Category Archives: Entertainment

Sam’s Big Time

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Richmond Magazine has a short interview/profile of Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam–

Before singer-songwriter Sam Beam of Iron & Wine rose to folk-music stardom in the mid-2000s, he was a VCU undergraduate living on Laurel Street in Oregon Hill.
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He says that river references serve as the binding imagery for his latest album.

“It’s the classic cross-cultural metaphor for the life journey,” Beam says, adding that he used to frequent Pony Pasture and Belle Isle when he lived here in the mid-’90s.
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“My memories of Richmond are so fond,” Beam says. “I met my wife there, it was a big time for Sam.”

Iron and Wine plays The National next week.

Followed By The Black Dog….

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from recent blog post:

Interesting note, when the voices came back I was in college at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University). I’m an aspiring writer and love the unknown and grave yards and one day I walked around Hollywood Cemetery, a very large and peaceful place, admiring the old tomb stones and sepulchers. Its. As I entered I immediately felt like the dead knew I was there. I felt like I was floating away from the outside world. The cars and outside noises went away. I felt something calling me in the very center of the cemetery. If I were to follow it it be like I’d float right out of my own body. Hollywood cemetery, local legend, is known to be haunted. I followed the calling out of interest and as I went further I saw a black dog come out of nowhere. Now I know black dogs guard the line between life and death but I took it as a real dog. So I backed away and turned around, avoiding eye contact. I turned back around to see if it was following me, it wasn’t. It had disappeared.

(Btw, though no Black Dog in it, click here for another recent blog post about a walk through Hollywood Cemetery)

Magazine33 Correspondent Sadie Powers profile

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Local, music/culture online publication Magazine33 has added a nice profile of one of its writers, Sadie Powers:

Sadie Powers is the bass player for indie band Those Manic Seas, based in Richmond, Virginia. She started playing violin in fifth grade to get out of math class and met the love of her life, bass, four years later. Powers has played in several bands, including the Richmond cult post-rock band Planar.

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Powers lives in Oregon Hill, RVA and restores porcelain in order to fund her music habit.

Folk Festival Performers Scheduled For October

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From rvanews.com article:

Today, a mere seven months out from the Richmond Folk Festival, we have the first round of performers for you to peruse. Behold! The first six performers, with genres ranging from Reggae to traditional Tsimshian song-and-dance.

Git-Hoan Dancers (Traditional Tsimshian dance and song)
Larry Chance & The Earls (Doo-wop)
Magic Slim & The Teardrops with Big Time Sarah (Chicago Blues)
Mary Jane Lamond Quartet ft. Wendy MacIsaac (Cape Breton)
Mighty Diamonds (Reggae)
Steve Riley & The Mamou Playboys (Cajun)
As we get more information about all the various folky aspects of the Festival we’ll be updating things left and right. You can always check rvanews.com/folk for the latest information. Oh, it’s October 14 – 16, if you’re trying to mark your calendars.

Ramones in Richmond

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The VCU newspaper The Commonwealth Times is featuring archival articles on their back cover page. The March 10th edition features a story called “Punks from New York to Rock in Old Gym”, by Bruce Terrell (a member of many local bands- Boys From Skateland with Bryan Harvey for one).

Having seen the Ramones myself (R.I.P, Joey) quite a few times, my curiosity was piqued. The article says they were to play at the VCU old gym on October 22, 1976 (for $2 admission), but Wikipedia does not have details, saying they were around D.C. at the time (which might, of course, include Richmond, I suppose).

I have no doubt that the Ramones played Richmond many times post-’76 in many different local venues. I guess what I am wondering is if the old VCU gym that is referred to in the article the Franklin street one or the City Auditorium/Cary St. + Cherry St. one that is now the new VCU student recreational center.

Local designer/soccer fan Doug Dobey remembers a Richmond Ramones show in 1978. One local band that was linked to the Ramones in Richmond is Single Bullet Theory. I am sure the members of this Facebook group could add a lot of details.