August 2017

Few in the modern musical landscape have reinvented themselves like Jesse Malin. Revered by iconic figures from Bruce Springsteen and Joe Strummer to Ryan Adams and Jim Jarmusch, Malin's songwriting has shape-shifted through decades and genres and left an indelible mark on hardcore, punk, folk, and everything in between.

Produced by songwriter Joseph Arthur, Jesse Malin's new EP Meet Me at the End of the World (June 30 / Velvet Elk) aims his singular blend of gritty street poetry and incisive self-reflection squarely at our troubled, modern times. (The title track has already been named 'Coolest Song in the World' on SiriusXM's Underground Garage.)

"The songs were written on tour looking out the van window," reflects Malin. "We were driving around America just watching the frightening and embarrassing ascension of the current administration amidst a really dark and manipulative international media blitz."

The music was recorded fast and raw with Malin's live band: drummer Randy Schrager (Scissor Sisters), bassist Catherine Popper (Norah Jones, Ryan Adams), and longtime sideman/producer/co- writer Derek Cruz. The collaboration with Arthur was initially intended to be a one-time affair for Malin's Positive Panther charity, which raises funds for his former European merch-seller Nathalie Baverstock in her fight against cancer, but the two songwriters discovered a natural kinship in the studio. "It's not unusual for Jesse to be writing great songs, but it feels like there's a new energy to it right now," adds Joseph.

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Trapper Schoepp is a young man who's befriended a strange and diverse cast of characters during his 24 years. That small army of rogues and rebels, drifters and dreamers, soldiers and schemers populate his songs, their tragedies and comedies, their lives and deaths recalled in his finely etched musical vignettes.

The Minnesota-born, Wisconsin-based tunesmith and teller of tales (both tall and true), returns with his second effort Rangers & Valentines (Xtra Mile Recordings). The record follows his critically acclaimed 2012 debut Run Engine, Run, with his band the Shades. That LP earned notices in Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and Paste, with the folks at Huffington Post calling him a "master storyteller" and PBS hailing his "story songs that explore and explode the conventions of rock and roll."

On Rangers & Valentines, Schoepp defies the limitations of the standard-issue Americana platter, hopping genres -- you'll hear lots of brass, backing singers and B-3 -- as the songs build to delirious musical highs. His narratives, meanwhile, find subjects in the narrow margins of society, the strange twists (literal and metaphorical) in the weather, and the vagaries of a troubadour's transient life -- with lyrics that flash a lacerating wit and humanist streak that's at the core of his craft.

Produced by pop polymath and Raconteurs member Brendan Benson at his Readymade Studios in Nashville, the record finds Schoepp handling vocals, guitar and harmonica. He's aided by an array of estimable musicians including his brother and musical-foil-since-birth Tanner Schoepp (providing bass guitar and vocal harmonies), Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady), John Davis (Superdrag), the McCrary Sisters -- even comedian and WTF podcaster Marc Maron chips in on background vocals and lead guitar.

Schoepp shines up the well-worn clichés of singer-songwriterdom and renders them anew. Evoking a series of vivid protagonists and settings (fittingly, each track will have its own accompanying video, solidifying the cinematic quality of this set) his work variously recalls prime Prine (John, that is), the nuances of Newman (Randy, of course), the boozy bonhomie of The Replacements, and the unflinching language of someone well-versed in the Zevonian dialect.

Schoepp mixes fact and family lore to conjure the hardscrabble history "Ballad of Olof Johnson" and chides modern-day wannabes on "Lost Cowboy." The road story "Ogalalla" answers the question: what happens to your mind when you're snowbound in Nebraska with nothing but a bottle of Nyquil and The Hobbit at the local picture show for company? Meanwhile, the arch love song satire "Talking Girlfriend Blues" deftly explains how to preserve your dignity while hitchhiking to a date -- and what to do when your ride turns out to have eyes for the same girl.

Elsewhere, "Don't Go" offers a poetic post-9/11 story of love and war; while "Settlin' or Sleepin' Around" questions modern-day swipe right, hook up culture. Schoepp continues his affinity for songs set in hospitals with "Mono Pt. II" -- which explores the kissing disease and the institutional runaround of health care in America (unfortunately a familiar subject for the young man). And he pays tribute to old friends and outsized characters with "For Jonny" (dedicated to his longtime drummer Jonny Philip) and the heart-rending requiem "Dream."

Having released his debut on SideOneDummy, Rangers & Valentines is being put out by London-based Xtra Mile Recordings. Hipped to Schoepp's work by fellow singer-songwriter Frank Turner, among others, Xtra Mile honcho Charlie Caplowe quickly signed him to the label.

Schoepp -- who's already crisscrossed the country sharing stages with fellow travelers like The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks and The Old 97's -- will be back on the road throughout 2016 in support of Ranger & Valentines, starting with a 3-week run throughout the UK and Europe supporting Jesse Malin.

Like the album, it'll be another opportunity to catch a young journeyman at work.

Art's Fishing Club (aka Al's Fish Camp) is a name that works for us in two ways.

First - as homage to our Grandfather (Art) who has taken us all on many fishing trips and given so much to our family through his example of integrity and wisdom.

Secondly - Art's Fishing Club is an allegory to the pursuit of Artistry itself. At the end of the day, we believe all artists are just throwing out lines into some intangible sea of creativity. There are no rules in art, so no one really has any idea what they're doing. But if you cast the right line at the right time and place art can unlock a deeper wisdom that is hidden inside us in some way, shape, or form.

So we paint, we draw, we film, we act, we write, we skate and we play music. These are all just different lines we cast out to tap into the creative wisdom inside of us. Of course the more you fish, the "better" fisherman you become (just as the more you Art the better Art-er you become) but at the end of the day, if the fish aren't hungry, you ain't catching anything. Nobody can control whether the fish are biting and nobody can control Art. But we can relentlessly cast out another line with hope in our hearts and the belief that there is value in the search whether or not you come up empty handed... And that search is what we plan to do.

Fishing with Grandpa Art was always about being in the boat with the people we love, exploring nature, and pursuing adventure. Catching fish was secondary (and for many of us... very rare).

That approach to fishing is how we approach music. It's our search to make sense of this world. To try to explain the questions we have that we cannot answer with words alone. It's an adventure, it's personal, it's social, it's frustrating, and it's joyous, but most of all... its about being in the boat.

Don't try to snatch him back and hold him, he's a man on the move. John Németh had already established himself among the very top ranks of blues musicians and modern soul singers when he decided to break the mold with his new record, FEELIN' FREAKY. Németh fearlessly crushes all barriers of style and genre with an album of original songs that defies all the usual pigeonholes. Drawing from his strong influences in blues and R&B, as well as contemporary sounds in hip hop and rock & roll, John creates music that is personal as well as universal, and owes its origin to no one but John Németh. John's songs are groove and melody-driven, laced with thoughtful lyrics and nuanced humor, and cover themes from social issues of gun violence and class values to the pure hedonistic joy of dancing, sexuality and marijuana. He creates his songs from melodies and phrases he draws from the sounds of life, from early-morning Memphis songbirds to the din of the city. For this album John brought his new songs to his great touring band, the Blue Dreamers -- Danny Banks on drums, Matthew Wilson on bass and guitar, and Johnny Rhodes on guitar -- so they could hone the groove and finish building the album as a group. Under the simpatico guidance of Grammy-nominated producer Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), FEELIN' FREAKY emerges as a modern personal masterpiece.

This album is a testament to power with taste and restraint, dramatic dynamics through the use of space. Németh's striking tenor vocals are already legendary, with a pitch-perfect purity of range and power that has drawn comparisons to soul singers from O.V. Wright to James Brown. He keeps that power under a tight leash, letting it rip at just the right places, using his voice to deliver and serve the song. Németh is also a very accomplished harmonica player who can boogie with the best of them, in various diatonic positions as well as on the mighty Chromatic harp, yet he plays relatively little on this record. What he plays are largely horn lines, trumpet-like staccato blasts that serve to create dramatic dynamic shifts, tension and release, all in service to the song, not the ego of the player. The few solos he delivers are concise, tasty and powerful.

FEELIN' FREAKY was recorded at the Dickinson family's Zebra Ranch Studios in Mississippi and Willie Mitchell's legendary Royal Studios in Memphis. Németh's touring band on their instruments and background vocals is at the heart of the recordings, along with musicians hand-picked to complement the individual tracks. John often works with horns, and Memphis players Marc Franklin (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Art Edmaiston (Tenor, Bari sax) deliver echoes of classic Memphis sound all over this record. Németh and Dickinson agreed that the B-3 Organ parts had to go to Charles Hodges, who contributed so much to the Hi Records sound on albums by the likes of Al Green and Ann Peebles. For extra depth and sweetness, they added strings by J. Kirkscey, B. Luscombe, J. Munson and P. Tsai.

A little history:

As a Boise, Idaho teenager in the early '90s, John Németh was drawn to the hard-edged hip hop sounds and rock bands of the day -- but when a friend exposed him to Buddy Guy and Junior Wells's classic "Hoodoo Man Blues," he was hooked. John played harp and sang in local bands, often opening the show for nationally touring blues acts. John soon caught the ear of established blues musicians, and before long he was releasing his own CDs -- THE JACK OF HARPS (2002) and COME AND GET IT (2004), featuring Junior Watson -- and performing in Junior Watson's band. John relocated to San Francisco in 2004, where he wound up doing a two-year stint with Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, filling in for the ailing Sam Myers.

Németh immersed himself in the deep musical waters of the Bay area, absorbing more of the soul and funk grooves of what he calls "the early East Bay Grease sound" of San Francisco and Oakland bands. John's reputation continued to grow, and he soon signed a recording contract with Blind Pig Records. His national debut for that label -- MAGIC TOUCH (2007), produced by Anson Funderburgh and featuring Junior Watson on guitar -- received an ecstatic response from fans and the media, and he was hailed as the new voice of the Blues. Living Blues Magazine enthused, "Magic Touch gives hope that the blues will survive." In 2008 Németh was recruited by Elvin Bishop to do some performances and contribute four vocal tracks to his Grammy-nominated album THE BLUES ROLLS ON.

Németh released two more albums on the Blind Pig label -- LOVE ME TONIGHT (2009), NAME THE DAY! (2010) -- earning critical raves and strong sales, both hitting #6 on the Billboard Top Blues Album Charts, and beginning his long string of Blues Music Award nominations, numbering fourteen at last count. John also won two Blues Blast Music Awards -- Best New Artist Debut Recording and Sean Costello Rising Star Award -- voted on by nearly 11,000 blues fans. John followed up with two independently released live albums, BLUES LIVE and SOUL LIVE in 2012.

In 2013 John relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, where he quickly became a key player in the city's rich musical scene. He teamed up with producer Scott Bomar and his classic Memphis Soul band, the Bo-Keys to create an album of revisited Soul classics, MEMPHIS GREASE (2014), on the Blue Corn label, which debuted at #4 on the Billboard Blues Chart. John won the 2104 Blues Music Award in the Soul Blues Male Artist category, and MEMPHIS GREASE took the prize for Soul Blues Album in 2015.

John Németh continues to be one of the hottest stars in the musical firmament, touring nationally and internationally with his Memphis band, taking the world by storm. He is currently nominated for a 2017 Blues Music Award in the category of B.B. King Entertainer of the Year . FEELIN' FREAKY will be released in May 2017, on John's own Memphis Grease label, and it's already generating a firestorm among his devoted fans and the media. Stay tuned....

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Milwaukee, Wisconsin's own the Delta Routine both sound like the product of a bygone time for rock and undeniably of their time. With vocal harmonies that bring the Lone Bellow and the Avett Brothers to mind, paired with guitar riffs that would make the Black Crowes proud, You and Your Lion, the latest full-length by the band, is a straight-up blast of energy and a rollicking good time.

Frontman Nick Amadeus told PopMatters the following about the album: "For You and Your Lion we really tried not to put ourselves in a box as far as the genre when going through ideas for the songs. If we liked the song we kept it on the record, regardless of what direction it went genre wise. Lyrically, I made it a point to make sure I was staying positive in my message as much as could. Also, I wrote a lot of the lyrics while the band was on the road, so there's definitely an undertone of travel throughout the record."

Tickets available here.

Join us Saturday, August 5th at Shank Hall for three of the funniest acts at the 2017 MCF! Jill-Michele Melean (MadTV, Reno 911, This Is Meg), Debra Wilson (MadTV, Avatar, This Is Meg),and Lahna Turner (Comedy Central, TruTV, NBC, This Is Meg) will appear for one night only in this very special live stage event! Tickets for this show are $20 or entry with a 2017 All Access Pass. This show is 21+. No one under 21 will be admitted to this event.

Jilly, Debra and Lahna will all be in the upcoming film THIS IS MEG, a film by Alex Ferrari and released later this year.

The Dick Dale Phenomenon. His style is something different and unique. Since his first appearances Balboa, Ca. at the famed Rendezvous Ballroom, he has set and broken attendance records everywhere he's performed. His appearances at the Rendezvous Ballroom broke every existing record for the Ballroom by drawing capacity crowds of over four thousand screaming dancing fans every weekend each night down on the Balboa peninsula.

Dick Dale invented surf music in the 1950's. Not the '60's as is commonly believed. He was given the title "King of the Surf Guitar" by his fellow surfers with whom he surfed with from sun-up to sun-down. He met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his newly creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, he was watching Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards, Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before.

Leo Fender gave the Fender Stratocaster along with a Fender Amp to Dale and told him to beat it to death and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to beat it to death, and he blew up Leo Fender's amp and blew out the speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers; they would actually catch on fire. Leo would say, 'Dick, why do you have to play so loud?' Dale would explain that he wanted to create the sound of Gene Krupa the famous jazz drummer that created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean.

Leo Fender kept giving Dale amps and Dale kept blowing them up! Till one night Leo and his right hand man Freddy T. went down to the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula in Balboa, California and stood in the middle of Four Thousand screaming dancing Dick Dale fans and said to Freddy, I now know what Dick Dale is trying to tell me. Back to the drawing board. A special 85 watt output transformer was made that peaked 100 watts when dale would pump up the volume of his amp, this transformer would create the sounds along with Dale's style of playing, the kind of sounds that Dale dreamed of. BUT! they now needed a speaker that would handle the power and not burn up from the volume that would come from Dale's guitar.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went to the James B. Lansing speaker company, and they explained that they wanted a fifteen inch speaker built to their specifications. That speaker would soon be known as the 15'' JBL -D130 speaker. It made the complete package for Dale to play through and was named the Single Showman Amp. When Dale plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the new Showman Amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first creature on earth to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player on a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN! That is when Dale became the "Father of Heavy Metal" as quoted from Guitar Player Magazine. Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era!

Dale still wanted to go further, and as the crowds increased, Dale's volume increased, but he still wanted a bigger punch with thickness in the sound so that it would pulsate into the audience and leave them breathless. The JBL-D130 was doing its job until Dale froze it in the frame that held the speaker, the speaker cone would twist from the heavy playing from Dale and it would soon twist and stop to fluctuate back n forth.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went back to the JBL speaker company and told them to rubberize the front ridge of the speaker allowing it to push forward and backward from the signal of Dale's guitar without cocking and twisting. The new updated version was called the JBL D-130F; the F stood for Fender.

Leo, Freddy and Dale designed a speaker cabinet and in which they installed 2 -15''-JBL-D130F's. This caused Leo Fender to have to create a new and more powerful output transformer, they would call it the Dick Dale Transformer and it was made by the Triad Company.

This became the 100 watt output transformer that would actually peak 180 watts. Nothing like this had ever been done before in the world of guitars and amplifiers. This became known as the Dual-Showman Piggy Back Amp. This is why Dick Dale is called the Father of all the power Players in the world!

It is a Phenomena, that Dale is still playing with not only the same vengeance as he did in the 50's, but his playing is unleashed and shredding into the 90's with a focus and power as if from mother nature. He shares the stage with fellow players of all generations up into the alternative's of the 90's. Being completely self taught, Dick Dale plays left handed upside down which was a result of holding the guitar left-handed. The strings became upside-down, chords are designed for right handed players making it very difficult for a left handed player unless he were to change the strings for a left handed guitar, something that Dale never did.

Dale is also a master at the Acoustic, Electronic, Bass and Spanish Guitars'. As well as the Ukulele, Banjo, Drums, Piano, Organ, Electronic Keyboard, Harpsichord, Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Harmonica, Xylophone and, believe it or not... the Accordion!

Dale was also responsible for another creation to the world of guitar players, "The Fender Tank Reverb". As Dale sang in his shows, he found that he did not have a vibrato in his voice, and he did not like the straight flat dry sound. to sustain his vocal notes, he turned to an old Hammond organ and found a reverb unit and showed it to Leo Fender and together they came up with the "Fender Tank Reverb". Dale then plugged a Shure Dynamic Bird cage Microphone into it and as Dale sang, his voice took on a very rich, sexy and full sound. Later, Dale then plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the Reverb Tank to sustain his guitar notes which became Dale's trademark sound.) (NOTE) Dale had already been titled "King of the Surf Guitar" by his surfer friends before his creation of the Fender Reverb, Dale's first album called "Surfer's Choice" was the first Surfing album to be commercially sold with a picture of Dale surfing by the pier in San Clemente, Ca. with a surfing title on it. This album alone sold over eighty-eight thousand albums in the late 50's and today in the 90's it would be like 4 million. There was not one song on that album that had a Reverb for effects, everything was played with nothing but Dale's sheer force and power. A bit of trivia, Dale's recording of "Miserlou" became the title song for Quentin Tarantino's Blockbuster movie "Pulp Fiction".

Dick Dale has been called one of the hardest working men in show business. In the past five years he has maintained a heavy concert tour and public appearance schedule throughout the world. Focusing in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada, South America and the U.S.

Birdtalker is Zack and Dani Green, Andy Hubright, Brian Seligman, and Jesse Baker.

Zack and Dani were married in 2012 and soon after their wedding tried writing a couple songs together. They liked it, so they wrote a couple more. Andy, a friend from college and very talented drummer, was into the songs and started beating on stuff while Zack and Dani played them. It sounded good. While these 3 were playing the songs at Shakespeare in the Park one August afternoon, Brian became interested in adding his immense talent to the mix as well and began playing along with mandolin and guitar. It sounded even better. Birdtalker as these 4 members wrote and practiced for about a year when yet another talented friend and Birdtalker's biggest fan, Jesse, expressed interest in lending his bass sounds to the band. It is the combination of each member's specific offerings that gives Birdtalker the life and sound that it now possesses. And it doesn't hurt that they all like each other a heck of a lot, too.

Zack and Dani write songs as a way to share ideas they care about and sentiments they feel deeply. Playing music has proven to be a powerful avenue for connection and communion, within the band as well as with listeners. Birdtalker's hope is simply that the more music they write and share, the more true and vulnerable interactions may be born from it.

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Mainstays of the Austin music scene for nearly a decade, anthemic ambient rock band The Rocketboys have steadily built a loyal following over the course of two LPs and a handful of EPs. Their dynamic, majestic songs have earned comparisons to Coldplay, Arcade Fire and Band of Horses, and they've captured audiences nationwide with a soaring, stirring live show. After nearly five years without a full-length release, The Rocketboys return with Certain Circles-- a seasoned and cohesive LP that combines the grandiosity of the band's debut 20,000 Ghosts with the soul of sophomore effort Build Anyway-- with a sprinkling of their 2015 EP Left | Right's pop- sensibility.

The band's brief stint on an indie label in 2015, despite bringing notable accolades (single Viva Voce on GLEE and over 1 million Spotify streams), left them never quite feeling comfortable in their own artistic skin. Once they parted ways, songs that had been set aside during that time for not being "hit- worthy" resurfaced, and new songs were written with a focus on creating beautiful music regardless of immediate commercial appeal.

"It's liberating to return to doing what we love, remember why we were playing music in the first place," says keyboardist Justin Wiseman. "We're incredibly proud of all of the music we've created, but with this LP, it feels like we're back to doing what we do best."

Lead singer and guitarist Brandon Kinder agrees. "We'd gone from small Austin studios, to big LA super studios, to bedrooms, to literally the back of the van. This time, we mostly recorded at my home studio in Austin because we wanted to be able to spend a lot of time experimenting with sounds and parts. It was nice not to feel the pressure of an expensive studio. I think this is the best thing we've ever done because of the extra time we were able to spend chasing down ideas."

For their last few releases, Kinder says, the band had drifted toward writing songs with an agenda behind them. And it was never really supposed to be that way.

"When we started this band (in college in Abilene, Texas, circa 2005), it wasn't to make money, or to write a hit, or to hear our voices on the radio," Kinder says. "We just wrote songs that we thought were cool, and we had fun playing them.

"I wouldn't trade the experiences we've had for anything, because I think we've grown a lot as songwriters and musicians because of it. But I wanted to get back to that innocence, back to writing with our fans in mind, and not a dollar sign."

"It's why we love standing in front of a microphone and an audience-- and about what it is to chase a dream until you almost want to give up. Most of the songs on Certain Circles reflect that journey."

Adds Wiseman, "Although we loved the songs on Left | Right and relish the successes it brought, we knew there was something better in terms of what this band can be. Ironically, we wrote many of the songs before and after that label stint during some long periods of just...waiting."

The title Certain Circles refers to a Venn diagram. "It's one group pulling us one way, and a different group pulling us another," says Kinder. "We didn't realize until we started making this record that there were some groups of people who had one idea of what they thought The Rocketboys should be, and there were other groups, other circles that had another idea of who we are. And at least for me, I lost my direction. I just thought I'd plow along and see what happened. But when we started making this record, we realized we wanted to take it back to where we started, and that's just making music that we love."

Talk, a live staple of the band for almost two years, makes its recorded debut on the new LP. "It was going to be one of the main songs on Left | Right, but at the last minute it was axed," says Wiseman. "To be able to re-think it gave us a chance to give the song far more meaning. I think it's probably one of the best songs we've ever done. It always gets a big reaction when we perform it live."

The Land that No one Promised Us went through an evolution on its way to the final tracklist. "Originally it was a super-poppy and fun song, and it would've probably ended up being our most upbeat track ever," says Wiseman. "Then randomly Brandon did a version of it on piano, playing all seventh (jazzier) chords and way slower. At first it sounded like a joke. But then we couldn't get past this new take, as it fit the lyrics perfectly. Brandon also did an amazing job with the guitar solo and some other little nuances."

Kinder describes one of his favorite tracks "You're Just Going To Let Me Down Again" (an angst-ridden accusation of a song) "...it was already one of the best in my opinion, but we were able to add some really interesting keyboard stuff on it," he says. "And Away We Go -- the ending still gives me goosebumps everytime I listen to it."

The Rocketboys' traditional DIY spirit lives on. The band did much of the recording themselves, but employed engineer Kevin Butler (Black Books, Quiet Company) and Andy Freeman (Eisley, Manchester Orchestra) to mix. It's a natural progression for a band -- a streamlined, but ambitious effort. Certain Circles stands to bring nostalgia to longtime fans while standing out as The Rocketboys' best, most creative material to-date. The end result sublimely captures the arc of the band's circuitous career. Ten years of highs and lows are compressed neatly into 40 minutes of music.

Having previously toured with bands ranging from Twenty One Pilots, The Mowgli's, and Relient K, and fresh from a nationwide tour backing Thrice frontman Dustin Kensrue, The Rocketboys previewed much of Certain Circles on a short fall tour at the end of 2016. With several tracks slated for release this year, the band will release Certain Circles on May 12, 2017.

When we called it the American Dream, what we really meant was "the American Myth."

That myth convinced us that the right house/car/bank account/voting card could punch our tickets to a happily-ever-after, but for reasons too numerous and depressing to note, that myth is finally dying. Somewhere along the way, we realized the secret to mythology is not letting anyone sell it to you. You have to create your own. And now something new is springing up as we cast off the strange rules and crushing expectations of old. We're rediscovering that freedom comes from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Kristin Diable has been exploring freedom and choice in her music ever since she picked up an open mic at a lounge in Baton Rouge and stunned the audience into silence. She rode that vibe, away to New York and then back to her native Louisiana like a storm front, one that shook New Orleans and cooled the air. And her newest album, Create Your Own Mythology, invokes her Louisiana and Americana roots, while firing a rock-and-roll shot across the bow of borrowed myths.

Producer Dave Cobb expands upon a stellar year that had seen Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Lindi Ortega's Tin Star, and Jason Isbell's Southeastern all arrive to critical acclaim--here he does double duty, producing and also standing the front lines on guitar. Cobb is known for spurring his performers to find their truest voices, and this is Diable's richest and most elaborate album to date.

It takes a person to write an album, but a good album writes a person too. Kristin realized Create Your Own Mythology was fighting its way into the world during her force-of-will tour, which alighted in Europe and Africa in 2013. Cut loose from the norm, discovering new venues almost as fast as she could perform in them, she found swimming in her head new songs about holding on, letting go, patience, and faith in the face of futility. And about penning your own rules and your own reality.

From the gospel notes of "True Devotion", written in Morocco during a Ramadan sunset, to the wistful universal waters flowing through "Deepest Blue", Diable weaves a dense, bewitching net. The idea of embracing the infinite unknown and finding freedom, clarity through the trials we experience along our journey as human beings is explored in songs like the lead single, "I'll Make Time for You", and "Eyes to the Horizon". The latter has been used twice in HBO's Treme performed by the character, Annie.

Rumi wrote, "Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there."

Kristin says that music is her ticket on that journey to the soul's distant elsewhere, and this new album is her invitation to the listener--not to follow her on her mythical path, but to go questing for their own. That's a journey that will require some suffering, and acceptance, and evolution and honesty--these are the tokens hidden in these songs, smoothing that hard path, leading us away, and leading us home.

The Mississippi River makes a hairpin turn in Baton Rouge before swerving unstoppably into the Gulf of Mexico. As it slowly zigs and zags like a cautious alcoholic, rich sediment sloshes loose onto the sun-baked Louisiana turf. It's lush country. Things grow here. New Orleans grew here. Kristin Diable grew here and is still growing. And myths grow here like sugarcane does: fast, tall, and sweet.

Born in South St. Louis, Mo. Mike Zito grew up in a working class home with a dire love of music. It was his escape and way out. After a decade working in a local guitar shop, Mike learned his craft from the ground up playing in clubs 7 nights a week. He fell in love with the Blues of St. Louis and the stories of the country singers. His first self released album "Blue Room" hit the streets in 1998 and he has made 12 albums total over the years. He signed and recorded with Eclecto Groove Records and Ruf Records. He is a founding member of the supergroup "Royal Southern Brotherhood" with Cyril Neville and Devon Allman. In 2012 he formed his own group, The Wheel. Mike has produced albums for Samantha Fish, Laurence Jones, Albert Castiglia and others. He tours extensively in the USA, Canada and Europe. He has been honored with multiple Blues Music Awards over the past 10 years. His love of life and pursuit of happiness is felt in every note he sings and plays.

Scott Stanton, vocals and guitar Dave Lang, vocals and guitar Ghosty Boy, bass and vocals Chris Petersen, drums

Every song has a story. With Current Swell's third Nettwerk Records release, When To Talk And When To Listen, these stories cut deep.

Grammy-winning producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Norah Jones, Cold War Kids, Of Monsters and Men, James Bay) produced the album over four weeks in two vastly different locales: Nashville and Vancouver.

The former is where King lives and does most of his studio work; the latter is a ferry ride away from where Current Swell makes its home. Both cities have music at their core, which gave King and Current Swell common ground on which to build their new relationship.

Yet, tensions ran high early on. During the first night at Nashville's famed Blackbird Studios, King cut short the sessions and told the band to come back when they had something worthwhile to say. Current Swell was talking loud and saying nothing.

A blunt, band-only meeting quickly cured what ailed them. They went back to their first-ever phone call with King months earlier, when they discovered he had an extensive list of questions and ideas for each song -- long before they had ever even met.

The four friends returned the following day ready to create. "He said we had finally tapped into that spark he heard in the very first demos we sent him," recalls frontman Scott Stanton. "It helped create trust. He knew as much about the songs as we did. He pushed us because he knew we had it in us to make a really great record."

Like all good rock 'n' roll should, When To Talk And When To Listen touches on all facets of the human condition, from the heartbreak and spurned love of first single "It Ain't Right" to a pair of songs about loss that form the emotional core of the album.

"Marsha" is about the inner dialogue Stanton often has with his mother, a piano teacher who died at 46 of breast cancer when he was in Grade 9. "She is still part of me in a way, so I often talk to her when I need advice," he says. "I feel like my mom would be really proud of it."

Band member Dave Lang wrote title track "When To Talk And When To Listen" when his father-in-law was nearing the end of his life. Lang and his wife were getting ready to welcome their first child around the same time, which felt like a cruel twist of fate. After taking stock of the reality he was facing, Lang says the words came pouring out.

"We knew he wasn't going to be around when our daughter was born, and he was going to miss out on meeting her. And I started thinking: 'What if that happened to me? What would I want to pass along?'"
Current Swell's track record in its home country includes two No. 1 singles on iTunes Canada's rock chart and a Top 10 record on the commercial rock charts in Canada for 2014's Ulysses. But all signs point to When To Talk And When To Listen -- an album of rich songwriting and vibrant musicianship -- casting a much wider net.

That means more pressure will exist. Which is why this album has to be unlike any Current Swell recording to date.
"For Ulysses, we jammed all the songs, went in the studio and played them," Stanton says. "For this, we started from scratch. We dissected everything. Out of any album we've done, this one really captured what I was hearing in my head."

"It Ain't Right" is an apt example. Stanton infuses the album's lead single with a keen eye for relationship details, the band rumbling away beneath him as it reaches an apex. "I thought you were different," Stanton sings, highlighting the narrator's serious interconnectivity issues. "I thought you were cool, but it ain't right."

The group as whole found a new level of confidence on the recording. Some of that can be credited to King, who pushed Current Swell to find a new side of their artistic selves, Stanton says. "He would never say something just to say it. But he always wound up being right. He was like a coach."

A solid fanbase has taken the group across North America several times and into countries such as Brazil, where a pair of headline tours brought them to thousands of rabid fans. "We're very comfortable in certain parts of the world with our success," Lang says. "But I know this record is one that can take us to new places."

Stanton and Lang use one word - educational - to describe the process of recording seperately at Blackbird in Nashville and the Warehouse in Vancouver. They are studios with rich histories - not to mention a client list that includes Bruce Springsteen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, AC/DC, Taylor Swift and R.E.M.

Current Swell had developed a comfortable way of recording until King came along. He succeeded in propelling them to greater heights, pushing the band to realize its potential. Urging them to dig deeper.
"He was not afraid to share the hard truth that you know is in the back of your mind," Lang says. "And he was not afraid to bring it to everyone's attention. It was cool to be pushed like that."

Now, it is time for Current Swell to push back. Lang says the group will take its music to the world this year, showcasing the heart and soul it took to create When To Talk And When To Listen.

"Anyone can make an album," he said. "But we knew this record had to be good."

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Melodic, well-crafted, driving, alt guitar pop that rocks.

Band members Mike Benign, Joe Vent, Paul Biemann and Mike Koch are veterans of acclaimed Milwaukee-based acts like Blue in The Face, The Yell Leaders, Arms & Legs & Feet and The Joker's Henchmen. Live shows have included opening slots for Squeeze, Neil Finn (Crowded House), The Lemonheads, Bob Mould, Black Francis, Rhett Miller, Marshall Crenshaw and others.

The band's fourth album, "Kid," was released in 2017. Powerpopaholic called "Kid" a "sweet (and harsh) look back at childhood...highly recommended." The Shepherd-Express wrote "Benign's songs are built from surprises--bridges in unconventional places, refrains that don't follow expectations, along with irresistible choruses, lyrics in the form of intriguing character sketches and distant echoes of '60s rock at its most concise."

The single "The Best Years of Our Lives" is in steady rotation on 88nine Radio Milwaukee.

Born and raised in Sandpoint Idaho, Shook Twins are an Indie folk-pop band hailing from Portland, Oregon. Identical twins, Katelyn and Laurie are the main songwriters, but they also back up their band member Niko Slice (electric guitar, mandolin and vocals) adding his uniquely compelling songs to the mix. Barra Brown is on Drums, vocals and Drum Pad, and Josh Simon is on Bass, vocals, Electric guitar, and synth. Central to Shook Twins' sound is their wide range of instrumentation: banjo, acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass, mandolin, electronic drums, face drum (beat-box), glockenspiel, ukulele, banjo-head drumming and their signature Golden Egg. Beautiful twin harmonies, layered upon acoustic and electric instrumentation, coupled with Laurie's inventive use of percussive and ambient vocal loops, and Katelyn's re-purposed telephone microphone, set their sound apart, creating a unique and eccentric blend of folk, roots, groove and soul.

Their eclectic style fluctuates from song to song; drawing from their life experience they write about being potters' daughters, the sway of the subconscious, imagined superpowers and a chicken friend named 'Rose.' Shook Twins also pull out unexpected covers on classic hits as well as their friends' songs. After releasing their first album You Can Have the Rest, the twin sisters moved to Portland where they released Window (featuring Bonnie Paine and Bridget Law of Elephant Revival). Both albums were recorded and produced in Santa Cruz, California, at InDigital Studios with Brody Bergholz and Mason Rothchild. Shook Twins recorded their third album, What We Do, with Grammy nominated producer Ryan Hadlock at Bear Creek Studios. They are currently recording new music at Hallowed Halls in Portland, OR with Justin Phelps.

After releasing their first album You Can Have the Rest, the twin sisters moved to Portland where they released Window (featuring Bonnie Paine and Bridget Law of Elephant Revival). Both albums were recorded and produced in Santa Cruz, California, at InDigital Studios with Brody Bergholz and Mason Rothchild. Shook Twins recorded their third album, What We Do, with Grammy nominated producer Ryan Hadlock at Bear Creek Studios. They are currently recording new music at Hallowed Halls in Portland, OR with Justin Phelps.

Shook Twins have shared the stage with artists including: Ryan Adams, Gregory Alan Isakov, Greensky Bluegrass, Mason Jennings, Blitzen Trapper, Railroad Earth, Keller Williams, David Grisman, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Sarah Jarosz, Laura Veirs, The Fruit Bats, Jonathan Brooke, JJ Grey and MoFro, The Indigo Girls, Crooked Still, Jason Webley, The BoDeans, Elephant Revival and more.

Spanning the spectrum from distinctive and genuine to amusing and whimsical, Shook Twins' laid-back and fun stage presence draws the listener in, allowing them to take the audience on an adventure. 2016 saw the band opening up for Greensky Bluegrass on a 13 show tour, supporting Keller Williams for several shows in Northern California, and playing Red Rocks Amphitheater with Gregory Alan Isakov and Ani Difranco. The band also embarked on a Spring tour to Europe where they played two festivals in Germany and six shows in the UK. Festivals for this year included WinterWonderGrass Tahoe (CA), Huckleberry Jam (ID), Safety Harbor Fest (FL), Apple Jam Music Festival (OR), Beaverstock (CA), Summer Camp Music Festival (IL), Revival Fest (MN), Northwest String Summit (OR), Fayetteville Roots Festival (AR), Summer Meltdown (WA), Oregon Country Fair (OR), Suwannee Roots Revival (FL) and more!

Shook Twins have never been sonically confined to the indie-folk world in which they've become well-known artists. Always harnessing an adventurous spirit, Shook Twins are never shy to incorporate beat boxing, banjo-head drumming, vocals using a re-purposed telephone microphone, and other ambient sources within their arrangements. On their latest single, "Call Me Out" (Release Date: August 19, 2016), Shook Twins once again take another leap from the acoustic music scene with a vibey, pop-infused soundscape with a poignant message ready to be embraced by the masses. Lush harmonies, delayed banjo pickin', deep drums, and multi-layered lead vocals draw the listener into this intimate breakout summer 2016 single.

Like their name, The Steel Woods are a hybrid musical force, part hard-edged, part Americana roots country folk, man-made, yet organic, rock but also bluegrass, R&B, blues, gospel, soul and heavy metal, "the materials which America is built on" according to co-founder Wes Bayliss. The Nashville-based band is also steeped in the ethos of Southern rock, with the music on its debut Woods Music/Thirty Tigers release, Straw in the Wind, both timeless and indefinable, sounding like it could've been recorded at any point during the past half-century. "That's kinda the idea," nods Bayliss. The Steel Woods trace an unbroken line from Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams through Willie and Waylon, then the Allmans, Blackfoot, The Band and Tom Petty up through contemporaries like Kings of Leon and the Avett Brothers.

"I grew up on Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Led Zeppelin," says Jason "Rowdy"Cope, who was born in Asheville, NC, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he heard some pretty impressive pickers, which inspired him as a kid. "Our music is like good bluegrass, with the electric guitars turned up to 11," he says.

There is a biblical, hellfire-and-brimstone morality at work on songs like the good-andevil parable, "Axe", the first song they ever wrote together -- which takes off on cofounder Rowdy's ominous, rumbling bluegrass guitar line -- or the galloping country rhythms of "Della Jane's Heart", a murder ballad about a spurned woman taking her revenge on a fickle lover, and immediately regrets her actions. "The Secret" goes back to the Garden and Adam's original heartbreak, equating the duplicitous Eve with the Devil himself. The musical melting pot ranges from the stark acoustic strumming of "Whatever It Means to You" and the thunderstruck drone of their speeded-up Black Sabbath cover, "Hole in the Sky".

The band's founders are two native sons of the south who both hail from small-town, Bible Belt backgrounds. The Alabama-born Bayliss played harmonica from the age of eight in his family's gospel band, eventually teaching himself piano, bass and drums. Rowdy turned his love of Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix into a career as a session guitarist/songwriter and producer, moving to Los Angeles then playing in Jamey Johnson's band for nine years. The two met in Nashville during a one-off gig, and immediately felt a connection. "We decided we were pretty much on the same page and wanted to do our own thing," says Wes. "We had an idea and a vision."

The pair spent a month fishing together, eventually bringing guitars along with their poles to the tiny hole and discovered an affinity. It was then they began to make music together. "It just worked, his voice and me doing my thing on guitar," says Rowdy.

The result was an EP, which, because they hadn't written anything together except for "Axe", included covers by hot Nashville writers like Rowdy's frequent collaborator singer/songwriter Brent Cobb ("Better in the Fall," "The Well," "If We Never Go", "Let the Rain Come Down") and revered artist Darrell Scott ("Uncle Lloyd").

With originals such as the acoustic ballad, "I'm Gonna Love You", the narrative title track, the philosophical "Whatever It Means to You" and the cathartic closer, "Let the Rain Come Down", the songwriting/production team of Bayliss and Cope is proving quite a formidable duo. The two, who co-produced their debut album, are committed to doing things their way.

"We're not murderers, we're just the messengers," says Bayliss about some of the songs' more gruesome scenarios. "We don't preach. We just want to play good songs with good stories. As long as they come back to hear us again, I'm happy."

"We're into this to heal people's hearts," explains Rowdy. "If you're given a talent that can shake plates in the earth, that can really change the world, you have a responsibility to use that for good. Music is the most powerful, emotion-driven art form in the universe because it transcends language. It's like a sharp blade. It can be used to kill, or in the hands of a surgeon, to heal someone."

The Steel Woods aren't in this for the money, the fame or the awards. For them, music is a matter of life and death, right and wrong, bad and good, with the sinners punished for their transgressions, and the noble achieving the kind of transcendence the man dying of thirst in "Let the Rain Come Down" receives.

"Everything has its price," says Rowdy. "You reap what you sow...We've poured so much into this band. I know how little sleep we've had, how many bad meals we've eaten. I just hope these songs can help people get things off their chest."

"We want to get good songs out to a bunch of people who need them," adds Wes. "We just want to make a living making music because it's the greatest job in the world. I don't mind working, but I prefer loving what I do."

Larkin Poe is a roots rock 'n roll sister duo comprised of Rebecca Lovell and Megan Lovell - descendants of tortured artist and creative genius, Edgar Allen Poe. At a young age, the girls were classically trained on violin and piano while being exposed to classic rock icons including Fleetwood Mac and Pink Floyd. Rebecca (lead singer) now plays lead guitar and Megan (harmony vocals) contributes on lapsteel. After experimenting with an array of musical styles, they found a way to blend together a sound that channels their distinct voice. The duo has previously hit the road as opening and backing bands for Conor Oberst, Kristian Bush (Sugarland) and Elvis Costello who praises that "they have a head start on the rest of us with the unique power and beauty of sibling harmony". Larkin Poe are currently working on their next album.

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Trapper Schoepp is a young man who's befriended a strange and diverse cast of characters during his 24 years. That small army of rogues and rebels, drifters and dreamers, soldiers and schemers populate his songs, their tragedies and comedies, their lives and deaths recalled in his finely etched musical vignettes.

The Minnesota-born, Wisconsin-based tunesmith and teller of tales (both tall and true), returns with his second effort Rangers & Valentines (Xtra Mile Recordings). The record follows his critically acclaimed 2012 debut Run Engine, Run, with his band the Shades. That LP earned notices in Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and Paste, with the folks at Huffington Post calling him a "master storyteller" and PBS hailing his "story songs that explore and explode the conventions of rock and roll."

On Rangers & Valentines, Schoepp defies the limitations of the standard-issue Americana platter, hopping genres -- you'll hear lots of brass, backing singers and B-3 -- as the songs build to delirious musical highs. His narratives, meanwhile, find subjects in the narrow margins of society, the strange twists (literal and metaphorical) in the weather, and the vagaries of a troubadour's transient life -- with lyrics that flash a lacerating wit and humanist streak that's at the core of his craft.

Produced by pop polymath and Raconteurs member Brendan Benson at his Readymade Studios in Nashville, the record finds Schoepp handling vocals, guitar and harmonica. He's aided by an array of estimable musicians including his brother and musical-foil-since-birth Tanner Schoepp (providing bass guitar and vocal harmonies), Steve Selvidge (The Hold Steady), John Davis (Superdrag), the McCrary Sisters -- even comedian and WTF podcaster Marc Maron chips in on background vocals and lead guitar.

Schoepp shines up the well-worn clichés of singer-songwriterdom and renders them anew. Evoking a series of vivid protagonists and settings (fittingly, each track will have its own accompanying video, solidifying the cinematic quality of this set) his work variously recalls prime Prine (John, that is), the nuances of Newman (Randy, of course), the boozy bonhomie of The Replacements, and the unflinching language of someone well-versed in the Zevonian dialect.

Schoepp mixes fact and family lore to conjure the hardscrabble history "Ballad of Olof Johnson" and chides modern-day wannabes on "Lost Cowboy." The road story "Ogalalla" answers the question: what happens to your mind when you're snowbound in Nebraska with nothing but a bottle of Nyquil and The Hobbit at the local picture show for company? Meanwhile, the arch love song satire "Talking Girlfriend Blues" deftly explains how to preserve your dignity while hitchhiking to a date -- and what to do when your ride turns out to have eyes for the same girl.

Elsewhere, "Don't Go" offers a poetic post-9/11 story of love and war; while "Settlin' or Sleepin' Around" questions modern-day swipe right, hook up culture. Schoepp continues his affinity for songs set in hospitals with "Mono Pt. II" -- which explores the kissing disease and the institutional runaround of health care in America (unfortunately a familiar subject for the young man). And he pays tribute to old friends and outsized characters with "For Jonny" (dedicated to his longtime drummer Jonny Philip) and the heart-rending requiem "Dream."

Having released his debut on SideOneDummy, Rangers & Valentines is being put out by London-based Xtra Mile Recordings. Hipped to Schoepp's work by fellow singer-songwriter Frank Turner, among others, Xtra Mile honcho Charlie Caplowe quickly signed him to the label.

Schoepp -- who's already crisscrossed the country sharing stages with fellow travelers like The Wallflowers, The Jayhawks and The Old 97's -- will be back on the road throughout 2016 in support of Ranger & Valentines, starting with a 3-week run throughout the UK and Europe supporting Jesse Malin.

Like the album, it'll be another opportunity to catch a young journeyman at work.