One Music Fest 2016 | Lakewood Amphitheater: Atlanta, GA

Production & Stage Management / Technical Director
Providing Full Production Crew

Featuring Artists: Dungeon Family & Organized Noize, Ice Cube, Erykah Badu, A$AP Ferg, Busta Rhymes, Gary Clark Jr, Jazmine Sullivan, Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, BJ Chicago The Kid, Tulani, Andra Day  

Candler Park Music & Food Festival 2016 | Candler Park: Atlanta, GA

Production / Stage Manager
Production Support for Rival Entertainment

Featuring Artists: Galactic, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, The Revivalists, Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Giant Peacock, Blair Crimmins & The Hookers, King Baby, Webster

Atlanta Jazz Festival 2016 | Piedmont Park: Atlanta, GA

Production / Stage Manager
Production Support for Rival Entertainment

Featuring Artists: 
Chargaux, Eugenie Jones, Gregory Porter, Hypnotic Brass Ensembles, Jamison Ross, Joi, Navy Band Southeast V.I.P. Protocol Combo, Next Collective featuring Christian Scott, Russell Gunn Quartet & Lil Jon Roberts, The Benny Golson Quartet, The Headhunters featuring William Sommers, Theo Croker, Tomeka Reid

International Artists:
Camilla Meza Quartet, Mette Henriette, Etienne Charles, Assaf Kehati Trio, Tatran, Daby Touré, Elaine Elias

Local Artists:
Band Room Nation, Anonmyous DaBand, Joe Alterman Trio, Chandra Currelley, Rialto Jazz Kids All-Stars, Rialto Young Jazz Orchhestra, Mabu's Ark Band, Alex Lattimore, Band Room Nation, Anonmyous DaBand, Joe Alterman Trio, Chandra Currelley

Prince R.I.P | April 21, 2016

Prince performing in the Netherlands, 1995.
Paul Bergen/Redferns

Prince Dies at 57: Iconic Musical Genius Found Dead in Paisley Park

4/21/2016 by Dan Rys

Prince died earlier today (April 21) at age 57 at his Paisley Park home and studio in Minneapolis, his publicist confirmed to the Associated Press. TMZ first reported the news.

According to a press release sent from the Carver County Sheriff's Department this afternoon, deputies arrived at Paisley Park at 9:43 a.m. and found Prince unresponsive in the elevator. After CPR attempts were unsuccessful, he was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m. The cause of death has not yet been determined, and Carver County with assistance from Hennepin County Sheriffs and the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office are investigating.

Gone But Not Forgotten: In Memoriam 2016

Prince was hospitalized last week after his plane for was forced to make an emergency landing in Moline, Ill. Released a few hours later, a rep told TMZ that he had been battling a bad case of the flu.

One of the most iconic musicians in music history, Prince's extensive career grew out of the music scene of his native Minneapolis, where he lived his entire life. His 1978 debut album For You and self-titled second LP, released in October 1979, kicked off an incredibly prolific run of albums that included 1999, Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day, Sign O The Times and Batman, among others, throughout the 1980s at a clip of nearly one per year, evolving with each release.

R.I.P. Prince: 11 Deep Cuts From the Purple One's Vast Catalog

It was 1984's Purple Rain -- his first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 -- released in conjunction with the film of the same name, that cemented him as one of the greatest artists of his generation, earning him two Grammys, and Oscar and a victory over Michael Jackson's Thriller for Favorite Pop/Rock Album at the 1985 American Music Awards. In total he would receive seven Grammy Awards from 32 nominations between 1984 and 2010. Along the way, he worked with several bands under a series of pseudonyms, including The Time, the New Power Generation and The Revolution, as both frontman and producer.

Prince was also known for his eponymous Love Symbol, created in protest against his longtime record label Warner Bros., under which he released an album in 1992. His 18th and final album for the label, 1996's Chaos and Disorder, finally released him from his contract.

As a recording artist, Prince was legendary for his prolific and perfectionist nature which allowed him to release a steady slew of material as he experimented in the studio; as a result, unreleased b-sides and bootlegs have become highly sought-after collectibles for die-hard fans, and his infamous "vault" of recordings has become the stuff of legend. Yet he was also truly transcendent as a performer, regularly stretching his shows beyond the three-hour mark and showcasing his stunning guitar work, which became an underrated part of his legacy, often overshadowed by his iconic singing voice and abilities as a songwriter and bandleader.

Over his 35-plus-year career, he released 39 solo studio albums and never stopped releasing new material; since September 2014, he put out four new full-length records with his latest band, 3rd Eye Girl, continuously experimenting with psychedelic rock and intergalactic funk.

Prince's legacy as a musician, a singer, a style icon and an endlessly creative mind is nearly unparalleled, and his influence stretches from pop to R&B to funk to hip-hop and everywhere in between. Purple Rain was the first of four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200; an additional 12 LPs peaked in the top 10 in four different decades. The first single from his self-titled LP, "I Wanna Be Your Lover," topped the Billboard R&B chart and he would go on to land 19 top 10 hits on the Hot 100, including No. 1s "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy," "Kiss," "Batdance" and "Cream."

Spotify @ SXSW 2016 | Spotify House: Austin, TX

Production & Stage Management
Production Support for Spotify

FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE:  Allan Rayman, Aluna George, Anderson Paak, BadBadNotGood, BJ The Chicago Kid, Car Seat Headrest, Charles Bradley, CHVRCHES, Ciaran Lavery, Day Wave, Dean, DILLY DALLY, D.R.A.M., HÆLOS, Hannibal Buress, Hinds, Jack Garratt, JAHKOY, Jesse & Joy, John Moreland, Joseph, Kacey Musgraves, Kacy Hill, Kevin Garrett, KING, Lanco, Låpsley, Lucie Silvas, Lucius, Lukas Graham, Maren Morris, Miguel, MUNA, POWERS, Proches, Public Access TV, Rayland Baxter, St Lucia, Tate Kobang, The Kills, Tate Kobang, THEY., Tory Lanez, TOTEM, Twin Peaks, Vince Staples, White Reaper, Will Joseph Cook

DJ SETS BY: Chromeo, Neon Indian, ILoveMakonnen, Tokimonsta, Hesta Prynn, Prince Fox, MICK

Maren Morris performs "My Church" at The Spotify House

Don't miss the 58th Grammy Awards hosted by LL Cool J!

Congrats to nominees, welcome back Adele, rock on!
Click Here to check out nominees
 

Dan Hicks R.I.P | February 6, 2016

Dan Hicks, of the Hot Licks, Dies at 74; Countered the ’60s Sound
By PETER KEEPNEWS

Dan Hicks, a singer, songwriter and bandleader who attracted a devoted following with music that was defiantly unfashionable, proudly eccentric and foot-tappingly catchy, died on Saturday at his home in Mill Valley, Calif. He was 74.

The cause was liver cancer, said his wife, Clare.

The 1971 album “Where’s the Money?” by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks

Mr. Hicks began performing with his band, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, in the late 1960s in San Francisco, where psychedelic rock bands like Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead dominated the music scene. The Hot Licks’ sound could not have been more different.

At a time when rock was getting louder and more aggressive, Mr. Hicks’s instrumentation — two guitars (Mr. Hicks played rhythm), violin and stand-up bass, with two women providing harmony and backup vocals — offered a laid-back, all-acoustic alternative that was a throwback to a simpler time, while his lyrics gave the music a modern, slightly askew edge.

He came to call his music “folk swing,” but that only hinted at the range of influences he synthesized. He drew from the American folk tradition but also from the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt, the Western swing of Bob Wills, the harmony vocals of the Andrews Sisters, the raucous humor of Fats Waller and numerous other sources.

The 1972 album “Striking It Rich” by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.
“It starts out with kind of a folk music sound,” Mr. Hicks explained in a 2007 interview, “and we add a jazz beat and solos and singing. We have the two girls that sing, and jazz violin, and all that, so it’s kind of light in nature, it’s not loud. And it’s sort of, in a way, kind of carefree.”

The 1972 album “Striking It Rich” by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks

Songs like “How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?,” “Milk-Shakin’ Mama” (“I saw the girl who keeps the ice cream/And now it’s I who scream for her”) and “Hell, I’d Go,” about a man whose fondest wish is to be abducted by aliens, displayed his dry and often absurd wit, as did his gently self-mocking stage presence. But he had his serious side, too: “I Scare Myself,” a longtime staple of his repertoire, was a brooding, hypnotic minor-key ballad about being afraid to love.

Mr. Hicks’s records never sold in the millions, but at the height of his popularity in the early 1970s, he and his band appeared on network television and headlined at Carnegie Hall, and he appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Fellow musicians were among his biggest fans: Guest artists on “Beatin’ the Heat” (2000), the first Hot Licks album after a long hiatus, included Bette Midler, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits, while Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett joined him in the studio four years later for “Selected Shorts.”

Daniel Ivan Hicks was born on Dec. 9, 1941, in Little Rock, Ark., the son of Ivan Hicks, a career military man, and the former Evelyn Kehl. His family moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., near San Francisco, when he was a child.

Dan Hicks in 2012. Credit Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal, via Associated Press

He took up drums in sixth grade and guitar as a teenager. After graduating from San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University) with a degree in broadcasting, he performed in local folk clubs while also playing drums with dance bands.

From 1965 to 1968, Mr. Hicks was the drummer and occasional vocalist with the Charlatans, widely regarded as the first San Francisco psychedelic band, although he himself remembered it as less a band than “just kind of some loose guys.” While still with the Charlatans, he formed the first version of the Hot Licks.

The group’s 1969 album, “Original Recordings,” sold poorly, but three subsequent albums for the independent Blue Thumb label established it as a successful touring act.

Mr. Hicks nonetheless disbanded the group in 1973, at the height of its popularity. “It was getting old,” he explained in 1997. “We became less compatible as friends. I was pretty disillusioned, had some money, and didn’t want to do it any more.”

His career stalled after that, but he returned in the 1980s with a new group, the Acoustic Warriors, which duplicated the Hot Licks instrumentation without the female singers. In the late 1990s, he added two singers and brought back the Hot Licks name.

The band, with frequent changes in personnel, toured regularly and continued to perform occasionally in recent years when Mr. Hicks’s health allowed, most recently in December in Napa, Calif.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Hicks is survived by a stepdaughter, Sara Wasserman.

“I will always be humble to my dying day,” Mr. Hicks, tongue in cheek as usual, said when interviewed in 2013 by Roberta Donnay of the Hot Licks. “On my dying day I will explain to the world how lucky they have been to be alive the same time as me.”