July 22, 2017 (Saturday) - In a considerable change of venue, Thayer Sarrano appears live this afternoon at The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. This performance is part of the broader showcase “Southern Sound: Women in Contemporary Southern Music.” It is offered in tandem with the arts exhibition -- “Southern Accent: Seeking the American South in Contemporary Art.” Reading from the exhibition prospectus itself, we see that: “William Faulkner once described the South not as a ‘geographical place’ but an ‘emotional idea.’ …The exhibition includes work by approximately 60 artists as well as a curated music-listening library. No region in the United States has contributed more to American music than the South, and a music chronology that speaks to Southern life provides an invaluable sounding board for the artwork in the exhibition.”

The Speed Southern Sound musical showcase will feature performances, listed alphabetically, by: Kyshona Armstrong, Kate Campbell, Dori Freeman, Erin Rae, and Kelsey Waldon. The event is sponsored by 91.9 WFPK, in charitable partnership with The Center for Women and Families. Many thanks to the curators of Speed Art Museum for enlisting the participation of Thayer Sarrano. Beyond the music on aural display this afternoon, we Guildwater Scriveners would much like to attend because, dear to our scribal interests, we wish to behold their Antiphonary by Sano di Pietro (1405-1481), housed in the Speed permanent collection. Lest it be thought, however, that we are all parchment, pots of ink, and reliquaries, we Scribes should point out that we would've also liked to have attended the showing two days ago (July 20th) of the recently restored Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker (1979). He was the Russian director of whom Ingmar Bergman himself once said: “Tarkovsy is the greatest of them all. He moves with such naturalness in the room of dreams.” You can watch the official trailer of the restoration from Janus Films here.  

July 22, 2017 (Thursday) - We often like to wait until the summer to thank The Autumn Roses for their support of the music of Thayer Sarrano. The very word "autumn" always reminds us of cooler climes, in the balmy sweatbox that is northern Georgia in July. Many thanks to The Autumn Roses for covering, back in February, the video release of the song "Thieves," from the album Shaky. The Roses write: "Thayer Sarrano is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from Athens, Georgia, and wildly-talented photographer and director Curtis Wayne Millard Studio has crafted a softly-psychedelic and visionary new video for her star-dusted song 'Thieves.'" Thank you! You can read more of our perennial thanks to The Autumn Roses in our Archival Vaults: July 2015, August 2015, September 2015, and March 2016.   

July 20, 2017 (Thursday) - Its official release might not be until tomorrow -- July 21st -- but the Goodnight Rhonda Lee Roadshow of Nicole Atkins is already officially under way. Thayer Sarrano has the distinct honor of drafting along in Rhonda Lee's Slipstream, which stops tonight at The Burl in Lexington, Kentucky. Thayer will join Nicole for some key action. Before that happens, Sarrano will offer a solo set of her own. If canonical Kentucky bluegrass permitted delays and fuzz pedals, it might sound something like this, and the genre might find itself reinvigorated as a result. Until such time, let flatpickers everywhere sleep easily. The revolution be not televised today, to paraphrase Gil-Scott Heron. The Burl stage will also boast a set this evening by Lexington locals -- Joslyn and The Sweet Compression – who blend funk, R&B, and pop in equal measures. Their kick drum patterns alone should set the dance floor aflame. Watch the Joslyn video “Love on the Double” to see what we mean. Even we Guildwater Scribes had to set our quills and parchment aside for a moment, so as to bust better loose. If it had not been for the chafing of our hairshirts (our cilices), causing us to do some "soul searching" of the type Chuck Brown & Co. did not intend, this Scroll Entry might likely have never been completed. "Love on the Double" is from Joslyn’s self-titled album, available via her website.

As for Nicole Atkins, her latest studio release represents her fourth. Moving forward in time, there is: Neptune City (2007), Mondo Amore (2011), Slow Phaser (2014), and Goodnight Rhonda Lee (tomorrow). You can hear and watch the lead single “Listen Up” over on YouTube. Do not neglect, either, “Darkness Falls So Quiet” -- we are equal parts partial -- as debuted by Billboard last month.   

July 19, 2017 (Wednesday) - Thayer Sarrano hits The 5 Spot in Nashville. Offering a set alongside Sarrano will be Las Vegas native Kashena Sampson, who has an album -- Wild Heart -- due out next month (August 18th). Also performing this evening will be Jeff Shepherd and Weston Hill. As for Sarrano, this 5 Spot appearance represents a segue from her more Southeasterly Summer Shows, to ventures more Midwestern in orientation. Upcoming venues and dates include: (7/20) The Burl (Lexington, Kentucky), (7/22) The Speed Art Museum (Louisville, Kentucky), (8/7) The Ark (Ann Arbor, Michigan), and (8/8) Space (Chicago, Illinois). After that, on August 18th, Sarrano turns back towards the East Coast, destination The Altamont Theatre in Asheville, North Carolina. Apart from the Speed Art Museum, these performances, following tonight's 5 Spot appearance, will be in support of Nicole Atkins, whose new album Goodnight Rhonda Lee is scheduled for release this very Friday, July 21st, on Single Lock Records. You can catch the new video for the new single "Listen Up" over on YouTube. Do not neglect, however, “Darkness Falls So Quiet,” to which we are also partial, as debuted by Billboard a near month ago. On behalf of the new Atkins album, Thayer, playing keys, will also join Nicole for select dates. More on these capers and gambols in the weeks and months ahead (foreshadowing, we say, is for the shameless).

Apart from a few occasions, when Sarrano briefly surfaced in the American heartland, the next few weeks represent the first real jaunt on behalf of her album Shaky into Midwestern environs. In early 2016, Thayer played Bogart's in Cincinnati, Ohio, while on tour with the Drive-By Truckers (DBTs). This is what our Archive Vaults reveal, regarding The East Coast Tour - Version 2.0 of Sarrano. In addition to that appearance, as a preliminary to the Shaky release, back in 2015, Sarrano had the pleasure of opening for Cracker at Shank Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You can read our ancient scroll rendering of that event here. While loitering there, you might also consider an earlier Archival Entry, where, as groundwork to the Shank Hall show, Cracker & Co. were so cool as to release an alternate lead vocal take of "When You Come Down" featuring Thayer Sarrano herself, a song for which David Lowery himself eventually shouldered vocals on the official double album release -- Berkeley to Bakersfield.