CALICO brings original brand of California country style to the MIM - AZCulture.com Sneak Peek

By Matt Marn

Published by AZCulture.com

Kirsten Proffit, Manda Mosher, and Aubrey Richmond were already successful, dedicated musicians as solo artists in the Los Angeles area, but when they found each other, they formed CALICO the Band, and took their songwriting styles to new places altogether.

"Everyone dreams of being discovered by a big record label," said Mosher. "Instead, we discovered each other. We met each other; we had watched all the different talent in Los Angeles... we kind of talent scouted each other. Now we feel like a family - we've created a musical family."

Richmond agreed, saying as if she has two extra sisters in her band mates.

"We really lucked out that we like each other and get along so well," she said.

CALICO the Band - which stands for California Country - describe themselves in their bio as beginning their story in that dusty stretch of desert where their music began, haunted by the Western ghosts of the past, but gentle with modern spirits, too... all blown together like tumbleweeds towards the big city. CALICO, they said, is about that eternal place where the big city meets that lonely desert - where the freeways converge at the ocean.

The ladies of CALICO the Band shared the stage with violin, acoustic and electric guitars, as well as mandolin melodies. They are devoted to timeless roots music, and voices singing in harmony.

"We are all about our sound," said Proffit. "We wrote separately before, but now we join together, and simplify melodies to focus on harmony. We didn't even know we were doing it until we played back the first tracks we had recorded. We had joined together to create something new, something greater than the sum of its parts."

See the rest of the spotlight on CALICO and coverage of their MIM concert at AZCulture.com.

Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix celebrates five years strong with new activities and events - AZCulture.com sneak peek

By Matt Marn

Published by AZCulture.com

With more than five years of providing entertainment and music education to more than 1 million guests from around the globe, as well as more than 140,000 students as part of the school field trip programs, the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix is ready to keep the music playing.

Since MIM opened its doors five years ago, it has taken its place as one of the top attractions in Phoenix, not to mention the world's only global musical instrument museum.

And 2015 should be MIM's biggest year yet.

"In five years MIM has already carved a path to being recognized as one of the best museums in the world, but this is just the beginning," said April Salomon, executive director of MIM. "As a museum in constant evolution, we're excited to continue fulfilling MIM's mission and look forward to inspiring and entertaining guests for many years to come."

MIM works to enrich the world by collecting, preserving, and making accessible a wide variety of musical instruments and performance videos from every country in the world. The facility offers guests a welcoming and fun experience, interactive technology, and special programs, as well as musical performances from both local and internationally renowned artists.

MIM and its staff foster appreciation of diverse cultures around the globe by showing that we all innovate, adapt, and learn from each other to create music - the language of the soul.


Read the full article on the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix at AZCulture.com!