Ep 86: Singer-songwriter Adam Whipple on his Basement Apartment EP

Adam Whipple is a singer-songwriter from Knoxville, Tennessee who has just released his new EP Basement Apartment, which is available on all streaming platforms (Soundcloud, Apple, Spotify). You can discover more about Adam and his work at his website (https://www.adamwhipple.com/), which includes visual and video art, and read his prose and poetry and Foundling House, a writing community (https://www.foundlinghouse.com/). Our conversation covers the songs on the new EP, being a bi-vocational artist, and the tensions of creating art in this strange season we are all living in.

Related Podcast Episodes:

Ep 85: Rick Lee James

Ep 84: Jonathan Hodges of Bomethius

Ep 57: Dave Trout of UTR

Bonus: Stu G on the Beautitudes Project 
Ep 73: Phil Joel of Newsboys and Zealand
Ep 53: The Mosleys—Husband and Wife Duo
Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen
Ep 70: Glenn Kaiser

Ep 83: Blair Masters

Ep 77: Jimmy Abegg

Ep 74: Charlie Peacock

Ep 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

Ep 55: Singer-songwriter Nathan Peterson

Ep 59: Jeremy Casella's New Album and Kickstarter Campaign

Ep 56: Andrew Osenga

PROFILE: UTR Media's Escape to the Lake Music Festival

The first week of August 2017 I jutted up to Cedar Lake, Indiana, just south of Chicago and Gary, for UTR Media's Escape to the Lake music festival and retreat. UTR's Dave Trout had invited me up to cover the event, do some interviews, and attend the Rich Mullins Tribute concert on August 4. This is a profile of my time there.

I can best sum up my time at Escape to the Lake with this brief anecdote: 
I was sitting on the front porch of one of the dorms at the retreat center, taking in an unplugged rehearsal with Jimmy Abegg, Ben Pearson, The Mosley's, and half of For Brothers (more on that in a minute), when a familiar looking woman sat down and started listening along with us. I was there as a hanger-on, a privileged guest who never would have otherwise been given access to a front row seat for hearing one of Christian music's most revered artists (Abegg) and photographer/cinematographer (Pearson). But I was the journalist. Who was she?

PCR Podcast Ep38: Musician Jared Grabb

Jared Grabb is a musician and songwriter from Peoria, Illinois. On March 3rd he will release his third full length album Masters, which you can purchase at his site: https://jaredgrabb.bandcamp.com/. Along with his solo work Grabb is also a member of Angry Gods and formerly a member of Scouts Honor and The Forecast. Our interview gets into the making of the new album and his career as an independent artist. Make sure to check out his new video below, for the song "Patch of Green."

You can find out more about Grabb in various other places:
https://sosayweallrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/jaredgrabb
http://www.thinkerthought.com/
Interpunk
Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
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Related Podcast Episodes:

Episode 13: Artist Jessica Ball—Owner of the Art Garage

Episode 22: Artist Blair Jeffers

Episode 36: Fitting the White Album Onto One Record, with Trey Mowder

Record Review: Waterdeep's Self-titled Double LP

If you blinked you probably missed it. Actually, chances are, even if your eyes were open the whole time, you had your ears to the ground, and you even read independent music blogs you most likely still missed one of the great albums to be released this past year: Waterdeep's self titled double album. It's Waterdeep's Waterdeep.

They quietly released the album back in December to the fans who supported their Kickstarter campaign. Since then, as far as I know, the album has gotten little attention, and that is more than a little too bad. Both discs contain some of the tightest and catchiest melodies you will hear all year. Compositionally the album has been meticulously pieced together, every part a well thought out, well placed necessary addition. These are the types of songs you would hope to hear playing at the end of some important serial TV show. This is contemporary songwriting at its best. 

Art is Not Weight Lifting: Why the Beck vs. Beyonce Comparisons Are Unfair And Wrong (and lazy!)

Image courtesy of: http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/Weightlifter-Beyonce.jpg

Wow.

What a crazy week it has been in the pop music world.

PostConsumer Reports Podcast Episode 5: Singer/Songwriter Jeremy Casella

My wife and I first met Jeremy Casella after a 2004 Caedmon's Call concert on their Share the Well tour, where he was the opener. We both really enjoyed his songs and somehow we made our way back to his table afterward where he was selling his music. To my surprise we had a really nice and long conversation, with us sharing our common interests and with me asking him a ton of questions about the music industry. I've seen Jeremy a couple of times since then and have supported his music whenever it's come out. In fact, as I discussed here, I supported the Kickstarter campaign that funded his most recent album Death in Reverse.

Jeremy's been doing some touring this fall and last week, after a few shows around Chicago he stopped in Morton, Illinois for a house show where beforehand I was able to interview him for a podcast episode.

Feeding My Kickstarter Habit: a spring music preview

I don't buy as much as I used to. This has mostly to do with having three kids, a house, and a long stretch of future to think about.  So, when I do make the choice to purchase music it is somewhat of a bold step in that I want to be sure my decision will be backed up with something high quality.  Well, over the past couple of months I have made a number of music purchases and looking back at those decisions I realized there was something pretty unique about all of them: they were all either promoted and funded on Kickstarter or released independently (the Kickstarters are also all independent releases). Adding to this, at the moment I have only received the actual music to one of these releases, meaning I "purchased" the music well in advance of the actual release and sometimes in advance of its actually being recorded.