Nick Loss-Eaton Media: kevin gordon

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Friday, September 7, 2018

NICK LOSS-EATON MEDIA AT AMERICANAFEST: KEVIN GORDON, MELANIE BRULÉE, DANNY SCHMIDT, DOM FLEMONS, LELAND SUNDRIES

Dom Flemons - Thursday, September 13 - 2-3pm - The Westin, Vanderbilt III

‘Black Cowboys’ (Smithsonian Folkways) has garnered spotlights in Wide Open Country, Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Washington City Paper, American Blues Scene, and American Songwriter. In a performance/chat NPR’s Ann Powers said, “The work Dom Flemons is doing on the West is flat-out revolutionary. Take the time to listen to him talk about 'Black Cowboys.'"

Dom Flemons - Thursday, September 13 - 8:30pm-9:15pm - the Station Inn

Danny Schmidt & Carrie Elkin - Thursday, September 13 - 7:30pm-8pm - Radio Café - Green Room Music Source East Nashville Party

Schmidt has won a Kerrville New Folk award and was named to the Chicago Tribune's 50 Most Significant Songwriters in the Last 50 Years. "Standard Deviation" is the first single from his 2019 album of the same title, which will marks 10 albums and 20 years as a recording artist. His hometown Austin Chronicle said, "Danny Schmidt is spoken of in reverent tones." Q called his art "beautifully crafted, lonesome pines music and complex beguiling words." As fellow songwriter Jeffrey Foucault put it: "Everything about the man is gentle, except for his capacity for insight, which is crushing." He recently released the single “Standard Deviation,” which was posted to Wide Open Country and played on an episode of Welcome To Night Vale and will be played on an episode of Star Talk (with Neil deGrasse Tyson).

Kevin Gordon – Friday, September 14 - 5:30-7 - City Winery Lounge in round w/ Paul Burch and Becky Warren, presented by 30A Songwriters Festival

"Brilliance… Mesmerizing... Gordon delivers another album that comes as close to sonic poetry as anything from any musician who hasn’t already won a Nobel Prize for literature... earthy, literary music... visceral, electric blues-based vibe."

- Scott Stroud, Associated Press, July 27, 2018

“Terrific… Another keeper… He’s one of America’s finest, most literary and talented musicians… it’s the way Gordon crafts his words to reflect reality without cliché that helps the music resonate long after the last note has faded.”

- Hal Horowitz, American Songwriter, July 23, 2018

"'Tilt and Shine' may be the best rock ’n’ roll album anyone will release this year in Davidson County and its environs... impressive achievement."

- Edd Hurt, Nashville Scene, July 26, 2018

"I'm struck by his mastery... Nobody in this town is better."

- Ted Drozdowski, Premier Guitar, September, 2018

"Saint on a Chain" music video

Danny Schmidt & Carrie Elkin - Friday, September 14 at 5:35-6:05 - Dee's Country Cocktail Lounge - 5th Annual Wild Ponies Happy Hour

Melanie Brulée – Friday, September 14 - 6:10-6:35pm - 12th & Porter - Folk Alliance’s Finest Folk

Melanie Brulée – a powerful new Americana voice – will release ‘Fires, Floods & Things We Leave Behind’ on October 19. Inspired by a road trip from Nashville to Las Vegas along Route 66, the music unfolds in widescreen, western textures influenced by Enio Morricone and Quentin Tarantino soundtracks. Her single “I’ll Get Over You” is out now and has already been added to Spotify’s official Down Home Country and Renegade Folk playlists (shareable YouTube link).

Melanie Brulée – Saturday, September 15 - 12:45-1:15pm - InDo Nashville - Canadian Blast

Danny Schmidt & Carrie Elkin - Saturday, September 15 - 1-1:30pm - Michael Weintrob Photography Studio - Campfire Propaganda AMA Day Party

Leland Sundries - Saturday, Sept 15 – 4-4:45pm – Tennessee Brew Works – Finely Tuned Showcase

+ We completed a Paste Magazine session that streamed live via Facebook and YouTube and is archived on the Paste site.

+ We opened the May 18 Low Cut Connie show at Bowery Ballroom in NYC.

+ We will be releasing the single “If You’re Gonna Drive, I’m Gonna Drink” backed with a punk/Americana version of a traditional cowboy song on September 21 followed by a northeast tour. Click to hear both.

Kevin Gordon – Saturday, Sept 15 – 8-9:30pm – Tennessee Brew Works – Finely Tuned Showcase

Kevin Gordon - Sunday, September 16 – 6-6:45pm - The Compound – Sunday Morning Coming Down

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Kevin Gordon 2018 artwork

Click for high res
All photos credit Jacob Blickenstaff

Kevin Gordon 2018 bio

Kevin Gordon’s Louisiana is a strange place. In his songs, it’s a place where restless teens road trip to where the highway dead-ends at the Gulf of Mexico; a place where prisoners who are in for life compete in a rodeo in front of spectators; where a man can get lost in the humid afternoon and where religion may not signify hope; where the KKK greets a high school marching band and its African-American teacher along a parade route; where a post-ZZ Top show hang out outside a McDonald’s reveals a hidden gun; where a Pontiac GTO gets stolen, ends up in a lake, and punishment takes precedence over remuneration; where half-Comanche folksinger Brownie Ford can escape death and proffer advice on staying real and free; where Jimmy Reed is the true king of rock & roll; and where rivers, never far away, carry secrets behind levees.

The kicker? All of these songs are based on true stories. Kevin Gordon has been exploring Louisiana for twenty years now, on the eve of the release of his powerful new album Tilt & Shine, out July 27, 2018 on Crowville Media. “One of the things I like about it and am mystified by is that what passes for normal in Louisiana would not make the grade elsewhere,” Gordon says. He continues, “It’s only 4 ½ or 5 hours from Monroe,where I grew up,to New Orleans; the influence of south Louisiana, the Acadian culture, the diverse influences of New Orleans, all that stuff kind of floats around the state.” Gordon’s MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop allows him to capture it with a degree of precision. As the New York Times put it in its headline of a feature on Kevin, “A Musician Or A Poet? Yes to Both.” Lucinda Williams said, "He’s writing songs that are like short stories" and noted music journalist Peter Guralnick has said, "Think of John Lee Hooker tied to the hard, imagistic poetry of William Carlos Williams, and you get a little bit of the picture." With all these accolades, it’s no wonder that Gordon’s songs have been covered by the likes of Keith Richards, Levon Helm, Irma Thomas, The Hard Working Americans (featuring Todd Snider), Ronnie Hawkins, Sonny Burgess, and Southside Johnny.

Echoing Faulkner’s famous line that “the past is never dead; it’s not even past,” Kevin declares, “There’s something about that bouncing back and forth between present tense and past tense that provides a powerful energy to work from. There are so many stories in Monroe and it’s a place that nobody pays attention to. It’s still got a real provincial thing about it that is intriguing because you feel like not everything’s been figured out. For me, you can feel the arc of time passing: you can drive by the house you lived in when you were 12; you remember things that happened there. I’m captivated by the power of strong memories—those films that run continuously in your mind, if you let ‘em.”

Before you even hear Kevin Gordon’s vivid lyrics, you start feeling the sound of that ’56 Gibson ES-125 tuned down to low, open D, with the tremolo flowing like a river, and an unstoppable groove distilled from swamp blues and Sun Records. “It inevitably provides weird sounds and chords that I would not have figured out on my own,” Gordon says. “You’re just sitting there playing and listening until something accidental sounds interesting.” It’s also a sound that comes of the four-album partnership with producer Joe McMahan (Patrick Sweany, McCrary Sisters, Shelby Lynne & Allison Moorer) , who says, "It still blows my mind how after all these years he continues to bring songs to the table that are as good or better than anything he has written in the past. When the bar is raised to such a high level by songs like these, it mandates that all of us involved demand the highest level from ourselves. I’m very fortunate to be involved.”

Coming of age in fits and starts is a theme to which Gordon has returned several times and he finds a new story here in the unsettling, insistent groove of “Fire at the End of the World,” a tale of friends who ran off with their parents’ car and a stash of drugs to see the point where the highway ends and the backwaters of the Gulf of Mexico begin. “Saint on a Chain” ranks up there with some of the best songwriting around, according to Paste Magazine’s Geoffrey Himes, who witnessed a live version at Americana Fest. It also came out of one of Kevin’s visits to Monroe, talking with an old friend. “We were sitting in his truck one time. He was playing a Springsteen record for me and he was under the influence of something pharmaceutical,” he remembers. Gordon spent years perfecting the song, saying, “I started thinking about the St. Christopher’s medal he wore, and ended up reading the story of how Jesus appeared as a child to the saint, as Christopher was helping people cross a flooded river. The Ouachita River runs between Monroe and West Monroe, and like a lot of rivers, it isn’t exactly crystal clear.” The song’s finale could see the character about to run his car off the road in a fit of self-destruction or perhaps on the verge of redemption.

These same themes play out in a more humorous fashion on rocking album closer “Get It Together” aka “Shit Together.” Sardonically, Gordon says, “It’s easier to talk about yourself when you’re not using the first person point of view. This is a song about what seems to be a constant battle of adulthood—negotiating that gap between knowing what you need to do, and actually doing it.” “Get It Together” also reminds one that Kevin’s no folksinger, launching into a kicking rock and roll groove. Similarly, “Right On Time” rips out of the gate, poking fun at the notion that things happen when they’re supposed to but also accepting the strangeness of the rock & roll road and its little victories.

One of the most powerful songs on the album, “One Road Out (Angola Rodeo Blues)” kicks off with a wicked John Lee Hooker-esque guitar line. Kevin says, “Joe handed me [Delta bluesman] Son Thomas’ fake Strat and I plugged it into one of his little amps and it sounded like Satan coming up from the sewer.” The sound evokes the setting, the infamous Angola State Penitentiary (one-time home to Lead Belly, bluesman Robert Pete Williams, and setting of the recent documentary “Serving Life”), where prisoners engage in a rodeo and a craft fair for a public audience. He adds, “It’s hard to watch, heartbreaking, even though those guys look forward to it.” With Tilt & Shine, Kevin Gordon takes the bitter with the sweet. His eye for a great story and ear for a key turn of phrase makes his songwriting a masterclass in craft, and an unflinchingly honest look at life in Louisiana.

Thursday, May 10, 2018

Kevin Gordon short bio

Kevin Gordon’s Louisiana is a strange place. It’s a place where restless teens road trip to where the highway dead-ends at the Gulf of Mexico; a place where prisoners who are in for life compete in a rodeo while the town watches; where a character can get lost in the humid afternoon and where religion may not signify hope; and where rivers, never far away, carry secrets behind levees. “One of the things I like about it and am mystified by is that what passes for normal in Louisiana would not make the grade elsewhere,” he says.

The kicker? All of these postcards are based on true stories. It’s a place that he’s been exploring for twenty years now, on the eve of the release of his astonishing new album ‘Tilt & Shine’ on Crowville Media. It is work that has earned him fans like noted author and Elvis Presley biographer Peter Guralnick; New West Records artist Buddy Miller; journalist, songwriter, and Country Music Hall of Fame staffer Peter Cooper; Todd Snider; head of the Americana Music Association Jed Hilly; and Lucinda Williams, with whom he dueted on the song “Down To The Well” (which was featured prominently on an Oxford American compilation).

Before you even hear his vivid lyrics, you start feeling the sound of that ’56 Gibson ES-125 tuned down to open D, often with the tremolo flowing like a river, and an unstoppable groove distilled from swamp blues and Sun Records. His MFA from the Iowa Poetry Writers’ Workshop allows him to capture it with a degree of precision. As the New York Times put it in its headline of a feature on Kevin, “A Musican Or A Poet? Yes to Both.”

Kevin sums it up, “There are so many stories in north Louisiana and it’s a place that nobody pays attention to. For me, you can feel the arc of time passing. I’m captivated by the power of strong memories—those films that run continuously in your mind, if you let ‘em.” With ‘Tilt & Shine,’ those movies translate into rock and roll poetry.

Monday, September 11, 2017

NICK LOSS-EATON MEDIA AT AMERICANA FEST: FAT POSSUM SOUL MAN DON BRYANT, DIVINE HARMONIES OF APPLEWOOD ROAD, THE “AMAZING” (JIM LAUDERDALE) KEVIN GORDON

In chronological order:

Tuesday – 7:50pm - Kevin Gordon – The Family Wash (626 Main St #A)

Rolling Stone says, "Dude's a juke-joint professor emeritus.” Kevin Gordon, Louisiana-born songwriter who’s earned raves from media, musicals peers, and fans in equal measure, released his latest, ‘Long Gone Time’ to critical praise from American Songwriter, Pop Matters, Offbeat, & others. He is currently recording a 2018 release. Hitting #26 on the Americana Radio Chart, the album also attracted the attention of NPR’s World Cafe and Folk Alley; Gordon performed live as a featured guest on both programs. Praised by NPR, The NY Times, & USA Today, Kevin Gordon’s songs have been covered by everyone from Keith Richards and Levon Helm to Irma Thomas and Todd Snider: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/arts/music/kevin-gordon-releases-gloryland-his-first-album-since-2005.html

Tuesday – 8:30pm – Applewood Road – Radio Café (4150 Gallatin Pike)

On Applewood Road, Paste Magazine was “impressed me with their close harmonies” while No Depression said, “lovely… near perfect folk album… I was mesmerized.” Crosby, Stills & Nash; Simon & Garfunkel; The Everly Brothers; The Civil Wars; Gillian Welch & David Rawlings: some bands have voices that were just meant to sing together. Applewood Road is one of those bands. Applewood Road is Emily Barker, Amber Rubarth and Amy Speace: http://www.thebluegrasssituation.com/read/stream-applewood-road-applewood-road

Wednesday –11:30am – Don Bryant on Southern Stream Panel – Country Music Hall of Fame and Music, Ford Theater (222 5^th Avenue S) and available to live stream at http://countrymusichalloffame.org/streaming

Americana music, like all American music, is fundamentally eclectic, born of the myriad cultural crossings that form the basis of our complex national history. Within every country song is a blues root and a soul heart; every folk ballad has traveled within a diaspora that may have touched the Caribbean, Mexico, or the Native American West. This songwriters round brings together four artists whose music reflects very different family legacies and life experiences, from Southern soul to Latin-tinged country to African-diaspora folk. Their songs and stories form a portrait of Americana music that reflects the true and varied foundation of Americana music. Moderated by Ann Powers of NPR Music, the program will feature performances and conversation from Don Bryant, Yola Carter, Raul Malo, and Joan Osborne.

Friday – 10:15pm - Kevin Gordon – Douglas Corner (2106 8^th Ave S)

Saturday – 7pm - Kevin Gordon – Bobby’s Idle Hour (1028 16^th Ave S)

Saturday – 9pm - Don Bryant & The Bo-Keys – 12^th & Porter (114 12^th Ave N)

The Fat Possum “Soul Survivor” and “I Can’t Stand The Rain” songwriter Don Bryant is fresh from a packed house, standing ovation performance at Lincoln Center Out of Doors with Lincoln Center’s Jill Sternheimer calling him “incredible” and a subsequent European tour. His comeback album ‘Don’t Give Up On Love’ has earned raves this year from NPR Music, Rolling Stone, Paste, UNCUT, MOJO, and All Music: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/inside-cant-stand-the-rain-writer-don-bryants-return-w478767

Monday, January 23, 2017

Kevin Gordon short bio

"He’s amazing.” –Jim Lauderdale

"Dude's a juke-joint professor emeritus"--Rolling Stone

Kevin Gordon, Louisiana-born songwriter who’s earned raves from media, musicals peers, and fans in equal measure, released his latest, ‘Long Gone Time’ to critical praise from American Songwriter, Pop Matters, Offbeat, & others. Hitting #26 on the Americana Radio Chart, the album also attracted the attention of NPR’s World Cafe and Folk Alley; Gordon performed live as a featured guest on both programs.

Praised by NPR, The NY Times, & USA Today, Kevin Gordon’s songs have been covered by everyone from Keith Richards and Levon Helm to Irma Thomas and Todd Snider. In his illustrious two-and-a-half decade career, Gordon has shared stages with Snider, John Prine, Leon Russell, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and the Blind Boys of Alabama among others, played the storied New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival multiple times, and earned the respect and admiration of his peers and a slew of musical icons."

Friday, October 7, 2016

Kevin Gordon on Music City Roots

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

“WONDERFUL” (NPR) LOUISIANAN SONGWRITER KEVIN GORDON PLOTS EXTENSIVE FALL TOUR

“He’s amazing.” –Jim Lauderdale

“Kevin Gordon is a Nashville treasure, worth mentioning in the same breath as the Ryman Auditorium and Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.” –Nashville Scene

Kevin Gordon – the Louisiana-born songwriter who’s earned raves from media, musicals peers, and Americana fans in equal measure – will tour extensively this fall. His most recent album ‘Long Gone Time’ hit #26 on the Americana Radio Chart while earning additional raves from Pop Matters, The Boot, American Songwriter, UTNE Reader, and most recently in Offbeat Magazine.

Praised by NPR, The NY Times, and USA Today, Kevin Gordon’s work has been covered by everyone from Keith Richards and Levon Helm to Irma Thomas and Todd Snider. In his illustrious two-and-a-half decade career, Gordon has shared stages with Snider, John Prine, Leon Russell, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and the Blind Boys of Alabama among others, played the storied New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival multiple times, and earned the respect and admiration of his peers and a slew of musical icons.

Kevin Gordon is a Green Room Music Source artist.

Kevin Gordon Fall Tour Dates:

September 7 – Eddie’s Attic – Decatur, GA (with Jeffrey Foucault)
September 9 – City Winery – Nashville, TN (with Jeffrey Foucault)
September 10 - Pisgah Brewing Co - Black Mountain, NC (with Todd Snider)
September 11 - The Music Hall - Charleston, SC (with Todd Snider)
September 19 - Family Wash – Nashville, TN
September 20 - Fond Object - Nashville, TN (Green Room Music Source AMA party)
September 23 - Bill Jette House Concert - Rumford, RI
September 24 - Studio 84 House Concert - Middleboro, MA
September 25 - Atwood's Tavern - Cambridge, MA
September 26 - The Fallout Shelter - Norwood, MA (The Extended Play Sessions)
September 27 - Cafe Nine - New Haven, CT
September 28 - Norey's - Newport, RI
September 29 - Union Hall - Brooklyn, NY
September 30 - Red & Shorty's Concert Series - Dover, NH
October 1 - Brad Rodgers House Concert - Newport, RI
October 2 - World Cafe Live Philadelphia - Philadelphia, PA
October 3 – Hill Country Live – Washington, D.C.
October 4 - 10th Avenue Burrito - Belmar, NJ
October 6 - The Evening Muse - Charlotte, NC
October 7 – The Family Wash – Nashville, TN (TomFest)
October 12 - Enoch's Pub - Monroe, LA (w/ Amy McCarley)
October 14 - Rock Room Concerts - Austin, TX (w/ Amy McCarley)
October 15 - Anderson Fair - Houston, TX (w/ Amy McCarley)
November 12 - Music Under the Water Tower - Donnellson, IA
November 15 - SPACE - Evanston, IL
November 17 - The Stage @KDHX - St. Louis, MO
November 18 - Kiki's House of Righteous Music - Madison, WI
November 19 - Anodyne Coffee - Milwaukee, WI

Monday, September 14, 2015

“WONDERFUL” (NPR) KEVIN GORDON’S ‘LONG GONE TIME’ OUT LAST FRIDAY ON CROWVILLE MEDIA AS NPR TAPED SESSION LAST WEEK

Kevin Gordon’s ‘Long Gone Time,’ the Americana rock & roller’s first album in three years, came out last week on Crowville Media to rave reviews as Gordon started a full-band tour. The Iowa Poetry Workshop alum tapes a session on NPR’s World Café this week and headlines his hometown Nashville’s City Winery September 14. Check out Folk Alley’s full album stream and Q&A here: http://www.folkalley.com/archives/001426.php

“Wonderful… I love your songwriting. I love the storytelling in it.” – David Dye, NPR World Café, Air Date TBA

“Kevin Gordon is a Nashville treasure, worth mentioning in the same breath as the Ryman Auditorium and Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack.” – Stephen Trageser, Nashville Scene, June 24, 2015

“8 stars… one of the best country blues records of the year… I haven’t heard a lyric in the ten years since Katrina that better encapsulates the loss of American optimism.” – Ed Whitelock, Pop Matters, September 1, 2015

“Swampy, soulful music.” – Christina Vinson, The Boot, August 24, 2015

“Transfixes and transports.” –Joe Wolfe-Mazeres, No Depression, September 3, 2015

“The audio equivalent of a Terrence Malick movie, luxuriating in vivid details and subtle, vibrant imagery… Tender and meticulous sonic films for the mind, miles away from commercial considerations, yet creating art that lasts lifetimes." –Hal Horowitz, American Songwriter, September, 2015

“Deeply lyrical and swampy.” –Christian Williams, UTNE Reader, September 1, 2015

“We love Gordon’s songs.” –Sloane Spencer, Country Fried Rock, September 1, 2015

Kevin Gordon Tour Dates

September 14 - City Winery, Main Stage - Nashville, TN
September 18 - The Family Wash - Nashville, TN
October 2 - WDVX Blue Plate Special - Knoxville, TN
October 4 - Roots Music House Concert - Peace Dale, RI
October 6 - Atwood's - Cambridge, MA
October 7 - Norey's - Newport, RI
October 10 - Nelson Odeon - Cazenovia, NY
October 24 - Landhaven - Barto, PA

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

THE BOOT PREMIERES KEVIN GORDON’S PORTRAIT OF NATIONAL HERITAGE FELLOW IN NEW SONG “GOODNIGHT BROWNIE FORD”

The Boot has premiered Kevin Gordon’s new song “Goodnight Brownie Ford,” partly about his real-life meeting of the cowboy singer in Louisiana, part biography, and partly a fever dream: http://theboot.com/kevin-gordon-goodnight-brownie-ford/

The song comes from Gordon’s new album ‘Long Gone Time,’ out September 4 on Crowville Media. He says, “’Goodnight Brownie Ford’ was one of the first songs I wrote for the new record--it went through many, many revisions. I remember taking 30 different demo versions on the road with me once--I'm still amazed that that alone didn't kill off the song completely.”

Born in 1904 outside of Gum Springs, OK and part American Indian, Thomas Edison “Brownie” Ford was a National Heritage Fellow and experienced rodeo cowboy, rambler, and singer.

Gordon recalls, “Meeting Mr. Ford was special at the time, but only grew more meaningful to me as time went on. I met him right before I moved to Nashville. He had a deep distrust of the music business, part of a stubborn provincialism that made him the elder trickster that he was. When writing the song, I also thought about him as a marker of a generation, now mostly gone--of people who were not only close to music, but also close to the land, whose ties to both were based on plain necessity and love.”

On the almost six-minute song at an unhurried pace, Gordon paints a vivid picture of Ford:

“‘Declared me dead twice,’ he said
‘But I never was that far gone
Yeah that saddle bronc dragged me to the gates of heaven
I couldn’t stay down long
Dying ain’t what living’s for
So I snuck out that hospital ward’
Goodnight Brownie Ford…

As the fire flared and died
From his cigarette
And he looked me in the eye to ask
A riddle with his next breath--
All the free advice I could afford
Got in his car and closed the door
Goodnight Brownie Ford”

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

KEVIN GORDON PLOTS SEPTEMBER SHOWS AT NYC’S ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL, NASHVILLE’S CITY WINERY AS NPR PREVIEWS NEW ALBUM ‘LONG GONE TIME’ (CROWVILLE MEDIA / SEPTEMBER 4)

NEW ALBUM 2ND MOST ADDED ON AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION RADIO CHART THIS WEEK

Kevin Gordon – the southern poet and rock & roller who has been covered by Levon Helm, Keith Richards, and Todd Snider – will plan a series of shows around the release of ‘Long Gone Time’ (Crowville Media / September 4), including NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall September 6 and Nashville’s City Winery on September 14.

Meanwhile, ‘Long Gone Time’ was the second most added record on the American Music Assocation radio chart this week.

NPR World Café previewed the album by playing two tracks, with David Dye saying, “Pay attention to his lyrics: After a punk rock youth in Monroe, La., he went on to graduate with a master's from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Gordon lives in Nashville now, and he can't shake his love of punk, poetry or Southern blues.”

August 22 – WorkPlay – Birmingham, AL
September 4 – Ashland Coffee & Tea – Ashland, VA
September 5 – Elk Creek Café – Millheim, PA
September 6 – Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 3 – New York, NY
September 8 – World Café Live, Upstairs – Philadelphia, PA
September 14 – City Winery, Main Stage – Nashville, TN
September 20 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN (short set)
October 2 – WDVX Blue Plate Special – Knoxville, TN
October 6 – Atwood’s – Cambridge, MA
October 7 – Norey’s – Newport, RI
October 10 – Nelson Odeon – Cazenovia, NY
October 24 – Landhaven – Barto, PA

Monday, July 27, 2015

JUKE-JOINT SONGWRITER KEVIN GORDON TURNS TO FOLK ART FOR INSPIRATION, AS ON NPR'S WORLD CAFE SPINS NEW TUNES

DUE SEPTEMBER 4, 2015, GORDON'S SPLIT ACOUSTIC/ELECTRIC RECORD IMMERSED IN SOUTHERN CULTURE

Songwriter Kevin Gordon fills his newest album, 'Long Gone Time,' with the sounds and stories of the American South, pulling heavily from his own upbringing in Louisiana — as well as his acclaimed collection of folk art — for inspiration.

Called a "juke-joint professor emeritus" by Rolling Stone, Gordon has spent the past twenty years making swampy, bluesy music that bridges the gap between old and new, with one foot planted in his influences and the other inching toward something new. At the same time, he's also boosted his connection to the culture through his work as a folk art collector.

For Gordon, those two passions — making music and collecting folk art — have gone hand in hand. Released September 4th, 'Long Gone Time" continues his immersion in southern culture. The album was produced by Joe V. McMahan, features guitar by Bo Ramsey, and was recorded live, with Gordon splitting the album into an even mix of acoustic tracks and full-band performances.

Gordon has served as curator of the Nashville-based Gordon Gallery for years. Three months before the release of 'Long Gone Time,' he also staged an art show at the nearby Riverwood Mansion in Nashville. The exhibit, which was previewed in an article by 'Nashville Arts,' included selections from his folk art collection, as well as live performances from Gordon himself. "[I was reading] a survey of folk art from the South from 1930 to 1980, and I was fascinated. There were short biographies of all the artists, and I just got eaten up," Gordon says in the article, adding that he began cultivating personal relationships with a few of the folk artists who made appearances in the book.

Although folk art has always been a strong muse for the Americana/rock & roll songwriter, Gordon's own has inspired other artists, too, with musicians like Levon Helm, Keith Richards, Todd Snider, and Irma Thomas all recording his songs. Last week, NPR World Cafe broadcasted “GTO” and “Crowville” from the new album on its national show. Listen to it here.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Kevin Gordon bio

"Dude's a juke-joint professor emeritus"--Rolling Stone

In September 2015 Kevin Gordon releases Long Gone Time, the long-awaited follow-up to
2012’s critically acclaimed Gloryland. Produced by Joe V. McMahan, the new record further
explores an awkward post-Civil Rights Act American south, with narratives and meditations
based on Gordon’s own Louisiana upbringing. Recorded live, half of the tracks are recorded
with only acoustic instruments(featuring Lex Price and Bo Ramsey). The “electric” tracks,
again recorded live with minimal overdubs, feature Gordon with his stalwart band of 20 years:
McMahan, Ron Eoff, and Paul Griffith.

Over the course of twenty-five years of writing, recording and touring, Gordon has built an
impressively consistent catalog of songs, a critically-acclaimed stack of albums, and a
reputation for dynamic live performances. His 2012 release, Gloryland, received significant
critical praise and media attention: a front-page Arts section feature in The New York Times, an
appearance on NPR’s “Here and Now”, and great reviews in Rolling Stone, USA Today, and
others. Author Peter Guralnick said this about Gloryland:

"There's nothing else around today quite like Kevin Gordon’s music. I'm a huge Kevin Gordon
fan. Think of John Lee Hooker tied to the hard, imagistic poetry of William Carlos Williams, and
you get a little bit of an idea. . . you just have to listen. And listen again. For the pure emotional
pleasure of it. For the unmistakable, hard-driving passion of words and music, rocking together
in rhythm."

From The New York Times: "'Gloryland' [is] an often harrowing tour of the back-roads South
with scenes of burning churches, a serio-comic brawl after a ZZ Top concert in Shreveport, La.,
and — most memorably — the time the Klan showed up when his seventh-grade marching
band performed about 90 miles from there in Colfax."

Gordon's songs have been recorded by Keith Richards, Irma Thomas, Levon Helm, Hard
Working Americans, and others. His duet with Lucinda Williams, “Down to the Well”, was
featured on the Oxford American Southern Music Sampler.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Kevin Gordon 'Long Gone Time' liner notes and credits

LINER NOTES: KEVIN GORDON, LONG GONE TIME

(Catalog #: CROW 4004)

SEQUENCE:

1/ALL IN THE MYSTERY (5:01)

(©Kevin Gordon,Little Rain Music, Admin. by BMG(BMI)

/Gwil Owen, Turgid Tunes, admin. by

Bluewater Music(BMI)/Colin Linden, Colin Linden Publishing(SOCAN))

2/GTO (3:31)