Tag: Flathead Lake Blues Festival

Categories
Artists Worth Checking Out Monday Mashup Women in Entertainment

Monday mashup 2018: vol. 29

Happy Pearl Jam day!  Will be working the concert at the University of Montana Washington Grizzly Stadium all day, so should be interesting.  We have news today, along with five new singles and music videos, so let’s get going.

FLATHEAD LAKE BLUES FESTIVAL RETURNS TO POLSON

Last year we attended the Flathead Lake Blues Festival and presented the LA Music Critic Award for Best Blues Band to Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method.  This year we’re unable to attend, but didn’t want you to miss out on all the fun.

Here are the details:  The campground next to the venue at the Regatta Shoreline Amphitheater opens Wednesday night, August 15, and is FREE for the entire weekend.   The venue gates open at 4 p.m. on Friday, August 17, and the music begins at 6 p.m.  The venue gates reopen for Saturday’s performance at 2 p.m. with music beginning at 4 p.m.  The host for the weekend is Steve Pickel from Anderson Radio Broadcasting.   Friday’s show is the Montana Musician Review, featuring one of last year’s performers, Jameson and the Sordid Seed, as well as John Kelly and the Atomic Blues Band, Andrew Scotchie and the River Rats, Big Daddy and the Blue Notes, with the Flathead All Star Band, and the CD Woodbury Trio.  The night ends with a Grand Jam involving all of the day’s artists.  Saturday is the Pacific Northwest All Stars and will feature 19 of the finest blues musicians from five states, including seven competitors of the International Blues Challenge.

RACHEL SAGE WANTS YOU FOR HER NEXT MUSIC VIDEO

Last week we were privileged to review the latest album from indie artist Rachel Sage.  Here’s her personal request to be a part of the music video for her new single, “Spark.”

I’m so excited to share my upcoming project with you, & I’d be honored to have as many of you involved as possible. I want YOU to be in my next music video for my song “Spark”!

“Spark” is about passion in all its many forms — love, creativity, friendship etc. so I’d be thrilled to include footage of you doing something you’re passionate about or even a video of you with the people you love! Example ideas could include: dancing, singing, rollerskating, painting, taking a walk by beautiful scenery, or just jamming out. Here’s what you need to do:

  • Grab your phone (PLEASE SHOOT HORIZONTALLY), DSLR camera, or GoPro
  • Shoot a 30-60 second clip
  • Submit your clip using THIS FORM

You can stream (or if you’d rather, download) the track, & read the lyrics below to get inspired.

ALL ENTRIES will receive a special prize package for participating, and those whose videos are selected will be credited at the end of the video & featured on my socials (so be sure to include your social links when submitting).

VIDEO REQUIREMENTS

Clip Length: 30-60 seconds
Max File Size: 300 MB
File Format: .mov, .avi, or .mp4
please shoot in HD if possible

DEADLINE: 11:59 PM EDT AUGUST 27, 2018

So go ahead and show me your “Spark”! I hope you will join me for this project, & I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with xoxo!!

Ready to send us your footage?
Fill out this release form to give us your info & upload your file.
We prefer to receive your file via Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box.

Questions? Problems uploading? Contact us!

NEW SINGLES

Our first single this week, “Where You Are,” is a sweet upbeat song from Christine Parker, which should get your new week off to a great start.  We simply love her sweet voice and the sentiments of the song.  Enjoy!

Next up is an artist who has graced our blog on numerous occasions.  Here is the latest single from Kanisha K, who reminds us that “Talk is Cheap.”  We love the banjo and the country pop feel of this song.

Our third single comes from Texas-born and current Los Angeles based artist Kim Kline.  We are so glad to see her back in action, and truly dig her song, “Stand Tall.”  We think she’ll make a believer of you as well.

Our fourth single this week is from County Line Runner, and we think you’ll love it if you’re a Tom Petty fan.  Check out “Hard to Find,” and let us know what  you think.

Our final single this week has a retro sound that we like.  Here’s “Daddy’s Girl (PR)” from Catey Shaw.

NEW MUSIC VIDEOS

Our first music video this week is from an artist we introduced last week.  We think Honey River has all the makings of a major star, and their debut single, “Peace, Love,” could be the breakout they are looking for.  We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Next up is PSA from No Small Children, who let us know about the problems in our schools with their song, “I’m So Concerned.”  Each of the members of the band is a school teacher, and this song is very personal to them.  We love the message and support the band in their efforts to improve our educational system.

Last week we reviewed their album, and now we get to share their first music video for “Tools of War.”  Here is Fellow Robot, with a warning of their own.

Our fourth video this week comes from Night on the first anniversary of the disaster in Charlottesville.  It is a powerful protest song, and so timely.  Please let us know what you think.

Our final video this week is from Project BWQ.  It is a stirring video for their single “Phosphene,” and we think it will help set the tone for your week.  Enjoy and we’ll see you soon with another edition of Get it or Forget it.

Categories
Artists Worth Checking Out LA Music Critic Awards Reviews Women in Entertainment

2017 Flathead Lake Blues Festival (day 2) – live performance review

Hope you enjoyed our reviews of day 1 of the Flathead Lake Blues and Music Festival, which featured some of Montana’a best musicians.  The theme for day 2 was “Ladies of the Blues,” and Steve Pickel pulled out all the stops to bring four of the finest and brightest to light up the stage.

First up was Missoula native Andrea Harsell with her new band, Luna Roja.  Harsell has become a Missoula icon with her sound, primarily as a solo artist.  She began hiring drummer Antonio Alvarez and guitarist Nick Hamburg for her gigs, and then asked them to join her as a band.  They hired bassist Michael Rhead to complete the band, and Alvarez came up with the name Luna Roja (Red Moon) because of his Spanish heritage.  They also recorded an album, which will be celebrated with a show at the Top Hat on September 15.  The album will also be reviewed shortly on this blog’s Get it or Forget it series.  Their sound is a mixture of Americana, rock, R&B and blues.  Harsell has a voice akin to Janis Joplin, and it showed on many of their songs, including new tunes “Oh Boy” and “Hard Times,” as well as on their cover of the Sam Cook classic “Bring it on Home to Me.”  The only thing missing was the stage banter, but we are sure that will come as they continue to grow as a band.

Next up was the power-packed sound of Seattle’s Michelle Taylor Band.  If Harsell had the sound of Joplin, then Taylor is the reincarnation.  With her band composed of Robert Morrill on drums, Lissa Ramaglia on bass, Jim Barnes on keys and vocals and her husband, Justin Dean on guitar and vocals, the MTB truly brought the blues home to Polson.  With a mixture of original tunes like “Black Lace” and “Trashy Queen,” and pop hits like Duffy’s “Mercy,” Elle King’s “Exes and Ohs,” Grace Potter’s “Paris” and “Medicine,” Bonnie Raitt’s “Angel From Montgomery,” Tracy Chapman’s “Give me a Reason,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitious,” MTB proved that any song can be stylized as blues.  But what really drove home their exceptional talent was their version of Ike and Tina Turner’s classic “Proud Mary,” which truly allowed Taylor to shine as both a singer and a performer, as she brought Tina’s unique energy to the show.  This performance was one of the pinnacles of the weekend.  Kudos also to both her husband and badass female bassist Ramaglia on their outstanding licks on guitar and bass.  The band also received the first encore of the Festival, and delivered a rousing version of Led Zeppelin’s “Been a Long Time” in response.

The third band for the day was Estelle and the Atomic Jive, who brought something entirely different to this day.  Atomic Jive is reminiscent of a combination of the Royal Crown Review and one of Brian Setzer’s various bands in that they bring an army of sound to the stage.  The band features Estelle on lead vocals, surrounding by the amazing talents of Mike Ruggles on guitar, Lee Cardella on bass, Brian Seagrave on keys, Bob Briley on drums and a horn section that is as powerful as the one from Tower of Power, composed of Russ Hoffer on sax and Mike Baker on trumpet.   Some of the highlights of the show were their version of the “Stray Cat Strut,” the classic jazz standard “Don’t Roll Your Bloodshot Eyes at Me,” Roy Head’s 1965 classic “Treat her Right,” and the theme from the Blues Brothers’ movies, “Peter Gunn.”  This was classic New Orleans jazz-tinged blues, and elevated the musical standard to a new level.

The final act for the weekend was another Seattle band, Polly O’Keary and the Rhythm Method.  We had the distinct pleasure of awarding them the Best Blues Band trophy for the LA Music Critic Awards for the first half of 2017.  O’Keary was totally taken by surprise, and the band joined in her gratitude for the award.  O’Keary is a red ball of energy, constantly dancing across the stage as she delivers true bad ass licks on her brand new wireless LedBelli Blackbird 6-string bass and vocals that stir the soul.  The band also includes the amazing David Miller on guitar and O’Keary’s husband, Tommy Cook, on drums.  The band performed primarily original material, many of which came from their latest album, Black Crow Callin.‘  Included in their amazing performance were “I Don’t Understand,” “Yours to Lose,” “Red Light,” “Wish You Could See me Now,” “Reconciled,” and “How the Mighty Fall,” which reminded this reviewer of “Mustang Sally.”   They also did a stirring rendition of Eric Bibb’s classic “In my Father’s House.”  Cook laid the perfect foundation on his drums, while Miller proved to be a true guitar aficionado, even playing the guitar behind his head at one point.  The band brought their set and the Festival to a close with an amazing encore with Michelle Taylor and Justin Dean of ZZ Top’s “Tush.”  It was the perfect cherry on top of a super delicious weekend of music.  Special thanks to Steve Pickel and Anderson Broadcasting for bringing these amazing artists to us.  We can hardly wait for next year!!!

 

Categories
Artists Worth Checking Out Reviews

2017 Flathead Lake Blues Festival (day 1 – part 2) – live performance review

Welcome back to the second half of our review of day 1 of the 2017 Flathead Lake Blues and Music Festival, held August 18-19 in beautiful Polson, Montana.

The first half segued into the second with a pair of special events.  First up was a drum solo that closed out the set of Off in the Woods and lasted for nearly 30 minutes.  As the drum solo closed out, we were blessed with the appearance of some Salish and Kootenai native dancers, who celebrated the beautiful night and great music with us.  It was a very inspiring time.

Following the native dance, the second half of the day kicked off with the unmistakable sound of the Kenny James Miller Band.  The band was a three-piece blues rock band that featured Heavy D on bass.  These cats came to play, and truly rocked it out on their original”Cup of Joe,” as well as a sterling cover of “Keep Ur Hands to Urself.”  In addition, they provided the perfect accompaniment for Festival organizer Steve Pickel to wail on “Some Kind of Wonderful.”

Next up was Big Daddy and the Blue Notes, featuring the incredible sound of Steve Kelley.  Kelley is a true Montana blues legend with more than 40 years of performing.  He is also the founder of the Flathead Valley Blues Society.  His music is a mixture of blues, rock, zydeco and world genres, and has even earned a nickname for his style – Blusion.    Besides their renditions of classic blues standards they managed to perform three of their own new songs.

The next to last band to take the stage was Jameson and the Sordid Seeds, who have become quite the legend in Whitefish, Montana. Composed of Brent Jameson on lead guitar and vocals, Sean Cooksey on bass, Joshua Glass on drums and Danny Rifkin on keys, they are a traditional blues band who throw in a little rock for good measure, and stole the show with amazing covers of Paul Simon, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown.  Despite the late hour, they kept the energy up for the closing band, who didn’t take the stage until after midnight.

Le

Last but certainly not least was Mudslide Charley, a traditional “dirty” blues band with the sound of Delta blues, fronted by the one and only Lee Rizzo on washboard, guitar and lead vocals,  Marco Littig on slide and vocals, Phil Hamilton on harmonica, percussion, saxophone and vocals, Roger Moquin on drums, percussion and vocals and Tahj Kjelland on bass and vocals.  They brought their “A” game and kept the party going until after 1:30 a.m.  One of the most dynamic things about this band is watching the chemistry fly between the members, but especially between Rizzo and Kjelland.  Needless to say, nobody wanted to party to stop.  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day of music.

Courtesy of Mudslide Charley’s Facebook page
Categories
Artists Worth Checking Out LA Music Critic Awards Reviews Women in Entertainment

2017 Flathead Lake Blues Festival (day 1 – part 1) – live performance review

We love discovering new bands, and this year’s Flathead Lake Blues Festival proved the perfect location for doing just that.  We were unaware of this amazing festival, and discovered it by accident.  One of the bands slated to play on day 2 of the Festival was the winner of the Best Blues Band category in the LA Music Critic Awards for the first half of 2017.  We had earlier decided to present certificates to all the award winners, and we thought it would be a great idea to present it to the band in front of a crowd.  We contacted Steve Pickel of Anderson Broadcasting, the organizer of the Festival, and he was ecstatic about it.  He invited us to come up and be VIPs for the entire weekend.  Thank you Steve!!!

The first day of the Festival was subtitled “Montana Musicians Review,” and featured 10 Montana bands over a six hour period – very ambitious, but somehow it all came together and only ran about an hour and a half over the schedule.  This review will cover the first five bands to perform, while part 2 will cover the remaining five bands and the special events.

The first artist to take the stage was Missoula’s Andre Floyd and Mood Iguana.  Floyd is an amazing original blues artist who shares his craft throughout Western Montana.  His band included the prolific Dave Griffith on guitar, organ and keys, Ron Reeves on bass and Don Caverly on drums.  Griffith also lent his talents to several other bands throughout the day.  Floyd’s sound is progressive roots-based blues and he brought his best to this performance.  We especially loved his jazzy rendition of the classic song “Our Day Will Come.”  You can catch him playing the Draught Works Brewery stage later this month.

Next up was the Mike Murray Band, who took the music up a notch with their seriously funky style.  Composed of Murray on lead guitar and vocals, Christopher Krager on bass and backing vocals, Marco Forcone on drums and Ryan Wickland on keys, pedal steel and guitar, they joined awesome vocals with some amazing guitar riffs to bring the funk to the Festival.  This is a band that we could see everyday, and never get enough.  They closed their set with a blues number that showed off the funky keys and guitar, and firmly established themselves as a force of music.

The first female-fronted band was next in the person of Halladay Quist, a multi-instrumentalist who completely  wowed the crowd with her stage antics and her incredible mastery of guitar, banjo and electric stand-up bass.  The daughter of musician and would-be politician Rob Quist, Halladay is a ball of energy that never stopped her entire set.  She was joined on stage by her father on acoustic guitar, as well as Dave Griffin on keys and sax, Leif Christian on electric guitar and Bally Lopez on drums  Halladay’s vocals are truly beautiful, and she shares them on music that ranged from country blues to bluegrass to classic rock, including a stunning cover of Jefferson Airplane’s mega-hit “Don’t You Want Somebody to Love.”  One of the highlights of the set was watching her father grin from ear to ear at the talents of his daughter.  Halladay has just released an album that will be reviewed shortly on this blog.  Prepare to be blown away.  She performed several of the new songs during her set, of which we really loved “Let it Burn,” especially in light of our Montana fire season this year.

Leif Christian didn’t have far to go when he finished playing with Halladay, as his band, Ticket Sauce, was the next on the stage.   Joining with his long-time bassist Nathan Talley and substitute drummer, Collin Scott, the Sauce brought it all together with their healthy blend of rock, funk, blues and soul, with a special topping of cool.  They are a party band, and are guaranteed to get any gathering off to a jamming start.  They were especially incredible on their covers of Jimi Hendrix’s “Isabella” and Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”  They also write some great jams, including “Alone.”  They closed their set out the way they began, funky to the end.

The fifth band to take the stage, and the last one we will cover in part 1 of this review, was Off in the Woods, a dynamic six piece band composed of Jon Schumaker on guitar, Layne McKay on saxophone and guitar, Kyle Daugherty on trombone, Kia Abibzadeh on keys, Kai Salmonson on bass and Nathan Noble on drums.   This band is a true local icon, as their members come from Polson, home of the Festival.  They have a very funky jam band sound, with a touch of reggae.  Some of their best songs included “Blue,” “Early Summer Rain,” and “The River.  The band will have a new album out in the near future.

We’ll be back soon with part 2 of this review, followed by our review of day 2.