 special offers |
Patty Larkin was featured on NPR, discussing "25" (out now!) Read the article and listen to the story here!
Discover Newgrass sensations Joy Kills Sorrow! Their excellent Signature Debut Darkness Sure Becomes This City is on sale now!
Patty Larkin's Stunning new CD 25 available now!
 |
Anais Mitchell
"And the big horns blowed and the pianos played/And the music rose to the old mans ears/I guess those were the olden days/I guess those were the golden years, sings Anaïs Mitchell on her new record The Brightness. This earnest nostalgia trip says a lot about the kind of art that this Vermont native has been creating since entering the underground folk scene in 2002. At a time when the music industry is playing the role of the slickest of defense attorneys, using flash and dazzle campaigns to distract us from the fact that their clients are terrible, Mitchell is an artist who grew up on a sheep farm. She makes small-sounding, big-thinking folk albums that play like a front-porch serenade. If she feels in a bit of a time warp, you cant blame her.
|
|
|
|
Crooked Still
Crooked Still became a quartet for this new album, adding fiddler Brittany Haas and cellist/fiddler Tristan Clarridge. If the first album from the new line-up is any indication, success for this young band will be explosive. Crooked Still continues to perform one of the most compelling forms of alternative bluegrass and string band music today.
|
|
 |
Green River Festival Tickets
Signature Sounds will be celebrating 15 years with a special evening on Friday, July 17th at the Green River Festival at Greenfield Community College in Greenfield, MA. For this special event 15 of our artists will be performing on 2 stages with some surprise collaborations and special guests. Here are the confirmed performers:
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem ~ Chris Smither ~ Eilen Jewell ~ Crooked Still ~ Richard Shindell ~ Winterpills ~ Mark Erelli ~ Kris Delmhorst ~ Jeffrey Foucault ~ The Sacred Shakers ~ Tracy Grammer & Jim Henry ~ Peter Mulvey ~ Sometymes Why ~ Caroline Herring ~ The Sweetback Sisters
In addition to the music there are hot air balloons with a balloon glow at dusk, children's activities, craft vendors and food from the area's best restaurants.
|
|
|
|
Joy Kills Sorrow
With its bold new brand of acoustic music, Joy Kills Sorrow pushes right through the envelope and out the other side. The Boston-based string band brings a decidedly modern sensibility to an old-world sound, channeling the prodigious talents of its individual members into elegant arrangements and well-crafted songs. While the group pays due homage to its Bluegrass roots-its name refers to one of the first radio stations to broadcast the music of Bill Monroe-the band truly excels in its rich and textured treatment of more contemporary material. Boasting a full arsenal of original songs, Joy Kills Sorrow plumbs the entire spectrum of its spare instrumentation, effortlessly merging influences as diverse as folk, rock, pop, and jazz. The songs that emerge are dark and often funny, ruminating on modern life and love with eloquence and wit. The result is a radical new strain of folk music, one that bravely breaks with tradition even as it salutes the past. Welcome Joy Kills Sorrow!
|
|
|
|
Patty Larkin
Patty Larkin is part of the urban-folk/pop music phenomenon that spun off of the singer/songwriter explosion of the seventies, reinterpreting traditional folk melodies, rock, pop, bossa nova, drawing on anything from Dylan (Bob) to Dylan (Thomas). A self described guitar driven songwriter, Larkin has wound her way through soundscapes of evocative vocals, inventive guitar wizardry and imaginative lyrics. Her songs run from impressionistic poetry to witty wordplay.
|
|
 |
Sam Baker
With his raspy, almost spoken word vocal style and his literate, poignant, and carefully observed songs that grapple with the beauties, complexities, and little tragedies of this world, Sam Baker has much in common with other Texan songwriters like Robert Earl Keen, James McMurtry, Townes Van Zandt, and Guy Clark, although his approach to narrative probably comes closest to an artist like John Prine. Baker grew up in Itasca, TX, a prairie town southwest of Dallas and Fort Worth on Interstate 35. He was exposed to a wide array of music as a child (his mother was a local church organist), not the least of which was his father's collection of country blues artists. The defining moment in Baker's life came in 1986 when he was traveling on a train to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. A terrorist bomb exploded on the train and Baker was gravely injured, losing most of his hearing and suffering serious injuries to his left arm. He had 18 corrective surgeries performed on him over the next decade at hospitals in San Antonio and Houston, and the consequent physical, emotional, and spiritual journey Baker experienced helped him form his quiet and passionate view of the world. Baker had to completely relearn how to play the guitar with his mangled left hand, and singing was extremely difficult for him because of his severe hearing loss, but he overcame these obstacles to develop his uniquely hushed and quietly powerful performance style. Baker has self-released two critically acclaimed albums, 2004's Mercy and 2007's Pretty World.
|
|
 |
The David Wax Museum
David Wax's circuitous journey to and from the back roads of Mexico has inspired The David Wax Museums lively fusion of traditional Mexican and American folk music. With its heart-wrenching harmonies, poignant lyrics, and rooted Americana sound, this talented Boston-based quartet has quickly won over audiences across New England. The David Wax Museums exuberant Mexo-Americana songs bring audiences to their feet with Latin rhythms, call-and-response hollering, and donkey jawbone rattling.
|
|
|
|
The Sacred Shakers
For The Sacred Shakers, there's nothing finer than old-time, country and blues-influenced gospel music. Think Hank Williams, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Beginning in 2005, that music drew a small but ever-widening circle of some of Boston's finest musicians and vocalists together at the Country Gospel Brunch concert series. In short order, The Boston Globe described the group as "a local Who's Who of all-star roots musicians." And last summer, after hearing a single live performance by The Sacred Shakers, indie Signature Sounds label owner Jim Olsen encouraged the group to record their repertoire. On their eponymous debut, The Sacred Shakers offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that inspires them.
|
|
|
|
Eilen Jewell
Boise-born and Boston-based, Eilen Jewell has quickly distinguished herself as one of the rising stars of a new generation of roots musicians. Her first two albums, Boundary County (self-released, 2006) and Letters from Sinners and Strangers (Signature Sounds, 2007) were astonishingly assured efforts, which matched Jewell's understated yet insightful songs with a rugged blend of Americana styles. They were met with a great deal of acclaim, with No Depression raving Jewell is showing she can wander with the best of them, and write riveting song-stories about her adventures along the way. Indicative of Jewell's strong following in Europe, The Word in the U.K. described her as A voice of real distinction [that] manages to transcend some powerful influences and pierce the fog long enough for her own point of view to emerge.
|
|
|
|
Jeffrey Foucault
Since the 2001 release of his critically acclaimed debut, Miles from the Lightning, Wisconsin native Jeffrey Foucault has built an independent career touring extensively in the United States, Canada, and the UK. His 2006 release, Ghost Repeater garnered praise from publications such as The New Yorker, No Depression, MOJO, The Chicago-Sun Times, and The Irish Times. Jeffrey's repertoire is pure Americana poetry, a mix of country blues, country, and folk music that the Boston Globe noted for its "rolling, reflective ballads [that] shimmer with blue shade, everyday images, and the quiet strength of hard-earned wisdom."
|
|
|
| Carpenter Bird
David Wax's circuitous journey to and from the back roads of Mexico has inspired The David Wax Museum's lively fusion of traditional Mexican and American folk music. With its heart-wrenching harmonies, poignant lyrics, and rooted Americana sound, this talented Boston-based quartet has quickly won over audiences across New England. The David Wax Museum's exuberant Mexo-Americana songs bring audiences to their feet with Latin rhythms, call-and-response hollering, and donkey jawbone rattling.
|
|
 | Darkness Sure Becomes This City
Joy Kills Sorrow's Signature debut Darkness Sure Becomes This City was produced by Eric Merrill and features a wealth of original material from members of band as well as some fine new songs from other composers. Darkness Sure Becomes This City is an accomplished piece of work, laced throughout with polished arrangements and pop-inflected melodies. With it, Joy Kills Sorrow gracefully combines the old and the new, and the outcome, however surprising, is sublime.
|
|
 | Help For Haiti CD
On February 7th Signature Sounds Recording artists and Special Guests performed a Benefit Concert to raise funds for those affected by the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. We were joined by Pulitizer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder spoke about the current situation in Haiti and about the on-going work of the organization Partners In Health. Kidder chronicled the work of PIH in Haiti and of Dr. Paul Farmer in his book Mountains Beyond Mountains, a book that has quickly become the definitive text on health-care in Haiti. The benefit raised over $17,000 to be donated to Partners In Health.
If you weren't able to attend the show, you can still help. For this special benefit concert Signature Sounds created an exclusive collection of songs donated by our artists to help raise even more funds.100% of the proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to Partners In Health
|
|
 | Kitchen Radio
Kitchen Radio is the highly anticipated new album from celebrated singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey, and his first album of new material since 2000s The Trouble with Poets.
|
|
 | Time Stands Still
Four decades of music mastery and songwriting craft come together on Chris Smither's latest collection, Time Stands Still a gripping mix of originals and potent covers. The new collection puts the exclamation point on a legendary career that shows no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, this blues and folk superstar continues to build creative momentum. His latest effort features a slew of tunes stripped down to their essence, shining the spotlight on Smither's understated power as a songwriter one who taps into emotions at their most elemental and powerful core. It's a reminder why artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris and Diana Krall have mined Smither's catalog in the past.
|
|
 | Time Stands Still Sessions DVD
This exclusive DVD documents the making of Smither's new album with behind the scenes studio footage, live band performances and interviews with all of the musicians involved. It's a fascinating look at how an album is made from start to finish.
|
|
 | Chicken Ain't Chicken
This young group of stellar Brooklyn-based musicians performs an incredible array of traditional old-time & honky tonk rock music reminiscent of the 1940's & 50's. Complete with hot licks and sweet girl-on-girl harmonies, they're sure to warm the heart of all you modern day cowboys and girls. The Sweetback Sisters line-up features the lavish voices of Zara Bode and Emily Miller with an all-star cast of instrumentalists including: West Virginian triple threat Jesse Milnes; Stefan "da guns" Amidon on drums; Philly's stringed slayer Ross Bellenoit on rippin' Telecaster, and Bridget Kearny on bass.
With sold out concerts across the North East, a special guest appearance on A Prairie Home Companion and now the excellent debut album Chicken Ain't Chicken, these kids are off to an exciting start!
|
|
 | Cocktail Swing
After a decade as lead singer and fiddler for New England's beloved acoustic roots band Salamander Crossing, Rani Arbo steps to the forefront with this fun new project. COCKTAIL SWING is a collection of swing, jazz and country songs of the past that lend themselves to a jug band-cum Tom Waits sort of treatment. A great summer album!
|
|
 | Crooked Still Live
Crooked Still Live is the first ever live album by one of the hottest and most critically acclaimed bands in acoustic music. This album was recorded on tour in California, and features new band members Brittany Haas on fiddle and Tristan Clarridge on cello. It includes songs from the first three Crooked Still albums plus a previously unreleased song "The Golden Vanity".
|
|
 | Golden Apples Of The Sun
Caroline Herring's fourth album Golden Apples of the Sun is her most intimate and mature to date. Combing haunting originals with some surprising new takes on old standards, Herring has created an album that at once recalls the folk heyday of the 1960s and 70s while also sounding entirely fresh and new.
|
|
 | Hope & Other Casualties
Mark Erelli has establishing himself as one of the best young male singer/songwriters on the scene today. Hope and Other Casualties is an unapologetic and timeless collection of deeply personal and affecting songs, effortlessly moving from songs of love, politics, family, resignation, and redemption. Infused with heartfelt song-craft, invigorating tempos, and arresting melodies Erelli has crafted a near-perfect and career defining album.
|
|
 | Letters From A Flying Machine
"I like making records, reflects tireless songwriter Peter Mulvey," this discs is actually more like a live show than any record I have made. On Letters From a Flying Machine, Mulvey's articulate, inquisitive songcraft serves as a guide, leading the listener on a thoughtfully constructed journey in search of answers to some formidable existential questions and ending with, hopefully, a tiny but shining epiphany. Through the songs and stories on this album, I'm trying to figure out what actually lasts a long time, Mulvey explains. So it is set up to listen all the way through to take this voyage. I want the listener to hear the end of the album differently than they heard the beginning. It's a record that's actually about something. This is an old human statement, I know, but when all else has crumbled, love is the only thing that is real.
His twelfth album, Letters From a Flying Machine heralded a drastic change in Mulvey's process. Richly acoustic, with a hint of rustic clatter befitting the album's themes of antiquity, obsolescence, and progress, Letters From a Flying Machine puts Mulvey's nimble guitar front and center, framing it with contributions from several key associates. It's also the first Mulvey album to feature spoken word pieces, a long time staple of his live performances.
|
|
 | Sea of Tears
With Sea of Tears, Jewell and her longtime band of Jason Beek
(drums, harmony vocals), Jerry Miller (electric, acoustic, and steel
guitars), and Johnny Sciascia (upright bass) wed her elegantly unflinching songwriting with a rustic, pre-Beatles swagger that encapsulates vintage R&B, Midwestern garage rock, Chicago blues,
and early rock and rockabilly, while maintaining the haunting, folk-inspired purity that first made her an artist to watch.
|
|
|
| Sea Of Tears - Vinyl LP
Eilen Jewell's most recent release is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2009. It's now available on vinyl LP!
|
|
 | Tabletop People Vol. 1 & 2
Tabletop People Vol. 1 & 2 is an album full of songs for the whole family. Really! This band began as a weekly bar gig, but they now have fans of all ages. These first two albums were produced by Billy Conway (Morphine, Twinemen) and engineered by Tom Dube. Guest musicians on the new CD include Dennis Brennan, Chris Ballew (Presidents of the United States of America), Jennifer Kimball, Rose Polenzani, Merrie Amsterburg and Peter Linton, Asa Brebner, Laurie Sargent, Dan Keller, Tim Gearan, Jabe Beyer, Andrew Mazzone, Duke Levine, Eric Royer, and Billy Conway.
|
|
 | Your Heart is a Glorious Machine
They were songs that fell through the cracks - long forgotten, ignored, or locked away in some special place for a later use that may never come. These songs finally emerged as the basis of something new in 2004, when Kristin Andreassen (Uncle Earl), Ruth Ungar Merenda (the Mammals), and Aoife O'Donovan (Crooked Still) decided to begin performing together. By some unagreed-upon combination of coincidence, design, and accident - the trio took those secret songs and, via an arresting DIY debut album and a series of riveting live performances, gave birth to an underground sensation they called Sometymes Why.
|
|
 | Departure
They travel America in a large diesel van filled with drums, amps, an upright bass, fiddle, guitars and banjos. They have crafted a show that connects indie rock, bluegrass and alt. country in a very organic way. Fine song writing pulls these players to the front of the pack, and their bold arrangements risk the outer boundaries of sparseness and mayhem. Theres no question about it, The Mammals are one of the music exciting young bands in US.
The Mammals new album Departure is just that; a work that shows the band moving towards a completely unique sound. The rocking energy of fiddles and banjos has been augmented with electric guitar, keyboards and a heavy rhythm section. The songs are political in tone yet completely accessible.
|
|
 | Ghosts
Mark Geary's Ghosts is a strikingly fluid work, abounding with tranquil melodies and the type of understated playing that seems effortless. Geary's rich warble of a voice reveals years of romantic woe and astonishingly smart songwriting. Whether crooning a ballad or a gentle rocker, Geary invests in his songs an emotional throughness bordering on fanatical. Fans of Damien Rice, David Gray and Jeff Buckley will find a kindered spirit in Mark Geary.
|
|
 | Innocent When You Dream
Innocent When You Dream is Mark Erelli's sixth release, a collection of lullabies and love songs. It features hushed, still-of-the-night solo acoustic performances of originals and songs by Tom Waits, Wilco, Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt and many others. It makes a great gift for folks with new babies or young children, or for any fan of unvarnished acoustic music.
|
|
 | Lantana
Caroline Herring confidently returns to the forefront of the American roots music scene with her new album Lantana. The Mississippi-born, Atlanta-based singer/songwriter took the producing helm for the first time on the new record, co-producing with long-time collaborator Rich Brotherton (Robert Earl Keen).
Intimate, powerful and honest, Lantana is a masterpiece of understated intensity. Hear for yourself why fellow artist Dar Williams called Caroline Herring "the elusive 'real thing.'"
|
|
 | Leave The Light On
Chris Smither's Signature Sounds debut album, Leave the Light On (his second with producer David "Goody" Goodrich) features seven new songs as well as a few choice covers and arrangements of traditional songs. The album also features the young neo-gospel group Ollabelle, who bring a complementary loveliness to Smither's "Seems So Real" and additional resonance to the traditional "John Hardy." The renowned roots musician Tim O'Brien plays mandolin and fiddle all over the record, and also harmonizes with Smither, Sean Staples and Anita Suhanin on the lilting title track. Atypically, Chris tackles topical themes on "Origin of Species" (which he says is "making fun of dummies") and the edgily political "Diplomacy," which harkens back to his roots in the '60s folk scene. Also different this go round is Smither's bold and surprising decision to arrange Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" in 6/8 time (he credits his friend Steve Tilston for the suggestion) which results in a track of otherworldly beauty.
|
|
 | Letters From Sinners & Strangers
Once in a great while, you put on a CD by an artist you've never heard of before and time stops. The voice is new, yet timeless. The lyrics are all original yet feel immediately familiar, lived-in, knowing. And the melodies expertly performed by a first-rate band carry the easy groove.
This is the story of Eilen (rhymes with feelin') Jewell and her new album Letters From Sinners and Strangers, which promises to show the rest of the world what the buzz is about.
Jewell's achingly hushed style and intimate grasp of roots music's are revealed in the CD's provocative, melodic originals and timeless country and blues classics. Set to a swaying, irrepressible groove, the subdued emotion in her soft soprano feels like music straining beneath skin.
And the band evokes classic country, folk and swing without feeling nostalgic. Nothing about roots is retro in Eilen Jewell's universe.
|
|
 | Notes From Elsewhere
Peter Mulvey's latest album, Notes from Elsewhere is a retrospective collection of 17 of the very best songs Mulvey has written and performed over his 11 year recording career. Recorded solo in a studio, these are fresh takes on songs that have become fan and critic favorites over the years. While Mulvey's previous band-backed albums showcased the songs, these solo versions allow each song to shine on its own demonstrating Peter's strengths as a songwriter.
|
|
 | Redbird
REDBIRD is both the name of an album and a loose affiliation of three of our favorite songwriters KRIS DELMHORST, JEFFREY FOUCAULT, and PETER MULVEY. After spending 3 weeks touring the UK together a couple of years ago, they decided to make a record. In keeping with the spontaneous nature of their original sessions, they did it in a living room, around one microphone, in three days in August of 2003. What emerged is a love letter to the body of American song.. The bulk of the record speaks from the common tongue of music: traditional tunes, old jazz standards, country songs, and things that blur the line between those forms. There are a handful of songs by contemporary writers (Greg Brown, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits) who are well entangled in the great briar patch of this music.
|
|
 | Shaken By A Low Sound
Rock energy coexisting with old-time mountain soul. Spooky backwoods melodies combining with hip hard-hitting beats. Raw, searing blues riffs intermingling with high heavenly vocals. Sound good? Here's the catch: No electricity. No drums. Meet Crooked Still, the hot young alternative bluegrass group on a mission to bend the boundaries of traditional music. The unlikely combination of banjo, cello, and double bass drives this low lonesome band, whose soaring vocals and high-wire solos have enraptured audiences all over North America and Ireland since 2001.
|
|
 | Still Crooked
The new five-member version of Crooked Still converged to mingle their creative processes at Allaire Studios in upstate New York, with producer Eric Merrill for Still Crooked. The album balances unknown traditional material with three new tunes from the band, along with "Did You Sleep Well?" by fellow old time musician Nathan Taylor, and a Mississippi John Hurt standard. The entire album was recorded "live" in one big room, with everyone playing together. Merrill captured most songs in one or two takes. "I was outside in the hallway, because my voice is so quiet," O'Donovan says. "Recording live, you don't have an option to overdub; that always makes a better album."
|
|
 | The Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer Collection
The late Dave Carter will be remembered as one of the most remarkable songwriters of his generation. Along with his partner Tracy Grammer, Carter released three internationally-acclaimed albums that are considered classics in the folk community. The collection features all three of the original Carter/Grammer recordings plus the recently released final recording by the duo, Seven Is The Number.
|
|
 | The Light Divides
"...that sound -- that ice-filigreeing-the-bare-trees sound, cold and achingly beautiful -- is what sets this group apart....Downright glorious." Washington Post
|
|
 | When I Go
If this recording contained only the brooding and breathtaking epic title track, it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dave Carter was a songwriter with few peers. On ten classic songs, Carter's muse is embellished perfectly by Tracy Grammer's gorgeous harmonies, violin, and mandolin lines.
|
|
 | Winterpills
Northampton's Winterpills play haunting, delicate, dynamic. room-hushingly beautiful music with aching melodies and acid lyrics. Think Elliott Smith, Cat Stevens, Iron & Wine, and the Innocence Mission all get drunk and fall asleep in Joni Mitchell's backyard. One of the finest debut albums of 2005.
|
|
 | Big Old Life
Here is Big Old Life: twelve songs from a band that has learned to count its blessings. You could call it agnostic gospel. You could call it reverent (except when it's not). You could call it a foot-stompin' musical shout-out to the universe. You could call it a recording of four people playing songs they like, together, as they've done for the past seven years. Big Old Life is also everything Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem fans have always loved about the band: live energy, dry wit, great grooves, smart lyrics, and a wild ride through a blend of roots music styles, from blues to bluegrass to old-time, folk, funk, and swing.
|
|
 | Book of Sparrows
Book of Sparrows contains songs about the darker, more private sides of the human condition ~ sadness, loss, regret, but ultimately, hope in the face of heartbreak. Tracy plays acoustic guitars, mandola, banjo, and violin; Jim Henry adds Dobro, acoustic & electric guitars. Book of Sparrows has been gathering tons of support and airplay from Folk DJs across the country; hear for yourself why it was the #3 most-played album on Folk Radio in 2007!
|
|
 | Flower Of Avalon
Tracy Grammer and her late partner Dave Carter were one of the most celebrated young acts in folk music. In just four years they released three critically-acclaimed albums, toured with Joan Baez and earned a solid following with their indelible live performances at festivals and venues all across North America. Despite Carter's sudden death in July 2002, Grammer's career as an interpreter and instrumentalist continues. "With the release of Flower Of Avalon, Tracy Grammer begins a new story while continuing to champion the songs of her former partner. While the album features 9 brilliant previously unheard Dave Carter songs, the spotlight is clearly on the gorgeous vocals and instrumental prowess of Tracy Grammer.
|
|
 | Little Fugitive
Renowned songwriter Amy Rigby's fifth album finds the singer bringing it all back home. Hailed for her keen eye and sharp wit in tracing the vagaries and victories of modern romance, her new Signature Sounds release finds Rigby promising "I Don't Want To Talk About Love No More." But, of course, she does - getting to the heart of the matter and the heart of the punch line in due course.
|
|
 | Rock That Babe
On Rock That Babe, the Hudson Valley trio proudly adds 13 gems to their diverse repertoire, as they jump from genre to genre with their infectious mix of old school folk to punk-ishly delivered trad revisionism.
|
|
 | Seven Is The Number
The long-awaited final album recorded by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. Seven Is The Number features nine songs that first appeared Dave Carter's out-of-print solo album, Snake-Handlin' Man, plus two new songs heard here for the first time. The recording process began in 2001 at the duo's home studio, Tracy's Kitchen, and mixes were only partially completed at the time of Carter's death in 2002. In 2006, Tracy and the project's engineer, Mark Frethem, finished the tracking, mixing, and mastering in Portland. An essential recording for collectors of the duo's work.
|
|
 | Signature Sounds 10th Anniversary Collection DVD
For two nights over Thanksgiving weekend of 2004, Signature Sounds celebrated its 10th Anniversary by gathering most of the musicians that have recorded with the label for a pair of very special concerts in Northampton and Boston. These shows featured some of America's finest singer-songwriters backed up by an all-star band and included many one of a kind collaborations. This DVD collects 75 minutes of the highlights from the concerts and includes interview segments, backstage photos and an in the studio feature with The Mammals.
|
|
 | The Knuckleball Suite
The sheer breadth and depth of this collection speaks of the years Peter Mulvey has spent avidly, joyfully honing his craft; soaking up the juju of masters past and present, and (like a knuckleballer) attending to details. File the fingernails. Practice the scales. Stretch the arm. Listen to Louis Armstrong and Latin Playboys. Learn ten Ellington tunes; twenty by Greg Brown. Call your friends and argue about art. Play. Play music on stage and off, day and night.
The Knuckleball Suite was recorded in two and a half days, with a cadre of world-class improvising musicians who had not rehearsed a single note of the songs together. Each track is a warm, large-format photograph of a gifted musical posse, caught in the very moment of Making It All Up. Out of thin air. For real.
That's Knuckleball Suite: now just try and pin it down.
|
|
 | Ghost Repeater
Holed up in Iowa City for the coldest week of the year, Jeffrey Foucault teamed with legendary blues guitar player and producer Bo Ramsey (Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams) to create Ghost Repeater, a country and blues album at the crossroads between love and lament; exploring the hopefulness of new love and the seasickness of contemporary American living.
|
|
 | The Sacred Shakers
For The Sacred Shakers, there's nothing finer than old-time, country and blues-influenced gospel music. Think Hank Williams, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Beginning in 2005, that music drew a small but ever-widening circle of some of Boston's finest musicians and vocalists together at the Country Gospel Brunch concert series. In short order, The Boston Globe described the group as "a local Who's Who of all-star roots musicians." And last summer, after hearing a single live performance by The Sacred Shakers, indie Signature Sounds label owner Jim Olsen encouraged the group to record their repertoire. On their eponymous debut, The Sacred Shakers offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that inspires them.
|
|
 | Wonderland - A Winter's Solstice Celebration
Signature Sounds is proud to present Wonderland - a Winter Solstice Celebration. Rather than reprise the same tired material heard on so many Christmas albums, all of the Signature artists and some special guests have generously offered an eclectic collection of songs for the holiday season including many original compositions. In the spirit of the season, partial proceeds from the sale of this album will benefit the Food Bank Of Western Massachusetts.
|
|
 | Tanglewood Tree
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer call their music "postmodern mythic American" music that's heavy on mysticism and storytelling, but also deeply rooted in folk, bluegrass and country idioms. Carter conjures romantic, true fictions
set amid vivid wild-west landscapes, while Grammer counterpoints his expert guitar, banjo and voice with beautifully intoned violin, guitar, mandolin and spine-chilling harmonies.
|
|
 | Boundary County
Eilen Jewell's debut album Boundary County is the best debut album we've heard in 2006. A young singer/songwriter armed with a voice and sensibility far beyond her years, Jewell's music is an evocative resurrection of the musical styles most commonly associated with early-20th-century rural Appalachia.
|
|
 | Shotgun Singer
With Shotgun Singer, Kris Delmhorst has trained her voice on a series of gracefully open lyrics and figures that transcend genre, ranging into the borderlands between indie-rock and folk, that nameless territory inhabited by such hard-to-classify artists as Juana Molina, Feist, Iron & Wine, and Laura Veirs. Adventurous, elegant, lucid, and haunting, the record is the work of a musician at full stride who has found a musical language equal to her vision.
|
|
|
