Hillbilly Heart

So I’m a hillbilly, this is a proclamation I share with most people I’ve known for awhile. My mom was born in Kentucky and married off at age 14. My dad was raised in the hills of West Virginia and his brother’s wife didn’t have to change her last name. I was raised in valley just south west of the Ozarks about 60 miles south of Branson where I grew up fishing, hunting, camping, ect. My family had a large van growing up where I spent many hours reading while listening to my father's music as we drove on family vacations. So as to my father’s taste in music I grew up listening to bluegrass, hymns, gospel, folk music and combination there of and most of it I actually enjoyed.  

Reina DelCid's music is of this ilk. I would classify her music by today’s standard as coffee house music. Her music is personal, usually has a story to tell and very good. Not good because she has the best voice, although her voice is nice with an impressive natural range. Not good because her songs are the best, I often question some of her lyrical choices (although some of her lyrics are genius). What DelCid has is a very skilled ear for blending her music with great alliteration; she blends sounds very well.

Reina also has a great sense of imagery in her lyrics and often shows a rye since of humor in her music. What strikes me are her memorable lyrics and represents what music by truly  independent musicians is suppose to be honest, creative and raw. You can find out more about Reina at her myspce page www.myspace.com/reinadelcid

Reina is hard to present as an artist because many of her songs have different great aspects of her talent to illustrate, but I haven’t found any one of her songs that represent all of her ability. Although a couple of my favorite songs are Wonder and Emily.

Do you like Reina Del Cid's music? Let me know what you think about Reina's music in the comments section. If you like Reina Del Cid's music more can be found on You-tube, tell your freinds about her Music; or better yet send your friends a link to More w/ Less and let me tell them about great artists I've found on the internet.

Run towards the Storm

Canada O’ Canada, since turning my back on paying for cable and beginning my foray into searching the net for entertainment I have come to appreciate Canada a great deal more. I have long been aware of some of the very talented actors in Holywood that have come from Canada, but hadn’t until the last decade given much thought to Canadian televisions, movies or other artists. There are several Canadian television and singers I enjoy and gradually I’m exposed to more.

The Band, “Like A Storm,” are three brothers from Vancouver. The Brooks Brothers are a Hard Alternative Rock group that I came across on you-tube and over the last couple of years  have researched and listened to their music. I’d love to see them live someday, but haven’t had the opportunity to as of yet.

This is one of my favorite songs by them “Enemy”

Like A Storm has been playing since 2005 and in 2010 signed with indie label Prospect Park. The three brothers have played all over Canada and the US and had just recently played in Dallas as they have been oening for Alter Bridge  . You can follow their tour dates on their myspace site LIKASTORM



Like A Storm also has a video of their last albums cover song Chemical Infatuation

You can find out more about Like A Storm on their website http://www.likeastorm.com/ If you like "Like A Sorm" let your friends know, or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

B & B Sketch Comedy

Barats and Bereta is a sketch comedy group consisting of Luke Pierre Barats and Joseph Daniel Bereta. Formed in 2003, the duo originally made videos to amuse friends at Gonzaga University. These videos eventually made it onto their website and onto YouTube and now have over 330 thousand subscribers and almost 100 million views.

Humor is highly subjective and Barats/Bereta is certainly amateurish and over the top, but with nearly 60 sketch’s I think it likely that a handful of them should tickle about any funny bone. I don’t tend to enjoy Dumb & Dumber type humor myself, but I have found many of their sketches entertaining.  

Barats and Bereta have been trying to break into main stream media unsuccessfully. In 2006 NBC signed them to a one year deal, but their pilot wasn’t picked up. They’re currently developing another pilot, but I am uncertain as to who for.

You can find more of Barats and Bereta sketch’s at their web site baratsandbereta.com If you like  Barats and Bereta let your friends know about them or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Happy Valentine's

Happy Valentines!! I know it is starting to look like the battle of the ballads so I included 2 updates today, but I have been strategically building up for The Big Red Heart Day.  Our musicians from the last couple of weeks both have song about Valentines Day and wanted to introduce these songs for those readers who are hopelessly romantic, or even those who just think one of the songs might help them get lucky.

Kina Granis has a video of her Valentine Day song. The video is very well done, clever, creative and the song has a great melody. I’m not sure if I like all the lyrical choices, but with over 5 million views it seems to work.

To no great surprise Mr. Love Song David Choi also has a song called Valentines

Hopefully these songs can put a little more Valence in your Valentine’s Day. If you like these songs/artists let your friends Know, or better yet send them a link to more w/ less.

Crash The Super Bowl With Kina

So I have been trying to rotate a video artist with every two musical artists but in light of this special day, Super Bowl Day, I wanted to spot light someone who has a very special connection with the Super bowl. Kina Grannis was the winner of the 2007 Dorito’s Crash The Super Bowl Contest. This was a contest that was held to find a musician and allow them to play an original work during one of the commercial slots of the super bowl. To generate publicity for herself Grannis was one of the first seriously self promoted musical artist on you tube. She preformed a new song every week for months to encourage people to vote for her, many of which are still available on you tube. Once Grannis won the contest she preformed a clever, but what many found to be an under whelming video “Message from your Heart.”

It was a shame that she hadn’t had a better song selection because she has a lot of wonderful material, but as the mantra goes "song selection is everything." Some of the material Kina creates will probably leave you wanting, but much of her work is simply brilliant. This dichotomy is one of the things that makes Grannis such a special artist, she’s unconventional, willing to experiment, and doesn’t let herself become overly transfixed on a singular style of music. She is one of the most prolific musicians I know of, which goes a long way for me in illustrating her own fascination with music. The first song I came across was “Strong Enough” and instantly made me a fan. (you can jump to :41 to skip her introduction)

Most of Kina’s you tube videos you can catch a sampling of her vivacious personality. She has an infectious joy of life that comes across in her videos and even more evident when she performs live. She tours quite frequently across the country and well worth the opportunity to spend a night out relaxing and getting to meet her if you have the chance. You can find a listing of her tour dates on her website kinagrannis.com 

One of her most popular self written songs is a beautiful song called “Stay Just a Little” (you can jump to 1:18 to skip Kina's silliness, personally I love silliness)

Kina Grannis signed with One Haven Music Records in December of 2010, but I present her because the majority of her work has been independently released and she has three self produced albums which you can find Kinna Grannis ITUNES  You can find out more about Kina Grannis at kinnagrannis.com If you like Kina let your friends know or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Acknowledgments

WOW!! It’s February already, hard to believe we are a month into 2011 already. I wanted to share More W/ Less progress with those of you who may be curious. More w/ Less has exceeded my expectations in its first month. The website has had 170 views this month now averaging over 40 viewers a week, not bad from word of mouth. I wanted to acknowledge a few of the websites that have been the source links that the viewers have come from.

http://movie-ozone.com

http://pingywebedition.somee.com

http://goallineblitz.com

legendrealms.com

www.facebook.com

ourworldgus.blogspot.com

http://blogspot.com/

The month of February I have decided to try submitting to some Web Directories for some additional exposure.

I also wanted to acknowledge those that have taken the time to view the blog. I hope you have found some things that have entertained you. I’m going to try to start including more bands and sketch comedy after Valentine’s Day and hopefully this will help the material on the website have a more diverse appeal.