August 24, 2012

Friday night live at Transistor: Mouth Dakota, Joel Walter and Calvin Conway. Sound by Jon Monteverde.

Mouth Dakota (J. Wood) (in hat) grew up and currently resides in Northern Indiana after a short stint in Colorado and a couple years in Chicago. Since 2005 he has been writing and recording as Mouth Dakota, which has mostly been an ongoing series of eclectic, folksy, lo-fi bedroom recordings. Aside from recording and performing music he runs an urban farm and a charitable community garden and heads the Linear Music Assignment Project (LMAP).

Also available: an interview and in-studio performance Mouth Dakota did on Transistor Radio’s Roundtable program (August 24, 2010, exactly two years prior to this live performance!).

Calvin Conway sings and plays the blues harmonica. His music is soulful and direct while being melodic and harmonious. He writes and records his music in an effort to create great sounds from daily life. Calvin recently completed a 4-song EP called "By Rail" that was inspired by a memorable train trip to New Orleans via Austin. He'll be playing songs born out of stories from the trip. From witnessing drought and devastation in Texas to experiencing the finest of hospitality and good music in New Orleans, the songs paint a picture of the great times had.

For this Transistor set Calvin was joined by vocalist Mary Porzelt.

Armed mainly with a guitar and harmonica, central Ohio-based singer-songwriter Joel Walter examines the core of blue-collar life via portraits of broken souls worn down by hard living and the lost dreams that are often buried within them.

Walter's music portrays these lost souls unsparingly, illuminating their fractured desperation and frustration yet always celebrating their fiery will to get by and survive.

Joel Walter released his EP "Nowhere in Fiction" on "Actually, Records" on October 31, 2011. The three-song EP was produced by Damien Jurado, who collaborated with Walter and engineer Kory Kruckenberg on the recording sessions over a 12-day period at VU Recording in Seattle.

For his Transistor performance, Joel was joined by electric guitarist Keith Novicki.