Happy Friday! Today….meet the jarlfys

1) Name of Band – jarflys

2) Where You’re From – annapolis

3) Band Members – jimi davies – vocals and guitar, bryan ewald- guitar and vocals, larry melton- bass , noel white – drums

4) Years Playing Together? since 2003

5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus? american music

6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna? jimmie’s chicken shack

7) The best of part of playing music is…? – the millions of dollars that we make

Most memorable concert experience is…? – having the beatles open for us at armadillos

9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier? – we would buy piles of cash to put our amps on

Happy Hump Day! Today…meet Deep River, courtesy of band member Rachel Beauregard:

1) Name of  Band

 Deep River

2) Where You’re From

 Virginia!! (the Northern parts)

3) Band Members

 Luke Brindley (guitar), Bryan Dawley (bass, mandolin, vocals), Rachel (lead vocals, harmonica)

4) Years Playing Together?  

 1.5 years

5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus?  

 It’s like pop-country meets sassy Americana…front-porch pop…you’ll like it…

6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna?  

 Harper Blynn!!!

7) The best of part of playing music is…?  

 Playing music…JK!! Communicating with a language EVERYONE understands.

Most memorable concert experience is…?  

 I speak for myself (the girl), and like most girls I have a more than one answer. Jamie Cullum showed me what giving every ounce of energy looks like on stage, The Decemberists show made me want to be a better person…and write epic stories, Dave Matthews Band always brings me into nastolgic Summer heaven, and I will NEVER forget my first real concert- The Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl walked right past me whilst singing through the audience. I learned why “fan” is short for “fanatic” 

9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier?  

 A bus. Right now we travel in an awesome mini-van, but we could def use more space for the long hours on the road. (and a separate section labeled “girl only” and it would smell like roses and sugar cane all the time)

Its Monday! We thought you may like to kick off the new week getting to know Jimmie’s Chicken Shack a little bit better.

1) Name of Band – jimmie’s chicken shack

2) Where You’re From – annapolis and baltimore

3) Band Members – jimi haha- vocals guitar, jerome maffeo-drums, christian valente- bass, island styles- guitar. filling in for island that day is our old guitar player matt jones who now plays with cowboy mouth

4) Years Playing Together? since 1993

5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus? music for people with a.d.d.

6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna? jarflys

7) The best of part of playing music is…? not working a job

Most memorable concert experience is…? too many to pick a favorite.. maybe playing more hfstivals than any other band or having slash jam with us at cabo wabo. or playing red rocks. or etc.

9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier? i’d buy mtv and actually start playing videos again. i would fire everyone including all of the reality show dinks. it might not make life easier but it would be completely satisfying.

Today, get to know Cris Jacobs from the Bridge

1) Name of  Band:

Cris Jacobs 

 2) Where You’re From:

Baltimore, MD

 3) Band Members (or are you solo?):

Sometimes solo and I just started the Cris Jacobs band, with Jake Leckie (bass), Mike Gambone (drums), and Dave Hadley (pedal steel guitar).  

 4) How would you say your current project is different from the Bridge?:

Well the most obvious difference is that I’m the only songwriter.  And the instrumentation is much different too.  But stylistically, I’d say its a bit more intimate and doesn’t have as much of the “party” vibe to it…sorry folks.  

5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus?:

Rootsy, soulful, bluesy, and psychedelic. 

 6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna?:

Fitz & the Tantrums.  I’ve seen lots of the other bands and I’m very excited to see them again, but I’ve never seen Fitz live and I really like the songs that I’ve heard from them. 

 7) The best of part of playing music is…?:

Connecting with the audience.  When the band and audience are constantly giving energy back and forth, that’s when the real magic happens. 

8 )  Most memorable concert experience is…:

Hands down, the one I just played.  The Bridge played our last show on the west coast at a beautiful festival in Oregon called the Black Sheep Family Reunion. We played on a mountain in the woods from 2 am until the sun came up and were literally all brought to tears.  The music we made that night was raw, emotional, and beautiful, and to end the show with all of us hugging and crying our eyes out from the pure emotion of it all was one of the most special moments of my life.  

 9) When can we expect to hear the first new recorded music from your new project?:

Hopefully within the next few months.  I’ve already written about 6 or 7 new songs and there are a few more in the works, so I’d say we’ll be getting into the studio in the early fall.

Today…meet the Grilled Lincolns

 1) Name of  Band   –  The Grilled Lincolns

 2) Where You’re From: Baltimore/Annapolis

 3) Band Members  Riddie Becker – Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar,   Andy Hall - Emcee/Percussion,  Rob Dubois - Drums/Emcee,  Mike Bakke Emcee/Bass guitar (Zach Ditmars – currently filling in on guitar and bass)

 4) Years Playing Together 10

 5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus? A fun mix of rock, funk, hip-hop & humor

 6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna?  Trombone Shorty AND Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

 7) The best of part of playing music is…?  The live experience.  Putting a smile on our fans’ faces.  Connecting with people musically

 8) Most memorable concert experience is…when we were all at Salisbury University we played on a bill consisting of The Roots, The Derek Trucks Band and a rack of other up & coming bands.  We were young at the time and it really inspired us musically to push boundaries and to not be scared to do the damn thang!

 9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier?  An alien rocket ship fully loaded with all the PA equipment we’d ever need, roadies, rockstar booking agent, superstar manager and love.

Today we turn the spotlight on Baltimore’s Bond and Bentley…..a great band from Baltimore….another great reason to check out Silopanna

1) Name of  Band  

Bond and Bentley

2) Where You’re From

Baltimore, MD

 3) Band Members

6 Ray Wroten, IV – lead vocals/acoustic guitar Stan Wetters – bass guitar  Rob Norton, Jr – MC/clarinet/aux percussion  Alex Watts –  Drums/vocals  Ian McFie keyboard/vocals

4) Years Playing Together?  

5 years

 5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus?  

A mix of rock blues with a generous sprinkling of hip-hop

 6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna?  

Trombone Shorty

7) The best of part of playing music is…?  

The freedom to speak our minds and express our art

 8) Most memorable concert experience is…

Pirate Rob’s Birthday Bash 2011 2/19/10 @ Ram’s Head Live Baltimore  

 9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier?  

Just being able to pay down debt that we have already accumulated would make our lives better than anything we could possibly buy.

We are publishing a series of interview questions with the bands playing at Silopanna. Today – meet Pasadena!

1) Name of  Band  

Pasadena

2) Where You’re From

Pasadena, MD

 3) Band Members

(5) Joey Harkum – vocals/acoustic guitar  Aaron Hooper – bass guitar  Cory Street – drums Will Finley – lead guitar Rodney Daniel – Trumpet

 4) Years Playing Together

9 years

 5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus?

Acoustic rock reggae folk drinking music

6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna?

Fitz and The Trantrums but we are really looking forward to Trombone Shorty as well

7) The best of part of playing music is…?

Playing music is the best part about playing music

 8) Most memorable concert experience is…

While we have played many shows, everyone of them is memorable and unique in its own way.  

9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier?

Payoff debt and get a sweet Winnebago to tour around the country endlessly until we went broke again.

Each week, we are going to publish a series of interview questions with the bands playing at Silopanna. For our kickoff piece, we are giving you the chance to meet Sweet Leda (through bassist Jaime Horrigan).

1) Name of  Band: Sweet Leda

2) Where You’re From: Annapolis

3) Band Members: Vocals: Julie Cymek; Bass: Jaime Horrigan; Electric Guitar: Omar El Dieahy; Drums: Don Boyette

4) Years Playing Together: Four beautiful years!

5) How would you describe the music you play to a stranger on a bus?: Rock and soul. Joss Stone crossed with Led Zeppelin

6) Who are you most looking forward to seeing play at Silopanna? All of our local pals! (and we’ve been told not to miss The Dap Kings)

 7) The best of part of playing music is…? Being able to turn a painful memory into an opportunity for comfort.

 8) Most memorable concert experience on stage is…Guessing you mean concert that we participated in….?  Songwriters in the round (with fellow Silopanna act Joey Harkum (of Pasadena), Bryan Russo and Jenn Grinnels) at The Night Cat in Easton would have to be considered one of the most special shows we’ve done……and our set at the festival we played in OC this past weekend was much fun!  We’ve had too many good ones to name….honestly….we strive to make every show our most memorable!

Concert you’ve attended….?  Julie and I (Jaime) went to see John Mayer at Merriweather and it was raining so hard that we were soaked to the  bone despite the fact that we had umbrellas AND raincoats!….yet we all stuck it out and enjoyed the show to the end.  

9) If the band collectively won the lottery, what is the first thing you’d buy to make your music-playing lives easier?

 A purple van! (and by van, we mean tour bus, with driver….plus a few extra hands to help with the gear….and a stocked mini-bar….and a dog so Don has someone to snuggle with)

 Emmylou Harris is one of those names. Serious music fans know it. Even casual music fans know it – she is one of those household names whose actual body of work  kind of slips under the radar. Most of us can’t name more than one of her country music chart toppers, and while we know she is, and should be, treated in high regard as a music icon, very few actually understand the breadth of her work. To put it in perspective, we have called upon guest blogger Peter Cooper to give us a thumbnail snapshot of Harris’ accomplishments. Peter is a touring Americana musician himself , a senior music editor at the Tennessean in Nashville and has contributed liner notes to Emmylou’s Songbird box set.

For the past 36 years, Emmylou Harris has been the single greatest force for good in country music.

 Now, I’m talking big-tent “country,” the kind that encompasses not only the stuff you’ll hear on terrestrial FM radio (though Emmylou has herself notched 35 Top 20 country hits) but also the scenic subdivisions of Americana, bluegrass and country-folk. And I’m measuring not in platinum albums but in communal impact.

 So much of the music that I love would not exist in its present condition without Emmylou. She brought band members Rodney Crowell, Buddy Miller and Albert Lee to popular attention, and she scavenged for songs from previously unheralded writers Gillian Welch, Lucinda Williams, Kieran Kane, Julie Miller, Paul Kennerley and David Olney (among many, many more). She released the first gold-selling female-fronted bluegrass album with Roses In The Snow, a remarkable work that shone a light on American roots music in 1980, two decades prior to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. (And, come to think of it, she was on O Brother as well). 

What else? She reminded the listening public of the wonder of The Louvin Brothers with the Top 5 remake of their “If I Could Only Win Your Love.” She gave a national platform to plenty of DC-area musicians through collaborations with John Starling, Mike Auldridge, Bill Danoff, Fayssoux Starling, The Seldom Scene, Rickie Simpkins and plenty of others. Her covers of Gram Parsons’ songs and determination to keep alive his “Cosmic American” musical vision have resulted in a Parsons audience that is far more substantial now than at the time of his 1973 death. And her vocal turns on practically innumerable projects of friends and admirers have made her the most significant harmony vocalist in pop and country history. (The lady has a gold record hanging in her downstairs bathroom, for her harmonies on Bob Dylan’s Desire album.) A few years ago, I produced an album on which Emmylou sang harmonies. I’m sure she learned a lot from my instruction. Actually, I finally figured out what the quarterback felt like whose job was to hand off to Jim Brown.

So, you take Emmylou away and my town of Nashville becomes Pottersville from It’s A Wonderful Life. She’s crucial.

But if we somehow took away all the connections, the contributions to others’ legacies and her insistence on living a musical life of sharing and support and encouragement, we’re still left with a woman who has produced an insanely brilliant body of work, beginning with 1975’s Elite Hotel and continuing through this year’s wondrous Hard Bargain. In writing liner notes for her four-disc Songbird boxed set, I had occasion to interview her about dozens of recordings throughout her career, and I found that she has the complete, often visual memories of someone who has spent her time paying the kind of attention that can only come from love and enthusiasm and curiosity. Nothing in her world – which is now our world thanks to the recordings – was cobbled together or hastily tossed off. 

This summer, Emmylou is traveling with a ferociously talented band called the Red Dirt Boys. She’s got guitar hero/singer-songwriter/nice-guy/ producer/I-hate-people-this-talented Will Kimbrough in the band now, along with multi-instrumentalist and stellar songwriter Phil Madeira, the aforementioned bluegrass ace Rickie Simpkins and the mighty rhythm section of bass man Chris Donahue and percussionist Bryan Owings. I’d pay to see these guys without Emmylou, and with their backing she’s been playing shows that feature new gems like “Darling Kate” and “The Road” along with a slew of brilliant songs from that 36-year catalogue of work that serves a road map for those of us trying to find our way to some kind of substantive and well-rooted artistry.

Did I mention that she adopts shelter dogs that would otherwise not be adopted, and then she trains them up, and then she finds good homes for them, and then they live the rest of their happy canine days with people who like to tell stories about how they own Emmylou’s dog?

Geez, she does get something wrong pretty regularly, though. Every time I’ve seen her in concert, she spends a lot of time between songs saying “Thank you” when she should clearly be saying “You’re welcome.”