A cloak of sadness and loss enveloped the music community on Saturday as we learned of the passing of Grammy Award Winner, B. J. Thomas.
B. J. Thomas lost his battle with four-stage lung cancer. Heartborken does not begin to cover the feeling.
Here's the bio info from his website:
Five-time Grammy award winner
and Grammy Hall of Fame inductee, B.J. Thomas has sold over 70 million albums
worldwide with a total of 8 #1 hits and 26 Top 10 singles throughout his 50
years in the music industry.
As one of Billboard’s Top 50
Most Played Artists Over The Past 50 Years, B.J. Thomas’ hits include
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head,” “Hooked On A Feeling,” “I’m So Lonesome I
Could Cry,” “I Just Can’t Help Believing,” “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another
Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Whatever Happened To
Old Fashioned Love” and “New Looks From An Old Lover.”
I'm sharing a video from his YouTube channel featuring Vince Gill.
This week we've been getting to know Julia Kasdorf and today we have her recent release -MOTEL - on the player.
One of the many things I love about what I do is being introduced to things I might normally wouldn't picked up otherwise. MOTEL fits that category.
The album is comprised of eleven tracks, three of which are what Julia refers to as 'deep-catalog' covers she has put her unique signature on to make them almost indiscernable as anything but a Julia Kasdorf. In my opinion, that's the mark of a true artist.
Old Coat (a Peter Paul & Mary cover) sets the tone for a journey that will make you glad you got in the van. A little two-step with a soft Americana roots, opening the door for you to come along where ever the road may lead.
The lyrics for the title were inspired by a Motel Julia saw that beckoned her to pull over and check in/ check out the place. She never did but the track is a perfect example of how great songs come to be. Open your eyes and really let what you see become a part of you until you have to give the image a voice. The Minute I'm Gone has a deep bluesy sway reminiscent of those gentle curves in the road.
When I interviewed Julia, I mentioned the opening of Cool Water reminded me of John Denver. While the song is all Julia's, this is what she said in the songquibs accompanying my promo material - "Stumbled on this great drop D Riff - must have nabbed it from someone but I don't know who!"
One of Julia's musical influences from an early age was Peter Paul & Mary. Her passion for their style is evident in her cover of Long Chain. While recorded by PPM, the lyrics were masterfully composed by one of the greatest songwriters of his time, Jimmy Driftwood (biggest hits were Battle of New Orleans and Tennessee Stud). Of the PPM covers, I think their influence is most felt here as we hit those 'belly hills' we all enjoyed on car rides as kids.
The saxaphone bits (courtesy of Walter Tates) brings a new dimension to the album on Girls Gotta Know. This is not a bump in the road or even a pit stop, but more like picking up a very talented hitch hiker.
The Americana flavor comes in strong on Cold Saturday as Julia takes us back to her youth and things we understand as adults we couldn't see then.
We pick up speed on what Julia calls Walk Your Dog 'nonesense and a nod to her heroes', then slow to a coast on Reservations. This is a slow dance waiting to happen.
A Lover's Farewell (a Carter Family cover) showcases Lynn Kasdorf's pedal steel with a bare-toes on the dash kind of feel, while the intensity of the guitar in Blue Veil maps out the trip from coast to coast with a reflective look at what we've seen along the way.
Julia Kasdorf is a storyteller and that's part of what makes her an amazing artists. The individual tracks of MOTEL blend together well with all the straight-aways, hills, curves we all experience on this journey we call life.
Here's a video for the title track:
I'm tipping my hat:
You will find more of Julia on her WEBSITEas well as the following social media links:
Good morning, everyone! I have an inspiring artist with us today. I hope you'll enjoy this interview. I know this is without a doubt the most fun 'email' interview I have ever done and I hope to have the opportunity to meet Julia in person.
Let’s open the chute!
Hi Julia,
Welcome to Kelly’s Country. Thanks for joining me today and taking the time to answer the questions.
You mention listening to Peter
Paul & Mary… how you really connected with their music from a young girl.
Can you share what your first impression was that has since influenced your own
music?
I love this question. It really
helps me think about where music first got in amongst me. My dad played PP&M on the stereo everyday
after we got home from school. Their songs were so beautiful, so full of vivid imagery.
“Take off your old coat, and roll up your
sleeves.” (Old Coat) That made a
powerful picture in my mind. “A girl so
sweet that when she smiled the stars rose in the sky” (Lemon Tree) I could see myself laying in the grass gazing at those
stars. “I heard a man come a clankin’, he had a long chain on.” (He Had a Long Chain on) I see that
meeting in the moonlight. Then when I found out that these were old, old songs,
I loved them all the more. They tell history.
Your bio reads like a travel
itinerary over a lot of different genre paths. Tell us what you can recall from
the first time you performed with a band and thought ‘this is it’.
What a great question! It would be
in early 2000s when I was in a Virginia band called One Horse Town. When we were at our peak with some incredible local
players, it was as easy and fun as surfing waves in Hawaii (I speculate).
That’s when I said “Hoo boy, this is IT!” Now I’m pretty ruined - I only want
to play live with people who are better than me.
MOTEL released regionally a couple of years ago. Now you’ve sent
the album into a wider atmosphere. Most artists just jump in the deep end. Why
did you give this a regional release first?
Er, limited resources. I couldn’t afford to do much more! By and by,
I came into some dough and decided the album deserved more attention.
In the songquibs you mentioned
seeing a motel that made you just want to pull over, check in and close the
door. Did you and how did Motel come to be the title of the album?
I never did pull over, Thinking
about it was enough. People always
responded really well to that song, and it had something important to say about
me. I loved the title “Motel”- such
an open word, so many contexts, and easy to remember. And I knew I could come
up with a killer cover for that title.
Les Thompson was one of the
co-producers of this album. How did that come to be?
The crowd of musicians in western
Loudoun County VA isn’t huge so most folks know each other. He knew my band and
did sound work here and there. Les had a studio that Danny Knicely (one of the
TOPPEST musicians I’ve ever met) recommended, so I made the call.
While nothing else about the
track is reminiscent of him, the guitar intro to Cool Water had a John Denver
vibe. Were you influenced by his music at all?
Ack! Help!I didn’t go for to do
it! Ok, truthfully, I was influenced by JD now that you mention
it, He has this song “The Eagle” and
it starts with ringing, shifting E chord shapes down the neck, winding up on a
richly strummed E chord. That sort of
attack intensity definitely showed up in “Cool
Water”. Holy cats. Do I owe him
money now? You really ask some great questions.
Of all the people/ bands on
your musical journey, what area or artists to you think influenced you in
developing your own style the most and why?
Early David Bowie. His songs are
miraculous and surprising and run all over the place, style-wise.
And he still revered the power of the well-strummed acoustic guitar. He gave me
the courage to break out of established patterns and tread some shaky ground.
And his voice was all his own. On Motel,
I was seeking out some new ways to sing to explore some Bowie magic.
According to your website,
this is your fourth album. How do you think you’ve music has evolved throughout
the process?
When I first started playing live
music, I was usually playing bass for someone. I didn’t have any confidence in
my own stuff. I’ve played bass on a ton
of recordings but I couldn’t see myself
presenting my own music, much less recording it!
When I met Janet Emma Garbe
(co-lead One Horse Town) , one of
the most influential people in my life, we were able to put songs together that
were really fun to sing and play. We were better than the sum of our parts
and, working with her, I grew a lot as a
songwriter. Janet had some great contacts, which resulted in Jon (Starland Vocal
Band, Mary Chapin Carpenter) playing keys with us and producing our record, Dawn Will Deliver. Who knew that such
an ultimate musician lived in our town! We were very lucky, and Jon made our
stuff pop to life. That guy leaks great
music wherever he goes.
I would say that Motel and Dawn Will Deliver are the only records I’ve been involved in that
express who I am and where I came from. That’s what was most important to me
when I set out to record Motel. Thanks for your interest in my stuff. I
appreciate you taking the time to ask me some cool questions.
I really enjoyed this interview and hope you did as well. I'm linking one of Julia's video below. Tomorrow, I'll be back with my review of MOTEL. You won't want to miss this one!
You will find more of Julia on her WEBSITEas well as the following social media links:
I know I said yesterday I wanted to put Josie Bello on the turntable today. Slight issue that I don't have an accessible CD player at the moment and didn't have her in my files for dropbox. So I'm switching gears. I think this post is meant to be.
COMPASSIONATE COMBAT is a unique project by Susan Gibson. Susan has always been someone I've known to work from her heart. She writes what she feels and is always looking for a way to let her music give back.
The info for this project came to me back in March from Adam Dawson at Broken Jukebox Media.
This isn't an album to review. It's a single song bringing attention to the nurses working beyond what they ever thought they signed up for. Please check out the page COMPASSIONATE COMBAT for information on how you can support the men and women who have been facing death at the risk of their own health since this mess began. Many have moved completely away from their families in an effort to protect their loved ones.
Susan shares the background on the Compassionate Combat website, but I'm sharing it here for you as well:
Back in mid-April, 2020, my friend
Carolyn Phillips reached out to me to write a song for her organization, Songs
for the Soul to say thank you to the nurses who are giving so much of
themselves to care for us through this pandemic.
I have worked with Carolyn and
Songs for the Soul before~~I’m a huge fan of her, her music and her enormous,
enthusiastic, empathetic heart. Even before the pandemic, one of the danger
zones in the nursing profession is something known as caregiver fatigue. Nurses
care for other people at the expense of their own health and well-being. Songs
for the Soul is a program of pairing nurses with songwriters with the idea that
by telling their stories and then hearing them put into songs, the nurses will
experience a degree of healing, of being witnessed.
I have to say, I know that to be
true for myself in my own work. As I have worked with other songwriters and
groups of people who may not have the language or felt entitled to their own
emotions, the combination of truth-telling and then objective crafting to
create a song that resonates with the writer or anyone else is a very healing
process.
You can share you support and thank them for their service by donating to the American Nurses Foundation HERE.
Aside from the 'must-do' items, I've not worked a lot the past three weeks. Bob wass home, can you tell? I was traveling the first week he was home, to see grandbabies. I did spend time on that trip getting back into my manuscript so that I can get Book 2 of my series finished. Time just seems to fly. I don't see the book being published by end of June, sadly. But as I mentioned on my author blog this morning, I'd rather put out a quality product then hit a deadline.
Tomorrow, I'll be posting a VERY delayed review of a CD by Josie Bello. I love the cover of Have Purpose Live Long, drawing me in to the album. This CD came across my desk last fall and just got lost in the shuffle. So this is filler until I get back on track next week with Out of the Chute and Turntable Tuesday combos.
The Party List will resume June 3rd. Live venues are opening back up. I will also be including 'streamed' shows with links to how you can join in.
If you are an artist and want to share gigs, please email me your schedule at by clicking on any of the links below:
