Finding true love at a country concert
Well, maybe it's a little early to call it true love. But it's already off to a good start and it seems like this could very well be the plot to a new romantic comedy.
I'm not talking about myself, but 41-year-old Steve Hicks of Fargo. Herald intern Kaitlin Ring has chronicled his quest to find his "cute little thing" he first met in January at a Tracy Lawrence concert at The Hub bar in Fargo. Her Thursday story told the tale of Hicks' first encounter of the woman (who he thought was named Peggy, but didn't know for sure because the bar was noisy).
Hicks first grabbed the Herald's attention when he took out an ad to find his missed connection. It seemed like a longshot, but it actually worked! Hicks reunited with his lady on Thursday, which Kaitlin wrote about for Friday's Herald.
And today, Hicks and mystery woman Pegi were on WDAY Radio in Fargo to talk about their unusual way of reconnecting. It's hard to believe it all worked out, but it seems like they are off to a great start. It's really cool that they had such a chance encounter at a concert and seemingly hit it off. And if it lasts, think of how great a story this will be to tell the kids!
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 2/05/2010 at 9:36 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: missed connection, music, tracy lawrence
Concert tonight at the Crosstown
I had a music story in the Herald today about a concert that sounds like it will be pretty interesting. I got a call a couple weeks ago from Jon Wayne (of Jon Wayne and the Pain, a Twin Cities-based reggae group) just to let me know he would be playing in GF again, and would also be joined by a new guest.
Yoni Reinharz grew up in St. Louis Park, a mostly Jewish suburb of Minneapolis, and has focused on his solo music for the last five years. Wayne told me Yoni is "a politically conscious Jewish hip-hop/reggae artist," definitely not the usual performer in Grand Forks. Yoni and Jon Wayne are playing at the Crosstown Lounge tonight at 10 p.m. (there is a $5 cover charge that includes a free beer). I wanted to learn more about Yoni, so I sent him some questions and this is how it turned out:
Q. How did you first get interested in music, and when did you know you wanted to do this as a career and not just a hobby?
A. I started playing guitar and writing songs at age 9. A year later, I knew music was what I wanted to do.
Q. How would you describe your musical style, and what message do you try to send with your lyrics?
A. I’d like to think that I fuse varying styles of hip-hop, soul, blues and reggae into a unique sound that transcends the sum of its parts. Lyrically, I write from the perspective of a quiet but astute observer. I like to paint a picture with words, to evoke a feeling and ideally some thought. I try to avoid saying “I,” “We” or “You” too often. I try not to tell people what they do or should do. I think many lyricists write from a perspective of who they want to be — enlightened, intelligent, aware. I am just a little more honest by admitting in song the fact that I’m still trying to get to where, what and who I want to be, as an artist and as a person.
Q. You grew up in St. Louis Park, a largely Jewish suburb of Minneapolis. How big of a role did that upbringing play in your music?
A. I grew up in a musical family, and culturally a very Jewish family. St. Louis Park was a hidden bastion of musical talent in my era. Much of this was fueled by Lance Strickland who taught Jazzlab. Jazzlab literally changed our lives. It single-handedly saved countless kids from flunking out of high school and turned rap kids and metal heads alike into jazz heads.
Q. You appeared on Matisyahu’s “Live at Stubbs” record, one of the best-selling live reggae albums of all time. What was that experience like?
A. It was incredible. I did Matisyahu’s first tour out of New York in a rusty van; three months later we did “Live at Stubbs”; two months after that it went gold. It could only be described as a meteoric rise. Since, I’ve played 40-plus shows with him, 15 of which with rock giants 311, and had the absolute honor of having him featured on my album “End of an Era.” I feel so fortunate to have met him. I guess it was just in the cards as they say.
Q. How’s the Minneapolis music scene for an artist like you? Is there a decent fan base for your kind of music?
A. The music scene is incredible in the Twin Cities. As for my place within it, it’s similar to the conundrum of explaining my style of music. I sing too much for hip-hoppers, I rap too much for jam band kids. I don’t fit the mold, but there are quite a lot of us who break the mold and at every show, there are at least a few people who are really moved. That’s why I’m so excited to get back out on the road to find those like minds.
Q. What are you working on for 2010?
A. I’m planning to tour a lot more to promote “End of an Era” and connect with folks. I’m also working on a new album with Cecil Otter of Doomtree Strange Famous Records, which I’ll be debuting some material from on this tour.
Q. What’s your goal for a live performance? What do you want people to walk away with?
A. I don’t like to tell people what to do, “put your hands in the air, say this say that, everybody scream,” I just want people to have fun and utilize my music the best way they know how. Some wanna dance, some just want a soundtrack to their evening, I want to satisfy them and everyone in between.
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 2/03/2010 at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: concerts, crosstown lounge, entertainment, jon wayne and the pain, live music, music, yoni
"We Are The World" gets an update
As most people have heard in the last couple of days, an all-star remake of the famous 25-year-old charity song "We Are the World" will soon raise money for Haiti earthquake relief. The list of musicians involved in the project changed a little since it was first announced - apparently some artists like Eminem and Lady Gaga did not make it to Monday night's recording session.
Still, 81 artists were in the recording studio. Here's what MTV News reported:
Among the voices in the 81-member choir were Pink, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Nick Jonas, LL Cool J, Robin Thicke, Celine Dion, Akon, Rob Thomas, Wyclef, Jeff Bridges, Vince Vaughn, Barbra Streisand, Jordin Sparks, Good Charlotte's Madden brothers, Tony Bennett, Josh Groban, Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, Keri Hilson, Jamie Foxx, Tyrese, Katharine McPhee, Sean Garrett, Will.I.Am, Carlos Santana, Melanie Fiona, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, Jason Mraz, Miley Cyrus, Busta Rhymes, Nicole Scherzinger, Nicole Richie, Usher, Julianne Hough, Raphael Saadiq, Zac Brown, India.Arie, "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, Musiq Soulchild, Heart's Ann and Nancy Wilson, Fonzworth Bentley, Kid Cudi, Iyaz, Bizzy Bone, Nipsey Hussle, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Trey Songz, Faith Evans, Mya and Gladys Knight.
One thing I'm interested to hear is Lil Wayne's contribution - he apparently handled the Bob Dylan part of the original song (that should be a pretty big change from the original!) And the rise of hip-hop since the mid-80s also seems to have been taken into account, leading to the hip-hop heavy list of musicians. I'm excited to hear the new version and see how it pans out. The video will make its world premiere Feb. 12 during the Vancouver Winter Olympics opening ceremony on NBC, and the song will be available for purchase as well. Here's the classic original version:
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 2/02/2010 at 3:54 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: bob dylan, entertainment, haiti earthquake, lil wayne, michael jackson, music, we are the world
ND State Fair announces musical lineup
The 2010 North Dakota State Fair (July 23-31) announced its musical performers Tuesday, once again bringing in some big names in the world of country music.
Brooks and Dunn will open the fair on Friday, July 23, and other acts announced so far include Darius Rucker (who I will always call Hootie), Sugarland and Eric Church featuring The Band Perry.
I have never gone to the state fair, partially because it's quite a drive from GF (it's in Minot) and also because I've never heard of a musical lineup that really made me want to go. What do you think of the announced performers? Are any of you thinking about driving to Minot this summer for the fair?
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 2/02/2010 at 1:38 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink
Tags: 2010 north dakota state fair, brooks and dunn, darius rucker, entertainment, eric church featuring the band perry, live music, minot, music, sugarland
New record store open for business in downtown GF
A new Herald intern, Kaitlin Ring, had her first story printed today - as the front page centerpiece of all places. I'd say that that's a pretty good way to start your professional writing career!
She wrote about Whole Wheat Records and Comics, the newest record store to Grand Forks that at first started off in a stripmall along South Washington Street. But the owner recently moved his business to the corner of Third Street and DeMers Avenue in the long-vacant St. John's building corner. That was probably a good move - it's always nice to see a new business come downtown, and I'm sure he's getting a lot more walk-in traffic at this new location. I'll have to check out the store sometime when I have a few hours to browse through discount records. Have any of you been inside the store yet? What do you think of the business?
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 2/01/2010 at 4:14 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: downtown grand forks, music, records, whole wheat records and comics
Why it's hard to respect the Grammys
The Grammy Awards ceremony is starting in less than 4 hours, and I'm sure I'll watch at least part of it to see who will be bringing home the prizes. But I've had less and less respect for the Grammys in recent years as I've learned more about its past history and paid more attention to who gets the nominations and awards.
There are some big reasons I feel this way: Mainly, the fact that the Beatles only won a total of 7 Grammys and never took home the top prize, best record of the year (the Grammys also snubbed Elvis in this category). The Beatles' "Abbey Road" lost the best album award in 1969 to Blood, Sweat & Tears - another completely ridiculous moment in Grammy history. It really just seems like the Grammy voters are always one or two steps behind modern music and their voting process is too influenced by external factors that shouldn't be taken into consideration.
I mean, can you really call Taylor Swift's album Fearless the album of the year? It's nominated for that this year and it seems likely she will win. There were much better albums than that, ones that earned critical acclaim but maybe didn't dominate airwaves like she did.
And I'm not alone in my disrespect of the Grammys - I recently saw an interesting compilation of quotes from 10 artists who trashed the awards even though they were winners. My favorite was from Eddie Vedder, who during his 1996 acceptance speech for Pearl Jam's best hard rock performance win said "I don't think this means anything."
But my biggest reason for not respecting the Grammys is best exemplified by the infamous Milli Vanilli debacle. The group won the 1990 best new artist award, one of the best-selling bands at the time, only to return the Grammy later on because people realized the two singers in Milli Vanilli hadn't actually sang on any of the album's songs. Here's the only clip I could find of them being caught in the act (wait for about 10 seconds and then it gets good):
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 1/31/2010 at 3:41 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink
Tags: beatles, blood sweat and tears, eddie vedder, grammy awards, grammys, milli vanilli, music, taylor swift
Minnesotan continues challenge of music industry lawsuit
I just saw an interesting story from the Associated Press about a Minnesota woman who is continuing her challenge of a RIAA lawsuit (for the illegal downloading of songs), a case that has been in and out of the courts since 2006. Record companies have seemingly dropped these kind of lawsuits in recent years - I think it was nothing but bad publicity for them when they sued grandmas and kids who had music on their computers - so it's interesting to see this case drags out as the woman fights the fine of $1.92 million for just 24 songs. Here's the story:
MINNEAPOLIS – A trade group representing the major music labels said Wednesday it will reject a reduced penalty for a central Minnesota woman found guilty of sharing 24 songs over the Internet, and will instead begin preparing for another trial to determine new damages. The Recording Industry Association of America made the decision after attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset rejected an offer from RIAA attorneys to settle. It will be the third time the case, which dates back to 2006, will see trial in a federal courtroom in Minnesota.
Last year, a federal jury ruled Thomas-Rasset, a mother of four from Brainerd, willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. She was ordered to pay $1.92 million in damages, or $80,000 per song. Last week, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis reduced the verdict to about $54,000 in damages, calling the jury’s penalty “monstrous and shocking.” The RIAA has until Feb. 8 to either accept or reject the reduced penalty. The group said Wednesday it would do the latter, meaning a new trial will be scheduled to determine damages.
In a letter to Thomas-Rasset’s attorneys, lawyers for the RIAA noted they would consider accepting an amount less than the jury’s $1.92 million award, but “we believe portions of the Court’s analysis are inconsistent with Congressional intent and the law.” The letter also offered a different option: a settlement of $25,000, which would go to a charity for struggling musicians.
Joe Sibley, an attorney for Thomas-Rasset, said his client would not settle. “Jammie is not going to agree to pay any amount of money to them,” Sibley said, adding that it doesn’t matter to Thomas-Rasset whether the damages are $25,000 or $1.92 million. “For her, it’s all the same. She just doesn’t have the money to pay any of those, and it would be financially ruinous,” Sibley said.
Sibley said Thomas-Rasset would continue fighting on principle, saying the statutes that allow for such hefty damages in these types of cases are wrong. Once damages are finalized, he said, he intends to take the constitutionality of the damages to the appellate level. The RIAA letter said that while a third trial is not in anyone’s best interest, the group pursued the case to show Thomas-Rasset was responsible for copyright infringements and that serious damage was caused. The letter also said the RIAA wanted to deter Thomas-Rasset and others from sharing songs in the future.
“It is a shame that Ms. Thomas-Rasset continues to deny any responsibility for her actions rather than accept a reasonable settlement offer and put this case behind her,” said RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth. The RIAA had offered to settle with Thomas-Rasset before, for $3,000 to $5,000. Last June’s judgment came after Thomas-Rasset’s second trial. In 2007, a different federal jury had called for a $222,000 penalty, but Davis ordered a new trial after deciding he had erred in giving jury instructions. The vast majority of people targeted by music industry lawsuits have settled for about $3,500 each. The recording industry has said it stopped filing such lawsuits and is instead working with Internet service providers to fight the worst offenders.
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 1/29/2010 at 7:17 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: music, music downloading, riaa lawsuits
Raising money through musical performances
The earthquake in Haiti has dominated world news for the last couple weeks, and tragedies like this often make people around the world feel helpless because it seems like there's nothing we can do. But luckily in this case, there is a way to help that is really easy and could get you some good music in the process.
The Hope for Haiti telethon last week was packed full of some of today's biggest musicians performing covers or original songs, all designed to raise funds that can help Haiti as it starts to recover. I was busy at work when it was on, and only caught little glimpses of the performances, but I finally checked out a Justin Timberlake performance after a friend told me how awesome it was.
I'm a little skeptical of Timberlake - other than his awesome duet with SNL on "Dick in a Box," he brings to mind commercialized pop music that is usually pretty soulless. So I didn't have very high hopes for his cover of Leonard Cohen's classic "Hallelujah" for this benefit. But it is a very moving version of a song that has been covered so many times - I wouldn't call it better than Jeff Buckley's haunting version, but this is definitely one of the best covers I've heard.
There were plenty of other notable performances - you can check out a roundup of the benefit that MTV compiled, which also shows how to order the songs from iTunes and help the charity raise even more money. And you can watch Justin Timberlake's performance on here:
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 1/25/2010 at 6:46 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
Tags: benefits, haiti, hallelujah, hope for haiti, justin timberlake, music
I'm back
First off, I want to apologize for taking a break from Valley Sound. It wasn't something I really planned on, but I was just way too busy with my other beats and a ton of stories last week and writing on this blog would have been all overtime (that's another issue).
But staying busy was also good in some ways - especially in Saturday's Herald. For that issue, I set a number of new personal records: I had three stories on the front page, another story on the front of section B, a business centerpiece and an arts story. That's six stories - a new personal best that I hopefully won't beat anytime soon (that's way too much writing for one day). I think it's a sign of my new assignments - the local business beat constantly has small stories popping up, and I'm trying to come up with business features as well. That will just take some time to get used to. And the K-12 education beat has been fruitful lately as well - I've already written about a new federal education reform competition and how it could impact North Dakota, and was supposed to attend a public forum tonight that would have discussed facilities projects - including the $13 million of proposed music and theater arts construction at two Grand Forks high schools. But the weather had another idea for today, and the forum was bumped back to Feb. 8. I'll definitely be there then to see what discussion comes up because it could play a big role in the School Board's decision on the music and theater arts stuff.
The weather also postponed a Haiti orphanage benefit concert that was supposed to be tonight at the Empire Arts Center - the event was moved back to next Monday. You can read Chuck Haga's story about that here.
Even with my crazy week, I was able to finish up two music stories - one about Friday's benefit concert for the Lunde sisters, and another about the latest concert in the Empire's 'masters of guitar' series. I missed the benefit show - after working for about 12 hours, I felt ready for bed instead of a concert. If any of you checked out the show, I'd be interested in hearing what you thought. How was the turnout? How were the bands?
The Empire concert is coming up on Thursday. I interviewed Peppino D'Agostino for the preview and he seemed like a cool, humble guy. Not exactly what I was expecting from the person named acoustic guitarist of the year in 2007 - a title that Peppino said is nice to have but not necessarily true. He pointed out that awards like that often happen because a musician has been around for a long time, long enough to get their name known. But he said it's hard to take the title seriously because it's really hard to define a word like 'best' - would that be based on how fast he can play, or some other criteria? I thought it was cool that Peppino was humble about it all and he seemed like an interesting guy who's come a long way since playing guitar to look cool in front of girls in Italy in the 1960s. You can check out that preview story here.
Once again, all I can say is I will do my best to more frequently update Valley Sound in the future. But I hope you bear with me as I get more used to a new work schedule and new story assignments - it will just take some time to find a way of keeping up with a blog and music stories as my other responsibilities keep increasing. That's the nature of journalism right now I guess, and the good thing is I never have boring days anymore. I just hope to keep writing about music, a topic I love, as I get more and more into business, education and general assignment stuff.
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 1/25/2010 at 4:04 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Tags: benefit concerts, empire arts center, haiti orphanage benefit, live music, lunde sisters benefit, masters of guitar series, music, peppino dagostino
Writing about music (and bars) in GF
I've been busy with interviews lately, especially ones about music, bars and entertainment in Grand Forks.
I stopped by The Hub last Wednesday to interview Rae Ann Moe, the owner of the bar since 1995, and thought it was very interesting to hear about how the 1997 flood caused heavy damage to the building and what she has gone through since then to get to where she is today. She said the main level of the bar had about 4 feet of water, plus two basements were completely flooded out, ruining about $40,000 in inventory. On top of that, she didn't even know if The Hub would be in a safe location so she couldn't start remodeling for a while - the City Council was originally discussing placing the dike on Fourth Street, which would have put her bar on the wet side of the dike. Once she found out they would put the dike east of Third Street, she finished up work and reopened about 11 months after the flood. She told me it was a "few lean years" as she rebuilt her business, and said it took the support of loyal customers who came to The Hub even though there wasn't much else downtown to keep her afloat. I also stopped by the bar Friday night to talk to some customers, plus hear some interesting stories from Dave, one of the bartenders. I asked him what was the most interesting or surprising customer he had ever seen at The Hub in his 10 years at the bar, and he told me Earl Pomeroy (along with telling me a funny story about Earl showing his Hub support during the Potato Bowl parade). You can see that story from Sunday's Herald here.
I also spoke with Travis, the owner of TJ's Sports Bar (formerly The Cue). We talked about why he has started changing the business - he said he always wanted to have a pool hall, but eventually realized he would need to attract a broader customer base to stay afloat. He has made many changes since buying the business in May 2008 - including getting a full liquor license, becoming more of a sports bar and holding dart, pool and indoor bag toss tournaments. But he also added open mic nights on Wednesdays (he just held his first open mic night last week), and is starting to feature live bands on the weekend. Sounds pretty cool, and I think I will have to pay this place a visit sometime. I'll have a story about his bar's changes in the Wednesday arts page.
Today, I interviewed Chris Erickson, who is organizing a benefit for the Lunde sisters (two GF sisters who were both diagnosed with cancer last year). He was a cool guy and definitely seemed like he's trying to give the Lundes a fun night with friends and music while also raising money to help offset the cost of their medical treatment. The benefit, which he is calling Music Cures Cancer, has a pretty great lineup: June Panic, Mischief, The Noblemen, The Hasty Ladies, The House Guitars, Angela Thompson, June Panic's Wife and the North River Ramblers. Plus, Erickson told me there will also be a second stage that will feature even more live bands (they're unannounced so far). It all starts at 7 p.m. Friday at the Muddy Rivers Ballroom - a silent auction will be held at 7, and the music starts at 8 p.m. There is no cover charge as long as you make a donation. I'm writing up a preview of the benefit for the Friday arts page, and will probably stop by to check out some music once I'm done with work that night.
I'll also be writing a story for Saturday's arts page about the next Empire Arts Center concert, and have plenty of ideas for the next few weeks. Plus, the Herald has a new intern who seems interested in writing about music - I told her today that she can write for Valley Sound if she wants. It would be nice to get more than one voice on this blog and I think she could definitely add another element to this. But I'm trying to make sure I don't overload her (I remember being pretty intimidated my first couple days at the Herald) so I'll let her write at her own pace and see what happens. It's funny to me that it has only been a year since I was in her shoes - a new intern at a new place - the time has really flown by!
Posted by: Ryan Johnson on 1/18/2010 at 6:12 PM | Comments (5) | Permalink
Tags: chris erickson, empire arts center, entertainment, hub, live music, muddy rivers ballroom, music, music cures cancer, open mic night, tjs sports bar
