Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers
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Look no further than the title track of their new Vanguard debut album The Bear to understand Stephen Kellogg and The Sixers. As the band sings passionately, "Sometimes you get The Bear, sometimes The Bear gets you. Sometimes you're gonna win, sometimes you're gonna lose… but you know in the end – there's no apologies!"
Many bands talk about "keeping it real," but in The Sixers' case, they mean it. "We're not up there projecting a personality we can't believe in. I think it's important to go with the feel of each moment and take chances. If that means we get out of synch or sing out of key once in a while, so be it. The crags are cool because they're interesting."
That explains why producer Tom Schick (Norah Jones, Ryan Adams, Rufus Wainwright) signed up for the new record. "Each person in The Sixers really adds a lot," he says. "They're so locked in with each other. Stephen is definitely the leader of the gang, but everybody has their say," he adds of the roles played by Boots Factor and Kit Karlson. "They rise and fall together. It's amazing to watch them work."
Although The Bear is not a concept record, there is a conscious time line that the characters on the record follow and Kellogg even goes so far as to say thatit's "66 percent autobiographical." Of course, he will only elaborate on it a little, "If I explained the entire story to you, it wouldn't be as fun to dive in and figureit out for yourself", he says grinning. "I'm sorry, but I just can't take apart every aspect of the music without taking something out of the soul of it... you'll have to experience it yourself and find meaning there."
No apologies needed.
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Audra Mae
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Audra Mae is a natural. Once the Oklahoma native opens her mouth and lets loose with that voice, pure and strong, with a hint of country twang and a twinkle of good humor, you realize this is what she’s meant to do; Stand in front of an audience and entertain, not just with her singing, but a distinctive songwriting voice, one that’s capable of relating fully developed characters and stories.
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Roy Jay
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There's a line on "Mungo Jerry," from Roy Jay's new album, Lucky Guy, that sums up the life and music of this successful entrepreneur turned musician: "I'm living the life that I wanted to live/When I need a hand, folks are happy to give." Indeed, Roy Jay is now living the life he's wanted to live, making the music he wants to make, and sharing it with the world. Lucky Guy is the album Roy Jay waited 20 years to make, and it is his artistic vision, fully formed — heartfelt, incisive and soulful.
Jay's music is an amalgam of his influences; a touch of Dylan, a dash of Paul Simon, a heaping of Jimmy Buffet and infused with the wide-open, American spirit of the Grateful Dead. And it is the reflection of a man who has journeyed to be where he wanted to be all along.
Growing up, Jay was a music fanatic. "I started off with Jim Croce and the Beatles. 'Bad, Bad Leroy Brown' was the first single I ever bought," he recollects with a smile. Jay played in several bands while in college ("I was pretty good," he says.), influenced by the seminal hard rock of bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Led Zeppelin.
But the demands of real life intruded, and for 20 years, Roy Jay put his guitar down to become a successful entrepreneur. "For 10 years," he says, "all I did was work." He continues, "I never stopped loving music, and even though I was focused on work, music was always in my heart."
Finally, Jay had enough. As he recounts, "I always saw a lot of live music. One night last year, I came home from a show and I just ordered a guitar. The desire to participate in music became overwhelming. I enrolled in the Berklee College of Music's online program and started playing 6 days a week, which I continue to do."
Jay soon began writing feverishly, and he was enthused enough with the results to begin to seriously consider recording. Lyricists Garcia and Jeff Zampino provided Jay with words which are striking for their sophistication, emotional power and depth.
But the project really took off when Jay encountered producer Chris Seefried, a singer/songwriter/producer who has worked with artists as varied as Quincy Jones, Rosanne Cash, Counting Crows and more. "When I first met Chris," Jay says, "I just wanted to record something so I could get gigs. I had no idea I was going to make what turned out to be when I sat down with him."
At first, Jay leaned on Chris heavily. "The first five songs we recorded, Chris wrote most of the music for. But we took a break, and then we wrote a bunch of new music together like 'California Grey.' When we recorded those, I knew something was going on. We began using different rhythmic motifs — and at that point it became uniquely me, and it stayed that way for the rest of the recording."
Indeed, at 8 minutes long, "California Grey" is an audacious and enveloping tale of a man taking on new adventures, creating a wide-open future. With a B-3 humming in the background, the drums loping, and the guitars weaving reassuring rhythm and lead lines, Jay sings out his story. "Mungo Jerry" another favorite of Jay's, has a laconic and laid back groove that is the perfect backdrop for a tale of men who escape the hurriedness of the working world to reinvent their life, so as to "take it slow." The music is accomplished, but never forced — as the closing solo soars, it feels as natural as watching a sunset on the horizon.
Jay calls some of the songs "escapist," but it's a misleading characterization. What the songs are about is a return to the most authentic parts of oneself, of things that were thought to have been left behind and of finding peace in the slow lane. Whether it's "Time's Page" or "Lucky Guy," Garcia and Zampino's words, and Jay's music, give us characters, music and images that impress by making the complex simple and effortless.
Roy Jay's music is made for a simple reason — the love of creating it. It has been a long road to get here, but he is now firmly on it, and walking easy. "I don't do this for money," he says simply. "It's just about making as much good music as possible, continually learning and growing as a musician, and following this path, wherever it leads." On Lucky Guy, Jay takes the listener inside of the creative mind of a musician who is now on a journey that expresses the most authentic elements of his being.
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