Americana singer, songwriter and guitarist, Russ Tolman has been confounding expectations from the start, following his own unique path, all the while with a knowing nod, tugging on our coats, inviting us to come along. It has always been a pleasing, worthwhile suggestion.

With his eighth album, Goodbye El Dorado, Tolman wistfully, but with a clear, critical eye examines his homeland from afar, penning his „love letter to Los Angeles“ without acrimony and with the clarity of distance. He was half a world away in Osaka, Japan and the miles provided a prism of certitude.

From his gunslinging days in the seminal 80’s twin guitar chainsaw band True West throughout a varied, exceptional solo career, Tolman’s strengths as a singer-songwriter are on full display here. From the everyday laments of time melting away on the 405 freeway to the personal musings over the intimate, familial travails of having your hopes and dreams running headlong into reality. Heady stuff you say? No doubt.

Dispatching these emotional adventures with his usual wisecracking aplomb, Tolman enlists some familiar musical samurai, along with some new ronin to expand the colors of his burgeoning musical palette. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Lloyd (Steve Wynn, Nels Cline, Wesley Stace) caressingly picks a mandolin, tickles the ivories and delightfully offers the plush inflections of his accordion, painting Tolman’s House of Melody with a fresh coat of satisfying color. Long-time six-string comrade Kirk Swan (Dumptruck, Amy Rigby) swings as usual with an insouciant groove, handsomely propelling the overall sentiment with taste and verve. Veteran Kevin Jarvis takes a double dip, serving as both engineer and drummer, providing pivotal experience from his previous work with Lucinda Williams, Grant Lee Phillips, and Brian Wilson. Cindy Wasserman (John Doe Band, Dead Rock West) provides glowing, elegant backing vocals and Tolman vet Dave Provost (Dream Syndicate, Al Green) anchors the bottom with his Motown tinctured bass guitar, while Tom Heyman contributes his potent pedal steel sheen. Newcomer Slim Zwerling offers his trumpet and flugelhorn, providing a yummy Bacharach zest, adding new flavors to Tolman’s soulful gumbo. Drop in a healthy dollop of Tolman’s seasoned, silky honeycomb vocals
and the results are a golden treasure.
Weiterlesen / Read more

Kommentare deaktiviert für Welcome back to the Blue Rose family: RUSS TOLMAN with Goodbye El Dorado !

We have another Friday with a new Blue Rose release and it’s a very special one: For the first time in the label history an album is only available in the digital format and only available on CD at the band’s shows in Scandinavia and the UK in April and in the fall at their upcoming German tour – THE BLACK SORROWS are back with the live album Live At The Palms, recorded on October 26, 2018 at „The Palms At Crown“ in Melbourne, Australia.
The album contains features nine songs, seven taken from the band’s latest studio release, Citizen John. The remaining tracks are covers by The Coasters („Down Home Girl“) and „The Honeydripper“ by Joe Liggins & The Honeydrippers.
Live At The Palms is now available at European download and streaming sites.

Kommentare deaktiviert für THE BLACK SORROWS are returning with a live album!

Digging For Rays CD
€ 14,90^*

There are beautiful melodies and insightful lyrics, a sound of wide-open spaces and a vibe that’s both timeless and contemporary, and there’s this majestic elegant voice. Joseph Parsons‚ new album Digging For Rays has got everything you want from a song-oriented album in 2019 and then some. Sure, Parsons is a singer-songwriter but he’s also a widely-traveled musician in the here and now and his 13th studio album effortlessly reflects both.

The Pennsylvania & Louisiana raised artist currently residing in Germany draws from the familiar well of folk and rock to create something new – a music that’s exciting and current without eschewing its roots or catering to the dance-oriented zeitgeist. In other words: It’s the kind of album this writer thinks you’ve been waiting for.

Songs like „Living Things“ with its propelling beat, the acoustic, elegiac „Sad Parade“, the dark, driving rocker „Wide Awake“ and the beguiling „Beautiful Lie“ all sound fresh and original and are elevated by a one-of-a-kind voice. Parsons is a deliberate, controlled singer who conveys emotional depth with subtlety and nuance – and a lot of lure.

Digging For Rays is Parsons‘ way of saying „searching life for a little light, for rays of hope & sunshine“ – sorely needed considering the shape the world is in and, specifically, his home country. „I’m still an optimist even when things look bleak“, Parsons says. Music helps him maintain his equilibrium and positive outlook.

Over the course of a dozen studio albums, various live & collaborative projects and more than twenty years of touring, Joseph Parsons has established himself as a world class singer and writer, great all-around musician and an immensely personable performer. And yet he still keeps pushing himself, adding modern sounds to his palette to create another eminently listenable album that reveals deeper layers with every repeated listening. Some of his songs are introspective and provide keen insight, while others are written from the vantage point of an astute observer and chronicler of this ever-changing world. It is a world he knows well having lived in many places over the years from Los Angeles to Baghdad to Berlin.

Parsons also draws from artists like songwriting greats James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne and outside-the-box-thinkers like Miles Davis, Paco de Lucia, Bob Marley and Daniel Lanois. From these ingredients he creates original music unconcerned with fitting into a specific genre. The only thing that counts for Parsons is a good song. And how does he measure if it’s a good song? „When it reaches the heart & soul of the listener,“ Parsons says. Undoubtedly, the 10 songs of Digging For Rays do exactly that.

Kommentare deaktiviert für Digging For Rays is JOSEPH PARSONS‘ new album and way of saying „searching life for a little light, for rays of hope & sunshine“

Shed My Skin is Los Angeles native Dan Navarro’s long-awaited first studio album after 14 albums in 20+ years with Lowen & Navarro, Triple A Radio mainstays in the 1990s. Dan went solo in 2009 after the retirement and subsequent death of Eric Lowen due to ALS (MND).

Shed My Skin is produced and guitarred by Steve Postell (Little Blue, Danny Kortchmar, Jennifer Warnes) featuring a duet with blues singer Janiva Magness, hit singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman (Vanessa Williams, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band), Grace Pettis and Brother Sun, plus players Danny Kortchmar (James Taylor, Don Henley, Jackson Browne), Leland Sklar (James Taylor, Phil Collins), Butch Norton (Lucinda Williams), Bob Malone (John Fogerty), Debra Dobkin (Bonnie Raitt, Was Not Was), roots artist Tony Furtado, Phil Parlapiano (John Prine, Grant Lee Buffalo), Joel Tepp (Bonnie Raitt, Danny O’Keefe), Freebo (Bonnie Raitt), Dennis Edwards (Eddie Money), Brendan Buckley (Shakira), Jon Ossman (Marc Cohn, Paula Cole), Aubrey Richmond (Shooter Jennings), David Glaser and Peter Adams.

The songlist on Shed My Skin features eight Navarro originals plus four covers, two by old friends, Kenny Edwards („Night Full Of Rain“) and Tom Wilson of Blackie & The Rodeo Kings and Lee Harvey Osmond („You Drove My Crazy“, a duet with Janiva Magness). Rounding out the album are the haunting „Sweet Sixteen“ by Billy Idol and the Jimmy Webb standard „Wichita Lineman“ in a sumptuous new arrangement.

Dan’s long songwriting career includes Pat Benatar’s Grammy-nominated classic „We Belong“, Top 5 in 30 countries, plus songs recorded by The Bangles, Dave Edmunds, Dionne Warwick, Jackson Browne, Keb’Mo‘, The Temptations, freestyle hip-hop pioneers TKA, Jon Ondrasik (Five For Fighting), Nile Rodgers or The Triplets Billboard US #14 single „You Don’t Have To Go Home Tonight“), among many others.
His songs have appeared in films and TV shows as „Deadpool 2“, „Pitch Perfect 2“, „The Office“, „General Hospital“, „Melrose Place“, „The Color of Money“, „American Dad“, „American Idol“, „The Voice“ and dozens of MTV & VH1 specials.

Dan tours constantly, for over 20 years with Lowen & Navarro and since 2008 as a solo artist, with headline and mainstage performances in legendary acoustic/roots venues and festivals, including The Kerrville Folk Festival, The Woody Guthrie Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, Vancouver Island Music Fest, The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, McCabe’s Guitar Shop (Santa Monica CA), The Birchmere (Alexandria VA), Rams Head Onstage (Annapolis MD), The Bitter End and The Bottom Line (NYC) and many more.

Lowen & Navarro were listed in the „100 Most Influential Independent Artists“ by Performing Songwriter Magazine in 2008.

Kommentare deaktiviert für Welcome to the Blue Rose family: DAN NAVARRO!

Steady As We Go CD
€ 14,90^*

HANK SHIZZOE is back with his new record Steady As We Go. Released on CD, LP and in all digital formats it is a remarkable achievment: Recorded live on the studio floor with his fabulous band, Steady As We Go presents a singer, songwriter and guitar player in top form. This is Americana roots music at its finest, sung and played by an ensemble of musicians whose skills and talents are second to none. New originals meet old traditionals, songs by Randy Newman, Washboard Sam, Tammy Wynette, Bob Nolan and a moving tribute to the late great Tom Petty. Topping off the finely crafted production is the mastering by Stephen Marcussen who was involved in at least half of your record collection.

Steady As We Go is Hank Shizzoe’s 16th album since 1994. One might be tempted to ask, why make another one? Hank says: „Because it’s time. We’ve never played better as a band. I felt very confident singing these songs, my voice is at an entirely different level now. I’ve wanted to do an album like this for decades. We’ve had a blast making this record and I think it shows.“

„We“ in this case means Hank’s core band for the last five years: Tom Etter on guitars and Simon Baumann on drums. With the addition of Michel Poffet who had played his upright bass with Hank for 15 years and since the first album, Low Budget. „With Tom and Simon there is something very special and rare going on for me“, Hank says. „We just click, it feels like home. So we invited my dear old friend Michel Poffet over and he came in like a long lost relative that everybody just adores. We recorded in the same room playing off of each other, unrehearsed, fresh. Nobody was wearing headphones, I sang live. The way it used to be done, really. You know, four guys doing what they love and do best, expertly captured by the finest audio equipment, no funny stuff, no fixing or tinkering. Just real good, inspired playing and singing – boom, straight to the heart.“
Weiterlesen / Read more

Kommentare deaktiviert für He wanted to do an album like this for decades: Steady As We Go of and with HANK SHIZZOE !