SINGLE OF THE WEEK: 'No Filter' - Ward Thomas

Taken from upcoming album Restless Minds, Ward Thomas' latest single 'No Filter' leaves a lasting impression.

It's catchy with Catherine and Lizzy's vocals and harmonies as tight and as seamless as ever but it's the message of the track that shines, as they tackle the very real issue of the pressure to conform to society's high standards of so-called beauty and the lyrics are them taking a stand against said standards.

As Catherine explains: 'It’s all about being our true selves, and standing up for what we believe in. Instead of being shackled by the pressures to conform, the song is about having the courage to break free of them.'

'No Filter' is empowering, an anthem and yet another reason to be excited for the duo's upcoming EP.

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For more information about Ward Thomas, including details of their upcoming UK tour, visit wardthomasmusic.com

John J Presley Announces New Album 'AS THE NIGHT DRAWS IN'

Celebrated mood-maker and electric bluesman John J Presley has announced details of his debut album. As The Night Draws In will be released physically and digitally on January 25th 2019 through Nica Records/AWAL and BMG.

Alongside the title unveiling, Presley has released the visuals for his menacing new single 'Rise And Fall'.

This latest release from the forthcoming album has continued to gain a massive trajectory of support across the board after the first single 'True Love Waits'. Presley sees support from every corner - from Cerys Matthews (BBC Radio 2) to BBC Radio 1 indie anthem conductor Jack Saunders, long term supporters John Kennedy and Radio X. 'Rise and Fall' is also currently sitting high on the Amazing Radio A-list.

As The Night Draws In sees Presley draw deeper than ever before in his songwriting and arranging - sweeping orchestral lines coupled with menacing drones and experimental flourishes, conjuring up his more evocative side. The roots of his sound though remain in the blues, and his distinctly unique guitar tone, which has already gained him an army of fans, is still very much intact.

Speaking on the new record, John says: 'This album is a collection of workings from the last ten years. I wanted the body of work to show all sides of the music I make – not all riffs but some moments of clarity and tenderness too. It's a reflection of frustrations and anxieties but also seeing a glimmer of light. A light to hold on to most certainly. It’s the deepest and broadest body of work I’ve done to date.'

Presley grew up in the West Midlands and over the past few years has lived in London and Brighton - which he now calls home. Birmingham was where he began to play and tread the boards and as soon as his debut single release hit the airwaves through Zane Lowe on Radio 1 his live show was very much in demand. The journey started there and after 2 hugely successful singles and EP release, Presley is now ready to sign off on his first long player.

His approach to challenging genre limitations has put his trademark skills in high demand, notably playing as part of Duke Garwood's live band, as well as previously performing on guitar duties for the live show surrounding Ed Harcourt's latest release.

Lyrically, As The Night Draws In shows Presley pulling and pushing against frustrations and anxieties; a narrative about exploring and finding the ultimate freedom.

Presley’s musical arsenal includes an old Gibson ES 125t, Hofner President and Fender Telecaster (to name a few), coupled with his love of valve amps and tone manipulation which is a world he also taps into on a professional level when not in the studio or out on the road.

Some time has passed since the last EP release White Ink, which was recorded at Toe Rag Studios (The White Stripes, Metronomy). During this time John was out playing in the live arena, spending lots of time in Europe, where he toured alongside projects such as Paradise (Simone Marie from Primal Scream), Rob Ellis (PJ Harvey), Sivert Hoyem and Rob McVey (Marianne Faithfull). He was also invited to perform at a specialist film festival in Poland and play in abandoned Rothschild factories in the Czech Republic to name a few.

As The Night Draws In was recorded between attics in North London and a secluded studio in North Wales. It’s a debut that bears all the hallmarks of this celebrated electric bluesman starting his next chapter.

John and his band will be supporting Blood Red Shoes on their upcoming UK/EU tour.

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For full details about the new release, and upcoming tour dates, visit johnjpresley.com.

Sound of the Sirens Announce New Album 'THIS TIME' and UK TOUR DATES

West Country folk-rock duo Sound Of The Sirens have announced their new album, This Time, out January 25th via DMF Records, as well as a 20-date UK tour starting in January.

This Time – the follow-up to their debut album, For All Our Sins, which was released in 2017 to widespread praise – continues to showcase an evident gift for crafting unique, vivid and enduring melodies over 15 heartfelt tracks.

'This Time’ is a collection of moments, emotions, challenges and stories,' say the duo. 'We've collected lyrics, melodies and ideas from the past couple of years for this project. We created this album last winter in an isolated barn in Wales with only guitars, a piano, wine and the dogs for company. The themes of time, love, loss, perseverance, hope and clarity are intertwined in these songs.'

Throughout the album, Sound Of The Sirens – duo Abbe Martin and Hannah Wood – blend intoxicating vocal harmonies with beautifully crafted instrumentals to create a seamless collection of captivating tracks. 'Troubles', the first track to be taken from the album, is a rousing and emotive ode to overcoming issues, amid inspiring lyricism and graceful cadences.

The album will be available digitally, on CD and black heavyweight vinyl, with signed copies available to pre-order now from Sound Of The Sirens’ online store. 'Troubles' is available as an instant grat with all album pre-orders.

This Time Tracklist

1. Awakening

2. Believe

3. Another Day

4. Troubles

5. The Yellow Road

6. All The Webs

7. All We Need

8. Through The Night

9. Have It All

10. Keeping Us Alive

11. The Order

12. Lie Awake

13. Count Our Luck

14. Four O’Clock

15. Every Time

The duo will embark on a 20-date UK tour in January, including dates in Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow and Manchester, and a date at London’s St Pancras Church. Full dates can be found here.

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More information about the duo can be found at soundsofthesirens.net.

Danielle Bradbury and Thomas Rhett Reveal 'Goodbye Summer' Video

Singer-songwriter Danielle Bradbery has unveiled the brand new video for her single 'Goodbye Summer', recorded with close friend and platinum selling artist Thomas Rhett.

The release of the new video comes fresh off the back of her supporting Thomas at his Eventim Apollo show on Saturday, with Rhett joining Danielle on stage to sing a duet of the single.

The poignant video charts the highs and lows of a whirlwind summer romance, following a young couple who fall in love, only for it to be cut short as the season comes to an end.

Danielle is one of country music's most exciting singer-songwriters. Having become the youngest ever winner of The Voice USA in 2013, she's since signed with Big Machine (Taylor Swift's label) and released 2 studio albums. Her sophomore LP I Don't Believe We've Met saw her really come of age, penning 7 of the album's 10 tracks and resulting in her being nominated this year for ACM New Female Vocalist of the Year as well as CMT Breakthrough Video of the Year and CMT Performance of the Year.

'Thomas Rhett was one of the first mentors I had in Nashville and we’ve become really good friends over the years. He's like a big brother to me, so to be able to record a song he wrote was incredibly special,' explains Bradbery

Watch the video for 'Goodbye Summer' below!

JP Harris Kicks Off UK Tour This Saturday

After performing across Europe earlier this month, JP Harris is set to start his UK tour this Saturday November 10th with his full band, The Tough Choices, accompanying him. Including three dates in Scotland to kick things off, the critically acclaimed musician will also be stopping in Newcastle, Bristol, Oxford, Bedford, and headlining at the Omeara in London on November 16th.

Dates are as follows:

10th - Thomas Fraser Festival, Shetland
11th - The Blue Lamp, Aberdeen
12th - The Cluny 2, Newcastle
13th - Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow
14th - The Mother's Ruin, Bristol
15th - The Jericho Tavern, Oxford
16th - Omeara, London
17th - Ents Shed, Bedford

With his latest album Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing (released October 5th on Free Dirt Records), Harris is back after a four-year hiatus to remind folks what a lifetime dedicated to country music looks and sounds like. Sure to please fans of his hardscrabble earlier work, this new collection of songs finds the acclaimed songwriter and vocalist stretching himself both musically and personally.

In today’s musical culture, the word “authenticity” seems to have lost all meaning. What used to represent something bona fide and true is now just watered-down marketing speak, stamped onto press releases without a second thought. Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1983, JP Harris doesn’t fancy himself a musician as much as he does a carpenter who writes country songs. However, his stranger-than-fiction story begins after the eighth grade, when he left home on a Greyhound bus in the middle of a summer night. And he’s never looked back.

For over a decade, Harris travelled the country, often alone, hitchhiking and hopping freight trains while making his living as a farm labourer, shepherd, woodsman, and carpenter, among many other titles. Still an in-demand carpenter to this day, Harris has been writing and performing country music for nearly ten years, releasing his debut album, I’ll Keep Calling, in 2012. He followed that release with Home Is Where the Hurt Is in 2014, which only saw his star rise both among country fans and critics at major outlets like Rolling Stone. Even Eagles frontman Don Henley referenced Harris in a 2015 interview with Hey Reverb saying that Harris made “thoughtful, authentic music.”

Working with producer and Old Crow Medicine Show member, Morgan Jahnig, Harris tapped a handful of his favorite players, sent them acoustic demos, and gave some pretty unconventional instructions: “Take five days to think about these songs. Please write notes of whatever ideas come to mind. Please don’t talk to each other about it. Let’s all just get in the studio on day one and compare notes as we go.”

The resulting sessions featured a palpable spontaneity and creative energy, both of which manifest in an album that’s real, raw, and more akin to his live performance than anything Harris has put out thus far. 'We took a counter-intuitive approach,' he says. 'We had no pre-production. There were no rehearsals. We basically had a whole studio full of multi-instrumentalists, a six-piece band total, for the whole recording session. Everybody played at least two instruments. It was a really interesting way to do it and I think it helped us avoid anybody, including myself, overthinking the songs.'

Sometimes Dogs Bark at Nothing opens with 'JP's Florida Blues #1' a hard driving country rock number that details some of Harris’ darker days touring Florida with his band, the Tough Choices. 'Lady in the Spotlight,' an affecting song with layered strings, turns a critical eye to the stark gender imbalance and the seamy, predatory side of music industry.

Album highlight, 'When I Quit Drinking,' is, as its title suggests, a tender look at one of Harris’ most personal struggles. Gossamer strands of pedal steel complement the gentle quaver in his voice, underpinning some of his most personal lyrics to date.

After years of writing and playing, Harris is more in love with country music than ever before. He sums up his hopes for the album simply: 'I’m just hoping that me coming to the table without gimmicks or cool-looking costumes or fancy vintage jeans—just the grubby guy I am with a sleeveless shirt and a pair of boots on—is enough to get people into the music.'

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Full information, including tickets, can be found here.

Bob Harris Has First Play Of New Frankie Davies Single 'OPEN ROAD'

Bob Harris has had the first play of the new single by Frankie Davies called 'Open Road' taken from her debut album Wherever I Go.

Frankie has described the song as articulating how she feels about the love between her and her partner and their journey together.

'I wrote this song after a big road trip with my partner,' says Frankie, '...sometimes it's rough and we have no idea where we are going but actually it takes us to some place beautiful. More importantly, when it seems there is no more road left to take, we just turn a corner and carry on our adventure.'

Previous single 'High On Love' came with a playful new video that saw Frankie meandering home ‘the morning after’ around her local streets with the gorgeous landscape of JerseyWherever I Go was released worldwide this past Friday.
as a backdrop.

The album reached Number 2 in the iTunes Country Chart last week upon UK release.

Watch the lyric video for 'High on Love' below:

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LISTEN TO 'OPEN ROAD' ON BOB HARRIS COUNTRY RADIO 2

For more information, including details on her upcoming album launch shows, visit frankiedavies.co.uk

Kip Moore Announces 'ROOM TO SPARE: THE ACOUSTIC SESSIONS EP'

Multi-platinum singer/songwriter Kip Moore has announced the release of Room To Spare: The Acoustic Sessions EP for November 16th.

Driven by a promise to fans to record an acoustic EP, this seven-song outing features a stripped-down rendition of ‘Plead The Fifth’ – the lead track from Moore’s latest studio album, Slowheart, released by Snakefarm Records in the UK last year – in addition to six never-before-released recordings.

Embracing an all-star roster of songwriters, including Natalie Hemby, Charlie Worsham, Luke Dick and Josh Kear, Moore co-wrote five of the tracks, in addition to producing the EP alongside David Garcia…

'The acoustic idea was something that was honestly born from the fans,' Moore says. 'It was something I noticed would keep coming back around from them, and that I have been promising to put out there. This project has been really cathartic as it doesn’t have the pressures of a full record, and allows you to mix things up a little bit creatively, but also totally strip things down. ‘Plead The Fifth’ is a song that is wild out on the road, so it’s awesome that a number like that gets another life in this form, too.'

One particular track, ‘It Ain’t California’, co-written with Worsham and Jon Mabe, was born a few years back, but is only now seeing the light of day following a fresh injection of life in the studio…

'I’ve always been super attached to that particular chorus melody, but never truly felt a connection to the verses,' Moore says of the song. 'Charlie heard me singing it in the studio and was immediately drawn to it, asking me what that was. I told him I wasn’t in love with the verses and was always in search of changing them to match the intensity and vulnerability of the chorus. We then began discussing our sadness over Tom Petty passing, which trailed into classic songs in general. Before you knew it, we were re-writing the track with a little bit of those concepts in mind, the backbone being that it will never be the same without Petty.'

Earlier this year, Moore played the main stage of Europe’s largest country music festival, Country2Country. This three-day event has fast become one of the biggest platforms outside of the USA for the major stars of the country world, as well as emerging talent from Nashville and beyond.

Room To Spare… is due for release digitally on November 16th, with a physical CD release lined up for November 23rd.

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Pre-order ROOM TO SPARE now here.