Root Down in the Shadow

It can be fairly said, that what we consider today to be the Bluegrass style of music spent its formative years in Baltimore, MD. Still, somehow, Bluegrass isn't the first thing to come to mind when people are asked about Baltimore; the home of America’s national anthem, where Edgar Allen Poe sloughed of the mortal coil, and where Babe Ruth first swung a bat. Many of the components of Bluegrass are at home in Baltimore. In fact, the form is firmly rooted and for many years revolved around the Charm City. Meaning, one of Baltimore’s best secrets is its deep bluegrass roots. Even the name “Banjo” was coined there. It was used the first time in an advertisement for the plucky off-shoot of the original African instrument produced in downtown Baltimore. It's fitting that in its third year, The Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival, being held in Druid Hill Park on April 25th, is reclaiming some of that history. Though this year's lineup is a mighty one; besides th...

Earlier this year here at the indie Philly blog, Root Down In The Shadow, we started the fun series #Philly Presents ...bands writing about other bands. The most common reaction from bands to this project: "Wait? Are we covering other bands?" And so #CoverClub was born!   The first sessions for #CoverClub were recorded in October, at the intimate Break Neck Studios under the sonic helm of Peter Joseph!  The posts here at Root Down In The Shadow have featured the excellent videos by director Bob Sweeney with Paul Lorenz and Jeff Coon also behind the lens. Since the audio tracks are soooo good, it was decided they had to be shared!  Now at SoundCloud with permission from the bands we have switched the audio files to be a free download !!   Download them and share them.  Make sure all your friends hear them.  All we ask of you is to listen, watch, and share!  The Lawsuits members Brian Strouse & Vanessa Winters - photo by Jeff C...

Photo by Jeff Coon This week, the session of the new Philadelphia-centric music series #CoverClub, features Brian Strouse & Vanessa Winters at Break Neck Studios where the members of Philadelphia band, the Lawsuits, covered Ween !  Ironically, just as I lamented here are week ago, that 'Fine Quality' covered by Chelsea Mitchell was being rescued from the growing stack of incredible songs by the Lawsuits on the new album Cool Cool Cool .  Brian and Vanessa dug further into the Lawsuits catalog for this week's original session track! 'Dancing In Church' is a Lawsuits throwback.  In fact, it's technically on a solo Brian Dale Allen Strouse album, 18 South Main.   The 2010 album was early tinder for Strouse, as several tracks made it onto other releases.  Two songs became tracks on the subsequent Lawsuits album Darleen ('Hot Water Blues' and 'Mermaid').  The dark 'Hurricane Blues' a lament of a broken relationship, became a ste...

Earlier this year here at the indie Philly blog, Root Down In The Shadow, we started the fun series #Philly Presents , ...bands writing about other bands. The most common reaction from bands to this project: "Wait? Are we covering other bands?" And so #CoverClub was born!  This week, the featured #CoverClub artists are Brian Strouse and Vanessa Winters of  The Lawsuits .  On a very chill afternoon in October, Brian and Vanessa came in to Breakneck Studio for their session.  Coincidentially they came in right as Chelsea Mitchell was recording her version of the Lawsuits' 'Fine Quality'. The band Brian Strouse chose cover was Ween.  Ween ?   Ween is just one of those bands.  You'll never hear them on the radio.  You didn't see them on MTV or VH1, but maybe once in their lengthy career.  Someone had to introduce you to Ween.  For Brian Strouse it was his older brother.  My experience was through an older brother too...

This week, Christopher Davis-Shannon played a version of Brad Hinton's 'Mourning Dove' for the inaugural release of Cover Club.  With hindsight it was clearly a perfect pick, but it took a certain amount of serendipity to make it happen! Photo by Jeff Coon I was first introduced to Christopher Davis-Shannon by mistake!?!  The quick version of the story goes like this:  A friend tagged a picture on Instagram of Davis Howley of Commonwealth Choir .  Turns out the "wrong" Davis was tagged, but a response of "I'm not the right Davis, but I like your pic" was gained! I first saw "Topher" playing with Dani Mari at the Brandywine Folk Festival.    I made sure I had the "right" Davis that time when I met him in person! Christopher Davis-Shannon again popped into the peripheral when playing with Chelsea Mitchell recently at Johnny Brenda's!   Peter Joseph, who was also playing that night, is the audio engineer of Break N...