Friday Download: The Lady Crooners
BitTorrent featured The Lady Crooners as their Friday download.
Check out the full post below!
I Write About Love
I write about love.
It took me a while to admit. But pretty much every song in our repertoire with the exception of one is about love. And even that watery decent into the deep chasm on an unforgiving river could arguably be about love.
I am preoccupied with the theme. Love. So connected to loss. So nuanced with hope. So universal. Love is something all of us have experienced—in abundance, in absence, in longing, in loss. In the average day to day.
For me to write a song, I’m usually so overwhelmed with an experience or feeling that I need to get it out. The compulsion to process my truth bares its self as melody, a series of notes which I don’t know how to transcribe to a page, so I hum them into a sound recorder.
Melody couples with words, forming ideas to shape the soundscape. It’s free styling to the theme of my life. And that is the song. I take my most personal, intimate, overwhelming experiences and distill them into a story that belongs to everyone.
SWEETHEART is about love. Obviously.
Not the love that prevailed in our second album, THE SURFACE, but the type of love that makes us want to do great things.
It’s one of those songs that could so easily be too syrupy sweet to want to swallow. It’s a lot easier to write a sad love song without losing integrity or making listeners cringe. I cringe when listening to some lyrics. There’s a lot of overly-sentimental stuff out there.
The trick to it, I believe, is being honest. Being authentic. Being true to my experiences and true to my heart.
At the time this song came to me, I was falling in love but resisting. I was pulled by the urge to give over everything, to revel in the newness, forgoing shyness and decorum, and to tell my sweetheart I was unquestionably his with complete abandon.
I wrote my heart out as a song. The timing was probably a little better that way.
And now, sweethearts, this song is for you.
–Nadia
I want to call you my sweetheart
I would rock you willingly
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
I want to answer all your questions
Without saying a thing
Want to kiss you in the daylight
Just to know I still exist
I want to call you my sweetheart
I would rock you willingly
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
I want to tell you that I love you
But right now’s just too soon
For no words can describe
What my world is going through
I want to call you my sweetheart
I would rock you willingly
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
I want to come home to you
Let me be home with you
‘cause my home’s with you
With you
Want to romance you tender
Want to fall real hard
Want to totally surrender
Want to give you all my heart
I want to call you my sweetheart
I would rock you willingly
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
I want to call you my sweetheart
I would rock you willingly
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
Want to carry you far, far away
Want to keep you near to me
I want to come home to you
Let me be home with you
‘cause my home’s with you
With you
Review: The Lady Crooners – The Surface
By Leicester Bangs
Formed in 2010 by songwriting siblings Nadia and Joseph Krilanovich, the duo were soon joined by sister Megan, and are accompanied by Kevin Conness on lead guitar, and Jason Braatz on bass. They released their self-titled debut in 2011 and their sophomore collection “The Surface” arrived in June this year.
Based in San Francisco, they play a heady mix of old school country, rootsy folk and back-porch Americana. As with many sibling groups, harmony vocals are at the fore and the arrangements, and their overall approach to their musical craft, draws comparison to Gillian Welch, Emily Barker and the Civil Wars.
I’m sure they’re comparisons that the group won’t object to, especially as “The Surface” is hardly in thrall to any individual or specific influence, and the original songs stand up to proper scrutiny. Indeed standout tracks tumble from the speakers one after the other, and launch track “Mercy” impresses immediately. The vocals are sublime and the chorus sticks around long after the song has ended.
It’s followed by “Negotiation”, a charming song, distinguished by jangly acoustic guitar, and wonderful voices. The title track continues the run with a gentle certainty and a mountain folk purity that is beguiling. Have a listen, should you get the chance.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: http://leicesterbangs.blogspot.com/2013/08/review-lady-crooners-surface.html
The Lady Crooners at The Playwright
By Laurie Heuston
Three-part harmonies are the crux of The Lady Crooners. The rootsy folk-pop trio was founded in 2010 in San Francisco by siblings Joseph and Nadia Krilanovich.
“Nadia and I started the band with the idea of making music and having fun doing it,” Joseph Krilanovich says. “It turned into a natural progression. Nadia will sing a bit of a melody, and I’ll counter with something on the guitar. We seem to be able to complete each other’s sentences, so to speak.”
The Lady Crooners will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 13, at The Playwright Public House, 258 A St., Ashland. There is no cover for the show.
Former Ashland resident Kevin Conness — now based in San Francisco — will play electric and acoustic guitar with the Krilanoviches, and Megan Krilanovich will sing backup vocals.
“Nadia is the lyrical powerhouse,” Joseph Krilanovich says. “She’s a force to be reckoned with. She has a bachelor of fine arts from Western Washington University and a few children’s books published. She’s a creative person all the way around.”
Megan Krilanovich and Conness joined The Lady Crooners this year. The band adds bassist Jason Braatz and drummer John Smart when they play gigs in the city.
“Kevin is one of the happiest people I know, and he’s an incredible guitar player with tremendous skill,” Joseph Krilanovich says. “He brings ideas to the songwriting that really makes it spark.”
The Krilanoviches grew up in a musical family. Their father was one of nine brothers who sang together as a band in Southern California. Nadia and Joseph Krilanovich are the oldest of four siblings.
“Our idea of a good time is getting the whole family together for a meal and then pulling out a guitar or two and start singing together,” Joseph Krilanovich says. “We have no trouble harmonizing. We don’t have to second guess what the other is going to do next.”
The Lady Crooners’ newest CD, “The Surface” (engineered by Smart), was released in June. It follows an eponymous debut released in April 2012.
“We recorded it in a beautiful studio in Oakland,” Joseph Krilanovich says. “We put a lot of effort into it. There’s a tremendous amount of creativity between us that drives us forward, and writing songs is like having a lot of little love affairs. Songwriting comes easy for us. There’s always material we want explore.”
The 2012 debut CD was an amalgamation of the band’s personalities — and was all over the place stylistically, Krilanovich says.
“Then with ‘The Surface,’ we took pieces that resonated with us the most,” he says. “The music is closer to who we really are. It’s a style that is thoughtful, playful, romantic and mischievous.”
The band added percussion to “The Surface” to move it from quiet folk to something more accessible to pop listeners.
“It felt like a natural maturity,” Krilanovich says. “It all came together, and it’s given us an amazing feeling of accomplishment. We’re ready to take it out into the world.
“We’ve played with other musicians, but now we’ve reached this group. We’ve worked hard and ultimately come to this place. This is the group.”
ORIGINAL POST: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130709/TEMPO/307090343