Program Director – Samuel Esterline : “The World Is Not Enough” by Garbage 

Production Director – Manni Simon : “Family Ties” by Baby Keem ft. Kendrick Lamar

Music Director – Hailey Feller : “Pluto” by Jake Wesley Rogers 

Content Director – Alex Holmes : “Rings” by Pinegrove 

Events Director – Dylan Gutierrez : “Peaches” by Justin Bieber 

Assistant Content Director – Vinay Ranganathan : “Trampoline” by Kero Kero Bonito

Listen now on Spotify Staff Picks 
Check out who’s who on “Meet the Staff”

The post Staff Picks for Midterms Week of Fall 2021 appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Radio: Did you guys want to describe your music for people that aren’t familiar? 

Klept: Let’s see, well you know I thought about this a lot. I guess the best way I could describe the music of Klept would be like noisy art rock.

Radio: How long have you been playing together? 

Klept: With this current lineup, close to a year. Pretty much when quarantine started. It was around this the spring break actually.

Radio: And how has it been being kind of a newly formed band in such a strange time? 

Klept: I feel like it’s kind of helped us. The quarantine really gave us a lot of time to kind of form our sound, you know.

Radio: Yeah, understandable.

Where did the name come from? 

Klept: So, Klept is a root word which means thief and I don’t know I just thought that was kind of cool. And I think it’s kind of cool because–I don’t know if this was your intention at all, but it’s kind of like how every musician kind of steals everything, so the whole Klept thing is basically us just saying, we’re thieves of music. He actually got it from the word biblioklept, like book thief and he said it’s something like since I write most of the lyrics he says, I steal a lot from books. So that also works out. It all comes full circle, that’s all. It’s just a name really. 

Yeah, and it’s concise, not the grand band Funk jam metallic psycho water buffalo or whatever. There’s a band, the Presidents of the United States of America. That’s way too long. They said Cleft at the [Diner on Abercorn] show–it’s Klept with a “p”. 

Radio: Speaking of a lot of different sources and kind of taking things and making them your own,  you guys have a pretty eclectic sound there’s like a lot going on, so who would you cite as some of your bigger influences? 

Klept: Nirvana is one. The only band, Nirvana, that’s it. Sweet trip has definitely been an influence, Mr. Bungle. Slowdive. Smashing Pumpkins. Jimmy Chamberlin is my favorite drummer so I’m very inspired by his playing style. Good gosh, Death Grips. I’d say Radiohead, David Bowie, The Garden. Yeah, their new record. Elliott Smith, I mean just so much. 100 Gecs!

Radio: What would you guys say the writing process is like for your songs? 

Klept: Well, so somebody will have a musical idea or something and I don’t write all the lyrics he actually wrote one too. But yeah some people just have like a bit of something and we’ll just kind of jam on it. It’s kind of cool because we don’t have to talk much. We don’t get our notepads out, we don’t do that stuff. 

[From off-camera] Younger sister: What’re you guys doing? 

Klept: An interview. We have a guest, that’s my little sister.

Radio: Oh okay! Hello!

Sister: I despise all of them! Also I got new dolls. 

Klept: Cool! 

Sister: I’d like to show you–

Klept: Later, later. What were we talking about? Oh, the writing process, right. There’s not a ton of talking, we don’t think about it. We just play what we want to play to kind of feel it out, you know make noises and sh*t. We keep doing it until it all comes together. Yeah, it takes a while–we work months on each of our songs. It’s like each one’s kind of its own project.

Radio: What is the connection to Savannah? Are you guys from here?

Klept: Three of us are. I’m from Michigan originally but I was at USC South Carolina for a couple years and then I went to SCAD for sound design and now I’m here.

Radio: I feel like the music scene in Savannah is kind of developing a little bit. La Chonk is sort of kind of spearheading a bunch of bands coming together and doing shows and stuff. What is your perspective on that? 

Klept: I’m glad it’s happening, yeah I mean it’s definitely one aspect of the city here is a music scene. I always like to try to seek that out. And I know Civvies on Broughton recently closed, but we played one show there and I went to a bunch of shows there too. There’re places around that are happening. Yeah, with the whole Covid shut down everything is just now starting to come back up. A lot of people miss shows. We’re trying to do them as safe as we can. 

Radio: I guess to finish off, did you guys have any upcoming shows or releases that you guys were planning on? 

Klept: Nothing in particular, but like we’re working on trying to get some shows in April, though, so yeah you can expect something in April.

The post Exclusive Interview with Local Artist Klept About Influences and Inspiration appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Lead Singer: I think it’s cool to see a possible grouping of bands that can go around SCAD and go around Savannah, and a place for people to go watch live music. Even though we have a bit of a world situation we’re dealing with at the moment, it’s so great to have a scene forming here in Savannah. I guess that’s our overall goal. A month ago we decided to have house shows. We actually had a pretty decent turn out in our backyard last night. We are planning on doing another house show in a week or two from now, and try to limit the size in order to keep it safe. It’s going to be a really awesome year. 

Q: Do you know where your next show is going to be? 

A: Tomorrow morning [10/31/20] at the Stables three of us will be there. Us, Bastardane, and La Chonk will be there tomorrow. It’s going to be awesome. Seeing things coming together in Savannah for music, all started by SCAD students, and perpetuated by SCAD students is really amazing. 

Q: Do you have any musical inspirations? I see there’s an Alex Turner vibe.

A: I don’t know I just had this suit and I wanted to put it on. We’re actually politicians. I was actually going to introduce us as some Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff, so shoutout Jon Ossoff, I hope everybody’s voting and all that. But to answer the question of musical inspiration, shoutout to my guy, Amen Dunes. He’s a very little known artist that deserves much more attention, so Amen Dunes would be mine. Another would be a combination of John Mayer and Charles Manson. Also, the typical taste of Led Zeppelin. Really got to stress [Amen Dunes]. Everyone go listen to the album “Freedom” by Amen Dunes. 

Q: Any new music coming out soon? 

A: We should have an album coming out in the coming months. Honestly, we are a very new band, and we actually made our Instagram before the show started. But, we have been working on some original stuff and hopefully we’ll have some music out on streaming platforms for everybody to listen to. It would be great to do that, for after shows to be able to plug that. Like I said, pretty new, we are Something Happened, stay tuned!

Follow them on Instagram @somethinghappenedband.

The post Something Happened Discusses Growing Local Scene appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Q: What made you guys want to create a band? 

A: Satan came to him one night. Noah comes out of the f****** toilet and is like, “Yo! I really like how you’re sounding, let’s do this!” That’s just how it happened. I’m a piece of s*** and now I can hang out at the cool toilets with my cool homies. We got Real Shaggy, Big Leg, Papa Moat, we assemble like Voltron. 

Q: What are your musical inspirations? 

A: I’ll speak for everyone here when I say, “Kurt Cobain.” Kurt Cobain, 100 Gecs, Slasher, and Black Flag. [Fredrick] “Toots” Hibbert is one of my biggest inspirations, he got taken out by covid. Also, John Coltrane, we’re really into jazz. Before anyone joins Poop they actually have to buy a 12 gauge shotgun, a pigeon hunting firearm. We can’t cut anyone from the band, they have to cut themselves off, that’s part of the discipline in being in the group. That’s why we have 15 people. If anyone kills themselves we just replace them, because that’s how the real world works. On a good night it’s 15, on a bad night it’s 10. 

Q: What’s your favorite part about performing? 

A: I’m a huge narcissist and like when everyone’s looking at me. I like to be the lead singer of my own band where I can tell all my bandmates exactly how I want them to play, and I have a lot of power. I’m like the Steve Jobs of music. Normally a band has a lead guitarist, we have a bassist, and he makes us sound good. My job is to stand, I don’t play guitar, I hold it. He’s vocals, he screeches, I can sometimes provide a solid wall of sound. A big wall, and he’s going to make Mexico pay for it. If you’re curious, we all voted today. 

Q: What’s next for you all? Any upcoming songs or shows?  

A: We have an album coming out soon. It’s literally s***. It’s going to come out December 32nd, 2020, aka January 1st, but no hard deadlines. 

“I love all my homies, I love everyone. Eat broccoli. Respect women.” 

Follow them on Instagram @p00p__band @gloamgozer

The post Poop: Exclusive Interview With Irreverent Savannah Band appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Savannah started the five day party with Blues Night, starring Savannah native Willie Jackson and the Tybee Blues Band. Most notable is Jackson’s knack for on-the-spot song improvising and carrying on the music of Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton. That night, the harmonica’s bellows blended beautifully with the rhythmic drums and guitar in a cover of B.B. King’s, “I Been Downhearted”. Ending Thursday’s performance was another Savannah native, Eric Culberson, with special guest Dolette McDonald who gave a spectacular, goosebump inducing rendition of “Fever” by Peggy Lee and Bob Dylan’s, “Gotta Serve Somebody”. Despite a somber blues night, these moody songs lead into a wonderful next three days of ballads and music that made you want to break dance. 

Friday’s Latin and Classical Night starred notable singers and instrumental musicians, particularly the Latin Caravan from South Carolina band in that performs Latin Jazz, Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Cumbia, and even a little R&B. Lead by singer David Rodriguez, the trumpet and saxophone became the beat for the dancefloor’s masked dancers, staying six feet apart. The music was like comfort food and bound to put a little light into the viewer’s evening dinners. The Latin Caravan’s performance was notable in its inclusiveness of the many faces of jazz among international cultures which has not been previously seen at the Savannah Jazz Festival. In celebration of Savannah’s classical jazz history, Cynthia Utterbach lead a special performance with the help of the Savannah Jazz Orchestra. Utterbach is a great conversationalist with her witty storytelling of her travel to Savannah and even a greater singer with her range of strong, warm notes. Remarkable renditions of “Early Autumn” written by Johnny Mercer and “Hey John” written by Blossom Dearie and Jim Council created an intimate, normal evening for unusual times.

Spicy Jazz Saturday saw 6 invigorating mostly instrumental performances. Streamers got to enjoy a noon session of instrumental jazz that was perfect for relaxing outside or finishing up the week’s work on a desktop. A young saxist, Jazmin Ghent, stole the spotlight with her covers of Adele’s “Hello” and songs pulled from Ghent’s newest singles, “Heat” and “Amends”. Ghent’s performance was striking in the sense of seeing a younger generation successfully and seriously carrying on the legacy of Jazz. Seeing her performance at the Savannah Jazz Festival is important for the attending youth. Kids develop a sense of connection through representation in musical literacy for the jazz genre that Ghent proudly presents. Emmett Cohen Trio is child prodigy and part of the next generation of jazz performers, a pianist who has won the 2019 American Pianists Awards. Cohen’s nimble, flowing notes offer a glimpse of his ideology on jazz, to him, “performing jazz is about communicating the deepest levels of humanity and individuality; it’s essentially about connections”.

Speaking of legacies, Buckwheat Zydeco Jr. and the Ils Sont Partis Band were the liveliest, undeniably rejuvenating get-on-your-feet performance thus far. Representing the zydeco genre, Buckwheat’s band were one of the only to retain successful recognition by mainstream media. Though this is their first time at the Savannah Jazz Fest, they are Grammy award winners and perform at many other large music festivals. With this unique performance, streamers enjoyed a rowdy accordion complimenting a sassy sax and Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr.’s uplifting voice in a rendition of “Good Rockin’ Tonight”. The last performer of the night, Wycliff Gordan, is a legendary trombone player that uplifts and encourages you to move your body. Gordan cools down in the last half with a tribute to Louis Armstrong’s vocal styling by performing, “[What Did I Do to Be So] Black and Blue”.  

Sunday was a celebratory finale with Dave Potter Quartet, Brian Miller, Ike Stubblefield, Stephanie Nakasian and the Savannah Jazz Orchestra All-Stars, David Sanchez, and Pat Bianchi. Stephanie Nakasian gave an astounding performance with her guttural, trumpet vocals and dramatic range in covering Etta James, “A Sunday Kind of Love” and Sarah Vaughan’s, “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be)”. Some instrumental musicians, such as David Sanchez, gave a lovely end to an energetic event. Sanchez smooth sax teleports listeners to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Brazil with influence of his Latin and Afro-Caribbean tastes. Pat Bianchi kept the electric energy through the end with new techniques of his own on classic jazz organ trio sound. 

This year’s performance once again elevates the spectacular opportunity and support to the many cultures in which jazz saturates. The festival offers a week of good music and company in the comfort of our homes rejuvenated spirits, love, and grace to let loose and have fun without caution of crowds, transportation, and sickness. The enrichment of the jazz community within Savannah will only grow with the announcement of the coming Savannah Jazz History and Hall of Fame Exhibit, set to open 2021. 

The post This Year’s Online Savannah Jazz Festival Is Triumphant Success appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Can you give us insight into what to expect from your upcoming gig at Stopover?

Tristen- It’s a four-piece rock and roll band, and, uh, yeah!

(laughs)

Let’s talk about your single, “Dream Within a Dream,” which is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe.

It’s not even inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe poem, it is a poem and there’s a couple lyrical changes that happened. I found that poem and thought it’d make a great song. I approached the band and started doing a blues jam and the song came out of it… I have this thing where sometimes I find a connection with a poem and I feel like I could write music to it. On my second album C A V E S, I chose this poem called “Winter Night” by Boris Pasternak. The tone is simple, but it felt like you were in a room with a candle lit. That’s an interesting thing, to be able to put a person in a location. I wanna do [Dylan Thomas’s] “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” these classic poems you feel forced to read in high school but then you turn 30 and you’re like “Oh, this is amazing!” Everybody kind of knows it, but to put it to music is cool because you can make it more memorable that way.

When you’re reading a poem, how do you know that this one is worthy of being made into a song?

I like when poems nail something universal, but also they find a unique way to do it. Joni Mitchell’s really good at bringing you to a location when you listen to her songs. In “A Case of You,” you feel like you’re the lonely girl at the bar who just got broken up with. The cool thing about “Dream Within a Dream” is that it’s an existential topic: this reality we create. It nails things you have to learn in life, no matter when you’re born. That’s what you feel when you read any great poetry… What makes it able to be a song, I guess you just have to be inspired to put it to song. “Dream Within a Dream” has something all of us have in common: that we’re all going to die. A lot of people are driven by fear, and what about the biggest fear of all? Everything is temporary, and I’m in this culture of capitalism and consumerism and status. None of it really makes me happy, even if you achieve it in some way. Trying to be somebody and realizing you’re nobody.

I get how these stories all tap into the human condition. In class this week, we were talking about Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher.” It was pretty morbid, classic Poe, of course.

Right, he’s got that gothic style that becomes a movement. No matter where you go today, you can find a goth. It’s a style that’s really fun. We have an Edgar Allan Poe holiday every October 31st… I’ve read a bunch of his short stories, I think he’s one of the greats.

Let’s switch gears a little. You’re pretty active in displaying opinions on social media…

(laughs)

…If you could make one change to the music industry and how it operates, what would it be?

I would tell every single working artist and songwriter to see if they’re eligible for food stamps and free healthcare. I’d like streaming services to create a business model similar to video, like Netflix’s model, where you have access to certain movies at certain times but you don’t have access to an artist’s entire catalog… I feel that these companies take things like “content providers,” and one of the strategies for dehumanizing workers is declassifying them as workers. Instead of saying the artists and songwriters are “content providers,” they remove the label around the creation of that stuff that they’re selling. I’m going back to telling all artists to apply for benefits because the government is allowing these large companies not to pay any taxes and not to pay people minimum wage. Why don’t we just create a system where we’re getting free healthcare while we work for free?

For more on Tristen, click here. For more info on her performance at Savannah Stopover, click here. Be sure to check out SCAD Radio’s Stopover preview, too.

The post Interviewing Tristen, a Poe Fan Performing at Stopover appeared first on SCAD Radio.

For its tenth year, Savannah Stopover has been a weekend haven for the growing music scene in Savannah. Cushioned between the heavy metal AURA Fest and the traditional Savannah Music Festival, Stopover features a mix of up-and-coming rock, country, and pop artists. Often times, Stopover is a weekend stop for bands and artists before heading west to Austin, Texas’s South by Southwest festival. This year, the festival runs from Thursday, March 5^th through Saturday, the 7^th.

In addition to over 35 new acts this year, the festival is also featuring an evening with New West Records, a spotlight on rising female stars in Americana and Country music, a special 10-year opening night reception, and a 10-year photography exhibition.

Over the past 10 years, Stopover has featured the beginnings of many musical artist’s careers that have taken off. Grimes headlined in 2012, while Mac DeMarco was featured in the 2013 lineup. Athens-based indie pop band Of Montreal headlined the festival twice, in 2013 and again in 2018.

Among the touring artists and bands, there are also 8 local acts rounding up the 2020 lineup.

The post 10 Years Stopover Strong appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Here’s a fun question just to break the ice. What’s your favorite bear? -E

Casey: Gummy.

Matt: Our mascot is actually a gummy bear.

Casey: Yeah, it’s a red gummy bear with one of his ears bitten off.

Matt: His name’s Moe. Moe Lasses.

Casey: He’s kind of our ear-candy.

Matt: We actually have, if you look at our van, we’ve got a light-up gummy bear that’s on our dash. That’s Moe. He’s always in front of us whenever we travel. He actually melted a little bit over the past week–it’s gotten pretty hot.

There are always a lot of inspirations that bands take from to form their sound. What would you say are the top inspirations you draw from? -E

Matt: We’re really a hodge-podge of a bunch of different sounds. I think it’s because we collaborate a lot more. We have the main songwriter who has the structure of the song… On our way down here, we were talking about albums that influenced us and we picked a year–1998–and our drummer picked Offspring “Americana”. I would’ve picked Korn “Follow the Leader”. Our trumpet player would’ve picked a jazz album that came out in ’98. So, we’re kind of just a cluster of all kinds of different styles thrown in together. We try and make it mold as best as we can. For me, personally, if I were to pick one band…

Casey: Spice Girls.

Matt: Spice Girls, yeah, for sure.

Casey: We actually listened to Spice Girls as a band, today. It was awesome.

Matt: But, yeah, I would say a mix between folk, straight-up rock-n’-roll, and a little bit of soul with [Casey]. If you ask each member of the band what their inspirations were, they would all be something different and that’s why we sound so all over the place sometimes, but [Casey] ties everything together—her voice ties everything together.

Casey: I like a lot of older Motown music and soul singers so that’s where I focus my energy.

Matt: So, I’ll say Korn and she’ll say Motown and then we’re somewhere in-between there. Our name, the Company Stores, referring to a coal town in Appalachia where they would have a Company Store which was a General Store with a little bit of everything. So that’s kind of a throwback to that name so it makes sense. Ties it all together.

What do you think is going to come next for you? -E

Casey: We have a big tour planned out in June. We’re going out West for a few weeks.

Matt: We’re driving across the US, pretty much. We’ve got a couple stops in the Midwest and then we’re going down to San Diego and working our way up the California Coast all the way to Seattle [Washington]. We’re finishing with a show at The Crocodile in Seattle, which is a great venue, with a couple of Seattle local bands. [The rest of the band is] flying back and I’m driving the van back, because they all gotta get back to work and I work from my computer. I’m actually going to drive north, back through Canada, for a week. Definitely gonna stop at some National Parks, like Jasper and Banff.

Casey: I like how you just name-dropped parks.

Matt: I’m a park kinda guy. But as far as the unforeseeable future… We’ll probably be doing this and have a better ride.

Casey: It’s just gonna get better. We’re gonna do more shows and meet the right people.

Matt: Write some more songs… We’re working on our next album right now. We’ve got about 4-5 songs written for the third album but we’re not trying to rush anything.

What goes into writing an album for you? -E

Matt: People present songs to the band.

Casey: A lot of people in the band write songs. It’s about not only coming up with songs but tying them together to go into an album the works as its own piece. Sometimes you go through songs and you realize that’s an alright song but that doesn’t mean it’s gonna fit on album.

Matt: Just because we play something live doesn’t mean that it’ll fit on an album. We’ve got songs we’ll play tonight that will never go on an album because it doesn’t fit with what we’re trying to do, sonically. And everybody’s got different writing styles. Sometimes they’ll present something that’s really great and that we’ll play, but it just doesn’t fit. Normally. The writer will present it to the band and we’ll workshop it and see if it works and if we can get it to flow together. Everybody will add something or take away something. Normally you can present it I slight form, like a rock that has a decent shape, and then everybody else chisels away at it.

Is songwriting something that happens from everyone in the band? -M

Matt: Not everyone. Casey writes. I write. Jackford, Matt Jackford our keyboard player, doesn’t write songs but he adds on to everyone else’s songs.

Casey: He’s actually a composer. That’s what he went to school for. It comes in handy.

Matt: If I have some ideas on a song, I’ll go to him and say “hey, I’ve got this, but I want to do something different,” and he’ll throw me some new ideas and we’ll work on it together. Grant, our bass player, has written a few songs for us. So, 4 out of 6 of us are writers.

It must be useful to have a composer in the band. -E

Matt: He’s the latest person to join the band—he joined last year. We’ve actually gotten some really cool opportunities because of that. We’re playing next weekend with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. There are 3 West Virginia bands that were chosen, we were 1 of them. He’s arranging all of the parts for the symphony. Every band gets 3 songs. We’re also doing something really similar in Seattle for The Crocodile show for those 3 bands. They’re sending him some songs and they have a string ensemble. One of the bands’ front-lady works with the Seattle symphony. We’re doing a rock orchestra thing there. So, yeah, it definitely comes in handy having a composer in the band.

Casey: We’re gonna keep him.

I know that you guys have some charitable work. You guys do the Noteworthy Kids Program. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that and if that’s influenced you personally or with the band? -M

Matt: I have instruments just sitting around the house that I don’t play anymore and the idea is that we take donations of instruments that are just collecting dust. Maybe someone inherited an instrument that they don’t play. Then, putting those in the hands of underprivileged kids. It’s in Charleston, West Virginia, where we live. We do drives around Christmas-time and work with the Boys and Girls Club. Our Fiddle player, Joe, teaches violin for a program but they don’t have a guitar program so I’ve been talking to him about linking up and donating guitars for them because they’re losing funding because their administration is cutting back on programs. But, yeah, most of the time, in Charleston, I just go by and pick up the instrument. Any donation helps and it doesn’t have to be guitars. Any instrument that people aren’t using, they can hit us up online and we’ll point them in the direction of where to donate. You can contact us at thecompanystoresband@gmail.com and all of our contact information is online on our website thecompanystores.com We welcome any donations, doesn’t matter how big or how small. It’s a really cool thing.

Do you have one moment when you went from “Oh this is fun” to “This is what I wanna do, for real”? -E

Casey: Once we formed the band, It was a 3-piece to begin with, and once we started playing shows, I got over the stage-freight and was just able to sing and feel so alive and so happy. I forgot all the stage-freight and the nerves. I think that’s when I realized that this brings me a lot of joy.

Matt: My hands used to shake, which is terrible for a guitar player, but after a handful of shows, that all went away. I’ve been playing guitar since I was 14-15 years old and never tried to play live. It wasn’t until St. Patrick’s Day of 2014, I think, at The Empty Glass… There a video of Korn at Woodstock ’96, playing live and you see this wave of people jumping. They cease to be people, they’re just a huge wave of energy and I thought “man, that is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen.”  The house was packed that night [at The Empty Glass] and it was like 200 people there for our show, but that happened. The whole crowd was joined together and they were jumping and I saw that wave of energy and I almost quit playing because my jaw just dropped. That was the moment, the “oh, wow” moment.

You mentioned that you started playing guitar around 14-15. How did you get into that? -E

Matt: Man, I keep talking about Korn… This is crazy… We sound nothing like Korn whatsoever… But, I didn’t start listening to contemporary music up until I was 12. I was a Pastor’s kid so we listened to a lot of contemporary Christian but I wasn’t listening to secular music. I started listening to Country and Hip Hop. When I was 14, I was playing football and we have 2-a-day practices. I had packed a lunch and between practices I was just hanging out. One of my schoolmates left me his Walkman and it was Korn “Follow the Leader” and I had never heard anything like it. After that, I started listening to rock-n’-roll and listening to heavy music and then going back into classic rock—checking out Hendrix and Floyd and all the great. It just kind of spiraled down on from there and that’s when I started playing guitar. I wanted to play stuff like this. Eventually I quit athletics and started playing guitar every day, in my room, after school. I never planned on playing live up until I joined this band and that was 13 years later. Casey started singing about a year before the band.

Casey: When I was younger I always knew that I could sing pretty well and my mom made me take a couple of voice lessons. I, of course, was like “I’m not gonna do it. You can’t tell me what to do.” Later on, I graduated high school and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I didn’t go to college or anything. I found a guitar in my Grandma’s basement and slowly started to learn how to play it and started writing songs. I started going to a bunch of open-mics around town. I did that for about half a year, regular, every week. I met Matt. I really wanted to find a guitar player and I ran into Matt and it expanded from there. I was 21.

Matt: We worked together at a restaurant and it was a slow day. She said “I sing and I play a little guitar,” and I said “I play guitar.” She came over to my house for the first time and she played a song. I showed her a song that I had written and her voice was perfect for it. We decided we were gonna play together from then.

How’d you meet everyone else over the years? -E

Casey: We did open mics together for a while, around town. We met our drummer and he would do open mics and sit in with people. We started a trio.

Matt: It was a trio for… Well, I had to go to Nashville for an internship for school so we stayed [a trio] until I got back. Then, we picked up our fiddle player and bassist. That bassist left about a year into the project and we got Grant. Then we met Matt Jackford, our keyboard player and trombone player. Everyone, except me, grew up in the same circles and all went to the same schools. Our fiddle player, drummer, bass player, and keyboard player all played music together in high school.

Casey: I was a couple years younger than them so I knew who they were but I didn’t hang out with them.

Do you see yourself picking up any odd instruments or more musicians in the future? -E

Casey: I wanna learn how to play the harmonica.

Matt: We don’t have enough room in the van for any more people but instruments, yeah. I’m sure Joe will learn how to play some Asian flute. He’s our fiddle player and trumpet player, also plays penny whistle and harmonica.

Casey: He’s a Renaissance man.

Matt: I’m sure he’ll learn some random, weird instrument within the next year and we’ll throw something crazy on our album. But, no more people.

Even if you got a bigger bus? -E

Matt: Maybe some back-up singers.

Casey: That’d be cool.

Matt: There’s already so many hands in the cookie jar. And the way we do things, everybody has input, so the more people, the harder it is to come to a conclusion.

Casey: Maybe a new guitar player.

Matt: Yeah, so I can focus on my true talent: Radio Interviews.

You can find more information about The Company Stores on their website thecompanystores.com

Catch them on tour this summer! Their June tour dates are online at thecompanystores.com/calendar

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The festival is spread out in the city, with most of the venues happening in the downtown and river-front areas. Venues spread out into the historic district, with some stand alone venues in the Old West Broad Neighborhood and the Victorian District.

Notable performers to check out are Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gillian Welch, and Audra McDonald. Some events are Jazz on the River and Late Night Jazz Jam.

This year is also the 50th anniversary for Benedetto Guitars. Many performers will take the stage to play jazz on the famous guitars. This event will be tomorrow, March 29th, starting at 8:00pm at the Lucas Theater of the Arts.

The festival will wrap up on April 14th at noon at the Trustees’ Garden. The last event will last eleven hours, with three different stages and multiple performers.

You can still get tickets, so head over to the Savannah Music Festival website to purchase them.

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Runaway June is an upcoming, all-girl trio. I couldn’t see much of them since as I was sick, I opted for sitting in the grass rather than being close to the stage, but they still sounded great! Up next was Midland. Before any of the bands started, I got the chance to meet Midland— the band I was really there to see—who’re straight out of the 70’s. They look, talk, and perform like you’ve gone through a time capsule, which is pretty cool. Jon Pardi played last, playing the longest set late into the evening, in which everything really became a party then.

The Jon Pardi party was a lethal mix of square, drunk, and just plain bad dancing. One of my favorite dancers were a group of older women who just couldn’t see to find a beat, even though most of Pardi’s songs have simple beats. Another was this older man who appeared to be with his wife and teenage daughter. He was dancing so badly and laughing so much that it was easy to see that he was having a great time embarrassing his daughter.

Overall, amidst the very different sub-genres of country that were compiled for this show, the baseball park atmosphere, and all of the laughably awful dancing, the Lucky Tonight Tour seemed to be an all out success.

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