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GRIFFIN HOUSE
09/11/2010 Doors Open: 8:00 - Headliner Begins: 10:15 Tickets: $12 (Advance) / $14 (Day of Show) “Ultimately, these songs are about spirituality and trying to find your place in the world,” Griffin House says of Flying Upside Down (Nettwerk, April 29), an album that dramatically marks the 27-year-old Ohioan’s coming of age as an artist of formidable skills. “Specifically, it’s the continuing story of what’s happening in my life, following the realization that the more specific I am about my own life and things that have happened to me, the more people will feel it universally.” The 13-track collection, filled with intensely personal, richly detailed vignettes of the highs and lows of House’s existence, showcases a young artist whose openly emotional singing, poetic lyrics and spiraling melodies recall Jackson Browne circa Late for the Sky. Embedded in Flying Upside Down is a song cycle chronicling the arc of a relationship, from the first kiss (“Let Me In”) to the emotionally lacerating moment of truth (“Heart of Stone”) and its anguished aftermath (the title song). These psychologically penetrating songs are set against a backdrop of the lives of family members (“Better Than Love,” “Hangin’ On [Tom’s Song]”) and friends, including some serving in the Middle East (“I Remember [It’s Happening Again]”). Completing the tableau is a pair of spiky, head-clearing rockers (“One Thing,” “Good for You”). House describes the recording of Flying Upside Down “a dream come true,” thanks in large measure to the drop-dead studio band assembled by producer Jeff Trott (Sheryl Crow), including a pair of Hall of Famers in Heartbreakers keyboard player Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell. A huge Tom Petty fan, House found it immensely gratifying that these great players related so strongly and brought so much to his own music. Also making major contributions were Beck’s longtime bass player, Justin Mendal-Johnson, drummer Victor Indrizzo (Macy Gray, Aimee Mann, Daniel Lanois) and violinist Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek). Last August, on CBS Sunday Morning, critic Bill Flanagan raved about House’s first album, Lost and Found, putting the newcomer on his short list of the best emerging songwriters in the U.S., alongside Ray LaMontagne and Joseph Arthur. “I bought [House’s] CD [after a show in New York City],” said Flanagan, “and this never happens: I took it home and must have listened to it 20 times that weekend. I was knocked out.” Flanagan further noted that Lost and Found revealed “a young man with a young man’s influences,” citing Wilco, U2 and Ryan Adams as primary touchstones. House acknowledges the accuracy of this assessment. “I was wearing my influences on my sleeve at 22 or 23,” he says. Flying Upside Down, by contrast, is without question the work of a major artist, one whose music resonates with hard-earned insights. While it possesses striking emotional depth and intellectual acuity, the album is also wholly accessible, a hook-laden thing of beauty.
TYLER JAMES
Start Time: 8:45 Tyler James' debut full-length record It Took the Fire will be released March 2 on Son of Geert Records. For the 27-year-old Nashville songsmith, it's a coming of age album. "I'm part of a restless generation known more for its apathy than for its voice," he says. "My songs are about the struggle to find my own truth." With his heartfelt approach and raspy croon, James sounds like an old soul. Citing influences from Paul Simon to Rainer Maria Rilke, he has a reverence for past masters that does him good. With meticulously crafted arrangements disguised as simple pop tunes, It Took the Fire is one part classic 70s, another part Memphis soul. Co-produced with acclaimed producer Neilson Hubbard (Glen Phillips, Garrison Starr), It Took the Fire was tracked in four days at Nashville's legendary House of David Studios. "Like a lot of studios on Music Row, you often feel like you're standing on hallowed ground," James says. "I used Elvis' piano on the record and the studio still has a trap door entrance from when he tracked there." Highlights on the record include the title track, which rings out like an old spiritual when he sings: "It took the fire to save my soul/ It took the fire to change me/ Glory shown in the ashes blowin' away." Other songs range from heartbreak on the slow jam "All I Got," to coping with the death of a friend on the Randy Newman-esque "A Sailor's Tune." Born in the Pacific Northwest, but raised in small-town Iowa, James has often been an outsider. "It was pretty much a few street lights and baseball diamonds surrounded by cornfields," he says. "I'm a Midwest kid at heart, but when you're young you don't see the value in it. Luckily I found a Dylan tape in my sister's pick-up truck one day and it changed everything." Once out of high school, James moved to Nashville and quickly found a home in the music community. "The talent here is overwhelming," he laughs. "I had the green knocked out of me pretty quick." James honed his craft while earning a college degree and eventually debuted in 2005 with the aptly titled An EP. Produced by Jason Lehning (Alison Krause, Guster), the release was met with critical acclaim, with Paste Magazine saying, "His vulnerable lyrics, uncontrived vocals and memorable piano and guitar arrangements make for a sound as accessible as it is meaningful." |
