Bill Scorzari Releases 3 Acoustic Singles to Accompany ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’

Bill Scorzari Releases 3 Acoustic Singles to Accompany ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’

“I – 70 East (Acoustic)” – Out THIS FRIDAY February 17

“The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic)” – AVAILABLE NOW! 

“Multnomah Falls (Acoustic)” – Out March 10

HUNTINGTON, NY —  With a rich, raspy voice and a remarkable ear for lyrics and composition, prolific songwriter Bill Scorzari is thrilled to release three acoustic versions of songs featured on his most recent album, The Crosswinds of Kansas (Independently Released Aug 2022): “The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic),” “I-70 East (Acoustic),” and “Multnomah Falls (Acoustic).” 

“Now that we’ve started a new year (Happy New Year!), it’s great to be able to look back at the good things that have come out of all of the effort we put into The Crosswinds of Kansas… It’s been a long road and I’m so grateful to everyone who has made it all possible,” says Bill. “As a thank you to everyone who has listened to and enjoyed the songs, I decided to release new versions of three tracks from the album, which I’ve re-recorded in a singer-songwriter style, with just acoustic guitar and vocals.”

The album was listed in Americana UK’s Top Albums of 2022! Mark Whitfield writes, “The simple use of imagery and clever phraseology make it a very poignant record at times… The pain on some tracks is visceral in its honesty—and Scorzari’s voice is the perfect match for these substantial songs.” 

Today (2/13), Americana UK premiered “1-70 East (Acoustic)” here: https://americana-uk.com/track-premiere-bill-scorzari-i-70-east-acoustic 

“Bill Scorzari has captured the sonic embodiment of the Tolkien quote ‘not all who wander are lost’ with each album he’s released, yet The Crosswinds of Kansas bleeds this sentiment with each chord and word. The vivid storytelling balances delicately on masterful musicianship to create a massively memorable album,” writes Nanobot Rock in their Top 10 Discoveries of 2022.

These stripped down versions reflect more of what seeing Bill perform live and solo is like, and had been requested by a handful of terrestrial radio stations. Recorded at his First Thunder Recording Studio in Huntington, NY, the abridged songs were mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master Studio in Nashville in 2022.

“The Broken Heart Side of the Road (Acoustic)” is the first of the three songs released—Hear it now at  https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/i-70-east-acoustic. Glide Magazine premiered the album version and wrote, “With its melancholy tone, Scorzari lends his gritty vocals to a work of dark Americana roots music…  a song that carries a stirring energy and a haunting tale.” Americana Highways’ John Apice wrote, “‘The Broken Heart Side of the Road,’ is pure Bill. Precise, an impressive composition that’s subtle & striking. Bullseye.” 

“I-70 East (Acoustic)” will be out February 17. Americana Highways’s Melissa Clarke calls it a, “song of the anguished parallels between an elderly mother fading and passing on, and a lover’s betrayal. He’s captured such pain. And the beauty of a Rose.” 

“Multnomah Falls (Acoustic)” weaves a chronicle of a rainy day’s hike into an account of the trials of change and transcendence. It will be out March 10. 

FervorCoulee’s Donald Tepylske says, “The poetic rhythm of Scorzari’s lyrics is most impressive… Scorzari doesn’t do conventional… Each song envelopes the listener, sharing its secrets and truths.” Jim Hynes of Glide Magazine seems to concur, “To be sure, one needs solitude to appreciate his literate craft, a blend of prose and poetry put to music, a Walt Whitman of sorts for our times… With Scorzari, one hangs not just onto every word, but just about every breath.” 

We hope that listeners will be as moved by the acoustic renditions as these folks were by the originals. Bill has also started working on a new album! It is too early to say when it might be finished; so stay tuned to Bill’s social media for more information as things start to gather momentum and move forward.

More about Bill Scorzari: Born and raised in New York, Bill transformed his life as a New York Trial Attorney to a new life as a full-time musician beginning around 2011. He has independently released four studio albums including 2014’s Just the Same, 2017’s Through These Waves (Produced by Jonah Tolchin at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville), 2019’s Now I’m Free (Produced by Neilson Hubbard at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville), and The 2022’s Crosswinds of Kansas (Co-Produced with Neilson Hubbard at First Thunder Recording and Skinny Elephant Recording). Some of the musical artists that can be heard on Bill’s albums include Fats Kaplin, Eamon McLoughlin, Matt Menefee, Will Kimbrough, Michael Rinne, Dan Mitchell, Juan Solarzano, Brent Burke, Marie Lewey, Cindy Richardson Walker, Joachim Cooder, Kim Richie, Chris Scruggs, Laur Joamets, Jonah Tolchin, Erin Rae, John Estes, and Kyle Tuttle, among others.

Scorzari’s music has been well received by the press over the years with nods from those mentioned above in addition to Billboard, Acoustic Guitar, No Depression, The Bluegrass Situation, The Boot, Music City Magazine, Music Mecca, Making A Scene!, The Aquarian Weekly’s Rant ‘n’ Roll, Country Standard Time, The Alternate Root, DittyTV, Beyond A Song, Australia’s Listening Through The Lens, Alt Country Netherlands, and more.   

His music can be heard on the airwaves across the country and beyond! The Crosswinds of Kansas made a handful of DJs’ Year End Lists including KPFA Radio’s Tim Lynch, XPN’s Chuck Elliot, KVMR’s Kim Rogers, WFPK’s Michael Young, and WWSP’s Jim Canales. In 2022, Bill did in depth interviews with WVTF’s Luke Church, Beyond A Song’s Rich Reardin, High Plains Public Radio’s This Is the Place with host Jenny Inzerilo, and The Long Island Sound Podcast with Steve Yusko. The Crosswinds of Kansas peaked at #4 on the Alt. Country Specialty Chart, hit #36 on the Folk DJ Chart, and #85 on The Americana Music Chart. Some of Scorzari’s top spins come from Americana Boogie Radio; WBCM in Bristol, VA; WVMO in Madison, WI; KNOW in St Paul, MN; and KSYM in San Antonio, TX. 

If you have not yet heard The Crosswind of Kansas, listen here https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/the-crosswinds-of-kansas.  
For more information, updates and tour dates, visit ww

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Bill Scorzari Independently Releases ‘The Crosswinds of Kansas’ —Co-Produced by Neilson Hubbard 8/19— 1st Single Out Now

Bill Scorzari Independently Releases
The Crosswinds of Kansas
August 19, 2022

First Single “I-70 East” Available Now at Spotify,Amazon, and Apple

The Musicians:
Bill Scorzari, Brent Burke, Cindy Richardson Walker and Marie Lewey a/k/a “The Shoals Sisters,” Chelsea McGough, Danny Mitchell, Eamon McLoughlin, Fats Kaplin, Juan Solorzano, Kyle Tuttle, Matt Menefee, Mia Rose Lynne, Michael Rinne, Neilson Hubbard, Ty Allison, Will Kimbrough 

Co-Produced by Scorzari and Hubbard,
The Crosswinds of Kansas Was Recorded in Two Locations:
First Thunder Recording Studios by Scorzari in Huntington, NY
and Skinny Elephant Recording by Engineer Dylan Alldredge in Nashville

HUNTINGTON, NY — “New York-based singer-songwriter Bill Scorzari transcends titles like songwriter or poet. He catapults past categories into a dark, ruminative, and ultimately life-affirming realm where family folklore, memories, pain, prayer, and incantation meet,” says Acoustic Guitar. Scorzari, a prolific songwriter, has taken his craft to new heights and deeper depths with his 4th studio album, The Crosswinds of Kansas which will be independently released on August 19.

Much of The Crosswinds of Kansas was inspired by his three-month-long Now I’m Free Tour in 2019—which had become a journey of self discovery, with Bill ultimately arriving at a new awareness and desire to adapt and continue to create. He had made his way from the east coast, toward, and around the west coast and back, traveling under two full moons, visiting waterfalls, hiking, climbing, pondering and processing his life experiences of loss, gain and change, and at times composed haiku as a way to pass the time on the long drives between performances, until the tour came to an unexpected early end when Bill learned of the sudden decline in the health of his then 94 year old mother back home in NY.

Bill started his four-day drive home back east from California; when he got to Kansas on the second day, the winds were blowing so hard North and South across I-70 East that he had to fight the steering wheel for hours just to keep his car going straight down the highway. He stopped in Hays, KS for the night and woke up the next morning with a sore neck and arms from wrestling those tenacious crosswinds the day before. The following lines came to him while he was driving, “Then, came the crosswinds of Kansas unleashed, and it pushed me hard, north and south, all down I-70 east… As I tore home to my mother, before her health, it would fail, at 94, I felt another love leaving me lost, like a nail in a cross.”

Bill says, “When I wrote ‘I-70 East,’ I immediately knew that it was going to be the first track on this new album, even before I wrote the others, and when you cue up this record, it’ll be the first song that you hear when the music begins.” “I-70 East” is the first single to be released and is available now to stream or purchase → https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/i-70-east. Americana Highways premiered the music video for the song and says, “He’s captured such pain. And the beauty of a Rose.”

After arriving back home in NY and securing 24-hour care for his mom in late 2019, Bill took a deep breath, and began to write. Some of the songs were new creations and some were reworkings of songs from his back catalog which also fit well within the themes and moods of what was becoming the new album. He spent the early days of the Covid lockdown finishing the songs, gathering the right instruments to fit the music, and building out his studio—First Thunder— where he recorded much of the album. All the while, he continued to share time with his mom daily, until she passed at home on Christmas Day 2020 with Bill and family at her bedside, less than seven weeks before her 96th Birthday. 

With Scorzari drawing inspiration from a full palette of moods and emotions, the 13 original tracks on The Crosswinds of Kansas have many stories to tell— some confront the darker emotions head-on. Bill says, “I found that a lot of the songs on this record wound up having an upbeat feel, even when the lyrical content wasn’t necessarily upbeat, or at least not primarily or entirely so. It’s a very satisfying thing when that happens, like positivity shining through and prevailing over our struggles with adversity.”  

Scorzari recounts a hard tale of the destruction of a relationship in the rootsy “The Broken Heart Side of the Road,” while “Multnomah Falls” weaves a chronicle of a rainy day’s hike into an account of the trials of change and transcendence set to cascading mandolin lines. The orchestral “Oceans In Your Eyes” recounts a perilous navigation through an enchanted captivation, and a wistfully nostalgic “Patience and Time” haunts with lyrics, “… and I don’t think there’s anything that’s ever been as ‘this much’ on my mind. And with each day that’s passed I’m holding fast to patience and time, ‘cause nothing can outlast patience and time.”

Nostalgia is revisited in the hypnotic “Try, Try Again” and “Not Should’ve Known” presents a combination of uncertainty and prescience with its lyrics, “I’m just waitin’ for the courage to accept what I can’t change. Still, I can’t help but worry ‘bout how sometimes things turn strange and how with every situation that confronts me to my core, there comes a realization that I seem to have had before… what if I knew, and not should’ve known?” 

With the electric-guitar-driven opening track ”I-70 East,” the transcendent “All Behind Me Now,” the uplifting “1, 2, 3, Jump,” the fast-moving acoustic jam of “A Ghost, My Hat and My Coat,” and the rhythmic, semi-autobiographical, sound-collage that is “The Measure of a Man,” Scorzari achieves a beautiful balance in this new collections of songs.

Bringing a mix of contemporary and Indigenous instruments, “Inside My Heart” opens with the bell chime of a Tibetan singing bowl, a cluster of claw-hammer banjo notes and a Native American flute flourish, while the intriguing backstory of the making of the album finds Bill learning his lyrics in Navajo from a Navajo flutemaker named Ty Allison and his friends, and recording those lyrics, and the two flutes made by Ty, onto the final track, “Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’.” 

Bill says of learning Navajo, “It was an incredible honor for me. Beyond words. I’m also going to very candidly say that it was, however, no small task, and something that I would not have been able to do without the patient teaching, support and encouragement by, and friendship of Ty, Caleb and David. It is a connection that I will always cherish.”

The album was recorded in two locations—beginning in 2020 at First Thunder Recording Studios in Huntington, NY, by Scorzari during the Covid outbreak and through the continued lockdown into 2021, and continuing at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville, TN, by Engineer Dylan Alldredge in 2021 and again in 2022. 

Acclaimed record producer, film director, film producer, singer-songwriter, and photographer, Neilson Hubbard joined Bill as Co-Producer during the Nashville sessions, and also played drums and/or percussion on all of the tracks. Bill says, “Neilson has, among many other things, produced records for Mary Gauthier, Sam Baker, Kim Richey, and others, and his musical and production sense is spot on, and it appears to be effortlessly so. The man has a gift, and I am so very grateful for his friendship and for his many great talents which he has shared with me over the past several years.”

The musicians who joined in for the recording of The Crosswinds of Kansas include the following folks who, along with Scorzari and Hubbard, make up the band’s core: Michael Rinne [Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowel, Jack White, Miranda Lambert] brings his impeccable musical sense and technique on upright and electric bass as the perfect foundation for these new songs; Danny Mitchell [Miranda Lambert] played Hammond B3 Organ and Piano on this record with a masterfully cinematic approach; Fats Kaplin [John Prine, Jack White, Nancy Griffith] added his richly melodic and rhythmic sensibilities playing pedal steel guitar, fiddle, and viola; and Juan Solorzano plays electric, slide, and baritone guitars with flawless technique and heart wrenching phrasing.

Bill Scorzari. Photography by Jacob Blickenstaff 

Additional players joining in on several tracks during the summer 2021 Nashville sessions include Matt Menefee [Bela Fleck, Dan Auerbach, Ricky Skaggs] AKA “Matt, TheBanjoPlayer” on banjo; world class Dobro player Brent Burke [Rhonda Vincent and The Rage]; the multi-talented Will Kimbrough on mandolin; accomplished cellist Chelsea McGough; acclaimed banjo player Kyle Tuttle; and gifted vocalist Mia Rose Lynne on harmony vocals. 

Later, in September of 2021, Bill returned to Nashville to work with Dylan on the final mixes. But before doing so, he brought in a few other stellar musicians to wrap up the final recordings including Eamon McLoughlin [Staff Fiddle Player at The Grand Ole Opry, Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell] who played violin on 2 songs, and the incomparable Marie Lewey and Cindy Richardson Walker [AKA The Shoals Sisters] who sang backing vocals on 4 songs.

In early 2022, Bill recorded some backing vocal and harmony vocal tracks for the song, “Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’, Tryin’” at his studio in New York. For the final piece to complete the record, he asked Ty to send him a short cell phone recording of himself singing a Navajo chant, which Bill edited to make it sound like a historically older recording before adding it in at the end of the song. It’s also the very last sound on the album. Bill says, “When I was done and listened back to it, the song (and the album) felt complete, and the history it has gathered is abundant and beautiful.”

Bill says, “For me, the journey that had begun in 2019 (and in many respects, much earlier), became a journey into the depths of my soul, not just in a nebulous aspirational or conceptual sense, but in its fruition, and this album is a record of many of the ways in which it has all unfolded for me so far. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have occupied my time with this effort and for the opportunity to continue to participate in the dance that is life, through this pandemic and beyond.”

He continues, “It has been an arduous and relentless trek to the ultimate discovery that we are here simply to dwell in the experience of being human and to come to know that wherever that experience may take us, and to whatever heights or depths we may rise or fall in it, it is all nothing less than an unspeakably generous and miraculous gift of life and great love.”

More about Bill Scorzari: 

Bill Scorzari is a New York native, with a richly raspy voice and a stellar ear for lyrics and composition. At a later age, he transformed his life as a New York Trial Lawyer, to a new life as an accomplished, full-time musician. To date, his discography includes four full-length albums: Just the Same (2014), Through These Waves (2017), and Now I’m Free (2019)—-all independently released to critical acclaim.

Through These Waves landed on many Top-Ten-Albums-of-2017 lists including Folk Alley and Elmore Magazine, with Elmore saying, “…this is a must hear for singer-songwriter aficionados.” More recently, Now I’m Free was premiered by Billboard, with an exclusive interview by Gary Graff who described the album as “delicately nuanced” with “detailed arrangements” and Glide Magazine’s Jim Hynes wrote, “Like them [Dylan, Waits, Kristofferson, and Sam Baker] too, Scorzari’s facility with words and poetic flair, instills a calming wisdom and creaks of hope among the dark.”

More information can be found at: www.billscorzari.com.

Pre-order The Crosswinds of Kansas at https://billscorzari.hearnow.com/the-crosswinds-of-kansas. 

Album Art & Design by Anna Berman

www.billscorzari.com

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Chicago Farmer’s ‘Flyover Country’ Featuring The Band of Heathens Out Today

Chicago Farmer Releases Flyover Country Today- Feb 7
Featuring The Band of Heathens
Recorded at The Finishing School in Austin, Texas

Buy & Stream now at → https://chicagofarmer.hearnow.com/flyover-country 

BLOOMINGTON, IL — Illinois-based Cody “Chicago Farmer” Diekhof paired up with Texas’ The Band of Heathens for Flyover Country, independently released February 7. In the past two weeks the album debuted at #33 on the Americana Radio Albums Chart and shot up another 10 spots to #23 with DJs across the country spinning many of the songs from the album.

The current single, “All In One Place,” is a humorous look at the sad truth about making money in the music business and debuted on the Americana Singles Chart at #43 this week. American Songwriter Magazine says, “This tale of high hopes and low returns [is] an outlaw country number that resounds with heart and humor.”

Through all the songs on Flyover Country — and most Chicago Farmer songs, for that matter —runs a common thread, a love and respect for regular folks, those who might be overlooked and underappreciated. He is a champion of the Midwest and the working class. “A lot of my friends are just getting by day-to-day,” Diekhoff said. “We keep at it, we keep working hard. Hopefully, eventually, things will turn around.”

Chicago Farmer. Photo by Bradley J Scott

Chicago Farmer is known for his clever and heartfelt songwriting and unique voice. Todd Snider exclaims, “I love Chicago Farmer’s singing and playing and songs, but it’s the intention behind the whole of his work that moves me to consider him the genuine heir to Arlo Guthrie or Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. He knows the shell game that goes on under folk music… which is sacred to me.” 

Flyover Country was recorded at The Heathens studio, The Finishing School, in Austin TX with Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi serving as co-producers alongside Diekhoff.  Diekhoff’s longtime collaborator Chris Harden served as recording engineer (and mixed the album), on top of adding harmonies on two songs, and Heather Horton added harmony vocals on three tunes. 

Jurdi says, “Cody (Chicago Farmer) came in with a stellar batch of songs and really had a good vision for what he wanted the album to be. The material really takes a look at the kaleidoscopic fabric of the Midwest. Chicago Farmer writes and sings in a truly authentic voice about the people that inhabit the spaces that America’s hopes and dreams have been built upon. Always the underdog, sometimes overlooked, but never to be forgotten.”

“I knew as I was writing these songs that they called for another direction — and a band. A band that was tight, had soul, and knew how to make records,” Diekhoff said about Flyover Country, his sixth full-length studio album. “I’ll always be a folksinger, but you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. I decided it’s time to throw some fuel on this fire and get it going. For me, it’s all about the poetry and playing with a band is about putting the poetry in motion a little differently.”

Diekhoff and the Heathens cover a lot of musical territory on Flyover Country including a country-tinged rootsy tale of a desperate drive down the road to redemption (“Indiana Line”), a country-folk singalong anthem extolling the virtues of intimate live music shows and cheap beer over corporate arena concerts (“$13 Beers”), a talking-blues tribute to hardworking, unsung, everyday heroes (“Dirtiest Uniform), an uptempo folk-rock  (“Deer in the Sky”), and you see his grunge-rock roots coming out on “Mother Nature’s Daughter.” The album features nine original tracks and a cover of Hank Williams “Ramblin’ Man.”

Pokey LaFarge says, “His lyrics, his stories and his heart are true. He’ll give you that feeling of ‘going home’. He’ll make you want to say all those things you’ve been meaning to say but were too afraid. At the same time his songs can make you ask yourself some deep questions. His songs give you hope.”

Kind Words about Flyover Country

“This album shows both Diekhoff’s ability to spin a tale and to write songs that get people to sing along. It also shows how well he is able to evoke emotions – whether it’s a song that makes you laugh or a song that hits you right in the heart. Beyond all that, you realize that his is a style that will endure in a world where music has seemingly become disposable.”
—Americana Highways, Gary Schwind

“A terrific release… The Americana/Country Rock tunes are top class and the lyrics so interesting that you’ll be thinking them through later.”
—Americana Music Show, Tony Ives

“Chicago Farmer’s ‘All In One Place’ Is Outlaw Country with Heart and Humor”
—American Songwriter, Matt Wallock

“You will be moved by the poetry of these songs… You’ll dance to these songs even if you’re a song-and-dance man who never learned to dance. You’ll sing to these songs even if you don’t have the prettiest voice. Best of all, you’ll feel good for having listened. I know I do.”
—Making a Scene!, Viola Krouse

“… [Flyover Country is] a fitting title for the new album by Cody Diekhoff, aka Chicago Farmer, for two reasons. First, it’s an exploration of the lives and quirks of the residents of ‘flyover country.’ It’s also a good descriptor of Chicago Farmer’s sound, which kind of ‘flies over’ country music, touching on folk, Southern rock, and even tinges of punk.”
—Concert Hopper, Chris Griffy

“It’s poetry with a kick. There is power in the songs, from the arrangements to the lyrics, it makes you feel.”
—Festy GoNuts, Jason Law

“Diekhoff is a warm-hearted soul who manifestly likes others, though he wraps the sentimentality in wry humor. He’s most fond, one infers, of ordinary people’s imperfections and limitations, about which he writes amiably, not sparing his own.”
––Rambles.net, Jerry Clark

“With an ominous western intro, ‘Indiana Line’ builds up to a foot stompin,’ thumpin’ instant singalong. This bodes very well for Chicago Farmer’s Flyover Country. The harmonies with The Band of Heathens are irresistible, and the style is absolute contagion.”
—Americana Highways, Mellisa Clarke

Putting his solo troubadour days behind him (after a run of solo dates opening for Todd Snider in January), at least for a while, when Flyover Country comes out in February, Diekhoff is hitting the road with a band, performing as Chicago Farmer and The Fieldnotes which includes Jaik Willis, Cody Jensen, & Cosmic Charlie Harris.

Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes Tour Dates:

2/7 Fri – The Bootleg – St. Louis, MO
2/8 Sat –  The Eagle’s Theater – Olney, IL
2/9 Sun – Stellar Cellar – Effingham, IL
2/14 Fri – Castle Theatre – Bloomington, IL
2/15 Sat – Fitzgerald’s Nightclub – Berwyn, IL
2/16 Sun – Anodyne Coffee – Milwaukee, WI
2/20 Thu – Pearl Street Brewery – La Crosse, WI
2/21 Fri – The Turf Club –  St Paul, MN
2/22 Sat – The Outer Edge – Appleton, WI
2/27 Thu – Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza – Worthington, OH
2/28 Fri – Southgate House – Newport, KY
2/29 Sat – Duke’s Indy – Indianapolis, IN
3/6 Fri – Redstone Room @ River Music Experience – Davenport, IA
3/7 Sat – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA
3/8 Sun – World Theater – Kearney, NE
3/12 Thu – Magic Rat – Fort Collins, CO
3/13 Fri – The Walnut Room – Denver, CO
3/14 Sat – Western Jubilee – Colorado Springs, CO
5/28-29 – Thu-Fri – John Hartford Memorial Fest – Bean Blossom, IN
6/19 Fri – Moccasin Creek Festival – Effingham, IL
6/27 Sat – Private Event – Wilmington, IL
8/7 Fri – Rock the Farm @ Mackinaw Valley Winery – Mackinaw, IL
8/8 Sat – People Fest – Hillsboro, WI

Flyover Country Track Listing and Credits
1. Indiana Line 3:51
2. Flyover Country 4:59
3. Mother Nature’s Daughter 3:01
4. $13 Beers 3:17
5. Collars 5:23
6. All In One Place 2:51
7. Deer In The Sky 3:23
8. Ramblin’ Man 4:44
9. Dirtiest Uniforms 4:43
10. The Village Revisited 6:56

Chicago Farmer – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar 

The Band of Heathens:
Ed Jurdi – Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Harmonica
Gordy Quist – Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars
Trevor Nealon – All Things Keys
Richard Millsap – Drums, Percussion
Jesse Wilson – Bass

With Special Guests:
Heather Horton – Vocals (3, 5, 10)
Chris Harden – Vocals (8, 10)

Recorded February 2019 at The Finishing School in Austin, TX
Produced by Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist, & Chicago Farmer
Engineered & Mixed by Chris Harden 

All tracks written by Cody Diekhoff with the exception of Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” 

Further information and tour dates can be found at www.chicagofarmer.com, www.facebook.com/chicagofarmer, instagram.com/chicagofarmermusic, and twitter.com/chicagofarmer.

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Chicago Farmer’s ‘Flyover Country’ Features The Band Of Heathens – 2nd Single Out Today – Outlaw Country w/ Heart & Humor

Putting the Poetry in Motion,
Chicago Farmer Joins Forces with The Band of Heathens
New Album, Flyover Country  – Due Out Feb 7, 2020
Recorded at The Finishing School in Austin, Texas

2nd Single “All In One Place” Out Now →   chicagofarmer.hearnow.com/all-in-one-place

“Chicago Farmer’s ‘All In One Place’ Is Outlaw Country with Heart and Humor”
—American Songwriter “All In One Place” Song Premiere

BLOOMINGTON, IL — For recording artists, albums can be like children — it’s hard to go on record choosing one as a favorite. But Cody “Chicago Farmer” Diekhoff doesn’t hesitate to designate his forthcoming release, Flyover Country, as his “golden child.” 

Chicago Farmer is known for his clever and heartfelt songwriting and unique voice. Todd Snider exclaims, “Chicago Farmer is my brother; if you like me, you’ll love him,” and Pokey LaFarge says“Chicago Farmer represents the best qualities of Midwestern U.S.A. His lyrics, his stories and his heart are true… Definitely one of my favorite singers out there today.”

Flyover Country features The Band of Heathens and was recorded at the Heathens studio, The Finishing School, in Austin TX with Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi serving as co-producers alongside Diekhoff.

Jurdi says, “Cody (Chicago Farmer) came in with a stellar batch of songs and really had a good vision for what he wanted the album to be. The material really takes a look at the kaleidoscopic fabric of the Midwest. Chicago Farmer writes and sings in a truly authentic voice about the people that inhabit the spaces that America’s hopes and dreams have been built upon. Always the underdog, sometimes overlooked, but never to be forgotten.”

“I think it’s my best work so far and definitely the one that I put the most into,” Diekhoff said of the 10-song album, due out Feb. 7. This is Chicago Farmer’s first studio album in four years and it will be available on CD and vinyl, as well as digital & streaming services.

The 2nd single, “All In One Place,” is out now and starting to hit Americana reporting radio stations American Songwriter premiered the song and calls, “This tale of high hopes and low returns” an “outlaw country number that resounds with heart and humor.” 

“I knew as I was writing these songs that they called for another direction — and a band. A band that was tight, had soul, and knew how to make records,” Diekhoff said about Flyover Country, his sixth full-length studio album. “I’ll always be a folksinger, but you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. I decided it’s time to throw some fuel on this fire and get it going. For me, it’s all about the poetry and playing with a band is about putting the poetry in motion a little differently.”

Fans of Chicago Farmer will already know at least a couple of the songs on Flyover Country if they’ve seen a show in the past couple years. In fact, Diekhoff’s talking-blues tribute to hardworking, unsung, everyday heroes, “Dirtiest Uniform,” and his country-folk singalong anthem extolling the virtues of intimate live music shows and cheap beer over corporate arena concerts, “$13 Beers,” are among the highlights on 2019’s double-disc live release, Quarter Past Tonight.

Flyover Country Track Listing
Indiana Line 3:51
Flyover Country 4:59
Mother Nature’s Daughter 3:01
$13 Beers 3:17
Collars 5:23 
All In One Place 2:51
Deer In The Sky 3:23
Ramblin’ Man 4:44
Dirtiest Uniforms 4:43
The Village Revisited 6:56

Diekhoff and the Heathens cover a lot of musical territory on Flyover Country. 

The album opens with “Indiana Line,” a country-tinged rootsy raveup, a tale of a desperate drive down the road to redemption with great, growling slide guitar work. This track was released towards the end of 2019 as the album’s first single. Americana Highways premiered it, writing, “With an ominous western intro, ‘Indiana Line’ builds up to a foot stompin,’ thumpin’ instant singalong. This bodes very well for Chicago Farmer’s Flyover Country. The harmonies with The Band of Heathens are irresistible, and the style is absolute contagion.”

The title track is a languid waltz with a shuffling beat and jangly guitar, an ode to the people of the rural heartland, his people, putting Diekhoff’s high vibrato to great use. A brisker waltz beat propels “Collars,” another tribute to small-town folks, this one inspired by a young soldier who didn’t come home from Iraq.

Harmonica and baritone guitar drive “Deer in the Sky,” an uptempo folk-rock number about the benefits of flying over driving (you can drink beer on a plane and you’ll never hit a deer). Things get downright raucous on a couple songs, with Diekhoff’s grunge-rock roots coming out on “Mother Nature’s Daughter,” an environmental protest song, while the guitars go to town on “All in One Place,” a humorous look at the sad truth about making money in the music business.

Diekhoff pays tribute to Hank Williams with the album’s sole cover, Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man,” while also honoring Kenny Forbes, a friend’s father who introduced a young Diekhoff to the music of Hank Williams, setting him off on his musical quest as a folksinger. “Ramblin’ Man” starts with a stripped-down presentation but by the final verse it explodes with intensity.

The album ends with “The Village Revisited,” a sprawling, gospel-tinged song about the importance of community that recalls Creedence Clearwater Revival’s take on “Midnight Special” at times and at the end sounds like a party has broken out in the studio.

Through all the songs on Flyover Country — and most Chicago Farmer songs, for that matter —runs a common thread, a love and respect for regular folks, those who might be overlooked and underappreciated.

“A lot of my friends are just getting by day-to-day,” Diekhoff said. “We keep at it, we keep working hard. Hopefully, eventually, things will turn around.”

When Flyover Country comes out in February, Diekhoff will put his solo troubadour days behind him, at least for a while. He’ll hit the road with a band, performing as Chicago Farmer and the Fieldnotes which includes Jaik Willis, Cody Jensen, & Cosmic Charlie Harris.

Chicago Farmer Solo Supporting Todd Snider:
1/15 Wed – The Lyric – Oxford, MS
1/16 Thu – Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL
1/21 Tue – Key West Theater – Key West, FL
1/23 Thu – The Funky Biscuit – Boca Raton, FL
1/24 Fri – Centro Asturiano de Tampa – Tampa, FL
1/25 Sat – Ponte Vedra Concert Hall – Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
1/26 Sun – Iron City Bham – Birmingham, AL
1/29 Wed – Georgia Theater – Athens, GA
1/30 Thu – Victory North – Savannah, GA
1/31 Fri – Charleston Music Hall – Charleston, SC
2/1 Sat – Rocky Mount Mills – Rocky Mount, NC

Winter Shows Featuring Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes:
2/7 Fri – The Bootleg – St. Louis, MO
2/8 Sat –  The Eagle’s Theater – Olney, IL
2/9 Sun – Stellar Cellar – Effingham, IL
2/14 Fri – Castle Theatre – Bloomington, IL
2/15 Sat – Fitzgerald’s Nightclub – Berwyn, IL
2/16 Sun – Anodyne Coffee – Milwaukee, WI
2/20 Thu – Pearl Street Brewery – LaCrosse, WI
2/21 Fri – The Turf Club –  St Paul, MN
2/22 Sat – The Outer Edge – Appleton, WI
2/28 Fri – Southgate House – Newport, KY
2/29 Sat – Duke’s INDY – Indianapolis, IN
3/6 Fri – Redstone Room – Davenport, IA
3/7 Sat – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA
3/8 Sun – World Theater – Kearney, NE
3/12 Thu – Magic Rat – Fort Collins, CO
3/13 Fri – Walnut Room – Denver, CO
3/14 Sat – Western Jubilee – Colorado Springs, CO

Further information and tour dates can be found at www.chicagofarmer.com, www.facebook.com/chicagofarmer, instagram.com/chicagofarmermusic, and twitter.com/chicagofarmer.

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Chicago Farmer Joins Forces With The Band Of Heathens On ‘Flyover Country’ – 1st Single Out Now

Putting the Poetry in Motion,
Chicago Farmer
Joins Forces with The Band of Heathens

Flyover Country  – Due Out Feb 7, 2020
Recorded at The Finishing School in Austin, Texas

First Single “Indiana Line” Out Now →  https://chicagofarmer.hearnow.com

BLOOMINGTON, IL — For recording artists, albums can be like children — it’s hard to go on record choosing one as a favorite. But Cody “Chicago Farmer” Diekhoff doesn’t hesitate to designate his forthcoming release, Flyover Country, as his “golden child.”

“I think it’s my best work so far and definitely the one that I put the most into,” Diekhoff said of the 10-song album, due out Feb. 7, 2020.

Americana Highways premiered the lead single, “Indiana Line,” which is out now, saying, “With an ominous western intro, ‘Indiana Line’ builds up to a foot stompin,’  thumpin’ instant singalong. This bodes very well for Chicago Farmer’s Flyover Country. The harmonies with The Band of Heathens are irresistible, and the style is absolute contagion.” Listen HERE. 

Flyover Country, his sixth full-length studio album, comes on the heels of his double-disc live release, Quarter Past Tonight, and the new one signals a turning point for Diekhoff. Quarter Past Tonight was a sort of valedictory statement for Chicago Farmer as a solo tale-spinning troubadour. He felt it was time for a change.

 

Chicago Farmer – Photo by Bradley J Scott

I knew as I was writing these songs that they called for another direction — and a band. A band that was tight, had soul, and knew how to make records,” Diekhoff said. “I’ll always be a folksinger, but you can’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. I decided it’s time to throw some fuel on this fire and get it going. For me, it’s all about the poetry and playing with a band is about putting the poetry in motion a little differently.”

 

As he was contemplating how to make his next record, he had some dates opening for The Band of Heathens. Talking backstage with Gordy Quist of the Heathens, Diekhoff discovered that the Heathens had their own studio (The Finishing School) back home in Austin, Texas, and had a strong track record of working on recording projects with other musicians, including Margo Price and Reed Foehl. On top of that, the five guys in The Band of Heathens are all versatile, world-class musicians with soul and they know how to make records.

“It seemed like it was meant to be, a calling from the Americana rock ‘n’ roll gods,” Diekhoff said.

The Heathens thought as highly of Chicago Farmer as Diekhoff thought of them. “Cody writes and sings in a truly authentic voice about the people that inhabit the spaces that America’s hopes and dreams have been built upon. Always the underdog, sometimes overlooked, but never to be forgotten,” said Ed Jurdi of the Heathens.

With Quist and Jurdi serving as co-producers with Diekhoff, the Heathens and Diekhoff hit the studio with the blueprints for the next Chicago Farmer album. While there were some overdubs, Chicago Farmer’s voice was recorded completely live with The Heathens to drive his words even deeper. 

Diekhoff said. “I’ve never been put to the test like that before. It really made me kick it up a notch.”

“Cody came in with a stellar batch of songs and really had a good vision for what he wanted the album to be,” Jurdi added.

Diekhoff’s longtime collaborator Chris Harden served as recording engineer (and mixed the album), on top of adding harmonies on two songs, and Heather Horton added harmony vocals on three tunes.

Fans of Chicago Farmer will already know at least a couple of the songs on Flyover Country if they’ve seen a show in the past couple years. In fact, Diekhoff’s talking-blues tribute to hardworking, unsung, everyday heroes, “Dirtiest Uniform,” and his country-folk singalong anthem extolling the virtues of intimate live music shows and cheap beer over corporate arena concerts, “$13 Beers,” are among the highlights on Quarter Past Tonight.

Diekhoff and the Heathens cover a lot of musical territory on Flyover Country. “Indiana Line” is a country-tinged rootsy raveup, a tale of a desperate drive down the road to redemption with great, growling slide guitar work. The title track is a languid waltz with a shuffling beat and jangly guitar, an ode to the people of the rural heartland, his people, putting Diekhoff’s high vibrato to great use. A brisker waltz beat propels “Collars,” another tribute to small-town folks, this one inspired by a young soldier who didn’t come home from Iraq.

Harmonica and baritone guitar drive “Deer in the Sky,” an uptempo folk-rock number about the benefits of flying over driving (you can drink beer on a plane and you’ll never hit a deer). Things get downright raucous on a couple songs, with Diekhoff’s grunge-rock roots coming out on “Mother Nature’s Daughter,” an environmental protest song, while the guitars go to town on “All in One Place,” a humorous look at the sad truth about making money in the music business.

Diekhoff pays tribute to Hank Williams with the album’s sole cover, Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man,” while also honoring Kenny Forbes, a friend’s father who introduced a young Diekhoff to the music of Hank Williams, setting him off on his musical quest as a folksinger. “Ramblin’ Man” starts with a stripped-down presentation but by the final verse it explodes with intensity.

The album ends with “The Village Revisited,” a sprawling, gospel-tinged song about the importance of community that recalls Creedence Clearwater Revival’s take on “Midnight Special” at times and at the end sounds like a party has broken out in the studio.

Through all the songs on Flyover Country — and most Chicago Farmer songs, for that matter —runs a common thread, a love and respect for regular folks, those who might be overlooked and underappreciated.

“A lot of my friends are just getting by day-to-day,” Diekhoff said. “We keep at it, we keep working hard. Hopefully, eventually, things will turn around.”

When Flyover Country comes out in February, Diekhoff will put his solo troubadour days behind him, at least for a while. He’ll hit the road with a band, performing as Chicago Farmer and the Fieldnotes, something he’s really looking forward to after seeing how much fun The Band of Heathens have onstage.

This is Chicago Farmer’s first studio album in four years and it will be available on CD and vinyl, as well as digital & streaming services. Pre-order Flyover Country now through Kickstarter → http://kck.st/2KbMnLX.

Chicago Farmer Flyover Country Tour Dates
All Shows Feature Chicago Farmer & The Fieldnotes:
Chicago Farmer, Jaik Willis, Cody Jensen, & Cosmic Charlie Harris 

2019
12/26 Thu – Monarch Music Hall – Peoria, IL
12/27 Fri – Rosebowl Tavern – Urbana, IL
12/28 Sat – Hey Nonny – Arlington Heights, IL

2020
2/7 Fri – The Bootleg – St. Louis, MO
2/8 Sat –  The Eagle’s Theater – Olney, IL
2/9 Sun – Stellar Cellar – Effingham, IL
2/14 Fri – Castle Theatre – Bloomington, IL
2/15 Sat – Fitzgerald’s Nightclub – Berwyn, IL
2/16 Sun- Anodyne Coffee – Milwaukee, WI
2/21 Fri – The Turf Club –  St Paul, MN
2/22 Sat – The Outer Edge – Appleton, WI
2/28 Fri – Southgate House – Newport, KY
2/29 Sat – Duke’s INDY – Indianapolis, IN
3/6 Fri – Redstone Room – Davenport, IA
3/7 Sat – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines, IA

Flyover Country Track Listing and Credits

1. Indiana Line 3:51
2. Flyover Country 4:59
3. Mother Nature’s Daughter 3:01
4. $13 Beers 3:17
5. Collars 5:23
6. All In One Place 2:51
7. Deer In The Sky 3:23
8. Ramblin’ Man 4:44
9. Dirtiest Uniforms 4:43
10. The Village Revisited 6:56

Chicago Farmer – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar 

The Band of Heathens:
Ed Jurdi – Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Harmonica
Gordy Quist – Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars
Trevor Nealon – All Things Keys
Richard Millsap – Drums, Percussion
Jesse Wilson – Bass

With Special Guests:
Heather Horton – Vocals (3, 5, 10)
Chris Harden – Vocals (8, 10)

Recorded February 2019 at The Finishing School in Austin, TX
Produced by Ed Jurdi, Gordy Quist, & Chicago Farmer
Engineered & Mixed by Chris Harden

All tracks written by Cody Diekhoff with the exception of Hank Williams’ “Ramblin’ Man” 

Further information and tour dates can be found at www.chicagofarmer.com, www.facebook.com/chicagofarmer, and twitter.com/chicagofarmer.

 

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New York Lawyer-Turned-Musician, Bill Scorzari’s ‘Now I’m Free’ Out Today, Produced by Neilson Hubbard, w/ Erin Rae, Will Kimbrough

Bill Scorzari Releases His 3rd Studio Album, Now I’m Free, September 20, 2019

Produced by Neilson Hubbard at Skinny Elephant Recording,With Performances by Erin Rae, Will Kimbrough, Eamon McLoughlin, Michael Rinne

Out Now →   https://nowimfree.hearnow.com

Huntington, NY —  With a raw and gritty sound, along with a stellar ear for lyrics and composition, New York native Bill Scorzari independently releases his third full-length album of all original music, Now I’m Free, on September 20. Produced by Neilson Hubbard (Orphan Brigade), Now I’m Free was recorded and mixed by engineer Dylan Alldredge at Skinny Elephant Recording in Inglewood, TN and mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master Studios.

Hubbard says, “Bill tears himself open on these 15 songs and leaves it all out there in plain sight. He is an open book delivering a record of astonishing intimacy… and the gravel and whispers in his voice carry a true knockout punch.”

Scorzari’s songs transition through a multitude of emotions centered on the experiences of the human condition and are, at times, downright sad. Of his music, some say it’s spoken word, and others, an amalgam of the voice of Tom Waits, the delivery of Sam Baker, and the soul of Kris Kristofferson. In his lyrics, there is a poetic grace, a calming and resigned wisdom of acceptance that shines through the wistful melancholy of hope, and breaks free. 

Bill says of the record, “During the past three years and beyond, I found myself in a place that demanded prolonged introspection and profound healing to be able to navigate through and journey past. This record is a journal of some of the lessons and discoveries that I’ve encountered along the way.”

Kind Words About Now I’m Free:

“delicately nuanced” with “detailed arrangements”
—Billboard, Gary Graff, Exclusive Interview and Full Album Stream

“There are poets, there are songwriters, there are painters of fine art, and there’s Bill Scorzari. The new album, Now I’m Free is a bold and delicate balance of each. To say it is a thing of beauty is an understatement… To compare Now I’m Free to the other albums released at this time would be unfair to the industry. Perhaps Dylan or Townes could go toe to toe, but my money’s on Scorzari. He makes me want to be a better writer. His writing is vivid and succinct.” —Making A Scene!, Viola Krouse

“There may be a handful of songwriters as good as Scorzari but no one else could deliver these stunning songs. It’s even deeper and every bit as good as his last one. Bigger names will get more recognition but Scorzari’s getting there. He did play the Newport Folk Festival this year. He has my vote for Americana Album of the Year.” —Glide, Jim Hynes

This new album simply blows me away… you might want to think about Tom Waits a little, but better… The thing that impresses me is, of course, is the fact that [Bill’s] voice is very distinctive, there is no question about the fact, that if someone hears this, hears this music, hears your new album, they are gonna know: this is Bill Scorzari, because there’s not many people that have this voice and evoke this kind of emotion.
—Mostly Folk, WIOX Catskills Cafe, Artie Martello

Bill says “I could feel some of the old 1970s ‘country rock’ (Marshall Tucker Band, Charlie Daniels Band…) influences from my youth welling up and flowing out and that made writing this song a whole lot of fun.”
—The Bluegrass Situation premiered the uptempo “Treat Me Kind”

“A stunning work. Bill’s poetic lyrics are a frozen rope to the heart.”
—Podcast interview on The Marinade with Jason Earle

“With a somber musical style and a hushed, gritty vocal that rises like the morning mist to mingle with Erin Rae’s grounded tones, ‘It All Matters’ is just outright pretty. Now I’m Free should be nominated for awards this year with its depth of grace and innovative tones; Scorzari taps into a nexus between the familiar and the uncanny.”
—Americana Highways Song Premiere of “It All Matters,” Melissa Clarke

“Like the songs on his last CD… the ones here are all original, deeply personal and affecting; and Scorzari’s earthy vocals, which are just a bit less sandpapery than Dave Van Ronk’s, drive them home. With any luck, this guy is going places, and chances are, you’ll want to follow along for the ride.”  
—The Morton Report, Americana Highways, Jeff Burger

“Like singer-songwriters, Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waits, Bill’s raspy baritone snarls, hisses, and whispers through his heartfelt lyrics. Sometimes leaving the melody and just speaking the words, he comes off like a modern-day Rod McKuen, sweeping us up in his narratives and wringing out their plaintive content.
—WTCA 106.1 FM & 1050 AM, South Bend Tribune, Kathy Bottorf

“Fans of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and anyone who likes quality song writing will dig this” —Live Music News and Review, Phil Simon

“A superb singer/songwriter with an outlaw rasp and a heavy-hearted soul”
—The Ripple Effect

“Wonderfully gruff and oozing with emotion and raw honesty.”
—Listening Through The Lens, Rob Dickens

“Singer-songwriter Bill Scorzari skates in the ether with a sort of Ry Cooder ambient dream. But his voice is absolutely of the earth with its whiskey-borne rasp. Scorzari sings in the folk tradition of those who aren’t afraid to jerk a few tears but doesn’t mask his intentions or pull any punches. Sometimes the man gets mean.”
—Rochester City Newspaper, Frank De Blase

______________________________________

More about Bill Scorzari and Now I’m Free:

Bill Scorzari. Photo by Jim Marchese

The album was performed live in the studio by Scorzari and a long list of critically acclaimed and otherwise notable musicians including, Hubbard on drums/percussion and piano, multi-instrumentalist Will Kimbrough, vocalist Erin Rae (Americana Music Association nominee for Best Emerging Artist of 2019), fiddler/strings Eamon McGloughlin (AMA nominee for Best Instrumentalist of 2019), upright and electric bass player Michael Rinne (AMA nominee for Best Instrumentalist of 2019), Brent Burke on Dobro, Juan Solorzano on electric guitar and lap steel, lap steel player and vocalist Megan McCormick, Greg Krockta on harmonica, and vocalist Mia Rose Lynne.

Throughout the entire album, Bill’s authenticity as a songwriter moves you through his music breath by breath. Profound and poetic, Scorzari’s emotionally charged and introspective compositions are sung with a knowing tenderness of heart. 

Bill transformed his life at a later age from being a New York trial lawyer turned full-time musician. In 2008, he stumbled upon a Live-at-Paste recording of Justin Townes Earle performing “Mama’s Eyes.” The song resonated within his soul and sparked the kind of life-altering moment that you hear a person speak of, that singular moment when everything changed. Although he picked up his first guitar at just 8 years old, it wasn’t until 2011 that he was able to give his artistry the attention it deserves. 

The passing of Bill’s father and role-model, whose footsteps he had followed into the practice of law, marked a time of profound change and opened a new chapter – one that required a giant leap towards pursuing a passion that had long been tucked away in Bill’s heart. Bill put out his first album, Just the Same, in 2014, followed by Through These Waves (produced by Jonah Tolchin) in 2017. The three albums (and their titles) that he created thereafter, represent the narrative and catharsis of his journey: past, present and future.

The success of his first two records allowed Bill to share stages with Sarah Jarosz, Sam Outlaw, The Dustbowl Revival, Tall Tall Trees, Seldom Scene, Billy Strings, Frank Fairfield, Tom Marion, Zak Sokolow, Jonah Tolchin, Jenni Lyn Gardner (Della Mae), Jeff Scroggins and Colorado, Twisted Pine, Whiskey Myers, Big Country, and others. In July of 2019, Bill became “One of the folk,” with his inaugural performance at the Newport Folk Festival.

This third installment in his discography, Now I’m Free, offers a deeper and unguarded look into Scorzari’s soul, weathered and bared, and rooted in the present moment while moving freely into the unspoken promises of the future.

For more information, up-dates and news, please visit www.billscorzari.com, www.facebook.com/billscorzari, www.twitter.com/BillScorzari, and www.instagram.com/billscorzari.

Now I’m Free Track Listing:

1. Into the Light of the Day (5:07)
2. Over Again (4:40)
3. Now I’m Free (3:44)
4. It All Matters (4:35)
5. One More Time (4:07)
6. When Will My Time Come Along (3:58) 
7. Treat Me Kind (3:23)
8. San Miguel County (4:36)
9. It’s Just What I Know (4:47)
10. Steel Wheels (4:48)
11. You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone (2:59)
12. Yes I Will (10:51)
13. Cypress Tree (3:37)
14. Don’t You Ever Go Away From Me (4:20)
15. New Mexico (I to Mine) (7:20)

PERFORMANCE CREDITS BY MUSICIAN
Bill Scorzari: Vocals and Acoustic Guitar
Erin Rae: Harmony Vocal (Track 4)
Mia Rose Lynne: Harmony Vocals (Tracks 2, 14)
Will Kimbrough: Electric Guitar (Tracks 5, 7, 10, 15), Slide Guitar (Track 7), Mandolin (Track 11), Cigar Box Guitar (Track 14), Piano (Track 5)
Juan Solorzano: Electric Guitar (Tracks 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 12), Lap Steel Guitar (Tracks 2, 8, 9, 11), 2nd Acoustic Guitar (Tracks 4, 15)
Megan McCormick: Lap steel (Tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 13), Harmony Vocal (Track 6)
Brent Burke: Dobro
Greg Krockta: Harmonica
Michael Rinne: Upright Bass & Electric Bass
Neilson Hubbard: Drums/Percussion, Piano (Track 14)

All songs, lyrics and music written, arranged and performed by Bill Scorzari

For more information, up-dates and news, please visit www.billscorzari.com, www.facebook.com/billscorzari, www.twitter.com/BillScorzari, and www.instagram.com/billscorzari. 

 

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We Have Lift Off: Amy McCarley’s MECO Out Today Ft. Pat Alger, Kenny Vaughan, George Bradfute

Amy McCarley Launches MECO, Her 3rd Album, February 8, 2019
Co-produced by Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute

Kenny Vaughan & Chris Scruggs Join McCarley on the Entire Album
Featuring special guests:
Pat Alger, Marty Stuart, Kenny Lovelace, Harry Stinson, and George Bradfute

Available Now To Stream & Purchase→  http://radi.al/MECOAmyMcCarley

HUNTSVILLE, AL —  With poignant and thought provoking lyrics, Amy McCarley finds balance in a new perspective with the launch of MECO, her 3rd studio album, out February 8, 2019. After collaborating in writing new songs with Bluebird Cafe round-mate and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer, Pat Alger, McCarley returned to the studio with esteemed colleagues, co-producers Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute to work on MECO, her highly anticipated follow up to 2014’s Jet Engines. MECO was recorded and mixed by Bradfute in his Tone Chaparral Studios in Madison, Tennessee and mastered by Jim DeMain at Yes Master Studios in Nashville.

An acronym borrowed from the Space Shuttle program that stands for Main Engine Cut Off, MECO occurred for the shuttle when onboard propulsion systems were disengaged at an altitude where velocity could be maintained by the power of an innate force at work in the universe with periodic adjustments from the vehicle. The album traces McCarley’s experience of what it’s been like leaving life as a NASA contractor to pursue a career in music.

Featuring two of Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives on the entire album including Vaughan on guitar and multi-instrumentalist Chris Scruggs on drums, percussion, bass, and steel guitar; it is only fitting that Harry Stinson joins in on backing vocals on a track and Stuart himself plays mandolin on “Never Can Tell.”

The ten tracks of all original material feature McCarley’s yearning vocals, acoustic guitar, and harmonica. Alger, who co-wrote half of the songs on MECO says of McCarley, “Super, super intense guitar style. And I was so fascinated by it. Everything she did was real. Super intense. She’s just a different kind of performer.”  Alger describes the series of events leading to a co-writing partnership that yielded half the songs on MECO in this video clip → https://youtu.be/oY3V2ZZwTXU

Uniquely relatable, this northern Alabama native’s music is embraced by Americana fans across the country and abroad. Vaughan says, “I think all of her songs come from a personal experience. Each song is about something she’s gone through, which is good because it gives her a little edge on the delivery. The emotional content kinda comes through in there.”

What Folks Are Saying:

“MECO demonstrates beyond doubt that Amy McCarley has established a clear flightpath in Americana music with her blend of country rock sung with a world weariness that immediately brings to mind Lucinda Williams… in MECO she has reached an elevation that deserves a wider acclaim to propel her musical voyage.”
—Americana Music Show, Lyndon Bolton,
Listen in to Lyndon Bolton’s podcast interview with McCarley on Americana Music Show

“Not only can McCarley write songs, sing them and play a mean acoustic guitar, she has an astute sense for musical support…. this is a can’t miss effort.”
—Country Standard Time, Jim Hynes

“With any luck, the record should propel McCarley into the big time at least as quickly as a NASA rocket launches a capsule into space. It combines mainstream accessibility with the sort of authenticity and depth you’d associate with artists like Lucinda Williams.”
—The Morton Report, Jeff Burger

“Marshall Chapman, Lucinda Williams, and (delightfully) Linda McRae come to mind as McCarley utilizes various aspects of her lithe voice, the result entirely her own with soulful shades of her Alabama roots apparent.” 
––Fervor Coulee, Donald Teplyske

“It is superb… She possesses a strong and expressive voice that can display presentiment and positivity equally… Vaughan and Bradfute’s production is spot on, never overwhelming the vocal or getting in the way of the song.” 
—Lonesome Highway, Stephen Rapid

“… there’s a reflective spirit and emotional honesty that’s very transparent on the listen, as each song is carefully crafted and delivered with a pensive, gorgeous timelessness.”
—Take Effect Reviews, Tom Haugen

More About MECO:

With Scruggs’ wild driving rhythm and Vaughan’s insane blazing solo, the album opens with  “A Clue,” a determined revelatory song started in McCarley’s days at NASA. A song of finding strength in perseverance, “Clarksdale Blues” features Bradfute on slide guitar and gives a sense of those wide open blue skies in the Mississippi Delta, the location of the song’s inspiration.

Jerry Lee Lewis band leader, Kenny Lovelace, plays fiddle on the upbeat and breezy tune “Ain’t Life Funny” which muses about how life can tell a joke, “Just when we think that things are humming… Ain’t it funny how it all goes up in smoke.” McCarley says, “He cranks it all up to where either a square dance or hippie jig seem equally appropriate to me.”

Triumphant and joyful, “High Wire” is about survival. McCarley says, “Kenny and Chris brought the emotion in ‘High Wire’ to full impact during the instrumental break right after I sing ‘A little bird perched on a limb / In a wild storm in the wind / I will sway I will bend / With eyes wide open / And drink it in.” Other songs demonstrate a cathartic release in a new perspective such as “Everything Changed,” “Happy,” and “Farewell Paradise.”

Sorrow and gratitude go hand in hand on the dream-like “Days” which features McCarley’s co-writer Pat Alger playing lead acoustic guitar and recalls treasured moments with loved ones which can go by so quickly. “Never Can Tell” is a song about finding meaning amidst uncertainty and “How You Do” is more plaintive in nature.

McCarley’s trajectory is defined by her personal strength as an artist and her ability to learn through the enormous collaborative power of connecting with other stellar talents. She says, “It has taken everything I have plus the guiding unseen hands of time and chance together with support from some incredibly talented generous souls in order for this album to be made and on its way to listeners.”

MECO Track Listing & Credits:
1. A Clue (4:41)*
2. Clarksdale Blues (4:18)*
3. Everything Changed (5:28)
4. High Wire (4:20)
5. Days (3:13)*
6. Never Can Tell (2:39)
7. How You Do (4:32)
8. Happy (4:12)*
9. Ain’t Life Funny (3:04)*
10. Farewell Paradise (3:57)

Amy McCarley — vocals, acoustic guitar (all), harmonica (7)
Kenny Vaughan — electric guitar, acoustic guitar (all)
Chris Scruggs — drums, percussion, and bass (all), steel guitar (5,10), backing vocals (10)
George Bradfute — slide guitar (2), fiddle (6), viola and cello (7), fiddle and mandolin (8)
Pat Alger — acoustic guitar (5)
Marty Stuart — mandolin (6)
Kenny Lovelace — fiddle (9)
Harry Stinson — backing vocals (10)

Producers — Kenny Vaughan & George Bradfute
Audio & mix engineer — George Bradfute (Tone Chaparral)
Mastering engineer — Jim DeMain (Yes Master Studios)

*Indicates a song written by Amy McCarley & Pat Alger

© 2019 McCarley Publishing (BMI) & Algerhythms (ASCAP)
All other songs written by Amy McCarley © 2019 McCarley Publishing

For more information, please visit  www.amymccarley.com, www.facebook.com/amymccarleymusic, www.twitter.com/amy_mccarley,  www.instagram.com/amymccarleymusic.

 

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OUT TODAY: Reed Foehl Releases ‘Lucky Enough’ Recorded w/ Band of Heathens

Reed Foehl Releases 5th Studio Album, Lucky Enough, Feb 1, 2019

Recorded in Austin, TX with The Band of Heathens
Co-Produced by Reed Foehl with Gordy Quist and Ed Jurdi

Available Now On All Outlets to Stream and Purchase → http://hyperurl.co/3xm6td

POWNAL, VT — With the Feb. 1, 2019, release of Reed Foehl’s fifth solo album, Lucky Enough, fans will get a dose of powerful medicine, a cathartic collection of 10 songs that Foehl recorded with help from a mighty musical force, The Band of Heathens, at their Finishing School studio in Austin, Texas. It’s an album that will undoubtedly solidify his standing as one of the most compelling and vital Americana artists around.

On Lucky Enough, Foehl touches on a range of Americana styles, all with emotionally charged lyrics and can’t-get-out-of-your-head choruses, from somber folk elegies and gospel-tinged tunes to barroom country singalongs and jaunty calypso-flavored, country-infused pop. These are deeply personal songs for Foehl, and while they were written during some dark days, there’s a sense of optimism and gratitude, an overriding feeling that the hope outshines the heartbreak.

Lucky Enough is dedicated to the memory of Foehl’s mother — “the Queen of Everything” — and a keen sense of loss flavors the album. But there’s also a sense of hope, of forward momentum, change and a celebration of love, including not just the romantic variety but the kind a guy has for the oldest of old friends. For Foehl, creating Lucky Enough with The Band of Heathens has been a cathartic process. “If I can help myself, maybe I can help others,” he says. “You’ve got to keep moving forward. I think that’s the important thing. Live to fight another day.”

What People Are Saying:

“Certain songwriters have an innate gift for infectious songs that just linger for days on end. Reed Foehl is one of them. Each song on his fifth album, Lucky Enough, tells a story in his quietly understated way that somehow results in powerful imagery and emotions… This is as good as songwriting gets. Foehl’s lyrics are often astonishing and his relaxed, comforting approach works wonders.” —Glide, Jim Hynes

“His voice—smooth, companionable, and flavoured with a touch of palatable wisdom—is the first thing one is likely to notice. But the songs are masterfully constructed, some poetic and symbolic, most situational explorations brought to fruition with elegantly nuanced instrumentation… ‘Stealing Starlight’ and ‘American Miles’—both expansive, grandly produced three-minute epics, worthy entertainment for listeners who appreciate Josh Ritter, Fleet Foxes, or Vance Joy.” —Fervor Coulee, Donald Teplyske

The Bluegrass Situation premiered “Stealing Starlight”

“Reed Foehl’s excellent album Lucky Enough takes the listener on an existential journey to fill life’s holes. Written at an impossibly difficult time in Foehl’s life, while he was caring for his mother who was battling cancer, Foehl would be understood for writing a melancholy record. Lucky Enough ducks expectation. It does not feel melancholy. It feels settled. Not resigned, but at peace with life’s challenges and tribulations.” —The Marinade with Jason Earle, Listen in to a Podcast Interview

“Reed has the ability to transport the soul, a true master. One of the great songwriters of our time.” —Gregory Alan Isakov. Isakov co-wrote the debut track, “American Miles,” a road song that was inspired by traveling and the great american landscape. Glide Magazine premiered “American Miles”

“Reed Foehl is like a brother to me, we’ve traveled a lot of miles on the road together, and I don’t think they make better singer-songwriters than him.” —Todd Snider  

“He starts out with the gentle strumming ‘Stealing Starlight’ and the quiet acoustics of ‘American Miles,’ which just excels into the beautiful landscape that Reed paints with his words. He begins to pick the tempo up with the steady rhythm of ‘If It Rains’ and ‘He’s On An Island,’ but sandwiched in-between is the piano ballad ‘Carousel Horses.’ Reed Foehl finishes up his new album with the pop/folk tone of ‘Wish I Knew’ and wonderfully, emotion-filled ‘Color Me In.’” —JP’s Music Blog, Jim Pasinski

“I fell for this album just a few moments into its first track, ‘Stealing Starlight.’ There is something so sad and yet oddly comforting in Reed Foehl’s vocal delivery that worked on me immediately and pulled me in, so that I wanted to pay closer attention to every word, to see what this voice had to tell me.” –
—Michael’s Music Log, Michael Doherty

“Reed Foehl is a familiar voice in the wilderness calling you home.  His songs are part New England Folklore, told around an old wood stove in the midst of a winter’s blizzard and part Southern Charm, warm and inviting, like the spring breeze that welcome the magnolia blossoms.” —Ed Jurdi, The Band of Heathens

“Reed’s songs hit you in the heart, and everything else falls away” —Anais Mitchell

Reed Foehl. Photo By Kate Drew Miller

More About Reed Foehl & Lucky Enough:

Foehl certainly took an unexpected route in getting to Lucky Enough. Then again, he says, “I’ve always done things very unconventionally.”

A New England native who had long lived in Colorado, Foehl was making a big move, heading to Nashville to continue his craft as an artist and a songwriter. That made sense after co-writing the leadoff song (“Fly”) with up-and-coming country singer/songwriter Brent Cobb on Lee Ann Womack’s 2014 GRAMMY nominated album, The Way I’m Livin’.

On the way, he got a call from his mother, Linda. She had lymphoma, and she needed him. He didn’t hesitate, ditching his fully loaded car in Nashville and flying straight home to Massachusetts. “It put in perspective what life’s about,” he says. “This was important, definitely more than any of these records I’ve made.”

While he cared for his mother, Foehl kept at his songwriting, thanks to the sponsorship of a longtime friend and hockey teammate. Keeping the creative flames burning was vital. “It’s not just what I do, it’s who I am. I’m writing songs so people can hear them and so I can be OK. That’s really the gist of it,” he says.

After Foehl lost his mother in July 2017, he knew he had to keep moving forward and started thinking about recording an album. Although he launched his solo career with the release of Spark in 2001, he played in bands for years, notably fronting Acoustic Junction and then as a charter member of Great American Taxi. For his fifth solo album, he thought, why not go into the studio with a full-fledged band? “With all my records. I like to take leaps and chances and want to try different things,” he says. “I said, ‘What about doing it with The Band of Heathens?’”

Foehl had toured as an opener with The Band of Heathens, and he knew and loved their tones and sound and how they worked together. The Heathens, for their part, had really hit it off with Foehl on tour and were primed to help him make an album. “We really dug his stuff and felt like it would be a good match,” said Ed Jurdi, who co-produced Lucky Enough with Foehl and fellow Heathen Gordy Quist, with both Jurdi and Quist adding guitars and vocals on the album. “What I felt our job was, was to put him in a position where he could do his thing, just really make him comfortable. The record is about Reed and his songs, so how do we elevate that by adding what we can do? The idea as a producer is to both create a record the artist likes and making an album that the artist didn’t know they could make.”

The great thing about the Heathens, Foehl says, is they always knew when to hold back and when to let it rip, deftly embellishing the 10 songs on Lucky Enough. “They are very much chameleon-like,” Foehl said of the Heathens, “capable and talented enough to adapt and play any style of music.”

Foehl’s solo career has been bookended by loss, losing his father, Billy, in 2001 around the time Spark came out and then his mother preceding Lucky Enough, with three albums in between — 2007’s Stoned Beautiful, 2009’s Once an Ocean and 2014’s Lost in the West. Growing up in Dover, Mass., his parents were a huge influence for Foehl, filling the house with John Prine music and playing for decades together in a bluegrass/country band called The Centre Streeters. His parents encouraged him in his musical passion, regularly taking him to Boston, where he cut his teeth as a performer, busking at the Faneuil Hall Marketplace at the tender age of 11.

Lucky Enough Track Listing
1. Stealing Starlight (3:33)
2. American Miles (3:22)
3. If It Rains (4:48)
4. Takes a Long Time to Make Old Friends (3:18)
5. Carousel Horses (3:00)
6. He’s on an Island (3:26)
7. Running Out of You (3:46)
8. Wish I Knew (2:36)
9. Hello My Dear (4:12)
10. Color Me In (3:28)

Reed Foehl – lead vocals and acoustic guitar
Gordy Quist – guitars, background vocals
Ed Jurdi – guitars, background vocals
Trevor Nealon – keyboards, background vocals
Jesse Wilson – bass guitar, background vocals
Richard Millsap – drums, background vocals
Geoff Queen – pedal steel

Engineered and mixed by Steve Christensen
Mastered by Fred Kevorkian
Green Mountain Records

Reed Foehl On Tour Supporting Todd Snider!
3/13 Wed – The Gramercy Theatre – New York, NY
3/14 Thu – Ardmore Music Hall – Ardmore, PA
3/15 Fri – The Sinclair – Cambridge, MA
3/17 Sun – Infinity Music Hall & Bistro – Hartford, CT
3/18 Mon – The Birchmere – Alexandria, VA
3/20 Wed- The Beacon Theater – Hopewell, VA
3/22 Fri – Lincoln Theater – Raleigh, NC
3/23 Sat – The Ramkat – Winston-Salem, NC
3/24 Sun – The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC
5/2 Thu – The Jefferson Theater – Charlottesville, VA
5/3 Fri – The Rex Theater – Pittsburgh, PA
5/4 Sat – Rams Head On Stage – Annapolis, MD

For more information and updates, please visit www.reedfoehlmusic.com, www.facebook.com/ReedFoehl, www.twitter.com/reedfoehl, and www.instagram.com/reedfoehl.

 

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Taylor Martin’s ‘Song Dogs,’ OUT TODAY – Ft. Members of The Honeycutters, Mountain Heart & More

Taylor Martin’s Song Dogs Out Today, November 16, on Little King Records
Produced by Amanda Anne Platt at Sound Temple Studios in Asheville, NC
Featuring Members of Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters, Mountain Heart, and more

Available Now To Stream and Purchase → https://taylormartin.hearnow.com
(Please note that this link takes you to the correct album on Spotify; however, it currently
attributes the album to the wrong Taylor Martin, working with Spotify to correct this)

More about Taylor Martin at https://about.me/songdogs

ASHEVILLE, NC — Taylor Martin’s Song Dogs is out now on Little King Records (11/16/18). Spinning tales of the highway, homes, lost love, love regained, redemption, and the overuse of cell phones, Martin’s soulful, relatable lyrics and raspy, emotion filled voice is instantly recognizable. The Honeycutters’ Amanda Anne Platt took the lead as Music Producer (along with adding harmony vocals on a handful of songs) with the help of Co-Producer and Engineer, Robert George, and Martin’s visions for the album. The album was recorded at Sound Temple Studios in Asheville, North Carolina.

“Taylor Martin is a killer songwriter,” declares Platt. “He’s got a great sense of melody and an ability to write classic, accessible songs about things we all take for granted. It’s also to his credit that he hits all sides of the spectrum– there are toe tappers and tear jerkers on this album and everything in between. I’m a big fan of the saying, ‘Great songs produce themselves,’ I certainly found that to be true in working with Taylor.”

The album features a number of special guests including Platt, Mountain Heart’s Aaron Ramsey and Josh Shilling, GRAMMY winning Secret Agent 23 Skidoo’s Debrissa McKinney, and Jon Stickley Trio’s Lyndsay Pruett on fiddle, among others.

To celebrate the album’s release, Martin shares a video for the album’s title track “Song Dogs which is full of stunning imagery. Taylor says, ”when I heard that the filmmaker Aladin Aathmani, was heading to Morocco, I jumped at the opportunity to have my musical vision put in a distant landscape. His emotional video interpretation of ‘Song Dogs’ is very moving and like nothing I imagined (in a great way).”

The piano driven, haunting title song comes last, inspired in part by coyotes howling (per cover art) to find each other at night,” writes Country Standard Times’ Jim Hynes of the song. He continues, “It may seem that it stands apart from the others in tone and style, but several listens to Martin will have you hearing an array of styles and influences. That’s what makes it so infectious. Each song stands apart.”

A resident of Asheville since 2004, Martin has been creating music since 1994. He blends musical styles: the approach to music he grew up with in Richmond, Virginia; the western spirit he experienced living five years in Paradise, Utah; and the sounds of southern rock, country, and rhythm n’ blues.

Jeff Burger writes, “The North Carolina–based Taylor Martin, whose raspy vocals recall Levon Helm and, occasionally, Dr. John, features eight originals on this third album, along with three well-chosen covers: Bob Dylan’s ‘Sign on the Window,’ Neil Young’s ‘Music Arcade,’ and Merle Haggard’s ‘Kern River.’ Martin’s own lyrical subjects are all over the map: ‘Little Pictures,’ the funky opener, is about excessive cellphone use, for example, while ‘Hollywood’ references Marilyn Monroe, and the melancholy ‘Eden Colorado’ is about looking for a friend, a dream, and some hope. The music—sometimes funky, sometimes folky, sometimes poppy—is just as varied.”

Martin previously released a video for the album’s bluesy opener “Little Pictures,” which is a song that tips the brim to artists like Professor Longhair while having a contemporary social commentary. The song is what Martin calls his, “observation of people being lost to reality and the death of empathy and the human experience. People being on cell phones too much are missing out on the beauty of the world.” It also invites the listener to put down their electronics and sink further into the experience of the album. Americana Highways premiered the video and wrote “The song rings instantly familiar and simplifies a complex message in clear lyrical fashion, over catchy, punchy, piano-prominent rhythms.”

“Taylor Martin is a singer-songwriter who will remind you of everything good from Tom Waits to the Everly Brothers or the Avett Brothers with some surf rock thrown in. Well-sung, well-played, well-written and relevant…” writes Asheville Citizen Times.

Asheville’s veteran songwriter is just below the forty mark with a bright future as a songwriter and performer ahead of him. Although as jaded and bitter as some road worned heroes, Martin finds refuge in a good sense of humor. “I would have been a terrible dentist,” he laughs. “I’m here, music is why, this is Earth, let’s make more music.”

Taylor Martin – Song Dogs Track Listing

1. Little Pictures   3:34
2. Here Comes the Flood    2:59
3. Eden Colorado   3:17
4. Music Arcade [Neil Young] copyright Silver Fiddle Music   4:25
5. Second Sight   3:41
6. Hollywood   3:41
7. Our Memories   3:49
8. Kern River [Merle Haggard] copyright Mt. Shasta Music   4:00
9. Milk and Honey   3:22
10. Sign on the Window [Bob Dylan] copyright Big Sky Music   3:39
11. Song Dogs   4:49
     

     

MUSICIAN CREDITS
Taylor Martin – Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar (all)
Richie Jones – Drums, Aux Percussion (all)
Matthew Dufon – Bass (all) Harmony Vocals (2,10)
Aaron “Woody” Wood – Acoustic Guitar (3,8), Electric Guitar (5, 6,10)
Matthew Smith – Electric Guitar (1, 2), Pedal Steel (3,7,8,11)
Aaron Ramsey – Acoustic Guitar (2,4,7,9,10), Mandolin (9)
Josh Shilling – Piano (1,2, 6,7, 8,10,11), B3 (1,2,5,6,7,10), Wurlitzer (5)
Phil Alley – Telecaster (7)
Lyndsay Pruett – fiddle (4,5,7,8)
Amanda Anne Platt – harmony  vocals (2,4,7,9,10)
Debrissa McKinney – harmony vocals (6)

Recorded @ Sound Temple Studios in Asheville, NC
Recorded & Mixed by Robert George
Produced by Amanda Anne Platt
Co-Produced by Robert George & Taylor Martin

For more information and tour dates, please visit www.TaylorMartin.org and www.facebook.com/taylormartin.org and www.twitter.com/song_dogs.

 

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Out Today: Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield’s ‘Reckless Saints’ Is Southern Folk, Blues & Country

Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield Release Reckless Saints

Available Now On All Outlets → https://schneidermayfield.hearnow.com

What Folks Are Saying:

“This husband and wife team runs the gamut from engaging acoustic folk to driving bluesy tunes, with hints of twang sprinkled in… The ringing impression from this offering is the seamless blending of so many forms of roots music, combined with meaningful and often insightful lyrics. It works beautifully.”
—Making A Scene, Jim Hynes

“Enlisting Blaze Foley’s old musical partner Gurf Morlix for help, Schneider and Mayfield cover Foley’s classic ‘Election Day’ with rough passion, but the beautifully rendered ‘If I Die Tomorrow’ and ‘Poison Arrow’ swoon in their arms. All who cry out for salvation from Reckless Saints might experience the same effect.”
—Elmore Magazine, Peter Lindblad

“a bluesy-folk vibe and smooth harmonies”
—The Daily Country Song Premiere: Roy Schneider & Kim Mayfield “Election Day

“This duo is invariably fun and heartwarming and all their music reflects a musically celebratory cheer.  ‘Jump In’ is infectious with contagious fun-loving vibes, and nimble, expert, fast-paced instrumentation. We guarantee a listen to this is just exactly what the doctor ordered, today and every day.”
—Americana Highways Video Premiere of “Jump In”

“a harmonic convergence of fine songcraft” —Tallahassee Democrat, Kati Schardl

 

FORT MYERS, FL — Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Roy Schneider has been touring and performing full-time with musical partner Kim Mayfield since 2008. The duo is slowly working toward a new band name, with a collection of original songs on what will become an eponymous title, Reckless Saints. Released November 2, the 11-track album features songs by both Schneider and Mayfield.

The sole cover on the album was written by the late folk-singer, Blaze Foley entitled “Election Day” and with midterm elections just four days after this album’s release, the title seemed appropriate. Their gritty version features Blaze’s close friend and co-conspirator, Gurf Morlix, on lead guitar and contributing vocals.

Morlix says of them, “Their ‘Blue Twangled Folk ‘n’ Roll’ sound rides like a V8, firing on all cylinders.”

Along with Morlix, Reckless Saints features other specials guests including some stellar harmonica by GRAMMY-winner and Country Music Hall-of-Famer, Charlie McCoy, and great bass lines from Freebo [Bonnie Raitt] on the song “Walkin’ on a Wire.” Freebo also plays bass on the energetic kickoff for the record, “Jump In,” a fast-paced “day-in-the-life” of the duo as full-time traveling musicians.

This truly is a wonderful record. It is one of the finest singer/songwriter records to come across my mastering desk in a long time!” says esteemed producer, songwriter, and engineer, Mark Hallman [Carole King, Ani DiFranco and Eliza Gilkyson]. Self-produced, Reckless Saints was mostly recorded at Schneider’s studio, Shiny Gnu Records, in Fort Myers, FL.

Roy began playing and writing songs as a seventeen year old while recovering from a horrific, year-long incarceration in 1985 at the now defunct Straight, Inc. “No freedom, no dignity and no way to contact anyone, nobody even knows where you are,” says Schneider, “I didn’t talk about my experience at Straight for 30 years, I’m ready now.” “Angels Along the Road” tells the true story of his hard-knock survival.

Elmore Magazine’s Peter Lindblad calls the song, “a dramatic tale of survival with a brisk gait and a rolling topography of twirling mandolin and acoustic guitar strum that only serves to enhance Schneider’s gripping storytelling. Steve Earle couldn’t have done it better, and like the rest of Reckless Saints, the song’s well-oiled gears of traditional instrumentation turn with the precision of a fine clock.”

The experience has influenced his songwriting in surprising ways, resulting in a generally positive outlook in his lyrics, and gratitude for those who gave him shelter or other support after his escape from the facility. He’s been honing his craft ever since, and was making his living playing music when he met Kim Mayfield in 2003. Kim brought harmony vocals, and accompaniment on rhythm guitar, mandolin, and keyboard, as well as the idea to take the music on the road.

On Reckless Saints, Mayfield takes the lead on vocals on the haunting and contemplative “If I Die Tomorrow” and her harmonies with Schneider on “Poison Arrow” tug on the listeners heartstrings. Mayfield also sings lead on the two songs that she penned: the pensive ballad “Ring Around The Moon” and “Buddha Baby,” the story of her adopted baby boy.

Other tracks on the album include the Dylan-inspired, “Subjugated Love,” which is a fun little ditty about love gone wrong, “Runaway Train,” a song that addresses the frustrations and lack of peace of mind resulting from living in a society that – were it a train – might appear to be running rapidly off the rails without a knowledgeable engineer, and “After The Storm,” written in the aftermath of hurricane Irma in September 2017, touching on the coming-together of neighbors and friends in challenging times.

Schneider and Mayfield are excited to bring Reckless Saints into the world… Jump In and hang on!

Reckless Saints Track Listing:
1. Jump In   (3:00)
2. Walkin’ On A Wire   (3:21)
3. If I Die Tomorrow  (4:05)
4. Subjugated Love   (3:27)
5. Poison Arrow  (4:00)
6. Ring Around The Moon (3:27)
7. Angels Along the Road (4:47)
8. Buddha Baby   (3:40)
9. Runaway Train (3:37)
10. After the Storm (3:56)
11. Election Day  (3:41)

Roy Schneider – Vocals, resonator, acoustic, and electric guitars, harmonica, percussion, drums, banjo, bass
Kim Mayfield – Vocals, harmony vocals, acoustic guitar, baritone ukulele, mandolin
Freebo – Bass (1,2)
Charlie McCoy – Harmonica (2)
Keven Aland – Violin (2,3,7,10)
Dan Fidanze – Piano (4)
J. Robert Houghtaling – Violin (6,9)
Thomas Callahan – Bass (7)
Rob Pastore – Pedal steel guitar (8)
Tim Coletti – Bass (10,11)
Gurf Morlix – Vocals, electric lead guitar (11)

For more information and tour dates, please visit:
www.RecklessSaints.com,  www.facebook.com/RecklessSaintsMusic, and www.twitter.com/2RecklessSaints

 

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