Mokoomba - Mokoomba is a 6 piece band that plays a unique blend of Tonga and Luvale traditional rhythms fused with dashes of funk, ska and soukous. Hailing from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, the band has toured over 50 countries around the world and has won a few awards as well as appearing on Later with Jools Holland.
Okkervil River - Okkervil River formed in 1998, a band made up of singer and
songwriter Will Sheff, drummer Seth Warren, and bassist Zachary Thomas. They
gigged around Austin, TX for awhile and self-released a debut EP before finally
attracting the attention of a small Indiana label called Jagjaguwar, who
released their debut LP 'Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See' and its
follow up 'Down the River of Golden Dreams.' Critics took note of Sheff's
creative drive and his dense, novelistic lyrics; Kelefa Sanneh wrote in the New
York Times that "Mr. Sheff uses a rickety voice to disguise wild
ambition," and Rolling Stone's David Fricke added that
"Singer-songwriter Will Sheff of the haunted-country quartet Okkervil
River is ready for worldwide renown." But worldwide renown eluded Okkervil
River, and by 2004 they were running out of money and worn out by a relentless
touring schedule. Drummer Seth Warren had moved to California, and bassist
Thomas was transitioning out of the band to spend more time with his family.
Sheff decided that if the next Okkervil River record didn't find an audience
he'd quit playing music. He returned from the road and rented a shack out by
the Austin Airport, and the new lineup of Okkervil River -- now augmented by
drummer Travis Nelsen and bassist and multi-instrumentalist Howard Draper --
would rehearse there by day and Sheff would sleep on the floor by night. The
material they were working up was dark and sometimes disturbing, with a deep
romantic undercurrent; it was inspired by a turbulent relationship Sheff was
going through at the time, by the political climate of the mid-2000s, and by
the life story of influential folksinger Tim Hardin, who died of a heroin
overdose in 1980. Sheff decided he'd name the album after Hardin's tune
"Black Sheep Boy." On 'Black Sheep Boy,' Sheff unpacked Hardin's
two-minute recording into an expansive song cycle, woven through with themes of
violence, abuse, oblivion, and longing, with periodic appearances by the title
character, depicted on the iconic cover (by longtime Okkervil River illustrator
William Schaff) as a grotesque horned creature with burning fire for eyes.
Recorded in the dim, rickety garage studio of producer Brian Beattie, Black
Sheep Boy overlaid raw electric rock, off-kilter pop, and sprawling balladry
with a melodic and lyrical sensibility drawn from old American folk music. It
blended acoustic textures like pump organ and mandolin with analog synths and
manipulated electronic soundscapes mailed to Sheff by Seth Warren from his
apartment in Berkeley, California. It sounded rough and handmade, raw and
emotional, and unlike any record of its time. Released by Jagjaguwar in early
2005, 'Black Sheep Boy' is now regarded as Okkervil River's breakthrough album.
NY Times raved, "[Sheff] writes like a novelist. His songs are full of
elegant phrases and unexpected images." Pitchfork named it one of the
"Greatest Albums Of The Decade" and The Guardian declared it "a
work of riveting ambition." Packed tours and festival dates followed, and
the album's first single "For Real" found its way into the ears of
Sheff's idol Lou Reed, who named Okkervil River one of his favorite
contemporary bands, asked them to open for him and told Sheff, "You have a
classic rock and roll voice." On a break from touring, Sheff and a now
completely reformulated Okkervil River recorded 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix,' an
EP that combined re-tooled outtakes from the original sessions with new
material to create a seamless whole piece, a new take on the 'Black Sheep Boy'
saga. In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of this iconic album,
Jagjaguwar is proud to present the 'Black Sheep Boy Anniversary Edition,' a
three-LP set combining the classic 'Black Sheep Boy' album and its counterpart
the 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix' with an all new unreleased album entitled 'There
Swims a Swan': full-band recordings made six months prior to the release of
'Black Sheep Boy' which illuminate the album's roots in the traditional
American songbook. Featuring beautiful, emotional readings of songs popularized
by such artists as Washington Phillips, Lead Belly, the Louvin Brothers, and
Roscoe Holcomb, 'There Swims a Swan' takes the listener on a trip through the
songs that inspired Sheff while composing 'Black Sheep Boy' and reads like a
run-through of that album's themes. 'Black Sheep Boy' is celebrated for its
album artwork as well as its music, and the Anniversary Edition collects that
artwork in a meticulously reworked package, combining every previous element of
William Schaff's imagery with a large new piece by Schaff depicting an updated
'Black Sheep Boy.' The release also includes lengthy liner notes by Will Sheff
walking the listener through the circumstances surrounding the album. For
Okkervil River fans (the most high-profile of whom was recently revealed to be
President Barack Obama, who included "Down Down the Deep River" on
his 2015 summer playlist), the Anniversary Edition is a loving, comprehensive,
richly expanded presentation of a record many consider to be one of the band's
best. For those new to the band, this might be the best place to start, the
first step on a long road, the opening to a forest you can get lost in.
Curtis McMurtry - Curtis McMurtry writes about villains that think they're victims. Influenced by Fiona Apple, Billy Strayhorn and Leonard Cohen, Curtis' music combines piercing lyrics with lush chords and unusual arrangements. His first solo album Respectable Enemy was released in August 2014, and drew comparisons to Calexico and John Fullbright. His sophomore album The Hornet's Nest is was released in February 2017, and continues to garner critical acclaim. Curtis was born and raised in Austin, Texas and grew up listening to local musicians Warren Hood, Ephraim Owens, Seela, and his father, James McMurtry. Curtis studied music composition and ethnomusicology in college, primarily writing contemporary chamber music for banjo and strings. After graduation, Curtis moved to Nashville to sharpen his songwriting by co-writing with elder statesmen including Fred Koller and Guy Clark. He has since moved back to Austin where he performs as a quartet with cellist Diana Burgess (of Mother Falcon), upright bassist Taylor Turner (of Magia Negra) and trumpeter Nathan Calzada.
David Amram - David Amram started his professional life in music as a French Hornist in the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.) in the early 1950s, as well as playing French horn in the legendary jazz bands of Charles Mingus, Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton. Appointed by Leonard Bernstein as the first Composer In Residence for the New York Philharmonic in 1966, he also composed the scores for the films Pull My Daisy (1959), Splendor In The Grass (1960) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962). He composed the scores for Joseph Papp's Shakespeare In The Park from 1956-1967 and again worked with Papp on the comic opera 12th Night in 1968. He also wrote a second opera, The Final Ingredient, An Opera of the Holocaust, for ABC Television in 1965. From 1964-66, Amram was the Composer and Music Director for the Lincoln Center Theatre and wrote the score for Arthur Miller's play After The Fall (1964). A prolific composer for over 50 years, his most recent symphonic compositions include This Land, Symphonic Variations On A Song By Woody Guthrie (2007), commissioned by the Guthrie Foundation and recently performed by the Colorado Symphony with Amram conducting and recorded by Newport Classics in 2015; Giants of the Night (2002) commissioned and first premiered by flutist Sir James Galway; Kokopeli, A Symphony in Three Movements (1995), premiered by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra with Amram conducting; and Three Songs, A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2009). He has also collaborated as a composer with Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Eugene Ormandy, Langston Hughes and Jacques D'Amboise and as a musician with Thelonious Monk, Johnny Depp, Hunter S. Thompson, Odetta, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Betty Carter, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Paquito D’Rivera and Tito Puente. In 1957, he created and performed in the first ever Jazz/Poetry readings in New York City with novelist Jack Kerouac, a close friend with whom Amram collaborated artistically for over 12 years. Since the early 1950s, he has traveled the world extensively, working as a musician and a conductor in over thirty-five countries including Cuba, Kenya, Egypt, Pakistan, Israel, Latvia and China. He also regularly crisscrosses the United States and Canada. Amram is the author of three memoirs all published by Paradigm-Routledge Press, Nine Lives of a Musical Cat (2009), Offbeat: Collaborating With Kerouac (2005) and the highly acclaimed Vibrations (1968, 2007). His archive of professional and personal papers were recently acquired by the Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts Branch of the New York Public Library. And, he was recently the subject of the full-length feature documentary David Amram: The First Eighty Years, which is available on Vimeo On Demand. In 2011, Amram was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame as recipient of the The Jay McShann Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2013 he was presented with Clearwater’s Pete and Toshi Seeger Annual Power of Song Award. In 2015, The Theater For The New City honored him with their annual Love & Courage Award. And in recognition of his enormous achievements and continuing contributions to the cultural life of New York City, Brooklyn College presented David Amram with an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts and chose him as their commencement speaker. In 2016 he received several awards for his lifetime of work as a classical composer, improvising multi-instrumentalist and pioneer of World Music. as well as touring internationally and premiering Three Lost Loves for alto saxophone, violin and piano, commissioned and performed by the New York Chamber Music Festival who have chosen him as their composer in residence for their 2016-2017 season. In 2017, he is composing a double concerto for violin, cello and orchestras and making a string orchestra version of his Greenwich Village Portraits for saxophone and orchestra as well as composing a ballet piece for choreographer Jacques d’Amboise. While composing, he continues to perform as a guest conductor, soloist, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and narrator in five languages.
Joe Pug - If the opening notes on Joe Pug’s new LP “Windfall” are a
bit disorienting, his fans won’t likely be surprised. The Austin, TX
singer songwriter has made a habit of defying expectations so the piano-driven
“Bright Beginnings” and the atmospheric rumination of “Great Hosannas” are just
further indication that he’s quite comfortable stepping outside of the
guy-with-a-guitar trappings of the genre. His rise has been as improbable as it has been impressive.
After dropping out of college and taking on work as a carpenter in
Chicago, he got his musical start by providing CDs for his fans to pass along
to their friends. This led to a string of sold out shows and a record deal with
Nashville indie Lightning Rod Records (Jason Isbell, Billy Joe Shaver).
As he toured behind “Messenger” (2010) and The Great Despiser (2012) it
was with a band that looked as much like a jazz trio as an Americana band.
“I never quite found a live band that captured what I was aiming for
until I connected with Greg [Tuohey–electric guitar] and Matt
[Schuessler–upright bass]. It was an arrangement that maybe didn’t make a
ton of sense on paper but 10 minutes into the first rehearsal I knew this was
going to be my band.” The following years would have them on the road for
over four hundred shows, including stops at Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, and The
Newport Folk Festival. The relentless grind of four years of nonstop touring had
taken its toll though, and by late 2013 he was ready to call it quits.
The tour that fall was a runaway success but his personal and creative
lives were a different story. “It was this surreal dichotomy. Everyone
kept congratulating me on how well the tour was going, and the mood was
probably the best it had ever been on the road. We finally got two hotel rooms
in each city instead of one. We’ve got this incredible group of die-hard fans
that somehow make each show bigger than our previous trip through town.
Meanwhile my relationship was in shambles and creatively I was at a dead end.
There was absolutely no joy left in playing music. So we walked off
stage after a particular show when I played terribly, and pulled my manager
aside in the green room and told him to cancel the rest of the tour dates and
that I was essentially through.” But studio time was already scheduled and deadlines had been
set for a new record, so after a few weeks Pug was back to the business of
writing songs. “In retrospect, I was in a very unhealthy place. I was sitting
in a room with the blinds shut and a notebook, forcing out words that weren’t
there and drinking astonishing amounts of bourbon. I was looking at it as a
job….as a business obligation, and that is a very slippery slope.” At
that point he decided to make good on his promise from the previous tour. The
album was put on indefinite hold. “I just needed to start behaving like a human
being again. I needed to reconnect with my girlfriend. I needed to eat
healthy food. I needed to go enjoy live music as a fan. I really needed
to make sure I still loved making music, because I really had my doubts at that
point.” The resulting layoff paid dividends in spades. When Pug set
up camp in Lexington KY in 2014 to record, he did so with some of the best
songs he has ever written. The agenda was much simpler than previous
albums. “The aim on this one was very straightforward. We wanted to
capture the music just the way we play it, with minimal production. It
was a very back to basics approach because ultimately that’s what I love about
music, and that’s what I love about making music. I wanted to record these
songs the way they were written and put them out in the world.” The
result is a collection of songs that are as close as we’ve gotten to a road map
to Pug’s ambitions. He has collected plenty of the requisite Dylan comparisons
over his young career but on this record it’s easier to hear the sway of more
contemporary influences like Josh Ritter, Ryan Adams and M.Ward. The theme of resilience plays a central role throughout
Windfall. The weary protagonist in “Veteran Fighter” wills his way
further down the highway despite the gloom that seems certain to overtake him.
“The Measure”, a song inspired in part by Frederic Buechner’s novel
Godric, marvels at “every inch of anguish, laid out side by side” but
ultimately finds that “All we’ve lost is nothing to what we’ve found.”
“I never really write songs with a specific narrative in mind,” Pug
explains. “When you’re sort of pushing through a dark period of your life it’s
probably inevitable that some of that is going to find its way onto the page.
But in the same way, by the time we were in the studio the process had
become very effortless and joyful. And hopefully you can hear a lot of that on
the record as well.” This duality appears perhaps most overtly in the
album-closing stunner “If Still It Can’t Be Found”, which features Pat Sansone
of Wilco guesting on mellotron. As the saying goes, “All’s well that ends well.” Joe
Pug didn’t call it quits after all. He’s engaged to be married and still
drinks bourbon on occasion. His new album, Windfall, will be released
March 10, 2015 on Lightning Rod Records in the US and Loose Music in Europe.