Sound Check's Blog Posts Tagged 'Blues' (12)

Indie psychedelic band The Tontons announced their spring tour dates. Visit http://thetontons.com/ for updates.…

We told you about 'People, Hell and Angels', a collection of 12 Jimi Hendrix previously unreleased tracks, to be released March 4. After single 'Somewhere', here's another previously unreleased track, 'Earth Blues' (stream below - via…

Indie psychedelic band The Tontons are back after their stellar Golden EP with a new single. (The Tontons are of course not to be confused with the Tauntauns from ice planet Hoth). The A-side of the Bones 7” is a spacey, but dance-rock infected jam. Fittingly titled “Bones 1” it's a song about living in the here and now and celebrating youth and freedom. “One of these days, we'll have some kids, picket fences, mortgages … but today's not that day / and I'm not…

Good news for fans of hard rock/folk/blues band Earl Greyhound! (to the unconverted: I'm worried about you. Are you OK?) It's been two years since Earl Greyhound's 2nd full length Suspicious Package, but the intrepid trio are back. Sort of. They're re-releasing their first recordings from 2003 on vinyl. The 4 song EP Besides Seasides is out today and definitely worth picking…

Hip-hop producers have been sampling soul and blues tracks since day 1 so it's actually surprising how rarely blues returns the favor. On Charlie Red's new EP Religion, the duo of producer Cobaine Ivory and singer/songwriter Rocky Evans use the language of hip-hop to create some dirty, soulful blues.…

Pretty much since 5 minutes after a bunch of clean-cut Liverpudlians made rock safe for TV in 1963, folks have been periodically declaring “real rock n roll” dead. And while a credible argument could be made that the moment represented the first death of “real rock n roll,” what's really true is that every generation has their rebirth and death of “real rock n roll.” That dangerous but soulful riffy shit that's a little rough around the edges, makes no apologies, and calls back…

Born and bred in rural Tennessee, singer-songwriter Valerie June makes the kind of roots music that might as well come with a mason jar of moonshine. It's a laid-back easy folk-blues laced with a hint of soul courtesy of producer Dan Auerbach (of the Black Keys), among others. Her latest single is the smokey “Workin' Woman Blues”, produced by Peter Sabak in Budapest, Hungary. (we featured the video a while ago, but she just made the track available for download)…

With his 100th birthday, and the let's-not-call-it-a-depression-because-that's-depressing “economic downturn” there's been a renewed interest in the music of folk legend Woody Guthrie this past year. But hardly anyone's talking about one of Guthrie's biggest influences and collaborators, Huddie Ledbetter. Better known to the world as that original punk rocker Lead Belly.



Words by Nathan Leigh



Each…

Singer/songwriter Danielia Cotton dropped her first record Small White Town (inspired by her hometown of Hopewell, New Jersey) in 2005. Equal parts classic rock and blues, but with a gospel tinge, she makes the kind of music that shakes something deep in your soul. It's timeless without feeling retro. It's been a few years since her last release (2008's Rare Child), but Danielia and her eponymous band are back and getting ready to put out their newest The Gun In Your…

There's something magical about stripped down blues rock. It seems like every decade a handful of disciples from the church of Bo Diddley and Muddy Waters comes up to remind the world of the power of minimalism. British power trio and AP members Melody Nelson strip it back to basics but throw in a dash of Zeppelin and a pinch of Sabbath for freshness on…

Afropunk member (I Am) Isis has been dropping a steady stream of singles since 2009, but she's finally ready for a full length. The debut Amazingly Random comes out this fall, and the dope first single 'I Saw You' is out now. The track combines a longing blues guitar lick with Isis' sultry spoken-word; seamlessly blending the vintage and the modern to create…