Jodi Siegel

This is a once a month (every third Tuesday) show that is designed as a listening room for world class songwriters, many with hit songs, long touring/recording associations with music legends ETC... to play their original music in an intimate setting. NO COVER BUT DONATIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURED AND GO TO THE SONGWRITERS. Project Barley serves excellent Food (Pizza, sandwiches, salads), wine, and award winning beer. Food served till 8:30pm. No reservations so arrive early to get a table. This month we are proud to present TED RUSSELL KAMP, ABBY POSNER, MARY SHOLTZ, JODI SIEGEL

TED RUSSELL KAMP

Ted Russell Kamp is an LA-based singer/songwriter, producer and Grammy winning bass player.

Ted writes, records and travels the world performing his own country / roots / Americana music from his eleven critically-acclaimed albums. Ted also plays live, records sessions, and collaborates on songs with A-list songwriters and musicians in L.A., Nashville, Austin and around the world. Ted often works out of his home studio — The Den — and has produced several well-received albums for fellow artists there. Ted has also had the honor of being a friend, collaborator and member of Shooter Jennings’ band for most of the last 15 years. Ted also played on the 2020 Grammy winning Country Album of the Year, Tanya Tucker’s While I’m Living.

Ted is well known for his ability to step into bands and rock all genres of music — the decades he spent holding down the bottom end for bands as diverse as Shooter, Jessi Colter, Whitey Morgan, Wilson Phillips and others have made sure Ted had the chops for anything from major festivals to David Letterman appearances and the Sirius XM Outlaw Country Cruise.

The last few years have found Kamp focusing on his own career as well as touring and recording with Shooter. He tours continuously in the US and Europe, and has releasing his solo albums to critical acclaim. His records have debuted at #1 on the Euroamericana Chart and made the US Americana Chart’s Top 100 Records of the Year. The Big Takeover wrote, “Kamp simply knocks one ball after another out of the park…Saturated in talent and sincerity … good music done right.”

This Jack of all trades points to Dave Stewart and Buddy Miller as role models, in the sense that they move so seamlessly between the roles of sideman and frontman while supplying both substance and glue to every project they take on.

“The biggest challenge,” Ted says, “is always to be myself and express myself while still supporting others. Bringing in traditional elements is a way to make the music classier and more timeless, in my opinion, whether it’s to enrich my own music or to make anything I’m part of as great as it can be.”

“I was born in New York and live in L.A. and love the heart and honesty of Southern music,” Ted points out. “Most of my favorite records were made within a few-hundred-mile radius that circles Memphis, Nashville, Muscle Shoals, New Orleans and up the Mississippi River, Dallas and Austin. It’s incredible — the passion, the storytelling and the soul that came out of that part of the country. It’s a huge part of the American voice.”

Ted dove into music after college. He spent several years woodshedding in Seattle, and recorded four LPs with his trio Ponticello before moving to LA in 2001. Once in LA, Ted formed the group Union Pacific, played with numerous bands, did extensive session work. That led in 2003 to Shooter Jennings pulling him into his band. And Ted’s never looked back. Whether he’s headlining a major show in the Netherlands with European superstars, playing Gruene Hall in mid Texas in the dead of summer, rocking an LA honky tonk with some of the best players in town, or working in his new studio to pull the soul from each song, Ted pours his drive and musical talent into every note.

ABBY POSNER

Abby Posner has been a working musician in Los Angeles for the past 18 years. She is best known for her ability to play nearly any instrument that she can get her hands on, twisting genres, and pushing the boundaries of folk, roots, electronic, and pop music making her "Genre Fluid." If you have seen Abby perform live, you know she can play a mean lead-blues guitar solo, or throw down a complex Earl Scruggs banjo riff. You also may have spotted her playing drums, mandolin, or bass while using her looping pedal. In addition to her versatility, she puts passion and soul into everything she does.

This CalArts music graduate has composed & produced music for commercials/TV, films, and radio shows all over the globe (including Hulu’s Maggie, The Fosters, This American Life, The Art of More, and Last Tango in Halifax, custom songs for Facebook, Viacom-CBS, and CW’s Kung Fu). She also has music placed in commercials and TV shows all over China, Sweden, The UK, and Australia. Posner appeared in two episodes of GLEE on season four playing banjo and guitar, and the Freeform show Famous In Love playing banjo, as well as performing live several times on KCAL 9 news and Good Day LA.

Posner has also scored the music for multiple films (Across Land Across Sea, Through Their Eyes, award winning short animation Elizabeth Sees, and recently scored the Award-winning Documentary Lady Buds) while playing and touring all over the US. In 2019 Posner played banjo and sang Wagon Wheel as a featured principal role in Bank Of America's ad campaign for the Ken Burn’s PBS Country Music Documentary.

After signing with Gary Calamar’s licensing company Laurel Canon in 2016, Abby Posner has gained major recognition in the LA music scene. Opening for such iconic acts as PHRANC, Sierra Hull, and Dustbowl Revival. She has released multiple albums under her Name Abby Posner, and Abby & The Myth, and will be releasing two records with Blackbird Music Label in 2023.

In 2020 Abby Posner won the Carl Gage "Give me Shelter in Place" Songwriting Award through the Topanga Folk Festival for her original song Blind Spots, and she received the runner up for her song Emergency Use Only for the 18th Annual International Acoustic Music Awards. She was honored to land an Official Showcase at Folk Alliance International in 2022 after signing with her booking agency Baker Booking.

MARY SCHOLTZ

The stage is dark. The ice in your glass clinks as you take a sip. When the lights come up, and Mary Scholz steps onto the stage, a warmth comes over you that has nothing to do with drink. Barefoot, with dark curls cascading, she is at once whimsical and grounded. Just one woman with an acoustic guitar, but fills the room from the moment the music leaves her lips. The sound seeps into you like honey. You feel seen. You feel human. You feel loved.

For years, Mary’s stunning voice and evocative songwriting have made her a live circuit favorite. The Philadelphia native has toured nationally for over a decade and made several excursions to Europe. Every time Scholz takes the stage, she forges a personal connection with her audience. As the Music Junkie Press put it, “To see Mary Scholz live in concert is to fall in love. It is not just the flashing dark eyes or the crown of black ringlets or the confident, welcoming body language at the microphone. It is the voice and the lyrics — the music that flows from the stage…you know this woman and her music and you want to spend the rest of your life listening to her.”

Growing up, Mary had a deep reverence for music. She was always drawn to the spiritual resonance of dusty church organs and captivated by the lyricism of seventies sweethearts like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. She grew up dancing, playing both piano and flute, and came to the guitar later, as a teenager. She went on to earn a BFA from the University of the Arts. But just as she would sing, years later, that she “knew about California,” she always knew her voice would be her primary instrument. On the road, she would also deepen her relationship to the guitar and begin a more nuanced level of exploration.

Today, Mary is based in Los Angeles, where her unique brand of gritty folk-charm has helped her make her mark. “I’ve been referred to as a ‘folk explorer with spacey roots and wings.’ I’m a fan of that one,” Mary says. Though she’s quick to follow that her musical genre is always evolving alongside her creative process. “I think it’s it’s important that artists can be exactly who they are, not who they think they should be, and create from that space.” That throughline of authenticity has set Mary’s music apart from the beginning.

Much of Scholz’s material considers how transitions color the human experience, as well as the side effects of love and loss. Her 2014 release, The Girl You Thought You Knew explores the self in relation to the other, and the bittersweetness of separation and self-actualization. In addition to its folk-pop title track, the album includes the HMMA-nominated song, “Bridges We Burn.” In 2017, Mary followed up with another breakout record, California. The album was recorded live in one room, to an Ampex 8-track tape machine. It was also the artist’s first vinyl pressing.

California marked a turning point in Scholz’s work and broadened her fanbase. “I don’t always get chills when I find a new artist, but I absolutely did with Mary Scholz,” wrote a journalist at Ear to the Ground Music. “There’s a purity in her performance that only comes along once in a while. The clarity in the composition is evident, allowing Scholz’s vocal to cut through the sound. It’s romantic and invigorating…[“California”] truly a treat of a pop-folk song.”

A music video for the song “Murder Ballad” followed the album release. The video garnered attention for its stark examination of abusive relationships, and the ways they inform one’s self-image and interactions with the world. Beyond its positive reception, the album also led to Mary’s partnership with Blue Élan records co-founder, Kirk Pasich, and the affiliated company, KZZ Music.

“One of the things I so appreciate about Kirk, and his team, is that they are really interested in cultivating a community, and creating space for artists to do what they do best. That gives me a platform to be myself, which is a beautiful thing,” she says.

With the release of the single “The Mother Song: Wild Womxn,” Scholz pushed her boundaries even further, telling a profound story of womanhood that is at once personal and utterly universal. Mary’s 2020 single, “LADY LIBERTY,” also touches on the broader aches of our modern world: “The song is written from the perspective of the Statue of Liberty,” she explains. “She is overlooking this country, seeing where we are failing to uphold the beliefs that we say are our foundation, demanding we acknowledge and make change.”

To date, Mary has seven studio releases and various singles available on all major platforms and plans to release more this year. Though her music has shape-shifted through the years, she continues to espouse the same message of love, hope, and personal empowerment.

JODI SIEGEL

Jodi Siegel, originally from Chicago, IL, is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. Over the years Jodi has opened for and or shared the stage with many respected musicians including: Albert King, Robben Ford, Robert Cray, J.D. Souther, David Lindley, Fred Tacket and Paul Barrere (Little Feat) and countless others. Her songs have been recorded by Maria Muldaur, Marcia Ball, Tommy Ridgley and Teresa James. She has recorded two CD'S; Stepping Stone and her latest CD, “Wild Hearts,” produced by Steve Postell (Immediate Family, David Crosby, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Iain Matthews), is filled with great songs, cool grooves, intimate, smart lyrics and some of the best of the best musicians in Los Angeles today including; Mike Finnigan (organ, piano), Hutch Hutchinson, Abe Laborial Sr., Alphonso Johnson (bass), Russ Kunkel, Michael Jerome Moore, John Ferraro, Arno Lucas (drums, percussion), Joe Sublett (Saxophone) and Maxayne Lewis and Clydene Jackson (background vocals). Each song has a soulful delivery with an undeniable down-home elegance. It has received great reviews by Patrick Simmons (Doobie Brothers), Maria Muldaur, Walter Trout, David Mansfield (T Bone Burnett), Leland Sklar, Mike Finnigan and Doug Macleod to name a few.