Music Program

• February 23, 2016
• Comments Off on FRI. APR. 29, 2016 SONGWRITER 7 PACK

Charlie Harrison came to us with a showcase using 7 performers (all very awesome!). So he has put together a great show! Just look at these great musicians!

Brad Boyer is a singer/songwriter from Houston, TX who has honed his craft in the beer joints, ice houses, and road side honky tonks as well as the finer listening rooms of the big city. He tells his stories with honesty and clarity wrapped in a genuine Americana feel. As a Kerrville Folk Festival New Folk Finalist, his debut album of original material (produced by Rich Brotherton) was well received and earned him the Texas Music Awards “Rising Star” award. Now, Brad has another Kerrville Folk Festival Finalist under his belt and a new record, the “Montagu Hotel” produced by Lisa Morales.

Wrecks and Janet Approved

Libby Koch (pronounced “coke”) is an Americana singer-songwriter with a true country voice.  The seventh generation Texan and Berkalin Records artist is currently in production on her fourth full-length solo album with multiple Grammy winning producer Bil VornDick (Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent, Jesse Winchester, Ralph Stanley).

The 12 songs on the album were all written or co-written by Koch, and the album features performances from veteran Nashville studio musicians Bobby Ogdin (Elvis Presley), Sonny Garrish (George Jones), Bruce Dees (Ronnie Milsap), Glenn Worf (Mark Knopfler), Aubrie Haynie (Dolly Parton), and Andrea Zonn (James Taylor), among others. The album was recorded at the historic Studio 19 on Music Row.

Libby’s Americana sound blends the songwriting soul of classic country music with gospel roots, a rock edge, and the storytelling sensibility of a Texas folk troubadour. She delivers each song with powerful vocals in the style of her heroes – Dolly, Emmylou, Patsy – but with her own signature voice.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, her songwriting and performing began in high school but matured while she was in law school at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University, where she gigged around town and discovered the music of major influences like Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams. After graduation, she returned to Houston to practice real estate law at a large firm, but by 2010, she decided to follow her heart and make the leap to full time singer-songwriter. Since then, she has self-released an EP and two solo albums, an album with her band The Grievous Angels, and her most recent album, Tennessee Colony, on Berkalin Records. In the past two years, Libby has been touring nationally, performing over 300 shows in 26 states and traveling thousands of miles with her faithful dog, Bridget, to bring her music to fans and festivals across the country.

In 2014, Libby performed at the Kerrville Folk Festival’s Threadgill Theater and was selected to play the Emerging Artist Showcase at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in August. She was also a finalist in the Wildflower! Performing Songwriter Contest and a semifinalist in the Songwriter Serenade. Additionally, she played the Suzi Wollenberg Folk DJ Showcase and a Quad Showcase at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA) Conference. In 2013, Libby was named Songwriter of the Year by the Houston Press, won 2nd place in the Songwriter Serenade, and had an official showcase at the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA) Conference.

Libby’s 2014 Berkalin Records release, Tennessee Colony, is a collection of songs about family, faith, and home inspired by the small East Texas town of the same name (pop. 150), where Koch’s family settled in the mid-1800s and in whose red clay ground many generations of her family were laid to rest. Several songs are based on stories her grandparents shared while she was growing up. The album was named “CD of the Week” (June 21, 2014) by Rich Warren, host of the nationally syndicated “Midnight Special” program on WFMT in Chicago.

Tennessee Colony follows The Shadow of This Town (2010) and Redemption (2009), and her 2008 EP, The Barn Burner. Koch also released a project in 2013 called The Grievous Angels with songwriters Lainey Balagia and Debbie Byrd, which earned the trio a Houston Press Music Award and a Texas Music Award.

Tommy was raised in Alvin, Tx, learning jazz trumpet from professionals, including Dick Frerking. He taught himself to play guitar (mostly to impress a cute John Denver fan) after moving to Iowa, became involved in the local scene, and eventually joined Rick Burke’s Traveling Music Show and Review in 2012. He and Kevin Lindgren met while both were part of Rick’s convoy, and broke out to start Lindgren and Lewis. LnL was named “one of the best new bands on 2013” by music review “The Insider Sessions” and performed in Nashville, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Des Moines, Houston, Dallas, and Oklahoma City.

Learning songwriting and performing from craftsmen like F. Charles Persall, Chad Elliott, and Rick Burke, Tommy quit his job as a professor at Graceland University and struck out as a traveling folk singer, playing over 200 shows a year, sometimes over 250. When asked by the Anamosa Journal what he called his music he replied, “It’s folk music I think. If it makes people dig a little deeper into themselves, or feel like someone else knows their life and their struggle, then I guess it is folk music.”

Some days Tommy lives in a small town west of Nashville, other days he lives in Alvin, Tx, and in between he can be found in the blue pontiac flying down the road. He enjoys fishing and writing, playing fiddle to the woods, and hiking the wilderness.

His new EP, “Winding” is produced by award winning singer-songwriter Chad Elliott (chadelliott.net) and was released by Fish Foster Records in August 2015 to awesome reviews.

Currently, Tommy is touring the nation as a solo folk singer … follow him on Instragram, Twitter (@tommyclewis), and on Facebook.

Contact Tommy by emailing tommy@tommylewis.net

Brant, According to Brant:

I was born in Houston and I went to college in Denton. I “grew up” in Dallas, and learned invaluable life lessons while living in Nashville, Austin, and Wimberley. Since 1999, I’ve lived in 31 different residences; I understand the plight of the Gypsy.

People and places are my greatest sources of inspiration.

I’ve an affinity for adventures, great and small.

I’ve seen the rain come down in Northern Ireland. I’ve ridden a motorcycle across the Sacred Valley in Peru.  I spent a summer drinking sangria in Spain under the guise of college credit. I’ve slept on the roof of a shanty in Hidalgo, Mexico and saw more stars than three lifetimes of a hundred people could count. I rode a bike 100 miles around Lake Tahoe in a single day, in the name of charity.

I prefer Whataburger to In and Out Burger.

I can usually blend quite well, but I rarely feel like I fit in. I have mixed feelings about this.

I’ve mowed lawns, I’ve delivered pizzas, and I’ve made lattes. I spent half a decade working in the corporate world. I’ve worked retail. I’ve hated working retail. I’ve waited tables, bartended, and pretended to be a freelance writer. I’ve been a day-laborer, worked a call center, and sold houses. I once ran a small event staffing company. I’ve even been paid to sing songs in all kinds of places.

I believe I can do almost anything for 6 months. I’m also not very good at sitting still.

I taught myself how to play guitar. Some would say that explains a lot.

I have a certain affinity for college football and refer to any professional sports team in Houston as my own. I carry an abnormally large chip on my shoulder thanks to the 1992 & 1993 Houston Oilers.

I’m terribly afraid of heights, except when it comes to mountains. I’m also prone to paradox and hyperbole.

I have absolutely no interest in running a marathon. But I’ll cheer you on if that’s your thing.

I’ve loved more than I’ve lost.

I’ve lost as much as I’ve left.

I’m genuinely overwhelmed by the splendor of sunsets and the sheer size of the ocean. Conversely, I’m not impressed by reality stars or infinity pools.

I like good wine, good whiskey, and good food. I believe good company makes all of them better.

I love to write. I am my own biggest critic.

I’m not cool. In my head, saying that makes me sound like maybe I am.

I have the best friends and family anyone could ever ask for. Most of the time, I remember that. When I don’t, they remind me.

In a short amount of time I’ve been fortunate to play a lot of great rooms. One day maybe I’ll feel deserving.

More than anything, I’m thankful.

-Brant

 

You know, it’s funny, this is the first question. I understand why it is, but it’s always the last thing I want to answer. I’ve been on a long journey of self-acceptance lately, so perhaps that is why I hesitate to answer this one. Let me light another cigarette while the baby sleeps and think on that a while.

Well, I’ve been playing guitar and singing pretty much most of my life. The short of it is, playing and writing are the best way I know how to communicate myself. I use the word communicate rather than express because I’m not trying to make statements or change anyone (except myself, perhaps), I’m trying to communicate with people. It’s very vulnerable to write down your personal experiences and blast them from giant speakers, but it’s the only way I know how to talk. I don’t think I’d listen to my soul otherwise — I’ve gotten really good at muscling through life and ignoring the copious amounts of feelings I have.

From the time we are small, the world tells us we are wrong. That at our core, we need to change our nature, and so we put on our uniform and fall in line and try to shut our needs down. I guess what I try to do as a musician is embrace human nature and communicate desire with feeling. I don’t try to emulate a particular sound – I’m always searching to tap in on a feeling. I’ve learned that just because I dropped out of home-school (yes, home-school) and I have no college education, doesn’t mean I don’t have skills. I’m a feeler. And I am trying to use that gift in my life. And maybe I can get some people to feel with me.

Okay, maybe that was the long of it. The short of it is that I’m a folk singer.

If there’s a performer today that embodies the oft-applied moniker of “songwriter’s songwriter” it’s Houston favorite, Matt Harlan. A troubadour of the first degree, Matt has been bringing his songs of bus-stops, coffee-shops and lives overlooked to stages across his home-state of Texas, the USA and Europe.

With two studio albums to his name, Harlan exposes a range of influences, to interpret a generation steeped in plastic and filtered through the Hill Country limestone. His expressive vocals recall Chris Smither and Chris Knight, shading his poignant songs with soaring heart and aching grit.

Matt’s second album, “Bow and Be Simple,” was recorded in Denmark with backing band The Sentimentals. The collection features tunes in a variety of moods, unified by a cozy, almost vintage vibe and is being well received by national and international Americana radio, earning the #1 spot on the Euro Americana Charts (as did his debut, “Tips & Compliments”).

Harlan is a winner of multiple songwriting accolades, from outfits like American Songwriter and Billboard. Most recently he was named Singer-Songwriter of the Year in the 2013 Texas Music Awards and was featured alongside a stellar cast of characters (Lyle Lovett, Guy Clark) in the documentary, “For the Sake of the Song.”

Matt has been out on the road this year in the US and abroad opening for Americana greats such as Guy Clark and James McMurtry.

 

I didn’t mean to be so transparent, but you nailed them. My buddy Taylor () introduced me to Near Truths and Hotel Rooms when we were playing bars together in Austin, and I have loved Todd Snider ever since. I sort of stalk him. I grabbed Elvis (his road manager) at a show in Virginia and gave him a demo. Then to make sure, I figured out Todd’s address in Nashville and sent one to his house. I don’t know what I thought he would do with them, but for some reason I felt compelled to have him listen to my songs.

Hayes Carll got a similar treatment at a show in Washington, DC. He was very nice about it, but even if he hadn’t been I would still be a big fan. Trouble In Mind is on the turntable right now.

Hayes and Todd really inspire me with the way they have connected with fairly broad audiences while singing about whatever was on their minds including everything from love to war and being Mike Tyson’s Main Man.

I listen to those guys all the time so I suppose it makes sense that they bleed through to what I write.