For those that may not know, we here at Red Line Roots adore Club Passim and everyone involved from the folks behind the board, the chefs cooking up delicious meals, the talent on stage, and those behind the scenes turning the crank, investing time, love and money into the non-profit to support the community around it. Each year the Iguana Music Fund gives approximately $45,000 in grants to individual artists in amounts from $500 to $2,000 each. Grants are used for projects and expenses to aid in artists’ career growth, and range from recording projects to community programs to specialized equipment or instruments. Many of the recipient’s then descend on Club Passim to talk about their projects, updates, and perform a song for the audience. (I suggest getting your spot reserved in advance as last year it was packed to the brim and Mrs. Red had to grab a coffee across the street until the place emptied out a little…) This year that night is being held on Monday, March 14th and you can reserve your spot at this link: http://passim.org/club/passim-monday-discovery-series-sponsored-nine-athens-music-iguana-music-night
I have been a direct beneficiary of that work and dedication and Passim’s Iguana Fund grant helped tremendously in allowing me to produce two volumes the community driven Locals Covering Locals projects along with our friends at Riverview Studios. For the support of Passim and the Iguana Grant I am forever grateful and, while we were not bestowed with another grant to continue the project this year, the torch has been passed on to a few of the project’s alumni and some other favorites of ours. The complete list of grant recipient’s can be found HERE, but in the meanwhile here are a couple of the artists receiving grant’s that I am particularly excited for (and to see what they do with the grants they received).
Laurence Scudder is one of those folks who performed on multiple volumes of the Locals Covering Locals project. He joined Ryan Fitzsimmons and Jim Larkin to tackle Greg Klyma’s tune “Helen Rose” , then played viola on his own tune “Bumps in the Road” while it was being covered by his pal M.R. Poulopoulos, and most recently I invited him to perform solo on volume 3 of the project. Who he covers, well, you will just have to wait and see when the project is released in the next month. Scudder will be printing hard copies of his band, Spotted Tiger’s, latest record. And if you caught the review I published recently of ‘Cloud Year’ you know you want to get your hands on a hard copy.
Another alumni of the project, Dietrich Strause…who will be on volume 3 as well…is another fantastic songwriter that has a long history with Passim and took home a grant last year to fix up his old Martin to stage ready condition again. With his last release being released just over 2 years back I am hoping his grant will help to see another record of great songwriting come to fruition.
One last grant winner I am particularly excited about is Honeysuckle. The band came to my ears through their fantastic performance at this past year’s Newport Folk Festival. The band was a sublime fit for the museum stage and the musicianship, harmonies, and Holly McGarry’s honey-toned voice echoed everything folk (both old and contemporary). The band’s grant will help see the realization of their upcoming debut full length record and they plan on having that release show at Passim on March 24. A sure reason to get to the Club multiple times in March!
There are 22 other great projects being funded this year, including two Mini Iguana multi-year grants for the Sub Rosa Songwriting Retreat and Miles of Music Camp. These are two incredibly important projects as they touch and influence not just one act or songwriter, but a whole slew of them.
Get on over, check out the list, and check out some music from all the artists today. Support local, independent artists. This is a big deal.