Just a quickie as i’ve got no MP’3’s a single MP3 to offer as of yet but i just had to write about Pete Molinari straight away. I have just ordered his Debut album ”walking off the map‘ (vinyl) which was recorded in Billy childishs’ Kitchen. It’s Billy’s wife who sings along on the track ‘we belong together’. His new album ‘Virtual landslide’ is released on 31st March, you can pre-order that here.
He has a voice which is truly his own but often gets compared with Dylan, guthrie and even Patsy Cline!! I do think at times he does sound like Dylan but i think Ian Felice has that crown at the moment, he’s almost like a clone. You can check for yourself here and here what you think Pete sounds like. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that what looks like to be the Cover of his soon to be released album is extremely similar to Dylans ‘Desire‘.
Pete is from Chatham, Kent and since reading Kerouac’s ‘On the road‘ and Guthries’ Bound for glory‘ as a teenager he seems to have totally submerged himself in that culture and the sounds of those times even going as far as playing the cafe’s and bars of ‘Greenwitch Village’ learning his trade as well as in New Orleans,San francisco and back here in europe, in Paris..
But don’t be mistaken, he’s no copy cat. He writes well crafted songs which of course given his tastes are always going to be compared to Dylan, Guthrie etc but he still maintains his own style throughout, especially his singing style. Anyway, just listen and make your own mind up but i have say i’m pretty excited by this Guy, just as much as i was when i first heard The Felice brothers last year over at Songs illinois and anyone who knows me knows how excited i was and still am about them. Enjoy
I’m not sure, but i don’t think i’ve ever posted an unsigned artist on here before. At the end of the day the internet is full of them and for what it’s worth, generally i find many people are unsigned for a reason, because they’re not very good. However i believe Tom Hanson is an exception to the rule. I bought both of his cd’s, 2001’s Wake of the moon and last years Everything takes forever from the brilliant cdbaby and have been listening to them over and over again. To copy what cd baby says ”Dark folk’; ‘acoustic dream-pop’; music with a haunting, hypnotic impact: swirling finger-picked acoustic fuses with spaced-out synths, ethereal electric guitars and deep, mellow vocals.” That saved me a lot of time. I will add though at times his voice reminds me of somewhere between Nick drake and Cat stevens. You can actually download for FREE the whole of wake of the moon here from Toms webpage. I paid good money for this album and even though it’s free i would still encourage you to do so too. This music isn’t going to get you up in the morning but it’s certainly going to help that wine taste sweeter as you sit looking longingly out of your window, daydreaming of lost loves, what the future holds and wondering what our existence is all about. When listening to this, with it’s mellow strings, his whispery vocal style and lush guitar playing, you find yourself almost slowly being hypnotised, it’s beautiful.
I bought the Dana Gross album pirate love longs just before Christmas and I have been listening to it a lot since. He’s from Portland, Maine where he is starting to get recognised in the folk scene there. Apart from on kick the chunk where he uses a banjo, with just an acoustic guitar, harmonica and his rather unique voice Dana writes beautiful folk songs about love, heartbreak and hardship. For me he reminds me a lot of Townes Van zandt especially on the song crooks, heartthread and piratesbut also some delta blues influenced sounds on sumacandgypsies. Some great songwriting on here too most notably on came & went and paradise. This is an extremely solid debut solo album from the beautiful opening track came & wentto the closing trackpraying to the moonwith some great guitar picking throughout and I think it’s an album that once you hear will come back to time and time again and completely love, just like i have.
Had I been able to review this album in 2007 it would have been in my top 10 albums of last year, I think it’s that good, but as it wasn’t released until i believe the 18th December will put intoo my 2008 list.
What a surprise I had one afternoon when I opened my e-mails to read one in particular I had received from Ms Bell . She expressed how she had come across YCD after reading through various other blogs and asked if I could help promote her music. I mean she was asking me? Well it’s my absolute pleasure let me tell you. After a few rather long e-mails to each other (I thought I could talk, Jeez!!) what I began to realize, is here a young girl who passionately cares for her music and seems to want to uphold all that is good in country music (just look at her fellow contributors on her latest album).
I first heard of Glenna Bell when I listened to the tracks be my valentine on Christmasand how i found out i’m insane over at the songs illinois blog and was instantly struck by her unique singing style. In particular the way she quickly finishes the words to her songs, bringing them to a sudden halt. At first it takes a while to get used to it and you are left wondering if she is singing like this because of lack of confidence so therefore bringing a nervousness to her voice or is it because she is making use of a limited voice? After listening to both of her albums Face this world and the road less traveled I don’t think it’s either of these. I think she has developed a way of singing which is so unique to herself that as soon as you hear the first words you immediately know it’s Glenna Bell and in my opinion I think this is a good thing. Why you ask? Well, I believe it’s because you know she can sing as soon as you hear the songs hoping i could be wrong or when she duets on the cover of Jackson and you know she doesn’t lack any confidence when she can write songs like March to me and Moving on, both from face this world.
What we have at the roots of it all is traditional country, bare-boned good old fashioned country music, but when you dissect it a little more you find elements of western swing, folk and rockabilly as well as other spin-offs of the country genre.
Her latest album Road less traveled was recorded at the famous Sugar Hill Studios in Houston, Texas along with John Pickering of the picks (Buddy holly), Johnny Bush (Whiskey River and Hall of famer) and Herb Remington (Bob Wills and his texas playboys) where literally hundreds of major stars have recorded going way way back and in many ways you could quite easily be taken back to those days when listening to this album. A little quirkier than face this world with songs like How i found out i’m insane, Shiner bock and ZZ Top showing the comedic side of her songwriting whereas songs like La casa que yo amo shows her more sensitive side singing about what could be the disintegration of her town by the likes of parking lot builds, shopping malls etc, shattering her dreams of bringing up her kids there and spending the rest of her life in a house that has been in her family for over 100 years, heartbreaking stuff indeed, it wouldn’t be country music if there wasn’t some sadness.
Glenna Bell could be a huge star in the making which is no easy feit given the genre of music she is creating. It seems that country music at the moment is swamped with atrists looking back trying to create the country sounds of yesterday. I’m not going to sit here and say Glenna is the best songwriter I have ever heard and she doesn’t claim to be either but there is something so very honest about her music, it’s from the heart. That along with the simplicity of it, is wat appeals to me and I am sure she will have many more listeners to come. Her music has already reached these distant shores of the U.K being played on Radio Scotland as well as other stations and so it brings me great pleasure to bring you below an interview I conducted with her over and between the Holiday period. Ms Bell did say I could edit it as the Girl can talk, but i think her character and her passion really comes across very well and so therefore I have not touched it, who am I to take someone’s soul? Enjoy.
INTERVIEW WITH GLENNA BELL YCD - Hi Glenna, how’s it going? GB - Hello. Everything is GREAT here in Houston. I just got back from an exhilarating music trip to San Marcos, Texas, a quaint little river town near Austin, where I visited with Gurf Morlix and saw his show at the historic Cheatham Street Warehouse, which is a terrific little tin “barn” that is situated right beside an old railroad track and is one of the most well-respected music venues in Texas. The college students were all gone home for Christmas vacation, so the town was so still and quiet, nestled amidst the stark winter landscape of the Texas hill country. What a rare opportunity to see Gurf perform in such an intimate setting!
YCD - Where are you right now and what are you doing? GB - I’m at my favorite coffee house in Houston: Brasil. I’m relaxing, typing this Q&A, and listening to whatever eclectic mix they’re piping in here today—I don’t recognize the tunes, but I just asked another musician who works here, and she says it is old French movie music. I like it! YCD - Ok, lets get the hard sell out of the way, what music do you have available and where can we get it? GB - I have two CD’s for sale at CD Baby: Face This World (2005) and The Road Less Traveled (2008).
They are also available through special order at the big stores like Target and Walmart, as well as at the legendary Bill’s Tapes and Records in Dallas and at Sig’s Lagoon, Soundwaves, and Cactus Records in Houston.
Digital downloads are also at iTunes, PayPlay, eMusic, Rhapsody, etc.
And there’s a new SnoCap store on my myspace page.
YCD - Who are your main influences? GB - I never really thought in terms of influences when writing and performing songs, so the comparisons made by reviewers and listeners have been enlightening. So far, I’ve heard Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Odetta, Hank Williams, Sr., EmmyLou Harris, Joan Baez, Patsy Cline, and others. I think my greatest influence is the hymns that were sung a cappella at the church we attended when I was a child back in Lumberton, Texas, outside of Beaumont. A lot of soulful singers have come from that little area called the Golden Triangle, including the Big Bopper, George Jones, and Janis Joplin to name only a few. So I suppose that whatever influenced them is what influenced me too!
YCD - If you were allowed to steal just one song which one would you choose and why? GB - The Jimmy Webb song, Highwayman, because it is such a beautifully written piece about the mysterious cycle of life. It happened to be on the radio here in Houston as I was driving to a loved one’s funeral, and I had heard it many times before but it was the first time that I really understood the lyrics. It was so moving, comforting, and yet saddening all at once, especially hearing the voices of Waylon and Johhny Cash singing to me through the radio from “the other side” and realizing that Willie and Kris Kristofferson are the only ones who remain on this earthly plane . . . and they just don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Not even in Texas. I would love to be able to say I wrote that song! YCD - Your music to me seems to have an old timey yet timeless feel to it, how would you best describe it? GB - I think that’s perfect. I really can’t think of a better way to describe it, but people have always told me that it sounds like nothing else they’ve ever heard before.
YCD - If you could share a stage with any band or artist who would you choose and why? GB - I want to share a stage with George Jones because I’ve recorded a few original duets that I wrote, and I want to sing one with him. I also want to get a chance to talk with him about what things were like growing up in the woods outside of Beaumont, Texas, where we both were raised. Also, I want to share a stage with Kris Kristofferson because he writes such heartfelt songs and is a Rhodes scholar, and my songs are also from the heart yet I am “an intellectual” with a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Houston’s elite Creative Writing program, rated in the top two in America by US News and World Report. I think Kris Kristofferson is somebody I’d enjoy bantering with between songs in an intimate singer-songwriter venue. Did you know that he will be in Brighton in March?(I didn’t, do now thanks,guest list?
YCD - Where can we expect to see you playing soon? GB - At the moment, shows are lining up for 2008 in Austin, San Marcos, Dallas, Houston, and Memphis, Tennessee. I also have an email list for my music newsletter that announces show dates month-by-month as they come up. There’s a link to join the list on my homepage.
YCD - What’s your hopes and fears for the future musically? GB - My greatest hope is to be granted the good health and means to continue on my path in music, to continue to write good songs and to find the right producer for my next album—somebody who really gets my music. Fears? What’s to fear? As long as I am able to make music, I will be happy.
YCD - Finally Glenna, Who’s currently rocking your stereo? GB - Old Christmas records from the fifties, mainly—‘tis the season! Also, Lightin’ Hopkins, John Lomax’s famous compilation of songs recorded in the field back in the early years of the twentieth century, Billy Holiday, Miles Davis, Elvis, Glenn Miller, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, various Big Band artists . . . (I inherited a large collection of vintage records, so the list goes on and on.)
YCD - Many thanks for granting you crazy dreamers this interview and we all wish you the very best for the future. GB - And thank YOU. Happy Holidays and all my best—
Glenna Bell
Given the amount of competition out there these days, you have to respect any musician who is yet to have a myspace/facebook/virb page showcasing their talents. Elephant Micah is one of these people and it would seem he prefers the old fashioned ‘word of mouth’ method of getting his music heard. He has been going at it now for about 8 years but after I heard the album Alsation Sunlight I still can’t believe that he is not better known and so I am trying my best to get his music heard, by word of mouth of course.
At times he reminds me of some early Experimental Low, early Lo-Fi Smog and the sparseness of J Tillman and perhaps some Elliott Smith too, with the way he layers some tracks so all of those put together has to create something special surely !! Well it does believe you me, this is some of the best music I have heard in my life. If still available I want to get a hold of the album ‘and the loud guitars’ as there is a song on there called ‘Nobody Knows Rosie’ which I just love, got a Bonnie Prince Billy thing going on in that one.
But it’s quite difficult to explain what kind of music Elephant Micah makes because there is so much in there, Country,folk,rock,lo-fi,experimental. These days it would probably get classified as Americana but it doesn’t really matter because what you get at the end of the day is an extremely gifted songwriter who deserves to heard by a much bigger audience.
Elephant Micah has Granted YCD an exclusive interview and also has kindly supplied a couple of tracks for your listening/download pleasure which I am sure you will enjoy.
Please, out of all the artists I’ve written about so far, I would urge you to support this real independant musician who pretty much does everything himself and if you really want to support Elephant Micah then please buy his records and go and see him live. All links to his music are provided in the interview below.
This man just simply has to be heard, please do so.
YCD - So firstly, could you please tell us who you are and where you are from?
EM - My name is Joe, and I’m from southern Indiana, near Louisville, Kentucky.
YCD - Ok, might as well ask you now, promoting anything right now or recently released anything?
EM - The only promotion happening around Elephant Micah is by word-of-mouth. For the time being, I hope the music will speak for itself, and that listeners will let each other know about it through outlets like this blog.
In terms of what I’ve released recently, there are a couple of new discs. The first is a full-length CD called Hindu Windmills, and the second is a small edition hand-packaged mini CDR titled Alsatian Sunlight. Both are kind of sparse, “singer-songwriter” affairs.
YCD - So where can we get a hold of this?
EM - I have a sub-website called the Luddite Rural Recording Cooperative. I sell my music there as well as a lot of other people’s self-releases. Here’s the link: www.lrrc.elephantmicah.com. I try to make this stuff available through other mailorders as well. (Time-Lag, Boa Melody Bar, Norman Records, and Fusetron each carry some Elephant Micah titles.)
YCD - I think some of your music reminds me of the likes of Low and even some early Smog. Do you think this is a fair comment?
EM - ’m not an expert on either of those bands. It’s probably a comparison worth thinking about though. Maybe you’re responding to the subdued singing style. I can identify with their vocal sounds. They seem quiet but not breathy… not restrained sounding. So I wouldn’t mind being in that school of singers, as opposed to the whisperers or the belters.
YCD - After speaking with you before you mentioned you had played in my hometown of Brighton in the U.K, Firstly what do you remember of Brighton and Secondly, are you planning on touring again soon anywhere in the world?
EM - The show promoter took me on the Crazy Mouse rollercoaster. It was excellent.
A few years later, I was surprised to see an identical Crazy Mouse at the Kentucky State Fair. Anyway, it’s not the same without the sense that you might be plunged into the ocean.
I’ve done lots of tours over the years, almost completely on a do-it-yourself basis. I’m less tolerant of it now—I prefer either to have an audience or to be paid. At least one or the other. These things are hard to come by on self-booked tours. So, it’s hard to find the right opportunities to “gig,” as you say in England. I’m always on the lookout, though.
YCD - If there is one song you could steal and claim it as your own for ever which one would you choose and why?
EM - Well, not literally.
I keep thinking about Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge,” though. It never ceases to speak to this post-back-to-the-land existence.
Plus, it rocks.
YCD - With so many new genres cropping up all the time now how would you best describe your music?
Are new genres cropping up, or is it just new genre names? I honestly don’t know. But I’d say that the way we are subdividing and sub-subdividing music has a lot more to do with extra-musical social signals than actual sound values. Basically, we “package” music to create the experience of distinctiveness whether or not the music is substantially distinctive.
Hopefully what makes my music distinctive is not its genre or style but its content and meaning.
Maybe if I had to invent a classification for Elephant Micah I’d do so by grafting “recordist” onto the old singer-songwriter designation. The self-recording process is a major part of what’s made Elephant Micah what it is, so maybe I can call it recordist-singer-songwriter music.
YCD - What are your hopes and fears for you in the future, musically?
EM - I’d like to make Elephant Micah a viable listener supported entity. I’m thrilled by the enthusiastic response to my music over the past eight years, but it remains a struggle to record, release, and distribute the recordings effectively. Things are moving at a snail’s pace, but I hope that the merits of the music will continue to attract people in spite of its low media visibility. I also have to hope that new listeners will recognize Elephant Micah as dependent on grassroots support, and will take an active personal interest in contributing through buying recordings or donating for downloaded music, as well as through spreading the word about my music to other music fans.
YCD - Finally, I notice you don’t have a myspace page yet you have released quite a lot of stuff. Is this because like me, you find it’s no longer a platform for new music and has been hijacked by the big music companies and their artists or is it just because you can’t be bothered?
EM - I just really can’t stand the word “myspace.”
Another slice of Alt-Country from yes, you guessed it Portland Oregon, the mecca it would seem of the Alt-Country-Americana world. I’m surprised they haven’t been picked up yet on any blogs. Dolorean make dreamy sounding Alt-Country which will have you staring out of rain lashed windows for hours dreaming of a better place. They have released three albums already but I have to admit I’ve only recently just heard about them through my friend Shaun, at Gilded palace of sin in Brighton, after his recomendation of the album ‘you can’t win’ which is their latest of the three. It is an album of lush sounds similar to the likes of Justin Rutledge, Damien Jurado, Denison witmer as well as other established Alt-Country acts such as Richmond Fontaine. Sadly I missed their Brighton gig recently as I was otherwise engaged seeing Ray LaMontagne at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In my opinion Dolorean are as good as anything coming out of the Alt -Country scene right now and it’s criminal that they are being overlooked. Give them a chance, I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised.
C S Nielsen is from Denmark. C S Nielsen sounds like the late Johnny Cash. C S Stands for ”Country Stig” It’s pretty much all you need to know to be honest.His Debut album has been on constant play since i bought it Directly from Stig in the last couple of weeks.When a tv channel in Denmark had a Johnny cash tribute night they also included C S Nielsen on the same night because of the similarities. I don’t think he deliberately tries to sound like Johnny he just happens to do so.His songwriting is superb especially in the song rage which is available for a listen on this site. Enjoy
www.myspace.com/csnielsen
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