Sound Cloud Sunday – March 22, 2020
Sound Cloud Sunday – March 22, 2020
It’s kind of exciting to think that in these uncertain times, we are giving the most creative people on the planet an opportunity to devote, if they so desire, 100% of their time to, well, creating… Already I have attended several live on-line shows and it is exciting to see the music community band together so seamlessly to keep the musical pipeline flowing. We will do our best as well, providing great Laurel Canyon-esque independent music every Sunday morning and click below to hear this show. We are working to assemble our shows in a more organized fashion (now that we also have the time), but that could still be awhile. In the meantime, enjoy some great new music from some great new artists:
Little Misty – The Diner
Hometown: Montreal
Album: Their debut album was self-released on February 14
Review Snippet: Little Misty is a progressive folk band from Montreal, formed by singer Kathryn Samman and guitarist François Jalbert. Known for their projects in the Montreal jazz scene and their work with bands like Bellflower and Tunnel, the young duo stepped out of the box into a more folk/bluegrass sound, mixing it with elements of progressive rock. Kathryn and Francois have been around the Montreal scene for a while now, so they brought together a casting of some of their favorite musicians for this project: Jerome Beaulieu on keys, Simon Page on bass and upright, Kieran Poile on violin and Mark Nelson on drums. Their album, produced by Joe Grass (Patrick Watson), is set to be released on February 14th 2020.
Website: https://www.littlemistyband.com/
Sam Doores – Windmills
Hometown: New Orleans
Album: His self-titled album was released March 13 on New West Records. Formerly of Hurray For The Riff Raff and The Deslondes.
Review Snippet: At times calling to mind everything from Leonard Cohen to Tom Waits, the finished collection shifts effortlessly from brooding noir to joyful celebration.
Website: https://www.samdooresmusic.com/
Eastbound Jesus – Cherokee County
Hometown: Greenwich, NY
Album: From the album “Full Moon Over Salem” self-released on February 1.
Review Snippet: The band purvey their self- titled “Northern Rock” from the town of Greenwich situated in rural upstate New York. Their music is an earthy blend of bluegrass, county, rock and even a tinge of soul, showcasing band member Luke Anderson’s rhythmic / percussive banjo playing and other band members adding lap steel guitar and engaging harmonies.
Website: https://www.eastboundjesus.com/
KaiL Baxley – Stump Liquor
Hometown: Los Angeles
Album: From the album “Beneath The Bones” released March 6 on Antifragile Records.
Review Snippet: Third, how he drove across the country to LA without much more than a guitar and slept in an RV for 2 years on Selma blvd in order to pay for his first record Heat Stroke / The Wind and The War. And how, astonishingly, that record, a soul wrenching mash of gospel, soul, blues and damn good songwriting, went on to be nominated as album of the year by NPR.
Website: https://kailbaxley.com/home
Honey Harper – Vaguely Satisfied
Hometown: London
Album: Starmaker was released March 6 on ATO Records.
Review Snippet:
Website: https://www.honeyharpermusic.com/
Waxahatchee – Can’t Do Much
Hometown: Waxahatchee, Alabama
Album: From Katie Crutchfield’s 5th album “Saint Cloud” out March 27 on Merge Records.
Review Snippet: proves that Crutchfield’s music can retain its honesty while aiming at larger audiences, gaining its power from the raw, relentless energy that’s always fueled her best songs. Without seeking easy answers, she’s able to find peace in the explosion.
Website: https://www.waxahatchee.com/
Mapache – Read Between The Lines
Hometown: Glendale, CA
Album: From the album “Saint Liberty Street” out March 20 on Yep Rock.
Review Snippet: Recorded in a similarly stripped-down fashion with producer Dan Horne (Cass McCombs, Allah-Las), Mapache’s self-titled debut introduced the duo’s timeless songwriting and airtight harmonies, earning obvious comparisons to The Louvin Brothers in addition to more cosmic keepers of the flame like Gram Parsons and the Grateful Dead. Aquarium Drunkard hailed the duo as “a blazed up Everly Brothers” and raved that “the LP faithfully radiates the intimate warmth of their live shows,” while No Depression said the album “weds lilting melodies to lyrics that often extol the beauties of nature,” and Saving Country Music declared that the duo “can fill up a room with more soul soaring harmony than most symphonic assemblies.” The music helped earn the band festival appearances from Pickathon to Mountain Jam as well as tour dates with Chris Robinson, Nikki Bluhm, Beachwood Sparks, and more.
Website: https://www.mapachesounds.com/
Early James – Stockholm Syndrome
Hometown: Birmingham, AL
Album: From the album “Singing For My Supper” released March 13 on Easy Eye Sounds.
Review Snippet: On his debut album for Dan Auerbach’s label, the 26-year-old sings about disillusion in styles that glance back to the 1970s and before.
Early James — the Alabama-born singer and songwriter Frederick James Mullis Jr. — just sidles his way into the first song on “Singing for My Supper,” his debut album. “Blue Pill Blues” has an instrumental intro that lasts more than a minute, with its riffs bubbling up out of what might be a late-1960s Jefferson Airplane jam, before James starts singing. His first lyrics are, “What’s roiling and churning in my poor mind.”
He maintains that uneasy, oblique approach throughout the album, presenting himself as both a throwback and a character living in a fraught, uncertain present. Early James is 26, but his music has much older underpinnings, glancing back to the 1970s, the 1960s and before. (In the album’s last song, “Dishes in the Dark,” he does some ragtimey acoustic-guitar picking.) He’s decidedly self-conscious about looking back, but also unapologetic; “Lord knows, I love to borrow/Never stolen, I’ll argue that,” he sings in “Way of the Dinosaur,” which has a chorus that concludes, “Originality up left, and went the way of the dinosaur.”
Website: http://earlyjamesandthelatest.com/
Lauren Ruth Ward- Water Sign
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Album: From the album “Volume 2” self-released on March 13.
Review Snippet:
We all have contemplated what if scenarios at least once in our lives, and some are truly poignant and others not so much. But what if Lauren Ruth Ward was born in the ’60s and performed in the ’70s? How big would her star be? With her Joni Mitchell-esque folk-rock background and now a bone-jarring, blues- and southern-rock approach that in the Janis Joplin mould, there’s little doubt she would be looked upon today as one of music’s iconic artists. Unfortunately, not all things in life are fair, but Ward has plenty of time to re-write history. It commences with, Well, Hell, her edgy, witty, and intelligent debut album.
Although the record has a retro vibe, Ward’s lyrics are completely 21st Century. Well, Hell isn’t a lovey, gushy, please-save-me-big-boy LP. Quite the opposite, it’s a 31-minute ode to the power of woman and one in particular – Ward herself. The slow-building folk-rocker “Make Love To Myself” and the rollicking “Sideways” demonstrate her perseverance and individuality. On the former, Ward proclaims she’s “the real McCoy” and doesn’t need anyone to keep her safe, warm, and pleasured. She’s her own woman. Meanwhile, she reflects on her delayed start to her music career and, like many artists, the struggles to balance her desired career with a paying job. The imagery in her lyrics are outstanding.
Next Time In LA: April 29 (maybe) at the Teragram Ballroom.
Website: https://laurenruthwardmusic.com/
The Hanging Stars- Heavy Blue
Hometown: London
Album: From the album “A New Kind Of Sky” released February 21 on Crimson Crow Record.
Review Snippet: “Swampy psychedelia that recalls the Medway Delta as much as the Mississippi, the band’s new single neatly conjoins these influences.” – Clash
Website: http://thehangingstars.com/
The Flames – Night Call
Hometown: Mannheim, Germany
Album: Debut single released in November.
Review Snippet
Website:
Roger Street Friedman – Carry Me
Hometown: Sea Cliff, NY
Album: From the album “Rise” out April 24 on Rock Ridge Music
Review Snippet: Singer-songwriter Roger Street Freidman’s latest release, Shoot The Moon, is a full-emotional spectrum collection of vivacious and reflective vignettes from real life that recalls the pop-rock singer-songwriter tradition of Jackson Browne, Marc Cohn, Randy Newman, Colin Hay, Bruce Hornsby, and Mark Knopfler. Few artists make albums like this today. In an age of irony, few songwriters are this brave in their vulnerability, and possess Friedman’s gift for penning hook-laden, emotionally resonant, pop-rock.
Website: https://www.rogerstreetfriedman.com/
The Lil Smokies – Tornillo
Hometown: Missoula, Montana
Album: Title track released on January 20 on United Interests
Review Snippet: Drawing on the energy of a rock band and the Laurel Canyon songwriting of the ‘70s, The Lil Smokies are reimagining their approach to roots music on Tornillo, named for the remote Texas town where the album was recorded. Produced by Bill Reynolds (The Avett Brothers, Band of Horses), Tornillo is the band’s third studio album. Formed in Missoula, Montana, The Lil Smokies have built a national following through constant touring, performing at Red Rocks, LOCKN’, High Sierra, Telluride, Bourbon & Beyond and more
Website: http://www.thelilsmokies.com/
Cave Flowers – Country Fan
Hometown: Los Angeles via Seattle
Album: Self-titled album was released January 31 on Hard Bark.
Review Snippet:
Cave Flowers nail that freewheeling’ guitar sound we love so much. Gritty country and grainy rock ‘n’ roll mixed and agitated into one rambling groove. Top vocal sound from Andy McAllister too. It all adds up to a glorious Rolling Stones meets Drive-By Truckers and Lucero sound.
Originally from Seattle, McAllister released three albums with his previous band Vanish Valley, before he found himself drifting around Los Angeles – dreaming of putting together a group that would realise the laid-back California country sound of his new songs.
Website: https://caveflowers.bandcamp.com/
The Reverend Shawn Amos & The Brotherhood – Troubled Man
Hometown: New York
Album: From the album “Blue Sky” out April 17 on Put Together. Joined by Ruthie Foster on this track.
Review Snippet: a pleasant listen mix of classic blues-roots, here and there a touch of Cajun, interspersed with the more solid forms. It is especially good for a flexible state of mind. The necessary ingredients, such as slide guitar, harmonica, cute bladder parties, sax, humming backings, etc. … features the album and certainly not negligible:
Website: http://www.shawnamos.com/
Avi Kaplan – Born In California
Hometown: Tennessee via Visalia, CA
Album: From the album “I’ll Get By” released February 20 on Fantasy Records.
Review Snippet: I’ll Get By explores a range of sounds including vintage folk. Kaplan explained to American Songwriter, “I’ll get by draws on my love for 70’s folk harmony like the bands I grew up listening to: CSNY, America, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Mamas And The Papas, Simon and Garfunkel. These groups focused on beautiful arrangements and lush harmonies that take you to another world. I wanted to pay homage to that vintage sound ”
Website: https://www.avikaplanofficial.com/
Seafret – Be My Queen
Hometown: Bridlington, UK
Album: From the album “Most of Us Are Strangers” self-released on March 13.
Review Snippet:
It’s been four years since Jack Sedman and Harry Draper, aka Seafret, released their debut album Tell Me It’s Real (which peaked at number 59 on the UK album chart), and after those four intense years of touring, writing, touring, and more writing, Seafret have returned with a tender, fulfilling sophomore record that will change your perception of the Bridlington duo. After the unanticapted success of their hit Oceans, they were hailed as ‘the next Kodaline’, heading a new wave of nostalgic indie-pop making it’s way into a more mainstream spotlight, thanks to streaming services changing the way we consume music, with bands like Oh Wonder and Ball Park Music making their way up the charts.
Vocals almost resembling Vance Joy in places, especially on ballads like Why Do We Stay and Love Won’t Let Me Leave, the record has a very strong Of Monsters And Men feel to it, with a very distinct Seafret stamp on it, allowing them to stick to their sound while still being able to further it, and avoid making the same music over and over. Although probably the most skippable track on the record, the shouty vocals Jack rises to 2 minutes and 40 seconds into the track are enjoyable, but not something every listener will stick out the entire song for, especially when they cover similar energy again on Monsters, a more-to-the-point track, vocally, while the jangly, gypsy-vibe guitar-work gives off an eerie feel we’re accustomed to hearing from the likes of Florence & The Machine.
Website: https://www.seafret.com/
