Gig of a Lifetime: Vote for Lovebettie!

Photo provided by Alexandra Naples. 

Hey everyone, today's post is really just to ask you to check out the band Lovebettie in hopes that you will vote for them to play at The Grammy's! A friend of mine from Seton Hill is the lead singer and they are currently in the finals to win the Grammy Gig Of A Lifetime hosted by Surface.

It would mean a lot to me (and them, of course!) if you would at least cast your vote for them today and get them one step closer to achieving this goal. You can however, vote up to 50 times every day for the next three days and every vote helps! And only takes a second to select to give them your max amount of votes per day. 

In case you need a little persuasion in why Lovebettie deserves your votes, here's what people are saying about them: 

"Band To Watch" - Rolling Stone

"Pittsburgh's Hottest Band" - Microsoft Windows

"They will soon be headlining at big arenas." - Eat Sleep Breathe Music

"One of the most unique, best indie bands in the United States right now!" - Indie on Air!

And while I, personally, could go on and on about why Lovebettie deserves this "gig of a lifetime" I'll let them speak for themselves through sharing their music and their submission video. Here's the official music video for their song "Stranger," which was shot in Pittsburgh, and a video from the Milwaukee Summerfest, in which they perform my favorite song of theirs, "Your Own Worst Enemy." And with a special treat of this beautifully simple cover of Rihanna's "Stay" that they just posted on their YouTube channel, yesterday. 

Official:  www.lovebettie.com | Facebook:  www.facebook.com/lovebettie | iTunes:  www.itunes.com/lovebettie
Lovebettie's new CD, "RISE", produced by Jim Wirt (Incubus, Live, Fiona Apple) is now available at
www.itunes.com/lovebettie

This is a partnered post, but as always, all opinions are my own.
Thank you in advance for voting!

The Best Thing About Ellwood City

You can just smell the fried food, hay and excitement!

The main food area - somehow I cut off the best booth ever in this picture, our church's apple dumpling booth.

A fan favorite - Rag Trader "Vintage Reborn"

Not to worry - we're still in Steelers Country, A LOT of vendors bring their black and gold best.

The information booth for visitors - I think it's the most festive and always loved it.

I've mentioned a couple times that I am currently in a different (smaller) city - while on the job hunt, I'm living back at home in Ellwood City, not too fair from Pittsburgh, distance-wise, but far from the luxuries of a downtown living lifestyle. However, there is one thing that is amazing about Ellwood City and that, is the Fourth of July Arts, Crafts, & Food Festival.

My mom and I are pretty much obsessed about the Festival, as is just about everyone else in the Ellwood area. The year I was born, my mom said that I better not interrupt her time at the Festival, which, I didn't, because I was born on the Monday after. The Festival features great (but horrible for you) food from local churches, clubs and other community groups, a judged art show, children's arts and crafts area and craft vendors from all over the US. I know this for a fact because I always pick up every business card. And I remember one Festival while hanging out at a friend's mother's booth, we were talking to a girl sitting in the booth next to us and she told us about her family who traveled to different fairs all summer, every summer; she was from Texas. 

This past weekend, Friday through Sunday, was the 2013 Festival and did not disappoint. Although it seemed like a lot of people were scared away by the rain and a couple favorite vendors were missing, still the same great weekend with fireworks to end the weekend. I bought the most stuff I have ever got from the Festival this year too, mostly jewelry, guess I'm a grown up? How was your weekend?

The Highballers: Soft Music & Hard Liquor

Recently, I was contacted by the bassist of a Washington, DC area band to do a review of their new CD. This is not an odd occurrence, if you've read Chels & the City for any period of time, you've probably realized that I am a huge supporter of local music and up-and-coming artists, the only thing that I found a little off was that I probably wouldn't have thought to listen to The Highballers had they not contacted me, which would have been a totally poor decision on my part.

Although The Highballers consider themselves a DC band, their lead guitarist, Sean Lally, is a Pittsburgher. They recently headlined a show at the 31st Street Pub in Pittsburgh and are now currently touring with their new CD, Soft Music and Hard Liquor, which was released in January. And while I would not have thought I would be saying this, I seriously like this band.

Their CD is something that you can listen to straight through and more than likely on repeat. It's what I would consider country and folky, with a quality mix of humor, wit and heartbreak and the perfect blend of smooth male and sultry female vocals. Which I don't comment on lightly, since I am usually a harder critic for female singers. But if you were creating a band and wanted a female who would complement your rough and tough male band vibe, Victoria Patchen is probably the only woman you would want. She blended flawlessly doing back-up for lead singer, Kendall Jackson, and has a strong enough voice to become the lead in some songs as well. The mix of these two singers and the strong, obvious talent, of guitars (Jackson and Lally), bass (Michael Barrientos), and drums (Drake Sorey), have totally sold me on giving this CD more credit than I originally thought I would.

To put it simply, Soft Music and Hard Liquor is really an album with a toe-tapping vibe that you just want to get shit done to. It's upbeat enough to keep you moving and yet mellow enough to be able to concentrate on any work you might need to get done at the same time. My favorites from this CD are; Live to Let You Down, Virginia, Better Man, and Doing Time in Pennsylvania. I highly suggest that you check out this band, at least on YouTube, and if you are able to, make it out to one of their shows.

This is a partnered post, but all opinions are my own.

Bob Your Head & Smile with Donora

All photos property of Donora.

About a month ago, my brother and I were planning on going to Brillobox in Lawrenceville to see one of our favorite local bands, Donora. Naturally, I planned that I would be able to get two blog posts out of the deal, one about my first experience in Brillobox and one about a local band I love. We got there an hour and a half early, knowing that the venue is smaller than most and that they were going to have to push people away. We just didn't expect to be those people. The Donora show was sold out almost two hours before they started and we were headed out of the city to an Eat 'n Park.


Now, why do you need to know this little anecdote about Donora instead of me just diving in to tell you all about them and their new EP? Because for the longest time, I could count the number of people who know who Donora is on one hand, and two of those fingers included myself and my brother. Now, one of their songs is in a Nationwide commercial and they are selling out shows around the city, and you need to know about them before they get too big to mention on this little blog that encourages its readers to go to things and listen to bands before they become too famous to mention. So, here I am, mentioning them and spilling out my love for them, to you my readers, whom I also love, before they become too big to mention. That totally made sense right?

You cannot help but love them - just by looking at them - just wait until you listen to them!

Donora currently has two CD's out and about floating around, being awesome. Their first, a self-titled work of art and the second, "Boyfriends, Girlfriends" which is also amazing. Now, they have this EP called "Play Nice" which is swoon-worthy. My favorite song on it is "Float Away" which, like all of my favorites of theirs make me, 1) Want to dance, 2) Just "smile I can't help it," 3) Randomly quote their lyrics, 4) Bob along with the beat in the car, and 5) Blog about them.


I don't know how to describe Donora without just saying that their lyrics will instantly make you smile and are easy enough for you to learn right away to sing along with and that they have the most infectious beats and floating melodies. You want to listen to them. You want to love them. You will be happier because you did. Yes, that was me doing hypnosis through the Internet. Trust me, they will bring an instant smile to your face and a total What is Love/Night at the Roxbury moment to you, and come on, who doesn't want another reason to do that...in double time? Listen to them here and follow them here.