Introducing the Knoxville 520 Podcasting team (also known as the "Pod Pair")
Greg Wood & Julia Marino
Read on more for more podcasts and interviews with Preservation Pub Showcase regulars Rose Hawley, Hurricane Dennis, Roman Reese, Medford Black Record Collection, Jon Worley and Nintendo RULES.
As Passionate as a Rose
Knoxville520 and singer/songwriter Rose Hawley gives voice to her 'creative impulse' at the Pub's showcase on Tuesdays.
Click here
to listen to Hawley's original tune "Little Buddha."
Click here for the podcast RSS feed to subscribe to iTunes.
Interview by Julia Marino
520: How long have you been playing/ writing music?
Hawley: I started writing poems and lyrics when I was really young. The furthest back I can remember is 3rd grade. I wrote my first song at age nine. It was about Jesus.
520: What inspires you to create music?
Hawley: It's a very spiritual process most of the time - giving a voice to some creative impulse, or externalizing some internal dialogue. Sometimes, it's to make a statement.
520: How would you describe your writing process?
Hawley: My songwriting process has been a constant evolution. The best songs come in 15 minutes, with music and words flowing out, and the pen working hard to keep up. Usually a verse and chorus come out pretty quickly, then I sit down and craft the lyrics from there, returning to the instrument as needed.
520: Where have you played around Knoxville?
Hawley: I've been playing in Knoxville since 1987 and before that Gatlinburg since about 1984. In Knoxville, I played Ivory's piano bar for eight years running in the late 80s and early 90s. I've been in several bands and have played at old venues like Ella Gurus and the Library, and at venues that still exist like Manhattan's, Patrick Sullivans. I've played the World's Fair Park and the NEA showcase in Nashville. Lately, I've been playing the Time Warp Tea Room and Carpe Librum.
520: How long have you been performing at the Pub?
Hawley: I've been playing the open mic since it started.
520: What about the Pub motives you to play and perform music? What is the general mood/atmosphere?
Hawley: This event has been a very binding experience for the local music community, especially for the songwriters. I have run and participated in many open mics in Knoxville, and there is a great group of songwriters. This particular open mic, it's consistency, Joe's dedication, the Pub's commitment and the accepting atmosphere have really facilitated a dialogue between musicians, and provided a forum for local talent that is very, very much needed and appreciated.
520: What are your goals as a musician?
Hawley: To keep creating.
Like a Hurricane - This K-town songwriter, appropriatly named "Hurricane Dennis," sings about love ("but it's not a mushy love song," he says.)
Listen to 520's podcast of his song "I Got Love," and be swept away by lovely energy.
Click here for the podcast RSS feed to subscribe to iTunes.
Hurricane Dennis
Roman Reese
Click here to listen to 520's Roman Reese podcast.
Click here for the podcast RSS feed to subscribe to iTunes.
Songwriter Tim Sanford
The Four Elements of the Universe
Pod pal Greg Wood spoke with Medford's Black Record Collection about the band's insane name and passion for performing.
Interview by Greg Wood
520: What is the significance of the name?
MBRC: The Name is Medford's Black Record Collection. The four parts of the name represent the four elements of the Universe, which we all know to be pea gravel, Pabst Blue Ribbon, daschhound saliva and Gary Busey. The arrangement of the Words is determined by sub tracting Boyle's Law from the Pythagorean Theorum, the remainder of which, when read aloud back ward in front of a mirror, reveals the Code for the numerical Value of each letter. When these Values are summed up on an Etch-a-Sketch and written on a Lite Brite, Spiny Norman says hello. This reveals the significance of all that has been and will be. Next Question.
520: How long have you been playing open mic night at the Pub?
MBRC: We first went to Preservation Pub in February of '04 and did a couple songs together, both of which we stlll play, one occasionally and the other quite regularly. We didn't go back until we started semi-seriously playing music together and working on "Flattville". I think that was last July ('05) and we've been going almost every Tuesday night like it's our religion ever since.
520: What, if any, albums do you have?
MBRC: We currently have 1 album, a concept album called "The Flattville Murder Album," which is available at the Disc Exchange, Cats, from our website mbrconline.com, and cdbaby.com
520: Which songs did you do on Tuesday? Explain them briefly.
MBRC: We normally don't do too many covers, but since Bruce Hornsby was playing the Tennessee Theatre that night, we decided to play "Every Little Kiss". He's a great artist whom we both have always admired and we play the occasional wedding and it's a good one for that. "Hell or Highwater" is kind of a love song inspired by the Buffalo Creek Disaster in 197_, where a slugdge pond dam broke and destroyed nearly the entire West Virginia coal mining town of Buffalo Creek.
520: What do you like about Preservation Pub?
MBRC: It's very much a community atmosphere, and a great place for musicians in general. We've come to feel very welcome there, and love to hang out with all of the friends we've made and listen to their music. The waitstaff is also very attractive.
520: You two and Worley? When did that come about? Will there be more of
these kickass collaborations?
MBRC: We’ve known Worley for a year or so from similar musical ambitions, but never got the opportunity to sit in with him until the other night. The premise behind it was revenge on the sound man. Something about a show he played and the sound man cutting off the main speakers. So Worley asked us to sit in with him along with Shaggy, The Cornbred Blues Band bassist. It really was a blast, he's a great musician. We'll be doing a song or two with Worley at the Americana Jug Train show at Patrick Sullivan's Friday, September 1. It's a 5-band bill with Cornbred Blues Band, Roman Reese, Brendon James Wright, John Puckett, and us. It's top-secret classified information, so I can't reveal what song or songs we'll be doing with him, y'all will just have to come to the show.
MBRC and Jon Worley rock Songwriter's Showcase
Black Cornbred Blues
Blues genius sings his heart out with the Medford Black Record Collection
Click here to listen to 520's podcast of Jon Worley and Medford Black Record Collection's performance at the Pub.
Click here for the podcast RSS feed to subscribe to iTunes.
Jon Worley of the Cornbred Blues Band
Interview by Julia Marino
520: How long have you been playing/ writing music?
Worley: I started singing in heavy metal cover bands when I was 15. It was at that beautiful moment when the changing of the cultural guards was taking place in the mid 90’s after Metallica, but before Korn and I discovered the Misfits through a mutual skater/delinquent friend in Motown. There was something in the Nihilism and the rebelliousness in the music that made sense to a young adolescent mind growing up in Morristown. I didn’t exactly fly as a cover singer though. There were a few Danzig songs that I could do maybe some white zombie, or a little anthrax on the side, but that was about it. I had the unfortunate circumstance of having a baritone voice right smack dab in the middle of bands hitting the charts like Weezer, the Offspring, and Alice in Chains, which of course all featured the higher register male voice, so the boys wouldn’t let me sing on any covers and I finally broke down and said, “Screw you guys. If you’re not gonna let me sing the covers then I’ll just write my own tunes.” That was pretty much the beginning. I actually did a gig with them when I was 15 at the local Moose lodge in Morristown. I got up with the boys and went into a version of Pantera’s walk/Respect, which ended in a spontaneous mosh pit and a damage bill of $800.00 bucks and a threat of a law suit. Yeah, so I can’t ever play in any Moose Lodge in the southern states, so what. The music part of the equation came later on with the well documented vitamin experiments at the age of 18.
520: What inspires you to create music?
Worley: Music saved my soul. I believe that within every human being is an infinite capacity to experience their divinity through the beauty of music. By participating in my creative nature, I am participating in the part of the creator within me. I play to affirm life because the act of playing music is life affirming itself.
520: How would you describe your writing process?
Worley: I try to let it be as organic a process as possible. I have gone years at a stretch without actually writing down any lyrics at all. I’ve also written five or six songs in one stretch before, so I write on writings' own terms. I have improved songs one after the other and at the same time I have songs that I am still working on after six years. The songs are pretty much like my kids, and I try to give them the room to grow that they need. Sometimes, just because you think that a song should be a certain way, doesn’t mean that it necessarily should be that way. Songs should have a life independent of the artists to a certain extent and be allowed to grow on their own terms.
520: Where have you played around Knoxville?
Worley: Everywhere that I haven’t been beaten with sticks while my eyes are closed.
520: How long have you been performing at the Pub?
Worley: I started playing at the pub on the singer song writer nights as soon as I got back from Kentucky about 3 years ago. I started at the bottom of P-Pub pile just like the rest of the young and hopefuls that come from all around with that twinkle in the corner of their eyes and that lust in their gut to get up in front of a crowd and throw down. It’s been a natural evolution up the musical food chain since.
520: What about the Pub motives you to play and perform music? How would you describe Tuesday night's songwriter showcase? What is the general mood/atmosphere?
Worley: The P-Pub is the most communal musical environment in town. It’s one of the few hotbeds of musicians, fans, and, all round unpretentious folk left around, and the fact that it exists as half of the Mercury, one of Knoxville’s landmark music venues of all time, doesn’t hurt any either. It gets a little seedy and real intense real quick. Actually getting to play on stage is only a small sliver of the experience on Tuesday nights. The majority of the appeal is the sense of musical community that crops up in any environment where a gaggle of contemporary musicians are allowed to gather. It doesn’t matter on Tuesday night whether or not you make a living playing music or this is the first time you’ve ever been in front of a crowd, we all support each other equally. It’s a cultural democracy in its truest form and to participate in something that special is worth coming back to time and time again.
520: What are your goals as a musician?
Worley: I just want to participate in my small little cultural corner of the world and maybe keep myself sane and happy in the process.
Nintendo RULES - Because Nintendo Does Rule
Most bands have a signature style like ripped jeans or spitting. But for Knoxville's Nintendo RULES members Greg Wood and Chris Moyer, the band's main trademark is just a bunch of cock-and-bull stories.
Chris Moyer and Greg Wood sing about manatees.
Click here to listen to 520's podcast of Nintendo Rules.
Click here for the podcast RSS feed to subscribe to iTunes.
Interview by Julia Marino
520: How did you come up with the band name Nintendo RULES?
Wood: Nintendo RULES is our name, because Nintendo does rule. We just tried to think up the most obnoxious band name that we would’ve come up with when we were 10-year-olds. Also, it’s important to note that the word “rules” is in all capital letters for emphasis because, like we said, Nintendo rules.
520: How long have you been playing/ writing music? And how long have you been performing at the Pub?
Wood: We’ve been playing singer/songwriter night at Preservation Pub since the late 70s when we were on tour with Deep Purple and we stopped in the Pub one night after playing a sold out crowd at Neyland Stadium.
520: You have quite an extensive discography going. Could you tell me about your recent albums?
Wood: We have three albums currently, titled Songs in the Key of Music, Self-Titled (because we named it ourselves), and Lick the Knife. Currently, we are working on a concept EP called The Wolf Sessions where we actually went into the woods and lived with wolves for weeks and wrote about our experiences. We actually are recording it entirely outdoors, in the woods.
Unfortunately, these albums are only on our computers and a handful of our friends’ computers.
520: Last Tuesday at the Preservation Pub you performed the sad song “Manatee Tears.” It almost brought tears to my eye. What is that song about?
Moyer: “The song always makes me tear up a little. It really hits close to home. It’s about a young boy who is ostracized because he’s overweight. He has no friends, but he befriends a manatee who is also an outcast in the sea mammal world because he’s fat too. They become best of friends, but as the boy gets older he’s not so awkward and he starts making friends so he loses touch with the manatee. Then he gets a boat and accidentally hits the manatee and realizes his mistake far too late.
520: What about the Pub motives you to play and perform music? What is the general mood/atmosphere?
Wood: We like the Pub because there is High Life and tacky shit on the walls. We also love the crowd, all the performers, Jared and Jill (the bartenders) and Joe who runs Singer/Songwriter night. We’ve made so many friends hanging out at the Pub over the past year, and we look forward to seeing them every Tuesday.
520: What’s coming up next for Nintendo RULES? Will you be touring?
Wood: Currently, we are not playing any shows anywhere other than open mic night at the Pub because we’re so wrapped up in recording. We were actually both asked to replace John Bonham and drum on the Led Zeppelin reunion tour, and as much as we’d love to collaborate with those kids, we just don’t have the time with the new album coming out sometime around Christmas. By the way, the new album will make the perfect Christmas gift for friends and family.
"The Wolf Sessions" out this coming Christmas
