Off the Stage: The Cloers

The Cloers Open For The Chuckleheads

On Saturday night, The Cloers and a few local songwriter friends, Ang Medlin, Tom Williams, and Jamie Kay, opened "in the round" style for the improv comedy group, The Chuckleheads. We played at the Morehead Street Tavern in Charlotte, NC. The Chuckleheads are an improv comedy troupe based out of Charlotte, NC, and is led by our friend, and fellow graduate of the Artist as Entrepreneur program, Scott Pacitti. 

Cross-discipline gigs, in this case - comedy and music, is something that we really enjoy doing. The idea is to bring the musician's audience to see some comedy they haven't seen before, and for the comedy audience to see some music they haven't seen before. Several people at the show came up to us afterwards, including some of the Chucklehead's cast, and told us that they really enjoyed having music while they were waiting for the comedy show to start. This is something that we will definitely do again, and we had a great time laughing along with the audience after our music set was finished. If you're local, check out the Chuckleheads. They really are a ton of fun!

Bloggers & Journalists Meeting: John Grooms

On Sunday, we were able to attend the Bloggers and Journalists (FOJ Future of Journalism) monthly meeting at Amelie's. The guest speaker was John Grooms, Editor at Creative Loafing from 1988 - 2005. Grooms has a new book of essays and musings, Deliver Us from Weasels. The following is his bio from his publisher.

“John Grooms is a multiple award-winning writer and editor, as well as teacher, public speaker, event organizer, music lover, rock history fanatic, husband, father, recovering worrywart, conflicted Catholic, pastry hound and incurable smartass. He has lived in Charlotte since 1976, was editor of Creative Loafing in Charlotte from 1988 until 2005, and has been a featured columnist for the newspaper since then. During his tenure at CL, the newspaper won more than 40 state, regional and national journalism awards. Grooms is the “tragicomic product” of a bilingual postwar home in a small South Carolina town, interspersed with spurts of living in Brussels, Belgium. He's overweight, often profane, has been called a “progressive populist” among other, worse names, and on most days would rather be at the beach.”

We had a curmudgeonly good time, hearing of his experiences in journalism, and getting his opinions on various topics. He is an unabashed liberal and has a great regular column, Boomer with Attitude, in Creative Loafing. As Bob Lefsetz said recently, "It is rough edges that endear fans to you." Rough edges and all, you've got to respect someone who is not afraid to speak their mind. John Grooms is an inspiring reminder to artists and writers to say what's on your mind with conviction. 

Charlotte NSAI Meeting - January 2010

We started our monthly local NSAI meeting with a send off to our former leader, Steve Simpson. Steve served as coordinator for the Charlotte chapter for 5 years, and did a great job growing the group. Fortunately for us, he is only stepping down from the leadership role, and will still be part of our group. We kid him now that he has to bring more songs for critique since he is going to have a lot more free time. Fiona McAllister has stepped up as our main coordinator, and Angelo Melendez and Carl Dews will be co-coordinators for the group. Fiona and Angelo have been working for our group for some time now, so we know that the group will continue to flourish.

Our next activity was to critique the Country Music Association song of the year, "In Color" by Jamey Johnson. When we do these song critiques we look at things like, length of song, title, use of title in the "hook", how long does it take to get into the chorus, does the chorus lift away from the verse, are the verses concise, yet, do they say everything they need to say, etc... Anyway, we songwriters really get into this stuff, and we even started looking at all of the CMA songs of the year for the past several decades. I'm surprised at how many of them really are saying something. Country is accused of just being a genre filled with songs of whiners, cheatin' tunes, or drunk redneck anthems. However, if you look at the songs that have won, "Song of the Year", there are some fine lyrics and emotions in there. And besides, the drunk redneck anthems are a lot of fun, and there is definitely a place in music for that!

This meeting was our annual planning meeting, and there were many great suggestions brought forward for things that the group would like to do this year. We are looking forward to participating in as many as we possibly can.

Lastly, we had our new song, I'm Moving On critiqued by the group, and received lots of positive feedback. We think it's just about ready to put on the CD. Have we mentioned lately how excited we are about recording a CD this year?! : )

* YouTube Video of the song, In Color by Jamey Johnson

NC Songwriters Co-op Board Meeting - January 2010

We have been attending the North Carolina Songwriters Co-op (NCSC) board meetings for a few months now, and really like what they are doing for local artists. We started attending these meetings because we wanted to be in the loop on upcoming Triangle events and to learn about the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area venues and artists.

Well, we are pleased to announce that the coordinator recently asked us to join the Board of Directors. Cate will serve as the Director of Public Relations, and she will handle all of the communications with the local media concerning NCSC events and all press releases. I (John) will serve as the Director of Marketing and Promotions, and my main tasks will be to undertake the re-branding of the NCSC (see new logo at the top of the post), and to promote the NCSC through a new venue recognition program that we created.

You guys who are regular readers of this blog know that we want to help other artists (as we learn new things ourselves), and serving the Co-op is a great opportunity to do that. 2010 is going to be an exciting year for the Co-op, and we look forward to blogging about this new adventure. If you are a performing songwriter, consider joining the NCSC. The joining fee is very reasonable ($25 the first year, and $10 to renew), and it is a great resource for information, honing your live playing skills, improving your song writing, and just good moral support from other artists. We highly recommend it, and have made many new friends from attending Co-op events. Hope to see you at a Co-op event sometime this year!

Seeing Other Artists Play Live

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, and is ready to start a new year of great adventures. I know we are!! 2009 was a time of learning and networking, and we did a TON of both. This year will be devoted to completing school, finishing our CD project, marketing it, and playing live. We are really looking forward to seeing all of this hard work start to pay off. Even if we are making small strides forward, the point is, we are moving in the right direction.

We have spent a lot of the past 2 weeks seeing some of our friends play music. On Thursday night, we saw our friend, Chris English play a show with his band The North Americans at The Evening Muse. On Saturday night, we saw our friends, Ang Medlin and Tom Williams at the Evening Muse, and on Sunday night, we went to see our friends, Alan Barrington and Steve Simpson play for an emerging artist series at Yn Wine Cafe in Dilworth. They all did a great job, and we enjoyed getting to see them play and hang out for a bit.

We feel that it is important for us to go see other artists play live (especially those who are farther along in their career than we are) and try to learn from them what works and what doesn't work in a live show.  Also, it's valuable for us to see what other local artists sound like live so we can see if our styles would work together for future collaborations and booking opportunities. Just hearing someone's Myspace page, or even their CD doesn't always give you an accurate picture of an artist. It's always best to see someone perform live so you can see what they are really capable of. A live show can't lie!

Sister's Christmas Catechism @ Booth Playhouse

Well, for our last show of the year, we played Christmas music. We were asked to play the part of the "choir" (but really students) in the play, "Sister's Christmas Catechism". It is a fun and a little irreverent look at how Catholic School really was, especially around Christmastime. Now, I didn't go to Catholic school, and I didn't have Nuns for teachers, but everything else was just about the same as the upbringing that I (Cate) had. I attended a fundamentalist, religious school from 4K-12th grade, and most everything she talked about in the play was how I remembered it. We went to the Booth Playhouse in Charlotte, NC last weekend to see the play so we would know just what we were getting into, and John kept leaning over to me and telling me that "Sister" was making him nervous. I told him, welcome to my entire childhood and adolescence! But, I shall save my ranting and need for psychotherapy about my scarred childhood for another time, and now tell you about all the fun that we had at this show.

"Sister" was played by actor, Mary Zentmyer, and she is PHENOMENAL!! She keeps the audience engaged for 2 hours all by herself. You never believe for a moment that she isn't a real Nun. The audience is her classroom, and she takes every opportunity to involve them in the entire show. For our part, we sang some traditional Christmas songs for 15 minutes before the show started. Since this is supposed to be a Catholic schoolroom, we only sang sacred songs. However, we finally broke out into, "Jingle Bells", and Sister came into the classroom and stopped the song. She told us if we are going to sing that secular song, then we must sing it like, "Oh what fun it is to ride with BABY JESUS in the sleigh"! We got scolded for starting the Christmas party with our classmates BEFORE Sister explained the importance of the Nativity, and we were sent off stage so she could tell the story of Christmas. We came back on to sing again when the Christmas pageant was taking place and Sister solved the mystery of the Magi's Gold.

We highly encourage anyone who can to come see this show if it comes back to Charlotte, NC next year. It was so much fun to be able to take part in this play! Happy Holidays to you all!

The Week of 12/5/09-12/12/09

Saturday, 12/5/09: We went to the art showing of our friend, Michael Hamlin-Smith. We know Michael's work because we attended the Artist As Entrepreneur classes together (offered by the Arts and Science Council). It was such a cool event, and his work is spectacular. We love pottery, and have been to Seagrove, NC to check out all of the NC designs. But, Michael's pieces are so original. And, he is a Do It Yourself guy as well. He bought shelving from IKEA, installed it in his living room, lit it properly, and now uses that space as a private gallery. There's no overhead when you do it that way, and galleries take such a huge cut of a sale that it is hard for artists to make a living. Way to go, Michael!! 

Sunday, 12/6/09: We drove to Carrboro, NC to meet with the NC Songwriters Co-op Board. They have lots of great things planned for 2010, and John and I have been asked to work with them this year. We are honored and are really looking forward to it. Also, we went to the Song Doctor workshop hosted by Kirk Ridge. It's a songwriting critique group, but everyone is very supportive. It's a great way to meet other writers and network with other artists for ideas and places to play. It's held in the Raleigh, NC area, so it helps us to get to know folks in the Triangle area.

Tuesday, 12/8/09: We attended our monthly NSAI meeting for December. This month was just a great big community party and open mic. This year has been amazing, and this group has a lot to do with that. Some of our fondest music memories of 2009 were spent with writers from this group. Also, we played a new song for the gang, and will have it critiqued in January. 

Thursday, 12/10/09: Another holiday party with singing!

Friday, 12/11/09: Arranged Christmas music for several upcoming holiday events. 

Saturday, 12/12/09: Hosted performing songwriter, Joe Woodson, in our studio. John and Joe recorded 9 demo tracks, and they sound great. We hope to hear more from Joe, and really enjoyed working with him. He's a terrific guy!! Also, that night, we attended Sister's Christmas Catechism at the Booth Playhouse in Charlotte, NC. We wanted to see exactly what we had agreed to be part of. We have been asked to perform Christmas music for the show, and will have some kind of interaction with "Sister" during the play. Well, it was so much fun, and we are so excited that we will be performing for it next weekend.

Check out Joe's track. He sounds a little like Darius Rucker (Hootie days) and Bob Dylan. Great sound!! Below is one of the tracks from his session called, "Life Is Short".

Our First Radio Airplay!

On Sunday, we found out that we were a featured songwriter on the new Licks and Lyrics show on WCOM, a community radio station based out of Carrboro, NC. It's very small, so unless you live in the Carrboro/Chapel Hill area, then you can't hear it over the radio. Instead, it is available to stream at www.wcomfm.org. A few of the members of the NC Songwriters Co-op (Chuck Champion, Louise Bendall, and Kirk Ridge) have begun hosting a show each Saturday from 3:00-4:00pm. They play an eclectic blend of music, and you don't have to be a member of the Co-op to get played. The only criteria is that the music be good, you should be a NC songwriter, and that the DJ really likes it.  

Kirk Ridge, a fellow performing songwriter, is the one that played our song, "Make Me Cry" for the first time on radio, and we will never forget him for this. Too bad that we didn't get to hear it though. We worked until 4:00pm that afternoon, so we didn't get home in time to stream the show. Plus, we didn't know he was going to play us that day, so it was a great surprise. A couple of members of the Co-op were the ones who told us that they heard our song, and they said that Kirk talked us up to the listeners. Thanks, Kirk!

We'll, I've wanted to be on the radio since I was a little girl. Some girls love to play with baby dolls, or play dress up. The only thing I ever wanted to play was a game we called, "Radio". My dad would hook up a microphone to our tape recorder, and he would play the DJ. He would introduce me, and then I would sing one of my favorite songs. Then we'd do it again, and again until he got tired. Me... I never got tired of singing for the "audience".

Anyway, John transferred one of my "radio shows" from reel to reel to mp3. I was about 6 years old and just knew that this was the best game ever. I just couldn't figure out why none of my friends knew about it or played it! In the link below, you can hear me sing "Da Doo Ron Ron" by Shaun Cassidy (or as I always sang it, "The Do Run Run"), and my Dad, at the end, playing radio DJ.

Dilworth Billiards: A Benefit for Luke's Wings

This past Thursday night, we performed at Dilworth Billiards in Charlotte, NC. We played for a benefit show to help raise funds for the charity, Luke's Wings. Luke's Wings is an organization who provides travel planning services and airplane tickets to families of wounded soldiers who are currently hospitalized at medical and rehabilitation facilities all over the country.

It's bad enough to be separated from your loved ones at the holidays, but these soldiers are not able to go home to see their families due to the injuries that they have incurred during active duty. So... Luke's Wings makes it possible for the family to fly out to see their soldier. Hopefully, the money that we were able to raise will allow for at least 2 families to be re-united over the holiday season.

One of the best things about the night was that several of our friends were going to be playing. We had a great time up until our 3rd song where John broke a guitar string during the song introduction. Luckily, one of our artist buddies, David Holtzclaw, was there to save the day. He let John borrow his Taylor, and we went on with the show. 

Special thanks to Jim Garrett (AKA-Guitar Man) for setting up the benefit, and for all the hard work that he put into it to make it the success that it was. And thank you to Dilworth Billiards for hosting the event, and for all of the artists who generously gave of their time and talent. It was definitely for a great cause! 

Below is a link to all of the artists who participated in the fundraiser and a video explaining more about the Luke's Wings organization.

• Underground Detour
• Jamie Kay
• Ang and Tom Williams
• Amissville
• Lenny Federal
• Jim Garrett Band
• The Cloers
• Nita B. and the Swinging Soiree

Tosco House Party: An Open Mic Event

Wednesday night, we attended the Tosco House Party held on the first Wednesday night of the month, 8:00pm, at The Evening Muse. The night begins with everyone gathering into a circle where each person gets the chance to call out a cover tune. Then, the group has a play along/sing along. It's a great way to get to know other local musicians, and the host, John Tosco, always makes it a fun event.

This time, we planned on having John sing a song, so we performed "How Long" with concertina. Also, we debuted the new song, "I'm Moving On". Both were well received, and we had such a great time with some of our local artist friends. Some of the musicians that were present were Chris English, Kevin Marshall, Ralph Husband, and some new friends Haji Basim, Nicole Reynolds, and Deirdre and John from the band, Grown Up Avenger Stuff. 

Also, local photo journalist, Monty Chandler was present and took some great photos of the evening. He writes for the Examiner publication, and is always out somewhere seeing and writing about live music.

If you've never been to the Tosco House Party, come on out and see what you've been missing!