FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 2, 2018

Country/Americana singer-songwriter Karen Jonas

to release third album on June 1^st

 

“…inspired storytelling that is all at once insightful, honest,

tenacious and vulnerable.” – No Depression

 

Fredericksburg, VA-based country/Americana singer-songwriter Karen Jonas is set to independently release her new album, Butter, on June 1, 2018.  With four kids at home and a touring schedule of 150+ shows per year, Jonas has a full plate. “Whether I’m ?nishing up a gig at midnight or getting pounced on by my kids at 6:30 a.m., I usually feel like my life is a circus,” she says. “So I started writing songs about my circus.” She shines a light on the triumphs and challenges of that busy life with Butter, which will be available for pre-order beginning April 2^nd on Kickstarter (see her website and social media for details).

 

Butter was tracked at Wally Cleaver’s Recording Studio in her hometown of Fredericksburg, and Jonas would head over to the studio after putting her kids to bed. Tim Bray, her guitarist and musical partner for nearly half a decade, joined her for those nighttime recording sessions, as did a number of other musicians who laced Butter’s ten songs with pedal steel, B3 organ, upright piano, layers of guitar, and vintage-sounding, seven-piece horn arrangements.

 

Produced by Jeff Covert, Jonas, and Bray, Butter mixes the textured twang of Jonas’s folk and country roots — a sound she explored fully on her previous album, 2016’s critically acclaimed Country Songs — with the diverse in?uences of ragtime, blues, jazz, and barroom soul. It’s her broadest, boldest album to date, with songs that anchor themselves in Southern storytelling and Jonas’s smooth, unforced croon. Butter is a retro-minded album for the modern age — the sound of a songwriter celebrating her circumstances.

 

“My ?rst two albums featured a lot of heartbroken songs,” she explains. “That didn’t feel authentic for this album. Butter is about my story now, as a working musician and mother — about the challenges of each role and, especially, the challenge of balancing the two. It’s about baking my cake and eating it, too.”

 

As the album came together, each song took on a life of its own. The title track is a late-night, big-band jazz number, while “My Sweet Arsonist” is a woozy, slow-burning love ballad. “Gospel of the Road” and “Yellow Brick Road” both nod to Tom Petty’s in?uence, thanks to ringing guitars and heartland rock & roll melodies. “Dance With Me” slows down its tempo to a swinging waltz, while the Beatles-esque “Mr. Wonka” speeds it back up to a surreal circus’s pace. Together, Butter’s songs explore one woman’s story to the tune of a full range of American roots music.

For Jonas — a full-time musician and full-time mother — the album is a personal anthem. “Butter is about mom doing what she wants to do,” she clari?es. “Sometimes she wants to cook a damn good meal, and sometimes she wants to travel with a kickass country band. Sometimes she wants to do both at the same time, and can’t. But there are a lot of successful, empowered mothers making time to pursue their passions right now, and it’s changing the world.”

 

Jonas’s intensely personal songwriting first grabbed national attention with the release of her critically acclaimed 2014 debut album Oklahoma Lottery, which was followed by the aforementioned Country Songs in 2016.  In 2017, Jonas was nominated for an Ameripolitan Award in the Honky Tonk Female Category, and the same year, she was given the Readers’ Choice Award for Best Local Band/Vocalist by the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Her music has been lauded around the world.

 

American Roots UK said of her sophomore album, “Country Songs is a stunning album of great beauty and dynamism that tugs the emotions to just about every point of the compass.” Saving Country Music echoed that sentiment, writing, “Country Songs comes spilling out of her songwriting pen just as fervent and hungry as her first effort, yet with more refined and deliberate results due to the wisdom won through the experience of her debut.”  No Depression also heaped similar praise on her second album, writing, “Country Songs wraps fiddle, steel, organ and guitar around inspired storytelling that is all at once insightful, honest, tenacious and vulnerable. Completely avoiding any sophomore slump, Jonas’ Country Songs captures something timeless and special…”

 

Five years of non-stop touring with her guitarist Bray has produced a smoldering live act that’s left audiences breathless across the country.  As they always do, Jonas and Bray plan to tour heavily in support of Butter; already they’ve confirmed four album release shows (see schedule below) with more dates to be announced soon.

 

Karen Jonas Tour Dates:

6/1/2018 – Fredericksburg, VA / The Kenmore Inn

6/9/2018 – Winchester, VA / Bright Box Theater

7/6/2018 – New York, NY / Rockwood Music Hall

7/14/2018 – Frederick, MD / The Blue Side

 

www.karenjonasmusic.com

www.facebook.com/karenjonasmusic

https://twitter.com/KarenJonasMusic

www.instagram.com/karenjonasmusic/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2018

 

Ike Reilly to release new album, Crooked Love, on May 18th

 
“Ike Reilly is a kind of natural resource, mined from the bedrock of music. All the values that make rock important to people—storytelling, melody, rage, laughter—are part and parcel of every Ike Reilly show I have ever seen. One of the best touring acts in the country, Reilly’s band takes it as a personal challenge to upend and amaze every room they play in.” – David Carr, New York Times

 

Libertyville, IL indie-rock singer-songwriter Ike Reilly is set to release his seventh studio album, Crooked Love, on CD and digital formats on May 18, 2018 via Rock Ridge Music. (A vinyl version will be released later this year.) Since his major label debut, the groundbreaking Salesmen and Racists, Reilly has been making punk/folk/blues influenced rock ’n’ roll records that lean heavily on stories of outsiders with keen details and broad strokes that insinuate a crack in the American dream. Reilly’s band, The Assassination, has been called one of the best live bands in America, and the body of recorded work they’ve turned out has been poetic, rebellious, wholly original, and critically acclaimed.

Still, Reilly and co-producer Phil Karnats (Secret Machines, Tripping Daisy, Polyphonic Spree) felt that Reilly’s best takes had never been recorded. The lucidity and rhythm of Reilly’s performances that Karnats had witnessed in hotel rooms, backstage, and on tour buses had never been captured. “I wanted to create a setting where Ike could sing and play guitar at the same time, with the band in the same room… no headphones and minimal isolation,” says Karnats. “There’s always been a freshness to playing the songs together that’s hard to harness when recording in the more common, modern, sense where you do rhythm tracks first, then overdubs and vocals last. This time, Ike did his thing and we developed the arrangements based on his vocal approach, cadence, phrasing, intensity and all that. I think, in the end, we ended up with some killer songs that have a strangely unique, slightly off-center, vibe.”

Joining Reilly (vocals, guitar, harp) and Karnats (guitar) in the studio were Peter Cimbalo (bass, percussion), Dave Cottini (drums, percussion, vocals), and Adam Krier (guitar, keyboards, vocals). From the apocalyptic playfulness of “Missile Site,” to the weary let’s-get-it-on abandon of “Don’t Turn Your Back on Friday Night,” to the escapist urgency of “Boltcutter Again,” to the gnarly, percolating groove drip of “Clean Blood Blues,” Crooked Love shows how Reilly has landed himself squarely in the raw, emotional zeitgeist of the times. “Chasing that timeless feel in a time like 2018 can be a tall order but we did it,” Reilly admits. “Nobody sounds like this… musically or sonically. It’s f*cking authentic. I never made a record before that sounds like this.”

Indeed, this collection of succinct, tight-but-loose songs reflects the continuing evolution of Reilly’s ever-visceral wordsmithing, as married with a Murderer’s Row of backing tracks forged out of the intuitive interplay of his longstanding Assassination bandmates, not to mention the input of a few special guests, too, including guitarist Tommy O’Donnell, pianist Ed Tinley, and saxophonists Mars Williams and Bill Overton, as well as family legacies Mickey Reilly on vocals and Peter John Cimbalo on drums.

One Crooked Love song that Reilly feels is the lynchpin to the record is “Been Let Down,” which moves from shuffle to backstab in the blip of a heartbeat. The album’s opener, “Livin’ in the Wrong Time,” also evokes a certain kind of “real feel,” with a cool, steely tone and a psychotically festive sonic twist during its ear-grabbing solo section. Crooked Love shares the timeless quality that records that stand the test of time are able to evoke. “I’ve always been trying to get that timeless sense all along, but I think this record actually does do that,” Reilly concedes. “I know I’ve fallen into the modern trap a couple of times in my recordings and with some of my lyrics maybe being a little too in the moment at times, but I hope I’ve been able to achieve something else with the direction and attitude of this one.”

Walking that fine line between being topical and universal is another goal Reilly wanted to attain with this album. “I’m not sure if all the songs reflect what’s going on right now,” Reilly says. “The songs were written under the shadow of all of that, but most people still just need and want love, affection, sex, and the simple pleasures of human contact. I have optimism for society and for its survival, though I am pretty fatalistic in the sense of, ‘This is what it is. It’s right here, it’s right now, and this is it.’ That can either drive you crazy or motivate you to squeeze every last drop out of it, you know?”

Press praise for Reilly’s music has been extensive over the years. Chicago Magazine praised Reilly’s “outlandish storytelling, underdog combativeness, and slapstick humor,” Cincinnati City Beat lauded the “scuffed and noir-ish tales of modern life. …fusing dirty R&B grooves into his swaggering Pop/Roots sound… Ike Reilly’s most amazing accomplishment… is that every new album is his best ever and yet the new one in no way ever diminishes the greatness of his existing catalog.” Stereo Subversion called Reilly a “genre-bending journeyman” and a “rough-around-the-edges Americana troubadour.”  And The Big Takeover appreciated Reilly’s “wordy but focused storytelling in his lyrics, his rock & roll sneer and his rough-edged folk rock sound.”

Minneapolis City Pages said, “Equal parts punk rocker, poet, and blue-collar barfly, Reilly’s stories are as bizarre and filthy and honest and pure as the people who come out to his shows. His songs reach out and grab people, shake them by the collars, make them jump up and down.” Chicago Tribune admired that Ike “merges his affinity for folk-punk narrative and anthemic guitar chords with hip-hop’s vocal cadences and rhythmic drive.” Philadelphia Inquirer enjoyed his “street-poet swagger, audacious humor, and industrial-strength hooks.” PopMatters.com called him “the best songwriter in America… Hilarious, unsettling, raw… but mostly just rocking.” USA Today hailed Reilly as “never less than original… ferociously intelligent… always worth listening to.” And Los Angeles Times described Reilly’s music as “…barroom rock narrated by a wiseguy who’s as comfortable regaling PhDs and poets as he is pimps and porn stars.”

Reilly plans to tour in support of Crooked Love and has already been testing the songs live with band shows in March in the Midwest. A solo show in New York City at Rockwood Music Hall on March 31st is also on the itinerary, and an album preview show in his hometown of Libertyville, IL is scheduled to take place on April 14th at Diamond City Studio (tickets: https://crookedlove.brownpapertickets.com/). Also planned are residencies in May at the Ice House in Minneapolis and the Old Town School of Folk in Chicago.  Details about the residencies and additional tour dates will be announced soon.

Ike Reilly online:
Website
Facebook
Twitter

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2018

 

Ellen Starski to release solo debut album in May

 

The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants is rooted in lush indie-folk, orchestral Americana, and organic pop

 

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Ellen Starski is set to release her solo debut album, The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants, on May 11, 2018.  On the collection, which was written over the course of 12 years, Starski explores  both her homeland and herself, traveling from the coal country of rural Pennsylvania to the roots-music hotbed of Nashville, Tennessee, and creating a soundtrack to that period of self-discovery. The album is autobiographical and rooted in a lush mix of indie-folk, orchestral Americana, and organic pop.

A record that’s as dynamic and driven as its creator, The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants was recorded in East Nashville and produced by Anne McCue. The album also features a handful of the town’s top players: drummer Paul Griffith (Jason Isbell, k.d. lang), bassist Jimmy Sullivan (Lee Ann Womack), pianist Carl Byron (Michelle Shocked, Jim Lauderdale), and drummer Bryan Owings (Emmylou Harris, Tony Joe White).

Sonically influenced by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan’s Desire, and the Alison Krauss/Robert Plant collaboration Raising Sand, The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants offers up a combination of sweeping string arrangements, stripped-down piano ballads, finger-plucked folk songs, and everything in between, all held together by a voice that’s both emotional and elastic, singing about the triumphs, missteps, and stories she’s picked up along the way. “The record is about growth,” Starski explains. “It’s about all these things that have happened to me, which have helped me blossom as a human being.”

There are songs about loss, heartbreak, and family, all of them filled with details from Starksi’s own life. “Miss You Mary” pays tribute to her mother, who helped steer her daughter out of a dark hole as a teenager. Laced with acoustic guitars and cinematic strings arranged by McCue, “Ode to Nanny and Cookie” opens the album with a salute to Starksi’s two grandmothers. Meanwhile, her own daughter inspired the lovely, lilting “Daughter of the Sea,” while the country-inspired “Honey I’m Not Him” was written during a nighttime drive around along the Nashville backroads, with her infant sleeping in the backseat. Personal anecdotes are woven throughout, but The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants ultimately delivers a universal message: that you cannot come to grips with yourself until you come to grips with the beautiful wreckage of your past.

“I’ve been singing in front of people since I was a child,” says Starski. “I’ve been writing songs for years, too, but I’d always hide them when I was singing with blues bands and funk groups. They didn’t fit. Things changed once I had my daughter. It opened up a whole new world to me, and I knew I was strong enough to express how I feel.”

Starski was born in Reynoldsville, a town in the woodlands of Western Pennsylvania, amidst the beauty of rural Appalachia. “Growing up, music was all around me – everybody in my family sang. My grandmother sang in musical theater and the violinists and banjo players of my family go back generations.” She was raised on a wide spread of music — the Lilith Fair-era earnestness of Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan; the heartland rock of Tom Petty; the moody, nocturnal music of Portishead; the articulate, lyric-based writing of Aimee Mann.  She began playing guitar at 19 years old, before cutting her teeth as the singer of a bluesy bar band. Once she settled in Knoxville, she kicked off her solo career with pub gigs and open mic performances, before she settled in her now-hometown of Nashville.

Starski plans to celebrate the release of The Days When Peonies Prayed for the Ants with a show in Nashville; details will be announced soon.

Ellen Starski online:
Website:  www.ellenstarski.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/ellenstarski
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/starskiellen
Instagram:  www.instagram.com/ellenstarski

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2018

Sammy Strittmatter to release new album, Get Out of the City, on May 18th

 

Full of walls of harmonizing vocals and swirling guitars, the album complements and contradicts, hopes then regrets, and reaches out with abandonment before pulling back in fear

Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Sammy Strittmatter is set to release his ambitious fourth full-length album, Get Out of the City, on Palo Santo Records on May 18, 2018. Strittmatter, who has recorded and produced all of his records, got help on this outing from producer/label co-founder Salim Nourallah (Old 97’s, Nicholas Altobelli, The Damnwells, Rhett Miller).

There is a cinematic majesty to Strittmatter’s thoughtfully constructed soundscapes that never makes the listener feel they are being rushed through a song. They lift, swell and heave like a hazy tide rolling in. “All I Hear Is Go,” the first single from and opening track on Get Out of the City, sets the tone. On first pass, it is a fuzz-driven straightforward rock song in the vein of Fleet Foxes with a wall of harmonizing vocals and swirling guitars, but on closer examination of the lyrics, the conflict between the sorrows of leaving and the enchantment of the unknown—which is the heart of Get Out of the City—is revealed. This is an album for those who find themselves somewhere between longing and resolve. “A lot of these stories are love songs,” Strittmatter says. “Love songs about things ending and moving on.”

The undercurrent of Get Out of the City—staying and going, pushing and pulling—mirrors Strittmatter’s life journey between his hometown of Arlington, Texas—where he released his previous albums, Last Night in Oceanside (2008), Moon Orange Lips (2010), and Here but Gone (2012)—and Los Angeles, where he now resides. The eponymous track, “Get Out of the City,” follows a conversation one might have at the end of a relationship, after the fighting is over and acceptance begins: “I was already thinking that it might be that time/You were already thinking that I would turn your way.” Cavernous voices sing out over a Brian Wilson-inspired arrangement of acoustic guitars, mellotron strings, and glockenspiel. The ambient noises of a departing flight open “Casting Yellow” before dissolving into a passage of strings, dangling the listener mid-flight, before returning to the pensive, “We were memory hunting for sources/Some were cold she asked, ‘Was it bad?’/I said it was tremendous.”

Each song on Get Out of The City complements and contradicts, hopes then regrets, reaches out with abandonment before pulling back in fear. Strittmatter employs a simple yet effective philosophy, one he learned growing up listening to artists like Townes Van Zandt and Nick Drake: “Serve the song.” “They just sing,” Strittmatter says. “I’ve always looked up to artists who are genuine about it.” Two instrumental pieces on the album, “Matches” and “Zuma,” act as tasteful, minimalistic cinematic interludes, adding breathing space between the other songs while also creating shape and depth to the overall narrative of the album. “I would love to release a fully instrumental album,” Strittmatter explained, whose interest in instrumental music runs deeper than these album interludes. “That’s one of the reasons why I moved out here is to get into composing.”

Strittmatter began writing songs on guitar at the age of 10 and by the time he was 12, he formed his first band which stayed together for 12 years and saw Strittmatter also learning piano in the process. In 2006, Strittmatter was thrust into self-producing after his band broke-up. “It was a challenge and really opened my eyes to the fact that I could do this,” he says. “I’d always admired Elliott Smith, Paul McCartney, and Phil Collins. These are all people who played multiple instruments on their albums.”

When asked about the difference between being in a band and a solo act, Strittmatter says, “If something is not getting accomplished you only have yourself to blame. I have these moments of solitude and celebration. Happiness is to be shared but some of my happiest moments have been alone in the studio. It’s like puzzle pieces, putting together words and the songs. It’s awesome.” 

Strittmatter plans to tour in support of Get Out of the City, with a show already scheduled before the album release date in California at The Federal in North Hollywood on March 22nd.  More dates will be announced soon.

Sammy Strittmatter online:
Bandcamp
Facebook

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2018

 

Angela Josephine to release new indie-folk album on May 4th

 

Album is both a folk-rock opera and personal exploration

“With these songs, I wrestle the duality of my inner angels of darkness and light. I am tempted to solve the mystery by striving to get from one to the other; sorrow to joy, grief to healing, even death to life. It is at the crossroads of our light and darkness that we come alive and discover soul. I am rediscovering my soul.”
– Angela Josephine

 

Daylight, the long-awaited, full-length album from indie-folk artist Angela Josephine, is scheduled for release on May 4, 2018. This project is at once a folk-rock opera and personal exploration; the listener is drawn into the narrative of a woman caught in the dark night and her revelatory journey toward soul.

Recorded in Detroit and Ann Arbor, MI with producer Chris Bathgate, Daylight expands the sonic palette of Josephine’s work as well as showcasing her on a variety of instruments (guitar, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, piano, Wurlitzer, organ, synth). From the cinematic prelude that is “This Light” (also the first single) to the haunting finale “Face to the Wind,” an expansive landscape of wilderness unfolds with unexpected beauty and lush discovery. Seven years ago, Josephine first began the demos for this album after a season of care-giving and subsequent loss. She gravitated to her origins – the rugged landscape of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and her childhood hometown of Munising. She loaded her SUV and followed the pull north.

“There has been a kind of poetry in this journey,” Josephine says. “I recorded the line in a demo, ‘Seven years ago I saw the moon drop to the earth and in the darkness I saw pieces of the sky,’ in my mom’s pole barn literally seven years ago. Here I am today, and this lyric is underscored by the recent passing of my mother and the realization of a full-length album. Working again with Chris Bathgate (producer) allowed me to plumb the depths of my creativity and explore soundscapes that I’ve been drawn to.”

“This Light” sets the stage for the narrative that plays throughout the album—self-exploration. “Every song furthers the arc of the woman in the story,” Josephine explains. Digging at the gritty soil with “Got to Believe” reveals a more inclusive world and will have one brushing off the vestiges of tired beliefs. Bathgate contributes vocals for the sultry, powerhouse of a song called “Go Easy,” which leaves one wondering if it is a break-up song or a song about identity.

“Daylight” is the most Americana folk song of the album. “We had the best time recording this!” she recalls. “We grabbed all these quirky instruments and just started to make noise. I stumbled upon the sweet little melody with bells that you’ll hear in the chorus, and I will give a free album to the first person who can correctly identify what Chris is doing for the percussion throughout the song.”

The instrumental “40 Days” takes the listener to a place of exile, and the accompanying music video has Josephine on a windswept cliff in Northern Ireland while she plays hammered dulcimer against the backdrop of the North Channel. One gets the feeling that this is the turning point in the narrative, where struggle becomes empowerment, where Celtic folk becomes badass folk-rock. “River Rising” is a haunting retelling of the story of Rahab filled with round beefy bass notes, fiddle, and cyclic mandolin and drums. The album closes with “Face to the Wind,” a reprise of “Stone Bright Solid,” the title song from Josephine’s 2012 EP that is a precursor to and companion to this album. “I wanted a raw and vulnerable moment that highlights the message of the album—that in our brokenness we ultimately find life,” she says. The cathartic joy found throughout the album is a validation that the darkness may, in fact, be daylight in disguise.

Over the course of her music releases, Josephine’s words have always had a way of peeling back the superficial, stripping us down to raw experience. Tony Cummings of Cross Rhythms Magazine UK says, “Angela Josephine shows herself to be a poetic songwriter able to pen songs that get under the shield of the post-modern muse with power and poignancy.” She has been compared to “a modern, female Nick Drake” (David Faulkner, CRD), while Northern Express reviewer Kristi Kates cited “a more jaded Sarah McLachlan.”

Josephine has released three titles prior to Daylight: the self-produced debut album, A Restful Sense of Urgency (2002); the unapologetically spiritual Grace Exhaled (2005), a finalist in the 2006 Detroit Music Awards; and the lyrically rich, sparse-yet-lush Stone Bright Solid – Volume 1 (2012), which was packaged in a tin box with magnetic photos and magnetic words from song lyrics. In 2007, Josephine was an Artist Ovation Contest Winner for Unity Festival in Muskegon, MI, and her song “Spirit of Motherhood” received an honorable mention in the Great Lakes Songwriting Competition. In 2011, she again was a finalist for the Detroit Music Awards in the category of Best Instrumentalist for hammered dulcimer. She has participated in ArtPrize, performing with artists who interpret music with paint, and Josephine is also a juried painter herself, as well as a published poet.

Daylight will be available for pre-order in the first half of March (details will be found soon on Josephine’s website and social media) along with one immediate instant-gratification track, the first single “This Light.” A second instant-gratification track will be available in April (“River Rising”).

Angela Josephine online:
Website:  www.angelajosephine.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/angelajosephinemusic
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/angelajosephine
Instagram:  www.instagram.com/angelajosephine/
YouTube:  www.youtube.com/user/AngelaJosephine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 21, 2018

Folk noir duo Society of Broken Souls to release new album, Midnight and the Pale, on April 13th

 

“a songwriting powerhouse” – Ben Kieffer, Iowa Public Radio

 

Society of Broken Souls, the folk noir songwriting duo of multi-instrumentalists Dennis James and Lauryn Shapter, is set to release its second album, Midnight and the Pale, on April 13, 2018.  Midnight and The Pale, the follow-up to 2016’s Things Still Left Unsaid, is the pair’s second album under the moniker Society of Broken Souls and their ?fth collaboration. The new album once again sees James and Shapter writing, arranging, producing, and engineering the 10-song collection, as well as performing all the parts. Starting a music career considerably later in life than most emerging artists, the duo is embracing the maturity and experience that comes from years passed, life lived, and challenges faced. Their latest album is a study in the interplay of light and dark, and the beauty that results when they are allowed to walk comfortably side by side.

“There is a growing propensity in our culture to show ever more curated versions of ourselves, where everything is Photoshop perfect and everyone is living the dream,” Shapter explains. “But that’s just not real life, and it only seems to leave people feeling more isolated. We got tired of the lack of authenticity we saw around us and decided to shine some light on the broken bits, but still have fun while we were doing it.”

With not just a few scars and more years behind them than ahead, Shapter and James know a thing or two about broken souls. While their music is deeply rooted in the time-honored tradition of storytelling, their songs move seamlessly from the darkly ?ctitious to the profoundly personal — meaning they come by their name honestly. They each have stared down their own personal demons in order to serve the art form that has never let go of its hold on them. Though they tried their hand at the straight life, it never took. “Music is the only thing that makes any sense,” says James. “Nothing else matters.” In their return to music, they are discovering true artistic freedom and rekindled joy in pursuit of their craft.

In spite of the conventional wisdom that says to let go of childish dreams and leave the rock and roll lifestyle to the young, James and Shapter are reinventing their lives with vigor. As part of that renewed commitment, the duo purchased a 22-year-old RV and retro?tted it to hold the myriad instruments they bring on stage. They hit the road in 2017, covering over 22,000 miles and performing nearly 100 shows in 18 states. An even heavier coast-to-coast touring schedule is planned for 2018, beginning in March. Confirmed dates are listed below, with more to be added.

Called “a songwriting powerhouse” (Ben Kieffer, Iowa Public Radio), the duo performs their own brand of American roots music. While they have their roots as an acoustic duo, their live show has blossomed into an expansive setting for weathered characters, tough topics, and quiet beauty. Fiddle, drums, keyboard, and acoustic and electric guitars, in intricately woven and varied arrangements, create a wide, dynamic palette. As they take turns singing lead and harmony, the pair paints a vast emotional landscape, ranging from the rebellious and jubilant to the introspective and heartfelt.

Society of Broken Souls Tour Schedule:
March 1 – Omaha, NE / Harney Street Tavern
March 2 – Norfolk, NE / Black Cow Fat Pig
March 3 – Ankeny, IA / Firetrucker Brewery
March 15 – Des Moines, IA / Confluence Brewing Company
April 5 – Marion, IA / Ramsey’s Wine Bistro
April 7 – Manchester, IA / Franklin Street Brewing
April 13 – Fairfield, IA / Café Paradiso
April 14 – Des Moines, IA / Gaslamp
April 20 – Lupus, MO / Lupus General Store
April 21 – Topeka, KS / Norseman Brewing Company
April 22 – Strong City, KS / Ad Astra Food and Drink
April 24 – Salina, KS / The Hideaway
April 25 – Wichita, KS / Central Standard Brewing
April 26 – Stillwater, OK / Iron Monk Brewing Company
April 27 – Ada, OK / Vintage 22
April 28 – Dallas, TX / AllGood Café
April 29 – Ft. Worth, TX / Woodshed Smokehouse
April 30 – Austin, TX / Hole in the Wall (w/Heather Miller)
May 2 – Terlingua, TX / The Starlight Theatre
May 3 – Terlingua, TX / The Starlight Theatre
May 5 – Las Cruces, NM / High Desert Brewing Co.
May 8 – Corrales, NM / Corrales Bistro
May 9 – Albuquerque, NM / Tractor Brewing
May 10 – Santa Fe, NM / Cowgirl BBQ
May 13 – Montrose, CO / Intrinzik
May 18 – Dillon, CO / private house concert
May 19 – Idledale, CO / private house concert
May 20 – Denver, CO / private house concert
June 1 – Wellman, IA / Stonewall Pizza
June 3 – Ft. Dodge, IA / Soldier Creek Winery
June 15 – Terre Haute, IN / The Verve
June 16 – Terre Haute, IN / private house concert
June 21 – Springfield, MN / Riverside Days Festival
June 24 – Renner, SD / Strawbale Winery
June 29 – Swisher, IA / Cedar Ridge Distillery
July 7 – Knoxville, IA / Peace Tree Brewing
July 11 – Iowa City, IA / Iowa City Farmers Market
July 12 – Rochester, MN / Peace Plaza – Thursdays on First & 3rd
July 15 – Pomeroy, IA / Byron’s Bar
July 21 – Norfolk, NE / Black Cow Fat Pig
August 17 – Terre Haute, IN / The Verve
August 26 – Ft. Dodge, IA / Soldier Creek Winery
October 12 – Swisher, IA / Cedar Ridge Distillery
October 19 – Terre Haute, IN / The Verve

Society of Broken Souls online:
Website:  www.societyofbrokensouls.com 
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/society.brokensouls
Twitter:  www.twitter.com/SOBSmusic
Instagram:  www.instagram.com/societyofbrokensouls
YouTube:  www.youtube.com/c/Societyofbrokensouls

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 5, 2018

 

Americana singer-songwriter Don Gallardo set to release

new album, Still Here, on April 27^th

 

Gallardo featured as an “Artist You Need To Know”

in September 2017 issue of Rolling Stone Country

https://www.rollingstone.com/country/lists/10-new-country-artists-you-need-to-know-september-2017-w500707/don-gallardo-w500720

 

Nashville-based Americana singer-songwriter Don Gallardo is set to release his next album,  Still Here, on April 27, 2018 through Rock Ridge Music (with distribution via ADA).  With music that walks the line between Americana, folk, and roots-rock, mining the influence of classic 1970s singer-songwriters while still pushing ahead toward something new, Rolling Stone Country called Gallardo “a singer-songwriter that is one of the Country and Americana scene’s true journeymen.”  The first single, “Something I Gotta Learn,” will be released to streaming services on March 16^th and will also be available as the instant-gratification track for digital pre-orders.

 

Gallardo’s forthcoming album, Still Here, was self-produced with the help of David Pinkston and Dylan Alldredge, and it’s different from any of his previous efforts.  “My prior albums had almost no co-writes on them; I usually just wrote my own material,” says Gallardo.  “This time, I sought out songwriters that I really respected for co-writes—Tim Easton, Carey Ott, Mando Saenz, Luke Amelang, Robby Hecht, Doug Williams, David Borné and Jesse Cole.”  The resulting collection includes songs about Gallardo’s son, past relationships, the music industry, the late 16th Century, bullying, and some songs with UK references, with a common theme running among them: no matter how grueling life can be, giving up is not an option, and persistence and positivity can prevail over anything.

 

Joining Gallardo in the studio in East Nashville where he laid down the tracks was a veritable who’s who of Nashville talent, including: Dave Roe on bass (Johnny Cash), Micah Hulscher on keys (Margo Price), Bryan Owings on drums (Justin Townes Earle, Patty Griffin), Brent James on guitar (George Jones, Willie Nelson), Richard Bailey on banjo (Steeldrivers), Joe Andrews on mandolin (Old Crow Medicine Show), and Erin Rae singing on two songs. Additionally, all of the guys in Gallardo’s live band, as well as other special guests, played on the album.

Gallardo grew up in Northern California and spent years building his songwriting career on the West Coast before relocating to Nashville in 2008.  With four full-length albums, a live acoustic release, and an EP under his belt, Gallardo has earned a devoted audience on both sides of the Atlantic. A road warrior who frequently tours the UK, he earned praise from Rolling Stone Country, who named him one of “10 New Country Artists You Need To Know” in September 2017 and called Gallardo’s music “the intersection of folk, road-worn country and amplified bluegrass, performed by a singer-songwriter who began earning his road-dog stripes before the new millennium.”  No Depression deemed him “one of those rare gems… Don’s writing style harkens back to a time when Nashville was overflowing with great storytellers.”  Nashville Scene said Gallardo “writes intelligently about the boredom and charm of small-town life” and praises his “country-rock with brains, charm and experimental impulses that are perfectly integrated into a familiar context.”  Glide Magazine declared that “our ears deserve something that’s righteous, honest and ballsy in just the right spots and Gallardo nails that equation.”  His most recent album, Hickory, received a four-star rating from MOJO and was named one of 2015’s best country albums by The Telegraph, proof that Gallardo’s career has truly gone global.

In addition to catching one of his live shows, fans can hear Gallardo’s music prominently featured in films like “Jolene” and Jackass Presents “Bad Grandpa,” as well as television series such as “The Vampire Diaries,” ABC/CMT’s “Nashville,” and the Netflix series, “The Ranch.”  Gallardo plans to hit the road before the record is out and has already booked a run of shows on the West Coast in February (see tour dates below).  He’ll be sharing a bill with The Battlefield, who will also be his backing band on all of the dates.  For his two hometown shows in Fairfax and Petaluma, the members of the band San Geronimo will also be joining Gallardo on stage.  He is planning tour dates in the UK in March and will be back on U.S. soil in the Northeast and East Coast in April.  Additional shows will be announced as dates are finalized.

 

Don Gallardo Tour Dates:

Thursday, February 15th – Harvard & Stone / Los Angeles, CA – 9pm

Friday, February 16th – 19 Broadway Nightclub / Fairfax, CA – 9pm

Saturday, February 17th – The Big Easy / Petaluma, CA – 7:30pm

Sunday, February 18th – Northstar California / Truckee, CA – 3pm

Monday, February 19th – DownLo (below Lost on Main) / Chico, CA – 7pm-9pm

Wednesday, February 21st – Pengilly’s Saloon / Boise, ID – 9pm

Friday, February 23rd – Snowbasin Resort / Huntsville, UT – 3:15pm

Saturday, February 24 – Snowbasin Resort / Huntsville, UT – 3:15pm

Sunday, February 25 – Snowbasin Resort / Huntsville, UT – 3:15pm

(all dates with The Battlefield)

 

www.dongallardo.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 5, 2018

 

Big Little Lions set to release Alive and Well on February 23, 2018

 

About the title track, “Alive and Well”:  “On the deliciously jaunty hook, they
poke fun at a smorgasbord of archaic superstitions, claiming a deliberate daring
to test their boundaries and their luck.”  – B-sides and Badlands

 

Indie folk-pop duo Big Little Lions are set to turn helpless apprehensions into hopeless optimism with their latest album, Alive and Well, a collection of songs that manage to capture this moment in time in a way only songwriters can. The group’s third studio album, set for worldwide digital release on February 23rd release (Far Flung, via The Orchard), features 13 original songs that deliver their signature folk-pop shimmer with a hint of Americana twang and a new lyrical edge inspired by the growing polarity of our world. Alive and Well is currently available for pre-order in the iTunes store via https://apple.co/2nfu6B8.

The album’s title track, released earlier in January as a single, is also an instant-gratification track and will be available for immediate download when a pre-order is placed; two additional songs will be delivered to pre-order customers before album release (“Find Your Tribe” on February 9th and “Static” on February 16th). In addition to the digital worldwide release, fans can get physical copies of the new album at www.biglittlelions.com. Fans can also check out the brand new video (directed by Greg Otten) for the first single and title track on B-sides and Badlands.

Big Little Lions’ most cohesive project to date, Alive and Well dances from songs that acknowledge human frailty and modern preoccupations to anthems of hope and resistance. It turns the duo’s illuminating songwriting to the tasks of buoying spirits, inspiring sing-a-longs, and lighting candles of optimism in difficult times.  Watching Big Little Lions on the stage, audiences will understand what the closing lyrics of “Alive and Well” proclaim so clearly, when people gather to share music, “love is all there is.” The duo will kick off its Canadian tour in Red Deer, Alberta on February 23rd, followed by over 20 stops north of the border. Big Little Lions will then head down to the U.S. for a run from Ohio down to Florida in the month of April. The U.S. tour dates will be announced soon.  Confirmed tour dates are listed here.

Background on Big Little Lions: 

Big Little Lions is Helen Austin and Paul Otten, two successful songwriters and musicians who have also found collaborative success after joining forces in 2013. Since roaring onto the music scene, Big Little Lions has won an armful of awards for its work including first place in the International Songwriting Competition, Song of the Year in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and Ensemble of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

With Austin based in Canada on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and Otten based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the duo has been bridging geographic and cultural distances since their first collaboration when Otten produced Austin’s 2014 Juno-winning album Colour It. The legions of loyal fans they’ve gathered since agree: Austin and Otten have stumbled on a powerful musical chemistry. Big Little Lions has played renowned festivals including Shelter Valley, Islands Folk Fest, Mariposa, Summerfolk, the Alianait Arts Festival, the Paper City Music Festival, and the Vancouver Island Music Fest. The duo’s songs have also been featured across Canada on CBC and in the United States.

 

www.biglittlelions.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2018

 

Indie singer-songwriter Merritt Gibson to release debut album, Eyes On Us, in March

 

Indie singer-songwriter Merritt Gibson is set to release her debut album, Eyes On Us, on March 30, 2018. Recorded in July 2016 with Grammy Award-winning producer/engineer Mitch Dane at his Sputnik Sound studio in Nashville, the forthcoming album is full of songs that truly mean something, be it advice to other young women, reflections on youth and love, defiance of the status quo, or a deeper understanding of the self. From a wide range of inspiration and sources, Gibson creates a holistic view of what it means to be a young woman today. She states: “My songs are the synthesis of my life and the lives I observe and imagine.” Gibson crafts songs with a seamless musical and lyrical balance of both mystery and familiarity, of grand emotion and real life.

“Merritt Gibson is a blooming talent,” says Dane. “Her songs are very honest and written from a deeply personal point of view. That authenticity is contagious, and I look forward to seeing her career move in great places.”

Fans can buy the first single from the album, “My Best Friends,” on February 16th, with both that song and the title track, “Eyes On Us,” available as instant-gratification tracks with the album pre-order on March 2nd. Details for the album pre-order will be on Gibson’s website and social media soon.

Gibson, who was born in New York and grew up in Boston, began writing songs in high school. As her song repertoire grew, she became serious about pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter. Gibson recorded seven demos at Soundscape Boston with Grammy Award-winning producer and Berklee College of Music professor Michael Moss in the fall of her junior year. He praised Gibson’s songwriting prowess at such a young age, saying, “I have never experienced an artist like Merritt Gibson before. Such a sure grasp of the storyteller’s eye – a window into the soul and intellect of this outstanding young woman. Done with such authentic soul and ease, and a melodic sense that makes you want to listen over and over again. Truly exceptional.” She proceeded to send the EP to several Nashville managers, breaking into the Nashville music industry as a New England teenager. Less than a year after sending her demos, she recorded Eyes On Us over summer break. Entirely funding the recording and promotion of the album by herself via money saved from summer jobs, Gibson is entrepreneurial and driven as well as talented.

With a “wise beyond her years” outlook on life and an unmistakable self-confidence, Gibson is currently a freshman in college at the University of Virginia. On Eyes On Us, Gibson explores many themes with a confident vocal performance and genre-blending production. The upbeat “When You Were Mine” introduces the set of self-penned material with a story of a hasty, soon regretted, breakup. Following that is the titular song “Eyes On Us,” a vivid representation of the excitement, frustration, and uncertainty of an entrancing new relationship.

The collection encourages the listener to ponder questions that confront us all, from the spiritual, to the emotional, to the mundane. Most emblematic of this theme is “Truth and Myth,” an ode to the deep connections and understandings shared amongst close friends. Songs like “Area Code” and “Ghost Town” evoke visions of Gibson commanding a set of piano keys, sharing complex stories of urgency, insistence, and despair.

Besides being a musical thinker and explorer, Gibson is also very much a fun-loving teenager, and that part of her personality also features prominently in her songs. She has a fun, upbeat, “girl-next-door” side to her songwriting that can be found in guitar-driven songs such as “Lovesick,” “My Best Friends,” and “I Heard.” Ending with the hauntingly beautiful, simple “Faraway,” the listener is left with a full view of Gibson’s take on life as a teenaged girl in the 21st century.

Gibson plans to tour in support of Eyes On Us, and tour dates will be announced soon.

www.merrittgibson.com

For Immediate Release

January 24, 2018

 

Eliot Bronson’s song “Mercy” will be heard in tonight’s episode of CBS TV show “Criminal Minds”

 

New Video for “Good Enough” to premiere on PopMatters.com on January 30th
Atlanta-based award-winning Americana singer-songwriter Eliot Bronson will have one of his songs, “Mercy,” in the January 24th episode (10 p.m. eastern/9 p.m. central) of the CBS police procedural crime drama television show “Criminal Minds.”  The song is set to play for about two minutes when the character Agent Jareau learns they’ve located a killer’s victim too late to save her and while she deals with the heaviness of her job.  The following week, fans can check out the exclusive premiere of Bronson’s latest music video, for the song “Good Enough,” on PopMatters.com on January 30th.

“Mercy” and “Good Enough” are both on Bronson’s latest album, James, which was released in the fall of 2017 via Rock Ridge Music (with distribution via ADA). Press has praised James; Glide Magazine lauded the album, saying, “The cohesive collection of songs finds this young singer-songwriter in top form as he sings from an honest viewpoint and the similarities to Bob Dylan as well as artists like Ryan Adams and even Chris Isaak are undeniable from the very first song. The album… feels as close to Americana and country rock as it is to folk. …each infectious song hammers home the realization that he is one of the most exciting up-and-coming artists around right now.” Nashville Music Guide echoed that thought, writing, “Bronson takes you on ride of passion, emotion, and thoughtful stories. …Bronson’s new album is packed with great picking, beautiful and honest lyrics, and a foot stomping, knee slapping harp that will leave you wanting more.” The Daily Country appreciated that Bronson’s album “offers songs that are similar to snapshots – capturing moments, yet often revealing something deeper.”  Listening Through The Lens called the album “a remarkable statement.”  James was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb (Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton), who also produced Bronson’s self-titled album.

Bronson is on the road again soon in support of his new album (see tour schedule below) with dates scheduled in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast.

Bronson has released three critically acclaimed solo albums and, prior to his solo career, was a member of The Brilliant Inventions. He has won such esteemed songwriting awards as first place at Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at MerleFest and Eddie Owen Presents “Songwriter Shootout,” and he’s been a finalist at Kerrville Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest Songwriting Contest, and New Song Contest Lincoln Center NYC.

See Eliot Bronson on “Today in Nashville” on WSMV-TV/NBC here and here.

See Eliot Bronson on Creative Loafing Atlanta’s “Live From The Archives” here.

Eliot Bronson Tour Dates:

Feb. 23 – Cary, NC / The Cary Theater (w/Claire Holley)

Feb. 24 – Washington, DC / house concert

Feb. 27 – Cambridge, MA / Club Passim

Feb. 28 – Providence, RI / The Grange

Mar. 1 – New York, NY / Rockwood Music Hall, stage 3

Mar. 2 – Baltimore, MD / house concert

Mar. 3 – Richmond, VA / house concert

Mar. 4 – Charlotte, NC / Evening Muse

Mar. 9 – Decatur, GA / Eddie’s Attic

Mar. 10 – Decatur, GA / Eddie’s Attic (w/Caleb Caudle)
www.eliotbronson.com