Tag Archives: John Batdorf

FAR-West 2018: Saturday Night Showcase

KC Cafe Radio’s live coverage from the 2018 Folk Alliance Region-West music conference concluded with music from the Saturday night Main Stage Showcase performances.  Featured were the talents of: Claudia Nygaard, Freebo, Flagship Romance, Martin Kerr, Tumbledown House, and James Lee Stanley.

Our broadcast coverage is brought to you by the generous sponsorship support of Mike and Carleen McCornack of Garden Variety Music, Jeanette Lundgren of Mother Hen Promotions, and the 2018 International Songwriting Competition.

Claudia Nygaard (TN)

Claudia Nygaard straddles the fence between folk and country, delivering songs that are little slices of Americana. They are heartfelt, humorous, scrappy, and sensual. And so are the captivating stories she weaves in between them. She honed her craft as a salaried Music Row staff songwriter in Nashville, and her last CD “Let The Storm Roll in” rose to the coveted #1 position on the Cashbox Roots Country Chart – with every one of the award-winning songwriter’s self-penned compositions receiving airplay. With an acoustic guitar, a hollow body electric, a ukulele, and an amber honey voice that is known for its power and intimacy, Claudia has torn up the highways of all 50 states and nine foreign countries, performing at over 200 fairs and festivals.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Claudia Nygaard

Freebo (CA)

Freebo is a genuine folk, rock and blues icon who, after over 40 years of recording and touring with many of the great artists of our time (Bonnie Raitt 10 years, CSN, Maria Muldaur, John Mayall, Ringo Starr, Dr. John, Neil Young, and many more) is regarded as one of the most gifted singer/songwriters of today. A multi award winner and finalist in numerous songwriting contests, Freebo was also recognized as the Best Folk Artist 2007 by the Los Angeles Music Awards. In addition, he has appeared on Saturday Night Live, The Muppet Show, The Midnight Special, and in concert with the legendary Spinal Tap.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Freebo

Flagship Romance (NM)

Fluent, intense acoustic guitar playing; lyrics of life’s peaks and valleys; soaring yearning vocals; and harmonies one could barely separate with a single human hair: this is the Flagship Romance sound. Since 2012, this Florida-raised, New Mexico-based husband-wife duo has gained a rapidly-growing, impassioned grassroots fanbase through solid songwriting, relentless touring, and critically acclaimed releases. They were selected two years in a row as an official showcase artist at the Folk Alliance International conference, performed on the 2018 Cayamo singer/songwriter cruise, and have shared the stage with Iris Dement, Half Moon Run, Gin Blossoms, and The Goo Goo Dolls. Flagship Romance has aligned their musical career with the clean water cause, founding and organizing the Clean Water Music Fest in Florida.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Flagship Romance

Martin Kerr (Edmonton, AB)

Martin Kerr has been building his career from the streets, one passer-by at a time, and now has a following of thousands. Still fully independent, in the past year he sold out two nights at the 1700-seat Winspear Centre, opened for Sarah McLachlan at a 20,000-seat stadium, and saw his latest album reach #2 on iTunes Canada. Often compared to James Taylor, John Denver and – due to his ginger hair and charming accent – Ed Sheeran, Martin’s anthemic modern-folk connects with listeners of all ages. With a growing list of major festival appearances, his brilliant storytelling and soaring voice are captivating audiences around the world. Most will go home singing to each other the touching, hilarious chorus of his latest single, “You’re Amazing.”

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Martin Kerr

Tumbledown House (CA)

San Francisco Bay Area songwriting deviants Tumbledown House have never been easy to describe. Modern speakeasy, saloon jazz, parlor pop, and Tom Waits in a cocktail dress are some of the terms used, but none of these successfully convey the band’s incomparable ability to fuse vintage sounds and themes from yesteryear with the modern instrumentation, refreshingly original compositions, and raw energy that we expect from today’s performers. Tumbledown House has performed over 700 shows throughout 25 states and is in the process of releasing their third full-length studio album, due this winter.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Tumbledown House

James Lee Stanley (CA)

With a history that includes 5 years on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the singing Klingon amongst other roles, 3 years as Steven Wright‘s opening act; tours with Bonnie Raitt, the Dixie Dregs, Robin Trower and Robin Williams, being the composer of the hits “Coming Out of Hiding,” “I Don’t Want To Talk About It,” and “Plenty of Reason,” and 26 solo CDs and duet CDs with Peter Tork, Cliff Eberhardt and John Batdorf, you know you are in for an evening rich in musical chops, great songs and a man who, his remarkable singing and guitar playing notwithstanding, could be a stand-up comedian. As they said in the Village Voice, “With James Lee Stanley you get it all.”

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: James Lee Stanley

 

Thank you to these generous supporters of our live broadcast coverage:

FAR-West 2018: Friday Night Showcase

KC Cafe radio’s continued coverage from the 2018 FAR-West Music Conference in Woodland Hills, California brought live music from the Main Showcase Stage to our airwaves on October 12.  Featured were some of the West’s finest talent, including Cindy Kalmenson, Ernest Troost, Ryanhood, Alice Wallace, Birch Periera and The Gin Joints, and John Batdorf

Our broadcast coverage is brought to you by the generous sponsorship support of Mike and Carleen McCornack of Garden Variety Music, Jeanette Lundgren of Mother Hen Promotions, and the 2018 International Songwriting Competition.

Here we present the archived recordings of the performances.

Cindy Kalmenson (CA)

Cindy Kalmenson has been singing her songs since the 90s when she realized that the quickest way to get on stage was to have an original song to sing at an open mic. Having given her acting career a solid 2 weeks she decided to pursue the open mic circuit. Being a bilingual school teacher did afford her a captive audience but not a true stage for what was about to unfold. With a handful of songs she let go of her coveted rent control apartment in Santa Monica and headed to Nashville to reinvent herself far from family and friends. After one year she founded and hosted the very successful show Girls with Guitars, which launched many careers with the exception of her own… but that didn’t stop her from recording 3 critically acclaimed CDs, winning prestigious songwriting awards including first place in the International Songwriting Competition, Chris Austin contest at MerleFest, Just Plain Folks, West Coast Songwriting, and DIY pics in Performing Songwriters magazine. She has been playing with her band the Lucky Ducks on a regular basis in and around Ventura County since 2009.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Cindy Kalmenson

Ernest Troost (CA)

Ernest Troost is a singer/songwriter and a 2009 Kerrville New Folk winner.  His songwriting style combines folk and Piedmont-blues-style guitar with timeless stories and character portrayals drawn from the American past and present.  If the Carter Family, Robbie Robertson, and Alfred Hitchcock wrote songs together, they might sound like this.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Ernest Troost

Ryanhood (AZ)

John Platt of WFUV (NYC) called Ryanhood “Discovery of the Year,” and they were named “Best Group/Duo” in the International Acoustic Music Awards.  Audiences can expect airtight harmonies, explosive guitar/mandolin riffs, and a high-energy, highly-interactive performance – something they developed as street performers at Boston’s Quincy Market.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Ryanhood

Alice Wallace (CA)

With a style that is rooted in the classic country songstresses such as Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris, Southern California singer/songwriter Alice Wallace‘s impeccable vocals and melodic, literate song-crafting skills bring a fresh touch to authentic Americana music.  Her 2015 full-length release “Memories, Music & Pride,” on LA-based California Country Records brought accolades from across the country, and she was named 2017 Female Vocalist of the Year at the California Country Awards.  She has a new album titled “Into the Blue,” slated for release in January 2019 on Rebelle Road Records.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: Alice Wallace

Birch Periera & The Gin Joints (WA)

Born out of a love of the early years of swing, Americana and rock ‘n roll, Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints is a band whose sound transports you to the time of speakeasies, honky-tonks and roadhouses.  With upright bassist and vocalist Birch Pereira at its center, the band features skilled and versatile musicians who share the love of the American song traditions and desire to offer a fresh angle on them.  The band’s debut album, “Dream Man,” was released independently and received the Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for “Northwest Jazz Recording of the Year,” in 2016.  Fans, critics and deejays have delighted in Birch Pereira’s “old soul,” tenor voice, the group’s new, stripped-down arrangements of musical gems from the past and Pereira’s ever growing repertoire of original, yet period-evoking material.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the Performance here: Birch Pereira & the Gin Joints

John Batdorf

John Batdorf is a singer-songwriter solo artist and one half of Las Vegas Rock and Roll Hall of Famers folk-rock duo Batdorf & Rodney.  He’s also a successful film and TV composer, session vocalist, and inspirational musician in the substance recovery community.  John invites the listener into his soul, open and trusting as he sings of love and hope, transforming despair to hope, hate to love and fear/ignorance to tolerance/acceptance.  We share his understanding, forgiveness and are filled with compassion when the song is done.

Listen to the performance here:

Download the performance here: John Batdorf

Thank you to these generous supporters of our live broadcast coverage:

 

John Batdorf – A Man and His Guitar

John Batdorf has released no less than two albums in the last 10 months. Next Stop, Willoughby and his latest, Me and My Guitar.

Next Stop, Willoughby is John’s 2017 release and is the first time John sang, played all the instruments, produced, engineered and mixed the album himself. Willoughby is filled with ten new original songs with passionate vocals and wonderful harmonies.

Recently, KC Café Radio Music Director Kathy Forste visited with John about how the songs on Next Stop, Willoughby came to life, and why John decided to work on his sixth solo album alone.

They also discussed his latest project, Me and My Guitar, an acoustic reimagining of 15 classic John Batdorf songs and two brand new original songs. The album features John’s amazing 47 year career dating from the 1976 pop favorite Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang, when he was lead vocalist with the band Silver, to the classic pop ballad Somewhere in the Night. The album also fulfills the wishes of Batdorf and Rodney fans with favorites and rare tracks from this classic rock duo.   He also does songs from his days with Batdorf and McLean and his Wood and Stones Project from the 2000’s.

Listen to the interview here:

Download the interview here: Interview: John Batdorf 3/15/2018

FAI 2016: Conversations at Folk Alliance

KC Cafe Radio's booth at the 2016 Folk Alliance International ConferenceThe 2016 Folk Alliance International Conference and Music Fair was held for the third year in a row in Kansas City, Missouri February 17-21.  KC Cafe Radio was there once again, providing live coverage of the conference from our booth at the exhibit hall.

This year turned out to be a significantly rewarding year for us.  Not only did we have the opportunity to catch up with several old friends, we made several new ones as well.  Stay tuned to KC Cafe Radio, over the next several weeks and months you will begin hearing new music and voices, a direct result of these new friendships.

Louis MeyersSince the conference, we were saddened to learn of the passing of a very good friend to KC Cafe Radio and Folk Alliance International, Louis Meyers.  Louis had served as Executive Director of Folk Alliance International for several years, and had co-founded the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival.  Louis died on Friday, March 11, the first day of the 2016 SXSW festival.

Louis is also responsible for connecting us at KC Cafe radio with Folk Alliance International.  He had personally invited us to one of the regional conferences.  The following year we returned to the Folk Alliance Region Midwest conference with our live microphones.  Since then, we have attended and covered two regional and two international conferences.  Our involvement with this outstanding organization may not have happened without his invitation.

Here are archived recordings of the conversations we had during the conference:

John Batdorf on a Soundtrack To Recovery

John BatdorfAll he wanted to do was reach out to his son, a young man that had fallen into the trap of addiction.  Like many parents faced with those circumstances, he found it difficult to relate – to effectively communicate all the feelings he had welling up inside.  So, like any musician would do under such circumstances, he wrote a song.  That song was not only successful in reaching out to his son, but many others facing addictions and hardships of all sorts, and for John Batdorf, a labor of love was underway.

That labor of love became reality with his latest release, Soundtrax 2 Recovery, a collection of songs designed to “…trigger the hope, the courage, the endurance or the faith to make it through the next few moments, hours, days or years…” following recovery.  Along with writing partner Michael McLean, Batdorf created the collection of songs as an alternative to music that encourages addiction.  It is a demonstration of how we are all “in the same boat” when it comes to dealing with hardships. and offers a musical hand holding as we strive to return to stability in life.  “Everything we’ve written and recorded here,” says Batdorf on his website,  “has been done with the hope that this album might be part of your soundtrack to recovery.”

KC Cafe Radio Music Director Kathy Forste recently chatted with Batdorf about the project.  They talk about that initial experience with his son that led to its creation, the development of other songs on the album, and his experience discovering the impact the music has had on others.  They also talk about other projects, including another album that is due out sometime next year.

Listen to the interview here:

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Music by John Batdorf playing on KC Cafe Radio here.