RAMSEUR RECORDS SHOWCASE

05/22/2009

Visulite Theatre (18 +)

Doors Open: 8:00 - Headliner Begins: 11:00

NON-SMOKING

“Ramseur Records is about songwriting that transcends genres, cuts through the pretense and truly means something. We pride ourselves in putting out art of substance that affects people -- from punk rockers to classical music enthusiasts; construction workers to college professors. When the meaning behind the music is real, nothing else matters.”

“Ramseur Records, located in Concord NC, is honored to present four artists from its roster in one great night of music. Come out and support the local music scene and this locally-owned & operated independent record label and management company, which is home to The Avett Brothers, the everybodyfields, Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers, Sammy Walker, Martin Stephenson, Paleface, the Carolina Chocolate Drops and Sam Quinn & the Japan Ten.”

BOMBADIL

Washington Post
"Between the sensitive songwriting, playful instrumentation and everyman vocals, the North Carolina-based quartet clearly has the heart of a dozen hipster "it" bands."

DC Express
"stirs in spices that go beyond the unexpected...the band has gained a well-deserved reputation for its exuberant live shows."

With a sound all their own and a stage show to match, Bombadil is, if nothing else, one of the freshest bands to emerge in a long time. Formed by Duke University alumni Daniel Michalak, Bryan Rahija and Stuart Robinson, this band draws on a unique mélange of influences to create a sound that is unclassifiable. The group Magnet Magazine deemed “a drunker, circus-reared version of The Band,” was born in Bolivia, where Michalak and Rahija first met. The folk music indigenous to the region lit a creative spark and inspired the two to begin writing songs that incorporated international instruments and styles. That influence, paired with their collective backgrounds in Piedmont blues, psychedelic rock and Robinson’s background as a classical pianist, stands as the driving force behind the band’s unique sound.
Their songs range from straightforward rock to Bolivian waltzes; from heartbreaking, piano-driven laments on loss of life to swashbuckling, raucus marches; and the appeal of their live show is undeniable. With a core of electric / acoustic guitars, bass, piano and drums and appearances by harmonica, xylophone, organ, synth, saxophone, trumpet, viola, charango, glockenspiel, accordion, recorder and even zampona, the show is unlike anything else. When even half of the instruments on stage are sounding at once, it creates a wall of sound that seems to transport the room to another place.
All of the instrumentation, however, does not detract at all from the core of Bombadil—anthemic, concrete songwriting. Much like Ramseur Records labelmates The Avett Brothers and the everybodyfields, the complicated, endearing character of their songs keeps Bombadil grounded and guides the show seamlessly along. It is what allows them to carry a room, whether there are one hundred instruments on stage or just a single guitar and voice. It is what people connect to—and why they keep coming back.

www.bombadilmusic.com

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Paleface

Start Time: 10:10

More than a decade since his last major label release, PALEFACE, a founding member of NYC's Anti-folk movement, is back with The Show Is On The Road (Ramseur Records). The album is an intimate, 11-song diary that transcends genres with its ingenuous lyrics and deceptively unassuming style - just Paleface, his girlfriend Monica "Mo" Samalot on drums and backing vocals and himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica (with the occasional piano overdub). Paleface is the sort of artist who brings you into his world - his voice is sweetly ravaged and effortlessly expressive, as intimate as a friend whispering in your ear. The album is farewell love letter to his longtime home, New York City, and an embrace of his new life in the South.
 

www.PalefaceOnline.com

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Jim Avett

Start Time: 9:40

Jim Avett and Family is a gospel album by a retired welder, his daughter and two sons. He is not only a welder of course. He, like any man, is more than his career, more than his working business. He is a farmer. He is an ex-psychology professor. He is a husband of forty years and a father of thirty-five. He draws. He cuts and bails his own hay for his own cows. From 1967 to 1971, he served in the United States Navy. He is a dedicated family man. He has worked with neglected children and broken households as a social worker. He has built bridges of steel and a home of lumber. Oh yes, he sings and picks the guitar as well. With this record, he has done so with his family in mind, so that his children’s children and so on will have a way to know a little of who he is, who he was. Perhaps fittingly, it is by his own children’s encouragement that it is now available to the general public. For all of what he is, this collection of tunes is a glimpse into his sentiment and history; the son of a preacher and a pianist, who as a boy, sat in the pews and heard not only his father’s sermons, but these songs as well. Now, he has sung them with the tape rolling, as honest and rough-cut as it gets, and anyone may listen.

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Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers

Start Time: 8:30

Samantha Crain & the Midnight Shivers  9pm
"Sometimes music is a collision of opposites. Realities clash and coexist, and the tension that results is scary and strange, but undeniably beautiful. Maybe that's why Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers embody so many conflicting unities and clashing identities. With a blow-your-hair-back vocal presence that occasionally yields to whisper-soft vulnerability, Samantha Crain unites the sounds of confidence and desperation. Traditional folk arrangements tremble beneath the tasteful drumming of Jacob Edwards, the heart-beating bass lines from Andrew Tanz. Lyrics about disaster and despair peacefully coexist with anthems of community and reconciliation. Here are darkness and light; here are life and death.

These colliding realities stem most notably from Crain's unlikely artistic heritage, which she wears on her sleeve but just as readily transcends. Hailing from the state that birthed both The Flaming Lips and Woody Guthrie, Samantha Crain writes with both the brazen conviction of the latter and the unflinching creative ambition of the former. Hers is a folk tradition indebted to Radiohead as much as Bob Dylan. Her shadowy arrangements and razor-sharp lyrics blur whatever superficial lines of genre or aesthetic may seem to separate these influences. It seems whatever the ingredients, she has a place for them in her inexplicable artistic recipe. Her sound is deeply rural and southern, but also itinerant and urban. Like Jack Kerouac before her, Crain is lost on the subway, sleeping in boxcars, leaving lovers behind, and dining in small town obscurity all within a few short days.

8:30 FRONTIER RUCKUS

 Not entirely fictional, the municipality of Orion, MI (pronounced 'OR-ee-un', not 'oh-RY-un') does exist just beyond the fingertips of the city's sprawl, but the more specific "Orion Town" is a creation woven together in Milia's own loquacious melodies. In his words, it is a place of "overwhelming memory, young sexuality, guilt, and the slow disintegration of home and family".

  Alongside Milia a cast of players have come together to give life to this unique locale. To make this happen requires, without a doubt, quite a joyful noise. Whether it is due to the swelling saw and trumpet of Zachary Nichols, the stern percussion of Ryan Etzcorn, the soulful harmonies of Anna Burch, or the spidery banjo of David Jones, The Orion Songbook is a telling cacophony of sound which carries with it a sense of unmistakable immediacy and signals the arrival of a band who carry with them a name that speaks to a demand for greater spaces.... Frontier Ruckus. PHOTO BELOW

www.samanthacrain.com