Sound Cloud Sunday – April 22, 2018
Sound Cloud Sunday April 22, 2018 Episode 12 – Laurel Canyon Radio
While we may be featuring several artists from England, several from Nashville and a couple more via LA, you’ll find this week’s episode of Sound Cloud Sunday surprisingly eclectic. From the confrontational word-salad polemic folk of newcomer Maxwell Putnam to the woozy 70s era pop funk of Madrid-based Morgan, Laurel Canyon in the 1970s, as it is today, was a treasure trove of genre hopping independent minded singer songwriters who experimented up and down the chain of command from country to pop to folk to prog to jazz and beyond. It wasn’t until the price of cocaine got expensive in the mid 1970’s that musicians were required to sellout to their commercial influences/benefactors by sheer necessity. In this era of Sound Cloud DIY, we’ve got bands stirring their backgrounds and influences into a beautiful groovy melting pot that this week, is boiling over the stove.
The Weeks – Hands on The Radio
Hometown: Jackson, MS
Album: From their 2017 album “Easy” on Lightning Rod Records
Review Snippet: The Weeks dare to make music that they enjoy and to remind us that indie rock is still rock n’ roll. With Easy’s blend of uptempo scorchers with sticky blues-inspired funk, and it strikes just the right balance between diversion and brooding making it easy to get down and dirty to their throwback-meets-modern style.
Web Site: http://theweeksmusic.com/
Whiskey Wolves of The West – Lay That Needle Down
Hometown: Nashville
Album: Their debut album “Country Roots” on Rock Ridge Music just released in March.
Review Snippet: Nashville-based country/Americana outfit Whiskey Wolves of the West released its debut album, Country Roots via Rock Ridge Music. With a sound that is something that can only be earned by a thousand nights in smoky bars and a million miles on bald bus tires, the Whiskey Wolves are disciples at what could be the last supper of country music. A concisely focused, seven-track melting pot of an album-with tunes that are high and lonesome, yearning and dark, twangy and gritty and oh-so-satisfying-Country Roots features the dynamic songwriting and performing tandem of Tim Jones (vocals, guitar) and Leroy Powell(vocals, guitar, bass, pedal steel, clavinet, keys, harmonica), two prime progenitors of the new Nashville sound.
Web Site: https://www.whiskeywolvesofthewest.com
Willie Breeding (with Caitlin Rose) – Prague Spring
Hometown: Richmond, KY
Album: Check out CD Baby for a couple of EPs. This is a new single.
Review Snippet:: The hooks of this Kentucky native’s songs cut immediately and don’t let up until the last note. Willie’s remarkably good sorrow-laden voice is bait, and we are hungry fish.”
Website: https://www.williebreedingmusic.com/
O&O – Traveling
Hometown: London (via Colorado and Israel)
Album: This is one of two singles (released last June)
Review Snippet: O&O’s sound is the perfect blend of traditional/retro-pop country, Americana and Folk music with a fresh sound which is incredibly relaxing and instrumentally brilliant. Obadiah and Orian’s vocals blend beautifully together creating the perfect harmonious sound.
Website: http://www.oandoduo.com/
Greg Russell and Ciaran Alger – Seven Hills Home
Hometown: Chester/Stoke, Ireland
Album: From the album “Utopia And Wasteland” just out on Rootbeat Records
Review Snippet: Utopia And Wasteland is the mature work that we can now start to expect from the Russell & Algar combination. Russell the astute songwriter. Algar the ever evolving multi-instrumentalist and embellisher of songs. As a duo, they are steadily evolving into giants (let’s face it, Ciaran already has a head start) of the folk world.
Website: http://www.russellalgar.co.uk/
Frances Luc Accord – Something Moving
Hometown: South Bend, IN
Album: From their self-released 2016 album “Fluke”
Review Snippet: AN ECHO OF SIMON & GARFUNKEL, THE QUIRKY WEIRDNESS OF SUFJAN STEVENS, AND THE MELODIC PROGRESSION OF JOSH RITTER…FLA HAVE TAKEN ALL OF THIS AND TURNED IT INTO SOMETHING ENTIRELY UNIQUE.”
Website: http://franceslukeaccord.com
Have Mercy Las Vegas – St. Peters Blues
Hometown: West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, UK
Album: A self-released single from 2016.
Review Snippet: Think deep Scottish roots, razor sharp Americana, trad and contemporary Appalachia embellished with touches of folk and country blues – do that and you’re halfway there. To complete the picture, add blisteringly tight musicianship and perfectly interlaced harmonies.”
Website: https://www.facebook.com/pg/HaveMercyLasVegas/
Mipso – Take Your Records Home
Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC
Album: “Edges Run” (their fourth album – out April 6 on Antifragile Music
Review Snippet: It takes all kinds, as they say, and all kinds can find something to like in Mipso. They pull from bluegrass, country, pop, old-time, jazz, and other influences to concoct a sound that’s all their own, and getting stronger with every album.
Next Time in LA: April 24 at the Troubadour.
Website: https://www.mipsomusic.com/
Sunny War – If It Wasn’t Broken
Hometown: Los Angeles via Nashville
Album: From her 4th album “With The Sun” (just out on Henhouse Records)
Review Snippet: She eventually made her way to LA, where she became a regular street performer in Venice. On this new album, fiddler Nikita Sorokin, guitarist Milo Gonzalez, and percussionist Micah Nelson join her as she delivers emotionally crystalline poems wrapped in the spare, haunting rhythms and riffs of her chamber folk music.
Website: http://www.sunnywar.com/
Maxwell Putnam – Talkin November Blues
Hometown: Nashville via New York City
Album: Debut Album “Ode To A Tinhorn” on Bandcamp
Review Snippet: Diced in NYC, sauteed in the Catskills, burnt in Nashville. served with homefries.
Website: https://maxwellputnam.bandcamp.com/
Morgan – Another Road (Getting Ready)
Hometown: Madrid, Spain
Album: From their second album “Air” released in March on North Records.
Review Snippet: From the band…We are from Madrid (Spain), we put the band together on 2012 although we didn’t start recording our first album (North) until 2015… At the begining we were just three, Ekain (drums), Paco (guitar) and Nina (vocals, keyboards). It’s funny ’cause Paco and Ekain met nearby you, on 2005 in L.A., while studying at Musicians Institute.
So, Ove (bass) and David (keys) helped us with the recording of our first album and they stayed in the band from then on.
We’ve been touring in Spain since (even played in Brasil and London for different reasons) and now we just released our second album (Air), so we’ll keep on with the tour for at least a year. We’ll be in music festivals like Mad Cool (Pearl Jam, Artic Monkeys, Jack White, etc), O Son Do Camiño (Lenny Kravitz, Jamiroquai,..) or BBK (Florence and the Machine, Chemical Brothers,..) all of them in Spain.
The reason why we decided to go in English is because Nina’s influences (she writes the lyrics and the music) that we all share. We’ve been listening to american and english music all our lives and it really comes natural to do it that way ourselves, as strange as that can sound. Here in Spain is more a problem than an advantage, cause everybody here expect us to switch to spanish. But we try to make a decent work even if it’s not our language and well, we just try to enjoy the music.
Website: https://wearemorgan.com/
Sean Rowe – I’ll Follow Your Trail
Hometown: Troy, NY
Album: “New Lore” on Anti/Epitaph (his 6th solo album)
Review Snippet: New Lore confirms Rowe’s status as one of Americana’s most compelling and distinctive artists and, even with his imposing mountain man appearance, a sweet, warm hug for sore ears.
Website: http://www.seanrowe.net/
Ruen Brothers – All My Shades of Blue
Hometown: Scunthorpe, England
Album: “All My Shades of Blue” (their debut album is out June 1 on Ramseur Records)
Review Snippet: Blessed with a gift for melody and a deep understanding of what made early rock ‘n’ roll so powerful and infectious, the duo creates stunning pop gems with seeming ease. Influenced by Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers, the Ruen Brothers know how to create soaring pop anthems riven through with a poignant sense of melancholy and nostalgia. The group’s sound is based on classic pop songwriting, and it’s sophisticated and fully formed.
Website: https://ruenbrothers.com/
Kieren Kane and Rayna Gellert – Miles
Hometown: Nashville
Album: “The Ledges” (their debut album) on Dead Reckoning Records
Review Snippet: A new school master of old time music, Rayna Gellert, partners with Americana godfather Kieran Kane.
They gather in an upstate New York bunkhouse, with fiddles, banjos, guitars, Kieran’s famed octave mandolin, five microphones, and vague directives, and they emerge with songs that edify and fascinate.
The certainty of decades melds with discovery’s first blush, in a whirl of tune, tone, touch, and timing. All of this happens along the banks of the Great Sacandaga Lake, in an area known as “the Ledges,” where rocks meet deep water.
And it’s all a marvel of rhythm, melody and harmony, at once unsuspected and ordained, containing a level of assured simplicity that can only be attained by those capable of roaring complexity.
Anyway, this thing is at once gorgeous and funky, easy and pulsating, luminous and flannel.
Website: https://www.kanegellert.com/
Rex Orange County – Loving Is Easy
Hometown: Haslemere, UK
Album: “Apricot Princess” his second album is to be self-released April 26.
Next Time in LA: August 13 and 14 at the Honda Theatre in Hollywood and August 12 at the Observatory in Santa Ana.
Review Snippet: In case you weren’t aware, the 19-year-old is a talent to be in awe of. Last year he released his debut collection of songs, ‘bcos u will never be free’ and followed it up with ‘Apricot Princess’ – a stunning collection of jazzy, piano ballads and intimate love songs
Website: https://soundcloud.com/rexorangecounty
