Sights and Sounds: Shemekia Copeland, Passenger, The Rails, Eliza Gilkyson

Here is a round-up as it relates to some exciting new releases coming this summer...

Shemekia Copeland to release 'America's Child' on Friday, August 3, 2018

Produced by Will Kimbrough with guests including John Prine, Mary Gauthier, Rhiannon Giddens, Emmylou Harris, J.D. Wilkes, Steve Cropper and others.

Shemekia Copeland is a powerhouse, a superstar…she can do no wrong.
--Rolling Stone

Shemekia Copeland is one of the great blues voices of our time.  No one comes close to the sheer firepower that Copeland conjures at will.
--Chicago Tribune

America's Child is a groundbreaking, genre-bending work of beauty. Shemekia is one of the great singers of our time. This record introduces listeners to another side of her, and I predict it will result in many new fans. Her voice on these songs is nothing short of magic.
--Mary Gauthier 

Shemekia Copeland is the real deal. America's Child goes deep and Shemekia‘s voice -- a national treasure -- carries the songs effortlessly, whether topical, personal, spiritual, political or just plain raucous fun. Shemekia rears back her head and what comes out is humanity made vocal.
--Will Kimbrough

Award-winning vocalist Shemekia Copeland will release her potent new Alligator Records album, America's Child, on Friday, August 3, 2018. Produced by Americana Instrumentalist Of The Year winner Will Kimbrough (who also plays guitar on the album) and recorded in Nashville, America's Child is a courageous and fiery statement of purpose, a major step forward for the singer whose musical consciousness continues to expand as her star continues to rise.

America's Child is by far Copeland's most compelling work yet, with music swelling beyond blues and into spirited Americana, with elements of rock, soul, and country. Her instantly recognizable voice—capable of being sultry, assertive and roaring—delivers every song with unparalleled honesty and passion. The three-time Grammy nominee’s wide-open vision of contemporary Americana roots and soul music showcases the evolution of a passionate artist with an up-to-the-minute musical and lyrical approach. From America's Child's anthemic opening track, "Ain’t Got Time For Hate," to the closing lullaby, the traditional Go "To Sleepy Little Baby," Shemekia sings with passion and insight about the chaos and uncertainty in the world while still finding joy all around her.

With guests including John Prine, Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Gauthier, Emmylou Harris, Steve Cropper, J.D. Wilkes, Al Perkins and members of the Time Jumpers, America’s Child bursts with Copeland’s bravado and embraces with her tenderness. Gauthier and songwriter/executive producer John Hahn wrote two striking songs for the project. Smoked Ham And Peaches is a search for truth and tranquility in America, featuring Giddens on African banjo. Americans celebrates our collective diversity in all its forms and colors. American music legend Prine joins Shemekia for a stirring duet on his own Great Rain. Guitar great Cropper adds his scorching playing to the ballad Promised Myself, written by Shemekia's father, the late bluesman Johnny Clyde Copeland. And her version of I'm Not Like Everybody Else transforms the Kinks song into a blues-fueled declaration of independence.

Upon the birth of her son Johnny Lee Copeland in 2017, Shemekia, with fresh eyes, began to take an even deeper look at the state of the world. Of the new album, she says, “After having a child, I started thinking about the world I brought him into, how it actually is and how I wished it was and all the things he will have to go through. And to live in this world today, you have to have a strong foundation like I did to make it through. So that’s what 'America’s child' means to me. I’m truly grateful to all the artists that joined me on this record – it wasn’t about the genre for anyone, it was about the music and mutual love and respect.”

When Shemekia broke on the scene at age 18 in 1998 with her groundbreaking Alligator Records debut CD, Turn The Heat Up, she instantly became a blues and R&B force to be reckoned with. News outlets from The New York Times to CNN praised Copeland's talent, larger-than-life personality, and true star power. With each subsequent release, Copeland's music has continued to grow. From her debut through 2005's The Soul Truth, Shemekia earned eight Blues Music Awards, a host of Living Blues Awards (including the prestigious 2010 Blues Artist Of The Year) and more accolades from fans, critics and fellow musicians. 2000’s Wicked received a Grammy nomination. Two highly successful releases on Telarc (including 2012's Grammy-nominated 33 1/3) cemented her reputation as a singer who, according to NPR's All Things Considered, "embodies the blues with her powerful vocal chops and fearless look at social issues."

Copeland returned to Alligator Records in 2015 with the Grammy-nominated Outskirts Of Love. She won the 2017 Living Blues Readers’ Award for Blues Artist Of The Year (Female), the same distinction she won the year before. She also took home the 2016 Blues Music Award (BMA) for Contemporary Blues Female Artist Of  The Year. Outskirts Of Love won the BMA for Best Blues Album Of The Year. MOJO said Copeland was "spectacular, stirring, sanctified and sassy." 

Shemekia Copeland has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world and has appeared on national television, NPR, and in newspapers, films and magazines. She's sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, James Cotton and many others. She opened for The Rolling Stones and entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Jeff Beck calls her “amazing.” Santana says, “She’s incandescent…a diamond.” In 2012, she performed with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, Gary Clark, Jr. and others at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama.

Now, with America's Child, Shemekia Copeland is standing on the cusp of her greatest success. Her intensely empowering, American music is as insightful as it is fun. Upon release of the album, she'll tour nationwide, including a showcase performance at the Americana Music Festival in Nashville in September.

NPR Music says, "She brings a perfect balance of authority and understatement to each song." No Depressionadds, "When Shemekia Copeland opens her mouth, everybody pays attention. She pierces your soul. This is how you do it, and nobody does it better than Shemekia Copeland."

Passenger takes listeners on a road trip of the U.S. with new album 'Runaway,' out on August 31, 2018

North American Summer Folk Festivals Include Newport Folk Festival, Festival D’Été International and Winnipeg Folk Festival

Following the release of the new single “Hell Or High Water,” UK singer/songwriter Passenger (Mike Rosenberg) has announced his new album Runaway is set for release on August 31, 2018. Runaway, available for pre-order HERE, was recorded between the UK and Australia, but its aesthetic is North American, thanks in large part to his American father who organized trips back to the States every other summer while Mike was growing up in Brighton, UK.  While some songs point to specific locations such as Yellowstone or Detroit, Mike imagined all the new songs unfolding against a backdrop of American landscapes, which led to a month long road trip across the U.S. to create a series of live acoustic versions of each album track, and videos to match.

The gorgeous video for “Hell Or High Water” was shot over a few days across various national and state parks, including Monument Valley, Valley of Fire, Death Valley and Joshua Tree.  Says Rosenberg,“These epic and vast landscapes really help to portray a feeling of being lost in a hopeless quest for answers.”

Sonically, too, Runaway draws on Americana more so than past Passenger albums. There is some lap steel, some mandolin, a little banjo, all courtesy of guitarist Benjamin Edgar. Rosenberg is also joined on the album by bassist Rob Calder, drummer Peter Marin and keyboard player Jon Hansen. 

Passenger will be appearing at a slew of summer festivals across the globe, with North American stops atNewport Folk Festival, Festival D’Ete International, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Calgary Folk Festival,BluesFest, Vancouver Island Folk Festival, and LL Bean Summer Series. Details on a North American headline tour are expected in the coming weeks.

Runaway follows 2016’s Young As The Morning Old As The Sea, which debuted at #1 in the U.K.,Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, and saw Passenger play his largest headline tour to date, with a total audience of over 1.4 Million across 29 countries, 97 gigs and 23 busking shows, including 13,500 people at Amsterdam’s ZiggoDome.

Passenger gained worldwide recognition with breakout, multi-Platinum single “Let Her Go” (2012), which went #1 in 19 countries and today has 780+ Million worldwide streams and just under 2 Billion YouTube views.

Stay tuned for many more announcements from Passenger in the coming weeks…

Runaway Track Listing:

1. Hell Or High Water

2. Why Can’t I Change

3. Heart To Love

4. Let’s Go

5. He Leaves You Cold

6. Ghost Town

7. Runaway

8. Eagle Bear Buffalo

9. To Be Free

10. Survivors

11. Survivors (Live from Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park, CA)

12. To Be Free (Live from Dauphin Rd, Vineland, NJ)

13.  Eagle Bear Buffalo (Live from Canaan Mountain Wilderness Area, UT)

14.  Runaway (Live from Joshua Tree National Park, CA)

15. Ghost Town (Live from Michigan Theatre, Detroit, MI)

16. He Leaves You Cold (Live from Unityville, PA)

17. Let's Go (Live from Trough Rd, State Bridge, CO)

18. Heart To Love (Live from a Rooftop in Manhattan, NY)

19. Why Can't I Change (Live from Tahkenitch Landing Campground, Gardiner, OR)

20. Hell Or High Water (Live from Santa Monica Beach, CA)

Passenger North American Summer Festivals:

Thur, July 5    Ottawa, ON @ BluesFest

Fri, July 6       Quebec, QC @ Festival D'Été International

Sun July 8       Winnipeg, MB @ Winnipeg Folk Festival

Sat, July 14     Vancouver, BC @ Vancouver Island Folk Festival

Thur, July 26  Calgary, AB @ Calgary Folk Music Festival

Sat, July 28     Freeport, ME @ LL Bean Summer Series

Sun, July 29    Newport, RI @ Newport Folk Festival

Click HERE for a full list of Passenger tour dates.

Official Site

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Folk-rock royalty The Rails are touring North America this summer  Dates with the Pretenders, new album out with Thirty Tigers on June 29

The Rails are a duo brought together by serendipity. Kari Thompson and James Walbourne first met during sessions for an album by Kami’s mother Linda Thompson, and there was never any doubt that the way forward was to stay open to the vagaries of chance and embrace new possibilities. Four years later, the duo have created an album that emphatically vindicates the pair’s restless curiosity. The Rails’ second album is one which lays itself open to the stormy weather of life, be it when addressing the desultory self-justifications of an abusive husband in the broodingly poignant "Dark Times," or the everyday ups and downs of James and Kami’s own relationship in "Drowned In Blue". Comprised of ten original compositions, plus four bonus tracks, Other People, out June 29 with Thirty Tigers, is a record rooted in change: both musical and circumstantial. For James, after a ubiquitous presence on lead guitar for artists such as The Pretenders, Edwyn Collins and Ray Davies, it was time to inject a bit of voltage into the group he formed with Kami after they became an item in 2011. Key to that process was finding the right producer. At the very top of James’ wish-list was Tennessee-based producer Ray Kennedy, who had impressed him with the “off-the-scale psychedelic country treatment” he meted out on Steve Earle’s benchmark 2000 album Transcendental Blues: “To my amazement, Ray said he’d be up for it. We travelled to his studio, knowing that we had seven days to nail it.” The pressure of the deadline audibly brought out the best in the players assembled to tease out Kami and James’ vision for the songs – a vision which they described to Kennedy as “folk-rock on steroids.” The synergy summoned by the players is abundant throughout Other People, be it "Late Surrender," which seems to locate a perfect equidistant point between Roy Orbison and Lucinda Williams, or the yearning desolation of Kami’s vocal on "Mansion Of Happiness." The Rails upcoming Tour Dates Mon 2 July        Nashville TN - Ryman Auditorium * Tue 3 July         Louisville KY - Palace Theatre * Thu 5 July         Covington KY - Octave + Fri 6 July           Cincinatti OH - Taft Theatre * Sat 7 July          Northfield OH - Hard Rock Live * Sun 8 July         Indianapolis IN - Murat Theatre * Tue 10 July        Milwaukee WI - Riverside Theater * Wed 11 July       Grand Rapids MI - 20 Monroe Live * Mon 16 July       Minneapolis MN - The State Theater * Wed 18 July       St Louis MO - Peabody Opera House * Thu 19 July        Des Moines IA - Stephens Auditorium * Mon 23 July       Los Angeles CA - Moroccan Lounge + Wed 25  July      New York NY - Mercury Lounge + + Rails headline show * main support to The Pretenders Eliza Gilkyson set to release 'Secularia'  The two-time Grammy nominee returns with a new studio album on July 13 via Red House Records  AUSTIN, TX: Renowned GRAMMY-nominated folksinger Eliza Gilkyson will release her 20th album, SECULARIA, on July 13 via Red House Records. She's premiering the first single, "Solitary Singer," at Folk Alley. The song features lyrics by Eliza's grandmother, Phoebe Gilkyson, set to music by her father, folk legend Terry Gilkyson. The song became the title of a weekly folk-music themed radio show he hosted in the early 1950s for the Armed Forces Radio Network. "The song bears witness to the profound harmony of the natural world, the antithesis of music tied to an industry, and the foundation upon which I was raised," Gilkyson says.  Gilkyson's music, in the classic folk music tradition, has always offered a vivid reflection of the times we live in with each song a window into a world of struggle and beauty in a culture she feels is "caught somewhere between collapse and reinvention." The follow-up to her GRAMMY-nominated 2014 release, The Nocturne Diaries, SECULARIA is a collection of spiritually charged songs that do not fit within the parameters of traditional religious beliefs, challenging us to embrace a more inclusive perspective, to respect all life and to be accountable for our actions in these divisive times.   The album features a stunning performance with the internationally acclaimed Tosca String Quartet, (David Byrne, Bob Schneider), vocal cameos by Shawn Colvin and gospel singer Sam Butler, and a duet with her friend, the late Jimmy LaFave, as well as two songs adapted from poetry written by her grandmother, Phoebe Hunter Gilkyson, co-written with Eliza's father, folksinger Terry Gilkyson. Recorded with what she calls a "spare urban folk approach," the album features songs of grief, gratitude and wonder.  As always, she's assembled a group of some of Austin's finest players to back her in the studio: Chris Maresh (Eric Johnson), Warren Hood, Kym Warner (The Green Cards), Andre Moran, Mike Hardwick (Jon Dee Graham, Charlie Sexton), Betty Soo and more. The concept that evolved into SECULARIA has been percolating for years. Gilkyson is a daughter of the feminist movement and the project is equally inspired by the writings of the movement's early pioneers and today's #metoo movement.  Feminist pioneer Mary Daly wrote in 1973, "If God is male, then male is God. The divine patriarch castrates women as long as he is allowed to live on in the human imagination." Like many women living in 21st century America, Gilkyson is questioning the patriarchy that has for so many centuries fundamentally shaped society.   "How much of my life has been built around the gender roles assumed in the God-as-Man theology?" Gilkyson writes. "How did that primal patriarchal assumption play out in my search for self-awareness, love, and acceptance in my personal life and ultimately in my music?  How has it played out in the degradation of the natural world, the ever-present wars, violence against women, human suffering, the potential end of everything? These songs were directly inspired by a new way of understanding myself as a woman in the context of a culture going through a massive overhaul."  The second track, "Lifelines," celebrates the coming together of like-minded people after the last US presidential election. "I became acutely aware of a network of individuals all over the world who were mourning, processing and ultimately gearing up to fight back with all their hearts and souls, like lifelines of light connecting to me and to each other, comforting then and even more so today," Gilkyson says.  Other songs explore the overarching theme of a "new spirituality" that is evolving outside of traditional religious structures, including her moving current take on the traditional gospel tune "Down By the Riverside" sung with her longtime friend, the late Austin artist Jimmy LaFave, that was recorded just a few months before his passing, as well as a duet with Shawn Colvin on the song, "Conservation,"with lyrics and music adapted by Eliza from another of her grandmother's poems. "The fall from grace and redemption of the soul in these songs are less about a deity or afterlife, or a heaven and hell than they are about the very human story of losing and finding oneself within the span of a lifetime, which is all I know for certain that I've got. Woody Guthrie said, 'My religion is so big no matter what you do you're in it and no matter what you do you can't get out of it...' Gilkyson says. "He also said, 'Earth is God's everything.' He conveyed all that depth in just 29 little words."  Eliza Gilkyson is a two-time GRAMMY-nominated (2006/2015) singer-songwriter and activist who is one of the most respected musicians in folk, roots and Americana circles. Her songs have been covered by Joan Baez, Bob Geldof, Tom Rush and Rosanne Cash and have appeared in films, PBS specials and on prime-time TV.  A member of the Austin Music Hall of Fame and Austin Songwriter Hall of Fame, she has won countless Folk Alliance and Austin Music awards, including 2014's Songwriter of the Year.  She'll be touring festivals and North American this summer and fall -- more dates to be announced soon.  Go to http://elizagilkyson.com for updates. Pre-order the album at  https://www.redhouserecords.com/store/secularia-pre-order-0  Track Listing: 1. Solitary Singer 2. Lifelines 3. Conservation 4. In the Name of the Lord 5. Dreamtime 6. Seculare 7. Reunion 8. Sanctuary 9. Through the Looking Glass 10. Emmanuelle 11. Down by the Riverside 12. Instrument Upcoming Tour Dates: 7/11/18 Salt Spring Island, BC - Pitchfork Social (at Bullock Lake Farm) - Three Women and the Truth (Eliza, Mary Gauthier and Gretchen Peters) 7/13/18 & 7/14/18 Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Folk Music Festival - Three Women and the Truth (Eliza, Mary Gauthier and Gretchen Peters) 8/09/18 Lunenburg, NS - Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival 9/20/18 Houston, TX - McGonigel's Mucky Duck 9/23/18 Austin, TX - One World Theatre More tour dates to be announced soon.