Folk 184 Items

180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE VINYL
FEATURING NELSON’S FIRST SOLO RECORDING OF “GOOD HEARTED WOMAN”
LIMITED EDITION OF 1500 INDIVIDUALLY NUMBERED COPIES ON TRANSLUCENT
BLUE COLOURED VINYL

2CD Set / 40 songs - Contains 20 Tracks not available on CD or Streaming. The breadth and scope of Willie Nelson’s career is staggering.
He first established himself as part of a new generation of progressive country songwriters in the early ‘60s. Here are the obscure and rarely heard demo recordings he made prior to signing to Liberty and before RCA. All of these recordings are both musically and historically significant. Includes "Man With The Blues," "Misery," "Undo The Right," "One Step Beyond," "Any Old Arms Won't Do," "Blame It On The Times," "The End Of Understanding," "Slow Down Old World," "A New Way To Die," "Home Motel," "Right From Wrong," "Slow Down Old World," "Happiness Lives Next Door," "I Feel Sorry For Him," "Where My House Lives," and more.

To write the songs on their second album, Annie Schermer and Channing Showalter, who record together under the name West of Roan (members of Doran), spent time in collective imagination, journeying to their respective inner worlds and under worlds. As they simultaneously discovered and created a psychic landscape of story, song, archetype, and image, a figure emerged: The Queen of Eyes.

Schermer and Showalter recorded Queen of Eyes themselves, in a small one-room, off-grid cabin on Waldron Island off the coast of Washington State. They ran their ear trumpet condenser microphone off an extension cord connected to the main source of solar power. This recording session—with one microphone, one computer, one cord, and one bench the two sat on—captures the emotional intimacy of their music, along with occasional pops from the fire that heated the cabin, instrument creaks, and breathing sounds. This feels especially fitting for West of Roan’s approach; when you hear them sing you get the sense that they are first singing for and to each other, and emboldened by each other’s presence, together they make their offering to you, the listener.

From the makers of Hillbillies In Hell...A Celebration of Spiritual Triumph over Terrestrial Adversity. Originally cut on Homespun, Private-Press and Vanity labels across the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, this collection features voices almost never heard in the professional entertainment industry. The Dis-abled, the Less-abled, the Blind, Cancer survivors, those confined to a Wheelchair, those born with Dwarfism, those born without Limbs and some with many other challenges. Here, they shine and inspire with their Talents, Strength and unique moments of astounding individual Beauty. Often cut with direct involvement from their Families and Churches, these Country, Gospel and Folk songs tell of Struggle, Questions, Doubt, Faith and Joy. Each side representative of the Power of the Human Spirit to overcome Adversity: thankful to be part of the Great Mysterious Gift of Life. Hear the Divine Spark of the Human Spirit transform Disease, Blindness, Mental Disability and Physical Affliction into Faith and Gratitude. These are stories of Hope and Spiritual Fortitude. Not Cloistered nor Ashamed, this Righteous Collection of Subterranean Cuts shines with an uncommon Vitality and beautiful Nobility. All sides are incredibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. The Human Spirit in all its Strength, Vulnerability and Light....

Six years after their debut album, Thee Holy Strangers return with their sophomore LP “Diary Of The Shadow”. With a new line-up and a new sound design, they present seven testimonies of an uncertain era and trace its imprints. Drawing on the inexhaustible pool of rock’n’roll, soul and folk, they set up songs for today that speak of resignation and resilience, darkness and light, sadness and hope.

New members of the band are Andreas Lagios (Nightstalker) on bass and Kleon Antoniou (Mode Plagal) on guitar.

“Diary Of The Shadow” includes seven original compositions and was produced by Costas Chrysogelos (Digital Alkemist), Alexis Kalofolias and Dimitris Papanagiotou (Jim Spliff). It was recorded by Costas Chrysogelos and Philip Marinelis at DNA Lab studio in the spring-summer of 2021. The mastering was done by Giannis Christodoulatos at Sweetspot Studio.

The album also features Nikos Fysakis (electric guitar) and Giannis Houstoulakis (pedal steel guitar), members of the group’s previous line-up, Nikos Yousef (musical saw) and Kostis Zouliatis (piano, keyboards, synth).

Thee Holy Strangers are: Flora Ioannidi: Vocals, Alexis Kalofolias (Alex K): Vocals, guitar, Kleon Antoniou: Electric and acoustic guitar, Andreas Lagios: Bass, Costas Chrysogelos: Drums, percussion.

How would you define The Wild Feathers? Some may immediately check a box for Americana – and they wouldn’t be wrong. Others may lean on a version of rock: Country-rock, folk-rock, heartland rock. They’d all be right, too. Blues? A Southern flare? Occasional punk attitude? It’s all in there. Now, it’s time to hop on the bus and sing along.

The longtime Nashville band returns this year with Sirens, a new LP of road-worn, sharply-woven tales chronicling a life worth living, love worth holding and the hard-earned lessons found along the ride. To cut the follow-up to 2021 album Alvarado – the band’s debut on independent label New West Records – The Wild Feathers decamped from Music City, U.S.A., to Los Angeles for sessions with producer Shooter Jennings (known for his work with Brandi Carlile, Turnpike Troubadours and Tanya Tucker, among others) at Dave’s Room in North Hollywood.

Listen intently and without genre in mind. Because when the so-called Sirens make their sound on this new album, don’t worry about how to define it. Just enjoy the ride.

How would you define The Wild Feathers? Some may immediately check a box for Americana – and they wouldn’t be wrong. Others may lean on a version of rock: Country-rock, folk-rock, heartland rock. They’d all be right, too. Blues? A Southern flare? Occasional punk attitude? It’s all in there. Now, it’s time to hop on the bus and sing along.

The longtime Nashville band returns this year with Sirens, a new LP of road-worn, sharply-woven tales chronicling a life worth living, love worth holding and the hard-earned lessons found along the ride. To cut the follow-up to 2021 album Alvarado – the band’s debut on independent label New West Records – The Wild Feathers decamped from Music City, U.S.A., to Los Angeles for sessions with producer Shooter Jennings (known for his work with Brandi Carlile, Turnpike Troubadours and Tanya Tucker, among others) at Dave’s Room in North Hollywood.

Listen intently and without genre in mind. Because when the so-called Sirens make their sound on this new album, don’t worry about how to define it. Just enjoy the ride.

In The Handover, Aly Eissa, Ayman Asfour and Jonas Cambien explore the common and uncommon senses of Egypt's ritual music. It is clear that Aly Eissa's original composition is deeply rooted in Egyptian and Arabic traditions. At the same time, this band is one of the most progressive coming out of Egypt today. This is in big part thanks to Eissa, who has proven time and again to be not only an extremely skillful composer, but also a real visionary, combining tradition with modern experimentation.

A performance by The Handover is typically one stretch without break: a long build-up that lasts for the duration of the concert. Towards the end of the performance, all the tension is released in an exuberant, joyful climax, when wild improvisations are driven forward on top of exciting dance-rhythms from rural Egypt. The Handover elegantly combines the delicacy of classical Arabic music, the raw expressiveness of Egypt's countryside music, and the spontaneity of free improvisation, carefully obliterating the artificial separation between acoustic and electronic instruments. Despite the remarkable absence of any percussion or drums, The Handover is an extremely groovy band, with an ability to slow down and accelerate the tempo in almost telepathic synchronization at exactly the right moments.

Alongside the tight ensemble playing there is plenty of room for individual expression as the oud, synthesizer and violin take turns playing solos on top of repetitive riffs. Throughout the album, native Alexandrian Ayman Asfour plays the violin with breathtaking beauty, while not being afraid to make the violin buzz, squeak and rattle at times. Belgian/Norwegian keyboardist Jonas Cambien makes the synthesizer a melodic instrument in its own right, at times evoking almost classical Maqam, while in other moments it seems like he comes straight out of an Egyptian wedding. The oud forms the backbone in the composition's structure, as Aly Eissa's solos guide the listener from minimalist, meditative drones, to a compelling climax, and back to earth.

Tango with Lions releases her fourth album entitled “you.me.”.

“you.me.” was created in Berlin and recorded in Athens, Greece, between September 2021-January 2022, at Lotus studios with producer Vasilis Dokakis. The nine songs of the album build a tale of reflection on heartbreak and significant life changes, written shortly after the artist’s permanent relocation in Berlin, amid the pandemic.

The lyrics express the need of introspection and of processing the impact of various interactions with different people, time passing and global events. The songs observe, address questions or come to realisations about a different “you”, from the perspective of a different “me” in each tale.

The arrangements are rich in synthesisers, nostalgic bass lines and distinct piano sounds. Some of the songs are built on outgoing beats and instrumentations, other songs are earthly, low-key and acoustic.

Donald Fagen and Walter Becker are two of the most sophisticated minds in the American Pop idiom. Originally broadcast live on Kmet FM, the famous Record Plant Studio concert was part of the 1974 promotional tour for the band's third album "Pretzel Logic". In front of a small audience and backed by a stellar band featuring classy session players like drummer Jeff Porcaro and keyboardist Michael Mc Donald, Fagen and Becker deliver immaculate versions of classic songs including "Do it Again", "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", and "Reelin' In The Years'' and other gems like "Bodhisattva", and "The Boston Rag".

Steel Fringe's dreamy country rock blends lazy twanged-out guitars and ethereal vocals, painting vivid landscapes of the Cascades. New on Curation Records, their psychedelic soundscapes capture the essence of the untamed West, invoking a sense of wanderlust and reverence for the rugged beauty of the region.

This new edition of Soul Jazz Records" classic Delta Swamp Rock features a killer all-star line-up of seminal artists who all first blended rock, soul and country together to create a stunning new sound of southern American music in the 1970s.Featuring the Allman Brothers, Dan Penn, Leon Russell, Tony Joe White, Johnny Cash, Bobbie Gentry, Big Star, Link Wray, Area Code 615 and loads more!

"Imagine: It’s sometime in the back half of the 19th century, America. You’re sitting in the parlor of your mansion, or in the only room of your shack; things are dusty and smell like sweat and hair, no matter how wealthy you may be. You don’t own a phonograph, and you don’t know who Tony Hawk is, but you have an inkling of how good the word 'shred' is going to feel when it enters the local slang. Suddenly, a tall, elegant figure with beautifully maintained fingernails emerges from some corner of the room, carrying a guitar. He says in a soft voice, 'I have a transmission for you, from the coming few centuries. Would you like to hear it? I figured you wouldn’t have a dongle, so I brought my guitar.'

You may be apprehensive, but you shouldn’t be. Shane happens to be an internationally renowned virtuoso of the guitar. Specifically, he’s the kind of virtuoso who is as deep on style as he is on technique. His technical prowess is almost maddeningly complete; aiming paradoxically for the yards-long target called “breadth” he’s somehow hit all of it, 500 arrows piercing every pore of the landscape. He has that much technique not for the sake of guitar worship but to best bring the music forth clearly and in his own hand, like a pearl formed in a specific sea. I know this because I’ve sat next to him in multiple countries and American states and seen him deliver transmissions of that extreme honesty, with that extreme capability.

Like Derek Bailey’s 'Ballads,' this record brings you into the room and the breath of a true musician whose mastery does not overshadow his appreciation of the music that inspired it. The title, 'Repertoire,' underscores the beautiful songs he chose to perform, all standards of 20th century musical excellence. The in-time persistence of his blues-walked 'Lonely Woman.' The grand registral descent he performs on 'Pithecanthropus Erectus,' like a rare document of the trip down from Everest. Dig how 'Better Get Hit in Your Soul,' emphasizes the folk blues water coursing through Mingus’s Ellingtonia, how Aphex Twin’s 'Avril 14' and the Minutemen’s 'Cohesion' sound so much older than Cage’s 'Totem Ancestors.' 'Repertoire' puts forth the idea that time is arrangement: time and arrangement are each only as successful as they are faithful to their origins and expansive in their style.

Again, lest you fear the alien smoothness some associate with the concept 'virtuoso,' remember here we’re dealing with a time- traveler. His virtuosity is home grown, born of human work rather than some abstract or divine touch; the aim is not to go beyond the realm of human technical possibility but to expand it in the direction of human, meaning, timely. This guy can play anything, and for you, for this record, which sounds intimate and as present as a transmission from a time-traveler, he chooses to."—Wendy Eisenberg

Member of the Bill Orcutt Quartet and Tzadik Recording Artist

Solo guitar arrangements of various jazz /avant garde/electronic/etc. tunes.

Edition of 500 copies.

This is the first vinyl issue of Temple IV, arguably Roy Montgomery’s finest solo album, originally released in 1996 on CD. The original album has been enhanced with two newer tracks that constitute side four of the album. Montgomery states: “The two new tracks recorded in 2018 were about asking the question “Can you step into the same river twice?” Heraclitus said you cannot. I say you can…”

From the original press release:

Few recording artists have aligned the quantity and quality of their releases as well as New Zealand singer /guitarist Roy Montgomery has in 1995. Beginning with kranky’s release of the soundtrack for an imaginary film That That Is...Is(Not) by Montgomery’s duo Dissolve early in the year, a series of superb albums and singles have been issued by a variety of labels across the world. Each one of them is a must have. Most recently, the Drunken Fish label released a collection of pastoral drones entitled Scenes From The South Island, singles have appeared on the Roof Bolt and gyttja labels, and further singles are scheduled with Ajax, Siltbreeze and others.

Temple IV is the first solo recording by Roy Montgomery on kranky. The album was recorded by Montgomery on a four-track tape deck and then thickened up with monophonic moog. The tracks on the album are thick with interwoven guitar lines and moog drone, inspired by the Guatemalan rain forests and the mysterious ruins of the temple and ruins Montgomery visited there.

Roy Montgomery spent the past year in New York, Chicago and London before returning to New Zealand. While in the UK he played live with Flying Saucer Attack and collaborated with spoken word performer Kirk Lake. A brief tour across the United States in September saw him performing before enraptured audiences in New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles.

The long overdue recognition of Roy Montgomery as a crucial figure in New Zealand’s musical history as a member of The Pin Group, Shallows and Dadamah, is now augmented by his new recordings. Temple IV will serve to extend and deepen that appreciation.

One reviewer said this about Lavender Daydreams: “Blissed out folk psycher in the vein of Tim Buckley or Dan Fogleberg but waaay more psyched out. Richard has certainly dropped a tab or three in his time. A really, really good album to mind-surf to, and also poppy enough that it would sound good coming out of a boombox in a field while you are throwing the frisbee and smoking some bohoofus.” And they were right—Richard did drop many a tab when writing and recording the album: "The songs ‘Lord and Master,’ ‘Here We Are,’ ‘Sunny Days,’ and several others were inspired by experiences I had on psychedelics. Lavender Daydreams comes from my meditation experiences. ‘Electra’ is about a girl I fell in love with while tripping... I realized my purpose in life I was always looking for was in experiencing the extraordinary perfection in front of me every moment and engaging it in play and fun… This is a common theme in my songs. Celebrating those everyday moments. ‘Falling Angels’ was written about crashing on acid. About when we have to squeeze back into our everyday self and the feeling of “Now that the doors of perception have been blown off their hinges what am I going to do about it.” And that slides right into ‘A Stranger’ where you begin reflecting on it. There you are, crashing, beer in hand, a stranger to yourself. ‘Soaring’ is inspired by lying on our back in the field by the Long Island Sound on spring afternoon tripping on ‘Windowpane’. Mike and I were staring up at the sky and the clouds turned into angels singing and it felt like we were soaring up there free. ‘Soaring’ was trying to capture the rapture.” Edition of 370 copies on black vinyl.

"Are Possible" is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, made possible by the individual perspectives of Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurray (CAVE) work together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas.Music is time in redux: Are Possible"s many moments in time carry details from all over the place. Rex brought a rhythm to the table after drumming on buckets at work, Casey provided a bassline that redirected a previous jam, Nathan brought in a song he"d been fucking with forever and they figured it out together. Their diversity of sources moves easily within the arrangements, rendering a far-ranging set of feels, from transcendental to new country funk to good ol" jazz and the folk-rock, even - all of it drawn out exquisitely when they mixed at Electrical Audio in Chicago with the delicate hands of Cooper Crain upon the faders. The Nathan Bowles Trio have done their due diligence, passing their music through time and space on their way to now.

Mπλουμ (Bloom) is the third album in Nalyssa Green’s short but impressive discography. It comes six years after her sophomore “The Seed” and is her first record in her mother tongue.

The ten songs were written in 2015, while most of the album was recorded in 2016 in Lagia, which is her hometown in East Mani. The recordings of the vocals plus additional recordings followed in Athens and the album was completed in the beginning of 2018. Through her intense need to express herself with Greek lyrics, the singer-songwriter not only wins the bet, but manages to strengthen her musical identity.

The songs of Μπλουμ have a double meaning value just like the felicitous album title (Μπλουμ has the same pronunciation as Bloom but in greek slang means plunge. Blooming eerie vocals and dream melodies meet diving-baptisms in the dark bottom of the soul. Personal but at the same time everyday stories that strongly bear the feminine energy of their creator.

The tracks met the most suited sound with the production of Vasilis Dokakis (No Clear Mind). The euphoric artwork was created by Kakia Konstantinaki.

Over the last ten years, Michael Morley has embraced the acoustic guitar as the means of channeling the darkest threads that have run through his work since the early 1980s. While he largely made a name for himself as a maverick of primitive electric guitar and electronics in The Dead C and Gate, Morley's love of song form has never been far from the surface. In recent years, chance discoveries of Spanish and classical guitar records languishing in the discount and free bins at junk shops in South Dunedin proved to be a revelation. These records, largely recorded in the 1950s and 60s, began to shift Morley's work and lead him to piece together a new musical language from elements completely removed from the rock and avant-garde underground from which he first emerged. Spanish, Mexican and South American composers such as De Fossa, Ponce, Lauro, Barrios, Pujol, Albéniz, Falla, and Villa-Lobos as well as more traditional classical guitar composers like Schubert, Haydn, and Scarlatti all began to etch themselves into his consciousness. Rather than emulate them, Morley "channeled the experience of listening to these strange guitar sounds" as he began to play the acoustic guitar for hours at a time every day as an almost meditative exercise and a way of discovering a new way to play. This new musical language is realized on Pushed Streets, a suite of 12 songs Morley recorded at home in Kōpūtai/Port Chalmers, New Zealand. The music is quiet, almost ephemeral. Chords and melodies are traced in a dark atmosphere with Morley's unmistakable voice almost imperceptibly double tracked, words softly sung and stretched, sometimes at a near whisper. There are no amplifiers, no effects, nothing to distract from Morley's words and the tone of his guitar. Recorded with two 1970s guild guitars, an orchestral six string and dreadnaught twelve string, the guitar sound is rich and dynamic, chords and melodic figures are struck with what sometimes seems the gentlest possible gesture, resonating and floating away into the night. The music and voice, the lyrics are all of that dark thread, distilled with frightening clarity. The music is intimate and fragile, unadorned and heartbreaking in a way that recalls the spirit of lonely and world-weary albums by Skip Spence, Bill Fay, and Loren Connors; yet against the backdrop of the absolute finality of today's culture, the album's alchemy of Spanish and classical influences with Morley's formative work avant garde work, Pushed Streets exists in its own hauntingly desolate realm.

Just three months after the release of the EP “Βεντάλιες Και Σιδερογροθιές (Fans And Iron Fists)”, relentless Mazoha, strikes again with his new album “Τώρα Χορός (Now Dance)”, catching the thread musically, lyrically and emotionally from where he left it on his previous album, “prtthlts”.

As stated by the title and confirmed by the homonymous track and the tracks “Τσιχλόφουσκα (Chewing gum)” and “Ψυχολογικά Τραύματα Social Club (Psychological Traumas Social Club)”, there is an even greater dancing mood, which stems from the thirst for relaxation. Those who have experienced the live gigs of Mazoha know this feeling well. At the same time, in the songs “Ήρωες Πολλοί Αγάλματα Λίγα (Many Heroes Few Statues)”, “Σαν Σκιάχτρο (Like A Scarecrow)” and “New York” the beats, the synths and the vocal lines are typical examples of the dark pop that characterizes his album “Bastardo”. The tracklist is completed with two special tracks: “Ονειρεύομαι Μωρό Μου (Ι Dream Baby)” with the noise-shoegaze intro and the rap stormy vocals, a confessional and denouncing loop that could last forever, and finally “Το Πουτανάκι Σου (Your Little Whore)”, the love song of the album with a chewing gum refrain, flirting dangerously with trash, written to be heard late at night in all bars.

An album of contrasts that dives from despair to redemption and from joy to sorrow, marrying darkness with light. The most Mazoha album so far.

They’re back! This time the Finnish seers Mahti venture even deeper into the unknown on their third release Musiikki 3, assisted by the creativity of English musicians Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington.

Limited Mirage Blue/green Marble Colored Vinyl LP With Download Code. Non-returnable.

The music reaches for space and roots at the same time bringing forth Mr. Dawson's earthy guitars and angelic voice while Ms. Pilkington weaves ethereal layerings with her synths and joins occasionally the choir.

Hannu Saha conjures ancient Karelian spirits with his kantele while Muumu, Lehtibabba and Mätky mesmerize the listener with their unique mix of electro, rock and noise.

The end result is an album full of Musiikki unlike you've never heard before!

“These ancient musicians played their ‘mahti’… and the sound they produced was called ‘musiikki’”

Hannu Saha - string kanteles ,Tomi Leppänen - sequencer/drum brain/synthesizers , Jussi Lehtisalo - noise/vocals, Teemu Elo - guitar/synthesizers, Richard Dawson - guitar/vocals , Sally Pilkington - keyboards/vocals