Philly Music Fest at the Ardmore Music Hall on Monday will feature Slaughter Beach, Dog with Hurry and Santa Chiara, with the show starting at 7:45 p.m.
“Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling” is the latest addition to the Slaughter Beach, Dog canon, following four full-length releases and a handful of singles, EPs and live albums. Since his days as one of the front men of the much loved and critically adored band Modern Baseball, Ewald has been a prolific songwriter and road dog, with an ever-expanding fanbase across the globe.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Ewald moved from Philadelphia, his home of a decade, to a house in the Poconos. With fewer distractions and a calmer mind, he filled his time taking long walks and listening to the likes of Neil Young, Randy Newman and Tom Waits.
These classic songwriters inspired Ewald to take a new approach to writing “Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling” and in July 2022, he gathered his bandmates at The Metal Shop, their longtime studio in Philadelphia. Ewald showed them songs he had written over the past two years on an acoustic guitar, and the band played what they were hearing for each, emphasizing the instinctual, listening to each other and above all adding parts to serve the song.
Nashville indie folk songwriter Erin Rae lends her vocals, imbuing the songs with rich harmonies.
When Matt Scottoline formed his band Hurry in 2012, he wasn’t even sure what power pop meant. But these days, Scottoline knows exactly what power pop means, which is the inevitable byproduct of making it and engaging with its fervid fandom. It is loud, generally mid-tempo, hyper-melodic electric guitar music — and he is exceptionally good at it.
During the pandemic, a scene of relatively young power pop bands coalesced on social media. At the center of this neo-international pop overthrow is Hurry, and at the center of Hurry is Scottoline, whose latest album with the band, “Don’t Look Back,” proves you can make effortless, earnest, irresistible double-P without getting hung up on semantics.
Santa Chiara was raised in the classical conservatories of Italy, where she was considered a child prodigy on the cello and toured with orchestras throughout Europe. Moving to the United States was not a part of Chiara D’Anzieri’s life plan.
At 3, she began playing instruments, at 13, she joined her first orchestra, at 16, she founded her first string quartet, and at 20, she left the conservatory to pursue her own interests outside the classical world. She taught herself guitar, bass and drums and studied the music of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, the Doors and the Beatles.
She nicknamed herself “Santa Chiara,” after her favorite monastery in Naples, to give her music a divine connection. As a female singer/songwriter, she faced backlash and misogyny, so she learned how to record and produce her own music. At 24, just as she was on the verge of giving up her dreams, she met someone who would forever change her life’s trajectory: her now-husband, American singer/songwriter Ron Gallo.
Tickets start at $35. For more information, go to tixr.com/groups/ardmoremusichall/events/.
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