Tag Archives: music

Beth Thornley brings magic to movie & TV soundtracks

Beth Thornley.Early into a conversation with Beth Thornley, it’s easy to forget you’re talking to a successful professional musician.

Unprepossessing, enthusiastic, and down-to-earth, the California-based singer exudes a charm reminiscent of the girl next door or down the street, which for some Birmingham residents, she was.

The Magic City native still maintains local ties and appreciation for the musical training she received in her hometown.

“I didn’t listen to the Stones or the Beatles or Dylan until I got out of college,” she said, a nod to the “very classical background” she grew up in as the daughter of a music minister and a classically-trained singer. Earning a music degree from Samford, she had planned to teach college-level choral music until getting sidetracked by pop. The detour took her to Los Angeles, where she initially stayed on a friend’s couch while working to establish herself as a musician.

Almost a decade later, she’s performing at clubs, coffee houses, and pop festivals in Southern California, with three independently-produced albums to her credit. Her self-titled debut was met by favorable reviews, and more than half of its songs have been used in film and television soundtracks. Its follow-up, My Glass Eye (featuring a haunting cover of “Eleanor Rigby,” the bittersweet hometown tribute “Birmingham,” and the Beth-recommended “Beautiful Lie”), earned for her further accolades and more TV and movie exposure.

Moviegoers currently have the opportunity to hear the title track from her third album, Wash U Clean, when they go to see the adult comedy Magic Mike (currently playing in theaters here in Birmingham). Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the firm’s cast includes Matthew McConaughey and Cullman native Channing Tatum.

“I don’t know much about the movie except that my song is in it,” Thornley said recently, adding that she planned to find out with everyone else when she saw the film on opening night. “I don’t even know how the song is going to be used.  It could be featured or it could be barely audible or somewhere in between.”

However the song is used, it’s Thornley’s latest addition to a growing list of movie soundtracks that includes The Perfect Man, Between, Play the Game, and Girl in Progress. Her music has been featured in such television shows as Scrubs, Friday Night Lights, Life, Newport Harbor, Beautiful People, Ringer, Suburgatory, Jack and Bobby, and Paris Hilton’s My New BFF.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to receive phone calls saying, ‘This is what we need. Do you have something or could you write something?’ I love those phone calls. I wish I could get more of them.”

Describing her sound as “The Beatles meet Ben Folds meet Death Cab for Cutie,” Thornley embraces comparisons with such established artists, which frustrate other emerging musicians.

“The music business is so much about marketing. The record companies look to see where the fan base is, which is where they can make the most money. That leads inevitably to new artists being categorized by comparisons to established musicians. But a lot of people like to know who you sound like, and they need to know a little about how you sound. It’s human nature. There’s a comfort in being able to identify someone with a sound you’re already familiar with and knowing right away if it’s your thing or not. If I were famous, I might feel differently, but it can actually give a new artist a helpful foothold.”

So can digital media. “A few years ago, independent artists didn’t have such an effective means of promoting themselves. It’s been very beneficial for us.” Visitors can listen to samples from her albums, buy CDs, and learn more about her music on her website. Individual tracks are also available from iTunes.

Thornley says she gets back to Birmingham a couple or three times a year to visit relatives and friends and stopped by Silvertron Café to hear Libba Walker sing.

“She’s the best. And, of course, I made sure I ate some fried okra while I was there.”

You Hear This? A new music website for Birmingham

You Hear This? screenshotThose who’ve visited this site since its earliest days may remember Sam George, one of our earliest contributors. He was already enjoying a pretty good following over on r3verb when he started writing on The Hub.

He then partnered with Whitney Sides Mitchell on bham.fm (the site URL is now used by a company in Birmingham, UK that books bands in the region) before eventually becoming a contributor and then editor in chief of Birmingham Weekly for a little over a year. He helped to co-found and launch a new music festival last spring, Secret Stages (BTW – this year’s edition is going on Friday and Saturday, May 11 & 12). Yeah, we thought you’d remember. He’s been staying busy getting ready for this year’s edition of the music festival – and a few contributions to Weld – and we kept wondering why we hadn’t heard much from him recently.

Well, it appears as though he’s gotten the itch to return to maintaining a site – a new music site for Birmingham called You Hear This? We could try to explain it, but it makes more sense to hop on over and check it out on your own…

Do We Have Signal?

The following note was posted on Facebook earlier this afternoon in response to reports that We Have Signal would be ceasing production. Links have been added where possible.

Twe have signalhe rumors of our demise are only slightly exaggerated.  We Have Signal is not “cancelled”.  APT has had major cuts to its funding this year – after years of already painfully deep cuts.  Our entire Montgomery studio is shutting down and its whole staff being let go.  We’re losing a couple people here in Birmingham and a couple at WLRH, our radio station in Huntsville.  The production department in Birmingham, all five of us, are now the only production that APT has.  We’re already working on three feature-length documentaries, countless underwriters and promos and special programs andWe Have Signal and now we are going to have to take up at least some of the slack of Montgomery’s production.

That is all to say that we will be airing new episodes of We Have Signal starting in October.  We’ve already shot our best season yet with No Age, Sebadoh, Crocodiles, G-Side, Cults, Monotonix, Model Citizen and a bunch of other bands and have a few more shoots lined up this fiscal year with people like Lower Dens and Ty Segall.  These new episodes will begin airing October 6th and will continue through April of 2012.  The only questions are whether or not APT can afford to shoot another season of WHS and if we will have the time in the day to do it.  The money is where you come in.  We will more than likely have some kind of fundraising a few months down the road for the show.  And we will have a much better picture of what our total production responsibilities are going to be in about a month’s time.

This is an extremely difficult period for public television and the services it provides.  Between the worst economy in almost everyone’s memory and an often unfavorable political climate, things are, indeed, grim.  But we have hope that we will still be able to bring you the best bands that you won’t hear or see almost anywhere else.  Please do us the favor of advocating for public television to your friends, neighbors and federal and state legislators.  And please do whatever little bit you can financially to not just keep We Have Signal going but APT as an organization.  We’ll have more soon.

Good news from the folks at WHS!

Alabama Symphony plays at Railroad Park in June

symphony summer iconThe Alabama Symphony Orchestra has been a ever-giving source of news in recent weeks. The big news for long-time fans of the symphony’s outdoor performances in Caldwell Park is that they will be playing outside again this year after a one-year hiatus indoors at the Alabama Theatre.

Classical music fans will have opportunities over three evenings in June at Railroad Park to enjoy the sounds of the orchestra. The free concerts are courtesy of the Linn-Henley Charitable Trust; the June 10 & 11 performances will begin at 8 p.m. with the June 12 performance starting at 6 p.m.

A full listing of the selections scheduled to be performed are available on the symphony’s official website. Those attending the performances will also have the opportunity to drop off donations to be used in the state’s ongoing tornado recovery efforts.

Other recent announcements included word that next season would be maestro Justin Brown’s last as music director and principal conductor (though he did sign a two-year contract extension that will have him serving as music director laureate) and that the orchestra will be performing at Carnegie Hall next May.

Help out Art in Avondale Park tonight

Art In Avondale Park logoWe’re thinking that after yesterday’s news, many of our city’s residents are happy that it’s one of the busiest weekends on the fall calendar, especially if you’re a big fan of Art in Avondale Park .

In its seventh year, the community festival is scheduled to take place this Saturday, October 31 (though a rain date of Sunday, November 1 has already been announced) and they are still taking applications for art booths via Eventbrite.

This year they’ve added a Wild and Wicked Cruise to the festival’s list of activities. The fundraiser will be held at Old Car Heaven this evening (October 29) from 5:30-8:30 p.m. Partygoers can listen to live music by Ashley Miller with special guest Rick Carter plus have a chance to sample award-winning chili from Bottletree Cafe and view an outstanding collection of classic cars and a wonderful selection of silent auction prizes.

Tickets are $10 and include one drink and you can still buy tickets NOW.

Camera Obscura show canceled

Cinema Obscura - courtesy of MySpace profileTonight’s (June 18) Camera Obscura show at The Bottletree has been canceled due to a family tragedy within the band. They’ve also had to cancel a performance in Atlanta for Friday evening.

The local music venue shared the unexpected news early this morning via their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Their Facebook announcement included the fact that they are hoping to reschedule for a later date and refunds for tonight’s show are available from TicketBiscuit.

The band’s announcement via MySpace was posted late yesterday evening:


“Hi, we’re very sorry about this but I’m afraid we’ve had to cancel the shows in Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia which were to take place in the next few days due to some upsetting personal circumstances. Sincere apologies to those that are disappointed by this. We’ll give you further information when we have it.
Camera Obscura.”

A sit down with Amy Ray

NOTE: As we get close to City Stages turning 21 this coming weekend, we figured we’d take a few moments and do a couple of things to get you into the mood. Guest contributor Jeremy Henderson gets us started by sitting down with Amy Ray, one half of the Indigo Girls.

amyray“Lesbian” and “indigo” both have three syllables. The syllables are identically stressed. When I first heard them – les-bi-an, late 80s, walking home through the 3rd grade suburbs of old Vestavia; In-di-go, early 90s, in a church van, radio blasting, scruples flaring, girls pretending to French each other – they were both followed by snickers and dirty winks. I think that’s what did it for me. For a split second, I totally thought they meant the same thing, or that one implied the other, synonyms in a sinner’s vocabulary. Both words sounded so… exotic. So… earthy. Onomatopoetic even.

Amy knows what I mean. She remembers the first time she heard ‘indigo.’ It was 1985. She had a dictionary. She was looking for a word to go with ‘girls.’

And when she dials from her private number in the North Georgia Mountains, we’ll talk about how people who live in the North Georgia Mountains (she’s been there 17 years) love to say ‘North Georgia Mountains.’

We’ll talk about her youth group skate nights with the Methodists as a teenager in Decatur, Ga.

We’ll talk about their 1997 show in Auburn with The Rock*A*Teens the spring before my freshman year. They had to reschedule. One of them had a sore throat.

We’ll talk about how their new independently released album, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug (which references North Georgia in the second line of the first song), is kind of incredible and how it just might be the best thing they’ve ever done, which I’ll tell her I really wouldn’t know much about because other than recognizing that one song from the church van, I don’t know anything about their music. I only own one of their records – that one, the newest one, and only a promotional download version at that, which cracks her up. “That’s refreshing,” she’ll say.

But for most of the 20 minutes, the Indigo Girls‘ Amy Ray and I talked about the word “lesbian” – about our first times to hear it, how we both instantly knew it was bad, and how it sounds so different now.

I went first.

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got plans 2.0 | 5.22 – 5.24

I was somewhat hard pressed to find events for this weekend. Luckily, it looks like I won’t go wrong with tonight’s Alabama Symphony Orchestra performance in Caldwell Park as the headliner for the weekend. As the opening night of the ASO’s Sounds of Summer event series, they’re mixing it up with Charlie Daniels Band. That’s going to be quite the show, can you imagine “Devil Went Down to Georgia” backed up by an orchestra. Maybe it’ll be kinda like this… just maybe, but probably not.

I digress… That’s not the only show tonight; if you hurry you may still be able to get one of the extra tickets to the sold out Brandi Carlile show at WorkPlay, which starts at 9, but if not head over to Speakeasy and stay up late for the American Aquarium show.

Find your way to Bottletree tomorrow to see ISIS and Pelican, and support local jazz legend Cleve Eaton at his Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame benefit on Sunday.

What else are you doing this holiday weekend?

Take a moment next week to support Cleve Eaton

Back in March I highlighted a benefit concert for local Jazz legend Cleve Eaton in a got plans post, and I’m about to do it again…

Jazz Bassist Cleve Eaton and the Alabama All-Stars, bplonline/FlickrLater this month there’s going to be another round of shows to raise money to help with Cleve’s medical expenses related to his oral cancer therapy.

First up, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame is hosting a benefit at the Carver Theatre on May 24. This evening of extraordinary jazz is headlined by the 18 piece Tommy Stewart Orchestra. Cleve is scheduled to perform, and there’s going to be a jam session open to all musicians. Interestingly enough, this is the first time that the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame has had the opportunity, or cause, to do this type of benefit for a living member. You will not be disappointed by this caliber of performance.

On May 28 head over to Ona’s Music Room for another performance benefiting Cleve with drink specials and appearances by Eric Essix as well as other local jazz talents.

Photo: Jazz Bassist Cleve Eaton (center) and the Alabama All-Stars. bpl/Flickr.

An evening of fun at the Alys Stephens Center

Let’s say you’re not quite sure of what you want to do this evening. One suggestion may be to head over to the Alys Stephens Center this evening and making a night of it.

First, at 5:30 p.m., you can enjoy a free performance by The Martini Shakers as part of their After Work and Outdoors series. While you’re their mingling, you may want to run in and purchase a ticket or two for tonight’s dress rehearsal of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra‘s Masterworks season finale, a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, beginning at 7 p.m. Those tickets are only $10/person ($7 for students). Of course tickets are still available for Sunday’s performance as well.

Not too bad for an evening of fun on the fly…