Allen Thompson Band
Allen Thompson’s vocal notes always seem to be reaching out. Allen’s voice is the hand on your shoulder that stops you from walking away long enough to hear one last explanation. 
He grabs your attention with one more thought, straining to push out a promise, a plea or a pardon. His words and stories seem autobiographical due to the intimacy of Allen’s vocal.
‘Salvation in the Ground’ showcases Allen Thompson with his band of crackerjack East Nashville players. Their well-placed use of chords and beats wrap the songs in American Roots and Americana tones and textures letting the natural soul of Allen’s delivery flow across warm acoustics and fiery electric riffs and rambles. “Everybody Knows” openly bleeds the pain of patience over a solo piano that backs up the voice with fluttery note, letting lines like “Hey Jesus, please help me, I’m fucked up in Nashville” stand still to let the full emotion to sink in while hard-pounded chords keep the beat honest and true. “Dirt and “Dust” rumbles and wonders if its tale will be the final chapter of a small town and “The Purple Rose & The Black Balloon” frolics in its rhythm, going back to younger times to get a good look at today.
The Allen Thompson Band take Salvation in the Ground into that sacred circle of albums where listening means start to finish, letting the shuffle play all the cards to see the way they are dealt.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD ALLEN THOMPSON BAND "DIRT TO DUST"
Uncle Lucius
Uncle Lucius use the glory of rock to full effect on And You Are Me. The five piece wrestle with rhythm, managing to create sound borders that barely confine the rhtyms. Uncle Lucius dance with chaos in their music and go home with a dignity born in the fact that, sure, they
did a couple of spins around the floor with the devil but went home knowing that they gained a little heaven. The band forces power into their music whether their path slows down to a sway “Just Keep Waiting”, shuffles with “Rosalia” or basks in the morning sunshine blue sky of southern rock with “Keep the Wolves Away”.
And You Are Me sees Uncle Lucius step on a rock stage and let their natural use of influences create a blend of music comfortable in long jams or quiet reveries. The power of vocalist Kevin Galloway is a force of nature. He has the passion of a newly minted preacher and the drive of a full tank of gas on payday. Uncle Lucius are an Austin-based rock’n’roll band.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD UNCLE LUCIUS "POCKETFUL OF MISERY"
Kevin Carter & Full Assurance
Kevin Carter & Full Assurance offer their advice, observations and dreams of salvation with a determined forward thrust of bluegrass that stays true to its course, gently wrapping 
around the devotional sentiments (“His Yoke Is Easy”) and pushing the playing to aid in a future time crossover (“Wings of Love”). Not Looking Back is dedicated to bluegrass pioneers and movers Bill Monroe, Jimmy martin and Earl Scruggs. The holy trio are smiling down at what their followers have wrought. Kevin Carter and Full Assurance have done them proud.
Not Looking Back features Kevin sharing vocal duties with Cindy Carter (mandolin) and Tommy Privette (banjo) with Chris Pierce rounds out the quartet on bass. Full Assurance fulfills on the band name promise with vocal tributes to everlasting love (“Sweet Bye and Bye”), finding strength (“He’s My Everything”) and change for the good (“The Old Man (don’t live here anymore)”). Kevin Carter & Full Assurance deliver their vision of the great beyond as soundtracked with the sweet, sweet sound of their instruments in “Heaven’s Bluegrass Stage”.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD KEVIN CARTER & FULL ASSURANCE "NOT LOOKING BACK"
There is an intensity in the music of The 44’s. You can’t cut it with a knife. Even if you tried, the inescapable groove, the confrontational lyrics, the spit of the vocals, the fire of the riffs,
they would reach out and cut you back soon as the blade got close. The 44’s recorded the latest release, Americana, with west coast electric blues cornerstone Kid Ramos.
Lighting the track fuse with album opener “Hanging Tree”, The 44’s deliver gut bucket blues, merging their west coast sound with some Chicago spice for flavor. “Hanging Tree” is a is a distorted rumble that crosses an open landscape atop a solid bottom land beat. Keeping the foundation firm, Mike Turturro (bass) and J.R. Lozano (drums) make sure the rhythm rules in 44’s territory. Tex ‘The Weeping Willow’ Nakamura blasts staccato harmonica breaths to add to the determination of the band’s freight train forward motion. Lead vocalist, Johnny Main, bleeds soul into the songs. He wears the skin of the down-on-his-luck loser in “99 to Life”, the pleading voice on the line in “Mr. Operator”, the man on a missions heading down for trouble in “Dixie” and the last chance lover in “Pleading My Case”. The 44’s ‘Americana’ never moves too far away from what the guys do best; raw, life affirming blues.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE 44'S "HANGING TREE"
Meagan Tubb & Shady People
Hey, hey, my, my, rock and roll ain’t dead, and Meagan Tubb & Shady People are here to Cast A Shadow on the truth of that statement in album opener, “Rock & Roll Séance”. 
Meagan states firmly that “don’t you tell me rock and roll is dead ‘cause I’ll tell you your wrong”. The Shady People support that truism with gravely, gutter crawling grooves that twist and bend around Meagan’s vocals.
Cast A Shadowspends its time marinating in a rock that shows influences of southern rock (“Giving Tree (Grow My Hope”)” and “Heartbreak #8), slide driven folk blues (“The Hoax”), second line high-stepping (“Damsel in Distress”) and classic rock (“The Key”). Meagan Tubb wraps the power of her vocal chords around the characters and the moods with a committed determination, making sure she wears the skin. Meagan Tubb is equally the lost lover looking for a “Damn Good Man” and she is the little girl found heading to her “First Day in School” with her pens, paper and Wonder Woman lunch box who has more than a little trouble staying inside the lines.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD MEAGAN TUBB & SHADY PEOPLE "THE HOAX"
Janet Robin
Janet Robin released Everything Has Changed, the album produced under the guiding hands of John Carter Cash. The production speaks volumes to head knob twirler JCC’s knowledge of the ins and outs of a song, the tracks captured ranging from the Pop/Rock of album
opened “View From Above” into the acoustic reverie of “Bruise Easily” and through Euro noir café sound of “Everybody Falls In Love In Prague”. Janet Robin’s vocals are the common ground, the richness of her voice wiggling into the characters and igniting the emotions.
The roots tone and textures of Everything Has Changed, and the diversity of its songs, is testament to living as a musician, not as a genre junkie. Janet Robin studied guitarin her Southern California homeland as a teenager under the tutelage of Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne). Robin became an ace six-string player and parlayed this education into a position as the lead guitarist for the all-female rock band Precious Metal, soon signed to Polygram Records and moving to Chameleon/Capitol Records.
Following the demise of Precious Metal, Robin joined Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham’s band in support of his 1992 solo album. Janet Robin has learned to attach her influences and teachers music to her own natural abilities, the results laid out in Everything Has Changed.
CLICK TO DOWNLOAD JANET ROBIN "VIEW FROM ABOVE"
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