Thursday, June 3, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Although Songs of Water packs theaters in Charlotte and fans in Norway and Sweden feast on their CDs, Greensboro has been deprived of their delightful smorgasbord of music, featuring instruments such as the Irish bouzouki blended with bluegrass icon Ricky Skaggs' fretless banjo.
But that's about to change.
This summer, Songs of Water returns to their Greensboro roots for the release of their second album, "The Sea Has Spoken," featuring guest appearances by Skaggs and tuba player Mark Daumen from Chapel Hill band Lost in Trees.
"The Sea Has Spoken" is a brilliantly crafted musical journey where indigenous sounds from myriad cultures blend in otherworldly harmonies that are somehow familiar.
Founder Stephen Roach is a self-taught hammered dulcimer player, guitarist and African percussionist, as well as vocalist and songwriter. His blood runs rich with musical DNA from a large family of bluegrass musicians. His cousin, Tony Rice, played with Skaggs in the 1980s, inspiring the song "The Family Tree," about the coincidence of Roach playing with Skaggs some 20 years later.
"I had a conglomerate of musical backgrounds that I wanted to do something with," says Roach, who started playing and writing with his friend and co-founder of the band, Jason Windsor, in 2002. "I had the idea to do an instrumental album using all these instruments and cultural backgrounds, so we did our first album together, and the band came out of that."
Roach met Skaggs' son and daughter, Luke and Molly Skaggs, on tour in California, and Luke Skaggs joined the band, taking it to a new level. Ricky Skaggs became a big supporter and offered his studio, Skaggs Place Studio in Nashville, Tenn. Most of the main tracks were recorded there by Charlotte producer Joel Khouri who finished the album at his Bright City Studios. Wake Forest University allowed the band to use its instruments for the recording.
"We worked on this album almost two years to get it the way we wanted it," Roach says. "We wanted 'The Sea Has Spoken' to be a work of art. Like classical music, it has different movements inside of one larger body of work. You almost have to listen to it as a whole work. It's such a journey from beginning to end."
The eight members of Songs of Water are as eclectic as their music. Classically trained violinist Marta Richardson, cellist Sarah Stephens and guitarist Windsor complement Roach and Luke Skaggs' folk, bluegrass and world music studies. Guitar player Greg Willette offers Eastern European gypsy influences; Molly Skaggs contributes Appalachian folk music roots. Michael Pritchard's polyrhythmic drum textures anchor the band with a tasteful and experimental style.
"We're constantly searching out new sounds and new ways to express creativity in our art and music," Roach says. "But the music is not so much world music as it is American music in the truest sense because there are so many cultures represented in this area, it's a natural transition to incorporate those sounds and then employ them into instruments. We'll do some old spirituals from the Appalachian Mountains but then accompany it with something from Africa."
Roach says the band's live performances are where most of that energy comes to life by causing audiences to fall silent while playing in theater settings or whipping them into a frenzy at larger festivals.
Because 75 percent of the music is instrumental, the audience is invited to create their own story about what the song is about. Some of the songs are named by the audience members who sometimes bring their own canvases or writing journals to express what they hear.
Songs of Water continues to stretch musical imaginations with national attention on the top 20 list on the NPR syndicated radio program "Echoes" and guest appearances on several local radio shows, including WFDD (88.5 FM). But Roach says they want to focus on becoming a voice in their hometown of Greensboro.
"We love Greensboro," Roach says. "Most of the band is from here, and we really believe this place thrives with music and art because there are so many creative people here. I think people are looking for something new and different, but they are also looking for something authentic. That's what we want to give is an authentic expression."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Where poets meet
Thursday, April 22, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Alfred Harrell steps onto a small, square stage tucked in the back corner of Tate Street Coffee House.
"All right, everybody," Harrell says into the microphone. "Tone down your adult language. We have teens speaking tonight, and this meetup will be family-friendly and upbeat. This is your home, your play house, so let's go."
Tonight, a record-breaking crowd of 28 people have gathered to read their poetry as part of Triad Poetry Meetup.
Harrell holds his poem on a clipboard in his left hand and gestures emphatically with the other. His nervous laugh is replaced with the deep voice of a seasoned orator as he reads his poem about his desire to be free from his jobs to spend more time as a poet and community volunteer.
"To myself I say NO MORE," he says as his cell phone rings in his pants pocket.
"Here I am the host, and I can't remember to turn my own cell phone off," he says, shaking his head.
Harrell is the organizer of Triad Poetry Meetup, a social network group where participants can freely express themselves through poetry or the written word without criticism.
He also organizes Triad Teen Poetry Meetup where young people can improve their self-esteem through poetry readings.
By day, Harrell works as a sanitation worker for the city of Greensboro, but by night, he is a poet and blogger of Verbal Xpression (www.verbalxpression. com).
"My jobs are what I do for money, but what defines me is the work I do concerning meetup-related issues," Harrell says. "In any given day, I wear the hat of critic, organizer, adviser, planner, shoulder to lean on or just plain poet. Poetry is the cooling rain of my life."
* * * *
Harrell's day begins at 5 a.m. when he checks e-mail concerning the poetry groups before heading out at 7 a.m. By 7:30 a.m., he is slipping on rubber gloves and slinging garbage bags of yard waste into the back of the sanitation truck.
In addition to his day job, he works two nights a week in the produce department at Wal-Mart in Greensboro. He then stays up late at night posting on his blog or writing poetry.
Harrell uses his own money to cover expenses from the meetup groups. Though he would like to find sponsors, Harrell volunteers because it's his passion.
"I do this willingly in the volunteer spirit set by my mother who, when she was alive, was always there for other people, even when she was in dire straits," he says. "She was not a writer, but her love for people is written in my soul."
Harrell joined the original Triad Poetry Meetup in 2008, and after a few personnel changes, he took the helm last June. Inspired by Piedmont Slam, a similar group in Winston-Salem, Harrell and then co-organizer Janelle Strickland had a vision to improve the lives of others through poetry and reading.
"For me, Triad Poetry Meetup is an extended family with whom I express my greatest joys and sorrows through the form of poetry, which gives me great peace of mind," Harrell says.
Harrell wrote his first poem in high school as an escape from domestic violence and sexual abuse in his home.
He worked manual labor jobs after graduating high school, and his tenure as a firefighter inspired him to write a poem about being part of the rescue of a little boy.
In 2002, Harrell started writing seriously, finding courage and comfort in his religious beliefs. He drove faithfully from High Point to attend poetry meetings in Greensboro.
"I decided to use my pen like a surgeon's scalpel to start a true personal healing and to make a difference in my life and in the lives of those who would read or listen to my words," he says.
* * * *
Tonight at Tate Street Coffee House, Harrell is saddened with the news of a death in the family of one of the members. He has spent most of the afternoon making phone calls and sending e-mails to alert other members before the meetup. He also asks the crowd for a moment of silence to pay respect to the family.
Sitting in a corner booth like a queen on her throne is assistant organizer Deborah Streeter, otherwise known as the "Princess of Poetry." With a dignified walk, she approaches the mike to break the silence.
She recites her poem about lying in a hammock in the sunshine.
"I enjoy performing in front of crowds and meeting poets to share our works of art," she said. "Poetry gives me time to vent what's on my mind on any given day."
Sean Dowell, 34, a classically trained poet and executive vice president of Cushman and Wakefield real estate company, read his poem "But Memories."
As a teenager, Dowell was attacked by a gang at his school. Aspirations to be a professional artist were ruined after the attack, so Dowell turned to poetry as a way to express himself.
"I associated the rage and injustice I felt with art, so I never picked up a paintbrush again," he says. "I started writing poetry because I needed a way to get those feelings out. I've taken it to the next level now by studying poetry as a craft and not just writing because I need to.
"At the end of the day it's who else you can help. Poetry is lonely. To get affirmation through poetry in the dark night of your soul will keep you going."
Rosalyn Marhatta approaches the mike with the gentle air of a librarian. In her breathless voice she recites "Sculpting Shayna," a poem about an ice sculpture devoured by the sun. Marhatta, who says she started writing poetry seven or eight months ago, had never performed her poetry until she joined Triad Poetry Meetup. Formerly an assistant organizer, Marhatta works on computers at N.C. A&T and developed the idea of a critique group for the meetup.
"Poetry is about the beauty of words, it's almost like music. I get my feelings out and make it make sense to others," she says. "Coming to Triad Poetry Meetups keeps me wanting to write new stuff. It keeps me going.
"Alfred Harrell has been a force for poetry and uniting poets in the Triad. He has been personally encouraging to me about my poetry and I'm writing a lot more than I used to."
Harrell returns to the stage to recite a poem about sexual abuse. He says he chose the poem because he sensed someone in the audience needed to hear it.
"Writing poetry is a healing for some of us," he says. "My vision is to unite myself and other people who have had the same experiences I've had and uplift them."
"It's his passion, his calling," says Dowell. "Alfred is the voice of the community that brings people in."
But Harrell is quick to credit his volunteer staff for the overwhelming success of Triad Poetry Meetup and Triad Teen Poetry Meetup.
"We have a strong team of unrecognized men, women, and teens who open their hearts through poetry to make it all possible," Harrell says. "I'm just the choreographer who goes without sleep to orchestrate this dance."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com.
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Alfred Harrell steps onto a small, square stage tucked in the back corner of Tate Street Coffee House.
"All right, everybody," Harrell says into the microphone. "Tone down your adult language. We have teens speaking tonight, and this meetup will be family-friendly and upbeat. This is your home, your play house, so let's go."
Tonight, a record-breaking crowd of 28 people have gathered to read their poetry as part of Triad Poetry Meetup.
Harrell holds his poem on a clipboard in his left hand and gestures emphatically with the other. His nervous laugh is replaced with the deep voice of a seasoned orator as he reads his poem about his desire to be free from his jobs to spend more time as a poet and community volunteer.
"To myself I say NO MORE," he says as his cell phone rings in his pants pocket.
"Here I am the host, and I can't remember to turn my own cell phone off," he says, shaking his head.
Harrell is the organizer of Triad Poetry Meetup, a social network group where participants can freely express themselves through poetry or the written word without criticism.
He also organizes Triad Teen Poetry Meetup where young people can improve their self-esteem through poetry readings.
By day, Harrell works as a sanitation worker for the city of Greensboro, but by night, he is a poet and blogger of Verbal Xpression (www.verbalxpression. com).
"My jobs are what I do for money, but what defines me is the work I do concerning meetup-related issues," Harrell says. "In any given day, I wear the hat of critic, organizer, adviser, planner, shoulder to lean on or just plain poet. Poetry is the cooling rain of my life."
* * * *
Harrell's day begins at 5 a.m. when he checks e-mail concerning the poetry groups before heading out at 7 a.m. By 7:30 a.m., he is slipping on rubber gloves and slinging garbage bags of yard waste into the back of the sanitation truck.
In addition to his day job, he works two nights a week in the produce department at Wal-Mart in Greensboro. He then stays up late at night posting on his blog or writing poetry.
Harrell uses his own money to cover expenses from the meetup groups. Though he would like to find sponsors, Harrell volunteers because it's his passion.
"I do this willingly in the volunteer spirit set by my mother who, when she was alive, was always there for other people, even when she was in dire straits," he says. "She was not a writer, but her love for people is written in my soul."
Harrell joined the original Triad Poetry Meetup in 2008, and after a few personnel changes, he took the helm last June. Inspired by Piedmont Slam, a similar group in Winston-Salem, Harrell and then co-organizer Janelle Strickland had a vision to improve the lives of others through poetry and reading.
"For me, Triad Poetry Meetup is an extended family with whom I express my greatest joys and sorrows through the form of poetry, which gives me great peace of mind," Harrell says.
Harrell wrote his first poem in high school as an escape from domestic violence and sexual abuse in his home.
He worked manual labor jobs after graduating high school, and his tenure as a firefighter inspired him to write a poem about being part of the rescue of a little boy.
In 2002, Harrell started writing seriously, finding courage and comfort in his religious beliefs. He drove faithfully from High Point to attend poetry meetings in Greensboro.
"I decided to use my pen like a surgeon's scalpel to start a true personal healing and to make a difference in my life and in the lives of those who would read or listen to my words," he says.
* * * *
Tonight at Tate Street Coffee House, Harrell is saddened with the news of a death in the family of one of the members. He has spent most of the afternoon making phone calls and sending e-mails to alert other members before the meetup. He also asks the crowd for a moment of silence to pay respect to the family.
Sitting in a corner booth like a queen on her throne is assistant organizer Deborah Streeter, otherwise known as the "Princess of Poetry." With a dignified walk, she approaches the mike to break the silence.
She recites her poem about lying in a hammock in the sunshine.
"I enjoy performing in front of crowds and meeting poets to share our works of art," she said. "Poetry gives me time to vent what's on my mind on any given day."
Sean Dowell, 34, a classically trained poet and executive vice president of Cushman and Wakefield real estate company, read his poem "But Memories."
As a teenager, Dowell was attacked by a gang at his school. Aspirations to be a professional artist were ruined after the attack, so Dowell turned to poetry as a way to express himself.
"I associated the rage and injustice I felt with art, so I never picked up a paintbrush again," he says. "I started writing poetry because I needed a way to get those feelings out. I've taken it to the next level now by studying poetry as a craft and not just writing because I need to.
"At the end of the day it's who else you can help. Poetry is lonely. To get affirmation through poetry in the dark night of your soul will keep you going."
Rosalyn Marhatta approaches the mike with the gentle air of a librarian. In her breathless voice she recites "Sculpting Shayna," a poem about an ice sculpture devoured by the sun. Marhatta, who says she started writing poetry seven or eight months ago, had never performed her poetry until she joined Triad Poetry Meetup. Formerly an assistant organizer, Marhatta works on computers at N.C. A&T and developed the idea of a critique group for the meetup.
"Poetry is about the beauty of words, it's almost like music. I get my feelings out and make it make sense to others," she says. "Coming to Triad Poetry Meetups keeps me wanting to write new stuff. It keeps me going.
"Alfred Harrell has been a force for poetry and uniting poets in the Triad. He has been personally encouraging to me about my poetry and I'm writing a lot more than I used to."
Harrell returns to the stage to recite a poem about sexual abuse. He says he chose the poem because he sensed someone in the audience needed to hear it.
"Writing poetry is a healing for some of us," he says. "My vision is to unite myself and other people who have had the same experiences I've had and uplift them."
"It's his passion, his calling," says Dowell. "Alfred is the voice of the community that brings people in."
But Harrell is quick to credit his volunteer staff for the overwhelming success of Triad Poetry Meetup and Triad Teen Poetry Meetup.
"We have a strong team of unrecognized men, women, and teens who open their hearts through poetry to make it all possible," Harrell says. "I'm just the choreographer who goes without sleep to orchestrate this dance."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com.
The Bayonets are moving forward on their new album
Thursday, April 15, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
"Snake River Canyon" is the album Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets needed to make.
After critical acclaim for their first release, "Red Bank Road," Caudle and brother Kyle hit a detour with their second album, "Stay On."
"Snake River Canyon" rivets the band back on track with a combustive package of urgent songs stoked with themes of moving forward and leaving the past behind.
Sitting outside a Winston-Salem restaurant on a Saturday afternoon, lead singer and guitarist Caleb Caudle sips on a margarita as he reflects on the band's journey.
"We really liked our first album, but we were frustrated with the second one and just wanted to have fun," he said. " 'Snake River Canyon' is the album that kept our band together."
The first track, "So Gone," best reflects the mood of the album and marks the moment when Caudle stopped thinking about writing songs and just did it.
"Repossess my heart baby and reassess my time/I'd change a few things about myself if I could throw it in rewind/But now I'm moving forward, forward with the wind/Each breath that fills my lungs reminds me how to start again," he sings.
"I started jamming on a blues riff down in the basement, and it gave Caleb a format to play," says Kyle Caudle, bassist and backup vocalist.
"It opened things up so I could write constantly instead of just verse/chorus, verse/chorus," Caleb Caudle says.
Interspersed between 10 hard-driven songs punctuated by Chad Newsom's pummeling drum beat and Philip Pledger's fire-powered guitar licks nestle two heart-wrenching gems. "Skeleton Tree" and "Weightless" are written as if Neil Young and the late Gram Parsons whispered in Caleb Caudle's ear.
"And I'll fly away from the skeleton tree/With my glory and the wind beneath my wings/Cause I'd rather fly away with the falcons/Than fall with the thousands of leaves," Caleb Caudle sings.
"We wanted this album to reflect all our musical influences and break away from the alt-country tag. It's more like Cosmic American Music," he said, rolling up the sleeve on his plaid shirt to reveal a tattoo with the title of Parsons' signature song, "Hickory Wind," on his right bicep.
Recorded at Echo Mountain Recording Studio in Asheville and co-produced by Jon Ashley, "Snake River Canyon" showcases Caleb Caudle's vocal range stretching to Roy Orbison falsetto heights and dipping to Frank Sinatra's deep-chested purr.
"This album was by far a band effort," Caleb Caudle says. "We each brought something different to the table. As a bass player, Kyle is more into rhythm, and I'm more into melody. We all had the same vision and everyone's opinion mattered. We have enough musicianship now so when everyone is listening to each other we can be innovative without stepping on each other's toes."
With a tour planned from Athens, Ga., to Boston by manager Andy Tennille, Caleb Caudle and the band are ready to roll.
"Usually by the time an album comes out, I'm tired of singing the songs," Caudle says.
"On 'Snake River Canyon,' the songs still sound fresh to me, and I'm excited about people hearing them.
"This is an album that makes people get up and move. It's the album we needed to make."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
"Snake River Canyon" is the album Caleb Caudle and the Bayonets needed to make.
After critical acclaim for their first release, "Red Bank Road," Caudle and brother Kyle hit a detour with their second album, "Stay On."
"Snake River Canyon" rivets the band back on track with a combustive package of urgent songs stoked with themes of moving forward and leaving the past behind.
Sitting outside a Winston-Salem restaurant on a Saturday afternoon, lead singer and guitarist Caleb Caudle sips on a margarita as he reflects on the band's journey.
"We really liked our first album, but we were frustrated with the second one and just wanted to have fun," he said. " 'Snake River Canyon' is the album that kept our band together."
The first track, "So Gone," best reflects the mood of the album and marks the moment when Caudle stopped thinking about writing songs and just did it.
"Repossess my heart baby and reassess my time/I'd change a few things about myself if I could throw it in rewind/But now I'm moving forward, forward with the wind/Each breath that fills my lungs reminds me how to start again," he sings.
"I started jamming on a blues riff down in the basement, and it gave Caleb a format to play," says Kyle Caudle, bassist and backup vocalist.
"It opened things up so I could write constantly instead of just verse/chorus, verse/chorus," Caleb Caudle says.
Interspersed between 10 hard-driven songs punctuated by Chad Newsom's pummeling drum beat and Philip Pledger's fire-powered guitar licks nestle two heart-wrenching gems. "Skeleton Tree" and "Weightless" are written as if Neil Young and the late Gram Parsons whispered in Caleb Caudle's ear.
"And I'll fly away from the skeleton tree/With my glory and the wind beneath my wings/Cause I'd rather fly away with the falcons/Than fall with the thousands of leaves," Caleb Caudle sings.
"We wanted this album to reflect all our musical influences and break away from the alt-country tag. It's more like Cosmic American Music," he said, rolling up the sleeve on his plaid shirt to reveal a tattoo with the title of Parsons' signature song, "Hickory Wind," on his right bicep.
Recorded at Echo Mountain Recording Studio in Asheville and co-produced by Jon Ashley, "Snake River Canyon" showcases Caleb Caudle's vocal range stretching to Roy Orbison falsetto heights and dipping to Frank Sinatra's deep-chested purr.
"This album was by far a band effort," Caleb Caudle says. "We each brought something different to the table. As a bass player, Kyle is more into rhythm, and I'm more into melody. We all had the same vision and everyone's opinion mattered. We have enough musicianship now so when everyone is listening to each other we can be innovative without stepping on each other's toes."
With a tour planned from Athens, Ga., to Boston by manager Andy Tennille, Caleb Caudle and the band are ready to roll.
"Usually by the time an album comes out, I'm tired of singing the songs," Caudle says.
"On 'Snake River Canyon,' the songs still sound fresh to me, and I'm excited about people hearing them.
"This is an album that makes people get up and move. It's the album we needed to make."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com
'A rousing revue with a wink and a smile'
Thursday, March 25, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Eight years ago, while performing on a ship for Celebrity Cruise Lines, dancer Jim Weaver lifted his partner adagio style into the air and immediately felt a searing pain rip down his lower back.
The former "Fosse" performer and choreographer to Dolly Parton and the Mandrell sisters finished the show -- and his contract -- in agonizing pain.
His surgery and move to Greensboro changed his life, but also opened a new door.
"After having surgery, I was nervous to return to dancing, which I had done my whole career," said Weaver, who moved back to Greensboro to be with family. "... so I decided to pursue something else until I was completely healed."
Weaver worked a series of managerial jobs, including one at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores in Greensboro, but also stayed creatively busy helping write plays and working with Joe Nierle at The Open Space Cafe Theatre in Greensboro. Each step led him closer to his dream of creating his own "Fosse"-inspired show, "Brouhaha Revue."
"From the beginning I told everyone I spoke with about this idea I had to do a show with a sort of cabaret element with burlesque and comedy, too," says Weaver, seated on a sofa at his brick duplex. "I got interested in the idea because I did 'Fosse' on tour and was fascinated with everything Bob Fosse did."
Weaver offers two versions of his show: "Club Brouhaha," a 45-minute set for nightclub venues, and "Brouhaha Revue," the two-hour full production for theatrical settings. The March 13 performance at Warehouse 29 in Greensboro sold out by show time, making it the third out of four shows to sell out.
"The Brouhaha Revue" will be presented again Saturday at Warehouse 29 in Greensboro.
"The show moves from pop opera to classic burlesque as well as 'Chicago'--style production numbers," Weaver says. "The show has a lot of different elements to it, and we want to make it clear since in the beginning the word burlesque got mentioned and people thought there would be nudity, but there's not."
The cast consists of Weaver, his sister Tiffani Gosserand, who performs in the show when she's not managing bands and designing Web sites, and co-choreographer Katrina Delisi, a classically trained ballerina and student at UNCG studying modern dance. Weaver first met Delisi when he interviewed her for a job at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.
"In walks this beautiful girl," Weaver recalls. "I knew immediately that she was a dancer by the way she moved and the way she dressed.
"We went to lunch, and I told her this idea. She had a lot of her own ideas to add, so that's where it all started to form."
A 30-minute sold-out show on Halloween night last year at The Open Space Cafe Theatre convinced them that the Triad was ready for "a rousing revue with a wink and a smile."
"It's taking the classical styles of what burlesque, vaudeville and cabaret brought to the theater and putting a new spin on it," Delisi says. "I do aerial dancing, and [I] dance with fans and fabric sweeps. We use glowing hula hoops and even have a fire breather. We're thinking of doing pole dancing, which is very hard."
Gosserand pulls a pair of black satin shorts and a red corset from a makeshift closet next to a mannequin named Brou-hilda, who stands in the center of a stage Weaver built in his home.
"This is what I wear when I do the Grand Finale, 'Hey Big Spender,'" says Gosserand.
"Oh, and look at this," she says, stroking a fake red fur coat. "I wear this until the end of the show, and no one knows I'm wearing the corset and shorts underneath."
Aside from the sexy outfits, Weaver adds that the recession has also helped attendance because it offers an escape.
"Once you get in that theater you can forget everything," Weaver says. "It's an answer to a prayer and a dream come true. The best part about it is it is a cumulative kind of effect of all of us coming together with our passions. We didn't know when we started this it would be part of a trend ---- although what we're doing is different."
"And better," Gosserand interjects. "Like the time you were dancing with the mannequin and her wig came off."
"And you rubbed her head," Delisi said with a laugh.
"I finished the number and rubbed her bald head while pointing at my own saying, 'Who am I to judge?' " Weaver says. "The audience loved it."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com.
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Eight years ago, while performing on a ship for Celebrity Cruise Lines, dancer Jim Weaver lifted his partner adagio style into the air and immediately felt a searing pain rip down his lower back.
The former "Fosse" performer and choreographer to Dolly Parton and the Mandrell sisters finished the show -- and his contract -- in agonizing pain.
His surgery and move to Greensboro changed his life, but also opened a new door.
"After having surgery, I was nervous to return to dancing, which I had done my whole career," said Weaver, who moved back to Greensboro to be with family. "... so I decided to pursue something else until I was completely healed."
Weaver worked a series of managerial jobs, including one at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores in Greensboro, but also stayed creatively busy helping write plays and working with Joe Nierle at The Open Space Cafe Theatre in Greensboro. Each step led him closer to his dream of creating his own "Fosse"-inspired show, "Brouhaha Revue."
"From the beginning I told everyone I spoke with about this idea I had to do a show with a sort of cabaret element with burlesque and comedy, too," says Weaver, seated on a sofa at his brick duplex. "I got interested in the idea because I did 'Fosse' on tour and was fascinated with everything Bob Fosse did."
Weaver offers two versions of his show: "Club Brouhaha," a 45-minute set for nightclub venues, and "Brouhaha Revue," the two-hour full production for theatrical settings. The March 13 performance at Warehouse 29 in Greensboro sold out by show time, making it the third out of four shows to sell out.
"The Brouhaha Revue" will be presented again Saturday at Warehouse 29 in Greensboro.
"The show moves from pop opera to classic burlesque as well as 'Chicago'--style production numbers," Weaver says. "The show has a lot of different elements to it, and we want to make it clear since in the beginning the word burlesque got mentioned and people thought there would be nudity, but there's not."
The cast consists of Weaver, his sister Tiffani Gosserand, who performs in the show when she's not managing bands and designing Web sites, and co-choreographer Katrina Delisi, a classically trained ballerina and student at UNCG studying modern dance. Weaver first met Delisi when he interviewed her for a job at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores.
"In walks this beautiful girl," Weaver recalls. "I knew immediately that she was a dancer by the way she moved and the way she dressed.
"We went to lunch, and I told her this idea. She had a lot of her own ideas to add, so that's where it all started to form."
A 30-minute sold-out show on Halloween night last year at The Open Space Cafe Theatre convinced them that the Triad was ready for "a rousing revue with a wink and a smile."
"It's taking the classical styles of what burlesque, vaudeville and cabaret brought to the theater and putting a new spin on it," Delisi says. "I do aerial dancing, and [I] dance with fans and fabric sweeps. We use glowing hula hoops and even have a fire breather. We're thinking of doing pole dancing, which is very hard."
Gosserand pulls a pair of black satin shorts and a red corset from a makeshift closet next to a mannequin named Brou-hilda, who stands in the center of a stage Weaver built in his home.
"This is what I wear when I do the Grand Finale, 'Hey Big Spender,'" says Gosserand.
"Oh, and look at this," she says, stroking a fake red fur coat. "I wear this until the end of the show, and no one knows I'm wearing the corset and shorts underneath."
Aside from the sexy outfits, Weaver adds that the recession has also helped attendance because it offers an escape.
"Once you get in that theater you can forget everything," Weaver says. "It's an answer to a prayer and a dream come true. The best part about it is it is a cumulative kind of effect of all of us coming together with our passions. We didn't know when we started this it would be part of a trend ---- although what we're doing is different."
"And better," Gosserand interjects. "Like the time you were dancing with the mannequin and her wig came off."
"And you rubbed her head," Delisi said with a laugh.
"I finished the number and rubbed her bald head while pointing at my own saying, 'Who am I to judge?' " Weaver says. "The audience loved it."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com.
Thacker Dairy Road journey
Thursday, February 25, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Rebecca White, co-founder of local band Thacker Dairy Road surveys the cupcakes she's baked for bassist George Smith's birthday.
Decorated with large cylinder--shaped dollops of chocolate, the dessert is disturbingly anatomical in appearance. White shrugs her shoulders and says they still taste good even if they look weird.
That's the same spunky resilience that has kept Thacker Dairy Road a band since 2004, despite numerous personnel changes and miles of distance between band members.
On a recent Sunday afternoon in Winston-Salem, members of Thacker Dairy Road are practicing for their CD launch party in a blue room with padded walls and coils of black cords that give the floor the illusion of a snake-pit.
Lead singer, 25-year-old Andrea Thorne, is having technical difficulty with her microphone. She calls to engineer Charlie Starr, who pops out of a room like a Jack-in-the-Box to help.
"Yeah, we keep him in the closet until we need him," Josh Casstevens deadpans, cradling his bright blue Fender Telecaster guitar decorated with pastel flowers.
The band nails the song, "Making Me Feel," with serious verve as 5-foot-1-inch tall Thorne belts out the lyrics, "Take my hand, make me understand myself better than before/Alleviate the pain, take away the game I thought I was winning."
"Jonathan, you've got to hold that beat until I'm done," Thorne says.
"Don't worry, I will for the launch party," says drummer Jonathan McMillan.
"You can steal my thunder," Casstevens says. "And you can steal George's thunder, but don't mess with her thunder," he says, teasing Thorne.
"Are you saying I don't have thunder?" White asks, pointing her fiddle bow at Casstevens. "Do I need to go buy some thunder?"
"Yeah," Thorne quips. "You can get it at the same place you got those cupcakes."
The original Thacker Dairy Road band hatched six years ago by White and co-founder Jeff Yetter in southeast Greensboro. Their vision was to have a different sound but one that people could sing and dance to.
About a year and a half ago, former lead singer Molly McGinn left to start her own band. The existing band needed a new lead singer, so Thorne, who had sung in church and in school choirs, decided to audition.
White says, "After Andrea (Thorne) left the audition, my husband Jeremy said, 'Well, I guess you've just hired your new lead singer."
With the band complete, Thacker Dairy Road began practicing for its first album. While the songs are penned by White, Thorne and Casstevens, the whole band gets credit for song arrangement.
The result is an eclectic and musically accomplished compilation of 11 tunes ranging from sultry, "Sugar," to remorseful, "Regretful Seeds," to a heavenly duo sung a cappella by White and Thorne at the end of track 10, "Sweet Silence."
"Our band has been through a lot, but we're stronger for it and better musicians," White says. "We've tried to be there for each other, and that kind of commitment makes me proud."
This spring, White will play fiddle with Jim Avett at MerleFest. She plays on his new CD, "Tribes," and Thorne also sings harmony.
White also will move four and a half hours from Greensboro to Highlands, where she is "choosing to be with my husband, the love of my life, and commute to Greensboro for my passion."
In the meantime, the members of Thacker Dairy Road are psyched about their first album and release party. Another CD is already in the works, and they hope to find management soon and book tours.
"I feel like we're looking over the edge of a cliff," White says. "We feel like at our launch party, we'll just jump off and open our parachutes and fly."
Contact Carole Perkins at cpguilford@aol.com
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Rebecca White, co-founder of local band Thacker Dairy Road surveys the cupcakes she's baked for bassist George Smith's birthday.
Decorated with large cylinder--shaped dollops of chocolate, the dessert is disturbingly anatomical in appearance. White shrugs her shoulders and says they still taste good even if they look weird.
That's the same spunky resilience that has kept Thacker Dairy Road a band since 2004, despite numerous personnel changes and miles of distance between band members.
On a recent Sunday afternoon in Winston-Salem, members of Thacker Dairy Road are practicing for their CD launch party in a blue room with padded walls and coils of black cords that give the floor the illusion of a snake-pit.
Lead singer, 25-year-old Andrea Thorne, is having technical difficulty with her microphone. She calls to engineer Charlie Starr, who pops out of a room like a Jack-in-the-Box to help.
"Yeah, we keep him in the closet until we need him," Josh Casstevens deadpans, cradling his bright blue Fender Telecaster guitar decorated with pastel flowers.
The band nails the song, "Making Me Feel," with serious verve as 5-foot-1-inch tall Thorne belts out the lyrics, "Take my hand, make me understand myself better than before/Alleviate the pain, take away the game I thought I was winning."
"Jonathan, you've got to hold that beat until I'm done," Thorne says.
"Don't worry, I will for the launch party," says drummer Jonathan McMillan.
"You can steal my thunder," Casstevens says. "And you can steal George's thunder, but don't mess with her thunder," he says, teasing Thorne.
"Are you saying I don't have thunder?" White asks, pointing her fiddle bow at Casstevens. "Do I need to go buy some thunder?"
"Yeah," Thorne quips. "You can get it at the same place you got those cupcakes."
The original Thacker Dairy Road band hatched six years ago by White and co-founder Jeff Yetter in southeast Greensboro. Their vision was to have a different sound but one that people could sing and dance to.
About a year and a half ago, former lead singer Molly McGinn left to start her own band. The existing band needed a new lead singer, so Thorne, who had sung in church and in school choirs, decided to audition.
White says, "After Andrea (Thorne) left the audition, my husband Jeremy said, 'Well, I guess you've just hired your new lead singer."
With the band complete, Thacker Dairy Road began practicing for its first album. While the songs are penned by White, Thorne and Casstevens, the whole band gets credit for song arrangement.
The result is an eclectic and musically accomplished compilation of 11 tunes ranging from sultry, "Sugar," to remorseful, "Regretful Seeds," to a heavenly duo sung a cappella by White and Thorne at the end of track 10, "Sweet Silence."
"Our band has been through a lot, but we're stronger for it and better musicians," White says. "We've tried to be there for each other, and that kind of commitment makes me proud."
This spring, White will play fiddle with Jim Avett at MerleFest. She plays on his new CD, "Tribes," and Thorne also sings harmony.
White also will move four and a half hours from Greensboro to Highlands, where she is "choosing to be with my husband, the love of my life, and commute to Greensboro for my passion."
In the meantime, the members of Thacker Dairy Road are psyched about their first album and release party. Another CD is already in the works, and they hope to find management soon and book tours.
"I feel like we're looking over the edge of a cliff," White says. "We feel like at our launch party, we'll just jump off and open our parachutes and fly."
Contact Carole Perkins at cpguilford@aol.com
A little luck, and a lot of heart and soul
Thursday, February 11, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Molly McGinn fingers the necklace dangling around her neck, a dog-tag-shaped emblem inscribed with the name Amelia Earhart. A gift from a friend, McGinn thinks it may be a good-luck charm, a harbinger for good things to come.
McGinn's new band, Amelia's Mechanics, is playing to sell-out crowds and hawking a debut CD, "North, South," to rave reviews. The band was voted one of the "Best of 2009" on WUNC's "State of Things" radio show.
McGinn settles her tall frame into an easy chair, crossing one boot over one knee. Her signature curly hair springs over her high cheekbones as she positions her cell phone to answer an expected call from Scott Avett, of the nationally acclaimed band The Avett Brothers. Avett's father, Jim, produced "North, South" and has urged his son to share his opinion on the CD.
Jim Avett and McGinn met a couple of years ago when she was singing and playing guitar in the band Thacker Dairy Road. McGinn released a solo CD in 2007, "Girl With a Slingshot," from which two songs are on "North, South."
"Jim told me I needed to add someone to harmonize with and to add some strings," McGinn says. "Molly Miller opened for me for a show at Triad Stage a couple of years ago, and I knew Kasey Horton from open mike night. The three of us had all just gotten our hearts broken, and we decided to start a band."
In February 2009, McGinn, Miller and Horton wrote and played songs inspired by Earhart, Ernest Hemingway, a suicide bomber and a female moonshine runner.
Horton, a violist and student at UNCG majoring in music, grins mischievously as she describes their music as "vintage country with a moonshine concerto."
Miller, an anthropology major at UNCG, plays electric guitar.
"We all come from very different backgrounds," she says. "I've always loved country, and Kasey is classically trained, and Molly is a free spirit. I guess you could call it free country classical?"
" 'North, South' was supposed to be a five-song EP," McGinn says. "In the studio, every time we'd play a song for Jim, he'd come out of the glass and say, 'That's great. Play another one.'
"Jim's hands are very much in the CD. He had us all sit around one microphone and sing and play. That's what lends this CD to a hand-made sound. It's three musicians sitting around looking at each other and connecting. It's true to our sound, and what you see is what you get."
McGinn's phone rings. She grabs it and says, "Hello."
"This is Scott Avett, and my dad made me call you," the caller says.
McGinn laughs, and they spend a few minutes extolling Jim Avett's virtues. Scott Avett tells McGinn that "there's a lot of good stuff on the CD, and the quality of musicianship is very much there."
"Oh, thank you," McGinn replies. "I've been listening to a little bit of what you're doing, and you're all right."
"Well, I appreciate that," Avett says, laughing.
McGinn's blue eyes sparkle as she hangs up. "He wants to hear more and see what comes out next," she says. "That means a lot to me because people who come out to the Avett Brothers' shows leave wanting to be a better person. That's what we want to accomplish with Amelia's Mechanics. We want to write songs that will lift people up, fix a broken heart or pick someone up when they're lying on the floor."
Lucky charm or not, lady luck is riding shotgun with Amelia's Mechanics. They recently hired manager/promoter Neal Davis, who has worked with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and with B.B. King. And they're planning a second CD release in July.
"I never thought I would play in an all-girl band," McGinn says. "But I love being a part of this band, and our goal is to keep doing it and learning. It's kind of like waking up and finding out it's Christmas every day. It's the thing I've been wishing for all my life, and now it's happening."
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Molly McGinn fingers the necklace dangling around her neck, a dog-tag-shaped emblem inscribed with the name Amelia Earhart. A gift from a friend, McGinn thinks it may be a good-luck charm, a harbinger for good things to come.
McGinn's new band, Amelia's Mechanics, is playing to sell-out crowds and hawking a debut CD, "North, South," to rave reviews. The band was voted one of the "Best of 2009" on WUNC's "State of Things" radio show.
McGinn settles her tall frame into an easy chair, crossing one boot over one knee. Her signature curly hair springs over her high cheekbones as she positions her cell phone to answer an expected call from Scott Avett, of the nationally acclaimed band The Avett Brothers. Avett's father, Jim, produced "North, South" and has urged his son to share his opinion on the CD.
Jim Avett and McGinn met a couple of years ago when she was singing and playing guitar in the band Thacker Dairy Road. McGinn released a solo CD in 2007, "Girl With a Slingshot," from which two songs are on "North, South."
"Jim told me I needed to add someone to harmonize with and to add some strings," McGinn says. "Molly Miller opened for me for a show at Triad Stage a couple of years ago, and I knew Kasey Horton from open mike night. The three of us had all just gotten our hearts broken, and we decided to start a band."
In February 2009, McGinn, Miller and Horton wrote and played songs inspired by Earhart, Ernest Hemingway, a suicide bomber and a female moonshine runner.
Horton, a violist and student at UNCG majoring in music, grins mischievously as she describes their music as "vintage country with a moonshine concerto."
Miller, an anthropology major at UNCG, plays electric guitar.
"We all come from very different backgrounds," she says. "I've always loved country, and Kasey is classically trained, and Molly is a free spirit. I guess you could call it free country classical?"
" 'North, South' was supposed to be a five-song EP," McGinn says. "In the studio, every time we'd play a song for Jim, he'd come out of the glass and say, 'That's great. Play another one.'
"Jim's hands are very much in the CD. He had us all sit around one microphone and sing and play. That's what lends this CD to a hand-made sound. It's three musicians sitting around looking at each other and connecting. It's true to our sound, and what you see is what you get."
McGinn's phone rings. She grabs it and says, "Hello."
"This is Scott Avett, and my dad made me call you," the caller says.
McGinn laughs, and they spend a few minutes extolling Jim Avett's virtues. Scott Avett tells McGinn that "there's a lot of good stuff on the CD, and the quality of musicianship is very much there."
"Oh, thank you," McGinn replies. "I've been listening to a little bit of what you're doing, and you're all right."
"Well, I appreciate that," Avett says, laughing.
McGinn's blue eyes sparkle as she hangs up. "He wants to hear more and see what comes out next," she says. "That means a lot to me because people who come out to the Avett Brothers' shows leave wanting to be a better person. That's what we want to accomplish with Amelia's Mechanics. We want to write songs that will lift people up, fix a broken heart or pick someone up when they're lying on the floor."
Lucky charm or not, lady luck is riding shotgun with Amelia's Mechanics. They recently hired manager/promoter Neal Davis, who has worked with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and with B.B. King. And they're planning a second CD release in July.
"I never thought I would play in an all-girl band," McGinn says. "But I love being a part of this band, and our goal is to keep doing it and learning. It's kind of like waking up and finding out it's Christmas every day. It's the thing I've been wishing for all my life, and now it's happening."
Actor/model would prefer to be rapping
Thursday, January 14, 2010
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Taylor Swift fans may know him as the heart throb in Taylor's video, "Fifteen."
But what millions of teenage girls don't know is that he is a rapper with lofty musical ambitions and a former basketball player who helped lead Greensboro Day School's team to victory in the Little Four Tournament in 2006.
Alan Fox is a New York City-based actor/model from Greensboro, who in the span of about a year has appeared on billboards, in television commercials and department store fliers and has bared his six-pack abs in his underwear for the clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch.
He takes classes at Hunter College in New York City and acting classes with Seth Barrish, a renowned acting coach who has been influential in the career of actress Anne Hathaway.
It's all pretty heady stuff for the 21-year-old former jock who thought basketball was his ultimate career.
Fox sits on the edge of a chair, fiddling with tufts of brown bangs that stick out of his toboggan worn as if to disguise his all-American good looks. The hat only accentuates his striking green eyes and straight brow.
"I thought I would play basketball or coach the rest of my life," Fox says. "I got injured my senior year in high school and ended up having surgery my freshman year at UNCG. After my surgery, I had to re-evaluate my life and figure out something else to do."
Encouraged by his mother to try modeling, Fox traded in his basketball shoes and signed with Greensboro-based modeling agency, Directions USA.
"Modeling seems kind of silly, but it offered me an opportunity to travel and explore parts of my life I wasn't used to," he says.
After three months of "modeling boot camp" in Florida, Fox moved back to Greensboro and traveled back and forth to New York City to model, a fact he hid from his friends.
"I was kind of embarrassed, you know?" he says. "All my friends were going to college, and here I was at loose ends. I was aware that I couldn't model forever. I had acted in the school play my senior year on a bet and found I really liked acting. So I moved to New York City to get serious about acting and to be the best I could be."
Right before the move in November, Fox's agent called to tell him he was being considered for a part in the Taylor Swift video "Fifteen." Fox drove to Nashville, Tenn., and landed the role of the boy who seduces, then rejects, Taylor's best friend Abigail, who is also Taylor's best friend offscreen.
"Playing that character was the most difficult acting I've ever done," he says. "I didn't want to be too cliché like the part always portrayed in high school movies, but at the same time, everybody knows that kind of guy. It's like I told my parents, I'm just a pawn in this much greater machine which is Taylor Swift. My philosophy was that it was a really small part but you have to start somewhere.
"Taylor is the most intelligent and well-spoken 'star' I've been around," Fox says. "She's very sweet but at the same time has this very intelligent, sarcastic wit about her.
"She has this incredible ability to verbalize all these emotions that teenage girls feel, not that I know how teenage girls feel," Fox says, laughing.
He says he'd like to "parlay this whole acting/modeling thing" into his passion for rapping, a hobby he started in middle school that escalated into a fan base eager to buy his self-released CDs. Fox leans back in his chair, visibly relaxing as the conversation turns to music
"I was always a minority on the basketball teams. I got a kick out of making words rhyme so I could fit it," he says." I can't sing, but I like to express myself musically. If I could write the perfect song it would be to convey all these feelings I can't put my finger on. I try to write in a way that captures emotions in songs."
He refuses credit for his accomplishments, politely handing any success over to "the best parents in the world."
"I can't take a lot of credit for what I do," he says. "I'm not entitled. Monetary gain or seeing myself on television doesn't concern me as much as how I can affect other people. I've had so many people support me and affect me positively. My goal is to affect a million people in the same way."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com
By Carole Perkins
Special to Go Triad
Taylor Swift fans may know him as the heart throb in Taylor's video, "Fifteen."
But what millions of teenage girls don't know is that he is a rapper with lofty musical ambitions and a former basketball player who helped lead Greensboro Day School's team to victory in the Little Four Tournament in 2006.
Alan Fox is a New York City-based actor/model from Greensboro, who in the span of about a year has appeared on billboards, in television commercials and department store fliers and has bared his six-pack abs in his underwear for the clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch.
He takes classes at Hunter College in New York City and acting classes with Seth Barrish, a renowned acting coach who has been influential in the career of actress Anne Hathaway.
It's all pretty heady stuff for the 21-year-old former jock who thought basketball was his ultimate career.
Fox sits on the edge of a chair, fiddling with tufts of brown bangs that stick out of his toboggan worn as if to disguise his all-American good looks. The hat only accentuates his striking green eyes and straight brow.
"I thought I would play basketball or coach the rest of my life," Fox says. "I got injured my senior year in high school and ended up having surgery my freshman year at UNCG. After my surgery, I had to re-evaluate my life and figure out something else to do."
Encouraged by his mother to try modeling, Fox traded in his basketball shoes and signed with Greensboro-based modeling agency, Directions USA.
"Modeling seems kind of silly, but it offered me an opportunity to travel and explore parts of my life I wasn't used to," he says.
After three months of "modeling boot camp" in Florida, Fox moved back to Greensboro and traveled back and forth to New York City to model, a fact he hid from his friends.
"I was kind of embarrassed, you know?" he says. "All my friends were going to college, and here I was at loose ends. I was aware that I couldn't model forever. I had acted in the school play my senior year on a bet and found I really liked acting. So I moved to New York City to get serious about acting and to be the best I could be."
Right before the move in November, Fox's agent called to tell him he was being considered for a part in the Taylor Swift video "Fifteen." Fox drove to Nashville, Tenn., and landed the role of the boy who seduces, then rejects, Taylor's best friend Abigail, who is also Taylor's best friend offscreen.
"Playing that character was the most difficult acting I've ever done," he says. "I didn't want to be too cliché like the part always portrayed in high school movies, but at the same time, everybody knows that kind of guy. It's like I told my parents, I'm just a pawn in this much greater machine which is Taylor Swift. My philosophy was that it was a really small part but you have to start somewhere.
"Taylor is the most intelligent and well-spoken 'star' I've been around," Fox says. "She's very sweet but at the same time has this very intelligent, sarcastic wit about her.
"She has this incredible ability to verbalize all these emotions that teenage girls feel, not that I know how teenage girls feel," Fox says, laughing.
He says he'd like to "parlay this whole acting/modeling thing" into his passion for rapping, a hobby he started in middle school that escalated into a fan base eager to buy his self-released CDs. Fox leans back in his chair, visibly relaxing as the conversation turns to music
"I was always a minority on the basketball teams. I got a kick out of making words rhyme so I could fit it," he says." I can't sing, but I like to express myself musically. If I could write the perfect song it would be to convey all these feelings I can't put my finger on. I try to write in a way that captures emotions in songs."
He refuses credit for his accomplishments, politely handing any success over to "the best parents in the world."
"I can't take a lot of credit for what I do," he says. "I'm not entitled. Monetary gain or seeing myself on television doesn't concern me as much as how I can affect other people. I've had so many people support me and affect me positively. My goal is to affect a million people in the same way."
Contact Carole Perkins at CPGuilford@aol.com
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