Category: Interviews

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UCR Interview: Kevin Baldes of Lit

Lit will be opening the Daybreak Summer Concert Series on SoDa Row on Friday, June 10th. Utah Concert Review had the opportunity to chat with Lit bassist and backing vocalist, Kevin Baldes. We discuss Lit’s forthcoming album, Smells Like Gold, and a variety of other topics. Enjoy!

Interviewed by Kevin Rolfe

Photo Credit: Jeff Mozey

UCR  So, first of all, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time. I’d like to talk to you a little bit about your new upcoming album.  I’ve heard a few songs, the released songs, and it sounds like I don’t want to say “classic Lit”, but it has your sound, which I think your fans are going to be very excited about. 

Kevin Baldes No, I take that as a compliment. To be honest with you, next to A Place in the Sun, it’s probably my favorite album. And I actually said something the other day to somebody that I would let it go toe to toe with A Place in the Sun. And I like it that much. And I’m the guy in the band that’s pushing to kick out a lot of the old songs in our set. Let’s just play a bunch of new stuff, which I know, like concert-goers and fans don’t really want that. But, I like it that much is what I’m getting at. But the band won’t let me throw nine new songs into the set. 

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UCR Interview: Jake Scott

Photo Credit: Rachel Deeb

Pop singer-songwriter, producer, multiinstrumentalist, and recent Elektra Records signee Jake Scott will open for indie hitmaker Ben Rector on The Joy of Music: Live U.S. tour. The tour stops off in Utah for two shows at the Sandy Amphitheater on May 18 & 19. Scott will provide direct support for the first leg of dates, which wraps in Oklahoma City on Sunday, June 5.

We had the opportunity to visit with Jake leading up to the Utah tour stops. Enjoy!

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UCR INTERVIEW: Doug “Cosmo” Clifford of Creedence Clearwater Revival

In mid-1968 a band of four dedicated musicians from El Cerrito, California
skyrocketed to fame with their debut single “Suzie Q.” It took 10 years of gigging
to get there, but by the time “Suzie Q” peaked at #11 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart
Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) was an unstoppable force in rock’n’roll.
Over the next 2 years, they released 11 million-selling hit singles and 5 studio
albums, they toured the world as headliners, including an appearance at
Woodstock in 1969, and were ultimately inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of
Fame in 1993.

In the decades that followed CCR’s 2 year reign as the #1 band in the world,
Creedence drummer Doug “Cosmo” Clifford focused his creative energy on
producing album projects. His concept was to assemble a top shelf mix of
players, write an album’s worth of original songs, then record, mix and master
each album. When a project was completed, the masters were archived and
safely stored in Cosmo’s Vault until the time was right to release them. Fast
forward to 2021 and Cosmo has retrieved those masters and will be releasing
them one album at a time on his own label, Cliffsong Records. The first release
will be For All The Money In The World by Clifford / Wright.

Interviewed By: Kevin Rolfe

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UCR INTERVIEW: Grace Pettis of Nobody’s Girl

Nobody’s Girl: BettySoo, Rebecca Loebe, Grace Pettis

Americana/folk-pop supergroup, Nobody’s Girl features acclaimed singer-songwriters
BettySoo, Rebecca Loebe, and Grace Pettis. Each member of the band has a budding solo career of their own. They joined together and released an EP in 2018. They returned to the studio in September 2019 and recorded their first full length album. After waiting patiently through a worldwide pandemic their self-titled LP is due to be released on July 30.

I had the opportunity to visit with Grace Pettis about the upcoming album, her solo career, and a whole lot more. Enjoy!

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UCR INTERVIEW: Lara Hope of Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones

Lara Hope
Photo Credit: Franco Vogt

Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones are a Rockabilly band from Kingston, New York. “Ask anyone who’s caught them live and you’ll hear the same thing: It’s simply impossible to see Lara Hope & the Ark-Tones perform and not have a great time. A smile on the lips, a swivel in the hips, and an earful of snappy tunes are the inevitable takeaways from any Ark-Tones appearance. The band’s singular blend of rock ‘n’ roll, country, blues, surf, Western swing, rockabilly, folk, pop, and jazzy rhythm & blues gets feet a-moving and hands a-clapping no matter the audience. By the end of the night, if they weren’t already, those lucky
concertgoers are rabid fans.”

We had the opportunity to chat with Lara recently. We talked about her extensive career, what she’s been up to during the pandemic, and the new album Here to Tell the Tale.

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UCR INTERVIEW: Matt Easton of The Jenny Thing

“The Jenny Thing came together on the Berkeley campus of the University of California in 1991 when singer/guitarist Matt Easton met guitarist Shyam Rao. Matt and drummer Mike Phillips had grown up together, and both had been friends with bass player Ehren Becker since junior high.”

The Jenny Thing released three albums throughout the ’90s and received extensive airplay on college radio. They toured primarily in the west and performed at colleges and clubs like The Roxy and The Troubador in Los Angeles.

The band has reunited and have just released their first album since 1999. American Canyon is available wherever you purchase or stream music.

I had the opportunity to visit with Matt Easton, vocalist/ guitarist/ songwriter of The Jenny Thing. He shared stories of his first concert, best performing experience, and how American Canyon came about. It was a real pleasure to talk with him. Enjoy!

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UCR INTERVIEW: James DiGirolamo

Nashville-based singer-songwriter James DiGirolamo has extensive experience as a
session musician and touring sideman. As a keyboard player, he’s worked with Mindy
Smith, Holly Williams, Peter Bradley Adams, Alice Peacock, Robby Hecht, Fognode,
The Bittersweets, Judson Spence, and many others. DiGirolamo’s latest solo work
draws on a wide array of influences including Paul Simon, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell,
Elliott Smith, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Harry Nilsson, Thomas Dolby,
Steven Sondheim, XTC, Steely Dan, Ben Folds, Ron Sexsmith, and to no small degree
many friends and peers from his time in Nashville, such as Sarah Siskind.

James DiGirolamo has just released an EP of original songs. I had the opportunity to talk to James about Paper Boats, his music career, and much much more. Enjoy!

Interviewed by Kevin Rolfe

UCR:  Where am I talking to you from right now? 

James DiGirolamo:  I’m just outside of Nashville. 

UCR:  Oh, nice, and is that where you’re from originally, or did you move there for music?

James DiGirolamo: I came here in ’87 to go to college at Belmont. I studied music there. I’m originally from outside of Philadelphia.  I’ve lived here in Nashville the longest. I did the requisite New York City sojourn after college, and then I came back five years later, not necessarily with my tail between my legs. But that’s a hard place to struggle.

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UCR INTERVIEW: David Osmond The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber

“The Really Useful Group in London has authorized a special, limited engagement of The Music Of Andrew Lloyd Webber to be produced almost entirely with Utah talent for Utah audiences in celebration of the return of live performance to Utah stages.

Emmy Award-winning Utah composer KURT BESTOR is collaborating with director LOUANNE MADORMA to bring this very special production featuring Utah musicians, singers, cast, crew and featured performers, including DALLYN VAIL BAYLES , DAVID OSMOND, Tony Award-winner LISA HOPKINS SEEGMILLER, LEXI WALKER and others, to the Eccles Theater, May 7th–15th.“

Utah Concert Review Editor in Chief, Kevin Rolfe had the opportunity to chat with cast member, David Osmond leading up to Friday night’s opening performance.

Photo Credit:Russ Dixon

UCR:  I know what it feels like for me to once again prepare to cover a show but to be rehearsing and on a stage and listening to the music, what does it feel like to be preparing for an actual show?

David Osmond:  It is goosebumps! We were on stage yesterday and we’re doing our tech rehearsals and the lights are on and you smell that theater smell and everybody’s there and we’re going through the music and its great content. I just have a perma grin. I’m ear to ear, I’ve been able to grow up in the music world since I was a baby in so many different capacities of performing.

As a kid in a barbershop quartet and my brothers as a boy band back in the day to pop music and then the opportunity to get into musical theatre and perform doing Broadway tours and shows and of course “Joseph” was kind of the kingpin of that. I did five companies of it. To do that music again in this setting is epic. There’s nothing quite like it and to know that Eccles has been down for 14 months and this is like we’re kicking the cobwebs off and we’re bringing it back! And this is a Utah show with Utah’s finest. I’m honored to be part of the mix and I think the audience is going to be thrilled not just to be back in seats and not feel that live element again. But because of the show itself, it’s pretty epic.

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