320 kbps | 142 MB | LINKS
Grammy nominated Blues Harp Legend Mark Hummel unleashes an all instrumental Harmonica album, and it redefines the scope and beauty of what the instrument is capable in the right hands. Joining Mark and his stellar band are Blues Guitar Legends: Anson Funderburgh, Little Charlie Baty, Chris ‘Kid’ Andersen, Billy Flynn and Rusty Zinn. Featuring newly recorded, live, previously released and unreleased material. Recorded, mixed and mastered at Kid Andersen’s famed Greaseland Studio in California as well as at Joyride Studio in Chicago. Blues harmonica and Guitar aficionados everywhere will be delighted with the standard of excellence attained on Harpbreaker.
320 kbps | 94 MB | LINKS
Bill Withers is one of the greatest and best-selling singer-songwriters of all time who scored such classic hits as “Lean On Me,” “Use Me,” “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lovely Day” and many more. Neo-soul singer/songwriter Anthony David has, for more than a decade, been considered “the Bill Withers of his generation,” with his warm, resonant baritone and thought provoking songs, scoring radio hits (including a #1 with “4Evermore”) and collaborating with India. Arie.
‘Hello Like Before’ is the album David’s fans have been waiting for – heartfelt, expressive interpretations of both famous and lesser-known Bill Withers songs. Produced by Eddie “Gypsy” Stokes, the album captures the essence of Withers’ genius through Anthony’s contemporary spin.
320 kbps | 90 MB | LINKS
alking about Darren Jessee’s The Jane, Room 217 requires a small amount of explanation, or set up, as it were—specifically to discuss what the difference between this, Jessee’s ‘first’ solo album, is, when compared to his output as Hotel Lights—the name he’s been releasing music under since 2004.
While Hotel Lights can be called a ‘solo’ project for Jessee following the break up of Ben Folds Five (he served as the band’s drummer and co-wrote “Brick,” just in case you were not aware), Hotel Lights has always sounded like the work of more than just one person—it sounded like a full band, mostly because it was; or, at least, it was Jessee fronting a revolving group of collaborators providing additional instrumentation—with the one constant, outside of Jessee, being producer and multi-instrumentalist Alan Weatherhead.
In the press materials for The Jane, Room 2017, Jessee concedes that he felt like he needed a band because he found confidence from working within a group; however, he also said he wanted to find the courage to be a ‘solo troubadour.’
Recorded in his apartment in New York, The Jane is an incredibly sparse collection of nine songs that, true to his wishes, find Jessee in full on ‘troubadour’ mode—it’s an incredibly fragile and melancholic set of tunes that, even though they are almost threadbare in presentation, are still incredibly rich due to the evocative imagery of Jessee’s lyricism, something that has been a trademark of his solo output since the self-titled Hotel Lights album was released almost 15 years ago.
The songs found on The Jane walk the line between love songs and somber, pensive reflections—a balancing act that, much like his use of language and imagery, he’s perfected throughout his body of work. However, here, because the songs are so sparsely arranged, those sentiments—both of love and a sadness one can’t seem to shake—seem magnified.
