John "Spikehorn" Meyers. See also HERE
Quote and Credit
CLICK TO ORDER OR PREVIEW JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS
The Accidentals The Best Unsigned Band in America?
 |
| (Photo Anna Sink/Local Spins credit) |
One of the best unsigned bands in America is a duo of 18 year old women from Traverse City, Michigan. Home of the National Cherry Festival. That is a long way from wherever current pop "role models" Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber live, but the Mitten state grows as much talent as fruit, and it has since John Lee Hooker moved up to perform for Automobile workers after the big one.
Katie Larson and Savannah Buist are recent graduates of the first singer-songwriter major program at Interlochen Center for the Arts. It is one of the most acclaimed music schools in the world, yet the Accidentals are far from snooty. They have somehow managed to retain an authenticity and heartbreaking musical pathos I equate with the school of Harry Smith and Alan Lomax. I have every reason to believe The Accidentals will achieve the level of American greats. You would think me kidding if I named a few in the sphere I think of, but then I saw the 27-Grammy Award winning Alison Krauss perform at age 18 too, and as Levon Helm once said "lightning can strike twice" after all. I have seen the Accidentals perform and felt those sparks, and if dear Levon were still here I would tell him. I am not exaggerating. The Accidentals could have owned Levon's barn stage easily, and I know that too.
The Accidentals could already be considered successful, I suppose, with FIVE HUNDRED gigs already behind them. Between them they play a dozen instruments. They sing, at times, with a perfect dissonant aching (some of which you can see in their faces as they occur in the clips here) and they support each other like hired professionals. They met at age 15 in public school, maintained their 3.9 grade points and practiced. They both come from musical families. I have chosen to include two acoustic performances here, but in performance they can rock. Their live act is frequently electric. The stage patter and presence is polished but real. They switch instruments before the song they have finished sinks in. A 45 minute set passes like a train. They already have more good originals than most hit acts, and their tastefully eccentric list of covers, well... covers the gamut. They pack performing space with a multi-generational mix any act would beg for. Their song The Silence has talon hooks, a mature mastery of dynamics and is as good as anything I've heard in a decade. The studio version is HERE and you will find the lyrics HERE. It approaches standard. If you write songs, you know what standard means.
And they will grow.
I am not producer, critic or musician, but I have seen a good two dozen of the performers in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and many of them in venues smaller than the Accidentals regularly play. I have been fortunate enough to have made a few small contacts in the music world… if my post here reaches any of them I will have done what I can, and when one day one of them says to me "why didn't you tell me" I won't have to say I didn't try.
The Accidentals website is HERE. Their Music is HERE. They have a YouTube Channel. If they play near you, and they will, see them. Thank you to critic and writer John Sinkevics for alerting me to The Accidentals
Polaroid Pack Film Portraits of Wood and a free preview of I'm with Dummy by Jim Linderman
Anonymous Polaroid Pack Film Portraits, No Date circa 1970s Collection Jim Linderman
You may also be interested in the Book and Ebook "I'm With Dummy : Vent Figures and Blockheads" avalable from Blurb.com.
Soon on Dull Tool Dim Bulb.. A photo archive of ???
Times Square 42nd Street 1949 Original Vintage Snapshot
Hopefully, some of you know I have been working on a book project which will tell the true story of the art and cultural changes brought by the underground artists, writers, publishers and merchants who were active in the 1950s and early 1960s in New York City.
TIMES SQUARE SMUT is going really well, and I am now at the point of locating images I hope will be useful to the artist I will commission to do the cover. This snapshot shows ground zero of smut...and will be helpful. A mere block from the location of the bookstores I am more interested in...but the book will tell a far more decentralized story. From time to time I make excerpts available. Be an adult.
One of my favorite buildings is just visible back in the horizon. The old McGraw-Hill building which has blue/green terra-cotta ceramic tiles on the exterior, and I am pleased to see it has been landmarked. The dapper fellow walking to work unfazed by the activity around him? I am hoping to have him rendered either a pornographer, a censor or a patron.
Original anonymous snapshot 1949 collection Jim Linderman
Baby Centaur and his Friends Sketchbook circa 1910
Baby Centaur and his friends found in a circa 1910 Sketchbook
Collection Jim Linderman
Make Do Wall Hanging Candle Box with two inscised relief carved Nudes Erotic Folk Art
Folk Art Sculpture. Collection Jim Linderman
Eccentric Fashion Drawings Dull Tool Dim Bulb Annual "I'm Not at the Outsider Art Fair" Exhibition
I try to post a group of unusual artworks every year around Outsider Art Fair time. Fashion drawings, to my knowledge, haven't yet made an appearance at the Outsider Art Fair yet. These are nice ones.
Art and Photography Books and $5.99 Ebooks by the author are available for preview or purchase HERE
Gruesome Amputation Tableau of Tin Miniature Handmade Figures Walking with Mr. D.
This is a first. Completely made by hand, with an indecipherable signature and no indication of age (but they are old...not 17th century old, but old) a lurid gruesome scene. I think the figures, which are made of lead and tin (all painted by hand and all original) were at one time part of a larger installation or display. A museum of horrors which has closed down? Objects from the former Malcom Forbes toy museum on Fifth Avenue? (If you never saw Malcom Forbes toy collection, you haven't seen a toy collection.) A quite remarkable little nightmare with meticulous construction. I also have what could be called "Walking with Mr. D."
BOOKS AND EBOOKS BY THE AUTHOR HERE
Unknown Jazz Band circa 1930 Any Help out There?
Art Fair Season Help for Hanging Works Salon Style from Big Johann K. Petursson
With art fair season coming up, I have found the solution for your hanging needs. Just watch Johann K. Petursson, a man I was ready to call "The Giant Abe Lincoln of Iceland" after finding this postcard until I looked him up. A wonderful "little" vignette here of the big man hanging modern art.
Tallest Man in the World Real Photo Postcard signed and dated on reverse 1951 Collection Jim Linderman
BOOK AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN AVAILABLE HERE
The Story of the Corn 19th Century Folk Art Drawings collection Jim Linderman
I chose to provide instructions on how to make popcorn.
This young 19th Century artist has done the same for me, with far greater scope if not clarity, in this pair of drawings. I left out so much. I forgot the scarecrow. The Story of Corn.
Two drawings circa 1890 collection Jim Linderman.
Books and $5.99 Ebooks by Jim Linderman available HERE.
NIGHTCLUBBIN' Club DeLisa and the Fifth Avenue Ballroom. Roving Club Photographer on the Scene
Three original club photographs with original sleeves circa 1950 Collection Jim Linderman
The Birth of Rock and Roll Book by Jim Linderman available HERE
Banner of Heaven and Hellfire Folk Art Hale's Studio Prestonburg Kentucky
Photograph collection Jim Linderman
Hamrick Buys Produce Painted Rooster Folk Art Sign Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman
Hamrick Buys Produce Painted Rooster Folk Art Sign Real Photo Postcard collection Jim Linderman
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS AND $5.99 EBOOKS BY JIM LINDERMAN HERE
First African-American Armed Cross Dressers with a Guitar Pose for the Camera collection Jim Linderman
Even though I suspect the gun, holster and guitar are studio props, you have to GIVE props to this African-American couple who had the nerve to exchange clothes for the photo. It is a man and a woman, as the gentleman in drag has an Adam's apple. The RPPC dates from 1910 to 1930. If they are not using props, this could have been quite a team, musical or criminal. A rare, tough image with lots of cultural resonance today. The first cross dressing African-American photograph, even if done for the photographer only?
Real Photo Postcard with Azo Back circa 1910 - 1930 Unknown location and photographer. Note on reverse Collection Jim Linderman
ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS by Jim Linderman (AND $5.99 EBOOKS) are available HERE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)