NYS Music 20​18

Author: Michael Hallisey

  • 518 Songfest at The Egg provides special moments shared between musicians and fans

    518 Songfest at The Egg proved to be an intimate experience between songwriters, performers and fans throughout the night on Friday, May 18. Some of the best stories, however, happened prior to the show.

    Below, we’ve captured the evening through vignettes under each artist.

    Sydney Worthley

    Michael Worthley looks with a smile on his face as Rose Gabriel puts the finishing touches upon the merchandise table. It’s two hours before 518 Songfest at The Egg, and everyone is getting ready. She just placed battery-operated tea light candles in each of several miniature lanterns.

    518 songfest

    “It’s looking good,” he said, with the sound of appreciation in his voice.

    She looks up with a smile on her face and shares how someone already asked how much the lanterns were going for.

    “Priceless,” she said.

    Rose and her husband Andrew Gabriel make it their jobs to make his daughter, Sydney, look good. The owners of Ambassador Music Group have been doing just that since Sydney dropped her debut album last September.

    Michael shakes his head when asked how things are going. He and his wife, Shauna, are sports parents. They’re accustomed to corralling the kids and traveling long hours on the road for their son’s hockey games in Buffalo or in Plattsburgh. Sydney’s burgeoning music career has added another wrinkle to that lifestyle. The two parents helped convince their son to put a hold on hockey. He’s since transitioned to soccer. The family just recently returned from Ohio, where the Gabriels hoped to persuade one of the largest radio stations in the Midwest for more airplay by offering facetime and an interview. Michael shows off a few pictures from when the family stole away a few hours to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

    The local music scene has looked at Sydney and asked two common questions; The first is, “Who is this?,” once asked in a disconcerting tone. Here was this local girl with a 14-track CD with a high-polish shine. It made no sense until you popped it into a player and listened. Then, the following question,“Where’d she come from?” would follow with surprise.

    “We thought Tulip Fest was big,” said Michael, at which Sydney played only last May. Next month she’ll be at Mountain Jam. She’ll play at one of the largest festivals in the Northeast, on the same playbill as Grammy Award-winning artists Sturgill Simpson, The War on Drugs and Portugal. The Man.

    Nonetheless, Michael said, she hasn’t developed an ego. Her softball teammates have nicknamed her “Famous.” But, he said, there’s still plenty of her classmates who don’t know who she is.

    518 songfestJulie Gold

    Julie Gold listens attentively while seated in the auditorium with her companion as Super 400 conducts its sound check on stage. Despite attending the show as the night’s special guest, the Grammy Award-winning artist sits unassuming while attendees prepare the theater.

    Gold is from Pennsylvania and lives in New York City. In this one-day festival focused on showcasing music from the 518 area code, the commonality she shares with the region is her proximity to the Hudson River.

    “I love this piano,” she exclaimed during her own sound check. “I could play it forever, but The Egg would kick me out.”

    The river served as inspiration for her song, “Love Is Love Is Love.” Later in the evening, while introducing the song to the Songfest crowd, she shared her fascination with the river.

    Each morning, at 9 a.m., Gold would call and speak with her mother while walking along the banks of the Hudson River in New York. Gold’s mother immigrated to America and processed at Liberty Island in 1930. She was a part of what she called the “great generation” of people who left their homeland for a better life for their children. As she watched the river roll past, Gold said she imagined that some of that same water helped bring her mother to America.

    Gold fell in love with music while watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show when she was 8 years old. Her first piece of music was a 45 of Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” Within its dust cover was the mystery behind finding who “T. Hatch” was. Gold approached her mother, only to learn that there was such a thing as a songwriter. “Before that moment, I thought songs were always there,” she said. Tony Hatch, the songwriter behind the words to “Downtown,” was “one of the lucky ones” to create them.

    When it looked like music would be in Gold’s life, her mother didn’t stand in the way. She was open to all sorts of music. In their home, rock and roll was not the “Devil’s Music,” she said. When Gold introduced friends to her mother, with music ever-present in her life, she would always ask what instrument they played. On those morning phone calls — despite her clockwork-like frequency — Gold’s mother would answer, “Oh, Jules! I was hoping it was you.” Last year, on the last day of summer, Gold’s mother died. She said it was the most appropriate time for who she called the “most beautiful of people.”

    “Everyday, for all those years, I had her in my life. Until just recently.”

    518 songfestSuper 400

    After more than 20 years of establishing a reputation as a hard-rocking trio, Super 400 prepared itself for a rare acoustic set.

    Guitarist Kenny Hohman said he didn’t like playing acoustic guitar, and stayed away from it all together until he and his wife, the band’s bassist Lori Friday, started the Troy Music Academy nearly seven years ago. The school was created out of necessity. Friday sustained serious injuries to her neck, back and kidney after a car accident. Hohman said he learned to appreciate playing acoustically while teaching people the guitar.

    Hohman, Friday and the band’s drummer Joe Daley sat inside the auditorium to talk about catching a quick dinner before the show when Julie Gold interrupted.

    Gold was listening in on the sound check and wanted to compliment each of them on their musicianship. Before long, a genuine moment of musicians bonding over their craft ensued. Hohman immediately complimented Gold on her “radiating positivity” and the two hugged.

    Musicians have a natural curiosity to learn how another started in music.

    Check out a full gallery courtesy of The Spot 518.

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518. is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.

  • Local Folk Singer Zan Strumfeld Serves a Cold Dish of Folk Music

    The bottom of Zan Strumfeld’s Bandcamp page says it all. She describes her music through hashtags — acoustic, fingerpicking, folk, indie. Familiar adjectives and verbs used to help draw fans into her book of belonging; the last of which, however, is something that’s less likely to be typed into any search box: winter folk.

    Her tags don’t mislead you. Her 2017 release Book of Belonging is a string of soulful songs about heartbreak, loss, and often times tripping over the mistakes of falling back into the bed of an ex-lover.

    “While all my songs are personal to me and often specific, I want people to walk away with feeling connected to them through their own experiences,” said Strumfeld. “Which is usually the case for all music anyway.”

    Book of Belonging:
    This is my book of belonging:
    How I’ve never belonged to anyone, any place, any time.
    This is my story of longing:
    How I’ve longed for someone every day of my life.
    And then I met you.
    I’m lost from that,
    And I hold onto that,
    So this whole damn thing is for you.

    Strumfeld’s voice and acoustic guitar dominate in each recording, with a little bit of bluegrass and a smidge of Gillian Welch, whose name she drops on the second track “New Girl.”

    “I love Gillian. She’s ballsy,” said Strumfeld. “[She] sings about beauty and darkness, all with this gorgeous voice that truly never gets old. And her musical chemistry with her guitarist Dave Rawlings is the kind of musical relationship I crave. It’s flawless.” Strumfeld said the song was inspired after a night of running into not one, but two ex-partners. Michael Gregg, who plays banjo with the band, was listening to Welch with her that night. In addition to Welch, Strumfeld listens to mostly female songwriters — Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Laura Marling, June Carter.

    This winter folk music lulls you in like a hot cup of coffee next to a warm fire in February. But, like the cruelest of fates, the point of the year that promises love on Valentine’s Day is also the month when most couples split. “Second Plate” wraps you into a false sense of security being alone, never minding you’re stuck in the same routines of brewing coffee and fixing dinner for two.

    Strumfeld is a writer. The metronome for her speech sways a little slower. With a pensive stare, she takes in her surroundings while fully engaged in conversation. Like the late Tom Wolfe, she is saturated into the moments that surround her so she can later write about it. When her stint with newspaper journalism ended at Spotlight News, she picked up and moved to Iceland to be a farm hand. She said she wanted to know how it felt.

    Strumfeld gets to writing only when she’s inspired. That inspiration comes in spurts that maybe spans once every two years or so. Not by coincidence, that’s about the same time interval between each of her broken relationships. The raw emotion from each romantic bond severed is poured into lyrics. She said it’s almost understood now that when a man comes into her life he is committed to one of two outcomes: a relationship, or a song.

    Part of that emotional cycle includes what had been an on-again, off-again relationship with live performances. The songs would come, followed by the performances, and then it would stop until the inspiration came back again. Last year, Strumfeld deviated from that pattern. Last September, she was asked to perform at Sydney Worthley’s CD-release party at Jupiter Hall. The band she had asked to perform on her own CD agreed to perform. A few more pieces were added to the band as a one-time fling for the live performance, but afterward, they all wanted something more. Practices were scheduled and more gigs were planned. They fooled around and fell into a band.

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518. is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYSmusic. TheSpot518 and NYSmusic work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.

  • Beau Sasser Trio to host Funk Night in Albany on May 24

    The next installment of Funk Night in Albany takes place on Thursday, May 24 at Parish Public House with Beau Sasser Trio taking the stage. Featuring Adam Siegel (saxophone), organist supreme Beau will be joined by Adrian Tramontano (Kung Fu) and Justin Henricks (Wurliday, Beau Sasser’s Escape Plan). Tickets are only $10 with music starting at 9pm. See below for a review and gallery of the last Funk Night in Albany on April 5!

    It was a chill evening for a school night as the Parish Public House prepared to host NYS Music’s presentation of Funk Night on Thursday, April 5. The headliner was a mash up of local artists from Turkuaz, Kung Fu, the Eric Krasno Band and Wurliday.

    The laid back atmosphere was accentuated by the devil may care approach to the start. Only the instruments stood on stage once the clock struck nine. Each of the musicians were chatting it up at the bar with patrons and fans. No one seemed to notice or care what time it was. The music was going to be what it was going to be, and those in the house were okay with that.

    The collection of artists were fronted by Wurliday guitarist Justin Henricks and Kung Fu keyboardist Beau Sasser. Neither of the two are strangers to one another. In fact, most of the night’s lineup has been associated with Henrick’s Wurliday over the past year. Sasser played organ on a couple of tracks in the band’s debut release Bedtime Blazer last May. The two go back even further, as Henricks played guitar for Sasser’s Escape Plan before deciding to branch off to launch Wurliday.

    The evening started off with two instrumental jams also featuring Reed Sutherland on bass, Turkuaz’s Mikey Carruba on drums and John Drabik on guitar. But, the modest lighting at the Parish Public House wasn’t able to adequately shine the line on all the talent. The spotlight shined mostly on Henricks and Sasser before Mary Corso took to the stage.

    Corso, too, is no stranger to Wurliday. She’s lent her booming take-me-to-church gospel voice to the band over the past several months. She exhibited that voice singing a few Motown covers. She tied the bow on the whole Wurliday package as the troupe busted into “Getting There” and “Once More” off of “Bedtime Blazer.” Corso is now moving on to pursue other projects. Last month, she announced a duo project with Dan Mayer. The two are currently touring together.

    The group stretched out two sets throughout the night, playing a dazzling array of funk music to satisfy a sizable crowd that was enough to fill out the back room of the Parish Public House. Sasser was electrifying on the organ, and the improvisational work throughout the group got people grooving and dancing before the stage. Drabik, who impressed a GE Theatre crowd while playing with the Bryan Brundige Collective at Capital Records last month, continued to amaze an audience with his guitar work from the shadows.

    From the back of the room, a member of the crowd took care while taking the show poster down from the wall. He rhetorically asked, “Where were you tonight?” before stuffing the poster in his back pocket.

    This review was originally published by The Spot 518.

  • Andrew Gabriel Jumps into Burgeoning Music Scene with Both Feet

    Andrew Gabriel sits for a picture in front of his desk. It’s the hub of his music studio. The tools of his trade sit upon its surface in precise symmetry. The flat screen monitor shines with Ambassador Music Group embossed in white against a royal blue field. Below it sits the ivory and ebony keyboard flanked to its left by his daily planner. The distance between the planner and the keyboard is equidistant with the space between the planner and the edge of the desk. His iPhone sits centered in front of it.

    The sight implies that a systematic methodology is at play, contrasted by the two unfastened buttons on Gabriel’s polo shirt. Perhaps it’s a conscious effort to preserve the acoustics in the room. Maybe it’s the side product of his years meticulously hitting the right points on the snare drum. Or, it could all be that from a mind molded by applied mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles. Nonetheless, it is an embodiment of control, something of which he is relinquishing.

    As Gabriel sits down for an interview, he is days away from taking a leap. He is quitting his job to spear headlong into a dream of opening his studio and pursuing a music career; one that, up until this point, was a 12-hour-a-day gig on top of his eight-hour days as an information technology manager for Community First Credit Union. The order of living in the corporate world will be tossed aside, and he is as excited as “a kid who’s a week away from summer break.”

    Andrew, and his wife, Rose Gabriel are the marketing and managerial team behind the recent success of local musician Sydney Worthley — who has taken last year’s performance at Tulip Fest and, on the strength of her debut album Strong, has moved on to a scheduled appearance at Mountain Jam in June. The Ambassador Music Group also represents local recording artist Michael Razzano.

    The Ambassador Music Group is now a full-time endeavor, with a recording studio that caters to musicians and vocal talent. It’s a dream job that Andrew has held on to since his days as a musician in the San Francisco-Los Angeles West Coast megalopolis. Rose describes her husband as “determined.” Tenacious may be more appropriate. Once Andrew has an idea in his head, Rose said he is determined to see it through.

    Since moving from the West Coast more than two years ago, Andrew has worked his day job as a programmer, and pursued his passion for music in the evening. That passion led him to working relationships with David Bourgeois of White Lake Music & Post studios and WEXT program director Chris Wienk. Ultimately, Andrew worked as an intern at Overit Studios, with the help of Adam Clairmont. Andrew shares those names as he describes the Capital District’s music scene as a “community.”

    “The community aspect of the music scene here is unlike anywhere I’ve been,” said Andrew. “It’s unlike Los Angeles. It’s unlike San Francisco Bay area.” The amount of talent in the area scene is “crazy.” And, unlike the West Coast, the players within it are not fighting each other to gain attention. “The folks that we’ve worked with are always willing to help out. It’s not like cut-throat competition, where folks are trying to sabotage other folks. … The scene here tries to make the scene grow.”

    Last May, Andrew’s first client, Sydney Worthley, took to the Washington Park stage for Albany’s annual Tulip Festival. Outside of talent shows across the Capital District, it was the teen’s first performance before a crowd. She was already at work writing songs for what would be her debut release “Strong.” For the first time, Worthley could see strangers snapping pictures and capturing videos on their phones as she performed.

    Worthley dropped her CD the following September. All 14 of her songs presented within a slick, high-gloss plastic CD cover. Radio play followed, as did an invite to perform at the lineup announcement for Saratoga Springs’ annual First Night. A meeting with WDST-FM in Woodstock opened yet another opportunity. The station organizes one of the largest three-day music festivals in New York.

    “Sydney would be a good fit for Mountain Jam,” Andrew recalled saying, recognizing the chance to keep momentum moving. Rose recalled it took more persistence than that. That attention to detail, and Worthley’s climb within the local music scene, helped.

    The Gabriels hope to take success and pay it back through outreach programs. Last October, the couple helped raise funds and goods to assist the more than 2,800 households victimized by a firestorm that swept through Santa Rosa, Calf. AMG delivered more than 3,000 respirators, and raised money to help replace backpacks, jackets, shoes and lunch boxes for local school children. That focus to help give others a boost on to their own feet translates back to the Gabriels’ goal for our music scene.

    “I think there’s potential for something bigger to happen in the music scene, here, in Albany,” said Rose. “And, we’re on the brink of making it bigger than what it is right now. I think we’re all trying to make it happen.”

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518 and is the property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.

  • Proctors Hosts Beatles Themed Capital Records Live! at GE Theatre

    It was the perfect duo – a collection of the area’s best musicians and the iconic catalog of music from The Beatles –  together at Proctors for Capital Records Live! at the GE Theatre on Friday, March 23.

    Let’s Be Leonard, Wild Adriatic, the Bryan Brundige Collective, Girl Blue, Clear Mind and Eastbound Jesus each played songs from The Beatles (the White Album) and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Each had liberty to perform its own renditions of songs from both albums. Some tried to capture the song as people remember them, while others added a unique spin to a classic track.

    Capital Records Live

    Highlights from Capital Records Live! included Bryan Brundige Collective’s rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” Girl Blue welcoming the crowd to sing along to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and the gratitude expressed by the audience as Clear Mind introduced a rap spin to the 50-year-old collection of songs.

    The Rochmon Record Club provided Beatles trivia and history with a video presentation. There were moments when members of each band would stop setting up their gear to read along on the large screen behind the stage as everyone learned more about The Fab Four.

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518. is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYSmusic. TheSpot518 and NYSmusic work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.

  • Arielle O’Keefe, Known as Girl Blue, is in Control of Her Own Musical Destiny

    Arielle O’Keefe walks into The Hollow Bar + Kitchen with a guitar case in her hand and only blues on her mind.

    Girl Blue
    photo by Shannon Straney

    She just finished a prior engagement that left her unfulfilled. The audience wasn’t familiar with her. Her music was background noise to their conversations about other things. She stepped onto the stage and dutifully set herself up for her solo act, opening for Wurliday, her name is on the inside jacket of its debut album. She knew she was coming into her own community. She stepped to the mic and apologized in advance. She was going to spend the next hour playing music the way she wanted to. She had nothing to hide.

    “I’m more comfortable with the solos because that’s where I come from,” said O’Keefe. She nearly two years removed from being known as the local Spotify phenomenon with 200,000 listens in a day. The following year was seemingly hers, gracing newspaper covers, touring across the country, a CD release and a successful collab with Wurliday kept her name circulating. It’s November, and she just released a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” on YouTube. It’s a video of her sitting in the woods at night performing what appears to be a Wiccan ceremony. By appearance, it’s her, alone, doing her own thing. It’s fitting. That’s how she likes to control her career.

    Girl Blue
    photo by Shannon Straney

    “I like to be able to tell stories, basically,” she said. ”For me, at this level, it’s just easier for me to do when it’s just me. And, the music I love, if someone can just get up there with a guitar or a piano and make me feel something like that, that’s very meaningful to me. That’s more meaningful to me than seeing a full band that jams out all night. Which I love, but I’ve come from hearing singers and songwriters, hearing songs. I want to hear the song.”

    The Hollow crowd treats the diminutive O’Keefe “pretty tall” as she continues to play a stripped down, bluesy variation of her songs. They stand facing the stage, soaking it in.

    “I Am Not a Star”

    Her 2016 Just Pretend Records release of “I Am Not a Star” was her first collaboration effort with a band. It was the first time she trusted her songs, to which she said she’s protective of, with anyone else. She could do that with the help of longtime friends Jimi Woodul and Dan DeKalb of Dark Honey. The three have been friends ever since meeting in Dallas, where they lived before “life happened” and brought them together again in New York a few years ago.

    DeKalb and Woodul were raised in upstate New York and O’Keefe was raised on Long Island. Coincidentally, the three moved to Dallas and during shows. They became really good friends.

    O’Keefe moved to New York City to pursue her music career. The boys moved to Albany, and she would go up to visit. Before long, Albany started feeling like home.

    “I just realized, after four times of visiting, that everytime I went up to Albany, all my stress was gone,” she said. She said she would dread going back to the city, “it’s an overwhelming place, and I never found community.” When she decided to move, she found an apartment, quickly signed the lease, and moved in with little else than her clothing in her guitar case.

    It was during this period she wrote “I Am Not a Star.” Though the song initially sounds like an anthem for strength, O’Keefe said it was a conversation with herself. She had uprooted herself, and worried about taking a wrong step in her career. “I Am Not a Star,” was a means to psych herself up and dispel those worries. A new career path was taking shape.

    “Spotify”

    Spotify placed “Fire Under Water” No. 7 on its New Music Friday playlist in late 2016. On a playlist that boasts anywhere between 50 to 80 songs, she was at a premium location for exposure. In one day, she received 200,000 plays. By the end of the week, her track was played a million times. Record labels took noticed and approached her. There was a push to have her sign a deal. She said no.

    Girl Blue
    photo by Shannon Straney

    “I want to have control and have the rights over what I do,” she said. “[There were pushes made to sign right away] but that’s not really who I am. … I’m not really the type to go and grab a major label deal. I don’t know. I’m just not green anymore with the industry stuff.

    In 2012, she had auditioned for Season 2 of “The Voice.” The production had taken on 120 musicians. She was sequestered into a California hotel for a month and a half before the show aired. However, teams were filled before all of the musicians auditioned, and she never appeared on television. Shortly afterwards, she was approached by Nigel Lythgoe Productions for a television project. She signed a contract without knowing the premise of the show. It would lead to her appearance on “Opening Act” in which she appeared on its first show, in which she was the opening act for Rod Stewart in front of a Caesars Palace crowd in Las Vegas.

    “That whole attitude to make it nowadays, it’s just so not what people think it is,” she said. She has nothing ill to say about the television or music industry, only that she felt that in her television moment she was not true to herself. The vigorous pace and push to get something on presentable on television pulled her in many directions. “It’s so not what it’s presented to be. I got to see behind the curtain just enough to where it became unappealing to me. I don’t know, man. Anything that’s just going to shoot you up there, I don’t know. It seems too good to be true.”

    O’Keefe is less concerned about whether she took the wrong step in moving away from New York City. Her self-described itch to move every year-and-a-half has been quelled. The Albany music scene has allowed her room to explore herself, and the community she couldn’t find in Gotham. The past few years have confirmed that a music career is not defined by where one lives. Instead of trying to wedge herself into the industry machine, she’s trying to “have the plan fit me a little better.” She is presently working on a new album with the help from AntiFragile Music out of New York City. She’s also started an account on Patreon, a membership platform that connects her with fans through subscriptions. It gives her the chance to share her music intimately with fans instead of throwing herself out into the empty ethos of the internet. Her next track “Lolita” is to be released Friday, March 30. Her latest work, she said, is delving deeper into herself. It will be the most vulnerable she has been with her audience, and she’s excited.

    She’s also to play in Capital Records Live at Proctors on Friday, March 23 before a gig at another iconic venue, Caffè Lena in Saratoga Springs next month.

    “I want to build it slowly and build something that’s going to last,” she said. “I’ve been doing this since I was young. I’m a young woman, so especially a lot of people want to come in and tell me what they think that I am. At this point in my life, I’m just not really interested. I understand the idea of branding, but I kinda know who I am at this point. I’m trying to build a business.”

  • Jocelyn and Chris Arndt Demand Attention, and They’re Getting it

    In the Arndt family collection of movies is a video of Jocelyn and Chris playing upon the consecrated stage of Caffe Lena. Their father still watches it, though Chris says it’s from a “long time ago.”

    It was six years ago.

    Consider that six years is nearly a quarter of a lifetime to a 21-year-old, and just yesterday to his father. Still, let’s also factor in the sister-brother duo’s professional career; contracts, albums and countrywide road trips. There’s The Whisky a Go Go, Mountain Jam and, yeah, Billboard’s Top 40 that have since followed. From that perspective, it has been a long time.

    “Touring is the best job, ever,” said Chris. “Playing music, making music in general, it is the single greatest job you can have, hands down. I’m not biased or anything. Except for driving through Nebraska.” On cue, David Bourgeois holds up a thick set of tire chains.

    It’s February and the band has returned after several months of touring across the country. There’s still little rest. Chris, Joceyln and Bourgeois sit at White Lake Studios to rehearse for a radio gig in Boston. Bourgeois takes a moment to slump into a comfortable chair. He’s a man of many hats. Visually, he’s the band’s drummer. Behind the scenes, he’s its music director. He owns the Albany studios along with his wife, Anna. Within the bigger picture, he’s president of Bridge Road Entertainment. About five years ago, he discovered the two while they played together at a local festival. He’s been their manager ever since.

    Playing gigs and hitting radio stations like the one in Boston is all in the effort to earn more air time. It’s called chasing radio play. It involves a lot of networking, sending tapes, exchanging phone calls and logging in the miles on the road. Where U2 and Interscope have years of established success and reputation, Jocelyn and Chris need to hustle. On top of being musicians, they also have to act as their own marketers. There are about 120 radio stations across the nation that play under the adult album alternative format, and grabbing a program director’s attention can be “extremely challenging,” according to one.

    “To put it simply — there is so much great music out there, and very few slots they can fit in, and that goes for every format,” said Kim Neaton, former music director for WEQX. She was among three directors responsible for deciding what songs played on the radio. Unknown bands have to win out against trusted record labels, often times against management and promotional companies, for just a few open slots. For a band chasing radio play, “Even if you have one of the best songs in the room,” said Neaton, “you have the smallest voice in the room. But if you find a station that will take a chance, and you do well there, that’s ammo you can take to the next station when you reach out. Maybe things go well there, too. A story can build and so can a song’s success.”

    One of the first stations the band won over was Albany’s WEXT. Its programming has helped local artists earn air time and, “they’ve helped us out so much,” said Jocelyn. There’s also WDST in Woodstock, a good station to have behind you. It originated Mountain Jam in 2004, a three-day music festival that has featured Robert Plant and Tom Petty in recent years. Jocelyn and Chris played there three years ago and will return to play its main stage in June.

    Last December, Jocelyn and Chris broke into the Top 40 on Billboard’s Adult Album Alternative chart. “Red Stops Traffic,” the band’s third single off its 2017 studio release “Go,” debuted at No. 37. Jocelyn and Chris were listed along with the names of The Killers, Big Head Todd and U2. The band topped at No. 35 before slipping back down in January.

    “The next goal is Top 10,” said Jocelyn, with a smile. The volume of her statement tapers off to a near whisper, as if in fear of sounding arrogant. There is no arrogance in the room, as the two siblings are still laughing in amazement over having charted above Bono. Their story has caught the attention of television producers. Four television shows, including NBC’s “The Voice” approached Jocelyn to perform. She turned it down. “That’s not how it works,” said Jocelyn. “We’re a team. Any time it starts to tilt towards one or the other, we’re just weary of and we don’t do it.”

    Jocelyn and Chris resigned a three-year contract with Bridge Road Entertainment, and head back into the studio in April to record a new album. Before retreating to the studio, the band is set to perform at Caffe Lena on Sunday, March 4, at 7 p.m. Edge TV will be following as it films a documentary. The documentary should contrast with the video their father is still fond of playing from years ago. As “Red Stops Traffic” continues to resonate with radio listeners, people can expect to hear a maturity behind their play.

    “It’s definitely a more mature sound,” said Jocelyn. “We’re not kids anymore.” she laughs.

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518. is property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.

  • Lera Lynn has fun showing fans she’s not as gloomy as you think she is

    Fans of HBO’s “True Detective” know Lera Lynn. Kinda.

    Fans will discover just how much they really do know about Lynn when she performs at the Massry Center for the Arts on Friday, Feb. 2.

    Lynn played the sulking singer in the dive bar frequented by Colin Farrell’s and Vince Vaughn’s characters. Her music, such as the single “The Only Thing Worth Fighting For,” set the tone of a gut-wrenchingly somber television experience.She earned the opportunity to write and appear on the show after producer T Bone Burnett heard her cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” To separate herself from legions of musicians who preceded her, she said she tweaked the tune by playing it with a melancholic minor key. It was just the sound Burnett wanted to capture for the show’s second season.

    Nearly four years later, people aware of her acting career, and less so of her musical career, still see her as the brooding bar singer from the show.

    “Following the show, a lot of people expected that the girl — that character — I was playing was me,” said Lynn. “It’s interesting to try to bridge the gap between a character who people perceive to be as me, and me.”

    Lynn’s Americana sound is defined by her sultry voice and a succinct narrative. Lynn’s 2016 release, “Resistor” drew comparisons to Gillian Welch, Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, Margo Timmins and Norah Jones. It was an album she started writing while on set. To offset the gloom from the show, she said she poured a glass of wine and popped in a Pink Floyd CD. The result was the upbeat track “Shape Shifter.”

    “‘Resistor’ was a challenge,” said Lynn. “Because, I am a happy person, and I like to have fun! I like to dance, and I like to headbang, and I like to play a really loud electric guitar! I want those things to come through in my music, too.”

    “Resistor” was that bridge for Lynn and the fans who found her through the television series. There was a touch of the melancholy with a splash of the whimsy, such as the surf-noir track “Drive.” The play of her fuzzy guitar helps draw some fun from the surf rock genre local fans would recognize by Troy natives, and now Nashville residents, The Los Straitjackets.

    Lynn has already caught a big wave in 2018. She was named guest judge for the ongoing American Songwriter’s 2018 Lyric Contest alongside Charlie Worsham and Peter Bradley Adams.

    Two years removed from “Resistor,” Lynn said she has two albums worth of song material. A few of them she plans to play before audiences. Currently, she’s on a brief tour that will take her into New York City followed by Northampton, Mass; Albany and Vienna, Va. She hopes to have a new album out by this summer.

    Lynn’s writing process has changed over the years. Despite her gift for prose, she hates the process. Whereas her younger-self would sit down, write and be happy; she said she continuously works on each draft to strengthen her weaknesses. It’s a “squirmy” act she said she enjoys once it is done.

    “As you progress in songwriting… you learn to revise,” said Lynn, “and revise, and revise. Try to strengthen and outdo yourself. Learn to identify the weaknesses… I’m trying to hone, always.” Later this winter she will headline a show at Celtic Connections and perform overseas in a television tribute to one her favorites, Tom Petty. Petty, too, is said to have struggled through the writing of his songs. But, the finished work, Lynn said, “no one did that better.”

    “I think my whole life I’ve been searching for a way to write something that is succinct and poetic,” said Lynn. “Something that is commercial and artful. Something that people can understand on the first listen, but also has layers beneath for people to dig into.”

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518.

  • Known to the World as “Mr. Misunderstood,” McKinley James is Playing the Guitar and Making a Name for Himself

    McKinley James, the 16-year-old, self-proclaimed “rock and roller,” was featured in Eric Church’s 2014 release Mr. Misunderstood of which he also appeared on the cover and the corresponding video.

    James has since been making himself more understood by those listening to him play the blues and good, old-fashioned rock and roll with his guitar. He just recently dropped a live EP, McKinley James Live in Nashville, and is currently on tour. He’ll come rolling into town this week to play at The Ale House in Troy on Sunday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. For tickets and information, go to brownpapertickets.com.

    We were able to exchange a few emails back and forth to find out what’s going in James’ life, and what people ought to know about Mr. Understood.

    Michael Hallisey: You’re a teenager in Nashville. You as a music lover, that’s got to be a wonderful place to live.

    McKinley James: Moving to Nashville was a really exciting move, there is great live music happening everywhere. Also moving here has inspired me to practice much more, everywhere you turn is an amazing guitar player.

    MH: You’re originally from Webster, NY — when did you move to Tennessee? What was that like for you?

    MJ: We moved about a year and a half ago, it was exciting. We had visited Nashville many times before we moved so my parents could figure things out like where we should live, so when we were there my dad would take me out to clubs so I could see as much live music as I could.

    MH: Your taste in music is not “normal,” and you are aware of how far-reaching your curiosity and tastes lead you. How did your appreciation in the blues develop?

    MJ: I grew up with listening to all my dad’s (Jason Smay of The Los Straitjackets) records and he’s a big fan of blues music, plus he played in lots of blues bands so I was always around it.

    MH: How much did your father play a role in your love for music?

    MJ: A lot! My younger brothers know a lot about music, too, because it’s always on at the house.

    MH: Blues music is more than just a genre — can you share with me how you feel while you listen and when you play?

    MJ: Well, that’s a tricky question. Blues music to me is the base for all the styles of music I love and play. I consider myself more of a rock and roller. I try to play what feels good, not necessarily a certain genre. In my live shows we play rock ’n’ roll and soul music, too.

    MH: Please break down for me how you wound up associated with Eric Church for “Mr. Misunderstood”?

    MJ: That’s a really long story! But, short version is, we were visiting Nashville staying with Mr. John Peets who is Mr. Church’s manager. How we got to stay there is another story, but Mr. Peets met my brothers and me while we were there, and I guess he noticed me wandering around all day in the house, outside playing my guitar, and that I was a greaser and only 13. Fast forward a few months and Mr. Church delivered his new record to Mr. Peets, and the title track “Mr. Misunderstood.” Mr. Peets said it hit him that I was that kid! Didn’t care about anything but what I was into, which is music, and for me going the opposite direction than the crowd never bothered me.

    MH: How was that experience for you, and what did you learn?

    MJ: The experience was awesome. Mr. Peet’s is one of the coolest guys I’ve met. His love for music is awesome, and he treated my family and me like we were his family. Getting to meet Mr. Church was great. He is a super nice guy, too. As is his awesome band. I’ve actually become good friends with Jeff Cease, lead guitar player in Mr. Church’s band. I learned that in the music business opportunity can happen anywhere and at anytime.

    MH: You are in the midst of a tour, do you have a record release in the works?

    MJ: We are starting to put demos together for a session later this spring.

    MH: With the old stereotype of blues being something for older men and women, what kind of reception do you get on stage?

    MJ: I think that with all music if you are true to what’s in your heart and enjoy performing, people can connect young or old. it’s the feeling that gets people, not necessarily the genre. I love some Dr. Dre songs and get as excited as when I hear Bobby Blue Bland.

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518

  • The Ominous Seapods Reunite to wish Tom Pirozzi a Happy 50th Birthday

     A Plattsburgh State undergrad once asked Max Verna to define an Ominous Seapod. “I don’t really know,” he said, providing no explanation behind the name of his band for the young reporter working on a feature for his student newspaper. “I do like the sound of it, though.”

    The Ominous Seapods, one of the most popular jam bands here in upstate New York in the 1990s, is coming back out for a two-night engagement at the Cohoes Music Hall on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 12 and 13.

    “They were a name I would always see on old show flyers amongst other names that are still big in the scene today,” said Kim Neaton, WEQX-FM radio personality. “I wasn’t familiar with them when they were active, but their name often pops up in conversation and I always would think, ‘Damn. I wish I got to catch a Seapods show!’”

    While Phish and Dave Matthews Band led the charge in a jam band culture described in 2001 as a phenomenon by the New York Times, moe., the Disco Biscuits and the Ominous Seapods pulled up the rear. At the time, both the Seapods and Disco Biscuits were signed under Hydrophonics Records, a subsidiary of Megaforce Records which itself earned success years earlier by introducing Ministry and Metallica.

    “These guys can rip,” wrote Dean Budnick, of the Seapods. The Relix Magazine editor named the group in a well-crafted Who’s Who directory of upcoming bands in his 1998 book “Jam Bands: North America’s Hottest Live Groups.” “The humor of the players often celebrates the absurd, resulting in some memorable, spontaneous interactions between each other and between band and audience. … Such as the time it hosted an eight-track release party.”

    Verna, Dana Monteith, Tom Pirozzi, Brian Mangini and Ted Marotta toured the nation, playing 200-plus gigs a year, a reputation recognized by SPIN Magazine, and appreciated by an online fanbase supported by a website at Dartmouth University affectionately called the Podnet. “We have some really loyal fans on the Podnet who have taken it upon themselves to get the word out and to spread tapes,” Tom Pirozzi told Budnick. “So we’ve walked into a bar in Iowa City where the place is just packed full of people who have heard about us, know our music and are excited to have us there.”

    At one point, the website boasted of having more than 300 subscribers, known as mutants. It was maintained by David Merrill, a Dartmouth technician nicknamed The Bourbon Cowboy. It was a place to find setlists, lyrics and pictures. In its heyday, fans could swap tapes from live shows. The internet was still in its infancy in the late ’90s. Social media and smartphones, absolute requirements for networking and navigating new landscapes, did not exist. So, most fans found out about shows by signing up to the band’s mailing list — postal, not email. (At the

    band’s height, that list contained more than 10,000 names.) Fans could also call the band’s dedicated phone line connected to an answering machine that listed upcoming show dates. The Podnet is still online, but the ’90s design suggests it hasn’t been maintained for years. Some of the mutants, including Merrill, have since moved on to Facebook.

    Pirozzi recently shared his amazement over the power of social media. He said he posted word of the Seapods upcoming Cohoes show on Facebook twice. Once on his page, and another on the Mutants’ page. A short time later, he said, the Saturday evening show was sold out.

    “It sold out in five days,” said Pirozzi. “I was surprised, actually. I knew we’d do well, and thought maybe by the day of the show we’d sell out, or be close to sold out. I didn’t expect to sell out in advance. We were all shocked by that.”

    The band opted to offer a second show on the preceding Friday, Pirozzi’s 50th birthday. (It, too, is close to selling out.) Pirozzi said he’s humbled by the response from fans, and looks forward to seeing faces he hasn’t seen in 20 years.

    “I could see on Facebook, people coming in from Colorado, from North Carolina, California,” asid Pirozzi. “I think it’s just going to be a great reunion for people I haven’t seen in years. Obviously, people I haven’t seen in 20 years. I’m looking forward to that.”

    The definition of an Ominous Seapod, initially sought by a Plattsburgh State undergrad, is less elusive today than it was nearly 30 years ago.

    “By all accounts the band and their fans know how to have a real great time,” said Neaton, who now associates herself with Guthrie Bell Productions. “And, if Greg Bell says a band knows how to party, I think the Cohoes Music Hall is perhaps in for a party unlike anything it’s seen before. It’s really cool to be part of a reunion that’s bringing so many people in from out of town to celebrate a band that meant a lot to the jam scene for so long, especially in a room as special as this.”

    This article was originally published by The Spot 518 and is the property of Spotlight Newspapers in Albany, N.Y., and appears as a special to NYS Music. TheSpot518 and NYS Music work in partnership to provide readers with in-depth coverage on the local music scene in the Capital District and New York state, respectively. For more, visit TheSpot518.com.