My First Record: Clay Jordan of PacificUV

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/22/2012

The first record I vividly remember having a profound affect on me was I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Everything from the cover – in which Jett defiantly stares the camera down and is dressed to the nines in a hot pink blazer – to the muscular power rock that was as catchy as it was rebellious – suggested a foreign world that was equal parts enchantment and menace. I wanted to know where these folks came from and why they were so angry?! I was not yet in my teen years, so the angst was more a curiosity to me than it was an emotion I could relate to.

But the minute the needle dropped onto the record and the opening power chords resounded, I was transported into a new, brighter world from which I never wanted to leave. Daily life seemed monochrome and dull in comparison.


Clay Jordan plays guitar in PacificUV, a a band from Athens, GA who have recently released their third album WEEKENDS on Mazarine Records.

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Nice Playlist, Brah: Long, Lonely Broken Winter Heart by Guy Capecelatro III

by Rachel Hurley Posted on 02/21/2012

Given that my new album’s titled North for the Winter, I thought it would be fun to make a playlist of some of my favorite sad, wintery songs. Click to Stream:

1. Carissa’s Weird “September Come Take This Heart Away”

Carissa’s Weird was a modern-day, indie-rock super-group like Cream or Journey but not like that at all. After disbanding the members went on to do their own thing as Band of Horses, S, Sera Cahoone and Grand Archives, but none of that will capture the raw, emotional beauty of their former incarnation. This song perfectly illustrates pining and loss and coldness.

Noteworthy line: “I hope that nothing will ever remind me of you.”

2. Julie Doiron “The Longest Winter”

Former Eric’s Trip member, Julie Doiron, has one of those voices you just want to crawl inside and take a nap. She’s made a bunch of records filled with songs that tug your heart from its cage, but this one has a particular resonance.

Noteworthy line: “There aren’t enough blankets without you here.”

3. Pedro the Lion “The Longest Winter”

This Longest Winter is a different Longest Winter than the previous one. It seems Winter can get long. Bazan’s craggy vocals perfectly capture some sad longing here.

Noteworthy line: “Will you spend your whole life in a studio apartment with a cat for a wife.”

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Pick Three with Mike TV of Get Set Go

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/21/2012

In choosing these, I elected to write about things that for me were both personally important but also fell firmly in the realm of the pop culture.  All three of these should be easy to digest for anyone but the most discriminating of tastes.   If, however, your tastes are so discriminating that you’re unable to appreciate them I shall certainly pray for you.  However, the god to whom I pray is Cthulhu, so let us hope He doesn’t answer.

1. Archer’s of Loaf – Icky Mettle

I know I’m not alone in doing this but when I listen to a record for the first time, that’s all I do.  I’ll put it on, sit on my couch, and just listen.  If it’s good, I’ll give it another couple spins, right there and then.  But when I first put on Icky Mettle, I didn’t even make it to my couch.  I listened to the whole record just hovering over my stereo.  And on the second listen I was jumping around my apartment like an agitated monkey.  I mean, what a brilliant album opener  ”Web In Front” is.   I won’t regale you with what about this song I loved.  And frankly, I’m not going to parse the album on a song by song basis. (Except to say that even the deep cuts are brilliant.)  Describing music in words for me is sorta like trying to paint with smells.  It’s just too tough.  Unless I’m allowed to really expound.  However, if you haven’t heard the record, I implore you to just pick it up and give it a spin. Or thirty.

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My First Record: Brian Palmieri of Canasta

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/20/2012

My earliest memories of music seem to be split into two categories. There was the standard fare, radio-friendly, adult-contemporary pop. You know, your Phil Collins, your Whitney Houston, your Hall and Oates, etc. Then there was the music of my home.

This was the music that filled the walls of my suburban Alabama home and kept my sister and me entertained as we eagerly awaited family dinners or as we sat attentively through epic listening sessions with our Dad. A former professional saxophonist, Dad introduced my sister and me to jazz, soul, funk, and R&B. He would talk us through countless albums, explaining what parts to listen for and shouting enthusiastically over albums he’d heard a million times. “Man, listen to that rhythm section! The time’s just dancing! You hear that, Bri?” or “Wayne Shorter couldn’t have been much more than 18. He’s playin’ his ass off!” he’d explain.

It was during these marathon listening sessions that I was first really moved by music and first began to understand what it meant to be a musician. It didn’t take long for me to decide that it was something I had to be a part of.

These are the first two records I was exposed to during my childhood that immediately blew my young mind.

The First Album: Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers: A Night In Tunisia

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Locals Only: Brandon Moses Crouch Listens to Cedric Burnside Project

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/20/2012

It was a cold night in Memphis just a few weeks back. I had no real expectations for the evening, only to meet a few friends for a drink or two, but as I was walking down the Highland Strip towards the bar, I heard something radiating out of Newby’s that I hadn’t heard in Memphis in quite some time.

It was something familiar, something I’d known since childhood. It was a sound that defined my adolescence, and the sound that continues to be a driving force as I grow musically and otherwise. Suddenly, my plans had changed and I found myself in the midst of an incredible event. This was more than a concert. It was therapy, it was a healing, but above all it was a homecoming. Strangers became family if only for a night, all of us together digging the sounds of a new kind of Hill Country Blues impeccably executed by Cedric Burnside Project.

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The Warm Up with Deering & Down

by Rachel Hurley Posted on 02/18/2012
The Warm up with Deering and Down [ 26:52 | 61.51 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (38)

Well, we just don’t get much more excited than when we get to see our old buddies Lahna and Rev, better known to the music world as Deering & Down. We’ve been listening to their smoky, rockabilly jams for years and have caught many late night sessions with them in hotel rooms in downtown Memphis during The Folk Alliance International.

We’ve been wanting to invite them down to Ardent to record for a while, but have been waiting on the perfect opportunity. Now, with the release of their new album Out There Somewhere and their CD release party tonight at The Hi-Tone, we’ve found the perfect excuse!

Check out our interview with them as we talk about Memphis, working with Willie Mitchell and living in a different time – then get gussied up and head out to see them tonight. It’s going to be quite a show!

As fate would have it, Canadian born chanteuse Lahna Deering found her way up North to Alaska, where she met and befriended rock and roll journeyman Rev Neil Down. The merging of Deering’s strong belt-it-out voice, and Down’s “left of center” guitar playing was just the beginning of their creative kinship. The last few years have found Deering and Down immersed in the muddy browns and Blues of Memphis and the Mighty Mississippi River. This, along with the occasional forays back to Alaska and Canada has allowed them to expand their experience while remaining in touch with their original roots where they had the whole Aurora Borealis palate to work with. Together their music fuses a smoky Memphis flavor cast in a glow of shimmering northern light.

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My First Record: Andrew Kelley Simons

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/17/2012

9th birthday.  1991.  I received possibly the greatest gift a boy could ask for – a $10 gift certificate to Strawberries, a now defunct record store chain.

Strawberries was quite alluring to me. I had two older sisters, who I worshipped, that shopped there from time to time. The closest one to our house was in a relatively rough neighborhood, so it was always interesting to visit; you never knew what you’d see.  We heard a rumor that someone got stabbed in the parking lot, and even though I was certainly no tough guy (my sisters used to put bows in my hair), it excited me greatly.

There were many juicy choices in the fall of 1991.  Nirvana’s Nevermind had just come out, but I can’t say I had my finger “on the pulse” in 3rd grade, so that wasn’t even a thought that crossed my mind.  Use Your Illusion 1 & 2  were just released, and I loved GNR!  Sadly, they had the notorious “Parental Advisory” sticker slapped on them, so I’d have to wait for my sisters to obtain a copy.  I thought about getting the “Don’t Cry” cassette single, which didn’t have a warning label, but I wanted the whole enchilada. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I had just heard something on the radio… something smooth as hell…

Cooleyhighharmony.  Yes.  Boyz II Men.  I was obsessed with B2M!

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Nice Playlist, Brah: NC Indie Bands We Rock Out To On The Road by Jon Lindsay

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/17/2012

It’s no secret that greater NC has one of the best music scenes anywhere. It’s also not much of a secret that I’m a sucker for super-fanning my pals from around these parts, getting deeply lost in the genius of their eclectic work, and yes – being that loud, well-meaning asshole in the front row pounding on the monitor to the back beat and singing along at the top of my lungs at the shows we play together, or that I make it out to attend. It’s always deeply comforting for me to have their familiar voices creeping outta the van speakers on a harsh morning leaving Boston, or rocking me to sleep in a lonely hotel room in West Hollywood or Detroit.

So here’s a Spotify playlist for The Ardent Music blog that I pulled together to share some of the bands and tracks that get us thru out there on the road, and that I find myself coming back to the most. Of course this thing could go on forever and it pains me to pick such a small sampler. Also, many bands I would’ve included don’t seem to be on Spotify yet, so just imagine that somewhere in this sequence is some Max Indian, Tomahawks, Organos, Tender Fruit, The Light Pines, Lonnie Walker, and geez it’s lunchtime already. Click to stream:

Mount Moriah – “Lament”

“If this will be anything then let it be over / ‘cause the heart can’t keep trying to love something it doesn’t.” I mean, enough said, right? “A mouth full of bees couldn’t stop me from whispering I don’t love you” gets the point across pretty well, too. Mount Moriah is poised for greatness, but I think the word is already out!

Superchunk – “Digging For Something”

I hope I haven’t ruined this crispy track for the rest of my band by rocking it so much in the van. When we pulled up to check into our hotel to play Hopscotch Fest 2011, our hotel lobby was directly behind the main stage at City Plaza, where the band was shredding this song to pieces on a beautiful afternoon to a raging sea of bodies… I had to sit there with the windows down and wait for this song to finish. And my band is like, “We just heard this after Cracker Barrel.” Anyway, made me so humbled (along with the rest of that lineup, sheesh!) just to be in the mix of that festival.

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SoundCheck @MinglewoodHall: Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers – “Gravity”

by Rachel Hurley Posted on 02/16/2012

We were pretty excited to sneak into Minglewood Hall this afternoon and catch sound check with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers. They’re opening for O.A.R tonight and we can’t wait to see them!

The band, originally from Western Massachusetts, was formed by college friends back in 2003 and has gotten tons of accolades over the years. They released their fifth studio album called Gift Horse back in October after Brian “Boots” Factor and Stephen Kellogg embarked on their own solo tours.

Check out the lead off single, “Gravity,” from their new album.

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My First Record: Nick Brennan of The Static Jacks.

by Guest Columnist Posted on 02/15/2012

In an honest world, I would tell you that my first records were Will Smith’s “Big Willie Style“, the Back Street Boys self titled, and the Soundtrack to the hit musical “Cats”.

Fortunately, we do not live in such an honest world. So let’s say my first records were the Beatles‘ One and The Strokes‘ Is This It.

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