The song Billions Of Suns is from their new album Afterworld. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
In music news today, if you are into death metal, Carcariass recently released a new lyric video from their latest studio album.
This month, French melodic death proggers Carcariass unveiled a brand new lyric video for Billions Of Suns, the third single from their sixth studio album Afterworld, out now. Afterworld is available for purchase via Bandcamp. (Ebony Jeanette, 2023)
“Billions Of Suns evokes a gigantic Intergalactic Empire and its Inquisition, which ensures that the immutable word of the Emperor-God is respected to the very ends of the universe and exterminates all opposition!” – Carcariass
Released in March, Afterworld was recorded and mixed by “Drop” (Samael guitarist) at Downtone Studio in Switzerland. Jens Bogren (Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, Sepultura, At The Gates) mastered the album at Fascination Street Studio in Sweden and produced by GSI Records.
For another taste of Afterworld, check out the first two album singles, No Aftermath and The Hive now.
Carcariass is: Pascal Lanquetin (musical composition and lead guitars) Jerome Thomas (vocals) Bertrand Simonin (drums) Raphaël Couturier (bass) Bob (rhythm guitar for live shows)
Afterworld track list: 01- No Aftermath 02- Billions of Suns 03- Identity 04- Angst 05- Fall of an Empire 06- Black Rain 07- Generational Rot 08- The Hive 09- Machine Kult 10- Afterworld
“Masterpiece!” -METALLIAN
“An album of impressive musical richness and extreme beauty.” -HARDFORCE
“The guitar solos are breathtakingly musical.” -ROCK HARD Magazine
“A highly entertaining listen with the right grooves put in place to demonstrate a keen sense of harmony. – HEAVY MUSIC HQ
From Here To Home will be released June 30, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Legendary, Saxon Pub-bred quartet The South Austin Moonlighters were riding high on the success of their 2019 opus Travel Light with top billing on the alt-country charts and festival appearances throughout the U.S. and Europe when the world came crashing to a screeching halt in 2020. Fortunately for the band and their fans alike, the Moonlighters are veterans of Austin’s scrappy, DIY music scene and were never going to let a little loss of momentum stop them. With the help of a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign, The South Austin Moonlighters—Lonnie Trevino Jr., Chris Beall, Daniel James, and Hunter St. Marie—took to the studio with producer Steve Berlin and got right back in the saddle, cutting ten tunes that would eventually become their brand new album, From Here To Home. (IV-PR, 2023)
At its core, From Here To Home is an album of rebirth and acknowledgement. It is a recognition of where The South Austin Moonlighters have been, and a peek at all of the exciting places they are going and want to head towards in the future. “From Here To Home is a journey back to rediscovering why we started doing this in the first place,” Trevino Jr. says, before his co-conspirator helps him complete the thought in a way only the closest of collaborators can: “Because that’s the only thing we want to do–make joyous music.”
The South Austin Moonlighters recently released their first single from From Here To Home, the bouncing, half-time groove of “Make A Livin’”; a deceptively deep, upbeat song about what it really means to make ends meet for a family. “What should we be providing?’’ asks Beall, who wrote the song with his good friend Rodney Black. He expands, “Surely ‘ourselves’ would be the most important thing, and yet there are multiple generations of parents working so much they rarely see their kids. Lots of folks have to work like that, unfortunately. But could there be a ‘line’ that gets crossed when too much is just ‘too much?’ The TV bill, the new car, the nicer house….maybe we should let go of a few of those things and not have to be shackled to the workplace to pay for them.” Packaged within textures of gritty guitars and vintage bass thump, “Make A Livin’” is one of those rare songs that makes listeners dance and think, and that quality is the Moonlighters’ party piece that runs from beginning to end of From Here To Home.
Fans can listen to “Make A Livin’” today at this link and pre-order or pre-saveFrom Here To Home ahead of its June 30 release. The South Austin Moonlighters are back on the road; tour dates can be found below or online.
From Here To Home track list: Nashville Make A Livin’ Long Time Coming Box Of Memories Faded Into Gray Hearts In Parallel From Here to Home Then Away Farewell It’s Only Money (That Makes The World Go ‘Round) Delta Man
Catch The South Austin Moonlighters On Tour: June 16 – Austin, TX – Waterloo Records In-Store Record Release June 23 – Conroe, TX – Red Brick Tavern June 24 – Austin TX – 3Ten – Album Release Show July 1 – Houston, TX – McGonigel’s Mucky Duck August 3 – Estes Park, CO – Listening at the Legion August 4 – Telluride, CO – Mountain Village Summer Concert Series August 5 – Silverton, CO – Columbine Roadhouse Gatorfest August 11th – Dallas, TX – Morton Meyerson Symphony Center (Los Lobos support)
Colter Wall’s new album Little Songs will be out July 14, 2023. Photo: Google
Colter Wall and his music are from the prairies of southern Saskatchewan, where he lives and works. He is a La Honda Records/RCA Records recording artist and has appeared abroad, including Austin City Limits and most recently at the Ponoka Stampede. “Evangelina” is the first release from Wall’s upcoming album, Little Songs which is due out on July 14 via Wall’s longtime label La Honda Records and new partner RCA Records. On Little Songs, Wall’s fans will find the same hardscrabble voice they have loved over the years connecting the contemporary world to the values, hardships, and celebrations of rural life. The ten-song LP features eight originals inspired by—and written in—Wall’s home of Battle Creek, Saskatchewan, along with a Hoyt Axton cut and a cover of Ian Tyson’s “The Coyote & The Cowboy.” (IV-PR, 2023)
“Evangelina,” originally written and recorded by Hoyt Axton, paints a thirsty picture of longing and half-laid plans to chase down a lost love; all backed up by a band steeped in the traditional sounds of Wall’s prairie homelands. Fans can hear “Evangelina” at this link and pre-order or pre-saveLittle Songs ahead of its July 14 release right here. Wall is also gearing up for two rare live appearances at Denver’s Dusty Boots festival on July 1 and Montana’s Under The Big Sky on July 14. More information and tickets are available online.
With his longtime touring band, Wall returned to Yellowdog Studios in Wimberly, Texas, where he cut his 2020, Billboard-charting album, Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs, to track the ten tunes that make up Little Songs. With co-producer Patrick Lyons, Wall tracked eight original songs and two fan-favorite covers from Ian Tyson and Hoyt Axton. Little Songs is an upbeat, sometimes somber glimpse into the rural work and social life of the Canadian West, and, more so than with previous albums, opens emotional turns as mature and heartening as the resonant baritone voice writing them.
This release of new music follows the recent partnership between Wall’s longtime label La Honda Records and RCA Records, with Little Songs as the first album on the joint venture. Prior to the new album, Wall released two standalone singles—“Cypress Hills and the Big Country” and a cover of Cowboy Jack Clement’s “Let’s All Help the Cowboys (Sing the Blues)”—as well as the 2020 LP Western Swings & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs and Colter Wall and the Scary Prairie Boys’ Live In Front Of Nobody, a 2021 livestream, full-band show turned indie record store, vinyl-only release–a coveted and limited release.
Little Songs track list: Prairie Evening/Sagebrush Waltz Standing Here Corralling The Blues The Coyote & The Cowboy Honky Tonk Nighthawk For a Long While Cow/Calf Blue Yodel Little Songs Evangelina The Last Loving Words
Chris Shiflett turns out another LA-meets-Nashville country rocker in Dead and Gone. Photo: Google
Punk veteran. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. Americana and rock songwriter. Modern-day guitar hero. For more than 25 years, Chris Shiflett has blurred the lines between genre and generation, balancing his full-band projects with a thriving solo career. Named “Americana’s biggest rockstar” by Rolling Stone, Shiflett has played a crucial role in shaping the sound and scope of modern-day rock music as a longtime member of the Foo Fighters. He is also an alum of California-based punk rock bands No Use For a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Shiflett’s latest releases refocus his attention on a mix of country twang and rock & roll bang, showcasing the full range of his musical abilities. Dead And Gone is his latest single. (IV-PR, 2023)
“It’s kind of classic country chords,” says Chris Shiflett about his brand new tune Dead And Gone. He is not wrong, but it is so much more than that. The two-step-ish feel is there, as are the sweet dobro playing of Charlie Worsham and the swampy tremolo guitar tones of Tom Bukovac, but a wildly fuzzy electric guitar fills the space between Shiflett’s slightly overdriven and doubled vocal lines. He stomps on another pedal for his solo that splits his guitar into three whole octaves of in-your-face chicken pickin’ licks. That is country, for sure, but it is also very rock and roll. The first song he tracked with Jaren Johnston producing, Dead And Gone touches on some old friends of Shiflett’s who, as the first verse goes, “Passed away, just another Saturday night mystery.” “My hometown was an odd mix of luxury paradise and working-class grit and continues to be a bottomless pit of lyrical inspiration,” says Shiflett. “Sad to say there’s been more than a few friends who’ve left us too soon, so there are lots of stories there…kind of a lost generation.” Fans can hear Dead And Gone right now.
Written spring 2020, recorded spring 2021, and played live ever since, Dead And Gone is the second look into a brand new Chris Shiflett album due out in 2023 via his new label home at Blue Élan Records, the Los Angeles-based independent label celebrating its 9th anniversary this year. Fans will hear more about the Jaren Johnston-produced LP in the coming months but can count on hearing an album that represents Shiflett’s fully realized vision of connecting L.A. to Nashville. “A big part of my inspiration to work with Jaren on this record was because I knew he’d push me out of my comfort zone into new territory,” Shiflett says. Fans can also check out the first track from the upcoming album, Black Top White Lines.
In addition to the release of Dead And Gone, Shiflett was just announced as part of the Americanafest 2023 lineup. The long-running event takes place in Nashville on September 19-23.
Robert Earl Keen’s laid back opus Western Chill is accompanied by a play-along songbook, full album performance video, and a 92 page graphic novel. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Americana legend and model Texan Robert Earl Keen retired from touring in September of last year but his new release WesternChill finds the songwriter alive and well and, seemingly, very relaxed. While Keen is still making public appearances—he was just officially honored on the floor of the Texas House of Representatives and popped into Dallas’ newly reopened Longhorn Ballroom to play a tune with Old Crow Medicine Show—Western Chill makes it very apparent that retirement suits him. For most artists, dropping an album of fourteen new songs would be enough, but, proven time and time again, Keen is not most artists. (IVPR, 2023)
Currently, the only way to hear Western Chill is to purchase the entire box set. Thankfully, the box set has it all, including a 92-page graphic novel inspired by the album, a play-along/sing-along songbook for all fourteen songs, and a DVD of the Robert Earl Keen Band performing the entire new album at Keen’s Snake Barn studio space. The only thing “chill” about the release is the songs themselves. For the foreseeable future there will be no download or streaming links, so fans are encouraged to dive into the entirety of Western Chill the way it was intended: kick back, crack a cold one, sing along, and enjoy the vibe.
Pre-sales are over, but fans can now purchase Keen’s Western Chill package for immediate delivery and do not forget to stay up to date—rumor has it, REK has already finished another record.
Western Chill track list: Western Chill Blue Light (feat. Bill Whitbeck) Waves (feat. Brian Beken) Hello Stranger (feat. Kym Warner) The City (feat. Brian Beken) Let’s Valet Balmorhea Marfa Bone and Flowers (feat. Bill Whitbeck) Sweet Summer Rain Mister Mockingbird (feat. Bill Whitbeck) Mr. Blues on the Run Walking On Rippling Waters
The Western Chill vibe is packed with enough surprises to keep even the most seasoned fan guessing what is coming next. The opening title track—an instant Keen classic in the easy-loping vein of “The Front Porch Song,” “Gringo Honeymoon,” and “Feelin’ Good Again”—sets the mood for the whole album, followed by back-to-back original stunners sung and written by fiddle/guitar player Brian Beken and bassist Bill Whitbeck. If variety is the spice of life, Western Chill is the Silk Road to chill with more contributions are heard from Beken and Whitbeck, as well as compositions by the rest of the band. This has all been documented on the accompanying video because true to the “featuring” tag on the album cover, this really is a REK Band affair.
Rodney Rice’s self titled album will be released May 19, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
Rodney Rice was surrounded by music growing up, whether on radio, kitchen tape deck, or television. When he was about 12, he started playing the guitar. Rice worked for a while on oil and gas rigs in Texas. One night he talked to Jason McKenzie, (longtime drummer for Billy Joe Shaver), and McKenzie pointed him to the Congress house studio in Austin, where Rice made his first two albums, Empty Pockets and a Troubled Mind and Same Shirt, Different Day. His first album found success on the Freeform Americana Radio chart, while his second album reached number 30 on the Americana Music Association albums chart, after debuting at number 9 on the European Americana Chart. For his eponymous third album, Rodney Rice, Rice found a studio, through album notes, the Bomb Shelter, in Nashville, and finally reached out to them amid the pandemic. (IVPR, 2023)
Rice recently released a new song from his upcoming self-titled album; a rambunctious country shuffle called Rabbit Ears Motel. Echoing classics from the likes of Pure Prairie League, the Supersuckers, Jason & the Scorchers, and Jimmy Buffett’s first couple of albums, Rabbit Ears Motel is about so much more than a place to stay in Colorado. Telecaster licks jump around pedal steel fills between Rice’s refrain of “Checking out when I check in to the Rabbit Ears Motel.” Rabbit Ears Motel is part of Rice’s third full-length album, the upcoming Rodney Rice. Out on May 19, Rodney Rice finds Rice traveling over a wide terrain of emotion; from the death of beloved grandparents and the loss of a cherished pet to the grueling monotony of the road and the joyful celebration of marriage. Rice’s warm, gritty vocals, his ingenious and canny lyricism, and his ability to lay down a melody move listeners emotionally and physically, encouraging them to get up and dance even as they let the lyrics settle into their hearts.
Rice knows just how to capture the fleeting glimmers of an emotional moment in life and turn them into songs that evoke our own feelings of despair and hope; loss and love. He delivers those lyrics with a knowing nod and wink, creating memorable characters in his songs whose imperfections remind us of folks we know. As he says, “Music is a common language that reaches all and brings people from worlds apart together.” Rice cannily matches music with lyrics, pairing a glimpse of a world turned upside down with a jaunty New Orleans jazz swing melody or an ode to young love with a lively country shuffle.
Fans can stream or purchase Rabbit Ears Motel and pre-order or pre-saveRodney Rice ahead of its May 19. Rabbit Ears Motel also has an accompanying music video by director Joshua Shoemaker which follows Rice on a time-warped, neon-soaked journey through the lyrics, and characters, of his brand-new tune.
Rodney Rice track list: How You Told Me So Get To Where I’m Going Nothing To Lose Rabbit Ears Motel Roll River Roll Little Pieces Set Em Up Wonder Where I Came From Every Passing Day
Catch Rodney Rice on tour: April 30 – Santa’s Pub – Nashville, TN * May 19 – Broadway Roxy – Denver, CO May 20 – Trinidad Lounge – Trinidad, CO May 26 – Swing Station – Laporte, CO June 16 – Reed’s Package Liquors – Laramie, WY June 17 – the press. – Steamboat Springs, CO June 23 – Soulcraft Brewing – Salida, CO June 24 – Benson’s Tavern and Beer Garden – Salida, CO July 7 – The Bull Pin Bowling Alley & Sports Bar – Estes Park, CO July 8 – The Speakeasy – Longmont, CO July 14 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO August 5 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO Sept 1 – Stagecoach Saloon – Franktown, CO Sept 9 – The Speakeasy – Longmont, CO
Logan Halstead proves age is just a number on debut album Dark Black Coal, due out May 5, 2023. Photo: Google
The success of Logan Halstead’s first single Dark Black Coal has allowed him to build a fan base through YouTube, touring, and opening for artists like Zach Bryan, Charles Wesley Godwin, Town Mountain, and many more. With the record released over a year after he recorded the album, OurVinyl came into his life at the perfect time. In a collaboration with OurVinyl, Logan released a taste of his upcoming project with a four-song EP that has amassed over 120,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. The wisdom Logan Halstead has accrued at just 19 years old can only be measured by those decades older than himself. (IVPR, 2023)
Born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia, it is no surprise that Halstead draws influence from like-minded peers Tyler Childers and Sturgill Simpson, but he has also found inspiration in the work of Nicholas Jamerson and Cole Chaney. “All these folks mentioned have laid a path and shown that it’s okay to be from these parts; we’re not so looked down on anymore,” says Halstead. The aforementioned contemporaries have given him the ability to be proud of who he is, and that has led him to be a driving force in the scene of young artists from the Appalachian region.
The hauntingly beautiful Dark Black Coal debuts on May 5, 2023 via Thirty Tigers. Fans can hear the first track “Kentucky Sky” and pre-order and save the album.
Halstead drew inspiration for the song by admiring the scenery of Kentucky outside his back window at the time. Simple, yet powerful, Halstead softly fingerpicks at his guitar accompanied by broad strokes from a fiddle in the background as they paint a picture about keeping a loved one close. Describing the song in his own words Halstead states, “I was picking around in the kitchen looking out the window and saw two cardinals playing on the fence out back. I thought back to a summer in Crittenden, Kentucky, where there were rolling hills and cow pastures. It seemed like the sun never wanted to set there. That’s how I came up with the title.”
Halstead wrote and released his first song Dark Black Coal at just 15 years old and has already amassed over 5 million views on YouTube. Rothman was immediately moved by Halstead’s lyrics and knew instantly how he wanted to produce the proper sound for Halstead’s stories to be told. Rothman states, “Logan’s songs are far older than he is. His voice hit my heart muscle hard, there is so much living in the resonance of his singing but so much youth at the same time.”
In speaking about his experience with the recording process, Halstead states, “It was a great experience. Lawrence is top-notch. They made me feel comfortable just to go in and do what I do, and to get to record in a place like that is a dream come true, especially for a holler kid.”
Dark Black Coal track list: Good ol’ Boys with Bad Names The Flood (written by Cole Chaney) Man’s Gotta Eat Dark Black Coal Mountain Queen Kentucky Sky Coal River Far From Here 1952 Vincent Black Lightning (written by Richard Thompson) Uneven Ground Bluefoot
Logan Halstead 2023 Spring Tour Dates: Thursday, May 4 – Nashville, TN – The Basement Friday, May 5 – Lexington, KY – The Burl Saturday, May 6 – Pineville, KY – Bell Theater Thursday, May 11 – Newport, KY – Southgate House Friday, May 12 – Louisville, KY – Zanzibar Saturday, May 13 – Huntington, WV – The Loud Wednesday, May 17 – Buckhannon, WV – Strawberry Music Festival Friday, May 19 – Richmond, VA – The Camel Saturday, May 20 – Charlotte, NC – Evening Muse Sunday, May 21 – Atlanta, GA – Eddie’s Attic Saturday, May 27 – Slade, KY – The Pit House June 9-10 – Pineville, KY – Laurel Cove Music Festival
Get Behind The Wheel will be out May 5, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
An Idaho native, Eilen Jewell built her career the old-fashioned way, touring relentlessly with the kind of undeniable live show that converts the uninitiated into instant fans. Over the course of nine albums, she has crisscrossed the globe countless times and shared bills with the likes of Lucinda Williams, Loretta Lynn, Mavis Staples, Wanda Jackson, George Jones, and Emmylou Harris. Hailed by American Songwriter as “one of America’s most intriguing, creative, and idiosyncratic voices,” Eilen Jewell rises from the ashes on her captivating new album, Get Behind The Wheel, picking up the pieces of her shattered world and finding new purpose and meaning after watching her marriage, her band, and what felt like her entire career fall apart in a series of spectacular, heartbreaking implosions. The collection pushes the acclaimed singer and songwriter’s trademark blend of vintage roots-noir into more psychedelic territory, with spacious, cinematic arrangements complementing her revelatory explorations of grief, loss, resilience, and redemption. (Eilen Jewell, 2023)
With Get Behind The Wheel, her ninth studio album—out on May 5 via Signature Sounds—Jewell plants herself firmly in the driver’s seat as she picks up the pieces and finds new purpose and meaning in the process. Jewell shared the first song from Get Behind The Wheel, the twisting and turning “Crooked River.” Fans can stream or purchase “Crooked River” and pre-order or pre-saveGet Behind The Wheel ahead of its May 5 release. The single has already been garnering attention from the likes of The Bluegrass Situation and NPR, who wrote, “Eilen Jewell strikes a balance between heartache and triumph.”
Get Behind The Wheel track list: Alive Crooked River Lethal Love Come Home Soon Winnemucca Could You Would You Breakaway You Were A Friend Of Mine Outsiders Silver Wheels And Wings The Bitter End
Catch Eilen Jewell on tour: April 14 – Winnemucca, NV – The Martin Hotel April 15 – Fallon, NV – Churchill Arts Council May 6 – Ybor City, FL – WMNF Tropical Heatwave 2023 May 9 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic May 10 – Nashville, TN – City Winery May 11 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic May 12 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle May 13 – Greer, SC – Albino Skunk Music Festival 2023 May 14 – Charleston, WV – Mountain Stage June 24 – Greenfield, MA – Green River Festival 2023 June 25 – Pawling, NY – Daryl’s House June 27 – New York, NY – City Winery NYC June 28 – Old Saybrook, CT – The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center June 29 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair June 30 – Fall River, MA – Narrows Center for the Arts July 1 – Red Hook, NY – Hardeman Orchards July 2 – Portland, ME – One Longfellow Square July 5 – Woodbridge, NJ – Woodbridge Wednesdays July 6 – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live July 7 – Frenchtown, NJ – ArtYard July 8 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts of Homer July 9 – Buffalo, NY – Sportsmens Tavern September 7 – Berwyn, IL – Fitzgerald’s
Home Is Where The Heart Is will be released April 28, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
The Davisson Brothers Band is a genre-blurring mountain rock band formed in Clarksburg, West Virginia, by Chris and Donnie Davisson. Along with nephew Gerrod Bee and lifelong family friend Aaron Regester, the band has created a uniquely authentic Appalachian country sound which has helped them grow into one of the most successful independent acts in the world. Since their founding in 2006, the band has recorded three albums, been celebrated as a Highway Find on Sirius XM, charted on country radio with “Foot Stompin’,” and scored a hit song in Australia with “Po’ Boyz”—while also earning a dedicated following in the Jam Band/Bluegrass scene and standing shoulder to shoulder with mainstream country stars at festivals like CMC Rocks (Australia) and the Carolina Country Fest (USA). Their new album, Home Is Where the Heart Is, will be out April 28, 2023. (IVPR, 2023)
When it came down to telling the story of their home and exactly what it means to them, the Davisson Brothers Band took pride in not only correcting any misunderstandings but painting a true and downright fun picture of everything from their humble mountain roots to their present rock and roll reality. Their upcoming album Home Is Where The Heart Is does just that, pulling twelve tracks straight from the Davisson Brothers’ world and wrapping them in their most authentic sound to date. Created like a declaration of musical independence—a national anthem for the Appalachian way of life—Home Is Where The Heart Is is the masterpiece the band has worked toward their whole career, and after working hard to earn the respect of their peers, it was not done alone.
Produced by wildly popular songwriter and recording artist Brent Cobb and Nashville’s legendary recording studio character David “Ferg” Ferguson, Home Is Where The Heart Is finds Davisson Brothers Band—brothers Chris and Donnie Davisson on lead guitar and lead vocals, respectively, their nephew Gerrod Bee on bass and life-long family friend Aaron Regester on drums—joined in the studio by bluegrass and jam-band royalty to help round out their “mountain rock” sound.
Taste of Country premiered the music video for “Mountain High,” the Davisson Brothers’ first single from Home Is Where TheHeart Is. The video finds the Davissons, band, and extended family and friends at home in the mountains of West Virginia singing along with the songs fiddle-ridden refrain: “We get down on a mountain high / It’s where we’re from, it’s where we’ll die.”
Fans can watch the “Mountain High” video, stream or purchase“Mountain High” here, and pre-order or pre-saveHome Is WhereThe Heart Is ahead of its April 28 release on Rollin’ The Dice Records.
Home Is Where The Heart Is track list: Home Mountain High Appalachian Breeze Eastern Kentucky Wild and Wonderful Cross My Heart John Deere Tractor Long Hard Road She Ain’t Coming Back Life On Fire I’m Good With It Morningstar
Catch Davisson Brothers Band on tour: April 15 – Boonsboro, MD – Dirty Boots Country Fest 2023 May 6 – Saint Marys, WV – St. Marys High School June 16 – Kannapolis, NC – Swanee Theater June 17 – Saint Albans, WV – YakFest 2023 August 1 – Petersburg, WV – Tri-County Fair August 4- Ravenswood, WV – Ohio River Festival August 10 – Mannington, WV – Mannington District Fair Association August 11 – Davis, WV – Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center September 2 – Webster Springs, WV – Bergoo Bash 2023
Happy Birthday 2U is the new song by Pink Man Shout and Pios Phantom. Photo: Balarama, used with permission.
Balarama is a musical searcher. The German born lyricist has explored both the physical world and a seemingly endless sea of musical genres, emerging with tracks that are hypnotic, uplifting, and full of revelations. Having spent years honing his craft, he is now emerging with some of the most meaningful tracks of his career. This week he released a new song, a collaboration between Pink Man Shout (electronic dance music) and Pios Phantom (indie rock pop punk) titled Happy Birthday 2U. It is available for streaming on Spotify. (Balarama, 2023)
The heartbreaking Happy Birthday 2U brilliantly blends rock and EDM. Written in the wake of a personal tragedy, the song is a meaningful meditation on loss and survival, yet its massive hooks and hypnotic beats keep things uplifting and cathartic. The artists have come together to create a work of beauty, likely to appeal to anyone who has experienced difficult times. Perfect for any electronic, rock based playlists
The many experiences that have made Balarama’s story so unique are also the key elements of his lyricism. He carries on the traditions of love and peace that were born at Woodstock. He has written a divine rock opera inspired by the heavenly mantra entrusted to him by his guru. The story begins in 1969 and takes listeners on a celestial journey from his village in the past to the era of love he has created in the present. If you look closely at the artwork, you may even find hints as to where you can find the artist if you choose to follow this heavenly path.
He is a yoga master, a modern day philosopher, and a pilgrim. Along the way on his extensive travels, he has encountered several kindred spirits, many of which have become trusted collaborators. Together, they have made genuinely beautiful music.
On his latest tracks, Balarama has been experimenting with innovative electronic sounds. The songs take inspiration from vintage pop, rock, and soul, while using modern recording techniques to brilliantly capture the energy of the performers. These songs come from humble origins, but they are beginning to capture the imagination of listeners around the world.
Above all, the artist’s goal is to bring people together through music. His home in Siegbach, Germany is a holy place where people can come to find the essence of their divine spirit. To find peace and harmony in a world where those qualities are increasingly rare and he may very well succeed. With a steady stream of new releases expected this year and beyond, he is poised to make an indelible impact on the international music world.
SA Examiner 