This week I completed work on a cinematic Intro piece of music for the iTunes Podcast, History of Westeros, hosted by an old friend of mine, Steve Mangiameli along with his co-host Aziz.  Steve asked me to come up with an original piece for their intro music that fit the tone and topic of their podcast, which is based on the history of the world created in A Song and Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin and more popular in the HBO series, A Game of Thrones! (of which I’m a HUGE fan)

I had never done any writing of this style, so it was very interesting to have to develop music based on something from a book / TV series.  It had to feel right for the “period” and also appropriate for the podcast!

Hey everyone,

This week I’m posting episode 1 in a new series I’m calling Acoustic Sunday. All for fun, but if I see enough interest I will do more and allow you guys to pick the next song I perform. Any style or genre. I’ll select one and mention you in the video. But more on that later.

Today’s song is ‘I Will Rise’. A wonderful praise song by Chris Tomlin.

Take a listen and please leave a comment, like, or share as I would love to hear from you.

Have a great Sunday

Joey

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Splawn Quick Rod Amplifier

This is a great article on Dallas, NC based Splawn Amplifiers that appeared in a 2010 issue of Premier Guitar.  I actually became aware of these amps after seeing FireFlight live in concert.  I was a big fan of their guitar sound and when speaking with Justin Cox afterwards discovered these were the amps he used.  Combined with their Hagstrom guitars, which I’m also a big fan of and personally own a Swede model, makes for a GREAT heavy Fireflight tone.

Today, Splawn have been picked up by some pretty heavy hitters as their amp of choice to include Godsmack, Killswitch Engage, Steve Stevens of Billy Idol, and Collective Soul to name a few.

As I continue to highlight NC artisans and artists, head over to Splawn amplifiers from Dallas, NC and check them out!  I plan to make the trip myself soon.

http://www.splawnguitars.com

Splawn Amp Shop Making Footswitches

This is the first in a series of instructional videos related to running a DAW in Windows 7 to help with latency problems. This is a quick fix that has immediate impact on the system. Try it out and let me know if it helps.

- Joey

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In my continuing efforts to highlight local musical artists and artisans, this week I had the opportunity to speak with the owner of Bonham Cajons, Billy Bonham, out of Mooresville, NC about his line of custom built Cajons. I will be planning an in depth review of his cajons in an upcoming segment. Until then, take a look at these beautiful instruments. You can find out more by visiting his website www.bonhamcajon.com

- Joey

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The Vineyard – New Ablum – Midnight Memoirs

Charlotte based artists, The Vineyard, will be releasing their first solo album, Midnight Memoirs on Tuesday, August 7^th at midnight.

This album is a celebration of songwriting between Michael Valeri and Danielle Souder who began the summer writing the album while searching for their sound.

As Michael described the process “We wanted each song to have some amount of ‘epicness’. We didn’t limit ourselves to certain instruments or sound and did a lot of experimenting while recording this album, and in turn found a sound we believe defines us.”  He goes on to say
“the album, Midnight Memoirs, is about closure; hence, the night time/bed time theme. Each song is more or less a short story (like a bedtime story)”

This message really holds up in songs such as We Fall Asleep to Wake Up, Dream with Care, Goodnight, and the final track and Farewell, giving the 8 song  album a sense of continuity throughout.  This is also highlighted in the songwriting with lyrics like “You’ll never see it coming, the journey of the night”   from the track Docks or “and I will be the Coast, that you’ll return to, and I will scare the ghosts that try to haunt you” from the song The Coast.  Finally captured in Goodnight, “It goes away; it goes away in waves and comes back tomorrow”.

Vocally, catering to an alternative sound reminiscent of modern artists Of Monsters & Men and The XX, the layered melodies are ethereal and almost “dream like”.  This is most evident by the haunting vocal work of Danielle Souder, almost summoning Dolores O’Riordan from The Cranberries seminal “Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?” album.  The tandem of Michael and Danielle’s voice throughout the album is a perfect blend of voice and lyrical feel.

However, the thing that makes this collection priceless is the songwriting.  Coming off the heels of the highly popular release of the single “Run” in May, 2012, the completed album shows a clear vision and execution on the musical writing style of Run.  Clever song arrangements, with excellent percussive elements permeate throughout providing wonderful sonic nuggets to hear listen after listen.

Michael, who played all of the instruments and produced the freshman effort, plays expertly throughout showing no signs of disconnect between all of the musical elements.  Providing wonderful layered vocals and Coldplay like emotional crescendos, the album feels like you are floating.  The sound, story, and vision of Midnight Memoirs carries throughout and provides a stunning pictorial of the musical journey The Vineyard in now on.  I was glad I could join them on it.  You should too.

The album is scheduled to be released at midnight on August 7^th. 2012 and can be downloaded for free from one of my favorites indie artist sites, Bandcamp, at http://michaelvaleri.bandcamp.com/.

Copyright Joey Townsend. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

MoogFest 2012 Lineup Announced

MoogFest returns to Asheville, NC over Halloween Weekend (Oct. 26-27) with a lineup featuring Orbital, Primus 3D, Miike Snow, Santigold, Richie Hawtin, Squarepusher, Explosions in the Sky, The Magnetic Fields, Divine Fits, GZA performing Liquid Swords, Black Moth Super Rainbow, El-P, Killer Mike, Four Tet, Prefuse-73 with Teebs, and Shpongle presents The Masquerade.

Also playing are Thomas Dolby, Carl Craig, Pantha du Prince, Actress, Cold Cave, Mouse on Mars, Bear in Heaven, Ana Sia, Blondes, Julia Holter, Exitmusic, Trust, Disclosure, and Wick-It the Instigator.

Tickets are priced at $65 (1-Day) and $100 (2-Day), and go on sale Friday, August 10th.

Each pass/ticket will include admission to all shows. There are no separately ticketed events.

Having recently spent time in downtown Asheville for the Bele Chere festival I can honestly say that downtown Asheville is enough to bring me to MoogFest, but this would be icing.

I would recommend staying in a hotel close enough to walk to all the events.  If price is not an issue, I recommend the Haywood Park Hotel.

While there, go eat at Jack of the Wood pub and try a locally brewed GreenMan Brewery Porter.

Also in town you will find the renowned Echo Mountain Studio, where the latest Zac Brown band album was recorded.

All in all a great trip and a great festival for everyone!

Joey

It’s basically a look at the making of many GREAT albums, by the musicians and producers/engineers themselves.  Take a look at the list on the Wiki Site.

I’ve already watched the making of Fleetwood Mac – Rumours, Tom Petty – Damn the Torpedoes, U2 – Joshua Tree, Steely Dan – Aja, Def Leppard – Hysteria, just to name a few!

If you enjoey looking into the studio side of some great albums, check them out on Netflix streaming!  I highly recommend them!

Very interesting concept.  PureMIX.net teach the latest recording, mixing and music production techniques!

I’ll be checking this out!