Sights and Sounds: Gary Calamar, Americana Music Association, Justin Currie

Happy Tuesday morning everybody! Here is a quick roundup of several items pulled from my inbox first thing today...

NOTED MUSIC SUPERVISOR AND KCRW DJ GARY CALAMAR’S DEBUT RELEASE YOU ARE WHAT YOU LISTEN TO CONFIRMED FOR OCTOBER 14, 2014 VIA ATLANTIC RECORDS

True Blood, Dexter, Six Feet Under Music Supervisor as well as Disc Jockey, Author and Former Record Store Manager’s Musical Evolution Continues with Solo Debut From a Rock and Roll Wordsmith

LOS ANGELES, CA (TUESDAY AUGUST 26, 2014) – Five-time Grammy nominated music supervisor and noted KCRW Disc Jockey Gary Calamar (www.garycalamar.com) announced today that his debut E.P. You Are What You listen To will be released October 14 via Atlantic Records.

You Are What You Listen To is Gary Calamar’s debut as a musician & songwriter of gloriously catchy, sparkly rock and roll songs, filled with abundant wit and melody. Drawing inspiration from his rock heroes, his tunes alternately crunch as well as caress. Produced by John Would (Fiona Apple), the six songs that compromise the E.P. jam their way directly into your head. They are:

1. I Got An Idea

2. Giddy

3. Minimum Day 

4. She’s So Mid-Century 

5. The Last Revolution

6. Back Door Man

So how does one go from music industry soldier to simply musician? Well, it’s actually more like an evolution than a career change. Known primarily as a five-time Grammy nominated music supervisor on shows like True Blood, Dexter, Six Feet Under as well as KCRW DJ, Gary Calamar has always been a songwriter. None other than Iggy Pop recorded his tune “Let’s Boot and Rally”. So after years of being a closeted songwriter with no time to record, up stepped Atlantic Records who heard a few demo tracks and asked to put the record out. And here we are, You Are What You Listen To. 

Gary’s humble beginnings in the music business began behind the counter at LA’s finest record stores: Licorice Pizza (RIP), Moby Disc (RIP) and Rhino (RIP). He managed the criminally underrated L.A. band, The Balancing Act who released 3 indie classics on IRS Records. From there he was offered a job at one of the world’s most influential radio stations, KCRW. He also co-authored the book Record Store Days: From Vinyl to Digital and Back Again. But all the while he’s been entertaining his inner circle of music pals with his own compositions. Catchy, sparkling, glorious bursts of rock and roll mischief and majesty, they are. Real, live, can’t-get-them-outta-yer-head songs that will be released in on October 14. 

Live dates to be announced shortly. 

Americana Music Association announces its 13th Annual Honors & Awards Performers and Presenters

(Nashville, Tenn.) August 26, 2014 – The Americana Music Association reveals an initial presenter and performer lineup for its 13th annual Honors & Awards Show. As anticipated, the list reflects Americana’s “spirit of eclecticism” (New York Times) through its diverse production/curation.

Hurray For The Riff Raff
is Alynda Lee Segarra /
Photo: Josh Shoemaker

In addition to previously announced performances by Loretta Lynn, Flaco Jimenez, Taj Mahal and Jackson Browne, the tastemaker event will feature Buddy Miller, Cassandra Wilson, Hard Working Americans, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Jason Isbell, Jim Lauderdale, Marty Stuart, Parker Millsap, Patty Griffin, Robert Ellis, Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Ry Cooder, Sarah Jarosz, St. Paul & Broken Bones, Sturgill Simpson, The Devil Makes Three, The McCrary Sisters, The Milk Carton Kids and Valerie June with presentations by Amy Ray, Carlene Carter, Elizabeth Cook, Emmylou Harris, JD Souther, Joe Henry, John Paul White, John Ritter, Keb Mo, Rhett Miller, Shovels and Rope, Todd Snider and Vince Gill.

The 13th Annual Honors & Awards Show — held at the historic Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday, Sept. 17th — will be hosted by Jim Lauderdale and feature a house band led by Buddy Miller that includes Don Was, Joachim Cooder, Tim Lauer, The McCrary Sisters and legend, Ry Cooder.

Broadcast live with radio partners SiriusXM "Outlaw Country" and online via NPR's Folk Alley, and edited for television for PBS that will air November 22 in the Austin City Limits time slot. The Americana Honors & Awards, for the first time, will also air on Australia's CMC (Country Music Channel). The show kicks off the 15th Annual Festival and Conference that runs Wed. Sept, 17 through Sunday, Sept 21.

For a full list of performers, panels, and ticket and registration information, please visit americanamusic.org.

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The 15th annual Americana Music Festival & Conference, a “smaller, rootsier version of South by Southwest” (New York Times) will take place September 17-21, 2014 in Nashville, TN, kicked off by the 13th annual Americana Honors & Awards Show on Sept. 17 at the historic Ryman Auditorium.

The Americana Music Association is a professional non-profit trade organization whose mission is to advocate for the authentic voice of American Roots Music around the world. The Association curates events throughout the year including the annual Americana Music Festival and Conference, presented by Nissan, the acclaimed Americana Honors & Awards program and most recently “Americana NYC” Aug. 4th – 11th — a partnership with Lincoln Center. For more information, please visit www.americanamusic.org.

JUSTIN CURRIE US TOUR IN SUPPORT OF LOWER REACHES

Justin Currie will tour the U.S. in September and October of 2014.

Justin Currie, the lead singer and songwriter of Scottish pop-rock band Del Amitri, is pleased to announce U.S. dates this fall in support of his newest release, Lower Reaches.

Watch Justin Currie's Video "Bend To My Will" here Visit Justin Currie's website here The new album is the follow-up to Currie's 2010 critically acclaimed project The Great War which garnered 4 star reviews and earned Currie the moniker of "a songwriter's songwriter" from Mojo.  On Lower Reaches, Currie's pop sensibilities and radio ready vocals are ever present, but it's his songwriting that is perhaps most striking.  The new set of self-penned songs show Currie emerging as a writer of great depth and sensitivity, deftly examining life, relationships and the human condition, albeit delivered with the healthy dose of cynicism and wit that his fans have come to count on. Currie wrote most of the songs on Lower Reaches during a solitary songwriting retreat on the Isle of Skye off the coast of Scotland.  Hunkered down in a remote cottage in the shadow of The Cuillins, the mountain range that dominates the Hebridean island, Currie had no internet and no mobile phone, just an acoustic guitar, a piano, and a ghetto-blaster on which to record his ideas.  "I suppose it was a bit like my Brill Building", he smiles. "You're being your own boss and putting yourself under pressure to write."  Currie wrote fifteen songs in eleven days, something of a personal best in terms of rapid-fire delivery. When it came time to capture the music in the studio Currie traveled to Austin, Texas to work with producer Mike McCarthy (Craig Finn [The Hold Steady], Spoon, Patty Griffin, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead).  The process was, in Currie's words, "a brilliant experience" and the resulting tracks have been heralded by the UK press as among the songwriter's recent best. Watch Justin Currie's Video "Bend to My Will" here As singer and main songwriter in Del Amitri, formed in Glasgow in 1983, Currie wrote many of their biggest hits including ‘Roll To Me’, ‘Always The Last To Know’, and ‘Nothing Ever Happens’. During their long and distinguished career, Del Amitri released four Top 10 albums, including ‘Waking Hours’ (1989), which sold over a million copies in the UK alone.

About Compass Records Billboard Magazine has touted Compass Records Group as one of the leading independent labels of the past decade. The label group is home to more than 500 releases across the Compass Records, Green Linnet and Mulligan Records imprints with a roster that boasts a variety of artists including Colin Hay, A.J. Croce, Victor Wooten, Claire Lynch, the Farewell Drifters, Peter Rowan, The Gibson Brothers, Darden Smith, BeauSoleil, Michael Cleveland, and label co-founder Alison Brown. For more information, visit www.compassrecords.com.

Inbox Update: Nine Inch Nails, Amos Lee, Atoms For Peace

Lots and lots of news to report. Here are some of the most high-profile music media releases worth featuring...

NINE INCH NAILS ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, NEW SINGLE   AND NORTH AMERICAN ARENA TOUR  Hesitation Marks Set For September 3 Release, Available For Pre-order On iTunes Now   New Single "Came Back Haunted" Available Thursday, June 6 On iTunes   Tickets For Fall Tour Go On Sale Beginning Friday, June 14

On September 3, 2013, Columbia Records will release Hesitation Marks, the new full-length album from Nine Inch Nails. Recorded in secret over the last year, Trent Reznor teamed with producers Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder to create the first new music from Nine Inch Nails in five years.   Lead single "Came Back Haunted" is available Thursday, June 6 on iTunes (iTunes.com/NineInchNails). In addition, fans who pre-order Hesitation Marks on iTunes will instantly receive a download of "Came Back Haunted." The album can also be pre-ordered at www.nin.com, where the singleis streaming now.   Today plans were also unveiled for "Nine Inch Nails: Tension 2013" - afall 2013 North American arena tour.  Reznor says, "Tension picks up where Lights in the Sky left off.  This is the full-on NIN live experience realized as we never could before." The run will launch on September 28 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN and include shows at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY (October 14) and Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA (November 8).   Tickets for the arena outing will go on sale to the public beginning Friday, June 14, at www.livenation.com. See below for itinerary and specific on sale dates. Fans who register at www.nin.com will receive exclusive first access to tickets before they go on sale to the general public.

AMOS LEE'S MOUNTAINS OF SORROW, RIVERS OF SONG SET FOR OCTOBER 1 RELEASE BY BLUE NOTE RECORDS PRODUCED BY JAY JOYCE, ALBUM INCLUDES SPECIAL GUESTS ALISON KRAUSS AND PATTY GRIFFIN AND FOLLOWS 2011's CHART-TOPPINGMISSION BELL Amos Lee                   Photo credit: Harper Smith

Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song, Amos Lee's fifth studio album, will be released on October 1 by Blue Note Records. See below for track listing. Lee recorded the 12-song collection in Nashville with Jay Joyce (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Eric Church, Cage the Elephant). "I've always enjoyed it down there, so I thought I'd bring my band and see how a bunch of Philly guys fit in," says Lee. "Jay brings a musicality, a different kind of ear. He definitely hears things in ways that I don't, and brings out extra dimensions in the songs." Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song is the follow-up to 2011's Mission Bell, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Billboard Rock Albums charts and contained the No. 1 Triple A radio hit "Windows Are Rolled Down." The new studio record is the first to feature Lee's longtime touring band - comprising Freddie Berman, Zach Djanikian, Andy Keenan and Jaron Olevsky - and the first album ever recorded at St. Charles, producer Joyce's brand new studio, which is housed in a converted East Nashville church. The convenient location allowed several remarkable guests to participate in the sessions.Alison Krauss joins Lee on "Chill In The Air" and Patty Griffin sings harmony on "Mountains of Sorrow," a song inspired by Lee's visit to Levon Helm's barn in Woodstock, where he appeared at the legendary drummer's Midnight Ramble not long before Helm's death. Instrumentalists Jerry Douglas (Alison Krauss & Union Station),Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson and Family) and Jeff Coffin (Dave Matthews Band) also contribute to the record. Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song finds Lee in new sonic territory, working with a broader palette of textures and instrumentation yet retaining the trenchant impact of the scenes, characters and stories that he is renowned for. The album arrives a full 10 years after he first signed with Blue Note Records and began a career that continues to grow and surprise. The New York Times praised Lee's "honeyed singing voice," noting that 2011's chart-topping Mission Bell  "sharpens the payoff...it plants Mr. Lee and his tunes in a stark landscape, enveloped by rustling percussion and reverberant drones " while MOJO said: "His lyrics sweat with detail and nervy experience." "Mission Bell is a darker turn for Lee, and shows that his artistic arc is still peaking," observed Associated Press. Lee - who has toured with such artists as Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, Elvis Costello, Adele and Dave Matthews Band - will celebrate the release of Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song with an extensive fall headline tour. Details will be announced shortly. Mountains Of Sorrow, Rivers Of Song - Track Listing 1.     Johnson Blvd                                               2.     Stranger                                                        3.     Scamps                                                         4.     Chill In The Air                                             5.     Dresser Drawer                                           6.     Indonesia                                                     7.     High Water                                                    8.     The Man Who Wants You                           9.     Loretta                                                           10.  Plain View                                                    11.  Mountains of Sorrow                                 12.  Burden Atoms For Peace (Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich)  LIVE DJ Set on KCRW (89.9FM and KCRW.com) THIS Friday, June 7 at 10am Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich have teamed up on many projects, from Radiohead to their current musical outlet Atoms For Peace, and will join forces for an unprecedented DJ set in our studios -- their first time doing a live set on U.S. radio -- THIS Friday, June 7, 2013 at 10 a.m. (Pacific Standard Time); Tune in to 89.9FM or stream it online at KCRW.com.   KCRW is handing over an entire hour of Morning Becomes Eclectic to the duo, who will alternate between DJ sets and short interview segments with host Jason Bentley.  Atoms For Peace’s debut album “Amok” was released in February on XL Recordings. Tickets are still available for their full band performance at the Hollywood Bowl on October 16.

Inbox Update: Tears For Fears, All Tiny Creatures, Patty Griffin

Happy Friday everybody! Lots of '80s-spawned bands  my blog this week...

Tears For Fears released The Hurting 30 years ago today.

TearsForFears.com just launched today.

All Tiny Creatures / photo: Chris Rosenau

All Tiny Creatures are back with their second album Dark Clock, coming out May 28, 2013 on Hometapes, the Portland-based label home to Matthew E. White, Bear In Heaven & Megafaun. "This is like pop music from an alternate universe," says Thomas Wincek, the founder of the Wisconsin-based four-piece. Hearing the urgent, upbeat, breathy direction of the first single "Quickest Cut," you're transported to a land where every child was raised on a steady diet of Steve Reich, King Crimson, the Beach Boys, and Def Leppard.


The first single, "Quickest Cut," can be heard now over at Paste, who say the record "will feature the band’s signature shimmering electronic pop sound as well as their penchant for Beach Boy-inspired harmonics.Click here to hear the new single. Visit the band's Web site at: http://alltinycreatures.com/

New West Records is proud to announce that Patty Griffin will release her new album, American Kid, on May 7. The album, co-produced by Griffin and Craig Ross, is her seventh and first for New West. It is her first album of mainly new material since the acclaimed Children Running Through in 2007. In between then and now, she made the Grammy Award-winning Downtown Church in 2010 and became a member of Band of Joy alongside Robert Plant.


American Kid, much of which Griffin says "was written to honor my father," returns to typical Patty Griffin territory, which is to say that it features a group of remarkably powerful, personal and unpredictable songs arranged and performed in a style that doesn't entirely repeat anything she's done on her previous albums while drawing on all of them. Yet Griffin's catalog is among the most unified in modern popular music, because her singing is as unmistakable and inimitable as her songwriting.

Griffin has lived in Austin and recorded either in Austin and Nashville throughout her career (she released her first album, Living with Ghosts, in 1996) but American Kid is her first album whose music sounds stylistically rooted in Americana. "It was recorded in Memphis," Griffin says, and adds with a quick laugh, "Part of the reason was the chance to get away from what I'd been doing." The key to that was working with North Mississippi Allstars guitarist Luther Dickinson and drummer Cody Dickinson. The Dickinsons had played acoustic sets opening for Band of Joy and Luther gave Patty lessons on mandolin. "With the Dickinsons, you're constantly seeing people who work to get away from what they're used to."

Co-producer Ross, perhaps best known for his guitar work with Lisa Germano as well as his own critically acclaimed solo albums, is also responsible for the production of an earlier Griffin collection (2004's Impossible Dream). Griffin said she chose Ross because of his ability, as she describes it, "to get the ghost out of the machine." Ross plays -- usually guitar but also bass, mandolin, baritone, omnichord and organ -- on all but two tracks on the album. The other prominent musical contributor, appearing on eight of the twelve tracks, is guitarist Doug Lancio, who has played on just about every Patty Griffin recording since Flaming Red, and produced some of them. Long-time friend and sound engineer, Roy Taylor helps out once again on American Kid, and Plant sings on three songs.

The album's lyrical focal point is Patty's father, a high school science teacher who fought in World War II, lost his father young and his mother almost immediately after he returned from the war, lived for a time in a Trappist monastery, raised seven children, bought Patty's Sgt. Pepper for her birthday and changed her life. Mr. Griffin's impending death sparked the songs. But these aren't songs about death, even though American Kid features ample reference to mortality. American Kid is thematic, not a concept album.


Tracklisting for American Kid:
Go Wherever You Want To Go
Don't Let Me Die In Florida
Ohio
Wild Old Dog
Mom & Dad's Waltz
Faithful Son
Highway Son
That Kind of Lonely
Irish Boy
Get Ready Marie
Not A Bad Man
Gonna Miss You When You're Gone
Griffin and her band will be touring throughout 2013.