Rob Nichols

Concert Preview: "The Wake" – Four Indianapolis American rock and roll bands ready for Earth House

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Can American rock and roll survive in Indianapolis?  And if it is going to, where in Indianapolis can it be found?  And what happens when four bands, all who embrace the retro-yet-authentic sound of American rock, struggle to get booked into an Indianapolis club?
On May 18, the stage on the Earth House in downtown Indianapolis will be shared by four Indianapolis American rock bands, doing their part to make Telecaster guitars ring loud in our city, just as Roadmaster, Henry Lee Summer, Mere Mortals and many others did in the 70’s and 80’s.
Dubbed “The Wake: A Showcase of American Rock ‘n Roll” (i.e. if rock is dead, let’s have a freakin’ party), The Dead Hearts, The Weakenders, Attakulla, and Henry French & the Shameless bring three-chord rock and roll noise to the old church.
Yet to hear The Dead Hearts keyboardist Brian Gropp explain it, there seemed to be little love for the Tom Petty-esque rock the band embrace.
“At the end of February, Eli (Chastain) from the Weakenders contacted me looking to get a show going in Indy,” he says.   “A couple days later, I get an email from Greg Osborne from Attakulla.  Our name happened to be dropped to him.  I’m thinking the more the merrier. After listening to both bands, and knowing how good Henry French is, I thought this is one heck of a lineup,” Gropp says.
So they started looking for a venue.
“There was not a medium-sized club within I-465 that gave us the time of day.  We went after a few of our favorite clubs from multiple angles and were repeatedly ignored,” Gropp admits. “We started to get a little frustrated.  Nobody wanted this show.”
Eli emailed Gropp about renting a DIY venue or having a house party.  At the end of his email he said, “Is rock and roll dead dudes? Say it aint so!’
“We finally got a bite at The Earth House. After we worked out the details, we realized that we have to show that independent local rock and roll is very much alive in Indianapolis.”
French had the idea for the show’s theme.
“Since we kind of got snubbed by everyone, I consider this a call to action to an extent,” he wrote in the original email to the bands.  “Time to prove that rock and roll still has a crowd in Indy.”
It was his suggestion to build a title and theme for the show that’s on all the posters, website and handbills that proclaim “rock and roll ain’t dead.”
They found a media partner in the Back Roads Radio Show.  They emailed, and it intrigued me; one show, four American rock bands in Indy, and the struggle to do it.

***

The Dead Hearts

What the hell is American rock and roll anyway?
Do the Black Keys fit the description?  How about less-mainstream bands like the Bottle Rockets and Deer Tick?  Or Kid Rock, with his penchant for emulating his idol, Bob Seger?  Or is it the domain now of country performers like Miranda Lambert and Eric Church?
I’d wager it is somewhere in the influences of these artists, and standard bearers like Wilco, John Fogerty’s CCR, Tom Petty, and the sound of Seger and Mellencamp – who loves that sound more than Indy, right?
“Our opinion on it is kind of like this; our favorite bands wrote classic songs,” Chastain, the guitarist in The Weakenders, says. “To us, stuff like What’s the Story Morning Glory? or Damn the Torpedoes are always going be on iPods or in playlists or on radio for a reason; they’re full of absolutely undeniable jams. We are aiming for that kind of territory.”
Longtime Indiana guitar player John Byrne has been plying his trade for two decades as a go-to sideman in bands like Mere Mortals, Danny Flanigan and the Rain Chorus (who he is joining for their own show the same night at another Indy club  / Locals Only – 9pm), with Jess Richmond, 8-Track All-Stars and many others, most variations on a sound that used to be called heartland rock.
“It’s a tricky business trying to define or quantify something as broad and subjective as American rock,” Byrne says. “Neil Young said it best, I think, when he said ‘once you talk about mystique, you have none,’ but I definitely think that it has some essential, defining characteristics.
“For me – who basically grew up trying to be the kid that Patrick Fugit plays in the seminal rock movie “Almost Famous”, – the best, most effective American rock and roll had to have at least some self-awareness of what it was trying to deconstruct.
The Weakenders

Gropp echoes the sentiments of Byrne.
“(It’s) always a slippery slope when you start to define a genre.  We have some obvious influences.  All four Dead Hearts have a mutual enamoring of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.  I am biased being the keyboard player, but I love a band with driving organ and keys (and) love the E Street band so much.”
“If pressed to pick a single band that has become the most succinct standard-bearer for American rock in our current era,” continues Byrne, “I’d have to say Wilco because they quite literally took up the mantle of “Americana”, that somewhat self-congratulatory sub-genre that did its best to keep burning the twangy troubadour flame of vintage Neil Young, Gram Parsons, (and) Townes Van Zandt, and infused it with the intensity of the Stooges and the weariness of Steve Earle while rocking like a hurricane.”
With regional and national rock acts playing shows at the Vogue (upcoming dates include the Bodeans, Otis Gibbs and Dawes), Birdy’s (Paul Thorn has a show on June 23) and Radio Radio (two shows this month from The Lumineers), it would seem there would be a market for bands with similar sounds, on the local level.
What is trickier for most local and regional bands, is working on establishing a consistent fanbase for shows.  And to do that, it is more difficult if there is not a healthy American rock and roll scene.  Is there one in Indy?  I would argue a pair of shows from aforementioned The Lumineers, and consistent crowds for Old Crow Medicine Show, Lucinda Williams, Old 97’s and BoDeans, among others, gives the appearance of a plugged-in, web-savvy audience that knows the music and where to find the shows. Is that enough for local artists and bands of the genre?
“Rock and roll is still everywhere,” Gropp says. “In garages, basements, and house parties.  I think there are a lot of frustrated rockers wondering how to get the music elsewhere.  There are still a handful of places that will occasionally let a live rock band do their thing, but they better bring a crowd.  If not, they don’t want you back.”
“Indy just doesn’t have the same amount or type of clubs that it did 20 and 30 years ago,” Byrne admits. ”Save the occasional aberration, local music has been banished from Broad Ripple. Plenty of cool shows happen in Fountain Square, but it seems to me that the gigs that get the most notice are for bands from out of town.”
As Byrne notes, there are clubs in the strip malls that book cover bands, And he plays in those bars because, “at the end of the day, I just love playing guitar.”
Henry French

“If you want to find the essence of American rock and roll in Indianapolis any given week and you aren’t willing to settle for another heartfelt walk-through of ‘Mustang Sally,’ you have to dig pretty hard,” Byrne concludes “The good news is that there is music here, and plenty of it,  but there’s just no getting around the simple law of economics that supply doesn’t create demand.”

***

For the four bands playing “The Wake”, the potential success of the event becomes a lesson in hard work, and networking an audience that they, WTTS and the terrific Back Road Radio Show cultivate.  It also helps they believe deeply in the sound they are making.
The Weakenders are living in Nashville, Tenn, with three of their members are from Indianapolis.  This will be their first show back in town. They have a new record Super Major, coming out this spring.
“We’ve noticed with the band, people seem to actually mean what they say to us when they talk about our songs, or the new record or the live set or whatever it is,” Chastain says. “People seem to really think we’re on to something. That is a really good feeling.
For The Dead Hearts’ Gropp, the effort to carve a niche, or be a part of something that means a lot to not just his band, but many like-sounding and –minded others, is one reason to go forward.

Attakula

“So much of what we do is promotion and trying to find a balance between keeping people interested and not annoying them. It can be really taxing and frustrating, contacting countless clubs and not getting a response  The bottom line is the music.  We love making music.  We would probably do it even if nobody was listening.”
Attakulla call their music a “revival of American garage rock wrapped in a crunchy, electrified folk sound.”  Henry French likens himself to Tom Petty, the Foo Fighters and the Replacements. I even wrote that French was a “guy has the potential to make the next great Midwest rock and roll record.”  And that The Dead Hearts were the Indianapolis’ Best New Band of 2011.
Is that enough?  Can their passion, diligence and the sound of Indiana rock and roll get an audience to a beautiful old church in downtown Indy featuring these four?
According to Gropp, music fans know where to find good shows.
“I think people want something honest, something they can interact with.  Something personal where they can say, “Oh yeah, I was there that night.  I remember when that happened.’
For all their struggles in finding the right venue, they hope the show called “The Wake” will jump start something for them.
And Indianapolis will have a place for music that we call American rock, the trusted sound has never really gone away. For bands like The Dead Hearts and the Weakenders, they simply keep pushing forward, even if it is just three chords at a time. Because, for them,  that’s the only thing they can do.
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http://www.facebook.com/events/417279008285814/
www.backroadradioshow.com
www.earthhousecollective.org
When: Friday, May 18, 2012 at 7:00 p.m
Where: The Earth House Collective, 237 N. East St., Indianapolis, IN 46204.
Tickets: $7 in advance ($10 at door) and available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/240272.
www.thedeadhearts.com
www.theweakenders.com
www.attakulla.com
www.reverbnation.com/henryfrench

RiverRoots Festival in Madison turns up the rock

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Greg Ziesemer has booked all the bands, and now he wants to make sure the beer is ready. When we caught up with him, he was riding in a van on his way to New Albany to visit one of the festival’s microbrewers for the upcoming Madison, Indiana RiverRoots Music and Folk Arts Festival. This year’s festival will take place on the weekend of May 18-20.
“We are bringing Sun King Brewery down this year and will [also] have five different microbrewers,” said Ziesemer.
In what is Ziesemer’s first full year as the music director, the festival will tilt slightly musically, as he and his committee has grabbed some uber-hot national acts that are both in — and out — of the folk genre.
Formerly known as the Ohio River Valley Folk Festival, this event has grown steadily in attendance; it struck gold last year by booking the Carolina Chocolate Drops just as they were going from little known regional performers to Grammy Award winners, Ziesemer would love to keep the “This performer is one the way up — remember you saw them here” connection.
“Roots music – it’s like the new folk. The name folk used to cover what we were doing, but now we’ve become broader. When people hear folk, they think Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. And we love them. And there may be some people who don’t want to come to folk festival who will come see music at a roots festival,” said Ziesemer.
For opening night, festival organizers booked The Band of Heathens as the headliner, with Americana rocker Hayes Carll on Saturday night. Carll’s album KMOG garnered the most Americana airplay for any album in 2011. Country folk-rock darlings The Black Lillies will headline Sunday.
Carll, an Austin, Tex. alt-country performer, built his reputation with rowdy country and rock shows throughout Texas and the Southwest. Much like The Band of Heathens, he’s a road-tested, rock and roll performer.
“Hayes Carll is a a rock band, and that’s the show they’ll do. And his opening band is five sisters (Searson), with a driving, really upbeat celtic band, but it’s anything but just celtic rock.”
Ziesemer understands the value of keeping the festival’s original idea of folk music alive, even with headliners that have strong rock and roll leanings. He says the committee has worked hard to provide varied musical styles. “We have singer-songwriters, Texas swing, a jug band, and a guy from Minnesota who is like their version of Rev. Peyton,” Ziesemer said. “We want people to hear jazz and country and blues too.”
According to Ziesemer, the festival draws many from the Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Lexington and Columbus areas, and as many from the smaller towns within that region.
“The crowd comes from what we consider to be a 150 to 200 mile radius. We did have fans from as far away as North Carolina and Minnesota. But our crowds are [becoming] increasingly diverse. The new bands this year will help pull a younger crowd,” said Ziesemer. “Tickets sales are going very well, and I would love to see 8,000 to 10,000 people come through gates for the weekend.”
Organizers have added more children’s activities and have been “expanding the family attractions, because it is a family-friendly event,”said Ziesemer. He mentions a storyteller tent and smaller demonstration tents, where people will working in historic costumes, creating and teaching.
Yet it is the music they bring to the riverfront town that makes this festival noteworthy
“What we want to be known for is bringing acts that are up and coming — bands with an upward trajectory. We had the Carolina Chocolate Drops play here last year, and nobody really knew who they were. And they blew people away here. Then they won a Grammy,” said Ziesemer. “We want to be a festival known as that discovery place, a launching pad.”
SCHEDULE
Friday, May 18
6 p.m. Carolyn Martin
8 p.m. Searson
10 p.m. The Band of Heathens
Saturday, May 19
1 p.m. Joe Crookston w/Peter Glanville
3 p.m. Roosevelt Dime
5 p.m. Charlie Parr
7 p.m. Over the Rhine
9 p.m. Hayes Carll
Sunday, May 20
12:30 pm Appalatin
1:45 pm Michael Kelsey
3 p.m. Whiskey Bent Valley Boys
4:30 p.m. The Black Lillies
Meet the bands
Here’s a look at the headliner and their opener for each night.
Searson
The sisters Searson’s numerous tours over the past eight years that have included stops in the U.S., Ireland, Germany and Denmark. Playing a sound described as celtic rock, they grew up in a musical family in Canada. Their dad Mike once played guitar and sang with the band.
The Band of Heathens
Legendary Texas musician Ray Wylie Hubbard said of the American rock band that they were, “kinda like if Rimbaud, Keats, and Rilke strapped on guitars and hooked up with a bad ass rhythm section; literary and sinfully cool.” The Austin, Tex hard-touring Band of Heathens released Top Hat Crown & the Clapmaster’s Son in 2011, and a four-disc, two-volume, live DVD release called The Double Down – Live in Denver (Vol. I & II ).
Over the Rhine
Cincy-based husband-and-wife team of Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist are still making great music 20 years after their 1991 debut. One of RiverRoots Festival Greg Zeismer’s favorites. Over-the-Rhine is the name of a downtown neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the band got its start.
Hayes Carll
Carll’s KMAG YOYO (and Other American Stories) album was the most played Americana album of 2011. Spin Magazine named it the third best country album of the year, behind top-ranked Eric Church and runner-up Gillian Welch. The album title is a military acronym that stands for “Kiss My Ass Guys, You’re on Your Own,” the album hit #12 on the country album chart and #17 on the Billboard Album Chart.
Whiskey Bent Valley Boys
Hailing from the backwoods of Pewee Valley, Ken., they bring banjo, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, fiddle and upright bass.
The Black Lillies
With Whiskey Angel, The Black Lillies kicked off their first national tour at the Ryman Auditorium. Pretty good omen, right? Cruz Contreras got the band together to record that first album, and the band took their name from a song on the first record. They chose to use a fan-funded model to record their album, 100 Miles of Wreckage, rather than signing to a label.

Cara Jean Wahlers changes name, plans new album

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The past few years have been special ones for Americana singer-songwriter Cara Jean Wahlers. An album, Goodnight Charlotte, topped dozens of Best-of lists at the end of 2010; the music was used as the soundtrack to the film Paradise Recovered. She hosted multiple songwriter-in-the-round nights in Indy, and she met the man she will marry.
To celebrate a step into the next phase of her life and career, Wahlers — who became Cara Jean Marcy both personally and professionally when she got married in March —  had one last singer-songwriter show. (Tim Grimm, Marcy, Bill Price and special guest Evan Slusher played a songwriter night for the last time on the stage at Locals Only on March 30).
“I organized probably a half dozen of these performances in the last year with local and regional artists, because it’s pretty fun to play with people whose work you admire,” she said. “I’ve had the hope of bridging the gap between Bloomington, Louisville and Indianapolis, bringing new talent to town and allowing Indianapolis musicians to make connections with other regional musicians.
“The three of us, Tim, Bill and I, joined each other on stage for a traditional writers’ round. It’s a lot of fun to share a stage with a few of your friends, telling stories and laughing in between songs,” she said.
The run of shows were a hit for a number of reasons. The music was good, the audience seemed to enjoy the atmosphere of candlelit tables, and there was a no-smoking policy.
“Because of this choice, I was contacted by the national office for the Center for Disease Control and interviewed about being an ex-smoker and a performer who supports non-smoking music venues,” said Marcy.
After the final show, Marcy started to get busy on her next album.
“I just confirmed that I’m recording a live album. and Danny Flanigan (Hopscotch Army, The Rain Chorus) is going to play lead guitar, while Ryan Williams (Playboy Psychonauts, Warner Gear) is going to play bass. I’m pretty excited about it,” Marcy said. “I played with Ryan Williams in a band called The Warner Gear years ago. It was a great experience, a great band and I was immediately taken by Ryan’s elegant bass lines. We’ve talked a bit about it. He played bass with me for the NUVO Best of party at Sun King last summer and we work really well together.”
After the critical success of her most recent album, the choice to make a new record with a similar sound is something that Marcy has considered.
“I originally thought that thematically I wanted to go a completely different direction than Goodnight Charlotte, but then realized that I was trying too hard to change my voice,” Marcy said. “I’m looking at a few songs that I considered for Goodnight Charlotte that I didn’t include, as well as some new songs I’ve just started performing.
“One thing I know for certain about the studio album is that it won’t be limited to guitar and cello,” she said. “That’s what made Goodnight Charlotte different. But if I do another album with that arrangement, I think it becomes less special. So, I’m looking at filling the arrangements out a little more.”
Of her name change, she said, “It was a difficult decision to make that took a lot of consideration.”
In the end, she had a couple good reasons for the change.
“I didn’t want to draw the line between who I am personally and who I am professionally,”she said. “And Marcy is easier to spell than Wahlers.”

Indy Show Preview: Truth and Salvage Co. move to Nashville, add Hoosier bass player

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While they may credit Los Angeles as the place that spawned roots-rockers Truth and Salvage, Co., the band has clung to a sound that is more Midwest and Southern-influenced than the clean sound of LA.  So the band’s April move to Nashville,TN makes a lot of sense.
The band members hail from places like North Carolina and Ohio and Indiana.  Their core fans are in the heartland and in the south.  The tours have been playing Indianapolis multiple times each year for the past two years. Nowthe band is living closer to their musical roots.    
They have also added a Hoosier to the band in the process, to go along with Tim Jones, one the band’s frontmen and guitarists. 
Jones was back in his hometown of Indianapolis last week before joining his bandmates for a few dates this spring as they finish recording their sophomore album.  One of those dates is at the Deluxe nightclub at the Old National Centre on May 4 (with/ Pravada and Bonesetters), debuting some songs off the new record for the Hoosier faithful.
ROB:  Have you guys missed being on the road?  What have you done to stay busy?
Tim Jones: We haven’t had time to miss being on the road.  We toured right up until Christmas and  then started pre-production on the new record and literally have been working on it right up until we moved to Nashville last week.  And we’re still going to be finishing the record in between these May/June dates.
ROB:  How’s the new album coming along?  How will this be different than debut?
TJ: Well I’d say we’re about half way done.  We spent most of February and March recording with Rob Schnapf, an amazing producer, engineer, mixer and all-around great human being.  The release date will all depend on when we turn it in; probably the end of August or September.  
We’re not trying to do anything drastically different.  Hopefully we’ve matured as songwriters and become a better band over the last two years.  A lot of people talked about our first record as a “greatest hits” so hopefully this will be a “greatest hits part two”
ROB:  How’s the band?  Any changes? Anyone learn any new chords?
TJ: The band is great.  We have a rehearsal space set up in our house that some of us are sharing inHendersonville.  
We have a new bass player, Dean Moore, who Indy readers will be happy to know is a fellow Hoosier and IU grad that I have known for years and happened to be moving out to Nashville at the same time as we were.  Our last bass player, Frank, couldn’t do the move.  
Walker’s been playing some harmonica lately, and we’ve learned a ton of new chords from our producer.
ROB: Touring plans?   What is in the pipeline?
TJ: We’re doing weekends all based off of a Wednesday night residency in Nashville that we’re doing at the Basement, a great club underneath our friend Grimey’s New and Pre-loved Music.  We’ll be headlining clubs all around.  Once the record comes out we’ll be doing a nationwide tour in the fall.
ROB: How did the new songs come together?  
TJ:  With a lot of love and patience – same as always.  Somebody will bring in a part of a verse and a chorus or even a whole finished song and we’ll try and make it the best it can be.  Sometimes that means a lot of changes.  Sometimes that means doing nothing.
ROB: How did the band’s move to Nashville that come about?
TJ: We had been talking about it for years.  Walker’s (singer/keyboards) from Atlanta, (guitarist) Scotty’s from New Orleans, (organ player) Adam’s from Tupelo, MS.  (Drummer) Smitty is from Southern Ohio, so this is closer to home for all of us.  Los Angeles will always have a piece of our heart and hopefully we left a decent mark on it as well.
 To be able to play more where our fans are and not have to crisscross the country so often is a big bonus.  And rent is a helluva lot cheaper here.
———————
MOKB Present: Truth & Salvage Co. w/ Pravada, Bonesetters Friday May 4, 2012. Deluxe at Old National Centre … Doors 7 PM / Show 8 PM $12 Advance / $15 dos

Back Road Radio Show keeps Americana alive

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A story I wrote that originally appeared in NUVO Newsweekly in March, 2012
While the reputation of radio as a place where cool lives (recalled in the days and nights chronicled in the recent Naptown Radio Wars film), has mostly evaporated, there are a select few remaining radio stations – or in many cases, just individual shows – that still give the thrill of discovering new music and hearing stuff others stations won’t play.
In a series on the best of commercial, community and non-commercial radio stations worth a repeated listen, The Back Roads Radio Show, brought to life by the team of Andrew Funke and “Deacon” Tim Plunkett, is one of the regularly thoughtful and rocking programs heard locally.  The pair, who started the show in 2009, focuses on an alt-country/roots-rock/Americana mix, on the eclectic-to-a-faultIndianapolisstation WITT (91.9FM).
Funke hosts the shows.  Plunkett twists the dials to make it sound good.  They started with interview and music from local and regional musicians, and have branched out to grab a few national artists.  
The show recently added a second radio station, and has garnered a healthy fan base via the web for the archived shows. It’s a keenly produced, sonically crisp program – a trait not always found on shows that air on small, community-based stations in the middle of anywhere.  
NUVO: What did you envision for the show when you were starting out?  Long term or just a thing that would be fun to try?
TIM PLUNKETT: The latter. The show was actually the brainchild of Scott “Cootie” Crabtree, a great localAmericanamusician and good friend of ours. In the beginning we helped him build and record the show, but he had to back out after the first month due to personal reasons. We enjoyed doing the show so much we decided to keep it going. We just did what felt right and waited to see what happened. Our goals were pretty altruistic: have fun, make the show as kick ass as possible both sonically and content-wise, help out artists whose music we enjoy, and let the show take us where it leads us. 
NUVO: You air a couple radio stations, but also have built a web audience.
TP: We did put some thought into whether we wanted to be on radio only or Web only, and decided on both. There’s something indefinably cool about hearing your show over the airwaves while driving down the highway, but the Web presence let’s us reach an audience globally, which is amazing in its own way.
NUVO: How has the show been received by artists? Any challenges in interviewing a wide range of musicians – some who may be new to being interviewed
ANDREW FUNKE- I think we agree that everyone we’ve interviewed has done a great job. Some have more experience at it than others, but if you’re a performing artist on our show, you’ve likely spent countless hours of your life baring your soul on stage in front of complete strangers, so talking one-on-one is usually easy. An interview can make someone nervous, so we try really hard to make it a casual, comfortable conversation, to the point the artist forgets it’s actually an interview. Once we get it into that mode, the guests open up and the whole discussion takes on a life of its own.
NUVO: Are there artists that you think are ready to get more well-known, even if it is regionally instead of locally?
TP: Absolutely.  Pokey LaFarge, DeeAnn Dominy, The Tillers, Cari Ray, Linda Lee, Will Scott, our friends Riely O’Connor and Molly B Moon from South Bend.  
NUVO: Who have been some other favorites?
TP:Stockwell Road, Cootie Crabtree, Jethro Easyfields, Uncle John Potthast, Venetia Sekema, Gamblin’ Christmas, The Shelby County Sinners. Hell, we love all the artists we have on the show and we aren’t being diplomatic when we say that. It’s one of the criteria for being a guest – we have to dig your music.
NUVO: What is your music background? Why is it a good team? How do you guys work together? 
AF: I grew up on a steady diet of classic rock from the 60’s and 70’s. As a kid, my parents listened to country and I hated it with a passion – I couldn’t be in the same room when Hee Haw was on. Oddly, as I got older, country andAmericanastarted to become the only real, viable direction for me, and I found myself loving the very songs I detested years before. I still like rock and all other sorts of music from metal to a little hip-hop, but Americana is where it’s at for me these days. And yes, I now love watching Hee Haw, especially the early years.
TP:  I grew up listening to The Beatles and pretty much everything else but country. When I was in high school I asked my parents for an 8-track digital recorder so I could record music with my friends. I started listening to all types of music after that, with special interest in the ways that older music was recorded. Back in the 40’s and 50’s, they didn’t have special recording equipment purchased atGuitarCenter. It was all made using microphones, analog tape, and cutting lathes. Without knowing it, after researching old recording technology, I’d grown to love the music that was recorded with it and that started my love ofAmericanaand Roots music.
NUVO: The show sounds so good. Where is the studio?
TP: This is one of my favorite questions. I notice that nearly everyone assumes the show is recorded in some extravagant studio with thousands of dollars of recording equipment. The show has always been recorded in my home studio – a small, sound-proofed spare bedroom we call our “Studio Bunker”. The key to getting a great recording is to have great equipment and a controllable recording environment. Some of the best recordings ever done were recorded in spaces smaller than ours. When artists come in to the studio they’re usually surprised at the comfort of the small room and I think the fact that it’s a bedroom and not a large fancy studio adds to the comfort level of the artist. It makes the interview feel that much more laid back.
AF: I think Tim and I are a good team because we each have our primary roles – I’m the host and he’s the producer. There’s also no ego involved with what we do. If Tim has an idea for me as host, I’ll listen to it and often times go with it. Vice-versa for the production work he oversees. It doesn’t hurt that he and I have been playing as a rhythm section  – Tim on drums, me on bass –  for almost a decade now. We’ve worked with each other so much at this point, we just know what the other guy’s gonna do.
NUVO: Who has been a great supporter of the show, helping it stay alive?  Or has it been you two alone?
TP: In terms of creating the show itself, it’s been just us since almost the very beginning. However, we couldn’t be on the air if not for some very kind underwriters, especially Locals Only. They’ve been with us from the start, and we’d have folded long ago without their support. Our stations, WITT and WRGF, have also been great to work with. They’ve been instrumental in helping us navigate the rules and regulations of community radio, yet have been flexible enough to let us create the show exactly the way we want to. 
NUVO: What’s your take on Indiana and Indianapolis Americana music?  
TP: Overall, the original music scene both in the state and in Indy is relatively small when compared to some other places, and theAmericanascene is only a fraction of that. That being said, there’s some incredible music being made from South Bend to Indy toMadison- you just have to dig for it. It’s really no different than the nature of Indiana itself. Most outsiders see it as boring, and it certainly can be if you don’t try, but snoop around a little bit and you’ll be amazed by what you find.
It could be better, though, and what it needs is for more folks to support artists making original music and the venues that feature them. In a city that’s trying so hard to become more cosmopolitan and international, it’s a shame to see great artists playing to empty rooms all the time. We’ve seen bands with albums in the top 20 of the Americana chart play to two people on a Saturday night in Broad Ripple. That needs to change. We like to think we’re making a small impact with our show, but it’s only one outlet and we need a lot more help if things are going to improve.
NUVO: Where would you like to see the show go? How might it evolve.
TP: More regional and national acts live on the show, though keeping a local focus is still critically important, too. We’d also like to see the show get picked up by stations all around the country, like some kind of community radioAmericanaempire. We’ve also discussed promotingAmericanashows around town, bringing in a regional or national act with a local act or two to open. The one thing that won’t change is we’ll stay true to what we’ve been doing since we started – playing great music by great artists for great fans.

Indiana Music: Whoa!Tiger – "Rollout"

by
Whoa!Tiger
Rollout
On Whoa!Tiger’s new album, Rollout, the four-piece rock band from Indianapolis succeeds when they embrace their inner ’70s rock band tendencies, and write lyrics more cinematic than universal. The record wins with flashes of detailed lyrics and gutsy rock and roll, and slips only when jam band tendencies weigh down the later half of the record.
The opener, “The Rollout,” blends Memphis soul with The Allman Brothers or early Seger.
The best cuts include ” I Can Live With It,” with Shelby Jones on guest vocals, lending a soulful female sexiness to the recording. “Touch of Bad” incorporates ZZ Top Texas blues with country talk-singing. “Moment of Silence” fades in like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling,” and the song hits the an album-wide theme of overcoming doubts with resiliency. And I’m a sucker for any song that talks of “Grandma singing a favorite hymn” and “seeing rainbows in the bubbles the kids blow.” This is one of the best songs on the album.
Grateful Dead guitar lines are interspersed throughout the record, with welcome touches of piano and crunchy guitars. Rollout is crisply recorded, cut mostly at with Ryan Adkins at Azmyth Studios in Indianapolis. Adkins has shown an ability to make no-frills rock records with local bands for years, and this release has his engineering touch of distinct instrument separation and a loose but produced feel. Jack Barkley and Jon Knight’s guitars blend smartly, turned up in the mix.
Other good stuff includes “The Window,” a piano rock tune; it’s a melancholy piece of Marc Cohn-sounding blues, with fitful stops and starts.
The back end of the record isn’t as strong, with “What Do You Say” falling flat as a poor man’s Duke Tumatoe rehash. “Kick Me Down” is rescued by a nifty guitar solo and lyrics that paint pictures in your head of girls in pony tails and borrowed cigarettes. “Pawn on the Run” is jazz rock with smoky guitar solos.
“Long Road to Reason”, however, brings back the piano and anthemic Elton John chords. It’s nicely done by the band..
The album will prove itself a winner with Why Store/pre-Hi Infidelity REO/early Journey/Grateful Dead audience. Rollout has a distinctly old soul, embracing a ’70s sound updated with more modern influences.
Whoa!Tiger feels like a band that could take a dark club and a beer-lubricated live crowd someplace higher. The album harnesses the potential of that live vibe and provides a set of songs to take on stage and turn up.