Local Musicians at the Maize Fall Festival
I had the awesome privilege last night to run sound for some incredibly talented local musicians at the Maize Fall Festival. I thought I would tell you about them.
First up was Ben Strauss. Ben is a very creative 16-year-old singer, musician, songwriter. Ben, along with another guy who never told me his name, were playing their first paid gig! They had about five original songs with some very interesting instrumentation. Ben sang and played both acoustic guitar and a small (18″?) kick drum. “Other guy” sang and played a small (toy?) chord organ, floor tom, and cymbal. The other interesting thing was Ben ran his vocals thru a small guitar amp to get lots of reverb effect on his voice. Not my cup of tea, but talented and creative nonetheless.
Second, was a local group called Clarensau consisting of Tyler Clarensau, Tyler Caggiano, and Sally Caggiano. Tyler Clarensau and Sally provided vocals, while both Tylers played acoustic. I could have listened to them all night. Incredible acoustic music. The vocals were awesome. Especially Sally, she had an incredible voice. And both Tylers are very talented guitarists. I highly recommend checking them out around town, or at least check out their Myspace page. I picked up two CD’s.
The last act of the night was Aaron Lee Martin, an exceptional singer/musician/songwriter. Aaron accompanied himself on acoustic guitar, banjo, harmonica, and tambourine. At one point he was playing harmonica, guitar, and tambourine (by stuffing his foot in the tambourine and stomping…)! Very passionate songwriting and incredible musicianship. Not to mention a great voice. Aaron plays around town quite a bit too. Well worth seeing him live. I picked up one of Aaron’s CD’s as well.
There weren’t many people that braved the cold last night, but they got quite a treat.
Sally is one of my friends. She was a homeschooled nerd like me. A great Christian and one of like 7 kids. Oh and sally’s maiden name is Travis. Ha ha