"Blues garage" is the second solo album by Marco Tansini, following the first release "American places".

This new album is a journey into the Blues and all of its shades and contaminations, represented here by different colours, from funk to rock and even swing.

Marco is known around the world not only as a producer and songwriter but even as a great guitar player and in this new release he shows the more authentic and genuine side of himself. 11 tracks that give life to a guitar album which is refined and polished while, at the same time, minimal and direct, based upon a production that tends to put emphasis to the "live" spirit of this release.

Far from being an experiment of music archeology, "Blues garage" is the personal interpretation of different kind of blues, where the only trademark is the performance's and songwriting's high quality level!

Check out a preview at Tanzan Music

Tony Dominelli is a singer/songwriter/musician from Vancouver Canada. Tony fronted the melodic rock band MATREX that recorded and toured Western Canada in the 80's and 90's. The album "I'll Always Remember" was released worldwide in 2005 by the label Renegade Sounds (Renegade, Vertigo and Stiletto are also on the label) and has been distributed in over 30 countries. Tony also sang in solo acts and various duos, and did jingles for various production companies.

Tony moved to Bowen Island in 1997 and by the late '90's also started acting in community theatre groups, landing major singing/acting roles in plays such as Lend Me a Tenor, Mad Mable's Christmas and The Odd Couple. Tony decided to record a solo album, his debut release, Dominelli, featuring his own compositions, with the assistance of brother Geraldo (also from MATREX) and Sam as co-writers and musicians. Produced, mixed and engineered by Geraldo Dominell at Cobweb Studios, Coquitlam BC, additional tracks were produced at Stonehill Studio on Bowen Island BC, with mastering by Vic Levak (Balligomingo) and publicity by Renegade Sounds label head Jim Buckshon.

More info at Renegade Productions

Michael MacLennan is a Scottish pianist, singer and song writer. Brought up in the small village of Nethy Bridge in the Scottish Highlands, he begun playing the piano at seven years of age. He’s played many a gig in London Town and even caught the attention of Rod Stewart.

Wolves due out in February 2012 is his latest album and is absolutely stunning. His songs are complete, full of heart felt emotion. Though straying from folk scene, they are still well worth a listen. Michael has also had quiet a bit of air-time on BBC radio. A real pro.

You can check out his official website here.

Brother John is a 14-piece avant-folk orchestra comprised of three singers (two of whom double on guitars), full woodwind and string sections, French horn, drums, and electronics. Formed in early 2010 by composer Travis Jeffords and social psychologist Austin Chapman, Brother John is known for their ethereal and layered music. Always in the foreground of their sound is the juxtaposition of the micro and the macro, the part and the whole, the individual at the edge of the infinite.

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Bert Jansch, a leading figure in the British folk revival of the 60s and one of the most respected musicians of his generation, has died of cancer aged 67.

A founding member of Pentangle, Jansch was also renowned as a guitar virtuoso and was sometimes hailed as a British Bob Dylan.

Neil Young said: "With deep regret Pegi and I acknowledge the passing of Bert Jansch. Pegi and I were lucky to play with him on all of our shows for the last couple of years. He is a hero of mine, one of my greatest influences. Bert was one of the all-time great acoustic guitarists and singer songwriters. Our sincerest sympathies to his soul mate Loren. We love you Bert."

Born in Glasgow on 3 November 1943, Jansch released 23 solo albums, the last of which, The Black Swan (2006), featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart.

He was the recipient of two lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Folk awards – one for his solo achievements in 2001 and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle. The band reformed in 2008.

In June 2009, he discovered he had a golf ball-size tumour on one of his lungs following what was at first a routine visit to the dentist. Following treatment, he went on to co-headline a US tour with Young. Jansch had recently been forced to cancel a live show in Edinburgh due to ill health and was living in a hospice in north London at the time of his death.

Those he influenced included Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Bernard Butler and Paul Simon. According to fellow guitarist Johnny Marr: "He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today … without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 60s and 70s would have been very different."

Jansch told this newspaper last year: "I'm not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out.

- Source www.guardian.co.uk

Dark Riders is David Stockdale’s fourth album. A musical evolution. Stockdale merges pop with R&B creating introspective ballads. Special attention has been given to the lyrics, a very personal experience.

TRACK LIST : 1. Here comes the night, 2. Oh to be love, 3. High as a kite, 4. Earthquake, 5. Going to my baby, 6. Neil’s car, 7. Boogaloo you, 8. Ballad of Tanya and Joe, 9. Hunting season, 10. Who, 11. Right from the heart.

For more information: http://www.davidstockdale.it/dark_riders/dark_riders.html

A very deep and focused album. Amazing voice and great melodies.

The Water's Edge has now been finished, and is due for release this autumn.

It was produced by Paul Savage (who's worked with such illustrious acts as Arab Strap, Mogwai, Franz Ferdinand and The Phantom Band) in Chem 19 Studios in Glasgow.

Five of the tracks feature arrangements by composer Nico Muhly, who has arranged for Sam Amidon, Björk, Grizzly Bear amongst many others.

Click on the player to the right of the page to hear 3 of the new album tracks, with the 3rd track (Northern Lights) featuring one of Nico's arrangements. Read More...

JOHN MINTON's new album THE HILLS ARE IN BLOOM is the culmination of nearly forty years of performing and pursuing American folk music. Minton began playing in the 1970s in his hometown of Houston, Texas, inspired by roots rock, the folksong revival, and local folk heroes like Lightnin' Hopkins and Townes Van Zandt. In the 1980s he gigged around Austin while earning his PhD in folklore at the University of Texas.

More recently, he has released five critically acclaimed albums by himself and his band, THE POSSUM TROT ORCHESTRA ( John Minton, Life & Times {2003} • John Minton, Going Back to Vicksburg {2004} • The Possum Trot Orchestra {2005} • The Possum Trot Orchestra, Harbor Road {2006} & The Possum Trot Orchestra, Night Crow {2008} ). Featuring thirteen new originals, THE HILLS ARE IN BLOOM expands the eclectic approach of these earlier albums, sampling a range of roots styles—folk, blues, bluegrass, country, rock, skiffle and ragtime. Besides performing, Minton has also made a career of studying American music. Since 1990 he has been professor of folklore at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, teaching classes on American folk and popular music. His most recent book is 78 Blues: Folksongs and Phonographs in the American South (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008).

Buy it now!

Having played and recorded with so many outstanding artists over the years—among them: Eliza Gilkyson, Bill and Bonnie Hearne, Jaime Michaels, Tish Hinojosa, Jono Manson and Paolo Bonfanti, The Buckarettes—John has been bringing his performance, songwriting, and production chops to his own brand of Americana for the last several years with his CDs, “Crucifixion” and “Fretbuzz”, "Up For Air", and now his latest offering, “The Stone Soup Sessions”.

Known as a versatile session player and multi-instrumentalist, Egenes plays electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, mandola and mandocello, pedal steel and lap steel, dobro and Weissenborn lap guitars, accordion and keyboards, bass, fiddle, and even Theremin and musical saw.

The songs on his CDs paint musical landscapes and offer insights into love and loss, stories of the road, and illustrate the casualties of war. Egenes is a fine spinner of tales.
With a lifelong love of horses, John is known among Amercian equine enthusiasts for having ridden his horse, Gizmo, across the United States, from the Pacific coast of California to the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia on an odyssey that took seven months and covered more than 4,000 miles. Along with his love of horses, he’s also a master saddlemaker, composes music for upper level dressage freestyles, and spends evening hours studying the stars through his telescope.

Now living in Dunedin, New Zealand, he has become a sought-after session player for Kiwi artists like The Sami Sisters, Hannah Howes, Bob McNeill, Tim Guy, Lauren Thomson, Tami Neilson, The Verlaines, The Bats, and others and has found an enthusiastic camaraderie among the local musicians here. He has immersed himself in the study of digital communal culture and its effects upon music and other intellectual content, and in his latest work, “The Stone Soup Sessions” he has managed to bring together a group of his musical pals from all over the world, using what he calls the "21st century folk process" that is spawned by our new digital culture.

A stunning album from a Northumberland group called We Steal Flyers. This acoustic duo has created a euphoric and uplifting acoustic debut album entitled Our World.
Rich vocal harmonies and very laid back strumming creates a unique style and a very addictive sound. Hats of guys. Make sure you check out their new album today!

Info from their official biography:
Derek and Shaggy met up in 2008 when Stolen Tom played on the bill at one of CBSkies last gigs as a band.

Derek was soon to put out his Acoustic Magic idea of going out to buskers nights and searching for good and hopefully a great player or two to help them be heard touring across this little country.

Shaggy was one of the first people to join Acoustic Magic and Derek saw in Shaggy what he was looking for.... He had a heart and lived for music like himself.

A year on when Derek lost his guitar player he wrote and worked out a set alone to find a style of his own.... but knew to reach many more people he needed to team up with someone as he would always lack something and what he lacked is what people needed.

At a charity day Shaggy got up on stage with Derek and they played for 2 hours. They wrote a song and knew they were the parts missing for the future adventure they both felt was coming.

They both write music and lyrics, sing and play guitar..... They move fast and smile often as they understand the business enough to know the basics.

Booking up 250 shows for 2011 with an already impressive "100 gigs in 100 Days Tour" underway, tv slots, radio, constant single's and album release's they will not stop .Playing venues of any size, playing on radio shows, busking on the streets are where you can find them.

They play everywhere under the name WE STEAL FLYERS.

Official website

American Blues man with a mean boogie. Solomon King is a Grammy nominated blues artist with style. Medicine is his second album, produced by Marvin Etzioni (Lone Justice). 10 tracks and back to the blues. Solomon King has got the right ingredients for a top album.

Throughout the USA, Canada and Europe Solomon King has played on broadcast radio leaving his emotion, music and soul where ever he plays. Medicine has all the essentials for a great blues album. Boogie, Bo Diddley, and low down dirty blues.

Here’s what the pros are saying:

Over the course of the striking, stripped-down Medicine, former Detroit autoworker Solomon King returns to that moment when the blues moved inexorably away from the uplift that defined gospel music, and ultimately toward rock ‘n’ roll and then hip hop. The blues sought, at first, to define every-day concerns, but there were no easy answers. As with King’s efforts on this new project, it sought to render those things more real, to define them. That made the music, back in the days of Son House and Robert Johnson, more dangerous than danceable.

For more information please visit his official website: http://solomonkingmusic.com

**** We have one promo CD to give away. Whoever places the first comment below wins the CD.

This is a pretty amazing album. Folk Blues & Beyond have been spoilt with some smooth tunes with Paul Liddell’s debut album “Milestones & Motoways”. 10 out of 10.

Not sure if he is still unsigned but no doubt he will be snapped up very soon, truly amazing. Milestones and Motorways is a very upbeat, acoustic self journey with a twist of pop. High energy tunes like Kill-O-Gramm seem to lead the way for mellow finger picking and political views. This reminds me a little of The John Butler Trio. I can’t wait to see Paul Liddell live!

Check out his official website for more info.

Born, raised and still lives in Southern New Jersey where she takes offense to the popular stereotype of a “Jersey Girl” which she says is strictly a phenomenon of very small parts of "North Jersey" near New York City.

She’s not much for make up, loves to get her hands dirty and can’t bear to where high heels, is a fierce animal rights advocate and promoter of people becoming acutely aware of where their food comes from.

She grew up on the edge of the great New Jersey Pine Barrens, home of the Jersey Devil and a vast place where a girl can get lost on never ending sand roads, cranberry wine and midnight bonfires.

During college Heidi worked various jobs, but loved working on farms the most which led her to study agriculture with an eye on having a farm of her own someday. “My dream would be to operate a small farm of my own and write songs, touring in the winters and farming in the growing season”. But until then, she helps the farming industry with her day job preserving farmland for the State of New Jersey and finds time for writing, recording and performing her music every chance she gets.

Heidi’s first CD “Snow Day” includes an assortment of hard folk rock tunes and songs riding the fence between folk and country, with themes about work, the love of a dog, the loss of a loved one and the pleasure of a snow day. Indie radio across the globe play her songs on Snow Day including the BBC radio in England and WXPN Philadelphia and Heidi’s music video featuring her song “My Best Friend” has received worldwide attention.

Her new CD “Honeysuckle Dream”, released October 2010 takes the listener into a new realm of Heidi’s imagination with upbeat pop songs like “Yogi Momma” and “Super Dog” highlighting her love of a great groove tune, to “Killer” crashing right into the taboo subject of people who abandon their pets at shelters and then to Paper Trails inspiring women to embrace staying home to read a good book.

Heidi is writing for her next CD focusing on local history, stories of the fabled Pine Barrens and other New Jersey curiosities.

Official website

Andrew writes to us....

Friends!

Announcing the release of my new 6-song EP and its companion pocket-size book, Passing Knowledge and Other Songs.

The digital version of both is available for $5 exclusively through Kickstarter, and you'll receive the download today! This represents a new musical direction for me – I think it's my best recording ever – and the handmade book is super cool. (Read in detail about it below, or on my website.)

WHY Kickstarter? Because here I can also present you with good deals on more fun things I have to offer – and this will help fund my upcoming full-length record!
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"New Day" is the first solo album of Mario Percudani.
After the work with Hungryheart and the blues band project Blueville, Mario Percudani shows his intimate world with these ten songs, proving his great personality and his artistic maturity.

By listening to "New Day" we can absorb a music which is a bridge between the best American traditional Songwriters with a Blues influence, crossed with the West Coast feeling and the European melodies, transformed through sweet and catchy timeless songs.

Official homepage: http://www.mariopercudani.it/