NEW RELEASES 1/11/2025

NEW RELEASES 1/11/2025

MohaviSoul (from the album Encore available on Mannequin Vanity Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
Kicking open the doors of Encore with a healthy blast of fast-track beats and resolution-sourcing inspiration, MohaviSoul begin the song cycle for the recent release with “Shine Like Stars”. The dance floor spins in slow, sad circles for the sluggish feet moving to a “Broken Heart Waltz” while a cover of The Rolling Stones “No Expectations” fires up a rhythm fueled by frenetic playing from the banjo and fiddle. Picking out a string band symphony in Southern California, MohaviSoul recorded Encore at Studio West in San Diego, California with Ryan Finch. The album balances MohaviSoul originals with recording of live performance fan-favorite covers, including an assured version of Tyler Childers “White House Road”.
Country Folk backs the optimism that pours from “Seeing Signs” as MohaviSoul put check marks in the good times column of life, encouraging the world to take a moment to appreciate life’s gifts that come our way in “The Other Side”. A hearty rhythm propels the “Ghost Train” on its nightly journey as the current of the Rio Grande provides the sway for “High Water” and its tale of seeking freedom while MohaviSoul keep on the “Right Side of the Grass” with a determined groove and re-work Jesse Fuller’s 1958 Country & Western prison ballad “Ninety-Nine Years”. (by Danny McCloskey)  
Listen and buy the music of MohaviSoul from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the MohaviSoul website


 AJ Lee & Blue Summit (from the album City of Glass available on AJ Lee & Blue Summit/Signature Sounds Recordings)
Adding the sonic bounty of West Coast sounds and California Folk, AJ Lee & Blue Summit blend elements and touches of Bluegrass, Country Blues, Rock-loving rhythms, Americana, and Folk Rock into a heady brew of rhythms and intuitive jams on City of Glass, their latest release. A cover of Harlan Howard’s “He Called Me Baby” leans heavily into the Blues side of Bluegrass as a powerful backbeat sparks dancing feet for the title track while City of Glasstaps its foot to “Toys” and quiets to a hush for the reverie of “I Still Think of Her”. AJ Lee & Blue Summit guide the diversity of sound confidently on the album, the band a musical thread connecting the rhythms and rhymes.
 
Based in Santa Cruz, California, AJ Lee & Blue Summit met as teenagers for jams at Bluegrass Festivals in Northern California. The quartet (AJ Lee – mandolin, Sullivan Tuttle (guitar), Scott Gates (guitar), Jan Purat (fiddle)) dedicate City of Glass to their home state California. The sing of Kern County with “Bakersfield Clay”, strum the memories of farm country for “Bedside Window”, and are joined by Rainbow Girls for nod to their beach homebase in “Seaside Town”. Guests for the recording created a family reunion when Molly Tuttle stopped by the studio lending vocals to “I Can’t Find You at All”, a tune written by the siblings dad, Jack Tuttle. For the song, Jack Tuttle shared that ‘after working a bit on lyrics for my daughter Molly’s unfinished song called ‘Don’t Try to Find Me’, I decided to flip the script and write one from the other viewpoint. I guess, in modern parlance, it’s a song about being ghosted’. Produced by Lech Wierzynski (The California Honeydrops), City of Glassshowcases AJ Lee & Blue Summit as a melting pot of Golden State sounds, opening on the echo of Celtic tones with “Hillside”, kicking up saw dust for the honky tonk beat of “Solicitor Man”, and exiting on the tender touch of “All I Know”. (by Danny McCloskey) 
Listen and buy the music of AJ Lee & Blue Summit from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the AJ Lee & Blue Summit website


MJ Lenderman (from the album Manning Fireworks available on Anti- Records) (by Danny McCloskey)
Slow sluggish acoustic guitar notes walk beside MJ Lenderman into his recent release, Manning Fireworks. The title track opens the album, the pace of the plucked guitar string cadence alongside vocals that match the slow steps. With several solo releases, MJ Lenderman (Jake Lenderman) delivers the song on Manning Fireworks carefully. Nothing is rushed. The tempos are tempered, the beat decelerated. Even amid the power chords of “Wristwatch”, the overall feeling in his presentation remains nearly sensual in its rhythmic touches. Folk Rock for 2025 is the style selection for Manning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman strumming for a campfire singalong in “You Don’t Know the Shape I’m In”, as he walks with heavy strides across “Joker Lips”, crunches electric chords for the Rock’n’Roll strut of “On My Knees”, and blends the sounds of “Bark at the Moon” into a seductive groove before closing out with trace-inducing sonics as it closes out the album.
 
Based in Ashville, North Carolina the 25-year-old songwriter has releases under both MJ Lenderman and Jake Lenderman as well as playing with Alternative Rock outfit, Wednesday.  In addition to his own release, he contributed guitar and vocals to Waxahatchee’s Tiger’s Blood album. Manning Fireworks uses heavy footstomps and pedal steel twang to introduce “Rudolph” while MJ Lenderman layers the instruments, building into a roller coaster rhythms, tredding softly before rising up with a sonic blast for “She’s Leaving You”. (by Danny McCloskey) 
Listen and buy the music of MJ Lenderman from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the MJ Lenderman website
 
Ringo Starr (from the album Look Up available on Roccabella Records/UMG) (by Brian Rock)
Ringo Starr brings his inimitable star power to the Country genre on his new album, Look Up. Despite his Rock’n’Roll pedigree, Ringo has always had a love for Country music, as evidenced by his cover of Buck Owens’ “Act Naturally” and especially his 1970 Country album, Beaucoups of Blues. Staying true to the golden age of Country, Ringo brings his charm and wit (and several guest artists including Alison Krauss, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and T Bone Burnett, who produced the album), to these songs of love, loss, and occasional levity.
“You Want Some” finds Ringo in an amorous mood. A walking bass line and weepy pedal steel introduce the song as the band evokes the feel of a Texas roadhouse. Ringo taking the microphone to sing ‘I’ve got love to give. Baby, that’s better than none. You want some?’. His trademark wit and humor shine through as the band kicks up a rousing Western Swing with plenty of steel guitar and rollicking ragtime piano. Ringo’s drumming holds all the pieces together. His drumming, like his vocals, exudes a casual cool that’s neither forced nor contrived. He takes a page from Bob Wills and makes it flirty and fun. 
Ringo goes full Sons of the Pioneers on “Come Back”. An authentic range-riding, campfire-crooning Country & Western ballad where Ringo is joined by Lucius for a tender ode to a distant lover. Yearning for her return, he sings ‘when you go away as night turns into day, I walk alone and feel you gone.” A meandering acoustic guitar and a humming background chorus capture the feel of a gentle breeze blowing across the Great Plains, mountain ranges, and the Southwest desert. Sincere and direct, his vocals and lyrics express the naked truth. No philosophical metaphors, nor flowery poetic devices; he says exactly what any of us would say in a similar situation, if only we had the courage to express it. That earnestness serves him well on the tender ballad, “Time 0n My Hands”. With a generous helping of pedal steel, Ringo moans ‘I used to have a true love, everything was fine. But now she’s found a new love, she’s no longer mine… Now these arms are empty and I’ve got time on my hands’. Again, Ringo’s voice conveys an everyman quality of warmth and vulnerability. “I Live for Your Love” explores the happier moments of love in gentle Countrypolitan tones. Ringo combines West Coast Folk with Country on the cheery “Never Let Me Go”. Harmonica and a staccato drumbeat punctuate his devotion as he coos ‘when you call my name I will be there. If you want me, I won’t go anywhere”. The optimistic “Look Up” incorporates Cosmic Cowboy soundscapes to encourage us to find the silver lining in life’s darker moments. “Rosetta” combines the same Cosmic Cowboy, joining with Billy Strings and Larkin Poe to blend elements of Bluegrass to mourn a lost lover. The Bluegrass touch again comes to the fore in the lovely declaration of devotion, “Can You Hear Me Call”; Molly Tuttle singing counterpoint with Ringo to assure the feelings are mutual. Ringo pays tribute to Carl Perkins and the original Country Rock pioneers as he is joined by Billy Strings on the Rockabilly-tinged T-Bone Burnett original, “Breathless”. Rounding out the set, Ringo Starr duets with Alison Krauss on the tender, Bakersfield influenced, “Thankful”. Paying tribute with an homage to someone special in his life, Ringo sings ‘I’m thankful for the stars above, hoping for more peace and love… Thankful for this moment here. And thankful you are here’. “Peace and Love” is, of course, Ringo Starr’s trademark salutation; so, we can indeed, all be thankful for a little more of Mr. Peace and Love in our lives. (by Brian Rock)
Listen and buy the music of Ringo Starr from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the Ringo Starr website
 
 

 ​Yonder Mountain String Band (from the album Nowhere Next available on Frog Pad Records/Thirty Tigers) (by Bryant Liggett)
The passage of time playing performing and recording hasn’t slowed down Yonder Mountain String Band. As they push past a quarter century as a band, whether on stage or in studio, they keep a foot down on the gas pedal. Their latest release, Nowhere Next shows maturity while still staying true to the NuGrass genre; they remain a band with limitless influences on a path that finds them moving string band music fast and forward to another level. 
The album opener in “The Truth Fits”  has that typical Jam Band-Grass drive, banjo player Dave Johnston leading the charge from the first solo, and that aforementioned ‘fast and forward’ description couldn’t be more present than on the cut “Cruisin’”. “Didn’t Go Wrong” starts with an Outlaw Country riff before Adam Aijala adds repetitive, Prog-Rock acoustic guitar while Ben Kaufmanns scats vocals; call it Prog-Boogie. This reviewer has always loved the songs of Johnston, and “Leave the Midwest” continues that fandom. Dave Johnston’s croon always homey and warm, this is a tale of leaving your home to head-west and make dreams into a new life; a front-porch sing-along that’s a straight-ahead song, the instrumentation solid but not theatrical, as Yonder Mountain String Band play it straight and true.
While this band has certainly toyed with other genres, they’ve always had their heart in Bluegrass, “Secondhand Smoke” nodding to that love. With plenty of boogie and plenty of jam, longtime fans will revel in this Yonder Mountain String Band release, as it has all of the elements that made you fall for this band back in 2000. (by Bryant Liggett)
Listen and buy the music of Yonder Mountain String Band from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the Yonder Mountain String Band website

Kasey Chambers (from the album Backbone available on Essence Music) (by Danny McCloskey)
Over soft Country Rock chords, Kasey Chambers lets her voice rise above in Soul shouts for “A New Day Has Come”, the opening track for her recent release, Backbone. As genres come and go, Kasey Chambers has successfully navigated all styles shifts with the power of her voice as the driving wheel. Her ability to emotionally charge vocals to fit the narrative is present in equal measure to her 1999 debut, The Captain, and her break-through 2002 release, Brickwalls and Barricades. Backbone shares its title with “Backbone (The Desert Child)”, the song strumming scratchy Australian grit into chords as Kasey Chambers raises her voice in harmony to enter the dark rhythms of “Dart N Feather”, quiets to a hush becoming “Silverado Girl”, and riding a shuffle-on-steroids beat to back “Take Me Down the Mountain”.
 
A healthy spinning wheel of Australian Americana packs Backbone with a hefty fifteen tracks, including a banjo reverie to begin the live version of Kasey Chambers covering Eminem with “Lose Yourself”, the sonics layering electric guitar before blasting open with an arena worthy Rock’n’Roll struts. Guitar sparkle surrounds the wishes of “A Love Like Springsteen” while a honky tonk slow dance pushes the promises of “For Better or Worse” as Backbone lets voices and a lone guitar be the bed for “My Kingdom Comes” while Kasey Chambers asks for directions and guidance in “Broken Cup”, as she relates a fairy tale over a Back Alley Jazz beat with “Little Red Riding Hood”, and follows a hammering righteous rhythmic march into the Rock Gospel of “Something to Believe In”. (by Danny McCloskey) 
Listen and buy the music of Kasey Chambers from AMAZON 
For more information, please visit the Kasey Chambers website