SOT Live Music

Christy Hopkins trained in classical music, but her heart led her to the soulful sound of Americana blues.

Daniel and Lauren Goans have had a busy five years. They got married, formed the band “Lowland Hum,” and recorded three full-length albums and an EP.

Triangle-based Americana band, The Gravy Boys, recently emerged from the recording studio with a fresh batch of songs with influences ranging from pop to bluegrass. Their new tracks are rich and layered, and channel their foot-stomping stage performances.
 

Note: This is a Rebroadcast. This program originally aired July 15, 2016.

Singer-songwriter Rissi Palmer exploded onto the country music scene in 2007 with a self-titled album. She sang alongside Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum, and her single "Country Girl" was the first song by an African-American woman artist to make the country Billboard charts in almost two decades.

Triangle-based musician Jasmé Kelly grew up singing in church choirs and eventually decided to pursue music as an independent musician. Kelly combines her upbringing in gospel with popular blues and soul aesthetics in her new album called "Lady Jasmé."

Shannon Carey grew up playing guitar in a musical family. She wrote her own songs in high school, but then started a career as a social worker and put her passion for music to the side. Years later she witnessed both of her younger brothers pursuing their musical dreams, one alongside the now-famous Bon Iver, and decided to pursue her own musical career.

Each of the Winston-Salem sisters Fiona, Ellie and Jessie Burdette started taking music lessons at five years old. When the youngest sister, Jessie, turned 7, the three decided that it was time to combine their musical talents and form a band--the Dan River Girls. Their music ranges from traditional bluegrass to pop-rock. They released their first album last year and continue to play at venues and festivals around the state.

The Piedmont Melody Makers has been jamming together formally and informally for years. The band is a who’s who of North Carolina old time and bluegrass musicians, and in the past year they decided to formalize their musical union and record an official album. “Wonderful World Outside” is a 16-track record with a blend of original tunes and covers.

Bluegrass music traditionally draws inspiration from the back porches, front porches, swamps, mountains and hollers of the South. But for her new album, celebrated bluegrass artist Claire Lynch looked north. The album is called “North By South,” and it is a celebration of the often underappreciated catalog of bluegrass songs written by Canadians. Host Frank Stasio speaks with Claire Lynch about her Canadian muses and listens to some live music from the band.

Kenny and Amanda Smith have been professional musicians as a duo for 15 years but have been playing music together as husband and wife for decades. The pair's new album is called "Unbound." Amanda Smith was a nominee for Female Vocalist of the Year, and Kenny Smith was nominated for Instrumental Performer of the Year on the guitar in the 2016 International Bluegrass Music Awards.
 

The pedal steel guitar sits on a stand with foot pedals used to adjust the tension of the strings. The instrument is part of the Sacred Steel musical tradition, which was invented in 1930s-era Pentecostal churches. North Carolina’s only touring Sacred Steel band is The Allen Boys.

  Note: This segment originally aired on Friday, February 19, 2016.

For Ellis Dyson, there is something alluring about the music from the 1920s. He sees it as dirty, raw and mysterious.

With the help of fellow musicians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dyson has blended the sounds of Dixieland jazz with themes of standard folk ballads to create a "whiskey folk" ensemble.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Dyson about the band's origins and influences as a young group channeling another era.

Note: this program is a rebroadcast. 

This is a rebroadcast.

Al Strong started playing music when he was seven years old after his dad got him a drum set for Christmas.

He bounced from the drums to piano, and eventually landed on the trumpet. Throughout high school and college, he studied jazz. Now, he teaches the next generation of trumpeters at N.C. Central University in Durham.

Jazz vocalist Charenee Wade began singing when she was 12 years old living in Brooklyn. She was inspired by artists like Sarah Vaughn and Christian McBride.

Her latest album is a collection of covers from Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson called “Offering: The Music of Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson.” 

Castle Wild represents a new chapter in Chris Hendricks’ life. After the Chris Hendricks Band broke up several years ago, he looked for a new creative outlet and challenge in his life.

He reconnected with college friend Andre DiMuzio and formed Castle Wild. The music moved away from the rock pop of the Chris Hendricks Band to a cross between singer-songwriter and modern synth pop.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Hendricks and DiMuzio. Hendricks performs vocals and guitar and Andre DiMuzio is on vocals and keys.

North Carolina-based band Mount Moriah has been together for almost a decade.

Their latest record 'How to Dance,' marks a turning point, as they focus less on personal identity and more on looking outward to examine how mythical and spiritual experiences have shaped their direction.

They recorded this album in home studios with the help of long-time collaborators and friends who have supported them along the way. 

Flamenco is an art form with a relatively unknown history. It was first documented in literature in the mid-1700s as a passionate, rhythmic, and rich tradition with firm roots in Andalusia, Spain.

The group Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana embodies this tradition and has been working to bring the spirit of flamenco to American audiences for more than three decades.

Musician Charles Latham has seen many friends and family struggle in the current economic situation. Friends lost jobs and his parents lost their house in the housing crisis.

Latham combined these experiences with his own struggle making ends meet out of low-paying jobs to create music about the importance of the living wage. Finding stability through employment is a theme throughout Latham's music, as well as a goal he hopes his local community can achieve.

The biennial North Carolina HIP (Historically Informed Performance) Music Festival hosted by Mallarmé Chamber Players is back this year with expanded programming. The festival features Baroque music played on period string instruments, which tend to sound richer, mellower and less edgy than modern counterparts.

The Mallarmé Chamber Players will play a two-part concert called the Biber Bowl featuring the Rosary Sonatas, 16 movements interpreting events from the lives of Jesus and Mary.

Professor Toon, a.k.a. Kurrell Rice, is ready to tell his story through rap.

Growing up in Baltimore, Toon and his family experienced domestic abuse for years at the hands of his stepfather. The family eventually fled to North Carolina. The experiences shaped how Toon approaches his own role as a father.

In his new album, "Take Notes," Toon explores his growth as a rapper, son and father. 

Terry Fritz had two loves for most of his life: playing guitar and woodworking. During a job change in 2006, a friend suggested he marry those two passions as a luthier. Fritz quickly fell in love with the process – the properties of wood necessary for a good guitar, how to fasten the neck, the geometry that shapes the timbre of an acoustic guitar, etc.

As Tokyo Rosenthal has grown older, he has had more and more conversations about death and dying. He’s also watched close friends and family members fall ill. All of this inspired his latest album “Afterlife”—a meditation on end-of-life issues released last September.

The jazz scene in the Triangle has been steadily gaining ground in the past few decades. The region’s musical talents include Grammy-nominated acts like Branford Marsalis and Nnenna Freelon as well as budding young musicians who are hoping to become the next generation of jazz stars.

Mint Julep Jazz Band transports its audience back to jazz clubs of the ‘20s, ‘30s and early ‘40s. The bang gets inspiration and musical creativity from the toe tapping and head nodding of swing dance, something inextricably linked to the jazz of this time period.

Earlier this year, Mint Julep Jazz Band released its second album, “Battle Axe,” an amalgam of original pieces inspired by that era as well as modern arrangements of old songs.

The holiday season brings with it many revered holiday performances like "The Nutcracker" and "A Christmas Carol." These stories are cherished and familiar.

"Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity" retells the well-known Christmas story through a humorous and intimate Appalachian lens. The performance returns to the Triad Stage in celebration of the venue's 15th anniversary. 

The Duke Medicine Orchestra (DMO) serves as an intersection of science and art. Since its inception in 2010, the ensemble has grown from 35 members to nearly 90 musicians. The orchestra is comprised of doctors, students and others affiliated with the Duke University Health System.

Note: This is a rebroadcast from earlier this year.

You might not know BJ Leiderman, but there is a good chance you have heard his music.

Lowland Hum spent the majority of last year touring on the road, but by the end, the married indie folk duo or Daniel and Lauren Goans couldn't wait to get home and start writing again. They described moments of isolation and moments of beauty from the sights around the United States.

The Greensboro natives released their second full-length album, Lowland Hum, in the spring. They returned to the road with a new perspective this summer.