Blue Skies For Black Hearts drops their first single “It’s Gone On Too Long” FOR FREE and releases the video never seen before RIGHT NOW.

“It's Gone On Too Long” was inspired by the songwriting of Smokey Robinson.  It was written around the idea of having call and response vocals between the lead and backups.  The video was born out of an idea that Kevin Hanzlik, the director, had about showing the day to day struggles of being in a band - getting your gear to a show, having an unenthusiastic audience, struggles between band members.  Kevin's story was similar in some ways to a short story I had written a year or two earlier.  I showed Kevin my short story about a group of musicians working a day job as painters.  They paint a house for a musician who has had some success but they end up not finishing the painting because of being distracted by the instruments in the house.  Eventually, the painters take on the successful musician's instruments.  They flourish while the home owner's creativity and abilities whither.  In my story, once the painters are successful, another musician comes along and plays the instruments they acquired, stealing their success.  Kevin combined both of our ideas into the video for It's Gone On Too Long.  Blue Skies engineer, Mark Brachmann, plays the record producer.  Chip Mabry, esteemed documentary producer, plays the record exec. And Peter Hughes, guitarist for Sons of Huns, plays the OSPIRG volunteer who steels the musical talent in the end from The Painters. – Pat Kearns

CD REVIEW: Leo Welch - "Sabougla Voices"

Leo Welch - Sabougla Voices
Release Date: January 7, 2014                                 

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Stars

Label: Fat Possum Records/Big Legal Mess

Gospel Blues Debut Album by 81 year old Mississippian Leo Welch. The story of his discovery is amazing. The music is special. The album is one of this year’s best, among all genre's, exceeding all expectations.

The phone rings at the Oxford, Miss.-based label Big Legal Mess. An intern tells the caller, “Oh, we don’t really do blues here anymore.” One of the company’s principals overhears this and grabs the phone. On the other end of the line is one 81-year-old Leo “Bud” Welch from Mississippi’s Calhoun County. He’d heard about the label that brought you Junior Kimbrough’s First Recordings, Jack Oblivian, Reverend John Wilkins, Water Lairs and Bishop Manning and the Manning Family, and he wanted to know if there’d be interest in recording his debut album of downhome gospel and blues. It was then that Big Legal Mess’s Bruce Watson invited him to come to the office and play a few tunes. He was signed on the spot…as the story has it.

Even after further research into Gospel, I'll be the first to say, my roots are not in Gospel. I've been touched by Gospel singers and music, but not brought up with it. However, my roots are indeed in soul. No I'm not referring to soul music, but the human soul. Leo Welch's Sabougla Voices touched my soul.

This album is authentic, sincere, and poetic. Lyrically he speaks everything you would expect to hear in a church. Musically, well I guess you'd expect to hear it in a church too, but let me tie this into modern music. I see Leo Welch finding a home in today's music space and playing to all ages including the "hipsters.” Musically, Track #1 "Praise His Name" hooked me immediately with its rock n' roll blues vibes and #7 "Somebody Touched Me" is a dancy gospel jam with sweet and sincere female backing harmonies. 

I put this in between Worldly African artist Bombino, blind Mali couple Amadou and Mariam, and gospel feel of Mavis Staples (yes I know they are different genders; that's not the point though, it's a musical comparison). I hear Dan Auerbach's guitar riffs layered in there. They aren't, but they could be.

This album is perfect for fans of Blues, Gospel, Americana, Rock n’ Roll, World music, and Soul...both Soul's...your soul and soul music. He closes the album with "The Lord Will Make A Way". It sums up the album. A miracle brought Leo Welch and Fat Possum together 81 years later, and we get to feel it!

~ Michael Ari

BUY at: http://www.amazon.com/Sabougla-Voices-Leo-Welch/dp/B00GHO302S
http://www.fatpossum.com
http://biglegalmessrecords.com/leo-welch-sabougla-voices-out-january-7th/

CD REVIEW: Tiger Darrow's new record, Aqua Vitae w/free MP3

Just shy of 21, Tiger Darrow’s career has already woven a fabric more intricate and interesting than that of artists who have many years on her. Most notably, Tiger opened for The Eagles, Edie Brickell, Erykah Badu, Loudon Wainwright, Zoe Keating, and Michelle Shocked, as well as composing for the Robert Rodriguez film, Machete.  She is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, and singer/songwriter. Her third full-length album, Aqua Vitae, just came out a week ago.

There is no one box that could hold Tiger Darrow’s Aqua Vitae. The record feels like multiple genres cohesively combined, though Tiger herself considers her genre to be “alternative folk” music. With a similar sound and feel to ladies like Cara Salimando, Regina Spektor, and St. Vincent, Tiger’s personal style and voice come through clear and strong. Aqua Vitae makes it clear that Tiger has a gift for building a song. Her lyrics are visually stimulating and her varied vocals make them fantastically, audibly interesting too. Her vocals range from ethereal and tenuous, to powerful and precise, all of which can be heard layered within single songs.

There are a few stand out tracks on Aqua Vitae: "Lost and Found" bounces and flows charmingly, with a chorus that backs up its claim with a powerful drum beat. "Love Me Blind" adds a welcome harder and darker shade to the record, while “Home” is a simply just a beautifully poetic story you can’t refuse. Tiger is definitely onto something. With three albums and a world of experience under her belt already, it’ll be really interesting to see what’s next…

By Anna Leuning

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http://www.tigerdarrow.com       

Tiger Darrow twitter   

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Music: The Hague's "Everyone" — Song of the Day

Via Alyssa Coluccio 

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Portland, OR quartet The Hague are churning out smart, indie-rock that pays tribute to the classics while remaining true to their own agenda. Take "Everyone," the first single off their forthcoming new album Black Rabbit, which fuses jangling indie instrumentation with orchestral flair, creating an incredible blend of crashing guitars and violins. Continuing the momentum of contrasts is singer/guitarist Shawn Stevens' heartsick vocals mingling with bright melodies, and heavy lyrics masked by a dominantly heart-surging sound. It's not unlike these guys to play with sounds, though.

As bass player Charlie Fisher said, "Our songs are all over the place... We have grungy post rock, up tempo dance songs, pop punk and alt. country songs. We're likely to include anything that comes to mind when we're playing."

Give "Everyone" a spin, grab it as a free download for a limited time, and be ready for Black Rabbit's release on August 7.

http://www.purevolume.com/news/The-Hague-New-Single-Everyone-Free-Download

free mp3 from 6 xo artists!

grab them here:
 http://www.xopublicity.com/xofreesingles.html

Free and Legal MP#: Sophei Barker (downtempo loveliness)

“Say Goodbye” – Sophie Barker

Sophie Barker is not a name you’re likely to recognize but you may well recognize her voice—she sang a number of songs fronting the musical outfit Zero 7, which helped popularize the so-called downtempo (or chillout, or downbeat) genre early in the millennium. (She co-wrote and sang, for one, the widely-heard song “In The Waiting Line.”) Personally, I never warmed to Zero 7, and I think it was because of my irrational prejudice against “producer music.” Zero 7 was/is the brainchild of two British producer/remixer types, and to me that eliminates the main thing I get out of music, which is a sense of personal connection to a musician who is playing an instrument and/or singing a song. This is just me, I will note. You are entitled and even encouraged to feel otherwise.

Anyway, so if Sophie Barker now comes along with a similarly chilled-out sound but is singing and performing her own material, rather than as a hired hand on a musical “project,” I find my heart much more open to it than I was to her Zero 7 performances. “Say Goodbye” weaves a knowing spell, breaking no new territory but doing what it does with great bittersweet panache. (New territory, as I’ve said many times, is way overrated.) Barker has a lovely voice, at once plainspoken and rich, with a thrilling upper register that she unleashes largely in the chorus (although don’t miss how she sometimes flits into it briefly, as for instance when she sings the words “Will you” in the line “Will you be standing by me?” at 0:45). With its offhand melodies and melancholy bursts of harmony, “Say Goodbye” shimmers with feeling, and, to me, shows the potential power of this kind of composition when sung truly from the heart.

“Say Goodbye” is from the album Seagull, Barker’s third solo album, released last year in the UK. She is currently playing in the US. No word yet on whether the album is slated for a US release, but the promotional MP3 suggests something might be in the works. Thanks to Largehearted Boy for the lead.