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Flanfire (Duggan Flanakin) is bringing LIFE to Austin music -- and telling the world how sweet it is!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Oh, Suzanna! Sophisticated, sultry, and yet soothing -- Suzanna Choffel (a regular at Momo's Club) has her CD release party on November 16 at the Cactus Cafe -- and what a show it will surely be. First, for openers, there's the She Rocks calendar girl, poet priestess Wendy Colonna - capable of setting fire to the stage without lighting a match. But who, you may ask, is this Suzanna girl who (it turns out) grew up right here in Austin, went off to New Mexico to learn her trade, and now works at the Austin School of
Suzanna Choffel: El Goins caught wearing Bobby's shirt after inviting
his old bass playing pal to the gig!
Music? Before you read any further, just promise yourself to go hear this unique talent - who marries R&B with cabaret music and original rhythms culled from around the globe -- but while listening to the sound, you had best also check out the poetry in her songs. Plus she is like Reese Witherspoon -- the girl next door with brains and beauty and "it".
BULLETIN! Suzanna's "regular" drummer (and good friend) El Goins will NOT be performing with her (or anybody else) for a couple of months -- Austin's drummer in demand (Patrice Pike, Carolyn Wonderland, and a very long long list of others) is taking a much needed SABBATICAL out near Pepperdine. We wish him well. But we got to see El and bassist John Thomasson with Suzanna on Friday night at Momo's.
It's really great that Suzanna's new CD - Shudders and Rings - is coming out in the fall -- because this is music you want to listen to after making a pot of tea and some cinnamon rolls and curling up by a warm fire (maybe with your sweetie) and maybe later throwing in some brie and wine for good measure. The CD features Suzanna on vocals and guitar and lots of percussion (glockenspiel to pencils) with Stephen Orsak [who also recorded and engineered) on guitar and synthesizers on most of the tracks - plus Rene Rodriguez on acoustic and electric bass, with James Harwood (Seven Percent Solution, Five and Dime Ship) and Chris Trafton (Robert Socia band) swapping out on drums and extras added by David Fincher, Tim Girardot, and Damon Knight. Mark Hallman geets credit for adding the final touches on the dozen poemsongs.
A sampling of the lyrics -- From "My Fill" -- "True love is selfless and yet selfish still and your body is a country I've never traveled to, yet my curiosity is bringing me to you." -- From "Weeds" -- "We create our cages because we're too scared to be free .. my heart is a garden and my mind is a weed." From "The Challenge" -- Life has a way of holding anything that's meant to be, meaning what you make of it -- has a way of holding anything you want to see, meaning what you take of it..." [Suzanna also answers those wanting to know about her goals and plans and yet prefers to share her dreams.] From "Since Friday Night" -- "My love can yield a harvest of plenty, My love can cover an ocean with stars...." [but this guy, who did not call, is not likely to find this out]. From "Subtle Boy" -- "Some people waste a lifetime with someone who shuts them down, But how could I possibly shut when I'm so very much opened up by the love you bring around?"
Suzanna says she would love to hear people compare her with Sade - and all I can say is that "Since Friday Night" and maybe a couple others are songs Sade would love to cover... Truth be told, I have never heard anyone quite like Miss Choffel -- and I fully expect her to be playing only the best venues in years to come.
The Dread Pirate Roberts Band
Okay, so I went to Momo's to see Suzanna and then hung around for yet another hot set by Black Water Gospel -- whose music is like eating the richest of bread puddings or maybe "death by chocolate." But what a surprise right in the middle of the evening from Austin newcomer Adam McInnis and his band-in-progress (heck, they are still looking for a drummer, and bassist Ryan Payne was playing his first gig) The Dread Pirate Roberts Band. Adam is a New Yorker (well, New Jersey) who went off the the University of Central Florida to score a film degree and then spent hard time in Los
BULLETIN! Suzanna's "regular" drummer (and good friend) El Goins will NOT be performing with her (or anybody else) for a couple of months -- Austin's drummer in demand (Patrice Pike, Carolyn Wonderland, and a very long long list of others) is taking a much needed SABBATICAL out near Pepperdine. We wish him well. But we got to see El and bassist John Thomasson with Suzanna on Friday night at Momo's.
It's really great that Suzanna's new CD - Shudders and Rings - is coming out in the fall -- because this is music you want to listen to after making a pot of tea and some cinnamon rolls and curling up by a warm fire (maybe with your sweetie) and maybe later throwing in some brie and wine for good measure. The CD features Suzanna on vocals and guitar and lots of percussion (glockenspiel to pencils) with Stephen Orsak [who also recorded and engineered) on guitar and synthesizers on most of the tracks - plus Rene Rodriguez on acoustic and electric bass, with James Harwood (Seven Percent Solution, Five and Dime Ship) and Chris Trafton (Robert Socia band) swapping out on drums and extras added by David Fincher, Tim Girardot, and Damon Knight. Mark Hallman geets credit for adding the final touches on the dozen poemsongs.
A sampling of the lyrics -- From "My Fill" -- "True love is selfless and yet selfish still and your body is a country I've never traveled to, yet my curiosity is bringing me to you." -- From "Weeds" -- "We create our cages because we're too scared to be free .. my heart is a garden and my mind is a weed." From "The Challenge" -- Life has a way of holding anything that's meant to be, meaning what you make of it -- has a way of holding anything you want to see, meaning what you take of it..." [Suzanna also answers those wanting to know about her goals and plans and yet prefers to share her dreams.] From "Since Friday Night" -- "My love can yield a harvest of plenty, My love can cover an ocean with stars...." [but this guy, who did not call, is not likely to find this out]. From "Subtle Boy" -- "Some people waste a lifetime with someone who shuts them down, But how could I possibly shut when I'm so very much opened up by the love you bring around?"
Suzanna says she would love to hear people compare her with Sade - and all I can say is that "Since Friday Night" and maybe a couple others are songs Sade would love to cover... Truth be told, I have never heard anyone quite like Miss Choffel -- and I fully expect her to be playing only the best venues in years to come.
The Dread Pirate Roberts Band
Okay, so I went to Momo's to see Suzanna and then hung around for yet another hot set by Black Water Gospel -- whose music is like eating the richest of bread puddings or maybe "death by chocolate." But what a surprise right in the middle of the evening from Austin newcomer Adam McInnis and his band-in-progress (heck, they are still looking for a drummer, and bassist Ryan Payne was playing his first gig) The Dread Pirate Roberts Band. Adam is a New Yorker (well, New Jersey) who went off the the University of Central Florida to score a film degree and then spent hard time in Los Brian Batch, Adam McInnis, and Jason Miller.
Angeles until he woke up and realized while working booking shows for a club that far too many folks out "have all these big elaborate music pages with huge pictures and tons of friends but either don't have any music (other than what you hear on their site), can't play any of the songs themselves and need a track, or don't have enough songs to fill up a 30 minute set. [Now that hardly describes the Austin music scene, but apparently LA is just FULL of Ashlee Simpson wannabees.]
Adam is a partner in a music production company, and somebody got the bright idea of relocating to a place where musicians actually can play music! So after the typical harrowing trip east, he quickly settles in and finds some people who can help interpret what I quickly dubbed as Adam's "Gentle Soul Music" -- what a wonderful voice this guy has! And what lovely songs! With Jason Miller on lead guitar (nice sounds) and Alpha Rev's Candice Sanders and Brian Batch on keyboards and fiddle (plus superb vocals), Mister McInnis may be giving Ed Jurdi some competition for the Michael McDonald white guy passionate soul singer award of the year.
A highlight of the evening's set (which was well attended by friends of the band!) was the cover of "Stand By Me," with Candice, Brian, and Adam each taking a verse (Batch's falsetto raised the Momo's roof about two feet!) and Brian and Jason each taking solos -- but Adam's own songs, like "Sweet Surrender" and "Forever Love" and "In Your Eyes" were also crowd favorites. Adamd and friends have been in the studio and hope to have a CD ready for a January release -- but meantime, keep an eye out for this gentle soul music maker.
Adam is a partner in a music production company, and somebody got the bright idea of relocating to a place where musicians actually can play music! So after the typical harrowing trip east, he quickly settles in and finds some people who can help interpret what I quickly dubbed as Adam's "Gentle Soul Music" -- what a wonderful voice this guy has! And what lovely songs! With Jason Miller on lead guitar (nice sounds) and Alpha Rev's Candice Sanders and Brian Batch on keyboards and fiddle (plus superb vocals), Mister McInnis may be giving Ed Jurdi some competition for the Michael McDonald white guy passionate soul singer award of the year.
A highlight of the evening's set (which was well attended by friends of the band!) was the cover of "Stand By Me," with Candice, Brian, and Adam each taking a verse (Batch's falsetto raised the Momo's roof about two feet!) and Brian and Jason each taking solos -- but Adam's own songs, like "Sweet Surrender" and "Forever Love" and "In Your Eyes" were also crowd favorites. Adamd and friends have been in the studio and hope to have a CD ready for a January release -- but meantime, keep an eye out for this gentle soul music maker.
TIDBITS: So after Momo's I headed over to the Hole in the Wall to catch what turns out to be Ricky Stein's last band show at the club for some time -- and what a powerful show it was! Drummer Josh Weinolt is moving to (of all places) Denver, Colorado - too much of a commute for a weekly Austin gig, and Ricky is also working on his debut CD (though he will be doing solo shows - next up, November 27 at Flipnotics) and does have a Wednesday night gig next week at the HOUSTON Continental Club -- Phillip Morris, Ricky Stein and drummer Josh Weinolt
rock out at the Hole in the Wall.
with Houston's own Scattered Pages (whose lead singer, I PROMISE YOU his name is Kurt CobURn, and in fact the whole band, sounds a lot like Dave and Ray Davies and the Kinks at their vaudevillean best). This band (along with the Welgerms - formerly Son Of Man) opened for Ricky on Friday -- and though I missed much of the evening, friends (including Le Sex Goddess herself) said the whole evening was just very very fine. But one cannot be everywhere all of the time!
