Here is a beautiful painting by Linda Langhorst, from a show in Columbus at the Guitar House in November... she's quite talented and you should pay her site a visit. Many thanks to Linda and the Guitar House for a lovely evening! Happy almost New Year everyone!
some pictures from our live performance at Red Barn Radio in Lexington, KY:
Here are a few videos from the Chicago show.... culminating with Elam Blackman's grand finale, which we recorded at the very, very end of the night after a communal jug of mescal. Here are "Speck" and "Darkest Days" from me, and "Evershone" from Elam (otherwise known as "I put my butt on you")...
Here's a new song performed in the Sweat Shop in Chicago. More videos from this concert coming soon.
From My old Kentucky Blog:
Many of Alexa Woodward's banjo-driven folk songs slowly slink like fog down from the Appalachian mountains and hills of Virgina and wrap your soul in melancholy. Woodward's 2009 release, Speck, is full of subtle textures and well-matched harmonies that support interesting and well-written narratives.
From Nuvo:
The music of Alexa Woodward, filled with plucky banjos and lamenting, flawless vocal performances, provides the listener with a sound from long ago. Woodward effortlessly sings and plucks her banjo to her backwoods-inspired songs without sounding like someone chasing the textbook example of porch music.
Elam Blackman and I kicked off the fall tour in Lexingon, Kentucky where we played for a live radio audience at Red Barn Radio (pictures and video coming soon), and then played with the Rain Junkies at Buster's Billiards and Backroom. In the morning, Isaac and Julie introduced us to the hot brown, a Kentucky favorite: a piece of toast, covered in layers of sandwich meat, then smothered in gravy, then smothered in melted cheddar cheese that extends to the edge of the plate and looks like a big orange crispy blob, finally topped in bacon. mmmm. or, ow?
On the way to Whitesburg we stopped at a little flea market in Hazard Kentucky where we stumbled into a back room with used instruments, I discovered and fell in love with a little tenor Ukulele, and bought it. It's name is Hazard Purchase.
Ellenore Scott dances to my song "Eleanor" on season six of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance:
For more details on any of these shows, click HERE
Tue 10/27/09 Knoxville, TN Preservation Pub
Wed 10/28/09 Johnson City, TN Acoustic Coffeehouse
Thu 10/29/09 Chattanooga, TN Lindsay Street Hall
Fri 10/30/09 Bluff City, TN Stickley Farm
Sat 10/31/09 Johnson City, TN Milligan College
Sat 10/31/09 Jonesborough, TN Jonesborough Farmers Market
Sat 11/14/09 Pumpkintown, SC Pumpkintown Opry
Wed 11/18/09 Lexington, KY CD Central
Thu 11/19/09 Whitesburg, KY The Summit City
Sat 11/21/09 Chicago, IL The Sweatshop
Sun 11/22/09 Indianapolis, IN Earth House Collective
Sun 11/22/09 Indianapolis, IN Indy CD & Vinyl
Mon 11/23/09 Louisville, KY Skull Alley
Mon 11/23/09 Louisville, KY Ear X-Tacy Records
This fall I'll be performing a few times at the Pumpkintown Opry, the only old-time Opry in South Carolina (the two remaining dates are October 24th and November 14th). Here's a recording of "Mary" from my last appearance there.
Played a great show with Aaron Berg and Robert Gowan at coffee underground in Greenville, SC. I'll be focusing on shows in the southeast/midwest this fall, so check the myspace page for updates, especially if you're in SC, TN, KY, OH, or IL
The trailer for a new Australian drama series about life in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall features my song, "Secrets":
Alexa Woodward from Mathias Laurvig on Vimeo.
LEER MÁS...
Alexa Woodward: Speck
[Constant Clip records]
I might be the least qualified among us to review this album, for no reason other than folk music is a genre that has, for the most part, completely escaped me. And at it’s heart, that’s what Alexa Woodward’s first album, Speck, is. But at the same time, it’s a bit more than that. It’s a quiet, contemplative record full of lovely harmonies, soothing melodies and some really killer banjo work. And as a hardcore bluegrass fan, I loves me some banjo.
The New York City-based Woodward’s voice, a dulcet, versatile tool, is almost hypnotic. Her notes carry a beautiful timbre throughout the album, and while the album’s overall sound isn’t always terribly varied, her voice is really what you come for. Backed by numerous Austin musicians on some tracks, the combination of banjo, guitars, and singing saw (played by Guy Forsyth), the instrumentation is a gentle accompaniment to Woodward’s voice. They provide a sense of subtle, delicate atmosphere that serves as a perfect backdrop.
The album is an odd duck — it’s got some themes that should resonate with urban dwellers, but with country/folk music roots and influence. Thematically, it has moments of surprising grittiness, which serves as an unusual (in a good way) contrast for her lullaby-like sound. Lyrics like
As for the songs themselves, they’re startlingly sharp given the sweet-sounding voice. “Jimmy” is nothing short of a tale of urban woe. With an opening salvo of lyrics like “Jimmy was a wayward man / Laying in a white linen bed / Broke his back in a rooftop fall / Doing so much blow / He couldn’t see at all,” it quickly establishes itself as a genuine heartbreaker of a song. Her sumptuous voice continues to twist through incongruous themes, as it continues with “I wish I had known him when / He was still too young for sin / I’d have taken all his kindling / Kept it dry for burning.”
My personal favorite is, unsurprisingly, “Boston” (Woodward’s a fan of one-word titles, which I have a strange respect for). Lyrically, it’s a beautiful, cryptic piece of poetry, but I mainly love it for the second iteration of the chorus, when her voice really has a chance to soar (“On the bus to Boston / with the scarlet turning leaves / I resolved to make my bed / with my better history”).
The only catch with Woodward’s album is that despite her excellent songwriting and captivating voice, her songs are all similar in style and sound. But then again, folk singers don’t kill you with their variety. They kill you with their lyrics, and their heart and soul. Woodward’s got that in spades.
http://www.pajiba.com/music/alexa-woodward-speck-review.php
Here's a live recording of a new, unreleased song from a concert at the Cabin in Portland, Oregon...the song is called Bowl of Morning
LEER MÁS...
house show with Hunter Paye, Trevor Reichman, Linky Dickson, and Jonathan Brinkley
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