Upcoming events.
The White Buffalo - Live at The Hangar
The White Buffalo @ The Hangar : THIS IS A 21 + SHOW.
Come join us for an unforgettable night with The White Buffalo at The Hangar . Get ready for an evening filled with incredible music and amazing beer. Don't miss out on this chance to see The White Buffalo live in person. Grab your friends and head over to The Hangar for a night to remember!
For The White Buffalo – aka singer / songwriter / guitarist Jake Smith, Oregon-born, Southern California-raised – it was time to take the less travelled path; to assemble notions for studio album Number 8, the follow-up to ‘On The Widow’s Walk’ (Snakefarm, 2020), and embark on a voyage of discovery.
Out with the old, the organic, the expected, the tried; in with the new – new producer, new studio, new location, no distractions, no looking back…
Enter ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’…
“You think we’re a country band? A folk band? Americana? Rock? What the fuck are you gonna say now?!” laughs Jake.“With this album, I wanted something outside of what I’ve ever done. I wanted to open up. Do something dangerous. I’m hard to put into a singular genre as it is, but now I really wanted to take away any kind of preconception or pigeon-holing.
“And don’t ask me, cos I don’t know what it is! It’s a genre-bending thing – there’s elements and influences from ELO, Daniel Lanois, Tom Waits, The Boss, circus, pirate music, yacht rock, and I’m driving and pushing some of these numbers in a way I’ve never done before.
“At the top of the pandemic, I put the acoustic guitar on its stand, got a synthesizer and began writing on it, not really knowing how to play keys, just exploring the different sounds and landscapes. In the not knowing, it allowed me to expand my vocal melodies and compositions in ways the guitar had possibly limited.”
When Jake, flanked by regular touring / recording compadres, bassist / keyboard player / guitarist Christopher Hoffee and drummer Matt Lynott, crossed the threshold of East Nashville’s Neon Cross Studio, a converted Southern Baptist Church, he wasn’t chapter an’ verse prepared, as usual.
The time before recording had been a crazy one, so there were a bunch of loose ends to be tied (“I’m a perpetual procrastinator” – Jake), plus only three of the 12 songs had been completely written. Jake had maps in his head, but most were mere bones of compositions with only a few key lyrics penned. This allowed producer / studio owner Jay Joyce – plus trusted assistant, Jason Hall – the wiggle room to really get involved, to guide and explore new frontiers …
“It was a whirlwind of creativity,” recalls Jake. “We tracked 12 songs in 11 days; no over-thinking, no looking for perfection, no egos, no playing it safe, just feel, and I’ve never had a producer act so much like a producer… twisting, elevating and contorting our talents!”
With an impressive clientele numbering Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Fidlar, Ashley McBryde, Halestorm, Little Big Town, Cage The Elephant, to name just a few, multi-instrumentalist Joyce has a reputation for working at an intense level.
He’s a Grammy Award-winning Producer of the Year (2018), has 4 CMA and 5 ACM Awards, and when it comes to making music, the Ohio native is never one to take the obvious route – perfect for an album featuring a dozen musical vignettes, individual yet constant in flow; an album loosely based around the shifting of the seasons and the shifting of a relationship; an album showing off the complete scope of Jake’s song-writing craft, from the stripped back to the fully loaded…
“Jake is fierce, he basically wrote a whole movie,” says Jay. “We holed up in an old church, in the midst of the pandemic. It was just the four of us, making the soundtrack to his movie, and I have to say, it was inspirational.”
To keep the storyline as clear as possible, the 12 songs were recorded in sequence, with every square inch of Neon Cross brought into play; a new sonic palette was required, a unique set of sounds, and if it meant pushing the musicians into new, sometimes uncomfortable, areas, well, that was the price to pay…
“Oh, he would break at least one of us on the daily!” exclaims Jake. “At some point, we all questioned if we could even sing or play! We’d start at 11, have lunch at one or two, be done by seven, and we felt like we’d gone to war!! Exhausted, our heads spinning. Like, what did we even do today?!
“A lot of stuff was tracked on the fly, and Jay would help guide arrangements, bridges, links, all sorts of things, then he ended up adding other elements in the mix to bind it all together. He’s an insane musician and he would change things on a dime. We’d spend an hour getting a drum tone, then he’d say, ‘Sounds amazing, but any fool can make a drum kit sound good’. So he’d abandon all of that, and end up using a 50 dollar child’s kit mic’d with a singular microphone and pump it through a tiny Marshall amp. His mind works in a manner I’ve never witnessed in anyone else!”
But what about the vocal recording? Surely Jake’s signature baritone, a much-revered calling card, required nothing more elaborate than a candle-lit corner, some honey, cigarettes and coffee…
“Not reallyl!” laughs Jake, “he kept putting me in strange and awkward positions – on two or three of the songs, he sat me down on a low-profile couch, with the mic a foot off the ground, so I’m hunched over singing with my knees higher than my head. He was taking away my body, my power. He’d say, ‘Everyone knows that you can sing, bro, what else is there…?’ He was looking for a vibe, a cool factor, not vocal acrobatics.
“And he’s meticulous about trimming the fat, and about syncopation, where the words are landing. He would also sense if something wasn’t quite working, or if it was getting repetitive; on ‘Love Will Never Come’ he forced me to abandon the vocal melody and lyrics I had prepared, nearing a hundred words, saying it sounded like, ‘Hickory Dickory Dock… I’m bored after hearing that melody twice’. He made me take an entirely different approach, on the spot, like, ‘Make up something cool. Now! GO! GO!’ I’ve never been challenged like that before! The first thing that spilled out of me was the map for that performance.
“He’s a fucking genius with a splash of bullying ex-wife. You know he’s right, you trust him, and he will push you beyond what you think you’re capable of.”
For ‘Year Of The Dark Horse’ to achieve its full potential, Jake knew the experience had to be immersive, which is why the Nashville location proved crucial. Not only were the three musicians away from the lures of home, but the house they all stayed in was just a block from the studio, and filled with a variety of instruments. Wherever they were, they could hone in on the project, and some of the songs came together while the clock was ticking…
“I wrote ‘Love Song #3’ eight days into recording,” remembers Jake. “I knew the story and the scope of the album needed a true love song, so I wrote one from a melody I had swimming around in my head.
“I work strangely well under desperate conditions,” he continues, making sure to give credit to his fellow musicians, his ‘band of brothers’; they hadn’t heard the songs at all prior to entering the studio, “coming in blind”, but they collectively stepped up to the plate, and beyond, sometimes getting a tune out of instruments they’d never even heard of!
As for Jake, he was happy to embrace a project where new boxes were being ticked on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. This time around, it was all about building on glories past, adding fresh, exciting, more left-field moments to a style and a sound that has seen his music growing in stature worldwide, supported by key placements in the worlds of TV and film (‘Sons Of Anarchy’, ‘Californication’, ‘The Punisher’, ‘The Terminal List’, etc.)
Over the years, Jake has built a second-to-none reputation for the emotional weight of his music, and here this core element dramatically underpins a body of work that allows the imagination of the listener to play an important part throughout, building on a tale of debauchery (of the drunken variety) and blame, of love and loss, a life lived against the odds, the whole thing set in one lunar year, following our anti-hero through the highs and lows of the seasons.
And who is this mysterious Donna? And what was she doing in the bar? And in the bathroom?! (‘She Don’t Know That I Lie’). She’s right there at the heart of the action, and the song that bears her name is probably the most propulsive on the album – an open display of Jake’s deep regard for the great Jeff Lynne…
“During the pandemic, I would ride around on my bike with a speaker on the back, tripping balls, and listening to ELO,”he recollects. “I love Jeff Lynne!”
Hard on the stiletto’d heels of ‘Donna’ comes album closer ‘Life Goes On’, which bring things to a conclusion in gentle, reflective tones. Jake felt his way through the song in the studio, then when he stepped up to do it for real, was told by Joyce that his first take was ‘the one’…
“He wouldn’t let me have another crack! ‘You can’t beat that!’ One single imperfect take when I wasn’t even aware we were recording. Pure, honest, true...”
Which effectively sums up ‘YOTDH’ as a whole, The White Buffalo’s most unpredictable and inventive work to date, the most well-rounded, too – surprising, spontaneous and spectacularly genre resistant.
6th Anniversary Party
Join us at The Hangar Lake Tahoe 6th Anniversary Celebration! 🎉
THIS IS A 21+ Event
Celebrate our 6th year in South Lake with us! We’ll be slinging the best beer around the lake, bring the Adult Only amusement park back and we have a surprise colab beer in the mix. Be there, its free…and when can you drink and hit a slide?
Bay Ledges - Live at The Hangar
Bay Ledges @ The Hangar : THIS IS A 21 + SHOW.
Come join us for an unforgettable night with Bay Ledges at The Hangar . Get ready for an evening filled with incredible music and amazing beer. Don't miss out on this chance to see Bay Ledges live in person. Grab your friends and head over to The Hangar for a night to remember!
Bay Ledges is the project of Maine-born and based musician Zach Hurd. Inspired by a
bi-coastal existence, he released his debut album, Ritual, a 13-song record written,
produced, and mixed entirely by Hurd in 2022. Exploring transience, nostalgia, and
Hurd’s own relationship to music and art, it’s a meditative record that’s both psychedelic
and thrilling.
Hurd started Bay Ledges in 2015 in his bedroom shortly after moving to Los Angeles,
where he stayed until 2020 when he moved back to his small hometown in coastal
Maine. The project initially took off when Hurd’s 2016 single, “Safe,” jumped to the
number three spot on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart. Since releasing Ritual, he has
garnered more than 115 million streams worldwide and received praise from the likes of
Billboard, Under The Radar, and Flood.
Bay Ledges has toured all over the US and Canada, sharing the stage with such acts as
Yoke Lore, Magic City Hippies, and The Palms and selling out headline shows at iconic
venues like the Troubadour in LA and Schubas in Chicago. 2023 will see him supporting
artists like Big Wild, Goth Babe, and Trevor Hall in addition to festivals and a headline
tour.
He is currently releasing new music as a part of his forthcoming album.
The Hangar’s Inaugural Beerfest
The Hangar proudly presents The Inaugural Beer Fest on
Saturday, August 5th. This is not just another Beer Fest. The Hangar has inviting over 20 exclusive and award
winning breweries from all across the state for this one-of-a-kind event.
“There is no shortage of Brewfest events out there, but like our menu, we wanted to do something totally
different.” States Nate Riffle, Owner of The Hangar Taproom & Bottle Shop. “We busted out the rolodex, made
some calls and assembled a list of breweries that are no joke. We're honored and psyched that all these people
want to work with us, and come to Tahoe to serve some of the best beer in the country on our property!"
The current list of featured breweries (subject to change and be added to) includes:
Altamont Brewing
Alvarado Street Brewing
Ashland Seltzer
Barebottle Brewing
Faction Brewing
Fieldwork Brewing
Fruition Brewing
Ghost town Brewing
Grains of Virtue Brewing
Great Notion Brewing
Humble Sea Brewing
Juneshine
Machine Head Brewing
Moksa Brewing
Movement Brewing
Narrative Fermentation
Sante Adarius Brewing
Shred Brewing
Solid Ground Brewing
There Does Not Exist Brewing
Woodhouse Brewing
On Saturday, August 5th from 12-6pm The Hangar will host these award winning breweries with food trucks, and
live music under a canopy of pine trees on nearly an acre of grass. Not only will it be a fun day, but you're
drinking for a cause. This event will benefit CASA El Dorado - Child Advocates of El Dorado provides support,
empowerment, and a voice for the abused, neglected, and at-risk youth in our community. ·
Tickets are currently on sale for $45 and include unlimited samples, a commemorative glass and access to your
own taproom for the day, along with 400 of your closest drinking pals. This event is 21 and over.
Parking is limited around the venue; however, a complimentary bike valet is offered onsite. Biking or lime
scootering (with proper lighting) as well as ride-share services, carpooling and public transportation are all
strongly encouraged. Additional parking is available at the following locations:
- South Lake Tahoe Association of REALTORS 2307 James Ave, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
- Step-by-Step Early Education Center 981 Silver Dollar Ave, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
Rayland Baxter & Liz Cooper
This is a 21 + show only.
This is a 21+ only show, if for some reason you had missed that before, please send an email and your ticket will be refunded.
Parking is limited. Rideshare, carpooling, biking, and lime scootering is strongly encouraged.
Additional parking will be available at 971 Silver Dollar Ave. There are 90 spots available there.
PLEASE DO NOT PARK at Mini Golf - they will tow your car.
Please do not bring any outside alcohol, we will be checking bags and it will be immediately confiscated.
Come and see the first Rayland Baxter show in South Lake Tahoe on an acre of outdoor space under the trees with more beers than you can shake a stick at. Juneshine will be joining with beach vibes to make it a real party.
For the making of his fourth album If I Were a Butterfly, Rayland Baxter holed up for over a year at a former rubber-band factory turned studio in the Kentucky countryside—a seemingly humble environment that proved to be something of a wonderland. “I spent that year living in a barn with the squirrels and the birds, on my own most of the time, and I discovered so much about music and how to create it,” says the Tennessee-bred singer/songwriter. “Instead of going into a studio with a producer for two weeks, I just waited for the record to build itself. I’d get up and go outside, see a butterfly and connect that with some impulsive thought I’d had three months ago, and suddenly a song I’d been working on would make sense. That’s how the whole album came to be.”
The follow-up to 2018’s critically acclaimed Wide Awake, If I Were a Butterfly finds Baxter co-producing alongside Tim O’Sullivan (Grace Potter, The Head and the Heart) and Kai Welch (Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull), slowly piecing together the album’s patchwork of lush psychedelia and Beatlesesque pop. In addition to working at Thunder Sound (the Kentucky studio he called home for months on end), Baxter recorded in California, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, enlisting a remarkable lineup of musicians: Shakey Graves, Lennon Stella, several members of Cage the Elephant, Zac Cockrell of Alabama Shakes, Morning Teleportation’s Travis Goodwin, and legendary Motown drummer Miss Bobbye Hall, among many others. In an especially meaningful turn, two of the album’s tracks feature the elegant pedal steel work of his father, Bucky Baxter (a musician who performed with Bob Dylan and who passed away in May 2020). Thanks to the extraordinary care and ingenuity behind its creation, If I Were a Butterfly arrives as a work of rarefied magic, capable of stirring up immense feeling while leaving the listener happily wonderstruck.
Baxter’s debut release as a producer, If I Were a Butterfly bears a dazzling unpredictability that has much to do with his limitless imagination as a collector and collagist of sound. “Sometimes the bullfrogs in the pond outside would pulse in a certain tempo and I’d apply that to a song, or I’d hear a bird chirping and it would inspire me to add harmonica in a particular place,” he says. “I could be walking around this massive building in the middle of the night and the air-conditioning would turn on, and it’d give me the idea to include a synth part that holds a similar note. I’d wait for those moments to happen and whenever I tried to force anything, the music usually rejected it.”
A perfect introduction to If I Were a Butterfly’s elaborate sonic world, the album-opening title track begins with a recording of a Baxter singing at age four, then drifts into a delicately sprawling reverie ornamented with so many lovely details (lavish flute and cello melodies, radiant horns, the hypnotic harmonies of Lennon Stella and Baxter’s girlfriend, Sophia Rose). “I liked the idea of the first voice on the record being me as a little kid, not knowing where I’d be today,” notes Baxter, who embedded newly unearthed audio clips of himself and his older sister Brooke all throughout the album. Graced with the combustible guitar work of his bandmate Barney Cortez, “Billy Goat” kicks up a potent tension with its restless grooves and hot-tempered gang vocals. “It’s a breakup song about being with someone who’s on a different life path—one side wants to influence the other, and inevitably you part ways,” says Baxter. From there, the album takes on a feverish momentum with “Rubberband Man,” a delightfully frenzied track channeling a wild and giddy freedom. “There’s rubber bands all over the property at Thunder Sound—in the earth, in the concrete, used as insulation for the studio,” says Baxter. “I took a mishmash of images in my head and it turned into a song about staying flexible, rolling with the punches.”
In its searching reflection on love and loss and striving for transcendence, If I Were a Butterfly reaches a quietly glorious intensity on “Tadpole”: a piano ballad threaded with childhood memories at turns oddly tender (catching frogs and crawfish in a nearby toxic creek) and nightmarish (hearing the gunshot when an across-the-street neighbor took her own life). And on “My Argentina,” If I Were a Butterfly closes out with a piano-driven and painfully raw outpouring, its starkness intermittently broken by soulful strings and gospel-esque harmonies. “One time at the studio I stayed up all night and played that song maybe 100 times; we ended up using the last take, which was recorded at about five in the morning,” says Baxter. “It’s a song that represents the thoughts one might have about a perfect love life, and I love how it ends the album in a big angelic cloud of reverb.”
For Baxter, the act of self-producing such a sonically and emotionally expansive body of work proved both exhilarating and arduous. “It really wore me out to spend all that time alone at the studio, editing the hell out of this record; my heart definitely suffered,” he says. “But I also had the guidance of my dad, who was in my dreams all the time—if I was moving too fast, I’d hear him telling me to slow down.” Another profound influence on the album-making process: the 2018 deaths of Baxter’s close friends Billy Swayze (a musician whose parents owned the rubber band company that became Thunder Sound) and Tiger Merritt (the vocalist/guitarist for Morning Teleportation, who worked with Swayze in constructing the studio). “Billy and Tiger had been going up there since 2015, and finally they turned it into a legit recording studio,” he says. “It’s a very special place to me, so they’re two of the four angels I decided to dedicate this record to.”
Even in its most somber moments, If I Were a Butterfly wholly fulfills Baxter’s mission of imparting a certain purposeful joy. “It’s been a weird few years, but I think the big picture is for us to just exist and find love and be loved, and try to see that all the daily bullshit is simply bugs on the windshield,” says Baxter. “I hope that this album makes people feel the way I do whenever I listen to my favorite records, and that it gives them a platform to dream on.”