Happy Labor Day Weekend!

It’s official, September is here and you know what that means; Pumpkin spiced lattes, grandpa sweaters, and yup you guessed it, September by Earth, Wind & Fire on repeat. To kick off the month, I had a gig in Cambridge Last night at a small venue in Somerville, The LilyPad. It got my brain going… How does one transition from playing small venues like the LilyPad and dank basements playing house shows for friends → to bigger stages like Brighton Music Hall and on from there? Let’s dig in after a quick update.

Going on in the Music Industry right now are a couple things :

• Rich Men North of Richmond by Oliver Anthony holds strong at number one on Billboard Top charts! Spots 2 and 3 remain held by Luke Combs’s cover of “Fast Car” cover and Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night”. Affirming my previous point that country music has truly been fulfilling our needs for summer/fall nostalgia. However Oliver Anthony takes more of an activist approach, well commended might I add.

• Jimmy Buffet passed away, RIP. Fun fact, I live on a lake and when we got our dinky ‘ole boat, she came with a copious amount of Jimmy B tapes, may he live on through his music.

• Nearly 2 weeks ago, Hozier released his new album, Unreal Unearth. After just short of 9 silent years we have new music from Hozier. As a fan myself, this is very exciting! As unbiased as possible, I think the album is abundantly tasteful. There is a wide range of experimental aspects that were very well done, from song form to instrument use. Hozier uses impressive vocal harmonies and pads to create very atmospheric sounds. He is also very clearly gospel inspired, see track No. 10, All things End. Overall, I’ve quite enjoyed the album and the continued honesty and sincerity of Hozier’s lyrical expression.

Lets Talk Live Music :

“How does one transition from playing small venues like the LilyPad and dank basements playing house shows for friends → to bigger stages like Brighton Music Hall and on from there?” - The answer for dummies is consistency without over saturation. I’ve made a three step process to follow below.

Check out this video from my gig Friday night at The LilyPad in Somerville, a great start up venue!

Thanks for tuning in and feel free to reach out on my website with any questions!

Love Always,

Aili Bauman <3