Archive for the ‘Podcast Archives’ Category

Our second music episode features several highly-regarded Sioux Falls bands from alternative rock, folk, and bluegrass genres. Our featured bands include Amos Slade, Burlap Wolf King, The Tinder Box, and Avian Sunrise.

All of the featured bands have music available for streaming and purchase online. Please be sure to support these bands by checking out their music and seeking out their upcoming live shows!

Tony Memmel is a singer/songwriter who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and tours extensively throughout the country. In our interview, Tony discusses learning to play guitar with one arm, how he made the decision to become a full-time musician, performing and recording with his band, and life on the road as a touring musician.

He also talks with us about some of his recent and upcoming projects including his EP release, “Clenched Hands, Brave Demands”.

Count This Penny is a self-described Appalachian pop band based in Madison, Wisconsin. They talk with us about their collaboration with the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, their recent appearance on A Prairie Home Companion, and their upcoming album.

The duo consists of Amanda and Allen Rigell, whose gorgeously melded voices have drawn comparisons to the vintage style of Graham Parsons and Emmylou Harris, and the modern sound of The Civil Wars.

(Podcast posted soon!)

Photo by Christopher Mishek – blogs.citypages.com/gimmenoise

Expatriate is a country and Americana band from St. Paul, Minnesota that features the songwriting of Adam Nero who plays acoustic guitar and sings in the band. Their music draws influence from America’s rich history of socially-conscious country and folk music, and well-known country legends such as Townes Van Zandt and John Prine. They just released a debut album, released on 10″ vinyl which also includes a digital download. We met with Adam during his solo acoustic tour around the Midwest to promote the release of the album.

Joe Briggs is a poet and photographer from Madison, Wisconsin. He is an active writer and a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, is involved in many collaborative projects, and has shown his photography work at the Overture Center in Madison.

Joe’s photography website is www.joewbriggsphotography.net, and his poetry has been featured in Verse Wisconsin, The Museletter, Mobious, and the Wisconsin Poets Calendar.

The image and poem below are part of a collaboration between Joe and Cassie Marie Edwards, which is referenced in the podcast:

Floyd

Squints instantly as he impales a night
crawler with a fishing hook since the hook
reminds him of shrapnel: abstract art
festooned inside bloody, writhing soldiers.
The life of an earthworm unnerves him:
survival stripped of civil purpose &
moral imperative; the insomnia of circles.
He slumps on a wrought iron bench, after
a storm, the way the newly widowed might,
watching the worm diaspora spayed out
before him on an ocean of cement while
hungry robins sing their songs of death.

Our music episode highlights guests who have been on our show, and some who will be appearing in future episodes. The show features the band, Count this Penny, as well as recent recordings from Tony Memmel, John Statz, and Paul Otteson.

Count this Penny is a folk duo from Madison, WI, who recently performed their music on the radio show, A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Described as, “Appalachian pop”, The Onion said of the band that listeners will, “likely be surprised by how instantly inviting Count this Penny sounds… the pop structures the band employs make the songs modern and streamlined enough to thrive far from the mountains where their inspiration first saw the light of day.”

We will also play a track by the band that was written for The Wisconsin Veterans Museum, who encourage local artists to do creative works using historical resources. These songs were inspired by archival letters of Wisconsin Civil War soldiers.

T.J. Donovan is an ambitious and inspiring visual artist from South Dakota who is currently earning an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He received his BFA in 2006 from the University of South Dakota, and has been extremely active in his local and regional art community since graduating. He talks with Cassie Edwards about what led him to become an artist and gives an in-depth look into his creative process. T.J. was also behind the annual Take the Day art event at the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. You can see some pictures from the 2011 Take the Day event on Nathan Edwards’ Blog.

John Statz is a world-traveling musician and songwriter who writes songs inspired by history, life in the Midwest, and the lives of everyday Americans. John tells us about life on the road as we discuss both the business and creative elements of his career, and learn about his latest album release, Old Fashoned.
Editor’s note: This podcast features the song, “Old, Old, Fashioned”, which is a cover song by the band, Frightened Rabbit.

Stacey Berry is a professor of English and New Media at Dakota State University. We discuss her involvement with a grant project to raise awareness of sexual harassment in schools, especially in relation to social media. Professor Berry also discusses the impact of technology and digitization on modern publishing, and tells us about her poetry reading series, “Away From Keyboard”.

Published by Stacey Berry: “Beyond the Margins: The Novel of Protest and Production.” [sic] – A Journal of Literature, Culture and Literary Translation. Zadar: University of Zadar (April 2011): n. pag. Web.

Paul Otteson is a prolific singer/songwriter from Stoughton, Wisconsin.  On this episode of our first show, Paul discusses his musical background, recent album projects, and his busy life as an elementary music teacher.
Paul’s recent EP, Fall Where They May, Safe May They Land, is now available, as well as his highly acclaimed full-length album, February Fables.