#PhillyPresents started in 2013 as a way to honor our favorite
bands and allow them to continue to share other new bands with their fans and Root Down In
The Shadow fans. As a band, what could be better than an opportunity to write
a little about what’s going on for you, maybe tell some stories and to share
with fans about a band you love?
BAND NAME: A Fistful of Sugar
Band Name: A Fistful of Sugar (That's "Fistful", not "Fist Full". And "A" because there's just one of them and it's a nonspecific fistful we're talking about. Not THE fist, just A fist.)
Style: Space-age Bachelor Pad Music...no, wait, that's Esquivel. More like brassy, sassy, harmony-heavy alt-folk. We draw a lot on traditional sounds from the old-timey, bluegrass, country swing, and gypsy jazz palettes, but we try to keep it modern and fun.
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Years on the Scene:
Lisa, Mike, and Meaghan formed A Fistful of Sugar for a spur-of-the-moment Halloween show at Connie's Ric Rac in 2010, and Reverend TJ was in the audience and joined the band immediately after our set. But we've all been playing around Philly for many more years with various projects.
Current Members:
This is a difficult question for a collective like us. We usually start off with the people who showed up to the photo shoot...Mike Shax, Lisa Watson, Meaghan Kyle, Reverend TJ McGlinchey, Will Mills, and Jess McDowell. But we have a big beautiful family of collaborators who make us all look cooler than we are. Steven "Lu" Ciannavei, Scott Loughery, Christopher Davis-Shannon, "Tuba Dan" Nosheny, Patrick Hughes, Silvio Navarro, Anam Owili-Eger, Mike Romano, Hoagy Wing...and joining us for the first time in a few weeks on keys will be our good friend Hezekiah Jones.
Source for Philly Music:
We were tempted to just say "Myspace", but there's just so many great sources to find out about Philly music happenings that we have to give some credit here. We're old school, so we started out just going to see shows sight-unseen, and we still do that sometimes to discover new acts outside our normal circles. On the media side, a few people out there really have their finger on the pulse of "cool" in the Delaware Valley. The On the Hill series from Kettle Pot Tracks is one of them. Ian Zolitor, the host of Bridging the Gap on Germantown Radio, is another, as is Mark C. Rogers on WSTW's Hometown Heroes. Elizabeth Thorpe and the fine people at The Swollen Fox are always a great source. And there's this one website...wish we could remember its name. Some dude named Dan runs it...hrmm.
Most Unique Show:
When we were on tour in New England in 2012, we booked a show in Montpelier, VT at a place called Positive Pie. We'd been told by several people (Suzie Brown and Phil D'Agostino in particular) to check out the Langdon Street Cafe but sadly we found it had recently shut down, so we gave this place a shot. They treated us like rock stars, but it was one of the weirdest, coolest gigs any of us had been on. They were very easy to work with and generous with their artist deal, and we were booked to open for a Jerry Garcia Band cover band with a built-in crowd of hardcore fans. When we got there, the room was set up as a restaurant and it was hard to see where we'd be performing in a few hours. We were led through the dining room to a steep ladder next to the kitchen, and climbing up we emerged into a crow's nest of sorts, overlooking the whole place. There were several cases of chilled beer and water and a bunch of gourmet pizzas for us to enjoy...but being right above the kitchen, it was about 400 degrees up there. And if you've ever seen us play...well let's just say our ties and vests and button-down shirts got soaked-through with sweat before we even hit the stage. We had our own "artist liaison" for the night, and when she came to get us for our sound check, the room had been TRANSFORMED and there was a giant stage assembled against one wall...and the room was suddenly packed for the show, wall to wall. It was one of the most welcoming and engaged crowds we've ever come across, and they were staggering in their support and appreciation. Vermont's a place that really loves its music, and they're not shy about letting you know it. And then afterwards, we met a local guy who'd grown up in Southwest Philly right off Island Ave and wanted to talk Philly with us for as long as we could stand. What a weird, great night.
That'd probably be our CD release back in January for our debut full-length album, Perspicacity. We played to a packed house on the downstairs main stage at World Cafe Live, and we'd set ourselves among an amazing lineup of some of the best bands in Philly...West Philadelphia Orchestra, Aaron & The Spell, and Black Horse Motel. It was a major sense of accomplishment to see the project realized. After all the hard work we'd poured into creating this album and doing as much of it DIY-style as we could, to see the tangible outpouring of love and support...it was overwhelming. Yeah, we cried. Don't judge.
Other exciting news for A Fistful of Sugar:
It still seems unreal to say this, but we're honored to be playing the main stage at this year's Philadelphia Folk Festival! And to coincide with this awesome opportunity, we're holding a scavenger hunt all weekend long on the festival grounds...psyched to have some amazing people on-board and the enthusiastic blessing of the Philadelphia Folksong Society, and we hope to get a bunch of teams participating. (See our website for details) We're also returning to World Cafe Live and playing the 10th Anniversary show at the Philadelphia Magic Gardens. Plus, we've been working on a lot of new material, and we'll be debuting a new song at Fest!
Introducing: Black Horse Motel
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| Photo by Kettle Pot Tracks |
They are exemplars of the new wave of indie and alt-folk bands that purposely defy genre conventions while embracing traditionalist intonation, and the ladies and gentlemen of Black Horse Motel in particular are masters at this dichotomy. They evince the attention to detail in writing and arrangement of Vandaveer, the tonality and charismatic longing of The Lumineers, the raw traditional energy of Portland's Tumbling Bones, and the eerie folk-pop mood embraced by Iceland's Of Monsters and Men. What sets them apart, though, is their unique blend of instrumentation and their unique personalities, which shine from the stage and thoroughly captivate every audience we've seen them from. These qualities set Black Horse Motel apart as a natural choice to join the bill for A Fistful of Sugar's CD release show last January at World Cafe Live, and we couldn't have asked for a better opener. Our audience that night was largely unfamiliar with their music, and I've rarely seen an act so powerfully put an exclamation point at the beginning of a show like Black Horse Motel did. They made more than a few new converts that evening. The room thrummed with their hypnotic and sometimes orchestral sound, and not a toe in the place went untapped nor a head un-bobbed. They're captivating, powerful, exhaustingly well-rehearsed, and a great group of human beings, to boot. Exactly the sort of people we couldn't help but introduce to the Root Down In The Shadow crowd. All of us at A Fistful of Sugar wish this band nothing but the best, and we are thrilled that our paths will cross again at The 53rd Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival this summer (possibly sharing a campsite with us - come by and say hi). You can find them at Folk Fest on the Lobby Stage Friday August 15, and you can pick up a copy of their debut album Red Summer Spirit in the merchandise tent on the festival grounds or through their website (BlackHorseMotel.net).
Personnel: David Richardson – banjo, mandolin, keys, guitar, vocals Megan Manning – drums, percussion, melodica, vocals Desireé Haney – cello, keys, melodica, bells, vocals Galen Fitzpatrick – guitar, vocals Ryann Lynch – violin/fiddle, vocals
While at The 53rd Annual Philadelphia Folk Festival be sure to check out the A Fistful of Sugar - Scavenger Hunt. More details at the A Fistful of Sugar Facebook page
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