Contact: rodgab@7Smgmt.com

Internationally acclaimed Mexican acoustic rock guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela are back on the road again in 2014, bringing their unique instrumental blend of metal, jazz and world music to audiences all over the US.

Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero have been playing together for more than fifteen years. First as young thrash metal fans in their native Mexico City, then as innocents abroad and street musicians in Dublin, Ireland at the turn of the millennium, and finally as the globe-straddling, film-scoring, record-breaking artists they are today.

Known for exhilarating live shows, Rodrigo y Gabriela have won the hearts of music lovers from the haciendas of Cuba to the Hollywood Bowl and festival fields of Europe, as they continue to weave their unique six-string magic. The extraordinary interplay between Sanchez's fiery lead lines and Quintero's phenomenal rhythmic battery is truly universal.

The duo has reloaded their arsenal following the April 2014 worldwide release of “9 Dead Alive”, their first studio album in five years. The new songs are intimate, the playing intuitive, and the results are spectacular, bursting with melodic energy and rhythmic invention.

Recorded at their Pacific Coast hideaway in late summer, the album captures the warmth and spontaneity of two great musicians riffing and jamming together, perfectly distilled into 9 new songs teeming with desire, elegance and gusto.

With career sales in excess of 1.5 million albums, blockbuster movie scores, and sold out tours worldwide, Rodrigo y Gabriela have certainly made their mark. Their appeal is boundless, their scope limitless, and the music timeless; clearly, we have only begun to see what this duo is capable of.

Contact: management@weareamericanauthors.com

Brooklyn-based alt rock band American Authors first met as students at Berklee College of Music. Shortly after, the foursome dropped out, moved into a small apartment in Bushwick, New York, and started a band. While playing a show in the city, the band was noticed by music producers Shep Goodman and Aaron Accetta, who eventually signed them to their production company, Dirty Canvas. They went on to write "Believer," the first song to develop their signature sound. In December 2012, the song landed at Sirius XM’s Alt Nation radio, whose tastemaker DJ’s and diehard listeners alike wholeheartedly embraced the song and its human counterparts. Within one month and without a record label, "Believer" made it onto the station’s tough-as-nails Alt 18 Countdown and led to a huge spike in social media and music sales, as well as an enthusiastic bevy of ‘Believers,’ and a mini-tour with fellow alt rock bands A Silent Film, GoldFields, and Carousel.

Self-described “laid-back dudes,” American Authors is comprised of Zac Barnett (vocals), James Adam Shelley (guitar/banjo), Dave Rublin (bass), and Matt Sanchez (drums). Together they hail from the four corners of the country, each bringing their own influences and experiences to the writing table to create pop-flavored alt rock sprinkled with four-part harmonies, spirited lyrics, and contagious optimism. To hear their music and to watch them perform, it can be said that American Authors has the natural ‘it’ factor that leads to music’s most successful artists.

“We’re the authors of our lives, creating music from what we’ve lived, from what we hope for, from what we feel. Every day is different and like everyone, our emotions change according to our personal highs and lows and by the challenges or triumphs that affect all of us,” said Barnett. “We’re not afraid to be goofy one day and serious the next. We just want to be true to ourselves and share our stories for as long as people are willing to listen.”

Contact: DinosaurJr@7smgmt.com

There is nothing quite like a Dinosaur Jr. album. The best ones are always 
recognizable from the first notes. And even though J tries to trip us up by smearing “Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know” with keyboards, it’s clear from the moment he starts his vocals that this is the one and only Dinosaur Jr., long reigning kings of Amherst, Massachusetts (and anywhere else they choose to hang their toques).

I Bet on Sky is the third Dinosaur Jr. album since the original trio – J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph – reformed in 2005. And, crazily, it marks the band’s 10th studio album since their debut on Homestead Records in 1985. Back in the ‘80s, if anyone has suggested that these guys would be performing and recording at such a high level 27 years later, they would have been laughed out of the tree fort. The trio’s early shows were so full of sonic chaos, such a weird blend of aggression and catatonia that we all assumed they would flame out fast. But the joke was on us.

The trio has taken everything they’ve learned from the various projects they 
tackled over the years, and poured it directly into their current mix. J’s guitar approaches some of its most unhinged playing here, but there’s a sense of instrumental control that matches the sweet murk of his vocals (not that he always remembers to exercise control on stage, but that’s another milieu). This is headbobbing riff-romance at the apex. Lou’s basswork shows a lot more melodicism now as well, although his two songs on I Bet on Sky retain the jagged rhythmic edge that has so often marked his work. And Murph…well, he still pounds the drums as hard and as strong as a pro wrestler, with deceptively simple structures that manage to 
interweave themselves perfectly with his bandmates’ melodic explosions.

After submerging myself in I Bet on Sky, it’s clear that the album is a true and worthy addition to the Dinosaur Jr. discography. It hews close enough to rock formalism to please the squares. Yet it is brilliantly imprinted with the trio’s magical equation, which is a gift to the rest of us. For a combo that began as anomalous fusion of hardcore punk and pop influences, Dinosaur Jr. have proven themselves to be unlikely masters of the long game. Their new album is a triumph of both form and function. And it augurs well for their future trajectory. If I were prone to wagering, 
I’d say their best days are yet ahead of them. And yeah. I would bet the sky on it.
--Byron Coley

Contact: bhtm@7Smgmt.com

Founded in Colorado in 1986, Big Head Todd and the Monsters (BHTM) catapulted out of the mountain states and into the national spotlight. With chart-topping singles and engaging live shows, BHTM has sold over three million albums and packed major venues worldwide, including selling out their home state's historic Red Rocks Amphitheatre seven times, most recently in 2012. Most importantly, they've done it the old-fashioned way: with excellent songwriting, scorching guitar and fearless genre melding.

The band's last release was 2011's 100 Years Of Robert Johnson. Joined by special guests including B.B. King, Charlie Musselwhite, Hubert Sumlin, David "Honeyboy" Edwards and more, BHTM paid tribute to the blues legend both in the studio and on the road. The band recently recorded a new studio album in Chicago, set for release in 2014, with producer Steve Jordan (Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens) and engineer Niko Bolas (Neil Young, Warren Zevon).

On 2012's "Last Summer on Earth Tour," BHTM played some of the nation's biggest arenas alongside Barenaked Ladies and Blues Traveler. In August 2012, the band presented its inaugural Ride Festival in Telluride, CO. The lineup included Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams and The Lumineers, among others. At the 2nd Annual Ride Festival in July 2013, the lineup featured David Byrne and St. Vincent, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cake and more. 

BHTM are giving their fans exactly what they want in 2013: cross-country stops at intimate theaters, and two full sets every night. This summer BHTM is headlining the inaugural LP Tour which recently included a show at the baseball stadium Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins. The longevity of BHTM's career is a testament to the quality of the music. More than a quarter of a century later, fans are still convinced that the best is yet to come.

Contact: mcc@7Smgmt.com

Songs From The Movie, with its compelling orchestral reinvention of classic Mary Chapin Carpenter compositions, is an artistic landmark for the beloved singer-songwriter. Collaborating with Composer/Arranger and Producer Vince Mendoza (Sting, Diana Krall, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell) and working once again with Co-Producer Matt Rollings (Keith Urban, Lyle Lovett), Carpenter’s new record harkens to her love of classic film and symphonic music.

Citing as inspiration such seminal film composers as Elmer Bernstein and Thomas Newman, and contemporary symphonic composers like Tobias Picker and Morten Lauridsen, Carpenter had long imagined this project but it wasn’t until she had the chance to work with Mendoza that it came to fruition.

The result reprises ten of Carpenter’s songs in Mendoza’s distinctively beautiful and cinematic arrangements – thus the album title that gathers them together – to give the listener the continuum of a film soundtrack, albeit an imaginary one.

The album was recorded at London’s legendary AIR Studios, with a 63-piece orchestra, and a 15-voice choir. “Part of the challenge of this new musical setting was to find the right approach to singing each song,” Carpenter says. “Singing with an orchestra is very different from singing with a band. I had to learn to ride the enormous wave of sound an orchestra produces but not over sing at the same time. Finding a quiet voice while still conveying strength was the way in.”

From “Come On Come On” to “On And On It Goes” to “I Am A Town” and “Goodnight America,” the record finds this multi-platinum album selling, multi-Grammy winner, two-time CMA Female Vocalist, and member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame still breaking new ground, giving us a record unlike any of her others. “I grew up in a house where film soundtracks and classical music played constantly because my mother loved them so,” Carpenter says, as a way to explain how she came to this project. “Recording at AIR Studios in London was magical and working with Vince as he transformed my songs with his arrangements was an extraordinary artistic experience. I feel so fortunate to have been given this chance to do something so different from what I have done in the past and what I expect to do in the future.”

That level of excitement and fearless creativity has been a common thread throughout Mary Chapin Carpenter’s two-and-a-half-decade recording career, during which she’s sold more than 13 million records and developed a remarkably loyal and devoted international fan base.

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Carpenter began playing guitar and writing songs early in life, and was playing her songs in D.C. clubs before she was out of her teens. Word of Carpenter’s talents eventually reached Nashville, winning her a deal with Columbia Records, which released her 1987 debut album, Hometown Girl.

Her debut disc set the stage for the success of 1989’s State of the Heart and 1990’s Shooting Straight in the Dark, each of which produced four Top 20 hits, including the Grammy-winning smash “Down at the Twist and Shout.” Those releases were followed by the massive commercial breakthrough of 1992’s Come On Come On, which was certified quadruple platinum and yielded no less than seven charting singles.

More success followed with such albums as the platinum Stones in the Road, A Place in the World, Time* Sex* Love* and Between Here and Gone. Carpenter moved to Rounder/Zoë in time for 2007’s Grammy-nominated The Calling, which was followed by the seasonally themed Come Darkness Come Light: 12 Songs of Christmas, the Grammy-nominated The Age of Miracles and Ashes and Roses.

Along the way, Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, was named the Country Music Association’s Female Vocalist of the Year in 1992 and 1993 and in 2012 was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Her compositions have also been covered by a diverse assortment of artists including Joan Baez, Wynonna Judd, Cyndi Lauper, Trisha Yearwood, Maura O’Connell, Mary Black and Dianne Reeves and has also collaborated, on record and/or on stage, with the likes of Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin, Dolly Parton, the Indigo Girls and Tony Bennett.

Following the January 2014 debut of the album with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the prestigious Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Carpenter will appear as a guest with orchestras in the U.S. and the U.K. throughout 2014.

Contact: DenverEstate@7smgmt.com

One of the world’s best-known and best-loved performers, John Denver earned international acclaim as a songwriter, performer, actor, environmentalist and humanitarian. Denver’s career spanned four decades and his music has outlasted countless musical trends and garnered numerous awards and honors.

The son of a U.S. Air Force officer, Denver’s artistic journey began at age eleven when he was given his grandmother’s guitar. Denver eventually took guitar lessons and joined a boys’ choir, which led him at age twenty to pursue his dream of a career in music.

In 1963 he struck out on his own, moving to Los Angeles to be in the heart of the burgeoning music scene. It was during this time that Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. was urged by friends to change his name if a recording career was to be in his future. He took his stage name from the beautiful capital city of his favorite state, Colorado. Later in life, Denver and his family settled in Aspen, Colorado and his love for the Rocky Mountains inspired many of his songs.

John Denver experienced his first major break in the music industry when he was chosen from 250 other hopefuls as lead singer for the popular Mitchell Trio. Two years and three albums later, Denver had honed his considerable vocal talent and developed his own songwriting style. He gained recognition when his song “Leaving On A Jet Plane” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, becoming their first and only number one hit. As the Mitchell Trio disbanded, Denver was climbing up the pop charts as a solo act with songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Sunshine On My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song,” “Back Home Again,” “Thank God I’m A Country Boy,” and “Calypso,” solidifying his position as one of the top stars of the 1970s.

By his third album in 1970, Denver’s social and political leanings were defined more clearly. Denver was one of the first artists to share an environmental message through his music, beginning with the song “Whose Garden Was This?” This was the first in a long line of songs that he wrote about the environment.

Denver contributed his talents to the benefit of many charitable and environmental causes and received numerous civic and humanitarian awards over the years. Fans responded to his heartfelt urgings about ecology, peace, and compassion that were consistently delivered in a gentle manner on his records and at live performances.

His passion to help create a global community paved the way for ventures into new musical and geographic territories. In 1985 he was invited by the Soviet Union of Composers to perform in the USSR, inspiring the internationally acclaimed song “Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?).” The powerful video for “Let Us Begin” moved viewers around the world.

“I thought that I might be able to do something to further the cause of East/West understanding… The Russians say that the first swallow of spring won’t make the weather for the whole season, but it can mark the turn toward a warmer climate. I tried to be that swallow.”

The success of his visit lead to a concert tour of the USSR in 1986. These were the first performances by an American artist since the Cold War began – an unprecedented cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. He returned to the USSR in 1987 to do a benefit concert for the victims of Chernobyl.

Denver was also the first artist from the West to do a multi-city tour of mainland China, in October 1992. He was somewhat astonished to discover how popular and well known his songs were in China. “‘Country Roads,’” he was told, “is the most famous song written in the West.”

Denver was a true adventurer, exploring all that the world had to offer. Throughout his life’s journey he challenged himself on every level, which is an integral part of what made him an extraordinary man, an uncommon friend and a rare human being.

While the frontiers of the American West satisfied his spirit, less-traveled frontiers appealed to his imagination. Denver was an experienced airplane pilot and collected vintage biplanes. His interest in outer space was so great that he took and passed NASA’s examination to determine mental and physical fitness needed for space travel. He then became a leading candidate to be the “first civilian in space” on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Denver planned to write a song in space, but circumstances kept him from joining the ill-fated expedition, which saddened the world when it exploded during take-off in 1986.

Among his many gifts, Denver was also a talented photographer. He photographed images of the people and places he experienced in his travels and showed his work professionally, often in connection with speeches made at colleges and universities as well as government and business facilities across the country.

Many of Denver’s songs reflected his relationship with nature and indeed, one of his greatest pleasures was spending time outdoors. He spent as much time as possible backpacking, hiking, climbing and fishing. He was an avid golfer and skier, regularly participating in celebrity charity events for both sports.

John Denver died tragically in a plane crash on October 12, 1997. He was survived by his brother Ron, mother Erma and three children, Zak, Anna Kate and Jesse Belle.

On March 12, 2007, Colorado’s Senate passed a resolution to make Denver’s trademark 1972 hit “Rocky Mountain High” one of the state’s two official state songs, sharing duties with its predecessor, “Where the Columbines Grow.”

Today, millions of fans old and new enjoy the work of this extraordinary performer. Thirty albums and four decades after he began, John Denver’s music is as relevant as ever. His humanitarian work continues to strengthen our global village, and his dynamic celebration of life, spirit and nature is a powerful inspiration to us all.

Contact: galactic@7Smgmt.com

It's incredible that Galactic has never made a carnival album yet, but now it’s here.

To make Carnivale Electricos, the members of Galactic (Ben Ellman, harps and horns; Robert Mercurio, bass; Stanton Moore, drums and percussion; Jeff Raines, guitar; Rich Vogel, keyboards) draw on the skills, stamina, and funk they deploy in the all-night party of their annual Lundi Gras show that goes till sunrise and leads sleeplessly into Mardi Gras day.

Galactic was formed eighteen years ago in New Orleans, and they cut their teeth playing the biggest party in America: Mardi Gras, when the town shuts down entirely to celebrate. Carnivale Electricos is beyond a party record. It’s a carnival record that evokes the electric atmosphere of a whole city – make that, whole cities – vibrating together all on the same day, from New Orleans all down the hemisphere to the mighty megacarnivals of Brazil. Armed with a slew of carnival-ready guests—including Cyril and Ivan Neville, Mystikal, Mannie Fresh, Moyseis Marques, Casa Samba, the KIPP Renaissance High School Marching Band, and Al "Carnival Time" Johnson (who remakes his all-time hit)—Galactic whisks the listener around the neighborhoods to feel the Mardi Gras moment in all its variety of flavors.

Carnivale Electricos begins on a spiritual note, the way Mardi Gras does in the black community of New Orleans. On that morning, the most exciting experience you can have is to be present when the small groups of black men called Mardi Gras Indians perform their sacred street theater. Nobody embodies the spiritual side of Mardi Gras better than the Indians, whose tambourines and chants provide the fundament of New Orleans carnival music. These “gangs,” as they call them, organize around and protect the figure of their chief. The album’s keynote singer, Big Chief Juan Pardo, is, says Robert Mercurio, “one of the younger Chiefs out there, and he’s become one of the best voices of the new Chiefs. Pardo grew up listening to the singing of the older generation of Big Chiefs, points out Ben Ellman, and “he’s got a little Monk [Boudreaux], a little Bo Dollis, he’s neither uptown nor downtown.”

On “Karate,” says Ellman, the band was aiming to “capture the power” of one of the fundamental musical experiences of Mardi Gras: “a marching band passing by you.” The 40-piece KIPP Renaissance High School Marching Band’s director, Lionel "karate" Williams, arranged up Galactic's demo, then the band rehearsed it until they had it all memorized. The kids poured their hearts into a solid performance, and, says Mercurio, “I think they were surprised” to hear how good they sounded on the playback.

Musical energy is everywhere at carnival time. “You hear the marching bands go by,” says Mercurio, moving us through a Mardi Gras day, “and then you hear a lot of hiphop.” There hasn’t been a Mardi Gras for twenty years that hasn’t had a banging track by beatmaker / rapper Mannie Fresh sounding wherever you go. “You can’t talk about New Orleans hip-hop without talking about Mannie Fresh,” says Ellman. His beats have powered literally tens of millions of records, and he and Galactic have been talking for years about doing something together. On “Move Fast,” he’s together with multiplatinum gravel-voiced rapper Mystikal, who is, says Ellman, “somebody we’ve wanted to collaborate with forever. It was a coup for us.”

Out in the streets of New Orleans, you might well hear a funky kind of samba, reaching southward toward the other end of the hemispheric carnival zone. There has for the last twenty-five years been a smoking Brazilian drum troupe in town: Casa Samba formed at Mardi Gras in 1986. They’re old friends of Galactic's from their early days at Frenchmen Street’s Café Brasil, and the two groups joined forces for a new version of Carlinhos Brown’s “Magalenha,” previously a hit for Sérgio Mendes.

But the Brazilian influence on Carnivale Electricos goes beyond one song. “When we started this album, we all immersed ourselves in Brazilian music and let it get into our souls,” says Mercurio. The group contributed three Brazilian-flavored instrumentals, including “JuLou,” which riffs on an old Brazilian tune, though the name refers to the brass-funk Krewe of Julu, the “walking krewe” that Galactic members participate in on Mardi Gras morning. After creating the hard-driving track that became “O Côco da Galinha,” they decided it would be right for Moyséis Márquez, from the São Paulo underground samba scene, who collaborated with them and composed the lyric.

If you were Galactic and you were making a carnival album, wouldn’t you want to play “Carnival Time,” the irrepressibly happy 1960 perennial from the legendary Cosimo Matassa studio? Nobody in New Orleans doesn’t know this song. The remake features a new performance in the unmistakable voice of the original singer, Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, who’s still active around town more than fifty years after he first gained Mardi Gras immortality.

The closing instrumental, “Ash Wednesday Sunrise,” evokes the edginess of the post-party feeling. The group writes, “There is the tension you feel on that morning -- one of being worn out from all of the festivities and one of elation that you made it through another year.”

But, as New Orleanians know, there’s always another carnival to look forward to, and Galactic will be there, playing till dawn and then going to breakfast before parading.

Galactic is a collaborative band with a unique format. It’s a stable quintet that plays together with high musicianship. They’ve been together so long they’re telepathic. But though the band hasn’t had a lead singer for years, neither is it purely an instrumental group. Galactic is part of a diverse community of musicians, and in their own studio, with Mercurio and Ellman producing, they have the luxury of experimenting. So on their albums, they do something that’s unusual in rock but not so controversial an idea in, say, hiphop: they create something that’s a little like a revue, a virtual show featuring different vocalists (mostly from New Orleans) and instrumental soloists each taking their turn on stage in the Galactic sound universe.

Mostly the band creates new material in collaboration with its many guests, though they occasionally rework a classic. Despite the appearance of various platinum names on Galactic albums, they especially like to work with artists who are still underground. If you listen to Carnivale Electricos together with the two previous studio albums (Ya-Ka-May and From The Corner To The Block, you’ll hear the most complete cross-section of what’s happening in contemporary New Orleans anywhere – all of it tight and radio-ready.

Despite the electronics and studio technology, Galactic's albums are very much band records. Mercurio explained the Galactic process, which starts out with the beat: “The way we write music,” he says, “we come up with a demo, or a basic track, and then we collectively decide how we’re gonna finish it.” The result is a hard-grooving sequence of tight beats across a range of styles that glides from one surprise to the next.

What pulls all the diverse artists on Carnivale Electricos together into a coherent album is that one way or another, it’s all funk. Galactic is, always was, and always will be a funk band. Whatever genre of music anyone in New Orleans is doing, from Mardi Gras Indians to rock bands to hardcore rappers, it’s all funk at the bottom, because funk is the common musical language, the lingua franca of New Orleans music. Even zydeco can be funky -- and if you don’t believe it, check out “Voyage Ton Flag,” the album’s evocation of Cajun Mardi Gras, in which Mamou Playboy Steve Riley meets up with a sampled Clifton Chenier inside the Galactic funk machine.

Contact: nathanielrateliff@7smgmt.com

Singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff has made his way from modest means in Hermann, Missouri to the international stage with the release of his second record: Falling Faster Than You Can Run. Since the release of his debut album (2010’s In Memory of Loss) Rateliff has circled the globe playing hundreds of shows from headlining clubs and theaters to key festivals slots. Rateliff and his band have also toured in support of the some of the biggest bands in the world such as Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers. Nathaniel has also shared the stage with diverse array of highly respected acts such as Bon Iver, Wilco, Indigo Girls, CAKE, the Fray, Tallest Man on Earth, Delta Spirit, Mason Jennings, Jessica Lea Mayfield, Laura Marling, Ben Howard and others. In 2011 Rateliff appeared on the hugely popular show “Later… With Jools Holland” and was given 4-Star reviews in major UK magazines Mojo, Uncut and Q. Nathaniel has been seen in the “New to Q” feature in Q magazine (UK), the New York Times, Rolling Stone (Germany), London Times, Paste Magazine, etc. 

Contact: nma@7smgmt.com

North Mississippi Allstars formed in 1996; the product of a special time for modern Mississippi hill country blues. Brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson soaked up the music of their father, Memphis legend Jim Dickinson, and absorbed the North Mississippi legacy while playing and shaking it down in the juke joints with their blues ancestors. R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Otha Turner and their musical families were at their peak, making classic records and touring the world. Eventually, Luther (guitar, vocals) and Cody (drums, vocals) formed the North Mississippi Allstars and pioneered their own brand of blues-infused rock and roll.

The North Mississippi Allstars released their debut album, Shake Hands With Shorty, in the spring of 2000. Their debut proved to be a success and earned them a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Contemporary Blues Album’.  After earning 2 more Grammy nominations in the same category for 51 Phantom (2001) and Electric Blue Watermelon (2005), the North Mississippi Allstars earned the reputation as one of the most intriguing acts to emerge from the loam of Southern blues and roots rock.  

In 2008, after five studio albums and more than a decade touring together, the Dickinsons decided to branch out and pursue other projects. In 2009 Luther teamed up with Alvin Youngblood Hart and Jimbo Mathus to form the South Memphis String Band.  The trio has toured across the country and released two albums since then. In 2012, Luther formed The Wandering, a five-piece folk band featuring Shannon McNally, Amy LaVere, Valerie June and Sharde Thomas (Otha Turner’s granddaughter), and released their debut record Go On Now, You Can’t Stay Here.  He also recorded and released a solo acoustic album, Hambone’s Meditations, which received a 2013 Grammy nomination for ‘Best Folk Album’.

Meanwhile, Cody broadened the scope of his musical career and became what one might call an artistic entrepreneur in the fields of music, film and TV. Cody has contributed to several major motion picture soundtracks, including Barnyard, Snoop’s Hood of Horror, and Black Snake Moan.  He had a recurring role on MTV’s $5 Dollar Cover series and appears in G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation. As a producer Cody has worked with a wide range of musicians including Lucero, Cisco Adler, and Les Claypool. He also produced British blues guitarist Ian Siegal’s last 2 albums, The Skinny (2011) and Candystore Kid (2012), both of which were nominated for ‘Best Contemporary Blues Album’ at the annual Blues Music Awards.  Despite all his work as a producer, Cody continues to be one of the industry’s premier drummers, demonstrated by his 2013 Blues Music Awards nomination in the ‘Best Instrumentalist/Drums’ category. 

The brothers reunited in 2010 to record Keys to the Kingdom after the passing of their father. Jim had always told them, “You need to be playing music together. You are better together than you will ever be apart.”  Inspired by his words, Luther and Cody went into the family’s home recording studio Zebra Ranch, to create a record that could help them cope with the loss and rejoice in his honor.

Most recently, Luther and Cody have toured extensively with Robert Plant & The Band of Joy, headlined major festivals and toured internationally as a headliner and with Ian Siegal as part of The Mississippi Mudbloods. They also released two live bootleg records, 2011’s Live in the Hills and 2012’s Live in the Hills Volume II, both recorded at the annual North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in Potts Camp, MS.

The North Mississippi Allstars are at times joined by Lightnin' Malcolm, Alvin Youngblood Hart, the legendary Chris Chew, and a host of other talented musicians. 

Luther and Cody continually expand the tradition of the Mississippi hill country blues that has inspired them from the beginning, but as Rolling Stone aptly notes, “the Allstars may be children of tradition, but they’re digging deep in undiscovered country”. 

In 2013 the North Mississippi Allstars released their new career-defining record World Boogie Is Coming.  The album marked a return to the band’s blues-infused rock & roll roots and pays homage to hill country legends and songwriters like RL Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.  Produced at their own Zebra Ranch Studios in Hernando, MS and featuring special guest appearances by Robert Plant, Duwayne and Garry Burnside, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Sharde Thomas, Chris Chew, Steve Selvidge, Lightnin’ Malcolm and others, World Boogie Is Coming is the record that perfectly ties it all together, fusing all the elements that have made the Allstars special while pushing the band’s sound further into the future than ever before.

Contact: Luceromusic@7smgmt.com 

Look to your left. A young couple is passionately making out. To your right, two grizzled bearded gentlemen are getting drunk and rowdy, and singing loud as hell. And don’t forget to look up, because an old punk rocker has just launched himself from the stage. Welcome, you are at a Lucero show.

Over their 16 years together, the Memphis band has built up a fanbase that’s as diverse as it is rabid. Ask 50 Lucero fans what their favorite song is and you’ll get 50 different answers. Among the band’s 100-plus songs across nine albums and multiple EPs, there’s no universal fan favorite. “Each person makes Lucero their own thing,” says frontman Ben Nichols. “Everyone identifies with us for completely different reasons. For one reason or another, Lucero becomes a very personal band.” But the one thing that seems to unify Lucero fans of all kinds is the band’s all-or-nothing live show, and Live from Atlanta, the band’s latest live record, thoroughly captures that.

Live from Atlanta is a massive, career-spanning collection of songs recorded over three nights in Atlanta’s Terminal West. It’s a four-LP greatest hits collection of 32 tunes played the way they were meant to be heard, with all the distinguishing elements you’d hear at Lucero’s live show—horns, pianos, and the trademark instrument of the band’s live sound: whiskey-fueled audience sing-alongs. “When you listen to ‘Freebird,’ you’re not listening to the studio version. You’re wanting that 17-minute crazy one. That’s the one you think to go to,” says guitarist Brian Venable. “So we’re hoping with this record, you’ll finally get a version of ‘Tears Don’t Matter Much’ that you know.”

Lucero’s entire catalog, from 2000’s The Attic Tapes to 2013’s Texas & Tennessee EP, is represented on Live from Atlanta, which clocks in at over two impressive hours. “You should’ve seen us turn that record in,” laughs Venable. “They wanted an 88-minute live record. But we were like, ‘That’s just not a live Lucero show!”

“This was a nice chance to document what we’ve been doing recently,” says Nichols. “It’s very representative of what we’ve been doing live for the last couple of years. It’s a pretty good snapshot of where the band is right now.”

The album’s extensive assortment of songs proves that Lucero is a band for everyone. Parts country and parts folk with an added heaping of punk rock, the six-piece cover the musical gamut. Even the band members have varying opinions on how to define their sound. “We’re each playing in a completely different band. We’re on stage and each playing in our own Lucero. I’m not sure that’s how it works for other bands,” laughs Nichols.

However you see Lucero, Live from Atlanta will satisfy your needs, whether you’re in the drunk couple, one of the drunk and rowdy beardos, or the stagediving punk rocker. Whether you look towards slower Lucero songs to get you through tough times like “Nights Like These” or party jams like “All Sewn Up,” Live from Atlanta has got you covered. It might even make fans out of non-believers (especially if they like whiskey). Because like bassist John C. Stubblefield always says, “Lucero loves you.”

Contact: shakeygraves@7smgmt.com

Recently described as an “antifolk phenomenon” by NPR Music, Alejandro Rose-Garcia (aka Shakey Graves) is one of those rare artists whose music, after one listen, inspires the kind of obsessive devotion that compels someone to spend hours searching for more. Fans eagerly wait for the next track to surface online, erratically released from his closely-guarded collection of unheard bedroom recordings and live rarities.

But as word of his haunting, at times bizarre, lo-fi recordings and contrastingly explosive live shows continues to spread, Shakey Graves is quickly rising from obscurity into the national spotlight. His debut full-length LP Roll the Bones consistently remains near the top of Bandcamp’s digital “best-seller” charts more than two years after its release, relying on little more than word of mouth for promotion. New listeners around the world discover his music every day, often through a series of stunning live performance videos on YouTube, which have collectively racked up well over half a million hits.

Following recent breakout performances at CMJ and SXSW, critics are starting to catch on, too. With a live performance style that The New York Times recently described as making the “one-man band approach look effortless,” Shakey stomps out rhythms on a handmade kickdrum built from an old suitcase, laying the foundation for “precise fingerpicking and raw, whiskey-soaked vocals” (Consequence of Sound).

In his hometown of Austin, TX, Shakey’s shows are the stuff of legend. Recently featured on the cover of Austin Monthly Magazine, the Mayor has even given him his own local holiday. February 9th is officially proclaimed “Shakey Graves Day” in Austin.

Shakey Graves has a huge year ahead of him, including nationwide tour dates, festival bookings and an upcoming live album release. He’s also putting the finishing touches on his sophomore studio album, with a release date TBA.

Contact: andersosborne@7Smgmt.com

Fiery anthems and tumultuous confessional songs punctuated with raw, inspired guitar.
--USA TODAY 

Rich and glorious…Osborne possesses a voice that rises out of the darkness to the light of a soulful, tremulous wail. He is a consummate showman and shaman, bending successive moments to suit his majestic purposes. Osborne seeks an epic quality to much of his music, crafting layer upon layer of hugely scaled soundscapes.…never lazily derivative…every slashing guitar figure, every cry of a lyric, seems to come from an authentic place.
--New Orleans Times-Picayune

Between the potency of his richly detailed songwriting, his intensely emotional, soulful vocals and his piercing, expert guitar work, New Orleans’ Anders Osborne is a true musical treasure. He is among the most original and visionary musicians writing and performing today. Guitar Player calls him “the poet laureate of Louisiana’s fertile roots music scene.” New Orleans' Gambit Weekly recently honored Osborne as the Entertainer Of The Year. OffBeat named him the Crescent City’s Best Guitarist for the third year in a row, and the Best Songwriter for the second straight year. Osborne also won Song Of The Year for his composition, Louisiana Gold.

Since the release of his 2010 Alligator Records debut, American Patchwork, his 2012 follow-up, Black Eye Galaxy, and his critically acclaimed 2013 EP, Three Free Amigos, Osborne has earned hordes of new fans. He has toured virtually non-stop, either with his road-tested trio, as a solo artist, or as a guest with his countless musical admirers, including Toots and The Maytals, Stanton Moore, Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Keb Mo, The Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. He’s appeared on Galactic’s Ya-Ka-May album, and in 2011 produced and played on critically acclaimed albums by Tab Benoit, Johnny Sansone and Mike Zito.

Now Osborne delivers the next chapter of his spiritual odyssey, Peace. With the new CD, Osborne continues the journey started by American Patchwork and Black Eye Galaxy, emerging from a whirlwind of emotional chaos and moving toward a sense of inner peace. Recorded at Dockside Studios in Louisiana and produced by Osborne and Warren Riker, Peace looks at the title subject from all angles. Drawing strength and inspiration from his family and friends, Osborne created the most observational record of his career. According to Osborne, “Peace is light from darkness. The songs are written from the outside looking in. They are not making any judgments. I’m just stating facts. I’m writing from a brighter perspective. There’s less dusk and dark, and much more sunlight. The results are greater than I expected. The driving tones and sounds are free and natural. This is one of the coolest records I’ve ever made.” 

Since his recording debut in 1989, Osborne has written virtually all of his own material and contributed memorable songs to a wide variety of artists. Two tunes co-written by Osborne appear on Keb Mo’s Grammy-winning 1999 release Slow Down. Country superstar Tim McGraw scored a #1 hit with Anders’ song "Watch The Wind Blow By." Osborne’s compositions have been covered by artists as diverse as Brad Paisley, Tab Benoit, Jonny Lang and Kim Carnes. His songs have appeared in multiple feature films. He can also be seen performing in an episode of HBO’s New Orleans-based drama, Treme.

Contact: billkreutzmann@7smgmt.com

Drummer Bill Kreutzmann, best known as the steadfast heartbeat of the Grateful Dead from 1965 to 1995, has devoted his life to stretching and surpassing the percussive limits of music. Armed with his signature dynamic rhythm and uncanny subtlety, Kreutzmann’s lifetime pursuit has garnered him the reputation as an unequivocal, if enigmatic, backbeat. Enigmatic because, during his four decade career with the Grateful Dead, and even since then, Kreutzmann has let his sweet rhythm and undeniable musical charisma do the talking. And that’s right where he’s most comfortable. 

Bill's fate as a drummer was sealed the day he was kicked out of his sixth grade band class by the teacher who told him, “Billy, you can’t keep a beat.” This didn’t shut down his passion for playing drums; drumming is what he was meant to do. Relieved at no longer being forced to play music that couldn’t come close to the wailing R&B tracks his parents spun at home, the thirteen-year-old immediately hopped on his bike and headed for downtown Palo Alto in search of a drum teacher. Lee Anderson taught Billy how to play drums after Billy saw a sign on a music store offering $3 drum lessons. Bill later joined Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan in the Warlocks, precursor to The Grateful Dead. The Warlocks played their first real gig on May 5, 1965, two days before Bill's nineteenth birthday.

If such a thing as a psychedelic style of drumming exists, Kreutzmann arguably defined it in all its extended percussive energy. His preference for a shuffle rhythm, he reckons in retrospect, is rooted in an early passion for the music of Fats Domino and Ray Charles. “I like to turn corners rapidly,” Bill says. “I like to establish a feeling and then add radical or oblique juxtapositions to that feeling.”

Kreutzmann performed with the Grateful Dead until its dissolution following the passing of Garcia in 1995, making him one of four members to play at every one of the band's 3,500 shows, along with Garcia, Weir and Lesh. In 1996 Bill moved to Hawaii where he and Garcia had promised to relocate together should the Dead ever call it quits. He has lived on the island of Kaua‘i since.

His first post-Dead musical project was Backbone, a trio with guitarist Rick Barnett and bassist Edd Cook. They released a self-titled album in 1998.   That same year Kreutzmann joined Kaua'i bass player Calvin Schaeffer and Oahu guitarist Stephen Inglis to form the band House of Spirits. In 2002, Kreutzmann played and recorded with Sy Klopps, Ira Walker, and Ralph Woodson as the Trichromes. They released an EP, Dice with the Universe, and an album, Trichromes. Kreutzmann’s compelling musical dialogue continued in his potent trio project BK3, Bill Kreutzmann featuring bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt) and guitarist Scott Murawski (Max Creek). With BK3, Kreutzmann thoroughly enjoyed making music with such great players, and was driven by musical chemistry that is simply “over the top.” In 2010, Kreutzmann began touring extensively with his band 7 Walkers with guitarist/vocalist Papa Mali, legendary New Orleans bassist George Porter Jr., and multi-instrumentalist Matt Hubbard and The Rhythm Devils.

When he’s not playing music, Bill devotes much of his energy to surfing, kayaking, and other aspects of the life aquatic. His 1994 video, Ocean Spirit, documents a diving expedition to Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands. An outspoken supporter of protecting the world’s oceans, Kreutzmann is active in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Save Japan Dolphins Campaign and is part of a new movement to raise awareness about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Bill is also a talented cyber-artist. His artwork has been shown at Colorado’s Walnut Street Gallery and can be purchased online.  He is also a farmer. Orchids, he asserts, are the world's smartest plants. “I just tie them up on a palm tree with some wire, and pretty soon the roots surround the tree and cover it in flowers. It's gorgeous.” He’s started growing puakenikeni, a fragrant flower used to make Hawaiian leis. And he recently built an “honesty” farm stand to sell the bushels of grapefruit and other consumables.
 

For Bill Kreutzmann, his drumming is a gift from something bigger than himself. He just helps it grow. But this time, it’s leaving a big mark on this planet

Contact: boombox@7smgmt.com

BoomBox, the electronic duo compromised of versatile producers, DJs, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalists Russ Randolph and Zion Rock Godchaux, recently released their first new studio album in 4 years, Filling In The Color, following 2010’s downriverelectric and 2006’s debut record Visions of Backbeat. Godchaux calls the new record “further evolved” from the bands’ signature sound, an electronic blend of soulful Rock and Blues based dance music incorporating Backbeat, Psychedelia and Funky House sounds.

The band created a majority of the album on the road over the past two years. “It was written mainly in transit – backstage, hotel rooms, and places like the interstate in different vehicles,” says Godchaux. A handful of tracks on the new album, including “Waiting Around” and “Dream“, incorporate live guitar riffs that were pulled from soundboard multi-tracks as the band experimented with the new tracks on the road. “There’s a live energy mixed in with that. A lot of the new tracks were developed in the live setting,” Randolph says. “And you’re recording that part with an audience in front of you, so it’s a totally different vibe than if it were just the two of us in the studio or hanging out at my house.”

The band returned to their hometown of Muscle Shoals, AL to complete the tracks at Randolph’s home studio. “90% of it was cut in the Shoals,” says Randolph. There was an added historical significance to recording in Muscle Shoals given it’s rich recording history, where legendary soul artists such as Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding once laid down records. “The history obviously has some bearing on the emotional tone of the creative process,” Randolph said.

While Filling In The Color draws from many influences in Randolph and Godchaux’s lives’, the record ultimately comes from an honest, personal place. “It comes down to a search for a certain sound,” says Godchaux, “a certain feel. It’s something we hear in our heads all the time. Forces from within are the driving, motivating factor in pointing this sound out to people.”

“We want the listener to be able to play the record front to back, not just a few tracks,” Godchaux said. “To enjoy the album as a whole. Day or night, happy or sad, from the speaker on their phone to the thumping sound system. We are song makers. That’s what we do. And this record should be confirmation that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing with our lives.”

Contact: thecentennial@7Smgmt.com

Patrick, Tiffany, and Nathan Meese began performing as The Centennial in the Spring of 2010. Joined by Joseph Pope III (Born in The Flood, Miss America) and Adam Blake (The Films) the band celebrated the release of their first full-length album, Nervous System, in January 2013. 

The Denver based group has a deep rooted love for the Colorado music scene. Patrick and Nathan founded the pop-rock band "Meese" in 2004 and went on to release an album under Atlantic Records. After deciding to end the project due to lack of good times, Patrick's wife Tiffany joined the brothers in the studio and the trio adopted a new sound and aesthetic. 

"It was time for a fresh start," says Patrick. "...and after we started The Centennial, Nate and I were lucky enough to tour with some other great bands and see how they did things." 

In the past two years the brothers have performed with other Colorado based acts such as Nathaniel Rateliff, Tennis, Gregory Alan Isakov, Churchill and The Epilougues. "I think each tour has helped shape our band into something closer to how I always imagined it." 

The Centennial draw their musical style from a mixture of styles and sounds. Patrick and Tiffany front the band and share the lead vocal responsibities. Their soaring harmonies, joined by spacious synths and driving guitars, create a sound similar to the heavens opening up and angels spitting in your ears. 

But growing up as children of the 90's means having to rock a bit as well. 

"The new record is intentionally not as mellow as the first EP we put out. In a lot of ways this project is figuring itself out. The new record is a big step." 

Contact: damianabraham@7smgmt.com

Damian is a normal dude with average to below average musical ability that through a series of fortunate events has found himself fronting a Polaris winning, critically lauded punk band called Fucked Up and hosting the acclaimed (albeit sparsely viewed) The Wedge on Much Music. Despite this success, he remains firmly planted in the knowledge that it can be fleeting and thus finds stability from his growing family and growing record collection. 

Contact: thedandywarhols@7smgmt.com 

Outlaw Exits – Escaping the Machine.

Brent DeBoer never meant to turn road agent, I swear.  I knew that man better than anybody alive, and he had a heart bigger than the motherlode at Tombstone.  But it’s hard on a man, coming up the way he did, all hardscrabble and hand-to-mouth from just about the time he could walk.  He wasn’t no more than a boy, really, when he worked his first round-up over in Lincoln county, but he came back a man, and I should know, I seen enough to know the difference.  That round-up put dollars in his pocket for the first time in his life, and more than that, it got him a reputation around the other cowhands.  I don’t know what he did in those weeks exactly, but there was a new Colt on his hip at the end of it and something different in his face, and when he took his shirt off that night upstairs at Meg’s Place there was a scar went right across his chest like lightning in a Wyoming sky.  I didn’t see a lot of him after that – he was on cattle drives and working the ranches all across the territory. But I heard the stories just like everyone else, and I didn’t want to believe them, but I could see why they might be true.  He’d come see me sometimes, when he had the money for it.  He never went with any of the other girls, at least not the ones in Meg’s Place, and he’d always treat me real nice, so no matter what stories they told, I knew there was that little part of him hadn’t changed.  But then, when the range war came, he went with the Regulators, and that turned his heart just about black.  I could feel it in him, one time he sneaked a visit, it was like range wire strung tight through every muscle in his body.  Anyhow, after the army came to Lincoln in the summer and the Regulators scattered, Brent got out with the Mexicans and I thought I’d never see him again.  But he sneaked back one last time to see me in the Autumn.  Garrett and his murderers were still chasing Billy McCarty and Tom O’Folliard and some of the others, but I think they’d forgotten about Brent.  That made it easier for him, and so did the storm there was that night, beating rain like Noah’s own flood and lightning like that scar on his chest.  He had this wild look in his eyes the whole time, and he was talking strange, wouldn’t tell me what his plans were, just kept saying over and over that he’d “found some people” and he was “headed for the pines”. 

He rode out after midnight and that was the last time I ever set eyes on him.  Some say as how the U.S. Marshall killed him all the way up in Multnomah county the following year, but no-one I knew ever saw the body, and I did not believe that tale.

Brent DeBoer – taken by the Autumn Carnival October 14th 1879 

*

Zia McCabe walked into my life about the same time my luck was walking out.  That’s the way it always seemed, anyhow, and that’s about the way I told it to the Feds when they finally showed up asking.  They’d been on her tail a solid six months by then, sniffing along a jagged little line of stick ups and bank jobs Dillinger would have been proud to call his own, if he hadn’t been shot dead the summer before.  So I told them what I knew – this Zia dame blows into my office late one autumn afternoon, stands there in the stripes of low sunlight coming through the blinds, five eight in flat heel boots and a raincoat with the collar turned up.  She had a deflated-looking carpet bag in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other, and she said she needed to find “a friend” down in the Tenderloin.  I looked in her face, into eyes like holes in target practice paper, I looked at the way she stood, and then at the smoke coming off that coffin nail, and it wasn’t too hard to figure a .32 in that hand instead.  I didn’t buy the line about a friend, no-one out of diapers would have.  But these days I just do what they pay me to do, and she paid in rubber-band-wrapped cash, half my fee up front and no quibbles or batted eyelashes to drive down the price, right out of the bottom of that carpet bag.  Looked to me like she was down to the last couple of bundles too.  So I took the job.  I shook down some known faces, kicked in a couple of doors and told her what I found behind them.  Not long after that, her friend turned up behind a name you’ve probably heard.  It was in all the papers for a while.  They found him lying face down in a drain over on Russian hill, plugged three times in the chest and once in the back of the head. Whoever did it was making sure, and it was a .38 Smith that did the damage, which I guess goes to show you can’t always trust first impressions. Anyhow, the night before all that made the Chronicle’s front page, Zia shows up in my office again and asks me to pour her a shot in a voice that misses steady by less than an inch.  She knocks the liquor right back and wipes her mouth like she’s trying to clean something off.  Then she pays me the balance out of that same carpet bag, which, I got to say, is suddenly looking a lot fatter than it did.  When I offer her another pour, she tells me I’m sweet, but she’s heading up to Portland, got to meet some people there.  And she walks away.

They tell me the feds found her car parked up on a forest track off route 99, just over the state line into Oregon, but she wasn’t in it.  And nor was that carpet bag.”

Zia McCabe - taken by the Autumn Carnival September 7th 1935  

*

Courtney Taylor-Taylor?  Oh hell, yeah, I remember him.  Came from money, they say, some trust fund clan up north, but that first night I met him, at this big Redondo beach cook-out, he just looked like another fucking beach bum.  Pair of baggies hanging down past the crack in his ass, this bleached out T-shirt with, like, something French written on it, and just one sandal.  There was some story about what happened to the other one, everybody was busted up laughing about it.  Everyone in Redondo had stories that year, but mostly they were about getting busted by the cops, for possession or protesting the war or like that.  I remember that Taylor-Taylor cat listening to one of those hippie sad luck tales and when it was done, he just smiled and toked hard and said – in, like, that tight, hold-the-smoke-down voice – trick is, you don’t want to get busted…  And then he lets the smoke up, lets it out like a sigh and says, quiet and all husked up, like his voice was smoke too you gotta see the heat coming right around the curve of the world.  And I remember his eyes kind of glittered in the firelight when he said it, and – I mean, it was a warm night, man – I could feel like this chill at the back of my neck.  Or maybe it was just the weed, coz that was some wicked shit we were hitting that night.  Anyhow, I asked around about Taylor-Taylor the next couple of days, and it was weird.  See, everyone knew him, but when you got right down to what they knew, well, there wasn’t a whole lot.  Word was he had a gig running that weed down from the Anderson valley in some hot-rod Mustang that Spider Ed Murdoch tore down and re-built for him.  The weed was his trademark, everyone talked it up, though the story went he could get you pretty much anything else you wanted if the price was right.  Had some big name customers too - I heard he knew Morrison, Richards, the Dead, the Airplane, like that.  And next time I run into him, sure enough, it’s up in the Hollywood hills at some big shot movie producer’s party, out by the pool.  He looks at me funny too, like he’s maybe heard I was asking about him.  But he hands me the joint he’s got and it’s that Anderson valley primo again.  He asks me if I ever wonder if there’s more than one of us, and when I laugh, faking more stoned than I am, and say thar there’s two of us right here, he shakes his head, like, irritated, and says more than one version of us, man.  Like you could go back or forward or…something.  Then he’s quiet for a while, just smoking, so I ask him about the weed like I’m supposed to, and he gives me this weird smile and drops a ton of information on me about how he’s gotta do this big run Sunday.  I thought it was weird at the time, I mean, it was like he was speaking for the microphone or something, like he just knew.  When I tell him to save me some, maybe I can unload it for him around Redondo, he just gives me this sad look and he says it’s all gonna go bad, man.  Couple of years more at most.  And before I can ask him what the fuck that means, he walks away, through the pool light and into the dark in the garden.

Well, the rest you know, right?  The big run that never was.  They watched for that Mustang all Sunday and into the week, but it never showed.  Got some eye witness put it near Klamath Monday night, but that was never, like you guys say, substantiated, right?  Thought I saw him backstage at Altamont in ’69, but he was turned away, talking to one of the Angels and….nah, couldn’t have been.  Couldn’t be.  He was long gone by then.  Long gone.  You could sort of feel it.

Courtney Taylor-Taylor – taken by the Autumn Carnival September 28th 1967

* 

What I am about to tell you is classified at national security level, so you’d better turn that thing off.  Pete Holmström shows up exactly seven times in the records for Operation Sundevil, no mention even remotely useful for prosecution, and there’s a reason for that.  Guy’s a fucking ghost.  You hear about him, but he’s never there.  Even the archive photos we have of him, it’s like he’s always on the edge of the group, always turning away, or his face is in shadow.  We think he was part of the team that knocked over the NSA database in ‘87, but there’s no evidence, and he walked.  We think he helped take down First National in Chicago the following year, but if he did, we never traced his share of the haul.  A lot of the hackers we offered immunity to after Sundevil talked Holmström up, like he was some kind of guru, but there was nothing we could use.  And when local PD kicked down his door in Portland on some probable cause we cooked up, he was gone, baby gone.  Rental apartment, bare walls, mattress on the floor next to a power socket.  The only stuff in there that didn’t belong to the landlady was a couple of trashy sci-fi novels by some guy I’ve never heard of, a bunch of papers with sketched schematics and equations on them that no-one in the team can decipher, and this fist-sized chunk of concrete someone was using for a paperweight.  Turns out it’s a piece of the Berlin Wall.  Oh, yeah, and he left a smiley sticker on the front door for us – neighbour says it definitely wasn’t there the day before. That was early ’91.  We all figured he’d lit out for Canada on a fake ID – end of story.  Then, one day that autumn, I’m on my way down the coast to a security consultants’ conference in Oakland and I stop for gas just outside Davis.  It’s a beautiful day, sunlight bouncing off the windshield and glinting on the paintwork, I get back in behind the wheel and he’s sitting there.  Face in shadow.  Had this cap over his eyes and a lumberjack shirt covering the Glock he was holding on me.  He tells me to turn around and head north, back the way I came.  Which I do.  We drive in total silence for about an hour before I tell him I’m surprised to see him, we all thought he’d crossed a border somewhere.  And he just looks at me oddly and says he has.  That’s all.  Goes back to staring out of the windshield at the road.  We drive all afternoon like that, he barely says a word the whole time, it’s like he has to keep reminding himself I’m really there.  I ask how he found me, have to ask him three times before he notices I spoke, and then he just says something about I’m some kind of test he has to pass. I tried talking him into giving himself up, he just shrugged.  Enforcement’s a busted paradigm, he said.  There’s too much space, too many alternatives.  You people have your fist wrapped around a grenade with the pin pulled.  Isn’t going to matter how hard you squeeze.  It was getting dark by then, we were over the state line and well into Oregon, and suddenly, middle of nowhere he tells me to pull over.  No town, no houses, just forest and night sky.  He grins and thanks me for the ride, slams the door and he’s gone, off into the trees.

It’s been ten years now, and nothing, no trace.  Like the forest swallowed him.

Only thing is….I sometimes think maybe I saw a glow he was heading towards, like from a camp-fire in the trees or something, and I’d swear I heard calliope music too.  But, hey, I was tired from that fucking drive, stressed out of my box, he had that Glock on me the whole time.  Gotta figure it’s just something I imagined.

Pete Holmström – taken by the Autumn Carnival October 21st 1991

Contact: DAS@7smgmt.com 

Dave Schools is a critically acclaimed bass player and founding member of American rock band Widespread Panic. He is also an accomplished producer, songwriter and journalist with articles published in a wide variety of music magazines. Schools lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife and two dogs; when not on tour he likes to garden.

Schools is an innovator on the bass with a non-traditional approach that has given him a unique voice on the instrument. With his primary band, Widespread Panic, he plays a six-string Modulus Quantum 6 bass that affords him a wide range of sounds that are further enhanced by an array of effects pedals. Influenced by an early desire to play drums and childhood piano lessons, Schools has deviated from, though not abandoned, the established rhythm role of the bass and created a more melodic, improvisational style that has been referred to as “lead bass.”

Contact: EDJ@7smgmt.com

Eric D. Johnson is a singer, songwriter, producer, film score composer and festival producer. He is most well known as the front man and sole permanent member of the band Fruit Bats, and as a multi-instrumentalist with The Shins and Califone.

In the late nineties, Johnson was an instructor at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music, teaching banjo and guitar. He also fronted his own short-lived space-rock outfit, I Rowboat, and had a solo four-track project called Fruit Bats.

In 2000, he began playing in the experimental folk ensemble Califone. The following year Fruit Bats' debut Echolocation was released on Perishable Records, Califone's label. Over the next decade, Fruit Bats would release several subsequent records on the Sub Pop imprint, and Johnson would continue his role as a supporting player with artists such as Sally Timms, Ugly Casanova, Vetiver, and The Shins. In 2013, Johnson announced that he would be retiring the Fruit Bats name with plans to continue performing under his own name.

Johnson founded the Huichica Music Festival in Sonoma, CA in 2010, in partnership with Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu Winery. The annual event has featured Fruit Bats, Vetiver, J Mascis and Blitzen Trapper among others.

Johnson's film scoring credits include Ceremony, the 2010 feature debut of writer/director Max Winkler, starring Uma Thurman and Michael Angarano and the 2011 movie Our Idiot Brother.

Contact: heathermaloney@7smgmt.com

Heather Maloney is a western Massachusetts based artist who has received numerous accolades for her startlingly soulful voice and literate songwriting exploring themes of spirituality, transformation, and impermanence. Critics are quickly discovering Maloney's talent with No Depression raving "Her music is riveting, her voice adventurous, her lyrics thought-provoking...” while Blurt Magazine wrote "Heather Maloney is one of the most talented tradition-based singer-songwriters I’ve heard in some time...the writing is stunning."

If there’s a typical path to becoming a songwriter, Maloney didn’t follow it. Although she went to school for music and had done plenty of singing, she only began writing tunes a few years ago after living and working for three years in a silent-retreat meditation center in central Massachusetts. “The biggest motivating factor in writing was probably the experiences that I was having here in my meditation practice,” she says. “There was the difficulty of it, the suffering of it, and wanting to channel that into something creative, and on the positive side, the insights that came out of my experiences.”

Maloney is primed for a breakout 2014. Her collaboration with Massachusetts-based indie folk quartet Darlingside, the Woodstock EP, garnered national attention with a New York Times feature for their cover of Joni Mitchell’s classic song, “Woodstock.” The EP will be released by Signature Sounds on March 11. Maloney will then embark on an expansive US tour and begin work on her next full-length album. 

Contact: JMascis@7smgmt.com

It’s all but inconceivable that J Mascis requires an introduction. In the quarter-century since he founded Dinosaur Jr., Mascis has created some of the era’s signature songs, albums and styles. As a skier, golfer, songwriter, skateboarder, record producer, and musician, J has few peers. The laconically-based roar of his guitar, drums and vocals have driven a long string of bands – Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Gobblehoof, Velvet Monkeys, the Fog, Witch, Sweet Apple – and he has guested on innumerable sessions. But Several Shades of Why is J’s first solo studio record, and it is an album of incredible beauty, performed with a delicacy not always associated with his work.

Recorded at Amherst Massachusetts’ Bisquiteen Studios, Several Shades is nearly all acoustic and was created with the help of a few friends. Notable amongst them are Kurt Vile, Sophie Trudeau (A Silver Mount Zion), Kurt Fedora (long-time collusionist), Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Pall Jenkins (Black Heart Procession), Matt Valentine (The Golden Road), and Suzanne Thorpe (Wounded Knees). Together in small mutable groupings, they conjure up classic sounds ranging from English-tinged folk to drifty, West Coast-style singer/songwriterism. But every track, every note even, bears that distinct Mascis watermark, both in the shape of the tunes and the glorious rasp of the vocals.

“Megan from Sub Pop has wanted me to do this record for a long time,” J says. “She was very into it when I was playing solo a lot in the early 2000s, around the time of the Fog album [2002's Free So Free]. She always wanted to know when I’d do a solo record. [Several Shades of Why] came out of that. There are a couple of songs that are older, but the rest is new this year. And it’s basically all acoustic. There’s some fuzz, but it’s acoustic through fuzz. There’re no drums on it, either. Just one tambourine song, that’s it. It was a specific decision to not have drums. Usually I like to have them, but going drum-less pushes everything in a new direction, and makes it easier to keep things sounding different.”

There is little evidence of stress on Several Shades of Why. The title track is a duet with Sophie Trudeau’s violin recalling Nick Drake’s work at its most elegant. "Not Enough" feels like a lost hippie-harmony classic from David Crosby’s If I Could Only Remember My Name. "Is It Done" rolls like one of the Grisman/Garcia tunes on American Beauty. "Very Nervous and Love" has the same rich vibe as the amazing rural side of Terry Reid’s The River. And on and on it goes. Ten brilliant tunes that quietly grow and expand until they fill your brain with the purest pleasure. What a goddamn great album.

by Byron Coley

Contact: jonathonboogielong@7smgmt.com

From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jonathon "Boogie" Long was born with the blues coursing through his veins. Brought up in a Southern Baptist community, he first picked up the guitar at the age of six, teaching himself old gospel songs. Years later, a teenage Long found himself playing weekly gigs at blues clubs and events around town. At fourteen, he left school to lay down his roots touring with local legends Henry Turner Jr. & Flavor from 2003 to 2005. Additionally, he has toured with Chris Duarte, Kenny Wayne and Tyree Neal on the Chitlin' Circuit. Boogie has shared the stage with standout musicians such as Dr. John, Rockin' Dopsie, Monte Montgomery, Ellis Hall, Kenny Neal, Larry Garner, Henry Gray, Lil Ray Neal, and Lou Marini of the Blues Brothers Band. 

In 2011, Boogie Long was crowned Guitar Center's "King of the Blues" from a field of over 4,000 contestants in the competition for #1 Unsigned Blues Guitarist in America. Soon after, Boogie was sought out to film 2013's Boogie Blues Magic, an instructional three-DVD set on which he shares his original tricks for learning fundamental blues styles (www.boogiebluesmagic.com). On another recent project, Boogie co-starred in the independent film, We Be Kings, a fictional story about an elderly couple that owns a juke joint in the Mississippi Delta. 

Boogie currently fronts his own blues/soul trio, The Blues Revolution. His soul-stomping vocals and monster guitar shredding, paired with bluesy songwriting chops make his powerhouse performances a "must see" on the upcoming 2014 tour season. In April 2013, Boogie was tapped by B.B. King to support his four week tour. Also, he was given a prime slot at the New Orleans Jazz Fest Blues Stage. Quickly ascending from Baton Rouge to the main stage, Boogie Long is on track to achieve his lifetime goal of championing blues music and its roots. His debut record was released in April of 2013.

Contact: lizlongley@7smgmt.com

In the short time since her graduation from Boston's renowned Berklee College of Music, singer-songwriter Liz Longley has assembled an impressive resume. While best known for her stop-you-in-your-tracks voice, Liz has steadily developed a reputation as an accomplished songwriter, crafting intimately personal portraits through her music. 

In the past two years, Liz has taken home top prizes at some of the most prestigious songwriting competitions in the country, including the BMI John Lennon Songwriting Scholarship Competition, the International Acoustic Music Awards and the Rocky Mountain Folk Fest Songwriting Competition. New England named her the 2011 Female Performer of the Year, the Washington Post declared that Liz is "destined for a larger audience" and Dig Boston called her "a rising acoustic sensation." Even John Mayer is a fan, calling her music "gorgeous, simply gorgeous."

A Philadelphia native, Liz recently made the move to Nashville, Tennessee where she has quickly made her presence known throughout Music City. In addition to writing more than forty songs with some of the best songwriters in the business, Liz has also managed to keep up her seemingly never-ending touring schedule, playing over one hundred shows in the last year - all without the help of a record label or booking agent. 

While Liz frequently supports the likes of Shawn Colvin, Amos Lee, Paula Cole, Nanci Griffith, Livingston Taylor, Lori McKenna and Colin Hay, something remarkable has begun to happen - audiences are emerging from these shows as fast fans of Liz's music as well. 

Most recently, Liz's music has taken center stage on the national level with numerous television placements and radio airplay. ABC's critically acclaimed series NY Med featured Liz's music throughout the first season, and the 2012 season finale of Lifetime's Army Wives displayed her towering vocals in an epic grand finale song, "This Is Not the End." Executives at SiriusXM caught wind of her captivating cover of Van Morrison's hit "Moondance" and added it into the regular rotation, along with her award-winning original song, "When You've Got Trouble." After an impressive response from listeners, Liz was invited to perform live in the SiriusXM studios in New York city and was named one of their Coffee House Discoveries of 2011. 

Following the success of her previous release, Hot Loose Wire, and an impressive Kickstarter campaign this past summer, Liz recently returned to the studio where she recorded her fourth full-length album which is scheduled to be released in 2014. 

Contact: milow@7smgmt.com

Over the last few years Belgian artist Milow has emerged as one of Europe’s most exciting young talents: a plugged-in singer-songwriter with the ability to touch a crowd and the pop know-how required to make great records. He’s an old-school soul with a new-fashioned sensibility. Milow’s music gleams with the inherited song craft of his heroes but it also reflects a point of view all his own. For many artists, success means stop; for Milow, who has sold more than a million albums in Europe, it’s a reason to go. After five years of non-stop touring and having released several well-received albums, Milow moved to Southern California in 2012. Not to start conquering the US, but to recharge his batteries in a sun-drenched region where he had lived before. With the same humble spirit that originally inspired him to start writing songs as a teenager, he patiently worked on his next move in seclusion in a city where no one knew him. 

The result of this two-year journey is reflected on the folky new album "Silver Linings”. Milow reveals himself as a mature artistic personality and shows a much more melancholic side. The ten songs on "Silver Linings" captivate the listener with the irresistible hooks that the charismatic musician was so loved for on his earlier albums, and draw the listener in. The album was recorded live in Los Angeles at Fairfax Recordings, the studio known in music history as Sound City Studios; great albums by Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Neil Young and Nirvana were created here. Together with his producer of many years Jo Francken (who was at the helm for both Milow’s European debut “Milow" and "North and South") and Kevin Augunas (known for his work for Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, The Lumineers, Cold War Kids and Valerie June), Milow surrounded himself with an illustrious team: Clif Norrell (Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M., Tom Petty) was at the mixing desk, Larry Goldings (James Taylor, Norah Jones, Maceo Parker) was on keyboards and Matt Chamberlain (Fiona Apple, David Bowie, Kanye West) on drums. Guitars were provided by Val McCullum (Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson) and Tom Vanstiphout (a member of Milow's band since 2007). The album features a 13-piece live string section, as well as additional guests like Roger Manning Jr. (Beck), Greg Leisz (Ray LaMontagne, Eric Clapton) and introduces Courtney Marie Andrews, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Seattle who has already released four solo albums, providing backing vocals. 

The combination of the intimate and the widescreen has won Milow a devoted fanbase across Europe, not to mention a list of achievements that includes hit singles, platinum albums, sold-out tours, performances at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals and millions upon millions of YouTube hits. What’s more, he’s accomplished all this as his own boss, releasing music through Homerun Records, a label he founded in 2005 in his bedroom. “I just never wanted to have to answer to anyone else,” he says of the DIY operation. “It’s always been my call.” A sophisticated music-scene veteran with the bottomless energy of a beginner, Milow’s ready for what’s next.

Contact: PaperBird@7smgmt.com

Since the band’s formation over 5 years ago, Paper Bird has been playing its joyful blend of folk, roots, and Americana to delighted audiences across the country. Their unique sound is a combination of a dynamic and energetic rhythm section intertwined with effortless and flowing harmonies. The group’s backbone is their songwriting, musicianship and general allergy to all limitations and trends. With seven members and no leader, the possibilities are ever unfolding, with fluctuations in style and mood akin to weather patterns. A household name across their native Colorado, Paper Bird continues to tour and develop its voice and presence across the country. With three full length albums and several national tours under their belt, Paper Bird has steadily grown in both their success and sound while continuing to expand and explore what the band can do musically.

The seven members of the band include: Mark Anderson (drums), Sarah Anderson (voice, trumpet), Paul DeHaven (guitar), Esme Patterson (voice), Genevieve Patterson (voice), Caleb Summeril (banjo, guitar), and Macon Terry (bass). Each individual writes songs for the group and this keeps new material rolling off the shelf at a healthy pace. Paper Bird’s live performances showcase the diversity and good-time vibe of the group while providing a fresh and unique take on a sound that has a tendency to bring the listener back to a different era. Young in age but timeless in spirit, Paper Bird continually captures the hearts of new listeners and long-time fans. Their rare and beautiful approach to music led them to be featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and were voted in the Top 10 Best Underground Bands by the Denver Post three years in a row, as well as being 5280’s Top of the Town 2009 “Top Local Band”.

Paper Bird has released two studio albums, Anything Nameless and Joymaking (2007) and When the River Took Flight (2010), and also a live album, Carry On (2011), which was the score to a collaboration with Ballet Nouveau Colorado of the same name. 2012 has the band on the road once again while releasing Carry On remixed and remaster on vinyl in the Fall. A new studio album is being written and recorded and is set to be released in early 2013.

Mystical creatures crafting story. Personified in song and otherworldly experiences. Nothing else is important, but if you must know, here's a bit of their past. 

Hailing from south of the Mason Dixon line, Quiet Hounds are gentlemen of various talents unexpectedly united with the unabashed desire to produce pure, authentic music with only spontaneity as a guide. 

Contact: shannonmcnally@7Smgmt.com

Everybody knows Bobby Charles through his songs. Charles wrote such instantly recognizable hits as “See You Later Alligator,” “Walking to New Orleans,” and “But I Do,” but the reclusive singer/songwriter, who passed away in 2010, is relatively unknown for his own recordings. 

The vocalist Shannon McNally, along with New Orleans musical legend Mac “Dr. John” Rebennack have made a new LP to try and shine a spotlight on Charles’ body of work. Small Town Talk is an album of songs by the great but under-appreciated American songwriter Bobby Charles, which features guest performances by Derek Trucks, Will Sexton, Luther Dickinson, and Vince Gill.

Charles’ story is an extraordinary one.

Small Town Talk is a labor of love that was recorded with Charles’ approval and input before his death, offering a posthumous tribute to this wonderful artist’s career. McNally and Dr. John consulted with Charles before choosing a group of songs that give us a broad overview of Charles’ work. McNally’s dark, probing vocals explore by turns the passion, deep soul, and sparkling wit of this material, while Dr. John frames the structures with sure-handed arrangements augmented by the brilliant Wardell Quezergue and played enthusiastically by Mac’s New Orleans-based band, the Lower 911.

The inspiration for Small Town Talk came from the self-titled album Charles recorded in Woodstock with members of The Band, and released by Bearsville Records in 1972. McNally’s love for that record led her to tell Charles she wanted to revisit it.

“Those songs oriented me musically,” says McNally. “I had so devoured everything that The Band did that finding Bobby was almost a relief. That crowd of musicians had a way of making music that got under my skin in a nagging kind of way.”

“I initiated the project when I sat in for Bobby in 2007 at Jazz Fest on the Lagniappe stage. That was the first time I played with Mac. I had mentioned revisiting that Bearsville album with Mac to Bobby the day before at rehearsal and he thought that was a great idea. At the time the album was unavailable, which seemed an utter sin to me. Bobby didn’t make it to the Jazz Fest show but Mac was there, we did the set and it went exceptionally well. I mentioned my concept of reinterpreting the Bobby Charles album to Mac, and to my amazement he went for the idea. That was in April. We made it into the studio that following December.”

The project turned into more than just a remake of the Bobby Charles album as McNally worked closely with Charles and Dr. John on the material. “I got together with Bobby every day talking about songs and picking out the right ones to include,” says McNally. “We ended up selecting five songs from the Bobby Charles record. ‘Long Face,’ ‘Small Town Talk,’ ‘Street People,’ ‘Good Place Now’ and ‘Save Me Jesus.’ ‘Save Me Jesus’ isn’t on the final CD or LP but will be a bonus track. We did those songs, then we did songs that Mac and Bobby suggested that were more obscure. As it turned out, this album is something more of a retrospective of Bobby’s catalog of songs, than a record focused solely on the record Bobby made with The Band, as I had originally envisioned.”

McNally and Dr. John unearthed some little known gems that Charles had written over the course of the latter’s career. “We ended up doing ‘But I Do,’ which was a big hit for Frogman Henry in 1961. We cut ‘I Don’t Want To Know,’ which I knew from Lil’ Band o’ Gold, a later Bobby album. Then Bobby suggested a song called ‘String of Hearts’, also from one of his later records, which Vince Gill sang on.” Finally, Dr. John also gave Shannon a cassette of a rare recording of Joe Cocker singing ‘Smile’ [‘I’m So Glad You Came Along’]. “I’m not sure what year Cocker did it, but he still had that Mad Dogs And Englishmen growl and I thought it was hip. For some ridiculous reason it never got released and so no one’s ever heard it.”

“Bobby was there every day, and really enjoyed it. He and Mac have been friends forever, and Bobby and I had gotten to be pretty good buddies as well. We talked a lot about all the songs as we were going along, and he’d make comments and suggestions. He lived nearby the studio so it was easy to visit. He was a tremendous character. With him and Mac together in a room the stories were endless and all of them pretty great if you like rock and roll behind the scenes history lessons, as I do. It took us about a week to record about 15 songs.” In the studio with McNally, Dr. John and Charles were the members of the Lower 911 band — guitarist John Foul, bassist David Barard and drummer Herman Ernest.

McNally was amazed at how effortless the whole session felt.

“We would cut live with Mac and the lower 911 band,” McNally recalls. “We would cut one of Mac’s songs, then we would call whatever Bobby song we decided on, listen to whatever version we had, and we’d just come up with an arrangement on the spot. Mac is a genius. People use that word loosely but musically speaking he’s brilliant. Whatever he does, it just comes out rich and melodic. What’s so remarkable about the record is how comfortable it was to make, how easy. At the time I felt like these songs had been written for me personally.”

“I was over the moon about working with Mac, just walking on air. That piano sound… that classic approach… the level of authority that he brings to a song. Add to that the history of these songs, and the sessions just felt magical. I couldn’t have been happier or more excited to get to do this.”

Mac decided to bring in Wardell Quezergue to embellish the arrangements. Quezergue was an American music arranger, producer and bandleader, known among New Orleans musicians as the “Creole Beethoven”. Known for his work on classic tracks like King Floyd’s “Groove Me”, Jean Knight’s “Mr Big Stuff” and on recordings by legendary New Orleans artists like Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.

Wardell’s touch is evident in Charley Miller’s beautiful flute part on “I Must Be in a Good Place Now,” the horn chart on “Street People” and the gorgeous string arrangement on “String of Hearts.”

“Mac brought Wardell in at the end to do the strings and horns,” McNally recalls. He was 80 years old, had been in New Orleans his whole life. There was nothing he didn’t know about music. That he respected me as a vocalist cemented something for me inside”.

“That was one of Wardell’s last projects,” Mac adds. “I loved what he did, especially with the strings on ‘String of Hearts.’ Listen, Wardell was beyond great. He wasn’t any one kind of arranger; he could do anything. If he was arranging for strings, he was a string arranger. If he was doing big band arrangements he was a big band arranger.”

The record has taken its sweet time coming out, but the project has been completed with the blessings of the Charles estate. A few final touches brought the addition of special guests Derek Trucks, who plays the glorious guitar solo on “Cowboys and Indians,” Will Sexton, who joins McNally on guitar for “Homemade Songs,” Luther Dickinson, who adds a guitar part to “Can’t Pin a Color," and an achingly gorgeous vocal duet with Vince Gill on “String Of Hearts”.

“The day Bobby died I spoke to him on the phone. I was excited because I was opening for Willie Nelson in New Orleans that night and told him I’d come see him as soon as I could get there. Mac called me the next morning to let me know that he was gone. What a character he was. I can say with certainty that there will never be another one like him. I’ll miss him.”

              –John Swenson

Contact: siiga@7smgmt.com

Growing gently from the haunting landscapes and enchanting seas of the islands, Richard Macintyre slowly emerged from the darkness of winter on the Isle of Skye. Beginning alone, recording through the night in a cupboard full of old coats, as the snow melted, Siiga remained, its roots bursting into life through his captivating, atmosphere song-writing, delicate artwork and transcendental videos. 

Innovatively crafted piece by piece, song by song over the seasons of the year, each step intimately documented through an engaging and personal online diary, his only communication to the outside world from the remote Scottish Herbrides. Joined in time by fellow West-Coaster and musician Seamus O'Donnell, whose natural melody soon found its way flowing through the rich harmony of Siiga, they found a new home together breathing life into each song in the shimmering analogue studio of friend, engineer and musician Iain Hutchinson.

From his painstakingly handmade, ethereal silhouette animation "Hollow Bones", through dreamy home-made reels of sailing trips amongst layers of weaving porpoises, beyond vignettes of hazy forest woodlands, Macintyre's transportive world of Siiga comes to life through - The Sea and The Mirror.

Contact: stantonmoore@7smgmt.com

Over the course of his 20-year career, drummer Stanton Moore has become known as one of the premier funk musicians of his generation. On his latest album, Conversations, he moves in a slightly different direction, returning to his roots while reinventing his trademark sound. The result is a lively and combustible jazz piano trio outing that reveals unexpected new dimensions to Moore's always-engaging virtuosity. 

Anyone who's ever heard the interplay between the drummer and his band-mates in the Stanton Moore Trio, Galactic, Garage a Trois or Dragon Smoke is no doubt aware of his intense improvisational chops. But with Conversations, Moore unveils his profound sense of swing and the fluency of his jazz vocabulary in its purest form for the first time. "I've played a lot of jazz in New Orleans through the years, but it's not something that the general public has ever seen me do or is even aware of," Moore says. 

Having delved deep into the styles of pioneering drummers like Jabo Starks, Clyde Stubblefield, and Zigaboo Modeliste for his multimedia 2010 project Groove Alchemy, Moore decided to explore his straight-ahead jazz influences with a similar focus. "Jazz has been part of my development and a deep love of mine for a long time. Everything I do funk and groove-wise is informed by what I've learned playing and studying jazz. I had put myself through what was basically a doctoral program on funk drumming, and I wanted to do the same thing with my jazz playing." 

Moore sent himself back to the jazz woodshed, taking lessons with veteran drummer Kenny Washington and spending time with Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra co-leader Jeff Hamilton, Moore's partner in the Crescent Cymbal Company. He refined his brush playing by studying the work of Philly Joe Jones—evidenced by his brushwork on "Tchefunkta," a slinkier transformation of the tune that opens his 1998 solo debut, All Kooked Out! 

The New Orleans native called on a pair of veterans from that city's vibrant, deeply rooted jazz scene to form his new trio. Pianist David Torkanowksy and bassist James Singleton have both played with saxophonist Tony Dagradi's long-running band Astral Project alongside Moore's mentor, drummer Johnny Vidacovich. Singleton has also worked with the likes of James Booker, Professor Longhair, Aaron Neville, Joe Henderson, Milt Jackson, Harry Connick Jr. and Lightnin' Hopkins. Torkanowsky's credits include work with The Meters, Maceo Parker, Dianne Reeves, Dr. John, Boz Scaggs, George Duke, Kirk Whalum, James Moody and Chuck Berry. 

Moore chose Torkanowsky and Singleton for their unparalleled musicianship, versatility, compatibility, and long history together. What he realized only after the fact is that his newly-assembled trio was already a Grammy Award-winning group: they had worked together as the rhythm section for Irma Thomas' After the Rain, which was named the Best Contemporary Blues Album of 2007. "I always love playing with Stanton," Singleton says, "and when he got me back together with Tork it became pure inspiration. We all share such deep bonds within very specific musical languages, and the energy keeps growing." 

The connection shared by the three New Orleanians, Moore says, "brings a deep sense of groove and pocket and a whole batch of ideas and cultural influences that I can reference and these guys know exactly what I'm talking about. There's the Mardi Gras Indian thing, the brass band thing, the James Black thing. It's hard to find a group of guys who are not only aware of all those influences, but are equally happy playing in any of those genres." 

The NOLA bond becomes even stronger through Moore's choice of material. All but one of the album's eleven tracks were written by a New Orleans composer, including the legendary drummer James Black, Tony Dagradi, Steve Masakowski, Evan Christopher, and all three members of the trio. The sole exception is Herbie Hancock, whose "Driftin'" is given a stride piano intro by Torkanowsky that makes it feel right at home in this company. 

"Some of these tunes are New Orleans standards or tunes that David and Jim have played a lot together over the years. I wanted to create an outlet for the jazz side of my playing, but I didn't want to do jazz standards that everyone else has done. So we developed a repertoire of tunes that were more in our wheelhouse." 

That material was honed over more than a year and a half of Tuesday-night performances at Snug Harbor, the renowned New Orleans’ jazz venue on Frenchman Street. The deep chemistry forged over the course of that residency is in ample evidence throughout the aptly-named Conversations, from the graceful but roiling opener "Lauren Z" to the wistful ballad "Waltz for All Souls," from the Bill Evans-inspired elegance of Steve Masakowski's "The Chase" to the deceptively complex celebration of the New Orleans standard "Paul Barbarin's Second Line." 

"Improvised music should be conversational," Moore says. "If one guy's holding the floor, you don't want to start speaking over him; you want to listen, you want to interject, you might want to convey another idea related to what he's saying, but the same rules for good conversation apply to making good music. The music on this album is conversational, and all the tunes are coming from friends who we've had musical conversations with over the years."

Contact: STRFKR@7Smgmt.com

It’s hard to say exactly when it happened.

It could’ve been during one of the 100+ shows STRFKR played over the past two years—ecstatic sold-out dance parties that started in tiny, sweaty rooms before word of mouth spread and forced a move to larger (and even sweatier) venues.

It might’ve been when touring guitarist Patrick Morris officially became a full-time member in late 2011, rounding out a line-up that included multi-instrumentalists Josh Hodges, Shawn Glassford, and Keil Corcoran.

Most likely, though, there wasn’t a single defining moment when the change occurred. With evolution there rarely is.

Instead, progression happens naturally and steadily—each step leading inevitably to the next until you reach a point when you realize how far you’ve come without even being fully aware of how you got there.

In early 2012, during a rare break in the group’s touring schedule, Hodges retreated to secluded Astoria, Oregon. But this time, rather than completely isolating himself to work on new material (as had always been the case in the past), Hodges invited the other members to visit often and truly collaborate in the process of writing STRFKR’s third full-length, Miracle Mile.

And so it was that STRFKR became a band.

As a result, whether participating in all-night lyric writing sessions, fleshing out song skeletons originally conceived during European soundchecks (“Malmo”) and long van rides (“Leave It All Behind”), or completing half-finished ideas kicking around Hodges’ brain and hard drive, there isn’t a single song on Miracle Mile that every member of STRFKR didn’t contribute to and ultimately improve.

For proof, look no further than first single and opening track “While I’m Alive,” a song that bursts out of the gate with what can only be described as swagger. Not overconfidence or false bravado, but the undeniable sound of a band that knows exactly who they are: swirling keyboards that take you up, down, and all around, rhythmic guitars, irresistible basslines, and drums that keep an unrelenting beat.

Disco-y standout “Atlantis” is the paragon of this formula, with vocal and musical hooks seemingly custom fitted to a spot so deep inside your eardrums they’ll never dislodge.

But upbeat isn’t Miracle Mile’s only tempo.

In fact, it’s in quieter moments like “Isea,” which briefly slows down the album’s pulse with gentle “oh-oh-ohs” over acoustic guitar, that the record truly coalesces as a complete whole that couldn’t have come together any other way.

Just like STRFKR.

Contact: tlg@7smgmt.com

San Francisco’s Tea Leaf Green is the essence of rock’s adventurous, playfully outlaw spirit, which ultimately fuels songs that resonate with classic vibrations, open-ended possibilities and radio-ready charm.  As sharply carved and musically robust as any rock unit today, TLG harnessed their surefire live prowess and ability to seize an audience into a bustling, emotionally dense, ear-snagging studio form with their latest studio album In The Wake. The new album is a complete vision that represents the great skill and open-minded invention in this quintet - Trevor Garrod (keys, vocals), Josh Clark (guitar, vocals), Scott Rager (drums), Reed Mathis (bass, vocals) and Cochrane McMillan (percussion). Sharing some of the style and substance of musical contemporaries like Delta Spirit, Everest and Dr. Dog, Tea Leaf Green reminds us at every turn just how alluring rock 'n' roll can be.

Contact: tuf@7smgmt.com

Siblings Danielle, Kris, and Nick Schnebelen have a life-long connection with the blues. Growing up in Kansas City, MO, the trio soaked up the music of their parents, who were active in the thriving blues scene.  After years of playing in separate bands, Danielle, Kris and Nick decided to keep things in the family and formed Trampled Under Foot. In 2008, they headed to Memphis for the IBC and walked away from the competition with First Place honors. Riding the wave of support following the IBC, Trampled Under Foot was ready to take their style of power blues/rock to audiences around the world. The trio gained national exposure after sharing the stage with a number of lauded musicians, including Koko Taylor and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. After a series of headlining tours and stand out performances at blues festivals around the world, Trampled Under Foot has become one of the hottest bands on the blues circuit today. 

Contact: ume@7smgmt.com

“Ume immediately won me over with their raucous bursts of guitar-driven art rock, with front woman Lauren Larson threatening to take the whole thing off the rails with the abuse of her guitar strings. Still, underneath this Ume possesses an air of intelligence and depth rare in a genre known primarily for its copious drug use. When it comes to art, psychedelia, and rock and roll, it doesn’t get much better.” —Village Voice 

“Distortion-heavy jams (and the whole marriage thing) invite comparisons to Sonic Youth, but Ume do more headbanging and wailing.” —Rolling Stone 

"This band is ready to break out in a whole new way… A little like fuzzy shoegaze, raw garage rock and irresistible pop all rolled into one fiery package" —Nylon

“Ume attacked the stage with an intensity on par with Mastodon and a vulnerability reminiscent of PJ Harvey.” —Artist Direct

"Some people love The Joy Formidable, but I’ll take Ume, thanks." —Brooklyn Vegan

“When Touch & Go had its 25th anniversary celebration in Chicago two months ago, the old and abrasive cognoscenti – Shellac, Scratch Acid, The Jesus Lizard – gathered with the label’s new blood, a hit-and-miss convocation of bands that can only fuck with Austin’s best indie rock trio, Ume, in their nightmares.” —The Independent

"How could I have not known about Ume? An Austin trio fronted by a whirling dervish of singer guitarist who in the standard PR band head shot looks like she wouldn’t hurt a fly; yet give her a guitar, a Marshall stack and a mic and stand back, way back. She shreds. File under - Do Not Overlook and Go Tell Your Friends…" —Dave Allen, Gang of Four

"It wasn’t the ’90s that Ume’s set brought to mind, but the late ’70s. On studio tracks like "Captive" and "Rubicon," Ume pulls off a glistening indie-pop sound gentle enough to land the group on the soundtrack of The Vampire Diaries. Their live sound is much thicker, like Black Sabbath covering a Smashing Pumpkins tune. They’re a power trio, complete with smokin’ guitar solos and trashcan endings. It’s a righteous sight to behold… When I went to check out Ume’s merch after the set, there was a line. These three are definitely on their way up." —Houston Press

“The group, led by powerhouse singer/guitarist Lauren Larson, has merged the sounds of heavy rock and ethereal indie pop with deft precision, finding new ground somewhere in between Warpaint, Metric and Mogwai.” —Relix

Contact: thewhigs@7smgmt.com

With their new album Enjoy the Company, The Whigs have created a raucous ode to rock and roll. From the opening track, an exhilarating eight-minute mission statement called “Staying Alive,” the record offers a powerful sonic rendering of a band opening up to the depth of their past and kicking open the doors to their future. But most of all, this is the undeniably established sound of a band affirming their legacy in the American rock and roll paradigm.

While The Whigs recorded their second record Mission Control at famed Sunset Sound Studios in Hollywood and their third release In the Dark in Athens, the making of Enjoy the Company was a dramatically different affair. This time the group sought the guidance of veteran producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Son Volt, Sonic Youth) and the solitude of dreamland studios housed in a historic church in rural Woodstock, New York.

“We went out there to record without any distractions,” bassist Timothy Deaux explains. “There were no girlfriends there, no bars to go out to. It was just us and the music.  Our last album focused on some pretty dark themes and with this one I think there’s a newfound sense of optimism and purpose. We didn’t make a sugary record, but I think we are honestly feeling good about the band and our lives and it comes across in the sound.”

As a result, The Whigs latest features ten tracks of pure celebratory rock and roll fueled by the rhythms of the road, the classic albums that inspired them, and nights spent together on stage. “When we’re out there driving from show to show, that’s my favorite time to get new song ideas,” Gispert says. “And the tracks we eventually picked for the album are the ones that we love playing live.”

The song “Gospel” mines a joyous guitar hook for a timeless FM radio feel while another track “Rock and Roll Forever” is a spirited, hard-riffing love letter to the power of primal rock. And after opening with the impassioned declaration of resilience in “Staying Alive,” the record perfectly bookends with an equally ardent proclamation entitled “Ours.” The song begins with reflective vocals over a lone guitar. Then, like some lost track from a beloved vinyl classic, the music builds, drums exploding accompanied by a volley of power chords. “That song was written about a child whose parents were teaching him how to share,” Gispert explains. “It’s not mine or yours, but ours. Our band, our music – it’s open to anybody.”

Contact: zachheckendorf@7smgmt.com

Offstage, up-and-coming singer, songwriter, and guitarist Zach Heckendorf appears to be an ordinary young man: a hip-hop-loving, T-shirt and jeans-wearing, shaggy-haired kid with a shy smile and modest demeanor. But when Heckendorf grabs a guitar and jumps on a stage, the Denver native is transformed. Over the years, Heckendorf has mesmerized crowds with original songs like “All The Right Places,” the first single from his 2011 debut album The Cool Down.

Heckendorf began writing the songs on The Cool Down as a freshman in high school and making a name for himself locally around Denver as a live performer. Since then, he played to thousands at Colorado’s legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre and has shared the stage with such acts as Rodrigo Y Gabriela, Guster, John Butler Trio, One Republic, Mat Kearney, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Barenaked Ladies, Michael Franti & Spearhead, among many others. He was also the first person to record at the legendary Caribou Ranch Studios (Chicago, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Chicago, The Beach Boys, Chick Corea, Tom Petty, John Lennon, America, Billy Joel, etc.) since the control room burned down in 1985.

The duality in Heckendorf’s personality is reflected on The Cool Down's songs like “One of Them,” “17 Circles,” “Traffic,” “Tie Dye March,” as well as the title track, Heckendorf wraps his considered themes — the pursuit of freedom, the interconnectedness of human beings and nature, and a dismay for the environmental destruction that previous generations have wrought — in a rich, acoustic-driven sound, one that takes its cues more from hip-hop than from the traditional troubadours Heckendorf has already been compared to.

This past Fall, Zach released The Water Brothers EP with bandmate and guitarist Curtis Halle. Zach is currently in the studio working on a new full-length album, slated to debut in 2014.