Special concert is free and open to the public
The Oxford Film Festival and The Local Voice present “Songwriters in the Round” on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 5 pm. The special concert will take place at the Malco Commons Amphitheatre and is free and open to the public. This year’s show will feature local songwriters Schaefer Llana, Keith Moore, Randy Weeks, and Rosamond & Jamie Posey.
The relaxed format of Songwriters in the Round allows the musicians to take turns playing songs and telling stories about the songs. If inspiration strikes, they may even accompany each other in the moment.
All of the participants in this year’s Songwriters in the Round will also be playing short sets in front of select film screenings at the Oxford Film Festival.
Schaefer Llana
“You looked like an angel with the streetlight halo around you/But I know better,” sings twenty-one-year old Schaefer Llana on the song “Angel,” a standout track from her debut album 49 Ceiling Tiles. As with all of Schaefer’s songs, the lyrics show a wisdom that belies her age.
Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, at age ten Schaefer Llana moved to the tiny town of Batesville, Mississippi, after her parents divorced. She grew up singing in school plays and at church, the home stereo split equally between her mother’s love of pop and her older sister’s emo and punk music. Schaefer began writing songs on the piano in eighth grade, switching to the guitar her senior year in high school. She moved to Cleveland, Mississippi for college, where she cut her teeth in the fertile DIY house show scene.
“I was playing a lot of shows around town solo, and I started realizing it wasn’t enough,” says Schaefer. “I needed it to be bigger, because it didn’t feel like ‘me’ yet.” In order to realize her vision, Schaefer recruited a band from her local scene. This allowed her to highlight the extremes in her songwriting, enabling her to move deftly from an acoustic whisper to a full-band holler in a moment.
The first demo for 49 Ceiling Tiles was recorded for her friend Starlin Browning’s college production class. The results were so good they decided to make a whole record together, holing up with fellow musicians at Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi, exemplifying the house show ethos of “playing music with your friends, for your friends.”
From the yearning, conflicted “Childlike” to the easy escape of “Dew,”49 Ceiling Tiles is at turns wounded and vulnerable, fierce and loud. The songs wrestle with faith and heartbreak, mental illness and self-harm. But through every song there’s an undercurrent of hope, a belief that things can and will get better, and a refusal to stop trying.
“I’m always fearful and doubtful, but there’s a piece of me that has to hope for something” says Schaefer. “Growing up and constantly having your world rocked and your heart broken by family and by people who you think are your family, you always have to believe that something better is coming. For me, that better thing has always been music.”
It’s this belief that gives Schaefer’s music such power. Her songs revel in the strength of vulnerability and the raw urgency of honest emotion. There’s a ferocious hope to this music, an intimacy that comes from playing music with the people closest to you, and the shared knowledge that from all the pain and struggle something beautiful can emerge.
“I’ve always known that I wanted to play music,” says Schaefer, “even though it seemed unrealistic. Most of me didn’t believe that these things would ever happen. But here we are.” She laughs. “I guess the part of me that did believe was enough.”
Schaefer Llana Sets at the Oxford Film Festival
Friday – Music Docs at 7:30 pm
Saturday – Fest Forward at 2:00 pm
Saturday – Songwriters in the Round at 5 pm
Sunday – Lover, Beloved at 12:30 pm
Rosamond & Jamie Posey
Rocket 88 has been a staple of the Oxford music scene for 17 years delivering a diverse sound of influences ranging from Gospel to North Mississippi Hill Country Blues, Honky Tonk, old time Country, Rock ‘n’ roll, and even Folk. Fronted by husband and wife duo, Rosamond and Jamie Posey, Rocket 88 has a unique sound that is steeped in home roots.
Rosamond & Jamie Posey Sets at the Oxford Film Festival
Saturday – That Thing That Sound 3:30 pm
Saturday – The Falconer 4:00 pm
Saturday – Songwriters in the Round at 5 pm
Saturday – Mississippi Music Videos 7:30 pm
Keith Moore
Keith Moore grew up in Meridian, Mississippi. He formed his first band, Blue Haze, when he was 14. He wrote for Fame Music in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and BMG in Nashville. His band, The Wineskins, include Jeff Gordon and Greg Johnson. They’ve released two albums: Rattle My Faith, and Shut Me Up Sundance. Keith is releasing two new solo projects this spring and summer. The Nothing Tree, Songs About Nothing, and Keith & The Mystery Band, Bare Feet. He lives in Oxford with his wife Renee’, who joins him on the new albums.
Keith Moore Sets at the Oxford Film Festival
Friday – Cat Daddies at 4:30 pm
Friday – Dealing with Dad at 6:00 pm
Friday – Ole Miss Shorts at 5:30 pm
Saturday – Songwriters in the Round at 5 pm
Randy Weeks
Randy Weeks has lived in Mississippi all his life, and in Oxford for the past eleven years. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor by trade, and a musician and actor by heart. He had his first starring role as Santa Claus’ son, Willie Claus, in a second-grade school musical. Since then he has played a number of roles onstage, most notably as Jesus in both Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. He played the role of a Miami judge in the film Texas Heart. Randy has been a columnist for the Clarion Ledger and now writes a column for Oxford’s The Local Voice called “The View from The Balcony.” While he’s written songs for decades, it’s only in the past few years that he’s performed them for others. He makes no claim of virtuosity with the guitar but believes strongly enough in the songs he writes to share them with anyone who will listen.
Randy Weeks’ Sets at the Oxford Film Festival
Friday – LGBTQIA+ Shorts at 5:00 pm
Saturday – Mississippi Messiah at 12:00 pm
Saturday – Heart of the Gun at 1:00 pm
Saturday – Songwriters in the Round at 5 pm
