Unsigned Underground

In this episode of Unsigned Underground we’ll be talking to Adam Stokes, songwriter, musician and world traveler. Adam has been all over this country spreading the word about his music and he’s been living down south – way down south as in Guatemala where he took up residence and toured Central South America while his wife worked as an archeologist. We’ll be talking about how living in another country can influence your songwriting, writing his second album and when he’s going to get back out there on the road. Listen and leave a comment!

I think that what I really dig about Miriam Jones is that I hear in her music a lot of artists I like: Glen Hansard, Dar Williams, Emmy Lou Harris, Shawn Colvin and even Leonard Cohen. But as with all excellent artists, Miriam takes those glancing comparisons and creates her own mosaic portrait of herself. Miriam’s lyrics are poetry and Miriam’s melodic sense is exquisite. Listen in on our conversation about 70’s pop music, gigging in the UK and songwriting and let us know what you think.

So the calendar turns it’s way to the end of another year and as we usually do we look back and see where we’ve been and then look forward to where we’re going. Resolutions be damned!!! Musically it’s always a good thing to look back so we can pat ourselves on the back and say – We done some pretty good work there, man!

So let me throw some titles out there that caught my ear and the ears of a few of my musical friends. These are some selections from 2009 that are great examples of independent songwriting and producing. I look forward to hearing what 2010 has to offer.

These CDs are listed in no particular order, they’re ALL damned good! Please click on the album art and visit the artists’ websites and buy the music. Support Independent Music!

Happy New Year,
~Darryl

Thanks to Cameron Mizell, Steve Lawson, Cindy Smith D’Adamo for their suggestions.

“Old Man Dreamin’” by, John Batdorf
Track – ‘What D’ya Got?’

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“Happinesss + Victory” by Donna Fullman
Track – ‘Stone’

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“Solitary Songs” by, Miriam Jones
Track – ‘Helicopter’

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“On Your Back Porch” by, Lauren Zettler
Track – ‘Shapes’

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“Moonlight and Theremin” by, Karen Ramos
Track – ‘Raincoat’

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“Bony Jars” by, The Bootz Orchestra
Track – ‘Our Daughters’

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“Vinyl” by, D’Haene Band
Track – ‘Wouldn’t You Like To Know’

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“Chase You” by, Mike Stocksdale
Track – ‘The Old Band’

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“Uncovered” by, Coco & Lafe
Track – ‘Introduce Myself To You’

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Lauren Zettler quit her day job. She now makes music her profession, her life and her passion. We can definitely hear that passion in the songs that she writes  – the beautiful melodies, tricky harmonies and draw-you-closer arrangements that is her signature. Lauren was on a previous episode of Unsigned Underground but only as an example and not as a focus so I’m glad to have her on so we can get to talk about her music and her dream. I’m intrigued by her recent story and I can’t get enough of her music and she’s got a new Christmas Collection out on iTunes. Listen to our conversation about following your dream, picking the right people to work with and getting into the Christmas spirit.

Tim Gleeson’s approach to music is simple: a good story, a little love, a memorable melody and some spare change. I put Tim’s new CD “No Sad Songs” on and I felt myself relax into the comfort of the back porch in mid-July. Nothing is over done and yet the songs all feel full and ripe. Tim is no slouch when it comes to performing having toured with Sister Sledge, a career as an LA session man and opening for Jazz singer Anita Bakers’ Rapture tour. Listen to Tim andI talk about the new CD and how he’s handling being an indie musician these days. Let us know what you think.

Welcome to episode 19 of Unsigned Underground. I’m very pleased to be back at it and producing this podcast. I had to take sometime off to re-evaluate what I really wanted to promote with this show and I came the conclusion that I wanted to interact more with the artists I presented on the show – so I decided that I would focus mainly on interviews and not do a radio style show. There are a lot of great indie-artists out there that need to have their music exposed, but to just roll out the tune in a radio show doesn’t seem to really be the best thing.  I tune in to shows like Fresh Air and New Sounds on NPR/WNYC because I want to hear the story behind the story: why did that sing get written? what are you doing to promote yourself in this DIY  wild-west and get recognized? And of course it still comes down to the Music.

So for my relaunching episode I’m going to be talking to Coco and Lafe – two very interesting people who have taken their music and put it to the forefront of their lives. They describe themselves as a couple of “empty-nester baby-boomer back-porch songwriters turned street performers turned full-time touring musicians”. The spin that they’ve put on their music business is to tour Farmer’s Markets and then to solicit house concerts from the audience when they come up to buy a CD or sign the list. They are a throw-back to the ancient minstrels who traveled from town festival to town market playing for tips. But in these days of declining record sales and questionable recording contracts, this type of tour and self-promotion seems like genius.

Take a listen and leave a comment -

~ Darryl