Author: skye

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2020

Award-winning indie folk duo The Sweater Set to release new album, Fly on the Wall, on May 8, 2020; album recorded live in front of an audience

Award-winning Washington, DC-based duo The Sweater Set (Maureen Andary and Sara Curtin) is set to release its new album, Fly on the Wall, on May 8, 2020 on Local Woman Records. Performed live in front of an audience at Tonal Park in Takoma Park, Maryland in early 2018, the album, featuring the pair’s blend of indie folk merged with hints of Americana, was recorded and mixed by Don Godwin and mastered by Charlie Pilzer at Tonal Park.

“I think this is the album our fans have been craving,” says Curtin. “They come to our shows time and time again to witness the spark in our live performance: evidence of a decade of collaboration and friendship, and the truly unique blend of our voices together in unison and harmony. This album is just that.”

When the two songwriters recorded Fly on the Wall in 2018, they were both childless women. And what happened next in their lives completely defies logic. In the ensuing year, each artist gave birth to a set of twins, about seven months apart. “Change,” a track Curtin wrote with anticipation, highlights the moment Andary gave her the big news she was expecting: “Come on in, take a seat, I’ve got a secret for you. And I’m afraid what it might mean but I’m facing the truth: things are gonna change.” Little did they know exactly how much, and how difficult it would be to complete the process of prepping the album for release with four very small children in the mix.

“Band practice has to be a little more efficient than it was in the early days, that’s for sure,” Curtin says. “Now we get together when the clock strikes naptime and close our cases when a baby – or four – cries out over the monitor.” Says Andary, “I really hope that our story will resonate with new and expectant parents. We want others to know that you can still be an artist and be a parent. It’s been a challenge to juggle everything. Being a parent is the hardest thing. You need all the support you can get.”

Before the double sets of twins changed the landscape of their lives considerably, the duo conceived of the album as a creative way to celebrate their decade of performing together: a recording session of all new work and an audience of fifty fans who paid to be just what
the title states – a fly on the wall. The event functioned on so many levels: live show, recording session, premiere performance of new songs, and a party. Refreshments were served, the recording studio was adorned with collage: pictures spanning from their first shows in 2008 all the way to their performances at the Kennedy Center and touring days with Michelle Shocked. It was an exciting, interactive experience to connect with fans, friends, and family, inviting them into the creative process. “It was a beautiful way to celebrate our friendship,” Andary says, “and most importantly it wasn’t just a show – it was a recording of brand new works and a commitment between us to keep going.”

And the simple format is something of a return to their roots. While The Sweater Set began in 2008, Curtin and Andary’s relationship harkens back to a simpler time and place. The duo began singing together when they were young in 1996 at a Washington, DC church where their harmonies were nurtured and showcased, accompanied only by the piano playing of their choir director. And while this album has no piano and contains no biblical verse, it is comprised only of voice, guitar, and the occasional flute or tambourine, an instrumentation not unlike a folk mass. But the content is wildly different: breaking free from old ways of thinking, wrestling with disappointment, global warming, consumerism and addiction, death and the afterlife. What is a soul? What is a memory? Are they the same thing? Like these two new moms with four children under the age of 2 between them, this album has a lot going on. Listeners will be treated to stripped-down arrangements that focus on vocals and lyricism, reflective of the duo’s maturing sound and choral roots.

“The Sweater Set will pluck at your heartstrings” with “shimmering harmonies,” wrote the Washington Post, adding that The Sweater Set, “weaves through personal narratives as if Curtin and Andary are whispering juicy tidbits in your ear. …their songs are tales of self-governing women.” Brightest Young Things nominated them as “D.C.’s most endearing duo,” claiming their attraction to them in live performance was “instant and inescapable.” DC Music Review called the pair “two of the coolest, hottest, totally in-touch, and effervescently talented multi-instrumentalists.” Winners of more than a handful of Washington Area Music Awards (including one for their album Oh Visitor in 2013), The Sweater Set has been performing for over 12 years, has toured throughout Ireland, the UK, the Northeast and Southern United States, opened for Dar Williams, Aoife O’Donovan, and Michelle Shocked, served as Artists-in-Residence at the Music Center at Strathmore, and the duo is partnered with the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities as Artist Fellows in 2020.

The spirit to share their music and their joy in a live setting is set free in the album’s closing track, “In Search of a Crowd,” where they sing, “Driving dreams on country streets, thank god for the car that my dad gave me, and microphones to make us loud, a singer must go in search of a crowd, in search of a crowd.” The Sweater Set will hit the road in support of Fly on the Wall in 2020, with several dates confirmed and more to be announced soon. (See below schedule for tour dates.)

The album is being released through a projects events and festivals grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, in partnership with Howard University’s Music Therapy program. “We’re so lucky to be in a world-class city with great universities and arts organizations,” says Andary. “The DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities continues to have a big role in nurturing our local scene and connecting artist communities. We’re grateful every day for their support. And hey, government funding, does it get any more DC than that?” Students from Howard attended the mastering session, will sit for a masterclass with The Sweater Set to talk about album production, and a student performer will open their album release concert at the Mansion on O Street in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.

The Sweater Set Tour Schedule:
April 8 – Rockwood Music Hall / New York, NY
April 10 – Monadnock Center / Peterborough NH
April 16 – Mansion on O Street / Washington DC (album release show)
…more shows to be announced soon.

https://www.thesweaterset.com/

For Immediate Release
February 10, 2020

 

Americana singer-songwriter Jess Jocoy to release debut album on April 10th

“Jess Jocoy tells honest stories like very few artists can.” – Southern Fellow

Nashville-based Americana singer-songwriter Jess Jocoy is set to release her debut full-length album, Such a Long Way, on April 10, 2020.  The album was produced by Michael Rinne (Miranda Lambert) and Dylan Alldredge (Mary Gauthier, Joy Williams, Leon Bridges) and recorded at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville.  With a crystalline veracity in her uniquely authentic songs, Jocoy constructs eloquent narratives that drift between the poetic and the conversational, which some have called “Jason Isbell meets Emmylou Harris.”

“The biggest truth in this record is my journey,” Jocoy says of her refined yet rootsy album (which is the follow-up to her 2018 EP, New Heart/Old Soul).  After already releasing one single from the album (“Aching to Feel Alive” on January 17th), two more singles from Such a Long Way are planned in the lead-up to album release:  “Love Her Wild” (out February 14th) and “Somebody Somewhere” (out March 6th).

While Such a Long Way’s songs don’t always tell her story, they certainly show her progress. From the big picture pep talk that is “Existential Crossroads” to the father-son stand-off of “Castles Made of Sand” through the tender reminder of “Hope,” Such a Long Way showcases a thoroughly literate young songwriter finding her voice and staking her claim with equal parts grit, grace, and gravitas. In an Americana music community brimming with talent, Such a Long Way is an impressive effort for someone who only just a couple years ago committed to pursuing music full-time, after a lifetime of dreaming that dream.

At the craggy core of Such a Long Way lives the search to find one’s place in the world, and it readily infuses the earthy stride of “Somebody Somewhere,” the vibey shuffle of “Long Way Home,” and the quiet testament of “Hope (Such A Long Way).” Of the latter, Jocoy says, “The entire piece is based on what I needed to hear — from God, from myself, whomever. This song is about me: If I don’t tell myself I’m a bird, I will never fly. I’ve worn sorrow like a coat, and it’s hard to shake it off.”  Grief, gratitude, living, and learning collide in one of the reoccurring themes of Such a Long Way: mercy. “‘Mercy’ is such a powerful word — small but mighty,” Jocoy offers. “It can dictate a lot, like what kind of person you are. I’ve been shown so much mercy throughout the course of my life. That and grace have brought me to where I am today.”

Having grown up south of Seattle, hitting every karaoke joint and singing competition her parents could drive her to, Jocoy kept her eye ever on the prize: Nashville. Her parents supported her every step of the way, but before Jocoy could fully see her dream of making music become reality, her father passed away from lung cancer in 2013, six months after his diagnosis. Rather than running from it, she instead wove her grief into the threads of her songs, realizing that pain is a universal feeling, and not to be ignored. “That’s when I really started to learn how to write sad songs,” Jocoy explains. “Grief was strange, because I couldn’t allow myself to express that pain to other people or in public, but it was very evident in my writing that I was lost.” She relocated to Nashville and attended Belmont University (where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree) to take a deeper dive into songwriting, and released the New Heart/Old Soul EP, recorded by Daniel Dennis at Prime Cut Studios in East Nashville, TN.

In June of 2018, “Long Live the Song,” her anthemic ode to the abiding essence of great songwriting, won the nationwide Uber Music Movers competition, where she opened for Chase Rice during Nashville’s annual CMA Fest.  In 2019, she was featured on an episode of the hit TV show “Songland,” (the song she performed, “Easy,” appears on the physical copy of her EP New Heart/Old Soul and was released as a single in late 2019).  She was an official showcasing artist at AmericanaFest in 2019 and has been the Sunday Spotlight showcase artist twice onstage at The Bluebird Café in Nashville.

Jocoy plans some album release shows and touring in support of Such a Long Way.  Confirmed dates are listed below, with more dates to be announced soon.

Jess Jocoy Tour Dates:
2/14 – Nashville, TN / The Sutler
2/15 – Lagrange, GA / Pure Life Studios
3/4 – Crossville, TN / Social Brew
3/5 – Brevard, NC – 185 King Street
3/7 – Greensboro, NC / Common Ground
3/20-22 – Baton Rouge, LA / Third Street Songwriter Festival
3/27 – Nashville, TN / SoFar Sounds
3/28 – Cleveland, TN / Mash & Hops
3/31 – Tallahassee, FL / Blue Tavern
4/2 – Atlanta, GA / Red Light Café
4/3 – Atlanta, GA / Gypsy Rose
4/9 – Nashville, TN / High Watt (Album Release Show)
4/10 – Nashville, TN / 3rd & Lindsley (WMOT Finally Friday)
4/11 – Bothell, WA / The Den Coffeehouse
4/12 – Seattle, WA / Tim’s Tavern
4/13 – Seattle, WA/ The Royal Room
4/14 – Portland, OR / Alberta Street Pub
4/28 – Louisville, KY / O’Shea’s Pub Downtown
5/2 – St. Louis, MO / Evangeline’s Bistro and Music House
5/3 – Kansas City, MO / Westport Saloon
5/4 – Fayetteville, AR / Six Twelve Coffeehouse & Bar

…more dates to be announced soon!

https://www.jessjocoy.com/

For Immediate Release

February 3, 2020

 

Americana duo Surrender Hill to release new double-album on April 3rd

Tour planned in support of A Whole Lot of Freedom

North Georgia-based Americana duo Surrender Hill (husband and wife team Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins) is set to release its fourth album, A Whole Lot of Freedom, on April 3, 2020.  An Americana/roots-rock record filled with harmonized vocals, electric guitar, and swooning fiddle, A Whole Lot of Freedom was recorded at the couple’s newly-constructed home studio in northern Georgia, with contributions from drummer Mathew Crouse (who also appeared on the duo’s 2018 album, Tore Down Fences), fiddler Wyatt Espalin, and guest guitarist Jonathan Callicutt.

Of the 36 songs originally written for the record, Salmon and Seekins chose 18, turning A Whole Lot of Freedom into their first double-album. The tracks that made the final cut were, by and large, both melodic and mellow, influenced heavily by the arrival of their first child, Wren. The result is an album that’s both personal and universal, stocked with character-driven songs and first-person accounts.

“The songs were inspired by experiences we had on the road, stories from our youth growing up, stories told by family, and — of course — the feelings and experiences that come up when you have a child and you watch him grow and you reevaluate what’s important,” says Salmon, who splits the album’s vocal and songwriting duties with Seekins. “Wren’s arrival played a huge role in the songwriting, and there is a thread of some version of freedom in all the songs on this album.”

“Got a little country in my soul [and] a little bit rock & roll,” they sing on the title track, “A Whole Lot of Freedom,” their voices wrapped around one another in loving harmony. This song shines new light on Surrender Hill, whose name was taken from the landmark in South Africa where the Anglo-Boer War came to a close. Like the song itself — and, indeed, the band’s namesake, too — A Whole Lot of Freedom doubles down on themes of freedom and togetherness, written and performed by a duo of songwriters who’ve fought their own battles and suffered their own scars, only to surrender to, and find peace with, each other. This is a songwriter’s album that appeals to casual onlookers and vets of the trade, from “The Ballad of Rebel Wingfield” — a gorgeous, nostalgic ballad about a drug dealer who lives and dies by his own set of rules, to the sparse and sentimental “Beautiful Wren,” which pays tribute to the couple’s son.

Like the three records that came before it – 2015’s self-titled debut,  2017’s Right Here Right Now, and 2018’s Tore Down Fences – A Whole Lot of Freedom proves that Surrender Hill’s road-dog status — the result of a busy touring schedule that often finds the band playing more than 200 international shows a year — doesn’t come at the expense of the duo’s sharp, articulate writing. In addition to receiving critical acclaim and airplay worldwide, their past albums have climbed the Americana and roots charts, reaching as high as #3 on the Indie World Country/Americana Chart and #6 on the Roots Music Report.

Press praised their past releases; Strutter Magazine declared that their music incorporated “elements of Americana, Folk, Country and Singer/songwriter, sounding like a perfect cross between Bruce Springsteen, Rodney Crowell and Dolly Parton, both vocally and musically speaking.” Knoxville News Sentinel admired their “effectively homey vibe,” calling it “a welcoming environment built on a comfortable blend of country, rock and soul.” Off-Center Reviews appreciated that “Salmon’s voice has just the right amount of spit for country/folk music and Seekins adorns hers with small touches of nasal twang.” And Rootstime wrote of their music, “The two songwriters present beautiful country music, heart-warming, sometimes also bittersweet, but always building soft, melancholic melodies that are easy to listen to.”

Prior to forming Surrender Hill, songwriters Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins chased their own muses as solo artists.  Salmon was an award-nominated punk rock frontman who’d grown up in South Africa and Texas listening to a cross-cultural mix of Bob Wills, the Sex Pistols, Marty Robbins and the Clash. He launched the band See No Evil soon after high school, and later moved the group to New York City, landing a major-label deal with Sony Music in the process. A decade later, though, Salmon found himself drawn to the rootsy sounds he’d heard as a child on the ranch, and he relaunched a career as an alt-country songwriter, eventually crossing paths with Seekins while playing shows in Sedona, Arizona. Meanwhile, Seekins grew up splitting her time between an Alaskan fishing village and an Arizona frontier town. Throughout it all, she honed her talent for dancing, eventually moving to New York City during her 20s and finding success as a choreographer. Unable to resist the need to pursue songwriting, she later headed back to Arizona, where she turned the contents of her personal journal into the lyrics of her very first songs.

Surrender Hill, who is featured in an episode of the documentary series currently airing on Amazon Prime entitled “Undiscovered,” plans a busy touring schedule in support of A Whole Lot of Freedom. Confirmed dates are listed below with more to be announced soon.

Surrender Hill Tour Schedule:
4/2 – Woodstock, GA /Madlife Stage & Studios (album release show)
4/4 – Jasper, GA / Fainting Goat
4/5 – Talking Rock, GA / Chateau Meichtry
4/10 – Blairsville, GA / Copperhead Lodge
4/12 – Canton, GA / Big Door Vineyards
4/17 – Ellijay, GA / OTT Farm
4/18 – Blue Ridge, GA / Bear Claw
4/19 – Ball Ground, GA / Feathers Edge
4/22 – Ellijay, GA / Emily’s Live
4/29 – Fredericksburg, TX / Outsider Songwriter Series @ Western Edge
5/1 – Hye, TX / William Chris Vineyards
5/2 – Comfort, TX / Comfort Backyard
5/3 – Boerne, TX / Shotgun Ranch Concert Series
5/9 – Cave Creek, AZ / King House Concert Series
5/16 – Cottonwood, AZ / Old Town Center For The Arts
5/22 – Hye, TX / William Chris Vineyards
5/23 – Comfort, TX / Comfort Backyard
5/24 – Hye, TX / William Chris Vineyards
6/6 – Milton, GA / Matilda’s
6/12 – Young Harris, GA / Crane Creek Vineyards
6/13 – Jasper, GA / Sharp Mountain Vineyards
6/14 – Ellijay, GA / Cartecay Vineyards
6/19 – Ellijay, GA / OTT Farm
6/20 – Talking Rock, GA / Chateau Meichtry
6/21 – Canton, GA / Big Door Vineyards
6/27 – Ball Ground, GA / Feathers Edge

www.surrenderhill.com

For Immediate Release

January 29, 2020

 

Nashville artist George Shingleton to release new single, “Fire or Flame,” on February 21st

A modern journey through classic sounds, evoking The Allman Brothers, Waylon Jennings, and Hank Williams Jr., and full of Appalachian twang

Nashville-based singer-songwriter George Shingleton is set to release a new single, “Fire or Flame,” on February 21, 2020 via Rock Ridge Music.  Produced by Dave Pahanish (who co-wrote #1 songs recorded by Jimmy Wayne, Toby Keith, and Keith Urban), “Fire or Flame” is a slow-burner rife with twang and grit that questions whether a relationship is a fling or one for the long haul.  Co-written by Shingleton and Pahanish, the song is a modern journey through classic country and Americana sounds, and it also features Shane Sanders on lead and rhythm guitar, “Cowboy” Eddie Long on steel guitar (Hank Williams Jr., Jamey Johnson), Rachel Loy on bass (Hank Williams Jr., Taylor Swift), Jefferson Crow on piano and organ (Gary Allan, Sturgill Simpson, Jamey Johnson), and Shawn Fichter on drums (Tim McGraw, Peter Frampton).  “Fire or Flame” is the first single from Shingleton’s forthcoming album, which is due out later in 2020.

“I think a lot of people have been in a relationship at least once, where they weren’t sure of the other person’s feelings,” says Shingleton.  “That’s where the idea stemmed from for this song; the anxiety of hanging on the line for someone who you love can be nerve-wracking. A fire is long-standing, but a flame burns or can be put out easily.”

A son of rural West Virginia, Shingleton was raised on traditional gospel music in small country churches. Music was in his paternal line, with many family members playing an amalgam of bluegrass and Appalachian “hill country” music. Choir directors encouraged him from a young age to find his voice and let it fill the space between altars and spires, people and pews. That voice, it turns out, would also fill the hollers of the mountains.  He spent more time outside than in, providing the soundtrack to crackling campfires and electrified stages, each performance pushing him closer and closer to realizing his sound.

As a teen, he fell in love with the sounds of Hank Williams Jr., Ronnie Van Zant, Gregg Allman, Waylon Jennings, and Merle Haggard, and his music was eventually informed by all of them, toeing the blurry lines between Americana, country, blues, Southern rock, and gospel.  Shingleton’s music has also been inspired by his wife, with many of his songs influenced by her presence in his life; she was the one who saw the potential in his playing and performing and encouraged him to go for it. “She saw the happiness and the light in me when I played,” Shingleton explains, “and that helped me see the light in myself.”

The integrity of his stories and sound has earned him the respect of other artists, including Darryl Worley, John Michael Montgomery, Bucky Covington, Montgomery Gentry, Charlie Daniels, Bo Bice, and Keith Anderson, all of whom have invited him to share their stage.  Shingleton plans some touring, with tour dates to be announced soon.

https://www.georgeshingleton.com/

For Immediate Release
December 6, 2019

 

12-year-old singer/songwriter/guitar player phenom Jack Barksdale releases music video and introspective song about mental health

Single out today for “Man in the Shadows”

During a recent discussion about songwriting, a fellow musician challenged Jack Barksdale, with the goal being that both songwriters pen a new song and perform it at an upcoming show they had together.  Barksdale accepted the challenge, and just two short weeks later, Jack Barksdale debuted his new song, “Man in the Shadows,” at the Bugle Boy in La Grange, Texas.  The single is released today, and the video, which was premiered today by the Dallas Observer, is also viewable now at the link below.

“Man In the Shadows explores the internal conflicts we all have within ourselves,” says Barksdale. “Some of these are more serious than others. I wanted to record this song and film the music video because internal struggle is something we all deal with – our own version of a ‘Man in the Shadows.’ If you’re going through something, no matter how big or small, you should never be ashamed to talk to someone.”

You can view the official music video here: https://youtu.be/4cv3s0afH3Y
Buy/Save:  http://smarturl.it/manintheshadows

“Man in the Shadows” was recorded at The Sound Wall in Opelika, Alabama, and mixed by Taylor Tatsch at AudioStyles in Dripping Springs, Texas. The song was mastered by Todd Pipes. Filmed at the Haltom Theatre in Haltom City, Texas, the music video was shot and edited by Turtle Moon Films.

The release of the new single caps a busy year for Barksdale. In June, he put out his first album, Jack Barksdale – Live From Niles City, recorded at famed Fort Worth, Texas recording studio Niles City Sound. In September, he played the Bristol Rhythm & Roots Festival. The three-day festival featured some of Americana’s most popular artists, including Patty Griffin, Marty Stuart, and Jim Lauderdale.

ABOUT JACK BARKSDALE:
Jack Barksdale has been called “special” and “impressive” (NPR), a “musical phenomenon” (Buddy Magazine), a “Texas force” (Paper City Magazine), “a singer-songwriter well beyond his years” (Baton Rouge Advocate), an “old soul” (Fort Worth Weekly), and “amazing to watch” (DFW.com). Texas Homegrown Radio said, “He might just be Townes Van Zandt reincarnated.”  Premier Guitar lauded him, writing, “Barksdale’s talent is rare. He shines with earnest, unjaded passion on a foundation of will and an ability to connect.”

Barksdale is a 12-year-old singer/songwriter from Texas. Inspired by folk, rock, and blues legends, he started performing original music at the age of 9 and has already shared the stage with Ray Wylie Hubbard, Bruce Robison, and Hayes Carll. In June 2019, Barksdale released a live album recorded at famed Niles City Sound in Fort Worth, Texas. Last September, he released his debut EP, Revival.

Barksdale tours nationally and wows audiences with lyrics wise beyond his years. He plays guitar, slide guitar, harmonica, mandolin, piano, and ukulele, but identifies first and foremost as a songwriter.

For more information on Barksdale’s music, visit his official website at JackBarksdale.com.

For Immediate Release
November 19, 2019

 

Salim Nourallah announces new EP, Jesus of Sad, set for release on January 31st

Celebrated Texas singer/songwriter/producer to support Rhett Miller on US tour in February

When asked to sum up his 25-year career in music, singer/songwriter/producer Salim Nourallah says, “I feel like the Texas version of Nick Lowe, except I haven’t entered my silver-haired crooner phase yet.” When he was a kid, Nourallah looked up to Lowe, mainly because he was the best example teenage Salim could find of a musician who led a double life of sorts, making his own records while also producing other artists. It’s still a relatively uncommon phenomenon.

Salim Nourallah has been releasing solo albums since 2003. His seventh, the 21-song, double album, Somewhere South of Sane, was released in the fall of 2018. His notable production credits include the Old 97’s, Deathray Davies, Rhett Miller, and The Damnwells. Nourallah has been recording and producing music from his Pleasantry Lane Studios in Dallas for as many years as he’s been making his own. He’s also in a supergroup trio called NHD – Nourallah, Harvey, Dezen. The H in NHD, Billy Harvey, is another accomplished songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist cut from the same cloth as Mr. Lowe and Mr. Nourallah. Salim enlisted Billy’s help last year to record the four songs that make up his forthcoming Jesus of Sad EP.

“Our mutual friend, Bob Schneider, who is an Austin-based musician, introduced me to Billy’s music years ago by saying, ‘Billy is better than everyone else.’ I agreed then as I still do now,” says Nourallah. “There’s no one I’d rather make music with.” The four songs Nourallah and Harvey culled for the Jesus of Sad EP are a small slice of a much bigger pie. Almost two dozen songs are currently in the works, in various states of completion.

Nourallah’s long-time friend, Rhett Miller, also figures into the equation. Nourallah and Miller wrote a handful of songs several years ago that ended up on a variety of their records. Two of the most well-known songs are “Jesus Loves You” and “She’s Hates Everyone (Misanthrope).” Both compositions found their way to the latest Old 97’s album, Graveyard Whistling, along with a third tune called “I Don’t Want to Die in This Town.” Nourallah recollects, “We wrote ‘Misanthrope’ in Albuquerque while we were on tour together. We were both worn out from traveling and I was at a real low point. After we knocked the song out that evening, it pretty much turned everything around. For me, there’s always been a very therapeutic quality to writing.”

So why did Nourallah decide to take on his own version of “Misanthrope”? “The lyrics came out of my own personal experiences, so I thought perhaps they related to me a bit more than they did to Rhett,” he says. “I also thought it would be interesting to see if I could take the alt-country element out of it. I’ve always enjoyed standing songs on their heads and taking completely different musical approaches with them.”

The EP’s title, Jesus of Sad, also gives a wry nod to Nick Lowe. Lowe’s debut record from 1978 was called Jesus of Cool, but in the UK only, since Columbia Records was uncomfortable with the title for a US release. “I have a songwriter friend here in Texas, Nicholas Altobelli,” Nourallah recalls. “We were joking with each other one day and I called him the ‘Jesus of sad.’ I thought, ‘Wait, that could make a nifty song title,’ and I scribbled it down.” Nourallah adds, “I think a lot of classic male songwriting goes to the well of egoistic self-pity. So many songs I loved in my youth were directed toward women who somehow offended or betrayed the writer. Lord knows I’ve written many songs from the ‘woe-is-me,’ wounded perspective over the years. So anyway, the Jesus of sad is supposed to be a caricature of the self-absorbed songwriter. The character is an absurd exaggeration, not meant to be taken nearly as earnestly as he takes himself!”

Another song of note is the sprawling, autobiographical “Born with a Broken Heart.” Nourallah wrote it while his mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s. She died within two days of its completion. Nourallah says, “I found myself having an especially hard time dealing with all the anger I was feeling around the time of my mother’s death. I felt like she had been ripped off in so many ways. I know feminism existed in the 1970s, but for women like my mother it might as well have been the tooth fairy. Even though she had a masters degree from the University of Illinois, she spent most of her life in servitude. There was nothing close to equality for many women of that time period. So, at the heart of this song, that’s what I’m trying to get at.” Though anger may have been the basis of Nourallah’s inspiration this is yet another example of a song that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Playful couplets like “why were all the grownups looking so damn old/hamburgers and donuts for doing as you’re told” and “all the bad guys had mustaches/flash tracksuits and Santana!” weave and bob before Nourallah sticks the knife in with “put the bright ones on their knees/let them cook, clean and breed/that’s how it was in the seventies.”  Once again, this is serious music that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Jesus of Sad comes out on Palo Santo Records on January 31, 2020. Nourallah and Miller are also touring the northeastern US together in early February (see confirmed dates below). These shows will not only be the first they’ve played since 2016, they’re also hoping to add to their growing pile of songwriting collaboration.

Salim Nourallah tour dates with Rhett Miller:
Feb 5 – Toronto, ON / Horseshoe Tavern
Feb 6 – Buffalo, NY / The 9th Ward
Feb 8 – South Salem, NY / The Heights
Feb 9 – Washington, DC / Black Cat

http://salimnourallah.com/

For Immediate Release

November 12, 2019

 

Rising Americana/roots rock singer-songwriter

Wyatt Edmondson to release EP on February 21, 2020

 

If I Don’t Try shows the Nashville artist exploring his muse

with a voice wise beyond his years and seeing the

world through song

 

Nashville-based Americana/roots rock singer-songwriter Wyatt Edmondson is set to release his third EP, If I Don’t Try, on February 21, 2020 on all digital platforms, as well as on CD and vinyl.  Recorded at Cathy Jo Studio and Great Hill Studio in Nashville, TN, and produced by Shawn Byrne and Ryan Youmans, the EP takes the listener on a journey of hope and maturity.  From the resilient resonance of the aurally enticing opening title track “If I Don’t Try” to the understated acoustic shimmer of “Amber” to the intimate-partner travelogue of “Lovers Lake,” Edmondson displays an original voice that’s wise beyond his years.

 

Edmondson’s knack for the art of storytelling is in evidence throughout the songs on If I Don’t Try. There is a depth inherent in the aforementioned “Lovers Lake,” which chronicles teenage star-crossed lovers and their secret rendezvous. He leans more toward his own personal experience in the case of “You Said It, I Meant It,” a song that delineates the sorrowful arc of two people falling apart. All of his musical stories are told, and performed, from a deep-seated conviction to do things his own way.  “I don’t have any interest in following the book,” he says. “I believe music should be what you want it to be. There’s a lot of pressure to ‘be commercial.’ But I want to capture my music in a way that makes me feel good, without trying to follow anybody’s rules. I think it’s really important to be authentic to yourself. As long as you put your heart and soul into your music and make it your own, people will see that — and they’ll identify with it, too.”

 

Born in Montgomery, Alabama 25 years ago, Edmondson ultimately moved to Nashville to pursue his music dreams, albeit in the midst of facing one particular obstacle along the way. Despite being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, Edmondson decided not to let his degenerative eye condition slow him down in the least. “I remember so clearly being 15 and finding out I was losing my vision,” he says. “But something in me was like, ‘This is your chance to use what’s been brewing and stirring up inside you to help prove that people can do anything they want to in spite of the cards they’re dealt.’ For me, that was music. It’s really been the thing that gets me up in the morning. It keeps me going, and I’m very thankful for that. I hope it can inspire others as well.”

 

Growing up, Edmondson was raised in an artistic family – his father is a musician – and he found a love for the guitar at a young age.  Early on, he gravitated toward guitar players like Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page (“the first rock god I worshiped!”) and Dave Matthews (“as soon as I heard Dave play, I put down the electric guitar and picked up an acoustic”), but hearing Bob Marley made him fall in love with the idea of songwriting.

 

He released two EPs, Higher Ground and Lovers Lake, and hit the road hard, earning fans through his engaging and dynamic live performances. With over 150 shows under his belt in 2019 alone, Edmondson has also made his bones by appearing three times at the 30A Songwriters Festival (2020 will denote his fourth performance there), twice at River Jam Music Festival, and at the Mississippi Songwriters Festival (to name but a few). In 2020, he plans to continue his tour routing through the Southeast and will also venture to the West Coast, into Texas, and up to the Northeast.  (See confirmed tour schedule below, with more tour dates and album release shows to be announced soon.)

 

Indeed, Edmondson sees the art of playing live as a two-way give-and-take between performer and audience. “The most important thing to do in any performance situation is to make it become a conversation,” he says. “I want people to leave knowing my name — but I also want to leave knowing theirs. Night after night, I get up onstage and try new things, hoping to find out what’s going to light the fire. That’s what drives me. It’s my passion. And that’s what I want to do with my life — I want to get up there and surprise not only the audience, but myself.”

 

Wyatt Edmondson 2020 Tour Schedule:

November 19 – Montgomery, AL / Cloverdale Playhouse

November 22 – Dahlonega, GA / The Crimson Moon

November 23 – Greenville, SC / Smiley’s Acoustic Café

December 10 – Boston, MA / Tavern at the End of the World

December 13 – Eaton, OH / Taffy’s of Eaton

December 14 – Louisville, KY / Gerstle’s

December 15 – Nashville, TN / Hutton Hotel

December 19 – Helena, AL / Goodfella’s Social Club

December 20 – Montgomery, AL / 1048 Jazz & Blues

December 21 – Newnan, GA / The Cellar

January 8 – Lynchburg, VA / The White Hart Café

January 10 – Greensboro, NC / Little Brother Brewing

January 11 – Richmond, VA / On The ROX

January 12 – Madison, VA / Early Mountain Vineyards

January 17-20 – Santa Rosa Beach, FL / 30A Songwriters Festival

January 23 – Florence, AL / Singin’ River Brewing Company

January 24 – Montgomery, AL / The Tipping Point

January 25 – Birmingham, AL / The Red Shamrock Pub

January 26 – Nashville, TN / Hutton Hotel

February 5 – Tupelo, MS / Blue Canoe

February 7 – Tampa, FL / Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino

February 13 – Nashville, TN / Hutton Hotel

February 15 – Madison, VA / Early Mountain Vineyards

February 20 – Nashville, TN / True Music Room at Cambria Hotel

February 21 – Memphis, TN / South Main Sounds

February 27 – Mobile, AL / The People’s Room of Mobile

February 28 – Montgomery, AL / The Tipping Point

March 5 – Asheville, NC / Ambrose West

March 6 – Sylva, NC / Balsam Falls Brewing Co.

March 13 – Wilmington, NC / Flytrap Brewing Company

March 14 – Myrtle Beach, SC / Hard Rock Café

March 19 – Washington, DC / DIVE

March 21 – Madison, VA / Early Mountain Vineyards

… more dates to be announced soon!

 

https://wyattedmondson.com

For Immediate Release
November 11, 2019

 

Lynne Hanson announces new album produced by Jim Bryson

 

Just Words due out February 7, 2020

 

Canadian singer/songwriter Lynne Hanson is set to release her seventh studio album, Just Words, on February 7, 2020. The new album marks something of an artistic departure for Hanson, who purposely tapped producer Jim Bryson (Oh Susanna, Skydiggers) to push and pull her outside of her comfort zone. Contoured and textured, the result is a more powerful sound than on efforts past, more Steve Earle than Gillian Welch, with a vulnerable underbelly.

The first single from the album, “True Blue Moon,” was released in October, and is, according to Hanson, “about the perils of falling for a poet, and just how rare it is to find true love.”  She continues, “I feel one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given as a songwriter is that I have a place I can put my thoughts and emotions — positive or painful. As much as I love a happy, uplifting song, I truly feel that it’s the painful experiences that tend to produce really great art. Pain strips you of all pretense and sense of form, and leaves you with just the raw truth of pure expression in order to free yourself from the burden of carrying it.”

Besides grappling with the intricacies of relationships on the album, Hanson peers into bullying on “Just Words,” acceptance on “Clean Slate,” forgiveness on “Higher Ground,” and fate on “Such a Random Thing.” One of the very personal concepts that Hanson has wrestled with lies at the heart of the album on “Long Way Home.” With eight years of sobriety under her belt, walking home from a pub or a party, alone with her doubts and demons, is a story the Ottawa native knows all too well.

From the jazz and bluegrass of her formative years to the iconic songwriters of her adulthood, music has been Hanson’s way of walking through, and making sense of, the world. She is known for her hard-living style of music, mixing gritty ballads with driving roots-tinged guitar. Her deep, bluesy croon is pure and full of fortitude, and she’s drawn comparisons to Lucinda Williams, with a touch of Mary Gauthier thrown in. Hanson has toured the U.S., Europe, and the UK, showcased in Austin, TX and Memphis, TN, toured in support of Grammy-nominated artist Gretchen Peters and Steve Forbert, and opened for Grammy Award-winning guitar legend Albert Lee. She received a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination in 2009 and won the prestigious Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award in 2010. In 2018, she won two Canadian Folk Music Awards as one half of The LYNNeS.

Hanson is already starting to play songs from the new album on her Canadian tour this month.  She plans to tour the U.S. heavily in 2020; tour dates will be announced soon.

https://lynnehanson.com/

For Immediate Release
November 11, 2019

 

Singer-songwriter Paige Cora to release stunning debut album, Instant in Time, in January

 

Elegant dream-pop offers visceral and vivid glimpse into the performer’s ethereal world

 

Singer-songwriter Paige Cora is set to release her debut album, Instant in Time, on January 24, 2020.  Written and produced by the Ft. Erie, Ontario-based artist herself, engineered and mixed by Jae Daniel, and mastered at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London by Christian Wright (Ed Sheeran, Franz Ferdinand, Blur, Keane), Instant in Time teems with the confidence of a seasoned performer defining her voice and serves as both a bold manifesto and introduction.

The heartbeat at the center of Instant in Time came together by virtue of how Cora and her core bandmates worked together live off the floor over seven days at Black Rock Studio in Buffalo, New York, intermingled with warm cello accents and everything else members of the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame added to her song arrangements. “Honestly, I was lifted by all the people I worked with,” Cora readily agrees. “Overall, there was great communication between everyone in the band, and I love the excitement we generated together. It all just flowed really well.”

It also helped that Cora instantly connected creatively with her engineer and Instant in Time right-hand in-studio man, Jae Daniel. “I think we clicked right away because he saw how organic it all was,” she says. “Jae also saw how the team was coming together around me. He saw me as an artist who knew what she wanted to do — someone who wanted to make a certain kind of record. Jae and I had a vision for these songs, and we had long sessions of him and me in the room together making it come to fruition.”

From the atmospheric vocal buildup and guitar-riffage payoff of “The Good Side of Desire,” to the elegant dream-pop spaciness of “Facing the Grass,” to the synth-driven, natural-habitat rhythms of the album-closing epic “Forest Pine,” all nine tracks that comprise Instant in Time reflect just how deft this burgeoning keyboardist/vocalist is at capturing and chronicling those ever-elusive ethereal song spirits in our material world. “I think everything I do has that kind of eeriness to it,” Cora admits.

“Bicycle Bells” chronicles a tragic event that occurred in a Toronto public park, and its purposely hopeful aftermath. “This beautiful couple from France came to Trinity Bellwoods Park while trying to make a new life for themselves, but they were struck down in their prime,” Cora explains of the freak act of nature involving a tree branch that sadly took the life of the male half of this partnership. “It’s a place I’d been to so many times in my youth. I wanted to write a song for her, and if she could ever hear it, maybe it could possibly help,” Cora continues. “The perspective was to keep it about the beautiful moment before. The spiritual perspective is the trees that are all connected by roots all around the world means he’s always around her — and she always has his roots around her.”

Cora, who grew up surrounded by music and with a musician father, started out in musical theater, performing arts camp, and acting lessons.  In high school, she started a band with some classmates, which went on, eventually, to become the art-rock, avant-pop, Toronto-based band The Ruby Spirit.  As lead singer, she channeled her inner grunge-glam rocker with elaborate stage clothes like something out of “Ziggy Stardust” meets “Cabaret.”  Her time with the band, which lasted from her teens to her mid-20s, was marked by success and press praise in Canada as well as touring both north and south of the border.

Her true lightbulb moment as an artist struck when she first came in contact with Joni Mitchell’s iconic June 1971 statement piece Blue almost a decade ago. “After hearing that album, I went, ‘I want to do this. I don’t want to get into a costume anymore as a performer. I want to be me,’” Cora details. For the past five years, she has explored music as a solo artist. “I didn’t want there to be a separation between me and the message anymore — I wanted to talk about how I was feeling. Artists like Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, and David Bowie acted as these catalysts for me going back to the piano and getting away from everything that had been pulling me in a more bombastic, confrontational direction. They totally changed my songwriting.”  Meditation, an important component to Cora’s life, holds a clear influence on her music. “Finding not just the vocals but the chords that are open and have some sort of beauty or euphoria to them is a big part of how I write now,” she observes. “It all resonates better with the universe that way.”

For several years, Cora has been working as a music composer for film, and she has been frequently commissioned by the iconic Historica Canada to compose cello, violin, and piano scores for historical documentaries distributed across Canada.  She has produced classical musicians in a recording studio, playing her sheet music, calling it “a life-long dream being realized to compose for film.”

Besides being laser-focused on creating and playing her own music, Cora is also extremely passionate about supporting animal welfare and nurturing animal rights. She gladly gives freely of her own time to perform at animal-rights benefits and lends additional assistance to animal sanctuaries whenever and wherever she can. Currently, Cora personally oversees a number of rescue animals who live on her own property, and she also created and backs Imagine P.A.W.S., a not-for-profit that focuses on feral cat spaying, neutering programs, and cat adoption.

Cora has opened up for iconic artists such as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Eric Anderson, Ian Hunter (Mott the Hoople), Carole Pope, Platinum Blonde, and Willie Nile. Cora is planning an album release show in Buffalo, New York on Saturday January 25, 2020 at The Cave. Additional album release shows and tour dates in support of Instant in Time will be announced soon.

https://www.paigecora.com/

For Immediate Release

October 23, 2019

 

Hugh Masterson to release single, “Hollywood,” on November 1st

Song from his forthcoming album features The Lone Bellow

Nashville-based Americana singer-songwriter Hugh Masterson is set to share his latest single, “Hollywood,” on all download and streaming outlets on November 1, 2019 via Rock Ridge Music.  Following the release of “Trouble” over the summer, “Hollywood” is the second single from his forthcoming (as yet untitled) new album, which is set for release in early 2020.  A down ’n’ dirty Americana rocker about the Los Angeles neighborhood, “Hollywood” growls with driving guitars and features The Lone Bellow.  The song (along with the album it comes from) was produced by Justin Glasco (formerly of The Lone Bellow). “Hollywood” will exclusively premiere at Americana Highways on October 31st.

“I was on tour and traveling with The Lone Bellow, and we had a day off in Hollywood,” Masterson says. “It was a rare rainy day. Zach Williams, Brian Elmquist, and I sat under the covered porch and came up with this song together.”

The forthcoming album is the follow-up to Masterson’s 2017 release, Lost + Found, which was his first solo effort and was produced after the move from Milwaukee (he was originally from the tiny town of Butternut, Wisconsin) to Nashville. A record about surviving loss and life changes while gaining self-awareness through experience, Lost + Found was praised heavily by the press.  No Depression called it “a cohesive, self-reflective journey from one end of the spectrum to the other: loneliness and redemption, love and loss, the atrophy of staying put and the freedom of letting go. …one part Midwest Americana to two parts Lower Broadway honky tonk.” The Daily Country declared it “deeply personal …relatable, impactful, and undeniably enjoyable. …a sound that blends Americana and Southern Rock with jangle, grit, and heart.” Wide Open Country said his music was “rife with wordplay and old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll vibes.”

Masterson found a home in the Nashville music scene and has hit the road with artists such as The Lone Bellow, Margo Price, Nikki Lane, Anderson East, Lindi Ortega, and The Bottle Rockets.  Additionally, he’s drawn attention from the Americana Music Association, CMT, KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” Rolling Stone, World Café, and South by Southwest.

www.hughmastersonmusic.com