New Music Revue – 1.8.18

Written by Jim S.

(Pictured – blueswoman Danielle Nicole.) 

An occasional post wherein I scan the globe looking for new music to tickle your fancy. This time, a little bit of pop, some blues, and some scorching rockabilly. Truthfully some of these aren’t brand new but they were new to me and maybe to you. If you don’t have a lot of time or patience to listen to everything all the way through, give each one a taste. 

Alice Merton was born in London but moved to Munich as a teenager.  She’s a pretty worldly sort, having also lived in the US and Ontario at different times. In 2016 she won a newcomer award in Hamburg in the category of ‘acoustic pop.’

She started her own label, got a band and co-wrote and recorded a song called “No Roots,” a tribute of sorts to her peripatetic life. Billboard – “The rollicking, chest-thumping track itself reads like a roadmap, telling Merton’s story through a marching drum kick, rugged bass and the chorus’ chant of “I’ve got no roots, but my home was never on the ground.””

Spotify link

Soundcloud: The two members of In Light Of, Jason Greenberg, and Sandy Johnston, have never written a song together. That is, together in the same room or even the same city. All five songs on their debut EP, Little Treasures, were pieced together from ideas shared from one device to another, many kilometers away.

They were first brought together in 2013 when, thanks to an online job posting, Jason hired Sandy to join his music licensing company. Starting as colleagues they quickly bonded over a shared appetite for the kind of boundless sonic exploration found in post-rock (and the like) songwriting. But it wasn’t until Sandy moved five hours away that a musical project was first discussed.

For you post-rock aficionados, “Little Treasures.”

Soundcloud link

Bandcamp link

From Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics website: “Deep, raw funk. Stax-style Southern soul. Positively uplifting and original Motown-channeling anthems.” Yeah, baby.

The band started out in 2006 in Gainesville, FL in 2006, moving on to Atlanta. “Most bands like ours tend to hold onto that soul-revue formula—black suits with skinny ties, side steppin’ to the groove, gimmicky segues,” guitarist Scott Clayton says. “We’re moving into more modern elements of rock and pop through the lens of soul and classic R&B.”

“You might not expect it, but a lot of my affinity for singing comes from Paul Simon,” says Velle.” I want to be a story-teller with my singing. I’m not afraid to bring a folk mentality into the soul genre. We set ourselves apart with our lyrics and our unerring stance for positivity. We want to be a pillar of the soul genre, not just a representation of what it once was.”

Here’s the sultry, slinky “Broken Woman.”

Spotify link

Did someone say how about a nice blues with a female singer/bass player, some sinuous organ and great guitar work by guest Kenny Wayne Shepherd? I knew I heard that somewhere.

From her website: Founding member, lead singer, and bass player of Kansas City blues-rock band Trampled Under Foot, Danielle Nicole stepped out on her own in 2015 with her debut album Wolf Den. In 2018, Nicole returns with a follow-up release via Concord Records.

“I grew up playing the blues, and the blues is still a big part of what I do.  But now I’m reaching out more and trying different things.  It still sounds like me, but I’m stretching out a lot more than I have previously.” She won the Blues Foundation’s 2014 Blues Music Award for best instrumentalist, bass, the first woman to do so. Her drummer is Rodd Bland, son of blues legend Bobby “Blue” Bland.

This tasty little number is called “Save Me.”

Spotify link

Let’s hear it for the Go Getters, a Swedish rockabilly band that you’ve probably never heard of, have been around for years and sound like they just came out of Austin or Memphis or some other fucking place. Sure, why not.

From their FB page: In January of 1988, amidst the frozen badlands of Västerås, Sweden, a gang of Vikings decided to heat things up by forming a rockabilly trio. They would call themselves the Go Getters. 23 years later the ensuing inferno still rages like an oil fire in Texas!!!

Indeed. Check out “Love & Hate.”

“There’s a thin line baby
Between love and hate
There’s a thin line baby
Between love and hate
Once you cross that line
You know it’s way too late.”

Spotify link

 

25 thoughts on “New Music Revue – 1.8.18”

  1. Some good stuff here, Jim. After the first listen, I feel mostly drawn to Danielle Nicole – like her sound and also think Kenny Wayne Shepherd is a great guitarist. Also The Go Getters – awesome band name, to start with. And they certainly sound like it – rockabilly go getters! I’m also intrigued by Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics, another cool name, BTW! Speaking of soul, have you ever heard of Kat Wright? I did a post on her recently. Very cool music, in my opinion!

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      1. BTW, in case you haven’t done so yet, you should add the entire Go Getters album, from which you highlighted the title track, to your list. That’s one hell of a rockabilly band I would go immediately and see live, if they ever came to my area – damn, I think I like them better than the Stray Cats – more edgy! What’s in the fucking water in Sweden?

        Totally dig “Red Hot Mama!” Also very cool: “Thunderbird” and “Mona” that essentially is Bo Diddley’s “Who Do You Love” (they even sing the line toward the end). There’s also a great cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire.”

        It’s the perfect feel-good music after a short night due to a broken pipe in my garage. That sucker caused flooding there and in part of my basement, and forced me to shut off my main water supply to the house – perhaps another good theme for a blues:

        Got home last night/Was greeted by a gushing pipe/Yeah, got home last night/Was greeted by a gushing pipe…😀

        Well, at least the incident had a happy end under the circumstances- I got an emergency service late last night to take care of the situation and restore water to my house!

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        1. I’ve actually been listening to that YouTube thing I posted. Kicks ass. I checked their site and they seem to mostly play in Sweden and Russia. You and I and CB (at least) will have to take a road tops. Sucks about the pipe. You got lucky in getting service. Plumbers around here aren’t even answering their phones they’re so busy. “I got them old burst-pipe blues, mama.”

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  3. Some good stuff here. I’m always in for some rockabilly. Sweden? I know it’s big in Japan. The three women bring different styles. Always up for the bluesy funky thing.

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        1. Thought you would. Glad to hear it. You and I and Christian are going on a road trip to see them. They only play, as far as I can tell, in Russia and Sweden so, flip a coin. I can’t wait till you tell Missus Babyhead you’re traveling to Sweden (or whatever) for ten days (might as well make it a thing) in the spring with two friends (actually guys from the Internet you’ve never met) for an, er, “ecological study.” You come up with an excuse. I’m the big picture guy.

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        2. “Hey Babe, I’m heading over to Russia maybe Sweden to see a rockabilly band with a couple guys I do the blog thing with (who I’ve never met). You cool with that?” You fill in the answer Doc.

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  4. Some really good stuff here and most of it definitely appeals to me… none more so than the Go Getters! Holy smokes, Batman! Why haven’t I heard them before!?

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    1. I know, right? Under the radar. They’re the kind of band that maybe some DJ or local radio station would have found and played on FM back in the day.

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  7. Interesting, you’ve encountered some different things from myself. I’ll have to look into them. Always good to find another source even when it’s difficult to keep up with the many I already have.

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    1. I hear you on that. It’s hard to keep up. I don’t actually do a heck of a lot of new music, maybe once every six weeks. The rest is deeper tracks. Anyway, welcome to my little corner of the blogosphere.

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