Lauded New Orleans born folk songstress MARY GAUTHIER (64 now) has a rich past, writing/recording/releasing her deeply felt songs since 1990. Many artists such as Tim McGraw, Blake Shelton, Kathy Mattea, Vince Gill, Bettye Lavette, Candi Staton, and Amy
Helm have covered songs of her.
She just released her new full-length, named RECKONING, her first in 8 years.
TUTV: Gauthier‘s riveting Americana voice gets all your aural attention throughout this
new, stirring acoustic folk album. Gauthier sings about people’s loneliness caused by addiction to alcohol and drugs. About the struggle for love and justice in a world where religious people often pervert Jesus’ message of love for others. About the Kennedys,
MLK, Obama, and today’s dark political turmoil.
About individuals eager to follow orders, whether it’s crucifying Jesus or shooting Rene Good in cold blood on a Minneapolis street. About anything/anybody that puzzles Gauthier and impacts her views on humanity. No, these aren’t happy songs whatsoever,
but they stick, like real life sticks. In the end, Gauthier hopes for salvation, something,
I guess we all do.
Fitting candlelight music for soulful and moony Sunday evenings
Country shero DOLLY PARTON,who passed away a month ago at
the age of 80, scored one of her countless hits with MY COAT OF
MANY COLORS, the title track of her 8th LP.
It was written by Parton, and released on 27 September 1971,
today 55 years ago and peaked at #4 on the US Country Charts.
The song tells of how Dolly‘s mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told her child the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. The excited child, “with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes”, rushed to school, “just to find the others laughing and making fun of me” for wearing a coat made of rags.
OZZFEST was an annual (with a break now and then) heavy
metal festival tour of the United States, sometimes Europe and Japan, founded by Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne.
The first edition was in 1996, the last one in 2018.
This week rumours popped up on social media
that the tour will come back to the US and the UK
next year.
The song’s title is inspired by an unfinished novel by Italian novelist Italo Calvino (1923-1985), titled Under the Jaguar Sun, which was
written just before his death, attempting to tell a story for each of
the senses.
Leona Farrugia (frontwoman): “The idea that sometimes we are mere observers
or simply a protagonist watching from afar – AKA life being acted out. It is almost like
a surreal experience / magical realism. We are sometimes so far removed from the
reality that everything is lost, there is no sense of a higher self.”
TUTV: Jaguar Sun is a kind of modern-day soul/pop exploit with mighty
vocals and layered orchestrations and a weirdly fitting appearance for Arab Strab‘s spoken word/vocalist Aidan Moffat.
“‘Surfer Rosa’ would be my favourite Pixies album, because
of the combination of Steve Albini’s production and their songs. You put the record on, and it sounded like they were in the room with you.”
Press info: “With Nobody’s Coming To Save You, Gurriers have sent their ambitions sky-high and come out swinging. If the band’s MO was to find a way to make the record “slap you in the face”, then consider yourself smacked.”
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TUTV: Without a shadow of a doubt, one of the hottest records of the year. They rock,
they punk, and they punch with blood-and-guts fervour. They’re on a quest to find the
light at the end of the tunnel to replace today’s dark times. Watch your back, Fontaines, your fellow committed countrymen are coming fast.
Press info: “Gilla Band never know where they’re going next. For over ten years now,
the Dublin quartet have been redefining what you could loosely call “rock music” in the 21st century, influencing a wide swath of similarly forward-thinking guitar acts along the way.”
TUTV: I follow/love these Irishmen since I saw them live in Belgium in 2014
as nervous snotnoses hadn’t a record out yet, as support act for Fat White
Family. Their chainsaw hullabaloo went through bone and marrow.
And it still does. Mind you, their songs had and still have bloodcurdling body and returning, capriocious structure that’s bone-chilling and mind-blowing at times, while frontman Dara Kiely fights upfront to vomit his eccentric lyrics. If your eardrums survive
this electric-chair experience, you’re ready for some more sonic Gilla Band blitzkrieg.
Press info: “The album fuses Adult DVD’s love of hook laden indie, with
pulsing groove, 90’s acid house influence and an undeniable humour in
their songwriting.”
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TUTV: Think/feel this. Electro-punk mixed with industrial thumps mixed with drum/bass bashing sledgehammers mixed with sonic booms. Sounds like thunder and lightning fireworks for (il)legal raves produced by techno experts Underworld. Bonkers, right?
You wham bam betcha.
Press info: “Stray Dogs reconnects the Southend five-piece with their DIY roots.
The album was written in unison over a dedicated 5-month period, resulting in
the band creating their most liberating and cohesive work to date.”
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TUTV: On 6 tracks NBT mess with your rotating head with untrammelled force,
storm-wracked noiz drills, hysterical guitars, drum/bass horsepower, and full-hearted vocals. On the other 6 tracks they go for more traditional rock sucker punches. It results
in a roller coaster record with a straightaway impact. Nothing but thrills.
The recordings were finished before co-founder Dave Ball passed away last year in October.
Press info:“The final album is both a love letter to early 80s New York and
a tribute to the late, great Dave Ball. The album is a big, classy and playful
farewell after.”
TUTV: It’s a Soft Cell worthy goodbye, showing their heart and soul for dancefloor
entertainment once again, but, unfortunately, for the last time. Their magnificent 1981
gem “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” is playing in my head while writing this. Thank you for
the music, electronic dance pop champs.
