Quest For Glory Tour

I went to the Quest for Glory Tour on Friday, September 10, 2010 at The Tin Angel. It featured three fantastic female musicians: Bess Rogers, Lelia Broussard, and Allison Weiss. I had seen Bess and Lelia before, but had not seen Allison. As usual, I did download some of her songs beforehand. All three of the ladies were not only extremely talented musically, but they were hilarious, too. You can tell they are all very close friends and the feed off of each other perfectly. I'm not sure if I have ever laughed so hard at a show. They also helped out on harmonies for each other's songs, which I always love to hear. I actually think they would make an awesome all girl group. :-) Each one of them has something different to offer, so all together, they put on a great show. During the show, each audience member fills out an application in order to be knighted at the end of the show. So, at the end of the show, the ladies randomly choose an application and that person comes on stage and is knighted. I thought it was a very cool way to keep the audience involved in the show. After the show, the ladies all hung around and chatted with people, signed autographs, and took pictures with fans. They were absolutely sweethearts and I will definitely be catching each one of them when they're touring locally...and you should, too! :-) I included some pictures from that night. If you want to know anything else about them or download some tunes, I'm sure you can find their music through a quick search on iTunes or Google or you can search for them on Facebook (each of them are on there).

Bess Rogers

I discovered Bess Rogers last Spring when she was playing a tour with Lelia Broussard. I was already going to the show in Lancaster, PA because of Lelia and I saw Bess Rogers on the bill, so I thought I'd check out some of her tunes before I went to the show (I like knowing at least some of the music for all the acts I'm going to see). Well, I really liked her sound, so I purchased some of her songs on iTunes. After seeing her live, I bought all of her music and I still listen to it often. Bess and Lelia are playing a tour again together (with Allison Weiss) and she'll be playing at the same gig I'm going to this Friday, Sept. 10 at the Tin Angel in Philly. She has a lot of upbeat songs with a lot of ukulele playing, which creates a really cool sound. I really enjoyed her live when I saw her in Lancaster last April. She pretty much played the ukulele almost the entire set, which was neat. You don't really hear that type of sound very often. So, I put some links below to check out more info on Bess and to check out some of her music. She is definitely refreshing to listen to, and if you enjoyed Lelia's sound and like Bess' sound, you should definitely come to the Tin Angel on Friday night. I know I'll be there because these are two extremely talented ladies. :-)

Bess Rogers' MySpace Page
Bess Rogers' Official Website
An article written about Bess Rogers
Bess Rogers' Official Video for "I Don't Worry" (really cool video)
Bess covering Pure Some Sugar on Me (hilarious and soooo good)
Bess performing "Travel Back" (just her and a ukulele)
Bess performing "Dirty Lies"

Lelia Broussard

This is above and beyond, one of my favorite female artists of all time. I fell in love with her voice the first time I heard it. I actually discovered Lelia's music about five years ago. I was checking out a friend's MySpace page and I saw that Lelia had left a comment on their page, so I clicked on Lelia's page and listened to her music and loved it! I read her bio and found out she spent a lot of time in Philly (along with NYC, LA, and Louisiana). Like many of my other favorite musicians, Lelia is an independent artist and in the "singer/songwriter" category. Her voice is just about perfect...soulful, bluesy, and pure. She has a few CD's out, and you can find them all on iTunes. Lelia will also be releasing a new album on November 2nd, which I actually donated some music to her Kickstarter project to help her produce/record this new album. As most of you know, I'm a huge supporter on independent, struggling musicians. I have so much respect for them. Another great thing about Lelia, is she personally answers emails and when she sends update emails out to her fans on her email list, she personalizes the email. So, you know she truly appreciates all of the support from her fans. As far as links to songs, this is going to be hard, because I love every single one of her songs, but here we go :-) PS - She is ALWAYS on tour and comes to the Philly area a lot, so check her out! She'll actually be playing at the Tin Angel this Friday, September 10th.

Lelia Broussard's Official Website
Lelia Broussard's MySpace Page
Lelia Broussard's Official Music Video for "Scared to Feel"
Lelia performing "I'm Not Waiting"
Lelia covering "Single Ladies" (one of my favorite videos)

Airiel Down opens for KISS

This past Sunday, August 29th, 2010 Airiel Down opened for KISS in Raleigh, NC. KISS conducted a contest this summer for bands to compete in order to open for KISS. Fans had the opportunity to vote on event.com for their favorite band to open in their hometown and then two weeks before the show, KISS took the Top 5 bands and selected which band they would like to open for them in that select city. Well, Airiel Down's hard work (and the fans' hard work) finally paid off because Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons chose Airiel Down to open in Raleigh. Obviously, being a huge supporter of not only my cousin, but Airiel Down as a group, I had to find a way to get down there. Luckily I had some other family members who wanted to make the trip as well, so we road tripped it down to Raleigh on Sunday morning. We met up with even more family and friends down in Raleigh for the show and we were ready to cheer on the boys. Airiel Down played four songs ("Black Flag," Gorilla," "Quick," and "Hurricane Warning") and absolutely rocked it. We were all so proud of Taylor and the rest of the guys. It was such a huge moment for the band and we're hoping this helped them gain even more fans. The only downfall was the lack of stage time, but we didn't complain. We were still extremely happy with what we saw and we felt it was well worth the wait. We stayed around for KISS and I must say, they put on quite the show. Not sure if I'd go to another KISS concert just to see KISS, but we enjoyed their show to say the least. I included some pictures above of Airiel Down in action. (These were all taken by Tim Szczesniak. With the exception of the picture of Taylor and all of the family who made it to the show.)