Arthur Hatton is a connoisseur of music and the founder of Linescratchers, a site that highlights LDS musicians who play music other than LDS-themed music. BCC has been pleased to have him as our guest for this special series of posts.
In the last entry I talked about my “Low experience” with Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker, an experience that many Latter-day Saints in music share. This is the tenth and final installment of The Top 10 LDS Musicians You’ve Never Heard Of. Before I complete the list I just want to thank everyone at By Common Consent for allowing me to evangelize for my musicians. I feel quite honored by the opportunity, and I also feel quite overzealous and protective of our Latter-day Saint musical community sometimes. Some of the friendships I’ve made through Linescratchers will indeed last a lifetime, and I’m always incredibly happy to talk about our artists, promote their music, and help them through the unique challenges that members of our faith community experience in the world of music.
Now I know what most of you will think when you see this last installment: “What a cop out!” Let me explain myself. I selected the “Top 10” based on my own personal preferences and a desire to see many different genres and diverse backgrounds represented. I’ve had to respect the wishes of certain musicians by not featuring them. Also, there are of course time and space constraints. The musicians I’ve featured are by no means the only LDS musicians in this world, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some more artists. Therefore, my last installment will be a few artists that didn’t make the full list, but that I think are still worth listening to.
The Sweater Friends
Jake and Allyson were just very good friends who decided to start performing together. Soon they were writing upbeat, fun acoustic songs that touch on quite deep topics (like self esteem and illegal immigration) without taking themselves too seriously. The Sweater Friends have played shows all over Utah, and are currently working on a concept album called The Ghost and the Guest that they’ve been blogging about. It’s just fun music. You can check out their interview on Linescratchers or their website and blog.
Emily Hope Price
This very talented and unique musician from New York City has been creating quite a stir with what she calls The 365 Project, where she is writing and posting a song a day for an entire year. It’s quite a daunting undertaking to be sure, but she is now over halfway through the year! Emily has an interesting sound that often includes ukuleles, cellos, interesting percussion instruments, and basically whatever she can get her hands on. I have not yet had the pleasure of interviewing Emily for Linescratchers (thus I didn’t have quite enough information to make her one of the Top 10), but you can check out her blog and listen to her songs every day on her website. It’s worth a look and listen.
Rumbo Rumba
Composed of six powerful and nimble Latin musicians, including Aaron de Azevedo, son of Lex de Azevedo, Rumbo Rumba is an upcoming new Latin band with a sound greater than the sum of its parts. Drawing influences from all over Latin America, they are a sight to behold in a live setting. They have made their recordings available on their website for download, but didn’t make the Top 10 because they haven’t yet recorded a full-length album. You can check out their interview at Linescratchers or their website.
The Neighbors
One of my personal favorites, The Neighbors are a tight indie duo with great voices and a great live show. Adam and Rachel Kaiser prove that not all brother-sister singing duos have to be incredibly lame. They’ve moved to Utah now from Michigan and have begun doing small tours around the state, and I include them in the list because I think they’re just awesome. They are in the studio recording a debut album right now. Check out their interview at Linescratchers or their website.
Shaun “Hammer Hands” Barrowes
Lastly, I recently interviewed Shaun for our podcast, and he turned out to be a super nice, passionate, hard-working guy. And he’s a heck of a musician too. Shaun is a singer, songwriter, pianist, and jazz performer, has won contests for his performances, and has tried his hand at American Idol, too (he was in the Top 50 of the 7th Season). He is currently busy with his Live For Music international dance competition, and is preparing for a high school band tour throughout the West. His singing voice will blow you away. For more information about Shaun, please visit his interview on our podcast or his websites at www.liveformusictour.com and www.liveformusicdance.com
Once again, thanks to BCC for allowing me to publish all these, thanks to the musicians for their interviews and music, and thanks to all of the rest of you for reading. I’ve had a total blast. There are plenty more LDS musicians out there, but I didn’t have time to talk about them all. Please visit www.linescratchers.com for news and updates on all our musicians. Brethren, adieu.
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Awesome series. I now know a lot of new musicians that I never would have known about otherwise. Thanks for introducing them. I will be following them with interest and enjoying their music.
Cool series. Broadened my horizons, that’s for sure.
Next thing you know, the church will be contacting you for candidates for the next round of hip “I’m A Mormon” ads.
#1. Thanks MCQ. That’s the best thing about my “hobby”… I get great music from all over the place and get to talk to lots of fascinating folks all over the world.
#2. They’d probably make me cut my hair first! If that’s the case, then never!
And if ya’ll haven’t already you should bookmark Linescratchers or add it to your RSS reader or follow on twitter @linescratchers.
Thanks Brother Morris. For the record, I did not pay him to say that.
Thanks for all the work to do this series.
I’ve enjoyed lurking in this series, thanks!
Haven’t commented, and haven’t had time to look at each one yet, but all are bookmarked and I look forward to listening. Thank you so much for your work here, Arthur. I very much appreciate it.