4 handsome gents who came together in 2005. Drawing influence from pop throughout the ages, combined with a distinct DIY ethic. Recently releasing a 7' Single containing the song 'Mirror Ball' offers a taste of a soon to be released album.
Siblings Julia and Angus Stone come from Newport, Australia. Angus and Julia’s decision to collaborate was taken at the beginning of 2006. Prior to that, both had performed as solo artists at open mic nights but utilised the other as a backing partner. Ultimately they came up with the same idea, “Why don’t we play together? It kind of made a lot of sense”. In terms of composing the material, they write on their own, then work together on structure and harmonies.
Slow Club are Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor from Sheffield, United Kingdom. They sing using quirky lyrics, a variety of percussion instruments and great vocal interplay. They are currently releasing singles on Moshi Moshi Records and have been on nationwide tours with bands such as Fionn Regan, Noisettes, Hot Club de Paris, Tilly and the Wall, Jamie T and Jeremy Warmsley. The pair have released a series of EPs: Because We're Dead, Me And You, Let's Fall Back in Love, Christmas TV and It Doesn't Have To Be Beautiful. Their debut album, Yeah So, was released on 7 July 2009.
Willy Mason (born 21 November 1984) is an American singer-songwriter. He is the son of Jemima James and Michael Mason, both folk singers who, according to Mason, have influenced his music. When Mason was five, he and his family moved from New York to West Tisbury, Massachusetts on the island of Martha's Vineyard. He attended West Tisbury Elementary School and Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, where he participated in several local bands such as Keep Thinking, Cultivation, and Slow Leslie. He later moved to New York City, playing mostly at open mikes and small venues.
When the mother of guitarist Alister Wright banned him from playing Counter Strike and signed him up for the local musical to make some friends, Mamma Wright claimed she only did what any mother would have done. It was, however, an act of exemplary parenting that would be applauded in child-rearing manuals for years to come. From his back row position in the chorus of Pirates of Penzance, Alister could see that the production team was having issues with the shaggy-haired lighting man Ulrich Lenffer, whose need to hit things rhythmically made him useless at following the directors cues.
Glasgow-based dark folk trio Sparrow and The Workshop comprises of Belfast-born, Chicago-raised Jill O’Sullivan (vocals/guitar/violin), Welshman Nick Packer (guitar/bass) and Scotsman Gregor Donaldson (drums/vocals.) Their first full-length album 'Crystals Fall' was released in April 2010 by Distiller Records to critical acclaim. Clash Magazine called it "a brilliant debut album that will be hard to beat in 2010", Mojo said "ignore them if you dare", and Drowned in Sound said of the album "Everything on Crystals Fall is delivered with such an assured...
Stage name of Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter Matt Ward. Ward grew up in Newbury Park, CA and attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Ward was previously with the band Rodriguez, which included bassist Kyle Field (of Little Wings fame) and drummer Mike Funk. They recorded and released on cassette Box Plots and Cash Crops and then the album Swing Like a Metronome in 2000. Duet for Guitars #2 was released by Howe Gelb on his Ow Om record label. Ward's 2001 album, End of Amnesia, was put out by Future Farmer Records and his subsequent albums have been released on Merge Records.
Hayward Williams grew up with a guitar in his hands, performing from an early age in cafés, bars, and eventually rock clubs throughout his home state of Wisconsin and around the Midwest. A high school 'Battle of the Bands' champion, the textbook lonely college kid making dinner dates with his guitar, Williams took the well-worn suburban route to musical accomplishment: he hit the ground running with a '64 Gibson that his mother bought at a garage sale, listened hard to everything from the Beatles to Buckley, and somewhere along the way began to write the tunes that would become his own voice.
Creedence Clearwater Revival, frequently referred to as CCR or simply Creedence, was an American roots rock band, fronted by John Fogerty. The band started out as The Blue Velvets, formed by John Fogerty, Doug Clifford, and Stu Cook in El Cerrito, California in the late 1950s. They were an instrumental trio, however during the early '60s they began backing Tom Fogerty, John's older brother, for school dances at El Cerrito High School, on fraternity house gigs and in the recording studio.
Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is a two-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer from the United States. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards. Rickie Lee Jones is a singer songwriter whose style leans on jazz and pop/R&B timing and personification.
Jones settled in LA at the age of nineteen, doing the classic waiting tables stuff until she landed a recording contract with Warners. Her self-titled debut album in 1979 was a big success, as was the single, Chuck E.'s in Love, about her musician friend Chuck E. Weiss. At the 1980 Grammy Awards, she won a Grammy for Best New Artist, and also received four more nominations: for Record of the Year; Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female; Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female; and Song of the Year (for "Chuck E.'s in Love"). While none of her subsequent recordings achieved the same level of commercial success, Jones has continued releasing critically acclaimed albums that have explored a variety of sonic terrain from jazz standards to trip hop influenced works.
Jones' pursuit of jazz standards led to the recording of "The Moon Is Made of Gold" and "Autumn Leaves" for Rob Wasserman's album Duets in 1985. The latter track earned her another Grammy nomination. And in 1990, her duet with Dr. John, a cover of "Makin' Whoopee", earned the artist her second Grammy Award, this time in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Performance, Duo or Group.
At the time of recording her debut album, Jones was in a romantic relationship with Tom Waits; she is the girl draped over the car on the cover of his 1978 album Blue Valentine.
Early in her career, Jones was known for her drinking and substance abuse. She eventually tempered those demons, and came to terms with herself, and her own uncertain spirituality, and has maintained respect of her musical peers.
She's devoted to her talents, beyond music, one of which is raising her teenage daughter, and has even run her own political website and made music critiquing the Bush administration. She is involved in left-wing politics and community activism, partly through her web community, Furniture for the People (http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/).
A greatest hits collection on Rhino called The Duchess of Coolsville was released in 2005.
In 2007 she signed to New West Records releasing The Sermon On Exposition Blvd, a record exploring lyrical territory inspired by Lee Cantelon's 1991 book The Words, which attempted to translate Christ's teachings into a more accessible contemporary format. Cantelon's friend, Guitarist Peter Atanasoff was instrumental in the creation of the eventual record.
Discography
1979: Rickie Lee Jones – Warner Bros.
1981: Pirates – Warner Bros.
1983: Girl at Her Volcano (EP) – Warner Bros.
1984: The Magazine – Warner Bros.
1989: Flying Cowboys - Geffen
1991: Pop Pop - Geffen
1993: Traffic From Paradise - Geffen
1995: Naked Songs - Reprise
1997: Ghostyhead – Warner Bros.
2000: It's Like This - Artemis
2001: Live at Red Rocks - Artemis
2003: The Evening of My Best Day – V2
2005: Duchess of Coolsville - Rhino
2007: Sermon On Exposition Boulevard - New West
2009: Balm in Gilead
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