New Music - Part 14 - Kelly Richey - Sweet Spirit

Kelly Richey has returned, after 2008 release 'Carry The Light', with a new band and a new studio album 'Sweet Spirit' and again it is released on her own label 'Sweet Lucy Records'. It has not had a UK release as yet but no matter. This is the track list:

• 1. Feelin' Under
• 2. I Went Down Easy
• 3. Leavin' It All Behind
• 4. Something's Going On
• 5. Everybody Needs a Change
• 6. Fast Drivin' Mama
• 7. One Way Ticket
• 8. Risin' Sun
• 9. Dyin'
• 10. Workin' Hard Woman

It is on its way to me from the US and, while we are about it, here is the album artwork. Blues rock of the highest order awaits if the samples I have heard are in any way representative of the whole. I'm pretty confident that this is so.

Last Thursday is a long time in Music

Last Thursday I wrote something, about the passing of Jim Marshall and his influence on electric guitar music. That included the comment that, at least in the UK, it is somewhat out of fashion.
That would be quite inconsequential were it not for this...  much hailed as just more 'southern fried rock', something long forgotten and also forever indie, so Alabama Shakes was derided by much of the music industry. It is a cliché that, I'm pleased to say, I don't think they could ever stoop so low as to reach; it was, however, tentatively predicted to gradually conquer at least the more receptive parts of the UK audience through live performance.
  
Be that as it may, the latest UK album chart mid-week predictions suggest otherwise - the début album 'Boys and Girls' is really on to something... it was only released - vinyl, CD and d/l on Monday, 9 April in the UK by indie label Rough Trade Recordings.  There's serious trouble afoot and it is just possible that it will top the UK album chart on its week of release. WTF is that about?
The album is extremely good, and not just for a début, but more than that the band's live reputation is already firmly established. The band is awesome live but, unusual in such a genre, so too is the contribution by vocalist Brittany Howard.
  
The album artwork has a quite unsurprising geometry:

Alabama Shakes is confirmed for End Of The Road 2012 (EOTR 2012). I, for one, can't wait.

Jim Marshall - a man beyond music

It is so iconic, of amplified music, that it is indelible. Today Jim Marshall passed away... you know those ubiquitous amps, of course you do, but likely never thought about how they came to document and then define electric guitar music in particular for almost half a century.
http://marshallamps.com/
Now you do.  The next time you see one, and I'd wager that will be soon,  just remember Les Paul and Leo Fender too: the electric guitar ain't dead yet... far from it. Here's to the next half-century.