Brandon Whyde was born underground. The doctor raised him straight from the dirt. When his mother held him in her arms he got mud all over her shirt. He's killed men in his dreams. He loves Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" but prefers Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." His father sang better than Elvis. Brandon Whyde is an organizational noise-maker.
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One could say that Rachele Eve’s songwriting began with a broken leg. After an unfortunate sports injury had her bedridden for two weeks, Rachele picked up the guitar for the first time and has since not put it down. At age 17, Eve joined local Detroit rock band Avenue playing numerous stages in the Detroit-area. The band was featured on the nationally syndicated Mitch Albom Show and Fox 2 Morning News. Soon after the band released their Answer My Call EP in 2004, Eve decided to pursue a solo career, in which she independently released her first EP, Wishful Thinking, in 2005. She gained a following at Birmingham Michigan’s The Blue Martini, as well as performed in Washington D.C. at the Angels in Adoption Gala hosted by the Congressional Coalition of Adoption Institute, with other performers such as DMC from the influential Hip Hop group Run DMC.
Attracted to Chicago’s diverse music scene she set out for the windy city a year later with a hope-filled bag. On the search for a much more intimate yet driving sound, it was not even a month until she met her partner, Nikolai Giefer, a drummer and producer that relocated to Chicago after Hurricane Katrina. The two released Winchester Sessions, a collection of six new compositions, later to be revised under the name Joys and Toys. Unlike other duos, the balance of Rachele Eve’s organic lyrical and vocal expression and Nikolai’s adept syncopation made for a symbiotic relationship, both innate and unprecedented.
In October of 2007, Giefer introduced Eve to his former professor and record producer John Snyder, a veteran in jazz recording (Cecil Taylor, Miles Davis, Etta James) and founder of Artists House Music Foundation. A couple months after Snyder’s visit to Chicago, he invited Eve down to Louisiana to record. After months of seeking out local musicians and fundraising for the album, Rachele Eve, Nikolai Giefer, and multi-instrumentalist Packy Lundholm ventured down to Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana in July 2008. The three of them cranked out fourteen songs in four days, making up Rachele Eve’s first full-length album.
Entitled Mouth of Feathers, Eve’s coins the music as “desert rock,” a place where she gained much of her vision for the record. The distinct and unabridged instrumentation rivals between a modern and vintage soundscape, colored with distorted guitars, toy piano, accordion, Wurlitzer, Hammond B-3 organ, clarinet, and cello. All behind her seamless whisper-to-wail vocal inflections, the lyrical component of Mouth of Feathers illustrates more abstractly Eve’s personal journey through being her own worst critic, finding a new love, and trying to make sense of society’s strange antics. Rachele Eve’s influences that are especially prominent on Mouth of Feathers include: Fiona Apple, Feist, Jon Brion, Regina Spektor, and Bob Dylan.
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RacheleEve.com | Videos | Facebook | Twitter | Myspace | Bandcamp
Landon Keller is a third generation musician with a captivating and unique songwriting style. In 2007 he and his band independently released their debut album “Curiosity”, just a few months later, he was already ranked atop official Myspace and Reverb Nation polls in both Folk Rock and Soul.
Landon and his band just finished their sophomore album entitled “Impact” due out later this spring. Landon Keller has shared the stage with amazing artists, such as Brandon Whyde, Nick Shaheen, Rachel Eve, Ty Maxon, Claire Stahlecker, and Jonah Malarsky.
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LandonKeller.com | Videos | Facebook | Myspace | Twitter | ReverbNation
Bob Stamper is a folk, blues and country songwriter. He works as an independent artist and musician. He was born in Virginia, raised in Ohio and has lived in Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, California and currently resides in Indianapolis, Indiana. His songs are diverse and broad, yet all maintain a roots feel. His sound is earthy and honest, and at times reminiscent of his heroes Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash. Stamper toured extensively with fellow Indianapolis based artist and friend Jon McLaughlin throughout 2008/2009, and is currently a guitar player in McLaughlin's band.
"Bob Stamper carves a unique niche into the post-post modern music scene. What set's him apart from other neo-folk/alt-country artists, is his ability to juxtapose moods within a song. His stories portray intriguing characters and engage the listener in discussions between the music itself, and the lyrics . . . this is interesting music." -Joshua Ratliff, The Republic
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You may hear familiar elements in newcomer Claire Stahlecker’s music, but it doesn’t take long to realize the music is hers alone. The Chicago singer and songwriter’s audience is growing quickly as she hits a sweet spot with her soul-infused urban folk tales of life and love.
Beginning with a thoughtful acoustic guitar canvas, Claire writes and delivers her songs like a seasoned old soul, embodying the spirit of classic blues and jazz artists while incorporating the influence of contemporaries like India Arie, Sara Bareilles and Dave Barnes.
At age 23 she may still have a lot to learn, but there’s a confidence—and irreverence—that radiates from the young woman and her songs that leaves you convinced she’s lived and learned from a few lifetimes already.
As a child growing up on the North Side of Chicago, she loved the freedom and diversity of the big city. However, at age 15 her life changed drastically when her parents moved her to a remote suburb and enrolled her in a private Catholic high school. The summer before her freshman year she found herself twiddling her thumbs in boredom. “With no friends, no drivers license and no job I figured I might as well spend my time doing something productive.” So she dusted off the electric guitar abandoned in her closet since sixth grade and begged her parents to pay for lessons.
“I took lessons for two years without singing a peep until words starting forming on my lips and melodies began dancing through my head,” she says. She began writing songs vigorously, but remained self-conscious about her voice, refusing to sing for anyone “…except Franklin, Mary, Pepé and Louis, otherwise known as the four walls of my bedroom!” After some encouragement from her mentor and guitar instructor Roger Adler, Claire was finally convinced to sign up for a high school talent show her junior year. “I played a song called ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath.’ When I heard the roar of applause afterward I knew there was no turning back.”
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ClaireStahlecker.com | Videos | Facebook | Myspace | Twitter | YouTube
Nick Shaheen is a singin', songwritin', guitar strummin', harmonica blowin', piano playin' good time from Chicago by way of Detroit. Recently, he's been playing solo and full-band shows around town while recording his debut album to be released this summer.
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Jonah Malarsky was born on the eastern end of new york but calls the colors, winds, and landmarks of the vast midwest his natural home. growing up and moving sideways along the beltway of illinoisindianaohio has filled Jonah's mind with antennae towers and flatland canvases that wait to be populated by the melodies and harmonies of the real, the irrational, the imaginary and the largely unknown. He is the frontman of the Chicago outfit, Fire Chief Charlie, whose first record "Town" will be released in the spring or summer of the new year.
Links
JonahBenjamin.blogspot.com | Videos | Facebook | Myspace | Bandcamp
