Menu:
Amber and Roy make for a great evening...
This makes the second house concert in a row, where we have not personally seen one of the artists in a live setting prior to bringing them here. I came across Amber Rubarth's music first from a NPR podcast of lesser known artists. They played her song, "I Like You A Lot", and I was intrigued enough to buy her entire album. It was a great mixture of folk, pop, jazz, blues and whatever else she wanted to incorporate. You can easily imagine her playing on a bigger stage in the very near future. This is a woman who is doing it "DIY" for the music industry in the internet age perfectly.
I (Bart) emailed Amber about playing at our house, and she replied pretty quickly. She said yes, and this would be the first time she'd ever played in Florida. At first she was going to book a tour around it. Then after deciding to attend South by Southwest in Austin again this year, she decided to go to Austin, come to Panama City, and then head back home to Brooklyn.
After booking Amber, I approached Roy Schneider about opening for Amber, and he said yes. I had gotten to know Roy from seeing him compete in multiple singer-songwriter contests at the annual Springfest music festival. In fact, the only time we had seen each other in person was annually at Springfest. He had started staying in the loop as well and would come over to jam with us during the late evenings. This was a guy who made a living as a syndicated comic strip artist, but now was looking to solely play music for a living. His newest CD, "Roadside Turtle Rescue", showed quite a bit of growth musically. His even newer songs off ReverbNation showed a guy who's really growing at an amazing rate. This is a guy that we'll see big things from in the coming years.
Okay, we have the artists booked and then something happened. Susan and I didn't really try, but this concert's tickets sold really well. I mean, we could have cut off tickets around three weeks before the actal show date. No I mean...holy shit, there are a lot of people coming to this show! Add one porta-potty (thanks to EWS for making it cheap and easy!) and we were all ready.
Amber flies in the morning of March 21, and she hasn't had any sleep the previous night. South By Southwest is a great networking event for up and coming artists, and she be: networking, singing, networking, laughing, networking, playing the guitar and oh yeah...networking. She didn't sign that big record deal...yet. She shows up at the HUGE airport in Panama City, and she a bit tuckered out. No really she was exhausted. We (Elijah and I) get her back to the house and she crashes. We didn't see her again until shortly before the show...hehe.
Roy makes the drive up from Fort Myers, Florida with his lovely lady Kim and her son Max. Roy and Kim fell right in with us, and it confirmed what I suspected from Springfest. They would fit in very well with the music folks in Panama City. Elijah and I put up the stage (with some help from Roy). Everyone else helped get the rest of the house and back yard ready, and it was showtime.
Oh yeah...someone go get Amber up...the girl's gotta perform!
Roy gets up there and puts on a funny and entertaining set. He sang a bunch of tunes off his Turtle Rescue album, and even played some newer tunes. Personal favorites were: VIP, Change My Name, Angels Along the Road, and Ivan. We also heard about his 99 cent bottle of water a lot. He never even got around to talking about his former comic strip, but you ought to check it out sometime. It was called the Humble Stumble. It was semi-biographical about a single dad raising a daughter. Very funny stuff, and it shows a different side that many do not know about.
Okay, Amber wolfed down her food, got cleaned up and took her turn on the stage. Her infectious energy was there throughout the evening. She played a bunch of songs about love gone wrong, love gone right and everything in between (aka stealing pharmaceutical drugs). Personal favorites were: You Will Love This Song, Novacaine, Easy to Think and Chrysanthemum Song. She gained a bunch of new fans here in Panama City that night. Great set of music.
Afterwards, a bunch of CD's were sold, people got to visit with the artists, and some people even jammed later that evening. It was another great evening of music and friendship, and that's all we could ever want from our house concerts. Later that evening, Roy helped me break down the stage, and he and I riffed on a bunch of things. Very cool way to end the evening.
Later on, both artists mentioned our house concert:
Amber said on MySpace: "i stayed up all friday night and hopped a plane from austin to panama city, florida at 6am. bart and elijah picked me up from the airport and we went back to the house to set up for the concert that night. they went all out, such lovely people and a beautiful setting.... outdoor concert, pre-sold out with the most people they've ever had there (yay!), under mossy trees in warm florida air. carrot cake. home cooked dinner from susan. concert was terrific, entire night felt connected and beautiful and honest, don't know what could be better."
On ReverbNation, Roy stated: "...Then it was off to Panama City, FL to do the "Music Under the Moss" house concert with ambeR Rubarth out of New York. Our hosts could not possibly have been more gracious, the people could not have been kinder, and the TURNOUT! There were over 70 people in the Barthelemys' backyard, having a good old time. Well worth the trip... "
Quick thank you list: Mic and Geri were there like always. Mic is also the photographer of all the pics you see here for this show. He's a professional photographer that is open to new work if you're interested. My little brother from Big Brothers Elijah helped this time and even stayed for the show...thanks to him! We'd also like to thank John Hebert for lending us the keyboard that both acts used. Finally, we'd like to thank everyone for coming. It was another magical evening!
Here are some pictures:
Roy Schneider
Amber Rubarth
After Show Fun
or
Back to the Past Shows page...