Get a FREE copy (*) of the 61st issue of our compilation series BLUE ROSE NUGGETS - just order 4 items through our mailorder and a copy of the BLUE ROSE NUGGETS will automatically included with your order.
(*) if living inside Europe only!
For Record Story Day the five piece SONS OF BILL from Charlottesville, Virginia had recorded two brand new songs to put on a strictly limited vinyl 7" single. We got a very small number of 50 copies for an exclusive offer in Europe. There won't be any re-orders so if you're interested in this little piece (which will pretty soon become a hard-to-get collectors item) don't wait too long - first come, first serve! These two typical Sons Of Bill songs are nice appetizers for the band's next full length album, to be released in January 2014, followed by an extensive six-week tour through Europe from mid February through the end of March.
NEUHEITEN-AKTION (new releases package): Select 4 CDs from an album pool for € 46,00
Unsere jüngsten Paket-Aktionen mit Normalpreis-, Midprice- und Budget-CDs kamen sehr gut an und so haben wir uns überlegt, was wir noch als kleines i-Tüpfelchen folgen lassen könnten. Zunächst kam die Idee auf, doch einfach nochmals ein Paket mit unseren noch lieferbaren Ausgaben der Blue Rose Nuggets-Serie zusammenzustellen, gefolgt von der Idee einer Aktion mit einem Paket unserer allerneuesten Veröffentlichungen. Und nicht nur denen, sondern auch noch zusätzlich gespickt mit Blue Rose-Alben, die noch gar nicht erhältlich sind und nach Ende der Aktion bis zum offiziellen Erscheinen nicht mehr ausgeliefert werden - plus vier Neuheiten über das schwedische Rootsy-Label von Paal Flaata, Chip Taylor, Hellsingland Underground und David Olney.
Doch Achtung: Diese beiden Paket-Aktionen laufen nur bis einschließlich Sonntag, 16 Juni 2013, 24 Uhr. Bestellungen sind nur online und per Telefon möglich.
Die Anzahl pro Titel in einem Paket ist auf 1 Stück begrenzt.
Diese Preise gelten ausschließlich für die Aktionspakete, bei Einzelbestellungen gilt der reguläre Preis.
NEUHEITEN-AKTION:
Wähle 4 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 16 Alben für € 46,00
NUGGETS-AKTION:
Wähle 5 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 39 Alben für € 10,00
Diese Preise gelten ausschließlich für die Aktionspakete, bei Einzelbestellungen gilt der reguläre Preis.
Bei einer Online-Bestellung bitte die ausgewählten Titel beim Check Out mit dem Warenkorb in das weiße Kommentarfeld einsetzen. Kleiner Tipp: Die ausgewählten Titel mit "Strg+C" festhalten (kopieren) und im Kommentarfeld mit "String+V" einfügen und evtl. auswählen/streichen. Das erspart das langwierige Eintippen.
Mit dem blauen BUY-Button das Paket als 1 Artikel in den Warenkorb legen. Nach Abschluss des "Einkaufs" auf den Warenkorb klicken und den Bestellvorgang beenden (Name, Adresse, Zahlungsart etc. eingeben). Dann bitte in das weiße Kommentar-Feld wie oben beschrieben die gewünschten Titel des Pools eingeben und Bestellung abschicken.
NEUHEITEN-PAKET-AKTION Wähle 4 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 16 Alben für € 46,00 (Preis je CD € 11,50) 4-CD € 46,00
Der Titelpool:
BLU DP0612 The Del-Lords – Elvis Club
BLU DP0611 I See Hawks In L.A. – Mystery Drug
BLU DP0607 The Statesboro Revue – Ramble On Privilege Creek
BLU DP0606 Willie Nile – American Ride
BLU DP0603 The Dirty Guv’nahs – Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies
BLU DP0602 The Whipsaws – The Whipsaws
BLU DP0601 The Turnpike Troubadours – Goodbye Normal Street
BLU DP0600 Poco – All Fired Up
BLU DP0599 Shooter Jennings – The Other Life
BLU DP0598 Todd Thibaud – Waterfall
BLU DP0597 Elliott Murphy – It Takes A Worried Man
BLU CD0596 Uncle Lucius – And You Are Me
ROOTSY 064 Paal Flaata – Wait By The Fire: Songs Of Chip Taylor
RAPP 002 David Olney – Rootsy Approved: Predicting The Past
TW 047 Chip Taylor - Block Out The Sirens Of This Lonely World
KBR 005 Hellsingland Underground - Evil Will Prevail
NUGGETS-PAKET-AKTION Wähle 5 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 39 Alben für € 10,00 5-CD € 10,00
When WILLIE NILE recently sought help in underwriting his new album American Ride with a fundraising campaign on pledgemusic.com, his fans turned out in huge numbers, reaching his goal amount in a mere four days and ultimately exceeding it.
Anyone who's familiar with the New York-bred singer-songwriter's large and impressive body of work will have no trouble understanding why he commands such devotion and loyalty from his fan base. And anyone who's paid attention to his recent output knows that Nile is currently in the midst of a creative renaissance that's produced some of the most compelling music he's ever made.
The timeless qualities of melodic craft, lyrical insight and emotional engagement that have endeared Nile to listeners around the world are prominent on American Ride, which ranks among the most powerful and personally charged work of his three-and-a-half-decade recording career. "It's pretty rockin' overall, but there are some left turns and right turns along the way," Nile says of the album. "There are songs about the rights of man, songs about freedom, songs about love and hate, songs about loss, songs about God and the absence of God, and songs about standing up for your fellow man. It's upbeat and full of life. I'm thrilled with how it came out."
American Ride offers a bracing set of 11 original compositions, and one well-chosen cover, that rank with the catchiest and most vivid music that Nile's ever delivered. From the everyday wisdom of "Life on Bleecker Street" and "Sunrise in New York City" to the broader observations of "This Is Our Time" and "Holy War" to the rock 'n' roll abandon of "Say Hey" and the road-tripping title track, the album consistently lives up to the artist's reputation for writing songs that are as impassioned as they are infectious, and performing them with the fervor of a true believer. Several of American Ride's recurring themes come into focus on the last two songs, "The Crossing" and "There's No Place Like Home," which end the album on a note of humanistic uplift. Another highlight is a fiery reading of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died," recorded as a tribute to both Carroll, who passed away in 2009, and to Nile's late brother John.
American Ride features backup from Nile's live band - guitarist Matt Hogan, bassist Johnny Pisano, drummer Alex Alexander, and Nile on guitar and piano - along with guest appearances by Eagles/Rosanne Cash guitarist Steuart Smith and New York singer-songwriters James Maddock and Leslie Mendelson. Nile also worked with some notable songwriting collaborators, including Eric Bazilian of The Hooters, who co-wrote "God Laughs"; The Alarm's Mike Peters, who contributed to the title number; and Nile's frequent writing partner Frankie Lee, who co-wrote four tracks. The release was produced by the team of Grammy-winner Stewart Lerman (who has worked with Nile since the '90s), and Nile himself. Additional production by Pisano and Alexander.
Having launched his recording career at the height of the major-label era, and never comfortable with the baggage that comes along with being a major-label commodity, Nile has in recent years embraced the autonomy and freedom of his current indie status. To bring American Ride to fruition, he decided to take his case directly to the fans, financing the album's recording, manufacturing and promotion via the aforementioned pledgemusic.com campaign.
"The record business is completely changed from what it was when I started," he observes. "Artists can be independent now and make music on their own terms, and I love the freedom of that. I've been very fortunate in that fans and friends have been getting behind the work I've been doing, and it's amazing and heartening to get that kind of support."
Willie Nile's fans include Bruce Springsteen, with whom he's guested onstage on multiple occasions, and Pete Townshend, who personally requested him as the opening act on the Who's 1982 U.S. tour. Other avowed Nile admirers include Bono, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, Ian Hunter, Graham Parker, Jim Jarmusch, Adam Duritz, Little Steven and Lucinda Williams, who once remarked, "Willie Nile is a great artist. If there was any justice in this world, I'd be opening up for him instead of him for me."
Born into a large Irish Catholic family in Buffalo, N.Y., Willie began writing songs in his early teens. After graduating from the University at Buffalo with a B.A. in Philosophy, he moved to Manhattan's Greenwich Village. During his first winter there, he was sidelined by pneumonia. While spending nearly a year recuperating, he concentrated on honing his songwriting skills. After his recovery, Nile became a popular fixture in the Village's folk clubs, while drawing inspiration from the emerging downtown punk scene. His budding career received a major boost from a high-profile New York Times piece by legendary critic Robert Palmer, who called Nile "an exceptional talent" and "one of the most gifted singer-songwriters to emerge from the New York scene in years."
The local buzz stoked by the Times story led to a deal with Arista Records, for which Nile recorded Willie Nile and Golden Down, released in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Those albums won a sizable audience and generated reams of press raves, with one critic likening Nile to a "one-man Clash," and another calling his debut effort "one of the most thrilling post-Byrds folk-rock albums of all time." But his progress ground to a halt after legal disputes with his label caused Nile to walk away from the music business, beginning a recording hiatus that lasted for nearly a decade.
Although he continued to write new material, Nile maintained a discreet distance from the spotlight until 1991, when he reemerged with a new deal with Columbia Records and a new album, Places I Have Never Been, which restored the artist to prominence with fans and critics. The following year, he went the independent route with the four-song EP Hard Times in America. Willie Nile - Archive Alive, a vintage document of a 1980 performance in New York's Central Park, was released in 1997. In 1998, Nile lent his unmistakable voice to the all-star concept album Largo.
In 1999, Nile released Beautiful Wreck of the World, which marked the start of an exciting new chapter in his career, one in which he's wholeheartedly embraced his new indie status to create and distribute his music free from corporate agendas. His new approach yielded substantial results, with Beautiful Wreck of the World chosen as one of the year's Top Ten Albums by critics at Billboard, The Village Voice and Stereo Review. During this period, Nile substantially stepped up his touring activities in Europe, where he's since built a large and enthusiastic following.
The well-received Streets of New York, from 2006, ushered in the most productive and prolific period of Nile's musical life. The CD Live From the Turning Point and the DVD Live From the Streets of New York followed in 2007 and 2008, respectively, as did another widely celebrated new studio album, House of a Thousand Guitars, and 2011's The Innocent Ones, which won some of the most enthusiastic notices Nile's ever received.
The BBC called The Innocent Ones "stunning . . . THE rock 'n' roll album of the year," and Rolling Stone included it in its "Top Ten Best Under-the-Radar Albums of 2011." USA Today named the album's anthemic lead track "One Guitar" as the number-one song in the nation. It was also one of five songs chosen to be played on Occupy Wall Street's 1000-guitar march, alongside Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land."
"It's been a great time," Nile says of his recent activities. "I've been touring more in the last two years than in my entire career up until then. I'm in Europe four months a year and we've really built something solid over there. The fans are so great, so vocal, so supportive, and I'm deeply grateful to each and every one of them."
With American Ride now a reality thanks to his - and his fans' - efforts, Willie Nile is moving with the unmistakable momentum of a deeply accomplished artist who's just hitting his stride.
"People who've heard this album say it's as good a record as I've ever made, and I don't disagree," he states, adding, "I definitely think it's as good a collection of songs as I've put together. I'm still learning as I go, and it gets easier every time in. I still love what I do and I'm probably feeling more inspired now than I ever have. I really do feel like I'm just getting started."
American Ride will be released on June 21st as CD, LP and Download.
Psychedelic country rockers I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. announce the birth of a new CD, Mystery Drug, a gathering of their longtime musical tribe, with stellar guest contributions from California's finest roots country musicians.
New and old Hawks listeners will be struck by the chances taken in this latest phase of the Hawks journey - mixing serious country cred (members have played with Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, Hazel and Alice, and in every honky-tonk from Mississippi to Malibu) with wild lyricism and surreal story telling. Audra Schroeder of the Austin Chronicle calls the Hawks: "Americana, traversing the landscape of the Golden State like Didion on horseback. It's a divine fusion of humor and twang that's definitely high, but not that lonesome."
I See Hawks In L.A. were founded in 1999 by Minnesotan turned Echo Park dweller Rob Waller and Cal natives Paul and Anthony Lacques and have been named "the city's premier roots band" by the Los Angeles Times and "trance-inducing, the stories transfixing, the vibe completely Californian" by alt country bible No Depression.
Mystery Drug, the band's 7th release, cuts a wide swath of post-Gram Parsons California country music, with surreal musings on commerce as love ("My Local Merchants"), desert marriage rituals ("One Drop Of Human Blood"), and the vanishing of spirits and aquifers of the American west ("Sky Island"). Musical guests include pedal steelers Rick Shea (Dave Alvin, Wanda Jackson) and Pete Grant (Grateful Dead, The Dillards, Rodney Crowell). Honky tonk and cowpunk grooves, a Celtic musing on death and ancestry, three memorable love ballad, the signature Hawks harmonies, and lots of cosmic acousticism make Mystery Drug a complex and varied voyage, full of wit and surprises.
Hawks records have always mixed traditional bar room musings with tales rooted in geography: mating dances of whales; the life of Senator Byrd from West Virginia; a Humboldt pot grower's flight to Tibet; boom and bust in guitarist Lacques's Mojave desert homeland; wandering hippie caravans; the imminent collapse of suburban Houston. In 2002 the Hawks were decidedly ahead of the curve in condemning the Bush administration's drums of war.
Despite this out on a limb perch, I See Hawks In L.A. have been embraced by legends of contemporary country, requested as an opener by Lucinda Williams and Chris Hillman (who plays on '06's California Country), hitting the Americana Charts, #2 on XM radio's alt country, and three #1's on the Freeform American Roots Chart. They've toured the U.S. many times, and are returning to Europe/UK for the 4th time May 22-July 8.
You might catch the Hawks at outdoor Hempfest and Belladrum Fest, Scotland, Joe's Pub in NYC, Old Town School Of Folk Music in Chicago, House Of Blues and McCabes in L.A., or on the main stage at the Folk Alliance in Memphis. From acoustic folk to raging big stage country rock psychedelia, the Hawks cover it all.
"We didn't start with any agenda, other than to make a great record," Scott Kempner says of the DEL-LORDS' unexpected return to action following a two-decade layoff, which has yielded Elvis Club, the band's first new album since 1990.
Elvis Club finds the New York-bred foursome pretty much picking up where they left off, embodying the same musical swagger and true-believer passion that originally made them one of America's most compelling rock 'n' roll bands, while adding a new sense of experience and perspective that lends new depth to Kempner's personally-charged songwriting and the band's infectiously gritty urban garage-roots-rock.
In their original 1982-1990 lifespan, the Del-Lords helped to restore fans' faith in real rock 'n' roll at a time when real rock 'n' roll was in short supply. Over the course of four studio albums and countless sweat-soaked club sets, the band won widespread critical raves and earned the devotion of a large and loyal fan base around the world.
Now, with singer-guitarist Scott Kempner and fellow founding members Eric Ambel (guitar and vocals) and Frank Funaro (drums) joined by new bassist Michael DuClos, Elvis Club ups the ante with such indelible new Kempner compositions as "When the Drugs Kick In," "All of My Life," "Chicks, Man!" and "Letter (Unmailed)." Ambel, who in the '90s and '00s built up his frontman credentials as leader of Roscoe's Gang and member of roots-rock all-stars the Yayhoos, steps up to the mike to deliver persuasive lead vocals on a trio of tunes: "Me and the Lord Blues," "Flying" and Neil Young's "Southern Pacific."
"Elvis Club confirms to me what I always felt the band could do," says Ambel. "To me, it's a different kind of record for us, in that there isn't so much of a theme to it as a feel, a real band feel. I didn't really think of it as unfinished business; it was more like 'Here's what we can do now."
Kempner (who'd first made his mark as "Top Ten" of '70s punk pioneers the Dictators), Ambel (a founding member of Joan Jett's Blackhearts) and Funaro, along with original bassist Manny Caiati, first joined forces in the early '80s to help breathe life into downtown Manhattan's temporarily moribund live music scene, quickly winning local renown for the uncompromising intensity of their live sets. Between 1984 and 1990, the band released four studio albums - Frontier Days, Johnny Comes Marching Home, Based on a True Story, Lovers Who Wander - which documented the evolution of Kempner's provocative songwriting and the band's tightly wound instrumental rapport.
In the years since the Del-Lords hung up their spurs, the band's members have trod notable individual paths. Kempner emerged as an acclaimed solo artist with a pair of acclaimed solo albums, Tenement Angels and Saving Grace, played reunion gigs with the Dictators, and collaborated extensively with first-generation rock 'n' roll legend and fellow Bronx native Dion (who co-wrote the poignant Elvis Club track "Everyday" with Kempner). Ambel accumulated extensive credentials as a solo artist and member of the Yayhoos, as well as hired-gun guitar hero (for Steve Earle, among others), producer (for the Bottle Rockets, Nils Lofgren and countless others) and proprietor of the now-legendary East Village nightspot the Lakeside Lounge. Funaro continued to ply his percussive trade with Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, and joined forces with Kempner and Dion in the short-lived but fondly-remembered Little Kings. Meanwhile, the Del-Lords' reputation continued to expand in the band's absence, retaining a place in the hearts of longtime fans while resonating with new generations of listeners.
"Working with Eric as producer really opened up the musical palette," Kempner notes. "He was never at a loss for ideas, and he's quickly inside the music and hears everything from all angles. He can take ideas, including my own, digest the intent, and more often than not, come up with a tweaked version of the idea that's better than the one suggested. He also knows his way around the lunch options in the neighborhood, which is a crucial contribution, and has the best coffee of any studio I've ever worked in. On top of that," Kempner continues, "Eric's playing has really expanded. Other than 'Everyday,' he plays all the leads on the record. That in itself was a big sea change for us, but he kept coming up with ideas and I loved every one of them. The same was true with Frank; his playing has grown tall and strong, and busted a hole in our ceiling."
The band's reunion came about unexpectedly, after a Spanish promoter/superfan's offer to book a Del-Lords tour prompted the original quartet to reform for a string of live dates in Spain, as well as some low-key gigs at the Lakeside Lounge, for which the band was pseudonymously billed as "Elvis Club." Deciding that it would be nice to have some new material to play on stage, they worked up some new tunes, which they recorded for the limited-edition tour EP Under Construction. The musical results stoked the musicians' interest in continuing their rekindled collaboration on a longer-term basis. Although founding bassist Manny Caiati, now a family-law attorney working with at-risk children, was unable to continue his participation after the Spanish tour due to his other commitments, Kempner, Ambel and Funaro decided to forge ahead with an album of new material.
The making of Elvis Club - whose title is a reference to a favorite anecdote from the band's early days, in which a passing prostitute bestowed the eponymous sobriquet upon the then-pompadoured combo - was a substantially different experience from the band's prior recording projects. With Ambel producing the band for the first time, and the sessions taking place at his Brooklyn studio Cowboy Technical Services, the band was able to record on its own terms and in its own time.
"That was a big departure from every record we've made in the past," Ambel observes. "Playing with the guys felt effortless and natural, and it was fantastic to build this thing ourselves, from the ground up. We made the record we wanted to make, based on our own enjoyment. That's as good as it gets for me."
With no permanent fourth member at the time, the band began cutting tracks for Elvis Club with some notable guest bassists, namely ex-Suicide Commandos/Beat Rodeo vet Steve Almaas, Ambel's Yayhoos bandmate Keith Christopher, and Ron Sexsmith/Ani DiFranco sideman Jason Mercer. Eventually, it became clear that Michael "Duke" DuClos, who came on board in the latter stages of recording, was the man for the job.
"He just fit in instantly," Kempner says of DuClos, a seasoned vet whose extensive resume includes a stint playing alongside Funaro in Cracker. "A great guy, a great player, a total wise-ass, and the only man to have played with both Pete Townshend and Buddy Hackett!"
Now operating on their own terms and free from the music-biz politics that ruled artists' lives back in the day, the Del-Lords - older, wiser and more determined than ever - are now back to finish what they started.
"We're just going to get out there and take it to the people, as they say," Kempner asserts, adding, "We're doing this now for no other reason other than that we all want to, and that alone is a huge change. Back in the '80s, everything in our lives depended on it, and with that came a lot of pressure. But now, we have no obligations, and we're no longer on the hamster wheel of record/tour/record/tour etc. The future is wide open at this point. We will just keep pushing on, with no due dates and no deadlines, just making it up as we go along. I always knew how lucky I was to have a band this good that related to my songs, and this time that feeling was more pronounced than ever," Kempner concludes. "Now I can take a step back and just marvel at how great Eric and Frank, and now Duke, are. They are good enough to play with absolutely anyone, but they're still happy to play my songs. That really is an honor. But don't tell them that, because they'll want more money."
Elvis Club will be available through our webshop on June 1st, at good selected stores throughout Europe from mid June.
If we're honest, the true weight of any band or artist is chiefly determined by how they translate to us in a live performance setting. Can they breach that intangible border between the stage and the gathered onlookers? Can they slip in like a steady rising state of inebriation, stealing our attention, controlling our emotions and ultimately drawing us into their world? Does their energy continue to vibrate within us well after the last chords have been played and our daily life comes to reclaim us? These are probably some of the questions one writer from Rolling Stone Magazine had running through his head before he proclaimed The Statesboro Revue as one of the highlights of the 2009 South by Southwest Conference and Festival. The Statesboro Revue goes back to 2008, but the evolving vision of front man and primary songwriter Stewart Mann goes back much further. It's a journey down many roads from Texas to Tennessee to California and back, all in a search for that perfect, unspoiled place for his music to grow roots. Year after year in city after city, it became clear that those roots had taken hold on stage and from there grew into a groove oriented, old school rock and roll band, the likes of which have not been seen in quite some time.
Never being afraid to aim high, The Statesboro Revue released their debut album Different Kind Of Light, produced by Grammy Award-Winning David Z (Prince, Jonny Lang, Buddy Guy, Govt Mule), in 2008. Hitting the Texas Music Chart with two Top 20 singles, the blues rock effort quickly drew a dedicated fan base to their stages, but was just a prelude to the tour de force that is their brand new album Ramble On Privilege Creek. Described by Mann as earthier with catchier hooks, this new music is pure living energy that winds through light and lofty atmospheres down through the depths of sweet Celtic miseries and over to angry growls through clenched teeth…all without ever losing that gypsy pulsation that is the very definition of rock and roll. "This album is extremely broad in subject matter and style, in musicality and production, and I couldn't be happier about it. I've always strived to create a sound that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel; merely merge the little idiosyncrasies of all my influences and shape them in a manner that might someday be looked upon as my own unique sound. I think this record is as close as I have ever been to accomplishing that goal."
Reminiscent of singers from decades past, Stewart Mann's soulful voice is both evident and familiar. His seasoned timbre is well- worn, but polished enough to have landed him the starring role in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story that opened at the historic Cameo Theatre in San Antonio, Texas last year. Joining Stewart is younger brother Garrett Mann, the lead guitar player who holds down the fort then lets loose when the song calls for it. On bass guitar is Musicians Institute alumnus Ben Bradshaw, providing backbone and foundation, all while mixing in melodic leads and runs that only a player of his experience can muster. Drummer Luke Ayer's ability to both drive the tunes and lay down a lazy snare for the slow groove furthers the dancing frenzy that ensues at a Statesboro Revue show. The all-star list of shared stages more than hints that this all-inclusive working band is truly worth their weight. The Statesboro Revue has played with the Los Lonely Boys, The Wailers, the Allman Brothers Band, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Whiskey Myers, Dirty River Boys, Willie Nelson, Charlie Robison, Ryan Bingham, Reckless Kelly, Turnpike Troubadours, Randy Rogers Band, Bob Schneider, War, Arrested Development, Eli Young Band, Marshall Tucker Band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Will Hoge.
CHIP TAYLOR follows his string of critically acclaimed albums with Block Out The Sirens of This Lonely World, an astonishing album of moody, sometimes foreboding, songs that find dark clouds everywhere but a few silver linings as well.
After making records for more than 50 years, this album is truly different for Taylor than all of his earlier ones. The songs were born out of a somewhat dark period for Taylor following the 2011 Norway massacre. Taylor was in the country at the time preparing to play at a festival. In the wake of the killings, he instead wrote and performed a new song, »This Darkest Day«, at a benefit in honor of the victims. The experience led to some of the most somber and serious songs of his long illustrious career. And for the first time since he was a teenager, Taylor allowed someone else - Goran Grini - to guide the project.
One listen to Block Out the Sirens and you will hear and feel the thread that joins the entire album - the struggle and stress that people endure in their confusing lives and relationships. These songs find Taylor reflecting on his own problems and those of the people he knows - many through his travels all over the world playing music. Despite the often bleak subject matter, there is a strong undercurrent of hope that runs through the album as Taylor finds solace in the simple and basic connections between people.
The lead producer of Block Out The Sirens, Goran Grini, is largely responsible for the remarkable passionate feeling of the album. Grini, a keyboard player from Norway, had previously joined Chip's band, The New Ukrainians (who are actually mostly Swedish), on Taylor's last album, F**k All The Perfect People. Following that project, Grini produced an album for Norway's top folk singer, Paal Flaata, which was a collection of Taylor compositions (both old and new). Wait By The Fire was released to critical and popular acclaim last year, hitting the top 10 in Norway and receiving a Grammy nomination.
When Grini heard the guitar-voice demos of Chip's new songs at the Flow Festival in Helsinki in August of 2012 with Taylor’s blessings, he enthusiastically began shaping the mood and direction of the album. He and Taylor wanted to keep the spare and direct feeling of the demo versions and Grini was able to incorporate both orchestration (for the first time on a Taylor album since Gasoline in 1971) and the New Ukrainians without sacrificing the raw power at the heart of the songs and Taylor's gritty vocals.
The New York Times says it best about Chip Taylor. “If you only know him as the as the guy who wrote ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘Angel of the Morning” — you don’t know him! Chip Taylor is making some of the most distinctive acoustic music around today.” Americana star performer/producer Buddy Miller last year said »Chip Taylor could've rested on his laurels years ago and still been way ahead of everybody else today. Lucky for us he didn't and he's making some of the most relevant music out there.« With Block Out The Sirens Of This Lonely World Taylor raises the bar again and his amazing comeback streak remains unbroken.
A brief tour with The New Ukrainians days before the making of Block Out The Sirens found Chip in the mood to knock out several new fun band songs. Loosely recorded on the final day of the tracking sessions, they are included on a special bonus disc with the album titled Is That The Final Take?
Shinin' Live - " It doesn't get much more alive than this" - the announcer was spot on! Only having been there in person could be better than this blistering dvd/cd package by STACIE COLLINS & her band taken from their soulful appearance in October 2012 at the legendary Bootlegger's Bar in Kendal/North West England. This powerful woman from Nashville, TN has released three studio albums between 2000 and 2010, the last one Sometimes Ya Gotta... being her Blue Rose debut. However, Stacie Collins on record and Stacie Collins live are two very different kettle of rock'n'roll fish. The extensive presentation on Shinin' Live shows clearly what a powerful, intense musician and entertainer she is, with deep roots in American roots & blues rock.
Even as a teenager, Stacie dreamed of becoming a singer but only after marrying pro musician Al Collins (bassist for Jason & The Scorchers) did her career gather steam. She learned to write songs, sing with confidence and play the blues harp. Her eponymous debut showed considerable promise in 2000. At the time, the couple still lived in Cleveland, Ohio and Stacie's music was very country-oriented in the style of Emmylou Harris or Kelly Willis. This changed drastically after their move to Nashville, TN. When Southern roots rock with a heavy dosage of blues, boogie, rock'n'roll and country rock became her main playing field - the dirty raw side of Americana, if you will. Her second album The Lucky Spot from 2007 showed her development into a rockin' lady shouter with sharp harmonica skills - moreover, her songwriting with her husband was significantly improved and more varied. A major factor in her development and her new rough & rowdy sound is the couple's friendship with Dan Baird, ex-Georgia Satellites & Yayhoos, producer for Chris Knight, Blue Mountain, Will Hoge and Jason & The Scorchers. Through the Scorchers connection he became friendly with the Collinses and produced The Lucky Spot as well as Sometimes Ya Gotta... which was released in late 2010 on Blue Rose. With her third album Stacie Collins - already a successful artist in the States - managed to win over European audiences.
Speaking of Europe - in 2012 alone she and her band crossed the Atlantic four times to play more than 80 shows in eleven different countries. And in the fall the time had finally come. Two shows in one of her favorite venues, the venerable Bootleggers Bar in Kendal in northwest England, on October 20 & 21 were filmed and recorded and are now available in the great DVD/CD package Shinin' Live. It's the first live release of this passionate and authentic performer. Stacie Collins and The Al-Mighty Three are pulling out all of the stops and then some. And that's how we come to be witnesses to this extraordinary, loud, bad-ass live show that captivates and moves the audience in a major way. To quote the album sticker: This is is first-rate "southern rockin', harp howlin', twang bangin' rock'n'roll".
On the CD's and DVD's 15 tracks Stacie Collins sings, growls and howls for 80 minutes like a woman possessed, works her blues harp harder than many crack players and leaves the Al-Mighty Three plenty of room to shine. Husband Al Collins is an extroverted, always moving bassist, often joining in on vocals and sometimes using his instrument as a rhythm guitar. He and young drummer Brad Cummings make for a great team in the engine room, keeping the motor running. Guitarist Jason Graumlich contributes his considerable skills on lead, slide and rhythm guitar, rounding out the band perfectly. Together they play mostly original Collins/Collins material from their last two albums plus a few choice covers from within and without the greater rock & blues world.
The show opens with the cracking opener "Baby Sister" and a rough version of Wllie Dixon's "I Don't Care Who Knows". From the rolling honky tonk of "Ramblin'" and "I Won't Do You Like That" which is undecided whether it wants to sound more like the Stones, the Faces or the Black Crowes the show moves to the electrifying "Hey Mister" and the slow blues of "Get In Line" which Stacie Cllins presents a a seductie blues vamp. "If You Wanna Get To Heaven", an Ozark Mountain Daredevils cult classic from the 70s, is sung with a lot of heart by Al Collins and finds the band jamming for more than six minutes. "Carry My Away" is clearly country-influenced as is the hymn-like "It Hurts To Breathe" on which Jason Graumlich shines on guitar. He also picks a mean twang guitar and acts as Stacie's duet partner on the Gram & Emmy number "Ooh Las Vegas". "Don't Doubt Me Now" is a mean straight & dirty rocker with British cult guitarist Paul Guerin (Quireboys, Bap Kennedy) guesting. Calvin Carter's "I Aint Got You" provides the backdrop for one of Stacie Collins' legendary harp-playing, 5-minute-long dancing walks through the audience, atop the bar and back to the stage. Needless to say, it's a spectacle to behold! In closing the boogie stomp of "Show Your Mama" segues into a 9-plus-minute-jam on the Stones' "Jumpin' Jack Flash". On the CD you'll get one more song for a spectacular finish, AC/DC's "It's A Long Way To The Top" (but you'll be missing "Ooh Las Vegas" which is exclusive on the DVD).
Shinin' Live is now available at our mailorder as DVD+CD, 2-LP+CD+DVD (Personal Vinyl Edition) and at regular stores as DVD+CD and download (CD only) soon.
Here it is again, the classic sales campaign by all means - PACKAGES with almost 100 Blue Rose CDs, stacked in three different value packages - regular price. midprice and budget price (offers valid through May 31, 2013)!
REGULAR PRICE PACKAGE:
Select 5 CDs from a pool of 41 albums for € 45,00
MIDPRICE PACKAGE:
Wähle 5 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 26 Alben für € 25,00
BUDGET PACKAGE:
Wähle 5 CDs aus einem Titelpool von 36 Alben für € 10,00
The number per album in a package is limited to 3 copies.
These prices are only valid for the CD PACKAGES, for single orders the regular price is valid. One package will be handled like 1 item, shipping costs are depending on the quantity. Check the shopping cart for shipping costs once all items are in the shopping cart. Shipping costs outside of Germany may be higher than it appears in the shopping cart. We'll inform about higher postage before order will be sent. It's possible to order more packages with an order.
Please select the albums in the pool with "strg+c" and put the items in the white comments field ("strg+v") which appears during the ordering process.
REGULAR PRICE PACKAGE Select 5 CDs from a pool of 41 albums for € 45,00 5-CD € 45,00
The pool:
(BLU DP0595) Jenn Grant - The Beautiful Wild
(BLU DP0594) Whitehorse - The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss
(BLU DP0593) Amelia Curran - Spectators
(BLU DP0592) Markus Rill - My Rocket Ship
(BLU DP0591) The Departed - Adventus
(BLU DP0589) Wheeler Brothers - Portraits
(BLU DP0588) Tom Gillam - Good For You
(BLU CD0587) Ad Vanderveen - Driven By A Dream
(BLU DP0586) American Aquarium - Burn.Flicker.Die.
(BLU DP0583) Jim Cuddy - Skyscraper Soul
(BLU DP0582) Skydiggers - Northern Shore
(BLU DP0581) Skydiggers - The Truth About Us: A 20 Year Retrospective (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0579) Plainsong - Fat Lady Singing
(BLU DP0578) Jon Dee Graham - Garage Sale
(BLU DP0577) Paul Thorn - What The Hell Is Goin On?
(BLU DP0576) The dB's - Falling Off The Sky
(BLU DP0575) Shurman - Inspiration (2-CD)
(BLU DP0572) The Refugees - Three
(BLU DP0571) Wrinkle Neck Mules - Apprentice To Ghosts
(BLU DP0570) The Band Of Heathens - The Double Down/Live In Denver Vol. 2 (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0569) The Band Of Heathens - The Double Down/Live In Denver Vol. 1 (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0568) I See Hawks In L.A. - New Kind Of Lonely
(BLU DP0567) Sons Of Bill - Sirens
(BLU DP0566) Ruthie Foster - Let It Burn
(BLU DP0565) Tom Gillam - Rustic Beauty
(BLU CD0564) Colin Brooks - Blood And Water
(BLU DP0563) Leeroy Stagger & His Band - Radiant Land
(BLU DP0561) Rich Hopkins & Luminarios - Buried Treasures (2-CD)
(BLU DP0560) Israel Nash Gripka - 2011 Barn Doors Spring Tour, Live in Holland (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0559) Israel Nash Gripka - Barn Doors And Concrete Floors
(BLU DP0558) Hank Shizzoe - Live At The Blue Rose Christmas Party 2010
(BLU DP0557) Carolyn Wonderland - Peace Meal
(BLU DP0556) Deadman - Take Up Your Mat And Walk
(BLU DP0555) Deadman - Live At The Saxon Pub
(BLU DP0554) Micky & The Motorcars - Raise My Glass
(BLU DP0550) Rich Hopkins & Luminarios - Live At The Rockpalast Crossroads Festival (2-CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0549) Stephen Simmons - The Big Show
(BLU DP0543) Todd Thibaud - Live At The Rockpalast Crossroads Festival (2-CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0540) The Band Of Heathens - Top Hat Crown & The Clapmaster's Son
(BLU DP0538) Owen Temple - Mountain Home
(BLU DP0503) Cracker - Live At The Crossroads/Rockpalast Festival (2CD+DVD)
MIDPRICE PACKAGE Select 5 CDs from a pool of 24 albums for € 25,00 5-CD € 25,00
The pool:
(BLU DP0584) Lincoln Durham - The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones
(BLU CD0562) Drew Landry - Sharecropper's Whine
(BLU DP0553) Westwood - After All This Time
(BLU DP0548) Cody Canada & The Departed - This Is Indian Land
(BLU DP0547) US Rails - Southern Canon
(BLU DP0546) Parsons Thibaud - Transcontinental Voices
(BLU DP0545) The Silos - Florizona
(BLU DP0539) Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Here We Rest
(BLU DP0537) The Baseball Project - Vol 2: High And Inside
(BLU DP0536) Ad Vanderveen - Days Of The Greats
(BLU CD0535) Ben Arnold - Simplify
(BLU CD0534) David Lowery - The Palace Guards
(BLU DP0532) Markus Rill - Wild, Blue And True
(BLU DP0531) Greg Trooper - Upside-Down Town
(BLU DP0529) Paul Thorn - Pimps And Preachers (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0527) Cindy Bullens - Howling Trains And Barking Dogs
(BLU DP0524) Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 - Northern Aggression
(BLU CD0523) Elliott Murphy - Elliott Murphy
(BLU DP0522) Stacie Collins - Sometimes Ya Gotta...
(BLU DP0501) Joseph Parsons - Slaughterhouse Live (CD+DVD)
(BLU DP0497) Elliott Murphy - Alive In Paris (DVD+CD)
(BLU DP0477) The Resentments - Roselight
(BLU CD0464) Joseph Parsons - Heavens Above
(BLU DP0448) Ad Vanderveen - Still Now (2CD)
BUDGET PACKAGE Select 5 CDs from an album pool for € 10,00 5-CD € 10,00
The pool:
(BLU DP0528) Paul Thorn - Pimps And Preachers
(BLU CD0526) Statesboro Revue - Different Kind Of Light
(BLU CD0521) Chris Brecht - Dead Flower Motel
(BLU DP0520) Leeroy Stagger - Little Victories
(BLU CD0519) Tom Gillam - Better Than The Rest - An Anthology
(BLU DP0518) The Dustin Bentall Outfit - Six Shooter
(BLU DP0517) Austin Collins - Wrong Control
(BLU DP0514) Susan Cowsill - Lighthouse
(BLU DP0512) US Rails - US Rails
(BLU DP0509) Hank Shizzoe - Breather
(BLU DP0508) Jason & The Scorchers - Halcyon Times
(BLU CD0507) Rainravens - Rattle These Walls (CD+DVD)
(BLU CD0506) Sons Of Bill - One Town Away
(BLU DP0502) Jon Dee Graham - It's Not As Bad As It Looks
(BLU DP0499) Tom Gillam - Had Enough?
(BLU CD0494) Chris Cacavas - Love's Been Discontinued
(BLU DP0484) Leeroy Stagger - Everything Is Real
(BLU DP0476) Tom Gillam & Tractor Pull - Play Loud...Dig Deep
(BLU CD0453) Jordan Zevon - Insides Out
(BLU DP0451) The Baseball Project - Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails
(BLU DP0440) Parsons Thibaud - Parsons Thibaud
(BLU CD0436) Any Trouble - Live In Reverse
(BLU DP0433) Greyhound Soul - Tonight And Every Night
(BLU DP0425) Hank Shizzoe & The Directors - Headlines
(BLU CD0417) Danny & Dusty - Cast Iron Soul
(BLU CD0403) Rainravens - Garden Rocket
(BLU DP0399) Michael Hall - The Song He Was Listening To When He Died
(BLU DP0391) Jon Dee Graham - Full
(BLU DP0389) The Silos - Come On Like The Fast Lane
(BLU CD0300) Steve Wynn & Miracle 3 - Static Transmission
Let's kick off with "Season 6" and another twelve issues of the Blue Rose mailorder-only CD series Blue Rose Nuggets. Two significant changes with the previous seasons: Wir changed the packaging from a plastic jewel case to a thin slipcase and we have reduced the pressing quantity to give the series a more "Collector's Item" kind of touch. "Reduced" means the editions will be sold out usually within three months after it's original release.
The first issue of "Season 6" features songs from the latest Blue Rose releases as well as tracks from upcoming albums. There is not only a video included from Shooter Jennings this time, the icing on the cake are two brand new tunes by Sons Of Bill which are only available on a 7" single, exclusively available on CD on this Nuggets compilation!
For those of you who are not familiar with this special series: You can either buy it for just 5 Euros OR you'll get it for FREE if your order at our online mailorder includes 4 items or more - no matter how much the total amount of your order is.
Tracklist:
1. POCO - All Fired Up / aus dem Album All Fired Up
2. SHOOTER JENNINGS - The Low Road / aus dem Album The Other Life
3. THE STATESBORO REVUE - Fade My Shade Of Black / aus dem Album Ramble On Privilege Creek (erscheint im Juni 2013)
4. TODD THIBAUD - Waterfall / aus dem Album Waterfall
5. THE DIRTY GUV'NAHS - Temptation / aus dem Album Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies
6. THE RESENTMENTS - Space Between / aus dem Album Ghost Ship (erscheint im Juli 2013)
7. US RAILS - Follow The Lights / aus dem Album Heartbreak Superstar
8. THE DEL-LORDS - When The Drugs Kick In / aus dem Album Elvis Club (erscheint im Juni 2013)
9. STACIE COLLINS - On Top Of That Mountain / aus dem Album Shinin' Live
10. I SEE HAWKS IN L.A. - The Beauty Of The Better States / aus dem Album Mystery Drug
11. WILLIE NILE - American Ride / aus dem Album American Ride (erscheint im Juni 2013)
12. TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS - Good Lord Lorrie / aus dem Album Goodbye Normal Street
13. THE WHIPSAWS - Wait It Out / aus dem Album The Whipsaws (erscheint im Juni 2013)
14. SONS OF BILL - Bad Dancer / nur als 7"-Single erhältlich (exlusiver CD-Release)
15. SONS OF BILL - Higher Than Mine / nur als 7"-Single erhältlich (exlusiver CD-Release)
16. SHOOTER JENNINGS - The Other Life (Video) / aus dem Album The Other Life
US RAILS is a band that can be best described in one word…HARMONY.
Echoing the great multi-singer-songwriter collaborative bands of the last four decades, US Rails makes music in that time-honored tradition. With an emphasis on live performance, their line-up is a classic, straightforward, rock band format of acoustic & electric guitars, bass, drums and piano. Each musician contributing stellar songs and a skillful ease instrumentally, all in support of the main attraction: five part vocal HARMONY. A rarity in the age of loops, auto-tune and samples, US Rails is fusing some of the best eras in popular music.
With the release of their third studio album Heartbreak Superstar, the band finds itself a stronger, more bonded collective than ever. These 13 brand new songs feature the US Rails melding their stylistic differences into one solid new, yet familiar sound.
Heartbreak Superstar is next in line in what has proven to be a rather vast catalogue of recordings since their original US Rails self-titled release debuted in 2009. Since then, the band has released the well received Southern Canon (2012), Europe Live 2012 DVD as well as an all acoustic re-working of some of their best songs on last years Wire and Wood.
What is unique (and sometimes challenging) about US Rails is that all members continue to individually nourish thriving solo careers. What is special is that which is hunted, scavenged and experienced is brought back into US Rails' musical fabric. Both geographically as well as stylistically, US Rails merge a gamut of influences in a very natural cross-pollination. While they all share and retain deep Philadelphia (U.S.) area musical roots, their current distance has not interfered with their musical energy or strong friendships.
The voices of US Rails Ben Arnold o Bluesy and soulful growl Scott Bricklin o Passionate pop Tom Gillam o Kick and shout tenor Matt Muir o High indie rock falsetto Joseph Parsons o Emotive baritone
As on every US Rails record, each member is showcased track by track on Heartbreak Superstar. Their individual "sound", both vocally and instrumentally rise to the top of a rich and rustic stew. But the magic really happens when these five voices come together to create a unified sound considered "one of the most oddly beautiful blends in recent rock history." Although one could find many more adjectives and comparisons to "collectives" past to describe and contrast the sound of US Rails, the fact remains; theirs is the unique and beautiful result of years of experiences, the ultimate in artistic collaboration and a truly united vision totally unto itself. US Rails has elevated this even further on this sprawling new record.
Live on stage, the band may take broader strokes but welcomes the challenge of a totally different atmosphere. Delivering equally elegant, quiet and spacious moments as well as ferocious rocking highs ensure the audience is along for a dynamic and enthralling night of original, inspired and honest music. It is during these shows when it is not only the band, but the listener too who is in HARMONY with US Rails!
Heartbreak Superstar will be out europewide on May 17 (release date may vary in European countries), available through the Blue Rose webshop from May 1st.
“Youth may be in their blood, but tradition guides their instincts”, reveals M! Music and Musician’s Magazine. “The DIRTY GUV'NAHS are wise in the ways of rock n’ roll beyond their tender years”. The swell of grassroots momentum for this 6-piece rock n’ roll collective from Knoxville, TN is undeniable. “The Guvs” have been steadily growing their fan base across the country, selling out shows in theatres and bars alike, and making standout festival appearances at Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, and SXSW, to name a few. The band has also shared the stage with a diverse and notable list of major artists, including Wilco, Zac Brown Band, Levon Helm Band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Train, Dr. Dog, and Chris Robinson.
After two independent releases and relentless touring, The Dirty Guv’nahs’ new album, Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies raises the bar significantly for this explosive ensemble. Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies was recorded in Nashville, TN with producer Ross Copperman and Grammy winning engineer Richie Biggs (The Civil Wars).
Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies marks another successful milestone for The Guvs, showcasing an energetic blend of rock and soul interwoven with a distinctive modern edge. The result is a joyous 14-track offering that combines honest, heartfelt lyrics with gritty and passionate musicianship. Standout tracks “3,000 Miles”, “Don’t Give Up on Me”, and “Temptation” exemplify the band’s keen ability to effectively infuse traditional rock sounds with contemporary relevancy. Upbeat foot-stompers like “Good Luck Charm” and “Can You Feel It” conjure the familiar American rock feel that The Dirty Guv’nahs began fashioning on their 2010 Release Youth Is In Our Blood.
The Dirty Guv’nahs’ unlikely genesis took place when band members were introduced through a mutual friend, nicknamed “The Guv’nah”, who eventually became the band’s namesake. Their following grew quickly and after a string of sellout shows in their hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, they were offered their first performance slot at Bonnaroo. That concert led to a recording opportunity in December of 2009 at roots-rock mecca Levon Helm Studios, and the band hasn’t looked back since.
The Dirty Guv’nahs’ live show is led by the soulful holler of frenetic front man James Trimble. Brothers Justin and Aaron Hoskins’ lay down a sturdy foundation of tight rhythms on bass and drums (respectively), while Chris Doody’s thick Hammond organ and bluesy piano along with Michael Jenkins’ and Cozmo Holloway’s tasty guitar stylings round out the group’s sound. The result is accurately described by a recent review in Music Connection Magazine: “The Dirty Guv’nahs don’t just play music; they capture the human experience through song.”
Relix Magazine was so impressed with The Guv’s live show; they recently made the group one of their “On the Verge” artists for March 2012. Upon witnessing the band’s blue-collar approach, they commented, “Musicians today that don’t want to connect with their fans are just missing the whole point. The Dirty Guv’nahs are grassroots all the way.” The Guvs grassroots success story received its most recent validation when the band funded their new album entirely through Kickstarter donations from fans. The band raised 100% of their target funding in 3 days, prompting recognition of the Guv’nahs campaign in Billboard Magazine, and went to work creating an album that is sure to stir the hearts and shuffle the feet of their organic fan base. Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies is a riveting collection of songs for a new generation of listeners starving for a fresh and authentic rock n’ roll music experience.
THE DREAM SYNDICATE was an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, active from 1981 to 1989. The band was associated with the Paisley Underground music movement. The original line-up was Steve Wynn (vocals, guitar), Kendra Smith (bass), Karl Precoda (guitar) and Dennis Duck (drums).
The band's debut record was a four-song EP, recorded at the home of Tom Mehren in Pasadena with Paul B. Cutler engineering and producing and released in 1982 on Wynn's Down There label.
The band quickly achieved local attention for its often aggressively long, feedback-soaked improvisations. Obvious sources were The Velvet Underground (The Dream Syndicate could be called early VU revivalists) and Television, but echoes of the Quicksilver Messenger Service and Creedence Clearwater Revival could also be discerned.
The band's debut 4-song-EP was previously available on vinyl-LP and CD and is deleted since many years. Blue Rose now is releasing a remastered edition as a never before available double 7" set in a gatefold sleeve with new liner notes by Steve Wynn. The two singles feature the songs "Sure Thing", "That's What You Always Say", "When You Smile" and "Some Kinda Itch".
The set is limited to 1,000 copies.
Steve Wynn about the recording: "We were making a demo tape. I mean, that's what you did to get gig. And we were a new band who wanted to play gigs. Did I mention we were a new band? The first time that Karl, Kendra, Dennis and I had played together had only been 3 weeks before we stepped into Tom Mehren's home studio in Pasadena. I sang in the kitchen. The band played in the living room. You might notice that I actually cut off the last "itch" from "Some Kinda Itch" because I had to step out of the kitchen to cue the ending to the band in the other room. Dennis' pal Paul B. Cutler, who I already knew quite well as the phenomenal guitarist in 45 Grave, was brought in to engineer since we knew that he knew how to get sounds and run a board (and he replaced Karl on guitar just 3 years later). We recorded all of the songs completely live in one afternoon. Hardly the stuff of legend but we were so excited by what we had done that we decided to put out our demo tape as an actual record. I mean, why not? We liked and thought it only made sense that others might as well. As it turns out the record caught fire and within weeks of its April Fools Day release in 1982, we were headlining every club in LA and getting reviewed worldwide for that very demo tape that we knocked out in an afternoon. And you know what? None of us were surprised. We knew then, just as I can hear now when I listen to this record, that we had done something special. We got the gigs. And a lot more."
The Dream Syndicate will be doing a string of live shows in Europe in May and June, 2013. The line-up features original members Steve Wynn (vocals, guitar) and Dennis Duck (drums) plus longtime DS bass player Mark Walton and Miracle 3 guitar wizard Jason Victor.
The 12 track set is the anticipated follow up to 2011’s Grammy Award nominated album I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive and is the first billed as “Steve Earle & The Dukes (And Duchesses).” The album is also the first to feature “The Dukes” band name since 1987’s Exit 0. The Low Highway features his live band consisting of Chris Masterson, Eleanor Whitmore, Kelley Looney, Will Rigby and Allison Moorer and was co-produced by Earle and Ray Kennedy (whose production partnership known as the “Twangtrust” was behind Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road).
The Low Highway is Earle’s 15th studio album since the release of his highly influential 1986 debut Guitar Town. The album track “Calico County” from The Low Highway is streaming now at RollingStone.com.
Between the opening title track and the reflective closing of “Remember Me", The Low Highway is very much Steve Earle’s road record, and one that has seen many miles.
Earle states in the album liner notes, “I’ve been on every interstate highway in the lower forty-eight states by now and I never get tired of the view. I’ve seen a pretty good chunk of the world and my well-worn passport is one of my most prized possessions, but for me, there’s still nothing like the first night of a North American tour; everybody, band and crew, crowded up in the front lounge, eating Nashville hot chicken and Betty Herbert’s homemade pimento cheese, swapping the same tired old war stories half shouted over the rattle and hum of the highway. And I’m always the last one to holler good night to Charlie Quick, the driver, and climb in my bunk because to me it feels like Christmas Eve long ago when I still believed in Santa Claus. God I love this.”
The Low Highway also features “Love’s Gonna Blow My Way” and “After Mardi Gras,” two songs Earle co-wrote with Lucia Micarelli, his co-star in David Simon’s original HBO Series Treme. Earle played a recurring character, Harley, a street musician who mentored Micarelli’s character Annie during the first two seasons. The songs were written specifically for the series and an additional song written by Earle for Treme, “That All You Got?” was performed by Micarelli’s character with the Red Stick Ramblers during the third season premiere.
All three songs are included on the new album and appear in recorded form for the first time here. Earle’s previous composition written for the series, “This City,” garnered both Grammy and Emmy Award nominations in 2010.
Blue Rose Records proudly announces the release of All Fired Up, the first studio effort since 2002 of one the most influential and popular country rock bands of all time - POCO!
For 45 years, Poco has been making music in the realm of the classic country rock sound that they helped found in the late '60's, one that inspired other acts to follow suit - bands such as The Eagles, Firefall, The Little River Band and Pure Prairie League. But to persist across six decades, you need to have a rabid fan base that considers your music to be a soundtrack to their lives, or continue to evolve and refine your sound while staying true to your roots. Poco does both and it's why their new studio album - their first in eleven years - All Fired Up, is a celebration of longevity and unparalleled songwriting.
Still led by singer and songwriter Rusty Young, the addition of two more excellent songwriters in bassist Jack Sundrud and keyboardist Michael Webb as well as drummer George Lawrence over the past decade, helped to re-shape Poco for another generation. "The music has evolved over the years," said Young. "Different band members bring different voices to the sound and in many ways keep the music fresh. History shows that Poco has always had great musicians in the band and it's no different today. We're growing musically, challenging ourselves and moving ahead to create the best music we've ever made."
All Fired Up, which was self-produced and recorded at several studios including Sixteen Tons in Nashville, the home studios of Sundrud and Webb, Wildwood Lodge in Missouri and Sound Emporium in Nashville, shows a band that has no problem celebrating its storied past while enjoying every minute of the present. And Young explains the diversity of the material that also manages to stay cohesive.
"Most of the songs were written in the last year or so," he says. "It took me two years to get 'Regret' to the point I was happy with it and 'A Little Rain' is a song we've been doing in concert for the last three years. Jack's 'Hard Country' is a concert favorite we've been playing for a number of years too. The title track was a song that was written just for the CD. We wanted to give a nod to the classic Poco sound that everyone loves from the early days and we think 'All Fired Up' nails it. Michael (Webb) has Bobby Keys playing sax on one of his songs, 'That's What Rock 'n Roll Will Do,' which is very cool. Jack's 'Hard Country' is destined to be a Poco classic. I'm especially excited about a song called 'Rockin' Horse' for a couple of reasons. I think it's unlike anything I've written before, and Poco IS a Rockin' horse!"
There is also the tongue-in-cheek 'Neil Young', which talks about Rusty not being Neil's brother. "I don't think Neil has heard it yet," Young joked. "I would hope he'd get a kick out of it and I wonder how many times people have asked him about his brother Rusty." Young is also celebrating his induction into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis alongside other steel players that helped influence him. In addition, Young is in Guitar Player Magazine's "Gallery of Greats" along with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn. In addition Poco boasts a Grammy nomination for 'Instrumental of the Year' and fans can find the band's memorabilia on display at the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Poco, which has never stopped touring over the years despite lineup changes, will tour a bit more vigorously in support of All Fired Up. "We're anxious to show everyone that we're excited about the future for Poco and we're fired up and ready to go," said Young. "We're hoping to reintroduce Poco to the fans that may have drifted away over the years, and to remind them of why they were fans in the first place. And it would of course be great if the CD captures new fans. We're always trying to attract new Poconuts."
Of course, it's inevitable that the longer a band stays together, the more it often has to change in order to adapt and stick around-and also has to love what they do. That's the takeaway from a poignant narrative written by Lawrence for the album. "There is nomanual for a 45 year old rock band," he said.
"Long time Poco fans will find plenty of nods to the earlier sound, while new-found fans will hear the new energy and direction," said Sundrud. "All Fired Up is aptly titled, relevant to the band's musical roots and blazing a new trail into the future. The songs are rocking, thought-provoking, fun and most of all, pure Poco."
Pioneers of the country-rock sound that soared out of California in the late sixties and early seventies, Poco was founded by Richie Furay, Jim Messina, and Rusty Young, a trio whose lifetime musical journey began while working on the Buffalo Springfield's final album, The Last Time Around. With the addition of George Grantham and Randy Meisner, the initial Poco lineup was set. Renowned music critic Robert Hilburn of The Los Angeles Times proclaimed the band as "the next big thing", and Rolling Stone went so far as to call them "a country-tuned Derek and The Dominos," giving the band's 1969 debut, Pickin' Up The Pieces, a perfect rating. After that, the band went through several personnel changes including the departure of Jim Messina and Richie Furay, as well as when bassist Randy Meisner left to join The Eagles.
Poco went on to chart several times with hits like 'Crazy Love' and 'Heart of the Night' (both from the critically acclaimed Legend album), as well as 'Rose of Cimarron', 'Good Feeling To Know' and 'You'd Better Think Twice'. In 1989, the band brought back Messina, Furay and Meisner to record Legacy, which spawned a few more of the band's Top 40 hits, 'Call It Love' and 'Nothing To Hide'. Poco's new milennium releases - 2002's Running Horse, 2005's Bareback At Big Sky, the 2004 live CD/DVD Keeping The Legend Alive and now 2013's All Fired Up - are among the best of their career. With 45 years, more than 25 albums and thousands of fans behind them, Poco was, is and forever will be the defining voice of country/rock.
All Fired Up will be out europewide on April 12 (release date may vary in European countries), available through the Blue Rose webshop from April 1st.
When SHOOTER JENNINGS named his new album The Other Life, he didn't mean to entice fans with songs about a secret life they know nothing about. Instead, Shooter, the son of Jessi Colter and the late Waylon Jennings, says the songs cover aspects of his darker side.
"Five of these songs were recorded when we were doing Family Man (Shooter's last album), and when we were deciding what to do with it we broke it up into two records. The Other Life is representative of the other side of the coin from Family Man and the way my life has been going in a lot of ways," Shooter says. "The song represented the overall theme of the record. At first we were going to call it The Outsider, but once we got into the film we thought, 'Well, it's like a mirror, a dark mirror of what Family Man was.' The record deals with the darker side, while Family Man was pretty positive. Not that The Other Side is negative, but it's a more realistic representation of the other side of me. I'm 33, figuring life out, and there is a lot of light and dark going back and forth. This record encapsulates that, accepting oneself and the helter-skelter of life."
The film Shooter is referring to is a 32-minute movie, utilizing six of the songs from the album. Working with Blake Judd and R.D. Hall, Shooter's film is about a man saying goodbye to his family and hitting the road. When he does, he finds the road is not the same, and he becomes haunted by a mysterious woman who is more than what she seems. The man is forced to face his other side and deal with self-discovery, temptation, isolation and rebirth.
The CD has some very diverse songs on it, from the opening number with its dark tones, "The Flying Saucer Song," to the bluegrass feel of "Outlaw You," in which Shooter addresses today's country music trend of name-dropping legends in song and singing about dirt roads, although he doesn't drop any names as to whom he's referring to in the song. The singer-songwriter says he thinks younger artists don't realize that the name "outlaw" didn't mean being a badass, but had a totally different meaning to those who wore it back then.
"I've had lots of fans and other artists say 'How dare you talk about this?' I knew there would be negativity from it, but I wasn't trying to put negativity out there. I don't look at getting in a fight with them, I'm upset that these dudes are using the outlaw moniker because I don't think they realize where outlaw came from. My dad and Willie were fighting for their music. My dad didn't like the term; he thought it took away from the music. I'm just trying to put for the the truth about the scenario. I would be happy if they put that word away entirely."
While Shooter wrote most of the CD, he recorded a couple outside songs, including one penned by Steve Young, who wrote Waylon's "Lonesome, O'nry and Mean" and "Seven Bridges Road," by the Eagles.
"Steve and I became friends, and he helped me in my confidence on writing Family Man, so when I ran across 'The White Trash Song' I wanted to do it," Shooter says of the tune, which summarizes the life of a beer-loving man who lost his church woman to Jimmy Swaggart and winds up in jail. "I brought Scott [H. Biram] in, who is one of my favorite artists and friends, to sing on it with me."
Another song, "Wild and Lonesome," features Patty Griffin. Shooter says he wrote the song in about an hour. "It just came out. I was able to feel and relate to it. When I was writing it, I just followed the words wild and lonesome, and it just kinda came out. I was writing how I felt at the time. We went in the studio and I wanted a female voice on it, I thought that would be nice. I remembered Patty doing 'Rose in Paradise' with Kris on the Waylon tribute so I reached out to her and she said yes. I am honored to have her on it."
Shooter says the best way he can describe the album is that it is where he is right now. "As I've gotten older, I'm bringing in all my influences into my records without worrying about it. I'm coming into my own. I'd suggest fans buy the first song, 'Flying Saucer,' and if they understand it, they'll know what the album is about."
As for what he found out about himself as he explored his darker side, Shooter pauses before answering. "I guess I discovered that I'm a lot more dangerous than I thought I was," he says. "I'm just trying to figure out how to navigate life and leave the biggest trail of debris that I can behind."
The Other Life will be out europewide on April 19 (release date may vary in European countries), through the Blue Rose webshop now!
Has it really been more than four years since TODD THIBAUD's last studio album? It's hard to believe but true. Since the change of the century that's just about how long he takes between "proper" albums. However, the Boston-based singer-songwriter is ever-present in the public eye thanks to his numerous tours, live releases and collaborations with other musicians, in Hardpan or with Joseph Parsons in Parsons Thibaud. After his successful 2008 album Broken, it is now time for a new album by Thibaud who has been with the Blue Rose label since 1997. In the spring of 2013 the likeable artist releases Waterfall, truly a proper Todd Thibaud album.
Todd Thibaud is a consistently convincing, reliable artist who always stays true to his musical vision. He does not change things up dramatically but finds variety in nuances of arrangement and production. After all, the consistently high quality of his songs and his mellifluous, warm voice create an irresistible and familiar atmosphere. This was already true of his first band, The Courage Brothers, in the early to mid-90ies. With his 1997 solo debut Favorite Waste Of Time, the man from Vermont made his first mark on the songwriter/pop canopy. It was followed by a slew of classic Blue Rose studio albums Little Mystery (99), Squash (00), Northern Skies (04) and Broken (08). In-between there was a very interesting extensive phase with the Hardpan super group, which brought together Joseph Parsons, Chris Burroughs, Terry Lee Hale and Thibaud for a studio and a live album and tours. More recently, he has toured and released albums with Parsons Thibaud - the debut Parsons Thibaud (07) and Transcontinental Voices (11). To mention every CD or DVD live release is practically impossible - Thibaud is a prolific man.
Besides his engaging vocals and a subtly melancholic yet powerful attitude, melodic songs with meaty riffs and hooky choruses are Todd Thibaud's calling card. His songs are undeniably catchy and want to be listened to again and again even though they are far from lightweight or superficial. On Waterfall, Todd Thibaud once again succeeds masterfully in this balancing act between writing meaningful songs and songs with "hit potential" (for a better world).
While his previous album Broken was mostly ballad-y and introspective, Waterfall is clearly dominated by dynamic mid- and uptempo songs with gritty guitars and rocking band arrangements. Thanks to the album's more extroverted character, it reminds us of his excellent albums Favorite Waste Of Time and Northern Skies - this is music with a clear pop/rock mandate and an excellent sound between westcoast, heartland & prairie rock based on strong songwriting and harmony-laden indie roots/guitar pop that was created in the 90ies by bands like Vigilantes Of Love, Gathering Field, Floating Men, Swinging Steaks, Cravin' Dogs and the Courage Brothers. In other words, Waterfall combines all the virtues of the Heartbreakers, Wallflowers, Jayhawks, BoDeans and Gin Blossoms with a healthy dose of Bruce Springsteen. But, of course, the result is clearly a Todd Thibaud album.
The power triple of "What May Come", "Not For Me" and the album's title track comes straight to the point. Any Thibaud fan knows: This was well worth the wait! The semi-acoustic "When The Evening Falls Apart" is a little slower and supported by Chris Toppin's (ex-Fuzzy) harmony vocals. "Hollow" is a guitar rocker with Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom guesting and "Lonesome June" sounds tailor made for a roadside inn dance floor. The swampy roots rock of "Stranger" with its saloon piano and horn section sounds a lot like New Orleans - this is new stylistic territory for Thibaud. The ballad "All In A Dream" starts slowly and gathers Thomas Juliano's slide guitar and Ben Zecker's e-piano along the way - subtle arrangements that deliver proof of the formidable backing band's empathy. On "My Own" and "Wears Me Down" they are let loose to rock again. Todd Thibaud demonstrates his versatility in the two decidedly different quiet album closers: The easy sparkle of "Change A Thing" with its grand chorus and "Evermore", an acoustic-folk love song with Sean Staples' mandolin and once more Chris Toppin's beautiful harmony vocals.
The album's twelve tracks were helmed by well-reputed Boston producer Ed Valauskas (Juliana Hatfield, Gentlemen/Figgs, Kay Hanley/Letters To Cleo) and recorded with the same basic band that supported Thibaud on his 2009 European tour with appearances at "Crossroads/Rockpalast": His longtime companions Thomas Juliano (guitar) and Sean Staples (mandolin) plus the rhythm section of bassist Joe Klompus (Jack Drag, Submarines, Eileen Rose) and drummer Pete Caldes (Gravel Pit, Juliana Hatfield) and new keyboarder Ben Zecker. A bunch of friends like Russell Chudnofsky (Sarah Borges, Catie Curtis, Amelia White), keyboarder Phil Aiken and backing vocalists Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom), Chris Toppin, Mike Gent (Figgs), Tim Gearan, Matt Tahaney contribute the the album's perfect euphony.
Waterfall comes in a digipak with tasteful artwork and a booklet including all song lyrics.
Waterfall will be out europewide on April 19 (release date may vary in European countries), available through the Blue Rose webshop from April 1st.
Times are tough for just about everyone these days, especially for those who live in what is often referred to as the "flyover states," in the heart of the country. People have become tougher, their skins have grown thicker and they have become much harder to win over. That especially holds true when it comes to the music that rolls into the bars, music halls and honky tonks of their towns. The overwhelming success that TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS have had on the so-called Red Dirt circuit of those states says a lot about the quintet's authenticity and fire, particularly because their music is not exactly what that scene in known for producing.
"When we first started playing, people couldn't have cared less that we were there," recalls Troubadours' frontman Evan Felker. "They were there to drink beer and raise hell and they didn't really care what music was playing while they did it. But as we went on and as we got better, they started to listen. I mean, they were still drinkin' plenty of beer, but before too long, they were actually coming to hear us and asking us to play our songs, and not just covers of traditional favorites and all the other stuff we'd been doing."
Not only did the crowds get more attentive, they kept getting bigger. As time went on, and the Troubadours broadened their touring circle, they moved on from tiny clubs in the more obscure corners of the Sooner state and started hitting - and selling out - prestigious venues like Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, the Firehouse Saloon in Houston and Antone's in Austin.
Over the course of the past five years, Felker, bassist RC Edwards, fiddle player Kyle Nix, guitarist Ryan Engleman and drummer Gabe Pearson, have honed the rowdy, quick-witted sound that's brought folks of all stripes together in front of those stages. And on Goodbye Normal Street, the Troubadours' third full-length album, the band takes that blend of nice and easy and nice and rough and distills it into a 43-minute ride that takes in the scenery of America's Heartland and the inner workings of a group of 20-somethings on a quest for something better.
"This time around, we tried to balance things out," says bassist Edwards, who shelved a steady gig as a pharmacist in late 2011 to concentrate on the band. "We wanted to combine the idea of getting something perfect, the way you can only do in a proper studio, with the energy of playing in front of a thousand people jumping around and screaming."
They attack that goal with gusto on Goodbye Normal Street, putting the pedal to the metal on "Before the Devil Knows We're Dead" (a breakneck romp about regular folks who lived hard and died in a blaze of glory) and dialing back to a sensual closing-time waltz on "Call a Spade a Spade" (a cheater's lament on which Felker duets with Jamie Wilson of the Trishas).
Felker, who writes the majority of the lyrics - with an assist from Edwards, who penned the semi-autobiographical "Morgan Street," about the band's hardscrabble early days - has a knack for capturing slices of life in vivid detail. He can hit hard emotionally with a song like "Blue Star" (a bittersweet tale of a veteran returning from war) or tweak the listener with something like "Gin, Smoke and Lies" (on which he contrasts his own romantic plight with that of a rooster who manages to satisfy 20 partners, and not just one).
"All the songs are about people we know," he says. "And yeah, some of them are probably about me to some degree - the guy who ticks off the wrong girl from Arkansas, and the guy who doesn't always like what he sees himself becoming. Mostly though, I think they're just honest."
The band - which took its name from the Indian Nation Turnpike that connected so many of the smaller towns where they cut their teeth - gradually evolved from offering acoustic explorations of tunes by Townes Van Zandt and Jerry Jeff Walker to kicking out three or four sets a night of full-throttle roadhouse country - tinged with the punk rock attitude that was in the air during the members' teen years.
"We all pretty much grew up with hardcore country music around us," says Felker. "I mean, sure, there was rock stuff in there, but the real old-school stuff, plus exposure to folks like Jason Boland and Cross Canadian Ragweed, really affected what we were playing. We're really a product of both our influences and our environment. It wasn't something that we sat in a room and dreamed up in one day."
That's clear. The raw-boned energy of their 2007 debut, Bossier City, cut on a shoestring budget and aimed squarely at getting boots on the dance floor earned raves from many corners, including No Depression, which dubbed it "a testament to the small towns in which they were raised … with stories of longing, humor, tragedy and general life in rural America." The quintet broadened its horizons on its sophomore outing, Diamonds and Gasoline, which spawned the Americana favorite "Every Girl" and brought them to the attention of folks throughout the country, and overseas.
And with Goodbye Normal Street - the name a reference to another longtime band residence as well as a state of mind that they left behind long ago - they set their sights on conquering even more expansive territories. With songs like the blue-collar anthem "Southeastern Son" and the universally understandable breakup plaint "Wrecked," they look pretty likely to conquer them.
"This music, at its best, can put into words what we have been thinking for our entire lives," says Felker, "and even at its worst, it gets people drinking beer and makes people happy. Either of those is fine with me."
Goodbye Normal Street is now available through our webshop on CD, LP and digitally.
Among the many remarkable and hopeful young bands popping up year after year on the Austin, Tx. music scene there is often one that stands out and has more to offer than the others, that seems primed for success in the greater world and for higher goals. There's no question that the five guys who make up UNCLE LUCIUS are members of this elite. With their original take on southwestern rock'n'roll they are bringing together classic rock virtues with modern-day Americana, thus demonstrating how to transfer the experience and energy of 150-plus concerts a year into a studio recording. And You Are Me is their third album, clearly their most mature and most clearly contoured one to date. And it's the first one that presents Uncle Lucius to a wider European audience: Music fans who are going to love the quintet's fresh, dynamic sound and their passionate performances!
Uncle Lucius appeared on the Texan rock scene in the naughts, starting out as the Kevin Galloway Trio (with singer/songwriter Galloway as the central figure, Mike Carpenter on lead guitar and Hal Vorpahl on bass) until drummer Jason Armstrong joined them and they became - thanks to a grandfather's friend's name - Uncle Lucius. In the fall of 2006 they self-released their debut album Something They Ain't and played lots of gigs in the greater Austin area. It didn't take long before the four of them reached headliner status at renowned clubs like the Saxon Pub, Threadgill's and the legendary Antone's. Just in time for their second, Stephen Doster-produced album, Pick Your Head Up, new drummer Josh Greco joined them. His powerful but versatile style contributed to the band moving away from the melodic country rock of their early phase towards a groovy, funky, soul-drenched Southern rock'n'roll with roots, blues and gospel ingredients. The arrangements became markedly more electric and embroidered by horns, organ and female backing vocals. This lead to more gigs, more fans and more media attention - all the way to the Midwest, the East Coast and back home at SXSW. Musically, the band - along with new keyboarder, singer and songwriter Jon Grossman from Kentucky - put a stronger focus on exquisite, sophisticated songwriting. While main man Kevin Galloway used to provide most of the early material, songs by Hal Vorpahl and Mike Carpenter found their way into the set around this time.
For their third new album And You Are Me they took it one step further: Five of the eleven new songs were co-written as a team. Among them the riff-heavy, horn-supported opener 'Set Ourselves Free', the lovely Little Feat-meet-The-Band-style Southern waltz 'Rosalia' and 'Somewhere Else', a real crowd pleaser and radio hit with this season's most Dickey-Betts-esque lead guitar part, complex, interwoven four-part harmonies and loose piano-organ interplay. And then there's the longest and hardest-rocking song, the 6 min 42 seconds of 'There Is No End', a loud, powerful combination of Bad Company, Black Crowes and Gov't Mule that brings out the best in all five of the musicians: front man & rhythm guitarist Kevin Galloway with a terrific blues rock vocal, the extroverted lead guitarist Mike Carpenter, Jon Grossman as versatile keyboard wizard and the dynamic and powerful rhythm section that is certainly among the best in the genre these days, along with for example Cody Canada & The Departed.
All of these references - the Stones, Allman Brothers, Mountain and current acts like Lucero, Drive-By Truckers, and fellow Austinites Deadman, The Drams and Band Of Heathens also come to mind - are just meant to give you a clue as to the band's general direction. Uncle Lucius have drawn from them and created their own sound with talent, songwriting chops, passion and extremely strong musicianship. There's Michael Carpenter on 'Willing Wasted Time' which he sings and embellishes with some sharp-edged slide playing. Or Jon Grossman with his Rhodes-influenced 'New Drug' in Leon-Russell-style. Or bass player's Hal Vorpahl's contributions: 'Pocket Full Of Misery' and 'Just Keep Walking'. Or the most typical singer-songwriter number, Kevin Galloway's 'Keep The Wolves Away' and the slow, measured 'I Am You' which not only provides the album title but flows into a never-ending fade. Both are closest to the alt.country rock style Uncle Lucius used to be identified with.
And You Are Me was produced partly in Nashville, partly in Austin by R.S. Field who is known for his natural approach from his work with Webb Wilder, Shaver, Sonny Landreth, Scott Miller, Todd Snider and Hayes Carll. The Blue Rose version contains three bonus tracks which add up to a running time of 63 minutes. 'Everybody Got Soul', 'Liquor Store' and 'A Million Ways' have been drawn from the previous album Pick Your Head Up and have been among the band's live favorites for a long time.
And You Are Me is available now through the Blue Rose webshop as CD, LP (Personal Vinyl Edition) and download, from March 22 in good selected outlets across Europe both physically and digitally.
It's been 40 years since the American singer/songwriter ELLIOTT MURPHY first made his mark on the rock music scene with his debut album Aquashow. The opener of this album that has since gained cult status was entitled 'Last Of The Rock Stars' - in some ways that's a clairvoyant motto for a remarkable career that's not near its end. The 63-year-old artist who has been living in France for many years still has a few surprises up his sleeve. He never quite became a commercial rock star with #1 hits but Elliott Murphy is still a vital, seeking, creative force and someone who has never let himself be bent or pushed around, even though he might have stood in his own way once or twice. But that didn't stop him from releasing album after album with admirable regularity and quality. It Takes A Worried Man is his brand new album on Blue Rose Records. It's not an anniversary record, simply another excellent album by Elliott Murphy who - in his own way - may be a true rock star and certainly is a unique artist.
In the New York of the 1970ies, Elliott Murphy was a member of the intellectual troubadour/songwriter scene that flirted with Bob Dylan and Lou Reed and the music of David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen. His peers were Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Ramones, David Johansen, and Velvet Underground. With Aquashow and the following albums Lost Generation, Night Lights and Just A Story From America he became one of the most ambitioned, hopeful singer-songwriters, sounding modern and taking on the zeitgeist - an eccentric and an individualist. Since those times of the "New Dylan" era, Elliott Murphy is no longer quite in the international media's focus as much as he could be. He left New York in the late 80s and relocated to France and opted to pursue his artistic endeavors outside of the major label mainstream. Working with smaller labels he fulfilled his artistic vision and cultivated his status as one of the last rock'n'roll bohemians. Over here in Europe he has made a name for himself with numerous albums and tours in all of the continent's worthwhile clubs as a remarkable artist and excellent entertainer. With his sonorous voice and his propensity to rock, he manages to mesmerize any audience. A thinking, well-read, literary ambitious American artist who has learned to see the ways of the world from a European point of view.
Since 1995 Blue Rose have been releasing Elliott Murphy's albums - he is one of the label's pillars. It Takes A Worried Man is his 33rd album, more than a third of his oeuvre was released on Blue Rose. And almost all of these albums were developed in collaboration with French guitarist Olivier Durand. He has long been one of Europe's finest, most original stringbenders with his fluid solos and excellent slide playing on acoustic & electric guitar and his mandolin picking. Together with Laurent Pardo (bass) and Alan Fatras (drums) he forms Elliott's backing band, The Normandy All-Stars. They have been accompanying Murphy on Coming Home Again (2006), Notes From The Underground (08), Alive In Paris (09) and Elliott Murphy (10) and are doing so on It Takes A Worried Man. Murphy himself usually plays acoustic or electric guitar but also contributes banjo, piano and harmonica. And his 22-year-old son Gaspard Murphy is becoming an integral part as well. He had produced his father's most recent album, this time he contributes a number of instruments to most songs - guitars, keyboards, percussion and backing vocals - and is responsible for programming, samples as well as string and horn arrangements. New York session player Kenny Margolis (Cracker, Mink DeVille, Silos, Lucky 7, UpSouth Twisters) provides keyboards and Bruce Springsteen's wife Patti Scialfa is the female voice on "I Am Empty".
Elliott Murphy goes folk? Opening his new album, Elliott Murphy interprets the traditional 'Worried Man Blues' in a Woody Guthrie-meets-Fred Eaglesmith arrangement, with banjo, mandolin, guitar and harmonica providing the bed for his quirky vocal. But don't let that fool you, for the most part It Takes A Worried Man is a pretty rocking, electric and electrifying album. There's the catchy 'Angeline' with its sluggish Stones sound, 'Little Big Man' with its dylanesque lyric about characters like Mister Jackson and Fanny Gonzales which would fit right in on Tempest. Olivier Durand steps out for the first time in the outro solo. 'Murphyland' is nothing less than the ideal adaptation of the longtime fan name for his music. In the middle of the album, 'I Am Empty' is perhaps the most impressive new song, starting out as a folk song with acoustic guitar and harmonica before it develops into a veritable hymn - Patti Scialfa sings 'Hallelujah' in the background and Gaspard Murphy adds drama with church organ and mellotron. 'He's Gone' follows with grand gestures, pathos and a big arrangement including layers of Durand guitars. 'Day For Night' is clearly the album's straightest rock song while 'Eternal Highway' rolls along in relaxed country rock manner before the album ends profoundly on 'Even Steven'. In the album's final number we hear Murphy solo with his typical dylanesque singing voice, accompanying himself on piano. A song that reverberates for a long time! Impressive.
It Takes A Worried Man is available now through the Blue Rose webshop as CD, LP (Personal Vinyl Edition) and download, from March 28 in good selected outlets physically and digitally.
WHITEHORSE are a fresh new band with two well-known names: Canadian indie roots/rock musician & singer-songwriter Luke Doucet and his wife Melissa McClelland. With both their many individual activities they've hardly had time to spend quality time together. So they came up with a plan and founded a band named Whitehorse. This happened in 2011 and led to plenty of gigs (even in Europe) and a short self-titled 8-song mini album. This could've been enough - after all working with your spouse isn't always easy. But Doucet & McClelland seem to like it just fine and are now delivering The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss, their second, dramatically titled album. It's a full-length record with twelve excellent songs and a running time of 47 minutes.
Luke Doucet is probably the greatest allround talent on the current Canadian scene, a true CanAmericana maestro as singer, songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. 20 years ago - when he was 19 - he played guitar for the great folk-pop chanteuse Sarah McLachlan. You'll find his name in the fine print of albums by McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Carolyn Mark, Captain Tractor, Oh Susanna, NQ Arbuckle, Dustin Bentall and Kathleen Edwards - he's also a member of the Blue Rodeo family. On his own records he offers a wide palette from guitar rock to cool indie pop, from CanAmericana folk to 60ies garage punk and alt. country rock. He's not only an excellent guitarist (electric, acoustic, slide, pedal & lap steel) but also well-versed on bass, drums, percussion, banjo, keyboards, harmonica and all of this in various musical styles. At heart he's a singer-songwriter but there's plenty of pop in his melodies and arrangements, and alt. prairie rock in instrumentation and aesthetics. At the start of his professional career there was the guitar/punk/garage rock trio Veal with three releases Hot Loser/96, Tilt O'Whirl/99, The Embattled Hearts/03). Since 2001 he has released three solo albums Aloha Manitoba/01, Outlaws/04, Broken (And Other Rogue States)/05, Blood's Too Rich/08 and Steel City Trawler/10, the last two as Luke Doucet & White Falcon (which featured Melissa McClelland).
Melissa McClelland has a good deal more to offer than the harmony vocals she contributes to her husband's albums and studio recordings for Justin Rutledge, NQ Arbuckle, Jim Cuddy or Blue Rodeo. She demonstrates her versatility and talent with her contributions to the White Falcons live set and her four solo releases Melissa McClelland/01, Stranded In Suburbia/04, Thumbelina's One Night Stand/06 and Victoria Day/09. Her original songs (like the best-known 'Passenger 24') are full of energy, moving stories, atmosphere and strong vocals with a stylistic scope ranging from grand pop gestures to down-to-Earth roots rock. Stylistically and vocally she is working in the vicinity of Aimee Mann, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, Amy Rigby and Neko Case. Luke Doucet produced and played an integral part in all of her albums after the early solo debut.
They got to know one another on the 2004 sessions, became a couple as members of Sarah McLachlan's band and got married in 2006. And now they're forming a musical bond in Whitehorse. A two-member band? Sure, it could've been easier ("Luke & Melissa") but then their output would have been compared to their solo releases. Whitehorse, however, is a brand new endeavour. For the first time, Doucet & McClelland work as a team of equals, composing, arranging, singing and performing together. On stage, they work as a duo on multiple instruments. For the 2011 mini album Whitehorse they wrote five new songs and completely rearranged two that had been previously released ('Broken', 'Passenger 24'). The result is an adventurous mix of spooky folk, garage-y rock, atmospheric, almost-ambient CanAmericana songs, short, soundtrack-like soundscapes and heavy, dark alt.roots rock. And in-between all this, there's a beautifully casual version of Springsteen's 'I'm On Fire'.
The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss now shows a clear development. They co-wrote ten brand-new songs and dusted off two of Doucet's older compositions (Veal's 'Mexico Texaco' and 'Annie Lu'). The collection has - though genre-hopping, creativity and risk-taking are not abandoned - a more cohesive feel and flow. ,Achilles' Desire' is the perfect opener, dominated by Doucet's Gretsch guitar's harsh & twangy sounds and an intense, spooky atmosphere with a rudimentary rhythmic foundation of handclaps and tambourine, it leads into a melodic break with beautiful vocal harmonies - a great introduction to the Whitehorse universe. ,Devil's Got A Gun' is an alt.folk rock number with a Tom Petty chorus and spaghetti western guitar. ,Mismatched Eyes (Boat Song)' starts out as a beautiful, sparse acoustic love song with romantic harmonies before Doucet's powerful electric guitar enters the song with a different type of energy. It is followed by ,Peterbilt Coalmine' which is reminiscent of the best times of Neil Young & Nicolette Larson. The soft, whispery ,Cold July', the computer beat-enhanced stomper ,Jane' and the deceptively simple, folk-meets-power-pop ,Out Like A Lion' offer McClelland an opportunity to show three very differents facets of her artistry. ,No Glamour In The Hammer' describes the dreariness of their hometown Hamilton, Ontario with tongue in cheek - many years ago the couple moved from the too-trendy metropolis of Toronto to the "steel city". With ,Radiator Blues' and ,Annie Lu' Whitehorse move on to swampy, pulsating, unsettling alternative roots rock before ,Wisconsin' with its clever wordplay takes their listeners to a Calexico & rock inspired desert country. In keeping with this soundscape, album closer ,Mexico Texaco' takes its sweet slow motion time to grow into an exquisite 6-minute road movie/killer ballad drenched in pedal steel.
In Whitehorse Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland are treading an entirely new path without abandoning their past experiences. They've mobilized and merged their fan base, constantly sell-out their live shows and have created great anticipation with their debut EP. The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss satisfies this desire and will without question be a great success!
The Fate Of The World Depends On This Kiss is now available through our webshop on CD and LP+CD (Personal Vinyl Edition), from mid March in fine selected outlets, physically and digitally. The digital version is already available through the Blue Rose Downloadstore (see upper right link).
MARKUS RILL has been Germany's finest Americana musician for a long time now - and he has a bunch of new stories to tell. It hasn't been all that long since his last album Wild Blue & True was released on Blue Rose Records but if you look at this internationally renowned songwriter's track record and compare his current output with his earlier albums, you will notice how he has matured and how easily lyrics & music seem to spring from his pen these days. And what a high-quality circle of musicians he runs in which seemingly enables him to record high-class material easily on a par with often-idealized American productions at any given time. Markus Rill's new album My Rocket Ship is a case in point. And because his band and a handful of outside musicians contributed so significantly to this record that the collaborative feel is tangible, it's only logical that for the first time in ten years, Rill's name doesn't stand alone on the cover - his excellent band deserves second billing. It used to be named The Gunslingers but these days it's Markus Rill & The Troublemakers.
Markus Rill is one of those exceptionally gifted musicians who constantly evolve without giving up their main strengths or musical convictions. Even though My Rocket Ship is at heart a singer-songwriter album in an Americana context just like his self-released 1997 debut Gunslinger's Tales was, Markus Rill's horizons and the palette of his skills have certainly widened. Rill has honed and sharpened his language and developed an original kind of poetry while diversifying the topics he takes on. His lyrics often deal with personal experiences, relationships and ruminations on (his) life. Sometimes Rill tells stories of family and friends, sometimes of a more comprehensive nature, probing the principles of human coexistence. For the first time he explores such difficult topics as religion ('God Believes') and ageing ('For The Stars').
Rill is not only a first-rate lyricist but a musician, performer and, essentially, a rock'n'roller. Compared to earlier records, it becomes apparent how multi-layered his music has become - on My Rocket Ship Rill stretches farther than ever before: we hear songwriter/troubadour folk, Texas country, southern rock, Muscle Shoals soul, guitar pop, roots rock, as well as traces of bluegrass and alt.folk noir. Rill has also significantly developed his musicianship. There's very little strummy acoustic guitar and harmonica happening here. Backed by The Troublemakers, Rill plays a fair amount of electric guitar, dobro and banjo (new!) and also shows new facets of his raspy drawl in creating dark atmospheres, delivering surprisingly punchy rock vocals and spoken word parts.
Rill, who has spent a lot of time in American recording studios in the last decade and has recorded three fine albums with first-rate Nashville musicians, has now mastered the art of creating that authentic kind of sound, vibe and professionalism in Germany with German musicians. Wild Blue & True from 2011 was proof of that but in producing My Rocket Ship, Rill went one step further. Basic tracks for the album's 14 songs were recorded all live - the band hadn't even heard six of the songs before going in. That should clue you in to the quality of The Troublemakers who have been playing together for two years now with Felix Leitner (all things stringed - electric & acoustic guitars, dobro, banjo and accordion), Jan Reinelt (piano, organ, glockenspiel), Chris Reiss (electric bass & upright) and Aggi Berger (drums & backing vocals). Some top musician friends contributed overdubs: Heinz Rebellius added delicate licks on acoustic & electric guitars to the already string-laden arrangements, Martin Huch contributed dobro & lap steel, George Bähr fiddle & mandolin and Philipp Hagemann cello. Annika Fehling & Robert Oberbeck sang harmonies.
From beginning to end, My Rocket Ship is a riveting rollercoaster ride with a smart sequence of Americana rock'n'roll, powerful midtempo ballads and dark-thoughtful alt./indie folk songs. The twang & fiddle driven opener 'Free To Fly' with its classic train beat belongs to the first category as does the touching 'The Facts About My Life' which is sung from a handicapped person's perspective who looks back on his life recounting some odd childhood memories. This dynamic folk-rocking song is a delight thanks to its beautiful arrangement of acoustic & electric, baritone & slide guitars plus banjo & harmonica over a complex groove. Roots-rocking numbers like 'Edge Of Nothing', 'Never Come To Know' (in a typical John Hiatt mode) and the groovy, Muscle Shoals-like soul of 'When The Night Calls' are clearly Southern-influenced with the guitars played Eddie Hinton-style and the organs and pianos sounding like Barry Beckett or Chuck Leavell. And it comes replete with the genre-requisite "sha-lala" backing vocals. Then there's the dangerous talking & stomping blues of 'Way Down': With a razor-sharp voice, fierce dobro and a bellowing blues harp Rill sounds like a mix of Malcolm Holcombe, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Tom Waits. You've never heard him that way - guaranteed!
But that's far from everything. The title track is a beautifully melodic ode to Rill's guitar and in the all-acoustic 'God Believes', he reflects on God and faith. This is followed - not unfittingly - by 'One Fix Or Another' a dark, folk noir, stumbling ballad about the few things granted in a life of false promises, broken vows, loneliness and addiction. Rill plays a mean, spooky banjo and gets atmospheric support from Felix Leitner on accordion and electric guitar - not far from Wovenhand.
Rill goes pop on 'For The Stars'! This beautifully melodic, catchy, folk/guitar pop song delivers a jangly Westcoast sound a la Jackson Browne and brings relief before the next slow and intense number comes with the wistful introspection of 'In My Bones'. Rill's vocals are incredibly sensitive, providing ample proof of his development as a singer. Annika Fehling's enchanting harmonies are the icing on the cake. And this exceptionally strong album ends with 'The Late Great TvZ' - a tribute to the incomparable Townes van Zandt and the most Texan-sounding song on My Rocket Ship. It's staged to perfection with outlaw-style spoken word verses and a sung chorus with only acoustic guitar and a swinging lap steel. Writing about TvZ may prove too much heavy lifting for some songwriters but Markus Rill has acquired the kind of cache that not only qualifies but practically calls on him to do so.
TOP 20 ALBUMS 2012 - voted by the Blue Rose community!
We had asked our friends, fans and customers to vote for their TOP 20 albums of 2012 (not necessarily Blue Rose releases) and here they are, the most enjoyed records of the past year - with a "photo-finish winner" from Charlottesville, Virginia!
1. Sons Of Bill - Sirens
2. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Psychedelic Pill
3. Bob Dylan - Tempest
4. The Departed - Adventus (Blue Rose-CD)
5. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
6. Paul Thorn - What The Hell Is Goin On? (Blue Rose-CD)
7. American Aquarium - Burn.Flicker.Die. (Blue Rose-CD)
8. US Rails - Live Europe 2012 (Blue Rose-CD)
9. Ryan Bingham - Tomorrowland
10. Lincoln Durham - The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones (Blue Rose-CD)
11. US Rails - Southern Canon (Blue Rose-CD)
12. Calexico - Algiers
13. Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day
14. John Hiatt - Mystic Pinball
15. Tom Gillam - Good For You (Blue Rose-CD)
16. Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
17. Chris Knight - Little Victories
18. Drew Landry - Sharecropper's Whine (Blue Rose-CD)
19. Leeroy Stagger - Radiant Land (Blue Rose-CD)
20. Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit - Live From Alabama
All ten Blue Rose albums of the TOP 20 chart are available for a special price of € 9,90 (unless they are cheaper anyway, the US Rails live set is € 13,90) through January 31 exclusively at our webstore (www.bluerose-records.com).
02.01.
Since so many of you have been asking for a live record and realizing that STACIE COLLINS and her band can’t bring their rock-n-roll circus to everyone, capturing the live show has become their number one goal. After some thought on how they might be able to pull this off with no funding, the obvious solution was to once again call on the love and support of "The People" a.k.a. fans, friends and family from around the world. You helped with her last record Sometimes Ya Gotta and showed what can happen when you harness the power of people with a passion for music and helping others.
Armed with her amazing band "The Al-Mighty Three" featuring Al Collins on bass, Jason Graumlich on guitar and Brad Cummings on drums, they came up with a bare bones budget and plan of attack. Recording commenced on October 20th & 21st during the last leg of their "3 Chords & A Cloud Of Dust Tour" at Bootleggers, one of Stacie's favorite UK clubs. Thanks to a great crew and help from a lot of people, everything came together without a hitch and they experienced a magical night of love and music with friends from around the globe.
Now that the tour is over they are ready to start the editing and post production work. They are hoping to raise $10,000 in 40 days to make an amazing LIVE record AND DVD to be shared, discovered and enjoyed for years to come. $10,000 is a large goal but it should meet the requirements for completing this project. If by chance they raise MORE than their goal, any money above $10,000 will go toward proper promotion, 2013 tour support and new merchandise... all the stuff that goes into making a record release and tour a success!
Any help and donation is appreciated - please go to www.indiegogo.com and choose from the several perks for your contribution.
Some things take a little longer than planned - but they're worth waiting for! The release of this live album by Blue Rose's legendary band THE RESENTMENTS literally took years - but it's a most remarkable musical document, a top quality package that lives up to the band's legacy. The Resentments live on December 7, 2006 - six years ago - at Stuttgart's Laboratorium, the city's oldest live music venue, brings together one of this remarkable band's most magic moments on two CDs and one DVD. And it provides us with nostalgia for this wonderful Texas band in its original formation that will never (be able to) play together again.
Welcome To Our Living Room - Live At The Lab in Stuttgart presents the original Resentments lineup with Stephen Bruton, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, Jon Dee Graham, Bruce Hughes and John Chipman - no less than four established singer-songwriters who have all released albums under their own names or with other formations. And because drummer John Chipman takes over the lead vocal on a Chuck Berry number there's five lead singers! It's enough to bring a tear to a sentimental music lover's eye.
They came a long way from being Austin's best-kept secret as the regular Sunday band at the Saxton Pub to becoming one of the most-respected roots acts on the Americana scene. In the mid-90ies the four protagonists started jamming on Sundays (with drummer "Mambo" John Treanor, RIP) to end the weekend with a few dozen well-informed music lovers. At this point, no one would've thought that they would create an extensive discography (complete on Blue Rose) and tour numerous times throughout half of Europe. Everything started in the summer of 2002 with the live album Sunday Night Line-Up which was followed by the studio albums The Resentments (04), Switcheroo (05), On My Way To See You (06) and Roselight (09).
Stephen Bruton
The live package Welcome To Our Living Room closes the curtain on this Resentments era featuring Stephen Bruton (guitarist, session player and solo artist who has worked sincve the 70ies with - among others - Kris Kristofferson, Bonnie Raitt & Bob Dylan), Austin godfather Jon Dee Graham (ex-True Believers, Alejandro Escovedo sidekick, John Doe, Calvin Russell, Michelle Shocked, Kelly Willis plus eight solo records), Scrappy Jud Newcomb (ex-Loose Diamonds frontman, frequent session guitarist & solo artist), Bruce Hughes (ex-Poi Dog Pondering/Ugly Americans/Bob Schneider bassist & guitarist) and John Chipman who also played in Band Of Heathens for many years. As a unit, they gave free rein to rock, country and blues, their voices, their songs and their instrumental mastery (on guitars, guitars, guitars and other stringed instruments). In the process they ignored all stylistic boundaries bringing together and shaking up rock, roots, rock'n'roll, folk, singer-songwriter, acoustic rock, roadhouse blues and border music.
Jon Dee Graham, Bruce Hughes, Scrappy Jud Newcomb
While the Stuttgart concert grew into an intense and atmospheric affair, each Resentments concert followed a clear structure: Stephen Bruton opened with a deep-roots song, followed by Scrappy Jud Newcomb with an acoustic/folk-rocking number before Bruce Hughes (formerly an unknown entity as performer) provided an extroverted funk & groove-pop song while Jon Dee Graham ended the round with one of his powerful tracks. And then Bruton started the next round of songs. CD#1 contains the evening's first set with 16 songs (71:49 minutes), CD#2 features set two with 13 songs (62:35 minutes). Needless to say that many songs from the then-current album On My Way To See You found their way into the set like 'Sole Satisfaction', 'Jesse Taylor', 'Just A Fever', 'State Of Distraction', 'Ricebirds', 'Demolition Girl', 'Heart Of Hearts', and Fred Neil's 'Everybody's Talkin' in a soulful version by Jon Dee Graham. John Chipman takes care of Chuck Berry's 'Too Much Monkey Business' and in-between we're being treated to material from previous Resentments or solo albums: 'Damaged Goods', 'Full', 'Bluebird', Van Morrison's 'She Gives Me Religion' with a fantastic turn by Jud Newcomb, 'Big Sweet Life', 'Volver', 'Getting Over You', 'Nobody Gets Hurt'' and more. Within the group dynamic the band member's individual characters shine with their original songs, charismatic vocals and great instrumental finesse on acoustic & electric guitars, lap steel, national steel, mandolin, bass & drums. Just how much passion and heart and musicality they brought into this becomes obvious when watching the 27-song DVD.
Following this European tour, Jon Dee Graham left the band to focus on his solo career. He was already missing from 2008's Roselight album which was recorded as a quartet. But it got a lot worse: On May 9, 2009 the Resentments' secret leader, Stephen Bruton, died of lung cancer. In honor of Bruton's legacy, the band continued. While such singular artists as Graham and Bruton cannot be replaced, Texan-multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and studio musician Jeff Plankenhorn and ex-Fastball frontman Miles Zuniga are contributing to the current formation of The Resentments. They're back to rocking the Saxton Pub on Sunday nights and have just finished work on their new studio album. News on this shortly on Blue Rose!
Welcome To Our Living Room - Live at the Lab in Stuttgart is available now on 2-CD+DVD-Set und 4LP+2CD+DVD (Personal Vinyl Edition), in stores across Europe from February.
Sometimes there's things by the wayside you can't leave there, you just have to pick them up. And then you realize their value! The WHEELER BROTHERS' debut album Portraits is a story like this. This gem of an album has been available in the record stores of their hometown Austin, TX and at their frequent, usually sold-out live shows since the summer of 2011. But because they rocked SXSW in March 2012, swept the Austin Music Awards with five wins and their album has been on heavy rotation at the Blue Rose headquarters ever since, the label finally decided to release it in Europe - better late than never!
The Wheeler Brothers are a young and exciting combo with an original combination of the currently hip indie folk pop/rock style established by the likes of the Avett & Felice Brothers, My Morning Jackets, Low Anthem, Wilco & Arcade Fire and a healthy dose of straight up country-roots rock Austin style. To make it clearer: You'll be hearing zeitgeisty arrangements with bells a-ringing, trumpets a-blowing or a banjo being plucked as well as accordions, melodica and cello - but all of this is mostly decoration for substantial songs, meaty vocals and powerful electric guitars. There's more of a down to earth vibe than folkie meanderings here.
There's three Wheeler brothers: Nolan, the boss, plays acoustic & electric guitars, piano & glockenspiel and is one of three lead vocalists. Tyler plays bass and Patrick is on drums. Also responsible for the at times drama and pathos-laden sound are Danny Matthews (Electric Guitar, Melodica, Vocals) and A.J. Molyneaux (Electric, Acoustic, Lap Steel, Banjo, Fiddle, Vocals), both of them co-vocalists with Nolan Wheeler.
The quintet recorded the album's eleven tracks at Austin's Congress House Studio with Mark Hallman (where Iain Matthews, Eliza Gilkyson, Omar & The Howlers, Ani DiFranco, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Micky & The Motorcars and Tom Russell have recorded). All of the songs are striking, confident team compositions, remarkable in such a young band's debut album. The opener Long Hard Road features all the Wheeler Brothers trademarks: strong melody, tempo changes, an irresistible chorus, great interplay of banjo & guitars, a dynamic rhythm section and stellar vocals! Mississippi with its hymn-like quality reminds us of the Avett Brothers. The album's title track in the center of the album starts out kind of shy with its semi-acoustic arrangement before it changes color and gathers momentum with a harsh guitar riff. Focus with its complex structure and free guitar soloing has a touch of Wilco's 'Impossible Germany' or 'Sky Blue Sky' about it while Time is urgent, overflowing and electrifying. Ghost In The Valley with its dark brooding waltz effectively bridges the distance between francophile Louisiana and desert rock from Arizona and closes the album's "official" track list. All the other songs would also be worth noting, among them two bonus tracks exclusive to the Blue Rose edition and hand-picked by the Wheeler Brothers. What a remarkable band, what an excellent album.
Portraits is available now on CD and LP (Personal Vinyl Edition), in stores across Europe from February.
Thanks to the recent cooperation between Blue Rose and the innovative, stylistically diverse Six Shooter label from Canada, JENN GRANT, one of the most exciting artists currently on the CanAmericana/folk/rock/Indie Pop scene is new on Germany's #1 roots music label. The Beautiful Wild is the fourth album of this versatile musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the eastern coast of the North American continent. Jenn Grant is not as popular as her colleagues Leslie Feist, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards or Carolyn Mark (yet) but The Beautiful Wild certainly has all the qualities to change this!
In the middle of the last decade, the now 32 year-old singer-songwriter started taking her folk and pop inflected songs into the public. First in her hometown's small clubs, then on tour with the well-known folk-pop orchestra The Heavy Blinkers and as opener for Josh Ritter, Great Lake Swimmers and Weakerthans. Orchestra For The Moon was her 2007 debut album, a little naïve and innocent, CanAmericana in her sights, pop in her background but there was already her incredibly beautiful, multi-faceted voice that can be assertive, raspy or tender. There also was already a big musical group because lush, special arrangements have always been Jenn Grant's thing. Musicians from Heavy Blinkers, Guthries, Cuff The Duke played on the record along with Jill Barber, Ron Sexsmith and Matt Mays!
With Echoes, her debut on Six Shooter Records, she released her so-called breakup album. The ins & outs of a love relationship were the lyrical and atmospheric focal point and provided 13 at times, complicated, melancholic songs like 'Heartbreaker', 'I Was Your Woman', 'Parachutes' and a cool, somewhat distant version of Neil Young's 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart'. Album #3, Honeymoon Park from early 2011, was the result of a new love. Its songs were full of optimism, the arrangements filled to the brim with pop ideas. Jenn Grant revealed a heretofore unheard of artful, elegant, extroverted, pop side that was cause for some irritation among her fans.
Jenn Grant is anything but a predictable musician whose career follows a foreseeable path. It would be a horror to Grant to produce two overly similar albums after one another - that would mean an artistic standstill. And that's an explanation for the multitude of things happening on her new album. The Beautiful Wild is by far her most multi-layered, most exciting and - in terms of songwriting - most mature album. It is nothing less than a major coup! The songs deal with the beauty of the wilderness, as a place to lose and find yourself, a place to provide new experiences and creativity, a place that opens your heart and allows reflection. And a place of inspiration. Inspiration that leads to songs like these with unforgettable melodies, at times introspective, quiet and natural like on Echoes, at other time eclectic and lushly orchestrated like on Orchestra For The Moon. Jenn Grant manages to merge these currents now and add new flavors on The Beautiful Wild resulting in killer tracks like the alt.country-rocking "The Fighter" with its banjo and pedal steel instrumentation, the Feist-esque pop hymn "I've Got Your Fire" and the lively "I Want You Back" with many voices and a children's choir. "Gone Baby Gone" starts with sitars, moves over to vocal chants and electronic handclaps and gets a jolt of energy from harsh electric guitars. "White Dove" dances on a light groove while horns and backing vocals rejoice and "In The Belly Of A Dragon" reveals itself to be absolutely irresistible whether you hear it in your car or at an indie pop party. Well, and there's the bonus track finale which adds to an already remarkably strong album: Accompanied only by producer Daniel Ledwell (In-Flight Safety, Adam Puddington, Kathleen Edwards) on piano, Jenn Grant interprets Survivor's singalong arena hit "Eye Of The Tiger" as a contemplative, goosebump-inducing ballad.
Spectators is available now on CD and LP (Personal Vinyl Edition), in stores across Europe from February.
Thanks to the new cooperation between Blue Rose and the innovative, stylistically diverse Six Shooter label from Canada, AMELIA CURRAN is - next to Jenn Grant - the second CanAmericana artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia on Germany #1 roots music label. Spectators is this singer/songwriter/guitarist's sixth album. Her style could roughly be labeled as "folk and way beyond" but the truth is she cannot be confined by neat boundaries and frequently borrows from indie pop or takes excursions to alt. Americana sounds.
Her ten self-penned songs focus on thoughtful and darker themes like restlessness, insecurity, vulnerability, loss, loneliness or homelessness. Luckily, Amelia Curran does not sink into despair or agony but looks solutions and ways out these situations - and often enough she finds a light at the end of the tunnel. But not always. Musically, the songs are often ballady, interestingly arranged singer-songwriter numbers, sometimes melancholy and plaintive, sometimes outspoken and confident. This is all held together by the artist's personality and her dry, emotional, warm voice that may remind listeners of Natalie Merchant, Shawn Colvin, Indigo Girl Amy Ray or Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies.
Amelia Curran moved to Halifax when she started her recording career. She grew up in the small artist's colony of St John's in New Foundland where she not only got the basics of her musical career from but also a talent for other artistical activities. Curran has also worked as a playwright and stage actress in her own pieces. But music remains her main passion. Since her 2000 debut album Barricade, she has grown with every record. In 2001 she released Trip Down Little Road under the moniker SenseAmeliaProject, followed a year later by Lullaby For Butterflies and in 2006 by War Brides which marked her graduation to a professional musician. It caught Six Shooter's attention and was licensed for re-release more than two years later. Hunter, Hunter in 2009 was her official Six Shooter debut, recorded with a much bigger budget in St. John's. Both albums earned numerous awards and made Amelia Curran - who claims Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen/Neil Young as her main inspirations - a candidate for national and international media attention.
With Specators she builds on and expands from that foundation. Her songs are fundamentally sparse and gentle but profit from interesting arrangements and varying instrumental accompaniment. There's a horn section here, a string quartet there and a host of "exotic" instruments like bouzouki, accordion, cello and flugelhorn. Session musicians provide bass & drums, electric guitars, keys and backing vocals. That's how Spectators with all its sensitivity, delicacy and darker themes is clearly Amelia Curran's most diverse album. Produced by John Critchley (13 Engines, Elliott Brood, NQ Arbuckle) it features Martin Tielli, David Baxter, Stephen Pitkin, Bryden Baird, Alex McMaster, Oh Susanna, Geoff Panting, Kelsey McNulty - musicians known from the fine print of CanAmericana albums by Justin Rutledge, Catherine MacLellan, Rheostatics, Elliott Brood, Kathleen Edwards, Blue Rodeo, Hayden, Luke Doucet, Great Lake Swimmers or Jason Collett.
Spectators is available now on CD and LP (Personal Vinyl Edition), in stores across Europe from February.
The Blue Rose label's own super group US RAILS (featuring Joseph Parsons, Tom Gillam, Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin, and Matt Muir) has set its sights on not being a more than just short-lived entry in rock history and on gaining new fans and consolidating its cult status.
The US Rails name has been circulating in well-informed folk/roots/rock circles for a while. A new little super group with well-known songwriters originally got together on the Philadelphia scene and caused quite a stir with its first few live appearances. But it was their phenomenal gig at the Blue Rose Christmas Party in December 2009 in Hannover-Isernhagen which convinced German roots music fans of the band's enormous talent and potential. As a confirmation, their eponymous debut album followed in June 2010 as well as an extensive and very successful tour of Europe shortly thereafter. That could've been it for this band since all five musicians still have their own careers to attend to - almost all of them on Blue Rose, by the way. But when inspiration strikes and there's a strong musical bond, things yet to be said and energy to be shared, there's no reason not to continue!
Just like on US Rails, it's the ensemble playing not the individuals that stand out on the 13 tracks of Southern Canon. But while the debut was a patchwork affair compiled and recorded over several years, this project was put together as a whole with songs written exclusively for this album. It's easy to hear that the five musicians have grown even tighter as a unit, even though they've drifted apart location-wise and recorded their parts in Pennsylvania and Germany, Paris and Texas. They have managed to distill the essence of everyone's individual strengths into this band. US Rails have a signature sound and a lot of character and charisma! All of the four frontmen contribute three compositions each, drummer Matt Muir pitched in one and sings on it as well.
Pretty close with the release of Southern Canon the band did another tour through Germany to promote the new album and the new songs. One of these concerts had been chosen for a live recording on CD and DVD - the show at the Kulturbahnhof in Neuenkirchen-Voerden On February 8th, 2012. The band had played several shows before already and was sounding like a well oiled machine that night with lot of fun for all the five musicians. The setlist featured songs from all the four front guys with personal contributions to the band sound - melodic tunes (Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin), warm ballads (Joseph Parsons) and catchy rockers by Tom Gillam. 21 songs had been on the setlist, all originals except the two covers "Almost Saturday Night" by John Fogerty and "Barbed Wire" by Artie Traum. The latter was the final encore, a goosebumps a-capella version with all the five at the front of the stage.
The second album by the band formerly known as Cody Canada & The Departed. They are now standing on their own feet with no need to use their frontman's name anymore just to be recognized. That's why the album is called Adventus - Arrival. The band have found their identity and it's a loud one! The cover delivers an unmistakable warning: The photo of the cop with a bullet in his ear is a famous one ("Fire") by Carl Dunn, one of rock music's leading photographers with a fondness for Led Zeppelin. During a particularly loud concert in Ft. Worth, TX, the security men were advised to protect themselves using this unusual measure … Led Zeppelin have never used the picture so thanks to the friendship between Dunn and Cody Canada, THE DEPARTED were now able to put it to good use. Adventus marks a clear departure from the band's former red dirt sound, from Texas rock, roots and Americana. This is all about straight, hard, electrified rock'n'roll that'll instantly make its way straight into your ears - unless, of course, they're filled with bullets.
When Cody Canada & The Departed joined the Blue Rose roster in the spring of 2011, the band found its way into the hearts of roots music lovers right away. Loaded with roots music history and professionalism, the quintet from New Braunfels and Austin, TX won over German audiences with their debut album This Is Indian Land and their short first-ever concerts - both electric and acoustic - and a mesmerizing show at the Blue Rose Christmas Party 2011 in Berlin. This Is Indian Land presented the full range of "red dirt music" at its finest. With its mix of country, southern rock, singer/songwriter, heartland rock, boogie and guitar rock, the album left no aspect of the genre unexplored.
But the band's roots and their motivation for a project like this reach much farther back to Cross Canadian Ragweed. Like no other band "the other CCR" embodied the sound and attitude of the red dirt scene from the Stillwater, Oklahoma area, a well-known locale between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, also affectionately known as "North Austin". CCR released ten ever more successful albums between 1998 and 2009, selling more than a million records, regularly hitting the Billboard charts top ten and selling out concerts between San Francisco, NYC, New Orleans and Chicago. In Oklahoma they achieved a status that had formerly been reserved for legends like Leon Russell and JJ Cale.
A few years ago, CCR mastermind Cody Canada moved to New Braunfels, TX, disbanded the old group and put together a new team - THE DEPARTED. Unlike the Ragweed days, this time Cody Canada is not the exclusive front man/songwriter/lead guitarist always in the spotlight. In this new band, Seth James is his equal as songwriter, guitarist and lead singer. James - whose 2009 album That Kind Of Man created a stir - & Canada both play a plentitude of acoustic & electric guitars, sharing lead, rhythm and twin guitar parts. They are backed by a rock solid rhythm section in (ex-CCR) Jeremy Plato on bass and drummer Chris Doege (who recently replaced Dave Bowen). Keyboarder Steve Littleton who has played on numerous red dirt albums plays B3 organ, electric piano, clavinet and piano. Plato and Littleton share some songwriting credits on Adventus but the lion's share goes to Canada or James or the both of them together.
The opener "Worth The Fight" is an indication of the band's rock-oriented course over the next 59 minutes and 11 seconds! In a bone-dry rock production the drums hit as hard as bullets, the organ provides enormous power in the chorus before the twin lead guitars go wild. In the following songs it becomes obvious how much the last twenty months' worth of live shows have turned THE DEPARTED into a hard-hitting unit. The rhythm section is tighter than neoprene, the organ acts as a mediator between all instruments and steps out now and then while James and Canada not only trade licks and solos but also share lead vocals on a number of songs, like "Burden", "Blackhorse Mary" and the clavinet- and organ-driven "Hard To Find". On "Prayer For The Lonely" Seth James takes front and center while the powerful sound echoes Gov't Mule and the Allman Brothers Band. "Hobo", written by James and Bill Whitbeck, gives Jeremy Plato a chance to shine. Like on most CCR albums and this band's debut, he takes over the vocal mic on one song.
The intro riff to "Flagpole" is a brother to "All Along The Watchtower" but the song is an original DEPARTED number: dynamic, driving rock with irresistible hooks and energetic guitars. Track #8 "Cold Hard Fact" is the first slower number featuring acoustic guitars and Canada's harmonica, a typical, free-ranging power ballad with a glorious twin guitar finale. Seth James' cool & funky "Demons" steps on the gas again before Canada's "Set It Free" shows that he's no slouch in the funky hard rock department, either. James delivers the stomping, gospel-soul-rock song "Better Get Right" as if the entire record if not the world depended on it. Clearly his best vocal performance and an inspired guitar solo as well.
"250,000 Things" is a surprising acoustic Ragweed-style country interlude. The final, gospelish "Sweet Lord" is another example that they haven't entirely forgotten their roots. Between these songs there's "Mark It Wrong", an instrumental written by all five band members with co-producer Adam Odor - four minutes of jam-rock energy!
Adventus will be available through our webshop from November 7th on CD and vinyl, in stores across Europe as CD and download from November 27th. The digital album is exclusively available for European customers through our website already.
"Welcome once again ..." is how TOM GILLAM greets us in the booklet of his new CD Good For You - what he means with a mixture of tongue-in-cheek humor and sincerity is "Tom Gillam is good for you!" And there's no question: The likable singer/songwriter/guitarist who has migrated from the American East Coast to Austin, TX. certainly has a plentitude of fans - all over the States and thanks to a number of strong releases on Blue Rose Records and several tours over here in Europe as well. And, indeed, a new album by Tom Gillam with its infectious, positive energy and belief in the elemental value of rock'n'roll is good for us!
On a big chunk of his 9th album Tom Gillam returns to the rock-oriented electric slide guitar-dominated sound of his successful records Never look Back and Had Enough?Good For You is his 3rd Blue Rose release in 2012. It follows in the footsteps of the nostalgic 70ies country rock album Rustic Beauty and of Southern Canon, the latest studio release of his band project US Rails, a successful little "supergroup" featuring Joseph Parsons, Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin, Matt Muir and Tom Gillam.
When Blue Rose introduced Americana rocker Tom Gillam to Europe five years ago with his 4th album Never Look Back, he was practically unknown. Things have surely changed in the meantime! These days Tom Gillam in all his many facets is a prototypical purveyor of handmade, sustainable Blue Rose material. He continues to prove himself with his numerous live tours through the European club scene, be it with his band, as a solo performer, in duo configurations with Todd Thibaud or Joseph Parsons or as a member of US Rails. And also of course with his releases - there have been a whopping six on Blue Rose since 2007, two of them with US Rails.
Before, he had released three albums in the States: His 1998 debut First Of All, the follow up Dallas in 2001 and Shake My Hand in 2004. While his earlier output was clearly in the country/roots/Americana genre, he later broadened his horizons and steered toward a straighter rock direction a la Mellencamp, Hiatt, Walsh, Seger. After Never Look Back and the splendid live recording Play Loud, Dig Deep in 2008, he consolidated his status a year later with his next studio outing Had Enough? In the meantime the New-Jersey-born and Philadelphia-raised musician had moved to Texas and found a home in the creative hotbed of Austin. Around there he plays band gigs with Tractor Pull or solo shows and hosts a successful radio show on KNBT-FM, the much-loved station in the New Braunfels/San Antonio region. In "The Cosmic Power Hour" Tom cultivates his passion for 70s music by playing Poco, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Outlaws, Byrds, Manassas, the Allmans and lesser known obscurities on Sunday night.
As his 2010 anthology Better Than The Rest with rare and early material indicated, Gillam has been leaning more towards a surprisingly relaxed, predominantly acoustic sound recently. Rustic Beauty marked a return to the 70s-inspired country & roots rock of his first albums. He seemed to reserve the harder rocking, electric, blues & rock'n'roll-drenched numbers and his exquisite slide guitar playing for the US Rails project.
On Good For You with twelve new songs he finds the right balance of rough-edged midtempo numbers, snappy country rock and energetic numbers on the rock side of Americana! "Right Here, Right Now" is nothing less than a perfect opener with a solid rhythm section, rollicking e-piano and a dominant frontman in Tom Gillam with his gnarly, powerful voice - reminiscent at times of Joe Walsh, other times of Gregg Allman - and typical electric slide guitar parts. Cut from similar cloth are "Goodbye Goodtime", the southern-swampy "Put Me In The Ground", "Something's Not Right" with its affinity to Tony Joe White and harmonica fills by Lincoln Durham (who recently released his debut on Blue Rose) as well as the two closing numbers, the six-minute slow burn of "One More Time" with jam rock duels between Gillam (slide), his longtime axeman Craig Simon and US Rails keyboarder Ben Arnold, and the grand finale "You Better Be Good (To Me)".
Between these numbers there's "Last Night On Earth", a monumental hymn with 70s flair. This undeniable melody is arranged with acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer and organ, Eagles-style backing-oohs and electric twin guitars, sure to be a highlight on any Bob Seger record. The country-folky "Come The Morning" with its acoustic fiddle- and mandolin-dominated arrangement and "A Train, The Rain & Other Things" would've fit right in on Rustic Beauty. "Any Day", a melodic, R&B-flavored co-write with Ed Jurdi (Band Of Heathens) and the title track, co-written with Ben Arnold, provide a pleasant flow in the middle of this excellent CD.
These recordings were produced and mixed by US Rails colleagues Matt Muir and Ben Arnold in Maryland, thus contributing greatly to the warm atmosphere & feelgood sound. Arnold plays acoustic & electric piano and organ, Muir plays drums, both sing harmonies. On bass we hear Zach Djanikian (Ben Arnold, Amos Lee) and TJ McGlinchey, Craig Simon (Tractor Pull) plays acoustic & electric guitars, mandolin and banjo. Valerie Voulo and Lincoln Durham guest on fiddle & harmonica, respectively. But the main man is, of course, Tom Gillam, writer (or co-writer) of all songs, lead vocalist, guitarist, exquisite slide player and even part-time organist. Yes, Tom Gillam is very good for us, indeed!
After a few quiet, self-made and predominantly self-sufficiently produced albums in the last few years, the Netherlands' finest and internationally most well-respected singer/songwriter/guitarist AD VANDERVEEN is back with a new album that mines the full range of his musical abilities and demonstrates why he has become one of Europe's leading Americana artists in the last 20 years. A broad palette of sensitive folk ballads, semi-electric roots rockers and guitar-driven barn burners a la Neil Young fills this mature studio recording featuring strong session musicians from the Netherlands and England. The album lives up to its title Driven By A Dream in terms of passionate performances, accentuated songwriting, well-thought-out arrangements and a profound knowledge of country, folk and rock. And all of this sounds both handmade and contemporary. Indeed, Driven By A Dream has all the qualities necessary to make it a hit for Americana lovers on both sides of the Atlantic in the fall of 2012.
Ad Vanderveen was born in 1956 in Hilversum/Netherlands but half if his family hails from Canada. And obviously, those are the genes and influences that dominate his musical output. Since the early 90ies he's been touring the middle European club scene and later on the world. Today he is one of the few European musicians that would fit right in on the American songwriter scene along with Hank Shizzoe, Markus Rill, Iain Matthews - all of them Blue Rose artists. Ad Vanderveen is an open, communicative guy who enjoys collaborating with others. On his 20 albums and in uncountable live shows he has worked with high caliber artists like Eric Andersen, David Olney, Al Kooper, Herman Brood and Eliza Gilkyson. In recent years he has worked in a duo with his girlfriend, talented singer Kersten de Ligny, while from time to time reviving the Iain Ad Venture (with Iain Matthews). And then there's his longtime backing band The O'Neils always ready to rock and rumble in electric Crazy Horse fashion.
Almost ten years ago Blue Rose began working with Ad Vanderveen on his breakthrough album The Moment That Matters. In a latent on-and-off relationship mutual projects like Still Now (2008) and Days Of The Greats (2011) are certainly among the high points of the artist's discography. Driven By A Dream is a worthy successor in this series. Together with Kersten de Liny and his favorite rhythm section of Timon Van Heerdt (bass, slack key guitar, mandolin, backing vocals) & Roel Overduin/aka Purple O'Neil (drums), Ad traveled to legendary Rockfield Studios in Wales, a place that any rock musician should know, to work with Matt Butler, one of the most in-demand and experienced producers on the scene (Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Katie Melua, Elvis Costello and numerous other high-caliber artists). Ad's Dutch friends played on about half of the album's 11 tracks, the other songs were recorded with British musicians Simon Moore (organ), Harry Sutton (bass), Tom Hooper (drums, percussion). Ad Vanderveen is an excellent guitarist who played all acoustic & electric guitar parts as well as some piano and harmonica.
And, yes, Ad's voice does indeed remind the listener of his big idol Neil Young more than once or twice. However, even to the biggest skeptics, Ad has over the years established himself as a real alternative and individual voice in the Americana genre - with an original musical and lyrical output. His songs may deal with topics like loneliness, homesickness, loss and alienation or lighter themes like love, emotions, starting a new reltionship but there's always a special poetry about them. They are accessible yet ambitious and create an atmosphere of intimacy between artist and listener that is only enhanced by the handmade music's warm flavor.
After a short intro, Driven By A Dream takes off with the snappy rocker "Uphill" which is a sign of things to come with its beautifully balanced arrangement between acoustic and electric instruments. Tracks like "Time Has Told", the undeniable title track, the driving rocker "Wouldn't That Be A Shame", the harmonica-flavored "Will And Testament" (with beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of de Ligny) and "Calm Before The Storm" with its Western references belong to the guitar rock category. On the other hand "Rest In Peace" - again with beautiful Vanderveen/de Ligny harmonies reminiscent of Neil Young/Nicolette Larson, the easy-going "So Happy I Could Cry", the blues-inflected "Ramblin' Soul" and "Vicious Circle" with beautiful piano and acoustic guitar parts present Ad Vanderveen as a roots music seeker. And it all comes together beautifully in Bob Dylan's hymn for old Europe "When I Paint My Masterpiece" - a fitting finale to a well-tempered album.
23.10.
THE BAND OF HEATHENS - European tour in December, an entire live show for a free download now!
With a new line-up THE BAND OF HEATHENS, one of the most successful bands on Blue Rose, will return for another tour to Europe, playing shows in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands. The complete dates:
As most of you already now did one of the three front guys, Colin Brooks, leave the quintet with the end of 2011. In the midst of 2012 the rhythm section with Seth Whitney on bass and drummer John Chipman followed. So going forward, songwriting frontmen Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist are complimented by the rhythm section of drummer Richard Millsap, bassist Ryan Bowman and keyboard player Trevor Nealon. With a growing resume of key shows and broadcasts to their credit (Bonnaroo, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits TV Show and ACL Festival among them), the slightly rejiggered Band of Heathens has never enjoyed so much renown or optimism.
The question of the band's European fans is: How did the line-up influence the music of the five piece? Well, first of all everyone can answer that question in a few weeks when the band will be coming over the Big Pond for the first tour of Europewith the new line-up, second we are offering a complete live for a free download! We picked a show the band played in Seattle on August 24th - 20 songs including lots of "classics" like "Rehab Facility", "Bumblebee", "Hurricane", "L.A. County Blues", "Nine Steps Down" or "Jackson Station" among tunes never played before in Europe as "Used To Be A King", "Deep Is Love", "You Have Nice Weather" and "Transit Wind", a cover by the Mother Hips (a band who had a Blue Rose release with Kiss The Crystal Flake). If you download the show you'll realize that the Band Of Heathens is still one of the best live acts we are presenting on Blue Rose. Tickets for the European shows are on sale already, you may place an order through your local store or venue.
13.10.
It was sometime back in 1996 when we found a little note in the US music magazine "Billboard" saying that a to us unknown musician had recorded a new record, produced by another - this time familiar - musician. His name was Kevin Salem, known for his participation on the Dumptruck album For The Country and his two albums Soma City and Glimmer. An album, produced by such a great artist, can't be that bad, so we made a call to the US and asked for a listening copy. Just a week or so later the envelope with the CD landed in our mailbox and the disc immediately found the way to the CD player. After ten seconds into the opener we had been sure that never ever we'll get this record for Blue Rose. What came out of the speakers was the sound of a millionseller, released by a major record company at some point. Well, in a better world it would have been released that way, the reality was that we signed a record deal for Favorite Waste Of Time by TODD THIBAUD out of Boston, Massachusetts. The rest is history, and after sixteen years Todd Thibaud is still releasing his albums on Blue Rose. The business relationship became a true friendship, a friendship not limited to his European label but also a friendship with countless fans across Europe and Germany who are celebrating each of Todd's visit with well-attended and enthusiastic live shows.
Over all the years working with Todd we had been able to contribute a big portion of money to record his albums. However, with the decline of album sales, it wasn't possible anymore to pay advances he needed to make albums so he had to find a way to raise the missing money. He decided to go with the online fund raising platform www.pledgemusic.com and to ask his friends and fans to contribute a certain amount of money. It's not a donation in its original meaning as the "backer" or "pledger" will receive a countervalue for his contribution.
Todd is grateful for any amount receiving through this campaign as we at Blue Rose are since we had promised a lifetime record deal with him and to release his music in Europe.
29.09.
This is for all you Blue Rose fans and label collectors: We received returns from a foreign label distributor - a pretty big box of rare Blue Rose releases. Here is a - incomplete - list of what's back in the catalog:
Bottle Rockets - Live In Heilbronn/Germany July 17, 2005
Cindy Bullens - Neverland
Cindy Bullens - Live
Reto Burrell - Shaking Off Monkeys
Reto Burrell - Roses Fade Blue
Danny & Dusty - Cast Iron Soul
Julian Dawson - Hillbilly Zen
Arthur Dodge & The Horsefeathers - Room #4
Ghosthouse - Devotion
Gov't Mule - Mighty High
Hardpan - Live
The Hooblers - I Hate Folk Singers
Rich Hopkins & Luminarios - This Love's For You (DVD)
Iain Matthews - Zumbach's Coat
Mother Hips - Kiss The Crystal Flake
Elliott Murphy - Selling The Gold
Elliott Murphy - 12
Elliott Murphy & Iain Matthews - La Terre Commune
Patty Hurst Shifter - Beestinger Lullabies
Patty Hurst Shifter - Too Crowded On The Losing End
Plainsong - Pangolins
Rainravens - Best Of Rainravens
Markus Rill - Hobo Dream
Markus Rill - The Price Of Sin
Jason Ringenberg - All Over Creation
Say ZuZu - Live In Germany
The Silos - Laser Beam Next Door
Swinging Steaks - Sunday Best
Todd Thibaud - Northern Skies
Steve Wynn - What I Did After My Band Broke Up
Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 - Live Tick
31.08.
Exclusive European premier of the new video to "Siren Song" from SONS OF BILL's album Sirens on the website of German Rolling Stone music magazine!
"Burn.Flicker.Die." - that's exactly what American Aquarium want to avoid! That's probably why they wrote this motto, in fact this warning, in big letters on their new album. It is the title of their sixth release since 2006 and it will be - according to the band's optimism, their fans' enthusiasm, and the first ecstatic reviews - their breakthrough album! Burn.Flicker.Die. is destined to be the catalyst for American Aquarium's success and the album that will catapult them into the major leagues of Americana. It is also the culmination of years of hard work and dogged persistence. After six years of 250 to 300 shows a year, they pooled all their resources and started a Kickstarter campaign to create this album full of passion and musicality. Blue Rose have had their eye on the Raleigh, NC-based band for a while and have now signed them for European distribution. That should help bring 50 to 250 fans to the gigs on their next German tour as opposed to the 5 to 25 paying customers they played for a few months ago - now, that would really be a success story!
If you're a band from Raleigh, North Carolina with a disposition towards handmade songs, good musicianship, alt.country, indie rock and Americana you can't escape comparisons with precursors like the Backsliders and Whiskeytown. BJ (Bradley Justin) Barham was a disciple of both as a youth - no wonder the Ryan Adams influence is pretty obvious on the first AA albums. It's not as if the band's frontman, singer, songwriter and guitarist is in denial about it. He'll gladly tell you how much he was also influenced by Bruce Springsteen, knowing full well that he has found not only his own singing and songwriting voice in recent years but also a group of friends that have helped develop American Aquarium. And what a development that band has taken with Burn.Flicker.Die.
BJ Barham (vocals, rhythm guitar) started American Aquarium in 2005 in Raleigh with Ryan Johnson (electric lead guitar), Whit Wright (pedal steel), Bill Corbin (bass) and Kevin McClain (drums) - still the current lineup! In the meantime, keyboarders Zack Brown and/or Jay Shirley were additional band members. Their debut Antique Heart was released in 2006, The Bible & The Bottle and the EP Bones followed in 2008. A year later, the Chris Stamey-produced Dances For The Lonely was the first album to make European music lovers perk their ears. Small Town Hymns in 2010 was another improvement on all fronts with great songs like 'Hurricane', 'Reidsville', 'Rattlesnake' and 'Gone Long Gone' - all of them staples of the live set.
Now, in the late summer of 2012, Burn.Flicker.Die. brings an ever-attractive mix of American rock'n'roll with shifting focus on guitar rock, country rock, heartland rock, southern rock and a consistently high-caliber of songwriting. This time, Barham deals with a broader palette of topics: life on the road with all its consequences, small town views of small town folks, people suffering major losses in life but still hanging on to their dreams, boys starting a family still longing for their long-lost love, the temptation to drown out a generic life with drugs, pills and alcohol. There's a number of songs dealing with addiction - 'Jacksonville', 'Harmless Sparks' and the 5-minute title track. 'Casualties' - possibly the best song Barham has written - deals with walking upright in the music biz and following your dreams although it's highly doubtful they'll ever come true. This might be the best example for Barham's talent to confront darker themes with a positive attitude.
Burn.Flicker.Die was recorded in only ten days in January 2012 by engineer Jimmy Nutt at Nutthouse Studios in Muscle Shoals. The sessions were produced by none other than Jason Isbell, ex-Drive-By Trucker and now an established and successful solo artist (also on Blue Rose). Isbell enjoys collaborating with talented colleagues like Justin Townes Earle, Middle Brother and Todd Snider. Working with American Aquarium was his first production job but it came about by accident after a conversation in a Raleigh bar. The chemistry between band and producer and the loose recording atmosphere is clearly audible. Isbell adds piano, organ and guitars, sings background vocals and brought his fiancée Amanda Shires in for vocals & fiddle. Caitlin Cary (ex-Whiskeytown, Tres Chicas), Jay Shirley, Wes Lachot (from the dB's circle of friends) and Muscle Shoals veteran Spooner Oldham also guest. The strings for "Northern Lights", a ballad discussing the timeless topic one night vs the one true love, were arranged by Chris Stamey.
Next to some complex country rock numbers like the opener, the partly autobiographic 'Cape Fear River' and the epic 'Lonely Ain't Easy', there are some wonderfully simple southern rockers like the only cover, Chip Robinson's 'Abe Lincoln' (Backsliders), 'St. Mary's' with its no-holds barred attitude, 'Savannah Almost Killed Me' with lovely pedal steel and album closer 'Saturday Nights' with a strong Black Crowes-style boogie influence.
Also available at our webshop are the two previous albums of American Aquarium:
In the Austin/Texas region SHURMAN have long been a fixture on the guitar-oriented roots rock scene while over here in Europe this excellent band has yet to be discovered. Blue Rose Records start collaborating with Shurman with the release of their brand new album Inspiration. This band is another insider tip from the scene that brought us the Band Of Heathens and Deadman!
Shurman, in essence, is Aaron Beavers. Since 2001 the singer, songwriter and guitarist has been releasing albums under the Shurman moniker with varying musicians. Their straight rock'n'roll was peppered with ingredients of guitar rock, country rock and alt.Americana. Born in Texas, Beavers grew up in Hawaii and Georgia and lived in L.A. where he produced some mini-albums in a trio format with Johnny Davis on bass and his Georgia school friend Damon Allen on drums. For the 2005 album Jubilee - in large parts a re-recording of early tunes - Shurman became a quartet with Beavers, Allen, guitarist Jason Moore and new bassist Keith Hanna (Rosavelt, Tim Easton). Produced by Dusty Wakeman, the album featured guests like Ben Peeler, Doug Pettibone, Skip Edwards and Garrison Starr - names you have read in the fine print of your Lucinda Williams, Jayhawks, Dwight Yoakam, Jim Lauderdale, Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers albums, among others. This was followed by the live album A Week In The Life (2006) and a studio record, Waiting For The Sunset (2008) which was recorded in Nashville with new band members Jesse Duke on guitar and Nick Amoroso on drums. Studio cracks like Al Perkins (Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas), Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo) and Robert Reynolds (Mavericks) graced many of the album's excellent songs like 'Small Town Tragedy', 'Lonesome L.A. Blues' and 'I'm Not Crazy'.
In December 2008 Aaron Beavers moved from California to Austin, TX and started a new chapter in the Shurman history with varying musicians. Soon Shurman became a hot live act with 200+ shows a year. Regular gigs at Austin venues like the Saxon Pub and glorious SXSW appearances earned them a great reputation and a label deal with Sustain, former home of heavyweights like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Bruce Robison and Jason Boland. In a questionable move, the label re-released the last Shurman album two years later, worldwide with Universal Records, as Still Waiting For The Sunset with a different cover, one new song ("Is It True") and a re-recorded "Country Just Ain't Country".
At this point, Aaron Beavers was already working on new material and had finally gathered a line up with potential for longevity featuring Harley Husbands on stringed instruments like acoustic & electric guitar, banjo etc, bassist/vocalist Mike Therieau (Loved Ones, Mover, Dave Gleason's Wasted Days) from Oakland and drummer Craig Bagby (Dead End Angels, Austin Collins & The Rainbirds), an experienced Austinite. Together they started working on a batch of new songs in 2010 that eventually became the core of Inspiration. In the meantime, however, opening for Blues Traveler lead to frontman John Popper starting a new super group, John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours who released an eponymous debut featuring Aaron Beavers. This proved to be an internationally acclaimed, high quality project from which Beavers received a "kick of motivation". Is that where the album title 'Inspiration' comes from?
Finally, the new Shurman album is done, four years after the last studio sessions as an L.A. band with vastly different circumstances. This time around, there was no budget for an expensive production and tons of studio guests. Freed from all ties with Sustain/Universal, however, the band took their time at Austin's 3 Legged Cat Studio and came up with easily the best Shurman album so far. Stylistically diverse, the album encompasses a wide range of Americana/roots rock with their earlier Motown influences and Westcoast sound taking a backseat to Texas country rock, Southern boogie and songwriter flair. Aaron Beavers remains the band's focal point with his first-rate material and a voice that echoes Adam Duritz (Counting Criows), Tom Petty and Jay Farrar (Son Volt) at times. He can be a veritable rock shouter in one song and then bring out the emotional side of a ballad like 'Somebody Gonna Break Your Heart' in the next. For the first time, though, the other band members got involved in the writing process. Bassist Mike Therieau co-wrote six of the album's eleven tunes and wrote 'Apartment 9 Blues' on his own. He even sings co-lead vocals on that one, 'Leaving Song' and album closer 'Take A Bow'. And he does it beautifully, with a Steve Marriott or Chris Robinson-type voice.
The album's secret hero, however, is guitarist Harley Husbands who provides exquisite licks on the delicate Americana numbers like 'Back To Texas', 'Eye For An Eye' and 'Closer To The Heart' and duels with Beavers on rockers like the riff-heavy 'Novocaine Heart'. Friends of timeless, twangy country rock will love the album's opening title track, 'Hometown Judgement Day' and 'Closer To The Heart'. Every single track on Inspiration is convincing - this is guaranteed to be one of the year's strongest albums to come from Texas this year!
The Blue Rose version of Inspiration contains an impressive extra: The Retrospective Bonus CD provides gems from the band's back program like 'Red Eyes', 'Petty Song', '2 AM', 'Drownin', 'Small Town Tragedy', 'Country Just Ain't Country' and others - eleven songs taken from their previous albums and providing an overview of this Austin-via-Los Angeles combo!
Inspiration will be available through our webshop on September 1st as CD double-LP and download, at fine selected stores in Europe from mid September.
Attention treasure-hunters: This is the re-release of a true cult album of the Americana genre. The album's original version was only known to a few insiders and fans and sold out soon. Blood And Water is the second solo album of the supremely talented COLIN BROOKS, an all-around musician from Austin, Tx. who recently rose to prominence as one of the Band Of Heathens' creative forces. In late 2011, Brooks left the Heathens to pursue his solo career. But before he releases new material, let's resurrect the past with Blood And Water. It's much too strong a piece of work to stay buried.
Certainly, the Band Of Heathens were without hyperbole one of the Blue Rose label's truly great discoveries. With their exquisite and substantially strong Americana roots'n'roll made in Texas, based on first-rate songwriting, great guitar work and a careful balance of acoustic and electric material, they won over an ever-growing group of music lovers on both sides of the Atlantic. What made this band so different was that their three front men Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks - every one of them an individual with original songs, a personal guitar style and a recognizable singing voice - added up to a sum greater than its parts. In spring 2006 the group formed - at first casually - from common singer-songwriter meetings before they found a rhythm section and a functioning band concept. In 2008, Blue Rose released their eponymous debut album; two more studio albums and various live recordings followed until 2012. The quintet toured Europe several times and - thanks to their passionate performances and likeable presentation - found their way into the hearts of fans, the note books of important bookers and the "must-see" lists of many reviewers.
The end of 2011 saw a watershed moment when Colin Brooks left the band. After years of being on the road together, they disbanded after a farewell tour to pursue individual interests. John Chipman and Seth Whitney - the excellent rhythm section - are also tired of the constant touring and want to spend more time at home in Austin. And so there's a new incarnation of the Band Of Heathens gathered around Ed Jurdi and Gordy Quist. We're looking forward to hearing some new material soon.
Colin Brooks was the BOH member with the rough-hewn voice and the most proficient and versatile guitarist of the bunch. His solos on electric and slide guitars and his contributions on dobro or lap steel were always among the concert highlights. Standing on stage left, Brooks often seemed calm, perhaps introverted - certainly not a flamboyant showman. Yet he was an integral part of the songs and charismatic performer of his original songs. Like with Jurdi & Quist, there was life before the Heathens. Chippin' Away At The Promised Land was the title of his debut from 2002, a complex and rewarding album that warrants repeated listening. Brooks started it in Taos, New Mexico and finished it in Woodstock, NY before he moved to Austin, TX. He is accompanied by top musicians like Sara Lee, Harvey Jones, Tony Levin and Jerry Marotta on this bunch of dark, brooding material with rhythmic accents and beautiful acoustic slide parts on the album's atmospheric folk ballads.
And in the fall of 2005 he released this gem of an album in Blood And Water, a true masterpiece. It's almost all solo, all Colin Brooks and his sensitive, moving voice and exquisite acoustic guitar and dobro playing. An extremely captivating collection, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes powerful, always authentic! It is the album's amalgam of feeling & skill, poetry & melody and performance that makes it so irresistible. At least half of the album's twelve songs should be familiar to any Heathens fan for it contains the original, stripped-down versions of songs that became live staples like 'Heart On My Sleeve', 'Cornbread', 'Jenny Was A Keeper' and 'Motherland'. 'Water In The Sky', Wheels On The Ground' oder das Titelstück 'Blood In The Water' also became live favorites. 'This Old Guitar', 'Looking For A Man', 'All Your Love', 'All I Can Take' and 'Heavy Load' complete the track list. Supporting roles are filled by songwriter Anais Mitchell (harmonies on 'Water In The Sky'), Americana colleague Jonathan Byrd (guitar, backing vocal) and Tim Beattie (harmonica/backing vocals on 'Cornbread' and 'Jenny Was A Keeper').
This overdue re-release of Blood And Water has been re-packaged and comes (for the first-time) with a booklet including all the lyrics.
Blood And Water will be available through our webshop on September 1st as CD and LP, at fine selected stores in Europe from mid September. A digital download through our website is offered already.
We did a video shooting during this year's SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Here is 'Cornbread" - which is also available on Blood And Water.
40 years ago in 1972, when the Olympics were held in Munich and Richard Nixon was in the White House, Iain Matthews and Andy Roberts, already music business veterans, formed PLAINSONG, a ground breaking vocal harmony quartet, which lasted for exactly eleven months before musical differences brought it to a premature end. During that year they recorded the much-loved album In Search Of Amelia Earhart.
Iain moved to America for 30 years, to build a career that has now encompassed over 50 albums, ranging from solo releases to collaborations with some of the most illustrious musicians of the last 50 years. Andy played in groups for a while, Pink Floyd being the most notable, and then wrote extensively for theatre, TV and film, ending up scoring for Disney in Hollywood.
In 1990, they met again by chance and started a new phase of their collaboration. For 2 years they worked as a duo, and then in 1992 decided to rebuild Plainsong, to recapture the vocal and instrumental ideals of the original band. They recruited Mark Griffiths, a multi-instrumentalist who had been lead guitarist in Iain's celebrated band of the 1960s, Matthews Southern Comfort, and Julian Dawson, a talented singer and writer, who brought his songs, harmonica, guitar and banjo playing to the mix.
Over the next 11 years the band recorded, toured extensively in the UK and on the continent to great acclaim, and built a strong following amongst discerning lovers of acoustic music. With four experienced songwriters on board, a stream of high quality material was at hand, augmented by well-chosen covers of songs they respected.
In 2003 they released the album Pangolins, toured widely to promote it, and then - NOTHING! They were at the peak of their form for this tour, and their fans have been perplexed at the seeming silence from the four.
They certainly didn't disappear! Iain has reclaimed his life with a new marriage and a move to Holland. He has released a string of excellent CDs, progressing with his writing and fine tenor vocal in a jazz direction. Andy moved into record production and revived his work as a touring sideman with Roy Harper, Hank Wangford and members of the Bonzo Dog Band. Griff has toured the world as bass player for both Cliff Richard and The Shadows; and Julian has continued to release regular albums, and most recently became the author of a well-received biography of legendary session pianist Nicky Hopkins. With all this activity Plainsong had no chance to tour.
However, when they last worked together in 2003, an unexpected bonus had occurred. They recorded a set of songs in Holland, playing live before an invited studio audience. This thoroughly honest performance is free of the usual tricks of overdubbing and 'sweetening' that are commonplace in the artful music business - just four great voices, a whole range of superb songs in wide-ranging styles, and a fitting reminder of Plainsong at its height. Now, as a tribute to the 40 years since the original line-up, Iain, Andy, Julian and Griff are to make a farewell tour in August 2012, and to release that 'live -in-the-studio' album, now called Fat Lady Singing.
There are 19 songs on the CD, drawn from almost all eras of Plainsong's history. The satisfyingly eclectic mix spans classics such as "Yo Yo Man" and "Raider" from the Amelia album, through to many of the fine songs from Pangolins. Highlights include Andy's never before released rendition of "Charlie", a perennial live favourite, to the epic "Sloth", Iain's nod to his former colleagues in Fairport Convention. Weaving throughout all the songs are those unmistakable Plainsong vocal harmonies, Julian's evocative harmonica, Griff's searing fretless bass, Andy's Appalachian dulcimer and bouzouki, all in support of Iain's soaring voice.
The release of Fat Lady Singing on Blue Rose Records will be supported by selected live appearances in the UK, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Germany and finally Japan: a last chance to see this legendary band onstage together.
The Hill Country around Austin in southwest Texas must be blessed with fertile soil - you'd be hard-pressed to find an area that has given birth to more potent roots music in recent years. LINCOLN DURHAM is Austin's newest attraction, dressed in that primal, raw blues, fresh and youthful like it hasn't been heard in a good long while. At least not in this quality, at least not with this irresistible, tremendous power. "If you dig Son House and Townes Van Zandt ... Lincoln Durham is your man. Don't come no cooler" - so says Ray Wylie Hubbard, the great Texan blues bard. If anyone is qualified to make this assessment, it's Hubbard. After all, he produced Durham's debut album: The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones.
Durham hails from central Texas. Born in Whitney, raised in Itasca along Interstate 35, he started playing violin at age 4, took part in fiddle compositions as far away as Arkansas and Oklahoma at age 8 and won the die Texas State Youth Fiddle Championship at age 10. Like many others he switched to electric guitar in high school and tried to emulate his heroes Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It didn't take long before he discovered his interest in songwriting and his affection for old instruments like his beloved Gibson J-45. His prolific slide playing and his deep growl of a voice made him soon sound three times older than he really was. This particular sound got the attention of the musician/producer team of Ray Wylie Hubbard and George Reiff. Both had collaborated on the Band Of Heathens and Gourds-side project Shinyribs in 2008/09 as well as Hubbard's album A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment. Being very impressed with Lincoln Durham ("he's the real deal"), they persuaded him to move to Austin. After recording a 4-track EP with him, they offered to produce his first full-length album.
The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones is the brilliant result of sessions at engineer George Reiff's studio. With his wealth of experience as bassist for Jon Dee Graham, Michael Fracasso, Ian Moore, Michael Hall, Charlie Sexton, Bruce Robison, Joe "King" Carrasco and many more, Reiff certainly knows how a roots rock record made in Austin is supposed to sound. Durham is front and center with his songs, vocals and (slide) guitars; the sound is simple and au natural. Sometimes Durham also contributes fiddle and blues harp. The four EP tracks 'Living This Hard', 'Georgia Lee', 'How Does The Crow Fly' and 'Reckoning Lament' remained at their core unchanged. Drummer Rick Richards (Gurf Morlix, Slaid Cleaves, Mary Gauthier) added a dry, powerful rhythm, the whole shebang was remixed and turned into a blues'n'slide show of the highest order - not far removed from the sound that turned Seasick Steve into a phenomenon over here in Europe. And also not unrelated to the more conventional recordings of Jack White who cultivated the rudimentary guitar & drums format for a wider audience.
The seven newer tracks were also built around the guitar/vocal/percussion template but embellished with some extra contributions. Hubbard and Reiff pick up their guitars, as does Antone's house band guitarist Derek O'Brien. Jeff Plankenhorn - new member of the Resentments - plays mandolin, Bukka Allen contributes piano and on 'Trucker's Love Song' - with 'Clementine' one of the album's few ballads - accordion. Texan singer-songwriter Idgy Vaughn's voice is a beautiful counterpoint to Durham's rasp.
In the center of proceedings remains Lincoln Durham with his passionate deliverance and power of persuasion. All of his lyrics tread dark pathways between self-destruction, death and the end of the world. Before his dreams may come true, he destroys them himself: "I am both, the shovel and the howling bones. Burying while at the same time howling and contesting my own burial. It is my existence". This message - delivered in a sound that seems to come from the Mississippi Delta or the Louisiana swamps rather than the Hill Country - is sung by Durham with a mighty, deep and raw voice somewhere between Ray Lamontagne and Howlin' Wolf. The listener may also draw comparisons with James McMurtry, Chris Whitley, Ryan Bingham, Drew Landry, the Black Keys, Leon Redbone and his mentor Ray Wylie Hubbard.
There's no question: The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones is a powerful debut that'll win over blues fans and lovers of Texas songwriting at the same time.
This was long overdue! Finally, the SKYDIGGERS from Toronto, one of the best CanAmericana/roots rock bands of the last decades, has joined Blue Rose. And not once but twice. Set for release is a fine retrospective featuring the quintet's strongest numbers, The Truth About Us - A Twenty Year Retrospective. And at the same time, Northern Shore, their first studio album with all-new tracks in four years will hit the stores and online shops. This double release makes a lot of sense because while Canadian music connoisseurs may place Skydiggers on a par with Cowboy Junkies and Blue Rodeo, they are virtually unknown in Europe. Only the true cognoscenti of prairie & country rock know what a formidable outfit they are. This compilation will thus unearth high-caliber treasures while the studio album brings us to the here and now on a path into the future. The Skydiggers - the sky's the limit.
By the late 8os, Andy Maize (lead vocals), Josh Finlayson (guitars, lead vocals), Peter Cash (guitars, lead vocals), Ron Macey (bass) and drummer Wayne Stokes had enough of loud rock'n'roll and punk. They came together with the clearly defined goal of creating acoustic/electric music strong on melody, harmonies and songwriting. This kind of thing used to be called country rock or folk rock, maybe prairie rock, later alt.country or No Depression … CanAmericana seems to sum it up best. The Skydiggers were born and released their eponymous debut album with songs like 'I Will Give You Everything', 'We Don't Talk Much Anymore', 'Leslie' in 1990. Album #2, Restless from 1992, is still their most successful one. It features the cult classic "A Penny More" and the highlights "Slow Burning Fire" and "Feel You Closer". Their 3rd album Just Over This Mountain (1993) saw the first personnel change (Joel Anderson replaced Wayne Stokes on drums) and brought possibly the most impressive amalgam of the equation "Beatles + Byrds = R.E.M." and the sound of current acts like Jayhawks, Gear Daddies, Jr. Gone Wild, Pernice Brothers etc. The title track and "Pull Me Down" are culled from this album. In 1995, Road Radio brought a modern influence and songs like 'What Do You See', 'You've Got A Lot Of Nerve' and the catchy 'Radio Waves'. This was the last time, the three-part harmonies of Maize, Finlayson and Peter Cash were heard. Cash left the band to form the Cash Brothers with his brother Andrew. And, by the way, Peter von Althen took over the drum seat.
On Desmond's Hip City from '97, the hardest rocking Skydiggers album, both Peters had to be replaced. In were Paul MacLeod (guitars, keyboards) and drummer Gavin Brown. Maize and Finlayson became a more tightly-knit team co-writing all of the album's songs including "Dear Henry" (a beautiful duet with Sarah Harmer) and "November In Ontario". "The Truth About Us" was written by colleague Scott Garbe. In 1999 Still Restless - the debut album's heretofore unreleased alternative - was released, the formidable live album There And Back one year later but it took five-and-a-half years before the next all-new studio album came out: Bittersweet Harmony with Joel Anderson back on board. In 2006, Skydiggers & Cash Brothers united for an acoustic session and in 2008, City Of Sirens was released by the still-current line-up of Maize, Finlayson, Macey, keyboarder Michael Johnston and drummer Noel Webb.
The Truth About Us - A Twenty Year Retrospective is a non-chronological sampler with 22 tracks and a complete running time of 76 minutes. It contains all the previously mentioned songs. Three unreleased outtakes and three new numbers from 2009 are must-haves for completists. The set also includes a dvd with six studio recordings (The Dakota Sessions) in the current line-up: 'A Penny More', 'This Old Town', 'Alice Graham', Hello Beautiful Life', 'Dark Hollow', 'Everybody Wants'. Extensive liner notes with complete credits, Skydiggers history, track by track commentary provided by the band and accolades by Sarah Harmer, Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo) and Gord Downie (Tragically Hip) complete this beautiful compilation package.
Northern Shore is the title of the current album by Andy Maize (lead vocals), Josh Finlayson (guitars, piano, lead vocals), Michael Johnston (keyboards), Ron Macey (bass) and Noel Webb (drums, piano, organ). It features 15 versatile, ambitious and exciting tracks, recorded in three sessions in various locations, using different recording techniques. The Skydiggers are exploring new territory with the use of samples and pre-programmed beats but always find their way back to the analog, melodious folk pop/country rock sound that earned them the moniker "the Jayhawks of CanAmericana". Part of the material was recorded at Josh Finlayson's home studio with a Spartan approach of guitar/vocal/drum machine basic tracks that were embellished with various instruments, samples and loops. A second session took place at Blue Rodeo's Woodshed Studio, all live without a safety net and part three of the album was recorded in a less experimental manner. Arrangements were all worked out and carefully orchestrated in Tragically Hip's studio The Bathouse. It is no small feat of engineer/producer Saam Hashemi to make a beautifully cohesive album out of three such different recording sessions.
Northern Shore ranges stylistically from the melodramatic piano ballad of "Liar, Liar" to a fresh neo-honky tonk take on Mickey Newbury's "Why You Been Gone So Long?", from the unwieldy, beat-driven "Fire Engine (Red Explosion)" to the atmospheric "Waves" featuring accordion by Cowboy Junkies-sideman Jaro Czerwinec, from the breezy, Lindsay-Buckinghamesque pop of "The Herd" (in which Maize shows what a clssy vocalist he is) to "Deep Water (31 Mile Lake)", a Finlayson-Tom Wilson (of Blackie & The Rodeo Kings) co-write sung by Jessy Bell Smith. "Barely Made It Through" makes the hearts of longtime Skydiggers fans jump for joy: co-founder Pater Cash is back on lead vocal & guitar for this Cash Brothers number. And that's not the only Cash Brothers reference on the album. Any Maize sings Peter's ballad "Without Me" and Andrew - who is a member of the Canadian parliament these days - has contributed two songs. "You've Been Gone So Long" with its countrified, jingle-jangle arrangement sounds particularly Byrdsy. While "You'll Come Around" shows a kinship to Blue Rodeo. The album's title track "Northern Shore" is simply gorgeous, a dramatic vocal performance by Andy Maize accompanied only on piano.
One cannot help but be bowled over. A band that's been around the block, has had to deal with label bankruptcy, personnel changes, and one or two bad choices is back in top form. Northern Shore is a powerful, timely album and a great addition to the CanAmericana canon.
Forget the spring-cleaning metaphors. Though JON DEE GRAHAM chose Garage Sale as the title of his June 29 release on Blue Rose Records, the 11 songs it contains are anything but cast-offs. It's just that, unlike the tracks on his seven previous solo releases, they weren't carefully written in advance, clustered around a theme, then recorded at breakneck speed.
In fact, Graham confesses, this time around, he initially had no idea he was creating an album at all. He was simply using a generous gift from John Harvey and Mary Podio, his pals at Austin's Top Hat Recording: one day a month of studio time to spend as he pleased. He'd show up with a skeleton of an idea - or no concept at all - and they'd just experiment. (They called themselves "the Panda Project"; Graham has a thing for bears.) Before he knew it, he had several release-worthy tracks. They capture an adventurous side he allowed to surface because, he says, nothing was at stake. There was no attempt to make a statement; heck, there wasn't even a plan to expose these songs to the public.
"Six months in, we started looking at each other and no one wanted to say it, but we all realized, 'Yeah, we're making a record,'" Graham recalls. "But we didn't change the process. It was beautiful. Recording without having the clock breathing down my neck was delicious."
Though Graham regards these songs as "little orphans that all got together under their own power," there's no question they're his - and they're every bit as compelling as anything this Americana troubadour and former Skunk/True Believer/L.A. sideman (and law-school dropout) has done before.
The opener, "Unafraid," serves as what he calls "the mission statement." As cymbal taps overtake an elegiac organ and thumping kick drum, Graham declares in his famously cigarette-scratched voice, "I've pulled the thorn from the paw of the lion/I've snatched the fang from the jaw of the snake."
After raising a son with a life-threatening illness and almost losing his own life in a 2008 car crash, Graham says, "With everything I've been through, what is the point of being afraid now? I've pretty much seen the best and the worst that I and the world have to offer. And we were pretty damned fearless making this record."
Whether he's drawing on personal experience or knitting vivid imagery into starkly real tales, Graham unequivocally affirms just what a master he is at turning a melody, a beat and some words into songs filled with so much emotional intensity, they almost burn. In "The Orphan's Song," he relates, "If you need some help/Some help to see you through/Then stand next to me/And I will stand next to you. I will be your brother for tonight." In "Yes Yes," he freezes time with the line, "and somehow everything holds its breath."
Then there's "Just Like That," in which he laments that he can't freeze time: "The perfect moments, they come and go/Like days and weeks and months they go/No matter how you hold on/you think you know . . ."
Maybe that's why Graham has been working on so many different projects of late. In March, he and pals Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill - a.k.a. the Hobart Brothers & Lil' Sis Hobart - released At Least We Have Each Other. Graham also has stepped up his visual arts career after staging his first solo exhibit in 2010. With fellow musicians/artists Jon Langford (Waco Brothers, the Mekons) and Walter Silas-Humara (the Silos), Graham hopes to organize a 12-city exhibit that would include opening-night performances in each city.
Named Austin Musician of the Year at the 2006 Austin Music Awards, Graham is a three-time inductee into the Austin Music Awards Hall of Fame for his solo, Skunks and True Believers work. He also was the subject of a 2006 documentary titled Swept Away. His last solo album, It's Not As Bad As It Looks, was named for his optimistic utterance to first-responders after his accident.
But Graham's always been a glass-half-full kind of guy. And recording this album, on which he played most of the instruments himself, may have made him even more so.
"One of the things I learned was to trust my instincts and my process more than I ever have," Graham says. "It made me a lot more open . . . and I think it sounds like that, too. The scope of it, the breadth of it, is a lot wider than anything I've ever done."
Come to think of it, this album is the embodiment of a garage sale: You show up with no expectations, but with enough digging, you unearth amazing treasures.
Garage Sale is available on CD and LP at our webshop now, as download and in well selected stores over Europe.
JIM CUDDY? This great Canadian musician may not be a household name yet but friends of hand-made North American music, be it roots pop or country rock, will know his unmistakable voice for sure, probably also his knack for writing high-class, catchy songs. Jim Cuddy has been a member of Canada's finest and most consistent band Blue Rodeo (on a par with Cowboy Junkies) for more than a quarter century. Not only is he a founding member, in tandem with his partner Greg Keelor he is also frontman, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist. From time to time, Blue Rodeo go on a hiatus and the band members pursue other projects. That's when it's time for one of his rare solo albums. Skyscraper Soul is such an event - Jim Cuddy's third solo album and his European debut on Blue Rose Records.
In over 25 years Blue Rodeo have reached iconic status thanks to regular releases and sold-out concerts. At home in Canada their records are multi-platinum hit albums, in the rest of the world - including the USA - they are appreciated by insiders but rank - for some not discernible reason - as one good band among many. This may have to do with where they come from. Folks from up north are somewhat special, sometimes a little stubborn - this gives their music depth, makes it less ephemeral.
This is particularly true of Blue Rodeo who have certainly developed a unique, original style: a music in which country rock, guitar pop, rock'n'roll, acoustic folk, finely orchestrated ballads, urban pop sensibilities and rural, wide-open prairie feeling coalesce - a music for which the term CanAmericana may have been coined. Although a deliberate democratic sound which gives each band member space to stretch is an integral part of the Blue Rodeo cosmos, there is no question that Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor are the group's creative leaders and frontmen on lead vocals and guitars. All of the band's songs are credited to Keelor/Cuddy but longtime fans will have no trouble identifying whose song it really is. That's not the only reason the two of them are often referred to as the Lennon/McCartney of the CanAmericana scene. Or McGuinn/Hillman! Blue Rodeo were not only deeply influenced by the Beatles but also the Byrds.
While Greg Keelor seems rougher-edged with his usually minor-key contributions and his introverted, contrarian solo output, Jim Cuddy provides the more accessible, roots-pop-oriented side, strong on harmony and melody. In 1998, Cuddy released his solo debut All In Time, eight years later the equally excellent The Light That Guides You Home followed. Both records present a folk-rock/No Depression-type mix of The Band, Jayhawks, Whiskeytown, peppered with Blue Rodeo and Beatles elements. Scores of high-profile colleagues like Jeff Tweedy/Jay Bennett (Wilco), Andy Maize (Skydiggers), Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards and Oh Susanna guested on the album.
Now, five years later, Skyscraper Soul is Jim Cuddy's most mature, most professional, best-sounding and most versatile album to date. Not relying too heavily on country rock and sentimentality, the album is strong on big city themes, big-melody ballads about relationships and blue-eyed country soul with a high pop factor. The album opens with the title track, starting in low gear and gaining momentum along the way to a technicolor chorus with an opulent arrangement - a monument of a song. It's followed by "Regular Days", one of numerous uptempo numbers. With a fluid organ, a powerful horn section and a tapestry of acoustic and electric guitars, it becomes immediately clear: This is a full-blown, all-out production with nothing left to chance. Cuddy and his co-producers - the experienced Toronto session men Colin Cripps and Chris Shreenan-Dyck - had a clear vision of how they wanted this album to sound. This is a full-hour album with 14 fully realized, powerful tracks written by Jim Cuddy. The orchestral "Everyone Watched The Wedding" is reminiscent of the Moody Blues with its melancholic look at the royal wedding - right before "I Want You" steps on the gas. Acoustic guitars, dobro, trumpet and beautiful vocal parts with Melissa McClelland provide a romantic folk flair on "Wash Me Down". On "Watch Yourself Go Down", Cuddy demonstrates the full range of his vocal abilities. This is groovy blue-eyed soul pop at its finest, reminiscent of Hall & Oates or Steely Dan - miles away from Blue Rodeo. "Banks Of The 49" and "What Is Wrong" are candidates for any Eagles reunion album with their well-tempered guitars and classy harmony vocals. The all-acoustic, introspective "With You" provides the album with an unusual, beautiful finale - guitar, piano, harmonica, soft dabs of bass & drums - sometimes you don't need more.
Using his exquisite touring band in the studio paid off. The opulent arrangements never sound sterile or calculated but convey a live-in-the-studio feel. Colin Cripps (Bryan Adams, Junkhouse, Crashvegas, Oh Susanna, Kathleen Edwards) and Cuddy take turns on guitar, Steve O'Connor plays the often indispensable keyboards, Blue Rodeo-bassist Bazil Donovan and Skydiggers/Kathleen Edwards-Drummer Joel Anderson form the versatile rhythm section while violinist Anne Lindsay is responsible for the string arrangements. Numerous other guests on horns, strings and keyboards contribute to a luxurious, orchestral sound.
Sure, Canadians are different, special - we've mentioned this before whenever Blue Rose were close to signing an artist from the maple leaf country. This time we signed Jim Cuddy and that gets us pretty close to one of our favorites ... Blue Rodeo.
Skyscraper Soul is available on CD and LP at our webshop now, as download and in well selected stores over Europe from mid July.
26.06.
SONS OF BILL Live Acoustic EP for Free Download!
The very first night of SONS OF BILL's "Virginia Calling Tour" was a stripped-down intimate set at the Mockingbird Roots Music Hall in beautiful Staunton, Virginia. Here it is for streaming or download, only at SonsOfBill.com. Enjoy. Click the "Free Download" logo to download the entire show as a zip file.
Falling Off the Sky is the first new dB's album in a quarter-century. It's also the first in three decades to feature the band's original lineup of singer/songwriter/guitarists Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey, bassist Gene Holder and drummer Will Rigby - the same lineup that recorded the beloved early-'80s classics Stands for deciBels and Repercussion.
The North Carolina-via-New York foursome's vintage releases are now widely revered as alt-pop landmarks. "In some ways, this feels like the record that we could have made between our first and second albums," Stamey says of Falling Off the Sky. "There are, however, fewer angry songs. And more songs about transformation. It's also the first dB's album to be recorded primarily in North Carolina, which is something that we're very proud of."
The new album - produced by the band, with additional production by longtime cohorts Mitch Easter and Scott Litt - finds the seminal quartet reenergized and inspired, delivering a dozen new original songs that rank with the group's finest and most influential music.
"Our main concern was just to make a really great dB's record, one that would stand up beside our best work," Holsapple asserts. " Obviously the songs had to be good and had to fit together, and it had to sound interesting in a way that would bear repeated listening. But mainly, it was important to us that we make a record that sounds like us."
The resurgent quartet's renewed sense of purpose is apparent from the first note of the hard-crunching opener "That Time Is Gone," and drives such indelible new tunes as the liltingly romantic "Before We Were Born," the bluntly catchy "World to Cry," the jangly, bittersweet "Send Me Something Real" and the insistently tuneful "Write Back." Written and sung by drummer Rigby, "Write Back" is the first of his compositions to appear on a dB's album.
In addition to showcasing the band's formidable songwriting skills, Falling Off the Sky finds the dB's resuming the potent collective rapport that they began honing during their years growing up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
As Stamey notes, "Most bands share early memories of vans breaking down. The dB's share early memories of learning to drive, learning to do trig and learning to play hooky. We grew up drinking the same water and breathing the same tobacco-laden air."
"We all speak the same language," agrees Holsapple. "We grew up together and learned to play music together, and that shared background is always there. When the four of us got together and played together again for the first time in over 20 years, that chemistry was there waiting for us."
The future members of The dB's began playing together, in various combinations, in their teens, in such early combos as Little Diesel, Rittenhouse Square and the now-legendary Sneakers, which issued a pair of homespun EPs that were among the first American indie-rock releases to gain national attention. In 1977, Stamey moved to New York, where he became Alex Chilton's bassist and launched a short-lived yet history-making indie label, Car Records, which released solo singles by Stamey, Holsapple and by Chilton's former Big Star partner Chris Bell.
The dB's formed in the summer of 1978, when Holder and Rigby moved north to join Stamey; the group debuted with the Car single "I Thought (You Wanted to Know)"/"If and When." Holsapple came on board that October; although he initially joined as keyboardist, it wasn't long before the band's original repertoire was divided evenly between Stamey and Holsapple compositions. They soon emerged as local heroes in their adopted hometown, becoming the unofficial house band for the downtown music weekly New York Rocker, whose founder, the late Alan Betrock, became a mentor, releasing the dB's single "Black and White"/"Soul Kiss" on his Shake label in late 1979.
The dB's signed with the British label Albion and released 1981's Stands for deciBels and 1982's Repercussion, which became instant favorites among the fans, critics and college-radio programmers fortunate enough to hear them. But the fact that the albums were available only as high-priced, sparsely distributed imports kept the band from reaching a wide audience in those pre-Internet days. Although Stamey exited in 1982, The dB's released two more underexposed yet much-loved albums, 1984's Like This and 1987's The Sound of Music, before disbanding.
Stamey launched a prolific solo career, while building a far-ranging resume as producer for such acts as Alejandro Escovedo, Le Tigre and Whiskeytown. Holsapple also recorded as a solo artist, cut three acclaimed albums as a member of the New Orleans-based supergroup the Continental Drifters, and moonlighted as sideman with R.E.M. and Hootie and the Blowfish. Stamey and Holsapple also briefly reunited in 1991 for the well-received duo album Mavericks. Meanwhile, Holder unveiled his guitar skills as a member of the Wygals and served a stint as bassist with Yo La Tengo, while keeping busy as producer and engineer on projects by the likes of Yo La Tengo, Luna and Steve Wynn. Rigby demonstrated his vocal and songwriting skills on a pair of solo albums, while serving as stage and studio drummer with Steve Earle, Laura Cantrell and Matthew Sweet.
After reconvening in 2005 for a series of rapturously received reunion shows, The dB's decided to cut an album of new material. Rather than impose an artificial deadline, they allowed the project to unfold at its own pace, convening periodically for sessions at Stamey's Chapel Hill studio Modern Recording. Along the way, Holsapple and Stamey recorded another widely acclaimed duo album, hERE aND nOW, in 2009.
"We looked at it as our recording club," Stamey says of Falling Off the Sky's leisurely birth cycle, during which the band cut two dozen new songs. "The focus was always on creativity and doing what we liked, rather than trying to get it out at a particular time. We'd get together and book a few days of studio time, run through the songs a few times, and then roll tape and record several songs each day. Recording Will's song 'Write Back," with its asymmetrical phrases and Jackson Pollock organ solo, was a turning point. After that, the recording process opened up, and we became more fearless about the kinds of noises that fit in with these songs."
In addition to some distinctive guitar work from lifelong pal and former Let's Active leader Mitch Easter (who previously played with Holsapple and Stamey in the teen outfit Rittenhouse Square, and with Stamey and Rigby in Sneakers) Falling Off the Sky includes contributions from an assortment of young players and singers from the current North Carolina alt-rock community, as well as string, brass and woodwind players from local orchestras.
"We've all been through so much over the years," Holsapple notes, "and our lives outside of the band are quite different from the way they were back then. But the way that we play together, and the way we relate to each other musically, is still the same. Not having to deal with the trappings of fame and success has kept us honest. Maybe we'll never end up being household initials, but we've also never made a bad record. Our reputation is unsullied, and you can't buy that."
Falling Off The Sky is available on CD at our webshop now, as download from June 8 and from mid June in well selected stores over Europe.
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The timeless qualities of melodic craft, lyrical insight and emotional engagement that have endeared Nile to listeners around the world are prominent on American Ride, which ranks among the most powerful and personally charged work of his three-and-a-half-decade recording career. "It's pretty rockin' overall, but there are some left turns and right turns along the way," Nile says of the album. "There are songs about the rights of man, songs about freedom, songs about love and hate, songs about loss, songs about God and the absence of God, and songs about standing up for your fellow man. It's upbeat and full of life. I'm thrilled with how it came out."
In their original 1982-1990 lifespan, the Del-Lords helped to restore fans' faith in real rock 'n' roll at a time when real rock 'n' roll was in short supply. Over the course of four studio albums and countless sweat-soaked club sets, the band won widespread critical raves and earned the devotion of a large and loyal fan base around the world.
After making records for more than 50 years, this album is truly different for Taylor than all of his earlier ones. The songs were born out of a somewhat dark period for Taylor following the 2011 Norway massacre. Taylor was in the country at the time preparing to play at a festival. In the wake of the killings, he instead wrote and performed a new song, »This Darkest Day«, at a benefit in honor of the victims. The experience led to some of the most somber and serious songs of his long illustrious career. And for the first time since he was a teenager, Taylor allowed someone else - Goran Grini - to guide the project.
US RAILS is a band that can be best described in one word…HARMONY.
Somewhere Beneath These Southern Skies marks another successful milestone for The Guvs, showcasing an energetic blend of rock and soul interwoven with a distinctive modern edge. The result is a joyous 14-track offering that combines honest, heartfelt lyrics with gritty and passionate musicianship. Standout tracks “3,000 Miles”, “Don’t Give Up on Me”, and “Temptation” exemplify the band’s keen ability to effectively infuse traditional rock sounds with contemporary relevancy. Upbeat foot-stompers like “Good Luck Charm” and “Can You Feel It” conjure the familiar American rock feel that The Dirty Guv’nahs began fashioning on their 2010 Release Youth Is In Our Blood.
THE DREAM SYNDICATE was an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, active from 1981 to 1989. The band was associated with the Paisley Underground music movement. The original line-up was Steve Wynn (vocals, guitar), Kendra Smith (bass), Karl Precoda (guitar) and Dennis Duck (drums).
The 12 track set is the anticipated follow up to 2011’s Grammy Award nominated album I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive and is the first billed as “Steve Earle & The Dukes (And Duchesses).” The album is also the first to feature “The Dukes” band name since 1987’s Exit 0. The Low Highway features his live band consisting of Chris Masterson, Eleanor Whitmore, Kelley Looney, Will Rigby and Allison Moorer and was co-produced by Earle and Ray Kennedy (whose production partnership known as the “Twangtrust” was behind Lucinda Williams’ Car Wheels on a Gravel Road).
All Fired Up, which was self-produced and recorded at several studios including Sixteen Tons in Nashville, the home studios of Sundrud and Webb, Wildwood Lodge in Missouri and Sound Emporium in Nashville, shows a band that has no problem celebrating its storied past while enjoying every minute of the present. And Young explains the diversity of the material that also manages to stay cohesive.
The CD has some very diverse songs on it, from the opening number with its dark tones, "The Flying Saucer Song," to the bluegrass feel of "Outlaw You," in which Shooter addresses today's country music trend of name-dropping legends in song and singing about dirt roads, although he doesn't drop any names as to whom he's referring to in the song. The singer-songwriter says he thinks younger artists don't realize that the name "outlaw" didn't mean being a badass, but had a totally different meaning to those who wore it back then.
Todd Thibaud is a consistently convincing, reliable artist who always stays true to his musical vision. He does not change things up dramatically but finds variety in nuances of arrangement and production. After all, the consistently high quality of his songs and his mellifluous, warm voice create an irresistible and familiar atmosphere. This was already true of his first band, The Courage Brothers, in the early to mid-90ies. With his 1997 solo debut Favorite Waste Of Time, the man from Vermont made his first mark on the songwriter/pop canopy. It was followed by a slew of classic Blue Rose studio albums Little Mystery (99), Squash (00), Northern Skies (04) and Broken (08). In-between there was a very interesting extensive phase with the Hardpan super group, which brought together Joseph Parsons, Chris Burroughs, Terry Lee Hale and Thibaud for a studio and a live album and tours. More recently, he has toured and released albums with Parsons Thibaud - the debut Parsons Thibaud (07) and Transcontinental Voices (11). To mention every CD or DVD live release is practically impossible - Thibaud is a prolific man.
Not only did the crowds get more attentive, they kept getting bigger. As time went on, and the Troubadours broadened their touring circle, they moved on from tiny clubs in the more obscure corners of the Sooner state and started hitting - and selling out - prestigious venues like Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, the Firehouse Saloon in Houston and Antone's in Austin.
Uncle Lucius appeared on the Texan rock scene in the naughts, starting out as the Kevin Galloway Trio (with singer/songwriter Galloway as the central figure, Mike Carpenter on lead guitar and Hal Vorpahl on bass) until drummer Jason Armstrong joined them and they became - thanks to a grandfather's friend's name - Uncle Lucius. In the fall of 2006 they self-released their debut album Something They Ain't and played lots of gigs in the greater Austin area. It didn't take long before the four of them reached headliner status at renowned clubs like the Saxon Pub, Threadgill's and the legendary Antone's. Just in time for their second, Stephen Doster-produced album, Pick Your Head Up, new drummer Josh Greco joined them. His powerful but versatile style contributed to the band moving away from the melodic country rock of their early phase towards a groovy, funky, soul-drenched Southern rock'n'roll with roots, blues and gospel ingredients. The arrangements became markedly more electric and embroidered by horns, organ and female backing vocals. This lead to more gigs, more fans and more media attention - all the way to the Midwest, the East Coast and back home at SXSW. Musically, the band - along with new keyboarder, singer and songwriter Jon Grossman from Kentucky - put a stronger focus on exquisite, sophisticated songwriting. While main man Kevin Galloway used to provide most of the early material, songs by Hal Vorpahl and Mike Carpenter found their way into the set around this time.
In the New York of the 1970ies, Elliott Murphy was a member of the intellectual troubadour/songwriter scene that flirted with Bob Dylan and Lou Reed and the music of David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen. His peers were Patti Smith, Talking Heads, Ramones, David Johansen, and Velvet Underground. With Aquashow and the following albums Lost Generation, Night Lights and Just A Story From America he became one of the most ambitioned, hopeful singer-songwriters, sounding modern and taking on the zeitgeist - an eccentric and an individualist. Since those times of the "New Dylan" era, Elliott Murphy is no longer quite in the international media's focus as much as he could be. He left New York in the late 80s and relocated to France and opted to pursue his artistic endeavors outside of the major label mainstream. Working with smaller labels he fulfilled his artistic vision and cultivated his status as one of the last rock'n'roll bohemians. Over here in Europe he has made a name for himself with numerous albums and tours in all of the continent's worthwhile clubs as a remarkable artist and excellent entertainer. With his sonorous voice and his propensity to rock, he manages to mesmerize any audience. A thinking, well-read, literary ambitious American artist who has learned to see the ways of the world from a European point of view.
Luke Doucet is probably the greatest allround talent on the current Canadian scene, a true CanAmericana maestro as singer, songwriter, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist and producer. 20 years ago - when he was 19 - he played guitar for the great folk-pop chanteuse Sarah McLachlan. You'll find his name in the fine print of albums by McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Carolyn Mark, Captain Tractor, Oh Susanna, NQ Arbuckle, Dustin Bentall and Kathleen Edwards - he's also a member of the Blue Rodeo family. On his own records he offers a wide palette from guitar rock to cool indie pop, from CanAmericana folk to 60ies garage punk and alt. country rock. He's not only an excellent guitarist (electric, acoustic, slide, pedal & lap steel) but also well-versed on bass, drums, percussion, banjo, keyboards, harmonica and all of this in various musical styles. At heart he's a singer-songwriter but there's plenty of pop in his melodies and arrangements, and alt. prairie rock in instrumentation and aesthetics. At the start of his professional career there was the guitar/punk/garage rock trio Veal with three releases Hot Loser/96, Tilt O'Whirl/99, The Embattled Hearts/03). Since 2001 he has released three solo albums Aloha Manitoba/01, Outlaws/04, Broken (And Other Rogue States)/05, Blood's Too Rich/08 and Steel City Trawler/10, the last two as Luke Doucet & White Falcon (which featured Melissa McClelland).
Rill is not only a first-rate lyricist but a musician, performer and, essentially, a rock'n'roller. Compared to earlier records, it becomes apparent how multi-layered his music has become - on My Rocket Ship Rill stretches farther than ever before: we hear songwriter/troubadour folk, Texas country, southern rock, Muscle Shoals soul, guitar pop, roots rock, as well as traces of bluegrass and alt.folk noir. Rill has also significantly developed his musicianship. There's very little strummy acoustic guitar and harmonica happening here. Backed by The Troublemakers, Rill plays a fair amount of electric guitar, dobro and banjo (new!) and also shows new facets of his raspy drawl in creating dark atmospheres, delivering surprisingly punchy rock vocals and spoken word parts.
Sometimes there's things by the wayside you can't leave there, you just have to pick them up. And then you realize their value! The WHEELER BROTHERS' debut album Portraits is a story like this. This gem of an album has been available in the record stores of their hometown Austin, TX and at their frequent, usually sold-out live shows since the summer of 2011. But because they rocked SXSW in March 2012, swept the Austin Music Awards with five wins and their album has been on heavy rotation at the Blue Rose headquarters ever since, the label finally decided to release it in Europe - better late than never!
Thanks to the recent cooperation between Blue Rose and the innovative, stylistically diverse Six Shooter label from Canada, JENN GRANT, one of the most exciting artists currently on the CanAmericana/folk/rock/Indie Pop scene is new on Germany's #1 roots music label. The Beautiful Wild is the fourth album of this versatile musician from Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the eastern coast of the North American continent. Jenn Grant is not as popular as her colleagues Leslie Feist, Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards or Carolyn Mark (yet) but The Beautiful Wild certainly has all the qualities to change this!
Thanks to the new cooperation between Blue Rose and the innovative, stylistically diverse Six Shooter label from Canada, AMELIA CURRAN is - next to Jenn Grant - the second CanAmericana artist from Halifax, Nova Scotia on Germany #1 roots music label. Spectators is this singer/songwriter/guitarist's sixth album. Her style could roughly be labeled as "folk and way beyond" but the truth is she cannot be confined by neat boundaries and frequently borrows from indie pop or takes excursions to alt. Americana sounds.
The Blue Rose label's own super group US RAILS (featuring Joseph Parsons, Tom Gillam, Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin, and Matt Muir) has set its sights on not being a more than just short-lived entry in rock history and on gaining new fans and consolidating its cult status.
When Cody Canada & The Departed joined the Blue Rose roster in the spring of 2011, the band found its way into the hearts of roots music lovers right away. Loaded with roots music history and professionalism, the quintet from New Braunfels and Austin, TX won over German audiences with their debut album This Is Indian Land and their short first-ever concerts - both electric and acoustic - and a mesmerizing show at the Blue Rose Christmas Party 2011 in Berlin. This Is Indian Land presented the full range of "red dirt music" at its finest. With its mix of country, southern rock, singer/songwriter, heartland rock, boogie and guitar rock, the album left no aspect of the genre unexplored.
On a big chunk of his 9th album Tom Gillam returns to the rock-oriented electric slide guitar-dominated sound of his successful records Never look Back and Had Enough? Good For You is his 3rd Blue Rose release in 2012. It follows in the footsteps of the nostalgic 70ies country rock album Rustic Beauty and of Southern Canon, the latest studio release of his band project US Rails, a successful little "supergroup" featuring Joseph Parsons, Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin, Matt Muir and Tom Gillam.
Ad Vanderveen was born in 1956 in Hilversum/Netherlands but half if his family hails from Canada. And obviously, those are the genes and influences that dominate his musical output. Since the early 90ies he's been touring the middle European club scene and later on the world. Today he is one of the few European musicians that would fit right in on the American songwriter scene along with Hank Shizzoe, Markus Rill, Iain Matthews - all of them Blue Rose artists. Ad Vanderveen is an open, communicative guy who enjoys collaborating with others. On his 20 albums and in uncountable live shows he has worked with high caliber artists like Eric Andersen, David Olney, Al Kooper, Herman Brood and Eliza Gilkyson. In recent years he has worked in a duo with his girlfriend, talented singer Kersten de Ligny, while from time to time reviving the Iain Ad Venture (with Iain Matthews). And then there's his longtime backing band The O'Neils always ready to rock and rumble in electric Crazy Horse fashion.
With a new line-up THE BAND OF HEATHENS, one of the most successful bands on Blue Rose, will return for another tour to Europe, playing shows in Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, and The Netherlands. The complete dates:
It was sometime back in 1996 when we found a little note in the US music magazine "Billboard" saying that a to us unknown musician had recorded a new record, produced by another - this time familiar - musician. His name was Kevin Salem, known for his participation on the Dumptruck album For The Country and his two albums Soma City and Glimmer. An album, produced by such a great artist, can't be that bad, so we made a call to the US and asked for a listening copy. Just a week or so later the envelope with the CD landed in our mailbox and the disc immediately found the way to the CD player. After ten seconds into the opener we had been sure that never ever we'll get this record for Blue Rose. What came out of the speakers was the sound of a millionseller, released by a major record company at some point. Well, in a better world it would have been released that way, the reality was that we signed a record deal for Favorite Waste Of Time by TODD THIBAUD out of Boston, Massachusetts. The rest is history, and after sixteen years Todd Thibaud is still releasing his albums on Blue Rose. The business relationship became a true friendship, a friendship not limited to his European label but also a friendship with countless fans across Europe and Germany who are celebrating each of Todd's visit with well-attended and enthusiastic live shows.
BJ Barham (vocals, rhythm guitar) started American Aquarium in 2005 in Raleigh with Ryan Johnson (electric lead guitar), Whit Wright (pedal steel), Bill Corbin (bass) and Kevin McClain (drums) - still the current lineup! In the meantime, keyboarders Zack Brown and/or Jay Shirley were additional band members. Their debut Antique Heart was released in 2006, The Bible & The Bottle and the EP Bones followed in 2008. A year later, the Chris Stamey-produced Dances For The Lonely was the first album to make European music lovers perk their ears. Small Town Hymns in 2010 was another improvement on all fronts with great songs like 'Hurricane', 'Reidsville', 'Rattlesnake' and 'Gone Long Gone' - all of them staples of the live set.
In December 2008 Aaron Beavers moved from California to Austin, TX and started a new chapter in the Shurman history with varying musicians. Soon Shurman became a hot live act with 200+ shows a year. Regular gigs at Austin venues like the Saxon Pub and glorious SXSW appearances earned them a great reputation and a label deal with Sustain, former home of heavyweights like Ray Wylie Hubbard, Bruce Robison and Jason Boland. In a questionable move, the label re-released the last Shurman album two years later, worldwide with Universal Records, as Still Waiting For The Sunset with a different cover, one new song ("Is It True") and a re-recorded "Country Just Ain't Country".
Certainly, the Band Of Heathens were without hyperbole one of the Blue Rose label's truly great discoveries. With their exquisite and substantially strong Americana roots'n'roll made in Texas, based on first-rate songwriting, great guitar work and a careful balance of acoustic and electric material, they won over an ever-growing group of music lovers on both sides of the Atlantic. What made this band so different was that their three front men Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist and Colin Brooks - every one of them an individual with original songs, a personal guitar style and a recognizable singing voice - added up to a sum greater than its parts. In spring 2006 the group formed - at first casually - from common singer-songwriter meetings before they found a rhythm section and a functioning band concept. In 2008, Blue Rose released their eponymous debut album; two more studio albums and various live recordings followed until 2012. The quintet toured Europe several times and - thanks to their passionate performances and likeable presentation - found their way into the hearts of fans, the note books of important bookers and the "must-see" lists of many reviewers.
In 1990, they met again by chance and started a new phase of their collaboration. For 2 years they worked as a duo, and then in 1992 decided to rebuild Plainsong, to recapture the vocal and instrumental ideals of the original band. They recruited Mark Griffiths, a multi-instrumentalist who had been lead guitarist in Iain's celebrated band of the 1960s, Matthews Southern Comfort, and Julian Dawson, a talented singer and writer, who brought his songs, harmonica, guitar and banjo playing to the mix.
The Hill Country around Austin in southwest Texas must be blessed with fertile soil - you'd be hard-pressed to find an area that has given birth to more potent roots music in recent years. LINCOLN DURHAM is Austin's newest attraction, dressed in that primal, raw blues, fresh and youthful like it hasn't been heard in a good long while. At least not in this quality, at least not with this irresistible, tremendous power. "If you dig Son House and Townes Van Zandt ... Lincoln Durham is your man. Don't come no cooler" - so says Ray Wylie Hubbard, the great Texan blues bard. If anyone is qualified to make this assessment, it's Hubbard. After all, he produced Durham's debut album: The Shovel Vs. The Howling Bones.
This was long overdue! Finally, the SKYDIGGERS from Toronto, one of the best CanAmericana/roots rock bands of the last decades, has joined Blue Rose. And not once but twice. Set for release is a fine retrospective featuring the quintet's strongest numbers, The Truth About Us - A Twenty Year Retrospective. And at the same time, Northern Shore, their first studio album with all-new tracks in four years will hit the stores and online shops. This double release makes a lot of sense because while Canadian music connoisseurs may place Skydiggers on a par with Cowboy Junkies and Blue Rodeo, they are virtually unknown in Europe. Only the true cognoscenti of prairie & country rock know what a formidable outfit they are. This compilation will thus unearth high-caliber treasures while the studio album brings us to the here and now on a path into the future. The Skydiggers - the sky's the limit.
In fact, Graham confesses, this time around, he initially had no idea he was creating an album at all. He was simply using a generous gift from John Harvey and Mary Podio, his pals at Austin's Top Hat Recording: one day a month of studio time to spend as he pleased. He'd show up with a skeleton of an idea - or no concept at all - and they'd just experiment. (They called themselves "the Panda Project"; Graham has a thing for bears.) Before he knew it, he had several release-worthy tracks. They capture an adventurous side he allowed to surface because, he says, nothing was at stake. There was no attempt to make a statement; heck, there wasn't even a plan to expose these songs to the public.
In over 25 years Blue Rodeo have reached iconic status thanks to regular releases and sold-out concerts. At home in Canada their records are multi-platinum hit albums, in the rest of the world - including the USA - they are appreciated by insiders but rank - for some not discernible reason - as one good band among many. This may have to do with where they come from. Folks from up north are somewhat special, sometimes a little stubborn - this gives their music depth, makes it less ephemeral.
The dB's formed in the summer of 1978, when Holder and Rigby moved north to join Stamey; the group debuted with the Car single "I Thought (You Wanted to Know)"/"If and When." Holsapple came on board that October; although he initially joined as keyboardist, it wasn't long before the band's original repertoire was divided evenly between Stamey and Holsapple compositions. They soon emerged as local heroes in their adopted hometown, becoming the unofficial house band for the downtown music weekly New York Rocker, whose founder, the late Alan Betrock, became a mentor, releasing the dB's single "Black and White"/"Soul Kiss" on his Shake label in late 1979.