Your Heaven® Audio goes to NERFA!

by Kia Davis | Nov 8, 2018 | audio how to, Blog, Music News

Your Heaven® Audio goes to NERFA!

By:

Kia Davis

11/08/2018

WHEN YOU WANT ENHANCEMENT: SOUND REINFORCEMENT FOR HOUSE SHOWS & SMALL VENUES

There is something wonderfully intimate about a house show, but sometimes you need something to help the musician reach the audience. Come join the experts to discuss various aspects of house concert and small venue sound reinforcement. During the discussion we will be looking at a series of physical sound systems and examine setup complexity, microphone types, and room size vs amplifier need.

You can visit our booth November 9th- November 11th, 11am-2pm at Crowne Plaza Stamford (Stamford, CT)

2701 Summer Street, Stamford, Connecticut 06905

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Introducing Your Heaven® Audio’s Chief Technology Officer Arvid Tomayko

by Kia Davis | Oct 31, 2018 | Blog, Meet Our Team

Introducing Your Heaven® Audio’s CTO Arvid Tomayko

By: Kia Davis

OCTOBER 30th, 2018

MEET OUR TEAM

In addition to being Your Heaven® Audio’s Chief Technology Offier, Arvid is a performing experimental musician, multimedia artist and audio engineer.

At Your Heaven®, he transforms the vision into reality. His job: to code the software and firmware, develop algorithms, record instruments for acoustic research, and test hardware. He also designs the exterior of some of the products.

Hailing from the foggy tip of Cape Cod, he holds a BA in both Computer Music and Multimedia and Geological Sciences from Brown University where he studied with teachers such as Alvin Lucier.

“I was fortunate enough to take a class with the legendary experimental composer Alvin Lucier. Lucier is famously rigid about staying true to the intent of the composer when performing a piece of music. So much so that when he starting playing back a recorded piece to discuss in class, he would not change the volume of the amplifier once the piece had started. Once, this resulted in us all covering our ears for 10 minutes while we listened. A bit extreme, yes, and perhaps he was being facetious in that instance, but there was a lesson there about doing something with no compromises.”

Arvid Tomayko

Your Heaven® Audio’s CTO Arvid Tomayko

Photo: Joanne Barkan

H. Gene Thompson & Arvid Tomayko’s performance Apart From Me at the New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh, PA

Sourced from Arvid Tomayko

Arvid plays trumpet, laptop and electronics, and creates interactive performances, installations and experiences using sensors, code, sound and video. He performs solo with custom controllers and his own unique looping software, and collaborates with colleagues on large scale projects involving installations or wearable sculptures with embedded sensors and electronics. You can see and hear some of his work at here.

In Pittsburgh’s DIY musical community, Arvid Frequents and performs at venues such as disused storefronts, abandoned tennis courts and stone basements.

Arvid’s first musical obsession was The Beatles, which exposed him at a young age to the experimental manipulation of sound in their later recordings. From then on he knew he wanted to work in sound and push the boundaries of auditory experiences.

This led him to experiment with recording on cassette tapes with the family boom box, eventually graduating to a 4-track (Overdubbing! Backwards! Speed changes!) and then to an iMac running Pro Tools Free (8 tracks! editing! effects!), and then on to Max/MSP, micro-controllers and sensors, and more and more and more!

Arvid Tomayko performing live at Community Forge in Pittsburgh, PA

Sourced from Arvid Tomayko

Arvid’s goal at Your Heaven® Audio is to help start the instrument pickup revolution that will make live music on acoustic instruments sound better.

To get started on your revolution, check out our product page.

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Highlighting Your Heaven® Audio’s COO Prachi Jain

by Kia Davis | Oct 17, 2018 | Blog, Meet Our Team

Highlighting Your Heaven® Audio’s COO Prachi Jain!

By: Kia Davis

OCTOBER 15th, 2018

MEET OUR TEAM

With a background in business development and engineering, our COO Prachi has experience working in varied industries including Indian Space Telecommunications, Education Management, Health-care, Ridesharing and Music.

Jain completed her undergraduate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in India, and graduated with a Masters in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship from Brown University.

Your Heaven® Audio’s COO Prachi Jain

Sourced from Prachi Jain

“As I grew up in India with an interest in western music, I have a range of favourite artists and bands. But it’s extremely difficult to choose one or even a few. . . currently listening to Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Jagjit Singh (for his ghazals).”

Check out our Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

After finishing an internship at Indian Space Research Organization, she eventually joined her family business in education management as the Business Development Specialist and led the organization in the regions of western and northern India. Prachi, with technical prowess and sharp business acumen, leads Your Heaven Audio as the Chief Operations Officer.

“I have attended just one concert in US so far – Coldplay at Gillette Stadium, Mass. Otherwise, it has been the homes of many amazing musicians I have met over the past 2 years. I get to enjoy private concerts!”

If she could learn any instrument . . .
“I want to learn guitar because it’s been about 8 years of me passively trying. I want to get done with it already!! I have also thought about learning a ukelele because it has two strings less.”

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Meet Our Team: CEO Steve Schwartz

by Kia Davis | Oct 8, 2018 | Blog, Meet Our Team

Meet Your Heaven® Audio’s CEO Steve Schwartz!

By: Kia Davis

October 8th, 2018

MEET OUR TEAM

A musician and audio engineer by profession, our CEO Steve studied composition at Juilliard.

Steve completed his music degree at Brown University, where he also studied audio engineering and studio technique. After graduating, he taught music theory and recording at Brown’s Music Department.

“My dad loved to listen to music, and got a piano which he never played. I was banging on it at 3 or 4, and took lessons from a very dreary teacher which may have caused more harm than good. I started on drum lessons when 7, and stuck with that, and they are my best instrument by far. My most formal training is in composition.”

Your Heaven CEO Steve Schwartz

Photo by Your Heaven Audio

“. . . I took lessons from a very dreary teacher which may have caused more harm than good.”

Currently, Steve manages recordings for the Brown University music department, sings with the Brown University Chorus, runs Brown’s Klezmer band, and plays jazz and experimental music whenever he gets a chance. The technology behind the Your Heaven® Audio Systems was born in his basement while he was still a student, when he started building devices to help him with recording his drums for recording class assignments.

Check out our Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

Some of Steve’s favorite musical memories:

“I have too many to pick one!”

“I got to play a slide projector with John Cage once. I got to see Miles Davis play live in a small NYC club before he passed on. And the moments when I played with people and the results were great – random events in a basement or performance when something just goes really well and you know it – are things that keep me inspired.”

“There is a line through history of people who made great contributions and great music, among them Machaut, Lassus, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Miles Davis… I’d like to meet anyone who is next in that line, to work with them and make great music also.”

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Featured Artist: Violinist David Lombardi

by Kia Davis | Sep 24, 2018 | Uncategorized

Meet David Lombardi

a professional in the field using our CloseUp® System

Your Heaven® Audio is working with Italian born violinist David Lombardi to get his instrument’s ideal sound. Here, we investigate his practice and background.

Featured Artist: Violinist David Lombardi

I have never come across a system like this. First off the microphone it’s a high quality one and it doesn’t only reproduce the sound of my instrument in details but it also offers high feedback resistance and isolation from other external sounds/instruments . . . I could then use the software to equalize the sound even further and get rid of annoying frequencies.

David Lombardi

Professional Violinist

David Lombardi studied classical music for many years. During this time, he developed an interest for Irish traditional music, which grew into a passion for music from many different traditions. His focus in the musical traditions of the Celtic countries led him to Ireland, where he attended a four-year course in traditional Irish music at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the University of Limerick. He quickly came in contact with different genres and styles of music, starting collaborations with internationally renowned artists. Later, he moved to Sweden to deepen his knowledge in Scandinavian traditional music and attended a master course in World Music at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm.

During the Master studies, he received two scholarships from Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien, reserved to the best students of Swedish Conservatories.

In 2012, he spent three months in India and Nepal where he learned the fundamentals of classical Indian music. He collaborated with Indian and Nepalese musicians, such as Shyam Nepali, Hamid Hussain Khan and Amrita Bera, and recorded Laya Bazaar, a fully improvised album at the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory.

. . . Thanks to the strong signal the CloseUp® system delivers, I could use it with my effect pedals! Most microphones I used in the past worked only with delays, reverbs and similar effects. . .but the CloseUp® managed to work as well as my pickup with octave pedals, harmonisers, envelope filters/wah pedals, distortions etc. Amazing!

David Lombardi

Professional Violinist

David’s travels allowed him to get in touch with artists from a variety of traditional music scenes and to start important projects that took him on tours the world over, including a stint with Riverdance in 2014.

Currently, he performs in many groups including folk bands FOURTH MOON and DALLAHAN, electronic trad band EVENT HORIZON and live looping trio MODULƎ.

In his upcoming tour with Dallahan in Germany and the UK, Lombardi will be using out CloseUp® System! Here’s a little more about his projects for you to check out:

FOURTH MOON

Fourth Moon unites four nationalities and four musical backgrounds into one creative force to be reckoned with.

“The result feels fresh and often exhilarating. With a nod towards the pioneering spirit of Lau in showing how traditional musicianship and instruments can be used to produce a truly original sound, Fourth Moon take a mixture of tunes, many of them self penned, and put together sets that play around with styles and tempos and deliver the unexpected.” – Edinburgh TradFest

YOUTUBE LINK

FACEBOOK

MODULƎ

MODULƎ is a new project that brings together violinist David Lombardi (Fourth Moon/ Event Horizon), guitarist Seán Gray (Paul McKenna Band) and drummer Stuart Brown (Herschel 36/ Sugarwork/ Twisted Toons). Through the use of multiple loop pedals and effects they create a unique, multilayered, cinematic sound that defies the group’s size and draws equally on the diverse influences of its members.

YOUTUBE Link
Facebook

Dallahan

Slated to tour Germany and the UK in October and November, Dallahan is one of the most thrilling forces in the international folk music scene; heavily rooted in traditional Irish music, but with hugely diverse backgrounds and influences. They call on their mixed Irish, Scottish and Hungarian heritage to create a unique and seamless musical montage, drawing in influences from jazz, funk, pop and classical music. Dallahan will push and pull you along on a musical journey, artistically transcending from tender and delicate songs from Transylvania, to relentlessly punchy Irish dance tunes littered with funk grooves and everything in between.

YOUTUBE LINK

Facebook

Event Horizon

Event Horizon is a concept project devised by Géza Frank & Jean Damei at the centre of which stands a unique brand of music that fuses the group’s eclectic compositional styles with astrophysical and cosmological themes.

The aim is to create a new sort of music, inspired by traditional Irish & Scottish music as well as electronic dance music and film music, which is evocative and descriptive of phenomena discovered during humankind’s eternal quest for a better understanding of the Universe.

YOUTUBE LINK

Facebook

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What We’ve Learned in the MassChallenge

by Kia Davis | Aug 22, 2018 | Blog, Music News

By: Kia Davis

AUGUST 20th, 2018

MUSIC NEWS

What’s New?

In May of 2018, we were thrilled to accept a placement in the inaugural MassChallenge Rhode Island cohort!

As one of thirty-one startups in the program, Your Heaven Audio (YH) has unique access to co-work spaces in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, mentorships with leaders in the tech industry, as well as fruitful workshops with industry professionals. Here’s what we’ve learned.

MassChallenge.org

First, what is MassChallenge?

MassChallenge is the most startup-friendly accelerator on the planet. A non-profit, they help entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, industries, and regions around the world.

At the end of the program, the highest-impact startup will be rewarded in equity-free cash awards. We’re honored to be in the running as we take advantage of the resources offered in the program.

Just a little history . . . to date, 1,500 MassChallenge alumni have raised over $3 billion in funding, generated approximately $2 billion in revenue, and created over 80,000 total jobs.

How we landed a spot in this year’s cohort

“Part of our appeal, is they like what we are and who we are. They tend to look at a team of people, and they look at an idea, and those are the two big ones,” says Your Heaven CEO Steve Schwartz.

Your Heaven Audio is a unique company in the cohort in that we’re already manufacturing a product that resolves a real world problem.

“Live amplification and recording for acoustic instruments is something people struggle with, and we have invented a really innovative product that solves a lot of problems that musicians face,” says Your Heaven COO Prachi Jain. “We are a manufacturing company, so eventually we’ll be creating a lot of jobs. There’s potential as a startup.”

Danny Warshay, Executive Director of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship at Brown, was introduced to Steve Schwartz by colleague Professor Barrett Hazeltine. Warshay was an early mentor and supporter of Your Heaven Audio, and has helped the company to develop and expand its team. After watching the team grow, he believes a few things have helped Your Heaven land more opportunities such as the MassChallenge – like winning the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition this past May.

May 2018 when we won the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition

“The RI Business Plan Competition judges noticed a huge difference in YH from last year’s entry to this year’s.” Warshay believes a part of that is a reflection of the planning process that was initiated and supported in regular mentorship meetings.

Schwartz believes another reason they were awarded this prize was due to Your Heaven’s commitment to local production. “We would love to continue to assemble locally, as much as possible,” he explains.

And finally, Your Heaven has a proven track record.

“Not only do we have a working product, we are already making sales and have amazing traction with partners like Berklee school of music,” Explains Jain.

Social Enterprise Greenhouse, a co-work space we have access to in Providence through the MassChallenge

“. . . the value of a business plan is partly in the plan itself and especially in the planING. The process of having to develop a plan, in other words, is valuable.”

Danny Warshay

Executive Director of the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, Brown University

The ‘MADE at MASSCHALLENGE’ maker lab located in Boston

Some Highlights

“The process YH has undertaken in participating . . . has been valuable in itself” Says Warshay, “I often say that the value of a business plan is partly in the plan itself and especially in the planING. The process of having to develop a plan, in other words, is valuable.”

It’s also been a pleasure to access the Makers Lab.

Interior of Made at MassChallenge Maker Lab

“The community here is great. In Boston, it is so nice to be around all of these startups – really passionate, and really believing in their idea. It’s challenging to fight against the odds, and to make prototypes in the office basement. Suddenly we’re no longer in a vacuum, we’re sharing our challenges and joys with highly motivated people,” Says Jain.

Schwartz agrees, saying “There’s way more going on than I’m possibly able to look at! I’ve gotten to meet a handful of people over and over again. There’s a community sense, and feeding off of each other’s energy and helping each other – in pragmatic ways, in thinking with each other and bouncing ideas off of eachother.”

There’s also the workshops.

“The forums have been pretty good for me personally. I don’t have a formal background in business . . . For me, it’s interesting to learn more about marketing.” Says Schwartz. “Enterprise or indirect selling – those terms were so vague to me before but now they aren’t. And I can see the value in pursuing partnerships with other manufacturers and parts companies,” he explains.

Impact on Winning

Our experiences in the MassChallenge cohort have enriched Your Heaven’s business practices, lead to some exciting mentorships, and built on our ever-expanding network of potential partners. Towards the end of September, we’ll know whether or not our little Rhode Island startup has earned the big prize – equity free cash to further develop our unique line of audio technology. The implications of another win for Your Heaven Audio would be huge! Outside of lending external credibility and trust in our products, we’ll be able to work within our network to pursue strategic OEM partnerships, and further our quest to make the best product for our customers.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to take advantage of the resources at hand, and enjoy our newfound community of passionate entrepreneurs.

Want to learn more about our CloseUp® System? Visit our Product Overview page!

Six Must-Sees at Summer NAMM

by Nico DeLong | Jun 27, 2018 | Blog, Music News

Six Must-Sees at Summer Namm

By: Devanney Haruta

JUNE 27th, 2018

MUSIC NEWS

The Moment You’ve Been Waiting For

You’ve waited all year for this… and now it’s time for Summer at NAMM! Get ready for an amazing week of gear, networking, instruments, and more, all in the heart of Nashville, TN. From June 26 – 30, NAMM offers no shortage of events, from concerts to education panels to jam sessions to exhibits. There’s so much to see and hear and do, so where should you head first? Here’s a list of highlights you should be sure to check out:

Opening night concert – Georgia on My Mind: Start off the week with a great concert, “Georgia On My Mind” (Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 7:30 – 10:30 pm at the Ryman Auditorium). Hosted by the Peach Pickers, this show features artists in a musical celebration of their home state of Georgia. Proceeds go to the Georgia Music Foundation to support music education, preservation, and outreach.

Crafting a Hit Record: Working on your latest album? Check out this session, “Crafting a Hit Record,” where a multi-Grammy panel shares their tips on how you can craft your best record yet. (Thursday, June 28, 2018, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm at the Music City Center, TEC Tracks (Booth 153))

Photo by Stelios Kazazis (via Unsplash)

Check out our Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

New Trends in the Guitar: Calling all guitar fans: check out this presentation, “New Trends in the Guitar,” led by Laura B. Whitmore of Mad Sun Marketing, where you’ll hear about the future trends of the guitar in a digital world. (Friday, June 29, 2018, 4:00 – 5:00 pm at the Music City Center, NAMM Idea Center (Booth 453))

The guitar enters the digital world.

Photo by Sergio Alejandro Ortiz (via Unsplash)

World’s Fastest Drummer: With a packed schedule of events, time can pass in a blur… but it might literally, at the World’s Fastest Drummer Finals (Saturday, June 30, 2018, 10:00 – 10:40am at the NAMM Reverb Stage on the Terrace). If you can’t make it to the final showdown, be sure to catch the prelims on Thursday or Friday.

Best in Show: It’s the end of the week, and why not top it off with the NAMM “Best In Show”? Sip your coffee, join your friends for breakfast, and hear about the newest best new tech of the year. For everyone – musicians, retailers, or exhibitors – this is an event not to miss. (Saturday, June 30, 2018, 8:00 – 9:30 am at the Music City Center, Davidson Ballroom)

Photo by gbarkz (via Unsplash)

Your Heaven Audio exhibit booth: Come say hello! Looking for a microphone that isolates and captures your true, beautiful acoustic sound? We’ll be demoing systems for mandolin and strings, as well as our new and updated built-in version for acoustic guitar. Plus, we are excited to meet manufacturers to establish partnerships. Stop by the Your Heaven Audio table to say hi, meet our team, and learn more about what we’ve been doing to help make your sound even better. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

The Your Heaven Audio team at NAMM 2017

Photo by Your Heaven Audio

Bluegrass Spotlight: Miners Creek Band

by Devanney Haruta | May 30, 2018 | audio how to, Blog

Bluegrass Spotlight: Miners Creek Band

By: Devanney Haruta

MAY 30th, 2018

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

Not your ordinary bluegrass band

Miners Creek is not your ordinary bluegrass band. Performing in Rockport, ME, band members Resa Randolph, Whitney Randolph, Emily Randolph-Epstein, and Emma Theobalds come from a variety of musical backgrounds – classical, jazz, Latin, and even opera – elements of which add a distinctive flavor to their classic bluegrass sound. Listening to their songs, however, you’ll hear that their music is not fusion nor is it radically new and unfamiliar: it is unmistakably bluegrass.

What is it, then, that makes bluegrass bluegrass? “Having a good story to tell and making your audience feel something because of that story,” says Emma. Emily adds: “Not just any story, but a story about something everyday. It’s about the little guy living his life, and maybe a story of this one extraordinary day, or this one extraordinary love. It’s very relatable.”

Four bluegrass musicians seated in a row

Humor is an essential ingredient to Miners Creek.
Pictured: Whitney Randolph, Resa Randolph, Emma Theobalds, and Emily Randolph-Epstein

Photo by Marti Stone

The instruments, too, are key. Whether they’re singing a classic such as “Red Rocking Chair” or an original such as “Cold, Cold Ground,” “you add the driving beat of the banjo, you add a really good strong bluegrass-style guitar, and that’s bluegrass,” says Resa. “You can’t mistake it for anything else.”

“It’s about the little guy living his life, and maybe a story of this one extraordinary day, or this one extraordinary love.”

Whitney reflects that from the beginning, bluegrass was an evolving genre: “In terms of traditional bluegrass, it’s hard to say what that is exactly. The people you think of as founding fathers of bluegrass like the Scruggs, Bill Monroe – they all kept evolving and playing in different genres. If you look at Bill Monroe, he’s the only musician who’s in three different musical halls of fame: rock, country, and bluegrass. That’s kind of interesting.”

Bluegrass musicians rehearse in a home recording studio

Resa and Emma in the studio, recording their recent album

Photo by Miners Creek Band

Check out our Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

As long as Miners Creek is around, the evolution of bluegrass will never be static. They run a bluegrass camp in Bucksport, ME, play at local farmers markets and coffeeshops, and are even sketching out plans for a house concert tour in Ireland for the summer of 2019. To those curious about dipping their toes into the world of bluegrass, they offer this advice:

“I came from classical guitar,” says Resa. “The first few times I put that pick in my hand, I dropped it. It was so hard to do! It sounds silly, but don’t give up. Go to a festival, immerse yourself in the music. You can’t play bluegrass music if you don’t have it in your ear.”

Three people photographed from behind, looking at an outdoor event tent

Going to a festival is a great way to get introduced to the bluegrass scene

Photo by Aranxa Esteve (via Unsplash)

“Keep an open mind,” adds Emma. “Especially for me with a very strict singing background, there were a lot of times where I was like, ‘I’m not doing that. I refuse.’ You have to trust that you may feel uncomfortable at first, but at the end of the day, once you relax into it, it’s wonderful. It’s a wonderful experience to be able to branch out and do something new.”

“You can’t play bluegrass music if you don’t have it in your ear.”

And the best thing about playing bluegrass? It’s clear from their catchy enthusiasm and endless humor, and Emma confirms on behalf of the band: “I think this is something we can all agree on: if we’re not having fun, then it’s not worth doing it. That keeps me keep coming back, every day!”

Keep an ear out for Miners Creek’s newest EP, “All Stove Up,” coming out on June 23^rd.

Get that bluegrass sound in your ear and attend FreshGrass this year – on us!

Attend FreshGrass at Mass MoCA – For Free!

by Kia Davis | May 16, 2018 | Blog, Uncategorized

Attend FreshGrass at Mass MoCA – On Us!

MAY 16th, 2018

A PROMOTION

FRESHGRASS Ticket giveaway

As lovers of all things acoustic, we at Your Heaven Audio are dedicating the month of May to bluegrass. The genre originated in the south, and since we’re headed to Summer at NAMM this year in Nashville, we wanted to learn more! To prepare, we’re on the lookout for some quality live bluegrass anywhere we can find it – including stellar festivals with amazing national acts. This month, we’re giving away TWO tickets to FreshGrass at Mass MoCA. Here’s how you can win.

We’re giving away two 3-day passes so you can enjoy folk musicians such as Trampled by Turtles, the Indigo Girls, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, and Yonder Mountain String Band. Plus, plenty of more traditional bluegrass acts throughout the weekend of September 14th-16th.

All you have to do is:

1. Caption the pinned photo on our Facebook page

2. Tag a friend you’re bringing with you! Also, you are under no obligation to ‘like’ our page – however, if you appreciate our content and giveaways such as this, we’d like to stay in touch!

Prize DOES include all features of the 3 day festival pass. A little more about FRESHGRASS at Mass MoCA:

FRESH GRASS

at Mass Moca

Sept. 14th-16th

87 Marshall Street in North Adams, Mass

We like to think of it as “great music uprooted.”

– FreshGrass

Lineup:

FreshGrass is a wonderland of traditional and cutting-edge bluegrass, tucked appropriately into a 19th-century factory turned 21st-century museum in the Berkshire mountains of northwestern Massachusetts.

Prize DOES NOT include any trip expenses, including but not limited to airfare, hotel stay or camping, meals, or transportation. The winner must find their own accommodations. Once the winner is confirmed, the tickets are non-refundable. Winner will be chosen by June 1st 2018, so get to our Facebook Page and throw your name in the ring!

A little more about Bluegrass Month…

Bill Munroe, often referred to as “The Father of Bluegrass”

Photo by Thomas S. England via Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Bluegrass is an all American form of music, and its creation is credited to Bill Monroe (often known as “The Father of Bluegrass”) and his band The Blue Grass Boys. Traditional bluegrass bands generally involve banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and stand-up bass. Since our CloseUp System is ideal for amplifying, and isolating the natural sounds of acoustic instruments, we’re really interested in the genre.

Check out the Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

Celebrate Bluegrass Month With Us This Wednesday Night With Dyer Switch Band At Nick-a-Nee’s

by Katie Murray | May 9, 2018 | artist stories, Blog

Celebrate Bluegrass Month with Us This Wednesday Night!

By: Katie Murray

MAY 9th, 2018

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

With Dyer Switch Band At Nick-a-Nee’s

Welcome to bluegrass month! To kick it off, we want to share with you some information on this week’s featured “Bluegrass Throedown” act over at Nick-a-Nee’s.

As lovers of all things acoustic, we at Your Heaven Audio are dedicating the month of May to bluegrass. We’ve chosen the genre as our theme this month because it originated in the south, and we’re super excited to be attending Summer NAMM this year in Nashville. To prepare, we’re on the lookout for some quality live bluegrass anywhere we can find it!

Bill Munroe, often referred to as “The Father of Bluegrass”

Photo by Thomas S. England via Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Bluegrass is an all American form of music, and its creation is credited to Bill Monroe (often known as “The Father of Bluegrass”) and his band The Blue Grass Boys. Traditional bluegrass bands generally involve banjo, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, and stand-up bass. Since our CloseUp System is ideal for amplifying, and isolating the natural sounds of acoustic instruments, we’re really interested in the bluegrass genre. Conveniently, one of our favorite spots here in Providence hosts what they call Bluegrass Throedown every Wednesday night. We’re talking about Nick-a-Nee’s, where the music is great, and there’s never a cover. Nick-a-Nee’s is also dog-friendly, so feel free to bring your pooch along for the fun!

Nick-a-Nee’s features both local, and touring artists for their weekly bluegrass night, and this week’s act has been playing live around the Northeast, Midwest, and the South since 1992. They call themselves Dyer Switch Band, and the group seriously exemplifies why we’re so excited about bluegrass. Not only are they a lively bunch bursting with energy, but we love their skillful pairing of acoustics, and embellished vocals.

The Dyer Switch Band

Image via Brantling Bluegrass

Check out our Your Heaven Audio CloseUp System on the Products page.

The band features Nashville recording artist Bob Bates, Bruce Barker (who once played with a band who opened for Joan Jett!), JoAnn Sifo (who composed a song which topped European music charts), and Chris Schultz (formerly the lead banjo player for Flood Road). Dyer Switch Band has performed at festivals across the country including The Central Indiana Festival at Bean Blossom, the Tri-State Bluegrass Festival in Kendallville, Indiana, and the Stringbean Festival in Kentucky. They’ve also played at plenty of fairs, renowned coffee houses, and performed live on a number of radio shows. The group even had the opportunity to open up for Ralph Stanley.

Want a sneak preview to get you excited for Wednesday night? Check out the video below to see the energetic crew sing Sweet Blue Eye Darlin’ at their CD release concert two years back.

If you’re as excited about bluegrass as we are, and as eager to catch this bunch in action, come out next Wednesday night to Nick-a-Nee’s from 8:30 to 11:30. We’ll see you there!