Americana – Page 2

Nikki Lane | KCRW’s “Country In The City” | 8/2/14 [PHOTOS & REVIEW]

CLICK HERE To Check Out The Blog Entries Of The Other Acts Performing At KCRW’s “Country In the City” Concert Series

Opening for Wynonna Judd at the third, and final, concert of the County In The City concert series, inspired by The Annenberg Space for Photography’s newest exhibit,“Country: Portraits of an American Sound,” was Nikki Lane.

Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Nikki spent part of life in Los Angeles working in the fashion industry before heading out to New York City. In the city that never sleeps, she went through heartbreak that inspired her to write some music about her emotional roller coaster. Thank god for break-ups, otherwise Nikki would never have been on the stage performing in front of an enthusiastic Los Angeles crowd.

Accompanied to the stage with her band and her mother, Nikki started into her set with a series of songs about her failed marriage. You could tell that the music was her therapy. She gave brief explanations, and regrets, about the first several songs.

“I should have followed the lyrics to the song. Sorry, mom,” she said with a smirk as she look stage left to acknowledge her mother.

Her music was country music for the modern audience. Since relocating to Nashville, her latest album, “All or Nothin'” was produced by The Black Key’s Dan Auerbach, and you can tell that Dan’s musical influence had rubbed off on her. The tunes were as country as county comes, but also had a little something extra from other genres to make a finicky music lover’s ears perk up with interest.

Before parting the stage, she thanked the audience and KCRW for inviting her to perform, acknowledging that this was the largest audience she’s ever played for. She definitely picked up a few fans from her performance, myself included.

I had the good fortune of meeting Nikki as she was selling her goods at the merchandise table. I purchased a couple of her LPs at the concert, and had her sign my copies. If she keeps on making good music, I’m willing to bet that won’t be selling her own merchandise for long.

Nikki Lane – Band Members

Nikki Lane: Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal
Ben Eyestone: Drums
Eric Whitman: Bass Guitar
Alex Munoz: Electric Guitar
Matt Stoessel: Pedal Steel

Set List:

Good Man
I Want My Heart Back
Man Up
You Can’t Talk To Me Like That
Seein’ Double
Faded
700,000 Red Necks
Gone, Gone, Gone
All or Nothin’
Right Time

CLICK HERE To Check Out The Blog Entries Of The Other Acts Performing At KCRW’s “Country In the City” Concert Series

August 7, 2014August 7, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: Adult Alternative, Alex Munoz, All or Nothin, Alternative County-Rock, Americana, Ben Eyestone, Century City, Century Park, concer pic, concert, concert photograph, Concert Photographer, concert photographs, Concert Photography, concert pic, concert pics, Concert Preview, concert review, Country, Country Concert, country music, Country: Portraits of an American Sound, dan auerbach, Eric Whitman, folk music, FREE all-ages outdoor concerts, indie rock, kcrw, Matt Stoessel, Nikki Lane, set list, setlist, The Annenberg Space for Photography, The Black Keys Leave a comment

Shelby Lynne | KCRW’s “Country In The City” | 7/26/14 [PHOTOS & REVIEW]

CLICK HERE To Check Out The Blog Entries Of The Other Acts Performing At KCRW’s “Country In the City” Concert Series

Headlining the second concert of the County In The City concert series, inspired by The Annenberg Space for Photography’s newest exhibit, “Country: Portraits of an American Sound,” was Grammy Award winning, country recording artist Shelby Lynne.

I found out about her and her music when she gave her now legendary Grammy Award acceptance speech in 1999 for Best New Artist. “13 years, and 6 albums to get here,” she said. It still gets me everytime.

A prolific recording artist, she has recorded 13 studio albums, and a handful of EPs, her latest effort being a 5 track EP released on December 10, 2013 through her own independent record label Everso Records. With so much music under her belt, her set consisted of music covering her entire career.

Opening her set with the heart-wringer “Your Lies”, then performing the first song she ever wrote, “Leaving”, covering a tune by Dusty Springfield, to performing “Life Is Bad” and “Where I’m From” (off her seminal album “I Am Shelby Lynne”), it was a concert filled with her “greatest hits”, and the crowd ate it up.

Perhaps the most poignant moments of her performance was when she sang songs for the heartbroken. The emotion espoused through her impassioned lyrics, sung with her seemingly delicate contralto voice, left the audience moved. It may have been the lighting, but I could swear I could even see her eyes well up during several of the songs.

As an added treat, Shelby was able to get Jonathan and Zach of Jamestown Revival to come onstage to join her for the last song of her set (a cover of Neil Young’s “Are You Ready for the Country”). Reading lyrics from an iPhone, it was a light and carefree performance that brought the stellar acts of the evening onto the stage to bid the crowd goodnight.

Set List

Your Lies
Leaving
Life is bad
Easier
I Only Want to Be With You
Gotta Get Back
Why Can’t You
Look’n Up
She Knows
Should’ve Been
Dreamsome
Black Light Blue
Wind
Where I’m From
Call me up
This Road
Walking
Are You Ready for the Country — Neil Young cover with Jamestown Revival

It was a joy being in the pit shooting Shelby. I hope you like the the pics that I snapped. I sure like ’em.

CLICK HERE To Check Out The Blog Entries Of The Other Acts Performing At KCRW’s “Country In the City” Concert Series

July 28, 2014August 6, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: Americana, Annenberg Space, Ben Peeler, Brendan Buckley, Century City, Century Park, Chris Joyner, concert, Concert Photo, Concert Photography, concert photos, concert pic, concert pics, concert review, Country, country music, Country: Portraits of an American Sound, Ed Maxwell, Everso, Everso Records, folk, folk music, FREE all-ages outdoor concerts, kcrw, kcrw concert, Lisa Donelly, Midnight Rider, Outlaw Country, Sally Dworsky, set list, setlist, Shelby Lynne, singer, singer songwriter, The Annenberg Space for Photography Leave a comment

Lana Del Rey | Coachella | 4/13/14 (PHOTOS)

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT BLOG ENTRIES OF OTHER BANDS I SAW AT COACHELLA!

Lana Del Rey’s fans are some of the most dedicated and passionate fans that I have ever met. Prior to her set, I chatted with several of them who were up at the very front of the barricade, with at least ten thousand other festival goers behind them. I asked them how long they waited where they were standing, and one of them said at least an two hours, having made their way up to the front during the prior act’s (Neutral Milk Hotel) set.

I scanned the line of fans at the railing (the greater majority of whom were young women … some of them probably girls) and most of them had their eyes fixated on the stage, as if they wanted to catch a glimpse of their songstress before the show began. One girl, standing between two friends who were having an animated conversation, was standing there quietly, when I noticed – no joke – her eyes well up with tears. Her friends paid no attention to her, but I sure noticed the tear that fell before she wiped her eyes with her left hand.

Almost on cue, security was called over to another side of the barricade as a girl was lifted from the crowd, apparently having passed out among the masses. Then another. I could feel the anticipation of the audience and its weight was palpable.

When the lights dimmed, the audience erupted. The music for “Cola” started playing, the shrieks got louder. When Lana took the stage, I was grateful I had invested in a pair of high quality earplugs. It was that loud. The payoff for the fans who had waited patiently for their siren to take the stage were rewarded when Lana made her way past the photo pitt to give out hugs to a lucky few.

Another highlight for her fans was the premier live performance of the first single off of her forthcoming, Dan Auerbach produced, album: “West Coast”.

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May 6, 2014May 14, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: Americana, Anti Gaga, Atmospheric Pop, Baroque Pop, Born To Die, Chamber Pop, coachella, Coachella 14, Coachella 2014, Coachella14, Coachella2014, concert, Concert Photographer, Concert Photography, Concert Photos. Concert Photo, concert pic, concert review, Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, indie pop, Lana Del Rey, Live Music, Lizzy Grant, May Jailer, Paradise, pop music, Review, set list, setlist, Torch Singer, trip hop, Ultraviolence Leave a comment

Valerie June | Wiltern Theater | 3/25/14

One of my favorite albums of 2013 was Valerie June’s “Pushin’ Against A Stone”. Produced by Kevin Agunas and Dan Auerbach (the Black Keys), it was album that caught my ear with its seamless mix of roots, blues and folk sung by a voice that seemed to have decades of earnest life lessons behind it.

Valerie June’s voice is unique. It’s a voice that you can’t confuse with another singer’s voice. She is … for lack of a better comparison … what Erykah Badu is to neo-soul/hip hop music. A voice so raw and sincere, singing music so traditional yet new, I found it hard not to fall in love with it upon my first listen, and have been telling my friends since that hers is a voice that will likely stand the test of time.

It was a week after I purchased tickets to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings when I found out that Valerie June was added to open the show … and I was ecstatic. At first, it seemed like an unlikely pairing, but upon retrospect, because both artists’ music styles are essentially modern-day approaches to “classic” styles of music, I figured the promoters knew what they were doing assuming that their audiences would be more knowledgeable and appreciative because of the historical slant to the music.

Valerie’s set was short but sweet. Clocking in at just over 30 minutes, it was charming mix of acoustic and band-backed versions of her songs, mostly coming from her latest release. After it was all said and done, I found myself wanting more. Not only that, but I decided then and there that if she would ever perform in a more intimate venue like the Bootleg Theatre, I would be the first person in line.

As an aside, while waiting in line to get into the venue, I noticed a woman with flowing dreadlocks and large sunglasses walk by me. It was Valerie June and I quickly asked the couple behind me to hold my spot as I caught up to her and asked her to autograph the LP I had packed in m bag. I assured her that I wouldn’t draw any more attention, and as we walked around the corner (she was heading to the artist entrance to get ready for her set), I pulled out the LP and professed my adoration of her “Pushin’ Against A Stone”. Her gorgeous smile made my day.

I also asked about her father, mentioning that my own father had heart surgery several weeks ago as well. Our conversation was brief, but in those few minutes I felt like I connected with her on a human level, which only made me appreciate her performance that much more that evening.

Unfortunately, the Flickr slideshow below is not available on mobile devices. If you are on a mobile device, please click THIS LINK to get redirected to the set of photos. If the slide show below isn’t working, then Flickr has disabled their embed option for WordPress and hasn’t yet updated their HTML code, which totally BLOWS! If you can see the slide show below, hooray!

April 5, 2014April 5, 2014 by dklee13 Categories: ConcertsTags: alternative rock, Americana, black keys, Blue Grass, blues, concert, Concert Photography, concert pic, concert pics, concert review, Contemporary Folk, dan auerbach, folk, folk music, funk music, gospel, indie rock, Live Music, Neo Traditional Folk, Pushin' Against A Stone, Review, singer songwriter, soul, soul music, The Wiltern, The Wiltern Theater, The Wiltern Theatre, Valerie June Leave a comment

The Dustbowl Revival | Twilight Concert Series | August 29, 2013

Opening for Trombone Shorty on the Santa Monica Pier as part of the 2013 Twilight Concert Series was a Veince, CA based folk/bluegrass/swing band named The Dustbowl Revival. Upon retrospect, they were more of a mini-orchestra than a band with 10 members playing a wide range of instruments from trumpets, trombones and bajos to washboards and kazoos.

I arrived before they started their set, and scanned the audience to find a good spot to take some pictures when I noticed an open area front and center against the railing. Behind this open area, there were some concert goers who set up their lawn chairs and such, and though I felt a bit awkward stepping into a spot right in front of them, I figured that if they didn’t want someone standing in front of them, they should have moved up. Of course, when I got there they gave me “a look” and in a grumpy way asked that I not stand in front of them the whole time. I told them that I’d be standing for a few songs during Dustbowl Revival, but also added that they should expect people dancing when Trombone Shorty took the stage.

Why sit in chairs for the Dustbowl Revival, when you can do this?

When The Dustbowl Revival started their set, the music was a refreshing throwback to traditional Americana fusing the styles of blues, swing, bluegrass, roots and folk. With the strong musicality of the entire band, and the congenial nature of their front man, The Dustbowl Revival gained the audience’s respect and attention. They expressed their sincere appreciation for being able to perform in front of such a large audience in their home town and would acknowledge those members of the band who grew up, or went to school, in Santa Monica. As the music kept coming, those in the VIP area started dancing, showing those sitting behind me how a concert and music like this should be enjoyed. If you check out the video from 2:30 on, you can watch the couple dancing, and it’s a joy to watch.

Get to know Dustbowl Revival by checking out their Facebook Page and dance your way to one of their gigs.