Maia Sharp's Busy Year

Pay attention. Maia Sharp has a remedy for wellness: Vitamin C packets, Espresso, and red wine.

"Whether [the Vitamin C packets] are physically helping me, or psychologically, they are great!" said Sharp, who, on a daily basis, drinks four to five shots of Espresso, has two to three Vitamin C packets and a glass of red wine at night.

Sharp needs all the energy she can get. Her new album, Echo was just released online, and is scheduled to be in stores this month.

"This last year I think I'm more exhausted than I've ever been, but I feel great," she said.

Sharp worked with legendary producer Don Was on the album and says without intending it, "truth crept in" on all 12 songs.

"I'm proud of all my albums," Sharp says. "But I felt it would be more complete if I found a way to craft a new song, a new way to tell an old story, a rhyme that fits."

Sharp has been crafting songs before her teens, when she learned guitar, piano and saxophone. She would play along to her Bonnie Raitt records, with a dream that one day, she would be able to play saxophone onstage with Raitt. Four years ago, her dream came true when Raitt asked Sharp to tour with her.

"This all happened through songwriting," she said.

Sharp started out as a songwriter and quickly had high-profile artists such as Raitt and the Dixie Chicks recording her songs. Sharp jokes that she has been fortunate to have artists that sell more albums than her record her songs.

"If I feel a connection to a song, the listener will feel more of a connection," Sharp said. "It's a compliment to have someone choose one of my songs...They give it a new life."

Sharp will be playing an intimate set of her songs at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts on August 17 at 8 p.m.. Not only will you hear songs off her new album, but Sharp will also perform familiar songs she wrote for the Dixie Chicks ("Home") and Raitt ("I Don't Want Anything to Change"). Tickets are $15.

The Philosophy of Eric Church

There are certain things you need to know about Eric Church.

He’s a songwriter first, he refuses to censor himself, and he loves Bruce Springsteen. Oh, and he’s a self-appointed ambassador to turn country music around.

At a recent show, Church was asked not to play “Two Pink Lines,” an honest song about teen pregnancy that came off his 2006 album, Sinners Like Me.

“Had I been an artist that tried to censor, that song would have never been on the record,” Church said.

He went ahead and played the song anyway, which has the lyrics, “One means none and we're home free/Two means three and a diamond ring/Yeah I wonder what fate is gonna decide/We're just sittin’ around waiting on two pink lines.”

“To me, that’s music, that’s what art is,” he said.

Church thinks of himself solely as a songwriter and is influenced by “raw” country legends like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. He went to Nashville to write songs and describes the additional responsibilities of being a performing artist as “window dressing.”

“I’m not going to make many records in my career,” Church said. “But when I do, the I’s are dotted, the T’s are crossed, and it’s going to be a good album.”

When he writes, Church does not focus on what will be the single, in fact, by the time the record is finished, Church doesn’t know what the singles will be.

“Record-selling artists are the ones that built the industry,” he said. “We can’t live in a download to download world…that’s partly why record labels are failing.”

As for Church’s performances, he compares his live set to a Springsteen show, where everyone onstage is covered in sweat by the end of the set.

“Mentally, we’re going to kick everybody’s ass,” Church said. “It’s like a boxing match instead of a concert. Not from a gimmick side, but from a music side.”

Similar to Springsteen, Church built up his fan base slowly, focusing on his career from a live perspective.

“We don’t have a lot of bells and whistles, we just play music,” he said.

Church may seem like an outsider playing at festivals heavy with rock bands, but he is confident in his performance skills. And, it’s just one of his strategies as country’s ambassador.

“Rock has incredible energy,” he says. “Country is lacking in a raw show…It can be slow at times.”

If you’re headed to Lollapalooza this weekend, make sure to stop by the BMI stage at 4:15 on Friday to get your ass kicked by Eric Church.