Fictionist

I recently became aware of some great new outdoor concerts called the Rooftop Concert Series. It's being held in down town Provo every first Friday night starting in May (last night) thru October. The thing that caught my eye was that they'd scheduled a great singer I recently became aware of (thanks Nancy Hanson!). Her name is Meaghan Smith and she hails from London, Ontario, Canada. Meaghan is scheduled to perform in June. Meaghan recently performed a couple of times with Lilith Fair and was featured on the sound track to "500 Days of Summer". She's a wonderful new LDS artist. I thought I'd check out the venue last night so I'd know the lay of the land in preparation for next month. I wasn't disappointed. The line up last night included 3 different artists. The openier to the opening was a girl with guitar named Emily Brown. She was followed by the true opener, Paul Jacobsen and the Madison Arm. The main event was Fictionist, a band that's been getting a lot of media attention locally as well as nationally. They are currently in the running for a contest to be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine which will also net them a recording contract if they win. If You'll click the header, it will take you to their website where you can vote for them by picking on the five stars. Let me say this about Fictionist, while not being in a genre I regularly follow, they are Stinkin' Good!!! I highly endorse helping them win the contest.

Getting back to the Rooftop Concerts, don't be put off by the fact that their target audience is primarily college students and other musicians. There were plenty of middle aged folks there last night and I'm willing to bet I wasn't the oldest geezer among them! This is a great way to find out what's happening on the local music scene and to be exposed to some great stuff. Check out their line up. There's music there for most anyone except maybe classical lovers.I'm not sure how they're managing to get such a great schedule without charging admission, but that's the deal. Check it out!
 
http://www.rooftopconcertseries.com/

Mtraca Berg

Matrace Berg has a new cd coming out on May 17th. The Performing Songwriter website allows playing of the complete album for a few more days. Take a listen. I think it's great and will hopefully have more to say about it in the future. I plan on waiting to get the cd when she comes to Sundance later this summer, so let me just say from a first listen I think it's pretty great. I've always loved her as a singer, only wish there was more of that to go around. She's one of the most prolific and successful songwriters in the business so no need to make a living as a singer.....dang! See if you agree with me!


http://performingsongwriter.com/

The video's of one of the songs off the album sung with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band whose lead singer, Jeff Hanna, just happens to be her husband!

Suzy Bogguss

Before I talk a little bit about another of my favorite singers, let me add an explanation of the kind of singer I find interesting. I claimed earlier that I look for those who are obscure and maybe haven't found the light of day yet. I guess I'm just not much for listening to what the main stream music industry promotes. But in addition to liking singers that haven't surfaced yet, I like to follow singers who may have had a time in the lime light but have fallen off the radar. I think Nashville is particularly hard on female singers, turning over a new crop on a regular basis. Those who've managed to survive for decades are few and far between and deserve a tip of the hat. People like Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton spring to mind. One of my favorites who had a nice radio career but is no longer played on contemporary country stations is Suzy Bogguss  She has one of the purest, sweetest voices you've ever heard and has continued to chug away at a wonderful career with little fanfare. I guess the nice thing about having a day in the sun is that it's possible to develop a fan base that will continue to sustain a career long after the radio has forgotten you. Such is the case with Suzy. I've seen her and met her on several occasions and she always plays to an appreciative crowd and has a long line waiting to meet and greet after the show, which she does on a regular basis. The album pictured above is simply called "Suzy Bogguss" and came out in 1999. It's a lovely album that fell on hard times when the label folded right after release. Apparently a goodly number of cds were printed as it's still available and is a real bargain. I found new ones listed at $1.29 on Amazon. The songs are all originals as far as I know, but they're all great and a number of them were written by Suzy and/or her husband Doug Crider. The musicians are all top flight Nashville folks too, with Alison Krauss making an appearance on a couple of the tracks. Favorites for me are: "Taking That Red Eye Home", duet with T. Graham Brown, "Love Is Blind", "Love Every Time", "Hold Me to It", "20 Million Things" and everything that follows. I've practically listed every track! That's how much I love it.  Another Suzy cd that's turning into a rarity, with new ones listed at over $40.00 at Amazon, is 1994s "Simpatico" with Chet Akins. Suzy and Chet were best friends and made this album late in his career. It's a pretty special album. The friendship seeps through and again all tracks are great, but 2 of my favorites are: "When She Smiled at Him" and "You Bring Out the Best in Me". If you can find a used one at a reasonable price, snap it up! Of course there are many, many Suzy albums out there and not a bad one in the lot. Check out her Christmas stuff and her album called "Swing" that lives up to its title.. She's got a new one in the works built around American Folk music that sounds pretty interesting. I may just have to report on it later!