When you think of Connecticut, what comes to your mind? This CD is a compilation of the best emerging bands, singers and rappers from a state so close to New York City that it is sometimes forgotten. However, as discerning listeners will hear, the music scene in this small state is diverse, cool, fiercely vibrant, and vital. Whether the music is edgy power rock, the haunting melodies of alternative rock, laid-back reggae vibes, R&B influenced pop or outspoken, visceral hip-hop rap, it reflects the passion and feeling that the artists have for their music. This compilation provides not only a snapshot of where Connecticut's music scene is now, but also where it's heading - a shout to be heard all over the world. We hope you enjoy this album. What do you know about the Connecticut music scene? Probably not much, unless you're a part of it. I live in Massachusetts and I didn't know anything about it before I was introduced to a portion of it through these albums: Anthology: Urban Beats Vol. 1 and Connecti'Cuts. There are apparently some truly talented musicians flying underneath the popular radar because the majority of the tracks on these two albums (a couple of the best ones are repeated) are top-flight material that would be comfortably at home on the Billboard charts (with a few strategically-placed bleeps here and there)... read full review here http://www.geocities.com/craigsbookclub/morningstar.html GIGS Artists featured on the Connecti 'Cuts album will be playing the following gigs. Friday August 1, 2003 Jimmy's Seaside, 891 Cove Rd, Stamford, CT 06902. Tel: (203) 964-9225 anteater, Laylo, and Slim to None. August 3, Sono Arst Fest Norwalk CT The Alternate Routes August 5, Sono Caffine Norwalk Ct The Alternate Routes Friday August 8, 2003 The Roxy, 71 Wall St., Norwalk, CT. Tel: (203) 299-0175. featuring anteater, The Alternate Routes, Potent Minds, and Slim to None. Thursday September 18, 2003 @ 6:30pm Westfield Shoppingtown, 5065 Main Street, Trumbull, CT 06611 featuring Andre'a, anteater, Potent Minds, and Tine Saturday September 20, 2003 @ 9:00pm The Roxy, 71 Wall St., Norwalk, CT. Tel: (203) 299-0175 featuring Anshin, Andre'a, DeChelle, Dion's All-Stars, Laylo, Potent Minds, and special guests. Tickets $10 in advance, $12 at the door. REVIEWS SPINNING UNREST LOCAL BAND SPOTLIGHT The buzz of excitement surrounding Morning Star Records CDs Connecti Cuts and Urban Beats Vol. 1 increases! The band Potent Minds, which features on both albums, has been chosen by Radio 104 WMRQ as their band of the week. Click this link for info http://www.radio104.com/spinningunrest.html when you get there click the Local Band Spotlight. Their song Danado is track #1 on Connecti Cuts and track #12 on Urban Beats Vol. 1. ""Danado" from Potent Minds, is a complex hip-hop song which switches from fast-rapping to singing, backed by a shifting drum beat and live drum and bass. Potent Minds have found balance musically and the song grooves, rock-wise, in a way that not many hip-hop tunes do." Fairfield County Weekly, June 5 - 11, 2003. FAIRFIELD COUNTY WEEKLY, JULY 15 - 21 Artists featured on the Connecti 'Cuts CD continue to create a buzz of excitement, draw crowds, and get rave reviews from music critics. Last Friday, July 11, The Alternate Routes played the Sweetport Music & Arts Festival in Bridgeport, CT. This is how the Fairfield County Weekly reviewed the band's performance. " Yet again, The Alternate Routes proved themselves to be true professionals about the matter, and Tim Warren sang and played some surprising tunes, like a funked-up almost unrecognizable cover of "Hotel California" that beats the original. Their fill-in bassist had some memorable solos, and drummer Tim Newton kept a solid backbone. Warren fits in with the new breed of singer-songwriter (like Martin Sexton and Keller Williams) who embrace a hard beat and risky vocal maneuvers. He skats and sings dirty yet still offers a touching love song or two." Stamford Advocate, Greenwich Time & Norwalk Advocate Homegrown music: CD serves up the best of local entertainers By Ray Hogan Staff Writer July 3, 2003 In the midst of increasing signs that the local music scene isn't nearly as lame as the pessimists would have you believe comes a varied compilation of local artists. "Connecti'cuts" is the brainchild of Kofi Dwinfour and Daphne Bolden-Dwinfour, a couple who managed acts in England before moving to Stamford at a time when record label consolidation made it hard for managers to pitch their artists. So they decided to start their own label and showcase the diverse range of music acts they were slowly realizing exists throughout Fairfield County. "Connecti'cuts," created under the name Morning Star Records, features artists in any genre who caught their ear. The disc were released at the beginning of last month. "We had to scout out the music scene, approach bands, get them excited and on board," Dwinfour says. "The concept was to find the best emerging musical acts in Connecticut regardless of genre. When we first came here we were really amazed by the diverse talent but realized you never hear of many bands coming from Connecticut." The disc runs the gamut of contemporary music. There's rap-rock from the teenage band Potent, intelligent soft-rock from Bridgeport-based The Alternate Routes, teen-pop from Stamford's Tine, and straight-up hip-hop from Laylo, a Stamford native who's been putting in major concert time. The reggae band Anthem is certainly no stranger to area clubgoers, while the trip-hop rhythms of Dubstar aren't the kind of things one is used to hearing while clubbing in South Norwalk (although it could be). Dwinfour says he was surprised as anyone when he discovered the diversity of artists that exists in lower Fairfield County. "I had the same preconceptions about Connecticut that people who don't come from here have, a little bit sleepy, a little parochial," Dwinfour says. "You dig a little bit into the underbelly and you realize that it's pretty edgy. It's not all suits." Each band was given three hours to record one song at the Carriage House studio in Stamford. With that time constraint considered, the disc retains a professional quality. "Connecti'cuts" is currently available through the company's Web site, www.morningstarsmusic.com, as well as Internet outlets (www.amazon.com, www.cdstreet.com and www.cdbaby.com). Starting this month, it will become available at Tower Records in Stamford as well as FYE, Coconuts and Strawberries locations throughout the state. For Quinn (Anthony Carpanzano), the lead singer for the heavy power trio anteater, the inclusion on the compilation comes at a time when interest in his band is starting to brew. The group's song, "Father Forgive Me," demonstrates an approach that draws on everything from 1980s power metal to today's modern rock. Being the loudest and most aggressive group on the disc, Quinn wasn't sure how the crowd would react at a record release party last month. Much to his delight, anteater won the crowd over and is building relationships with some of the other participants. "There's almost an air about us that things are going to happen," Quinn says. "I've never felt like this before. With my vocals and my songwriting, I'm at the point where I'm going to make it happen. I'm comfortable with writing my songs and if anything happens, that's fine. With the kind of music we're doing you don't get too many opportunities but if your music is good and solid, you can turn heads. If you can get up there and people feel your energy, they're going to get off on it." As a veteran of the Stamford rock scene for more than a decade, Quinn knows time is a finite quality in pursuing "rock musician" as an occupation. "I'm all over this thing," he says. "I'm Patrick Ewing in his final years and I'm going to win a championship. I only have so many years left." The Alternate Routes, whose "Money is Gone" is another standout track on the compilation, is essentially beginning its stab at a career. The band's two principal members, guitarist Eric Donnelly and singer Tim Warren, met at Fairfield University where Donnelly was an instructor and Warren a student. The Alternate Routes are only a year old but have already released a full-length disc that showcases the group's melodic acoustic rock sound. "It's one thing to hear a band that plays songs you've never heard before once a month," says Warren. "It's another thing to be able to bring a CD home." The Alternate Routes have accomplished a lot in a short period of time: in addition to recording the disc, it has begun to build a reputation in New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Martha's Vineyard. The members like the concept of "Connecti'cuts" because it spotlights an area that is always thought of as living in the shadow of New York City. "Coming from somewhere has to be just as important as getting somewhere," Warren says. "The more places you play the more you realize they're just like places around here." Copyright © 2003, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. The Connecti' Cuts compilation sets out to prove Connecticut's realness By Brita Brundage, Arts Editor, Fairfield County Weekly June 5 - 11, 2003 The first track, "Danado" from Potent Minds, is a complex hip-hop song which switches from fast-rapping to singing, backed by a shifting drum beat and live drum and bass. Potent Minds have found balance musically and the song grooves, rock-wise, in a way that not many hip-hop tunes do. This cut leads into "Money is Gone" by The Alternate Routes. This song should have been on the radio yesterday. It's crafted and well-sung, with a heavy undertone and carefully-placed guitar leads. Dubstar's "Main Street" is a Linkin Park style, half woozy-singing, half gruffly spoken vocals with a sustaining pulse. Andre'a's tune "Open" is a winner, powerful but properly restrained R&B with an easy beat. Slim to None is one of the CD's real surprises. Their song "On my mind" has bite, but switches easily between loud, raunchier rock and rhythmic strumming. No gimmicks, just a straight-up well-executed song. Any publicity for Connecticut acts is a good thing. And showing off a wide range of talented and potentially talented artists also is a good thing. She's Got the Blues, and That Ain't Bad By Elizabeth Keyser ekeyser@bcnnew.com Norwalk Citizen News June 20, 2003 Her grandmother played hymns on the piano, her mother played classical music, and Andre'a Beavers plays soul and R&B. "I've had the blues since I was 6 years old, said the 23-year-old singer-songwriter. But these days, Andre'a, a self-professed "townie who was born and raised in Norwalk, has plenty to be happy about. She has a song on Connecti'Cuts, a compact disc of up-and-coming Connecticut artists recently released by the Stamford-based independent label Morning Stars Music, and she is working on a solo CD that will be recorded this fall. She is receiving positive notice already. In a review of Connecti'Cuts in the Fairfield County Weekly, Arts Editor Brita Brundage wrote, "Andre'a's tune 'Open' is a winner, powerful but restrained R&B with an easy beat. On Saturday, Andre'a performed "Open at the Connecti'Cuts release party at the Temple Bar in Stamford. "I was ner-vous, she said. "My knees were knocking. If they were, no one could tell. When Andre'a, a slim, attractive woman, took the stage in a red halter top and long red skirt with a slit up one side ("A little risqu, she said. "I'm usually conservative.), she "filled the stage, said Daphne Bolden-Dwinfour, a co-founder of Morning Stars Records. "She gave an absolutely amazing performance. She seemed so comfortable on stage. Andre'a said the audience's warmth eased her nerves. "On stage you feel the warmth and love, and the people in the audience feel it too. One of those loving people in the audience was her mother, Beverly, who gave Andre'a roses. "She loves my music, Andre'a said of her mother's reaction to her performance. When she was a little girl, Andre'a would sit at her mother's feet, watching her push the pedals while playing music by Bach and Beethoven, or she'd sit by her mother's side at the piano bench, harmonizing. "I know my majors in my sleep, Andre'a said. Andre'a's earliest influences were the church and classical music. She grew up singing in the choir at Grace Baptist Church on West Avenue and also sang in choirs at Jefferson Elementary, Ponus Ridge Middle and Brien McMahon High schools. On the classical side, Andre'a began studying the cello at age 8. Piano was also a constant in her life. From the moment Andre'a would step inside her house, her mother would hear her foot hit a squeaky floorboard and call out to her to practice the piano. "Always the scales, Andre'a said. She began to develop her own musical taste at a young age, listening to Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker and Sade. They sang songs that "were made when I was small, but they are timeless, she said. Today, Andre'a expresses admiration for Celine Dion's vocal control. "There's not a note she can't hit. But even more impressive to her is the ability of artists such as Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys to accompany themselves on piano. Andre'a's next musical goal is to perform her own songs while doing the same. Andre'a wrote poetry when she was younger and now is writing songs for her upcoming CD. The songs, she said, "have an eye open to the truth and touch on heartbreak, love and the blues. "Some of them are about disappointment in love. Some of them are angry songs. She said she wants to sing "music that counts. Bolden-Dwinfour, who along with running a management company and independent record label is a vocal coach at the Darien Arts Center, said Andre'a is a "sophisticated songwriter. "She has a good ear for melody. Sometimes I have to get her to simplify because she writes complicated harmonies, said Bolden-Dwinfour. Andre'a came to Bolden-Dwinfour's attention when a student gave her Andre'a's demo tape. When she heard the tape, which included Andre'a's powerful live performance of the classic Aretha Franklin song "Dr. Feel Good, Bolden-Dwinfour said, "This is a girl we can work with. She was impressed not only with Andre'a's talent and remarkable range ("Believe me, you've only heard a small part of what she is capable of.), but also with the singer's personal qualities. "Artists can be quirky, and sometimes the quirkiness can outweigh the talent. Andre'a is clear thinking and focused, she said. Andre'a's "day job is working as a manager at Stop & Shop Supermarket in Milford. "They have health insurance and tuition reimbursement, she said. Last fall, she stopped attending Southern Connecticut State University, where she had been working toward a music degree. She said she'd like to return to the school next year. Andre'a lives with her aunt in South Norwalk, and as she anticipates moving out, she realizes that she won't be able to afford to live in the city in which she was raised. In the meantime, she hangs out with a small group of her oldest friends, who like to get together at the Rattlesnake Bar and Grill for a chicken Caesar salad. She said her boyfriend jokes that being with a singer-songwriter can be difficult at times like at 4 in the morning when an idea wakes her up. "When it wakes you up, it's got to come out, she said. Out come the keyboards. "My boyfriend says, 'Try being with her at 5 a.m. when she wants to share and you've got to be at work at 8 the next morning.' Like most people who are really good at what they do, Andre'a wants to get better. She is taking voice lessons from Bolden-Dwinfour, practicing accompanying herself on the piano, and writing songs. She plans to start trying open mike nights and performing in record stores to promote Connecti'Cuts. And so "practice, practice, is Andre'a's main focus right now. "There's a difference between being nervous about performing and being nervous because you know you're not prepared, she said. "Music is a way of life for me, whether I'm singing in the shower or on stage. It's not always about making it to MTV or being in the music industry. If it does happen, great, she said. But if it doesn't, music will still "be there every step. Music is why I get out of bed in the morning. THE ARTISTS The Alternate Roots While the music industry scrambles to find the next big thing, the right image, and the latest craze for what music should be; strong songwriting remains the number one skill in the industry. This band wants to be known for providing a great time, with great songs. The Alternate Routes are a modern mix of rock, folk and jazz influences including James Taylor, Van Morrison, U2, and the Beatles. Anthem Vibe with Anthem the most harmonious reggae sounds of the new millennium. Their live shows compare and rank amongst the best in the business. A truly original sound that is creating a big wave throughout the U.S., from roots to dancehall, Anthem can play it all and with their own diversity, it's truly a treat for all music lovers. anteater Originating from mother's womb: anteater is a power trio hailing from Stamford, CT. The band comprises three specimens: Quinn (visions), Le Kook (sauciere), and Thor (thunder). anteater touches upon many of their rock/metal-based influences, which rage from A to Z, but separate themselves from similar minded acts by adding their own originality and character, which runs in abundance, to the equation. LET THEM WHO HATH UNDERSTANDING REALIZE THE VISIONS. See or don't see! Dubstar Dubstar is a high concept band that defies categorization while remaining highly evocative of the best works of current popular and underground genres. With influences ranging from punk to techno, Dubstar paints a melodic composition of acoustic with a background of break-beats, triphop and drum n bass that results in a highly accessible sound that is at the same time entirely original. Laylo Stamford, Connecticut born Laylo aka Lo, is a long-time rapper with poetic lyricism. For the last few years, he has been releasing underground singles, street mix-tapes, and taking part in street battles. Laylo says, "Check da name, hear it, then fear it. You'll find out what it's about. Still 7:30." Tine Hamilton Tine is highly committed to be a "singer and actress." Still a high school student, Tine has performed in Stamford, CT her hometown, and LA, where she shot her first music video. Over the last four years, she has been aggressively pursuing her lifelong ambition. Now, Tine has evolved a sophisticated sound and musical personality - a combination or R&B and Pop -, which can be heard in her contribution to this album, What I'm not. Potent Minds Potent Minds is a band, from Stamford in Connecticut, thriving on an innovative blend of rap, nu-metal, Latin grooves, funk feeling, with a hip-hop and R&B flavor. The band dove deeply in to their unique style in January 2001. In just two months together, the band managed to produce four original songs, which entered them in to a local battle of the bands contest that they won. In the summer of 2001, Potent Minds contested a national battle of the bands (the Indie BOB) held at Calf Pasture in Norwalk, CT. Slim To None Three guys, one great sound. Slim To None are John Bonnarigo (drums), Shannon Michael (lead vocals and guitar), and Steve Stapleton (bass guitar). Together, they combine ambition, determination, hard work and musicianship to create a tight sound. As a professional band, they aim to entertain audiences thoroughly. Take it as it is.