Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Bonnie Raitt released ’Dig In Deep’, her twentieth album, on Redwing Records, her own, independent label. The record follows Bonnie’s hugely successful 2012 release ’Slipstream’, which was one of the best-selling independent albums of 2012 and earned Bonnie a GRAMMY for Best Americana Album - her tenth career GRAMMY win. "The response to ’Slipstream’ was such a refreshing and unexpected boost," says Raitt. "So going into this album, I had renewed energy."
‘Poor David’s Almanack’, a wry mixture of acoustic and electric performances rich in ageless American vernacular.
Gloriously captured on analogue tape by studio wizards Ken Scott and Matt Andrews, the ten new songs took shape in a rollicking weeklong session at Woodland Sound Studios in Nashville, Tennessee where Rawlings and longtime compatriot Gillian Welch joined together with Willie Watson, Paul Kowert, Brittany Haas, Ketch Secor, and Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith to produce an album for all seasons.
This release marks the 8th studio collaboration between Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Their creative partnership spans over two decades and includes the GRAMMY-nominated The Harrow and the Harvest (2011), the much lauded and latest Rawlings release, Nashville Obsolete, which landed on numerous 2015 year-end best-of lists, and the 2001 GRAMMY-nominated masterpiece Time (The Revelator).
Entirely self produced (for the first time) God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise was recorded in two weeks at LaMontagne’s home in the woods of western Massachusetts.
The newly restored historic home served as a homemade recording studio for Ray and his fellow musicians.
The newly coined ’Pariah Dogs’, consists of Jay Bellarose (drums), Jennifer Condos (bass), Patrick Warren (keyboard), Eric Heywood (guitar) and Greg Leisz (pedal steel guitar). Individually, these musicians have contributed to the live work of musicians including Beck, Joe Henry, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams and Joe Cocker to name a few.
Tompkins Square is very proud to announce the signing of Welsh multi-instrumentalist, Gwenifer Raymond. Hailing from Cardiff and now residing in Brighton in the South of England, Raymond began playing guitar at the age of eight. Tompkins Square released her debut 7" on Record Store Day. Early praise via The Wire, MOJO, and many more. In her own words : When I was about eight years old a pretty formative thing happened to me ... my mum bought me a cassette tape of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Being so young I’d had no real interest in music prior to that, but I did have a ‘My First Sony’ cassette player that I used to listen to audiobooks. Anyway, I put the tape in, pressed play, and what I heard blew my little 8 year old mind.
I don’t know what it was about that wall of sound that so captured me, but I spent many hours hyperactively running around the house with headphones on, volume at full blast, and Nevermind on repeat. It was either for Christmas or my birthday that year, that I asked for a guitar. I spent all my teenage years playing either guitar or drums in various punk and rock outfits around the Welsh valleys, but around that time I was also getting seriously into older stuff, Dylan, The Velvet Underground and the like. Through those cheap compilation CDs you could get then, I found that a common influence amongst these guys was pre-war delta and country blues, as well as Appalachian music. Eventually I stumbled upon Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James and Roscoe Holcomb, and they became the holy trinity of musicians I so wanted to able to play like. Eventually, I tracked down a blues man in Cardiff who could teach me and it was in studying these guys that I was introduced to John Fahey and the whole American Primitive thing. I’ve always loved being in bands and the sonic chemistry it produces, but at the same time it’s always a bit of a compromise that those sounds in my head have to pass through and be translated by someone else’s. Sometimes it can be for the better, but sometimes not so much.
American Primitive was the first time it had occurred to me that you didn’t really need anything more than one solo instrument to fully express yourself, especially when those feelings and moods refuse to be articulated in words, sometimes it’s a mystery to yourself what it is you’re expressing. I still play in hard rock and punk bands and love to wail and hit my guitar with a complete lack of any subtlety or nuance, but in the end I think that all these things are really part of a circle, feeding back into itself. It’s all just a lineup of strange mutations.
In his 4th studio release Rees has expanded his narrative storytelling even further and Devil’s Bridge is his most upbeat and immediate album yet. He enlists our favorite rockabilly guitarist John Lewis of The Rimshots as well as Pete Mathison (Ray Davies).
It’s a life affirming and arresting album that celebrates the courage of conviction with raw, roots power. 4**** BUZZ
" An increasingly accomplished songwriter in full flight" (MOJO). Welsh singer-songwriter Christopher Rees returns with his long awaited new album, ’The Nashville Songs’ on 30th June 2017 - an inspired collection of songs co-written with some of ’Music City’s finest writers. Over 4 years since the critically acclaimed 2013 album ’Stand Fast’, ’The Nashville Songs’ displays a real maturity towards his craft while maintaining his individual sound and style. After first stepping onto the legendary Music Row back in 2009 Rees continued to make annual visits to Nashville to write and soon accumulated a healthy batch of songs that would became this his 7th full length album. As a singer-songwriter who has toured with and earned the respect of ’Country Outlaw’ legends like Steve Earle and Billy Joe Shaver, (who, actually inspired the song ’A Place Upon My Face’) Christopher Rees has always written alone, finding his own distinct voice and path through music. The initial collaborative experience, although new and somewhat daunting, was exciting and immediately rewarding. Working with a diverse range of Nashville based writers, Rick Brantley, Mando Saenz, Amy Speace, Vida Wakeman and Sandy Cherryholmes (who’s CVs boast some serious country credentials, including songs for big hitters Miranda Lambert, LeAnne Womack, John Fullbright and regular favourites at The Grand Old Opry) the results were proof positive that the process was working. Recorded back home in Wales with drummer Dan Tilbury (Redlands Palomino Company), Rees plays almost everything else on perhaps his most accomplished album to date. Informed by the inspiration he found in Nashville with its rich history of country and folk music, the 14 songs assembled here provide a coherent insight into his dynamic, passionate and profound talents.
2LP Gatefold Edition which includes 4 exclusive vinyl-only tracks and iIncludes a FREE download card allowing you to download the full album. Includes sleeve notes by long-time fan, journalist and broadcaster Pete Paphides. These are the last recordings made by John Renbourn, the final tracks made just days before his death on 26th March 2015
This landmark album brings together two of the most important and influential acoustic guitarists of our era. Great friends for over 50 years and regular playing partners for the last two years of John’s life, their mutual respect and musical understanding shines through these historic recordings.
Featured here are Reynolds’ most notable and sultry sides, pulled from painfully rare 45s like ’Don’t Jump’ (a teen-suicide/cautionary tale produced by pop-svengali Lee Hazlewood), two rare duets with a pre-Ode To Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry and a brilliant and previously unreleased mournful murder-ballad.
Soaring the fearful heights of hope while plunging the depths of despair, Eirlys Rhiannon’s debut album covers challenging territory. War, land, love, family, sexuality, paranoia, defiance and wayward parenting share melodies with allotments, fig trees, fences and bedsheets. The personal and complex lyrics are framed by intricate and rhythmic harmonies, courtesy of Rhiannon’s powerful voice and that of her collaborator, Rowan Armes, whose piano and fiddle arrangements give the album its distinctive sound.
They are joined by special guest percussionists Simon Leech (East Pole Orchestra), Yasmine Brien (dj blackrainbow) and Jason Cook (Blaggers ITA, Spanner), with haunting accompaniments on harmonica and melodica from Carbon Town Cryer.