parlor-room

No Ordinary Duo; Ordinary Elephant coming to the Parlor Room 9/20.

The duo of husband and wife Pete and Crystal Damore are “Ordinary Elephant”. They play gorgeous acoustic originals with superb vocal harmonies. Their third album,the self-titled “Ordinary Elephant” is filled with sometimes spare but haunting songs; usually avoiding “verse-chorus-verse” style and singalong hooks. But they are full of emotion and tension and don’t avoid big subject matter. Songs about death, despair, addictions and difficult family interactions are included. But the beauty of nature, love and hope keep the listener engaged. Crystal who pens much of the lyrics is accused as a ‘world class noticer” of circumstances, relationships and other fodder for songs and poems. She agrees with this assessment!

We talk about their decision to jettison their day jobs in Veterinary Cardiologist and Computer Programmer and buy an RV to take to the road. They honed their craft with countless open mics and observing an endless horizon of new places and experiences. After five years in this nomadic lifestyle (along with a pandemic) suggested finding a homeplace in Opelousas Louisiana (close to where Crystal grew up). The pair credit this feeling of “home” for this latest record which was recorded with Dirk Powell in his nearby Louisiana studio. Dirk is a multi-instrumentalist who’s toured and recorded with Joan Baez, Levon Helm and, more recently, Our Native Daughters. We open the segment with a cut from the new album, “Once Upon a Time”. The album has been nominated for Album of the Year by the International Folk Music Awards.

We talk about their song-writing process, recording vibe with Powell, their feature film of the experience and more. They will be performing a number of dates in the North East including September shows in Putney Vt (9/19) The Parlor Room (9/20) Cambridge Ma (9/21) Portland Me (9/25) and North Adams Ma (9/26).

We finish with a song introduced by Crystal as a letter to her future self called “I See You”. I finished with selections from other releases including “I Come From”, “Walk With You” and a cover of “If I Needed You”. If you need a break from the never-ending bad news cycle and frantic overload, do yourself a favor and dive into their powerful catalog of original songs. Of course, we hope you’ll catch this dynamic talented pair in person at a show in the next week.

Maggie Shar brings her Clawhammer skills to the Solstice Show, Parlor Room 12/12.

Maggie Shar, Winston Salem NC native, brought their banjo in-studio to play a few tunes on NineVoltHeart. Maggie will be part of the Winter Solstice concert along with the Low Lily on December 12 at the Parlor Room in Northampton, Massachusetts. We chatted about her early influences in NC finding her way to the banjo. We discussed why she enjoyed playing in this style as well as her teaching style and philosophy. Maggie teaches private lessons in person or online at MaggieShar.com

She started off with a tune called “Half Irish” and followed that with some of her important influences and teachers. Maggie Shar is in a number of creative projects such as The Ephemeral Stringband, The Moon Shells, and Little Roots; a music education program for young players. Little Roots has appeared locally many times at Luthiers, The Parlor Room, The Academy of Music, the Iron Horse. The Little Roots program has been featured many years at both Arcadia Folf Festival and the Green River Festival.

We talked about the upcoming Parlor Room show that Maggie will be playing, along with fellow-“MoonShell”-er, Brian Slattery on fiddle. We played a version of “Sally Ann in C” that Brian and her recorded as well as a song from the Moon Shells called “Fireworks”. Maggie played a spirited tune called “Goldrush” solo banjo style and we finished the segment with a Moon Shell tune appropriate for the Solstice show called “Let Out the Light”.

The remainder of the hour featured songs from We Banjo 3, Mark Erelli, Mark O’Connor and Tony Trischka; all in the wintery spirit.

Tickets for the Winter Solstice show on December 12 can be found at ParlorRoom.org

Low Lily brings the Light. Solstice Show at the Parlor Room 12/05.

Low Lily visited the studio to preview their upcoming series of Winter Solstice shows including a 12/05 date at Northampton’s Parlor Room. Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen and Natalie Padilla comprise the band who will feature songs from their catalog along with seasonal favorites that focus on the Solstice; songs of darkness and light! They begin our segment with the appropriately titled original, “We Bring The Light”. The trio have a large repetoire of songs and tunes to choose from. Flynn and Liz have three albums as Low Lily as well as two as Annalivia. All three players have solo projects too. Among the live in-studio versions of four songs, we chat about the upcoming tour, the concept of a solstice celebration, as well as the mentors that helped each member’s careers. Natalie Padilla features a fiddle tune, the title cut from her album, “Fireweed” and the band finishes with a powerful acappella version of “Hope Lingers On”.

We premiere a brand new song for the Winter Solstice show, it’s a Kate Rusby song called “Night Lament” to finish.

Please join me at the Parlor Room on December 5 at 7:30. Details at Parlor Room.org