{"id":42069,"date":"2023-11-21T09:27:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=42069"},"modified":"2023-11-21T09:27:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:27:55","slug":"on-stage-extra-mia-x-ally-put-their-twist-on-traditional-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=42069","title":{"rendered":"On Stage Extra: Mia X Ally put their twist on traditional instruments"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff,<\/strong> Entertainment Editor, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Mia X Ally<\/p><\/div>\n

If someone told you to check out an interesting music act \u2013 a duo featuring two young women playing violin and bagpipes \u2013 you\u2019d probably envision a folky duo playing an acoustic blend of Celtic tunes and traditional Appalachian songs.<\/p>\n

If the group was Mia X Ally, you\u2019d be in for a surprise.<\/p>\n

Mia X Ally, who are headlining a show at Ardmore Music Hall (23 East Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, www.ardmoremusic.com<\/a>) on November 21, are an electric duo that, while having traces of Celtic and Americana, are more a band that raises the roof with a self-descriptive blend of classic rock, metal, punk and pop.<\/p>\n

Mia x Ally is the electrifying duo project of electric violinist Mia Asano and bagpiper\/multi-instrumentalist Ally the Piper. With a combined following of over eight million people, both musicians officially joined forces in April 2022. Playing both original songs and covers of pop rock and metal music with a Celtic twist, Mia x Ally made their debut in Boston in August of 2022, playing two sold-out shows. They later went on to tour the East and Midwest on the \u201cShipping up to Boston Tour,\u201d selling more than 3,000 tickets.<\/p>\n

When electric violinist Asano and bagpiper Ally Duncan<\/a>\u00a0(a.k.a. Ally The Piper), both of whom were classically trained musicians, \u00a0first met in person, the chemistry was immediate.<\/p>\n

They were also both established viral TikTok musicians. They\u2019d been fans of each other\u2019s work for a while and decided to finally meet in person in Boston in 2022.<\/p>\n

They initially discovered each other during COVID via their TikTok channels.<\/p>\n

Right now, they are wrapping up the 2023 segment of \u201cThe Devil Went Down to Georgia Tour.\u201d The concert in Ardmore will be the penultimate date of the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a folk concert or a traditional show,\u201d said Asano, during a phone interview last week from their van as the band travelled to Nashville. \u201cIt\u2019s a rock show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m originally from Denver. I moved to the East Coast to go to school at Berklee College of Music. I had a dual major \u2013 violin performance and professional music with a concentration in business and songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Classically trained from the age of five, she developed a love for alternative styles of music early on and plays a variety of music styles including rock, pop, metal, electronic and Celtic music on a seven-string electric violin. She graduated from the Berklee College of Music in August of 2022.<\/p>\n

Asano has had global success with her viral covers and has translated that to her live shows, collaborating with artists and friends such as Lindsey Stirling, Dragonforce, Tina Guo, Kiki Wong, MALINDA, Grace Kelly, Leo P, Avi Kaplan, and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI studied classical violin starting when I was six,\u201d said Asano. \u201cI discovered electric violin at 13 \u2013 jazz, rock, bluegrass, Celtic. In college, my heart was in contemporary music. I spent a while releasing my own music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ally the Piper, also known as Piper.Ally, is a musician and content creator who has gained a significant following of three million followers on various social media platforms. She is a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist but is best known for her work on the Great Highland Bagpipe. She is particularly recognized for challenging traditional perceptions of the bagpipe, and for her ability to take the centuries-old instrument and make it relevant and appealing to a modern audience.<\/p>\n

Ally began her career as a competitive bagpiper, starting off strong by winning the 2012 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow as a member of a youth pipe band. She continued to compete solo and was consistently ranked at the top of her divisions in the Eastern United States. However, in 2016, she decided to step away from competition to focus on her music career.<\/p>\n

Since then, Ally has been actively working to break stereotypes about the bagpipes and introduce new audiences to the instrument.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from upstate New York,\u201d said Ally. \u201cI started playing music when I was little. I started with keyboards when I was six and took piano lessons. I also played a lot of woodwinds. Actually, I play a lot of instruments. I love being versatile.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy stepdad legally adopted me when I was 12. His family is Scottish-American, so I got a new last name \u2013 Duncan. I grew up in a Celtic household. My mom\u2019s side is Irish. When I was a sophomore, I went to Scotland and won a youth championship there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to college in Pennsylvania at Edinboro University. They had a great bagpiper instructor, and I went to school there specifically to work with him. I also studied voice and piano. After college, I went back to upstate New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter winning the competition in Scotland, I decided that pipes would be my main instrument. For Mia X Ally, in addition to bagpipes, I play Irish whistle, a hybrid bagpipe and some small pipes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fate \u2013 and TikTok \u2013 brought the two talented musicians together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fans of each other online,\u201d said Asano. \u201cWe really enjoyed each other\u2019s content. We met through\u00a0TikTok. What brought us together was \u2018The Wellerman.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first time I\u2019ve ever had ever publicly covered a Celtic tune. That got me into the world of Celtic TikTok. That\u2019s how I became aware of Ally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got together and filmed six videos together in an hour. And a lot of those videos went viral and that led us to a sold-out tour. We started small and then people started coming out in droves.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur album \u2018\u2018Mia x Ally: The Viral Hits,\u2019 just came out on October 27. It is the first time we released our own music. This is the first actual album and Mia X Ally and it\u2019s already doing really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Mia X Ally — https:\/\/youtu.be\/KBmYKmAvuko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at Ardmore Music Hall on November 21 will start at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Tickets are $30.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Joanne Shaw Taylor<\/p><\/div>\n

Joanne Shaw Taylor will have some new songs to play when she performs at the Keswick Theater (291 N. Keswick Avenue, Glenside, 215-572-7650, www.keswicktheatre.com<\/a>) on November 21, but the focus will still be on her most recent album, \u201cNobody\u2019s Fool,\u201d which was released on October 28, 2022 on Joe Bonamassa’s\u00a0Journeyman Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s Fool\u201d\u00a0was the latest in a series of chart-topping releases from the blues ace. Her 2019 release, \u201cReckless Heart,\u201d\u00a0broke into the UK Top 20 Album Chart, cementing her status as one of the most important exports in British blues-rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Blues Album\u201d\u00a0(2021), also produced by Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith at Oceanway Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, marked Taylor\u2019s seventh studio album, and her first release on Bonamassa\u2019s independent label\u00a0KTBA Records, debuting at No. 1 on the\u00a0Billboard\u00a0Blues Charts. In 2022, Joanne received her second No. 1\u00a0Billboard\u00a0Blues Album with\u00a0\u201cBlues From The Heart Live,\u201d also released on KTBA Records.
\nTaylor is currently working on her next studio album that will showcase a bold slate of new material.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new album should be out early next year,\u201d said Taylor, during a phone interview last week from Burlington, Vermont. \u201cI have been releasing some singles from it already.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my live show now, I\u2019m not playing much from the new album. I will be playing a lot from \u2018Nobody\u2019s Fool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Her latest album release was recorded at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. It was produced by Bonamassa and Josh Smith and features Bonamassa on \u201cWon\u2019t Be Fooled Again,\u201d guitarist Carmen Vandenberg (Bones UK) on \u201cFigure It Out,\u201d cellist Tina Guo on \u201cFade Away\u201d and music legend Dave Stewart on a cover of the Eurythmics classic \u201cMissionary Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s Fool\u201d is her most personal album to date. Taylor\u2019s writing focuses on love, loss, and the desire to be free of the past through the vessel of catchy hooks and infectious guitar riffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded \u2018Nobody\u2019s Fool\u201d at Sunset Sound in L.A. It\u2019s a legendary studio. I just wanted to go to L.A. — to someplace sunny — to record. It was fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome songs came from earlier ideas from previous material. On others, I sat down in my apartment and wrote. I just tried to find the best songs. I would say it\u2019s a pop-soul album \u2013 with lots of guitars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s next album will definitely have an \u201calbum\u201d feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to record an album and focus on that,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cI look at it as two sides. For me, the track I love the most is the first track of the \u2018B side.\u2019 The songs that open the second side and the albums\u2019 final songs are the ones I remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded the new album at RCA Nashville. I went back to using Kevin Shirley as producer. We recorded my album, \u2018Wild,\u2019 in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor has established herself as one of the U.K.\u2019s top stars of the blues-rock world. She grew up in Wednesbury<\/a>\u00a0in the Black Country<\/a>, England, and was inspired in her early teens to play the blues after hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan<\/a>, Albert Collins<\/a>\u00a0and Jimi Hendrix<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up near Birmingham,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cMy dad played guitar and was a big music fan. He was also a big blues fan and listened to artists like Big Bill Broonzy and Bukka White. I started playing guitar when I was a teenager. I was listening to acts like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Collins and ZZ Top. I also listened to Cream, Free, Led Zeppelin \u2013 anything that was loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t get into British blues acts like John Mayall or Alexis Korner until later. I was attracted to American music. It\u2019s funny because Joe Bonamassa, who is a friend of mine, was in New York listening to British guys and I was in Britain listening to American guys. I did a blues cruise with Joe Bonamassa a few years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to play guitar. I had played classical guitar at school. I knew I could play guitar but classical wasn\u2019t for me. It was too structured. When I listened to Albert Collins, there were no rules. \u201cI listened to the blues guys and imitated them. I loved it so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girl with the big voice from the Black Country has toured extensively around the world, released critically acclaimed albums,\u00a0and gained a global fan base as well as having the honor of playing alongside some of her musical idols.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s debut album \u201cWhite Sugar,\u201d which was released in 2009, opened the door. Subsequent albums \u201cDiamonds in the Dirt\u201d (2010), \u201cAlmost Always Never\u201d (2012), \u201cSongs from the Road\u201d (2013) and \u201cThe Dirty Truth\u201d (2014) enabled Taylor to build a world-wide fan base.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dirty Truth\u201d was a return to her original sound that mixes rock riffs with blues influences. The album was released in the U.K. in September 2014 on Taylor\u2019s own independent boutique label, Axehouse Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have more than 20\u00a0years of playing guitar,\u201d said Taylor. \u201cI started when I was 13. My first guitar was a Mexican Sunburst\u00a0Strat. I recorded \u2018Wild\u201d in February 2016 with Kevin Shirley. He\u2019s worked with acts like Joe Bonamassa, Aerosmith, Journey, and Iron Maiden. I recorded the album in Nashville in a studio in the old RCA Building \u2013 Grand Victor Sound Studio. We were in the studio with the band for four days.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecording at Grand Victor was incredibly inspiring. It is quite the legendary studio. Dolly Parton cut \u2018Jolene\u2019 and \u2018I Will Always Love\u2019 you here. And Chet Atkins worked here. Basically, if there was a hit record out of Nashville, it was made here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded the \u2018Reckless Heat\u2019 album in Detroit. Then, I made the \u2018The Blues Album\u2019 in Nashville with Joe Bonamassa. During COVID, we were using ZOOM. I wanted to make an album of blues covers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved to Nashville last year and I was hanging out with Kevin Shirley. We both wanted to work together again. He was free and I was free, so we went into the studio. It\u2019s pretty much finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to move it back more to blues after doing the pop-soul of my last album. I\u2019m a blues guitarist \u2013 but not necessarily a blues artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video link for Joanne Shaw Taylor \u2013 https:\/\/youtu.be\/z0RUiqxeK_w<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The show at the Keswick Theater on November 21 will start at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

Ticket prices start at $29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Denny Dyroff, Entertainment Editor, The Times If someone told you to check out an interesting music act \u2013 a duo featuring two young women playing violin and bagpipes \u2013 you\u2019d probably envision a folky duo playing an acoustic blend of Celtic tunes and traditional Appalachian songs. If the group was Mia X Ally, you\u2019d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7529],"tags":[6518,10562,14489],"class_list":["post-42069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-d-arts-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-joanne-shaw-taylor","tag-mia-x-ally"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42070,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42069\/revisions\/42070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}