The Eagle Eye

Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Brian Shultz Brian and his prize

Media Credit: Brian Shultz Eagle Eye News Editor, Brian Shultz, Rocks the Haven!

Media Credit: Brian Shultz Brian Shultz plays during Rock the Haven at Avenue 209 Thursday. The competition lasted five weeks and featured many displays of local talent. Shultz took home a home recording studio for winning the event

Zak Johns, LHU student was also a competitor.

Rock the Haven was sponsored by local businesses Avenue 209 and Music One.

And then there were eight?

If you've missed the last couple weeks of Avenue 209 Coffee House's "Rock the Haven" contest, you've been missing life. The cold, snowy fall day may have surprised many of us, but didn't keep the crowd from coming out. Playing to a packed house, the late start still didn't deter the evening from being an enjoyable time.

Brian Shultz rose above the competition and took home the "Rock the Haven" crown, and a Tascam DP-02 digital recorder.

"Finally," said Shultz after getting his hands on the prize. "I've been waiting a long time for the chance to get a quality recording."

Weeks of head-to-head competition was shaken up during week four when local celebrity judges, Mark the Shark, Mike Romanesky, Commissioner Joel Long and Sarah Grimes decided to up the ante by choosing four "wild card" performers for the final round, including Shultz.

First up for the final competition, Raquel Alton and Cody sang some simple, quiet ballads that really showed off Alton's range. Milton McDonald stated "They work well together" playing and singing their self-penned songs.

The week one winner preformed next as Zak Johns rocked the house, starting by covering a Smashing Pumpkin tune. He then covered "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" by Dallas Green of City and Color. Commissioner Joel Long loves the way Zak "puts the feeling into songs."

Our first wild card winner came next with freshman Shelby Fye singing Taylor Swift's "White Horse" and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," having me at "hello" because this song sounds so much differently when coming from a lady. She also rounded out her set with the Broadway tune "Requiem."

Next up was wild card local Joe Rafter, backed-up by Catrina Nevel. Avenue regulars, Joe is known for his originals. They ended their set with a crowd-pleasing, heartfelt rendition of "Brick" by Ben Folds Five.

"I came into the shop the other day to order a smoothie, and found out they renamed it The Joe Rafter," quipped Mark the Shark.

Jhante Belt belted out her set of songs a capella as music played behind her. Known well from open-mic nights this summer at the Avenue, it sounded as if she'd been practicing in the shower all week. At one time I looked over at Tom's wife Maria mouthing the words "hot" and fanning herself as if it were so. She really sang with passion choosing a Dream Girls crowd-pleaser.

Brian Shultz commanded the stage with originals the first week, but being chosen as a wild card, he made sure to thank the judges as he took the stage for bring him back. There was much humor from Brian as he tried to use the music stand. He opened with "Four Months" and followed with his day old song "My Own Medicine" as he got the crowd involved as they chanted along with him. Finally he concluded with a Dave Matthews intro to his original song "Give."

Surprise winner from week two was Kaylie Haines, a thirteen year old local judges thought "she should be moonlighting on Broadway." Winning her week with a selection from Wicked, this time wooed us all with Send in the Clowns on piano.

Finally, Steve Mivalick (affectionately known as Steve) got fresh and funky putting tracks down on his different gadgets. He threw "Summertime" at us by way of Sublime and Ella Fitzgerald.

He ended with "Waste" by Phish, making sure to point out that he hoped Trey Anastasio would have enjoyed it had he been there to hear.

While all participants received gift certificates from both Avenue 209 and Music One, the daddy of them all was the Tascam home recorder retailing at $1000.

Shultz, a junior majoring in journalism, has been playing for seven years. He was big into Metallica and metal when he started. He wanted to be like Metallica when he grew up, but he grew up and got to doing his own thing. He now enjoys songwriting and gave up on the whole rock star dream.

Recording something has always been his Achilles Heel.

"One of the things holding me back is a quality recording. I feel that I have a lot of talent to be playing places, but without a quality recording, it makes it tougher to do that," he said. "It's taken a lot of pestering down at (Uncle) Al's, but I'm in now, so we'll see."

Saturday night brought Brian to the forefront, however, playing his first concert at Uncle Albert's.

"I hear musicians of many ages doing the same covers, and I like to mix it up," Shultz said. "I like songs that mean something to me and make me feel good. If I want to please a crowd, I choose the songs that have them thinking 'Oh, wow, I remember that song."

He also tries to modernize his set, seeing that he is playing to a majority college age audience.

"I want to play songs that we grew up with, songs that bring back memories," he said, adding that Classic Rock is our parents music and he wants something a little different.

Join Brian this Saturday night at 10 p.m. at Uncle Albert's for Saturday night specials, now with a late-night menu.

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