Root Down in the Shadow

This Friday, stands to be the final house show at 3701 Spring Garden.  The home of many kick-ass house shows in the past few years, has really been on the map with 3 Sofar Sounds: Philadelphia shows, 2 Root Down In The Shadow & Swift Guitar Lessons Presents, 3 Cover Club sessions and numerous Live At The Rivals House shows! Rumor has it that after recording some tracks for upcoming albums of The Rivals and Song Dogs , Nomad Recording Studio headed by Rob Swift , is packing up and moving to a new location.  To celebrate this final show at the studio space, we've got a Live At The Rivals House Line-up that looks to be a spectacular. The lineup features songstress Chelsea Mitchell of Dirty Dollhouse, followed by Jake Lewis & The Clergy, who are coming in from Lancaster; and the Bernhardt Family Band.   Come out and show your appreciation for the Rivals House and all the wonderful show's they've hosted for us!!!  #BYOB #NoDouches #NiceMix #S...

It's ironic that a series featuring an extensive collection of Philly-centric covers has also become a sounding board for adventurous new material as well.  The bands invited in for R oot Down In The Shadow' s Cover Club series are given two requirements, one Philly-centric cover and one original.  Time after time the original is an exciting new unreleased track ready to be unveiled to audiences way ahead of upcoming albums. For Kate Faust , she introduces "21st Century Man" to her fans, getting them ready for new material in 2015.   According to Kate, "it's going to be a lot different than Crucial Companion . It's very raw and pure and very truthful. I think it'll resonate deeply with a lot of people." If we follow Kate's trajectory, it will be quite the success.  After parts in other bands ( Toy Soldiers , Perkasie) and leading previous projects ( Lady ) Kate has been gaining more and more traction as she continues to fine tune her ...

  Earlier this week we unveiled the gutsy cover of Hall & Oates "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Underwater Country Club .   Gutsy in the sense that Darryl Hall is hard to replicate and Hall & Oates songs are just way harder to play than most people recognize.  But really, for Underwater Country Club, it wasn't gutsy at all, it's just sort of what they do.  Brothers Andrew Robinson & Skip Robinson with cohorts Anthony Coppa and Jack Zaferes are gearing up to take the Philly scene over, show by show, song by song.  With somewhat of a reckless abandon, they play their style of rock 'n roll with a confidence that most bands wish they had. The foursome has a new batch of songs they are so very ready to put out to the world.  Add that to their road-tested back catalog including their 2013 EP and they have a killer showcase ready for new fans and old fans alike to hear.  Brand new song "Heat Seeking Missile", captured at ...

#CoverClub 2.0 @Nomad Recording Studio by #CoverClub * As The Root Down In The Shadow #CoverClub team starts to unveil it's latest sessions and plan the next session, it's time to release some of this killer audio for your downloading pleasure. The Bernhardt Family Band - Photo by Bob Sweeney The sessions recorded in January back at Nomad Recording Studio feature Sean Hoots, The Bernhardt Family Band, Up The Chain, and Dominic Angelella of DRGN KING. The set includes 3 unreleased originals and only 1 previously released track. Covers on the download include Toy Soldiers and The Lawsuits. If we can get a release to include the Sean Hoots/BoyzIImen cover or Dominic Angelella's Dead Milkmen cover we'll add it asap! Keep an eye out for more tracks from our Breakneck Studios session 2.0 including Mat Burke, Levee Drivers, Lucy Stone, and Leaf & Tree. While the first sessions are set up as #FreeDownload currently on SoundCloud for Breakneck Studios session ...

The final #CoverClub entry from Nomad Recording Studios session 2.0 is here at last.  We're proud to present Up The Chain covering The Lawsuits .  Rounding out an intense line-up of Sean Hoots covering Boyz II Men 'It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday' , DRGN KING 's Dominic Angelella covering the iconic Dead Milkmen , and The Bernhardt Family Band covering Toy Soldiers, Up The Chain takes on the most challenging cover of the session. Originally known as "Walk You Home", the song was originally a track by the Lawsuits frontman Brian Dale Allen Strouse on his solo release Peace, Turkey!, "Walk You Home" is one of many love songs written by Brian Strouse through the years and featuring Brian on piano with a little harmonica.  Unfortunately, the song was not well-known as the album was overshadowed by the more successful Lawsuits release Darleen , put out in the same time period.   Here's the original track by Brian Dale Allen Str...

Our first release from the 2.0 Session of Cover Club at Nomad Recording Studio features the boundless Sean Hoots .  Sean Hoots had been on the Root Down In The Shadow radar since catching him for the first time at the March 2013 Sofar Sounds Philadelphia show !  Since a well-rounded knowledge of the Philadelaphia music scene is certainly incomplete with knowing Sean Hoots and/or Hoots and Hellmouth .  Sean was a natural choice to include on the series.  'It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday' was first made famous in the 70's by G. C. Camerson and it was later re-popularized by the legendary Philly R&B outfit Boyz II Men in the 90's.  When he first moved to Philly eight years ago, Sean moved across the street from the creative arts high school where Boyz II Men, the Roots and many others started years ago.  It's no surprise then how Sean feels about the aforementioned tune: "The a capella Boyz II Men version had always really struck me....