The future site of the Maha Music Festival looking west from the proposed stage location.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Over the past few months, people have been asking about the future of the Maha Music Festival, and for good reason. The festival’s dynamic duo of co-Executive Directors Rachel Grace and Emily Cox recently resigned from the organization.

Cox has been named Event Manager at Omaha Performing Arts, another Omaha non-profit that is experiencing explosive growth with the launch of Steelhouse Omaha and the recently announced Tenaska Center for Arts Engagement, which is under construction right across the street from Steelhouse.

Rachel Grace also just took a new job as an Experience Strategist at Swanson Russell, the Lincoln-based adverting and marketing agency that has a field office in Omaha.

To say that Grace and Cox were “hands on” when it came to putting on Maha would be a sizable understatement. They basically ran the whole dang thing with the help of an army of volunteers and an active board of directors. That board’s President, T.J. Twit, said there currently isn’t a search under way for a replacement ED.

So how will Maha go on without one (or two), especially with the festival’s announced move from Stinson Park at Aksarben Village to the new RiverFront Park for 2024?

Twit said Maha is going to contract with a production company for 2024 that will run the day-of-show production and festival operation. “We signed a contract with MECA and as of right now plan on having a two-day festival the last week of July,” Twit said.

While Maha saw an increase in attendance last year, Twit said the entire festival industry is experiencing headwinds in terms of talent costs, “which hit us right between the eyes in 2023.”

He said Maha will be more careful in how they book bands in the future, with an eye toward talent costs, bands touring together, and opportunities to book acts that are already being routed through the Midwest.

He said Maha has yet to book any acts for 2024 and doesn’t plan on moving away from the style of bands the festival has historically booked. “We’re going to try to keep the Maha-ness in tact,” he said.

Without an executive director, Twit said the Board is taking a more active role in the booking process. He pointed to board member Missy Hardersen, who has 20 years’ entertainment industry experience, including at Stir Concert Cove. “This is what she did,” Twit said. “We’ve leaned on her and her expertise.”

Twit said the board will eventually look for a new leader to run the festival. “Maha needs a head coach,” he said. “Someone whose full-time job is Maha.”

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Henry Rollins tells stories Sunday night at The Admiral.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Not much to speak of indie-music wise this weekend…

Tonight at The Sydney in Benson, you’ve got Nordista Freeze on stage. Who is Nordista Freeze? Well, he’s a self-proclaimed Nashville psych-pop artist who’s played over 500 shows over the course of five years. Yep, sounds like another Sydney laptop-guy show. E Rawq opens at 9 p.m. $15.

Meanwhile, Omaha pop-rock project The Real Zebos headlines on Slowdown’s main room stage tonight. Beachmont opens at 8. $20.

Sunday, Southern indie metal band Baroness plays at The Waiting Room. The band has been releasing their albums on their own label, Abraxan Hymns, since 2015. Riffs and arena-rock harmonies abound. Wayfarer and Empire State Bastard open at 8 p.m. $35. 

Meanwhile, down at The Admiral Theater, hardcore punk legend Henry Rollins is doing a his spoken word show Sunday night. It’s a comedy set where he tells stories about life on the road.  $40. This is a seated show and starts at 8 p.m. 

That’s all I got. If I missed your show, put it on the schedule. Have a great weekend. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Singer/songwriter Shalom was one of the promising new wave of artists signed to Saddle Creek Records over the past few years — artists signed by the label’s former A&R professional, Amber Carew. I mentioned back in April (here) that Carew had departed from Saddle Creek sometime in May 2022, based on her LinkedIn profile and comments made by Shalom in an interview. 

Well, yesterday Stereogum reported that Shalom also no longer is part of the Saddle Creek family, basing their reporting on comments published on Shalom’s substack blog, Lover Over Fear, where she outlined the reason for the departure. Shalom pointed to Saddle Creek having “fired the person who signed me, never replaced her, and then treated me like shit the rest of my time there.” According to the blog, after demanding and not getting an apology from the label, communications broke down, and Saddle Creek moved to terminate Shalom’s contract. 

Stereogum quotes more of her blog at length. Needless to say, she’s not happy. No mention in the Stereogum piece of Saddle Creek’s response, likely because Creek wasn’t contacted. I highly doubt the label would comment, anyway, as no company comments publicly on personnel matters. And yes, I have just now reached out to Robb Nansel at Saddle Creek for comment and will let you know if he replies on the record…

I dug Shalom’s debut album, Sublimation, released this past March by Saddle Creek. She’s working on the follow-up now. Wonder who will release it?

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Puddles Pity Party is tonight at The Admiral Theater. I normally wouldn’t post about this kind of show as it’s really sort of a novelty / comedy act, but the guy who dresses up in a clown outfit and sings ‘80s power ballads (such as Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is”) has garnered quite a following partially due to playing smaller venues earlier in his career (he’s been to Omaha a few times, I believe). His star rose after a number of appearances on the loathsome America’s Got Talent.  Reserved seats are $39.50-$45 (before fees). Show starts at 7:30. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Ocie Elliott plays tonight at Reverb Lounge.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

In this day and age, one of the best ways to get your music “out there” is to somehow get your songs on a television show. It’s one of the reasons Azure Ray became so popular as their songs were tailor-made for series like Grey’s Anatomy, where they’ve had a lot of pick up.

So has Ocie Elliott. The Canadian soft-rock indie duo of Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy snagged two spots on episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. How that happened, I do not know, but it doesn’t hurt to have your music released on Nettwerk Music Group. Or the fact that your songs have the somber, lonely melodies that work so well in scenes where the young doctors and nurses are reflecting on either their wrecked lives or the wrecked life of a patient that recently passed while in their care. 

Anyway, Ocie Elliott is playing tonight at Reverb Lounge. Zachy, a dude who really loves Bon Iver, opens at 8 p.m. $20. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Great Lake Swimmers at The Slowdown, Nov. 2, 2023.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

The streets of downtown Omaha were lined with cars presumably belong to patrons of the Shania Twain concert being held at that very moment in the CHI arena. Somewhere, rows of middle-aged women in denim skirts, red boots and bedazzled cowboy hats were line-dancing to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” 

Meanwhile, inside the dark, cavernous confines of The Slowdown, tables of more hip and no doubt more introspective middle-aged music fans waited for Great Lake Swimmers to take the small stage. What would Shania fans think of their style of rural Americana folk rock? Who am I kidding? They’d be bored out of their minds. Not that any style of music is better than another, but Shania arena concerts (well, like any arena concert) is all about the spectacle and radio hits, and, well the only spectacle at The Slowdown was the musicianship of the five people on stage who looked like they were having the time of their lives playing their music.

Fronted by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tony Dekker, the band — stand-up and electric bass, drums, guitar/banjo, keys/guitar — played a tight set of songs from their new album, Uncertain Country, along with selections from the Great Lake Swimmer’s 20-year-long catalog, Dekker quietly introducing most with stories about their origins and meaning, explaining how happy he was just to be able to tour again after the pandemic kept him locked up in his Toronto home. 

Their style is indie folk more so than “Americana” and has a lot in common with ‘70s soft rock bands like America and Cat Stevens – at times (considering the rural themes) even reminscent of John Denver, though Dekker’s voice leans closer to Neil Young’s in its high timber. 

An evening highlight was born from a calamity — Dekker broke a guitar string right before playing one of the band’s most popular songs, “Your Rocky Spine.” But instead of holding up the performance, he asked guitarist Erik Arnesen to lead off the song. What followed was an extended banjo introduction performed while Dekker kneeled on stage and did his stringing, smiling and nodding his head. The long intro changed the complexion of the song, creating a new drama not heard on the recording that they should make a regular part of their set — in other words, Dekker needs to break more guitar strings. 

That moment was only eclipsed by a gorgeous cover of Kate McGarrigle’s “Come a Long Way” accented by beautiful harmonies from guitarist Colleen Brown, and an epic version of “The Real Work,” from the band’s 2018 album The Waves, The Wake (Nettwerk Music Group). The polite, gracious crowd of around 50 never strayed from their seats, leaving only one oddball standing next to the stage throughout the evening. 

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Not much happening this weekend. Again, no touring indie bands are coming through. In fact, there’s almost no shows at all. Is this the Husker effect?

Tonight, however, is Benson First Friday, which means Maple Street will be abuzz with art lovers taking in openings in galleries throughout the district. Among them is the opening reception at Ming Toy Gallery (6066 Maple Street) for photographer Jeanne C. Langen’s De Herdere Nacht. The exhibition is a benefit for Wings of Hope Cancer Support Center in honor of Jeanne’s parents – Wesley A. and Judith C. Brown (Pittack), with 100% of all sales going to the non-profit. The show runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Come by and say hi.

As part of BFF, The Sydney is hosting LA electro-techno-punk act Cruel Kiss (a.k.a. Dustin Hollenbeck), along with Ex Lover and Nowhere. $15, 9 p.m. 

Saturday night Omaha hardcore band Stronghold is having an album release show at Reverb Lounge with four opening acts: Static Soul, Heavyweight, Healer and Mass Hysteria. $10, 8 p.m. 

And that is it. If I missed your show, put it in the comments section. Have a great weekend. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.

Great Lake Swimmers play tonight at The Slowdown.

by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Wainfleet is a town with a population of around 6,400 located in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, on the upper lip of Lake Erie. Nearby cities include Buffalo, NY, just 41 minutes east, and romantic Niagara Falls, slightly north of there. It’s a quiet, rural community, not known for anything much except as being the hometown of Tony Dekker, singer/songwriter and frontman for indie band Great Lake Swimmers, who just happens to be playing at The Slowdown tonight. 

One assumes that frosty northern clime was the primary influence to the band’s ethereal style of folk rock that’s been compared to Nick Drake, Iron & Wine, Will Oldham and Neil Young. The band’s latest, Uncertain Country (2023, Harbour Songs/Fontana), was the product of field recordings made in the Niagara region, according to the one-sheet. It’s a lonely sounding, winter-lit record that should be fun to see reimagined on Slowdown Jr.’s small stage. 

Opening tonight’s show at 8 p.m. is the always entertaining Sean Pratt & the Sweats. Steady Wells holds down the center spot. $20. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2023 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.