{"id":18651,"date":"2017-08-19T14:23:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T18:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=18651"},"modified":"2017-08-19T14:23:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-19T18:23:45","slug":"on-stage-spotlight-croce-returns-to-his-chester-county-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=18651","title":{"rendered":"On Stage Spotlight: Croce returns to his Chester County roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A.J. Croce<\/p><\/div>\n

There are quite a few recording acts that have their roots in Chester County. Nashville has three of them \u2013 Downingtown\u2019s Liz Longley and Kate Klim (Downingtown High grads) and Chester Springs\u2019 Anna Wilson (Villa Maria Academy). West Chester has Mindy Rhodes (Westtown School) and Laura Promiscuo (West Chester Henderson).<\/p>\n

Coatesville has Fred Mascherino (Coatesville High) who has played in Taking Back Sunday, Terrible Things and The Color Fred. And, there is Daryl Franklin Hohl, an Owen J. Roberts grad who went on to international fame as one-half of Hall and Oates (as Daryl Hall).<\/p>\n

There are two others who frequently slip under the radar \u2013 the late singer\/songwriter legend Jim Croce and his talented singer\/songwriter son A.J. Croce.<\/p>\n

A.J. Croce, who now lives in Nashville, will return to the area for a show on August 19 at the World Caf\u00e9 Live (3025 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, 215-222-1400, www.worldcafelive.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A.J. Croce has been inextricably linked to a version of his own story by virtue of his name.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s experienced a lifetime of comparisons to a father he lost at age two, whose music bears little resemblance to his own output yet still serves as a reference point despite the years that have passed and the many iconic mentors who have stepped in to offer their counsel, creativity, and endorsement throughout his long career.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s curious that it now feels necessary to include the reference, as enough time has passed that a new generation of tastemakers and journalists might not know who Jim Croce was \u2014 that he was a golden-voiced everyman, a singer-songwriter-guitarist who died too soon, leaving one of pop music\u2019s most beautiful and memorable ballads (written about a young A.J.) in his wake.<\/p>\n

Croce the younger, on the other hand, is a piano man, first and foremost, and a vocal stylist second. His muted growl pulls from a host of American traditions and anti-heroes \u2014 it\u2019s part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul, but somehow evokes New York, a continuum where John Lurie meets Lou Reed. He is further a songwriter, driven by a personal muse, informed by a life on a boomerang of tragedy.<\/p>\n

On August 11, Croce released the album \u201cJust Like Medicine\u201d on Compass Records. His gritty and accomplished ninth studio album was produced by legendary soul singer-songwriter and producer Dan Penn and features appearances by Vince Gill, Steve Cropper, the McCrary Sisters and the Muscle Shoals Horns.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019m getting ready for 18 months of shows supporting the album,\u201d said Croce, during a recent phone interview from his home in Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe album got started last summer. I met Dan Penn a year-and-a-half ago. He played a show at the City Winery and he was approachable. I asked him if he wanted to write together and he was up for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan and I wrote \u2018Other Side of Love.\u2019 I brought in another song to do a demo \u2013 \u2018Cures Just Like Medicine\u2019 — and I wanted it to be mono. We used two-inch, 16-track tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, we did all the recordings analog. Most of us listen to music on devices that are like the old transistor radios with just one speaker. The music we made on this album is good for a great listening system or for earbuds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe planned on finishing it in October but one of the musicians David Hood broke his wrist so we waited for him to heal. We recorded it at Dan\u2019s studio in Nashville \u2013 a studio with 75 years of recording history. It\u2019s an amazing studio with great analog gear.<\/p>\n

\u201cMixing took a longer time than I expected. When you\u2019re working with tape, mixing just takes a lot longer. The bass and drums were all live \u2013 no overdubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project had a particular concept. I worked with a bunch of guys and girls who grew up recording to tape. I might have been the youngest person in the room and I\u2019m in my late 40s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album has its roots in the past but doesn\u2019t sound dated and isn\u2019t a tribute album.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make a soul album but I didn\u2019t want it to be a cover of Stax music,\u201d said Croce, who was born in Bryn Mawr Hospital. \u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to recreate the past. I wanted something for the present. I played 20 songs to Dan Penn and let him choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croce\u2019s roots in Chester County can be traced back to when he was a young boy and his family lived in Lyndell near Marsh Creek State Park — on Highspire Road just up the hill from the Lyndell Country Store.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived in Lyndell for a while until my mother took the family west to San Diego,\u201d said Croce. \u201cI still have family in the area and my godmother lives in Phoenixville.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for A.J. Croce \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/_w0oZVeyK-o<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the World Caf\u00e9 Live, which also features Robbie Fulks, wuill start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

John McCutcheon<\/p><\/div>\n

Music fans in attendance at the Philadelphia Folk Festival (Old Pool Farm, Clemmers Mill Road and Salford Station Road, Upper Salford, pfs.org\/<\/a>) will have the opportunity to hear a live performance by one of America\u2019s legendary songsmiths \u2013 John McCutcheon.<\/p>\n

McCutcheon made a rare area appearance with a concert in February at The Sellersville Theater and now he\u2019s coming back. Not surprisingly, both gigs are away from urban areas.<\/p>\n

McCutcheon is a Renaissance Man \u2013 one who prefers the rustic vibe of rural America to the pomp of a royal court. He is one of America\u2019s most respected and loved folksingers.<\/p>\n

As an instrumentalist, he is a master of a dozen different traditional instruments. His career has already spanned more than four decades.<\/p>\n

McCutcheon has received every imaginable honor, including six Grammy nominations. He has produced more than 20 albums for other artists. He also has written numerous books and instructional guides and helped start the first traveling musician\u2019s union — the Local 1000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been staying busy,\u201d said McCutcheon, during a recent phone interview from his home in the Atlanta suburb of Smokerise, Georgia. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing shows. And, in the summer, I do my songwriting camps.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCutcheon just published a new book \u201cFlowers for Sarajevo,\u201d a picture book that is accompanied by a CD. The title track was inspired by the story of Bosnia classical musician Vedram Smailovic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve taken songs that tell stories that kids ought to know,\u201d said McCutcheon.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the Balkan War, a May 1992 mortar attack killed 22 people waiting to buy bread at a Sarajevo bakery. Then, 24 hours after the attack, Vedran Smailovic, a cellist in the Sarajevo Opera Orchestra, emerges from the building across the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cDressed in a tuxedo, he sets up in a crater near the bombed shop and sits down to play this piece of music — Albinoni\u2019s \u2018Adagio in G Minor.\u2019 He played at the same time for 22 straight days to pay tribute to the victims and help people recover emotionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was inspiring that someone would do something so beautiful in response to violence. So, I wrote a song \u2013 and then I wrote a book about it. The song \u2018Flowers for Sarajevo\u2019 is written from the perspective of a young boy who wells flowers in the square. The book finally came out in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe following month, I\u2019m doing a songwriting camp. A kid asked me how to jump-start his writing. I told him \u2013 here\u2019s an assignment. For 22 straight days \u2013 write. Write in the same room each time and do it at 4 p.m. every day. I got home and decided to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCutcheon plays numerous instruments including piano, guitar, auto harp and banjo.\u00a0 He is one of the world\u2019s master players of the beautiful hammered dulcimer.\u00a0 Usually, he plays all or most of these instruments during his one man show.<\/p>\n

In February, McCutcheon released his latest album \u201cTrolling for Dreams.\u201d It is his 38th album \u2013 the same amount released by Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe songs for \u2018Trolling for Dreams\u2019 came in two parts,\u201d said McCutcheon. \u201cSome of the songs were written six or seven years ago. I have this file where I keep different parts of songs \u2013 notes that I\u2019ve written on napkins or airplane barf bags. The file has all these scraps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got sick last January and was confined to home for two months. I went through the entire file. Some songs were fully done. Some just needed fine-tuning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went in to Bias Studios in Springfield, Virginia to make the album with engineer Bob Dawson, I had 35 songs ready. And then, some things were written on the way to the studio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to work with Bob because he can make voice sound better than any other engineer in the world. I put my band back together and flew them in. It\u2019s a core band with guitar, keyboards, bass and drums.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked pretty quickly in the studio. I was acting as producer as well. We recorded most of it live. The bottom line was \u2013 did it feel right? We ended up using a lot of first takes. As a producer, I don\u2019t come in with charts and say \u2013 play I this way. I hire musicians for their musicality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter all the recording in Virginia was done, I drove to Nashville and got some of my friends there to add some stuff to the album. Then, the mixing process was slow, arduous and the most boring part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many of the folksingers from the past, McCutcheon does not shy away from writing political songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of the songs were written as a response to current events,\u201d said McCutcheon, a native of Wausau, Wisconsin. \u201cI don\u2019t need to go heavy on politics in front of the microphone. Instead, I like to present questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for John McCutcheon — https:\/\/youtu.be\/Dw2z3EjYQFE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McCutcheon\u2019s live set at the Philadelphia Folk Festival will be in the evening on August 19. The concert, which also features Wesley Stace, RUNA, Cry Cry Cry, Sierra Hull, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Ranky Tanky, Graham Nash, and The Weight Band with The King Harvest Horns, will start at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Soraia<\/p><\/div>\n

The evening concert on August 20 will feature The Great Groove Band, Tift Merritt, Eric Andersen, Baile An Salsa, Susan Werner, and TajMo: The Taj Mahal & Keb’Mo’ Band.<\/p>\n

There are few bands in the area that can generate the kind of raw power that characterizes the music made by Soraia.<\/p>\n

Soraaia, a female-fronted rock\/garage\/punk\/blues-influenced band, is a Philadelphia-based sextet that includes ZouZou Mansour (lead vocals, tambourine), Travis Smith (bass guitar, backup vocals), Mike Reisman (guitar, background vocals) and Brianna Sig (drumd, percussion, background vocals).<\/p>\n

The music Soraia creates captures the essence of gritty blues-influenced rock music — the kind of rock you\u2019d hear in smoky bars back in the 1960s. It\u2019s not a retro-sound but rather a tapping into the emotional nature of the music.<\/p>\n

Soraia is the stage name of singer ZouZou Mansour and also the name of her band. On August 19, Mansour and her band will play the Barbary (951 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, 215-634-7400,www.facebook.com\/thebarbary<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cTravis and I are the core of the band and we\u2019ve been together for over 10 years,\u201d said Mansour, during a recent phone interview. \u201cWe released our first album \u2018The Valley of Love and Guns\u2019 in 2013, \u2018Soraia Lives\u2019 in 2014 and \u2018Less Than Zero\u2019 in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the last year or so, Soraia has been playing songs from a yet-to-be-released album. The album \u201cDead Reckoning\u201d will be released on October 13 on Wicked Cool Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already played a lot of the new songs in our shows this year,\u201d said Mansour. \u201cLast summer, our label people told us to write songs and then play them live. We\u2019ve done it the other way and it didn\u2019t do ad hood. Live is when the magic starts to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings are going really well with the band. We\u2019ve been touring a lot. Wicked Cool Records is owned by Little Steven Van Zandt from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s E Street Band.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur shows are drawing more people and we\u2019re playing better venues. It all happened at the beginning of this year. David Fricke, a senior writer at Rolling Stone Magazine, contacted us out of the blue and said he loved our music. He has a show on Sirius Spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soraia had been building up songs for the new full-length for a while.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started writing the songs last summer,\u201d said Mansour. \u201cWe sat down to write as many songs as we possibly could. My co-writer Travis and I worked on different ideas we had. In the past, he\u2019d give me a song idea and I\u2019d come up with the music. This time, we spent more time writing together. We\u2019re growing as writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recorded the new album in January at Renegade Studio in New York. Our label really wanted to capture our live sound. We did two songs with Little Steven and 10 with producing ourselves with engineer Geoff Sanoff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe band just set up and played live in the studio. It was all analog and recorded directly to tape \u2013 which was exciting. It was our first time to record analog so it was really special. It was nice to go in and be our own producer.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has taken Mansour a while to reach where she wants to be musically. It has also taken years for Mansour to find where she wants to be emotionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was 17 when my mother died,\u201d said Mansour. \u201cI had just graduated from high school. That changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a period of time that included stretches of drug use, alcohol abuse and being homeless, Mansour got her life back on track. She became one of the survivors. She returned to college and graduated with a teaching degree. Then, she was lured back into the music world by her first love — singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad always said — where there\u2019s a will there\u2019s a way,\u201d said Mansour. \u201cIt looks like I proved that he was right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Soraia \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/FeFAOyc9rhs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Barbary, which also features North by North, Ellen Siberian Tiger and RFA, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brick + Mortar<\/p><\/div>\n

While most people head to the Jersey shore on summer weekends, the opposite is true for Brick + Mortar. The band from the Asbury Park area is coming to Philadelphia on August 19 for a show at MilkBoy Philly (1100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, 215- 925-6455, www.milkboyphilly.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Brick + Mortar is John Tacon and Brandon Asraf. Former middle school lunch time enemies, the two artists overcame their mutual childhood disdain and even played on the football team together at Toms River North High School.<\/p>\n

More importantly, because of their late-blooming friendship, they have been playing gritty, bright yet sinister, witty alternative pop\u00a0for inspired audiences since 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hated each other in eighth grade,\u201d said Asraf, during a phone interview last week as the band was traveling through Texas from a gig in Dallas to a show in Houston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to be friends in high school. I saw John play drums in eighth grade and he seemed so happy. I started following him around. We were both on the football team in ninth grade and one day he told me that I should play bass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asraf\u2019s decision to play bass guitar changed the course of his life.<\/p>\n

While Tacon\u2019s upbringing was\u00a0reasonably normal, Asraf, on the other\u00a0hand, grew up \u201clike wolves\u201d amid five siblings in a New Jersey household headed by a conman father. His father\u2019s schemes ultimately tore the family apart. Asraf and Tacon jammed together for many years instrumentally before deciding to try writing songs. Asraf was\u00a0initially concerned about his\u00a0voice, but like with everything else, his confidence grew alongside his mastery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started doing Brick + Mortar seriously around 2013,\u201d said Asraf. \u201cWe ended up making EPs \u2013 at first just to see if we were good. Then, when we got signed, they wanted an EP.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friends released their \u201cBangs\u201d EP in\u00a02013.\u00a0Since then, they\u2019ve built their musical resume with singles like \u201cLocked in a\u00a0Cage,\u201d \u201cHollow Tune,\u201d and \u201cTrain,\u201d which remained on Alt Nations Alt 18 for 10 weeks and peaking at Number 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, I work over a long period of time writing a song,\u201d said Asraf. \u201cI move at a pace where a song can develop correctly \u2013 where it has time to evolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn and I also write together. We don\u2019t have a real formula. When you have a set formula, it gets boring. Our songs are written a lot of different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cut 13 or 14 tracks for a new album at 816 Studios in South River, New Jersey. We produced it ourselves and then did the mixing with engineer Joe Costable at Raw Recording in New York. By late this year or early next year, we\u2019ll have the album out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Brick + Mortar \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/TCs7wuzAKrI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at MilkBoy Philly, which also features Thrills, The Moms, and St James & The Apostles, will start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Staff Writer, The Times There are quite a few recording acts that have their roots in Chester County. Nashville has three of them \u2013 Downingtown\u2019s Liz Longley and Kate Klim (Downingtown High grads) and Chester Springs\u2019 Anna Wilson (Villa Maria Academy). West Chester has Mindy Rhodes (Westtown School) and Laura Promiscuo (West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5166],"tags":[6962,6963,3912,6160],"class_list":["post-18651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-a-j-croce","tag-brick-mortar","tag-featured","tag-john-mccutcheon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18652,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18651\/revisions\/18652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}