Lylie Mae sitting for Electric City Life Live Lylie Mae began her musical journey by working at The Loft for over eight years, moving from host to server to bartender to sound engineer to headliner. “That’s my little home, my little family, whenever I go there, that’s where I laid my roots down,” shares LM, “At one point, I quit and moved for several months to Fiji. When I came back I’d lost...
Michael David’s Music
MD flew to Chicago and made The Voice, then made American Idol in Atlanta
A True Homecoming
Dear reader, I hope you find this not as much as an informative piece, but rather a sincere invitation to a celebration. Saturday, October 15th I’ll be performing at The Loft Green Room Stage to celebrate the release of Play It Loud So the Stars Can Hear in my hometown of Columbus, Georgia. I’ve lived in Nashville since 2018, so it’s certainly a homecoming in that literal sense...
At Peace with Place
Songwriter Julianna Money sings of her journey to find home on debut album, In the Valley. True to her troubadour nature, it wasn’t until Julianna Money set off in search of new horizons that she finally appreciated home. She left the nest at age 18, heading to Athens to enroll at the University of Georgia upon graduating from Columbus HIgh School. Having earned a degree in Economics, she...
Sunday Q&A: Wyndhem Ennaemba
Trombonist (Atlantis Collective), Label Co-Founder (CloudStepper Records), Audio Engineer (The Loft Recording Studio) How did playing in a marching band prepare you to become a professional musician? “A lot of the marching band stuff that I did, especially later in high school, was in more of a leadership role. A lot of it was listening skills—knowing how to be part of a band. The leadership...
Sunday Q&A: Jontavious Willis
A Budding Blues Star and the Destiny of Success Baptized into blues stardom two years ago by the legendary Taj Mahal as “my wonderboy,” Greenville, Georgia native Jontavious Willis has already enjoyed a blockbuster 2019. His music drove the Kia “Just a Small Town in Georgia” commercial aired during the Super Bowl halftime in February. Last week, he dropped the album Sophisticated Class...
Ramble On
Joey Allcorn wondered if he “could live a normal life” three years ago when he moved into his grandparents’ house off River Road. An alt-country troubadour seasoned well past his 38 years, Allcorn made a big splash soon after graduating from Shaw by winning a regional talent contest. He spent 15 years traversing the South form show to show, back and forth to Nashville for studio sessions. “I...
Of Men, Music & Myth
Now entering its second weekend at the Springer Opera House, Kudzu the Musical celebrates in story and song this place we call home—the quintessential eccentric Southern community that is Columbus, Georgia. In this Q&A with Electric City Life Editor Frank Etheridge, local music luminary Allen Levi shares his insights into the original musical theater production he created in collaboration...
Good Viberations
“St. EOM made up his own words, like Pasaquan and viberations,” Charles Fowler says. “We decided we wanted to bring back Artists for Pasaquan weekend but to put our own spin on it. So in the spirit of St. EOM, we renamed it a word we came up with: Pasafest.” An artist and musician, Fowler is also caretaker of Pasaquan: the surreal vision of inter-planetary utopia on 7 acres erected by mystic...
Words & Music, Southern Gothic Style
“I’ve written one song off Reflections of a Golden Eye from the passage where the main guy takes his wife’s horse out riding,” Aimee Bobruk says of a songwriting process that led the Austin, Texas musician to where she sat Tuesday night, sipping wine on the front porch of Carson McCullers’ childhood home. “He’s riding, loses control and finds his bliss,” she continues, talking during a quick...