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”

STRIKE 3 FOUNDATION TO HOLD WIFFLE® BALL TOURNAMENT

Craig Breslow, CEO of The Strike 3 Foundation, announced that on October 10, 2015, the foundation that was launched by Breslow in 2008 to heighten awareness, mobilize support and raise funds for cancer research, will be holding a one day WIFFLE^® Ball Tournament, that Breslow will host.

The tournament will take place at Little Fenway in Essex, Vermont. One playing field, exclusively designed for WIFFLE Ball games, is a quarter of the size of Boston’s Fenway Park, which it replicates.  The facility has two other fields as well – Little Wrigley and Little Field of Dreams, both of which will also be used in the tournament. Participation of 10 to 12 teams will be supported by individual or team sponsors. To qualify for participation, each team is charged with raising from $3,000 to $5,000 in sponsor donations and pay a $350 registration fee. Admission to the games will be free.

Craig Breslow explained, “This is our first WIFFLE Ball Tournament, marking a sport which keeps growing in popularity with each passing year. We are optimistic that we will attract sponsors who want to support the Strike 3 Foundation’s ongoing efforts to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Although we have made great strides, the Strike 3 Foundation can only continue to prosper with the strong support of a generous community of donors and sponsors.”

JIMI HENDRIX SAT IN WITH “LEGENDARY” (BILLBOARD) IRONING BOARD SAM & LATTER UPPED HIS SHOWMANSHIP

NEW BIG LEGAL MESS ALBUM ‘SUPER SPIRIT’ ARRIVES OCT 2 AFTER NEWPORT
FOLK & JAZZFEST SETS

The “legendary” (Billboard) Ironing Board Sam decided to up his stage
game after Jimi Hendrix sat in with him. Sam recalled, “We used to
play shows together; you know, he made my show greater than his show.
He had a nine piece band playin’ downstairs, and he heard me and my
drummer playing upstairs; I was playing the button board, and I had it
so I could sit down behind it and play it like a big organ. All the
other musicians would come listen to us when the finished their sets,
and then one night I noticed the crowd got extra, extra hot. I looked
over my left shoulder--on my left they had a jukebox, like an old-time
jukebox about six feet tall--and Jimi was on top of the jukebox
playing his guitar behind his head. He sort of had to crouch because
of the ceiling, but I said oh my, he’s making my show better than his.
After I saw that, I knew I had to do something else so I started
carrying my button board into the crowd so I could get some attention
back on my show! That really started a trend for me, because nobody
was carrying their keyboard into the audience then.”

Produced by Bruce Watson and Jimbo Mathus, ‘Super Spirit’ (October 2 /
Big Legal Mess) presents interpretations of songs associated with the
Gories, Jack Oblivion, Ann Peebles, along with other handpicked gems.
Sam earned standing ovations earlier this year at Newport Folk
Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Hear “Baby You
Got It" here (postable and embeddable).

BRIAN CARPENTER & THE CONFESSIONS: A NEW BAND FLOWERING FROM A CREATIVE MUSICAL COMMUNITY

CARPENTER’S PAST COLLABORATORS INCLUDE SWANS; MARC RIBOT; AND MEMBERS
OF THE DECEMBERISTS, ARCADE FIRE NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, AND BON IVER

‘THE FAR END OF THE WORLD’ OUT OCT 2 ON ACCURATE RECORDS

In addition to leading the bands Ghost Train Orchestra and Beat
Circus, multi-instrumentalist and composer Brian Carpenter has
collaborated with a who’s who of indie, jazz, and avant-garde
musicians. As the band readies its debut ‘The Far End of the World’
(October 2 /Accurate Records), they are already part of a community of
incredibly creative, genre-bending musicians. A stunning achievement,
the new album finds Carpenter composing lyric-driven avant-noir music,
mixed by Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, Calexico), and featuring sounds
from string sections to spaghetti western guitars. Here’s a sampling
of Brian’s collaborations, past and present:

- Recorded three songs on trumpet with Michael Gira on Swans’ 2010
comeback record "My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky."

- Recorded and collaborated with violinist/singer Carla Kihlstedt (Tin
Hat, Rabbit Rabbit) on sound design and string parts for the new album
‘The Far End of the World.’

- Recorded with saxophonist Colin Stetson (Arcade Fire, Bon Iver) on
the early 2015 Ghost Train Orchestra release "Hot Town" (Accurate
Records)

- Performed with guitarist Marc Ribot in 2002-03 as part of the
"Spirits" documentary on Albert Ayler (directed and produced by
Carpenter).

- Collaborated with comic book writer Harvey Pekar in 2004 in
Cleveland on a voiceover for the "Spirits" documentary.

- Recorded and collaborated with artist and multi-instrumentalist
Brian Dewan (Neutral Milk Hotel) on ‘Dreamland’

- Recorded and mixed with renowned producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth,
Swans, Foetus) in 2006-7 on Beat Circus’ 2008 album ‘Dreamland.’

- Recorded vocals with producer Bryce Goggin (Antony & the Johnsons)
in 2008-10 on ‘Boy From Black Mountain’ (Cuneiform, 2009), who also
appears on the new album ‘The Far End of the World.’

- Toured with songwriter Larkin Grimm in 2008 and recorded on her
record ‘Parplar’ (Young God Records, 2008).

- Collaborated with artist Carson Ellis (The Decemberists) on artwork
and thematic material for ‘Boy From Black Mountain.’

THE STONE FOXES FRONTMAN’S 11 OPEN HEART SURGERIES INSPIRE SONG “COLD LIKE A KILLER”

‘TWELVE SPELLS’ OUT SEPT 4

When front man Shannon Koehler of The Stone Foxes – the San Francisco rock & roll band that has over five million track streams on Spotify and has opened for the Black Keys – sat down to write about how his body and health on the new song “Cold Like a Killer,” he likened his body to a murder. The singer/harmonica player, who sometimes plays drums as well, has had eleven open-heart surgeries that he's had since he was eight.

Koehler says, "I take more pills that my Grandma Ruthie," then growing serious. I feel like my body is its own silent killer. I just tried to put that emotion on paper for 'Cold Like a Killer.'" Here's the song, from the forthcoming ‘Twelve Spells,’ out September 4: https://soundcloud.com/thestonefoxes/cold-like-a-killer?in=thestonefoxes/sets/foxes-first-fridays

Shannon says, "I was born with a leaking tricuspid valve. This allowed for my heart to enlarge and that lead to having tachycardia, a condition where extra nerves grow in your heart wall and make your resting heart rate jump, like how mine went up to 200bpm and sent me the ER twice. I've had 11 surgeries/procedures on my heart beginning with a procedure at age 8. My latest surgery was 5 years ago when I was the 3rd person ever – that's what UCSF told me – to get a new tricuspid valve put in intravenously... I'm in really good shape now. Need a new pacemaker battery in a year or so, but my valve should be good for a bit."

The reminders of his own mortality has also led to Shannon’s mission to go all-out on every show, knowing how important it is to seize the moment. The Stone Foxes have developed a well-earned reputation for memorable, wild, sweaty, all-over-the stage marathon shows.

SIGNATURE SOUNDS 20TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL PERFORMANCES SET FOR AMERICANA MUSIC ASSOCIATION FESTIVAL SEPT 17

Signature Sounds – one of the leading folk and Americana labels that is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2015 – will be feted during the Americana Music festivals this year. The showcase lineup shows the diversity of an impressive roster from indie rock to string band music and from western Americana to the northeast songwriters of the label’s origins. Stream 'Signature Sounds 20th Anniversary Collection: Favorite and Rarities from the Second Decade’ at Billboard: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6487399/signature-sounds-20th-anniversary-collection-exclusive-rarities

Thursday, September 17 – Americana Music Festival – City Winery - Nashville, TN

8:00 PM - Pine Hill Project (Featuring Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky) : https://pinehillproject.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow-youre-going

"A joy from start to finish...They bring revelatory grace to the late David Carter’s ‘Farewell to Saint Dolores,’ possibly the best performance on an album filled with masterful singing and playing from all involved." - Pop Matters

9:00 PM - Eilen Jewell: https://eilenjewell.bandcamp.com/album/sundown-over-ghost-town

"Packed with vivid lyrics, steel guitars, and hot licks, Jewell’s Americana-driven brand of country music sounds tailor-made for sweltering, stagnant summer nights." – Eric Renner Brown, Entertainment Weekly

10:00 PM - Dustbowl Revival: https://soundcloud.com/signaturesounds-1/sets/dustbowl-revival-with-a/s-aXNUM

"In a city like Los Angeles, home to musical stars in nearly every known genre, handing out the Best Live Band title is not easy. But the free-thinking local collective Dustbowl Revival's upbeat, old-school, All-American sonic safaris exemplify everything shows should be: hot, spontaneous, engaging and, best of all, a pleasure to hear. " - LA Weekly

11:00 PM - Miss Tess & The Talkbacks: https://misstesssongs.bandcamp.com

"I don’t know of anyone else right now touring in the Americana scene that has such an eclectic, jazzy, old school and interesting vibe. There’s an authenticity present in Miss Tess’ music. She is real. And she is rare." - No Depression

12:00 AM - Jeffrey Foucault: https://jeffreyfoucault.bandcamp.com

“One of our most truly poetic songwriters… Foucault’s singing is almost nakedly human in that he invariably reaches for the most open honesty of his feeling… The inherent warmth of his throaty delivery tempers the occasional strangeness of his poetic lyric, and invites you into its possibilities…” - No Depression

SOUL SINGER IRONING BOARD SAM FUELS HIS LIVE SHOWS WITH OFF-BEAT INVENTIONS, NEW ALBUM ‘SUPER SPIRIT’ (OCTOBER 2 / BIG LEGAL MESS)

INFAMOUS UNDERWATER SET AT NEW ORLEANS JAZZ & HERITAGE FEST '79 AMONG NOTABLES

Ironing Board Sam has been playing music for more than half a century, whipping up a large catalog of soul songs and blues tunes along the way. He's earned a reputation as a singer, songwriter and acclaimed keyboardist. Thanks to a handful of inventions, though — many of which have become staples of his live show — Ironing Board Sam has also become one of the most colorful, charismatic showmen in modern music. He makes his Big Legal Mess debut on October 2 with ‘Super Spirit.’ Album teaser video.

Case in point: the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 1979, when Sam played a set of soul music while submerged inside a fluid-filled water tank. To avoid electrocution, he rigged up a safety system that included water-tight plastic bags and a glass helmet. Check out pics and a description of the set here.

Sam was already a local favorite by that time, having played gigs in the Crescent City with his infamous "ironing board keyboard" — a portable keyboard attached to an ironing board with 64 buttons that were connected to tacks via telephone wires (and activated with a ring on his finger). This contracption gave Sam his unique name and also predated the keytar by at least 10 years — since the early 1960s. A young Jimi Hendrix even climbed onstage with him during those early days and described Sam’s wild stage show as an influence. It was the New Orleans Jazz Fest, though, that helped elevate Sam to cult status.

As the decades went on, Ironing Board Sam continued playing shows while also working on new inventions. His various contraptions include; the "human jukebox" costume, wherein Sam sat inside a jukebox on Bourbon Street and, after tourists deposited their money, played their selections for them; a remote microphone; a clavinet rigged with guitar strings; and a portable air-pollution control system, which was sadly never built.

The Stone Foxes "This Town" single

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

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions - The Far End of the World

The Far End of the World (Accurate / October 2, 2015) is the debut full-length album from Brian Carpenter & the Confessions, a Boston-based band led by Brian Carpenter (Beat Circus, Ghost Train Orchestra). The album transports the listener into another world filled with haunting imagery, reverb-drenched guitar, and Carpenter's dry baritone evoking desire, loss, loneliness, and separation. The album was recorded by Rafi Sofer at Q Division in the winter in Boston and mixed by Craig Schumacher in the deserts of Tucson, Arizona.

The Far End of the World turns a corner in Capenter’s songwriting to dig deeper into a place of vulnerability and intimacy to create a bond with the listener. While “Savior of Love” explores the anxieties of forbidden love, the romantic unraveling begins with the next song “Lost at Sea.” The rest of the album further explores the complexities of desire, separation, feeling lost, memory, and rumination.

Carpenter sought out veteran music producer Craig Schumacher (Calexico, Neko Case) to mix the album and enlisted a who's-who of the Boston music scene to collaborate with. The band includes drummer Gavin McCarthy (Karate, Ted Leo), guitarist Andrew Stern (Beat Circus), violinist Jonathan LaMaster (Cul de Sac), violist David Michael Curry (Thalia Zedek Band), cellist Rachel Barringer (The Wrong Shapes), and singers Jen Kenneally and Noell Dorsey (Guillermo Sexo.) Guest Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat, Rabbit Rabbit) sings and performs on violin, viola, and the traditional Swedish nyckelharpa throughout the record.

In 2001, Carpenter moved to Boston from Florida to direct a documentary on the life and legacy of Albert Ayler with a group of MIT and NYU film students. He began producing radio documentaries and a free-form experimental radio shows broadcasting out of WZBC-FM at Boston College. In 2004, Carpenter founded the sprawling Boston-based band Beat Circus, which he sings and composes music for and whose 2009 album Boy from Black Mountain won the Independent Music Award for Best Alt/Country Album. In 2006, he founded the Ghost Train Orchestra, an acclaimed jazz orchestra in Brooklyn devoted to reimagining lost music from the late 1920s and '30s. He started The Confessions in an effort to form a band "focused around the voice and words."

Carpenter has been featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He has recorded with post-punk legends Swans on their comeback album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky. He has collaborated with many artists across genres and mediums, including Michael Gira, filmmaker Michael Snow, comic book writer Harvey Pekar, guitarist Marc Ribot, and Martin Bisi.

Brian Carpenter & The Confessions artwork

 Credit: Heather Byington, IDs: Brian Carpenter, Jen Kenneally

  Credit: Heather Byington, IDs: Brian Carpenter, Jen Kenneally

  Credit: Heather Byington, IDs: Brian Carpenter, Jen Kenneally

  Credit: Heather Byington, IDs: Brian Carpenter, Jen Kenneally

Ironing Board Sam 'Super Spirit' teaser

THE STONE FOXES SURPASS 5 MILLION SPOTIFY SPINS

The Stone Foxes – the all-out San Francisco rock & roll band – have blown past five million Spotify tracks streams as the new album ‘Twelve Spells’ approaches release September 4. The band will announce an album tour shortly.

Recent press spotlights have included Bullet, Entertainment Weekly, Consequence of Sound, and SF Weekly.