British blues artist Trevor Sewell
The music of the 1980s has endured through generations encompassing, with a graceful diversity, many genres. UK punk/new wave band, The Revillos, brought energy and camp-ish fun to the scene with band members taking “comic book” names like Max Atom who joined the band as a guitarist in 1982. Being a fan of British rock music since 1964 I was listening to The Revillos way back when before I started to play guitar professionally in my own punk/new wave bands. Little did I know in 2016 I’d be shaking hands with Max Atom, now award winning blues artist, Trevor Sewell, in LA’s famed Whiskey a Go-Go. Trevor and I are both member of the NARAS, now known as The Recording Academy, and we finally met after much e-mail communication during Grammy weekend of that year. Hearing The Trevor Sewell Band perform a song from his then latest CD, “Hollow” and meeting Trevor was a high point of that weekend for me.
Apart from the major labels, there is a community of independent artists within the NARAS that has flourished within recent years to bring together musicians from a vast array of genres and cultures. It has much in common with the DIY music communities of the late 1970s and early 1980s in that it is about breaking down barriers and looking for commonality. It’s about sharing and working together. As Trevor says “I remembered the great community spirit that the music scene had thrived on in those early days, little knowing that I was also about to rediscover that again too-the day I joined NARAS (the Grammys)!...This spirit that burns within is one of great positivity and sharing and I think that it’s truly amazing that everyone is so approachable and genuinely helpful.”
Within this community Trevor came in contact with iconic musician Janis Ian and soon after Janis found herself recording with Trevor as a pianist, a musical role not usually associated with her. “I’ve been a big fan of Trevor’s work ever since hearing his Hollow album, so meeting him earlier this year was a real treat. I offered to play on his next record but wasn’t sure if he’d take me up on it-fortunately, he did.” recalls Ian. The result is a haunting bold work called “Shadows” released in December, 2016 as a single. It was recorded in one take and is part of Trevor’s upcoming CD, “Calling Nashville”. Trevor tells us, “It was amazing working with Janis. I’d been a fan since the 70’s and always loved her voice but I didn’t realize what an amazing piano player she is”. Ian also appears as a vocalist on several tracks and performs a duet with Trevor. Tracy Nelson of Mother Earth fame also appears on “Calling Nashville” produced by Geoff Wilbourn. Tony Heyes is the Associate Producer. Mia Moravis also appears as a backing vocalist.
One of the joys of this community of independent artists is finding colleagues and friends that you would never meet anywhere else and finding that within the differences, musical and cultural, there is an overriding sense of unity. Sometime that unity brings forth collaborations that surprise and please both the listeners and the artists. We share experiences and learn from each other. We support each other in music and in life and together we grow in ways we never thought we would. Music is the core bond and sometime that one core bond is all you need to find others. In a world of division it is truly remarkable to find a cohesive community built on differences but differences for the purpose of growth that brings us together, not differences that separate and divide. Aptly stated by Trevor, “My only wish is that the spirit that exists within this very special group could somehow find its way out into the world at large to help make it a kinder, more caring and generally happier planet. Personally, I believe the spirit of community is always present, it can get a little lost in the noise. We just need to set it free”.
Janis Ian and Trevor Sewell