Sound Cloud Sunday – January 19, 2020
Sound Cloud Sunday January 19, 2020
Our first new episode of the decade and we had four months of great music to choose from. Enjoy this show live on Sunday at 3pm and then click for it below after that!
The Wolff Sisters – Train In The Valley
Hometown: Boston
Album: From the album “Queendom Of Nothing” self-released last October 1.
Review Snippet: Gritty and raw folk-rock outfit The Wolff Sisters first broke into the Boston music scene as an acoustic trio. With haunting harmonies and songs reminiscent of washed up wanderers on New England’s salty coasts, Rebecca, Rachael, and Kat stole Boston’s heart (yes, they’re really sisters). Born to a poet and a musician, they grew up on the heavy realism of Dylan and Springsteen blended with the loose and loud Rolling Stones. Drawing inspiration from blues giants like Howlin’ Wolf and modern storytellers Dawes, The Wolff Sisters don’t fit into one genre of music. With Rebecca on acoustic guitar, Rachael on electric guitar, Kat on keys, and all three on vocals, the sisters spent years honing their sound together in an old Victorian house just outside Boston.
Website: http://www.thewolffsisters.com/
Possessed By Paul James – In The Dark of Morning
Hometown: Austin
Album: From his 3rd album “As We Go Wandering” out soon on PPJ Records.
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.ppjrecords.com/
Bonny Light Horseman – The Roving
Hometown:
Album: Self-titled album due out January 24 on 37d03 Records.
Review Snippet: The timeless qualities of traditional tunes can carry us across oceans and eons, linking us not only to the past but to each other as well. It was under the banner of those eternal connections that the trio of Bonny Light Horseman came together. From Wisconsin festival fields and a German art hub to a snowy upstate studio and everywhere in between, the astral folk outfit—comprised of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman—is mixing the ancient, mystical medium of transatlantic traditional folk music with a contemporary, collective brush. The resulting album, Bonny Light Horseman, is an elusive kind of sonic event: a bottled blend of lightning and synergy that will excite fans of multiple genres, eras, and ages.
Next Time in LA: January 21 (Tuesday!) at the Lodge Room
Website: https://www.bonnylighthorseman.com/
Shannon Lay – August
Hometown: Los Angeles
Album: . From the album “August” released on SubPop in August of course.
Review Snippet: Lay demonstrates the comfort and command that only comes from finding your people. The album has a telepathic quality to it, like Sandy Denny working with Richard Thompson and John Wood on The North Star Grassman and the Raven, or Elliott Smith mind-melding with Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock for Either/Or. Lay’s lyrics find depth and meaning in everyday moments: “Gone with the day again/I’ve seen so much and there’s more yet,” she sings on opener “Death Up Close,” an album highlight that features garage-pop musician Mikal Cronin blowing rays of light through a saxophone. “I love it/I love you,” Lay concludes, a plain confession whose boldness mirrors the confidence in her full-throated delivery.
Website: https://www.shannonlay.com/
Jack Penate – Murder
Hometown: London, UK
Album: From the album “After You” released November 29 on XL Recordings.
Review Snippet: After You is a tasteful record – at times it’s exactly the soft, melancholy, adult house pop they play in the chic bar at 7pm in every Netflix drama you’ve ever watched – but it’s also got tunes, and Peñate has also finally lost all his vocal mannerisms, so you’re not distracted from those tunes. Loaded Gun sounds so accurately and beautifully like a lost Pink Floyd ballad that it’s a wonder it doesn’t come with a note about Palestine from Roger Waters. Swept to the Sky is the phone-torches-aloft blockbuster in excelsis. And there are great hooks thrown in almost casually – the little four-note pattern that nags away in Cipralex, the creeping bassline of Murder. But it sounds a little cautious and contained, like a high-end beige sofa, so understated it blends into the background.
Website: http://jackpenate.com/
Ballroom Thieves – Love Is Easy
Hometown: Portland, ME
Album: Lead single from their new album out February 14 on Nettwerk Records.
Review Snippet:
The last five years of touring have made it clear that the road is not a place I can comfortably call home,” says Martin Earley, the singer-guitarist for the Portland, Maine-based Americana trio the Ballroom Thieves. “Don’t get me wrong, performing is still downright blissful most of the time, but the countless auxiliary moments surrounding that hour on stage have become increasingly strenuous with each passing season.”
On the band’s new song “Love Is Easy,” Earley opens up about the rigors of nonstop travel and shares the one thing that sees him through: his love for his bandmate and fiancée Calin Peters. “Put simply, this song is about finding a person who is easy for you to love and then loving that person no matter what the world throws at you,” he says.
Next Time In LA: March 13 at the Satellite
Website: http://www.ballroomthieves.com/
Sean Watkins and The Bee Eaters – Suzie Lightning
Hometown: Boston
Album: From their album “This Is Who We Are” released January 10 on Salsa Bar Records.
Review Snippet: In the words of The Boston Globe, [The Bee Eaters] combine chamber music’s finely calibrated arrangements with bluegrass’s playful virtuosity and pop music’s melodic resourcefulness.”
With Tashina’s delicate fiddle and Tristan’s grounding cello wrapped around Simon’s ethereal dulcimer, they have created a never-before-heard sound in American music.
Grand National Fiddle Champion Tashina Clarridge has toured with Mark O’Connor, Tony Trischka and Laurie Lewis and performed at Carnegie Hall as a part of MacArthur Fellow/Grammy-winning bassist Edgar Meyer’s Young Artists program. Multi-instrumentalist brother Tristan Clarridge is a 5-time Grand National Fiddle Champion and a pioneering cellist, synthesizing traditional folk influences with rhythmic vocabulary from jazz, rock and pop music, and leading a revolution among adventurous young cellists throughout the country. He has toured the world with bluegrass/nu-folk sensation Crooked Still and Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, as well as Mike Marshall, Bruce Molsky and Cape Breton fiddle phenomenon Natalie MacMaster. Hammer dulcimer wizard Simon Chrisman brings a whole new approach to an instrument that has previously been thought to have limited range and technique. His inventive virtuosic touch and sophisticated rhythmic sensibilities are redefining the instrument and earning the attention of musicians from all over the world. ean Watkins co-founded Nickel Creek when he was just 12 years old, kickstarting a career that’s taken him from the stage of the Grammys to the top of the bluegrass charts. The groundbreaking trio’s platinum selling albums earned them a Grammy Award and the respect of musicians and listeners everywhere. Along the way, he’s become a masterful guitarist, singer and songwriter and a member of many different groups, alongside his sister Sara in the Watkins Family Hour, and on tours with Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett and many others.
Website: https://www.everybluemoonconcerts.org/sean-watkins-and-the-bee-eaters
Lisa Bastoni – Silver Line
Hometown: Boston
Album: Self released album “How We Want to Live” was released in September.
Review Snippet: “Americana of the highest order, along the lines of Patty Griffin or Gretchen Peters” (Maverick UK).
Website: http://www.lisabastoni.com/
William Lawrence – Someday’s The Sun Don’t Shine
Hometown: Philmont, NY
Album: From the album “Cheap Dreams” released December 29 on Triangle House Records.
Review Snippet: Slow Dancing on a High Wire immediately puts the listener in a dreamy state with a title track that compares the head rush of falling in love with a performer on stage or taking the first step onto a tight wire high above (and away from) the city’s din below. The airy production by Ian McGuire lulls the band into a dream state and hints at the question: is the high wire a precarious or precious place to be? “Places of Our Own” continues the same dreamy feel while turning attention to the simplicity of domestic bliss. Dan Stern (drums), Geoff Saunders (bass), Chris May (pedal steel), and Greg Marino’s (woodwinds) accompaniment compliments Lawrence’s voice with a restrained presence throughout and just the right amount of punch when necessary. Lawrence’s electric guitar work in “Gallows” punctuates the turn toward a less optimistic lyric shift as does the frenzied flute interlude. The flute returns throughout the record in a more soothing tone, but on “Gallows” it adds to the purposeful tension-building sense of momentary confusion highlighting the moment the narrator condemns himself to the gallows before lulling the narrator back to the inescapable jaws of his fateful demise.
Website: https://wtlawrence.bandcamp.com/album/cheap-dreams
Angela Perley – Snake Charmer
Hometown: Columbus, OH
Album: From the album 4:30 released in August.
Review Snippet:
Review Snippet: Angela Perley’s been writing tragic love songs rooted in folk, cosmic country and indie rock for over a decade now, and it all started with The Howlin’ Moons, an American rock band from Columbus, Ohio. Perley began making demos in college, dressing them up in brown paper bags (CD sleeves with personalized artwork and a decorative track list on the flip-side). Soon enough, Perley’s demos were heard by Fred Blitzer, CEO of Vital Companies, who arranged for Perley to meet and begin working with Columbus-based musicians Chris Connor and Billy Zehnal.
In quick succession, Angela Perley & The Howlin’ Moons found themselves performing at Nelsonville Music Festival alongside acts like The Flaming Lips, St. Vincent, Randy Newman, Merle Haggard and Gillian Welch. Since then Perley has opened for Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Tyler Childers, O.A.R. and Blues Traveller and has shared bills with The Avett Brothers, Alison Krauss, Old Crow Medicine Show, Dawes and Colter Wall.
Website: https://www.angelaperley.com/
Andrew Combs – Like A Feather
Hometown: Nashville
Album: From the album “Ideal Man” released in September on New West Records.
Review Snippet: On his new album, Ideal Man, Andrew Combs worked with producer/engineer Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Benjamin Booker) to achieve a more raw, direct sound. The collection was captured live in Cohen’s Brooklyn studio, with compact arrangements fueled by taut, elastic grooves. While Combs may be best known as a singer/songwriter in the classic 1970’s Laurel Canyon sense, he demonstrates the true versatility of his work here, often setting the acoustic aside in favor of atmospheric synthesizers and distorted electric guitars. Combs worked with some of his favorite writers on the album, including Dylan LeBlanc, Jeff Trott, Joe Henry, and Kenny Childers, but the stories he tells here are deeply personal and remarkably vulnerable.
Website: https://www.andrewcombsmusic.com/
Tony McLoughlin – Flying Bird
Hometown: Northern Ireland
Album: From the album “True Native” released in November on Fuego DE Records.
Review Snippet: He may look uncannily like Billy Connolly’s long lost brother, but opening with strains of Muhammad Ali getting ready to ‘rumble in the jungle’, Tony Mcloughlin’s fifth album The Contender is a glorious Telecaster-infused slab of Tom Petty/Springsteen inspired Americana.
Working once again with fellow Northern Ireland countryman Ben Reel, this time with McLoughlin co-producing, and with the same rhythm section of Ronnie O’Flynn (bass) and Michael Black (drums), The Contender features the six string virtuosity of long term collaborator German born, Nashville based German Thomm Jutz, German bluesman Timo Gross, and respected Monaghan musician Mick McCarney.
Pete Feenstra pronounced McLoughlin’s last outing as encapsulating ‘all that is good in the contemporary roots rock genre’. And on the strength of The Contender, I’d have to concur – the songs while borrowing heavily on the likes of Petty, stand tall in their own right, and while McLoughlin’s Petty / Springsteen / Knopfler imbued vocals are equally derivative, there’s a shimmering vibrancy that’s reflective of much of Reel’s own recent work.
Website: https://www.tonymcloughlin.com/
Kelly Steward – Outlaw
Hometown: Rockford, IL
Album: From the album “Tales of Tributes from the Deserving and Not So” released September 23.
Review Snippet: Kelly Steward is a Midwestern American singer, songwriter and recording artist hailing from Rockford, IL. Her haunting indie flavored neo-traditional country meditations are a favorite in this area of the country, a grass-roots musical movement from the state that brought you Wilco. After a few storied years in Los Angeles, Kelly moved back to the Midwest to record her EP “Long Long Road” with producer and fellow musician Miles Nielsen. Traveling and playing with Miles’ band for a couple years, Kelly broke off to form her own band The Restless Kind with Greg Whitson (guitar), Scott Ford (bass) and Jesse Carmona (drums). In 2012 she released an intimate EP titled “Out From Within” . 2019 marks her full length album debut “Tales and Tributes of the Deserving and Not So” produced by Kelly and her fellow band-mate Greg Whitson. The vibe of the album is reminiscent of mid 70’s female singer-songwriters like Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez and Linda Ronstadt with a Laurel Canyon via Midwest Americana feel. You can purchase the album now via this website or most digital music platforms.
Website: https://www.kellysteward.com/
Jack Klatt – Ramblin Kind
Hometown: Minneapolis
Album: The album “it Ain’t The Same” was released September 27 on Yep Roc.
Review Snippet: A product of the nation’s heartland, Klatt was born and bred in the twin cities. He dropped out of college before spending the next six years pursuing his wanderlust and hitch hiking across the country with nothing but a backpack and a Martin guitar. He eventually made his way overseas, where he slept under the stars, traded songs for spending money and enjoyed a life typical of one who’s a drifter and bohemian. All the while, he made it his mission to proffer the songs of the American masters, from Woody Guthrie and Eddie Cochrane to Hank Williams and Marty Robbins. In the process, he found himself captivated by the full gamut of archetypical American music — a singular style that encompasses folk, blues, rock, rockabilly, R&B, and arcane country — and began to refashion it to suit his own style.
Website: https://www.jackklatt.com/
Boat To Row – Spanish Moss
Hometown: Birmingham, UK
Album: From the album “Rivers That Flow In Circles” released September 21 on State Caravan Records.
Review Snippet: Despite all of this, ‘Rivers That Flow in Circles’ is an album that sees the band pushing their horizons. Self-produced and recorded in a variety of rehearsal rooms, bedrooms and kitchens, the record showcases the bands most ambitious songs yet. Drawing on band members both past and present, as well as many other musicians from the Birmingham scene, this is an album which works from a diverse musical pallet.
The first single from the record, ‘Spanish Moss’ is a fantastic example of the band’s growth as African percussion meets wirey electric guitars over the top of a hypnotic bass line. Just as the song reaches a crescendo it dissolves into a spacious instrumental, where a soaring violin twists and turns over a sea of guitars and synthesisers. Freeing themselves from the constraints of hourly studio rates has been a gift which has allowed the band to turn in an album that is more adventurous and expansive than its predecessor.
Boat to Row have previously been supported by BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and many local stations, and received glowing reviews from websites as diverse as DIY, The 405, Counteract, Folk Radio UK and Gold Flake Paint. They have toured extensively appearing with acts including Slow Club, Johnny Flynn, Willy Mason, Ryley Walker, Kate Rusby, Sweet Baboo and graced stages at many of the country’s favourite festivals including Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk, Green Man, Truck, Wood, Moseley Folk, Y Not and No Direction Home. Look out for more of their enrapturing live show throughout 2019.
Website: https://www.boattorow.com/
Terry Allen And the Panhandle Mystery Band – Abandonitis
Hometown: Santa Fe via Wichita, KS
Album: New single released this week on Paradise of Bachelors Records.
Review Snippet:
Website: http://www.terryallenartmusic.com/
Hawktail – Dandelion
Hometown: Nashville
Album: From the album “Formations” released January 10 on Padiddle Records.
Review Snippet: While they are well versed in the old-time traditions, their music is fresh, lively, and consequential. In other words they are not imitators or replicators. As I said of them in my AmericanaFest wrap-up: ‘Without a doubt their set was my favorite of the week, a labyrinthine of complex yet accessible acoustic music that had me in a trance.’”
Next Time In LA: February 14 at McCabe’s Guitar Shop
Website:
