This week’s episode boasted performances by Lynch and the Blue Water Ramblers, plus new music from Public Access, Darin Zarzecki, Seth Bernard, The Krelboynes, Max Morrison and more.
Lifelong Love of Detroit’s Music: Alexander Lynch at WYCE. (Photo/Local Spins)
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For Upper Peninsula native and singer Alexander Lynch, it’s a whole new world – working with the ultra-collaborative Assemble Sound collective in Detroit with plans for releasing a series of electro-soul singles throughout 2018.
For Grand Rapids’ folk favorites the Blue Water Ramblers, it’s all about embracing a benefit event for the ninth year in a row – leaning on a tradition that has helped support traditional arts through the Wheatland Music Organization and its annual Wheatland Music Festival.
On the Air: Alexander Lynch and Jacob Carlson during Local Spins on WYCE.
Both acts – representing different ends of the spectrum and with a different mission – made their case musically this week for Local Spins on WYCE.
Lynch, who recently relocated from Grand Rapids to Detroit, returns to West Michigan this weekend to share a Saturday night bill at The Pyramid Scheme with Tunde Olaniran and Bevlove. Lynch just released a long-awaited new single, “Wine Drunk,” after working with Detroit’s Assemble Sound. (Tickets to Saturday’s 9 p.m. show are $8 advance, $15 day of show; details online here.)
“Assemble (Sound) was life-changing for me,” he says of the old Detroit church that’s been transformed into a music collective, artist development hub and recording studios. “It gave me an opportunity to really dive into my creative process. They just like really fostered that there.
“For people trying to figure themselves out or figure out their sound, it’s an amazing place. You can write your own music, you can write with other people, you can sit in on producers’ sessions. It’s a lot about learning. It did so much for me as far as finding myself as an artist.”
FROM DETROIT TO GRAND RAPIDS, ELECTRO-SOUL TO FOLK
Lynch, who grew up embracing Motown music in the town of Norway, Mich., released his first major recording project, “Love Lives,” in December 2015 after moving to Grand Rapids. Detroit represents another step forward for his R&B-inspired electro-pop.
“I always kind of had a love for Detroit my whole life musically. It just kind of made sense,” he says. “There’s so much work there and so many creative people doing creative things, I was really attracted to it. Once, I kind of made the trek over, it was kind of hard for me to leave.”
Lynch, who hopes to release a series of singles over the next year while working amid the Assemble Sound collective, performed his latest single, “Wine Drunk,” and an older track, “Missing Me,” with longtime friend, co-writer and co-performer Jacob Carlson in Studio X for Local Spins on WYCE. Listen to the full podcast below.
Folk Faves: Banjo Jim Foerch and Bear Berends
Banjo Jim Foerch and Bear Berends, meanwhile, have stayed put in West Michigan for more than 15 years uncorking their Michigan-hued spin on folk music with the Blue Water Ramblers – and helping organize the annual Winter Wheat benefit, that revs up for the ninth time all day Saturday at The Intersection in downtown Grand Rapids.
“It was so successful that it became an official part of Wheatland,” says Foerch.
Foerch and Berends – who will kick off one of the stages at 1:20 p.m. Saturday with a jam session that anyone with an instrument is invited to join – performed an original tune, “Rollin’ On,” for Local Spins on WYCE in a warm-up to the weekend event that boasts 13 performances on two stages. Read more about Winter Wheat along with Saturday’s full schedule at Local Spins online here and check out a video of the Blue Water Ramblers below.
Episode No. 174 of Local Spins on WYCE proved to be a treasure trove of new music, too, with the on-air debut of tracks by Public Access, Darin Zarzecki, Nydge x Norty (this week’s musician’s pick by Lynch), Laura Rain & The Caesars, Jeremy Porter & The Tucos, The Krelboynes, Max Morrison, Seth Bernard and Spike the Media, plus Lipstick Jodi. (Lipstick Jodi plays The Pyramid Scheme on Friday night with Far Shores.)
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (Jan. 12, 2018)
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VIDEO: Blue Water Ramblers, “Rollin’ On”
Copyright 2018, Spins on Music LLC
