MEMPHIS BIG BAND BLUES OUTFIT THE LOVE LIGHT ORCHESTRA EARNING BEST OF THE YEAR PLAUDITS AMONG CRITICS FOR ITS DEBUT ALBUM ON BLUE BARREL RECORDS

Memphis blues big band The Love Light Orchestra – whose players have backed Bobby Blue Bland, Gregg Allman, The Bo-Keys, Don Bryant, Robert Cray, Melissa Etheridge, and Solomon Burke – is earning best of the year reviews of its debut self-titled album. The album features two-time Blues Music Award winner John Nemeth on vocals and was produced by Matt Ross-Spang (Jason Isbell, Margo Price, The Drive-By Truckers). Here’s what we’re reading:

 

“One of the best albums of the year… every song on the album shimmers and shines with a golden light of soul that’s energizing and enlightening.”

- Henry Carrigan, Living Blues, December, 2017

 

“Best of Memphis Music 2017… a thrilling document of the group’s powerful, elegant sound.”

- Bob Mehr, Memphis Commercial Appeal, December 7, 2017

 

“Some of Memphis’ finest session musicians.”

- Barbara Schultz, Mix Magazine, December 12, 2017

 

“Passionate vocals… swinging… soaring spirit.”

- Jonathan Frahm, Pop Matters, October 17, 2017

 

“Magic… The LLO’s big band shows are rare and wonderful things: next time you see them on the horizon, go get some.”

- Chris Davis, Memphis Flyer, December 14, 2017

 

“Fans of Pokey LaFarge, the California Honeydrops, the Dustbowl Revival, and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats will delight in the debut album by The Love Light Orchestra.”

- Neil Ferguson, Glide Magazine, November 7, 2017

 

“This ambitious undertaking is a huge success as performed by Nemeth and The Love Light Orchestra. The ten members inspire each other and Nemeth has never sounded better. This is a must to own as it just might be the ‘Album of The Year.’

- Richard Ludmerer, Making a Scene, November 7, 2017

 

“Delightful.”

- Iain Patience, Elmore Magazine, November 29, 2017

STARBUCKS PICKS IRONING BOARD SAM’S ‘SUPER SPIRIT’ FOR IN-STORE PLAY NATIONWIDE

RAVES COME IN FOR SOUL MAN’S BIG LEGAL MESS RECORDS DEBUT

Starbucks has confirmed in-store airplay for Ironing Board Sam’s new album ‘Super Spirit,’ his first on Fat Possum subsidiary Big Legal Mess. Meanwhile, TIME Magazine posted a feature and photo spread on Ironing Board Sam and fellow Music Maker Relief Foundation artists.

‘Super Spirit’ has earned widespread acclaim:

“Soulful… Sam possesses the kind of weathered, soul-drenched voice that only a seasoned R&B veteran has these days.”
- Bart Bealmear, Dangerous Minds, September 21, 2015

“Rollicking.”
- Chris Steffen, All Music, August 31, 2015

“Kicking funk… A singer of maximum force, he also pulls down interplanetary love to share with his fellow creatures here… Cosmic vibrations float off the stage and swirl around the room, until they land inside of all those present, only to ferment and explode in fragments of beaming lights buried deep within the brain. If that sounds far out, then it should. This is music powered by the super spirit—and then some. Groove now and forever keep your psyche turned on.”
- Bill Bentley, Morton Report, November 6, 2015

“Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. Bettye Lavette. Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires… With his brand new album, Super Spirit, releasing today on Big Legal Mess Records, soul and blues legend Ironing Board Sam joins the illustrious list of artists.”
- Rhonda Nicole, SoulTrain, October 2, 2015
“Wildman… A Sam appearance is a dazzling event… Watching his performances is like watching Little Richard and Screamin' Jay Hawkins in a battle for possession of the same body… Even though his latest, Super Spirit, is a studio record, it has the same energy and wildness as his live performances… Sam's sound is rough-hewn soul and blues held together, or more often than not, torn asunder by his extraterrestrial piano figures… Sam is in fine shape here, taking on all comers and laying 'em out, his spirit and his skills stronger than ever.”
- Grant Britt, No Depression, September 30, 2015

“A consummate showman, blues legend Ironing Board Sam has been entertaining audiences for decades with his mad scientist approach… Sam's music is a treat for the eyes as much as it is for the ears.”
- UTNE Reader, September 15, 2015

“Legend… perhaps his finest album yet.”
- Shane Handler, Glide, September 28, 2015

“It's safe to say that Sammie Moore, aka Ironing Board Sam, is back.”
- Chris Shaw, Memphis Flyer, September 22, 2015

Here’s the postable track “Baby You Got It."

Buy link on CD or LP.

“ASTOUNDINGLY DEFIANT” (SPIN) GRACE ASKEW CEMENTS HERSELF AS FAST-RISING AMERICANA ARTIST BEHIND RAVES FROM ROLLING STONE, SPIN, NASHVILLE SCENE, LA MAGAZINE, ETC.

Fast-rising Americana artist Grace Askew’s ‘Scaredy Cat’ came out earlier this month to across-the-board raves. Her killer video and interview session for Yahoo! Music just posted Friday.

Here’s what we’re reading:

“Sultry… The perfect place to listen to this album is a dark dive bar with a tallboy in my hand.”
- Jim Casey, Rolling Stone, June 9, 2014

“Beautifully haunting… astoundingly defiant.”
- SPIN, August 6, 2014

"I've been spinning this record all week... She's got a gnarly, sultry voice and a guitar style that is gritty and real.”
- Sean L. Maloney, Nashville Scene, August 1, 2014

“Killer slide guitar player with a sultry swagger.”
- Julia St. Pierre, LA Mag.com, July 31, 2014

“Fabulous… badass.”
-Lyndsey Park, Yahoo! Music, August 21, 2014

“For fans of Lana Del Rey, Cat Power… Once you hear Grace’s voice, you can’t unhear it… simultaneously sultry, twangy, and growly.”
- Teen Vogue, August 2, 2014

“Fierce… She’s progressing forward, and in some particularly gutsy ways.”
- Brice Ezell, Pop Matters, August 8, 2014

“Raw, rootsy, and uniformly arresting… Her sultry drawl is both seductive and soulful"
- Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 24, 2014

“Cool Memphis style.”
- Will Minter, American Songwriter, July 30, 2014

"Askew is relentlessly creative."
- Joe Boone, Memphis Flyer, July 24, 2014

“Devastating.”
- Cameron Matthews, Bluegrass Situation, July 23, 2014

“Like a confident love child of Blind Willie McTell and Bobbie Gentry; her gritty slide playing and slurred, come-thither alto make a potent combo.”
- Bliss Bowen, Pasadena Weekly, August 7, 2014

“4 stars… riverting…genuine… Her voice warbles, trembles, swings and flips.”
- Chuck Campbell, Knoxville News-Sentinel, August 12, 2014

SPIN PREMIERES “CAPTIVATING” GRACE ASKEW TRACK AS ‘SCAREDY CAT’ OUT NEXT WEEK

ASKEW INTRODUCES MISSISSIPPI DELTA WORD “JANKY” INTO THE MUSIC LEXICON

LA SHOWS THIS WEEKEND

SPIN posted a new track by fast-rising Americana artist Grace Askew, calling her music "Captivating... beautifully haunting... goosebump-inducing slide guitar improvisations. Channeling heartbreak and anger, she comes out sounding astoundingly defiant, wise beyond her years."

Meanwhile, in an interview, she told American Songwriter, about her sonic goal for ‘Scaredy Cat,’ to make it sound “janky,” which she says, “is a Delta word for rough around the edges, but in a good way. It’s raw, rough, raunchy, and Memphis.”

Early buzz has been strong. American Songwriter praised her “cool Memphis style.” No Depression called her “a singer who’s pushing country and blues boundaries with her super cool voice and great songwriting, [opening] up a gritty world of bar stools, bad luck and bad habits, unrequited love, hilltop liquor stores, and escape.”

Her hometown press has been just as effusive. The Memphis Flyer said, "Askew is relentlessly creative.” The Memphis Commercial Appeal called her a "pop culture shooting star." She has taped an episode of PBS Sun Studio Sessions to air in 2015.

Angelinos: Grace will perform at LA’s Hotel Café on Saturday and at LA’s Silverlake Lounge on Sunday.

6TH GENERATION MEMPHIAN GRACE ASKEW CAPTURES HOMETOWN SOUND IN NEWLY RESTORED SUN STUDIOS TO TAPE ON VINTAGE EQUIPMENT

ASKEW TAPES PBS SUN STUDIO SESSIONS

As a sixth generation Memphian, Grace Askew decided to steep her new album ‘Scaredy Cat’ (August 11) in the sounds of one of most renowned, hit-producing studios of all time, Sun Studios. “The room, the photographs on the wall, the gear, the worn down corners on the table, the cracks in the ceiling: my heroes made that room the way it is. The energy of that history made our takes a lot more effortless. This is who I am,” she says.

Check out Rolling Stone’s Q&A with Askew: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/grace-askew-opens-her-wild-heart-20140609

Recording at Sun Studios presents specific challenges. She says, “I’m a fan of the first take and wanted to get that raw energy.” Askew played and sang live with a band, recording in the small Sun live room straight to tape, so one mistake would mean scratching an entire take. Askew completed recording all but one song in one day, with a second day set aside largely for mixing. “It is mentally and physically exhausting. You put every ounce of yourself into those four hours. It’s a very focused energy,” she adds.

The Memphis Flyer recently did a profile on Matt Ross-Spang, Sun’s engineer who has brought the equipment in the studio to Sam Phillips’ specification. Ross-Spang told the Flyer, "It's becoming exactly like it was in 1956."

Ross-Spang continues, “Everyone has to pay attention to each other instead of themselves. It's a team effort, including me. It's not very forgiving. But I think one of the reasons people come here to do that is because it makes them a better musician… There's so much more on the line. But that makes you play better too.”

The magic continued on camera as Askew returned to Sun last week to tape a forthcoming episode of Sun Studio Sessions for PBS.

Grace Askew Tour Dates.