On an otherwise quiet Thursdy evening...

...I had the immense pleasure of witnessing the Pushki Hags perform at the Taproot Cafe. Their infectious gyspy/klezmer groove had me imagining that I was in a tiny little camp in the forests of Eastern Europe listening to fantastically mesmerizing music sometime a couple of centuries ago. Yeah! We gonna party like it's 1599! From the small bit I could gather two of the musicians are from Washington and moved to Homer sometime in the past year. Once in that little hamlet by the sea, they put together a merry band of minstrels to lay down some exquisite sounds. As I find out more, I will update this posting, but for now, I just wanted to get down a short bit while my memory is still fresh. More to come...

Yowzers!

Lots of great music this winter. Yet, no time to write. Maybe we'll come back to the reason for this a bit later. For now though, please hold on to your shorts and we promise to be up and running again real soon!

Spenard Satan's Old Timey Clubhouse Band Samhain Celebration at the Taproot Cafe!

With skin painted red and horns sprouting from their heads, The Satan's celebrated Samhain in style this year. Pagan fun, merriment and mirth ruled the evening as tables were moved out of the way and a raucous hoedown took place fueled by PBR tallboys and the typical high AC of the brews on draft at the Taproot Cafe. More soon...

http://www.myspace.com/str8faded

Marian Call and her Acoustic Savants give a smashing farewell-for-now performance!

Marian Call has officially left the state for the winter in the Millennium Tortoise, her 40' 1970 tour bus. But a few evenings ago she performed one last time for 2008 here in Anchorage at the Snow Goose Theater. Her performance was nothing short of dazzling. Backed by her band, the Acoustic Savants, she presented a well rounded show made up of songs from her album Vanilla and peppered with a smattering of new songs from her upcoming release tentatively titled Got to Fly. Highlights included a revamped version of Vera with an intricate acoustic guitar line and a blistering violin solo, the debut of the title track from her upcoming album Got to Fly, and a barn burning rendition of Joni Mitchell's Chelsea Morning. The closer, Honeyed Out written by Kris Delmhorst, can be seen and heard here. Marian, you will be missed!

http://mariancall.com

A lovely evening indeed!

About two weeks ago I saw a rare performance here in Anchorage from the Sutton-based group Ode to the Roddes at the always lovely Taproot Cafe. They put on a show that was nothing short of acoustically marvelous. Seems as if they are a family band made up of various members of the Overby clan. Their music can be best described as something akin to a down home sort of southern baptist revival scene. The lead singer/guitarist Jason Overby wields his guitar with a deft touch and his voice seems to have seen more years than could ever be possible. Rachel and Alyssa Overby provide vocals (both backing and lead) and are darn near the purrtiest voices I have heard thus far in Alaska. And Pappy Overby fills in the bottom end on the stand up bass and some occasional vocals. I highly suggest finding an opportunity to catch them live whenever & wherever you get the chance! Ya Latif ya'll.

http://www.myspace.com/overbyode

the mayhem begins...

Here it is... The acoustic mayhem blog for all you crazy acousticians out there interested in the various interesting things happening here in Alaska. I will do my best to let you know about a variety of groups featuring a murder of acoustic instruments hell bent on making strange and beautiful music somewhere in the last frontier and beyond that cross my path at least on a semi-regular basis. This might consist of concert reviews, album reviews or even venue reviews.... who knows, I sure don't at this point. Cheers!