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Please check out my good friend Terry O’Brien’s hilarious satire weekly article! He features me in it sometimes :)
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Written by Ryan Loughlin of The Press of Atlantic City
When the coronavirus began to spread across the country last month, one of the first industries hit hardest was live music. As restrictions tightened on what types of businesses were allowed to stay open, live music was canceled, with many left wondering what its fate would be. In a town as entertainment-based as Atlantic City, it’s all but unthinkable to imagine a version of the city without packed bars, theaters, concert venues and nightclubs all featuring top-notch singers, songwriters and cover bands.
A month into the shutdown, and we are still left wondering what the future will look like. But for many of our local musicians, simply not performing is not an option. Though they remain cooped up at home, we have seen a rise in social media-based performances from a variety of acts, proving that not even a pandemic can stunt the output of these artists. And for the millions of South Jersey residents going stir crazy with cabin fever, being able to enjoy a bit of live music from their favorite local acts has served as a bright spot in an otherwise not-so-bright moment in history.
Beth Tinnon, Nancy Malcun, Vince March, Ken Shiles, Robin Gazzara, Shaun Laboy, Patty Blee and The Dead Reckoning’s Charlie Wigo are all local musicians whose names you have seen on marquees and whose faces you have seen belting out song after song on stages throughout South Jersey. They are also part of the massive tribe of working musicians who are now forced to face a mountain of uncertainty about the future of their livelihood.
We spoke with each of them to find out what they have been doing to cope with our new reality and what the future of live entertainment may mean for musicians as a whole … and for all of us.
Atlantic City Weekly: What have you been doing to keep your business as a musician going during the current crisis?
Ken Shiles: The business side of things has completely shut down. We have still been actively creating music, but financially it’s hit a standstill. Performing is 95 percent of our income, so we’ve been hit hard.
Nancy Malcun: I have been livestreaming a lot on various platforms of social media. A lot of people have been putting together online music festivals. I’ve been a part of a couple so far. I think it has been great seeing so much talent I wouldn’t get to normally see because I’m usually playing a gig.
Beth Tinnon: When the weather has been nice enough, I have been entertaining my neighbors outside from my driveway and encouraging them to put their lounge chairs in their own driveways at safe social distances to enjoy the show. The neighbors have been very appreciative, as it gives them time to get out of the house. And the kids have been enjoying my selections, too, especially when we do silly skits and dress up in costumes to make it fun and lighthearted. I’ve (also) been reaching out to my fans by doing live shows from my garage through my Facebook live account.
ACW: Has the quarantine affected you from a creative standpoint?
Vince March: Isolation, for me, boosts my creative process. I like being alone. When I’m alone I have no distractions, I can say what I have to say or what I need to say. I wrote most of my music while locking myself away.
Robin Gazzara: I’ve definitely been more creative since I have more downtime to meditate, connect with nature and unwind. Like many people, I’m constantly going and am focused on my day-to-day. Now that I have this break, I am more in tune with myself, which helps me navigate my creativity when it comes to songwriting.
Patty Blee: I think we are all just trying to figure out what the next steps are to navigate these strange waters. This is a time unlike any other in our history … music and being creative is healing, however it’s hard to access that right now due to the overwhelming numbness of it all. I see many other musicians doing the opposite, and I applaud them because I know how difficult it is.
ACW: Are you able to collaborate or perform in any way with any of the other musicians you normally work with?
Ken Shiles: We have all been individually social distancing, but CiBon and I meet once a week and do a live show. Other than her, our violinist Valerie is stuck in Philly, and we don’t feel like that would be socially responsible of us (to perform in the same room with her).
Nancy Malcun: Well, since the pandemic, it has been difficult to collaborate with others. However, I am loving the online music festivals people are putting on. And I love seeing all the live streams musicians are doing now. It really helps inspire creativity as a musician to see others doing the same thing.
ACW: What do you expect the situation to be like when this is all over? Do you think people will be quick to return to bars and other large gatherings where live music is prevalent?
Shaun Laboy: I think business may take time to open. As much I miss doing gigs at bars and everything, we all gotta be patient and let them get back on track.
Beth Tinnon: I think it will depend on the individual. If you have underlying health issues, you will probably be more cautious about going out into crowds. However, I’m hoping medical advances will make this virus more treatable and less deadly for those individuals. I’m praying vaccinations will be available soon and restore the general public’s confidence in socializing. Live entertainment plays a major role in our economy and has a positive effect on our mental health. People need social outlets to gather to celebrate or, in some sad cases, mourn. It’s part of our healing process as humans.
Charlie Wigo: I think it’ll take a little while for things to get back to normal, but after being cooped up for so long, I believe people will be itching to get out to see live music. The human spirit is the most resilient thing — we seek fellowship and community. Build it and they will come.
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ACW: Have you had any success with virtual tip jars and Venmo and PayPal and things of that nature? A lot of musicians have been using that kind of strategy to try and maintain some form of income during the crisis.
Patty Blee: I did my first livestream on Facebook last Monday with my sister Nancy Hayes. People were very generous on Venmo and PayPal, and I was able to pay some bills … so grateful. However, I don’t believe in asking people who are already on hard times themselves to support things the government has shut down to save lives. I’m looking into different alternatives as we speak.
Charlie Wigo: I am a medical marijuana recipient, so the first few streams I just talked and smoked bong hits. This I now do five nights a week at 10 p.m. and I call it “BONGS AND SONGS: A Virtual Smokeout.” I do bongs, tell stories, talk current events and play songs in a stripped-down, purely acoustic format. I have had moderate success with virtual tip jars, but I didn’t get into the music scene for the money. I am on a spiritual journey to spread love and the music of Jerry Garcia.
ACW: Do you have any online performances planned for the coming weeks?
Robin Gazzara: For the past three weeks, I’ve been performing a livestream every Wednesday on my Facebook called “Wine Down Wednesday” starting at 7 p.m. I play requests, originals and covers while enjoying a local wine every week to help support the local wineries. I’m planning on doing this every Wednesday until this is all over. I look forward to it every week!
Vince March: On my Instagram account I am 20 days into a 30-day song challenge. What I did was instead of putting 30 songs up (one a day for 30 days) that I already play, I decided to learn 30 brand new songs I’ve never played before. It helps pass the time, makes me a better musician, and it keeps each day new.
For more info about each artist as well as photos, live performances and more, go to the following websites:
KEN SHILES: OriginaireMusic.com
BETH TINNON: BethTinnon.com
NANCY MALCUN: NancyMalcunMusic.com
CHARLIE WIGO: DeadReckoningNJ.com
SHAUN LABOY: Facebook.com/Shaun.LaBoy.1
VINCE MARCH: Facebook.com/VinceMarch
PATTY BLEE: PattyBlee.com
ROBIN GAZZARA: Soundcloud.com/robingazzara
Big names, big shows, small venues
Local musicians aren’t the only ones not onstage, as all concerts are currently on hiatus no matter how big the act. In response to that, many artists have chosen to hop on the live stream bandwagon. In March, Dave Matthews performed a set as part of Verizon’s #PayItForwardLIVE, a series of online concerts in support of small businesses, and metal gods Metallica began airing live sets from previous tours every Monday at 8 p.m. on their YouTube channel as well as their Facebook page, in a series they are calling “Metallica Mondays.”
Dead & Co. streams live Grateful Dead shows on YouTube from their archives 8 p.m. every Friday in a series called “Shakedown Stream.” Other acts such as Paul Simon and KISS’ Paul Stanley and Bruce Kulick have recorded videos performing in their homes, releasing individual videos as they see fit. Rocker Neil Young released a powerful video on his YouTube channel for a new song about the crisis titled “Shut it Down 2020.” And Young, Willie Nelson and others got together last week for a streaming version of Farm Aid.
And in our neck of the woods, some of the biggest local acts in Jersey history, including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi and Halsey, will team up 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, for a live concert to benefit New Jersey’s battle against the coronavirus.
Titled “Jersey 4 Jersey,” the show will be streamed through Apple Music and AppleTV apps, E Street Radio on SiriusXM, local television stations WABC, WPVI, WPIX, News12 and NJTV, as well as radio outlets including 1010 WINS, WCBS 880, CBS-FM, WFAN, New York’s Country 94.7, Alt 92.3 and Q104.3.
Other performers include Chelsea Handler, Tony Bennett, Danny DeVito, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlie Puth, Kelly Ripa, Jon Stewart, SZA and Saquon Barkley. All will perform from their homes.
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South Jersey music lovers comment on streaming, music-listening habits
Written by Vincent Jackson of The Press of Atlantic City
If Steve Ball wanted to know what his father was up to at work, he would listen to albums. On records by jazz greats such as drummer Gene Krupa, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, he could hear his father at his job.
Ball, of Atlantic City, is the son of Ronald “Ronnie” Ball, a jazz pianist, who played on albums by these artists and others. As a result, his son grew up playing vinyl, gently putting the needle on records, listening to the entire recordings and storing them properly afterward, so they weren’t damaged.
And now, when Ball, 59, is at home after working as a table game supervisor at an Atlantic City casino, he is playing music every waking hour.
Ball frequents Tunes in Northfield and specializes in rock and jazz from 1970 to 1979 on CD and vinyl. While he admires contemporary acts such as Beck, Kate Bush and Nas, 1970s music has a special appeal because it was made with less concern for commercial considerations, he said.
And when he listens to his music, he does it an album at a time.
“It’s easier to put on a record and let it play,” Ball said. “I think the album has a lot of value.”
But that attitude may make Ball an anomaly. In an age of of MP3s, streaming and YouTube, the idea of listening to an album or CD from beginning to end can seem so ... well, so 1970s.
As recently as 2006, record companies still reaped $9.4 billion from CD sales, according to the New York Times. By last year, that figure had dropped 84 percent to $1.5 billion.
The shift to streaming content has resulted in the number of downloads, once viewed as the music industry savior, falling for three consecutive years with no sign of recovery, the Times said.
All that may help explain why Chicago-based hip hop recording artist Chance the Rapper, 23, releases his music on mixtapes exclusively through Apple. He told Rolling Stone magazine last year that the music industry is dead, and there is no reason to sign to a label.
Superstar rapper Kanye West released his latest full-length recording, “The Life of Pablo,” this year. Neither physical or digital copies of the album are available for sale outside of West’s website, apart from very briefly being on sale on the streaming service Tidal. Since February, West has updated the recording three times.
“I was thinking about not making CDs ever again... only streaming,” West tweeted in March.
For many young, multitasking people, listening to a full-length recording by a single artist in one sitting seems to make as much sense as writing letters with a typewriter.
A.J. Reynolds, 17, of Linwood, likes all sorts of music. He can hear whatever he wants whenever and wherever he wants by making use of Pandora and YouTube. The Mainland Regional High School senior has never listened to an album from beginning to end.
Patty Blee, 53, of Buena, has been playing music professionally for more than 30 years. She spent her most of her formative preteen and teen years during the singer-songwriter era of the 1970s, when such landmark albums such as Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks,” Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” and Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” were considered essential listening.
“That was revolutionary, speaking of someone’s inner life, and the subjects were fascinating to me as a kid not having gone through those experiences,” Blee said. “And I listened to them as there was wisdom to be gleaned from them. These people are telling me the secrets of life and what pitfalls to avoid and what things to admire in the world.”
A singer-songwriter in her own right, Blee released a CD, titled “Disguise,” nationally through Treasure Records in 2002.
“When you recorded back then, you thought in terms of a single. After that, it was how do the songs fit together to make a cohesive whole,” Blee said.
“That’s what an album is. It’s like a photo album. It tells the story about that period of time. That’s why it’s called a record. It’s a record of time. And it’s a period, like all art, that is universal.”
Nancy Malcun, 27, is young enough to be a part of the millennial generation that is much more concerned about singles than albums.
Malcun, of Absecon, was 12 when the iPod came out, but she still has a whole book of CDs that she listens to. Malcun is a singer-songwriter who has been making her living playing live in southern New Jersey for the past four years. For her, listening to entire albums was educational. She would study how the singers vocalized their thoughts.
A 2007 Egg Harbor Township High School graduate, Malcun released a six-song, pop-rock extended play CD, titled “Only the Beginning,” in 2014. She plans to release a full-length recording of her songs next year even as some famous artists are walking away from distributing their material that way. For her, the album format still matters.
“Part of it is holding a physical copy in your hand,” said Malcun. “I always wanted to make an album.”
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Written by Sara Tracey of The Press of Atlantic City
Nancy Malcun remembers watching Kelly Clarkson on the final night of her season of “American Idol” in 2002. Between squeals of excitement and teary hugs, Clarkson, the first winner of the Fox reality singing show, sang “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.”
Malcun was only 9 or 10 at the time, living in Michigan and hoping to fill Clarkson’s shoes one day the way she filled black-and-white composite notebooks with original song lyrics.
The now-26-year-old Absecon resident still has those notebooks, tucked in a drawer of her in-home recording studio, and still has a dream to grace the “American Idol” stage.
Several South Jersey singers, including Malcun, plan to audition for the final season of the talent show. Executives with the show are holding live auditions in Philadelphia this weekend for the 15th season.
Malcun will not be standing among the throngs of maybe-stars at the Liacouras Center starting Sunday. She’ll be heading to the city a little early to sing for a “silver ticket” at the Fox 29 news studios, which guarantees her an audition with “American Idol” producers.
Not that Malcun hasn’t tried to get a record deal in the past. She plays regularly at area restaurants and music venues, up to six days a week in the summer. She’s auditioned before, both for “American Idol,” twice, and for NBC’s “The Voice.” Even if she doesn’t make it to Hollywood, she hopes any kind of exposure will catch the ears of someone who can sign her to a record deal or otherwise advance her music career.
“It’s an opportunity on a bigger scale for someone who’s normal, like me, to be able to have that opportunity to make it big,” she said.
As of Tuesday, she wasn’t sure what she might potentially sing for judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick, Jr. She’s been told her voice is similar to that of acoustic pop-y, R&B singer Tori Kelly. But Malcun says she’ll sing just about anything — country, ’90s pop, current Top 40 hits, she sings them all.
“American Idol” is a reality program where even the losers can be winners, when compared to other talent-based shows such as “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent,” said Linwood-based vocal coach Sal Dupree.
This year, Dupree said six or seven of his students, who live from Cape May County to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, will be auditioning.
“I try to explain to my students, not always the best win. In 15 years of ‘Idol’, you’ve had eight losers that are superstars,” he said. He was talking about now-household names who didn’t get the title of American Idol, such as Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken and Adam Lambert.
He said since the second season of “American Idol” he’s had about 15 students make it to Hollywood week, the second round of judging and narrowing down of the contestant pool. That week, he says, is the toughest part of the audition process, with singers starting in the afternoon and not sleeping until 3 a.m.
He’s kept in touch with the students who make it to Hollywood week — Egg Harbor Township natives Joe Catalano (Season 7) and Christian Foti (seasons 11 and 12), for example — via Skype, making sure they’re at the top of their game. He’ll do the same with any of the local contestants who fly out to Hollywood this last time, too.
Before Hollywood Week, however, Egg Harbor Township teen Niyah Timberlake will need to stand out among the hundreds of other singers who will join her at auditions in Philadelphia this weekend.
Timberlake, a 16-year-old musical theater student at Charter Tech High School for the Performing Arts in Somers Point, will drive to Philadelphia with her cousin, Larry, who also wants to sing for the judges, and her mom.
Like Malcun, Timberlake has her own “American Idol” idol. Jordin Sparks was only 17 years old when she won the sixth season of the Fox show. Timberlake looks up to Sparks because she said they have similar rich, deeper female voices. She hopes her smoky voice and her song choice — “Back to Black” by the late Amy Winehouse — will set her apart.
She said she’s upset there won’t be more seasons of “Idol,” not only because it’s one less recourse for aspiring vocalists. She said she’d rather her voice mature a little bit: A 20-year-old Timberlake may sound better than the 16-year-old vocal chords she’s working with.
“I’ve been watching this show since I was 8 years old,” Timberlake said. “It makes me so sad that there won’t be any more seasons.”
Written by Scott Semet of At The Shore
Nancy Malcun knows just how hard it is to get to the upper levels of the music industry, and she’s determined not to let any of the usual pratfalls prevent her from getting there. She’s been performing in overtime lately, bringing both her talent and work ethic to many local establishments. She’s already garnered many accomplishments to her name, but feels as if this is just the beginning.
“I never thought I’d be at this point,” says Malcun, reflecting back on her music career to date. The talented Absecon native, who until recently worked full time as a server in a local restaurant, has managed to make performing and writing music her full-time occupation. With gigs this week at Applebee’s, Chickie’s and Pete’s and a set in Pennsylvania, she’s ready to spread her music to as many stages as possible.
Malcun is a self-taught guitarist who utilized all of the resources available to the modern musical student. YouTube was her primary teacher, along with various online guitar tab sites, which she calls “my go-to measure.” In fact, she actually began composing long before she even picked up the guitar.
“I started songwriting very young,” she says. “I had the melody in my head, but I couldn’t play any instruments.”
Recently, Malcun has played in several local spots, gigging several times each week. Though there are many venues with live music, most prefer cover bands or established artists, not newcomers with something to prove. Her sets are comprised primarily of solo acoustic renditions of classic cuts from the 1960s and ’70s, along with some personal favorites.
Though Malcun is a self-confessed “big fan” of that era, her main priority is trying to perform as many original compositions as possible. Often compared to Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift and other pop singers, Malcun says she also incorporates rock and R&B into her sound — and will even throw in a little Johnny Cash.
As for the lyrical content, Malcun says she is tackling “universal themes” and writes about experiences that everyone has felt at one time or another.
“Everybody goes through heartbreak, relationships and love,” she explains. “You know, all that mushy stuff.”
Though many of her songs retain a positive energy, Malcun also dabbles in some heavier topics, including emotional and verbal abuse.
“It took awhile to convince myself to release it,” she says. “But if I’m helping someone through it, it’s all worthwhile.”
The next step, Malcun says, is to begin moving beyond the South Jersey area, with an eye on bigger musical markets, such as Philly, where there are more opportunities for original acts.
Although she has yet to perform an entirely original set, she’s been working overtime in the studio on her debut release “Only the Beginning,” which is available on iTunes.
Malcun has already begun working on her follow-up release, and feels she actually has to pull the reins in from time to time.
“I have to hold myself back sometimes,” she says. “You need to build anticipation.”
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