SIGNAL FLOW PR - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- PledgeMusic Founder and CEO
Bryan Hayes crafts personal narratives with a novelist's eye ("Let's Ride") and a poet's elegance ("Small Town Amazing Grace"). Clear evidence: The Memphis area resident's seamless Farther Down the Line. Hayes' excellent new collection spotlights a rapidly rising songwriter growing exponentially (the title track). "This record was definitely written with more confidence," Hayes explains. "I was not afraid to touch on subject matter that I might have shied away from a few years ago. I now know what a gift this career is, so I feel like I owe it to my folks to be honest and open. I want the songs to come from my heart."
Hayes frequently delivers keen insight with earthy elegance. "We break out those old CDs and do our best to sing along," he sings on the buoyant opener "Let's Ride." "We fumble through the verses and shout the chorus loud and strong/With both those speakers blaring Guy Clark and John Prine/Baby, tonight let's ride." The song effectively serves as a blueprint for the Memphis songwriter's career: Free your mind. Loose inspiration within. Let music speak.
"While I was writing for this record, I was just trying to write the best songs that I could," Hayes explains. "I wasn't really thinking of a theme, but now that it's complete I guess the constant theme I see and hear is just real life. The songs are real. They're things that I've lived and experienced. Like Jimmy Buffett said in a song ‘some of it's magic and some of it's tragic'. Some of the songs make me smile and some of them make me cry, but I felt like they all have a place on this record." They certainly do. Farther Down the Line effortlessly splits the delicate difference between moving ("Tangle Me Up in You") and grooving ("Everything'll Be Okay").
Folks notice. "Not only does Bryan craft a great song with melody and music, but more importantly he crafts a great story with his lyrics and he sings them the only way he knows how - from his heart," says Andy Hunt, the celebrated Grammy-winning, Nashville-based producer. Frequent Guy Clark collaborator Noel McKay echoes: "Bryan Hayes' songs always come from that sincere place that seems to effortlessly draw the listener in. He is among the rare songwriters truly capable of channeling life experience into great, listenable songs."
The excellent new album doubles down on past high watermarks (Still Just a Man…10 Years Later) with vivid vignettes throughout ("Southern Rain," "I Wanna Run"). Admittedly, Hayes' canvas for subject matter has expanded with greater breadth and depth. "I touch on God and politics a bit in this record," he says. "Sometimes that's a tough row to hoe when you're playing a lot of the smaller clubs like I do, but my songwriting heroes did the same thing. They were always open and honest, and I loved that about them. I have always admired the fact that Billy Joe Shaver has the courage to sing about Christ in bars and clubs. I actually got to open for him in late 2014 and I thanked him for that."
Spin that word and expand the notion: Thankful. You'll notice Hayes express the feeling around every twist and turn. Much has to do with returning from a side trip he took years ago: Fighting in the war in Iraq. Naturally, that mission pushed his songwriting toward the back burner. "There was a two-year window in 2009 and 2010 when I was deployed to Iraq and I had to put the guitar in the closet," he says. "I was either at Fort Benning Georgia training or in Iraq. As the military tour started winding down, I picked up the guitar again in Mosul, Iraq and started writing again and reconnecting with music and how much I love and missed songwriting."
Hayes looked toward songwriters like Clark and Prine for insight and inspiration when entering the studio for his triumphant return to the fold, Still Just a Man…10 Years Later, effectively modeling the recording process after the 2012 Americana Album of the Year This One's for Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. "That record changed my life," he says. "The way those songs were presented was just so intimate. It sounded like you were in the room with those guys. Guy's ability to be brutally honest is what I take away. He gets right to the point. There's no fluff, no smoke and mirrors. Everything from the music to the lyrics to the production needs to be there. The first time you hear ‘Stuff That Works,' you shake your head and smile and go, ‘That's it. That's all it needs.' You instantly relate."
Still Just a Man…10 Years Later marked a reflective moment in a career built from the ground up. Hayes' debut Just a Man (2004) earned a loyal following in the Mid-South and boosted his touring schedule as well as earning two "Best Of" Memphis Songwriter Awards. His second album Long Hard Road (2006) took Hayes and his band The Retrievers to the regional level with independent Internet radio play over the Southeast. His Tangle Me Up In You EP (2013) grew his audience even farther and earned opening slots for Randy Houser, Turnpike Troubadours, Billy Joe Shaver and several others. "Bryan Hayes and I both come from the Deep South," says The Trishas singer-songwriter Kelley Mickwee. "That means he tells it like it is."
His straightforward approach has paid off handsomely. Hayes' songs have appeared on several compilation albums including the Memphis Songwriters Association's 2010 Members Only album ("Soldier's Prayer") and Retriever Records 2012 compilation B-Sides, Demos & Lies ("Woman (You're Amazing To Me)" and "Small Town Amazing Grace"). Additionally, Hayes appeared on Retriever Records' 2012 live album Live At Farmhouse Studio ("Long Hard Road," "Texas in a Bottle"). In addition to writing and performing, Bryan is a producer and engineer at Farmhouse Recording Studio (www.farmhouserecordingstudio.com) in Moscow, TN.
Chris Milam had a busy weekend - he started recording Saturday with the help of Kevin Cubbins, Mark Stuart, Chris Thomasmeyer, and Al Gamble … Read More
Lisa Mac has walked through a hurricane.
It's the best way to describe the violent storm of her abusive past, a secret prison that kept her controlled and quiet. For almost a decade Lisa's voice was stifled - but now she's picking up the pieces on the other side, finding herself in the debris.
Lisa was born and raised in Memphis. You'll know it within minutes of meeting her or hearing her music, a seamless blend of blues, pop and the city's signature gritty hip-hop beats. She's creating her own kind of soul. It's unsurprising, considering that she grew up singing in church, and says she first discovered her voice when she got connected with the Gospel community as a teen.
That hurricane stole almost a decade from Lisa. Scarred but not broken is her sensitive heart - she sees her music as a chance to connect, to bring people joy. Instead of dwelling on her past, she's grabbed the pen and is writing her own next chapter. That story begins a few years ago, when Lisa stumbled onto a little house in Memphis' eclectic Cooper-Young neighborhood. There was something about this spot - she scraped together the money to rent its expansive back studio, and eventually took over the whole place. She invited artists and like-minded people to share the space and christened the funky little house at 688 Cox Street: Studio688. A deeply creative visual artist, the studio was a home for Lisa's painting and photography; but it was inside Studio688 that she began making music again, with fellow musician and producer Wil Deshazo (Fast Planet). It's where she first played "Hurricane." It was where everything changed.
Through the community she'd built at Studio688, "Hurricane" made its way to guitarist and producer Elliot Ives (Justin Timberlake, FreeSol, Lord T & Eloise). Instantly, something clicked. "We just have something in common, an underlying vibe," she says. "He gets me - he gets exactly what I want. I want to surprise people, confuse them a little bit. Really, I write blues songs - they're relatable and real and coming from a real place. But the sound is pop with hip-hop and rap influences. I want to catch people off guard a little bit."
It was clear from the start that Ives was the perfect fit to produce Lisa's music, and with his help her vision began to take shape.
"The man loves to make beats and I love beats," Lisa laughs. "My brother is a DJ so growing up, my bedroom next to his, I was surrounded by beats. It's just so cool that my love for blues and Elliot's gift of beats have come together like a magic potion."
Undoubtedly, there's an element of magic to all of this. Lisa ticks off a list of people who've been put into her path in the last year who've made this possible. All these characters who've defined this new chapter have all landed at exactly the right time. She wrote "Hurricane" in May. She met Ives in June. And since then, things have moved fast. Whirlwind fast.
Lisa says it's nothing short of divine intervention - but from the outside, it's easy to see that Lisa, at last, is the one calling the shots. From the inside, mostly Lisa feels grateful. She's a born-and-bred Memphian who sees her city rising up around her, and wants to find a way to pour back into it.
First, though, she'll finish her debut album with Ives and engineer Scott Hardin at Young Avenue Sound. It will be ready for release it in 2016 - from there, she'll chart a path forward, away from the wreckage of what was and boldly into a future that Lisa is finally defining for herself.
Job Titles:
- Recording Studio, Wins UK Americana Artist of the Year - No Depression
Emily Barker is set to release her new album ‘Sweet Kind of Blue' on May 19 hrough Everyone Sang/Kartel. The album marks a new sound as she returns to the soul and blues influences that first inspired her to become a singer/songwriter. ‘Sweet Kind of Blue' was recorded in June 2016, at the legendary Sam Phillips Recording Service in Memphis that holds the legacy of recording artists like Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan and Booker T. The stunning set is her first full studio album since Emily Barker & the Red Clay Halo's ‘Dear River' in 2013.
The stars were perfectly aligned for these Memphis ‘Sweet Kind of Blue' sessions. Barker brought her songs, her guitar, that cathedral of a voice and her irrepressible freewheeling spirit. Producer Matt Ross-Spang was riding high following his recent Grammy success with Jason Isbell and Barker was backed by top Memphis musicians Rick Steff, Dave Smith, Dave Cousar and Steve Potts who have performed on recordings for John Mayall, Cat Power and Norah Jones, amongst many others. Barker marveled at the synergy they created: "in this short amount of time, (4 days of tracking) myself and the musicians become very close. It's a magical thing to experience; the rapid transition from strangers to life-long friends, it doesn't always happen". The result is an intoxicating blend of songs Barker penned about loves lost, heartrending humanity, the rush of the road trip and the sheer glory of a new love. The making of the album was a love story in itself - between Barker and Memphis.
The album includes songs like ‘Sunrise', the second single, which Barker wrote on a road-trip while touring Sweden, influenced by natural surroundings of lakes, beaches and the long-lasting sunlight of peak Swedish summer. "It's a song about escaping", says Barker, "and it seemed very fitting to record it in the USA with the national theme of the road-trip being such a feature in literature, music and popular culture throughout American history".
It follows the contrasting mood of first single ‘Sister Goodbye', a soulful tribute to one of Barker's guitar-slinging heroes, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Barker performed the song in her honour, hoping she might be listening, and describes Rosetta as "trailblazer, a barrier-breaker, an innovator and an inspiration". In title track ‘Sweet Kind of Blue', Barker brings the funk with a raw fervour, backed by a tight rhythm section that delivers a southern swing, as well as classic interjecting harmonies.
Barker has penned and performed theme songs for BAFTA and Ivor Novello winning television dramas Wallander (starring Kenneth Branagh) and The Shadow Line and for the movie The Keeping Room, as well as an entire musical score for the poignant and well-received 2015 road movie, Hector, starring Peter Mullan. She has released several critically acclaimed albums both solo, as Emily Barker and the Red Clay Halo and including side projects Vena Portae and Applewood Road. She has played many sold-out UK dates and performed with Frank Turner at the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.
"Sweet Kind of Blue becomes a vehicle for Emily Barker to give something back to the music that acted as a foundation and catalyst for her own career." - Danny McCloskey, The Alternate Root
"There were no rehearsals. Everything was nailed in two or three takes. It's all live vocals on Emily's part. The only thing we punched would be a harmony or strings or something. The musicians have all played together many times, but it's been a while, so it was like a really cool family reunion. And they just killed it. I still get goosebumps listening to "Sister Goodbye." I think that was the first one we tracked, and it set the tone for the whole record." - Matt Ross-Spang, from Sense of Place: England's Emily Barker finds a musical home at Phillips Recording - The Memphis Flyer
"It's hard not to think of Dusty Springfield (hey, another non-US Americana artist) as Barker wraps her voice around lush ballads and fervent grooves." - Mayer Danzig, Twangville
"Yes, this is a Memphis album. And it's obvious that Emily Barker knows, feels, loves and understands Memphis; what the power of recording in that city can do - for the song and the emotions that go into those songs. And when you listen all the way through these tracks, you immediately know why it is "a sweet kind of blue" - because it is. Very sweet." - Rob Ross, PopDose
Keia is determined to have her voice heard - this is the girl who once charmed her way into an audition for an adult choir with GRAMMY® nominee James Bignon, after all. He requested that Keia sing her own solo. After making history for the Pacific Wide Gospel Concert, she took part in several television shows and celebratory performances. But it was American Idol that served as the true catalyst for Keia to recognize who she was as an artist and what she wanted to do with her career. The talent competition led her to Hollywood where "Miss Congeniality" wowed the judges. Her audition performance of Celine Dion's vocally rigorous "My Heart Will Go On" prompted guest judge and musical role model Mary J. Blige to simply declare: "She can sing!"
"Presenting Lisa Mac's brand new video for her moody pop-song with Project Pat, "Getaway." Director Isaiah Conyers takes us to a neon nightclub, chock full of weird make-up, glowing masks, and other trippy visuals while Lisa Mac and Project Pat go all in." - Chris Shaw, Memphis Flyer "Getaway" exclusive video premiere
Though she's currently based in Kentucky, Michelle has deep (and very cool) Memphis connections - she was born in the Bluff City, and her parents were DJs in Memphis in the 1970s and attended Al Green's church. You might know Michelle from her work on Nine Bullets or her long-running institution of Lucero fan-dom, Dear Ben Nichols. She's been working in the social media realm since 2008 and is currently finishing her degree in multidisciplinary studies with a focus in music industry, entertainment media and event promotion. Michelle's passion is spreading the word about the music she loves by working with record labels, PR firms, bands, musicians, blogs, venues, arts & entertainments newspapers, promoters, management groups, booking agents, talent buyers, etc., in the independent music industry. She says: "Passion is my driving force: passion for music, passion for the work, and passion for lifting up lesser known, highly talented artists, so they can gain further recognition in their genres. I see it as doing my part for the greater good of the musicians and the music they make."