Independent's Day Radio

Few musicians get to experience the kind of career ride Adam Levy has had. It all started simply enough; Levy was a young, talented jazz guitarist who grew up in Los Angeles and had lived on both coasts - playing with numerous artists and earning some accolades for his smoky blues licks on Tracy Chapman’s hit, “Give Me One Reason.” After a few more moves Levy found himself in San Francisco writing for Guitar Player magazine. Not a bad regular gig in a field where regular gigs come dear. A strange confluence of events then set him on a path that would sound like a yarn had it not come to pass. It was sparked by an e-mail from a little-known performer he’d played with in New York, along with a rare and uncannily good deal on an apartment in Manhattan and a cross-country tag along ride. That e-mail was from Norah Jones, with whom Levy had been playing gigs before he left for the West coast. She was headed into the studio to record her debut album for the Blue Note label and she asked him to come to New York and

Some people just have a voice - a natural talent that is evident as soon as they open their mouth to sing a phrase. It is a very intimate thing - after all, the human voice is the only instrument that every person carries around with them everywhere they go. Whether they’re any good at it or not, everyone can sing in the shower. Some of that distinctive sound of a person’s voice is natural talent, but the best vocalists make it look easy even though they may have spent countless hours learning the craft of singing. Nicky Corbett is that kind of singer. She was blessed with a naturally pleasing voice and she learned how to use it at a young age in her native Canada. Early in her career she found herself signed to a development deal, and long after relocating to Los Angeles she continues to work with some of the best musicians in the business.

“Ten thousand dollars,” was the utterly random guess a young Susan James gave to a circumspect fan at a California Bay Area show when he inquired how much money it would take for her to make an album. At that point in her career, James had finished college, been bitten by the songwriting bug and was kicking around Palo Alto playing shows. She’d fallen into a regular gig at a bar and had started to build a small following, but her path forward wasn’t clear. That shy fan turned out to be Burrell Smith, an early engineer at Apple who’d made a fortune designing components for the nascent Macintosh computer. Smith showed up at one of James’ shows soon thereafter with a bag containing $9,999.00 and shyly gave it to her - ample funds for her to launch her career with her first record. Five albums and numerous international tours later, James is still at it, crafting songs in the rich tradition of California psychedelic folk/rock. But her new album, Sea Glass, represents a major leap forward in sonic exploration for

There are an awful lot of guitar players in the known universe. Indeed, part of the instrument’s popularity can be attributed to its accessibility. Pick up a pawn shop six-string, learn a few hackneyed chords, throw a few words together, dime out your amp and you’re fronting a band in a matter of months. Even some of the most well known performers possess not much more than a remedial understanding of the guitar’s capabilities. But some guitarists devote their lives to this enigmatic instrument and they not only master it, but they keep pushing boundaries as far as what it is capable of doing. Scrote is just that sort of gifted guitar player. He’s based in Los Angeles, but he has toured the world and worked with artists like Jackson Browne, No Doubt, Benmont Tench, Reeves Gabrels, Van Dyke Parks and myriad others. Scrote is a searcher, playing multiple styles of music in different ensembles as well as producing albums and working as a musical director for tours and other projects. One of his current bands is

Just a few short months ago, musician and high school student Mason Summit had been accepted to college and was set to leave Los Angeles and study something far more sensible than music at a far away school. But his passion for music got the best of him and Summit switched tacks to songwriting. While the rest of his newly graduated classmates are packing up their laptops and lava lamps this late summer and heading off to college, Summit will stay closer to home, study songwriting and focus on his burgeoning music career. One of those classmates is guitarist, singer and songwriter Spencer Shapeero, who graduated a year before Summit and skipped town to the east coast to study music at Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music. Early in middle school, Shapeero and Summit struck up their friendship based on a shared affinity for crafty songwriting and the pair formed a duo called The Clowns Will Eat Me to allow them both a creative outlet and a harmony voice. Both musicians are active in multiple projects but the

Singer Bryan McPherson has a tattoo of the unmistakable silhouette of United States of America on his right arm - the contiguous 48 states, at least. This may seem a strange idiosyncrasy for an artist who is largely considered a protest singer. Truly, McPherson pulls no punches when pointing out the darker side of his homeland, and given the dynamic, folk-punk delivery of his songs about the labor movement, race relations, income inequality, women’s rights, gay rights and other causes of the oppressed and marginalized, it is nearly impossible to not be moved by his message. His agile and shouted tenor, uptempo guitar playing and frenetic harmonica accompaniment are reminiscent of an amped up Woody Guthrie - or maybe Dylan on speed - and McPherson is fearless about taking his message to the people, logging thousands of miles playing solo shows from coast to coast and sleeping in his van along the way. If there is a salient criticism of modern activism it is that it lacks heart and focus, but Bryan McPherson ha

A lot of kids dream of a career in music, and when they do they often imagine themselves in the spotlight at center stage with thousands of eyes fixed on their every move, but there are many people making a living in music whose names are not on the marquee. In fact, for every Madonna, there are dozens of musicians who have played in her band over the years. If you want to work, learn and do everything you can - the diversification of skill sets is an essential way to get more gigs - especially given the luck factor involved in eking out a practical living in the arts. Lee Pardini is a top notch multi-instrumentalist who has taken this ethos to heart. He studied jazz piano in college at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, but he also picked up the bass guitar along the way so he could play with a wider range of artists. And play, he has - Pardini has backed up artists like Shelby Lynne, Jonathan Wilson and Nick Waterhouse - along with just about everyone else in the pro circuit in the Los Angeles music comm

Anna Maria Rosales spent her formative years playing bass in bands in her native El Paso, Texas, worked her way into a gig touring internationally playing bass, and spent three years on the road in Europe and both North and South America. Bona-fides like those would be enough to constitute a pretty solid career as a performer and make a body homesick, but by 2006, Rosales found herself back in El Paso with a palpable sense of oft-trod hometown grass growing under her feet. When she got word of an audition for a gig in Los Angeles, Rosales packed up her bass and her suitcase and bought a ticket on an overnight train headed west. During the audition, she executed a classic case of tactical omission - she never told the bandleader that she didn’t live in L.A., figuring that she’d cross that bridge if she got the job. She got the gig, solved the new problem by putting down roots in California and immersed herself in the music scene of her new hometown. While playing all those gigs on bass, Rosales’ strong back-up

Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen each had independently successful careers in music long before they met. Frechette was a Canadian folk singer who logged thousands of miles a year playing his 1,300-plus original songs and writing hit singles for bands like The Duhks and others. Classically-trained violinist Laurel Thomsen had built a reputation as a go-to player for ensembles ranging from full symphonies to singer-songwriters - as well as teaching lessons all over the world via Skype and hosting the popular Violin Geek podcast from her home in California. Dan first heard Laurel’s playing on YouTube by happenstance and the pair started collaborating remotely; Dan would send Laurel songs via e-mail and she would overdub parts and send them back. Dan loved the accompaniment Laurel added to his songs, and Laurel found Dan’s songs to be richly diverse musical gems with enough harmonic space for her to contribute. Their phone discussions about music evolved into long discussions about life and their friendship grew

The longevity of the band the black watch is a testament to tenacity and persistence. Originally from Santa Barbara, California, singer, guitarist and songwriter John Andrew Fredrick developed a strong case of musical anglophilia, but in addition to the standard issue Beatles influence, he incorporated bits and pieces from a wide range of British artists into the sound of the band. As the primary songwriter, Fredrick has been the only constant member in the 20-plus-year career of the black watch, and it his artistic vision that has kept the band moving forward through multiple lineup changes. More recent black watch material has a sound that is reminiscent of the best of 80s British pop, and the band provides a classic example as for why American bands so often look to their counterparts in Britain to see how it’s done. Fredrick’s vocals sneer, guitars grind with a driving jangle and his lyrics illustrate an ability to walk the line between the inherent elegant simplicity of pop music and a command of the lan

Given her genteel demeanor and diminutive stature, it would be easy to mistake Claire Holley for a southern debutante rather than an astute artist with considerable talents as a singer, songwriter, performer and composer. Holley possesses an innate ability to make people feel at ease, and she captivates audiences when she combines her warm spirit with a beautifully natural way of singing. Over the last two decades, the Mississippi born and bred Holley has released several albums that range in style from intimate, acoustic settings to traditional hymns, children’s songs, holiday music and full band releases, but her new album, Time in the Middle, expands her sound into some new, sonically complex territory reminiscent of producer Pierre Marchand’s work with Sarah McLachlan. One of the more remarkable aspects about her new album is that this expansive sonic palette was created by just Holley and a pair of carefully selected multi-instrumentalists, Dan Phelps and Jonathan Kingham. The trio holed up in a world-cl

Amy Blaschke sings with the voice of an angel who has spent a lot of time looking after earnest, lonely people with broken hearts. Her singing voice isn’t exactly airy - it is too grounded in alto earthiness to abide flights of vapid soprano fancy. But neither is it husky, because it possesses far too much buoyancy to keep her enchanting melodies from doing anything but soaring. The eleven songs that make up Blaschke’s upcoming fifth album, Opaline, veer from strutting, triple meter Neko Case blues to gentle, fingerpicked indie folk songs that sound like lost Nick Drake classics - with a heavy helping of breezy 60s pop to bind it all together. Blaschke’s melodies share the same balance of the consonant and dissonant aspects of Drake’s music, and producer Brian Whelan’s deft touch brings everything into a soft focus that lets Blashke’s new batch of songs shine in their best light. On the whole, Opaline seems borne of a world in which Wilco releases an album of Stephen Sondheim’s most revered songs. It would be

The story behind Los Angeles artist Kip Boardman’s newest album started with the band he’d assembled for a gig at Los Angeles’ legendary West Side hole-in-the-wall dive bar and music venue, The Cinema Bar. As is often the case, the night of the gig a group of stellar musicians wound up playing yet another exceptional show for fifteen people; such is the life of a musician. But one of those lucky people in the audience that night in 2013 was longtime Brian Wilson percussionist Nelson Bragg, who also happened to own a small record label. The band was hot, the songs were good and Bragg was impressed enough to approach Boardman after the show and ask him if he thought he could replicate that magic and energy in a recording studio. Boardman smartly said that he could and the pair decided to make an album together. In a stroke of logical inspiration, Boardman and Bragg took the exact same players from the Cinema Bar show into the studio and track the songs completely live in order to capture as much of the live sho

Phoebe Bridgers was already writing solid songs and making the rounds of L.A. music venues when she got cast in a commercial for Apple’s iPhone 5S in early 2014. The ad depicted numerous musicians in different settings using the new smartphone to assemble a song. While other musicians in the spot tuned a bass in a studio, plugged in a guitar to busk in a subway, tumbled into a driving drum beat and staged an interactive performance art piece, Bridgers’ face and voice were prominently featured singing the chorus of the Pixies’ song, “Gigantic” - essentially starring in a television commercial likely seen by millions. In the Internet age, this is just the kind of facetime that launches careers. People Googled Bridgers and her star began to rise. Fortunately for her, she has the talent and a growing number of well-crafted songs to justify the buzz. Bridgers’ writing chops are years beyond her youthful voice, and it is this combination of sweetness and wisdom that sets her apart from her peers in a city filled wi

Musician Johnzo West once spent a summer on a movie shoot in Detroit, Michigan after being hired to teach an actor how to play guitar - or at least how to fake it convincingly enough on screen. Like music, making movies is a hurry-up-and-wait affair with a goodly amount of downtime, and West found himself palling around with the young actress and musician Miley Cyrus, who was trying her hand on the big screen after the phenomenal success of Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel. Between takes, the pair would sing classic country songs and West was immediately impressed with the Cyrus’ natural country singing talent - which was different from the pop persona that made her a megastar. Those downtime collaborations led to West accompanying Cyrus on a cover of Bob Dylan’s classic song, “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” that was featured on the album, Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International. The single and the round of television appearances that followed raised W

Musician Michael Hays has come a long way since his formative years amidst the humid pines of southern Mississippi. Just about the time when many of his classmates clung to their roots and started families, Hays set out for Austin, Texas - the fertile musical mecca that doubles as the capital of Lone Star State. He did what nearly all young guitar players do… he started bands and worked odd jobs to keep himself fed. But Hays soon figured out that as cool and supportive as Austin was, he needed an even bigger pond to hold his aspirations, so he packed up his life and continued west to California. Los Angeles’ complex and diverse music scene offered myriad opportunities and Hays availed himself of as many as he could find. He became a founding member of the venerable local band, The Larks, and taught guitar lessons and repaired accordions to pay the rent. One band led to another, and he wound up doing stints in the Neighborhood Bullys and We Were Indians as well as contributing to Richard Thompson’s Sweet Warri

Musician Christian Smedstrom is from Sweden, which is a long way from the rural American South - where the style of blues music that is his stock and trade originated in a cultural soup of African music, spirituals, field hollers and folk music. But music truly is the universal language, and when a young Smedstrom heard the blues music playing on his father’s turntable, he was instantly mesmerized by the emotive power of the deceptively complex and elegantly simple art form. Smedstrom picked up the guitar and kept at it long enough to eke out a career playing his songs with his band, the 2120s. Even though he was playing shows relentlessly across Europe he wasn’t quite a full-time performer - but modern musicians have a more egalitarian idea of success, and Smedstrom’s nordic blues found its way into American television programs and advertising campaigns, providing a welcome boost to his profile and affording him the opportunity to begin playing shows in the U.S. Smedstrom’s style ranges from solo acousti

Brian Whelan was one of the very first guests on Independent’s Day, stopping by our studios for the second episode way back on March 9th, 2011. At the time, he was making the rounds in a number of Los Angeles bands and building a reputation as a formidable player on a number of instruments. That reputation put his name on the short list of players being considered for a vacancy in maverick country legend Dwight Yoakam’s band. Yoakam needed a versatile musician who could sing harmonies and cover parts on several instruments, including keyboards, accordion, guitar and pedal steel guitar. But Whelan had never really played the latter, a complicated beast of an instrument that requires all four of a pedal steel player’s arms and legs to make its characteristically weepy and lonesome sound. Yoakam met with Whelan and asked the younger musician if he thought he could learn how to play pedal steel for the gig. Whelan wisely replied, “Yes,” and in doing so, he stepped into the role of a full-time member of Yoakam’s b

“The kids are alright!” How many times have we heard that since The Who coined that amped-up pop aphorism on their 1965 debut album? The more ‘half empty’ set of every established generation seem convinced that the subsequent generation has no talent and no respect for their elders. Could it be the obligation of every generation to piss off those who came before? But time irrevocably marches on and great music continues to be made. Enter Mason Summit, a singer/songwriter who is still in high school and has two albums to his credit. Let that sink in for a minute. While his classmates were teepeeing their teachers’ houses or spending endless hours playing video games, Summit was playing legendary live music venues in Los Angeles and recording and honing his skills as an emerging songwriter. Summit’s songs are sharp and accessible, his guitar playing is pleasantly frenetic and his melodies and vocals show that he has done his homework by studying the masters of the craft of songwriting. So just forget all that s

Jason Charles Miller began his career as the singer of a successful hard rock band called Godhead. Just how successful? Godhead has sold over 250,000 records to date - a very healthy sum for an age in which young people just don’t buy music anymore. Godhead was the first band signed to Marilyn Manson’s label, Posthuman Records; they released several albums, headlined their own tours and shared bills with Manson, Linkin Park, GWAR, Disturbed and others, and Miller reveled in the life of a front man in a rock band. And then things changed when he tested positive for the “C” word - country. There had always been a lot more to Miller than tattoos, attitude and powerful vocals; he had long been a dedicated student of the art of songcraft, and few genres of music celebrate the skill of the pure songwriter like country music. Nashville’s Music Row turns out a steady stream of new songs in seemingly perpetual motion, and Miller found that his unique skill set lent itself perfectly to this work ethic. Along the way M