Nahko Announces Debut Solo Album and Tour

In news that will delight his loyal fans and followers, acclaimed artist Nahko of Medicine for the People has announced the release of his debut solo album, My Name Is Bear, on October 20th, 2017 through Side One Dummy Records.

Spanning his formative years as an emerging artist travelling through the wild landscapes of Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana, My Name Is Bear is a collection of deeply personal songs that tell the tales of Nahko’s awakening as an artist and his most revealing work yet.

'My Name Is Bear is actually the prequel to Medicine For The People. It’s where this all began, before this chapter even started. I felt like I needed to retrace my steps before I could move forward,' Nahko explains.

'I've been waiting for years on these songs, for the time to be right to release them. It’s now.' 

The 30 date headline tour heads across 6 countries including the USA, Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, and the UK, with a show at London Islington’s, Assembly Hall on Friday December 1st.

General tickets in Europe will go on sale August 16th, 2017.

Dates are as follows:

20/11: Hamburg, Germany — Fabrik

22/11: Berlin, Germany — Lido

23/11: Munich, Germany — Technikum

25/11: Amsterdam, Holland — Melkweg

26/11: Nijmegen, Holland — Dornroosje

27/11: Leuven, Belgium — Depot

29/11: Paris, France — La Maroquinerie

30/11: Manchester, UK — Academy 3

1/12: London, UK — Assembly Hall

2/12: Bristol, UK — The Fleece

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For further information about Nahko and his tour, visit nahko.com.

Single of the Week: 'Sippin' on a Coke' - Fifth Floor

Following on from their fantastic self-titled EP, Swedish duo Fifth Floor are back with their latest single - a single that's just perfect for the last few days of summer.

'Sippin on a Coke' stays very much true to what we've come to expect from Moa and Matilda - an electric chemistry, a toe-tapping beat and infectious lyrics. This single (the first from a forthcoming album) is a tribute to their hometowns. It's about escaping back there when they need a break from the craziness of life, and about a return to some of life's simpler pleasures - such as, as the title says, an ice-cold Coke. It's a message that I think we can all relate to, in some way.

About The Song

'Sippin’ On A Coke' is a feel-good, guitar-based country/pop song written by the duo in homage to their respective hometowns. The song was recorded at The Living Room in Ealing and produced by Jake Jason Read who also worked on Fifth Floor’s self-titled 2016 EP.

Fifth Floor on the new single: 'We are heading into a more personal territory with our new music and this song is a big step towards that – perfectly bridging the gap between our previous EP and the coming album.'

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'Sippin' on a Coke' is available to download now. 

For more information about Fifth Floor, visit FifthFloorMusic.co.uk.

Dylan LeBlanc Returns to the UK with Tour in September

Muscle Shoals’ singer/songwriter Dylan LeBlanc returns to the UK with a tour in September. 

The shows, LeBlanc's first in the UK for almost 5 years, are in support of album Cautionary Tale which came out on Single Lock Records last year.

11/9 - The Lexington - London, UK

13/9 - CCA - Glasgow, UK

14/9 - Whelans - Dublin, Ireland

15/9 - The Lantern - Bristol, UK

16/9 - Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK

17/9 - Greystones - Sheffield, UK

LeBlanc’s first two releases were the acclaimed 2010 recordings Pauper’s Field and 2012's Cast The Same Old Shadow. With his reflective, mournful songs that belied his age, critics previously hailed the young singer; The Guardian noted that LeBlanc was 'favourably compared with Harvest-era Neil Young and country-folk breakouts Fleet Foxes.'

After the success of his first two albums, LeBlanc slipped into a blur of booze and self-doubt. At just 23-years-old, Dylan came home to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to write a new life for himself. In between the moments of clarity and a few familiar falls, he wrote his third album Cautionary Tale: a collection of shimmering, arresting songs with the same haunting vocals that caught the attention of Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, now with a sharpened edge honed by hastened maturity. 

Cautionary Tale was released in 2016 and features Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) and is produced by John Paul White (Civil Wars) and Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes). White and Tanner perform on the release as well.

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For more information about Dylan and his upcoming tour dates, visit dylanleblanc.com.

Ward Thomas To Release Final Single From #1 Album 'Cartwheels'

It's been almost a year since Ward Thomas hit the top spot on the UK Album Charts with Cartwheels and to celebrate the girls are releasing the last official single from the album - 'Almost Easy'.

A firm fan favourite from the album and live shows, the track is about the dreams ripped to shreds when a relationship ends. 'It’s not just losing someone that hurts, it’s losing the person you became when you were with them, your ‘best self’ as we call it. The future you thought you had and the person you thought you were going to be,' says Lizzy.

After wrapping their Cartwheels 2017 tour, their largest to date when they played to nearly 20,000 people across the UK, twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy enjoyed an incredible festival season, playing up and down the country at festivals including Glastonbury, Isle Of Wight, British Summer Time, Latitude, Platform, Cambridge Folk, Cornbury, and more.

Don’t forget you can catch the girls on tour with country superstar Miranda Lambert across the UK over the next few weeks!

'Ever since we both heard ‘The House That Built Me’ we have been massive fans of Miranda’s. To be supporting her now is definitely going to be one of the highlights of career so far.

We can’t wait,' says Catherine.

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For more information about Ward Thomas, including upcoming tour dates w/Miranda Lambert, visit wardthomasmusic.com.

EP Review: 'The Apartment Diaries' - City of Sound

Energetic.

Electric.

Empowering.

In a world so often littered with hate, City of Sound are the sort of band that we need more of.

Don't get me wrong, there's always a time and a place for sad songs but the need for uplifting anthems should always be greater. With a motto of 'love over fear', the LA based indie band are perfect candidates to help fill this ever-growing need for positivity and The Apartment Diaries EP (a demo EP which is, staggeringly, available absolutely free on their website) cements their position as a very exciting unsigned act.

The trio (comprised of Jordan Wright (vocals/piano), Andrew Leigh (guitar) and Lacey Ammar (violin)) come out all guns blazing. They put their hearts out there on all six tracks.

I don't know the guys' own intentions behind each track, so I'll present to you what I took from them.

Opening track 'Afterglow' opens with a beautiful piano before crashing guitars cut in, on a track that's about inner strength, about leaving a legacy. It's a beautiful anthem. Anthem is a word that you could attribute to all the tracks on this EP. All songs have purpose here: 'Wake Up' takes a stance against oppression, 'Animus' is about chasing your dreams and not giving up, and 'Wasteland' tells of an apparent strive for betterance.

Track 'The Show' seems to be about the nerves and the thrills of playing to a crowd - or it could easily be more: a wider metaphor about life, about putting yourself out there in front of others. That's the beauty with this collection of tracks - it's packed full of meaning and it will resonate with almost anyone.

It's hard to choose just one favorite track but if I absolutely had to, it would be 'I For One'. With rousing choruses, haunting keys and powerful vocals singing equally as powerful lyrics ('I for one, well I for one, I stand in the mind of a maker out here/brace for the sun, see comets run') this track deserves to be played to packed out arenas.

You're losing nothing by going and downloading a copy of this EP so go, go give it a listen. This is a very special collection of tracks that some people out there will absolutely need in their lives. Music changes lives - I can't help but feel that guys will too, if they haven't already.

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For more information about City of Sound (and to download this EP free of charge), visit thecityofsoundmusic.com.  

The EP is also available to purchase via iTunes and to stream via Spotify if you wish to go the extra mile and support them further - if you can, please do and help support indie music.

iHeartCountry Taps Fiona Culley for Digital Artist Integration Program

On the heels of her debut radio release 'Act Like A Lady', iHeartRadio has selected British country artist Fiona Culley for their August Digital Artist Integration Program.

As a featured single, the spot will run 3-4 times per day across iHeartRadio’s 126 country stations’ digital streams online.

Produced by Tyler Cain and Zachary Maloy and written by Maloy, Culley and Jennifer Schott, the ‘addictive’ (B-Sides & Badlands) and ‘infectious’ (The Country Note) tune has also been added to Spotify’s premiere country playlist, ‘Wild Country’.

'The rock-esque style in the way of heavy guitar and drums blends beautifully with the slight rasp in Culley’s voice; add in the clever lyrics and the tune becomes infectious.  She may speak with an English accent, but she sings like a cross between Carrie Underwood and Ann Wilson of Heart, thus setting herself up for a fruitful career.'- The Country Note

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For more information about Fiona, visit fionaculley.com

Kip Moore Announces 'Slowheart'

Friday September 15th, 2017 will see the release of Kip Moore’s new studio album, Slowheart.

After taking time out following a crazy few years of relentless touring, the Georgia native is back with the follow-up to 2015’s Wild Ones. 

Writing 11 out of the new album’s 13 tracks, and solely producing seven songs in the collection, the musical wayfarer has always emphasised the personal element of his work, and this is more apparent than ever with his latest release, which kicks off with lead UK single, ‘Plead The Fifth'.

'I definitely feel with this record you’re going to get a very clear sense of where I’ve been at for the last year and a half in my life...'

Moore was inspired to name his third studio album after a nickname given to him by his former guitar player, which in turn has been adopted by both his band and his loyal and growing fan-base.

The cover image, meanwhile, was taken on a trip to Costa Rica earlier this year during his extended break.

'My former guitar player called me a ‘slowheart’ many years ago, claiming I don’t just jump the gun and show all my cards or my emotions, what I truly feel,' explains Moore. 'He always said, ‘you’re a slowheart, man…you observe before you act’. I eventually named the band ‘The Slowhearts’, and my fans are the ‘Slowhearts’, too. So it’s only fitting that the record I’ve been waiting to make is named SLOWHEART!'

Tracklisting

1. 'Plead the Fifth' (Luke Dick, Josh Kear)

2. 'Just Another Girl' (Kip Moore, Westin Davis, Ben Helson)

3. 'I’ve Been Around' (Kip Moore, Dan Couch)

4. 'Fast Women' (Kip Moore, Blair Daly, Westin Davis, Troy Verges)

5. 'Bitter Sweet Company' (Kip Moore, Josh Miller, Troy Verges)

6. 'Sunburn' (Kip Moore, David Garcia, Josh Miller, Steven Olsen)

7. 'More Girls Like You' (Kip Moore, Steven Olsen, Josh Miller, David Garcia)

8. 'The Bull' (Jon Randall, Luke Dick)

9. 'Blonde' (Kip Moore, Steven Olsen, Josh Miller, David Garcia)

10. 'Good Thing' (Kip Moore, Josh Miller, Troy Verges)

11. 'Last Shot' (Kip Moore, Dan Couch, David Lee Murphy)

12. 'Try Again' (Kip Moore, David Garcia, Josh Miller)

13. 'Guitar Man' (Kip Moore, Dan Couch, Westin Davis)

Moore is back out on the road now, and will be returning to the UK and Ireland this summer for Harvest Country Music Festival in Westport and Enniskillen, ahead of a string of UK headline dates in the autumn, culminating in a special show as part of Country Music Week in London.

UK/Irish Dates

26/8 – Westport, Eire – Harvest Festival

27/8 – Enniskillen, Northern Ireland – Harvest Festival 

2/10 – Birmingham, O2 Institute

3/10 – Manchester, O2 Ritz

4/10 – Glasgow, O2 ABC

6/10 – London, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

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For more information about Kip Moore and Slowheart, visit KipMoore.net

JD McPherson Announces New Album With Video For First Single

JD McPherson is set to return with new album Undivided Heart & Soul on 6th October 2017 on New West Records.

The 11-song set was produced by McPherson and Dan Molad (Lucius, Tweedy), and was recorded at the historic RCA Studio B in Nashville, TN. Undivided Heart & Soul is McPherson’s first studio album in three years and follows his critically acclaimed Let The Good Times Roll (2014), which Rolling Stone praised as “timeless, forward-thinking rock & roll.”

The new, soul-baring album is a snapshot of his creative process bringing the record to life, a journey filled with fear and change, then boldness, and, eventually catharsis. The album features collaborations with Parker Millsap, Butch Walker, and Aaron Lee Tasjan. In addition to his longtime band members Doug Corcoran on guitar, Raynier Jacob Jacildo on keys, Jimmy Sutton on bass, and Jason Smay on drums, the album also features guest appearances by Jack Lawrence (The Raconteurs, Greenhornes), Jess Wolfe & Holly Laessig of Lucius, and Nicole Atkins.

JD McPherson has now shared the video for the album’s first single 'Lucky Penny'. The video depicts McPherson and his band performing the song at RCA Studio B and was directed by George Salisbury (Flaming Lips, Nathaniel Rateliff).

Undivided Heart & Soul will be available digitally, as well as compact disc, and vinyl and is now available for pre-order here.

Prior to writing and recording the new album, McPherson moved his family from their longtime home of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to the burgeoning artist community of East Nashville, TN. His decision was based on opportunity and one he was reluctant to make, but notes the profound influence the city has had on his new work. 'Up to this point, I thought I knew what I was doing with songwriting, that I don’t do this or that,' says McPherson. After collaborating with multiple artists in the scene, he began to experiment, exploring personal themes and injecting more of himself into his work (including a co-write on the album with his wife Mandy). Opening up his process was no easy task. 'I was having nightmares every night, thinking, ‘Wow, they’re going to hate this.' 

With a group of songs taking shape, McPherson and crew scheduled studio time to begin work on the album.  After initial tracking began, it quickly became apparent that the sessions were not going to work, bringing his momentum to a halt.  At the invitation of his friend and longtime supporter Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who was also recording at the time, McPherson, Homme, and his Queens bandmate Dean Fertita jammed together over a weekend in Los Angeles.  They played around with some songs, with Homme pushing McPherson outside of his comfort zone in a no-stakes environment.  McPherson calls the getaway 'the most fun I’ve had since I was 15 years old' and returned to Nashville with a clear head, internal filters successfully stifled, and ready to move forward with a new co-producer in Dan Molad (also the drummer for the band Lucius).  There’s a pretty broad gap in our tastes, what we do and what we’re into,' McPherson says of Molad. Where McPherson is as likely to lean on The Cramps as he is Irma Thomas for inspiration, Molad’s left-field production suggestions influenced a new perspective on his sound. 'We ended up learning a lot from each other, and he did a lot of stuff I’d have never thought to do.'

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For more information on JD McPherson and the new album, visit jdmcpherson.com.

Blue Rose Code Announce New Album 'The Water of Leith'

Blue Rose Code, aka acclaimed singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, releases The Water Of Leith, his first album for Navigator Records on October 27 on CD, download and album stream.

A nomad both geographically and musically, Ross writes from the heart eschewing any specific genre and the twelve new songs on The Water Of Leith, addressing themes of love, loss, travel, home, accepting the past and embracing the future, are painted with colours of folk, jazz, soul and pop; an eclecticism that has become a hallmark of Blue Rose Code and has seen him compared to John Martyn, Van Morrison and Tom Waits.

Underlining the sense of movement and place in Ross’s work and The Water Of Leith is rooted in his return to his Scottish homeland. There, he reconnected with the stellar musicians who were to become an integral part of the new album’s sound: multi award-winning singer Julie Fowlis, celebrated Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes, BBC Folk Award Winner, Ross Ainslie, 2017’s Scottish Jazz Awards’ instrumentalist of the year Konrad Wiszniewski, leading violinist Seonaid Aitken and three of Scotland's finest jazz musicians; John Lowrie, Colin Steele and James Lindsay, to name just some of the contributors. Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter Beth Nielsen Chapman features on the opening track. Ross co-produced the album with Angus Lyon.

Tracklisting for The Water Of Leith

1.Over The Fields (for John) 

2.Bluebell 

3.Ebb & Flow 

4.Passing Places 

5.Sandaig 

6.Nashville Blue 

7.On The Hill Remains A Heart 

8.Love Is…. 

9.Polaris 

10.The Water 

11.To The Shore 

12.Child

The album is available to preorder here.

Blue Rose Code will tour extensively around the release of The Water Of Leith, including concerts at Edinburgh Queen's Hall on November 3, London Bush Hall on November 14, Perth Concert Hall on November 20 and two nights at Harbour Arts in Irvine on November 24 and 25

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For more information, including a full list of tour dates, visit bluerosecode.com.

Single of the Week: 'Taking a Hold' - Wildwood Kin

A very exciting future is looming for Wildwood Kin.

The trio - comprised of sisters Emillie Key and Beth and their cousin Meghann Loney - first came to my attention in April, as they opened for Ward Thomas on their extensive Cartwheels UK tour. I was blown away by the power that these ladies pack, with thumping drumbeats, intricate guitar pickings and hypnotic, and quite frankly incredible, harmonies. Stopping off at the merch stand to pick up a copy of their EP after their set had been essential.

'Taking a Hold' is a showcase of all these things that I loved about Wildwood Kin that night and serves as a fantastic introduction to those not yet familiar with the ladies. Have a listen to the track below, so you can have the satisfaction of bragging that you were a fan before they're headlining their own sold-out tours around the country.

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For more information about the band, visit WildwoodKin.com.

'I Got This Feeling That I Must Have Made It in Nashville' - Lucie Silvas (INTERVIEW)

'It's so good to be back!' Lucie Silvas beamed in a packed out Oran Mor. The feeling was most definitely mutual.

Since relocating to Nashville nearly ten years ago, Lucie has kept busy writing new music and touring with the likes of Chris Stapleton, Kacey Musgraves and Little Big Town. It's been a while since she last toured the UK but the songstress made sure that the wait was worthwhile with an hour and a half long set that left the crowd hanging on every note.

The set was mostly comprised of tracks from new album, Letters to Ghosts. It didn't seem to matter much that the album was only a few days old (in the UK, at least), the crowd still knew all the words just like they still knew all the words to tracks from her first two albums, which were dotted in between the new stuff.

Fans demanded an encore and were treated to a final three songs, including the immensely popular 'Breathe In', before Lucie and her wonderful band took their final bow with the promise that they'll be back 'soon'. For everyone in the audience, 'soon' can't come soon enough.

Before the show, Lucie was kind enough to take a few minutes to chat with us about the new album, living in Nashville and more.

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Letters to Ghosts is a personal album. Was there any nerves about releasing an album that is so personal?

No, because they’ve always been that way. I think that The Same Side was very much that way. It’s funny with songwriting because I feel that people, songwriters, creative types or whatever, they know what’s inside their heads more than they realise. I’ll write things, like on the second album even, I’d realise later how apt and how true to life it was. With Letters to Ghosts it was the same way. You write it and then afterwards go ‘wow, I clearly needed to get that out’.

You moved to Nashville and obviously there’s a country sound to the album. Was that intentional or did it just happen naturally?

Just naturally. When I moved to Nashville, it wasn’t about country necessarily. It was just about being in a musical environment. But everyone was in close proximity. Everyone wanted to help each other. Everyone aspires to what each other is creating. I took in my surroundings, started to play the mandolin and then you write that way and it becomes more of that sound. My sound touches edges of pop and Americana and country so I never really thought about it. I just did something that I enjoyed listening to.

There’s so many great songwriters in Nashville. Who have you had the privilege of working with?

Some of my favourites are people like Barry Dean, who has co-written some amazing songs with Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood, and Busbee. There is an amazing guy who I got to write with, Allen Shamblin who co-wrote ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ for Bonnie Rait. She’s one of my heroes so it was lovely to get to work with him. Artist-wise, I got to write with Miranda Lambert recently which was an amazing experience because I’m such a fan of her and we seem to connect on lots of levels.

Did you listen to country before you moved to Nashville?

I did but there were lots of people who I didn’t know. I didn’t even know who Vince Gill was before I moved there and now this guy blows my mind and I couldn’t believe that I had missed out on years of listening to him. My mum would listen to Merle Haggard and Dolly Parton. I knew Hank Williams, Willie Nelson and all that stuff. But more of the pop-country that exists these days, I didn’t know a lot of those artists because it wasn’t something that had crossed over to the UK.

Would it be fair to say that country music is expanding in the UK now?

I think it’s starting to. I’m not here all the time so it’s hard for me to know how it’s doing but I see C2C is building and I know the Nashville show is taking off. I think its such an amazing genre because I think its one of the truest forms of lyric writing and music there is. It’s very reflective of the lifestyle. I really hope that the rest of the world can embrace country as much as they’ve embraced pop, gospel, blues and RnB. I think it’s an amazing genre that is the most truthful of them all.

You recently played the Opry. What was that like?

I’ve been in Nashville more or less on and off since 2007 and when I played the Opry, not only were my parents there and, because I’ve been living in different countries for ages, it was the first time that they’d seen me perform on stage since 2008. So they had come in from New Zealand and were in the audience. I had done so many things in Nashville, worked with lots of people, performed at the Ryman, opened for Chris Stapleton, I had done loads of different things but when I performed on the Opry stage, I got this feeling that I must have made it in Nashville. That’s when, after all those years of watching other people and my heroes play the Opry, I thought I cannot believe that I was on that stage. I felt embraced by Nashville.

So definitely a career highlight?

Absolutely!

So the album only recently came out here in the UK. Was there a reason why there was a year between the US and UK releases?

It was just because that I didn’t plan any of it. I was doing it independently. I made the album without any backing, which was hard but it was fun because I got to do everything. I didn’t have an A&R person, I didn’t have a manager when I was making the album. I didn’t want to wait for the music industry, I didn’t want to wait for a record label. I had music that I wanted to release. I didn’t have a promo team, I didn’t have radio play so it’s amazing to see what the album was able to do by itself and gain support. Then Decca suddenly came along and said that they wanted to put this album out commercially and that they wanted to hear me on the radio. It’s very hard to cut through on your own, as an indie artist and I felt like I was definitely starting to but this was an opportunity to reach wider.

You talked about being an indie artist. Do you prefer the sort of freedom that being an independent artist offers? 

Because of the point that I signed my deal at, I feel like I’m in a certain mind-set that I can’t change now which is a good thing because I’m like ‘this is how I’m doing it’ and they seem to understand how I operate, that I want to make music and live a happy, balanced life. I’m not after the pop scene of fame, I just want to make music and tour. I still feel that I have a lot of freedom.

Have you started work on the next album?

I have. I’ve started writing it and in the new year we’ll start recording. But I want to give Letters to Ghosts a really fair shot first.

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Lucie will be returning to the UK this November. For full tour dates, visit luciesilvas.com.
[Interview originally published September 2016]