Tag: New music

New album release: Nothing But Green Willow

Martin Simpson and Thomm Jutz’s generation collaborates for their upcoming album Nothing But Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry, out September 29, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Martin Simpson is an English folk musician and guitarist, known for his innovative and eclectic approach to traditional music. In the mid-1980s, Simpson moved to the United States, where he came to the attention of a wide range of American artists with whom he then collaborated. Amongst the albums released during his US tenure, Cool & Unusual, won the Indie Award for best instrumental album in 1998. In addition to his work as a musician, Simpson has also been involved in music education, teaching at universities, and leading workshops and masterclasses around the world. (IV-PR, 2023)

Raised in the Black Forest of Germany, Thomm Jutz has become an American roots music treasure. His virtuosity, eloquence, and clarity of expression have made him a linchpin of Nashville’s creative community, and in 2020 his To Live in Two Worlds, Volume 1 was nominated for the Best Bluegrass Album Grammy, making him the first immigrant to receive a nomination in that category. He has written numerous Bluegrass number ones, and his songs have been recorded by John Prine, Nanci Griffith, The SteelDrivers, Balsam Range, and more. Jutz has a Master’s degree in Appalachian Studies from East Tennessee State University and wrote his thesis on Grammy-winner Norman Blake.

When Thomm Jutz got together with his latest trans-Atlantic collaborator, Martin Simpson, the pair bonded over their long-running obsession with Cecil Sharp’s 1916 and 1918 collection, “English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians;” particularly those tunes from singers Mary Sands and Jane Gentry. The longevity of the original songs drew the pair in but the latest single from their upcoming album Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs Of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry, pulls from generations of different versions of “The Wagoner’s Lad.”

Folk Alley gave fans an exclusive first listen to the single, writing, “Jutz’s and Simpson’s gem-like version shines in all its facets.” Fans can pre-save Simpson and Jutz’s version of “The Wagoner’s Lad,” check out the previously released album track “Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies” featuring Cara Dillon, and pre-order or pre-save Nothing But Green Willow ahead of its September 29 release via Topic Records.

Simpson and Jutz both clearly see the crucial need for each new generation to reinvent these folk songs. “I strongly believe that innovation requires preservation,” says Jutz. “How can we claim to play traditional music or write ‘Folk music’ without knowing the roots of it?” Fortunately for all involved, the pair found a host of others in agreeance and brought together a mix of roots artists from both sides of the pond—Sierra Hull, Angeline Morrison, Odessa Settles, Tim O’Brien, Tammy Rogers, Seth Lakeman, and more—to create an homage to the bridge from Appalachia to England and back, just as the songs of Sands and Gentry originally did.

Nothing But Green Willow track list:
“Fair Annie” feat. Emily Portman
“Geordie” feat. Sierra Hull & Justin Moses
“Pretty Saro” feat. Odessa Settles
“Edward” feat. Seth Lakeman
“Edwin in the Lowlands Low” feat. Tim O’Brien
“Jacob’s Ladder” feat. Dale Ann Bradley & Tim Stafford
“Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies” feat. Cara Dillon
“The Wagoner’s Lad” feat. Martin Simpson
“Married and Single Life” feat. Tammy Rogers
“The Gypsy Laddie” feat. Thomm Jutz
“The Suffolk Miracle” feat. Angeline Morrison
“I Whipped My Horse” feat. Fay Hield
“Awake! Awake!” feat. Thomm Jutz

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Upcoming new album release: Blue Hour – Eddy Lee Ryder

Eddy Lee Ryder’s new EP, Blue Hour, will be released September 15, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Last time I wrote about this artist, it was with the news that her song Smoke and Mirrors was used in the hardcore slasher horror movie Terrifier 2. In today’s music news, Eddy Lee Ryder recently announced that her new EP, Blue Hour will be released on September 15, 2023. The announcement comes on the heels of her latest single, Holy S**t I Think I Love You, which the soulful rock belter calls her favorite song she has ever written. (Eddy Lee Ryder, 2023)

Singer, songwriter, and free spirit Eddy Lee Ryder creates haunting songs that tell dramatic stories through a slightly warped lens. Eddy’s unconventional, theatrical approach to songwriting explodes and sparkles with ‘70s good-time rock riffs, spiced with complex poetry. Proclaimed “demented pop,” her music is propelled by her charismatic voice and lyrics inspired by an intense bizarre world. Lonesome as she is wild, Ryder paints languid, sadly beautiful portraits of love and life on the margins with the moody and satirical depth of Father John Misty and the country-influenced textures of Roy Orbison or Glen Cambel but with a captivating voice all on her own.

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New album release: Try To Make It Fly – Lonesome Ace Stringband

Lonesome Ace Stringband’s upcoming Try To Make It Fly follows the trio’s legendary live show energy into a new era of Americana-leaning lyricism. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Lonesome Ace Stringband brings grit, skill, and abandon to Americana music, bridging old-time, bluegrass and folk traditions into a seamless hybrid of original material that is at once fresh and timeless. Instrumentation alone sets this Toronto-based trio’s sound apart: consisting simply of fiddle (John Showman), clawhammer banjo (Chris Coole), and upright bass (Max Heineman). Call Lonesome Ace Stringband whatever genre you want – they are just unorthodox enough to be brilliant. The spine-tingling harmonies and interchanging lead vocals only bring more magic to the equation. They have become festival favorites at Rockygrass, Celtic Connections, Winnipeg Folk Festival, MerleFest, and regularly tour the USA, UK, Germany and, of course, Canada. With more than a decade of group music-making under their belts, they are releasing their fifth album, a feisty and mighty collection of all-original material titled Try To Make It Fly on October 13, 2023. (IV-PR, 2023)

The release of their brand new album Try To Make It Fly marks not only their reinvigorated, live-on-stage sound but also a venture into more Americana-leaning songwriting. “We have a unique take on all of the traditional material we do and wanted to keep pushing our sound to new places,” says Showman—not unlike the paths taken by legendary predecessors like John Hartford or The Band. While Lonesome Ace Stringband’s finely tuned musicianship and command of the old-time and bluegrass music catalog has garnered new listeners and premier festival slots, the trio finds comfort in reaching out to a new, song-hungry audience. “It felt like a place where we could be ourselves as writers and craft music that would fit the genre regardless of what we found ourselves writing about lyrically.” Add that to the trio’s already dynamic concoction of fiddle, banjo, and bass, and the results reveal a bright future for the ever-evolving Lonesome Ace Stringband.

Folk Radio UK premiered the album-opening track, Sweeter Sound, which features the band’s inspired, layered harmonies. The song opens with Showman’s somber fiddle pull before Coole joins in on banjo, igniting the rollicking journey to “make a sweeter sound.” According to Malone, “The opening line of the chorus, ‘Try to make it better than the way we found,’ is something of a mantra for the band. Perseverance and belief in what you love to do and trying despite evidence of success is the essence of its message.”

Fans can stream or purchase Sweeter Sound, check out Lonesome Ace Stringband’s previously-released, BBQ-flavored single Smoke on the Shoulder music video and pre-order or pre-save Try To Make It Fly ahead of its October release.

Try To Make It Fly track list:
Sweeter Sound
Praying For Rain
You’ll Be There
First Frost/Blue Grouse
Midnight Band
Come With Me Tonight
Simply Going Sideways
Crossing The Junction/Deer River
Smoke On The Shoulder
The Echo
Country Mile
Lonesome Ace Number 1

Catch Lonesome Ace Stringband on tour:
August 26 – Sorrento, BC – Nimble Fingers Bluegrass & Old Time Workshop and Festival
September 2 – Pilesgrove, NJ – Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival
September 15-16 – Flagstaff, AZ – Pickin’ In The Pines Bluegrass & Acoustic Music Festival
September 19 – Nashville, TN – AMERICANAFEST
October 18 – Cambridge, MA – Club Passim
October 19 – Exeter, NH – The Wood Barn
October 20 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Caffe Lena
October 21 – Brownfield, ME – Stone Mountain Arts Center
October 22 – Greenfield, MA – Hawks & Reed
October 23 – New York, NY – City Vineyard at Pier 26
October 25 – Vienna, VA – Jammin’ Java
October 26 – Oberlin, OH – Music at Riverdog
October 28 – Manitowoc, WI – Sabbatical Brewing Co.
October 29 – Holland, MI – Park Theatre
October 30 – Ann Arbour, MI – The Ark
November 1 – Toronto, ON – The Tranzac Club
November 22 – Edmonton, AB – Northern Bluegrass Circle Music Society
November 23 – Saskatoon, SK – The Bassment
November 24 – Red Deer, AB – The Velvet Olive
November 25 – Calgary, AB – Foothills Bluegrass Circle Music Society
November 27 – Missoula, MT – Longstaff House
November 29 – Sisters, OR – The Belfry
December 1 – Portland, OR – McMenamins White Eagle Saloon & Hotel
December 2 – Seattle, WA – Ballard Homestead
December 3 – Victoria, BC – Victoria Event Centre
December 4 – Vancouver, BC – The Anza Club
December 5 – Oliver, BC – The Oliver Theatre

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

New album release: Been A Long Time Comin’ – Listening Party

Listening Party’s new album Been A Long Time Comin’ will be out August 25, 2023. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

After years of performing live, Wisconsin-based folk-rock duo Listening Party—Jacob Wood and Weston Mueller—found themselves staring down a pandemic, down a band member, and contemplating whether to keep on track or give it up altogether. Fortunately for the group’s rabid and quickly growing fanbase, Wood’s and Mueller’s passion won out and the pair entered the recording studio with a catalog full of new stories to tell. Their latest album Been A Long Time Comin’ highlights Listening Party’s perseverance to carry on through the Covid-19 pandemic and mutually parting ways with a longtime bandmate and friend. Due out on August 25, the new album, their fourth full-length and first output in four years, is the product of this new journey. (IV-PR, 2023)

Recorded at Axis Studios, a converted 19th-century chapel that sits atop a hill in Hartland, Wisconsin, with studio owner Vinny Millevolte, Been A Long Time Comin’ takes the group’s folk, rock, and Americana influences to new horizons, the non-traditional recording space inspiring each new song in a way Listening Party had not experienced before. At the heart of the album, storytelling and melody reign supreme, while the songs seek to examine stories rooted firmly in the joys and perils of everyday life. The band seeks to capture “the bombastic attitude and instrumentation of Midwestern Folk/Americana.” The songs are accented and driven by a “howling” harmonica and a church piano. At their core, the band and album remain true to the “intimacy” of storytelling and melody.

Listening Party recently shared their first single from Been a Long Time Comin,’ the slow burning “Same Ol’ Problems.” The tune begins as a somber piano and guitar duet which crescendos to Mueller’s introductory lyrics: “Digging my grave before I’m gray, feels like I’m wasting my life away.” Written about moving on from a friend whose addiction has taken hold and changed them, fundamentally, the band says the song highlights the “hope of recovery balanced against the despair of relapse,” or put more simply in the song’s ultimate line, “It’s always the same ol’ problems.” Throughout, layers of new instruments build to emphasize Mueller’s reflective lyrics. The song closes in a self-described “upbeat cacophony of sound” driving through the final repetition of “the same ol’ problem” and arriving at the finish line feeling complete yet contemplative.

Fans can hear “Same Ol’ Problems” at this link and pre-order or pre-save Been a Long Time Comin’ ahead of its August release.

Been a Long Time Comin’ track list:
It Ain’t So Bad
Same Ol’ Problems
All The Way Down
Wastin’ Time
Took a Walk
Buck Moon
3 Eggs (Wisconsin Weather)
Reckless
Comin’ to Your Town
Good Intentions
Bad Luck

Catch Listening Party on tour:
August 3 – Milwaukee, WI – Back Room at Colectivo*
August 4 – Appleton, WI – Relay For Life Fundraiser
August 5 – Appleton, WI – Mile of Music
August 6 – Appleton, WI – Mile of Music
August 7 – Milwaukee, WI – State Fair
August 9 – Kenosha, WI – Bristol Woodstock
August. 12 – Milwaukee WI – State Fair
August 13 – Malone, WI – Ziegler Winery
August 17 – Greenleaf, WI – Ledgestone Winery^
August 18 – Green Bay, WI – Badger State Brewery
August 19 – Grafton, WI – Sahale Ale Works
August 25 – Milwaukee, WI – Anodyne Coffee Co.
August 26 – Germantown, WI – Old Germantown
August 27 – Elkhart Lake, WI – Tiki Bar at Elkhart Lake
September 2 – Mauston, WI – The Rock
September 3 – Madison, WI – Twisted Grounds
September 4- Kenosha, WI – Petrifying Springs Biergarten
September 8 – Joliet, IL – Joliet Area Historical Museum
September 9 – Menasha, WI – Heckrodt Wetland Reserve
September 14 – Milwaukee, WI – Explorium Brewpub
September 15 – Franksville, WI – Franksville Beer Garden
September 17 – Valders, WI – Camp Sinawa

*Supporting The Brevet
^Supporting Them Coulee Boys

Listening Party. Courtesy photo, used with permission.
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New album release: Morning Shift – Steep Canyon Rangers

Hominy Valley is the first single from Morning Shift, out September 8, 2023. Photo: Steep Canyon Rangers

Steep Canyon Rangers are made up of Graham Sharp on banjo and vocals, Mike Guggino on mandolin/mandola and vocals, Aaron Burdett on guitar and vocals, Nicky Sanders on fiddle and vocals, Mike Ashworth on drums, dobro, guitar, and vocals, and Barrett Smith on bass, guitar, and vocals. Over the band’s esteemed career, the three-time Grammy nominees have released 14 studio albums, three collaborative albums with actor and banjoist Steve Martin, been inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and appeared on some of music’s biggest stages. In 2013, Nobody Knows You won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album, while 2012’s Rare Bird and 2020’s North Carolina Songbook garnered nominations in the same category. Steep Canyon Rangers unearth layers of human history with Hominy Valley, the first single from upcoming Darrell Scott-produced album, Morning Shift—out September 8. (IV-PR, 2023)

Produced by the distinguished Darrell Scott and engineered by the legendary Dave Sinko, Morning Shift found the Rangers recording their 14th studio album in Bat Cave, North Carolina, at the Inn Bat Cave, a historical refuge settled near a long-forgotten crossroads of Southern Appalachia. This was the perfect space to feel confident in expanding upon that Carolina sound, the perfect runway to let their well-oiled machine do what it does best- craft stories from the ground up, as a unit. Morning Shift also marks the band’s first album with new band member Burdett on guitar and vocals, bringing a soul-stirring element to the Rangers’ mastery of mountain music. Burdett is an award-winning singer-songwriter and a student of folk tradition providing a fresh, emotional context to the Rangers’ songbook.

Last month, Folk Alley premiered the track, writing “‘Hominy Valley’ perfectly kicks off the anticipation of another excellent new album from the Steep Canyon Rangers.” Fans can listen to Hominy Valley now and pre-order or pre-save Morning Shift ahead of its September 8 release. Steep Canyon Rangers are on tour throughout the summer with a string of dates with longtime collaborators Steve Martin & Martin Short beginning in September.

Morning Shift track list:
Hominy Valley
Deep End
Second in Line (Junior)
Old Stone House/Handlebars/Chimney Rock
Harvest Queen
Ghost of Glasgow
Above My Burdens
Birds of Ohio
Alabama Calling
Morning Shift
Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals
Recommend Me

Catch Steep Canyon Rangers on tour:
July 13 – Grey Fox – Oak Hill, NY
July 14 – Rams Head – Annapolis, MD
July 15 – Sellersville Theatre – Sellersville, PA
July 16 – Long’s Park – Lancaster, PA
July 21 – Midtown Listening Lawn Outdoor – Grand Rapids, MI
July 22 – Murphy Theatre – Wilmington, OH
August 2 – Denver Botanic Gardens – Denver, CO ^
August 3 – Aggie Theatre – Fort Collins, CO
August 4 – Matthews Opera House – Spearfish, SD
August 5 – Centerfest – Lewistown, MT
August 12 – Podunk Bluegrass Festival – Goshen, CT
August13 – Stone Mountain Arts Center – Brownfield, ME
August18 – North Carolina Museum of Art – Raleigh, NC ^
August 19 – Shenandoah Valley Music Festival – Orkney Springs, VA
September 2 – The Blue Ridge Music Center – Galax, VA
September 8-9 – Mountain Song Festival – Brevard, NC
September 14-16 – Benedum Center for the Performing Arts – Pittsburgh, PA *
September 21 – AmericanaFest – Nashville, TN
September 22-23 – Encore Theater – Las Vegas, NV *
September 28 – Brooks Center for Performing Arts – Clemson, SC
September 29 – Greenfield Lake Amphitheatre – Wilmington, NC
October 13 – Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts – Greensboro, NC *
October 14 – Township Auditorium – Columbia, SC *
October 15 – North Charleston Performing Arts Center – Charleston, SC *
October 26 – Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre – Red Bank, NJ *
October 27 – Academy of Music – Philadelphia, PA *
October 28 – The Lyric Theatre – Baltimore, MD *
October 29 – Altria Theater – Richmond, VA *
November 3 – The Lyric Theatre – Stuart, FL
November 4 – Florida Theatre – Jacksonville, FL
November 5 – Capitol Theatre – Clearwater, FL
November 10 – Merrill Auditorium – Portland, ME *
November 11- Providence Performing Arts Center- Providence, RI *
November 12 – Turning Stone Resort Casino – Verona, NY *
November 30 – Salle Wilfrid Pelletier – Montreal, QC *
December 1-2 – Meridian Hall- Toronto, ON *

^ With Amythyst Kiah
* With Steve Martin & Martin Short

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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: 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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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

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

Songstress Jessica Medina blends musical genres in new single

Jessica Medina blends merengue and salsa in her new single Locura, available now for streaming. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Jessica Medina is a singer-songwriter born in New York to a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father. Their voices were the soundtrack of her formative years. She studied jazz and rights at Hunter College in New York City and she was influenced from a very young age by merengue, specifically the merengue sounds of the 80s. By having the musical wealth of two cultures, her sound is a mixture of both. (Vesper Public Relations, 2023)

Jessica Medina broke barriers with her previous single “Back to Black,” an exemplary song by Amy Winehouse, approached from a completely new style. NPR regards her as “a new artist that you cannot stop listening to.” Constantly taking risks, she breaks barriers that the music industry imposes on language, offering bilingual lyrics and attracting the new generation called “Latinx,” Latinos raised in the United States.

Her new single Locura is now available for streaming. She once again demonstrates her passion for fusions, this time bringing together the rhythms of merengue and electronic synths with samba. Locura is part of her upcoming EP entitled Rosa, which will be released this April. In this EP she dives deeper into her Dominican and Puerto Rican roots and the different types of love from a woman’s perspective. Rosa is a project which includes women in all aspects, such as compositions, musicians, visual arts, musical arrangements, and production. Merengue is having a resurgence and Jessica Medina has decided to celebrate love with this romantic merengue.

Locura depicts an empowered woman with passion, sensuality, and joy. This track will make us all dance and celebrate love. Locura translates as craziness and captures that period of infatuation we all know. “Let’s start the year dancing merengue and being crazy in love.” Award-winning composer Alex Cuba composed Locura with musical arrangements and production by Janina Rosado. It was recorded in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.