By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times
Everything Turned To Color
“Everything Turned to Color” may sound like a phrase uttered by someone who took a hit of LSD while watching an old black-and-white movie.
In reality, Everything Turned to Color is the name of a talented new trio featuring Kyle Weber (vocals, electric guitar), Bryan Weber (vocals, acoustic guitar) and Neha Jiwrajka (vocals, piano, ukulele).
Everything Turned to Color is based in Brooklyn, New York but has its roots in Chester County. The Weber brothers grew up in Chester Springs and graduated from Downingtown High School.
On April 22, the brothers are coming back home to Chester County with a show at the Sprout Music Collective (130 East Prescott Alley, West Chester, 610-696-6006, sproutmusic.org).
The Webers have been making music together since the turn of the century and spent more than a decade in the rock band Zelazowa.
“When we toured with Zelazowa, Kyle lived in our parents’ house and then he lived in New York for a few years,” said Bryan Weber, during a phone interview Wednesday afternoon from his home in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. (DUMBO is an acronym for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.”)
“Five years ago, Kyle moved back to Pennsylvania. He’s living in West Chester now. I stayed in New York the whole time.”
It was in New York that Everything Turned to Color began its life.
“The birth of Everything Turned to Color was a bit fortuitous,” said Weber. “We moved to Harrisburg for a year and then moved back to the same house we had lived in in Brooklyn. We have our own DIY tour booking website — IndieOnTheMove.com.
“Neha was our new neighbor. She was into music and knew about our company. We became friends and she taught piano lessons to our kids.
“I had a lot of songs laying around so Neha and I worked on them together. We did shows using different drummers and bass players. Then, Kyle joined the band.”
The electrified sounds of Zelazowa are nowhere to be found with Everything Turned to Color.
“We play folky, singer-songwriter stuff,” said Weber. “So, playing a show at Sprout is about the best fit we could hope for.”
Everything Turned To Color will be releasing its debut album, “Life Imagined,” on June 23.
“We had 16 or 17 songs that we whittled down to 11,” said Weber. “All of them had been road-tested for a while, We cut the album with Blake Morgan at ECR Music Studios in Manhattan. It’s a great tiny little place owned by Blake.”
Inspired by the brothers’ foray into parenthood, “Life Imagined” takes a look at the bittersweet dualities of life and the questions that accompany it.
The album’s lyrics deal with the fragility and innocence of childhood, the significance of enduring friendship, and the inevitable moments of love and loss that haunt us all.
“We really wanted to make an album rather than just a collection of songs,” said Weber. “We knew we needed a thread running through it. Our attitude was great. We finished tracking in January.”
Video link for Everything Turned to Color – https://youtu.be/kp1q7ZG6ONQ.
The show at Sprout will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17.
John Hall
On April 22, John Hall, who has gone from musician to politician and back to musician, will headline a show at the Philadelphia Folksong Society (6139 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, https://pfs.org).
Along the way, environmental and political concerns have kept Hall moving in and out of direct community involvement. He was elected to the Ulster County Legislature in 1989 and served one term in 1990 and 1991.
In the late 1990’s, he was elected twice as trustee of the Saugerties New York Board of Education, where his fellow trustees elected him president.
Hall also served as a volunteer member of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater’s board of directors before running successfully for Congress in 2006. He represented New York’s 19th District until 2011, when he returned to private life — and a life of music.
It is somewhat fitting that his concert in Philadelphia is on Earth Day.
“Earth Day is important,” said Hall, during a phone interview Tuesday. “There are a lot of issues that are important. For example, climate change is of major importance to the food chain.”
In his show Saturday night, Hall will be performing and telling stories, including some from his new memoir “Still the One: A Rock’n’Roll Journey to Congress and Back.”
Hall is best known as the founder of the band Orleans, which had major hits with “Still the One,” and “Dance With Me.” He also co-wrote Janis Joplin’s “Half Moon,” Steve Wariner’s chart-topping country hit “You Can Dream of Me,” and “Power,” which became the theme of the “NO NUKES” concerts in the 1970s.
“For this show, I’ll be playing some Orleans songs,” said Hall, the only professional rock ‘n’ roll guitarist to serve in the U.S. Congress.
“I’ll do the solo acoustic and electric thing and then turn to the book and music part. People want to hear the stories behind the songs.
“I also talk about my transition from musician to politician and back. Sometimes, my shows also have a question-and-answer segment. But, no matter what, there is always a lot of music.”
Even prior to his venture into the world of politics, Hall was up-to-date and very involved with our nation’s political and environmental situation.
“Every Orleans or John Hall album had at least one political or environmental song,” said Hall. “My song ‘Power’ was big with the ‘No Nukes’ effort.
“It was printed in Sing Out magazine and then Peter, Paul & Mary and Pete Seeger did it. That’s when I officially became a folksinger.”
With Orleans, Hall was a player in a rock band. But, at the same time, he had roots that went way back in the world of folk music.
“When I was a kid, we had an old RCA wooden radio,” said Hall. “I jerry-rigged a turntable and listened to my parents’ records of Pete Seeger with the Weavers. Until electric guitar got my attention, I played acoustic guitar.”
In early 1972, Hall’s local jam band in Woodstock turned into Orleans when Wells Kelly and then Larry Hoppen joined the ensemble.
Later that year, Lance Hoppen joined on bass, freeing Larry to play guitar and keyboard. Orleans recorded four albums in the 1970s with the singles “Still the One” and “Dance with Me” both reaching certification of more than four million airplays in the United States.
Hall left Orleans in 1978 and made two solo records, “John Hall” and “Power.” The latter featured the anti-nuclear anthem which later became the theme of the No Nukes concerts, recorded by the Doobie Brothers with James Taylor. In late October 2004, Hall publicly commented that the presidential campaign of George W. Bush had not asked for permission to use the Orleans song “Still the One” at campaign events.
The campaign later dropped the song from their playlist. Four years later, Hall expressed similar disapproval when John McCain’s presidential campaign also used the song without asking for permission.
Hall has been involved with Mid-Hudson Nuclear Opponents, who successfully fought the siting of a nuclear power plant on the Hudson River in Greene County.
While living in Saugerties, New York, Hall co-founded Saugerties Concerned Citizens, and helped write the town’s first zoning law. When Ulster County announced plans for a 200-acre solid waste dump on the historic Winston Farm, Hall led the opposition.
“Right now, I’m very happy to be back playing music,” said Hall.
Video link for John Hall – https://youtu.be/hpCmD59SqqQ.
The show at the Philadelphia Folksong Society, which has Lizanne Knott as the opener, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.
No Good Sister’s debut full-length studio album, “You Can Love Me,” which was entirely funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign, has just been issued.
As a result, the trio is having a “CD Release Show” on April 22 at Boot & Saddle (1131 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, 215-639-4528,www.bootandsaddlephilly.com).
The phrase “a mom, a teacher, and a waitress gathered in a small apartment” sounds like it might be the start of a joke. Instead, it is the description of the start of a band – the origin of No Good Sister.
The apartment was located in Philadelphia and the three people involved were Maren Sharrow, Jess McDowell, and Meaghan Kyle. The friends gathered specifically to hear what their voices might sound like when joined together in three-part harmony.
By the end of the night, the three singers knew they had something special in the effortless way their three very different voices blended together in a harmony that was both timeless and exciting. No Good Sister was born.
“This is our CD release weekend – Thursday at the Bitter End in New York, Friday at Tellus 360 in Lancaster and Saturday at Boot & Saddle in Philly,” said Maren, during a phone interview last week.
“This album definitely took longer than we expected because we had to raise the funds and we had to work on the songs. The album’s songs were written over the last few years. And, the recording process has taken a long time.
“We started in the studio in September with John Anthony at Philly Post. We were in the studio off-and-on until January and then spent February mixing the album. We got all the mastering done by the beginning of March. That was a pretty quick turnaround.”
Mike “Slo-mo” Brenner (The Low Road, Marah, Magnolia Electric Co) did a dual task — producer and lap steel player. The album features musicians from some of the area’s top bands including Get the Led Out, John Train, West Philadelphia Orchestra, and The Roddenberries.
“All three of us are lead vocalists,” said Kyle. “We all write songs and we take turns singing lead.”Jess and I met up when we were doing back-up vocals for A Fistful of Sugar, which is a big folk collective — a huge band. Jess and I were car mates and roommates when we did a big tour with them in August 2012.
“Maren was a bartender at one of my favorite haunts — McCrossen’s in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. When the bar’s manager had a birthday party there, Maren started singing. I heard her and realized she had a great voice.
“Jess doesn’t have any sisters and Maren and I only have non-musical sisters. We all have wished that we had sisters we could sing harmony with. So, when we got together, we became No Good Sister.”
Kyle knew there was something good in the making so she immediately pursued it.
“We started rehearsing in the fall of 2012,” said Kyle. “We booked a gig right away to make sure it would happen. We booked the gig before we even had our first rehearsal. It was at a Hurricane Sandy Benefit at Milkboy in Philly. It just started rolling from there. Now, it’s a real thing.
“In January 2013, we played an open mic show at the World Café Live at the Queen in Wilmington. We didn’t know it was a contest — and we won. They have a contest every month all year and then the 12 winners came back to perform again in January 2014 to determine the winner for the year.
Since then, No Good Sister has continued to build its fan base and its repertoire.
“I think we definitely evolved,” said Sharrow. “The new album is more rocking. It’s upbeat and a lot of fun for the alt-country community.”
Video link for No Good Sister – https://youtu.be/L8tL805CXEg.
The show at Boot & Saddle, which also features Andrea Nardello, will start at 8:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.
Slocan Ramblers
If fans of No Good Sister are looking for a concert to attend on April 23, they should check out the Slocan Ramblers show at Chestnut House Concerts (603 West Chestnut, Lancaster, chestnuthouseconcerts.com).
The Slocan Ramblers — Adrian Gross, Alastair Whitehead, Darryl Poulsen and Frank Evans – are billed as “Canada’s young bluegrass band to watch.”
With roots in traditional music and a strong sense of creativity, the Slocan Ramblers have become a leading light in Canada’s roots music scene.
“We’re based in Toronto,” said Gross, during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon as the band travelled though Canada from Toronto to a going in New York City.
“We’re all from different parts of Canada – Montreal, Newfoundland and Toronto.
“A few of us were in Toronto studying at a music school called Humber College. We were jamming together and invited a banjo player over.
“We did that for a little while and it evolved into a weekly gig at Cloak & Dagger, a club in Toronto’s Kensington Market. Eventually, we started touring. Now, we tour the states quite a lot.
“We all got into bluegrass in different ways. It began for me when I started listening to old records. I heard a Doc Watson record and got into the music.
“All of us have been listening to a lot of bluegrass music over the last few years. It was through our love of bluegrass that we got this band together.
“We try to do a real mix of bluegrass and pit our spin on it – just staying true to who we are – creatively letting our personality shine through.”
The Slocan Ramblers have plans to record their third studio album at the end of the summer. Anyone in attendance at one of their shows before that will be treated to their new work.
One of the things that makes The Slocan Ramblers notable, is that they like to compose new music with live audiences while on tour.
“We’re doing a lot of new songs on this tour. We like to try out new songs – tweaking them as we go. We’ve been road-testing a lot of our songs ever since the beginning of the band.
“We’re now in pre-production for our third album. We’re in the writing and arranging phase. We’ll make the record at the end of summer in Toronto with Chris Coole. We hope to have it out by Spring 2018.”
But, fans of the band won’t have to wait until next year to hear the new material. All they need do is attend a Slocan Ramblers concert.
Video link for Slocan Ramblers — https://youtu.be/YTTkOal3-PU
The show at Chestnut House Concerts will start at 7 p.m. For all Chestnut House shows, the suggested donation is $15-$20 per person.
