Tag: Music News

New album release: Sweethearts – Christian Parker

Christian Parker breaths new life into the Byrd’s classic country leaning album with new LP Sweethearts. It will be out August 18, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Christian Parker is an American recording artist, guitarist and songwriter. He knows his way around a song, and his musical vision enables him to deliver electrifying licks on rock anthems as well as cascading layers of acoustic guitar on ballads of love and loss. Parker started taking guitar lessons when he was 12, the day after John Lennon was killed, and learned how to play “Rocky Racoon” that same night. The New York-based musician released his first album, Reflections of Tomorrow, when he was 17, launching a music career devoted to introspective songwriting marked by its attention to the world around him. Since then he has released six studio albums, including his forthcoming Sweethearts, Parker’s version of the classic Byrds’ album Sweethearts of the Rodeo. His albums have earned him praise from No Depression, Blues Blast, and Jambands. His most recent, Every Passing Mile and Best Kept Secret, contain previously unreleased material written over the last two decades. In addition to his solo work, Parker has played lead guitar in the Waydown Wailers, rockers who have shared stages with Z.Z. Top, Charlie Daniels, Lady A, and New Riders of the Purple Sage. (IV-PR, 2023)

On August 18, Parker will release his version of the Byrds’ now-legendary country-rocker, Sweethearts of the Rodeo. Titled Sweethearts, it features his rollicking band and support from pianist Earl Poole Ball and pedal steel from JayDee Maness—both of whom played on the original record back in 1968.

Just as then-new Byrds member Gram Parsons loved the Louvin Brothers, Merle Haggard, and Cindy Walker—and wanted to deliver faithful versions of their songs “The Christian Life,” “Life in Prison,” and “Blue Canadian Rockies”—so Parker delivers the Byrds’ versions in tender renditions that capture the groundbreaking character of the original album. Throughout Sweethearts, Parker’s vocals echo the purity of Parsons’ efforts to import the clarity of county music into vibrant rock rhythms. In addition to the original eleven songs on Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Parker has included three more classics: “I Still Miss Someone,” “Satisfied Mind,” and “Drugstore Truck Driving Man.”

Parker shared the first single from Sweethearts, the album-opening “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” with premiere partner The Bluegrass Situation. “I first heard this song by Bob Dylan on an acoustic guitar. But I was hooked when I listened to the opening pedal steel guitar on the Byrds album,” says Parker. “This song was in my repertoire for decades, and I felt like I was recording an old friend. Tracer James’ interpretation of Lloyd Greens’ pedal steel guitar opens Sweethearts up perfectly and having Earl Poole Ball in the studio, who played piano on the original version, was magical for me.” Finding room between James’ scampering steel licks and Ball’s gospel-inflected piano runs, Parker delivers the song’s iconic refrain: “Whoo-ee, ride me high / Tomorrow’s the day my bride’s gonna come.” The cascading piano on the outré is Parker’s distinctive take on this buoyant song.

Fans can hear “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” now at this link and pre-order or pre-save Sweethearts ahead of its August 18 release.

Sweethearts track list:
You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
I Am A Pilgrim
The Christian Life
You Don’t Miss Your Water
You’re Still On My Mind
Pretty Boy Floyd
I Still Miss Someone
Hickory Wind
One Hundred Years From Now
Blue Canadian Rockies
Life In Prison
Nothing Was Delivered
Satisfied Mind
Drugstore Truck Driving Man

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New album release: That Grand, Old Feeling – William Matheny

William Matheny’s new album That Grand, Old Feeling will be out August 4, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

William Matheny is a West Virginia-based singer-songwriter whose brand of Americana music is firmly steeped in the Appalachian storytelling tradition. Written and recorded before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matheny’s latest record That Grand, Old Feeling is his most expansive work yet, taking narrative inspiration from the eclectic characters who inhabit dive motels and roadside haunts and sonic cues from the work of artists like Magnolia Electric Co. and Drive-By Truckers. Highlights include the slick, brooding “Every Way to Lose,” which Matheny wrote after discovering Alabama’s Wall of Jericho trailhead, and “Down at the Hotel Canfield,” the latter inspired by a visit to a real hotel in Dubuque, IA, that infamously boasts a ghastly history. (IV-PR, 2023)

“Grand Old Feeling” is the first single from Matheny’s new album That Grand, Old Feeling—out August 4 via Hickman Holler / Thirty Tigers. That Grand, Old Feeling follows Matheny’s 2017 album Strange Constellations, which drew critical acclaim from outlets like NPR and PopMatters. Matheny recorded the LP with producer Bud Carroll at Trackside Studio in Point Pleasant, WV. Carroll joins the proceedings on guitar, with Adam L. Meisterhans (guitar), Clint Sutton (drums), Jeremy Batten (piano, organ), John R. Miller (bass, vocals), and J. Tom Hnatow (pedal steel) rounding out the band, and recent Grammy-winner Justin Francis mixed the final product. All of these fantastic players are fellow West Virginians and Matheny’s longtime friends. 

Fans can hear “Grand Old Feeling” at this link and pre-save That Grand, Old Feeling; fans can pre-order the album straight from Matheny ahead of its August 4 release right here. 

Matheny’s style is that of a keen-eyed observer whose stories exist in a beautifully between-the-lines style narrative; equal parts curious and compassionate. Lines in “Grand Old Feeling” like “My mother once said ‘son, you’re a good man,’ like she was trying to convince herself” let the listeners in on more of the story than pages of simple narrative could, granting Matheny more real estate within a four-minute song to bring to life his “grand old feeling” of what it all means. While his personal examples come from years of touring, Matheny admits that the “grand old feeling” isn’t just about his gigging musician life. “For the non-road dogs out there, I imagine you’ve been looking too, maybe in some different places than me, but I’m sure you’ve been searching all the same,” he says. “Speaking to you pilgrim to pilgrim, I hope you find it.” 

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New lyric video: Billions Of Suns – Carcariass

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

New album release: Blood Brothers – Dallas Burrow

Dallas Burrow paints a full circle picture of his home with the first song “River Town” from his upcoming Jonathan Tyler-produced album Blood Brothers. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Dallas Burrow, a Texas-born Americana artist rooted in the tradition of his home state’s songwriting heroes, built a career on both sides of the Atlantic with his 2019 debut Southern Wind. It reached Number 25 on the UK Americana Chart and Number 4 on the US Alt-Country chart, paving the way for a string of cross-country shows alongside fellow road warriors like Charley Crockett. For Burrow—a lifelong explorer who had spent his 20s on the move, chasing his muse across most of America and Europe while rubbing shoulders with luminaries like Bob Dylan and Dr. John—being so far away from home felt natural. Even so, he began missing the stability of his new life back in Texas, where he had built a family and gotten sober. His second album, 2021’s Dallas Burrow, marked both a symbolic and literal homecoming for the songwriter, who recorded the material with modern-day legend Bruce Robison in the rural Texas countryside. His new album Blood Brothers finds Burrow telling the story of his musical roots, his father’s influence on his craft, and his own personal journey as a songwriter; all in his signature, gravely baritone. (IV-PR, 2023)

“River Town,” the opening track from his upcoming album Blood Brothers, rides a pulsing country backbeat and is dressed up with a fiddle, organ, electric guitar, and producer Jonathan Tyler singing harmonies. It tells the true story of Burrow’s small-town Texas upbringing, the leaving, and the coming back to start a family. “After getting in a little trouble, doing a lot of traveling, fast living, and soul searching—and finally meeting my wife and starting to settle down a little—in the end, I realized just what a beautiful area it was to live after all, and the perfect place for us to raise a kid,” he says. The Bluegrass Situation premiered the single, diving more into the backstory.

Fans can hear “River Town” at this link and watch the video for Burrow’s previously-released single, “Out My Window” here. 

With Blood Brothers, Burrow wanted to chase something a little more refined and a little more polished than his previous two efforts: Southern Wind and Dallas Burrow. With the creative vision and technical talent of producer Jonathan Tyler, Burrow took everything he had learned from the last two album cycles, plus a lot more experience on tour, and brought a new outlook—not to mention what he calls “some of the best songs I’ve ever written”—into the recording studio, crafting his best work to date. Existing fans of Burrow’s will find his instantly recognizable songs sung in his signature gravelly tone, but there are hints of something deeper afoot. Musically, the pair of Burrow and Tyler chased down new tones influenced by everything from Stax to Muscle Shoals to New Orleans, but lyrically, Burrow’s journey through his own history and influences steals the show. “The songs on Blood Brothers tell about where I’m from, where I’ve been, what I’ve done, and what I’ve seen,” he says.

Blood Brothers track list:
River Town
Starry Eyes
Devil’s Tongue
Out My Window
Motel 6
A Lot of it Was
Only Game in Town
Blood Brothers
Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold
X Old Flames
Wild Bill
You Go On Ahead
True Believer

Catch Dallas Burrow on tour:
June 23 – San Antonio, TX – The Lonesome Rose
June 24 – San Marcos, TX – Cheatham Street Warehouse
June 30 – Houston, TX – The Mucky Duck
July 7 & 8 – Red River, NM – Motherlode Saloon
July 21 – New Braunfels, TX – Freiheit Country Store
Jul 22 – Luckenbach, TX – Luckenbach Dancehall
July 29 – Hunter, TX – Riley’s Tavern
August 2 – La Grande, OR – Union County
August 3 – Portland, OR – Topaz Farm
August 4 – Sisters, OR – The Belfry
August 5 – Carson City, NV – Nashville Social Club
August 6 – Arbuckle, CA – Burgie’s
August 7 – Bakersfield, CA – Pyrenees Cafe
August 9 – Santa Cruz, CA – Moe’s Alley
August 10 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon
August 11 & 12 – Lake Havasu, AZ – Jermey’s Juke Joint
August 13 – Mesa, AZ – Roosters Country
August 25 – Kingsbury, TX – 1281 Sherrill Rd
August 26 – New Braunfels, TX – Riley’s Tavern
September 8 – Driftwood, TX – Wings Over
September 22 – La Grange, TX – Bugle Boy
September 23 – Boerne, TX – Salvador DOBBS
September 30 – Red River, NM – Motherlode Saloon
November 25 – New Braunfels, TX – Riley’s Tavern

 

New album release: From Here To Home – The South Austin Moonlighters

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-save From 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)

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New album release: Little Songs by Colter Wall

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-save Little 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

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New single: Dead and Gone – Chris Shiflett

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. 

Mike Tod relights the torch of old time tradition on self-titled LP

Mike Tod’s new self titled LP is out now. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Canadian ethnomusicologist and musician Mike Tod might just be the most identifiable bridge carrying our musical past into current day and beyond. With conviction and candor, he sings well-worn traditional songs, researches their roots, and shares them in a fashion that feels authentically of another time, while still firmly planted in the present. He forges old-time songs into historical epics, conjuring visions of western portraits and weathered landscapes, immersing listeners in traditional songs recorded with modern clarity and true grit. As an ethnomusicologist, Tod’s The Folk podcast series on the lesser-known histories of folk and old-time music in Canada was called “an unlikely hit” by the Calgary Herald. Mike Tod reminds us that the past, present, and future are inexorably linked in song. (IV-PR, 2023)

On April 13, Tod released his debut full-length studio album; a self-titled affair that finds its instrumentation honoring the history of old-time music while its expansive, cinematic arrangements focus Tod’s grand vision through a modern lens. 

Tod recently shared the second track from his Mike Tod LP, “The Coo Coo.” “It’s one hell of an eerie, haunting song when you really pay attention to the lyrics,” says Tod of the song that has been recorded by everyone from Clarence Ashley—on the Anthology of American Folk Music—to (Tod’s personal favorite) Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. “There’s themes of addiction, potential homelessness, and obsession over an individual. Almost creepy, but for sure scary.” The driving and moody string band instrumentation aids in painting Tod’s version of “The Coo Coo” in a dark light. “I’d say our version shows that this song is more like a horror movie than anything else,” says Tod. 

Accompanying the release of “The Coo Coo” is a beautifully animated music video from Molly Little. The sepia-tinged, high contrast animation follows the lyrics of this classic song closely, matching the mood and dynamics scene by scene. Folk Radio UK premiered the video, saying, “There’s a gorgeously dark underlying drone that’s accentuated by Tod’s well-worn tenor vocals while his talented band pull out all the stops on one of the best arrangements I’ve heard for this folk song…the whole arrangement works on every level, lending it a dark southern gothic feel. I’m looking forward to hearing more from Mike Tod.”

Fans can watch “The Coo Coo” video, stream or purchase the audio, or purchase the Mike Tod album. 

Mike Tod track list:

  1. The Coo Coo
  2. The Blackest Crow
  3. Flowers of Edinburgh
  4. Cigarettes and Whiskey
  5. Undone In Sorrow
  6. Back To My Home
  7. Little Wheel Spin and Spin
  8. Cold Frosty Morn
  9. Wait For Me
  10. My Alberta Rose

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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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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Get Behind The Wheel release date