Shaun Davey & Rita Connolly - Granuaile - Ripples In The Rockpools

Granuaile is a song suite composed by Shaun Davey in 1985-87 for singer Rita Connolly and a frontline of uilleann pipes, harp, guitar, piano and percussion, with  single woodwind, horn, trumpet, timpani and strings. The songs portray episodes in the life of one of Ireland's most celebrated and courageous women, Grace O'Malley (Gráinne Ó Mháille), chieftain of a powerful, seafaring clan with extensive territories in Mayo and Galway. Her life is associated with resistance to Elizabethan invasion and plantation of Ireland in the 16th century. Towards the end of her life she famously sailed to meet, and confront, Queen Elizabeth the 1st at Greenwich Palace. 'Granuaile' made its public debut at the Lorient Interceltic Festival in 1986, it was performed and filmed at the Greenwich Festival, London, in 1987, and the next year toured with the RTECO to London's Albert Hall. A regular companion piece to The Brendan Voyage in Shaun Davey concerts, Granuaile continued Davey's unique collaborations between musicians of aural and classical traditions. The songs tell of Grace's loves and battles; it is intimate, expansive and sometimes explosive. A powerful historic event is explored in the song which describes the wrecking of the Spanish Armada along the west coast of Ireland in 1588, a desolation Grace O'Malley may herself have witnessed. It also includes what became possibly Davey's best-known song, with its distinctive shifting time signatures - 'Ripples in the Rockpools' and also one of his most beautiful - the heartrending 'The death of Richard-in Iron'.  From: https://shaundaveymusic.com/granuaile

Andy Pratt - Avenging Annie

There has to be a better category for the enigmatic Andy Pratt other than “one hit wonder.” The song he is best known for appeared like a comet on the pop music horizon in 1973, bristling with the buzz and excellence of a new discovery. “Avenging Annie” is a power ballad on the level of the kinds of things Elton John was producing at that time, alongside Yes and the Bob Welch era Fleetwood Mac. Annie’s time in the spotlight was brief if you only listen for chart positions splash. Yet there is something about this song that packs a wallop, not only of memory but of deliverance as we drop the needle a half century away from this magnificent obscurity.
The saga of Andy Pratt began with a self titled album in 1973, and progressed through one called Resolution in 1976 that Rolling Stone said “has forever changed the face of rock.” After that, he pretty much disappeared, but it wasn’t for lack of being unique.  He was educated at Harvard, attended Boston’s Life Institute, converted to Christianity, married a Dutch woman in 1988, and moved to Belgium in 1996, where he lives today. He says his best wish is for his music to offer inner healing. Just another famous Annie. American sharpshooter Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) had nothing to do with Avenging Annie. But her nickname was “Little Sureshot.”
“I wrote ‘Avenging Annie’ in the summer of 1972 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at my mother's 1926 Steinway B Baby Grand piano. I had broken up with my first wife... I was stoned on marijuana. On my turntable was the The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, in particular the Woody Guthrie song "Pretty Boy Floyd." You can clearly hear that the first part of "Avenging Annie" is an altered version of "Pretty Boy Floyd." I shut off the record and began playing "Pretty Boy Floyd." I was going into a creative trance, and I altered Woody's words, then out came a Bach-like piano riff which I liked, so I began singing to it in falsetto, taking the part of a woman I called Avenging Annie. A whole story came out, which was a fantasy version of my relationship with my ex-wife, combined with the outlaw theme of the American West. I worked on the song for a few weeks and played it for other people who liked it. I made a demo with Rick Shlosser and Bill Riseman, which became a hit at Brown University Radio WBRU. This new fame led to me being whisked away by John Nagy of Earth Opera, Clive Davis of Columbia Records, and Nat Weiss of The Beatles, being wined and dined in New York City and given star treatment at the famous Black Rock on 6th Avenue.
Once recorded and released on Columbia, ‘Avenging Annie’ took on a life of its own, which has never really stopped. My version was given extensive radio play, became a number one single in New Orleans and Providence, and reached about number eighty-five in the national charts. I did a successful tour of the East Coast, where Jimmy Buffet opened for me at Max's Kansas City, an Andy Pratt show was broadcast from Boston's Jazz Workshop over WBCN radio, and many other wonderful things happened. The Andy Pratt record, with ‘Avenging Annie’ is still available on various web sites, including www.amazon.com.
Roger Daltrey covered "Avenging Annie" in 1974, and his version appeared first on his One of the Boys album as well as other collections he released. My opinion of his version is that he was afraid to play the role of a woman in the song, and his band did not play the syncopations that we played in our version. I prefer my version. Still, I am grateful for his recognition of the song, and the added exposure that he helped me to gain.” —Andy Pratt, Sept 6, 2006.  From: https://professormikey.substack.com/p/old-school-single-avenging-annie

Far From Alaska - Deadmen

Far From Alaska formed in Natal (a city in the Brazilian Nordeste region) in 2012. Currently based in São Paulo, the band played at major festivals such as Planeta Terra and Lollapalooza in Brazil, SXSW in the United States and the French version of Download Festival. They recorded an EP (Stereochrome) and an album (ModeHuman, which has a great cover). Their upcoming second album (Unlikely, whose songs will feature titles with animal names), is due out in 2017, backed by a crowdfunding campaign.
Far From Alaska is: singer Emmily Barreto, guitar player Rafael Brasil, bass player Eduardo Filgueira, drummer Lauro Kirsch and keyboardist Cris Botarelli, who also sings and plays slide guitar. The band’s sound can be defined as stoner rock and their heavy, atmospheric and riff-based songs are sung in English.
I’d gotten a good seat in the theater, right in front of the stage, a great place to enjoy the show and take good pictures. My good fortune, however, was short-lived. Before starting to sing, Emmily Barreto called the audience to the front of the stage — if I wanted to shoot, I‘d must be in the middle of the crowd. That was ok because I was able to walk free throughout the theater and shoot the band from various angles. Their sound doesn’t call for a sitting audience, by the way.
Far From Alaska is a very tight band. The heavier parts are felt like a wall of sound by the audience thanks to the precision with which each member plays their parts. Rafael and Eduardo put good use to a lot of effects on guitar and bass. The interaction between them and Lauro Kirsch is great, which ensures that the dynamics variations have the intended impact.
They opened with “Thievery”, which was followed by more songs from ModeHuman, plus two songs from the upcoming second album. Emmily’s voice was what caught my attention when I first heard the band live, a few months ago. She travels easily between the melodious and soft singing and the aggressive moments in which the song demands more vocal power.
This concert showed me how keyboardist Cris Botarelli is also a good guitarist. Playing a lap steel next to his little synth, Cris showed good technique and a great taste for melodies on this instrument that isn’t commonly heard in heavy bands. “Politiks” is a good example of this cool mix.
I sometimes face with a certain distrust Brazilian bands that sing in English, especially if their members are very young - the risk of finding only half-baked cliches is always a possibility. Far From Alaska isn’t one of those cases, though. The quality of the compositions and arrangements shows that they still have a lot to offer.  From: https://medium.com/brazilian-stages/far-from-alaska-17b0ea93e36a

The Vespers - Live at The Station Inn

 The Vespers - Live at The Station Inn - Part 1

 The Vespers - Live at The Station Inn - Part 2

 

Join the fun December 12th at 1PM CDT when Nashville’s The Vespers visit the DittyTV Studios to perform. A band comprised of two pairs of siblings [the Cryar sisters and Jones brothers], The Vespers combine Americana roots with pop melody and rock & roll muscle that’ll have you humming in your favorite key right on in to 2015. Check out their single ‘Sisters and Brothers’ (via Paste Magazine).
Natives of Nashville, Tennessee, the Vespers began making their own kind of rootsy, southern stomp in 2009, throwing themselves into a music scene that was rich in history and high in competition. Playing as many as 115 shows a year and selling more than 10,000 copies of their second album, The Fourth Wall (2012), The Vespers found themselves at a crossroads. They could make another album of bluegrass-influenced folk music — a genre that had grown quite popular since the group’s early days — or they could throw some newer influences into the mix.
“We wanted to make a new sound, something people hadn’t heard from us before, and Sisters and Brothers came out of that desire,” says Phoebe Cryar. Over five years, the Cryars’ and Jones’ had laughed, fought, cried, smiled, learned about life and played their hearts out. Without the influence of a label or an A&R team, they’d learned to rely on each other, trusting few outside influences apart from the support of their own fans. Those fans had helped The Vespers through the hardest of times, becoming not only the band’s supporters, but their family, as well. The time had come for the Vespers to make an album birthed from the ups and downs of traveling in a band, an album that focused on the great things that can happen with the support of your literal and figurative sisters and brothers. The Vespers didn’t abandon their old sound for Sisters and Brothers; they just expanded it.
“Phoebe and I were fresh out of high school when we started the band,” Callie Cryar adds, thinking back to the days when they were teenagers working the 5 a.m. shift at a Nashville donut shop. “You’re never more vulnerable or unconfident than you are at that time. But in the years leading up this album, we all became more comfortable with each other, with our emotions, with ourselves. We became adults, and we started delving into some of the emotions that we wanted to make people feel. People want to feel when they listen. They want to feel something intense, and that’s the kind of album we hoped to record.”
Looking for the right collaborator to help them evolve, The Vespers turned to Paul Moak, a Grammy-nominated producer and accomplished songwriter who operates his own recording studio, Smoakstack, in south Nashville. Moak pushed the musicians to create music that was raw and real instead of polished and perfect. The goal wasn’t to sound flawless. It was to find imperfect performances that captured a genuine moment, performances that raised the hair on everybody’s arms. If a take didn’t evoke that sort of response, it was scrapped.
“We used to record our vocals over and over, separately, until every single note was perfectly correct,” Callie remembers. “But Sisters and Brothers was completely different. We wanted it to be raw. We realized there was more attitude and more emotion whenever Phoebe and I sang together, even with that slight element of imperfection.”
“Every time you make a record, you’re summing up where you’ve been for the last few years,” says Bruno Jones. “Our band went through some challenges in those years, but we also went through a lot of growth, both onstage and off. We came out of it and realized we still cared about each other.” Bruno adds, “Sisters and Brothers is a rallying cry for the band.” Indeed, Sisters and Brothers does feel like a battle cry. It’s an album about beating the system, banding together, taking care of those around you and focusing on what really counts.  From: https://dittytv.com/vespers-dittytv/

 

 

Uni and The Urchins - Clean

The course of history often seems wayward and chaotic. It’s the gum on the heel of your shoe that a homeless saint picks off and plops in his mouth to chew again. Uni and The Urchins grow underneath your fingernails when you sit next to your parents in Church, digging them into the soft flesh above your knee.
Uni and The Urchins dribble from the mouths of sidewalk sleeping drunks and slither into the throat of a politician to make him cough and loosen his tie. Uni and The Urchins were there during your first masturbation and first confession. Uni and The Urchins wake you up in the middle of the night. Parents of America, a new phenomenon has taken over our youth. Uni and The Urchins wage war on the apathy and digital narcissism of 1st world ignorance.  
It is a cult of one, a cult of infinity. Jack James is the voice, a slender boy from Texas with a penchant for glitter and Oscar Wilde, who came down from another planet to be the rock star of the future. David Strange is the sword, a grisled poet and carpenter who can build anything, writing sonnets and summoning demons on his guitar. Kemp is the brain, a crazed scientist who composes prog riffs and surrealist visuals, leading the three into the great abyss. But you are the hands. Go spread the message.  From: https://www.chimeramusic.com/artists/uni

Orchestra Of Spheres - 2,000,000 Years

Orchestra of Spheres is a wide-ranging collective from Wellington, New Zealand whose distinctive music crosses from disco and electro to kuduro and mbalax, from neo-psych to no wave, from kosmiche to prog, on instruments both formal and homemade.
The group’s members adopt outlandish pseudonyms and don equally far-out costumes, and their performances and recordings consist of ecstatic sonic rituals and peaceful, playful dance mantras. Making their full-length debut with ‘Nonagonic Now’ in 2010, the Orchestra continued to shift styles and group members on subsequent releases, including 2016’s ‘Brothers and Sisters of the Black Lagoon’ and 2018’s ‘Mirror’.
The group formed in the early, heady days of Wellington’s artist collective, the Frederick Street Sound and Light Exploration Society, in 2009. Early members included Baba Rossa (biscuit-tin guitar and sexomouse marimba), Zye Sosceles (electric carillon), Jemi Hemi Mandala (drums), and Mos Iocoss (keyboards and gamelan).
Their self-released debut EP, ‘Space Art Music’, appeared that same year, followed by the full-length ‘Nonagonic Now’ in 2010. ‘The Bad Spheres’ single appeared in March of 2011, and the‘Numbers‘ EP in June. Meanwhile, the U.K.’s Fire Records signed the group and re-released ‘Nonagonic Now’ later in the year. An intense and prolonged period of touring and recording ensued, during which time EtonalE joined on bass carillon and percussion. Fire released ‘Vibration Animal Sex Brain Music’ in December of 2013.
The group returned with its third album, ‘Brothers and Sisters of the Black Lagoon’, in 2016. The album featured drumming by Tooth, and Woild Boin also mixed and contributed to the recording. Along with percussionist Farmerboy and several guest musicians, Orchestra of Spheres recorded their fourth full-length, ‘Mirror’, and Fire released it in 2018.  From: https://www.firerecords.com/artists/orchestra-of-spheres/

Sundowners - Hummingbird

How do you all know each other, and when did you get started as a band?

Me and Niamh [Rowe, also vocals and rhythm guitar] have been mates for years – she showed me how to play guitar and I encouraged her to sing, so we started playing together doing covers at small gigs and that’s mostly where we found our style and learnt hamonies. Alfie [Skelly, lead guitar] saw us playing and he wanted a singer for his band at the time, so we went into practice and jammed “Run Away” by Del Shannon for about an hour. He never officially asked us to join but we just kept showing up. For a while we had another drummer and bass player who went on to play in other bands, and that’s when Tim an Jim joined. We’ve all been playing together now for just over a year.

How would you describe your music, if pushed?

Well i’d say there’s a definite influence of ’60s/’70s rock and roll but individually we’re all into lots of other eras and genres that come through. I mean we get the obvious ones like The Byrds but have also had a lot of people say some of the songs are like Blondie.

Who or what are your primary inspirations for music-making?

The Beatles as a band and solo artists, Tom Petty, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen and Oasis.

Where can we hear your music?

On our Facebook page, our SoundCloud and our MySpace. We also have some videos on YouTube. We’ve just recorded in Parr Street (Liverpool) our new single “Humming Bird”, to be released with a B-side, so listen out for that!

Which have been your most exciting gigs so far?

We played a great gig supporting Cat’s Eyes in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London but a close second has to be York – we played some dive and went down a storm with a load of students. We always enjoy supporting The Moons.

Got any more big gigs or festival dates coming up?

There’s no festivals planned this year but there’s plenty of gigs always popping up, mostly in Liverpool, Manchester and London. You can find out dates on the events page on our Facebook.

Are there any other up-and-coming acts that you’d like to recommend or give a shout-out to?

The Moons, Neville Skelly, By The Sea, Ren Harvieu, Cold Shoulder and The Sand Band. Also love Paul Weller’s new record!

From: https://rocksucker.co.uk/2012/05/interview-sundowners.html