Jonathan Scales (Part 1) on Beyond a Song this week

Jonathan Scales plays the steel drum in ways you’ve probably never heard, because he’s taken the art to a new level. As one of the most innovative steel pannists on the planet, he’s redefining and challenging traditional expectations of this signature instrument of marching bands, and exotic Carribean tropical resorts. His mezmerizing compositions have captivated listeners and other forward thinking musicans as well, elevating him to the level of a true composer, forging new territory in the medium of instrumental music.

 

 

 

Sons of Bill (Parts 1 and 2) on Beyond a Song

Formed in 2005 in Charlottesville, Virginia by brothers Sam Wilson, James Wilson, and Abe Wilson, along with friends Seth Green (bass) and Todd Wellons (drums), Sons of Bill (the three Wilson boys’ father was Bill Wilson, a musician and professor emeritus of philosophical theology and Southern literature at the University of Virginia, thus the name of the band) developed a graceful and powerful blend of literate, R.E.M. and Wilco-like Americana folk-rock. A debut album, A Far Cry from Freedom, was independently released in 2006, followed by the Jim Scott-produced One Town Away in 2009. The critically acclaimed Sirens arrived in 2012, with an EP, The Gears, showing up two years later in the spring of 2014. The Ken Coomer-produced Love and Logic was released in the fall of that same year.