Harlan Steinberger

Hen House’s own Ellyn Maybe and Michael C Ford featured in Beyond Baroque’s poetry supershow Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts

Friday July 23rd 7:30pm

By Falling James

Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts is a “traveling poetry supershow” of spoken-word performers and musicians that started in San Francisco in 2008 and is finally making its debut in L.A. The series presents adventurous modern-day poets in bars and venues where the early Beat poets used to hang out, in the hopes that the lingering spirits of the elders will inspire their progeny’s new work. Given its long history as a SoCal literary vortex, Beyond Baroque seems to be an ideal setting for “tapping the mystic voices and drumming the Beat haunts from their tombs in Los Angeles.” This seventh edition of the series features the longtime local poet Ellyn Maybe, appearing with a band (!), and veteran wordsmith Michael C. Ford, whose “arsenal of commando language” blows apart every last standing irrational political pie-ball cowboy who continually threatens National Nirvana.” Meanwhile, former Ringling Sister Iris Berry (Two Blocks East of Vine, pictured) leavens her tales of heroin misadventures and gangster boyfriends with a punk rock perspective and gallows humor. The show also includes Jim Bolt, Mike the Poet, Rachel Kann, Brenda Petrakos, Gary Justice, host Mani Suri and special guests known only as the Mystery Poets. (Link to LA Weekly Events)

Video by: Nisey Jay and Riccardo Spinotti

“Fans of spoken word CDs and lovers of slam poetry with a nerd-girl edge should seek this CD out as soon as they finish reading this review, as should anyone curious to see the highs to which this blended art form can aspire. I cannot recommend Rodeo for the Sheepish enough.” – JoSelle Vanderhooft for Pedestal Magazine

///This video was a contribution to Ellyns online zine http://www.rodeowrite.com/ please visit and contribute your own work to the Rodeo!

May 10, 8:14 PM – LA Poetry Examiner – Yvonne de la Vega

Harlan Steinberger of Hen House Records wasn’t pursuing a reputation as one of the best poetry producers of the Los Angeles poetry and music scene, but today not only is he one of the best, he is also an innovator of a whole new budding genre in music.

Poetry’lectronica has been born – and the great news is, it’s pop music!

As the producer of Ellyn Maybe’s album of poetry and pop electronica, “RODEO FOR THE SHEEPISH”, Harlan Steinberger presents a clever and magical interpretation of a poet’s body of work. Steinberger has accomplished what not many others before him has ever done. He has produced a radio friendly showcase of poetry and pop- electronica in an album that, with most of it’s tracks might easily be played on pop radio.

The record is just about everything a pop record is. It’s got hooks, choruses and clever lyrics, it has a beat you really want to dance to. It has perfectly “out of the box” sound hooks that because of it’s sound – is catchy, just like a few pop hits in the past have had, such as the syncopated vocal musings that Michael Jackson innovated. It’s rhythmic and hip, easy to listen to, and once again, the best part is – it’s poetry! – and it’s pop! (more…)

By Bob Holman & Margery Snyder

About.com Guide

(Hen House Studios, 2009) Ellyn Maybe got her moniker because she was too shy to commit when she signed up for the open mic list—“Ellyn,” she’d write, “maybe.” She’s an LA phenomenon, published by Henry Rollins, the lovechild of Gertrude Stein and Allen Ginsberg, a lyrical poet in hippie couture, a one-of-a-kind. Now, with Rodeo for the Sheepish, she shows she’s ready for Las Vegas. Brilliant settings by producer Harlan Steinberger, superlative vocal backtracks by Tommy Jordan—all of a sudden, she’s gone Motown and you can hear the sheer force of Poetry vs. Pop music in an arena the size of Radio City Poetry Hall. Humor, poignancy, universality, individuality—like all great artists, how she does it is a mystery, but Ellyn Maybe is for real.