Blogs
<p>Seasons Greetings to All</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Born on the Southside of Chicago</p>
<p>I started playing guitar with Sister Agatha Terese and the St. David School Band which gave me my ear but bored the hell out of me. Hence I stopped playing.</p>
<p>However when I moved to the Gage Park area close to my cousins, who kicked on guitar, I became interested in playing again and started going to jam sessions at warehouses and funeral homes on the southside and jamed with some of the best at that time.</p>
<p>My first band was called Legend, for the short time we were together we rocked the southside. This became the start of my music career and these guys would be part of my whole life.</p>
<p>My first weekly gigging band would be Lane Changer with the former guitarist of Legend we were together for more than a decade and open for many big acts. This is where I learned how to entertain.</p>
<p>My first original band was American Made, we came very close to getting the Gold, but **** happens and it ended. So I retired once again.</p>
<p>As it always seems to go you start to get that itch and before you know it you're playing again.</p>
<p>My next band was called Before and After, which turned into Diamonds and Rust no reason to guess why.</p>
<p>Then I hooked up with my old freinds from Lane Changer and Legend and became Undaunted we had a great run with alot of success but **** happened again.</p>
<p>Currently I am with RYTE AZ RAIN, Matrix and jam at the river {Pat's} with some really talented guys trying to find my roots and a purpose for my accomplishments.</p>
<p>I hope to see all of you in the future and want to thank my wife, kids, family, friends, and mother for all the support which put me where I am at today.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Bob Diamond</p>
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">AUBURN SILHOUETTE - N ADVENTURE IN LIGHT AND SKY<br /><br />The new release from celebrated Australian musician Steve Roberts aka. Amongst Myselves takes the listener on an unforgettable ambient journey through the elements.<br /><br />Each track from ‘Auburn Silhouette’ evokes a different environmental experience, with inspiration drawn from outback South Australia and 12 months working and travelling overseas.<br /><br />For the first time, the release is accompanied by a bonus DVD of three short films produced by Roberts and based on tracks from the album.<br /><br />“This is one of my most rewarding pieces of work to date - and certainly a headphone experience,” says Roberts. <br /><br />“I took a lot longer this time on my compositions as I felt I had rushed previous releases. It does take me a long time to meld the whole album together and I have realised that I prefer to take my time and enjoy the process,” he said.<br /><br />Contrast is a strong theme throughout the album and clearly seen in the tracks ‘Bay of Dreams’ and ‘Munstead Heath.’ <br /><br />In ‘Bay of Dreams’ Roberts calls upon treasured holiday memories to highlight the contrast between ‘the daily grind’ and ‘holiday calm’, with a segue between a sleepy lullaby and a cacophony of day-to-day noises. ‘Munstead Heath’ takes us from the snow and icicles of Roberts’ first Northern Winter to the intoxicating heat of Malaysia.<br /><br />The tracks ‘Star’, ‘Southern Lights’ and ‘Up Into the Air and Over the Edge’ are brilliantly illustrated by Roberts short films or ‘wallpaper’, which showcase his skills in time lapse photography, astronomy, visual effects and electronics. “I’m very excited to include my films with the release. As a film maker and sound producer by trade, creating film that helps convey the feelings within the tracks has been a long term goal for me,” he said. <br /><br />Roberts has recently achieved solid international success with the inclusion of the track ‘ Distant Horizons’ on a new compilation album ‘Ultima Thule Chasing the Dawn.’ The album features 78 minutes of previously unreleased music from the world’s most acclaimed ambient composers, among them Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Tim Story, Jeff Grinke and Thom Brennan.<br /><br />Amongst Myselves made a first impression on the ambient music scene in 1999 with the release of ‘The Sun in the Bottle’.<br /><br />The entire Amongst Myselves catalogue is available through CD Baby, iTunes, MSN Music, Emusic, Arvato, Sony Connect, Choice Records to mention just a few of a total of 49 companies.<br /><br />‘Auburn Silhouette’ will be available from the 10th April 2007<br /><br />ENQUIRIES:<br />Steve Roberts - info@amongstmyselves.com<br />post: 3 Uralla Court, Blackwood SA 5051, Australia<br />phone: +618 8278 1759 www.amongstmyselves.com<br /></font>
Don't let the title fool you - this is not a game. The stakes are higher on RoGue's sophomore album and the band has waged a full-on vocal war. With eleven strong tracks in their arsenal, a victory is clearly inevitable. <p>The band comes bearing rare musical gifts. The album is like nothing you've ever heard and yet often feels familiar. With tracks reminiscent of your first Ani DiFranco concert or a dance party in your best friend's basement back in the day, the album reunites you with styles you've missed and gives you unique and new grooves to fall in love with. The band delivers a soundtrack for their generation, but plays across all decades and produces an album that both takes you back and pulls you forward. </p><p>Like their last album, Touch and Linger, the band experiments with a variety of styles and elements, but still manages to keep it fresh. Arrangements that leave no chord unturned, gritty, brassy vocals and lyrics that carry you from melancholy to exuberant, "Play The Game" is unpredictable, but to RoGue fans, definitely not unexpected. </p><p>Constantly asked to specify the umbrella that their music lies under, the band is what it is. A mixture of rock, soul, jazz, blues, disco, funk and dance. Alternative. But urban. Deeply rooted. But fluid. Elevated. But humble. And Impressive.</p>
From South East Kansas, a land rich in fertile farmland, country music, and a down home people Steeped in history and tradition, comes an original and classic rock band with a diverse cultural influence that has inspired a unique blending of blues, classic, and southern rock sounds. It is for the love of music that five musicians from different regions of the country and musical backgrounds come together to form the Second Chance Band. The Second Chance Band takes pride in their list of accomplishments, up to and including their 9 song debut C.D. Pure Chance in which they wrote, recorded, and released themselves in the summer of 2004. Now they are embarking another journey with the release of their sophomore CD " Waitin' in Line" also written and recorded and released the summer of '06! The Second Chance Band is not like your average cover band. They Pay Tribute to Legends of Rock that you once danced to, drove many miles to their concerts, listen to them on the radio and drank an occasional beer with! They have been writing their own material for years and have gained notoriety from the sales of their self produced CD entitled Pure Chance and by performing at special events!
on june the 6th at 2pm eastern standered time artistfirst world radio is doing an hour long interview of me and my music so if you want to know who i am and what im about listen in to http://stream.netro.ca/afrn or www.artistfirst.com<br />
<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">"Breath-taking!"-- <strong>Jason Hoffman, Whatzup Magazine</strong> </font><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">"...quite the talent, one to be reckoned with. Brilliant."--<strong>Alan Haber,WEBR/budge.com</strong> </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">"...infectious beat-heavy piano licks."-- <strong>Laurie Koh, San Francisco Bay Guardian</strong> </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">"Get this album now."--<strong> J-Sin, Smother.net</strong> </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">"I love it."--<strong> Amy Lotsberg, Collected Sounds</strong> </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">*************************************************** </font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>Seaworthy/True Margrit--Editors Pick-- J-Sin: Smother Magazine<br /></strong>Piano-pop. It’s fun, that’s for sure. Smart and witty lyrics with borrowed lounge piano that bubbles with pop bliss is the main theme veining throughout “Seaworthy”. The female vocals are sultry alto with perfect harmony and great accuracy. But perhaps the most impressive element is that they arrange their songs with a brilliance that never masks the intimacy of the lyrical content. They add in oboe, sax, flute, bassoon, cello, and guitar to a piano-pop sound that would make Ben Folds jealous and blush with delight. Get this album now.<br /></font></font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>Seaworthy/True Margrit -- Jason Hoffman (June 2006, Whatzup Magazine)<br /></strong>Sometimes you can listen to the radio for hours and have the music float right over you. But then a new song starts and it immediately grabs your attention and reminds you that music is supposed to be enjoyable. Such was the case with “True” by True Margrit off their album Seaworthy. Perhaps it was the strident piano that is soon accompanied by staccato cello that leads to an ominous verse that often takes a relaxed, hopeful breath in the simple chorus. More orchestration occurs as the song develops, at times refreshing and then suddenly threatening, taking the listener through many moods in just three and a half minutes without ever leaving its original melody. Breathtaking!<br /></font></font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Fortunately the rest of the album is just as impressive. The band is formed around Margrit Eichler on piano whose lead vocals are lonely and soulful, expressive and sensitive without a trace of ego, similar in times to Aimee Mann or Mary Lorson of Madder Rose. Joining Margrit is Gary Hobish on basses and guitars and Andrew Bacon on drums, plus a whole slew of friends on cello, flute, sax, oboe, bassoon, and percussion. The music they create is very organic, sweet, and sincere, mixing pop, folk, cabaret, and jazz, a kind of friendly Dresden Dolls without the cruel self-aware pomp. </font></p><p><br /><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Consider the dramatic “Everyone Wins” where Eichler examines our need for love with a wistful longing, singing “It’s just a game / If there’s no risk / The whole world wants this” in a resigned fashion, building to an aggressive chorus of pizzicato strings and digging cello. The sedate “Electricity” cleverly compares the interaction between electricity and water to human relationships: “We never touch / We’re separate atoms.” Muted sax and a midnight feel lend to the stark and sobering feel of the song. </font></p><p><br /><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Seaworthy deftly combines mostly upbeat, bright, cheery melodies with a dark or melancholy edge a few yards below the surface. “Deliver Me” sounds like a breezy Randy Newman song with a hint of New Orleans jazz but the lyrics deal with blame and revenge. In the enjoyable “Members Only” Margrit recalls a dream in which she “joined the club” and became “endowed in ways I was not born”, stating “Now when I drift off to sleep/ I want my piano but you keep/ Strapping that guitar on me/ An instrument I do not need”, all with a wistful, playful, jaunty piano riff. </font></p><p><br /><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Thirteen songs and not a sinker in the bunch. True Margrit composes appealing songs in a variety of styles whose melodies are as playful as their lyrics, incorporating everyone from Carol King to the Breeders into a cohesive unity. The band gracefully rounds out their adult-oriented sound with enough layers, instrumental variety, rich harmonies, and rousing, singable melodies to bring you back to their open waters time and time again. <br />Available at cdbaby.com and Amazon. <br /></font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>SEAWORTHY/ True Margrit--Alan Haber: WEBR/ buhdge.com<br /></strong>Seaworthy is a singular, astoundingly magical creation that announces itself like stride piano amplified for a very large body of water... </font></font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Just when you wonder where all the Ben Folds clones are, along comes Margrit Eichler and her able-bodied trio, True Margrit, to dispel the myth. While there are some Folds comparisons to be made, this is no attempt to fan the keys of a piano in the style of one who came before or since; Seaworthy is a singular, astoundingly magical creation that announces itself like stride piano amplified for a very large body of water (go with me on this, will you?). </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Possessing the soul of a jazz player trapped in the body of a popster, Eichler tickles the ivories and stomps on them, often at the same time. It is important to remember that the piano is a percussive, as well as melodic, instrument, and this talented, committed player uses that duality to her advantage. Sweet at one turn and elasticized the next, Eichler's voice is somewhat reminiscent of Aimee Mann and Andrea Perry; she bends the notes when it’s appropriate and sings them straight ahead when it’s not. Hers is a remarkable instrument emotive, sensitive, and aggressive when the mood demands. She’s quite the talent, one to be reckoned with. </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Eichler's music falls somewhere in the pond in which swims Billy Joel, Elton John, Mann and Perry. She’s intelligent, and not afraid to run the style gamut; she’s confident enough to deliver a hysterical tour de force, a thinly-veiled song about sexual confusion (but on whose part?) that is two-thirds of a step away from brazen, “Members Only.” The poppy number is a catchy winner, masterfully crafted, with one of the great lyrics of the year: “Now when I drift off to sleep/I want my piano but you keep/Strapping that guitar on me/An instrument I do not need.” Brilliant. </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">In fact, Eichler's playful use of language and keen ability to flesh out a story, sometimes with the barest of details, is one of this singer/songwriter’s greatest, most affecting traits. In the beautiful ballad “Electricity,” Eichler plays with the idea of electricity and waters sparking attraction, if not necessarily traditional contact; the lines “How can you say lights like sparks on the bay/Don’t reflect on the way waters illustrate/How they connect like electricity” are boundless as thoughts to spark our brains as we consider the basis and veracity of our connections in life. </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Channeling the stride piano and New Orleans jazz of Randy Newman on the sprightly “Deliver Me,” Eichler weaves a “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” type of tale about blame, something she sings is “easier to spin&I’m vain enough when I get killed/To smile at the tears you spill.” With blame, I guess, comes revenge. Hah! </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">The idea of wanting something so bad that you’ll take the risk to survive is explored in the fetching “Everyone Wins,” wonderfully arranged to spotlight Eichler's piano and widescreen vocal. The song builds to an aggressive harmony onslaught, as sweet as it is propulsive. The other ideas explored in these songs are common to everyone’s consciousness, and subconscious, to be sure; the spin Eichler puts on them how she adapts them to her musical attack is the key to listeners being awed by her. </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Water can be an incredibly passive image; it just lays there, affected only by nature’s gyrations and human activity. The image of water floats in and out of many of these songs. In “Hours in Reverse,” polar ice caps melt; in “Deliver Me,” the narrator smiles at the tears a person spills; in “Great Praise,” stars rain down; and in the closer, “Nothing,” the question is asked whether there is a “peaceful sea/you can go when you’re not yet dead/where waters lap and now you’ve snapped/nothing needs to be said.” Water appears, then, to have somewhat of a three-dimensional personality, affecting us in many ways, even as simply as the first drops of a shower slapping one’s eyeglasses with a liquid stain. </font></p><p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">At its most extreme, water gets us from here to there; drinking it makes us stronger, even when our bodies’ inclinations are to be weak. On this dramatically musical and literate album, Eichler and her cohorts Gary Hobish and Andrew Bacon, along with a parcel of special guests, shine their spotlight on all manner of water perhaps, most especially, the people who are made of so very much of it. </font></p><p><font size="2"><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><strong>True Margrit<br />SEAWORTHY (Bobotunes)--- Laurie Koh: San Francscio Bay Guardian</strong> <br />Margrit Eichler is a full-time working musician who wears the badge with pride. Over the years she has put in hours teaching piano lessons, moonlighting in the metal band Sparrows Point, producing albums for others in her new home studio (Absolutely True Sound), and fronting her own piano pop-driven ensemble, True Margrit (Eichler on keyboard and vocals, Andrew Bacon on drums, and Gary Hobish on bass). Eichler can claim to fit into both the folk and rock spectrums she regularly gigs at a range of Bay Area venues, from the Rose Street House of Music to the Red Devil Lounge and in True Margrit, she straddles the line between both genres. The band's latest album, Seaworthy, is a collection of Eichler's clever and sea-salty ruminations on space, time, vanity, and ethereal connections. The songs are part of a still-in-progress rock opera titled Glampyre on the Bounty, about a time-travel reality show that dumps contestants onto an 18th-century ship. Eichler's lyrical sensibility melds with her infectious beat-heavy piano licks. Bacon and Hobish ably back her, adding counterpoint and weight to the band's overall sound. Those who are tired of tremulous emo-drenched acts, and want to hear a singer-songwriter whose words and music stand up for themselves, should give this album a listen.</font></font></p>
PLAY YOSONG RECORDS, INC. <p>February 4, 2007 </p><p>Press Release </p><p>At this time Play YoSong" Records, Inc., is happy to announce the release of the album “Out of Sight Out of Mind” performed by Good Sense Productions recording artist, Maia (Belinda Davids-Fishman) </p><p>Maia, who hails from Port Elisabeth, South Africa, already commands a solid fan base in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles (she has been performing at various venues in this area for the past couple of years), and is increasing her fan base as she continues to perform at other venues in other sections of the greater Los Angeles area and other cities in Southern California. </p><p>“Out of Sight Out of Mind”, her U.S. debut album (Produced by Malvin Dino Vice For Good Sense Productions) encompasses songs of love lost, love found, money & debt, and several other soul stirring/spirit healing songs of various subject matter. </p><p>While this sensational singing vixen has been compared to artists who range from the likes of Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey, connoisseurs will find that Maia has found her “vocal self” with this debut effort, and it is the expectation of this writer that she will become an even finer gem with each and every one of her future musical offerings. </p><p>I welcome all of you reading this press release get your copy of this CD, kick back, and take this pleasant musical journey as “Out of Sight Out of Mind” promises to deliver to the musical tastes of all who dare to engage! </p><p>Maia’s “Out of Sight Out of Mind” can be purchased at www.playyosong.com and many web vendors in the coming weeks. Enjoy! </p><p>Richard M. Adams Chief Executive Officer - Play YoSong Records, Inc.</p>
Raymond Simmons is a drummer with a unique style. He was either born with rhythm in his hands or had an excellent teacher..GREAT!!-BjD Wishing Away Records
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE John Robert Jackson Releases his "GOLD RIVER" CD on VaraVista Records, Nashville,TN - November 20, 2005. More details at www.johnrobertjackson.com
Dan Hyland- Youngest member and the frontman of the band. Likes to play his SG Gibson bass with the authority afforded the most prodigious players. Has an affable self-effacing nature not afforded the most prodigious players. Shares the vocals with two other members of the band. Kevin Hyland- Drummer of the band. Has been in groups with consumer-tested names such as Smiling Potatoes, Dead Squash and The Ferguson 5. Has been continually playing since he was 16, when he saw old Who footage and Keith Moon, after which he went out and got two bass drums. Later he acquired a snare drum and some cymbals. Pioneered the technique of the stick toss used in blinding oneself. Gary Townsley- Newest member joined in June 03. A very versatile guitarist who has in the past gained considerable knowledge due to his role as Engineer at Coyote studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Understands the subtlety of the band as well as finding 11 when need be. Usually seen with a Miller Lite. Ellen Willwerth- The essential part that gives Hy80 its distinction from others due to her ability on a variety of instruments including guitar, mandolin, flute and harmonica.
