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    TME.fm Radio Song for September – Magic Of The Music by Josie Bello

    “SING THE BLUES, LIGHTEN YOUR LOAD”

    Blues from Josie and I believe it was just for me.

    A cheerful, twangy Blues song that helps sorrows fall like rain.

    Josie really shows her songwriting ability with this opus and her backing vocals are great too.

     

    A lot of stars are behind Josie (see image) and I hope they are queuing up for her to write some songs for them.

    August’s Spotlight Album keeps climbing the charts, well done Josie bello

    Have Purpose, Live Long is a collection of 8 original Josie Bello songs, and is be available for streaming and download through most popular music sites like Spotify, Soundcloud and Amazon. Physical CDs are be available for purchase at Bandcamp and CD Baby. The album was produced and recorded by Mike Nugent and mixed by Kevin Kelly at the Workshoppe East in Huntington, NY.

    Kelly’s Lot has new album ready and waiting for release August 28, 2020

    California based band releases their 15th album in 26
    years. Another Sky is Contemporary Folk, Roots Rock,
    and at times, Alt Country. Americana with Guts and Heart.
    Co-produced with Doug Pettibone, pedal steel, mandolin
    and guitar player who has toured with John Mayer, Lucinda
    Williams, Zucchero and most recently Kiefer Sutherland
    After playing the Blues for the last 10 years, Kelly’s Lot
    returns to their Folk beginnings, featuring songs inspired by
    words from their fans and the hearts of those they
    encounter.

    Focus Songs
    BUTTERFLY
    A Contemporary Folk song that brings on happy tears as
    you say goodbye to those you love. The guitar dances with
    the mandolin and the background vocals hug the singer in
    a warm blanket. The song celebrates those we love who
    will continue to fly like a butterfly.

    I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN
    A Roots Rock song inspired by everlasting love and the
    sacrifice that soldiers make as they travel to distant lands.
    With an Irish feel, the guitars and fiddle harmonize on a
    bed of drums, bass, pedal steel and B3.

    A Little History
    Kelly’s Lot was formed in 1994 by Kelly Zirbes, a Folk
    singer/songwriter with a heart for the Blues. In 1996 Kelly Z
    met guitar player and soundman, Perry Robertson, who
    soon after produced ‘Kelly’s Lot – Live at the Troubadour’.
    Within a year he joined the band, started writing songs with
    Kelly Z and added the southern sound and Texas
    influences that have shaped their music. In May and June
    of 2020, Kelly Z and Perry worked with Doug Pettibone to
    record a new selection of Contemporary Folk and Roots
    Rock songs. Six of the songs on the album were inspired
    by words from fans on Facebook. Kelly Z challenged them
    to look in their hearts and share just one word. She then
    chose a word and wrote a song in two hours.
    As a duo, a 4 piece, or a full 8 piece band they always pack
    a lot of energy while still getting to the heart of the listener.
    KellysLot.com

    [email protected]

    818.769.2701

    Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud, a Jon Hutchinson review

    There are people who exist on the same list of foods their entire life, eating a confined diet of trusted fare, trading adventure for trust. All the efforts of celebrity chefs and lifestyle magazines and websites to tempt them to set forth on treks of discovery, through different cultures and influences, passes them by like an unseen satellite in the night sky.

    People can be the same with music, playing the same albums over and over again like a version of Groundhog Day. Venturing outside of this playlist is unthinkable, whatever may happen? Will their soul be removed and sold to the highest bidder? Will their first born be taken away for sacrifice to the deity of immovable objects? Who knows, maybe the risk outweighs any perceived reward. But there is joy to be found in tasting new music, putting plate after plate on the table and sampling all the flavours, finding some we don’t like and some that make us devour the whole plateful.

    It can sometimes take just a few seconds of hearing a new artist to switch to all alert, a response that has to be primeval, we can’t explain it any other way, it lacks rationality, relying entirely on an emotional response. That first few seconds, and you need more, you need to hear all of this, and devour it.

    Waxahatchee might just have that effect. It’s simple and sparse, and in a world of over thinking and over engineering, it stands out like a fresh blade of grass after the drought. Katie Crutchfield is Waxahatchee, named after the place in Alabama, where she grew up. A musical project, it has produced four albums and an EP, each of them exploring and searching influences and sound. Saint Cloud is the latest in this venture and brings a kind of calm after the storm in that this work is more spacious, simple, and yet never naive.

    The opening is a crash of cymbals and chorused vocals. ‘Oxbow’ slides almost arrogantly onto the stage sounding cool and distant. The track draws you in to hear more. It doesn’t put a rope around your neck and pull, there’s no need for that, you just wander in, as a casual observer. ‘Fire’ is wonderfully melodic, Crutchfied draws the very soul out of each word, signalling a kind of deep frustration – “I take it for granted, If I could love you unconditionally, If I could iron out the edges of the darkest sky, for some of us it ain’t enough, It ain’t enough”

    Lilacs and The Eye cover more traditional acoustic folk/country paths, both stand alone as tuneful but earthy yet vexed songs, with a great visual line in Lilacs: “If my bones are made of delicate sugar”. It is the lyrical quality of this album that stands out. Some might almost dismissively use the label ‘angst’, but there is depth here, sometimes symbolic, often wrenching and brim full of frustration, but the words alone stand as thought provoking to read. ‘Hell’ follows, with its regretful, angry and enigmatic tones.

    ‘Witches’ could have appeared forty years ago, such is the mode of travel this album takes you on. Early Dave Edmunds, The Pretenders and Nick Lowe spring to mind as the backing track evokes memories of pop music with melodic intent. ‘War’ carries on this theme, It’s almost like the whole album is designed as couplets of musical thoughts, fleeting through before the next idea is explored.

    Then we come to Arkadelphia, if you ever felt like you couldn’t change your world, Katie Crutchfield confirms that thought. For a subject that provokes debate and often a vitriolic response, the song has a surprisingly light touch, gentle guitar mixed with a country rhythm belies the feelings the work considers. “If I burned out like a light bulb, they’ll say – she wasn’t meant for that life”. ‘Ruby Falls’ follows on from this with “It’s a squalid way to live but it’s the rules of the game”.

    We come to the title track of the album, ‘Saint Cloud’. It’s almost dismissive, like whistling in the graveyard to stop the demons from walking up behind you. “There’s nothing left to fear”, and that’s a great way to listen to Katie Crutchfield and Waxahatchee, let it bathe you with its thoughtful and provoking lyrics, enjoy its sparseness, and follow an artist who is developing and changing, always seeking new ground, if you are a musical explorer, we can only await what comes next.

    © Jon Hutchinson

    We have a Spotlight Album for August! never mind Covid, Josie Bello releases “Have Purpose Live Long” on the First of the Month.

    Quite a Hiatus but “Spotlight album” is back.

    One of our favorite Artists Josie Bello releases Have Purpose Live Long

    And we love it!

    Have Purpose, Live Long is a collection of 8 original Josie Bello songs, and will be available for streaming and download through most popular music sites like Spotify, Soundcloud and Amazon on August 1st. Physical CDs will be available for purchase at Bandcamp and CD Baby. The album was produced and recorded by Mike Nugent and mixed by Kevin Kelly at the Workshoppe East in Huntington, NY.

    Track Two “Magic of the Music” will be Song of the month on Radio BluesFlac during August

    Don’t forget you can also listen to TMEfolk Radio and catch a track there in glorious lossless flac.

    TMEfolk Radio

    Radio BluesFlac

    https://josiebello.com/

    Have Purpose Live Long – Josie Bello, from a radio station managers point of view

    Not a review as such because our Station Manager is not a reviewer, the following words are his thoughts on Josie’s sophomore album.

     

    “Eight tracks so not too much to listen to, some of those 14 track albums take some listening to.

    Having waited for months to hear Josie’s new work on “Have Purpose Live Long”  I  was excited and nervous when I put the CD on.

    The debut album “Can’t Go Home” was a very good album showing off Josie’s enormous talent as a song writer, yes I was nervous.

    First up was the title track and as it started I thought Josie was doing a duet with Mary Gauthier as lead but no it was just Josie showing that she can sing too.

    As a songwriter she has shown she has great talent and should be selling songs left, right and center. On “Have Purpose Live Long” not just great lyrics but the music performed by Josie, Mike Nugent and Jonathan Mele is first class. Don’t forget Kelly & Kat’s vocal backing, short and sweet.

    So after four & a half minutes I was no longer nervous, I settled down to enjoy the other seven songs.

    35 minutes later I knew I did not have to tell little white lies to Josie when she asks “WELL?”

    All the lyrics are as good as any written by the “majors” and the music goes perfectly with them.

    It was fun to imagine who could do a cover of each song and my list of names was impressive. There is nothing wrong with Josie’s performance but the songs are that good they need that little bit extra artists like Bonny Raitt, Mary Gauthier, Emmylou Harris or Tom Waits.

    The album is perfect for airplay, songs not to short and not to long, the lyrics make you “listen” and the music is mixed with the voice by Kevin Kelly just right. Crisp and clear singing not overpowering the music and Vice versa.

    Now to the highlight of the album for me Track two – “Magic Of The Music”. Blues, Josie wrote a Blues song for me! she knows I love the Blues. I joking said “you wrote a Blues song for me”

    btw: I actually did write Magic of the Music for you. I can’t believe you said that” Josie replied.

    Listen to Magic of the Music below.

    10 out of 10 to Mike Nugent for his work on the album as producer and Guitars, Bass, Banjo & Uke, he also recorded it. In fact 10 out of ten to all involved. (Josie’s voice gets a 10 for effort).

    If  the album “Have Purpose Live Long” was performed by a Lear Jet owner it would top the Billboard charts and be in line for a Grammy, performed by Josie Bello it is a perfect showcase of her songwriting talent and will get plenty of airplay and hopefullt spins on Spotify, Deezer etc.”

    Have Purpose, Live Long will be available for streaming and download through most popular music sites like Spotify, Soundcloud and Amazon on August 1st. Physical CDs will be available for purchase at Bandcamp and CD Baby.  The album was produced and recorded by Mike Nugent and mixed by Kevin Kelly at the Workshoppe East in Huntington, NY. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Aoife O’Donovan – Bull Frogs Croon (and other songs). A Music Emporium Review by Jon Hutchinson.

    Great singer songwriters work within the spaces of music, making the most of a self-imposed rationing of their talent, creating subtlety where others chase chaos and noise. Aoife O’Donovan has captured the art of seemingly effortless creativity, weaving fine threads of poetry around the light frameworks of her music. There is such depth in her voice, which is at times mesmerizing, layer upon layer of tone and expression, it’s complex and so effortless.

    O’Donovan hails from Massachusetts, but spent childhood summers in Ireland, and the influence of melodic and often haunting Irish folk, and the often irreverent and adventurous nature of American folk is inherent throughout her compositions. Alison Krauss recognized this when she recorded Aoife’s “Lay my burden down”.  I guess most musicians will become the driver of their music or the follower of someone else’s, in O’Donovan’s case she seems driven to explore, to invent, to innovate. Having helped to create ‘Crooked Still’, she went on to co-create ‘Sometymes Why’, two ventures that produced so much in a short time. In 2015, a collaboration with Sarah Watkins and Sarah Jarosz at a bluegrass festival ended with a tour and an album for ‘I’m with her’. All this was happening whilst a much-vaunted solo career was in the making.

    The wonderful thing about this new work is that it is an album with a theme, or should I say a part theme ‘Bull Frogs Croon (and other songs)’ is as good a description as you’ll see anywhere, offering variations on the main motif interspersed with two traditional folk songs, O’Donovan works with a string quartet to produce an original and introspective work.

    Opening with ‘Bull Frogs Croon – Night Fishing, the central theme is set for the Bull Frog tracks that follow. The use of a string quartet and the variations on that central theme which O’Donovan explores are reminiscent of the classical style. Sometimes delicate and fragile, they build through ‘Bull Frogs Croon – The Darkness’, in haunting staccato layers, before returning to peace in the third track ‘Bull Dogs Croon – Valentine’ a reprise of the main theme but with added depth and charm, just as a classical work puts forward a central refrain, then explores the limits of it, before returning to its core.

    The album then takes a detour, and it’s a song that O’Donovan has sung many times. ‘The Lakes of Pontchartrain’ is a traditional American folk song with a fascinating, if uncertain, history. It appears at the beginning of the 19th Century and is a tale of a man given shelter by a Creole woman. Man falls in love with the woman who has saved him and in the twist that gives the song all its poignant beauty, she declares that she is betrothed to another and her promise and loyalty to him is final. It’s not a tale of unrequited love, but rather two people who in another world could be together. There is such warmth and depth in this track, it might be a variation from the main emphasis of the album, but it is wonderful, it is warm, sensitive, a bittersweet song that leaves a strange kind of comfort in its wake.

    ‘Pretty Bird’ follows the same path, treading ground untouched by the Bull Frogs and adding to the charm of the whole work. A song penned by Hazel Dickens. This pure and simple version is testament to Aoife O’Donovan’s ability to wrest every last emotion from a song, every last drop of meaning and inflection.

    Returning to Bull Frogs Croon (Reprise) for the final act in this work, there is a more upbeat feel to the arrangement, the work with the quartet has come full circle, it is time to take stock of what we have heard and what we have experienced. As the strings take their leave and we can look back and take in what Aoife O’Donovan has achieved with this album.

    Bull Frogs Croon (and other songs) is a work that furthers O’Donovan’s standing as an artist with immense talent, there was little doubt about that in all honesty, but this venture suggests that she is prepared to explore, and that is why this this album is so welcome. We have a songwriter with a soulful voice, forged in Irish and American folk music, who seems tied only to her own boundaries.

    ©Jon Hutchinson

    Our FLAC service is now online and called TMEFOLK RADIO.

    Beta testing went well and TMEFOLK RADIO is now live for everyone to enjoy.
    Playing a great mix of Americana, Folk, Blues, Roots, Country and more old and new songs.

    Just add https://streams.radiomast.io/tmefolk to your favorite player.

    Or if you use iPhone/iPad then add http://ingest-ams.radiomast.io/tmefolk to the VLC app to listen to the lossless sound of flac.

     

     

    Album of the Month for February 2020 is WHAT THEY SAY – CW AYON

    ”What They Say ” is already showing in the RMR Charts and well deserved too.

    ”What They Say” ranked #3 on the official Australian Blues & Roots Airplay Charts for International Blues Airplay for the month of December 2019 (Chart #55) www.abarac.com.au. He’ll be touring Australia in mid-May, and has East Coast USA and UK tours in the works.

    CW Ayon may call the Southwestern  deserts of New Mexico home, but his  soul is deeply rooted in the Blues and  grooves of the Mississippi Hill Country. 

    With a rather simple kick/snare and  tambourine set-up, he lays down solid  beats while picking out some catchy  hooks on anything from acoustic to  resonator guitars, sometimes dropping  in a bit of harmonica for good measure. 

    All the while building a sound and  playing style that is deceptively larger  than it seems.

    CW Ayon’s influences are  Junior Kimbrough, R.L. Burnside, John  Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Robert  Belfour, just to name a few. 

     

    Release date:​ Nov. 1, 2019 

    Record label:​ Independent 

    Artist/composer: ​CW Ayon 

    UPC:​ 888295954495 

    Guitar, vocals, percussion:​ CW Ayon 

    Upright bass: ​Felipe Toltecatl 

    Recording engineer: ​Gary Laney 

    Recording studio:​ Nautilus  Studio location:​ San Angelo, TX 

    Contact: ​[email protected] 

    Website:​ CWAyon.com 

    Facebook:​ CW Ayon Duo

    New Single “Reckless Daydreams” by Trevor Alguire

     

    Reckless Daydreams – the new single, marks the first taste of Trevor Alguire’s 7th album, bringing with it a maturity in songwriting seldom seen and rarely reached, captured by only a select few of this country’s most prolific well-travelled veteran songwriters. Alguire draws from over a decade of touring across North America and Europe.

    Trevor had just hit the studio to start recording Reckless Daydreams when he received the news that his mom had cancer, six weeks later she was gone. Trevor boarded a plane one week later for a two-week tour of Europe unsure if he would even continue the album upon his return. “My mom was my anchor, keeping me grounded every day, and to suddenly have her taken away I can’t even start to describe that kind of heartache. Forcing myself back into the studio as a way to grieve was my way of coping, and each song started to take on its own meaning and direction.” Thus forming an album unlike any other Trevor has written to date, an album of reflection, loss, heartache and hope.

     

    Rebecca Noelle (backing vocals) and Jeff Asselin (drums) of The Commotions accompany Trevor on the new single Reckless Daydreams, along with Fred Guignion on guitar and Alex Mastronardi on bass and keys. Reckless Daydreams comes on the heels of his last album Perish in The Light’s very successful run in the top 5 for over 32 weeks on the Roots Music Report Chart and calls from many to the awards committees (The Juno Awards & The Polaris Prize) to take note.  With over 70 songs recorded in only a decade Alguire travels through this world passionately sharing these stories with everyone he meets. All the while gathering and documenting these special moments and conversations while continuing his heart felt journey assured to leave in his wake a lifetime of precious stories told.