Jodie Manross

The list of memorable left-hand guitarists doesn’t end with Jimi Hendrix. Other notable southpaws include bluesman Albert King, surf maestro Dick Dale, Black Sabbath’s Tommy Iommi, The Cars’ Elliot Easton and a little grunge star named Kurt Cobain.

New York folkie Jodie Manross also plays left-handed. When asked to name her all-time favorite lefties besides Hendrix, she went with Paul McCartney. (Although McCartney is best known as The Beatles bassist, he’s laid down some killer guitar tracks, notably the snowfall fingerpicking on “Blackbird.”)

“It's not as much how a lefty plays, but the fact they are playing left-handed,” Manross, 35, says. “The first few teachers I asked wanted me to switch even though it did not feel natural. So when I see a lefty player, it’s just simply exciting to see them playing left handed.”

Manross, who relocated from Knoxville to Manhattan in 2006, peppers her Joni Mitchell strums with world music lilt. Tracks like “Still” and “Evening Raga” are prime examples of this fusion, and wouldn’t sound out of place on a Robert Plant and Alison Krauss disc.

Most of the desert-mystic vibe comes courtesy of Laith Keilany, who contributes evocative lines on the oud, an 11-stringed instrument. (Keilany is recovering from cancer, which is in remission, and isn’t currently touring with Manross.)

“He’s been my best friend for 14 years,” Manross says of Keilany. “A lot of what we do is trying to meld his Middle Eastern music with the blues. Anytime he plays the oud everybody perks up. It becomes almost like kindergarten show-and-tell.”

What do you love most about the blues?
To me, it’s not cerebral. I just feel it, ever since I was a child. One of my favorite moments in my life was when we got to open for B.B. King a couple of years ago.

Did you get to meet B.B.?
I had the honor of getting to hang out on his tour bus. He had his laptop out and kept playing different jazz tunes for me.

What brought you from Knoxville to New York?
I lived in Knoxville for 10 years and was ready for a change in scenery. I’d performed in New York for the last couple of years. Honestly, it was the easiest move. Everything fell into place: finding an apartment, finding a job. Moving to New York was effortless, and not many people can say that. (Laughs.)

You’re going to acupuncture school in New York. What parallels can you draw between acupuncture and playing music?
They’re both art forms that are all about intensity, passion, concentration and connecting with people.

What inspirations does your new album “Myth of Solid Ground” draw from?
People that got me though things like Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel. To me this album drew from them instead of trying to fit a mold of what’s popular now in music. It’s been an intense couple of years, with moving to New York and the impact that’s had on my life and relationships.

You’ve worked as a librarian and your MySpace page lists “children’s books” as being one of your musical influences. What the best children’s book ever?
There are so many. I love “Lost and Found” by Oliver Jeffers. It’s about a boy that befriends a penguin, and it’s such a beautiful, poetic book.

Jodie Manross plays Coffee Underground at 8:30 p.m. Nov. 27. Tickets are $5. For more information, call 864-298-0494.
And for more information on Jodie Manross, go to www.jodiemanross.com.
- Greenville News, Metromix (Greenville, SC) Nov. 25, 2009

Knoxville has been without its favorite songbird ever since Jodie Manross departed for New York back in January; Manross's lovely, fragile warbling had been a scene staple hereabouts for the last several years, heard in venues from the Old City to Market Square's Sundown stage to points west of the city proper. But fans of the wayward siren can take heart, as Manross will make a special appearance at the WDVX Blue Plate Special, part of a twin bill that also features current Knoxville five-piece neo-traditionalist outfit the T. West Band. Come enjoy the soothing sounds of Manross' familiar croon, and say hello, again, to a dear old friend. (M.G.) - Metropulse (Knoxville, TN)

Songwriter finding New York a fine fit

By Wayne Bledsoe (Contact)
Friday, September 21, 2007
JODIE MANROSS

Jodie Manross has found a lot of Knoxville connections in New York City.

Jodie Manross has found a lot of Knoxville connections in New York City.

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Longtime Knoxville performer Jodie Manross began 2007 by moving to New York City.

“It’s absolutely amazing, surreal and vibrant and exciting,� she says. “It’s been everything that I could have hoped for and more.�

Speaking on her cell phone, Manross is standing outside of the medical spa in the Tribeca area of Manhattan, where she works part time.

“Part of the reason I had to move up here is I realized that all the songs I was writing were about New York,� says Manross. “I was like, ‘Gee, the message is there. I guess I should take note.’�

Manross, who will perform today on WDVX’s “Blue Plate Special,� moved to New York with Knoxville actor Joe Beuerlein, who performed in a number of productions in East Tennessee, including “Hedwig and the Angry Inch� and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,� and has landed two appearances in “Law and Order.� The two are living in a brownstone building in Harlem.

Manross has sisters who were already living in the city, so she already had a support system in New York. Still, actually living there took some adaptation.

“Gigging here is very different,� says Manross. “You don’t get paid as well, but it’s more about making connections.�

She says that in most cases, artists play only 45-minute sets, rather than the long evenings she often played in Knoxville.

“When people have to play longer than that, New York musicians don’t know what to do!� she says.

Manross, in fact, had to fill in at a recent 9/11 memorial show because she was the only participating artist with more material.

In the eight months since her move, Manross has managed to land some weighty gigs, including shows at the Knitting Factory and the Living Room. She’s also performed at several benefit shows, including a recent fundraiser for breast cancer research and a show at the United Nations called “24 Hours for Darfur.�

“I had written a song about Darfur, and they’d heard me sing it and asked me to perform,� says Manross. “I’m trying to focus a lot these days on tying music to activism.�

She says local artists don’t perform as often in New York, because audiences move on to other things more quickly than in smaller towns.

“There are so many artists, and the audience has to choose from 100 different things going on,� she says.

She is putting together a children’s program to present in libraries, and she recently spent a week performing in Denmark and visiting fellow Knoxville expatriate Casey Jones, who now lives in Copenhagen.

Manross has a new album is in the works, but with regard to recording it, she plans to wait until her longtime musical partner, Laith Keilany, recuperates from cancer treatment in Nashville.

The two have collaborated on some songs by e-mail, and Manross plans on visiting Keilany while the former is in Tennessee.

She says everywhere she goes she runs into someone from Knoxville or someone who has a Knoxville connection. She’s working on some projects with former Knoxvillian Mark Lamb, who operates Mark Lamb Dance in New York and was a founder of Circle Modern Dance in Knoxville.

And she recently met a man on the street with a Knoxville connection.

“He said, ‘I was in a horrible relationship in South Knoxville!’ So I said, ‘Sir, that is a song right there!’ So I wrote a song based on what he told me.�

Manross says the music community in New York is, as in Knoxville, always supportive.

“You never really meet a mean musician,� says Manross. “I keep telling them they need to come to Knoxville to perform.�

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co. - Knoxville News-Sentinel (Sept. 22, 2007)

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A39591
Saturday, November 4

Jodie Manross, The Cave

Sometimes big things really do come in small packages, and Jodie Manross
proves no exception to the rule. Her honeyed vocals pack a punch that will
nearly bowl you over in spite of her delicate 5'2" frame. More
folk-songstress than rock-goddess, the petite powerhouse has an inane
ability to thread together gorgeous arrangements with atmospheric melodies
that highlight her vocal versatility. She's a spark of a whisper swelling
into a bona fide flame. $4/ 7:30 p.m. —KJ - Indy Week (Chapel Hill, NC) Nov. 4, 2006

Jodie Manross is Not to be Missed (Los Angeles Entertainment Today)
Entertainment Today
Thursday, February 26 2004

For such a headstrong bunch, Los Angelenos can be distressingly
unmotivated when it comes to seeking out burgeoning musical talent,preferring instead the weeknight comfort and safety of shows from buzz-minted bands with an appendage of “the� tacked onto their moniker.
Since I can’t physically poke each of you, I urge you to take the goading upon yourselves and seek out Jodie Manross, a singer-songwriter whose crisp voice and illuminative songcraft belie her diminutive stature. The
comparisons run fast, deep and varied—Shelby Lynne, Aimee Mann, Sarah McLachlan—but take your pick only after giving the North Carolina-bred,
Tennessee-based Manross a half hour of your time. Equal parts wistful and urgent, it’s atmospheric music that will touch your heart and mind. Her special 8:30 L.A. set at the Room 5 Lounge (www.room5lounge.com), with a
few surprise sit-in guests, promises to be luminous. And if it makes you
feel better, you can call her “the� Jodie Manross. (Brent Simon) - Los Angeles Entertainment Today

Jodie Manross finds strength in standing alone (Maryville Daily Times,
Nov. 12, 2004) By Steve Wildsmith

Jodie Manross offsets her diminuitive stature with a voice of resounding
power, but even its angelic qualities couldn't erase the fear of striking
out on her own.

When the Jodie Manross Band called it quits last year, Manross -- who
stands 5-foot-2 and could melt ice with her sunny smile -- had established
a reputation as one of the best vocalists in East Tennessee. (She was
voted Best Female Vocalist in the 2000 Metro Pulse Reader's Poll.) And her
songwriting isn't too shabby, either. (LA's Entertainment Weekly said that
``her crisp voice and illuminative songcraft [are] equal parts wistful and
urgent; it's atmospheric music that will touch your heart and mind.'')

But standing on her own, without friends she'd played with for years
(although oud player and sideman Laith Keilany still collaborates with her
on occasion) brought a new sort of trepidation, she said this week.

``It's been a real growing experience playing separate -- it's been scary
but exciting, and very fulfilling knowing I can go out there and don't
have to rely on anyone,'' she said. ``It's an exciting experience to stand
on your own, and it's really helped in terms of communicating, to have
that rapport with the audience. It's essentially not relying on anyone but
yourself to come up with a sound that's engaging and that people will
hopefully enjoy.

``I've played some private parties, and the other night, this little
4-and-a-half-year-old girl asked if I knew any Avril Lavigne. First of
all, I couldn't believe she knew who Avril Lavigne was, but I had to tell
her, `No, I'm sorry; I'm not really a cover band.' I play some '60s and
'70s covers by people like Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, but I try to do
original music.

``Sometimes I feel like I need to prove myself, but it's meant the world
to me to lug in all of my equipment and set up and play, even if it's just
to a handful of people,'' she added.

If she's proving anything, it's to herself, she acknowledged. After all,
she's opened shows for John Mayer, Scott Miller, Keb' Mo', Rusted Root,
Ingram Hill, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Norman Blake, Olu Dara and Jonatha
Brooke. Her guitar work drifts through an enraptured crowd like fairy
dust, and her voice demands immediate attention for both its beauty and
soulful intensity.

Add Leilany, who plays everything from the 11-stringed Middle Eastern oud
to acoustic to slide guitar, and the result is nothing short of magic.
It's no wonder, then, that even after the end of the Jodie Manross band,
the two hope to start another group down the road.

``We're eventually going to put a band together, and we've been touring,''
she said. ``We're going to get to play New York City again, and we're
playing Virginia this weekend. We're just trying to get out of the
Southeast and just play, and it's been a lot of fun.''

New York and Los Angeles, where she's also performed, are cities where her
music and voice attract a lot of attention. And although she's thought, in
the past, of moving to one of those cities, her East Tennessee success and
the allure of the mountains keep her rooted in this area.

``When I came here, I planned to be here six months, but it's been seven
and a half years,'' she said with a laugh. ``There's a great community of
musicians playing here, and there are people I want to collaborate with
here. If you're playing in New York, you're one of 50 to 100 folks who are
playing around the city on a single night.

``I actually had plans in progress to move to L.A., but I've reconsidered
since then. The more Laith and I talk about new things, the more we're
waiting to see of a new band comes up and to see what the future holds.
It's great to have Knoxville as a homebase, because it's central to all of
these other cities and the cost of living is cheaper.''

That's not to say she'll stay in East Tennessee forever. For now, however,
she's content -- and her fans will be, as well, when her new EP, ``Don't
Save the Kisses,'' is released later this month.

``It sort of just shows what I've been working on for the past year, just
doing a lot of solo writing and playing guitar,'' she said. ``It's a
combination of studio-recorded songs I've done with the guy who produced
our first CD, `Still,' and just live longs I recorded in Atlanta in
Eddie's Attic.

``It's just sort of showcasing what I'm hoping will be the future in terms
of a band. It's just a little mit more of what I call intrspective folk
songs.''
- Maryville Daily Times (Maryville, TN)

Making a Solo Effort (Knoxville's Metropulse in Eye on the Scene 12/16/04)

Jodie Manross has spent the past year and a half establishing herself as a
solo artist. As the singer and co-songwriter of the Jodie Manross Band,
she led with her voice, the jewel inside the band's funky sonic setting.
So the group's dissolution didn't stop her from creating music. She picked
up the guitar, started writing songs, and performing as a one-woman show.
Released last week to record stores - and officially via a Dec. 16
concert at Barley's - her seven song EP titled "Don't Save the Kisses"
is the result of post-breakup - band and otherwise - time alone, time
that Manross made into music.
"I wrote something like 20 songs in the course of three months. I
haven't done that again, and now I'm like, where'd it go?"
The disc's three songs from this period are "It's My Way," "Marie," and
"Beautifully," tunes she describes as "very emotional, very
heart-on-my-sleeve."
In her self-deprecating manner that contrasts her strong, confident
voice, Manross says she's nervous about how these songs will be received
by listeners. Chances are they'll be glad to hear her voice, and more
likely than not, relate to the songs' sentiments; she wrote "It's My
Way" after a guy stood her up at a Jay Farrar concert. The disc's first
track hangs on a Wurlitzer keyboard strain and lands a solid emotional
break at the line "Hindsight's a glorious thing, but it's not making it
any easier, and if this is a choice, well I've got to learn to choose
better."
Three tracks recorded live June 4, 2004, at Eddie's Attic, a Decatur,
GA listening room. Another version of "Marie," plus an acapella
rendition of Buffy Sainte-Marie's Tall Trees in Georgia" and "No One Is
To Blame." Yes, the Howard Jones song.
"It's a song that I've put on every one of my mix tapes," she says.
Hearing it on a local radio station renewed Manross' affection for the
song. "The lyrics are so clever. They've always hit me. It's a fun,
poppy '80s song, but it has really heartfelt lyrics."
The EP's title track was written by Greg Horne, who produced, recorded
and mixed the studio songs, and played a grab-bag of instruments that
give additional depth and resonance to Manross' songs.
The EP will give fans a sense of what musical direction Manross is
heading. Keeping to a folk singer-songwriter core, she's starting to
experiment with bluesy and country strains - whatever sounds her
environment inspires. Documenting her solo material on the EP marks the
next step of an ever-developing artistic vision.
"It's something that I needed to prove to myself that I could do," she
says.
The CD Release show will feature guitarist Laith Keilany, with whom
Manross has recently resumed some writing projects, as well as
accompaniment and a 30-minute opening set by Horne and perhaps other
special guests. - Metropusle (Knoxville, TN

For review and photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/arts/dance/21lamb.html

A few minutes into Mark Lamb’s “Black and White and Testifyin’ All Over,” a dancer swoops and curves through a solo as he describes listening to the choreographer Mark Morris on NPR.

Mark Lamb in his largely improvised “Black and White and Testifyin’ All Over.”
“He said, ‘It’s impolite to improvise.’ But I’m not going to listen to Mark Morris. I’m just going to do some nice arabesques.”

Whether or not you agree with Mr. Morris, it’s tricky to put together an effective evening that consists largely of improvised dance. But Mr. Lamb and his company managed to do just that in a gently charming hour at the Metro Baptist Church in Clinton on Sunday night.

Mr. Lamb, who comes from Tennessee and has lived in New York since 2004, is not the enfant terrible Mr. Morris used to be. His dancers move with soft, unthreatening emphasis, their legs skimming the floor, their bodies arching and bending. The movement is uninflected, undramatic and often accompanied by speech.

In an opening section, each of the five performers (Mr. Lamb, Sarah Pope, Vong Phrommala, Rebecca Strohl and Megan Ward) offers a solo punctuated by stream-of-consciousness thoughts about politics, gender and their personal lives.

The solos are just short enough for these reflections to exude an innocent charm, an effect that Mr. Lamb sustains through shorter subsequent sections set to a variety of live music: original songs, traditional spirituals and folk songs sung by either Jodie Manross or Arlene Poggi, and a spirited rendition of Beethoven’s “Tempest” Piano Sonata by Rachel Eun-Ji Kim.

To this last work, the dancers calmly shred sheets of newspaper, throwing them along with pieces of bright confetti into the air as they whirl, arms wheeling. The dance feels quietly celebratory and quietly suited to the soaring space of the church.

Mr. Lamb makes no polemical points about religion or political beliefs in “Black and White and Testifyin’ All Over,” but he does make dance an expression of communal joy. That’s not a particularly sophisticated message, but it’s nice to be reminded of its truth.
- New York Times (Oct. 20, 2008)

http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2009/08/28/gilles-and-louda-larraine-a-feasting-of-art-art-salon/

People in this city talk persistently of art’s coming death. You’ve met them. You might have even thought it yourself, feared that all artists genuinely nourished by the taste of beauty rather than billion dollar champagne have lapsed into shallow commercialism or fled to Europe.

Passing the American Eagle Outfitters clans cluttering Broadway and Grand st, the tourists snapping photos of half naked Hollister models, this same thought passes through my head. I turn the corner, searching for 95 Grand st and, so consumed by a feeling that any 21st century art salon in Manhattan must be some boring forgery of decades past, nearly miss the humble metal doors marking 95 Grand. But entering the front room, collaged decadently with ripely executed canvases and elaborately designed dresses hung on headless mannequins, the whispering lick of flamenco guitar crawls to my eardrums declaring differently. Art is alive.

“Let me walk you downstairs,” says the beautifully tanned reception woman, rising to guide my descent into the softly glowing lights and drumming sound of music. We walk the walls enshrouded in artifacts of every kind, antique copper pots, proof sheets, photo prints. I pause before a photographic portrait of Miles Davis, obstructing the path of a woman in a colorful chemise of some exotic kind, camera slung about her neck, a dazzling, invigorated expression knit to her brow.

“That’s amazing,” I tell her. A delicate smile explodes across her lips. “He took it,” she says. “My husband.”

I follow her finger arched downward and peek over the stairwell toward the lone sitting, white-haired man akin to Francis Ford Coppola in his familiar look of otherworldly regality. He is the man plucking the flamenco guitar with thunderous perfection, surrounded by a ring of blank canvases and the first swarm of guests gaily perusing. His eyes closed, the loft space reeling with art pieces purer and rare than that of any museum existing, there is a Spanish torment to the air within - Spanish, European, South American, African and any ethnicity that breeds the idea of true, uninterrupted love of art for art’s sake. Even the usual guests are awed by the artistic splendor of this private space. This is their eighth official art salon celebration, held the last thursday of each month, and still it appears entirely fresh, unspoiled by camera shine, and open to the public.

Some forty years ago this man perfectly strumming his peace for all to hear, who was born in Indochina to a Chilean father, diplomat and painter, walked these same Soho streets in search of purchasing an artist’s loft of his own. It was 1973 in New York City and he had already published the much revered photography collection known as ‘Idols.’ Now, he desired a space wherein to live and nurture his artistic endeavors, a space he claimed on Soho’s Grand st. This Art Saint’s name is Gilles Larrain.

“People thought he was crazy when he bought this,” says Louda Larrain, his multi-faceted artist wife. “Now, of course, they think he’s genius.”

How could they not?

At each months’ end, Gilles and Louda host a salon party where thirty measly dollars purchase guests a spot to either watch or participate in the painting of live models, listen to an unknown musical variety of upcoming artists, enjoy improvisational dance performances and any such artistic exhibition. The presentation of artists here is terrifically naked. A young woman, clad in vivacious red corset, sits flawlessly for the first twenty minute drawing while Gilles plays his guitar. There is no shame in sharing artistry here. No one hides, but rather basks in its beauty.

“Hey, You! You in the hat!” yells Gilles in his thick, foreign accent at a hatted stranger conversing during the next artist’s introduction. “Excuse me. Please listen. Or go outside, okay? I’m not easy. I don’t like to kick some ass, but I will if I have to.”

The room smiles, impressed. In a society that has conditioned new generations to listen to music, watch television, lead a conversation and simultaneously cook dinner, few places still exist wherein revery for the singular, artistic moment surpasses all. Gille and Louda’s art salon is one of these places. Their sheer determination and love has sponsored it.

Guests intermingle, often using large gestures to defeat language barriers without any fear of awkwardness, picking at traditionally marinated pork pieces in an enormous wooden bowl with toothpicks, gazing at the gorgeous model and paintings assembled purely before their eyes. Jodie Manross, a new, experimental-style acoustic musician plays her set as an improvisational dancer twists across the collection of half-finished paintings ahead. Wine flows. Lights glimmer.

Gilles and Louda have created a world wherein one feels as they might when dining with Greek Gods, discussing beauty, truth, art, freedom. It is better than what I might have dreamed the 1973 art world in New York to be, because it has survived the ages. It exists now. Every fourth Thursday in Soho. Art is alive. Because Gilles and Louda Larrain, pioneers of art and parental figureheads to all young artists, have willed it so.

I suppose admission to heaven only costs thirty dollars these days…

- Scallywag and Vagabond (NYC, online, 8/29/09