Red Lion Pub Adds New Venue, The Lion's Den

Rosemarie Ryan prepares hors d'oeuvres for The Lion's Den's soft opening. View the entire album, Making of the Lion's Den, here. Photo by: AJ Hege Photography

A boon to Orlando's growing local music community

Winter Park’s Red Lion Pub has established itself as a home for local music in the Orlando area, playing a part in the success of many of Orlando’s favorite musicians; Evan Taylor Jones, for example, used to play here weekly with his original band.

Artists of all types, including funk, folk, acoustic, electronic, reggae, and rock have played the stage over the years, not to mention the spellbinding performances by fire spinners and other prop manipulators on Tuesday nights.

A labor of love by the Ryan family and many others who have long been supporters of the pub, The Lion’s Den is shaping up to be a popular spot where local musicians and artists can exercise their talents in a welcoming environment.

Located near the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and Howell Branch Road and directly adjacent to the Red Lion Pub, it shoots straight back with a raised stage at the far end. A wall of mirrors on the right reflects a 40-foot mural on the left, an ongoing project that is the work of numerous artists and tells the story of the pub and its many beloved characters. Wooden drink rests run along both side walls.

It is a work in progress, but the soft opening on Sunday evening was a treat and got me excited for what is to come. I spoke briefly with Christian Ryan, son of the pub’s owner, Rosemarie Ryan, to learn more.

Permaculture Action Tour Organizer Talks About Its Success

Jasmine says some people haven't been expecting to hear this message at the shows.

She hopes her work with The Polish Ambassador will inspire other artists to speak out for change.

David Sugalski, aka The Polish Ambassador, and Ayla Nereo have just wrapped up their cross-country permaculture action tour that brought permaculture education and hands on activism to each city on its route. Successfully crowdfunded in one month, this groundbreaking tour has received overwhelming support from music fans who are ready for their musicians to step up and use their voices for change. 

The aptly named “impact days” have seen high levels of attendance; on some days volunteers have even worked simultaneously on projects in different locations. At one of the Orlando events, I met Jasmine Fuego, a community organizer and dancer for the tour. In addition to doing her thing on stage, Jasmine was responsible for reaching out to local organizations to get them to come to the shows, educate the audiences on the organizations' work in their communities, and host the impact days where people could come out and do real work in the areas of permaculture, food justice, and sustainability. 

I sat down with Jasmine and asked her a few questions about the promotion of the tour, the response from fans, and the future of this kind of activism in the music industry.

So far it seems that you guys have been getting a very positive response to these impact days that you have been putting together. What kind of reactions have you personally been getting from people about what you guys are doing? How are they responding? 

Members of Papadosio Talk Shifts & Sound in Jax Beach

Papadosio plays Freebird Live in Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

"If our music was a spaceship, we’re taking little vehicles out and exploring ..."

I arrived in Jacksonville Beach a little early on Saturday to attend the “Inter-Kinnector” pre-show gathering hosted by my friends at C4 Collective at the Ananda Kula yoga studio. Anthony Thogmartin, Sam Brouse, and Mike Healy of Papadosio were leading a panel on the “kNew Paradigm” and discussing how we in the music festival community can be amicable in our pursuit of a new and sustainable model for living.

“In this community ... we have, in some way, bought into the idea of us and them," Anthony said. "And because of that, a lot of times our ideas, we feel like they fall on deaf ears … If we could do one thing better as our community, [it] is to try to relate to people. … We have to stop taking ourselves so seriously, and take what other people think of as serious, because we want to reach out to them; we want to be able to embrace them.”

Awareness of how we approach people with our truth is vital, especially in this time of transition.

“My parents weren’t all that environmentally friendly or forward-thinking until we started to be. So I feel like we are the first real generation that has a lot of forward-thinking individuals,” Sam added.

The conversation went on with several outbursts of laughter and thoughtful input from members of the circle that had formed on the studio floor. We discussed how music festivals themselves could do better at facilitating real change in the communities they temporarily occupy and living up to the “transfomational” moniker. But we also talked about the individual and how each of us has a responsibility to make an impact on the lives of those we come in contact with.

The time came to shift over to Freebird Live in preparation for Papadosio’s set. Rob McConnell was holding it down on stage with his second band, Asian Teacher Factory, a psychedelic-infused expedition through rock and roll soundscapes. I sat down for a brief interview with Anthony on the reasons behind some of Papadosio’s most recent moves.

The Imaginal Cells Fall Tour has you making a total of six stops in Florida (That’s quite a bit for you guys.), including Orlando where you haven’t been in a while. What made you decide to come back?

St. Pete Artist Has This Advice on Becoming a Live Painter

Jerry Cahill's art on display at Blackstock Music Festival.

"Be persistent."

I had the chance to sit down with St. Petersburg artist Jerry Cahill while I was volunteering in the art gallery at Blackstock Music Festival. When we spoke, he had just quit his job, moved out of his house, and was planning to take his work on the road as a full-time artist.

He said that it was a good time in his life, that he had just gotten his A.A. degree, and that he had saved up some money in preparation. "... I gotta figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life, so I'm kind of taking a break on everything."

When I asked him to give some advice to upcoming/beginner artists, he had this to say to anyone wanting to get into painting live:

Local Singer/Songwriter Discusses Challenges of Full-Time Musicianship

Singer/songwriter Loi Head performs at the 13th Annual DeLand Original Music Festival. 

"It definitely brings up a lot of questions ..."

For Loi Head, music has always been a part of life, even in the early years. Her mother and grandmother sang to her as a child. Her older sister was a singer, and may have been the inspiration for her joining chorus as a young student.

In college, Loi joined a worship team and sang back up vocals for a campus ministry. This got her around musicians, and after college she picked up the guitar and started to learn.

The decision to become a full-time musician came after the encouragement of others piqued her interest.

"Several people had just randomly talked to me about that," Loi says, "which I had never thought of before on my own, like, oh, I should be doing this. So then words of encouragement got me thinking about it, and then picking up the guitar and learning that kind of flowed together. I would be practicing and just thinking about words and songs and melodies and everything kind of coming together. So just through writing songs, even when I wasn't proficient at the guitar, made me want to do it even more." 

Local Artist Evan Taylor Jones Has This Message For You

Have YOU heard it?

Interview with Evan Taylor Jones at the Red Lion Pub

Last Tuesday, I caught up with Evan Taylor Jones for a long-awaited interview at the Red Lion Pub. That night he played with his band — Tyler Hood (guitar), Cris Faustmann (bass), Omar Rodriguez (drums), Mikey Guzman (keys), Matt Gutkin (organ, synth) — and was accompanied by Christian Ryan on saxophone.

Last year, Evan released his debut album and played over 100 shows in the state of Florida. He is well on his way to topping that number this year, having already played 23 shows in May at the time we spoke. Listen to the brief interview, where he talks about what keeps him going in the face of such an intense tour schedule and what he hopes you will gain by listening to his music.

Watch: Burning Man Co-Founder on Charlie Rose

Burning Man 2013, Photo: Julia Wolf 

A week-long festival celebrating "radical self expression and self-reliance," Burning Man started in 1986 and has grown each year, with close to 70,000 attending last year alone.

In his interview with Charlie Rose, Larry Harvey talks about what draws people to Burning Man, how it began, the rules of engagement, and the philosophy behind the event.

"Play Me, I'm Yours": The Story of Everyone's Piano

Inspired by the 75 street pianos that were deposited around Boston from Sept. 27 – Oct. 14, Everyone's Piano has made its way into the hearts of the patrons of the Red Lion Pub in Winter Park, Fla., and the surrounding area. The piano sits outside of the pub and is available for anyone to play, including local students.

The transformation begins. See more photos here.

Rosemarie Ryan, the proprietor of the Red Lion Pub, has spearheaded the effort to procure the piano and offer it as a gift to the community. Though it has received a mainly warm response, some have seen the piano as a blight that need be removed, involving the county government in a seemingly innocent situation.

I spoke with Ryan on Sunday, Nov. 3, as a party had gathered at the pub to paint the piano in the style of those in Boston. She elaborated on the inspiration behind the piano's appearance at the pub, how the community came together to finance it, and the battle to keep it accessible to everyone. Listen to the audio below.

The What and Why of EarthCry

2013 has been a year of many firsts. Most recently, I was initiated into the Rootwire Music Festival family. Though Papadosio has been a long-standing favorite of mine, I had yet to make it out to Logan, Ohio, for the four-day event. I must say, Rootwire 2K13 was such a phenomenal experience, a much needed adventure.

On Saturday night, EarthCry took the Tent Stage, and I experienced my first live performance (unless you count dreaming along to a set at Gratifly Music Festival). I can't really say I walked in with a healthy skepticism; like I said, I've been a Papadosio fan for a long time, and I was expecting an equivalent level of showmanship from frontman and guitarist Anthony Thogmartin.

However, I was still pleasantly surprised by what I heard. EarthCry weaves pulsating, syncopated rhythms with grandiose sounding counter-melodies — the rhythm pushing the song forward, driving it into you, while the long, drawn-out notes add a density and weightiness to the tracks, almost reminiscent of trance.

The influences of many genres can be heard; the same versatility that exists within the five-piece of Papadosio is evident. EarthCry’s debut album, released at Rootwire, called "Hear the Earth, Heal Yourself ∞ Heal the Earth, Hear Yourself," makes use of the Solfeggio frequencies, through the incorporation of tuning forks. Solfeggio frequencies are thought to have healing and transformational potentials, including the ability to influence the development of higher consciousness.

After Papadosio’s acoustic set on Sunday night, I spoke with Anthony to discover what the catalyst for this side project was, what his expectations are, and how it has so far been received. You can listen to the audio below.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival Interview

One of the things I like most about music festivals is how easy it is to discover something new that you love. Amid all the hustle and bustle, sometimes it's those bands playing on the side stages that really surprise you.

This blog was originally published on nodepression.com.

A North Carolina-based six-piece that brings high-energy horn rock to the stage, Holy Ghost Tent Revival is one of the bands I had the pleasure of seeing for the first time at this year’s Wakarusa. The mid-evening performance was bursting with excitement and sound — the band’s instrumentation includes both a trumpet and a trombone. The players were amped and put on a great show for the crowd at the Backwoods Stage, with songs that reminded me of going to church on Sunday morning.

I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard from the group during the show, and had the opportunity to speak with one of the members, Stephen Murray, after the set.

Alright. If you can just introduce yourself and your bandmates and tell me instruments you play and that kind of thing.

Yea. My name’s Stephen Murray. I play the Rickenbacker guitar and I sing, mainly. We have Matt Martin to my right on a lead guitar and backup vocal. We’ve got Kevin Williams on bass guitar and lead vocal. Ross Montsinger holds us down on drumset. Then we have Hank Widmer on trombone and Charlie Humphrey on trumpet.

Okay. How did you guys find each other? What brought you together?

The core of the band — the drums, the two guitars, and the trombone — all went to college together, and we just wrote a couple songs then, nothing serious. I was a theater major and people were music majors and stuff. So, it was for fun, and then people started liking the tunes, and then we met a bass player and we had different members for a while. The lineup now isn’t the original lineup. So, we had different horns; we had a clarinet at one point; we had a different trumpet player. And when we graduated it was just like we already had a really good following locally, so we were like, you know, “Let’s just do it.”

Might as well. And how long has that been?

February was year six.

Papadosio Plays Freebird Live: Interview & Recap

Sometimes you find a genre or band that really speaks to you, that connects with your innermost vibration. Jamtronica is becoming that genre for me and Papadosio that band. The combination of electronic influence and live instrumentation brings out the best of both worlds; when it’s done right it can be truly entrancing. And these guys do it right.

It’s been quite a journey for me — someone you might call a hardcore fan — seeing Papadosio delve deeper into its sound and tap into its resonant frequency. I’m sure it has been for them, as well, being on the inside of this living, breathing, changing thing that has grown into something much larger than each of them as individuals.

On Saturday night, Papadosio stopped in Jacksonville for the third night of its run in the Sunshine State. The hosting venue was Freebird Live, a two-story corner-spot, reminiscent of a Wild West saloon. Attendance was high and the atmosphere was set for a spectacular evening.

----------------------------------------------------

I step inside to be met by lots of excitement. Stokeswood is starting the night off right with high energy and stage presence. I find Anthony Thogmartin (guitars, keys, vocals - Papadosio) behind the merch table smiling and eating grapes, which he offers me. We move into the green room for a quick chat before the show.

Papadosio enters the stage and the energy skyrockets. I can see how happy the five of them are to be received so warmly; they’ve worked hard for this. They move into “Puddles for Oceans,” and a strong aroma fills the air. Something good is going to happen here.

“Don’t limit emotion. Trade puddles for the ocean.”

Purchase or listen to songs from that night’s set.

"Sally Can't Dance" — Sarah Goodyear Art

Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of getting to know an amazing artist, Sarah Goodyear, who I first met at Pink Moon Festival in 2010. At the time, she was living in, and selling her art out of, her van. Since then, she has graduated from an unofficial to a very official vendor — I caught her selling from a booth at Electric Forest ‘12 and a double-wide booth at Aura MusicFestival ‘13.

Sarah has been an artist her entire life. She started out drawing and made the move to painting at the age of 19. After two years of college, questioning the amount of money she was spending on a degree that she wasn’t even sure how she’d use (biology, to be specific), she “took some time off” and poured herself completely into her art. She started painting constantly and has been doing so ever since.

Seeing other artists selling prints at festivals, Sarah got the idea to make her own, and she set up shop for the first time at Pink Moon. She continued on the festival circuit, and “bootlegged” several in 2011. She managed to get booths at a few small festivals, but stayed mostly informal, setting up at campsites and in high-traffic areas.

Over time, though, the frustrations of being an unofficial vendor — being pestered by security, on the spot logistics, etc. — pushed her to take the step and become official. “It really pays off,” Sarah says. “You get a lot more attention, and you’re guaranteed a central spot where everybody is.”

Sarah currently lives in Boone, N.C., and still sells on the street to local tourists and college students. Her friends call her Sally, hence the name “Sally Can’t Dance,” which is also the name of a Lou Reed album. She says she gets inspired when people compliment her existing art; it gives her the push to keep making more. “I just pull inspiration from wherever, ‘cause I pretty much paint on a daily basis, so it just comes out of my brain.”

We're Gonna Walk Down To Electric ... Forest

Electric Forest. An amalgamation of sights, sounds, performances and, of course, the mystical, magical forest.

Sherwood Forest

            I had the privilege of attending Electric Forest (for the first time) this year, as a guest of Super Seed Magazine (facebook.com/superseedmagazine), and what a privilege it was! I was able to meet and interview several performers of all types, saw more String Cheese than I could have hoped for, and was rewarded – as if I needed more incentive – with full access and a primo camping spot. What more could a girl want?

 

The first artist I interviewed, Luna Breeze, is a professional hoop dancer out of Kansas City. She actually first discovered her love of dance (she was previously a cellist) at a String Cheese Incident concert when she was young. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Dancing! This feels so good.’” Luna performs, teaches – she taught two classes over the course of the festival – and makes DreamWeaver hoops, a beautiful combination of hoop and dreamcatcher (you can find out more about them at her website, lunabreezeperformance.com).

Luna leads a hoop class

Consider the Source

 Have you ever watched an artist paint? He works in layers, slowly building background upon background, adding highlights and shading, until he finishes — orchestrating a masterpiece that resembles, but is entirely different than, each individual layer.

This is Consider The Source, a jam experience out of New York City that paints a canvas with every song. Its three members ― Gabriel Marin on fretless, double-neck guitar, John Ferrara on bass, and Louis Miller on drums — layer Middle Eastern and other world sounds over jazz and funk techniques, all over their unique psychedelic rock sound, to create an incredible fusion of culture and style.

Consider the Source is like nothing you’ve heard before. Upon playing the first note, its energy and quiet communication is instantly felt, with quickly moving, sometimes almost erratic rhythms drawing you in, forcing you to focus in on what each member is trying to convey. Once it has your full attention, the trio truly takes your mind on an adventure, constantly surprising and defeating any expectations. 

I had the pleasure of meeting the guys after their show in Roanoke at Martin’s Downtown on April 4. This was the first show on their tour as well as Miller’s debut show as drummer, so it was a great opportunity to chat about the band’s past, present, and future.

Joey Paulekas Hits the Road With Emancipator

Joey Paulekas of Boogieburg Soundsystem recently received the opportunity to team up with Emancipator on his East Coast Tour. Emancipator, a Portland-based producer, is enjoying a newfound popularity, pleasing audiences with his laid-back, trip hop style. Paulekas will be joining him as he makes his way up and down the eastern half of the country, supplying the visual element for the duration of the tour. I sat down with Joey at the London Underground in Blacksburg to find out just what this means.

Me: Starting off, how’s life treating you?

JP: Pretty good. Things have been pretty wild the last few weeks, but other than that, good.

Me: How are things with Boogieburg and everything else?

JP: Great.

Me: What led up to you getting this Emancipator gig?

JP: Something that I’ve been working toward for several years with Griff, and just working with him in the past at events at Awful Arthur’s. He always really liked our design and visual work. And, so, you know, it just popped up, with them going on this big, full nationwide tour, and [they were] looking for some visuals.

I LOVE EDM!!

And I’ve seen tons of Electronic Dance Music artists from Deadmau5 and Tiesto, to less well known names such as Two Fresh and Emancipator, and even Pretty Lights and Hallucinogen (Simon Posford of Shpongle). 

Shpongletron

But what exactly is EDM? What makes it different from other types of music? Wikipedia says it’s “electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment.” Well, duh. 

There are many different genres within electronic dance music – house, trance, breakbeat, downtempo – and many subgenres within them. This can all get a little confusing, however, if you’re not an expert. So I’ve called upon a few DJ friends to help make things a little clearer. These are all guys I’ve met since I’ve been living here in Blacksburg, and I feel privileged to call them friends and to dance to their well-selected tracks.

I asked each of them three questions:

1. What is your favorite genre of electronic music?

2. What makes it different from other genres?

3. Why do you like spinning (or why don't you like spinning) that particular genre?

Here’s what they had to say.

Pink Moon III - What to Expect

Getting to outer space can be a little tricky these days. The last shuttle has flown and private space travel is still too expensive for my tastes. But there is an alternative. If you can’t make it to the moon, try making it to Pink Moon Festival, a funky and fun four-day festival in Rock Camp, West Virginia.

Held this year from Sept. 15 to 18, Pink Moon promises a great experience, with fantastic regional acts, as well as a Saturday night headliner that’s sure to deliver. Nestled away in the mountains, it has the secluded, private feel I’ve come to love in festivals, far different from the mega-fest that is Wakarusa, which I wrote about earlier this year. When you’re there, you really get that sense of escape from the everyday, a feeling of release and relaxation, and, of course, that soothing mountain air.

 

I emailed Seth Abramson and Jessica Mola, who head up Rock Camp Productions – the hand behind the wonder that is Pink Moon – about what we can expect for this year. Here’s what they had to say:

What makes Pink Moon special?

Pink Moon has developed from the culmination of years of festival tours as Rock Camp Productions. Our signature glowing puppets and fog breathing dragon have been coast to coast broadcasting good vibes and become a mainstay and expected element of most major American music and arts festivals. Through our travels we've learned a great deal about festival production … and we've taken all the wisdom, all the great people we've met along the way, and everything else we've learned together for this holistically and socially motivated festival. Pink Moon is a tribute to [Seth]’s late mother, Linda Lee "Pinky" Testerman and all those bright souls who have passed.