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Various artists — Never Give Up: Celebrating 10 Years of The Postal Service

Few indie bands have had the impact on current music that The Postal Service has. Even fewer have done so with only one album.
05/15/2013 | Comments 0

Big Worm — Bench All-Stars

Fans of the comedy classic Friday may recognize the name Big Worm, but the Big Worm behind Bench All-Stars is rooted not in South Central L.A., but on the streets of Oklahoma City.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Code 22 — Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!

The guys of Oklahoma City’s Code 22 seem like a likable group of fellas. Their latest release, Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!, is likable enough as well — so likable that on first listen, I took its clean, acoustic sound and clear, unstressed vocals as an alternative praise-and-worship band.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Eureeka — Polysynthetic Fields

It’s always refreshing to hear music that embraces its own eccentricity, yet presents it in an accessible and meek fashion. Eureeka — the Norman-based duo of Jordan Vargas and Devin Wahl — has tapped into this rarified air on its self-released EP, Polysynthetic Fields.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0

Tom Skinner — Tom Skinner

Sincerity is nearly dead in songwriting. The image of the earnest singer with eyes tightly shut and a crack in his voice as he plunges to emotional depths has become a joke.
05/08/2013 | Comments 0
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‘Circus’ folk


Performing for millions on ‘The Voice,’ singer-songwriter Rebecca Loebe would rather play for one room on her ‘Circus Heart’ tour.

Joshua Boydston January 30th, 2013  

Rebecca Loebe
7 p.m. Thursday
The Blue Door
2805 N. McKinley
bluedoorokc.com
524-0738
$15-$20

Singer-songwriter Rebecca Loebe rarely feels right at home on the road as she does when she plays The Blue Door, as she will Thursday.

The Atlanta native cut her teeth in Georgia’s famed Eddie’s Attic, the club that helped foster the careers of Indigo Girls, Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and The Civil Wars, among others. John Mayer worked the door as Loebe — then a bright-eyed high schooler — played open mics there.

“It spoiled me. I just assumed there was an equivalent in every city, and when I started touring full-time, I realized that was hardly the case,” Loebe said. “The Blue Door shares the spirit of Eddie’s. I think that’s why I am so comfortable there.”

That said, she is more comfortable on any stage now than she was just two years ago. Although the Berklee College of Music grad has toured for more than half a decade, it took a stint on NBC’s The Voice to shatter most of her anxieties. Then homeless (by choice), she charmed both Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera with her unexpected cover of Nirvana’s “Come as You Are.”

“I have this absence of fear,” Loebe said. “It was such a judgment-based experience, it makes everything I’ve done since then just feel like fun.”

It wasn’t the exposure she values most, but the truth it revealed in herself.

“It was much more helpful internally. It gave me a peek inside the belly of the beast of the entertainment industry,” she said. “It made me realize, more than ever, that isn’t the field I want to be in. I want to be a blue-collar songwriter, a more arts-and-crafts approach to making music. I’m not striving for the approval of people, especially the people in the mainstream.”

Reinvigorated, Loebe wrote and recorded Circus Heart, her third full-length album, which hit shelves last fall and found her letting her hair down.

“[I felt] free to try a lot of new things, sonically. We dabbled in instruments I don’t usually play ... and I felt a lot of freedom,” she said. “We really were able to bring out the really message behind each song in the record. I’m thrilled with how the whole album came out.”

Still touring in support of Circus Heart, her travels inspiring new songs, recording might be on the horizon.

“I’m a slow, psychotic writer. It’s a long process to me. I’m just now coming out of my shell,” Loebe said. “Two songs just came out of me this week, though. Maybe I’m in a writing kick?”

 
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