photo by Kostas Lymperopoulos, Right Stuff Studios

Ever since I reviewed Taylor Tote’s eponymous EP back in 2015, she has continued to impress new fans and make great strides in the world of music. A native of Tinton Falls, New Jersey, Tote and her top-notch band have been taking the musical world by storm. Since I last covered her 4-song project, Taylor has continued to perform many high-profile out of state shows including venues in NY, PA, MD, CT, DE, TN, CA and potential upcoming shows to AZ and VA.   Her audience continues to expand gaining exposure across the nation at each show.

Taylor has performed at the world’s most significant trade-only event for music products industry, NAMM, in both Nashville, TN and Anaheim, CA.  This past Winter NAMM there was over 99,000 attendees from across the world.  She performed at the 2017 Penn State THON for over 10,000 students and was recently named NYC Hard Rock Rising 2017 Division Champions.

Tote’s main influences include Amy Winehouse, Grace Potter, Adele, Maroon 5, Train, and Stevie Nicks. American Songwriter called Tote’s full-band performance as one of the highlights of the New Jersey Light of Day festival for her “wide, emotional vocal range and pop sensibilities.” The Asbury Park Press cites a “lilting twang in her voice that shades from corn-fed country to big pop and vampy jump blues.” I described Tote at the Aquarian as an “Artist that is dominating, empowering, strong, soft, sexy, and insanely fun. Her attitude and stage presence is smooth, sweet, and controlled. However, it can be flipped like a switch to a rock and roll, hell-stomping diva. Her range is one of a rock ‘n’ roll vixen that will send your music senses on the ride of your life.”

Totes award-winning “Fighter” music video received three prestigious awards in 2017 from Garden State Film Festival, The Asbury Park Music and Film festival and Los Angeles Movie Awards in Hollywood, CA. “Fighter” has had over 125,000 views and has been written up in numerous publications, including a national feature on Joan Lunden’s blog. The long-time host of Good Morning America called the song a “must download, ” and Tote is even conscientious enough to contribute all proceeds from Itunes downloads to childhood cancer research through Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer.

Between all the live work and video’s that Tote handles, she also has found the time to work on new material with Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum engineer, and producer David Ivory. Ivory, who has worked with some of the music’s best performers such as Grammy-Winning Halestorm, The Roots, Patti Labelle, Silvertide and much more. Ivory is in the process of getting ready to record a pair of live Taylor Tote band shows coming up in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The band will also be utilizing the film crew of Right Stuff Studios (New Jersey) who will be on hand to capture performance and audience interaction with the group. Ivory will be putting the band through its paces on October 13 at the world-famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park and then at Puck Live, an intimate live music venue in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on October 21.

I had the recent opportunity to hear some of the new music, and while it is still unreleased, I can say that she is on the right track. Songs such as “Forever Young,” a mid-tempo country-flavored number featuring outstanding guitar work from Nick Ryan. Clean and concise, his playing helps the song stand out in spades. Tote’s toned vocal skills are the guiding light on this sure fired hit and a highlight of what was sent to me. Other songs include “Please Don’t Break My Heart,” a poppy, jazzy feel over the top of Totes powerful pipes. Choruses pop where they should as does the verse work and bridges. Another song that is sure to turn heads and garner attention for the band.

They also sent me a song called “Mama Told Me” Steeped in the traditions of R&B and Blues, “Mama” lays in the pocket in just the right way. Tote and company prove they can rock-and-roll but also find a different musical voice that works well for them in within a different format. Guitars are soulful and bark when needed. The middle-Eight solo (Performed by Tom Briant) is Clapton-inspired gold straight out of 1970. Drums and bass nail this bluesy gut-wrenching hit to the proverbial floor. The chorus for this song is my favorite out of all that I had the chance to listen to.

I can’t really discuss anything else about the yet to be titled record, but Taylor said songs would be unveiled at the live shows. The upcoming live Stone Pony show will be a “hands-on” test of new material aimed at old and new fans alike. Tote utilizes a crack band of players which includes Tom Briant, Tote, Aaron Manzo, Anthony Flora, and Nick Ryan.

photo by Kostas Lymperopoulos, Right Stuff Studios

Tickets for The Stone Pony show are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. There will be limited VIP tickets available for $40. That fee includes a meet and greet, a T-Shirt, autographed poster and early entry. For advanced tickets and VIP packages contact taylortotemusic@gmail.com. Advanced tickets are also available at The Stone Pony Box Office.

The Doylestown, PA show will offer similar arrangements for the 10-21 date at Puck Live. For more information on Taylor Tote band, please go to their website. That address is www.taylortote.com..

Written by John Pfeiffer

“My son is quacking like a duck for you.”

I’ve learned to expect the unexpected when I interview artists, but am always pleasantly surprised to be, well, pleasantly surprised. Speaking with South Jersey (by way of Philly, DC and Baltimore) blues-rock musician Jason Ager last week was akin to a fun family roadtrip sing-a-long complete with back up vocals provided by the sweet toddler in the backseat.

Wondering what inspired him to start playing music, Ager says his parents saw him singing around the house and signed him up for piano lessons (he also plays a mean guitar, banjo and tuba) and “that’s where it all started,” recalls Ager. “Then, my brother gave me Van Halen’s Diver Down album and I thought this is awesome; but it was really U2’s Achtung Baby and R.E.M’s Automatic For The People that truly inspired me as a musician. I still listen to them rigorously, even though my music sounds nothing like that.”

Ager’s original music has shades of hip-hop and R&B influences and is peppered with his witty, fast-paced humor. His last album, Born To Surf, is a fun, cheeky showcase of Ager’s unique songwriting style and delivery and was collaborated on with his long-time backing band, the C.O.P.O, comprised of bassist Austin O’Connor and drummer Sheri Walsh.

“We always joke around about what it [C.O.P.O] stands for,” says Ager, “but for me it’s always stood for The City of Philadelphia Orchestra, although we’ve told audiences that it stands for a million different things over the years. I can’t even remember what the original acronym was for.”

Their third album, Porch Light, is set to be released this fall and Ager is immensely excited about the overall soulful feel the album’s songs convey. “They have a retro feel to them,” he explains. “We’ve always danced around the soul music genre, but we’ve hit the nail on the head this time around with some R&B sounding songs of the 60s and early 70s. We’re still hammering out some parts and getting everything to where we want it to be, but we’re pretty excited about it; it’s our best sounding and catchiest album to date.”

With seven-eight tracks, Porch Light is longer than an EP, but shorter than an LP and suffered a slight set back in production when the pipes burst in the studio causing some damaging flooding, preventing the group from recording at all over the summer. Now, they were able to pick up where they left off and are in the home stretch of mixing and mastering the final touches.

Asking which track off the new record he’s most excited about, without missing a beat, Ager launches into a fascinating story behind the song “Overload” which is also his first foray into social commentary [“I’m so scared to be alone with you, excuse me while I stare down at my phone”]. “I teach German at a local university and a lot of the songs I write have titles with combined words, because that’s all German is-combining two different words together for a new meaning. This song came from going into my dark classroom and seeing all the students looking down at this glowing light, which was their cell phones. They’re all in constant communication, just not with each other, so I got this idea about writing a song centering on information I overload. The second verse is especially personal [“there’s no distance between you and me”] and illustrates stage fright and social anxieties.”

Currently performing up and down the east coast, Ager loves playing listening rooms because of their intimacy and opportunity t connect with his audience, especially since a lot of his song catalog incorporates humor. Listening rooms give Ager the chance to engage more with his listeners. “It’s always great to have the kind of audience where I can tell these zany stories of how I come up with these songs,” laughs Ager.

Performing at Puck Live in Doylestown this Friday, Ager is planning a show-stopping, rollicking good time. “We’re having a video crew come out and we’ll be filming a live music video, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

So get ready to cut loose, practice your best Kevin Bacon dance moves and kick off your Sunday shoes because this Friday’s gonna rock.

DC singer/songwriter Paul Pfau has just become a household name in Australia after he generously allowed his hit blues-tinged song, “Happy To Be”, to be the theme song of the Sunshine Coast Animal Refuge’s new promo video. But besides making huge strides across the pond, the winner of the Washington Area Music Award for Best Debut Album tours the U.S. heavily throughout the year, always returning to a large, supportive fan base in DC.

“Almost all of my close friends are DC musicians,” says Pfau. “Obviously, no matter what you do or where you are there will always be douchebags, but in the DC music scene there’s so much camaraderie. Just last year I had some problems with my voice and couldn’t sing for six months, [local bands and friends] Melodime and The Morrison Brothers Band wanted to help out and let me play guitar with them so I could work. I went on tour with Melodime last summer and by being able to do that, I met so many people I work with now that I never would have met if it wasn’t for Melodime. We just help each other out here and want to see each other succeed.”

Pfau’s family lived in Oklahoma for a short time when he was a kid and basically lived down the street from Garth Brooks. Pfau’s dad was in the church choir with Brooks’ mother-in-law and the family attended his concerts right as Brooks was getting his start. “I remember at one show, he was hanging from a zip line and he’d be rocking out while the stage was on fire. I just remember thinking how cool that was.”

As a teenager, Pfau loved listening to Eric Clapton and Lenny Kravitz. He played rhythm guitar with a few bands throughout high school before getting bored doing that and instead began singing and writing songs. Pfau was in the midst of a mini-tour in 2009 to promote his acoustic EP when he opened for The Lumineers at Puck Live in Doylestown.

“They were playing after me and it was just a trio-the girl who plays the cello, the percussionist and the lead singer. There’s this tiny green room there, almost the size of a closet, so we all decided to walk around town. They were really cool, nice people, but I wound up leaving their show early. A few years later I remember seeing that Billboard Magazine was Tweeting about The Lumineers and I kicked myself for leaving that show early.”

Besides jamming with The Beach Boys in Winchester, VA (“I asked Bruce Johnston if he had any advice for me and he said ‘stay in school,'” laughs Pfau) and playing a show at World Cafe Live with The 9 Songwriter Series, Pfau has been able to play some pretty sweet gigs and is incredibly humble and grateful. “I wouldn’t be able to do any of this if it weren’t for the fans.”

Recording his debut full-length album, Happy To Be, in 2012 at Cue Recording Studios in Falls Church, VA, Pfau was adamant about how he wanted the album to sound. “It wasn’t snapped to a grid,” Pfau explains, “the bass and drum were all recorded live, the only thing that was overdubbed was the keyboards; it was really a free-form process.”

Produced by Pfau and Sean Russell, the album was mixed and mastered by Jeff Juliano (John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band) and Grammy winner Brad Blackwood (Maroon 5, Sara Bareilles) within the span of about five months. “Jeff called me up and told me that Sean sent him the album and he loved it,” recalls Pfau, “he wanted to throw his hat in the ring to mix it. Then Jeff recommended Brad, who has literally mastered just about every record coming out today. Everything just fell into place on it’s own, nothing was ever forced.”

When I ask Pfau how he gets into a songwriting groove, he says that he doesn’t fight the songs, “I don’t sit down and wrestle with it until it’s done, most of the ideas I’ll get while I’m driving to shows. It’s a slow process, but none of the songs on the album were difficult to write. There’s a quote from Mad Men that always comes to me when I’m writing. Don Draper was talking to Peggy and she asks him how he comes up with these awesome, creative ideas. He said ‘you take an idea and you think about it as hard as you can for as long as you can and then you stop and the answer will come to you,’ so when writing a song, I try to focus as much energy as I can up until the point where I get angry with it, then I just let it go and over time it just comes back to you.”

Pfau continues, “”Girl Like You”, for instance, is a song about two bad relationships and I was thinking, man, this love thing sucks, I wish I could just find this perfect girl who was basically just a figment of my imagination. Each verse talks about the past relationships, but although those times were hard, it wasn’t hard for me to get the lyrics out and write the song.”

Pfau got a lot of help when he put out a call to fans to help record the music video for “Happy To Be”. Filmed at the Bright Box Theater in Winchester, VA, the entire music video is filmed on iPhones and then edited by musician/videographer Don Kim. “I went online and said I was looking for seven to eight people with iPhones who are coming to the show to film some footage during “Happy To Be” and the response was overwhelming. I also downloaded an app that allowed me to set my phone up on a tripod and film time-lapse photography. It was great to have so many people be a part of the process.”

Recently signing with Degy Entertainment, Pfau will hit the road this summer for a three week tour with Athens, GA singer/songwriter Connor Pledger, playing several shows sponsored by MacMillan guitars including the famed Eddie’s Attic in Atlanta, GA and a performance at the Blueberry Festival in Bethlehem, PA.

In the Fall, Pfau will perform some college campus shows before heading back to the studio to start recording a new album which will hopefully be released by the end of the year. “I love playing college shows,” says Pfau. “90% of the music I listen to today I discovered while in college. I feel like there’s a certain magic and discovery happening there.”

Pfau’s website explains how to pronounce his name as “rhymes with wow” and if you catch Pfau live this summer, you can see firsthand just how well he lives up to this. I’ve been lucky enough to see him perform a few times this year, so be ready to be “wowed.”