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Reply #90 posted 08/29/14 5:07pm

JoeBala

Stream Tina Dico’s Heartbreaking ‘Whispers’ LP

August 25, 2014 By Luke O Neil

There’s a weightlessness to the music of burgeoning Danish star Tina Dico on the appropriately titled Whispers. Stream the album, out tomorrow on Finest Gramophone, here today, and you’ll hear what I mean instantly. “Mines” is a raw, minimal lament over an acoustic guitar figure (reminiscent of Radiohead’s “Exit Music”), with scant piano touches and wind instrumentation that sounds like the breeze through the pines.

“Up in arms with laws of nature. We had it written out in stone,” she sings. “To combat our biggest fear of ending up alone.”

Hold on, I gotta sit down for the rest of this.

“And it stings, yes it burns, when it ends, when the bubble bursts. And it makes no sense to speak these words: ‘I loved you, but I don’t love you.’”

Hoo boy.

“I’m a bit of a control freak,” Dico says of the song. “If I could I would write the book of my life ahead so I would know how to live it. How it stings and burns when all the beautiful plans fall apart, when things don’t pan out as they were meant to!
How surreal when someone that used to say “I love you!” suddenly says “I don’t love you anymore!”

“Drifting” is no less rueful, albeit with a more rounded-out arrangement that makes it sound less emotionally isolated.

“I live by the ocean now. It’s the first thing I see when I wake up every morning and I think it was inevitable that some ocean references would sneak into these songs,” she says.

“Since I moved from the big city to Iceland, nature has been a huge inspiration. You don’t necessarily hear the big landscapes in the songs but the grandeur of nature here gives me a piece of mind that feels like a whole new source for songwriting.”

Dico will perform on September 30 at the Bowery Ballroom, and on October 2 at Hotel Cafe.

Tracklist:

1. The Woman Downstairs
2. As Far As Love Goes
3. Someone You Love
4. Drifting
5. Mines
6. Whispers
7. You Don’t Step Into Love
8. Old Friends
9. I Want You
10. Thank You

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!
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Reply #91 posted 08/29/14 5:18pm

JoeBala
2:30 PM, August 20 2014

Bebel Gilberto on Her New Album and the Strange Coincidence of Her Songs Appearing in Julia Roberts Movies

By Bennett Marcus

By Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Brazilian musician Bebel Gilberto’s new album, Tudo, her first in five years, is out this week. Comprising original songs, a Neil Young cover, and a duet with Seu Jorge, the 12 tracks showcase Gilberto’s signature breezy Brazilian rhythms and ethereal vocals. Over hummus and iced tea at Café Mogador in Manhattan’s East Village, near her home, Gilberto told VF Daily about the recording process, the ups and downs of her life over the past few years, playing guitar for the first time ever—at Carnegie Hall—and Sade’s enormous influence on her sound.

When we met a few weeks ago, she was still in shock over Brazil’s stunning World Cup defeat. “I think we had bad luck, and we were under a lot of pressure,” Gilberto said, philosophically. She had been watching the matches from New York while on the phone with her father, the singer and guitarist João Gilberto, who was in Brazil. “That night, we were until late discussing who could have been playing and what could have been done,” she said. “It was frustrating. But I must say that I’m relieved, so now I can concentrate on Tudo, finally, my album.”

VF Daily: For this new album, Tudo, you said the recording process was the most intense that you’ve been involved in.

Bebel Gilberto: Well, the last five years in my life were very, very complicated. I got married, I got divorced, I lost my grandmother, who was the most important person in my life, I broke another ankle. I did a DVD of my life, [for which] I got a sponsorship from Rio, which was an enormous project. And when they say that I wasn’t doing anything, that’s what I was doing. [Laughs] It’s called Bebel Gilberto in Rio, and it was about my history, it is almost like a collection of all the albums I’ve done. It’s really a portrait about Rio de Janeiro, because it was shot in Arpoador, where the beach meets Ipanema and Copacabana, so it’s close to the rocks, and you can see the sunset. It was a very epic moment.

You also have Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” on the album. He’s one of your favorites?

This song made me play guitar for the first time. I had covered that song in a tribute to Neil Young at Carnegie Hall [in 2011]. That was the first time I played guitar, ever, in front of anyone. I just decided to do it at Carnegie Hall. Just to increase my nervousness. [Laughs]

When you did the Carnegie Hall tribute, did you request that song, or did they just assign songs?

Actually, I was moved by that song, because there’s a film, Eat, Pray, Love, [that] features “Samba da Bênção,” a song that I sing. Oh, Julia Roberts, for the second time, in a film that features my song! I guess she likes my music. [Laughs] I saw the film—I wanted to eat everything; I didn’t want to pray that much—then, my song comes in, it gets cut, and then Neil Young’s version of “Harvest Moon” comes in. And I was, like, “Oh my God, I love this song! How nice, they put the two songs together!” Four months later, I was called to do the tribute. And I was like, “I want to do that song.”

What musicians are you listening to these days?

Oh, I love so many people. Danger Mouse, I really like what he does. I love Lana Del Rey. I still listen to Blossom Dearie, and am very upset that she’s not [performing] anymore. Wax Poetic is a band that I really love, with Ilhan Ersahin. I love Céu, a Brazilian singer, and Björk, always. I love her. And Sade. Sade was my inspiration. Everything is about Sade in my music.

Sade was around before you got into the business?

“Smooth Operator” came in . . . ’84? When I saw that, I was like, “I want that.” Then Promise was a beautiful album, and she did a song called “War of the Hearts” [sings a few lines], and I wrote a song totally inspired by that song. And then I released my first CD, in Brazil, when I was 20 years old. [1986 EP] So, yes. And then I started listening to Björk and David Byrne. And then I worked with Towa Tei, John Zorn; then I met all these underground people that just, you know, twisted my head a little bit. But everything was about Sade.

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Reply #92 posted 08/29/14 6:18pm

JoeBala

This nearly perfect piano trio set by Cyrus Chestnut, captured at Smoke Jazz & Supper Club in New York, is his first live recording date. It retains all of the feeling and power of his thrilling live performances but also benefits from Smoke's Steinway B that Cyrus claims is the best piano in the city. “It's just my ticket.

We connect. It's warm and it's sharp at the same time with a lot of earth in it. I like clubs like the Jazz Standard or Smoke, where you can sit down at the piano and get down-home, because that's the kind of audience they attract.”.

PERSONNEL:

CYRUS CHESTNUT, piano
CURTIS LUNDY, bass
VICTOR LEWIS, drums

Recorded live at Smoke Jazz Club, November 22 & 23, 2013

TRACKS:

01. Two Heartbeats
02. Pocket Full of Blues
03. To Be Determined
04. Bag's Groove
05. Hey, It's Me You're Talkin' To
06. Chelsea Bridge
07. U.M.M.G. (Upper Manhattan Medical Group)
08. I Wanted to Say
09. Giant Steps
10. Naima's Love Song
11. The Theme

Preview the CD: http://www.jazzmessengers...t-melodies

.

July 28, 2014

Track Work: Young Summer, ‘Siren’

By Tim Regan

young-summer

Listen

The title track on Young Summer’s full-length debut, Siren, nearly didn’t make the album at all.

“This song came out of nowhere. I’m lucky to have it,” says Bobbie Allen, the D.C.-based singer behind the electronic dream-pop project. “But it almost flew by me.”

Allen recorded the album at Ready Set Records in Nashville with singer-songwriter Trent Dabbs and producer Jeremy Bose. Recording days stretched on, and the trio usually hammered out two or three songs a day at their busiest. At the end of one of those days, with help from Dabbs, Allen came up with the lyrics and melody for “Siren.”

young-summer-siren

“I had an idea and it was really simplistic,” she says. Though Allen says she likes to write big, emotional ballads with complex meanings, “Siren” was different. The song is slow and repetitive—like, well, a siren. “It’s an easy song, perfect in its meaning,” she says. “It doesn’t mean too much.”

Allen usually finds inspiration in Sinead O’Connor, Annie Lennox and Prince, but she had a different muse for “Siren”: classic R&B. “I don’t know why, but I picture The Ronettes,” she says. “I even see arm motions in my head. I see Ed Sullivan, black-and-white TV, beehive hair.”

Allen tracked the vocals for “Siren,” then promptly forgot about the whole thing. “It was one of these afterthought songs,” she says. But while on tour, Allen flashed back to a strange melody, and realized that forgotten song had reappeared in her head. So she called Bose, and together they retraced their digital steps. “We almost couldn’t even find the track later,” Allen says.

It’s good they did. With an assist from Bose, Allen’s simple idea became a three-and-a-half minute love song that sounds ready for radio. Allen liked it so much, she built an entire album around the tune’s central theme: feeling deeply smitten.

“The more I listened to it, the more I fell in love with it. It became my favorite song on the record,” she says.

Now, when Young Summer performs the song live, it grabs the audience’s attention, she says—but not through sheer force. She thinks “Siren” breaks through the noise by being quieter, not louder, than everything else. “As soon as ‘Siren’ comes on, people are like, ‘What?’ It gets attention, which is funny because that’s exactly what the song is about.”

Young Summer’s debut LP, Siren, comes out Aug. 26.

.

Exclusive: My Brightest Diamond song premiere 'This Is My Hand'
Credit: Bernd Preimi










My Brightest Diamond song premiere 'This Is My Hand': Exclusive

Fans invited to submit photos for use in the music video: Read our interview with Shara Worden
By Katie Hasty | Friday, Aug 29, 2014 10:00 AM

Shara Worden, aka My Brightest Diamond, wants you to put your hands up -- on social media.

The artist is preparing a Sept. 16 release of her next album, "This Is My Hand," and today HitFix exclusively premieres the title track from the set.

Like the full-length, "This Is My Hand" is lush and intense, sensual but confrontational, arranged with detail and imploringly original. All songs feed into an effort that Worden says "tortured" her, at least when it came to crafting lyrics.

But it's exactly those hard-fought lyrics that My Brightest Diamond wants fans to riff on: launching today, the songwriter invites listeners to ThisIsMyHand.com, to take a picture that matches the lyrics and use Instagram tags to send her way, to help compile a crowdsourced music video entirely from those images.

Head to the website to re...et started.

Below, I interview Worden on "This Is My Hand" and her recent EP "None More Than You" and writing about her whole self. Tracklists, tour dates and more are beyond that.

"This Is My Hand" arrives next month via Asthmatic Kitty, and was recorded in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles and Detroit with producer Zac Rae. It is her fourth album, coming on the heels of 2011's "All Things Will Unwind." You can pre-order "This Is My Hand" here.

(Listen to previously rele...ure" here.)

HitFix: You're releasing your album only a couple of months after you dropped your EP. How has your opinion changed over they years on the value of an "album" -- versus the compiling and releasing of EPs, singles, music videos, et cetera?

Shara Worden: I love making records. I love the history of the form. This is our fourth record since 2006, so we have seen a lot of changes in the industry to be sure. When I first started thinking about making another album, I did feel pretty bleak about the value of recorded music, but then I did a lot of reading and thinking and inputting, and then became really excited about the process again. I made a big pile of recordings this time around, writing at least 20 songs and then we chose the material that made the most sense as a unit, and the other songs we are releasing as EPs.

"This Is My Hand," lyrically, is already so illustrative -- and very inspirational. What do you hope to achieve by opening up the music video to fan submissions of visuals?

I was writing this album thinking about an imaginary tribe of people, gathering around a fire, making music together, telling stories, hearing from the shaman, and so of course I also imagined everyone dancing, but then when I went to make "dance music" I realized how I have spent so much of my life disassociating from the body. I was brought up in a conservative Christian culture that in essence said the body was "evil" and then also as a female musician, from early on I felt that I wasn't going to be taken seriously as a musician if I was also dancing, so I just shut off my connection and focused on my mind.

This song is really about self acceptance and re-integrating the WHOLE self and there is so much happening right now across the globe, with body image, our sexuality, slavery, racism, that I just feel like this song belongs to "the larger tribe" and I want to open up this video format so that more people can have a "ritual" of sorts, accepting themselves and the tribe shows itself to be beautiful and varied as possible.

There are lines in this song and others on the album that reference female-ness, and play with sex and gender. Can you talk about any evolution or approach you've had to incorporating these themes in your compositions?

As I began making this music, uncharacteristically starting from the beats first, I was really forced to deal with my questions about my body, my sensuality, my sexuality, and even the violence and love that I am capable of, and embracing all aspects of who I am as a human being. It still feels like I'm in a process on the subject that is going to continue for a long time.

Describe the most challenging day, instrumentally, you had in the studio for this album.

All of the instrumental aspects of this record felt super easy, actually. All the musicians are such incredible artists, but strangely enough it was the lyrics for this album that really tortured me. Normally lyrics have been my foundation, but this time around I ended up changing almost half the songs, some of which had existed for at least two years at the last minute. I knew that I had to be more vulnerable and more honest, so there were a lot of desperate moments where it felt like I was pushing on this wall that I had to crumble and it was really quite scary and then on the other side, it feels quite liberating.

Here is the "This Is My Hand" tracklist:

1. Pressure
2. Before The Words
3. This Is My Hand
4. Lover Killer
5. I am Not the Bad Guy
6. Looking At The Sun
7. Shape
8. So Easy
9. Resonance
10. Apparition

Here is the "None More Than You" EP tracklist:

1. Dreaming Awake
2. Whoever You Are
3. Dreams Don't Look Like
4. Dreaming Awake
5. That Point When

Here are My Brightest Diamond's tour dates:

September 19 /// Detroit, MI /// Music Box
September 20 /// Toronto, ON /// Drake
September 22 /// Boston, MA /// The Sinclair
September 23 /// Philadelphia, PA /// World Café Live
September 25 /// New York, NY /// Bowery Ballroom
September 27 /// Washington, DC /// Rock & Roll Hotel
September 28 /// Pittsburgh, PA /// Altar Bar
September 30 /// Charlotte, NC /// Visulite Theater
October 1 /// Atlanta, GA /// The Earl
October 3 /// Austin, TX /// Austin City Limits Music Festival
October 12 /// Dallas, TX /// The Kessler
October 10 /// Austin, TX /// Austin City Limits Music Festival
October 17 /// Stockholm, Sweden /// Scandic Grand Central
October 18 /// Gothenburg, Sweden /// Folkteatern Foajebaren
October 19 /// Copenhagen, Denmark /// Loppen
October 21 /// Hamburg, Germany /// Knust
October 22 /// Berlin, Germany /// Postbahnhof
October 24 /// Brussels, Belgium /// Botanique Rotonde
October 25 /// Amsterdam, Netherlands /// Paradiso Noord-Tolhuistuin
October 26 /// Paris, France /// Bababoum
October 28 /// London, UK /// Village Underground
October 29 /// Leeds, UK /// Brundenell Social Club
October 30 /// Glasgow, UK /// Oran Mor
October 31 /// Dublin, Ireland /// Workman’s Club
November 12 /// Grand Rapids, MI /// Wealthy Theater
November 13 /// Chicago, IL /// Lincoln Hall
November 14 /// Madison, WI /// High Noon
November 15 /// Milwaukee, WI /// Vogel Hall
November 16 /// Iowa City, IA /// The Mill
November 17 /// Minneapolis, MN /// Cedar Cultural Center
November 19 /// St. Louis, MO /// Old Rock House
November 20 /// Indianapolis, IN /// White Rabbit Cabaret
December 2 /// Denver, CO /// Larimer Lounge
December 3 /// Salt Lake City, UT /// Urban Lounge
December 5 /// Portland, OR /// Doug Fir Lounge
December 6 /// Seattle, WA /// The Crocodile Café
December 7 /// Vancouver, BC /// Electric Owl
December 10 /// San Francisco, CA /// Great American Music Hall
December 12 /// Los Angeles, CA /// The Roxy
December 13 /// San Diego, CA /// The Casbah


.

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Reply #93 posted 08/29/14 6:51pm

JoeBala

The Raven’s Sun by Catherine MacLellan

Catherine MacLellan - The Raven's Sun (cover art - 300dpi)

Hailing from Prince Edward Sound in Canada Catherine MacLellan sounds as though she has absorbed some of that lost wilderness deep into her soul. What we have here is eleven simple songs that just beg to be played on those lazy Sunday mornings before you go off for your afternoon stroll. There’s little more on this album other than guitars, fiddle, voice some traces of mandolin and light percussion.

Don’t let that put you off though as Catherine’s smokey sultry voice will draw you into these songs and you’ll soon find yourself absorbed by the tales of lost and dispossessed souls set in some simple musical textures like ‘Jack’s Song’ that begins with some sinister sounding guitar with a slinky fiddle alongside and a suggestion that “You’ve got to own what you do because you cannot take it back” with some echoey guitar reinforcing the idea. The fiddle playing is light and dexterous and the song has a nice dream like feel to it that will bring you back for repeated listens.

The following tune ‘Beneath the Lindens’ is a delicate number with some aching fiddle playing and a gentle acoustic guitar that brings an implicit sadness to this solemn song of death and loss. ‘Frost in the Hollows’ is a beautiful tune with just a Mexican style acoustic guitar enhancing the lovely melody and an aching vocal. With images of the ‘moon shining on a silver breeze’ and an understated backing voice it’s one the highlights of this charming album and demonstrates Catherine’s stunning clear voice. ‘Hold on’ continues in much the same vein with a steely vocal and a song of determination to get you through the hard times with the help of those you love ‘I’ll do my best to catch you when you fall’ sings Catherine with just a lilting guitar to support her supple voice.

For a testament to all the good points of this album look no further than the title track, ‘The Raven’s Sun’, that highlights the excellent acoustic playing of Chris Gauthier who’s been playing alongside Catherine for some time now. The track just features guitar and voice and is all the better for that real simplicity that allows you to just lean back into that lovely melody. It’s that combination that holds this fine record together and it’s that combination that will have me making return trips to this one.

Album Review

Catherine MacLellan - The Raven’s Sun

by Folk Villager
August 22, 2014

http://www.socan.ca/files/images/Catherine_MacLellan_2011_CS.JPG

Death, redemption, and renewal permeate the lyrics of MacLellan’s fifth solo outing.

Recorded at the Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, New York -- an analogue studio -- and produced by her partner Chris Gauthier, who plays electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin ,and adds support vocals throughout, Prince Edward Island-based Catherine McLellan (vocals, acoustic guitar) is joined on her fifth solo outing by previous contributor Remi Arsenault (bass, acoustic guitar), plus fiddlers Jay Ungar and Andy Leftwich. Compared with this Canadian songwriter’s previous band-oriented outings, The Raven’s Sun is a sonically stripped-down affair.

The Pacific Coast of British Columbia is home to native tribes that possess a rich linguistic and cultural heritage. Album opener “The Raven’s Sun,” was inspired by the Haida legend that a raven brought the sun, and therefore light, to the sky. MacLellan’s interest in writing about this particular avian species was further sparked by ravens nesting near her PEI home. As for her upbeat lyric, it focuses upon the narrator’s life emerging from darkness into light. Our feathered friends featured prominently on Catherine’s previous outing, Silhouette, in the shape of “Black Crow,” “Sparrows,” and her father Gene’s major hit “Snowbird.” But here, the sun furnishes the recurring lyrical theme.

At the outset of “Don’t Call Me Stranger,” the narrator offers a furtive alternative: “If you see me in the crowd and you’re too scared to call out / Give me a sign, give me a sign / I’ll come round.” A finger-picked acoustic guitar delivers the melody to “Tell Me Luella,” a heartfelt tribute to Catherine’s late grandmother. “The toughest little gal to ever leave the Prairies / She travelled east to watch the rising sun.” According to the MacLellan, her ancestor was an active woman, “When she passed away, I saw all these great photographs of her in the old days, with all of her curling friends,” she says. (Death also permeates the ensuing “Gone Too Soon,” a tribute to a neighbour.)

The rhythmically urgent “Jack’s Song” and the melodically gentler “Beneath The Lindens” are graced by Leftwich’s fiddle. In the latter, MacLellan recalls her teenage years spent in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, her hit-songwriter father Gene, and some early relationships.

MacLellan has fought depression for most of her life and “Rushing Winding Wind” focuses on those friends who come to your aid in times of need. The narrator of “Left On My Own," a wistful waltz, daydreams of sailing the seas and discovering “where the sun goes.” Gauthier’s finger-picked acoustic guitar introduces “Frost In The Hollows,” a road song/seasonal portrait of the natural world that surrounds “my little mountain home.” The penultimate “Hold On” is a paean to supporting a friend through hard times, and The Raven’s Sun closes with “Winter Spring” (another) paean to the cycle of the seasons.

http://www.catherinemaclellan.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/...llanmusic


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Reply #94 posted 08/30/14 11:03am

Identity

Ariana Grande Brings Her "Everything" to the Today Concert Series


Performances and interview

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