Arts Editor Tami Keaveny has navigated the world of arts and entertainment through a variety of marketing and public relations jobs. She has worked at WBCN, BAM Music magazine, Bonnie Simmons Management, Bill Graham Presents, Tickets.com, ClearChannel Entertainment, WordHampton Public Relations, Starr Hill Presents, and SMG before taking the desk as Arts Editor at C-VILLE Weekly. She calls San Francisco State University her alma mater and Charlottesville, Virginia her home. Hobbies include: amateur food photography, junk food culture (Food Seen), orchid killing, offensive cross-stitch, vintage glassware collecting, and wine with everything.
Spacey, slinky synths paired with earnest poeticism and come-hither vocals drive the experimental pop of San Francisco’s Sis. Touring on the heels of its debut album, Euphorbia, the group is already playing up the creative juice that’s flowing to a new release set for Spring 2019. In the meantime, Sis’ brand new single, “Nightie,” (released November 20) gives us an earful of the magic that awaits.
Thursday 2/22
MerleFest on the Road gives added exposure to the players at (the late) Doc Watson’s popular Americana music festival in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Chicago’s soulful five-piece The Way Down Wanderers, laidback Nashville bluegrass act The Barefoot Movement, and seasoned folk musician Andy May, carry the torch in an ensemble show that previews the April event’s 30th anniversary offerings. $18-20, 6pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Talk about Bryan Cranston and the conversation inevitably turns to his leading role in “Breaking Bad” as the high school chemistry teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White. But Cranston’s career has many layers, as detailed in A Life in Parts, his autobiography published in 2016. Many of his early gigs were comedic roles, as on “Seinfeld” and “Malcolm in the Middle,” and he is an Academy Award nominee, a four-time Emmy Award winner, as well as a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Tony Award winner.
Talk to Cranston (who just turned 61), and the discussion flows eloquently from the importance of fatherhood and a painful childhood, to the ironies of fame, his appreciation for connecting through art and the lesson of having no expectations. His insight, warmth and sense of humor demonstrate that Cranston, despite choosing to do his own paragliding stunt for next year’s Untouchable, has his feet firmly on the ground.
C-VILLE: You’ve had a long career, with major, household name-type success coming late. What inspired you to write an autobiography when you seem busier than ever?
BC: I’ve become a household name like sponge or vacuum. That “household name” always gets me. It’s like lamp.
Okay, recognizable?
No, it’s funny [laughing]. …I’m one that likes to take risks. Certainly the opening chapter in the book talks about the emotional risk that actors take—and that you’d be willing to take. The risk of being possibly embarrassed, the risk of ridicule, criticism, all those things. You have to be willing to suffer the slings and arrows, as one great writer once put it. And so, it was an opportunity for me to take a risk into a realm that was not part of my repertoire—writing a book.
In writing the book, reliving your life story, what did you learn about yourself?
I learned that I enjoy the storytelling process, the written word. Many of the stories are ones that I’ve been telling friends and family for years. The one thing that surprised me a little bit: It’s very intimate. I mean I might tell these stories to a handful of friends at a dinner party or something. But when you write it down on paper and it releases, intimate details of your life, personal and professional, it does expose you to an enormous cross section of people around the world and they are now in on your story.
My makeup artist is reading the book while shooting the film I’m working on right now, and every morning I come in and she’s like, “Well, I learned this about you and I learned about that about you,” and it’s kind of interesting to see her impression of my life. My driver did the same thing. He said, “Wow, there’s a lot of similarities.”
It’s a very socially engaging exercise and they want to then open up their lives to me. I think that’s what good art does, whether it’s in written form or visual or musical, it stimulates conversation after the piece is done—and hopefully that’s what this [book] is doing.
You watched your dad struggle as an actor. Why did you pursue the same path?
I guess I was exposed to it early on through him and my mother as well. We did garage and school productions.
I believe our parents are always teaching us something, what to do and what not to do. I look back on it and I realize that pain that my father put himself through and put his family through, and the path that he chose, and I make a distinction between the path that he chose and the method of that path. I deduce that his method was to become a star and anything less than that was unacceptable, and it doomed him I think.
I really didn’t want to go into that. I was thinking of going into sports or sports management or police work. I had a turn in college…a very simple, natural emotion took over and it made me stop my path toward becoming a policeman and set my sights on traveling for a while to figure out what it is, who I was and where I was supposed to belong in this world.
What role do you most identify with?
There’s probably aspects of many different roles. But I’m a father in real life, and at my age I’m playing fathers all the time, so a father is someone that’s a very comfortable feeling to be in.
I have very, kind of, wholesome values sort of. ..I’ve always wanted to have a normal life in my personal life so my professional life could go insane, could go crazy…to have that travel into the stratosphere, because I always knew that my foundation was sound, and I could always return. You can’t do so much if it’s reversed. If you have a crazy personal life, it’s going to upset the apple cart at some point. You can’t sustain a crazy personal life and a crazy, risk-filled professional life. It will burn out—those are flashes that happen. So I think that, too, is something I witnessed in my father.
Once I realized I was going to do this, well, what do I really want? Well, I really enjoy acting. I enjoy the empowerment that it gives me. So if I just focus on that, and not any arbitrary plateau of achievement, then I should be okay. And I’m willing to put it forth.
I don’t feel like this business, or this world for that matter, owes me anything. If it comes to me through hard work I can celebrate it. Not to the point where it’s like, okay, I’m home free now. No, it’s not like that. The work never stops. The work never stops. In any successful business, I think that’s a common denominator.
What new hobbies or skills have you acquired by playing or preparing for a role?
The side benefit to being an actor is that you get access to experts in the field of whatever you need. In this movie that we are shooting now, I will be paragliding.
You haven’t tried it yet?
No, and production wisely put it at the very end of the shooting schedule. Once we get everything shot, then we do the paragliding. And they should, because if there was an accident, God forbid, they’d still have their movie. It could be…at the end of the movie in the credits, you know, “in memory of Bryan Cranston” [laughing].
I talked to Kevin Hart. He and I are together on this movie and I asked, “Are you paragliding?” and he goes, “There’s no way!” He says, “I won’t increase the odds of my eventual death. I like where it is right now.” But I look forward to those things.
As actors, we move on. I’ve played astronauts and been in spacesuits, and I learned how to cook crystal methamphetamine from DEA chemists—and probably forgot how to do it. I’ve played doctors, lawyers and been able to travel the world and it’s a great, great life. I still don’t feel there’s a level of expectation attached to it. Things are going great now, but I know they’ll subside.
Do people ask you a lot of questions about meth because of “Breaking Bad”?
People by and large are able to differentiate between myself and the character, but they are curious as to “They really taught you?” Yes, they really taught Aaron Paul and myself the steps on how to make pure methamphetamine. It’s absolutely crucial that it’s done in an exact order and you have to do it at certain times and certain temperatures. You know there’s definitely an alchemy involved. You have to know what you’re doing, because those that don’t often blow themselves up.
Did you actually make it?
No, that would be illegal [laughing].
I read that you collect baseball memorabilia.
No.
Really? Oh no…
No, it’s not true. It’s funny because now in this day and age of instant, quote unquote news, or I should say information, there are pictures taken and a bombardment of information.
For my 40th birthday, my wife [threw a party]—I love baseball and I’m a big Dodgers fan—some people gave me gifts relating to baseball…and some reporter saw those in my office and took a leap and said, “Oh, he’s a collector of baseball memorabilia.” And so if one person writes it, it gets on Wikipedia or something, it gets out. So, no. There was an old saying when I was a kid. Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. And if you do that, you should be pretty safe.
Do you collect anything?
No. And the older I get, the less things I want.
There a few things that operate as touchstones or talismans from certain parts of my life. A few things we would take in a fire, art or anything that’s emotionally meaningful to you, but, in truth, I could get rid of it all and not feel like I’ve lost any great thing.
It’s all about your personal relationships and experiences. Aside from that, what else is there to truly enjoy or treasure?
In the early ’80s, at the advent of the new MTV era, Peter Wolf led one of the most popular rock ‘n’ roll bands on the airwaves. The high-energy blues of Boston’s The J. Geils Band formed around John Geils’ guitar licks and the innovative use of rock harmonica, but it was frontman and radio DJ Wolf who—drawing comparisons to Mick Jagger thanks to his acrobatic stage presence, raw shimmy and vocal dexterity—propelled the band up the charts with “Come Back,” “Centerfold,” “Freeze Frame” and “Love Stinks.”
Wolf, 70, released his eighth studio album, A Cure For Loneliness, in April and will perform at Lockn’ on Friday night.
C-VILLE Weekly: What inspires you as an artist at this point in your career?
Peter Wolf: Always my love of music, just reaching for a record and giving it a spin helps me to keep writing and recording relevant music.
How would you describe The J. Geils Band’s cultural impact on music during the height of its popularity…and the band’s legacy?
It presented, to a large majority of the listening audience, artists and genres many people were unaware of at the time.
How has rock ‘n’ roll changed?
Through technology.
Can you tell us one pro and one con of being a musician
in a successful band?
Pro…meeting musicians who I always admired.
Do you ever get back in the seat as a radio DJ?
Yes, and I always enjoy doing it when I can.
What do you currently listen to?
All kinds of music.
Tell us a story about your greatest rock-star moment.
No one greatest moment, but many, such as working with Merle Haggard, Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin.
What can fans at Lockn’ expect to hear during your
set on Friday?
A mix of solo and Geils performed by a great group of musicians.
Lockn’ festival returns to Oak Ridge Farm on Thursday, and while the musical acts including Phish, Ween and My Morning Jacket are expected to draw more than 30,000 fans to the area, event producer Dave Frey defines the key to enjoying the festival as “locality.”
Pointing out the attributes of the recently established Nelson County Preserve, an area of more than 300 acres adjacent to Oak Ridge, Frey says the multi-performance landscape is part of his “20-year plan to create a park—for ourselves, for our community and for the people who come here.”
From the pastoral main stage setting tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains, three tents of local gourmet food and a Super VIP ticket option, to the curated bike-only trails, swimming sessions at WaterLockn’ and live dub flow with Opal Yoga, Frey and his partner, Peter Shapiro, bring the mid-Atlantic region a modern version of your grandma’s Woodstock.
With many small improvements made in efficiency—charging stations, more shade, family hangouts—Frey says the biggest change this year is the new stage. A round platform 56′ in diameter, Frey calls it “the world’s largest turntable.” The traditional interlocking sets will be presented by cutting the round stage across the middle with a wall and presenting one act on the front half while the next one sets up behind the wall. When it’s time for the next set, they’ll just turn the stage.
Fans can expect the usual jams and collaborations that have branded Lockn’ as a unique live experience with major players showing up at campfires and local bands getting national exposure. Frey says the festival reputation has become a brand itself. “No one even cares who plays anymore,” he says. “ They just go.”
When Georgia Castleman takes her third and final curtain call for the lead in Amahl and the Night Visitors on Saturday, she will be giving up a role that was a gift to the opera world.
In 2012, Ash Lawn Opera expanded into a winter season and introduced local audiences to Amahl, a one-act opera with an unusual backstory. The work premiered as the first opera composed for television, and in turn became the first recurring holiday viewing event. It debuted live on NBC on Christmas Eve in 1951 and had 14 additional showings on the network between 1952 and 1978. Due to its popularity, Amahl appeared on TV stations around the globe throughout the 1950s.
When NBC executives commissioned Gian Carlo Menotti to create it, they had no idea how it would be received by television audiences, and didn’t consider its translation to the stage, but Menotti fully intended for his opera to be performed in a traditional setting someday. The Telegraph quoted him on the subject in his 2007 obituary: “On television you’re lucky if they ever repeat anything. Writing an opera is a big effort and to give it away for one performance is stupid,” he said.
Eventually, Amahl made it to a theater stage, and Ash Lawn Opera’s Artistic Director Michelle Krisel, who saw the production on stage as a child, grew up loving the story of a poor shepherd and his mother who get a visit from three traveling kings—a tale that Menotti based on his observations of painter Hieronymus Bosch’s “Adoration of the Magi.” It wasn’t long after Krisel took the helm at ALO that the company brought on the modern classic and made it into one of Charlottesville’s must-see holiday outings, a true community event that counts an average of 20 local children among its performers and is conducted by the esteemed music director of Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, Kate Tamarkin.
“This is a dream come true for me to be able to expand in this way,” Krisel told C-VILLE as she prepared for the inaugural opening in 2012.
In its second year of presenting Amahl, ALO cast 15-year-old high school student Castleman in the lead role.
“My favorite thing about playing this recurring role is that each time I practice the music or get up on stage as Amahl, I get to relive this child’s most exciting and joyful moments,” Castleman told C-VILLE in an e-mail.
As Castleman navigated her mid-teens, her understanding of the role grew deeper. “Every year I find a new element to bring to the character as I grow and see deeper meanings in each line I get to sing. I am also amazed by the music of this opera every year. It is gorgeous and one of my favorite things to listen to around Christmastime.”
Krisel saw something special develop in Castleman and is exuberant about her performances. “We are so lucky Georgia has agreed to perform the demanding role of Amahl three seasons in a row,” she says. “It has been exciting to watch her evolving maturity with each season, but right from the start, I was so impressed by how she mastered what is very complex music while embodying the character of a young boy.”
From a one-off event to an annual tradition, the impact of Menotti’s opera could not have been anticipated as the singers prepared to go live in 1951, but almost 65 years later, it’s clear that Amahl and the Night Visitors’ story of inspiration, determination and triumph is a gift to be experienced—for the audience and performers alike.
“Creativity is something that can be so lost on our generation, so experiencing Amahl’s child-like creativity is a gift, as well as getting to sing this beautiful music,” Castleman says.
Updated: Due to a powerful storm, the opening of Lockn’ campgrounds has been delayed until further notice and Thursday performances have been canceled.
When gates open to the show field on Thursday, returning campers and daytrippers will find what should be an improved experience at Lockn’ Music Festival, the four-day music bash on Nelson County’s Oak Ridge Farm.
“We are hoping to get to being a [festival] where ‘You gotta go,'” says Lockn’ Music Festival co-founder and promoter Dave Frey.
In a media reception on Wednesday, Frey went through a punch list of items that he’s been working on since 2014. Frey says he has purchased an adjacent property that allows for traffic improvements, increased options for power supply and a quicker turnaround on septic transfers.
Nelson County Supervisor Larry Saunders indicated that it’s been easy working with Frey and his staff in the lead up to this year’s massive event. “The county is fully behind it,” says Saunders.
In three years the festival has become a big draw for fans of the jam scene, as well as legendary artists. The current lineup includes appearances by classic rock demigods Carlos Santana and Robert Plant among a long list of contemporary heavies in the genre.
There’s also a strong local presence through the food vending. The Rock Barn’s Ben Thompson curates the food and beverage offerings, and Frey says local food accounted for one-third of last year’s sales, a number he expects to exceed in 2015.
The 25,000 patrons expected over the span of the festival will find options provided by area wineries and breweries as well as an expanded biking and outdoor activity program. Even the staff has upped its game by trading in a portion of the traditional golf carts for bicycle rickshaws.
It’s the overall experience that means most to Frey, who says the goal for Lockn’ is to be “more than just music.”
Paul McCartney performed at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville on Tuesday. The rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, who turned 73 last week, showed no signs of age and blasted through a set of 30-plus familiar songs that kicked off with “Eight Days a Week,” leaving nothing to prove as one of the most influential musicians in the history of pop music.
The room will be filled with love long before the first guest arrives at the second annual Country Sweethearts Valentine’s Day show at the Southern on Saturday. The women on the bill, Terri Allard, Holly Renee Allen, Tara Mills and Sally Rose, have such affection and admiration for each other that it’s impossible to be in their presence without falling in with their loose, generous camaraderie, a vibe that emanates when they sit together onstage, trading songs and banter.
The show reunites the lineup of Allard, Allen and Mills with Rose joining them for the first time, and the bonus of hearing these songwriters together is the exchange of discovery between the fans. “It’s so organic what happens onstage with us and then the audience is having a good time,” said Allard. “Judging from last year’s show, it was a great opportunity for people to hear different songwriters they may not have heard before. Just sitting in and having a great time with this wonderful music community is so much fun.”
Mills booked the 2014 show along with the Southern team and had no hesitation in bringing it back. “We got a great response last year,” she said. More importantly, Allen stressed, “we had fun.”
Despite holiday tradition, the concert is not just for couples, and is intended to be inclusive with “songs of love, loss, heartbreak, marriage, divorce, functional relationships and dysfunctional relationships,” according to Rose, who sent a message to her fan base that read, “We’ll all be your Valentine, if you don’t have a Valentine.”
Mills agreed. “This is not just for couples —bring kids, the whole family,” she said.
Individually, each of these women is nurturing a career on the Central Virginia music circuit: Allard is a veteran fixture on the scene with a pile of accolades, including a Washington Area Music Award for Best Country Artist and co-writing credits on a song with Mary Chapin Carpenter. Her polished folk-country voice has made her a popular local player and although her busy schedule—hosting her own TV show, “Charlottesville Inside-Out” and serving as the Community Engagement Coordinator for the Music Resource Center—has taken her away from touring, Allard still plays often, and is usually found on the bigger stages in town.
Allen is a solo act from the Shenandoah Valley who spent time in the music clubs of Nashville and Atlanta before returning to Virginia. She plays bluesy, soulful country rock and ballads full of romantic notions and road wisdom, often shaping rough-edged stories into unabashed beauty. Allen is effusive about the support she receives from peers in the community, naming Allard, Mills, Andy Gems and Ashley McMillen as key players in developing local talent.
Mills started playing regularly after college and her bluegrass-inspired music has landed her band numerous festival gigs and made her a notable name in the region. Her well-crafted songs are lively, poignant and evoke her thoughtful, graceful presence.
Rose is a bright, bubbly frontwoman. There’s no getting around the earnestness and giddy charm that pours out with every word. “I’m going to say way too many embarrassing things,” she lamented about sitting in the round among her songwriting peers. But the music Rose makes is mature, artful, spirited and spiritual.
There’s not an official song list, but the bill promises love songs old and new, and of course every one of these women has a catalog full of offerings.
“Love lost is the easiest subject to write about when you’re a songwriter,” said Mills.
When it comes to favorites, the choices are as individual as their personalities. “The one song that jumps out is a song called ‘You and Me’—it’s different from other songs that I normally play,” said Mills about a recent composition. “It’s written in B minor and it’s a positive love song.”
One of Allen’s tunes was inspired by a complicated crush that resulted in her song “First Time Love Kinda Thing,” which she intended to shop to Jason Aldean, but serendipitously ended up recording as a duet with Shawn Mullins, the source of inspiration. “He and I have been friends forever, but not romantically involved for a very long time,” said Allen.
Rose cites young love in her namesake song “Witchbaby,” an ode to “that long drawn out history with your first love that never goes away…There’s something about your first love that haunts you,” she said.
Allard can’t resist the Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris version of “Love Hurts.” “My husband and I sang it at our wedding reception,” she said. “We’ve always loved singing that song.”
The Sweethearts plan to play originals, as well as covers and hinted that they have a surprise in store for the audience. But most importantly, they plan to send you home filled with love.
“I want people to leave the show with a smile on their face,” said Mills.
“I want them to feel relaxed, warm, happy,” said Rose. “We are all enjoying this together.”
Saturday 2/14. $12-15, 8pm. The Southern Cafe & Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Like Playskool figures come to life, The Village People emerged on the disco scene in 1977, and by the following year the entire country was singing and mimicking the vocal group’s famous “Y.M.C.A.” moves.
An act derived from the gay culture of Greenwich Village, the group formed when Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo spotted a live performance by Native American Felipe Rose and used it as inspiration to capitalize on American male sterotypes and gay fantasy. The mustachioed entertainers used humor and caricature to break through, and even cut a commercial deal to use the hit “In the Navy” for recruiting until the U.S. Navy pulled the plug after labeling the macho men as controversial.
The Village People will perform at The Paramount Theater on May 22. C-VILLE Weekly spoke to original member, Felipe Rose by phone.
C-VILLE Weekly: Talk about the launch of the group. It all started with your performances in Greenwich Village?
Felipe Rose: It started out first as a project to lend a percussion sound [to my act]. I used to wear sleigh bells around my ankles and alpaca fur pieces over that. You could hear me walking or as a pro dancer, you could hear me dance.
That’s how I met Jacques. At first I was just dancing in a club. I was just being a fool and an all-around consumed artist.
How close was the original vision to today’s Village People?
Jacques showed me a sketch drawing of what looked to me like the group, with me drawn in, and a cowboy and construction worker and a biker.
He said, “We’ve built a group around you darling, and I’m gonna make you famous.” I thought, “Oh God. Jesus Christ, what is this man doing? This is an awful idea.”
Was there a political intention from the beginning?
No, not at all. He [Jacques] just wanted to do a group. He was born on the 4th of July, and coming from France, the whole cowboys and Indians thing, motorcycle Marlon Brando, American male stereotypes—he was fascinated with anything American.
What’s the backstory on the song “Y.M.C.A.”?
Jacques had seen the letters on the side of a building—Y.M.C.A.—and asked, “What is that?” Right then and there we told him, and he turned to the writers and said, “I’m gonna write a new song.” He started to hum the tune, and wrote it immediately, and I thought, “What a disaster!”
Was there any sense of irony within the group about its popularity in middle America?
Whatta you gonna do? Tell the kids, “Don’t buy this album?” I thought we were gonna be a small New York-based club group. There was never irony on my part. The irony may be that my heritage, and that of my character, [was] not properly interpreted and promoted as a true Native American.
In terms of embracing the gay lifestyle in the ’70s, you were groundbreaking.
We were groundbreaking because that’s what Jacques wanted to do. They wanted to do a tribute band to celebrate the gay lifestyle, and I was getting paid. I was on contract. There were times they asked us to record certain things and I didn’t like it, and we were all vocal about that.
What was life like during the heyday of disco?
It was not too crazy. In fact, most days we were kinda boring and lived a quiet life. We were professional.
One time in a club where Saturday Night Fever was filmed—we were there right after the movie opened—the audience took a look at us, and they were all in polyester suits and here we were in loincloth, breastplate, headdress, half naked cowboys and motorcycle guys. We were like, “Uh-oh!” But they knew the songs, and everyone was dancing in the end.
What are your audiences like these days?
The diehards are still there. Ones that used to go to the clubs, and there aren’t any clubs anymore—especially in New York City. We have a very vast audience of different types of people.
You became ordained as a minister in order to perform a wedding for longtime fans?
Yes. Me and Eric the Biker are ordained.
Do you perform gay weddings?
I did one on a ship in Australia. I married two guys. When we were onboard doing a concert, they found out I was a minister and came to me and said, “I would love to marry my boyfriend.” I said, “ What time?” Eighty people showed up dressed, with flowers in their hair. It was really beautiful.
Look, if I can bring two people together—any kind of people that really want to be together, and I’m asked to do it—it’s really an honor.
You still embrace your career in a vibrant way.
If you’re gonna do it, why go through the motions and pretend? That would show in your performance. That’s why I look so young. I look half my age. People don’t believe that I’m almost 60.
Do you have a message for Charlottesville?
Bring some reinforcement for the building because we don’t want to tear down the Paramount. We’re gonna shake the foundation, and we don’t want the roof to cave in. We don’t want anyone sitting down. This is a party. Bring your best “Y.M.C.A.” movements and show us what ya got.