Sound Cloud Sunday – February 3, 2019 (Episode 38)
Sound Cloud Sunday February 3, 2019
Yeah, it’s Super Bowl Sunday at Laurel Canyon Radio, and apparently, unbeknownst to me, we Angelenos have a dog in this hunt, so when you’re done over at halftime (who is performing anyway? Lady Gaga? Ariana Grande? Paul McCartney? It’s always someone like that. Anyhoos, when you are done with the super bowl, come and listen to this week’s collection of Super Bowl performers (it could be any of them, never you mind). Special attention to the band The Other Favorites featuring Josh Turner and Carson McKee….while their original material is top notch (two tracks are featured here), their interpretations from everything from The Beatles and The Eagles to gospel, r&b, standards and everything in between is a sight to behold over on their You Tube Channel — click here — . Such fine unpretentious musicians affirm my love for music. Good stuff all around.
Mike Mayfield – Hard Up
Hometown: London, UK
Album: .From his debut ep “Hard Up” out February 8 on Beattchain Records.
Review Snippet: A talented modern soul artist, Mike cites John Mayer, Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and Emily King as his major influences.
Website: https://mikemayfield.co.uk/
Junius Meyvant – High Alert
Hometown: Westman Island, Iceland
Album:. From his second album “Across The Borders” released January 25 on Glassnote Music.
Review Snippet: Júníus Meyvant’s afflicted, concise, melodic and rich take on freaky folk pop has a highly familiar and soulful feel to it and a hint of attitude. Júníus’ wide sound pallet is all embracing and made up with his sultry voice, sizzling guitars, pummeling rhythms topped with washes of horns, synths and mellotron. Drawing comparisons to Sam Cooke, Charles Bradley, The Rolling Stones and Devendra Banhart the thirty something musician has a few singles, one EP and one LP under his sleeve.
Website: http://juniusmeyvant.com/
Leyla McCalla – Penha
Hometown: New Orleans via New York
Album: From her third album “The Capitalist Blues” released January 25 on Jazz Village Records.
Review Snippet: Leyla McCalla is a New York-born Haitian-American living in New Orleans, who sings in French, Haitian Creole and English, and plays cello, tenor banjo and guitar. Deeply influenced by traditional Creole, Cajun and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk, her music is at once earthy, elegant, soulful and witty — it vibrates with three centuries of history, yet also feels strikingly fresh, distinctive and contemporary.
Next Time In LA: Performing February 6 at Zebulon in LA.
Website: https://leylamccalla.com/
King Calaway – World For Two
Hometown: England and US
Album:. Their debut EP and single were released January 25 on Stoney Creek Records.
Review Snippet: There’s no lead singer here. No singular star. Instead, Jordan, Chad and Simon all share frontman duties, backed by thick, multi-part harmonies from Chris, Caleb and Austin. The result is a layered vocal sound that nods to the band’s influences, including the Eagles, Keith Urban, and Ed Sheeran. And just like the Eagles, every member of King Calaway is also an adept, well-rounded musician, from the guitar-playing Caleb — who became a professional studio musician at 13 years old — to Austin, a highly trained bassist who toured the world with multiple acts before joining King Calaway. Simon first earned an audience at home in Gibraltar, with his expressive piano playing and pop-oriented songwriting, while Jordan — a Scottish multi-instrumentalist who played drums before becoming one of King Calaway’s main vocalists — played packed shows in London, Edinburgh, and beyond. And then there’s Chad, a lifelong vocalist whose past includes theater productions and cross-country gigs, as well as Chris, who played drums for performances on the CMA Awards with artists such as Steven Tyler and Jennifer Nettles before keeping time for King Calaway.
Website: https://www.kingcalaway.com/
Lula Wiles – Leave Me Now
Hometown: Boston
Album: Their second album “What Will We Do” was released last week on Smithsonian Folkway Records.
Review Snippet:In carrying on the folk ritual of innovation, they infuse their songs with distinctly modern sounds: pop hooks, distorted electric guitars, and dissonant multi-layered vocals, all employed in the service of songs that reclaim folk music in their own voice.
Web Site: http://www.lulawiles.com/
The Other Favorites – The Ballad Of John McCrae/Solid Ground
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Album: From their third album, “Naysayer” self-released in June.
Review Snippet: Carson McKee and Josh Turner (aka “Josh Turner Guitar” not the country singer) are among the most talented songwriters and arrangers in this genre. This album effortless covers a lot of musical territory–Tom Petty style rock, Nickel Creek style new grass, Simon and Garfunkel style folk, and even some contemporary chamber music. You can find videos of several of the tracks on Youtube. Give them a listen, and you may just join their growing fan base.
Next Time in LA: July 3 – Laurel Canyon Radio is in talks with their management to sponsor this show location TBA.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/theotherfavoritesFB/
Steve Gunn- Chance
Hometown: New York via Landsdowne, PA
Album: From his 5th album “The Unseen In Between” released January 18 on Matador.
Review Snippet:St eve has steadily processed his inspirations into a singular, virtuosic stream. Close listening reveals the influence of blues, folk, ecstatic free jazz, and psych in his continually unfolding output.Next Time in LA: February 9 at the Teragon Ballroom.
Website: http://www.steve-gunn.com/
Aubrey Eisenman And The Clydes – Livewire
Hometown: Asheville, NC
Album: Their fourth album “Bowerbird” will be released in March on Traviana Records. This is the new single.
Review Snippet: “Livewire” is the first single from the band’s upcoming album, Bowerbird on Travianna Records. It was written by Aubrey and is a supercharged, progressive and grassy tune that tells about two lovers traveling the country together. Aubrey provides the lead vocals with Justin and John providing the harmony. It’s got a slick mandolin kick off, tasteful fiddle and mandolin fills, strong rhythm, killer breaks, Aubrey’s easy vocal, and on-point harmonies. What more could a bluegrass and Americana music lover want?
Website: http://clydesonfire.com/
Craig Bickhardt – One Little Light
Hometown: Philadelphia
Album: From his latest album “Home For The Harvest” released last August on Stone Barn Records.
Review Snippet: “With his latest release, HOME FOR THE HARVEST, Craig Bickhardt demonstrates that folk music needn’t be musically dull or iterative. Always in search of forms that challenge not only his songwriting abilities but also his considerable guitar chops and vocal skills, Bickhardt’s accessible style is nearly unparalleled in the genre today. There are singers and there are pickers and there are song poets, but very few do all three as well as this.”
Pick up your copy today!
Website: http://www.craigbickhardt.com/
Six Mile Grove – Million Birds
Hometown: Rochester, MN
Album: Title track from their seventh album released January 26 on Renas Kitchen Music.
Review Snippet: Six Mile Grove honors its roots; you’ll catch the influences of MN music’s best – from Bob Dylan to the Jayhawks – but has also forged its own sound and space on a stage. Their longtime friendship and touring with legendary Johnny Cash guitarist Bob Wootton affirmed their uncompromising commitment to their Americana artistry and musicianship. Now released on
Website: https://sixmilegrove.com
The Sisterhood Band – Doors
Hometown: Nashville
Album: From their EP Summer Set List on Sony Nashville.
Review Snippet: Ruby Stewart is Rod Stewart’s daughter. Alyssa Bonagura is the daughter of Kathie and Michael Bonagura of Bailie And The Boys.
Website: https://www.thesisterhoodband.com/
Rustin Man – Our Tomorrows
Hometown: Southend on the Sea, UK
Album: From the album “Drift Code” out February 1 on Domino Recording.
Review Snippet: … There’s an appealing woodiness to it, not just to Webb’s attractively weathered voice, but to the warm and rich arrangements, where brass, keys and Lee Harris’s subtle, limber drumming propel the songs back and forth between psychedelia and folk: The World’s in Town occupies a place not dissimilar to the one Pink Floyd sometimes occupied in the 1970s, on those surprisingly intimate, lazy ballads. Drift Code has sturdy songs, which are in turn given a patina of age by the way Webb has recorded them. It’s not so much that something like Our Tomorrows sounds as if it could have been recorded in 1971, more that it seems to exist in a time of its own. Occasionally, one is reminded of Broadcast at their most pastoral, for that same determination to find or found some timeless folk tradition of their own. It’s gorgeous.
Website: https://www.rustinman.com/
Taylor Kingman – Wannabe
Hometown: Portland, OR
Album: Title track from his debut album released on Mama Bird in 2017
Review Snippet: Taylor Kingman makes music that resets the clocks. You know the feeling of standing beneath a trestle on a hard day, a can of cheap beer, flicking a lighter and dreaming up wild ideas until a heavy train comes thundering overhead and you scream and scream until your voice gives out and you feel lighter? That’s the thing that lives deep in Taylor’s songs. There’s something so rubbed-raw honest and drunken-truth about them. You can’t help but be transfixed and transformed.
Next Time in LA: March 27 at Saint Rocke in Hermosa Beach.
. . Website: https://www.taylorkingman.com/
Joshua Ray Walker – Canyon
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Album: First single from his debut album released January 18 on State Fair Records (Wish You Were Here).
Review Snippet: His name is Joshua Ray Walker, and he’s from Dallas, TX. And with his debut album he’s slinging out the deep and ugly gut bucket country blues with enough brokenhearted bad times and broke bad regrets to get you curled up in a fetal position and sobbing like a little girl on the cold, hard, sawdust floor in that good kind of country music way you crave.
This is music that sounds like it’s oozing out of a grease-stained 70’s truck stop every time a lot lizard or gear jammer opens and shuts the door. This is music that makes you palpably feel the raw emotions of run down life and ragged dreams with no perfumes or filters to soften the pain, yet underneath the dirt and stink are these sad poetic notions that speak to the wisdom behind a life hard lived.
Album: New single from the album “ Wish You Were Here” released January 25 on State Fair Records.
Website: http://www.joshuaraywalker.com/
The Way Down Wanderers – Crooked Pines
Hometown: Bloomington, IL
Album: From the album “Illusions” out February 22.
Review Snippet: “We don’t consider ourselves folk artists or bluegrass players so much as we consider ourselves song-writers. We try to convey ideas and experiences that are universally meaningful to people. To us, the music and instrumentation exists to move those ideas forward and lift them up; we try not to limit ourselves to one genre of music or any specific type of instrumentation because certain songs might call for something else … keys or an electric guitar, for instance.”
The band’s forthcoming sophomore album, produced and engineered by Grammy winning industry pro, David Schiffman, underscores that sentiment with songs that address love, loss and personal evolution. Framed by instrumentation that ranges cohesively from pop to americana to bluegrass to spoken word, the lyrics find a familiar place in a listeners’ heart and mind and the melodies, often powerfully framed by 3 part harmonies, hold them firmly in place. The result is 12 stirring songs that listeners will be drawn to again and again, as relatable and inspiring as they are catchy and uplifting.
Often referred to by fans as one of the hardest-working, hardest-touring bands on the circuit today, the 5-piece Illinois-based act not only proves that classification with their jam-packed tour schedule but also on stage every night, with youthful exuberance and a lively stage show, as reliable as it is infectious. High energy percussion, mandolin, guitar, bass, banjo and fiddle weave seamlessly together to create an experience for fans that has sold out shows across the UK and the United States, filling the front rows with fans not just singing along to one tune, but singing along to all of them. “Everybody says it. We’d be nothing without our supporters. Yeah, they buy tickets and of course we love that, but when we’ve been on the road for 10 hours and walk onto a stage road weary and we see familiar faces singing along, it’s hard to describe. It’s everything, really. There’s a whole lot of love there.”
Website: https://thewaydownwanderers.com/
