Last night, Jackie and I had the opportunity to see our client, Ben Leftwich at The Social in Orlando.
Ben is very captivating on stage. His sense of humor is spectacular and he makes it a point to connect with his audience personally.
FOUR Nominations!
September 22, 2016 by
I just received the great news that our client, Ten Strings and a Goat Skin, from Prince Edward Island, Canada, scored FOUR nominations this year from their new album Auprès du Poêle at the Canadian Folk Music Awards, being held in Toronto this year, December 2 – 3. This is the most nominations for any performer at this year’s event!
Nominations were in the following categories:
- Traditional Album of the Year
- Traditional Singer of the Year
- Ensemble of the Year
- Pushing the Boundaries
If you are not familiar with these performers, they are amazingly talented; a bilingual mix of English and French combined with a Guitar, Fiddle and a Bodran, creating a modern Folk/Fusion sound. Check out the reviews on their website.
Congratulations guys and good luck at the awards!
Devin Townsend Project
September 12, 2016 by
Last evening, Jackie and I had the opportunity to meet our client Devin Townsend. He performed at The Plaza – a favorite Orlando venue I’ve talked about before. A few days ago, Devin had a bit of an accident and sprained his ankle. Backstage before the show, he was on crutches and could not walk. His ankle was the size of a grapefruit and had colors that a calligrapher would be proud of. On stage, he killed the packed house and no one knew – unless they had followed his Facebook page – which has some funny comments.
Professionals like Devin know how to give the audience an incredible show – and his fans loved it. When he hit the stage, the rush of the fans must have made his pain disappear.
Psycho Las Vegas
August 24, 2016 by
This weekend we are heading to Psycho Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel.
We have a good number of clients performing at this event including one of the pioneers of Shock Rock and Heavy Metal, Arthur Brown.
Arthur Brown singing “Fire”
Will be sending updates to the blog during the weekend.
No. 1 in the World!
August 18, 2016 by
Congratulations to our client We Banjo 3. Their album String Theory is NUMBER 1 on the Billboard World Albums chart this week. That’s the entire world folks, including Suriname, Tonga and Mauritania!
Great job guys!
Oceans Ate Alaska
July 3, 2016 by
Jackie and I had the opportunity to see another one of our British clients, Oceans Ate Alaska, perform. They are on the grueling Vans Warped Tour that came through Orlando last night. The weather was very fortunate to them as this is daily thunderstorm season but yesterday it was just a light sprinkle only. Jackie and I had a chance to have dinner with them. These guys are great fun to spend time with.
Black Tiger Sex Machine
April 15, 2016 by
Last evening I was back at The Social in downtown Orlando to see our client from Montreal, Black Tiger Sex Machine. BTSM, as their fans refer to them, puts on an incredibly unique show that combines a dark, electronica music style using a central DJ mixer, drum machines, and keyboards synchronized to a light show, especially the LED lighting on their famous Tiger Masks. Here is a short video of the experience:
As someone who finds himself becoming more entrenched with senior citizenry the older I get, I don’t have many opportunities to see many of our DJ clients perform; I am generally in bed before they get on stage. However…I wanted to see the masks! The audience went nuts when the masks lit up. I was absolutely fascinated. It was amazing watching the sold-out crowd react to the production effect too.
Fans of BTSM were treated to an impressive show, with Dabin, who opened the evening followed by Apashe; both of those artists working the crowd into a frenzy for BTSM to hit the stage. What a great show!
Skinny Lister Goes Social!
March 23, 2016 by
No, we’re not talking about Facebook, Twitter or crumpets and tea out in some English countryside estate. We are talking about The Social, Orlando’s oldest currently active venue for shows – built in the 1920s. It has gone through a lot of ownership/management changes throughout the years but it still stands strong. This was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to be in the building since, well, I probably had hair; I’m guessing over 25 years ago.
The Social was a perfect venue for our client Skinny Lister. They are one of the most fun groups we have seen in years. Here’s a good way to describe them:
Skinny Lister had disembarked the Flogging Molly’s Salty Dog Cruise out of Miami on Monday. The Social had over 50 cruise passengers that followed the band the 235 miles up to Orlando to watch them perform again!
This group is a British Folk Musc band from London and they are just great fun on stage to watch. I encourage everyone to go see them.
Skinny Lister at The Social, March 23 1996, Pic 1
Skinny Lister at The Social, March 23 1996, Pic 2
Vance Joy at the House of Blues
March 16, 2016 by
Last night, Jackie and I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of the nicest performers we have ever met, Vance Joy.What an amazingly friendly and sincere guy!
If you’ve been reading our posts on this site you realize we go locally to the Orlando House of Blues quite a bit as we have many of our clients perform at this venue. This was by far the largest crowd we have seen there. One interesting thing we noticed was the age groups were all over the board. We saw 20-year-olds all the way up to folks in their early 70s. Vance has a unique style that communicates with the audience and appeals to everyone. He tells stories before he sings a song – not unlike one of the greatest artists I ever saw, Harry Chapin.
That kind of dates me…
Vance Joy with Jackie and Frank Page
Awesome show.
Our Client Performs for President Obama!
March 16, 2016 by
I posted a story a couple of years ago about our client We Banjo 3 which you can read about here. We just received a press release from the band that they performed at the White House for President Obama and other dignitaries including Richard Gere yesterday on Tuesday, March 15. Here’s a copy of the PR:
Galway Band wows President Obama
We Banjo 3 today performed for The President of the United States, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, an Taoiseach Enda Kenny and a room full of Irish dignitaries and politicians from both sides of the House of Representatives at the Friends of Ireland Luncheon. Also in attendance was Richard Gere.
The band played a song from the multi award winning album Gather the Good, and another from their debut album Roots of the Banjo Tree. President Obama was highly taken with the virtuosity and verve of these young Galwegians who enthralled the gathered audience with their unique rendition of Blues song Get Onboard and Bluegrass/Irish medley Bill Cheatum/The Donegal Lass.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny was full of praise for the musical ambassadors and was eager to be photographed with the band, President Obama, The Speaker of the House and the Vice President. This official photograph will be released in the coming days.
Despite a few attempts, the president resolutely refused to hold a banjo for fear that it might slip out of tune. The lads assured him that a banjo is rarely in tune anyway, but to no avail!
Any suggestion that we could publicly describe the banjo as a “Weapon of Mass Seduction” was quickly vetoed by the White House staffers!It’s onwards and upwards for the Galway band who will release their 4th album String Theory this July.
Their Culture Ireland supported American tour continues tomorrow night in Chicago.
Congratulations!
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