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!