Month: February 2013

Old Flat Top presents

MARIA MULDAUR

& HER HOT BLUESIANA BAND

plus guests

Maria Muldaur is best known world wide for her ’74 mega-hit “Midnight at the Oasis”, which received several Grammy nominations, and enshrined her forever in the hearts of Baby Boomers everywhere, but despite her considerable Pop Music success, her 46 year career could best be described as a long and rambling odyssey through the various forms of American Roots Music. During the folk revival of the early ’60s, she began exploring and singing early Blues, Bluegrass, Appalachian “Old Timey” music, beginning her recording career in ’63 with the Even Dozen Jug Band and shortly thereafter, joining the very popular Jim Kweskin Jug Band and touring, & recording with them throughout the ’60s.

In the 37 years since “Midnight At The Oasis”, Maria has toured extensively worldwide, and has recorded 38 solo albums covering all kinds of American Roots music, from Jazz to Big Band to Gospel to Children’s Music, settling comfortably into her favorite idiom, the Blues, in recent years. Often joining forces with some of the top names in the business, Maria has recorded and produced an album per year, several of which have been nominated for Grammies and other awards.

Her critically acclaimed 2001 release “Richland Woman Blues” was nominated for a Grammy and named Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year. Her timely 2008 release, “Yes We Can!” featured songs from some of the most socially conscious song writers of the past half century: Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Allen Toussaint, Garth Brooks and others, and her “Women’s Voices for Peace Choir”, included: Bonnie Raitt, Joan, Baez, Jane Fonda, Odetta, Phoebe Snow, Holly Near and others.

Her 2009 release,. “Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy” garnered Maria her 6th Grammy nomination, and was nominated for Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year in the Blues Foundation Awards as well!. 2011’s release “Steady Love”reached #1 on the Living Blues Charts. Maria continues to enjoy creative collaborations with some of the finest artists in her field and continues to tour regularly worldwide.

TICKETS

€23.50 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone or creditcard bookings)

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.

AFTER THE GIG

Whelan’s DJ w/ Late Bar from 10:30pm (Free Entry)

THE MIGHTY STEF

plus guests

WOUNDS & SISTERS

Facebook event HERE

Dublin natives The Mighty Stef return to Whelans for thier biggest home-town show to date. Having spent early 2013 making thier 4th album with accliamed US producer Alain Johannes

U:MACK & Harmonic presents

THEE OH SEES

plus guests

Tickets on sale Tuesday February 5th priced €16.50 (including booking fee) from www.whelanslive.com www.tickets.ie & www.ticketmaster.ie

Whelanslive.com presents

EILEN JEWELL

plus special guests

“Sometimes as darkly damaged as Lucinda Williams, at others as defiant and teasing as prime Peggy Lee and always authentically Americana in the Gillian Welch tradition … She’s mighty good.” – The LA Times

Inexplicably not yet a household name, alt-country starlet Eilen Jewell may be already known to more people than realise it through her amazing track ‘Shakin’ All Over‘ featuring prominently on the True Blood soundtrack. Championed by roots music enthusiasts and alt-country fans alike, Eilen Jewell is often mentioned in the same breath as fellow travelers Gillian Welch and Jolie Holland.  Her latest album, the wonderfully titled ‘Queen of the Minor Key‘, is Jewell’s most powerful artistic statement yet.

Since her official 2006 debut, Boundary County, Jewell has surveyed a wide range of traditional musical styles, from the folk and jug band leanings of her early recordings, through an album-length homage to Loretta Lynn and the country gospel of her work with The Sacred Shakers, right up to 2009′s Sea of Tears, which bristled with the electricity of ’60s UK garage rock and Chicago blues. Queen of the Minor Key draws on everything from classic country (the fiddle-driven “Reckless”) to early R&B (the shuffling “Hooked”), with an emphasis on sounds from the seamier side of the tracks. With dirty sax riffs and low-slung guitars, the instrumentals that bookend the album—”Radio City” and “Kalimotxo”—evoke the bump-and-grind exotica of vintage Southern California suburban saloons. Yet on the flipside, Jewell imbues slow, jazzy numbers like “I Remember You” and “Only One” with torch and tenacity that linger long past last call.

A word on ‘The Queen Of The Minor Key’

It is the battered cassette jammed in the tape deck of the getaway car, the music Ida Lupino cues up on the roadhouse jukebox as she counts the till after close. This is Queen of the Minor Key by Eilen Jewell, a smart cookie with a heart of burnished gold and enough stories to keep even the rowdiest crowd hanging on her every word. Though its long shadows and dark corners make her kingdom feel intimate, her sovereign domain stretches as far as the imagination. Its denizens seek refuge in padded rooms, abandoned automobiles… and strong spirits. They defend their territory by any means necessary: weird voodoo, sawed-off shotguns, broken bottles.

But beware, savvy observer. There is more to Eilen Jewell than meets the ear. Do not confuse the singer and her songs. The drama and darkness that give Queen of the Minor Key its gritty texture are in short supply in the Boston-based songwriter’s personal life. And in a curious twist, these fourteen originals actually took shape in a sunny, idyllic location that contrasts strikingly with the album’s moody, film noir atmosphere.

In August 2010, Jewell headed to a tiny cabin in the mountains of Idaho. Although her clan hails from the Gem State, this was no comfy retreat at the family fold. Her temporary abode had no running water or electricity, and sat at the end of a winding dirt road. Wild elk would graze in the surrounding meadows while she worked. When it was time to unwind, she availed herself of a nearby hot springs. A dilapidated truck she found on the property even made its way into the album artwork.

She had no set game plan, and her sole objective for the new material was refreshingly modest (or incredibly daunting, depending on your point of view). “My goal as a songwriter is to always improve,” she demurs. “Every time I make a record, I want it to be even more real, more heartfelt, than the one before it. I want the slow songs to be slower and the fast songs to be faster.” Drawing on a connoisseur’s love of roots music and a writer’s eye for detail, Jewell fashions her musical vignettes with impressive economy. Each turn of phrase and chord change is executed with an élan that belies the measured precision behind it.

Jewell is wary of repeating previous success by following formulae. “But I also don’t want to change things just for the sake of changing them,” she adds. Never underestimate the public’s ability to recognize calculation masquerading as inspiration. “You always want to ride the creative process to new territory, without being overwhelmingly novel.”

Towards that end, she experimented with dark humor in the new material. The title tune takes inspiration from a poke someone made about her harmonic preferences. “I decided to run with that and adopt the moniker, even if it started off as a nickname that wasn’t necessarily intended to be flattering.” “Bang Bang Bang” eschews the cliché of Cupid as a rosy-cheeked cherub (“he’s more reckless and violent than that”), and replaces his petite bow-and-arrow with a gun show six-gauge, plus a laughing disregard for such trivial concerns as aim.

Queen of the Minor Key is also the first Eilen Jewell album to feature a significant number of guest players, even as she continues to work in close consort with her longtime trio of drummer Jason Beek, guitarist Jerry Miller, and upright bassist Johnny Sciascia. Zoe Muth and Big Sandy (of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys) both contribute vocals. “I was writing the songs with them in mind—if I could work up the courage to ask them—so I was really honored that they agreed to sing with me.” Further augmenting the sound are Rich Dubois on fiddle, David Sholl on tenor and baritone saxophones, and Tom West on organ. The arrangements, Jewell insists, occurred organically as the music was fleshed out in the studio; the songs tell her where they want to go. “We don’t really think it out that much.”

Eilen Jewell is the Queen of the Minor Key. Sad songs are her wealth and finery. Lend her your ears, and you will quickly hear why her humble subjects admire and adore her more with each passing year.

TICKETS

€17 available online from WAV Tickets [Lo-Call 1890 200 078] (50c per ticket service charge applies on phone or creditcard bookings from WaV).

Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.

AFTER THE GIG