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The Interactive Commune of The Folly

George Copeland, Jr. | September 24, 2018

Topics: Anneliese Grant, blues, folk, indie, jazz, music, rock, rva music, The Folly

It was about two years ago when RVA Mag last sat down with The Folly, when the blues/folk/rock band released their debut EP. Since then, they’ve been busy touring and toiling away in the studio on their latest project, Find A Way, which they dropped last month.

Their eclectic mix of folk and bluesy rock has made them a standout. Continuing that effort, lead singers and songwriters Jordan Lette and Anneliese Grant said they wanted to bring in more of the talent and creative contributions of their fellow bandmates. “This one was a lot more interactive, a lot more communal,” Lette said of the album’s creation.

Development on Find A Way started two years after the band’s current lineup had been established. Following the release of their debut EP, bassist Ray Montoro and Johnathan Kirvan bowed out of the band on good terms, with Jonny Powell (Bass, Vibra-slap), Josh Santamaria (Drums), and Jacob Larson (Percussion) joining recurring members Tara Dillard (fiddle) and Gordon Jones (saxophone). Pianist Sid Kingsley and No BS! Brass Band drummer Lance Koehler also contributed to the album.

While The Folly’s makeup in live shows still features shifting roles and numbers from venue to venue, this particular lineup would become a constant over the years; even as The Folly’s rising profile would take the group from a Beatles tribute at the Kimball Theatre in Williamsburg to a Halloween show in New York City. Eventually, the decision was made to ensure this incarnation of the band had a release to call its own.

“We need to have recordings of this group that represents who the band actually is now,” Grant said. “Just make sure we had a project that had our current family on it together.”

Where the band’s first EP had been the marriage of Grant and Lette’s lyrics and vocals to the music created by Lette, the expanded lineup was an integral part of the music from its earliest days. This led to a process of brainstorming and experimentation, fueled by members who had the space and encouragement to bring in their own ideas.

“I’m sure it’ll change the next time, or remain that same way but have a different process, because now everyone wants to bring stuff to the table,” he said. 

Yet when it came time to record and produce the album, The Folly hit their first real obstacle. While they managed to book studio time in May at Minimum Wage Recordings, fulfilling a 10-year wish for Lette, the conflicting schedules and work requirements of the various band members made using that time very challenging.

“If you’re gonna invest in that kind of studio time, try to make sure everybody can get off work to be there altogether and all be in it throughout the entire time,” Grant said, reflecting on the experience. 

The products of those long hours speak for themselves: eight tracks, spanning nearly an hour of various genres, beginning with the free-wheeling tunes of “So You Go Howl” and ending with the somber and sobering sounds of “Killing Machines.”  And while The Folly’s ability to zigzag through their musical influences is still present, it’s matched with an air of improvisation, intimacy and DIY friendliness in the recording. This atmosphere extends to the physical release, including an inner cover that looks more like a family album, and a CD marked with “doodles” of the band by Grant.

For now, the Folly is focused on getting the word out to as many people as possible, using live shows and radio sessions to ensure a wide reach to a potential audience, all the while supporting, and supported by, a local scene as vibrant and communal as the sparks of inspiration behind their latest work.

“We’re here to support the community, and hopefully we’ll get supported as well,” Lette said.

Find A Way is available for streaming and purchase on iTunes or Spotify.  Catch them at The Hof with Alice & the Reverie on Sept. 28 at 8:45 pm, and with People’s Blues of Richmond and Disco Risque at the Jefferson Theatre in Charlottesville on Oct. 6.

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

Virginia’s Hold On the Legendary Man in Black

Colin Woodward | September 11, 2018

Topics: blues, country, johnny cash, JuneCarter, music

Although Johnny Cash was born and raised in Arkansas and spent most of his adult life around Nashville, Virginia had a hold on him.

The most obvious connection he had to the Commonwealth was through June Carter Cash, his second wife, who was from southwestern Virginia and a member of the Carter family musical dynasty. Over the course of his career, Cash played far more shows in Virginia than his home state of Arkansas. And it was in Virginia that he gave his last concert.

Cash placing a wreath for Nashville Opry founder Judge George Hay, 1969. Photo courtesy Virginian-Pilot.

Cash’s connections to Virginia went back far earlier than his marriage. His ancestors first emigrated from Scotland to the Northern Neck in the 1600s. William Cash, who was born in 1653, landed in Westmoreland County in the 1670s. The county was the early home to Virginia luminaries such as George Washington, James Monroe, and Robert E. Lee. After more than a century, William’s descendants would move to Georgia in 1802, then, just before the Civil War, to Arkansas.

Virginia wouldn’t play a role in the Cash family story again until the 1960s. In 1968, Johnny Cash married June Carter, the daughter of “Mother” Maybelle Carter of the famous and trail-blazing country act the Carter Family. The Carters hailed from Maces Spring (now Hiltons) in Scott County, bordering Tennessee. Not far from Maces Spring is Bristol, Tennessee, where the Carters recorded songs that gave birth to country music as we know it.

As a child, June—who was born in 1929, three years before Cash—performed all over the country with her family. She became a multi-instrumentalist who played autoharp and guitar. Although not blessed with a great singing voice, June developed an energetic and winning stage presence.

In 1947, the Carter family moved into a modest brick house in Glen Allen. June went to high school in Glen Allen before seeking her own career as a musician and actress. June might have been prone to cornball humor as an adult—as was the case with her hayseed character, Aunt Polly—but she studied acting in New York under the renowned coach Lee Strasburg.

Early in his career, Cash met June backstage one night and was so smitten with her that he said he would marry her one day (despite the fact that both were married at the time). In 1961, June became a full-time member of the Johnny Cash Show, which also included Mother Maybelle and June’s sisters Anita and Helen.

After he married Carter, Cash would spend more time in Virginia. Cash played at least 51 dates in Virginia during his career. One date in Berryville in August of 1963 was memorable in that it was where Cash first met the Statler Brothers, the Staunton group that soon became a part of the Johnny Cash Show.

In 1971, the Cash show played Richmond Coliseum. Barbara Green of the Richmond News Leader had a mixed reaction toward the Man in Black. “So what if he can’t carry a tune very well?” she wrote. “He can get a song across.” Her reaction to the Virginians was more effusive. The highlight of the show, she said, was the Carter family, who “provided a breath of fresh air with their simple, uncluttered songs and clearly defined harmonies.” The 1971 show was one of only a few dates Cash played in the Richmond area. His last was in October 1978 at King’s Dominion.

Cash not only played many times in Virginia, he penned some memorable songs about the state. The railroad crash song “Wreck of the Old 97” was one Cash covered for many years. Other memorable tunes included “Jacob Green”—a supposedly true tale of a prisoner who is shamed by his guards and then hangs himself—and the pro-southern, pro-Confederate “God Bless Robert E. Lee.”

Cash’s last public performance was at the Carter Family Fold on July 5, 2003. By then, Cash was in poor health. June had died a few months before, unexpectedly, from complications following heart surgery. Cash was so feeble he could only play sitting down and was able to hold a guitar only with help. But he could still deliver such classics as “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.”

Family, more than perhaps is the case with any other music, is central to the country genre. Without a doubt, Johnny Cash had strong family ties to the Old Dominion. Cash was a native of Arkansas and the Johnny Cash Museum is in Nashville, but Virginia played an important part in the larger story of the Man in Black.               

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

Blending Hard Bop and Traditional Jazz, Marcus Tenney Quartet Shines on ‘Moment’

Daniel Berti | July 25, 2018

Topics: American Paradox, blues, Butcher Brown, Foxygen, hip hop, jazz, Marcus Tenney, Marcus Tenney Quartet, No BS! Brass Band, rva music, Tennishu, Vagabond

Multi-instrumentalist Marcus Tenney is a relentless musician. He plays saxophone and trumpet in Richmond powerhouse acts Butcher Brown and No BS! Brass Band, tours with indie-duo Foxygen, and records hip-hop records under the name Tennishu, among other things.

And tonight, one of his lesser known, but equally impressive projects, the Marcus Tenney Quartet, will release a new set of recordings on Richmond record label American Paradox’s cassette series “RVA Jazz Tapes”. The album, Moment, consists of four straightforward jazz pieces that recall jazz classics of the 50s and 60s like Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, or John Coltrane’s Giant Steps.

The quartet features Tenney on trumpet, Alan Parker on guitar, Billy Williams on drums, and Andrew Randazzo on bass.

Moment was recorded live at the former American Paradox studio on the Maggie Walker museum block in Jackson Ward. “It’s cool to play jazz in a historic area, it was like the cherry on top,” said Tenney of the recording session.

The influence of hard bop on the recordings is apparent, but there are discernible elements of fusion, rock, and hip-hop throughout the recording that make this more than a throwback. “Sometimes the walls between genres are very fluid,” Tenney said.

And that blending of jazz and hip-hop, said Tenney, has experienced a resurgence in recent years.  “It seems like a time when music that has been the underdog, is coming back to the top again.”

Occasionally, the jazz ensemble will lock into a repetitive groove that resembles a hip-hop bar before breaking into a loose melody, and Williams’ drumming ranges from frenetic jazz tapping to straight-ahead rock rhythms. The mixing of styles is subtle, and to this listener, it sounds very natural and unambitious. The ideas flow effortlessly from one to the next.

Tenney said that the compositions on Moment were partly inspired by a piece called “Was” by jazz guitarist Adam Rogers. Rogers is a prolific musician who has played alongside John Zorn, Norah Jones, and Bill Evans, to name a few.

“Was” begins with a simple, repetitive theme. As the song progresses, the musicians begin to expand on the original theme until it is almost unrecognizable. “There’s a couple songs that are inspired by that kind of writing and that type of thinking, of just taking one simple thing and having everyone get creative with it,” Tenney said of Moment.

The third track on Moment, “Loss”, was partially inspired by John Coltrane. Tenney said that his favorite Coltrane records are from his transitional phase between straightforward hard bop and the spacey free jazz he recorded near the end of his life. “I like the powerful sound that he had at the end, but when he was still playing compositions that were easily recognizable,” said Tenney.

The Marcus Tenney Quartet will kick off their cassette release party for Moment at Vagabond tonight at 9 p.m. 

 

 

Music Sponsored By Graduate Richmond

 

 

 

 

Erin & The Wildfire on new sound, new album, & unrequited love before show at The Camel tonight

Amy David | September 21, 2017

Topics: blues, Charlottesville, Erin & The Wildfire, funk, McKinley Dixon, R&B, Sid Kinglsey, soul, The Camel

It’s been two years since RVA Mag caught up with Erin & The Wildfire, the Charlottesville folky/funk group led by sultry powerhouse vocalist Erin Lunsford. The group has been busy touring, performing at festivals, and in the studio recording their first full-length album, Thirst, set to drop tonight at The Camel.

In 2015, the then four-piece had just a self-titled EP under their belts, but the group is back with two new members and has switched up their sound to a funkier, soulful, R&B vibe for their latest 12-track album.

Covers like “Stayin Alive” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, paired with Lunsford’s vocals, and the band’s backing funky grooves helped them carve out their place in the Richmond music scene, but the vocalist said for this record they wanted to go with a different vibe.

“The first EP was more Americana and folk blues, and even then, we were talking about wanting a more R&B and funk feel, that’s the kind of stuff we were covering,” Lunsford said.

More recently, the band put out songs like “Here I Go” “Got Dem” and “Blame the Rain” that were a little closer to the sound the group wanted, but didn’t quite have enough soul for them just yet.

“It was still a little too folk, too Americana for what we wanted,” she said. “And they were still just singles, not complete pictures.”

After that point, Lunsford said the songs the band started writing, and the feeling they were going for just came together in an organic way and they were able to pinpoint that sound that they desired and what they thought represented them as a band.

A busy summer schedule playing at festivals like Rooster Walk, Red Wing Roots, Front Porch Fest and Steppin’ Out kept the band preoccupied up until early 2017 when they decided to take a couple months off to get into the studio to record the new material they had been hard at work on.

“It was an incredible experience and we’re super proud of this full product,” she said. “Everything we’ve done in the past has been bits and pieces nothing has felt really wholesome and like it represented our sound.”

Looking to stay local this time around, the band sought out the talents of Adrian Olsen over at Montrose Recording in February to lay down the tracks for their new full-length album and wrapped it up in May.

Erin & The Wildfire dropped two singles ahead of Thirst’s release, “One Woman Show” in July, an upbeat anthem to empower all us women, and “Great Love”,  a bluesy, heartfelt ballad that really shines light on how the band has evolved.

“To me, it is the ultimate tune from this album,” she said referring to the second single.

Much of the album is very personal, specifically about unrequited love according to Lunsford.

“There’s one person in particular that several of the songs are about,” she said. “And a couple other random dudes that I dated sprinkled in. “’Great Love’ was the amalgamation of all of those experiences, it’s not actually a surrender, but its kind of close. Understanding what the realization of what I’m looking for and what I’m willing to give up and what I’m not willing to give up.”


As far as the name of the album, there’s a little story behind that as well. There’s a track on the album called “Thirsty For Your Love” and the group wanted a title that would sum up the theme.

“We wanted to go with ‘Thirsty’, but that’s kind of a double entendre these days,” she laughed. “We thought Thirst represents the songs, wanting for love, wanting for something more.”

Part of the reason for those soul and R&B influences on the tracks could be attributed to the two members recently added to the group. The band brought on Garen Dorsey to play horns and Austin Patterson on the trumpet rounding them out as a six-piece with Nick Quillen on the drums, Ryan Lipps on the guitar, and Matt Wood on bass.

“I think that it really enhances our sound, its make our music much more interesting and much more vast,” she said. “Funk and soul is not funk and soul without horns. They are just awesome musicians in their own right so they just are raising our music to the next level.”

If one element stood out for me on the old EP, it was the amount of soul and passion that came through when Lunsford opened her mouth to belt out a tune. And if these tracks are any indication to the rest of the album, I’m really going to dig the new vibe!

You can catch Erin & The Wildfire perform Thirst at their album release party tonight at The Camel along with Mckinley Dixon and Sid Kinglsey. Show starts at 9 pm. Tickets are $7 and you can get yours here. Thirst drops online on Fri., Sept. 29.

And if you’re lame and miss tonight’s show in Richmond, the crew is also doing cd releases in Blacksburg on Oct. 12, Charlottesville at The Southern on Oct. 13, and in DC Oct. 20. Check out the rest of their tour schedule here.

*Photo Credit: Tristan Williams Photography

RVA Mag #28: Angelica Garcia’s sprawling journey from isolated discovery to vibrant expression

Doug Nunnally | May 10, 2017

Topics: angelica garcia, blues, BLUES & ROCK, roots, rva music, Warner Brothers

“It’s been a… a real crazy journey.”

That’s acclaimed singer-songwriter Angelica Garcia summarizing the events of the last several years of her life, a tumultuous yet rewarding time that included multiple cross-country moves, periods of isolation and discovery, and, ultimately, landing a coveted slot on Warner Brothers Records who released her debut record, Medicine For Birds, in September of 2016. “It seems like a lot when I list it all out, but that’s how life goes I guess,” she laughs.

This article was featured in RVAMag #28: Spring 2017. You can read all of issue #28 here or pick it up at local shops around RVA right now.

Garcia’s story begins in Los Angeles where she lived with her mother, a graphic designer, and father, a record executive. For the most part, her life ran smoothly until around middle school when her father made a decision that would change their lives: He was leaving the record industry and becoming an Episcopal priest. “He always said he was repenting,” Garcia remembers with a smile before detailing how her family packed up and moved to Connecticut so her father could attend seminary. After graduating, the family moved back to Los Angeles for a time while her father still pursued the priesthood. “That whole process takes a while,” she explains. “You have to go to seminary for a few years, then be a deacon for two years, and that’s when you start to get assessed to become ordained.”

On top of the location and career changes, Garcia’s family also had to cope with her father’s battle with cancer. “It was really difficult for the family,” she states. “It was actually really hard for him because as he was going through his treatment and recovery, he had to do time as a chaplain in a hospital.” She remembers one of his first hospital experiences was consoling the family of a man who had suffered a fatal heart attack. “He had to somehow learn how to console them and figure out the exact right thing to say, which was hard when he was going through his own serious fight with cancer,” she explains. “It was just difficult.”

Garcia also admits that the uncertain situation was hard on her and her mother. She remembers living in a big house when she was younger, something she never noticed until each house got progressively smaller as she grew up. “Our last place in LA, I could actually put my hands out and touch both walls,” she says while stretching for visual effect. But it was more than the living arrangements for Garcia. “It put weird pressure on the family because it’s the kind of job where the whole family gets involved. I would help out so he’s not doing it all by himself. Sometimes it’s making food, other times it’s getting things in order. Whatever it took, we did it.”

Around this time, Garcia was starting her senior year at an arts school in Los Angeles and getting her first taste of the music industry. Though she studied jazz and classical voice, she didn’t pursue music until her classmates approached her randomly with an opportunity. “They were competing in a Battle Of The Bands and needed a singer,” she remembers. “We had this indie pop sound, though we were all jazz kids so it had a different twist to it. People liked it a lot and we ended up winning.” One of the prizes was recording time in a studio — not a fancy one, Garcia states, but one good enough to impress a bunch of high schoolers. Eager to start, the band had one issue before entering the studio. “They were saying, ‘We can’t record other people’s songs. We have to record our own stuff,'” she remembers. “They basically looked at me and told me to write some songs. I had a bunch of poems, but I never did songwriting so that was my first real experience.”

One of those songs Garcia wrote ended up becoming popular around LA leading to the band playing a set at The Troubadour when she was only 17. “It was crazy — I’m on stage and people are actually singing my words back to me,” she says with a shocked expression. “That’s when I thought I could actually do this.” Realizing her potential wasn’t the only thing that happened that night. The band’s set also impressed an A&R executive who quickly expressed interest, even as the group’s future was uncertain. “He really believed in me even after the band disbanded since everyone was moving away,” she recalls. “He told me to just keep writing and to send him stuff. It was really a big moment. I was just a normal teenage girl with a lack of confidence so for him to tell me that, when I already wanted to write anyway… I got a lot of self-definition out of that.”

It was a seminal moment for Garcia, but unfortunately, there was little time to celebrate with graduation fast approaching and a big decision to make: She could either go to college or move with her family across the country (again) to the town of Accomac on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. “I studied music in school, but I really wanted to try my hand at writing,” she admits. “I had always loved it and I did get into a writer’s program in Vermont, though it was just the wrong time with the move and the second diagnosis.” Six months before her graduation, her father had already moved out to Virginia and by the time Garcia and her mother were ready to join him, they all had to prepare for her father’s second fight with cancer.

“That was the most stressful time because I had just finished graduating and my mom also broke her leg at the same time,” she says. “I ended up taking care of both parents and I also really thought about how hard it was to just make ends meet. I couldn’t justify spending $30,000 a year on college so I decided to take some time off and think, which ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Upon arriving in Virginia, Garcia began to acclimate to life in the town of Accomac, a community she described as “half-farmer, half-fisherman,” and while her father and mother had no problem fitting in, she quickly found problems with few people to relate to. “I was the only 17-year-old in the neighborhood so I knew I was going to be by myself… a lot,” Garcia reveals. “It’s okay though. I used that time to think about things and write. Really write.”

It’s not as though Garcia shunned herself from the community though; she helped run a food pantry with her family for migrant and seasonal farm workers, one that was the only Spanish-speaking pantry in the area despite it being the first language for many of the workers. “It was a great way to help supplement food because their income wouldn’t cover it,” she reasons, even though many at the church voiced their concern.

“A lot of people were upset, saying we were helping the illegals,” she recounts while shaking her head. “My dad would just say that they were helping their fellow human beings and if they couldn’t see that, then they shouldn’t go to this church because this is the real work of God.” Garcia expressed her pride in her father for standing up, even though it led to some people leaving the church. “He made it very clear that his church was not going to use religion and God to give an okay stamp on some people’s shitty beliefs and behaviors.”

Though the congregation eventually accepted her father’s decision, Garcia began to see similar sentiments pop up around the country. “Words kind of fail me here because I didn’t realize people held that much hate,” she admits softly. “It almost seems that people are so desperate for answers and clarity that they justify terrible things. I’m definitely Latina America and proud of it and nothing anyone can say is going to change that.”

Despite this pantry squabble, Garcia found her time in the Eastern Shore to be exactly what she needed, even if it meant retreating into an isolated bubble behind the church itself. “I just realized I had a lot more time on my hands,” she explains, “so I ended up going to this little parish house behind the church where they held dinners and AA meetings. It had an upright piano in there and I just spent a lot of time back there, writing and playing, and that’s really where my music came together.”

In between attending community college and helping out in the church, Garcia spent most of her free time in that modest building, writing lyrics and tinkering with melodies. It wasn’t long before she began to record these songs as sparse demos, utilizing whatever she had on hand, and just like he had asked in LA, Garcia began to send these demos to that encouraging A&R executive.

“I sent him what I had and he just kept asking for more,” she remembers. “Eventually, we got to a point where we thought we could record stuff and show it to the [Warner Brothers] to see what they thought.” Those demos, forged in that almost remote building, wound up landing Garcia with a lengthy record contract, one that led Garcia to a Nashville studio where she would record what would become the bluesy roots album Medicine For Birds, a record comprised solely of songs written in that parish bubble.

Working alongside famed producer Charlie Peacock, Garcia set out to build upon the songs she once demoed with crickets in the background late at night. “Most stayed true to the demos, but a lot ended up in places I never would have thought of,” she admits. “These simple songs that were made in this weird, awkward stage of my life — I’m so attached to them, but I loved hearing them grow and change with a cello or pedal steel.”

The collection of songs included some of the first ones Garcia ever wrote, like “Loretta Lynn,” as well as some newer ones that helped bookend the recording like “Twenty,” a song that was finished on the last day Garcia was 20 years old. Though the songs were written over the span of several years, Garcia concedes there is a theme to the record, even if it may have been unintentional. “I guess the theme is about leaving the nest,” she concedes. “‘Little Bird’ is about when you first go out on your own and ‘Twenty’ is about how that’s not always what you expect it to be so it’s a nice start and finish to the record.”

She even admits the indirect influence birds had on the record too. “When I was a kid, my mom used to call me baby bird,” she states. “Also, I have a lot of early memories in Virginia of birds just everywhere. Sometimes a flock of birds would just come land on a house. That may sound normal here, but not when you come from LA. I didn’t really sit in my room all the time obsessing with birds and leaving the nest, but you can definitely hear that message in the songs. Maybe I’m just more metaphorical than I thought.”

A much more conscious theme Garcia implemented in her songs was the color orange, something she relates to her first memories of moving to Accomac. “My first room there had this weird peach color,” she sneers. “It was a tough time. I had broken up with a boyfriend and left all my friends behind so I just had to do something I could identify with. I chopped off all my hair and painted my room this pumpkin orange color. Pretty weird, but the more time I spent in the room, the happier I felt about that color and how it represented my personal expression.” The color is referenced multiple times on Medicine For Birds, most notably on the breakout single “Orange Flower,” a boisterous and eccentric roots composition many point to as Garcia’s signature song.

Around this time, having finished community college, Garcia left the Eastern Shore and moved to Richmond, finding instant comfort within the city’s thriving art scene. “I love how much music brings people together here,” she remarks. “For a long time, I was just the priest’s weird daughter who likes rock music, but here, in this big city, I instantly fit in.”

Going to open mics around town and crashing on couches after late shows, Garcia eventually formed a circle of like-minded friends who definitely inspired her and influenced some of the direction of Medicine For Birds. She even dabbled in other projects too, forming Whatever, Honey with close friends and fellow musicians Hannah Goad and Ali Thibodeau. “I just love that Ali and Hannah and I were able to do that, even if just for a second,” she smiles. “You really don’t know how others can inform the music you make until you combine your little bubble with their own.”

Though she doesn’t know what the future holds for her in Richmond, she’s enjoying her time here and does admit it’s home to her now. “This city is a lot more to me than just passing through,” she says leaning in. “I don’t know that I’ll live here my whole life, but I have fallen in love with it and no matter where I end up, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the city and the amazing, inspiring people that make up the scene.”

Currently, Garcia is working on recording demos for what will make up her sophomore record, songs that she describes as being true to her Latina heritage — an intentional decision on her part. Returning home from a recent tour with alt-country star Lydia Loveless, she’s excited to immerse herself in the local scene again, playing alongside many bands looking at her trajectory for guidance… without even realizing it is Garcia herself striving to be more like them.

“There’s not one way to make it in music,” she explains. “Some bands would love to sign to a label and make a big record, but I look at these bands in town making great music and I often wonder how they do it and how I can do something similar. There’s so many different things in Richmond to be inspired by. That’s really why I love living here at this stage of my career.”

Photo credit: Joey Wharton

RVA’s Dharma Bombs mix a little romance in with bluesy/folk sound on debut album out May 11

Amy David | April 28, 2017

Topics: blues, Crystal Pistol Records, Dharma Bombs, folk, Montrose Recording, music, swing, The Camel

For three years, the rowdy, bearded guys that make up the band Dharma Bombs have brought RVA feet-stompin’, booty-shakin’, whiskey-drinking party tunes with their fusion of blues, folk, and swing, a genre they refer to as Appalachian Dixieland.

But the group has been toiling away on their latest effort, Old Time Romance, their first full length album and it’s one that is a bit different from what fans have come to expect at their wild, loud and boisterous live shows.

Trey Hall, lead vocalist/guitarist for the band said they wanted to be known for more than just being a party band.

“We do some slower songs which for us we never did,” he said. “It’s a nice mix of really sentimental songs, but really rowdy songs as well, but having that mix of rowdy and sincere and emotional kind of pulls the veil back a little bit. It was a departure from the Basement tape.”

Hall is referring to their previous five-song EP, Bird Dog Basement Tapes, which they released last May through Crystal Pistol Records. The local indie label, run by Saw Black and Pete Curry, will put out Old Time Romance as well.

Black, who just released his own album Azalea Days in February, produced the album for Dharma Bombs and the band sought out the talents of Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording Studios to track and mix the record.

Starting in December, the six-piece band which now includes Hall, Stephen Moser (Trumpet), Drew Brunson (Upright Bass), Josh Smith (Clarinet), Chris Gatens (Mandolin Banjo) and Clay Trinkle (saxophone, Mandolin), began recording, and had the 12-track album wrapped up two months later.

“We recorded the whole album in three days, but spaced out…we thought we would be able to bang it out in one weekend in December and we were so wrong,” Hall said laughing. “We gave ourselves two months to prep and prepare because last fall we were touring and playing all over and really pushing ourselves instead of preparing for the album.”

But that extra time allowed for a more refined and put together album, according to Hall.

“We really hammered practicing and getting the arrangements really tight,” he said. “Adrian is incredible, we really wanted to go up a step {with the new album}. Adrian really fostered that.”

Dharma Bombs have released two singles off the album, “Pack Your Bags”, an acoustic folky piece with warm shining vocals from Allie Smith and “Ballad of Big Sandy River”, released today, a song about two feuding families during the Civil War that has become so legendary it’s been made into movies, cartoons and literature.

“That’s a song about the Hatfields and the McCoys, it’s really a southern Shakespearean fable,” Hall said. “That’s where southern folklore has a big part in our music.”

Next week, they will release “Apocalypse Now”, a tongue-in-cheek “barn-burning song” written by Hall, David Brunson, and Rudwan Bakhsh after they watched the 1979 epic war film.

Personally, the title track, “Old Time Romance” is a song I fell in love with right away. It gives you this old-school bluesy/folk, heartfelt vibe that made me picture a couple in love dancing freely in their living room to a record together. Call me corny, but give it a listen and see what you think.

This is a good time, feel-good album, with some old-school soulful, folky ballads and some love songs thrown in, I shall be kicking my heels, whiskey in hand, as I jam to it at their release party.

And since the band was going for a sort of timeless, old school vibe, and a sound that differed a little from their previous EP, Hall said they wanted to capture that in the recording process.

“It’s kind of a time piece, that’s why we wanted it to be called Old Time Romance, not just songs about love, but its all kind of a romantic aesthetic, we used this old RCA microphone…we just all circled around the big mic the way they used to record,” Hall said. “We created kind of a nostalgic piece in a nostalgic way, but with modern technology.”

And according to Hall, the songs can be appreciated by the young and young at heart alike.

“A lot of the songs on the record are very personal, but the lyrics are meant to be where most people can relate,” said Hall. “Somebody who thinks back to when they were our age in the ’70s will have that same nostalgia that somebody who’s 25 will feel the nostalgia of last weekend.”

But fans of the band’s rabble-rousing and high energy party jams needn’t worry, tracks like “Rollin” a fast-paced, upbeat tune, “Virginia Swing” and “Apoclypse Now” keep that same Dharma Bombs sound you know and love so be sure to check those out.

Rounding out the album, Dharma Bombs brought in Allie Smith, Garen Dorsey, (Saxophonist for Groam and Joan Son of Groam, Erin & The WildFire), & Marissa Resmini (Mckinley Dixon) to sing or play on several tracks.

Dharma Bombs will throw an album release show party for Old Time Romance May 11 at The Camel with performances by Angelica Garcia, Lobo Marino, and Blush Face. $5 adv // $7 at the door. Doors 8PM, music 9 PM. They will play the album in its entirely with all guest musicians and the album will officially drop May 12 on Bandcamp, Spotify and other online platforms.

The band is set to hit the road in June so keep an eye on their Facebook page for tour details soon.

Photo credit: Joey Wharton Photography

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