LISTEN: “Louisiana” by The Coal Men”
WEBSITE: www.thecoalmen.com

The Coal Men come to the Empty Glass on May 3. They will also be featured on the next “Radio Free Charleston” music and animation Web show, due out next week online. Here’s an advance taste of the group’s alt-country and roots rock sound, “Louisiana.” Also, a few months back, Rudy Panucci reviewed the latest Coal Men CD “Beauty Is a Moment,” which he described as “a huge slice of Americana Pie ,” and a band that “manages to epitomize the best of Southern Rock without sinking to a redneck stereotype. This is sophisticated rock-tinged pop with a genuine regional flavor.” Here’s the full review.

LISTEN: “The Stripper” by Bob Malone
WEBSITE: www.bobmalone.com

Multi-threat piano player and whole-lotta-fun performing songwriter Bob Malone delivers a Woody Hawley Series show on Saturday, April 19, at the Clay Center’s Walker Theater, out back of Charleston’s culture palace. “The Stripper” is a nice sample of Malone’s style, a song about a guy who believes “the stripper likes me” and. maybe even more incorrectly that “Kenny G plays jazz.”

IF YOU GO: Click here for show details.

LISTEN: “My Lost and Found” by Todd Burge

Todd Burge on the “Song of the Day”:
The lyric for “My Lost and Found,” the title track of my latest CD, was mostly inspired while watching the dream sequence in “The Big Lebowski.“ If you’ve watched this Coen Brother’s movie, you might remember the scene where Lebowski was kicked out of a cab because he couldn’t take listening to the Eagles: “Not the F’n Eagles man, I’ve had a bad day.” I was sick while watching, a bit medicated, nodding off. When I awoke, I had this idea about what you might find if you became lost in my attic. You can practically find a whole life lost up there, but if you come on downstairs, it’ll all stay up.

More about Burge’s music:
Over the last decade, Todd Burge has played everything from alternative rock to bluegrass, performing over 150 shows per year in venues as diverse as CBGB’s and the Kennedy Center. Read the rest of this entry »

LISTEN: “Don’t Make An Easy Thing Hard (Theme from Red Helmet)” by Jon Wikstrom

Our new Song of the Day is “Don’t Make An Easy Thing Hard (Theme from Red Helmet)” by singer-songwriter Jon Wikstrom, a West Virginia native who now calls Baltimore home. The song was inspired by the new book, “Red Helmet” by West Virginia native and best-selling author Homer Hickam, who will will sign copies of the novel 6 p.m., Saturday, March 1 at Taylor Books, 226 Capitol St., in an event at which Wikstrom will perform this and other songs. Read the rest of this entry »

LISTEN: “Brandon Jacob” by Chuck Biel

Charleston-based musician, composer and music educator Chuck Biel is one of the most prolific band leaders in the region. His many groups have spanned multiple genres, from high-intensity avante-garde outfits to his current blues-boogie-hard rock group Underdog Blues Revue (next gig: Fri., March 28 at the Blue Parrot) and the forthcoming jazz fusion group Punk Jazz (catch them Thurs., March 6 at the Empty Glass). He recently self-released an instrumental CD, which has some of the last recorded sounds of the young saxophonist Derick Kirk, who died last year. Biel performs all other instruments, including all fretted instruments, a midi guitar, percussion, harmonica, a swarmandel and more. We’ll let him introduce the first cut from the CD, titled “Brandon Jacob.” You can order the CD off his website at chuckbiel.com

CHUCK BIEL ON “The Courage of My Convictions”:

“I think every musician/composer eventually realizes that the good stuff comes from outside, random occurrences. Like when John Lennon heard his daughter say “Look, daddy, Lucy in the sky with diamonds…” Ping! Read the rest of this entry »

LISTEN: “Ghosts of Cabell County” by ‘85 Flood

Singer and guitarist Aaron Hawley of the West Virginia band ‘85 Flood talks about the song “Ghosts of Cabell County” from the group’s new CD “Toolshed Shangri-La,” to be released Friday, Feb. 22, in a show at 123 Pleasant St., Morgantown, on a bill that also features The Emergency.
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HAWLEY: “‘Ghosts of Cabell County’ is a song that was written late one night while I was staring out my back window at pine trees in the dark. Read the rest of this entry »

LISTEN: “Rock Candy” performed by Winston Walls and Brother Jack McDuff

Winston Walls, a longtime Charleston resident and one of the world’s premier Hammond organists, passed away at his home in Fort Meyers, Florida, on Feb 4. He was 65 years old. As Michael Lipton’s homage to Walls makes clear — from tussling with Cassius Clay to helping discover George Benson to fumbling record deals — Walls had the kind of up-and-down musical life from which tales and legends spring.

In today’s “Song of the Day,” you’ll hear Walls perform “Rock Candy,” in this song from the album “Boss of the B3,” which reunited Walls with longtime friend and fellow Hammond player Brother Jack McDuff. See Lipton’s article for more on this recording session.

Listen: “Letters”

SONG OF THE DAY: “Letters” by the Charleston, W.Va., duo with the longest name of any band in town: Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars (which we hereby abbreviate — for the sake of our fingers — CCBQFM). They are otherwise known as Jonathan Slack and Laura Summerhill.

HEAR THEM LIVE: CCBQFM, along with Joe Slack, perform 8 to 10 p.m., Friday, Feb. 8 at Capitol Roasters Cafe, 160 Summers St., in Charleston, W.Va.

WHO THEY ARE: (Cribbed from their Myspace page):
“Well, to start, I’m not even really sure what we are officially called. We’ve been called Aurora, Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen from Mars, or just our names. … Jonathan just turned 21, and Laura is 17. Both of us have been performing music of some sort… forever. Read the rest of this entry »

LISTEN: “Waiting for a Melody” by Alan Griffith

Boone County troubadour Alan Griffith, along with Jay Hill and Andy Lewis, have a new CD out that  resurrects the music of the long-time group Blue Million. Gazz music reviewer Michael Lipton weighed in with a review of that disc at the NewSounds gazzblog right here. (which also includes links to some Gatecrasher blog video of Griffith performing live in local clubs. For today’s “Song of the Day” we take a listen to the Griffith song “Waiting for a Melody” off the eponymous Blue Million CD. The band’s next performance is 9 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16 at the 19thHole in Madison, W.Va., on the corner beside the Boone County Courthouse. For more on Griffith’s music, visit www.alansongs.com.

Mike Arcuri at Nashville’s legendary Bluebird Cafe. He returns there this Sunday.

SONG OF THE DAY: LISTEN: “The Ghosts of Hank & Hendrix” by Mike Arcuri

Today’s “Song of the Day” features Charleston singer-songwriter Mike Arcuri. He’ll perform this weekend at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, a storied venue for singer-songwriters and a tough nut to crack — but he’s cracking it. Below, he explains the origins of his delightful story-song “The Ghosts of Hank & Hendrix” and the mathematics of playing at the Bluebird. P.S. — You can also catch Arcuri in his duo incarnation with Keith Lahti (that’s Lahti’s electric guitar on “Hank and Hendrix”) as Holy Cow in area clubs and open mics.

STORY OF THE SONG: Mike Arcuri: One night while driving south on I-65 just outside of Nashville, I pulled into a truck stop to pick up some oil for my automobile, which had a bad leak. I’d been on the road for about six hours, having left Charleston earlier that day. I was traveling to Nashville to perform at the Bluebird Café songwriter’s night the next evening. Read the rest of this entry »