well…if you want my opinion anyway.
So, I haven’t posted on here in a while because I’ve been crazy busy with house stuff, but while I have a lull here goes.
The first band I’ll throw out there is Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers. They just released their first full-length album titled “Songs in the Night”. Her sound likens itself to this new folk (if you can call it that) movement that’s surfaced, similar to what we’ve seen with The Avett Brothers and Langhorne Slim. I’m not sure how you would describe that collective sound, but all I know is it’s daggum good. Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers are signed with Ramseur Records, home to the likes of The Avett Brothers and The Everybodyfields. On May 22nd, Ramseur will be showcasing many of its great artists at the Visulite Theater in Charlotte including Samantha Crain, Jim Avett, Paleface and Bombadil. Come out and show some support for this great local record company if you can. I’ll be there!
Next, I’ll throw out The Lovell Sisters. If you don’t like bluegrass, you may want to sit this one out. I first saw The Lovell Sisters at Merlefest (the biggest bluegrass festival in the southeast…i think) last year. Their new album entitled “Time To Grow” is their latest since 2005!!?? What took yall so long?!! Anyway, these girls are seriously one song away from becoming the next big thing in country music. However, the Sisters maintain an uncompromising approach to writing and playing their music. They won’t be swayed by big label executives who have tried to steer them in a very Nashville direction in the past and failed.
From thebluegrassblog.com :
“We were working with a manager who was shopping us to labels in Nashville, and we had met with five of them who were serious about signing us. After a lot of thought and discussion, we decided to sign with Lyric Street Records, which is a division of Disney.
They had paired us up with producer Mark Bright, and everything seemed perfect. Mark had just finished producing Carrie Underwood, so we knew he could work well with female artists, and he had previously produced Mountain Heart, so we knew he was great with bluegrass and acoustic instruments.”
As they got closer to start recording, they started to get nervous about the direction things were taking. It was becoming clear that the label had chosen a path and a sound for the Lovells, and that the artist’s input wasn’t a high priority.
“It really hit me when Mark Bright mentioned one day that when he worked with Rascal Flatts, the biggest problem he had was convincing them not to record any of their original material. That hit me hard, as we wanted to do exactly that!
I don’t mean any disrespect to Mark or Lyric Street. They were great to us and treated us very fairly. It just started to look like we were heading into a place where we would lose control over our music.”
The Lovells consulted with their attorney, who was able to negotiate a release from their contract with Lyric Street in December of 2007, something not many young artists would consider. Turning down a major label and an established producer?
“People were telling us we were crazy! But to me, selling out means doing music you don’t believe in, and we didn’t want to start out like that.”
And this ladies and gentlemen is just one of many reasons I love them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIRV-fmlgU
So, one more ought to be enough huh?
I know I’ve talked about him before on here, but I can never say enough about this guy. In my humble opinion, he’s the most underrated rock and roll musician out there. Seriously, why is he not selling out huge venues across the country. His name is Alejandro Escovedo and he changed my life. Well, maybe I’m exaggerating, but this guy is good. And just listening to his albums doesn’t do him justice. You MUST go see him live if you get the chance. I’ve had the pleasure of doing that twice now. I’ve never really connected to songs like I have with Escovedo’s. It’s something about the man. He kind of embodies the idea of rock and roll. He’s been there and he’s lived it….not like a bunch of these hipster indie wanna-be rock and rollers. He was at the Chelsea Hotel when Sid killed Nancy for crying out loud!! His latest album is “Real Animal”. Seriously, go check it out!
Here’s him and the Boss singing Escovedo’s “Always A Friend”…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8s-chAgIPU
So, there it is…I could go on and on, but I’ll hold off for another time…until then….go see some music yo!!
