Songwriters Guild Live

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. Zak Perry & The Beautiful Things!! Money and Lust and Power and Fame and Greed and Love and Sex and Lies and Videotapes and More Sex and Murder and Ferraris and Prison and Cops and………….Robberies and Guitars and Cadillacs and Cars and Motorcycles and Car Wrecks and Car Chases and Corruption and Sabotage and Fisticuffs and Internal Injuries and Chocolate Frosting and Lesbians and Fairies…in Boots….and Wild Dogs and Jaguars and Broken Bones and Broken Dreams and….Broken Speakers and Broken Glass Paradise and Broken E Strings and Broken F Strings and Strings and Things and Hi-Tech Wizardry and Photography and Pornography and Geography……and Power Tools and Power Chords and Cripples and Gambling and Baby Snakes and Baby Spiders and Baby Al.…..and Fat Chicks and Fried Chicks and Stones and Seeds and Stems and Tears and Fears and Tears for Fears…………and Face-Mauling Mongrels and Cheerleaders and Mistaken Identities and Natives and Maniacs and Tie-Dyed, Soul Stealing Gypsy Freaks!! Now, c’mon! With a history like that, how can you not come out and see a show?!

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. Imora Mariël (28) uit Enschede lanceert op zondag 24 maart van 14.30 tot 17.00 uur haar eerste EP in Metropool Enschede. De singer-songwriter heeft een EP met zes nummers gemaakt. De EP heet ‘A Loving Heart met haar eerste single ‘Morning in May’. De Enschedese zingt en schrijft al tien jaar, maar bracht niet eerder een EP uit. Ze schrijft Engelstalige popliedjes die makkelijk in het gehoor liggen. ‘Ik val onder de rustigere singer-songwriters, met wat country-invloed. Ik begeleid mezelf op gitaar. Inspiratie haal ik vooral uit mijn liefdesleven en het dagelijkse leven. Zo gaat ‘Noah’ over een jongetje dat voor mij in de rij op het vliegveld in Londen stond’, aldus Imora Mariël. De zangeres hoopt met dit album door te breken. ‘Ik krijg goede reacties op de nieuwe nummers. Voor de komende zomer staan er al meer optredens dan voorheen gepland. Ik heb heel veel zin in 24 maart en hoop op een volle zaal.’ Voor meer info kijk op de Facebookpagina van Imora Mariël Music en op haar instagrampagina (imoramariel).

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. This week we sit down with Max, Dutch and Mustang to talk about the February Album Writing Month, or better known as FAWM. Check it out at http://FAWM.org. You commit yourself to write 14 songs in a month, in an international online community of songwriters. Takeaway: it's fun and you learn a lot!

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. Sinds twee jaar schrijft Frank Schagen onder de naam Klausing Duitstalige liederen. De muziek van Klausing is eigenzinnig. Ze is een smeltkroes van een muzikale reis door onder andere flamenco, klassiek, jazz en wereldmuziek. De teksten zijn direkt en poetisch. Enkele omschrijvingen van luisteraars zijn: “Schubert goes jazz”, “helemaal Zen” “de muziek is soms beklemmend, geaccentueerd door zorgvuldig gekozen dissonanten” en “klassieke avantgarde Rammstein”. Als gitarist heeft Frank een opleiding genoten aan het Fontys conservatorium te Tilburg. Binnen het duo Emunah schrijft en concerteert hij al ruim 10 jaar met eigen instrumentale muziek. Nu met Klausing geniet Frank van de scheppingsruimte, waarin klank- en taalexpressie hand in hand gaan. Naast het maken van muziek geeft Klausing in het ritme van de week yogalessen, gitaarlessen en improvisatiesessies. Sinds twee jaar geeft hij ook Duits in het speciaal voortgezet onderwijs. Vaak reiken de ervaringen in deze werkvelden Frank kiemen aan voor een volgend Klausing-lied. Klausing heeft een eigen stijl ontwikkeld, waarin tekst en muziek samen op gaan. De liederen ontspruiten uit een kiem en vol groeien in de wisselwerking tussen vol overgave klinken en bezinnend tekst schrijven. De muziek vindt zijn voeding in de flamenco, jazz en klassieke muziek. In zijn teksten klinkt een poëtische schrijfstijl. Een veelvoud van omschrijvingen als "Schubert goes jazz", "klassieke avantgarde Rammstein", "Herman Veen", "Bertold Brecht" geven wel weer dat de luisteraar zijn oor in deze muziek kan leggen. De liederen van Klausing zijn zowel teder als indringend. Zijn gitaarspel verrast door onverwachte ritmische wendingen en doorvoelde harmonieën. Opgeleid aan het fontys conservatorium in Tilburg heeft hij zich zowel in de tradities van de klassieke muziek als ook in de bewegingsvrijheden van de jazz kunnen verdiepen. Ook heeft hij zich enkele jaren verdiept in de flamenco. Het is de doorleefde reis door de verschillende, die de muziek van Klausing een heel eigen karakter geven.

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. Let’s start with a name-drop: over the past 20 years, Michael Dean Damron has played and toured with some of the greatest American songwriters in history: Alejandro Escovedo, Lucero, Rocky Votolato, Chad Price, Mike Watt, Eddie Spaghetti, Reverend Horton Heat, Drive by Truckers, David Allen Coe, Jerry Joseph, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Neko Case... Damron is tired, hopeful, and excited to play for new folks in a different part of the world. Oh, and he HATES to fly. Just another fear to overcome. On his upcoming tour of Belgium and Netherlands, Damron will be backed by the best there is, bassist Allen Hunter of Eels fame and guitarist/producer Dan Eccles of Richmond Fontaine and Fernando. A subtly powerful trio to make you shout, cry, and remember what it means to be alive.

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. Bubblegum Slut/ UK: « A paradoxical mix of a Yorkshire man’s Northern bluntness that tells it like it is and a “continental poetic tongue which educates and stirs…! » - Stylusmag/ Canada: « Berry has a keen intellect, a disdain for those buffered from reality, and an internalized anger that fuels the vitriol in every adjective. It is real life undecorated, and smoulders like the everyday pressures. This is fucking brilliant. Clean glass please, and leave the bottle! » With the aid of an acoustic guitar or piano he sits centre-stage and recounts with his powerful seducing voice the tales of his life on the back streets of Leeds/England, his touring years through to his crippling road accident in Brighton/ England. In the 80s he was the guitarist & founding member to the successful Rock/Goth band, The Rose of Avalanche, which produced many great albums and singles. Eventually enough was enough and he broke up the band in the 90s and embarked on a solo career under his own name. He played in every possible venue in the UK and Europe. 3 solo albums later (PJB, Ginnel and Nations) which saw him support giants of the songwriting genre such as Frank Black, Vic Chestnutt, Kevin Coyne, David Bowie, Howe Gelb, Townes Van Zandt, he is now back. After rehabilitating from his accident, he has a new album ‘Spitfire Jukebox 1’. It’s mainly one instrument and voice that give a beautiful raw insight to the human soul. It reveals a personal account of the last few years. Touches on a cathartic necessity to get through the nightmare of his road accident to the celebration of life itself. Recorded in Berlin in the vast hall of the famous UFO-Studios, an old brewery which doubled-up as a bunker in the second world war. «when I arrived at the studio in Berlin, there was this colossal old hall that just had ‘something’ that moved me. So, I said to the man, get me a chair, put it in the middle of the hall and record me bleeding….» «the whole point of this album was to be in control and do everything myself - for good or bad - no rules and no bull shit! Just me and my demons>>

Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide. A Montréal-born Trinidadian-Canadian, Zaynab comes to the music scene with a wealth of cultural and musical diversity. Her recent Live EP (2018), is the debut to her career as a fronting singer-songwriter where she draws musical and rhythmic inspiration from her Caribbean roots and merges with folk, her heart and soul. Her voice is sweet, unaffected and naturally blended, and carries a strong sense of rhythm. Zaynab grew up in a large family of musicians, specializing on Steelpan, and got an early start to the life of an artist. Being the youngest of the lot of six children, the formula was already set by the time she was six. Zaynab was performing throughout Eastern Canada with her family, the "Von-Trapps of Steelpan", and gaining invaluable life lessons. Now, in addition to steelpan, Zaynab has grown into a sensitive, dynamic and well-rounded musician and is an equally talented percussionist, vocalist, songwriter and drummer, holding a drum-major degree from Humber College. Over the years, Zaynab has had the opportunity to perform with a variety of local and international artists including Alysha Brilla, Jason Wilson, Martin Carthy, Dave Swarbrick and Pee Wee Ellis, and performing at notable festivals including Woodford Folk Festival (Australia), Hillside Festival (Canada) and Celtic Connections (Scotland). On her own front, Zaynab took her Live EP tour on the road to Western Canada in September 2018 and over to Eastern Canada with Arlene Paculan in November 2018, performing in both house concerts and local live music venues. As for 2019, Zaynab is working towards releasing a series of singles, a new EP and tour dates, so far, in both Canada and USA. When she isn’t performing, Zaynab runs music workshops at various schools within the multiple school boards in Ontario. Her workshops are delivered using steelpan, percussion or band instruments with the goal being more than learning repertoire. Her workshops run in schools with higher numbers of newcomers to Canada, for groups with special learning abilities, as part of health and wellness conferences and for overall team building and strengthening of non-verbal and nonviolent communication. She recently attended a Musicians Without Borders Training of Workshop Leaders program, in Ede, to help enhance her workshop leading abilities. In a realistic world, Zaynab would be able to integrate touring as a performer and running music-based workshops along the way.

With a commanding voice and remarkable melodic sensibilities, Laura Reznek makes music that is at once haunting and uplifting. Her songs offer an intimate look into the surreal world formed of memories by the restless mind, often needing little more than the dexterous flow of fingers across a piano to transform the raw material of a single human life into an expression of consciousness’ inherent uncertainty. Not conforming to the trappings of any single genre, Laura’s music is well aware of the vast Western canon upon whose shoulders it stands; listen closely and you will hear subtle homages to everything from mid-century cool jazz, blues, and gospel to modern folk and experimental pop. With such respect for tradition embedded in the music itself, Laura is able to flout modern musical norms in the framing of her live performances: you are more likely to find her playing in a bookshop, bell tower, or canal boat and see her sharing the stage with poets and chamber quartets. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

The moody orchestra is a project of Amsterdam based, German singer- songwriter Tobias Oeckler. While mostly playing live on his own, his recorded works reach from fragile songwriting craft to collaborated tunes in more ,orchestrated’ garments, so to say. His latest albums ‚a big step’ and ‚aum’, that he simultaneously self-produced, clearly show this vibrant mix of contradicting opposites. His songs are characterized by their personal and poetic lyrics, sometimes cryptic and mysterious, sometimes chrystal clear, but almost always carried out in a cleansing melancholic mood. Combining elements of folk, punk, pop and roots rock, Matt Pless can lyrically turn a phrase with the best of them. He has been compared to some of the top songwriters of our time, including John Lennon, Paul Simon, John Prine and Bob Dylan. Known for his engaging and thought-provoking, witty, word labyrinths, Matt's music spans topics from love and loss to social commentary to ethereal train-of-thought abstractions, and everything in between. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

Guillaume Maupin (Saintonge records/ Matamore) sings songs since a very early age. Of course, humour does belong to music, and traditonnal, orginals, covers, wicked, strange songs are all part of his shows. Working solo or with other artists (Eugene Chadbourne, Beck, Lonely Kid Quentin, Mihai Iordache, Dead Western, Arrington de Dionyso, Euphorium freakestra, Portron Bros...) sharing stages with very various acts (Jeffrey Lewis, The Ex, Old Time Relijun, The Fall, René Binamé, ..) and playing around the world (Siberia, USA, UK, Kenya, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Romania, Poland, Czech rep,...) he loves to provoke fruitful encounters. In his now celebrated Human Jukebox project, with his bands Music for Rabbits, Tartine de Clous, his conference/concerts, or through his Film Water Music, or solo, playing in houses, concert halls, bars,cinemas, he always take the audience for a fun multinlingual ride. "While many performers on the folk scene consider themselves lucky if they can be judged decent in one style and interpret a few songs exceptionally well, this talent is expansive, with challenging conclusions, the swords of skill rattling and clashing in an enjoyable duel. Guillaume is not best at singing in English, French, or German; at being funny or deadly serious; at vocalizing or simply playing haunting, fingerpicking instrumental passages -- he is simply great at all these things" Eugene Chadbourne Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

Live session with Shane Alexander, the prolific Californian singer-songwriter who was on tour in The Netherlands! I also played some songs from the session with Jerry Spurlock, plus a song of Ana Souls, who'll play on the show next week. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

Radioshow with our live guest Thomas Triemstra. We also played music of Jesse Terry, Dusty Stray, Whitherward, YORI, Shane Alexander and Siv Jakobsen, who all played on the show before. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

This week we combine two bonus sessions I recorded with The Brother Brothers, and Hannah Trigwell. The Brother Brothers is a vocal duo group from New York, consisting of identical twins. They remind me a lot of Simon & Garfunkel and The Everly Brothers. Hannah Trigwell is a singer-songwriter from Leeds, who has a major following on Youtube. She started out her success with posting videos of acoustic covers on her channel. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

Radioshow with Cat Dail Music and Julian du Perron as live guests :) We also played music of Jerry Spurlock, who'll play on the show next week. Plus music from WOLKEN (Robin Block & Rita Zipora) and Gitta de Ridder, who all played on the show before. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on artists who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.

Radioshow with Dusty Stray as live guest, presenting his new album. We also played music of Cat Dail Music, Tangarine, Julian du Perron, Anne Janelle, Susie Asado and Long Conversations, who have all played on the show before. Songwriters Guild Live is a weekly radioshow in Amsterdam, focussed on singers who write their own songs. This week your host was Ro Halfhide.