Nancy Rost: News

Thanks to the initiative of my friend Andrew Nath, I've joined a band. We've been calling ourselves Bandwagon, or, more recently, Banned Wagon. It's a six-piece, performing a variety of covers (Americana, reggae, pop and rock) and originals by several of the band members. We're playing every other Thursday at the Washington Hotel Coffee Room, and sharing the stage with a bunch of musical friends. This is in preparation for our July tour of Iowa, which we'll undertake on a flat-rack pulled by an old-fashioned tractor from Andy's dad's farm. The Washington Hotel gig itself has been fun and suitably quirky. This week mandolinist Huck Gent accompanied one of my songs on banjo while a conga line of young children danced across the room; bassist Dan Higgs led guitarist Jeremy Higgins and me in a yodeling song; and drummer Chris Marr brought some fantastic Caribbean rhythms to our rendition of "When Doves Cry". I'm looking forward to the next one already.

I had a blast at my guest appearance on Mad Toast Live on November 10. Chris Wagoner and Mary Gaines were fantastic hosts, fun to talk with and to jam with! I got to try out a couple new songs and play some older ones with a new ensemble. The podcast of the show is now streaming at http://www.madtoastlive.com. It will remain in the archives, and can be downloaded, at http://madtoastlive.podbean.com/page/9/

You never know where you're going to find yourself online. New Music Express has posted a video of my song "I Fell Into a Giant Brain" in their very special Giant Brain edition. Context, such as it is, here: http://www.nme.com/artists/giant-brain

By Dan MacIntosh

The Likely Stories trio makes intriguing chamber folk music. Surprisingly, there is a lot of variety contained within this relatively limited genre categorization.

Although Dave Schindele sings lead on "A Matter of Time", this is mostly a female-led outfit. Chimes, however, make Schindele's rare vocal track a memorable one.

Sonic moods range from dramatic, with "American Gothic", to gently contemplative, as on "Yellow Bike" with its acoustic piano and guitar. "My Own History" even incorporates blues elements. Obviously, chamber pop and blues are at opposite sides of the musical spectrum. Therefore, Likely Stories are brave enough to throw in a few relatively unlikely aural elements, which makes them a story well worth the telling.

Details here! http://www.womensradio.com/content/templates/?a=4111&z=8

Isthmus is running this review of the Likely Stories CD in tomorrow's edition:

Likely Stories: Self-Titled
(Porch String)
Rich Albertoni on Friday 08/21/2009

Tracy Jane Comer, Dave Schindele and Nancy Rost have teamed up to make the most creative concept album to come out of Madison so far this year.

Likely Stories is a collection of nine musical tales making up three rounds of sonic turn-taking by the songwriters. It's a structure that highlights the stylistic breadth of the record.

Schindele's acoustic piano is dreamy, rumbling with restlessness on "A Matter of Time." Later, he employs Comer's brooding cello on "Nicole." That track is an odd but gorgeous prayer for Nicole Kidman: "Hope there's a there for you Nicole / Without a role, it's just you and your soul cast together."

Rost's jazzy arrangements are featured in "Golden Gate," about San Francisco suicide jumpers. Comer's "Yellow Bike" is pure folk charm, looking back on a poor but happy childhood in a seaside town.

The album's execution ultimately fulfills the ambitious concept, making Stories a local release to be reckoned with.

http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=26696

I've added some new songs to the music page. Included are:
- The Nancy Rot EP, my "compost punk" project
- The Misusing Telekinesis EP, an acoustic journey with frequent collaborator Helen Robertson
- Cardinal Tetra, a 5/4 harmonized Gregorian chant cum fish tale, co-written with New Zealand lyricist Stephen Wort
- Alas, Poor Gidget, a jazz/metal collaboration with Peter Watkinson of Holland and John Argentiero of Madison
I'm writing and posting regularly these days, so check back for frequent updates!

Wrote 51 songs in 24 hours with a couple of friends. Check out the results of our marathon at
http://5090.fawm.org/fawmers/rondofeast/

Fellow fawmer Matt Pierce has been kind enough to videotape a couple of my coffeehouse shows. I'm starting to post excerpts as they get edited. The latest is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJpPsiYNfFU

Two of my songs, "Artichokes and Emeralds" and "Welcome to Boscobel" are charting well in the Vocal Jazz and Alternative Country categories, respectively, of Songvault.fm. If the songs continue to do well, they will earn a permanent place on this internet radio station's rotation. If you'd like to help, then go to songvault.fm and sign up for an account, then put my name in the search engine to find and vote on my songs. Thanks in advance for your help!

The Likely Stories CD just had its radio debut (to my knowledge) on LG73 in Vancouver, on the program "21st Century Schizoid". http://www.lg73.ca/ Watch this space for more radio and internet play, as we've begun receiving requests for the CD from stations in Australia, Germany, and around the U.S.

Our CD is now available at the following Madison, Wisconsin retailers:

A Room of One's Own Bookstore
B-Side Records
The Exclusive Company

and more to come!

The Likely Stories CD is now available in physical and digital formats at CDBaby.com. Go to http://cdbaby.com/cd/likelystories to order.

The Likely Stories CD is coming out this week! It's now available for order at http://www.likelystories.us/audio.htm If you're in the Madison area, come join us for a CD release concert and celebration at Prairie Coffeehouse, at the intersection of Highways C and DM in Keyeser (near DeForest.)

COMING SOON! Three years in the making! Mad City
Chickens on DVD with over 60
minutes of extras. RELEASE DATE MARCH 24TH 2009!

This is an informative and very entertaining multi-genre film about urban chickens and their people. Part fact, part fiction, all fascinating. I play the part of a Chaplinesque ragtime piano player. This is my cinematic debut!
For more details: http://www.tarazod.com/blog

"AUTO-PSEUDO-MONDO"
is now available on Compact Disc at this address:

http://www.lulu.com/content/2161025
"Auto-Pseudo-Mondo" was conceived by Nancy Rost, Tim Wille and Paul Turrell as a way to expore the core of songwriting. From earlier experiments, they had discovered that lyrics and chords alone do not make a song what it is. There is a third, vital ingredient, they found: the interpretation of these harmonies and words. This third ingredient is what brings a song to life, and this is very much in the hands of the individual artist.

To illustrate this, the three songwriters came up with a lyric and chord sequence to a song called "Auto-Pseudo-Mondo" and asked 18 talented songwriters to add their own third ingredient. The result is 18 songs - all with the same words and the same chords, but they couldn't be more different. From acoustic ballads to pop, from dark and athmospheric to up-beat and life-affirming, from very simple to highly produced and complex, the variety of the songs is immense. Hearing them all in sequence is a remarkable experience: as the words and chords become more and more familiar, while the new songs still surprise and entertain with new novelties. "Auto-Pseudo-Mondo" is an inspiring and fascinating listen for all songwriters, and an eye-opener to the untrained ear who thinks that a song is done once the words and chords have been written.

The contributors to "Auto-Pseudo-Mondo" are (in order of appearance):

Marie Tueje
Mike Skliar
Nancy Rost
Phil Norman
Tyvek Buddy
Tara Craig
Max Vanremmerden
Matt Westcott
Peter Kaarle
Mixtapes and Meltdowns
Tim Wille
Adam G
spinhead
Sean Brown
Erin Maeflower
Kiffa
Paul Turrell
Charlie Cheney



---------------

"Auto-Pseudo-Mondo" is a non-profit project. The CD is priced at $9.95, which includes a revenue for the producer of the CD. This revenue goes towards covering incurred for cover art, including costs of rights for photos and CD mastering costs. The revenue is not expected to cover the actual costs of the project (after all, it is a labour of love), but if the CD goes on to sell more copies than expected, any and all profits from the project will be donated to RIME, Renovation in Music Education, helping young people succeed through innovative music-partnership programs. (http://www.rimemusic.org/).

I'm participating in a songwriting marathon this summer, writing 50 songs in 90 days. So far I'm on track: I've written ten songs since the event began July 4. I've been demoing the songs as fast as I write them - a brand-new experience for me! The songs include piano instrumentals, experimental spoken-word readings of cowboy poetry, and a track feature scissors as the primary percussion instrument. I'm writing more singer-songwriter fare as well. I look forward to sharing the results of this challenge as I practice and refine my favorites of these songs. Stay tuned ....

The Likely Stories CD will be out this summer. Last night we finished the final mixes and set the track order. We'll probably wait until we have the CDs in hand before setting up a CD release party - but I may have copies at gigs sooner than that. Meanwhile, come check out the band's first full show in awhile. We'll be co-billing with Amy Curl & Dan Kennedy at the Project Lodge, one of Madison's newest venues. As always, see the gigs page for details.

Last year, I took a challenge to write some song lyrics with some very specific time and content restraints. Danish songwriter Tim Wille then set the lyrics as a jazzy piece in 7/8 time. English songwriter Paul "Hoopshank" Turrell then did his own jazzy 7/8 piano-based setting of my lyrics, without listening to Tim Wille's version. The resulting pieces are called "Turkey Juice" and can be heard on the Music page of this website.

Tim and Paul were fascinated by the results of this challenge. They built the Wille-Hoopshank Song Challenge Generator to allow songwriters to take random songwriting challenges, alone or with others.

This year, we did a similar challenge on a larger scale. I wrote lyrics using a very narrow set of constraints, Paul and Tim gave people a set of chords to work with, and 23 different songs resulted from the challenge. Writers from all over the USA, UK and Europe participated, and a wide mix of genres is represented. We're working on a compilation CD.

You can hear a few of those songs on the Auto Pseudo Mondo MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/autopseudomondo.

This was my third year participating in February Album Writing Month, and it was the best ever. I wrote 25 songs during the month - almost a song a day! - and I think a lot of them are ones I will be playing for a long time. I have been posting the songs on the Music page of this website, and I will be adding more, and upgrading demos, as the recordings are completed.

Many of these songs were co-written with musicians in Madison and all over the world via internet. Working with all these talented writers has been great fun and a great learning experience - I look forward to sharing with you what we've made.

I now have the February Album Writing Month compilation CDs in hand. They sound fantastic! The music is wonderfully diverse -- and just plain wonderful. I'll have CDs available for purchase at shows, or feel free to contact me to arrange an order.

Likely Stories is working on a collaborative CD due out in 2008. I'm having a great experience getting to record my own songs with my bandmates' cello, guitar, backing vocals and drum parts -- and am loving my first foray into recording piano parts for others' songs. You can preview several of our songs at http://www.likelystories.us.

My song "Golden Gate" will be included on a compilation CD to represent the diversity and quality of this year's February Album Writing Month output. The official release date is February 2008, but I'll have copies in hand by early December 2007 for anyone who might want to buy one then. The compilation includes an amazing array of artists from many genres. The physical CD has a special Strangle Disco megamix bonus track. (See my links page for more info on Strangle Disco.) This year, there will also be an online version of the CD with seven excellent bonus tracks. I'll let you know when that's live!

Check out Likely Stories, my new project with Tracy Jane Comer and Dave Schindele, at likelystories.us!

I will be appearing in a feature-length documentary film about backyard chickens. My role? The piano player. More as this develops.