ARISE Music Festival

The focus is on the song in this intimate dialogue and performance by and with these ARISE favorites.

For Mike Love the revolution is still brewing, and he is using his music to spread the message worldwide. Revolutionary music may seem hard to come by in these days and times. Long gone is the era of artists like Bob Marley, The Clash, Stevie Wonder and Patti Smith getting airplay and bringing their messages to the masses. But that doesn’t mean that the revolution isn’t still brewing in the hearts and minds of many people around the globe. 

Ayla Nereo‘s voice hits straight to the heart. With an array of loop-pedals by her side, she builds layer upon layer of vocal melodies into fierce, sweeping harmonies and weaves syncopated threads of guitar, kalimba, piano, and percussion into each live performance. Her lucid storytelling and lyrical imagery are water for the thirsty soul; words and sounds that crack open the heart, and embody the many folds of our own selves.

Hannah Holbrook is the eldest sister of the Alternative band, SHEL. Songs from Hannah and her sisters have been featured on NPR's Echoes, Colorado Public Radio's show Open Air, and in various TV shows. “When the Sky Fell” premiered on an episode of ABC Family’s hit show, The Fosters and MTV's show, Awkward. “Hold On,” was featured in a pivotal scene in The Best of Me and it was the lead video from the film and soundtrack. SHEL recently released their 2016 sophomore album, co-produced with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, and are currently on a stateside tour. You can find out more at www.SHELmusic.com

 

 

Elephant Revival will give you an inside look at how their songs take shape. From the seed to the stage. The band will walk you through the process of envisioning a song, arranging it, and delivering it to an audience.

Elephant Revival is a unique quintet of multi-instrumentalists blending elements of gypsy, Celtic, Americana, and folk. Brought together by a unified sense of purpose, Elephant Revival communicates the importance of harmony among all living things and use music to unite us in ways that no other medium can.

 

Want to sing?! In harmony?! Join the T Sisters for a journey through the world of harmony. The group will choose one of their songs and explore the choices made in arranging the vocal harmonies and offer space to ask questions. They’ll also divide the room into sections and using the same song, teach all of you how to evolve from singing the melody into graceful harmony. This playshop is focused on singing and understanding the basics of harmony. Come be part of the choir!

The T Sisters are a vocally driven contemporary folk band hailing from Oakland, California. The three sisters’ inventive songwriting is supported by their own acoustic instrumentation as well as by upright bassist Steve Height and mandolinist/guitar player Andrew Allen Fahlander.

This playshop session will focus on the art of horn playing to get a closer look into how Jennifer Hartswick (Trey Anastasio Band - trumpet), Natalie Cresssman (Trey Anastasio Band - trombone), Austin Zaletel (Euforquestra - alto saxophone), and Matt Bricker (Euforquestra/The Polyphonic Spree - trumpet) approach their craft and individual styles. They will also get into some fun, collaborative jamming with a backing band made up of Otis Lande on bass and Craig Babineau on drums of Euforquestra!

Jennifer Hartswick is one of the most exciting performers in music today. She inspires audiences all over the world with her powerful voice and commanding trumpet playing.

Jennifer’s live performances are renowned as spontaneous, joyful and contagious. Her natural charisma and sincerity shines through, and each performance is a celebration of musical collaboration. And whether she is wailing on the trumpet or singing an intimate vocal solo, her performance is all part of a single seamless instrument, one that is played not only with astounding technical proficiency, but also with sensitivity, conviction and heart.

Hartswick has shared the stage and studio with many musical titans, including Trey Anastasio, Carlos Santana, Bruce Hornsby, The Rolling Stones, Phish, Herbie Hancock and Christian McBride.

Natalie Cressman

Raised in an eclectic musical household, Natalie Cressman has only continued to diversify and expand her musical universe. Still in her early 20s, the trombonist/composer/vocalist has assimilated the full range of her sonic influences into a startlingly mature, strikingly original voice that melds the sophistication of modern jazz with captivating storytelling and intoxicating melodies reminiscent of indie rock’s most distinctive songwriters. From Carnegie Hall to the House of Blues, from the Apollo to Lincoln Center, her versatility and enthusiasm for new music has propelled her into a richly diverse musical career.

Cressman has spent much of the last four years touring the jam band circuit with Phish’s Trey Anastasio, while also performing with jazz luminaries Nicholas Payton, Wycliffe Gordon, and Peter Apfelbaum. Those varied experiences are reflected on her gorgeous second release, Turn the Sea. Anastasio calls the album “a beacon of light in an increasingly cold and mechanized era of music. Natalie is standing on the precipice of an incredible life in music, and if this album is any indication of where she’s headed, then I’ll be listening every step of the way.” Following her jazz-oriented debut, Unfolding, with the more song-based Turn the Sea was at least partially a result of her tenure with Anastasio, Cressman says. “Trey always wants to include the audience, but he doesn’t dumb down his music to do it.” Turn the Sea reveals a sound that’s utterly uncategorizable but instantly accessible, one that belies but is also a product of Cressman’s youth. What her music exposes is an utterly contemporary artist steeped in several traditions, an artist who sees no barriers between the incalculable accomplishments of the past and the urgent demands of the present. Cressman is an artist endorser for King Trombones.

 

The focus is on the song in this intimate dialogue and performance by and with these ARISE favorites.

Jeff Austin
Mandolinist Jeff Austin is unstoppable. He is celebrated for his fleet fingers and penchant for improvisation on stage, but those qualities also speak volumes about how he chooses to live. Austin has cultivated his natural musical abilities and allowed himself to be driven by his boldest instincts. In this way, he has been able to build positive, exciting momentum around his life’s greatest passion.
In 1998, Austin met Adam Aijala and Ben Kaufmann, with whom he and Dave Johnston would form the Yonder Mountain String Band. “My time with Yonder has taught me what is possible,” Austin says. “It has shown me that if you work hard at it and you believe in it and there’s a part of you that’s meant to do it, it will happen. It’s clichéd, but it’s true.”
It is with this history at his back that Jeff Austin has stepped out into the spotlight as a solo act. “My ideal sound is between Phish, My Morning Jacket, and Zac Brown Band.” Austin plans to continue songwriting for his solo project but might be weaving in a bit of mainstream. “I love writing a three-minute song with a hook that would grab a five-hundred-pound marlin as much as I like writing something that goes, ‘okay, after the bridge, it’s going to open up and just go wide.’” Indeed, “wide” is what Jeff Austin is all about. He wants new and different, complex and interesting. He wants everything the music world has to offer, and he’s willing to work hard to get it.

Marcus King
Songwriter. Guitarist. Singer. Bandleader.  At only 20 years of age, Marcus King’s dazzling musical ability is evident throughout The Marcus King Band, the young phenom’s 2nd full-length LP and first for Fantasy Records.  Operating within the fiery brand of American roots music that King calls "soul-influenced psychedelic southern rock," the album highlights King’s gorgeous, rough-hewn vocals, soaring guitar work and heartfelt songwriting all amidst a group of masterful musicians who, together, are quickly becoming one of the country’s most sought after live acts. 

Sarah Clarke
Sarah Clarke's band Dirty Revival has made their mark on the Pacific Northwest music scene. The unique ensemble led by Clarke's soulful vocals delivers powerful original tracks and superbly arranged classics with a resounding presence, no matter how big or small the venue. 

Here we’ll see how broad the art of guitar playing can be. This chock-full of talent playshop will feature three unique guitar players and take a closer look at how they approach their artistry with their characteristic styles on full display. Then they’ll get into some exploratory jamming with backing musicians Dave Watts and Ben Rubin of Felabration (and The Motet)! Join Eddie Roberts (The New Mastersounds), Ross Martin (Jeff Austin Band) and Mike Tallman (Euforquestra) in what promises to be a memorable session of 3 amazing guitarists.

Eddie Roberts 
Eddie Roberts is the band leader, guitarist and producer of UK funk group The New Mastersounds. He originally put the band together in 1999 to play The Cooker nightclub in Leeds, UK. Fast-forward 17 years and his recorded catalogue boasts 30 or more singles, 15 studio albums, 4 live albums, 1 remix album and various compilation albums.     As an example of the respect The New Masterounds command, Peter Wermelinger - DJ, collector, and author of the crate-diggers’ bible The Funky & Groovy Music Lexicon - places the 2001 NMS track ‘Turn This Thing Around’ in his all-time top- ten tunes, along with the likes of Eddie Harris, Funkadelic, and Herbie Hancock. The New Mastersounds are at the very top of an elite selection of acts that bring the true soul out of funk.

Ross Martin
Guitarist Ross Martin has been performing, writing and teaching music for over 20 years.  In collaborations that span the worlds of bluegrass, jazz and folk music, he has worked with Matt Flinner, Ron Miles, Tony Furtado and many others.  Ross will be performing at the 2016 ARISE Festival with the Jeff Austin Band and The Bluegrass Generals.

Mike Tallman
Since 2003, Mike Tallman has been making a name for himself on the American touring circuit as the guitarist for Eufórquestra, a band with an ever-evolving sound that has been influenced by music from all over the world with an emphasis on funk, pocket and groove. For over a decade the band has been igniting dance floors across the country, blending the roots of funk, soul, afrobeat, reggae and dub to create a sound that “explodes, dances and melts in your ear with sheer bliss"(Chris M. Slawecki; AllAboutJazz.com).
Tallman picked up the guitar at the age of 11 after discovering the music of Seattle and the grunge rock movement. From there he, like many young guitarists, discovered his dad’s record collection and dug deep in to the music of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead, among others. Over the years, his growth as a musician has led him to study jazz, funk, bluegrass and many international styles such as reggae, dub, afrobeat, soukous, and highlife.