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Just over two weeks ago it was John Prine’s birthday (October the 10th). It’s a measure of the extreme affection in which he’s still held – and the impact his untimely passing had on so many people back in April this year this year – that what would have been his birthday was greeted by such an outpouring of love and support. Continue reading “Two intimate and socially distanced tributes to John Prine at the Jazz Cafe”
Today’s video premiere features a lovely vocal melody and the warm voice of Ian Gothe. ‘Liezah’ was originally a jaunty, upbeat song by British band The Coral, chosen because it reminds Gothe of the time he spent living in the UK, just one stop in a life of travelling and searching for himself. With excellent musicianship and an engaging arrangement, Gothe makes the song his own. It’s taken from his 2020 album ‘Memento’, which intersperses inspired cover choices with original compositions, including songs written in his native Armenian. Continue reading “Video Premiere: Ian Gothe “Liezah””
Sturgill Simpson has announced the release of his first solo bluegrass album, ‘Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions’ which comes out today. Or tomorrow, whichever way you look at his Instagram post on it. The album, a follow up to 2019’s ‘Sound and Fury’ was meant to be a surprise release but those pesky fans spotted its early listing on an online streaming site. Continue reading “Sturgill to release first bluegrass album”
At last some good news – Billy Bragg has announced an Autumn tour. OK, Autumn 2021 – but it’s something to look forward to. And he’ll have been able to write his “goodbye to Trump now let’s get on and fix things” song by then which is bound to be a show highlight. Something along the lines of “Casting this apprentice president into the wastebasket of history / Not at all regretfully, you’re not hired.” Continue reading “Billy Bragg announces UK dates”
2021 really can’t come soon enough. Our favourite music festival bar none Black Deer has just announced some new additions to an already fairly impressive line-up, including Lucinda Williams, Drive-By Truckers and Canadian cowboy Colter Wall. They’ve also released their day splits which you can see below. Continue reading “Lucinda Williams and Drive By Truckers join Black Deer 2021 bill”
A member of Latin country-rock band The Mavericks has reported being assaulted over the weekend “for speaking Spanish.” Trumpet player Lorenzo Molina Ruiz described an assault that he and his friend Orlando Morales endured while at a sports bar Tony’s Eat & Drink in Franklin over the weekend. Ruiz created on a GoFundMe for fellow musician Morales which has already raised over $20,000. Betty Malo, the wife of Mavericks lead singer Raul Malo, shared an account of the incident on her Instagram account which you can read below. Continue reading “The Mavericks band member “assaulted for speaking Spanish””
Andrew Bird has just announced the release of ‘Hark!’, a brand new Christmas album out October 30th on Loma Vista Recordings. Building upon last year’s EP of the same name, the thirteen-song set delivers freshly recorded originals – including ‘Christmas in April,’ perhaps the first COVID-inspired Christmas song, which Andrew wrote during lockdown (“when will we know/if we can meet under the mistletoe?”) – plus holiday classics and wintertime reimaginings of seasonally ambiguous deep cuts by John Cale, John Prine and Handsome Family. Continue reading “Andrew Bird Christmas album covers John Prine, Handsomes and more”
2020 has been the year for surprises. Some of them not so nice obviously, but others more so, and continuing the theme of albums arriving out of the blue, Drive-by Truckers’ new full-length second LP of 2020, ‘The New OK’ arrives via ATO Records on streaming services tomorrow (Friday 2nd October), with a CD and limited edition vinyl arriving on Friday 18th December. You can listen to the title track below. Continue reading “New Drive By Truckers album out tomorrow – Listen”
Inspired by the ‘new normal’ artists face, in particular with touring by and large on hold for now, our friends over at Thirty Tigers have announced “a destination playlist for fans to stream their favourite UK artists in the UK Americana world, along with an online campaign to promote the great storytelling artists in our community, hosted exclusively on Spotify.” Continue reading “Thirty Tigers announces “Sounds of the Storytellers””
On the back of their success with their recent album ‘Self Made Man‘, Larkin Poe have quickly returned to the recording studio to produce an album of stripped back acoustic songs called ‘Kindred Spirits‘. Cover versions all, they are drawn from favourite songs of the duo as they explain “ Coming up in a family of music lovers, a lot of the songs we have always seemed to gravitate towards learning have been with us since childhood; we started a YouTube series dedicated to paying tribute to our musical heroes in 2015 that unexpectedly took off and when fans began requesting recorded versions of the songs, we started daydreaming about how an interpretive album might take shape.” Continue reading “Larkin Poe announce new album of covers”