Drew Nelson - Michigan folk/rocker follows up his 2009 independent release Dusty Road to Beulah Land with this "grittier" collection that resides comfortably between the acoustic reflections of John Gorka and the midwestern roots-rock basics of John Mellencamp (or an electrified Nebraska via Bruce Springsteen) // Release : Tilt-A-Whirl (February 14, Red House) // Sounds like : with a Nashville-ian shuffle and distinctive bassline saunter, there's a solid alt-country feel to much of Nelson's rustic, heartfelt ruminations...along with some rich Hammond B-3 chords beefing up the mix, producer multi-instrumentalist [...]
Red House Records recording artists and former Iowa City band The Pines are returning to the big stage at CSPS in Cedar Rapids on Saturday, February 4th. The Pines were here just last September as the third act to play the newly re-opened CSPS which had gone under a very extensive remodeling and updating over the previous year. The picture above is from that show. This time the band is back as part of a tour supporting the release of the band's fourth album Dark So Gold which came out this [...]
The month of January was named after the Roman goddess Janus who had two faces. Like the goddess, January is the month of the year when we both look back on the previous year that is over as well as ahead to the year coming up. I just posted my favorite releases for 2011 - here is a list of releases that I'm looking forward to in 2012. The Right Now - sophomore release (April 21st) - The Chicago R&B group The Right Now has had a pretty great run since their [...]
You don't have to grow up on a farm in some place like North Dakota to have an innate feel and love for authentic folk and Americana, but it certainly doesn't hurt. To wit: Minnesota- based singer/songwriter Andra Suchy who has named her new album Little Heart , arriving on Valentines Day via Red House, after a creek near her family's spread in Mandan, ND. Elements of country, folk/blues and modern bluegrass permeate Suchy's music which, thanks to Suchy's lilting vocals, has been a consistent presence on the popular weekly radio show [...]
Here's a not-so-secret fact about Minnesota music: People love to talk about how much they love the scene here. Musicians from both out-of-state and the Twin Cities have gone out of their way to pen
Fresh off last weekend's successful third annual Barnfest down in Red Wing, Red House Records is gearing up for another series of events that will showcase their stable of talented roots and folk act
Red House Records and Pieta Brown announced today that her new album titled Mercury - her second for the label will release on September 27th with an iTunes download of the title track available immediately . There is also a pre-order on iTunes with two-minute samples of every track on the 13-song album. At first blush the album continues the honey-drenched laid back bluesy folk sound that is her trademark sound. Pieta's first album on Red House Records, One and All [...]
"Just Like A Woman" is just one of sixteen fine Bob Dylan covers in the new A Nod to Bob 2 collection from Minneapolis blues/folk label Red House Records in honor of Zimmie's 70th birthday ( Volume 1 arrived ten years ago for the big six-oh). We've always been big fans of John Gorka , a fine songwriter who's been making fine albums for more than two decades, and his ability to lay a song out simply but with his own personal spin makes tackling a classic like "Just Like A Woman" [...]
Just ahead of the shopping holidays, Red House Records and Pieta Brown have announced a 180g vinyl version of her latest album One and All which was released on April 6th this year on CD. As I've pointed out earlier, this album and the previous EP Shimmer marks a sort of coming home for Pieta as Red House was the original label started with Greg Brown , and is also where The Pines have been for the last two albums. [...]
The July 13 Red Horse project comes to us from three major voices in contemporary American acoustic songwriting: Eliza Gilkyson, John Gorka and Lucy Kaplansky, artists who record for the noted folk and roots label Red House and who have worked together in the past (both Gilkyson and Kaplansky made guest appearances on Gorka's 2009 album So Dark You See ). During plans for a tour together earlier this year they saw an opportunity to expand their creative synergy in the studio as well and Red Horse was born. "If I had to use only one word [...]
"I always wished I could paint, but I really can't. My sisters Constie and Zoe got that gene. So, I made a painting here- of one kind." - Pieta before a live performance of "Over You" I'm awoken by the flash and rumbles of the first spring storm. 5:55 AM floods into my retinas rinsing recent dreams into faint images. In my head there's music- like every morning- a score played over the final scenes of my sleeping film I'll soon forget. I roll on to my back and look at the [...]
One-third of the excellent roots/folk trio The Wailin' Jennys, Ruth Moody now steps out on her own with The Garden (April 20, Red House), an extraordinary, intimate collection of twelve modern acoustic Americana songs. While Moody has contributed to the Jennys' collective repertoire and released an EP of original material in 2002, The Garden is her full-length debut -- and one that makes us ask "what took you so long?" Produced by David Travers-Smith (Jane Siberry, Ani DeFranco). the album is also the perfect bookend to fellow Wailin' Jenny Heather Masse's lovely Bird [...]
If you follow my blog with any regularity, you know that I follow the Eastern Iowa music scene fairly closely- especially its rich folk and blues tradition. One of the guys who has been around Iowa City for a while and has established a kind of legendary career is Dave Moore . Moore's music career starts in the early 80's in Iowa City hooking up with Greg Brown- supporting him on tour, recording and his frequent visits to Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion radio show. In 1984 he won a blues and folk festival contest which [...]
This week we have been treated to some news about Pieta Brown's follow up to her Shimmer EP from the folks at Red House Records. Pieta's new album and first full-length for her new label home, titled One & All will be released on April 6th! Co-produced by Pieta and Bo Ramsey the record is a culmination of material she's been performing live since the release of her last full-length Remember The Sun which came out in 2007. She started performing "Calling All Angels" during that solo tour, and I [...]
It's not surprising that Pieta Brown points to the connection of her terrestrial surroundings -- a sense of physical roots -- with the music that she creates. "I think land and music are almost one and the same. You're born, and you're part land and part beat," she says. "There's no way to separate those things." For Brown, a child of the American plains (and noted folk icon Greg Brown), the large open stretches and dusty roads that were the backdrop growing up imbue her songs with a spaciousness, a casual and unhurried ease that sits between the [...]
Benson Ramsey and David Huckfelt are collectively known as the roots-folk group The Pines . Based in the Twin Cities and on the Twin Cities label Red House Records, Benson and David are part of the newest generation of the Eastern Iowa sound started by Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey (who is Benson's dad) among others. In September The Pines released their third album Tremolo - which is their second album on Red House. I picked up Tremolo when it came out and have been listening to it pretty regularly. I feel that as much [...]
The folk duo are playing a CD-release show this weekend.
When I saw Bo Ramsey and the Mystery Lights at the Mill back in May, Pieta was kind of hanging back in the shadows of the dark bar and helping her sister sell some Bo Ramsey merchandise. After the show was over I took the opportunity to ask her about her record label situation. After being signed to One Little Indian for her last album, the brilliant Remember the Sun from 2007 the follow-up Flight Time EP was released on T-Records, which incidentally is the label she used to release her 2003 EP [...]
Somewhere at the intersection of roots, blues, Americana and the dark, raw side of indie rock you'll find the music of acclaimed Minneapolis duo David Huckfelt and Benson Ramsey of The Pines . On their August 11 third album Tremolo (Red House) - and first since 2007's critically praised Sparrows in the Bell - Huckfelt and Ramsey pull off the notable feat of sounding both dust-bowl traditional and cutting-edge contemporary, similar in many ways to the more recent works of fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan. [...]
The outdoor concert will feature the Pines, Pieta Brown, Ray Bonneville, and more.
Direct Current
Time to play b-sides
City Pages - Gimme Noise
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Hudson Mohawke - Valentines Slowjams Chapter V [DJ Mix]
