Sound Cloud Sunday – October 28, 2018 (Episode 29)
Sound Cloud Sunday October 28, 2018 (Episode 28)
Laurel Canyon Radio unerringly finds great new unsigned, should-be-signed and indie artists from around the globe and we tee them up every Sunday at 3pm on the station (and in perpetuity right here on our www.laurelcanyonradio.com website). You’ll see a lot of artists we’ve featured before on SCS (Ben De La Couer, the Cordovas, the Maries et al). We do this because they are so gosh-darn good we want you to hear them, love them, follow them and tell all your friends.
Here’s another episode of Sound Cloud Sunday right off the press….
Ben De La Couer – Face Down Penny
Hometown: Nashville via London, New York and New Orleans.
Album: From the album “The High Cost Of Living Strange” .
Review Snippet: In April of 2018 Ben de la Cour released The High Cost of Living Strange, eight tracks of his self-proclaimed “Americanoir” style – weaving complex, mysterious and sometimes shocking storylines with a unique blend of instrumental backing and the occasional glimpse of gallows humor. Along with his unique perspective towards songwriting and his lyrical attention to detail, de la Cour has a veracious studio ideology; live tracking, minimal overdubs, no headphones, one room, and just a couple of days. “I’m like a bargain basement Cowboy Jack Clement!” he jokes.
Website: https://www.bendelacour.com/
Jamie Lin Wilson – If I Told You
Hometown: D’Hanis, TX
Album: From the album (her 2nd) “Jumping Over Rocks” out on Friday, October 26.
Review Snippet: ““Jamie Lin Wilson has always carried a particular wit about her songwriting. Straight-shooting but never shallow, Wilson inhabits a particular cross-section of Americana that blends honest-to-goodness country with storyteller’s folk. It’s a line that few artists have been able to ride for as long and as balanced as Wilson has, but those that have are icons—John Prine, Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris. The songs of which her new album, Jumping Over Rocks, is comprised are fine evidence of that artful, personable finesse.” – POPMATTERS
Website: https://jamielinwilson.com/
The Cordovas – Selfish Lover
Hometown: Cordovas – I’m The One Who Needs You Tonight
Hometown: Nashville
Album: Santa Fe Channel finally came out in August on ATO Records. It’s their second album.
Review Snippet: The songwriting and production would be at home on Jackson Browne‘s Late For The Sky, and, like Browne, the band ably splits the difference between a Western ease and a Southern twang. The song sounds practically unproduced by contemporary standards — the quiet, articulated drums sit at the back of the mix in a steady groove with band founder Joe Firstman’s bass, a dry pedal steel and a roomy piano. The front of the mix is the province of three of Cordovas’ four members, locked into a tight harmony for almost the whole song. Kenneth Pattengale, of The Milk Carton Kids, produced the album with an intentional spareness. There is no hiding on this arrangement; it is boldly unadorned and, at under three minutes, bracingly direct. More than any tape machine could, this mix and the aesthetic priorities it telegraphs situate the band squarely in 1970s Southern rock.
Next Time in LA: November 12 at the Belasco Theatre opening for Elle King.
Website: http://site.cordovasband.com/
The Maries – Children of the New Frontier
Hometown: LA via Portland
Album: From their forthcoming “Peace”.
Review Snippet: Like Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins dueted together. The Maries will be visiting Laurel Canyon Radio in the next couple of weeks.
Website: https://the-maries.com/
Mighty Horse – Right Wing Date Night
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Album: Their debut album “The Bottle and The Whip” was self-released in August.
Review Snippet: Roots jams with an organic toolkit of chosen weapons… Harmonium, Harmonica, Melodica, Stompbox, Shaker, Tambourine, Banjo, Bass and Guitars
Web Site: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/mightyhorse
Dominique Pruitt – High In The Valley
Hometown: Los Angeles
Album: Her debut single. No album yet.
Review Snippet: “High in the Valley” is an ode to the mediocrity of life “on the other
side of the Hollywood sign” set to the backdrop of a jangly,
spaghetti-western-inspired soundscape. Awash in plenty of reverb,
walls of country guitar licks, pedal steel, and bouncing two-beat bass
carry the melody as Pruitt laments they day-to-day experiences, hopes,
and letdowns of life in the Valley. The song snarls and winds its way
through the smoke of neon lights, transportive but modern–this is her
first music in almost five years, and shows a remarkable level of
growth in her craft.
Website: http://www.dominiquepruitt.com/
Mat Walklate – Could Have Bee
n
Hometown: Manchester, UK
Album: This album “Sea of Blue” (his 2nd as a solo artist) is available directly from the artist.
Review Snippet: Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs, the album pays homage to that early Chicago sound, with a hint of Ska rhythms added in, whilst retaining a thoroughly modern energy and punch..
Website: http://www.matwalklate.co.uk/
Pushing Chain – Breadbox
Hometown: Duluth, MN
Album: Their 2nd album “Sorrows Always Swim” was released in September on Kingswood Records. They have been playing together for 20 years.
Review Snippet: WWith one guitar and one fiddle, the duo generates marvelous close harmony while unafraid to stray into dissonance. The duo’s vibe is infectious enough to be investigated by the CDC; anyone who doesn’t grin during the set must be immune to pleasure.
Website: https://www.pushingchain.com/
Maria And David Celia – Follow Me
Hometown: Toronto and Spain.
Album: Their album “Daydreamers” was released in August on Elite Records.
Review Snippet: Close your eyes and you could be sitting on a rocking chair on a 70’s Laurel Canyon porch”
Tim Merrick (americana-uk.com)
Website: https://marladavidcelia.wixsite.com/
Eric Lindell – Millie Kay
Hometown: New Orleans, LA via San Mateo, CA
Album: From his 8th album, Revolution In Your Heart on Alligator Records out September 6.
Review Snippet: Relocated to New Orleans to crank out crusty, second line soul. Eric Lindell gets the Delbert soundalike thing a lot, as well as comparisons to former Black Crowes leader Chris Robinson. But Lindell’s sound has a little something extra, bluesy soul with a street-parade strut. Then there’s his guitar work, surrounding him with intricate licks inspired by his immersion in the works of Albert King as well as Howling Wolf and Buddy Guy.
Originally from San Mateo, California, Lindell soaked up blues in San Francisco and built up a following fronting his own blues band. He drifted to New York before meeting his wife-to-be, who wanted to get back to her family in New Orleans, relocating there in 1999. He released several records on his own Sparco label before debuting on Alligator with 2006’s Change in the Weather.
Next Time in LA: November 27 at Dragon Smoke at the Mint.
Website: https://www.ericlindell.com/
Dana Fuchs – Sedative
Hometown: New York City, NY
Album: New single from her 4th album “Love Lives On” on Get Along Records (her own label) released in May.
Review Snippet: Dana’s musical appetite was bottomless, and when fronting a band at a local Holiday Inn was no longer enough, the 19-year-old singer hatched a bolder plan. At this time, New York did not hold happy associations. The city had been the backdrop to the tragic death of Dana’s beloved elder sister, Donna. “She and my brother Don had a band, quite popular in the South. She went up to New York City to find her fame and fortune. She took a lot of wrong turns and tragically ended her life.”
Website: https://www.danafuchs.com/
The Other Years – The Sinks of Gandy/Mayville
Hometown: Louisville, KY
Album: Their eponymous debut album came out October 4 on No Quarter Records.
Review Snippet: Louisville, Kentucky, outfit the Other Years carry on a vibrant old-time music tradition that summons the spirit and soul of rural mountain music, but the melodic sophistication and instrumental polish they bring make it sound utterly contemporary despite its appealing rusticity. The duo, composed of fiddler Anna Krippenstapel (who’s been working in Freakwater for the last few years) and guitarist Heather Summers, will release their self-titled debut on No Quarter this October. On the album the pair transmit the slack and homey charm of Michael Hurley’s “Wildegeeses,” inject their own “Sinks of Gandy” with a fiddle melody from the traditional song “Maysville,” and tackle the traditional number “Fair Ellen,” which they perform a cappella, as if sitting around their kitchen table. The rest of the repertoire is all original, but even so it feels both ancient and timeless. Summers sings lead and Krippenstapel harmonizes with a familial ease; together they evoke famous mountain-music duo Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerard, without the astringent bite. That’s not to say that Summers is a pop singer, but even when she wails at full volume on the beautifully droning “Red-Tailed Hawk,” there’s a sweetness to her voice that distinguishes it from most Appalachian folk artists. The strummy “Bridges” is gorgeously embroidered by Krippenstapel’s earthy fiddle, which belies the surface simplicity with grace and harmonic richness. The duo have been attracting attention thanks in part to the embrace of fellow Kentuckians including Joan Shelley and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and the way they inject such a natural rapport into their embrace of old-school folk makes it easy to see why.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/theotheryears/
Gilmore/Roberts – The Philanthropist (Take It From Me)
Hometown: South Yorkshire
Album: Their 5th album “A Problem Of Our Kind” was released in October on Gr! Records.
Review Snippet: The fifth studio album from award-winning folk/roots duo Gilmore & Roberts – their first release since 2016’s live album In Our History, which celebrated a decade of performing together.
‘We realised most of songs on the album deal with different aspects of being human – some negative, like selfishness or materialism, and some more positive, like our sentimental side or philanthropy” explains Jamie Roberts (vocals, guitar).
“Us humans are pretty complex” continues Katriona Gilmore (vocals, fiddle, mandolin). “Somehow it made us want to present these songs in quite a simple way.”
Recorded at the duo’s home in South Yorkshire by co-producer Ben Savage (well-known on the UK roots scene for his own acclaimed musical output with The Willows and Hannah Sanders), A Problem Of Our Kind contains some of the most stripped-back arrangements of Gilmore & Roberts’ career so far, alongside full-tilt band numbers featuring their regular festival rhythm section of Fred Claridge (drums) and Matt Downer (double bass).
Website https://www.gilmoreroberts.co.uk/
Hoot and Holler – Forever
Hometown: Boston, MA
Album: From the album “Reasons To Run” released on Bandcamp May, 2017.
Review Snippet: Hoot and Holler are the sum of two parts: guitarist Mark Kilianski and fiddler Amy Alvey. Each are songwriters dedicated to honing their craft, both equally influenced by wordsmiths like Gillian Welch and Townes Van Zandt as they are to authentic mountain musicians like Roscoe Holcomb and Ola Belle Reed. After spending the better part of 2016 living in a camper van while playing shows across the country, they now call Asheville, North Carolina their home.
Instrument swapping is common during a performance. Sometimes they don two guitars, other times switching to fiddle and banjo, all the while seamlessly blending their vocals as they sing songs infused with the vitality of the landscapes which they have traveled.
They have received scholarships to the Blackpot Camp as well as Augusta Heritage Center to study the stylistic nuance of Cajun and Appalachian music. in 2018 they won third place in the traditional band category at the Appalachian string band festival (“clifftop”), and first place at south Carolina’s state fiddler’s championship. When performing or teaching workshops, they strive to honor the ancient sounds of those who came before while bringing their own voice to the stage.
Website: https://www.hootandhollermusic.com/
Jeffrey Foskett & Jeff Larson – Shadows of The Canyon
Hometown: Laurel Canyon in spirit, Northern California somewhere.
Album: From their debut album “Elua Aloha” released on New Surf Limited in June.
Review Snippet: Borrowing some of what was best of the L.A. singer-songwriter scene, Jeff Larson’s new album -produced by America’s Gerry Beckley–doesn’t try to change what made popster Jeff Larson popular, but emphasizes his artistic side with catchy songs and Valley-meets-Laurel Canyon sensibilities. From Larson: I wrote it for the Henry Diltz documentary called “The Accidental Photographer”. It was to be on that soundtrack, but that is pending still and it seemed to fit on this album I did with my friend Jeffrey Foskett. My manager in Japan, Kaz, asked me to consider and I so I did by including a collection of images of the music that stems from Laurel Canyon back then.. and even though “back then” it still has echoes even today with Singer/Songwriters many of whom are still active and timeless. Oh, re: Psych Buffaloes.. That is a Springfield reference which Henry took an early photo of… very psychedelic 🙂
Laura Gibson – Thomas
Hometown: Coquile, OR
Album: From her new album on Barsuk Records, “Goners”, released last week.
Review Snippet:
“I’d known for a long time that I wanted to make a record about grief … I felt compelled to stare into the abyss,” writes Oregon based singer-songwriter Laura Gibson in notes for her fifth album. That sets the stage for these 10 tracks of intoxicating melancholia that will leave you transfixed and likely unsettled.
Those looking for a somber, meditative yet never, well, seldom, depressing reflection on life’s darker side will find that Gibson has created a mini-masterpiece. You’ll need time to let her songs unfurl slowly, and listening through large speakers or quality headphones is helpful to fully appreciate the detailed and subtle production touches she and boardman John Morgan Askew have created. Ditto for absorbing her poetically moving lyrics, many concerning loss, grieving, death … or all three.
Next Time in LA: December 5 at the Bootleg Theatre.
Website: lauragibsonmusic.com
