The Parlor Sessions Profile: Andy Zipf

6ffb9660a4c311e3b886125b351fb865_8The Parlor Sessions Tour, set to begin in 5 days at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC, sounds like it’ll be my favorite kind of show.  It’s 4 singer-songwriters playing together in small venues and interacting with one another.  In addition, as Andy Zipf puts it, “We really want to bring the audience into the experience.”  Yesterday I posted a short interview with Dean Fields explaining a little about about the tour.  Today I’m posting the first profile of the 4 artists who’ll be traveling in the Parlor Sessions minivan, starting with Andy Zipf, not because I’m going in reverse alphabetical order, but simply because his responses were the first I found when pulling the four responses up on my computer.

It seemed an appropriately random way to choose which to write first for a tour that doesn’t have a clear hierarchy of acts.  This will not be 4 acts playing in order of ascending importance, building to the headliner, but rather a “mutual admiration society” as Dean Fields called it. Watching artists interact is always interesting, and it’s another reason to come see this show.

So who is this guy with a name so full of consonants?  He’s definitely someone who believes music can have a lot of power. Continue reading

Interview with Declan Bennet, the Singer/Songwriter Starring in the West End Production of Once

Declan Bennett accompanied by Alon Bisk

Declan Bennett accompanied by Alon Bisk

This past Friday I caught a show on Rockwood Music Hall’s Stage 3 that was a revelation. Declan Bennet, currently starring in the West End production of Once, is on a brief break, during which he played a show in New York. It was brilliant! It’s been a while since I left a concert this excited about the artist, but this guy is the real deal!

I’d only discovered his music a few weeks ago, when I read a short blurb about the live and unplugged remake of his 2011 album Record: Breakup. I didn’t know who he was, so I certainly wasn’t aware of the original, electric, studio version of Record:Breakup, but something about the blurb intrigued me. I remember jotting down the link on my phone, and finding it later that night, I was blown away.  Continue reading