Singer-songwriter Juli Crockett

(See update at bottom of post!) My friend David Hurlin, one of Fairfield Iowa’s favorite drummers, has been living in LA and playing with the alt-country, love drunk, hillybilly rock, freak-folk revolution band known as The Evangenitals for some time now. He told me about the band leader and songwriter Juli Crockett and Juli and I quickly found each other on all the various blogs and social networking pages we both inhabit on the web. Juli is a fountain of inspiration, energy and creativity with multiple degrees and titles - a BFA in Theater from NYU, an MFA in directing experimental theater from CalArts and she’s working on a PhD in Philosophy at The European Graduate School. She’s an ordained minister of the ULC and a retired, undefeated professional boxer!  (According to Sports Illustrated, she’s the “real” Million Dollar Baby!)  What kind of music would come from such varied life experience? One of my favorite descriptions on the band website is: “The jukebox at the Mad Hatter’s tea party.”

As I always say, probably the best way to really find out what a band is like is to listen to their music!  Here is a video of them performing the song Bad Town live:

The Evangenitals’ current project is actually theatrical!  Titled Dawn of Quixote: Chapter the First, is a philosophical and musical exploration of the first chapter of Don Quixote, written and directed by Juli. It stars Shaughn Buchholz (Scrubs) as Quixote, Christopher Goodson (Cold Case) as Sancho, and Lisa Dee (Evangenitals, Killsonic) as Dulcinea. The live original score is performed by the Evangenitals. They have been invited to perform the show at the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland this August!

Dawn of Quixote: Chapter the First

While CalArts is supplying venue & promotional support in Edinburgh, the band needs to raise the majority of the funds themselves to cover transportation, room, and board for all nine performers. They have turned to a fascinating new fundraising site called Kickstarter to help manage pledges.

The idea behind Kickstarter is you can post your project, different levels of pledges and prizes for those pledges, the total amount needed and a deadline. You then promote the page to your fans and start collecting pledges. However, if the total goal is not met, nobody pays anything! It seems both potentially amazing and potentially frustrating - I know that Allison Weiss made more than her goal that she needed to release a new EP in just one day and so is continuing to raise funds until the Kickstarter due date comes, in hopes of earning enough to make a full length CD instead. But what if someone raised partially enough and then didn’t get to use any of that money at all?  On the other hand, the format could provide some peace of mind to investors who don’t want to donate only to see their money sit stagnant or be spent on something non-project related…

In any case, at the time of this posting, The Evangenitals have gathered 26% of their pledges and have two weeks to go before their deadline.  Prizes range from “A warm fuzzy feeling inside” to personalized, autographed headshots of actors Shaughn Buchholz and Christopher Goodson to drum lessons with David Hurlin to a moonlit, midnight horseback ride with the Cast & Evangenitals and many others inbetween.  Check out their Kickstarter page through the widget above or by going to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/635470598/dawn-of-quixote-rides-to-edinburgh-fringe-fest .  I myself have already made a pledge of $10, and I DO feel a warm fuzzy feeling inside. 

If you’re interested in finding out more about the band, buying their CD’s or listening to more songs, check them out on MySpace or on their website.
(Careful Fairfield readers will notice that the band roster includes not one but TWO Fairfield members - Matt Ticciati recently joined them on bass!)

Tune in to KRUU-LP 100.1 FM here in Fairfield or kruufm.com worldwide online on Tuesday 6/30 for a mini Michael Jackson tribute of covers sung by female singer-songwriters starting at 9am central, and then the interview with Juli Crockett!

UPDATE: At the last minute, we were able to get co-founder Lisa Dee on the line too, so we had twice the fun!  Stay tuned for the podcast which will be posted to the station website soon.

Filed under: 2009, California, Lyrical Venus Radio, artists, donate, female vocalists, interview, music, musicians, singer-songwriter, video, women | 3 Comments

Raining Jane (photo credit: Colin Young-Wolff)

The all-women California band Raining Jane has had a lot of good stuff going on lately, like touring with Sara Bareilles and Willy Porter, and having a song featured on Grey’s Anatomy!

Right now they are in the midst of their month-long residency at The Hotel Cafe and working on writing some new songs to add to their already amazing catalog of eclectic folk-rock.

I met Mai briefly at Song School last summer.  I remember her singing this song, thinking she was great, and hearing the name “Raining Jane” a couple times, but she wasn’t with the band at the time so it didn’t really sink in.

Then about a month later I got an email from a guy named Glen who had seen them in concert.  The station manager James Moore had suggested me as a good possibility for playing their music on my show. I told Glen I was always at the radio station on Tuesdays.  The next week he walked into the station while I was on the air, holding a couple of CD’s, and told me all about how great the the band was during the sets between when I had to announce things.  I took the CD’s and while flipping through the CD booklets I recognized Mai and everything clicked into place.  I was just bummed I hadn’t figured it out in time to catch their show in Mt. Vernon IA where Glen had seen them a couple weeks previous.

Raining Jane is Mai Bloomfield on vocals / guitar / cello,  Chaska Potter on vocals / guitar, Mona Tavakoli ondrums / vocals / percussion and Becky Gebhardt on bass / guitar / sitar.   I think the first paragraph of the group bio on their website speaks a lot about why they’ve found success as a band:

Raining Jane is an eclectic rock-folk band based in Los Angeles but on the road more often than not. Forming in 1999 out of the UCLA music community, Raining Jane was able to quit their day jobs in 2004 to pursue music full-time. Since then, they have toured relentlessly, averaging 120 shows per year. Taking on all business and artistic responsibilities (songwriting, booking, web design, driving -and so much more), they have become a notable example of independent success in the music industry, while simultaneously carving their own niche artistically.

Just that concept alone is pretty impressive, but when you hear the music, you see why Glen took the time to track me down at the station!  Here is a video of Raining Jane performing their song Pinball live at The Moore Theater in Seattle, WA on October 15, 2008:

How fun is that?  I love the group dynamic and how you can tell they are just having so much fun up there!

Check out Raining Jane’s website or MySpace for more info and song samples!

Tune in to KRUU-LP 100.1 FM or KRUUfm.com on Tuesday morning 6/16 for an interview with (at least one member of) Raining Jane! I’ll play some new arrivals/previews of coming interviews music starts at 9am, and the Raining Jane interview starts at 9:30.

Filed under: Lyrical Venus Radio, female vocalists, interview, music, musicians, singer-songwriter, women | Post a comment

Oh yes friends, it has been a crazy few weeks! (Uh, so crazy that I wrote this whole post last night and forgot to hit the “publish” button!  oops!)  I’ll get to the Sharon Bousquet video in a minute but first a little update on what’s been keeping me so busy!

The last weekend in May I helped to stage manage a children’s dance performance, including a stint at the end of the show as one of eleven people manning the Chinese dragon:

While this picture shows me with the head of the dragon, I was actually on the tail end, which was really hard - think crack the whip, and that’s me, hanging on for dear life, flying around the stage! It was really fun and watching the tiny kids perform was fabulous, they were in such awe of the huge theater and either so focused on getting their part right, or spacing out completely, or waving at their parents, and all looking adorable in their little costumes. When some of the mothers found out I didn’t have a kid in the show (No kids at all! Maybe someday!) they were pretty surprised I was doing all of it. It was a lot of hard work for a few days, but really, as far as theater commitments go it was light. It’s fun to do things I’d never done before, (really - when in my life would I get to perform as part of a Chinese Dragon?), and I like to support kids in the theater and dance. I know that creative outlet meant so much to me when I was younger, so keeping it alive in our community is important to me.

Then this past weekend was our First Friday’s Art Walk, which is always a busy weekend, but extra so for me this time because I’ve started working part time for Emerald Gallery and they were hanging a new show and working on promoting it!

Also last week I finally got a new laptop, and with it an iPod Touch, and I’m just switching cell phones too, so I’m in that transitional stage where I am kind of swapping between the old and new devices and sometimes having to carry around both because I haven’t moved something to the new one yet, plus learning all the quirks and ins and outs of the new ones.

But one of the big bonus points for the new laptop is the webcam and video editing software for ease of working with video clips! Here is a video of Sharon Bousquet that has been sitting on my camera for a couple of months now that I was finally able to upload to YouTube. It is one of her newer songs, and I just LOVE it. Very vivid imagery and it rings so true on so many levels.

Lovely, eh?  Sharon has been writing a whole bunch of songs over the past year, enough for TWO albums!  Now all she needs is the money to get into the studio.  If you’re interested in supporting her endeavors, head over to her website and send her an email to find out how you can help: http://sharonbousquet.com/

Now that I’ve got the new laptop, I hope to be posting more videos like this more often!  Keep an eye out!  (Whoa, I just thought of that literally, and it’s kind of gross right?  An eye out of your head??)

Well, ANYWAY, that’s really the SHORT version of what’s going on for me, plenty of other crazy things but I do try to keep it music related on this blog.  :)  As always, I’m looking forward to doing my radio show tomorrow 9-10am Central.  No interview this time, just lots of great music, but boy do I have a bunch of good interviews with female singer-songwriters lined up for you in the next few weeks coming up - stay tuned to Lyrical Venus every Tuesday morning on kruufm.com!

Filed under: about me, female vocalists, music, musicians, singer-songwriter, video, women | Post a comment

So due to some scheduling confusion over time zones, we missed talking with Ember Swift two weeks ago when she was in Canada, but she has graciously agreed to call us all the way from China for this week’s show! It will be evening for her and morning for us, so that works out pretty well for everyone. See my previous post about Ember for more details.

You may also remember my interview with Lauren Zettler a few months back. She is currently on tour with Allison Weiss in the Pacific Northwest and they have been making some pretty hilarious tour update videos. Check out updates 1 through 5 here on the video playlist below, or go to either of their tumblelogs for more comprehensive updates - http://laurenzettler.tumblr.com/ and http://allisonweiss.tumblr.com/

I’m totally wishing I lived in the Pacific Northwest right about now, it would be so fun to catch a show with these gals! I’ve just contacted Allison about getting her on Lyrical Venus for an interview too, so stay tuned, we’re bound to find a date in the next couple of months that will work!

Don’t forget to join me Tuesday May 26th from 9-10am Central for lots of great music by female signer-songwriters plus the interview with Ember Swift! Tune in to KRUU-LP 100.1 FM in Fairfield, or stream it live from the station website kruufm.com, anywhere in the world with an internet connection!

Filed under: Lyrical Venus Radio, interview, music, musicians, singer-songwriter, video, women | Post a comment

Singer-Songwriter Allie Moss

I first saw Allie Moss backing up Ingrid Michaelson when they performed on TV about two years ago.  I had started noticing Ingrid posting links to tour videos and such of the both of them that Allie had put up online, and I found my way to Allie’s YouTube and MySpace.  On one of those occasions I saw that Allie was working on her own EP and I was pretty excited because I loved Allie’s voice and guitar work and couldn’t wait to hear her on her own.

Well, that EP is finally out!  It’s called Passerby and it was worth the wait!  It has seven little gems that I can’t stop listening to, each one is so good!  It’s hard to pick favorites, but I do like Let It Go quite a bit at the moment - it’s about having someone who believes in you and can see your potential if only you’d let go of your fear and fly, and how that person can help you see it for yourself.  Beautiful sentiment, beautifully executed.  Someone captured a live performance of Let It Go on YouTube when Allie performed it in Atlanta on the Hotel Cafe Tour last year:

Another beautiful song is the title track, Passerby.  It asks some big questions about how we might treat each other if we knew we had more in common than just passing each other on the street.  Here’s another live capture, this time from the EP release show in NYC in April ‘09:

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

See, these are the kind of songs we need in the world, ones that make us brave and ones that make us think about other people instead of only ourselves!  OK, OK, I probably better stop with the videos or I’ll end up showing you the whole album!  In any case, I hope they help you see how awesome Allie is and why I’m excited for our interview!

You can preview more tracks from Passerby on MySpace and buy it on Allie’s website or from or Amazon.

Tune in to KRUU-LP 100.1 FM in town or kruufm.com online anywhere Tuesday the 19th from 9-10 am Central  for the Lyrical Venus Radio Hour! Allie will be calling in around 9:30.

Want to know when I find more great stuff by and about women in music? Subscribe to Lyrical Venus by Email or by RSS Feed and have the updates come straight to you!

Filed under: Lyrical Venus Radio, female vocalists, interview, music, musicians, new album, new release, singer-songwriter, video, women | Post a comment