Music has the ability to trigger emotions; to ease tensions; to elicit camaraderie; and, when in the hands of a true artist, to inspire greatness. Music has always been a pillar of the Euphoria experience, not an afterthought. Euphoria 2010 continues that tradition with performances by Edwin McCain and several other renowned artists soon to be announced.
2010 Musical
Edwin McCain - Platinum-selling singer/songwriter, Greenville native and co-founder of Euphoria
Edwin McCain
Taking the stage for what’s easily the 100th time in almost as many days, Edwin McCain casually joins his band as they start off another set that’s impossibly tight and laid back at the same time. By the time his vocals kick in, it’s clear that this is no ordinary troubadour on the club circuit. This is Edwin McCain, the voice that is romance incarnate, has launched a thousand marriages and stirred up Southern soul for over 20 years.
For the guy who always dreamed of a life on the road, Edwin’s massive pop hits “I’ll Be” and “I Could Not Ask For More” were like pulling into glamorous, exciting towns along his never-ending tour. They were life changing and sent him off with incredible memories and nifty souvenirs but were always just a part of the journey, not the destination. “I’ve been lucky enough to experience a pretty broad range of stardom, and the lack thereof, throughout my journey as a musician,” he once said with a chuckle. “I’ve been on television shows and won awards, but I’ve also lived in the back of a truck, and I’ve even worked the Drive-Thru at Krispy Kreme singing wedding songs.”
Surprising to him more than anyone else, those very songs have endured beyond all wildest expectations, turning into wedding anthems and misty-eyed soundtracks to countless wedding proposals. Over a million Dr. Phil viewers voted “I’ll Be” as the best wedding song ever written, the New York Times dubbed him the “great American romantic,” and at any given moment on this very day a radio station in America is playing one of his songs. “They’re kind of emotional road maps,” Edwin explains, “and each one, especially if you’re connected to it in some real way, can change and grow and lead you in new directions of thought.” “But the highlight of what I do is playing for and connecting with the people that come out to see me live. The fans - and I hate to call them fans - the friends of music that survive the advertising campaign long enough to understand what music is truly about, and have incorporated my music into their lives to the point where it is are part of their memories and emotions - those are the ones I do it all for."
This philosophy, this innate ability to write songs that somehow every listener claims as their own, is not just reserved for the love songs but also in the soul-drenched party songs that fans fill the clubs to hear. The ones that weave seamlessly in and out of Edwin’s versions of his own personal favorites like the Drifters’ “Some Kind of Wonderful” and the Temptations’ “I Can’t Get Next To You,” his unabashed love for vintage soul is worn on proudly on his guitar strap.
His reverence – and talent - for great songwriting eventually found a partner in fellow tunesmith Maia Sharp. The two have played a musical game of ping pong throughout the years, writing songs for each others’ albums then returning the favor, then back again. Among their favorites are “Say Anything,” which Maia also sings on, and the new “Walk With You.” “When Maia and I decided to write together again,” recalls Edwin, “I said let’s just start out with this song for a friend’s daughter who’s getting married, do a little song not for public consumption, just a nice song he can have for his daughter and a it’ll be a good warm up for us to start writing the ‘real stuff.’”
But “Walk With You” quickly took on a life of its own. “We had one of those ‘wow’ moments,” he continues, “and it sort of grew from that. By the end of the recording session, even the engineer in the studio was tearing up and you can’t get a more jaded guy that the engineer who hears every single song out there.” But the real test was putting it before an audience. “Performing it at the wedding wasn’t a really fair gauge,” McCain admits. “So I started putting it into my touring set list, and was floored when the crowds erupted mid-song. That just doesn’t happen with new songs.” A new classic in the making, “Walk With You” is already looking like a shiny new town beckoning to Edwin on his latest tour.
“It’s not about chart positions or record sales or anything like that,” insists the man with 11 albums, a wall of platinum and gold albums that have sold in the millions, and reams of Top 10, 20 and 40 hits, “it just has to do with people coming together and sharing a moment, that's it. And that’s all I ever wanted to do. I just love that moment in the small club and bar where every single person in there has a moment where it’s silent and they get it and it’s beautiful, that moment where the music that’s coming off the stage is much more than the players and much more than the audience and something happens and you’re sitting there and your hair stands up. That’s it, man. I love it.”
Chuck Cannon
Chuck grew up in the low country of South Carolina, a Southern boy generations deep. His music echoes the R&B, Folk Rock, Gospel, and Country he grew up listening to.
He is a multi-award winning songwriter who has had his songs recorded by an incredibly diverse array of mega-stars ranging from Paul Carrack (Mike & The Mechanics, Squeeze and Ace) to Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and Toby Keith…to Euro-Pop super-group BoyZone and 80’s rock superstar band NightRanger.
With numerous # 1 and top ten songs, he has logged over 16 million airplays with BMI.
His critically acclaimed solo projects, GOD SHAPED HOLE and LOVE AND MONEY reflect the depth of his art…the production is haunting with wide open spaces that support songs that are quite simply, stunning.
His live performance is riveting…no one interprets a song like the writer of the song and Chuck Cannon will leave you wanting more.
www.chuckcannon.com
Chuck Cannon’s music may be found on iTunes and CD Baby
Maia Sharp
Four years ago, Maia Sharp achieved a lifelong ambition, when Bonnie Raitt invited her to open for and perform with her on the road.
Now it’s your turn: If you’re hoping to hear music that will mirror, touch and maybe change your life, that dream comes true with Echo.
Produced by studio legend Don Was, Sharp’s new album heralds her ascension into the spotlight after being embraced by Raitt, Carole King, the Dixie Chicks, Art Garfunkel, Keb’ Mo’, Cher, Trisha Yearwood, Edwin McCain, Lisa Loeb, David Wilcox and many others who have recorded her songs and treasured her talent.
From this point, the secret is out and Sharp stands on her own – a uniquely gifted singer, writer and multi-instrumentalist, whose peers are the most discerning artists in the business but whose music on Echo reaches out toward the wider world.
Her way with a melody, her sophisticated chord movements, the twist and flow of her lyrics all testify to a writing technique that’s equal to the best in the business. But what makes Echo triumphant is how all of these attributes serve the greater goal of stirring emotions.
To get to the point of creating and delivering songs like “Polite Society,” a raunchy anthem that might have sprung from some communion between Carole King and Neil Young, or the bleak yet tender character study of “John Q. Lonely,” or the wry ironies woven through the wordplay of “Whole Flat World,” or the restless introspection of “Where Do I Begin,” or especially the stark candor of “The Girl on Her Way,” Sharp draws from both a musically rich upbringing and her emotional and intellectual engagement with the perplexities of life.
“Echo is the first album I’ve ever done where there’s truth in every single song,” Sharp says. “I know it sounds cheesy, but whether I knew it or not, truth always found a way into them. Sometimes I was halfway through writing a song before I realized that something I thought was just a nice opening line or a hook in the chorus was actually about something that had absolutely happened to me.”
Sharp started early on the journey that led ultimately to Echo. She hadn’t yet hit her teens when she was already on the road to mastering piano, guitar and saxophone. Following the example of her father, Randy Sharp, a respected songwriter, she performed original material in local clubs, kept her ears open not only to contemporary folk and rock but also to jazz and classical elements. She won significant critical notice and radio airplay with her albums, Hardly Glamour (Ark 21), 2002’s self titled Maia Sharp (Concord) 2005’s Fine Upstanding Citizen (KOCH) and in that same year Sharp was one third of the exquisite collaboration with Art Garfunkel and Buddy Mondlock on Everything Waits to Be Noticed (EMI/Manhattan).
2005 was also the year Sharp’s path toward Echo opened unexpectedly. It began when Raitt released Souls Alike, with three Sharp songs in the lineup including the single “I Don't Want Anything To Change.” That album also featured Sharp’s backup on those and several other tracks, which led to her joining Raitt on tour. The experience inspired Sharp to challenge herself even further by limiting her next string of gigs as well as her EP, Eve and the Red Delicious, to a minimal presentation: just her, bassist Darren Embry, and a growing body of songs, speaking eloquently on their own.
Much of this time was spent on the road or writing in Los Angeles, Nashville or Austin. But Sharp happened to be in Hollywood one night when a message from Raitt flashed on her phone. “She said, ‘I’m in a studio on Sunset Boulevard. I don’t even know if you’re in town, but I need a high harmony. Where are you?’ Well, I was on Sunset just down the street and I’d just finished this ridiculously big meal,” Sharp said, laughing. “It was the worst possible time for me to sing – but this was Bonnie calling, so what am I going to do?”
She arrived and nailed the part. Just as important, she met Don Was, who was overseeing the session. They hit it off and Sharp agreed to take part in a series of upcoming sessions he was conducting and posting on the newly launched website, MyDamnChannel.com. The catch: Each of these had to be done in one day; two songs recorded and mixed starting at noon and when midnight hit, everything stopped and the results, no matter how rough, were posted online.
“It scared the hell out of me,” Sharp admits. “I’d never worked like that before. But Don creates such a relaxed yet productive environment and, of course, he gets incredible sounds in the studio so I had to give it a shot.”
By the time they’d finished, both were very happy with what they had. They’d gotten on well personally and professionally. So well that not long after that they were together again, working on what would become Echo.
They’d gotten a head start with “Polite Society,” which was cut at the MyDamnChannel session. They’d also developed a brisk collaborative rhythm, capturing the moment, leaving room for spontaneity to run its course. Surrounded by an A-team of studio legends like Jim Keltner on drums and Don himself lending his bass chops on many tracks as well as her co-writers and others who had played on her demos, Sharp found the elegance and the grit, the poetry and – that word again – the truth seeded into her songs.
Echo is a collection of those truths and a thorough representation of who Maia Sharp is today. “These songs were written over a period of three years,” she sums up. “I wrote a lot of other songs during that same time, but these felt especially right for me and cohesive with each other. There’s a common thread of flaw and imperfection recognition and then celebration. Perfection is highly overrated and, I’m betting, pretty boring. It took me a while to get here but I’m okay that I’m not perfect.”
That is the appeal, and the accomplishment, of Echo – a score for life as we all live it.
Mark Rapp
Jazz trumpeter and composer Mark Rapp has played sold out shows at the Blue Note (NY), Joe's Pub, Yoshi's (San Francisco), Dizzy's at Jazz Lincoln Center and such venues as the JVC Newport Jazz Festival, JazzTime Festival (Croatia), Jazzland (Vienna), W.C. Handy Festival, Sonoma Wine & Song, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage and more.
Mark was named a "top emerging trumpeter" by Downbeat Magazine, featured on a Travel Channel documentary and has played with artists from Branford Marsalis to Hootie and the Blowfish and most recently recorded with Don Braden and Gerald Clayton. His debut CD Token Tales is receiving critical acclaim and charted #20 on the Jazz Week Charts. In 2007 Down Beat listed Rapp on their very short list of, “Top emerging jazz trumpeters.” JazzTimes and AllAboutJazz.com also had great praises, writing, “(Rapp) has his own way of defining jazz, which keeps its standard principles… while delving into the experimental side.” and "Rapp lives up to his billing as one of today's exciting young trumpeters."
For more info or to listen to a few tunes, visit http://www.markrapp.com
Shawn Colvin
In an era when female singer-songwriters are ever more ubiquitous, Shawn Colvin stands out as a singular and enduring talent. Her songs are slow-release works of craft and catharsis that become treasured, lifetime companions for their listeners. As a storyteller, Colvin is both keen and warm-hearted, leavening even the toughest tales with tenderness, empathy, and a searing sense of humor. In the 19 years since the release of her debut album, Colvin has won three Grammy Awards, released eight albums, maintained a non-stop national and international touring schedule, appeared on countless television and radio programs, had her songs featured in major motion pictures, and created a remarkable cannon of work.
Combined sales of her albums total more than 2.5 million copies in the United States alone, and Colvin continues to perform at least 50–60 shows a year. Over the years she has shared the stage and toured with legendary artists such as Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Hornsby, Emmylou Harris, and Lyle Lovett. She has toured internationally throughout her career, returning to places as near as the UK and Europe as far as Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. She was honored to perform with David Broza and Jackson Browne in a very special sunrise concert at the base of the 2000-year-old fortress of Masada in Southern Israel, overlooking Dead Sea. The concert was broadcast on PBS stations throughout the U.S. in the late fall of 2007 and in early 2008.
Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, where she lived until she was eight. A small-town childhood in the university town of Carbondale, Illinois, drew her to the guitar by the age of 10. She made her first public appearance on campus at the University of Illinois at age 15. By the late 1970s Colvin was singing in a Western Swing band in Austin, Texas—the city she now calls home. Moving to New York at the decade’s end she remained in the country music field as a member of the Buddy Miller Band until she met producer, guitarist, and co-writer John Leventhal. Leventhal inspired Colvin to find her own voice as a songwriter. She began honing her skill, and was soon signed to Columbia records Her first album, Steady On won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.
Colvin continued to win fans and critics with her subsequent releases, Fat City (1992) and Cover Girl (1994). In 1996, she released A Few Small Repairs (1996), which would prove to be her breakthrough. The murder-ballad “Sunny Came Home” gave Colvin a Top 10 hit and two of Grammy’s biggest honors: Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Holiday Songs And Lullabies (1998), recorded while Colvin was eight and a half months pregnant with her daughter Caledonia, followed. Whole New You (2001) and Polaroids (2004). Her Nonesuch debut These Four Walls (2006) was lauded by People Magazine as “the most self-assured album of her career” and “one for the ages” by the Washington Post. The Austin-American Statesman called it “an exquisite portrait of strength and vulnerability.”
Colvin’s newest release, Shawn Colvin Live (2009), was recorded in 2008 during a special three-night solo engagement at San Francisco’s famous jazz club, Yoshi’s, Live includes 12 songs written or co-written by Colvin, as well as covers of songs by Robbie Robertson, Gnarls Barkley, and the Talking Heads. The record was co-produced by Colvin and John Leventhal. Shawn Colvin Live captures the beauty and intimacy of Colvin’s performances, showcasing her inimitable voice and matchless guitar stylings.
Colvin recently signed a deal with Harper Collins Publishers to write a memoir, which will be an extension of the intimate, personal, and often hilarious stories that she weaves into her live concerts.
Walter Blanding
Walter Blanding was born on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio to a musical family and began playing the saxophone at age six. In 1981, he moved with his family to New York City, and by age 16, he was performing regularly with his parents at the Village Gate. Mr. Blanding attended LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and the Performing Arts and continued his studies at the New School for Social Research. Mr. Blanding lived in Israel for 4 years, where he had a major impact on the music scene, inviting great artists such as Louis Hayes, Eric Reed and others to perform. He also taught in several Israeli schools and toured the country with his ensemble. During this period, Newsweek described him as "Jazz's Ambassador to Israel." His first recording, Tough Young Tenors, was acclaimed as one of the best jazz albums of 1991. Since then, he has performed or recorded with many artists, including Cab Calloway, the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Marcus Roberts, Illinois Jacquet, Eric Reed, Roy Hargrove and others. His latest release, The Olive Tree, features fellow members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
To see Walter perform, check out this video.