Past And Future, Perfect

Two bands share introspection of looking back, moving forward

AMP Wrapup
AMP Wrapup

The Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers continues its 2021 season this week with the return of a beloved rock band, and its sister facility, Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, is ramping up its own lineup. Read on to learn more about some of the performances coming this week.

NEEDTOBREATHE

With guests Switchfoot and The New Respects

7 p.m. Oct. 19 at the Walmart AMP

$26-$99.95

needtobreathe.com

"With NEEDTOBREATHE, you're always going to get the sunshine, but you're also going to get the shadows, and you're going to have to see both of those things to really get the whole picture," musician Josh Lovelace says of the southern rockers' evolution as a band.

This sentiment has perhaps never been more evident, at least to those outside the band, than in the Grammy Award-winning group's forthcoming documentary, "NEEDTOBREATHE: Into The Mystery," a look at the making of their latest album.

"We had no real intentions of making a documentary," Lovelace admits. The five-piece decamped to a historic house-turned-makeshift-recording studio in Columbia, Tenn., earlier this year, riding a wave of creative inspiration, and the musicians felt compelled to invite a film crew along. Originally chosen for its aesthetic -- "it looked like it would be cool to take some good photos there" -- ultimately, the digs became a house of mirrors, Lovelace shares.

"We had such a great time making the record, but the subject matter on the record is pretty heavy. So we were walking through a lot of things as writers and as just band members," Lovelace says. "We were figuring out, who we are now, not who we were when we made 'The Outsiders' or 'The Reckoning.' Like, what does this band look like right now? We were having to kind of look at ourselves and examine that.

"I think what's great about it is the documentary shows that side of it, as well as us just having a really good time together. So I feel like it's really deep in that way, complex. You get to see kind of a lot of different views of the band, which is, I think, pretty cool for a fan. And if you're just now coming along for the ride, I hope that people fall in love with the band by watching this. We're really, really proud of it."

After so much forced time apart and time away from the road, Lovelace reveals that for him and his bandmates, the circumstances surrounding "Into The Mystery's" recording process made it feel like this was the "only time in our history that we could have ever made this record. We were just all very focused in what we're doing, very present in the moment."

So they went into the studio in a humble state, he goes on, completely thankful for the chance to be making music together again. They're all still hungry, Lovelace adds -- a question they're constantly asking themselves as the band enters its second decade. Despite member changes, the ups and downs of touring and a pandemic, NEEDTOBREATHE plans to keep doing what they do "until they have to roll us on stage with our walkers," Lovelace says with a laugh.

"The pandemic really forced us to kind of get back together and build new roots within our family, our organization, our relationships with each other," Lovelace muses. "So if there were some silver linings in this whole thing, that's part of it. I feel like we're in a really sweet place in the band right now where we're all on the same page, and we all respect and love and appreciate what the other people in the band bring to the table."

Wild Ponies

7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Walton Arts Center

$33-$53

wildponies.net

Husband-and-wife duo Doug and Telisha Williams are the heart of the folk band Wild Ponies, making their WAC debut Oct. 21. The pair were part of the lineup for the inaugural Fayetteville Roots Festival back in 2010, and with their broad approach to Appalachian music and lyrics abounding in tradition, nostalgia and family heirlooms, Wild Ponies epitomize the spirit of both the Roots Festival and the WAC's West Street Live series.

"Doug's grandfather wrote a book of poetry 70 years ago, and some of their music actually comes from that book of poetry, so it's really, really cool," enthuses Jennifer Ross, WAC programming director and the series' creator. "Their recording work is created by a multicultural band, whose backgrounds are sort of all over the place. Their live show here in October will just be Doug and Telisha and one other band member, but they create really powerful music, just the three of them. Their songwriting is fantastic."

A series conceived to highlight the art of the songwriting craft in "an atmosphere reminiscent of neighborhood listening rooms and nightclubs," West Street Live's intimate setting and celebration of storytellers is right up Doug and Telisha's alley.

On songwriting:

T: We love talking about songwriting; we're actually doing a really fun thing with our Patreon (a membership platform for content creators) folks later this month. We have shared with our Patreon subscribers [this exercise] of object writing for songwriting. We're inviting them all to participate, live, in an object write with us, and then we're all going to write a song together. We love involving our fans and friends in things like that. It's really fun.

D: We write old-time songs. No matter how we play them and no matter what they sound like, we write old-time songs. And that can be about modern things, and that can be played with electric instruments, drums and loud, but when you break down the structure of the things that we write, we write old-time songs, just like that existed before we were born and before our grandparents were born. That's just part of who we are and part of what we do.

On calling Rainbow Terrace, in Madison, Tenn., home:

D: It's a part of town where the songwriters who are writing because they want to write good songs, not because they want to write hits, live. So has that had an impact on our writing? I definitely think so. I hope so. I mean, we've met some of our heroes; we've gotten to write songs with people that we've loved their work for years. ... talked about what makes a good song with those people, and traded songs and traded ideas. I love being a part of that community. I love other people that think about songs the way we do.

T: I do feel like that's a big part of East Nashville and moving into Madison: singer/songwriters are kind of getting pushed out of East Nashville into Madison right now, but it's just a beautiful time and space that is full of creativity -- all kinds of creativity. We have some amazing visual artists, we have murals everywhere and a killer number of instrumentalists that are just top, top notch. The best of the best. And creativity just moves, it's part of the air and water here.

On those deep Southwest Virginia roots:

D: The Ozarks and Appalachians, there's a lot of similarities. Definitely in the way we're both characterized in national media, and so forth. And then the reality is also different. I didn't necessarily want to play that kind of music, but it's just what you did. I learned it from my grandfather and from those [other music heroes of mine], but I wanted to play other things. I wanted to play rock 'n' roll and --

T: -- you still want to play rock 'n' roll!

D: And we do! When we come to the show, we're bringing drums and electric guitars, and we're going to rock out a little bit. But still at the root of it, that song structure and subject matter, it is passed on. And it's not just passed on through the playing, while you're sitting around in the circle playing. Although, that's a lot of it. It's passed on around the table, and when you're cooking with your grandparents and learning those traditions as well. All of that, to me, bakes in to who you are, and I'm really grateful for it.

T: That's such an interesting way to describe it -- that attention to detail that comes through in the cooking and the observation in the songwriting, and the cooking and the sharing and all of that.

D: I'm proud of who my grandparents were; I'm proud of who we are.

“You can tell that people are really hungry for live music, and we’re just honored and thankful to be the band that gets to deliver to them every night,” enthuses Josh Lovelace, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist with South Carolina rock band NEEDTOBREATHE. The group last performed at the AMP in Rogers in 2018 and are eager to return to old fans and hopefully some new faces. “We’ve always been a band that likes to make moments and capture moments.”

(Courtesy Photo)
“You can tell that people are really hungry for live music, and we’re just honored and thankful to be the band that gets to deliver to them every night,” enthuses Josh Lovelace, keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist with South Carolina rock band NEEDTOBREATHE. The group last performed at the AMP in Rogers in 2018 and are eager to return to old fans and hopefully some new faces. “We’ve always been a band that likes to make moments and capture moments.” (Courtesy Photo)
West Street Live Lineup
West Street Live Lineup
“This may be our sixth or seventh show back out, and I think that I’ve teared up at every single one,” Telisha Williams admits with a laugh. “The audiences are really giving of their energy,” adds Doug Williams, her husband and the other half of Wild Ponies. “The whole feedback loop that you normally get from an audience … is, like, magnified and intensified times 10 right now. … So we’re trying to give as hard as we can back to them, and it just keeps that loop rolling in a really cool way.”

(Courtesy Photo/Laura Schneider Photo)
“This may be our sixth or seventh show back out, and I think that I’ve teared up at every single one,” Telisha Williams admits with a laugh. “The audiences are really giving of their energy,” adds Doug Williams, her husband and the other half of Wild Ponies. “The whole feedback loop that you normally get from an audience … is, like, magnified and intensified times 10 right now. … So we’re trying to give as hard as we can back to them, and it just keeps that loop rolling in a really cool way.” (Courtesy Photo/Laura Schneider Photo)

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Walmart AMP

WHERE — 5079 W. Northgate Road in Rogers

Walton Arts Center

WHERE — 495 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville

INFO — 443-5600, waltonartscenter.org

FYI — Printed proof of a negative covid test 72 hours prior to entry, or proof of full covid-19 vaccination is required for all patrons visiting the WAC and the AMP.

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