Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Celebrate 25th Anniversary with 'What a Dream It’s Been' Out August 27

“Twenty-five years, hundreds of thousands of miles, and over 3,000 live performances; what a dream it’s been!” said Robert “Big Sandy” Williams. “When I first got together for a garage rehearsal with a group of musician friends in the spring of 1988 in Anaheim, California, I never imagined that I would someday be celebrating the silver anniversary of the rocking little band that formed that afternoon.

Indeed, Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys are beloved by many, with fourteen albums of undiluted joyful music pulled from rockabilly, rock & roll, honky-tonk, rhythm & blues, soul and doo-wop. What A Dream It’s Been, out August 27 on Cow Island Music, is a collection of the band’s favorite original numbers  - all acoustic, reinterpreted with fresh new arrangements, rhythms, and instrumentation.

“Here I am, looking back at a wild ride that has taken us around the world countless times and put us in front of national television and radio audiences,” said Big Sandy. He and the band have made three appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien,  featured on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, as well as All Things Considered with Melissa Block. “Putting together this new record has brought back a flood of memories. It is our way of looking back at everything that has led us to where we are now. I feel like we’re sounding better than ever and experimenting musically. While it’s a reflection of our past, this album is really a hint of things to come.”

All of the albums are represented here, and the new arrangements happened organically. “Often during sound checks and rehearsals, we’ll get to messing around with songs,” Big Sandy explained. "'I Know I’ve Loved You Before'" was originally recorded as a slow, jazzy number. But one night at band practice after a few drinks, I started strumming the song with ska upstrokes and tried singing it in a more soulful, rocksteady style. The rest of the band fell in together and it started to sound like something that (Jamaican legend) Ken Boothe might have done. We all knew in that instant that we had to record the song that way as soon as possible.”

The last song on the album and title track, “What A Dream It’s Been,” (a duet with acclaimed voice actress/Grammy Award winning vocalist Grey DeLisle) is a love song, but not in the conventional sense. As Big Sandy explained, "I wrote and recorded this song in 1998 after a couple of the Fly-Rite Boys told me they had to move on. Unsure if I would be able to continue on without them, this song sums up and pays tribute to the wonderful times that we had together.”

Despite Big Sandy's uncertainty about the band's future at that time, a new generation of Fly-Rite Boys emerged. Performing on these recordings are Jeff West on bass and harmony vocals, Joe Perez on drums and backup vocals, and Ashley Kingman, a 20-year Fly-Rite veteran, on guitar and mandolin.

Since forming 25 years ago, Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys have toured continuously and become torchbearers of American roots music. As a singer, songwriter, bandleader, and entertainer, Big Sandy has few contemporaries. With the release of What a Dream It's Been, Big Sandy is at once acknowledging and celebrating the successes of the past 25 years, while setting the stage for further exploration and interpretation of the musical forms he is most passionate about.

Before the Brave - Free

David Carroll - Holding On to Love

The Toy Hearts - Don't Worry About Me

Carrie Rodriguez - I Don't Want to Play House Anymore

The Wallflowers - Love is a Country

AUSTRALIA'S BUFFALO TALES TAP INTO CLASSIC FOLK/AMERICANA WITH DEBUT LP ROADTRIP CONFESSIONS

With a ragged, soaring voice recalling Bon Iver, coupled with the rambling spirit and storytelling of Woody Guthrie, Buffalo Tales' mastermind Wes Carr has a keen ear for the past, while simultaneously blazing his own trail. On their debut LP Roadtrip Confessions, Buffalo Tales spin univeral tales of hard-bitten love, travel, and the eternal search for happiness and salvation. At the age of 30, Carr sounds like an old soul on Roadtrip Confessions, a man who has walked through the fire and paid more than his share of dues, and emerged clean on the other side. Buffalo Tales is a farewell to the past, and Roadtrip Confessions is a mission statement for the future: heartfelt, acoustic songs, with zero flash or gimmicks.  

The space and openness of Roadside Confessions recall the landscape where Carr grewup: the bare scrubland north of South Australia’s capital, Adelaide. "That’s where three of the songs were written: "Please," "Waiting for You" and "Tricks to Magik" were all written when I was younger,” Carr explains. “That was my first explosion of songwriting. Mum gave me a John Lennon anthology boxset and I got inspired by all of his home recordings. It did something to my brain. I just went RAAA!”

Roadtrip Confessions was recorded simply, with a guitar, voice, and trusted friends old and new. “Making it was just me and my best mate Stu Hunter," Carr recalls. "We just sat in his studio and went ‘This is what I want to say.' Some of the songs are live and they’re all very easy to perform, because they’re the truth, really.” Adopting the "write what you know" motto, much of the album was written in the last year as Carr experienced one of life's great changes. “Most of it was written when I knew my wife was pregnant,” he laughs. “That’s been the secret link; that this new being was coming and joining us forever, and I had no time to waste." 

He’s also put his own spin on two covers: the Leonard Cohen classic "Take This Waltz" and Rihanna’s "Diamonds," which has been given the thumbs up on Twitter by its author (and fellow Adelaidean) Sia Furler. Buffalo Tales captures Carr at his most vulnerable and energized, and Roadside Confessions is a dually rollicking and delicate testament to the legacy of folk and storytelling, along with Carr's musical and personal reinvention.

Court Yard Hounds - Sunshine

Bob Dylan - Let Your Light Shine on Me

Natalie Noone - I'd Rather Be Lonely

Shannon O'Connor - One Eyed Jack

Matthew Ryan - The Broken Side of Time

This Frontier Needs Heroes - George Clooney

Sara Petite Releases 'Circus Comes to Town' - August 6, 2013

The San Diego artist is releasing her fourth album August 6th, 2013. The Circus Comes to Town was written before and after the death of her partner Johnny Kuhlken. “It’s a full perspective of the human being - jealousy, infidelity, fun, wit, tragedy, pain, loss, perseverance, substance abuse, shame, guilt and just plain silliness.”

As written by Sara: This album came on the heels of my best friend and partner Johnny Kuhlken suddenly passing away in 2011.  Some material was already written for the album, and some of it was written after he passed away.  Making this album was a way to keep me going, trying to find light in a dark world, as I cursed the sun every morning it was shining in my window.  

My friend and producer of my past album Doghouse Rose, Eddie Gore, wanted to get me in the studio right away. I think it was his way of helping me out of some of the pain I was going through. Dave ‘Ro’ Rorick helped pull the musicians together.  We also asked his friend Rick Lonow to play on it, and found out that both of them played together on June Carter’s last two albums – a favorite of mine. Bob Britt played guitar and Eddie’s cousin, Ethan Ballinger, did acoustic and mandolin.  There were many songs to choose from and a lot of them tended to be so very sad - we recorded 15 and whittled it down 11. Even though the last two years I had gone through most of my waking hours with a heavy heart, I didn’t want this album to be maudlin. 

There is beauty and experience in tragedy.  Some of the most hilarious and enlightening moments of my life came after Johnny passed away.

One of the most amazing experiences I have found is how many people share tragedy.  People at my shows would thank me for playing some of the saddest songs that were (at times) difficult to get through.  I started really just playing for myself after Johnny passed away, and found that that was the best thing I could do. It was a cathartic experience  and it was wonderful to know people were touched, healed a little, and moved by songs such as “Circus Comes to Town,” “Forever Blue” and “Drinking to Remember.”

Sara Petite 

Detroit Rebellion - The Fire, Devil and Desire

New Album Release: The Music of Stephen Foster from Nathan Edwards

The Music of Stephen Foster
by Nathan Edwards

Stephen Foster has earned his reputation as the "Father of American Music" by writing and composing songs that have endured for over 150 years. Although many of his songs are still widely recognized today, Foster has a deep catalog of work that reveals his longing and sorrow, yet also a sense of hopefulness.

Having known the song "Hard Times Come Again No More" for many years, I began commonly playing it as a closer to my acoustic sets. My fondness for this song inspired me to research further into both Foster's catalog, and the man behind the music.

What I discovered was a deep catalog of work that revealed some notable cultural differences between then and now. Even so, it is remarkable how seamlessly many of his songs were able to translate into a modern folk setting.

Through careful selection, I decided on eight of Foster's songs that I reinterpreted and recorded for a modern audience. My hope is that listeners of this album will discover a newfound appreciation for Foster's music, and that his timeless songwriting will continue to endure.



Raised in Wisconsin and residing in eastern South Dakota, Nathan Edwards is an acoustic folk and electroacoustic musician who enjoys crafting emotion through musical textures, both acoustic and electronic.

Brooklyn Indie Folk-Pop Darling Julia Weldon Debuts Her Sophomore Album 'Light Is A Ghost' Start-to-Finish Live at The Knitting Factory on Friday, July 19

Light Is A Ghost; the follow up to Julia Weldon's 2008 self-titled debut, is produced by Saul MacWilliams (Ingrid Michaelson, Dan Romer) and features Adam Christgau (Sia, Tegan and Sara) on drums.

 

Defined by its brash honesty, Light Is A Ghost is an American album in the truest sense, capturing the feel of the open road on a late summer evening and making room for the remnants of past relationships that creep into the serenity. Amidst the harsh city edges and limitless, open spaces, Weldon’s lyrics depict love as a battlefield littered with casualties – loss, regret, resentment, and debauchery. Weldon's confident guitar playing and Christgau’s propulsive drumming set Light Is A Ghost apart. 

Weldon's own version of twang offers many pop inflections in the way she hangs her vocal stylings around a chorus or in the quirky, daring arrangements offered on the twelve track collection. This original hybrid of indie folk is best heard on songs like “Careful in the Dark” “Meadow,” and “You Never Know.” Light Is A Ghost draws on everything from contemporary indie folk to classic blues rock, dialoguing with contemporary artists like Bon Iver, Iron and Wine, and Cat Power as well as legends like Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith and Suzanne Vega. MacWilliams’ production is deft with acute attention to details, a tasteful complement to Weldon's tales.

Light Is A Ghost drops at the Knitting Factory (361 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn, NY) on July 19 at 9:00 PM. Tickets are $10.

Kent Goolsby - Trophies of Youth - Available via This Is American Music August 6th, 2013

Mumford & Sons - Babel

Michael Ubaldini Releases "Bottle Cap Sky" with His Band, The Lonesome Playboys

Bottle Cap Sky follows on from Last of the Honky Tonks, released in 2011 to worldwide critical acclaim, which led to hand-picked opening spots for Dwight Yoakam and David Allan Coe. It was chosen as Album of the week for Americana UK's radio playlist while making the Roots Music Report charts in the States.

New EP From Gritty Blues Revivalists Detroit Rebellion

Despite the name, Detroit's favorite non-native sons are actually a duo from Providence, RI, composed of Jeff Toste (guitar/vocals) and Michael Lamantia Jr. (drums), aka Mikey Lams. Bringing the less is more approach to their combination of blues, folk, and "other" styles (with an emphasis on the "other"), Detroit Rebellion lit a fire in the blogosphere with their debut EP Fork in the Road, earning praise from LA.com, Louder Than War and Berkeley Place amongst others. The record garnered airplay on such notable stations as KXLU in Los Angeles and WMBR in Boston. The track "Dirty Boots" is being featured in the upcoming film Growing Up and Other Lies featuring Adam Brody and Wyatt Cenac.

On their sophomore EP, The Detroit Rebellion of '67, the band relies simply on the formula that worked for their debut. Utilizing no tricks or gimmicks, the EP is a gritty, mold on the amps, stripped bare love letter to the blues.

In 2009, Toste began performing solo as Detroit Rebeillion, which he referred to as "a tribute to old school blues, folk and Americana." Once Mikey Lams joined on drums, Toste found Detroit Rebellion "mutating into something else." During the recording, Toste decided he wanted to add some texture to the songs, so he tried running a distortion pedal through his acoustic guitar, the same peddle he scored from Kurt Cobain twenty year ago.

The result of that "something else" and experimentation is continued on The Detroit Rebellion of '67, four tracks of gritty riffs and uncompromising rockers, recalling greats of the past (John Lee Hooker) up to contemporary revivalists Jack White and The Black Keys.

Ashleigh Flynn - A Little Low

Jerry Strull - It's Always Summertime Here

James Bay - Move Together

Circle the Earth - Birds that Pray

Kings of Convenience - Homesick

The Far West - Any Day Now

Slaid Cleaves - Hometown USA

Daisy House - Emma in the Morning

Corey Smith - Maybe Next Year

Willie Ames - Human Race