Tag: New album alert

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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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 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: Road to Rendition – New Rules Duo

Road to Rendition is the new album by New Rules Duo. Photo: New Rules Duo, used with permission.

New Rules Duo is a multi award-winning international duo made up of Celia Stavri (vocals) and Dominik Dybka (guitar and vocals). Celia Stavri is a singer/singer songwriter born in the UK and now living in Paphos, Cyprus. She is a well known award winning singer and the runner up out of thousands of singers applying for a Greek singing contest called ‘Rising Star,’ which was televised in Greece. She is also the lead singer for the award winning band Party Crasher where she also performs together with Dominik. Dominik is not only a guitarist/singer, but also the owner of the recording studio Overtone Records and the director of the music school Art2see Academy in Paphos. As an accomplished sound engineer and music producer, he takes passion and talent to the next level. Road to Rendition is their new album. (New Rules Duo, 2023)

Road to Rendition is a 12 track cover album featuring cover songs of popular hits including Part Time Lover, Wicked Game, and Zombie. It is available for streaming on SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube. Follow New Rules Duo on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

“We have been working extremely hard on this album. Each instrument, sound and voice has been recorded by us and is our ‘rendition’ of some of our favourite songs that we perform. It’s taken blood, sweat and tears but we are so proud of the finished product. We really hope that you all love it as much as we do!”

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New album release: I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying – Whitehorse

Whitehorse’s new album is available now. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Award-winning Canadian duo Whitehorse—Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet—just released their eighth LP, I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, leaving no emotional, personal, fantastical, or political stone unturned. The new album finds the pair venturing deeper into classic country music touchstones than ever before; a move that is both a homecoming and an evolution of their sound. A twist on the ever-present “pandemic album,” Whitehorse distilled and transcended the gloom and uncertainty of the time with a collection about heartbreak and loyalty; shaking things up and hunkering down. The resulting twelve-song collection is playful yet profound; masterfully simple and timeless—and is out on Six Shooter Records, surprising and charming critics and fans alike. (Whitehorse, 2023)

Stream or purchase I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying, where you can listen to fan favorites like “Division 5,” “If The Loneliness Don’t Kill Me,” and new tracks like “Bet The Farm,” which is a chapel-ready ode to loving love.

I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying track list:
If The Loneliness Don’t Kill Me
I Might Get Over This (But I Won’t Stop Loving You)
The Road
Division 5
Manitoba Bound
Bet The Farm
Leave Me as You Found Me
6 Feet Away
I Miss The City
Sanity, TN
Lock It Down
Scared of Each Other

Catch Whitehorse on tour:
May 18 – Sarnia, ON – Imperial Theatre
May 19 – Highgate, ON – Mary Webb Centre
May 24 – Meaford, ON – Meaford Hall Arts and Cultural Centre
May 25 – London, ON – Aeolian Hall Performing Arts Centre
May 26 – Guelph, ON – Royal City Evangelical Missionary Church
May 28 – Peterborough, ON – Market Hall Performing Arts Centre
May 31 – Ridgeway, ON – The Sanctuary Centre for the Arts
June 1 – Paris, ON – DT Concerts Series
June 2 – Kingston, ON – BLU Martini
June 3 – Ottawa, ON – National Arts Centre
June 4 – Parry Sound, ON – Charles W. Stockey Centre

Whitehorse is the prolific partnership of Melissa McClelland and Luke Doucet. Uninhibited by expectation, boldly adventurous, and categorically talented, Whitehorse’s signature sound is always guitar-heavy, harmony-plentiful, and lyrically deft. With an expansive run of records that freely and thrillingly dip in psychedelic country, pop noir, squalling blues rock, and celestial folk, Whitehorse has pushed their musical identity into new realms and sounds for over a decade and has received five consecutive JUNO Award nominations in many different genre categories.

New album release: Lost Voices – Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz

Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz pay tribute to those who ‘Still Had So Much To Say’ on their new album Lost Voices now out via Mountain Fever Records. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

When long-time friends, mutual admirers, and heavily respected bluegrass musicians Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz started accumulating a catalog of co-written songs during Covid lockdown and beyond, it only made sense to get these inspired, well-crafted stories recorded for the rest of the world to hear and enjoy. Retreating to Jutz’ log cabin studio outside of Nashville with a crew of like-minded greats including Shaun Richardson on mandolin, Ron Block on banjo, Tammy Rogers on fiddle, and Mark Fain on bass, Stafford and Jutz cut fourteen of their songs to create an album of tunes that the beloved, late music writer and historian Peter Cooper called “Songs that bring American history—mountain culture, steam trains, vaudeville, race, baseball, strife, and grace—to technicolor life.” The album is called Lost Voices, and it is out now on Mountain Fever Records. (Tim Stafford/Thomm Jutz, 2023)

From Callie Lou, a song based on a scene from Harriette Arnow’s The Doll Maker that features Dale Ann Bradey on vocals; to the story of Negro League heroes, The Elizabethton Blue Grays, brought to life by the dedicated research of Jacey Augustus and the Cedar Grove Foundation; to the amazing story of the now-recognized Navajo heroes of the battle of Iwo Jima in Code Talkers; to The Queen and Crescent which is full of the alluring jargon from the golden era of America’s railroads; Lost Voices is all in tribute to what the longtime Blue Highway guitarist (Stafford) and the long-respected Nashville songwriter and session man (Jutz) call “the lost voices that still had so much to say.”

After calling both Stafford and Jutz “master guitarists and writers,” the aforementioned Cooper described Lost Voices: “These are new kinds of bluegrass songs, informed by mutual heroes Tony Rice, Norman Blake, John Hartford, and Gordon Lightfoot, yet not beholden to any prior influence, other than the influence of the American experience.”

Fans can stream or purchase Lost Voices.

Lost Voices track list:
Take That Shot
Enough To Keep You Going For A While
The Blue Grays
The Ballad Of Kinnie Wagner
Callie Lou
The Wild Atlantic Way
No Witness In The Laurel But The Leaves
Vaudeville Blues
Code Talker
The Standing People
The Queen And Crescent
High Mountain Rising
Revolutionary Love
Lost Voices

Mountain Fever Records is proud to announce the signing of Tim Stafford and Thomm Jutz; two of the most prominent and prolific songwriters in bluegrass music, for the release of their forthcoming duo project, Lost Voices. Their love for history, vintage guitars, and well-crafted songs brought the two together five years ago. “I’m such an admirer of Tim’s writing, singing, and playing. Making a duo record with Tim was a logical step and a dream come true for me,” notes Jutz. Stafford says, “Thomm is such a great, unique writer, player, and singer – we connected and found so many ideas that spoke to us both. Recording was a breeze!”