Root Down in the Shadow

So what's a formula for a successful House Concert. 1. Find bands that fill your soul 2. Invite your like minded music fiends 3. Forget the rest, if you have music & friends nothing else matters. **** Some of you may have noticed some repetition to a Root Down In The Shadow House Concert.  But if a musician fills your soul, why would it be a bad thing to repeat?  Max García Conover , is one of those artists I will gladly go see everytime he comes through, even if it happens to be in a living room or backyard of a friend.  Haunt The House , who are coming this Saturday , is another one of those artists.  But hey, when you find something that works; stick with it. Last Friday we had a special show in Fishtown.  Max had a Thursday slot in Nashville for Sofar Sounds and a gig Saturday in Mt. Holly, NJ; so of course a Philly house show made sense.  Why not? Filling out the line-up were William Doobies & Dan Weirauch of New Sweden and Mike Batchelor of Kettle Pot B

For a special Turkey Saturday edition of the Root Down In The Shadow HQ House Concert series, our pal Will Houlihan , better known by his moniker Haunt The House returns to Philly for a solo show. He's joined by tour mate Zach Schmidt and local favorite David Janes . To get you excited for the show, let's check out some videos that our friends and frequent collaborators Kettle Pot Tracks did this summer.  The first was an unexpected surprise as he recorded a video during the house show this July when the full band played at the RDITS HQ. Haunt the House, "Vampyre" live from RDitS House Show 7/13/15   Haunt the House, "Vampyre" live from RDitS House Show 7/13/15 from Michael Batchelor on Vimeo . While we shared that video this summer, the next video is brand new.  Kettle Pot Tracks were a gracious host to us & Haunt The House and recorded a beautiful On The Hill Session with the band. Haunt the House — Mosquito Coast Haunt the

For those of you that didn't see the invitation to the Root Down In The Shadow HQ House Show with Haunt the House, Dan Blakeslee , and Kettle Pot Black : Sorry, watch the video below to see what you missed. For those of you that did see the invitation, but chose not to come.  You might not want to watch this video... And I told you so. Haunt the House, "Vampyre" live from RDitS House Show 7/13/15 from Michael Batchelor on Vimeo . Check out more tunes by the band here and keep an eye out for more tour dates. Meanwhile, they're playing Newport Folk Festival on Friday!!

Welcome to Season Two of Philly-centric video series, Cover Club. Cover Club is best conceptualized as “A special brand of Philly covers”, akin to The Onion’s AV Undercover series but with one caveat: the song being covered must originally be from a Philly artist . Small Houses - video capture (Mike Batchelor/Kettle Pot Tracks)   Back in June 2013, the first time I met Small Houses was a Sofar Sounds: Philadelphia show in the Northern Liberties section of town.  The adopted Philadelphian felt like a friend from the minute you met him. From the J une 2013 Sofar Sounds Philadelphia review : "First on the bill, at the Northern Liberties new row home, was Small Houses: the Michigan-bred, Philadelphia-based, rambling one-man band.   The crowd settled in rather quickly, whether coming in after work or arriving from another #MakeMusicPhilly show.  For his set, Jeremy Quentin treated the crowd to raw cuts from his 2013 release Exactly Where You Wanted to Be and two new yet t

Welcome to Season Two of Philly-centric video series, Cover Club. Cover Club is best conceptualized as “A special brand of Philly covers”, akin to The Onion’s AV Undercover series but with one caveat: the song being covered must originally be from a Philly artist.   We started Cover Club as a means to share the diversity and strength of the Philadelphia scene.  So when we had a chance to collaborate with Kettle Pot Tracks for a Small Houses session of Cover Club, we jumped at the chance.  This session represents a culmination of so many things going right.  It goes back to the June 2013 Sofar Sounds: Philadelphia show when I met Small Houses.  He had recently done the local On The Hill Sessions for Kettle Pot Tracks, a site that is/was one of the places we would look to find more out about bands from Philly.  So when I got a call, last summer from Mike Batchelor of Kettle Pot Tracks, "hey Jeremy Quentin is here recording, do you want to do a Cover Club with him?" t

Band Name : Chris Kasper Style: Singer/Songwriter - Roots/ Blues/ Americana Years on the Scene : I moved here from West Virginia in 2004 and put out FlyingBoy in 2006. Current projects and/or members : In Sept 2013, I released the 4th Chris Kasper record entitled Bagabones The band included Kiley Ryan , Phil D'Agostino , and Daniel Bower . Kiley and I also released a collaborative record of original songs titled Foxhound in June 2013. This coming year we have a Daytrotter session in March as well as a film idea we're pursuing. Most unique show: Most unique show was probably Sunrise Set at The Frendly Gathering Festival in Windsor, VT.  It's a summer fest run by professional snowboarders Jack Matrini and Danny Davis . It's held at a defunct ski resort and they invited us to play at the top of the mountain during sunrise. At 4AM Jack and Danny met us at the bottom with an ATV Mule Gator thing. We held on for dear life and they gunned it straight u

Ron Gallo, AS​-​IS: Live at Kettle Pot Tracks is not at all what it seems. This new release recorded at Kettle Pot Tracks ’ Lafayette Hill studio in December 2013 is not a follow-up to Ron Gallo ’s 2013 solo release Live at Ortlieb's: an in-venue live recording. It is not the Toy Soldiers front-man’s solo project with producer Reed Kendall , coming later this spring with a full band.  AS​-​IS: Live at Kettle Pot Tracks is neither of those. A S​-​IS: Live at Kettle Pot Tracks is the must-share by-product of a solo On The Hill Session with the Kettle Pot Tracks. This stripped-down release marks the first physical release from the Kettle Pot Tracks after a year of stellar digital releases of their sessions. To the unaware listener, what we have is an incredible collection of 1940s standards. Turns out, only one of them is. “Early in the Morning” reigns from that era, but ironically Ron Gallo's inspiration is from the 1970s Harry Nilsson version, rather than 1940s jazz-m

Photo by Lindsey Borgman Your band name: Sean Hoots/Hoots & Hellmouth Style: Anything with passion/fire/vibe. My general approach can be expressed by the formula Soul + X, where X represents any number of mixable styles (rock, folk, electronic, noise, etc.). Years on the Scene: Many years, to be sure. 8 with Hoots & Hellmouth , but I've been around a lot longer than that doing a whole host of musical things. Current Project and/or Members:  Hoots & Hellmouth is currently on a bit of a pause. 8 years of hard touring requires a breather at some point! In that space, I am exploring a variety of music, involving a variety of folks, everything from solo singing and soundscape-making to ensemble playing with some of Philly's best (and cutest), including Todd Erk , Jaron Olevsky , Tom Bendel and Carl Bahner . Any new album projects? Sessions in the works? All kinds of stuff in the works...I just did a trio session/show at Carl Ba