Voted as one of the top 10 folk artists in Austin, Vanessa Peters is already well known in her home state of Texas. Judging by the relentless touring schedule she keeps, it seems that she is trying to make a name for herself in the rest of the world as well. In the last two years, she has criss-crossed America twice and toured all over Italy, Holland, Germany, and the Czech Republic, both as a solo artist and with her Italian band, Ice Cream on Mondays. But touring hasn’t stopped her putting pen to paper either; she released “Thin Thread” in 2005 to glowing reviews in the States and in Italy, and released her 4th and 5th albums (“Blackout” and “Little Films”) in 2006.
“Little Films”, released in late 2006, chronicles the redemptive and destructive powers that our own personal films have in our lives. Early buzz says this is Vanessa’s best album yet, showing off her 1-2-3 punch of startling lyrics, catchy melodies, and a voice that stays with you for days – likened by one reviewer to “a voice that you could obtain by mixing the earthiness of Lucinda Williams, the witty youthfulness of Beth Orton, and the problematic grace of Suzanne Vega.” The album is a blend of various genres, covering the Americana-rock of Wilco and the Jayhawks, the folk-tinged songs of Patty Griffin, and the pop-rock of Aimee Mann.
2007 started off with a 15-date tour in Italy that took the band up and down the proverbial boot and found them featured on Rai Radio 3, Italy’s version of NPR. Vanessa and Manuel Schicchi (lead guitar and harmonies) toured across America during the spring, playing most of the midwest and the east coast. Vanessa has just wrapped a tour in Holland, and now the band is playing various festivals in Italy for the summer…this is one tour bus that never seems to stop.
Vanessa and ICOM are endorsed by Norman Guitars, a specialty guitar maker out of Montreal, Canada. They are at home in small clubs, on college campuses, in coffeehouses, and most at home in appreciative listening rooms or house concerts. Vanessa has been nominated for best folk artist, best new artist, best new band, and best female vocals in Austin and in Houston.
Victoria Vox
Victoria Vox may not have had much of an audience as a 10-year-old, but that didn’t stop her from writing and recording her first songs in her bedroom in small-town, Wisconsin. Vox has always known it was her destiny to perform, but didn’t find her true voice in performing until after tackling a Casio keyboard, violin, oboe, trumpet, guitar, bass and now, ukulele.
Missing her junior prom in high school, Vox traveled overseas as a foreign exchange student to rural France where she bought her first guitar. A new instrument and an inspirational environment turned her away from her keyboard top-40 musings and band-geek rut, encouraging a more therapeutic and purposeful songwriting method.
Vox continued her higher education at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. A degree in songwriting was right up her alley, plus, the male-to-female ratio was 6-1! Meticulous about honing her craft, the then pink-haired “conservative” punk-rocker worked on tweaking her songs, and was later rewarded in the form of a Berklee Achievement Scholarship and the Vince Gill Songwriting Award.
After graduating in 2000, Vox moved to Nashville but soon decided to dodge the grits, sold everything she owned and jumped the pond to London, England. Six concentrated months later she returned to the states and started touring regionally in the Midwest selling her home-made recordings from her trunk.
In May of 2003, she quit her “not-at-all-missed-retail-job” in Green Bay, founded her own publishing company, Obus Music, and took to the road full time, sharing her songs and infectious smile from Los Angeles to London. It was in late 2004 when Victoria was given a ukulele and she ran with the idea as soon as she saw the fan’s response to the toy-like instrument.
In February of 2006, Vox released “Victoria Vox and Her Jumping Flea” to rave reviews. On her first Hawaiian tour in support of the album, Vox was offered sponsorship by KoAloha Ukuleles out of Honolulu. Jumping Flea has been featured on NPR’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge”, the song “America” was used on A&E’s Random 1 and indie films Lost in Woonsocket and Westbound and “My Darlin’ Beau” was awarded runner-up in the International Acoustic Music Awards. She was also included in Relix Magazine’s list of artists to watch.
“Chameleon” is Vox’s brand spankin’ new album (April 1, 2008 release) and for the first time, she has mixed her ukulele ditties with the guitar songs on one album – for a new sound that is uniquely and seamlessly her own.
Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros
San Antonio-born Walt Wilkins has been called a genius, more than once, and a writer the caliber of John Steinbeck and his voice as comfortable as a pair of old blue jeans, and he is, and has, all of that. His crafting of story-songs, hard-edged vocals to sing them and a plaintive guitar have made him a fixture of the Texas music scene (and Nashville before that). He’s put his magical touch on recordings by new and veteran artists, too many to count.
With The Mystiqueros, Wilkins has created something of a “Texas Hill Country super-group” that features five great singers and four great songwriters from the heart of the Lone Star State, all of whom have made their own records and are flush with recording credits.
Onstage and in the studio, Wilkins is joined by Bill Small (bass, percussion, acoustic guitar), John M. Greenberg (electric guitars), Ramon Rodriguez (drums, percussion) and Marcus Eldridge (electric guitars). Live performances around Texas are being likened to both outlaw country and classic rock bands, and they’re captured on DIAMONDS IN THE SUN, released July 24 by Palo Duro Records.
Wilkins says this is the most fun he’s ever had playing music in a band in 30 years. He describes the music of The Mystiqueros (nicknamed mq5) as highly reminiscent of ’70s country rock from Texas and the West Coast and blues and soul that members grew up listening to and features high-quality songwriting and musicianship, rhythm, and vocal arrangements.
Small, who wrote and sings the new album’s title track, “Diamonds in the Sun,” was born and raised in New Jersey, and lived and worked in New York City, Boston and Nashville before Austin. He had played with both Eldridge and Greenberg and had done a gig with Wilkins. “So we all knew each other,” he says, “and once we all got on stage together, it became obvious that it was the thing to do.”
Greenberg, a busy first-call guitarist, singer and producer around the Hill Country with four solo records, was born and raised in Oklahoma. He contributed the song “Red River Blues” to the album and describes The Mystiqueros as “the band every kid wanted to be in” back in the ’70s music world of rock ’n’ roll, country & R&B: “You were generally partial to one, and I was a rocker. But that’s the coolest part of being a Mystiquero! There are all three elements on this record, and that’s why it was plausible to put a rockin’ song like ‘Red River Blues’ on the same album next to a great country song about Hank Williams.”
Eldridge, a well-respected guitarist in Texas born in Tomball who’s made two soulful solo records, put his clear tenor voice to Wilkins’ “All These Memories” for DIAMONDS. He believes playing in The Mystiqueros is a rare opportunity. “There are no more bands like this left on the planet. … We all do what we do, bring it and blend it with the other talents in the band,” he says. “This kind of a thing is not planned, it just happens.”
Rodriguez, who grew up in Brownfield and has worked with several young Texas bands and artists, sang back-up on “Big Shiny Cars” and a small part on “Honky Tonk Road” on the album. He calls the band “a powerhouse” and the record a timeless thing, modern but with a vintage feeling. As the youngest member of the band, he jokes that he can still cut his own meat and that he pushes the others with his grooves and his beat to stay up late. “We have fun on the road,” he says. “It shows in our shows.”
For Wilkins — from his first musical influences as an Air Force brat, to his first band at age 15 to writing his first song (homesick while studying in the seminary) to playing own songs and writing in Nashville to his first album and producing others’ — The Mystiqueros might just be about coming home, at last.
Watermelon Slim
"Watermelon Slim incarnates the deepest and truest roots of American music. Combine Jimmy Rodgers, the Carter family & Bob Wills with Blind Lemon, Sonny Boy Williamson and Wilson Picket - and you have Slim - a one-of-a-kind pickin'n'singin Okie dynamo."
- Jerry Wexler, legendary producer -
Bill Homans, a.k.a 'Watermelon Slim' has a storied past from which he draws experience and fodder for the fourteen tracks on his latest release The Wheel Man on NorthernBlues Music.
Watermelon Slim first appeared on the music scene in the early 1970s as the only Vietnam veteran to record a full length LP album during the Vietnam war, a 1973 protest-tinged "underground" release entitled Merry Airbrakes.
In the subsequent years his original material has been reissued and performed by anti-establishment icons such as Country Joe McDonald. He developed friendships and musical bonds with Barbara Dane, roommate Henry 'Sunflower' Vestine of Canned Heat, and his dear fishing buddy, seminal Chicago blues harp plyer 'Earring George' Mayweather.
In his 30 years of music he has played with Vestine, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, the late John Lee Hooker, in Paris with expatriate New Orleans barrel-house piano player Champion Jack Dupree, Boston's leading blues guitarist and producer Chris Stovall Brown, and most recently with Muddy Waters' guitarist 'Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin.
But not until recently did he fully chase the dream.
Less than six months after leaving his most latest truckdriviing job, hauling industrial waste, Slim is now making a living as a full time touring bluesman. The decision was predominantly the result of a recent and nearly fatal heart attack, and the renewed perspective on mortality that followed.
Logically, why drive industrial waste around Oklahoma to dispose of when one can drive bandmates around the United States to play music and entertain? Pleasingly, the blues community has officially recognized him as one of the best contemporary blues artists with a nomination for a 2005 W.C. Handy Award for Best New Artist Debut.
Watermelon Slim & The Workers received 6 Blues Music Award nominations in 2006 and Slim was inducted into the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame on May 26th, 2007.
"The Wheel Man" available here:
www.rootsy.nu
Wendy Waldman
Wendy Waldman is a critically acclaimed recording artist, as well as a writer of multi-platinum songs for other singers in musical genres ranging from country to pop, film, jazz, children's music and R&B. She is one of the first woman record producers to have a major impact in the music industry. Wendy Waldman's career in the music business started with her band, Bryndle, in the early 1970s in Los Angeles. Bryndle was made up of Wendy Waldman and her friends Karla Bonoff, Kenny Edwards, and Andrew Gold.
Waldman's solo career had an auspicious beginning. The first Wendy Waldman album, "Love Has Got Me," was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1973 and proclaimed by Rolling Stone Magazine to be the "singer-songwriter debut of the year." She has made eight critically acclaimed solo albums and toured extensively as well. In 1996, a "best of" collection was released on Warner Brothers, followed by the reissue of all of the Warner albums in 2005.
More than 70 other artists have recorded her songs in fields as diverse as pop, R&B, jazz, country, film, Latin and cowboy music. Among her biggest records are "Save The Best For Last" and "The Sweetest Days" by Vanessa Williams; "Fishin' In The Dark" and "Home Again In My Heart" by the Dirt Band; "Baby What About You" by Crystal Gayle; "I Owe You One" by Aaron Neville; "Heartbeat" by Don Johnson, "I'm Gone" by Alison Krauss, and most recently, "Fishin in the Dark," released on Garth Brooks' new box set.
Her songs have also been recorded by Maria Muldaur, Robert Smith of the Cure, Linda Ronstadt, Kim Carnes, CeCe Winans, NewGrass Revival, Randy Travis, Randy Meisner, Edgar Winter, Jesse Colin Young, Percy Sledge, Kenny Rogers, Judy Collins, Melissa Manchester, Rita Coolidge and Bette Midler to name just a few. Waldman became the first woman to produce country music extensively and was responsible for Susy Bogguss' award-winning debut album, as well as projects for the Forester Sisters, Jonathan Edwards, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Matraca Berg and the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
Waldman produced the last New Grass Revival album, "Friday Night in America," considered a tour de force in the acoustic music world. In recent years she has focused on producing independent artists, among them Ronny Cox, Brian Joseph, John Cowan, Arthur Lee Land, Anna Wolfe, Katy Moffatt and Rosie Flores, and has coproduced all three of the Bryndle cds which have been recorded since 1995. The most recent project is a live acoustic album for the Los Angeles based rock band Hypnogaja, and she is currently in the studio with the legendary folk/jazz artists Artie Traum. After many years, a new Wendy Waldman cd is finished and will be released in the summer of 2006.
Waldman is the only female musician in the Taylor Guitars clinician program and is in demand for her songwriting workshops/performances. She also tours extensively as a solo artist and in combination with other friends, all across the country and in all kinds of venues.
As a true veteran of the music industry, Wendy Waldman imparts a sense of great joy and passion about all aspects of music making.
The Whats
Unlike most two piece bands who feel the need to play more to make up for their lack of personnel, THE WHATS keep the music minimal, tight, economical and punchy, veering sharply towards the "less is more" philosophy. 
Simple repetitive rhythms and melodies dominate, two minute two chord songs, no drum fills, clean dry recordings.
The lack of bass and / or any other instrumentation except for a very sparsely used keyboard may deter a few, but THE WHATS carry on with a minimalist principle and a punk rock foundation paying homage to bands like The Clash.
Tim, vocalist and guitarist, fails to reserve his honest and deliberate vocal approach. The melodies clearly stem from a lifetime of running home from school with worn-out Chuck Taylors and an unwashed Sex Pistols t-shirt to listen to old punk and indie music through oversized headphones. The lyrics spill out naturally and sometimes rushed, showing that Tim may have more to say than he has time to do so.
Dean's drum approach mirrors the band’s general mindset - less is more. As the son of an eclectic drummer, he lets a variety of genres seep in during the songwriting process. The amalgamation of the two create a standard that is far too often overlooked in today's music world- three-chord rock can still make for a sound deemed worthy of rock’n’roll.
The title of their debut album, ‘All Mouth, No Trousers’, may be all too sarcastic. The band plays with less of a 'no action' mentality and instead substitutes it for a 'shut up and play' attitude that can still reach out to a crowd of new teenagers, still wearing Chucks, still keeping music a secret in their bedroom, still walking, breathing, and rocking out to the music that might just save the world, one disgruntled teenager at a time.
Winston Montgomery
Born in New York State an hour’s drive north of New York City, Winston Montgomery made the pilgrimage to San Francisco during the summer after the “Summer of Love” and has never left “the cool grey city of love”.
He made his living for 25 years renovating houses, among them many of the multi-hued Victorian edifices that San Francisco is famous for. After a stint of singing lead in a band and writing songs 30 years ago he has started writing again, performing his songs solo at a number of open mics throughout San Francisco and playing at clubs with his four piece band, The Tall Boys.
His EP containing 7 songs, “The Child Is Father To The Man” is his first recording effort, but he is working on a full length CD, produced by Austin de Lone, a founding member of Eggs Over Easy (a group often credited with starting the London based “Pub Rock” phenomenon), which should be released in January of 2008.
Wyckham Porteous
West Coast artist Wyckham Porteous has recorded a new album for Cordova Bay Records that was produced by Andrew Loog Oldham last winter in Vancouver.
Oldham left school at sixteen to work for fashion designer Mary Quant; became a publicist who helped Brian Epstein promote the Beatles in their early days; and helmed the Rolling Stones' rise to glory as their manager. He spends part of his time each year split between Vancouver, British Columbia and Bogota, Colombia.
Porteous, born in Victoria, British Columbia, schooled in Nanaimo and lives in Vancouver but has been a world traveller supporting previous albums that have been released in the US, UK, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands and Germany. Previous releases have reached the Top Ten on the Gavin Report's "Americana" chart and the video for the title track of his last release was in the National Canadian Bravo Top Ten list for 20 weeks.
In theatre, Wyckham has received back to back Jesse nominations for "Outstanding Sound Design" and "Original Composition".
He and Oldham have created a quiet, comfortable record that mostly features Wyckham's original tunes. However, Oldham remembered his early days in the business when he worked for The Beatles and felt this album should include a cover of "Please, Please Me", but recorded as it was meant to be when it was written. Originally it was a tribute to Ray Orbison and copied his slow and methodical way. George Martin requested that the tempo be upped considerably for The Beatles released version.
Playing a hunch, the track was previewed on two BBC Radio 1 programs in late winter generating a tremendous response from listeners. With just 3 spins each on two shows over 500 emails were generated demanding that the track be released for sale to the public. With the album completed, titled "3 AM", it will be scheduled for release shortly.
www.wyckhamporteous.org
www.cordovabay.com
