Peep This: Billy Wylder “Til Your Well Runs Dry” Live at Skinny Pancake (Hanover, NH) Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - July 3, 2017July 3, 20170 Our pals Billy Wylder made a quick run up to Vermont and NH last week and we were lucky enough to swing down to Hanover, NH to catch their set. Whenever I get to see Avi and crew perform I am left flying high. They are just such a positive group of folks...and they absolutely rock. Check out this take on "Til Your Well Runs Dry" with some beautifully intimate harmonies and a couple great solos from Avi and fiddle magician Rob Flax.
Peep This: John Faraone “Oh My” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - June 28, 20170 John Faraone is perhaps a bit understated. Subtle in his delivery of the words in his songs, but each phrase still hits powerfully, locking you in and surrounding you with its intimacy. He croons softly, strums smoothly along with the stories woven in his melodies. A cool river evening with chirping peepers and dancing insects criss crossing the air may be the perfect place for Faraone's songs to live. Peaceful but potent. So it would seem extremely fitting that he recently filmed a video with friend Ryan Lang in Moretown, Vermont along the edge of the Mad River. The singer-songwriter's eagerly anticipated follow up to his last project, the gorgeously sparse and haunting "Houses", is currently being mixed and mastered and
Peep This: Delafaye “West Coast Vibes” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - June 27, 20170 Delafaye is new to me, but his voice immediately captured me. This particular live take of his tune, West Coast Vibes, was filmed it at the Air Devils Inn in Louisville, Kentucky, where Andrew is from. The tune, off of his new EP Highlands (set for release on July 7th through London based record label Street Mission Records) has a groove to it. The acoustic guitar line that kicks the tune off and immediately pushes into his semi-whispy vocal. A bit scratched and hardened, but sensitive all the while. Dreamlike in a way, but the reality of the acoustic instruments and live performance anchor it all down. He is endearing in a way. There a bits of folk for sure (in this performance), but
Peep This: Hayes Carll “Good While It Lasted” Live at Roots on the River Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - June 19, 20170 I'll be honest, there were 3 main reasons (artist wise) for me sauntering south to Roots on the River this year. Hayes Carll was the biggest reason of them all. I picked up a guitar for the first time a long while back, but didn't start toying with the idea of writing songs until I blasted through a collection of bands with other 15 year olds playing in friend's parent's basements drinking skunked Budweisers stashed outside or at our local high school talent shows. At that point we were merely covering tunes from Skynyrd or Johnny Cash or Stevie Ray Vaughan. Blues or country or whatever the hip band at that time was...an assortment of stuff. It wasn't until I
Peep This: The Meadows Brothers “Introduce Me To The Blues” Live at Roots on the River Featured Videos Music Features by Brian Carroll - June 14, 20170 There is always some excitement, even if you are too cool to admit it, when you get to see your favorite band live. Even more so if you get the opportunity to shoot the shit with them before or after the show. Yeah, that is always very cool. What is even more cool is when that band just so happens to be good friends of yours. The fact that I have been lucky enough to surround myself with some of the most talented people I know over the past few years has never been lost on me. Whether its a biased outlook or not, some of my very closest friends happen to be my absolute favorite songwriters and performers and
Peep This: The Boxcar Lilies “Sugar Shack” Live at Roots on the River Featured Videos Festivals by Brian Carroll - June 13, 20170 Sometimes simplicity in arrangement and execution is the best way to drive a stake of emotion directly into the hearts of an audience. That's something that the harmonizing sirens that make up The Boxcar Lilies proved all too well on Saturday afternoon at Roots on the River. The trio of Susan Cattaneo, Jenny Goodspeed and Stephanie Marshall (with Jim Henry thumping out the rhythm line on bass) quickly launched into a (mostly) acapella tune, Sugar Shack, to kick off their set at the festival and immediately the crowd went pin drop silent as they lured folks ears closer and closer. A quick-fire, minute and a half was all it took to hook the crowd and keep them on the line for
Peep This: The Suitcase Junket “Never Leave, Let Me Be” Live at Roots on the River Featured Videos Festivals by Brian Carroll - June 12, 2017June 12, 20170 Pulling into the parking lot of the Rodeway Inn just off of Rt. 5 you may not suspect that an entire day and evening of music is about to unfold behind it. A few cars beginning to fill the green space to the left of the motel and a table with a tent over it and "Box Office" printed on a sign hanging from it are the only indicators, sans the muffled sound of pre-concert music over the sound system ringing out. But music indeed will begin to fill the warm summer air with its soothing sounds, rocking riffings and melodic musings as 2017's iteration of Roots on the River kicks off its second day. The Suitcase Junket is no stranger
Peep This: Session Americana ‘Doreen’ Live (Briggs Opera House, White River Jct, VT) Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - June 9, 20170 A little over a month ago I caught the boys of Session Americana just south of our little abode in Vermont. White River Junction is an interesting place. Part forgotten industrial town with its brick facades sporting fading painted signage overlooking a host of boutique's and artist galleries. Up a steep staircase and through a bank of double doors sits another anomaly, the Briggs Opera House. The perfect setting for a Session Americana show for anyone who is a fan of Session Americana. Big enough to help the band fill the room and make a buck, but intimate enough to play host to what Session does best: have people all around them as they are all around their small circular
Throwback Sesh: Dan Blakeslee “Sleepwalking” Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - June 8, 20170 I think its an important exercise as any type of an artist or creator to revisit and critique old work. Back in May of 2014 I had just started making images. I mean, I had a Polaroid and a couple crappy film cameras growing up, but the first time I purchased a camera with the strict intent of creating images of artists and musicians or having a general direction of what I wanted to focus on. It was, to say the least, a learning experience and I tried to shoot as much as possible. I then realized the Nikon I purchased had the ability to shoot high res video as well I mentioned it to my friend Dan Blakeslee and we
Peep This: The Meadows Brothers on The Old Spruce Sessions Featured Videos by Brian Carroll - May 25, 20170 Two weeks ago Connecticut folk-rock-grass-blues duo The Meadows Brothers came up to visit us in our little town in Vermont. The boys were kind enough to perform at the town's little (but big hearted) coffeehouse series. A series that raises funds for a local beneficiary at each show. Small town rural communities doing what they can for the things we need and care most about in town like the local library, fire department and in the case of this show the local ski hill, the Northeast Slopes. Early in the day Ian, Dustin and myself headed up the hill to visit with my friend and local woodworker/luthier Dave Richard. At any given time Dave may be working on dressing frets on