Talking House Productions put together a stellar line up last Sunday night to celebrate the Preview of Luke Franks or the Federalists’ debut CD, The Way We Ran, new from Talking House Records this month.

The show kicked off about 7:30 with up and coming rockin’ folk trio David Luning and the Third Wheels. I have written plenty already in previous blogs about David’s natural gift and his raspy provocative vocal style. Let me just say that his talents were very much in evidence as he and drummer Zak Garn and bass John Luther performed 8 of David’s original songs. David’s lyrical style is conversational, organic and you feel like you know the guy when he’s singing. He can put a song over, and that’s a rare gift. Zak, sensitive percussionist with some nice brushwork and foot tamb, and John’s solid acoustic bass guitar skills kept it all locked down. I think I heard a new one, Did Nothing Wrong, which is more complicated songwriting than David’s earliest stuff — demonstrating David’s continued growth as an artist. David was a recent guest on the Palo Alto-based Cable Access television show. View David’s five song set on blip tv.

Nic Russo, Jeremy Robins & Sloan Denton make up Soft Stories, alternative R&B with a lot of flourishes that kick. I don’t know what it is about these three, but we’re invited to play with them in their musical world. Their music is characterized by an open transparent sound, fun vocal arrangements either in duet or counterpoint with some light false setto tossed in, interesting mix of rhythms, all the while with a solid driving rock beat thundering away delivered by a competent no-nonsense drummer. They’re finding a unique voice, and they are worth monitoring.

The third band, Soft White Sixties, channels 60s R&B beautifully, but brings it up to us with melodies that are current, fresh and with a rolling lyrical movement. Octavio Genera, Aaron Ferguson, Ryan Noble, Joey Bustos and Aaron Eisenberg piled it on with three, (were there three guitars?) plus bass, and a set of keys with a punky rocky drummer pounded it out for us. They would get the dance band award of the evening perhaps. However, for me they were not balanced for the room and the vocals were overpowered. Having a weakness for lyrics, I like to hear enough of them to follow the song — which was not possible for me Sunday night — except in the lovely ballad I’d Rather Lie. The lead vocal has very compelling voice and he connects well with the audience. I hope to hear a CD from them someday. Any plans for a CD, guys?

Personable Luke Franks took the stage with the Federalists, Jason Roysdon on Guitar, Ruben Rios on Drums, and Aaron Schmidt on Bass. Luke played guitar and sang us through 15 highly differentiated solid songs, shapeshifting easily from indie pop to rock country. Their clean and polished sound was stand-out without sounding affected or self-conscious. I’ll attribute that balance to Luke’s down-to-earth personality (I spoke with him after his set), some excellent production work and of course caring enough to practice to that sweet tightness. Luke’s songs are well-structured and have great hooks and twists, with unusual story lines that I could get. So they gave us good arrangements, solid musicianship and melodies with gotcha choruses. What else? Luke’s got another one of those wonder voices. What is it about it? Conversational, relaxed, mellifluous, smooth like good coffee and rich without artifice. If I heard Benjamin and Bonnie and Over It’s Over played every hour on the radio tomorrow, I would not be surprised. Excellent song-crafting there.

I gather the band used to be “The Federalists”, but with some personnel changes due to the rigors of touring, and with Luke stepping up as the lead vocalist and the principal songwriter, the name change seemed the way to go and kicks in with this CD.

The band kicks off its November Western tour with a show on November 12 in Portland, Oregon. They’ll be back in town on Thanksgiving weekend for their official CD release party at the Rickshaw with Dizzy Balloon on November 28.

Wow, there’s always good food to be had in downtown Palo Alto, but is there always good music? Last night, there was a feast of sounds. Scott and I got out into it early and stayed late.

Songwriter/Artist David Luning opened the United Nations Associations 12th Annual Film Festival “busking” at the Aquarius Theater. He appeared by arrangement with West Coast Songwriters. (If you need music for your event, call them first!) He sang his usual fare of folksy-blues and gave us a new one last night. David was our guest on American Songwriter a few weeks back and his “episode” is now playing on Comcast Channel 27 in the Midpeninsula. Click here for show times! You can also catch the show on out blip.tv channel.

We ran over to Junoon to the kick-off reception for UNAFF, and there was multi-instrumentalist Jesse Norfleet playing the drums in a trio performing standards from the Jazz repetoire. Jesse is a gifted musician and a gifted television producer and director as well. He was formerly the programming manager at the Media Center. Now in addition to managing, booking and performing in bands, Jesse works with teens getting them ready for college at College Track.

So then we ran back to catch the last few moments of David’s gig. And then we were over to Jungle Copy on High Street. The heppest copy shop around. They host regular open mics and if you organize yourself a show you can book it there. Per Se’s Emily Gibbons opened with a lovely acoustic set of her originals. Joining her on harmony was Nick Giordano of Picture Atlantic. Unfortunately we missed indie screamo band The Bridge who were up next because we wanted to meet Joanie and Ian Crombie of WCS and Allison and John Williams also of WCS (Ali was working publicity for UNAFF and her husband was snapping the pictures at the Aquarius) at the Rose and Crown for a quick one. After downing some Welsh Rabbit and a Murphy’s we rushed back to Jungle Copy and caught emerging band Playground Adventure. They were pretty good. It was their second gig. I think I caught some interesting lyrics. Their songs to me sounded a bit similar which was okay since it was basically a very cool sound, rich, lush and loud. In the future, I’ll be looking for the way they use their signature sound and branch out and build on that.

Next up was the surprise of the night (for me). For those who are already familiar with the band Sister Crayon, they may have been surprised in a negative way. Lead vocals Terra Lopez’s mic cut out every time the keyboards kicked in. She ended up running her mic through a guitar amp and carried on. I think they were disappointed with the sound, but I wasn’t since I hadn’t heard them before. So Terra adjusts her own voice in real time through some effects processing. They’ve got a sensitive keyboardist Genaro with a stack of synths, and a solid drummer, Nicholas who looked like he was beating his drumkit to a pulp. Dani, the fourth member plays a drum pad and a Korg Synth, creating smooth back-up harmonies and counterpoints. A highly processed sound in clean real time. Startling and fresh. So I’ll be watching Sister Crayon you bet.

And next up, what can I say, Picture Atlantic just delivers – even when Ryan had to bail due to illness for part of a song, and I found out from Patrick that they are all battling the crud. So they delivered a great set, despite illness. They added a new guitarist since they were on American Songwriter last Spring. Grant is a fairly energetic fellow who is able to play his part in a variety of poses, including with his back to the floor. Lead singer Nick’s energetic elasticity is organic. His naturalism just reels you in. I can’t say enough about these guys. Nick’s incredible range and beautiful sustained false setto is amazing. And he is still creating strong original music which the band delivers in tight ethereal rock – if that isn’t an oxymoron. By the way, the band recently lost their euphonium which I totally miss. So if you know someone who’s got one of these old school instruments lying around in their attic, have them contact Brian. He’d love to have it.

Scott and I went up to San Francisco to meet with David Luning and his band last night to discuss the upcoming taping of American Songwriter this Tuesday at the Media Center. David will be the guest artist for our 20th show.

After our meeting on the sidewalk outside the Brainwash Cafe on Folsom we ducked into catch the last three songs of Todd Haemmerle’s set. I’ve seen Todd before and always enjoy his open string finger-pick style and his mellow soothing voice. He treated us to a world premier of his new song, an upbeat love song Come On Out.. And he covered Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide and then ended with Hard to Dream. You can listen to Todd on his myspace page.

David was up next. I’ve only seen him solo with his acoustic guitar but he has recently acquired a band: John Luther on bass and Zach Garn on drums. They played a thirteen song set made up mostly of David’s originals with a few covers through in. David hits the usual themes of heartbreak, bad luck and drowning it all in alcohol. But David masters the fun side of heartbreak and loneliness. That’s what I really love about his unique folkyblues with rock elements – there’s always an upside, even if it’s only the fact that the singer is so painfully aware of his misery that it feels alive and thrilling to be connected to it. His flirtation with self-awareness is very different from self-consciousness – of which he appears to be refreshingly devoid.

David is relaxed and natural before a mic. He tells strong stories and paints vivid pictures with his lyrics. His patter between songs draws you in and you’re carried through a window into David’s world. His song have strong hooks, are wonderfully melodic, and natural phrasing. His voice has an unusual timbre, rich and sonorous but with a little catch in it, that really sets it apart, gives it an emotional edge.

And the band sounds really established. For being just a few months old, they are tight with solid arrangements. John plays an amped acoustic hollowed-body bass guitar. I never saw one of those before so that was something new. And I must say it goes great with David’s acoustic guitar. Zach on drums was really pro at using the full spectrum without overpowering the acoustic feel of the set. His liberal use of brushes, a tambourine on his foot! And some shakers were nicely blended in as well.

So David sang some songs we can look forward to hearing on Tuesday night. His current “hits” include Humble Apologizing, My Baby Blues on Wheels, Northern California, Whiskey Bottle, American Nightmare and Waiting Room. Most of them can be heard on his myspace page. He also did a moving rendition of Steve Earle’s Ben McCullough among the handful of covers he did.

After David and the band’s set, Kevin Beadles took the stage with John Foster on vocals and guitar. I got to hear Mrs. Jones Cadillac, a really hilarious song, but had to leave before he got too far into the set. Kevin’s got a real mellifluous flowing voice that he uses well with his cursive wrap around lyric lines. I saw Kevin (and David coincidentally) at the West Coast Songwriters Conference a few weeks back. I got to hear some of his music then in some of the screenings. And I got to see Kevin work with performance coach Steve Memel during one of Steve’s sessions. Kevin is a dynamic performer and is well worth listening to and watching, too and he writes entertaining upbeat music to boot.

Many of the usual suspects showed up at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley last night for the monthly West Coast Songwriters Song Competition . I was there as a co-manager of the event along with Nomi Yah the chief manager, Eric Boutte the audio guy and Rex Reade the stage manager. We were treated to the usual whimsical fare of a Mark piano-accompanied ballad and new song from Nomi. There’s room for 20, but we only had 15 “competitors”. I used that term loosely because it’s very supportive and doesn’t feel like a “race”. The “winner” of best song gets 3 hours of free studio time. The “winner” of best performance gets 10 blank CDs complete with jewel cases!

It was great to see American Songwriter alumni Jason Overton there. He had a new song and was trying it out. He’s been playing the upstairs lounge at the Fillmore and is about to release a record. We got another great performance and song from Mary Redente who ended up winning the best performance of the night. Best song of the night went to WCS newcomer David Luning of Forestville. At 22, he’s fresh and creative. His song WHISPER I LOVE YOU was poweful and persuasively delivered. The three judges of the night – Dana Jae, Tomi Thomas and Melissa Milton – were unanimous in choosing David. So hopefully he’ll stick around. It’s great to see a new talent in development.

The Freight and Salvage hosts the WCS Song Competition the third Monday of the month. Doors open about 7 pm. Singing starts at 7:30. Winners of best song are invited to perform at the play-offs in August. Sarah Bareilles is a graduate of the WCS song competition. WCS is a great organization and is super supportive of developing songwriters and singer/songwriters. Mind you, you have to join WCS in order to “compete” but I think you can perform without competing. The door cost is $5 a head, to perform or to watch. Student dues per year $40 and non-student $70 per year. A BARGAIN once you learn about all the other cool stuff WCS provides.