| 9/1/10 We're going to mix the new album at Hyde Street Studios mid- September. Justin Phelps is coming down from Portland to work with us. He's recorded and mixed Dresden Dolls, Amanda Palmer, Dead Kennedys, Cake, The Neville Brothers, Chuck Prophet, Jolie Holland, etc. Looking forward to it is understatement. ----------------------------------------- 7/20/10 We finished overdubbing tracks at Radical House last night with Chuck Gonzalez, Rebecca Pingree, Rachel Woods-Robinson, Nicolette Yarbrough, and Ken Rosen. Beautiful and talented every one. Rebecca is Lady Macbeth this month and in September she'll be at SF's Victoria Theatre starring in Jerry Springer The Opera. ------------------------------------------- 6/15/10 Shows soon at Bollyhood (with special guest Seth Augustus)& Ashkenaz (with Brooklyn Afro-Beat band Zongo Junction). Come, bring friends. Misha's about to leave on tour with Rupa so we're going to send him off properly. And we're celebrating birthdays at Ashkenaz. We had productive 4 long days that passed in a flash at Tiny Telephone. The 10 songs we planned became 14. Guest musicians included Randy Clark, Isabel Douglass, Andrew Walker, Adam Nash. Isaac's film is released today. The Alameda Sun published a feature. ----------------------------------------------- 5/18/10 Please come to the Bollyhood show if you can on Wednesday, May 26th. We're going to record the new album a few days later at John Vanderslice's all analog studio, Tiny Telephone, and we'd appreciate having an audience. We always appreciate having an audience. Bollyhood is between Mission & Capp Streets on 19th Street, around the corner from home. Jonah is playing the Hemlock Tavern this Thursday, May 20th. It's going to be an AMAZING show. Powell St. John's songs have been covered by Janis Joplin, Boz Scaggs, Doug Sahm and Roky Erikson & 13th Floor Elevators. He's in the Texas Music Hall of Fame and he's currently playing with The Aliens, Roky's legendary band. Danny Cohen released 3 albums on Anti and has been praised by Tom Waits among many others. He's a unique writer and performer. Don't miss this show if you have any interest in raw, elemental American music. My cousin, Michael Zegen, is the lead in a play, "Oliver Parker!" by Elizabeth Meriwether, that opened in NY last night to rave reviews. Also, the new season of Rescue Me starts June 29 on FX. He's a rookie fireman in the series written and produced by and starring Dennis Leary. Isaac Pingree's film, Day of Vengeance(aka Blood Loss) has a US distribution deal and is being released on DVD across the country. You can order it on Amazon. Isaac has made an excellent short about the making of the film that's included as a bonus feature on the new DVD. There are 3 Blind Willies songs, in various bites, on the soundtrack. ----------------------------------------------- 3/23/10 We're playing 2 sets at Revolution Cafe on Friday night. Randy Clark is also going to play a set of his great original songs. ----------------------------------------- 12/10/09 I'm playing new songs at CMC on Sunday 12/13 with Ken Rosen's Teen Jazz Big Band and a set with Daniel Riera, Max Miller-Loran, Misha Khalikulov, Jacob Clinton, and Jimmy Stack. Isaac Pingree's video of my new song, One Dime Down, is posted on YouTube. ----------------------------------------- 7/2/09 Blind Willies will be featured on Hélène Engel's Les Faces Cachées de la Musique Juive on Radio Shalom in Montreal. The program airs worldwide 7/28/09 8pm EST and then will be available in the station's online archive. ------------------------------------------- 6/5/09 I spent the last few weeks rehearsing for a set at Jerry Pannone's 6/3 surprise retirement concert in SOTA's Main Stage Theatre with some great School of the Arts musicians. Adam Nash/electric guitar, Savannah Harris/drums, Anabel Hirano/bass, Nicolette Yarbrough/fiddle. I loved performing my songs with them. See a list of Blind Willies radioplay Jonah was a perfect opener for Graham Parker on Sunday night at Freight & Salvage. Sold out, excellent show. Isaac Pingree's Blood Loss has its East Coast premiere today at the Staten Island Film Festival. It won Best Action Film . -------------------------------------------- 5/20/09 Mom Says No was played on 10 shows in the US, Canada, and Australia around Mother's Day, and Kevin Vance played it in SF on KALW's Patchwork Quilt 5/16. KlezmerShack posted a Sinners Medley video on its homepage. ------------------------------------------- 4/28/09 Everybody’s Looking for a Meal is on Don Campau’s No Pigeonholes Best of 2008 albums. It’s also on the February 2009 Top 20 Releases at WGDR New Folk Library. Blind Willies is on the Top Artists December 2008 list, compiled by Richard Gilman (KBCS) from 142 folk format specific DJs. We were in good company down the list. Our performance of If You Was a Good Pimp is on Princeton's Cafe Improv Best of 2008 compilation. April concerts I've seen: Michael Hurley in SF and out on the dark mesa in Bolinas; James Cotton at Yoshi's; Leonard Cohen front row center at the Paramount;Daniel Kahn & The Painted Bird. And previous 8 months: Dylan, Levon Helm, Pete Seeger, Roky Erickson, Randy Newman, Billy Bragg, Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, David Rawlings/Gillian Welch, Steve Earle, Dr. John, Les McCann, McCoy Tyner, Odetta, Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Conor Oberst, David Dondero. -------------------------------------------- 4/03/09 My cousin, Michael Zegen, is in Adventureland. It opens today across the US. He's also a regular in the new season of Rescue Me, premiering April 7 on FX. His character, Damian, returns in the fifth show. He'll star in punkplay by Gregory Moss in NY in June ---------------------------------------- 3/14/09 Blind Willies is featured on Off the Beat-n- Track shows #334 & #335. Listen here. Host Todd Mack produces FODfest, a touring tribute to Daniel Pearl. Jonah's album got its first intelligible review. See The Jonah Kit at Kimo's on 5/19. Jonah opens for Graham Parker (Soul Corruption, You Can't Be Too Strong) at Freight on 5/31. Isaac Pingree's film, Blood Loss(aka Day of Vengeance), will be shown at Staten Island Film Festival in June. It's been sold for distribution in the Middle East, Russia, Taiwan, and Thailand. We're going to buy a permanent table at Yum Yum Sushi with music royalties. ---------------------------------------------- 8/27/08 Americana UK published a review of the new CD. My brother just released American Songbag, an unruly, original, excellent new album. ----------------------------------------------- 7/25/08 I'm honored to be playing Falcon Ridge today with Meg Okura as my guest fiddler. Sinners Medley and Mom Says No Reprise will be featured on WFUV on Sunday 7/27 4-5pm EST. Listen at wfuv.org worldwide. Sinners Medley is also on jill no jack's 7/27 TransAtlantic Acoustic Show #61. In the last week: saw GOLEM at Prospect Park, Pharaoh's Daughter and Alicia Svigals at Battery Park, Art Bailey's Orkestra Popilar at the restored Eldridge St. Synagogue. ---------------------------------------------- 6/30/08 KQED posted a new review. Scroll down. It will publish July 4th. And Hanx gave the album 4 stars. We've been invited to perform in the Emerging Artist Showcase at the prestigious Falcon Ridge Folk Festival in NY on 7/25. Recent confirmed airplay at Hanx Magazine's podcast in the Netherlands, Taproot Radio, Americana Roots, WWUH, KZSU, KDVS, KUSP, KRCB, WTJU, KSCL, WBGU, KAOS. ------------------------------------------------ 5/31/08 There's a new review at Delusions of Adequacy. See below. ------------------------------------------------ 5/27/08 Thanks to everyone who came to Half Moon Bay on Saturday, and to the Saul family for hosting us in their cozy new studio. Lisa Miyako posted a couple of videos. ---------------------------------------------- 5/12/08 Sinners Medley is going to be featured on New York WFUV's Woody's Children 7/27 4- 5pm EST. ------------------------------------------------- 5/7/08 We'll be on The Bruce Latimer Show tonight at 9pm. And Thursday May 8 w/Hillstomp. Everybody's Looking for a Meal is available here and @ CD Baby where it's on the Editor's Picks list. ---------------------------------------------- 4/1/08 Our NY/NJ trip was excellent. We played 2 songs at Barbes last night before Stephane Wrembel's set. WFDU, TV shows, venues were cool. Parkside Lounge had perfect sound and the show was filmed. -------------------------------------------------- 1/30/08 The Unkindness of Ravens video is featured today @ Billboard.com & Allmusic.com. If You Was a Good Pimp will be featured through 2/4. It's also on jill no jack's indieheart Heart of the Night 1/31 podcast(see below). Thanks to everyone who came to the Utah in the rain. The Sauls, as always, and Isaac, Chris & Tony for bringing the Alameda charter. ------------------------------------------------- 1/17/08 The Unkindness of Ravens is on Jennifer Patton's Top 10 albums of 2007. I saw Patti Smith on her birthday @ Bowery Ballroom in NY. Jean Ritchie @ Minstrel. She's 85 and beautiful. And David Johansen, James Blood Ulmer, Hubert Sumlin @ Jazz Standard. ------------------------------------------------- 11/24/07 I posted a myspace sneak preview of the title track of the new album, Everybody's Looking for a Meal. It's had recent radio play at WFDU and KDVS. ----------------------------------------------- 11/03/07 Go to Bazaar Cafe. Free music almost every night. It was a pleasure playing with Crowsong. We're going to play a set before a keynote address by Frances Moore Lappé at Santa Clara University on 11/28. Open to the public. She wrote Diet for a Small Planet. ---------------------------------------------- 10/3/07 We're playing a private fundraiser tomorrow for a mayoral hopeful. We've been recording a new album at Crib Nebula. ------------------------------------------------ 9/3/07 Freight was excellent, large audience and old friends. ----------------------------------------------- 8/25/07 Annie went to LA and I went to Austria, Poland, and Auschwitz after our NY gigs. We both had interesting experiences. We're looking forward to our Freight show on Wednesday 8/29. It may be our last show for a while so please come. ----------------------------------------------- 7/28/07 We had to cancel our last 2 New York dates. Annie will be in rehearsals with Kitaro in LA 8/8- 8/22. ----------------------------------------------- 7/3/07 Isaac Pingree and Mike Foodman filmed us at Hotel Utah. 5 new videos are posted at YouTube. ------------------------------------------------ 6/11/07 I thought Ry Cooder's version of One Meatball was it until I heard the Community Music Center Children's Chorus sing it yesterday, followed by The Cat Came Back. Way past excellent. --------------------------------------------- 6/4/07 Annie had a great set last night at Djangofest. I sang my Sinners Medley with the band. David Grisman sat in on the band's last two Django classics. ----------------------------------------------- 5/18/07 DjangoFest SF June 3. June 8 Blind Willies do a BBQ soundtrack live at Santa Clara University. June 9 we'll do a live afternoon show with host Leigh Hill on KUSP and then play that evening in Santa Clara. On June 19 we'll do an all ages show at Last Day Saloon in Santa Rosa. Then June 22 at Hotel Utah in SF. ---------------------------------------------- 4/12/07 The album is the featured review today in Delusions of Adequacy, a popular online zine. Read it below. ------------------------------------------------- 3/23/07 Our album is on the Top 10 list for the last 10 weeks at Stanford University's KZSU Sunny-Side Up. ------------------------------------------------- 2/24/07 We were featured this week on IndieHeart and we'll have music on TransAtlantic Acoustic Show hosted by jill no jack(US) and Sam Salter(UK). The podcast is broadcast on KYOU in San Francisco. We'll also be on Vancouver, BC Duke Lang's Better Days Radio show on March 1st, 10pm-12. ------------------------------------------------ 1/29/07 The Unkindness of Ravens is now available online @ CD Baby and iTunes. ------------------------------------------------- 1/19/07 Elbo Room has decent sound which is always a luxury. That afternoon we did a sudden cameo on Pirate Cat Radio Pixie's Bordello with DJ Pixie. CitySessions at Club Waziema was an Ethiopian meal and a great audience. We stopped by SOTA the next day to see teachers and did an impromptu concert for Band and Songwriting classes. Fun going back to high school when you don't have to stay. Breakfast with Enzo was a rock-out-loud toddler crowd. More fun. See the entertainment feature on Enzo Garcia in this week's 96 Hours. -------------------------------------------------- 1/4/07 We had a great time in NY. We did a live one hour radio show with Lynn Crystal on WFDU. She actually listened to the cd and asked real questions. No snow but we played with Peter Stampfel in his home and then the next night played the Sidewalk Cafe with him and his daughter Zoe. ------------------------------------------------ 12/8/06 We were featured this week on Ray Randall's Americana Roots Review Volume 39 podcast. And "Marie" is in KQED's December Mix Tape Dark X-mas. ------------------------------------------------ 11/24/06 KPIG was interesting, like being on The Tonight Show at high noon with the set relocated to a Watsonville motel. Best part was talking to Michael Foley in the parking lot. Brainwash was free food, drinks, laundry. Noisy, no audience except for one homeless man who listened attentively and left a note about his life in the Mission since leaving Dyer, TN in 1985. We had to save him from being asked to leave. ----------------------------------------------- 11/14/06 April 2006 live versions of Last Rites in December and Feel Like Going Home are on the new Silverfish in the Kitchen cd compilation. -------------------------------------------------- 10/17/06 We played 2 shows Saturday night, the SF Hootenanny and Edinburgh Castle. Thanks to the avant-garde for coming early and staying late. |
| Blind Willies' debut, The Unkindness of Ravens, has been knocking around my CD player for quite a few months now, quietly haunting random moments of my life during this tail end of winter and early spring. As the days grow longer and the East Coast slowly emerges from icy temperatures, I've come to love this disc rather a lot - so much so, that I find words are failing me. How can one truly relay the maddening beauty of the first crocus poking through the dry, cracked Earth to someone who has never seen it happen? How can I possibly explain something like the Blind Willies song, "Last Rites in December", in such a way that you'll understand how breathtaking it is? Blind Willies are Annie Staninec (fiddle) and Alexei Wajchman (guitar, vocals), a duo that met while at San Francisco School of the Arts. Staninec and Wajchman, both accomplished musicians, made their professional debut as Blind Willies in 2004 at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Since then, they've played a variety of venues and recorded their first release - a collection of ten acoustic tunes featuring the fiddle, guitar, and a bit of harmonica. There's nothing overtly unexpected on The Unkindness of Ravens, but Blind Willies play incredibly wonderful music. Alexei is a remarkable songwriter whose lyrics go well beyond the average ramblings of most singer-songwriters. Even "Mainline" - with its "hungry pawn store prisoners" - is well-crafted enough to run with the big boys and Wajchman wrote the song at the tender age of 15. Annie's fiddle is the perfect accompaniment for Alexei and it's the soft wails from her instrument that really give this album an overall feel of quiet desperation - like waking up in a cold sweat with traces of a nightmare clouding your mind. Tracks like the seven minute long "Something in the Night" are further proof of Alexei's knack as a wordsmith; here, he sings "there's something in the night/even when you're blind/taking drugs to cancel time/that keeps your eyes wide open and your heart clenched tight" and the scene almost materializes right in front of you. Still, it's the opening track, "Last Rites in December" that gives me butterflies every time I hear it. This song just has that certain something that makes it stunning and I find myself returning to it over and over again. "Last Rites in December" is Blind Willies' perfect blend of instruments and voice(s). As Wajchman and Staninec sing "there's no warmth in this city/there's no joy in this lover of mine/so I'm leaving with nothing/I think I'll make it this time" you can feel not only the heartbreak, but the delicate new leaf of hope. Although I'm sure my words are woefully inadequate, I cannot urge fans of all sorts of folk music enough that they should not miss out on The Unkindness of Ravens. The opening track alone is sufficient to pay for this debut CD, but there are nine other gems just waiting to be discovered. Jennifer Patton, Editor Delusions of Adequacy 4/12/07 |
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| 9/3/06 5-8pm Jupiter Cafe Berkeley, CA ------------------------------------------------- 9/30/2006 8pm Danish American House Concerts ------------------------------------------------- 10/8/2006 7-9pm The Ugly Mug Soquel, CA 95073 -------------------------------------------------- 10/14/2006 9pm Edinburgh Castle Pub San Francisco, CA 94109 With Wayward Sway and Local Honey. -------------------------------------------------- 10/21/06 8:30pm Prism Cafe Oakland, CA 94606 ------------------------------------------------- 11/11/06 7-10pm Mama Buzz Cafe Enzo Garcia is sharing the bill. -------------------------------------------------- 11/19/2006 10am Live In-Studio on KPIG's Please Stand By, hosted by Sleepy John Sandidge. -------------------------------------------------- 11/22/06 7pm Brainwash Cafe Jay Dancing Bear is joining us. ------------------------------------------------- 12/8/06 9:30 pm Red Vic Sessions 1665 Haight Street, SF ------------------------------------------------ 12/30/06 5pm WFDU 89.1FM Live on Lynn Crystal's Carnival of Song. We've also been getting airplay on Crash on the Levee ---------------------------------------------- 1/2/07 Sidewalk Cafe 10pm 94 Avenue A, NYC, 10009 We're going to play a few songs with Peter Stampfel in addition to our own set. ------------------------------------------------ 1/5/07 9:30pm $10 Elbo Room 647 Valencia Street, S.F. Penelope Houston and The Estate ------------------------------------------------- 1/9/07 8pm CitySessions @ Club Waziema ----------------------------------------------- 1/13/07 10am Breakfast with Enzo ----------------------------------------------- 2/8/07 8pm KKUP 91.5fm Moonlight Trail Live with Jackie Loken ------------------------------------------------ 2/15/07 10-11:45pm FREE E3 Playhouse 435 Front Street, Santa Cruz ------------------------------------------------- 2/23/07 Friday 8pm Prism Cafe 1918 Park Blvd., Oakland -------------------------------------------------- 3/9/07 Friday 8pm $7 Hotel Utah 500 4th St. @ Bryant, SF ------------------------------------------------ 3/20/07 Tuesday 8pm $3/$5 Monterey Live Monterey, Ca 93940 ------------------------------------------------ 4/6/07 Friday 9pm Red Vic Sessions ------------------------------------------------- 4/11/07 Wednesday 12pm Music at Noon series Santa Clara University Performing Arts Concert Hall ------------------------------------------------ 4/12/07 Thursday 11pm-12 Live in Studio A KDVS ------------------------------------------------ 5/5/07 Saturday 7-9:30pm free Bazaar Cafe ----------------------------------------------- 6/3/07 Sunday 7pm $35/45 DjangoFest SF 2007 ------------------------------------------------ 6/9/07 Saturday 8pm $15 Mission City Coffee Roasting Co. Fiddling Cricket Music Concerts We'll be live on KUSP @ 3pm ------------------------------------------------- 6/10/07 1:30pm free Community Music Center 85th Birthday Celebration ------------------------------------------------- 6/19/07 Tuesday 7:30pm $5 The Last Day Saloon Santa Rosa, CA ------------------------------------------------ 6/22/07 Friday 9pm Hotel Utah with Belleville and Johnstown ------------------------------------------------- 6/23/07 Redwood City Library 12pm ------------------------------------------------- 8/3/07 Friday 8pm Minstrel Folk Project Morristown, New Jersey opening 2 sets for Danny Schmidt ------------------------------------------------- 8/05/07 Sunday 9pm Antifolk/Sidewalk Cafe 94 Ave A, NYC ------------------------------------------------- 8/6/07 Monday 9pm Pete's Candy Store Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY ------------------------------------------------ 8/18/07 Saturday 8pm Chthonic Clash Beacon, NY Saturday night in Pete Seeger's hometown on the Hudson. ------------------------------------------------ 8/21/07 6-7:30pm $6 Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery @ Bleecker St., NYC ------------------------------------------------ 8/25/07 5pm KALW 91.7 FM A Patchwork Quilt Live with host Kevin Vance ------------------------------------------------ 8/29/07 Wednesday 8pm Freight and Salvage Berkeley, CA ------------------------------------------------- 10/26/07 7pm Bazaar Cafe Blind Willies and Crowsong ------------------------------------------------- 11/28/07 6:30pm free Santa Clara University Center for Performing Arts Reception for Frances Moore Lappé -------------------------------------------------- 1/26/08 Saturday 9pm Hotel Utah Saloon Blind Willies with Crowsong and Joel Streeter ---------------------------------------------- 3/22/08 9pm Cafe Improv Cable TV 30 Princeton, NJ ------------------------------------------------- 3/24/08 8pm Parkside Lounge 317 E. Houston St., NY ------------------------------------------------- 3/25/08 10:30pm Googie's/The Living Room 154 Ludlow St., NY ------------------------------------------------ 3/26/08 Horses Sing None of It Minstrel Folk Project TV show Morristown, NJ ----------------------------------------------- 3/29/08 WFDU 89.1FM Carnival of Song Live with Lynn Crystal ----------------------------------------------- 3/30/08 8:45pm Barbes 376 9th St., Brooklyn ------------------------------------------------- 4/20/08 Sunday 11am Please Stand By KPIG Live radio show ------------------------------------------------ 4/24/08 8pm KRSH Thursday Night Live Live show with host Andre de Channes ------------------------------------------------ 4/26/08 Saturday 8pm Ceremony House Concerts Sebastopol, CA ------------------------------------------------ 5/4/08 Sunday 5-7pm Black Cat Bar Penngrove, CA ------------------------------------------------ 5/8/08 9pm Moe's Alley 1535 Commercial Way Santa Cruz ---------------------------------------------- 5/30/08 Friday 4:30pm Ace-in-the-Hole Pub Sebastopol, CA ------------------------------------------------- 6/7/08 2pm KCBX The Minstrel Song Show interview with Sonnie Brown Streams @ kcbx.org ------------------------------------------------- 6/7/08 7pm $20 SLOfolks Concerts Double bill with Kate Power & Steve Einhorn First Presbyterian Church 981 Marsh St., San Luis Obispo ----------------------------------------------- 6/21/08 Noon Summer Sailstice Treasure Island |
| Peter & Zoe Stampfel and Blind Willies 1/2/07 Sidewalk Cafe, NY |
The Unkindness Of Ravens came today in the mail. I'm listening to it now. And I love it, the songs, the good sound of it, the intimacy of it, old spirits joined in its newness. I will introduce your music to my show's listeners on March 1st. Thank you for sharing yourselves in music, and for getting a copy of this beautiful recording to me. Duke Lang Better Days Radio Vancouver, BC |
| " . . . these ten tales explore the darker side of life with word play that is evocative of a quiet desperation, a cool loathing of unavoidable situations or perhaps a pitiful yearning for redemption. Take this as an example: "There's something in the night/even when you're blind/taking drugs to cancel time/that keeps your eyes wide open/and your heart clenched tight." (There's Something in the Night), or the near genius of: "Marie was born in Santa Fe/with saxophone and pretty lace/she'd play for food or spread her thighs/depending on the moon/and on its hollow bones of solitude." (Marie). There's plenty more where these gems came from and with scarcely a track less than five, six or seven minutes long there's plenty of scope for developing the themes." Paul Villers Americana UK |
| If the Devil went down to San Francisco where Blind Willies are located and challenged Annie to a fiddlin' contest it would be no contest because you cannot fiddle like this without divine intervention. Blind Willies prove once again that traditionally styled folk music can sound aggressively modern. jill no jack indieheart Heart of the Night podcast #64 1/31/08 |
| Horses Sing None of It, 3/26/08, show #433, Ralph Litwin on harmonica. "San Francisco duo wowed us with unique sound singing original urban folk tales." |
So many good albums, so little time! I really enjoyed Blind Willies' debut album, The Unkindness of Ravens - so much so that it made the number 7 slot on my Top 10 of 2007 list. I was thrilled when the new Blind Willies disc, Everybody's Looking for a Meal, arrived recently. Though it's a great album, I just haven't found the time to do a full review that can do justice to the music here, so I thought I'd focus on one track - "If You Was a Good Pimp". Other than having a great title, "If You Was a Good Pimp" shows off everything great about this duo. Annie Staninec (fiddle) and Alexei Wajchman (guitar, vocals) play off each other expertly here. Both the guitar and fiddle rock and roll off each other like nobody's business, and Staninec's chorus vocals give a gospel feel to Wajchman's more earnest singing. Since I heard the first Blind Willies disc I've felt that Wajchman has a knack for writing lyrics, and this song is no exception. Consider "If you was a good pimp, Jesus would be smiling. I'm no two-bit mama, I'm no trash bag sister. You better play it right, I ain't gonna hook for you no more." I love it! Just like "Last Rites in December" from the debut moved me emotionally, this tune makes me shuffle and shimmy. "If You Was a Good Pimp" is a fine example of what Blind Willies is all about. I hope Annie and Alexei continue to follow this path, and continue to make great music. If I had a proper place to host, I'd be all over inviting these two by for a backyard party into the wee hours. Grilling, drinks, good friends, and Blind Willies sounds like a perfect summer Saturday night to me! Jennifer Patton, Editor, Delusions of Adequacy, 5/30/08 |
| Blind Willies: Everybody's Looking For A Meal Imagine the White Stripes driven by the fevered folk of Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, and you might get some idea of where the Blind Willies are coming from. Duo Annie Staninec and Alexei Wajchman have brought a punky attitude to bear on songs whose templates have long histories. Alexei's voice drawls and snarls over agitated guitar, while Annie's fiddle playing gives the music it's whirling, devilish heart. Like Meg and Jack before them, they combine to create a sound bigger than the mere sum of their parts. High points include the rich, sneering sarcasm of "Mom Says No," the bluesy, Jagger-esque swagger of "Shark Out of Water," and the dark gypsy sorcery of "Sinners Medley." The line between the past and present is muddied in the melée: You can as easily imagine "If You Was a Good Pimp" being penned in a dingy prohibition-era juke joint as by Snoop Dogg. It's this sound, of traditional music being seized by musicians with new, fiercely held ideas of their own, that makes this album so invigorating. Keith Laidlaw, KQED, 7/4/08 |
| How I like your record! It's deep & clever with the world itself running underneath all of the music! Wim Boluijt, Editor, Hanx Magazine, Netherlands, 7/3/08 |
| All too often, musicians take the path of least resistance in an attempt to be universally 'popular' so it is refreshing to come across an album that has something to say that is worth saying. The greatest gift of Everybody's Looking For A Meal is that each time you return - and believe me you will - you'll discover a completely different album in front of you. But be warned in place of sugar coated, banal nonsense you'll find an album that demands as much of the listener as it did of its creators. Michael Mee, Americana UK, 7/31/08 |
| Meal Ticket, CD Baby review, Paul Landers, 8/08 A radical album. That’s all you need to know. Like The Unkindness of Ravens, their first CD, this one is a collection of stories that construct a powerful telling of what it’s like to be alive, to be hungry, to feel the pain of desire and denial, to struggle through a day and to come out in one piece on the other side of one’s dreams. Whether Alexei Wajchman’s narrator is a child expressing want, a prostitute demanding simple respect, a homeless drifter dreaming of a lost life, or a lover betrayed, the intelligence of his lyrics gives a heightened poetic realism to the unsentimental testaments these characters deliver. Now add a musical universe of genres that suck up every American influence stirring the melting pot culture at large, played by two early twentysomething musicians who seem to have rocked together since birth, and you have some notion of what’s going on here. Annie Staninec’s fiddle is a Tower of Babel unto itself. If there was music outside while the masons and carpenters and water carriers were working their way up that spiral Jacob’s Ladder, it sounded exactly like her fiddle does in Sinners Medley. Her vocabulary is endless, electric, melodious, and certifiably mad. She’s as comfortable in funk, gospel, blues, jazz, country, old-time religion, cabaret, and rock, as she is in a Yiddish vernacular that breaks your heart while you’re catching your breath. Wajchman is also a powerful guitar player. He plays what looks like a dreadnaught tank. His rhythm has a pulsing kick that drives his fiddle player into what sounds like mystery revealed. Their work on If You Was a Good Pimp is drop dead on. A quick rundown of the other songs. Mom Says No is so good they had to do it twice, at the beginning in Alexei’s sneering complaint, and at the end sung by Annie in a tone that’s innocent but strangely ominous. Trampin’ is gospel turned on its head. They’ll crucify a stranger though he’s done his time. Heaven isn’t all the false prophets promise. The title track, Everybody’s Looking for a Meal, is a beautiful, rocking anthem of daily human conduct. Imagine it played by a marching band at our next president’s Inaugural. Don’t Trade In Paradise is a reflection of what we lose when we leave. The places we run away from are never far behind, never far from haunting. The music is a perfect sphere of melody and intention. Sinners Medley begins with a Yiddish traditional about a Rabbi who dances to keep the Devil down. The fiddler takes us back to a Polish shtetl where reverence and joy are tempered by respect for the unseen but unmistakable dark forces. Alexei berates the congregation in a Yiddish growl that spirals wildly with the fiddle into his original song, Shadows Everywhere, a soliloquy sung by a fallen man who sees corruption wherever he turns. Then there are the next 5 songs which play like a bildungsroman of love, betrayal, loss, denial, recognition, resolution, survival, and unmitigated scorn. It’s an epic cycle, not a loose word in it, and it takes the album in a different musical direction but still very much about hunger and its consequences. Carnival is a masterpiece of sound and lyric. These songs are blue ballads of a heart laid bare, exposed to the elements, subject to worms, but stronger for having been eaten alive. Shark Out of Water is a party song. There isn’t a person alive who doesn’t understand the poisonous smile Wajchman nails mercilessly to the cross. I’m in awe of the beauty and bedrock sensibility of this record. Paul Landers, CD BABY review, Everybody's Looking for a Meal, 8/08 |
| It's not often I write to thank an artist on the same day as I receive a CD in the mail. Indeed I don't often listen to them for weeks. As I am listening to it for the 4th time now, continuously, it is dawning on me what a unique album this is. The country/bluegrassy tones give a driving rhythm to some of the most thought provoking songs I've heard for a long time, as well as some of the best fiddling. Sinners Medley opens with a freilachs type tune(rarely heard on radio in Israel)and goes on to become a satanic urban nightmare. I didn't actually intend to write a review, just to say that what initially appeared to me to be a bit of a weird CD rapidly turned into something marvelous which is going to take me many many spins to fully fathom out - if ever I do. Menachem Vinegrad, Director, 11/11/08 Radio Upper Galilee Jacob's Ladder Folk Festival, Israel |
3/26/2010 Revolution Cafe, SF. Max, Misha, Daniel, Adam.
5/2006 Crib Nebula, SF
8/2006 Berkeley
1/2007 NJ
| BLIND WILLIES Soon My Work Will Be Over 12/13/09 for Vic Chesnutt |
5/15/2010 Inner Sunset Street Fair, SF
