Tag: Live Music

Jack White may be one of the last real rock stars on the planet. While the swaggering old guard have all but been replaced by skinny jean-clad hipsters playing banjos and Macbooks, Mr. White’s a study in musical progress. His stripped-down garage days with the White Stripes led into new bands, movie roles, and collaborations with the likes of Jimmy Page. He steps out solo in the current manifestation of a guitar legend in the making at the height of his abilities.

Thursday 9/27 $45, 7pm. nTelos Wireless Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4910.

When The Whiskey Jar opened in February at the west end of the Downtown Mall, it came as something of a surprise. After all, Escafé had held down that spot for 17 years and several owners, before a recent relocation. Seven months later, The Whiskey Jar has become a reliable regular destination for many Mall-goers.

The restaurant is co-owned by Will Richey and John Reynolds of Revolutionary Soup, along with Cary Carpenter, who sports what must easily be the most impressive mustache in town. In addition to delicious, locally sourced food and a wide selection of whiskey and other refreshments, the establishment has been adding live music to its menu. Josha McBee—an employee of no less than three Charlottesville restaurants-—has been handling the booking, with assistance from local promoter Jeyon Falsini. They’ve hosted live acts on weekends since opening, but starting this month the restaurant takes things to the next level with music six nights a week, and a trio of local performers sitting in with residencies every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

“The shows during the week are more like dinner music,” said Carpenter. “They start earlier, around 6pm,” which seems like a natural choice since the sizable late night crowds often grow loud enough to drown out quiet performers. The mellow mood of an early evening concert gives diners the chance to hear acts like the Rick Olivarez Trio, which boasts a strong local following for its performances in the C&O Bistro every Tuesday. “Having Rick Olivarez play here every Wednesday is phenomenal,” said Carpenter. “He’s just posted up in the window all evening, and everyone outside on the patio can hear too.”

Among the most impressive acts on the roster is Erik “Red” Knierim, a talented but reclusive local musician. Erik the Red— a tall, red-haired country boy, often sporting suspenders or pigtails—is an affable and charming presence, whose music seems like it could have come from another era. Knierim’s sensibility is distinctly un-modern. His dense Virginia drawl is so unlike most modern singers, his genuine kindness and enthusiasm seem unaffected by 21st century cynicism, and his original blues songs about his own life, detailing work as a stonemason, pining for a departed sweetheart, and trying to keep foxes away from the chicken coop, seem both old-fashioned and timeless. I had to dig out a Charlottesville High School yearbook from 1997 to verify that Erik the Red was, in fact, the same person as the Erik Knierim I half-remembered from 15 years ago.

Adding to his mystique, and fueling no shortage of rumors, Knierim can be elusive and unpredictable, though always genuinely friendly. There is little to no information about his music available on the internet, none of his recordings have been released (with the exception of a single song that appeared as a bonus track on a 2005 Corn-
dawg album), he has no functioning e-mail address, and can only be reached by landline. For several years he would often be added to a concert bill at the last minute, or talked onto the stage for a short set if he happened to be present. Listeners are always charmed by his songs and stories, but it’s difficult for anyone, including eager show promoters, to know when or if they might hear from him next. Thus, the prospect of being able to hear Erik the Red every Monday is something of a treasure for Charlottesville music aficionados, and no small feat for The Whiskey Jar’s music bookers. “That was kind of random, actually” says Carpenter. “Betty Jo, who sings with Erik, does all of our flower arranging, so I think that’s how that got put together.”

Erik the Red, the Ragged Mountain String Band, and the Rick Olivarez Trio will perform at The Whiskey Jar every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively, through the month of September. While it’s not clear if those specific performers will continue in the coming months, Carpenter said the plan is to invite musicians to perform in weeknight residences, perhaps in a rotating selection. Whatever the outcome, The Whiskey Jar is solidifying its reputation as a spot for the discerning downtowner. “I wanted a place where I could hang out, drink whiskey, and listen to good music,” says Carpenter, “and now that’s what we do here every night.”

Latte gazing

Music fans of the ’90s first encountered British folk singer Beth Orton through her collaborations with The Chemical Brothers, an unlikely but successful pairing. On songs like “Where Do I Begin,” Orton lent subtlety and grace to albums that elsewhere threatened to become overbearingly bombastic. She also released several fine solo albums, and gained a faithful musical following in her own right.

If Orton’s fame has waned slightly in recent years (it’s frequently necessary to remind casual listeners that she’s not the same person as Beth Gibbons, the singer of Portishead), her music has aged well, and stood the test of time far better than much of that played in coffee shops throughout the ’90s. Orton has thus far released just one album over the past decade, but it’s a fine one: 2006’s Comfort of Strangers, produced by the omnipresent Jim O’Rourke, which eschewed formerly trendy trip-hop beats for stripped-down, more traditional folk instrumentation. Her newest, Sugaring Season, is due out in early October.

Beth Orton will appear at the Jefferson Theater on September 24. Tickets are $20-23, and the doors open at 7pm. Sam Amidon opens.

Have your say. Drop a line to mailbag@c-ville.com, send a letter to 308 E. Main St., or post a comment at c-ville.com.

Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, is unapologetic about his art. The former biomedical engineer spends hours, days, months listening, capturing, and cataloging the work of other musicians—storing up thousands of samples that he then repurposes into new genius like some mad scientist digital composer. As Girl Talk, he puts on aerobically charged, frenetic, live laptop performances full of props and fist pumps, and his sample-obsessed recordings are offered through his own tongue-in-cheek label Illegal Art.

C-VILLE spoke to Gillis by phone about listening through to the end, the cool kids, and fair use. Girl Talk performs at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion on Wednesday.

CVILLE Weekly: You have your own day in Pittsburgh, Gregg Gillis Day on December 7. How do you celebrate it?

Gregg Gillis: “When it was announced, I celebrated by sleeping all day on the couch. I did eat at Primanti’s, which is the iconic sandwich shop in Pittsburgh, so if I had to give a suggestion to people, it would be to drink an I.C. Light beer and eat a Primanti’s sandwich. And if you want to do it up big time, wear a Steelers shirt that day.”

Talk a little about your creative process. Has it changed as you’ve grown in popularity?

“The techniques are actually pretty similar. I more or less cut up samples in Adobe Audition, that’s where I’m isolating things and chopping things up, then AudioMulch is what I perform live on, where I am able to arrange all the samples and trigger loops, where I come up with the arrangement.”

“I am spending a lot of time preparing the tools to use. When I start an album, it may be after two years of working out ideas in the show, so I have an idea of 75 percent of the material—‘it’s gonna start here, it’s gonna go here’—and then there’s little holes or gaps, but I try to flush out all ideas rather than to make it up on the spot.”

There appears to be real purpose when it comes together as a record.

“There is definitely a timing—it’s a ride. I think I have a journey that’s important, and definitely for the albums I want it to be a whole experience, you know, listening to the whole thing in one setting if possible and have that be enjoyable.”

Do you listen to albums in their entirety? 

(Laughs) “I do a little bit. I still listen to music the way I always have, even out on tour, just popping in a CD and listening to the end. This is still my favorite way to do it as opposed to downloading a bunch of songs and checking them out individually.”

What is the last album you listened to?

“We listened to Chicago 6 and Big K.R.I.T.’s Live from the Underground.”

 You’ve become an icon among the cool kids after eschewing them for years. Is there personal satisfaction in that?

“I would say there is a sense of pride for me or satisfaction sometimes when I’m invited to play some of the festivals and I’m the guy up there playing Kelly Clarkson samples. When I get lumped in with that crowd that is critically well-received, and I’ve kind of openly embraced many things that they have made a living shitting on, there is some weird, ironic perverted pleasure in that.”

Some industry legals would love to defend you in a fair use case because they believe it would be high-profile and clear-cut. Do you have any desire to put the issue to rest?

“You know, I believe in what I’m doing. I don’t want to go to court, but I definitely believe in it and I would be curious to say the least. You know, just to see how it would be received by a judge, or by the public or how it would then be portrayed in the mainstream media.”

“It seems like in the music underground a lot of people have been supportive, so the project has been put in a pretty positive light. Maybe if it broke through that mainstream level, maybe the media would depict me as some sort of renegade criminal trying to rip people off.”

“People who study the music industry are really interested in, and get, the perspective that I’m pushing. You know that it’s not causing any harm. That it is transformative.”

Has there been a reversal where artists approach you to be included in your work?

“Yeah, people have definitely been. More on the underground level, people are always pushing stuff and I love checking out new music. Over the years, I have gotten to know a number of A&R people at major labels or managers who are directly connected to people I’ve sampled, saying ‘check out this a cappella song or instrumental or here’s the new single.’ That’s pretty frequent. I wouldn’t want to name names because I don’t know whose boss’ boss knows this is happening.”

Do you have memories from previous Charlottesville shows?

“I remember my first Charlottesville show pretty well. I was on tour with Dan Deacon and we were having a crazy run. Dan got really sick and had to cancel [his part of] that show, and I remember thinking it was a great idea—not because the [Satellite Ballroom] show wasn’t cool, but because it ended up one of the rowdier shows—really chaotic and really hot and walking that line of almost falling apart. You know, like something’s going to come unplugged, damaged, but nothing happened and it was all good. That one sticks out from that tour actually.”

Girl Talk/September 19 at 7pm/nTelos Wireless Pavilion 

The seductive croon, skilled guitar, and catchy lyrics of Mississippi folk rocker Charlie Mars would be enough to establish his talent and sex appeal. Tack on the devilish good looks, designer threads, and longtime relationship with “Weeds” star Mary Louise Parker to emphasize his stylish mystique. Mars passes through to promote the release of his new record, Blackberry Light, while supporting Steve Earle.

Sunday 9/16.  $39.50-45, 8pm. The Jefferson Theater, 110 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 245-4980.

The songs of Patterson Hood often tell vivid stories, even if they’re not always about the brightest subjects. Over a decade and a half and nine studio albums later, the Drive-By Truckers frontman has tackled rural economic plight, cancer clusters, and killing a banker to avoid foreclosure. His modern gothic tales are usually enhanced by the Truckers’ loudly distorted three-guitar attack. It’s interesting, then, to hear the underground Southern rock icon tone down his raspy howl and get personal on his new solo album, Heat Lightning Rumbles in the Distance.

The reflective effort came out of Hood’s attempt to write a book, a fictionalized account of a pre-Truckers dark period in his life, when he was an admittedly suicidal, recently divorced, struggling musician. When the concept better manifested in song, Hood contrasted the turbulent tales with lighter tunes about his current existence as a successful—albeit road-weary—happily married father of two. With songs in place, the Athens, Georgia-based Hood called on a stout cast of musicians to record the album. In addition to fellow Truckers members Brad Morgan (drums) and Jay Gonzalez (keys), he’s assisted by his dad, longtime Muscle Shoals session bassist David Hood, songstress Kelly Hogan and Will Johnson of Centro-matic. Hood will bring his solo band the Downtown Rumblers to the Southern on Saturday night, and C-VILLE caught up with him by phone.

C-VILLE Weekly: Your songs often contain colorful stories, so it doesn’t seem like a stretch that you were working on a book. Why, in the end, did you decide to turn the book idea into a solo record?

Patterson Hood: “I was burned out on the road and homesick but still facing a long year of touring since the Truckers had just released Go Go Boots. I decided to use that time on the bus to write the book that had been in the back of my mind. I dove in and the first few chapters were going pretty quickly. Since the main character was a songwriter, I decided to write a song to put in-between each chapter. In the end I liked the songs more than what had been finished of the book.”

Is this your most autobiographical album?

“My songs on previous albums have been autobiographical, even when it’s not always obvious. When I’m writing about other people, there’s usually a connection even if I’m not directly involved in the story. This record, though, is definitely more direct. It’s either me at 27 or me at 47. I like the way those songs juxtapose back and forth. The song “Depression Era” was written with my great uncle in mind, since he passed away last fall. Much of this record is about the idea of losing the last part of that generation in my family, but at the same time having beautiful kids running around. It’s the passing of the torch.”

This record has a soulful, sparse quality. Were you trying to deviate from the usual Truckers sound?

“I first recorded these songs as demos on GarageBand in my home office, so from the beginning they were very sparse. The songs were sung quietly and at times almost whispered, so I wanted to retain that with a full band. I didn’t include any big lead guitar. I wanted this to sound intimate and personal, like a conversation. When I went to record, it happened probably quicker than anything I’ve ever done. I finished the record during the week I planned on starting it. Every day that I would go into the studio I would come out with two more songs finished.”

What can we expect at the Southern on Saturday?

“It’s a much quieter show than the Truckers do, so we’re trying to play smaller rooms on this tour. But the band is smoking good. It’s Brad and Jay from the Truckers both playing smaller, stripped-down set-ups, and Jacob Morris playing cello and bass. The opening act, Hope for Agoldensummer, is a band of two sisters from here in Athens that do amazing harmonies. We’re going to back them up for their set, and then they’re going to be part of the Downtown Rumblers.”

After the aforementioned troubled time in your life, you wrote 500 songs in a three-year period. Can you explain that kind of productivity?

“At that point, my life was more fucked up than usual. Writing was my life raft. I was young and my old band and marriage had broken up. I can’t do that any more, and it’s probably better that I don’t. My life is fuller now, and I don’t have the time. As a husband and father of two beautiful kids, I have to carve out specific writing time, because I would rather be with my family when I’m home. I think not writing as much as I used to is the sign of a happy ending.”

September 15 at 8pm/The Southern Café and Music Hall