I’ve sat here for over a half hour trying to figure out where to start my article this month, and it’s admittedly been an emotional process. I’ll start with this: It’s damn good to be back. As most of you know, Wendy & I suffered a catastrophic house fire on October 8th. Our home was destroyed, the entirety of contents within our home were destroyed, my truck was destroyed, and most painfully: we lost our boys Guinness and Porter. The amount of immediate outpouring of support from so many communities, and especially our local music community, has been so incredibly helpful. Almost three months later, I still have trouble putting in to words all of the emotions we have felt through this experience. Several benefits were held at Shermans Creek Inn, Live Underground, HMAC and Lovedraft’s Brewing, as well as a GoFundMe. I can tell you that all of the money raised for us through these has been extremely helpful in us getting back on our feet and reaching at least some level of “normal”. As important as the funds raised, the emotional support that we received from everyone at these events was worth it’s weight in gold. We’re currently living in a rental while going through the insurance process and hope to soon start the process of looking for our new home. Our insurance company has been incredible, which I admittedly didn’t necessarily expect given all the horror stories we hear; but it’s such a long and emotional process going through all of it and we can’t wait for it to be over. So…with all that said, I was able to start re-building my camera gear collection and getting back out to cover some shows over the last few weeks, so let’s get to it.
Our first trip back out was actually a stop on our way home from a wedding (Congrats Patricia & David!) at Blue Sky Tavern. Greg Platzer had let me know that he would be playing that night with friends of his, Scott Marshall & Highway Souls out of Allentown. Scott and the guys had a bluesy sort of southern rock sort of feel to them which Greg fit in with perfectly. Cranking out songs like Take A Load Off, Can’t Always Get What You Want, East Bound & Down, as well as a few originals; it definitely made a great way to get back in to covering our local scene.
The following weekend, we made a quick trip down to Buddy Boy Winery below Duncannon to see my pal Dave Gates play a set. This was our first time to the winery and we had a great time with some good food, good wine, and some tunes like Riders On The Storm, Second Chance, Everything’s Gonna Be All Right (definitely a theme here), as well as one of Dave’s originals called Hippie Girl.
A few days later Wendy & I had a date night with Troy & Christina at Shermans Creek Inn, as well as some great Christmas music from the Lydia Zavalia Trio. Nothing beats time spent with good friends enjoying tasty food and beverages, combined with good music. Lydia’s got a smooth and sultry voice, entertaining the crowd with songs like Happy, X’s & O’s, as well as a bunch of great Christmas tunes like I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Keep your eyes open for some exciting news coming in the near future about Lydia Zavalia and Shermans Creek, they’ve got some great things coming!
My next trip out was a solo trip to Lovedraft’s Brewing in Mechanicsburg for a 717 Entertainment sponsored by iRockRadio.me that packed some serious power. Four Thirty Four, a Central Virginia based hard rock group, kicked off the night with a cool vibe and all original tunes. Hostile Within followed them; they’re a Virginia and North Carolina based metal and hard rock band that played a really powerful and energetic set. Ruiness took the stage third; they also played at the benefit at Lovedrafts which was my first time seeing them. All I can say about this group is…Holy Shit these folks rock! They’ve only been together for about a year, but they crushed their set of original tunes and even tossed in a great cover of a Halestorm tune. If you don’t know them, you need to! Next up was a band I’ve been following for a little while now but haven’t had the opportunity to see until now. I found them through the lead singer’s husband’s band (Carbonstone). Anoxia is a post industrial hard rock band based out of Maryland led by Chrystal James. Chrystal and her Guardians are a true force on stage with a stage presence that does not disappoint. Next up was a band I’ve followed for a little bit through social media and I’d seen back in June at the iRockRadio Birthday bash: Sick Century did an acoustic set at that time and while I loved it, it definitely left me wanting to see them on stage at “full power”. I have to say, it was totally worth the wait! These guys rocked the crowd with songs like Winter Rain and had the whole crowd singing and dancing along for their entire set. Headlining the evening was a band that I think I can safely say is one of Nick Myers’ favorites, and I can see why: Eva Under Fire. These folks just radiate power and energy. Incredible music highlighting powerful vocals make them an absolute Must See!
Our next trip out was one that I think we were both looking forward to just as much. The holidays have been admittedly tough for us this year, but the annual Joy To The Burg event at The Englewood is just an incredible event with great music raising money for the unhoused. You can’t help but leave there feeling better about everything and anything. Holly Serio kicked off the music for the day (accompanied on a few songs by CPMHOF’s Branden Valentine on percussion) with a few Christmas originals and reworked covers including a great version of Santa Baby. Next up was a new group called Gr8 EFX that brought out a really cool funky sort of hip-hop tune called “Gathering” which we really enjoyed. My friend Antonio Andrade brought some friends out this year playing tunes like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Silver Bells, and more. Next up, the No Last Call street band (think marching band with a cool twist) came out through the crowd and played a number of great Christmas songs. The Starving Musicians followed up by amping up the energy with some great rock versions of Let It Snow, Sleigh Ride, Oh Holy Night and a bunch more. Headlining this evening was Groove Rebels bringing their good old fashioned rock style to songs like It’s Christmas, Santa Bring Me A Boy, Christmas Party and many more. I suppose you could say they absolutely “sleighed” their set (insert mandatory dad joke groan LOL). Joy To The Burg was yet again, just a fantastic event. They still have albums (this year’s is a 2-cd set!) available which you can get through their facebook page @joytotheburg and their website JoyToTheBurg.com
My last trip out for the month was back to Shermans Creek. I’d gotten a phone call from Troy that he had this young musician coming in to do an acoustic set in the bar area that I just “had to hear”. Troy knows me pretty well so I found this to be an offer too hard to pass up…and man, I’m glad I went! Jake Owen is a 16yo musician out of Etters and relatively new to playing out for people, but it sure didn’t show this evening. Banging out tunes (mostly, but not all, country) like Something In The Orange, an AMAZING version of Cold (and I have to say…holy crap, the amount of SOUL this boy brought out of this song!), Creep and more. He sings with a voice full of soul and grit that belies his age. Headlining the evening was a once-local country performer visiting from Nashville, Roy Lee. Roy brought out songs like Why We Drink, Dust On The Bottle, Watermelon Crawl and a bunch more. At one point he even brought Jake up on stage to sing Simple Man with the band, again just blowing away everyone in the crowd.
So there it is, my month of music through my eyes and ears. I want to once again thank all the bands, venues, and everyone else involved in our incredible local music scene for everything they do. Just a reminder: if you’ve got a show coming up that I should see; make sure to send me an invite, shoot me an email or a message, let me know about it. Venues: please don’t hesitate to reach out to me as well. The majority of the shows that I go and shoot I find out about through invites from all of you or your friends. Hit me up on facebook: @chrisriderphotography or email: chrisriderphotography@gmail.com, stop me if you see me out and say hi. Until next month…go find some live music and give them and the venue your support, they truly need it more now than they ever did. Happy New Year!
