the dotmatrix project

A little something for the ladies, moms and grandmoms on Mother’s Day. Free. Live. Music.

No Responses Posted by Molly McGinn, 05/06/09

Flowers from the farmer’s market. Fresh strawberries. A walk in the park. Mama likes to buy local, doesn’t she? How about some fresh local music. We’ve got a few finds and featured artists in the Dotmatrix Project archives with live albums that you can listen to on LastFm, or purchase from Amie Street. And if the live album isn’t ready yet, go ahead and support a local artist and buy it straight from the source.

Your mama would be proud.

Laurelyn Dossett

Aside from her soft soprano and storyteller lyrics, Laurelyn is a mama herself. She raised her 3 young babies until they could get around on their own and then started taking guitar lessons. A student of Greensboro’s own Scott Manring at String Studios, Laurelyn’s music career has taken her far beyond the typical musician’s music career. This month she’ll tour with the North Carolina Symphony; visit Prairie Home Companion with singing partner (and a mother, too) Kari Sickenberger. And next summer she’ll premier a fourth music and play collaboration with Triad Stage’s Preston Lane. Her live show performance at the Dotmatrix Project captures Dossett’s love for North Carolina folklore and captivating songwriting.

Laurelyn Dossett, Live at the Dotmatrix Project on LastFm
Download the album on Amie Street
Or check out her new album, Stages

Jim Avett

Don’t let anybody fool you. Jim Avett was a singer and songwriter long before his boys ever broke a banjo string. The classic country music lover is a fool for a good gospel or country song and spends most of his time these days schooling young musicians on the finer phrases of the craft, passing it on by singing lines and picking melodies from Tom T. Hall and Merle Haggard tunes. Most of the tunes from Jim’s live performance at the Dotmatrix Project won’t go up online due to copyright issues (who wants to piss off Merle Haggard? Seriously). But he does have a gospel album recently released through Ramseur Records that features a few members of his family.

Jim Avett and Family

Rhiannon Giddens

For a young woman, the Greensboro-based musician knows a lot of old songs. The Oberlin trained singer traded in the arias for a banjo and fiddle to form the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The world-touring troupe is an African American string band - a style established here in the Piedmont region. Still, Giddens is a modern woman, too, and is stretching her songwriting skills into a new era: her own. Her Dotmatrix Project album captures the new and the old. The album isn’t ready yet, but you can prime your dear mother’s ears with the next best thing - a Rhiannon Giddens album.

Rhiannon’s album is still in the works (she’s been on tour) but you can hear some of her tracks on Laurelyn’s album
Rhiannon Giddens

Bruce Piephoff

You really can’t talk local music without mentioning Bruce Piephoff. The singer songwriter performed with an impressive line up of musicians for his Dotmatrix Project performance, featuring fiddles, stand up bass, accordions and Filthybird’s lead singer and primary songwriter Renee Mendoza. His live performance isn’t up on Last Fm yet, but Bruce’s prolific career can be heard on his new album, The Chestnut Tree - his 16th - from Flyin’ Cloud Records.

Bruce’s live show isn’t yet available
Bruce Piephoff

The Old Stone Revue

If your mama still likes to yell “Free Bird” at live concerts, this album is for her. Here’s what Last Fm has to say about these boys: “New Grass and Roots music has gained worldwide acclaim in the last decade — from the back porches, to the Ryman Auditorium, Americana is stronger than ever. The Old Stone Revue was formed to carry on the tradition of singer songwriting but not feeling confined to the boundaries of traditional bluegrass and country music. With influences from John Prine, Johnny Cash, and Del McCoury, to Jazz Is Dead, and Gram Parsons, The Old Stone Revue mix traditional bluegrass with country, rock, and soul.”

The Old Stone Revue, Live at the Dotmatrix Project on LastFm
Purchase the live recording on Amie Street
The Old Stone Revue

Harvey’s Kitchen: Jeri Rowe

No Responses Posted by Sean Patrick Coon, 05/05/09

Jerry has been a mainstay within the community for a long time now. From his patented empathetical stories of the people living within the Triad to covering the far reaches of our music scene, when Jeri lays down the ink you’re bound to learn something new and enjoy the read along the way.

Thanks for everything you do, Jeri.

And yes, please do save the Monkeywhale.

Open letter to John Brown

[2] Responses Posted by Molly McGinn, 05/05/09

Found behind a Harris Teeter in Greensboro. Photo by Zoe Alexandra.

Dear Professor Jazz,

Thank you for coming to Greensboro Wednesday and sharing your talents with this city for the EMFjazz&blues festival.

I understand that you’re an accomplished musician. Educator. Professor and Director of the Jazz Program at Duke University. That said, I wondered if you could answer something for me.

When did Jazz get so money?

The last two times I ran into local jazz musicians I was left stung by the slap of money. One said they wouldn’t show up for much without a promised paycheck. Neither would most of his friends.

The other dude asked for a few dollars after what I thought was an impromptu jazz jam. It turned out to be a gig, yes, but I thought they were playing along because they liked the music.

Instead it felt like I’d just invited somebody over to my house for a home cooked dinner, then got stuck with the check.

I get it, though. We all need to get paid.

It just mystifies me that a style of music born out of the brothels and gin houses is now almost entirely confined to refined concert halls and universities, where lanky mop-haired kids develop an elitist attitude to only playing for people dressed in their Sunday best.

More ironic is how a jazz musician can demand big bucks to play a set list full of jazz standards - songs they didn’t even write. Songs written by jazz cats who wrote those tunes years ago, who freely passed them on, and who will probably never see a dollar for it.

Are jazz institutions teaching these lanky kids “no pay, no play?” Because while the rest of the world is struggling to make ends meet, I worry that if these young guns only prime themselves to play the big time, that jazz music will remain a genre experienced only in the museum-like rooms of Carnegie Hall, University stages, and expensive weddings.

That’d be a shame.

Thanks for listening,

Molly McGinn

Yo-Yo Ma! In Downtown Greensboro

[2] Responses Posted by Molly McGinn, 05/04/09

Not exactly, Yo-Yo Ma the cellist. Rather 100 people dressed like yo’ “ma” in hair curlers and house coats walking down Elm Street with glow in the dark yo-yos tonight at 8 pm.

That Yo-Yo Ma.

It’s all part of a public arts project and collaboration between Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, ArtBeat Greensboro, Monkeywhale and Walker and Dabney Sanders (who sponsored the logo-ed yo-yos).

Want to get in on the glow? Here’s how:

Meet at Elsewhere Artist Collaborative (map) around 8 pm.
Dress yourself in the wide selection of house coats, curlers and wigs available at Elsewhere.
Give yourself a few lessons on the yo-yo.
Walk down Elm Street to Center City Park at dusk.
City officials worked together to turn the lights off at the park for a special glow in the dark performance, which will be captured on film by the fine folks at Monkeywhale.

Have fun!

UPDATE: Things didn’t quite turn out as expected. Larry Owens at Center City Park was kind enough to stay late and turn off the lights, but the rain haze and the city’s street lamps actually made the perimeter of the park glow, diffusing any chance of seeing the yo yos glow.

We did yo yo in a nice circle and horseshoe formation, however.

There’s one more Yo! project Saturday night May 9 when a group will yo yo up and down Elm Street and back. We’ll meet again at Elsewhere at 8 pm (see above for directions). Harvey and Carolyn with Monkeywhale will try and see if the cameras aren’t a bit more pleased about that one.

As I left the park, I felt myself craving songs with “Yo.” Rap songs - anything. You Tube only turned up a bunch of Yo! MTV Raps episodes and a drunk Ol’ Dirty Bastard. I wanted something like, “Yo. Yo. Listen to this: Yo.”

No luck.

But I found this song and video by The Osmonds and had no idea how hard the The Osmonds tried to rip off the Jackson 5.

Yo. Checkkit. I think Donnie sings “I used to be a swinger.”