EXCLUSIVE: Watch and download 2 acoustic songs by JP Biondo of NEPA jamgrass band Cabinet
Last week during the live recording of Episode 8 of the newly relaunched NEPA Scene Podcast at Coal Creative’s production studio in downtown Wilkes-Barre, singer, songwriter, and mandolinist JP Biondo, who is both a solo artist and a member of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre jamgrass band Cabinet, opened and closed the show with stripped down acoustic versions of two Cabinet songs – “Bottom of the Sea,” the new single from their upcoming album, “Cool River,” and “The Tower,” a classic set staple released in 2009.
To celebrate the band’s fifth annual Susquehanna Breakdown Music Festival at The Pavilion at Montage Mountain in Scranton on Friday, May 19 and Saturday, May 20, NEPA Scene is offering free downloads of these exclusive solo renditions. They can be streamed or downloaded via iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher and watched on YouTube.
Watch “Bottom of the Sea” on YouTube:
Stream/download on SoundCloud:
Watch “The Tower” on YouTube:
Stream/download on SoundCloud:
In the full episode of the podcast, we chat with Biondo about his popular band, whether or not he would define Cabinet’s music as “bluegrass” and how that type of music came out of NEPA, his personal musical influences and how they play a role in their songs, jamming and improvisation, keeping the band together despite being spread out across several states, recording their new album “Cool River” in Vermont with Phish engineer Ben Collette, taking musical risks and not worrying what others may think, letting fans record shows and releasing them for free online, his solo work and recording locally at the Windmill Agency, a song written by his mother, the importance of family in his own life and in the band and their special relationship with fans, playing Montage Mountain and what that means to local musicians, how the Susquehanna Breakdown began and has grown over the years, a touching moment at last year’s Breakdown, what’s in store for this year, and more.
Instead of The Last Word segment, we spent more time in this episode answering both funny and serious fan questions during the live stream, considering how important the “CabFam” is to the group.
Watch the live video version on YouTube or Facebook:
Listen on iTunes.
Listen on SoundCloud:
Listen on Stitcher.
See NEPA Scene’s photos and a review of last year’s Breakdown here and photos from Cabinet’s annual holiday show in Wilkes-Barre back in December here.
