The Invincible Czars are one of Austin's most adventurous rock bands.  In addition to creating and performing original music with an enormous breadth of influences and styles, the band also performs their own modernized and Austinized arrangements of works by classical composers.  Their latest effort - 1812 Overture - commemorates bicentennial of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 which inspired Tchaikovksy's most bombastic piece.  The short album also includes works by Ravel, Sousa and one original by (ex) drummer Louis Landry.

20 year old singer/songwriter from NYC 
published by UMPG/ SRP 
writer for LOOTE MUSIC

the sun is setting perfect pink, birds perched up on a wire

~UKULELE ELECTRO POP~
(づ *‿* )づ  youtube.com/jackiemendozaaa

When she recorded her last album, Hello Goodbye, Choffel was pregnant with her first daughter. Now a mother of two, she’s viewing life from the perspective of someone dealing with the ups and downs of parenthood, a long-term partnership and a post-pandemic world, not to mention her music career and radio DJ job.
She knew she needed to step away from her daily routine to get in the zone for this one. She also wanted to work with producer and longtime friend David Garza, who had just become a father and was staying close to home in L.A. She booked a flight; he called drummer Amy Wood and bassist Sebastian Steinberg, his co-producers with Fiona Apple on her Grammy-winning album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters.
On Bird By Bird, Choffel finds a noirish sweet spot and hits a new creative peak, segueing from tunes reflecting her love of ’80s pop to smoky jazz grooves on which she channels her inner Peggy Lee. “I believe she is truly the voice of Austin,” Garza gushed in a recent interview. “I hope that with this album, folks worldwide will get hip to her artistry.”
Choffel already had a reputation as a singer-songwriter and performer who glides among genres, eagerly exploring too many influences to fit neatly into any category. Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige are significant inspirations, along with hooky, Madonna-ish dance-pop, Brazilian music, Stevie Wonder and her Mexican heritage. Performing professionally since she was 14, Choffel has won several national songwriting competitions and earned a 2009 Austin Music Award for Best Indie Band, prompting her to muse, “Maybe it actually means ‘independent of genre.’”
Bird by Bird highlights include “Summer in the City,” on which her breathy alto, fanned by Elias Haslinger’s slinky sax, builds from smoldering embers to a barn-burning flame, and “New York,” her “Fever”-pitched Big Apple love note. Evoking images of a chanteuse in elbow-length gloves working the crowd in a dimly lit jazz club (or on Broadway), it could become another classic ode to the city she inhabited for three years after her season three stint on The Voice (about which then-Rolling Stone writer Jessica Hopper said, “[she’s] one of the only singers on anyone's team ... who had the sort of voice you'd want to listen to for an entire album”).
She notes that her writing was more declarative in the past, stating, “This is how it is.” Now, she’s asking, “How Do I Make You Feel” and “What Do You Want from Me.” In the former, a quietly powerful song of longing almost belied by its sweet, sensual melody, she wants to know, “How do I make you feel what I want you to feel?”
“This album is so much about just wanting to connect,” she says. “It’s for people who yearn to be seen, held, heard, touched.”
 
But she also examines a particularly searing example of social injustice there’s simply no way to fix: the killing of Breonna Taylor, shot in her sleep by police who stormed the wrong apartment. “‘Fast Asleep (Breonna)’ is the most specific song I've ever written,” Choffel says. “It originally was a folk song, but Davíd encouraged me to explore more of a gospel/Nina Simone approach.” Moody and forceful, with percolating percussion and Adrian Quesada’s haunting guitar, it notes the irony that the future EMT, had she lived, might have responded to similar situations—and saved others’ lives.
That pain is tempered by hints of hope in “Little By Little” and especially “Bird by Bird”—which floats on a reggae vibe and tropicalia lilt. Choffel wrote it for her stepdaughter, who was struggling with depression and anxiety at the time. “Bird by bird and stone by stone,” she sings, “we can piece this world together / you don’t have to be alone.”
After cutting essential tracks in L.A., Choffel and Garza moved to the famed Sonic Ranch in West Texas—where she’d long dreamed of working, and he could perform his annual music festival gig nearby. Guest contributions (including violin by Warren Hood and Carrie Rodriguez) were recorded at Austin’s Cedar Creek Studio.
As she’s done in every stage of her career, Choffel continues to evolve. With Bird By Bird, she’s stretching her wings — and soaring to fascinating new heights.

The Official Home of Jon Dee Graham Music

On season one of NBC's “The Voice,” Nakia quickly became a fan favorite, using his big grizzly voice to transform pop songs into his own unique style. While producers focused on his relationship with his husband and his struggle to make ends meet as a blues singer, what they didn't show you on TV was just how much Nakia accomplished on his own prior to the show. Long before Nakia was a semifinalist on CeeLo Green's team, he was a beloved member of the Austin music community, fronting bands, performing solo, and working with some music's biggest names. 

After the whirlwind of reality television died down, Nakia placed his focus on writing songs for his six-song EP, "Drown In The Crimson Tide," and the tour that followed. Four years later he recorded and released his acclaimed album, “Blues Grifter.” Nakia has recently been composing for film (Wasted On The Young) and TV (Skeleton Crew, Demon Doctor). Prior to the pandemic, Nakia had just begun writing new original songs and performing solo shows, and putting together a new band. When live events were canceled due to COVID-19, Nakia put more of his efforts into artist advocacy and led his nonprofit, Austin Texas Musicians, to advocate for the creation of emergency relief funding to musicians and music venues in Austin. Matthew McConaughey recently surprised Nakia with a private Zoom call where McConaughey named Nakia one of four, “Local Legends” as recognition of his volunteer work for the Austin music community during the pandemic. 

Nakia has been an active member of the Austin music community for over 17 years, and is an outspoken advocate for organizations such as HAAM and The SIMS Foundation. He has also served as the Chair of the Austin Music Commission and as a Board Governor for the Texas Chapter of the Recording Academy. Nakia is a two-time Black Fret artist grant recipient and currently lives in Austin, Texas with his husband Robert and their Bouvier des Flandres, Baker.

For more information on Nakia visit nakia.net

A PBS documentary TV series focused on Texas underground music

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