Stephen Kellogg changes course while The Sixers take a break

For touring musicians, the road can be a complicated beast. Most of the time, it is exhilarating. Then at some point, it becomes exhausting.

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Stephen Kellogg knows this, and over the past year, he’s had to deal with both the good and the bad on some level.

Last spring, Kellogg was forced to face one of the road’s negatives when the subject of road burnout was brought up by members of his longtime band, The Sixers. Simultaneously, Kellogg adds, there was an overall feeling within the group that maybe it was time to do something else for a while.

Continue reading "NOT BY THE NUMBERS" »

Posted by Medleyville at 04:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

After several years of exploring the country (and exploring various interests), Nebraska native Shannon Labrie decided to settle in the country music capital of the world to focus on a career in music.

Even though she’s based in Nashville, Tenn., Labrie isn’t aiming to become a country starlet. The singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has settled into Nashville’s independent music scene, releasing her debut album, Just Be Honest, in early 2013. One of its standout tracks is the airy, dreamy “I Remember a Boy,” which sounds like what might have happened if a young Sarah McLachlan had worked with producer Daniel Lanois.

Earlier this week, Labrie called to talk about some significant personal and musical firsts in her life.

Continue reading "FIRST THINGS FIRST: SHANNON LABRIE" »

Posted by Medleyville at 10:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Like other veteran artists (among them Willie Nile, Marshall Crenshaw and Asleep at the Wheel), singer/songwriter Paula Cole recently turned to Kickstarter as a way to raise money for a music-related project — and was very successful.

Cole hoped to raise $50,000 last fall to offset what she called “the big, costly Ms” — mixing, mastering and manufacturing — for her sixth studio album, Raven. She reached her goal and then some, receiving more than $75,000 in pledges during the campaign’s 37-day window.

Raven was released April 23 on Cole’s own 675 Records, so that means she no longer has the benefit of a major label’s financial or marketing muscle like she did for her breakthrough, This Fire (released in 1996 on the Warner Bros. imprint Imago). That doesn’t seem to matter much to Cole, who is embracing both the freedom and the extra responsibility that go along with what she describes as “a smaller, humbler career.”

Continue reading "Q&A: PAULA COLE" »

Posted by Medleyville at 12:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)