{"id":27384,"date":"2016-08-12T13:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-08-12T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=27384"},"modified":"2017-01-09T11:50:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T17:50:48","slug":"kfhs-radio-new-artist-stewart-eastham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=27384","title":{"rendered":"KFHS Radio New Artist: Stewart Eastham"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StewartEastham_DITMCover_1500_HighestRes\"<\/a>TMN STAFF<\/p>\n

There is a sense of joy that permeates Stewart Eastham\u2019s latest release, Dancers In The Mansion<\/em>. While Eastham\u2019s previous album The Man I Once Was<\/em> was a portrait of a man in turmoil, his new album paints a much different picture. The inky blacks and saturated reds splashed across the album cover provide clues as to the revelry within. The album\u2019s closing line, \u201cCelebrate yourself with love tonight,\u201d is evocative of the celebratory spirit found throughout the record.<\/p>\n

This dynamic collection of songs elevates the Americana genre to new heights with its lyricism and innovative musical arrangements. The album opens with the smoky, horn-inflected \u201cIn The Morning\u201d and closes with the disco-gospel of \u201cLift Your Soul.\u201d \u201cPretty Little Songbird\u201d brings the funk as \u201cLeavin\u2019 By Sundown\u201d stands with the best of country-flavored classic rock. \u201c2023 Miles\u201d showcases a swirl of psychedelic country while \u201cOld Lovers (In A Cheap Motel)\u201d is reminiscent of classic pop. The slick grandeur of\u201cJackpot\u201d is a direct descendent of Nashville\u2019s late \u201960s\/early \u201970s \u201ccountrypolitan\u201d era, with its lush strings and background vocals.<\/p>\n

Dancers In The Mansion<\/em> pushes the boundaries of what an Americana record can sound like. His hip-hop influences shine through in the rhythm of many of the songs\u2014most notably the country-flavored weeper \u201cCarry On,\u201d which uses a driving rhythm to accent the character\u2019s drive to push through a great loss. At times, Eastham also displays a pop sensibility that echoes Elvis Costello and early Tom Waits.<\/p>\n

Eastham was born and raised in the foothills of rural Northern California. (The track \u201cFruit Cocktail Cannery Blues\u201d recounts a setting from Eastham\u2019s Butte County hometown where he spent several summers working to save up for college.) He grew up on the sounds of classic and outlaw country, with a special place in his heart for California country greats Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. This was supplemented with a love of rock \u2019n\u2019 roll\u2014starting with his parents\u2019 beat-up Elvis and Beatles records on up through the glossy pop of hair metal. Eastham is also a long time hip-hop fan.<\/p>\n

While attending UC Davis, Eastham played drums in a satirical thrash band and later a power pop group. After graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering, he switched gears and moved to Los Angeles to attend film school. There he developed his skills as a storyteller through writing, directing, and acting in films. He also became an acolyte of country music\u2014starting with Hank Sr. and working his way through the country-flavored singer-songwriters of the \u201970s (like John Prine, Townes Van Zandt, and Mickey Newbury) on up through the neotraditionalist sounds of Dwight Yoakam. It was at this point he started writing and singing his own songs. He fronted the band Day Of The Outlaw for two albums before embarking on a solo career.<\/p>\n

Eastham moved to Nashville from Los Angeles in the fall of 2010. \u201cIt took me about five years to really settle in here and get comfortable,\u201d he says. \u201cNow that I\u2019m living in East Nashville, I feel I\u2019m finally home.\u201d This notion is addressed in the track \u201cSometimes, The Road\u201d where Eastham\u2019s impressionistic lyrics paint a picture of the fading nostalgia one has for \u201cback home.\u201d Each chorus ends with the refrain: \u201cSometimes the road will bring you home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parallel to his musical pursuits and echoing back to his film school background, Eastham is an avid filmmaker. He has worked on documentaries as well as co-produced five music videos for his previous album. Eastham is also a rabid collector of film soundtracks on vinyl. In addition to his love of listening to soundtracks, Eastham has scored several short films and plans to do more soundtrack work in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this album, I feel like I got to dance with my own dancers in the mansion. I made the album I wanted to make and had a blast doing it.\u201d When asked to sum up his experience of recent years, he points to a phrase repeated several times in the album\u2019s final track \u201cLift Your Soul\u201d: \u201cIn the end, it\u2019s gonna be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TMN STAFF There is a sense of joy that permeates Stewart Eastham\u2019s latest release, Dancers In The Mansion. While Eastham\u2019s previous album The Man I… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1832,3399],"tags":[10124,106,10123,103],"class_list":["post-27384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kfhs-radio","category-music-reviews","tag-dancers-in-the-mansion","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-stewart-eastham","tag-tiger-media-network"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27384"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27389,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27384\/revisions\/27389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}