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."

ETC-Indie Fest-Virginian Pilot

Type the word "indie" into any online search engine and you'll find a dizzying array of opinions on what the term means.

It's a rock music subgenre. It's a way of life. It's an ethic that eschews corporate consumerism.
Short for "independent,"indie wasn't always so tricky to define. In the pre-Internet days of the pop music world, it simply meant operating outside the realm of the major record labels.

These days, indie is "an unstructured genre with no boundaries or limitations," said Kelly Ogle, vice president of creative services at Norfolk Festevents, the organizers behind Saturday's ETC Indie Music & Arts Festival at Town Point Park.

Back for its second year, ETC, which stands for "Embrace the Culture," returns as a celebration of all things, well, indie. That means more musicians who don't have major-label deals or power-player publicists. More chefs who operate out of non-franchise kitchens. More artists and vendors selling things that were made by hand.

 

This year's model will also include designated areas for buskers and an old school bus revamped into a music lounge where a performer can just show up and do his or her thing. In addition, the accompanying ETC Fringe Festival will expand the event to include venues throughout downtown Norfolk and Ghent from Friday through Saturday where more musicians share their songs or, at least in one event, movies are screened. It's a nice collection of things to do, even if it doesn't exactly define what "indie" means. With that in mind, we asked a few of the ETC participants to share their views on the "I" word.

Jon Jameson, bassist for Delta Spirit, playing at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Town Point Park When I was a kid there was Britney Spears and The Strokes. One was cool and one was a pop product. It's a little harder to tell the difference these days. Now it's acceptable for an indie band to sell a song to a car company for a commercial. Frankly I'm kind of glad about that because publishing is a way for bands like us to make money. A few of us were once signed to major labels when we were in other bands, and it didn't work out very well. When we started Delta Spirit it was with the ethos to control as much as we can ourselves. I mean, it's cool that someone can write a really good song, record it on a laptop and two weeks later it's viral. I think it's a lot more egalitarian and honest.

Luke Hartman, singer/songwriter, playing at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Town Point Park DIY (Do It Yourself) culture means taking the reins and putting the power in your own hands to make something happen without relying on a corporation. I produced my own EP, put the artwork together, manufactured it and sold it at gigs. Artists have a lot of power these days.

Debra Persons, executive producer of "Hardcore Norfolk," which screens at 11:30 p.m. Saturday at the Naro Expanded Cinema Our movie defines indie underground culture. From my experience it includes artists, musicians, chefs, filmmakers, photographers, and they all support each other. I mean some people are trying to make money and some people are trying to get famous, but there's always going to be a group of outsiders with a different motivation; which is to get their art out there. That to me is indie.

Kylene Alvich, Roses Ridge Farm Natural Skin Care, a vendor at Town Point Park on Saturday As a crafter and entrepreneur, indie for me stands for handcrafted, high quality and unique. We began with a need to cure our son's eczema, and it has blossomed into a business, run out of our farmhouse in Chesapeake. I think independently owned businesses like ours make products with much more heart and soul than you can buy at a department store.

Logan Vath, singer/songwriter, playing at 2:45 p.m. Saturday at Town Point Park Everything I do is self-managed and self-promoted. Every show I get, I've worked for. I am pushing for everything, and that makes it more fun. Once you've convinced certain ears that your music is worthwhile, they will stand by you. At this point in the game I wouldn't even want to be on a large label. You lose a lot of freedom.

Evan Harrell, owner, Panavoir food truck
Indie is about being creative because you are and it makes you feel good. It's supporting other people's goals, ideas and ways of expressing things. Indie is truth in labeling. We are the little guys who live in and love our communities.

JJ Grey Profile- Virginian Pilot

Ask JJ Grey what advice he’d give the younger version of himself and the 45-year-old singer-guitarist has a quick answer.

“Stop thinking,” he said. “For the longest time I was caught up in my head and I was always thinking about what I was going to do next. It was kind of a shallow way to be.”

Over the course of six albums, the musician has learned to live in the moment.

“There’s an old Indian saying I heard growing up, but I never really knew what it meant until I slowed down and stopped over-thinking about everything,” he said. “It’s that Western people think like lightning and move like molasses, but we should be more like a horse, which is to think slow and easy and then move like lightning.”

Grey’s introspective nature can’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with the roots rocker’s poetic lyrics and soulful singing.

“I’ve done my share of self-reflection,” he said. “It’s a process that will be happening as long as I’m alive, and it’s going to affect the songs that I write.”

Grey grew up in northern Florida, 25 miles from the Georgia border near Jacksonville, a melting pot of Southern culture far different from the stereotypical vision of Florida colored with tourist areas of sandy beaches and theme parks.

Grey’s Florida is populated with working-class heroes, beautiful losers and the kind of larger-than-life characters found in the best of the Southern Gothic tradition.

From his early days performing behind chicken wire at a Jacksonville juke joint, Grey and his band Mofro, which play The NorVa in Norfolk on Saturday, have developed a sound that mixes soul, blues, rock ’n’ roll and funk into a musical stew often described as “Swamp Rock.” The act’s ever-expanding following has been cultivated on the road, sharing stages with the likes of blues lion B.B. King and Southern rock giant the Allman Brothers, which formed in Jacksonville. After a decade of touring, Grey still plays more than 125 shows a year, both with his band and as a solo artist.

“One thing I do know is that life does not reward things that are stagnant,” he said. “If it stands still too long it doesn’t remain dynamic. I don’t care what it is. Take a car, for instance; if you leave your car in the garage too long, chances are it will drive worse when you finally get it back on the road.”

That principle extends to Grey’s work in the recording studio.

Since his 2001 debut, the musician has steadily released a string of critically praised albums. On their newest record, “This River,” JJ Grey & Mofro veer from “Sticky Fingers”-era Rolling Stones rock ’n’ roll on “99 Shades of Crazy” to the sweaty backwoods funk of “Florabama.”

The album’s title track finds Grey ruminating on the process of letting go.

“The song ‘This River’ goes back to that topic of thinking too much. There’s a line in there about ‘all of the nonsense that I called my life.’ We think those moments when you’re in your head is reality, but it’s not.”

For Grey, the metaphor of meditating on the banks of a river is where real life resides.

“You’ve lost your sense of time and space, and you’re just in the moment,” he said.

It’s a lesson that also applies in his role as a performer.

“When I was younger I thought that when I went to a show, I was going there to have fun and escape reality,” Grey said. “Over the years I’ve realized that it’s actually the exact opposite. You go to a show and get reality by sharing an honest moment and making a connection. When I look out to the audience and I see people smiling, I see something real happening. There’s no word that can describe it. It can’t be reduced to a fact or a piece of data. It’s energy, and I guess I’m just trying to live in its power.”

Three Sheets to the Wind-Virginian Pilot

When Topper Dandy ties his ascot and slips on his boat shoes, the guitarist for the Richmond-based band Three Sheets to the Wind is transported back in time.

He's taken to an era when men with beards and windswept hair sang of drinking pina coladas and getting caught in the rain. It's the late '70s and early '80s, a time when the nation's radio airwaves rocked us gently with songs about sailing, sunsets and summer breezes.

Welcome to the world of yacht rock, a genre sparked by the popular online video series of the same name. The 2005 show, which spoofed the fictionalized lives of soft rock stars like Michael McDonald and Christopher Cross, was canceled after just 12 episodes, but it inspired a nostalgic musical movement that has yet to drop anchor.

Jimmy Fallon has hosted several yacht rock parties on his late-night TV show, and across the nation a handful of soft rock cover bands pay tribute to the musical style.

Three Sheets to the Wind, which sails into The NorVa on Friday, is one of the more popular tribute acts, thanks in no small part to its playful approach to the aesthetics. Dandy recently poured himself a Jack and Tab for a freewheeling phone chat of all things yacht rock.

You've said that one of your favorite audiences is right here in Hampton Roads.
For whatever reason, Norfolk is really the best when it comes to people just getting into the whole nautical spirit and getting dressed up for our shows. We're always impressed by the number of people dressed up in yacht wear. We see a lot of boat shoes and fake mustaches and people just getting into the whole spirit of the era. Norfolk and the whole Tidewater region, in general, really embraced us from the very beginning.

How can someone incorporate the yacht rock lifestyle into their daily routine?
One part dark rum, one part ginger beer and a lime. That's a good starting place.

If the Doobie Brothers and Toto were to rumble, which band would emerge the victor?
Well, if you're talking hand-to-hand combat, then you have to give it to the Doobies. Not a lot of people know this, but their guitarist, Skunk Baxter, is a judo expert, so they obviously have the advantage.

Besides the music, what cultural aspect of the yacht rock era is poised for a comeback?
I'm going to say macho-ness. America was so much more manly back then. When Richard Roundtree as "Shaft" and Clint Eastwood as "Dirty Harry" were ruling the box office, you knew America was at its best. Now the thing to do is shave your chest hair, pluck your eyebrows and be a guest star on "Glee." I'm so glad I can watch reruns of "Simon & Simon" below deck on our sailboat, the Tranquility, and remember the good ole days.

You were just a kid back then. What's one of your fonder memories of the era?
Certainly you have to admire the ingenuity of metal lunchboxes. Because oil was so expensive due to the (1973 OPEC oil embargo), many of the cheap plastic items we use today were routinely made of metal back then. America was so rich in metal in the '70s that it made sense to protect our sandwiches from the Soviets in all-metal lunchboxes. The fact that they were embossed and further decorated with toxic lead-based paint only made us tougher as a nation.

To what do you attribute the renewed appeal of '70s-era soft rock?
Well, besides the obvious allure of all that chest hair, the music of the yacht rock period provides an escape from the mundane. The music is a guilty pleasure, but honestly we don't really feel that guilty about it anymore.

Generic Theatre Feature- Virginian Pilot

Whether we admit it or not, humans tend to be captivated by the evil actions of bad people.

That’s why Jack the Ripper was a celebrity, of sorts, when the unknown killer terrorized London in the late 1800s. Or why “Dexter,” a TV show examining the mind of a calm, collected serial killer, has become a hit, despite its gory murder scenes.

Mining the dark recesses of sinister minds seems to be especially gripping for writers, who find crafting these characters to be bloody good fun.

The perverse thrill of committing malicious deeds is the central thread in “Wicked Games,” a showcase of one-act plays Saturday at the Generic Theater in Norfolk.

“Each of these pieces relates to human cruelty and the different ways that people can manipulate others,” said Philip Odango, the theater’s executive director. “Each also reflects an interior wickedness that may not be apparent at first glance.”

The inner monologue of three unlikely sociopaths is presented in “PsychoSocial,” a new play by Sam Cooper, a 2012 Old Dominion University graduate.

“The way Sam frames the play, it’s like every character is giving a testimony,” Odango said. “Each character is a serial killer who tells their story and how they became the people they are.”

“Room 21F” shifts the subject to abduction with a chilling story crafted by Hampton Roads-based stage actress Angela Best.
“This piece displays the dynamics of collusion and coercion between the characters as their true intentions are revealed,” Odango said. “Angela’s use of seedy and sinister language adds a compelling texture to her storytelling.”

Best, the Generic Theater’s box office manager, has acted in the company’s Fall Shorts production for the past two seasons. Her previous playwriting experience includes her adaptation “Jonah and the Whale.”

Finally, one of the more delightful scenes in theater will be brought to life by eight actresses in “She Sleeps No More: An Evening With Lady Macbeth.”

“A lot of female actors aspire to play Lady Macbeth at some point in their career,” Odango said. “Not many get the opportunity, because there aren’t many regional productions of the play. So this is something special.”

Each actress will perform the famous soliloquy from Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare’s masterwork along with a scene from a play of her choosing. “It should be fun for the audience to see how each actor interprets the role differently,” Odango said.

“Wicked Games” is part of the Generic Theater’s newly launched New Plays & Experimental Work division, designed to foster opportunities for aspiring young artists.

“Stories make us better; art makes us better,” Odango said. “This new division will allow playwrights to be able to get their work in front of an audience so they can receive feedback and continue developing their work.”