Recording studio
The Kitchen Sink
The Kitchen Sink
EVENTS AT THE KITCHEN SINK - Winter/Spring 2019/20
“If San Francisco is home to anyone approaching the abilities of a modern Hendrix, it’s Eric McFadden.” (Jimmy Leslie / Guitar Player Magazine 2009)
“…I found myself struck mightily by the big soul inside Eric McFadden. His singing and playing are as good as it gets, full of power and awe inspiring expertise…” Dennis Cook / Jambase 2009
“…McFadden is a six string virtuoso. His command of so many genres- is accentuated with meticulously crafted songs. There’s the poppy twist on traditional psychadelia. Poetic yet sinisterly distorted punk. Rowdy rockabilly. Dark, foreboding grunge. His melodies hinge on seriously catchy choruses that resonate thanks to a crunchy baritone reminiscent of Tom Waits or the late Mark Sandman of Morphine…” (The Denver Post, December 2009 concert review)
“The Eric McFadden Trio’s Joy of Suffering gets my vote as the best and most original guitar recording of the year so far.” (Jimmy Leslie / Guitar Player Magazine 2005)
“McFadden is a master of guitar and mandolin, a 25 year veteran who waltzes the dark, eerie corridors between Jimi Hendrix and Django Reinhardt…” ( Jonathan Zwickel – San Francisco Bay Guardian, October 2004)
“…Part raging rock star, part flamenco gypsy, McFadden is one of the most talented musicians in San Francisco today, bar none. Whenever he steps into the spotlight, McFadden turns up the energy level a few notches, and the unexpected becomes the norm.” – (Andy Tennille / Jambase 2007)
Saturday March 21st
South Austin Moonlighters in Concert
Doors @7:00pm / Show @7:30pm - $20.00
100% of the evening's proceeds go to the artists
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED
There is no event parking available at the studio. Parking is available in nearby Guadalupe Street parking lots, in the municipal lot next to Allsups gas station, and ample parking is always available across the street from the studio at the DeVargas Mall.
International Folk Music Awards 2017 Artist of the Year Ordinary Elephant captivates audiences with their emotionally powerful and vulnerable songs, letting the listener know that they are not alone in this world. The collaboration of husband and wife Pete and Crystal Damore, their connection, and their influences (such as Gillian Welch, Guy Clark, Anais Mitchell) all meet on stage. “Two become one, in song...hand-in-glove harmonies surprise the listener with focused intensity and musical mastery,” says Mary Gauthier. The Associated Press is calling their latest album, Honest, “one of the best Americana albums of the year.”
Eric McFadden has also collaborated on stage and/or in the studio with the regal likes of Bo Diddley, Keb Mo’, Living Colour, Joe Strummer (The Clash), Nels Cline (Wilco), Les Claypool (Primus), Leo Nocentelli, George Porter Jr and Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters, Pat MacDonald (Timbuk3), Bernie Worrell (Talking Heads, P-Funk), Jesse Hughes (EODM), Bonnie Raitt, Bill Kruetzman (Grateful Dead), Ron Wood, Bernard Fowler & Chuck Leavell (Rolling Stones), Pink, Fishbone, The Revivalists, Pete Sears (Jefferson Airplane, Rod Stewart), Carla Bozulich, Joe Santiago & Dave Lovering (The Pixies), Widespread Panic, Jackson Browne, Mike Watt (Minutemen, Stooges), The Reverend Horton Heat, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), Grace Potter, Galactic, Boots Riley (The Coup), North Mississippi Allstars, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Dug Pinnick (Kings X) among others.
Eric McFadden is a veteran of such celebrated west coast bands as Alien Lovestock, Angry Babies, Tasty Face, Liar, IZM, EMT, and the Faraway Brothers.
Eric recently signed with Tab Benoit’s label, Whiskey Bayou records. He’s been touring in support of his new album, “Pain By Numbers”, which features, Doug Wimbish (Living Colour, Mick Jagger) and Terence Higgins (Annie DiFranco, Warren Haynes), and was released September 7th 2018. In addition, Eric just released in November on Bad Reputation out of France, was Eric’s all acoustic AC/DC tribute record. Also released in 2018 was his duo record with guitar great, Omar Torrez (Tom Waits). Among his other recent projects is,The Sophistikits, which was founded with guitarist and friend, Eddie Roberts (New Mastersounds), and includes Wally Ingram, Miles Tackett, Jeff Franca and Chris Spies.
Success for this “True Americana” ensemble has been about embracing a supergroup ethos while shunning supergroup egos. At their best, the band represents not just what’s right about the Austin TX music community but about live music as a whole. And they’re only getting better.
When Chris Beall, Phil Hurley, Lonnie Trevino Jr, three established Austin TX musicians, decide to join forces and play together just because it’s fun, you’re going to get something special. Such is the case for The South Austin Moonlighters, a band that blends blues, folk, soul, rock, and country, who can flip the switch from slow melodic country to gravelly rocking blues without a hitch. Think Little Feat meets Los Lobos with a splash of The Flying Burrito Bros, and you start to peel away the many musical layers of sound that makes up the S.A.M., and now with the addition of newest member Daniel James on Drums. Using a four part harmony at times accompanied with some brilliant guitar playing, S.A.M. plays with a full-bodied sound, and puts off an aura of down to earth Southern Blues and Country Rock, that can make even coldest days seem warm.
The Band consist of Lonnie Trevino Jr – Bass & Vocals, Phil Hurley – Guitar & Vocals, Daniel James – Drums & Vocals, and Chris Beall – Guitar & Vocals.
The Band mainly does Originals songs in their set and for the love of music, they throw in choice Covers that fans and newbie fans absolutely love.
The Bands origin manifested when Lonnie Trevino Jr had the idea of putting together a side group (where they could all “moonlight” on their steady gigs-thus the band’s name), just for the pure joy of playing music. Since then SAM have self-released four CD’s that have garnered “Highest Recommendations” from venue owners and national publications alike for SAM’s “Live At The Saxon Pub” released Nov. 2012, studio album debut “ Burn & Shine” released Feb. 2014, July 2016 Ghost Of A Small Town, and the newest release May 17th 2019's "Travel Light" Produced by Anders Osborne on Station House Records.
The joy of music making, the band shares, is a tangible and contagious part of Moonlighters’ shows, which made it effortless for them to quickly build a solid fan base through their Austin residencies and regional travels. During SXSW 2012, buyers from as far away as Europe were anxious to catch a bit of the South Austin Moonlighters’ “magic” thus resulted in signing with German Lable Blue Rose Records releasing “Burn & Shine” Aug. 1st 2014 in Europe and Scadinavia with plans for a summer release of Ghost Of A Small Town in the afore mentioned areas.
The inspiration of SAM stems from the band members’ mutual respect and admiration for each other’s skill and mastery of their instrument. Musicians are always seeking out others who inspire them and challenge them to improve. This group is an amazing example of what can happen when you put a bunch of talented guys in one room with an emphasis on joy and no egos involved. And now be prepared to witness The JOY that is The South Austin Moonlighters!
Presented
in collaboration with
Southwest Roots Music
and Santa Fe Performance Exchange
For three decades Grammy winner Mollie O’Brien and her husband, guitarist Rich Moore, have made it their mission to find, mine and reinvent other artists’ songs. As songwriters they add their own tunes to the canon of American roots music, boasting a fluid ability to make themselves at home in any genre. Rich, known for his hilarious onstage banter, is a powerhouse guitar player who can keep up with O’Brien’s twists and turns: from blues to traditional folk to jazz to rock & roll.
They met in 1981 at the Denver Folklore Center on April Fool’s Day. Mollie was singing with the vintage swing outfit Prosperity Jazz Band, and Rich was playing bass with The Late Show, a rock-steady blues outfit. Within a year Mollie joined The Late Show, and they began playing Colorado blues festivals and concerts. In the late ’80s, Mollie earned fame when she and her brother Tim released three critically-acclaimed albums for Sugar Hill Records (Take Me Back, Remember Me and Away Out On The Mountain). Eventually, Mollie recorded five equally well-received solo albums and was a regular on Prairie Home Companion. Meanwhile Rich stayed at home with the kids and performed locally while Mollie and Tim toured. Recent years have seen a renewed focus on wife-husband duet recordings and tours. Their latest is the exquisite Daughters (2015).
Saturday December 21st
Eric McFadden in Concert
with special guest Kate Vargas
BUY TICKETS
Doors @7:00pm / Show @7:30pm - $20.00
100% of the evening's proceeds go to the artists
“Keep kind all that rises from your chest to your tongue. Don’t ever let your words undo the work you’ve done,” sings Crystal Damore on “Worth the Weight,” a song that beats at the heart of Ordinary Elephant's potent new album, Honest. In the song, it's a two-line enjoinder from an adult to a kid. In life, though, it's a mission statement for ourselves as much as for others. And the work that Crystal, along with her husband Pete, has done on Honest is both filled with kindness and worthy of praise.
Interestingly, if not ironically, in order to accomplish this new work, Crystal and Pete had to set aside the work they'd done previously, as a veterinary cardiologist and a computer programmer, respectively. The two met at an open mic in College Station, Texas, in 2009 and soon moved to Houston together. With her on acoustic guitar/lead vocals and him on clawhammer banjo/harmony vocals, the work of music continued on the side as both had full-time jobs, until they threw all caution to the wind and hit the road in an RV.
Leaving the stability of a day job and the security of a career didn't come easily for Crystal. “It took a lot of time — and help from Pete — for me to get to the point that I was okay with leaving the career I spent my whole life in school working toward, to the degree that I was leaving it,” she admits, adding, “to be okay with the fact that it may not be what other people want, but it was what I needed, and that was the important part.”
Bitten by the creative bug at an early age, Crystal had set most of that aside to focus on school and work: “Living on the road, before doing music full-time, gave my creative side the breathing room it need to come back out.”
And, boy, has it ever come out now that they've both committed fully to Ordinary Elephant. In song after Honest song, the Damores take on what it means to follow your heart and eschew all the expectations, assumptions, and limitations projected upon you by others. They also use their own life experience to point out that the “safe” route can be anything but safe, as they do in “Rust Right Through.”
“I had a safe job and was on a safe life trajectory, financially,” Crystal says, “but those things were like a safety rail you reach for — a habit, a comfortable familiarity... something you’re expected to reach for. I was letting those things hold me up instead of learning to stand on my own. And one day, down the road, I would retire, and that job and those people who I thought I needed to please, would fall away, and I’d be left with me, not having lived the life I truly wanted or felt called to. That is not safe to my well-being.”
Another track that takes aim at playing it safe is the spirited bounce of “Jenny & James.” It's the story of an interracial couple, though, really, it's the story of any non-traditional couple targeted with shunning and shaming for being in love. As Crystal notes, “The 'safe' route of pairing up with someone of your same race and opposite gender is not safe to the well-being of many.”
The choices we make are not always easy or safe, but they are important. The songs on Honest speak, again and again, to being our truest, best selves, no matter who we are or where we come from. Indeed, every of us has a heritage, a legacy, a story, of which we are a part, for better and for worse. Each moment and memory a lesson leading us to who we will be.
The album's spunky opener, “I Come From,” looks back at the things in our upbringing that are worth holding on to. The more sober “Scars We Keep,” on the other hand, tosses out the things that must be cast aside. In it, Crystal sings, “These times are hard, and it’s harder to heal, when where you were born decides what you fear. It’s time to be a brother, not my father’s son. I was born to be a bigot, but that don’t mean that I am one.”
As Pete explains, “Detangling tradition from any particular negative aspect is complicated, and sometimes impossible. But it's necessary to change the tradition for it to live on and, hopefully, preserve its core as our culture tries to correct its failings.”
Pete grew up in Austin, Texas, in a big Italian family who gathered for big Italian meals, and he's quick to admit that we all live in bubbles of our own making or choosing. “I can only imagine growing up in a toxic environment,” he offers. “Without the perspective gained from travel and experiencing other cultures, it's nearly impossible to realize how toxic your world actually is. I can't fault anybody not overcoming. I'm not in their shoes. I know I can't change them by telling them they're wrong, but I do know that people can change when they see new things.”
People can also change when they hear new things, as a fan did when Ordinary Elephant played “Scars We Keep” on the main stage at Kerrville Folk Festival in 2018. Around 2 am, a man walked up to them in the campground, tears in his eyes, and said, “I want to thank you for that song you did tonight ... You changed my point of view.” Their response: “That is why we do this. Songs speak, and they can heal.”
Songs can also draw our attention to people and problems that we might not otherwise notice, as in “The War,” which takes on both the travesty of what war does to service members and the tragedy of what society does to returning veterans. It also connects the dots between different kinds of trauma and loss. For the song's protagonist, the war never ended.
“It caused him to lose his significant other, his home, his ability to maintain a job, and drove him to become an alcoholic,” Crystal says of the character. “The narrator represents the majority of the population, in that he does not know, first-hand, the experience of war, but the story shows him having compassion for this veteran and understanding that some choices are made for you and this can lead to an inability to make good choices for yourself down the line.”
Much like Patty Griffin and Gillian Welch, taking on the male perspective as a female singer/songwriter is something that Crystal does with ease and equanimity, though the reverse is not something that happens very often. Pete theorizes that, “In a historically male-dominated world, there's not been a lot of practice on the male side of idolizing women, or even being encouraged to empathize with their situations. Also, the expectation for men to be masculine is tightly woven through our culture and the everyday lives of men. A hesitation, conscious or not, would certainly present itself before performing a song on a big stage that's overtly from a female perspective, especially for a man who's not very secure.”
For Crystal, though, it's just about telling the story in the truest, kindest way. “I think part of it could also have to do with empathy,” she says, adding, “and empathy can take the form of telling someone else’s story in song, no matter what gender that person is.”
Which brings us back to “Worth the Weight” and its stunning chorus: “You will wonder if it’s worth the weight, the worry that wears you down. Half your life spent figuring out how to make the other half count.” Honest is worth so much more than its weight, and Ordinary Elephant makes every kind word count as it rises from their chests to their tongues.
Sunday February 23rd
Ordinary Elephant in Concert
Doors @7:00pm / Show @7:30pm - $20.00
100% of the evening's proceeds go to the artists
Click to view PAST EVENTS AT THE KITCHEN SINK
Sunday April 5th
Bob Livingston in Concert
with special guest Bill Hearne
Doors @7:00pm / Show @7:30pm - $20.00
100% of the evening's proceeds go to the artists
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED AND WILL BE RESCHEDULED
Saturday February 22nd
Mollie O’Brien & Rich Moore
BUY TICKETS
$29 advance, $32 door
Doors @7:00pm / Show @7:30pm
Singer-songwriter BOB LIVINGSTON has never been a traditional Texas country musician living the honky-tonk life even though he's spent more than his share of time on the roadhouse circuit with some of the most colorful and rambunctious musicians in Texas. As a member of Austin’s legendary Lost Gonzo Band, Livingston toured and recorded with such musical visionaries as Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Martin Murphey, Ray Wylie Hubbard and many more. Livingston played an integral role in helping to create the music that first earned Austin the designation of “Live Music Capital of the World” and helps explain why he was recently inducted into “West Texas Walk Of Fame October, 2018.
Livingston has seen a lot of the world since growing up in musically fertile West Texas. Hailing originally from San Antonio, he moved to Lubbock as a boy where his interests turned more 'Cosmic' than 'Cowboy' and prompted him to delve into the music and mysteries of many cultures. Traveling since the 80’s as a Music Ambassador for the US State Department, Livingston has taken Texas music as far afield as India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Africa, Vietnam and the Middle East demonstrating again and again the unique power that music has to build bridges between peoples of the world. As Livingston says, 'When all else fails, music prevails'. These tours earned him the honor of being appointed, “Ambassador of Goodwill,” by the State of Texas and “Austin’s International Music Ambassador,” by the City of Austin.
This world-traveled view was reflected in Livingston's 2004 CD, Mahatma Gandhi & Sitting Bull, a romp through juxtapositions of east and west. Gypsy Alibi, defined a new musical direction for Bob. Released in 2011 on New Wilderness Records, 'Gypsy Alibi' won "Album of the Year" at the Texas Music Awards 2011. His latest, Up The Flatland Stairs, was released in January of 2018.
These days, Livingston is a busy man. While playing over 150 shows a year, he is also managing to write a book for Texas Tech Press, play with a multi-cultural band from Texas and India called Cowboys & Indians, working on a documentary film of his exploits for the US State Department and playing in his newest group, the Lost Austin Band.
In a live performance with Bob Livingston, one finds a veteran singer-songwriter and a master storyteller who captures his audience from the first notes played. It's an irresistible invitation to travel down the cosmic musical highways and rutted back country roads where his rambles have taken him over the years. “What country? That’s the question.”
About Kate Vargas:
“The New Mexico-raised, NYC-based artist is building ever more mindfully on her sound, and the music press is taking notice, Vargas receiving praise from a variety of respected outlets including Impose, The Boot and the Huffington Post, the latter assessing, “There is an unlimited amount of potential in this superstar on the rise.”
Vargas has packed houses from Ireland’s Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival to The Troubadour in London, The Mansion on O Street in Washington D.C. to New York’s Bowery Electric. Her upcoming album, For The Wolfish & Wandering, features her singular folk-style storytelling. The songs are grounded in a darkly melodic, reverb-washed sonic palette of dreampop, dusty folk and junkyard blues, all carried by Vargas’ rough-hewn vocals and guitar playing. In equal measure, she channels a surprising array of artists, from Tom Waits and 16 Horsepower to Lana Del Rey and K. Flay.” -Glide Magazine 2018