The new EP Reset will be released July 15, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Described as “A talented and dark-visioned lot!” by popular metal site Bravewords.com; Houston “prog-ternative” rock band Anova Skyway will follow up the release of their acclaimed 2020 single “Diet of Worms” with another bold and irresistible take on the modern prog blueprint. The six-piece ensemble will debut their awaited EP titled Reset on July 15, 2022. (Anova Skyway, 2022)
Reset features six songs including four co-written with Louis Abramson of JOLLY and an intriguing cover of Faith No More’s “Ashes to Ashes.” Produced by the incredible Dean Dichoso; Anova Skyway makes a notable and instantly satisfying impression with Reset, showcasing their sonic evolution with their most indulgent and exploratory melodies to date, caressed by powerfully emotive lyrics.
“Reset represents yet another turn in our winding journey as a band. All the detours left their mark and brought us to the unit that we are today. Mike has completely blown us away with where he’s taken the vocal performances. The hole he leaves in the guitar spot with this move makes room for one of our oldest friends in music and one of the best guitarists we know in Sean Gary (ex-Oceans of Slumber). Frank Alonzo rounds it out on keys and our brother Garret West has left his mark as well contributing the lyrics to some of these songs as a final parting gift. We are excited to bring this new version of Anova Skyway to the world.” – drummer Mike Marksberry
The refreshed ANOVA SKYWAY lineup is composed of vocalist Mike Palacios, Guitarists Andrew Alvarez and Sean Gary, Drummer Mike Marksberry, Bassist Cory Miles, and Frank Alonzo on Keys/synth.
“Mike has completely blown us away with where he’s taken the vocal performances and we can’t wait to bring this new version of Anova. We have a new vocalist, a new guitarist, and a new keyboardist. I wouldn’t say there is a huge departure from our previous style, but those new elements alone make for a brand new sound! We’re excited to bring it to the world.” – Anova Skyway
The track listing for Reset is unveiled below along with the stunning EP artwork designed by Giannis Nakos of Remedy Art. The first single will premiere soon, along with additional EP details including pre-order information. Anova Skyway teased a glimpse of what’s to come via social media. Visit the band’s Facebook page for a peek into the arrival of Reset.
Reset track list 1. Translucent 2. Absent 3. Spark 4. City Underground 5. Ashes to Ashes 6. Horizon
Horizon is the new single from the new EP Reset, due out July 15, 2022.
The County Line Community Band will perform in the Buena Vista Theater on the UTSA downtown campus. Photo: google
On Sunday, June 26, 2022 at 3p.m., the County Line Community Band will perform their “Concert Favorites and Solos” in the beautiful Buena Vista Theater on the UTSA Downtown Campus from 3p.m. to 4p.m. This concert will feature world renowned Saxophonist, Dr. Andy Wen and Tyler Neufer, French Horn instrumentalist with the U.S. Air Force Band of the West. The band will also highlight music considered some of the favorites in band literature like, “Funiculi, Funicula,” “Bugler’s Holiday,” “Lassus Trombone,” and more. (County Line Community Band, 2022)
This concert is free and open to the public. Parking is free at the Cattleman’s Square parking lot across the street from the theater. Come out and support community music in San Antonio. Donations deeply appreciated.
The CLCB is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and our mission and endeavor is to create an environment whereby our all-volunteer organization can further their musical education and enjoyment through the performance of concert and symphonic music, to further the efficacy of music as an integral piece of the culture of the local community, to advocate for the synergistic integration of music education, to work with our cultural partners in our communities for the advancement of the arts and to be a source of pride for our members and the communities we serve.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center proudly presents the Teatro Salon’s world premiere of La Niña Girasol (The Sunflower Girl) by J. Cesar Duenas. Photo: The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, used with permission.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center proudly presents the Teatro Salon’s world premiere of La Niña Girasol (The Sunflower Girl) by J. Cesar Duenas, scheduled for June 22 – 25, 2022 at the historic Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St., San Antonio, TX 78207. Clint Taylor, who has over 25 years working with numerous theater companies in San Antonio and New York, will be directing this unique and imaginary children’s play. (Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, 2022)
“Follow a brother & sister on a journey through their dreams to save their maternal line from being lost forever…. A magical tale of family, history, and the struggle to keep their roots alive,” this, according to playwright J. Cesar Duenas. Mr. Duenas is a local theatre actor and while La Niña Girasol is his first play, he has acted with VIVA 48hr Play, Teatro Audaz, Killer Productions, Overtime Theatre, and Jumpstart. He is a first-generation American and a US Army veteran who was born and raised in San Antonio. “I am so excited with this rare opportunity to have my first play produced and enjoyed by the community.”
Teatro Salon is a project of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center that provides opportunities to developing new plays and is sponsored by City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Texas Commission on the Arts, Trinity University and National Performance Network.
Show times include two morning performances on Wednesday and Thursday June 22 and 23 at 11a.m. and two evening performances on Friday and Saturday June 24 and 25 at 7p.m.. Admission is $12 Adults, $6 Teens and Seniors and $2 Children (13yrs and under). All performances will take place at the historic Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St. San Antonio, TX 78207.
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center was founded in 1980 as a non-profit, multidisciplinary organization. Located in the heart of San Antonio’s westside, the Guadalupe is one of the largest community-based organizations in the United States. Its mission is to cultivate, promote, and preserve traditional and contemporary Chicano, Latino, and Native American arts and culture through multidisciplinary programming.
Horror movie Final Caller will premiere on DVD and Digital on July 5, 2022 from Wild Eye Releasing. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Final Caller is the new film from the legendary director of Clownado and Bonehill Road. From legendary indie director Todd Sheets (Bonehill Road, Zombie Bloodbath, Clownado), Final Caller premieres on DVD and Digital July 5 from Wild Eye Releasing. For fans of movies like Saws and Hostel. (Wild Eye Releasing, 2022)
Final Caller – Roland Bennett, an obnoxious late-night radio personality specializing in the supernatural is not having a good night. A visit from his soon-to-be ex-wife brings divorce papers to the station, a boss is listening in due to complaints, and a call from self-proclaimed serial killer “The Outsider” who threatens to kill a woman live on the air. Being live on the air tonight will spell death for all involved.
After theatrical releases, The Story Won’t Die will have a worldwide Video on Demand on June 21, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
The Story Won’t Die, from Award-winning filmmaker David Henry Gerson, is an inspiring, timely look at a young generation of Syrian artists who use their work to protest and process what is currently the world’s largest and longest ongoing displacement of people since World War II. Sundance Award-winning producer Odessa Rae produces the film. (The Story Won’t Die, 2022)
Rapper Abu Hajar, together with other celebrated creative personalities of the Syrian uprising, a post-Rock musician (Anas Maghrebi), members of the first all-female Syrian rock band (Bahila Hijazi and Lynn Mayya), break-dancer (Bboy Shadow), choreographer (Medhat Aldaabal), and visual artists (Tammam Azzam, Omar Imam and Diala Brisly), use their art to rise in revolution and endure in exile in this new documentary reflecting on a battle for peace, justice and freedom of expression. It is an uplifting and humanizing look at what it means to be a refugee in today’s world and offers inspiring and hopeful vantages on a creative response to the chaos of war.
The Story Won’t Die was released theatrically in Los Angeles last Friday and will be released in New York today, June 17, 2022. A worldwide Video On Release on major platforms will follow on June 21, timed to World Refugee Day. Video On Demand platforms include Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google TV, Vimeo, and more.
OFFICIAL SELECTION: Hot Docs, AFI Docs, Watch Docs, and many more. WINNER! Best Director at Doc LA and Best Feature Doc at FIC Autor Guadalajara.
David Henry Gerson is a filmmaker whose work has won prizes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Sundance Film Festival, and has been acquired into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NY. He is a graduate of Columbia University and the American Film Institute, where he was the recipient of the AFI Richard P. Rodgers Award for Creative Excellence. His film, All These Voices, won the Student Academy Award®. David’s spec screenplay, Above Kings, was nominated to the Tracking Board Hit List and was a semifinalist for the Academy’s Nicholl Fellowship. His documentary film Ultra Violet for Sixteen Minutes, screened at festivals worldwide, the Pompidou Museum in Paris, and was acquired into the permanent collection of the MoMA. The Story Won’t Die is his debut feature.
Feature Documentary/ Not Yet Rated / Running Time: 83 Minutes Country: USA/GERMANY Director: David Henry Gerson Producer: Odessa Rae Co-Producers: Abdalaziz Alhamza, Colleen Ritzau Leth and Martin Marquet Featuring: Medhat Aldaabal, Tammam Azzam, Diala Brisly, Abu Hajar, Bahila Hijazi, Omar Imam, Lynn Mayya, Anas Maghrebi, and Mhd Sabboura.
We Banjo 3 appeals to fans of bluegrass, Celtic, and Americana music. Open The Road will be out July 15, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Traditional Irish music and traditional American music share a lot of similarities in instrumentation, lyrical content, and community participation. Still, there are a surprisingly few number of acts who straddle that musical gap across the Atlantic—and even fewer who have made a decade-long, award-winning career out of it like Galway-based quartet We Banjo 3. Containing two sets of two brothers—Enda & Fergal Scahill, and David & Martin Howley—We Banjo 3 have built their legacy on seamlessly combining the virtuosity and precision in each genre’s traditional disciplines with the artful song-craft and infectious live performance of today’s musical landscape. Their upcoming album Open The Road—out July 15—meets on the corner of complex-but-nimble instrumentation and magnetic, well-crafted songs; a combination of which their fans have been enjoying from studio to stage since the band first landed on American shores ten years ago. (We Banjo 3, 2022)
We Banjo 3 shared the first track from Open The Road, the driving jig-turned-indie pop love song, “Hummingbird.” First conceptualized in March 2020 during the great lockdown, David Howley had ample free time. David and his Nashville roommate Scott Mulvahill, an accomplished musician in his own right, spent time in Scott’s home-studio to lay down some new songs. “We had a house full of instruments, microphones, coffee and whiskey, so we did what we could to stay sane,” Howley remembers. Having mentioned to Mulvahill that he had a tune he liked but that needed it still needed to be finished, Mulvahill replied while tearing open a new bag of coffee beans, “Well let’s finish it then!”
Fast-forward to almost two years later, We Banjo 3 finished tracking “Hummingbird” and it landed in the lead-off spot on Open The Road. In addition to the guest musicians who contributed to the initial session—Danny Young on drums and Josh Shilling on keys—The Infamous Stringdusters’ Andy Hall plays his dobro on the final track. Fans can hear “Hummingbird” right now at this link and pre-order or pre-save Open The Road ahead of its July 15 release right here.
We Banjo 3 shares a musical intimacy that emanates in the rolling banjos, soaring fiddle and mandolin runs, and bright and vibrant guitar strums that swirl around propulsive vocals and perfect harmonies. On their new album, Open The Road, it’s the band’s prolific tune-writing skills, and their inciting lyrics that are somehow ubiquitous and intimate all at once, that pull the listener in. Buoyed by musical virtuosity and well-crafted song structure, their complex instrumentation feels nimble and willowy, shaping a contended and canny listening experience. The album’s ten tracks offer up the infectious melodies and musical brilliance fans have come to expect from We Banjo 3, and introduces the band to an even wider swath of music fans at festivals across the U.S. and the world.
Open The Road track list: Hummingbird Garden Song Long Way Down Heart In Hand Open The Road Rialto Gift Of Life The First Second Gentleman Alive With You Believe In Us
Catch We Banjo 3 on tour: June 17 – Dayton, OH – Levitt Pavilion June 18 – Lakeside, OH – Lakeside Chautauqua: Hoover Auditorium June 19 – Charleston, WV – Mountain Stage (Culture Center Theater) June 23 – Memphis, TN – Overton Park Shell (formerly Levitt Shell) June 24 – Owensboro, KY – ROMP 2022 July 16 – Oak Hill, NY – Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival 2022 July 19 – Rockport, MA – Shalin Liu Performance Center July 20 – Natick, MA – Center For Arts In Natick July 29 – Ventura, CA – Ventura Music Festival 2022 July 30 – Denver, CO – Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox July 31 – Lyons, CO – RockyGrass Festival 2022 August 1 – Crested Butte, CO – Center for the Arts Crested Butte August 3 – Portsmouth, OH – Vern Riffe Center for the Arts August 5-7 – Dublin, OH – Dublin Irish Fest 2022 August 9-10 – Bethlehem, PA – MUSIKFEST August 12 – St. Paul, MN – Irish Fair of Minnesota 2022 August 13 – La Crosse, WI – IrishFest La Crosse 2022 August 14 – St. Paul, MN – Irish Fair of Minnesota 2022 August 19 – 21 – Milwaukee, WI – Milwaukee Irish Fest September 2-4 – Kansas City, MO – Kansas City Irish Festival 2022 October 21 – Frederick, MD – Weinberg Center For The Arts October 22 – Manteo, NC – Outer Banks Bluegrass Festival
2023 (Rescheduled) Tour Dates: January 27 – Sacramento, CA – The Sofia January 29 – Berkeley, CA – Freight & Salvage February 1 – Flagstaff, AZ – Orpheum Theater February 2 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre February 3 – Wickenburg, AZ – Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts February 4 – Chandler, AZ – Chandler Center for the Arts
The Black Phone, from Joe Hill’s ’20th Century Ghosts’ has been adapted into a movie and will be released in theaters on June 24, 2022. Photo: amazon
Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the novels “The Fireman,” “NOS4A2,” “Horns,” and “Heart-Shaped Box;” “Strange Weather,” a collection of novellas; and the acclaimed story collections “Full Throttle” and “20th Century Ghosts.” He is also the Eisner Award–winning writer of a seven-volume comic book series, “Locke & Key.” Much of his work has been adapted for film and TV, including NOS4A2 (AMC), Locke & Key (Netflix), and In the Tall Grass (Netflix). The Black Phone is a short story in his “20th Century Ghosts” collection and has been adapted into a major motion picture from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions. It stars Ethan Hawke and will be released in theaters on Friday June 24, 2022. (amazon, 2022)
The Black Phone – Jack Finney is thirteen, alone, and in desperate trouble. For two years now, someone has been stalking the boys of Galesberg, stealing them away, never to be seen again. And now, Finney finds himself in danger of joining them: locked in a psychopath’s basement, a place stained with the blood of half a dozen murdered children.
With him in his subterranean cell is an antique phone, long since disconnected . . . but it rings at night anyway, with calls from the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
“The Black Phone” is one of fifteen stories in Joe Hill’s first story collection, originally published as 20th Century Ghosts—the inventive and chilling compendium that established this award-winning, critically acclaimed, and bestselling author as “a major player in 21st-century fantastic fiction” (Washington Post).
A Town Full of Ghosts’ digital release date is June 17, 2022. Photo: google
For fans of ‘found footage’ horror movies: Some towns should stay forgotten. This June, travel to Blackwood Falls. From filmmaker Isaac Rodriguez, A Town Full of Ghosts premieres on digital platforms June 17. (A Town Full of Ghosts, 2022)
A Town Full of Ghosts– Mark and his wife Jenna sell everything they have to purchase a western ghost town in the middle of nowhere called Blackwood Falls. They plan to turn the ghost town into a tourist attraction with hotels, restaurants, and attractions. They hire a small film crew to document their journey and upload the videos to their video channel. When funding falls through, they find themselves stuck in the middle of nowhere. Things take a twist when Mark discovers the town has a horrible history of death. He secretly digs deeper into the past and stumbles upon something evil.
Tensions start to rise when one of the film crew goes missing, and everyone finds themselves trapped in the town. Jenna comes up with a plan to escape, but Mark begins to lose his mind and takes matters into his own hands. Jenna makes one last attempt to escape the town. She gets lost in the wooden maze while something evil goes after her. She must escape or become an eternal resident in Blackwood Falls.
Andrew C. Fisher, Mandy Lee Rubio, Lauren Lox, Sarah Froelich, Isaac Rodriguez, Keekee Suki, and Vania Vasquez star in an Isaac Rodriguez film,
“After visiting the J. Lorraine, TX, ghost Town in Austin, TX, I was immediately inspired to make my next film there. The town was actually all built by the current owner. Some of the buildings were very small and looked fake, but I knew I could incorporate that into the story. A few months back, I saw a YouTuber who sold everything and moved into a real ghost town in California. I wanted to use that basic idea with a married couple and add a The Shining vibe to it.” – writer/director Isaac Rodriguez
Times Square subway closed in Emmett Adler’s End of the Line. Photo: Gravitas Ventures, used with permission.
Award-winning filmmaker Emmett Adler’s feature documentary End of the Line is a character-driven political drama about the New York City subway crisis and a long overdue reckoning on infrastructure. End of the Line will be released on digital and video on demand platforms in the United States on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (Gravitas Ventures, 2022)
Video on demand platforms include Apple/iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu, Microsoft, and more.
End of the Line – Establishing the vital economic importance and grandeur of New York City’s historic subway system, the film dives into its dire modern-day troubles picking up in the late 2010s when flooding, overcrowding, power failures, and derailments have become commonplace. After a particularly bad spate of disasters in the summer of 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proclaims a state of emergency and hires a new international wunderkind executive named Andy Byford to save the subways. Byford, an earnest Briton with an impressive resume, enters as a charismatic would-be hero. As the political turmoil behind the subway’s decline comes into sharp focus, scenes in barbershops, bodegas, and bakeries show the frustration and devastation among business owners and residents who are caught in the middle.
Ultimately, the COVID-19 pandemic furthers this, and brings to light America’s need to shore up its infrastructure in cities across the country and the inequality struggles that are central to this debate. A heartfelt and scrupulous exploration, this film poses the question: what happens when the lifeline of a city goes flat? This film is dedicated to the heroic New York City transit workers who lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Executive Producer: Emmett Adler, Ian Mayer Producers: Emmett Adler, Ian Mayer; Co-Producer Mariah Wilson Official selection: Doc NYC
Feature Documentary/ Not Yet Rated / Running Time: 65 Minutes
Emmett Adler is an Emmy-winning filmmaker who has taught art in Shenzhen, China, was once a chess champion in the state of Illinois and can juggle pins while walking on stilts. He has over a decade of experience as a freelance documentary and commercial film editor. In 2021, he made his directorial debut with the feature documentary End of the Line which premiered to sold out audiences at DOC NYC film festival.
Gravitas Ventures is a leading all rights distributor of independent feature films and documentaries. Founded in 2006, Gravitas connects independent filmmakers and producers with distribution opportunities across the globe. Working with talented directors and producers, Gravitas Ventures has distributed thousands of films into over a hundred million homes in North America – over one billion homes worldwide.
The Local Honeys, Kentucky’s favorite duo, will release their self-titled album with La Honda Records on July 15, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
When a master songsmith like Tom T. Hall calls someone “a great credit to a wonderful Kentucky tradition,” it is time to pull up a chair and pay attention. As it pertains to the nearly-decade-running duo The Local Honeys, he was right on the money. The duo—Linda Jean Stokley and Montana Hobbs—have long been an integral part of Kentucky’s musicscape, and on July 15, they will be adding a new entry into the Bluegrass State’s rich musical canon. Their first release on La Honda Records (Colter Wall, Riddy Arman, Vincent Neil Emerson), The Local Honeys features ten winsome vignettes of rural Kentucky, conjuring 90’s alternatives sounds with hillbilly Radiohead lilts, soaring above layers of deep grooves and rich tones masterfully curated by longtime mentor Jesse Wells, a GRAMMY-nominated producer, musician (currently a member of Tyler Childers’ band The Food Stamps), and Assistant Director at the Kentucky Center for Traditional Music at Morehead State. (The Local Honeys, 2022)
The Local Honeys shared their first taste of the new album with “Dead Horses,” an emotional look at the tragedy of animal husbandry. With lines like “Suppose we’re all just animals with slightly different hides,” Stokely displays a cut and dried existence on the farm and the world at large while drums and banjo meld together propelling the tune from verse to verse. The accompanying music video finds Stokley and Hobbs surrounded by nostalgic photos of their equine counterparts, contributed by the band’s fanbase, adding weight to the meaning of the song itself. The “Dead Horses” video is available hereand fans can pre-order or pre-save The Local Honeys ahead of its July 15 release at this link.
Over the years, The Local Honeys have paid their dues, garnering countless accolades and accomplishments (tours with Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, praise from the New York Times), and have become the defining sound of real deal, honest-to-god Kentucky music. With The Local Honeys, Stokley and Hobbs ended up with the most nuanced, moody, deep-holler sound they have captured to date. “This is the first time we’ve actively gotten to express who we are and where we’re from” says Linda Jean, “The songs on the album speak for us,” adds Montana “they’re about what we know, reflections of us as people. We realized we have the power to add our own narrative into Kentucky music.”
Throughout The Local Honeys, the duo demands to be interpreted as creators and storytellers, not just purveyors of tradition. Similarly, the sounds captured within the project cement their place as innovators and rule-breakers. Rollicking banjo meets overdriven guitar hooks and blue-collar rural grit is met with lush melodies and nimble harmonies; it is a project filled with juxtaposition and it is not by accident. It is reflective of who they are and who they run with. Wells, along with the rest of Childers’ band The Food Stamps – Rod Elkins (percussion) Craig Burletic (bass) and Josh Nolan (guitar) from Clay City, Kentucky, all lent their expertise and signature groove as collaborators during the session creating a fluidity, warmth, and cohesion that can only be created through friendship.
The songs on The Local Honeys speak to a new generation, a new Appalachian, the people who understand the beauty, the struggle, and the complexity of contemporary Appalachian life. In “The Ballad of Frank and Billy Buck,” Hobbs describes the grace, humor, and irony of an aging hillbilly leading up to the final moments of his unjust demise. Or there is “If I Could Quit,” a song that grapples with the horrors of the ongoing opiate epidemic and the guttural pain of watching a friend deteriorate through addiction. Pride and sense of place run deep in songs like “Throw Me in the Thicket (When I Die),” a love letter about Linda’s family orchard in Central Kentucky. Playful colloquialisms and regional idiosyncrasies also permeate throughout the record as illustrated in “Better Than I Deserve,” a song built around an informal greeting Montana’s Papaw used throughout her childhood. The album is rounded out with “The L & N Don’t Stop Here No More,” (the only cover on the record written by Appalachian royalty and kin to Hobbs, Jean Ritchie) a song highlighting the hardships of post-coal communities painting an all too familiar scene of contemporary rural Appalachia. Reflecting upon these songs Linda notes, “Songwriting can freeze people in time like a photograph, preserving little nuances particular to specific cultures and I love that.”
Catch The Local Honeys on tour: June 10 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre July 10 – Crossville, TN – Byrd’s Creek Music Festival July 15- Nashville, TN- The Basement (album release show) July 17- Knoxville, TN- Barley’s Taproom July 19- Asheville, NC- The Grey Eagle July 20- Decatur, GA- Eddie’s Attic July 21- Memphis, TN- Hernando’s Hideaway July 22- St. Louis, MO- Off Broadway July 23- Kansas City, MO- Knucklehead’s July 26- Denver, CO- Lost Lake Lounge July 28- Red Lodge, MT- One Legged Magpie July 29- Emigrant, MT- The Old Saloon July 30- White Sulphur Springs, MT- Red Ants Pants Festival July 31- Bozeman, MT- Live from the Divide
SA Examiner 