History Lesson Akers Style

Seeing as I grew up in the same house as Adam, I can reminisce on old times and the music embedded within each of those memories. This post has no reflection on Dan & his sanity, just us Akers.

Music has been a major part of our lives.
One of my first memories with music other than Disney songs, is when we got the CD of Journey's Greatest Hits. Our family listened to this regularly. With every song being a hit, I think our favorite was Wheel in the Sky. (Adam, you're gonna love this video, mustache and all...)

Let me paint a little picture for you... I'd say I was between 9 and 12 which would make adam between 6 and 9. Here's a little family pic to get the idea...

Left to Right: Michael, Chelsie, Hannah & Adam

We had moved from East Mesa into a more central Mesa house, we called it the Farm House (because it was in the middle of a corn field). Our parents still owned the old house out in East Mesa and had rented it out. There had been some bad tenants who left the place a complete mess so we spent nights and weekends out there cleaning it up and getting it ready for the next tenants. 

It was around this time that we acquired our first Journey CD. We would listen to it in the car on the way out there and we would listen to it as we "helped" our parents with the cleaning process. When we needed a little break, we would perform little dance numbers to these journey songs as we sang along like real rock stars. (I know we have video of this somewhere and if I were in AZ I would go to any lengths needed to get those clips up here...It's probably a good thing for Adam's reputation that I am not in AZ right now.) Just imagine, cute little blond adam jumping around with a paint brush as a microphone, singing his lungs out and finishing it all of in the splits! 

I attribute part of our love of music and Adam's musical talents to Journey and more specifically "wheel in the sky". 

Fooding Locally

You might be asking yourself what this post is doing on a band's blog. . . well, we've gotta eat don't we? Since our eating is a given, we figured you should hear about it. 

We are all mesa born and raised. Therefore, we have had many years to find good places to get food. One recent addition to the list of beloved eateries is Cornish Pasty Co. (You might want to pronounce pasty wrong, so remember that pasty rhymes with nasty)

The last time we ate at Cornish Pasty the guy who sat us was wearing a hot pocket shirt, which in fact is quite fitting. Having no idea what a Cornish Pasty was the first time, it was explained to us as a gourmet hot pocket or empanada on steroids.

The real history behind the pasty starts clear back in the 1200's in the Southwest England mines. The miners wouldn't have time to clean up in the middle of the day to eat so their wives would wrap the food up in a dough that had a crimped edge. The miners would hold the crimped edge and eat around it.

The location we went to was on Dobson and Guadalupe. It has a nice dark ambiance, so at night the tables are lit by candle light. The employees are also real casual; you'll see an array of tattoos, piercings and eclectic hair-do's. The place is small considering how busy they stay. When the place isn't too busy, you seat yourself. If you have a larger group and don't want to wait a long time it would be best not to go on a weekend after 7pm. It is worth the wait though.

The food is great and the experience is a lot of fun! Give it a try and let me know what you thought.

Impromptu

As you are all getting to know Dan & Adam a bit, you may be wondering who the heck I am.
Well, my name is Chelsie and I am Adam's older sister and just happen to be their biggest fan and makeshift manager. (Sounds like I am more of a groupie but heck, call it what you will.)

I am living in Utah right now and just so happened to be down in AZ (aka: Heaven) for the weekend.
When I walked in the door I saw Dan and he says to me "you are the best manager, I just never do what you tell me." That is how this whole thing is turning out to be, me giving assignments and them not doing them. (Maybe mother would be a better job description...)

Anyway, the point of this post is that Dan & Adam put on an impromptu show for a small group of us last night. I am not the best multitasker in the world so I didn't get any photos of them because I was selfishly making audio recordings for myself... However, since there is no photographic evidence of the show I added a song to the blog on their streampad bar. I am calling it "Workin' off My Tail"and it so happens to be my favorite song of theirs right now. It is not a professional recording so I don't know how long they will let me keep it up, so get this little nugget while you can!

Enjoy!

Let me know what you think of it!

P.S. One day we will have an email and a facebook but we are currently name-less. Anyone have any suggestions?

Tia Rosa Gig

Well, the big day is getting close.

We will be playing at Tia Rosa Taqueria on Saturday @ 7pm. (Gilbert and Baseline, just south of trader joes)

We are going to be playing some of our original songs and (drum roll please) some new songs.

If you have never been to a show here before, come this weekend because it will change your life. Not only do you get a great show for free but you also get happy hour prices on their great food!

Thanks in advance for your support, bring lots of friends and and empty stomach.

A New Member

Just this past week, a new member of the band has been added...
The Mandolin. Adam has never been happier.

There is a lot you need to know about Mr.Mandolin in order to understand his important role in the band.

1st- He is Italian and comes from the Lute family. Being from the Lute family signifies that he has a neck and strings that are plucked.

2nd- His direct relative is the Mandore who is an original soprano from the Lute family.

3rd- Originally Mandolin had 6 sets of double strings to be plucked and now-a-days it is more common to have only 4 sets.

4th- Mandolin can come in many shapes and sizes but gennerally you will find him in a round or teardrop shaped form.

Good news for all of you, Adam has been expeditiously learning to play this guy and Dan and Adam have been hard at work writing songs that include him. In fact he will be featured in the new song called Cry Me a River.

This info has come from Wikipedia, so feel free to learn more.

Indie Folk, What Does it Even Mean?

For the past 6 years, Daniel Bennion and Adam Akers have continuously tried to get bands together. Music is their life. You may have seen them at shows here and there as they made their way through new music and random venues, they have been known as Dirt Brown Earth and So Long You Crane.

Each of these bands used the talents of Lance Jennings (shout out). Since those times, however, he has moved on with his life and is making it big out there in Oregon at veterinarian school. Along with Lance, an often used bass player to join the band is Chris Smith. He is an amazing bass player and is also out there doing something with his life, he's currently attending dental school.

Not to make this sound like Dan and Adam aren't doing anything with their lives, but they are at it again. They have decided to take another stab at it and they are going to make it big just as the two of them and they are settling on a slightly different style of music. They are labeling there music as Indie Folk.

So, what really is Indie Folk? Really, I can't describe it any better than Wikipedia...

Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s from singer/songwriters in the indie rock community showing heavy influences from folk music scenes of the 50s, 60s and early 70s, country music, and indie rock.

A few early artists included Lou Barlow, Beck, Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith. The genre is commonly related to: freak folk, psych folk,Baroque pop and New Weird America.^[1] The genre saw a significant growth from the early 2000s to present, beginning with bands such asBright Eyes, Iron & Wine, Beirut, The Avett Brothers, Arthur & Yu, The Decemberists, Okkervil River, Manel, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Mumford & Sons, and others.