Photog Caleb Brown of Saucewithspoons Photo-Documents Jasper's 1st House Show - October 2022

Last Saturday, Jasper board member and local arts leader Bekah Rice hosted a house show at the One Columbia co-op as a fundraiser for the upcoming issue of Jasper Magazine. Featured bands included Death Ray Robin, Opus and the Frequencies, and Joseph Hunter Duncan, all of whom blew the crowd away. And by the way, let’s send out one more happy birthday to Joseph Hunter Duncan and thank him for spending his special day on our stage.

Featured artists included Gina Langston Brewer, David Dohan, Adam Corbett, Emily Moffitt, and Olivia Pope, who showed their work pop-up style inside the house at 1013 Duke Avenue, the old Indie Grits homeplace. This is the same place where Al Black hosts his monthly Front Porch Swing Sunday afternoon concert series as well as his once-a-month Jasper’s Tuesday night Poetry Salon.

By the way, Gina Langston Brewer is Jasper’s featured artist-in-residence at the Jasper First Thursday Gallery at Sound Bites in November — and David will be in residence in January 2023.

The bands were sponsored by board members Libby Campbell and Paul Leo with Eric Tucker, the wine and popcorn by Coal Powered Filmworks, and the beer by Muddy Ford Press. We also had a boat load of new helpers, most of whom were friends and family of Bekah. We can’t thank all of these sponsors and volunteers enough. You all rock!

But we were also lucky enough to be visited by local photographer Caleb Brown of Saucewithspoons who grabbed some pretty fabulous shots of the night. Caleb shared some of these shots with us; now we happily share them with you.

Jasper Presents First Thursday at Sound Bites with Adam Corbett

Adam Corbett has been a part of the Columbia music scene for almost 20 years. On top of his own projects he’s been in several bands — Guitar Show, The Restoration, and Husband to name a few — and played with local artists Marshall Brown and Rachel Kate. It may have come as a surprise to some, then, when he decided to branch out into visual art. 

Being at home more than usual over the last two years and seeking a creative outlet outside of music led Corbett toward painting and drawing. During this time he’s experimented with different mediums, techniques, and styles, figuring out what he likes best. He admits that, ultimately, the variety of options and experimentation itself might be what he enjoys most. Out of all the things he’s tried, he seems to gravitate most toward watercolors. 

“I suspect my attraction to watercolor is how unpredictable it can be while also still being malleable,” Corbett shares, “I also really like it when someone who clearly is digging one of my paintings asks and is a bit shocked that the weird cartoon bat clown they are looking at was done with watercolors.” 

Since 2020, he has participated in several local markets and art events: Kennan Terrace Art in the Yard, Art Along the Trail, Cottontown Art Crawl, Melrose Art in the Yard, and, most recently, AG+Art in Lexington and Charleston. Aside from being a part of Jasper’s 10th Birthday Party art salon, First Thursday will be Corbett’s longest show and the first one indoors, for which he is extremely thankful (it’s hot out there, y'all!). 

Join us Thursday, August 4th at Sound Bites Eatery at 1425 Sumter Street from 6pm-9pm.

First Thursday Facebook Event

Adam’s Facebook, Instagram & Music

In Jasper Vol. 3, No. 3: Record Review - The Restoration's New South Blues EP

 

"The title track to The Restoration new EP is a song that has been featured in their set list for a year or two now, and it’s one of their best. A jaunty, bluesy melody is tied to lead songwriter Daniel Machado’s scathing political critique of the “new South” as he connects the dots between the South of the day and the one he castigates in his more historically-oriented fare.  It’s full of jaw-droppingly good one liners (“‘You lie!,’ Boeing Jets / Don’t tread on Neo-Confederates” and “Literary legacy / Bob Jones University” are two of my favorites) as he refers to the South as “the most trusted brand” for ignorance and bigotry. In short, it’s a stunner, and it also marks the evolution of Machado as a singer, as he’s gotten more surly and irascible since some of the more romantic material on Constance. That voice is evident on his other, more tossed-off efforts here, the blues jam “Keep On Keepin’ On” and the cutting acoustic number “Nobody Cares Who You Are.”

The EP is rounded out by a richly arranged effort by bassist Adam Corbett, “Possible Country,” which narrates a rather odd eavesdropping experience in a bathroom stall, and a 12 minute ambient/field recording expedition called “Sketches of the State Fair” which has some percussion and free jazz-style fingerpicking overdubbed onto the background sounds of the fair. It’s an interesting piece that unfortunately marks the dividing line between the more serious efforts here (the title track and “Possible Country”) from the odds and sods feel of the other numbers. Still, given the overwhelming concepts that typically accompany a Restoration record, New South Blues also has the virtue of presenting the group as “just” a rock band, and a pretty damn good one at that." - Kyle Petersen

For more record reviews, check out pages 14-15 of the magazine here: