Fluff and Gravy Records Holiday Party

Fluff and Gravy Records is hosting a Holiday Party to Benefit JOIN: connecting the street to a home.

There will be performances by Anna Tivel, Jeffrey Martin, Evan Way and Vacilando

We will welcome a brand new artist to the Fluff and Gravy family and they will perform a full set to close the evening out. It will make you want to dance.

There will be raffles, giveaways, and special holiday sale items.

There will be some Christmas songs for you to sing along with!

There will be a patio with a warm fire. You can go there to smoke a cigarette if there is something wrong with you and you don't like Christmas songs.

$10. Proceeds donated to JOIN

Anna Tivel

singer/songwriter

Anna Tivel's wide-eyed celestial folk songs belong in a similar ballpark with Anais Mitchell, Gregory Alan Isakov and Laura Veirs, where gentle picking plucks among occasionally unconventional sounds and a gorgeous voice tells stories of life in a world of natural wonders. The resulting music is incredibly honest, lyric-driven, and deeply affecting.

Website:

http://www.annativel.com/

Jeffrey Martin

While I was earning an English degree, Josh Ritter came to my college and put on a small solo concert. Watching Ritter on stage was like watching someone trying to make sense of their existence, in real time, with a guitar and words.  It seemed to be less of a performance and more of one man's necessity, which happened to be on public display that night.  I had written songs before then, but certainly all that followed became something else entirely.  I strive to find those songs, to write those songs, that exist in that perfect place perched between my own experience and the common experience that everyone can relate to.  This rarely happens (in fact, I don't even know if it's happened yet.)  I also think that I take myself much too seriously, and I have a lot to learn about writing songs that make people feel good; that make people want to shake around a little bit.

When I'm not playing music I substitute teach high school students.  People love to ask how I balance music and teaching, which one I'm more passionate about; would I leave teaching behind entirely to pursue music?  Does teaching influence my music?  I don't know the answer to any of these things.  I am passionate about music and I am passionate about teaching.  Some days I can't stand music, some days I can't stand teaching.  Both can feel like work, and both can leave me feeling like a crook for getting paid to do what I do.

I grew up a little bit in Texas, and then mostly in Oregon.  My parents read to me at night and took me to the library and flooded my ears with music that meant something.  My mom made me learn the cello at a young age.  My dad took me to see John Gorka and Leo Kotke.  I have a dog, a yellow lab named Ben, who has toured more than 10,000 miles with me over the past few years (human miles.)  I play an old 1970′s Takamine gifted to me by my uncle.

-Jeffrey Martin has released two albums.  Gold in the Water (2009) and Build A Home EP (2012.)  In 2011 he was invited to the Sisters Folk Festival as an emerging artist, and then returned in 2012 as an officially showcased artist.  In fall of 2012 Jeffrey was a finalist in the Mountain Stage / New Song contest in New York City.  And he has earned songwriting mentions in American Songwriter Magazine, as well as the 2009 Kerrville Folk Fest songwriter contest.  

Website:

http://jeffreymartinmusic.com/

Evan Way

When not recording and performing melodic, jangling rock with his band The Parson Red Heads, Evan Way has spent the past 10 years building a catalog of slow-burning folk songs that he performs under his own name. Earnest and melancholy, in the vein of classic songwriters such as Nick Drake, Damien Jurado, and Richard Buckner, his lyrics paint simple pictures of hope & hopelessness, love & loss, joy & pain. Songs about growing up and living life.

Vacilando

Bummercore

"In Spanish there is a word for which I can't find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere, but does not greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction." - John Steinbeck, from Travels With Charley: In Search of America, 1962

When Vacilando began as a vehicle for the solo work of John Shepski, the idea was simple... create an environment where the song could live and breathe in a space of it's own, expanding and contracting as it's surroundings (the room, the audience, the mood) dictated. The songs would incorporate ambient sounds and voices from the world around us, but they would also clearly be "songwriter" songs at heart. They would be loosely structured, but structured just the same. Ideally the songs would be performed by a rotating cast of friends and musicians, with the core of the band changing to suit the venue/mood/environment. That concept proved to be short lived. When Juniana Lanning (ambient soundscapes, percussion, vocals) and Chad Lanning (bass, bass synth) joined Shepski for a rehearsal at Fluff and Gravy Studios it was clear that the core of this band needed to be these three musicians. Born of 90's College Radio and Indie Rock, John's songs immediately took on new life when they met Juniana's ambient/experimental leanings and Chad's classic sensibilities. Joined by Jason Montgomery (pedal steel) and featuring Sharon Cannon (violin), the band is set to release their debut album, While They Were Dancing (Fluff and Gravy Records), on July 17, 2015.

At it's heart, While They Were Dancing is slow and atmospheric, breathing deeply with vast empty spaces underneath heart-in-hand lyrics and a humble delivery. The band is fond of describing their record alternately as Bummercore or Bleak Midwestern Soundscapes, but just when the listener is drawn in and seemingly transported to another time and place, the band brings them crashing back to earth in a sonic explosion of screaming guitars and feedback. The music feels at once nostalgic and timeless, all while remaining grounded in the present.

In the end, Steinbeck's description may sum the band up perfectly. In Vacilando's world, the songs are indeed going somewhere, but they seem to be in no hurry to get there. Sometimes it's enough to simply enjoy the ride.

Website:

http://www.fluffandgravy.com/artists/vacilando/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vacilando