Category: new releases

The Western Express announces new album Lunatics, Lovers & Poets

The Western Express show off their nuevo-retro style of Texas country with new single “Flower Of The Rio Grande.” Upcoming album Lunatics, Lovers & Poets is due out August 9, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Lone Star State honky-tonkers The Western Express are aware of the renewed interest in the eras of country music that inspire them—and the major-label artists who are leading that surge in popularity with radio-friendly hits—but they are not chasing trends. “My first real concert was the Judds at the Houston Rodeo in the late ‘80s. I sang George Strait songs at every talent show I could enter as a kid,” says Stephen Castillo, one half of The Western Express, along with Phill Brush. “I’ve just always been immersed in it.” Their sound is real, and it goes deep. Their new album Lunatics, Lovers & Poets will be out August 9, 2022. (The Western Express, 2022)

Phill Brush and Stephen Castillo, together known as The Western Express, met via Craigslist in early 2018 and bonded over their shared love of first-rate songwriting and the country hits of the 1980s and ‘90s. Drawn to the tragic or notable lives of writers and performers such as Dean Dillon, Andrew Marlin and Emily Frantz of Watchhouse, and Chavela Vargas, Brush and Castillo’s unique set of influences are balanced with classic country troubadours like Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, and Alan Jackson. It is through this lens that they refract a sound all their own. Touching on classic pop country, Latin blues, gospel, and even a little outlaw, The Western Express are cultivating their one-of-a-kind brand of Texas country. 

Pro Country debuted The Western Express’ “Flower of the Rio Grande,” the first single from their upcoming full-length album, Lunatics, Lovers & Poets. With a swaggering, moody Mex-Tex feel, “Flower of the Rio Grande” tells the story of a lovelorn man roaming the desert, as Castillo puts it: “searching for the dark-eyed woman who now only lives in his dreams.” A lonesome fiddle and a reverbed-out electric guitar dance in and out of Castillo’s vocal melody, painting a perfect, cool desert evening scene. “He wants her and she knows it,” says Brush. “And she’s not giving in that easily.” Fans can check out the music video for “Flower of the Rio Grande” now and stream it.

The nine songs on Lunatics, Lovers & Poets work together despite their differences—much like Brush and Castillo themselves—because of Castillo’s strong, but not self important, songwriting decisions. There is an old-school storytelling style masking deeply personal reflections in “Flower of the Rio Grande,” and “Leyenda,” unflinching honesty over upbeat melodies in “Trust Me, You Can’t Trust Me” and “Emptying Me,” and straightforward, dancehall-ready love stories in “You and Me and the Neon” and “Lovin’ You for a While.”

“I took the craft of writing these songs seriously,” explains Castillo, who wrote much of the album during a solo trip to West Texas in the fall of 2018, “but the songs themselves don’t take themselves very seriously.” 

Lunatics, Lovers & Poets track list:

  1. Honky Tonk Saints
  2. Flower of the Rio Grande
  3. You and Me and the Neon
  4. Trust Me, You Can’t Trust Me
  5. Leyenda
  6. Lovin’ You For A While
  7. Last Apology
  8. Emptying Me
  9. Quesadilla Mamacita

Catch The Western Express on tour:
August 4 – Austin, TX – Broken Spoke Dancehall (Album Release Show)
August 7 – Helotes, TX – Floore’s Country Store
August 19 – College Station, TX – Calvary Court

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Tiffany Williams announces single ‘All Those Days of Drinking Dust’ from new album

Tiffany Williams pays homage to her family and every other long line of coal miners with stunning new song “All Those Days of Drinking Dust” from upcoming full-length debut All Those Days of Drinking Dust, out August 19, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Singer-songwriter Tiffany Williams is the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of eastern Kentucky coal miners, but the more she introduced herself to audiences that way at her live shows, the more she felt guilty about it. “I hadn’t done anything to deserve claiming that,” she says. What she meant is that she did not have to make the same sacrifices or take part in the back-breaking labor that they did, yet she was proudly sharing and identifying with that part of her culture and heritage. In actuality, Williams is an award-winning fiction writer and a self-described lexophile who has taught high school English and studied Appalachian speech and sociolinguistics in graduate school—not to mention working as a dialect coach on the set of “The Evening Hour,” which debuted at Sundance in 2020. She shares a stunning example of a sum of her lifetime of parts; the title track from her debut full-length album, All Those Days of Drinking Dust, due to be released August 19, 2022. (Tiffany Williams, 2022)

“All Those Days of Drinking Dust” was written, in a way, to purge Williams’ guilt about attaching herself to her forebearers’ hard-working Appalachian lineage, and what came from it is a hauntingly beautiful tribute to not only her family but to generations of families like hers; folks who spent their lives working beneath the mighty Appalachian mountains. Those mountains, as the song says, “are the only ones that watched us ripe and rot / and hold the bones of both our living and our dead”—the “ripe” and “rot” a reference to Shakespeare’s As You Like It. “From the first-line echo of the original coal miner’s daughter Loretta Lynn, this song pays homage to a succession of coal mining forebears and talks about living life in the shadow of the harrowing vocation—how it comes to bear on the body, the spirit, and the people making a home in fraught yet beloved coal country,” says Williams.

Americana Highways premiered “All Those Days of Drinking Dust,” writing, “Williams’ rich vocals hold sorrow and longing, and the album promises to be one of this year’s favorites.” Produced by legendary Lexington, Kentucky-based Duane Lundy, All Those Days of Drinking Dust will be released on August 19. Fans can pre-order or pre-save the album ahead of its release and listen to the album-opening title track. All Those Days of Drinking Dust represents a monumental convergence of each chapter of Williams’ life.

Williams and Lundy recruited an eclectic band of pickers from the Commonwealth that add energy and nuance to each track. Virtuoso cellist Ben Sollee lends a ghostly vibe to “The Sea,” while J. Tom Hnatow adds bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and steel to other tracks throughout. There is percussion from Tripp Bratton; contributions on keys, acoustic, and electric guitars from Justin Craig; fiddle stylings from Ellie Miller; and Taylor Shuck on banjo. Fellow Kentuckian and noted New York Times best-selling novelist Silas House adds vocals to a lively duet. Lundy not only produced and contributed keys but also engineered and mixed the recording.

All Those Days of Drinking Dust track list:
1. All Those Days of Drinking Dust
2. Carletta
3. Harder Heart
4. Know Your Worth
5. The Sea
6. Wanted It To Be
7. When I Come Back Around
8. Don’t Give A Damn
9. No Bottom
10. The Waiting

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Winner of Best Historical Film, Orders From Above now available on digital

Orders From Above is now available on digital. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Vir Srinivas’ writing and directorial debut, Orders From Above has picked up awards or nominations at four world festivals, including Cannes and Mannheim. It is available on iTunes and all major digital platforms including YouTube, Vudu, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video. The 87-minute film is based on the interrogation of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann by Israeli police. (Gravitas Ventures, 2022)

Orders From Above – Winner of Best Historical Film at Cannes World Film Festival. Fifteen years after the end of World War II, Israeli police officer Avner Less interrogates Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Final Solution. Adolf Eichmann is finally captured and brought to Israel to stand trial, but without enough evidence to prosecute him, Avner Less needs a confession from him. Directed by Vir Srinivas, with Richard Cotter, Peter J. Donnelly, Darrell Hoffman, and Emmanuel Drakakis.

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

New movie release: Glasshouse

Glasshouse is now available on digital and On Demand. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Kelsey Egan’s directorial feature debut Glasshouse is now available on digital platforms including Google Play Movies & TV, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube. This dystopian science fiction thriller stars Jessica Alexander, Kitty Harris, Helton Pelser, Adrienne Pearce, and Anja Taljaard. It received rave reviews at the 2021 Fantasia International Film Festival and is currently 91% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. (Glasshouse, 2022)

Glasshouse – A family consisting of a mother, three daughters and one son isolate themselves in a greenhouse, which the mother calls the Sanctuary, to escape the Shred, a dementia-like toxin that erases people’s memory. All is well until the sisters are seduced by a Stranger who shatters their peace and stirs a past best left buried.

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

New horror movie release: 3 Demons

D.M. Cunningham’s 3 Demons starring Haley Heslip and Laura Golinski. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

If you love horror movies, here is a recent release. D.M Cunningham’s 3 Demons, a supernatural horror film headlined by Peter Tell, is available on Google Play Movies & TV, Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube from Uncork’d Entertainment. (Uncork’d Entertainment, 2022)

3 Demons – A deputy is tasked with watching over the body of a recently deceased woman until her family can arrive and claim her. As his curiosity gets the better of him, he inadvertently concludes an unfinished ritual. With the conjuring now complete, strange and sinister forces begin to target him. As his past is unearthed, he is forced to face his own demons with terrifying consequences. Haley Heslip, Laura Golinski, Jovonnah Nicholson, Zoë Cunningham, and Sherryl Despres also star.

Keith Leopard, a home entertainment industry veteran with more than 23 years of experience in purchasing, acquisitions, merchandising, marketing and analysis of major studio and independent supplier to the home entertainment market, founded Uncork’d Entertainment in July 2012. The Company focuses on distribution in six areas: Digital Media, Physical Home Entertainment, Aggregation, Theatrical and Television, Foreign Sales, and has secured relationships across all platforms to ensure films reach the widest audience possible.

Andrew Duhon paints picture of love and adventure on new album Emerald Blue

Emerald Blue will be out July 29, 2022 and features backing band Jano Rix, Myles Weeks, and Dan Walker; Engineered by GRAMMY-winner Trina Shoemaker at Dockside Studios. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

For an artist who grew up, in his words, “beside the turbulent, chocolate milk of the mouth of the Mississippi,” it is no wonder that Andrew Duhon was so awestricken by his time exploring the Pacific Northwest over the past few years. But it was when Duhon connected the shades of his unfamiliar surroundings with the depth of color in his partner’s eyes that sparked the writing of “Emerald Blue,” the title track of his upcoming album. (Andrew Duhon, 2022)

Holler. premiered the music video for “Emerald Blue,” writing, “…‘Emerald Blue’ sits happily at the crossroads of harmony-drenched pop, rustic Americana, Appalachian folk and about a half-dozen other styles, all meeting and mixing around the warmth of Duhon’s vocals; world-weary, stretched and full of soul.” Fans can watch the music video for “Emerald Blue”, check out previously-released singles “Everybody Colored Their Own Jesus” and “Castle On Irish Bayou,“ and pre-order or pre-save Emerald Blue ahead of its July 29.

Joined by Jano Rix on drums, percussion, and harmonies; Myles Weeks on upright and electric basses and harmonies; and Dan Walker on keys and accordion, Duhon headed into Maurice, Louisiana’s storied Dockside Studios with GRAMMY-award winning engineer and longtime collaborator of Andrew’s, Trina Shoemaker, to capture every inch of vibe and beauty and texture each song had to offer.

The tracks on Emerald Blue show serious time spent in listening mode—both to himself, and to the world around him. These are songs that come from a very particular time and place, when so many of us—often alone with our flaws and feelings, with few of our regular, dependable distractions—were forced to face hard truths. And yet, using the time-tested language of folk, of the blues, storytelling and soul-searching, voice and keys and strings, Andrew Duhon proves himself worthy of heroes like John Prine—who makes a fantasy cameo in “As Good As It Gets,” the album’s closer—by similarly crafting four-minute worlds in song, that feel purely timeless, as old or as young as the chronic condition of stumbling across Earth with a human heart. Emerald Blue shows us the vast worlds that can be discovered and traveled when we sit still, and the breathtaking vistas on view when we look within—or at the people right beside us. 

Catch Andrew Duhon on tour:
7.21 – Boulder, CO – The Barn – Benefit Concert
7.22 – Pallisade, CO – Pallisade Brewery
7.29 – Lafayette, LA – Grouse Room
7.30 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks
7.31 – Mobile, AL – Callaghan’s
8.01 – Birmingham, AL – Dave’s Pub
8.02 – Decatur, GA – Eddie’s Attic
8.03 – Asheville, NC – The Grey Eagle
8.04 – Greenville, SC – Radio Room
8.05 – Charlotte, NC – The Evening Muse
8.07 – Raleigh, NC – Pour House Music Hall
8.10 – Port Townsend, WA – Wheeler Theater
8.11 – Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
8.12 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir
8.13 – Kingston, WA – Concerts in the Barn
8.14 – Nine Mile Falls, WA – Live at Andre’s
8.17 – New York, NY – Cafe Wha?
8.18 – Wayne, PA – 118 North

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Bobby Cool breezes into the good times with easygoing single ‘Salt Life’

The single ‘Salt Life’ is from the upcoming LP Family Time, out July 29, 2022. For fans of Zac Brown Band, Jimmy Buffet, Chris Stapleton, and Corey Smith. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Recording artist Bobby Cool’s new tune “Salt Life” kicks off with a bit of blue-collar perspective. But it is only a matter of time before the tides turn the song into an easy-going, smile-inducing ode to the upsides of close proximity to a large body of water. In the end, driven by lively harmonica counterpoint, Cool’s character is fully and happily committed to not worrying whether the grass is greener on the other side. With “Salt Life”—like the rest of his upcoming album Family Time—Cool blends bluegrass, Americana, and country into a rousing, good-time mix of genres. (Bobby Cool, 2022)

Fans can reel in Cool’s coastal mood for themselves by checking out “Salt Life”, check out the previously-released “American Dream,” and pre-order or pre-save Family Time ahead of its July 29 release right here.

At the end of February 2020, Cool and his producer Adam Haynes (bluegrass fiddler for The Grascals, Dailey & Vincent, and others) tracked 13 songs over the course of two days. Two weeks later, the world would shut down and a two-year journey would commence to release into the world what would finally become Family Time. On Family Time, Cool shares musical snapshots of small and large moments that define family life and captures intimately the grooves and creases, the craziness and the humor, the regrets, and the celebrations of living together in songs that resonate so deeply we feel as if he has written them just for us. In the end, it is clear that Bobby Cool revels in telling a good story as much as he does in trying to live one out. He sings songs that reach us wherever we find ourselves in our lives, touching us, healing us, and embracing us with music that fills our hearts and reminds us that life’s most important events happen on family time.

Family Time track list:

  1. American Dream
  2. Waffle House
  3. You In Mind
  4. Salt Life
  5. Waves of Grain
  6. My Love
  7. Crazy
  8. Stella
  9. Perry Street Blues
  10. Join The Party
  11. Battle of the Lion King
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New thriller movie release: The Ghost Lights

The Ghost Lights, a new spine-chilling science fiction thriller, will be available on digital on August 26, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Coming this August from Terror Films is The Ghost Lights, a spine-chilling new science-fiction thriller about a journalist on the search for truth about extra-terrestrial life. The Ghost Lights will be released on digital on August 26 followed by the Terror Films Channel September 2 and Kings of Horror on September 9, 2022. (Terror Films, 2022)

The Ghost Lights – A journalist returns home after the death of her father and discovers a mysterious cassette tape describing strange disappearances and mysterious lights appearing in the skies of West Texas. In an effort to connect with the memory of her late father, she sets out on a cross-state road trip to discover the truth. Billy Blair (Jonah Hex), Katreeva Phillips, and John Francis McCullagh uncover an X-File in this summer’s most intriguing genre jaunt.

“If I were to choose a theme for 2020, it would be loss. And we did lose so much- jobs, our ways of life, and in some tragic cases our friends and loved ones. This film too is about loss and the inevitable regret that follows. We wish we could go back, say something we always meant to say but never made the time, pay attention when we were too self-obsessed to notice, or make a different decision before it was too late. The Ghost Lights seeks to explore the darkness of this guilt and possibilities of reconciliation, even across time itself.”- Timothy Stevens, Director 

The Ghost Lights poster. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

KDMG, Inc acquires filmmaker Tony Ahedo’s feature film ‘Icon’

KDMG, Inc. will release “Icon”  across all TVOD/Digital and Blu-Ray/DVD platforms throughout North America on August 1, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

KDMG, Inc. (Kaczmarek Digital Media Group, Inc.) has acquired the Pretty Sweet Films’ production of filmmaker Tony Ahedo’s touching feature film debut “Icon.” This moving coming of age drama charts the perilous journey to adulthood for our charismatic leads Sam (Parker Padgett) and Ana (Devon Hales). KDMG, Inc. will release “Icon” across all TVOD/Digital and Blu-Ray/DVD platforms throughout North America on August 1, 2022. (Kaczmarek Digital Media Group, Inc., 2022)

Young love’s the topic of so many films, but rarely is it handled with earnest, authentic grace, as we see in “Icon.” Anchored in the touching performances of Padgett and Hales, audiences will find themselves moved much like fellow beloved indie film “The Spectacular Now.” When a surprise pregnancy forces Sam to face many brutal realities of adulthood and responsibility, things spiral rapidly out of control as he simultaneously tries to fight to find his own truth: why his absent father hasn’t been in his life since he was one and is only a fading memory.

Inspired by a true story, “Icon” stars Parker Padgett and Devon Hales along with Julia Denton, Tony Demil, Bryce Anthony Heller, and the feature film debut of Ronald Sansone.

“I am excited for audiences everywhere to see the film and prompt important conversations. My intent is to show the male perspective to a pregnancy in such a way that illuminates the idealization of patriarchy and toxic masculine views of the past and how we move beyond it.” Tony Ahedo.

Adapted from an award-winning short that won the presidents’ award at Ringling College of Art & Design, “Icon” was filmed in Ahedo’s hometown of Saint Petersburg, Florida, just prior to the pandemic. The story pulls elements from his childhood growing up in the mid 90s through the early 2000s in Florida.

“It’s not often we see a good coming-of-age film that breaks down the fundamentals of teen adolescence in a relatable way. I felt this story had an audience and needed to be seen. On behalf of myself and the KDMG team, I am thrilled to be part of Icon’s journey.” – Kyle Kaczmarek, KDMG, Inc.’s CEO

Kaczmarek Digital Media Group, Inc. (KDMG, Inc.) was founded in 2012 to provide a non-traditional, outside the box, hands-on digital approach to entertainment content providers. Deeply passionate about our work, KDMG counsels individuals and companies in all areas of the entertainment industry, including producers, directors, distributors, technology companies, digital retail platforms, sales agents, and cable, telecommunications and satellite companies toward achieving their highest potential.

Pretty Sweet Films is a full-service narrative production company founded by award-winning filmmaker Tony Ahedo based in Los Angeles. Since its inception in 2019, the company has created and collaborated on a wide variety of projects across the country. From romantic coming of age films to raunchy dark comedies to chilling horror thrillers, PSF is prepared to make any story a compelling piece for the eyes and mind. With more than a decade of production experience, PSF is here to make films pretty sweet.

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Songwriter Peter Mulvey and SistaStrings announce new album

Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey and rising stars SistaStrings have joined hands for a new studio album Love Is The Only Thing, due out on August 12, 2022. Photo: google

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Peter Mulvey and fellow Milwaukeeans, the in-demand dynamic duo SistaStrings have joined hands once again for a brand new studio album, Love Is The Only Thing, due out August 12 on Righteous Babe Records. A self-proclaimed anti-fascist record, Love Is The Only Thing keeps kindness and compassion in the foreground, following a similar musical path to Mulvey and SistaStrings’ Live at the Café Carpe, which was released in late 2020 and, like the new album, includes drummer Nathan Kilen rounding out the ensemble. Fans can pre-order or pre-save Love Is The Only Thing right now at this link and get refamiliarized with Mulvey and SistaStrings’ brilliant sound by checking out Live at the Café Carpe right here. (Peter Mulvey/SistaStrings, 2022)

SistaStrings—cellist-vocalist Monique Ross and violinist-vocalist Chauntee Ross—bring all the beautiful versatility of their cello and violin music—along with sibling-strong vocal harmonies—to Love Is The Only Thing. Classically trained string players who grew up singing in church, Monique and Chauntee were destined to defy conventions of genre and race alike, blending R&B, gospel, and classical sounds. Mulvey met the Rosses in 2016, and all three felt an instant kinship.

The bright light of family illuminates this record and all that went into making it. Its existence hinges on the way we take care of each other, from its fan-supported funding to the sanctuary of Café Carpe to the blood sisterhood of the Rosses to Mulvey’s newfound fatherhood. Making Love Is The Only Thing at such a tumultuous time in history reinforced Mulvey’s and SistaStrings’ role as activists just as much as musicians. “Finding refuge and rejuvenation in these songs with this group of musicians was healing and personally some sort of mission statement for why we even make music in the first place,” Chauntee remembers. Love Is The Only Thing explores loss, tension, and the love that sees us through it.

Love Is The Only Thing track list:
Shenandoah
Soft Animal
O My Dear (the Demagogue)
Old Men Drinking Seagram’s
You and (Everybody Else)
Early Summer of ‘21
Five Hundred Days
On the Eve of the Inaugural
Pray for Rain
February Too
Song for Michael Brown
Love Is the Only Thing

Catch Peter Mulvey on tour:
July 28 – Portsmouth, NH – Portsmouth Music Hall w/ Mark Erelli
July 29 – Brownfield, ME – Stone Mountain Arts Center w/ Mark Erelli
July 30 – Concord, NH – Capitol Center for the Arts w/ Mark Erelli
August 18 – Sandwich, NH – John Davidson’s Club Sandwich

Catch SistaStrings on tour:
August 5 – Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum*
August 6 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island*
August 11 – Salt Lake City, UT – Vivent Arena*
August 18 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion#
August 19 – Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center For the Arts#
August 20 – Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center For The Performing Arts#
August 24 – London, UK – Omeara^
September 9-10 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks#
September 25 – Bridgeport, CT – Sound on Sound 2022*
October22 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden*

*performing w/ Brandi Carlile
^performing w/ Allison Russell
#performing w/ Allison Russell and Brandi Carlile

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