Various Artists
Rod Picott Presents The Bridge (Village Records)
Over the last year Rod Picott put together a compilation CD to benefit a youth shelter in Boston called Bridge Over Troubled Waters. The CD has unreleased songs by Rod Picott, Gurf Morlix, Greg Trooper, Slaid Cleaves, Mary Gauthier, Sam Baker and others. Everyone along the line has donated their time and the royalties from the tracks etc to help Rod put the thing together. In addition Village Records has put up the money to get this manufactured and we are forgoing all of our profits for this as well.
CHIP TAYLOR
Block Out the Sirens of This Lonely World (Train Wreck)
Taylor follows his string of critically acclaimed Americana albums with an album of moody, sometimes foreboding songs that find dark clouds everywhere but a few silver linings as well. The songs were born out of a somewhat dark period for Taylor following the 2011 Norway massacre. Taylor was in the country at the time and in the wake of the killings he wrote and performed a new song, “This Darkest Day”, at a benefit in honor of the victims. The experience led to some of the most somber and serious songs of his long illustrious career. And for the first time since he was a teenager, Taylor allowed someone else, Goran Grini, to guide the project.
Various Artists
You Don’t Know Me: Rediscovering Eddy Arnold (Plowboy)
May 15 marks what would have been the 95th birthday of Eddy Arnold. This tribute album features many artists from outside the mainstream country realm paying tribute to the singer. Jason Isbell, Mandy Barnett, and Frank Black are three of the artists involved on the set, as is punk legend Cheetah Chrome. The former Dead Boys guitarist can be heard on the project doing the song that became Arnold’s first number one hit in 1946. “Well, the one I ended up choosing is ‘What Is Life Without Love,” he told Billboard. “The reason I chose it was the lyrics are so happy, yet the music was so sad. So, I decided to take a different approach, and it took on a New Orleans-kind of direction.” The artist is not only involved with Plowboy on the Arnold project — he is also one of the founders of the label along with journalist Don Cusic and Arnold’s grandson Shannon Pollard.
Also new this week…
JASON BOLAND AND THE STRAGGLERS – Dark & Dirty Mile (Proud Souls/Thirty Tigers)
RANDALL BRAMBLETT – The Bright Spots (101 Distribution)
THE DEL-LORDS – Elvis Club (Megaforce)
ASHLEIGH FLYNN – A Million Stars (Home Perm)
THE HANDSOME FAMILY – Wilderness (Carrot Top)
ARTHUR LEE LAND – Cracked Open (Perfect Groove)
Coming out soon… JEFFREY FOUCAULT & COLD SATELLITE, JUDE JOHNSTONE, NEW COUNTRY REHAB, CLAIRE LYNCH, JOHN FOGERTY, RED DIRT RANGERS, MARSHALL CHAPMAN, THE HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN, CLARENCE BUCARO, WARREN HOOD BAND, JOY KILLS SORROW, JASON ISBELL, AOIFE O’DONOVAN, ELIZA GILKYSON , DAN HICKS & THE HOT LICKS, SLAID CLEAVES, DELBERT McCLINTON & GLEN CLARK … more new releases
Here’s the best Americana and roots-type music releases for the week of May 14th, 2013. Click the artist or album links to find out more. The artist’s names link to their websites and the CD title links go either ” target=”_blank”>Amazon or CD Baby for easy ordering.
Here’s a link to this week’s Americana Music Association Americana Airplay Chart
Bill Frater
Freight Train Boogie
