A Little Bit The Elements of Musical Styles
Listen to the live interview Episode #488: A.V.A Live Radio Behind The Music with Jacqueline Jax: http://tobtr.com/10100985
GETTING TO KNOW A LITTLE BIT MORE
by Jacqueline Jax host of A.V.A Live Radio
Members: Reed Fields, Jill Hamlin
Person Interviewing: Reed Fields
People can expect to hear a variety of styles that range from a Rock driven sound, to an acoustic singer-songwriter feel, with some honky-tonk country thrown in, an some ballads for good measure. The significance to us, is to show how Americana music is a genre that encapsulates “ALL” elements of musical styles.
The music business is hard!
It seems like Jill works 24-7 reaching out to venues, agencies etc. and it’s so hard to get booked if you don’t have an agent or some one “In the Business” already. Then those people, won’t talk to you if your fan base isn’t big enough, but you can’t grow your fan base without being seeing (playing shows/venues) so it’s a true chase your own tail sort of race.
We’ve fallen victim to organizations offering to help us “Break through” for a fee. And we’re like “Come on! We’re starving artists’ here.” If we had “X” amount of money we’d be thrilled! Don’t get me wrong; we’ve met some fantastic people during this journey. We’ve had a lot of laughs, and made memories that will be with us until the end of our days, but truly the industry is tough and if you don’t have the drive-it will try and take it from you; then you’re not going to survive, financially, emotional, socially, or physically. And you know what? We wouldn’t change a minute of it because we’re musicians, song-writers and it’s our life.
Song name:The Last Time
Music Genre/ category : Americana
The Last Time is type of love song. It’s about that “person” that comes into your life so you want to make the most of the time you have with them.
The Last time was co-written with my music partner Jill Hamlin. I was sitting at the kitchen table strumming around on my guitar, just sort of thinking to my self. I was going through a lot personally and you know how people are; they say all the time “This is the last time.” Regarding whatever in their life. I sort of stopped for a minute and thought of all the things in my life I had said that exact phrase about. I typed the phrase in my phone, and sent the idea and the chord riff to my co-writer Jill. She and I then collaborated, and together we built the song around that idea.
We made a horrible (horrible is an understatement!) demo recording on a laptop and that was our “work track” the one we would go back and listen to and see what changes we wanted to make. I mean on this recording you could hear traffic in the background, dogs barking, refrigerator kicking on and off, the ice-maker… it was awful! But it worked!
When we decided that we had the song the way we wanted it, we were lucky to record it and 12 other songs at Station West in Nashville TN, with the amazing Kyle Manner as the Engineer.
Link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/silhouettes/id1218357655
We are from Owingsville, KY…
The population is around 1200 people and it’s a rural agriculture community. It’s the epitome of “Small Town.” The music scene is hard to describe here. Kentucky itself is very prolific with music probably most well know for it’s Bluegrass style of music. Music here seems like it’s part of people’s DNA. If you were to throw a rock in a crowd of 20 people you’d hit 17 of them who could play, sing, or both, and not just “pick around” but PLAY!!!!
Now venues on the other hand are few and far between. Don’t get me wrong, you can find people who are jamming around at their friend’s house, or garage just about every day; but actual venues there really aren’t any in our town. We frequent a place called the “Twisted Cork” located in Lexington, KY, which is about 50 miles east of Owingsville.
I would love to have 5 minutes alone with…. Guy Clark.
Because he was a songwriter’s songwriter. He was on an entirely different level. Music was his canvas. He painted pictures with his words and music. He ran the entire gamut of songs. From Tongue-in-cheek to soul defining. His death was a tremendous loss for the music community.
Website and social media links:
Website: https://www.alittlebitmoremusic.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alittlebitmoremusic/
Instagram: @alittlebutmoremusic
Twitter: @albmmusic
https://soundcloud.com/alittlebitmoremusic/the-last-time/s-qQ1l4