Lauren Ruth Ward (US), Praha, Futurum, 26/3/2023. More info and tickets HERE.
[/trim]Andrew Combs (US), Support: Alasdair Bouch (UK), 13.9.2022, Café V lese. More info and tickets HERE.
[/trim]Daniel Romano’s Outfit (CA), Guest: Adrian T. Bell (UK/CZ), Support Carson McHone (US), 26.6.2022, Cross Club Open Air. More info and tickets HERE.
[/trim]After her very first and sold out 2019 show in Cafe V lese Lauren Ruth Ward is coming back to Prague. She’ll bring her new album “Vol.II” which came on 13 March this year.
Everyone remembers the first time they see Lauren Ruth Ward sing. Not many singers has that effect. The thing is, youʼve never seen someone sing from every cell in their being and well, it changes your own chemistry for a moment. You think, if she can be bigger than her body, why canʼt I? And just like that, you are empowered. Whatʼs better, you never expected it would feel
this fun.
Critics have declared Lauren Ruth Ward as a cross between Janis Joplin, Florence Welch and Courtney Barnett. debut album “Well, Hell” garnered accolades from NYLON, Noisey, Consequence of Sound, the Los Angeles Times, Indie Shuffle and more. Viral clips spread quickly of this new phenomʼs visceral live performance. Singing in the faces of fans, songs like “Blue Collar Sex Kitten”, “Make Love to Myself” and the soul crushing “Did I Offend You”. In no time, LRW was playing to sold out crowds in the US and overseas, sharing stages with artists as diverse as LP, the Yeah Yeah Yeahʼs, Shirley
Manson, Eddie Vedder, Shakey Graves, Liz Phair and even Keith Urban; with a growing reputation for stealing the show.
Rock nʼ Roll in 2020 really needs something. Thank the fucking Goddesses above and below for sending us Lauren Ruth Ward.
Website | Instagram |Facebook | FB event
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One of New York CIty’s most beloved and talked-about bands, VickiKristinaBarcelona transforms the songs of Tom Waits, showing them in a new light, a genre unto themselves, while maintaining the original humor and pathos. Their repertoire explores the vast landscape of Waits’ styles, by turns danceable and philosophical, humorous, unsettling and heart-warming.
The beautiful song melodies are unearthed by breathtakingly gorgeous and inventive three-part harmonies and often surprising arrangements, via an array of instruments including accordion, guitar, percussion, harmonium, banjo, bottles and bells.
Rachelle Garniez, Amanda Homi and Terry Radigan are each seasoned singer-songwriters with distinctive differences. Rachelle’s genre-fluid Cabaret, Amanda’s Global rhythms and forms, and Terry’s traditional Americana Roots all combine to form a sound greater than the sum of its’ parts. While most of the songs are built around the signature ensemble vocals, each member of the band is also featured individually, organically choosing a Waits song that best fits their personality.
The name of the band is an adaptation of a Woody Allen movie title. As the film centers on the story of three strong women and their complicated dance around a male character, it is a reflection of the group’s dynamic and mission. There is a playfulness to the reference, a sly wink and a reclaiming of female power.
Their first album, “Pawn Shop Radio” came out on 29 May 2020.
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After the sold out show last year in Cafe V lese Lauren Ruth Ward is coming back to Prague. She’ll bring her new album “Vol.II” which came on 13 March this year.
Everyone remembers the first time they see Lauren Ruth Ward sing. Not many singers has that effect. The thing is, youʼve never seen someone sing from every cell in their being and well, it changes your own chemistry for a moment. You think, if she can be bigger than her body, why canʼt I? And just like that, you are empowered. Whatʼs better, you never expected it would feel
this fun.
Critics have declared Lauren Ruth Ward as a cross between Janis Joplin, Florence Welch and Courtney Barnett. debut album “Well, Hell” garnered accolades from NYLON, Noisey, Consequence of Sound, the Los Angeles Times, Indie Shuffle and more. Viral clips spread quickly of this new phenomʼs visceral live performance. Singing in the faces of fans, songs like “Blue Collar Sex Kitten”, “Make Love to Myself” and the soul crushing “Did I Offend You”. In no time, LRW was playing to sold out crowds in the US and overseas, sharing stages with artists as diverse as LP, the Yeah Yeah Yeahʼs, Shirley
Manson, Eddie Vedder, Shakey Graves, Liz Phair and even Keith Urban; with a growing reputation for stealing the show.
Rock nʼ Roll in 2020 really needs something. Thank the fucking Goddesses above and below for sending us Lauren Ruth Ward.
Website | Instagram |Facebook | FB event
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Tim Eriksen unites a mastery of traditional American and world folk styles with innovative arrangement, original and experimental music. “One of the best singers in music” according to producer T Bone Burnett, he has contributed extensively to films including Cold Mountain, for which he worked closely with Jack White, Ralph Stanley and Nicole Kidman, and his song I Wish The Wars Were All Over was chosen by Joan Baez to be her final recorded musical statement. His singing and storytelling, alternately heart breaking and hilarious, showcase his ability to bring a rare depth of musical and emotional experience even to those who are completely new to his “hardcore Americana” and world music sound.
A multi-instrumentalist whose performances typically include banjo, fiddle, guitar, bajo sexto (Mexican twelve string bass) and kaval (Balkan end blown flute), Eriksen’s influences range from the American folksong canon and “shape-note” music to Ottoman-era Balkan love songs and otherworldly indie folk. His theater and dance collaborations have included live original music for Minnesota Dance Theater (“In The Shadow Of The Mountain,” 2006), Nimbus Dance (“Hollow Square,” 2019) and the play “Refugee” by Milan Dragicevich (2017-2019). He has performed his ongoing “Pumpkintown,” magic lantern musical theater from an imaginary village, at venues including Harvard University, Dartmouth College, Occidental College, Theatre
Thenardier (Paris), Konstepidemin (Gothenburg) and throughout the UK and US.
Eriksen’s primary musical training was in South Indian classical music, and he holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, but he cut his teeth playing punk, world and indie rock in seminal bands including Cordelia’s Dad (post-punk and folk) and Žabe I Babe (Bosnian folk and rock). He has recorded with artists including Afro Cuban pianist Omar Sosa (on the twice Grammy nominated Across the Divide), English fiddle legend Eliza Carthy, and in composer Evan Chambers’ symphonic song cycle The Old Burying Ground. His recent and upcoming work includes a second collaboration with Omar Sosa, collaboration with legendary producer Joe Boyd (Nick Drake, Pink Floyd) and a posthumous recording project with Esma Redžepova, “the queen of Gypsy music.” With his longtime involvement in Sacred Harp or “shape-note” singing he has helped spearhead an international revival of the music, teaching workshops across North America, Europe and as far abroad as Singapore. Eriksen’s media appearances have included Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage and the Academy Awards, and he
has been called the only performer to have shared a stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson.
TICKETS: https://goout.net/en/concerts/tim-eriksen/wsyhf/+wovnp/
www.youtube.com/user/batfancy
www.timeriksenmusic.com
www.facebook.com/timeriksenmusic
Sometimes you listen to a band and say to yourself – that would be great to work with such amazing artist… yep, as you wish, here you go! We are happy to announce ORKESTA MENDOZA, hot and intriguing band from Tucson, USA, is a new member of our family. Check out the band’s profile HERE.
[/trim]“Orkesta Mendoza is one of the best live bands out there. Their music delves into a myriad of directions, rhythms and moods, big band orchestrations mixed with lo fi electronica, vocals en Español together with moving instrumentals.” — Joey Burns, Calexico
Something is stirring in downtown Tucson. That’s no great surprise perhaps: Calexico have been sending out missives from the desert for 20 years now, Giant Sand for even longer than that, and the Green on Red revival is surely overdue. These three giants of American popular music ask questions of the form, chiefly because of where they are situated. Let us remind ourselves that this isn’t a big city in the American sense (it’s the country’s 33rd largest), but that its hinterland is indeed as big as it gets. For an hour south, Mexico starts. And this is where things get interesting.
Born in Nogales, Arizona, raised in Nogales, Sonora, multi-instrumentalist and band-leader Sergio Mendoza grew up listening to the Mexican regional styles jostling for headspace in a young, music- mad mind – cumbia mainly, but mambo, rancheras and mariachi too. The border is always a fierce arena of exchange, both commercial and cultural, and so there was American music too. At one point ‘rock and roll, the classics’, as Mendoza himself deadpans, seemed to win out and he stopped playing those ‘Latin styles’ for a good decade and a half.
The return to those sounds was a strong one in 2012’s Mambo Mexicano, co-produced by Mendoza and Joey Burns of Calexico – a band for which Mendoza has become an increasingly integral touring and recording member. While that record had a studied air, tentative in parts (as befits the renewal of an old love affair), ¡Vamos A Guarachar!, released on 7 October 2016 by prestigious Glitterbeat Rec., is another beast entirely: by turns raucous (‘Cumbia Volcadora’, featuring Mexican electronic pioneer Camilo Lara), tender (‘Misterio’, surely Salvador Duran’s finest moment with the band so far) and plain serious fun, as in ‘Contra La Marea’ and ‘Mapache’, it also bears a robust electronic edge, a keen pop sensibility and all the hallmarks of Mendoza’s love of 60s rock, with the closing track, ‘Shadows of the Mind’, sure to be included if anyone decides to update the Nuggets collection for the 21st century. This is roundabout way of saying that it appears to have everything, but never too much of anything. Focused, fierce and beautifully executed by a superbly drilled set of musicians, it is a record that fully matches the band’s explosive live performances.
Nogales, Sonora, Nogales, Arizona: this is what the border looks like here – for now. To talk about borders and the diasporas they create, is to be pitched headlong into our era’s most urgent debate, marked by Trump’s lurid obscenities and the lines being hastily reinstated across Europe. Orkesta Mendoza’s contribution to that debate is to show us what the border sounds like and what masterpieces can be achieved by honest cultural exchange. What we decide to do with that information is up to us. With this record, however, we’ll have an awful lot of fun deciding.
You could, of course, take the trip to Tucson yourself, to the home of this essential set of field recordings. The scene hangs out together, so … if the stars align and their frantic tour schedules permit, you might see any number of folks from Calexico, Giant Sand or up-and-coming cumbia rockers XIXA deep in conversation somewhere in town with a quiet young man in black. That’s Sergio. Right now, in this endless game of Tucson tag, Orkesta Mendoza are IT.
PRESS
“Mixing 60s rock styles with traditional Latin stompers, the US-Mexicanband are both experimental and rousing.” – The Guardian
“A sunny-side-up mix of cumbia, mambo, indie and electronica… If you think Latin American music tends towards the formula, try this out for size.” — fRoots
“Sergio Mendoza is probably my favourite musician of this time. He has the cumbia and mambo in his DNA, but he has the power to make it sound like today. His Orkesta is as punk as the Sex Pistols and as violent as Perez Prado” — Camilo Lara, Mexican Institute of Sound
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“one of the best voices in music” – T Bone Burnett
Tim Eriksen is acclaimed for transforming American tradition with his startling interpretations of old ballads, love songs, shape-note gospel and dance tunes from New England and Southern Appalachia. He combines hair-raising vocals with inventive accompaniment on banjo, fiddle, guitar and bajo sexto, creating a distinctive hardcore Americana sound that ranges from the bare bones of solo unaccompanied singing on his album “Soul of the January Hills” (Appleseed 2010) through the stripped-down voice and bajo sexto Christmas album “Star in the East” (timeriksenmusic 2012) to the lush, multi-layered arrangements on “Josh Billings Voyage”, the new album of northern roots American music from the imaginary village of Pumpkintown (timeriksenmusic 2012).
Eriksen’s own compositions, which NetRhythms UK described as “strange and original works”, have been featured in films like the Billy Bob Thornton vehicle “Chrystal” and the upcoming documentary “Behold the Earth”. Eriksen’s other notable work has included extensive contributions to Anthony Minghella‘s 2004 Oscar-winning film “Cold Mountain” as well as collaborations ranging from hardcore punk and Bosnian pop to symphony orchestra and the 2010 Grammy-nominated album “Across the Divide with Afro-Cuban world-jazz pianist Omar Sosa.
The former frontman of the prophetic groups Cordelia’s Dad (folk-noise), Northampton Harmony (shape-note quartet) and Zabe i Babe (Bosnian folk and pop), Tim Eriksen is the only musician to have shared the stage with both Kurt Cobain and Doc Watson, and his media appearances have ranged from Prairie Home Companion to the Academy Awards. Having graduated from early shows at punk mecca CBGB, Tim’s more recent performances have included his Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Even Chambers‘ symphonic work “The Old Burying Ground” and two week-long stints at the Blue Note Jazz Club with Omar Sosa. In the studio, he has worked with producers including Joe Boyd, T-Bone Burnett and Steve Albini.
While Eriksen’s curiosity and passion have led him on many musical journeys besides American roots – from punk rock and shape-note gospel through South Indian classical music and Bosnian pop to world jazz and contemporary symphonic music – all his explorations are linked by the qualities of intensity, directness, and authority which combine in a music that captures a truth about human experience and expresses it without apology.
TEACHING AND SCHOLARSHIP
Tim Eriksen’s work as an ethnomusicologist and teacher has included extensive research on shape-note music in New England and the venerable Sacred Harp four-part harmony tradition. He is a founder of what is currently the world’s largest Sacred Harp singing convention, in Northampton, MA. In the words of Paste Magazine editor Josh Jackson, “no one has done more to help revive Sacred Harp singing among a younger generation.”
Eriksen has taught college courses including American Balladry, Global Sounds, Film Music from Hollywood to Bollywood, American Music, and Songwriting at Dartmouth College, Amherst College, Smith College, The University of Minnesota, Hampshire College and Wesleyan University. In addition, he has taught hundreds of hour- to week-long workshops and seminars in shape-note harmony singing, American music history, ballad singing and instrumental accompaniment at festivals, universities, museums and arts centers, including the Smithsonian Institution, Harvard University, the Society for Ethnomusicology Convention, Colours of Ostrava Festival (Czech Republic), Camp Fasola (Anniston, AL) and the Early Music Festival in Jaroslaw, Poland. His students have ranged from a group of kindergarteners at an inner city school in Portland, Oregon to Nicole Kidman, Elvis Costello, Sting and a group of fifty Romanian extras in the film Cold Mountain and the senior citizen members of the now legendary Young at Heart Chorus.
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