Arts

Disney’s magic coming to Augusta

by Amanda Main September 16, 2017

Disney will be decking out the James Brown Arena this week, with the “Disney on Ice: Dream Big” show taking over the venue for four days, starting Thursday, Sept. 21.

Disney on Ice: Dream Big

The show features the stories of many of Disney’s leading ladies through artistic skating and daring acrobatics. Eight princesses including Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Tiana, Jasmine, Aurora and Snow White will be there. The sisterly love from Disney’s “Frozen” also will be brought to life on the icy stage. And the producers haven’t forgotten Mickey, Minnie or Tinker Bell, who also will be in the show.

Ice skater Alexe Gilles, 25, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, brings the beloved “Frozen” character Elsa to life. Gilles started skating when she was just 2 1/2 years old, all because her older brother was a skater.

Alexe Gilles

“He was having a birthday party,” she said, “and my (twin) sister and I just walked onto the ice and have loved it ever since!”

Gilles is happy that she gets to make a career out of her passion. Some achievements skating has brought her include being named the 2008 National Junior Champion, Junior Grand Prix final medalist and four-time Senior Grand Prix competitor, and she has been a Canadian and U.S. national competitor.

She said she treasures being a part of Disney’s shows. She started with Feld Entertainment, who produces the Disney on Ice shows, in 2014.

“I love just being able to skate around the world and to travel … I get to visit friends all over the world, so that’s really nice,” Gilles said. “And just to see kids smiling in every show. They may not get the chance to go to Disney World or Disneyland or any other park around the world. So to be able to bring their favorite Disney character to their hometown is pretty special.”

Disney on Ice: Dream Big

Gilles said she spends a lot of time on the road. The current Disney on Ice tour lasts about nine months, and she said last year she was on the road for more than a year, with a couple of two-week breaks. However, she recently was able to take a two-month break from performing.

“I skated a little … and hung out with family,” Gilles said. “My family’s all over the place, so it was good to see them after being on the road for so long.”

Disney on Ice: Dream Big

Gilles is enjoying playing Elsa. When she and the other skaters in the show were hired, they had to go through Disney character training, spending about six weeks in Florida learning how to become their characters.

“I just love how Elsa’s so powerful and she’s very reserved, but she loves her sister and her family and just the crowd reaction that she gets is something that I’ll never be able to forget,” Gilles said. “It’s hard to replicate that with anything else. She’s such a popular, iconic character that it’s kind of a dream come true to play her. A lot of people want to play her, so to be able to do that is a gift every day.”

This will be the first time Gilles has ever been to Augusta, and she’s looking forward to exploring the area. She said how much time the skaters get to explore towns depends on their schedule, but this year the schedule will have them flying in on Monday, so they’ll have that evening and the Tuesday and Wednesday before the show to get to see the area.

Disney on Ice: Dream Big

Gilles emphasized that the “Dream Big” show is geared toward a wide audience.

“It’s a great, exciting show with demographics for everyone — grandmas, grandpas, moms, dads, all kids, boys, girls, and it’s really a unique show and very special and near and dear to all of us performing,” she said.

“Disney on Ice: Dream Big” will be showing at 7 p.m. Sept. 21; 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sept. 22; 2 and 6 p.m. Sept. 23; and 2 p.m. Sept. 24. Tickets start at $15 and are on sale online at GeorgialinaTix.com, by phone at 877-428-4849, or in person at the SRP Box Office at the James Brown Arena. The show runs about two hours, with an intermission.

September 16, 2017

A kaleidoscope of culture

by Amanda Main September 5, 2017

If you’ve lived in Augusta any length of time, you’re probably aware of the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival that takes place every fall.

In its 37th year, the festival will be downtown next week, from Sept. 15-17, and if you’ve never been, you don’t realize what you’re missing out on.

One of the most popular aspects of the festival is the international cuisine booths — more than 20 nations are represented, with new booths including Korea, Sudan, Vietnam and Cambodia. Five stages will be packed with nonstop performances all weekend, and more than 130 juried fine arts and crafts booths will be available to peruse.

New to the festival this year are the ExploreGeorgia.org Songwriter Series show on Sunday featuring Otis Redding III (yes, Otis Redding’s son), Greg Hester, Keith Jenkins and Lola Gulley. Friday night features a new, Latin-fusion party with DJ Andrew Serrano. Also new to the festival is Authors Alley in the JB White Building, which puts the spotlight on area writers.

Read on to find out more about what will be available at this year’s festival, to be located at Broad Street and the Augusta Common at 836 Reynolds St.

ART

As always, Arts in the Heart features artists from near and far. The festival will feature at least 150 artists, with 53 from Georgia and 25 from the CSRA.

Nico Gozal

One local artist — a first-timer to the festival — is Grovetown resident and Indonesia native Nico Gozal, of Nico G Silk Art (view his work at nicogsilkart.wordpress.com). He does hand-painted silk pieces using fabric dyes, but it’s not wearable art — his pieces are showcased behind glass in shadowboxes. He said he got into the art form under a professor, who he ended up working for before feeling comfortable branching out on his own.

He said he draws inspiration from music and language.

“I’m really interested in music from whichever country, even though I don’t understand what they say — just the music itself and the language fascinates me,” Gozal said, “and that kind of inspires me with my artwork also because I originally came from Indonesia, so a lot of the Indonesian textile design or sculpture or traditional dances influence me.”

Gozal moved from Indonesia to go to school in Tampa, Florida, in 1990 at the International Academy of Merchandising and Design. After living there for about a decade, he moved to Chicago in 2002 to be with his partner. They then moved to the Augusta area after his partner got a job at Fort Gordon in 2012.

Gozal is excited to be a part of Arts in the Heart, gaining respect for the festival as a visitor for the past few years. He said his booth will feature “a various selection of silk painting, a lot of whimsical, nature, nautical-related painting.” He said he hopes when people see his art, it will bring them a sense of joy.

Cindy Pearce

Cindy Pearce will be displaying her wire-woven stone jewelry at the festival for the first time. As a longtime Aiken resident, she has attended and loves Arts in the Heart. Her jewelry consists of polished stones wrapped in woven copper wire. The time she spends on a piece can range from one hour to two days.

“Just like in basket weaving, you’re weaving several wires together, usually between two and six to eight wires,” Pearce said. “And you’re actually creating a weaving pattern, so some of my pieces actually have six different patterns. … I look at the stone, and it almost kind of tells me what it wants me to do.”

She started out as a graphic designer and did it for about 30 years, after getting a degree from the University of South Carolina.

“Thirty-something years ago, we didn’t have computers to do artwork,” she said. “We used to do it all by hand, and I missed it. So that’s why I got into jewelry. I just enjoy doing things by hand.”

Pearce sells jewelry under the name UnderWraps Jewelry. Visit underwrapsjewelry.com or facebook.com/underwrapsjewelry.

Some longstanding favorites from the CSRA will be at the festival, including the Grunge Goddess (Juliet King), who does live demonstrations on the pottery wheel throughout the festival. Local artist Sergio Ruano’s Spoke-n-For jewelry is created from bicycle spokes, and he custom creates it for people on site. Jennifer Ellison, creator of by Jen Ell clothing line, has a new line of clothing this year. And Kendra Runnels, owner of Kendra’s Studios Inc. and an Arts in the Heart award winner from 2016, will be back with her paintings. Nora Cooks is rejoining the festival after some years away, with her handmade dolls. And Chris Goodman, a highly skilled woodworker specializing in musical instruments, will be there.

Hallie Bertling

The festival draws artists from beyond the CSRA, as well. Hallie Bertling of Greenville, South Carolina, pours her talents into illustrative paintings depicting the feet of fairy tale characters — she calls her collection Faerie Tale Feet.

“It’s all inspired by favorite books, plays and fairy tales,” she said. “And I take the original telling — whether it’s hundreds of years old or a more recent book — and I hide details from the original story in the background pattern, and then I paint the characters’ feet and their shoes to kind of give you an idea of the character, based on their posture or their action to let people step into the story for themselves.”

Bertling, who studied at the Savannah College of Art and Design, has been to Augusta before, but it will be her first time experiencing the Arts in the Heart festival. She draws her inspiration from traveling and from reading plenty of books (she read 13 just last month). Visit facebook.com/halthegal or find her shop on Etsy by searching Halthegal.

Artists and married couple Amy and Mark Thompson will be coming down from Englewood, Ohio. The two work together to create unique, cut stained-glass pieces that are set in wood and meant to be hung up as wall art — not in front of a window. Amy designs, cuts and lays all of the stained glass, and Mark does the woodworking aspect of it.

Amy and Mark Thompson

Amy said if someone had told her six or seven years ago she’d be doing the art for a living, she would have thought they were crazy.

“I trained as an executive chef; I have no formal training in the arts, although I’ve dabbled in just about every medium since childhood, so I’ve always been very creative, but I never thought that I could do this for a living,” Amy Thompson said. “And I lost my job, and my husband said, ‘While you’ve got some free time, why don’t you try stained glass?’ I hadn’t tried stained glass, and I knew nothing about it. And I thought ‘You know what, I’ll do that.’ So I went out and I just bought some supplies — never read a book, never saw a video, and I get home and I just started learning. And honestly just doing it, so everything I’ve learned up to this point has truly been self taught. A lot of trial and error in there, the first things we made were hideous. … My strength as a sketch artist really helps me in what I do. And Mark had worked in wood already, he had made furniture and other things through the years, so he had a depth of knowledge in woodworking.”

Amy’s pieces are heavily inspired by nature. Though the Thompsons have been to Georgia before, this will be their first time visiting Augusta. They’ll be offering new pieces, original wine racks, a decorative wall shelf and larger-scale pieces that they don’t carry a lot of. See their work at glassandwoodworks.com.

Robin Rodgers

Robin Rodgers, who lives in Tallahassee, Florida, will bring his nature-themed pottery to Arts in the Heart for the first time. Growing up near the Apalachicola River in Florida, he would find pieces of American Indian pottery there, which influenced him to become interested in the art form and archaeology. He’s been doing pottery himself since he took a pottery class in 1981, and has a Master’s degree in ceramics and now teaches.

“My work is wheel-thrown, which means it’s turned on a potter’s wheel from a lump of clay. I decorate the pottery by carving into it or etching patterns into it, and sometimes I sculpt freehand various kinds of little animals, like frogs, birds and turtles,” Rodgers said. “It’s kind of nature-related art. And it’s more decorative pottery than cups and bowls and mugs and things like that.”

He said his work is “raku-fired,” which is “an ancient Japanese technique of firing that involves pulling the pottery out of the kiln while the glass (glaze) is still hot, and that makes the crackled patterns form in the glass.” Find him on Facebook by searching Robin Rodgers Pottery.

MUSIC

The ExploreGeorgia.org Songwriter Series is taking place in six cities across the state from August to November. Its stop in Augusta is part of Arts in the Heart, on the Community Stage starting at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17 (admission is included with Arts in the Heart badge). Performers include Keith Jenkins and Greg Hester, Lola Gulley and Otis Redding III.

Keith Jenkins is an Augusta native who joined James Brown’s band, The Soul Generals, as a guitarist when he was barely 18 years old. He spent 12 years touring with the Godfather of Soul until Brown passed away in 2006. Jenkins, who serves as music director at the James Brown Academy of Musik Pupils in Augusta, collaborated with another soulful Georgia singer, Greg Hester, to release the tribute album “Soul Brother, Where Art Thou?” in 2015. Hester has released solo albums that reflect his love of soul, funk and country-rock and showcases his powerful voice in Street Choir, a tribute to the great Northern Irish musician Van Morrison.

Every week at Northside Tavern, the legendary Atlanta blues club, Lola Gulley leads the Monday Night Jam. A dynamic singer, Gulley has been compared to Candi Staton and Mavis Staples and earned “Best Vocal Performance — Female” honors by the Blues Critics’ poll in 2014. Two of her albums, “Give Her What She Wants” and “Cleanin’ House,” were produced by soul legend William Bell and released on his Wilbe Records label.

It’s a heavy burden to carry the name of one of the world’s most beloved artists, but Otis Redding III has carved his own path in music over the past three decades. He had several charting hits in the ’80s with R&B, soul and disco group The Reddings, which included his brother, Dexter, and singer Mark Lockett. Since then, Otis III, a singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer, has recorded and toured extensively in America and Europe and continues to write and release bluesy, soulful music while honoring and paying tribute to his father, Otis Redding, by always performing some of his songs in his sets.

Other artists to appear on the Community Stage include Augusta hip-hop/pop artist and DJ Moses; Augusta-based female-fronted alternative rock group BullMoose; Augusta-based heavy rock band A Future Now Past; North Augusta-based alternative/indie guitar pop group Hound of Goshen; North Augusta-based power pop duo Brighter Light; Augusta-based Vicky Grady Band; and Augusta-based hip-hop artist Selah Jetlound Guru.

The Global Stage will feature Augusta-based punk-pop fusion band False Flag; King Cat and the Elders, who resurrect the roots of rock ’n’ roll and update the arrangements; Aiken-based piano, bass and drum trio Stink Bamboo; dance group Dance 2 Inspire; and girl-rock band SnapDragon, whose singer is based in Augusta.

The Jazz Stage will showcase Atlanta-based Gospel recording artist Funmilayo Ngozi; Augusta-based solo pop/jazz/rock artist Chris Hardy World; Augusta-based alternative country/bluesy rock artists the Adam Harris Thompson Band; and Augusta-based Christian performing artist Tony Aaron Hambrick.

The Troubadour Stage will feature Atlanta-based acoustic duo Linnie & Amy Joy; Macon-based folk/pop/rock singer and songwriter Louise Warren; Nashville, Tennessee,-based songwriter/visual artist Wild Enemy; Atlanta-based neo soul funk singer Nubia Soul Goddess; and Georgia-based spoken word artist Sa Jules.

On the Family Stage will be Zazzua Productions’ “World Fusion,” full of dancing and theatrics; Augusta-based competitive dance team Dance Xtreme; CSRA-based magician Ben the Illusionist; and Victory Productions’ “A Woman’s Worth,” a story of three sisters on different walks of life as they endure the trials and tribulations of their individual romantic relationships.

See next week’s Metro Spirit for more information about the performances.

FOOD

Last, but definitely not least, is the food, one of the most enduringly popular aspects of Arts in the Heart.

Back for its fourth year is the African-American booth, which benefits Concerned Women Inc. The nonprofit organization based in Grovetown has been around for almost 15 years and helps the community in various ways, including providing food and clothing to people who need it.

The nonprofit group’s executive director, Bea Sanders, said they enjoy working with the festival.

“It was eye-opening for us, a very good fundraiser, and we got to meet a lot of people. It’s just exciting,” Sanders said. “Everybody’s just nice, from the Arts in the Heart community on down; everything’s just been nice.”

The booth will feature different items on the menu each day of the festival, including hot wings, fish, ribs, barbecue pig’s feet, collard greens, chicken, corn bread, macaroni and cheese and more. Desserts include red velvet cake, sweet potato pie and pound cake.

The much-loved India booth also will be back this year. The booth, called the Indian Pavilion, is put on by the Hindu Temple Society of Augusta. One of the booth’s organizers, Sheila Kamath, said they have been part of the festival since 1995.

“When we’re trying to represent India, we take foods from different parts of India … we want people to get a nice variety,” Kamath said. “People have been coming to us for years, and they know exactly what to order. Our tent is split into two sides, the northern side and the southern side, because the food is very different. On the southern side, we have the Indian crepes called the dosa, which is a very famous south Indian dish. It is like a very thin pancake with potato filling, and it comes with a very spicy sauce like a soup and coconut chutney. That is the big item on that side. On the north Indian side, we have the sampler platter (which comes with Indian bread, rice, mixed vegetable curry, chickpeas in curry, vegetable fritters and dessert).”

The booth serves no meat, as it is aiming to promote vegetarianism. Some items may be made vegan upon request.

The Hindu Temple Society of Augusta does what it can to help the community, such as supporting the soup kitchen and other outreach efforts like making hats and scarves for students. The booth also will have several henna artists for people to get henna art done on their skin.

Other nations represented include Germany, serving items like schnitzel, bratwursts, potato salad and sauerkraut; China, serving items like ham fried rice, eggrolls and vegetable lo mein; Jamaica, serving items like curry chicken, jerk chicken, jerk pork, ox tail and curry goat; Turkey, serving items like gyro wraps, chicken wraps and baklava; and Trinidad, serving items like geera pork (cooked with spicy cumin and garlic), curry chicken dinner and curry goat dinner. Many other food booths will be at the festival.

The Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16; and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17. Badges cost $7 in advance or $12 at the gate, and kids 10 and younger get in free. Advance badges may be purchased online or at State Bank and Trust, Vintage Ooollee in Downtown Augusta and New Moon in Aiken. Arts in the Heart sees more than 88,000 visitors every year. For information, call 706-826-4702, visit artsintheheartofaugusta.com or email info@artsintheheart.com. See next week’s Metro Spirit for a full guide to the festival.

September 5, 2017

Kenny George Band tightens up

by Amanda Main August 30, 2017

While on the road to a show last week, Kenny George of the Kenny George Band talked about how his band is picking up the pieces after the unexpected death of Bucky Brown — their drummer, friend and a founding member — a little over a month ago.

“We’re doing OK; we’re hanging in there, I guess. … It’s weird and hard emotionally, you know, and I think everyone has their own (ways of dealing with it),” George said. “I guess you could say it’s getting easier; it hasn’t gotten easy, but playing shows is tough. We’ve got Dave Mercer filling in on drums for us right now, and he’s doing an excellent job; he’s a lot of fun to be around. We all have our emotional triggers and things like that, that we deal with on a daily basis, I think.”

Brown, who had been playing music with the 32-year-old George since he was about 15, helped start the band in 2007, along with steel guitar player Center Ely. Others in the band include Brooks Andrews on bass and Scott Rankin on rhythm guitar and harmony vocals.

The band members have been spending a lot of time together in the month since Brown passed away.

“We’re starting to rehearse again, too, so that’s nice to be playing again,” he said. “I think everyone tries to stay busy in their own way, you know. I’ve been doing a lot of trying to find as many acoustic gigs and stuff that I can power through to stay occupied. Spending a little bit more time at home, too.”

The country/Americana band with Aiken roots typically spends a lot of time on the road, with 150 to 180 shows a year. Their next appearance in Augusta is just a couple of months away, on Nov. 3 at Stillwater Taproom.

As much as they love being on the road, the band likes when they get to play close to home, like when they get to play in Augusta, because there’s not a lot of travel involved, and George said there’s always a good crowd. One of their albums, “Live at Sky City,” was recorded at Sky City in Augusta in 2015.

George said one of the best moments of the past year was when they played a release show in their hometown, in support of their latest album, “Borrowed Trouble,” released April 28.

He said until then, the band had played in Aiken maybe twice in the past three years.

“It was the day the record came out, and we busted our backs putting a lot of the hard work into it, trying to get a good turnout, all that stuff, and we wanted a good stage, and good sound and all this, and we were really just dead set on a big show in our hometown. We had the help of the city of Aiken and a lot of businesses, but we really wanted to just make sure that we did something for the people here since we’re always on the road. … And you know, there’s not really a huge market for original alternative country Americana, or whatever you want to call it. But we did that, and we just had this incredible turnout, people from all over came in, I think they said we had anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 people in the Alley, and to do it downtown Aiken outside, all the work we put into it and see it pay off and have such nice turnout and everyone show their support was just really probably my favorite part of the last year or so.”

The band has gone through some growth in the three years since they released their first EP, “Gunshy,” in 2014. Most of that has come from just spending a lot of time on the road together.

“We’ve gotten tighter; we’ve gotten a little bit better about conveying what we want to play to the record, from doing all that playing live, you know, so the songs really got to develop on the for a couple months, or some longer than that,” George said. “So like with this last record, there’s a lot more of that live energy into it, I think we’ve gotten a lot better about that. I think we’ve just gotten to know each other a little better onstage, and so we know each other’s body language and cues and things like that, when someone’s gonna go here and you can kind of follow, or something like that. But it’s just become easier, a little bit.”

George described “Borrowed Trouble” as “very much about everyday life of a musician on the road, and not necessarily your Bob Seger Turn the Page tour bus kind of life, but more of the grinding it out like what we’re doing and the balance between that and home and family and having a social life, a love life, normal relationships, so there’s a lot of that theme kind of running through it. That’s really what it’s about. … There’s certain songs about specific things and things like that, but on a whole, that’s really the kind of driving source for the sound or theme behind the record, I guess.”

As the primary singer-songwriter, George’s love for South Carolina is obvious in his music, especially on the twangy, upbeat-tempo “Carolina Too,” the third track on “Borrowed Trouble.” In it, he croons “Carolina is callin’ my name/Carolina, I’m not the same/Carolina is calling me home/Carolina, I must be moving on.”

The band has played shows with the likes of the Rascal Flatts. Some of the influential artists George grew up on include Jackson Browne, Townes Van Zandt, Leon Russell and the Allman Brothers.
“I could go on and on,” George said. “Ryan Adams was real big; I got into him at a fairly young age. And Wilco, I got into Wilco when — I guess I was probably in junior high when I first heard Wilco. I thought ‘this is weird, but I like it.’

He also discussed some modern artists he has been getting into.

“More recent is like John Moreland. … I just got into Lady Lamb recently,” George said. “It was really exciting; I heard about her a couple months ago from someone, I can’t remember who, and then I turned on NPR today and I got all excited about it again because she was on there, just all kinds of stuff. … Parker Millsap’s one of my new favorites; he’s put out a couple of records, there’s a lot of new stuff, I guess one of the perks of the internet, and there’s lots of them, but one of the bigger ones is all the great new artists you can find at the click of a button. … American Aquarium, I immediately got into them, and we got really lucky and got to play some shows with them, a few shows with them, and they’re really doing good things. And I’ve been kind of getting into the new outlaw stuff, Cody Jinks and Whitey Morgan, things like that.”

For more information about the Kenny George Band, visit kennygeorgeband.com or youtube.com/c/Kennygeorgebandmusic, or keep up with them on Facebook and Twitter. Tour information is listed on their website.

August 30, 2017

An Eye on Life

by Metro Spirit August 23, 2017

Musician Ben Folds is well-known for his decades-long musical career, but anyone who’s less than a super-fan might be surprised to learn that he also is a respectable photographer.

He is a member of the Sony Artisans of Imagery, and he had a stint as a photo editor for National Geographic, according to benfolds.com.

Folds will be gracing Augusta with his musical talents on Friday, Sept. 1, at the Jessye Norman Amphitheatre. He is known as a rock musician who bends genres with his music, including pop albums as the front man for Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and collaborations with artists such as Sara Bareilles, Regina Spektor, “Weird Al” Yankovic and William Shatner.

His most recent album blends pop and classical original works, recorded with the classical sextet yMusic. The tour that’s bringing him to Augusta is a solo tour similar to his earliest solo tours, which featured him rocking out alone on a piano.

When he’s not creating music, he is in love with spending time in a dark room.

“I love photography, of course. … I think completing the whole cycle to me is really important, and I certainly spend my time in the school of the dark room,” he said. “There are so many advantages to the digital method now, but having spent so much time in the dark room has really informed that, and I feel really lucky for all the hard time spent in that; as far as what I shoot and what I’m interested in is all over the map, and I don’t think that I have the voice as a photographer that I seem to as a musician, and so that’s really kind of good for both disciplines, because it gives you a perspective. I know I don’t take for granted that certain things come naturally to me as a musician when I have to work at it so hard as a photographer.”

Folds likens the idea of capturing the perfect image to when somebody asks what you would grab from your home if you had two seconds to get something out while it’s burning down. He says if you had more time, you would grab everything, and the same concept applies in photography — that good photographers realize more of what’s important to them and take fewer shots.

“I think it’s really interesting to spend time where someone says ‘OK, here’s how you have to see this landscape or this scene in front of you,’ or whatever it is that you capture, ‘you’ve got one shot at it, and in fact, you can’t even look through the lens when you’re making that shot.’ … I think that’s also a cool discipline.”

Folds pointed out the concept of impermanence when it comes to taking photographs or making music, especially with today’s digital methods of saving art.

“It’s an interesting trend isn’t it? I think it’s all a matter of capacity, you could photograph every moment of your life, literally, you could do that all f***ing day. But at some point, it’s going to go into a closet on a hard drive, the hard drive’s gonna get dusty, not start up, someone’s gonna throw the hard drive away, you’ll lose track of it,” Folds said. “Same thing goes usually for negatives. And the same thing is true of music these days, where it’s not all committed to vinyl or it’s not all committed to tape. It’s on a cloud somewhere, and when that cloud’s taken down, disconnected in some kind of way, people’s iPhones are thrown out to a plastic trash heap, then I don’t know, where is the backup?

“I don’t think that’s a problem necessarily,” he continued, “because I think at the end of the day, you know, some music you can say it’s because it’s good, or some images and you can say it’s because they’re good, or because it was lucky — survived.

Folds referenced infamous photographer Robert Capa, who shot several rolls of film on D-Day in World War II, but because of an intern’s mistake, he lost almost all of the images. However, the images that survived were printed. Folds referenced one of those images.

“It is one of the most iconic photographs of World War II, and I think that’s not just because it was the best photo — it might have been the worst photo — but it was the one that survived. And he had an eye that was like, shooting everything as if it was the only photograph.”

Advice he had for modern photographers: “Shoot the stuff that, if you’re gonna save one off of your phone, then it’s that one. … I think that’s the way you live your life, you try to live your life in the existentialist idea, like if you die while you’re being an asshole, then you’re remembered as an asshole, and that’s what you are. You’re just an asshole. … I think you have to kind of find some balance of purpose in your life in an era that you think you have all the choices, but you actually don’t have all the choices. You think you’ve got ’em all, but you don’t.”

To see images captured by Folds’ eye, visit benfoldsphotography.com.

BEN FOLDS
Jessye Norman Amphitheatre
Friday, Sept. 1
6 p.m.
$25-$249.00
706-823-3288
cityspintickets.com

August 23, 2017

Clean-cut comedian stays humble

by Metro Spirit August 19, 2017

Even big comedy stars sometimes need time to just lounge around on the couch — such as the family-friendly Brian Regan.

The comedian is set to make an appearance in Augusta once again on Friday, Aug. 25. He recently spoke about his life and influences — and about how one of his greatest comedy influences is someone he’s known from the time he was born.

“I know there’s a silly component (to my comedy); my mom and dad — my mom is very silly, and I think that part of her has gotten into me. She’s very smart; you would never beat her at “Jeopardy,” is an English major, has a master’s in English. One of her favorite comedians was Andy Kaufman, and my mom would just sit there and laugh at him, and I remember trying to figure that out, and I like Andy Kaufman, too. But I liked the fact that my mom liked him and that she got a kick out of him. … I like to think I have a smart layer to (my) comedy, but I also certainly like throwing the silly on there.”

With a career spanning more than a couple of decades, Regan’s first comedy album, titled “Brian Regan Live,” hits its 20th anniversary this year. In the time since he first broke out, his presence steadily has been growing. Netflix recently cut him a deal for two stand-up specials, the first of which was recorded earlier this summer in Denver and is scheduled to stream in November.

The guy who’s known for having clean comedy says that unlike some of his colleagues, he needs to take breaks between work.

“Some people put a lot of energy into what they do. And I like to take breaks; I need to regroup. As much as I like doing standup, I also like chillin’ and laying on the couch. I need to recharge. Some people are charged up throughout their whole life and their whole career, which is great, but what works for me is to be into it and then take my foot off the gas, and then do it again and take my foot off the gas.”

As a resident of Las Vegas, one of his favorite pastimes is sitting down to a game of Blackjack in the casinos — when he can convince himself to get off the couch.

“It’s funny, I was off last night and I didn’t have the kids, and I thought to myself, ‘Hey, why don’t you hop in the car and go play some Blackjack?’ So instead, I laid on the couch and went to sleep. Sometimes it’s more fun. … I like math, and (Blackjack is) a fun game because there’s math involved, and occasionally I get fortunate and could end up on the plus side of things, but I’m careful. I don’t risk my mortgage on it, but it’s a fun activity every now and then.”

When asked who his biggest comedic influences are, he mentioned Jerry Seinfeld, whose internet show “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” Regan was on in 2012 during its first season.

“I like his stand-up a lot; he has taken stand-up comedy to an art form, and the way he gets mileage out of everyday topics is very intriguing to me. But there are different comedians doing different things, and I like a woman named Maria Bamford who does these quirky characters. … She says something about herself through her delivery of these characters, and it’s very interesting. I like Chris Rock for how in-your-face he is and with his observations, and there’s a woman named Carol Leifer who doesn’t do as much stand-up as she used to, but she’s the person that Elaine was modeled after on the “Seinfeld” show. She’s very funny. Bill Burr, I’ve watched him do an hour, and I was like amazed.”

Anyone who listens to podcasts can hear his appearances on shows including comedian Marc Maron’s “WTF with Marc Maron” and Bill Burr’s “Monday Morning Podcast,” among others. Regan says he enjoys the growing trend of promoting via podcasts rather than on traditional morning radio.

“One thing I do like about podcasts, especially when comedians are at the helm, is that it’s a different animal than morning radio. I used to have to do morning radio throughout the country to promote our shows, and it always felt like a square peg in a round circle, like they want the funny too quickly and too much, and it didn’t feel natural. … The thing I like about podcasts is that there’s more ebb and flow. You can be serious and then you can be funny and you can be poignant and you can be outrageous … whereas morning radio seemed to be more ‘let’s just hit the funny,’ and it seemed a little unnatural.”

Despite Regan’s growing fame and fan base, he maintains a humble attitude about it all.

“There’s the the comedy part of the equation, and then there’s the popularity part of the equation, and I’m not that into the popularity side of it, but to me it’s like, I just want to do what I think is funny — and if there are people out there who happen to be into it, great. And if that’s a sizable amount of people, that’s even better, but I’m not doing it for that reason. I’m just fortunate that there seems to be enough people that seem to like it. … I’m very lucky.”

BRIAN REGAN
Bell Auditorium
Friday, Aug. 25
8 p.m.
$39.50-$44.50
877-4AUGTIX
georgialinatix.com

August 19, 2017

The God That Became a Menace

by Stacey Eidson August 16, 2017

When photographer D.K. Bhaskar and professor Tom Grant traveled to India about five years ago with students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Ga., their plan was to study the fascinating culture of the mahouts, or elephant keepers.

But when they arrived in southern India, Bhaskar said they quickly discovered an extremely complex and deadly conflict between humans and elephants within the country’s coffee plantations.

“We went to India as part of the CLIC Abroad Foundation to spend time with the mahouts in the area, but when we got there, we found these captive elephants in cages,” Bhaskar said. “They were being brought there and forced into these huge cages because the elephants were viciously attacking people in the coffee plantations.”

The attacks were becoming so dangerous that fewer people in the region were interested in continuing the tradition of the mahout culture, Bhaskar said.

A mahout is an elephant rider that typically starts out as a young boy in the family profession, he explained.

“It is a profession that can only be learned in the community,” he said. “There is no classroom where you can teach someone to be a mahout.”

As the CLIC Abroad team began its trip to southern India, Grant, who is also an award-winning journalist and a former editor of Metro Spirit, said Bhaskar had told the students that there were about 10 captive elephants being held in this particular camp when he visited about two years prior to their trip.

“When we got there, what we saw was, instead of 10 captive elephants, there were nearly 35 captive elephants in this camp,” Grant said. “And there were four large cages in the camp where they had elephants who were being forced into submission by a mahout. So we began to wonder what was going on.”

While traveling around the region and talking to people involved in the coffee plantations, Grant said the team got a call that another camp for captive elephants was being established.

“They were bringing them to another camp that didn’t exist until that moment,” Grant said. “So we quickly drove a couple of hours to get to this new camp. When we got there, they were building these huge cages in this very isolated area and they brought in two freshly captive elephants, who were wild just hours before, to the camp. These elephants were now drugged and tied to trucks and they were forcing them into these cages. In fact, they were building these huge cages up around them right before our eyes.”

It truly demonstrated the enormous conflict that exists in India between humans and elephants, Grant said.

“We had no idea there was a conflict in the coffee plantations in that area of India,” he said. “That area is where about half of the wild elephants, approximately 15,000 of them, live and, over the years, they have been attracted to these coffee plantations. Because they are attracted to the plantations, they have these conflicts.”

As a result of that experience, Bhaskar and Grant decided to develop a documentary called “Elephants in the Coffee” to inform the world of this growing problem in India.

The following year, Grant and Bhaskar returned to India to continue to study and film the issues surrounding the conflict. During their visit, they spoke to several people in the region who had lost relatives to these elephant attacks.

“Elephants are wild animals and they are dangerous,” Grant said, “especially when they come in contact with humans.”

Unfortunately, because of the increase in elephant attacks, people’s attitudes about the animals are changing in India, he said.

Grant and Bhaskar are hoping their documentary, which will be screened this Sunday, Aug. 20, at Augusta’s Third Annual Black Cat Picture Show at Le Chat Noir, will help educate the world about this extremely complex conflict.

“About 30 years ago, the elephant was a god in India,” Grant said. “Now, they are commonly referred to as a menace. This change in attitude is understandable when elephants are killing people and destroying farmers’ crops. But it is a difficult problem that needs a solution.”

“Elephants in the Coffee”
Third Annual Black Cat Picture Show
Le Chat Noir
Sunday, Aug. 20
1 p.m.
$16, single-day pass; $40, festival pass

For more information on the documentary, “Elephants in the Coffee,” and how to help support the CLIC Abroad program, visit elephantsinthecoffee.com. For more information on the Black Cat Picture Show, which is this Friday-Sunday, August 18-20, at Le Chat Noir, visit blackcatpictureshow.com.

August 16, 2017

Forget Your Troubles

by Amy Christian August 16, 2017

Les Reagan, the founding director of The Augusta Broadway Singers (TAB), had no trouble deciding what the theme of the group’s upcoming show would be: “Hope… Happiness… Harmony…” is what he trusts audiences will feel when they leave the show.

“I decided I wanted a feel-good concert, just due to so much garbage going on in the world, so much heartache, so much hurt, so much worry and all,” he said. “I just wanted a few minutes, maybe an hour or an hour and a half of ‘Ahhhhhhh.’ We need that, just to take ourselves away. So in planning this program I looked at music that I thought would do that, would take us on this little journey of feeling good.”

This will be TAB’s third dinner show at the DoubleTree Hotel, where Reagan serves as general manager, since its inception in 2013. In 2014, they presented a holiday-themed event and went on to stage “The Marvelous Wonderettes,” a musical that incorporated girl-group songs of the 1950s and ‘60s.

This time around the group, which only performs musical numbers that are currently in or have been in Broadway and off-Broadway shows, will feature well-known songs such as “Joyful, Joyful” from “Sister Act,” “All Good Gifts” from “Godspell,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” from “Guys and Dolls.”

Perhaps the most famous feel-good song of the program, though, will be performed by 12-year-old Heidi Gray, who will join TAB on stage Friday and Saturday night to sing “Tomorrow” from “Annie.”

“With this concert, we are featuring Heidi Gray, who is from North Augusta and has done a lot of theatre work around town with many of us,” Reagan said. “And she, of course, is most noted for landing the role of Annie in the Broadway national tour of ‘Annie.’ She has just returned a few months ago from touring the U.S. and Asia on a national tour. She’s doing a couple of numbers with us.”

“Tomorrow” is a song that no musical theatre lover gets tired of hearing, and Reagan says that sentiment goes for Gray as well.

“I asked her, ‘Are you tired of it yet?’ and she said, ‘Oh no, no, no, no,’” he said. “Because most of us, by the time we get to a show, we’re like, ‘Ugh, can we move on to another show?’ She does such a phenomenal job with it.”

In addition to making the audience forget their troubles for a while, Reagan said he and the members of TAB chose most of the songs because of their connection to them. Many of the members of the group are local theatre performers who have sung these numbers in productions from years past.

“For instance, the song ‘Happiness’ from ‘You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown;’ that’s one of the songs we sing. Well, we’ve got several people who have done the show, from all different ages from several years ago. We have three Lucys from different times that are in it,” Reagan explained. “My wife and my daughter are singing in this, and we were all involved in ‘Godspell’ at different times. We met two other people who are in the group through doing ‘Godspell’ here locally years ago.”

Audiences will learn of these local connections when TAB introduces each song.

“It’s just one of those, ‘Welcome to our house, here’s who we are,’” he said. “And let’s have a moment of fun, and a moment of good, and maybe a moment of tears because there’s some beautiful stuff in the show.”

Hope… Happiness… Harmony…
DoubleTree Hotel
Fri-Sat, August 18-19
Dinner, 6 p.m.; show, 7 p.m.
$45, adults; $20, ages 5-12 (reservations required)
706-855-8100

August 16, 2017

Metro Week: Gov’t Mule

by Metro Spirit July 19, 2017

The lasT Time singer-guitarist Warren Haynes visited Augusta with his band Gov’t Mule, it was for the 2015 Masters Week celebration The Major Rager.

It’s Friends With Benefits that’s bringing Haynes and Gov’t Mule back to Augusta, this time for the Riverwalk Revival at the Jessye Norman Amphitheatre on August 1.

The last time he visited, Haynes told the Metro Spirit that he was excited to come because of the way he felt about the Godfather of Soul.

“James Brown created a fresh sound that changed the world as much as The Beatles did,” he told Metro Spirit Publisher Joe White in 2015. “To this day, when I’m trying to de ne the epitome of what groove is, it’s James Brown. To me, there is no question about it. His music, when I listen to it today, it is even better than it was 50 years ago.”

And that’s saying something, because Haynes is no music business slouch. He was a member of the Allman Brothers Band for 25 years and has performed with the likes of the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, John Lee Hooker, Eric Clapton and B.B. King, just to name a few.

James Brown was the reason Haynes and company were excited to visit Augusta in 2015. They’re anxious to get back to Augusta now, but for completely different reasons.

Augusta is one of the first stops on Gov’t Mule’s latest tour, which begins July 28, to promote their new album “Revolution Come… Revolution Go,” released in June of this year.

“We’re just really excited to be playing the new material,” he explained. “This is our first Gov’t Mule record in almost four years. We’re really looking forward to this next year or so on the road where we’re going to spread the word.”

The album, he said, is a new chapter for the band, as well as a look back at where they’ve been.

“Well, I think the big motivation behind making the new record was embarking on a new chapter for us, having just celebrated our 20th anniversary as a band,” Haynes explained. “Our last record, ‘Shout!,’ was the record leading up to the 20th anniversary and we kind of felt like it was a culmination of everything that led up to that point. For this record, we’re looking at it like a new beginning. We started talking, I guess a year and a half or two years ago, about what kind of record we were going to want to make and the consensus seemed to be, ‘Let’s go back to the very beginning and revisit our earliest roots, but let’s also go into some new directions that we’ve never explored before.’ Looking back on it now, that’s what we were able to achieve and I’m very happy with the way it came out.”

Riverwalk Revival w/Gov’t Mule, Galactic
Jessye Norman Amphitheatre Tuesday, August 1
6-11 p.m.
$34.50, general admission; $69.50, pit fwbpro.com

July 19, 2017

Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival

by Metro Spirit May 24, 2017

With more than 20 incredible bands offered on stage ranging from the Grammy-nominated Avett Brothers to the five-piece American bluegrass/rock band Greensky Bluegrass, Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival gets better each and every year.

When Cathy Varnadore came up with the idea of Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival several years ago to honor the legacy of her late father, Joe Pond, she wanted to create an event that showcased his love of live bluegrass music, down-home barbecue cooking and, most importantly, family.

Today, it’s clear Varnadore and her dedicated team at A.B. Beverage Company, Inc. have succeeded in putting together a music festival that would make “Papa Joe” Pond extremely proud.

“Oh, my dad would love this festival. He would absolutely love it,” said Varnadore, president of A.B. Beverage. “I remember, as kids, he would take us to different festivals throughout Georgia and South Carolina. We would end up in some small town and they would be playing bluegrass music or sometimes he would take us to these shag music events, which were fun, too. My dad pretty much took us everywhere and exposed us to a lot of good, family fun events and that is what we are trying to do here.”

Over the years, Banjo-B-Que has featured a variety of outstanding bands including Drive-By Truckers, The Whiskey Gentry and Old Crow Medicine Show.

This weekend’s two-day festival at Evans Towne Center Park will continue that tradition by showcasing an impressive lineup of bands, including the return of the festival’s headliner, The Avett Brothers.

The Avett Brothers are known for high-energy shows and playing intense gigs featuring sibling musicians Scott and Seth Avett.

Other bands featured in this year’s festival include Greensky Bluegrass, Banditos, The Defibulators, Natchez Tracers, Cicada Rhythm, Hog Slop String Band, Harvest Thieves, Niles Foley, Kyshona Armstrong, Little Roy & Lizzie, Sailing to Denver, The Mason Jars, The Ramblin’ Fevers, Delta Cane, Royal Johnson, The High Divers, Laney Jones & the Spirits, Villain Family, Porter Oaks and West King String Band.

There is a great deal of excitement over Greensky Bluegrass’ appearance at this year’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival.

Formed in 2000 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Greensky Bluegrass have “fine tuned” their live show to brilliantly blend bluegrass music with a full-on spectacle of rock.

“You can call us an acoustic ensemble, or a drum-less rock band, or a rock & roll bluegrass band,” the band’s mandolin player, Paul Hoffman, stated on Greensky Bluegrass’ website. “All of that shifting identity has taught us to cover a lot of ground… It’s a balance of moods and textures that we create as a band.”

Greensky Bluegrass, which plays around 175 shows a year, has really matured over the past 15 years, said guitarist Dave Bruzza.

“We play two sets of music every night with a big light show, and really care about creating a large scale production,” Bruzza stated. “We want to cultivate an experience, where people can escape from their everyday lives for a minute and put their worries aside.”

For those at A.B. Beverage who work extremely hard each year organizing Banjo-B-Que, Varnadore said she simply wants the community to have a lot of fun listening to the incredible live music, eating the down home barbecue, enjoying craft beers in the beer garden and letting the entire family participate in the festival’s petting zoo, pony rides, pig races and cook-offs.

“We want to bring bands through here that are new and different and try to get more exposure for this area,” Varnadore said. “We work hard all year long to make sure this is an event that the entire community can be proud of. And it is fun to have two different aspects in the event with the music and the barbecue, especially it being Memorial Day weekend.”

As always, Banjo-B-Que will continue to be a family affair this year with her husband and vice president of A.B. Beverage, Doug Varnadore, concentrating on barbecue side of the two-day festival.

The festival, which is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, will bring more than 60 professional barbecuers from all across the country.

“The professional teams will come from Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Indiana,” Doug Varnadore said. “We’ve probably got five or six of the top 10 of the Kansas City Barbeque teams here at the festival. So, it’s some pretty stiff competition.”

Those professionals will compete for $40,00 in prizes money and, this year, the festival was selected as a recipient of the Smoking with Smithfield grant program. That will increase the prize payouts, and representatives from Smithfield will conduct cooking demos at Tuffy Stone at 1, 3:30 and 4 p.m., as well as give out free rib samples cooked by Waylon’s BBQ.

There will be much more for the kids to enjoy including the new Pork Chop Revue and the Hog Way Speedway. The Pork Chop Revue features amazing stunts and laughable antics by the smartest swine in the country, and the Hog Way Speedway will be an opportunity for families to watch pigs, ducks and goats battle it out for the title of fastest farm animal. Along with these new attractions, there will be plenty more of activities for the kids to enjoy including a petting zoo, face painting, splash pad and playground, and much more!

For the adults, the festival’s beer garden will feature beers from breweries all over the country, including Breckinridge Brewery, Hi Wire Brewing, Devil’s Back Bone Brewing Co., Elysian Brewing Company, Grayton Beer Company, Lonerider Brewing Co., Nantahala Brewing Co., Prairie Artisan Ales, Southern Brewing Co. and Southern Tier, as well as local breweries River Watch Brewery and Savannah River Brewing Co.

“There will be over 40 craft beers from the newest to the oldest,” Doug Varnadore said. “It is a great selection.”

One of the proudest moments for the Varnadore family at the annual music festival is when Joe Pond’s grandchildren take the stage on Saturday night.

“They all get to go up on stage and introduce the last act on Saturday night,” Cathy Varnadore said. “They have a lot of fun doing that. It’s nice because they all come down and they’ll all be there together.”

All proceeds raised at Banjo-B-Que benefit the Joseph R. Pond Memorial Foundation, which donates to charitable organizations through the CSRA Community Foundation.

A special focus is given to cancer-related organizations because “Papa Joe” Pond, who was a second generation owner of A.B. Beverage, died in 2006 after a seven-year fight against cancer.

“We wanted to do something in his name because he did so much in the community,” Cathy Varnadore said. “He always sponsored so many events and charities throughout the CSRA and we just wanted to remember him that way.”

May 24, 2017

Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival

by Metro Spirit May 17, 2017

What could be better than two fun-filled days of incredible live music, down-home barbecue cookin’, a fabulous beer garden, pig races, pony rides and a cook-off, all in one family friendly atmosphere?

Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival is the definition of springtime fun.

Ever since Cathy Varnadore came up with the idea of Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival several years ago to honor the legacy of her late father, Joe Pond, it has been a huge success each and every year.

Varnadore and her dedicated team at A.B. Beverage Company have created a festival that not only showcases her dad’s love of live bluegrass music and barbecue, but, most importantly, the love of family.

This year, Banjo-B-Que is proud to welcome back as the festival’s headliner The Avett Brothers.

While The Avett Brothers might be from Concord, N.C., the band has long been a local favorite ever since their earliest days playing at Stillwater Taproom in downtown Augusta.

The Avett Brothers are known for high-energy shows and playing intense gigs featuring sibling musicians Scott and Seth Avett.

All proceeds raised at Banjo-B-Que benefit the Joseph R. Pond Memorial Foundation. Papa Joe’s wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Pond, manages the endowment with the CSRA Community Foundation.

Her goal is to help fund charitable organizations in the CSRA with a special focus on cancer-related organizations.

Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival provides guests with an unbelievable amount of fun and for such a good cause, it simply can’t be missed.

Still not sure if you want to go? Then just take a look at these pictures from last year. After doing so, you won’t be able to resist buying your tickets.

Papa Joe’s Banjo-B-Que & Music Festival
Evans Towne Center Park
Friday, May 26, 4-11 p.m.
Saturday, May 27, 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m.
Friday: $35, general, and $100, VIP
Saturday: $45, general, and $200, VIP
Two-day pass: $70, general; $250, VIP
banjobque.com

May 17, 2017