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Our Lady Peace, Warrant, Nonpoint, Zwan, Santa's Boyfriend(Fiction Plane), Trapt, Evanescence, Revis, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Seven Mary Three, Manmade God, Silvertide and Farm Aid 2003 - .:.
Dear Jeremy, Jacob, Nathan & Jason,
I would like to express my thanks and appreciation to you for joining us at Farm Aid 2003!
Time and again, farmers tell me how much Farm Aid means to them. When we come together to make great music and to speak up for America's family farmers, we give them the hope and strength they need to keep producing healthy, safe food, despite the difficulties they face. Our actions tell food producers, supermarkets, politicians, and the general public that the food we eat and where it comes from is important to us. This message is essential if we truly wish to keep family farmers growing the good food that we want!
Thanks again for sharing your time and talent to support America's family farmers. Together, we're helping to keep family farmers on the land, guaranteeing a future of good food, a healthy environment, and strong communities.
Stay Strong and Positive,
Willie Nelson, President - Willie Nelson
it was by far the best concert i have ever seen although i didn't get to see the pumkins in concert.
i assume the pumkins in concert would have been a touch better.
billy gave the crowd a warm welcome and played about 4 hrs worth of music it didn't seem to be that long though.
blue karma opened for zwan, and i would recommend their music to. a real good opening band. only played about four songs, but what i heard was good.
i am real pumped about going to see them again! - fan review
The first thing I realized after the ZWAN concert last night was that ZWAN kicks The Smashing Pumkins in the ass. ZWAN's concert reminded me what rock and roll is supposed to be like - honest chord crunching guitar rythms with spontaneous free flowing solos and the firepower of the world's greatest drummer. Thank You ZWAN.
A band from Dayton, Ohio opened the show called Blue Karma. They were a lot of fun too. Their sound was kind of a mix between Muse and Metallica, a sort of electronic chord crunching wall of guitars that made me deaf well before ZWAN could even hit the stage.
After the tour bus rush, I talked to Blue Karma with Katie, who also came to the show with me. The guys were really cool. They scored the gig after a lot of hard work from their booking manager and apparently, a deep passion for the Pumpkins. Karma said they grew up on the Pumkins, which to me, was like hearing the story of my life.
Me and Katie bought the CD for $8, two dollars less than the asking price. I think Katie's cute voice echoing, "but we only have eight," helped a lot. Anyway, the BK boys signed the CD and made Katie's night. Jeremy, the lead singer winked at her too. - fan review
BLUE KARMA, one of Dayton's hottest Modern Rock acts, comes to Newport's York Street Cafe on Saturday, joining local faves Buckra and Philosopher's Stone. The band's moody, near-trippy soundÑexhibited gloriously on their new album, The CommunicationÑis perhaps most intriguing for what it isn't. They have bombast but with a sense of grace, a baritone vocalist who doesn't sound like Mr. Ed (hello Creed dude) and there's a refreshing lack of "Rock radio" cliches. A busy management team has been helping the band earn industry attention and, if everything pans out, the commercial AltRock landscape will be all the better for having Blue Karma as a representative. - Mike Breen
One of the finest CD's by a local band we heard was The Communication by Bluekarma. Great, emotional rock songs with a top notch, distictive guitar signature and loads of polish. Somebody sign these guys! - Ron Rollins
There was fine original rock from Anonymous Bosch, Dayton's bluekarma and Premium, the last of whom got their start at the 2002 Bogart's High School Band Challenge. The Light Wires, led by singer/songwriter Jeremy Pinnell, did their superbly moody roots rock.
Bluekarma preceded Jett's closing set and, with guitarist Jacob Esterline lighting the fuse, the band's high-powered hard rock made for the breakout set of the night. - Larry Neger
bluekarma
(Dayton, Ohio) Alternaive/Pop/Rock
Remember those classic John Hughes movies that romanticized everything about being an awkward teenager who's way too introspective? Remember the songs of the '80s always in the background providing the perfect soundtrack for the angst-riddled dramedy? Blue Karma covers the aura of the entire bacchanalian decade with an updated 21st-century growl. Much better, but they still don't know what happened to Jake Ryan.
Dig It: The Toadies, Maladroit-phase Weezer, U2 (JR)
- Mid Point Music Festival
Bands bask in
Main Street spotlight
Jammin' on Main attracts diverse musical lineup
By Andy Knight
The Cincinnati Enquirer
When they take the stage this Friday, Jason Watson and his Bluekarma bandmates won't be concerned with boycotts, bad weather or any of the other ills that have plagued Pepsi Jammin' on Main for several of its nine years.
"People are there for music, and that's it," said Watson, the drummer for the Dayton-based band. "[Jammin' on Main] is a good place for live bands… it brings people out of the woodwork."
- CINCINATTI ENQUIRER
Discography
Untouched Theory (EP)
Into The Dawn (LP) (Live)
The Communication (LP)
Change (Single) radio airplay
The Triode (EP)
The Nashville Sessions (EP)
Defend (Single)
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
This material is the culmination of a very frustrating two years of transition for a band that rose like a shooting star, won best of everything awards, best album, best song, best vocals, opened for Zwan, Evanescence, played Farm Aid and toured to the SW and California. While the musical world of Bluekarma was frustrating so was the life of America. The war in Iraq, the war on terror, the abdication of our civil rights, the destruction of our manufacturing infrastructure, the middle class and the potential end of America's idyllic way of life, at least the illusion of it. All here in the rusting heartland, where another election was stolen, all under the eyes of 4 young idealistic blue collar kids with music business books under one arm and Alan Watts books under another. The lyrics started to change.
The band decided they needed a change. The lead singer who also played rhythm guitar decided he wanted to get off the guitar so he could concentrate on singing. He recruited the 21 year old brother of Justin Holman, the lead singer of a band named Revis, formerly on Epic and a new band was born. Jacob the guitar player could now write parts Jeremy couldn't play while singing. Mark, the new member, was also a singer and knew how to write to Jeremy's voice. They changed their writing style from classic rehearsal writing to two or three band members getting together to craft songs and then teaching them to the rest of the band, recording them in the rehearsal room, honing them and then recording with an excellent young engineer/producer they found in Dayton. This started last September. The song Broken is the dividing line. They stopped playing in November. Song after song emerged, one better than the last until a concept began to form. The process continued every three weeks for months until we all slowly realized what had happened.
In the immortal words of Stevie Nicks' Rhiannon,
"All your life you’ve never seen a woman
Taken by the wind"
Bluekarma became a band taken by the wind, the cosmic wind of inspiration and creativity (three of them wear a Hindu creation symbol around their necks. A concept album began to write itself and they were in the right place to catch the draft. Riffs repeat, songs refer to each other. All without plan. They worked by day, wrote and rehearsed by night (four-five nights a week, week after week, month after month. They became the wind and they became the CD, ferociously intense and emotional as only true inspiration can be. They are on a mission to take a message to the world. They've written an album for our times when albums don't sell and people download singles. Well they have the singles, but people will want the whole CD. They will want the whole story, a story of disaffection, displacement, empowerment, destruction and re-creation. The cycle of life. With some bands, this project could become pompous and dangerous but they pull it off with sincerity and conviction. And power.
They have written a Rumors, an Appetite for Destruction, the first Nirvana record. A once in ten year album at the time we need it the most. A time when the music industry needs it the most. They've done it with a sound that has classical rock overtones, hard strong rock guitars over beautiful slow melodies and a singer with a voice and emotional substance and piercing blue eyes to pull it off. Someone who mesmerizes audiences just standing still on stage. Think Pearl Jam/Tool and U2.
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