March 2007  

The month opened with a genuine new singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist out of Shreveport, LA by the name of JAZE WADE. An EP’s worth of tunes were done that has a very modern T-REX meets JOHN LENNON in ZIGGY STARDUST’s garage kind of flavor. How can that not work? Jaze is a master of melody and brings his interesting personal life to his lyrics while concocting sounds from outer space, courtesy of his collection of the world’s coolest vintage (1976 – 1982) analog synthesizers.

The annual South by Southwest music conference in the fine, fine town of Austin Texas was where it was at (yet again). Scott reports that this year there was a lot less presence of major label activity (although they were all there). While everyone seemed to be pretty well clued into the fact that major breakthroughs in the music industry were happening – those breakthroughs were clearly not coming from major labels.

2007 was the first year that Scott attended without speaking on a panel, because he wanted to go “stealth style” and soak up the wisdom of the crowd and take in the people and music with no strict agenda. The results were tremendous and continue to be with follow-up meetings and discussions still taking place.
Some say SXSW has gotten too big, while others say it is still a must to attend for anyone in the music business. Make sure to check it out next year and decide for yourself.

Finishing up March in a most dramatic way was DAN LEIGH (another great Texas grown musical phenom) who returned to TikiTown to work on a batch of new cinematic and soulful tunes. Dan has been compared a lot to THOM YORKE of RADIOHEAD, which is fine company to keep. His latest works are still full of that feel but more focused on big, hooky choruses that are instant earworms. Tom Lueken’s lush string section (The TikiTown Strings) took Dan’s music to new heights one bow at a time, but the major focus is Dan’s unique falsetto singing that has an almost Chet Baker effect.

SCOTT WATCH! is solely written and posted by Eric Mendelsohn. For information on services available, please contact: esmendelsohn@hotmail.com