“EBULLIANT” (BLUEGRASS SITUATION) NYC-BASED AMERICANA BAND SILVER CITY BOUND TO TOUR IN TURKEY AND AZERBAIJAN FOR CROSS-CULTURAL COLLABORATION, BENEFIT FOR SYRIAN REFUGEES

NYC BON VOYAGE CONCERT MAY 11 AT BARBES

“TAKE MY PICTURE” MUSIC VIDEO TO PREMIERE MAY 5 AS EP HITS BANDCAMP’S TOP TEN AMERICANA ALBUMS CHART

“Silver City Bound has their own loose-limbed charm...serving up a sprightly mixture of folk, country, mariachi, and more." - The New Yorker

“New York’s Silver City Bound play a fun, eclectic brand of Americana that blends in folk, zydeco and a bit of indie rock.” – Pop Matters

"Love the whole spirit of it." -Bob Harris, BBC

Following the recent and heralded release of its EP ‘Take My Picture,’ which reached the top ten of Bandcamp’s Americana chart, Silver City Bound will be traveling to Azerbaijan to do concerts and workshops on behalf of the U.S. Department of State's Arts Envoy Program. While in Azerbaijan, the band will collaborate with local musicians and perform at high profile festival America Days.

On their way to Azerbaijan, the band will stop in Istanbul, Turkey to collaborate with Country For Syria May 14 and 15. Based in Istanbul, Country For Syria is comprised of American, Turkish, and Syrian musicians who play a mix of American and Arabic folk music and do performances and collaborations with Syrian refugees all over Turkey. Like Silver City Bound, an accordion is featured prominently in the band.

The proceeds will go to Istanbul & I, an organization that is focused on helping refugees in Istanbul from various countries build a positive relationship with the city and sponsoring creative projects.

Silver City Bound's intent is both to raise money and awareness for the Syrian refugee crisis as well as to show strength and solidarity with other young artists living and working in Istanbul. Together, they will celebrate the positive cultural power of music and hopefully plant the seeds for further collaborative work. Silver City Bound's mission is to promote cross-cultural collaboration and dialogue through American roots music.

A kick-off concert at Barbes in Brooklyn is planned at 9 pm on May 11, the site of the band’s overflowing EP release show. On May 5, a new music video for title track “Take My Picture” will be premiered.

THE BEST BAND AT THE BAR AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, PETUNIA & THE VIPERS, PREP MOST ECLECTIC ALBUM TO DATE ‘DEAD BIRD ON THE HIGHWAY’

WEST COAST TOUR CONFIRMED

“Absolutely one-of-a-kind… a powerhouse of emotion, grit and wit… the savior of country music?” – The Bluegrass Situation

"Petunia and the mother****ing Vipers. One of the best bands in the world today, of any kind" – Phil Alvin

“Amazing… incredibly entertaining” - Bob Harris, BBC

You walk into a western saloon. Doors creak, the bartender glares at you, and windows are covered in dust kicked up by the wind. But the band in the corner is utterly spectacular, the best you’ve heard. In that David Lynch meets Quentin Tarantino setting, there’s only one band that could possibly live up and it is led by a western Canadian man named Petunia. Petunia & The Vipers are a crack band that take rockabilly, western swing, surf, honky tonk, gypsy jazz, and film noir music, and wrap it up with a beat-poetry and punk-attitude twist. Their new album ‘Dead Bird on the Highway’ is their most eclectic to date.

Petunia’s originals shine through. Among the highlights is surreal personification “Death Himself,” reminiscent of fellow Canadians Timber Timbre; and “Chained,” which draws from gypsy jazz  “Gonna Put On My Suit” kicks off like an obscure Sun Records side before diving deep into Bob Wills-inspired territory. “Lou Lou” breaks out the echo box and demands to be blasted from a giant chrome-covered car with the top down.

Petunia also proves himself an expert crate-digger. “I’m Shakin’,” most recently reinterpreted by Jack White, swings and sways with horns. Otis Blackwell’s “Oh What a Wonderful Time” gets a sultry rendition. (Blackwell is the author of “All Shook Up,” “Fever,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Return to Sender.”) Petunia also shines a light on local Vancouver legend the Minimalist Jugband with the weirdo-poetry of “Bloom Bloom Bloom.” Petunia sings in Swahili on the surfy “Asaw Fofor.”

‘Dead Bird on the Highway’ CD/digital track list

1.      Blue Yodel Blues
2.      Asaw Fotor
3.      Oh What a Wonderful World
4.      Death Himself
5.      My Heart Cries Out For You
6.      Bloom Bloom Bloom
7.      Lou Lou
8.      Chained
9.      My Love Is (A Deep Blue Sea)
10.     Gonna Put On My Suit
11.     Way Down Here
12.     Put Yourself On the Market
13.     Try To Enjoy Yourself
14.     I’m Shakin’

Petunia & The Vipers Tour Dates

April 14 - Mississipi Studios - Portland, OR (w/ Lindi Ortega)
April 15 - Sam Bonds - Eugene, OR
April 16 - Majestic  - Bellingham, WA
April 22 - Red Lion Pub - Powell River, Canada
May 20 - Shanty Tavern - Seattle, WA
May 22 - Old St. Nick's - Eugene, OR
May 23 - Arcata Playhouse - Arcata, CA
May 25 - Don The Beachcomber - Los Angeles, CA
May 26 - El Cid - Los Angeles, CA
May 27 - Alex's - Los Angeles, CA
May 28 - Don The Beachcomber - Los Angeles, CA (w/ Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys)
May 31 - Riverwood Inn - Phillipsville, CA
June 1 - Johnny B's - Medford, OR
June 2 - Axe and Fiddle - Cottage Grove, OR
June 3 - Skyway Bar & Grill - Zigzag, OR
June 4 - Bubba's - Sultan, WA
June 24 - Boundary Bay - Bellingham, WA
July 1 - Conor Muse - Conway, WA
July 2 – Voiceworks - Port Townsend, WA
Aug 11-13 - Bellingham, WA - Subdued Stringband Jamboree

PINEY GIR CROWDSOURCES COVER ART FOR 'MR. HYDE'S WILD RIDE,' OUT FEB 19 ON GREYDAY

IMPOSE MAG RUNS Q&A AS INDIE POP AUTEUR TALKS ABOUT HER OWN ROLLER COASTER

Kansas-born UK-based indie pop artist Piney Gir crowdsourced the cover of ‘Mr. Hyde’s Wild Ride’ (Greyday Records / February 19) asking friends and fans alike to take a mug shot of themselves, giving life to the title ‘Mr. Hyde’s Wild Ride.’ Written during a hard year that saw her displaced by gentrification, loss of a job, and the death of a friend but with things looking upon its recording, she meditated on drastic changes of the past years. “The mug shots symbolized the way I felt 'jailed' by this set of circumstances and the photo on the inside shows me wearing black and white like an old-fashioned prisoner, escaped and running through a tunnel with a light at the end of it. That photo symbolizes my freedom.”

The result is like a Sgt. Pepper cover for the digital age. She says, “I did an appeal to friends, family and fans to send in their mug shots for the cover and I am so pleased with the results - it looks like a big army of loved ones to me - like an extended family portrait!  From my mom, grandparents, cousins and their kids, to Ian Damaged and his wife Alison Wonderland [he runs Damaged Goods, she's a rock photographer]. There is also Mark Radcliffe [a BBC radio DJ and music personality], Tom White from the band Electric Soft Parade, of course the Piney band are all on there, and a few dogs. Friends, kids and fans too.” MC Lars and the Real Tuesday Weld round out the members of the musical community who participated. (Oh and a certain publicist as well!) An album that began with a rollercoaster, Jekyll-and-Hyde cycle ended with the whole world of Piney Gir joining her, each featured in mug shots, on the cover. Piney reflects, “"if an album is the sum of its parts, this part is fan-generated and that is a beautiful, creative interaction to have with people." Here’s the list of participants and their “crimes”: http://www.pineygir.com/mr-hydes-wild-ride-crimes/

Mary Epworth’s “Psych pop splendour” (Q) hits US with May 19th 'Dream Life' album release

36-date tour with chart-topping Welcome To Night Vale kicks off April 7

Highline Records | HL030 |VINYL , CD, DOWNLOAD | May 21st | www.maryepworth.com

British musician Mary Epworth's debut album, Dream Life, is inspired by nature and landscape and inhabits two worlds:  a dark, ghostly English winter, and the light of an imagined idyllic California.

Mary has been making significant waves in her home country since releasing Dream Life there on her own label, Hand Of Glory. Overwhelming radio support has included 3 singles playlisted on BBC 6 Music and ‘Black Doe’ picked as BBC Radio 1’s Hottest Record In The World. Much praise has come from national press, including Q magazine calling the album “Psych pop splendour... Experimentalism, melody and narrative co-existing in appealing balance” and Record Collector awarding the album five stars and hailing it as “A work of bracing originality... Immaculately sung and graced throughout with intelligent, song-serving arrangements and inspired production touches.” This attention has lead to Mary and her band performing sold-out shows in the UK including the Royal Albert Hall Elgar Room in London. Recently Mary joined Boy George, Bernard Butler, Mark King and Tim Burgess to form a one-off supergroup at the Liverpool International Music Festival.

From the bold album openers ‘Long Gone’, with its brass, synth-droned chords and stately chorus, the all-out fuzz and drum assault of stand-out track ‘Black Doe’, through to the magical and psychedelically epic closer ‘Ray Of Sunlight’,  Dream Life is swirling, lush and mysterious. Using analogue synths, space echo, and kosmische drums to set rich atmospheres and create unique soundscapes, Dream Life makes nods to psych, soul, krautrock, shoegaze, and even gospel, without ever falling squarely into any genre.

Production and mixing of the record was also polar, with the majority of recording done with producer Will Twynham in a snowbound barn in Norfolk, England - coincidentally the exact area that was home to Mary's maternal ancestors, and also to Celtic queen, Boudicca's Iceni tribe - and the lion's share of the mixing performed by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra Banhart) in Laurel Canyon. It's appropriate that these places figure strongly in a record that maps feelings to landscape and uses nature as metaphor.

Mary's influences for Dream Life include Iggy Pop's New Values - the drum sound in particular was referenced so much in production that the album's working title was “Old Values" - Todd Rundgren, The Beach Boys (Beach Boys Love You's brutal snare and synth, through to Holland's lush soul), to the progressive sound approaches of The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow and cult studio project Millennium's Present Tense.  Mary recently interviewed another influence, fellow psychedelic nature lover Linda Perhacs, for Shindig magazine.

Now it’s time to bring Mary Epworth and Dream Life to North America. Highline Records is releasing Dream Life on all formats, and Mary is embarking on a 36-date US tour opening for the stage show of cult US podcast phenomenon Welcome To Night Vale*, performing with Will Twynham as a psychedelic two-piece.

Mary Epworth on 36-tour with Welcome To Night Vale, 2015:

APRIL 7.  BIRMINGHAM, AL – WORKPLAY THEATRE, 8PM
APRIL 8. MEMPHIS, TN - MINGLEWOOD HALL, 8PM
APRIL 9. NEW ORLEANS, La - CIVIC THEATRE, 8PM
APRIL 10. HOUSTON, TX - CULLEN PERFORMANCE HALL, 8PM
APRIL 11. SAN ANTONIO, TX - AZTEC THEATRE, 8PM
APRIL 12. DALLAS, TX - MAJESTIC THEATRE, 7PM
APRIL 15. TUCSON, AZ - RIALTO THEATRE, 8PM
APRIL 16. MESA, AZ - MESA ARTS CENTER, 8PM
APRIL 17. LAS VEGAS, NV - HORN THEATER AT COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA, 8PM
APRIL 18. LOS ANGELES, CA - THE ORPHEUM, 8PM
APRIL 20. SAN PEDRO, CA - WARNER GRAND, 8PM
APRIL 21. OAKLAND, CA - FOX THEATER, 8PM
APRIL 23. PORTLAND, OR - REVOLUTION HALL, 8pm **SOLD OUT**
APRIL 24. PORTLAND, OR - REVOLUTION HALL, 8pm
APRIL 25. SEATTLE, WA - THE NEPTUNE, 7pm **SOLD OUT**
APRIL 25. SEATTLE, WA - THE NEPTUNE, 9.30pm **SOLD OUT**
APRIL 27. SPOKANE, WA - BING CROSBY THEATRE, 8pm
APRIL 28. MISSOULA, MT - WILMA THEATRE, 8pm
APRIL 30. FARGO, ND - FARGO THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 1. MINNEAPOLIS, MN - PANTAGES THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 2. MINNEAPOLIS, MN - PANTAGES THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 3. IOWA CITY, IA - ENGLERT THEATRE, 7pm
MAY 4. LAWRENCE, KS - LIBERTY HALL, 8pm
MAY 5. ST LOUIS, MO - SHELDON CONCERT HALL, 8pm
MAY 8. CHICAGO, IL -COPERNICUS CENTER, 8pm
MAY 9. BLOOMINGTON, IN - BUSKIRK CHUMLEY THEATRE, 8pm **SOLD OUT**
MAY 10. DETROIT, MI - THE FILLMORE, 7pm
MAY 12. LOUISVILLE, KY - BOMHARD THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 13. CINCINNATI, OH - TAFT THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 14. CLEVELAND, OH, HANNA THEATRE, 8pm **SOLD OUT**
MAY 15. PITTSBURGH, PA - CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD, 8pm
MAY 17. BUFFALO, NY - ASBURY HALL, 8pm
MAY 18. ALBANY, NY - THE EGg, HART THEATRE, 8pm
MAY 19. NORTHAMPTON, MA - ACADEMY OF MUSIC, 8pm
MAY 20. BOSTON, Ma - BERKLEE PERFORMANCE CENTER, 8pm
MAY 21. BOSTON, MA - BERKLEE PERFORMANCE CENTER, 8pm

*WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world and a wildly popular stage show. The twice-monthly podcasts have topped the iTunes charts in 9 different countries, remain a fixture in the Top 10 US podcasts and a cult hit the world over. Night Vale has also become an equally popular touring live show, performing dozens of sold-out shows across the US and Canada. Mary Epworth also supported Night Vale on their recent sold-out tour of the UK and Europe. Mary’s song ‘Long Gone’ was chosen as ‘The Weather’ in episode 26 of Welcome to Night Vale.

"ARTIST OF MAJOR STATURE" (AMERICAN SONGWRITER) JOHN MURRY TO PLAY U.S. ALBUM RELEASE SHOW FOR 'THE GRACELESS AGE' APRIL 14 AT THE MAKE OUT ROOM

"ARTIST OF MAJOR STATURE" (AMERICAN SONGWRITER) JOHN MURRY TO PLAY U.S. ALBUM RELEASE SHOW FOR 'THE GRACELESS AGE' APRIL 14 AT THE MAKE OUT ROOM

"ALLURING" (NPR) 'THE GRACELESS AGE' OUT APRIL 2 IN THE U.S. ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

John Murry will play a hometown album release show for 'The Graceless Age' April 14 at the Make-Out Room. His debut album, already out in the UK to great acclaim and BBC airplay, is due in the States April 2. 'The Graceless Age' was co-produced by San Francisco's Tim Mooney, of American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon, who passed away last year; this was the last project that he finished.

US buzz has already begun. Murry will play at NON-COMMvention May 15 on the Emerging Artists stage, following Kurt Vile. Baeble Music called 'The Graceless Age' "masterful" and NPR World Café labeled it as "alluring." Most recently, American Songwriter gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5), calling him "the real deal as a songwriter, full of trenchant observations and slyly affecting melodies and possessing an ingratiating ne’er-do-well personality that acknowledges his past mistakes even as he prepares to make them all over again." It continues, "There is subtle invention at play in the music as well, with some indie-rock touches adding rough edges to the folky melodies. In that respect, it’s reminiscent of 'Sea Change,' Beck’s lovely downer."

WHO: John Murry

WHAT: Hometown album release show for 'The Graceless Age'

WHEN: April 14, 2013

WHERE: The Make-Out Room, 3225 22^nd Street, San Francisco, CA

TICKETS: TBA

SOLD OUT SHOWS, BBC APPEARANCES, & BLOG RAVES GREET FIRST UK & IRISH TOUR FOR "MASTERFUL" (BAEBLE MUSIC) JOHN MURRY

"MASTERPIECE" (UNCUT) 'THE GRACELESS AGE' OUT APRIL 2 IN THE US ON EVANGELINE RECORDING CO.

John Murry – William Faulkner's second cousin and performer of the "masterpiece" (UNCUT) 'The Graceless Age' (April 2 / Evangeline Recording Co.) – is completing his first tour of the UK and Ireland. He has sold out shows in Belfast, Glasgow, Winchester, and London, with a line of fans turned away at the latter show January 29.

Murry also performed on BBC Radio Ulster with respected DJ Ralph McLean as well as BBC Radio Scotland while UK blogs have continued to gush over 'The Graceless Age.' Mad Mackeral posted a Q&A.

Another blog, Fractured Air, called the concert "amagical night."

He's also been confirmed for the End of the Road Festival in Dorset, UK, which kicks off at the end of August.

The Belfast Telegraph termed Murry "a class apart" and he has also been the subject of features such as this on in the Oxford Times, which tell his vibrant, unbelievable story.

Some in the United States have caught on. Baeble Music posted the mp3 for "The Ballad of the Pajama Kid" alongside the music video for "California," calling Murry "masterful."

Spinner also posted the video.

FOR JOHN MURRY, DUELING BASSES, A BOWED GUITAR, BELLS, VIBES, ORGAN, AND GUILT CONJURE "CALIFORNIA"

"California," the intense, guilt-ridden John Murry song for which buzzy British blog The Line of Best Fit premiered the music video, started taking its final shape only when two scratch bass parts meant as an either/or proposition fit together as one.

Here's the embeddable music video.

The song appears on 'The Graceless Age,' out April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. in the US. The album was among the best of 2012 in the UK from UNCUT Magazine, the BBC, and elsewhere.

The master built on basslines from an old Jerry Jones longhorn semi-hollowbody bass (of which Murry cryptically says "has a hell of a story of it's own, involving bank robberies and exploding dye packs and prison time"). Murry says, "I think that, of all the songs on The Graceless Age, it exemplifies what Tim [Mooney, co-producer] and I did together best. We'd built an entire song off of an out-of-tune bass, which accidentally helps give it that kinda drone-y, hypnotic quality. When we went to play everything else we did, like bells, vibes, and organ, Tim and I would have to pitch shift everything. It became a method, almost, limiting us to certain instruments and forcing us to experiment with messing with various organic instruments' sounds to create the sounds we'd normally get from specific instruments."

Murry says, "We stole the handclaps from another session we'd been working on for another band and then built the drum loop. Then we overdubbed the percussion. I played a bunch of weird guitar using an actual bow, an ebow, and a brass slide and wah to imitate the sustain of an ebow, and we reversed it on tape and made it warble by varying the speed, then recorded it again as it was being varied. We got the vocals done. It happened so quickly." Later, Sean Coleman overdubbed a piano part, which had to pitch-shifted from a piano that was slightly flat.

The writing came to Murry all at once. He recalls, "I was becoming addicted to narcotics – I'd begun abusing Percocet and Percodan and Vicodin and the like – and wrote it in a 30 minute wave of time; the kind of time I think Tom Waits is describing when he talks about songs 'coming through the window if you leave it open.'"

Contrary to the song's refrain ("I swear it ain't you; It's California I can't stand)," Murry confesses, "It's a bit of self-deception. California, as a State, isn't to blame for what happened. I am."

JOHN MURRY'S SOUTHERN LITERATURE INSPIRATION COMES FROM ANCESTRY, SPECIFICALLY AS SECOND COUSIN TO WILLIAM FAULKNER

MURRY NAMED FOR FAULKNER'S GRANDFATHER, A CIVIL WAR SURGEON WHOSE MEDICAL KIT MURRY KEEPS

John Murry – who made the indie-noir album 'The Graceless Age,' one of the UK's best-reviewed albums of 2012 and out in the US April 2 on Evangeline Recording Co. – has described himself as more absorbed in the worlds of literature than in the day-to-day concerns of the modern world, and for good reason: he's second cousin to William Faulkner and has spent much time with his second cousin's works.

Murry says, "I am, in truth, named for his grandfather, my great-great-grandfather. My granddaddy, Charles 'Bo' Murry, is buried about ten feet from him in Oxford, MS, and was his pallbearer. My plot is paid for and is adjacent to it."

His namesake's story – and its relation to his novels - is enthralling and entertaining in itself. Murry explained to the blog Echoes& Dust, " John Young Murry and Col. W.C. Falkner appear as the amalgam that is Col. Sartoris in William Faulkner's writings. John Young Murry didn't use his Confederate title after the War. He was opposed to both slavery and secession until Yankee soldiers raided his home, took his family's Christmas meal, and did as they pleased with his land and family. He joined the fight to protect his home. He was a surgeon, though, and at Shiloh performed amputations on both Yankees and Rebels. Likely, in his mind, as Christ would've done. I've got the amputation kit he used under my bed and treasure it, nonetheless. I've been allowed the distance necessary to see The South as I needed to, I suppose."

After a firestorm of UK raves, John Murry's 'The Graceless Age' has been confirmed for a March 5 release on Evangeline Recording Co. It's the last album produced and recorded by Tim Mooney of American Music Club and Sun Kil Moon before his death June 13, produced – as all their records were - in collaboration with Murry. 'The Graceless age' is one of eight albums nominated for The UNCUT Music Award and praise has been effusive on the other side of the pond, where Murry is launching a winter tour that begins January 21. MOJO is planning an upcoming feature and Murry will perform on Ralph MacLean's BBC show as one of his "Best of 2012" artists and Ricky Ross' BBC Scotland show in front of a live audience at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall during the tour. The Sun gave it 5 stars out of 5, saying, "Occasionally, an album comes out of nowhere that completely blows your mind. Like this one… A genuine tour de force." In another 5 star (out of 5) review, R2 called it "a genuine American masterpiece." In a 9 star (out of 10) review, UNCUT's Senior Editor, Allan Jones, described the "deeply textured… ruined grandeur," continuing, "This is what 'The Graceless Age' as a whole does so unforgettably, bearing honest witness to a burning world." and went on to later call it "second only to Bob Dylan's Tempest" among best records of 2012.