Root Down in the Shadow

The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know .  Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud...

Those who wanted to extend their Halloween festivities into the weekend were in for a treat this past Friday.  Milkboy invited three local bands to cover well known artists.  And this wasn’t just covering a band – it was completely embracing it.  Song Dogs as Talking Heads ; Ross Bellenoit as Elvis Costello; and Val De Val as Alice in Chains . Ross Bellenoit  kicked off the night, taking the stage as Elvis Costello.  Ross decided to pay tribute to Elvis Costello by performing his 1986 album Blood & Chocolate cover to cover. Some might think this to be a risk mainly because it’s not well known. But in chatting with Ross he told me it was just something he had wanted to perform for quite some time and also was attracted to the challenge of performing this album on stage.  Joining him in this feat was   Patrick Berkery on drums, Joe Baldacci on guitar, keyboardist Matt Landis , Todd Erk on bass, and Sonja Sof...

#PhillyPresents: by Aaron Brown Your band name: Aaron & The Spell Style: Indie Soul Years on the Scene : With this band - 2 years; in general - 7 years Current Project:   Sing is available on iTunes ? No, album projects in the works for this year. I'm looking to get in the studio again this fall for my follow-up record. As far as the record being noticed - recently the song "A Beating Heart" off my record was nominated for an Independent Music Award in the adult contemporary song category. Members : Aaron Brown - Vocals, Guitar Mike Pietrusko - Drums Brian Schuman - Bass Imani Roach - Vocals, tambourine Allison Polans - Vocals, tambourine Adam Zielinski - Guitar Recent and/or most unique/exciting show : North Star Bar opening for Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes.  This show was so exciting to play because the crowd there was one of the best ones I've played in front of.  Also, the band was smokin' that night.  And, Clai...