A club at 414 N Montgomery Ave, Sheffield, Alabama 35660 is having a Metal Night with live bands.

For their first metal show we are bringing you two of the best metal bands from North Alabama. Tempter from right here in the Shoals and Gatekeeper from Huntsville.

Tempter is a [...]]]>  

A club at 414 N Montgomery Ave, Sheffield, Alabama 35660 is having a Metal Night with live bands.

For their first metal show we are bringing you two of the best metal bands from North Alabama. Tempter from right here in the Shoals and Gatekeeper from Huntsville.

Tempter is a 5 piece, modern metal act hailing from the recording capitol of the south, otherwise known as Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Formed in 2014 by vocalist Spencer Letsinger, guitarist Hagan Dickerson, and drummer Adam Wilkins, Tempter went through a slew of other members before finally deciding on the lineup featured today. This lineup includes the original three and adds bassist Tyler Thompson, and guitarist Travis Michael. The band has a 3 song, self titled EP featuring the single “Hymns of the Blasphemous” and a full length record currently in the works. Tempter has played alongside big names such as “Whitechapel” as well as “Thy Art is Murder”, “I Declare War”, “Fit For an Autopsy”, “The Last Ten Seconds of Life”, “Within the Ruins”, and many others under previous monikers.”

Jeff Black formed Gatekeeper in the dismal haze of 2010 as a spitting retort to everything happening on a musical level in the frost-kissed prairies of Alberta. In a land dominated by blast beats, scooped mids and vocalists who couldn’t find a melody in a shopping bag, Gatekeeper stands upright and unchained, continuing the legacy laid down by such luminaries as Robert E. Howard, Bathory, Frank Frazetta, Manowar, Candlemass and Manilla Road. If your interests lie in the direction of things ancient, lost and far away, Gatekeeper might be for you. If not? Good riddance.
Help us spread the word and give this scene the recognition it deserves in the Shoals!

By Carole Maynard, UNA Department of Music

FLORENCE, Ala. – The University of North Alabama Bands, directed by Dr. Lloyd Jones and Dr. Tracy Wiggins, will present the annual President’s Concert on Friday, April 29, 2016, at 7 p.m. in Norton Auditorium. The performance will be a musical dedication to President Ken [...]]]>

By Carole Maynard, UNA Department of Music

FLORENCE, Ala. – The University of North Alabama Bands, directed by Dr. Lloyd Jones and Dr. Tracy Wiggins, will present the annual President’s Concert on Friday, April 29, 2016, at 7 p.m. in Norton Auditorium. The performance will be a musical dedication to President Ken Kitts and his wife, Dena, in recognition of their first academic year of service to the university.

“The students have diligently rehearsed and crafted a wonderfully entertaining concert in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Kitts. We are thrilled to have them on campus leading UNA into the future,” said Dr. Lloyd Jones, director of bands at UNA.

Included on the program will be the UNA Wind Ensemble, the UNA Symphonic Band, the UNA Studio Jazz Band and the UNA Percussion Ensemble.

The UNA Wind Ensemble, the premier instrumental ensemble within the UNA Bands, will perform the first half of the concert, opening with “Windsprints.” As a special musical attraction during the Wind Ensemble performance, UNA music professor Dr. Yi-Min Cai, piano, will take center stage and be featured on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Cai performing with our students on this epic composition,” said Jones. “She is an incredible talent and we are fortunate to have her here at UNA. Her musicality, interpretation and artistry will be delightful to see and hear.”

Born in Shanghai, China, Yi-Min Cai began her piano lessons at the age of five. By the age of ten, she was already recognized as a child prodigy, and was chosen to perform in a live telecast from the Great Hall in Beijing. She was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing as an elementary student and finished her secondary school there. After her debut, Cai made numerous radio and television appearances in China and won the first prize in the Chinese Piano Music Performance Competition and the Piano Etudes Performance Competition at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Cai came to the United States to further her musical education, first as a scholarship student of Edith Kraft at the New School of Music in Philadelphia, and then as a student of Solomon Mikowsky and Donn-Alexandre Feder at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where she was recipient of the Elva van Gelder Memorial Scholarship. In 1987, she won the first prize in the Abraham and Phyllis Katz Young Musician Competition, sponsored by the Five-Town Music and Art Foundation in New York. She joined the UNA faculty in 1999.

Cai is equally as thrilled to have the opportunity to perform this American classic with the UNA students.

“Our student musicians are fantastic, and I’m looking forward to performing with them,” said Cai. “Gershwin is one of the greatest 20th-century American composers, and ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is quintessentially American. He combined elements of classical music with jazz influences. For this concert, I am performing the original version of the piece, which was written for piano and jazz band. The orchestral version of the piece came later. The fact that we are doing the original composition for piano and jazz band is unique and very exciting.”

The second half of the program will open with the Symphonic Band, the largest concert organization on the UNA campus. This 135-member organization will perform the quintessential transcription of John Williams’ powerhouse “Star Wars,” as well as the “London Tune from County Derry” and “Kirkpatrick Fanfare.” Additionally, the traditional “Salute to the Armed Forces” will be included on the program.

Rounding out the second half, the UNA Studio Jazz Band will perform. This 34-member ensemble resembles a studio orchestra and performs everything from Big Band hits to contemporary music to Broadway musicals. Included on the performance will be “Suite from The Music Man,” featuring the barbershop quartet The Treble Makers, as well as vocalist Kayla Flannagan; “Flight of the Foo Bird,” featuring the many talents of the flutists and clarinetists; the female vocal group The Tritones will be front and center on the ever-popular “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”; and the entire cast will be featured on the Don Ellis tour de force “Open Wide.”

“I feel this will be one of the most enjoyable concerts performed by the UNA Bands. The variety is amazing, the preparation is going well and the level of artistry is admirable. I encourage everyone to come out and enjoy the achievement of these fine students,” said Dr. Tracy Wiggins, assistant director of bands at UNA.

Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 students, and all military personnel and children 10 and under are free of charge. Tickets are available at una.edu/music, at the Lindsey Theatre Box Office (M-F, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.) and at the door.

For more information, contact Carole Maynard at (256)765-5122 or cmmaynard@una.edu.

“He was my brother. My friend. I will miss him,” Willie said in a tweet.

Continue for video of “It’s All Going to Pot” by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard.

Free. 256-764-2225

Merle Haggard, April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016, died Wednesday, on his 79th birthday, from pneumonia.

He was born in Oklahoma but his mother took him to Bakersfield California in 1934, after the barn burned. He had a hard life, plagued by financial troubles and several terms in jail and prison.

Lyrics [...]]]>

Merle Haggard, April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016, died Wednesday, on his 79th birthday, from pneumonia.

He was born in Oklahoma but his mother took him to Bakersfield California in 1934, after the barn burned. He had a hard life, plagued by financial troubles and several terms in jail and prison.

Lyrics for Bonnie and Clyde, by Merle Haggard

Bonnie was a waitress in a small cafe
Clyde Barrow was the rounder that took her away
They both robbed and killed until both of them died
So goes the Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.

The poems that she wrote of the life that they led
Told of the lawmen left dying or dead
Some say that Clyde made her life a shame
But the legend made Bonnie the head of the game.

The rampage grew wilder with each passing day
The odds growing smaller with each get-a-way
With the end growing closer the harder they fought
With blood on their hands they were bound to get caught.

They drove back from town on one bright summer day
When a man they befriended stepped out in the way
With no thought of dyin’ they pulled to the side
But death lay there waiting for Bonnie and Clyde.

Two years or runnin’ was ended that day
For robbin’ and killin’ they both had to pay
But we’ll always remember how they lived and died
So goes the Legend of Bonnie and Clyde.

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Jason Isbell and the SteelDrivers have become early winners at the 58th Grammy Awards on Monday. Isbell, the former guitarist for the Drive-By Truckers who has established himself as the kingpin of the Americana genre since launching a [...]]]>

Also the SteelDrivers took home a bluegrass award for The Muscle Shoals Recordings.

Jason Isbell and the SteelDrivers have become early winners at the 58th Grammy Awards on Monday. Isbell, the former guitarist for the Drive-By Truckers who has established himself as the kingpin of the Americana genre since launching a solo career, won Best Americana Album for Something More Than Free. His song “24 Frames” was also named Best American Roots Song. Meanwhile, The SteelDrivers took home Best Bluegrass Album for their release The Muscle Shoals Recordings.

Glenn Frey, former guitar player for The Eagles, has passed away. While he was best known for playing guitar with The Eagles, he also had solo hits. One of those albums, The Allnighter, was partially recorded in Muscle Shoals.

“Smuggler’s Blues”, an ode to coke dealers, is said to be one of [...]]]> https://youtu.be/NN0K-20SEis?list=PL9rYTZUZHoEpms-edH2aXT1ZfJ_251LTm

Glenn Frey, former guitar player for The Eagles, has passed away. While he was best known for playing guitar with The Eagles, he also had solo hits. One of those albums, The Allnighter, was partially recorded in Muscle Shoals.

“Smuggler’s Blues”, an ode to coke dealers, is said to be one of the songs recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound.

Frey was 67. Doctors say it was a combination of rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia that caused his death.

Spencer Murphy / Self Portrait / 116 E. Mobile St. from Justin Argo on Vimeo.

Music video of Spencer Murphy performing “Self Portrait” at 116 E. Mobile St.

Justin Argo – Director and Editor Tate Hipps – Director of Photography Jake Tanner – Camera Operator Kennedy Pope – Gaffer/Grip Jonathan [...]]]>

Spencer Murphy / Self Portrait / 116 E. Mobile St. from Justin Argo on Vimeo.

Music video of Spencer Murphy performing “Self Portrait” at 116 E. Mobile St.

Justin Argo – Director and Editor
Tate Hipps – Director of Photography
Jake Tanner – Camera Operator
Kennedy Pope – Gaffer/Grip
Jonathan Oliphant – Audio mix

8 JUNE 2014
FLORENCE, 116 E. MOBILE, ALABAMA