Category: new releases

New documentary release: Living With Chucky

The documentary Living With Chucky is now available on streaming and Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. Photo: Cinedigm, used with permission.

This month, Cinedigm and Bloody Disgusting premiered the horror documentary Living With Chucky on its horror streaming service SCREAMBOX and on all major digital platforms in the US and Canada. (EG-PR, 2023)

Living with Chucky takes an in depth look at the groundbreaking Child’s Play franchise from the perspective of a filmmaker who grew up within it. Featuring interviews with cast and crew such as Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly, Alex Vincent, creator Don Mancini, and much more, this personal film recounts the dedication, creativity and sacrifice that went into making the franchise and its long-lasting impact on the horror community.

Storming into pop culture in the late 1980s, the three-foot menace known as Chucky, proved that Child’s Play was anything but. The horror film went on to spawn six sequels, a television series, a reboot, comic books, a video game, and merchandise.

Written and directed by Kyra Elise Gardner, daughter of legendary special effects artist Tony Gardner, Living With Chucky looks back at the groundbreaking horror franchise by those there from the beginning. The documentary details the history of the Child’s Play films by the cast and crew, in addition to Gardner’s own relationship with the series and the impact it had on her family. Gardner, who grew up alongside Chucky the killer doll, seeks out other families involved with the Child’s Play films as they recount their experiences working on the franchise and what it means to be a part of the “Chucky” family.

Cast: Abigail Breslin, Adam Hurtig, Alex Vincent, Billy Boyd, Brad Dourif, Christine Elise McCarthy, Dan Povenmire, David Kirschner, Don Mancini, Elle Lorraine, Fiona Dourif, James A. Janisse, Jennifer Tilly, John Waters, Kyra Gardner, Lin Shaye, Marlon Wayans, Tony Gardner, Tony Timpone, and many more.

Official Selection: Popcorn Frights Film Festival 2022, Fantastic Fest 2022, and Screamfest Horror Film Festival 2022.

US VOD PLATFORMS
Amazon, Apple, Google Play, VUDU, Hoopla, Xbox, SCREAMBOX, and more.
(SCREAMBOX is available to stream on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, Cox, and screambox.com)

CANADA VOD PLATFORMS
Apple, Google Play, Xbox, and more.

The Living With Chucky Collector’s Edition Blu-ray is also available in the US & Canada. Special features include: Exclusive artwork by Creepy Duck, Candid Conversations, Favorite Death Scenes, Strange Families and Director’s Commentary.

Romance novel of the week: ‘Loving You Is Destiny’ by Sarah Akkoyun

‘Loving You Is Destiny’ by Sarah Akkoyun. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

If you love reading romance novels, here is one for you: “Loving You Is Destiny,” the latest novel by Sarah Akkoyun. It is available on Amazon. (Sarah Akkoyun, 2023)

“Loving You Is Destiny” – Vanessa Lawrence had always thought she would end up marrying the love of her life, David Dawson, one day. – Yet here she is one year later, still unable to move on. Her family and best friend try their best to support her, but they just cannot understand what she is going through. Vanessa did not want to move on, at least, not until she met Lucas Graham.

He brought joy and happiness back into her life, but she should not get any closer to him than she already was. She could not forget David, she still wanted him to be a part of her life. It was not fair to Lucas, Vanessa knew that, but they could be friends, right? Nothing more, nothing less. Just good friends. No matter what Taylor, her best friend, said. Even though Taylor just wanted Vanessa to be happy again. Vanessa never expected to discover a secret about what happened a year ago, considering she thought there was nothing left to find out. Now she has to decide if love can truly overcome anything.

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Rodney Rice’s new self titled album out next month

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-save Rodney 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

*With the Ice Cold Pickers

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Logan Halstead’s hauntingly honest debut album Dark Black Coal

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

New movie release: Space Wars: The Quest for the Deepstar

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar is set for digital release May 2 but is now in limited theater release. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

The official trailer has dropped for the upcoming action-packed sci-fi adventure movie Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar, starring Michael Paré, Olivier Gruner, and Sarah French. The movie is set for digital release on May 2, with some theatrical play dates beginning April 21, and has just been selected for screening at this year’s Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival. (October Coast, 2023)

The film concerns a father-daughter team of space scavengers who must race against a band of evil mercenaries to reach the legendary treasures on board a lost mythical freighter. Their quest will force them to navigate a universe filled with giant monsters, aliens, robots, and a mortal enemy seeking vengeance.

The movie also stars Tyler Gallant, Rachele Brooke Smith, Anahit Setian, Jed Rowen, Elise Muller, and Sadie Katz. In recent months, the film won the Golden Marquee Award for Best Feature Film and the Outstanding Producing Award at the Zed Fest Film Festival. It also won the Gold Award for Best Sci-Fi Feature at the Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festival, a Gold Award and Silver Award for Feature and Directing at the Hollywood Gold Awards, and an “Outstanding Performance” Award for Sarah French and Diamond Award for “Best Actor in a Sci-Fi” for Michael Pare’ at the New York Best Actor & Director Awards.

Garo Setian, producer/director of the award-winning sci-fi film Automation, directs and edits from a screenplay by Joe Knetter, based on a story by Setian and Knetter. Producers are Jeff Miller, Robert Parigi, ‘Evil’ Ted Smith, Ben Stobber, and Joanna Fang, along with Garo and Anahit Setian, Joe Knetter, Sarah French and Bill Klinakis. Ronnie D. Lee is executive producer.

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar is a co-production between Hungry Monster Entertainment, Millman Productions, and Ron Lee Productions. Michael Su is Director of Photography, Anthony Pearce is Production Designer, Jo Anna Heckman is Costume Designer, ‘Evil’ Ted Smith is lead prop fabricator, Steve Clarke and Paul Knott provide the visual effects, Jeff Farley handles practical creature FX and the music is by Joel Christian Goffin.

It will be in the following theaters starting April 21:

April 21-27: Lumiere Cinema, Beverly Hills, CA (Q&A on first night) Camelot Theatres, Palm Springs, CA
April 22: The Frida Cinema, Santa Ana, CA (Q&A with cast and crew)
April 28-May 3: Galaxy Theatres Boulevard Mall, Las Vegas, NV
April 28 & 29: Moonlite Drive-in, West Wyoming, PA (double bill w/Escape From Death Block 13)
April 30: Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival, Miami, FL May 5 & 6: The Fallon Theatre, Fallon, NV

Movie adaptation: ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’ by Judy Blume

The movie adaptation of the classic coming of age novel will be release April 28, 2023. Photo: Amazon

Judy Blume spent her childhood in Elizabeth, NJ, making up stories inside her head. She has spent her adult years in many places, doing the same thing, only now she writes her stories down on paper. Adults as well as children will recognize such Blume titles as: “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Superfudge,” “Blubber,” “Just As Long As We’re Together,” and “Forever.” Judy received a B.S. in education from New York University in 1961, which named her a Distinguished Alumna in 1996, the same year that American Library Association honored her with the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement. Her books have sold more than 75 million copies and her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. The beloved coming of age novel “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” has been adapted into a major movie and will be released in theaters April 28, 2023. (Amazon, 2023)

“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” – Margaret Simon, almost twelve, has just moved from New York City to the suburbs, and she is anxious to fit in with her new friends. When she is asked to join a secret club she jumps at the chance. But when the girls start talking about boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret starts to wonder if she is normal. There are some things about growing up that are hard for her to talk about, even with her friends. Lucky for Margaret, she has got someone else to confide in, someone who always listens.

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New horror movie release: Dark Entities

Dark Entities is the new horror movie from Terror Films. Photo: Terror Films, used with permission.

From writer/director Brandon McLemore, encounter Dark Entities this April from Terror Films. Starring Elena Ontiveros, Brandon McLemore, Jackson Lee Turner, and Warren McLemore, discover what is in the walls of the Winters house this April. Dark Entities is available worldwide April 14 from Terror Films on digital. It is available for streaming on Tubi, Amazon Prime, and Google Play. (October Coast, 2023)

Dark Entities – Following a tragic accident in 1977, the three Winters siblings move into the mysterious home they inherited. They soon discover the house holds dark secrets that seek to threaten everything they hold dear. Convinced the strange occurrences are a result of trauma, they seek out logical explanations with little success. They look to the help of a parapsychologist as the supernatural forces become life threatening. With time running out, will they be able to survive the dark entities?

New book release: ‘Black Sheep: Moment of Truth’ by Mike Black

‘Black Sheep: Moment of Truth’ is the new book by Mike Black. Photo: Mike Black, used with permission.

Mike Black is an author whose new book “Black Sheep: Moment of Truth” is out now. (Mike Black, 2023)

“Black Sheep: Moment of Truth” –
Step into Truth

“Accepting Truth isn’t always easy, but it’s always necessary. Without hardship, without going through the Trials and Tribulations, strength cannot be gained. No matter how hard and hopeless you feel at times, endure a little longer and keep fighting on. Nothing great comes from taking the easy way out. Nothing permanent that is.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Seeing the Invisible:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

“God never promised an easy life on earth, but he did promise the temporary battle would be worth it in the end.”

Author Mike Black. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

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New album release: Get Behind The Wheel – Eilen Jewell

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-save Get 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

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New album release: Big Talk – Jarrod Dickenson

Big Talk is Jarrod Dickenson’s new album. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Jarrod Dickenson is a guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer, originally from Waco, Texas, and now based in Nashville. His two albums, The Lonesome Traveler and Ready the Horses, along with his EP, Under A Texas Sky, have earned him critical acclaim and a devoted audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Not one to fear an exhausting tour schedule, Dickenson has entranced crowds all over Europe and the US and shared stages with such legendary artists as Bonnie Raitt, Don McLean, The Waterboys, Jools Holland, and Jimmie Vaughan. He has performed at prestigious festivals such as Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival. After a baptism of fire in the world of the major labels, Jarrod Dickenson now exists as a fiercely independent artist, a look that suits him well and allows his creativity to follow whatever path it damn well pleases. Nowhere is this attitude better encapsulated than in the bluesy rock and roll growl of his uncompromising new album Big Talk, released worldwide on February 3, 2023 via Hooked Records. (IVPR, 2023)

The hardships and infuriation of recent years have only added steel to the resolve of an artist already willing to do it the hard way, prepared to stand in the face of a music business that shows dwindling regard for the brand of artistry that first inspired him to pick up a guitar and sing for his life—and Dickenson laid it all out for the world to hear on Big Talk.

Fans can stream or purchase Big Talk and check out Dickenson’s collection of music videos: “With Any Luck,” “Prefer To Lose,” “Buckle Under Pressure,” and “Long Hard Look.” Limited edition Big Talk vinyl is available at Dickenson’s official web store.

This album represents Dickenson’s most direct and uncompromising body of songwriting to date and his decision to occupy the producer’s chair has injected Big Talk with a drive and coherence that compliments the muscle of its material. Furthermore, Dickenson has assembled a band of ferocious players to bring these songs to life with striking authenticity in a series of live sessions recorded to tape. Together they create that unmistakable sound that only comes from the assembly of talented players, in a room, having a blast and what better way to flip the bird at those dark entities that inspired the album’s creation than to rage with such joy?

If Dickenson’s previous works have ventured a foot into the territory of rock and roll, Big Talk plants a large flag. It is classic like Petty, gritty like Waits. There are McCartney-esque melodies and the blues get thrown down with a certain Rolling Stones swagger, and yet Jarrod Dickenson has crafted a sound that is all his own. Big Talk sounds for all the world like a man who has found his groove. Get the record, see a show, but just do not piss him off.

Big Talk track list:
1. Buckle Under Pressure
2. Born To Wander
3. Home Again (feat. Oliver Wood & Jano Rix)
4. Prefer To Lose
5. Bamboozled
6. With Any Luck
7. If You’re Looking
8. Long Hard Look
9. Don’t Deprive Me
10. Goodnight