Thursday, September 09, 2010
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Halfway through the festival, and there's somehow more fantastic things to come.  So far, on Day 2 of this year's Grassroots festival, we really were treated to just an amazing lineup.  Again.  Some of our personal favorites got the day started off.  The Rozatones and New Neighbors both had great sets on the Infield stage to kick the day off despite looming rain.  Ayurveda stretched their boundaries with members of Alash joining them on stage in the afternoon, which was immediately followed by a face melting performance from The Campbell Brothers, who were the smash hit of the weekend so far.  As far as we're concerned though, the queen of original soul music, Sharon Jones raised this festival to another level with her high energy grooves.  To wrap it all up?  Jsan, Sim Redmond, and John Brown's Body... what more could a local music fan ask for?  Click here for our pictures from Day 2 of Grassroots 2009 so far, lots more to come!
There's a lot more where these came from, but as promised here's a taste of what we've been enjoying here at the Grassroots Festival so far.  Day 1, Thursday, July 16th, was one for the record books.  7,500 concert goers enjoyed incredible performances from The Horseflies, Toots and The Maytals, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, New Neighbors, Donna The Buffalo and many more!  Check out our Day 1 run through for now, by clicking here, which we will be updating as the weekend goes on!  Come say hi to us, see you tonight for John Brown's Body and Sharon Jones!
Hello from Grassroots indeed!  IthacaMusic.com is on the scene and covering the whooole freaking festival for you.  We're gonna be uploading pictures at the end of every night to give you an idea of the madness that is underway here in Trumansburg.  If you've got photos you'd like to add to our collection, please email them to us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  We'll also be giving you a run down of each days events and we'll do our best to get video footage up as soon as we can edit some down for you.  Bring your sunscreen, it's hot out here!  See you at Grassroots!
There's a new Spot in town, a Sweet Spot at that.  Most of us are in agreement that we can never get enough music in this town, let alone places to host live music at.  Thankfully there's a new place open that you should totally check out.  It's called The Sweetspot Lounge.  Since some things have been changing at the Lost Dog, Sprocket Rages, the man behind booking all the fabulous shows there has taken the reigns of Sweetspot and is doing a grand job thus far too.  Located at 1779 Hanshaw Rd., the Sweetspot Lounge boasts 8800 sq. ft. with a brand new stage, 10,000 watts.  Pool Tables, Dart Boards, Indoor Putting Green, Indoor Golf Simulators, Beer & Wine, and Great Food.  The banquet hall is also available for bachelor parties, and wedding receptions.
The 19th Annual Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance is upon us and they've pulled out all the stops for sure.  Which kind of makes us wonder how they'll top themselves next year for their 20th anniversary, but anyway.  An extremely powerful lineup this year including Rusted Root, Bela Fleck and Oumou Sangare, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Scythian, John Brown's Body and so many more.  Full lineup here.  IthacaMusic.com will be bringing you live daily coverage of the festival right here on our site including pictures, videos and interviews.  We're beyond amped for this and we know you are too.  Make sure to check out http://www.grassrootsfest.org for more info on how you can do your part to help out.  See you there!

Thousands of Thousands of One

Thousands of One
Thousands of Thousands of One?  Well it seems like Thousands of One is everywhere these days, in part because they are!  Here's what's going on with these Ithaca bigshots.

Dec 18 2008 10:00P
Lovin’ Cup Rochester, New York
Dec 19 2008 10:00P
Middle East w/ Void Union Boston, Massachusetts
Dec 20 2008 10:00P
Matt Murphy’s Pub Boston, Massachusetts
Dec 27 2008 9:30P
Mercury Lounge NYC, New York
Dec 31 2008 10:00P
Castaways with Sim Redmond Band Ithaca, New York
Jan 23 2009 10:00P
Water Street Music Hall w/ Sim Redmond Band Rochester, New York
 
Towards the end of the month Thousands will be rocking Boston and NYC playing at some serious venues, so if you're in or around those areas visiting friends and family for the holidays, why not treat a non-Ithacan to some Ithaca music magic?  Not to mention, on a matter of personal taste, the Dec. 19th show in Boston features The Void Union, and they're awesome.  Go dig on that!
 
In addition to playing everywhere, of course you remember that Thousands did release a great, new record this year called "Soul Force", featuring some hot-shots such as Mbusi, Speech from Arrested Development, and Elliot Martin from John Brown's Body.  This regional tour will include over a half dozen new tunes for your listening pleasure.  So as we like to say here at IthacaMusic.com, Plug in and GO!
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The Flies Are Back!

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Written by Will Russell

**Special Congrats to The Horseflies for having their album Until the Ocean named as  one of the best folk albums of 2008!**

I did 2 HorseFlies gigs recently and wow. Just wow. Thursday 11/20 they played at The Corning Museum of Glass, and Saturday 11/22 at the wonderful Elk Creek Cafe in Millheim, PA.

The Corning gig was a hi tech extravaganza with a full light and video show. I got to mix the band on a new Yamaha digital console. But better than all that The HorseFlies played a great set.

But that was apparently just a set up for the stunning performance they did on Saturday night at the Elk Creek Cafe in Millheim, PA. The Elk Creek Cafe is a very cool cafe and micro-brewery kinda in the middle of nowhere, 25 miles from State College. The drive there was nice, the food delicious, and we stayed in a nice bed and breakfast. All really nice. BUT, the Flies freakin rocked! The room was sold out with folks young and old moving and churning to the HorseFlies grooves, and the band rallied, burning through fiddle/banjo grooves driven by Jeff's relentless uke, Taki's percolating world rhythms, Ricks pumping accordion and smoothly supported by Jay's awesome bass lines.

DO NOT MISS THE HORSEFLIES AT CASTAWAYS ON SAT DEC 13! THIS BAND IS ON FIRE!

 

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Something Special

Soulive
 
So good.  So talented.  Soulive.
 
We've teamed up with NextAid to help bring you a fantastic concert in observance of World AIDS Day 2008 to raise funds and awareness for kids in Africa who have been orphaned due to the AIDS pandemic.  NextAid has connected 17 + events to recognize the 20th annual World AIDS Day during the month of December. Each event will donate a portion of their proceeds to NextAid to raise the minimum goal of $29,000. These funds will be used to complete one of the homes at the NextAid/Youth with a Vision Community Center and Children’s Residential Village.
 
The Syracuse event, produced by two NextAid interns from Syracuse University, happens on Thursday, December 4, 2008 at the Westcott Theater (524 Westcott Street Syracuse, NY 13210  
(315) 299 - 8886).  The concert starts at 8p and features Soulive and Thousands of One.  Presale tickets are $20; at the door it will be $25. All proceeds benefit NextAid.  For more information please visit www.thewestcotttheater.com.  

Both bands are very popular in Upstate New York.  Since forming Soulive in 1999, guitarist Eric Krasno, organist Neal Evans and drummer Alan Evans have developed a reputation as one of the most sought-after instrumental soul-funk trios around and a hard-touring live act that's thrown down everywhere from small rock clubs to opening arena shows for the Rolling Stones.  Soulive has performed with such esteemed artists as Chaka Khan, Ivan Neville and Robert Randolph. “After a great year in 2007 in which we released 'No Place Like Soul', which featured the vocals of Toussaint [Yeshua], we are returning to the trio format for the foreseeable future. We are very excited about some of the new material we are writing and for ragin' on some of the classic tunes at the upcoming shows.”  While in Syracuse, the trio will be joined by a powerful horns section. 

Thousands of One is an Ithaca, NY, based socially-minded soul/hip-hop group.  The collective assembled around a weekly jam known as Steppers Lounge, held weekly for one year in the fertile music scene of Trumansburg, New York. In a miraculous movement that is unparalleled in stories of young bands, within a year of naming the band, Thousands of One was able to build itself a massive following in and around Ithaca. Coupling ridiculous dance parties with social movements concerning the eradication of racism, sustainability and reestablishing connection to the source, they have proven that music is a powerful vehicle for change when driven right.
 
We want to send you to the concert!  If you want in, here's all you need to do.  Click here to visit our contact page.  Fill out your name, email address, and the subject "Soulive Tickets".  It's that easy!  Two lucky winners will win a pair of tickets to attend this wonderful event.  We'll announce our winners on November 31st.  You gotta get in it to win it!  Best of luck from all of us here at IthacaMusic.com, Plug in and Go!
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