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Folkadelphia Session: Roger Harvey

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For someone coming from the world of amped-up punk rock,  Roger Harvey‘s music is decidedly low-key and reflective.

The singer-songwriter relocated to Philly from Pittsburgh about three years ago, following stints touring with Against Me!, Dads and The Menzingers. His debut LP, Twelve Houses, was released that October, and it set introspective lyrics to lush acoustic arrangements in the vein of Neutral Milk Hotel and Death Cab for Cutie, with his haunting and tremulous vocal taking center stage.

Almost two years later, Harvey returned with a more outer-directed perspective on the Two Coyotes LP. This time, rather than personal ruminations, he tackles bigger-picture issues; immigration is unpacked in the title track, which tells a story of love across borders, while superconnected isolation is the focus of “Love In The Digital Age.” You can hear anger and frustration, albeit in a subdued manner, on “Gold,” which opens his studio session this week — when he sings “fuck the foundation, we’re in control,” it’s one of the prettiest punk rock moments we’ve captured in the studio. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Deb Callahan Band

Philly vocalist Deb Callahan has been singing the blues for 20 years, and plans to do a lot of celebrating to mark the milestone. The festivities kicked off back in March with a headlining anniversary showcase back in March; from there, Callahan and her three bandmates — bassist Garry Lee, guitarist Allen James and drummer Tom Walling — have a calendar of shows plotted out through June, showcasing their recent fifth album Sweet Soul and digging back through their back catalog.

We got to see some of what they can do in this week’s Key Studio Session, and for a four-piece without much in the way of fanfare or instrumental excess, their sound is remarkably full. James’ guitar emulates a Rhodes keyboard tone on the swinging “Seven States Away,” a Florida-to-Pennsylvania travelogue Callahan wrote about wanting to return home and see her son; on “Carry Me,” his playing resonates its way down a dusky delta swamp, while the set-closing “I Keep Things Running” has a jagged rock edge. Lee’s bass is warm and enveloping, filling in sonic nooks and crannies in subtle but important ways, and Walling’s drums are precision-tight, with loud accents aplenty but just as much studious simplicity.

The glue holding it all together, the reason we’re here in the first place, is Callahan’s voice, an instrument in itself that is dynamic in range and full of emotion, from determination to frustration to humor and more. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Queen of Jeans

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In a phrase possibly borrowed from Bob Dylan, Philadelphia indie pop four-piece Queen of Jeans has both an album title and a mission statement: Dig Yourself.

It’s a poignant statement of self-love in a time where we’re socially scrutinized more than ever, where constant connection leaves us feeling forever inadequate, where anxiety is a reigning force in our daily lives and the friendships we keep and the music we consume. Some day, decades off in the distance, a cultural historian is going to look at the landscape of the 20-teens, cluttered with dismissive gifs and judge-y Slate headlines, and they’ll put our era of world-weary sad pop into a retrospective sociological context. Or maybe not; they’ll no doubt have their own shit to deal with in the 2080s.

But in the fray of it all, Queen of Jeans’ message is simple: do what you love, love who you are. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Greg Sover

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Things started heating up for local singer-songwriter Greg Sover somewhere around 2015. The nimble guitarist had begun work on his debut LP, Songs of a Renegade, and connected with a group of musicians that not only helped the recording project, they leveled up his gigs in the regional live scene as well. Bassist Garry Lee, guitarist Allen James and drummer Tom Walling are the trio at the core of coffee house scene favorites Deb Callahan Blues Band, and paired up with Sover’s husky vocal delivery and howling licks, the energy is explosive.

This year, Sover followed his debut up with the Jubilee EP, a short and sweet set that sees him breaking beyond the blues rock pigeonhole he’s often placed in and dabbling in expansive reggae, anthemic pop, and string orchestrations.

That’s not to say, however, that blues aren’t at the core of what Sover does. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: I Think Like Midnight

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This week’s Key Studio Session is for those who love to hear artists venture outside their comfort zone.

West Philly guitarist Andrew Chalfen spent the late 80s and early 90s playing raucous power pop in The Wishniaks, around the same time that keyboardist Joe Genaro and drummer Dean Sabatino made weird and wonderful rock music in the Dead Milkmen. As the years passed, Chalfen shifted his focus to the soaring indie tones of The Trolleyvox and connected with folk-leaning bassist Josh Newman, who played with Philly scene staples American Altitude and Heyward Howkins.

The collective project of those four musicians, I Think Like Midnight, doesn’t sound like any of those bands, and is all the more special for it.

Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Matt Cappy

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Local trumpeter Matt Cappy is full of loving references to his native New Jersey. Just look at the song titles that he and his band played for their Key Studio Session: “856,” for the area code. “Rose Lane,” for a street he grew up on in Berlin, NJ. “East Philly,” regional slang for Camden County.

But as much as Cappy makes it clear where his roots run, he’s Philly through and through. The University of the Arts-schooled jazz player gigged at the now-defunt Wilamena’s back in the day, blew horns in late 90s ska staples The Freakin’ Cads and has played on and off with Jill Scott since her band went by the name Fatback Taffy.

Last year, Cappy released his long-in-the-works debut solo album, Church and State, and it sees him flexing his sound and style both inside and outside the jazz spectrum. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Aleana

When we first encountered Philly’s Aleana, it was her voice that grabbed our attention.

Teamed with Philly rapper / crooner Mars Parker as a backing vocalist on his Key Studio Session, she gave the performance what I described at the time as “a stunning, introspective counterpoint.” Now I’m not saying she straight up stole the show, but she definitely stood out with that performance, and we put Aleana on our radar here at The Key to see what came next. Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Grace Vonderkuhn

Singer-guitarist Grace Vonderkuhn has been making weird and wild rock music out of her home city of Wilmington for a hot minute, and 2018 is poised to be a breakout year for her.

Her latest full-length, Reveries, is on the way via EggHunt Records, and it’s already attracted attention from tastemakers at GoldFlakePaint (which premiered the undeniable rager “Worry” back in December), NPR Music (which recently included “Bad Habits” on their All Songs Considered podcast) and The Grey Estates (which just yesterday unleashed the cosmic “Cellophane” into the world).

So, what’s different this time around that Vonderkuhn is getting all this love? Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: Workhorse III

As long as I’ve been covering the Philly music scene, Lisa Lyne Flynn has been a fixture in it. Whether it was fronting the 90s rock power trio Lisa Christ Superstar — where she sang and shredded on lead guitar, Led Zep style — or booking gigs at The Trocadero, or collaborating with Sara Sherr on her amazing run of Sugar Town parties highlighting women in the independent music scene, Flynn was seemingly everywhere for a while.

Over time, the divide between real-world needs and the instability of the rock and roll life came to a point of reckoning, and she got a regular 9 to 5, but kept music a constant part of her life. Enter Workhorse III, which is Flynn’s primary musical squeeze these days. Alongside her husband Eric Perfect on drums and Steve McCarthy on bass, the band has raged across three records of grunge / punk anthems for the past decade; their most recent album, Closer to Relevance, was released just over a year ago.

One of that album’s best songs opens Workhorse III’s Key Studio Session, and it’s pretty much a mission statement for Flynn circa 2018; she sings about getting older and not shaking her ways, about remaining inspired, about dreams that don’t fade. “How I hope it’s something wonderful that keeps me hangin’ on,” she wails on the hook. “How I hope it’s something wonderful and you’ll know me when I’m gone.” Continue reading →

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The Key Studio Sessions: AllegrA

An old friend once made an observation about Ani Di Franco’s classic live album Living In Clip that’s stuck with me for 20-odd years: you can hear it in Ani’s voice when she’s smiling.

Even when the songs are devastatingly tragic, or fuming with rage, listening to the record (or, honestly, Ani’s entire catalogue) is a total joy, because at the end of it all, there’s this warm beacon of hope staring down an uncompassionate world, this realistic optimist standing at the microphone and singing words they wrote that, for that moment anyway, have the ability to make them happy…and by extension, make others happy.

I don’t bring that up to necessarily align Philly’s Allegra Eidinger to Di Franco in a musical sense; yes, both are masters of the fretboard-tapping guitar licks like you hear in folkies Tim Reynolds and Kaki King (or twinkle emo bands like Cap’n Jazz and Marietta). But beyond that stylistic affect, AllegrA the band has a sound all its own; bits of classic 70s singer-songwriter music in a Janis Ian sort of way, an effervescent energy straight out of the basement show scene, and a singing voice more mellifluous and honest than many of the band’s peers.

That idea of hearing a smile, though. That’s something that Eidinger carries forward into their work, whether intentionally or subconsciously.  Continue reading →