Shannon and Susannah Davey's song 'We've All Got Our Story' mixes folk and blues together so well, that at just over two and a quarter minutes duration my first instinct was to play it again (and again).
'Like Everyone' by The Be Positives is a striking rocker of a song, from a band who are certainly not trapped in any one particular genre, with this track they just happen to be in full garage rock mode.
Just a couple of weeks back we first featured Katrina Parker and the title track for her new album 'Stars.' We now have the only cover song on the album, the classic 'Ring Of Fire' and she really does take the piece in a very different and imaginative direction!
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The Promised started out as a roots/country duo consisting of Jesse and Noelle Burch. The pair met in 2018 while performing with their respective bands at the Cloverdale Rodeo. A mutual respect for music sparked a writing session, where it became clear their musical chemistry was undeniable. Blending genres and experimenting with their different influences created a synergy for writing catchy and original songs.
Spending most of their time together writing for the next 4 months created an interesting dynamic, and in September of 2018, they were married, and their dreams of playing music together started to take shape.
The two teamed up with an incredible group of musicians from across western Canada and The Promised was born. They were accepted into the 2019 Breakthrough Country music project Top 12 with only one live show under their belt and after two rounds of competitions they were named 1st Place Grand Prize winners.
Working with Bailey Way Entertainment at the Warehouse Studios, their debut single “We Could Be in Love” was released July 29th, 2019. The Promised has a busy summer ahead playing at Sunfest on Friday, August 2nd and the Southern Alberta Music Festival August 10th.
With tight harmonies and a powerful sound, their music captures you within it's story. Their chemistry on and off stage is undeniable and their energy will keep you wanting more.
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Songwriter and author, Shannon Davey is a storyteller of great investigative spirit, together with his wife Susannah, Shannon and Susannah Davey are releasing We’ve All Got Our Story - a song of grit and integrity.
We’ve All Got Our Story is an eye witness account of the current ‘Poverty Street’ zeitgeist as observed walking the streets across Australia and northern America.
‘At one level it is about our attitudes to the poor but it goes deeper, to what is the heart of our contested civilisation.’ - Shannon Davey
Shannon’s musical DNA is from the ancestral, Irish convict blues memes of the Van Diemen’s hinterland, growing up on the high unemployment coast where gospel met surf culture. He spent decades grafting music in disadvantaged schools as a way up for kids.
In the wake of his book Spirit of Tasmania, Shannon has more to share as a songwriter, and uses the fuzzy slide of the ‘dirty south’, blues harp and aching vocals, alongside Susannah on mandolin and backing vocals with Col ‘Shore Break Barrel’ Clay on lead, to push a message of social justice, grass-roots power and life lived conviction.
We’ve All Got Our Story was recorded by megatoneproductions in Australia’s oldest Congregational Church, a small, privately owned, somewhat decrepit, 1833 sandstone chapel, home to a mass burial of convicts.
We’ve All Got Our Story’ is an anthem for our times, an ear to the engine room of the West, a ride on the horns of the crossroads dilemma, a cry for mercy in the wilderness of populism, a summary of the law and prophets, ... a justice boogie!
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The Be Positives is a northern conundrum. Consisting of Mike Seal (Guitar, Piano & Vocals), Rob Hatton (Bass & Vocals), Simon Mayne (Lead Guitar & Vocals) and Callum Darley (Drums & Vocals), they were splayed across Merseyside to Sheffield, all sharing an affinity for McCartney, Dylan, Kinks and Nick Lowe, and later, converging on Manchester, they hankered for gigging at grotty pubs across the city. Now united, the four-piece invoke mad-pop affirmation through berserk instrumentation laced with smart lyricism.
Two of the members are also of the Slovenly Records garage-rock outfit Proto Idiot, who’ve been supported by the likes of Dork, Loud And Quiet, Louder Than War and VICE – the latter described them as “[sounding] like The Kinks, Soft Boys, and TV Personalities all at once—and they're stupid and stompingly brilliant”. The dim-witted moniker made way for The Be Positives’ nonsensical debut ‘Monkey (Cheetah)’, which received praise from Louder Than War – and now they return, accepting societal homogeneity through second-slice ‘Like Everyone’.
Of the same vein as Cut Worms, filled with Lemon Twigs-esque zest, second slice ‘Like Everyone’ flaps about with math-rock melodies and striking signatures – you never know quite where you stand – aligning it both musically and conceptually, feeding into Mike’s howls of “we’re like everyone…”
The band elaborates; “Like Everyone was originally intended for Proto Idiot but the weird timing of it threw us and it got shelved. I'm glad we revived it for The Be Positives as it’s understated and simple, yet the concept behind it is far from…. It was also one of those rare occasions where a song falls out of the guitar fully-formed, which doesn't happen often. We’re like everyone…”
The quartet’s self-titled album encapsulates their varied musical influences, from their garage fueled opening track ‘Like Everyone’ to the Nilsson tinged mad-pop of new single ‘Monkey. The Be Positives certainly don’t attach themselves to one genre. Expanding on ‘Like Everyone’, the band said “The song was written very quickly on acoustic guitar in Mike and Callum's kitchen. It was originally intended for Proto Idiot. You could sum the theme of the song up by simply saying, we all make mistakes; we're all the same.”
The Be Positives release ‘Like Everyone’ on the 30th July and the debut full-length will be out on all platforms from the 3rd September 2019 via White Zoo Records.
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Many have thrown their hat into the ring with the unconventional country classic "I'm One Fire."
Folk pop songstress Katrina Parker is the latest to dig up the ominous textures of the fabled track. "It ended up taking a darker, more dramatic turn" Katrina notes. "A bit of a Westworld meets Deadwood meets The Andrews Sisters vibe."
The track is the only cover on Katrina's forthcoming desert folk pop-tinged LP Stars. Katrina Parker’s new album, Stars, reflects the duality of a childhood spent in rural North Carolina and an adulthood in LA, shifting between sinuous Southern roots and starry Laurel Canyon magic. Parker describes it as “Sparkling Desert Pop/Folk with a lot of warmth, a little bit of magic, and a touch of banjo.”
Producer Josh Doyle of 3 Theory Music knew it was important to not overwhelm the songs with ornamentation, leaving Parker’s rich and tender voice front and center. The resulting recordings are clearly made from a place of confidence, channeling the clear-eyed nuance of Gillian Welch, the emotionality of Hozier, and the deep-rooted Americana of Over the Rhine.
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