Femi Kuti:
After spending years in the best Afrobeat school you can find, and then having to replace the jailed Fela Kuti - Femi Kuti decided to build his own band with his Creator’s blessing. At this time Fela “gave him the keys” and they shared ‘The Shrine.’ The New Africa Shrine that Femi built is still steaming today. From there, the path that Femi took lead him to bring Afrobeat to new boundaries. With the worldwide success of Femi’s previous albums, while continuing to break the rules and to explore all kinds of Afrobeat musical possibilities, his new release, DAY BY DAY, brings Femi back with what is considered his best album ever made! A UNESCO warrior, Femi Kuti is delivering in this opus deep and mastered compositions that he performs with sincerity and generosity.
Now available! Click HERE to purchase Femi Kuti - Day By Day.
Asa:
Asa, in her own opinion, is not a commercial product and not a sex kitten. But she is dazzlingly talented and gifted with a will of iron. She began to feel the wind of success blowing in her direction. A wind strong enough to sweep her away, but that would be forgetting that Asa does, after all, mean little falcon, a nickname acquired following a running away incident in childhood. She was offered contracts, concerts and money, but Asa was determined to make her music just the way she wanted. Asa expresses her bittersweet point of view on the realities that move her in different forms, from daydream to nose-thumbing to SOS. Her aim is, of course, to transmit positive values, but also to put words to the things that hurt. Highly personal and totally universal, Asa’s music will undoubtedly cross all frontiers, not just geographical, but also those of the heart and soul.
"It’s as if Lauryn Hill and Bob Marley had a lovechild—one with a serious knack for leading singalongs." -Vanity Fair
Now available!
Click HERE to purchase Asa - Self Titled. Click HERE to purchase Asa - (Acoustic Live In Tokyo) EP.
ASA - "JAILER"
ASA - "Fire On The Mountain" live at SXSW 2009 Austin, TX
Jesse Harris:
After touring over a year as a duo, playing the 6-string banjo tuned like a guitar with a Brazilian-based percussionist, NYC songwriter Jesse Harris decided to make that surprisingly full and efficient instrumentation the foundation of his new album Watching The Sky, released March 3rd on Mercer Street. Expanding upon the rhythmic direction of his previous release, Feel, Jesse’s new recording is centered around the backbone percussion of Mauro Refosco (David Byrne, Bebel Gilberto, Forro In The Dark) who also plays vibes, marimba, and keyboards; and augmented by the versatile bass and guitar playing of his longtime pal from The Ferdinandos, Tony Scherr (Bill Frisell, Willie Nelson). Joining Harris again on vocals for the first time in awhile, Norah Jones sings harmony on a new version of "It Will Stay With Us." Watching the Sky also includes two instrumental pieces, the buoyant "The Fool" and the dreamy "Gimmer", a tribute to the obscure and influential guitarist Gimmer Nicholson, whose only album was produced by Manning in 1968.
Now available! Click HERE to purchase Jesse Harris - Watching The Sky
William Fitzsimmons:
William draws from those early folk stylings of his mother's music, and the embellished instrumentation of his father's. He is often compared to contemporaries Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, and the late Elliott Smith, not only for his unique style and skill in writing and proclivity to deal with substantive and evocative subject matter, but also for his use of organic and colorful melodies and arrangements. His first two records were completely self-produced and his new album, "The Sparrow And The Crow," produced by Marshall Altman at Galt Line Studios in Los Angeles, is his first studio recorded work. While his lyricism deals often with darker undertones (his most recent album is said to have been written following his own divorce), a measure of hopefulness is always carefully blended in. Even with his short tenure as a songwriter, William has already received mention in noted publications such as Billboard, Paste Magazine, and Performing Songwriter Magazine, and his music has been featured on several television programs such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "Army Wives."
Now available! Click HERE to purchase William Fitzsimmons - The Sparrow And The Crow
William Fitzsimmons - "If You Would Come Back Home"
David Gray:
Draw The Line' is the warm, fresh, organic sound of David Gray in a
new, revitalised light. He had all the success in the world, and more,
but he was hungry for more not more success, but more feeling. More heart. More soul. More songs. More life. The formula had become a stale and worn one.
"Hunger is a very accurate appraisal for how I feel," he says. "I got to say things as a writer that I've obviously been dying to say for years. Songs like ..Nemesis', ..First Chance' and ..Draw The Line' were soliberating. Images and ideas just flowing out and a bit of humour as well, and a bit of caustic soda ground in there too. A bit of spice to the whole thing. The camera was suddenly panning everywhere. It was just a wonderful feeling. I just feel very, very alive. That's the feeling that's in ..Draw The Line'."
Now available!
Click HERE to purchase David Gray - Fugitive (single)
Click HERE to pre-order David Gray - Draw The Line(Deluxe Edition)
David Gray- "Fugitive"
David Gray - "Draw The Line trailer"
Kitty Daisy & Lewis:
"We play old music but we’re playing it now," says Lewis. "You can’t just strum. You have to do it with fire.” For them, it’s heroes like Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, Johnny Cash, Wynonie “Mr Blues” Harris and Roy Brown who are on iPod rotation, although Daisy professes to like some current artists and points out the significance of the Ray Charles tune that underpins “whasis name, Kanye West’s” 'Gold Digger'.
The band started when they visited Come Down & Meet The Folks, the Sunday afternoon country and rockabilly club at the Golden Lion pub with, err, their folks. Big Steve of The Arlenes, who ran the event, asked Lewis to come and play banjo with him and Kitty joined them on drums. The second time they played, Daisy took her place on accordion. After playing intermittently at the pub, the trio decided they needed two more members and hauled ma and pa into the set up on double bass and guitar respectively. “They didn’t want to do it at first,” says Daisy, “and mum couldn’t even play double bass but we needed her to do it so we told her she had to learn.” The gig offers started to come thick and fast and the band ended up playing alongside Radio One Blue Room DJ Rob da Bank. Suitably wowed, he offered them a session on his show and eventually signed them to his Sunday Best imprint. Over the summer they’ll be playing Lovebox, Bestival and making the most of the school-free time to record some new material. “We like to record at home” says Lewis, “because we like the energy of the early records and we’re trying to recreate the same studio set-up in our back room.”
Now available!
Click HERE to purchase Kitty Daisy & Lewis - Self Titled
Meshell Ndegeocello:
Canonized, marginalized or just scrutinized, Meshell Ndegeocello has given up trying to explain herself. After 20 years in an industry that has called her everything from avant garde to a dying breed, what unquestionably remains is the fearsome bassist, prolific songwriter and the creativity and curiosity of an authentic musical force. With that, she has earned critical acclaim, the unfailing respect of fellow players, songwriters and composers, and the dedication of her diverse, unclassifiable fans.
Devil’s Halo, Meshell’s 8th album and her first for Mercer Street, harkens back to the way records used to be made: no click track or electronic synthetics, with a focus on musicianship and live band energy. Meshell feels that Devil’s Halo represents a return to a place that she truly appreciates, music that is created and performed by people’s hands. Produced by Meshell and guitarist Chris Bruce, and influenced by a wide breadth of sounds – from The Human League to Wu Tang to Yes – Devil’s Halo displays Meshell’s vocals and diversity throughout.
Meshell says of Devil’s Halo, “I guess I’ve ended up believing in the gray area, the dichotomies and the unknowable. This record is all about contrast – then and now, raw and polished, beats and harmonies, Devil’s Halo, good in evil in all things. I know some people want more of what they’ve heard and I know other people want the envelope pushed every time and I feel like this record makes peace with all of them”. She adds, “I love heavy bass and dub and beats, but I also sit and play the piano and write a song inspired by a pub in Dublin. I’m not representing anymore – I'm a musician, that’s all I can offer. Each record is just meant to say: here’s where that’s led me today."
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