Join us Sunday afternoon, September 9 for an acoustic music party featuring the Bay Area's own Echoes & Artifacts (featuring Rory Cloud and Allyson Makuch), Bob Hillman, and Michael McGovern.
This house concert will be happening in a private home in Pacifica. The address and details will be sent to you after you make your reservation here on Ticketleap. Advance donation is $15. Suggested donation at the door will be $20. All donations go to the musicians.
Echoes & Artifacts was founded in the hills of Northern California by Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter Allyson Makuch and California-raised guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Rory Cloud. The project name reflects how Allyson and Rory view songwriting and performance; as artifacts of our experiences echoed through time.
Drawing from diverse musical and personal backgrounds, Allyson and Rory engage their collective decades of experience to craft unique and moving songs. At the heart lies Allyson's deep and poetic sense of storytelling, which effortlessly cuts to the core of a feeling, leaving it open on display.
Throughout their arrangements you can hear inflections of jazz, old-time, rock-and-roll, classical, and modern music subtly and seamlessly woven together. This diversity of expression gives their music a wide and refreshingly compelling dynamic range.
In performance, Echoes & Artifacts bring a powerful presence to the stage that is immediately matched by the music they make. Allyson's voice stops the heart in its tracks and wraps itself around the room. Her tone is rich and warm, with a strength that carries the weight of her songwriting with ease. This is, in part, developed out of her years of classical training as a vocalist. Her approach to guitar and composition is melodically, harmonically and rhythmically balanced. All of these traits are elevated by Rory's confidently intricate and thoughtful guitar work.
On the guitar, Rory is able to surround the chords with color and provide a flowing counterpoint to Allyson's melodies. His facility on the instrument, along with a lifetime of practice and appreciation as a songwriter in his own right, has given him an ability to sing through his guitar. It is a sound that is both complex and understated. It provides a bed of wind that carries the song forward with intention and surprise.
Echoes & Artifacts are currently working on their debut release. Tour dates to be announced fall 2018.
Bob Hillman: "I had a good run in the late 90s/early 00s, releasing three albums and touring the United States and Europe, including 80 some-odd dates as the opening act on Suzanne Vega’s Songs in Red and Gray tour. Along the way, I earned positive notices like this one from Susan Stamberg on All Things Considered: “I’ve never heard of this Mr. Bob Hillman but that song about War and Peace is enough to make you want to pick up War and Peace and start reading it.”
In 2003, however, I made the decision to become “employable” by going to business school; I then spent ten years working as a marketer on brands like Formula 409, Glad, and QuickBooks and raising my two sons, who are now in elementary school.
A 2014 layoff opened up some time for writing and meditating on the possibilities, music-wise, and roughly coincided with Peter Case’s relocating from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Peter, a songwriter’s songwriter, had encouraged me since the mid-90s, when I sent my first batch of demos to an address on the back of his Torn Again album. We re-connected and, after a year and many, many cups of coffee, decided to work together.
Peter was a major impetus for the project – how could I resist the opportunity to work with one of the songwriters who inspired me to become a songwriter? – but the mainstreaming of crowdfunding didn’t hurt. My Kickstarter reached its initial, possibly-too-modest goal in two days and eventually generated almost $20,000. Crowdfunding can work for the financing part, but it’s also great for gauging interest among your friends/fans. I needed that vote of confidence!
The result is Lost Soul, produced by Peter Case with twelve new songs culled from the hundred or so new ones since 2005. The album was recorded by Sheldon Gomberg at The Carriage House in Silver Lake, CA with superb musicians including Joseph Arthur (loops, electric guitar), Danny McGough (keyboards), Jonny Flaugher (bass), Danny Frankel (drums), Cindy Wasserman (harmony), and my good friends Marky and Kipp Lennon (harmony). It was a privilege to spend a few days playing with these guys, and I don’t take it for granted.
I’m proud of this recording, which – thanks to Peter Case’s vision and Joseph Arthur’s loops, among many other things – relies on a less crafted, more visceral sound than the straightforward folk-rock in my catalog.
My ambitions are also different from the old days, when conquering the world still held some appeal: I just want a few more people to hear these songs. But, for me personally and perhaps for others, Lost Soul is about more than just the songs or the sound. As one fan put it in a recent email: “You know, I think seeing you ‘back’ could be the most inspiring thing I’ve come across in years. After sleeping on it, I’m rethinking all the things I thought I’d never do again…”
Michael McGovern