'Utah' Bands // p 2 of 2

Nicole Canaan

For Utah-based singer-songwriter Nicole Canaan, an avid interest in the power of music came from hearing the various synth-based orchestrations in the video games her older brothers would play. “The analog sounds in those video games when they’re telling the stories of the characters, something about those sounds scratches my brain more than anything ever has,” says Canaan. “I love combining those synths with sadder lyrics. I think it creates a really interesting balance.”

Wherever, which was released in October of 2020, was not only Canaan’s first EP, but her first time sharing her songs and all the emotions packed into them with someone else. After posting several songs on Soundcloud, Canaan’s music caught the ear of producer Isaac Elmont, who expressed interest in producing an album. “It was a lovely and very fun experience making the EP. It was also extremely nerve racking—I had never been vulnerable with someone about my music and I had to be when I started recording with Isaac,” she says.

^{Source slugmag.com}

Swantourage

Swantourage is a four piece instrumental band based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. The band, apply named after their founder, Dustin Swan, has been shaking booties across the rockies for several years now.

Dustin has been a big part of the music scene in Utah performing with local bands like Samuel Smith Band and PIG EON.

Three singles by Swantourage have been released in 2019 and there is more expected to come this year. Keep an eye and an ear out for this group.

^{Source Darren Farnsworth}

The Dublife Soundsystem

Bronté James was a great person and a local reggae star in Salt Lake City with his band Afro Omega.

Bronte Michele James of Eugene, OR passed away on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at the age of 40 due to complications from cancer. Bronte was born to Laura Ann Hubych (Sasson) and Harding Lewis James on July 31, 1977 in Salt Lake City Utah. He attended East High School, and then went on to attend Orange Coast College. On June 10, 2005 he married Elisa Vasquez in Salt Lake City after being together since November 1998. Bronte loved sports and being active. He played high school football, track, and baseball. Once he finished college football, he started his love of music. He played his first live show as Afro Omega in December 2002, and recorded 5 albums during his music career. He also started up an electronic music project: Dublife Music. Bronte continued performing, writing, collaborating, and influencing the music community until his disease advanced. Bronte fought strongly and courageously until the very end. Bronte was preceded in death by his father Lewis James. He is survived by his wife of 19 years Elisa James (Vasquez); mother Laura Hubych and stepfather John William Hubych; son Tahriq James (18), son Ahmadi James (15), daughter Nia James (9), and daughter Ade James (4), all of Eugene, OR; brother Delano James of Seattle, WA; sister Adrian James of Atlanta, GA; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews who loved him dearly.

^{Source legacy.com}

Tony Holiday

There are many young players on the current international blues scene and Tony Holiday is one that stands out amongst the finest!

Tony Holiday, a Vocalist and Harmonica player hailing from Memphis TN has been recognized by peers such as Charlie Musselwhite and James Harman as a rising star in the community and Holiday included both, amongst many others, on his latest release of field recordings Tony Holiday’s Porch Sessions where Holiday and Partner Landon Stone have criss-crossed the country recording famous blues musicians and playing with them on their front porches, out with the Vizztone Label January 2019.

Tony, on vocals and harp, brings out that old school voice that is sometimes missing from the Blues scene today. It harkens back to when the Blues were just finding their way in the new electric age. In that transition, the sounds that were coming out of the local independent record labels in Memphis and that you might of heard from the King Biscuit Hour in its later years or on one of the other many stations that spotted the value of the Blues. His passion and vocal strength with a soulman’s heart and wicked sense of impish humor blend to let you enjoy those deep blues and then chuckle when you might not otherwise have done so at the sometimes dark current of Blues. He has the ability to make you laugh in the face of pain so that you can take that next step by turning on your heel and walking into the light where he’s got a tune for you there for you to meet your next ex-wife on the dance floor and make some memories.
With him on guitar is Landon Stone. Tall and lean with the brooding face of so many guitarists who have melded with the instrument, he places a perfect counterpoint to Tony’s harp. When the two play off of one another, well… frankly… you forget your damp and tired and hungry after a long rainy day of festival music, and you just have fun!

Holiday fearlessly crosses the line between traditional Blues and Soul and modern day Americana with brilliant writing expressing Holiday’s poetic side, humor and touching on issues like Love, Heartache and Stories from Holiday’s traveling lifestyle. A combination of a family man and a road dog, Holiday finds the balance in his life as well as his music.Keeping a tight leash on his vocal control and harmonica tone Holiday has been named in the top 10 young harmonica players in the country via Rick Estrin and Blues Harmonica Player Forum.

Tony Holiday’s Porch Sessions out with the Vizztone Label is reminiscent of Alan Lomax’s landmark field recordings and the live recordings that have surfaced from Chicago’s famed Maxwell St era.

^{Source tonyholidaymusic.com}

Triggers & Slips

Not being down with the Utah scene, I hung out in cyberspace with ‘Triggers and Slips’ a while and first stop was the Small Lake City Concert Series and a version of Alice in Chains’ ‘Rooster’. Mormon descendent Morgan Snow takes a pinch of that grungy flavour and the ‘Slips’ sneeze dirty country vibes all over it, resulting in kind of a cross between Son Volt and Pearl Jam. It’s a virus that one can only imagine is going to spread rapidly as the rest of the album hits our shelves, venues and, yes, online platforms of choice.

To dig further into the ethos of ‘Triggers and Slips’ reveals that in fact the band leadership, songwriting and roots are very much intertwined with John Davies. Davies is vocal wingman, multi-instrumentalist and owner of a delightfully simple name considering his trade. Here is a band that carry themselves like men and play their music with redoubtable authority. Don’t let that fool you that it’s not fun though. Good production can sound very spontaneous when done right. The title track is all the proof you need of that, as a slow distorted intro gives way to honky-tonk piano, Hammond organ and duelling guitars, fading in and out over an outlaw country shuffle while Snow, for all the world a 21st Century Waylon, holds court as master of ceremonies. “We’ve been pushing our luck/We’re bound to fuck up…” his voice is a finely tuned country music weapon in peak condition. There are elements of border country in ‘Natchez Trace’, the dusty desert fandango style strongly vying with the rock n roll of Uncle Sam for prominence. ‘Old Friends’, which first appeared on the band’s 2012 self-titled EP is a bromance reunion epic, replete with spectacular fiddle and toe-tapping piano solo work by the band’s honky tonkin’ electro dj, the ‘Time Chimp’ – Greg Midgley. It’s been dragged from the gutter, polished to a shining star of a song and given centre stage on ‘The Stranger’. The combination of country and slow bluesy Jeff Beck overtones on ‘I’m Not Your Baby’ hints at the broad horizons that ‘Triggers And Slips’ have embraced while Snow clings to his love of grunge with that overhaul of ‘Rooster’.

Morgan Snow was a drug and alcohol therapist when he stumbled on the name for his band, Triggers and Slips was the heading of some notes on a group session one of his co-workers was leading. Much of this album concentrates, in the great traditions, on matters of the heart and of the soul. Described as songs that will “hit you in the gut” the blend of skilful delivery, first-class production and songcraft of the highest standard makes ‘The Stranger’ a game-changer for these men of Utah.

^{Written by Tim Merricks}

^{Source americana-uk.com}

Ugly Valley Boys

I first met upright bassist Braxton Brandenburg from the two-piece Ugly Valley Boys when he was touring with JB Beverley through Texas in December, and then saw him again with JB at The Muddy Roots Festival, when he handed me this CD from his “other band.” Yeah, everyone is in a band these days, and most have “other bands” as well, and they all have well-intentioned, but not always good CD’s to peddle. Braxton seemed like a great guy, but when I looked at this album, with yet another standup bass, yet another guitar player who sits down at a bass drum in a band that has “Valley” and “Boys” in the name I thought, “Yep, I’ve heard this before.”

And then when the album started off with a track about running moonshine, the pigeon-holing was just about complete. That’s when the song “Raven” hit my ears, and the genius behind the Ugly Valley Boys revealed itself, separating them far from the herd.

From Salt Lake City, The Ugly Valley Boys evoke the lonesome sound of the desert, the classic soul of country, and the open space of the West in original songs that are wickedly engaging and smartly crafted. So many bands try to imbibe their music with a vintage feel and Western space by using copious amounts of chorus or reverb, or blowing wads of cash on vintage gear. Ugly Valley’s guitar player, singer, and songwriter Ryan Eastlyn takes the road less traveled with the use of moaning, melodic chorus lines that are so excellent, they vault this band from a relative unknown to one responsible for one of the better albums put out so far in 2011.

The melodic chorus-driven songs with punk undertones are counterbalanced by dark and gritty deep roots songs that could be considered just as much blues as country. As impressed as I am by Eateryn’s ear in crafting the vocals in these songs, without any message or meaning behind the lyrics, the experience would be shallow. The Ugly Valley Boys pull you in with Braxton’s engaging rhythm and Ryan’s voice, but what keeps you engaged is the soul embedded in the songwriting.

I could break down each song on this album, but I don’t see the point. There’s not a bad song here. At the moment, the track that most impresses me is “Alota Guns”, but this album shows all the earmarks of one whose best track changes by week, until every song has filled that slot and after a couple of months you look down and this CD is still stuck in the player.

The instrumentation is great as well, from Ryan and Braxton, and also from Mike Sasich and Brad Wheeler who they brought in to play some tasteful lead lines on various tracks. If I had a suggestion for the Ugly Valley Boys, it would be that there could be more breadth to the music. The stripped down approach is appreciated, but this music is just too good to be devoid of maybe another layer or two of instrumentation, at least in the recorded setting. The lead instruments in Double Down, though great, seem to be add-ons at times instead of intermixed with the rest of the music.

But the thing about great songwriting is that it trumps all. Any concerns about instrumentation or lineups or names of bands are all put to rest simply by songs that speak to the heart in universal themes, and that is exactly what The Ugly Valley Boys do. I was going to give this album 1 3/4 of the maximum 2 guns that I have the authority to afford an album, because I do think Double Down leaves some room for improvement, but in the end this album is just too good, has too many good individual songs to call it anything but great.

Two guns up!

^{Source savingcountrymusic.com}