Chad Elliott & The Redemptions’ ‘Rest Heavy: The Sun Studio Sessions’ OUT TODAY

Chad Elliott & The Redemptions Release Rest Heavy on August 10, 2018
Bluesy, Rockin’ and Soulful Original Music
Recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis

Available now on all outlets → https://chadelliottrestheavy.hearnow.com

LAMONI, IA — Iowa singer-songwriter, artist and author, Chad Elliott, independently releases Rest Heavy: The Sun Studio Sessions TODAY, August 10, 2018. With Rest Heavy, Elliott shows his love of roots-rock, soul, and blues music with a rocking band behind his artfully crafted songs and gravelly delivery. The self-produced album was recorded by Ples Hampton at the famed Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. Hampton said, “It was honestly one of the best sessions I’ve ever had up here. This is gold.”

Elliott’s writing weaves love, loss and forgiveness into well-worn lyrics with timeless melodies. “Low, loose, and full of juice. This album’s got a lot of life to it,” said acclaimed Iowa singer-songwriter Greg Brown.

Elliott, performing on acoustic guitar and harmonica, is joined by his full band, The Redemptions, which includes Tommy Lewis (electric guitar, harmonica, background vocals), Travis McFarlane (piano, B3 organ, keys), Kevin Boehnke (acoustic guitar, trumpet), Joseph Cafaro (upright bass), and Jim Van Dorn (drums).

“I could, literally, feel the shift in the music just by walking through the doors at Sun Studio. The room seemed to have its own electric currency running through it and it made the songs come alive. We walked away feeling like we had an out of body experience. There were times I would just sit in the corners and look into the air of the room to see if that legendary music was still floating there, mixing with ours,” Elliott said.

Elliott performs more than 200 shows each year and is lauded as “Iowa’s Renaissance Man” by Culture Buzz. He has cultivated over 1,000 songs in his career while also honing his skills as a painter, sculptor, and children’s book author/illustrator (Wilderman’s Treetop Tales). He recently published a poetry book, Rumble & Flash.

What Folks Are Saying:

“Iowa suggests such names as Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, and Pieta Brown among others but now singer-songwriter, artist and author, Chad Elliott can join their esteemed company with Rest Heavy. Even if you didn’t know that these tracks were recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis, you’d still sense a bit of that Elvis Presley style in Elliot’s mix of roots-rock, soul, blues and modern gospel… This album just oozes soul, truth, and seems rather timeless as it could have been recorded almost any time in the last fifty-sixty years.” —Elmore, Jim Hynes

“Rest Heavy… opens with an arpeggiated piano riff and cymbal crash before launching into a leaned-back, eyes-closed, soulful-howl gospel-blues tune of which Sam Cooke would have approved… As he croon-wails his way through tracks that range from hardscrabble stories and ain’t-life-like-that tunes to songs of somber reflection, his constellation of influences is clear, with stylized moments and melodic arrangements that evoke the likes of Tom Waits, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and Doc Watson.”  —Little Village Magazine, Lucas Benson

“ … there is a timeless feel all along the tracks that tell his talent.. roots rock, gospel, soul, blues in a perfect spirit… I would even say this album is the perfect tribute to the spirit of the Sun Studios. I already listened at least 10 times to it and these songs take me with them…” —Mike Penard, ISA Radio, France

“Right out of the gates with the title track, ‘Rest Heavy,’ the listener knows they are about to take a journey” —A Soulful Sound

“[‘Rest Heavy’ is] a modern gospel love song written on Easter Sunday that grabs your heart and soul with its classic harmonica-infused melody, tempered backbeat, and Elliott’s gravelly yet warm delivery that nods to the memory of the greats who made their mark at Sun.”  —The Daily Country premieres the title track “Rest Heavy”

“Rest Heavy jumps right at you and doesn’t let go. The whole piece has an edge you can shave with.” —Rob Ellen, Medicine Show Radio (UK)

“Chad’s songs are inspired by real life and by real people. They’re not conjured up in a cookie cutter fashion designated by songwriting rules or regulations. He sings out loud and proud about the places he’s been, the things he’s seen, his life experiences and those of his family and friends.” —Bronson Herrmuth

Rest Heavy Track Listing:
1. Rest Heavy  (3:12)
2. Shy of Shameless  (5:23)
3. Hills of Tennessee  (3:29)
4. Shining Stars  (4:22)
5. Cadillac Problems, Buick Times  (4:56)
6. Alberta  (4:20)
7. Slow Again  (3:47)
8. Dirty River (Catfish Blues)  (3:45)
9. Embarcadero Street  (5:08)
10. Water Under the Bridge  (7:06)
11. St. James Infirmary  (6:21)

Chad Elliott – vocals, electric guitar, harmonica
Tommy Lewis – electric guitar, harmonica, vocals, track 10 chorus
Travis McFarlane – piano, B3 organ, keys, track 10 chorus
Kevin Boehnke – acoustic guitar, trumpet, track 10 chorus
Joseph Cafaro –  upright bass, track 10 chorus
Jim Van Dorn – drums (all), track 10 chorus
Roger D. Feldhans – track 10 chorus

All songs written by Chad Elliott except “St. James Infirmary” (Anonymous)

For more information, tour dates and news from Chad Elliott, please visit www.chadelliott.net, www.facebook.com/elliottmusic, www.twitter.com/chadelliottlive, and www.instagram.com/chadelliottmusic.

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Chicago Farmer’s ‘Quarter Past Tonight’ OUT TODAY – Recorded Live at the Apollo Theater in Peoria

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

Available now on Chicago Farmer’s online store, Amazon, iTunes & cdbaby

BLOOMINGTON, IL — Based in Bloomington, IL, Chicago Farmer (A.K.A. Cody Diekhoff) independently releases his first live Chicago Farmer album, Quarter Past Tonight, a two-disc set on Aug. 3. With long time studio engineer Chris Harden (I.V. Labs Studio/Chicago) in tow and armed with just his guitar, harmonica and distilled words and stories of heartache, social injustice, hometown pride, love and loss, Chicago Farmer played two sold out nights at the Apollo Theater in Peoria, IL in December of 2017 and captured it all as it went down.

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.”

What folks are saying:

“Chicago Farmer has the novelist’s gift of building a suspenseful story to a surprising conclusion. He’s clever, insightful, and witty with his between songs banter, making the stories often every bit as good and memorable as his songs… His trademark appeal is his ability to sing about the regular person, the working person, in a relatable way.’” —Country Standard Time, Jim Hynes

“I’d never heard of transplanted son of the soil Cody Diekhoff and you probably haven’t either. But this tenth-anniversary double-live, 24 songs and eight spoken bits that include a tribute to his heroically supportive wife entitled ‘Benefits’… he’s funny, he’s kind, and he’s preparing an instructional video about ‘how do you get that drawl that you do—it’s kind of a mix between a small-town big-city kind of a northernly southernly easterly westerly stuck-in-the-middle type of a drawl.’” —Noisey, Robert Christgau

“You don’t hear many albums these days like this two-CD set, which hearkens back to a time when solo folk artists like Tom Paxton and Arlo Guthrie strode onstage offering nothing but their voices, guitars, harmonicas, visions, and wit.” —The Morton Report, Jeff Burger

“The troubadour is standup – a storyteller like the best standup comics and an upright fellow standing up for regular folks and the lives of quiet desperation and outright glee we all experience to the soundtracks in our heads and hearts…. He’s comparable to John Prine, Loudon Wainwright and Neil Young, and also occasionally like the late Steve Goodman, Art Thieme and Woody Guthrie, with a soulful sense of humor and keen insight to the human condition and all its passion, silliness and dreams.”
—The Community Word, Bill Knight

“A riveting live performer who has cultivated a loyal following with folk songs and stories about the American heartland” —WGLT, Jon Norton

“As hard-working musicians go, few can hold a candle to the Midwest’s own folk hero, Chicago Farmer. Back and forth across the great wide open, the authenticity of his music just resonates with something in the human spirit, with material ranging from raucous and boot-stompin’ runaway hootenannies, to subdued and heartfelt odes to love and loss.” —News-Gazette, Andrew Howie

“Like the stage name that Cody Diekhoff adopted for himself, Chicago Farmer’s music has an urban big-city sensibility with rural small-town roots, similar to the genre of Americana music itself, which is a combination of different American music idioms.”  —South Bend Tribune, Andrew S. Hughes

Americana Highways Song Premiere: “Dirtiest Uniforms”

Tomorrow’s Verse Song Premiere: “I Need A Hit”

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

1. I Need A Hit   (5:07) [Previously Unreleased]
2. Umbrella   (4:55)
3. We’re All Billy   (:48)*
4. Quarter Life Crisis   (2:17)*
5. Watch Doctor   (5:58)
6. Weatherman   (3:04)
7. Nostalgia & Folklore   (2:02)*
8. Postcards   (2:41)
9. Hats   (3:49)
10. Workin’ On It   (7:38)
11. Breaking Bad   (1:57)*
12. Rocco N’ Susie   (5:55)
13. Thank You’s   (:45)*
14. Victoria Walker   (5:13)
15. Farms & Factories   (4:22)
16. Won’t Let You Down   (5:04
17. 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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