Katie Reider 1978 – 2008

submitted by: bill ivester

katie reider, a “local” cincinnati/columbus, ohio musician passed away at the age of 30 yesterday after a 2+ year bout with cancer. while i didn’t know katie well, i had met and talked with her on several occasions, in every single interaction i had with her i found her to be sweet, charming, cheerful and happy…simply a beautiful person. honestly, i always recall seeing her smiling, which is how i’ll remember her. and so talented and gifted.

my heartfelt condolences and best wishes to katie’s family and loved ones. she fought the brave and good fight against this horrible disease…

Katie Reider – this photo was from what, sadly & unexpectedly, turned out to be her last show

from the Cincinnati Enquirer
Musician Katie Reider dies
By Lauren Bishop • lbishop@enquirer.com • July 14, 2008

Cincinnati-born singer-songwriter Katie Reider, 30, died Monday morning after a two-year battle with a rare tumor that robbed her of her ability to do what she loved most – perform.

Reider was the daughter of Rob Reider, best known as the band leader on the Cincinnati-based syndicated entertainment program “The Bob Braun Show” in the 1970s and ’80s, and Gaile Reider, who died of cancer in August 2007 at age 58.

“The mother and child reunion going on in heaven right now must be unbelievable,” her father said Monday from his Montgomery home.

Katie Reider, one of five children, grew up in Montgomery surrounded by music. She received her first guitar, a red Gibson Epiphone, from her parents when she was in fifth grade.

Reider developed a folk-pop style that’s been compared to Sarah McLachlan, Ani DiFranco and Shawn Colvin.

Janet Pressley, a singer-songwriter and co-founder of Reider’s label, Blue Jordan Records, recalled seeing Reider perform at the now-closed Blue Jordan Coffeehouse in Northside in about 1993. Reider was then in high school at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy.

“She had the pipes then,” Pressley said. Blue Jordan released three of Reider’s albums: “Wonder” (1998), “No Retakes” (2001) and “I Am Ready” (2002). She asked her father to co-produce and engineer her last album, “Simplicity” (2004), which features her brother Robbie on guitar. Reider performed everywhere from small cafés to big events, including Taste of Cincinnati and the Tall Stacks Music, Arts & Heritage Festival. She won five local music awards and gained national recognition when her songs were used on ABC, Lifetime and the WB series “Dawson’s Creek.” In the midst of working on her fifth album and touring, Reider went to the dentist in February 2006 for what she thought was a toothache. After multiple diagnoses and treatments, doctors diagnosed her in June 2007 with a rare myofibroblastic inflammation tumor that had progressed from her sinus and upper left jaw to behind her left eye. The non-cancerous growth left Reider blind in her left eye and took away her ability to speak clearly and sing. Treatment included multiple rounds of chemotherapy, which nearly shrank the tumor in its entirety.

Throughout her illness, Reider stayed connected with her friends and fans by posting updates on her blog, http://www.myspace.com/katiereiderband. In her last entry, posted June 21, Reider talked about having a “strange cough” that required her to take antibiotics through a feeding tube. But she could still eat some food by mouth.

“I have found that nothing is more tasty than an avocado or a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese,” she wrote.

She also wrote about how much she enjoyed a June vacation with her partner, Karen Reider and their two sons to Rob Reider’s house in Maine.

While on vacation in Bethany Beach, Del., over the Fourth of July holiday, Reider began to hemorrhage from a major artery in her brain as the tumor dislodged.

Doctors were able to stop the bleeding and scheduled surgery for August to remove the rest of the tumor and reconstruct the left side of her face and upper palate.

But the bleeding started again Sunday, and Reider died just before 7 a.m. Monday in an ambulance that was taking her from a hospital near her home in Montclair, N.J., to Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.

In May, fan and friend Lauren Fernandes launched a Web site, http://www.500Kin365.org” target=”_blank”>www.500Kin365.org, where fans can donate $1 for a digital compilation of nine of Reider’s original songs. All proceeds from the compilation and private donations will continue to help Reider’s family pay her medical bills and funeral arrangements, which are pending.

In addition to her father, survivors include her partner of 10 years, Karen, of Montclair, N.J.; their sons, Aiden, 3, and Koen, 1; two brothers, Robbie, 33, of Norwood; and Andy, 23, a pastoral studies major at the College of Mount St. Joseph; and three sisters, Kristin, 39, of New York state; Abby, 27, of Indiana; and Beth, 25, of California.

Service arrangements are pending

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Mann Center/Philadelphia (07.12.2008)

submitted by: Keith from NY

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
July 12, 2008
Mann Center for the Performing Arts
Philadelphia, PA

Robert Plant – vocals, maracas
Alison Krauss – vocals, fiddle
Stuart Duncan – banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, vocals
Buddy Miller- lead guitar, pedal steel, autoharp, vocals
T-Bone Burnett – rhythm guitar, vocals
Dennis Crouch – upright bass
Jay Bellerose – drums, percussion

Set List:
01 Rich Woman
02 Leave My Woman Alone
03 Black Dog
04 Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us
05 Through the Morning, Through the Night
06 It’s Goodbye and So Long to You
07 Fortune Teller
08 In the Mood > Matty Groves > In the Mood
09 Black Country Woman
10 Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler
11 Trampled Rose
12 Green Pastures
13 Down In the River to Pray
14 Nothin’
15 Battle of Evermore
16 Please Read the Letter
17 Gone Gone Gone (You Done Me Wrong)
[encore]
18 You Don’t Knock
19 One Woman Man
20 Your Long Journey

I had already seen the “Raising Sand Revue” (as Plant calls the tour) about a month ago at the WaMu Theater beneath Madison Square Garden. The only seats I could get on presale for NYC were in the back right corner of that cavernous venue in the next to last row (WTF??), and a friend came up from NJ to see the show with me. We shared my binoculars, and unfortunately the sound totally sucked back there. But it was nonetheless a fabulous concert, and after doing a little research I decided to scalp some good seats (16th row near center) for their show at the Mann Center this past Saturday so I could enjoy them properly. I brought my oldest son Steve (a passionate Led Zep fan) and his girlfriend Amy (who’s more into Patsy Cline) along, and after 3+ grueling hours of battling the weekend traffic we finally arrived in Philadelphia, bought some overpriced beers and took our seats. We were, as it turned out, sitting right behind the family of opener Sharon Little, who was born & raised in the Philadelphia area. We had a nice chat with Sharon’s brother, sister, 8-year-old niece and grandmother before the show got under way. Sharon did a great set and dedicated a song to her little niece Kaitlyn, who was sitting directly in front of me. You’ve never seen a bigger smile! 🙂 A little later she got to watch the headliners from backstage.

Raising Sand is a very cool album, but it doesn’t really prepare you for the magic these two and the stellar band they assembled for this tour achieve on stage. They both turn in electrifying vocal performances on their featured songs, and the harmony on their duets is nothing short of magical. The show was just one great ride from beginning to end, and the musicianship was every bit as good as you could hope for to back these two stellar singers (Stuart Duncan in particular was amazing on every instrument he picked up, which were many). The highlights for me were the slow & sultry arrangement of Black Dog, the outrageously fun Fortune Teller, an absolutely spine-tingling a capella Down In the River to Pray (with Plant, Miller and Duncan harmonizing perfectly behind Alison’s pristine soprano), and a show-stopping Battle of Evermore. With the encore, the show went almost 2 hours. The only weak point was T-Bone’s ersatz rendition of Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler. The guy is an amazing producer and it was his brilliant inspiration to bring this unlikely pair together in the first place (thank you, T-Bone!), but he just ain’t much of a singer.

I’ll have an opportunity to see them once more in September at the ACL Festival in Austin, where they’re headlining this year. Can’t wait!

ear x-tacy – "live" in-store concerts

submitted by: bill ivester

for any of you in the general louisville area, ear x-tacy (according to paste magazine, one of the 17 coolest record stores in america) is known for having a wide range of in-store performances and the next few weeks are shaping up nicely…

Sarah Elizabeth Burkey was born and raised on Rural Route 4, Kevil, Kentucky. Her unique musical and literary compositions are born of this rich history. Sarah’s work has been published in books and literary journals in the US and Europe. In 2007 Sarah’s work was featured in the book reflections upon the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. 2007 found Sarah performing in Portugal, England, and across the US including a California tour.

In a world littered with disposable pop Missy Higgins is a welcome relief.. passionate, sincere and proudly Australian.

The 23 year old singer/songwriter from Melbourne has enjoyed phenomenal success in her homeland in spite – or perhaps because – of shunning the usual synthetic packaging and tabloid tackiness. Instead she’s adopted a more timeless approach, relying on her undeniable songs and unforgettable live performances to build a genuine and gimmick free connection with her audience.

Last Days at the Lodge is Amos Lee’s third record, following his first two critically-acclaimed and tremendously successful records, Supply and Demand (2006) and his 2005 self-titled debut. The new record is produced by Don Was, and features Lee on guitars, Doyle Bramhall, Jr. (Eric Clapton) on guitar, Spooner Oldham (Neil Young, Aretha Franklin) ..s, Pino Palladino (The Who, D’Angelo) on bass, and James Gadson (Bill Withers) on drums, along with many others.

If you haven’t already heard of Hayes Carll, you soon will. In the three years since his self-released second album, Little Rock became available, Carll has toured relentlessly in North America and abroad (performing over two hundred shows a year), founded a successful singer-songwriter music festival on the Gulf Coast of Texas, secured a record deal with Lost Highway Records, and has even seen Little Rock become the first self-released album to reach #1 on the Americana Music Chart. He’s only getting started.

On his new album, Trouble In Mind, the 32 year-old Carll navigates his way through both stormy weather and calm, sun-drenched waters with ease, emerging with songs that melt even the hardest heart in town (a feat he manages on the plaintive, world-weary “Don’t Let Me Fall”) or heat up a roadhouse (like the ruggedly strutting “Wild as a Turkey”). Their impact is heightened by the fact that they’re songs born of both immersion in the works of his songwriting heroes and plenty of real world experience.

Wild Sweet Orange’s Canvasback Music debut, WE HAVE CAUSE TO BE UNEASY, is a work of exquisite power, its songs propelled by edgy emotion and a cathartic yearning for connection. Tracks such as “Ten Dead Dogs” and “Sour Milk” find the Birmingham, Alabama-based rock outfit honing an intimate and individualistic sound that veers unrestrained from aching intimacy to a turbulent, seething intensity. For singer and songwriter Preston Lovinggood, the album’s provocative title serves as both an ideal statement of intent as well as a strong assertion of identity.

“It’s being honest about who we are and where we’ve come from,” Lovinggood explains. “Our generation gets a little looked down upon for asking too many questions or complaining too much, but I think we have the right to ask those questions.

“It’s hopeful and weary at the same time,” he adds. “To be aware of the situation, to understand there is a cause, is a healthy place to be.”

i’m especially looking forward to wild sweet orange, i saw them on letterman a few weeks ago and thought they were really good, i’ve also been impressed with what’s available on their myspace page. unfortunately, i’ll miss amos lee, he’s on the same night as an over the rhine concert in dayton, i’ve heard great things about him. sarah elizabeth burkey , missy higgins and hayes carll all sound pretty interesting, and i’m looking forward to hearing more. i’ll probably pass on hawthorne heights, just sounds a little too “cool” and “popish” for my tastes.

many thanks to ear x for continuing to put this music out there!

and as always, support independent music.

the best of 2008 (so far)…

submitted by: bill ivester

the best of 2008 (so far)…
as i’m sure you’ve noticed, the year is now, incredibly, half over. so i thought i’d list some of my favorites through the first six months of 2008.

so here they are…

CD’s (top ten, roughly in order*)
teddy thompson – “a piece of what you need”
cat power – “jukebox”
shelby lynne – “just a little lovin’ “
kathleen edwards – “asking for flowers”
cowboy junkies – “trinity revisited”
alejandro escovedo – “real animal”
tift merritt – “another country”
ben sollee – “learning to bend”
r.e.m. – “accelerate”
kris delmhorst – “shotgun singer”
honorable mention
steve winwood – “nine lives”

*(order subject to change depending on what i just finished listening to)

CONCERTS
02.10 – cat power @ the vic (chicago)
05.25 – over the rhine / ohio: in concert (cincinnati)
06.11 – alejandro escovedo (w/ben sollee) @ headliner’s (louisville)
04.26 – over the rhine (w/julie lee) @ canal street tavern (dayton)
04.17 – kathleen edwards @ headliner’s (louisville)
03.11 – grace potter and the nocturnals @ headliner’s (louisville)
*03.14 – over the rhine @ the ryman, opening for ani difranco would have to be my top concert experience and had it been a full set, would have unquestionably topped this list.

if you are unfamiliar with any of these artists, i highly recommend checking out their music and seeing them live if they are anywhere in your general area.

do yourself a favor and give them a listen.

and enjoy.

tom waits – “glitter and doom” @ the fox theatre/atlanta (07.05.2008)

submitted by: bill ivester

still on a great ‘post-show’ buzz. i mentioned before that sometimes i fear i sounding like a “gushing fool” about particular artists. well, here we go again…

the show was was absolutely incredible, a great show/set, the acoustics in the fox are amazing and the mix was perfect, kudos to the guy running the sbd.
—
so, about 9:00 PM, the theater goes dark and slowly, dim lights begin to highlight the backdrop on the stage. you can sense, but not really “see” any movement. then, a white hot spot hits center stage, and seemingly out of nowhere… standing on a beat-up riser, in a dark “slightly worn” suit and a dark bowler hat, with a huge smile on his face is the reason that we are there, tom waits. hands straight up in the air, he starts stomping on the riser, the crowd is standing, clapping, whistling and screaming. white plumes of “smoke” start floating up into the lights from the riser. he stomps harder, smoke keeps rising and his smile gets bigger. he stomps and smiles, we clap and whistle, seems to be a fair trade.

and we’re off…

there were so many highlights it’s hard to know where to start. vocally, he was “on the mark,” with it being the last night of the tour, i guess he didn’t feel like he had to “save” his voice ( 😉 ) and before i start rambling too much, it seems appropriate to note that his band was fantastic, all great players (named below), tight and meshing perfectly with each other and with him. he has added a full time horn player and keyboardist and larry taylor had moved from his usual position on bass to “guesting” on lead guitar on a few songs (apparently only @ the atlanta show). other than taylor and his son casey on drums/percussion it was a completely different group of players than when i saw him a couple of years ago. i guess “the” highlight(s) for me would have to be “9th and hennepin” followed by a rocking “lie to me.” during the intro for “9th and hennepin,” a single bare unlit light bulb dropped out of (seemingly) nowhere right next to tom’s face. unfazed, he continued talking. as soon as he kicked into the song, the light, much to tom’s “surprise, and shock,” flickered on and became a prop which he mastered for the duration of the song, then “poof”…it disappeared much as it appeared.

“chocolate jesus,” “hold on” & “get behind the mule” were also pretty amazing and would have to be close seconds for me and the “innocent when you dream/hoist that rag/make it rain” trifecta was also pretty damn sweet. at the end of and extended take on “make it rain,” and with tom chanting (ie: screaming) a command to “make it rain,” glitter began to fall over him like rain (apparently from that same magical place that gave us the light bulb) covering his dark suit and bowler. very cool visually. towards the end of the set, regardless of your beliefs, if you weren’t ready to shout a big, loud “AMEN” or “MERCY” after he took the sold-out crowd of 4,000+ to church with “jesus gonna be here,” well then, you just weren’t alive and breathing to begin with.

along the way, he charmed us with a couple of subtle, yet hilarious stories about; $300,000 watches (or $9.95 CVS watches), condiments (or condom-mints) and alphabet soup (or nazi pas-ticas) as only he could, before closing the set with a rowdy and fun “singapore.” after a short break, he and the band returned and kicked off the encore w/a killer, extended ”eyeball kid” where during the chorus, he playfully swapped out his black bowler with one covered with tiny mirrors reflecting the spotlight all over the theatre. at the end of the song there was great little exchange between him, casey and the audience. then he sent us all home happy with the appropriate “anywhere I lay my head.”

he started the show with the big smiles and we left the theatre with them. again, seems to be a fair trade.

what a night. he’s as brilliant a showman and performer as he is a writer and musician, which says a lot. there was not a single lowlight/mediocre moment in the evening. hell, it was tom waits!

i found the quote below in “the columbus (oh) dispatch” it seems to describe him perfectly, much better than i ever could…

Waits may be one of the country’s best accidental musicologists. He rummages through an assortment of genres — blues, gospel, jazz, folk, Latin, beat-box and cabaret, to name some — and weaves them together into something new. Hearing one of his songs for the first time, one is almost positive that it’s an old favorite. Yet everything he does is remarkably original and fresh.

Add to that his unmistakeable lyrics — inspired in part by the Beat Generation and refined by his partnership with his wife, writer Kathleen Brennan — and it’s easy to see why he is one of the most important singer-songwriters of this age.

The showmanship is always a direct relation to the music. He opened in the guise of a revivalist preacher, booming out Lucinda, Way Down in the Hole and Falling Down.

His antics reached a peak later in The Eyeball Kid, an oddity of a song in which, for one verse, he donned a mirror-ball hat. As he revolved slowly in the interludes, his head became a makeshift light show.

When the songs slowed down and the thoughts grew deeper, though, he stilled his physical energy and flowed into such profound moments which held the audience absolutely still until their final chords.

In a sense, Waits is a medium, channeling the spirits of long-dead bluesmen, pioneers of rock and traveling minstrels. His voice, while aging, still can travel from a growl to a wail to a whisper in a split second.

Waits doesn’t create new worlds; he makes people rethink the past, present, and future. His song Time, sums it up: “… their memory’s like a train/You can see it getting smaller as it pulls away/And the things you can’t remember tell the things you can’t forget/That history puts a saint in every dream.”

on a personal note, it was also kind of a sentimental journey for me. many years ago, the fox (and atlanta in general) was where “i cut my live music teeth.” in my younger days, there was a time that i rarely missed any show of note there. my friends (and sally, my “ex”) and i were regulars. we saw it all. it was nice to be back there again, it has probably been 20+ years since i have seen a show in that beautiful place and it was just as sweet as i remembered it. lotsa good nights, good vibes and good memories for me in that building, it felt “good.” so to top off the night, just for the hell of it it, i decided to detour down piedmont, past the old “broadview plaza” and blew a kiss and say a “thank you” to the corner where the old “great southeast music hall” once stood. i also spent a lot of great nights with friends there and that was where, 30+ years ago, i was fortunate enough to see mr. waits perform for the first time and was introduced to the genius that is tom waits and i’ve been hooked since (btw, he was the opener for the comedian, martin mull who wrote a song about the old music hall called “i’ve played some shitholes, but this takes the cake” =) ).

the set:
lucinda > ain’t going down to the well
down in the hole
falling down
chocolate jesus
all the world is green
cemetery polka
who’s been talkin’* > ’til the money runs out
such a scream
november
hold on
black market baby
9th and hennepin
lie to me
lucky day
on the nickel
lost in the harbour
innocent when you dream
hoist that rag
make it rain
dirt in the ground
get behind the mule
hang down your head
jesus gonna be here
singapore
encore:
eyeball kid
anywhere i lay my head

*howlin’ wolf cover

the band:
patrick warren – keyboards
omar torrez – guitars
vincent henry – horns & acoustic guitar
casey waits – drums and percussion
seth ford-young – bass
sullivan waits – congas and clarinet (and selling t-shirts and books before & after the show…)

*larry taylor joined in on guitar on several songs.