Americana – Page 2 – 7th Level Music

Black Belt Eagle Scout takes us into new “Spaces” with her latest single.

Black Belt Eagle Scout, the project of Swinomish musician Katherine Paul, presents a new single/video, “Spaces,” and announces a spring North American tour leading into the release of The Land, The Water, The Sky, out next Friday, February 10th via Saddle Creek. Rolling Stone hailed it as “fiery, brilliant,” stating, “with each song, you can feel the weight of an entire community behind her.”

“Spaces” is a song about healing that surges with electric guitar, violin, Paul’s hushed vocals, and features contributions from her parents. Her father is also in the very special accompanying video, directed by Evan Benally Atwood and Morningstar Angeline, and originally conceptualized by Quinn Christopherson.

“I wrote ‘Spaces’ for an audience as a way to sing melodies of healing and care for them,” says Paul. “Since starting Black Belt Eagle Scout, I have moved through many spaces, playing shows for crowds of people. I can’t always connect one on one with everyone and so this song is an attempt to bring my feelings of appreciation I have for everyone who supports my music to life. My parents lend their voices in the chorus melody, my dad with his strong pow wow voice and my mom with her wholesome tone that sounds so similar to mine you can barely notice the distinction between me and her. I want this song to be an offering for those who need to grasp onto something and feel because through feeling and being together, there is healing.”

Paul continues, “It was incredible to incorporate my family trade of carving within the music video. My dad has been carving Coast Salish style art for over 50 years. I grew up around it and learned how to carve and paint when I was a teenager. This video shows a creation process and the kind of intimacy we give to our art. In the video, we carve an eagle out of yellow cedar. The eagle is representative of strength and guidance.” To learn more about K Paul’s Carvings, click here.

Watch Black Belt Eagle Scout’s Video for “Spaces”

In Paul’s words, “I created The Land, The Water, The Sky to record and reflect upon my journey back to my homelands and the challenges and the happiness it brought.” Paul found herself far from her ancestral lands during a time of collective trauma, when the world was wounded and in need of healing. In 2020 she made the journey from Portland back to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. There is a throughline of story in every song on The Land, The Water, The Sky, a remembrance of knowledge and teachings, a gratitude of wisdom passed down and carried. There are moments of frustration over a world wrought with colonial violence and pain, and the presence of joy, a fierce blissfulness that comes with walking the trails along the river, feeling the sand and the stones beneath her feet. It is the pride and the certainty that comes with knowing her ancestors walked along the same land, dipped their hands into the water, and ran their fingertips along the same bark of cedar trees. Even in its most melancholy moments it is never despairing. That is the beauty of returning home.

This month, Black Belt Eagle Scout will play select shows across the Pacific Northwest. Following, she’ll tour across Europe for the first time before returning stateside for a month of shows. Tickets for newly-announced dates will be available via pre-sale February 6th – 10th, with general on sale running congruent to album release day. A portion of presale ticket proceeds will go to Potlatch Fund, a Native-led nonprofit organization formed in 2002 that provides grants and leadership development to Tribal Nations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. A full list of dates can be found below.

Watch the “My Blood Runs Through This Land” Video

Watch the “Don’t Give Up” Visualizer

Watch the “Nobody” Video

Pre-order The Land, The Water, The Sky

Black Belt Eagle Scout Tour Dates:
(new dates in bold)
Wed. Feb. 15 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
Fri. Feb. 24 – Manchester, UK @ Night & Day
Sat. Feb. 25 – London, UK @ Moth Club
Mon. Feb. 27 – Paris, FR @ Le Pop Up
Tue. Feb. 28 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique – Witloof Bar
Wed. March 1 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Upstairs
Thu. March 2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Stengade
Sat. March 4 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
Sun. March 5 – Berlin, DE @ Badehaus
Fri. Mar 31 – Eugene, OR @ Soreng Theater
Sat. Apr. 1 – Spokane, WA @ Lucky You Lounge*
Sun. Apr. 2 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux*
Mon. Apr. 3 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The DLC at Quarters*
Tue. Apr. 4 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge*
Thu. Apr. 6 – Iowa City, IA @ Mission Creek Festival
Fri. Apr. 7 – Minneapolis, MN @ Cedar Cultural Center*
Sat. Apr. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Subterranean*
April 11 – Toronto, ON @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern*
Wed. Apr. 12 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le “Ritz” P.D.B.*
Fri. Apr. 14 – Cambridge, MA @ Elk’s Club*
Sat. Apr. 15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right*
Mon. Apr. 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s*
Tue. Apr. 18 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd*
Wed. Apr. 19 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook*
Thu. Apr. 20 – Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor*
Fri. Apr. 21 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 Club*
Sat. Apr. 22 – New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa*
Mon. Apr. 24 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger*
Tue. Apr. 25 – Austin, TX @ The Parish*
Thu. Apr. 27 – Norman, OK @ Norman Music Festival
Fri. Apr. 28 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister*
Mon. May 1 – Mesa, AZ @ The Underground at The Nile Theater
Tue. May 2 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah*
Thu. May 4 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo*
Fri. May 5 – Fresno, CA @ Strummer’s*
Sat. May 6 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop*
Mon. May 8 – Tacoma, WA @ ALMA*

*with support from Claire Glass and Adobo

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[Thanks to Yuri at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Caleb Landry Jones scores a “Touchdown Yolk” with his new single.

“I’m aware of only half the picture. It comes down upon me like a heavy rain. The psycho Deli is out of mustard and all the Porn Stars won’t leave their homes. I’m out only to get myself, but don’t get in the way. The bugs which throw themselves at windows rarely get their say.” – Caleb Landry Jones

Award-winning actor and visual artist Caleb Landry Jones is a bonafide musical maverick, and today, announces his new album Gadzooks Vol. 2, out November 4th on Sacred Bones, with lead single/video, “Touchdown Yolk.” Following 2021’s Gadzooks Vol. 1, the “engaging affair of warped, carnivalesque psychedelia” (The AV Club), Jones’ third album is his most soothing and sublime collection to date. And while most artists don’t save some of the best music of their career for an album with Vol. 2 in the title, Jones is an artist for whom chronology is a slippery substance.

Watch Caleb Landry Jones’ “Touchdown Yolk” Video

Recorded with Nic Jodoin in the famed Valentine Recording Studios, Gadzooks Vol. 2 was made alongside Jones’ The Mother Stone, hailed by Billboard as “a remarkable beast of a debut album.” The team invited a slew of heavy hitting musicians, including producer Drew Erickson, to the studio to contribute to the magic, and the resulting album sounds a bit like pink elephants in cowboy hats making ASMR — at least for the first 20 seconds before it seamlessly changes entirely.

One of Jones’s greatest musical gifts is his ability to cover a vast energetic and sonic landscape in a way with a wide array of instrumentation and vocal stylings over a wholly unique song structure, in a way that feels cohesive and euphoric. A driving number, “Touchdown Yolk” is Jones, who plays nearly every instrument on the track, at his catchiest, while still maintaining his enthralling and distinct charm. The accompanying video, which was co-created by Jones, Patrick Jones, Katya Zvereva, Natalia Zvereva, Lera Moiseeva, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire, Jacqueline Castel and Mitch Horowitz, collages handheld camcorder footage recorded around New York City, an irresistibly unsettling foray into the ever-expanding Gadzooks universe.

Pre-order Gadzooks, Vol. 2

Gadzooks, Vol. 2 Tracklist
1. Croc Killers 2
2. Little Lion Blues
3. Touchdown Yolk
4. The Shanty Shine
4. Georgie Borge (The Termite)
6. Jeepers
7. Anyone But You
8. Slink On Fido
9. The Puppet Rush
10. Croc Killers 1

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Medicine Singers announce fall U.S. tour.

Medicine Singers announce a fall headlining tour and present a live video of “Sunrise (Rumble),” a standout track from Medicine Singers , their self-titled debut album out now on Stone Tapes/ Joyful Noise Recordings.

Recently highlighted in a New York Times article as a group on the forefront of Native experimental music, the Medicine Singers’ groundbreaking debut LP acts as a guided tour de force of decades of musical genres influenced by Native American music, and their live show remains the stuff of legend. The Medicine Singers often set up in-the-round, and go into a trance-inducing set where the walls between band and spectator – as well as between psychedelic rock and shamanic chants – are blurred. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale tomorrow, Friday August 19th.

The Medicine Singers’ tour kicks off with a very special “immersive” performance on September 24 at Brooklyn’s Pioneer Works to celebrate the release of Medicine Singers and the launch of Stone Tapes, Yonatan Gat’s eclectic new label. The show will be opened by two site-specific duo performances from Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) & Hassan Ben Jafaar (Innov Gnawa) and Laraaji & Mamady Kouyate (Bembeya Jazz) performing inside the Charles Atlas video installation in Pioneer Works’ main hall, followed by a special Medicine Singers 10-piece band featuring jaimie branch, Thor Harris, Lee Ranaldo, Laraaji and Gat.

BUY TICKETS TO SEE THE MEDICINE SINGERS

WATCH “RUMBLE” LIVE VIDEO

Half a decade after the spur-of-the-moment story of how the musicians first met and unraveled their sound on an unsuspecting audience during SXSW 2017 when Gat saw Eastern Medicine Singers play on the street and invited the band to spontaneously join his show – the collaboration between the musicians reaches a climax with this breathtaking debut album as Medicine Singers, helping pave the way to this year’s rising wave of Native contributions to experimental music – shining a spotlight on guest vocalists representing indigenous nations from outside of the Northeastern Woodland tribal area. “Where else can you get all these different native people singing together on an album?” bandleader Daryl Back Eagle Jamieson asked. “On this album you have east, west, north and south all coming together. That’s why we say it’s medicine.”

For Jamieson, this album is more than a collection of songs, it’s a vessel of culture, history and language; a symbol of the strength and creativity of the Eastern Algonquin people in contemporary American society. “I want to show people not only that our Indian culture is just as good as the rest of the culture that’s out there, but also that the two can exist together, side by side.”

Medicine Singers Tour Dates
Sat. Sept. 24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Pioneer Works (RECORD RELEASE / STONE TAPES LABEL LAUNCH) *
Wed. Sept. 28 – Troy, NY @ No Fun
Thu. Sept. 29 – Montreal, QC @ Pop Montreal
Fri. Sept. 30 – Toronto, ON @ Vashe ZDorov’ye
Sat. Oct. 1 – Cleveland, OH @ Happy Dog West
Sun. Oct. 2 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Mon. Oct. 3 – Indianapolis, IN @ Square Cat
Sat, Oct 8 – Washington, DC @ Down in the Reeds Festival

* w/ Lee Ranaldo & Hassan Ben Jafaar (Duo), Laraaji & Mamady Kourate (Duo)

Watch Medicine Singers’ “Hawk Song” Video

Watch The “Daybreak” Lyric Video

Watch The “Sunrise (Rumble)” Video

Listen to “Sanctuary”

Purchase Medicine Singers

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Medicine Singers fly high with “Hawk Song” from their new album.

Today, Medicine Singers release their self-titled debut album on Stone Tapes/ Joyful Noise, and present the video for “Hawk Song.” Medicine Singers is a genre-smashing kaleidoscope of sound firmly rooted in the intense physical power of the powwow drum, and is the inaugural release on the new Joyful Noise imprint, Stone Tapes. “Hawk Song,” written by band member Ray Two Hawks Watson, is a modern powwow favorite which infuses the Eastern Algonquin tradition with a rock edge. “The guitar turned it into a rock song,” says bandleader Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson. “The two styles mesh together so well, it’s like a fireball taking off, and you can see it in the audience when we play it live.” With hand-held footage of the band performing “Hawk Song,” the accompanying music video – directed by Roy and Gigi Ben Artzi – captures a propulsivity that extends across Medicine Singers’ 10 tracks.

Watch Medicine Singers’ “Hawk Song” Video

The creation of Stone Tapes was inspired in part by Jamieson’s work as an artist and activist, and to make a space for traditional musicians to collaborate with other experimental artists. One dollar from each Stone Tapes album sale will go toward a charity of the artist’s choice. For Medicine Singers, the funds will go to Jamieson’s organization Pocasset Pocanoket Land Trust. “We’re buying back all the land from the original Pocasset purchase – that the colonists took from us. What we are trying to do is preserve the pristine land…Keep it from being built on…Bring it back to our people to have a place to go. Because here in the Northeast most of the land has been taken and built upon, and it’s so expensive that Indian people cannot even afford it,” said Jamieson.

Medicine Singers expands on years of collaboration following a spontaneous 2017 performance by Eastern Algonquin powwow group Eastern Medicine Singers and Monotonix guitarist Yonatan Gat. Bridging multiple dimensions of sound, Medicine Singers expanded into a remarkable supergroup that also includes ambient music pioneer Laraaji, Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica of Swans, no wave icon Ikue Mori, and rising jazz trumpet star jaimie branch, who also painted the album cover. Alongside producer Ryan Olson (of Gayngs), Medicine Singers’ debut album combines traditional powwow music with elements of psychedelic punk, spiritual jazz, and electronics in a stunning blend.

“I look at it like this, everybody is my brother and sister, no matter where they come from,” Jamieson reflects. “If their culture or music is different, I want to learn about it, and I want to play with them. I think it’s our responsibility as artists to show the world that life is not about war and hate. Life is about music, peace, and culture. We need to communicate with people of different cultures and backgrounds. We need to show people how we can work together and make something beautiful.”

Watch The “Daybreak” Lyric Video

Watch The “Sunrise (Rumble)” Video

Listen to “Sanctuary”

Purchase Medicine Singers

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[Thanks to Yuri at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Tim Heidecker – High School

Tim Heidecker returns with another solid album of fun introspection, soulful singing, biting lyrics, and perspective-changing tunes on his new album, High School. As the title indicates, many of the songs reflect back on his youth and lessons he learned (or didn’t) from that time.

“Buddy” is a song written to his youthful self (“Nothing ever went your way. You told me that things would be better someday.”) and how he wishes some knowledge could be imparted either way to his past self while his parents argue downstairs. “Chillin’ in Alaska” brings in some honky-tonk flavor in a song about appreciating what you have, and “Future Is Uncertain” is a song about staying present – an important thing for all of us, and a recurring them on this album of Heidecker investigating his nostalgia for an era that he’s come to realize wasn’t that great.

This goes further on “Get Back Down to Me,” in which he states, “I’ve been worrying about everybody else but myself. People’s lives, they just slide right into my head.” and vowing to find his own joy – although he apologizes for doing so (“I’m sorry. I’m gonna hit the road. Gonna see some fans and touch some sand.”). He admits on the next track that “I’ve Been Losing,” (“Wondering if tomorrow’s going to be better.”) again addressing how things seemed to have been better in his past but knowing in his heart that he’s not entirely sure what he sees in his rear view mirror is correct. He believes “the road up ahead will be filled with looking back” and hopes “the memories will surround him like a warm bubble bath.” He wants to let the past slide away from him, but can’t quite manage it.

“Punch in the Gut” is a tale of a kid coerced into a parking lot fight outside his place of employment and paying the price force it – even after he wins. “Stupid Kid” is a fun tale of Heidecker watching Neil Young perform on TV and being inspired to play music of his own (“It seemed so easy that even a stupid kid like me could do it.”)…and then being stunned to hear Young’s album version of “Harvest Moon” was different on the album than it was live.

Heidecker teams up with Kurt Vile on “Sirens of Titan,” which includes some synth bass and beats to throw you for a loop. It almost sounds like a 1980s Don Henley song. “I’m a German Catholic, an Irish spastic,” Heidecker sings about growing up as “a B-minus kid” sneaking beers in his parents’ basement and wishing he could start a rock band with his friends on “What Did We Do with Our Time?” He wonders where the time of his youth went, and was it spent on anything worthwhile? In contrast, he can’t help but wonder if what he’s doing now is worthwhile either. On the closer, “Kern River,” Heidecker finds some peace in his memories and in the present (the only place and time in where those memories can exist).

High School is full of raw honesty and nostalgia, delivering lessons on presence, impermanence, and attachment along the way.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Vapors of Morphine – Fear and Fantasy

Starting with ambient sounds of bird songs, traffic, and other things you can’t quite identify, Vapors of Morphine‘s latest, Fear and Fantasy, is at times lush, other times haunting, and other times exotic.

“Blue Dream” certainly is dream-like, combining those ambient sounds with Dana Colley‘s signature smoky saxpohones, Jerome Deupree‘s subtle drumming, and Jeremy Lyons‘ sly vocals. Colley shares vocals with Lyons on “Golden Hour,” originally a Twinemen track (another band Colley was in after the death of Morphine lead singer Mark Sandman), and VOM’s version here is somehow trippier than the original. Listening to “Irene” is like slipping into a warm bath while surrounded by sage smoke. The sound that Colley produces with his saxophone on “No Sleep” is somewhere between angry bees and horny hummingbirds. It’s layered with so much reverb and distortion that it’s hard to describe…which means it’s great. Lyons’ love and influence of Appalachian blues comes through in his guitar work and vocals on “Special Rider,” exuding both sorrow and menace.

Tom Arey takes over on drums on the second side of the album, since Deupree left the band in 2019. Arey’s work can first be heard on “Lasidan,” an instrumental flavored with Middle Eastern flair (a sound VOM explored before on A New Low). “Drop Out Mambo” continues the band having fun with sounds and styles from around the world. A new version of Treat Her Right‘s “Doreen” is a fun treat for us long-time fans of Morphine and THR. It somehow seems sweatier and sultrier than the original.

“Ostrich” is a fun track with a honky tonk swagger that has Lyons wishing he could become different animals in order to avoid having to deal with the blues. “Baba Drame” is a blend of Middle Eastern and what sounds like Celtic styles with Lyons shredding on what sounds like a mandolin with riffs that sound like a callback to “Red Apple Juice” from A New Low. VOM get psychedelic on the instrumental “Phantasos & Phobetor,” because, why shouldn’t they? The name of the track refers to the Greek gods of surreal dreams and nightmares, respectively, and also to the name of the album. The closer is “Frankie & Johnny,” a fun floor-stomper that goes back to the band’s love of blues and bluegrass, with Ayers doing a fine job snapping out beats (with brushes, I think) and some of Lyon’s best guitar work on the album.

I love how Vapors of Morphine continue to salute their past and embrace new sounds in the present. Fear and Fantasy is more fine work from them.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: The Staples Jr. Singers – When Do We Get Paid (2022 reissue)

I’m not sure if I can relate in one blog post, or even several, how soulful and lovely When Do We Get Paid by The Staples Jr. Singers is. You’re hooked from the first notes of “Get on Board,” and the album takes you into a blissful, funky, soulful place without worry or strife

What’s even more amazing is how When Do We Get Paid has gone relatively unheard for the last four decades. Only a small number of copies were pressed in the 1970s, and this re-release is easily one of the best finds of the year. Annie, R.C., and Edward Brown took the name of their band from their love of the Staples family singers. The Staples Jr.’s toured the American south and blazed the gospel and grooves for years, and have each since gone on to their own respective music careers.

In modern speak, the album is full of bangers: “I’m Going to a City” will get you dancing in the pews and in the honky-tonks the Browns used to play. “Somebody Save Me” has sultry Alabama blues sweat all over it. I once heard someone say, more or less, “The difference between R&B and gospel is you replace ‘baby’ or ‘honey’ with ‘God’ or ‘Jesus’ in the lyrics.” “Somebody Save Me” perfectly embodies this concept.

“Trouble of the World” is a slow groove that has Annie Brown proclaiming how she’ll (and all of us) instantly forget the problems of this place of illusion once she passes beyond the veil. Indeed, she’s “Waiting for the Trumpet to Sound” on the following track, and you can’t help but start listening for it with her.

On “I Feel Good,” the Staples Jr. Singers let us know that we should all feel good in the knowledge that our sins have been forgiven. The title track has the band holding their heads high despite the racism they faced in 1970s southern U.S. (“More than three years the Staples have sung down here. All the music, here and there, sometimes trouble, sometimes heartbreak…call us everything but a child of God, but we not worrying about that…”).

“On My Journey Home” is almost a garage rock floor-stomper, and R.C.’s guitar work on “Too Close” touches the edges of psychedelic rock. The groove on “Send It on Down” is so good that it (and the whole album, really) must be inspired by the Holy Ghost, as they sing about throughout the track. The album ends with the uplifting “I Got a New Home,” which will get you out of your seat and clapping.

This album should be considered a classic. Heck, I’m surprised Moby or Fatboy Slim haven’t created an entire remix album of it. It’s a stunning work, and it deserves to be heard everywhere.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Pastor Champion – I Just Want to Be a Good Man

Pastor Champion, who left us for the Kingdom of Heaven just as his music was being discovered, was a man of many hats: Pastor, former gang member, touring guitarist, brother, and probably many others we’ll never learn about unless secret diaries or obscure notes are found.

We do know that he preached and played for the 37th Street Baptist Church in Oakland, California. We also know that his one and only album, I Just Want to Be a Good Man, was recorded with musicians who’d never played with him before then, and it was recorded in just two nights at his church. We also know that it’s a stunning record of gospel, blues, and soul that, if there’s any justice in this valley of tears, will win a Grammy for Best Gospel Album.

Champion pleads with people to come back to the church and Christ on “I Know That You’ve Been Wounded (Church Hurt)” – a song for those who have been disappointed, hurt (physically, mentally, and / or spiritually), or crushed by the church, religion, and families and friends practicing their faith in hurtful ways. “Keep on, God will make it work,” Champion sings over simple chords that almost sound like he’s playing a ukulele.

“He’ll Make a Way (Trust in the Lord)” further emphasizes the theme of relying on faith, and the power of Champion’s faith is evident from the first notes he sings in it. The nearly seven-minute “Talk to God” has Champion grooving with these church musicians he’s barely met, and all of them slide right into his groove with the ease that comes so naturally to accomplished gospel musicians.

“Only what you do for Christ will last,” Champion sings on “In the name of Jesus (Everytime)” – a reminder to put the Creator in the lead and trust His guidance. Hearing Champion teach his impromptu band how to play “To Be Used, by You (I Just Want to Be a Good Man)” is fun to hear, and the rest of the track is lovely (and a warm-up for the closing track).

“Who Do Men Say I Am?” has Champion singing a conversation between Christ and His disciples (from the sixteenth chapter of Matthew). “Storm of Life (Stand by Me)” has Champion crying out to God about troubles that plague him at work, at home, at church, and practically everywhere else – including his worry that he might not be ready for death. “In the Service of the Lord” has some of Champion’s most passionate vocals, and that’s saying something when you consider how much he professes his face throughout the record.

The album closes with the title track, expanding on the earlier version of it with, somehow, even more soul and longing. “Tell me, tell me, tell me, Jesus, what do you want me to do?” Champion sings.

He’s doing things we can’t even fathom now, but at least we have this record as a light in gloomy times.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

The Staples Jr. Singers release “I’m Looking for a Man” from rare 1970s gospel / funk album.

The Staples Jr. Singers share “I’m Looking For A Man,” from the forthcoming reissue of their sole album, When Do We Get Paid, originally released in 1975, out May 6th on Luaka Bop. In conjunction, the family from Aberdeen, Mississippi, share a live performance video of the new single recorded this past January, and announce a slate of performances in New York City taking place on Saturday, April 23rd, at Baby’s All Right, The Lot Radio, and Friends & Lovers.

Following an invite-only, press preview at The Paris Review in Chelsea, these concerts will be the Staples Jr. Singers’ first performances as a group in over 40 years. It will be their first-ever visit to New York City, as well as an extremely rare appearance outside the South. Presented by Luaka Bop and Boom Collective, this ambitious series of shows—three in one day!—will begin with a “Gospel Brunch” at Baby’s All Right in Williamsburg, then move outdoors to The Lot in Greenpoint, where the Staples Jr. Singers will be broadcast live on-air. While these first two shows will be free, the day will be capped off with a grand finale, an extended set at Friends & Lovers in Crown Heights. It may be one of the best performances that you’ll see all year. The original members of the family band—the siblings Edward Brown, A.R.C. Brown, and Annie Brown Caldwell—will be joined onstage by members of Annie’s family, including her husband Wille Caldwell Sr. and their children Willie Jr., Abel, and Deborah. For tickets, RSVP and more information, go to JuniorSingers.com.

Listen to “I’m Looking For A Man” by the Staples Jr. Singers

Watch the Staples Jr. Singers Perform “I’m Looking For A Man” (January 2022)

Like many gospel groups at the time, the Staples Jr. Singers were a family band: Annie Brown Caldwell was 11, A.R.C. Brown was 12, and Edward Brown was only 13 when they started playing school talent shows, local churches, and front yards near their hometown of Aberdeen, Mississippi, on the banks of the Tombigbee River. As was common practice among gospel acts, they named themselves after their idols: the Staple Singers. As their reputation grew, they started traveling across the Delta and the Bible Belt, piling into their family van on weekends to perform as many as three shows in a single day.

In 1975, at the time of When Do We Get Paid’s release, the Staples Jr. Singers were still just teenagers, and they sold the copies they pressed themselves at shows and on their front lawn to neighbors. With soul-inflected gospel songs that carried timely, subtle social messages, the Staples Jr. Singers responded to what they saw in the South: the struggles of the Black community, the backlash after desegregation, CivilRights.

While the Staples Jr. Singers have all gone on to write an entire catalog of gospel music since the era of When Do We Get Paid, for the original members of the band, the incantatory funk of this music still holds the power to help make a way out of dark and troubled times.

This project from Luaka Bop originates from their acclaimed compilation World Spirituality Classics 2: The Time for Peace Is Now – Gospel Music About Us (2019), which includes the Staples Jr. Singers’ single “We’ve Got a Race to Run” (Best New Music by Pitchfork (8.5), and listed among the best reissues of the year by NPR and Uncut). The compilation also resulted in the 2020 VinylFactory documentary, “The Time For Peace Is Now,” featuring Annie Brown Caldwell.
The Staples Jr. Singers Live In New York City, presented with Boom Collective:
Fri. Apr. 22 – New York, NY @ The Paris Review (press preview, invite only)
Sat. Apr. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right (11am) (RSVP needed, here)
Sat. Apr. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Lot Radio (3pm, live broadcast) (RSVP needed, here)
Sat. Apr. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Friends and Lovers (7pm) (Tickets, here)

Listen to “When Do We Get Paid” by The Staples Jr. Singers

Pre-order When Do We Get Paid Reissue

“Please Meet The Staple Jr. Singers” film

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Seth Walker drops the truth with his new single “The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be.”

Seth Walker has announced his eleventh album, I Hope I Know, will be released May 20 on Royal Potato Family. It’s the North Carolina-based singer/songwriter’s third studio collaboration with producer Jano Rix. Each song on the ten track collection shines with what many have come to love about Walker and his soulful Americana: diverse influences, contemplative lyrics, that signature blue tone on the guitar, and movement both geographic and spiritual. The album’s first single, “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be” is out today (listen/share). Walker will support the album with a U.S. tour beginning in May.

I Hope I Know might best be described as Walker’s ’round-midnight album. Written in the midst of a breakup, relocating from his home in Nashville, TN to Asheville, NC, and the enduring mental struggles of the pandemic, it’s a beautiful reckoning with heartbreak, moving across states and coming to terms with the uncertainty of the future. Its tempos are slower and tonality darker than on previous work. In Walker’s words, he had to just “sit with it.” The music’s creation embodied trying and failing without forcing anything: not time, not the songwriting or its grooves, not a sense of control, not even his own healing. He credits the practice of “search and surrender,” a quest for new meaning in things he may never fully understand.

“This last year and a half has personally cracked me open. In many ways, for the first time, I’m observing myself and how I relate to the music, how I sit with the feeling, the emotion, my shadow and light,” explains Walker. “I have always been in this place of action, and finally, when all this happened, I found myself in a place of relinquishing—an active state of inaction.”

The first sessions for I Hope I Know began in 2019, but it wouldn’t be until the second half of 2020 when Walker would truly dive into the writing and recording process. Oliver Wood—Jano Rix’s bandmate in The Wood Brothers—cowrote three of the songs, as did Walker’s longtime songwriting partner Gary Nicholson, while Jarrod Dickenson also contributed to one song. Among the album’s highlights are “Why Do I Cry Anymore,” which asks unanswerable questions about recovering from heartbreak, ultimately coming to the conclusion that love is still worth it. “Remember Me” haunts with old jazz and blues, a falsetto vocal, arco acoustic bass and dusty drums. The title track came from the “Ho’oponopono Prayer,” a Hawaiian poem about forgiveness and reconciliation that his mother sent him, which translates as “I am sorry. Forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” Special guest Allison Russell adds vocal harmonies.

Three cover songs featured on the recording offer something familiar to hold onto—a tinge of nostalgia, minus the impulse to cling to the past. The Bobby Charles‘ song “Tennessee Blues” perfectly speaks to Walker moving from Nashville into the mountains of Asheville as he tried to “figure out what just happened, post break up.” Van Morrison‘s “Warm Love” is the perfect respite and breather. Bob Dylan‘s “Buckets of Rain” came spontaneously like a dream; Seth woke up one morning with the song in his head and quickly captured this rendition.

The follow up to Walker’s 2019 album, Are You Open?—which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart—I Hope I Know is a distinct statement from the previous ten recordings in Walker’s discography. In its totality, the songs create a deep, but relatable journey, offering a beacon of light and ultimately safe haven, centered around the most precious of all gifts—Hope.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Kevin at Royal Potato Family.]