Episodes

With festival season almost wrapped up, I wanted to bring your attention to one of the best keep secrets going. Borderlands Festival which takes place this year September 20th and 21st on Knox Farm in scenic East Aurora, NY. I attended last year, sadly for just one day, and this year, we’ll be back for both days. So we wanted to talk Jennifer Brazill who heads up the festival. Sounds like an incredible festival in our midst. Excited to see so many great friends and bands but mostly share in the Borderland Festival community. We look forward to seeing you too. For more info and to buy tickets visit borderlandfestival.com.

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Old Salt Union has been making string music for about 7 years now, and what’s impressive aside from their talent is their eclectic sound even though they are a string band who play very traditional music. They blend several styles to make up their own very unique sound. Jesse Farrar is a vocalist and bass player with the band. He probably has the greatest insight into their music and place within the bluegrass and larger music community, so it was great to sit down and talk all things Old Salt Union. For tour dates at some cool videos visit oldsaltunion.com.

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The Adam Deitch Quartet is a side project for one of the busiest drummers on the go. Aside from his work in Lettuce and Break Science, Deitch is always matching up with other players, and in fact producing music. We get into some of those details during our conversation, but suffice it to say, this dude is talented beyond measure. Perhaps the only thing that is bigger than his talent, is his appetite to play music that inspires him. Such is certainly the case with the Adam Deitch Quartet's debut record Egyptian Secrets. Is it a hip-hop record, a jazz record, a soul record, or straight ahead funk. The answer is "yes" to all of the above. For more information on the Adam Deitch Quartet and all things Adam Deitch visit deitchbeatsdontquit.com or or fanlink.to/egyptiansecrets.

We’re big fans of Holly since her debut of Tahoe Tweezer piano composition. For the uninitiated, Holly takes songs by both Phish and The Grateful Dead, transcribes each members parts and then builds out a new composition where she plays everyone’s parts. It’s phenomenal stuff. Aside from her solo work, Holly plays keyboards in Ghost Light another band we love, and is always around for guest spots. To say she’s busy doesn’t do her calendar justice. So we're delighted that she made time to chat about Live at the Old Church and much more. Our conversation started when I asked Holly how she keeps up with everything she’s up to. You can learn more about Holly’s solo work at hollybowling.com and for Ghost Light info visit ghostlightband.com.

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Jay Cobb Anderson will be releasing a solo EP August 23rd entitled, "Everything is Gonna Work Its Own Self Out". Jay as you may recall or know is part of new grass outfit Fruition, though you wouldn’t know he is in a string band if you listen to the new EP. It’s full of electricity, big riffs and more. We caught up with Jay working on a new Fruition record which we’ll get too, but our conversation started when I asked what inspired this solo effort.  For more on Jay Cobb Anderson visit jaycobbanderson.com and for Fruition updates visit fruitionband.com.

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While we’ll get into some Umphrey’s business throughout the discussion, our focus is actually on a book he co-authored with Matt DeCoursey “The Realist’s Guide to a Successful Music Career”. It’s a great read with fabulous insight and a no BS approach to advice. Lots of musicians give some candid interviews too like Huey Lewis, Jake Cinniger, Taylor Hicks, to name just a few and some pretty cool music industry types like Pete Shapiro. I have a great deal of admiration for anyone who sets out to find their passion and attempts to build a career around it. In Joel’s case, he’s had success, and now he is sharing some secrets to help others get to their goals while avoiding some pitfalls. The book, is available on Amazon, Kindle and will be on sale at UM shows and at the UM online store. For more visit umphreysmcgee.com or search for Joel Cummins at Amazon.com.

While he isn’t specifically a typical “jam band” musician, G.Love has found a home within the community. Kind of makes sense when consider this delta blues/hip-hop musician not only saw the Dead as a kid, but has been on the scene for years. He was recently in Toronto on tour with Blues Traveler and moe. and we caught up to talk about well, just about everything. For more on G.Love visit philadelphonic.com. 

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moe. is on tour with Blues Traveler and G.Love, while also spending time at festivals including their own, moe.down held earlier this summer. moe. has long been on our radar since their early days playing tiny shows here in Toronto, while they made their mark on the Jam Band scene through the mid 90s. So it was great to catch up with Rob Derhak who had a significant health scare and put the band on hiatus for a bit, but they are back as fierce and jammy as ever. For more on moe. including tour dates and such visit moe.org (yes, that’s how long they’ve had a website). 

The Jam Band community owes a debt of gratitude to Blues Traveler, who in many ways pioneered the neo Jam Band scene back in the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, they supported the post Garcia Jam Band scene by putting on the HORDE festival, which is the pre-cursor to Lockn' or even Bonnarroo for that matter. I've always been a fan of the band and fondly remember listening to them lots and going to see them. But it's been a while since I had, but they came through Toronto recently, after a long hiatus and wanted to catch up. Chan Kinchla, the founding guitarist made some time, which was a thrill for sure. Our conversation started when I reminded Chan of his Canadian heritage, since he was born in Hamilton, a stone's throw from Toronto. To learn more about Blues Traveler's tour schedule and other happenings visit bluestraveler.com

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Turkuaz recently released Afterlife Vol. 2, a collection of songs that didn't make their last album, Life in the City or the first EP Afterlife Vol. 1 and it features tracks that continue to see the band evolve and experiment. "Better Get Ready" as an example stretches the boundries of funk into what can only be described as a rock sound. We're impressed that they are bold enough to take chances and try new things. Thats brave. So we caught up with Dave "Blue" Brandwein to talk about the second volume of Afterlife to see what the band has going on, and what their plans are for the future. Our conversation started when I suggested to Dave that this final Afterlife EP puts a nice two year bow on all the band has been working on. To find out more visit turkuazband.com. 

ALO have just released a new EP Creatures, Vol. 1: Spark. The EP features four great tracks, by the the ALO quartet of Zach Gill on keyboards on vocals, Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz on guitars and vocals, Steve Adams on bass and vocals and Ezra Lipp on Drums. Lipp has joined the band officially now as Dave Brogan departs for personal pursuits. We are big fans of ALO music, and the band members. Getting to talk to them, is like old home week, and we generally gel and laugh right out of the gate. So I decided to get Zach and Lebo on the line to talk about the plan for these new EPs and more. You should definitely check out alomusic.com for news, tour dates including details on Camp Deep End and much more. 

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Wanted to tell you about a new Jazz trio called Spaga.  They make interesting stripped down acoustic jazz music, and feature Aron Magner on piano. Of course, you know Aron from his other prominent project The Disco Biscuits, but as luck would have it, he has carved out some time to get back to his original passion, jazz piano. He created this project as an ode, to his humble beginnings, and wanted to test the limits of his abilities and those of his co-horts on this project. For my ears at least, sounds like they've done a great job. For more on Spaga, visit spagaband.com.

Rayland Baxter will be releasing a new EP called Good mmornin’ due out July 26th, which is a series of covers of Mac Miller’s work. If you’re unfamiliar with Miller, he was a hip hop artist who past last September at the age of 26. He was prolific during his short life, but demons, including depression and drug abuse caught up to him. The juxtaposition of Rayland’s spirit and Miller’s work was kind of initially difficult to get my head around, but having heard the EP now several times, I’m not only a fan of what Rayland has created but now I want to explore even more of Mac Miller’s work. I can tell you the sincerity with which Rayland speaks about this project is undeniable on the work itself. Good mmornin’ is a very solid listen, and an absolute stunning tribute to Mac Miller. Though the EP is only out at the end of the month you can catch Rayland on the road where he may be performing some of these or other Mac Miller songs. For all the details or to order the EP visit raylandbaxte…

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I spent the last few days in Boston, MA, catching the pair of Phish shows at Fenway Park, and those were awesome. Luckily for me, Spafford, a band that we've featured on the show a couple of times and on LiveFive numerous times were also in town playing two after Phish shows at the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA, and third show Sunday at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA. Having never seen the band live, I was pretty psyched to take in all the sights and sounds and get a feel for what I imagined in my head would be a pretty great experience. I can tell you first hand now, that Spafford is a band that needs to be seen live, and at the very least, their performances need to be heard via nugs.net if you can't make a show. I've traded notes with Brian specifically quite a bit over the last two years, but getting to hang with him in person, and talk to the rest of the band was quite a treat. They don't have an album immediately coming out, or any big announcement, because they are done…

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Tides of A Teardrop is Mandolin Orange's latest release, and we only recently had the opportunity to sit down with them. Their last record, 2016's Blindfaller garnered wild acclaim, and I can tell you that Tides of a Teardrop should eclipse that. It's a deeply personal record, written primarily by Andrew Marlin, with some input from Emily Frantz. Together, the duo make absolutely incredible roots music, beyond the bluegrass label they've been tagged with. This interview is an intimate one with Andrew Marlin. A very intimate behind the scenes conversation with Andrew Marlin. His comments regarding Jeff Austin were so poignant and beautiful too. You can catch Mandolin Orange at several festivals and solo dates throughout the summer. For those details visit mandolinorgange.com.