Page 3 - Your Ear News Today

George Lowe has had a long time interest in global music of all stripes. As a former member of Richmond bands Ululating Mummies, Rattlemouth, and Hotel X, he took a particular shine to the music of Ethiopia’s club scene. He taught himself how to transpose the music he was hearing into charts his bandmates could play.  Gathering musicians from some of the aforementioned groups, along with alumni of VCU’s celebrated jazz program, he formed the Afro-Zen Allstars in 2014.

We first enjoyed the thoughtful story songs of North Carolina son of a preacher man and Gulf War veteran Jonathan Byrd when he played our concert series solo nearly a dozen years ago. He’s spent the last two decades sharing his gift of telling small, simple, human stories in an eloquent and elegant way.

This show spotlights the New England collective known as Crocodile River Music, a talented and diverse collaborative dedicated to preserving and celebrating traditional African culture.

“Our current space is tiny and rather inaccessible. We have 20 rickety, like, Victorian death stairs to go up,” said Melissa Vaughn, president of the nonprofit that operates the radio station.

A group of friends formed around In Your Ear Studios is launching Shockoe Records with five Richmond-area artists on its roster.

This edition of the show featured a refreshing hour with Tarheel songstress and cellist Shana Tucker and her engaging accompanist Christian Tambur. Together they brought us a tasteful sampling of what’s been dubbed ChamberSoul, that weaves jazz, folk, acoustic pop, and a touch of R&B into melodies that might echo in your head for days.

Guitarist, singer and interpreter of the music we call the blues, Elizabeth Wise was born in Virginia and currently calls RVA home. But she's traveled the world inhaling that music wherever she finds herself. Her career now spans more than a decade of performing professionally in bars, clubs, and living rooms as well as on festival stages up and down the East Coast.

It’s been a couple of years since JAMinc’s produced an In Your Ear radio show. The pandemic kept artists home and our Studio A sacred space was way too confined to allow any social distancing at all. We just shut down for a while, then tried live-streaming with no audience for a few shows and then began a great relationship with Hardywood Craft Brewery, giving us access to their Scott’s Addition Barrel Room. That’s where we recorded this loving reunion of members of Page Wilson’s band ...

Even the bathrooms of this Washington D.C. museum offer insights and humor about words.

The Richmond International Film Festival brings a six-day cutting edge event of 171 award-winning film premieres from the U.S. and 22 countries.