Live music is sacred. We all know this. A bond is formed between performers and those gathered to listen, connecting our shared humanity, love of stories and the transcendent beauty of music and voice. The Red Clay Music Foundry has […]
Jim Simpson is an award-winning fiction writer and freelance music critic. A native of the wilds of Florida's Gulf Coast, he now resides on the scruffy fringes of Atlanta, Georgia.
He frequently writes about music, with his taste spanning all genres: bluegrass, Americana, classic country, alt-country, western swing, blues, classical, rock 'n' roll, punk, reggae, klezmer, and British isles folk (to name but a few).
He once sang "Happy Birthday" (with about 10,000 other people) to Joni Mitchell, and has seen such legends as Miles Davis, The Incredible Jimmy Smith, Rockpile, Blue Rodeo, King Sunny Ade, David Bowie, Joan Jett, Robyn Hitchcock, R.E.M., Rosanne Cash, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan live in concert. He has interviewed Those Darlins, John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, Marshall Chapman, Charlie Louvin, Derek Hoke, Jim Avett, the Secret Sisters, and Meghan McCormick.
Jim is a former editor for Awaiting the Flood and has written for The Atlanta Music Guide, Hellbomb, Earbuddy, The Weeklings, The Book Shopper, and The Nervous Breakdown. He recently finished his first novel, and if all goes well it should be in bookstores sometime before his death.
Live music is sacred. We all know this. A bond is formed between performers and those gathered to listen, connecting our shared humanity, love of stories and the transcendent beauty of music and voice. The Red Clay Music Foundry has […]
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. “A Psalm of Life” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ESOEBO — pron. e-SO-bo; acronym […]
A sense of place is vitally important to any good story, and the best places tend to retain the essence of their past incarnations. The Red Clay Music Foundry is a shining example of this. Once a church – one of […]
What seems initially to be a curious novelty combining bluegrass and traditional Jewish music, turns out to be an idea that makes absolute sense. Both genres have so much in common – love of family, respect for ancestral roots, history, […]
An unusually brisk and rainy late May evening wasn’t enough to discourage a good crowd from venturing out to hear two excellent singer/songwriters — both named Chuck — offer insights and captivating stories of the songs they’ve crafted, and to share those songs until after […]
In three sets with three different bands over nearly three hours, Levi Lowrey showed a packed house at the Red Clay Music Foundry what he’s all about. The Dacula, Georgia, native can trace his musical roots back over thirty years […]
Sara Hickman is a hugger. After performing for more than two hours with Don Henry and Jon Vezner, she leaped from the stage and embraced anyone who seemed even remotely receptive. Hickman was the wide-eyed and grinning extrovert (unusual for […]
In two mesmerizing and dramatic sets, the Maryland-based husband-and-wife duo of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Blount Trotter, known as The War and Treaty, took the Red Clay Music crowd on an emotionally charged ride with stunning songs about love, […]
If you’ve ever wondered how it would be to exist for a time in a collage – or better yet in the mind of the artist who created that collage – then go see a Bob Schneider show. It’s the […]
Not many performers can take an often overly sentimental standard like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and make it a stunner by completely transforming the song solely by force of their own style. With a voice like fine china, or morning sunshine […]
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