Natalie Cressman Feature-Virginian-Pilot

College students and musicians have at least one thing in common: They aren't typically members of the early risers club.

Imagine then having an 8 a.m. class the day after playing a late-night gig with a band notorious for stretching its performances into the wee hours. For trombonist and vocalist Natalie Cressman, a few lost hours of shuteye was the trade-off for entry into the esteemed horn section of the Trey Anastasio Band, the side project of the lead guitarist and singer from Phish. It's a gig she held for three years while also attending the prestigious Manhattan School of Music.

With diploma now in hand and her former boss back on the road with Phish, including this weekend's three-night stand at the Hampton Coliseum, Cressman is free to step into her own spotlight. Coincidentally, her first solo tour brings her just about 5 miles from her mentor.

This Saturday, Cressman and her band will play St. George Brewing Co. in Hampton as part of the second Mill Point Music Festival. While promoters are hoping the close proximity allows for a pop-in by a certain famous special guest, they know the 22-year- old musician is more than capable of commanding her own audience.

Raised in San Francisco, Cressman hails from a distinguished musical family. Her mother, Sandy, is a respected Brazilian jazz vocalist and her father, Jeff, plays trombone for Santana. The younger Cressman began playing the brass instrument at the age of 9 and in 2010 won a full scholarship to attend college in New York City. The invitation to join the Trey Anastasio Band came during her freshman year, and she spent parts of 2010-13 touring with the group.

"I learned a lot from Trey," Cressman said. "He is incredibly creative in terms of musicianship. He's sophisticated, but he never tries to be complicated for complexity's sake."

During her college years, Cressman also managed to squeeze in gigs at some of New York's top jazz spots and, in 2012, released her first album, "Unfolding."

While the mostly instrumental album showed off her abilities as a horn player, the musician has since expanded her focus.

On her upcoming record, "Turn the Sea," due early next year, Cressman still plays her instrument but also sings on nearly every track.

"I love the sound of the trombone, but a big part of what initially drew me to the instrument was how vocal it is," she said. "I think as far as horns go, it's the most expressive and similar to the human voice. I'm really interested in incorporating that relationship. Both are equally present in the music I write."

Cressman's evolving musical sensibility finds her pairing her jazz background with a decidedly modern approach.

"I listen to a lot of indie music and often it seems to be really stripped down, which is cool, but I feel like what's missing is texture," she said. "I think having horns helps add variety and color to the music."

Weaned on jazz and shaped by the jam-band aesthetic, Cressman is aiming to connect the dots between musical genres.

"The one thing I kind of have a problem with jazz is, I feel like it leaves my generation out," she noted. "I think that's a shame, because there's great music to be made in that idiom, but I think we have to meet people of my age halfway with it. I grew up with not only jazz but hip-hop and indie and dance, and I respond to that music, so I'm just letting those influences come through."

For listeners, that means a melding of genres that can be perhaps best described as indie-jazz.

"No matter how complex I make my arrangements I really try to keep an element in there that people can tap their foot to," she said. "Coming from a jazz background, I do know a lot of people who have really sophisticated tastes and write a lot of complex music, which is almost indigestible to nonmusicians. While I'm totally into playing that kind of music, I intentionally don't want to leave anyone out from being able to enjoy the music that I create."

It's an approach inspired by her work with Anastasio.

"Trey has a great balance in his music," said Cressman. "He is really trying to follow through with what the music calls for, but he also wants people to be out there dancing."

LoCash Cowboys Feature-Virginian Pilot

Chris Lucas had just finished a performance at Busch Gardens when he got the call every country music hopeful dreams of.

"It was a producer in Nashville telling me he liked my songs," said the Baltimore native. "He invited me to come down and work with him."

At the time, Lucas was singing in one of the Williamsburg theme park's musical productions, a gig like the one he held the previous summer at King's Dominion near Richmond. All the while, he had been sending demos of his work to various Music City publishing houses.

"I had to take that offer," Lucas said, "but I loved working at the theme parks. Some people might think it's kind of cheesy, but for me, it was a great stepping stone."

Several years after leaving the Old Dominion, Lucas was working as an emcee at a popular Nashville music venue when he met a kindred musical spirit in Preston Brust. Bonding over a mutual love of '80s-era rock 'n' roll and hip-hop, the duo formed LoCash Cowboys, an act that fuses those genres with contemporary country.

"Not to blow our own horn, but I feel like we were a little ahead of the curve," Brust said.

Eight years later, country superstar Jason Aldean scored a No. 1 hit with his country rap song, "Dirt Road Anthem." Since then, Brad Paisley has collaborated with hip-hop hero LL Cool J, and Blake Shelton, a judge on NBC's "The Voice," recently hit gold with his own country rap song, "Boys 'Round Here."

"I feel like country radio is finally catching up with what we've been doing," Brust said of LoCash Cowboys. The duo performs Sunday at the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News.
From the slick production of "C.O.U.N.T.R.Y." to the hip-hop-meets-country-boy beat on "Bounce," LoCash Cowboys blur the lines of contemporary country on their self-titled debut record, released in June.

Elsewhere, they get more traditional on "Independent Trucker," a '70s-style country joyride, featuring guest vocals by George Jones in one of his last recordings.

The late country music lion became a mentor to the young musicians after meeting them several years ago in an Alabama airport.

"He was a rebel, and I think he looked at us as rebels in this new genre," said Lucas. "He told us not to change for anybody."

Upbeat anthems may be the duo's bread and butter, but their newest single is perhaps their most accomplished song to date.

A moving tribute to Lucas' father, "Best Seat in the House," is a tender ballad celebrating the bond between father and son.

"Every night at 6 o'clock Chris' dad would call him and ask if the Grand Ole Opry had called," Brust said. "This went on for years, and Chris would always say, 'No, Dad, not yet.' "
The invitation to play country music's most historic stage finally came - three months after Lucas' father had died of a heart attack.

"It was a bittersweet night for me," Lucas said of the performance.

"At one point during the show, Chris pointed up to the sky, and I knew he was pointing to his dad," Brust said. "Right then, it hit me that his dad was there. After we got offstage, Chris had tears in his eyes, and when I asked him what was wrong, he said he wished his dad could have been there. For whatever reason, I said, 'Chris, your dad had the best seat in the house.' "

"When Preston said that to me, something clicked, and I think we both felt that my dad had given us a song," Lucas said of "Best Seat in the House."

"There is a saying in Nashville that country music is three chords and the truth, and that's what that song is," said Brust. "We tried to capture all the big moments that Chris' dad had the best seat in the house, whether it was teaching him to tie a tie or being on the 50-yard line at one of his high school football games."

"There's blood, sweat and tears in that song," Lucas said.

Tater Tot Feature-Virginian Pilot

Like many elite competitors, Robert Bryan has a strategy.

At tonight's Tater Tot eating contest at Bar Louie in Hampton, the 30-year-old Virginia Beach native will be the guy playing with his food.

"I'm going to crush them all up and make one big Tot and just stuff it in my face," he said.

If that's not intimidating enough, Bryan, who will go by the name "Hot Tottie," also plans to mount a clever defense. He's somewhat cagey about specifics but will say that he's bringing in backup.
"I'm going to have my own squad of cheerleaders to heckle and distract the other contestants."

All's fair in love and potatoes tonight as Bar Louie locations around the country stage their sixth annual "Rock the Tot" Tater Tot eating contest, which starts at 8 in the Hampton location.

If you're not into overeating, you might be interested in the novelty of history: Bar Louie will also be attempting to set a world record for the most Tater Tots eaten simultaneously. That challenge comes at 9 tonight when each customer in the franchise's 74 locations will be given a single Tater Tot to eat en route to a possible record.

Hampton's Bar Louie, in the Peninsula Town Center, is a new addition to the national chain, so this marks the first year that hungry hordes in Hampton Roads can be part of Bar Louie's annual Tot fest.
Tonight's competition will be broken into two parts, team relay races and a solo competition. The relay race will kick off at 8 when, at the sound of a buzzer, the first team member will eat a pound of Tater Tots as fast as possible, followed by the second person and so on until each of the four members has consumed a pound of Tots. The team to finish with the fastest time wins champion T-shirts and, more importantly, free Tots for one year.

Solo competitors will then go head-to-head eating as many Tots as possible in three minutes. The contestant who swallows the most will also receive a year's worth of complimentary Tots, a gift card, a trophy and an even bigger shot at glory.

The top five Tot eaters in the nation will be flown to Cleveland, where they will compete in Bar Louie's national championship Oct. 5. Last year's event was an epic display of man versus Tot with the victor consuming 5 pounds 4 ounces of Tater Tots in six minutes. Perhaps in an effort to avoid another potato famine, the 2013 championship round will be reduced to just three minutes.

If you think you've got what it takes, it's not too late to participate. The deadline for registration is 7:30 tonight.

 Just be ready to eat.

Almost 250,000 Tater Tots were consumed nationwide during last year's competition, a figure Bar Louie's Hampton manager, I.V. Miller, doesn't find all that surprising.

 

"A lot of people, including myself, have fond memories of them from childhood," he said. "Tater Tots are just a lot of fun."