GVSU students create mini-documentary celebrating players, venues and studios boosting region’s music; Giddens’ tour behind new album stops at Grand Rapids St. Cecilia Music Center with singer Bhi Bhiman.
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
Veteran West Michigan musician and producer Mick Lane described it well in the new “Music of the River City” documentary.
“We are getting recognition more and more often as a great place to … play music,” he says of Grand Rapids’ “vibrant music and art scene.”
Growing Scene: Bennett is featured in the new documentary. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Adds Matthew Forbush of Grand Rapids electro-pop duo Alexis: “It is a cool town and it deserves attention.”
That’s just a small part of the short but impressive documentary created by Grand Valley State University students who interviewed local bands, writers, studio engineers and others who’ve watched and participated in the region’s burgeoning musical environment in recent years.
Produced and edited by Tyler Wiewiora, Melissa Nickels, Dino Kahrimanovic and Steve Lesko, the film was the culmination of a semester-long project in John Schmit’s documentary class at GVSU.
“We don’t have any immediate plans other than sharing it with everyone involved,” Lesko told Local Spins, which participated in interviews for the documentary. “Hopefully, it’ll get out there for even more people to see as everyone shares it.”
Several West Michigan bands and performers are featured in the documentary, including Kari Lynch, The Waxies, Bennett, The Moxie Strings, Ghost Heart, Brett Mitchell and others. “Many musicians are happy to call Grand Rapids home,” Lynch notes.
And as Roy Wallace of River City Studio put it at the end of the film: “The future is bright for Grand Rapids as far as the music scene is concerned.”
Rhiannon Giddens
RHIANNON GIDDENS TO PLAY ACOUSTIC CAFÉ SERIES IN GRAND RAPIDS
With her solo debut album being released next week, Rhiannon Giddens – co-founder of the celebrated old-timey American group Carolina Chocolate Drops – will bring her tour in support of the CD to Grand Rapids’ St. Cecilia Music Center as part of the Acoustic Café Series.
Giddens, whose solo release is titlted, “Tomorrow is My Turn,” will play St. Cecilia’s Royce Auditorium on April 24, with the show emceed by Rob Reinhard, host of the syndicate “Acoustic Café” radio show that airs locally at 9 a.m. Fridays on WYCE-FM (88.1). Singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman will open the concert, with a post-show reception available to all ticket-holders.
Tickets, $30, go on sale Feb. 13 and are available by calling St. Cecilia at 616-459-2224, visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE or going online to scmc-online.org.
Giddens, known primarily as the lead singer, violinist and banjo player for Carolina Chocolate Drops (which boasts a Grammy Award for best traditional folk album), also has earned acclaim for projects such as her contribution to “Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes” compilation of unreleased Bob Dylan songs and performing in the “Another Day, Another Time” concert inspired by the Coen brothers’ movie, “Inside Llewyn Davis.” She’s a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied opera.
Her upcoming solo album, produced by the Grammy-winning T Bone Burnett, covers a wide range of songs – jazz, gospel, blues, country — popularized by the likes of Patsy Cline, Odetta, Jean Ritchie, Dolly Parton and Nina Simone.
For more information about the upcoming concert, visit scmc-online.org.
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
Should be a good show. Saw her perform with Carolina Chocolate Drops twice at LLC.