jphono1 - Living is Easy

John Harrison's arts is always a mind expanding challenge to convention and these forty pages of art and nine tracks of atmospheric acoustic pop found bound by a single release titled Living is Easy...is the sort of collapsed dichotomy between art and life that John's audience is conditioned to expect from his studio. Known for twisting the heaviest and darkest sounds from a synthesizer in his mainstay electronic rock group North Elementary, John takes a lighter more experimental approach to the same machine on this solo effort jphono1. Throughout the album, there is an acoustic guitar, John's whimsically philosophical voice, and a synth zipping, zapping, and echoing in playfully thoughtful arrangements. The occasional looped atmospheric sound of birds chirping or stars shooting promotes a bridge between the two mediums of Living is Easy, which are sound and print. Graphic artist Regina McCoy chose from a pallet of art works, images captured during times of the album's creation, and lyrics scribbled on scratch paper to frame up Living is Easy the book, and each page within it offers a rich and delectable dive into the colorful life of the artist.

The commission can be per-ordered right now for $12 book and $5 CD (which is mind numbingly cheap for an effort of this quality) and shipping will begin on or around Feb 7. The entire album is available for streaming and/or download at the artist's website jphono1 as of right now also. To kick things off, a massive album/art release party is on the books for February 16th at The Cave in Chapel Hill. The party will begin at 7 PM and will feature 30 minute sets by nine performers beginning with Mark Edwards and ending with Chapel Hill folk rock darlings Magnolia Collective. Sara Bell of Regina Hexaphone, Neven Carswell of Wembley, and Inspector 22 are among the performers billed. Join the facebook event.

--Carrboro Ninja

images from "Living is Easy" the book

Magnolia Collective - Ghost Stories

If I were to describe the songs of Ghost Stories on a margin equal to how I listened to them it would read as if "Heartbreak, TX" is the only track on the album. From the moment of the first spin his song has played back and forth, up and down...and heard differently in each direction. The dark, heavy, and sublime melody is the song's first habit forming trip. It pulls and pushes, lets you fall and jerks you back up...a struggle that resolves only with an inevitable submission to the current. Drowning in it's thick and opaque textures may just be the first listen. Sink a few spins deeper and the mesmerizing grip of a hauntingly strummed banjo delicately weights the senses and hastens the fall. Weeks later you may, as I did, become enraptured with the song's provocatively visceral electric refrain that claws with emotion following a thorough vexing of the song's spirit stealing antagonist. Which ever element of this song is heard, Magnolia Collective is completely owning it. This is a Southern rock outfit expanded with a full accompaniment of Americana strings and they've pulled them all down from the wall to fix this song with surly smooth and tantalizingly moody textures.

No shortage of poets found in this seven person cast, every song is penned from a quill inked in the blood of a broken heart and the pages of their album bleed with the memories of lovers past. "Stolen Car" sets an early pace and coins the Magnolia Collective playing style as upbeat Americana rhythms, slinky C&W electric leads, and breezy harmonies. It also testifies for Magnolia Collective's urge to dive deep into the emotions of break-up's, make-up's, and fuck-up's. "Willow Tree" continues the knack for the deeply drawn plot with a sobering tale of the human condition as experienced by those who have loved and lost. MagCo hits stride for a big finish on "Owls" ...a charging waltz that swells and crashes on a grand scale. But I beg of you, don't let this be a six song EP, scratch for the seventh, there is a love song hidden within this album and you'll hear it if you dream steady.

You'll get this album with the eight-dollar ticket for Saturday night's EP release party at Local 506 in Chapel Hill, and Magnolia Collective will be in form for a raucous night of tight Southern rock. When you get to a disc player, go ahead and start on track four. That's "Heartbreak, Texas" and its not the only killer song on the album, but its the one that kills elegantly. --Carrboro Ninja

EP release party details:
Saturday 12/3 at Local 506 with The Moaners and Stag. $8 buy tickets on etix

Bloody Brunch and The Magnolia Collective

Motorco, Durham
July 24, 2011

A coincidental mash up between two efforts with near exact grass roots make ups made time together last Sunday afternoon at Motorco when The Magnolia Collective framed up their emerging brand of Southern rock inside Motorco's progressively successful new Sunday afternoon concert series Bloody Brunch and dTown Market.

Of Bloody Brunch and The Magnolia Collective, the first grass roots story is that of the performers. The Magnolia Collective, who also answer to MagCo, or to Rich and Mimi's side project, or Zach Terry's side project, or to Daniel Snyder's side project...sprung to life a little over a year ago atop the bar stools of the The Station at Southern Rail with promoter Scotty Fuller serving whiskey to Daniel and Zach...the three of them dreaming up a recurring Americana themed concert series. In the dream each show would open with a "house band" warming up the crowd with a few country classics before handing off to a featured group chosen from local alt country stock. Forming the band, Zach and Daniel recruited Rich and Mimi McLaughlin of The Pneurotics, Jonathan Truesdale of Red Collar, and members of their own bands The Whiskey Smugglers and Gambling The Muse who would together become The Magnolia Collective. Their set list cherry picked the best songs from their own bands along with some good time covers and put them in the hands of an large Americana outfit who crammed on stage shoulder to shoulder plucking banjos, mandolins, six strings, accordions, and a plethora of you-name-it noise makers. An opening act was expected to grow from these roots...it wouldn't be long however that MagCo would out grow those expectations.

By the end of the first Summer season the walls of The Station bursted to capacity during every Americana Revue and as MagCo became the main draw, the featured acts became the openers. By the fall they were no longer just The Station's house band as they were on the short list for promoters across town and regularly rounding out billings at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, The Pinhook and Broad Street Cafe in Durham, and anywhere else that called for energy and excitement. The grass now grown, they began to write original music and Sunday at Motorco, a half dozen tracks were brandished as what will soon become their first album.

Bloody Brunch can trace its beginnings back to a similar humbleness. Local art promoter and vintage clothing marketer Kala Wolfe was given the Motorco Garage to host an art swap meet on a cold early Spring afternoon during a trial Sunday rock show. Anchoring the swap with choice items from her own vintage shop RetroK, Wolfe filled the garage with tables from the local artist community and began promoting the event as "Bloody Brunch and dTown market." The combo was a hit and Motorco has slowly grown into a Sunday afternoon destination faring Bloody Marys, local rock, local art, the Ko Kyu barbeque food truck, and about as wild a time as you can have after church.

The Magnolia Collective




hijinks at Bloody Brunch

Amy Laura Hall shows off her awesome...hula hooping

one girl shows me her tatoo, another girl gives me the stink eye. what did I do?

dTown Market swap meet vendors

Melissa Smith displaying her Ladybug Lemonade art and wearables


Susan Frosch of Susan Frosch Art and Design


Larisa Harrison and Adam Fox. Larisa has a vintage etsy store called Scatterbugs Vintage.


Ko Kyu bbq

Show Review: Mandolin Orange, Sinful Savage Tigers at Local 506

Local 506, Chapel Hill
Saturday January 22, 2011

As a bundled up line of scarves, heavy coats and toboggans the length of Franklin Street's five-hundred block filtered slowly in to Local 506 and thawed into cheery faces charmed with anticipation for the evenings headlining act Mandolin Orange, openers Big Al Hall and The Sinful Savage Tigers turned the stage room into a zippy folk skiffle ball room and threw them a welcoming party.

Stacking the room shoulder to shoulder, the fully charged capacity crowd and an electrified Sinful Savage Tigers beamed energy back and forth through a full set of peppery three minute acoustic Americana romps and near honky-tonk foot stompers which were cut up and glued back together by enamouringly quick witted banter on the mic between songs. A fun, funny, and fascinating Seth Martin held attentions in suspended animation for the length of his string trio's time on stage. "He's so weird!" came a gleeful exclamation from within ear shot after Seth left the audience smitten with laughter on a sharp one-liner. Song in, the crowd fixed with SST's confident rollicking and jolly hook driven Americana tunes, song out the crowd cheered and giggled with SST's character and charisma. Wilmington's Southern and stately Big Al Hall lead the night off with true-type folk croons designed for the solo spot light. "I love the old timey stuff" I over heard as Hall picked a high stepping bluegrass rhythm on the banjo. Across the length of his set, variety was maintained with a host of style changes from six strings to four strings and set the pace for an evening of the areas best acoustic music.

With Big Al Hall and The Sinful Savage Tigers having given all they could give to an absorbing crowd, Mandolin Oranges took the stage and lulled the cheerful chatty room to a calm as still as the countryside at dawn. As the crowed diminished into silence, two song birds pierced the air with perfectly true harmonies and delicate melodies. Country gentleman Andrew Marlin soft pedaled the first few songs with boldness and poise wise beyond his years as Southern belle Emily Frantz sparkled out crisp clean notes on electric guitar and softly hummed backing vocals. The crowd momentarily woke from their trance and cheered as Andrew reached for his trademark mandolin and Emily shouldered her violin. Emily stepped to the mic and gracefully let go a set of sultry ballads which were quietly sung along with by those around me who were seemingly swaying in time with the rocking of her violin bow.

From the opening set by Big Al Hall through the final whispers of Mandolin Orange, the stage room was as packed with warm bodies as have ever been at The Local 506, yet for the charm of being part of a wonderful night, not a soul seemed to mind the close quarters. Spirits held high in the enthusiasm of being part of the grand local Americana music culture which the evening's performers showcased. --Carrboro Ninja


images

Mandolin Orange



The Sinful Savage Tigers




Seth and company set up next at Jack Sprat in Chapel Hill on Wednesday Feb 23 alongside Richmond, VA's touring folk troubadours The Itchy Hearts. The Itchy Hearts will play back to back local dates, the second being Thursday the 24th at The Pinhook with Durham folk rockers Jordan & the Sphinx and Effingham.


Big Al Hall




Big Al Hall performs locally again on Thursday February 10th at the Station at Southern Rail along side stellar The Magnolia Collective for The Americana Revue

Lizzy Ross and The Magnolia Collective at The Station's Americana Revue

The Station at Southern Rail, Carrboro
May 27, 2010

If it wasn't for the occasional necessity to slip down into a Lucinda Williams style push-pull grit, Lizzy Ross could spend an entire set tip-toeing through upper air of her powdery soft falsetto. With a range so at home and comfy in the thin frequencies of the upper atmosphere, even her more honky tonking tunes like "Wedding Cake" can pass for hushed ballads. Though her silver tongued vocals have the strength and confidence of a prowling tom cat, her songwriting reveals the occasional country-girl soft spot. Stripped down by nature and Americana by arrangement, Lizzy's lyrics are a fluent interpretation of the heart break tempered joy that swirl around young love. Early into the evening the slowly unspooling rhythm and easy spirit of "Maria" congealed the stage with the audience who swayed to Lizzy's Taylor guitar whispering sweet nothings in their ears.

Lizzy Ross' sweet shop brand of roots music served up in the traditions of country soul was the perfect musical ethos for the stage last night at The Station at Southern Rail's newly christened monthly Americana Revue Night. Set to re-occur on the second Thursday of every month beginning June 10, The Station at Southern Rail is hosting free concerts showcasing local folk, alternative country, and roots rock acts as a celebration for the deep well of local talent creating music in this space as well as their expanding base of Americana thirsty followers.

Carrboro being a music town's music town...it will come as no surprise that there is also an interesting and unique twist on the night. While the event will present a different local headliner every month, a loosely gathered recurring cast of local folk and roots artists will always open the show. Representing as the house band and coined "The Magnolia Collective" this group pulls it's base members from Gambling the Muse, The Pneurotics, and The Whiskey Smugglers and in delightful fashion, it will also include guest members from previous headliner bands who appeared on the revue to shape into an ever evolving and always interesting ensemble.

Booking for The Station at Southern Rail Americana Review Night is nearly set for the summer with June 10 finding three piece string trio The Sinful Savage Tigers' mandolin seared acoustic romps and modern, urgent, and inspired Americana song writing on stage at the revue. --Carrboro Ninja


more images from The Station at Southern Rail's Americana Revue yesterday

Lizzy Ross





The Magnolia Collective





16 image slide-show of Lizzy Ross and The Magnolia Collective along with 1600 pixel down load-able jpegs