Cleveland Rock And Roll

Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Richie Furay is coming to the Kent Stage on June 21st at 8:00pm. Furay is best known as a founding member of the great bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin and also Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner. Don’t miss out on hearing one of the best.

Go to www.thekentstage.com for tickets

Robbing Mary

EL OTRO LADO

I have to admit I totally missed this cd when it dropped in late 2011. I mean the band, Robbing Mary, wasn’t even on my radar but my how things have changed. I was recently invited to a benefit function a few weeks ago and I saw the entertainment they had playing was a band called Robbing Mary. I asked an intern if we had anything from them and sure enough awhile ago someone had sent us a couple of links to some of their songs so I took a listen. I just sat at my desk listening and wondering how did I miss these guys.

The band has been around for 10 years and are based out of Cleveland which made the fact I missed on them sting a little bit more. The band is longtime Clevelanders Dan Mills (vocals/guitar), Jennifer Vilimonovic (vocals/violin), Steve Keefe (bass/guitar), Rom Cullers (vocals/guitar) and Wil Jones (drums) and the best way to describe their sound is too imagine if you could take The Byrds and combine them with Buffalo Springfield then throw in some Jackson Browne and Stevie Nicks for good measure. That’s the hints of sound you get when you listen to them. They describe themselves as an indie/rock/alt-country band but to me I hear the influences of that sixties California country rock infused in them but who knows indie/rock/alt-country would also be a good description of those bands like The Byrds.

El Otro Lado is their first release and right out of the gate it starts off strong with what I feel are the best two tracks on it, “Glad To Be” and “Lower A Line”. “Glad To Be” is sung by Dan Mills and is a throwback to that California country rock I was talking about. It’s one of those songs you can’t get out of your head. It’s got a catchy riff throughout and Mills vocals wrap the lyrics around it perfectly with some great harmonizing from Jennifer Vilimonovic on the chorus. “Lower The Line” features Rom Cullers on vocals and if you closed your eyes you would think Jackson Browne was singing. Again the song features great harmonies, strong lyrics and very tight instrumentation. Some of the other highlights on the album is “Plastic Flowers”, “The Mo-Kan Line”, “Tell Me” and “Roll Over Daisy” but all of the 15 tracks are strong, there really isn’t a weak song on it. Mills’s vocals are featured on eleven of the tracks and Cullers has the other four.

When you listen to El Otro Lado it is really hard to put it into just one category like country, rock, or indie. It fits comfortably in all of them. I compared Robbing Mary to some real heavyweights like Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, and Jackson Browne because when you listen to them you hear elements of all of them in their music but I can also compare them to some of their contemporaries like Scars On 45, Arcade Fire and The Head and Heart and they hold their own if not outshining some of these newer bands.

If you don’t believe me, give them a listen then tell me if I’m wrong. I personally can’t wait for their next release.

For more info on the band and where to catch them live go to www.robbingmary.com