Terri Hendrix is The Spiritual Kind

Terri Hendrix is The Spiritual Kind
New Album Releases August 28

Nashville, Tenn. – On August 28, San Marcos, TX-based singer/songwriter Terri Hendrix shows her spiritual side on an all-new album. The Spiritual Kind, her 10th — and current — release, reveals her constant evolution of spirit and art.

Produced by long-time friend and mentor Lloyd Maines (Terri Allen, Dixie Chicks), this album is an exploration through new music avenues, a journey that Terri attributes in large part to the motivation she gets from Maines to dig even deeper into her creative well. “Lloyd demands excellence,” says Terri. “And when you're constantly put in a position where you have to be at a certain level for things to fly, I think it makes you better.”

Terri's raw talent is exposed in its most natural form on The Spiritual Kind, making it unquestionably her best album to date. On it, she sheds (though never permanently) her harmonica neophyte reputation and embraces her hard-core inner harpist. “What intrigues me about the harp is that it can sound like so many things: a voice, a fiddle, an accordion, even percussion.” Her solos on songs like, “No Love in Texas,” and the Jimmy Driftwood cover, “What is the Color of the Soul,” showcase her passion and desire to master what Terri describes as a “complex, beautiful instrument.”

The rest of the album displays Terri’s growing self-confidence, like a blossoming flower reaching past the garden gate to explore the world beyond. Each song runs the gamut from folk to pop to blues to jazz all the while casually carrying off the “anything goes” eclecticism that is typically saved for her live shows. “The idea was to venture into new territory,” says Terri. “There's not one song on here that has a pattern that we've done before.”

Terri’s foray into uncharted waters is most evident on “Jim Thorpe's Blues,” a song written for and about the Native American athlete who was stripped of his 1912 Olympic medal in a racially driven decision. The song, which comes later in the record, vibes with social awareness and a heated desire to change the very injustices that still plague the world today. “For me, that's really what makes this record different,” says Hendrix. “It's about awareness, and it’s about a tribute to the things and people that too often go overlooked,” like Lloyd Maines’ body of work and her dear friend, the late philanthropist and musician Marion Williamson, who passed away of cancer in 1997. “Acre of Land” is a tribute to Williamson, who taught Terri to play guitar in exchange for a little help on Williamson’s goat-milking farm. Terri credits Williamson with instilling in her the will and confidence to make a go at the music business, consequently creating one of the most successful DIY music careers to date.

Hendrix taps into her soulful side on the album’s title track, “The Spiritual Kind.” The song was written about an old cross that Lloyd Maines found and gave to Terri. This little cross became a peace symbol of sorts, bringing her comfort as she faced one of the most difficult times in her life — being diagnosed with epilepsy. “I feel I have had epilepsy my whole life but was diagnosed with it in 1993,” says Terri. “I kept it hidden till 2003. It was then that I faced the music and began a life-long plan to keep myself healthy and face the illness.”

Terri shares her cross with her fans who are struggling, hoping that it will serve as a source of strength and peace for them as it did for her. The only catch: the power of that cross must be ever shared and passed on. “Spiritual people have always inspired me,” says Hendrix. “I try to be one myself — it’s a work in progress.” Currently, Terri’s cross is with a woman battling cancer.

Beyond her music, Terri continues to reach out to and inspire her fans through “Goatnotes,” her blog whose name is an affectionate throwback to her days on Williamson's farm. Terri shares her heart through her journals, showing others that absolutely anyone can do any thing when they work hard and dream even harder. With all of her heart in every self-produced record, it's Terri’s fans that keep her soul full. “The music has let me be part of my fans' lives,” says Hendrix, “and that is my true reward.”

In addition to recording and performing, Hendrix shares her creative spirit with the students in her “Life's a Song” workshops, a program she conducts periodically with Maines. Each session, all of which are consistently sold out, exposes songwriters and musicians of all levels to a positive, non-critical and creative atmosphere for a weekend. “We brainstorm, write, go on dolphin tours, walk on the beach and play lots and lots of music!” Each student also gets a Hendrix-penned booklet called, “The Part That Ain't Art,” an introspective look into the music business — warts and all — from this true industry veteran.

Terri's spiritual flame is ignited by the friends and mentors surrounding her, and it is fanned by the songs that branch off of that very foundation. The Spiritual Kind guarantees a diverse journey pausing only briefly to reflect on the beauty that life brings. And, then the journey continues.

The Spiritual Kind is available August 28 in stores and online at terrihendrix.com and other music hotspots.

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Terri Hendrix's Website

The Spritual Kind - Song by Song

The Spiritual Kind - Bio

Tour Dates:

8/10/2007 Mucky Duck Houston, TX
8/11/2007 Music at the Gap Concert Series Copperas Cove, TX
8/14/2007 Santa Fe Bandstand Santa Fe, NM
8/16/2007 Old Blinking Light El Prado, NM
8/21/2007 Tavern on the Gruene New Braunfels, TX
8/24/2007 Casbeer‘s San Antonio, TX
8/25/2007 Third Coast Music Port Aransas, TX
8/28/2007 Waterloo Records & Video Austin, TX
8/31/2007 Nutty Brown Cafe Austin, TX
9/7/2007 Six String Concert Series Columbus, OH
9/8/2007 Black Swamp Arts Festival - Main Stage Bowling Green, OH
9/15/2007 Front Porch Concert Series Boulder, CO
9/16/2007 Friends Concert Series Colorado Springs, CO
9/20/2007 Steve's Guitars Carbondale, CO
9/22/2007 Lake City Wine and Music Festival Lake City, CO
9/28/2007 McDavid Studio Arts Center Fort Worth, TX
9/29/2007 Texas Nights Concerts Friendswood, TX
10/4/2007 Tommy Alverson's 10th Family Gathering Music Festival Meridian, TX
10/5/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/6/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/7/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/12/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/13/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/14/2007 SOLD OUT: "Life's a Song" Workshop Weekend Port Aransas, TX
10/20/2007 The Woodlands Amphitheater Woodlands, TX
10/27/2007 Camp Street Cafe Crockett, TX
11/1/2007 Coffee Gallery Backstage Altadena, CA
11/2/2007 Acoustic San Diego San Diego, CA
11/3/2007 Concert Series Pleasant Hill, CA
11/9/2007 Studio E Sebastopol, CA
11/10/2007 Santa Rosa Concerts Santa Rosa, CA
11/16/2007 Uncle Calvin’s Coffeehouse Dallas, TX
11/17/2007 Cactus Cafe Austin, TX

Charles Simic Named US Poet Laureate

Charles Simic named as 15th U.S. poet laureate

2 hours, 21 minutes ago

American poet Charles Simic was named on Thursday as the United States' 15th poet laureate by the Library of Congress which described his poetry as accessible with some flashes of ironic humor.

Simic, 69, who was born in Yugoslavia but immigrated to the United States when he was 16, will take up his duties in the fall, opening the Library's annual literary series, the Librarian of Congress James Billington said in a statement.

The position was created 70 years ago to raise national awareness and appreciation of reading and writing of poetry.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet succeeds Donald Hall and joins a list of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Ted Kooser, Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass, Rita Dove and Robert Penn Warren.

"The range of Charles Simic's imagination is evident in his stunning and unusual imagery. He handles language with the skill of a master craftsman, yet his poems are easily accessible, often meditative and surprising," said Billington.

"He has given us a rich body of highly organized poetry with shades of darkness and flashes of ironic humor."

Simic has written 18 books of poetry and is also an essayist and translator. He taught at the University of New Hampshire for 34 years.

He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for his book of prose poems "The World Doesn't End" and has a list of other awards and fellowships to his name.

Simic, who lives in Strafford, New Hampshire, arrived in the United States in 1954 and said he started writing poetry in high school to get girls' attention.

"I am especially touched and honored to be selected because I am an immigrant boy who didn't speak English until I was 15," said Simic who will publish a new book of poetry, "That Little Something," in February next year.

The post of poet laureate dates back to 1937 when the position was called "consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress." The name was changed by an act of Congress in 1985.

Laureates receive a $35,000 annual award with the term lasting one or two years. The Library said it tries to minimize specific duties so laureates can work on their own projects.

New Bettye LaVette album this fall!

Accomplices: the Drive By Truckers, Spooner Oldham
New Record Out Sept. 25 on Anti-

With the arrival of her new CD SCENE OF THE CRIME , the flinty, intense soul stylist BETTYE LAVETTE unleashes a set of aggressive, sublimely crafted songs that are nothing short of mesmerizing.

Accompanied by the freewheeling renegade Southern rock band Drive By Truckers, SCENE OF THE CRIME is a multifaceted gem, ablaze with the unusual light cast by LAVETTE's complex layers of wrath, reflection and resolve. Recorded in the classic soul mine of Muscle Shoals' FAME Studios, the set is fraught with dire psychological elements. SCENE OF THE CRIME represents a volatile bid to dispel the shadow still cast by LAVETTE's simmering frustration over her stillborn Muscle Shoals-recorded 1972 masterpiece Child of the Seventies, an album that Atlantic Records maddeningly - and inexplicably - shelved before anyone heard it.

LAVETTE's vocals, a richly calculated union of blunt force trauma and unspeakable tenderness, boil over with long-carried need to flout that blow. Using a hand-picked set of titles by a diverse set of writers (from Willie Nelson to Elton John) LAVETTE foments another artistic revolution as she quells an aching personal thwart. Her revelatory, communicative performances confront decades of aggravation and disappointment not with bitterness, but upright defiance. The SCENE OF THE CRIME equation is enhanced further by contributions from two Muscle Shoals mainstays, keyboardist Spooner Oldham and bassist David Hood (who just happens to be father of Drive By Truckers guitarist Patterson Hood), and the sound achieved - gritty, restrained, fuzz-gilded, deep soul-rock grooves - provides ideal support.

The result of this striking convergence is profound, a resonant, emotional conquest of forty five years of hurt and bad memories. LAVETTE is captured in full fury, cementing the promise of 2005's extraordinary I've Got My Own Hell to Raise, a glorious reintroduction which also re-asserted her as one of America's most forceful and accomplished soul singers. While few were prepared for the hammering ardor of the Detroit soul veteran's approach, the disc was met with high praise ("an album of harrowing beauty," New York Times; "grabs listeners by the shoulders and insists they pay heed," Wall Street Journal) and won LAVETTE a long overdue measure of recognition.

Now, SCENE OF THE CRIME delivers an even more intimate session with the unrivaled singer. It also underscores the might of the Drive By Truckers, a young band who have been steadily increasing their own cachet. As the LA Times' Ann Powers said of their recent Stagecoach festival appearance, "the Truckers earned the right to a title several artists vied for this weekend: rightful heirs to the legacy of 1960s pioneers the Band." LAVETTE herself said, "To have recorded with Patterson's father all those years ago, and now to have recorded with both of them was singularly unique, and since it didn't happen for me the other time in Muscle Shoals, this was really a relief - I'm trying to avoid using the word revenge. And it's great to be able to show up with a strong voice and able to fit into a size 6 dress, so, really, the only ones I'm still angry with are those who died - because they can't see me."

This powerful, multi-generational mixture brings a remarkable gravity, and SCENE OF THE CRIME is a passionately declarative artistic achievement, one that could only have originated with the incomparable BETTYE LAVETTE.

More fall CDs from great artists!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2007

Pieta Brown Combines Southern Gothic And Heartland Hip On ‘Remember The Sun,’ Set For Sept 25 Release On One Little Indian Records

Album Already Generating Raves In The UK

“[‘Remember The Sun’] could have been recorded any time in the last 30 years and still stand out .... gentle swing mixing with swagger as perfectly as beer and chasers.” - Q MAGAZINE

On September 25, One Little Indian Records will release Pieta Brown’s ‘Remember The Sun,’ a new album steeped in the rising songwriter’s unique personal history. By turns hypnotic and driving, the eleven new, original songs on ‘Sun’ - all penned by Brown and delivered in her distinctive, throaty drawl - combine alluring poetry with a reporter’s eye for detail. Produced by Brown, Bo Ramsey (Lucinda Williams), and Chris Goldsmith (Blind Boys of Alabama, Ben Harper), ‘Sun’ has already earned strong notices in the UK, where it was released earlier this year. After making her debut at Bonnaroo last month, Brown is now poised to break through in the US.

The daughter of two preacher's kids, Brown spent her childhood in Iowa and Alabama amidst a broken yet musical family. In her bare-bones Iowa upbringing Pieta was exposed to traditional and rural folk music through her father, Grammy nominated folk singer, Greg Brown. Later, while growing up in the deep south of Birmingham, Alabama with her mother - who worked and attended medical school - Pieta drew on and expanded these musical influences and began writing poetry and composing music for piano. But it wasn’t until her 20s that she picked up a guitar. Her songs, like her poetry, convey a strong sense of place - equal parts southern gothic and heartland hip.

‘Sun’ features Brown’s strongest writing to date. Songs like “Sonic Boom” and “Not Scared” roar out of the gate and never let up, while others unfold like an unhurried dream. A childhood memory of her father taking her to see ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ forms the premise for “In My Mind I Was Talkin’ To Loretta,” while one can feel the walls closing in on “West Monroe”’s tale of small town claustrophobia.

Brown plays guitar, piano and Wurlitzer on the album, accompanied by a crack backing band including Ramsey on guitar, ace sessioneer Chad Cromwell (Neil Young, Mark Knopfler) on drums, Jon Penner (Junior Brown, Sue Foley) on bass, Ricky Peterson (Prince, John Mayer) on B-3 organ and keyboards, and David Mansfield (Alpha Band, Rolling Thunder Review) on violin and viola. 'Sun' was recorded and mixed in Minneapolis by Tom Tucker (Prince, Johnny Lang).

‘Remember the Sun’ follows Brown’s acclaimed 2005 release ‘In The Cool.’ Produced by Ramsey, it was named one of the year's best by Amazon.com and
several daily papers nationwide. It also broke the Top 20 of the Americana
Music Association radio chart and the Top 30 on the AAA radio chart. The success of ‘In The Cool’ led to tour dates with Neko Case, Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and others, plus a recording collaboration with Calexico.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2007

Chuck Prophet Cleans Up

Rock & Roll Renaissance Man Delivers 'Soap And Water,' His Debut For Yep Roc Records, On Oct 2

“Chuck Prophet is a real find, an innovative genre-fusing talent with a wry sense of humor and fearless approach to musical alchemy.” - USA TODAY

When he performed on Austin City Limits, Chuck Prophet was introduced as a singer who “defies categorization,” and he sounds more artistically restless than ever on ‘Soap and Water’, his first album in over three years, and his debut for Yep Roc Records. Set for October 2 release, the album features twelve new songs all written or co-written by Prophet. It was recorded in his hometown of San Francisco, and Nashville, and co-produced by Prophet and Brad Jones (Dolly Parton, Yo La Tengo, Josh Rouse).

Jesus, Elvis, and Anna Nicole Smith all turn up on ‘Soap and Water’ and that’s just in one song. Elsewhere, Prophet conjures stories of small town girls and damaged goods, missed opportunities and happy endings.

Mojo Magazine once wrote, “Forget water into wine; [Chuck Prophet] turns Americana into rock, pop, rap and R&B.” To wit, “Freckle Song,” the opening track on ‘Soap and Water’ is a one-chord stomper that finds Prophet playing the cad. But it’s followed by ‘Would You Love Me,’ a soulful ballad of genuine regret about the afore mentioned Christ/Presley/Smith triumvirate, featuring a haunting melodica and children’s church choir. Then there’s “Doubter Out of Jesus (All Over You),” a serious spooker that channels Alex Chilton and Alan Vega in equal measure. The children’s choir returns, this time manifesting something more akin to menace than innocence. A cold drum machine pattern and shimmering keyboards complete the scene, descending like a first frost.

It’s the moody brilliance of songs like these that have earned Prophet the respect of his peers. In addition to his own catalog, which spans 20-odd years, he has collaborated with Warren Zevon, Dan Penn and Alejandro Escovedo among many others, and his songs have been recorded by everyone from Solomon Burke to Heart. He also produced the new Kelly Willis album "Translated From Love," released last month on Rykodisc. In 2006, Prophet launched his own record label, (((belle sound))) releasing archival recordings by his seminal 1980s band Green on Red (“By far one of the best bands in the United States for almost an entire decade,” according to the New York Times), and a new album by Sonny Smith. Prophet is also currently at work on a spoken word project for Chronicle Books about the artist’s life on the road.

New Music from Heavy Trash and The Sadies This Fall

JON SPENCER and MATT VERTA-RAY, aka HEAVY TRASH, release their second studio album on Sept. 4 2007: Going Way Out With Heavy Trash (Yep Roc Records)

8/01/07

The new album from danger-makers JON SPENCER and MATT VERTA-RAY — GOING WAY OUT WITH HEAVY TRASH — is their greatest salvo of passion and grind yet, a torrent of cut-throat twang, a nitro-burning joy ride that drives hot-rodded guitars and battered tube amps to their earthly extremes!!!

The album, due to HT's heavy tour schedule, was recorded in three different studios, in three different cities, each with a different live band, each with a different sound. The Sadies at Camp Street studio in Boston … The Danish guys (Tremolo Beer Gut/Powersolo) at Toe Rag in London with Liam Watson, and the New York crew at home in Matt's place with Ivan Julian behind the desk."

Clever, witty, original, inventive, spontaneous, rockin, raw, sweaty, soulful... how can one fully describe HEAVY TRASH? Perhaps the adjective most used by those of us who know is "out!" HEAVY TRASH is "out," as you'll understand when you hear this album, their most Way Out collection of songs to date!

Check out Heavy Trash at:
heavytrash.net

myspace

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From Paste...

Sadies new album a family affair
Writer: Kasia Galazka
News, Published online on 11 Jul 2007

Cue the iTunes visualizers! Canada's cosmic rockers the Sadies have announced their fifth studio album, New Seasons, will be released October 2 on Yep Roc.

Recorded with friend and collaborator Gary Louris (Jayhawks, Golden Smog) in Spain and Toronto, New Seasons promises 13 new tracks of the band's honed psychedelic country rock sound.

Like all Sadies albums, frontmen and brothers Dallas and Travis Good called on family folk to contribute-including momma Margaret Good and their father and uncles, Canadian Country Hall of Famers The Good Brothers. The release also features Louris and Giant Sand's Howe Gelb.

Here's New Seasons' tracklisting for the secretly Canadian at heart:

1 - Introduction
2 - The First Inquisition (Part 4)
3 - What's Left Behind
4 - Sunset to Dawn
5 - Yours to Discover
6 - Anna Leigh
7 - The Trial
8 - My Heart of Wood
9 - A Simple Aspiration
10 - Wolf Tones
11 - Never Again
12 - The Land Between
13 - The Last Inquisition (Part 5)

Related links:
The Sadies
The Sadies on MySpace
Yep Roc: The Sadies

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A new informational election '08 blog...

http://blogfortruth-election08.blogspot.com/

Johnny Irion - Ex Tempore (Out 8/7)

JOHNNY IRION
EX TEMPORE
NEW SOLO ALBUM OUT AUGUST 7, 2007
ON ROUTE 8/RCAM RECORDS

“As I listen to the new album by Johnny Irion I say, “Boy, you better get to work ‘cause this guy is kicking you in the behind!” Ambitious is the word that comes to mind. Genre –bending material with mind-blowing arrangements that twist and turn into unexpected musical alleyways … but never a dead end. A must-have for lovers of pop, roots and all-around great music. Count me a fan for life” – Gary Louris (The Jayhawks)

Some records are made out of obligation; others are motivated by sheer desire. Ex Tempore (Rte. Eight/RCAM, Aug. 7, 2007, the new album from writer/artist Johnny Irion, falls into the latter category. Half of the duo Sarah Lee and Johnny with wife Sarah Lee Guthrie, Irion conceived the album during a fertile writing stint in summer 2006 at the Guthrie compound in rural Massachusetts. As the title implies, this is an album made with a sense of spontaneity – a pace that undoubtedly contributed to the immediacy of this song cycle, a varied yet cohesive collection intermingling piano balladry, Americana, chamber pop and folk-style fingerpicking with a sophisticated ear for arrangements.

Irion brought together musicians/friends from throughout his career, people who he knew would have a feel for the songs and be able to jump in and intuitively get it right: engineer/co-producer Ryan Pickett (longtime live soundman for My Morning Jacket), Tift Merritt and her rhythm section of Zeke Hutchins and Jay Brown, and Greg Readling and John Teer of Chatham County Line. Additionally, bassist Bryan Howard and drummer Dave Johnson (aka Athens, GA duo Corner Pockets), who toured with Johnny and Sarah Lee behind their 2004 album Exploration, played on two of the tracks.

While Irion’s high lilt occasionally recalls Neil Young, the songs are inspired by the canon of rock/cosmic American music of the late ’60s/early ‘70s. Add to that an appreciation of classic pop songwriting – Irion can craft an instantly memorable chorus and knows how to build a narrative – and you’ve got an album that’s timeless and true.

Ex Tempore resonates with all the highway miles, stages and life lessons that make up the journey of a career musician. Add being a family man to that – their daughter Olivia, now 5, joined them on the road as a newborn – and you’ve got an album that celebrates the everyday in a way that’s instantly identifiable and immediately engaging. Irion has proved that he’s in this line of work for the long haul – expect to be hearing from him for many years to come.