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
Sunday, August 8, 2010
'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
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Hope For Agoldensummer
"A Sister's Bond Beyond Music"
By: Carole Perkins
Published by: Go Triad
Thursday, November 12 2009
From the deep Southern roots of Athens, Ga., where resurrected bottles of Milk of Magnesia line weathered porch railings and rocking chairs sway with the cadence of katydids, comes a band whose music is as enchanting as their name.
Hope For Agoldensummer is a folk trio comprised of sisters Claire and Page Campbell and friend Deb Davis. While the acoustic guitar is the center of their music, whimsical instruments ring and whistle, from xylophone to singing saw to slide whistle and some occasional knee-slapping. Claire's and Page's harmonies float together effortlessly as they conjure images of the South: drinking on rooftops and dancing with the moon, shooting Coke bottles and driving I-85, and writing goodbye love letters.
"Page and I are very close," Claire said. "We don't have to communicate with words much on stage. Part of that is because we are sisters, but it's also partly because we've been playing together for eight years. After a while, you don't have to say things on stage. You can just look at each other and know where you want the harmony to go."
The Campbells' father played in various bands in Georgia and encouraged the girls to play guitar early. Page started playing guitar about age 14 and Claire, at 16. Claire says she "finally picked up a guitar when my dad stopped trying to get me to play." She eventually put a solo album out, "Golden Summer."
"I was having a terrible summer, so I guess the name was sort of sarcastic. I formed another band for a couple of years and when it broke up I started Hope For Agoldensummer. At that point is wasn't about being sarcastic; it was about real hope."
In addition to making her own lye soap and swinging on low-flying trapezes for strength and flexibility, Claire's favorite activity is being a doula, a "precursor" to a midwife who helps women during and after childbirth.
Claire writes songs only about three or four times a year when "real inspiration strikes like major events that are tragic or happy," she says. "Or, I'll hear someone else's story and be inspired by that. I do a lot of plagiarizing from my friend's letters. I'll take phrases and turn them into songs. I consider anything anybody says to be fair game."
Claire is 32 years old, a six-year difference between younger sister Page, who idolized Claire growing up and wanted to do everything she did, including playing the guitar.
"It's great working with my sister," Page says. "I can't imagine what my life would be without her because she's always been there. I think I kind of took her for granted until we started making music together, and then it all happened so naturally."
When Page isn't working her day job at a coffee shop, swinging with Claire on trapezes, or baking vegan cookies, she plays in two other bands, Creepy and Sea of Dogs. She is also working on a musical project tentatively called Rising Sign with her "man," Dan Donahue.
Despite Page's musical gifts, she says her proudest accomplishment is creating a video called, "Katelina," soon after leaving art video school in Chicago. In the video, quasi-psychedelic images paint the story of the sisters' close relationship.
"I never intended to do anything with that video when I wrote it," Page says. "Then some years later, a friend said he wanted to make a video of us so we pulled it out and made it into a music video.
"I think it's about finding ways to take care of each other and being women who need each other."
I addition to their two other albums, this month Hope For Agoldensummer will release a live CD, "Hours in the Attic," recorded mostly in Claire's attic.
"We had friends come over to act as a studio audience," Claire says. "It has 16 songs, mainly the ones most requested in our shows plus a couple of new ones."
In the spring, the band will tour extensively to promote a studio CD.
By: Carole Perkins
Published by: Go Triad
Thursday, November 12 2009
From the deep Southern roots of Athens, Ga., where resurrected bottles of Milk of Magnesia line weathered porch railings and rocking chairs sway with the cadence of katydids, comes a band whose music is as enchanting as their name.
Hope For Agoldensummer is a folk trio comprised of sisters Claire and Page Campbell and friend Deb Davis. While the acoustic guitar is the center of their music, whimsical instruments ring and whistle, from xylophone to singing saw to slide whistle and some occasional knee-slapping. Claire's and Page's harmonies float together effortlessly as they conjure images of the South: drinking on rooftops and dancing with the moon, shooting Coke bottles and driving I-85, and writing goodbye love letters.
"Page and I are very close," Claire said. "We don't have to communicate with words much on stage. Part of that is because we are sisters, but it's also partly because we've been playing together for eight years. After a while, you don't have to say things on stage. You can just look at each other and know where you want the harmony to go."
The Campbells' father played in various bands in Georgia and encouraged the girls to play guitar early. Page started playing guitar about age 14 and Claire, at 16. Claire says she "finally picked up a guitar when my dad stopped trying to get me to play." She eventually put a solo album out, "Golden Summer."
"I was having a terrible summer, so I guess the name was sort of sarcastic. I formed another band for a couple of years and when it broke up I started Hope For Agoldensummer. At that point is wasn't about being sarcastic; it was about real hope."
In addition to making her own lye soap and swinging on low-flying trapezes for strength and flexibility, Claire's favorite activity is being a doula, a "precursor" to a midwife who helps women during and after childbirth.
Claire writes songs only about three or four times a year when "real inspiration strikes like major events that are tragic or happy," she says. "Or, I'll hear someone else's story and be inspired by that. I do a lot of plagiarizing from my friend's letters. I'll take phrases and turn them into songs. I consider anything anybody says to be fair game."
Claire is 32 years old, a six-year difference between younger sister Page, who idolized Claire growing up and wanted to do everything she did, including playing the guitar.
"It's great working with my sister," Page says. "I can't imagine what my life would be without her because she's always been there. I think I kind of took her for granted until we started making music together, and then it all happened so naturally."
When Page isn't working her day job at a coffee shop, swinging with Claire on trapezes, or baking vegan cookies, she plays in two other bands, Creepy and Sea of Dogs. She is also working on a musical project tentatively called Rising Sign with her "man," Dan Donahue.
Despite Page's musical gifts, she says her proudest accomplishment is creating a video called, "Katelina," soon after leaving art video school in Chicago. In the video, quasi-psychedelic images paint the story of the sisters' close relationship.
"I never intended to do anything with that video when I wrote it," Page says. "Then some years later, a friend said he wanted to make a video of us so we pulled it out and made it into a music video.
"I think it's about finding ways to take care of each other and being women who need each other."
I addition to their two other albums, this month Hope For Agoldensummer will release a live CD, "Hours in the Attic," recorded mostly in Claire's attic.
"We had friends come over to act as a studio audience," Claire says. "It has 16 songs, mainly the ones most requested in our shows plus a couple of new ones."
In the spring, the band will tour extensively to promote a studio CD.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Jill Andrews: She's confident, and it shows
Thursday, October 15 (updated 8:26 am)
By Carole Perkins
Jill Andrews stands like an apparition in the spotlight's orb on stage at The Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte. She takes her time adjusting the strings on her acoustic guitar as she introduces herself and band member Josh Oliver.
Andrews is wearing the same boots she wore as former lead female singer for the everybodyfields band, but she has shed her timid demeanor of the girl next door. Stepping to the mike is a confident woman with a new husband, baby, band and EP in tow.
With a voice so angelic and voluminous it seems to fill the empty spaces in the rafters, Andrews sings:
"Say you're tired/ say you're busy/ you can lie to me/ it should come easy/ for you have been doing it for a while/ look away when I'm talking/ please don't say what you're thinking/ you have been thinking for a while."
The lyrics to "Worth Keeping" set the tone for her new self-titled EP, a stirring compilation of quintessential Andrews' penned songs, redolent in somber imagery and resonating with the universal vassals of loneliness and unrequited love. Josh Oliver delivers a stellar keyboard performance, while Robert Richard's lead guitar, Vince Ilagan's bass and Chad Melton's drums meld into a unique sound that becomes first cousin to the everybodyfields.
Back in the dressing room, Andrews sits on a sofa and talks about starting over with a new band.
"I feel humbled," she says. "It drives me a little bit and gives me more ambition because I know I have a lot of work to do. With the everybodyfields, we worked so hard and toured so much we didn't even have friends. I don't necessarily want that life again at all because now I have a family."
Andrews and her husband/manager, Clinton, met at an everybodyfields show in Knoxville, Tenn., where they now live with baby boy, Nico, almost 5 months old.
"When I first saw him, I thought to myself, 'I have to meet this guy,'" Andrews says. "He was wearing some pretty standout clothing. He had really tight jeans and a really, really tight shirt. So I went up to him and said, 'Hi, I'm Jill Andrews.' He looked at me and said, 'I know who you are.' Then we just started hanging out. He's a great guy."
Andrews and Sam Quinn, former lead male singer for the everybodyfields and Andrews' ex-boyfriend, created three artistically compelling CDs as the everybodyfields, amassing a loyal fan base that was crushed to learn of the split. Their last official show was New Year's Eve. Deciding not to release a fourth album as the everybodyfields, Andrews took her songs and used three on her new EP.
"With the everybodyfields, we kind of knew it was the end, but we waited to tell everybody else. Our personalities were as different as our voices, and we couldn't agree on most things except how much we loved singing together," she says of the duo whose dovetail harmonies have been compared to Emmylou Harris and the late Gram Parsons.
"It's a lot like divorce; it's very hard. But at the same time Sam and I are still very much in contact. He sent me a text message while I was on stage tonight," she laughs.
"I definitely wish the best for him. Sam is incredibly talented, and I've always known that."
Andrews says she's definitely not opposed to a future reunion, although right now she wants to "see what's out there."
"We've only gone out on one tour," she says. "Nico was with us and I swear, he is just the best baby in the world. He sleeps through the night and hardly ever cries. Everyone in my band is so helpful. Like, we'll stop at a gas station and I'll take Nico out of his car seat to feed him and everybody will say do you need anything?" Andrews says. "My family is very supportive of me and they're going to be on the road with me. We're going to make it work as much as we can."
She says natural childbirth when Nico was born gave her more confidence as a woman ---- and a singer.
"I feel like I've found my voice," she says. "I haven't had it long, maybe for about a year. I really don't know where it came from because I was so timid with my voice and my personality. It was probably everyone's encouragement. It just builds and builds."
Clinton walks into the room and perches on the armrest, snuggling in while Andrews talks about her new life.
"I'm really proud of her," he says. "You can tell she's really captured her own voice, and she's ambitious enough and strong enough to do something about it. I think her heart has a lot to share, and I'm proud of her for doing it."
Asked if the love song, "City Noise," from her new EP was inspired by Clinton, Andrews just smiles.
"I feel like the ceiling is going to fall in anytime now. I am lucky," she says. "I am so lucky."
By Carole Perkins
Jill Andrews stands like an apparition in the spotlight's orb on stage at The Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte. She takes her time adjusting the strings on her acoustic guitar as she introduces herself and band member Josh Oliver.
Andrews is wearing the same boots she wore as former lead female singer for the everybodyfields band, but she has shed her timid demeanor of the girl next door. Stepping to the mike is a confident woman with a new husband, baby, band and EP in tow.
With a voice so angelic and voluminous it seems to fill the empty spaces in the rafters, Andrews sings:
"Say you're tired/ say you're busy/ you can lie to me/ it should come easy/ for you have been doing it for a while/ look away when I'm talking/ please don't say what you're thinking/ you have been thinking for a while."
The lyrics to "Worth Keeping" set the tone for her new self-titled EP, a stirring compilation of quintessential Andrews' penned songs, redolent in somber imagery and resonating with the universal vassals of loneliness and unrequited love. Josh Oliver delivers a stellar keyboard performance, while Robert Richard's lead guitar, Vince Ilagan's bass and Chad Melton's drums meld into a unique sound that becomes first cousin to the everybodyfields.
Back in the dressing room, Andrews sits on a sofa and talks about starting over with a new band.
"I feel humbled," she says. "It drives me a little bit and gives me more ambition because I know I have a lot of work to do. With the everybodyfields, we worked so hard and toured so much we didn't even have friends. I don't necessarily want that life again at all because now I have a family."
Andrews and her husband/manager, Clinton, met at an everybodyfields show in Knoxville, Tenn., where they now live with baby boy, Nico, almost 5 months old.
"When I first saw him, I thought to myself, 'I have to meet this guy,'" Andrews says. "He was wearing some pretty standout clothing. He had really tight jeans and a really, really tight shirt. So I went up to him and said, 'Hi, I'm Jill Andrews.' He looked at me and said, 'I know who you are.' Then we just started hanging out. He's a great guy."
Andrews and Sam Quinn, former lead male singer for the everybodyfields and Andrews' ex-boyfriend, created three artistically compelling CDs as the everybodyfields, amassing a loyal fan base that was crushed to learn of the split. Their last official show was New Year's Eve. Deciding not to release a fourth album as the everybodyfields, Andrews took her songs and used three on her new EP.
"With the everybodyfields, we kind of knew it was the end, but we waited to tell everybody else. Our personalities were as different as our voices, and we couldn't agree on most things except how much we loved singing together," she says of the duo whose dovetail harmonies have been compared to Emmylou Harris and the late Gram Parsons.
"It's a lot like divorce; it's very hard. But at the same time Sam and I are still very much in contact. He sent me a text message while I was on stage tonight," she laughs.
"I definitely wish the best for him. Sam is incredibly talented, and I've always known that."
Andrews says she's definitely not opposed to a future reunion, although right now she wants to "see what's out there."
"We've only gone out on one tour," she says. "Nico was with us and I swear, he is just the best baby in the world. He sleeps through the night and hardly ever cries. Everyone in my band is so helpful. Like, we'll stop at a gas station and I'll take Nico out of his car seat to feed him and everybody will say do you need anything?" Andrews says. "My family is very supportive of me and they're going to be on the road with me. We're going to make it work as much as we can."
She says natural childbirth when Nico was born gave her more confidence as a woman ---- and a singer.
"I feel like I've found my voice," she says. "I haven't had it long, maybe for about a year. I really don't know where it came from because I was so timid with my voice and my personality. It was probably everyone's encouragement. It just builds and builds."
Clinton walks into the room and perches on the armrest, snuggling in while Andrews talks about her new life.
"I'm really proud of her," he says. "You can tell she's really captured her own voice, and she's ambitious enough and strong enough to do something about it. I think her heart has a lot to share, and I'm proud of her for doing it."
Asked if the love song, "City Noise," from her new EP was inspired by Clinton, Andrews just smiles.
"I feel like the ceiling is going to fall in anytime now. I am lucky," she says. "I am so lucky."
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