What makes Savannah Stopover different? For one thing, bands are given a place to stay with community volunteers during the festival, so hotels aren’t an issue. The small city has easy access to main highways in and out of town and the Atlantic Beach is a short drive away. Also, Dollhouse Studios holds recording sessions for Savannah Stopover bands during the day. The studio main room is roomy enough for bands to be comfortable with a smaller room behind it for drummers that can be kept open or shut. The recorded work is released as a compilation album representing the festival. The sessions are loose, open to VIPs and press inside the sound booth during recording. Artists and guests are provided with wine, beer, water, fruit and light snacks.
And QRO covered the festival, March 8-9th, in Savannah, Georgia:
The sun was fully bright: it was the first nice weekend of spring in Savannah. Traffic was lighter than on Friday and spirits were upbeat and friendly throughout the festival, its staff and artists. The third year of Savannah Stopover was running smoothly and professionally, making it even more enjoyable than last year.
this mountain @ Dollhouse Studios, 12:00 PM
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Tennessean folk rock band this mountain, a sextet, was a little sleepy since they’d played the night before, but they were setup and ready to go at noon. Matt Martin would start off this mountain’s songs on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. Martin sang with a soulful, yearning inflection and a slightly higher note pattern than rock, creating country accented folk with precise phrasing. Patrick Taylor played like a pro on his beautiful gold-rimmed banjo and sang backup vocals. Cody Ledford bowed his cello with passion, helping give depth to the music. Zach Chandley was enjoying his first time as lead on electric guitar, using a wa-wa pedal and occasional electronic distortion. Chandley sang backup alongside the band’s third backup singer, bassist Taylor Green, who despite his young looks, blended his electric bass in perfectly with Andrew Gibbens’ dynamic drumming. It was amazing to hear this mountain’s four part harmonies either with music or a-cappella. The strongest songs recorded were “Abide”, “War”, and “Desert”, an excellent rock/folk hybrid with electric guitar lines reminiscent of The Outlaws before a tempo change later in the song.
Pree @ Congress Street Social Club, 4:00 PM
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The bouncy pop band Pree from Washington, D.C. took the stage right on time at this small outside courtyard venue right off the street. The female singer coaxed surf style reverb rhythms out of her SG style guitar while she sang quirky, off-kilter melodies in a fairly high voice. The lead guitarist added flair to the sweet pop flavors by using vibrato and short lead lines. An energetic bassist and drummer made up the rhythm section, and the drummer sang backup. Although a good band, their presentation was a bit stiff in the daylight and the lead vocals overwhelmed the music.
Wild Feathers @ The Jinx, 5:00 PM
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Crossover folk-country-blues quintet The Wild Feathers from Nashville boasted three singers with three different ranges and singing styles who would either take turns, sing in three-part harmony (sometimes a-cappella) or provide counterpoint polyphony for each other. There were three guitarists as well: one on acoustic, one on hollow body electric and one on solid body electric. They also had a bassist who played steel guitar and sometimes sang backup and a solid drummer. They seemed to be creating a new form of honky-tonk music, with one song sounding a bit like an old song from The Rolling Stones. Song themes included songs about relationships and life from a country music perspective. With their complex, varied sound, they did a good job of keeping the audience at The Jinx entertained.
Young Buffalo @ Hang Fire, 6:00 PM
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Young Buffalo packed out Hang Fire, for good reason. The young pop rock quartet had two youthful voiced, clear sounding vocalists who created beautiful harmonies reminiscent of Nada Surf, Weezer or The Beach Boys. They used power chords, strong drums with lots of snare, funky bass and sparkly keyboards to achieve their fun, energetic sound. On top of all that, the organ parts duplicated vocal range and melodies to add more depth to the harmonies. And the keyboardist played a side drum with mallets when he had free time. The band made good use of tempo changes and complex melodies like the band Phoenix.
Whaleboat @ Knights of Columbus, 8:00 PM
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The Knights of Columbus venue is a beautiful restored 1800s building. The namesake comes from a fraternal order within the Catholic religion, which meant they had a full bar. It was the first venue upstairs, and its wooden floors vibrating and echoed the sound around the room, making it warm and full.
Whaleboat started quietly in the room with their singer-guitarist creating tension and atmosphere with a repeating high guitar note. But by the end of the second song, the trio had built up so much momentum that the audience was dancing. The singer’s voice soared with singable melodies as he played delicate, high pitched guitar strums over the cacophony created by the rhythm section (the drummer was so strong that during sound check he was told to quiet down by the soundman because he hit the drums so hard). This variance in playing styles created an interesting contrast with the bassist running interference, playing rhythm guitar parts while he danced, bobbed and jumped around so much that he rarely sang backup. The overactive drummer was placed up front on the left of the stage similar to the setup of The White Stripes or Secret Machines.
VietNam @ The Jinx, 11:00 PM
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Returning after a five-year hiatus, Brooklyn band VietNam performed their semi-psychedelic rock on the way to SXSW and Austin Psych Fest. The five-piece created slow, thick bluesy music with an occasional upbeat. The singing was very laid back, almost drunk sounding. The violinist played with reverb and noise effects similar to The Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis. The moog player was so still that he was almost missed onstage. The drummer kept his eyes closed nearly the entire time, feeling the groove and playing with mallets a lot. The guitarist was the most energetic, bouncing up and down with the beat of the music as he played. The placement of the tall violinist up front was strange since he only sang and played part of the time. The singer was on the right side of the stage, watching the band, the reverse of Brian Jonestown Massacre’s setup.
Dent May @ Hang Fire, 12:00 AM
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Usually a solo act, former “Magnificent Ukulele” player and singer Dent May changed to electric guitar and brought a keyboard player, bass player and drummer onstage. The venue was full, being one of the last of the festival open at that time. The audience was spilling onto the street and practically onstage with the band at the front. Dent May sang midrange and falsetto to his smart, lovely pop songs. His rhythm section had a little trouble syncing up at first but after two songs, the bassist caught the beat and used a lot of higher notes to create a back melody while snare and heavy beats were predominant for the drummer. The keyboardist played melodies that were punchy yet smooth. Dent’s fantastic guitar work used a range of effects pedals made the music groove.
