Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome back NIGEL HALL to The Upful LIFE Podcast. Member of my favorite band Lettuce. Co-founder and former member of The Nth Power. Collaborator to dozens across genre and generation. My dear friend of a decade plus. Virtuoso musician, otherworldly vocalist, transparent human being. Inspirational cat who takes no shorts and keeps it as real as it gets, and on this episode you find out exactly how/why that is.

Topics include: a detailed Nigel Hall rig rundown to kick things off. The new Nigel mentality; reflections on Bear Creek beginnings and the Royal Family era; performing w the JB's; the modern-day LETT renaissance; Nigel's love for the city/Sound of Philadelphia; cheesesteak detour; Frankie Beverly and MAZE; George Duke; various projects and records in the pipeline for 2025; partnership w DJ Harrison; Nigel wisdom regarding recovery, transparency, knowledge of self; the sober keyboard brotherhood, and so much more.

Check out round 1 w/ Nige  on Episode 043 from March 2021.

Deep bow to the great NIGEL HALL for the time, energy, music, and humanity.

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"Greens" - Raquel Rodriguez w/ Nigel Hall

"Happy Feelings" (Frankie Beverly and MAZE cover) - Lettuce at Franklin Learning Center in Philadelphia, 9/27/24

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Episode 082 offers a bit of a different trip than the usual Upful LIFE Podcast. This program is focused entirely on Asheville NC & surrouding Appalachia in the wake of unimaginable destruction wrought by Hurricane Helene in late September. The Asheville music and arts community is a beacon of light and creativity, full of ambitious artisans, dreamers n' doers whom I admire. The good folks of AVL and Appalachia need a whole lotta love, positive energy, prayers, and most importantly DONATIONS to continue their long, arduous process of recovery and rebuilding. 

This podcast presents four conversations between five different people rooted down in Appalachia, connected to the local music/arts community, and who each lived their own harrowing version of this same nightmare.  It is an honor and privilege to offer a platform for these special souls to tell their storm stories, and ruminate on the realities of the recovery journey. Tune in for emotional, inspirational reflections from Leah Song (Rising Appalachia) and Andy Fyfe, Josh Blake of GFE and iamAVL, Wren Ashley from The Nohm Collective, and Brian Good of Asheville Music Hall.

If you are moved by the contents of this programming, please consider a donation to any of the efforts linked below.

On September 27, 2024 the remnants of the Category 4 Hurricane Helene turned Asheville, N.C., into a post-apocalyptic landscape: fallen trees blocking streets; roads turned into creek beds; power lines down everywhere; city water lines destroyed; bridges torn apart. The region’s two rivers carried whole houses downstream. What buildings that remain in the lower areas of Buncombe County are larded with a foot-deep layer of toxic mud. Many people died. 

The storm was prodigious. Official reports note that 2,300 structures were destroyed completely or made uninhabitable. That’s homes, stores, and other businesses. The Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina was closed along its entire length, and its director said that some 10,000 trees had fallen into the roadway. Parts of the parkway were covered in landslide mud, while in other places the pavement had washed away entirely. In several locations, the North Fork Swannanoa River carved new courses, leaving at least one bridge over dry land and the water flowing a hundred yards to the west.  

Along the French Broad River south of downtown Asheville, the River Arts District was completely wiped out. The narrow, 14-mile long Hickory Nut Gorge, which drops about 1,800 feet between the town of Gerton and Lake Lure, much of the road is now reduced to a rocky creek bed.  Estimates for regional damages are currently at $53 billion.

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"Tomorrow's Cost" - Secret Agent 23 Skidoo and Friends

"Everybody Hurts" (REM cover) - Al Green

Vetted resources and references

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Welcome back the lovely and talented singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Ms. ANNA MOSS. One-half of beloved political folk-hop duo Handmade Moments, the NOLA-based chaunteuse has launched an absolutely sensational solo project under her own name, leading a larger band on guitar and vocals, and she released a fantastic debut LP ‘Amnesty’ in March 2024. We checked in w/ Anna at the end of a jam-packed summer for a lengthy, spirited, occasionally raw and vulnerable convo about this dynamite new project, her career evolution, the mental/emotional roller coaster she rode during the pandemic to manifest this music, among other associated topics du jour.

Asheville's Hurricane Helene

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"With the world outside her window rapidly unraveling into chaotic madness, Anna Moss found herself holed up alone in her New Orleans home during 2020’s unprecedented global pandemic. Frozen in a state of paralyzing panic, crippling anxiety, and isolation, she was armed with only a guitar, and the voices in her head. A working musician her entire adult life, touring gigs and studio sessions had suddenly screeched to a harrowing halt.

Online, friends and fans sparred feverishly, screaming at each other and into the ether, while the realities and insecurities of her precarious situation sent the singer/multi-instrumentalist spiraling into a deep depression.

Manifested from the nadir of her own darkness and demoralization, Moss mined a medicinal muse from within, incessantly writing on guitar and rediscovering her salvation in song. Intimate, delicate, dreamy, messy, a flurry of new tunes began to flow freely, slowly liberating Anna from the suffocating clutches of her own despair. Emerging from the ashes of this traumatic, dehumanizing spell: a phoenix of deeply personal compositions that would eventually comprise Amnesty, Anna Moss’s solo debut LP released in March 2024 via Empire Records.

An intoxicating gumbo of bedroom pop and existential R&B, Amnesty is at once Anna’s potent opening salvo and a righteous rebirth, too. Paeans born of an emotional purge peel back the rawest, realest layers to reveal ruminations on an artist’s humanity. Throughout Amnesty, Moss treads distinctly different topography than with the idiosyncratic Handmade Moments—her long-running political folk-hop duo with partner Joel Ludford. Rich in ethereal harmonies, subtle sensuality, and melodies majestic, her album’s stripped-down, organic-soul sound leans into throbbing basslines and pulses with a buoyant thump."      (c) B.Getz, May 2024

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Anna Moss "Gravy"

Sari Jordan "Perfect Is the Enemy" [live @ Maple Leaf Bar, NOLA 2024]

Anna Moss 'Amnesty' LP feature via L4LM

Anna Moss Instagram

AnnaMossMusic.com

Sari Jordan

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINEa

To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Phish “retirement” shows, hop in the wayback machine to revisit the historic, chaotic, at-times catastrophic Coventry festival, hosted in northern Vermont way back in August 2004. Twenty years later, Episode 080 colorfully unspools an oral history of this fateful weekend, reflecting upon the legendary traffic jam, difficult weather and its consequences, plus inspired creativity, community action, local heroes lending helping hands, and determined phans hiking up to 20 miles into the fest.

The focus of this podcast is not the band’s atrocious, nerve-wracked, debilitated performances or their precarious situation at that moment in time, as those aspects have been long addressed ad nauseum. Instead, we shine a light on the humanity, heroic efforts, sad turns of fate, and collective connection that defined what was an epic journey to some, and a traumatic experience for others. After I sounded the alarm for last minute submissions, a dozen brave Coventry survivors were kind enough to contribute short personal stories for this wacky, wild, wide-ranging oral history. 

In addition, last week saw the unveiling of ‘JAM - The Documentary’, a 27-minute DIY film from Alex Daltas that dissects this monumental excursion to say goodbye to The Phish from Vermont at Coventry. The motion picture is mostly sourced from his own pre-festival footage, and a smattering of news reports; it took Daltas two decades of dedication to bring this patchwork vision into tremendous fruition. Alex slides thru to open up about the adventures of Coventry & then the 20 year odyssey of manifesting this movie.

• 0:00 ep.080 preview

Rent/Buy JAM- The Documentary HERE

Jam the Documentary - story/press release

B.Getz 'Era Ending Event' -

Pharewell My Phriend JamBase 8.20.04

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINE

Twas an honor and privilege to welcome legendary DJ/producer/multi-instrumentalist GREYBOY to Episode 079!! A career highlight for this program to facilitate a wide-reaching, ever-rare interview with the man born Andreas Stevens, who's pioneering 90's work on Ubiquity Records set, raised, and re-raised the bar for West Coast acid jazz and trip-hop. Greyboy's solo canon is long revered for blurring the lines between hip-hop, funk, soul, jazz, and beyond; he's also the visionary behind rare-groove ragers The Greyboy Allstars. Released June 2024, Greyboy's latest LP Word On the Street represents an artistic rebirth and musical revolution tied to the broadening of his palette and a personal evolution.

• 0:00 - episode preview

1988 DMC Regional Champion. Recovering midcentury modernist. Responsible for wrangling together esteemed boogaloo bandits The Greyboy Allstars, hence their moniker and sonic blueprint. Over the course of three decades, DJ Greyboy has worked with musical and cultural luminaries that span genre and generation, his music oscillates between styles yet remains consistently Era Correct.

Grey shares a few of his leftfield non-musical passions that are sure to surprise even the most attentive fans of his timeless tunes. During this sprawling 90-minute conversation, Greyboy was stoked to explore the inspirations, losses, and motivations that gave us his most recent LP, Word On the Street. Plus unpacking seminal releases Greybreaks, Freestylin', Land of the Lost, and reflections on crucial collaborators. Grateful that Grey was such a open book, and seemed quite happy to hop in the sidehack and bomb the hill down memory lane. Give Thanks for Greyboy.

After wrapping with Grey, we check in with Spencer from For The Funk Of It Festival, slated for Aug. 6-9 in NorCal, to get the 411 on this year's throwdown on the Feather River.

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GREYBOY: "Unwind Your Mind", "Grey Royale", "Word on the Street"

Dwell Magazine article about Greyboy's house restoration

Greyboy - Word On the Street album on BandCamp

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINE

Welcome Florida-bred, Denver-based electronic producer duo MZG to Episode 078! Zach and Charles Weinert are wildly talented yet humble and hilarious, studio wizards who can cook up with the best in the game. Many of us have long been convinced these two handsome gents are destined for superstardom, if not global EDM domination. I've had the privilege of watching the evolution of their craft, careers, collaborations, and trademark sound since before they were even performing as a duo, as well as call them real-life homies for nearly 15 years. Get ready for the Twinzies Takeover!

• 0:00 - episode 078 prevoew

Topics include: growing up twins, coming of age in Northeast Florida, separate musical journeys, Greenhouse Lounge/Sir Charles, exploring Ableton, discovering festival culture, finding Soundtribe Sector 9, figuring out Phish, collaborating with Big Gigantic, The Floozies, Griz. Spirit of Suwannee/Hulaween magic, moving to electronic mecca Denver, distilling/focusing their sound. Unveiling house side-project Duplex. A classic tale of the ol' switcheroo, plastic bong/pocket-p*ssy/kazoo with a country cop, plus barrels more laughs and memories. We run thru a few of the most nuclear MZG bangers to finish strong.

Bio: Twin brothers, Zach and Charles Weinert, spent many years working on separate musical projects, but in 2015, they relented to the inevitable and joined forces to create MZG. Shorthand for “monozygotic” (the scientific term describing identical twins), the name MZG describes the unique bond these two share. After honing their craft in Jacksonville, FL, the pair began playing out for audiences. MZG’s reputation for setting dance floors aflame saw them soon sharing the stage with like-minded acts such as RL Grime, Herobust, and Opiuo, as well as earning residency at Florida festival mainstay Suwannee Hulaween. They've also appeared at festivals Sonic Bloom, Okechobee, and Electric Forest, among others. Rooted in Colorado the past six years, the brothers have wasted no time in making a mark, performing with respected state staples Big Gigantic, Griz, The Floozies, Barclay Crenshaw, and Manic Focus. These self taught musicians and producers deliver bass driven, hip-hop influenced electronica while sharing a chemistry on stage that is natural and infectious.

"One 2 Shtep", "BANGA," "FAYDED2023", "FTCU Flip" - MZG

unknown unreleased joint from Duplex

Stay up on all things MZG ---> Bandcamp, Instagram, Soundcloud, Spotify

• Check out  FOR THE FUNK OF IT FESTIVAL  August 9-11 in NorCal

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINE

Welcome NY-bred, Nashville-based PETER LEVIN, a keyboardist/singer/producer to Episode 077! A veteran of multiple music scenes, bands, and geographies, Peter Levin has written/performed with numerous artists who've appeared on this show, & dozens more who have not. A well-respected musician, songwriter and producer, across 3 decades Peter has collaborated with legends like the late, great Gregg Allman, cultural institutions such as the Allman Brothers Band and Blind Boys of Alabama, rising stars i.e. Amanda Shires, and appears on the award-winning album The Highwomen.

• 0:00 - ep.077 preview

Late last year, Levin released the fantastic record under his own name: 'Saturday Night, Sunday Morning'. The LP features an all-star slate of contributors that dot his musical journey, including guitarists/friends-of-the-pod Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff and Eric Krasno. Most recently, Peter has been an integral member of the Allman Brothers tribute ensemble 'Trouble No More', with our hero Nikki Glaspie, among others. Peter Levin was kind enough to take some time to drop in and explore his career and collaborators, a conversation that took place at the very end of 2023.

Special Thanks to Solaris Entertainment Studio for making Peter available for this interview.

After Peter's interview wraps, we head right into the Summer Tours 2024 Preview segment with returning fave Jason Abrams, co-host of the Rock n' Wrestling Connection Podcast, my friend of nearly 35 years and an encyclopedia of both rock n' roll and pop culture.

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"The Chain" [Fleetwood Mac cover] - The Highwomen

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Agent 23 aka Cactus aka Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, welcome to The Upful Life Podcast! A founding member of pioneering Asheville-based live hip-hop collective Granola Funk Express (GFE). A progenitor of "family hip-hop" with his Secret Agent 23 Skidoo project, which took home a Grammy in 2019 for Best Children's Album. Cactus is a published author of several books, and a prolific educator around the country for kids of all ages and backgrounds.

• 0:00 - episode 076 preview

From train-hopping, to Rainbow Gathering kitchens, to rap ciphers at Phish festivals, this conversation is a colorful strut down memory lane for any GFE fan. And my man makes sure to spread the love around the krewe. Similarly, Cactus takes us through the birth of his daughter Saki, her transformation into MC Fireworks, and the heights their inspiring hip-hop connection took this beautiful family. These days, 23 and his 'Secret Agency' collaborate with students and symphonies, to wed classical music, global indigenous instruments, and storytelling to the elements of hip-hop. Cactus has also evolved into a successful educator, bringing hip-hop into the classroom as a multi-faceted teaching device.

bio

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo is an internationally touring, purple velvet tuxedo wearing family funk phenemenon. Combining the positive, primal power of hip hop with the surreal storytelling of science fiction, 23 Skidoo has concocted a potent potion that wows family crowds across the planet. After a decade of touring nationally as a rapper and producer in Granola Funk Express, he released his first kids' hip-hop album in 2008.

The ingredients of his magic spells include reverence for the boundless mindstates of young children, respect for the culture and DNA of hip hop, funk and soul music, and a deep belief in the power of the imagination to change the world in positive ways, both personal and universal. At the 59th Grammy Awards in 2019, Secret Agent 23 Skidoo won Best Children's Album for his record Infinity Plus One. At the 57th Grammy awards [2017], his record The Perfect Quirk was nominated in the same category. Book Weirdo Calhoun and the Odd Men Out won Silver at the 2014 Moonbeam Awards.

Secret Agent 23 Skidoo & Asheville Symphony - The Beat Bach Symphonies

Dennis Cook feature article on GFE - 2006

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"Dreamland Theatre" Agent 23 feat. Adam Strange

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Live n' direct from their studio in Vienna, Austria, iconic electronic producer/DJ duo KRUDER and DORFMEISTER tap into the Upful LIFE.  On Episode 075, Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister pull up for a colorful, career-spanning conversation, both fellas waxing nostalgic, and piloting the wayback machine through the pair's prolific, pioneering journey in sound. Our chat starts at the 22min mark.

• 00:00 - episode preview

Listening to these two fine gentleman humourously reflect on their embryonic origin story and enduring connection was nothing short of a pinch-me, bucket-list, feather-in-the-Kangol experience for your humble narrator, as K&D music remains among the most sacred in my lifetime playlist.

• the serendipitous rendezvous that first brought them together.

Kruder & Dorfmeister Bio

During the 1990s, Vienna, Austria-based producer/DJs Kruder & Dorfmeister helped invent the electronic music genre known as downtempo/trip-hop. Their presence has loomed large over the scene ever since, despite a relatively small discography as a duo.  With 1993 EP G-Stoned- the first release on their similarly titled record label - the pair established a laconic, smoked-out, organic sound & aesthetic rich in live instrumentation. K&D are well-known to incorporate acid jazz, dub, house, atmospheric drum & bass, hip-hop, bossa nova, funk, soul and beyond into their trademark, succulent sonic gumbo. 

The duo built up a lengthy résumé of remixes for a diverse smattering of artists, including Roni Size, David Holmes, Depeche Mode, and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Several of these were aggregated on the landmark double-album The K&D Sessions (1998), which was lavished with much critical acclaim upon release and its reputation continues to age like a fine wine. Over the years, the two producers remained active with solo work and adjacent projects (most notably Tosca, Dorfmeister's duo with Rupert Huber, and Peter with Peace Orchestra). 1995, a fantastic full-length studio album of original material that had been mysteriously shelved for a quarter century, was unearthed and released in 2020.

Eternal thanks to Peter & Richard for the time, music, & energy. -bg

• B.Getz's feature: K&D return to US, 1st Burning Man, SF show- Sept.23

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"Speechless" - Count Basic [K&D drum & bass remix]

"Useless" - Depeche Mode [K&D remix]

"Everybody Loves the Sunshine" [Roy Ayers remixed by NETSKY]

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINE

Welcome ROGERS STEVENS, guitarist/co-founder of Blind Melon - as well as Towne & Stevens - to Episode 074! A dream come true for your host, an unabashed lifelong Blind Melon fanatic. Rogers joins the pod from his cozy home studio just outside Philadelphia for a 90-min conversation about his career - past, present, and future.

A peek inside Rogers' process making records with Nathan Towne, and Stevens finally finding his singing voice later in life. Working with Rene Lopez again, long after Extra Virgin and The Tender Trio. Growing up a rocker in rural Mississippi. Embarking on the storied sojourn from the Deep South to the Sunset Strip, arriving at the peak of glam-rock hair-band decadence. Rogers pulls up in a Cadillac, sittin’ in the back, opens the passenger door and invites us on a wacky, wild, reflective ride through the galaxies of yesteryear in the Blind Melon wayback machine. 

Buckle up fam, this ep is my love letter to anyone who ever treasured this beautiful band, and those of us who still grieve deep for the dearly-departed Shannon Hoon.

• 3:15 - a word from our sponsor IAMAVL

• 6:15 - shoutout COLD BLOODED DESIGNS

• 7:30 - The Upful Update

• 10:15 - Introducing ROGERS STEVENS + B.Getz’s BLIND MELON rabbithole

• 31:20 - conversation w/ Rogers [97 min]

• 2:08:30 - Afterglow & Reflections, + Vibe Junkie JAM

Background:

In 1990, 23-year-old Shannon Hoon first met Rogers Stevens in Los Angeles after taking a bus from Lafayette, Indiana to SoCal. A year or so earlier, Stevens and bassist Brad Smith had relocated to L.A. from West Point, Mississippi, where they graduated high school and worked on the kill floor of a local slaughterhouse. Stevens connected with Shannon through a mutual friend in Hollywood; Hoon - hometown homies with W. Axl Rose and already making waves on the West Coast - swiftly reeled off a couple of tunes for Rogers. Immediately taken with Hoon’s voice and mesmerized by his presence, they decided - on the spot - to form a band together.

Blind Melon consisted of Stevens, Hoon, Smith, drummer Glen Graham, and guitarist Christopher Thorn.  A promising, multi-hued, idiosyncratic brotherhood that was sadly short-lived. Dreamy single “No Rain” blasted the band into superstardom pretty quickly, and their self-titled debut went triple platinum in the tailwind of the huge hit. In less than five years, the quintet released a strong pair of studio albums, while touring at a furious clip. They appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman, SNL, MTV, Canada's MuchMusic, and threw down a legendary set at Woodstock '94. Headlined clubs and theaters, opened stadiums for The Rolling Stones, supported Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Lenny Kravitz, Neil Young, and numerous others. 

After the monster success of their debut CD, Blind Melon set about refining/redefining their unicorn sound, as evidenced on sensational sophomore record Soup. Critically-panned and a commercial disappointment at the time, over the course of nearly three decades Soup has proven a celebrated fan favorite. A gumbo of compositions and performances that transcend era and genre, Soup is a magnificent work of high art in the Crescent City voodoo tradition. When Hoon died suddenly from a drug overdose, on tour in New Orleans in October 1995, the band was evolving rather organically, though still finding their stride. A posthumous collection of B-sides and outtakes, the gripping Nico  (named for Shannon's daughter Nico Blue Hoon - only a few months old when he tragically transitioned) was released in 1996, an emotional nod towards what could’ve - and should’ve - been. 

These days, Rogers Stevens is an attorney who lives in the Philly suburbs with his family. He’s currently workshopping songs with Nathan for the next Towne & Stevens record. I offer the deepest of bows & eternal thanks to Rogers Stevens for his time, energy, the music and memories. Rest easy, Shannon Hoon & Long Live Blind Melon!

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Blind Melon - "Time" (1995 > 1992 > Woodstock '94)

sourced from the film Letters From a Porcupine

• Letters From a Porcupine film [1996]

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Theme Song: "Mazel Tov"- CALVIN VALENTINE