"Rich Girl" Like Never Before : Arc Iris Joins the Cover Club ranks at Cambridge Sound Studios

Arc Iris may be from Providence RI, but, for me, their front-woman, Jocie Adams, has always been a part of my Philadelphia listening experience. At one of my first shows in Philadelphia six years ago, she was a shy multi-instrumentalist with The Low Anthem. Over the next two years I would catch The Low Anthem every time they came through town It was Jocie’s evolution that really had me hooked. It wasn’t just what new instrument she would play next, as she moved between crotales, hammered dulcimer, clarinet and so many more instruments, but as a vocalist you could see her emerge.

This emergence was most stark with the cover of Jack Kerouac “On The Road”/Tom Waits “Home I’ll Never Be.” Through the years, the vocal duties on the song moved over to Jocie taking the reins. It was so uplifting and exciting, to see this tiny sun-dress-folkster of a free spirit wailing away, channeling some Janice and bringing the whole crowd to their feet.

As Jocie’s career has progressed from her debut solo album to Arc Iris, conversations moved away from her emergence as a captivating vocalist, to what envelope she was going to push next. These days Jocie Adams and her cohorts, Ray Belli, Zach Tenorio-Miller, and Robin Ryczek have been embracing idiosyncrasies, with matching outfits, while Jocie takes it to another level her gold body suit. You know she’s really hit her stride when she rocks the full-sized wings! These eccentricness are not meant as distractions, just preparations for the beautiful chaos the band brings forth.

Their debut record Arc Iris only gives a taste of their potential. In most cases taking cello, pedal steel, trumpet, & keys seem like it would be noise; Arc Iris makes sweet love with their mini-orchestra. With new material the band is taking exciting and brazen steps.

One of their stimulating new adventures, is their entry to Cover Club recorded at Cambridge Sound Studios. Arc Iris‘ Jocie Adams and Root Down In The Shadow have been discussing a Cover Club session for a while now. Each time they came through town with the likes of Diego Garcia, Nicole Atkins, Anthony D’Amato and Freeman, their live shows became more and more exhilarating, and the intrigue to work with them has become greater and greater. For a time, it seemed like a no-brainer to record Anti Records label mate and Philly legends Dr. Dog, but the spark wasn’t there. Something happened this summer, when I got the text, “what if we didn’t do Dr. Dog?”

What if?

Cover Club: Arc Iris "Rich Girl" (Hall & Oates)

Premier Single : Birds Over Arkansas "Forgotten Lights"

Philly/CT band Birds Over Arkansas ' is currently recording their full length release as a follow up to their 2014 Behind The Lights EP. Root Down In The Shadow is proud to debut the first single from this release, "Forgotten Lights." "Forgotten Lights" was first teased in an exclusive release for a RDITS house show in March featuring BOA , Kevin Killen , Chelsea Mitchell , and Max García Conover . Finally ready for the masses, "Forgotten Lights" is helplessly watching a loved one slip away into dementia. The song starts as a mellow Americana groove, and the split at the outro introduces the progressive rock elements to bring in the lyric "the flame blew out again." This was the pivotal point in the lyrics, signifying the change from someone who was slowly losing their faculties who has now seemingly become a different person. The switch from the easy, mellow groove to the frenetic time signature embodies this. Scott Haskitt - ...

Root Down Is A Sometime Thing...

From the desk of Root Down: Greetings Friends! It's been a bit, how've ya been? What's new? I've been gone for some time and I feel that I owe everyone an explanation of where I've been. Honestly, I haven't gone anywhere. Since I've last posted, I've still been frequenting my favorite record store, been hitting up local shows, hosted a few house shows, traveling for special shows, and making music a large part of my life. What I haven't been doing is losing countless hours fretting over knowing every new artist, tweeting, and losing sleep editing articles that spend less time getting read than I spent writing. I can definitively tell you that I'm DONE attempting to make Root Down In The Shadow "a thing" in the music world. I don't need Twitter followers, a lively blog, or anyone else's validation to share my love for music. It doesn't help my enjoyment of music to follow a shit-ton of bands on eve...

New Release Q&A - Sonja Sofya answers some questions for "Patterns We Know"

The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know . Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud...

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