Featured Artist: Mariee Sioux

-MARIEE SIOUX-

I stumbled upon Mariee Sioux in the wee hours of an early morning music binge and was instantly captivated by her use of visceral imagery and her utilization of a sparse but powerful musical technique that echoes the theme of longing for solace, a solace that can be both lost and found within the natural world.

Here is her biography from Grassroots Records:

"The tale of Mariee Sioux began as delicately and spiritually as her captivating song, as a small ember introduced to the universe that soon grew into a flame of hope and illumination. Her dazzling debut album, Faces in the Rocks, weaves together the poetic interpretations of the universe’s deep truths and interconnectedness that have intrigued her since childhood. Each spin invites listeners to be the cast in Mariee’s entrancing tale with a journey ahead that is only beginning.

The stage was set in her hometown of Nevada City, CA, a historically creative community in which artists have flourished over the ages, where Mariee intertwined the vivid verse she had been writing as a child with the life lessons she has learned as an adult for this powerful record. Her roots had been planted deep in music through the love of her mandolin-playing father, but it was not until Mariee ventured a life-changing trip to Patagonia at the age of 17 that she began to play an instrument herself. She soon perfected the spry, delicate finger picking guitar technique featured on Faces in the Rocks, a faultless accompaniment to her strong yet sweetly cooing vocals, and toured internationally with her adoring compatriots Brightblack Morning Light.

Featuring Grammy-nominee Gentle Thunder’s enchanting sound on a redwood-carved Native American flute as well as her own famed father Gary Sobonya on mandolin, Mariee recorded Faces in May 2007 with a troupe of Nevada City’s talented musicians. Recorded with the intent of aligning the magnificence of the human voice with the universe’s creative energy, each song is a stirring exploration of life. Her tales range from the profundity of friendship on the single “Friendboats” to the yearning of self-understanding on “Bundles,” each laced with fabled images and poignant verse. “Two Tongues at One Time,” recently released on a rare 7” vinyl, is a sonnet-filled homage to the ancestors who traversed the wild lands of America hundreds of years ago, reminding listeners of our vital ties to our past.

Continuing the folk tradition of songwriting greats such as Joni Mitchell, Kate Wolf and Nick Drake, Faces glorifies an appreciation of the working spirit and the oneness of nature that remains timeless." http://www.grassrootsrecordco.com/artists/artist_mariee.html

With respect and love,

Ashley

4/13/2011 Playlist

1. Johnny's Heartbreak-Otis Redding

2. Headline News-Edwin Starr

3. Westbound #9-Flaming Ember

4. Who's That Guy-The Kolettes

5. Lift This Hurt-Elvin Spencer

6. You Keep Me Hanging On-Bonnie & Sheila

7. Invisible-Baby Charles

8. I Can Be Cool-Bob & Gene

9. Your Love Keeps Drawing Me Closer-Johnson, Hawkins, Tatum, & Durr

10. Promised Land-Naomi Davis & Sugarman Three

11. Let's Take a Walk-Raphael Saadiq

12. You Wish-Nightmares On Wax

13. Nobody But You-Junior Kimbrough & The Soul Blues Boys

14. Jumper Hanging Out On the Line-R.L. Burnside & The Sound Machine

15. I Got My Eyes On You-Robert Belfour

16. John Henry-Fred McDowell

17. Baby Don't Go-Hacienda

18. Railroad Bill-Etta Baker

19. The Traveler, 108b-Cordelia's Dad

20. Angel Band-The Stanley Brothers

21. The Magnolia Set-The Duhks

22. Lil' Bit-Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, et al

23. Love's Melody-Django Reinhardt & Stéphane Grappelli

24. Swing to Bop-Charlie Christian

25. Made By Maid-Laura Marling

26. Lost In My Mind-The Head and the Heart

27. Oh Mississippi-Lissie

28. Don't You Remember-Adele

29. The Walker-Gayngs

30. Had to Go-Heartless Bastards

Spring has sprung! Let warm evenings with pleasant tunes commence!

Ashley

Review: Jake Shimabukuro

Courtesy of UCSB Arts & Lectures, I was able to catch a free concert in Storke Plaza featuring one of the world's most celebrated ukulele players, Jake Shimabukuro. Before performing at his sold-out Campbell Hall show, Shimabukuro performed songs off of his new record, Peace Love Ukulele. On a warm Santa Barbara afternoon, Shimabukuro took the stage and performed for hundreds of eager listeners who had flocked to campus in order to see one of YouTube's biggest musical sensations. Of amicable demeanor and presence, Shimabukuro sprinkled his set with charming stories and insights into the craft of his both delicate and powerful sound. Taught by his mother in his native Hawaii, Shimabukuro recounted stories of young love in "143," dazzled the audience with his rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and paid homage to the victims of the Japanese earthquake with the ancient Japanese folk song "Cherry Blossoms." With his inclination to transcend the rigid boundaries of genre, Shimabukuro demonstrated the unique propensity for the ukulele to combine two seemingly different musical worlds into one beautiful and unifying presentation. It was such a pleasure to see such an innovator of profound musical virtuosity and enthusiastic sincerity. I am so excited to see what he does next!

Check out his most famous cover, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" here:

Aloha,

Ashley

2-14-2011 Playlist

1. Open The Door-Otis Redding

2. Walking The Dog-Rufus Thomas

3. Rock Steady-Aretha Franklin

4. Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead-The Marvelettes

5. Boogaloo Down Broadway-Fantastic Johnny C

6. Show Me-Joe Tex

7. I'm Blue-The Ikettes

8. She's Not Just Another Woman-8th Day

9. Let It Please Be You-The Desires

10. They Are Falling Around Me-Sweet Honey In The Rock

11. Unrequited Love-Lykke Li

12. Lock Your Devils Up-Nathan

13. Tales That I Tell-He's My Brother, She's My Sister

14. Ten Thousand Words-The Avett Brothers

15. In the Summertime-Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter

16. Well OK Honey-Jenny O

17. Cheating Heart-The Barker Band

18. Dreams Come True Girl-Cass McCombs

19. Our Hearts Are Wrong-Jessica Lea Mayfield

20. Ruby Mae-Felice Brothers

21. Granddaddy's Mouth-The Dexateens

22. Ellis Unit One-Steve Earle

23. Amandrai-Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Touré

24. Down By The River-Neil Young

With finals week upon us, I tried to choose some tunes that would be conducive to studying...oh, who are we kidding? tunes that are conducive for procrastination.

Best,

Ashley

KCSB 91.9FM/www.kcsb.org

Review: Kings of Pastry

-Kings of Pastry-

Let me preface this review by saying one thing: I was utterly starving the. entire. movie. This film was an ocular feast, weaving together the stories of these chefs' quest for excellence as carefully and sweetly as the delicate sugar concoctions that they created. My fellow foodies agreed: This was the Food Network meets Fashion Week. Following the lives of three chefs in their endeavor to compete in a 3 day competition to win the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition. A medal would solidify their position in the culinary arena as one of the best pastry craftsmen in France and the world. The film highlights chefs Jacquy Pfeiffer, Regis Lazard, and Philippe Rigollot and their families during their training and moments of triumph and heartbreak. This film encapsulates the unforgiving world of taste, texture, and the unrelenting desire for perfection. The task is daunting: create one of the most intricate and gravity-defying sugar-based desserts, a sculpture that is both sweet to the eye and tongue. The viewer sees the massive amount of effort that goes into this arduous task: from the plotting, planning, revising, rejections, and finally the grand finale: the final course. As one of the jury members notes, "Your mind has to work as hard as your hands." This movie seems to be less about the food itself but rather about the unparalleled attention to artistry that these men have incorporated into every facet of their lives. They are not providing the meat and bones of culinary consumption. They are not slicing and dicing to satiate a customer's craving. It is about the visual, the aesthetic, the sweetness of their labor which the citizens of France are completely and continually enraptured by. Their passion and precision is alluring and their final creations cater to our own appreciation for the dainty and delicious while inciting our romanticism of this otherworldly aesthetic.

For me this movie showed me the all-encompassing efforts that are made in the quest for this culinary art. But I think what is also interesting is the aura of comfort that fuels this contest. We see their ultimate devotion to reviving our senses of taste, vision and I would even say memory. Pastries are one of the few cultural productions that have long been imbedded into our domestic psychology: it is a marker of candied celebration, it is nectarous nostalgia, it is comforting coziness, and when all is said and done, it is home. This film is by far one of my tops films for 2011 thus far. It showed not only the complexities of baking, but also provided an insight into our perpetual desire for simple sweetness in both aesthetic and sustenance. During one of my favorite scenes, Chef Pfeiffer, after spending hours concocting a dome wedding cake, brings it back to his modest home in Chicago. Pfeiffer's daughter perfectly summarizes our intense yet oblivious reverence for this art: as she peers into the box, she quietly murmurs: "It's pretty. Simple." The film is quite pretty, but far from simple, and is one that can be enjoyed (and savored) by all.

With a soundtrack scored by Sebastien Giniaux, my obsession with gypsy jazz has reached new heights. Dessert AND a Django Reinhardt inspired soundtrack? You don't have to ask me twice.

Keep an ear out for some of this on Monday's upcoming show!

Best,

Ashley

Women Are Heroes

Such an amazing idea for guerilla art! I suggest scoping out both the film as well as the soundtrack composed by Massive Attack. Check out Erinrose Mager's review of Women Are Heroes (www.womenareheroes.be)

"There is no stage to separate the actors from the spectators," says renowned fly-by-night French photographer JR of "pervasive art" or (l'art infiltrant"), the force behind his latest project, Women Are Heroes. The resulting film of the same name documents JR's travels to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Kenya, Brazil, Cambodia, and India as he takes candid portraits of local women with 28mm lens, rendering their images on huge canvasses that he and townspeople then plaster onto crumbling steps, train cars, rooftops, and favela walls. It's a cooperative effort, and one that speaks to the artistic and social dialogues that JR promotes through his gigantic portraits. JR was recently awarded a TED grant (it stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design-a nonprofit that supports "ideas worth spreading") for his work, and continues to collaborate with Massive Attack who score Women Are Heroes. The documentary shows the often underrepresented women of these areas whose faces articulate sorrow and hardship, faith and pride, and perhaps most strikingly, an unwavering sense of humor amidst devastating violence and upheaval."-Erinrose Mager

Check out the trailer here: