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)

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.”

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

Mary Epworth publicity photos

Above Credit: Matthew-Robert Hughes

Brooklyn Folk Festival preview videos

Jackson Lynch and Wydham Baird:

“EVOCATIVE” (CMT EDGE) EILEN JEWELL UNVEILS MOST PERSONAL ALBUM TO DATE AND FIRST IN FOUR YEARS WITH VIVID, CINEMATIC ‘SUNDOWN OVER GHOST TOWN’ MAY 26 ON SIGNATURE SOUNDS

Eilen Jewell had to move back to her hometown of Boise, ID for ‘Sundown over Ghost Town’ (May 26 / Signature Sounds) to turn out as her most personal record to date, a meditation on home. Written north of Boise in the mountains of Idaho, Jewell’s fifth album sees the songwriter coming into the most emotional writing of a career filled with vivid, evocative, metaphorical imagery. Jewell says, “I’m more comfortable in my own skin, have a clearer sense of who I am and the kind of music that I want make.”

Check out the first single “Rio Grande,” as premiered by CMT Edge, here.

The wide-angle landscapes where she wrote and recorded ‘Sundown Over Ghost Town’ seep into the music: waters rush through gorges and canyons, falls plunge down rugged cliffs, and Rocky Mountains towering above wide-open vistas. With influences that range from Mavis Staples to Marty Robbins and from Sleepy John Estes to Loretta Lynn, her broad-eared approach to Americana lends itself to a cinematic sound.

Jewell’s influences come from the literary world as well as the musical world. She cites poets Mary Oliver and Miller Williams along with novelists John Steinbeck and William Faulkner as favorites who’ve made an impression on her style. “One can use imagery as vehicle for talking about anything,” she says simply. A pair of those images stand out on an album full of them:

“A lucky horseshoe in a pile of junk…”

“A half-broke horse… too wild for this world, too tame for mustangs…”

Jewell has opened for Loretta Lynn and Lucinda Williams and sold out headlining concerts this winter in NYC, Boston, and DC. NPR.org has said, “She’s got a sweet and clear voice with a killer instinct lurking beneath the shiny surface.” USA Today has proclaimed, “Give me more of that voice… Dark and haunting… but alluring just the same.”

Stay tuned for announcement of a nationwide tour.