320 kbps | 104 MB | LINKS
Call It What It Is, the new album from Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals is an incisive, bold, poetic statement that could only come from these long-time band mates and close collaborators, one of popular music’s most essential, cohesive and dynamic ensembles.
320 kbps | 223 MB | LINKS
CD1:
1. She Never Spoke Spanish To Me (Live) (14:40)
2. Tonight Is The Night (Live) ( 4:15)
3. Soulmates (Live) ( 3:34)
4. Did I Tell You (Live) ( 4:26)
5. Dinero (Live) ( 3:20)
6. You Got Me Wondering (Live) ( 2:14)
7. Love Me Do (Live) ( 4:11)
8. La Muana (Live) ( 3:57)
9. This Could Be The One (Live) ( 2:48)
10. Who Were You Thinking Of (Live) ( 2:50)
CD2:
1. Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio (Live) (3:11)
2. Mi Corazon (Live) (5:08)
3. Hey Baby Que Paso (Live) (3:19)
4. Ay No Digas (Live) (4:12)
5. Together Again (Live) (4:29)
6. La Felicidad (Live) (5:36)
7. He’ll Have To Go (Live) (5:28)
8. Marina (Live) (5:48)
9. Wooly Bully (Live) (3:22)
10. Goodnight Irene (Live) (6:16)
320 kbps | 307 MB | LINKS
Features live and studio performances dating back to B.B.’s earliest recordings in the 1950s on through to his most well-known and best-loved classics such as “The Thrill Is Gone,” “Every Day I Have The Blues,” “Payin ‘The Cost To Be The Boss,” “Guess Who” and many more!
320 kbps | 124 MB | LINKS
From the shores of Jersey to the clubs of Britain, the Billy Walton band have been kicking around for ten years. Billy Walton himself has played with Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, and his band really reflect that soulful rock and blues sound. His guitar playing is second to none and it’s a combination of rock and soul blended together like that of no other, yet it’s done traditionally enough to sound familiar to the masses.
The influence of the New Jersey sound is something you can’t miss from this band, and that doesn’t come without the mention of Bruce Springsteen, but also Count Basie and the rest who forged the sound of that area so long ago. Billy Walton and his band carry on in that same tradition with the live show being the main means of constant work, touring all over the US and the UK. The new album marks a fresh perspective with new tracks for the stage, and the video for “Hell Or Highwater” helps preview what’s to come when they hot the road in support of it.
320 kbps | 698 MB | LINKS
This CD anthology contains 100 songs nearly half of Piaf’s entire recorded output, including many of her best known hits, such as “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”, “La Vie En Rose” and “Milord”. She was, and still remains, one of France’s greatest talents.
320 kbps | 77 MB | LINKS
Tracklist:
01. Age of Miracles (3:40)
02. William Blake (4:27)
03. Story Teller (5:21)
04. I Heard God Laughing (3:38)
05. The Luminous Hours (2:56)
06. Mountains and Beaches (3:39)
07. The Poet of the Vineyard (2:30)
08. The Knocker (3:05)
09. Sayonara (2:52)
10. True Lovers Always Say Farewell (2:59)
FLAC | 240 MB | LINKS
Coming out in late 2002, shortly after Dashboard Confessional’s breakthrough into mainstream radio, its easy to see where Scott Windsor (aka the Lyndsay Diaries) is getting his ideas from. With confessional tunes of a heartbroken emo boy, Windsor is aimed head on at the acoustic, emotive style that came barreling out of the underground in the year before he completed his record. Distant whispers and fleeting moments that hint at a hunger for Bright Eyes’ complexity come and go, but never stick, and unfortunately, not even the painfully catchy hooks of Chris Carraba’s Dashboard are able to find their way out of what is ultimately a lackluster and far too weepy rumination on Windsor’s late teens and early twenties. There are some promising moments, like the Kind of Like Spitting-esque title track, complete with some interesting drum loops, or a number of tunes that would sit comfortably among the quieter work of the Get up Kids, but it falls off the wagon a little too often, and while Windsor certainly has some good ideas, the songs on this disc may have left the dorm room a little prematurely.
320 kbps | 105 MB | LINKS
Karen Pittelman grew up listening to her parents’ country record collection and despite starting out in a punk band she eventually found herself wanting to sing songs about heartbreak. Only by using the pedal steel did she find the musical ‘essence of sorrow’ she was looking for, played here by Elana Redfield (drummer Tammi Johnson completes the trio). The Narrow Place is an album connected to the musical roots of country music but thematically and lyrically unique.
Karen and the Sorrows are trailblazers in the queer country scene – running events like the Gay Ole Opry and Another Country Festival. For too long country has been seen as a deeply conservative genre and many bands and fans feel excluded from the white bro-country narrative. Welcoming more diverse artists to the genre is something that can only be beneficial to its future survival.
Of course it’s deeply ironic that most alternative country is actually more traditional in terms of its sound than anything you can hear on MANstream radio. This album is no exception, with the opening song Back Down to the Dirt a perfect introduction to the vocal style and country heart of this band. There’s no dirt here in the sound, it’s raw in terms of production but the singing is as sweet as cherry pie.
This is followed by the best song on the album, the melodic ‘Can’t Miss What You Never Have‘, which is about ‘living in between’ and dreaming of a ‘normal’ life. It’s about that ache for the things you don’t have, for the life you want but are excluded from. In this song I guess it’s about the perfect notion of family life but it could be about anything. The themes and experiences here are personal but they become universal truths, like the best songs do.
Take Me For A Ride turns the beer and truck song on its head – this is sung by a girl, for a girl. So simple an idea and hardly rebellious since gay marriage is legal but we just don’t hear enough of these songs in country. Even out stars like Brandy Clark still take on character roles and sing about men and Girl Crush was a cop out since it was framed in terms of a man. Country music is three chords and the truth after all – it can’t be real if you’re too afraid to sing about who you actually love.
Another simple way to make a song diverse is heard on The Man Who Loves You, where gender roles are switched. This is a great little folk inspired number, a sweet melody sung to a lover in the hope of turning things around in their relationship. The Wire and ‘Everything I Had‘ are slices of heartbreak with a more bluesy rock sound, yet slow and mournful. Nowhere puts the pedal steel right to the front, and this is a lovely lilting song of lost love.
The Price of the Ticket is inspired by a James Baldwin essay on racism, here the personal becomes political. The voice is high but this feminine heart is what makes songs like this so uniquely affecting. Walk Through the Desert had a seventies rock feel to it while I Was Just Your Fool is a classic country shuffle.
The Narrow Place may have been inspired by heartbreak like so many other country albums of the past but Karen & the Sorrows transcend the cliches and offer a genuinely distinctive listening experience.
320 kbps | 102 MB | LINKS
Singer songwriter Sam Newton is a storytelling folk musician from Sydney who takes full advantage of traditional country and blues foundations to build both free wheelin’ and carefully constructed songs. A staple in the Australian Alt-Country scene, his hooks and poignant lyrics will stay with you long after the music finishes.
320 kbps | 105 MB | LINKS
The new album “Confluence” melds together a pleasurable roots experience exploring some beautiful instrumentation ranging from mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel to horns, harmonica, piano, B3 and plenty of guitars and vocal harmonies. It is a musical treat that is leaving listeners awaiting the release of the bands third album expected soon.
320 kbps | 111 MB | LINKS
The Clearing, Monocle Band’s second album, is the kind of record the Americana genre label was made for. Their songs have elements of folk, country, rock, and bluegrass without tipping particularly far in any direction. They’ve got a pair of strong singers, one male, one female, and one standout player, fiddler Emily Lewis.
The opening two songs demonstrate the contrast in songwriting styles between vocalists Monica Marie and Bill Huston. “Medicine” kicks off the record with an amiable mid-tempo folk-rock vibe. There’s a pleasant, tuneful guitar solo between the chorus and second verse and welcome background color throughout by guest banjoist Dusty Rider. Marie’s soulful, earthy voice recalls the Indigo Girls while her abstract lyrics are singable but not particularly deep. Next up is the Huston-penned “Not If I Have My Way”, a rolling country-folk song with a bluegrass spine that shows up whenever the singing stops. In contrast to Marie, Huston’s conversational baritone singing recalls a slightly more twangy Ed Robertson (of Canadian pop-rock stalwarts Barenaked Ladies – a constant distraction to me that is in no way Huston’s fault). Lyrically, Huston is a storyteller, and “Not If I Have My Way” tells the tale of a good man gone bad. It’s just as melodic as “Medicine”, but the song’s lyrics reward multiple listens while “Medicine” lays it out there the first time through.
Blaque Dynamite
Killing Bugs
(Ropeadope, 2017)
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Gili Yalo
Gili Yalo
(Dead Sea, 2017)
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