John Butler Trio 2014
John Butler Trio Announce brand new album ‘Flesh & Blood’ plus biggest UK tour to date in 2014
Australia’s John Butler Trio today announced the release of their sixth studio album and the first with their new line up. Having seen incredible worldwide growth in their popularity over the last few years, the John Butler Trio also announced their biggest European live endeavour to date to support the release of ‘Flesh & Blood’.
It’s been nearly 4 years since the release of their last studio album ‘April Uprising’ and in that time John Butler Trio have toured the world to ever increasing audiences, played key roles in fighting environmental causes in Australia, released 2 live albums- Live at Red Rocks and Tin Shed Tales - and most importantly crafted and recorded ‘Flesh & Blood’.
‘Flesh & Blood’ will be preceded by the uplifting and joyous new single ‘Only One’ with its cascading acoustic riffs flowing effortlessly over driving rhythms while sun kissed steel drums and an inspirational melody and lyric delivers a quality launch pad for the album. ‘Flesh and Blood’ captures John Butler Trio working on old strengths and finding new ones even at a time of change. For fans of the band, there is much to take from this, their most accomplished studio album to date.
“I hope they take it with them on a journey. I hope it can be the soundtrack for some great moments in their life and some shit moments in their life and I hope it can be there for them at the ebb of their energy wave and at the crest of it. In the loud times and the quiet times” ~ John Butler Butler
Now one of the most successful Australian bands of all time, John Butler Trio have recently welcomed new drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Grant Gerathy to the fold. John added, “I have been really looking forward to playing these shows for a while now and to be introducing Grant with all his funk and flavours to all our fans is a real thrill. Grant, Byron and I have been having an awesome time fine tuning the new album and spicing up our old songs. We can’t wait to unveil it to the fans.”
The John Butler Trio return to the UK for the first time in 3 year. Since then the band has continued to tour the world cementing its stature as one of the most thrilling live bands on the global touring circuit.
2014 UK tour dates are as follows:
April 25 Vicar Street Dublin
April 26 O2 Academy Glasgow
April 27 Academy Manchester
April 29 Rock City Nottingham
April 30 Brixton Academy London
May 2 O2 Academy Bristol
May 3 Pavillions Plymouth
Rodrigo y Gabriela 2014
Rodrigo y Gabriela announce new album ‘9 Dead Alive’
Duo to play two Royal Albert Hall Shows in May 2014
Acoustic rock maestros Rodrigo y Gabriela are back with their new album: 9 Dead Alive. The album was recorded and produced by Rod & Gab at their studio in Ixtapa, Mexico. Mixing was handled by Andrew Scheps (Black Sabbath, Adele, Metallica, Lana Del Rey) in Los Angeles.
‘9 Dead Alive’ sees Rodrigo y Gabriela playing face to face, guitar versus guitar, bursting with melodic energy and rhythmic invention. Recorded at their Pacific Coast hideaway in late summer, the album captures the warmth and spontaneity of two great musicians riffing and jamming together; perfectly distilled into 9 new songs teeming with desire, elegance and gusto.
Each of the songs on the album is a personal celebration of individuals who have passed on, but through their deeds and words still resonate in the 21st century. Going as far back as Eleanor of Acquitaine (1122 – 1204) to Viktor Frankl (1905 – 1997), and including a tribute to one of Rod & Gab’s enduring touchstones – animals and nature. This diverse and fascinating list will strike a chord with anyone familiar with the duo’s passion for human rights, literature, history and philosophy.
Rodrigo y Gabriela’s last album of all new music was 2009’s “11:11”. Since then they have collaborated on the soundtracks to both ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Shores’ and ‘Puss N’ Boots’ and visited Havana to record the ‘Area 52′ album with a Cuban orchestra. They have continued to tour the world, playing sell out shows last year at the Hollywood Bowl and Red Rocks, Colorado. Rodrigo y Gabriela return to the UK in May for two shows at the Royal Albert Hall, the first night of which sold out within just a few days.
Tuesday 20 May – LONDON – Royal Albert Hall **(SOLD-OUT!)**
Wednesday 21 May LONDON – Royal Albert Hall tickets
9 Dead Alive will be released 28th April on Because Music/Rubyworks. Album tracklisting and artwork are below:
‘9 Dead Alive’ Tracklisting
1.The Soundmaker (Antonio de Torres Jurado: 1817 – 1892)
2.Torito (animals and nature)
3.Sunday Neurosis (Viktor Frankl: 1905 – 1997)
4.Misty Moses (Harriet Tubman: 1820 – 1913)
5.Somnium (Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: 1651 – 1695)
6.Fram (Fridtjof Nansen: 1861 – 1930)
7.Megalopolis (Gabriela Mistral: 1889 – 1957)
8.The Russian Messenger (Fyodor Dostoyevsky: 1821 – 1881)
9. La Salle Des Pas Perdus (Eleanor of Acquitane: 11-22 - 1204)
Beth Nielsen Chapman Tour & LP
Beth Nielsen Chapman UnCovered Released 20th January 2014 on BNC Records
Plus UK tour dates include London Barbican and Glasgow Celtic Connections
On Beth Nielsen Chapman’s new release, UnCovered, she rolls out a batch of premium songs she’s written but never recorded and that have already been hits or covers by other artists. Most were top ten hits, seven of which topped the charts at #1.
This record could have been called “Recovered” except that the idea for this collection sprung out of her digging up songs for her pending boxed set called “Box of Songs”. The title, UnCovered was suggested by none other than broadcasting legend Bob Harris. “Once I heard that name I knew exactly what this record needed to be.” It’s been a crazy few months pulling it together but the universe seems to have been cooperating beautifully.
Recorded in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and her own “Tree House” studio in Nashville, Beth Nielsen Chapman’s new release bursts open with a crystalline piano, which gives way into an infectious groove on “Simple Things”, a song about the stuff that really matters in life, with backing vocals by Kim Carnes (She’s Got Betty Davis Eyes).
UnCovered features a number of amazing guest artists including legendary guitarist Duane Eddy on “Shine On Me”, a song Beth wrote with Waylon Jennings, which also features backing vocals by Waylon’s widow, artist Jessie Colter; Vince Gill duets with Beth on “Here We Are”, a # 1 hit she and Vince wrote for Alabama; Darrell Scott sings and plays on “Maybe That’s All It Takes” a stunning ballad about how to make love last, which was a hit for Don Williams; Pam Tillis & Lorrie Morgan sing on “Five Minutes” , Lorrie’s first #1 hit.
Amy Grant along with Ruth Trimble & Eilidh Patterson sing on the stand out track “Pray” written with, and featuring guitar instrumentalist extraordinaire Muriel Andersen; “Almost Home”, a Mary Chapin Carpenter single from her Greatest Hits package “Party Doll”, was written by Chapin, Beth and longtime collaborator Annie Roboff who also co-produces several tracks on this collection. “Almost Home” features the rollicking background vocals of “Wine Women & Song” artists Gretchen Peters, Suzy Bogguss and Matraca Berg, alongside Bekka Bramlett who also appears playing blistering tambourine and backing vocals with George Marinelli’s electric guitar on “Meet Me Halfway”, the bluesy deeply groovy track written by Beth, Bonnie Raitt and Annie Roboff for Bonnie’s “Fundamental” release.
The Scottish sessions co-produced with Phil Cunningham, feature top grade musicians including Duncan Chisholm, John McCusker, James Mackintosh, Euan Burton, and Matheu Watson. Additional recording was done at Squiggle Studios in Harlech, Wales, legendary bassist and longtime sideman on Beth’s UK tours, former Fairport Convention member Maartin Allcock plays on several tracks.
Chapman’s prowess at writing in a wide range of styles shines through on this collection. From the infectious pop sensibilities of “This Kiss” (Faith Hill) and “Simple Things” (Jim Brickman) to the strains of bluegrass and country in “Strong Enough To Bend (#1 for Tanya Tucker) and “Nothin’ I Can Do About It Now” (#1 for Willie Nelson), the true thread that runs through it all is a her great passion for the well written song. It is also clear that she has a whole lot of fun performing these songs, and has no trouble bringing them home and making them her own once again.
Nina Persson New Album Coming
NINA PERSSON
New single “Animal Heart” – out now
New album released February 10th
One of Sweden’s biggest pop stars, Nina Persson, is about to release her first solo album under her own name. “Animal Heart” will be released in the UK on the Lojinx label on February 10th 2014.
The title track “Animal Heart” is the first taster from the album and is available as a single now. See the video on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/dWoSNQ86vgI
This is the first solo release from Nina, and her first album out since she, Niclas Frisk and Nathan Larson released “Colonia” as A Camp in 2009. Her other band, The Cardigans, have not released an album since 2005. “Animal Heart” was written and produced by Nina along with her husband film composer & novelist Nathan Larson (A Camp, Shudder To Think) and Eric D. Johnson (The Shins, Fruit Bats).
“The most difficult and maybe also the best thing about going solo is probably all the decisions you make alone. Somewhere inside, I have a very clear clock, a gut feeling, that says what I think. I have forced myself to just keep going and follow only my gut with this album. I have simply no time to dwell on things anymore which I did a lot before,” says Nina.
Since The Cardigans’ last album and the two critically acclaimed albums by A Camp, Nina has performed as part of The Citizens Band, featured on the Sparklehouse/Danger Mouse collaboration “Dark Night Of The Soul” and started a family.
“Animal Heart” - the album and single – sees Nina back on form with the return of her distinctive voice carrying finely crafted songs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, themes include moving forward without getting caught in the past in addition to the perennial topics of relationships and alienation.
Nina has recently been playing a few select shows with The Cardigans in various parts of the world and will be over to the UK to play solo dates in early 2014. Meanwhile, “Animal Heart”, the album, is something to look forward to in 2014 for her fans.
www.facebook.com/ninaperssonofficial
www.twitter.com/ninaponthemic
www.instagram.com/yourstrulyninapersson
www.lojinx.com/nina-persson
The Blue Nile New ‘Peace At Last’
THE BLUE NILE RE-ISSUE THEIR THIRD ALBUM ‘PEACE AT LAST’ REMASTERED AND AVAILABLE IN 2 CD COLLECTORS’ EDITION WITH BONUS TRACKS
RELEASE DATE: 3 MARCH 201
The Blue Nile (Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore) will release a remastered version of their 1996 album ‘Peace At Last’ on the Virgin EMI label via UMC on 3rd March ‘14. ‘Peace At Last’ has been digitally remastered by Robert Bell and Paul Buchanan with The Blue Nile’s original engineer Calum Malcolm, and will be released in a special double pack with a bonus CD of previously unreleased rarities.
“We made the record based, to some extent, on a guitar we found. By extension, we also used an old organ and a cheap sequencer. We married this approach with a string orchestra on “Family Life” and an amateur choir on “Happiness”. We recorded much of the record ourselves on tape. The idea, for better or worse, was to make an earthier record. Robert rightly said to a journalist that, despite the references to God on the record, it is the most secular of the records we have made.”
“On reflection maybe this was the most autobiographical record too. We didn’t set the personal against the city backdrop…we wanted hands, and the lines on hands and on faces. We wanted it to be human, and to reflect the doubtful “Peace At Last” gained through tribulation and work and love.”
“On the remixes, we have gone back and treated the songs as we might previously have done - so they are a hybrid, a look at that source material but with a different perspective, and a different goal: we reintroduced another dimension or skyline; the same goes for the unreleased songs: they are halfway between what we were doing then and what we did before and after.”
The full tracklisting of the album is as follows:
Disc One: Digitially Remastered Album
Happiness
Tomorrow Morning
Sentimental Man
Love Came Down
Body And Soul
Holy Love
Family Life
War Is Love
God Bless You Kid
Soon
Disc Two: Bonus Tracks
Soon (Laurel Canyon Mix)
War Is Love (New Vocal mix)
Turn Yourself Around
Holy Love (Picture Mix)
A Certain Kind Of Angel (Unreleased Demo)
There Was A Girl
The Blue Nile have released four albums – A Walk Across The Rooftops (1984), Hats (1989), Peace At Last (1996) and High (2004).
WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE BLUE NILE
“…epic electronic soul music.” The Arts Desk, 4 Nov ‘12
“…its hopeful melancholy transcends its era like an Edward Hopper painting….Paul Buchanan’s enraptured voice and words capture the essence of hearts breaking and healing as well as anyone outside Tamla Motown’s heyday.” Chris Roberts, bbc.co.uk Dec ‘12
“…absolutely mesmerizing, minimal classics that are about as emotive as good pop music ever gets…” Rolling Stone 22 Jan ‘13
“While so much mid-80s pop now seems as sophisticated as shoulderpads, the music of The Blue Nile seems more impressive than ever….richer, deeper, conjuring from late night trains and ordinary girls, torch songs Sinatra or Scott Walker might have appreciated.” Uncut Dec ‘12
“…exquisite music for the small hours in which little is said but much is revealed.” Q Jan ‘1
Drive-By Truckers New Album
DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS NEW ALBUM ‘ENGLISH OCEANS’ 3 MARCH 2014
FIRST SINGLE ‘PAULINE HAWKINS’
Drive-By Truckers will release their new single ‘Pauline Hawkins’ through ATO Records on 24th February 2014. Taken from their forthcoming album ‘English Oceans’.
Drive-By Truckers - ‘Pauline Hawkins’
https://soundcloud.com/ato_records/pauline-hawkins-by-drive-by/
‘English Oceans’, the band’s 12th release, is an elegantly balanced and engaged new effort that finds the group refreshed and firing on all cylinders. “It can go from this chainsaw rock ‘n’ roll to this very delicate, pretty-sounding stuff,” says Mike Cooley. The album was recorded over 13 days at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, GA with their longtime producer, David Barbe. Cooley fans will be happy that he brought six new songs to the sessions and this record marks the first time that Cooley sings a song penned by Patterson Hood on “Til He’s Dead or Rises.”
Drive-By Truckers will return to the UK in May for a handful of shows, including an appearance at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The band will perform their annual homecoming shows at the 40 Watt in Athens in February.
May UK Tour
Sun 11th Glasgow ABC
Mon 12th Manchester Ritz
Tue 13th London Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Tickets priced £18 regionally and £21.50 in London (subject to per-ticket charge plus order processing fee) and available from www.livenation.co.uk or www.ticketmaster.co.uk
In typical DBT fashion the songs depict an array of characters. ‘Pauline Hawkins’ is based on a new novel by Willy Vlautin. DBT’s ever-keen political edge can be seen in two songs on the record. Cooley’s ‘Made Up English Oceans’ and Hood’s ‘The Part of Him.’ “It’s about political assholery - there’s someone new playing that role every few months,” says Hood. ‘Grand Canyon’, the final song on the album, is an emotionally overwhelming tribute to Craig Lieske, a longtime member of DBT’s touring family. Lieske died suddenly in January and the album is dedicated to him.
The album was recorded with a compact, retooled lineup. Jay Gonzalez, who joined the band in 2008 as keyboardist, has added guitar to his duties, while bassist Matt Patton was drafted from the Tuscaloosa group The Dexateens. “It’s a very tasteful group, and when it needs to be it can be a very big, powerful, over-the-top band, too, and it can go from one to the other seamlessly,” says Hood.
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