Joe Strummer was one of those essential artists whose reputation far exceeded the widespread recognition he achieved in life. When he passed away from a congenital heart defect at age 50, he was known mainly for his roles he played in the Clash, Big Audio Dynamite, the 101ers and his solo band the Mescaleros, and yet despite having established an insurgent attitude and a musical palette that spanned punk, dub, funk, and rockabilly, his solo catalogue always seemed to take second place to the iconic outfits with which he’s been forever identified. There’s a clear irony in that distinction, given that Strummer was an outspoken individual who continued to channel social and political causes fearlessly and tirelessly throughout his career.
It’s apt then that Strummer’s solo career should finally get the focus it deserves with “Assembly”, a long-overdue compilation that boasts both career highlights — three live unreleased Clash recordings are, on their own, well worth the price of admission — film score contributions, three tracks recorded with the Mescaleros, a moving take on Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” and, of special note to collectors, a heretofore unreleased version of “Junco Partner,” a song that dates back to Strummer’s initial efforts with the 101ers and rendered here as an earnest acoustic home recording.
‘Assembly’ is the first new Joe Strummer title to be released on Dark Horse Records. Designed as a new starting point to Joe Strummer’s back catalogue, it includes 13 tracks from Strummer’s solo career, along with two live versions of the classic Clash songs “Rudie Can’t Fail” and “I Fought The Law” and a previously unreleased acoustic version of Junco Partner – making a total of 16 tracks. Other tracks come from Strummer’s extensive solo catalogue including tracks from his three albums with ‘The Mescaleros’.
The late Clash frontman Joe Strummer is getting new solo best of, Assembly, on March 26th via Dark Horse Records that collects his work with The Mescaleros and more. One of the rarities included on the album is a never-before-released acoustic version of “Junco Partner,” a blues song first recorded in 1951 by James Waynes, that Strummer played with his first band, The 101ers, was recorded by The Clash for Sandinista! and he continued to play through his days with The Mescaleros.
This acoustic version, just Joe and his guitar, was discovered on a hand-labelled cassette tape in the Strummer archives.
Founded in 1974 by George Harrison Dark Horse Records has long been a home for Storytellers and Troubadour’s, words that can be used to describe Joe Strummer, making Dark Horse Records to perfect home to appreciate and expand Strummer’s incredible legacy across, music, politics, and culture.
Package includes new written forward by Jacob Dylan
Tracklist: 1. Coma Girl 2. Johnny Appleseed 3. I Fought The Law (Live) 4. Tony Adams 5. Sleepwalk 6. Love Kills 7. Get Down Moses 8. X-Ray Style 9. Mondo Bongo 10. Rudie Can’t Fail (Live) 11. At The Border, Guy 12. The Long Shadow 13. Forbidden City 14. Yalla, Yalla 15. Redemption Song 16. Junco Partner (Acoustic)
My 2xLP Record Store Day release “All These Perfect Crosses” will be available digitally on 2/26/21 on Partisan Records. Accompanying the release, we’ve partnered with Neighborhood Comics to create a standard and deluxe print edition of Andrew Greenstone’sAll These Perfect Crosses comic. To celebrate, we’ve released two versions of “Calvary Court” (full band and piano versions), which is one of a number of songs illustrated in the comic book. You can pre-order both editions now below.
The vinyl is still available in some stores, check your local record shop. Huge thanks to Andrew Greenstone for creating something so cool around these songs, and to Neighborhood Comics for making us the first release on their publishing imprint. Stay Positive.
‘All These Perfect Crosses is a collection of songs that came from the sessions for Faith In The Future, We All Want The Same Things, and I Need A New War. For Craig, these three records are one body of work, and the songs on this collection are pieces of that larger narrative. For various reasons, these songs didn’t appear on the records they were recorded for, but they still tell a part of the same story: modern people trying to make it through, to keep their heads above water, to live past their mistakes, to survive.
Truth in advertising: Iron Butterfly’s first album was titled Heavy. The 1968 Atco Records release introduced the band’s dense sound fusing hard rock and psychedelia with a set of original songs plus a reimagining of Allen Toussaint’s “Get Out of My Life Woman.” While three-fifths of the band left after that debut, Heavy nonetheless began Iron Butterfly on a journey encompassing four studio LPs, one-off tracks, and live sets through 1971. Now, that journey has been lavishly chronicled on a recent box set from Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint. The 7-CD Unconscious Power: An Anthology 1967-1971 brings together has all of the pioneering band’s original albums plus bonus tracks and rare mixes to offer a full immersion into Iron Butterfly’s heavy world.
The San Diego band was formed in 1966 by Doug Ingle (vocals/organ), Jack Pinney (drums), Greg Willis (bass), and Danny Weis (guitar) with Darryl DeLoach (vocals) joining soon after. But the personnel shifts had only just begun; within months, Jerry Penrod replaced Willis. Pinney left to return to school with Bruce Morse and then Ron Bushy stepping in for him. The Ingle/Bushy/Weis/Penrod/DeLoach made a powerful noise at venues such as The Whisky A-Go Go and was signed by Atlantic Records to its Atco subsidiary.
Heavy, on CD 1 here, is presented in both its mono and stereo mixes in an expanded edition also including a single recorded in 1967 but not released until 1970 in Europe: “Don’t Look Down on Me” b/w an early version of the album’s “Possession.” The closing “Iron Butterfly Theme,” a brisk, instrumental mini-suite, best encapsulated the group’s ambitions. But those ambitions didn’t have time to flower as Weis, Penrod, and DeLoach all opted to move on near the end of 1967. (Penrod and Weis went on to join Rhinoceros, also recently anthologized by Esoteric.) Enter guitarist Rick Davis (a.k.a. Erik Brann) and drummer-turned-bassist Lee Dorman.
The new four-piece unit recorded the band’s signature song and album, 1968’s In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida. While the title was a misheard version of “In the Garden of Eden,” there was no mistaking the thunderous epic’s success. Clocking in at seventeen minutes, the Doug Ingle composition took up the entire second side of the original LP which reached No. 4 on the Top LPs chart and became one of the best-selling albums of the era. The apotheosis of psych-rock excess and heaviness, “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” provided a showcase for the band members’ virtuosity (including a three-minute drum solo from Bushy) and was charged with electricity and immediacy. Bushy recalls in the liner notes here that “we listened to [the playback] and we were blown away. All we did was re-record Doug’s scratch vocals and overdub the guitar solo, and we were done.” The single version made it to No. 30 on the Hot 100; in the years since its release, the LP has been certified 4x Platinum in the United States. CD 2 of the new box has the stereo album plus the single versions of “Vida” and “Iron Butterfly Theme.”
How to follow up such a momentous release? Iron Butterfly released Ball in 1969, and the album actually bested its predecessor’s performance on the Top LPs survey, reaching a No. 3 berth. Whereas Ingle had written all of In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida other than one track (Brann and Dorman’s “Termination”), Ball was a more well-rounded group effort. Ingle’s four solo compositions were bolstered by one collaboration with Bushy (“In the Time of Our Lives”), one full-band effort (“Soul Experience”), one with Brann and Bushy (“Real Fright”) and another with Dorman (“In the Crowds”) while the solo Brann penned the closing “Belda Beast.” The additional compositional voices led Iron Butterfly’s sound to mature, and the overall album was more melodic than fans might have expected. It didn’t have much singles success, though, with the grooving, cosmic “Soul Experience” going to No. 75 and the much darker “In the Time of Our Lives” only making No. 96. Four single sides are added to the album for the presentation here.
Erik Brann made his departure from the band after Ball, and the remaining members brought in two guitarists to replace him, Larry “El Rhino” Reinhardt and Blues Image’s Bruce Pinera. But before another studio album was released, Atco immortalized the four-piece line up’s sets from their hometown of San Diego, with additional material recorded at a St. Louis gig. An even longer “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida” again occupied one whole side of vinyl, with the other side featuring songs familiar from all three prior albums. Whereas In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida and Ball only had dedicated stereo mixes, a unique mono mix was made for Live. The album was a commercial hit, hitting No. 20 on the Top LPs chart. Both the stereo and mono mixes (the latter in its CD debut) appear on CD 4 of the box.
Iron Butterfly premiered its new line-up on Metamorphosis, initially released in August 1970. Producer Richard Polodor helmed the album including the earthy single “Easy Rider” which peaked at No. 66 on the Hot 100. The Steppenwolf/Three Dog Night producer urged the band in a more eclectic direction, with most of the songs written by Bushy, Dorman, and Ingle. The musically shifting “Shady Lady” (with Bill Cooper guesting on pedal steel) and the mellow, sitar-flecked ballad “Slower than Guns” introduced the lyrics of Robert Woods Edmonson to the band. Metamorphosis was a success, peaking at No. 16, and it’s remembered today for Pinera’s early use of a talk box on the closing “Butterfly Bleu.” The 14-minute opus didn’t repeat the success of “Vida” but showed that the group hadn’t strayed too far from its heavy jam roots. Yet only one studio recording followed Metamorphosis: the 1971 non-LP single “Silly Sally” which incongruously paired the band with southern soul producers Dave Crawford and Brad Shapiro. Its funky, Memphis-style brass immediately set it apart from Iron Butterfly’s past recordings. A fascinating curio, this rare cut has been appended to Metamorphosis.
Esoteric’s box is rounded out with a reprise of Live at the Filmore East, originally released as a limited edition on Rhino Handmade in 2011 and featuring the classic line-up of Brann, Bushy, Dorman, and Ingle. It boasts four power-packed sets (one of which is incomplete due to technical issues on the first two songs) from the much-missed New York venue as recorded on April 26th and 27th, 1968.
Iron Butterfly called it a day after a 1971 European tour. Brann and Bushy reformed the band three years later and went on to release two more albums under the band name in 1975 on the MCA label. Both were released on CD in 1995 and again in 2008. Brann, Bushy, Dorman, and Ingle reunited in 1988 for Atlantic Records’ 40th anniversary celebration, but today, Bushy and Ingle are retired. Dorman died in 2012. (Sadly, DeLoach, Brann, Dorman, and Reinhardt are also deceased.) Touring versions of the group have been performing since 1974 with just a couple of breaks (1985-1987, 2012-2015). The most recent line up was led by Ron Bushy until his retirement.
Unconscious Power: An Anthology 1967-1971 is one of the most beautiful packages from Esoteric yet. Designed by Phil Smee, it most closely resembles the label’s past Animals and Andrew Gold boxes, with a sturdy, rigid slipcase housing a box with mini-LP replicas of the original albums. These all have spines, and Ball, Metamorphosis, and Live at the Fillmore East are in gatefolds. Original back cover artwork has been adapted for these sleeves. A squarebound 64-page booklet has Mike Mettler’s copious liner notes (drawing on fresh interviews with Ron Bushy and Mike Pinera) and annotation as well as a lengthy history of the band and many images such as single sleeves, promotional photos, advertisements, posters, and more. A foldout poster tops off this definitive collection which has been remastered by Ben Wiseman from the original Atco tapes.
Whether that power was unconscious or otherwise, Iron Butterfly certainly had it. The band even influenced a certain other foursome on Atlantic Records – once their opening act – whose name balanced the heavy and the light. This anthology packs a mighty punch.
Iron Butterfly, Unconscious Power: An Anthology 1967-1971 (Cherry Red/Esoteric QECLEC72744, 2020)
Toronto power pop band Pony have announced their debut LP “TV Baby”, out on April 9th via Take This To Heart Records. The news arrives alongside their new single “Couch,” which follows their previous track “WebMD.” “Couch” has a gloriously nostalgic pop/rock feel that would be right at home in the trailer of a teen movie circa the Clueless era. The video takes us back even further with an intro straight out of an ‘80s low-budget religious broadcast, which eventually goes awry and features a guest appearance from the Zodiac Killer.
TV Baby, the debut LP from Toronto power-pop act Pony, feels like it’s programmed from a different era. Driven by vocalist/guitarist Sam Bielanski’s sharp vocal tones and flashy, driving rhythm, the band combines cheeky 1980s style with 1990s self-reliance and modern production sheen for an experience caught between worlds. It’s hooky and vibrant, but don’t mistake exuberance for extroversion. TV Baby is an album dedicated to the indoor cats, the introverts, and those who value their independence above anything else.
Bielanski, along with close friends Matty Morand (Pretty Matty) and Lucas Horne, have taken a piecemeal approach to worldbuilding here. They’ll take you to the band computer, where Sam’s frantically typing symptoms into a search bar into “WebMD,” where body horror meets sugar-rushed guitars. Next comes a thorny survey of the “Furniture,” fuzzy and scuff-marked, before letting you crash on the “Couch,” a pop-punk ode to discovering new parts of yourself while the world rolls past. When others are present in this internal monologue, like those hurt and driven to “Cry,” they’re greeted with the same maximalist pop-rock. In Pony’s gig economy, riffs beat out the rear-view mirror. Saddle up alongside them and your joyride is guaranteed.
Watch the video for “Couch” and preorder the album PONY – “Couch” (Official Music Video) From their upcoming album “TV Baby” Out April 9th via Take This To Heart Records
There’s a certain beauty within Angie McMahon’s music that’s always present, but never quite the central focus of her work. It’s something that underlays the potent emotion of her earliest work in 2017 – “Slow Mover’s” strange mix of uplifting ache; “Keeping Time” soaring choruses – right through to her 2019 debut record “Salt”, an 11-track collection of songs that encapsulated AngieMcMahon’s charm as both a musician and storyteller in a similar vein to some of her biggest comparables and influences – Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks.
However, this remarkable and almost unexplainable pocket of beauty is something that really reaches a fever pitch in Angie McMahon’s live show, at the points where her live band step away for a moment and leave Angie alone in the spotlight. It’s here where Angie becomes her most brilliant; the lyricism and storytelling that underpins her work’s emotional richness entering the forefront to the point where you can’t brush it away or focus on anything else – you simply have to stand there and take it all in.
It’s something that really shone in this video filmed with her in 2018, where Angie – amidst a tour with Canadian musician Leif Vollebekk – stripped back the then-unreleased If You Call to its most subtle and remarkable, backed by the greenery of Victoria Park florist/plant store Green Bunch. With the production of the single’s recorded form replaced by only gentle piano, guitar and Leif Vollebekk’s devastingly-beautiful vocal cries, the moment is something that can draw you to tears from the get-go, even an entire year following its original release:
As it turns out, the acoustic live cover was the catalyst for the now-arriving “Piano Salt EP”, a stripped-back collection of tracks from her 2019 debut LP Salt, along with a few covers too. “The version of “If You Call” on this EP was recorded by Pilerats in Perth when we toured Australia with Leif Vollebekk,” she explains. “It was this wonderful day where we set up inside Green Bunch, a lovely plant shop/cafe, and filmed and recorded the duet. That was probably the seed being planted for this EP, because by the start of this year I was practising new versions of other songs off Salt too and was able to find a place for all of those with this release.”
The full collection of tracks that form “Piano Salt” ahead of its official release tomorrow, October 2nd. It’s a gentle seven songs that really flesh out this aforementioned beauty that swirls around Angie McMahon’s work when its stripped back to its most raw and subtle, indulging in the richness of Angie’s vocal and how she’s able to turn the emotions of Salt – and a few other special songs too – into potent, devastatingly beautiful moments that encapsulate Angie’s talents as one of Australia’s most brilliant songwriters and vocalists.
It opens with a swirling, piano-backed cover of Soon that feels almost like a modern-day reimagining of classical music, and its ability to tell stories and emotions even at music’s most minimalist and acoustic. This trait really shines amongst Piano Salt. When Slow Mover is pulled back to its most subtle, the soft sense of cathartic release that floats amongst the single’s cries are replaced by an almost-haunting presence that on a surface level, makes you feel the track’s lyrics underneath a new emotional lens. Keeping Time provides a similar moment – a favourite of Angie’s catalogue that many would associate with their introduction to the Melbourne musician painted in an entirely new light – while the EP-closing Pasta aches in a way that’s conveyed in the original, but emphasised this time around.
The EP also gives the opportunity for Angie McMahon to shine in another area she’s long-adored: covers. “It’s been a real treat to release second versions of some songs, and have an excuse to do more covers too,” she says. “I love covers.” Her Isol-Aid set early on in the festival’s existence seemed to encapsulate the whole event’s beauty , and a big part of that came through two covers that Angie performed; one of Bruce Springsteen’s The River, and the other of Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die.
TheBorn To Diecover is a highlight of the EP, joined by a video also premiering today, filmed The Perch Recording Studio, Castlemaine. It’s a cover that pays tribute to Lana’s distinct performance style, and how she – like Angie – are really capable of highlighting this deep sense of emotion through their work. “This cover of Born to Die was just so fun to play. I love the way Lana sings, so deep and emotive, and I wanted to pay tribute to that way of performing because it has inspired me as an artist in the way I write and sing my own songs too.”
The whole EP – and the covers included within it – are a coming full circle moment for Angie too. “Piano is the first instrument I learnt and the one that made me first love singing. My favourite piano song when I was young was k.d lang’s cover of Hallelujah. So this EP feels like a return to my piano-cover-loving inner kid,” she explains. “It’s been a really nice creative opportunity to recreate the feeling of some bigger songs off my first record, give them a new life, and cover some of my favourite songs too. It gave me something to do when we went into quarantine.”
The end result is something remarkably brilliant.
This is a mixture of footage from my home in lockdown, when everything went slow, and the Hozier tour that I joined in November last year, when everything was moving so fast. We were travelling around America, my sound engineer Jono and I, following the Hozier bus and having our own adventures every day. I’m so grateful he kept the go pro on for that month, and that the audiences were so warm, and that I have a safe and comfortable home to slow down in now. Thank you to our friend Lewis Parsons who edited all of this together so flawlessly. this version of Soon almost made it onto the Salt record, there has been a band version and a piano version floating around for a while, and in the end we decided on the band version. It’s so nice to be able to bring this one out now, and I hope it connects with people.
“Slow Mover” by Angie McMahon under exclusive license to AWAL Recordings Ltd Released on: 2017-10-09
Cumbria‘s The Lucid Dream finally unleash their debut full length this June, following 3 sold out 45s, steady press coverage and widespread acclaim for live shows which have seen them support everyone from Beefheart’s “Magic Band”, Death In Vegas, A Place to Bury Strangers and Spectrum.
Previous descriptions of the bands’ sound has honed in on fuzz and drone heavy nods to Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized, BJM and The Heads, yet that somehow overlooks the pure pop savvy and stripped down acid drenched hooks of the US West Coast and prime era Mary Chain and Beach Boys feel to tunes like “Heartbreak Girl” and “Love In My Veins”. To these ears, tips of the hat also include a favourable one towards Motown in places even, so to dig a wee bit here is no bad thing…
A great album and a real grower and sure to build upon the great reviews the 45s attained with accompanying radio play and press attention from the likes of Gideon Coe, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and Tom Robinson. The band tour in support of the album including slots supporting label favourites Sic Alps. Vinyl pressing of 500 is sure to sell out quickly .Taken from the forthcoming 5th album, ‘The Deep End’, to be released 2nd April 2021 (vinyl/CD/download), via Holy Are You Recordings. Here’s ‘CHI-03’, the first taster from our upcoming album, ‘The Deep End’!
On Tour: 15th October: Hebden Bridge Trades Club 16th October: Carlisle The Brickyard 29th October: Glasgow Stereo 30th October: Manchester YES
Holy shit we weren’t prepared for this this is a full on wigged out psych rock jams from two of the titans of all things psychedelica working in the business today. ‘Deep Fried Grandeur’ is an unexpected but scintillating collaboration between the dazzlingly talented Chicago based guitarist Ryley Walker and Japanese psychedelic rockers Kikagaku Moyo. Recorded live at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht in 2018, the two artists present lengthy, kaleidoscopic jams shot through with freak folk and jazz.
Recorded live at Le Guess Who Festival in 2018 then fully rounded out into a space rock opus in the studio. a special collaboration between Chicago-based songwriter and accomplished fingerstyle guitarist Ryley Walker and Japanese psych-rockers Kikagaku Moyo. With both artists taking a freewheeling approach to their music, they have dubbed their first-ever live collaboration ‘Deep Fried Grandeur’; an hour of deeply hypnotic jams and a hair-raising fusion folk jazz, acid rock, and psychedelia in heavy-improv setting.
“So, the group game together at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, Netherlands in 2018. I was asked by the organizers to find another group on the festival to collaborate with for a one off performance. I was immediately drawn to Kikagaku Moyo. We share similar guitar scuzz and riff heavy improvising when playing live. Seemed like the most fun and natural thing to do. I was in the middle of a european tour, so had my full backing band. So with KM and me, 9 mother fuckers total on stage wailing
It was a lot of SOUND. So we passed the live recordings off to cooper crain of CAVE and bitchin bajas to tweak the levels and add some sprinkles. He shaped the raw recordings into a cohesive piece that works for a 40 min slab. We had an afternoon of rehearsal and it mostly just drinking espresso, smoking cigs and saying “man, we’ll be fine”
Husky Pants Records, expected release: 5th February 2021
Rarely does an album title suggest the truth in advertising that Keeper conveys with this, the seventh outing by the Canadian alt-country conglomerate that shares the name Elliott Brood. For the better part of the past 20 years, this talented trio has been making music that’s tasteful, tuneful and easy on the ear, and indeed, this latest release is no exception. These shimmering acoustic melodies are both hopeful and uplifting, a welcome respite from today’s troubled times. Various upbeat entries — “Bird Dog,” “Oh Me” and “Stay Out” — find an ideal fit with the reflective ballads “Merciless Wind” and “A Month of Sundays,” as well as with the tempered twang of “Full of Wires.” Indeed, the combination provides a reassuring sound that resonates throughout. That’s appropriate; according to the press material, the album’s overall theme revolves around “loyalty and longevity…the strength of conviction, and how that strength is tested over time.” No wonder then that the overall delivery is both buoyant and engaging, with every encounter as satisfying as the first. Consider this a keeper indeed.
Elliott Brood is a three-piece alternative country band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of Mark Sasso on lead vocals, guitar, banjo, ukelele and harmonica, Casey Laforet on guitar, backing vocals, bass pedals, keys and ukelele and Stephen Pitkin on percussion,
When an artist receives any kind of tribute treatment, it’s generally a sign of some well-deserved recognition. It means that the music has become so iconic, reverence is readily assured. Likewise, when a salute of that sort spans two discs, it’s also evident that there’s plenty of source material that can be considered. Not surprisingly then, the iconic rocker Willie Nile gave the musicians that contribute to his particular tribute, Willie Nile Uncovered, plenty of songs to choose from. Nile, whose career was originally spawned during the Greenwich village folk scene of the mid to late ‘70s, eventually turned his gaze towards the insurgent sounds that drew Springsteen, Patti Smith, Elliott Murphy, and various arch denizens of his city’s post-punk scene.
That said, the music represented here is strikingly diverse, whether it’s Emily Duff’s take on the celebratory sing-along “Hell Yeah,” the appropriate Band-like sound given Quarter Horse’ read of “When Levon Sings,” the tender tones of James Maddocks’ version of “She’s Got My Heart,” or, naturally enough, the rousing revelry found in Nils Lofgren’s performance of “All God’s Children.
A varied list of rock, folk and Americana luminaries take part — which, aside from those mentioned above, include Graham Parker, John Gorka, Caroline Doctorow, Slaid Cleaves, Richard Shindell, Richard Barone and Lucy Kaplinsky — and they not only offer appropriate homage, but also ensure that the appreciation Nile so decidedly deserves is served up quite sufficiently.
“The subtitle to this 2 CD set of songs of native New Yorker Willie Nile is ‘Celebrating 40 Years of Music.’ 26 sterling interpretations of his oeuvre have resulted in one of the most playable and entertaining tribute album in years. Incorporating Americana, roots rock, folk rock, country rock and the kind of singer-songwriter smarts that a fella named Bruce pioneered just over the Hudson River on the Jersey side, there are no clinkers. Not one… So many highlights!” – Mike Greenblatt- Goldmine Magazine, November 2020.
“…it’s consistently excellent…it’s a dependably absorbing listen”. Hal Horowitz – American Songwriter – 8/20/20
“The range of Willie’s music has been captured brilliantly on Willie Nile Uncovered… It’s been lovingly packaged with complete credits and extensive liner notes… The album reveals the richness of Willie’s catalogue… Thanks to Willie for his unwavering rock & roll heart and thanks to Paradiddle for giving Willie his due.” – John Platt – New Folk Initiative – 8/28/20
“An effort with something for everyone, Americana, rock, folk, country and roots rock are all explored here and interpreted in thoughtful, exciting ways that certainly puts Nile’s work at the highest regard.” – Take Effect – 8/30/20
“A delightful compilation by many. Willie Nile has great friends. John Apice – Americana Highways – 8-20-20
“…all of the contributing artists bring something fresh to the material while remaining true to its spirit. The album will likely make you want to explore Nile’s recordings and also investigate some of the folks who cover them here.” – Jeff Burger – Americana Highways August 2nd, 2020 & TMR August 5th, 2020
“It’s an extraordinary tribute that gives justice to the brilliant Willie Nile catalogue.” —6/30/2020 – Norm Prusslin, co-founder of the Long Island Music Hall of Fame – New Jersey Stage
Working in tandem with her erstwhile musical collaborator David Rawlings, singer/songwriter Gillian Welch searched through her vault and uncovered a rich cache of home demos and reel-to-reel recordings that she then assembled into three volumes of archival offerings. Collectively titled The Lost Songs and delineated as Boots Vol. 1, 2 and 3, she shares 48 songs in total, thus allowing fans and followers an opportunity to bear witness to Welch’s creative sensibilities and the unreleased music she and Rawlings recorded in the fertile period between her critically-acclaimed albums Time (The Revelator) and Soul Journey. An aural sketchbook of sorts, the three volumes reflect a certain creative consistency and Welch’s willingness to indulge her muse wherever it might lead.
Fans of Gillian Welch and her long time songwriting foil David Rawlings’s reimagining of early country and bluegrass are used to being patient. Until a month ago, the pair had only released five albums proper under her name, and three in his, since Welch’s 1996 debut, “Revival”. But after their studio, with all their old recordings, was almost destroyed by a tornado in March, they’ve changed tack. Hot on the heels of July’s covers album, “All the Good Times Are Past and Gone”, comes the follow-up to 2016’s first batch of archive recordings, The Official Revival Bootleg, with two more volumes.
While most of the offerings are rendered in stripped-down settings, all reflect a propensity to tap traditional sources and pay heed to a strong roots regimen. It’s music that’s rendered with a genuine folk finesse and a sound of a vintage variety. The charm is manifest in both the novelty and the nuance. Although they are demos, with little more in play than guitar and Welch’s voice, they sound fully realised.
First Place Ribbon, about barefoot Kathy, “the kinda girl likes the dust between her toes”, rattles along with an irresistible momentum; the narrator of the brooding Shotgun Song fantasises about escaping the chain gang; Valley of Tears is as desolately beautiful as its name suggests. That Welch and Rawlings have sat on such inspired recordings for almost two decades makes you wonder what other hidden treasures might be forthcoming.
Unearthed from a cache of home demos and reel-to-reel recordings, Boots No. 2: The Lost Songs is the second release of archival music from the vault of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. This remarkable 48 song collection, spread over three volumes, was recorded between the making of Time (The Revelator) and Soul Journey. It is an intimate glimpse at the artist’s sketchbook, containing some lifelong themes as well as some flights of fancy.
The Fat Angel Sings 