Featured New Releases – 7/30/2016

Just as July wraps up, we’ve got another batch of new releases from artists both new and old. In addition to what’s listed here, there’s much more new material that’s been added to our playlists. Stay tuned to WWCF 88.7 FM for great new music and wwcfradio.org for news about new artists and albums.

Album Releases

	Neil Young & Promise of the Real Earth Earth features performances of songs from a range of Neil Young’s albums, including last year’s The Monsanto Years, 1990’s Ragged Glory, and 1970’s After the Gold Rush. The audio was captured during Young’s 2015 tour with The Promise of the Real, fronted by Willie Nelson’s sons Lukas and Micah Nelson. A new take on some of Young’s most beloved songs, Earth features the live recordings, along with added musical overdubs, as well as sounds of the earth, such as city sounds like car horns, sounds of insects, and animal sounds from bears, birds, crickets, bees, horses, cows – creating a very strange, yet beautiful atmosphere. Buy Album • Artist Website
	Various Artists Day of the Dead Day of the Dead is an epic tribute to the music and artistry of the Grateful Dead, curated by Aaron and Bryce Dessner of The National. They have brought together some of their favorite musicians to reinterpret the songs and sounds of the Dead for a new generation. 59 tracks and over 5 hours of music makes the album a landmark to get lost in, to discover hidden treasures and to make your own playlists for whatever mood you’re in. Buy Album • Album Website
	The Monkees Good Times! Good Times! by The Monkees is the band’s first new album in 20 years and tied to their 50th anniversary and extensive North American Tour. The album finds all three surviving band members (Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork) taking turns on lead vocals, playing a wide range of instruments, and sharing new compositions. The unmistakable voice of the late Davy Jones is also included with a vintage vocal on the Neil Diamond-penned “Love To Love.” Much like early Monkees albums, Good Times! features tracks written specifically for the band by some of the music world’s most gifted songwriters, including Rivers Cuomo, Ben Gibbard, Andy Partridge, as well as a song co-written by Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller. Buy Album • Artist Website
	Eli “Paperboy” Reed My Way Home Eli “Paperboy” Reed has returned to the studio and crafted a new album that is at once back-to-basics and startlingly current. Throughout the record, the classic gospel ethos that everything’s going to work out fine if you just keep the faith reflects Reed’s resilient spirit. Selections from the album also nod to the music’s church roots. My Way Home represents a return to the sonic character that Reed’s career began with, described as horn-heavy R&B soaked with the blues, and compared to the heart-wrenching emotion of Southern predecessors such as Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. Buy Album • Artist Website
	Joan Baez 75th Birthday Celebration On January 27th, 2016, folk icon Joan Baez celebrated her 75th birthday with a historic performance at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The special event honored her legendary 50-plus years in music in an intimate, career-spanning live performance. Baez performed alongside fellow artists and friends, including David Bromberg, Jackson Browne, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Judy Collins, David Crosby, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Damien Rice, Paul Simon, Mavis Staples, Nano Stern and Richard Thompson. Buy Album • Artist Website
	The Avett Brothers True Sadness True Sadness reflects The Avett Brothers’ artistic, musical, and personal evolution over 16 years as a band. Seth Avett describes the album is a patchwork quilt, both thematically and stylistically. Wherein a myriad of contrasting fabrics make perfect sense on the same plane, the album draws upon countless resources from its writers and performers, and cites influences such as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jimmie Rodgers, Tom Petty, Walt Disney, Pink Floyd, calypso of the 1950’s, and country of the 1930’s. Buy Album • Artist Website
	The String Cheese Incident SCI Labs Vol. 1 Colorado jam band The String Cheese Incident has recently released their new free EP entitled SCI Sound Lab, Volume 1. The three song EP is culled from sessions with producer and former Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison and is the first recording created at the band’s new recording facilities which they’ve dubbed “SCI Sound Lab.” According the the group, “The aim is to create a vehicle for open expression – for us and our friends, guests, and even other musicians recording on their own – so that we can share more and more music with you, as easily as possible.” Download Album • Artist Website
	NewTown Harlan Road Harlan Road takes listeners on a trip down hard traveled Kentucky backroads into the heart of Bluegrass country. Based out of Lexington, Kentucky, Newtown accurately cites their obvious local musical influences. Their sound is hard-edged contemporary bluegrass – modern yet still representing the bluegrass traditions of their Kentucky roots. Buy Album • Artist Website
	Oh Pep! Stadium Cake Olivia Hally and Pepita Emmerichs met in music secondary school in Melbourne, Australia, drawn together by a shared love of songs with no boundaries or expectations. The duo, now both 24, have since unveiled three EPs, and their debut album, Stadium Cake, showcases Hally and Emmerichs’ uniquely compelling collaboration. Stadium Cake marks the first time Oh Pep! has recorded with a multi-track approach rather than recording live. Hally and Emmerichs wanted to be completely open to new ideas and approaches, and to not confine themselves to preset conceptions of how the music should be made. Buy Album • Artist Website
	The Nightowls Royal Sessions Recorded at the legendary Royal Studios in Memphis, TN, Royal Sessions is the new 5-song EP from Texas soul group, The Nightowls, and the follow up to 2015’s critically acclaimed Fame Sessions. “It was an honor and inspiration to record in such an historic studio that houses vintage gear and a lifetime of soul and R&B history.” Buy Album • Artist Website
	Jonah Tonchin Thousand Mile Night Upon completing his new album, Jonah Tolchin immediately drove from Muscle Shoals, Alabama to his hometown in New Jersey, accumulating precisely 1,000 miles on his journey. On August 5, the critically acclaimed singer/songwriter/bluesman will release Thousand Mile Night, the follow up to his highly praised label debut Clover Lane. Inspired by experiences from heavy touring, Tolchin notes “these songs come from the joy, pain, and everything in-between that emerge from this way of life.” Buy Album • Artist Website
	Boo Ray Sea of Lights In 2006, Boo Ray followed in the footsteps of southern songwriters who journeyed to Los Angeles like Jerry Reed, Kris Kristofferson and Gram Parsons and headed west. The Americana musician teamed up with producer Noah Shain once again on his third LP Sea of Lights. “I’m not writing to impress the aficionados or experts,” says Ray. “It’s a trucker album, it’s a party album, and I hope it’s a good album to play cards to and a good road trip album.” Buy Album • Artist Website
	The Weeping Willows Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’ Before Darkness Comes A-Callin’ is the sophomore LP from Melbourne alt-country duo The Weeping Willows. Recorded in Los Angeles, their newest album delves further into the Gothic depths of Americana with the help of renowned alt-country musicians from around the world. Buy Album • Artist Website