In May of 2022, filmmaker Marc Levy (of The Marcs) caught up with revered troubadours Jeffrey Martin and Willy Tea Taylor to document a slice of touring life. Ride passengerside with these two friends as they make their way to their show at The Birnamwood Born in Chapel Hill, NC, where you’ll hear a new track from Jeffrey Martin. Be a fly on the wall as they discuss what motivates them and how it feels to roam the country and dig deep to put their hearts out there for the audience every night.

Check it out below:

On Sunday, June 12, NPR’s Weekend Edition ran a feature on Margo Cilker, focusing on how she has chosen to forge her own path living in the rural Pacific Northwest. Interviewed by Kirk Siegler, she talks about how the pandemic may have factored into leveling the playing field for rural artists such as herself.

That article was rerun today on All Things Considered

Give a listen by clicking the link below, or read the article here.

 

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CAHALEN MORRISON  RELEASES DIGITAL SINGLE AND ANNOUNCES LP/CD RELEASE “Cahalen is making music the world needs.”—Tim O’Brien When I think of Cahalen Morrison (of Western Centuries / Cahalen Morrison and Eli West), I immediately think of old American masters like John Hartford and Norman Blake along with younger contemporaries like Tim O’Brien. But that would be selling Cahalen Morrison, who splits his time between Scotland and the US, short. While he, indeed, brings these legendary voices and players to mind, Cahalen’s take on Americana and it’s Celtic roots is singular. His songs feel at once as old as the dirt that fed them, and completely fresh. Back in 2020, Cahalen quietly self released a digital album on Bandcamp that quickly took on a life of it’s own. Today, Fluff and Gravy Records is proud to announce the long-awaited official release of his solo offering, Wealth Of Sorrow, digitally and physically (LP and CD) on August 12. To celebrate, we are releasing the digital single “Month Of May” TODAY. “Month of May” is a banjo driven song written in hard times, about knowing there would be better times to come. The lyrics and the music were composed separately, but fell together seamlessly, which stoked the fire of optimism that already fueled the song. The album is available for PRE-ORDER digitally, on CD, and on Limited Edition Color or Black LP   PRE-ORDER Wealth of Sorrow and listen to the digital single, “Month Of May” Wealth of Sorrow was recorded in an abandoned adobe chapel in the remote village of Jaroso, on the border of New Mexico and Colorado. Cahalen’s childhood home, lies only 50 miles away as the crow flies. In the sagebrush flats at the foot of the Sangre de Christo mountains, Erick Jaskowiak set up a mobile recording rig in the old church, and they went to work. In just a day and a half they tracked the ten songs that make up Wealth of Sorrow. The album was originally digitally self-released via BANDCAMP. This official release marks the first time that Wealth of Sorrow will be available physically or via Streaming sites. It will be released digitally and physically (LP and CD) on AUGUST 12. Originally hailing from the high desert of Northern New Mexico, Cahalen has made a name for himself. Over the past decade touring solo, as a duo with Eli West, or with his band Western Centuries, Cahalen has played shows and festivals all over the world and performed on stage with the likes of Tim O’Brien, Kelly Joe Phelps, Hot Rize, Crooked Still and Kris Drever. Equally at home on guitar, banjo, mandolin, singing three part harmony or unaccompanied, he has carved out a place for himself as a unique voice in American music.

 

 

This morning, NPR published an article focused on 11 Oregon artists to watch in 2021, and we are thrilled that Eastern Oregon’s Margo Cilker was included. While we were planning on keeping this one under wraps for a bit, this seems like as good as time as any to announce that we will be working with Margo to release her debut album, this November.

Margo Cilker is a woman who drinks deeply of life, and her debut record Pohorylle, is brimming with it. For the last seven years, the Eastern Oregon songwriter has split her time between the road and various outposts across the world, from Enterprise, OR to the Basque Country of Spain, forging a path that is at once deeply rooted and ever-changing.

The record, which carries gentle nods to Lucinda Williams, Townes Van Zandt, and Gillian Welch, shines under the instincts of producer Sera Cahoone, whom Cilker first came across in 2019 while planning her first full-length. Cahoone quickly got to work assembling a first-rate band: Jenny Conlee (The Decemberists) on keys, Jason Kardong (Sera Cahoone, Son Volt) on pedal steel, Rebecca Young (Lindsey Fuller, Jesse Sykes) on bass, Mirabai Peart (Joanna Newsom) on strings, Kelly Pratt (Beirut) on horns, and the album’s engineer John Morgan Askew (Neko Case, Laura Gibson) on an array of other instruments. The record also prominently features effortless harmonies from Sarah Cilker, Margo Cilker’s sister and frequent touring partner.

Stay tuned for more news in July, when the first single will be premiered by The Bluegrass Situation.

 

Not only is “Falling Fading” the last song on The Parson Red Heads’ newest album Lifetime of Comedy, it was the last song frontman Evan Way wrote for the album, and the last song the band tracked in the studio. The new music video for the song captures that very moment – the final take of the final song for the album. Filmed and edited by Jared Lichtenberg, the video captures the magic of the Parsons – their friendship, their charisma, the joy they exude when they are together making music. It’s a true document of a moment in time, a month before everything in 2020 changed, and because of this there is also an undeniable sense of nostalgia throughout the video – a nostalgia of a time not long past, that we all hope will not be long in returning.

Jim White is known for his catalog of dark ruminations on all things Southern. His latest outing, Misfit’s Jubilee, out October 30, 2020 on Fluff & Gravy Records (North America) features a nonstop parade of manic, blue-collar conflagrations exploring realms dark and light, mystic and mundane, cynical and heartfelt; all presented within a buoyant, hook-laden sonic framework.

Misfit’s Jubilee draws from an array of original songs penned by White over the span of several decades — scattered among the recent compositions are songs back-burnered in previous epochs by White’s major label handlers, who’d deemed them too extreme for his “brand.” With no such middleman constraints this go-round, in Misfit’s Jubilee White has found the perfect vehicle to unleash his twisted take on Southern folk rock.  As White’s protagonist in the song “Wonders Never Cease” defiantly declares, “A motel’s as good a place as any to let your demons fly!”

Amen, Brother White. The Americana maverick has let his sonic demons fly herein, setting the skies fully ablaze, like some LSD fueled 4th of July fireworks spectacular.

The first single, “Sum of What We’ve Been” is available today on your favorite Digital Streaming Service.

Misfit’s Jubilee is available for pre-order in North America at Fluff and Gravy Records and Bandcamp in Limited Edition Psychedelic Marble Vinyl, Black vinyl, and digitally.

In Europe, please order directly from Loose Records

The Parson Red Heads are excited to announce the upcoming release of a brand new studio record, Lifetime of Comedy, due out November 13th on Fluff and Gravy Records (USA) / You Are The Cosmos Records (EUR). It’s their first release of new recordings since 2017s album Blurred Harmony. 

Written and arranged by the band in the first couple years after releasing and supporting Blurred Harmony, this collection of songs is the first the band has fully written, arranged, and recorded without founding guitarist and singer Sam Fowles, and the first to be produced and engineered entirely by long-time Parson member Raymond Richards (who has produced many records over the years, including some by favorites such as Local Natives, The Blank Tapes, and Blitzen Trapper).

An album full of dreams, self-reflection, and weary yearning, Lifetime of Comedy covers a lot of sonic ground. If you’re familiar with the Parsons work, you’ll hear some familiar touch-stones – beautiful vocal melodies and harmonies, sparkling pedal steel-driven cosmic Americana and folk rock, coupled with new elements to their sound, layered synths, organs and mellotrons, songs that build and drive to chaotically beautiful peaks.

Check out the first single, All I Wanted, on Bandcamp today!

For 5 days in  November of 2018, Bart Budwig and his 7 piece band took over the historic OK Theatre (1919) in Enterprise, OR, to record his latest LP, Another Burn on the AstroTurf. The album would be record mostly live, and would feature guest appearances by John Craigie, The Hackles and Rainbow Girls. In addition to the huge band and guests, Bart also had a video crew on hand to document he occasion. Filmed by Paper Street (Grady Rawls) & Luke Zwanziger, we are thrilled to present to you the live video for “Rolling Stoned”. The track itself is a riff on the seminal Rolling Stones track, “Beast of Burden”, with Bart’s own twist… Indeed, if we are “rich enough” and “tough enough”, then maybe we might deserve something a little better.

In October of 2013, 17-year old Sarah Isabella DiMuzio walked into Fluff and Gravy Studios, armed with an acoustic guitar, a banjolele, and a wistful voice that was impossible to ignore. She was there to record tracks for her first independent EP called Small Infinity, released under her stage moniker, Whim. John Shepski and Juniana Lanning of Fluff and Gravy Records were there, and it’s a day they won’t soon forget. they immediately realized that they were witnessing an extraordinary artist. The songwriting was mature beyond her years, the hooks were unshakeable, and Sarah’s voice was singular. She was soon writing music for film and TV, moving to Galway, and then to New York.

Fastforward to 2018, and Sarah had moved back to Portland. When she approached Fluff and Gravy Studios about recording another record, John and Juniana jumped at the chance, and eventually became her backing band for the recording. We are proud to say that on April 24, 2020, Fluff and Gravy Records will be releasing Whim’s Abuzz in the Abyss.  It’s an album of impossibly catchy indie-pop gems, shoulder bopping singalongs, and tender ballads.

Today marks the release of the first single. “Somebody Else’s Tongue” is a raw pop-rock track about a devastating moment of realization, set to a driving beat, crunchy guitars, and jangly percussion. It will draw you in from the opening guitar riff, and by the time it gets to the chorus you’ll be singing along before you even realize what it is you’re singing…

“Feels like I’ve swallowed a tongue, But not mine, Somebody else’s tongue, Maybe the wrong one”

 

Abuzz in the Abyss is available for pre-order at Fluff and Gravy Records and Bandcamp in Limited Edition Clear or Marble Yellow vinyl, Black vinyl, and digitally. You can also check it out at your favorite online streaming site.

 

 

We are honored to have David Dondero appear on this week’s episode of NPR’s All Songs Considered. His single “Easy Chair”, from his latest LP, The Filter Bubble Blues, was featured. Give it a listen here, and then pick up the LP.

We’ve still got a few Limited Edition White LPs at the Fluff and Gravy Store, along with black LPs, cds, and digital formats.

 

 

 

 

Bart Budwig has a favor to ask. And YES, there’s something in it for you.

While the best way to support your favorite artists is still buying physical merch directly from them (or right here), an equally important part of the game today is Streaming.

Please take a minute to pre-save Bart’s forthcoming album, Another Burn on the Astroturf. The link works for both Spotify and Apple Music. And hey, while you’re at it, would you mind clicking this link to follow Bart on Spotify?

Pre-saving and following will get you EXCLUSIVE access to unreleased PHOTOS and a recording of the LIVE DEMO that would eventually evolve into the record.

Thanks for helping out, and we hope that you enjoy the demo tracks!

 

“Sometimes when Bart sings, I forget what we’re talking about. I’m sure he knows though. I trust him. He sounds like John Prine, plays like Hoyt Axton, and looks like well… Bart Budwig. He’s a cosmic country lawn gnome.”

– Sean Jewell, American Standard Time

We’ve been big fans of Bart Budwig for years, so it gives us great pleasure to announce that we’ll be working together. Finally! Sometimes when I hear Bart sing, I swear his voice fills up some hole in my heart that I didn’t even know I had. He knew it all along though.

Bart Budwig is a son of Idaho, a cosmic country crooner, a rousing trumpet player, and cryin’-style soul singer. His music is made up of seemingly incongruous parts; thrum & strum country rhythms, jazz guitar melodies, R&B vocals. When Bart sings he draws out words into meditative mantras, whole note neologisms that keep you hanging on until his raspy voice trails off in a ragged edge. His forthcoming album, Another Burn On The AstroTurf  was recorded over five days by a seven-piece band inside the OK Theater. It’s a melancholy rhapsody that recalls the uncorked rock n’ roll spirituality of king mystic Van Morrison, the gloomy nostalgia of dark prince Nick Drake and the songcraft sans self-seriousness of 70s Muscle Shoals.

Check out the first single, “Human Again”, a “spiritually charged nugget of country-folk”, which premiered today at Glide Magazine.

Another Burn on the AstroTurf will be released on January 24, but you can pre-order it HERE today on Limited Edition Clear Vinyl, Black Vinyl, Silver CD, or digitally.

What a day… Not only do we get to announce that we will be working with anti-folk hero David Dondero to release his upcoming  LP, The Filter Bubble Blues, (due January 17), we get to spring the first single on you today!

“The Presidential Palace of Pornography” is the first single, and it pretty much sums up the whole record in a nutshell. It’s a doo wop parody of headlines since the 2016 election in America, a prozac infested fifties, sixties , and 70’s rock style classic. Check out this Intergalactic cross-genre hit single, on the new sensation, Spotify, today!#1 in Nashville, New York, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Atlanta and Chicago, and 82 countries. A real life international diamond lane smoker.

The album itself is a biting, wary, heartbroken and sometimes hilarious sendup of the dumpster fire that is modern American political theatre and identity politics. Songs of a place hellbent on robbing itself of the last vestiges of what once made it great–or could’ve made it great if there had ever been any truth in it.

Dondero challenged himself with the difficult task of writing thought provoking songs during volatile political times in which most people in America appear to be living in increased isolation, modern convenience, information overload, and entrenched political beliefs. The result is Dondero at his best, full of the brilliant wordplay and craft listeners have come to expect. His voice calmer and steadier, while still full of emotional intensity. On every track you feel like you are in the room with him and that we are in this together, even if seems we are wandering lost and self-sidelined at this point in history. What else is one of the “best living songwriters” to do in these times?

Available January 17 on Limited Edition “eyeball” or white vinyl, as well as classic black LP or silver CD. Pre-order here!

Fernando Viciconte is set to release his 9th LP, Traitors Table, on June 21 and it promises to be his most personal and provocative effort to date. Co-written and recorded with long-time cohort Luther Russell (Those Pretty Wrongs) in the space of a week, this is Fernando’s first new LP since 2015’s Leave The Radio On. The autobiographical “I Don’t Know”, was the first single , premiered by Glide Magazine. In it, Fernando wails about coming to the U.S. as an immigrant child and how—after growing up identifying as a proud American—he felt the acute, nauseating fear of being sent back to a country he never really knew. This was followed by the second single, “The Longest Wait”, premiered at Pop Matters.

The latest single, “Hey, Darlene”, strips it down to the bare essentials – guitar, hand percussion, and Fernando’s golden voice. Viciconte describes the track as “a ballad about a working class couple who have been forgotten about by a technological world that they no longer fit into. They still long for The American Dream that no longer exist and they naively believe that one day they will be able to take a seat at the Traitors Table.”

The record will be available June 21 on LP, CD and digital formats. In in addition to standard Black Vinyl, the LP will be available as a Limited-Edition Blood Red and Black splatter version (100 copies). You can pre-order the record here.

Today, we are honored to have American Songwriter Magazine premier the video for Anna Tivel’s “The Question”. Directed by Sarah Whelden and Robin Vada, the video follows the main character (played by trans-actress Carlie Guevara) as she struggles with expressing and ultimately celebrates her true gender identity. The story draws inspiration from Sarah’s own experiences as a trans-woman.

Please give it a look with an open heart, and share it if you are moved.

4th single from upcoming LP, The Question

Anna Tivel is set to release her 4th LP, The Question, on April 19 and it promises to be her most groundbreaking effort to date. Produced by multi-instrumentalist, Shane Leonard, the 3 singles released thusfar have all pushed the boundaries of Tivel’s oeuvre in unexpected ways. The stark piano and swirling keyboards of “Fenceline” and the haunting synthesizer of “The Question” are surprisingly perfectly at home, considering that these are folks songs at heart, and the lush strings of “Minneapolis” are the perfect compliment to Anna’s vocal.

The latest single from the LP, “Worthless”, continues along this vein but takes it all one step further. The gritty, pulsating bass line is the perfect backdrop, creating a palpable tension that is so thick you can almost taste the smoke. Couple that with a bluesy off-kilter guitar and Mellotron solo and it’s easy to forget that this started as a folk song.

“This is a song about labels”, Tivel says, “about how difficult it is to shake a word, a name, a category heard over and over until it feels like it must be true. It’s about the power of the things we call each other.” Fittingly, this just may be the track, and certainly the album, that moves Anna Tivel beyond the reach of conventional labels and places her in the company of the great songwriters of her generation.

The record will be available April 19 on LP, CD and digital formats. In in addition to standard Black Vinyl, the LP will be available as a Limited-Edition Marble Yellow version (150 copies). You can pre-order the record here.