Archive for the ‘Journal’ Category
Spring begins
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
Spring begins with songs and blooms, reminding me to look beyond myself and my abode, the roads I travel, to the lay of the land and the dome of our sky. The wind is changing.
Photo: Simone Walraven
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Marie Hines
Monday, November 21st, 2011
ALL THE BASICS AND MORE
A sure sign of talent is when a young woman with nothing but herself and a piano holds a musically spoiled audience spellbound for over an hour.
This feat was accomplished by singer/songwriter Marie Hines at a benefit concert for Musician’s Corner at 3rd & Lindsley’s, Nashville on 26 June, 2011.
There are plenty of female musicians in the world, who can sing and play the piano. However, that evening in Nashville, it was Marie’s gifts as a performer and lyricist that really got my attention. Reasons a-plenty to interview her for my weekly radio show, ConneKXions.
One of Marie’s songs on her debut album “Worth the fight” is titled “Beauty”. In the interview she talks about her passion for women’s acceptance of their own bodies as being truly beautiful. She also talks about her life journey as an evolving songwriter and her great admiration for Billie Holiday.
Listen here:
Interview Marie Hines KX Radio ConneKXions
Marie is currently busy writing a new EP, and hopes to be able to present her music to the world by doing a series of intimate concerts based around her vocals, piano and a string quartet.
For more information about Marie and her wonderful music, please visit: www.mariehines.com.
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Photosession with Lisette de Zoete
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
Photos courtesy of Lisette de Zoete
Lisette de Zoete is an illustrator, photographer and columnist from Amsterdam. From 2012 she will publish her own series about strong, freethinking women in the brand new Dutch magazine “This Is Us”. The first interview in this series is with Simone Walraven. The interview can be downloaded here.
To see some examples of Lisette’s wonderful designs and photography, and for more information about her work, please visit her website:
Fotografie: LaPeet Pijlgroms; Styling: Maartje Noordeloos; Make Up: Tynke Jeeninga.
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The Delta Saints
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
SOME THINGS HAPPEN UNDER THE AUSPICES OF TORNADOES
The Marathon Village Café in Nashville is situated on a small, grassy plot in a charming wooden building, and comes complete with an authentic Tennessee porch.
Marathon Village used to be known as the Southern Motor Works during the First World War. However, today it is a place for the arts: among its many businesses are a recording studio, a photography studio, an automobile museum and Nashville’s only independent radio station: Lightning 100.
Since I belong to an unruly social minority called “disc jockeysâ€, the search for local radio stations and record stores tends to be my guiding light when it comes to navigating new territory. “Like cures like,†so the saying goes.
Being in Tennessee is a marvel. Much of the heart and soul of American Blues, Roots and Funk music has its origins in the southeastern states. Hence my excitement a few days ago, when I finally visited the Mississippi River, inspiration to so many lives and so many songs. It felt like meeting a wonderful old grandmother, who knows me better than I know myself.
Within 48 hours after my arrival in Nashville, the #1 Google search result for a local record store specializing in Blues, Roots and Funk music showed up as “The Delta Saintsâ€. As soon as I heard the first song on their MySpace page, my musical antennae started to buzz.
Two emails later, I ascended the porch steps of the Marathon Village Café, armed with tripod, film gear, laptop and iPhone. I was on my way to interview singer/songwriter and dobro player, Ben Ringel.
The afternoon’s heat was intensified by 100 % humidity, adding sub-tropical spice to Nashville’s southern flavor. Little did I know, that I wasn’t just about to have my first meeting with Ben and his dobro, but also with a tornado warning
A PLACE OF SAFETY AND PROTECTION CAN TURN INTO A PRISON
“Hey guys, you better beat it. If the tornado hits here, we won’t be in good shape,†urged Sharideth, who manages the Marathon Village Café. “Pack up your gear and move into that red brick building across the street to wait out the storm. You should be OK there.â€
The Tornado Warning System in Nashville sounds like an obnoxious, tenacious tuning fork, which gets amplified through speakers all over the city.
Growing up with Civil Defense Sirens in Holland, these kinds of alarms cause an eerie feeling in my stomach. The Dutch sirens haven’t changed since the Air Raid Warnings of WW II, and they remain associated with threat and fear — even to those who were born after the war.
Heeding Sharideth’s advice, I quickly packed up my equipment and moved outside. Sheets of warm, relentless rain had turned the street into an ankle-deep, fast flowing creek in a matter of minutes. Blue white lightning reflected in the dark windows of the old industrial buildings, while earth-shaking thunder provided an “all natural and organic†soundtrack to my adventure.
I was glad to have a seasoned Southerner as my companion. Ben calmly waded through the water, carrying his faithful dobro. “She’s never more than 3 feet from me,†he said. “Not even in a thunderstorm.â€
We bee-lined for a rickety canopy, which was providing cover for a couple of hobo’s. After greeting them politely, we faced the most artful, steel-enforced door I have ever seen in my life.
An inventive and creative person had welded rusty tools from the days of the early motor industry into a wonderful sculpture, breaking the straight lines of the metal bars that covered the glass.
We quickly moved inside the sturdy, brick home of the former Southern Motor Works. Finally…safety!
Photographs from its glory days in the early 20th century graced the old car factory’s lobby walls. A showroom featured a couple of antique automobiles. In the center of the foyer, an elegant staircase ascended to the second floor, and its wooden steps still seemed to emanate the cadence of industrious feet.
Ben and I searched around and settled into a quiet corner on the second floor to continue our conversation. With the upcoming European tour of The Delta Saints, there was plenty to discuss: from food and fishing to music and media.
After a while the tornado sirens stopped ringing, and we decided to get on the road. However, as soon as we reached the top of the staircase, all alarms in the building went off!
Trying to ignore the aggravating sound, we quickly made our way to the elaborate steel enforced exit and found the doors and gates to be firmly locked. Obviously, a dutiful attendant had closed up the building at 6 pm, not realizing that we were inside.
“Oh shit,†we said in harmony.
“Did you bring some playing cards?†I asked Ben.
“Nope. No dice either,†he replied, looking worried.
“Well, we have a dobro,†I sighed, trying to sound very sure of myself, and failing.
THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING IS PUT TO THE TEST IN CHALLENGING SITUATIONS
“Ben, did you ever see that Wallace & Gromit animation, called The Wrong Trousers?” I teased the forlorn-looking singer and dobro-ist of The Delta Saints. “You remember how they got stuck in the museum and set off all the alarms?”
However, Ringel’s humor-chip had been deactivated for the moment. He was focusing intensely on the address book in his phone. As soon as the name “Wells Adams†appeared, he pushed the call button. I recognized the name as belonging to one of the DJ’s at Nashville’s independent radio station, Lightning 100, which has its headquarters in Marathon Village.
“Hey Wells? You remember that DJ from Holland I told you about? Uhm…well..we are actually locked inside the Marathon Village museum across the street from the radio studio….Yes……No, we had no idea…..Do you have a key?…..Shit….Yea…..OK, I’ll call the police.†Click.
America has some wonderful, brave and amazing cops, and some scary ones. Scenarios of being questioned all through the night, exposed to harsh, bright lamp light, drifted through my mind. My curiosity was peaked about how Ben was going to handle the phone call and diffuse any suspicion that we were trying to rob the building.
A woman answered the phone at the Nashville police station, and Ben proceeded to describe our situation in a very polite and charismatic way. Let me tell you: if Mr. Ringel’s music career does not take off (which it will), he should consider becoming a diplomat (which he won’t).
Within ten minutes, two officers were at the scene. They carefully examined the uber-enforced steel door, which would take a small army to open by force. What a Great Irony it was! All the tools we ever needed to break the door open were right there, rendered completely useless by their Involuntary Participation in Art, welded firmly to the thick steel security bars….
Our only hope was to find someone with a key, or we would have to stay the night on a stone cold, hard, uncomfortable floor.
I frantically searched my mind for ways to resolve our quandry, and decided to text my friend D. She sent me back the encouraging words “WOW! Is he cute? Are you sure you want help?!â€. She promised to call her friend, The Honeybee, an 80-year old Tennessee Belle and philanthropist from Nashville. Surely she would be able to pull some strings in high places! Hope glimmered in my worry-stricken heart.
Suddenly my iPhone buzzed: Sharideth from the Marathon Village Café had just started following me on Twitter! I immediately sent her a message about our situation. She wrote back: “Hold out. I am making some calls.â€
After an eternally long wait, which turned out to be only twenty minutes, a man arrived with a key to the slightly less glamorous backdoor of the museum. Seconds later we were freed.
The police officers grinned as Ben and I stepped into the stormy twilight. No questions were asked. At least this little drama, one of many that the cops were yet to encounter on their shift that evening, had a happy ending.
Our liberator, Bryan, happened to be the owner of the Marathon Village Café. He had received simultaneous calls for help from Wells Adams and from Sharideth. Thank you iPhone. Thank you Twitter.
“Either you are followed by a barrel full of fun, or I am followed by a barrel full of trouble,†Ben said. We walked over to our cars across a now bone dry street. “Anyway, I am glad I had you to share this adventure with.â€
“Likewise,†I said. “And at least we have a story to tell!†A distant lightningbolt and roll of thunder completed my epic introduction to The Delta Saints.
However, Life had one more thing in store for me before I could hit the road.
THE HI-SPEED WORKINGS OF THE GRAPEVINE
When The Honeybee learned about my predicament from D., she didn’t have very good cell phone reception. The only clear words that she had picked up from their conversation, were: “Simoneâ€, “locked up†and “copsâ€.
The Tennessee Belle called me the very moment I got into my car to go home. I could barely say “Helloâ€, when she launched her plan of action, sounding very determined: “I call’d my lawya, and he sayed that he will assist you in gettin’ outta jail. You know, I said to D. when she cawled me that I didn’t know you were like that, but I guess it coulda bin a rayd at a drugstoh’ or somethin’. Anyway, my lawya’s telephone numba is……â€.
It took me 10 minutes to explain what had really happened, and believe me – I have never heard anyone laugh so contagiously as dear Honeybee.
With love,
Simone
Listen to the interview with Ben Ringel on KX Radio ConneKXions 15 April 2011:
MP3: Ben Ringel/Delta Saints part 1
MP3: Ben Ringel/Delta Saints part 2
Photos: Simone Walraven, Melissa Madison Fuller
Special thanks to:
Ben Ringel
Dan Buckley @ Lightning 100
Wells Adams @ Lightning 100
Sharideth & Bryan @ Marathon Village Cafe
Nashville Police
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Rolling down the windows with Amos Lee
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Photos by Simone Walraven
“In 500 meters, turn right onto Rosa Parks Boulevard,†the robotic voice of my GPS navigator informed me. These are simple words, yet a complicated history had to unfold first, so the statement could even be made.
Today I am one of millions of people, who flock to “Music City†every year. Nashville has music, charisma, a beautiful river and avenues filled with harmonic and dissonant memories.
Tennessee’s history is laden with crucial events from the American Civil War (1860 – 1865) and the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century. It is also a magnificent and fertile land, a cradle to thousands of songs, rhythms, grooves, musicians, poets, writers, adventures, hopes and dreams.
I am on my way to Grimeys New & Preloved Music Store, to attend a live acoustic set by singer/songwriter Amos Lee. He is scheduled to play a sold out Ryman Auditorium in the evening. Giving away a free gig at Nashville’s primo record store must be a fun way to warm up.
Amos Lee is an example of a “white†singer, whose vocal sound is distinctively “blackâ€. If you never saw a picture of him, you’d swear he was African American.
Artists are like good weeds. They walk through cultural and social walls, eroding them slowly but surely over time. “You can’t judge a book by looking at its cover,†Bo Diddley sang in 1962. “Respect,†Aretha Franklin added five years later.
I am feeling very excited as I pull up in the parking lot at Grimeys. Apparently their music collection is vast, obscure and diverse.
About 100 people are squeezed in the narrow isles of the store, in between rows of vinyl records and CD’s. The atmosphere is very relaxed.
Amos shows up right on time at noon, accompanied by a guitar. We are treated to five songs, mostly from his new album, and he completes the session with one of my favorite tracks, “Windows are rolled downâ€.
After the gig I walk over to Amos and introduce myself. “Hi, I am Simone Walraven and I’m a DJ at KX Radio in Holland.â€
“Hey!†he says enthusiastically, shaking my hand. “What’s going on! We just played the Paradiso – were you there?â€
One of the things I want to ask him about is his involvement with “Musicians On Callâ€, a wonderful organization that brings musicians to the bedsides of people who are ill, either in hospital or in their homes. Yet the question will have to wait to another time, because a long cue of people is forming behind me, who also want to have a word.
Armed with a locally made bar of chocolate and two compilation CD’s with funky material from Louisiana, I hit the road again. My journey home becomes an introduction to the intensity of authentic Southern humid heat.
The shortcut that my GPS system has promised me, turns out to be a long, roundabout way. Traffic is moving slowly through a neighborhood that seems to be the “Black and Hispanic†part of town.
What!?
Many things have improved in the world since Rosa Parks took the bus in Alabama in 1955, yet it is going to take a lot more effort to establish truly equal opportunities for every person, and for both genders, everywhere.
Musicians and poets have a big job on their hands yet.
I roll down my windows, and wonder.
Love,
Simone
Amos Lee – Windows (Live @ Grimeys)
MP3: Windows are rolled down – Amos Lee, Live @ Grimeys New & Preloved Music Store, Nashville, 8 April 2011
With special thanks to:
Amos Lee, EMI Music www.amoslee.com
Doyle, Anna and all the crew @ Grimeys New & Preloved Music Store, Nashville www.grimeys.com
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