Thursday, April 30, 2015

“ARTIST TO KEEP YOUR EYES ON” (THE BOOT) EILEN JEWELL MOST ADDED AT AMERICANA RADIO FOR WEEK OF APRIL 27, 2ND MOST ADDED AT AAA RADIO

According to the Americana Music Association, Eilen Jewell’s ‘Sundown Over Ghost Town’ (May 26 / Signature Sounds) is the most-added album of this week. In addition, the album is the second most-added at AAA radio behind only the Alabama Shakes.

Meanwhile, last week, The Boot compared her to Kacey Musgraves, calling her music "poignant" and proclaiming that she "is an artist to keep your eyes on" in a premiere of the song “Needle & Thread."

“Needle & Thread” describes the town where Eilen’s dad lives, where her family land is located. She says, “On one of the maps I have, it’s listed as a ghost town, but there are more than 400 residents of Idaho City. The town has changed very little since I was a kid. But I see it all with new eyes after having lived in Boston for nine years. It’s mostly timber, dirt and rocks. Both Idaho City and the land around it have certainly seen better days. It was once the capitol of the Northwest — during the Gold Rush — but the miners took most of the gold out of it, and then it burned down twice.”

The themes are universal, says Eilen, explaining, “This song deals with the love/hate duality surrounding the concept of home. More so than anything else in life, home has a way of patching us together and messing us up.”

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Red Sox Pitcher Craig Breslow to Host Third Annual Sip Happens Event To Benefit Pediatric Cancer Research

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BOSTON (April 23)- Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow will host his third annual Sip Happens, a food, wine, beer and spirits event, on April 30 to benefit his Strike 3 Foundation, which raises money and awareness for pediatric cancer research.

The event will include a silent auction, food and beverage stations and the chance for guests to rub elbows with members of the Red Sox.


WHAT:           Third annual SIP Happens fundraising event to benefit the Strike 3 Foundation featuring local Boston area restaurants including Citizens Public House, Hungry Mother, The Fireplace, New England Charcuterie, Anna’s Taqueria, No. 8 Kitchen & Spirits, Kowloon, and Georgetown Cupcake.

WHO:             Hosts Craig and Kelly Breslow
                        Members of the 2015 Red Sox team
Emcees KISS 108’s Billy Costa and NESN’s Jenny Johnson

WHEN:           Thursday, April 30 at 5:30 pm. Media are invited to cover the red carpet between 5:45-7:00 pm.

WHERE:         WGBH Studios
                        1 Guest Street, Boston

INFO:             Visit the website for ticket information and this blog for more event info.

The Strike 3 Foundation is a charitable agency recognized by the IRS under 501 (c)(3) that heightens awareness, mobilizes support, and raises funding for pediatric cancer research. Founded in 2008 by current Major League Pitcher and Yale graduate Craig Breslow, Strike 3 has donated over $500,000 to Yale University Children's Hospital as a founding sponsor of Connecticut's only Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Program. Additionally, the organization has supported deserving research and treatment centers across the country including the Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Connecticut Children's Medical Center, and the Conquer Cancer Foundation. Strike 3 also funds a Boston based research project annually. Offices are located in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, and California, and are headquartered in Connecticut.
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Tuesday, April 21, 2015

THE AMERICAN SONGSTER DOM FLEMONS TO HOST LEAD BELLY TRIBUTE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER, FEATURING ROBERT PLANT AND ALISON KRAUSS


Dom Flemons – a founding member of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops – has been announced as the host of “Lead Belly at 125: A Tribute to an American Songster,” a one-night-only show taking place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on April 25 at 8:00pm.

The show, which is produced by the Kennedy Center and the GRAMMY Museum, features Flemons as master of ceremonies for a star-studded lineup of talented artists, including Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, and Valerie June.

Huddie Ledbetter, or Lead Belly as he was known, is a folk blues legend who has influenced countless artists from Nirvana to Led Zeppelin. He ranks among other pillars of American folk music such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.

 “Lead Belly showed me there was a strong secular black folk song repertoire, separate from the blues,” Flemons says. He continues, “Lead Belly’s legacy can show us something that is truly human in music. I’m honored to have the opportunity to pay tribute to someone who has had such a strong influence on me.”

Lead Belly has received newfound attention this year with the release of “Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection” box set and documentary film “Legend of Lead Belly,” which has aired on the Smithsonian Channel.

Flemons pulls from traditions of old-time folk music to create new sounds. Having played music professionally since 2005, he received acclaim, including a GRAMMY win and nomination, as part of the African American string band the Carolina Chocolate Drops. His most recent album, “Prospect Hill,” his first since leaving the group, has received praise from The Boston Globe, Paste Magazine, and Living Blues Magazine, and he has been featured on NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross.”

Event link here.

Monday, April 20, 2015

BONNAROO ALUMS TED DROZDOWSKI'S SCISSORMEN CONFIRM BOLD NEW ALBUM 'LOVE & LIFE,' OUT JULY 31

R.L. BURNSIDE PROTEGE MAKES FORWARD-LOOKING, EFFECTS-LADEN COLLECTION

Psychedelic blues innovators Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen will release their sixth album, 'Love & Life,' on July 31st via the Dolly Sez Woof label. An exhilarating musical experience, 'Love & Life' is a culmination of Drozdowski’s eclectic and adventurous musical career, fusing psych, blues, and garage rock histories in an exceptionally forward-looking, sonically audacious collection. A protégé of R.L. Burnside, Drozdowski sat in with the legendary bluesman multiple times before his passing and expands on his vision here. The album's eleven new tracks find the bandleader at his most electrifying, as scorched, layered guitars drip with distortion underneath his open-throated voice. Legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain and GRAMMY-nominated organist/Bobby Rush bandleader Paul Brown make guest appearances on the album alongside the Scissormen, who have expanded from a duo into a lean, blistering trio over years of relentless international touring, including high profile stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo. The album will coincide with the release of a new e-book by Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music journalist and educator, titled Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues Guitar Giants.

Drozdowski has a gift for painting vivid lyrical portraits, with characters ranging from old bluesmen and coal miners to sinister ghosts and the devil himself. On "R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)," he recounts a visit from his musical mentor, while "Watermelon Kid" pays homage to Watermelon Slim. "Beggin' Jesus" battles with temptation, "The River" takes a spine-chilling journey to the banks of the Tallahatchie River in north Mississippi, and "Black Lung Fever" ruminates on the disease that took the lives of both of Drozdowski's immigrant grandfathers before he was born.

"I wanted every song on this album to tell a story and be deeply rooted in great American music," says Drozdowski. "I also wanted to apply more elaborate production techniques, like multi-tracking my guitars and treating them with multiple effects during and after recording, to create a broader, unpredictable sonic palette, and just plain get weird."

Drozdowski recorded the album at Omega Lab, a "green" digital recording studio located in a tent perched on top of a mountain in the unincorporated hamlet of Pasquo, Tennessee, outside of his adopted hometown of Nashville. Despite the studio's high fidelity capabilities, it runs on less power than the average hair dryer. It was there that Drozdowski experimented with swirling, fuzzed-out tones, reversing parts and layering others sometimes seven guitars deep. The result is an album that blends the past and the future, the Delta and the city, Earth and Hell, into one singular, stirring, utterly riveting sound.

Stay tuned for more info and tour dates.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

MARY EPWORTH “HAS EMERGED AS A FASCINATING PRESENCE” (MOJO), SLAYS UK CRITICS AHEAD OF AMERICAN DEBUT

EPWORTH ADDS NYC/LA SHOWS TO EXTENSIVE TOUR WITH WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE

British indie/psych voice Mary Epworth has earned a wealth of critical raves in the UK for her otherworldly voice and arresting debut, 'Dream Life,' which is slated for release in the US on May 19 on Highline Records. The album has already playlisted three BBC 6 Music singles and earned the coveted title of Hottest Record in the World from BBC Radio 1.

She has just added several NYC and LA dates following her 36-date US tour with the chart-topping Welcome To Night Vale podcast's live show, including May 24 at Cake Shop at 11pm and May 25 at the Living Room at 7pm in NYC; and May 29 at Hotel Café at 7pm in LA.

Here’s the embeddable track "Black Doe":




"Gutsy….powerful." – The Guardian

"Psych pop splendour." - Q

"A warm, yearning musical love letter… [Epworth] has emerged as a fascinating presence." – Mojo

"Woodsy, psychedelic-demonic folk rock." – The Sunday Times

“Psych pop ‘Dream Life is a powerfully evocative album... Epworth’s mesmerising songs embody the timelessness of a fabled shanty, albeit one played through a folk-gaze fuzzbox.” – The Independent

"A distinctive new voice." – Rock and Reel

"Slow-burning harmonies, epic instrumentation, and soaring vocals." – Diva Mag

“9/10… Spell-binding and beautiful... Simply wonderful.” -Clash

MARY EPWORTH TOUR DATES

APRIL 15. TUCSON, AZ - RIALTO THEATRE
APRIL 16. MESA, AZ - MESA ARTS CENTER
APRIL 17. LAS VEGAS, NV - HORN THEATER AT COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN NEVADA
APRIL 18. LOS ANGELES, CA - THE ORPHEUM
APRIL 20. SAN PEDRO, CA - WARNER GRAND
APRIL 21. OAKLAND, CA - FOX THEATER
APRIL 23. PORTLAND, OR - REVOLUTION HALL
APRIL 24. PORTLAND, OR - REVOLUTION HALL
APRIL 25. SEATTLE, WA - THE NEPTUNE
APRIL 25. SEATTLE, WA - THE NEPTUNE
APRIL 27. SPOKANE, WA - BING CROSBY THEATRE
APRIL 28. MISSOULA, MT - WILMA THEATRE
APRIL 30. FARGO, ND - FARGO THEATRE
MAY 1. MINNEAPOLIS, MN - PANTAGES THEATRE
MAY 2. MINNEAPOLIS, MN - PANTAGES THEATRE
MAY 3. IOWA CITY, IA - ENGLERT THEATRE
MAY 4. LAWRENCE, KS - LIBERTY HALL
MAY 5. ST LOUIS, MO - SHELDON CONCERT HALL
MAY 8. CHICAGO, IL -COPERNICUS CENTER
MAY 9. BLOOMINGTON, IN - BUSKIRK CHUMLEY THEATRE
MAY 10. DETROIT, MI - THE FILLMORE
MAY 12. LOUISVILLE, KY - BOMHARD THEATRE
MAY 13. CINCINNATI, OH - TAFT THEATRE
MAY 14. CLEVELAND, OH, HANNA THEATRE
MAY 15. PITTSBURGH, PA - CARNEGIE OF HOMESTEAD
MAY 17. BUFFALO, NY - ASBURY HALL
MAY 18. ALBANY, NY - THE EGG, HART THEATRE
MAY 19. NORTHAMPTON, MA - ACADEMY OF MUSIC
MAY 20. BOSTON, MA - BERKLEE PERFORMANCE CENTER
MAY 21. BOSTON, MA - BERKLEE PERFORMANCE CENTER
MAY 24. NEW YORK, NY – CAKE SHOP (WITHOUT NIGHT VALE)
MAY 25. BROOKLYN, NY – LIVING ROOM (WITHOUT NIGHT VALE)
MAY 29. LOS ANGELES, CA – HOTEL CAFÉ (WITHOUT NIGHT VALE)

Monday, April 13, 2015

THE AMERICAN SONGSTER DOM FLEMONS ANNOUNCES ‘WHAT GOT OVER’ EXCLUSIVE RECORD STORE DAY EP

Dom Flemons – a founding member of the GRAMMY-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops – has announced a 10-inch vinyl EP to be sold in local record stores exclusively for Record Store Day on April 18th.

'What Got Over,' which comes out on Music Maker Relief Foundation, is a collection of songs from the vault—tracks that didn’t make it onto his highly praised 2014 album Prospect Hill along with alternate versions of songs on that album. Here are two teaser videos:




NPR Fresh Air aired a full-length performance/chat on the American Songster last year.

List of stores where “What Got Over” is available.

Esquire called ‘Prospect Hill’ “finger-pickin', good-old-fashioned tin-cup barn-dance fun.”

Paste said of ‘Prospect Hill,’ “Flemons’ harmonica-heavy, foot-tapping folk makes for the perfect hot summer soundtrack.”

Peter Cooper wrote a profile for the Tennessean, writing, “Everything Flemons does as an entertainer is informed by his deep listening and study. But ‘study’ sounds like something academic, and Flemons trades on something more fun than academia. He internalizes his learning, then externalizes it, and then we hear it and tap our feet and smile.”

"No musician in recent memory has tackled so many different idioms with such sincerity and style as Flemons, making him easily the most gifted American songster of his generation." -Living Blues Magazine

"This is interracial hoedown music, irresistibly delivered with a wink and a strut, and it sounds unlike anything else on the market today." -Wondering Sound

‘Dom Flemons, American Songster, Presents: What Got Over’ Track List:

SIDE ONE
1. Big Head Joe's March
2. Milwaukee Blues
3. Clock on the Wall
4. Keep On Truckin'
SIDE TWO
1. Hot Chicken
2. Have I Stayed Away Too Long?
3. Going Backward Up The Mountain
4. Til' The Seas Run Dry
5. What Got Over

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

ROAD WARRIOR EILEN JEWELL CONFIRMS SPRING/SUMMER TOUR IN SUPPORT OF CINEMATIC NEW ALBUM 'SUNDOWN OVER GHOST TOWN,' OUT MAY 26 ON SIGNATURE SOUNDS

Eilen Jewell will hit the road for extensive coast-to-coast tour dates this spring and summer in support of her “evocative” (CMT Edge) new album 'Sundown Over Ghost Town,' due out May 26 on Signature Sounds. A relentless road warrior, Jewell earned her stripes opening for Loretta Lynn and Lucinda Williams in addition to playing countless headlining shows, including sold out dates this winter in NYC, Boston, and DC. The upcoming tour finds Jewell playing 34 US shows, including a return to New York, her Alaskan debut, and appearances at festivals from California to Massachusetts. See below for full dates.

Jewell won't be traveling alone, though. She'll be joined on the road by her crack band, which features guitarist Jerry Miller, whose fretboard fireworks earned him his own record deal with Signature Sounds. Pop Matters called him a "master," CMT Edge praised him as "razor-sharp," and No Depression raved, "What really gives Jewell’s band its signature sound, every bit as much as Jewell herself, is the man on the red-orange Gretsch, Jerry Miller. It’s hard to imagine Jewell without him, and I hope we never have to."

Written north of Boise in the mountains of Idaho, Jewell’s new album sees the songwriter coming into the most emotional writing of a career filled with vivid, metaphorical imagery. USA Today has proclaimed, “Give me more of that voice… Dark and haunting… but alluring just the same.”

EILEN JEWELL TOUR DATES

04/18/15 - Windsor, CT - Northwest Park Nature Center
04/19/15 - Harrisburg, PA - The Abbey Bar
04/21/15 - Worthington, OH - Natalie’s
04/22/15 - Worthington, OH - Natalie’s
04/23/15 - Marietta, OH - Adelphia Music Hall
04/24/15 - Newport, KY - The Southgate House Revival
04/25/15 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom and Tavern
04/26/15 - Brighton (Rochester), NY - Downstairs Cabaret at Winston Place
04/27/15 - Buffalo, NY - Sportsmen’s Tavern
04/30/15 - LaSalle, IL - Uptown Grill
05/01/15 - Chicago, IL - City Winery
05/02/15 - Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark
05/23/15 - Grass Valley, CA - Strawberry Music Festival
05/28/15 – Winters, CA - The Palms
05/29/15 - Berkeley, CA - Freight and Salvage
05/30/15 - Santa Cruz, CA - Kuumbwa Jazz Center
06/10/15 – Portland, OR – Alberta Rose Theatre
06/11/15 – Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern
06/12/15 – Palmer, AK – Palmer Musk Ox Farm
06/13/15 – Soldotna, AK – Kenai River Festival
07/03/15 - Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald’s American Music Festival
07/08/15 - Cambridge, MA - The Sinclair
07/09/15 - New Haven, CT - Cafe 9
07/10/15 – Greenfield, MA – Green River Festival
07/11/15 - Hudson, NY - Club Helsinki
07/12/15 - Woodbridge, NJ - Woodbridge Country Sundays
07/14/15 – New York, NY – City Winery
07/17/15 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live
07/18/15 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Café
07/19/15 – Wakeman, OH – Music at Riverdog
08/07/15 – Challis, ID – Braun Brothers Family Reunion
08/22/15 - Liberty, UT - Ogden Valley Roots & Blues Festival
09/03/15 – Collinsville, CT – Bridge Street
09/04/15 – Charlestown, RI – Rhythm & Roots Festival
10/24/15 – Utrecht, Netherlands – Ramblin' Roots Festival
10/25/15 – Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat

Monday, April 6, 2015

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.

Ted Drozdowski's Scissormen photos

Credit for all: Bill Steber


IDs: L-R, Sean Zywick (bass), Pete Pulkrabek (drums)

Friday, April 3, 2015

PSYCHEDELIC VISIONARY & R.L. BURNSIDE PROTÉGÉ TED DROZDOWSKI’S NEW ALBUM BUILDS A POWERFUL AND UNIQUE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AMERICAN MUSIC


 Evolutionary Love & Life’s uncanny tales, untamed guitars and explosive textures — plus a guest shot by soul legend Mighty Sam McClain — create an epic sweep; Drozdowski’s debut e-book to coincide with album’s release

NASHVILLE, TN — Listening to Love & Life, the new album from Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen, is like taking an acid trip in a time machine. Day-glo guitars slither through stories about old bluesmen and coal miners. Tectonic plates of sound churn the past, present and future of great American music into a stylistic kaleidoscope. And a dizzy spray of vibrant slide six-string permeates the album’s performances, adding a fine sonic mist of unpredictable virtuosity to the mysteries in its 11 tunes, which ricochet between deep truths and bald-faced lies.

Drozdowski made the new album Love & Life in a tent down a dirt road in the woods on top of a mountain in the unincorporated hamlet of Pasquo, Tennessee. That’s just another example of this highly creative singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader and producer’s passion for thinking outside the box. And there are plenty more within the dynamic, evocative sixth album from Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen.

Love & Life will be released on the Dolly Sez Woof label on July 31. That same day Drozdowski, who is also an award-winning music journalist and educator, will publish the first in a series of e-books, Obsessions of a Music Geek, Vol. 1: Blues Guitar Giants.

Love & Life is evolutionary. For Drozdowski, the album celebrates the expansion of his internationally touring duo Scissormen — with stops at Bonnaroo and other major festivals under their belts — into a fiery, flexible trio. That core trio sound is made even bigger, with as many as seven of Drozdowski’s own guitar tracks layered on some cuts, while capturing his finest songwriting and studio performances. He’s also joined on the album by legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain and Grammy nominated organist Paul Brown. For great American music, it proves that traditional styles can be celebrated with authenticity while creating tunes that are contemporary, timeless and slammin’.

“I wanted every song on this album to tell a story and be deeply rooted in great American music,” Drozdowski relates. “I also wanted to apply more elaborate production techniques, like multi-tracking my guitars and treating them with multiple effects during and after recording, to create a broader, unpredictable sonic palette, and just plain get weird. That weird streak is what made the pillars of American music — Muddy Waters, Bill Monroe, Sam Phillips and others — original, authentic and evolutionary, and somewhere along the way the truth and beauty of honest weirdness got lost. I want to bring it back.”

Love & Life starts with “Beggin’ Jesus,” a riff-fueled yarn about temptation and the conflict between good and evil, with a wicked, sizzling, doubled slide guitar solo. A few songs later, “The River” unfolds as a ghost story. A swirling mist of guitars and Drozdowski’s soulful voice recreate the mystery and magic of the foggy, moonlit night along the banks of the Tallahatchie River in North Mississippi that inspired the song. It’s one of the album’s few tracks cut without overdubs, recorded live in one take.

Drozdowski pays tribute to two of his friends and mentors on the album. “Watermelon Kid” is an homage to the bluesman Watermelon Slim, and “R.L. Burnside (Sleight Return)” is a funky, psychedelic recollection of a night the juke joint blues patriarch came to visit – replete with a slinky groove and layers of backwards guitar. Drozdowski’s own family history as Pennsylvania coal miners fuels the grinding, visceral Mississippi hill country music inspired “Black Lung Fever,” citing an occupational affliction that claimed both of his immigrant grandfathers before he was born.

The romantic ode to the Bluff City “Let’s Go To Memphis” reflects the classic sound and spirit of Stax Records, with shimmering B-3 organ and four intricately woven guitar tracks. But the song’s star is the legendary soul singer Mighty Sam McClain, who first appeared on the R&B charts in 1966 and whose passionate command and emotional depth are practically unparalleled today. “Sam and me have been friends for more than 20 years,” says Drozdowski. “I’d hoped to someday write a song worthy of his voice, and now I’m thrilled and honored by his performance.”

“Our friendship has grown over the years to a very beautiful place in our lives,” McClain concurs. “When Ted asked me if I would do a song with him, Hell, I couldn’t wait. When he sent me ‘Let’s Go To Memphis,’ I liked the title right away, because it was so Ted. I’ve heard him talking about Memphis and Nashville for so long. So ‘Let’s Go to Memphis’ was a no brainer for me! I would have sung almost anything for a chance to do this with Ted. But ‘Let’s Go to Memphis’ is a great song, written by a great person.”

Fans of the stripped-down juke joint aesthetic that has governed the sound of Ted Drozdowski’s Scissormen until now will dig “Can’t Be Satisfied,” a raw take on the Muddy Waters classic as a full-throttle duet for drums and diddley bow – in this case, an intensely electrified version of the home-made one-string instrument that gave Bo Diddley his name. There’s also a solo number, “Dreaming On the Road,” that features Drozdowski playing resonator guitar. But throughout the disc a multitude of effects-laden six-strings slip in and out of the mix like foxes in a henhouse, defining his own sonic terrain among musical innovators.

To Drozdowski, risk-taking is an essential part of being an artist. Since the 1980s his bands have always pushed toward new ground. As a primary force in the alternative-rock band Vision Thing, the textural music ensemble Bloodblister and the explosively guitar-intensive Devil Gods, his narrative songwriting and tireless sonic explorations won him a cult following.

That cult has grown considerably since he established Scissormen a decade ago, under the influence of R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill and other totems of Mississippi hill country blues. “R.L. in particular got me to play this music, which I initially resisted,” Drozdowski says. “But his encouragement helped me find my voice and my sound.

“After meeting and becoming friends with R.L., Junior and Jessie, who were making some of the most profound music I’d ever heard, yet living in obscurity and poverty, I devoted myself to bringing the music they and similar artists made to more people,” Drozdowski says. First, that was as a music journalist, and he received the Blues Foundation’s Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Journalism in 1998, in part as a result of that effort. Next, he became a visceral torchbearer with Scissormen, physically taking this deeply rooted music to a wider and more diverse audience with playful, high-energy performances built around his singing and incendiary slide guitar showmanship. Club crowds are as likely to find Drozdowski sitting in their laps, standing on tabletops and sliding with every object imaginable as they are to see him on stage. Another mentor, free jazz guitar granddaddy Sonny Sharrock, also had a major influence on Drozdowski’s slide playing.

Drozdowski has released five earlier recordings bearing the Scissormen name, including the 2012 collaboration with the award-winning music filmmaker Robert Mugge, BIG SHOES: Walking and Talking the Blues. The CD+DVD set was built around a Mugge documentary starring Drozdowski that premiered at the Denver Film Festival. He has also taken the band across the US and to Europe, playing up to 100 dates a year at everything from the major festivals Bonnaroo, Memphis in May and France’s Cognac Blues Passions to theaters to clubs to coffeehouses.

Love & Life begins a new chapter for me, where I can connect all the dots of what excites me musically to realize my own vision of great American music as a vital, original and still evolving art form,” says Drozdowski. “But I couldn’t have begun to record it without help. I conceived of this album five years ago, but didn’t have the funds to go forward.” Enter Robert E. McClain, Jr., owner of the one-of-a-kind Omega Lab studio atop a mountain high above Nashville’s famed Loveless Café, and Whit Hubner, host of the Mando Blues Show, a program on Radio Free Nashville that’s recorded live at the tent — a ProTools based “green” studio with surround sound capability that draws less power than the average blow dryer.

“Rob and Whit, who are dear friends, invited me to make the album at Omega Lab,” say Drozdowski. But eventually costs intruded on the album’s progress, so Drozdowski turned to his fans, launching a successful Indiegogo campaign that raised nearly $14,000. “Knowing that more than 160 people from nine countries had my back when I needed them fills me with gratitude and makes me feel like I’m on the right path,” Drozdowski says. “And I intend to keep following it, wherever it takes me.”

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

STEVE EARLE, THE PUNCH BROTHERS, TUNE-YARDS, PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND, MILK CARTON KIDS & MORE TO PERFORM AT 29TH ANNUAL GREEN RIVER FESTIVAL JULY 10-12

MUSIC & HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL EXPANDS TO THREE DAYS FOLLOWING 2014 SELL-OUT

The Green River Festival will expand to three days for its 2015 annual installment—held July 10-12 in Greenfield, MA—with a star-studded and
eclectic lineup featuring Steve Earle & The Dukes, Punch Brothers, tUnE-yArDs, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Milk Carton kids, J. Mascis,
and more. Bringing together elder statesmen like Booker T. Jones and Tony Joe White on a bill with acclaimed rising acts like Valerie June,
Langhorne Slim & The Law, and Joe Pug among others, the festival is establishing itself as one of Massachusetts' premiere events. Early
bird single day and weekend tickets go on sale today here.

Green River Fest, which sold out in 2014, will kick off with a special Friday night concert celebrating the 20th anniversary of acclaimed New
England-based record label Signature Sounds. The label, which has served as home to everyone from Josh Ritter and Lake Street Dive to
Crooked Still and Chris Smither, released a special 20th anniversary collection last month, and will present rising acts with new 2015
albums, including Eilen Jewell and Heather Maloney.

In addition to the stellar music lineup and in keeping with its origins, the festival will also feature an incredible array of hot air
balloons launching Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The public can watch the early morning launch free of charge or purchase tickets for
a ride originating at the Greenfield Community College grounds. A special Balloon Glow, featured illuminated balloons in the night sky,
will be held Saturday night. For more information on the balloons or to make reservations for a ride, please go here.

Stay tuned for full schedule to be announced.

GREEN RIVER FESTIVAL 2015 LINEUP

Steve Earle & The Dukes
Punch Brothers
tUnE-yArDs
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
J. Mascis
Milk Carton Kids
Booker T. Jones
Valerie June
The Wood Brothers
Rubblebucket
Antibalas
Langhorne Slim & The Law
Tony Joe White
Eilen Jewell
Elephant Revival
Polaris
Parker Millsap
Red Baraat
Lydia Loveless
Pine Hill Project
Straybirds
Joe Pug
The Revelers
Heather Maloney
Sean Rowe
MAKU Sound System
Chuchito Valdes
Suitcase Junket
Arc Iris
Charlie Parr
Marco Benevento
Jose Gonzalez and Criollo Clasico
Bella's Bartok
The Lonesome Brothers
Twisted Pine