Sylvia Rose Novak Trio

9 p.m. - 1 a.m. in The Kiln

With a sound and style described as "quietly unhinged", Alabama songwriter Sylvia Novak's sharp vibrato and casual fiddle-style couple with dark and resonating lyrics.

Piano, Trombone, Banjo, Mandolin, Trumpet, Pedal Steel, Bouzouki, Guitar, Bass, Double Bass, and Violin. These are the instruments that Sylvia Rose Novak has learned to play over the last seventeen years. Growing up, studying music was simply a hobby for Novak. She spent her life into her early twenties competing in equestrian sports and, eventually, training horses professionally. Novak didn't write her first song until she was twenty-two years old. And on the heels of her first writing effort came her first full-length album, "Chasing Ghosts".
In 2012 Sylvia Rose Novak started playing mandolin and singing in Auburn, AL bars with her friend Clay Cutler as 'Salem Railyard; a self-proclaimed 'mericana duo. She eventually switched to the fiddle in 2013 as the duo played more frequently. As the duo's local prevalence grew, so did Novak's desire to focus on music as a profession. Novak began playing fiddle with anyone who would hire her or have her stand in for a night.
Eventually, she became a regional country-fiddler for multiple touring acts. Novak learned the ropes on the road as she cut "Chasing Ghosts", which released in 2014 to international attention. She was since begun to claim her place in the ever-growing alternative country scene by opening for names such as Chris Knight, Belle Adair, The Mulligan Brothers, If Birds Could Fly, and American Aquarium.
In 2014, Novak joined Birmingham band Five Shot Jack as their bassist/female vocalist and (eventually) became their primary songwriter. As she continues to tour and play with Five Shot Jack, Sylvia Rose Novak is still supporting "...Ghosts" and her latest release "The Last Three Years".

Sunday, November 13 live music: Brandon Whyde

Backyard Jams features Brandon Whyde. Music at 7. Buffet style grill and food at 6. No Cover.

Brandon Whyde hails from Beech Grove, Ind. The birthplace of one Steve McQueen. Much like “The King of Cool,” Whyde tends to leave an impression with everything he does.

In high school he was filed in the yearbook under “most popular.” He wrestled on a team that was perennially state-ranked. As running back he was captain of the football team. Whyde also played baseball and ran track.

Around the same time, he decided to play music. That seed was planted much earlier by his father, who was always singing around the house. Music was Whyde’s saving grace when his father was killed by drunk driver when Whyde was still a teen. Discovering aural poets like Bob Dylan soon introduced a new world to Whyde beyond the confining conventions of Midwestern youth. He picked up a guitar and never looked back.

A brief stint at Indiana University gave way to a self-described apprenticeship in Nashville, Tenn.

“Every night you can go out to three different clubs, watch and talk with people, and learn so much,” Whyde says of Music City, U.S.A. “Everyone is so open there to lend a helping hand. I learned so much playing second fiddle to what they were doing. I tried to learn as much as I could.”

Whyde didn’t get his big break there. That came after he returned to Indiana. During a side-stage performance at an Indianapolis amphitheater, one of the featured performer’s guitarist liked what he heard from Whyde and invited him to his home to record some demos. A year later those recordings found their way to Josh Kelley, who also liked them enough to invite Whyde to record with him.

“He’s like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits got stuck in a blender, and out came Brandon Whyde,” Kelley says.

Subsequent sessions yielded a 10-song CD that showcases the soul-searing exorcism Whyde projects not just with an impassioned, roughhewn voice that both breaks and melts, but a vintage mien punctuated by dark, curly locks and piercing blue eyes where every emotion experienced can be traced.

Since recording with Kelley, Whyde has opened for the nationally-known singer-songwriter on a month-long tour. It was an opportunity for him to experience new things and learn some too.

“I’m a natural-born people-watcher, so it’s been neat to get around to these different places and notice the similarities between all people,” he says. “Getting out and moving around, you find out we’re pretty much the same all over.”

“I mainly draw on past experiences,” Whyde says of his muses. “I’m moved more by the motors of people and telling a story that perhaps can be healing for another person. It’s been neat to meet more people. Everything else is just coloration.”

Whyde hopes for more such prospects to stay inspired.

“Right now I’d love the opportunity to just stay on the road and keep moving,” he says. “There’s nothing better than that for me. I don’t what it is. It’s just in my personality to wander somewhere new every night.”

A restless soul. Just like McQueen.

“It’s that era that I really love,” Whyde says of that bygone era. “There’s a coolness to it all that’s not around anymore.”

Except in Whyde.

– Wade Coggeshall (excerpt from nuvo.net)

Backyard Jams are produced in coordination with Barry Billings. Billings is a Shoals Musician with a storied history. He has recently played with Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires. Billing's song "Brother John" is featured on the 2015 Grammy-winning album Muscle Shoals Recordings by the Steel Drivers and is known as one of the highlights of the album. He has recorded with The Swampers and traveled with Marie Osmand and the Cornelius Brothers & Sister Rose.

Alice at 45 Friday, November 11

Catch the wild Love Child of Seducing Alice and .45 Surprise Friday at 9 in The Kiln.

Alice at 45 is a combination of members of Seducing Alice & .45 Surprise. Playing a mix of 90's rock, outlaw country, americana, etc... 


.45 Surprise
Comprised of musicians from around North Alabama & Southern Tennessee, .45 Surprise plays of blend of bluegrass and outlaw country. Fast, high-energy music that covers both cover songs and originals, we can dip into just about any genre depending on the venue and crowd.

Seducing Alice has it's roots in the everyday doldrums of life in sleepy Huntsville, AL. In early 2006, Colin Brooks and Alex Dieterich joined forces to fight the onset of early adulthood by forming an act that went by the moniker "The Dixie Duo." For many drunken nights the Duo begot delightfully hazy mornings for its compatriots. However, it wasn't long before their urge to rawk far exceeded their acoustic means. 

Enter drummer Josh Doyle...He provided the beat that attracted John E. (on the spot) Eberhart like a siren's call, and the Dixie Duo plugged in, becoming Seducing Alice. Carrying this mantel, they began gigging in Huntsville eventually acquiring the talents of Kipp Cain (of Deacon Green fame) in the spring of 2008. Thus the rock and roll curry was deemed complete, and total domination of the entire world became eminent... 
the end

Or was it...As they say*, "every new beginning, comes from some other beginning's end." Mr. Eberhart took a leave of absence in January of the last year of humanity** to knock some stuff off his bucket list. After an exhaustive search, SA welcomed with open arms no other than beloved Vonnegut character, Kilgore Trout. 

The end...for now. 

* (they, being the seminal 90's one hit wonder, Semisonic of course)
** (according to the Mayans

Microwave Dave Solo Electric Blues

5 - 8 p.m. Wednesdays