Hot Buttered Rum’s ‘Lonesome Panoramic’ Out Today “Tight Tunes & Whispers of Tom Petty”

Hot Buttered Rum’s Lonesome Panoramic OUT TODAY July 20, 2018
Recorded at Panoramic House Studio in Stinson Beach, CA
w/ Special Guests ALO’s Zach Gill and Dan Lebowitz,
The Coffis Brothers, and Rainbow Girls

Available now on all outlets → https://fanlink.to/HBRLoPan

SAN FRANCISCO, CA– Rooted in the trajectory of west coast bluegrass, uptempo string band Hot Buttered Rum is thrilled to independently release their sixth studio album, Lonesome Panoramic on July 20, 2018. The songs in Lonesome Panoramic are inspired by the northern California landscape and include mid-tempo Americana rockers, buoyant bluegrass tunes, lively boogies, and dark groves. The band is delighted to have garnered early support of the album with song premieres from Relix, The Bluegrass Situation, Live For Live Music, Bluegrass Today, and The Bay Bridged!

No Depression’s Jim Shahen, in a review entitled, “Tight Tunes and Whispers of Tom Petty,” writes that the album is “some of the band’s tightest material to date…. Over its 15-plus-year career, the band has proven itself capable of pulling together strands of country, folk, bluegrass, and jam music into an energetic, good-time experience. But with the batch of well-crafted, sharply performed tunes they cooked up on Lonesome Panoramic, Hot Buttered Rum has managed to blend its ragged charms with that of a well-oiled musical machine.”

Country Standard Time’s Jim Hynes calls it “refreshing, breezy music.” He goes on to write, “Stellar musicianship and sturdy vocals help an album centered mostly on songs. Several threads and layers run through the music, embellishing the carefully crafted material.”

Bluegrass Today’s John Lawless acknowledges “…the band appeals to a wide range of listeners; bluegrass and old time fans who are drawn by their instrumentation and ability, plus live music lovers of all types who respond to their high-energy shows… Hot Buttered Rum has become a staple of the progressive bluegrass scene with their quick-paced and fiery blend of bluegrass, folk, rock, and country.”

The band’s two vocalists and songwriters, guitarist Nat Keefe and multi-instrumentalist Erik Yates (mainly 5-string banjo, also resonator and acoustic guitars), take turns in writing and leading the songs. Rounding out the band, Bryan Horne delivers, in true athletic form, his talents on upright bass along with charismatic fiddler and harmony vocalist Zebulon Bowles and drummer/percussionist/mandolinist James Stafford, providing a warm and solid rhythmic foundation.

Self-produced, Lonesome Panoramic was recorded at Panoramic House Studio in Stinson Beach, CA, along the Panoramic Highway with majestic views of the western Marin County coastline. Lonesome Panoramic was engineered by Robert Cheek (Band of Horses, The Chris Robinson Brotherhood), mixed by Zebulon Bowles, and mastered by David Little.

Jim Pasinski gives a nice rundown of the tracks on his blog and writes, “It features 13-tracks, beginning with the high-energy swing of ‘You Can Tell’ and the steady strumming of ‘Sittin’ Here Alone.’ They slow the tempo down for the acoustic ballads ‘Country Tunes And Love Songs’ and ‘How Short The Song,’ before the fun, quick pace of ‘Never Got Married.’ The album continues with the tales of ‘Sleeping Giants’ and the swift pace of ‘Mighty Fine,’ before finishing with the 8-minute blues of ‘The One That Everybody Knows’ and sweet soulful sounds of the ‘Deep End.’”

With Lonesome Panoramic, Hot Buttered Rum wades the full width of the river from the shoals to the deep waters with a passionate, laid back attitude and they are excited to share this new album with the world.

Listen to an interview with Erik Yates in The Sound Podcast with Ira Haberman

Lonesome Panoramic Track Listing
1. You Can Tell   2:11 (Yates)
2. Sittin’ Here Alone   3:14 (Keefe)
3. Country Tunes & Love Songs (ft. The Coffis Bros.)  4:29 (Keefe, K Coffis, J Coffis)
4. How Short the Song   3:27 (Yates)
5. Treasure Island Blues   4:46 (Yates)
6. Never Got Married   2:50  (Keefe)
7. Spirits Still Come (ft. Rainbow Girls)   4:54 (Keefe)
8. Sleeping Giants   5:04  (Yates)
9. Leaving Dallas   4:31 (Keefe)
10. When that Lonesome Feeling Comes 4:07 (Yates)
11. Mighty Fine   4:25 (Keefe)
12. The One that Everybody Knows   8:04  (Yates)
13. The Deep End (ft. ALO)   4:55 (Keefe, Yates, Lebowitz, Gill)

Hot Buttered Rum is:
Zebulon Bowles – fiddle (all), backup vocals (2,8,10,13), Pacific Ocean (7)
Bryan Horne – upright bass (all)
Nat Keefe – acoustic guitar (all but 4), lead vocals (2,3,6,7,9,11,13), backup vocals (8,10)
James Stafford – drums and percussion (3,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,12), mandolin (1,2,9)
Erik Yates – 5-string banjo (1,2,6,8,9,10,11,12,13), lead vocals (1,5,8,10,12,13), acoustic guitar (4), resophonic guitar (3,5,7), backup vocals (2)

Guest Musicians:
Jamie Coffis – vocals (3)
Kellen Coffis – vocals (3)
Rainbow Girls: Erin Chapin, Caitlin Gowdey, Vanessa May – backup vocals (7,13)
Dan Lebowitz (ALO) – electric guitar & vocals (13)
Zach Gill (ALO) – vocals (13)

For more information and updates from the road, please visit www.hotbutteredrum.net, www.facebook.com/hotbutteredrum, www.twitter.com/hotbutteredrum, and www.instagram.com/hot.buttered.rum.band.

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Love Canon’s ‘Cover Story’ Out Today On Organic Records – w/ Guests Jerry Douglas, Aoife O’Donovan, Keller Williams

Love Canon’s Cover Story Out Today On Organic Records
With Guest Artists Jerry Douglas, Aoife O’Donovan, Keller Williams,
Michael Cleveland, Eric Krasno, Alex Hargreaves, Mike Barnett, and more!

Available on all outlets at → https://clg.lnk.to/yNLcf

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA — LOVE CANON releases Cover Story, their 4th album, TODAY, July 13, 2018, on Organic Records. They are master instrumentalists with a charismatic lead vocalist, and they cleverly bring their acoustic-roots sensibilities to the electronic-tinged pop hits of the 80s and 90s to create a fresh set of classics. A plethora of special guests join in on the album including Dobro master Jerry Douglas, Aoife O’Donovan, Keller Williams, Michael Cleveland, and Eric Krasno, among others.

LOVE CANON pleases audiences of many walks of life, which is testified by early listens in publications running the gamut of genres including Bluegrass Today, JamBase, The Boot, and Cover Me Songs!

Blue Ridge Outdoors writes, “Love Canon is leading an eighties acoustic revival. But make no mistake. Love Canon is most definitely not a tribute band. This is not kitsch or schtick. These guys are bad ass pickers, with as much (if not more) prowess on their instruments as the bluegrass bands out there tackling more traditional Bill Monroe or Stanley Brothers standards. These guys prove their brilliance in their interpretations of these songs and the attention to detail and the work on Cover Story is simply genius.”

The band’s diehard fans are music lovers first and are drawn to the wide-ranging stylings of lead singer and guitarist Jesse Harper matched with banjo master Adam Larrabee, mandolin pickin’ by Andy Thacker, Darrell Muller holding down the low-end on standup bass, and the slick sounds of resonator guitar king Jay Starling on the Beard MA-6. It’s acoustic rock! Acclaimed fiddler Alex Hargreaves [Turtle Island Quartet, Sarah Jarosz] does all of the fiddling on this record with the exception of two tracks, and he occasionally joins them on tour.

LOVE CANON has taken many of the suggestions called out at their high-energy live shows as well as from their guest performers to offer nine invigorating tracks to bring it to the max! From the instrumental album opener, “Prelude (Angry Young Man)” by Billy Joel, to the unforgettable chorus of Howard Jones’ “Things Can Only Get Better” to the 7/4 timing of Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill / Icecaps Of Pentatonia” (with guest vocalist Mark Errelli [Lori McKenna, Paula Cole and Josh Ritter]), they run the gamut of songs from the cassette generation.  

When LOVE CANON was first thinking of putting together a guest artist record Jerry Douglas was at the top of their list. He not only acquiesced, but proposed the great Mr. Mister tune, “Kyrie Eleison.” Mike Barnett [Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Bryan Sutton Band] joins in on fiddle for this track.

Aoife O’Donovan seamlessly blends her beautiful vocal harmonies with Harper on Paul Simon’s “Graceland,” and, with ten International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Fiddle Player of the Year awards under his belt, Michael Cleveland steps in blazing on fiddle.

“Stripped of its slick ’70s country production and replaced with upbeat horns and killer harmonies, ‘Islands in the Stream’ is a perfect laid-back love ballad when performed by Love Canon,” writes The Boot about the band’s take on the Barry Gibb [Bee Gees] classic. It features Lauren Balthrop [Dear Georgiana, Balthrop Alabama, The Bandana Splits], singing the tarnation out of the Dolly Parton part, while Harper takes on Kenny Rogers complete with a saxophone and trumpet section at the end featuring Charlottesville Jazz legends Bobby Read and John D’earth [Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers].

Another great example of using bluegrass instrumentation to imitate the ambient electronic processed sounds is the very epic, cinematic version of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence,” complete with a soaring string arrangement at the end by Trey Pollard of Richmond, Virginia’s Spacebomb Studios.

Guitar hero Eric “Kraz” Krasno does a bang-up job with a fierce guitar solo on Squeeze’s “Tempted,” a song he recommended. Keller Williams brought the closing track, “Driver 8” (R.E.M.), to the band’s attention as a personal favorite; Keller wanted to do an uptempo bluegrass arrangement and LOVE CANON was envisioning a reggae/dub version, so they compromised and added the jaw-dropping classical fiddle work of Mike Barnett.

As seasoned virtuoso string players who have been touring the mid-Atlantic since 2010, LOVE CANON stays true to the approach, arrangements, and keen artistry of these nostalgic hits. Cover Story was engineered by Rob Evans at Dave Matthews Band’s Haunted Hollow Studio in the band’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia and mixed by Wayne Pooley, Bruce Hornsby’s Engineer/Producer. Cover Story is a follow up to the band’s previous efforts, Greatest Hits Volumes 1-3.

With this adventurous chapter in their Cover Story, LOVE CANON proves they don’t just know music history but have a vision for where music can go.

 

Love Canon photos credited to Sandlin Gaither

Cover Story Track Listing:
1. Prelude (Angry Young Man)   2:22 [Billy Joel]
2. Things Can Only Get Better   5:01 [Howard Jones]
3. Kyrie Eleison   4:13 [Steven Park, John R Lang, Richard J Page]
4. Graceland   5:56 [Paul Simon]
5. Islands In The Stream   4:04 [Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb]
6. Enjoy The Silence   5:09 [Martin L Gore]
7. Solsbury Hill / Icecaps Of Pentatonia – Medley   5:29 [Peter Gabriel]
8. Tempted   5:21 [Christopher H Difford, Glenn M Tilbrook]
9. Driver 8   6:37 [Peter Buck, Bill Berry]

LOVE CANON is:
Jesse Harper – Guitar, Lead Vocals
Adam Larrabee – Banjo, Vocals
Andy Thacker – Mandolin, Vocals
Darrell Muller – Standup Bass, Vocals
Jay Starling – Resonator Guitar, Vocals

Guest Artists:
Alex Hargreaves – Fiddle – 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8
Sam Wilson – Backing Vocals – 2
Jerry Douglas – Dobro – 3
Mike Barnett – Fiddle – 3, 9
Michael Cleveland – Fiddle – 4
Aoife O’Donovan – Vocals – 4
John D’earth – Trumpet – 5
Bobby Read – Tenor Sax – 5
Lauren Balthrop – Vocals – 5
Trey Pollard – String Arrangement – 6
Colin Killalea – Nylon String Guitar and Backing Vocals – 6
Mark Erelli – Lead Vocals – 7
Erik Krasno – Lead and Backing Vocals and Electric Guitar Solo – 8
Daniel Clarke – Wurlitzer Piano – 7
Keller Williams – Lead Vocals – 9

Available on all outlets at → https://clg.lnk.to/yNLcf

Find out more about LOVE CANON at www.lovecanonmusic.com.

 

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Chicago Farmer Shares New Song From ‘Quarter Past Tonight,’ Due Out Aug. 3

‘Quarter Past Tonight’ Live Album Art by Keith Berson Photography

Chicago Farmer Releases a Live Double Disc Album on Aug. 3
Quarter Past Tonight
Recorded at the Apollo Theater in Peoria, IL
During Two Nights of Sold Out Shows

“Chicago Farmer has a truly eclectic style that echoes Arlo Guthrie’s with a contemporary twist, and his storytelling is presented in clear syncopated cadence.” —Americana Highways: Song Premiere of “Dirtiest Uniforms”

BLOOMINGTON, IL — Some live albums are so good they become the recordings those artists are known for. Frampton Comes Alive and Cheap Trick at Budokan were monster hits and catapulted them to rock superstar status. Cody Diekhoff, too, has big hopes for his first live Chicago Farmer first live album, Quarter Past Tonight, a two-disc set to be independently released Aug. 3. “Folk superstar would be just fine,” Diekhoff says.

A touring musician for 20 years with a quarter century of writing songs under his belt, Diekhoff has seen the type size for his moniker grow steadily larger on festival posters over the years. He called his 21-song 2005 debut album About Time, and the same title would have fit for the new live album, recorded Dec. 1-2, two sold-out nights at the Apollo Theater in Peoria, IL in 2017. This is a solo record with Cody being the only performer, singing and playing guitar as well as harmonica as Chicago Farmer. Fans have requested a live album for years with a love for his stories and banter as much as his songs.

Chicago Farmer. Photo by Troy Phillips

“People for the longest time have been coming up to me at the merch table — ‘What do you have that’s just like what you just did on stage,’” Diekhoff says. “So after a long time of putting it off, I finally did it.”

Quarter Past Tonight is a celebration of a musical career in which he’s recorded five studio albums of Chicago Farmer music, criss-crossed the country playing thousands of shows, and shared stages with Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider, Greg Brown, Greensky Bluegrass, The Wood Brothers, Elizabeth Cook, Wayne Hancock, Del McCoury, and Gene Ween — the last two on the same weekend. It also marks a milestone in his life, coming out just before his 40th birthday. “This is kind of my big tribute to me for sticking around this long,” he says.

Growing up in the tiny Illinois town of Delavan (born the same year Cheap Trick at Budokan was recorded), Diekhoff got the writing bug in high school, translating daydreams into stories. He thought of becoming an English teacher… but then he got a guitar. A friend’s father with a guitar introduced him to the timeless artistry of Hank Williams, and when he moved to Chicago after high school he went to the famed Old Town School of Folk Music to hone his harmonica skills and took a deep dive into work of John Prine and Steve Goodman, giants of the Chicago folk scene. Neil Young, John Fogerty, and Arlo Guthrie were among the other role models Diekhoff turned to as he launched his career.

The storytelling he does came early on, from having to fill a four-hour gig without repeating his songs, so he began crafting elaborate introductions to his songs. “In some cases, I guess the story of the song became more entertaining than some of the songs themselves, so people started reciting and requesting those as well,” he says.

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Chris Harden of The I.V. Labs Studios in Chicago, Quarter Past Tonight offers a greatest-hits retrospective of his work with 32 tracks of stories and songs, including “Watch Doctor,” “Round Table,” and “Postcards” from his debut album, “Illinois Anthem” and “Assembly Line Blues” off of From a Small Town in Illinois [2006], “Weatherman” from Talk of Town [2007], “Workin’ On It” and “Backseat” from Backenforth, IL [2013], and “Rocco N’ Susie” and “Umbrella” from Midwest Side Stories [2016]. The album also features three new original Chicago Farmer songs — “Dirtiest Uniforms,” “$13 Beers,” and “I Need A Hit “— as well as a cover of Backyard Tire Fire’s “Good to Be.”

Quarter Past Tonight is about as authentic as they come. The first disc is the first night’s show, as presented, and disc two documents the second night just as it happened. What’s on those discs is about 98 percent of what he gave the audiences those nights. “We tried to keep it as real as we could,” he says, and that’s his approach to songwriting, too. “Now that I’m older, there’s way more honesty and realness that goes into my songs. Life has happened to me in the last decade, good and bad, and that’s what these songs are about.”

Todd Snider has called Chicago Farmer “the genuine heir to Arlo Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot,” and he’s one of Pokey La Farge’s favorite singers. Accolades like that and the chance to record a double live album have Diekhoff feeling fortunate. He’s grateful for what he’s been able to do, for being able to make his daydreams come true, and yet he wants more, has unfulfilled ambitions and feels no relief from “the creativity bug.”

“My heroes all have their own chapter in the Great American Folk Book. Right now, I have a run-on sentence,” he says. “With this live album, I hope it will turn into a paragraph, and maybe a page, and who knows, maybe a chapter of my own. I’m a quarter century into it and feel my best adventures and songs are yet to come.”

Chicago Farmer 2018 Tour Dates
7/12 Thu – The Village Idiot – Maumee, OH
7/14 Sat – Acorn Theater – Three Oaks, MI
7/26 Thu – The Southgate House Revival Sanctuary – Newport, KY
7/27 Fri – Zanzabar – Louisville, KY
7/28 Sat – The Bootleg at Atomic Cowboy  – St. Louis, MO
8/2 Thu – SPACE (40th B-day Celebration) – Evanston, IL
8/3-4 Fri-Sat – Castle Theatre (40th B-day Celebration) – Bloomington, IL
8/9 Thu –  Codfish Hollow Barnstormers – Maquoketa, IA
8/10 Fri – The Washington – Burlington, IA
8/11 Sat – People Fest – Hillsboro, WI
8/15 Wed – Harmony By The Bay – Sturgeon Bay, WI
8/16 Thu – 3 Sheeps Brewing – Sheboygan, WI
8/17 Fri – Minocqua Brewing Co. – Minocqua, WI
8/18 Sat – Short Branch Saloon – Neenah, WI
8/22 Wed – Hi-Fi – Indianapolis, IN
8/23 Thu – Whispering Beard Folk Fest – Friendship, IN
8/31 Fri – Brewgrass Festival at Edgewater – Madison, WI
9/1 Sat – Shoe Fest – Manteno, IL
9/6 Thu – Woodlands Tavern – Columbus, OH
9/13 Thu – Raccoon Motel – Davenport, IA
9/14 Fri – Cavalier Theater – La Crosse, WI
9/15-16 Sat-Sun – Prairie Burn Music Festival – Hudson, WI
10/12-13 Fri-Sat –  Wander Down Music Festival – Makanda, IL

Quarter Past Tonight Track Listing:

Disc One

1. Dirtiest Uniforms   (4:52) [Previously Unreleased]
2. Round Table   (4:38)
3. Pulled Over On 29   (1:29)*
4. Anymore   (2:54)
5. Benefits   (1:23)*
6. Backseat   (7:57)
7. Assembly Line Blues   (3:23)
8. $13 Dollar Beers   (3:03) [Previously Unreleased]
9. Six Records   (1:00)*
10. Who On Earth   (4:42)
11. Fall   (4:05)
12. Illinois Anthem   (4:03)
13. Jon Stokes Prison Break Blues   (3:34)
14. People N’ Places   (10:56)
15. Good To Be   (3:27) [by Edward David Anderson & Backyard Tire Fire]
    
    Disc Two
16. I Need A Hit   (5:07) [Previously Unreleased]
17. Umbrella   (4:55)
18. We’re All Billy   (:48)*
19. Quarter Life Crisis   (2:17)*
20. Watch Doctor   (5:58)
21. Weatherman   (3:04)
22. Nostalgia & Folklore   (2:02)*
23. Postcards   (2:41)
24. Hats   (3:49)
25. Workin’ On It   (7:38)
26. Breaking Bad   (1:57)*
27. Rocco N’ Susie   (5:55)
28. Thank You’s   (:45)*
29. Victoria Walker   (5:13)
30. Farms & Factories   (4:22)
31. Won’t Let You Down   (5:04)
32. For Dad (Pool Song)   (8:04)
    
    All tracks FCC clean
    *Banter/Story
    
    Further information can be found at www.chicagofarmer.com, www.facebook.com/chicagofarmer, and twitter.com/chicagofarmer.

 

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