KATY CARR
New album Paszport out now Available to buy on iTunes and Amazon
“One of the most intriguing concept albums of the year”– The Guardian
“Tender and brave in equal measure” – The Observer
Paszport – No 4 Sunday Times Top 100 “World”
Upcoming Shows
26 January 2013
Celtic Connections Oran Mòr, Glasgow
7 February 2013
The Green Note Camden Town, London www.greennote.co.uk
WWW.KATYCARR.COM
JD MCPHERSON RELEASES ORIGINAL CHRISTMAS SONG “TWINKLE (LITTLE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS)” AVAILABLE AT ITUNES DECEMBER 11
“NORTH SIDE GAL” VIDEO GARNERS OVER ONE MILLION VIEWS
“I have seen the future of the past, and his name is J.D. McPherson…Signs & Signifiers, a bracing collection of tailfin rockabilly, rawboned R&B, and sultry moonstruck balladeering. It is hands-down the feel-good record of the year.”—Philadelphia Inquirer
“There was musical depth throughout the entire set, a connection to roots that felt electric and alive. In the capable hands of JD McPherson, everything old is new again.”—Chicago Tribune
“…he and his bandmates are great musicians taking ownership of a sound,
not just mimicking one.”—Washington Post
Recently named “Artist to Watch” by Rolling Stone, JD McPherson is set to perform his original Christmas song, “Twinkle (Little Christmas Lights)” on the “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” December 13. The track premiered today on RollingStone.com – http://rol.st/VdI1Gu– and will be available at iTunes December 11. McPherson will also perform “Fire Bug” from his critically acclaimed album, Signs & Signifiers, on “Late Show with David Letterman” December 4.
“I love the whole of Christmas: lights, cold weather, sentiment, poinsettias, baby Jesus, popcorn laurels, Santa,” says JD of the track. “I even admire the well-tuned machine of commercialism. There are loads of holiday songs—only a handful of rockin’, rollin’ Christmas songs, though. So, here’s our offering.”
Lauded as “a sound that is vibrantly reminiscent of 50s after hours dancehall hits mixed with angsty tunes to appease the most brooding bluesman,” (Yahoo! Music) JD and his band have blazed the country this year with his “timeless, forward-thinking rock & roll” (Rolling Stone). His self-directed video for “North Side Gal” has garnered over a million views to date.
Hailing from Broken Arrow, OK, the former art teacher traveled to Chicago to record Signs & Signifiers at Hi-Style studio, which is housed in the attic of producer/bassist/studio owner Jimmy Sutton’s home and is 100% analog. “I have recorded this style of music in the digital realm, and it just doesn’t quite “sing” as much. Slamming that ¼” tape really hard produced the most beautiful distortion I’ve ever heard,” says McPherson.
Featuring JD McPherson (lead and backing vocals, guitar), Jimmy Sutton (bass), and Alex Hall (drums, piano, organ), the album was recorded through a collection of vintage microphones into an old 1960’s Berlant 1/4 inch tape machine. The 12-track album kicks off with the fervent pulse of the first single, “North Side Gal,” and segues into one of the albums two covers, McPherson’s take on “Country Boy,” an old R&B number originally written and recorded by Tiny Kennedy.
JD MCPHERSON EUROPEAN TOUR DATES 2013
Jan 17 Electric Ballroom London, United Kingdom
Jan 18 Haunt Brighton, United Kingdom
Jan 19 BALAJO Paris, France
Jan 20 Melkweg Amsterdam, Netherlands
Jan 22 Brudenell Social Club Leeds, United Kingdom
Jan 23 Bullingdon Arms Oxford, United Kingdom
Jan 24 The Deaf Institute Manchester, United Kingdom
Jan 25 Celtic Connections Glasgow, United Kingdom
Jan 26 Caedman Hall Gateshead, United Kingdom
TG Collective
Fri 30 November
Tickets £10.00 (£8.00)
http://www.macarts.co.uk/event/tg-collective
mac is located in Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, opposite the County Cricket Ground on Edgbaston Road, off Pershore Road (A441) and Bristol Road. (A38).
A return for Birmingham’s own TG Collective, following sell-out performances at Pizza Express Soho and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, touring their new album, Release The Penguins. An intriguing mix of gypsy jazz, flamenco and contemporary classical influences, the band carries the music forward with a spirit of adventure and energy, built around the core of guitarists Jamie Fekete and Sam Slater, alongside flutes, violin, double bass, trumpet and cajón.
Creating an exciting, sensuous sound, TGC perform original compositions and arrangements, touching on influences as varied as Paco de Lucia, Django Reinhardt and JS Bach, and have built up a strong following with their intense live performances.
www.tgcollective.com
Jamie Fekete (guitars), Sam Slater (guitars), Percy Pursglove (trumpet, double bass), Holly Jones (flutes), Louis Robinson (violin), Joelle Barker (cajón, percussion).
Katy Carr ‘Paszport’
Out Monday 12th November; Deluce Recordings MDL 414
Katy Carr’s beautiful, romantic fourth album ‘Paszport’ is an epic, poetic journey through her past and that of her parents’ nation, Poland. Nominated for the London Music Award 2012, alongside Kate Bush, PJ Harvey and the Arctic Monkeys, and also for The National Lottery Awards 2012 for her Arts Council-funded ‘Escapologist Tour’, British-born songwriter Katy Carr’s heartfelt ‘Paszport’ album tackles areas and issues long considered too politically delicate to mention.
‘Paszport’ begins with a short extract in Polish from Kazik Piechowski, Carr’s main source of inspiration to whom she dedicates her record. Listening to Kazik’s voice, we not only hear a 92-year-old man who made a remarkable escape from Auschwitz in June 1942 – in Commandant Rudolf Hoess’s car dressed in SS uniforms – but also realise that the intergenerational link between Carr and Piechowski is key. For it is the first time in Kazik’s life that someone has been inspired by his life to create something meaningful for him.
The first song is ‘Kommander’s Car,’ a fierce, pulsating, folk ballad describing Piechowski’s emotions in the last eighty metres of his escape. This song, initially released on Carr’s previous album Coquette, has been remastered, and is the point from which her current journey into discovering her own Polish roots began. ‘Meeting Kazik changed my life. When I met him in 2009 and first played him my song Kommander’s Car, I had no idea that I would be taking this mammoth trip of discovery. Kazik’s story is my key to gaining access to my own Polish heritage. Through the film I made with fellow British film maker Hannah Lovell, Kazik and the Kommander’s Car, I have learnt through him how Polish people are so cool and fight for what they believe in.’
Dedicated to the Polish World War Two experience, Carr has drawn on all her influences and performances in the British vintage scene and mixed them with hardcore history topics that have remained silenced since then – due to the Iron Curtain’s rule over Central and Eastern Europe for over 45 years. ‘I’m interested in bringing history into the contemporary through the form of song. I’m delighted to have been described as an ambassador for Polish History by the Polish media and I intend to continue this role through my creative work’.
The album ‘Paszport’ pays homage to the Polish soldiers and pilots who fought so hard for Poland’s independence only to have their country taken over by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two – resulting in the mass displacement of Polish refugees across the world. In the song ‘Wojtek’ we catch a glimpse of the mascot of 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps during WW2: Wojtek was a Syrian brown bear who was made an honorary ‘private’ by the Polish Army, due to their affection for him; later he helped soldiers lift ammunition boxes at The Battle of Monte Cassino, 1944. ‘Red Red Rose’ is a song inspired by the mass transport of 1.8 million Poles to Siberia throughout World War Two: it centres on the theme of a ‘black black train taking my baby away…’ Note the red star on the train in the artwork.
The lyrics of these emotive songs are contained within the CD, printed in a mini-booklet designed by Central Illustration Agency artist Susan Burghart, who is married to a Pole. Before creating the artwork, Carr insisted that Burghart was taken to Warsaw on an inspirational taking in such archival institutions as Warsaw’s State Ethnographic Museum and the archives of the London museum, The Polish institute and the Sikorski Museum.
Musicians that have played on ‘Paszport’ come from a wide variety of sources. They include Klezmer cellist Francesca Ter-Berg, who was also Carr’s musical director; classical and gypsy violinist Flora Curzon; and Klezmer, Egyptian and Eastern European percussionist Guy Schalom [Schalom was nominated for Best Group in Songlines World Music Awards 2012 for his Baladi Blues Ensemble]. Wojciech Wentura was hired by Carr to help with her Polish pronunciation and to sing as the Opera singer on ‘Alicja’. And the voices of Polish soldiers from the 22nd artillery company are heard on ‘Wojtek’, whilst the Polish Partisan choir perform on ‘Chodźmy, Partyzanci!’, which translates as Let’s Go, Partisans! Produced by Nigel of Bermondsey, this is a tight indie-folk record exploring themes of love, refugee status, loss of passport, country, resistance, hope against adversity and patriotism.
We leave you with a quote from the poem by Jerzy Harasymowicz that is printed in its entirety in the CD booklet: ‘You own a passport therefore you exist.’
The Tragically Hip
Now For Plan A
Release Date: November 12th 2012
The Energy of Connectivity
Written by: Gavin Brown
It started making sense the night of the Bobcaygeon show last summer.
The Tragically Hip and I had already recorded 4-songs that spring at their studio in Kingston, a bit piecemeal, a little slow off the start and I was still looking for the magic, that something extra to make the new record special…
But that night as they hit the stage and hit their stride it became clear to me….they are a killer live band…
I’m overstating the obvious but I guess spending so much time tucked away in the studio trying to perfect the “unperfectable” (not a word) I think I lost sight of what the essence of this band is…The energy of connectivity…the five of them together…each providing his pulse to the flow…each playing off the other as no other band can.
The Tragically Hip have made great records their whole career and they’ve made many memories on nights like this….the moon shining, the crowd screaming, the songs one after the other, familiar yet reborn in the moment…
I hadn’t seen the Hip since their run at Massey Hall in Toronto a few years ago and maybe I had forgotten this while we were tracking each of them separately at the Bathouse that spring…
But now my job was clear…..channel this energy…let them play together…a living organism honed by the years.
We changed tack and retooled and found a studio able to house the five guys with their inimitable style and blasted through 14-songs in two weeks….there was the magic, there was the essence, every moment charged with the energy of connectivity no chance to over-think or worse….with a few finishing touches back at the Bathouse and a mix week in NYC the record was done….
Now For Plan A is the new Tragically Hip record due out November 12th 2012.
~
The Tragically Hip were formed in 1984 by five friends from Kingston ON – Rob Baker, Gordon Downie, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair.
The Hip have sold millions of records worldwide, managing to enjoy both mass popularity and critical acclaim.
The group released their first album, The Tragically Hip, in 1987 and have since released thirteen studio albums, earning two diamond certifications and over twenty #1 hits.
News THE DUNWELLS return home to TOUR THE UK and RELEASE a new 5 track EP
–Leaving The Rose –
http://soundcloud.com/concordmusicgroup/sets/leaving-the-rose-ep/s-8iudG
Here’s a video of one of the tracks on EP..
The Dunwells on The Tonight Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8RRi_dXH7k&feature=youtube_gdata_player
From the very first time The Dunwells hit American shores at the 2011 International Folk Alliance conference, their impact has been astounding. “Anyone that’s seen them has just been ‘Oh My God!’ They’re mind boggling!” raved Folk Alliance Executive Director Louis Jay Meyers to Voice of America radio. This auspicious start in the US had the band sign to a US independent label and recording in June 2011 at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studio outside Austin, Texas. They have been touring back and forth across the Atlantic ever since. This September 2012 , their latest return home to the UK will be to launch their second EP, Leaving The Rose featuring the heartrending song “Oh Lord”, produced by John Porter and play 6 dates around the UK.
The Dunwells had set off from Leeds as a classic Brit band, a powerful fusion of their individual talents both vocal and musically. Emerging from the pubs and clubs of Leeds, England, their hometown in 2009, The Dunwells are brothers Joseph Dunwell (vocals, guitar) and David Dunwell (guitar, piano, banjo) along with cousins Jonny Lamb (vocals, drums) and Rob Clayton (bass) and long time best mate Dave Hanson (guitar, pedal steel). “We are genuinely best mates,” explains singer, songwriter and guitarist Joseph Dunwell. “We sometimes bicker and fight, but then we hug and make up and go out for a drink.” Their stellar musicianship, classic roots songwriting and soaring harmony vocals have already made instant but lasting impressions on all who hear or see them perform.
Their first U.K. single, “Elizabeth,” hit #31 on the Independent Music chart the week it was released on their debut EP in March 2010. The band spent the rest of the year touring Britain and Europe, playing such top festivals as Hop Farm (with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison), Edinburgh’s cutting-edge Fringe Fest, Triumph Live (with Mumford & Sons) and the Fete De La Musique in Paris. To help spread their music further, the band frequently busks on the streets of the cities they visit.
The brand new EP Leaving The Rose will be released on 1st October and will feature 4 recently recorded acoustic songs including an amazing version of Imogen Heap’s Hide & Seek.
1/Oh Lord ( edit)
2/Goodnight My City (acoustic version) –
3/I Could Be A King (acoustic version)
4/Only Me (acoustic version)
5/Hide & Seek (acoustic version)
Catch the band on the road in September :
SEPTEMBER
22 Sept Bristol, Louisiana
£8
http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/event_ate_15188a.html
23 Sept Manchester, Soup Kitchen
£8
http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/event_ate_15187a.html
25 Sept Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
£10
http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/event_ate_15186a.html
26 Sept Nottingham, Bodega
£8
http://www.alt-tickets.co.uk/alttickets/event_ate_15214a.html
27 Sept London, Borderline
£10
https://www.theticketfactory.com/bookingsdirect/online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=11AA537F-D1C1-4275-A757-850FBD313C31
OCTOBER 17, 2012
GRAMMY® NOMINATED BLUEGRASS-MEETS-SOUL BAND
THE STEELDRIVERS RELEASING NEW HAMMER DOWN
“They’re a blues, country, bluegrass, swagger band and they are brilliant.” ~ Adele
“Whether it was older songs such as ‘Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey’ or newer songs such as ‘Guitars, Whiskey, Guns and Knives,’ the new lineup earned the respect of the most skeptical in the crowd. The SteelDrivers are still in the running to become a crucial factor in the history of bluegrass.” ~Geoffrey Himes, Baltimore City Paper
The SteelDrivers are back! The three time Grammy® nominated bluegrass-meets-soul band has threaded the roots of bluegrass music with the distinctive threads of their own design, bringing together country and soul to create their own unapologetic hybrid of new music with the old feeling. Hammer Down, their third release on Rounder Records, is set for release February 4, 2013.
The SteelDrivers’ brand of bluegrass – intense, dark, poetic, and inescapably human – is a refreshing reminder of the timeless power of string band music, and is captured perfectly on the new Hammer Down. The band has gone through a few changes since they first hit the national scene in 2008 with their self-titled debut, but their songs and sound remain fresh and powerful.
The SteelDrivers are banjo player Richard Bailey, bass/vocalist Mike Fleming, guitar/vocalist Gary Nichols, fiddler/vocalist Tammy Rogers and mandolinist Brent Truitt. Produced by Luke Wooton, Hammer Down is a collection of 10 new tunes from original members Chris Stapleton and Mike Henderson, as well as Rogers and Nichols. The set also includes the songs “I’ll Be There” and “Cry No Mississippi” that Nichols co-wrote with John Paul White – one-half of the band The Civil Wars.
The English pop star Adele was so smitten with the band that she began performing their song, “If It Hadn’t Been For Love,” in her live performances. Throughout 2013, The SteelDrivers will be touring nationwide in the USA at clubs and festivals.
www.steeldrivers.net
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-SteelDrivers/6900218737
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