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viewing 1 To 8 of 8 items
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WS 007LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 8/26/2022
"The prominent biblical city of Shiloh was first mentioned in the Book of Joshua: And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them" (Joshua 18:1) It held a perhaps unsurpassed place of importance for the Israelites until the construction of Solomon's Temple and elevation of Jerusalem as the capital of a united Israel some centuries later. The Shiloh, which is the primary matter of interest here, is not the biblical city, but rather a namesake community in rural Overton County, Tennessee, situated in the Upper Cumberland region of the Appalachian Plateau near the Tennessee/Kentucky border. It isn't a town, but a community made up of a church, two cemeteries, a smattering of houses, some farmland surrounded by forested hills, and a mostly gravel road. The West Fork of the Obey River tumbles through the area at a fairly leisurely pace, and Joseph's father, who was born in the adjacent and slightly easier to access community of Allred, always called Shiloh Road "the River Road" since the road and the river often unfurl through the valley side by side. The instrumental pieces for guitars and banjo on the album at hand mostly depict images and events, both real and imagined, that take place in Shiloh and the broader river valley it's situated in. "I won't go into the details of the inspiration for each tune here," Allred comments, "but I will say that Shiloh is a place where the distinction between past and present isn't always clearly defined. It's a kind of 'mandorla,' a place where the spheres of past and present, dead and living, immanent and transcendent, overlap. It's also a place that has attracted some odd characters over the years, or just people who are weary and trying to find refuge. Though I grew up in a small town about 25 miles away from Shiloh and have lived in Boston since 2016, my dad's side of the family has been in the area for over 200 years, and that valley feels a lot like the place I'll be buried when I die." Gatefold sleeve; art by Jonny Brokenbrow.
"Joseph Allred's recent outpouring of excellent releases has been an impressive enough feat on its own considering how unique they all are in relation to one another and how focused each one is when taken as individual statements. The Rambles & Rags of Shiloh strikes such a deceptively comfortable balance between more familiar folk guitar approaches and Allred's own wholly distinctive techniques that it'd be hard to believe it was the same person playing everything if you were able to ignore how seamlessly it all fits together." --Rob Noyes
"If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley
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CD
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WS 006CD
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$14.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/15/2022
Recorded in Austin, Texas in March of 2020, just days before the city and the rest of the world shut down, Ralph White spent two days with producer, Jerry David DeCicca (Will Beeley, Ed Askew) and recording engineer, Don Cento, capturing a raw and wild set of performances. Ralph, having recently converted his van into a mobile living and touring quarters equipped with a wood-burning stove, left Austin, the city where he was born over 70 years ago, and retreated to an Arizona commune where he began building a new house in the desert hills to escape the virus and insanity of daily living. Opener "Lead Man", signals the beginning of a wild and unsettling record, at times dark and foreboding, at others eerie and enigmatic, taking you a step further into Ralph's very own American mystery zone. Ralph takes you on a journey through his myriad of travels: from Dock Boggs to Syd Barrett to William Faulkner to Stella Chiweshe to Blind Uncle Gaspard -- scratching banjo, rasping train whistle hollers, rolling kalimba, rousing accordion, taut shimmers of guitar, caustic fiddle, and lyrics that could have been hidden amongst the dusty inner groove of a lost Harry Smith 78 -- weaving in-and-out of streams of consciousness, time and place. Just a few of the titles: "Lead Man" is a bleak and longing look in the mirror; "Motel 6", plays out a haunting lament set upon roadside America; "The River Daughter", reimagines life on the sandbar, akin to McCarthy's Suttree; "Lonesome Fugitive", acts as a cautionary ode to a life spent looking over one's shoulder. In addition to his solo work, White has recorded or performed with a diverse group of folk and avant-garde musicians: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Jandek, Jack Rose, Eugene Chadbourne, Michelle Shocked, Sir Richard Bishop, and Michael Hurley. Artwork of Max Kuhn.
"This is what Ralph White really sounds like. It's what time passing really sounds like. It's what a look really feels like. This record is someone touching you all over!" --Bill Callahan
"White was a member of well-loved punk bluegrass outfit Bad Livers, but his solo work is possessed of a much more lonesome spark, exaggerating the implied drone at the heart of the music of Dock Boggs and The Stanley Brothers -- White plays wooden six-string banjo, violin, button accordion and kalimba and his voice has a high, eerie quality to it -- extremely psychedelic." --David Keenan, The Wire
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LP
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WS 006LP
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$27.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 7/15/2022
LP version. Recorded in Austin, Texas in March of 2020, just days before the city and the rest of the world shut down, Ralph White spent two days with producer, Jerry David DeCicca (Will Beeley, Ed Askew) and recording engineer, Don Cento, capturing a raw and wild set of performances. Ralph, having recently converted his van into a mobile living and touring quarters equipped with a wood-burning stove, left Austin, the city where he was born over 70 years ago, and retreated to an Arizona commune where he began building a new house in the desert hills to escape the virus and insanity of daily living. Opener "Lead Man", signals the beginning of a wild and unsettling record, at times dark and foreboding, at others eerie and enigmatic, taking you a step further into Ralph's very own American mystery zone. Ralph takes you on a journey through his myriad of travels: from Dock Boggs to Syd Barrett to William Faulkner to Stella Chiweshe to Blind Uncle Gaspard -- scratching banjo, rasping train whistle hollers, rolling kalimba, rousing accordion, taut shimmers of guitar, caustic fiddle, and lyrics that could have been hidden amongst the dusty inner groove of a lost Harry Smith 78 -- weaving in-and-out of streams of consciousness, time and place. Just a few of the titles: "Lead Man" is a bleak and longing look in the mirror; "Motel 6", plays out a haunting lament set upon roadside America; "The River Daughter", reimagines life on the sandbar, akin to McCarthy's Suttree; "Lonesome Fugitive", acts as a cautionary ode to a life spent looking over one's shoulder. In addition to his solo work, White has recorded or performed with a diverse group of folk and avant-garde musicians: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Jandek, Jack Rose, Eugene Chadbourne, Michelle Shocked, Sir Richard Bishop, and Michael Hurley. Artwork of Max Kuhn.
"This is what Ralph White really sounds like. It's what time passing really sounds like. It's what a look really feels like. This record is someone touching you all over!" --Bill Callahan
"White was a member of well-loved punk bluegrass outfit Bad Livers, but his solo work is possessed of a much more lonesome spark, exaggerating the implied drone at the heart of the music of Dock Boggs and The Stanley Brothers -- White plays wooden six-string banjo, violin, button accordion and kalimba and his voice has a high, eerie quality to it -- extremely psychedelic." --David Keenan, The Wire
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WS 005LP
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Inspired in equal parts by fatherhood, nature, and quietude, Slither, Soar & Disappear was born on Josh Kimbrough's back porch in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as his young son rested, where the bucolic intimacy of the natural world found its way into his nylon and steel string guitar playing, resulting in this cycle of beautiful compositions. Accompanied by a roster of talented musicians, Josh's guitar work is accompanied and complimented by banjo, flute, strings, mandolin, double bass, and drums, the results bringing to mind a host of artists from Jansch, Drake, and Fahey, to the Penguin Café Orchestra and Mike Hurley. "Fatherhood," Josh reflects, "I was finding, forces one to abandon parts of the self -- a heavy proposition in a society that emphasizes individualism. Cultural critic, farmer, and novelist, Wendell Berry in his book, A Native Hill, muses: 'In order to know the hill, it is necessary to slow the mind down to the hill's pace.' This principle applied to me at the time as I was adapting to a new speed of life and striving to be present as a father. On the deck, as my mind slowed down to take in the chirps and wind gusts, these songs began to blossom." A truly beautiful album emphasizing the splendor of the outside world and the gentle pace of life many have been in over the pandemic. Originally released digitally on Tompkins Square, Worried Songs gives these songs the vinyl treatment.
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WS 004LP
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"As soon as we heard the opening line of the near-11 minute cosmic-country road epic, 'West Texas Trilogy', 'I can smell gasoline and tacos...' we knew we had to release this one" Jerry David DeCicca's fourth solo album, The Unlikely Optimist and His Domestic Adventures, is an anti-Hallmark ode to positivity set in the Texas Hill Country where he lives. Dark gray in one corner, silly in another, humorous but always human, it features Augie Meyers (Sir Douglas Quintet) on Vox Continental and squeezebox, Ralph White (Bad Livers) on violin and kalimaba, Frank "The Wild Jalapeno" Rodarte (Doug Sahm) on tenor sax, and JDD's buddies, electric guitarist Don Cento (Sarah Jaffee), bassist Canaan Faulkner (Black Swans, Will Beeley), drummer Jovan Karcic (Scrawl), and his partner, Eve Searls, on backing and duet vocals. Some of the songs: "I See Horizons" is a mediation that peaks over the next ledge; "Coffee Black" is a wake-up call to mellowing out; "Texas Toad" finds joy in the little creatures among us; "West Texas Trilogy" is a road song that trances and traces poverty, nature, memory and music along the border to Big Bend; "Quiet Life" just sits on the front porch. DeCicca's day-job is as a provider of vocational rehabilitation services (which means he works with individuals with disabilities to obtain and maintain competitive and integrated employment in their communities), as well as recording, producing and compiling music for lost legends of country music like Will Beeley, Elyse Weinerg and Bob Martin, working for labels such as Numero Group and Tompkins Square. "My whole life, I've struggled with anxiety and depression. But through music, people who love me, and meaningful work, I've gathered enough light to keep getting out of bed. And, in my own way, I've gradually become a happier person, despite the garbage world that maybe we've always lived in. This is a record about self-reflection and gratitude, but not in a cheesy way." Considering this one was recorded pre-pandemic, it has almost become the perfect pandemic record -- an ode to the simple pleasures of life, reflecting on our role on this wild sphere, and holding on tight to the ones you love. Housed in the beautiful artwork of Jeb Loy Nichols.
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WS 001LP
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The Time To Come is the first release from Worried Songs and the striking debut from twenty-one-year-old Chicago resident Eli Winter, noted as one of the Guardian's "artists to watch in 2020". These masterfully composed instrumental pieces for six-string, twelve-string, and electric solo guitar showcase the raw talent of this young guitar powerhouse. In The Time To Come, Winter remembers the dead, considers the dynamic nature of memory, and attempts to chronicle the nearly inexpressible difficulty of processing loss. Winter began recording sessions in Houston immediately after Hurricane Harvey, and this album's turbulent emotional landscape is in some ways a response to the devastation of the storm. The record revolves around its title track, a meditation on the passing of a close friend. In the days after her death, Winter wrote a long piece for guitar in which every part would feel essential. "I wanted to conjure her through the music," Winter says. "This song is the closest thing I have to a memory of her." He calls it aspirational: "How can you maintain hope in the face of grief?" The Time To Come is rich, warm and evocative, marking an ambitious debut from a young guitarist. Originally released on a tiny-run of now long-gone cassette tapes, The Time To Come finally sees the light of day on vinyl, housed in the bucolic American folk art of Albert Gray. "His debut album is really sublime." --Laura Snapes, The Guardian "Eli Winter is one of the brightest new lights in the world of guitar music today." --Record Crates United "Eli Winter's The Time To Come is a remarkably assured debut ... Every moment is earned, every note rings out with warmth and wonder. Beautiful stuff." --Tyler Wilcox, Aquarium Drunkard
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LP
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WS 002LP
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Joseph Allred, or occasionally known as his alter-perspective, Blind Faulkner, is a Tennessee-born multi-instrumentalist, now residing in Massachusetts, who has received critical acclaim for his seemingly endless slew of wonderful records, most of which showcase his talent for all things stringed. Here, Worried Songs presents the initially private-pressed masterwork, The True Light, taking its name from the Gospel of John, a haunting lament for solo-harp guitar. Recorded shortly after receiving the instrument, The True Light documents his exploration of the harp guitar. The five songs found on The True Light bleed like a river, flowing from one to the next in waves of immense beauty, melancholia and yearning, reflecting on spirituality and belonging in its many forms. Strong Basho vibes on this one, yet, as always, Joseph expands and transcends on the ghosts of primitive-past, forging his own path. In short, this is the real deal. "If you don't know Allred already, you will soon." --Byron Coley "Each time I've seen Joseph Allred play a concert, I've choked up. Whether working in improvisation or composition, for harmonium, stringed instruments or voice, their music reveals a deep knowledge of diverse musical idioms secular and religious, with the sort of quiet force that comes from the acquisition of this knowledge, and their performances are striking and brave, simultaneously unadorned and rich as to suggest collaborations with realms beyond our own. The True Light retains these qualities: like Basho or Rose, it's uncompromising; like sacred musics, stately; like the music of so many American masters, it plows ahead on its terms and gives and gives." --Eli Winter "... fierce, raw and deeply moving." --Pop Matters "... standing on the shoulders of American folk music traditions, he generates a tension not far removed from the melodramas of the German new wave director. Folk music, not for the coffee shop singalong, but for a lonesome trek through a wilderness increasingly invaded by a brutal modern world." --Spectrum Culture
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WS 003LP
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2021 restock. Worried Songs's third release is the debut solo LP from Matthew J Rolin. Originally released on the inimitable Feeding Tube records in 2019 and very quickly out-of-print, this pressing for UK and Europe will continue to showcase Matthew as one of the most creative, versatile, and powerful proponents honing their craft in the canon of the American primitive (and beyond) today. Cutting his chops in a haze of punk, noise, and psychedelic projects and bands in and out of Illinois and Ohio, that misspent youth can still be heard in these nine achingly beautiful compositions of solo concert steel string guitar. This is true outsider music, easily transcending the tired list of American-primitive masters -- it is ragged and rustic, tired and angry, beautiful and hopeful music for these often-hopeless times. Very few copies of this LP made it to Europe last time so quit goofing around. New LPs from this Ohio powerhouse (alongside the recently released and totally incredible duo record with Jen Powers on dulcimer) are incoming so get swatting up and quick. "While the rainy spirit and homespun quality of Rolin's music separates him from more academic fingerstyle contemporaries, he can't quite be classified with other unplugged noise dudes, either. There are echoes of Bill Orcutt's shattered blues in the dizzy rumble of 'Rivets' and a stripped-down reading of Ryley Walker's freefalling astral pop on 'Neverendingness,' but Rolin's songs never ramp up or even attempt to launch. Instead, they trudge steadily forward. A soft argument between hope and defeat runs through the album, and Rolin presents it with the calm resolve of someone who's probably sat alone with an acoustic guitar as the first of five acts at a basement gig. Unconcerned with virtuosic technique or reincarnating the ghosts of past guitar heroes, Rolin's overcast instrumentals convey the reality of his own encounters with folk blues." --Fred Thomas, Pitchfork "Rolin's talents as a solo player are immediately clear from the first note he plays. If you get a chance to see him don't pass it up. Nor should you pass up this chance to score his first long player while it's hot off the presses." --Byron Coley
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