Lemonheads and Doc

FRIDAY, Feb 20

Excellent independent artist from Sheboygan:

Lillie Lemon

7pm

Lillie Lemon has lately been causing a bit of a buzz on the lakeshore music scene. After listening to her I'm of the opinion that she's a "natural." Her voice is lovely and evocative, her songs catchy and melodic. She's already built a loyal fan base of peeps who call themselves "Lemonheads."

SATURDAY, Feb 21

Local acoustic musician with a deep, rich sound:

Mike Retzinger

7pm

Mike's been playing around here for a good while now, both as a solo performer and with the likes of Joe LaForce, Mark Kimmes and others. He's got a great, earthy voice, is a very skilled guitar player and has a song list that is just plain cool...familiar stuff and a lot that you won't hear unless you dig deep into certain albums.

We been snorbified

Last night Steve Bucklin, Tyler Gause and Nick Smith (aka snorb!) performed a couple of sets at the Stump that had me wondering how soon it will be before these guys are doing the music thing full-time. They are just outstanding. They're absolutely excellent musicians, as tight and polished on each song as studio musicians. Their compositions are ethereal and very provocative, and they come across as joyful, fun-loving guys who totally dig what they're doing and are very appreciative that other people dig it too.
They've apparently won a lot of awards in their home state, West Lafayette, Indiana. Steve was voted Guitarist of the Year and Nick was Bass Player of the Year (2008). Tyler joked that he was voted dead-weight of the year, but he too is an outstanding guitarist, and when not doing some lead guitar work is a human rhythm guitar machine. I've rarely seen three guys more musically in synch with each other.
We did not have a lot of people here last night, I think 15 total, perhaps because it was Valentine's Day evening. I was thinking, 'man, more people should be here to hear these guys.' We asked them to do a return gig sometime in the near future and they promised they would, so if and when we do schedule snorb! again you owe it to yourself to ink that date on your calendar.

Becky and the snorb! guys (l-r: Steve, Becky, Tyler, Nick)

I'll be putting some video onto our youtube site and updating the Flickr sets too. Check back here in the next couple days, I'll just add the links to this particular post.

A good night for art & music

Early in the night, that's Nate in the lower left.

Last night was a lot of fun. Nate's exhibition went over very well, with a lot of compliments for his photos. The pieces look great on the wall, have a very peacefully eerie nighttime vibe to them, and the colors fortuitously go very well with the colors and lighting of the gallery space.

Dancing and hooty-hooting.

Lloyd Rohr performed the music for the night, with Bill Walkner sitting in for much of Lloyd's set. The two of them were on fire last night, helped along by an extremely enthusiastic cheering section (I think they were actually groupies of a sort...dancing, hollering, clapping and whistling). Lloyd and Bill looked like they were having a blast ripping into their tunes and responding to the crowd.

Tonight at 7:00pm: snorb!
Be here or live in shame.

Friday the 13th & Valentine's Day

Another very cool poster from Tina Kugler...Tina rocks it, no doubt.

Friday night at 7:00 we have a double-header of sorts. Lloyd Rohr will be performing. If you've seen Lloyd before you know that his music makes for a very mellow and enjoyable evening. He's an accomplished guitar player and plays songs that just about anyone and everyone enjoys, with a mix of his own songs and familiar favorites.

Lloyd Rohr

Also, Friday is the opening reception for "Local Color: A Panorama-o-rama," featuring photographs by Nate Walkner. Click here to go to the HTR Lakeshore Update page with a nice description of Nate's photography for this show.

Nate Walkner photo

Saturday, the 14th, is Valentine's Day. We're having a very nice wine and specialty pizza thing that you can participate in if you RSVP. Click here to see Kim's blog with the details. And then at 7:00 we're excited to have snorb! performing their brand of jazz and fusion. I've been listening to these guys via their myspace site. They are good, real good. They hail from West Lafayette, Indiana and apparently have won all of the cool music awards a band can win in that region. It'll be a great way to spend Valentine's evening.

snorb!

Spillin' da beaners

BTW, here's my column from this past Wednesday: http://www.htrnews.com/article/20090204/MAN04/902040702. The link is good for a week or so (I don't know why they make articles accessible online without having to purchase them for such a short period). I'll be accumulating all of my newspaper columns and putting them on one of the tab links above fairly soon. I know you're dying to read them all...right...

Recent music pics and videos

I've got a whole bunch of images and videos to load onto Flickr and YouTube, and that's what I'm mostly working on today. Some are from last night and the past couple weeks, and some are from several weeks ago when I was having my computer problems. Should get them all up in the next couple of days. Put a few of Kelly Underwood on from last night, am loading video of Bill Walkner and Lloyd Rohr as I type this, and in the cue is Ethan Keller from last night.

Ethan Keller

Last night was a blast with Ethan and Kelly perfoming together (alternating sets). Kelly was great. She continues to impress and and gets better by leaps and bounds every time she plays. I have to tell you again, and persuade you, to check out Ethan Keller if you haven't already, should you ever get a chance to see him perform (here at the Stump, in Milwaukee or wherever). This guy is just way too good to not have a big time recording contract.

His songwriting is better than most anything you'll find in any record store racks, both musically and lyrically, and his inventiveness with technology and instrumentation makes watching him perform a real treat. Every time Ethan has performed here there is always someone in the joint who says to me something like "Man, this guy is awesome!" And each time he's here he always plays stuff we haven't heard him play before, it's always fresh. Do yourself a favor and check him out if you get the chance, and pick up one of his CDs - you can get them here or from Ethan by sending him a message via his myspace site (www.myspace.com/ethankeller), where you can also have him put you on his mailing list to get updates on where he's performing next.

Our pal Nick Weiland is finishing up a new CD too. I'm doing the cover art for it, which I'm very honored to do. Nick and Brian Sanchez will be coming back to the Stump pretty soon. Can't wait, those guys do the blues right.

Weekend notes

Check out Kim's Wine All You Want blog for info on the Stumpjack Valentine's Day special wine and gourmet pizza event. Yum yum yummy.

It's getting to be that time again...gardening time. This Saturday (Feb 7) the Urban Gardening Gang will be meeting here at the Stump at 10:00 a.m.. Seed catalogs are one of my favorite things to peruse. Check out their blog here for details.

Friday night is going to be a blast, if you dig great music. We'll have Ethan Keller and Kelly Underwood teaming up for what promises to be a very cool and maybe a little unusual night of fun.

Love Live Music at Stumpjack

Friday, February 6^th at 7:00pm Milwaukee jazz/funk artist Ethan Keller and Manitowoc independent musician Kelly Underwood will be performing together at Stumpjack Coffee in Two Rivers. Keller is a Milwaukee musician of some notoriety and has earned a strong following for both his musicianship and songwriting skills. He is an accomplished performer who captivates audiences with his ability to build a song onstage via his use of alternating several instruments and a looping sound machine. He will, for example, pick up bass guitar and play the bass line for a tune, record it on the looping machine, go to guitar and play the rhythm part, loop that over the bass line, and so on, building the song in front of the audience. He has a talent for improvisation. His music is jazz and funk based with a strong melodic and alternative rock foundation, while his occasional covers of other artists songs are rather esoteric and always interesting.

Kelly Underwood is someone who many people believe is a star in the making. Her sound is reminiscent of Sarah McLachlan and The Cranberries. Underwood auditioned for American Idol last year and while unsuccessful in making the final cut she did earn praise from the judges and was one of the few who were considered for the final line-up. She is determined to return to try again this year after receiving high marks from the Idol judges. She has a very appealing stage presence, is quick to laugh and have fun on stage, often picking out people in the audience and spontaneously making up songs about them. She is constantly honing her craft as a songwriter and musician, with each performance bringing something new and fresh.

This will be the first time that Ethan and Kelly have performed together. It is a collaborative performance that promises to be most interesting and a lot of fun.

Ethan Keller & Kelly Underwood

Friday, Feb. 6 at 7:00pm
Cover: one drink/hour minimum