BEEHIVE CANDY

Background: Canada has always been a great importer of indie pop. From Sloan to The New Pornographers, you never know what the Great North will produce. Meet your new favorite musical obsession, Andrew Johnston . Taking a page out of the book of great indie bands and stellar Canadian acts, Johnston will have your attention faster than you can say "awesome." Based in Montreal, Andrew Johnston has been playing under his name, or the moniker Andrew vs. the Enabler since 2006.  No stranger to music, Andrew played in the critically acclaimed group The Gentlemen’s Club, and appeared on JF Robitaille's brilliant album, Calendar.  If you haven’t discovered Andrew Johnston yet, let the journey start today. Now is the time for Johnston to branch out on his own. Grounded in the simplicity of easily hummed folk and pop tunes, Andrew’s heartfelt indie rock sound is ready to take the world by storm.  On his most recent release, The Wake of the Wonder Years, influences of such hi...

This is a recording of Nicolette Larson performing at the Strawberry Music Festival, Camp Mather, Yosemite, CA, USA back on August 29th, 1986. Nicolette Larson is perhaps best known for her work in the late 1970s with Neil Young, as well as her 1978 cover of Young's "Lotta Love". The song, her debut single, was a Number One Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks hit and number 8 pop hit that year. It was followed by four more Adult Contemporary hits, two of which were also minor pop hits. Nicolette's work with Emmylou Harris on the album Luxury Liner (1977) prominently showcased her on the cut "Hello Stranger" and led to her meeting Harris' associate and friend Linda Ronstadt who became friends with Nicolette . In the spring of 1977 Nicolette was at Ronstadt's Malibu home when neighbor Neil Young phoned to ask Ronstadt if she could recommend a female vocal accompanist, and Ronstadt suggested Larson, becoming the fifth person that day to put Larson's ...

This is Richard Thompson live in concert at Fetzer Vineyards, Hopland, CA, USA, back on June 22nd, 1997. During the previous year (1996), Richard released the album 'You? Me? Us?' however only two tracks from that album were included in this concert, which in part demonstrates the powerful back catalogue he had built up over the years.  That album showcased his versatile abilities in both acoustic and electric formats, Thompson devoted one disc to each. The 'Nude' disc features pared down, poetically emotive arrangements, and the second disc, 'Voltage Enhanced', demonstrates his blistering electric guitar work with a full band. Also in 1997 he worked with long-time friend and band member Danny Thompson (not related) and recorded a concept album 'Industry' that dealt with the decline of British industry. Featuring a variety of musical and vocal styles, Industry was the basis for a BBC documentary, which aired in UK in May of that year. Featuring compo...

This is Elvis Costello and the Rude Five during their tour rehearsals at the Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara, California, USA back in May, 1991. The notes that accompanied this recording state, 'this is said to be the last night of a week of tour rehearsals at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, recorded just before the start of the "Mighty Like A Rose" tour in 1991 (which began May 25th in Santa Barbara)'. If 1990 proved to be a fairly low key year for Elvis Costello, he definately made up for it in 1991 by recording two albums: "Mighty Like A Rose" and "Kojak Variety", although the tapes for the latter were put away for a rainy day (and didn’t see the light of that rainy day until 1995). He then spent much of the rest of the year touring around the world with a combo dubbed "The Rude Five", even though only four of them (Marc Ribot, Jerry Scheff, Larry Knechtel and Pete Thomas) usually played live with Costello (the fifth mem...

This is the Blind Boys of Alabama recorded live at Congress, Salzburg, Austria back on October 30th, 2009. The source was Austrian Radio OE1 who subsequently broadcast the concert on December 21st, 2009. The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel and blues group from Alabama that first formed at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind at Talladega, Alabama in 1939. The three main vocalists of the group and their drummer and percussionist are all blind. As of 2011 (and checking their current schedule into 2012) , The Blind Boys of Alabama continue to tour nationally and internationally, with Jimmy Carter singing lead vocals. In 2006, Clarence Fountain, the group's former long-time lead vocalist and founding member limited his touring for health reasons. Founding member George Scott died on March 9th, 2005 at the age of 75. Another founding member, Johnny Fields, died on November 12th, 2009. Releases by the group in recent years have been favorites at the Grammy Awards—th...

Background : For those of you who follow folk on Twitter, you may well want to add Marissa Nadler to your selection. In recent weeks she has given away a number of songs from her 'Covers Volume II' album, in fact if you check over there now you may well still be in for a rather nice treat. Covers Volume II follows her critically acclaimed self titled full-length out now on her own Box of Cedar Records. After releasing several albums with Kemado (and having one of her songs inspire the name for vinyl start-up Mexican Summer), Marissa Nadler ventured out independently for her critically acclaimed self-titled album, which has been featured on NPR "World Cafe: Next," NPR First Listen, Vogue, KEXP, Pitchfork 'Overlooked Records of 2011' with an 8.1 album review, and as one of SPIN's "5 Best New Artists for June 2011," among others. Marissa Nadler released her first album, Ballads of Living and Dying, on Eclipse Records in 2004; her follow-up, The Sa...