New Holiday music offerings on the way from Shelby Lynne, Annie Lennox

Two iconic female singer songwriters will be releasing their first full-length Christmas albums later this year. Shelby Lynne (who's most recent studio album 'Tears, Lies and Alibis' also sees a belated UK release this week) and Annie Lennox will both be vying to be the soundtrack to your Yuletide. Hopefully we'll be able to play you a track from each of these on our annual holiday podcast this December. More info below!

SHELBY LYNNE’S MERRY CHRISTMAS

GRAMMY® winner Shelby Lynne will release Merry Christmas, her first-ever holiday collection, on October 12th. The album will mark her second release on her own independent label, EVERSO RECORDS, which is distributed through Fontana, the award-winning independent distribution division of Universal Music Group. Tears, Lies, And Alibis, EVERSO’s first release, debuted at No. 16 on Billboard’s Top Independent Albums chart earlier this year. It became a Top 10 hit at Americana radio and was hailed by Newsday as “her strongest album in a decade,” a sentiment echoed by numerous critics.

From its cover – a photograph of Shelby at age four, playing in the snow in her Mobile, Alabama front yard – to the music, Merry Christmas is a warm and heartfelt collection. Rootsy and off-the-cuff, it has an immediacy that makes you feel like you’ve joined Lynne and her musician pals around the hearth.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Christmas record and now that I have my own label, the time seemed right,” says Lynne, who produced the album and penned two original songs for it.

She’s been called “one of the greatest voices of her generation” (The Aquarian Weekly) and when she kicks off the festivities with a stanza of richly layered acapella vocals on the medley “Sleigh Ride/Winter Wonderland,” it’s clear why. Childhood favorites like “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” are playful and vibrant while Lynne brings a subtle majesty to the traditional Christmas carols “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night.” Her two new compositionscapture both sides of the season. ”Ain’t Nothin’ Like Christmas” is a rollicking celebration of all its joys:

“Ain’t nothin’ like Christmas, baby

Don’t come but once a year

Ain’t nothin’ like Christmas, baby

With carols and good cheer

Ain’t nothin’ like Christmas, baby

Let’s meet around the tree

I’ll bring the nog, you put on a log

It’s a Christmas party.”

On the flipside, “Xmas” acknowledges that not all of our holiday memories are happy ones. The song builds from a slow burn to a blistering finale as Lynne engages in a mesmerizing call-and-response with special guest Dave Koz, whose soulful saxophone lines accentuate her bluesy vocals.

Other highlights include a dreamy version of “Christmas Time Is Here” from one of Shelby’s favorite Christmas albums, the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, and an exuberant version of “Christmastime’s a Comin’,” a song she heard bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe perform years ago. “I liked its back porch, family vibe,” Lynne recalls.

A stellar group of backing musicians help give Merry Christmas its down-home vibe, including: John Jackson (acoustic, electric and slide guitars, percussion); Mike Ward (acoustic and electric guitars); Gregg Field (drums); Marc Doten (upright bass); Dave Palmer (Wurlitzer, piano); Ben Peeler (mandolin, steel guitar); Val McCallum (harmonica, acoustic guitar) and Jim Honeyman (clarinet, flute). Brian Harrison engineered the album.

At 18, Lynne’s demos landed her an appearance on TNN s Nashville Now series, which led to a Top 50 duet ("If I Could Bottle This Up") with George Jones and a record deal. On the strength of 2000’s I Am Shelby Lynne, she won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. Love, Shelby was released in 2001, followed by a pair of intimate, self-produced albums – Identity Crisis (2003) and Suit Yourself (2005). She made her acting debut in 2005, playing Johnny Cash’s mother in the Fox Searchlight motion picture Walk the Line. Just a Little Lovin’, her critically acclaimed tribute to Dusty Springfield, was released in 2008. Lynne has been on the road since Tears, Lies, And Alibis was released in April. For upcoming dates, please visit http://www.shelbylynne.com/.

Merry Christmas – Track Listing

1. Sleigh Ride/Winter Wonderland

2. Ain’t Nothin’ Like Christmas
3. Christmas Time Is Here
4. Silver Bells
5. Christmastime’s a Comin’
6. O Holy Night
7. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
8. Xmas
9. Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
10. Silent Night
11. White Christmas

Visit www.shelbylynne.com for pre-order info and tour dates.

ANNIE LENNOX'S 'A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA'

Internationally renowned recording artist, songwriter and musician Annie Lennox has signed with Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company, for a long-term worldwide recording agreement.

As one of the world’s most successful and critically-acclaimed British female artists in pop music history, Ms. Lennox will release her brand new album, “A Christmas Cornucopia,” on November 22nd through Island Records UK and Decca Records in the US and the rest of the world.
The album features Ms. Lennox’s unique and personal interpretations of some of her favorite Christmas carols as well as a completely new, and wonderful, original composition entitled, “Universal Child.”

“I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Island Records on my upcoming recording,” stated Ms. Lennox. “This album is something I’ve wanted to do for many years. It’s a true labour of love, and I feel very fortunate to be in partnership with such a cutting edge team, especially when I’m at a stage in my creativity when I want to diversify, and pursue my passion in my own individual way. I’ve never been part of a “mold,” and Island are really supportive and appreciative of where I’m coming from. I want to make timeless music that people will love in many years to come…and I’d like to think that “A Christmas Cornucopia” is going to be of those recordings.”

“There are precious few artists who redefine the boundaries of popular music like Annie,” said Lucian Grainge, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group. “And we are delighted to be part of the next exciting chapter in her already storied career.”

“Annie Lennox is one of world’s greatest singers,” commented Ms. Lennox’s manager Simon Fuller. “She has sold tens of millions of albums, celebrated countless hit singles and won every major award and honour there is to receive. However there is one thing she has always wanted to do and now it’s about to happen. Annie has always wanted to record an album of Christmas songs and to see this finally come to fruition is very special. Annie and I are thrilled to now be working with Island Records and all my friends at Universal around the world. We are looking forward very much to a long, happy and successful partnership for many years to come.”

“The album Annie has recorded is timeless and inspiring, a very special showcase for her extraordinary voice,” added Universal Music UK chairman David Joseph. “This record is just the start of what feels like a natural, and very exciting, new partnership between Annie and Island Records.”

Throughout her remarkable career, Annie Lennox has been celebrated as an innovator, and a symbol of enduring excellence. Both as a member of the groundbreaking Eurythmics and as a solo artist without peer, Annie has amassed sales of more than 80 million albums worldwide and claimed 34 hit singles, four Grammy Awards, 11 Brit Awards, five Ivor Novellos, an Academy Award and two Golden Globes.

Visit www.AnnieLennox.com for more information.

SINATRA/JOBIM: The Complete Reprise Recordings on the way

SINATRA/JOBIM: THE COMPLETE REPRISE RECORDINGS COMING MAY 4 ON CONCORD RECORDS

Twenty-song set contains the complete 1967
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim album
plus all 10 songs from its intended 1969 follow-up, Sinatra/Jobim

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In 1967, Frank Sinatra teamed up with Brazilian singer, pianist, guitarist, composer and songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim to record an album that married the Chairman’s signature vocals with rhythms from the master of bossa nova. The resulting album, Francis Albert Sinatra/Antonio Carlos Jobim, reached #19, remaining on Billboard’s rock-dominated album chart for 28 weeks.

Forty-four years later, on May 4, 2010, Concord Music Group, on license from Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE), will release a deluxe reissue of the Sinatra/Jobim classic including all ten songs from the original album plus seven songs from a subsequent collaboration between the two, and three songs from that session that were not released until decades later, when they were included in a box set. Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings features digital remastering and expanded liner notes by Stan Cornyn, longtime head of creative services at Warner/Reprise and author of the book about the Warner Music Group, Exploding.

Sinatra and Jobim gathered at Hollywood’s Western Recorders for three nights, January 30 through February 1, 1967. Jobim brought the beat in the form of bossa nova percussionists and arrangers. Sinatra supplied the producer (Sonny Burke), the string arranger/conductor (Claus Ogerman) and the rest of the orchestra. The resulting session produced ten songs including the classic “The Girl From Impanema” plus “Dindi,” “How Insensitive [Insensatez],” “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” and six others. (After bidding até a vista to Jobim, Sinatra, on the high of making one of his finest albums ever, stayed at the studio to record a duet with daughter Nancy that would reach #1 on the charts, “Something Stupid.”)

Two years later, Sinatra and Jobim returned to Western Recorders to record ten more bossa novas for a shorter-titled follow-up: Sinatra-Jobim. Replacing Ogerman was a 26-year-old long-haired arranger named Eumir Deodato (later to be known for his 1973 jazz version of Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra [2001]”). The songs were all written or co-written by Jobim, many with unusual melodic twists. Producer Burke enlisted conductor Morris Stoloff to ensure a pop feel to the session.

After three nights, the album was wrapped, and was readied for release in the fall of 1969. The eight-track version of the album had shipped when the call was placed to Warner/Reprise’s Burbank, Calif. offices. It was Sinatra, demanding that the label “kill the album,” so Warner recalled most of the recordings. A 2005 Goldmine story reported that the rare eight-track would command $5000.

Sinatra later agreed to permit Reprise to release seven of the Sinatra-Jobim vocal tracks on the album Sinatra & Company. It reached #73 and remained on the album chart for 15 weeks in 1971.

More than 40 years later, the airport in Rio has been named Antonio Carlos Jobim International. And an American postage stamp honored Frank Sinatra. And the Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sinatra-Jobim albums have been combined to form Concord’s Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings set.

www.sinatra.com

Nanci Griffith readies first album of new material since 2005

Nanci Griffith’s classic sound – folk/country melodies built around stories that aren’t afraid to tackle big subjects all delivered with the artist’s signature vocal style – returns in full bloom on THE LOVING KIND, her new album scheduled for release on June 9th from Rounder Records. Featuring thirteen new songs, THE LOVING KIND is Nanci’s most politically outspoken release in years, and underscores her stature as one of the music world’s most esteemed singer-songwriters.
The release of THE LOVING KIND will be accompanied by a U.S. tour.

With a recording and touring history that stretches back more than two decades, Griffith has established, what Madison Avenue would call, a “brand.” But her signature music is much more about art than commerce, which is why her fan base has remained incredibly loyal - fans include contemporaries such as Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Emmylou Harris, all of whom have either recorded her songs or insisted she record theirs.

With her last CD (the critically-acclaimed Ruby’s Torch), a torch song tribute, THE LOVING KIND is her first studio album of original and contemporary cover material since 2005’s Hearts In Mind. The title track, emblematic of the album’s story songs, refers to Loving v. Virginia, the 1967 landmark civil rights case that once and for all ended the ban on interracial marriages in the U.S. Richard and Mildred Loving were a married white man and black woman who were forced to leave their native state of Virginia under threat of arrest because of the state’s Jim Crow law prohibiting marriages between different races.

“I read Mildred Loving’s obituary in The New York Times last year and it just floored me,” recalls Griffith. Tragically, Richard died in a tragic car accident just months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the couple’s favor. “She never remarried and in her last interview, just before she passed away, she expressed hope that their case would eventually be the open door to the legalization of same sex marriage.”

Another track on the album, “Not Innocent Enough,” is also built around a political and legal controversy, namely the celebrated death row case of Philip Workman, who was convicted in 1981 of killing a Memphis police officer. Despite new evidence that proved his innocence, which he always maintained through his five scheduled execution dates, Workman was put to death by the State of Tennessee on May 9, 2007. Fellow singer-songwriter John Prine joins Griffith on this track, backed by a chorus that also includes tunesmiths Elizabeth Cook and Todd Snider.

“I started writing this song long before Philip was executed, but just couldn’t finish it until that final injustice took place,” says Griffith.

On a more personal note, “Up Against The Rain,” co-written with her longtime collaborator Charley Stefl, is Griffith’s tribute to her mentor, country-folk singer and poet Townes Van Zandt. But on a broader level, the song “could be for anyone’s hero and with me, I also lost my dear, beautiful stepfather just before Christmas of last year, and we recorded the song the day I retuned from his funeral in Austin. So, it’s very close to my heart.”

THE LOVING KIND was produced by Pat McInerney and Thomm Jutz and features McInerney on drums and percussion, Jutz on guitar, Matt McKenzie on bass, Barry Walsh on keyboards, Shad Cobb on fiddle and Fats Kaplin on pedal steel guitar, mandolin and fiddle. A complete track listing for THE LOVING KIND is as follows:

1 The Loving Kind
2 Money Changes Everything
3 One Of These Days
4 Up Against The Rain
5 Cotton
6 Not Innocent Enough
7 Across America
8 Party Girl
9 Sing
10 Things I Don’t Need
11 Still Life
12 Tequila After Midnight
13 Pour Me A Drink

RECOMMENDED ALBUM: Jolie Holland - The Living & The Dead

Originally posted on the old site, October 2008.



Jolie Holland - The Living And The Dead

(ANTI)

In Stores Now.

The Living & the Dead is a work between worlds, of moving on and finding something new, of missed chances, and promises on distant horizons. From the past (the haunting simplicity of "Love Henry,"which Bob Dylan tells us pre-dates the Bible) to the future (the stunning emotional complexity of her song,"The Future"), the Texas-bred singer-songwriter navigates a new rock approach that is built upon the folk, blues and jazz spectors that populated her three acclaimed previous albums.

Holland composed these songs in her old home town of San Francisco, as well as on the road across North America and Europe. A few were born during a writing retreat in New Zealand. Arising out of her life stories, and from the rich estuaries of the mysterious tales of other adventurers, her songs are grounded by true experience.

The Living and the Dead is an exhilarating ride with a higher voltage than the previous albums, music that had already left fans and critics at a loss to describe her singular vision as performer and writer. Holland worked with co-producer Shahzad Ismaily (Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Two Foot Yard, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog) in sessions both in Brooklyn, New York and Portland, Oregon. With contributions from guitar maestros Marc Ribot (who played with Tom Waits and Elvis Costello) and M. Ward (who also produced one song and helped shape the sound of others) and drummer Rachel Blumberg (M. Ward, Bright Eyes, the Decemberists), Holland has created an album that serves as a career statement. Holland's voice is the same beautiful instrument, which has never before sounded so confident, relaxed or emotive.

With 2003's Catalpa (essentially home-made demos released due to popular interest and then nominated for the prestigious Short List Music Prize by Tom Waits), 2004's Escondida and 2006's Springtime Can Kill You (which Rolling Stone said "feels better than a good cry"), she evolved a sound that existed in its own time, as if it could have been recorded anywhere between God knows when and yesterday. The Living & the Dead shares that same quality, but its timelessness is rooted in the present. Take Holland's description of the song “Your Big Hands”:

"It's just terribly naïve—it’s the kind of song Daniel Johnston made me feel brave enough to write," she says. "It starts out with these beautiful dirty guitar chords from M Ward, almost like a Rolling Stones song...the overall feel of this song owes a debt to Waits' version of rock ala 'Downtown Train'...then, in the middle of the song, all that has disappeared...you feel as though you're wandering around in the woods--there are owls and shooting stars…but then the song burns out with a mess of distorted guitars.”

In many ways, this album is a chronicle of her own journey. The driven "Corrido Por Buddy" (about a friend who sunk so far into addiction that Holland didn't recognize him on the street) is both character study and self-examination/recrimination – a sense magnified for the singer by not just one, but two instances of eerily identical poltergeist phenomena in the studios while the band was recording "...Buddy." The phenomena were witnessed by three band members, and occurred both in Portland and New York, during the song's production.

"The Future" is a presentation of beautiful poetry which arose out of personal misery – "When I wrote that I was really kind of crying and holding on to the piano—it’s about the hell of breaking up and moving out at the same time.”

"Palmyra" is a prayer for the broken-hearted and traumatized, both individuals and communities. The first half paints a picture a love-lorn traveler pulling herself back together after a disastrous affair. The second half is lovingly and respectfully dedicated to the hard-pressed people of New Orleans' Ninth Ward, hallowed estuary of some of the finest music the world has ever witnessed.

Upon hearing the completed album, Holland says, "I hear a lot of interesting connections between the songs that I didn't premeditate. 'Sweet Loving Man,' (a very modern love song, based on South Louisiana dance music) is sitting right next to 'Love Henry' (which is ancient as hell.) The first song is about a lover who sets out to attempt a life free from heart-break, by any means necessary. And the second is a twisted tale of a scheming rich woman who kills her lover in a fit of jealousy. It's like putting two opposite colors next to each other on a painting.”

The perceived space between ancient and modern seems to fade away. If something speaks to you and is meaningful, dates can become irrelevant. In that way, Holland's work has always been characterized as timeless. This album lives and breathes through memories of the past via reflection and resurrection, and grows into the present tense. The Living and the Dead reflects those timeless elements that make Holland's songwriting so powerful. It's multi-faceted, emotionally rich, and a continuation of one songwriter's existence within her own worlds and outside others. Enjoy Yourself.

REVIEW: Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider

Originally posted on the old site, July 2008.



Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider (Steamhammer/SPV)

1. "Prologue / I Know Where You Live" - 4:21


2. "Vengeance Is Mine" (Featuring Slash) - 4:26


3. "Wake The Dead" (Featuring Ozzy Osbourne) - 3:53


4. "Catch Me If You Can" - 3:15


5. "(In Touch With) Your Feminine Side" - 3:16


6. "Wrapped In Silk" - 4:17


7. "Killed By Love" - 3:34


8. "I'm Hungry" - 3:58


9. "The One That Got Away" - 3:21


10. "Salvation" - 4:36


11. "I Am The Spider / Epilogue" - 5:21

After a couple of forays back into the garage rock genre that he and the original AC band helped pioneer in the early seventies, Alice Cooper strides purposefully back into the heavy-rock, concept album format that he experimented with to critical acclaim but commercial indifference with 2000's 'Brutal Planet'. With 'Along Came A Spider', his 25th studio album, the inimitable Coop brings us the twisted tale of Spider, a serial-killer with the strange quirk of removing a limb from each of his victims to construct a replica arachnid of his very own.

As Alice himself has pointed out, each of the album's 12 songs plays like a taunting, mocking letter to the police, and the lyrics are appropriately delivered with that trademark sneer that his loyal audience know and love. While fans of the original Alice Cooper group may be disappointed to find that, musically the album is in fact quite upbeat (particularly on the rock-stomp 'I'm Hungry' and the opening 'I Know Where You Live') and lacking in the skin-crawling creep factor of Cooper classicks like 'Ballad Of Dwight Fry' and 'I Love The Dead', this is made up for in part by anthemic choruses and impressive musicianship. Frequent collaborator Slash lends his considerable chops to the album's first single, 'Vengeance is Mine'.

Highlights include the greasy, harmonica punctuated 'Wake The Dead', the now obligatory album ballad 'Killed By Love' and the gleefully perverse 'Wrapped In Silk'. The album's greatest moment, however, comes at the very end with a spoken outro delivering an excellent twist-ending that would be sure to surprise and delight long-term fans. Or at least it would, if the album's inner packaging didn't irritatingly give the game away.

Nonetheless, this is an enjoyable album full of spirited performances, great rock music, and a typically sick Cooper storyline. It may not rank amongst his very best, but it's certainly his best in years. Recommended.

Along Came A Spider is in stores and online now. The iTunes version includes 3 bonus tracks.

www.alicecooper.com