Get Familiar: Sam Wedgwood/Grizzly Bear (Part I)

Music artists and band that are featured on this week's edition of Get Familiar were discovered by accident. No indie enthusiast, magazine, or friend put me onto these groups, although I do deserve the late pass for discovering these musical acts. Good music can be found in the nooks and crannies of myspace.com and random searches through Google.

While hearing Kanye West fervent rant about Mr. Hudson being destined to be the biggest superstar in the world, I checked him out on his myspace page. Listening to his piano rendition of "There Will Be Tears On the Piano" reminded of another up and coming, promising music act from the U.K. that I haven't heard from in awhile, but impressed me with his jazz renditions. His name is Jamie Cullum, an artist from U.K., who did jazz renditions of Radiohead and N.E.R.D.songs several years ago and I've not heard any new music since that time--2003.

Looking up Jamie Cullum on wikipedia, I learned about his music history and who has a tendency to play with him when he tours. That's when I came across Sam Wedgwood who was described to be a "multi-tasker" for Jamie Cullum tours, playing guitar or trumpet or even at times singing. Taking a look at his wikipedia page, I realized that he had a myspace page. I decided to take a chance because that's what it means to me by being a music journalist--to risk life, limb, and your own reputation to dig for music from new fledgling acts and share them with your audience.

While his myspace music player loaded, I anticipated either discovering the "next best thing" or just another myspace musician. The first song was "In the End". As the passionate harmonizing and soft melodies played over the guitar loop, I became captivated. After the chorus, the trumpet melody came on and played throughout the track, demonstrating his skill as a musician. Towards the end of the song, his strong and rich vocals came out.

Listening to his other songs, every song seems to incorporate an acoustic guitar and has the vibe reminiscent of a ballad or country music. Nevertheless, it still maintains rockability and strong, rich melodies. Even though I'm trapped on Long Island for the time being, listening to his music allows me to use my imagination and pretend that I'm joyriding down New London Rd. into the rolling hills of Maryland.

www.samwedgwood.com
http://www.myspace.com/samwedgwood