Entrain

Dancin in the Light final.mp4 from Robert Loyot on Vimeo.

Epic in sound and kaleidoscopic in vision, the eclectic Martha’s Vineyard-based six piece Entrain has been thrilling critics and fans alike since its inception.

Formed by drummer Tom Major in 1993, Entrain is also lead singer/guitar wiz Brian Alex.  Joining them is bassist M’Talewa, saxophonist/keys/percussionist Rob Loyot,  saxophonist/percussionist Hilary Noble and Trombone/keys Lennie Peterson  Veterans all, their collective resume includes stints with such diverse players as Bo Diddley, Carly Simon, Chuck Berry, Southside Johnny, James Mongomery, Flor De Cana, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Entrain has recorded eight albums, available on Dolphin Safe Records, all of which have been praised for their ability to shift effortlessly between musical styles – from rock, blues, calypso and ska, to zydeco, jazz and funk – often within the same song.

“The whole Entrain concept is based around the drums and infectious rhythms. Once we’ve got that…. anything goes, everything goes,” explains Major.

“The most important thing that we try to do with our music is bring everybody together in the spirit of peace, love, fun and a ton of drums!”

Entrain’s latest record “Reason To Feel Good” has enjoyed heavy rotation in such trendsetter markets as Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New England, Upstate New York, Aspen, Santa Fe, Houston, Cincinnati, and Nashville, and is climbing important industry trade charts like those in CMJ, Album Network, FMQB, and The Gavin Report.

The first single from “Reason To Feel Good”, titled “Lucky Just to Be Alive,” having only been given to a few stations late in November 2011, was number 2 in WMVY’s top 25 songs for 2011. Combining top notch musicians with great songs, and infused with some passionate and conscious lyrics, this CD is undoubtedly the best work from the production team of Major/Alex.

Entrain’s visibility had increased a few years ago, as their song “Dancin’ in The Light” had been featured in a national TV and radio commercial for the Sylvania Light Company. Also, several tracks from their fourth CD “All One” are featured in the Artisan film “Cutaway,” an action-thriller starring Stephen Baldwin, Tom Berrenger and Dennis Rodman. “Cutaway” premiered in May 2001 to strong reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. Producer Richard Glasser personally chose to feature the album’s shimmering title track prominently in the film. The anthemic “Arm Yourself” and the ska tinged “Jolly Green Giant” are included in the film.

Since its inception, Entrain has jammed with the likes of singer/songwriter James Taylor, Grateful Dead alum Bob Weir and rock legend Bo Diddley, and amateur saxophonist and professional leader of the Free World Bill Clinton. Entrain continues to perform as a hugely popular live act throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic, and in 1995 the band garnered a Boston Music Award for Best Live Show. Before their appearance on the “Cutaway” soundtrack, Entrain’s music was used as the theme song for MTV’s Real World Hawaii. Their t-shirts, bumper stickers and posters have been featured on the popular WB series “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.” Entrain has also starred in and performed a memorable TV commercial for one of the nations leading furniture retailers, which aired during the 1999 Super Bowl.

Entrain’s goal is not just to be the biggest and the best, says Major. “We want to create music that makes people feel good. When we look out from the stage, all we see is smiling faces of all ages and bodies moving. You can’t beat that feeling. At the same time if we can help to promote positive values and lifestyles… great! There’s enough negativity in the world, let’s spread a little joy around and watch how infectious it can be.”

With that in mind, Entrain has been working on a multi-media show called “Entrain’s Dancin’ in the Light,” using projected video images behind the band to help emphasize the band’s message of peace, love, unity, and a greener earth.

Girls Guns & Glory

Love and Protest

Ward Hayden – Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals
Josh Kiggans – Drum Kit
Paul Dilley – Upright & Electric Bass, Vocals
Cody Nilsen-Lead Guitar, Vocals

Love and Protest: two concepts that seldom go hand in hand. Until you think about it a while.

That’s what singer, guitarist and songwriter Ward Hayden did as he began mapping out plans for Girls Guns & Glory’s next album, which happens to be called Love and Protest.

“That title sums up this album and it sums me up very well too,” he says. “We’ve done 10 years of touring, living, learning and growing, maturing and developing a broader world view, a view outside of the small town where I grew up.”

That decade began with Hayden and several like-minded musicians getting together. Their love for early rock ’n’ roll, true country, raw blues and pretty much any kind of authentic American music branded them quickly as anomalous — and electrifying. Since that time they’ve barnstormed far beyond their Boston hometown, playing honky-tonks, beer joints and more recently concert venues throughout the U.S. They’ve amassed a loyal legion of fans along the way. The media have noticed too, including Rolling Stone, which heralds them as a “modern-day Buddy Holly plus Dwight Yoakam divided by the Mavericks.”

Now, in this milestone year, with Girls Guns & Glory recording for the first time on its own label, the group has channeled all it’s experienced into its most personal and, paradoxically, hardest-rocking release to date.

“Love and Protest is the name of the album because its songs explore the emotion of love,” Hayden explains. “And when love is faced with opposition, it’s the protest of that emotion. It’s alpha and omega — love and protest. There’s a lot of ground to cover between those two extremes.”

They begin with the album’s first single and opening track. “Rock ’n’ Roll.” With bassist Paul Dilley and drummer Josh Kiggans laying down a no-nonsense, backbeat-driven groove, lead vocalist and guitarist Hayden sings, “I’m a hunter, a collector of things. I keep holding onto bad memories.” And yet, when the chorus hits, he proclaims that he’s “ready to rock ’n’ roll.”

Like much of Hayden’s work, these lyrics run deeper than they seem at first listen, with a sub current of heartbreak and obsession. “I don’t just collect physical trinkets,” Hayden notes. “This song is more about experiences and memories, the things you can’t see but they stay with you in your head and your heart.

Similar spirits haunt the bitterly self-destructive “Wine Went Bad,” the loneliness of “Reno, Nevada” (“I might as well be a world away”), the exquisitely pure honky-tonk lament “Empty Bottles,” the painful introspection of “Memories Don’t Die” and “Stare at the Darkness,” and “Diamondillium,” a dystopian meditation shaded by noir guitar and incongruously inspired by an episode of Futurama — really, everything on the album, including its one cover, a resurrection of Gram Parsons’ “Hot Burrito No. 1.”

“The growth and maturity of Girls Guns & Glory as a band is what led us to take on this song,” Hayden says. “Lyrically, I think it’s a song that would make Hank Williams proud. Love was, and is, there in the person telling the story, but his love interest has taken the things she’s learned from their relationship and moved on to someone else. The storyteller is left to pine over it. It’s love and protest exemplified.

To complement the immediacy of Hayden’s words, Girls Guns & Glory elected to cut Love and Protest entirely in analog, with Drew Townson, an acknowledged master of that format, recruited to produce with the band.

“There’s a nostalgia to working with analog,” Hayden says. “There are also limitations — no editing, making sure you don’t run out of tape. But those limitations force you to let things go, let things happen. The anxiety begets beauty and makes the band do its best every take, firing on all cylinders and working together as a cohesive unit.

“It’s as stripped-down as we’ve ever been. Even going into it, I didn’t imagine it would turn out as pure as it did.”

Going back to analog parallels the band’s return to its earliest days as an independent act, in control of its career. “This is the first album in eight years where we did everything ourselves,” Hayden says. “It’s the first album we’ve co-produced. We don’t worry about appeasing a label anymore. We’re creating music only for ourselves and our fans.”

To illustrate, he points to one track, “Man Wasn’t Made,” an affirmation that “man wasn’t made to just lie down and die,” set to a rollicking rockabilly beat and ignited by sparks of steel guitar. “When we were working with a label, they kept telling me that protest songs don’t sell so they didn’t want to put this kind of cut on a record. Well,” he says, smiling, “now we can sneak in a couple of actual protest songs, in a not-so-sly way.”

“With this record, we feel almost like a brand new band,” he continues. “We take things in a different direction. A lot of that is because a shift has occurred on our tours. We’re getting out of the bars and playing more in theaters and listening rooms. Instead of just trying to keep people on the dance floor for three hours, we’re crafting songs for people who really like to listen. That’s allowed us to dig deeper lyrically, to make more mature music with a higher level of musicianship. We’re making the music we want to make. We’re not limiting it to any genre in particular. We’re willing to do whatever feels right.”

“You could say,” Hayden concludes, “we’re a bigger part of the music itself than we’ve ever been.”

Nothing could be better news for those who have loved Girls Guns & Glory. Nothing can give more hope to all still waiting for their faith in real, honest-to-God American music to be restored.

Crooked Coast

Band Members: Luke Vose, John McNamara, Ben Elder and Charles Walton.

Crooked Coast was formed on Cape Cod in the summer of 2012.  They distilled their hometown’s celebratory summers and harsh winters into the 2013 album Thanks for the Memories with infectious hooks, sweaty dance floor rhythms, big guitars and vivid wordplay. For two years they toured the East Coast playing festivals, clubs, bars and colleges. They also conceptualized and self produced music videos and turned their band merchandise into a budding clothing line. In 2015 they released Wildlife. Capenews.net described it as, “an album that pops with wild swagger.” Wildlife is the sound of a band that has grown together. The production is polished but the songs are brash. Driven by Walton and Elder’s thunderous rhythm section McNamara’s full throated rock ’n roll howl and Vose’s raw nerve, heart on the sleeve rap/singing volley back and forth over blistering guitar hooks with shades of the Strokes, Social Distortion and Sublime.

Official Site – www.crookedcoast.com

Video- youtube.com/crookedcoast

Music Stream- On iTunes, Spotify

Social- facebook.com/crookedcoast instagram.com/crookedcoast twitter.com/crookedcoast Snapchat- @crookedcoastsnp