Bredan Mayer New Single “Getaway Car”

Biography:

Music has always been in Brendan Mayer’s blood. The son of longtime guitarist for Jimmy Buffett, Peter Mayer, Brendan grew up surrounded by the music industry and all that comes with it. Since a young age, he has been steadily crafting his own unique voice as a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As lead singer of Nashville buzz-band The Turf, Brendan played extensively throughout the Nashville area and elsewhere, sharing the stage along the way with successful acts like American Bang, Jeff the Brotherhood, De Novo Dahl, Turbo Fruits, and How I Became the Bomb, among others. Now, after graduating from Boston University, his current solo project is pushing his singular melodic style and voice to new heights. Possessing an adventurous yet mature musical sensibility that belies his still-young age, Brendan is ready to make his own mark on the world of music that he knows and loves.

Subject: City of Norwich Fireworks will be Saturday, July 5

Due to the impending bad weather, the City of Norwich Fireworks have been rescheduled to be at dark over the Norwich Harbor. Please join us for our annual extravaganza!

Questions can be directed to Michael Franklin Fireworks committee chair: (860) 460-8144
Updated information can be found on the fireworks Facebook page:
https://m.facebook.com/NorwichCTFireworks

Thank you
Miria Toth
NCDC
Office and Marketing Manager
77 Main Street; Norwich, CT
Office- 860-887-6964
Cell- 860-984-5522

Red River Entertainment Releases

The Truckin’ Sessions Trilogy

Dale Watson Adds 3rd to Truckin’ Sessions Collection

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Back in 1998, maverick country traditionalist Dale Watson issued a 14-song collection of songs in the tradition of Red Simpson, Merle Haggard, Red Sovine and Dave Dudley called The Truckin’ Sessions.  A decade later and Watson released another 14-song outing, The Truckin’ Sessions 2.

 Now, the self-titled “Ameripolitan” artist is adding another new 14-song set, The Truckin’ Sessions 3, to the group, and Red River Entertainment will release them all in one package, The Truckin’ Sessions Trilogy, on July 8. 

 As with the first two releases, Truckin’ Sessions 3 is an immediately likable set and it doesn’t matter if the listeners are even truckers.  “The first two got great response, and a lot of women really liked the songs,” Watson said.  “That really did surprise me.”

 Watson stays true to form on the album, writing and recording without the use of modern effects and not trying to appeal to the current state of so-called “Country” music.  Rather, Watson follows the tradition set  by country troubadours like Ernest Tubb , Hank Williams, Sr., Bob Wills,  Waylon Jennings, among others. All the songs on the The Truckin’ Sessions Trilogy could easily have been written in the 1960s.

 Watson manages some swing with “Texas Armadillo” and keeps humor alive on songs like “Suicide Sam,” “Phillip At The Station,” and “Lugnutt Harry.”   Watson is joined by duet partner Amber Digby for the charming “We’re Trucking Along,” which may be the first-ever truckin’ song duet.

 “Birmingham Breakdown” and “I’m A Truckin’” are right in the middle-of-the-hammer lane, while the Haggard-esque “It’s Been A Long Truckin’ Day” will appeal to anyone who works hard for a living.  Watson’s Lone Stars display some blistering playing on “10-100.”  Of particular note is “Freewheelin’” which Watson wrote live as a guest on Sirius XM Radio’s Roaddog Show, during which truckers called in and gave Watson the actual lines of the song!

 Watson’s father was a trucker who moonlighted as a country singer so his love of the big rigs and truckin’ songs came honestly.  Watson grew up in the CB Generation when songs like “Convoy,” “Teddy Bear” and “Six Days On The Road” were part of mainstream country radio playlists.  “There’s a definite style of music that has to be used when writing a truckin’ song,” Watson explains. “The words mean a lot.  You can’t cover them up with a wall of music.”

Born in Alabama, raised outside of Houston and based in Austin, Watson first emerged on the music scene in the mid 1990s, bringing with him a hardscrabble honky-tonk tradition that has won him an international following, earned him induction into the Austin Music Hall of Fame and established him as a leading crusader against the “Nashville Rash” plaguing the country music industry. Without compromising his musical values, he sounds here like a singer with nothing to prove and no one to fight.

Watson wrote all the songs on The Truckin’ Sessions 3, and produced them using his own Lone Stars band. The results are pure Dale Watson.

http://www.theconnextion.com/dalewatson/

By Jon Persson

Generations of New Londoners scan the waters just beyond the Thames River, hoping for the first spotting of a whaling ship due to complete the first leg of her voyage into freshly charted history. The day is clear, with a fresh and fair breeze, and anticipation ripples through the leisurely crowd on New London’s City Pier. And then, she appears a figure on a passage across time and into the logbooks of new generations.

The Charles W. Morgan approaches the conclusion of this first venture onto the seas in seventy-three years with a cautious grace, testing the waters slowly despite the obvious confidence her keepers have in her ability to make the passage. It is a reverential handling of America’s oldest commercial ship, the last wooden whaling ship, the lucky vessel which plied a world of oceans for eighty years, to retire at the age of one hundred in a berth of gravel. Her role is that of teacher now, young generations born long after the heavy work of whaling had long since become passé. The thousands, the tens of thousands, who have walked her decks over the past decades have done so from a stationary perch on history’s long unfolding tale.

May 17th, 2014, a Saturday, marks the day when the Morgan returns to sea and becomes a dynamic instrument of teachable moments. A ship is not built to be forever berthed, and waters flow under keels whether they are docked or underway. To bring the experience of a wooden whaling ship into ports where once they were a part of the common commerce is an obvious step which still requires the steady influence of knowledgeable people to direct the process forward.

The Charles W. Morgan grows larger as the distance to her waiting dockage grows shorter. The black hull and partially rigged spars, awaiting the sails which will be set for the first time at sea in decades, follows the lead of fireboats which announce her arrival behind spumes of water, which emulate the spouting of great whales whose generations have also passed to time. For this first venture at sea, the Morgan is under tow, with small craft offering steering nudges along the way.

A fleet of four whaleboats have rowed along with her, the lithe double-ended craft which once, bravely or foolishly, challenged the great leviathons of the sea to mortal combat in the name of commerce and lamplight fuel. Today their crews are volunteers, honored to escort iconic ship on her latest voyage into history

And finally the great ship is at City Pier, her second ever visit to this once great center of whaling. She brings with her opportunities to board the ship, to visit onshore displays and educational tents, to row in the whaleboats that have accompanied her. This is the mission now, to teach of old ways and old days, and thereby provide a perspective on how life today may effect life a century from now.

The unimaginably hard and austere life of a whaling ship crew was once commonly acceptable, the hunting of whales to near extinction a normalcy. The oceans were vast, uncharted, mysterious, and seemingly inexhaustible then; we have knowledge now, born of this historical experience, yet we too will one day be seen as unwise in our use of Earth’s resources. There are many lessons and much wisdom to be gleaned from a whaling ship on a new voyage of discovery.

The weekends of May 24-25 and May 31-June 1st will be open to the public for tours of the Charles W. Morgan, for dockside events, and observe the whale boats. More information may be found on the great oceans at www.mysticseaport.org.

Story & Photo

by Robert J. O’Shaughnessy

Captain Geof Jones and his father Stephen Jones had no idea they would be providing assistance to a disabled boater when they set out to watch the Morgan’s journey to New London.Upon returning to Mystic from New London Captain Jones heard a call from Stan Wells’  vessel, the Blue Chip off Avery Point in Groton.  Geof responded and reached the 25-foot vessel just as did the USCG and the Mystic Fireboat. The Anne then towed Blue Chip to Noank where Stan and Nancy Wells keep their vessel.  Another job well-done by Captain Geof and the Anne.