![Spirit Family Reunion – No Separation [album review]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4925822_lg.jpg)
This past SXSW, Spirit Family Reunion was on my must-see list. A couple of nice pieces and videos had piqued my interest. Thus, I wasted no time in catching them on Tuesday night at the Newport Folk party on Rainey Street. To say, they met my expectations is like saying my kids like going out for ice cream. I tweeted that night, "Spirit Family Reunion" is a real hootenanny. I don't know exactly what that means but it sure seems to capture the band's performance. Spirit Family Reunion is a six-piece ensemble, including Mat Davidson from The [...]
Adams Avenue Unplugged in San Diego was lively and overrun by sun, good musicians, and good vibes. * The Spirit Family Reunion introduced themselves to a new crowd and gained brand new superfans (like they do.) On a personal level, it is great to watch other people discovering a band like SFR for the first time. Their music is nothing but contagious! * John C. Reilly (and friends) proved that he is not just an actor/comedian but a genuine musician who has the chops for some good ol' country music. Hey played in a church [...]
On Saturday night Spirit Family Reunion played Bowery Ballroom. I know most of the band so I was super excited for them. If any band deserves to play the big stage it's Spirit Family. Not only did they play but they managed to sell the place out, which is incredible! The first act up that night was Blind Boy Paxton, who is a 24 year old kid from Watts, Los Angeles. Somehow in that urban jungle
Photos by Boston Concert Photography Bearing witness to Spirit Family Reunion selling out The Sinclair in Harvard Square furthers the current tide that seems to be rolling through many channels today: work for it, live it, and it will happen. Over the past few years, SFR have become well known for working their modestly sized audiences into foot-stomping, hand-clapping, throat-throttling sweats while belting out tunes that are reminiscent of a simpler time in our culture. Attending one of their shows was kind of like being in on a speakeasy. [...]
With the Folkadelphia Sessions, it has been quite thrilling to be able to share some of our recent in-studio performances that we have recorded with artists like Tim Kasher, Sera Cahoone, Anais Mitchell, and a ton of others . But it’s not like this is a new thing for us; Folkadelphia has been recording and airing our sessions via ... Continue reading
Dance happy New York band Spirit Family Reunion will be playing at Johnny Brenda's tonight. The folk group embeds their songs with an unbelievable level of soul, provoking the listener to clap along and stomp until their feet are sore. Their last release, a single combined with a song book simply titled Songbook + 73, ... Continue reading
Before shifting its focus to music, SXSW encompasses Internet/technology and film. As you might expect, the tech portion has grown in importance in the last few years and those here for that part of SXSW cast mocking glances in my direction whenever I make use of my Blackberry. This Tuesday afternoon, it's interesting to walk around downtown Austin as the festival starts to shift its focus to its noisiest and rowdiest component. The gigantic Dominos stage that irked Father John Misty last year is in the process of being built and many of the outdoor stages still look [...]
ARTIST: The SWAG Report 132 with freebie mp3s by artists including They Might Be Giants, Tricky, The Cannanes, Awolnation, Billy Bragg, Amanda Palmer, CocoRosie, Ron Sexsmith, Mother Mother, Social Studies, The View and more! So much more! DATE: 03-06-13 WRITER: Don Loder Heya junky, Awright, so, apparently i's a holiday – didja know? They tell me thit half the music business is outta town an' shmoozin' down in Texas at South By Southwest. They tell me thit every publicist thit could afford it [...]
Today, the Newport Folk Festival , which takes place July 26 - 28 , announced that Jim James will be returning to the festival this summer. As mentioned previously, the festival has been using the trickle method to announce this year's artists. Over the last several days they've announced Michael Kiwanuka , Jason Isbell , Nicki Bluhm & The Gamblers as well as the return of the Spirit Family Reunion who wowed the crowd last year. I recommend getting tickets [...]
Deli Nation, Our Year End Best of Emerging Poll for Emerging NYC Artists was - as usual - a painstaking (and somewhat excruciating) process. First, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 30+ NYC scene expert (our jury, we'll publish the list shortly) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each. Then we polled our writers, then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie [...]
S pirit Family Reunion delighted fans at the Fort last year with one of the best sets of the festival. They might have even stolen the show. I couldn't be happier to announce the fact that they'll be returning to the grounds of Fort Adams once again this year. Spirit Family Reunion is a living, breathing, stomping embodiment of folk music. Their music is dripping with authenticity. Anyone who's ever witnessed they're live show will attest that they play each note with every fiber of their being. Their passion travels from their heart straight [...]
Tickets for the Kendrick Lamar show at Roseland Ballroom go on sale today at noon. Tickets for the Jessie Ware shows at Webster Hall and MHOW go on sale today at noon. Tickets for The Breeders show at Webster Hall go on sale today at noon. Tickets for the METZ show at [...]
Spirit Family Reunion does Sonny and the Sunsets ' "Too Young to Burn," what's not to love? This video was done by The Voice Project who has done recordings with Brett Dennen, Edward Sharpe, and The Milk Carton Kids as well. Check them out. I wish I had the time and ability to put amazing music like this together.
This year 28 NYC "scene experts" helped us with our Best of NYC Poll 2012 for Emerging Artists by choosing their 3 favorite up and coming NYC acts. These jurors are comprised of local venue agents and other industry people who work with many local bands throughout the year (full list coming soon). Their votes this year produced a list of 68 artists, which means that - as always - most jurors voted for different bands. But some bands appeared more thans once in the "ballots": below we compiled a list of the artists who accumulated more points through the [...]
If you have one of those dude-bro friends that repeatedly claims, while downing Bud Lights at the bar, that music these days sucks, this is the list you show him to prove him wrong. Maybe now he'll shut the hell up. Also, you should stop being friends with that guy. He probably owns multiple Nickleback albums. I spent this year immersed in music and not once was "Man, music this year blew" a thought that entered my fuzzy brain. I'll give you this: If you're doing nothing but listening to the radio, the sentiment that things [...]
16. Cory Branan – Mutt It seems like every review of Mutt talks about there being this style, then this style, then another, and what they never say is that every song on Mutt is incredibly well written. Every song on Mutt is incredibly well written, I said it twice to make up for other’s neglect. Badman 15. The Sparklers – Crying At The Low Bar The review of this album generated a good bit of positive feedback. I was surprised people liked it [...]
Hey all, it's finally time to top the list. I had originally intended for this to land yesterday, but due to your awesomeness we ran out of bandwidth...so here we are, atop the mountain of music, these are what I thought was best of the year. 10. Spirit Family Reunion - No Separation Spirit Family Reunion - I Am Following The Sound S pirit Family Reunion released their first full LP this year, and as if they didn't already hold [...]
It's been a great year for music. It was terribly difficult to pick out just 50 albums to list, but somehow we managed. If you missed out on the earlier episodes of the list you can find #50-#36 here , #35-#21 here , and #20-#11 here . Follow the links and buy a copy of something you like - all of these albums are fantastic and are money well spent. We also put a spotify list together of all these songs - here . And with that, enjoy the music and happy new year, [...]
1. Father John Misty - Fear Fun C roce, Skynard, Nilsson, Fogerty and Morrison had a baby and named it Father John Misty. Right out of the gate this album rocketed to the top of my most listened to list. Hooked in by "Well You Can Do It Without Me"'s Nilsson-like flavor and then drawn into the much deeper and more complicated workings of stunners such as "Funtimes in Babylon", "Only Son of the Ladies Man", and... fuck it, the whole album is fantastic. [...]
As you may remember, Brooklyn old time folk revivalists Spirit Family Reunion released their debut album over the summer and sounds more like something from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack than something from their NYC borrough in 2012. You can stream the whole thing below. The band recently appeared on long-running NPR show Mountain Stage (taped in West Virginia) alongside Dr. Dog, the Mountain Goats, Nellie McKay, and Red Wanting Blue and that episode airs this week, check here for a station [...]
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