Sunday night in Louisville was one for the history books. Put on by Motherlodge, an special “cross-pollination” of art between NYC and Louisville, this show combined talent from all corners of your imagination. It started off will Penny Arcade (NYC) who blasted-off a monologue about the Mona Lisa and her love/hate for her vagina. Her show has been described as a “cutting-edge sex and censorship show.” I can’t say it was my dish, but intriguing none the less. The parents of the Louisville Leopard Percussionists may have felt different (a lot of covered ears).
She introduced the next act with glowing praise, basically telling Louisvillians to get their shit straight and support Tyrone Cotton. I can’t agree more. He is a singer/songwriter that goes heavy on the blues but with a folk/Americana. His voice is well traveled and can scratch like sandpaper, but it adds the necessary touch to tell the story of his songs. I highly recommend checking him out next time he plays in town.
A short film was played next highlighting the cause for the evening, The Salvation Army Center of Hope Kitchen’s Culinary Training Program run by Chef Timothy Tucker (see video below in two parts). While the program is more than I can put in words, Chef Tim trains individuals down on their luck in the culinary arts and provides them with a valuable skill to improve their lives in a multitude of ways.
The Louisville Leopard Percussionists took the stage next and we all got to witness the future great musicians of our city. The LLPs (as I’ll call them), is a non-profit organization that trains 7-12 year olds on a number of different percussion instruments including the xylophone, drums, congas, bongos and more. It was energizing to see kids barely taller than their instrument just rip it up. Solos and all, they threw a wall of rhythm at the crowd and we ate it up. The LLPs finished with a “Low Rider/Oye Como Va” combo which led to a standing ovation. How would you like to have opened for My Morning Jacket and Will Oldham at the age of 12? I’m jealous.
The men of the hour, Will Oldham and Emmett Kelly (a/k/a part of The Cairo Gang), concluded the night with a powerful, 7 song performance highlighting their new album, The Wonder Show of the World. The album is classic Bonnie Billy and Kelly adds a nice compliment to mix. The Oldham/Kelly album has the capacity to raise all emotion. You’ll love, laugh, cry, stand up and shout and often at the same time. Oldham thrives on his performances and his energy bounces off the walls. It is truly something you have to see to experience. To make things even better, Oscar Lee Riley of Thomas A. Minor & The Picket Line was asked to join the duo on stage for their final song, “Go Folks Go.” Oldham offered up a dollar to anyone in the crowd who could drown out Oscar’s voice, but no one took him up on the offer (it would have been a tough go at it anyway). Bottom line… beg, borrow and steal what you have to in order to get your hands on this album (and all other BPB albums for that matter). For your health (says Steve Brule). The set-list is below.
Oh, there was a dinner afterward prepared by students in the culinary program. My compliments to the chefs! Louisville’s Bad Blood provided some tunes while everyone ate. A wonderful way to end the night. Best $15 bucks I’ve ever spent.
SET LIST
1. Kids
2. Merciless and Great
3. Troublesome Houses
4. With Cornstocks Or Among Them
5. That’s What Our Love Is
6. Someone Coming Through
7. Go Folks Go
Wax Fang
Cynthia Norton Thomas A. Minor & the Picket Line
Screening of “Moving Movie Louisville” by Ryan Daly Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble
Interpretation of Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved”
Wax Fang – World War II pt. 2
Thomas A. Minor & The Picket Line – Ain’t No Doubt About It
Friday, Feb. 5 J.B. Speed Museum
7 p.m.
$5 for Museum members (including University of Louisville and Bellarmine University students, faculty and staff)
$15 for non-members
Free for Patron Circle members
Buy a museum membership at the door that night and get in free, too (along with a free t-shirt).
Thomas A. Minor & The Picket Line will be at The Green Building for some Appalachian Love on February 6th (for KFTC). I’ve seen The Picket Line back Bonnie Billy at Funtown and at the Old Tarr Distillery and I’ve seen Cheyenne Mize with Bonnie Billy in Bloomington, with Ben Sollee at the NuLu Fest and with Arnett Hollow. While they are amazing in their other projects, there is something very special about this group. I caught them at the Z Bar not too long back where they were playing some of their new songs and they were fantastic.
Here is what I wrote earlier about their new CD:
The seven song collection is fantastic from start to finish. As soon as the disc started playing, they grabbed me with “Ain’t No Doubt About It” which may be my favorite song on the album. After a long day at work, I was relaxed immediately. You can listen to it below and if it doesn’t wet your whistle, I don’t know what will. Perhaps it is being from Kentucky, but there is something to be said about the effect of warm, drawl-filled vocals floating over the sounds of a soft violin and mandolin, the heavy pic of a banjo and the steady strumming of a bass. Songs like “The River Rose” and “Magnolia” soften the concrete and brick around you take you someplace else (perhaps Funtown). The album is short and sweet leaving you asking for more… or you can just play it over and over again like I have all weekend. They say they are not good enough to be a bluegrass band, but that couldn’t be far enough from the truth. They definitely have the gift of making beautiful music.
The band is…
Thomas A. Minor-Guitfiddle and Vocals
Drumstick-Guitfiddle and Vocals
The String Mizer-Fiddle and Vocals
Pig Iron-Mandolin and Yelling,
Pork Chop-Outta-tune Banjo
Danny- Bassfiddle
or Oscar Lee Riley, Jonathan Kempf, Bradley Reinstedler, Danny Kiley, Bob Dixon and Cheyenne Mize.
While I’d give basically anything Will Oldam puts out a 10/10, Pitchfork has reviewed Bonny Billy & The Picket Line’s “Funtown Comedown” and gave it a respectable, 7.2.
01 Ohio River Boat Song
02 May It Always Be
03 Hemlocks and Primroses
04 The Glory Goes / Wolf Among Wolves
05 We All Us Three Will Ride
06 Easy Does It
07 Lay and Love
08 Rider
09 Rambling Fever
10 You Want That Picture
11 Idle Hands Are the Devil’s Playthings
Just got word from our friends at Zanzabar that their Wednesday ‘Free at the Z’ series continues tonight with Thomas A. Minor (as advertised on their facebook group e-mail). We are currently in contact with the folks at Z-bar and ironing out the details on whether or not The Picket Line will complete the circle. We’ll be sure to update you as soon as humanly possible on this evening’s event, which begins at 10 pm. Its free!
UPDATE: Since Thomas A. Minor is indeed a fictitious person, it was easy to assume that The Picket Line would be in full form. Contact with Zanzabar just confirmed the Thomas A. Minor & the Picket Line will be in full band form for this evening’s show. We’ll definitely see you there.
One of our favorite local artists and possibly the most talent person alive, Cheyenne Mize, finally has an official music MySpace page. Go add her as a friend and add all of her shows to your calendar because you really shouldn’t miss a single one. She has six songs posted and we can only hope for more.
Cheyenne fiddles around in a variety of musicks, literally and figuratively. You might see her on stage these days with Arnett Hollow, Ben Sollee, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, or Thomas A. Minor & the Picket Line. You can hear her on recordings of the above mentioned groups, as well as with Wax Fang, The Fervor, Century of Aeroplanes, The Big Time Band, Trophy Wives and hopefully an album of her own in the near future…
I’m always excited when I get CDs from local bands, but I was particularly excited when I opened a package on Friday with the new album from Thomas A. Minor & The Picket Line. I’ve seen The Picket Line back Bonnie Billy at Funtown and at the Old Tarr Distillery and I’ve seen Cheyenne Mize with Bonnie Billy in Bloomington, with Ben Sollee at the NuLu Fest and with Arnett Hollow. I’m kicking myself for missing their CD release show, but as soon as they pop up again, I will be there. While they are amazing in their other projects, combining for this album created something very special.
The seven song collection is fantastic from start to finish. As soon as the disc started playing, they grabbed me with “Ain’t No Doubt About It” which may be my favorite song on the album. After a long day at work, I was relaxed immediately. You can listen to it below and if it doesn’t wet your whistle, I don’t know what will. Perhaps it is being from Kentucky, but there is something to be said about the effect of warm, drawl-filled vocals floating over the sounds of a soft violin and mandolin, the heavy pic of a banjo and the steady strumming of a bass. Songs like “The River Rose” and “Magnolia” soften the concrete and brick around you take you someplace else (perhaps Funtown). The album is short and sweet leaving you asking for more… or you can just play it over and over again like I have all weekend. They say they are not good enough to be a bluegrass band, but that couldn’t be far enough from the truth. They definitely have the gift of making beautiful music.
The band is…
Thomas A. Minor-Guitfiddle and Vocals
Drumstick-Guitfiddle and Vocals
The String Mizer-Fiddle and Vocals
Pig Iron-Mandolin and Yelling,
Pork Chop-Outta-tune Banjo
Danny- Bassfiddle
or Oscar Lee Riley, Jonathan Kempf, Bradley Reinstedler, Danny Kiley, Bob Dixon and Cheyenne Mize.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy has announced a new live LP (with digital download) through Drag City with The Picket Linecalled Funtown Comedown. I could not be more excited for this album. The album comes out November 17th December 15th, but you can PRE-ORDER HERE. (Thanks to Dan Lubbers for the heads-up.)
From Drag City:
LIVE (in the studio) is the Bonny one with next-generation bluegrass band known as The Picket Line. They’re the official dance band of Funtown, a metaphysical little community in the woods outside Louisville. Bonny and the boys (and girl) run through a set of BPB classics, some Palace songs and a few classic country covers. VINYL ONLY! (And download exclusively on the new-and-retro-improved www.dragcity.com!)
Abut the pressing…
Vinyl LP pressing. 2009 intimate live recording by Will Oldham (AKA Bonnie Prince Billy) and young Bluegrass band The Picket Line. In the wilds of greater outer Louisville Kentucky, there is a place called Funtown. You won’t find it on any map, and you might just lose yourself in the woods out there trying to pin it down to the ground as well. Yet, Funtown is a place, as much as it is a place of mind. It was in this place, in a clearing and on the shores of a pond, that Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy and The Picket Line combined forces to play his music and their music and other people’s music for a community of people to hear and watch and swing and step to. Live in front of friends and family is the way of Funtown. It was as fun as it sounds and more, in ways which have mostly been channeled down to the two sides of a groove and presented to you here, wrapped twice in full-color sleeves.
Bonny Billy and The Picket Line Funtown Comedown
LIVE (in the studio) is the Bonny one with next-generation bluegrass band known as The Picket Line. They’re the official dance band of Funtown, a metaphysical little community in the woods outside Louisville. Bonny and the boys (and girl) run through a set of BPB classics, some Palace songs and a few classic country covers. VINYL ONLY! (And download exclusively on the new-and-retro-improved www.dragcity.com!)
BPB is also releasing a 7″ single with “Stay” performed with Joshua Abrams, Jennifer Hutt, Emmett Kelly, Michael Zerang and “People Living” performed with Emmett Kelly and Cheyenne Mize! It comes out October 20, 2009. You can pre-order it here for just $5 bucks.
![[funtown_comedown.png]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YX2Ueu3L_5w/SvMXVG29DhI/AAAAAAAAAps/N4e_sIRLfUE/s1600/funtown_comedown.png)
