FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2015
MOONSVILLE COLLECTIVE TO RELEASE HEAVY HOWL IN OCTOBER
Album features band’s raw, rootsy Americana flavor
with a big-sounding communal spirit
Greater Los Angeles area band Moonsville Collective will be releasing their new album on October 30, 2015 via Rock Ridge Music. The new album, entitled Heavy Howl, is a raw, rootsy storm of Americana with a mix of mandolin, banjo, slide guitar, drums, harmonica and fiddle. The group, which has seven members (including two generations from the same family), was born out of a string of old-time jam sessions and songwriting circles. Moonsville Collective have held on to that communal spirit, making big-sounding music for a community that is continually growing.
“There are seven of us in the band, and everyone helps shape these songs,” explains Ryan Welch (vocals, guitar, banjo). “We all bring a lot of influences to the table, and it becomes this big pot that gets stirred and mixed up into our own sound.”
Since forming in 2011, Moonsville Collective have never sounded bigger or more focused than they do on Heavy Howl, a self-produced studio album that finds the middle ground between the group’s old-time influences and a more modern sound. It’s an album that also bears the energy and electricity of the band’s live shows, which have taken Moonsville Collective from their home base in Southern California to stages across the country. Many of the people and cities they’ve visited along the way make appearances on Heavy Howl, adding a personal element to a record that broadens the band’s sound and reach.
“We all got in the van and just played a lot of shows,” says co-founder Corey Adams of the months before the album’s creation. (He splits most of the band’s songwriting and vocal duties with Welch and also plays guitar and banjo.) “All of that reflects in the new songs on Heavy Howl. As writers, we got much more personal. A lot of the songs are reflections of where we’ve been, who we’ve met and what we’ve been up to.” Moonsville Collective plans to tour in support of the album, with early tour dates prior to album release confirmed and some album release celebrations planned (see tour dates below).
Rounded out by bandmates Seth Richardson (double bass), Drew Martin (percussion), Matthew McQueen (mandolin), “Dobro Dan” Richardson (slide/resonator/dobro) and Sean Kibler (fiddle), Moonsville Collective have become representatives of California’s Americana scene, a genre whose typical strongholds — Appalachia, the Deep South, and Texas — are thousands of miles away from the West Coast. Free to reinterpret those old-school sounds for a new century, Moonsville Collective have filled their music with the literature, spirit, and grit of their native California, resulting in a motto and lifestyle they’ve dubbed “California goodtime.”
It’s a lifestyle that goes beyond music. Out west, there’s a heavily steeped tradition of outdoor culture, where backyard rambles, fishing, anything maritime, motorcycles and sleeping under the stars are all part of the same world. That world is where Moonsville Collective set up camp, too, embraced by a number of lifestyle brands — including Sanuk, Hippytree, and Iron & Resin — in the process.
With influences that include Levon Helm, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and Hank Williams Sr., Moonsville Collective cover much ground on Heavy Howl. “Cow and the Cream” roots itself in gospel music, “Big Jimmy” twangs like a country song, “Rollin’ in Paradise” flirts with jam-band music and “Blue Money Grove” sinks its teeth into a swampy, Louisiana-worthy groove. Together, those styles form the borders of Heavy Howl‘s sound, with Moonsville Collective filling the rest of the songs with everything from Appalachian folk to southern rhythm & blues.
Moonsville Collective Tour Schedule:
8/28/15 – Santa Ana, CA / The Observatory (w/Christian Lopez Band, Show Ponies)
8/29/15 – Los Angeles, CA / Hotel Café (w/Christian Lopez Band)
8/30/15 – San Diego, CA / Quartyard (w/Christian Lopez Band)
9/11/15 – Orlando, FL / Surf Expo (event for Sanuk)
9/19/15 – Long Beach, CA / Long Beach Folk Revival / Rainbow Lagoon Park (w/Deer Tick, Smooth Hound Smith, The Tillers, and more)
10/2/15 – Long Beach, CA / TBA (w/Charlie Parr)
10/10/15 – Long Beach, CA / Downtown Beer & Wine Festival
10/17/15 – San Luis Obispo, CA / Hooligan Hoedown (sponsored by Iron & Resin)
10/30/15 – Orange County, CA / TBA (Heavy Howl album release show)
11/14/15 – Hermosa Beach, CA/ Saint Rocke (Heavy Howl album release party w/Hippie Tree)
11/21/15 – Pioneer Town, CA / Pappy & Harriet’s (Heavy Howl album release desert party)
… more tour dates will be announced soon.