Music Friday Live | Music Junkie Press

Gaby Moreno at Hollywood Forever: an early Christmas gift to Los Angeles. By Patrick O’Heffernan

December 7, 2015

(Hollywood) A Gaby Moreno concert is like a family celebration with music – stunning, soaring, shining joyful music. All of that was on display at the auditorium of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery when Gaby Moreno sang Christmas songs for standing room only crowd of very, very happy fans. Moreno’s huge bright eyes, flashing smile and ever present twinkling tiara shown out over a forest of cellphone cameras and adorning faces. This was familia and it was Christmas…a jubilant, ringing, rocking unforgettable Christmas. The waves of love that flowed from the seats as Moreno walked from the back of the hall to her waiting band on stage were palpable, and she sent the love back in equal measure. From the opening lines of “Pesces en el Rio” to the final shimmering notes of her encore, Moreno happily delivered carols in English, Spanish and German from her new album Posada with the blues, rock, folk and pure delight she is loved for. The gift she brought Saturday night was generous – 15 songs, plus an encore, plus [Read More]

The Strands at Room5: glass smooth almost-jazz with a cinematic bite to old and new songs

December 2, 2015

Review by Patrick O’Heffernan (Hollywood) The Strands are a rare wine of music, like a fine cabernet sauvignon that is impressively good at first taste but gets richer, smokier and more complex as you continue to listen. By the time lead singer Amanda Campbell finishes the last note of the last song of a performance or a recording, you realize that the music of The Strands has become a familiar friend, prized yet comfortable. Their performance Saturday night to a standing room only crowd at Hollywood’s venerable Room5 Lounge perfectly showcased British soul singer Campbell’s uncanny ability to sing as smooth as glass, but put a bite into the words. Her uniquely supple voice evokes nostalgia, determination and romance all at once. The performance also showcased the intense lyrics of keyboardist and songwriter Susan Ferrari whose playing parses a tone for the band and whose musical poetry enters your ears and creates the moods and places and times and feelings The Strand is known for. The band was formed in 2011 when Campbell, [Read More]

The Walcotts at the El Rey: nowhere to go but up. By Patrick O’Heffernan

November 22, 2015

(Los Angeles) There is a reason why people were lined up Monday night on the sidewalk outside the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles at 5 o’clock. As one girl who was hanging over the barrier separating the photo pit from the stage said, “We wanted to be right here when The Walcotts come on”. Of course she – and the hundreds of people pressing her and her friends into the rail – were also there for the headliner, Christ Stapleton. But LA’s high-octane, countrified, California Americana rock band was more than enough reason to stand in the cold for 2 hours. Being within touching distance of Tom Cusimano, Laura Marion, Devin Shea and the other half dozen indefatigable musicians that make up The Walcotts was a special magic. And The Walcotts delivered that magic. The pounded out a generous set of 12 songs, all so high powered and fast moving that you could almost feel the air being pushed off the stage like the exhaust of a jet plane. If you only knew [Read More]

Jill Jack at Molly Malone’s: high energy, woman-centered , heart aching country rock. By Patrick O’Heffernan

November 18, 2015

(Los Angeles) I never miss a Jill Jack show in Los Angeles if I can help it, which is why I made sure I got a front table at the legendary Molly Malone’s this weekend because I knew that this was the last night of her tour and it was now or never. Being an early bird paid off. As she always does, Jill Jack electrified the room with her unique high energy, woman-centered , heart aching country rock and I had the best seat in the house. Jack’s Los Angeles band – Jim Burkard on lead guitar, Bill Warnick on drums, the amazing Jonathan Swartz on mandolin (who was recruited that afternoon and blew us away with his fabulous talent), and Chris Colovas from Detroit on bass – created a sound that was perfect for Jack’s unique voice. The band became a single living creature of music that rocked and swayed and drummed and riffed and poured forth some of the sweetest, most blood moving sound I have heard in hallowed hall [Read More]

Homecoming: an interview with Hector Flores of Las Cafeteras. By Patrick O’Heffernan

November 16, 2015

Las Cafeteras is musical family/band made up of seven men and women who have more fun on stage than just about any other band I know, and who are deeply involved in issues of justice for their community. Based in EastLos – East Los Angeles — traditionally the center of Latino culture in this sprawling city that at one time was Mexico – Las Cafeteras brings a combination of tuneful joy and politically-focused messages that makes their high energy American Latin Music the perfect ambassador for the EastLos sound, attracting a diverse audience nationwide. Their music fuses traditional Afro-Mexican music with modern rhythms and storytelling to deliver inspiration for community involvement and justice. And they do it in a way that makes everyone, regardless of race, get up and dance. Las Cafeteras has been on tour since September, crisscrossing the nation in the last of a series of tours that have kept them from their homes in LA for almost a full year. This week they came home and will celebrate with a Homecoming [Read More]

Agony and ecstasy give way to peace in Amy Loftus new album, That Whole Entire Time.

November 13, 2015

Listen with care and you will be richly rewarded Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Like most multi-talented artists, Amy Loftus is prolific, especially in music. Her catalogue is extensive, especially for a woman who first started releasing songs only 10 years ago when her first album, Straight to Amy, came out, Since then she has released over 30 songs, multiple singles and numerous albums and EPs, all of which reveal the many parts and pieces of a decade of focused living and obsessive songwriting. Her latest album, That Whole Entire Time, pulls together of all of the pieces of herself that we have listened to over the past decade into a single, nostalgic picture that is as memorable as each of the songs it fits together. As you look at the whole of her career – from acting in Second City, to song writing and soloing in Nashville, to a voice-over and commercial work in Hollywood, to writing songs for television shows like “Sons of Anarchy” and finding time for painting, parenting and [Read More]

The self-assembling Puzzle that is Rashmi Singh. Review by Patrick O’Heffernan

November 6, 2015

An exquisite crystalline image that lingers long after the final note. By Patrick O’Heffernan (New York) Rashmi Singh admits that she is still finding her voice – although the voice that sings on her second album, Puzzle, is so glorious that most people would be content with it. But not this Texas-raised, New York-based singer-songwriter/actress/director who easily moves from country western to blues to pop to indie in a single album. “ There are times when I feel like I am still finding myself…my unique voice is taking its time to come out,” Rashmi says when explaining how Puzzle fits together country, folk, blues, rock, and ballads in a coherent whole that defies genrefication while it demands attention. The pieces of the musical puzzle that is Rashmi are varied and unique: the soundtracks of the Indian movies of her childhood, the classical music she listened to as a youth, the omnipresent top 40 and country western music on the radio in her formative years in Dallas, the weekend salons of poetry, music, [Read More]