The Belleville Outfit - 9/12/08 - Friday

8:30 pm - 10:30 pm

An Evening with The Belleville Outfit
(seated show)

Tickets : $15 advance/$18 door

With a tight, seamless, and an acoustic sound that's uniquely their's — a mix of gypsy swing, big band jazz and cross-genre Americana music, original songs and some clever covers — the startling six-piece Belleville Outfit of Austin belies the tender age of its members and its vast experience garnered swiftly after its union around Merlefest 2007 in Wilkesboro, N.C.

In fact, in just twelve months, the band has played for more than 25,000 people, ridden in a van-with-trailer to shows all the way from Texas to Tennessee, from Colorado to New York, and sold out shows up and down the East Coast and through Texas. Along the way, they've played the Strawberry Festival, the Kerrville Folk Festival, South by Southwest, the Four Corners Festival, Old Settlers Festival, and more. They've shared stages with the likes of Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Del McCoury Band, The Waybacks, and The Duhks, and recorded a full-length album with producers John Rees and Bil Vorndick. When the band is home, members soak up other acts’ music, absorbing how music transmits energy from musician to listener, healing both — always learning, learning from the past but breathing their own interpretations into what they hear.

The Belleville Outfit came together when The DesChamps Band of Spartanburg, was offered a slot at Merlefest 2007. The former band of singer-songwriter-guitarist Rob Teter was no more, so he got former band-mate, singer-guitarist Marshall Hood, and vocalist-violinist Phoebe Hunt (who’s won Daniel Pearl Foundation honors) to New Orleans to meet drummer Jonathan Konya, pianist Connor Forsyth and upright bass player Jeff Brown. After two days of marathon rehearsals, the band was ready for its first shows together — complete with a sound that mixes members’ Appalachian roots and the traditional jazz of New Orleans, American swing, blues, country, soul and gypsy music.

Teter, Forsyth and Konya had been studying music at Loyola New Orleans for two years, and Hunt had earned a degree in history at the University of Texas at Austin while playing in a local folk trio, The Hudsons and learning to play the fiddle. Brown, a member of The DesChamps Band, had joined the military. Hood was playing gigs for Austin’s Toni Price and Warren Hood and the Hoodlums. But after Merlefest, they each decided to give the band their all. Its name (“belle ville” means beautiful town in French) honors New Orleans and the dramatic influence Hurricane Katrina had on the city and the Loyola trio. And “Belleville” is also Django Reinhardt song, which exemplifies a great portion of its sound.

The band’s debut independent album, WANDERIN’, was released on Feb. 5, 2008, and spent sixteen weeks in the Top 20 on the Americana Music Charts, rising as high as #10. In April 2008 it was the fourth-most heavily-played album on XM Radio's X-Country station. Upcoming festival performances include the Austin City Limits Festival in September and the Joshua Tree Roots & Music Festival in California in October. Austin Chronicle music critic Jim Caligiuri named the Belleville Outfit the "best new local band" in Austin in 2008.

Belleville Outfit site and myspace  

The Belleville Outfit - 9/13/08 - Saturday

8:30 pm - 11:30 pm

House Party with The Belleville Outfit
(non-seated show)
Opening act to be announced

Tickets : $12 advance/$15 door 

See Friday Nights show for bio. 

Lost in the Trees - 9/19/08 - Friday

9:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Tickets : $8

After fronting The b-sides and The Never for years, Ari Picker is finally ready to reveal his solo work to the masses, under the moniker Lost in the Trees. A compilation of songs written over the last 7 years, the Lost in the Trees repertoire represents some of Picker’s most haunting and personal songwriting to date, coupled with his most elaborate and engaging orchestral arrangements. Picker’s time at Berklee College of Music in Boston has allowed his flair for classical music to flourish into an integrated aspect of his songwriting. The network of enthusiastic musicians at Berklee also allowed Picker to form a 9-piece backing orchestra for his compositions, evolving Lost in the Trees from a solo project to a fully active mini-orchestra including violins, viola, cello, upright bass, trombone, melodica and banjo. Picker’s love of cinematic scores is apparent on Time Taunts Me, but many of the songs are still based in good old fashioned songwriting. The synthesis of movie music and guitar-based folk songs creates an atmosphere in which Picker can be dramatic but not histrionic and straightforward but not boring. Just listen and you’ll see.

Lost in the Trees myspace and site

"a sublime blending of Tchaikovsky's ''Peter and the Wolf'' with a dash of Vivaldi and the vocal stylings of a suaver Ben Gibbard from Death Cab" ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"sounds a lot like the soundtrack to your favourite indie film"
POP MATTERS
 

Geoff Achison & the Souldiggers - 9/26/08 - Friday

8:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Tickets : $10

Having taught himself to play in the isolation of rural Australia, he has developed a blues/funk style all his own that can be delicate one moment and explosive the next. Unaware of how the sounds he was hearing on his limited record collection were produced, he invented some of his own techniques - without the aid of pedals or gadgets. As a result, watching this guy wrench sounds from his simple set-up can be something of a spectacle.

Geoff also possesses a soulful voice that has evoked favorable comparisons to Joe Cocker or Warren Haynes. An award winning songwriter to boot, Geoff’s live set features an infectious mix of catchy original tunes, improvised jamming and inspired versions of blues & soul classics.

He has toured regularly around the globe and won honours on 3 continents. Years of touring, recording and performing has seen him share stages and open shows with such high calibre artists as Jorma Kaukonen & Hot Tuna, John Mayall, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, Hubert Sumlin, Levon Helm and John Mayer as well as top Aussies 'Dutch' Tilders, Phil Manning, Jeff Lang and Tommy Emmanuel.

Growing up in the small town of Malmsbury, Geoff somehow developed a passion for American blues music and taught himself to play on a beat up instrument he discovered 'under the stairs' of the family home. In his early 20's he found employment as lead guitarist with Melbourne's top blues band 'Dutch Tilders & The Blues Club'. After 5 years relentless touring around Australia Geoff departed to pursue his own musical ideas and formed the first incarnation of his own band  'The Souldiggers'.

“The idea was to have a name that described the music and I greatly admired the blues philosophy - tapping into one’s soul for honesty and truth. That’s what ‘Souldiggers’ is meant to convey.”

Unimpressed with local recording lables, he formed his own Jupiter 2 Records with fellow music enthusiast Nic Quittner and released the first of many recordings of his original blues/funk/soul flavoured materiel in 1994.

Geoff started his worldwide explorations in 1995 with his first trip to the USA.
He represented the Melbourne Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and won the coveted Albert King Award for his guitar skills. He went on to accept an endorsement deal with the Gibson guitar company's acoustic division. He formed a US based Souldiggers group in 1998 and recorded his 3rd album 'Gettin' Evil' in Portland, Oregon. He returns regularly to America playing a vvariety of clubs and music festivals. Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame) has invited Geoff each year since '98 as a guest instructor at his Fur Peace Ranch guitar camp in Ohio.

Moving to London in 1997 Geoff established a UK following and recorded a live album with a British version of The Souldiggers.
Whilst working the US and Australian circuits Geoff also kept up a presence in England and formed yet another competent group of musicians. His popularity amongst fans in the know has grown with each visit and Geoff has garnered something of a cult following in each of these regions. His list of awards is formidable. Most recently he was honoured as an official patron of the Frankston International Guitar Festival (hosted in his new home town) and also won the Melbourne Blues Society's awards for 'Best Blues Band' and 'Best Male Performer'.

Geoff is actively touring and producing new music.
With a seemingly never ending schedule of gigs and tours Geoff has managed to find time to release the live Souldiggin' DVD featuring the Aussie Souldiggers in an energetic performance at one of their regular venues. A new batch of original songs Little Big Men hit the shelves in 2006 and Geoff's 10th album Acho Solo , a collection of solo acoustic songs was released in February 2007.
In October of 2007 Jupiter 2 Records released a CD version of the 'Live' DVD session simply titled Souldiggin' CD.

Geoff has now relocated to the USA.
In an exciting career move he has brought his family to Atlanta, Georgia where he is currently working with management/booking agency Brilliant Productions.

Geoff Achison's site and myspace 

The Coal Men - 10/3/08 - Friday

9:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Tickets : $10 advance/$12 door

With the addition of Chris Frame (Son Volt) on guitar and Jen Gunderman (The Jayhawks) ..boards, The Coal Men have gone from trio to quintet and their second full-length release, Beauty Is A Moment, reflects creative growth that shows no sign of letting up. Composer and guitarist Dave Coleman – who wrote or cowrote most the disc’s 12 cuts – is the force behind much of what puts The Coal Men into the first rank of roots rock/alt country music.

Coleman writes with the fearless emotional candor that marks the best of Alabama songwriter Will Kimbrough’s work, and the band is just similar enough to the Jayhawks to invite favorable comparison. But despite Coleman’s slight, dismissible vocal resemblance to an earthier more soulful Jackson Browne, The Coal Men don’t really really sound like anyone else. Coleman’s songs have the naturalness of good conversation and unfold with the same freshness. A laconic but literate and expressive lyricist who isn’t afraid to let melody pull an equal share, he paints with fewer strokes than many, yet gets so much out of them. For him and the rest of the Coal Men, beauty is a moment – actually, a series of moments – and there are a wealth of fine ones (“Natural Wonder,” “Cleveland Sky,” “ Louisiana ”) here. Coleman and Frame’s guitars, Dave Ray’s deep-bucket Levon Helm-type drumming, the tight but unceremonious competence of the band, and the quality of the songs put the album outside of trends and vogue.
 
"The Coal Men have risen from the ranks of Nashville up-and-comers to a spot as one of Music City's strongest, nerviest rock acts."
— Peter Cooper THE TENNESSEAN

"This young quartet’s exhilarating mix of alt-country, roots-rock and pop might sound subversive in its stodgy Nashville, Tenn., hometown, but elsewhere its second album washes over the ears like a summer breeze. Featuring simple, sturdily built songs recorded on vintage gear in a mix that lets you hear the grain in the wood the instruments are made of, “Beauty Is a Moment” lives up to its title - and the Coal Men live up to their buzz."
- Kevin R. Convey BOSTON HERALD

"Youthful cohorts The Coal Men lay down the roots with a tenacity that belies their tender years."
— Jack Silverman  NASHVILLE SCENE

Coal Men at Myspace 

Matthew Knights Williams CD RELEASE - 10/10/08 - Friday

8:30 pm - 11:30 pm

Tickets: $10 

MATTHEW KNIGHTS WILLIAMS is a family man and artist living and working in Cowpens, SC. In the book, Hub City Music Makers, music writer Peter Cooper describes Matthew as “an enormously talented and undeniably magnetic performer.” After surviving a turbulent adolescence and young adulthood spent navigating the pitfalls of destructive excess, Matthew has arrived at a place of grateful acceptance where his musical works reflect his experience, talent, and the hard won maturity of his soul and character.

COTTONWOOD, the new solo release from Matthew Knights Williams, tells the story of two lifelong friends who travel the same path, yet meet with different fates. Written in response to the untimely death of a close friend, the recording is deeply introspective and intended as a cautionary tale. Matthew, an accomplished songwriter and guitarist, employed top Nashville session players Jimmy Carter, John Hobbs, Kerry Marx, Brent Mason, Scott Sanders, and Scott Williamson to present this intensely personal material to the listening public. The result is Cottonwood. Matthew’s powerful lyrics, instantly recognizable vocals, and contagious melodies are exper tly delivered with a thoughtful, pleasing balance of Americana, Roots, and Rock.

Matthew will be joined on this night by several other musicians including Col. Gene Wyatt Trio (Bob Hinch, Wes Wyatt, Carroll Foster, Bill Canty), Faysouxx, David Ezell, Matt Parks, Brandon Turner, Joy Finch, Kevin Heuer, Don McGraw, Steve Cantrell, Freddie Vandeford, Baker Maultsby and Master of Ceremonies Sander Morrison. 

Afrissippi - 10/18/08 - Saturday

9:00 pm - 11:00 pm

Tickets: $10 advance/$12 door

Guelel Kumba comes from the Futa Tooro region of West Africa, and is a member of the FULANI people, nomadic cow people who spent centuries in the North African desert when it was still green before settling on the Atlantic Coast where many were captured by their enemies and sold into slavery. Kumba was born into the West African social caste known as GRIOTS, who pass down a millenniums worth of oral tradition including songs, stories, and lineages. As a youngster Kumba learned the molo, the one string guitar, and at age 8, the six string. When he was 20, he heard John Lee Hooker. "The blues is close to my music. The lyrics are different, but the emotions are the same," he says. "I loved the melodies but I was too young to understand the anguish yet." The nucleus of AFRISSIPPI was born when Eric Deaton, apprentice of the late JUNIOR KIMBROUGH, invited Guelel to explore the hill country sound of North Mississippi. Eric carried Guelel to the home of bluesman R.L. BURNSIDE where they discovered the eerie similarities between some of Guelels Senegalese folk melodies and those of R.L. & JUNIOR, the patriarchs of the hill country boogie and cottonpatch trance blues. With R.L.s blessing, Guelel & Eric recruited his son and grandson, Garry & Cedric Burnside, as rhythm section. When they left to launch Burnside Exploration, Kumba hired Juniors son and drummer, Kinney Kimbrough of Chulahoma and bassist Justin Showah (Jimbo Mathus, Cary Hudson Trio, Taylor Grocery Band) of Oxford, Mississippi.

Afrissippi on Myspace 

An Evening with Hope Nunnery - 10/22/08 - Wednesday

7:00 pm - 8:00 pm