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The Brother Brothers
David Moss, one-half of the duo sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine
recently, “I think you can tell this from this record that most of the
songs are older and not that modern. We really cherish the songs that we
grew up with. We listen to a lot of new music too, but when we are
making music, we gravitate to older music and an older sound.
Any musician has an arsenal of songs that they didn’t write, even if
they are songwriters and I think when you are sitting on so many songs,
you do them yourselves and when you do them in your own style, you go
man, I should really record one of these. I like my version and I want
to share it.
During the pandemic we released our album Calla Lily and we had
not been able to tour it, so we barely played those songs out on the
road. Calla Lily slipped by the wayside, but we thought if we put
out an album of covers, we could fill a concert with both albums at the
same time. It also seemed like a very good time to come into the studio
and put out (a covers album) with the pandemic and the way touring had
been.
As for the diversity of songs on the album, David Moss says, “We wanted
to make a good album that people would want to listen to and that we
wouldn’t mind listening to. The other thing was we wanted to introduce
people to (things like) you might know who Richard Thompson is, but I
bet you haven’t heard this song (Waltzing’s for Dreamers”). You might
not have heard of The Revelers, but this is one of their great songs
(“If You Ain’t Got Love”). The James Taylor
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Carla Olson - Triple Threat
The seeds for Americana Railroad, the album, began to take
root in the early 1990s with Carla Olson, Gene Clark and Saul Davis,
Carla’s manager and husband.
Carla Olson says, “It was a nice idea to be a vehicle for a couple of
Gene’s songs, one of which is “I Remember the Railroad,” and not many
people know about it unless you are a big Gene Clark fan. Also, his
songs, “Train Leaves Here This Morning,” and “Kansas City Southern.”
Gene was a railroad guy. I remember buying a package of shirt patches
that they used to sell in train stations and train shops and I bought
four or five of the Rock Island Line. I gave a couple of them to Gene
when we were first hanging around together in the eighties. He said this
is so cool I am going to sew them on my jean jacket as soon as I can. He
was a huge reason why we tried to cobble this together. The other song
was The Long Ryders’ song that Stephen McCarthy wrote called “Here Comes
That Train Again.”
Those were the songs that started the ball rolling.”
We wondered what attracted Carla Olson to create a concept album around
the theme trains.
She explains, “I am a child of the fifties who walked home with her
buddies, while listening to The Beatles, the Stones
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Madeleine Davis - One of a Kind!
Madeleine Davis had a lengthy career with Boney M (By the Rivers of Babylon, Rasputin) and a small sample of her work in the studio and / or live performances includes artists such as Precious Wilson, Hoyt Axton, Peggy March, Terence Trent D'Arby, Rick Astley, Klaus Doldinger, La Bionda and Amanda Lear. She was in demand by producers such as, Ralph Siegel, Tony Monn, Michael Kunze, Sylvester Levay, Giorgio Moroder and Frank Farian. She sang in church as a young child, acted on stage as a teenager (there is a motorcycle story we will get to in a minute) and she was a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, while still in university.
“My father was a lot older than my mother. He was fifty-nine when I was
born and he was seventy-five when I was eighteen.
I
grew up with a father who was in World War I. He had so much information
for me when I went to school. When he was a paperboy the Titanic sank,
so he knew the information from the newspapers of that time. He told
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Beatrix Löw-Beer
Artists such as
Beatrix Löw-Beer
are the reason why people are discovering the saxophone for the first
time. When you watch her concert performances or videos to promotional
videos everything from her movement to her attitude and her costumes
exhibits an exuberance for performing music. One is never left with the
impression that you are watching someone playing an instrument, because
her saxophone becomes an extension of her persona.
Take us back to where this all began. “I grew up in Augsburg, which is one hour from Munich, which is the capital of Bavaria. It is in the south of Germany |
Woman On The Moon
She explains, “It is part of my natural cycle. I release a record and
then I take a little bit of time to promote and play shows and regroup.
I then start writing again. I never write for a record, I just write.
Once I have thirty or forty songs, I start looking at them and choose
what to record. I had a few songs that I wrote early in 2021 or maybe
the end of 2020. I write often, but not every day, there are people who
are way better than me at that. I write fairly consistently, probably
every week. If you think about the fact there are fifty-two weeks in a
year and I write every week, by the end of the year I have forty to
fifty songs. Probably half of them nobody should ever hear and half of
them are decent.
This one was different than my previous records, because I didn’t record
it all at once and normally, I do. I (usually) sit down with all of my
songs and decide which ones I want to record. I then go ahead and book
my session and record everything in three days. This time I did it
differently. In June of last year, I approached Gabe and I said, hey I
have a few songs. Can we record them, because I think I want to release
some singles? I wasn’t planning on a record. (She starts to laugh) We
started recording and then one
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Nick Pagliari - Hard Lessons
Reflecting upon that jukebox he says, “That is where my early influences
in music were from in general. I was probably six or seven years old
when my father had that jukebox. We would sit in the living room and he
would play little 45s on the jukebox and we would dance around and sing
those songs. I was really fortunate and it was really, really cool. My
brother who is about three years younger than me has that jukebox. I
don’t know if it still works, but I would love to hear some of those
songs again someday.
There were all kinds of Motown music and I remember specific artists
like The Four Tops, The Beach Boys’ song “Fun, Fun, Fun,” and “Uptown
Girl,” by Billy Joel. My mom was a huge fan of Huey Lewis, but that
might have been later in her car.
All that music was an influence on me and it stuck with me as an artist.
I think when you are that young, in that stage of your development you
are like a sponge. Musically I soaked that stuff up and it stuck with
me.”
Just as he was about to embark on a month-long residency at Geraldine’s
in Austin, Nick Pagliari took time to talk with Riveting Riffs Magazine
about his album Hard Lessons.
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Rain Perry - A White Album
She says, “It is definitely a concept album. It
is somewhat of a sequel to my album Cinderblock Bookshelves, and
it was a memoir in music about me growing up as a hippie kid raised by
my dad. This record, A White Album, is me looking back at my same
life and my same family, but through the lens of race. It is called A
White Album, because it is me telling my story. I think most larger
topics are best addressed through people and it is my way of wading into
a fraught conversation and to talk about some issues that we seem to be
having a hard time talking about right now.” Although the
common thread is raising awareness of societal issues, the songs on the
album do not come across as preachy or even protestation, but instead
seem to be asking the question, why are we still here after all these
years, far removed from the civil rights movement of the 1960s and yet
in many ways the needle seems to have barely moved. “Thank you, that
is what I was shooting for. I think the best way to empathize is getting
to know somebody and to see the way they are trying to solve the
problems we are all trying to solve, how to be happy, to be fulfilled,
and to be successful in life. I don’t think
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Love & Gelato
Love & Gelato
was filmed on location in 2021 at several places in Rome and Florence,
Italy. I imagine for those who have visited Italy, it is much like the
experiences this writer has when watching a film shot on location that
he has visited, you feel like you are back there again. The
cinematography is excellent, with the grips and camera people catching
the essence of motorcycles and cars speeding their way along narrow
Italian streets. The architecture is breathtaking and at times the
relaxed nature of the culture and people makes this North American
envious.
Twenty-year-old Susanna Skaggs delivers a brilliant performance as she
is transformed from being an awkward young woman who due to being her
mother’s caretaker for four years had little chance to explore anything
remotely resembling romance. Arriving in Italy her godmother Francesca
gives her the diary Lina’s mother had kept, before Lina was born and
when she had spent time in Italy. Under the tutelage of Francesca Lina
grows in confidence and becomes friends with Francesca’s cousin Howard
Riley played
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The Bablers from Finland
Talking to us from his home in Finland, the affable protagonist of this
conversation explains when and how the band’s name was birthed, “When
young people are choosing the name for a band it is not always logical
and it can be quite chaotic. In many cases later on many bands regret
(the name they chose). In
this case we don’t. It came from the word babble or bubbling. It is
active. Then we took one “b” out of the word and it looked right. We
ended up using it and we never looked back since. I think one of the
most important things with a band’s name is it has to stick in your
mind. Many of the crazy names stick there.
We (Janne Haavisto) were located in the same area and we were friends.
Many of us went to the same school. The drummer Janne Haavisto’s older
brother and my older brother were great mates. Janne’s brother’s band
rehearsed in the basement of our house. I come from a family with five
children and we lived in quite a big house. They also had great parties
(he laughs). I was there as a little boy in my pajamas listening to how
they played the old Blues stuff and Irish Folk music. Janne and I just
became friends.
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Kincső
Nóra
Pethő
Obviously, only the Gaia part is taken from the Greek goddess, as
Kincső
Nóra
Pethő
explains, “I
am like a computer program from the future who becomes a real person by
the end of this 70-minute show. It was called Heroes of the Future
and it was part of Planet Budapest 2021. There were about fifty
actors and actresses working on this project, which was intended to
raise the interest of kids for protecting the environment. For one week
(in early December) the program ran from morning until evening. It was a
wonderful experience to see how enthusiastic the kids were! I felt great
about contributing to such a good goal!”
Continuing
she says, “We
talk to the children about how in the year 2100 there is not enough air,
and the environment has been destroyed. (The message is) they have to be
conscious of what they are doing in the present in 2021.
When we had some rehearsal groups and I could see a small guy, who was
ten years old and he wore glasses. I was sitting in a box and at first,
they could only hear my voice. They could not see me. I could see the
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Stranger Things Season Four
Matt and Ross Duffer wrote some great scripts for season four and
further diversified both the cast and the locations. The result is we
have five parallel stories within one greater story, but all of them
linked. Will (Noah Schnapp) Jonathan Byers (Charlie Heaton) and Mike
Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) are traveling all over the United States for
various reasons, with their newfound friend the eccentric Argyle played
by Eduardo Franco. If you
want to know why they are traveling you will have to watch the series.
Back at home in Hawkins, Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), Steve Harrington
(Joe Keery), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas Sinclair (Caleb
McLaughlin), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Max Mayfield (Sadie Sink) are
fighting monsters once again from the Upside-Down world. The chemistry
within this group of actors makes the show worth watching and they are
joined this season by new character Eddie Munson played by Joseph Quinn.
There is a little bit of everything within this group, romance,
adventure, they are on the run, new friendships form and old
relationships…. well, you will just have to watch the series, because we
are not giving you cheat codes here!
Millie Bobby Brown’s character Eleven is prominent again, but it would
be difficult to tell you much here without getting into spoilers. Let us
just say that she is struggling to fit in her new surroundings, Mike is
coming for spring break to visit her and she is looking forward to the
arrival of her boyfriend and Will wonders where he fits in now. On the
flip side, this would not be Stranger Things if Eleven was not in the
eye of the storm and every indication is she soon will be.
This brings us to Joyce Byers played by Winona Ryder who aligns herself
with Murray Baumann (Brett Gelman) as they hatch a plan to travel to
Russia to spring Jim Hopper (David Harbour) from a Russian jail. We told
you earlier that Eddie Munson was eccentric, to quote a Bachman Turner
Overdrive song, which fits right in with the era in which Stranger
Things is set, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Baumann in previous
seasons was incredibly eccentric, but now he is completely off the wall.
The seasons in the Russian jail with Hopper are brutal, but realistic or
as far as the knowledge available to us in the real world indicates.
Some interesting dramatic tension is on display between Harbour’s
character and Tom Wlaschiha’s character prison guard Dmitri Antonov.
Back home in Hawkins the town folk are more prominent than they have
been in many previous episodes and especially as the bodies start piling
up again.
Since we have bee trying hard not to provide you with spoilers, here are
some things we can tell you about Season Four of Stranger Things.
There is more gore than we think is probably necessary, but this is the
horror genre. There is much more humor infused into the characters,
their lines and interaction with one another than there has been at
anytime during this series. It nicely balances off
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Sylvia Hutton
The opening song for the album “Avalon,” transports the listener to
Camelot and the days of King Arthur. Sylvia and Verlon Thompson wrote
“Avalon,” a beautifully orchestrated song with lush vocals by Sylvia.
For any child, any teenager, any adult whoever wished you could close
your eyes and open them to find yourself in a magical place, Sylvia
invites you to take her hand to travel to a place where the walls are
made of freedom and every tear becomes a shining star.
Normally, we would not credit so many musicians, but they earned their due on “Avalon,” guitars, both electric and acoustic by John Mock, as well as mandolin and percussion. Matt McGee played bass, Skip Cleavinger played the Uilleann pipes, oboe by Somerlie Pasquale, Emily Bowland on clarinet, trumpet (Jeff Bailey), French horn (Jennifer Kummer), violins by Conni Ellisor and Mary Kathryn Van Osdale, viola (Betsy Lamb) and cellist Nicholas Gold.
About
the musicians, Sylvia says, “They are wonderful people and fabulous
musicians. John Mock is playing many of the instruments on the record.
He did the strings arrangements, the wind arrangements and he and I
arranged the ethereal vocals together on this record. I have worked with
the bass player Matt McGee since 1983. We worked together on the road in
the eighties and he is a fabulous, world class bass player.”
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Laura Blossom - Madrid's Finest
Laura Blossom is what many would consider to be a late bloomer when it
comes to acting.
“I started acting when I was twenty years old. My uncle, Balbino Lacosta,
is an actor in Madrid and I often went to the theater to see him. He was
the only (person in the arts) in my family. My grandmother and my mother
played piano, but as a hobby,” says Laura Blossom.
She explains another factor that led to her pursuing a career in the
arts, “There was an acting course at the university where I was studying
art history and I thought why not and I loved the course.”
Laura Blossom grew up in Zaragoza, the capital of the autonomous region
of Aragon located in northeast Spain. The city is located between Madrid
and Barcelona.
“It is a big city, but not as big as Madrid. There are theaters there,
but I had to move to Madrid, because in Zaragoza you can’t live from art
and from acting, because there aren’t enough opportunities,” she
explains.
She says, “I started to sing when I was five years old and at the same
time my parents paid for me to take piano lessons. I loved that. I then
took a music course and it was the best experience of my life. I was in
music courses for eleven years.
When I was ten years old, I started studying ballet in a school near my
home. I studied for twelve years and then I broke my leg when I was
practicing. Two or three years later I was watching musical theater
dancing and I thought it was so beautiful, so I decided to learn.
I was eleven years old when I first performed for an audience. For the
music course I was in we played a concert and we sang. It was really fun
and I liked that. It was in the principal auditorium. There were a lot
of people, family, friends and others. The feeling was special. It was
amazing.”
When we suggest to Laura Blossom that she is one of those rare triple
threats, an actress, dancer and singer (and keep reading and you will
read more about this talented young woman), she says, “It is so
necessary if you want to work in a musical.”
She got to realize that dream a few years ago when she performed in the
musical stage production of Mary Poppins.
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Julia Helbich - Actress / Host
Acting represents just one of the many facets of Julia Helbich’s career
and education, including, her television hosting in which she has
established a noteworthy career, as an interviewer of top athletes, both
American and European, she also has an MBA Global Management, an MBA in
Business Administration, two bachelor’s degrees, one in political
science and the other in the arts.
For now, her primary focus is on acting and continuing to interview
others.
“It is a tough decision to go to a new road in your career, but that is
what you have to do. You have to go a few more steps, to see where it
(takes you) because if you don’t you will stay in the same place,” she
says
Finding herself attracted to the arts is not an accident with Julia
Helbich.
“It
is definitely in the family. Let’s start with my parents. My dad,
Wolfgang Helbich was a
very famous conductor and my mom Ortrun Helbich sang in my father’s choir. That is how
they met! Later on, my mom managed my dad, because he traveled all over
the world conducting. He was an amazing conductor and musician. He was a
typical musician and conductor who worked late at night. He also
composed his own music.
At his funeral there were over 2,000 people from all over the world. He
was so appreciated. It was very touching.
My dad was not such a good businessman and that is why my mom took over
at one point. We had five kids though, so my mom still had to be a mom.
She gave piano lessons and she opened up a music school. With five kids
she studied culture and music management and got her master’s degree. My
dad and my mom were an amazing team,” she recalls.
Continuing to talk about her early artistic endeavors, Julia Helbich
says, “I started off with singing, I played the violin. I then started
with theater.
I guess I always had it in me (to become an actress), but I was afraid
and I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t want to do just an acting
school. I also wanted to have the assurance that I was safe. I had that
from my parents. I grew up in an artist’s family and my parents were
always focused on us getting a great education.
I started off very quickly with great roles in Germany (appearing) in
pretty big series and movies. That gave me the (confidence) that I do
have talent.
One of those series
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