A Listening Party

This past weekend the local record label that Ryan works tirelessly on, Sewn Together Records, had their first listening party. This party was in honor of their first physical release, You Are Here, that is officially released today. Did you catch all those firsts? It was a big weekend for the STR boys and I was so happy to be a part of it. I thought it would be fun to share a few photos from this intimate gathering, and boast about my amazing husband's achievements. He's pretty incredible if you ask me.

STR is a joint venture that Ryan works on with his friends Austin and Shaun (pictured below). Austin is the President and founder, while Shaun works on the PR and Marketing for the label. Ryan's main role is as the business officer (his degree is in music business), and I've been beyond impressed with his immense knowledge and expertise in this area. In addition to being behind the scenes in producing this record, Ryan also mastered all of the music for the vinyl, and has a track on the release. He's kind of an over achiever.

For those of you who may not know what a listening party is; it's basically a chance for everybody involved with making the record to party. They all come together, and celebrate all their hard work, while listening to the album completely through from start to finish. It's a pretty cool thing to hear everyone's response to it for the first time. You Are Here is unique in the fact that it's a compilation album of local bands, covering local bands. So basically the party was a giant thank you to the music scene in Roanoke. I'm excited for physical release number two now! big kiss, bekuh

PS- It's the last day to enter the Holly Mame Giveaway! Enter for your chance to win any two pieces of Jewelry.

Ryan's in a Country Band

No you're not dreaming, and no he's not on drugs Ryan is actually in a classic country band, and their first show is on June 1st, aka Friday night! In honor of this new venture I thought I'd share some of the band photos I took a couple of weekends ago for Sammy Suede and the Strays.

Both images Sam (lead vocals)

I'm pretty excited to see what exactly Ryan's been up to on Wednesday nights with this crazy bunch and if you're in the roanoke area you have got to come out and see them play. They'll be playing at the Coffeepot and you townies will know where I mean. If you can't make the show don't worry I'll keep you posted in the weeks to come as they really get the band going. 

The Band (L to R): Ryan (rhythm guitar), Paul (drums), Sam (vocals/guitar), John(lead guitar), Scott (bass)

For those of you who are curious here's the story behind the name. The lead singer is Sam (center) and he had a pair of suede boots and a suede jacket, and so he decided to be Sammy Suede. Then there was that motley crew in the back and they needed a name too so they basically played around with "S" names until they landed on Stingers and Strays. They finally decided on the Strays, and by the looks of them that's a perfect name. Silly, but they really are a serious group of musicians and the music is going to be great. big kiss, bekuh

PS- Ryan is still working with On the Cooling Board (mentioned here) and he's actually going to be one of the opening acts on June 1st. He's a busy man.

On the Cooling Board

My fabulously talented husband played out as On the Cooling Board for the first time in a loooong time recently. It was so much fun seeing him play and he had a few new tricks up his sleeve that were awesome to listen to and watch. He's so dreamy (hehe).

He played at this dive of a bar in Vinton, VA called the Horseshoe alongside Another Roadside Attraction and The Bloodroots Barter. It was a raucous night of music, friends, and people watching.

Our good friend Ben R. Williams introduced Ryan to the crowd in a sea-captain-worthy manner and it definitely set the tone for the performance. Ryan's lyrics are a continually morphing thing, in true blues fashion, so every show brings something new and exciting for the listener. His song "Eyeball Soup," is always a favorite.

This was the first bar show Ryan's played as On the Cooling Board, though he's played non-bar venues before. He really thrives in a large setting like this and as his set went along his personality really shone through. He never plays his music for me one-on-one so I got to hear new songs for the first time along with everyone else that night. I like surprises.

Take a listen to Ryan's most popular song as OTCB, Destroyer, and have a great day!  big kiss, bekuh 

Ryan's Song to Me

In honor of Valentines Day being this past Tuesday I thought I'd share a song that Ryan wrote for me right before we got married in October. Ryan is an amazing musician and I love his new project On the Cooling Board, a one man band heavily influenced by pre-war blues and early alternative. I'm so proud of all the work he's been putting into this project and he will have a new album out this Spring!

I've hesitated sharing this on the blog earlier purely because the thought of someone writing a song about me terrified the ever living day lights out of me and made me extremely uncomfortable. I was mortified the first time he sang this in front of our friends because of the attention that I was receiving. But now I listen to it secretly when he's not home and love the work he put into this super special surprise for me. Heart really captures those first confusing moments in our relationship where our three year friendship suddenly felt like something more. We've both been broken but now that we're together all of that heartache makes sense because without it we wouldn't know how good we've got it now. So listen up.

You can download this and other On the Cooling Board songs for FREE at Sewn Together Records the record label that Ryan and our two good friends Austin, and Sean have been tirelessly working on to offer great Roanoke music to the masses without the record store prices. You owe it to yourself to check them out. big kiss, bekuh

The Outdoor Circus

Recently while I was home and we had an Outdoor Circus, just the name makes it sound like the best time ever. The festival highlighted some pretty awesome outdoor gear and demonstrations for people interested in all the wild, wonderful, outdoors that surround our region. Along with all the outdoor goodies they had music. Ryan and a group of his Music Lab students planned and ran sound for all of the acts involved in the festival. Everything got kicked off on Friday and went through until Sunday afternoon.

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun and Ryan was incredible. He worked so hard to put a good show together and it came off so well! His brother played in the afternoon and sounded great with his new band; and our good friends from Greensboro, the Old One Two were the mainliners. Of course I bought a t-shirt and kept warm with copious amounts of hot tea. big kiss, bekuh

Floyd Fest X: The Final Shots

It's only been a week since FloydFest but already I'm feeling nostalgic about my experiences there. Just means I'll be more excited for next year as the dates approach for early ticket purchase! Here are some final pictures for you to oogle and I'm pretty pleased with the way all the photos from this year turned out. They may not be plentiful but they're quality.

If you went to FloydFest X or any FloydFest ever I'd love to hear about your experiences. Write me an email or post a comment below!

Coming up...food and wedding stuff. big kiss, bekuh

The Klean Canteen

Floyd Fest started a brand spanking-new tradition this year that got me all excited for more! Instead of serving beer in plastic cups they sold klean kanteen stainless steal cups that you purchased from the start. For $6 you got a FloydFest X cup with logo and it doubled as a souvenir, pretty groovy right? Some people were pretty upset about this development but I thought it was genius, and it definitely cut down on the litter Saturday night which can be a little overwhelming.



I'm hoping we can reuse the cups next year and keep the klean tradition alive. I'd like to see it extend even to the vendors who sell lemonade, juice and smoothies (they were still allowed to give biodegradable plastic cups). This year's festival was so hot the Beer Garden was almost filled to capacity the entire time and the new water filtration system definitely got broken in by the swarms of people trying to hydrate. Tomorrow will be the final hurrah for my FloydFest pictures, I still need to improve on my picture taking skills for next year. big kiss, bekuh

Festivus Ten

This year marked the tenth anniversary of Floyd Fest, and I'm super honored I got to be a part of the celebration. Floyd Fest, for those of you who don't know, is a four day musical experience filled with great sounds, delicious tastes, and dirty, dirty feet. They had a sweet little ceremony for the founders and such but let's get real I was there to get down in the sun and listen to the likes of Taj Mahal, Grace Potter, Robert Randolph (note: I fell asleep from too much fun before he started), and Old Crow Medicine Show. Here are a few stage shots and crowd pleasers to start the adventure off with.

The beautiful Dreaming Creek Stage is the highlight of the whole Festival and the headliners each night play here. I'm pretty sure this shot was during the Taj Mahal set, before the rain took over the skies.

A glorious example of what three days of camping does to your appendages. I don't know these people so I can't credit them; I thank them for their feet though.

The crowd was incredible. I love how you see people from every walk and background at festivals. Yuppies, Hippies, Hipsters, Preps and everyone in between are all welcomed with open arms here. Isn't this how life is supposed to be?

Taj Mahal doing his magic; he really got down to some Mississippi Blues. I learned a really cool historical note before he started, when the Rolling Stones first came to the US he was the one person they requested to see perfrom. I think that's pretty cool and tells you that this man is a true icon.

Tomorrow I'll talk a little about vendor food and the new water system they had this year. Love. big kiss, bekuh

Highlights on a Band

As promised I am going to post about Death Newman today. All of the images shot are in the same consignment shop from yesterday's post, Vintage Finds, and I love this store as a venue! The Bazaar moves all the clothes racks to the sides to make room for the audience, and turns the very back of the store into a stage for the bands. They host shows pretty frequently and I'm excited to show you one of my favorites, not only because my friends are in it. The only problem with this set up is there isn't really enough light to shoot high quality photographs without a flash and I do not like flash. So, I used the same vintage filters from yesterday on the photos today and voila vintagey consignment store show shots. Boy that's a mouth full.

Bentley's, aka Wrath Newman's, pedal board. This is one of my favorite shots from the whole night. I took this right before they cam up to start.

This picture captures a funny tick little that Ben, aka Randy Jr., has before each song. He clenches his hand and plays with his rings for a second before he begins singing. I noticed him doing this in their first show and I'm so happy I got a shot of it.

I know nothing about musical instruments or gear or anything so if you're expecting deep insight into the music end of this you won't find it here. I just wanted to share what some of my awesome friends are doing.

This maybe one of three pictures I got with every member of Death Newman in it. They were lined up perfect for this shot.

Ben decided to sit the end of one song out, I thought it was pretty neat and have several shots of this, more below. What a quaint picture Austin playing his heart out on the sax and Ben taking a rest.

Ryan, aka Newman's Own Newman, this may be his favorite band to play in ever. He hates missing practice and it doesn't matter how tired he is he always has energy to be around these guys. I love this about him.

Sam, aka Patio Newman, there's this one song they play "I Love LA," every time they play it Sam gets super into, as he should because his part is super intense.

I like the lighting in this show and enjoy that it highlights both the guitar and the man playing the guitar, Ryan.

Poor Katie got caught in between the most awkward turtle serenade every. Ben serenaded Jason with Randy Newman. I'm pretty sure that is the definition of awkward turtle as a matter of fact.

Another picture of Ben's little rest.

And another.

Normally the blurry pictures really bother me, I prefer actions caught in still but I like this. It shows of the sparkly curtain behind the guys as they play and the sparkly playing of Doug, aka boom Newman, on the drums. Also you can see Sam's guitar almost vibrating.

 

Their last song of the night, the only crowd participating song. We clapped. I'll be posting a few more pictures later that highlight the crowd and the awkward turtle serenade. Stay tuned. big kiss, bekuh