New Music 2017 - Part 17 - The Vintage TV Recordings - Danni Nicholls

Three months into 2017 and the days are longer. I have some 2017 festival tickets booked but the summer still feels a way off. Over the Easter weekend I intend to embark on another virtual road trip through music whilst also considering the fact that logic dictates at least some of the defining LPs of 2017 must have now been released, the consequent problem there being that I may not actually know about them yet.
Before that I'm going to indulge in my liking for live recordings; to wit that which is the title of this post. I finally saw Danni Nicholls live at Truck Festival last July after a couple of false starts due to venue issues resulting in shows cancelled to the detriment of all concerned.

This comprises tracks from both LPs and I have mentioned them before in posts. They are 'A Little Redemption' (2013) and 'Mockingbird Lane' (2015).  The play list here is as follows:

• Long Road Home
• Leaving Tennessee
• Beautiful Game
• Hey There, Sunshine
• Beautifully Broken
• Between Forever and Goodbye
• Where The Blue Train Goes
• Let Somebody Love You
• A Little Redemption

If you like this you will like both the studio LPs too.  I believe that her third LP is in the works. Be that as it may I strongly recommend that you also need to catch the artist live-for-real because even the best, most sensitively produced, live recording doesn't hold a candle to being there in person.

Danni Nicholls, Saloon Bar stage, Truck Festival, 16 July 2016.

Thoughts on music - Introspection versus the bigger picture

Oh how a few weeks can change my perspective.
Only a short time ago I was happily enjoying writing about new music, either recent or soon to be released, without much thought about the wider picture. Then suddenly it changed and I decided that it was time to comment on other issues again whilst set in context  - today's issue just happens to be the various threats to live music venues, of which more later.
I don't really understand why this happens to me from time to time.
I could claim that it is the anticipation of forthcoming festivals but, were I to do that, I know it is not the whole story. It is true that in the last few weeks I have had some very interesting, sometimes surprising, discussions concerning music. I am unsure if this is causal or symptomatic but inclined to the idea that the latter predominates.
While writing this I am listening, in toto, to an album so new that it has no release date and no final artwork as yet. I have however already mentioned it here and Danni Nicholls is an artist who seems blissfully unaware of the affliction known as DSAS (Difficult Second Album Syndrome). The title 'Mockingbird Lane' almost hints at that but I'm almost certain that this was unintentional - or a very dangerous gambit indeed.
That said, the game is now on; the début album by The Shires, already the first UK act ever signed to Universal Music Nashville, yesterday became the first UK country act or artist ever to reach the Top 10 in the UK album chart - 'Brave' is #10 on the week of release. 

Should you want to hear something new, yet old and a train-wreck revisited, I can't think of anything more beautiful than this. Jessica Lea Mayfield and Seth Avett have recorded an album of covers of Elliott Smith songs. It is not yet on general release in the UK or North America and I suspect that the link is time limited, so enjoy this now. It is as good as anything that I have heard this year and that is saying something. There are reasons why I suspected Jessica Lea Mayfield could pull this off and resulted from when I saw her play live at End Of The Road 2010 - she played solo. It was hauntingly beautiful yet painful at the same time and if looks could kill I was in big trouble here.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tipi stage - End Of The Road Festival 2010.

The LP is released in the UK on 16 March 2015.

Note added 7 April 2015:

The album has got mixed reviews: some say it is too cautious, reverential. Others quite the opposite, that it should have been more radical in its treatment of the original material or those that say that it should never have been attempted at all.
I think it is just spot-on - they got the balance almost perfect. If I could see Jessica and Seth play the whole thing live then I would travel far. It could quite easily turn out to be quite something for both artists come a year's time.

New Music 2015 - Part 18 - Danni Nicholls - Mockingbird Lane

In Spring 2013 UK-based Danni Nicholls and her largely acoustic take on Americana, tinged with country blues, came to my attention courtesy of her first full-length LP 'A Little Redemption' and I mentioned it, as part of the new transatlanticism, here.
That album was crowd-funded and very well received. She has wasted no time planning and plotting the follow-up and in keeping control of the process to herself. 'Mockingbird Lane' has been recorded (in East Nashville, like its predecessor), mixed and mastered and entirely crowd-funded through PledgeMusic. This does, incidentally, show that people are still very much willing to pay for music that they believe in and up-front too.
It is too early for album art or any of that so here instead is the title track 'Mockingbird Lane'.

Recorded live in the most famous garden shed in Somerset and quite possibly the UK. For lots more acoustic diamonds, amongst the dust, inevitable spiders and amazing collection of ephemera, pay a visit to Songs From The Shed.
Thinking about it, here is the title track of the first LP 'A Little Redemption', recorded in the same session.
Astonishing as this might be, all is not lost.

You haven't actually missed the boat - it doesn't cast off until 22 March. You can still grab a piece of the action.
The album was fully released, physically and digitally on 23 October 2015.