Tuned In

Listen Here First — Geoff Oelsner, Nov. 20 @ BGSO

Kevin Kinder — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:05:15 +0000

Geoff Oelsner with his wife and singing partner, Leslie

Geoff Oelsner doesn’t spend too much time thinking about writing songs. Inspiration, he says, just hits him. He calls them “givens,” and he knows that a gift like that is to be used.

The songwriter releases his second CD of such songs, “Ordinary Mystery,” at a concert at 7:30 p.m. at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. At the performance, he will be backed by local musicians Kelly Mulhollan, Robin Rues and Andrew Sieff.

On the recording, he was backed by all three of those players, but also his family, including his wife and two grown children who now make their careers as musicians.

Oelsner chatted with the us recently about the gifts of songs, the importance of recording with his family and his love of Native American cultures. Four songs on the album are dedicated to the countries different native peoples, and proceeds from the recording will be donated to Native American charities.

Read the story here.

Before you make the trip to the Botanical Gardens for the show, check out a couple of the tracks below.

Ordinary Mystery:

Ordinary Mystery

Aboriginal Day, which features lyrics by the late local songwriter Nick Masullo:

Aboriginal Day

Listen Here! — 11/20

Kevin Kinder — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:03:52 +0000

Composer William Grant Still was not born in Arkansas, but he spent many of his formative years in Little Rock.

As for an Arkansan as a respected symphonic music composer, he’s as close we get, says John Jeter, music director for the Fort Smith Symphony.

Under the leadership of Jeter, the symphony has just released the second of three recordings of Still’s work. It includes two symphonies and another orchestral work from the man many called the “dean of African-American composers.”

Jeter discusses the recording process and the growing national interest in Still’s work in this week’s Listen Here! column, published in today’s What’s Up! section. Take a look here and also read about Steve Kimock’s two-night local run and the man who played the song “Dueling Banjos” in the movie “Deliverance.”

In The Spotlight — Straightline Stitch, Nov. 20 @ Drifters

Kevin Kinder — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:01:23 +0000

Straight Line Stitch

Straight Line Stitch will perform at tonight at Drifters, the club. Admission is $10 at the door. The concert is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Concert Wrap – Bowerbirds, Nov. 18 @ Union Theatre

Kevin Kinder — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:14:09 +0000

For the final number of their concert on the University of Arkansas campus on Wednesday (Nov. 18), the Bowerbirds played in the stairwell of the Arkansas Union. Seriously.

They had a proper venue. They spent the bulk of the the night in the Union Theatre in that building on an actual stage.

But as the night ended, and the crowd begged for more, something out of the ordinary seemed in order. The band lugged a drum, an accordion and an acoustic guitar — their base instrumentation — down two flights of stairs and had the crowd wind up the staircase around them for a performance of “Bur Oak.”

With the reverberation of the makeshift space, and the voices of the crowd chiming in, it left the 200 some people who attended the show with something to talk about.

Not that they already hadn’t seen a fine show.

Click on the ‘more’ link below to continue reading about the Bowerbird’s recent performance in Fayetteville.

Not-so-clear cell phone photo of the Bowerbirds by KEVIN KINDER, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers

In a room so quiet during the songs that you would have felt loud whispering to your neighbor, the Bowerbirds, a neo-folk trio from North Carolina, played a 70-minute set full of quiet, introspective and sometimes even drowsy songs.

They reminded me most closely of folksters Bon Iver, with acoustic guitar layered over drums, and the Fleet Foxes, with pastoral tunes of wind and animals and vocal harmony.

At their best, the trio was mesmerizing, the kind of band that takes you away with harmony and grounds you with smart melodic constructs.

At their worst, the band’s songs are a little self-important, in the sense that you can almost discern improper motives in the time changes, something like “Hey, we’re slowing down, we’re going to say something profound now!”.

But those moments were rare in a concert that was, by the nature of the venue and the material, a pretty subdued affair.

Until the end, of course.

Concert Wrap — Third Eye Blind, Nov. 17 @ Barnhill Arena

Kevin Kinder — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:58:37 +0000

Third Eye Blind. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, Northwest Arkansas Newspapers

As I was leaving Tuesday (Nov. 17) night’s Third Eye Blind concert, a young man sitting next to me noticed me putting away my notebook.

“Are you writing some kind of report?” he asked.

When I explained that I was writing notes for this very blog post, he said the following as he too made an exit from the arena:

“Don’t be a critic. You know you love them. They are the most underrated band ever,” he offered.

I will say this: I was wrong about the San Francisco-based pop rockers. When their name was announced as the band for the University of Arkansas fall installment of the Headliner Concerts Committee series, I came as a surprise to me, considering some of the groups who had come before them in that series, namely, the Foo Fighters, T.I., John Mayer and others.

I didn’t expect Third Eye Blind to have the stadium appeal to fill the venue. I didn’t expect a band who burst onto the scene in 1997 to have any kind of raucous response from the college-aged crowd who would have been in middle school when they peaked.

I guess I did underestimate them after all.

Click the ‘more’ link to continue reading about Third Eye Blind’s recent concert in Fayetteville.

Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind

The band did – or very nearly did – fill Barnhill Arena. And, as is to be expected of a Headliner Committee concert where a number of students were allowed in for free, it was dominated by those in their late teens and early ’20s. Though songs from the band’s platinum-selling debut such as “Jumper,” “Semi Charmed Life” and “Graduate” did draw the largest responses of the evening, there were enough people singing along to the songs released on the band’s most recent album, August’s “Ursa Major,” to prove that the band remains solvent nearly 15 years after it started.

The band played several cuts from that album in addition to the fan favorites that were sprinkled throughout the evening. It was as much of a visual experience as it was a music event. The band came out to a mostly black stage, illuminated in the beginning only by flashing strobes and a woman who stood on the drum kit tossing out glow sticks. Lights flashed throughout the concert, and drummer Brad Hargreaves’ kit was decorated by its own set of flashing lights. Throughout the process, frontman Stephan Jenkins did his best to keep things moving too, jumping around the stage in a tophat – but sans shoes – for much of the evening.

Abraham Millett of Third Eye Blind

The crowd bought every minute of it, including Jenkins’ cheesy monologue toward the end of the night that promised all the fans they were members of the band, too. It was a particularly responsive crowd considering the technical problems that seemed to mar the sound throughout the night as things fell toward the muddy bottom of the sonic spectrum and Jenkins’ vocals often got lost in the shuffle. But it was crowd that came to sing and bask in the middle-of-road rock sounds of Third Eye Blind, who sound a lot like they did in 1997.

But let’s not kid ourselves. Album sales might not agree, but if anything, Third Eye Blind is bigger than they ever were.

About the opener: Space Capone may be based in Nashville, Tenn, but there sound is more Motown Detroit or Memphis soul than the country their city is known for. If given only one word to describe them, it would be this one: funk. The nine, yes, nine-piece ensemble contained bongos, saxophone, trumpet, several guitars and the voice of Space Capone, who jumped between a high-register falsetto and a baritone wail, sometimes in the same song. We understand that the band was a last-minute addition to the bill when there was an issue with the previously scheduled opener, and if so, Space Capone filled in admirably.

Third Eye Blind Setlist, as pulled from the stage:

First, a note. Jenkins, who noted that it was the band’s last night on the current tour, told the crowd the band was going off script. They added “God of Wine” late in the set, which was not originally scheduled to be played.

1) Intro; 2) Can You Take Me; 3) Losing a Whole Year; 4) Faster; 5) Wounded; 6) Sharp Knife; 7) Never Let You Go; 8) Bonfire; 9) Motorcycle Drive By; 10) Water Landing; 11) Jumper; 12) Dao of St. Paul; 13) Guitar solo; 140 Graduate, with drum solo; 15) Monotov’s Private Opera

Encore: 16) Slow Motion; 17) Don’t Believe a Word; 18) Semi Charmed Life 19) God of Wine; 20 Bonfire (reprise)

Carman’s coming

Kevin Kinder — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:03:46 +0000

Carman

Carman (born Carman Domenic Licciardello) has been around showbiz long enough to know how this works.

Just standing around and singing isn’t going to cut it. Churches, where the Christian recording artist usually performs, often have their own musicians and no need for such entertainment.

Which is why his act has changed so over the years. The performer now incorporates humor, lecturing and drama into his busy touring schedule. His current tour, “For Real. For Now” comes to the Word of Life Fellowship in Bentonville later today.

It’s called the “For Real. For Now” tour because Carman, who has sold more than 10 million albums, believes this tour is much more reflective of himself than previous runs.

Carman chatted with us while traveling through Nevada recently and discussed his philosophy about sharing his songs, why calling his show a ‘concert’ is probably a misnomer and his success as a musician.

Read that story here.

Admission to the 7 p.m. show is $5.

In the Spotlight — Bowerbirds, Nov. 18, Union Theater, UA campus

Kevin Kinder — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:01:03 +0000

Bowerbirds

With nonstandard instrumentation and a knack for songwriting, indie rockers Bowerbirds have caught the ears of several of their contemporaries, earning opening slots for bands such as The Mountain Goats and Bon Iver. The neo-folk trio is touring in support of their summer release “Upper Air,” and on Wednesday (Nov. 18) will appear in the Union Theater on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. Admission to the 7 p.m. concert is free.

On the Way — George Thorogood, March 7 @ WAC

Kevin Kinder — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:00:07 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

George Thorogood may be getting older himself, but that blues guitar work will still make some old women blush. His Web site indicates he’ll be coming to the Walton Arts Center on March 7.

To the concert announcement that follows, I only have this to say: “B-B-B-Bad!” As in the good kind of bad.

Concert resource Pollstar.com indicates that classic rockers George Thorogood & The Destroyers are coming to the Walton Arts Center on March 7, a Sunday. His Web site redirects those interested in learning about his tour dates to Pollstar.com, so the date appears to be confirmed by Thorogood, too. The show does not appear on the Walton Arts Center’s Web site, however.

Thorogood is known for his song “Bad to the Bone” and his covers of standards such as Hank Williams‘ “Move it on Over” and Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love.”

Tickets prices or availability have not been announced. We’ll update you if we learn more.

R.I.P., Ben Jack

Kevin Kinder — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:22:42 +0000

Today, the doors at the Bentonville and Fayetteville Ben Jack’s music stores are closed in tribute to their namesake, Ben Jack.

According to the stores’ Web site, the founder of those stores passed away unexpectedly on Friday (Nov. 7).

The stores are expected to resume normal operation at 10 a.m. Tuesday (Nov. 10) after employees have had time to pay their respects.

For more than 40 years, Ben Jack and his employees have outfitted the area’s music scene with guitars, amplifiers and anything else one would need to get onstage.

Read his obituary here.

Anyone have any memories of Ben Jack or the stores? Buy your first guitar there?

Share it in the comment space below.