Jonathan McNamara

Nowhere Man and Whiskey Girl

​Nowhere Man and Whiskey Girl aren't a Phoenix band, per say. The duo lives down in Bisbee, a former mine town in southern Arizona. Shooting our latest installment of The Sun Sessions they regaled us with tales of life in the quaint town, where the temperature drops in to the 60s at night this time of year. Sounds pretty wonderful, doesn't it?

After the jump, watch the band's great take on Green Day's breakthrough single "Longview," which comes from 1994's Dookie, an album I paid tribute to in print this week. Green Day will be in town Saturday, for a show at U.S. Airways Center. Nowhere Man and Whiskey Girl will not be in town for a month or so, for a Sept. 27 show The Icehouse Tavern with Fatigo and Vanessa Atlanta. Their next record, Children of Fortune, is also nearly done being recorded.

Be sure to check out their Myspace and stay tuned for details on that upcoming show.
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Jonathan McNamara

Out of the dozen or so talented locals we've featured thus far in our ongoing Sun Sessions series, Mikel Lander and Meredith Moore (a.k.a. The Sugar Thieves) have a singular distinction unmatched by the rest.

A major-label contract? Distribution through Hop Topic? Nope, even better.

The rootsy blues duo, who can be seen with their full backing band every Wednesday at Tempe's Sail Inn, participated in a "Sun session" of a different kind earlier this year when they nabbed some time at Sam Phillips' legendary Sun Studios in Memphis.

Lander and Moore laid down some tracks for and upcoming album inside the building made famous by Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash during a February trip to M-Town for the annual International Blues Challenge (where they made it to the finals).

Speaking of rock 'n' roll legends, Eric Clapton is coming to Jobing.com Arena with Steve Winwood this Friday, and we asked Mikel and Meredith to perform something from the aging axe-man's discog. What they gave us was an phenomenal acoustic rendition of Clapton's "Nobody Loves You When You're Down and Out" (itself a cover of John Lennon's 1974 original).

Catch the video after the jump.

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Tags:

Eric Clapton, Meredith Moore, Mikel Lander, Steve Winwood, Sun Studios, The Sugar Thieves

Jonathan McNamara

Dakota Jeane playing "Honky Tonk Girl" by Loretta Lynn.

With Loretta Lynn coming to town next Wednesday we were eager to find someone capable of doing justice to one of the Coal Miner's Daughter's songs for The Sun Sessions. We ended up working with local singer-songwriter Dakota Jeane, who strummed out a great version of classic "Honky Tonk Girl."

Dakota's next show is June 29 at The Trunk Space and her MySpace has information about where you can buy her EP, My Bell Jar.

See Dakota's performance after the jump. 

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Jonathan McNamara

Courtney Marie Andrews

Courtney Marie Andrews just graduated from high school last week, but the Raven-haired teen already has a second album being mixed by esteemed local producer River Jones. The folkie singer-songwriter also has a big tour coming up, including a show at Modified Arts' Summer Folk Festival on June 18.

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Jonathan McNamara

Bargrass Revival

Last week I sent out a Twitter (twitter.com/martincizmar) asking: "Anyone know a local band that can capture the soul-crushing pain of alcoholism, as documented in J.W. Buffett's 'Margaritaville,' in a cover?"

"Bargrass Revival" is what we got back, so we lined them up. This Tempe-based bluegrass act is as much a collective as a band, bringing seven people to record their Sun Session (they left a couple behind, they say) which they absolutely killed. Jimmy Buffet comes to Cricket Wireless Pavilion Thursday, Bargrass Revival's next show is in June.

Video on the jump.

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Jonathan McNamara

Kinch at McDowell Mountain Music Festival

We usually like the Sun Sessions to be (a) filmed at our office (b) not released several days after the band being covered has played. But we made an exception for Kinch's cover of Britney Spears "Toxic," which we filmed Saturday at McDowell Mountain Music Festival. Frontman Andrew Junker did it all by his lonesome, with a little help holding the lyric sheet from guitarist Brian Coughlin. We thought about holding this back since it's not really a Sun Session in the purest sense, but it's too damned good not to share. Since we missed Britney, this is the closest thing we've got, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

Catch the video after the jump.
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Jonathan McNamara

A few weeks back I was blown away by local singer-songwriter Matthew Reveles' new album We'll Meet Halfway, so when we started the Sun Sessions I knew we'd have him stop by the New Times courtyard sometime soon, but I didn't dream we'd have so perfect a chance to showcase him.

Both Reveles and Jefferson Airplane-spinoff Hot Tuna will both be playing the McDowell Mountain Music Festival this weekend (Hot Tuna Friday, Reveles Saturday) so we got him to play a cover of "Keep on Truckin." His slower, folksy version sounds fantastic. Check it out after the jump.

By the way, we also did a Sun Session featuring The Loveblisters (R.I.P.) playing a cover of "Fight Test" by The Flaming Lips (Saturday's MMMF headliners). Check that out here.

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Jonathan McNamara

Zachary James Dodds plays the New Times courtyard.

Conor Oberst -- who is Bright Eyes in the way that Trent Reznor is Nine Inch Nails -- comes to the Marquee tonight. To mark the occasion we enlisted local singer-songwriter Zachary James Dodds to play a song from Conor's immense catalog. He chose "Tourist Trap" off the Four Winds EP, and we think he nailed it.

Check out Conor Oberst tonight at the Marquee or Dodds along with Cecelia Ann, Bradley & The Materials, and Formerly Known As Happy at Vida e Caffe in Globe starting at 7 p.m. on Friday April 17. That show is free.

Video on the jump.

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We've been telling you all week about The Loveblisters' last show, Saturday at Last Exit, because it's going to be epic. The band is one of the best local live acts you'll ever see, and they should be letting it all hang out tomorrow.

You know what else is going to be epic? The Flaming Lips show at McDowell Mountain Music Festival in two weeks. We decided to combine the two for our latest installment of The Sun Sessions, the little covers project we're filming right here at the New Times office in downtown Phoenix. It's probably the last promotional appearance the band will ever make, so we really appreciate it. Check out their take on "Fight Test" below, and, please, don't miss either the 'Blisters or the Lips shows.

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Jonathan McNamara

Yes, that's right, we've got another Sun Session for you today! What, you didn't think we'd just do one this week? This is probably the biggest music weekend of the year in Phoenix!

The Sun Session, in case you missed yesterday's post (featuring Jim Bachmann and Tony Martinez playing Alan Jackson's "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow") are our way of previewing a big show by a national act while giving a local act a chance to strut their stuff. We're bringing local musicians in to do a cover they don't normally play in the friendly confines of the New Times courtyard. KCRW has long done this on Morning Becomes Eclectic's Covers Project, of course, and, in Phoenix, The Train Tracks, a site New Times is proud to sponsor, also does this sort of thing, but with bands playing their regular songs while riding the newish Metro Light Rail.

Anyway, right here we've got our friends Darkness Dear Boy, who I wrote a column about last month, playing Three Doors Down's "Be Like That" along with the violinist from Whats Left. By the way, the Next show for DDB (and Whats Left) will be at The Stray Cat on Friday, April 10. Mergence and Sawcello are also on the bill. $5 cover.

Three Doors down play Tempe Music Festival tommorow night.