Lara Ewen‘s upcoming single “Death Better Take Me Dancing,” is a bittersweet look at how we should be spending our final moments. It takes a brave person to broach the subject of death in song, and a remarkable one to set it to an upbeat tune that manages to convey both joy and strength. With a stellar line-up set to play at one of NYC’s favorite venues, Lara’s single release party is a show you won’t want to miss.

Photo by Jen McManus

Single Release Show for “Death Better Take Me Dancing”

October 30th, 7 p.m., Rockwood Music Hall
featuring Jeremy Goldsmith on guitar, Gary Atturio on bass, and Ryan Vaughn on percussion

About the single

Death Better Take Me Dancing is the first single off Lara’s upcoming album, The Wishing Stone Songs (coming spring 2011), recorded at GaluminumFoil Studios in Brooklyn. It features Eleanor Whitmore on violin, Mark Marshall on guitar, Kate Kilbane on bass and Ryan Vaughn on percussion.

Song streams and links

From October 25th through November 1st, you’ll be able to download tabs for the single, plus the MP3, for free at http://www.abatab.com/laraewen. You can also hear the song streaming at http://www.reverbnation.com/laraewen and http://www.jango.com/music/Lara+Ewen?l=0. Otherwise, visit http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/LaraEwen or iTunes after October 30th to buy the single.

Video

“Death Better Take Me Dancing” performed solo at Bar 4

Lara Ewen’s Bio

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Lara Ewen tells stories, most of which are true. The semi-autobiographical nature of her work blends both the real and the imagined, and the musical landscape she navigates crosses paths with country, Americana, and singer/songwriter influences, drawing comparisons to people who sometimes get summarily lumped into the folk category, such as Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and Jonatha Brooke.
Lara’s upcoming album, her third release, is titled ‘The Wishing Stone Songs.’ Recorded at Brooklyn’s Galuminum Foil Studios and produced by Chris Cubeta (Wakey!Wakey!, Harper Blynn), it features the talents of several Local Correspondents luminaries, including Paul Basile, Jeff Jacobson, Tarrah Reynolds and Jessi Robertson. ‘The Wishing Stone Songs’ will be officially released in spring 2011.

Photo by Andrew Wallach

Dave Beck

Dave Beck is releasing his debut album “Stranger Homes” this October. To get a taste of what the album is about, you can stream his song “Mississippi” right now.

http://www.myspace.com/davebeckmusic

Before the album launches, he’ll also be touring the midwest (see tour dates below).

Since I first met Dave at the Bar4 open mic, he’s stood out to me as someone who performs with joy and sincerity. After seeing him perform solo for so long, it’s gratifying to hear his music expand under the auspices of a full band. Dave’s songs have always been charming and memorable. Now with the addition of the full band, the songs take on another satisfying aspect. This is the kind of music I would play in my car during a road trip, with the windows rolled down, singing at the top of my lungs. Whether Dave sings about his roots in Iowa, or his new life in New York, the songs are completely relate-able, and even more importantly, singable.

“If You Build It…”- Dave Beck from Tyler James Ribble on Vimeo.

Tour Dates

Thursday, Oct. 7- GRAND RAPIDS, MI- ArtPrize Festival
Friday, Oct. 8- IOWA CITY, IA- Gabes
Saturday, Oct. 23- ROCK ISLAND, IL- Speakeasy
Wednesday, Oct. 27- NEW YORK, NY- The Living Room ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

Biography

Dave Beck is an Iowan, born and raised, who has found his way into the heart of the Brooklyn song-writing scene after traveling across the nation, studying and playing music. He spent one year in Hollywood attending guitar school at Musician’s Institute which he decided was more like the School of Rock meets the 13th grade than a college. Beck’s time there was both productive and strenuous when it began to demand 10 hours a day, turning the joyous act of songwriting into a constant demand. After he experienced a stress injury piled on an old shoulder injury from high school, he officially became a guitar school dropout.

From there he headed to Iowa City where he went to shoulder rehab and the University of Iowa, a Mid-western oasis for writers, musicians and liberals. He worked at Mickey’s Irish Pub, and started writing songs again. He carved out his own major, graduated, and escaped the Midwest once again.

Dave Beck’s first song ever written was for a class project about parenting called “Growth and Development” and this little ditty made him realize he could be writing songs instead of doing projects. He started some high school bands, Cam’s Dream and Degrees of Freedom, which were “real good times” in his words. But these days the show is mostly Dave Beck and his guitar gracing the stages of New York. Brooklyn’s Local Correspondents songwriting collective boasts him as an active member and he can be caught at the occasional Bar 4 Tuesday night open mic, but he’s gearing up for a tour out to the Midwest in support of the October 26th release of Stranger Homes as well as some shows on his home turf in Brooklyn and NYC. All shows are soon to be announced. Hopefully he’ll make it to your neck of the woods.

NONVIOLENCE // “Lives” from NVHD on Vimeo.

The History of NONVIOLENCE

The ‘NONVIOLENCE’ project has been falling together quite rapidly. It’s been a speedy, though beautiful, gorgeous, serendipitous progression. In short, for the past couple of years I’d been jumping around town working as an assistant to film shoots and recording sessions. It wasn’t until last fall that I’d taken out an acoustic, grown confident in a few complete songs, and for the first time, performed live.

Those first performances, September & October of ’09, took place within the Local Correspondents community. I was howling one of my songs on a friends rooftop, when they mentioned that I should check out the Bar4 scene. From there, it was people like Greg Tuohey (Lowry) that heard the little bits of nervous, singing before people for the first time antics, and demanded that I set off to capture something tangible on tape.

That is exactly what I did, in December, in only 11 days, with the help of friend Marc Goodman (http://strangeweatherbrooklyn.com). Holed up in his studio, we tracked and mixed the entire 11 song debut. Marc ran the knobs and helmed the console, while I jumped from instrument to instrument, quickly constructing what I’d been composing consciously and subconsciously, asleep and awake, for the better part of the past 2 years. It sort of just happened…

Under the name NONVIOLENCE, it’s a very serious, lifestyle sort of thing… I truly believe that these songs are important. These songs are posing questions, and attempting to ‘get under the skin’ – jabbing at the inner and outer realities of this transitional, universally spitfire way of life. Now more than ever there is a way to truly use ‘campaigning,’ advertising, and our uncanny technologies to draw large exposure to social movement. This project is my first attempt at moving forward with inspiring what seems to be ‘lost values’ in the sense of self and the rapidly endangered natural plain around us.

Now it’s about once and for all getting a solid cast of players together (which is currently happening). From there it’s funding the album and getting it finally released, then slowly unveiling an experimental video piece for each song on the record, then moving (at blazing speeds) towards the road, hoping for as many solid opportunities to showcase this debut as possible.

This summer is a busy time for CD releases, so for the month of May we are giving you a double feature with Matt Cranstoun‘s newly released CD “By Framed Image” and Mike Gorman‘s upcoming release “The Love Parade”.

While these artists have very different approaches to writing and performing, they share some surprising similarities. Both have rich, timeless voices evocative of bygone days where people sang not as a means to receive adulation and money, but because they needed an outlet for pain and fear and joy. There’s a purity in that kind of singing that is incredibly refreshing in a culture of over auto-tuned, entitled, and self-centered voices. While Matt’s CD leans more toward a funk-infused mixture of folk and blue-eyed soul, Mike’s new release swings more toward Tin Pan Alley and true country and western. I highly recommend purchasing both albums.

Matt Cranstoun

Matt has been a member of LC from the start. He hasn’t needed a band to charm an audience with sweetly crooned tones or powerfully delivered lyrics. But the band arrangements on the new album work perfectly with layered vocals to further enhance each song in a way I could not have imagined until I’d heard it.

This is even more impressive knowing that Matt played and sang just about everything on the album. One of the highlights on the album is “Daylight”.  I dare you to listen to this song and keep from dancing in your chair, which is what I’m doing right at this moment.

http://www.myspace.com/mattcranstoun

BIOGRAPHY: Matt Cranstoun was born and raised in central New Jersey. Starting at an early age and throughout his youth he played and studied drums on his father’s drum set. He gained interest in guitar (and not much else) while playing drums for a friend’s band in high school. He then began to sing and put together his own songs and recordings. Through the learning process of those early recordings, the years that followed, evolving musical tastes, personal strife and the natural maturing process, Matt found himself as nothing more or less than a songwriter.

Matt’s writing mixes content reminiscent of folk, romanticism (or “cry baby stuff” as he refers to it) and other messages with a dynamic voice familiar to classic soul and r&b. Matt is a huge admirer of artists ranging from Ray Charles to Ani Difranco. Soul and folk music are one in the same to him. He writes and performs with this ideal. “Whatever it is in music, it’d better be real or I can’t care. If it’s groove, lay it down. If it’s just you and your guitar, say something and mean it. I’m not sure that makes much sense hearing it out loud…I think I just need to be moved. I’m as much a music lover as I am a music hater.”

Matt recently completed his first ever LP entitled “By Framed Image” released independently in 2010. It is available at shows and soon will also be available on iTunes. He currently records, performs, and collaborates throughout the New York area and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

ALBUM INFO: “By Framed Image” is Matt Cranstoun’s first LP release. With a few studio EP’s that never satisfied him, Matt decided he’d try something else… recording on his own in his Brooklyn apartment. This was two years ago. It was an exhausting experience. One he says he’ll never try again. “I don’t like recording. I like the live element. It’s so hard to capture whatever emotion occurs live on a recording…” he says.

It took nearly two years because as Matt set out to record the songs he originally decided would be on the record, he didn’t take into account the ones he’d then write over the course of recording and subsequently desire to add. Thus began an ongoing problem of adding and subtracting. Basically, the result in “By Framed Image” is a compilation of three to four albums worth of material that developed during this span of time. “It would’ve never been released had I not decided one day, ‘You know what? This thing has to go.’ It’s not perfect. It’s incomplete, but it’s time.”

Matt played mostly every instrument on it, mixed and produced it himself, designed the CD artwork and has finally decided it’s time to let it go. As is characteristic of Matt’s music, “By Framed Image” is an attempt to capture candid emotion, soul dissection, and a raw truth. He hopes some of this will come across to the listener.

Mike Gorman

I’ve only heard one song from Mike Gorman’s new album. You can stream it from his website. The arrangement is light and pleasing, allowing Mike’s voice to sit front and center where it belongs. It’s such a natural sounding recording- it feels like sitting in a room with Mike and the talented musicians on the album. Everything is crystal clear, despite the feeling that this song could come from anywhere or anywhen, like it might be an old record spinning somewhere, or a song sent out over the ether.

http://www.mikegormanmusic.com

BIOGRAPHY: Mike Gorman was born with a guitar in his hand in the middle of a blizzard in Buffalo, NY. He traveled to New York City with his life in a guitar case and his guitar on his lap. Since moving to the metropolis his songs have become leaner and more dedicated to pure songwriting. Mike’s music combines country western and Tin Pan Alley jazz with a pop sensibility and an ability to spin quirky stories with a personal touch. After releasing his debut album ‘The Bridge out of Town’ in 2008 he was greeted with comparisons to a variety of performers spanning from Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Mike continues to write and perform and is releasing his second album in June 2010 entitled the The Love Parade, a departure from the lone wolf folk sound into a fully realized country-folk-blues jamboree.

“Gorman’s lyrics are close to the bone, no pretension, no class conflict, no materialistic woes, just the simple concerns of the common man.” -Fame Magazine

ALBUM INFO: Mike Gorman teamed up with New York singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ryan Langlois to record a follow up to his debut record in late 2009. With a brand new sound in his head, one that included mandolins, pianos, clarinets, bells, guitars, harmony voices and some pots and pans he found under his kitchen sink, Mike was able to fully realize his folk-country tunes that he’d been performing throughout the city with just himself and a guitar. The songs took on a life of their own as Mike and a whole bunch of friendly New York musicians added sweet, organic sounds to already solid folk songs, conjuring up feelings of late night drives on old country roads but with constant lyrical references back to the city that gave birth to these songs. “The Love Parade” pleasantly and playfully exists between the city and the country, the noise and the silence, a mix of the very old and the modern, something that Mike has been striving for from the very beginning.

Now Mike is very proud to announce that “The Love Parade” will be released in the Summer of 2010. Check out his website to hear the first single off the album entitled “The Ballad of TT Thompson”. In addition Mike will be playing all over the city this Spring and Summer and is happy to announce his very first gig at Bar 4 on May 20th at 8PM. Join Mike’s Facebook Fan Page to receive updates on shows and the official release date of “The Love Parade”.

Sometimes I think that Kelli Rae Powell has somehow stumbled out of America’s past, a bombshell torch singer with a ukulele… but then I listen to her lyrics and she reminds me that her mind is anything but old-fashioned. It’s a charming mixture of impressions, and added to it is a live performance that walks the line between technical beauty and unrestrained passion. It’s no wonder that we’re all excited for her CD release this fall. Make sure you come out on October 30th to experience Kelli Rae’s music for yourself.

Kelli Rae Powell CD Release Party

New Words for Old Lullabies

October 30th at Jalopy
315 Columbia St, Brooklyn, NY 11231

$10 cover
9pm M Shanghai String Band followed by Kelli Rae Powell
http://www.kelliraepowell.com

Read Kelli Rae Powell’s biography and upcoming news here kelliraepowellonesheet.

Photos by Emily Raw http://www.myspace.com/emilyraw

All photos by Emily Raw http://www.myspace.com/emilyraw

Announcing the 3rd Annual Local Correspondents Music Festival

May 13 – 19 at Bar4 in Park Slope

Free admission, over 60 performers!

LC Fest - Line Up!

For Immediate Release:

BROOKLYN, NY, APRIL 27, 2009: Local Correspondents, an independent music community, is hosting the 3^rd Annual LC Fest May 13 – 19, 2009 at Bar4 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The festival will include short sets from over 60 singer/songwriters and bands located in Brooklyn and New York City. This year the festival also coincides with the 4^th anniversary of Local Correspondents. All performances are free to attend.

Local Correspondents is a supportive community for independent artists based in Brooklyn. Weekly showcase series and open mic nights have brought together an extremely talented and diverse group of performers over the last four years. LC offers a helping hand to artists that have just moved to the NYC area with advice, tips, and opportunities to play.

Local Correspondents was founded by Tanya Buziak, Larry Hyland, Greg Tuohey, and Jessi Robertson in April of 2005. It started as a monthly showcase at Bar4, then grew to include weekly showcases at Bar4 and Matchless, and monthly showcases at Rockwood Music Hall. In addition to the founding members, the LC Team also includes members Niko Kaparos, Paul Basile, Peter Pockets, and Kevin Johnston.

In the spring of 2007, the first LC Music Fest was held at Bar4 and included four nights of music with more than 50 local acts performing. In 2008 the second LC Music Fest was expanded to five nights and included over 60 performers. This year the LC Fest will span a full week, culminating in an open mic at midnight on Tuesday May 19.

Bar4 is located at 444 7^th Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11215 on the corner of 15^th St. and 7^th Ave. Take the F train to 7^th Ave. or Prospect Park/15^th St. The venue phone number is (718) 832 – 9800.

Line Up:

Wednesday Line Up

Thursday Line Up

Time	Thursday May 14th @ Bar4
7:30	Julie Hill
8	Mark Yodice
8:30	Austin Donohue
9	Tarrah Reynolds
9:30	Daniel Wayne
10	Tanya Buziak
10:30	Toby Goodshank
11	Vanessa Reseland
11:30	No Lindsay
12	Jessi Robertson

Friday Line Up

Time	Friday May 15th @ Bar4
7:30	Thomas Bryan Eaton
8	The Courtesy Tier
8:30	Luke Wesley
9	Bryan Dunn
9:30	Chris Cubeta
10	Katy Pfaffl
10:30	Casey Shea
11	Misty Boyce
11:30 to 12:30	Lowry

Saturday Line Up

Time	Saturday May 16th @ Bar4
7:00	Jeff Schram Band
8:00	Dinosaur Feathers
9:00	Ivan Sandomire
10:00	Great Elk
11:00	Matt Singer
12:00	Wakey Wakey

Sunday Line Up

Time	Sunday May 17th @ Bar4
7:30	Craig Chesler
8	Bright Brown
8:30	Chloe Philip (COMEDY)
9	Kelli Rae Powell
9:30	Michael Wagner
10	Andy Mac
10:30	Niall Connolly
11	Ryan and The Lions
11:30	Lara Ewen

Monday Line Up

Time	Monday May 18th @ Bar4
7:30	Danny Ross
8	Hannah Fairchild
8:30	Duck
9	Debbie Miller
9:30	The Warbles
10	Dave Beck
10:30	Sami Akbari
11	The Lions Share
11:30	Zach Williams
12	Kevin Johnston

Tuesday Line Up

Time	Tuesday May 19th @ Bar4
7:30	Nick Howard
8	Joanna Levine & Co.
8:30	Joe Wilson
9	Gemma Connell
9:30	Matthew Peverly
10	Gillian Visco
10:30	Sean Han
11	Matt Cranstoun
11:30	Bucky Hayes
12	OPEN MIC (drawing)

]]> http://localcorrespondents.com/blog/2009/04/27/lc-feature-may-2009-lc-fest-09/feed/ 0 http://localcorrespondents.com/blog/2008/11/26/lc-feature-december-2008-matt-singer/ http://localcorrespondents.com/blog/2008/11/26/lc-feature-december-2008-matt-singer/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:39:00 +0000 Admin http://localcorrespondents.com/blog/2008/11/26/lc-feature-december-2008-matt-singer/

LC FEATURE DECEMBER 2008
MATT SINGER
www.matt-singer.com
www.myspace.com/mattsingermusic

Go to our music page to hear Matt Singer’s songs, “The Poet” and “Stacy J”.

ABOUT MATT

First let me say that I represent Brooklyn but I was raised out of Jersey.

Now then, I wrote my first song when I was four years old, sitting on the floor of my father’s office, in a Manhattan law firm, where he was not happy. The song was called Beep-Beep-Bop-Bop-Bop-Beep – that was the hook anyway. Recording it on my dad’s Dictaphone, the message I was trying to get across was that brushing your teeth is fun, and important. Now my father is a psychologist and he is happy.

I wrote my second song 16 years later, not because I had a good idea but because I was sad and lonely. I don’t remember the lyrics or the melody, and I could not tell you the song title, but it might have been called Sad and Lonely. Boring, yes, and certainly a less important work than “Beep,” but nevertheless crucial to my development, because the second song led to a third, and the third to a fourth, and when I had a full set of original music I summoned the courage to play at an open mic, where Kimya said, “Dude, I feel like I wrote that song,” and the rest is history.

Now the very fact that I am writing a bio(graphy) implies a certain level of self-importance (true) and a certain degree of achievement (sorta) and/or can be boiled down to the fact that every reasonably gifted musician is expected to write one (I am a total conformist). Anyhow, rather than write about all the great venues I have played, all the obscenely talented artists with whom I have shared a stage, and all the other details of my musical life that illustrate how great I am, all awkwardly stated in 3rd person (see all other Matt Singer bios, 2001-2008), I will simply leave you with my songs.

Love,
Matt

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING WITH MATT…

• Matt’s new EP, The Drought (Family Records), has been described as “eclectic material that ranges from weepy to silly to sincere” (The Deli) and “an endlessly compelling album” (Pop Headwound)
• Matt’s last show, on October 14th, was for a packed crowd at Bowery Ballroom.
• Matt is so cool that he did not even submit an application to the Williamsburg Songwriting Competition. It’s not that he forgot to apply. Really.

LC FEATURE NOVEMBER 2008
PAUL BASILE
www.myspace.com/paulbasile
www.paulbasilemusic.com

After a couple of years in New York and a lot of nights at Bar 4 and Matchless,
Paul decided in Spring 2008 to return to his second home, Alaska. While there
this past summer he did some commercial salmon fishing, toiled away many, many hours as a roofer, and took a big, long break from the city.

Paul’s been back for a couple months now, writing, regrouping, rehearsing…
preparing the as-of-yet unnamed band for world domination. Ah, the band. Paul once fronted a band called Here Lies Pa. He and guitarist Patrick Hay left that band for greener pastures last year. They enlisted the far-reaching talents of bassist James Preston and drummer Mike Cook for a few great shows last spring, before Paul’s hibernation. The latest post-Pa incarnation
is taking shape nicely; they’re in the midst of a gradual unveiling and patiently
searching for a name.

For more on Paul Basile, a grateful Local Correspondent, check out www.paulbasilemusic.com and www.myspace.com/paulbasile. Incidentally, as a part-time Alaskan, Paul has no comment on the nomination (or failure) of Governor Sarah Palin… GObama!

LC FEATURE OCTOBER 2008
JASON VON KRAUT
http://www.myspace.com/jasonvonkraut

Jason von Kraut is a brooklyn based singer/songwriter who blends rock, pop & soul to form an authentic, innovative and potent sound.

LC FEATURE SEPTEMBER 2008
SAMI AKBARI
http://samiakbari.com/
http://myspace.com/samiakbari

Photo by Owen Fegan

Upcoming Shows
( view all )

Sep 8 2008
8:00P
The Bitter End – Singer/Songwriter’s Circle
New York, New York

Sep 25 2008
8:00P
The Bowery Poetry Club
New York, New York

More info coming soon…