Tag: acoustic

The Show On The Road – Blind Boys of Alabama

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week on The Show On The Road, in honor of Black History Month, we bring you a conversation with members of foundational gospel group, The Blind Boys Of Alabama, including longtime singer Ricky McKinnie and beloved senior member Jimmy Carter, who has been with the group for four decades.

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Formed in the late 1930s with talent discovered at the Alabama Institute For The Negro Blind, the Blind Boys of Alabama have superseded limitations to bring their own high-spirited version of jubilee gospel throughout the world. Their music was often the backdrop to the Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther King Jr. toured the south, and Jimmy and Ricky are both amazed and grateful that their message is still ringing true throughout the latest iteration Black Lives Matter movement that grew during the tumultuous last year.

While the members of the band have changed through time, the group has stayed steadfast to preserving a kinetic, church-based music that doesn’t seek to evangelize, but can bring people of all faiths together. Indeed, watching Jimmy and the other bespectacled members walk with hands on each other’s shoulders into the youthful crowds of adoring festival-goers, from Bonnaroo to Jazzfest, is really something to behold.

The Blind Boys’ body of work continues to grow. In the last few decades they’ve gamely collaborated with a wide range of secular artists from Peter Gabriel to Ben Harper to Bonnie Raitt, they made an album produced by Justin Vernon, AKA Bon Iver (2013’s stellar I’ll Find A Way), and they shrewdly reworked the ominous Tom Waits classic, “Way Down In The Hole,” which became the theme for HBO’s The Wire.

Their newest full length album, Almost Home, is a particularly moving treatise on morality and mortality. It features songs written by Marc Cohn, Valerie June, The North Mississippi All Stars and many others and was the last record that longtime member and bandleader Clarence Fountain was a part of before he passed away. He was a member of the Blind Boys of Alabama for nearly sixty years.

As Jimmy playfully mentions throughout our conversation, the Blind Boys of Alabama never let being blind stand in the way of doing what they do best: putting on a show. They’re entertainers at heart and it’s no small feat that they’ve brought a nearly lost form of swinging, soulful (and expertly arranged) gospel from the small southern towns where they grew up, all the way to the White House, where they’ve held court for three different presidents. And they’ve won five Grammy Awards along the way.

Stick around to the end of the episode hear their rich cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.”

Photo credit: Jim Herrington

The BGS Radio Hour – Episode 197

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Welcome to the BGS Radio Hour! Since 2017, the show has been a weekly recap of all the great music, new and old, featured on BGS. This week we’ve got new releases from so many amazing artists on the roots scene today, from Luke Combs to Langhorne Slim to Sierra Hull! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode of the BGS Radio Hour. 

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Luke Combs and Billy Strings – “The Great Divide”

Luke Combs, of country radio stardom, teams up with bluegrass-favorite Billy Strings this week for a new single. “The Great Divide” was written by the duo for Combs’s bluegrass album, one that he hasn’t completed yet. However, both artists agreed that the time to release this song was now, attempting to shine a light of hope in this tough time.

Allison Russell – “By Your Side”

Singer/frontwoman of the Birds of Chicago, Montréal-based Allison Russell brings this Sade cover to the show this week. What she calls an “endlessly expansive and inclusive song of love,” this song brings comfort to Russell – as it does to us, as well.

Jaelee Roberts – “Something You Didn’t Count On”

Nashville-based Jaelee Roberts is one of the quickest rising stars in bluegrass music. Her first single on Mountain Home Music Company, an original song co-written with Theo MacMillan (of Theo and Brenna), brings big promises of more great music to come.

Twisted Pine – “Amadeus Party”

A 5+5 guest this week is none other than Jim Olsen, president of Massachusetts record label Signature Sounds. Celebrating 25 years of the label, and the so many great artists presented by it, Olsen brings us the Golden Age playlist – which includes this jam from Twisted Pine.

Dale Ann Bradley – “Yellow Creek”

Kentucky-based Dale Ann Bradley brought us a new album this weekend! While you may remember her from former BGS Artist of the Month Sister Sadie – an all-female bluegrass supergroup – Bradley is stepping away from the band in 2021 to celebrate this new solo album, just one of so many in her extensive catalog.

Karen Matheson – “Glory Demon”

“Glory Demon” comes from Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. “It means war,” Matheson tells BGS. But, this is an anti-war song from the Scottish artist, one about how we never learn and life just keeps endlessly repeating itself.

Black Pumas – “Colors”

The Black Pumas are our February Artist of the Month here at BGS! You may recognize them from the Biden inauguration, where they performed this song from their 2019 self-titled album. Stayed tuned all month long, where we’ll be featuring exclusive content on the Black Pumas!

Langhorne Slim – “Mighty Soul”

This week on The Show On The Road podcast brings us a conversation with Sean Scolnick – known mostly by his alter-ego, Langhorne Slim. Host Z. Lupetin caught up with Slim to talk about his new album, Strawberry Mansion, creative funk, mental health, and more.

FRETLAND – “Could Have Loved You”

From Snohomish, Washington, Hillary Grace Fretland (of FRETLAND) catches up with BGS this week on a 5+5 segment – that is 5 questions, 5 songs. We talked favorite memories from being on stage, influences, and songwriting techniques.

Valerie June feat. Carla Thomas – “Call Me A Fool”

From her upcoming The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, Valerie June brings us this song that she dedicates to us all. Produced by June and Jack Splash – whose resume includes Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, and John Legend – this album makes it clear to June why she makes music.

Mike Barnett feat. Cory Walker – “Hybrid Hoss”

Nashville-based fiddler Mike Barnett brings us this Bill Monroe twist-up from his upcoming duets album, +1. The record was slated for a fall 2020 release, until Barnett suffered from an unexpected brain hemmorage. After multiple successful surgeries, he is doing well and recovering in extensive rehab where he is reconnecting his brain and fingers. So in listening to this piece of amazing music, let’s all send our best wishes to Mike Barnett and his family. You can support Mike Barnett’s recovery here.

Sierra Hull – “King of Anything (Live)”

From last year’s Whiskey Sour Happy Hour, this week we’re featuring Sierra Hull’s performance of this Sara Bareilles pop-hit. The Nashville-based singer and songwriter just released Weighted Mind (The Original Sessions), an EP made up of the demos for her 2016 release, Weighted Mind. 

Fort Frances – “Fits and Starts”

“Time traveled on a superhighway,” Chicago-based singer and songwriter tells BGS of the world before the pandemic, “but since March, we’ve all been in a traffic jam.” David McMillin of the group suggests that getting a break from all that movement is actually a good thing, however. This song is all about hitting that pause button.

Jon Stickley Trio – “Future Ghost”

The Jon Stickley Trio is one of the most exciting instrumental, “jamgrass” groups on the scene today. Made up of drums, flatpick guitar, and fiddle, they continue to push the boundaries of instrumental roots music, while being a festival favorite across the nation. This week, they bring us this new single on Organic Records.

Langhorne Slim – “Morning Prayer”

At the end of the Show On The Road podcast episode with Langhorne, he graced us with a performance of this song, accompanied by his cat, Mr. Beautiful. What better way to end this week’s show?

Photos: (L to R) Allison Russell by Francesca Cepero; Sierra Hull by Gina Binkley; Valerie June by Renata Raksha

Chris Eldridge, Molly Tuttle, Chris Thile, Bryan Sutton – Toy Heart: Remembering Tony Rice

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

In the final chapter of Toy Heart’s three-part tribute to Tony Rice, host Tom Power speaks to several musicians who have been inspired by Tony Rice throughout their career, pickers and artists through whom Tony’s music will certainly live on.

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On episode 3 of Toy Heart: Remembering Tony Rice, MacArthur “Genius” and Punch Brothers frontman Chris Thile tells a story about a jam with Tony Rice backstage that changed his musical life. Chris “Critter” Eldridge (pictured), also of the Punch Brothers, talks about the time he spent living with and learning from Tony — not just about music, but about life. Guitarist and singer-songwriter Molly Tuttle speaks about Rice’s influence on her guitar playing and how she sees his music living on even through musicians like herself, who never knew him personally. Finally, in-demand Nashville guitarist, session player, and sideman Bryan Sutton talks about recording with Tony and how he learned to be himself thanks to Tony Rice’s example.

Editor’s Note: Hear Thile at timestamp 01:58; Eldridge at 33:17; Tuttle at 01:03:17; and Sutton at 01:21:09

Photo credit: Jeromie Stephens

The Show On The Road – Langhorne Slim

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

This week on The Show On The Road, a wide-ranging conversation with the peripatetic, Pennsylvania-born, confessional folk songwriter Sean Scolnick, who for the last fifteen years has become a troubadour truth-teller of the Americana circuit, amassing a devoted following performing as his many-hatted, impish alter-ego: Langhorne Slim.


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Host Z. Lupetin caught up with Slim to discuss his much awaited new LP, Strawberry Mansion (just released last week via Dualtone), which is named after the neighborhood in Philadelphia where both of his grandfathers grew up. Coming out of a deep creative funk, Slim produced a record of many entwined reckonings. A flurry of twenty-two diaristic sonic sketches, incantations, and emotive story-songs follow his struggle with mental illness, sometimes in real time, his pandemic isolation, and sobriety. It’s an overall hopeful collection that shows Langhorne may finally be finding his true calling on the other side of the darkness.

Sean Scolnick is never shy about revealing how his mental health and creativity are ever-evolving. Without playing the hundreds of international shows and festivals a year he normally does, Scolnick had to create at home in a new way. A note his therapist gave him still holds true, as he releases his newest record without being able to take his guitar and his trademark worn hat in public to support it: “When you’re freaking out, just play.”

Make sure you stick around ’til the end of the episode when Slim plays an acoustic rendition of “Morning Prayer,” joined briefly by his cat, Mr. Beautiful.

Photo credit: Harvey Robinson

LISTEN: Jon Stickley Trio, “Future Ghost”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jon Stickley Trio
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Song: “Future Ghost”
Release Date: February 5, 2021
Label: Organic Records

In Their Words: “‘Future Ghost’ was written during the beginning of the pandemic, shortly after finding out I was going to be a father. I was having so many conflicting feelings, and a little difficulty sorting them all out. I ended up thinking a lot about the cycle of life and how impermanent everything is. At one point I thought I saw a ghost in the hallway, and it looked like me. Somehow, the idea that I could someday be a ghost, haunting this house, gave me a great sense of comfort and motivation to make the most of my time. This song ended up really capturing that energy.” — Jon Stickley

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

WATCH: Taylor Ashton (Feat. Rachael Price), “Alex”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Taylor Ashton (featuring Rachael Price)
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York via Vancouver B.C.
Song: “Alex”
Album: Romanticize
Release Date: February 5, 2021
Label: Signature Sounds

In Their Words: “Rachael and I traveled to On Deck Sound Studio in Connecticut to do a streaming show from their live room just after the new year, and before the show started broadcasting we filmed this stripped down version of ‘Alex,’ which is a song on my upcoming EP Romanticize (a companion to my album The Romantic which came out last year). The produced version is lush, with piano, electric guitar, drums, bass clarinet and synths, but I love the way this song feels just stripped down to the skeletal banjo part and the two voices. Rachael and I singing together has definitely been a hallmark of this quarantine time, since we would usually be too busy with our respective schedules to make it work. So the song ‘Alex’ and this stripped-down live video are a record of this time and this silver lining of an otherwise extremely weird year.” — Taylor Ashton

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

WATCH: The Burnt Pines, “Diamonds”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Burnt Pines
Hometown: Boston, Massachusetts, USA and Lisbon, Portugal
Song: “Diamonds”
Album: The Burnt Pines
Release Date: January 22, 2021
Label: Adraela Records

In Their Words: “This song offers a bit of a different twist on a typical love song, in that it’s told from the perspective of a faithful and committed partner, in a complicated and difficult relationship, as many relationships are. It’s an aching love song. Through the twists and turns and uncertainties of his relationship with his partner, and dealing with her indecision between wanting both a mutual commitment and a certain freedom that she imagines outside the relationship, he keeps returning to his intense and poignant feelings in the song’s chorus: ‘I bleed apart. Torment in the colorful rain. Diamonds, oh diamonds, I don’t mind getting old for you, babe.’ Love often isn’t easy.” — Aaron Flanders, The Burnt Pines

Photo credit: Rui Major, The Burnt Pines

LISTEN: Graeme James, “The Weight of Many Winters”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Graeme James
Hometown: Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, but living in The Hague in the Netherlands now.
Song: “The Weight of Many Winters”
Album: The Weight of Many Winters
Release Date: January 1, 2021
Label: Nettwerk

In Their Words: “Full of potent metaphors for the darker aspects of our human experience, the season of winter lends itself to thematic explorations of death, desperation, and weakness. The Weight of Many Winters is the second in my series of four seasonal EPs, and of all the tracks on the Winter EP, I especially wanted the title track to sound like winter. There is a beautiful stillness that settles on the world after a heavy snowfall that is unique in our noisy modern times. I wanted this song to embody a silent moment of honest and sober reflection. In essence; doing business with your soul in the middle of one’s ‘Winter of Discontent.'” — Graeme James

Photo courtesy of Nettwerk

WATCH: Yola Takes Her Tiny Desk (Home) Concert Outside

Posted on by Editor

Taking NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series to the socially distanced outdoors, much-loved artist Yola offers outstanding acoustic versions of three songs from her breakout album, Walk Through Fire, as well as a song from her debut EP. The Bristol-born (that’s Bristol, England) singer-songwriter is as vivacious as ever, yet the outdoor setting of her home concert channels a different, more personal presentation. Yola accompanies herself on guitar, joined by gifted guitarist Jordan Tice (also a member of the band Hawktail). There’s not much one can do to strip down the power and energy of Yola’s songs, but the two paint the them in a somewhat gentler light.

The second song on the docket is from Yola’s 2016 EP, and in the song’s introduction, she describes the newfound relevance of the song in light of the ever-growing Black Lives Matter movement and our nation’s struggles with the global pandemic. The song, titled “Dead and Gone,” speaks on the impossible struggle that she has felt as a Black woman in a world wrought with racism and sexism. Yola’s delivery is a powerful statement on pretense, one that needs to be heard now more than ever. Watch the full Tiny Desk Home Concert here.

 

WATCH: Teddy and Richard Thompson Swap Songs on ‘Woodstock Sessions’

Posted on by Editor

As we begin to roll into a new year, it is important to remember the important things in life and to be thankful for the goodness around us, like health, family, and music. In this edition of Friends & Neighbors, father and son Teddy Thompson and Richard Thompson grace the camera and perform a lovely set of songs for a Woodstock Sessions crew. With familiarity and comfort that only kinship can produce, the two share laughs, smiles, and charming songs that have decorated each of their respected careers.

The sessions kick off with the title track from Teddy Thompson’s new album, Heartbreaker Please. It’s his first solo release since 2011 and a complete representation of what he describes as a catholic taste in music, enjoying sounds and styles from many eras and genres. In addition, this Woodstock Session includes two of Richard Thompson’s landmark songs, as well as a cover of “Cut Across Shorty.” The fun and joviality this duo has while performing together is enough to warm the heart and kindle the flames of thankfulness and reflection. Watch these British icons share the frame here.