Rock And Blues International - February 2023

Rock And Blues International

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Andrea “Lupo” Lupi

Delta Wires

Julio Iglesias Jr.

Ringo Starr

Hunter Daily

Frank Zappa and more!

Rock And Blues International

Hello Rock And Blues International readers. I hope everybody had a great December.

Be sure to check out all the tour announcements and ads in this issue. If you’re a publicist and your act doesn’t have a tour announcement in here, then you’re client is really missing out. Don’t leave them by the wayside.

And now on to the February issue of Rock And Blues International. In this issue you can read all about Muse. Muse is starting their North American Tour this month after a successful European Tour in support of their new Warner Records/Helium-3 release Will Of The People Read all about it here. We’ve got a great story by Edoardo Fassio about Andrea “Lupo” Lupi and his new album release SoLo. There are also stories on Mike Dillon & Punkadelick, Dolby Atmos, Engineer Andy Bradley, Delta Wires, The Hellfreaks, Cienfue, Blake Rose, Jessia, Julio Iglesias Jr. & Jewel, Villages, Obituary, NOFX, Ringo Star, Slow Fiction, Hunter Daily, Delvon Lamarr, Frank Zappa and more! As you can see, there are a lot of varied genres of music here for you to check out, or as we like to say, there’s a little of something for everyone here. We have even included the current installment of the novella, “The Biker”. Read it and than email us back with your thoughts on this. So far our readers seem to really like this Blues loving Biker.

I sincerely hope that everybody reading this publication finds something here that they like and I would like to encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know about us. Just look for us every month at http://www.rockandbluesinternational.com. I would also like to encourage you to email us for a free subscription to Rock And Blues International as well. Just email us at rockandbluesinternational@gmail.com and in the subject line simply put “Sign Me Up” and we’ll email you a link to the magazine each month when it is published.

Kevin Wildman Editor and Publisher

Rock And Blues International

Page 6

Muse Muse Bring Their Will Of The People Tour To North America following their highly successful European Tour in support of their new Warner Records/Helium-3 release Will Of The People

Page 28

Delta Wires

Delta Wires, San Francisco Blues Stalwarts, Release New Album “If Somebody Told Me”

Page 10 & 11

Åndrea “Lupo” Lupi

Edoardo Fassio talks about Andrea “Lupo” Lupi and his new solo release

SoLo

Page 46

Julio Iglesias Jr.

Julio Iglesias Jr. & Jewel Release Soulful Rendition of “Careless Whisper” From Julio’s Under The Covers Album Out February 14th

MUSE

Muse Bring Their Will Of The People Tour To North America

By Kevin Wildman

Multi-platinum and Grammy Award winning global superstars Muse are hitting the road this month. The band will be kicking off their Will Of The People North American Tour this month on February 25th in Chicago, Illinois at United Center. The tour is expected to take them to twenty venues through the United States and Canada so far with stops in Austin, Houston, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, New York City, Los Angeles, Los Vegas, and Salt Lake City to name a few. Muse is touring in support of their new Warner Records/ Helium-3 album release, Will Of The People. Support act for the tour is special guest Evanescence.

Since the band first went on tour in

1998 with their Showbiz Tour, Muse has always put on a spectacular live performance. 11 tours later as they hit the road with their twelfth big tour, the band promises that this tour will be just as spectacular as the past ones and will be their best one yet. Muse has come to be known as one of the finest live bands to ever tour. This two-month North American tour will no doubt leave people marveling at it for quite a while as they perform songs from their new album, Will Of The People along with some of the finest hits they’ve recorded so far.

Will Of The People is the ninth album by Muse. It was released just last August and debuted at the #1 spot on the charts in the UK, Austria, France, Finland,

Italy, and Finland to name a few. In fact, Will Of The People is the band’s seventh #1 album in the UK. Their previous album, Simulation Theory did the same thing, debuting at #1 in multiple countries. The album before that, Drones went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rock Album, which was the second time the band achieved this honor. However, Muse is no stranger to winning awards. To date, some of the awards they have won include two Grammy Awards, an American Music Award, five MTV Europe Music Awards, two Brit Awards, eleven NME Awards and seven Q Awards, amongst others.

The inception of Will Of The People

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MUSE

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came as a request from Warner Records. Evidently Warner wanted Muse to release a greatest hits album. After the band discussed the situation among themselves, they agreed to do it, but not exactly in the way that Warner Records had intended. Instead of just culling their albums for the hits, the band set to work selecting different styles of songs from the previous albums and wrote new songs to go along with those styles. As they would like to explain it, it’s a greatest hits album of new songs. Evidently the plan worked because both label and fans are ecstatic on how the project turned out. The project was recorded at Matt Bellamy’s Red Room studio in Santa Monica, California. Additional recording took place at Abbey Road studios and Black Lodge Studios in London. Bellamy explains that the lyrics of Will Of The People were inspired by “the increasing uncertainty and instability in the world [...] as the Western empire and the natural world, which have cradled us for so long, are genuinely threatened”. He further explained that Will of the People “is a personal navigation through those fears”.

Prior to the release of the selfproduced Will Of The People, Muse started the buzz rolling with a slick release of five songs leading up to the release, along with a few videos to gain their fans attention. The first hint of the new album came in December of 2021 when Matt Bellamy released a small snippet of a video of he and his 10-year old son listening to the first single from the album, “Won’t Stand

Down.” In January of 2022, the band finally announced the release of “Won’t Stand Down” as the first single from the album. The second single from the album came two months later in March when the band released “Compliance.” It was with the second single release that the band finally revealed that they would be releasing a new album in August of 2022. The band was very precise with the release of their new singles prior to the album’s release. Nothing was hurried.

The third single from the album, the album’s title song, “Will Of The People” came out in June, three months later. Along with that, Muse hit the road for a European festival tour where they test drove their new singles for their fans along with a new, previously unreleased song, “Kill Or Be Killed.” The song proved to be a favorite of fans along the tour, so halfway through July, the band released “Kill Or Be Killed” as their fourth single from the new album.

The following month on August 1st, Music released a statement announcing that when Will Of The People would be released, it would also be available at a NFT (Non-Fungible Token) on the “ecofriendly” Polygon-powered platform Serenade. This made Will Of The People one of the first new chart-eligible formats in seven years As was reported in The Guardian, “The Muse NFT album will retail for £20 and will be limited to 1,000 copies globally. As both an NFT and a

limited-edition format, it is relatively sparse in its offering. Buyers will get a downloadable version of the album –complete with different sleeve – as high-res FLAC files; the members of Muse will digitally sign it, and each of the 1,000 buyers will have their names permanently listed on the linked roster of purchasers.” This was certainly a bold and trend-setting move by Muse.

“Muse are breaking new ground with their latest offering. NFTs have gradually evolved from a fringe topic in an emerging market to one of the cornerstones of a multi-trillion-dollar industry,” says Emelie Olsson, Chief Operations Officer of Corite.

On August 23rd, 2022, Muse announced that the fifth single from the album would be “You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween” would be released on August 26th, the same day as the album’s release.

Will of the People debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 51,500 units in its first week making it Muse’s seventh UK number-one album. In the United States, it debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart. It debuted at number 1 on the Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums charts with sales of 24,000 albums. By January of this year, Will of the People went on to sell over 300,000 units worldwide.

Muse is guitarist/vocalist Matthew Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme, and drummer Dominic Howard. It’s hard to categorize the music of Muse as they constantly are evolving and changing their musical stylings from one album to the next. Perhaps that is one of the most endearing qualities of the band. With some bands, it is easy to speculate what they will be releasing from year to year. With Muse, it is never a set style. One album might be alternative rock, the next more orchestrated. The following album could be layered with strings followed by an album leaning more towards electronic and pop... and then they’re back with a harder edged sound for their next album. They can be totally unpredictable... and through all their changes, their fan base just continues to grow and grow.

This trio started playing together at the age of thirteen in their hometown of Teignmouth, Devon. The names of the band seemed to be constantly changing during this time as the band searched for the name that they though really fit them. They started out as Gothic Plague, moved on to Fixed Penalty, and then to Rocket Baby Dolls. By the time they reached 1997 they had finally settled on Muse and

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MUSE

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released their self-titled debut EP on Dangerous Records. The following year in 1998 they released their second EP, Muscle Museum.

By 1999 the band released their first full-length album, Showbiz. Showbiz started getting the band a lot of attention, at times conjuring up a comparison of Radiohead. It didn’t take long for that comparison to die down. The album was fueled by Matt Bellamy’s falsetto and a melancholic alternative rock style.

Two years later in 2001, Origin of Symmetry followed with a wider instrumentation influx and romantic classical influences. It didn’t take long for the public to take a lot more interest in the band as they quickly gained a reputation for putting on very energetic shows.

2003’s Absolution saw the band taking the sentimentalization to a new level with the incorporation of strings on several tracks, such as “Butterflies and Hurricanes”. Absolution was also the first of what would wind up being seven consecutive UK number-one albums.

2006’s Black Holes and Revelations would turn out to be another big styling change for Muse as they incorporated electronic and pop elements into their new songs. It was also another number-one album for the band as well bringing them even more international recognition. The album yielded hit singles in the form of “Supermassive Black Hole”, “Starlight”, and “Knights Of Sedonia”, and “Invincible.” Most of the year and the next was dedicated to touring.

In 2008 the band entered the studio and spent the better part of the year and part of the next working on their next number-one album, The Resistance, which came out in 2009 and produced the megahit “Uprising.” “Uprising” became their highest charting single in the U.S. and dominated the airwaves. The band finished off the year either headlining their own shows or opening for U2. The band was certainly on a roll.

By the time 2011 had come around, they were request to write the theme song for the 2012 Summer Olympics which were going to be taking place in London. The band responded with the song “Survival”, which also spearheaded their

next album release, 2012’s The 2nd Law. The album also featured an electronic pop song titled “Madness” that showcased a new electronic dubstep influence. As I said before, the band was continuing to reinvent themselves album after album. The went out on another major tour to promote The 2nd Law with culminated in an unbelievable show at Rome’s Olympic Stadium , which was packed with pyrotechnics, video walls, and acrobats. The concert was filmed in ultra-high definition for the concert movie Live at Rome Olympic Stadium, which came out in December 2013.

Things got a bit heavier sound-wise for the band in 2015 when they again reinvented themselves with the singles “Psycho” and “Dead Inside.” These were the first singles from their seventh studio album, Drones. Drones was their fifth consecutive U.K. number one album and their first release to top the U.S. Charts. It also went on to garner them a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album in February 2016. Their shows were definitely something special when they went out on tour to support this album as they actually had drones flying high above the crowds at the concert performances. One thing is for sure, Muse always has had a yen for theatrics.

In 2018 Muse returned again with their 80s-inspired eighth LP, . Simulation Theory featuring the singles “Dig Down,” “Pressure,” and “Dark Side.” It quickly became their sixth consecutive U.K. charttopper. An international tour followed for the band for much of 2019. They wound up ending the year with the release of a massive box set that celebrated their Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry eras. The Origin Of Muse was comprised of nine CDs and four vinyl records, spotlighting the B-sides, demos, EPs, and some live tracks from each period.

That brings us to their new release, Will Of The People. As can be expected from Muse, the band spent the latter part of last year on tour in Europe supporting the album, and this month they return to North America for the next leg of the tour.

So what can we expect to hear from the band this year in concert here in the United States and Canada.... EVERYTHING! No doubt the band will again put on another great tour that will leave their fans gasping for more! All I can tell you... is to expect the unexpected. No doubt Muse will again top their tours of the past with the all-new Will Of The People Tour!

Follow Muse: Website @ https://www.muse.mu/ Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/artist/ 12Chz98pHFMPJEknJQMWvI

Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/muse/1093360

YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCGGhM6XCSJFQ6DTRffnKRIw

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/muse Twitter @ https://twitter.com/muse Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/muse/

Andrea “Lupo” Lupi: The feeling of a lone wolf

By Edoardo Fassio

There is a wolf living in Tuscany, a land of art par excellence, but also of people of character. Andrea Lupi, known as “Lupo” (“Wolf”), a resident of a town of ancient Etruscan origins in the countryside around Pontedera, is a guy with a strong personality. A bluesman in the broadest sense, he is a composer, singer, bassist and guitarist. In a life devoted to music, he made his name as head of the Hotel La Salle trio, providing backing bands for Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Scott Henderson, Carey Bell and Louisiana Red, or racking up American miles playing with Willie Murphy, one of the honorary inductees of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame, along with Bob Dylan, Judy Garland and Prince.

Lupo’s artistic journey didn’t stop even when the pandemic prevented travel; the lockdown, on the other hand, led him to an inner route, a reflection on his own expressive skills. Alone. The outcomes of his search are available in SoLo, a recording effort that is, for the first time, totally “borne out of his feeling”.

The album, cut in a medieval village on the Pisan hills, is a balanced confession on the passions of the Wolf, greedy for delicious bites of jazz, jams around old western soundtracks and even realistic forays on existentialism and bal-musette. The project’s sole owner and lead performer, Lupo summoned top-notch accompanists. His main accomplice is Roberto Molesti, a sensitive pianist who also plays the accordion; around the corners, among others, Nick Becattini on electric guitar, Chris Pacini on sax, Nico Gori on clarinet and Wild Mimmo Mollica on harmonica help him.

Alongside a handful of powerful original insights and Ellington’s “Solitude”, fittingly chosen as opening track, there’s Dylan’s ballad from Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and a seductive reading of “Señor Blues”, where Lupo plays an African plectrum instrument. Perhaps in deference to the Cape Verdean ancestry of its author, Horace Silver.

It could have been a futile exercise in self-awareness, similar to the attitude of certain jazz musicians who, in Louis Jordan’s perception, in the 1940s, “played more for themselves than for the people”. Andrea, who also includes a Jordan milestone in the setlist, “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” has had “the people” on his side at thousands of concerts. With a music that takes its time, made up of pauses, long instrumental walks and a deep, confidential, almost spoken singing, that retains the urgency of calm.

A music that remains his own, even when composed by others. Now it can belong to everyone.

Andrea “Lupo” Lupi: Il sentire di un lupo solitario

By Edoardo Fassio

C’è un lupo che si aggira per la Toscana, terra d’arte per antonomasia, ma pure di gente di carattere. Andrea Lupi, detto “Lupo”, residente di un paese dalle antiche origini etrusche nelle campagne attorno a Pontedera, è un individuo dalla forte personalità. Bluesman in senso lato, è compositore, cantante, bassista e chitarrista. In una vita spesa per la musica, si è fatto notare come anima del trio Hotel La Salle, a fornire la band di supporto per Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Scott Henderson, Carey Bell e Louisiana Red, o a macinare miglia americane a suonare con Willie Murphy, membro onorario della Minnesota Music Hall of Fame insieme a Bob Dylan, Judy Garland e Prince.

Il percorso artistico di Lupo non si è interrotto neppure quando la pandemia ha impedito gli spostamenti; la clausura lo ha condotto a un viaggio interiore, una riflessione sulle capacità espressive di sé stesso. Da solo. Gli esiti della ricerca sono disponibili in SoLo, la sua prima prova discografica senza mediazioni o condivisioni, completamente “figlia del suo sentire”.

L’album, registrato in un borgo medioevale sulle colline pisane, è una calibrata confessione sulle passioni del Lupo, ghiotto di bocconi prelibati del jazz, di jam attorno a vecchie colonne sonore western e persino di veraci incursioni tra canzone d’autore e bal-musette. Solitario nel progetto, per l’esecuzione Lupo ha voluto accompagnatori di alta classe. Il complice principale è Roberto Molesti, sensibile pianista con obbligo di fisarmonica; dietro gli angoli lo aiutano, tra gli altri, Nick Becattini alla chitarra elettrica, Chris Pacini al sax, Nico Gori al clarinetto e Wild Mimmo Mollica all’armonica.

A fianco di una manciata di potenti intuizioni originali e della “Solitude” ellingtoniana, scelta appropriatamente come brano d’avvio, si incontrano la ballad di Dylan da Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid e una seducente lettura di “Señor Blues”, dove Lupo suona uno strumento a plettro africano. Forse in ossequio alle ascendenze capoverdiane dell’autore, Horace Silver.

Poteva capitare di imbattersi in un esercizio di autocoscienza simile a quello che, negli anni 1940, Louis Jordan avvertiva nell’atteggiamento di certi jazzisti che “suonavano più per loro stessi che per la gente”. Andrea, che in scaletta piazza anche un caposaldo di Jordan, “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying”, ha avuto “la gente” dalla sua in migliaia di concerti. Con una musica che si prende il suo tempo, fatta di pause, di lunghe camminate strumentali e di un canto profondo, confidenziale, quasi parlato, che conserva l’urgenza della calma.

Una musica che resta “sua”, anche se composta da altri. Ora può diventare di tutti.

Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival Moves To Lake Havasu City!

Saturday, March 25 - Gates Open 10AM Music Starts 11AM

If it’s Spring, it must be time for the Woodystock Blues and Brews Festival, back for its tenth consecutive year in our new home, Windsor Beach State Park#4, in Arizona’s premiere party place, Lake Havasu City, on beautiful Lake Havasu! Save the Date: Saturday, March 25. Gates open at 10am. Music starts 11am. 699 London Bridge Road. Tickets now on sale: $25. (advance), $35. (gate). VIP Tickets $65. Current Blues Society members get $5.00 discount. Info: (760) 963-4994 or visit www.woodystock.info. Facebook: https:// www.facebook.com/events/

5798646566892162. No ice chests allowed. Kids 16 and under free with Paid Adult. Veterans $5.00 off with Military ID. Win a Gretsch Guitar (via raffle; must be present to win). For every five tickets sold online, a new baby tree gets planted! Go to Ticket ReLeaf for details. Discount hotel rooms available via our festival hotel partners, Holiday Inn Express and Suites Lake Havasu - London Bridge and Home 2 Suites by Hilton.

The Woodystock Blues and Brews

always features some of the best national and regional names in blues and blues-rock, and 2023 is no exception. Saxophonist extraordinaire Jimmy Carpenter, multiple Blues Music Award winner and Gulf Coast Records international touring artist, returns again this year, as do festival favorites, fiery guitarist Jay Gordon and Blues Venom and the Sandy Haley Band, recently named a ‘Top 100 Artist for 2022’ by influential magazine Music Connection and fronted by soulful blues siren, Sandy Haley. Also returning to Woodystock: blues quartet Catbone, and Tiffany Lynn singing the Star Spangled Banner. New to Woodystock this year: Los Angeles-based Kenny Williams and the Stomp Down Riders, fronted by colorful guitar virtuoso, Kenny “Big Daddy” Williams; and Phoenix, AZ’s Until The Sun, female-fronted alt-blues/rock quartet whose newest release, A Night At The Rhythm Room, has received great reviews. Emcee again this year: Sanford Cohn from KBXX 101.7FM ‘Bad Ass Blues.’

Until The Sun, a blues-rock quartet from Phoenix, makes their Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival debut this year (PHOTO BY MADISON GREY PHOTOGRAPHY)

New for 2023: Festival goers will be able to purchase a variety of locally-brewed craft beers, including Copper Still Distillery, ‘Proudly Handcrafted in Lake Havasu Since 2018.’ Local food, clothing, and arts vendors will also be selling their goods at Woodystock again this year.

Sponsorship/Vendor Information: John Woodard, Woodystock Blues Festival: (760) 963-4994

woodystockbluesfestival@gmail.com

JJ Garcia, GESMusicHQ@gmail.com: (818) 203-9694

woodystock.info

facebook.com/events/5798646566892162

instagram.com/explore/tags/woodystockbluesfestival/

The Woodystock Festival was created by John ande Katy Woodard to bring the best Blues & Rock artists to the people! The festival is to help promote music within the community utilizing music education and live entertainment in a family friendly environment. The festival always combines the best local talent with regional and national blues artist to help heighten the awareness of talent in the area. Woodystock is the place that brings everyone together with fun, music and education!

Jay Gordon and Blues Venom Perform at Woodystock Blues Festival 2022

(Go to https://youtu.be/pKDYWZj9VSE to View)

Sax-man extraordinaire Jimmy Carpenter (r) returns to the 2023 Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival on Saturday, March 25 (PHOTO BY DOUG DEUTSCH)

Jazz/Punk Raconteur Mike Dillon & Punkadelick Release ‘Inflorescence, ‘ Announce 2023 U.S. Tour

Jazz/Punk Raconteur Mike Dillon & Punkadelick makes its recorded debut with Inflorescence (Royal Potato Family), an album of heady, instrumental rock highlighting a band deep in the throes of creative freedom, road-tested and wild. Consisting of ten tracks and clocking in at 42 minutes, Inflorescence is an expansive, focused, and fearless collection, representing a world where Duke Ellington and Augustus Pablo

rub shoulders with crate-digger exotica, the freak-funk of Parliament and the ‘anything fits’ outsider ethos of acid-fried punks like The Meat Puppets.

Punkadelic is a trio featuring Mike Dillon (Ricki Lee Jones, Ani DiFranco, Les Claypool) on vibraphone, marimba, Prophet 6, congas, and bongos; Brian Haas (Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey) on Fender Rhodes, piano,

bass Moog and melodica; and Nikki Glaspie (Beyonce) on drums, cymbals and vocals. They’re the unified vision of six hands creating a world that often sounds like the work of an ensemble three times the size!

During 2020 and 2021, while many music venues were still shuttered, Punkadelic began touring, sweating their way through cuts Dillon and Haas had composed during quarantine writing sessions. Locking in on stage, it quickly became clear Punkadelic was functioning at a level that made the hair on their arms stand at attention — even for three live music veterans accustomed to life on the road.

“It became obvious this had to become a collaboration,” said Dillon. “This is really something all three of us are doing because we have so much love for one another and a love for the music that we started creating.”

“There’s only three of us, but we move together like a big, nasty school of fish,” adds Haas.

During the tail end of a 2021 tour, the band booked time to record with engineer and functioning fourth Punkadelic band member Chad Meise, and Inflorescence sprouted. Opening track “Desert Monsoon” sets the stage with a spiritual-jazz intro of organ, vibraphone, percussion, and wordless vocal coos before crackling to life as a swaggering funk strut. The title track and “Pandas” dig into thick dub textures built around Glaspie’s drumming and Haas’s subwoofer-straining bass synths.

“Apocalypse Daydream,” which appeared as an exotic head-nodder on 2020’s Shoot the Moon (titled “Apocalyptic Daydreams”) is reborn as a meatier jazz-rock slab where Dillon and Haas circle each other like Television performing as a lounge act on a cruise ship sailing seas of psilocybin.

Bending ears and surprising audiences has long been part of Dillon’s MO; Glaspie and Haas act as perfect foils for forays into the weird. While Dillon bristles at the “punk jazz” tag, punk rock and jazz remain core influences to the band, in sound and spirit.

“We’re students of the titans of music. We grew up listening to punk and rock ’n’ roll but we also love instrumental music, particularly the forefathers of Black American Music. In our minds, Led Zeppelin and Milt Jackson, Parliament-Funkadelic and The Minutemen, The Bad Brains and Frank Zappa are interconnected influences,” explains Dillon. “All that comes together in how we approach instrumental creative music. Both punk rock and jazz are not prefab things, they’re about the freedom. We have no genre continued on next page

Mike Dillon & Punkadelick

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restriction in this band, and people who get it really respect that.”

Maybe the greatest example of the band’s punk-steeped, sonic free-for-all is “Slowly But Surely,” a track Dillon told Haas to compose as if he were “writing for Queens of the Stone Age.” The song plays like QOTSA translated to piano runs, vibes and deeply swinging drums/big-riff stoner rock upended and played with huge smiles by America’s premier proponents of the unclassifiable.

“We try to challenge our listeners,” Dillon says. “We’re touching a nerve with people who maybe don’t want to see the same songs done in the same variations all night long. Part of my mission is taking these instruments that are primarily designed for the orchestral or jazz world and taking them to the rock world, the club world, running them through pedals and effects. We’re not afraid to be soft, or to surprise. That’s what we all do in this band — get beyond our own conceptions of what music is supposed to be.”

“We are so blessed and lucky to do what we do for a living — it’s apparent in the music,” Glaspie adds. “It doesn’t matter how the day is going, but we get to the club, set up and crush the gig, all the other stuff doesn’t matter. We’re like-minded individuals who love life, love people and want to spread happiness.”

Mike Dillon & Punkadelick’s Inflorescence Release Date: January 27, 2023

Mike Dillon & Punkadelic Inflorescence2023 U.S. Tour

January 4 (Wed.) Kansas City MO @

The Brick

January 5 (Thur.) Bartlesville OK @

The Grey Dog Listening Room

January 6 (Fri.) Little Rock AK @ Four Corner Bar

January 7 (Sat.) St. Louis, MO @ Pop’s Blue Moon

January 8 (Sun.) Fairfield IA@ Cafe Paradiso

February 1 (Wed.) Raleigh NC @ The Pour House

February 2 (Thur.) Charleston SC @ The Pour House

February 3 (Fri.) Asheville NC @ Asheville Music Hall

February 4 (Sat.) Jacksonville FL @ 1904

February 6-12 (Mon.-Sun.) Miami FL @ Jam Cruise

February 17 (Fri.) New Orleans LA @ The Rabbit Hole - “Not So Super Hero Ball”- Punkadelick with Nikki Glaspie and Brian Haas

February 18 (Sat.) New Orleans LA @ BJ’s- Punkadelick with Nikki Glaspie and Brian Haas double bill with Skully from Morning 40’s band.

February 22 (Wed.) Durango CO @ Animas City Theater*

February 23 (Thur.) Grand Junction CO @ Mesa Theater*

February 24 (Fri.) Crested Butte CO @ Public House*

February 25 (Sat.) Denver CO @ Cervantes Other Side*

March 10 (Fri.) Jersey City NJ @ White Eagle Hall*

March 11 (Sat.) Philadelphia PA @ Underground Arts*

March 12 (Sun.) Baltimore MD @The 8X10*

March 13 (Mon.) Pittsburgh PA @ The Underground Cafe*

March 14 (Tue.) Cleveland OH @ Beachland Ballroom*

March 15 (Wed.) Chicago IL @Lincoln Hall*

March 16 (Thur.) Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room@Colectivo*

March 17 (Fri.) St. Paul MN @ Turf Club*

March 18 (Sat.) Madison WI @ High Noon Saloon*

March 25 (Sat.) Dunedin FL @ Dunedin Brewery

# Mike Dillon and Brian Haas

^ Mike Dillon, Brian Haas, Rory Dolan

* Mike DIllon, Brian Haas, Nikki Glaspie

Follow Mike Dillon Online At: http://www.mikedillonvibes.com

http://www.facebook.com/ TheMikeDillonBand

http://www.instagram.com/mikedillonband

http://www.open.spotify.com/artist/ 18Lycl2oHZocGLEUJIfIlA

Blue Note Records

Blue Note Records has announced a February 17 release of Transmissions from Total Refreshment Centre, an eclectic new collection that features a wide range of artists who are part of London’s vibrant Total Refreshment Centre community including Byron Wallen, Jake Long, Matters Unknown, Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange, Neue Grafik, and Resavoir. The album is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, or download and the lead single “Visions” by Soccer96 featuring MC Kieron Boothe is out now.

All the best music has a community underneath it, and the extended family around TRC—a music venue and recording studio founded by Lex Blondel that serves as a vital hub in London’s jazz scene—connects continents and generations, creating the rich relationships that are in full effect on Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre. The collection draws from new school jazz, hip hop, dub, soul, funk, and drill: sounds you’ll hear trailing out of cars as they spin up the Kingsland Road or spiraling out of doorways like so much smoke. Turn it up loud to hear the widescreen young cousins of Guru’s landmark Jazzmatazz in full effect: top players from London, Chicago, and Melbourne seeking out new collaborations, new ways of working, or just new tunes, always coming back to that central truth –that we all need each other.

The track listing for Transmissions From Total Refreshment Centre is as follows:

1. Soccer96 “Visions” featuring Kieron Boothe

2. Byron Wallen “Closed Circle”

3. Jake Long “Crescent (City Swamp Dub)”

4. Matters Unknown “Eloquence” featuring Miryam Solomon

5. Zeitgeist Freedom Energy Exchange “Isa” featuring Noah Slee

6. Neue Grafik “Black” featuring Brother Portrait

7. Resavoir “Plight”

Hear The Lead Single “Visions” by Soccer96 Featuring Kieron Boothe at https://youtu.be/b5QDk9-xJi0

Follow Blue Note Records:

Website @ https://www.bluenote.com/

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/bluenote

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/bluenoterecords

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/bluenoterecords/

Spotify @ https://www.youtube.com/user/BlueNote

Apple Music @ https://www.youtube.com/user/BlueNote

YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/user/BlueNote

Photo Credit: Sophie Jouvenaar

Conversations With The Professionals - by John in Houston

Meet World Class Recording Engineer Mr. Andy Bradley

What do all of these men have in common with the man on the far right? All of them are highly recognized internationally for their accomplishments and all of them have recorded with sound engineer Andy Bradley. Shown in the photo: L- Paul English, Johnny Bush, Willie Nelson, and Andy Bradley. Over the holidays Andy stopped by the house and we chatted about a number of topics within the music industry. Among them the number of stars that live other places but travel to Houston to record their new projects. Obviously, Houston is blessed in its own right with super stars such as Beyonce, Billy Gibbons, Lyle Lovett and many more. However, the question that had been so aptly expressed by a world class fiddle player recording in Houston was/is “why isn’t Houston Nashville?” His question lends itself to a much broader topic as he could have just as easily asked why isn’t Houston Austin or Los Angeles for example. So here I am sitting in my own home with a world class professional that has over 1,300 projects credited to his name and I took the liberty to ask him. Andy replied, “The bottom line is that the city had not at the time picked up on the notion that Houston has such a large bevy of talent living here and non-resident artists traveling here to record. Yet right here in their midst was Don Robey’s Peacock Records whose label turned out star after star after star over time. At the time the question was asked promotional focus by the city was on the cattle and oil industries and they did a great job in that regard. However, even today most people do not know that Willie Nelson traveled to Houston and cut his 2nd and 3rd 45 RPMs at Sugarhill Studios and to this day that influx of outside talent coming here has not dropped off.” I moved the questioning over to the technical side a bit by asking Andy “are there limitations regarding the computer technology that garage bands may use versus say live musicians recording with them?” Andy responded with “the computer has no soul, for instance real drummers, live drummers, in a studio session have interpretive soul. A huge difference.” I pressed on and asked him about sound reproduction in a garage or home studio versus a professional recording studio. He responded immediately saying, “Ceilings. Low ceilings prevent sound from reaching its full potential. In fact many times producers and artists will comment that the set that was just recorded has a great groove when its recorded 100% live. The next time you are in Wire Road look up at the ceilings and you will see that the studio was designed with high ceilings, that was done on purpose.” I moved the line of questions over to another technical topic, “If someone is recording should their final mix be in high quality MP3 or WAV format? His answer “The answer has a lot to do with the super lows and super highs, MP3 cuts off these two attributes. Another big difference between the two formats is space. A four minute WAV requires up to 40 megabytes whereas an MP3 of the same length only requires up to ten megs. Therefore it should be noted that WAV is perfect for music videos because of this extra reach.” Andy records and mixes multiple genres so I wanted to learn this answer, “Software wise how many brands do you rely on in order to record all of these genres?”

continued on next page

Don Robey - CEO Peacock Records

Meet World Class Recording Engineer Mr. Andy Bradley

His answer, “Pro Tools is a recording system by Avid Technology. I have been using their products since 1995. I find it to be the best tool when recording live musicians. It’s an interesting tool. For example sometimes a take has good parts and not so good parts and that calls for an additional attempt to get it just the way the artist envisions it. In those situations if the drummer can play with a metronome we can do editing and the tempo will be consistent. Multiple tempos within a song can be recorded to perfection. In fact various takes can be spliced therefore we can remove any rough spots and insert replacements. The beauty being that although the takes were combined through editing the reproduction is seamless to the listener.” A native of Canada Andy moved to Australia for ten years where he began his career in music being a roadie. As he toured he became intertwined with the portable creative side of delivering professional sound. His interest led hm to learn even more about sound reproduction. Andy would then move to the United States and go on to be with Rice University’s Music Department for 37 years. Concurrently, for about 30 of those years Andy was one of the principles of Houston’s famous SugarHill Studios. It was there that he would record the most remarkable talents from around the globe. His years at SugarHill culminated in a writing partnership with music industry author Dr. Roger Wood who would co-write Andy’s behind the scenes book titled “House Of Hits”. The compilation relays the stories of various artists and industry professionals that either recorded or worked in Houston including Andy’s first hand account of the history of the world renowned SugarHill Studios. A most interesting insider’s look at the various world class artists that recorded in their famous studio A. The names of the stars that lined up over the years to have their tracks recorded there is absolutely incredible. One of those famous stand outs was the legendary bluesmen that recorded at Gold Star (Gold Star was the name that preceded the name SugarHill) Lightnin’ Hopkins. “House Of Hits” is a guided tour through time which even reveals a police raid that occurred due to a previous owner leasing a separate part of the building to an outsider. Andy found himself surrounded in the main building, guns drawn, handcuffed having no idea what the hell was going on. Beyond that internal incident Andy goes on to reveal quite a bit about the underbelly of the recording industry in Houston. He had taken the time to research the stories of multiple famous locations and because he had recorded quite a number of the personalities at SugarHill he had full access to many of them including Mickey Gilley and Freddy Fender. So the question that I wanted to ask without being impolite was “why do they keep coming back to you, what’s the allure?” I didn’t know how to ask such a blunt question without being too direct so I shunned from getting deeper but yet I wanted to know. What is it that sets him apart? A large part of it beyond knowing what knobs to turn and buttons to push has to be his intuition. Envisioning the opportunity to add strings or a slide guitar or maybe another back up singer are a few non-textbook reasons for sure. Artists such as Houston’s Chris Gardner, Bert Wills, Evelyn Rubio, Deniz Tek of the legendary rock Band Birdman and quite a number more all rave about the end result that occurs each and every time when working with this man. Who knows why but I suspect that a bit of it appears to be magic but it’s not, it’s a man that has a strong grip on his craft. To learn more about Andy access Wire Road Studios Houston Texas.

Lightning Hopkins

Mickey Gilley and Troy Payne at Wire Road

Freddy Fender

Dolby Atmos – A Dramatic Experience In The Clarity Of Your Music

I have a friend that lost most of his hearing in his left ear when he was little. He still became a musician and has played with partial hearing for over 40 years. When he sat in the center chair in my studio and I played examples of Dolby Atmos ready songs, it was emotional. For the first time in his life he was hearing the music like he was supposed to hear it. Being immersed in the middle of the song somehow compensated for his hearing loss. He almost cried. Recording Artists pay close attention, this opinion is for you. Dolby Atmos is going to revolutionize the way we listen to music.

I have made a nice career out of understanding computer technology trends and helping large corporations understand the impact and importance of those changes; how to benefit from and embrace new technology. I combined 40 years of expertise in computer technology with my passion for music when I opened my studio in 2015. My vision has been to advance the quality of music recordings. This vision was and continues to be something that I have been chasing for 20 years, a real labor of love. As I became more knowledgeable of the music recording industry, it was only natural for me to notice how technological advances tended to disrupt the recording industry. Probably as much as any industry I have ever worked in changes in technology drive the consumer market for music. One item I that have noticed about technology is when something changes it never comes well planned and organized. Instead, the changes tend to be slow and messy. For example, it takes time for related technology to integrate, for people to learn, and for the work processes to adjust to the new products. Only then is there a chance these advancements will become mainstream and commercially viable. Often the new technology is very expensive, and one has to wait to see if it is going to be accepted by the consumers. Sometimes it’s not adopted and fails to gain mass acceptance. The music industry is a good example of how technology can disrupt an industry and, in some cases, fail. What I noticed about the music industry is for something to become accepted, it has to be more than just an advancement in recording techniques or audio quality. The advancements have to hit home, they must be mobile for instance, the technology has to be easily accessible and be embraced by the public. When the new advancement is accompanied by widespread popularity, a commercial boom is soon to follow. This has been the case since music was first heard over the radio through a phonograph recording of “Ombra mai fu Largo” on Christmas Eve 1906. Although the technology was available, the big boon for the music industry arrived much later not until the 1950’s when car radios became affordable and AM radio stations sprang up everywhere. There was a large demand for music to be played over the radio waves. People loved it because they could listen to the music they loved on the go. Soon affordable handheld and portable transistor radios would follow and the golden age of radio was in full swing. The recording industry was boomcontinued on next page

David

Not since music moved from mono to stereo has anything been this immersive

Ehninnger ATR Studio

Dolby Atmos – A Dramatic Experience In The Clarity Of Your Music

ing and recording artists and record companies could not deliver enough music to meet the demand. Then came another advancement in the recording industry followed by an advancement in the playback technology. Stereo recordings were invented followed by FM radio stations. Suddenly music could be heard in two dimensions. The concept of Stereo was invented in the late 30’s and stereo music recordings were available in the late 50’s. At this point in time the public was skeptical and the cost to own a home stereo was high. It wasn’t until FM radio came along that the format took off. When auto manufactures began to offer Car stereos, the stereo format really took off. And boy did it take off, soon everyone had a home stereo system. This was the platinum age of radio. All forms of music were being recorded and played on the FM radio stations. I vividly remember when 8-track tapes came out, I was so happy. You could finally take your music, the music you wanted to listen to, with you. I remember Christmas 1970 when my brother bought me a Three Dog Night 8 track tape. We would ride around in his car and I would belt out “Joy to the World, all the boys and girls”… and what a joy it was. Cassette tapes would soon follow and for the first time we could make our own mix tape, again taking our own music with us in car stereos and eventually play them on boom boxes and The Walkman. This was the first time I saw the word Dolby. I didn’t know what Dolby did, but I knew when you pushed the Dolby button the cassette tape sounded much better. I was a fan. The pace of change in the music industry and the disruptions have only increased. Over the last 30 years the impact to the market and speed of change seems to arrive more often, but the changes also generate opportunities for those that embrace the change. 52nd street by Bill Joel was released in 1982 on compact disc, and the digital age of music began. Once again it took some time for public acceptance of this new format but once CD players were available in home systems, car stereos, and the Walkman, CD’s took over. To this day you will find people that say their vinyl albums sound better, and perhaps they do, but what digital did for music was make it even more portable, more accessible, more available. Digital music led to Apple to release their IPOD, another important advancement in the mobility of music. Now you could download just the songs you wanted and take your music with you anywhere you wanted to go. Network bandwidth and improved wi-fi led to music streaming and now streaming has become the way most people listen to music. We continued on next page

Dolby Atmos – A Dramatic Experience In The Clarity Of Your Music

are at a point in time where people hardly buy music anymore. When was the last time you bought a Vinal record, a CD, much less a cassette or 8 track tape? Yet all of these were important advancements in the accessibility and portability of music. Now immersive audio is at the brink of acceptance - and has already started to create another disruption of the industry. Once again, Apple has led the way with their release of spatial audio on Apple Music and by doing so they woke the giants of the movie industry and the pioneers of immersive audio Sony and Dolby up. If you have been to the movies since 2012 you were likely to have heard Dolby Atmos in the movie theaters. This is the technology that allows the allusion of jet airplanes flying overhead, and the sound of rockets ships blasting past you as the low frequencies immerse you in the movie. Now that experience is available in music. Much like the technologies I have been writing about, it has been around for a while, but the acceptance and the mobility part are happening now. If you own an Android phone, chances are you already have Dolby Atmos on your phone and don’t even know it. Most newer home theaters have Atmos built in, and there are many affordable high quality sound bars that are coming Atmos ready. These are popular with the home movie crowd but they also work for music. Apple realized that most people are listening to music by streaming it through their phones to headphones and they capitalized on biaural headphone technology being used in PC gaming systems for music. And most recently several major car manufacturers; Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes have announced Dolby Atmos car systems are coming soon. So the portability, and mobility of immersive audio is on its way and coming to more places than just theaters. This is the next disruptions in the music industry which brings me back to the start of my article. The case for immersive audio. It is the actual experience that will change everything. Because for the first time, you feel like you are in the band, on the stage, immersed in the music. Think of being in the center of a music bubble, surrounded by the song. I am experiencing the same type of emotional reaction from anyone that sits in the center chair in my studio. They are hearing things in songs they have never heard before. They are talking about the clarity and the different parts; they feel like they are part of the music. And this is the case for Atmos or any immersive audio format. This is what you always wanted for your music - to be presented in a format that allows the listener to feel they are a part of the music. The time is now, are you ready? David Ehninnger is a seasoned technology expert that researches and recommends solutions for major corporations. His life long love of music drove his curiosity to research and then finally open ATR Studio in Katy Texas. A successful presence that works with both aspiring and well established artists.

To learn moreATR Studios. Across The Road , LLC. acrosstheroadllc.com acrosstheroadproductions@gmail.com. 281-804-5210.

Delta Wires, longtime mainstays in the San Francisco/Bay area blues scene, have released their new full-length album, If Somebody Told Me.

Ernie Pinata’s searing and impas-

sioned harp on the track ‘Can’t Win For Losin’ opens this dynamic new CD. This seven-piece East Bay-based band has been generating powerful blues for over thirty years, performing at festivals from Monterey to Italy, and always with

monumental audience response — all of which has earned them membership in California’s Blues Hall of Fame in 2012.

on next page

Photo credits: Jesus Cordero

PHOTO BY CLAIR HAWLEY

Delta Wires

(continued from previous page)

The Delta Wires’ potent combination of tight and highly-polished horns, fierce bluesy guitar and Pinata’s crying, emotional harp make for a powerful fusion, blending the heartbeat of the Delta with electric sophistication and a full-blooded brass sound. If Somebody Told Me... includes several originals, a few nods to the legendary Sonny Boy Williamson...and even a Count Basie lagniappe.

Delta Wires started out as an Anthology of Blues Music that harpist Ernie Pinata presented as an undergraduate project for credit at The California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. The program covered the regional migration of music from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago. It began with field hollers, the music of Charley Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House, and ended up with the music recorded at Chess Records in Chicago: Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf and many others. After the program, the band went on to play professionally, performing with some of the greats that we studied: Lowell Fulson, Bo Diddley, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and many others.

Delta Wires were finalists in the international Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2008, representing the Sacramento Blues Society. They have recorded seven albums. Among their highprofile appearances: Umbria Jazz Festival, Perugia Italy; San Francisco Blues Festival; Russian River Blues Festival; Monterey Bay Blues Festival (eight times); Shasta Blues Society’s Redding Blues by the River Festival; Crescent City Blues Festival, (and) Sacramento Jazz Festival and Jubilee.

The Delta Wires have shared the stage with many noted artists including

Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, Freddie King, Bo Diddley, The Neville Bros, Dr. John, The Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells, John Mayall, Boz Scaggs, Bad Company, The James Gang, and others.

The best way to experience the Delta Wires is undoubtedly live. Onstage, the ‘Wires always deliver an incandescent experience. But if you can’t catch them live, purchase If Somebody Told Me... and hold onto your hats. You’re in for a wild, wild ride!

The Story Behind The Songs

“IF SOMEBODY TOLD ME”

We had a concept of a blues ballad that would be a guitar feature tune, with lyrics I (Ernie Pinata) wrote about my son. I presented it to the rhythm section, and we put the concept together. I then communicated with our trombone player/arranger and he put the horn lines on it. We rehearsed the song and played it out, went to the studio, and recorded it in one take. The band knew what the song was about, and put their hearts into it.

“CAN’T WIN FOR LOSIN’”

The song is about the ups and downs of having a band in such a competitive area as the San Francisco Bay. You are always pushing to be noticed, to get gigs, and to keep everyone on a positive platform. We have also lost many friends and past band members who passed away over the years, but... we are not giving up the fight!

“I TRIED”

This song is basically a tribute to Duke Records and the music of Larry Davis. We wanted the driving Big Band sound with the horns kicking. At rehearsal, we picked the tune apart and put our own spin on it. It’s much more hard-driving now than the original.

“BRING ME UP”

Big Joe Turner influenced us in this song. We wanted the Big Band style featuring the horns; it is a story of life, and trying to always be positive in this crazy world. ‘Too much worry is bringing me down, not enough money can make a man frown.’ ‘Somewhere there’s a light, a real bright light. Trying to see it, keeps me up at night”. The lyrics say it all.

New Music From Canada

It’s a TumbleWeedyWorld proclaims acclaimed Ottawa Singer-Songwriter Lynn Miles with new album coming March

17, 2023

Listen to the advance single “Highway 105” at https://truenorthrecords.com/lynnmiles/ Preorder | Presave album here at https://truenorthrecords.com/lynnmiles/ everything.

Lynn Miles has earned her reputation as one of Canada’s most formidable songwriters, having written more than 900 songs and released 15 albums over her remarkable career. She’s racked up multiple Juno Awards, Canadian Folk Music Awards, had two albums voted #1 by readers of Penguin Eggs magazine, and had her songs covered by a multitude of artists including Claire Lynch on her Grammy-nominated album North by South. She is a producer, professor and public speaker, a paragon of excellence in everything she does. You could say she is reliable. The songs on her 16th album, TumbleWeedyWorld, however, are about unreliability. About shaky situations. About a time when cracks begin to appear in

“These are songs that arrive at a moment when global instability illuminated the fragility of personal relationships. They’re about impermanence (“I’m a lonesome drifting girl / In my tumbleweedyworld”). About incompatibility (“I wish you were a night owl, too”). About the left (“Johnny Without June”) and about the leaving (“Hide Your Heart”). About spiteful endings (“All Bitter Never Sweet”). About how those endings are never crystal clear, about the complications of regret (“All these years I’ve been carrying around this heart / There’s always been a tiny missing part / I couldn’t name it or maybe I wouldn’t dare / Cause I

know I’d have to walk through fire to go back there”). They’re songs about navigating life’s hurdles, about dodging tumbleweeds, about leaving stuck situations. On the surface, they’re hurtin’ songs about two people who can’t make things work“ explains Lynn Miles.

Dig deeper, however—as Lynn Miles does—and they’re about every kind of relationship where “Sorry’s Just Not Good Enough.”

TumbleWeedyWorld, like many Lynn Miles records, sounds the way a warm blanket feels. Her emotive, empathetic vocals are situated in acoustic arrangements with nods to pop, country and bluegrass, without percussion. She’s surrounded by ace instrumentalists, but her voice is always central. Says fellow songwriter Ellis Paul, “Lynn Miles has the kind of voice that insists that you pull the car over. Call the radio station. Change your citizenship. Buy a home in Toronto. She’s been blessed with such a drop-dead-beautiful, honey-smooth voice that it’s impossible to not fall in love with it. It rides along the ebb and flow of a gifted sense of melody. She’s the kind of lyricist that renders whatever heartache you feel into something both beautiful and aching. She also is extremely funny. Like she’s carrying an antidote to inject you with between songs to cure you of the snake bite.”

As a public speaker and writer, Lynn Miles speaks of mental health issues in the music community; she gave a presentation on Musicians and Mental Health at the 2019 Folk Alliance International conference. She has raised over $10,000 for charities with her “ugly sweater” raffles at her annual “Winter/ Christmas” shows. Her single, “What If You Were a Refugee,” raises funds for agencies that help migrants.

Tracklisting

1. Night Owl 4:20

2. Highway 105 3:46

3. Cold Cold Moon 5:12

4. Johnny Without June 4:09

5. Hide Your Heart 2:24

6. Sorry’s Just Not Good Enough 3:15

7. Palomino 3:34

8. All Bitter Never Sweet 2:17

9. Moody 3:47

10. Gold In The Middle 3:57

Photo Credit: Dávid Bodnár

(continued from previous page)

Waving the flag of a new generation of metal, alternative and punk, THE HELLFREAKS are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of their fierce new album, Pitch Black Sunset, set for release April 14, 2023 via Napalm Records. Founded in 2009, Hungary’s most exciting upstarts emerged with a marvelous discography and their massive psychobilly-punk hit, “Boogie Man”, which has gathered millions upon millions of views on YouTube.

The curtain has finally fallen again as the budding band unveils their addictive first heavy rock-infused single, “Hit Me Where It Hurts”. Jumping right into the pit, the quartet blends metallic punches with a sound echoing the likes of genre visionaries Muse, accented by electrified guitar leads and raspy punk vocal attacks by singer Shakey Sue. Representing the relentless atmosphere of the song, the Hungarian musicians strap on their boots to celebrate a never-ending night in their official music video.

THE HELLFREAKS state on “Hit Me Where It Hurts”:

“’Hit Me Where It Hurts’ is about hope and despair. Hope is able to move mountains. But what if the desired dream stays a dream? Then hope turns to prison. Intoxicated by a desire that never comes true, we reach the dead end, where the brain clearly sees the way out, but our heart won’t let us make the necessary steps. All that’s left is suffering.

This song is an invocation for the metaphorical punch to eliminate the last piece of false hope, the real culprit in such a situation.”

With almost a decade of existence, THE HELLFREAKS embrace the influence of modern metal, alternative, post-hardcore and punk to form their unmatched sound. Performing in almost every European country and gaining more awareness via their American tour in 2015, the well-experienced band from Budapest proves with their fifth album, Pitch Black Sunset, that they are more than ready to kickstart their next chapter!

Kicking off with vocalist Shakey Sue’s trademark sing-along-screams, “Old Tomorrows” raises the pulse with fast-paced punk mixed with groovy metal beats. Followed by the restless track “Chaos”, boisterous thrash lines meet pop-punkinfused metal before closing with a Tom Morello-worthy solo. THE HELLFREAKS stay true to themselves yet never become stagnant or pretentious – as tracks like “Weeping Willow” are driven by more modern metal interpretations and electronic interludes. With its fragile clean vocals and the eerie sounds of the guitar’s strings, the atmosphere of the song changes throughout

Pitch Black Sunset Tracklisting:

Sunrise

Old Tomorrows

Hit Me Where It Hurts

Chaos

Weeping Willow Body Bag

Rootless Soul Riot

before taking an unexpected turn into a hardhitting core-hymn. “Body Bag” offers a total contrast - surfacing like a message in a bottle with its in-your-face, straight forward 2000s skate punk vibe that fans of the genre have always wished for. THE HELLFREAKS showcase the individual musical expertise of its members when chunky riffs merge with strong beats and highly aggressive shouts, while bittersweet vocal lines call out for a feelgood song.

THE HELLFREAKS state on Pitch Black Sunset:

“Since our last album, our world around us has turned much darker than what we ever expected. Covid, war, inflation. Enough reasons for introspection to find out

PBSS

Sunset

Pitch Black Sunset will be available in the following formats:

1CD Jewelcase

1LP Gatefold Sun Yellow Transparent

Digital Album

T-Shirt “Hit Me Where It Hurts”

if there is any light left in us. An excursion between the best and worst parts in us.

Pitch Black Sunset is about how these contraries interfere with each other: the past and the future, peace and chaos, eastern and western, life and death. This album invites you to a car ride straight into the canyon between these opposites. Does it end in a car crash? Sometimes. But we found beauty in it.”

THE HELLFREAKS are:

Zsuzsa “Shakey Sue“ Radnóti - Vocals

József “Jozzy“ Takács - Guitar

Gabi Domján - Bass

Béla Budai - Drums

THE HELLFREAKS online:

Website @ https://thehellfreaks.com

Facebook @ https://thehellfreaks.com

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/thehellfreaks/ Napalm Records @ https://label.napalmrecords.com/the-hellfreaks

New Music From Panama

PANAMANIAN PSYCHEDELIC ARTIST CIENFUE KICKS OFF 2023 WITH NEW SINGLE “LOST TRIBES”

The hypnotic new track comes ahead of Cienfue’s highly awaited forthcoming album

“Seven Cities of Gold”

Listen Here @ https://lnkfi.re/Cienfue

Follow CIENFUE:

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/cienfue/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Cienfue

TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@cienfue

Known for his irresistible brand of tropical psychedelia, Cienfue has burst out of the borders of Panama to take over the world, garnering more than 11 million global streams of his extraordinary catalog and achieving notoriety from a wide variety of renowned news outlets such as CNN and Rolling Stone. Continuing to establish himself as an innovative and unstoppable force in the industry, the acclaimed musician and visual artist returns with his highly anticipated new single “Lost Tribes.”

Featuring an enticing Panamanian “Pindin” indie cumbia drumbeat, “Lost Tribes” transports listeners to the jungle, where they will find themselves immediately enveloped in the swirling arpeggio

synths and indie guitars that Cienfue meticulously crafted as the sonic foundation of his story. Singing about a lost love that he wishes would return, the ingenious artist conveys a relatable sense of longing on this eclectic Englishlanguage track while maintaining a refreshing energy fueled by restorative melodies and rhythms.

“Lost Tribes” is the first single to be released from Cienfue’s upcoming full-length concept album “Seven Cities of Gold,” the follow up to 2020’s “Life in the Tropics,” his first full-length English-language album. Although both albums were inspired by and draw from his personal experiences with the psychedelic brew Ayahuasca, on “Seven

Cities of Gold,” he dives a bit deeper, showcasing the multiple glistening facets of his boundless creativity and, alongside a selection of English-language songs, offering a captivating dose of brand-new Spanish language tracks that will take fans on a riveting musical journey to an Amazonian psychedelic utopia.

“Seven Cities of Gold” will be unveiled to the public by means of an extended release, which will include multiple singles and remixes from the album over the course of 2023.

Camilo Navarro Quelquejeu, aka Cienfue, has paved his own way in the music world by mixing Latin roots with modern electronic elements, creating a mesmerizing, boundary-shattering sound that he has coined “psicodelia tropical.” Growing up in 1980s Panama under military rule, music became his refuge, and as the videos aired by MTV became his constant companions, he began to experiment with arranging digital music, recording with cassette tapes, and learning electric guitar. By the 2010s, his passion for composing had led him to a fully-fledged career with international success, receiving recognition from respected outlets such as the BBC’s LatAm Beats, Spotify’s The Game Plan, Rolling Stone, CNN, People, ESPN, Remezcla, Pop Matters, NPR, MTV Latin, and MTV3 USA.

He has played countless music festivals throughout Latin America, including Rock Al Parque in Colombia, Vive Latino in Mexico and Quito Fest in Ecuador, and has shared the stage with legendary acts such as Juanes, Café Tacvba, Cultura Profética, Zoé, Babasónicos, Incubus, and many more.

Conocido por su irresistible estilo de psicodelia tropical, Cienfue ha salido de las fronteras de Panamá para conquistar el mundo, consiguiendo más de 11 millones de streams globales de su extraordinario catálogo y alcanzando notoriedad en una amplia variedad de medios de comunicación de renombre como CNN y Rolling Stone. Siguiendo y consolidándose como una fuerza innovadora e imparable en la industria, el aclamado músico y artista visual regresa con su esperadado nuevo single “Lost Tribes”.

Con un atractivo ritmo de cumbia indie panameña “Pindin”, “Lost Tribes” transporta a los oyentes a la selva, donde se encontrarán inmediatamente envueltos en los arremolinados sintetizadores de arpegio y las guitarras indie que Cienfue ha creado meticulosamente como base sonora de su historia. Cantando sobre un amor perdido que desearía que volviera, el ingenioso artista transmite una sensación de añoranza en este tema ecléctico en inglés, al tiempo que mantiene una energía refrescante alimentada por melodías y ritmos reconstituyentes.

“Lost Tribes” es el primer sencillo que se publica del próximo álbum conceptual de larga duración de Cienfue, “Seven Cities of Gold”, continuación de “Life in the Tropics” de 2020, su primer álbum completamente en inglés. Aunque ambos álbumes se inspiraron en sus experiencias personales con el brebaje psicodélico Ayahuasca, en “Seven Cities of Gold”, se sumerge un poco más, mostrando las múltiples facetas brillantes de su creatividad sin límites y, junto a una selección de canciones en inglés, ofrece una cautivadora dosis de nuevos temas en español que llevan a los fans a un fascinante viaje musical a una utopía psicodélica amazónica.

EL ARTISTA PSICODÉLICO PANAMEÑO CIENFUE COMIENZA EL 2023 CON SU NUEVO SINGLE “LOST TRIBES”

El hipnótico nuevo tema se adelanta al esperado próximo álbum de Cienfue titulado “Seven Cities of Gold”

Escucha Aqui @ https://lnkfi.re/Cienfue

Sigue a CIENFUE:

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/cienfue/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Cienfue

TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@cienfue

“Seven Cities of Gold” se dará a conocer al público mediante un lanzamiento ampliado, que incluirá múltiples singles y remezclas del álbum a lo largo de 2023.

Camilo Navarro Quelquejeu, alias Cienfue, se ha labrado su propio camino en el mundo de la música mezclando raíces latinas con elementos electrónicos modernos, creando un sonido hipnotizador que rompe fronteras y que él ha acuñado como “psicodelia tropical”. Creció en el Panamá de los años ochenta, bajo un régimen militar, y la música se convirtió en su refugio. Los vídeos emitidos por MTV se convirtieron en su compañía constante, así que empezó a experimentar con arreglos musicales digitales, a grabar con cintas de casete y a aprender a tocar la guitarra

eléctrica. En la década de 2010, su pasión por la composición le ha llevado a una carrera de éxito internacional en la que ha recibido el reconocimiento de medios tan respetados como la BBC’s LatAm Beats, Spotify’s The Game Plan, Rolling Stone, CNN, People, ESPN, Remezcla, Pop Matters, Nylon, NPR, UCLA Radio, MTV Latin, and MTV3 USA.

Ha tocado en innumerables festivales de música en toda América Latina, incluyendo Rock Al Parque en Colombia, Vive Latino en México y Quito Fest en Ecuador, y ha compartido escenario con legendarios artistas como Juanes, Café Tacvba, Cultura Profética, Zoé, Babasónicos, Incubus, y muchos más.

Nueva Musica De Panama

photo credit: Gemma Warren

Rising Australian artist, Blake Rose returns today with his first musical offering of 2023. On ‘Use Me’, luminous guitars and keys shuffle towards a handclap-fueled chant. The track is the latest to be taken from his forthcoming EP, ‘You’ll Get It When You’re Older’ set for release via AWAL Recordings on February 24.

“On the surface level, ‘Use Me’ is about being attracted to somebody and lust creeping into the point where you would let this person do anything to you,” Blake reveals. “You’re so obsessed you don’t care. However, upon a closer look, one might realize the song is actually about addiction, resembling the relationship between a drug and its abuser. The substance is personified.”

‘Use Me’ follows previously released tracks including the hopeful, hazy ballad ‘In Your Arms’ (Listen @ https://blakerose.ffm.to/inyourarms), which Billboard hailed “an affecting piano ballad that showcases his skill set,” ‘Dizzy’ (WATCH @ https://youtu.be/ vx9T6CIK2ys), a playful track filled with his signature wit and nostalgia, lauded by Variance Magazine as “soaring” and “playful,” the deeply personal ‘Magazine’ (LISTEN @ https:// blakerose.ffm.to/magazine), featuring some serious throwback vibes and beach-boy-esque harmonies, all while tackling the serious subject of addiction and ‘Demon’ (WATCH @ https:// youtu.be/51RlBHagdiA), praised by Consequence as a “bright and bouncy pop track” that “transforms once the first chorus hits, becoming an anthemic and explosive hype track.”

Following multiple high-profile tours supporting the likes of Dean Lewis, girl in red, Noah Kahan, Ashe, as well as a one-off LA show with American rock band Boys Like Girls, Blake played two SOLD OUT headline shows in Los Angeles and New York last Fall. He is next scheduled to hit the stage this Spring, joining UK artist Mimi Webb on the SOLD-OUT UK leg of her EU/UK tour. For a list of tour dates and to purchase tickets, please visit http:// www.blakerosemusic.com.

‘You’ll Get It When You’re Older,’ will serve as the follow up to Blake’s debut EP, ‘A World Gone By’ (LISTEN @ https://blakerose.ffm.to/ aworldgoneby) released in 2021. Blake’s catalog continues to grow with each subsequent release, showcasing his adept lyricism and keen ear for a catchy hook and earworm melodies, evidenced by his impressive listener base, amassing more

than 300 million streams across all releases.

Hailed by V Man as “an artist to watch,” Blake Rose’s sound is anchored in luminous and lush conjurations, offset by sparse beat-craft, off-kilter plugins, in-the-box wizardry, and soulful intonation. In just over a year, Blake Rose went from busking in the streets of Perth to becoming one of the most exciting new artists to emerge in recent years. He first catapulted into the spotlight with selfpenned, self-produced gems such as his debut ‘Hotel Room,’ and follow-up track, ‘Lost,’ further igniting a buzz.

Hard at work in the studio on new songs, Blake continues to add to his arsenal, further solidifying his potential as a global force in music.

The new song, ‘Use Me’ is out everywhere now.

Irish Rockers No Spill Blood Release Their New Album Eye Of Night Via Svart Records

Hailing from Dublin, Ireland, No Spill Blood are a unique trio boasting analog synthesizers and crushing electronics alongside classic noise rock and doom elements. Sonorous riffs and powerful, surging rhythms mark progressive soundscapes and shows true evolution for this extraordinary unit.

‘Eye of Night’ their first recording since 2015, is a victorious and heady return for this self-described synthetic kraut-metal trio and No Spill Blood are sure to garner new fans to add to the already distinctively large numbers of listeners they have already won over.

Svart Records announces the sophomore album ‘Eye Of Night’ by Irish synthetic kraut-metal trio No Spill Blood. After the 2015 debut ‘Heavy Electricity’, the synthbass-drums trio have spent the pandemic years working on a triumphant return, set to be released on February 23, 2023. No Spill Blood will embark on a 14-date Euro tour with Year of No Light to support the album starting February 4th.

As showcased by the new single “Anvil Crawler” the Dublin trio have refined and developed their signature sound, incorporating elements of doom and thrash into their synthetic kraut metal. ‘Eye of Night’ is a feast of thunderous riffs, propulsive rhythms, cosmic textures, and moments of far-reaching minimalism. An arsenal of analog synths and electronics alongside pounding low-end strumming underpin a series of inward-folding tales of a protagonist’s journey within the self. An exploration of the cosmos within, an engagement with the inner recesses, bearing witness to lies beneath the real.

The album is adorned with iconic artwork by legendary artist Michael Whelan, it was mixed by Phil Manley (Trans Am, The F**king Champs) and mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, Sumac, Zombi, etc). Eye of Night will be released on vinyl, CD and digital formats on February 23rd.

Formed in Dublin, Ireland in 2011, No Spill Blood are a forward-thinking synth metal band consisting of Matt Hedigan (bass,

vocals), Ruadhan O’Meara (synths and electronics) and Ror Conaty (drums). Their sound has been described as a distinctive blend of heady, electronic riffs and crushing electronics which draws elements from synth punk, noise rock, classic doom, and experimental esoterica. The band’s debut album was on Sargent House in 2015, and they have performed live with Russian Circles, Baroness, Boris, The Fall and Deafheaven.

Jessia

Photo Credit: Jack Dytrych

Months after sharing the viral first verse with fans on TikTok, JUNO Award-winning pop artist JESSIA, releases her new heartfelt ballad, “Nobody Hates You,” today via Artist Driven Records in partnership with Republic Records. The earnest, candidly written track reminds listeners the importance of self-love and allowing themselves grace when facing personal struggles.

“Many of us walk through life with a preconceived notion of how people view us. We think that asking for help is annoying, vulnerability is a burden, and relationships are fickle,” says JESSIA. “We feed ourselves these narratives that tear us down and keep us spiraling. We believe them all to be true. I wrote this song to challenge these thoughts and remind people that ‘Nobody Hates You.’”

Produced by elijah woods (JUNO Award-nominated artist and producer), “Nobody Hates You” has been embraced by JESSIA’s social followers ahead of its release, and to date over 10,000 fans have used the hook of the song to create their own videos, adopting the lyrics to reflect what they are going through in their daily lives.

2022 presented numerous firsts for the 2x certified platinum artist, a JUNO Award for “Breakthrough Artist of the Year,” as well as four additional nominations for her single “I’m Not Pretty,” including “Single of the Year,” “Pop Album of the Year,” and the coveted “TikTok JUNO Fan Choice Award.”

JESSIA recently made her festival debuts at Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits, Rifflandia Music Festival, Osheaga, Festival d’été de Québec, and Outside Lands Festival, and had two sold out shows in Toronto with JP Saxe and opened for One Republic on their European tour. She will join One Republic once again on stage in February and March this year for their tour in Southeast Asia. With her most recent single “One Of The Guys” currently positioned at #19 at Canadian Top 40 radio and climbing, JESSIA shows no signs of slowing down in 2023.

Stream / Download “Nobody Hates You”

With a collective 370 million global streams to date, JUNO Award winning Vancouver pop artist, JESSIA has taken the music industry by storm, capturing the attention of social media fans and notable artists including Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer Ryan Tedder who signed her to Artist Driven Records in partnership with Republic Records. Her debut single, ‘I’m not Pretty’ exploded on TikTok, racking up millions of views in a single day and catching the attention of singer, songwriter, and producer elijah woods and later, Grammy-Award nominated artist Bebe Rexha, who joined the remix. Certified

CONNECT

2x Platinum in Canada where the single hit #4 at HOT AC, #8 at Top 40, and is certified gold in the U.S., ‘I’m not Pretty’ has achieved 317 million global streams to date. Most recently the track garnered a 2022 SOCAN Award for Pop Song of Year. The iHeart Radio Future Star, SiriusXM and KiSS Radio One to Watch artist, and Billboard’s “Chartbreaker” for the month of June (2021), spent 13 consecutive weeks at #1 on Billboard Canada’s Emerging Artists chart in 2021 and was the 8th most viewed Canadian artist on TikTok. 2023 will see a direct support slot for One Republic in Asia, the release of “Nobody Hates You,” as well as a lot more music to come for the singer.

INSTAGRAM @ https://www.instagram.com/jessiamusic/ FACEBOOK @ https://www.facebook.com/iamjessia/ TIKTOK @ https://www.tiktok.com/@jessiamusic TWITTER @ https://twitter.com/jessiamusic WEBSITE @ https://jessiamusic.com/

YOUTUBE @ https://www.youtube.com/c/jessiamusic/featured

Photo credits: Jesus Cordero

International recording artist Julio Iglesias Jr., has released “Careless Whisper,” a spellbinding duet with four-time Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jewel. The new rendition features Julio’s warm, soulful vocals and Jewel’s inimitably sweet voice paired with a delicate samba beat that breathes new life into the beloved George Michael classic.

Julio Iglesias’ new album Under The Covers will be released on Valentine’s Day February 14th and it was produced by legendary, GRAMMY-winning producer Rudy Pérez.

“I have always admired Jewel as an artist. For me, her songwriting has always hit close to the heart, and her vocals make her one-of-a-kind. When you hear them, you know it’s Jewel. I truly think she is no doubt one of the top female artists of all time and I can’t believe I got to collaborate with her on ‘Careless Whisper,’ one of my favorite songs recorded and written by George Michael. George’s music was very much part of what I have listened to over the years growing up, and not to mention my dad also recorded the song. I will never forget the day we tracked the song with Rudy Pérez producing. It’s honestly a dream come true,” says Julio Jr.

“‘Careless Whisper’ is such a classic song. George Michael’s lyrics are completely timeless. I’m honored that my dear friend Julio asked me to sing this with him. I think his voice adds an entirely new and fresh layer to the song. Together, we wanted to illustrate both sides of the story, opposing ends of the partnership, but locked together in harmony, like most complicated relationships. I’ve known Julio for a long time and his artistry is always heartfelt and genuine. I love working with him and getting to join in on the creative journey,” says Jewel.

Julio also recently released an enthralling Stevie Wonder medley with Brian McKnight. Go to https://youtu.be/ qWksHHuMtWE to watch the live performance video as Julio and Brian perform beloved classics “Overjoyed,” “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” This followed the release of single “Into The Night” ( https:// onerpm.link/into-the-night ),a duet with Benny Mardones that offers a new take on Mardones’ 1980 hit. Go to https://youtu.be/ wDu1EPzMea8 to watch the live performance video brimming with Julio’s

irresistible warmth on stage.

Under The Covers finds Julio reinterpreting an eclectic mix of pop songs in the classic sound of big band and swing—a supreme fit for his crooner voice and innate elegance as a song interpreter. The album’s selection of songs feels like a soundtrack to our lives, evoking good memories and brightening the heart. The album includes lush renditions of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are,” Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth,” Ed Sheeran’s “Shape Of You,” Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” and “I’m Too Sexy” with Right Said Fred.

Julio Iglesias Jr. has lived a life steeped in the transcendent power of music

FOLLOW JULIO IGLESIAS, JR.

Website @ https://www.julioiglesiasjronline.com/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/juliojrofficial/ TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@officialjuliojr

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/JulioJrOfficial Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/artist/3GjoS8zAETCfiBvgfvlpGm

as part of one of the most talented and recognizable families in entertainment. Since first taking the stage with his legendary father as a small child, the Madrid-born artist has turned out global musical projects in a dazzling expanse of genres, toured with icons like Cher, records in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and continues to deliver crowdthrilling performances where he finds unparalleled joy being able to authentically connect with audiences on stage. As Julio taps into the true heart of his artistry with Under The Covers, he is preparing several other exciting major projects still to be announced.

Under The Covers Tracklist:

1. What’s Going On

2. Careless Whisper (with Jewel)

3. Shape of You

4. Everybody Wants To Rule The World

5. Just The Way You Are

6. Heaven Is A Place On Earth

7. Into The Night (with Benny Mardones)

8. Wicked Game

9. I’m Too Sexy (with Right Said Fred)

10. Overjoyed / I Just Called to Say I Love You / Isn’t She Lovely (with Brian McKnight)

Canadian folk-rock quartet Villages have shared their new single “Play the Fiddle All Night,” the next offering from their upcoming album Dark Island, out February 17 via Sonic Records. Propelled by masterful rich instrumentation and timeless Celtic music influences, “Play the Fiddle All Night” arrived with a behind-the-scenes music video. The track was praised by Glide Magazine who said, “This gorgeously infectious tune finds the band channeling the likes of Richard Thompson while marrying their Celtic roots with more of a contemporary indie folk sound. Layering in orchestral textures and soaring choruses, the song feels like it could fill an arena.” Fans can stream the new single here and Dark Island is now available for preorder.

“The song was written after reflecting on the traditional poem ‘The Dark Island,’” says Villages, made up of members Matt Ellis, Travis Ellis, Jon Pearo and Archie Rankin. “Stirring up thoughts of mortality and what of our home on Cape Breton Island would be pined for when the time comes. The song presented itself very quickly and we finished it only a few days before we were scheduled to record. There was a striking similarity in themes carried in both the poem and our tracklist, so it ultimately gave namesake to the album. The song immediately felt vital to the record and given the spontaneity of it all, it was one of the more exciting experiences in songwriting that we’ve had.”

“Play the Fiddle All Night” follows the uplifting “Love Will Live On” (https:// orcd.co/eb8edz2), which arrived with a cinematic music video (https://youtu.be/ Z_vIwcKq9lA) and was met with acclaim from outlets including Earmilk and Atwood Magazine, who said that the track “emphasizes the charm of simple living.” Over the holidays, the band treated fans to their jubilant holiday original “Merry Christmas (From the Dowie Dens)” (https://orcd.co/ wpavvya).

Villages’ forthcoming album Dark Island finds them penning a euphoric and reverent love letter to their native Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. The album has already garnered support from the CBC who said, “With Dark Island, the band can easily claim its own folk niche,” and Music Connection Magazine who hailed it as “a masterpiece, delivering a combination of gently harmonized vocals and maritimeshanty melodies alongside lilting instrumentals ... a soothing ethereal experience.” Produced by JUNO-winning composer and producer Joshua Van Tassel (David Myles, Great Lake Swimmers, Fortunate Ones), Dark Island results in a type of Celtic music that respects its heritage while taking sonic chances. These musical risks can be credited to early influences like indie rockers Teenage Fanclub and Belle and Sebastian, as well as their previous incarnation as acclaimed indie-rock outfit Mardeen.

Lyrically, nature is a dominant theme on Dark Island, painting a wild and beautiful

landscape for listeners with vivid images of fields, waves, trees, rivers and rocks, presenting this as a kind of soundtrack to island life, and an immersive experience where everyone can feel at home. For the members of Villages, that sense of home is soundtracked by traditional Celtic music, and to create new music that faithfully honors their roots is no small feat and no small responsibility. With this in mind, Dark Island showcases the band embracing their musical sweet spot – expertly melding timeless tradition with an infectious rebellious spirit.

Villages’ self-titled debut took a deep dive into the haunting and meandering melodies of the Cape Breton Highlands and presented them through atmospheric arrangements that bring to mind groups like

The War on Drugs and Fleet Foxes. Described as “the perfect sunrise soundtrack” (The Line of Best Fit), the band’s 2020 EP Upon the Horizon built onto their unique sound and was mixed by Phil Ek (Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes).

Dark Island Tracklist:

1. Wearing Through the Pine

2. Love Will Live On

3. Easy When You Know How

4. Dawnless Nights

5. Lost Again

6. Willow

7. Flower of the Morning

8. Play the Fiddle All Night

9. Pink & Grey

10. Mother

11. Rocks in the Field

Follow Villages Online: Website @ https://www.thebandvillages.com/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/thebandvillages/ acebook @ https://www.facebook.com/thebandvillages Twitter @ https://twitter.com/thebandvillages

New Music From Canada

Critically-Acclaimed New Album Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky Out Now via ATO Records

Honey Harper Releases Official Video for “Heaven Knows I Won’t Be There”

Watch the official video for “Heaven Knows I Won’t Be There” via YouTube @ https://youtu.be/qOxmPKwgYPk

Follow Honey Harper: Website @ https://www.honeyharpermusic.com/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/honeyharpermusic/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/honeyharpers

Today, the Toronto-based cosmic country band Honey Harper released the official video for “Heaven Knows I Won’t Be There” from their new album Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky out now ATO Records. The video was directed by Angus Borsos and was filmed in Golden, British Columbia.

“I found the original version of this song on my friend Matthew Deloach’s Soundcloud in 2016,” explains frontman

William Fussell. “We fell in love with the track and immediately asked if we could cover it for Starmaker. We made multiple versions of it but felt we couldn’t get it just right so we held on to it. When we were recording in LA, we decided to give it another shot with The Infinite Sky. This version was originally inspired by Harry Nilsson’s ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ but ended up somewhere in between that and ‘Tuesday’s Gone’ by Lynyrd Skynyrd. When

we were listening back home in Toronto before finishing the vocals, Alana decided to add a new chorus that gave a Lou Reed ‘Perfect Day’ dynamic to the song.

The video was filmed exactly a year ago to this day in Golden, BC by our dear friend Angus Borsos. We convinced someone to forklift a piano to an abandoned helipad on the side of the mountain, so we could pretend we were John and Yoko for a day. A very cold day.”

Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky emerged from a deliberate revamping of the band’s creative approach with Honey Harper co-founder and keyboardist Alana Pagnutti taking on a far greater role in the songwriting process alongside Fussell. The 12-song collection marks their first time recording with their stacked band The Infinite Sky, featuring their longtime bassist and contributing writer Mick Mayer, pianist John Carroll Kirby (Solange, Steve Lacy), Spoon keyboardist Alex Fischel, guitarist Jackson MacIntosh (Drugdealer, Jessica Pratt), pedalsteel player Connor Gallaher (Black Lips, Calexico), and TOPS drummer Riley Fleck. The album was mixed at Wowcat Studios in Los Angeles by Joel Ford (yes/and, Ford & Lopatin).

Honey Harper & The Infinite Sky was praised by The Boot, BrooklynVegan, The FADER, The Bluegrass Situation, No Depression and many more. The band is set to tour Europe in 2023, making stops in Paris, London, Glasgow and more.

Find a full list of tour dates below.

2023 European Tour:

3/2 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg, Club Nine

3/3 – Groningen, NL @ Vera

3/4 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique, Witlof Bar

3/6 – Paris, FR @ Pop Up!

3/9 – Brighton, UK @ Green Door Store

3/12 – Manchester, UK @ Gullivers

3/13 – London, UK @ Moth Club

3/14 – Bristol, UK @ Crofters

3/15 – Birmingham, UK @ The Hare and The Hound

3/16 – Birkenhead, UK @ Future Yard

3/17 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Petes

3/18 – Glasgow, UK @ Broadcast

Credit: Colin Medley

Death Metal Legends Obituary’s New Album Dying Of Everything Is Out Now Band Is Currently On Tour In Europe

WATCH/ORDER:

https://orcd.co/obituary-dyingofeverything

OBITUARY MUSIC VIDEOS: “The Wrong Time” https://youtu.be/AoKRsHSPfw4 “My Will To Live” https://youtu.be/nlkE2X79HVg

OFFICIAL LINKS:

OBITUARY Website @ https://obituary.cc/

OBITUARY on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/ObituaryBand/ OBITUARY on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/obituaryband/ OBITUARY on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/obituarytheband

OBITUARY on Bandcamp @ https://obituary.bandcamp.com/

OBITUARY YouTube Channel @ https://www.youtube.com/user/ObituaryTheBand

“Obituary’s strongest album in 30 years” - Metal Hammer UK

Legendary Florida Death Metal icons OBITUARY return with their highly anticipated new album, Dying of Everything,

OUT NOW on LP/CD/CS/Digital via Relapse Records!

Dying of Everything is available directly from Relapse.com or from your favorite local retailer.

After listening to Dying of Everything be sure to check out this new interview with drummer Donald Tardy on CNN.com about continued on next page

Photo Credit: Tim Hubbard

his feral cat rescue the Metal Meowlisha. For more info on Metal Meowlisha visit their Facebook Page here at https:// www.facebook.com/ObituaryBand/.

Dying Of Everything destroys in the time-honored tradition of early OBITUARY classics Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death while maintaining the killer studio sound that the band has been perfecting in their own studio since 2007’s monstrous Xecutioner’s Return.

Like just about every album in OBITUARY’s vast catalog, Dying Of Everything is instantly memorable; it’s a skill that OBITUARY have only improved upon over the years. It’s unusual for a band that’s been around since the ’80s to be doing some of their best work in the 2020s, but that’s exactly what OBITUARY have accomplished through their do-it-yourself attitude and relentless touring on a worldwide level. “I think it comes down to passion,” vocalist John Tardy offers. “I say this all the time, but if something’s not fun, I’m not gonna do it. And we’re having more fun than ever.”

DYING OF EVERYTHING TRACKLIST:

Barely Alive

The Wrong Time Without a Conscience War

OBITUARY TOUR DATES:

EU 2023 w/ Heaven Shall Burn & Trivium

Feb 01 Paris, FR

Feb 03 Bilbao, ES Santana 27

Feb 04 Lisbon, PT Sala Tejo

Feb 05 Madrid, ES La Riviera

Feb 07 Barcelona, ES Razzmatazz

Feb 08 Lyon, FR Le Transbordeur

Feb 10 Ludwigsburg, DE MHP Arena

Feb 11 Hamburg, DE Sporthalle

Feb 12 Berlin, B Verti Music Hall

Feb 14 Budapest, HU Barba Negra

Feb 15 Vienna, AT Gasometer

Feb 17 Munich, DE Zenith

Feb 18 Zurich, CH Samsung Hall

Feb 19 Milano, IT Alcatraz

Feb 20 Frankfurt, DE Jarhunderthalle

Feb 23 London, UK Electric Ballroom (Obituary Headline Set)

“An instant Obituary classic” - Stereogum

“Their live prowess and unwavering dedication to their fans made them one of the metal underground’s most respected bands.”Decibel

“Obituary once again show us how this death metal thing is done” - Kerrang!

“Seethes with vital energy, possessing the spirit of a hungry new band and showcasing the skills of seasoned pros.” - Revolver Rock and Blues International 55

Album Art Credit: Mariusz Lewandowski (RIP 1960-2022)

Photo Credit: Cory Dewald

Multi-GRAMMY award-winning vocalist Kurt Elling has announced a February 17th release date for Guilty Pleasures, a 6-track EP featuring guitarist Charlie Hunter and special guest drummer Nate Smith. Bursting with Elling’s trademark charisma, energy and showmanship, Guilty Pleasures features six high-octane covers, including Kurt’s new rendition of “Wrap It Up,” originally recorded by R&B duo Sam & Dave. “I’ve been a huge Sam & Dave fan from my $1 cassette years in the used bin,” says Elling. “I wore that thing OUT. Now I just hope we’ve done the song the funky justice it deserves.”

Guilty Pleasures is a continuation of Elling’s SuperBlue collaboration with Charlie Hunter. A torrent of boisterous funk, indelible beats and all-too-current lyrics, 2021’s debut SuperBlue album was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, and was met with acclaim from Chicago Tribune, Downbeat, WBGO, Jazziz, and more. The second SuperBlue album will be released in fall of 2023.

Guilty Pleasures offers listeners a guiltless treat — along with Sam & Dave’s “Wrap It Up,” covers on the EP include Eddie Money’s “Baby Hold On,” Al Jarreau’s “Boogie Down,” PJ Morton’s “Sticking to My Guns,” AC/ DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” and a new rendition of Nate Smith’s “Bounce.”

“Charlie and I are over the moon to be able to put out some tracks with our friend Nate Smith,” says Elling. “We had one afternoon and some random song ideas going into the studio … Man! I hope we can do it again some time!”

Elling first met Hunter when both were signed to Blue Note Records in the late 1990s. They struck up an immediate rapport, leading to Elling’s guest appearance on Hunter’s album Songs From the Analog Playground. With his unassailable cred in both worlds, Hunter bridges the gap between the jazz and groove camps. “Between the records he’s made with cats like D’Angelo and John Mayer and A Tribe Called Quest, Charlie is a made guy in that world, just as he has the respect of jazz people,’’ says

Elling.

The universal accolades for Elling don’t always mention his relentless, career-long, search for new vistas. He’s recorded an album of global love songs (Passion World) and transformed the Christmas tradition (The Beautiful Day); he’s written lyrics to jazz classics, staked out 1960s-70s rock-n-roll (on 1619 Broadway), and entered into a galvanic partnership, on disc and on tour, with Branford Marsalis’s quartet. He earned his first GRAMMY for updating the historic collaboration between John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman (Dedicated to You), and his most recent

statuette for Secrets Are The Best Stories, his Latin-inspired project with modern piano giant Danilo Perez.

Guilty Pleasures will be released February 17th via Edition Records.

Tracklisting:

1. Baby Hold On (Eddie Money Cover)

2. Wrap It Up (Sam & Dave Cover)

3. Boogie Down (Al Jarreau Cover)

4. Bounce (Nate Smith Cover)

5. Sticking to My Guns (PJ Morton Cover)

6. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC Cover)

NOFX Final Tour commences with a massive 21+ punk rock and beer weekend camping festival at Carson Creek Ranch in Austin, Texas, on April 22 and 23rd that will feature special guests Pennywise, Circle Jerks, Face to Face, Riverboat Gamblers, Codefendants, Get Dead, Bad Cop Bad Cop, The Bombpops, PEARS, Piñata Protest and more.

NOFX

Final Tour: 40 Years, 40 Cities, 40 Songs Per Day; Initial Dates Include Austin, San Diego, Barcelona, Linz, Columbus, Tacoma, San Francisco & St. Petersburg

Tickets On Sale Now At http://www.PunkInDrublicFest.com

For more information on the NOFX Final Tour: NOFX Website: http://www.nofxofficialwebsite.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nofx/ - @nofx

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nofxband - @nofxband

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nofx_official - @nofx_official

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NOFX - /nofx

Punk In Drublic Festival Website: www.punkindrublicfest.com

Facebook / Instagram: @punkindrublicfestival

Hashtag: #punkindrublicfestival

Influential punk band NOFX is known as one of the world’s most controversial and significant punk bands of their time. They are no strangers to pushing boundaries at their live shows, and their final tour will be no different. The dream team of NOFX and Cameron Collins from Brew Ha Ha Productions and the Punk In Drublic Craft Beer & Music Festival has reunited to curate the first wave of announced tour dates in the United States.

The forty cities around the world

tour begins on April 22nd in Austin, TX, and concludes in October 2024 in Los Angeles, CA. NOFX will perform forty songs a night, including full albums and rarities, plus they will never repeat a setlist to ensure that each show is unique.

Fat Mike adds, “This is not a final tour like Mötley Crüe or Black Sabbath…These are the very last shows NOFX will ever be playing. We are gonna play with all our hearts…With all our joy…And then we are done. We are done done.”

Tickets for these shows go on sale this Friday, January 13 at 10:00 AM PT at www.PunkInDrublicFest.com. Options include single day, the Bro Bundle, VIP, and more including a digital download of each show with ticket purchase.

Initial tour dates are as follows, with more European dates, venues, and lineups to be announced soon:

April 22 & 23: Austin, TX –Carson Creek Ranch (campout)

May 13: San Diego, CA

May 19-20: Barcelona, Spain

June 2: Linz, Austria

June 24 & 25: Columbus, OH (campout)

July 22 & 23: Tacoma, WA

September 16: San Francisco, CA

September 30: St. Petersburg, FL

Photo by: @susanmossphotography

Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band Announce

Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band - Steve Lukather, Colin Hay, Edgar Winter, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart, Gregg Bissonette - announced they will be touring in the Spring. It will be primarily a west coast tour, starting May 19 and concluding June 17. The 20 dates will include shows in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Utah. It will also see Ringo return to the Greek Theatre June 15.

“It’s a new year and here are some new tour dates,” Ringo affirmed. “I love playing with the All Starrs and can’t wait to be back out on the road again with this band. I send Peace and Love to you all and we hope to see you out there.”

2022 was a busy year for Ringo that included Spring and Fall tour dates with his All Starr band. Ringo also released EP3 on September 16, 2022 and on November 18, 2022 EP3 was issued on 10” vinyl and blue cassette and accompanied with a new music video, “Everyone and Everything.” On November 25, 2022 Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band Live at the Greek 2019 (Roccabella via BFD/The Orchard) was released on Blu Ray, DVD, CD and a special yellow double vinyl. In addition, Ringo created 500 life sized “Peace and Love” sculptures of his iconic hand symbol. These were sold exclusively through

Here is the list of tour dates:

May 19 Temecula, CA

Pechanga Resort Casino

May 20 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

May 21 Phoenix, AZ Celebrity Theatre

May 24 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 26 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 27 Las Vegas, NV Venetian Theatre

May 28 San Diego, CA

Humphreys Concerts

May 31 San Diego, CA

Humphreys Concerts

June 2 Eugene, OR

Cuthbert Amphitheater

June 3 Bend, OR

Hayden Homes Amphitheater

June 4 Seattle, WA Venue TBD

June 6 Denver, CO Bellco Theater –Denver Convention Center

June 7 Colorado Springs, CO

Pikes Peak Center

Follow Ringo:

Website @ https://www.RingoStarr.com

YouTube @https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCqESxycliXwDheOseXqmq8w

Twitter @ https://twitter.com/ringostarrmusic

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/RingoStarr/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/ringostarrmusic/ TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@ringostarrmusic

June 9 Lincoln, CA

Thunder Valley Casino

June 11 San Francisco, CA The Masonic

June 13 Salt Lake City, UT

Eccles Theater

June 15 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre

June 16 Paso Robles, CA

Vina Robles Amphitheatre

June 17 San Jose, CA San Jose Civic

Photo by Scott Ritchie

Slow Fiction Share “In the distance, where it doesn’t matter” Single Slow Fiction EP Due February 16

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “In the distance, where it doesn’t matter”

Stream @ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/slowfiction1/in-the-distance-where-it-doesnt-matter-4 Bandcamp @ https://slowfictionnyc.bandcamp.com/track/in-the-distance-where-it-doesn-t-matter

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “Top 10 Movie Scenes”

Stream @ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/slowfiction1/top-10-movie-scenes Bandcamp @ https://slowfictionnyc.bandcamp.com/track/top-10-movie-scenes

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “Nameless Harm”

Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/track/2eABAzpRHOqKJQoYMrY5uN

Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/album/nameless-harm/1618703304

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “International Cherry”

Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/track/7HLjCAmM7YoApOMxXz8HrF

Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/album/international-cherry/1609237494

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “The Cut”

Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/track/791Sm7hdxt91cIFpT8hYqB

Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-cut/1599891285

LISTEN & SHARE: Slow Fiction - “Niagara”

Spotify @ https://open.spotify.com/track/26J9hWkn4nbWfWZh6vO9AW

Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/album/niagara/1599891285

Photo by Sid Simons

Slow Fiction

(continued from previous page)

Brooklyn’s Slow Fiction have gradually gained acclaim and local notoriety after releasing a slew of stellar singles in 2022 (including as double Aside, “The Cut” / “Niagara,” and standalone tracks, “Nameless Harm” and “International Cherry”). In turn, the band has been found on bills all over the city, performing alongside acts such as Sports Team, Girl Skin (with whom they toured last spring), Native Sun, The Wants (mem. Bodega), Thus Love, Dead Tooth, and more, in addition to making an appearance at last year’s New Colossus Festival (view the Paste live session here at https://youtu.be/aaqc8_vn7zk).

Now, Slow Fiction is finally ready to unveil a full-length project, their debut self-titled EP, Slow Fiction, due February 16, 2023. Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, The Drums, Snail Mail, Mannequin Pussy) mixed and mastered the project, helping the band carve out a sound that calls upon the garage rock greatness of the early aughts.

Following the recent release of the EP’s first single, “Top 10 Movie Scenes,” today, Slow Fiction share the EP’s next single, “In the distance, where it doesn’t matter.”

Speaking on the single, vocalist Julia Vassallo wrote:

“There’s an old saying ‘there are three sides to every story: your side, their side, and the truth.’ The goal was to have this song embody a three-edged sword. Sometimes, the lines of reality and perception become distorted. The title is a line from a poem ‘Imagining Defeat’ by David Berman, who is a great inspiration.”

With a “late 90s/early oughts rock tinge with a bit more edge” (Alt Citizen), Slow Fiction is a synthesis of fervent

musicianship and honest lyricism. When chaos becomes the norm, people are left with unbridled emotions, hearts full of tension, and a need for expression. A result of living in a time when expecting the unexpected is ordinary, the band has drawn from their influences and environment to create something that is both inspired and uniquely theirs.

After moving from New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia, band members Julia Vassallo (vocals), Joseph Skimmons (guitar), Paul Knepple (guitar), Ryan Duffin (bass), and Akiva Henig (drums) came together in New York City in March of 2021 via Craigslist ads and mutual friends. Their early months were spent playing shows around New York before releasing their first 4 singles nearly a year after the

band’s conception. Following a tour of the East Coast in the spring of 2022, the band settled in Brooklyn, where they shifted their focus to evolving their sound and solidifying their identity as a band. Since then, Slow Fiction has been busy writing and recording their selftitled EP, which is slated to release in the early months of 2023.

01. In the distance, where it doesn’t matter

02. Jericho

03. Top 10 Movie Scenes

04. (take 4)

05. Madman

06. Brain Protection Agency

Follow Slow Fiction Online: Website @ https://slowfictionband.com/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/slowfictionband/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/slowfictionband/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/slowfictionband?lang=en Bandcamp @ https://slowfictionnyc.bandcamp.com/ Spotify @ https://tellallyourfriendspr.us10.list-manage.com/track/ click?u=63f1674ecdb2a4574b77e600b&id=60841b5434&e=28146e6e7b Apple Music @ https://music.apple.com/us/artist/slow-fiction/1599753347

Grammy-nominated artist Taali to release new self-titled studio album on March 10

Evocative new single ‘It Comes For You’ is available now Stream here @ https://www.rainbowblonde.co/itcomesforyou video here @

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-O8DI6nPdg&feature=youtu.be Follow Taali Online: Website @ https://www.taalimusic.com/ Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/taalimusic/ Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/musictaali Tiktok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@taalimusic

YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Kuq3IRHJKvp-I8xbyURoQ

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and producer Taali unveils her evocative new single ‘It Comes For You.’ A seasoned songsmith who has collaborated with such luminaries as Aloe Blacc, Moby, José James, and Mali Music, Taali has received acclaim in Billboard, NPR, KCRW, and Bust Magazine.

Working with Grammy-winning bassist Ben Williams (who also plays with visionary jazz icons Herbie Hancock and Kamasi Washington) and drummer Dustin Kaufman (who also plays with other boundary-pushing acts like St. Lucia and Moon Boots), Taali takes us on a late-night emotional journey through the wreckage of post-pandemic 2023. Waves of shifting synths and shimmering vocal choirs recast the downbeat ethereality of such artists as

Beach House, St. Vincent, Portishead, and Kate Bush, as Taali explores the peaks and valleys of experiencing - and ultimately overcoming - our collective modern trauma. The song is accompanied by an atmospheric lo-fi video that was shot on Taali’s journeys around the world over the last two years.

Out March 10, Taali’s upcoming self-titled album is her most ambitious and personal statement yet. Inspired by her Jewish roots and wandering spirit, Taali features musicians from Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra and explores themes of hope and redemption amid our modern state of anxiety. Check out a 3-song sampler here at https://soundcloud.com/rainbowblonde/ sets/taali-sampler/s-LuVWAHG0k2Z.

Hunter Daily Shares “Die In LA” Live Video Track Out Now via All DSPs New Music Coming Soon

WATCH & SHARE: Hunter Daily - “Die In LA” [LIVE]

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/SbDA4jUkE5g

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Hunter Daily - “Skeleton Key”

Stream @ https://found.ee/skeletonkey

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/Kv9Yn_vuE_s

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Hunter Daily - “Before It Falls Apart”

Stream @ https://found.ee/beforeitfallsapart

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/5L6iiwgFMQY

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Hunter Daily - “Die In LA”

Stream @ https://found.ee/dieinla

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/j4w0AH1sRU8

Photo by Ivy Tellin

Photo by Ivy Tellin

This fall, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Hunter Daily made her official debut with a brand new single entitled “Die In LA,” executively produced by Jenna Andrews (the hitmaker behind BTS’ “Butter” and “Dynamite,” in addition to Benee’s “Supalonley”). Today, she shares a live video performance of the track, the first of three videos in a series entitled the Canyon Sessions.

Speaking on the new video, Daily wrote:

“This ‘Die In LA’ live performance video was so fun to shoot! We were looking for the perfect LA location for this, and when I spotted a lookout at the top of Mulholland Drive, I knew it was the perfect place. I loved getting to do a more raw, stripped down version of the song. “

In addition to “Die In LA,” Daily recently shared another two tracks: “Before It Falls Apart,” a vulnerable and lovelorn admittance of her struggles when it comes to accepting love (featured on Spotify’s New Pop Picks + Apple Music’s New in Pop and Heartache), and “Skeleton Key,” a soft-spoken track in which she describes the emotional damage left in the wake of a hard but necessary breakup (featured on Spotify’s New Music Friday, Next Gen Singer-Songwriters, sad hour, and Alone Again + Apple Music’s Feeling Blue, New In Pop, and Heartache).

Alongside Executive Producer Jenna Andrews, Daily spearheads music that encompasses the romance, heartbreak, and complexity of her hometown. Said Andrews of working with Hunter: “Hunter is one of the most talented and exciting artists I’ve been around in a long time. She is a ‘true artist,’ and completely authentic to herself.”

Stay tuned for more from Hunter Daily, coming soon via Flush Records.

Hunter Daily knows what she wants—to be for others what her favorite artists are for her: a light in the dark. Marrying the earnest folk-pop production of Noah Cyrus with the wistful lyricism of Phoebe Bridgers, Daily is a unique and compelling singer-songwriter with a soundscape that blends 2000’s

dream-pop with 1960’s Laurel Canyon.

Daily’s music encompasses all the romance, heartbreak, and complexity of her hometown. “Die in LA,” a thumping, piano-laced meditation on the City of Angels, states plainly that “there’s more to life than palm trees and looking good at parties.” A layered, church-choir chorus of intricate vocal harmonies — arranged by Daily’s Executive Producer Jenna Andrews (the hitmaker behind BTS’s “Butter” and “Dynamite,” Benee’s “Supalonely”, and leading the development of artists like Lennon Stella and Noah Cyrus) — conveys the passion and urgency of her message.

The songs crafted in this project evoke the spectral quality of Joni Mitchell (Daily herself is a “Lady of the

Canyon,” having spent much of her adolescence in a house up Laurel), as well as the fearlessness of her more modern influences, like Frank Ocean, whose artistry inspired Daily to push the boundaries of her own songwriting. For Hunter, writing became a vital form of expression during her high-school years. “There’s something about music that feels intuitive to me,” she says. “Writing songs felt like the most unadulterated way to find ‘Hunter.’”

Nostalgia, love, heartache, selfdiscovery, and resilience are ultimately the glowing embers of her songwriting. These are love songs, torch songs, songs of devotion, all timeless and vividly colored by Daily’s sweet yet soulful vocals and lived experience. This is Hunter: raw, fearless, and unguarded.

HUNTER DAILY LINKS

TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@thehunterdaily Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/hunterdaily/ Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/Hunterdailymusic Twitter @ https://twitter.com/thehunterdaily YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClRwZOh8GOPeo4P6QQPzfg

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio Introduces New Guitarist Miles “Smiles” Harris

Upcoming DLO3 Shows Include Jam Cruise 19 and Tour Dates in Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and more!

Lamarr Recently Named #1 Rising Star Organist in Downbeat Critics Poll

Follow The Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio online at: Website @ https://delvonlamarrorgantrio.com/ Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/dlo3music/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/dlo3music Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/delvon_lamarr_organ_trio/

Seattle-based soul-jazz groovemachine Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio introduces their new guitarist Miles “Smiles” Harris. Harris is being passed the torch from longtime DLO3 guitarist Jimmy James, who steps away from the trio to branch out as an independent artist. Miles will join Delvon and touring drummer Ehssan Karimi on the band’s 2023 tour, which kicks off later this week at Holland Music Club in Omaha, NE. Other shows this year include Jam Cruise 19, along with dates in Portland, OR, Los Angeles, CA, Evanston, IL, Seattle, WA, and more (full list of tour dates here).

“Miles is one of my favorite musicians I’ve ever had the honor of playing music with,” says Lamarr, who

was recently voted #1 Rising Star Organist in Downbeat’s 70th Annual Critics Poll. “He’s self-taught just like me, and he knows how to play all the right notes to make you feel the music and not just hear it. He’ll make an excellent addition to DLO3’s feel-good music. His style and his feel are definitely something special and (not to mention) that smile and laugh of his is hilarious. I’m super excited to hang and play music with this cat.”

Deeply rooted in blues, funk, jazz, soul, and much more, Miles “Smiles” Harris recently shared the stage with the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio at the band’s ?Brighton Music Hall show in Boston, MA. You can watch clips from that performance HERE and HERE.

“The music of DlO3 means so much to me and Del is such a sublime talent,” says Miles. “To get to join a band that has been pivotal in my own musical journey is a dream come true. To play such universally relatable music is so invigorating. Can’t wait to spread the love!”

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio—or as it is sometimes referred to, DLO3— specializes in the lost art of “feel good music.” The band is fronted by organist Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuosic musician, with perfect pitch who taught himself jazz and has effortlessly been able to play a multitude of instruments. Founded by Lamarr’s wife and manager Amy Novo, the trio started from humble beginnings in 2015, but since then has released three Billboard charting studio albums (2022’s Cold As Weiss, 2021’s I Told You So, and 2018’s Close But No Cigar). The band has been praised by NPR, KEXP, Jambase, Relix, Jazziz, Under the Radar, All Music, American Songwriter, Popmatters, and Live For Live Music, who said “splicing the DNA of old-school funk forefathers The Meters with the acid rock stylings of Jimi Hendrix along with the jazz explorations of Jimmy Smith, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio delivers a concoction both new and familiar.” Keep an eye out for new DLO3 music in 2023.

2023 US Tour Dates:

Fri, Jan 13: Omaha, NEHolland Music Club

Fri, Jan 20: Eugene, OR - Hult Theater

Sat, Jan 21: Portland, OR - The Get Down

Sun, Jan 22: Seattle, WARoyal Esquire Club

Sat, Feb 4: Jacksonville, FLRitz Theatre and Museum

Feb. 6 - 12: Miami, FL - Jam Cruise 19 2023

Wed, Feb 22: Los Angeles, CALodge Room

Fri, Feb 24: Arcata, CAHumboldt State University Center Arts

Mar. 3-4: Coral Gables, FLCarnaval On The Mile

Mar. 9 - 12: Seattle, WA - Jazz Alley

Thu, Mar 16: Milwaukee, WI - Shank Hall

Fri, Mar 17: Minneapolis, MN - Dakota

Sat, Mar 18: Appleton, WI - Poplar Hall

Sun, Mar 19: Evanston, IL - Space

Wed, Jun 7: San Francisco, CASFJAZZ Center Miner Auditorium

Fri, Jul 21: Nashville, TNCheekwood Estate and Gardens

Sat, Aug 26: Montgomery, ALUnion Station Train Shed

Sat, Sep 9: Muncie, IN - Muncie Three Trails Music Series @ Canan Commons

Sat, Sep 23: Monterey, CAMonterey Jazz Fest

Sat, Nov 4: Memphis, TNChurch Health Center Plaza

Photo Credit: Bryan Lasky

Tearing Up Shares “Moonbeams” Single and Lyric Video from New Album Release Heavy

Following the release of his debut EP Billy Is Dead (out now via all DSPs) earlier this fall, Tearing Up (the brand new project of musician Graham Caldwell) returns with the announcement of his debut LP, Heavy (out January 27, 2023).

The forthcoming record is not “easy listening” — “I wanted this record to hurt,” as Graham wrote, and that motivation was largely inspired by a series of personal struggles that he experienced from late 2017 to early

2020, including the loss of his father. In those hard times, the people around him helped push him forward, and writing this record, in all honesty, gave him something to do aside from grieving. “October of 2017 to January of 2020 basically felt like one very, very, long year. But even before that, the record was always going to be called Heavy,” he wrote.

In addition to finding solace in human connection, Graham also found himself turning to music in less of a “this

album saved my life”-sense, but more so in recognition of the way music can heal, but can also hurt. Heavy came from his personal place of pain and loss, and it became his version of hard, but necessary truth-telling via making art.

“Billy Bragg’s ‘Sexuality,’ Dixie Chicks ‘Wide Open Spaces,’ Andy Shauf’s ‘My Dear Helen,’ Cindy Lauper’s cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Carey’... Even writing this list makes me misty. At the real root of it, I think I just wanted to write music that could make someone cry. Just something that would make a person feel something, realize something, or remember something they thought they’d forgotten. I hope I’ve done that with this record.”

Today, Graham shares the record’s newest single, “Moonbeams,” alongside an accompanying lyric video (illustrated by Graham himself and animated by Graham and Lukas Avoledo). The track itself is a practice in celestial, soaring indie-rock, creating a comparison between loss an alien abduction while also referencing the name his father had for his radiation treatments.

On the new track, he wrote:

“I was at Hillside festival in like 2012 and I remember watching Richard Reed Perry (Arcade Fire) play a solo set where he introduced a song saying it was about ‘a woman who lives on a farm and is waiting for the aliens who gave birth to her to come and take her away... if you know what I mean.’ So, I suppose I stole that from him. I think I also saw Grimes play that year which is still funny for me to think about. Some random Montreal art-kid in a gigantic Slayer T-shirt would end up carrying the spawn of one of the richest dickheads on the planet.

‘Moonbeams’ are what my Dad called his radiation treatments, which he’d always come home tired from, then act surprised as to why. The thing about a person mentally declining (he also had Parkinson’s) is that others like to say how their personality was changed by their condition. Sometimes, people will say things like: ‘they became a different person.’ While that can be true, sometimes, that person you always knew to be there starts becoming more and more difficult to hide.

Recording the song it took some time to get the harmonies working, although we did end up scrapping a few in order to make the vocals sound a little

continued on next page

PRE-SAVE & SHARE: Tearing Up - Heavy

Pre-Save @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/Heavy

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Moonbeams”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/Moonbeams

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/dpqVXNl5MAQ

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Said Something”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/SaidSomething

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Your Flame”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/YourFlame

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/-arEGMHjq0I

LISTEN & SHARE: Tearing Up - Billy Is Dead EP

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/BillyIsDead

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Monarch”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/BillyIsDead

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/DDoGa5Fxglk

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Highway Bandits”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/BillyIsDead

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/cHe51ux4PjQ

LISTEN/WATCH & SHARE: Tearing Up - “Running”

Stream @ https://tearingup.lnk.to/BillyIsDead

YouTube @ https://youtu.be/OQRRD6gcztM

more raw. I was really happy that we had Josh Korody in the studio on this one, who helped give the song a bit of sci-fi edge with the synths at the end. Aliens, man; they scare the shit out of me.”

Graham Caldwell’s previous project, Billy Moon — namesake from Christopher Robin’s nickname as accounted in A. A. Milne’s Now We Are Six (or When We Were Very Young) — saw him release a number of acclaimed, multi-genre’d singles and eclectic full length LPs such as Punk Songs (2018). Over the years, he additionally shared the stage with acts such as Nada Surf, Day Wave, Will Butler, Born Ruffians,

July Talk, and Ty Segall, among others.

In addition to his musical work, Graham also just directed the new video for Zoon’s track “Giizhig” (taken off his A Sterling Murmuration EP), showcasing the visual, graphic, and animation skills he houses under his creative arts hub, YammaNamma.

Over the course of the pandemic, Graham Caldwell found himself feeling itchy.

Something about the character he had created didn’t seem to fit anymore. Burnt out from a year of touring and recording multiple records, he found himself reflecting on what it was he was trying to accomplish as a musician. What were the things that actually mattered to him? Where was the drive to create coming from? Where did it go? After some time of reflection, he decided that if his goal was to make music that was

Heavy - TRACKLISTING:

01. Intro [Another Breath]

02. Hoadie

03. Local Legend

04. Sleeper Agent

05. Moonbeams

06. Said Something

07. Your Flame

08. Cancer Of The Everything

09. [Still Sleeping]

10. [Invasive Species]

11. Overgrown

12. Blindspot

12. END Memo ‘Normal School’

honest and meaningful he would have to shed the character that he had created along with their name: Billy Moon.

Prior to the pandemic, Caldwell and his brother had been living and caring for their father while he was struggling with cancer. This would eventually to one of the many funerals Caldwell and his family would attend over the year. During this time, he found himself deep within the grieving process, grappling with some of life’s biggest questions. Heavy is a record that goes deep into grief, exploring its many different phases and faces. It’s a record that laughs in the face of “easy listening” and takes the listener along moments of life, death, loss, love, and meaning. The birthing of Heavy, like many births, was a painful and emotional one; maybe that’s the reason why Caldwell is releasing it under the new moniker: Tearing Up.

Follow Tear Up Online At:

Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/grahamistearingup/ Twitter @ https://twitter.com/grahamtearingup

TikTok @ https://www.tiktok.com/@grahamistearingup

Soundcloud @ https://soundcloud.com/tearing-up

Frank Zappa’s Short-Lived 1980 Lineup

Showcased On Latest Vault Treasure, “Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich”

Due March 3 Via Zappa Records/UMe

Two Full Concerts Recorded At Intimate NYC Venue, The Mudd Club, And Massive German Arena, Olympiahallee, In Munich

Includes Nearly Three Hours Of Unreleased Live Performances And Marks First Time Full Shows Have Ever Been Released By This Exciting But Brief Band

Both Concerts Presented On 3CD/Digital Or Seperately On 2LP And 3LP Vinyl

“Outside Now” From The Mudd Club Streaming Ahead Of Release

Pre-order Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich at https://frankzappa.lnk.to/Zappa80pr

Presenting two previously unreleased concerts from Frank Zappa’s short-lived 1980’s band, the latest exciting live collection to be released from The Vault, Zappa 80: Mudd Club/ Munich, offers fans an opportunity to hear two blistering shows recorded in two distinct settings: the intimate 240 capacity Mudd Club in New York City and the massive 12,000 seat German arena, Olympiahalle in Munich. Produced by Ahmet Zappa and Zappa Vaultmeister Joe Travers, this historically significant release, releasing March 3 via Zappa Records/UMe, marks the first time that full concerts have ever been released featuring the 1980 lineup of Zappa leading the five-strong band which included the dual vocal attack of Ike Willis and Ray White, Arthur Barrow on bass, Tommy Mars on keyboards, and newcomer David Logeman on drums. Additionally, this is the first posthumous release of this distinct, brief lineup, as Logeman, who replaced drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, would end up leaving when Colaiuta returned to the band. Previously only two tracks from these shows –“Love Of My Life” from Mudd Club and “You Didn’t Try To Call Me” from Munich – were ever released by Zappa on his CD live series, You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore.

The Mudd Club show was recorded on May 8, 1980 by Klaus Weidemann on a 2-track Nagra tape recorder while the Munich show at Olympiahalle was recorded and mixed by engineer Mick Glossop direct to digital 2-track stereo and has the distinction of being the first digital live recording of Zappa ever. The Maestro was early to embrace the emerging technology and would importantly shift to it as a result of this recording. Made on a Sony PCM 1600 recording system, the show was recorded on 3/4” U-Matic videotape, which at the time was state of the art but is now a relic of the rapid evolution of sound recording. The show was transferred from the original digital masters and audio drop-outs, a common issue with this format, were fixed by Travers using multiple tape backups, some analog, some digital, that Zappa worked on, signaling he was considering a potential release at some point. Both shows were mastered by Bernie Grundman at Bernie Grundman Master-

ing.

Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich, which is being previewed with a scintillating performance of Joe’s Garage standout, “Outside Now,” from the Mudd Club show, will be available digitally and as a 3CD set with the 15-track Mudd Club performance in its entirety on disc 1 and the 22-track full Munich concert spread across discs 2 and 3. The package features cover photography and a host of rare and unseen photos of Zappa and the band members in the accompanying 17page booklet shot on tour by superfan George Alper. Alper, the son of seminal ‘60s photographer Joe Alper, who befriended Zappa and became part of his inner circle in NYC and eventually sold merch on tour, provides some of his personal memories in the extensive liner notes that also includes an introduction from Joe Travers, a detailed track-bytrack of the setlists by band member, Arthur Barrow, who also offers up a reminiscence about the tour and 1980 lineup, and is rounded out with an illuminating essay by Steve Vai who attended the Mudd Club show as a 19year-old fan who was hired by Zappa to transcribe recently recorded guitar solos and drum tracks. A few months later Vai was invited to join the band and as the virtuoso guitarist/songwriter pens in the liners, “From that point on, the whirlwind world of Frank Zappa that I embarked on for the next 3 years was intense, funny, terrifying at times, but deeply and soulfully rewarding.”

In addition to the 3CD set, the Mudd Club and Munich shows will also be available separately on 180-gram vinyl, with the Mudd Club pressed on 2LP at 45 rpm and Munich on 3LP 33 1/ 3 rpm vinyl. uDiscover Music and Zappa.com (https://www.zappa.com/) are also exclusively offering a limited edition 180-gram color pressing of each title with Mudd Club on Coke Bottle Green and Munich on Transparent Orange vinyl, which both come with iron-on transfers. Like the CD and digital, the vinyl releases have also been mastered by Bernie Grundman. Vinyl has been pressed at Optimal Media in Germany. For more information about the formats or to order, visit: https:// FrankZappa.lnk.to/Zappa80pr

In conjunction with the album, a series of exclusive merch commemorating the 1980 tour has just been released. Check out the new items and order here: https://bit.ly/3WNtfqV

In 1980, The Mudd Club was a happening, underground venue in lower Manhattan best known for being a popular hangout for the counterculture and a bastion of new wave and punk which dominated NYC’s music and fashion scene. As Travers writes in the liners, “celebrities and musicians alike would frequent the ‘art bar cabaret’ during its heyday between 1979 and 1983, dancing, drinking and making the scene amongst the New York City denizens of the deep.” Zappa loved the small, seedy club and the punks, posers and hipsters that called it home, and so made it a priority to play there while on tour, scheduling a performance on May 8th, 1980, at the tiny 240-capacity room, sandwiched between much larger arena dates in Cincinnati, Philadelphia and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Long Island where he played two shows in one night to more than 20,000 fans total.

Zappa and his five-piece band treated the sweaty, packed club to a thrilling 15-song, hour-long set filled with tracks from the recently released 1979 albums, the triple LP rock opera, Joe’s Garage (“Joe’s Garage,” “Keep It Greasy,” “Outside Now,” “Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?”), and Sheik Yerbuti (“Bobby Brown Goes Down,” “City Of Tiny Lites”), along with songs from across his prolific catalog, including “I Ain’t Got No Heart” and “You Didn’t Try To Call Me” from 1966’s Freak Out!, and the title track from 1970’s “Chunga’s Revenge.” Additionally, the band played early versions of Zappa’s homage to the club, “Mudd Club,” “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing,” and “You Are What You Is,” which would all be recorded after the tour and released the following year on You Are What You Is. The show was famously captured by an Austrian film crew DoRo (Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher) who included two songs – “Mudd Club” and “Chunga’s Revenge” – in their documentary, “Frank Zappa: New York and Elsewhere.”

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“Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich”

(continued from previous page)

Whereas the Mudd Club show took place early into the tour, the concert at Munich’s Olympiahalle arena was the final show and saw the band firing all on cylinders after three months on the road together. The set, which included most of the songs played at the Mudd Club, was nearly twice as long and also featured such highlights as “Cosmik Debris,” “Dancin’ Fool,” “Pound For A Brown,” “The Illinois Enema Bandit,” and a cover

of Tony Allen’s “Nite Owl.” Notably the band played an early rendition of “Pick Me, I’m Clean,” which Zappa would release the following year on the double live album, Tinsel Town Rebellion.

Zappa ’80: Mudd Club/Munich is an opportunity to experience Zappa and his terrific yet transitory 1980 band playing two fantastic concerts at two very different venues for the first time.

8. You Didn’t Try To Call Me

9. I Ain’t Got No Heart

10. Love Of My Life

11. You Are What You Is

Disc 3: Munich, Germany Olympiahalle

July 3rd, 1980 (Continued)

1. Easy Meat

2. Mudd Club

3. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing

4. Joe’s Garage

5. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?

6. Dancin’ Fool

7. Bobby Brown Goes Down

Zappa ’80:

Mudd

3CD

Club/Munich

8. Ms. Pinky

9. Stick It Out

10. Nite Owl (T. Allen)

11. The Illinois Enema Bandit

Disc 1: Mudd Club New York, NY May 8th, 1980

1. Mudd Club Show Start

2. Chunga’s Revenge

3. Keep It Greasy

4. Outside Now

5. City Of Tiny Lites (Edited)

6. Pound For A Brown

7. You Are What You Is

8. You Didn’t Try To Call Me

9. I Ain’t Got No Heart

10. Love Of My Life

11. Easy Meat

12. Mudd Club

13. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing

14. Joe’s Garage

15. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?

Disc 2: Munich, Germany Olympiahalle

July 3rd, 1980

1. Munich ’80 Show Start

2. Chunga’s Revenge

3. Keep It Greasy

4. Pick Me, I’m Clean

5. City Of Tiny Lites

6. Pound For A Brown

7. Cosmik Debris

Zappa ’80: Mudd Club – 2LP

Side 1

1. Mudd Club Show Start

2. Chunga’s Revenge

3. Keep It Greasy

4. Outside Now

Side 3

1. You Didn’t Try To Call Me

2. I Ain’t Got No Heart

3. Love Of My Life

4. Easy Meat

1. Mudd Club

Side 4

2. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing

3. Joe’s Garage

4. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?

Side 2

1. City Of Tiny Lites (Edited)

2. Pound For A Brown

3. You Are What You Is

Zappa

Side 1

1. Munich ’80 Show Start

2. Chunga’s Revenge

3. Keep It Greasy

4. Pick Me, I’m Clean

Side 2

1. City Of Tiny Lites

2. Pound For A Brown

Side 3

1. Cosmik Debris

2. You Didn’t Try To Call Me

3. I Ain’t Got No Heart

4. Love Of My Life

5. You Are What You Is

Side 4

1. Easy Meat

2. Mudd Club

3. The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing

4. Joe’s Garage

5. Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?

Side 5

1. Dancin’ Fool

2. Bobby Brown Goes Down

3. Ms. Pinky

4. Stick It Out

Side 6

1. Nite Owl (T. Allen)

2. The Illinois Enema Bandit

’80: Munich – 3LP

The Biker, The Blues & The Louisiana Prison Work Gang

If you’re going east on I-10 in Louisiana just about where Port Allen is located you run into a junction and the road going south is named Highway 1. Highway 1 follows the Mississippi River and it’s a nice ride on two wheels. On this day I took the exit as I was headed to a place I heard about named Roberto’s River Road Restaurant in a city named Sunshine. I had been told that on the outside Roberto’s wasn’t much to look at but once inside it’s the place to be for authentic Cajun cooking. So here I was tooling along at about 55, ok maybe 75 at most, but it was a nice day just right for scooting down the road. I kept glancing at the Mississippi every time I was close enough to get a good view and I noticed a state sign that read roadside rest ahead. Seemed like a good time to stretch the legs, use the facilities, and sit at a picnic table and watch the waters of Mississippi roll by. So this is what I did. Soon a white un-descript van pulled up and a man wearing a pistol got out. That’s always a curiosity of course so he got my attention and was definitely holding on to it. He opened the back door of the van and eight women wearing stripes got out. Each one had a gunny sack and a pole with a nail on one end. It didn’t take much to figure out that it was either a county or state prison work gang. They were either there to use the restroom or they were there to clean it up a bit. It turned out to be the latter. They all seemed rather relaxed including the man in charge. So they began doing their thing while the man with the side arm came walking toward me. I thought oh no here we go. He saw the bike and now who am I? I didn’t want to get rousted out the park so they could clean it or worse yet be harassed but true to form after the gentleman asked to sit at the table he then proceeded to ask the standard and usual set of questions. Nice enough guy but dead serious about his job. He stopped long enough to look closer at two

women talking to each other. He yelled out for one of them to come to us. She approached us and the officer asked her if she knew the rules and the young woman said yes. Then he told her to sit down with us which she complied immediately. It was about this time that a really cool good looking 69’ Corvette pulled up with two young women inside. This got everybody’s attention. It could have been the loud music that initially got everyone’s attention, I am not sure but the car’s presence sure caused a stir. I wondered if this was going to be a problem and I think the man in charge did too as He said excuse me and off he went leaving the young con sitting there with me. Hmm, I thought this conversation could get interesting really quick. Now I cannot tell you why but I can tell you that the next thing I did was fire up the cylindrical boom box I pack with me. I opened my phone to iTunes and chose Queen Latifah’s “Baby Get Lost”. A nice, sexy R&B number. Shame on me, shame on me, shame on me! She smiled and I asked how long you in for? She said six months with about four more to go, that’s why I am out here. Then she asked me, “Do

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The Biker, The Blues & The Louisiana Prison Work Gang

I know you?” I immediately said no, I am not from around here. She said but you sure look like someone I know but I can’t quite remember where or when. The boss man was still over checking out the situation with the two visitors and hadn’t returned yet. The gal sitting across from me said they were a bit anxious to get out of there because the place is haunted. I said really? She said yep really. I said well I don’t see any ghosts and without missing a beat she said if you give me your wallet you can watch me disappear. We laughed, that was funny, and I don’t care who you are, a great sense of humor. I saw the boss man looking at us and soon he began to work his way back. He sat and down and asked, “What kind of BS did this one give you?” I said just something about this place being haunted. He looked dead straight into my eyes and said well that ain’t no BS, it is haunted. Everyone in these parts knows that. I asked him if he liked the blues and he said yes and asked what do you have with you? I said how about Sam Cooke doing “Working On The Chain Gang” he smiled and said well I think that song is more rock than blues and I said well not if you are a work detail maybe. He thought that was funny and barrel laughed out loud. I went to tell him that Cooke wrote the song after stopping for a smoke and a chain gang member asked him for a cigarette which is true. He passed them out to everybody that wanted one. The experience stayed with him long after he had met them. The song was released in 1960 and would go on to be Cooke’s second best seller of all time. The boss man looked up and told the inmate to go work with the others, she smiled at me and said yes sir and left immediately. I took the liberty of asking him what kind of apparitions had been reported at this road side rest. He said back when slavery was all through the south when some of the men would break free they would follow the Mississippi River north. Story goes that one of those men was shot dead over by the river bank. Since then many people have reported feeling a presence at sunset and on into the night especially truck drivers that pull in to rest. We talked a bit and then he went on with his business. As they packed up the gal that had been sitting with me smiled and waved goodbye. I did the same and sat there thinking about her quick smart ass comment regarding seeing her disappear. Odd how folks end up on the wrong side of the law and you can have this preconceived notion of what all cons are like. Then you meet one like this gal and that mental image is partially wiped out. Another song popped into my head and I looked it up and sure enough it was in my music library. The name is “I Fought The Law” sung by the Bobby Fuller Four, released in ‘66, however the song was actually written by Sonny Curtis of the Crickets and then popularized by the Bobby Fuller Four. A catchy upbeat tempo wit a lyric that announces “Breaking rocks in the hot sun, I fought the law and the law won.” The song seemed appropriate. Sort of a melancholy goodbye on this rather interesting day as I had already liked the song but now seeing what it might be like first hand but then again not cool in another.

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The Biker, The Blues & The Louisiana Prison Work Gang

Interesting world. You meet all kinds of folks along the way. I thought if I don’t get my ass packed up I might meet a ghost that roams the park starting at sunset. That would be something else, wonder if it really does happen? My hunger alarm was going off and so it was time to move on. Checked the gas level and sure enough it would be time for some fuel shortly. Louisiana is an interesting state, it’s got every thing, what’s not to like? I finally made it to Roberto’s River Road Restaurant and it was indeed all that I had been told about. So I asked the waiter for the name of a motel with a bar close it and he obliged. I paid up and away I went. Found the motel and I found the bar too. You know a man has to have his priorities in life…. You parked around the rear of this bar and when I got back there I saw trucks, cars, bikes, and people smoking. I got a quick thumbs up from a guy by the door and a number of once overs from the others. You know joints can be deceiving. They look one way on the outside and completely different inside. This was one of those places. You talk about a nice stage area plus you can tell this place has it rockin’ big time. I walked straight into Alvin Lee’s “Bluest Blues” on the box. Nice way to discover a new place and build anticipation for what’s coming up. Alvin Lee of course was the consume’ of blues rock guitar and then you match his telling vocals with his fret movements and the man was shredding not only his axe but the audience too. Live it was captivating and the later they captured the man in stereo and today it’s on all the hot blues playlists around. So I walked into this and found an empty bar stool. Booze inside, cigarettes and cigars outside. I took my scotch out the back door and found a spot on the railing for it and then fired up an H. Upmann 50 ring Connecticut wrapper. Life was good. A band member stood next to me and shook my hand. He said he saw me pull up on my scooter and that the plates were out of state. I said yes, just passing through and looking to take in some good music tonight. He asked me who favorite blues artist was and I told him I have never been able to narrow it down to one or just a few but I do favor slow dirty blues. He raised his eyebrows a bit and just nodded. I was standing there thinking about how lucky I was to be able to have my health and the freedom to take in America. A person doesn’t have to leave home to be at peace with him or herself but in my case for some reason some shrink I suppose could define this is where it is for me. The blues touches your soul and it doesn’t matter if the performer is some well known artist or someone you never heard of, if they’ve got the fire inside it will come out. I am learning that the emotion is the same wherever you go just the accents and the style of food to some degree are the differences. People are people and the blues is the common denominator. You can put a pinky in and just briefly experience it but if you do eventually you will be back for more. The same goes for being up on two wheels. It has it’s moments in traffic for sure but as the song relays in “Easy Rider” “I wanna be a bird!” basically this is real freedom. Then there are degrees of getting into it, casually, a bit more, or in it all the way whether it’s the blues or bikes. It’s a way of life, it’s a culture. Nothing kicks ass more that blues rock and nothing can hit home more than traditional blues with its down to earth visualizations about life. Ever lost your keys and couldn’t find them? Ever lost a love and still can’t get over that feeling? The blues is written by those that feel it and because it is real it hits home big time. This place I was visiting was cool to the max and the cool thing is that there are hundreds of them all around the world. The blues knows no borders we all dig it. No ghosts this time but if you ever travel south on Highway 1 in Louisiana get your ass out of the roadside rests along the Mississippi by dusk. My mind is still on that sweetie that had four months to go - maybe I will come back...