Vol. 2, No. 1
Vol. 2, No. 1
Since Annie left home at the age of 17 to attend the
University of Michigan School of Art, she has been on the move, living in many
different places and holding down an eclectic assortment of jobs, among them:
illustrator, sailmaker, metalsmith, waitress, baker and licensed massage therapist.
In
1994, with the release of her first CD, Cause and Effect, she began touring
full time. She has subsequently made her home in Seattle, North Carolina and
Massachusetts, and has recently relocated to her hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan,
where she lives with her dog, Casey.
Annie Gallup's recent tour schedule has included appearances
at the Winnipeg Folk Festival (Manitoba), Ottawa Folk Festival (Ontario), Summerfolk
Festival (Owen Sound, Ontario), Frostbite Music Festival (Whitehorse, Yukon),
as well as concerts and coffeehouses from
Dallas, Texas to Traverse City, Michigan, to Seattle, Washington. In May of
1999, she was heard on National Public Radio in an interview with Noah Adams
for All Things Considered. She was a winner in the 1998 Napa Valley Folk Festival
Emerging Songwriter's Competition, and received an honorable mention at the
1999 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival New Artist Showcase.
Annie's fourth album, Steady Steady Yes, was released in May, 1999. Recorded live and unaccompanied on vintage analog equipment at The Theater recording facility in New York City, it features the song-length works of fiction that have become her trademark. The current selection is an unreleased track from a recent recording session and is exclusive to Fenario.
Her recordings are available from Prime CD.
Website: primecd.com/annie.htm
For booking & info. contact: AnnieGal@aol.com
Peter Spencer was one of the original stalwarts of the
Greenwich Village songwriter scene in the early 80s and one of the first to
put out his own LP, Paradise Loft, in 1984. A serious scholar of the
blues, Spencer has made his living as a freelance music writer over the intervening
years. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Layla. "Casanova's Waltz"
is from his new self-released CD, New Hope and Wise Virgins, his first
recording in over 15 years.
Website: http://www.peterspencer.com
For booking & info. contact: Barlowfone@aol.com
J.P. Jones was born April 10, 1949 in Wakefield, RI, and, from the age of six, grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Self-taught as a teenager, he cut his musical teeth playing piano for church youth groups and experimenting with "Classical" compositions on the old upright piano in his parent's front hall. It wasn't until the age of 19, while in seminary school, that he picked up his first guitar. A career in the clergy, however, was not to be. Jones left seminary school, graduating from Amherst (MA) College in music composition. Midway through these experiences he took up songwriting.
He signed with Columbia Records in the early 70's and released the self-titled John Paul Jones album on Columbia/Windfall in 1973. A short club tour was followed by a short arena tour. Along the way Jones played shared bills with such notables as Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King and Little Feat.
The first album, however, hadn't been a success and JP soon found himself on his own. He moved to Brooklyn, NY where he took a day job as a commercial artist and model maker, then spent more than the next ten years in the occasional pursuit of a second major label deal. He also played out on the club circuit, first as front man for the New York City based band John Train (who took their name in tribute to the Phil Ochs pseudonym), and later as an open mic solo act at clubs like Folk City and CBGB's.
Jones left New York, moving to eastern Connecticut in 1990. The labels wouldn't be calling. Still, there was an already accumulated body of work that featured well over 200 songs, and that spring, with the help of family members, JP started his own label, Vision Company Records. The release of the eclectic and electric Voluntown (1991) was followed by the all-acoustic Broken Open in 1994. Then came Bard, an album of traditionally influenced instrumental compositions programmed as midi files and organized around the theme of loss and grief. In November 1998 he released Angels on the Road. Jones' work was also featured on compilation CDs including WWUH's Folk Next Door fund-raisers (1993 & 1994), the Hope Center of Providence's Our Invincible Summer (1996), and the Rhode Island Songwriter's Association's 12 Steps of Christmas (1996).
In July of 1998 Jones married to visual artist Kerstin
Zettmar and settled in Newport, RI. When he's
not writing, performing or working in his at-home studio, Jones' skills as a
handyman, househusband and an occasional chef are put to the test. About his
new album, Ashes, he writes: "It's a bigger world than what I have and
what I don't have...I'm interested in other people's dreams."
Website: http://www.jpjones.net
For booking & info. contact: jp@jpjones.net
Nevels hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, and combines elements of Earl Scruggs' three-fingered banjo frailing, power-chord rock, and new age open tunings to get what he calls "American freestyle fingerstyle guitar." This self-taught, self-described "closet musician" has cut his teeth doing street gigs and pool rooms in Southern redneck bars. The song comes from his self-produced CD, www.freestyleguitar.com. You can almost hear the pool cues dropping onto the felt in disbelief.
Website: http://www.freestyleguitar.com
For booking & info. contact: travisn@mindspring.com