Sturgill Simpson Tours The SouthEast With New Album: High Top Mountain

Sturgill Simpson Tours the Southeast
New Album: High Top Mountain

Sturgill’s hitting some GREAT towns in the SouthEast…
Wed 9/4 – Asheville, NC – The Altamont Theatre
Thu 9/5 – Chattanooga, TN – Scenic City Roots
Fri 9/6 – Louisville, KY – The New Vintagee
Sat 9/7 – Knoxville, TN – Barley’s Knoxville
Sun 9/8 – Atlanta (Decatur), GA – Eddie’s Attic
Mon 9/9 – Athens, GA – Georgia Theatre
Wed 9/11 – Charlotte, NC – The Evening Muse
Thu 9/12 – Raleigh, NC – The Pour House Music Hall
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Nashville sounds like Nashville again on High Top Mountain, the debut release from singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson. From furious honky-tonk and pre-outlaw country-rocking to spellbinding bluegrass pickin’ and emotional balladry, the album serves as a one-stop guide to everything that made real country music such a force to be reckoned with. Pure and uncompromising, devoid of gloss and fakery, High Top Mountain’s dozen instant classics evoke the sound of timeless country in its many guises and brings back the lyrical forthrightness and depth that permeated the music Simpson absorbed during his Kentucky childhood.

“…this is GOOD COUNTRY. You know, the kind cut from the same mold as Waylon, Willie, and Johnny. ..outlaw, gritty, country-rock with a shot of bourbon (no ice.) …We’re glad he gave up the railroad and got back to writin’ songs. There is something here for sure. Something I think any music lover (country or not) can appreciate.” —MOKB Presents

“’The most outlaw thing that I ever done is give a good woman a ring,’ sings Simpson on ‘Life Ain’t Fair And The World Is Mean,’ off his new album, High Top Mountain, which mostly works to subvert the outlaw myth. Not that Simpson disdains outlaw’s forefathers, but High Top Mountain tells his own story. He started recording it in mid 2012, laying down tracks at Hillbilly Central and other studios in Nashville with players like ‘Pig’ Robbins on piano and Robby Turner on pedal steel. Simpson says the record is an effort to ‘capture the music my grandfathers played.’ The album is named after a cemetery where many of Simpson’s family members are buried, near his family’s home in the Appalachia coal town of Jackson, Kentucky. The town is on the Kentucky River in Breathitt County, about 50 miles south of Sandy Hook, where Keith Whitley was born, and also not far from Cordell, where Ricky Skaggs was born. ‘I love it. In my heart it will always be home,’ says Simpson” —Davis Inman, American Songwriter

For more about Sturgill Simpson and further tour dates, please visit: http://sturgillsimpson.com.

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Stephaniesid Tours in Support of New Album “Starfruit” with stops in TN, KY, OH, NC, SC & GA

Stephaniesid Fall Tour Dates

www.stephaniesid.com

Fri 11/11/11 – Preservation Pub- Knoxville, TN
Sat 11/12/11 – Uncle Slayton’s – Louisville, KY
Sun 11/13/11 – MOTR Pub – Cincinnati, OH
Mon 11/14/11 – Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe – Frankfort, KY
Thu 11/17/11 – The Blind Tiger – Greensboro, NC
Fri 11/18/11 – The Evening Muse – Charlotte, NC
Tue 11/22/11 – New Brookland Tavern – Columbia, SC
Sat 12/3/11 – Eighty-Five – Columbus, GA

If you are near on of these cities, call your local radio station and request to hear a song from “‘Starfruit”!

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Here is what the press is saying about the album!

“lush pop, layered vocals, rich horn parts and a certain velvety darkness” — Alli Marshall, Mountain Xpress

“Starfruit… brims with lush, sophisticated pop” — San Antonio News (TX)

“”The lyrics on the new recording derive from cinema, art and literature…intricate musical arrangements with witty and literate lyrics.” — Staunton News Leader (VA)

“This is our favorite album we’ve heard all year, hands down.” –Asheville Disclaimer‎

“[stephaniesid’s] cover of “Life in a Northern Town” brings a joyful bounce to the proceedings, adding in xylophones, horns, and whimsy aplenty.” — CoverMeSongs.com

“Their recent appearance in WNCW’s Studio-B debuted some of the danceable delights from ‘Starfruit’ and shows Stephaniesid is a forward moving force in music today.” — Dennis Jones, WNCW

“’Starfruit’ is a heck of a lot of fun and finds Stephaniesid covering both the Dream Academy’s “Life in a Northern Town” and the theme song to “Laverne & Shirley.” Seriously. Along the way are standout originals “Closer,” “I Like It,” “Starf***er,” “I Like It Too” and “So Low/A Hope.” The aforementioned Dream Academy cover is every bit as powerful as the original.” —  Jeffrey Sisk, Daily News (PA)

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Larry Keel & Natural Bridge and The Rumpke Mountain Boys at Gerstle’s Place in Louisville tonight!

Larry Keel & Natural Bridge play Gertle’s place in Louisville, KY tonight along with the Rumpke Mountain Boys. Everytime these guys get together a big pickin jam breaks out… Check it out:

And here’s a fabulous write-up in the Leo Weekly about the show:

Larry Keel’s website sports the countrified boast “Guitar Legend & Master Fisherman.” While I’m sure his unruly beard and general country demeanor support the latter (at least on a surface level), there’s no arguing the former. Whether you catch him in a solo setting, showing off his white-lightning acoustic fingerpicking, or in more fleshed-out musical digs with his Appalachian ensemble Natural Bridge, you’re likely to be transported to a place where moonshine flows aplenty and coal mines loom in the distance. While his rusty, bar-dweller vocals are strictly backwoods beauty, pigeonholing Keel’s versatile guitar playing would be a mistake. He’s capable of dizzying displays of virtuosity and calming, sermon-like reverence. Rumpke Mountain Boys open. —Ryan Reed

Read the original post here: http://events.leoweekly.com/?p=10573

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Johnson City and Kentucky: Get ready for some fiery flatpickin’ this weekend with Larry Keel & Natural Bridge!

Larry Keel and Natural Bridge

Thursday, Feb 10th ~ Gerstle’s Place ~ Louisville, KY

Friday, Feb 11th ~ Cosmic Charlie’s ~ Lexington, KY

Saturday, Feb 12th ~ Spring Street Music Hall ~ Johnson City, TN

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Joining the award-winning Flatpickin legend, Larry Keel, to make up Natural Bridge are Mark Schimick on mandolin and vocals, Larry’s life-long picker pal (and fishing phenom) Will Lee on blistering banjo and otherworldly lead vocals, and wife Jenny Keel holding strong on upright bass and vocals. Jenny Keel has been playing bass with her husband and virtually all of his specialty projects for over 14 years, she is a player known for impeccable timing and solid, yet imaginative bass lines as well as adding tenor vocal harmonies.

“Hot and fluent bluegrass act showcasing Larry Keel’s dazzling guitar skills and gruff, baritone vocals, wife Jenny’s granite-firm bass guitar work and the support of top-shelf backing players. . . Good folks, amazing roots music.” ~ Tad Dickens

Find out more about The Spring Street Music Hall Show in this post by Go-Tricities

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Larry Keel brings his Virginia bluegrass quartet to Louisville Saturday night

by Cary Stemle
August 21, 9:57 AM
Louisville Arts & Culture Examiner www.examiner.com

I got a note from earlier this week about a late-breaking Louisville show by Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, a hot bluegrass quartet from Virginia.

They’re in Kentucky for the International Newgrass Festival (performing Aug. 21) in Bowling Green, and they’ll head up I-65 to play Saturday evening, Aug. 22, at the Hideaway Saloon, the cozy Highlands pub that’s nearly hidden away at the intersection of Bardstown Road and Bonnycastle Avenue (across the street from the Guitar Emporium). Keel and band are set to go on around 11 p.m., preceded by the Whiskey Bent Valley Boys ($10 adv/$12 day of show).

Keel has a well-established name in bluegrass circles — he’s a two-time flat-picking guitar champion, a fine songwriter (he’s had tunes covered by Del McCoury and Acoustic Syndicate) and a strong vocalist with a warm, deep and expressive voice. His quartet is rounded out by Jenny Keel on bass fiddle/vocals, Mark Schimick on mandolin/vocals and Jason Flournoy on banjo/vocals.

Photo by Jon C Hancock

Listening to a few MP3s, I’ve been impressed by their hot musicianship and vocal harmonies, and the sound recalls newer ’grass outfits like Union Station and Nickel Creek, without straying too far from tradition. It’s a lively and powerful sound — each picker is a heavyweight — and I can only imagine how it’ll pop at the Hideaway. (One of my musical axioms is that bluegrass, in particular, is a form that really must be seen live to be appreciated.)

The outfit’s latest album, Backwoods, came out in February (produced by Keller Williams — download a few songs here.) Keel appears in the soon-to-be released film, “The Man They Couldn’t Hang,” and also performs two songs.

“Over the past decade and a half (Keel) has made a name for himself through his fiery-fingered guitar mastery, his almost other-worldly vocal style, and his wild, progressive mountain sound that has one foot firmly planted in tradition while the other reaches out beyond the boundaries,” wrote The Velvet Rut. “In the end there is very little in the world of bluegrass music that comes close to sounding like Larry Keel.”

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