New Music 2016 - Part 2 - Lissie - My Wild West

By this time of year I would usually be a dozen, perhaps more, posts into music forthcoming next year. That I am not is not a reflection on the lack of music, nor even on my ability to spot it coming. It is rather more a necessity borne of the sheer quantity of new music I have been introduced to in 2015. Of that more soon.

When she appeared on these shores in 2010 after a couple of very promising EPs, with début album 'Catching A Tiger' in tow, Lissie Maurus found a UK audience surprisingly receptive to her particular brand of alt-country inspired guitar rock. She and the band started playing tiny UK dive pubs and ended an eventually much extended tour with a headline gig at Shepherds Bush Empire that was recorded and released on DVD. The album was top 10 in the UK and certified 'gold' by BPI. It was followed in 2013 by a sequel 'Back to Forever', also on Colombia. I for one never got to like this as much as 'Catching a Tiger'. It was, in some ways, a little flat - it seems as if something or somebody had ironed out the quirks that made her so likeable to start with. Now we get to LP #3 and some speculation on my part as I haven't heard very much of it yet.

There are a two reasons why I have particularly high hopes for this. The first is that she is now free of any shackles, real or imaginary, imposed by Colombia Records. 'My Wild West' is released on 12 February 2016 by Cooking Vinyl Records, a label with a long history of nurturing bands that have an independent streak. The second is that between 'Back to Forever' and this release she has relocated from California back to The Quad Cities on the Iowa/Illinois border, a move that I suspect is reflected in the title of the LP. Much of 'Catching a Tiger' was or at the very least hinted at being about her time spent growing up there.

Lissie - My Wild West:

1. My Wild West Overture
2. Hollywood
3. Wild West
4. Hero
5. Sun Keeps Risin'
6. Don't You Give Up On Me
7. Stay
8. Daughters
9. Together Or Apart
10. Shroud
11. Go For A Walk
12. Ojai

She is playing Shepherds Bush Empire again in 2016 and it is very tempting indeed.

New Music 2013 - Part 30 - three forthcoming rock/blues albums

I said early last week that this would be the next in my 'New Music' series and it is. That various things including more on End Of The Road 2013 that came between them is just how the cookie crumbles.
In the last few years I have got to like blues more than ever before. In particular in that I no longer regard it as an semi-historical genre. That is something that I should have known was not true. In many ways I have my friend John to thank for this: we had intended to see Gary Moore, who we both much admire, live but ultimately we left it too late.
About the same time I saw Bex Marshall live in Frome, supporting Seth Lakeman, and that rekindles my interest in modern blues artists especially. This forthcoming album is by US artist Samantha Fish from Kansas City, MS.

UK release date (physical): 23 September 2013 (Ruf Records).

This is her second studio album, following Runaway (2011) and 'Girls With Guitars 2011', a live album also featuring Dani Wilde and Cassie Taylor.

    This next is the second studio album by an artist that, whilst I had no idea who she was at the time, I caught very briefly on one of the smallest stages at Latitude Festival. Once I had worked out that it was Lissie Maurus (from Rock Island, IL) I bought the two EPs that preceded the release of her début album Catching a Tiger (2010). It was a surprise hit in the UK charts and UK audiences also took to her live show, which can be understood and resulted in a  CD/DVD Live At Shepherds Bush Empire (2011).

Back To Forever is slated for UK release (Columbia) on 14 October 2013.

The last of these three is UK artist, although now resident in the US, Joanne Shaw Taylor. Three studio albums into her career the live CD/DVD treatment follows soon (all on Ruf Records), This was recorded at one take during an intimate performance at The Borderline in London earlier this year. I saw her at Tavistock Wharf last October and shall do so again at London's Shepherds Bush Empire in November.

UK release: 25 November 2013.