Music comes not from lesson or rote but the open soul. Celeste Griffin, Monarchs' lead singer, began her music education in the piano at age eight. It lasted less than a year. With little to no formal training, it was on a sultry Birmingham, Alabama day in June, 2007 when Celeste again laid hands on her mother's old piano and stumbled upon her first song, Notes of Disease. The pot began to boil and Celeste yielded to the flame. Three years later Griffin's recognized ability to whisper southern family secrets and belt the grief of lost love has landed her at the biggest venues in Austin, the "Live Music Capital of the World." Griffin's music is her own. It is dripping with thickly woven emotion, a personal testimony to a collective memory that bonds family, friends, and lovers. Monarchs blurs the genre lines, grazing soul, folk, rock, and southern boogie in any given song. Her voice is powerful and poetic, chords resonating in a distinctly Alabaman tune. With the occasional 'Roll Tide!' interspersing applause and her charming southern drawl coating song break commentary, its hard to forget Griffin's southern roots. Monarchs' first two albums glow with soft Alabaman sunshine, intimate portraits of a young woman finding musical inspiration in the laughter of her friends, the lazy flight of Birmingham fireflies, and the joy of youthful optimism. Her first album, The Oak EP, was recorded in 2008 on a four-track tape recorder in a women's bath house on an abandoned industrial ...
Keywords: sxsw, south by southwest, austin, texas, music, film, interactive, festival, and, conference, 2012, emerging, independent, panel, interview, talk, monarchs, date night
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