Colorfall Weekend

Oct. 10, 2007

This weekend brings a full line up of musicians who all have built grassroots followings and have opted to remain indie bands (non-major label artists). Pianist Paul Sullivan returns with a show at the Old Art Building in Leland on Friday, October 12 and at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Traverse City on Saturday, October 13 at 8pm. Eddie From Ohio and opening act Rachael Davis (originally from Cadillac) perform Friday at the Traverse City Opera House. And Mieka Pauley (see separate feature on following page) will also make her Northern Michigan debut on October 11 at Leelanau Cellars in Omena.

Paul Sullivan
This seems to be the weekend of Ivy League schooled musicians (Mieka Pauley is a Harvard graduate) as pianist Paul Sullivan graduated from Yale University. Sullivan grew up in Boston and took an interest in music early in life, attending the St. Paul Choir School in Cambridge and Phillips Exeter Academy before heading to Yale where he received a degree in music in 1977. After graduation, Sullivan created and taught a course on electronic music at his alma mater.
His 30-year career has resulted in a dozen albums and exploration into several musical styles; Sullivan also just won a Grammy Award for his work as a member of the Paul Winter Consort. Their CD Silver Solstice won for “Best New Age Album,” and contains a collection of recordings from their Winter Solstice Tour, including a solo performance by Sullivan of his own composition “The Rising Moon.” So has Sullivan’s life changed now that he is a Grammy winner?
“Yes, of course it has. It puts me into an elite group of musicians. It’s a powerful credential that saves a lot of résumé space and cuts a lot of ice,” said Sullivan. “Yet in most ways, my life hasn’t changed a bit. As Jerome T. Jerome once said, ‘Life tastes pretty much the same, whether you sip it from a crystal goblet or gulp it from a stone mug.’ I’ve tried it both ways, and he’s right.”
One thing that hasn’t changed is Sullivan’s residence for the past 23 years - Brooklin, Maine, a coastal community of about 500 whose most famous resident (next to Sullivan) was author E.B. White of “Charlotte’s Web” “Stuart Little” fame. Sullivan and his wife stumbled on the community by accident.
“Nearly 25 years ago my wife and I planned a trip to Maine - we were living in Boston at the time - and a friend said, ‘You have to stay with my parents, they live in Brooklin.’ Well, we didn’t want to do that, but he called the next day and said he had already arranged everything with his parents,” said Sullivan. “We fell in love with the place and moved there almost immediately.”
Sullivan has drawn musical and creative inspiration from the region. His studio is in a neighboring community, and sits on one of the river inlets of the Atlantic Ocean. “This is a place that is full of creative people and energy, and, as a composer and performer, that’s an important environment to be in,” said Sullivan. “I also prefer to perform in communities that have this same type of energy; you feel it when you are on stage. That is certainly the case with Northern Michigan, so I am definitely looking forward to returning.”
He is currently completing his 13th CD, titled My Irish Soul, that will feature arrangements of traditional Irish tunes as well as original compositions by Sullivan. He opted to record the CD without other instrumentation.
“When I tour solo, it is just me and the piano, so I wanted the audience to hear the songs as they were recorded when I perform live,” said Sullivan.

Sullivan will perform a collection of his works including a sampling of his forthcoming CD. For additional information on his music, check out www.rivermusic.com. Tickets for
this performance are $20 in advance and
$23 at the door, and are available at The Old
Art Building, Leland Bookstore, Kejara’s Bridge in Lake Leelanau, Dog Eared Books in Northport, Bahle’s in Suttons Bay, Cedar City Market in Cedar, and Oryana Food Cooperative in Traverse City; For more information call 231-256-2131.
Eddie From Ohio
Eddie From Ohio - otherwise known as EFO - made their first Northern Michigan appearance 12 years ago as part of the annual Gopherwood Concert Series in Cadillac. It was a cold, wintry February weekend when the folk-rockers from Virginia rolled into the Cadillac Country Club after 15 hours on the road battling snowstorms.
“We rolled in the first time in the middle of winter, and the heater on our motor home wasn’t working,” said bass player Michael Clem. “It seems like every time we are invited, it is cold and there’s a bunch of snow. Will they ever invite us when it is warm up there?”
Maybe this time, given the fall we’re having so far. Clem and his bandmates (all the original founding members), including vocalist Julie Murphy, percussionist Eddie Hartness, and guitarist Robbie Schaefer are holding their breath that an early snowfall won’t happen as they return to Traverse City. Their appearance this time will be as part of a joint production between Gopherwood Concerts of Cadillac and Grassroots Productions of Benzie County for a concert at the Traverse City Opera House on Friday, October 12. Rachael Davis will open the show.
Both organizations were interested in bringing in EFO, who has built a strong following in the region with several Gopherwood performances and BlissFest appearances, so they decided to collaborate.
EFO has developed a large following on the folk circuit and are in demand at every folk festival in the States. Yet they claim to be “the best band no one has ever heard of.” Their fans, known as Edheads, may disagree with that claim. So do several folk labels that have tried to sign the band over the years. However, EFO likes their independence, and continues to self-release their music on their Virginia Soul Records label.
In 16 years since they formed, the band has sold more than 150,000 CDs, and has taken a very businesslike approach from day one by dividing up responsibilities. “We are a family, a business and a band all rolled into one,” said Clem. “It is how we have made it work for over 15 years, and hopefully how we will make it work for years to come.”
That “family business” has its roots going all the way back to fifth grade, when Clem and Schaefer met as classmates in McLean, Virginia, just west of DC. Their friendship, cemented even then by a love for music, carried on to James Madison University, a couple of hours from McLean, where each enrolled as a communications major. There, they met Eddie Hartness, a music student moonlighting on weekends as a drummer with local bands. And Robbie kept in touch with high school acquaintance Julie Murphy, who was studying hotel restaurant management at Virginia Tech. Although all four future EFO members had become friendly, the idea of forming a group didn’t occur to anybody until one night, at one of Robbie’s solo gigs. Michael and Julie had gone to the show together, and as they began singing along during his set, a lightbulb suddenly flicked on in Clem’s imagination.
“There were groups doing heavy harmony vocals with acoustic guitars,” remembers Clem. “I sensed that there would be an audience for that kind of an act. Turns out I was right.”

Rachael Davis
Rachael Davis was in junior high school when Eddie From Ohio first performed in Cadillac in 1995. Cadillacians were well versed in Davis’ vocal talents; EFO was not. But when asked by some in the audience if Davis could sing with them for a song, the band obliged. EFO said that night, “We will definitely be hearing her voice again.”
And they were right, as Davis will open for them on Friday night. The band also thought Davis would make it big someday, and they were right on that note as well.
In 2002 Davis won a coveted Boston Music Award for Best New Singer-Songwriter. The next year she took home the grand prize in the Telluride Bluegrass Festival’s Troubadour Contest.
She got an early start at her career; Davis has been singing onstage since she was two years old.
“My parents are musicians,” said Davis. “They told me that when I was little, they would put me in a car seat in the middle of a song circle and have bells on my ankles, and I would shake my feet to the rhythm of the songs.”
At one-and-a-half Davis was singing to anyone who asked, and at two she started performing with her parents onstage. Born in Lansing, Davis spent almost six years of her life in Chicago before her parents settled in Cadillac, Michigan, where she was constantly nurtured and encouraged by family, friends, and other respectable musicians. When Davis was eight, she sang on second stage at the Wheatland Music Festival.
Davis has spent most of her life involved with music in one way or another, whether it was singing with her family-based group Lake Effect, or performing solo with a few friends as special guests. She attended Interlochen Arts Academy in Northern Michigan, which also counts among its alumni Peter Yarrow and pop-folk singer Jewel.
In the span of her six year solo career, Rachael has shared the stage with Boston based singer/songwriter Vance Gilbert, folk divas Claudia Schmidt and Sally Rogers, Prairie Home Companion regulars Robin and Linda Williams, Greg Brown, Taj Mahal, Robert Earl Keen, Fred Eaglesmith, Josh Ritter, jazz legends Marcus Belgrave and Winston Walls, amongst others. She has opened for Dar Williams, David Lindley, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Little Feat, Garnet Rogers, Chris Smither, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Richard Shindell, Susan Werner, Peter Mulvey, Clive Gregson, Willy Porter and many more. Davis has also built a following in Europe, and her current CD is Live in Bremen, Germany. Last year, she formed the group Shout Sister Shout with the band Steppin’ In It, and released a self-titled CD.


Tickets for the Eddie For Ohio/Rachael Davis concert at the Traverse City Opera House on Friday, October 11 are $18 in advance and $20 at the door. Doors open at 6pm, and the show starts at 6:30pm. Concessions will be offered by Pangea’s Pizza, Popkies (popcorn), Higher Grounds (fair trade coffee), and Short’s Brewing Company. To purchase tickets call the box office at 231-941-8082; to find out more about EFO and Rachael Davis’ music, check out www.eddiefromohio.com and
www.rachaeldavis.com.