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NewSong Artist Profiles / 2004 |
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DARRELL SCOTT | SUSAN WERNER | STEPPIN' IN IT | KENNY WHITE | PETER MULVEY | TOM PRASADA-RAO | PAUL REISLER | DEVON SPROULE | ROBBIN THOMPSON | KATE McDONNELL | HUNGER MOUNTAIN BOYS | POPS WALKER | MARK SIMOS | MAD AGNES | JAMAL MILLNER | NAKED BLUE | WE'RE ABOUT 9 | MALCOLM HOLCOMBE | TORI ANDERSON & POSSUM HOLLER --- As a songwriter, Scott has produced a string of hits. There’s "Long Time Gone" and "Heartbreak Town," both top hits for the Dixie Chicks, who describe Darrell as "one of the great writers of our time." "Great Day to Be Alive" helped Travis Tritt complete his comeback, "Born to Fly" was a No. 1 hit for Sara Evans, while "Family Tree" was successful for Darryl Worley and "When No One's Around" extended Garth Brooks’ run. "You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive" was cut in the same year by both Patty Loveless and Brad Paisley. Scott's song, "Proving You Wrong" was recently included on a new Keb' Mo album. In all, he has had more than 40 cuts performed by other artists. He also plays a plethora of instruments -- "most anything that can be plucked, beat or blown," as one music guide put it. But he’s perhaps best known for his ability on guitar, dobro and mandolin, which puts him in great demand among discerning fellow artists. In recent years, he has toured extensively with Guy Clark, Sam Bush and Tim O’Brien and recorded with Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, Steve Earle, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Trisha Yearwood and Kate Rusby, among scores of others. He has earned his many achievements while cutting his own path instead of playing by the accepted rules of the music industry. His most recent release is "Theater of the Unheard" on his own Full Light Records, a label he launched for one reason: so he can fully own and control his recordings without anyone telling him how he should sound or what he should do, as he remarks on his website. His successes led to ASCAP naming him Songwriter of the Year in 2002. The National Songwriters Association International awarded him its Songwriter of the Year honor the previous year. WEBSITE: www.darrellscott.com [top] --- "I Can't Be New" (Koch Records), is Werner's fourth nationally released recording, and while chartering a somewhat new territory, it offers the same quality writing her fans expect. Werner performs 12 originals in this nod to the composers of standards, injecting some new life into the popular song tradition. "This is a songwriter's record. I'd describe the aim of this project as Carole King's 'Tapestry' meets Ella Fitzgerald's 'Cole Porter Songbook,'' Werner suggests. "I listened to Ella and a lot of Julie London when recording this thing." Yet this isn't a record for jazz purists, she cautions in remarks on her website. "The purists want old songs done in a new way. These are all new songs done in an old way." And if standards have become the measure for all other songs, "It's my secret hope -- and I'd be overjoyed-- if even one of these songs from the record becomes a standard." A breakthrough singer-songwriter in the mid-90s, Werner has toured with countless luminaries including Joan Armatrading and Richard Thompson. She also appeared on the Peter, Paul & Mary "Lifelines" special seen nationally on PBS. Her 2002 release, "New Non-fiction," received accolades for its insightful social commentary and introspective stories. With Werner's musical training (a Master's degree in classical voice) and live reputation as a compelling performer on the touring circuit, writing and singing in such an intimate fashion was a pretty bold departure. "The extroverted performer bends and serves the introverted writer on this record," Werner explains. "It was the most wonderful and rewarding challenge of my career." WEBSITE: www.susanwerner.com [top] --- Steppin' In It describes itself as a group based in tradition but with "minds forever moving in creative directions." The result is a rootsy roller coaster ride of original and traditional music. Playing everything from blues to bluegrass, calypso to Cajun, woeful waltzes to western swing, Steppin' In It has become a much sought after live act. They have a new album out, "Hidden in the Lowlands" and have been getting a lot of national exposure, including a recent appearance on "Mountain Stage" and "WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour," with upcoming appearances that include the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. WEBSITE: www.steppininit.com --- With all this under his belt, the time came that he realized it was time to walk out into the spotlight. With a collection of well crafted and insightful compositions in hand, he decided to take his show out on the road under his own name, as he describes on his website. He assembled a crew of A-List players to help craft his 2002 independent release "Uninvited Guest" and hit the road. He called up pals he had worked with, informed them of his "change of lifestyle." Good pals they were-- Cheryl Wheeler, Jonathan Edwards, Shawn Colvin, Peter Wolf and Richard Shindell, said "Excellent! You can do some shows with me." Now, he is getting noticed far and wide -- by name, this time -- as one of the pop music circuit's most dazzling piano players and songsmiths. WEBSITE: www.kennywhite.net [top] --- This self-described "city kid" from Milwaukee later left there and traveled to Dublin, where he learned the trade of the street singer or busker. Returning to the States, he built an audience in Boston through street and subway performing. Since his 2000 release "The Trouble with Poets," he has made records with the venerable singer/songwriter label Signature Sounds. His previous CD, 2002's "Ten Thousand Mornings," was recorded on his favorite Boston subway platform. Though his home is now back in Milwaukee, Mulvey spends most of every year as what he calls "a serious disciple of the road," touring relentlessly from Anchorage to Dublin. He has also written and performed music for theatre and modern dance (including Sam Shepard's "A Lie of the Mind" and Amiri Baraka's "Primitive World") and conducted numerous guitar and songwriting workshops. He had songs placed in both film and television (the WB dramas "Felicity" and "Dawson's Creek," the independent films "Origin of the Species" and "The Fisherman," and the PBS documentary "Wisconsin: An American Portrait). In 2003, he released the trio album "Redbird" with two fellow singer-songwriters, an album of 17 songs, ranging from jazz standards to old country tunes to contemporary covers, recorded in 3 days, around one microphone. WEBSITE: www.petermulvey.com [top] --- He won the Kerrville New Folk competition in 1993, has been featured in both Billboard and Performing Songwriter magazines, has been awarded Wammies (Washington Area Music Association Awards) for Best Male Vocalist every year since 1993, as well as Songwriter of the year in 1997, and Song of the Year for his "Sleeping Beauty." His song "See Myself in You," co-written with Tom Kimmell, was covered by Randy Travis on his album "Inspirational Journey" and also featured in an episode of the CBS drama "Touched By An Angel." The Travis connection is a bit misleading since this is one singer-songwriter who owes more to world music and Motown than country. His percussive guitar style, and catchy choruses have him known around Kerrville campfires as "the groovemeister. " He is also a multi instrumentalist doubling on sitar, violin, piano, mandolin, fretless bass, and percussion, as well as contributing harmonies and guitars on a host of other albums. He is an independent artist in the truest sense of the word. His albums, including his most recent solo outing, "Out of the Blue," have sold more than 20,000, despite not having a record deal. PUBLICITY: snippercary@ont.com /
512-699-7370. Or: tom@thedreamsicles.com [top] --- He has recorded and produced eight albums with Trapezoid as well as "Birth of a River," a duo album of original instrumentals with Bobby Read of the Bruce Hornsby Band. He has also recorded more than two dozen albums with other artists including John McCutcheon, Sally Rogers, Holly Near and Si Kahn. He writes both songs and instrumentals, composes for theatre, TV and film and performs and teaches regularly at some of America's most prominent music festivals, including the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, Swannanoa Gathering, Kerrville Folk Festival, Augusta Workshops and many others. Reisler is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Kid Pan Alley, a program joining the songwriting of children with the work of professional musicians. He is currently writing books on melody writing for songwriters and open tunings for guitar and writes for "Performing Songwriter" Magazine and "Acoustic Guitar." WEBSITE:
www.paulreisler.com [top] --- WEBSITE:
www.devonsproule.com
[top] --- The CD also includes the first commercial release of the Springsteen tune "Train Song," as well as Thompson's song "Orange Moon," recorded on a 2002 trip to China where Thompson worked with musician Wu Qiang, who added two traditional Chinese instruments to the tune: a zhong ruan and a qien lin. He is also co-founder of In Your Ear Music and Recording Corp., a Richmond company that composes and produces music for commercials and films. He
has shared the stage with the likes of artists such as Bob Dylan,
Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills, and Nash and Bruce Hornsby, to
name a few. His cover of Springsteen's "Guilty" was
included in the EMI/CAPITOL release "One Step Up/Two Steps
Back: The Songs of Bruce Springsteen." After many years
of touring Thompson now reserves much of his spare time for his
family and his second love, sailing the Chesapeake Bay. (His
1998 recording, "Out on the Chesapeake," features songs
Thompson wrote sailing his boat on the bay). His concert schedule
is limited mostly to concerts he knows "will be enjoyable." WEBSITE: www.robbinthompson.com [top] --- In 1993, she launched her successful solo career, including 1999 performances on WXPN's World Cafe and at the Kennedy Center, as well as a yearly European tour. She has won a devoted following in the U.S. and Europe with her fine voice, adroit songwriting, and upside-down-and-backwards guitar style. She receives a healthy dose of airplay on folk and Americana radio formats. Her most recent CD is 2001's "Don't Get Me Started." One month after release, the CD was picked up by the Swiss label Brambus Records and was on the top-five list for U.S. and international folk airplay, generating a wave of bookings and other trade attention. WEBSITE: www.katemcdonnell.com --- Concentrating on the brother-style duet harmony singing of such classics outfits as The Monroe Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, and The Stanley Brothers, and reaching even further back to the 20's and 30's-style fiddle and guitar sounds of Arthur Smith, The Georgia Yellow Hammers and other similar fiddle string-band sounds, The Hunger Mountain Boys honor a tradition while adding to it their own unique interpretations of old-fashioned country music. Portions of their first record, "Fashioned In The Old Way," have been chosen as accompanying music for "Roots of Bluegrass," a multimedia on the Jimmy Martin documentary "King of Bluegrass" DVD, which traces the developments that led to bluegrass from the 1600s through the first generation of bluegrass legends circa 1956. WEBSITE: www.hungermountainboys.com [top] --- Or, as he describes it in more detail on his website: "Take a pinch of gospel, add blues to taste. Mix in a generous amount of Southern fried soul. Marinate for 20 something years. Let it simmer in the mind of a romantic country boy. Baste liberally with a bottleneck slide and Zen concepts. Tune all guitar strings ('cept the B) to E. Serve hot with passion and flavor." He has a new CD out, his third, titled "Milepost 5," which follows "Cuttin' in Line at the Karmic Buffet." His tune "Sweet Well Water" was nominated as Best Song in the "Just Plain Folks" Americana category. WEBSITE: www.popswalker.com --- His signature style, combining finely crafted lyrics with surprising turns of melody, harmony, and phrasing, has caught the ear of some of the most respected artists in bluegrass, Celtic and contemporary folk genres. His more than 30 song cuts to date include four songs recorded by Americana supergroup Alison Krauss & Union Station, as well as covers by Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Kate Brislin and Jody Stecher, the Del McCoury Band, the Wayfaring Strangers, Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike, and other progressive acoustic artists. His most recent release, "Crazy Faith" (Devachan Music), features his own songs, produced by master old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky, and featuring Bruce, Tom Rozum, Sally Van Meter, Ronnie Simpkins and other great players. He is also one of the most respected guitar accompanists for traditional Celtic music in the United States, took 1st place in Old Time Fiddle in the esteemed 2003 Appalachian Music Festival contest at Clifftop, and is a widely respected guitar and songwriting instructor. WEBSITE: www.devachan.com [top] --- They consistently earn these rhapsodic, intriguing reviews such as this one from Peter Spink of New Age Voice: " A fusion of folk, pop and classical contrapuntal harmonies 'contemporary and yet also timeless' sort of Paul Simon meets Bach, as sung by the Bitching Babes." Although the band called Mad Agnes may be relatively new, the members' musical bonds stretch across three bands, two solo careers, one-and-a-half decades and a large repertoire encompassing ten releases. In concert, they move from bold, lushly arranged songs with full instrumentation (acoustic, electric, slide and bass guitars, piano and synth) to pared down, spare and simple ones, showcasing their ample musical range. "Magic Hour," released in 2003, is the band's second CD and with the help of national promotion, is in regular rotation on radio stations around the country. WEBSITE:
www.madagnes.com --- [top] --- Naked Blue has appeared on CNBC's After Hours, Munich's Gong Radio and numerous other radio and television programs. They've opened for artists including Joe Cocker, Aimee Mann, 10,000 Maniacs and Foreigner and headlined prominent venues such as The Kennedy Center Millenium Stage. Their songwriting credits include spots on Evangeline's "French Quarter Moon," and spots on "The Young & the Restless," "Brooklyn South," "Jack & Jill," "That's Life" and the films "The Girl Next Door," "About Sarah," "The Smokers" and "Sex, Drugs & Democracy. " Their awards include Washington Area Musician's Association Best Female vocalist in the Rock/Pop, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk categories as well as Music Monthly Magazine's Best in Genre and Best Folk Group. WEBSITE: www.nakedblue.com [top] --- They burst on the folk circuit in 2003 with a big buzz, a load of festival appearances, and an arsenal of charm and intelligence. If you get out to folk festivals, you are likely to have seen, and probably won’t have forgotten, this trio. In 2003 and 2004 alone, they have been featured or are set to appear at The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Clearwater Revival Folk Festival, Green River Festival, Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival, Xtreme Folk Scene Festival and many more. (Brian Gundersdorf was also a Top 5 finalist in the 2004 NewSong contest.) WA9’s third CD, "Engine," released in 2003, is "a studio collection that’s every bit as good as their live performance," says Singer magazine. And it's not often a band's songs get compared to a well-written hit TV show. But listen up to SingOut Magazine's take on the group's songs, which are "thick with foreshadow and subplots," comparing them to "the fast-paced television show, 'The West Wing.'" WEBSITE: www.wa9.org [top] --- MALCOLM
HOLCOMBE Critics flocked to the Bluebird Café to see this new type of singer/songwriter and soon Nashville’s Music Row embraced Holcombe with vigor. Malcolm was cited by music historians shortly after as “the most important and influential songwriter in 30 years.” Holcombe landed high profile supporting positions on tours with Shelby Lynne and Cat Power as well as opening slots in NYC for such acts as John Hammond, Merle Haggard and even Wilco. He is now considered a legendary staple performer throughout the Southeast. His songs are fables, sometimes startling and at other times tender. His voice is arresting, gravelly and soulful. His songs have caught the ears of many within the music business, from acoustic roots producers, popular country crossover artists, to an extensive list of public and college radio stations throughout the country. WEBSITE: www.malcolmholcombe.com [top] --- TORI
ANDERSON & POSSUM HOLLER Based out of the four-state region of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, this sought-after band is fronted by lead vocalist Tori Anderson, who routinely wins rave reviews for her soulful voice and renditions of classics and originals. The
band is currently touring in support of their debut CD "Out
on a Limb" which has been described as featuring " contemporary
country music with class..." and having a an Americana-friendly
sound. The band's manager, Bill Clark, puts it another way: "I
guess the catch-all term is melodic. It’s just good music." |
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In
a word, hit songwriter and acclaimed performer Darrell Scott
embodies the spirit of the NewSong Festival, which is why we are
so pleased and honored to have him return as a headliner this year.
His songcraft is simply the best out there. Those who have heard
his soulful voice and powerhouse delivery live have witnessed a
master at play. 
George
Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Billy Strayhorn.
The Golden Age of Popular Song. A bygone era. No one can write
tunes like that anymore. Or just maybe Susan Werner recently
added a new chapter to the Great American Songbook...
You
know you've got an interesting band in your sights when you
note that not one, but two players are listed in the lineup as
playing "triangle." That would be the hip acoustic quartet,
Steppin' In it, which celebrates American roots music. You've got
Dominic Suchyta on upright bass and triangle; Josh Davis on acoustic
guitar, mandolin, banjo and triangle; Joe Wilson on dobro, steel
guitar and fiddle and Andy Wilson on harmonica, cajun button accordion,
trumpet, ukelele and whistles 
It's
quite likely you have heard Kenny White's music before--
and several times -- but didn't know it was him. Before
stepping out as a performer and stellar piano player under
his own name, he wrote, produced and played on literally
hundreds of TV and radio commercials and film scores. During
this time, he also produced Shawn Colvin's "I Don't
Know Why" from Colvin's "Fat City" (which
earned her a Best Pop Vocal Grammy nod), produced the critically
acclaimed "Fool's Parade" and "Sleepless" (working
with Keith Richards on the latter) and added his piano
to many films, including "Message in a Bottle," "Ed
TV," "Where the Heart Is," and not least
of all, four John Sayles films. 
The
recently released "Kitchen Radio" (Signature Sounds)
is Peter Mulvey's eighth album overall and his first of original
material in four years. He has put songwriting solidly front
and center, and the result is a deft, moving portrait of a place "where
the personal and worldwide intersect," as he describes on
his website. Mulvey and longtime writing partner and producer,
David "Goody" Goodrich, create an album of original
music performed with genuine grit and abandon. 
Tom
Prasada-Rao is a well-known, beloved figure on the national
singer-songwriter circuit. After more than a decade on the road,
he has established himself as a musicians' musician, touring
solo, with the seminal folk supergroup the Sherpas, and recently
as part of the duo The Dreamsicles. Born in Ethiopia of Indian
parents, and educated in England, the U.S., and India, his music
reflects that diversity. He blends pop melodies, finely crafted
lyrics and socio-political commentary with R&B rhythms, powered
by his acoustic guitar, third World instrumentation, and a voice
one listener once described as "like cream of angel soup."
Paul
Reisler is a much-esteemed composer, songwriter and
co-founder and artistic director of the acclaimed "chamber-folk" group
Trapezoid. He has performed in more than 3,000 concerts,
workshops and festivals worldwide. As one writer summed
it up: "Paul Reisler is certainly a leader among those
who blend the categories, who redefine eclectic and take
eclectic to new and wonderful territories." 
At
just 21 years of age, Devon Sproule is making waves. Rolling
Stone picked Sproule's third CD, "Upstate Songs" (City
Salvage Records), as one of its "Critics Top Albums of 2003,"
noting that the CD is "perhaps the sweetest and most honest
folk pop album recorded this year." Critic Julie Gerstein recalls
being "blown away by Devon's live performance... She brings
something special to the genre...a sense of sweetness, innocence
and clarity."
Virginia-based
songwriter Robbin Thompson has put out ten albums since
he began recording in 1976. He was a vocalist in Bruce
Springsteen's pre-E-Street Band called Steel Mill and has
won The American Song Festival twice. Thompson along with
friend Steve Bassett authored the song "Sweet Virginia
Breeze," considered by many to be the unofficial state
song of Virginia. He has written and recorded songs with
Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit, who appears on Thompson's
most recent release "One Step Ahead of the Blues."
Kate
McDonnell was the 2002 NewSong Performing Songwriter
Contest grand-prize winner, the contest's first ever. She
can't stop winning songwriting contests: In 2004 alone,
she has taken first place at the Susquehana Songwriting
Contest with "Mercy" and "Softhearted Girl," both
co-written with Anne Lindley, and another first-place win
at the Plowshares Songwriting Competition with the same
tunes.
The
Hunger Mountain Boys are an old time, traditional duet
featuring the sounds of guitar, fiddle, mandolin and dobro.
Based out of the Gt. Barrington/Monterey Massachusetts
area, the duet features Ted Weber on guitar, dobro and
vocals, and Kip Beacco on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and
vocals. Weber was the grand-prize winner in the 2003 NewSong
contest from among more than 400 entries (Beacco's tune, "My
Darlin' My Dear" also placed within the top 40). The
Hunger Mountain Boys performed Weber's winning tune, "Nashville
Don't Touch My Country Music," on a festival-ending
performance of the "Mountain Stage" program,
sharing the stage with Jesse Harris, Mindy Smith, Darrell
Scott, Tim O'Brien and the Del McCoury Band
Rick "Pops" Walker
returns to the NewSong stage after a 2003 performance
that won him a boatload of new fans. This is one performer
who does not have your conventional musical resume. For
the past 20 years, this mostly solo acoustic blues artist
worked as a paralegal in the U.S. Army, while performing
as often as he could. He has fans in Europe, Japan, Hawaii,
and throughout the continental USA, drawn to what he calls
his "Southern Fried Mojo Music." 
As
songwriter and composer, fiddler, ‘tunesmith,’ and
guitar and piano accompanist, Mark Simos draws on a long apprenticeship
in a wide variety of genres—Irish, Southern old-time, New
England, Quebeçois, bluegrass, and Klezmer among others—creating
a musical language grounded in traditional forms, yet uniquely
his own. 
The
music of Mad Agnes – created by Margo Hennebach, Adrienne
Jones, and Mark Saunders – features rich, three-part harmonies,
clever songwriting and a sound that is at once familiar and unique.
Reviewers have likened them to the finest of progressive-folk
artists like Fairport Convention. The group's songs feature story-telling
steeped in classical motifs, intricate harmonies, and complex
counterpoint. 
A
short list of the groups that Charlottesville-based guitarist
and producer Jamal Millner has performed or worked with in the studio
would be a very hip list indeed: Clark Terry, R.L. Burnside, Art
Baron, Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, the Dave Matthews Band, John Jackson,
Cassandra Wilson, and countless others. He has also performed widely
with Corey Harris and 5x5 and toured extensively throughout the
U.S., Africa and Europe.
Borrowing
from the Americana tradition, but firmly grounded in a pop sensibility,
the performing songwriter team, Jen and Scott Smith and their band,
Naked Blue, have become one of the leading independent acts in the
Mid-Atlantic. In May 2003 they released their 5th CD, "Five
by Five." Their sound has generated strong praise of this sort
from Recording Magazine: "A radio ready female vocal with strong
guitars, bass and drums... If this year's Lilith Fair has an opening,
we nominate Jennifer for the spot. Is Shawn Colvin looking over
her shoulder?"
We're
About 9 -- Katie Graybeal, Pat Klink and Brian Gundersdorf
-- is a trio focused on complex songwriting and big wall-of-sound
harmonies. They take turns on lead vocal, all of them sing on
every song, and accompany their voices with thoughtfully conceived
acoustic guitar, electric bass and djembe. Folk icon Vance Gilbert
describes them as "some kind of a cross between The Kingston
Trio, The Four Tops, and The Story," with a unique brand
of performance and songwriting that transcends such comparisons.
Malcolm
Holcombe’s major label debut, "A Hundred Lies," received
four stars in Rolling Stone. Holcombe has been writing and
playing music for more than 25 years. Originally from the western
hills of North Carolina, he descended on Nashville like a tornado,
bringing his soon-to-be legendary style of singing and playing
to a town where country had always been king.
Tori
Anderson and Possum Holler are known for putting on a classy
show featuring music with traditional and modern country and
rock influences, with some swing and blues thrown in. Possum
Holler is also known as one of the hottest opening acts in country
music, opening for the likes of Rascal Flatts, JoDee Messina,
Aaron Tippon and many others.