Tag: premiere

WATCH: Katie Oates, “Here in Gastonia”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Katie Oates
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
Song: “Here in Gastonia”
Album: We Go On: Si Kahn’s Songs of Hope in Hard Times
Release Date: January 29, 2021
Label: Hollow Reed Arts Recordings

In Their Words: “Filmed as a live performance on location at Loray Mill, ‘Here in Gastonia’ (written by Si Kahn) commemorates the 1929 textile strike in Gastonia, North Carolina. Containing historic and current-day footage of the mill and the strike, the music video is dedicated to textile worker and songwriter, Ella May Wiggins. Mother of 10 young children, Ella May used her songs to help union leaders organize and lobby congress for better wages and working conditions. The strike was met with violent suppression. 29-year-old Ella May was shot and killed while in a pickup truck with fellow workers on her way to a union meeting. The song and video remind us of the ongoing struggle for better lives and of the sacrifices people make in the fight for justice — past, present and future. We will continue their fight. We Go On.” — Katie Oates

Photo credit: Charlotte Star Room

LISTEN: Ida Mae, “Break the Shadows”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Ida Mae
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Song: “Break the Shadows”
Album: Raining for You EP
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: Thirty Tigers / Vow Road Records

In Their Words: “This was one of the last songs we recorded for our new album as the pandemic put an end to our touring. We played our last show in Texas, round the corner from the Alamo, and flew straight back to Nashville and into quarantine. Our plans to record the next record had been ruined so whilst in lockdown we decided to wire the whole house into a remote recording studio with the analogue equipment we’ve been collecting over the years of touring and got to work. This song was inspired by the Stephen Collins Foster song ‘Hard Times’ written in 1854 … it’s an old song that was hugely popular and has been parodied for over 150 years… it felt an appropriate moment in history to use it as inspiration again. It’s the first song I wrote and recorded with my steel-bodied National Resophonic Style 0 resonator guitar, a very special instrument.” — Chris Turpin, Ida Mae

Photo credit: Zach Pigg

LISTEN: The Suitcase Junket, “Last Man on the Moon”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Suitcase Junket
Hometown: Amherst, Massachusetts
Song: “Last Man on the Moon”
Album: The End Is New
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: Renew Records/BMG

In Their Words: “The first version I wrote of this song was an almost entirely sci-fi scenario about a guy who got sent to the moon with a bunch of other people to set up a colony there, because we’d messed up earth so badly. It was a little heavy-handed. So I took it back to the shed and reworked it. I still liked the imagery of the Last Man on the Moon, but figured it would work better as a metaphor for that big lost feeling of not being with the one you love. I tried to write it so it could be heard both ways, as a love song or a sci-fi fantasy. I usually keep both in mind when I play it.” — Matt Lorenz, The Suitcase Junket

Photo credit: Joanna Chattman

LISTEN: The Sharp Flatpickers, “Red Haired Boy”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Sharp Flatpickers
Hometown: Florida and beyond!
Song: “Red Haired Boy”
Album: Sundrops on the Water – Reflections
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: Mountain Fever Records

In Their Words: “Scottish and Irish tunes were brought to America and became standard fare in bluegrass and old-time music. ‘Red Haired Boy’ is one of those classics (imbued with plenty of folklore if you dig around a bit). With this instrumental version Bryan McDowell and Kate Lee O’Connor play twin fiddles, and our arrangement fondly pays homage to THE UNIT. I’m proud of the warmth that comes through here and the solid licks all these fine players graciously deliver for it. Nothing not to love.” — Lee Kotick, The Sharp Flatpickers

Photo credit: Mark Schatz

STREAM: The Wild Feathers, ‘Medium Rarities’

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Wild Feathers
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Album: Medium Rarities
Release Date: November 20, 2020

In Their Words: “Medium Rarities is a group of songs that we’ve always loved, but just kinda fell through the cracks when it came to sequencing each record. We wrote and recorded some new songs and had some fun doing some covers of tunes we’ve always loved. Putting new music out into the world is always a great and strange feeling. We’re so proud of it and can’t wait for people to hear them.” — Ricky Young, The Wild Feathers

Photo credit: Rachel Moore

LISTEN: Dave Alvin, “Man Walks Among Us”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Dave Alvin
Hometown: Downey, California
Song: “Man Walks Among Us”
Album: From an Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: Yep Roc Records

In Their Words: “Marty Robbins, despite his 40-year, highly successful musical career, remains an underrated songwriter (he wrote “El Paso,” one of the greatest songs in American roots music history, and was a huge influence on me and many other aspiring songwriters). “Man Walks Among Us” is a good example of his serious lyrical and melodic talents. Born and raised in Arizona, he celebrates the desert environment he obviously loved and treasured. Being a desert lover myself, when I first heard this song, I was thrilled that Marty Robbins shared my appreciation for the wildlands and had put my feelings into a song. Even though I don’t possess Mr. Robbins’ incredible vocal skills, I always wanted to record this bittersweet rumination on the love for and the potential loss of our beautiful, tough yet fragile Western deserts.” — Dave Alvin

Photo credit: Chip Duden

LISTEN: Josh Merritt, “Tonya Jo”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Josh Merritt
Hometown: Owensboro, Kentucky
Song: “Tonya Jo”
Album: Reynolds Station
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Label: JNM Entertainment

In Their Words: “I wrote this song for my momma. This album spotlights a not-so-flattering time in her life, which she has long since moved past. The song is about coming of age, a nest that’s almost empty, and looking back on the ups and down of life so far and wondering what’s next. It’s a message to say, ‘Everything is — and forever will be — ok.'” — Josh Merritt

Photo credit: Jacob Sommerville

WATCH: Stillhouse Junkies, “Mountains of New Mexico”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Stillhouse Junkies
Hometown: Durango, Colorado
Song: “Mountains of New Mexico”
Album: Calamity

In Their Words: “‘Mountains of New Mexico’ is an old-school murder ballad about misunderstood victim vs. outlaw, but it’s also an ode to the great wildernesses of the American West and their ability, even in the Information Age, to humble us as they have since the beginning of time. And what better backdrop for this kind of tale than northern New Mexico’s Bisti Badlands, a sun-scarred, alien landscape of hoodoos, gullies, and maze-like washes. The August sun limited our video shoot schedule to early morning and sunset, and the light was nothing short of magical; the song’s windswept climax came to life in a way we had scarcely imagined. ‘Mountains of New Mexico’ is a reminder that trading one kind of trouble for another doesn’t always work in our favor.” — Cody Tinnin, Stillhouse Junkies

Photo credit: Renee Anna Cornue

WATCH: Jeff Cramer and The Wooden Sound, “Aimless Love”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jeff Cramer and The Wooden Sound (Emma Rose, Dylan McCarthy, Dave Pailet)
Hometown: Denver, Colorado
Song: “Aimless Love” (John Prine cover)
Album: The Shed Sessions
Release Date: November 20, 2020

In Their Words: “I dreamt up ‘the shed’ late last year — a backyard DIY project fueled by a desire to provide space and community within Colorado’s incredible songwriter scene — which, as luck would have it, I finished building at the end of February this year. During the pandemic, it has become my office and writing space, and it ultimately brought me to a vision for a video series of live-recorded new, old, and cover songs with my new band, The Wooden Sound. I’m excited to be releasing seven videos and tracks from the The Shed Sessions over the next two weeks, starting with a cover of John Prine’s ‘Aimless Love’ here.

“Aimless Love was my first John Prine record, and while it might not be amongst his most prominent, the title track especially has become one of my favorites. Maybe it was discovering it as a teenager — as a small fry kid in a Midwestern town — that caused me to feel a special closeness to it. John Prine was able to add a sense of warmth and humor to the messiest of human conditions and somehow make it personal to everyone (including me) in the process. I also vividly remember playing Aimless Love under the full moon in my backyard in Denver the moment we learned that he had passed. It felt appropriate to release this video as my little tribute to him.” — Jeff Cramer

Photo credit: Payden Widner

LISTEN: Tony Trischka, “Carry Me Over the Sea”

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Tony Trischka
Hometown: Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Song: “Carry Me Over the Sea”
Album: Shall We Hope
Release Date: January 29, 2021
Label: Shefa Records

In Their Words: “This project began without the intention of making a Civil War album, though I’ve had an interest in the conflict since childhood. ‘Carry Me Over the Sea’ was originally conceived as an instrumental, which I composed on a low-tuned cello banjo. I created the person of Maura Kinnear, a powerful Irish woman who lost her husband in a mine cave-in. After leaving her children in the safe care of relatives, she took a ‘coffin ship’ across the sea to America. Settling in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Maura met the reformed gambler, Cyrus Noble, whom she married and, together, they sent for her children. Cyrus rejected Confederate conscription and ultimately fought for the Union at the Battle of Gettysburg.

“No one but the incredible Maura O’Connell would do to inhabit the character of Maura Kinnear. I first met Maura when she was singing with DeDanaan in the ‘80s. I was bowled over and continue to be to this day. She is joined on most choruses by the equally talented Tracy Bonham.

“A cohesive narrative beckoned, and after a moving visit to a slave graveyard, I adapted the character of John Boston, an enslaved gravedigger in the 1850s. With these three central figures — Maura Kinnear, Cyrus Noble, and John Boston — along with a 1938 reunion of Gettysburg survivors, North and South, I felt I had the elements of a story.

“Shall We Hope, a phrase taken from a Phillis Wheatley poem, evolved to be just that, a story of hope. It was not created to mirror the divisions that currently exist in our nation. However, I would wish that the timeliness of a hopeful message would ring true today, and that, in some small way, this album could bring positivity, healing and hope in these troubling times.” — Tony Trischka

Photo credit: Zoe Trischka