Get a FREE copy (*) of the 44th issue of our compilation series BLUE ROSE NUGGETS - just order 4 items through our mailorder and a copy of the BLUE ROSE NUGGETS will automatically included with your order.
(*) if living inside Europe only!


--------------------------------------------------------------
! Special offer: For each order which contains at least 3 Blue Rose (BLU) or New West (NW) items we give a 10% discount of the delivery value on this order (offer ends August 31, 2010)!!!




30.07.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 30/2010

GOV'T MULE
Mulennium



3-CD € 16,50		 BLACK CROWES
Croweology



2-CD € 14,90		 LOS LOBOS
Tin Can Trust



CD € 14,90		 BIG HEAD TODD
& THE MONSTERS
Rocksteady


CD € 15,90		 BARNEY BENTALL
The Inside Passage



CD € 15,50
Father of
DUSTIN BENTALL!		 LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
10 Songs For
The New Depression


CD € 14,25		 JOAN JETT
& THE BLACKHEARTS
Greatest Hits


2-CD € 14,90


25.07.


TOM GILLAM
Better Than The Rest - An Anthology


CD € 13,90
2-LP+CD
€ 27,90		 Better Than The Rest - An Anthology by TOM GILLAM, one of most popular Blue Rose Acts at the moment - what can we expect from this? A simple Best of selection, a chronological career review or a collection of demos, outtakes and live material? Actually none of the above, but almost a really new product, that will stand on its own in the Gillam discography. "Almost" only because it indeed is older song material, but hardly known by anybody.

Most people in Europe have come to know Tom Gillam through Blue Rose with his Never Look Back CD in 2007. Okay, some of the observing music fans who like to take a glimpse behind the scenes and read the small print on the CD booklets have discovered the name Tom Gillam before, as sideman of label mate Joseph Parsons. Their path crossed years ago in their then hometown Philadelphia. That's how Gillam eventually ended up on Parsons The Vagabond Tales album (Blue Rose, 2005) and became a permanent band member as (slide) guitarist. In 2005/06 he accompanied the Joseph Parsons Band on quite a few European gigs and took part in the legendary Rockpalast concert, which was added as a bonus DVD to the following Parsons release The Fleury Sessions (Blue Rose, 2006). With his powerful way to play the guitar and his friendly and pleasant stage presence he managed to capture the audience without upstaging the main act.

After that Tom Gillam's career really took off: The record Never Look Back marked the breakthrough in 2007 - with an extensive, stylistic overview, embracing eras from the 70's country rock á la Poco, Eagles and a lot of Joe Walsh to music of Americana stars like Steve Earle and John Hiatt all the way up to a powerful mainstream rock like a John Mellencamp or Bob Seger. The fulminate 2008 live CD Play Loud… Dig Deep and another studio record in 2009, ironically titled Had enough?, expanded his international standing with the fans and within the Blue Rose family.

Mostly hidden stayed the fact that Tom Gillam already had a musical life before. Three early records are credit to his account, which certainly didn't cross the Atlantic Ocean often: the 1998 debut First Of All, Dallas in 2001 and last but not least the by many relevant medias appreciated Shake My Hand (2004). The first two records clearly belonging to the classical country/roots/folk rock category, with the third record Gillam expanded his spectrum by heading towards a much straighter rock direction - of course with a strongly based Americana foundation.

The now presented compilation Better Than The Rest acknowledges just this era, offering an extraction of the most important songs, by Tom Gillam personally - not chronological but just on a whim! - selected and with the tastefully arranged liner notes reviewed: Three tracks of the debut album and four of each of the two others. In addition the maybe most important song of his career: `Never Look Back`, not just the title track of the same named CD but also connecting link between the "old and new" Tom Gillam. By listening to Anthology we can hear that the difference between the "old and new" is not really all that much. To top all this, Anthology offers three previously unreleased tracks: "Fountain Bleu", a beautiful capturing semi-acoustic ballad with a melodic lead guitar and beautiful steel, recorded during the Never Look Back sessions; "Emily", a vigorous 6:42 electric rocker from 2009 that really has Neil Young's "Words" feel to it and on which his band Tractor Pull, especially second lead guitarist Craig Simon, got to demonstrate their extraordinary skills; and finally "Long Way Home" from the Shake My Hand phase - Tom Gillam on straight country route with backing choir, harmonica, pedal steel and endless chorus to hum along without restraint.
Better Than The Rest is a musically and visually top of the line product which clearly shows how much passion as well as heart and soul Tom Gillam put into this. And time! Just about a miracle, considering how many activities, especially with the latest US Rails project and his announcement to be working on new songs already. And just in case, he already mentioned a possible sequel of the Anthology… Well, let's enjoy this one for now!

Better Than The Rest - An Anthology is available through our webshop now, in fine record outlets in Europe from mid August.


16.07.

Available while supplies last: Personal Vinyl Edition-LPs on clear vinyl!


16.07.

 
Since the second studio album One Foot In The Ether of THE BAND OF HEATHENS was already released ten months ago and fans are waiting for a new record we have good news from the band's camp: Between the full tour schedule the band now and then has free time to get into the studio and to record new tunes. At one of these studio sessions the band recorded a song, "dedicated" to the unbelievable situation in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Like everyone, we've been watching what's been happening (not happening?) in the Gulf of Mexico this summer. We took a couple of days in the studio to record some new material and this song came out. We're sharing it with you as a free download. We hope you dig it," the quintet from Austin, Texas let their fans know on their website. "Free Again" is available for a free download - just click the "Free Download" button on the left.


15.07.

MAILORDER NEWS



12.07.

MAILORDER NEWS




CINDY BULLENS
Howling Trains And Barking Dogs


CD € 15,90		 Two-time Grammy nominee CINDY BULLENS began her music career touring with Elton John and in the studio with Bob Crewe. In 1979 she released her debut solo album Desire Wire (United Artists) and scored a breakthrough hit with her song "Survivor."
Cindy's new solo recording, Howling Trains and Barking Dogs, is a collection of her 90's Nashville collaborations. Her co-writers include Radney Foster, Bill Lloyd, Matraca Berg, Kye Fleming, Mary Ann Kennedy and Al Anderson. A native New Englander and long time resident of Maine, Cindy is running this year for a seat in the Maine State Senate.

Cindy Bullens has been waiting quite a while to deal these cards of life in a musical way. Though there are two new compositions, Bullens wrote the bulk of this material between 1990 to 1995, at a time when she was not as active performing, but took an inspirational trip to Nashville from her Portland, ME home. Some 20 years later, these songs see new life, as Bullens and her band rock them out. Some country creeps into the equation, but it's mostly a steady stream of 4/4 beats and attitude that drives Bullens's solid, soulful voice and electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, or harmonica. She also co-authored many of these tunes with well-known figures like Matraca Berg and Radney Foster. Her main accompanists are recording engineer Bill Colwell, who adds bass, keyboards, accordion, or backing vocals; drummer Ginger Cole; and string master Stephan B. Jones. With select special guests on each track, they play strong songs like slow, steady rockers "Love Gone Good," "Can't Stop This Train," and with Foster, a Nashville pop-type signature tune "Whistles & Bells" done originally by the Dixie Chicks. Foster also contributes a redo of his hit "Labor of Love" which sounds like it could have come straight from the songbook of the Eagles. There's also a boogie featuring Colwell's piano and vocal group the Ordinaires, an autobiographical number, and more acoustic-based music included in this granite-like set of music that has crossover AOR and adult contemporary potential. (All Music Guide - www.allmusic.com)


09.07.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 US RAILS
US RAILS
US Rails


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 27,90
 
US RAILS: Ben Arnold, Matt Muir, Tom Gillam, Scott Bricklin
und Joseph Parsons (v.l.n.r.)

For quite some time the name US RAILS is buzzing through the well informed Americana circle left and right of the Atlantic. A new super group with a few well known singer/songwriters supposedly got together on the east coast and caused quite a stir with their first club concerts.
After the short visit in December 2009 at the Blue Rose Christmas party there were no doubts left: YES the US RAILS really hit the spot, but there were no records available. With the release of the debut album US Rails this gap is finally closed!

Not just one but even four usually independent musicians (plus drummer) established the musical formation of US Rails, continuing the tradition from CSNY to the Traveling Wilburys and similar artists on Blue Rose like the Resentments and the Flatlanders from Texas, ESP (Easton/Stagger/Phillips) or Hardpan. The US Rails are the direct heiress of the formation 4 Way Street out of Philadelphia, with no one less than Joseph Parsons. The personable, meanwhile in Lower Saxony living singer/songwriter has been part of the Blue Rose Family since 1998, with eight own official releases and collaboration projects with Todd Thibaud and the mentioned Hardpan, he is definitely one of the cornerstones of the Blue Rose label.
The man with the warm sonorous voice, who incomparably masters the melodic, sensitive folk rock and as a live performer knows how to captivate his audiences certainly doesn't have to be introduced after all his records and countless tours in Germany! Besides his solo career he had the 4 Way Street band in the mid-century who surely not coincidently appealed with the band name to the legendary CSNY record.
Then there is Ben Arnold, Scott Bricklin and Jim Boggia, as well as in the extended circle drummer Matt Muir. While Boggia left the project to follow own ambitions, the others continue smoothly with the US Rails and for completion of the four piece even get another East coast Rocker to join the band - Tom Gillam, who just moved to Austin/Texas, another category "A" Blue Rose artist, who has been playing with Joseph Parsons many times in the past - live as well as on record.

The star is the team! On their close to Paris recorded debut album these five musicians proof to definitely have all the band qualifications. There are no ego-trips - even though song by song the individual strength and characteristics are easily identified by songwriting and of course the completely different lead voices. With the opener "Lucky Stars" Parsons, Arnold, Bricklin und Gillam have a clear identification song and present their vocal business card - each one of them gets a verse, to be meet in a harmonic way in the chorus. What an opener for a throughout fantastic album with a total of 14 tracks, of which some are known from solo records and have been re-arranged in a new US Rails way, some just for this project written compositions and an incredible cover version for a spectacular finish - which, remembering the highly developed folk rock harmonies and the cross-reference made by 4 Way Street can only descend from one source: Crosby, Stills & Nash. It's the classic "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" from Stephen Stills!
Before the record comes to this closing song there was plenty of folk & roots, rock, Americana, guitar rock, harmonic ballads and extensive rock with slide guitar. Tom Gillam's 'Simple Plan', 'Shine Your Light' and 'Ready To Begin' as well as Joseph Parsons' 'Sun Gonna Shine', 'Burning Fire' and 'Brown Me In The Sun' come in the high standard that we have come to expect from those two Blue Rose artists. But maybe it is even the songs by the less familiar Ben Arnold and Scott Bricklin that add the pinch of spice to this Americana stew. Ben Arnold on keyboard (piano, e-piano, organ) and guitar surely has the most distinctive, "rusty" voice and shines with song highlights like 'Rainwater' und 'The New Goldrush'. He has been putting out his own records since 1995 and was seen last - by the way with Rails drummer Muir - with the Indie Pop Rockers Pistol for Ringo.
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, recording engineer, singer and songwriter Scott Bricklin can look back on a long career as well: with his brother Brian he played with the 80's cult band Bricklin, after that with Martin's Dam, toured a lot with Joseph Parsons, accompanied The Figgs and Graham Parker. He's been living in Paris for the past few years and his main part with the US Rails is bassist and singer of songs such as 'Spell' and 'Good Times'.

US Rails is available through our webshop now, in fine record outlets in Europe from mid July.


30.06.


VARIOUS ARTISTS
Blue Rose Nuggets 44


CD € 5,00
or free!		 Packed with 17 songs comes #44 auf the Blue Rose mailorder-only CD series Blue Rose Nuggets. Not that many new releases this time due to summer and holidays but the two new Blue Rose albums by the US Rails and Dustin Bentall will highly be welcome by the Blue Rose fans. With Bentall, son of the legendary rock musician Barney Bentall, we have signed another great Canadian singer/songwriter who fits perfect to our "family", and the US Rails with Joseph Parsons and Tom Gillam made their introduction at last year's Blue Rose Christmas Party. At the Christmas Party one year before Julian Dawson had opened the party with a self-written Christmas song and played two cover songs by Canned Heat and Paul Simon. Another very rare live recording is the Townes Van Zandt song "If I Needed You" of The Band Of Heathens, and the Kris Kristofferson classic "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" is taken from the deluxe edition of his latest album Closer To The Bone, recorded live in Dublin, Ireland in March 2008. Ad Vanderveen opens and closes this Nuggets edition with an electric and an acoustic version of "Nowhere To Belong".

For those of you who are not familiar with this special series: You can either buy it for just 5 Euros OR you'll get it for FREE if your order at our online mailorder includes 4 items or more - no matter how much the total amount of your order is (for European customers only, sorry!).

Tracklist:
1. AD VANDERVEEN - Nowhere To Belong (electric) / taken from the album Still Now
2. MICKY & THE MOTORCARS - Amber / taken from the album Naïve
3. TROY YOUNG CAMPBELL - Nobody / taken from the album Man Vs. Beast
4. RAINRAVENS - Diamond Diamond Bar / taken from the album Rattle These Walls
5. US RAILS - Lucky Stars / taken from the album US Rails
6. WOODEN LEG - Tuesday's Paper / taken from the album Wooden Leg
7. JULIAN DAWSON - Christmas Every Day
8. JULIAN DAWSON - Going Up The Country
9. JULIAN DAWSON - Paranoia Blues
All three songs recorded live at the Blue Rose Christmas Party at the Blues Garage in Isernhagen/Germany on December 13, 2008 (previously unreleased)
10. STEVE WYNN - Carelessly / taken from the album Fluorescent (Special Edition)
11. THE DUSTIN BENTALL OUTFIT - Three Thousand Miles / taken from the album Six Shooter
12. THE BAND OF HEATHENS - If I Needed You / recorded live at the Paradiso in Amsterdam/The Netherlands on October 5, 2009 (previously unreleased)
13. TIM EASTON - Baltimore / taken from the album Porcupine
14. SAY ZUZU - Wish Me Well / taken from the album Every Mile
15. KRIS KRISTOFFERSON - Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down / taken from the album Closer To The Bone (Deluxe 2CD Edition)
16. TOM GILLAM - Million Miles Away / taken from the album Had Enough?
17. AD VANDERVEEN - Nowhere To Belong (acoustic) / taken from the album Still Now


 
    
Special offer: For each order which contains at least 3 Blue Rose (BLU) or New West (NW) items we give a 10% discount of the delivery value on this order!!!
    
 


30.06.

NEW ALBUMS ON MIDPRICE!

The following albums are now on midprice and available through our webshop for € 8,90 each:
TREVOR ALGUIRE - Thirty Year Run (CD)
JULIAN DAWSON - Deep Rain (CD)
TOM GILLAM - Play Loud... Dig Deep (CD)
WILLIE NILE - Live From The Streets Of New York (CD+DVD)
JOSEPH PARSONS - Heavens Above (CD)


30.06.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 DUSTIN BENTALL
THE DUSTIN BENTALL OUTFIT
Six Shooter


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 24,90		 DUSTIN BENTALL hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and it seems an unlikely place to nurture such a rustic troubadour. It seemed like an unlikely country for Rick Danko, Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel or Neil Young to be from… until people took a closer look. Up here you’ll find as deep a frontier spirit and hard luck charm as any nation. You’ll find a reverence for the tales of everyday life and loss and you’ll find a lot of people who have time to woodshed and learn their craft. Spinning songs by Neil Young, The Band, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Tom T. Hall, The Beatles, Wilco and Steve Earle Dustin found the heart of that music and placed it under his own landscapes.

His father, Barney is approaching legendary status in Canadian rock circles and has let the boy grow up to build his own strengths. He just dropped hints but didn’t crack any whips.
“There’s no question I’ve learned more from him than anyone else in the business. He never pushed the guitar on me but was always there to answer any questions I had, and left the actual learning up to me. I spent a few years wishing he had cracked the whip a little more but I have come to realize that the style I have developed has been a product of my own chosen influences. The old man proved over and over that he can rock with the best of them. I’ve always been really proud of that and hoped that it’s written in my DNA.”

It is part of his DNA. Then there’s the learned part. He sounds older than his years because his songs speak with wisdom about his youthful experiments with immortality.

The narcotic cowboy thing you hear in Dustin’s music comes from his love for Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds with their so-called ‘Cosmic American Music.’ That is, not to mention the time he has spent in the saddle ropin’ and branding steers on the ranch.

A two-month pleasure cruise across Canada throughout the summer of 2004 inspired all kinds of writing. However it ended with a bang. Inside his ‘69 Chevy Impala Dustin and his best friend took on an F250 and its camper trailer head on in British Columbia’s Fraser Canyon. He sat there next to his buddy who wasn’t speaking and got a taste of the fine line between life and death. They both recovered and Dustin went on to record the debut record Streets With No Lights in 2005.

The release of that record took Dustin back out on the Trans-Canada Highway a number of times, as well down to Nashville and over-seas to tour Denmark and Ireland. The record caught the ears of veteran music publisher Leeds Levy in 2007 to with which he inked his first publishing deal.

Dustin recently opened some shows for Kathleen Edwards on the west coast. Concert goers in Vancouver are getting accustomed to seeing him up on stage for a Blue Rodeo encore. To complete the cross-Canada connection he snagged guitar slinging demon Luke Doucet for a couple days in the studio to Cameo on the new record. Dustin has done a lot of writing with Canadian Country Music up and comer Ridley Bent. One song in particular “Nine Inch Nails” holds the honors of 2008’s Country Song Of The Year with the Independent Music Awards of North America.

Six Shooter is available through our webshop now, in fine record stores all over Europe from late July.


30.06.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 26/2010

ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO
Street Songs Of Love



CD € 16,90		 PHOSPHORESCENT
Here's To Taking
It Easy


CD € 12,90		 SHELBY LYNNE
Tears, Lies And
Alibis


CD € 13,90		 ARC ANGELS
Living In A Dream



2-CD € 21,90		 JIM LAUDERDALE
Patchwork River



CD € 12,90		 WALTER TROUT
Common Ground



CD € 15,50
LP € 16,90		 COWBOY JUNKIES
Remnin Park



CD € 14,50

GEMMA RAY
It's A Shame
About Gemma Ray


CD € 13,50
LP € 13,90		 STEVE WINWOOD
Revolutions



CD € 16,90		 ZAC BROWN BAND
Pass The Jar



2-CD+DVD
€ 27,90		 JIMMY WEBB
Just Across
The River


CD € 13,50		 STEVE MILLER BAND
Bingo!



CD € 16,50		 MERLE HAGGARD
I Am What I Am



CD € 16,50		 DEREK TRUCKS
BAND
Roadsongs


2-CD € 18,90

STEPHANIE FINCH
Cry Tomorrow



CD € 15,50		 FRED EAGLESMITH
Cha Cha Cha



CD € 13,90		 CROWDED HOUSE
Intriguer



CD € 16,90
CD+DVD € 22,90		 MARY CHAPIN
CARPENTER
The Age Of Miracles


CD € 15,50		 CHUCK PROPHET
Dreaming Waylon's
Dreams


CD € 15,50		 CRAZY HEART
(UK-Import)



DVD € 20,90
Blu-ray € 29,50


30.06.

MAILORDER NEWS

SPECIAL OFFERS

WILCO
Wilco (The Album)


CD € 8,90		 RYAN BINGHAM
Mescalito


CD € 9,50		 RYAN BINGHAM
Roadhouse Sun


CD € 9,50		 FRED EAGLESMITH
Cha Cha Cha


CD € 13,90		 THE SADIES
Darker Circles


CD € 13,90
LP € 14,90

RYAN ADAMS
Demolition


CD € 6,90		 RYAN ADAMS
Easy Tiger


CD € 6,90		 RYAN ADAMS
Heartbreaker


CD € 6,90		 RYAN ADAMS
Jacksonville City...


CD € 6,90		 RYAN ADAMS
Love Is Hell


CD € 6,90		 RYAN ADAMS
Rock'n Roll


CD € 6,90

WHISKEYTOWN
Faithless Street



CD € 6,90		 WHISKEYTOWN
Strangers
Almanac


CD € 6,90		 WHISKEYTOWN
Pneumonia



CD € 6,90

LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Car Wheels On
A Gravel Road


CD € 6,90		 LUCINDA WILLIAMS
World Without
Tears


CD € 6,90		 LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Essence



CD € 6,90		 LUCINDA WILLIAMS
West



CD € 6,90

JAYHAWKS
Music From The
North Country


2-CD+DVD
€ 13,90		 JAYHAWKS
The Jayhawks AKA
The Bunkhouse Album


CD € 9,50
LP € 9,90		 JAYHAWKS
Hollywood Town
Hall


CD € 8,90		 JAYHAWKS
Tomorrow The
Green Grass


CD € 8,90		 JAYHAWKS
Smile



CD € 8,90		 JAYHAWKS
Sound Of Lies



CD € 8,90

TIFT MERRITT
See You On The Moon


CD € 13,90		 TIFT MERRITT
Home Is Loud


CD € 8,90		 TIFT MERRITT
Buckingham Solo


CD € 8,90		 TIFT MERRITT
Another Country


CD € 8,90
(w/Bonustracks)		 TIFT MERRITT
Tambourine


CD € 8,90


15.06.

A GIBSON ON TOUR

Our trip with the Gibson Les Paul through Texas was very successful in regards of the collection of more autographs of Blue Rose artists. Many have been added, see pictures below. JAMES McMURTRY is also among the musicians who put his signature on this wonderful electric guitar although a photo is missing. The pictures also feature a yet-non Blue Rose artist - OWEN TEMPLE, but since he already wrote his name on the guitar we are pretty optimistic that a deal with him for his new album Mountain Home is not far away...

The GIBSON ON TOUR campaign is part and a Premium Prize of our anniversary lottery CATCH THE PREMIUMS which runs through December 10, 2010. Every mailorder customer has the chance to win one the premium prizes - the more revenue with sales at our mailorder shop the better the chances. For more details of our anniversary lottery campaigns scroll down to May 1st.

 
Bruce Hughes (Resentments)		  
Herb Belofsky (ex-Rainravens)		  
Andy Van Dyke (Rainravens)
 
Jon Dee Graham		  
Tom Gillam		  
Austin Collins & The Rainbirds
 
Owen Temple		  
Cody (links) und Willy Braun (Reckless Kelly)		  
Michael Hall


11.06.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 23/2010

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM
American Slang



CD € 15,90
LP € 13,90		 CAROLE KING &
JAMES TAYLOR
Live At The Troubadour


CD+DVD € 17,90		 THE SADIES
Darker Circles



CD € 13,90
LP € 14,90		 COURT YARD HOUNDS
Court Yard Hounds



CD € 16,90		 MATTHEW RYAN
Dear Lover



CD € 12,90		 TOM PETTY &
THE HEARTBREAKERS
Mojo


CD € 16,50
2-LP € 29,90		 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
& E STREET BAND
London Calling


DVD € 19,90
BluRay € 21,90

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
Stone Temple Pilots



CD € 16,50		 WILLIE NELSON
Country Music



CD € 14,90		 THE JOHN HENRYS
White Linen



CD € 15,50		 JOSH RITTER
So Runs The
World Away


CD € 14,50
LP € 14,50		 KAREN ELSON
The Ghost Who Walks



CD € 15,50
LP € 15,50		 BROTHERS OF
THE SOUTHLAND
Blue Sunrise


CD € 14,25		 WILLIE NELSON &
ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
Willie And The Wheel


CD € 15,50

SPECIAL TEXAS ARTISTS PICK
(both were the big winners of this year's Austin Music Awards honors show)

BOB SCHNEIDER
Lovely Creatures



CD € 14,50		 SARAH JAROSZ
Song Up In
Her Head


CD € 15,90


14.05.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 19/2010



13.05.

The Americana Music Association announced the nominees for the organization’s 2010 Honors and Awards ceremony today during a reception hosted by BMI at the W.O. Smith School of Music. The show, in its 9th year, will be held September 9th at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
Longstanding Americana supporters Emmylou Harris and Todd Snider read the list of award candidates to a crowd of industry executives, artists and tastemakers, while Duo/Group nominee Carolina Chocolate Drops performed. Dave Rawlings received four nominations, Texas songwriters Ray Wylie Hubbard and Ryan Bingham received three and Patty Griffin, The Avett Brothers and Hayes Carll garnered two nominations.

Selected by members of the Americana Music Association, the 2010 nominees reflect the genre’s affection for innovative and inspiring artistry. The nominees’ eligibility is based on work released between May 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010.

Last year THE BAND OF HEATHENS was nominated in the category "New & Emerging Artist", this year the band is nominated for "Duo or Group Of The Year". According to band member Gordy Quist, “We're really pleased to be nominated for this award by the Americana Music Association and to be named along with such amazing artists. The AMA has supported us from the very start and it's a real honor to be embraced by the Americana community."

Two more artists of the Blue Rose family are among the nominees - STEVE EARLE ("Artist of the Year") and BUDDY MILLER ("Instrumentalist of the Year"), and last but not least Ryan Bingham is nominated in the category "Song of the Year" for "The Weary Kind", the theme song for the movie Crazy Heart.


Here are all the categories with their nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
The List, by Rosanne Cash
A Friend of a Friend, by Dave Rawlings Machine
Downtown Church, by Patty Griffin
A. Enlightenment B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no c), by Ray Wylie Hubbard

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Ryan Bingham
Patty Griffin
Levon Helm
Steve Earle
Ray Wylie Hubbard

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Avett Brothers
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Band of Heathens
Dave Rawlings Machine

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Dave Rawlings
Will Kimbrough
Sam Bush

NEW & EMERGING ARTIST
Sarah Jarosz
Ryan Bingham
Hayes Carll
Corb Lund
Joe Pug

SONG OF THE YEAR
“The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)"
Written by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett-performed by Ryan Bingham
"Drunken Poets Dream"
Written by Hayes Carll and Ray Wylie Hubbard performed by Ray Wylie Hubbard
"Ruby"
Written by Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch-performed by Dave Rawlings Machine
"I and Love and You"
Written and performed The Avett Brothers

The winners will be announced September 9 at the historic Ryman Auditorium during the 9th Annual Americana Music Association’s Honors and Awards Show. Hosted by Jim Lauderdale and featuring a band led by Buddy Miller, the Honors & Awards ceremony will also recognize Lifetime Achievements and bestow awards in Performance, Songwriting and Instrumentalist and other important categories. Additional honorees and performers will be announced in the coming months.
“Very quietly, Americana has become the fastest rising music community today," said AMA executive director Jed Hilly. “The nominees represent the elite of the elite, and we could not be more proud to work with and for such provocative creators.”
Slated for Wednesday, September 8 through Saturday, September 11, the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference will offer daily seminars, panels and networking opportunities at the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel. The event brings more than 100 stacked musical showcases to key venues throughout Nashville. Approximately 1,000 industry professionals attended the 2009 conference and more than 12,000 fans experienced the Festival's musical events.


08.05.

MAILORDER NEWS


THE IAIN AD VENTURE
Ride The Times


CD € 14,90		 Second duo album collaboration of singer-songwriters IAIN MATTHEWS and AD VANDERVEEN. All acoustic arrangements, the album features originals by both musicians as well as covers by Neil Young, Warren Zevon, Chip Taylor, Tom Waits and oothers.
MORE NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 18/2010



01.05.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 17/2010



01.05.

 
    
Great anniversary campaigns!
Great prices to win!!!

CATCH THE PREMIUMS, WIN THE PRIZES!!!

We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of Blue Rose Records. Because of this special event we want to thank our customers and friends for their lasting loyalty and have prepared two special offers we think you'll like:

Campaign CATCH THE PREMIUMS
We will give away various "premium" prices to those customers who gain the highest sales revenue at our mailorder in a specific period of time.

Campaign ANNIVERSARY LOTTERY
All people who are allowed to participate (see below) can win gift certificates, music magazines, CDs, LPs, DVDs and other attractive prizes.

Both campaigns start at May 1st, 2010 at midnight and end at the December 10th, 2010 at midnight.

Here are the details:

CATCH THE PREMIUMS
All mailorder customers can influence their opportunity to win a premium prize. You just need to reach a high revenue by purchasing items from our mailorder shop. The prizes are really impressive. We don't know yet how many prizes there finally will be or what the grand prize will be. "Grand prize" may be depending on the interest of the winner. It's possible that the 3rd prize is more important than the 1st (grand) prize. Right now the grand prize is

attendance of the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX in March 2011

Included are flights, 7 nights in a very good hotel in Downtown Austin, a "wristband" to get access to the live shows and pocketmoney of 200 €.
You don't have to stay there on your own because Blue Rose label manager Edgar Heckmann and other regulary visitors of the festival will be at your side and give you travelling tips and advices.

More fantastic prizes are a GIBSON E-guitar which will be signed at concerts by many musicians in the period as long as the campaign lasts. Pictures will be published at our website to confirm the signings. Blue Rose musicians will also sign owned instruments and provide other memorabilia items as well as they offer house concerts. Another premium prize is a free 2 day stay in a recording studio where an artist or a complete band (up to 5 people) can make a professional recording. Outdoor equipment specialist Jack Wolfskin has provided us with a range of high quality products. In edition we have many gift certificates and subscriptions of different music magazines. The variety of prizes will be extended over the next months.

Now you need to know what you have to do to get these fantastic prizes. Pretty simple:
Those customers who did the highest revenue in purchasing items at our mailorder will get the best prizes. We will analyse the sales of each customer from May 1st, 2010 until the December 10th, 2010 (shipping costs don't count). The one with the highest revenue can choose from all premium prizes his favourite one. The others follow until all prizes are gone.

We will introduce the first PREMIUM prizes here shortly!

ANNIVERSARY LOTTERY
The participation at our anniversary lottery is not bounded to purchases in our shop. You just need to fill out an entering form which you need to send back to us. You will find this form here shortly. Deadline is midnight December 10th 2010 at midnight.

--------------------------------------------------

Once again: You are participating at the CATCH THE PREMIUMS campaign with an order at our webshop automatically. Let us know if you don't want to take part in this campaign. To participate in the "Anniversary Lottery" campaign you need to fill out the entering form completely and correct and return it to us. Of course you can take part at both campaigns!

Conditions of participation:
Customers under the age of 18 are not allowed to participate. For a valid participation at the lottery the participant needs to provide us with his complete name (name, surname), address, phone number and email address. Without these details registrations are not valid and claims of participation or the won prize expires. Employees and relatives of Massacre Records GmbH are not allowed to participate. Winners of the lottery will be decided by drawing lots. Winners of the premium prizes will be decided after analysation of the revenue of all the sales during the period of time the offer is valid. Legal action is excluded. Paying out the won prizes in cash is not possible. All the winners will be notified at the end of both offers either via email or letter. Prize claims can't be transfered to other people. The winner has to accept his prize until 30 days after the drawing lots. If he doesn't the claim of the prize expires. Massacre Records GmbH won't give your personal details to third parties. Misprints, mistakes, changes are reserved.
    
 


01.05.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 the slummers
THE SLUMMERS
Love Of The Amateur


CD € 13,90
LP € 19,90
 
the slummers:
JD Foster, Diego Sapignoli, Dan Stuart, Antonio Gramentieri (left to right)
love of the amateur is the slummers' debut record.

The band was started by Dan Stuart and JD Foster after wondering whether they could rediscover their musical innocence. Mr. Stuart was the leader of 80's legends Green On Red and half of Danny & Dusty while Mr. Foster is a sought after producer and sideman (Calexico, Patty Griffin etc.). The album was produced by Antonio Gramentieri who along with percussionist Diego Sapignoli provided instrumental support and inspiration. The songs were written in NYC, recorded in Richmond, Virginia and mixed in Senigallia, Italy. Despite their collective artistic experience, the members insist the slummers are a club of amateurs in spirit and purpose. Gentlemen all, you can take them at their word:

let us now celebrate the amateur, pure of heart and motive, in it only for the experience. here we beckon, come slum with us, downtown and beyond, the love never stops…

Mr. Stuart and Mr. Foster co-wrote the compositions, share vocals and play guitars along with other assorted contraptions. Mr. Gramentieri and Mr. Sapignoli fill in with everything from baritone guitar to vibraphone. The record starts with the Beefheart absurdity of "Rift Valley Evolutionary Blues" and ends with the hopefully plaintive "Waiting For You". The material runs from the Wire inspired "Bread and Water" and Keith meets Nino Rota of "Bowery Boy" to the George Jones purity of "All About You". The most intimate and hair raising track is "Ironbound", one take only, Foster's vocal haunts. Mr. Gramentieri's production touches are eclectic and sublime and suggest a distinct move away from the ho hum ghetto of alt/country Americana whatever. Bravo maestro!

Further notes regarding the slummers:
Past endeavors: Ronnie Lane, Calexico, Vinicio Capossela, Patty Griffin, Danny & Dusty, Lucinda Williams, Marc Ribot, Richmond Fontaine, Richard Buckner, Aidoru, Hugo Race, Damo Suzuki, Green on Red, Dwight Yoakam, Bobby Solo
Denizens of: NYC, Modigliana, Cesena
Previous abodes: Rome, LA, London, Austin, Madrid, Tucson, Sydney
Avocations: badminton, mathematics, dishwashing, lingerie, skiing, coffee, poetry
Never disclosed: fear of locusts, nervous breakdown, loss of spleen, pavor nocturnus

love of the amateur will be available through our webshop now, at fine record stores over Europe in late May.


 
    
NO SHIPPING COSTS for orders at our webshop within Europe in May and June 2010 !!!
    
 


01.05.

VARIOUS ARTISTS
The Blue Rose Rockestra (Blue Rose Christmas Party 2008)


CD € 12,00
2-LP € 27,90		 Actually we had planned to release another multiple disc box of the Blue Rose Christmas Party 2008 but due to several problems it didn't work out this time. The set of The Band Of Heathens was already released on CD, just a few weeks ago the Bottle Rockets told us that they won't get us the permission to releasse their (full) set due to a bad performance. What we had left from the party were the solo sets by Julian Dawson, Tom Gillam, Hank Shizzoe, Chris Cacavas, Todd Thibaud and Joseph Parsons plus the session with the Blue Rose Rockestra. A double CD featuring these performances would have been a not so good idea so we decided to put the solo sets on the Blue Rose Nuggets compilations and to release the Rockestra session as another Official Bootleg edition.

Like the year before the musicians - including Eric "Roscoe" Ambel who should join the Bottle Rockets for their set - met at a restaurant in Hannover the night before the show for a short briefing where all the song ideas were discussed and either put on the set list or thrown away. The next day, right after breakfast, they found them again in a round at the hotel for a first rehearsal, another one was done at the venue in the afternoon. That was it, no more rehearsals. Hardly to believe for the crowd when the Rockestra played their set after the Band of Heathens and the Bottle Rockets had finished their performances. The Rockestra sounded like they did this several times before - loose, no mistakes, no breaks. That's how this kind of musicians work - they only need to know the chords to play classic songs of 40 years rock history. Julian Dawson again was the perfect "musical director" and had everything under control - on stage and backstage. The lead vocals were shared by all the musicians and all the 450 people at the Blues Garage had a blast while listening to "Seven Bridges Road" (Steve Young, Eagles), "Mary Jane's Last Dance" (Tom Petty), "Up On Cripple Creek" (The Band), "Revolution" (Beatles), "Friend Of The Devil" (Grateful Dead), "Wasn't Born To Follow" (Byrds), "Daydream Believer" (Monkees), "Can't Find My Way Home" (Blind Faith), "Willie And The Hand Jive" (Johnny Otis, Eric Clapton), "Bad Moon Rising" (CCR), "I'll Make Love To You Anytime" (JJ Cale), "Das Model" (Kraftwerk), "You Don't Know How It Feels" (Tom Petty), "Spirit In The Sky" (Norman Greenbaum), and "Always On My Mind" (Brenda Lee, Elvis Presley).


01.05.


SUSAN COWSILL
Lighthouse


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 24,90		 Lighthouse, SUSAN COWSILL's second solo album, once again embodies the timeless qualities of heart, soul and craft that are already known to anyone familiar with Cowsill's solo debut Just Believe It. The new album is slated for May 14, 2010 release on Blue Rose Records in Europe.

 
Susan Cowsill @ SXSW 2010
Susan first entered the pop-culture spotlight at the age of eight, as the youngest member of the '60s musical family the Cowsills. In adulthood, as a member of the beloved alt-pop supergroup the Continental Drifters, she reemerged as a vocalist and songwriter of remarkable depth and insight. In 2005, Susan made an inspired solo debut with Just Believe It. But the album's creative triumph was overshadowed by the intrusion of real-life events - namely the deaths of Susan's brothers Billy and Barry, and the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which temporarily displaced Susan and her family from her adopted hometown of New Orleans.

"Lighthouse was written over the last four years during our recovery from Hurricane Katrina," she says. "As you might guess, the songs on this record are pulled from the very deep well of this most life changing experience. Having lost 99.9% of our material and emotional belongings, and one whole human being, my brother Barry Cowsill, there was much to say and feel and express. It has taken all this time to pull ourselves back together to even be able to form comprehensible sentences never mind full on songs."

She adds, "I would say that the music on this record is best described as songs about the loss of a world and a lifetime that no longer exists. It is about the uncertainty of the days, weeks and months that were ahead of us. And at the same time, it is the music of hope and faith and survival. The renewal of our city, our families and most importantly our souls."

The tribulations of the past few years resonate throughout Lighthouse. Cowsill's new songs reflect the hard-won lessons of her recent experiences, while maintaining the unmistakable sense of optimism and spirituality that's always been at the heart of her work. That indomitable spirit is reflected in the infectious grit of such emotionally vivid originals as "ONOLA," "Sweet Bitter End," "The Way That It Goes" and "Avenue of the Indians," which features guest vocals by longtime friend and admirer Jackson Browne.

In addition to Susan's own compositions, Lighthouse includes an impassioned reading of the late Barry Cowsill's "River of Love," which features soaring harmonies by Susan's brothers Bob, Paul and John Cowsill, as well as sister-in-law (and Bangles/Continental Drifters member) Vicki Peterson, and renowned session guitarist Waddy Wachtel, who began his career playing with the Cowsills in the 1960s. Another highlight is a distinctive, stripped-down reworking of the Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb classic "Galveston," which demonstrates Susan's status as a peerless interpretive singer.
Cowsill further explains, "Going through Katrina was most certainly like experiencing a death. The time in between the storm and the making of Lighthouse was the grieving period, and the recording of the music was the funeral, laying it all to rest, saying goodbye, and starting over.

"So here we are, in our new world. And this world is filled with beauty and light and excitement, and the new found knowledge that the present is really all that we have, because everything can change in the blink of an eye . . .hey . . .that sounds like a song comin' on . . . gotta go!"

Lighthouse will be available through our webshop now, at fine record stores over Europe in mid May.


01.05.


RICH HOPKINS & LUMINARIOS
El Otro Lado/The Other Side


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 24,90		 Blue Rose veteran Rich Hopkins is back with a new record and for the first time in over four years even the name Luminarios is back on it. The Luminarios have been around as a trio, quartet, quintet or a casual session with musical friends since 1992; and it's always clearly a Rich Hopkins project, in contrary to the other projects of the desert rock godfather from Tucson, Arizona, like Sidewinders, Sand Rubies, Underbelly, Woodcocks etc., where he shares his lead roll. RICH HOPKINS & LUMINARIOS stand for unconditional guitar rock, true Tucson Rock'n Roll, Byrds-style Psychedelic Pop - electricity on its highest level and genuine power. El Otro Lado/The Other Side certainly isn't any different!

The new Luminarios album is moving in the same direction of the preceding 2006 record The Horse I Rode In On and classics like Dirt Town, El Paso und The Glorious Sounds Of, on the other hand it profits from Hopkins new lifestyle. It's generally known that he found the love of his life, Lisa Novak, who doesn't just care for his happiness and emotional wellbeing but adds herself as an accomplished musician competent and stunningly clear to the usually masculine characterized Hopkins desert cosmos. The joined CD Loveland (Blue Rose, 2008) already showed that and can be heard on El Otro Lado as well, since Novak took the solid place next to the well-tried rhythm guys Ken Andree/Bass und Bruce Halper/Drums (Sidewinders, Sand Rubies). She gets the co-credits as producer and besides two songs as songwriter as well (and we're not thinking of Linda McCartney!), she plays guitar and percussion, and with her dark nasal contralto voice a great addition to the up to now sophisticated Luminarios backing vocals, she even takes on one or the other lead part in fine-tuning with Rich. Any bet, he got influenced by her Americana/pop past with the very unique jingle-jangle twang sound that's noticeable throughout the record like a recurrent theme.

El Otro Lado/The Other Side is about the downside of the American Dream and therefore can definitely be reviewed as a socio-political statement by Rich Hopkins. It is not the first time that the "godfather" of desert rock concerns himself with the people from the Southside of Tucson who fell through many, if not all cracks of a meaningful life and are battling to keep a little piece of dignity. Unemployed, illegal immigrants, Indians torn from their roots, homeless, indebted former middleclass, Mexicans in the ghetto… All these people are customers of the Casa Maria soup kitchen, one of the few social facilities with free meals for the needy, where meanwhile the number of visitors increased dramatically. That's where Amalia Tovar tells her story, taped by Rich and integrated in one of two monumental, essential songs: the 8 ½-minute title track 'El Otro Lado Suite' with an introduction on acoustic Spanish guitar and the Rich Hopkins typical spoken vocals followed by beat down guitar boards, with powerful rhythm section, quaffable choir refrains and sharp, Calexico-atmosphere trumpet boosts from Javier Gamez. Besides there, this trumpet player refines with his concise way of playing the bilingual Cuba Rock 'Guajira' (with sections out of the historical speech from the controversial state leader Batista of the revolutionary pre-Castro era) and 'Better Days', the only semi acoustic ballad with additional arrangements of cello and piano.
The second essential piece is 'Breathe In/Out', a 7-minute slow rocker with multiple, cut and layered, threatening electric guitars, a stoical Crazy Horse beat, glorified vocals and a refrain based on 'Like A Hurricane' - Acid Rock in the Arizona desert. In contrast does the melodic 60s style rock of the opener 'Love Is A Muse' as well as the Neil Young-style 'World On Fire' or the hyper-twangy folk rock of 'Good Intentions' and 'U R Not Alone' (both in the duet style from Loveland!) downright emerge as musical leisure time.

The songwriting quality on El Otro Lado is on such an extraordinary high level and the music so versatile like probably on no other Luminarios record before. Therefore the remaining two tracks have to be mentioned as well since they're in no way inferior to the others - far from it! 'Lou Reed', basically the big Lisa Novak song, on which she can really shine with her brilliant voice and leaves the desire for a new solo record. Almost casually we experience here the two very best Rich Hopkins guitar soli, tight, edged and down to the point, feedback soaked!

"Woke up this morning, it's time to get out of this town, see my luck's turned a little sour these days, I can turn it around..." the concluding 'Land Of Broken Dreams' compresses the lyrical and musical previous 40+ minutes in a thundering grande finale. Starting with the singing and controlled raucous guitars up to the very strong Rich Hopkins vocals, all the way down to the simmering force of the band, it all fits together like controlled by supernatural powers.

El Otro Lado/The Other Side will be available through our webshop now, at fine record stores over Europe in late May.


23.04.

MAILORDER NEWS


TIM EASTON
Live At Water Canyon


CD € 12,90
SPECIAL OFFER!		 Recorded live in 2008, previously only available at live shows. "Water Canyon Coffee Shop doesn't exist anymore and it's too bad because it was one of the few places a troubadour could set up and play for some people around this part of the world- the high desert Joshua Tree, California. Before it closed down, I had the priveledge of playing music there to some great audiences. Luckily, a local recording engineer and owner of a small label(Steve Lester) arranged for me to make some recordings of the shows there and so we have this live album to document that time in my career. The sounds were recorded well, and there's not any espresso machines blasting off in the backround- which is something that's hard to avoid when you record to a live audience in a coffee shop. This group of songs is an extremely accurate example of what I was up to during that time of my troubadouring around the globe." Tim Easton (2010)
MORE NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 15+16/2010



16.04.


AUSTIN COLLINS
Wrong Control


CD € 13,90
LP € 19,90		 Singer/Songwriter/Musician AUSTIN COLLINS and his band the Rainbirds, are set to release their highly anticipated record Wrong Control May 7th, on Blue Rose Records in Europe.
The band returned to the studio with Will Johnson (Centro-matic) to record this past October. The end result - 10 tracks - seven of which were written by Collins, one by lead guitarist Dylan McDougall, and two by drummer Craig Bagby. Collins says that producer Johnson, who's been moonlighting as the drummer for the Monsters Of Folk tour, "brings the grit and pop of a Centro record to our Americana leanings." "We're obviously proud and very pleased with the album."

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Austin Collins & the Rainbirds make American music that would make anyone longing for a Whiskeytown reunion proud. With two previous albums, hundreds of live shows countrywide, a recent contest win, and a record deal with European label Blue Rose Records, the guys have gained considerable momentum and earned a reputation as a dedicated, hardworking band that produces provocative lyrics and catchy tunes.

After their acclaimed 2008 release Roses Are Black, Austin Collins & the Rainbirds set out to forge their own destiny, a decision vindicated by their 2009 win of the Airplay's Direct 2009 All Things Americana award. "It wasn't a glamour contest - they're not taking a waitress who's cute and making her a pop star," Collins said. "We were selected out of 130 entrants. We earned this."

The songs he sings are earnest and heartfelt, hauntingly beautiful in melody and superbly sharp in observance. They are sweetly serious, and they are delicately crafted.

Austin Collins is a bit of a juxtaposition in personality from the songs he so masterfully writes - he's a witty guy who leans more often than not on his keen sense of humor to soak up the few down moments during his shows. He'll make you cry with a song, he'll make you laugh with a joke, and then he'll make you cry again if he feels like it. Jokes are one thing-we all have a friend we can count on for a good laugh. These songs of his, though…

The Houston born, Austin, TX based Collins, whose stellar recording resume includes two critically acclaimed releases (2005's Something Better and 2008's Roses Are Black) has again returned with heart in hand and music in groove. His latest offering, Wrong Control, is by name mysterious and unique, but that's par for Austin's course. He's a writer, after all, and as any good writer will tell you, one mustn't tip ones hand right off the bat. And so, you can't help but wonder exactly what it is that went wrong and exactly what it is that he's trying to control.
First, what went Wrong: Relationships. Attempts to break out. Chances to learn things that are as yet unknown. The drive to find out what else there is in life.
That's not to say these failed launches don't eventually lift off for the cast of characters that wander in and out of Austin's songs. He leaves them (and us) with just enough glimmers of hope, with just the right amount of possibilities, to believe that they might someday break out of the gracefully sketched situations they find themselves in.

Second, the Control: His trademark lonesome, free-ranging vocals. The sparse instrumental arrangements. The ability to get a little heavier, a little grittier when it's called for.
With Centro-Matic's Will Johnson at the production helm, Collins' Rainbirds, consisting of Craig Bagby on drums and Dylan McDougall on guitars, both of whom garner writing credits on the album, manage to match their leading mans' lyrical brushstrokes with musical accompaniment that stays out of its own way-the co-star beside the people living within this collection of songs. They pick and choose their moments with expertise, creating a vast and colorful landscape upon which the drama can unfold.

And as that drama unfolds, you begin to get this feeling: There's just so much Austin Collins and the Rainbirds got right with Wrong Control.

Wrong Control in available through our webshop now, in stores over Europe from early May.


11.04.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 14/2010



10.04.

Clearance! Garage Sale! Sell Out! Whatever you may call it - we went through the racks at our warehouse at picked lots of CDs, LPs and DVDs as we have to make room for new items. Good for our customers since we sell all these articles for a very special price. But be aware - all the numbers are very small, mostly below 5 per title, so don't wait too long. First come first serve!

LPs:
Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy € 8,00
R.E.M. - Accelerate € 15,00
R.E.M. - Best Of € 8,00

DVDs:
Steve Earle - Live At Montreux 2005 € 7,00
R.E.M. - Accelerate € 12,00
Supersuckers - From The Audio/Video Dept: Live In Anaheim € 5,00
>
CDs:
Jackson Browne - Looking East € 5,00
Collective Soul - Collective Soul € 4,00
Robert Cray Band - This Time € 9,00
Double Trouble - Been A Long Time € 4,00
Bob Dylan - Time Out Of Mind € 4,00
Bob Dylan - Love And Theft € 4,00
Bob Dylan - Modern Times € 4,00
Bob Dylan - Christmas In The Heart (Deluxe) € 9,00
Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy € 4,00
Indigo Girls - Poseidon And The Bitter Bug € 9,00
Rickie Lee Jones - Magazine € 4,00
Long Ryders - Three Minute Warnings - Live In New York City € 8,00
Shelby Lynne - Just A Little Lovin' € 5,00
Rhett Miller - Rhett Miller € 8,00
Randy Newman - Harps And Angels € 8,00
Nirvana - MTV Unplugged in New York € 4,00
Nirvana - From The Muddy Banks Of Wishkah € 4,00
Ozark Mountain Daredevils - 13 € 4,00
Radiohead - In Rainbows € 6,00
R.E.M. - Live At The Olympia In Dublin (Deluxe) € 14,00
R.E.M. - And I Feel Fine…The Best Of The I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 € 4,00
R.E.M. - Accelerate € 6,00
Randy Rogers Band - Randy Rogers Band € 8,00
Ricky Skaggs - Salt Of The Earth € 5,00
Todd Snider - The Excitement Plan € 8,00
Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions € 5,00
Starsailor - Love Is Here € 4,00
Matthew Sweet - Blue Sky On Mars € 4,00
Various Artists - Blood On The Highway/The Ken Hensley Story € 4,00
The Verve - Fourth € 7,00
Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac (Deluxe) € 14,00
The Who - Endless Wire € 3,00
Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun € 5,00
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black € 4,00
Neil Young - Archives 1 (10-CD-Edition) € 150,00
Neil Young - Archives 1 (10-Blu Ray-Edition) € 190,00


04.04.



April 2010

1. John Hiatt - The Open Road
2. Otis Gibbs - Joe Hill's Ashes
3. Matt Harlan - Tips & Compliments
4. Zoe Muth - Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers
5. Krista Detor - Chocolate Paper Suites
6. JW Roy - Weet het Zeker
7. The Chieftains & Ry Cooder - San Patricio
8. Drive By Truckers - The Big To Do
9. Eric Bibb - Booker's Guitar
10. The Steel Wheels - Red Wing
11. Jason & the Scorchers - Halcyon Times
12. Mark Erelli - Little Vigils
13. Kasey Anderson - Nowhere Nights
14. The Coal Porters - Durango
15. Johnny Cash - Ain't No Grave
16. Tim Grimm - Farm Songs
17. Allison Moorer - Crows
18. David Olney - Dutchman’s Curve
19. Tori Sparks - The Scorpion in the Story
20. Becky Schlegel - Dandelion
21. Over Mountain Men - Glorious Day
22. Mumford& Sons - Sigh No More
23. Sleepy Driver - Steady Now
24. Meg Hutchinson - The Living Side
25. Patty Larkin - 25


02.04.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 13/2010



02.04.


RAINRAVENS
Rattle These Walls


CD+DVD € 16,90
2-LP+DVD € 27,90
It took six years until Garden Rocket, the latest album by one of the first acts on Blue Rose, the RAINRAVENS, was released in January 2007. After many line-up changes the driving forces of the band from Austin, Texas, Andy van Dyke and David Ducharme-Jones, got together again and presented all new material.

With the release of the fifth studio album there was a plan to come back to Germany for an extensive tour what eventually became reality in October 2008. 18 shows were on the schedule, two of them co-billing with The Brandos from New York City in Nuremberg and at the Rockpalast/Crossroads festival at the "Harmonie" in former German Capital Bonn. Crossroads is a cooperation of the venue and WDR-Rockpalast, one of the less TV stations in Europe and probably in the world which is broadcasting not only live shows by mega acts but also give smaller artists and bands the chance for a nationwide live presentation through German TV channels WDR and 3sat.

On October 20, 2007 the Rainravens opened the third night of the concert series and played an impressive 75 minute set which is finally available now in full length and re-mixed and re-mastered by guitarist David Ducharme-Jones himself. Many people in the audience voted the performance for one of the best shows of the whole 4-day festival. The four-piece with original bass player David Evertson and the new drummer Rob Lee got infected by the enthusiastic audience and played a terrific 16-song set which included tracks from the latest album Garden Rocket like "Ruby", "Earth Rolls Over", "Dragonfly" or "A Beautiful One" plus songs from previous albums as "Last One Through The Door", "Dead Horse", "Rainravens 115th Dream or Welcome To Nashville" and "Wandering Heart" , taken from the second album Diamond Blur, and "Long Cold Summer", "Put Your Hand On The Radio" or "Rose Of Jericho" of the so-called album from 1999.

Like all the Blue Rose releases of the Rockpalast/ Crossroads series (Brandos, Cracker) the show of the Rainravens is available as a CD+DVD combo set.


11.03.

MAILORDER NEWS


DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS
The Big To-Do


CD € 14,50		 The Big To-Do, debut release for the band's new label ATO Records, features thirteen new tracks from the Drive-By Truckers and was produced by their long time producer, David Barbe (Sugar, Bettye LaVette). 'It s very much a rock album,' says Patterson Hood of the Trucker's new release. 'Very melodic and more rocking than anything we ve done since disc 2 of Southern Rock Opera.'

Hood and Mike Cooley continue to be the chief songwriters of the group, continuing a musical partnership that has lasted over twentythree years. Bassist Shonna Tucker flexes her songwriting muscles once again by contributing two original songs to the album. Brad Morgan (drums), John Neff (guitar/pedal steel) and Jay Gonzalez (keyboards) round out the current Drive-By Truckers lineup.



11.03

MAILORDER NEWS

SPECIAL OFFER


JOE BONAMASSA
Black Rock


CD € 13,90
Ltd.CD € 14,90
LP € 14,90
OUT: 19.03.		 Now available for presale - the new studio album by JOE BONAMASSA for a discount price (valid through March 31, 2010)! Orders will be dispatched at the release date (March 19).

Just awarded the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award at the U.K.’s prestigious Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards, bluesrock guitar hero and singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa is set to release his tenth full-length solo album, Black Rock, on March 19, 2010. This album was recorded at, and named for, Black Rock Studios in Santorini, Greece. “With this album, we wanted to explore a ‘world’ feeling, and this was the inspiration behind going to record in Greece and using some of the best Greek musicians to add a little flavor to a couple of the tracks. But it’s by no means a ‘world’ album. We wanted Joe’s usual youthful and energetic tones to play alongside the worldly vibes of the Greek bouzouki and clarino,” said producer Kevin Shirley. Bonamassa says, “It was the kind of record Kevin and I wanted to make. We needed to rock again a bit like on my first album. I wrote the whole thing there.” Also Joe signed up Blues legend B.B. King for a duet on his new album. The song they perform together is a rendition of the Willie Nelson-penned song, “Night Life,” which appeared on King’s 1967 album BLUES IS KING. Shirley says about the experience, “This is a rollicking Stonesy-vibe version of the Willie Nelson song on which B.B. King duets with Joe, both vocally and on his famous Lucille guitar. What a joy and an honor to work with the legend who is possibly the pivot point and unifying musician between Blues and Rock.”
Other tracks appearing on Black Rock include Jeff Beck’s “Spanish Boots,” Leonard Cohen’s poetic “Bird On A Wire,” Otis Rush’s “Three Times A Fool,” Bobby Parker’s “Steal Your Heart Away,” Blind Boy Fuller’s “Baby, You Gotta Change Your Mind,” John Hiatt’s “I Know A Place,” and James Clark’s “Look Over Yonders Wall,” as well as the originals “When The Fire Hits The Sea,” “Quarryman's Lament,” “Wandering Earth,” “Athens To Athens,” and “Blue and Evil.”

The limited edition comes in a digibook with a 32-page booklet!
The release of the new album Black Rock gives us the opportunity to offer Joe Bonamassa's backcatalog - for a special price, of course!



28.02.


JULIAN DAWSON
Live


2-CD+DVD € 19,90
3-LP+DVD € 30,90
For JULIAN DAWSON 2008 was a typically busy year. Alongside a few dozen well-placed gigs around Europe, he put the final touches to a biography of keyboard legend Nicky Hopkins, overhauled his website and gave an unusual degree of attention to the recording of his brand new album Deep Rain. The CD release of which was supported by a tour.

This, in itself, is not particularly unusual, since live shows are the ‘bread and butter’ of his daily working life, either playing on his own or accompanied by a second guitarist such as Richard Kennedy or, more recently, German virtuoso Uli Kringler.
It was already clear during the Deep Rain sessions that the next tour should be undertaken with a full band. "It had been almost ten years since my last band touring, but coming back from recording Deep Rain in Nashville, I felt the time was right to do it again. Uli Kringler put me in touch with American bassist Fontaine Burnett, who came to Europe with Chaka Khan, and with David Mette, who had been touring with German singer Laith Al-Deen. It was immediately apparent to all of us during rehearsals that we had found a wonderful musical as well as personal connection to one another. We had immense fun on our all-too-short run of dates and swore to do it again at the earliest opportunity. Smiling and contented faces in the audience confirmed our good feelings," recalled Julian Dawson.

Both Blue Rose and Julian himself were keen to preserve the band’s performance on film and CD and a night at Frankfurt's "Sinkkasten" was chosen. With a few shows already under its belt, the combo was by now a well-oiled machine and the sound and lights at the venue lent themselves to a live recording. Julian later observed that the midweek audience may not have been the biggest attendance of the tour, but that those present were incredibly supportive and enthusiastic and the energy coming offstage was certainly captured on tape. "I really enjoyed testing out the new songs live and my older material gained a completely new lease of life with this wonderful line-up."

Songs from Deep Rain such as "That’s Why God Made Saturday Night", "Girl Friday", "Walking On The Dead", "Keys To The Kingdom Of Love" and the album’s title song were worked in to a twenty-one song set alongside well-known Dawson "oldies" such as "We’ve Been Through Fire", "Uneasy Rider", "How Come You Love Me", "How Can I Sleep Without You" and even the ‘80s anthem "Luckiest Man In The Western World".

The 3-disc set, simply titled Live, comes in an attractive six-page digipak, containing 20 songs on two audio CDs and a matching DVD, with added bonus track ‘Perfect World’.

Live will be available through our webshop from March 10.


28.02.

New on midprice (€ 8,90 except The Brandos € 13,90):
THE BAND OF HEATHENS - The Band Of Heathens (CD)
THE BASEBALL PROJECT - Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails (CD)
BLUE MOUNTAIN - Omnibus (CD)
BLUE MOUNTAIN - Midnight In Mississippi (CD)
RANDALL BRAMBLETT - Now It's Tomorrow (CD)
THE BRANDOS - Town To Town, Sun To Sun - Live in Germany 2007 (2-CD+DVD)
GOV'T MULE - High & Mighty (CD)
BEN LEE - The Rebirth Of Venus (CD)
JAMES McMURTRY - Just Us Kids (CD)
ELLIOTT MURPHY - Notes From The Underground (CD)
SCRAPPY JUD NEWCOMB - Ride The High Country (CD)
OLD 97s - Blame It On Gravity (CD)
MARK OLSON & GARY LOURIS - Ready For The Flood (CD)
MARKUS RILL - The Things That Count (CD)
SCOTT WEILAND - Happy In Galoshes (2-CD)
JORDAN ZEVON - Insides Out (CD)

New on budget price (€ 4,90):
IAIN MATTHEWS - Sparkler - Best Of The Texas Recordings 1989-2004 (2-CD)
SAND RUBIES - Mas Cuacha
WRINKLE NECK MULES - The Wicks Have Met


28.02.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW ARRIVALS WEEK 7+8/2010



26.02.


JOHN HIATT
The Open Road


CD € 13,90
Looking at life through the rearview mirror was the inspiration for JOHN HIATT's's brand new album, The Open Road, due out March 1, 2010 via Blue Rose/New West Records. The legendary songwriter's 19th studio album is classic Hiatt, picking up the tempo and returning to rock following his previous critically acclaimed Same Old Man. Backed by his touring band, (Kenny Blevins on drums, Patrick O'Hearn on bass and Doug Lancio on guitars), the songs are inspired by life on the road, without looking back. "All the other years, my songs are about coming home," Hiatt says. But within these 11 new songs, home is never the destination.

Hiatt has written songs covered by a multitude of artists in a wide variety of genres including Bob Dylan, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Jewel and Bonnie Raitt, who most famously recorded "Thing Called Love." On The Open Road he showcases both his lyrical and musical talent with his blues driven, rock songs including the title track and "Haulin'." Hiatt produced The Open Road himself after recording with his band in his garage-turned-studio.


26.02.


KASEY ANDERSON
Nowhere Nights


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 16,50		 Singer-songwriter KASEY ANDERSON releases Nowhere Nights, the most intimate music of his career.

The album marks a distinct shift in the direction of Anderson's songwriting. Built upon the artist's most personal set of compositions to date, Nowhere Nights is defined by Anderson as "equal parts charge, benediction, apology and indictment."

Anderson's fourth album was inspired by a burning need to make drastic changes in his living situation and personal relationships. Its 11 songs, conveyed with grace and gravity, are about "the things people carry and the things they leave behind," Anderson says.

Produced by Americana top producer Eric "Roscoe" Ambel (Bottle Rockets, Nils Lofgren), Nowhere Nights finds Anderson turning his gaze inward, laying out in song the circumstances behind, and the reasons for, his personal renewal. "For almost a decade I lived in an insulated little community," Anderson says. "I woke up one morning and knew it was time. I was numb all over. I had to get out." Relocating to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, Anderson began crafting the songs that would comprise the new album. Assisted by his touring band - guitarist Dan Lowinger, bassist Bo Stewart, drummer Julian MacDonough and keyboardist Lewi Longmire, as well as Ambel on keys and guitar - Anderson wrote songs that, he says, "take an honest look at where I had been, where I was, and where I was going."

Among the highlights of Nowhere Nights is its lead-off track, "Bellingham Blues," in which Anderson repeatedly states the phrase "This ain't never been my home," then goes on to explain why. Other key tracks include the scorching "Torn Apart," which Anderson calls "the most literal song I've ever written," and "All Lit Up," a "real sweet little lust song," in Anderson's words, that places a razor-sharp guitar and Anderson's grainy vocals front and center. But perhaps the most chilling song Anderson has ever written is "I Was A Photograph," inspired by Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, a soldier whose stoic visage, photographed by Luis Sinco, became one of the iconic images of the Iraq war. Although the track was not born of Anderson's personal experiences, it seems right at home among 10 tales of Anderson's own soul-searching and self-examination.

"I was long overdue for a personal inventory," says Anderson about Nowhere Nights. "The fact that I ended up writing a record about it was great, but it was secondary. It was a product of the personal work I needed to do."

Nowhere Nights will be available through our webshop on March 1st and in fine record stores all over Europe in mid March, 2010.


30.01.

We wanted to know your favorite TOP 10 albums of the year 2009!

The week before Christmas 2009 we started a survey asking Blue Rose friends and customers for their TOP 10 albums of 2009. This survey was not limited to Blue Rose records and here is the result:

1. The Band Of Heathens - One Foot In The Ether
2. Wilco - The Album
3. Todd Thibaud - Broken
4. Sons Of Bill - One Town Away
5. Black Crowes - Before The Frost/Until The Freeze
6. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
7. Tom Gillam - Had Enough?
8. Gov't Mule - By A Thread
9. Chris Cacavas - Love's Been Discontinued
10. Steve Earle - Townes
11. Ad Vanderveen - Faithful To Love
12. Bottle Rockets - Lean Forward
13. Lucero - 1372 Overton Park
14. Cross Canadian Ragweed - Happiness And All The Other Things
14. U2 - No Line On The Horizon
16. Will Hoge - The Wreckage
16. Mark Knopfler - Get Lucky
16. Monsters Of Folk - Monsters Of Folk
19. Derek Trucks Band - Already Free
20. Blue Rodeo - The Things We Left Behind

Five gift certificates worth of € 10,00 each for items of our webshop go to:
Gudrun Bodenstein
Markus Baran
Wolfgang Uka
Wolfgang List
Oliver Thomas

Congratulations to all the winners! The next 15th anniversary raffle is gonna follow very soon - and what a great one!!!


30.01.

MAILORDER NEWS

NEW RELEASES week 4/2010 plus more current arrivals at the General Store



26.01.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 RECKLESS KELLY
RECKLESS KELLY
Somewhere In Time


CD € 13,90
LP+CD
€ 19,90
 These are very good times for RECKLESS KELLY. With the release of Bulletproof in 2008, the Austin-based roots-rockers known for the integrity of their musical approach, the hard-core energy of their live shows and the fierce loyalty of their fans, turned up the intensity on their career. The album quickly became their biggest seller, hitting the Billboard 200 and reaching the Top 25 of the magazine's Top Country Albums chart. It contained their first #1 on both the Texas and Americana charts, "Ragged as the Road," and earned them a nomination as Best Band or Duo at the 2009 Americana Music Awards, a show that put them on stage with the country's best at the Ryman Auditorium. It also contained "American Blood" and "God Forsaken Town," widely regarded songs that link them to a working-class tradition of socially conscious music that stretches from Woody Guthrie to Bruce Springsteen.


The fact that "God Forsaken Town" was written by Reckless Kelly singer/songwriter Willy Braun with Robert Earl Keen is symbolic of the fact that the band's standing among its peers has never been higher. The respect they've earned from everyone from Steve Earle to Kevin Welch can be summarized by Joe Ely, who called them "my kind of band: hell-raising, hard-playing, kick-ass songwriting, feet firmly in the present, but with an amazing knowledge of where it has all come from."
It is praise that reverberates especially well in the context of their latest work. With new album Somewhere in Time, the band digs deep into its roots, revisiting the music of Pinto Bennett, who with his band the Famous Motel Cowboys influenced a generation of musicians in the Northwest and served as a mentor and idol to Willy and his brother Cody, whose fiddle, mandolin, harmonica and vocal work help propel Reckless Kelly. In the company of their bandmates, David Abeyta on lead guitar and lap steel, Jay Nazz on drums, and Chris Schelske on bass, they explore their country influences and re-introduce Bennett's music to a new generation of fans while placing their indelible, rock-edged stamp on it.
"While this is Pinto's material, this is very much a Reckless Kelly record. It's simply a bunch of great songs we thought people should hear," explains Cody." A lot of Texas bands have been pushing country more toward rock," says Jay, "but to go back to playing real country music turned out to be extremely rewarding for us as a band." "It's not too far a departure from what we've done in the past," adds Willy, "but it reminds me of the old days when we were playing four sets a night, doing a lot more honky-tonk stuff, playing the real dance halls."
Highlights include "You Cared Enough to Lie," a honky-tonk masterpiece tailor made for the stage, the tragedy of "The Ballad of Elano DeLeon" and "Some People's Kids," which updates the kind of rock/country hybrid explored on the West Coast beginning in the late '60s. Instrumentally, the project kicks up the classic country flourishes--there is steel guitar on seven tracks--but that in-the-pocket rhythm section, Cody's fiddle and mandolin, the crisp guitars and raw energy are all pure Reckless Kelly.
Much in the way that Waylon Jennings found his narrative voice through the words and songs of Billy Joe Shaver on the classic album Honky Tonk Heroes, Somewhere in Time finds Reckless Kelly using Bennett's songs as a tool to elucidate another aspect of their true artistic identity.
Bennett himself joined the band in the studio for two tracks ("He did 'em in one take," says Willy), as did former Bennett cohorts like guitarist Sergio Webb, guitarist/engineer Rob Matson, and Teddy Ray Jones, who joined Cody for some twin fiddle work. "Even though it's a little different from our other albums," says Jay, "it never felt forced, or outside our comfort zone. It always felt pretty natural, and I think you can hear that."

The project is the perfect gateway to understanding the life and music that have been inextricably bound since Cody and Willy Braun's boyhood near Challis, Idaho. Their grandfather, Musty Braun, passed his love of music to their father, Muzzie, whose western swing band eventually included Willy, Cody, and their brothers Micky and Gary.
"Our mother was the only person in the family that didn't play anything," Willy says, and she served as the band's road manager. The family act played everywhere from the Grand Ole Opry to The Tonight Show. By their teens, the Braun brothers were bringing a host of other influences to their music, and as they formed their own band they drew on the practical wisdom that existed in the very lives of their father and his friends. "They showed us you could make records on your own," says Cody. "You didn't have to have a label. You could make your own records and T-shirts, hire a publicist and do everything on your own. It's how we started, knowing we could make a living doing it."
After a period in the Northwest, they settled in Austin, whose artist-friendly atmosphere and egalitarian club scene proved to be the most fertile possible soil. "The college kids and the party scene helped amplify everything," says Cody. "The live show came around to a real party atmosphere, just having fun and getting people to whoop it up."
Their 1998 debut, Millican, brought the twang, the energy and the hooks together earning them four Austin Music Awards for Best Roots Rock act. Each new record swelled their fan base and widened their geographic impact. "With every new album," says Willy, "we've exceeded the sales of the last one, and every time we go into the studio we try to raise the bar on production and the quality of songs. And each time a few more radio stations play our music and more people come to shows."
With their increased visibility has come the opportunity to give back and 2009 saw the group's first Celebrity Softball Jam raise $30,000 for Austin charities. They have also, in addition to appearances at military base benefits, launched Reckless Soldiers, using their website to help military personnel connect with family, friends and supporters.

Whether it's their dedication to charity work, playing live or the art of writing a timeless tune, Reckless Kelly is tireless in their pursuit of excellence. It's this attitude and their near legendary propensity for a good time that ensures their success as artists. The Somewhere in Time project is no exception. "I think this time," adds Willy, "we did again what we always set out to do, which is to make a record we can be proud of."

Somewhere In Time will be available through our webshop and in fine record stores all over Europe on February 5, 2010.




26.01.

It took a while. Well - it took three years. Rome wasn't built in a day, so maybe that's an excuse. Our 15th anniversary was the reason to get the ball finally rolling and to launch Blue Rose at MySpace! Toast! It's done - we are online! Blue Rose has an working MySpace site: www.myspace.com/blueroserecords. We are looking forward to any visit and "added" friend. Don't be shy - join us!


24.01.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 JASON & THE SCORCHERS
JASON & THE SCORCHERS
Halcyon Times


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 22,90
 With the release of Halcyon Times, JASON & THE SCORCHERS have accomplished an extremely rare feat: almost 30 years into their career they havmade a rock 'n' roll record every bit as dynamic and mind-blowing as their vintage work. Very few rock bands can make this claim. Jason & The Scorchers can, they should, and they do.

The band's story essentially starts in the late 1970s. Warner E. Hodges, the son of country musicians Blanche and Ed Hodges, was living in Nashville after his dad's retirement from the military. Warner had played drums as a boy for his parents' USO bands. He knew country music inside out. However, as a teenage rebel, he got hooked on early AC/DC and the first wave of punk rockers, waving that flag with high-decibel pride. In Nashville's schmaltzy country pop atmosphere of that time, he stood out like a pig in a perfume shop. He played in punk and rock bands with his friends Perry Baggs and Jeff Johnson, two other tough street rockers in a genteel Southern town. They made a lot of noise but were essentially ignored outside of Nashville's tiny rock community.


That all changed July 4, 1981, when a skinny, fresh-faced farm boy arrived in Nashville like thousands before him: with nothing but a van filled with music equipment and a heart filled with dreams. Jason Ringenberg really was the son of an Illinois hog farmer, and he really did grow up walking the Rock Island Line railroad tracks that bordered their farm. He played in country and psychobilly bands like Shakespeare's Riot and The Catalinas in Illinois, but felt compelled to move to Nashville, that Mecca that eventually draws in all dreamers. His vision was to combine traditional American roots music, especially country, with a modern punk rock energy and ethos. Little did he know just how dramatically that vision would be realized.

As fate would have it, he got an apartment behind Cantrell's, Nashville's only club that allowed punk rockers through the door at that time. Immediately he met Jack Emerson, then a Vanderbilt college student. Ringenberg explained his vision to Emerson, who instantly committed to this earnest Young man's idea, offering to play bass and to help put a band together. In two weeks they did just that, christening the band Jason & The Nashville Scorchers. With Emerson on bass, a law student on guitar, and a Sex Pistols tribute singer on drums, they found impressive gigs from the start. Their first was opening for Carl Perkins, their second opening for a young Athens band named R.E.M.

That version of Jason & The Nashville Scorchers was absolutely horrible, but Hodges and Johnson came to one of the shows and sensed a kindred spirit in Ringenberg. When that first band fell apart, Johnson offered to take up the bass, and Hodges joined on guitar. (Emerson moved over to manager duties, eventually going on to become a major music executive in the Americana world.) Hodges then brought in his high school buddy Baggs and the epic band was born, playing its first show on New Years Eve 1981. In a matter of weeks the pioneers were packing rooms around Nashville and had released their first 45, the four-song Reckless Country Soul EP on Emerson's Praxis label. Many point to this as the first true cowpunk/alt-country record in music history. After its release the band traveled the country relentlessly in Ringenberg's 1971 decrepit Econoline, assaulting any stage that would carry them.

Jason & The Scorchers' shows revolutionized the way people thought of rock 'n' roll and country music. Lives were changed. This was 1982, a time when playing a country song while wearing a Mohawk or shaved head could land the performer in the hospital. No one ever went away from a Scorchers show without having strong opinions about it. People either wanted to feed them or fight them, and both extremes happened regularly. There was something radically holy about what they did, maintaining the integrity of country while attacking the music with an energy equal to the wildest punk rock bands. R.E.M became huge fans and the bands toured together. People as disparate as Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols, Bill Wyman of The Stones, or Bill Golden from The Oak Ridge Boys came to their shows. The Nashville Scorchers would play The Bluegrass Inn one night and then open for Circle Jerks the next. Everything raced ahead at breakneck speed. In 1983 they released their landmark record Fervor, a six-song EP that "rewrote the history of rock 'n' roll in the South" (Jimmy Guterman in Rolling Stone). The record earned them EP of the Year in The Village Voice and The New York Times. Folks began to take those crazed hillbillies seriously.

After a 1983 California run of dates, a major label bidding war erupted over the band, and they chose Capitol/EMI as their home. Fervor was reissued with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie" in January 1984, and the band went to Europe, performing to explosive crowds. One writer from the UK's prestigious New Musical Express called their Marquee show "one of the Top Five gigs of all time." Their classic Lost And Found followed in 1985. The songwriting in the band had matured, and the roadwork had honed the band's musicianship to a new high. Yes, Hodges, Johnson and Baggs were street guys, punk rockers, and Ringenberg was straight off the farm, but their playing was incendiary. They were from Music City, by God! Hodges was being talked about as a rock savior, a true guitar hero in the classic old school mold of Keef and Angus, but with country chops to sweeten the bravado. "White Lies", co-written by drummer Baggs, got on MTV. Folks were beginning to say they were the best band on the planet, the "Next Big Thing."

The glory, warranted as it was, turned out to be fleeting. Rock 'n' roll excess, record company problems, and corporate radio's resistance to the band began to drain the magic. Still Standing came out in 1986 to very mixed reviews, very little airplay, and a broken buzz. Johnson left the band in mid-1987 and the band was redlined by EMI.

Hodges, Ringenberg, and Baggs gamely struggled on, putting together a five-piece rock band with Ken Fox on bass and future super sideman Andy York on utility instruments and second guitar. They landed a deal with A&M and released Thunder And Fire in late 1989, after spending two years writing and recording it. The record was the band's worst seller of the decade. To put nails in the coffin, Baggs developed severe diabetes while they toured with Bob Dylan. A&M unceremoniously dropped the band, after which Hodges called up Ringenberg to say he couldn't go on with it, and that the band should call it quits. Ringenberg didn't argue. Everyone parted ways, but interestingly there was little bitterness between them, an amazing thing considering all they had been through.

Three years later, Johnson floated the idea of reuniting the original band for a tour. He talked Hodges and Ringenberg into it, and they hit the road again in early 1993. At that time the "alternative country" was the New Cool Thing. Bands like Wilco, Son Volt, and The Bottle Rockets were having respectable commercial success, whilst acknowledging JATS as the pioneers and groundbreakers of the movement. The Country Music Hall of Fame included a permanent exhibit of the band in 1994. Folks were talking about them again, and venues were filling up. They signed with Mammoth and proceeded to have another productive run in the '90s, releasing A Blazing Grace (1995), Clear Impetuous Morning (1996), and Midnight Roads And Stages Seen (1998). Midnight Roads had Kenny Ames performing admirably on bass, after Johnson departed in 1996 on amicable terms to pursue his film making dream, permanently leaving the music business.

At the start of the new millennium, the band was comfortably doing occasional shows, although there was no drive to record new material. JATS suffered a significant blow in 2003 when Baggs decided to leave the band for health reasons and to pursue his solo persona. Ringenberg was stunned: "With both Perry and Jeff gone, I had no stomach for it anymore. I felt that we were milking the legacy, a shadow of our past. I was just waiting for a good excuse to retire JATS." For the next few years the band would do an odd show here and there, with Fenner Castner doing a heroic job filling in for Baggs, but JATS was slowly fading to gray. Hodges joined Dan Baird's Homemade Sin and did some solo work, whilst Ringenberg hit a seam as kid's music star Farmer Jason.

Hodges, to his eternal credit, kept the band from folding. "I don't know if it was 'keeping the band alive' as much as feeling like we still had something to say," he said. "I still felt all these years later, that we had a great record in us. JATS just wasn't over, in my head. I felt we had a bunch more music in us."

As Hodges was expanding his musicial network, playing with Homemade Sin and The Stacie Collins Band, he quietly began laying the groundwork for a new record and band. When Ames left the band in early 2008, Hodges worked in Al Collins, bassist and band leader of the Stacie Collins Band. The new bassist turned out to be perfect for them. In Hodges' words, "I asked Al to join the band because he 'got' the older records, and knew JATS' place in music history. He is also the easiest guy in the world to get along with, on top of the fact he's a monster bass player." They toured Europe in May 2008, this time with Swedish musician Pontus Snibb on drums. The new Snibb/Collins rhythm section turned out to be a godsend, giving the band a dramatic new energy and rock solid groove. The tour was an unabashed success, and the mojo was rolling off the stage once more.

That summer the Americana Music Association bestowed upon the band its 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance, further stoking the buzz. Momentum grew, with more good fortune coming their way. One day at lunch, Ringenberg and JATS manager Deb Whittington determined that economically there was no way they could afford to cut a record. As they were leaving the restaurant to tell Hodges that the dream was over, they ran into the Music Producers Institute's founder Steve Fishell, who on the spot offered to give them studio time in return for allowing people to attend the sessions. In a moment, destiny did a 180-degree turn. Immediately songs fell out of the sky at an astounding rate. They started writing in December and by late February the songs were finished. In one week they wrote ten songs, with Tommy Womack, Ginger from The Wildhearts, and Dan Baird all camping out at Hodges' home to help the cause. Friends came out of the woodwork to lend a hand. Baird volunteered to play rhythm guitar so Hodges and Ringenberg could "do their thing." The band went into the studio in early April, filled with fire and hope. Brad Jones co-produced the record with Hodges. For the first time in their history, Jason and the Scorchers recorded the basic tracks live in the studio, with real folks actually watching and contributing to the vibe.

The resulting album, Halcyon Times, speaks for itself. This record is no "return to their roots." It is instead a creative leap forward, showing the band at its peak, not on some sort of self-absorbed nostalgia trip. "Moonshine Guy" opens the record, full of bravado and bravery, driven by a character who "yells and he roars / likes The Stones, hates the Doors." Whilst "Mona Lee" is certainly as exciting as anything the band has ever recorded, but it's hard to pick a standout track on the record - they are all that strong. Hodges' guitar work has never been better, full of style and inspired originality, while Ringenberg rocks like he is still 18, leaping off the edge of the world, laughing while doing it. Snibb and Collins supply that elusive, magic rock 'n' roll groove, full of energy but grounded in confident unhurried power. Brad Jones, no stranger to the studio, says of Snibb, "Pontus might be the best rock 'n' roll drummer I have ever worked with." However, like all classic rock records, Halcyon Times has more than enough moments of sublime grace to balance out the hormones. Listen to the 12-string guitar on "Land Of The Free". It's like stepping into a Steinbeck novel. Or put on headphones and let "Mother Of Greed" take you down a road that winds from northern Wales in 1910 to Birmingham, Alabama, in 2009, the protagonists careening from one set of "arms of need" into another. It's that kind of song, literary without being pretentious. In terms of production, it's hard to imagine a better team than Hodges and Brad Jones. They succeeded in making a JATS record that captures the live energy of the band, with enough added ear candy to keep you coming back for repeated listens. This release almost demands multiple listening experiences; there is so much to take in.

Fourteen songs deep, covering a staggering range of emotions and style, Halcyon Times shows Jason & The Scorchers not only celebrating thirty years of creating music, but still expanding that creative envelope, still in command of their legacy. You can bet your life that in concert they will deliver with equal majesty. Catch their shows as they continue to find themselves out on that Lost Highway.

The CD version of Halcyon Times is available through our webshop now - double vinyl (incl. bonus track "Heaven Won't Wait"!) and as download, whoever prefers this for the outstanding packaging (CD in a digipak with a 20 page booklet, vinyl on 180g in a gatefold cover), available from February 19.


06.01.


CRACKER
Live At The Rockpalast/
Crossroads Festival


2-CD+DVD
€ 19,90
2-LP+DVD
€ 27,90
 
Pic: Reinhard Näkel
It took several attempts until it finally worked out in October 2009. CRACKER had to cancel their appearance at the popular German TV show "Crossroads" in Bonn twice and it looked like it will never happen. Just a few months earlier the band from Richmond, Virginia toured Germany where the first connections had been made between Blue Rose and this fantastic four piece. Cracker is an American guitar rock institution who had started back in 1992 and - including a few breaks - still exists until today. Mastermind David Lowery and his "deputy" Johnny Hickman are the main guys in Cracker with the fantastic rhythm section featuring Sal Maida on bass and Frank Funaro on drums.

Before the latest studio album Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey was released a few more live dates in Germany had been added, and on October 23 the quartet performed at the semi-annual 4-day "Crossroads" festival series, a cooperation of WDR-TV "Rockpalast" in Cologne and the venue "Harmonie" in former German Capital Bonn. The 90 minute set contained songs from the then unreleased album Sunrise... like "Turn On Tune In Drop Out", the title track or "Show Me How This Thing Works", plus most of their "classics" as „Teen Angst“, „The World Is Mine“, „Euro-Trash Girl“, „Big Dipper“, „One Fine Day“, „The Riverside“ or „Seven Days“. 17 songs included this powerful set which is finally available in its entirety on a 2-CD+DVD set. Especially the compressed TV sound now comes like an explosion out of the speakers. There are hardly DVDs of Cracker available, this one for sure will last as a one-of-a-kind package for a very long time. Thanks to David Lowery and Johnny Hickman for their permission to put this set out!



01.01.


HANK SHIZZOE
Breather


CD € 13,90
LP+CD € 17,90
Blue Rose Records presents HANK SHIZZOE's new studio album Breather. It is his eleventh album since 1994. Expect cool songs, deep slide guitar playing, fat grooves, foot-stompers, finger-snappers, vocals in three different languages and a voice that keeps getting better and better.

Breather features 12 brand new studio tracks, eight of which are original works. The covers show the wide range of material Hank is interested in: First we have Adriano Celentano's "Svalutation", originally recorded in 1976. It is a song about economic crisis seen from an Average Joe perspective. The lyrics could have been written last week… This boisterous cover version is the first time Hank sings in Italian. As if that wasn't enough there is also a french song on Breather: Jacques Dutronc's "Et moi, et moi, et moi" (1966) features deadpan lyrics delivered over a dry no-frills beat. Hank has performed this song regularly during his solo tours in 2008 and 2009. The third cover version makes the jump over the big water and heads to California where the ever so eccentric David Lindley wrote about the changing anatomy of male humans in their fifties. "When A Guy Gets Boobs" mixes witty and funny lyrics with a mean, lowdown dirty boogie beat and plenty of wicked slide guitar playing. Finally we have "One Cup Of Coffee And A Cigarette" by the obscure rockabilly singer Jerry Irby. Hank found this song in an episode of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour and immediately knew he had to cover it, "because it's a fun song and a healthy statement in a time when health obsession becomes the new religion."

The album's opener "Two Ways Of Running" mixes malian rhythm influences with a sufi poem by Jelaluddin Rumi. The song also features one of Hank's best performances on slide guitar ever recorded. "Shaker", the album's only "proper" ballad benefits from a fantastic duet vocal by irish singer Shirley Grimes. "Recession Blues" and "Safe New World" are comments on the western world's obsession with technology and the so called new economy - "and you can tap your foot to those tunes, too", Hank adds wryly. "Only In America" was written around the time of Michael Jackson's death in 2009. Hank comments: "The coverage in the media was just stunningly dumb. Journalists interviewing each other and asking themselves how the mood of the people in the street was, a revolting spectacle. Meanwhile a golden casket was on display in an arena in Los Angeles, televised live. In those days there was also the famous press conference where Sarah Palin stepped down as Governor of Alaska. It was a dadaistic performance. I kept thinking that it was really sad to witness what this great country has come to be, where millions of people believe in a person who is so obviously out of her f***ing mind." "Not In Vain" finds Hank digging up his blues roots. "I Still Want You" is a stompin' rocker that speaks for itself and features another fine slide guitar performance. "Split The Loot" started out as a hawaiian lap steel ditty and there was no need to change the mood of that tune when going into the studio.
Hank Shizzoe produced, sang and played all the guitar parts on Breather as well as banjo, bouzouki, lap steels, piano and "lots of organ hooks." Long time companions Michel Poffet and Christoph Beck join in on upright bass and drums. The album was mastered by Oli Boesch.

Breather is available through our webshop now and at fine record stores all over Europe from mid February.




21.11.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 SONS OF BILL
SONS OF BILL
One Town Away


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 24,90
It starts with the music. A sound that's all too familiar, yet somehow resists an easy definition. Too edgy for Nashville, but too earnest for New York. Drawing comparisons to artists ranging from George Jones to the Gin Blossoms - Gram Parsons to Guns and Roses - SONS OF BILL have been called "equal parts raucous and reflective." A sound which is revolutionary only in its simplicity.

It starts with the music because it started with the music. Bill Wilson's three eldest sons grew up listening to him fingerpick old country tunes around the house. They learned to sing harmony at family holidays and inherited old guitars with their hand-me-down jeans. The past two decades sent James, Sam and Abe in disparate musical directions: teenage heavy metal fests, old-time barn dances, college bars and New York City jazz clubs. But in 2005 the brothers all returned - one from a cattle ranch in Nevada, one from an apartment in Brooklyn, one from Grad school in Maryland - and for the first time in their lives they began to make music together. With the addition of long-time friends Seth Green and Brian Caputo, Bill's sons became SONS OF BILL.

With a live show known to evolve from acoustic ballads into sweaty stage-dives, SONS OF BILL has gained a loyal fan base from Florida to NYC, sharing the stage with acts ranging from Robert Randolph to Robert Earl Keen. After selling their self-released debut album A Far Cry from Freedom by the thousands, SOB flew to California in late 2008 to record a much anticipated follow up. Tracked live in just 10 days with legendary producer Jim Scott (Wilco, Tom Petty, Whiskeytown) One Town Away is as honest and straightforward as records get. 12 songs about the struggles and hopes of human life, played by five guys from central Virginia, raised on traditional country music with an unabashed love for Rock n' Roll.


29.10.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 MICKY & THE MOTORCARS
Unlike the previous three albums by alt-country five-piece band MICKY & THE MOTORCARS, the group - this go-around - had plenty of time to prepare for Naive. During recording sessions on the past discs, says front man-lead vocalist Micky Braun, "if a good gig came up, we had to leave the studio."

Now established as one of the best-drawing bands on the lucrative Texas Music circuit, Micky and the Motorcars had plenty of time to make Naive accumulating a large stockpile of songs before members even entered Austin's Cedar Creek Studios. "We had a good amount of time off, so we did a lot of rehearsal, working up different arrangements and trying to figure out the right way to play them," says Braun. "That was kind of grueling, but it worked out."

Braun collaborated on many of the other songs on Naive with musicians such as his brother, Reckless Kelly lead singer Willy Braun, as well as Randy Rogers, Kevin Welch, Welch's offspring, Dustin and Savannah, and Jack Ingram bassist Robert Kern. The Brauns actually wrote the title track, which Micky Braun calls "your classic wife-cheating-on-the-husband, husband-comes-home thing," several years ago in their native Idaho. "It never really panned out, so I sat back down, and we ended up getting a good rock 'n' roll version," he says.

"Long Enough to Leave," written by Micky Braun and Randy Rogers, covers familiar territory for someone traveling almost two-thirds of the year. "[It's about] always being on the road, but never being able to stay," he says. "Every time you get comfortable, you have to peel out. "It's funny," he continues. "I played this song for my girlfriend and she said, 'This is about a guy who's cheating on his wife.' I said, 'No, not at all,' and then I went back and listened to it and said, 'Wow, that does kind of make sense.' I think that's what's neat about songs: People come up with their own opinions and kind of live in 'em that way."

Braun says that Naive, featuring guest appearances by Texas music heavyweights Lloyd Maines and Mickey Raphael, also has "quite a few love songs." It's also the first record for new Motorcars lead guitarist and Berklee College of Music graduate Kris Farrow. "He had been playing around Austin for a couple years, playing with some bands we knew," Braun says. "He's a great guitar and saxophone player. We didn't put any saxophone on the record, but he does play it live on a couple of tunes."

The Braun family's musical legacy extends far beyond the Motorcars - formed back in Idaho by Micky, brother Gary (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and childhood friend-bass player Mark McCoy - and Reckless Kelly (featuring older brothers Willy and Cody Braun). All four brothers played with their father in their own special group that appeared twice on "The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson." In the 1950s, their grandparents drove an hour and 15 minutes every day from their home in Twin Falls, Idaho, to their jobs as house piano and organ player and cocktail waitress at a casino in Jackpot, Nevada.

Even home from the road and an average 215 shows a year, members of Micky and the Motorcars tend to stick together, practicing, brainstorming, writing, hanging out. Braun says, "We'll wind up calling each other and saying, 'What are you doing? Let's hit the town." There's plenty of time for that.

The European edition of Naïve contains a free bonus CD, the long time out of print debut album Which Way From Here.

Naive will be available through our webshop from November 6th and at fine record stores all over Europe from late November.

More albums available of MICKY & THE MOTORCARS:

MICKY & THE
MOTORCARS
Live At Billy
Bob's Texas


2-CD+DVD
€ 14,90		 MICKY & THE
MOTORCARS
Careless



CD € 13,90		 MICKY & THE
MOTORCARS
Ain't In It
For The Money


CD € 13,90

29.10.

Welcome to Blue Rose:
 TIFT MERRITT
TIFT MERRITT
Home Is Loud


CD € 13,90
2-LP € 25,90
TIFT MERRITT can be described as a true darling of the Americana scene. With here varied music, her straight way and her natural and extroverted appearance she got many friends worldwide and has explored country & roots hearts not only of male music fans. In the last years she became a real personality who decided to do what her feeling says would be good for her. After two critically acclaimed albums on Lost Highway (Bramble Rose and Tambourine which received a Grammy nomination in 2004) she took a few years off to think about the next step, and after her parting from Lost Highway she released a self-produced live album entitled Home Is Load in 2005. The pressing was sold out pretty quickly and most of her fans didn't even know about the existence of that record.

In 2008 Tift Merritt signed with Fantasy Records and released her third studio album Another Country which received rave reviews ("Merritt's first solo album won her critical acclaim; her second got a Grammy nomination. Neither was as good, nor as fully representative as her third… Here her wonderful voice, smooth and warm with throaty twang and unforced power, has free rein to do what it does best on 11 fine new songs" - Mojo**** 4 stars).

Although she stays with Fantasy for her fourth studio album she signed a Europe-wide deal with Blue Rose Records for the deleted live album Home Is Loud. It features an energetic, infectious rock show from June 4, 2005 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Tift Merritt and her well-attuned fantastic band (Brad Rice on electric guitar, Greg Readling on pedal steel, Dan Eisenberg on keyboards, Jay Brown on bass and Zeke Hutchins on drums) kicked ass with great versions of "Write My Ticket Home", "Your Love Made A U-Turn", Ain't Looking Closely", "Laid A Highway", "Supposed To Make You Happy", "Neighborhood", "Tambourine", "Shadow In The Way" and "When I Crossover". This re-issue contains a previously unreleased track from the Raleigh show, the wonderful ballad "Bramble Rose". The package shows a revised artwork with more pictures and an impressive digipak design.

Home Is Loud will be available through our webshop from November 1st and at fine record stores all over Europe from late November.


14.10.

JOSEPH PARSONS BAND
Slaughterhouse Live


2-CD € 14,90		 Slaughterhouse Live is the first Live CD from JOSEPH PARSONS in 10 years. It is the best live recording of Joseph to date. Joseph says; "This was recorded during a fantastic tour of Europe in Autumn 2008, and I am thrilled to have captured it in this recording. I hope you feel the vibe that we felt that night!" And that's what this recording has, vibe. The spirit of the evening, the raw emotion and the power of the band allows for these dynamic songs to shine. Some of the standout tracks include the new 'Myriad Of Things', 'Shine' and a soulful version of Marvin Gaye's 'What's Going On'.

The band is Joseph Parsons (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars), Ross Bellenoit (electric guitar, lap steel & vocals), Sven Hansen (drums) & Freddi Lubitz (bass, vocals).

Joseph Parsons, born in 1964, raised in Philadelphia and moved to Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Louisiana, played music on the streets of Barcelona und other European metropolitans, worked in the Anti Gulf War Peace Team in Bagdad in 1991. Since the early 1990s he settled down in Philadelphia and after a few private CD releases he started a professional career when he was signed by Blue Rose Records and the release of his critically acclaimed album 5 AM. A year later the self-titled album followed, Live in Europe captured a band show during a German tour in 1999. With his most recent records The Vagabond Tales (2005), The Fleury Sessions (2006) und Heavens Above (2008) Parsons got established in the premier songwriter league!


08.10.

ELLIOTT MURPHY
Alive In Paris


DVD+CD
€ 13,90		 ELLIOTT MURPHY about his new live album Alive In Paris: "It was the last thing I expected when I moved to France nearly 20 years ago - that my career would be celebrated in a wonderful exhibition at the beautiful town hall of the 6th Arrondisement near Boulevard St. Germain on the left bank of Paris.

Gilles Pidard from Paris University 7, along with the help of my wife Françoise Viallon-Murphy and my unofficial archivist Franck Dumaine, managed to pull out hundreds of photos, posters, album covers, writings and everything else you can imagine to put together a truly captivating show. The exhibition ran for nearly three weeks and had hundreds of visitors from all over the world. Even I learned some things about myself.

The Last of the Rock Stars expo was topped with a concert in the Salles de Fete of the town hall on 26 September 2008. The place was packed - around 500 people they tell me - and I was joined by Olivier Durand and The Normandy All Stars. Gilles arranged for the whole evening to be filmed and recorded and the images really captured the excitement of this very special evening. The only problem was that the balance of the audio was flawed but luckily two of my fans - Xavier and Pierre - came to the rescue. They had recorded the complete concert themselves and their recordings were absolutely perfect! We put it all together with the help of Julius and Mikael in Le Havre and François in Paris and I honestly can say that Alive In Paris is a fine representation of the excitement both fans and me and my musicians feel each of the one hundred plus nights we hit the stage every year. But this night, in my adopted hometown of Paris was truly an evening that touched my heart and that I will never forget. And I proud to say that I am ALIVE IN PARIS!


27.09.

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON
Closer To The Bone


CD € 12,90
2-CD € 17,90		 KRIS KRISTOFFERSON returns to the essentials of his finely honed craft on his album Closer to the Bone. Like the master singer-songwriter’s 2006 bow This Old Road, the new album is produced by Grammy Award winner Don Was. The previous collection – Kristofferson’s first recording in almost a dozen years – was hailed by critics as “one of the finest albums of his storied career” (Rolling Stone), “a stripped-down stunner” (Esquire), and “a return to his best work” (Q).
Kristofferson says, “I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all are at this end of life.”

Much like its predecessor, Closer to the Bone is a deftly observed, honestly executed work about love, separation, loss, and mortality. The subject matter ranges from the musician’s family (“From Here to Forever,” “The Wonder”) to Kristofferson’s late friend Johnny Cash (“Good Morning John”). Was views the new album as a sort of sequel to its much-acclaimed predecessor: “The recording conditions were a little more controlled, but it’s based around Kris singing and playing guitar, and nothing was to get in the way of that. If anything got in the way of it, we pulled it out. I think the two albums are completely of a piece. I love This Old Road. There’s something really immediate about it, and really profound. I personally think this is a better record, overall. It’s the songs.” Some of the album’s songs were penned relatively recently, while others Kristofferson had never managed to successfully record. He laughs when he recalls a previous attempt to cut “Good Morning John” with Willie Nelson – like Cash and Kristofferson a member of the country supergroup the Highwaymen -- on harmony vocals: “I got to that line where I say, ‘I love you, John,’ and Willie sang, ‘He loves you, John.’ I said, ‘C’mon, Willie, you can say, ‘I love you, John.’ I guess it embarrassed him. Anyway, we ended up not putting it out then.” While the recording of Closer to the Bone doesn’t entirely replicate the off-the-cuff methodology of This Old Road – which was tracked with surround-sound equipment in a single session in the lounge of a Hollywood studio – the new album, made at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles, aimed for the same earthy simplicity.

Most of the tracks were recorded live in the studio. Was says, “We tried to keep it as spontaneous as possible. There is some overdubbing on it, but for most of it we thought we’d try it with everybody playing.”
Was, who played bass on the sessions (as he had on the preceding album), once again drafted the other musicians who supported Kristofferson on This Old Road: guitarist and backup vocalist Stephen Bruton (who also co-wrote the Closer to the Bone tracks “From Here to Forever” and “Let the Walls Come Down”) and drummer Jim Keltner. Rami Jaffee of the Wallflowers contributed piano and accordion overdubs.

Such searing, contemplative songs as “Closer to the Bone” and “Hall of Angels” gained a melancholy resonance in the days following the completion of sessions for the album. On May 9, 2009, Bruton – one of Kristofferson’s closest friends and musical associates for four decades – died in Los Angeles at the age of 60 after a long battle with throat cancer. The album is dedicated to his memory. “He was there while I was recording, and he was in great spirits at the time,” Kristofferson says of Bruton, who joined his band at the age of 20. “Stephen was more like a brother than a guy that worked with me. We went through a lot of years, a lot of laughter, a lot of heartache. I really felt close to Stephen. His spirit’s on the album.”
Was says of Bruton’s unique contributions to Kristofferson’s sound, “He and Kris just had a lock that Kris is never going to be able to get with anybody. It’s what comes from 40 years of playing together. They just had a way of weaving together.”
Kristofferson’s New West/Blue Rose albums mark the latest works of a distinguished career that has encompassed the authorship of such classic American songs as “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night”; stardom in such feature films as Lonestar, the Blade Trilogy, A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid and A Star is Born; honors including three Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; and years of outspoken political and social activism. This November, he will be feted as a BMI Icon at the performing rights organization’s Country Awards. Kristofferson is currently a member of the Songwriter Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In the last decade, the now 73-year-old performer has been on a vigorous schedule of international solo appearances. Kristofferson says, “I was overseas doing a film when I got the opportunity to work in Ireland, and I didn’t have time to martial the troops. So I went out by myself, and it worked. I’ve been really surprised at selling out the shows everywhere. People are filling up the houses.
“Something was making a direct communication with the audience,” he adds, “and I guess it must be down to the essence of the songs. Because God knows, there’s better guitar players and singers. But it seems to be working with my material -- just me and the song.”

The Deluxe Edition includes a poster and a second CD featuring 8 selected tracks from a show at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland in March 2008.


29.8.

JAMES McMURTRY
Live in Europe


CD+DVD € 13,90
LP+CD+DVD
€ 18,90		 JAMES McMURTRY's recent studio albums, 2005's Childish Things and 2008's Just Us Kids, earned him formidable accolades. The Village Voice called him "a poet of the people." Stephen King, writing in Entertainment Weekly, pronounced him "the truest, fiercest songwriter of his generation." Yet a lot of current McMurtry converts were introduced through the 2004 release Live in Aught-Three. Live albums aren't typically greeted with rave reviews, but McMurtry's rockin' treatments of songs like "Choctaw Bingo" and "Out Here in the Middle" in concert made an uncanny translation to record. The Austin Chronicle proclaimed, "This is no-frills, freak-flag rock. Turn it up!" PopMatters called it "a snapshot of where McMurtry is now, [marking him] as a legitimate inheritor of the Texas songwriting tradition."

Now Blue Rose is releasing Live in Europe, a document of McMurtry's first European tour, on which he was joined by keyboardist Ian McLagan and fellow Texas songwriting legend Jon Dee Graham. The set is available as a CD with a bonus DVD, or as a deluxe vinyl LP package with a CD and DVD insert.

In early 2009, James McMurtry and his trio traveled overseas to play their first European tour. The guys played for enthusiastic crowds in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and Belgium. Joining the band on keyboards for the tour was the legendary Ian McLagan (who also played on McMurtry's latest studio album, Just Us Kids). The best recordings from the Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Geislingen, Germany concerts were combined to create Live in Europe. The album includes a bonus DVD featuring performances from the Amsterdam show. This marks the first time fans will be able to purchase video footage of McMurtry live in concert. The deluxe vinyl version includes inserted copies of the CD and DVD.

Fellow Austin-based songwriter Jon Dee Graham opened the shows and joins the band on a version of his tune "Laredo" on the bonus DVD.

The son of acclaimed author Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove, Terms of Endearment), James grew up on a steady diet of Johnny Cash and Roy Acuff records. His first album, released in 1989, was produced by John Mellencamp and marked the beginning of a series of acclaimed projects for Columbia and Sugar Hill. In 2004, McMurtry released the universally lauded Live in Aught-Three on Compadre Records. 2005's Childish Things garnered some of the highest critical praise of McMurtry's career and spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Americana Music Radio Chart in 2005 and 2006. In September 2006, Childish Things and "We Can't Make It Here" won the Americana Music Awards for album and song of the year, respectively. McMurtry received more Americana Music Award nominations for 2008's Just Us Kids. The album marked his highest Billboard 200 chart position in more than 19 years. The Washington Post noted McMurtry's live prowess: "Much attention is paid to James McMurtry's lyrics, and rightfully so: He creates a novel's worth of emotion and experience in four minutes of blisteringly stark couplets. What gets overlooked, however, is that he's an accomplished rock guitar player. At a sold-out Birchmere, the Austin-based artist was joined by drummer Daren Hess and bassist Ronnie Johnson in a set that demonstrated the raw power of wince-inducing imagery propelled by electric guitar. It was serious stuff, imparted by a singularly serious band."

McMurtry will tour the U.S. and Europe this fall in support of the live album.

Live in Europe will be available through our mailorder service from September 11th.