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 ...

"From the Notebook" is a new series at Root Down In The Shadow, that will explore great experiences with bands and events that didn't make it to the web within a normal deadline, but were too good not to share.  If all goes well we'll let that original moment simmer and provide some additional insight beyond our first take.  Our first subject: Dirty Dollhouse. Chelsea Mitchell All Photos by Lindsey Borgman unless noted  Chelsea Mitchell Dirty Dollhouse Who is Dirty Dollhouse ? Who is Dirty Dollhouse ?  Officially Dirty Dollhouse is the all-beautiful, all-female Chelsea Mitchell-Amber Twait-Vanessa Winters trio.  The lush harmonies of these long-time friends are the crux of any Dirty Dollhouse tune.  But which band is really Dirty Dollhouse?  Is it only the trio? Or, is it a full-band extravaganza?  Chelsea Mitchell Some fans already caught their first glimpse of Dirty Dollhouse at one of their rare shows in 2014. ...

This summer, just a few days old, is already filling up with more and more momentous and unforgettable shows and lineups.  In the last week, the beautiful photos from Pastorius Park where Hezekiah Jones played circulated Instagram, the larger than life Firefly Festival loaded up your Twitter feed when New Sweden made their big stage debut.  # MakeMusicPhilly had more bands and stages than you could imagine, leaving no chance of seeing every band you wanted to.   The pang of regret gets harder and harder to ignore as more amazing lineups are introduced each week.  The only cure to cancel out this regret is finding the next awesome lineup.  This week, the show to see is presented by Philadelphia Folksong Society .   Hezekiah Jones headlines the event at Johnny Brenda's , anchoring the lineup for a special Lovers League album release show .   Joining the event are New Sweden , who will soon have a headlining release show of their own in ...

New Sweden is back with their first release in over a year.  The tease to the lovely Fabric Room EP, "Eighty Seven" picks up where they left off on 2013's New Sweden EP .   Rowdy and rockin', but still true to their Americana roots, "Eight Seven" is ready to be featured on your summer playlist. The whole EP is a must grab.  Coming out 7/15, it's seven tracks produced by Bill Moriarty (Dr. Dog, Hoots & Hellmouth, Man Man), its the perfect soundtrack for a backyard friends 'n beverages session.  Fabric Room , has the same problems that all New Sweden music has, it's so incredibly consistent that it's hard to put your finger on which song is your favorite.  One after another, the songs delight.  Click here , for pre-sale information.  The vote here is for the picking the SIGNED LIMITED EDITION ALBUM ARTWORK BUNDLE "Let's get this thing started, let my motor run" is a perfect line, emphasizing how ready New S...

It's January 31st.. hardly the time to look back at the year prior.  But ripe with the awards season, Grammy's, Golden Globes, Tri State Indie Awards, etc it seems like the perfect time to share some thoughts about the year before.   2013 was a pretty damn good year for new music.  When compiling the year end list, it was remarkable how many outstanding Philadelphia based releases there were each month.  As with all things here at Root Down In The Shadow, we're going to skip retelling what you've read every where else.  Here we are going to do a Philly only year-end review!  Sorry to those of you who may be expecting Bastille , Aoife O'Donovan , J. Roddy Walston & The Business , or Phosphorescent on a year end list, like most things here at Root Down In The Shadow, this list will be Philly-centric!   Finally, apologies to Dr. Dog and Amos Lee, but I think everyone is aware already of B Room and Mountans of Sorrow, Rivers of Song.  A...

Here's a look back at the wildly successful 2nd Street Festival! Every day covering Philly music, I find yet another song, band, artist, festival, etc. to be excited about.  Sunday's find was the #2ndStreetFest.   I hadn't done all that much exploring in Northern Liberties, but hey The Bailey Hounds and New Sweden were playing, what else did I really need to know? Getting to the festival, I was a little nervous as I didn't know where the stages would be, but, ummm.. It is the 2nd Street Festival, so it couldn't be that hard right?  Walking to the Piazza at Schmidts , on 2nd street from Girard, the first stage became glaringly obvious.  Right smack in the middle of the street!  With logistics out of the way, it was time for fun! The next big show for Brad Hinton Band Looking back, I have the day split into two categories: Before Johnny Brenda's and After Johnny Brenda's .  The Johnny Brenda's bar/venue wasn't involved in the fest...