Who is Heart?: WSU director of engineering remembers their live studio performance

Lindsey Treffry, Inland360.com

In 1976, Don Peters didn’t know who Heart was.
“I had never heard of the group before,” said Peters, a crew member for “Second Ending” a show that featured a few concerts each month at Washington State University’s KWSU-TV studio. “We got them to come over and record a concert in our studios. They got here and I thought, ‘Man, these guys are good.’”

Produced and directed by Michael Costones, “Second Ending” would air on stations across the Northwest. Heart signed on to perform the show, and a live studio audience was on site.

Heart’s “Dreamboat Annie,” which led to the band’s breakthrough later that year, was yet to be released, but the band performed hits such as “Magic Man” and “Crazy On You.”

“I was running video, setting up the cameras, and shooting and adjusting to the different light conditions,” said Peters, who is now director of engineering for the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU.

Camera operators had to press their earsets tight to their heads to hear director’s orders, and Peters said despite being in the control room, he could feel the bass through the floor.

The band featured lead singer Ann Wilson and her sister, Nancy Wilson, guitarist. Guitarist Roger Fisher, drummer Michael Derosier and guitarist, bassist and synth player Howard Leese joined them in the recording.

“A woman rocker fronting a band was kind of new to me,” Peters said. “Ann’s voice was just tremendous.”

Peters said it still blows him away that Heart even considered playing at WSU during the band’s break-out year.

“You never know who you’ll come in contact with,” Peters said. “The band — they’re good, but you didn’t know how good at the time.”

Video of the 1976 studio performance can be seen on Heart’s 2012 retrospective collection “Strange Euphoria,” a DVD and four-CD set.


The Wilson sisters return to Pullman, playing at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Beasley Coliseum.

As seen in the Oct. 10 issue of Inland 360.

The strength of the feminine: Lewiston artist paints images of women, creates mosaics

Lindsey Treffry, Inland360.com

Jaymee Laws has been painting women for 20 years, not only because she says they are the perfect vehicle to convey emotion, but because of circumstances in her own life.

A 41-year-old mother of five, Laws has had to find creative solutions in both her art and her day-to-day tasks, being that two of her children are autistic and she works from home. Painting strong, beautiful women is her “thing.”

“And also because we live in a misogynistic culture and women are really important,” Laws said. “I was always interested in feminism and women’s history. I have four daughters, and so just women, in general, are in my life.”

Laws will show nine paintings of women, two mixed media paintings and four mosaic pieces as part of Lewiston’s Downtown Art Walk at the Blue Lantern Coffee House and Wine Bar.

“The women themselves are painted in a realistic style with surrealistic surroundings,” Laws said. “I incorporate a lot of natural elements. For instance, I do a lot with water or birds or trees, and also dream-like qualities.”

Her piece “Amphitrite” depicts the wife of Poseidon, octopus-like, and full of strength, beauty and mystery, she said.

“That used to be pretty much all I did — was paint women — and I do mosaic on the side, but now I’m trying to blend them together,” Laws said.

Laws recently has incorporated mosaic and stained glass, as well as wood pieces, into her work. Some pieces are solely mosaic.

Laws spends a chunk of her time on a 110-year-old, third-generation home where she, her children and husband reside. A stone mosaic floor in the dining room resembles a rug, while a floral mosaic covers the kitchen door.
“Little by little, I just am making the entire house into an art project,” Laws said. “I’m making something everyday. That’s a huge part of my life … Even if I’m not painting paintings, I’m doing something artistic.”

Laws’ artwork has spilled outside the house onto the garage.

Jaymee Laws, a painter and mixed media artist who will be featured during Downtown Art Walk, painted this garden mural during the summer in her alleyway for people to enjoy while driving by.“I painted this garden mural this summer just in my alleyway for people to enjoy when they drive by,” she said.

While Laws spends a lot of time doing art near home, she does have to be realistic with how her time is spent.

“Art is something that I have to do to be whole. It’s part of my soul just to make things,” Laws said. “But it’s also had to take a backseat to mothering.”

Laws said her children are demanding, but in a good way. Luckily, Laws said, her husband Jim — a drummer in the band 7 Devils — helps her go with the flow and is there to support the family.

“I find it pretty amazing how (Laws) finds the time to still be creative and produce so much beautiful artwork,” said Blue Lantern owner Dawn Abbott, who has helped set up the exhibit.
Laws has little time to actively sell her pieces, but said the Art Walk pieces will be for sale, ranging from $75 to $500, depending on size.

“I love that we’re having an Art Walk. And I love the increase in art and interest in art that’s happening in this Valley,” Laws said. “I grew up here, and I did move away for a while, and I moved back. It’s something that I always wanted to see here. The draw of a bigger city is the cultural aspect of it and the appreciation for more enlightened interests. It’s really exciting to see that here.”

As seen in the Sept. 19 issue of Inland 360.

Ghosts in the goodbye sky

Lindsey Treffry, Inland360

Kristin Carlson Becker built her downtown Moscow in three weeks.

She poured her foundation after assisting in a lesson at Palouse Prairie School, and hammered the framing after viewing old photos of buildings. Walls and insulation grew higher after she drew more than 12 buildings. She built a still incomplete downtown through screen printing, which included her representations of the Moscow Hotel, the Moscow National Bank Building and more.

Becker’s collection, “Good(bye) Buildings,” is a series of screen prints and postcards spurred by her love of architecture. After helping complete an art and history project last year with Lizzie Bromley-Vogel’s first grade class, Becker was inspired to create a collection of art that featured local buildings as they stand now, with a tinge of their past.

Becker puts her own twist on buildings, and emphasizes the part that she enjoys.

“I’m attracted to color and I’m attracted to typography,” said Becker, who took the liberty to enlarge the “Drugs” sign on the Hodgins Drug Store building.

For her adaptation of the Holt Block and Casa Lopez building, the right-handed artist decided to draw left-handed and use only two colors. The McConnell building doesn’t have “Mingles” written on it, but you’ll find an image of a shark holding a pool stick on a ground-level window.

Playing with history, Becker’s Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre print is half black and white and half green, to compare the old brick with the current tile siding. Her Storm Cellar corner has a historical light-blue gas station in the sky above the building as it stands now.
Becker received an undergraduate degree in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, where the state’s old architecture and decay caught her eye.

Becker said the dilapidation of a building can be the most beautiful part.

“Overall, it’s better if they’re rehabilitated … but making the prints is a way for me to preserve that presentation,” Becker said.

Becker went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking at Indiana University, which led her to draw, stencil and then screen print not only Moscow buildings, but ones in both Rhode Island and Indiana.
“I work from drawing on semi-transparent paper — a frosted acetate,” said Becker, who moved to Moscow about three years ago with her husband and now teaches as a Washington State University adjunct professor.

Becker moved to Moscow without ever having seen the town.

“I was looking for the most iconic, funny and unusual thing,” said Becker, who found the City of Moscow Water Department Building to be just that.

She drew the water building. Then, after the first grade class project, and in preparation for the Moscow ArtWalk, Becker branched out to draw and print the other Moscow buildings in three weeks.

“I have to live in a place for a while before I want to make a place,” Becker said. “I have to build a relationship with the buildings over time.”

Most of her prints are about 11-by-14 inches. Some of her prints are the size of a postcard — more for collecting than sending, Becker said.

Becker’s artwork is on the walls of a Moscow Yoga Center hallway, in correlation with the buildings’ locations on Main Street. Some of the artwork done by Palouse Prairie students is displayed, too. To view her artwork, visit kristincarlsonbecker.com/mainstreet.html or goodbyebuildings.com, or visit the Moscow Yoga Center during operating hours. To purchase her artwork, visit www.etsy.com/shop/GoodbyeBuildings.

As seen in the Aug. 15 issue of Inland 360.

Dunn with the duo, ready to solo

Lindsey Treffry, Inland360.com

Brooks & Dunn have long since parted, yet Ronnie Dunn has found himself stuck in the past.

After pressure to come out with a solo record during a 2011 tour, Dunn said he entered the performing world without Kix Brooks and no one knew who he was.
Going from a duo to solo act wasn’t as easy as he had thought it would be.

Dunn had booked a show through a top U.S. radio consultant to play in Baltimore.

“I was shocked when I got there,” the country musician said. “People didn’t know who I was until I started singing a Brooks & Dunn song.”

“What I had to do if I was going to pull it off was to take the mindset,” he said, that he would have had if he was starting from scratch.

His first album, “Ronnie Dunn,” came out June 7, 2011, via Sony’s Arista Nashville label. After leaving his deal at the Sony record label in June 2012, Dunn stepped up as a record executive for his own label, Little Will-E Records. He is planning to release his second solo album “Country This” in November.

Praise for singles from that new album is strong, with the lead single “Kiss You There” as the highest testing song on Sirius XM Radio.

“I just got an email today that it made the Top 10 USA Today top tracks right behind Pitbull,” Dunn said on July 31.

Although Dunn said it’s been difficult to market himself as “Ronnie Dunn” and not “Dunn from Brooks & Dunn,” his first solo album while at Sony still had many successes.

“Bleed Red” reached into the Top 10 on the country charts, before Dunn said his team decided to pull it from the radio.

“We reached our goal and decided not to push our luck with radio … and then move forward with ‘Cost of Livin’,’” Dunn said.

Dunn said the reception to “Cost of Livin’” threw him a for curve.

“‘Cost of Livin’’ ended up with two Grammy nominations,” said Dunn, who co-wrote the song about an ex-military man looking for work.

Dunn has also recorded for Sammy Hagar, toured with ZZ Top and The Rolling Stones, and collaborated with artists such as Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash and Reba McEntire.

“We’re just going to stay under the radar, play smaller fun venues, do this campaign, put a second record together,” Dunn said. “It took a year and half to wind down the Sony thing and get free of that, regroup and come back out. It’s the first attempt to stage that comeback.”

And Dunn said he looks forward to performing at the Clearwater River Casino Event Center in Lewiston, where he has never traveled.

He said he will play music off his two solo albums and some Brooks & Dunn hits, as well as lesser known Brooks & Dunn music.

“It’s a full-blown show, it’s the whole deal, it’s the whole shebang,” Dunn said.

Dunn will perform at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 15. General admission tickets are $25, while reserved tickets are $40, $60 and $75. Tickets can be purchased at the Event Center box office, online at TicketsWest.com or by calling (800) 325-SEAT.

As seen in the Aug. 8 issue of Inland 360.

Turner travels West

Josh Turner will never forget the first time he drove through Idaho.

“I was in the car by myself and was actually intimidated by the vast, open space,” said the bass and baritone country singer.

Country singer Josh Turner performs Sunday
at the Clearwater River Casino Events Center.

Growing up in South Carolina, he was accustomed to lush, green land filled with palm trees, so the drive near Snake River canyon was new and beautiful to him.

“I went up toward McCall and Lewiston and all of that, and it was one of the most breathtaking drives I’ve been on,” he said.

Now, Turner is returning to Idaho, but not just for a summertime cruise. The Grammy, Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music Awards nominee will be playing at 7 p.m. Sunday in the sold-out Clearwater River Casino Event Center. And unlike his drive through Idaho, this past year has been a wild one.

“It’s been a great year. The ‘Punching Bag’ record came out a year ago, last summer,” Turner said. “Shortly after that, I had a live record come out … We capped the year off with ‘Time is Love’ being the biggest song in 2012. We’ve been kind of riding on the high of that.”

Billboard rated the hit No. 1 for U.S. country songs in 2012, but it wasn’t the first time Turner had reached high on the charts. “Why Don’t We Just Dance” ended at No. 3 in 2010, and in the same year, “All Over Me” ended at No. 4. While “Your Man” didn’t end the year as a top country hit, it did reach No. 1 early in 2006, and was Turner’s first No. 1 of his career, followed by the multi-week chart topper, “Would You Go With Me.”

Turner became the second youngest Grand Ole Opry member, following Carrie Underwood, in 2007.

All the while, Turner has been married to his wife, Jennifer, and the two have had three sons — Hampton, Colby and Marion — all born between 2006 and 2010. His love of family is evident in his music video, “I Wouldn’t Be A Man,” which Turner said was his favorite one to film.

“Because my wife was in that video with me,” Turner said. “We revealed the fact that she was pregnant in the end of the video and that was the way we revealed it to the world. Instead of in a press release, we did it in a video.”

Now, Turner said he’s been working hard on the road.

“And toward the next record, honestly,” he said. “I’ve just been writing a lot.”

Two weeks ago, Turner was at the five-day CMA Music Festival, and said he was glad to know it’s over, being the busiest week of 2013.

Turner said his crew is traveling west, more than they ever have.

“Usually we may only go one time, maybe two at the most,” Turner said. “We’re going west three times this year. That’ll give me a chance to play for my fans out west a little bit more.”

Turner said the Clearwater River Casino audience will get a great sounding show and because Turner brings his own crew and set, it will look good, too.

“We worked up a brand new show for the year,” Turner said.

He promised a performance that none of his fans have seen before.
­­­­­­­­­
-If you go:
WHAT: Josh Turner performs
WHEN: 7 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Clearwater River Casino Event Center
COST: Sold out

Turner answered fan questions
from the Inland360 Facebook page.

You Asked, Josh Answered
Josh Turner fans had an opportunity to ask questions by posting inquires on Inland 360’s Facebook page. Here’s what Turner had to say:
Q: If he could do a duet with anyone, who would he choose? Does Idaho remind him of home? -Kelsey Saintz
A: “I’ve done a lot of duets already whether it was on a record or just on stage. One thing that I’ve never really made happen yet is actually singing with Randy Travis on one of my records. I was part of a duet record he did last year, on one of his records celebrating his 20 years. That to me would be really cool for me, because he was the one that inspired me in the first place.” … “It’s as different from home as can be. That’s why I like it though.”

Q: Who are his top 3 favorite music artists? -Jake Wykes
A: I’d have to say five. Randy Travis, Vern Gosdin, John Anderson, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.

As seen in the June 20 issue of Inland360.

Punk rock pair finds love in Lewiston

Lindsey Treffry | Inland360.com

Mandi Jordan used to have a huge crush on Nathan Golla.

Now she’s Mandi Golla and her admiration obviously turned to love, which may be due to their combined interest in music and tattoos.

Nathan and Mandi Golla, of the band
The Khind, perform together and co-own
Crimson Reign Tattoo in Lewiston.

“We knew each other back in high school, and we were friends, and she used to come to the concerts and watch us play,” said Nathan, a member of Lewiston’s hard rock band The Khind.

While it never worked out in high school, Mandi found Nathan years later on Myspace from California, struck up a conversation and surprised him one day on his Lewiston doorstep.

“Yeah, it was a total surprise,” Nathan said. “We were inseparable ever since she moved (back) here.”
After high school, Mandi had left for California, and spent eight years studying tattooing, body piercing, acting, modeling and music.

“I started out in the underground punk scene when I was about 19 down in L.A.,” Mandi said. “I was trained by old school punk rockers on how to play.”

She trained under a tattoo artist, who handed her a bass guitar and told her she needed to be a rock star.
“I practiced playing bass 12 to 14 hours a day for months to months on end and then I got hired to play for Yoshiki Hayashi and the band Violet UK,” Mandi said.

The Tokyo Dome hosted 50,000 people each night she played for three nights in a row, she said.

“There’s people that have played their whole life that have never played the Tokyo Dome,” Nathan said. “And here we have Mandi, at 30, that’s played the Tokyo Dome three nights in a row. As a musician, I’d be like, I could quit, I could die the next day and feel happy about that.”

So it was no surprise upon Mandi’s return in 2009 that Nathan’s band, The Khind, opened their arms to her. At the time, Nathan had been balancing guitar with lead vocals.

“I didn’t feel like I was doing either of them justice, so we were definitely looking for a singer. And at the point she came back, it was pretty much perfect timing,” Nathan said.

Mandi was thrilled when The Khind asked her to try out as lead vocalist, because she had followed the band since it’s formation in 1996. The band also includes bass player Brian Ochoa and drummer David “Chip” Clifford.

“The guys were hesitant about having my girlfriend at the time being the singer, just because we all know how those politics work out,” Nathan said.

But once they found out Nathan and Mandi were on the marriage fast-track — and they heard Mandi sing — Ochoa and Clifford welcomed a new member.

Nathan describes The Khind’s music as heavy, diverse and dynamic, while Mandi said she works to enunciate her singing, or melodic screaming, she calls it.

“There’s something about the way we do (music) that makes it a little more accessible than just someone screaming and flailing on the drums the whole time,” Nathan said. “We’ve been called too heavy for the light crowd and too light for the heavy crowd. And they said that as a bad thing, but that sounds like a niche area where we can thrive.”

In 2010, Mandi and Nathan bought an old tattoo shop, remodeled it and opened Lewiston’s Crimson Reign Tattoo, 326 1/2 Main St.

“Mandi runs the shop,” said Nathan, who also runs a recording studio out of their house and teaches guitar and bass lessons at Seidel Music and Repair. “We both invested in the (tattoo) shop and started it together, but she definitely is the one that’s pulling the ropes around there and making things happen. On the flip side of that, we both do the band, too, but that’s kind of my area.”

Nathan said Mandi’s private studio and her tattoo work has a lot of attitude — a punk rock attitude.
“It’s really bright and bold and colorful,” Nathan said of her tattoo designs. “The kind of stuff you can see from across the parking lot.”

Mandi said tattooing and music have worked well together.

“That’s one of the reasons I got into it,” Mandi said. “All of my musician buddies always need a tattoo. It’s a lifestyle.”

Some day, she said she’d love to have a tattoo station inside a tour bus, where she can tattoo fans with a hidden anarchy symbol, which is a way Mandi has signed her fan’s skin in the past.

Touring is a dream that Nathan shares, too.

“We want to get as big as we can and share our music with as many people as possible,” Nathan said.

The Khind plans to release a CD in late August called “Chaotic Symmetry,” but in the meantime Nathan said they will be releasing a five-song EP dubbed “EPicist,” which can be streamed online at soundcloud.com or reverbnation.com.

On Saturday, The Khind will play at The Hop in Spokane, and by that time, Nathan said they hope to have released a hard-copy of “EPicist.”

While Nathan and Mandi work together every day, they do fight.

“We were jokingly arguing about finding our socks,” Nathan said.

But matching black socks are the extent of their conflicts.

“Surprisingly, with as much time as we spend together … we really don’t have issues,” Nathan said. “It doesn’t even feel like a professional and a personal relationship, it just feels kind of one and the same. We’re on the same page, communication-wise. We never really had to work on getting it there. That’s why it’s always felt right. It just feels the way it should be.”

-If you go:
WHAT: The Khind performs
WHEN: 7 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: The Hop, 706 N. Monroe St., Spokane
COST: $10
NOTE: All ages, full bar available for those over 21 with ID

As seen in June 13 issue of Inland360.

A fabulous flashback: Moscow band celebrates 30 years of music

Lindsey Treffry | Inland360

Matching bowling shirts, a retro Harley Davidson motorcycle keyboard, flashing lights, reverberating amps and the electric slide may evoke the ‘80s, and so do The Fabulous Kingpins, a Moscow band celebrating its 30th anniversary Saturday.

Founded by Cliff Miller, Bill Willoby, Mark Lamoureux, Dale Keeney and John Colby, the band has been through many  transitions, but Miller and Keeney said the band is still going strong.

From left to right, Cliff Miller, Bill Willoby, Mark Lamoureux,
Dale Keeney, and John Colby made up the original Kingpins
in 1983. The Fabulous Kingpins are celebrating their
30th anniversary Saturday at Mingles Bar and Grill.

“Thirty years ago when I started this, I was a young guy,” said Miller, the lead singer and saxophonist, who was 20 at the time.

Keeney, the drummer, was 30.

“The reason why this works is both him and I wanted to be in a band since we were boys,” Keeney said. “When we found a partner that wanted to be in a band, we were already living the dream.”

The dream began when Miller got his saxophone serviced at Keeney Bros. a few weeks after Keeney and Lamoureux had spawned the idea of forming a band. Miller tried out and made the cut.

“When it started, I think Mark (Lamoureux) had more of a vision of what he wanted to do, musically,” Miller said.

Keeney said Lamoureux liked blues-based music, but Miller said the ‘80s audience didn’t as much.
“So our initial set, I would not really call super audience friendly,” Miller said. “It was more of musician’s music to begin with.”

At that time, Miller said there were 28 bars in Moscow and 16 to 18 of those venues had live music.

“Live music was big big big business through the 1980s,” Keeney said. “Venues would have bands five, six, seven nights a week.”

Campuses constantly hired bands and Miller said the first Kingpins show was at a Washington State University fraternity.

“Music was everywhere,” Miller said. “For us, it was great.”

But what was once a constant string of cars down Main Street, emptied, as Idaho raised its drinking age to 21 and venues closed down.

“That business just crashed,” Keeney said.

MTV gained popularity and Keeney said people stayed at home to watch “live” music.

Because the audience was completely unfamiliar with the jazz and blues music they played, Keeney said the band had to find a way to make itself marketable.

Miller said he finally decided the band needed to do something “that’s more marketable, more appealing to the masses.”

Although there have been many members throughout the years, the current band has been stable since the late ‘90s. Bass player Randy Reis, singer and dancer Suzanne Piel Miller and guitar player James Dence signed on.

“Costuming became more important for us, a little bit of dance, a lot more actual crowd interaction than what we’d done,” said Miller, who introduced their bowling garb and 8-foot tall bowling pin decor. “And people love that.”

Dance music became their genre, and hits such as “Jessie’s Girl,” “Footloose” and band favorites, like AC/DC and The Rolling Stones, made their playlist.

“To be a musician on stage, for me, it’s more to be the drive of the party and actually be the reason why people come out and have a good time,” Miller said. “Going from the, ‘God, that was the best we ever played’ and people going, ‘Ehh,’ to playing something that everybody knows and people going berserk, I love that. You just feed on the energy that comes out of the crowd.”

The Kingpins often synchronize dance moves on stage and some of their sets can last four hours.

“Where we’re at now, is where I want to be. It’s more of a whole package for me and it really fulfills what I wanted to do and I think what everyone wants to do. We’re traveling a lot more than we ever have,” said Miller, who has traveled with the band from Seattle to Boise as well as Phoenix, Ariz.

Arbor Crest Winery in Spokane, is a favorite for Keeney, while both men love performing at Pullman’s Fourth of July show, which will happen again this year. The band plays two to three gigs each month.
The Fabulous Kingpins will play their anniversary show at 8 p.m. Saturday at Mingles Bar and Grill.

“People have said, ‘Are you ever going to retire from that?’ ‘Retire from what?’” Keeney would respond. “All I ever do is play music with my friends.”

The current band will also reunite with past members, who will play at the Saturday show.

“It’s been a good run, it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve still got a little bit longer left in me. We’ll see if the leather pants hold up when I’m 50,” Miller said. “At this point and time, we really enjoy what we do.”

-If you go:
WHAT: The Fabulous Kingpins 30th anniversary celebration, performance
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday
WHERE: Mingles Bar and Grill, 102 S. Main St., Moscow
COST: Free

As seen in June 13 issue of Inland360.