August 28, 2016 (Sunday) - Happy Birthday, Shaky! Today, on the one-year anniversary of the Shaky release -- the latest album by Thayer Sarrano -- we would like to thank once again Krisann Janowitz of the music journal Independent Clauses, for their positive review, which we wrote about just recently, on August 18th. As mentioned then, the Independent Clauses review initially escaped our attention, when the article first appeared last year. Then, when we -- the Scriveners of Guildwater -- finally stumbled upon it, a little over a month ago, we also chanced upon Independent Clauses' Top Releases of 2015, where Shaky also found a place. Janowitz wrote: "This is yet another album that makes me feel deeply just from the instrumentation. Sarrano’s vocals and lyrics leave me truly awed." Many thanks to Janowitz for this considerate attention, and generous praise. We are happy to underline the fact that the following music press outlets also listed Shaky as one of their Top Releases for 2015: Coast Is Clear (Germany), Flagpole Magazine, Guteshoerenistwichtig (Austria), and PopMatters. Happy Birthday, Shaky! Age becomes you. Age becomes you, gracefully.   

August 25, 2016 (Thursday) - Today -- a scant three days before the one-year anniversary of her Shaky album release -- Thayer Sarrano returns for the fourth and grand finale performance of her August Residency at The 5 Spot in Nashville, Tennessee. Two other bands will also contribute sets this evening: Justin and the Cosmics, and Weisshund.

Justin and the Cosmics are a Nashville-based band, with a full line-up that features: Justin Collins, Scott Collins, Adam Landry, Conor Lynch, and Kyle Walsh. Frontman Justin and guitarist Scott are brothers, the latter of whom you may recognize from The Smoking Flowers, from Thayer's 5 Spot Show of last week. Justin and the Cosmics perform music they themselves qualify as "grunge, surf, country," slipping your radio dial onto a lost station, beaming in hits you've never heard before, from a distant galaxy of the cosmos -- all at once fresh, vintage, and original. Band members Justin and Adam Landry are the production team responsible for crafting the Cosmic sound you hear. They have worked with: Deer Tick, Diamond Rugs, and Nikki Lane, among others. Justin and the Cosmics' album -- Schooly Dreams -- was released in November 2015. Their Home, Boy EP was released in 2014. Both offerings are made available to you via Cosmic Thug Records. We would counsel you to check out their new video for "Famous to Me," as well as a slightly older but equally fresh offering (Velvet Underground chug), "Hey Dude."

Weisshund is a Atlanta-based duo comprised of Rick Lollar (guitar, vox) and Marlon Patton (drums, bass pedals). Their self-released, self-titled debut EP appeared in June 2015. These are two extremely-skilled musicians, performing readily accessible rock music, sacrificing nothing to wanton commercialism. Their unassuming manner will draw you in. Their craftsmanship will knock you sideways. Their depth will make you sit, stay, and even "speak," like their mascot and support staff member Leo, as well as charter member Robo Footley. Check out their live video for "Shell," and wish that you could run off with their skills and their Earthworks drum overhead microphones. Should you wonder about their source of inspiration -- or one of them anyway -- consider their recent, smoking video take on Jimi Hendrix's "I Don't Live Today," which Weisshund unveiled just last month at Terminal West, for an ATL Collective tribute to the album Are You Experienced? (Be sure to make it to the 2 minute 30 second mark for the thumping outro.) Lastly, for liner-note readers and Sarrano zealots everywhere, we should draw attention to the fact that portions of Thayer Sarrano's album Shaky were recorded at Weisshund drummer Patton's Studio in Atlanta.

Performing then tonight as part of Thayer Sarrano's ever-shifting ensemble will be Weisshund's Rick Lollar and Marlon Patton. We have it on reasonably trustworthy authority (Leo) that Lollar will pick up a baritone guitar, Patton will pound the skins, and Sarrano will sing and strum her guitar as she steps on some bass footpedals, perhaps even while wearing organ shoes of silver. Next up, this Sunday, Thayer Sarrano plays the Wildwood Revival Festival on the outskirts of Athens, Georgia.   

August 18, 2016 (Thursday) - Thayer Sarrano plays Nashville for the third of her four performances constituting her August Residency at The 5 Spot. Operating as a duo today, Luke Moller provides Thayer's accompaniment. Moller is a Nashvillean multi-instrumentalist, one who specializes in violin and mandolin, among still other stringed-fare. He has performed and /or recorded with The BoDeans, Cracker, Lana Del Ray, and Olivia Newton-John. This is but a abbreviated list. You can watch an excerpt from a riveting solo show of Moller (Down Under in Olivia Land), as found here on YouTube. Offering a separate set of their own will be The Smoking Flowers. Based in Nashville, this husband-wife team -- Kim and Scott Collins -- play "Americana" music, often (but not always) as a guitar-drums battery team, not unlike the most pared down configuration (line-up-wise, but not necessarily stylistically) of the earliest Flat Duo Jets. The Smoking Flowers released their debut album Sweet as Port (2008), as well as their follow-up 2 Guns (2013), under the Bandaloop imprint, which is headquartered in Oakland, California. This very summer The Smoking Flowers wrapped up the recording of their third album, for pending release. You can catch their video for "Something I Said," among others, on YouTube.

The latest studio release by Thayer Sarrano -- Shaky -- is available in MP3-format on iTunes, as is Lift Your Eyes to the Hills (2012). Those two records are also available on Bandcamp in their physical formats, where you can also feast ears upon King (2009). Visit Thayer Sarrano on YouTube for an assortment of her video collection.   

August 18, 2016 (Thursday) - We extend many thanks to Krisann Janowitz of the music journal Independent Clauses, for their positive review of the album Shaky by Thayer Sarrano. Janowitz writes: "Thayer Sarrano’s sublime voice paired with her eclectic instrumentation move my soul in uncanny ways. Shaky has a mysteriously dark feel, making it not the best album for a party. Instead, if you desire an album to take you away to an entirely new world, then look no further. Thayer Sarrano’s Shaky whisks its listeners away to the land of honest, macabre dreamscapes. You will never want to leave."

We are always amazed, happy, and disconsolate (by turns, and all at once) to discover any bit of music news regarding the album Shaky by Thayer Sarrano that initially escapes our dragnets, particularly in this case after a near year, since the Independent Clauses review was first published in late September 2015. We are amazed, because our nets that scour the internet for news regarding Thayer's album are rather refined, or at least we like to imagine, and little escapes their tentacles, if nets had tentacles, which we are told they don't, only adding further to our general amazement. We are happy, because we are always pleased to read the opinions of thoughtful music critics. We are disconsolate, because we would not want these authors to think we are unappreciative of their unsolicited efforts. In this case, we do not know how we initially missed Janowitz's review last year. And we don't exactly know how we finally discovered it, but recently discover it we did, about a month ago, stacking it upon our list of things to do.

Many thanks, again, to Krisann Janowtiz of Independent Clauses, a press outlet overseen by editor Stephen Carradini since 2003. We look forward to next week because, as it turns out, Janowitz listed Shaky as one of their music journal's Top 5 Albums of 2015. But more on this glad fact later. Thank you!   

August 11, 2016 (Thursday) - Thayer Sarrano returns to The 5 Spot in Nashville, for the second of four performances of her August Residency. Accompanying Thayer this evening is fellow Athenian and Nashvillean transplant, multi-instrumentalist Billy Bennett. Also performing sets will be the band American Dream, based out of both Nashville and NYC. Members -- Corinne Callen, Tommy USA, Jonathan Biggs, David Dyas, and Sarah Koenig-Plonskier -- categorize their music as "chaunteuse western dreampop." Their CD Music was released in June 2015, and can be ordered via their Bandcamp Page. Their self-titled EP of 2014 is available on iTunes. Shaky -- the latest studio release by Thayer Sarrano -- is available in MP3-format on iTunes, where you can also find her Lift Your Eyes to the Hills (2012). Those two records are also available in physical formats (CD / LP for Shaky, and Hills on CD) via Bandcamp. There you can also find her album King (2009), in MP3-format, all physical formats having sold out.

In other news, we wish once again to thank Casey Johnson of Aimless Skylarking, who was kind and generous enough to upload several quality photographs of Thayer Sarrano's live performance last Friday at Pale Eddie's Pour House in Birmingham, Alabama. This show was part of the broader festivities of the Secret Stages Festival. Many thanks for these contributions to the world archive of all things Thayer. We would advise our readers (and Sarrano zealots everywhere) to visit and promptly raid Aimless Skylarking, but to give Mr. Johnson his just due, should you choose to reuse these images anywhere other than as wallpaper on your desktop computer or living room. (Attribution, folks. Attribution.) Aimless Skylarking categorizes Thayer Sarrano's song "Crease" as a "dark and foreboding psych-rock stunner." Very nice. Speaking of photographs -- Hark! -- here is some breaking news coming across the Guildwater News Desk just now, via our Teletype Model 28 machine, our semaphore flag operator having called in sick today with the plague. "Stills photography session of Thayer Sarrano by Curtis Wayne Millard Studio in Nashville nearly complete. Stop. The work of Curtis Wayne Millard Studio has appeared in Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, and USA Today, among others. Stop. New music video or two remain imminent. Stop. Thayer Sarrano. Stop. Going global since 2009. Continue."   

August 09, 2016 (Tuesday) - Thayer Sarrano returns to Nashville. At The Basement East, she opens festivities this evening for Earl Burrows. Earl Burrows is comprised of Carson Medders, James Freshwater, and the Brothers Watrous -- Joel and Mark. Frontman Mark Watrous is a fixture of what we shall call "the music of exceptional quality scene." Having originated Loudermilk / Gosling, he regularly performs (keys, violin, guitar, and more) with The Shins, Jack White's The Raconteurs, and Brendan Benson, himself a Raconteur. The latter (Benson) produced Earl Burrows' debut No Love for the Drowning, released a little over a year ago, in September 2015.

Thayer Sarrano last played the slightly more westerly and southerly incarnation of this venue, known simply as The Basement, on 24 March 2016, when she opened for Nicole Atkins. Thanks to both Basements (a scant four miles separates the two), Nicole Atkins, and to Earl Burrows for the opportunity of performing in such prime locales, in support of such esteemed musicians. Up next, Thayer returns to her residency at The 5 Spot this very Thursday. Joining Thayer this week will be the Nashville/NYC-based American Dream, who classify their music under the most intriguing tripartite rubric of: "chaunteuse western dreampop."   

August 09, 2016 (Tuesday) - Many thanks to Casey Johnson of Aimless Skylarking (great name), who pegged Thayer Sarrano as one of his Top 5 Acts to see, to hear, to catch, at last weekend's Secret Stages Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. Visit the Facebook Page of Aimless Skylarking, as well as Casey Johnson's own Twitter Feed, to catch some great live photos of the mighty Thayer Sarrano at Pale Eddie's Pour House. We quite like them! Thank you, Aimless Skylarking!   

August 05, 2016 (Friday) - And so they descend. Thayer Sarrano is "feeling gravity's pull" down I-65, from Nashville, to Birmingham. There, along with drums and bass cohorts William T. Kissane and Zack Milster / Mack Zilster, she will participate in the Secret Stages Festival. Secrecy is cool. Yet, if you seek Thayer's set this Friday eve, it might not be bad knowing where exactly in Birmingham to direct your person. We advise Pale Eddie's Pour House on 2nd Avenue. Showtime 9 p.m. Above you will find a perennial favorite of ours, a photo by Jason Thrasher, transformed into an event poster by Secret Stages. In the fall of 2017, you can purchase your copy of Jason Thrasher's Athens Potluck, a photographic journey across the Athens music scene, brought to you by Deeds Publishing. More than a few of these Thrasher images find themselves ensconced at the Georgia Theatre, including one, we are told, of Thayer Sarrano.

Thayer Sarrano last played Birmingham in September 2015, at the Desert Island Supply Company (DISCO), with this same Kissane-Milster band configuration. Up next week, Thayer performs at The Basement on Tuesday, 9 August, where she will open for Earl Burrows, before returning for her residency at The 5 Spot on Thursday.