SongCheck Live: June 2007

Last weekend, I attended SongCheck Live at 7 Degrees in Laguna Beach. The place was packed for what would be a night of great music from some amazing songwriters. The highlight that night, as I'd previously mentioned, was to be Brett Dennen, and to be honest, I was not expecting all that much until he started playing. By the time he was through his first song, I knew I wanted to buy his album/s.



The night started out with Matt Hopper and the Roman Candles. They had a very folksy-country sound to them that was actually not that bad. At about the same time, they had a VIP area upstairs courtesy of Martin Guitars where they had small acoustic sets playing all night. The first one that night was Marianne Keith, who was absolutely phenomenal. With a sound that would be perfect for the Hotel Cafe, she captured the audience with her beautiful voice. She was followed by Alec Bridges, another phenomenal musician, and an excellent guitarist. I was definitely impressed by the work that was put into hand-picking these artists, but the night was only beginning.



I only caught the tail end of Tom Freund, but anyone that can sing while playing a standup bass is just damn talented. Brett Dennen had joined him on stage, and the duo did well together. It was no surprise, in light of that, that Freund joined Dennen on stage during his set. However, Dennen came out first and played a handful of songs by himself. Like I previously said, I was simply blown out of the water by this artist, not only by his raw folksy and jazzy sound, but by his incredible songwriting. One of my favorites that night, and from his discography, has to be 'Ain't No Reason', a song that challenges one to look at the culture and society we live in and ask the tough questions.



The VIP stage ended the night with Ingrid Michaelson, who's music has been featured on Grey's Anatomy, and the main stage ended with Long Live Logos, who started the set, and were soon joined by friends, and became a big jam session. They had ten to twelve people on stage just having fun, and ended the night with a bang. Definitely a great night, and I'm hoping to see more events from Matt Russell (the man behind SongCheck Live) in the near future!



If you haven't heard of Brett Dennen yet, you have now. Get his music now, and if you're gonna be seeing John Mayer this summer, he just hopped on tour with him opening the rest of his dates (as far as I recall). Simply incredible!

Brett Dennen - Ain't No Reason [highly recommended]
Brett Dennen - The One Who Love You The Most

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