

So lots of great friends surrounded our couches and chairs and watched in awe as John Elliot played a heartfelt set. Eric Nassau played as well as the Shaw Brothers. I can't say enough about Eric's songwriting either, just love what he does. Monday night John and I joined Jason Quicksall for Cowtown Round. A happy hour show with New Water Moonshine brought a healthy built in crowd for a Monday night. The crowd kept around and somewhat shifted to a later crowd but was pretty steadily busy the whole night which was awesome especially for people to see John. I had a great time playing my solo original tunes it was nice to have that forum to do that. On Tuesday a whole bunch of friends joined me at Cafe Bella along with John (who decided to stay in town one more day because of the rain) and we all had a great dinner, felt like a big family. It is so great to have such good people surrounding me. We all tried to get John Elliot to move to Columbus..ha it was great. He lives in LA and I figure if you are gonna tour so much you might as well have a base that is super cheap...and more awesome then LA..ha actually I have never been so I can not hate. It just sounds expensive..I am from the midwest after all..I am cheap. So thanks to John for coming in we had suuch a good time. Andy and I (Shaw Brothers) now have plans to tour with John next May so I am suuuper stoked! I will post a video of the house concert ASAP.

Oh on another solo note. I am playing Woodlands (formerly Thirsty Ear) July 23rd 5pm-7pm for a happy hour type show. The actual "happy hour" shows are 6p-8pm but this one will be outside on the patio (weather permitting) and kind of overlap that show. Happy Hour starts at 4pm there so come on out and have a drink ($2 on ALL drafts ALL domestic bottles and ALL wells....pretty effing awesome..better than Bodega I believe). Sweet.

Long weekend..not over yet!

A long weekend for me and it aint over yet! Thursday night 2 Shaws and a Perry (That's Andy, me, and Theo) played at Lucky's stout house where we rotate singing lead. Andy Theo and I rotate playing drums, guitar, and singing. I play fiddle as well and Theo and Andy play backing guitar..it's a good time so come out if ya want every Thursday 10p-2am. Friday was Andy Shaw Band at Ruby's. Our "home base" is always so welcoming and the band Shrub opened for us. We had a great great crowd and just an awesome night all together, not much more we can say but thanks to all who came out! Saturday Andy and I played North Market Wine Festival 1p-3pm always a great people watching gig on the porch. A bunch of good friends came out to see us which was awesome considering we have played like 50 shows this weekend, the die hards are what keep us going! Saturday night was Callahan's on the roof top which is such an awesome gig. It is free to get in and you can chill on a rooftop and look at the downtown skyline and get a beer. The weather was perfect and the crowd was great, we sold some cds so that is always good. Sunday (Tonight) we are hosting John Elliot who is traveling through Ohio. John is an amazing songwriter we met through Eric Nassau when John was playing at Rumba a couple years ago with Raina Rose (also amazing). We connected again at SXSW 2010 with John and Raina and we talked about doing a house show so it is happening tonight at 7pm at my house with Eric Nassau and the Shaw Brothers. I am really excited to play tonight it is gonna be great. John will be performing at the Cowtown Round tomorrow night with Jason Quicksall and myself I am really excited about that as well.

After last nights Callahan's gig we headed to KOBO for the grand opening. We got word that LES Crew was playing with their former singer Ev who I am a huge fan of but we ended up missing the show. The former Oldfield's on High (the sign still says it..) was buuuumping. Tons of new faces (atleast at Oldfield's) were there and two DJ's wearing Jawa-esque hoodies with laser beam eyes came onto the stage and started an all out rave including a projector and a flat screen proclaiming "drugs, drugs, drugs" and "holy shit, holy shit, holy shit"...it was insane. Not the typical thing you would have seen at Oldfield's atleast not when I was ever there. I hope Kobo does well I am optimistic about it being a hot spot again and can't wait to play there again.

Slim White and The Averys are hosting the monthly Ranch Party Round Up tonight at Shrunken Head, sad I will miss it for the house concert. Slim is a great guy and his band The Averys lay down some great old school country, I am talking honky TONK, not this new pop Carrie Underwood crap. Gotta see them in action and the line up looks great. Follow their story through this great blog complete with country accent and all. That's it for today, till next time!

Been a While

Hey so wow it's been like a month since I updated and the Bixbys/Byxbe's/Bix-something..gig. So I will try to summarize a month..ha. The Shaw Brothers played about 3 and a half songs at the Columbus Arts Festival and then a torrential downpour happened. Tip Top was enjoyed by all who came with us after packing up our stuff and running through the rain. ASB played at a rugby tourney in Crew Stadium..my back gave out that day and Theo played drums on the fly..go Theo! A great guy named Roy Davis played at Rumba in Columbus and we some how connected through Facebook I think and we ended up busking together out on High Street. Great guy and great musician check him out, he's from Portland Maine. Sam Corbin and Jen Sygit came to town from Michigan..great bunch of people and amazing songwriters. I sat in with them at a happy hour set at Woodlands tavern along with Eric Nassau who I just love more and more..such a great songwriter peoples, get hip to the Nassau! Played North Market with Shaw Bros., Park Street Festival (so did Smash Mouth..yeah that's right), played Athens with LES Crew, watched Theo get reallly drunk, heard about an after party with a stripper pole (damn I missed it) where all the LES Crew guys danced on....(second though, glad I missed it)...stayed in the world's crappiest motel, phew that was bad right out of a 70's porno or horror film, you choose...oh and those last three gigs were all in one day! Made a video with Theo passing out ASB cds for the "Give Back Show"..hilarious! LES Crew MC's (some of them) hopped on stage with ASB during our set and spit a couple verses within "Indiscretion". I loved it, oh and G. Finesse some how popped up and did one too, he also performed with us at Comfest (more of that later). Sold a ton of CD's at Creekside Blues/Jazz Fest and had a great crowd, good to see some Gahanna people we never see anymore!

Ok new paragraph for some reason. So Comfest was fun this year but it was a little weird for me. The crowds were thinner, the police were obvious but not mean or anything, and the schedule was all over the place. They seemed to spread out all the good bands so as not to have really heavy crowds at night..oh and that was weird everything ended before dark almost..a bit odd for me. I did not get to see Mojoflo which I heard was reallly good. I loved the Phantods, Floorwalkers had a great set, Paper Airplane, Stucco Jones (gonna miss u guys!), Old Hundreds were cool..never saw them before..I feel like I missed a bunch of people I wanted to see. The rain forced us into the Offramp stage right before Stucco and that was kinda fun. We played an after show at Woodlands with $1 PBR fill ups in Comfest mugs, that was crazy! A great time had by all and Josh Krajcik Band also played and blew the people away.

I finished recording the DUETS album..finally! Matt Monta and I finally got together to do a track and now we have 10 tracks! I have been mixing with Jay in the past weeks so that is great great news. I need to find a venue/date for the CD Release.

ASB played at the Trolley Stop in Dayton last Friday and Park Street Tavern on Saturday. Dayton was fun and our good friend Mellissa is helping us a tooon with merchandise and working the crowd getting those mailing list sign ups so thanks soo much to her!

I have decided to start a project with Genean Grantham of Greenleif fame and Justin Campbell who plays drums all over including Descendre, Bum Wealthy, Max Power Trio and more..I hope he is not too busy for me! We are trying to find a bass player right now that can groove. We are starting with a framework of just solid groove drums, guitar, fiddle, possibly a banjo, and some soulful lyrics/melodies. That is what I want atleast..I talked it over with J and G and they both were vibing on what I had brought in on cd so let's hope it works out. I am really excited about it and have been writing a bunch!

Oh I went to Taj Mahal open mic the other night, wow it was packed. I was glad to see the inside stage was still intimate though and people gathered around to truly listen to most of the bands. There was an outside "stage" when I came because of the number of people but it was more like kids busking out in front of the restaurant/bar. No amplification and people were just kind of hanging out and not listening, that was a shame. I really enjoyed some songwriters I have never heard before. Josh Montgomery was one of them..good lyrics and he was doing some crazy stuff with his falsetto. Craig James is a musician I have run into a few times and have only seen him once, he played at Taj on Tuesday and he was great! Backed by Sharon on piano and Mike on guitar (sorry no last names at this time)...Craig finger picked his way into my heart with his lyrics on love and pain. I just feel like Craig just wants a good woman and maybe a beer and seeks for the simple life, his raspy vocals bring it all home. I really enjoyed the night at Taj with all the musicians seeming very passionate about what they were doing...ok maybe not ALL but most of them especially as the night went on.

A lot has happened in a month, the Columbus scene is vibrant and I keep hearing new bands that I had never heard before. I want to explore the even more sides of the scene I don't even know...man it's amazing to think how much more there is out there...till next time!

Open Mic

Ok I gotta check my Gmail calendar to see what has happened in the last week. Man..ok show at Lucky's with Theo and Andy last Thursday good times indeed apparently the owners have changed hands so we will see what happens there. I hope we still are able to play music on the patio every Thursday (well, most Thursdays..June 17th we will be at Dan Dougan's Listening Hours at Gateway Film Center 8p-11p). Friday we traveled to Delaware to play at Bixby's/Cabo Wabo/Coco Lindo/Bixby's? This place has changed hands a few times and has changed names and concepts a lot more times. Well ok, the concept since the last time we were there is the same but the name is back to the original Bixby's or Bixbyes..not sure the spelling. Let's just say there were not a TON of people there, well there was a huge table at first and when they left, it was like crickets. To summarize the night after that I will attempt to do so in a few words. Break, chips, great salsa, very tall beer, discussion with manager, chips, check cut almost in half, drunk couple, girl passed out in woods, manager cursing a lot, more yelling, leave early, drive home, Cafe Bella...hey atleast it ends well right?

Friday was a busy day. Before the Delaware gig Andy and I played "How Sweet it is to be Loved By You" for my dad as a surprise at his school (he just retired). That was really great to see the kids sing along. Then Andy and I played a happy hour biker night of all things at Gaswerks in the Arena District. It was hot but a good time I think some bikers actually liked what we were doing, I played some Johnny Cash and Hank I figured that would make sense, they seemed to dig it. Then on to Bixby's which you know that story.

Ok so on to Saturday where Andy and I (Shaw Brothers) were slated to play Arts Festival. We arrived at around 3ish I think, for our 3:30 slot. Since the budget got cut a few years ago there is no acoustic stage I believe there is just one stage for the bigger bands. Well, all I know is that we have not had a stage the past two years we have played and we have had to supply our own PA. All good, we are totally used to this especially with the duo, we set up in 10 minutes. So there was a tent in the parking lot of Batelle Hall of CCAD and we are technically supposed to be "roaming musicians". Andy and I kind of surpass that and just set up our PA in the tent. By the first song we had probably 20 people watching us, in and around the tent. By the 3rd song Andy switched to djembe and I took my acoustic guitar. As I was strumming around the third chord of the song a woman came over and basically was like "you all have to leave..there is a huge storm coming". So I had to stop my song and figure this all out. We opted to just have everyone come up close and we'd turn the electric off and do it acoustic. People were into it and the one volunteer girl said it was cool. I started to play and another girl comes up "this is not an option, you have to leave"...I said "we are unplugged we are just going to wait it out the other girl said it was cool"...."oh ok that's fine".... I am standing there with my guitar kind of dilly dallying at this point wondering what to do...a third girl comes up "this is not an option"....OK OK we are not playing the Arts Fest this year, I get it. Ha. All we wanted to do was play a set for some great people. We had so much fun last year and sold a ton of cds we were just really upset we could not play. It ended up raining pretty hard and Melissa, Ginger, Andy, Theo, Michelle, and I went to Tip Top and had a great lunch. The sun came out and we went back to the festival but the Shaw Brothers did not play a set, bummer.

Saturday night we had a night off, wow?

Sunday my back/neck totally gave out and I was in tears...not sure why just a lot of drumming/violining/guitaring I think is taking it's toll and I need to find some good excercises to do soon. I am getting a massage next week! I will ask her about stretches and such. So ASB had a gig at Crew Stadium for the college rugby tournament and Theo ended up playing drums. It was only like 4 songs or 3 so I heard he did well, thanks Theo! That sucked I didn't get to play but oh well gotta stay alive, luckily it has gotten better...phew more in a bit.

Michigan, Hoggy's, Open Mic

ASB played in Michigan and Dayton last weekend. Good shows all around White's Bar in Saginaw Michigan is a cool place, people buy cds and they have not even HEARD you play. The Banana Convention despite them not taking themselves seriously (or it would seem that way) are musically great, and great people as well. I always enjoy hanging with those guys and wish when we got together we would do so more. We played One Eyed Jacks for the first time in Dayton and it was very cool indeed. Good food, good people (shout out to London and Melissa and Ro for driving out) and a good set overall, I felt really good about that performance.

Tonight after a torrential downpour and tornado sirens...oddly enough I went and played with a band called...wait for it...SIRENS. Molly Pauken, Kay Harris, Pete Carey, and Jeff Peters (tonight it was Louis Chamouse filling in). They play every Wednesday at Gahanna/New Albany Hoggy's. This is just a hidden gem of a group and night to see live music...atleast if you are in the scene I am in, it is definitely not hidden to people that come cuz they pull a crowd. I was fortunate to go on tour with these guys (as Jonalee White band) and I looove playing with them. Kay Harris has one of the best voices I have ever heard, Molly Pauken is a BEAST on the bass and she is a beast on the guitar and anything she touches really, Pete is great, and Louis was great too filling in for Jeff who I love. Anyway so I asked them if I could sit in tonight and they let me play a few tunes. Man hearing Kay sing "The Ocean" is just a treat. Oh the other song tonight that really blew my mind was "The Whipping Post" by the Almann Brothers..wow Kay is just a bad ass.. I will try to get some brief video I took but gotta see if the sound sucks or not.

After this I went to Thirsty Ear (ok it's called Woodlands Tavern now..) to get some money for booking I do there and also to check out the open mic. Great crowd, Molly Winters is doing a great job with the open mic and a ton of great people out. I feel like playing all the time I know a lot of people in town but there are continually more and more people that I have never met that are doing their thing right in Columbus. Andyman Hopkins (who I do know..fortunately) asked me to hop on stage with him and that was great. I met his band the Slick City Ramblers who are awesome and a few others tonight I hadn't met..Columbus is just bursting with talent. Eric Nassau is one of my favorite songwriters in town and I played fiddle with him too, so awesome. Good night tonight.

ASB plays June 19th at Skully's we are auctioning off ..or raffling off a FREE house concert for you and all of your friends (if ya win) so that should be cool. We are giving away gift certificates and what not as well..it has been branded "The Give Back Show"..Billy's Playhouse, LES Crew, and ASB I am excited about this one. Until next time...

Hmm..Ravari Room, Michigan...what else?

Well the Andy Shaw Band had a great time in NYC. We are back now and just played a show at Ravari Room with Playhouse and One Under, two bands we have not had the pleasure to share the stage with yet. They are both great bands Billy's Playhouse brings a great live improv show with Carlos Fisher wailing there back on the drums, a sitar player, Mateo on B3 and everyone else was just awesome too. I especially like Carlos with his drum and bass beats..man he is sick. One Under killed it too and Justin Campbell sat in on drums with them, another beast behind the "skins" if you will.

I played the bluegrass jam the other night at Dicks, always a fun time..constantly trying to remember all the songs, they have such a big catalogue. The are slowly seeping into my brain and I love playing with those guys.

We are actually in a Red Roof Inn right now on our way to Saginaw Michigan to play with our friends The Banana Convention. They are a fun group of guys *and girl* we met a few years ago and I was trying to think of how we met or who we met through. I really can't remember...they are really good people and killer musicians, they used to ride around in a short bus they dubbed "The Cool Bus". The last time we saw them in C-Bus it had broken down, :(..hopefully they will revive it soon. ASB played last night in Dayton (where we are now) at One Eyed Jacks, a new spot for us. I really liked the place, good size, they had food which was pretty good (I just had fries), a great beer selection, plenty of pool tables and good people that jammed out. We sold like 10 CD's and by WE I mean our very helpful friends Melissa and Ro..thanks guys you rock! Our friend Kelsey was there and London who we met last time at Trolley Stop so that was awesome to see everyone, Dayton has been good to us.

My duets album is coming along and all I need is ONE more track to get ten. Matt Monta and I wrote a song waaay back and have finally decided to record it. It has taken a long time to get each other on the same schedule for recording but it will happen next week I think..finally! Once this is done I am going to be mixing it with Jay maybe adding a few things and then it's time to print it! I will be heavily promoting the album so look out for that, still untitled..any suggestions? It may be called Just Duet..if I don't get any suggestions...ha. Kidding.

I am still doing some booking for Thirsty Ear Tavern which actually officially changed its name to "Woodlands Tavern" which is really fun. The show I booked last night on a Thursday at 74 people at it, NICE work Phillip Fox and The Olde Souls! Thanks for making a great show. Let's see what else is going on? ASB got into the Park Street Festival. If you don't know about this one it happens every year and like a huuuge amount of people come out like 10,000 I have never been to it but they close the streets over by the North Market (Gaswerks, Brothers, Park Street Patio, etc..) and I think they may have vendors and a few live stages. This year none other than SMASH MOUTH is headlining...WTF? That is crazy! I didn't even know they were around still. Blues Traveler will also be there and some other local groups including ASB! Woot.

a busy week and it's off to NYC on Wednesday

This past week phewww it's over. Let's see Monday booking meeting at Thirsty Ear, Tuesday busking (more about that later), Wednesday gig w/Andy at Beekman Park for an OSU Engineer picnic, Wednesday night writing with Matt Monta for duets project, Thursday Lucky's gig w/Andy and Theo, and Friday a gig in Athens with ASB, Saturday 2pm blistering cold gig outside w/Shaw Bros. and finish the night off at Club Diversity another Shaw Bros gig.....ok Sunday...DAY OFF!!! Spent time with the lovely gf Ginger took her out to Marcella's (mom was out of town) had a great lazy day!

So I met Andyman Hopkins last week and we had a common interest: busking. He has toured all over the world and has recently planted himself in Columbus. I had never played with him and had only heard him on myspace in a couple videos, needless to say I loved it and busking with him was exhilrating (since I didn't know any of the material) and humbling (this guy kicks ass). We had a great cajun lunch at DeLevee (try it, it rules) chatted with some great folks, and made around 11 bucks each!

Thursday was our first gig at Lucky's for our acoustic patio sessions with Andy, Chris, and Theo..we don't call it Andy Shaw Band only because we aren't playing a TON of ASB songs...we may have to use that name soon though it's kinda confusing. It was a great night, we added drum set this year..a tiny version of my real kit. Bass drum, snare, and hi hat, and it worked out great...we will be there every Thursday starting in June.

Saturday Andy and I played the Gahanna "Spring Fling" and it was like 20 degrees outside. We showed up to a stage with no one in front of it and half the vendors (that woulda been the only audience) leaving. The other vendors were way far away from the stage. We set up, and played, the wind blew our speaker over...so we were like..well we're getting out of here. The woman organizing it came over and was like "can you play just a little longer?". So Andy and me being the troopers we are, set our speakers on the floor and played maybe an hour more...felt like 4 hours...in the blistering cold. How the hell does it go from 85 to like 45 in a day??

A busy and interesting week to say the least! Wednesday we head to New York for a gig in Brooklyn with our friend Pezzettino on Thursday at Goodbye Blue Monday, Friday at The Bitter End, and Saturday at Sinclair's Pub in Long Island..I am very excited hopefully the weather is good for driving!

Bluegrass Jam at Dick's..Lucky's...engineer picnic?

Andy and I just played at Fred Beekman Park, it's that huge sports park on Lane and Kenny wow, confusing..finally we found our gig after searching that behemoth park. It was a nice little picnic for the electrical engineering students. Went and played the Bluegrass Jam at Dick's Den and took some video, since I have been problems embedding them I will just share the youtube link, unfortunately I have found limits on my iPod as a video camera but that is to be expected, it peaks in volume a lot, my apologies. Here is a cover of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" -- not EXACTLY bluegrass but it's all related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGE7_0iTXS4

Andy, Theo, and I will be playing on the Lucky's Stout House patio on High Street again this warm season. We had a great time last year and this year will be even better. We will play tonight (May 6th) and then the next two Thursdays we will be off because of out of town gigs (NYC next week!) and then we will continue our "residency" when we get back. We will play some ASB tunes, some Shaw Brothers tunes, Theo originals, Chris originals, Andy originals, and a bunch of fun covers too..it'll be half acoustic half rocking out adding a drum set this year..I think I'll bring a bass drum, snare, and hi hat so a "half kit" if you will. I love playing this patio always filled with good people and just a great atmosphere for music under the stars. 10p-2am with great drinks come out and support us!

Buskin' in the Bus

Here is a short video shot from my iPod, wow not bad huh? I woulda been playing fiddle but I can't do both (yet). The first of many busking videos. So can I name the group "Columbuskers"...ha..or "Go Busk"..instead of Go Bucks..ok I'm done.

Busking, OCB, ASB at Rumba...more??

So I have decided Columbus needs more busking musicians and the response I have gotten on Facebook alone shows that apparently I am correct. The other week I thought of an idea to have a busking "association" or group like the Columbus Busking Group...I even thought of maybe doing like "The C-Buskers" or "Columbusking"...I dunno, kinda clever maybe? Well, anyway lots of people on FB were intrigued and really the idea is just to get more people playing in the streets, liven up people's days walking to the bank, help raise awareness about the music scene to people that have never been to see a live band in their own town, or make Columbus THAT much cooler to people that are traveling through the city. So besides making a name or anything official really we just need to go out and start playing on the street, bottom line. So we did it, and it was great. My good friends Jake Young on banjo/guitar, Steve Moeller on dobro, and Chris (sorry, I haven't learned your last name) on upright bass joined me a couple weeks ago in front of Northstar during Earth day, it was packed cuz they give away free veggie burgers (shh) and all my dreams came true, well sorta. A woman that apparently lived next to FloRida in town from Miami loved us and was just shocked at how talented we were, she took a business card and a cd and was just very nice, despite her only knowing what bluegrass music was from the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" she was very nice..I think she even gave us a 10 in the ol' guitar case. So, one objective already done, make Columbus THAT much cooler to people from out of the state/city...nice! We then had a girl from CCAD newspaper (what?) I went to CCAD and they never had a newspaper, not a student lead one atleast...she then told us it was the first issue. So she asked us our band name and said she was going to write us up, niice! Us not having an official band together besides the less-than-official Dick's Den bluegrass jam on Tuesdays...we called ourselves "The Streetside Hillbillies"...ha! So more attention locally..and we made a few bucks doing it. Apprently when I left the other guys were asked by Northstar to stick around and play on the patio, I am not sure if they did but originally I thought there would be so much dissent but people welcomed the busking. Great times! We went out this week as well in front of Funky and Functional and they thanked us for playing and said we were actually bringing people into their business, niice. We met a mailman that plays pedal steel, a dude from Pittsburgh looking for local music, and a woman that got right in our faces and conducted..I think she gave us a $5 or $10! So busking has been great, it's nice to go out on a beautiful Columbus sunny day and just play some music with some great people, I am very happy to have met the Jake, Steve, Nicole, Chris and all the guys from the bluegrass jam and am excited to busk with other people in the C-Bus community.

So my duets album is coming along fast,,,finally! I have 9 tracks recorded!! And it looks like Matt Monta and I will finish the album out with an even 10. Dave Huffman of Jakob Freely fame works for the Ohio Center for Broadcasting and is a good friend. He and the Underground Columbus team at OCB will be helping me promote the duets album and really emphasize the community aspect of it. Getting C-Bus musicians together to collaborate is one of the great things about this duets album..in addition to the album greatly helping me in the process of writing, recording a ton, and learning off of great musicians (Megan Palmer, Heidi Howes, Larry Cook the list goes on) it is about collaboration in the end and I really want to just emphasize that and see this as a community driven project. So I will be meeting with Dave/OCB soon to talk about how we want to do this. He wants to have artists interview each other and this will be a good opp to do that. Another idea he had was to have musicians cover other musicians from the local scene which I love, I gotta start working on some tunes..maybe Josh Krajcik or Floorwalkers or hmm Hebdo maybe.

ASB played Rumba last night with Los Caminos. I have played with Paul Gaul at the bluegrass jam but have not seen him play that Tele for a while and maaan I forgot how good he was. As far as "chicken pickin' goes in this town, I don't know anyone that can match him besides Mike Nugen of McGuffy Lane fame (this video is goofy but it shows a little of Mike's amazing guitar work http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF8wmm6Uezc), but that is my experience..touring with him last year. To be fair I don't really know anyone that does that except those two guys and man it's just a pleasure to watch Paul rip that guitar in half! The whole band is awesome as well but man Paul, cheers. The crowd was great and the energy was greater last night, wow. We had our good friend Monica up on stage for Damien Rices' "Volcano" and Terrence Farmer up on sax for some tunes, it was just a fun show, though I always have a hard time w/sound at Rumba. Jason does a good job doing sound but I think it's just the way the sound bounces in that corner and my ears feel like bleeding even despite my earplugs shoved deep into my canals. Thanks for all who came out..man lot's going on!

Cowtown Round & Dan Dougan's Listening Hours

Most Mondays at Rumba Cafe you will find an amazing songwriter round..I saw most because every once in a while a traveling band is coming through that needs a gig and the round is either moved to after the show or does not happen. Regardless, check the Cowtown Round out where Jason Quicksall and Jesse Henry (of the Spikedrivers, Royal Tycoons, and a new un-named band..I'll get to that in a minute) play host to one other songwriter either local, or traveling through. The three songwriters all sit on stage and play in a round one after another. The night is always amazing with Jason bringing is sometimes quirky, jazzy, pop, folk singer songwriter tunes and Jesse with his whiskey infused, Arlo Guthrie tinged, talkin' blues, monster truck folk rock...ha. I hate describing music in one word or genre so I choose a lot of words. Point being Jesse and Jason are two of the most talented songwriters in town that I know and it is a treat to see both of them every week (if I can make it) and then add a third songwtier and ya got magic, and usually that third is always awesome too. Tonight it was Micah Schnabel from Two Cow Garage. Two Cow has been around for about 9 years and is one of those bands that just tours a ton, which is so awesome to me. A band that makes you want to kick yourself in the butt and just get on the road and do it. According to Wikipedia Two Cow has clocked over 300,000 miles on the road, wow. I will talk more about Micah when I post the video of him. Oh I said I'd talk about Jesse's new band. So I had a gig postponed (when does that happen?) on Thursday and was able to go out to Dan Dougan's Listening Hour at Gateway Film Center. Originally Dan Dougan, former owner of Little Brothers (RIP) ran this acoustic night at Bristol, apparently Bristol is retarted and did not want this at their bar, or it just was not the right fit, who knows...anyway the Gateway is amazing. A room that fits maybe 35 seated is the scene for the Thursday night "half un-plugged" night. Performers sing not into stage mics but very nice mics (cardio condensers? perhaps?) and basically play all acoustic, when I watched Larry Cook on bass did plug in to a small amp. Megan Palmer played a great first set with Larry on bass, Jimmy Castoe on drums (love him), Jen Miller sang back up on a few, and Jesse Henry played and sang as well. Up next was...well Jesse Henry and his new band which is un-named so far. Caleb Powers on mando and guitar, Jake Young on banjo, Steve Moeller on dobro, and Chris (insert last name..sorry) on bass. More of a bluegrass sound than I have ever heard Jesse, this ensemble provides a warm bed for Jesse's songs to rest upon. Tasteful, good harmonies, and they allow Jesse to shine without overpowering. Good stuff. Dan Dougan is a great guy too by the way, I wasn't sure if I had met him before but he is just a super nice guy, I asked him if Andy and I could play the listening hours and he was enthusiastic in saying yes so look fort hat in June. Below is the video of Jason at this weeks Cowtown Round with Theo backing him up, more Cowtown videos soon.

Chicago, return to Ruby's, where am I?

We just got back from a gig in Chicago on Sunday, we being the Andy Shaw Band. A place called The Horseshoe was the venue and Keith Moody and his band played alternating sets with us. We had a great time and Chicago was very welcoming. Fortunately we got in on Friday night (played Saturday) so we got to check out some of the music scene there like a local band called Waterstreet who are friends of Theo's. Playing covers such as the Raconteurs "The Level" and Radiohead's "15 Step" the guys had chops. They played mostly originals with a style that ranged from AC/DC hardcore rock and roll to Queen like harmonies to Zeppelin hip shaking rock with booming Bonham drums. I enjoyed their set and thought the guys were super talented, especially the guitar player on the right..just figured out his name is Joe who was the one that sang lead only some of the time. He did a song at the end that was real slow but still rocked and it was just a beautiful song. Check them out here. We checked out a reggae club called the Wild Hare and if someone could tell me who we saw, that would be cool cuz I could not understand a word the lead singer said. That being said, you know he was playing some authentic music. I was a bit dissapointed because there was absolutely no bass player or guitar player, or really keyboard player. There was a guy on keyboards that kind of played but mostly hit a small box I assume was controlling all the pre-recorded bass and other parts. The drummer chick was rocking with lead vocals on some tunes and drums on all (obviously) and the lead singer was good as well. Our friend Genean Grantham of Greenleif and Burning River Band fame came along with use and having been to Jamaica said that the set was pretty authentic even with the pre-recorded parts. Good times in Chicago, hit up some deep dish, got to see my aunt and uncle (thanks for allowing us to crash and the amazing breakfast!) and saw some cool bands.

Wednesday ASB is returning to Ruby Tuesday Live for the first time since our departure from the regular Monday gig. We are playing with Keith Moody (played with him in Chicago) out of Nashville and with G. Finesse and the N.S. who recently took over the Wednesday spot held down by the Floorwalkers. I absolutely love Tony's (G. Finesse) style and wish him well in taking over the spot, good times will be had tomorrow night for sure.

Friday we play at Oldfield's on High bringing back our good friends from Michigan Banana Convention to C-Bus, they are a sight (and sound) to see (and hear)...so hope to see some people out to that show for sure.

In other news, I am finishing up the Duets album (yet to be named) and just tying up lots of loose ends with that, getting songwriters together is like pulling teeth and with my schedule it is even harder. Hopefully this week Caleb and I will finish our song and Joey Gardina and I will get ours done Sunday. Phew...catching up on everything is making me dizzy.

SXSW 2

One of my favorite shows at SXSW we attended was at Flipnotics Coffeespace. This video is John Elliot with Raina Rose, Anthony Dacosta, Andrew Pressman (bass), and Trevor Smith (banjo)..I hope those last two names are right. Ok, I know this is supposed to be Columbus and the music scene here but my adventures in C-Bus and music take me all around so it is inevitable some artists will come in and out from other places. These musicians need to be promoted..they are so good (in my opinion). Oh, and a good tie in to C-Bus is that John Elliot is playing the Cowtown Round on July 12th. Jason Quicksall will be there as always and he asked me to fill the third spot...sweet!

Good times..side note from SXSW

So I got a text today from good ol' Eric Nassau. The man is a great songwriter, a great person, and basically a legend in C-Bus as far as I am concerned. He is the guy that has introduced me to so many awesome awesome people. I will be posting some videos of Raina Rose and John Elliot most likely soon whom I saw at SXSW and about a year and a half ago in Columbus..the connection from them was made through Eric. So anyway, he texted me today to come over and play some music. Now I had been coming down from the high in Austin so I was still tired and was not gonna go, after a few texts and a call later he convinced me. So glad I went. We jammed out on some old time fiddle tunes, bluegrass stuff, cajun, and I met Jen Sygit and Sam Corbin who were staying at Eric's house just for a night or two while coming through C-Bus on tour. They are from Michigan and both super nice and great songwriters. Being more of a "song" person than an instrumentalist, I was ready to jam out today on just songwriter stuff, I just love accompanying a good song....anyway we did a lot of stuff but that is where my heart lies. Here is a video of Jen Sygit playing one of her original tunes, great stuff and I looved playing her really old Gibson guitar, so awesome.

SXSW 1

Just got back from South By Southwest (SXSW). So awesome. Lots of great performances and debauchery. I will attempt to summarize as best as I can. We will also be posting on the ASB blog so check it out for more. The first video I am posting is one of the first bands we saw called Vandaveer. This was a showcase at a great little wine bar called Uncorked up on the hill just a bit away from the main strip in Austin, atleast from what I could tell not knowing the area very well. It was super chill and there were some great acoustic performances going on. This duo is out of DC I believe and I wish I would have gotten more footage. Check them out at myspace.com/vandaveer, really good stuff.

Last Floorwalkers, Thirsty Ear, crazy good week of music

So last Wednesday was the last weekly Wednesday Floorwalkers show at Ruby's..can we say packed? Man, they were like sardines and the constant flow coming in and out of people was amazing. Good job my friends, you are doing something right for sure, wow. So after the Alana Benefit there was the Floorwalkers crazy last show highlights of the night for me -- Tony aka G. Finesse throwing a verse down on "You've Got To Learn" man he is sick, by the way he is taking over Wednesdays at Ruby's so I wish you luck man for sure. Oh yeah they played "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday"...just had to do it, it was pretty perfect I will say, I almost teared up a bit. Good job guys, I wish you much success...not like they are leaving Columbus or anything but it does feel kinda like the end of an era. So after that it was Thursday where I worked on one of the duets album songs w/Caleb Powers. If ya don't know Caleb, he has got awesome loong brown hair,,I'm talking long and looks like he may be found at any metal show (but it's more likely a jazz set at Dick's Den) he is a great mandolin player not to mention guitar, fiddle, and banjo. We have been writing this tune and he has been kicking my ass on it for the duets album and it is almost done, one more practice I think and then it gets recorded March 7th whether I like it or not..thanks Caleb! This album so far has been a great learning experience and Caleb in particular has pushed my guitar playing skills to place I never knew I could go (nor wanted...ha) but the song I think is gonna come out really awesome. So then I taught my fiddle group at Wellington School and then went to a gig at The Gateway on campus. This was for a veterinary conference that our friend Christina set us up with. Great gig, free food and beer, free money (ha) and yeah all around good times. Friday the Royal Tycoons played a happy hour set (that I booked) at Thirsty Ear, I was not there to see it but I heard it went well. I showed up later for Mojoflo and The Pinstripes who were this awesome ska band ala Toots and the Maytals and newer bands such as the Aggrolites (who I just got into, gooood stuff) these young guys are really good check them out, they are out of Cincinnati. The Ear was packed and of course Mojo did a great job. I ended the night at Dick's Den to see Derek Dicenzo and his band rip it up jazz style (btw, saw Caleb there). I am not a huge jazz head but Derek rips it up like I said...and Nate Anders on vibes?? DAMN. Ok so then Saturday Angela Perley, The Lewis Brothers, and Fodder Beets played happy hour at Thirsty Ear (another gig I booked) it was packed as well..and then Jason Quicksall and his band and Andy Shaw Band rocked out the rest of the night. I really liked the combo Jason had up there with Chris Guthrie on drums, good stuff,,he really is a great drummer. Sunday...well I did not do any real music stuff it was a loong great music week I needed a break. Go Columbus music scene!

Alana..other stuff

Amazing time last night at Rumba for the Alana Howard beneft. Alana looked great, I was so amazed how good she looked her recovery has been amazing it seems. Apparently she has had the fastest recovery at OSU hospital from that sort of injury or something like that...I heard it through a second hand source so did not get full details, but wow! The support was amazing last night, I would love to hear an official number on what was raised monetarily but if everyone paid atleast $7 at the door they had to have raised atleast $700, here is hoping it was more than that! I had a blast playing with Mat Monta and HCB, Andy Shaw Band, and a surprise performance with Jesse Henry and Steven Fox of the Spikedrivers (with Tom Lasky from Floorwalkers on drums). The Spikedrivers were booked but for some reason could not play and I saw Jesse, Steve, and then later Tom jump up on stage on drums. I went up to the stage and was like "I got my fiddle...just in case..I'm just saying if ya need it" and good ol' Jesse was cool enough to let me up on stage. I have wanted to play with Jesse/Spikedrivers for a long time so I was really happy. I really wanted Jesse to pull out some tunes from their cd (I know their cd like the back of my hand) but instead he pulled out some lesser known (atleast by me) ones like "Dicks Den Waltz" and "Monster Trucks" ..I love Jesse, hell of a songwriter. At one point Steve was playing "Mountain Dew" and I could not tell what key he was in cuz some times the way he sings is kind of indescript, awesome ...but sometimes I can't tell what key he is in. And Jesse's guitar was not loud enough, I had a solo and luckily was in the right key (G). Anyway, good times had by all it was like a family reunion w/all these awesome musicians in the room, maybe a giant jam with everyone in the room woulda been the cherry on top...or maybe just a cluster fuck..ha. ASB plays Saturday with Jason Quicksall at Thirsty Ear, I'm off to see Floorwalkers LAST Ruby's show.

For Alana

Tonight there is a benefit for our friend Alana Howard at Rumba. Alana is a good friend who was in a sledding accident recently and was in the hospital for quite a while. She fractured her skull and was pretty badly hurt. So tonight the great music community of Columbus will have the first (of hopefully many) benefit to help with some medical costs for her. Here is the facebook event. I will be playing in Matt Montas band as well as Andy Shaw Band. Floorwalkers, Spikedrivers, The Wet Darlings, Jason Quicksall, a ton of good bands so please come out and donate, $7 at the door but donate more!

Lately..

Thursday night ASB played at Thirsty Ear Tavern with the LES Crew. These guys are sooo good, another grrrrrrreat (Tony the Tiger anyone?) C-Bus band, man this city is oozing with talent. This hip hop crew started as a three piece and grew quickly to a live band with up to eight members. First of all, everyone in the band but the guitarist, drummer, and bass player raps...WTF? AND they are all good, and one of them in addition to rapping, Ev Jones has a beautiful soulful voice ala Ceelo. Oh yeah, and DJ Red Sun also has a great voice, this band alone is oozing. My good friend Carlos, a recent import from New York, who is a great supporter of ASB is now helping out with management for LES. Not only is he great support, he also is a great performer. Carlos hopped on stage w/LES and blew the roof off the place, such energy, look for good things from him in the past, he is currently working on his own band with members of LES and other local C-Bus favs. So before I got on that tangent, the Thirsty Ear. It was a great night, tons of supportive people. I worked all day today on a video that will be coming out soon using footage from that night. Thanks to Ginger and everyone else who helped film the night.

Friday night I played with Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band at Mickey's Bar on 5th in Grandview. This place is interesting, Bree (singer/cello/goddess in MMHCB) described it in a text asking people to come out to the gig Friday as "just like grandpa's basement". Only such characters come out at Mickey's, you have to just go to experience it. It is normally a karaoke bar but has a decent sized stage and room. The Resistors played after us and jammed out the rest of the night. We ended early at around 11pm and I left during the Resistors set to catch Tony aka G. Finesse and his N.S. Crew. AGAIN, with the live hip hop bands, so good to see this stuff coming up in the local scene, and by that I mean the scene I am involved in. I am sure there have been tons of live hip hop bands (have there?) grace Columbus but I am just getting hip to this and I love it. I know Stretch Lefty has been doing there live band hip hop thing for a while which I love. Also rappers like Envelope and Catalyst blow it up but I don't believe they have live backing bands. For me it makes a huge difference. I caught the last part of G. Finesse's set at Ruby's and it was great. He even threw in a cover of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" by Chili Peppers and spit his own verse on top of it, niiiice. Tony has amazing stage presence and you can feel his passion for the art. The horns (Evan Oberla, Terrence Farmer, and Colin (forget his last name)) in addition to the guitar, bass, drums (Mike Twice shout out) just rounded the groove out. Oh, and I missed Kristen Marie but if there weren't enough going on for you, she plays cello with this hip hop crew. Something to definitely see.

Tonight I play at Bernies, last time I played there there was barely any sound equipment, I think the sound man was sleeping during our set, and plenty of charm...if ya want to call it that. Actually, if ya put that stuff aside Bernies aint that bad. It does not pretend to be anything it is not, a basement under High Street on campus. The vibe is usually pretty chill there and you find some cool people that are into the music so I am excited to see what happens tonight. Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band can be found here if ya haven't heard it.

I am having a songwriter night coming up at my house where people gather around and share new songs/old songs or whatever they want in an acoustic setting. It has been a great thing every time I put one together. This time it is a pot luck, let me know if you want any info about this, anyone can come. My duets project is coming along as well, not sure if I wrote about it but Kerry Henderson and I just recorded a track. 5 tracks down, about 5 to go, ideally. That's it for now PEACE.

The Floorwalkers

The Floorwalkers - Behind Beyond from Ohio Sessions on Vimeo.

You can not deny Jon Elliot's voice is smooth as butter, rich as chocolate, and as smooth and silky as anything. The Floorwalkers have been doing their weekly residency at Ruby's on Summit for two years or so and are about to have their "Last Stand". They recently did some sessions with Ohio Sessions, can't say enough good things about Andrew Baasch. I picked this video because it is a newer tune and I just really enjoy it. The comic relief halfway in provided by good ol' Theo is also a plus. I particularly like the video of them on the Cota Bus as well, if you have not seen them in a while please go check them out soon. The last Ruby's would be a great one to go to. Yes, it is a Wednesday and I don't care you have to work early. Look for big things from these guys, they are super nice guys and really talented, humble musicians.

Super Desserts

Super Desserts - Gotta Lotta Sun from Ohio Sessions on Vimeo.

Super Desserts is a really cool band. All acoustic, fiddles, banjos, woodwinds, poppy, catchy, fun, and well arranged. Any more adjectives to describe them? Sweet I guess. I actually sat in once with this band at a gig at Wild Goose. I walked into the space, and my friend Dan (viola in S.D.) asked me if I wanted to hop in on some violin and luckily they had written parts. I jumped in and it was one of the funnest most spontaneous gigs I ever played. This is one of their Ohio Sessions videos they did. It is a great video and if your from C-Bus you may see some familiar faces in the whistling part. Nice whistling there Tiffany, Monica, Kevin, and Jess..ha!

Phantods - Lone Highway

"Few musical groups can jump from genre to genre and still sound like the same band. Phantods pull off this feat several times within each song, cherry-picking sounds from metal to punk to polka to surf rock to cabaret to circus music and back." I think this quote makes sense. I would say it is like prog-rock/circus/really creative guitar riffs with amazing soaring female vocals over it. A band that is hard to put into a box. That is music that takes chances, is creative, goes outside the box, but at the same time pulls you in with catchy lyrics and vocals and singable songs. By the way the bass and drums (Keenan, you are awesome) are also really great as well, I just mention the guitar and vocals because they are the most catchy part of the songs in my opinion. So anyway, good stuff I saw this show at Skully's (from the video) and it was packed, these guys are just awesome. They just got a song on the Real World, nice. Check it out here at minute 30:17..just skip over the episode, it's not worth the watch but the music is great! :)

Pezzetino

This Friday Andy Shaw Band at Skully's

This Friday we will be participating in this show. I have mentioned it before so here is the flyer and I will leave it at that. :)

Hoodoo, Dayton, and Whoknowswhat?

If you have not already, go to Rumba Cafe (Summit and Hudson in Columbus...duh) on a Sunday night 10p-2am and see Hoodoo Soul Band. It is your duty as a human being. They play weekly, and bring a great crowd. Normally I would not try to heavily promote a cover band but I really do not consider these guys a cover band..that's almost a bad word. These guys are like the tribute band to every funky, soulful, rockin tune there is..each song they play is a brilliant randition of whatever artist they choose. If that makes any sense...it did in my head. The lead guitar player and sometimes singer Kevin Oliver was in P. Funk at one point, for gosh darn sakes. Jeff Ciampa the bass player has worked on Grammy nominated albums (they may have won..can't remember...) he is a badass either way on bass. The harmonies are always spot on, horn section, great keys, just all encompassing good, oh and Tony McClung on drums, man that guy pisses me off he is so good, talk about pocket. Phew, I'm done gushing I think.

So ASB had a great trip to Dayton and I wanted to share this video with you, since we did not know anyone there and no one came up with us besides people playing in the band, I took it upon myself to film a little bit of our experience..while playing drums. I did the best I can, and I think at the end of the video I throw the little flip video camera to the ground cuz I had to catch the one so sorry about the ending, not the girl in the white w/black polkadots shirt dancing, I LOVED watching her she was great. I wish I woulda gotten the impromptu rapper's delight we busted into, that was awesome and people were dancing their hineys off.

In other news, I have been working on this hip hop album. This is a really fun project and I am super excited to get some local C-Bus people working on it. Been listening to a lot of Fugees and Erykah Badu and Heidi Howes just lent me her classical guitar which has already been utilized, Fugees..Wyclef...Islands..classical guita...yeah, neurons are working and synapses and firing and all good stuff. Well, atleast I understand my own blog. This Friday at Skully's is gonna be a big show, I have mentioned it forty times already so ASB, The Wet Darlings, and Jared Mahone, good times.