Samantha Crain is wise beyond her years. Her appearance -- youthful, diminutive, almost cherubic -- belies the intelligent singer-songwriter within. Listen to her lyrics and confident, unusual delivery and you'd swear she was a woman with twice her 21 years of age. Watch her on stage with her band, the Midnight Shivers, and you can't help but wonder -- how did a girl from Shawnee, Oklahoma, who wasn't even born until 1986, write stuff like this? And how did she develop that wonderfully strange and affected vocal style that sounds more like something out of a bygone era than from the age of mobile ring tones? These were my thoughts as I was lulled into almost comatose contentment during Crain's performance at White Water Thursday night.
The first thing you notice is her stature. This is a short girl. The stage at White Water can't be more than a foot off the floor, and when I got there, two songs into her set, the small crowd standing around towered over her. This isn't something I expected and I had to ask if this was the band or some high school opening act. But as I focused on the sounds coming from the stage any doubts that this was the band were out the window. Crain has a great voice, and it sounded right at home in the hazy, summer night atmosphere of White Water. It has a sort of resonance and harmonizes beautifully with the music mainly because it sounds almost like a musical instrument itself. Crain plays guitar and harmonica and is backed up by another guitarist, a bass player and a drummer in a spare four-piece act. They all appear to be very young but they all play with skill, delivering a nice, cohesive sound in a traditional folksy style.
Crain impresses with her easy manner and nonchalance on stage. Audience banter is clearly something that she's used to. But more impressive are the words that flow while the music's playing. "The River" tells the tale of a crazed preacher who drowns those he baptizes, and does so with a drum brush-and-harmonica sound that provides an interestingly bouncy backdrop to an odd and sinister storyline. "Traipsing Through the Aisles" has more of a light-hearted summer day feel to it, with a catchy refrain. But the highlight of Thursday night -- and I can't stress this enough -- the highlight of Thursday night -- was Crain's cover of Oasis's "Champagne Supernova." There's no topping that song in its original form. It has to be counted as among the best alternative songs of the 90s. But Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers performed it with a drum brush and a faster cadence and it became a whole other song. A very, very good song. And White Water liked it. A lot.
Crain releases a new EP July 22. The Confiscation contains only five songs, but it's worth the asking price. I would also recommend you watch for her next Little Rock appearance. I don't think we've heard the last of this girl.
-G
 Little Rock can't seem to get enough of The Good Time Ramblers lately. I don't know what rock I was living under the last couple years. It's either I just missed them or this band has just completely exploded onto the LR local music scene. Solid songwriting, great vocals, and an array of impressive instrumentation, there are truly no weak links. They have been writing music since the summer of 2005 and just released an EP last year. In preparation for last weeks run of concerts I checked them out on their Myspace page and was blown away. I marked their White Water show that week on the LRLM concerts page. Originally scheduled to be the opener they unexpectedly headlined that night for American Aquarium and Nathan Singleton. After an incredible performance by the two opening bands from Raleigh and Austin, Little Rock's GTR went toe to toe and played late into the night.
Part traditional country, alternative country, and southern rock, GTR have a passion for music that is widely apparent from their live shows. The band is one of the most solid performing acts I have seen in recent years. Lead vocalist John Lefler and bass guitarist Rich Dwiggins harmonize perfectly, Alex Piazza is an amazingly talented lead guitar and pedal steel player, and Brooks Browning keeps the beat and the energy flowing.
I normally don't go to shows by myself but Thursday night was a big exception. Everybody else from LRLM was out of town so it was just me. I showed up at Sticky Fingerz at around 9:30 just as GTR were getting into their sound check. Sticky Fingerz was jammed packed. Now at first I thought maybe it was the $2 Coronas (beer of the month) or the free cover charge. I was proved wrong when the crowd stuck around for the entire 2 1/2 hour show and judging by their response, became obvious everybody was there for the band. I think the band was even slightly surprised by such a large turnout. Last week at White Water Lefler asked the very welcoming and energetic crowd where they had been for the past three years. Obviously a little taken back by their recent success, this band is definitely going somewhere. With an even larger audience at Sticky Fingerz Thursday night the band fed off of their quickly expanding fan base through the early morning hours.
The band played through their entire EP released last year and several new songs from the tentatively titled Bigelow Strange album due out in the fall. The band has almost completed the album and just needs to spend some more time, and money, in post production. Rich sang lead on several songs including a new one he wrote while hanging out at Tootsie's in Nashville. Another one "Coming Back Home Again" was introduced to the audience that sounds great live. Brooks kicked into the two-step and Alex played an awesome guitar riff that had people instantly hooked.
The band paid tribute to some of their early influences and played through songs by Johnny Cash, Gillian Welch, Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Willie Nelson and a host of others. The band really got the party started and the dance floor hopping when they ripped into their version of "Mississippi Queen". Sticky Fingerz lighting and sound guy, Maestro, worked the lighting controls to make GTR look like something right out of Guitar Hero. I think the most impressive moment of the night came when the band covered Springsteen's "Atlantic City" They covered the legendary song perfectly and transitioned in to my favorite song off their EP "Gotta Get Back". The most unexpected moment came when later in the second half Jeff Coleman from "Jeff Coleman and the Feeders fame" joined the band on stage to play a thunderous version of his awesome song "All The Whiskey In Texas" In case the audience was still not convinced, the band played the most impressive version of Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" I think I have ever heard. Another couple songs off their EP, "Roland Lilly" (written about Lefler's wife) and "Carolina County" had the band's friends the "Saline County Boys" and group from Buffalo Grill stomping to the beat.
If you haven't seen them live yet, you will undoubtedly have plenty of opportunity. The band has a quickly expanding group of fans and are gaining extraordinary momentum. I quite honestly don't know where we have "all been the past three years", but we are all here now, and the Good Time Ramblers freakin' rock.
http://www.myspace.com/goodtimeramblers
-T
T texted me. "Man, this place is packed!" When I got to Juanita's T had a Pabst in a can -- one of those stretched cans that looked like it was a joke if it wasn't for real. I scanned the crowd and no one else was drinking. The reason was very simple. No one else was over 12 years old. That's an exaggeration, but it was a young crowd. It looked like a junior high lunchroom; the air was saturated with emo. The band The Bridges were in the middle of their set. They sounded good. The lead singer of this "family band" had a striking voice. She sounded a little beyond her years, which, again, was about 12 (I swear the base drum had Dora the Explorer screen-printed onto it). After The Bridges headed home for bed, Locksley took to the stage. They went to 11 (not their amps but their ages). Not as much to write home about with these guys as with The Bridges. In fact, I can't think of anything else. Let's skip to the next paragraph.
T finished his gigantic PBR and selected a more respectable, and less comical, beer - Miller Lite. It was about this time that the rest of our crew showed up, including our newest LRLM contributor, C, and the party started. Now's where the fun starts, faithful readers (all four of you). Rooney stepped up, as they say, and ripped into "Blueside," the band's first ever song (lead singer Robert Schwartzman showed it to guitarist Taylor Locke the first time they met up in Locke's garage to start the band). The Calling the World Tour, which began in May, had finally reached Little Rock.
By this time, we had moved to the floor, about 7 people deep from the front of the stage. This was a good move on our part, as Rooney live is an act best seen and heard up close. We intended to practice C's ABMF methodology to get as close to the stage as possible. For the uninitiated, the acronym stands for the following:
Always
Be
Moving
Forward
Basically, when anyone in front of you shifts out of the way or in any way leaves room for a breach, move into that position. Enough moves on the chessboard and eventually you're up front and center. It didn't work tonight. The crowd was like concrete. Once it set, it was impenetrable.
"Blueside" was followed by "Don't Come Around Again," then the memorable "Calling the World," the namesake of the tour. "Believe in Me" gave Louie Stephens a chance to showcase his talent on keyboard, adding a sonic layer to the music that hadn't been apparent on the first three songs. "Stay Away" was followed by an incredible rendition of "Are You Afraid?", with a guitar solo toward the end that took it to another level. After "If It Were Up To Me," bassist Matt Winter got to show his stuff on bass guitar in "All in Your Head." The driving bass line in this song really is distinctive and is reminiscent of some of my favorite stuff from U2. Next it was time for a cover song, and they made an excellent choice with The Band's "The Weight." This gave a chance for some of the older members of the audience - not me, I said the older members of the audience - to have a song to sing along to. "What For" followed it up and featured a really cool slide guitar effect.
Schwartzman prepped the crowd for the next song by getting everyone to participate in the obligatory "clap your hands to the beat" routine in the lead-in to "Paralyzed". Locke's guitar built to a crescendo toward the end that made you remember why the guitar was invented. They threw in a little bridge in this song and prodded the crowd with repeated chants of "come on, Little Rock." That was followed by the raw guitar sounds of "I Don't Think So." They did an incredible job of performing this song live, with some mesmerizing electronic effects that carried over into "I Should've Been After You." After "Sorry Sorry", it was time for another cover. This time it was "Helter Skelter," the song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. Rooney stole it back. Seriously. The guitar was totally over the top by the time the song ended. "I'm Shakin'" was instantly recognizable and welcomed by the crowd. Schwartzman tried to stretch it out a bit at the end, but the rest of the band didn't get the cue and the song, unfortunately, ended.
By the time they started the last one on their list, "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?", a song Schwartzman proudly imformed us had gone #1 in Europe, C's careful application of the ABMF method had vaulted him to the fourth row. I guess he was expecting an encore, but it never materialized. T pointed out that it looked like at one point the guitar tech was tuning things up for a few more, but then the house music came up and he put it back down and shuffled out the door. No worries, though, at 17 songs, the length of the setlist was nothing to complain about.
This was my first Rooney show, and I came away impressed. Some bands just sound much better live than they do in studio, and I think these guys fit that category. This was a little bit of redemption for Juanita's too. We've been a little hard on them of late, but they showed tonight they can still bring in some of the bigger names and, in turn, the bigger crowds. I hope this is an indication of what's to come for them.
-G
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