Tag Archives: New releases

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Steve Williams -New Album Surrey Road

Steve Williams
Surrey Road
Collaborative Album
OUT NOW

Surrey Road is the culmination of over 20 years song writing and came from Steve’s desire to do an album of his own songs with various great singers that he knew or had worked with previously.  Shelter Me was written by Steve and  Pat Powell and features the smooth vocals of young up and coming Melbourne singer, Nic MC. Many of the other songs on the album are sung by Pat Powel himself, lending his legendary voice to the mix and pat also co write a number of the tunes.
Steve Played all instruments on the album himself  other than guest appearances by Victor Rounds on bass and John prior on drums (selected songs). Steve produced, engineered and mixed the album at his studio in Melbourne with the exception of “when I see you dancing” which was mixed by John Prior at Unity Gain studios in Sydney.

The album is clocking strong metrics on digital platforms and the main single SHELTER ME is heading to radio via Play MPE


Steve Williams came to prominence as the lead guitarist in the 80’s pop group Wa Wa Nee, who had top 5 hits and ARIA Nominations in Australia and chart action in Europe and the USA. This prompted Steve to relocate to Europe after working with James Freud and Richard Clapton following Wa Wa Nee’s breakup. After working as a session musician in the UK and Europe he returned to Australia in 2005 and continued session and production work including musical theatre and television appearances.  He has played in bands alongside Jon Lord from Deep Purple, Choirboys, Matt Finish, Ray Parker Jr, Real Life, and many more.

The Surry Road album was recorded in Steve’s Melbourne studio.  Steve co-wrote all the tracks with musicians that he has worked with over many years of touring and recording :

Tracks feature guest vocals from Pat Powell(Melbourne Ska Orchestra and many more) and other well known vocalists such as: John Kenny (Rockmelons), Tim Watson(Taxiride), Vince Contarino, Terry Slesser(UK) and Louise Person as well up-coming Melbourne singer Nic MC.

The songs were co written with a host of writers including Mark Gable(Choriboys), Scott Smith and many of the singers above.

With the worldwide release of Surrey Road marking off this long span of writing and recording Steve’s new album for 2022 is already underway with a much more personalized and singular approach.

Checkout the Album

Connect with Steve Williams


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Cody and the Blackouts – New Album – Living Asleep

Cody and The Blackouts(USA)
Living Asleep (12 Track Album)

Release Date:  October 20 (Chance Music) All Digital Platforms

Extrapolation, n:An educated guess or hypothesis. To extrapolate isto use observations about a current situation to make a prediction.

‘Extrapolation’ is not a word you’d expect to find in a modern pop song, but there it is in the title track of the thoughtful and heartfelt debut album by Los Angeles band Cody And The Blackouts:

Present finally caught up to my past / Surprised my house of cards had been built to last / Extrapolation gift and a curse / It helps connect the dots but can make things worse” (Living Asleep).

 

He’s the lead singer and keys player in the band, but Cody Hudock’s most striking asset is his songwriting. Notable LA music blog, Buzzbands.la, held up Hudock’s work to “any number of rock-Americana greats and piano-wielding popsmiths who can seize the moment with a single couplet … owing to Hudock’s often-cutting, always-earnest lyrics, the Blackouts come off as the band most likely to have put down their history textbooks long enough raise hell at the local bar.”

A dab hand with a lyric, Hudock often takes a song title and runs with it, as in “I’m gonna crack the code / it’s just a matter of time” (Matter of Time), or “All I’m asking for’s the last word” (The Last Word). Even the album’s closing track, tender piano ballad Love Song To You, pre-empts its own chorus as Hudock vows to “learn the vocab to say what I felt”.

There he goes, extrapolating again.

Cody Hudock was born into a family of songwriters. He learned the trade from his father and older brother, Jordan, who also plays keys on Living Asleep. After acquiring early performance experience playing keys in Jordan’s bands, Cody wrote and released 3 EPs between 2011 and 2015 under the moniker Cody The Band, and the ambitiously titled The Great American Album LP under his own name in 2016. The LP garnered some delirious word of mouth, with LA blog The 704 gushing, “If there were an award for ‘greatest living songwriter you’ve never heard of’, then Cody Hudock’s sterling solo effort would place him firmly in the running.”

Rounding out the Blackouts are guitarist Jimmy Holman, drummer Brent Stranathan and bassist Will Weissman, with Joanna Hudock on backing vocals. Joanna shines on the country-tinged I Confess, a duet with husband Cody, And contributes celestial harmonies to the choruses of several other songs on the album.

Recorded at Hollywood studio Elephant In The Room, produced by Ethan Kaufmann (Avril Lavigne, Wild Party) and Brent Stranathan, and mixed by veteran Capitol Records engineer Chandler Harrod (John Mayer, Neil Young), Living Asleep captures the unique studio chemistry of Cody And The Blackoutslike lightning in a bottle.

From the pop-cultural history lessons of opening track Time Stood Still (the band’s head-turning 2020 debut single), through the pendulum swing of Matter of Time, to the hook-laden pop bauble Sister Sister, Living Asleep extrapolates an uncommon range and versatility. As for predictions, heed the title of the album’s penultimate song: Somehow I’ll Make Good. Believe it.

Checkout the Album

Connect with Cody and The Blackouts




Living Asleep is Released In Australia by Chance Music

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Jack Nolan Releases Album Gabriel

Gabriel is Jack Nolan’s fifth solo album, and the first album he’s yielded to someone he trusted enough to produce: This is an album that mines its own carefully sculpted acoustic world with a profoundly atmospheric sense of place, and a depth of self-knowledge that speaks of arrival after a lifetime of sometimes hard, sometimes tender experience.

The genesis, Gabriel came to Jack a few years ago, sat at his side on a long desert drive that he wasn’t sure he’d come back from. The title track, in its own unhurried and roundabout way, eventually found itself in Nashville, USA, on an album completed just before COVID-19 wrought its havoc on the world.

Atonement is upfront in titles like The Hopeless Son and Restitution Song. Others — Tomorrow Came, Faster Than the Speed of Change, A Fool Would Follow Me — are deeper stocktakes, songs from life’s rear view mirror. Ghosts of people and places and other, maybe darker things, receding for sure, but too close to ignore.

Produced by Justin Weaver and captured on two-inch tape in the aptly named ‘Welcome to 1979’ Studios by engineer Chris Mara, the assembled band included drummer Jimmy Paxson, bassist Chris Autry, keys player Phil Towns and pedal steel player David Spires who were joined by backup singers Terri Lynn Weaver & Siobhan Maher Kennedy. Justin himself applied the deeply textured lead and electric guitars.

Gabriel, is a record offering up evocative, ethereal stories, perhaps best signalled on the album’s title track, with Nolan singing “Endless lanes /endless cars // In the absence /of stars” reminding us of this new world, turned on its axis in 2020/21.

In true analog fashion following on from the Tape Based Recording the album is available on LP Vinyl format as well as CD and Digital.

Jack Nolan is a singer songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, who’s been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 90’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows of the time.

Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound with that of the Americana genre, once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’, uniting elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

And so it is, Jack’s latest album, Gabriel, releasing October 2021, keeps the wheels moving on the meaningful passion of this writer and performer.

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Recent Article on Gabriel:

https://beat.com.au/jack-nolans-gabriel-takes-you-from-la-to-death-valley-to-nashville/

Credits:
Written by Jack Nolan
Recorded at ‘Welcome to 1979’ in Nashville TN 2020
Produced by Justin Weaver
Engineered by Chris Mara
Mixed by Chris Mara & Justin Weaver
Mastered by Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound Nashville TN
Jack Nolan – Vocals & guitars
Justin Weaver – Electric Guitars, slide, banjo & backing vocals
Jimmy Paxson – Drums
Chris Autry – Bass

Title Track Video

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Gabriel is OUT NOW October 8 Quay Records/MGM. 

Stream or Download:

JAN_GAB ALB

Connect with Jack Nolan:

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Grander Things bring back the rock on new release EP Supermoon

Update

New article from Scenestr

Original Press Release

Following on from the release of their first ep MASH in 2020 and unable to play live with the sporadic Sydney shutdowns for the better part of the year, Grander Things went back into their burrow and got busy.

From a riff here or there, the lads played around with some ideas in the rehearsal room and started sending recordings for vocalist, Liz Clear to find the ones that inspired the lyrics and melodies to fall onto the page. After some months of blending music and lyrics, Grander Things had five tracks to put down.

Recorded at Damien Gerard Studios on the Central Coast, you can tell Grander Things love wearing their pop-rock hearts firmly on their sleeves. This ep has gentle moments of angst and vulnerability but then surprises you by colliding into epic rock. Keys were added post recording by Gino Campagnaro to the opening track You Said, but the band have stayed true to their roots with guitars that soar.

Recorded with Andrew Beck, co-produced with Marshall Cullen, mixed by Russell Pilling and mastered by William Bowden, the result is Supermoon out now on Foghorn Records.

Brent Williams /Liz  Clear / Rhys Lewis-Smith/ Bruce Thomas

Song Descriptions:
You Said
A tale of the broken hearted that builds on anger and crescendos with the pain of broken promises.

Loopholes
The future is fresh with positive feels and the knowledge that love is in the air tonight.

Supermoon
With a driving bass beat and sultry invitation this is no time for sleeping. Get your freak on board the Supermoon party.

Greta
In a sea of ineptitude and pollie-speak our best hopes are pinned on a teenage girl screaming the truth and trying to save the planet.

The Push and Pull
We always hurt the ones we love the most; we know they’ll always be there even when we’re at our worst.

Supermoon is OUT NOW – September 24th via MGM
All DSP’s

Video

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Streaming:

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Connect with Grander Things:

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CJ Shaw releases new album All Sorts

 All Sorts is the latest album from ARIA nominated educator and musician CJ Shaw.

Since ‘ANZAC Biscuits’ gained over 30,000 views on social media in 2019, and an ARIA nomination for Music Teacher of the Year, CJ has been busily recording this album. The collection of ten songs affirms Shaw’s position as a creative and dynamic storytelling songwriter for children and adults.

Having spent over twenty years as a songwriter and performer, ‘All Sorts’ draws on the catalogue that Shaw has been performing at folk clubs and festivals. It is an album for the modern eclectic times, containing poignant storytelling, songs of fatherhood, hip-hop, satire and traditional folk. “I wanted an album that could connect people of different ages,” states CJ, “Everyone should be able to enjoy the music”.

Shaw collected some excellent players to help with the recording. The line-up includes: Allyson Newman who brings her emotive arrangement to the song ‘Lonely Road’ and features Canberra Symphony Orchestra players Steven Fitzgerald, Alex Voorhoeve and Timothy Wickham bringing depth and precision to the record.

A collection of the best songs in CJ Shaw’s repertoire, ‘All Sorts’ is brimming with life and vitality, drawing in audiences of all ages. Dubbed the ‘ultimate family album’ for a reason, ‘All Sorts’ is destined to be a family favourite on long car trips in the foreseeable future.

Armed with a guitar and a swag full of harmonicas, singer-songwriter CJ Shaw’s intricate finger-picking, word play and storytelling never fails to captivate his audiences.  CJ Shaw’s music is distinctly Australian in style, influenced by Paul Kelly and Slim Dusty. His lyrical storytelling and musicality lends itself to audiences of all ages.

In 2020, CJ Shaw was nominated for an ARIA Award for ‘Music Teacher of the Year’ with Jimmy Barnes as his official ambassador presenting him with the nomination.  This prestigious music industry acknowledgement recognised his dynamic and poignant songwriting for primary-aged children. These celebrated songs are woven through his performances and albums, played alongside satirical and storytelling Australiana folk songs.

With over a decade experience touring and performing at music festivals in Australia and Timor-Leste, CJ Shaw is an exciting Canberra musician at the top of his game.

CJ Shaw – All Sorts is out NOW September 17th through Foghorn/MGM

Download or stream: 

cj FULL SALES

Connect with CJ Shaw:

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Jack Nolan releases title track single Gabriel from forthcoming album

Gabriel is the title track single from Sydney singer songwriter Jack Nolan’s upcoming 2021 Americana album, Gabriel. 

We were on the road, from heaving LA freeways and into Death Valley, a most peculiar place, an unknown place. When your mind is elsewhere, irretrievable, like mine at the time, the valley’s a parallel universe, perdition. We were in the midst of a three-day dream. I fell upon a crossroad, landing eighty-six metres below sea level in the Californian Desert at a place, Badwater Basin, where an androgynous guardian appears, Gabriel, kind, gentle yet hard-lived and furrowed, who gave and left me with hope that all would be well.

“The original version, the demo, had that magic, which I thought about releasing it as it was, having gone into the old Damien Gerrard studio in Sydney, to bang down some ideas. I played everything, guitars, shakers, lead, the vocal and I also sang the harmonies. It worked, but my belief in the song told me to give it the environment it deserved. Arriving in Nashville I briefed producer Justin Weaver, who went about recreating the demo perfectly from the ground up. I still handled the guitars, the lead vocal and all harmonies but was smart enough to hand off the rest to the boys!.’’ Listen for Jimmy Paxson on the trash can drum, swinging around the harmonies and Justin Weavers banjo, that is the optimism and the final outcome.

Jack Nolan is a singer songwriter based in Sydney, Australia, who’s been performing and releasing music and albums since the mid 90’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus, along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst, and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows of the time.

Within Nolan’s music, mysterious and shimmering chords unite his sound with that of the Americana genre, once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’ uniting elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

Scenestr Video Premiere:

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Gabriel
The title track single from forthcoming album GABRIEL

Release dates

Single – September 8 – Digital Only (links below)
Album – October 8 – Gabriel LP (Vinyl, CD, Digital)

Credits:
Written by Jack Nolan
Recorded at ‘Welcome to 1979’ in Nashville TN 2020
Produced by Justin Weaver
Engineered by Chris Mara
Mixed by Chris Mara & Justin Weaver
Mastered by Ryan Smith, Sterling Sound Nashville TN
Jack Nolan – Vocals & guitars
Justin Weaver – Electric Guitars, slide, banjo & backing vocals
Jimmy Paxson – Drums
Chris Autry – Bass

Gabriel is OUT NOW Quay Records/MGM. 

Stream or Download:

JN-Gab_sing

Connect with Jack Nolan:

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New Reviews and Interviews for Steve Kilbey

New album reviews highly lauding this release are still coming in thick and fast weeks after the release.

Theres also some great interview podcasts with Steve talking about the album and of course The Church.

Rhythms writer Ian McFarlane just gave it 4 stars in his album feature and says “Steve Kilbey and his band (The Winged Heels) make life affirming music “

Heres a summary including some great podcasts plus Michael Smith’s review in full below – 

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STEVE KILBEY& THE WINGED HEELS

THE HALL OF COUNTERFEITS

Foghorn/MGM

It was always obvious that Steve Kilbey is an extraordinarily complex chap, positively bursting with ideas, but over the past 18 months just how “bursting” he is has become manifest by his recording eight albums. Perhaps nine, since The Hall of Counterfeitsis a double-album’s worth, 22 songs, one CD – as diverse a collection as you can imagine. It could be his “White Album”, or would be if Kilbey hadn’t already recorded Remindlessnessback in 1990. He tells us that that double-album was his attempt to take in everything he’d ever been fascinated by, an attempt to “reconcile the whole damn lot with a weird and wild bunch of songs far, far from the mainstream.” Thirty years on, he reckons The Hall of Counterfeits is “my answer to myself” and that “time has enabled me to give voice to those same preoccupations” – from The Beatles to mysticism and beyond. Aiding and abetting him this time around are The Winged Heels – classical guitarist (and more) Gareth Koch, keyboards player Roger Mason and drummer Barton Price, the latter pair once an integral part of The Models, though there’s nothing of that particular “past life” evident in their contributions to this sonic exploration of the multifarious arcane corridors Kilbey’s fertile mind takes us. Just how in tune The Winged Heels are with that mind is evident not only in the whirl of sounds but also in their writing co-credits on ten of the 22 songs here. And it’s all there – Beatles, Floyd, Bowie, the Middle East, the Medieval, the whimsical, the cosmic, psychedelic, pop, classical, myth, magic, obscurantism, the lot! There’s even a sort of boogie in ‘Everything for Sale’!! He might assure us, in ‘Bound in Servitude’, that “emptiness never stops”, but it’s obvious neither does his most extraordinary mind, firing on more cylinders than anyone has a right to still be able to boast 50 years into a creative career. Unmistakeably Kilbey, quite simply, this is every kind of party mixtape you could ever wish – superb.

MICHAEL SMITH

Get The Album

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GARETH KOCH RELEASES THE ELIZABETHAN JANGLE EP

Release Date:  September 3rd  (Foghorn/MGM) Digital Platforms
and CD in Store.
Genre- World/Classical

Imagine music from the time of Shakespeare colliding with the Byrds & the 60’s jangle of 12-string guitars.  A fanciful scenario, yet one of the many wonders art & music can perform.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the lute was the king of instruments.  Its chief exponent, John Dowland, was England’s star musician.  He wrote music for Shakespeare’s plays & was lauded across Europe.

Fast forward some 400 years to classically-trained Gareth Koch who re-contextualises Elizabethan music in a contemporary framework.  The lutes are replaced by flamenco, classical & steel-string guitars, while the viols give way to Hofner & Rickenbacker basses.

This brand new musical endeavour embraces both informed historical performance practise & pop sensibilities.  Add to this an over-arching aesthetic derived from shimmering guitar pop & we have a new sound, the sound of Elizabethan Jangle.

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Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a diverse repertory across multiple albums spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects & song writing.  He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.
Gareth is involved with many cross genre projects.  Over the past two years he has released two collaborative albums with ARIA Hall of Fame inductee Steve Kilbey (The Church).  Earlier this year a third collaboration with Steve saw the release of double album ‘The Hall of Counterfeits’.

Song Descriptions
Can She Excuse
The opening track to this fascinating step back in time to the world of troubadours and courtiers and palace commissioned concerts.  Koch’s mastery of the Classical Guitar is augmented by his skills at percussion and arrangement to create a world music element as well.

The Hags of Gloucester

The title alone is intriguing and sure enough the track doesn’t disappoint with soaring peaks of guitar arpeggios and subtle percussion and jangling backing guitars.

Praetorian Jangle

Maybe if classical guitar had been around in Roman times you would have heard this in Caesar’s court or in The Forum.  With a bit of a military backbeat and some other percussion the guitars layered on top tell the whole story.

Fun Fact
The unique original oil portrait was painted by Steve Kilbey.

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Elizabethan Jangle is OUT TODAY September 3rd – via MGM
All DSP’s and CD’s from official store below

Connect with Gareth Koch: 

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CJ Shaw releases new single Adelaide from upcoming album

Adelaide
Acoustic Folk Australian best describes this song which has elements of Slim Dusty and Aussie folk such as The Hussy Hicks and The Beggars. A great opener with nothing but acoustics, electric riffs and vocals which sets the tone for the forthcoming album (All Sorts-Sept 17-MGM)  nicely.

Video premiered today by Scenestr

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This story telling song follows the enchanting day which saw the arrival of my first child, Adelaide. The rain tumbled down in Canberra, soaking the city and filling the drains as we marvelled at the magic of being first time parents. As the song suggests the natural world that surrounded us, the animals and birds as well as the gardens and trees were reborn as the result of the 60mm that fell in just under an hour. This is a song that celebrates renewal and new life.

Armed with a guitar and a swag full of harmonicas, singer-songwriter CJ Shaw’s intricate finger-picking, word play and storytelling never fails to captivate his audiences. CJ Shaw’s music is distinctly Australian in style, influenced by Paul Kelly and Slim Dusty. His lyrical storytelling and musicality lends itself to audiences of all ages.

In 2020, CJ Shaw was nominated for an ARIA Award for ‘Music Teacher of the Year’ with Jimmy Barnes as his official ambassador presenting him with the nomination. This prestigious music industry acknowledgement recognised his dynamic and poignant songwriting for primary-aged children. These celebrated songs are woven through his performances and albums, played alongside satirical and storytelling Australiana folk songs.

In 2021 CJ Shaw will release his album ‘All Sorts’. Combining the best of his children’s songs with his unique brand of contemporary Australiana, Shaw has dubbed ‘All Sorts’ “the ultimate Family Album”.  With over a decade experience touring and performing at music festivals in Australia and Timor-Leste, CJ Shaw is an exciting Canberra musician at the top of his game.

CJ Shaw – Adelaide is out NOW August 20th through Foghorn/MGM

Download or stream:

Connect with CJ Shaw:
www.cjshawmusic.com