Alyson McNamara & The Nomads

"Over the last 25 years, I have received many demo and finished cds from people who have wanted my opinion on their work. Most have been pleasant, if not remarkable. It is such a pleasure when I receive one that stands out. Alyson McNamara’s demo was one of those. Her clear, confident voice, strong sense of phrasing, close attention to lyric, and skillful guitar playing makes listening to her a pleasure. Her youth and fierce determination, makes her someone to watch. " - Margo Timmins

PRESS RELEASE

COBOURG, July 30th :: Back To Top

Three Local Songwriters Selected to perform at Shelter Valley!

While the The Shelter Valley Folk Festival books a full roster of national and international performers to perform on it's three hand-hewn stages, the organizing committee felt it was important to also provide an opportunity for local songwriters to be presented. In order to facilitate this an outdoor audition was held in Cobourg on Friday July 29th under the title of a Songwriter's Showcase.

It served as both an opportunity for local and area songwriters to share their talents and creative work with an outdoor public audience, while three festival representatives made notes in order to select three performer to appear on the Mainstage at the 2005 Labour Day weekend Festival (Sept 2-4, 2005). An audience survey allowed the public to join in the process of recommending three performers, with an understanding that it was not the performance or presentation, rather the songs that were to be considered.

There was an incredible response from artists and community alike with 12 songwriters showcasing their work, (many more on a waiting list) and over 150 people who gathered at the street stage and moved to the Market Hall for an acoustic finale when the rain came. Each songwriter had 10 minutes to perform 2 original songs and there was a fantastic range of styles, songs, and ages.

Proud thanks goes out to all the songwriters who came to share their work. It was a very challenging process to select three based on songwriting, but by audition committee review and public survey the three artists selected to appear at the 2005 Shelter Valley Folk Festival are (in alphabetical order)..

Steven Clancy
Bill Conall
Alyson McNamara

Special thanks to Kelly Quinn and the Cobourg DBIA for working with the Folk Festival to bring this event to the public, to the Northumberland Players for the use of their portable stage and to Erin Hamayda and David Sheffield who joined Artistic Director Aengus Finnan to take notes and review the audience surveys.

The three local songwriters will appear on the Festival's mainstage on Labour Day Weekend. - Shelter Valley Folk Festival

Hot summer nights, an isolated country barn, good friends and a relaxed atmosphere proved a potent and productive combination for the musicians that make up local blues-rock collective Aphrodite’s Bodice.

“We just kind of moved into the barn for three weeks in the summer,” says drummer Aaron Hernandez, describing the recording process for the band’s just-released sophomore album In Sweet Time.

The band that came together three years ago at Waterloo-Oxford has undergone an evolution since the original members graduated high school.

Since their last record, original members and chief songwriters Steve Lavery and Mackenzie Jordan tapped into the “wealth of musicians” the friends had met locally and through Lavery’s connections at Humber College in Toronto.

It wasn’t long before Jordan and drummer Aaron Hernandez were making weekend excursions to Toronto to test out new material on the other band members and gather feedback.

Each of them bring different strengths to the table, says vocalist Alyson McNamara, a Humber music student, who hails from Cobourg, Ont. Some have been schooled in music their whole lives while others “have that raw thing,” she says.

They may all have different musical backgrounds but when they come together in Jordan’s 19th century family barn on Bleams Road they switch on the roots-rock groove.

Lavery describes the old barn as an ideal recording space, particularly for the genre of music the band sticks to for their second album.

“Anything we wanted to do we did,” says Jordan.

The recent grad of the Ontario Institute of Recording Technology may be trained to get the perfect sound in a studio setting, but he also understands the pitfalls of working in that kind of pressure-cooker environment.

“You have to be creative in what is basically a cage,” he says, noting how it can quickly erode friendships.

“When you’re listing to music and you hear those imperfections, that’s often what makes the song for me,” adds Hernandez.

“Sometimes the best jam can come out of spontaneous mistakes.”

The band may not have been looking for perfection, but the music they’ve created on In Sweet Time comes close.

The old barn’s rich acoustics lend to In Sweet Time’s robust yet intimate sound on several tracks.

Inspiration comes from various sources, not the least of which is the bandmembers’ constant exposure to new and old music courtesy of the band’s music guru Steve Lavery.

“I think my musical tastes were drastically different when I was younger,” Lavery says.

Before Lavery introduced Jordan and Hernandez to acts like gravel-voiced Tom Waits and Grammy-award winning guitarist Derek Trucks, neither had heard of the artists that have since become major influences.

Jordan grew up listening to his dad’s music collection of classic rock and blues artists from the ’60s and ’70s.

And while those influences are still evident on tracks like “It’s a Fine Line” and the epic opener “Be Honest,” one of two tracks featuring Hamilton blues guitarist Steve Strongman on lead guitar, there’s a bit more complexity in the mix this time, highlighted by a hint of McNamara’s wistful acoustic folk and Lavery’s keyboard flourishes.

Lavery and bassist Mark Sanders are also in the synth-pop psychadelic band The Cosmic Eye, turning out a sound Lavery calls the polar opposite of Aphrodite’s Bodice.

Jordan is not about to be tied down by the expectations of one genre of music.

“When I’m writing I don’t feel limited in any way,” he says. “We just be ourselves.”

Jordan describes times when he’s written lyrics while in a club, drinking a beer, surrounded by a wall of sound from a live band.

Some songs written during this summer’s recording of In Sweet Time were completed while the group was listening to Bruce Springsteen at full volume.

“When I write music, I just start playing guitar,” he says.

“The best songs I’ve ever written are when you sit down and they just flow out,” says McNamara, who has taken songwriting workshops that emphasize the perils of attempting to force a song that just isn’t there.

The most important quality to bring to the songwriting process is honesty, adds Jordan.

That honesty comes into play in the songs that make up In Sweet Time and what Jordan describes as a concept album that begins at the end of a relationship.

At the critical stage where the main goal is gaining exposure through whatever means possible, today’s up-and-coming bands have the freedom to make the music and distribute it online without much expense.

Aphrodite’s Bodice has taken full advantage of online resources to distribute their music.

McNamara says some of the most encouraging comments have come from fellow Humber students whose musical tastes don’t typically lead them to mine the blues-rock vein.

But when they hear their friends play, they come around.

To preview tracks and purchase a CD-quality mp3 version of In Sweet Time, visit the website at aphroditesbodice.band-camp.com/album/in-sweet-time.

A number of local businesses will carry the CD in store including Upper Case Books in New Hamburg and Hairworks in Baden.

The band’s first album, Cabbages and Kings, is available for download on iTunes. - New Hamburg Independent - Doug Coxson, Dec 28 2010