One Night Music Featured in San Francisco Examiner
Ian Andersen
Lauren Byrne chronicles her introduction to and experience with One Night Music in a new piece published in the San Francisco Examiner on February 7. She met with founding member and producer Elia Vargas at a coffee shop in San Francisco and ended up following our production crew to the filming of Michael Musika and The Devotionals, which took place on Saturday, December 30 in San Francisco. Check out this great article that gives a sneak peak into what a session looks like for One Night Music. Below is a short video that Lauren captured on her iPhone of The Devotionals performing part of their session.
Read the full article One Night Music: Because of the Internet
All My Pretty Ones Performs Live At Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco (5 videos)
Ryan Andersen
All My Pretty Ones brings luscious harmonies and practiced instrumentals to indie folk music.
I hadn't heard of All My Pretty Ones when Elia asked me to come by Pirate Cat Radio Café to film them performing live for his radio show Tiny Antenna Have Large Receptors back in October, 2009. Now, after editing their videos for this blog post, I am a huge fan. Dare I even prophesize that the band is going places? A cliché phrase indeed, and one that I allocate sparingly, but it seems to be a succinct way to explain the greatness that I'll call AMPO. The best part is that should this prophecy be fulfilled it will be a result of their meticulous music making, not necessarily a desire to go places - a noble attribute indeed.
Ingrid Serban Performs An Aria For a Small One Night Music Audience
Ian Andersen
Ingrid Serban says she began her music career at the age of two. That can only mean that Ingrid was born to sing, and this video leaves no doubt. At age six she started studying piano and by fourteen she was formally studying voice. Today, among her many other musical endeavors, Ingrid lends harmonies to the music of Forest Sun, who recorded a session with One Night Music back on November 25th, 2009. As Forest and I communicated prior to his session, he mentioned he would be bringing Ingrid along. To the delight of the small audience gathered that afternoon, she performed an aria after Forest's session and left us captivated and speechless.
We felt lucky to hear Ingrid perform O Mio Babbino Caro (Oh my dear papa) -- an aria from the opera Gianni Schicchi (1918) by Giacomo Puccini -- in the green, overgrown backyard as the sun was setting in San Francisco. Something about the lighting and the mood, and the way her voice carried through the towering trees and apartments around us made the performance seem almost surreal. To say the least, it was a fitting way to cap off what was a fantastic afternoon of music.
As you'll see and hear in the video, Ingrid has a voice made for solos. It's grand, lovely, and gentle at the same time -- no surprise given her study and training in music. More information about Ingrid can be found on the biography section of Forest Sun's website.
Love at Muddy Waters: Rey Villalobos and Blind Pilot
Megan Sullivan
Scroll through the full post to see 4 videos from Blind Pilot
A dear friend of mine back in Santa Barbara recently wrote an essay on love and was kind enough to share it with me. It was poignant, drifty, one of the most beautiful things I’d ever read. Loving your friends, loving your lover, everything, everyone — people you'd never have and the ones you probably could. I laughed so hard, I cried, and I realized: I am just like Candice. I am falling in love just about all the time.
Blind Pilot - Things I Cannot Recall (Download the MP3 audio from this video)
In August, I fell in love twice in the same night. I came solo to Muddy Waters Café in downtown Santa Barbara with a field mic and a pocket camcorder to record Rey Villalobos (formerly of The Coral Sea) for One Night Music. Oh Rey, number one: I can't say I wasn't expecting it. I’d met Rey a few nights earlier, and he was as charming as they come. We decided I’d come to the Blind Pilot show (Rey was opening) and record his set, but — lighting not so good — we switched gears, set up at the end of the night in Muddy Waters’ storage closet for the most intimate One Night Music recording session I’d experienced yet.
Alexandra Adams Brings Kindermusik to Santa Barbara with Yellowbird Music
Megan Sullivan
Alexandra Adams sings "Small Town"
If you peek into Yellowbird Music while passing its large-windowed storefront on De La Vina Street in Santa Barbara, CA, you'll find something cute enough to disrupt your adult thoughts and make you smile, or laugh, or at the very least remind you that life's not so serious: here, eight toddlers are discovering dance, jerking streamers up and down and side to side; babies with broad smiles are bouncing on parents' laps or being paraded ‘round the room on scooter-boards; and excited preschoolers are leaping down a giant inflatable "log" or learning to perform musical "solos" for their friends on a pretend stage with tiny, squeaky violins.
Alexandra Adams sings "The Samba"
Yellowbird Music is a musical space designed for children, but it's also a place where adults can rediscover the magic of childhood. The single-room studio looks just like any kid-friendly place should. Its walls are canary yellow with stenciled ladybugs creeping around mirrors and cabinets. A party of painted birds -- an owl here, a blue jay there, seagulls, pelicans, parrots and acorn woodpeckers -- borders the top edge of the studio walls. Hidden in all those cabinets -- the ones which lend a crisp order to a room that would otherwise overflow with goodies -- are accordions, harmonicas, hand drums, puppets, recorders, scarves, pinwheels, bubbles, ropes, art supplies, story books, bells and shakers, xylophones and glockenspiels, and tons of non-Western percussion instruments gathered from owner Alexandra Adams' world travels. When you're two years old, this place is paradise.
Our 12 Favorite One Night Music Videos of 2009
Ryan Andersen
2009 was an exciting first year for One Night Music: we launched 25 sessions, creating over 100 high quality videos and audio recordings of candid live performances by independent artists. We have plans to continue the excellent growth of our community in 2010, but first we thought we would reflect back to share our favorite videos of 2009. Selected by the One Night Music Board of Gurus (our version of a Board of Directors), we present them to you here in no particular order.
Download a ZIP file containing the MP3s of our 2009 Favorites
Ellie Fortune, “Summer Fable”
Selected by Megan Sullivan - One Night Music recorded Ellie Fortune (project moniker for Sacramento-based musician Jesse K. Phillips) in Isla Vista, CA on April 4, 2009. Since then, I habitually check Jesse's tour schedule whenever I visit Auburn, my childhood hometown nestled not too far from the state's capitol in the Sierra Nevada foothills. And Sacramento's just close enough to San Francisco that you can catch Ellie Fortune here quite frequently: I sadly just missed his show at Adobe Books on 16th Street, but I'll see him at Li Po Lounge in Chinatown on December 30th, 2009.
Check out Ellie Fortune's full session »
Treesus, “Good God”
Selected by Elia Vargas - In choosing my selections for my "best of" ONM 2009, I considered a few factors. I was not looking to find what I felt were simply the best songs, or the best videos, but rather session picks that most brilliantly illuminated One Night Music's intention. That is to say, those combination of songs, images, and interactions within the environment that highlight the unique and intimate feel of a living room set, or bedroom lullabies. This is truly one of the most wonderful elements of One Night Music. A word between the musician and the videographer, the camera's focus of a hand gesture, an unanticipated note that changes the demeanor of a song...
Check out Treesus's full session »
Alex and Janel, “I'm Your Man”
Selected by Ian Andersen - The Alex and Janel session was particularly significant to me because it was the first where I stepped out from behind the computer and filmed (with my brand new Canon HV30!). As we began the session in Megan's overgrown, lush backyard garden I thought that Alex and Janel must be the perfect duo to be singing for us on a Fall afternoon in San Francisco. It was a great experience and this specific track is simply one of my favorite.
Check out Alex and Janel's full session »
Adam Bianchi, “Loomings”
Selected by Ryan Andersen - This is the third song from Adam Bianchi's session filmed on Valentine's Day 2009. As soon as he hit his first note a silence blanketed the room that I have not witnessed at any other session we've recorded. It was a silence nourished by pure awe at his music. Adam's music comes from an old soul, a reincarnation of an artist seasoned with decades of heartache. I still find myself at awe when I listen to Adam's music, and he very deservingly earns my pick as one of my top three songs of 2009.
Check out Adam Bianchi's full session »
Santa Barbara Spring Living Room Concert: Justin Ratowsky and Drew Bruchs (2 videos)
Ryan Andersen
My friend Scott Bull throws legendary house parties in Santa Barbara. It's not the drinks that elevate these parties to the status of unforgettable, nor is it the inevitable late night dance parties - these are in fact simply ornaments on the night. What makes these parties so great is that, without fail, they always bring together good friendly Santa Barbara locals. These are the locals that define Santa Barbara as an easy-going, laidback community of young professionals that carve a niche for themselves between sunny days at the beach and rigorous hikes in the mountainous backcountry.
AshEL Eldridge, Spoken Word - Eco Art from Oakland California
Ryan Andersen
In addition to my work with One Night Music, I work for the California Student Sustainability Coalition. This awesome organization hosts two Convergences a year during which they bring together hundreds of students from across the state representing dozens of campuses to build community and plan action to transform our education institutions into models of sustainability. AshEl gave a brief spoken word performance after the keynote address and I was blown away by what he had to offer. I quickly found him shortly after and asked if I could record him doing a more intimate performance of a song. He agreed, and this beautiful video is the product.
Here is some information on AshEl, quoted from the Alliance for Climate Education website:
AshEl Eldridge, a native of Chicago, is currently an Oakland, California based artist, educator, organizer and spiritualist. He was Outreach Associate and a Cultural Director of Green For All's Public launch called Dream Reborn and Spotlight Events Coordinator for Green Jobs Now: A National Campaign to Build the New Green Economy.
He performs spoken word, rap and sings nationally with conscious Hip Hop, Dub, Reggae and Electronica bands including Wisdom and Bassnectar. He has shared stages with Steel Pulse, KRS-One, STS9, Michael Franti, Midnite, Ozomatli and more. In addition to being a music, poetry, and meditation facilitator with Art in Action, where he works to empower low-income youth from urban communities, AshEL also combines the world of art, music and community healing with ecological sustainability within the CommuniTree Movement.
His work aims to cultivate the links between both local and global movements for social justice, spiritual awakening and ecological healing through "edutainment" and other compelling ways to captivate youth and hard to reach populations.
Santa Barbara Open Mic Documentary
Jenny David
Editor's Note: One Night Music will never forget its roots. We started in Santa Barbara and we love the artistic community and culture that the locals in Santa Barbara have created. This is the first in a series of blogs about the Santa Barbara music and poetry scene through the eyes of Free Culture Arts.
Santa Barbara Open Mic is a space for our local musicians, poets, spoken word artists, and writers to freely express themselves in a safe and positive environment. When I first moved to Santa Barbara in the winter of 2008 I soon experienced the need for a "gathering spot" of local talent and a regular space for free expression. Through this vision and some hard work the open mic was started in October of 2008. With the overwhelming response from the community, in only three months we grew from a monthly to weekly event. It was clear that the Santa Barbara music community could utilize and appreciate a consistent opportunity to display their work.
Audible, Edible: Middle Maki Music, and San Francisco
Elia Vargas
Every city and every community has its hidden gems. On the onset of any new grand discovery my first thought is, "wonderful, incredible, amazing," and then immediately to follow, "of course!" That is to say, "of course this wonderful thing that I didn't know about was here." I simply had to find it, to know that the world could align in such ways.
Such was my feeling when I happened upon Elizabeth Maki and her family/band Middle Maki. Before I had my own radio show at Pirate Cat Radio, I worked as an intern for Baghdad By the Bay, a very good program at Pirate Cat that hosts many up and coming San Francisco bands. Ups to Rick, the host; he taught me some things. While working under him as the "stupid intern" I scheduled Middle Maki for an interview. The twin set, Elizabeth and her brother Spencer, joined me in the studio to guide me through their influences and thought processes. The full band consists of Elizabeth Maki (banjo, vocals), Spencer Maki (guitar), Anna Levitt (fiddle), and Jack Kodros (bass).
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