Along with working as a sideman for Cass McCombs and Eleanor Friedberger, New York City-based guitarist Ryan Dugré is a solo artist, with his latest release Three Rivers also serving as his vinyl debut. It features a dozen instrumental selections, with Dugré’s guitar and piano augmented with a string trio, drums, pedal steel, synth and even flugabone. The results are consistently pleasant without faltering into the insubstantial, favoring jazz and classical-infused cinematic terrain over folky post-Fahey maneuvers. The album is available February 19 through the 11A label in an edition of 100 copies, so act quick.

The compositions that shape Three Rivers stem from a song-a-day exercise undertaken by Dugré in January of 2019. In the PR for its release, it’s explained that the undertaking, where the only stipulation was to submit something musical every day, whether it be an improv, a loose structural outline or a completed composition fleshed out with orchestration, wasn’t his usual way of working, but that the rigor of the imposed timeframe ultimately proved productive.

Indeed, the endeavor resulted in a collection of songs that Dugré continued working on in his home studio in the months thereafter. They were finalized in October 2019 with engineer Adam Sachs at Trout Recording in Brooklyn. Along with Ian McLellan Davis’ string arrangements as rendered by Ali Jones on cello, Thomas Martin on violin, and Hannah Selin on viola, there are contributions from Brett Lanier on pedal steel, Sean Mullins on drums, and Adam Dotson on flugabone (an obscure instrument, also called a marching valve trombone, that’s shaped like a flugelhorn, but bigger and with a heartier sound).

Although Dugré doesn’t pursue an American Primitive course on Three Rivers, there are currents of Americana, though the aura is never rustic, in large part due to those strings, which are in ample evidence in opener “Living Language.” But there’s also a lack of twang in Lanier’s pedal steel plus the avoidance of the homespun in Dugré’s playing.

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We’ve closed the HQ today for the President’s Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our free Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores, either online, curbside, or with some sound social distancing?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, 2/16.

It’s not always about money and it’s not always about fame; sometimes an artist has a desire to just share the music that they can’t help but create, but every so often the industry gatekeepers also have more of an interest in art and creativity than just dollars and cents.

Meet Howie Klein, a writer, concert promoter, disc jockey, music producer, record label founder, record label executive, progressive political activist, and adjunct professor of music. He’s about as music industry as you’d like to get: he was general manager of Sire Records and was the president of Reprise/Warner Bros. Records. He was responsible for signing Lou Reed to the Reprise label and was an early industry champion of Wilco. Currently, he helms DownWithTyranny!, a popular political blog.

Through it all, he didn’t care about the money. He cared about the music, the people, the message. You know what he didn’t care about? He wasn’t entranced by those gaudy baubles that hypnotize most of the folks who reach the top of any industry. No way, no how. Howie plays by Howie’s rules.’

I would jump to discuss any number of fascinating subjects with Howie, but this conversation is focused on the reissues and re-releases of a record label that he founded with Chris Knab and Butch Bridges, 415 Records. The reissue campaign is led by another record label, Liberation Hall. The goal of the label was simple: to release independent music focused on local punk and new wave bands from the fertile San Francisco music community.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | “I pity the country, I pity the state, and the mind of a man who thrives on hate…” —Willie Dunn

​Celebrated archival label Light In The Attic Records is humbled to announce the next chapter in their ongoing Native North America series, Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology, which highlights the songs, poetry, and stories of an artist as every bit essential as Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Bob Dylan, and Neil Young, but without the industry backing required to become a mainstream pop culture household name. Though artistically and creatively a peer, Dunn was also a grassroots activist and direct-action radical with no interest in the showbiz game, yet whose art, poetry and awareness has continued to inspire, influence, and inform generations without widespread commercial acclaim.

Available to pre-order beginning today (2/10), Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology will be released on 2-LP gatefold vinyl and across all digital platforms on March 19th. This definitive set honors the trailblazing life and music of the late, great Willie Dunn. Remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer, John Baldwin, the vinyl version is complemented by a 24-page newspaper insert, titled WILLIE DUNN NOTES, featuring extensively researched liner notes by GRAMMY®-nominated, Willie Dunn Anthology producer Kevin Howes (Voluntary In Nature), and includes insightful interviews with Dunn, his family, collaborators, and a long list of peers including Bob Robb, Jerry Saddleback Sr., Jeannette Corbiere Lavell (OC), and Métis rights leader Tony Belcourt (OC).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | On April 2nd, Travis’ 1997 debut Good Feeling returns to vinyl in its original format for the first time, with classic sleeve and original packaging replication. The US pressing is available on standard weight black vinyl and the UK pressing is available on 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl, plus an exclusive limited-edition red vinyl version is available for pre-order via the Travis official store and UK independent record shops.

​Good Feeling was produced by Steve Lillywhite (U2, The Rolling Stones, Morrissey, Peter Gabriel), who teased out the anthemic hooks of the group’s debut single, “All I Want to Do Is Rock,” and helped them craft their breakthrough hit, “More Than Us,” which went Top 20 in the spring of 1998. Taking Travis into the Top 10 of the UK albums charts, Good Feeling also included the Top 40 singles “U16 Girls,” “Happy,” and “Tied to the 90’s.”

On welcoming Good Feeling back into the world, frontman Fran Healy reflects: “In December 1996, just out of Woodstock in Upstate New York, Travis assembled in the legendary Bearsville Studios with the legendary producer Steve Lilllywhite to begin recording their debut album Good Feeling. Hailed at the time as one of the debuts of the year by the legendary music critic Andy Gill, Good Feeling is us at our rawest. We’re extremely happy to be reissuing it on vinyl for you all.”

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Watching Werner Herzog’s 1972 film Aguirre, the Wrath of God recently, something happened to me that happens very, very seldom–I found myself spellbound by its soundtrack. Not only did it perfectly complement Herzog’s awe-inspiring shots of mist lingering over the Ucayali tributary of the Amazon River, with its backdrop of the steep cliffs of Huayna Picchu–it moved me.

I was familiar with the name of Popol Vuh, the Florian Fricke-led ambient music German group responsible for the soundtrack, and had even listened to a bit of their music, but my tastes in Krautrock have always leaned towards the motorik energy and sheer weirdness of such bands as Can, Neu!, Faust, and Amon Düül II. But the soundtrack to Aguirre, The Wrath of God–which was only released three years after the film hit the theaters–changed everything.

When I use the word “ambient” to describe Popol Vuh’s music in Aguirre, Wrath of God, I use it very loosely; it’s anything but your Brian Eno-school aural wallpaper. Even the 16-plus minute electronic soundscape “Vergegenwärtigung” (Fricke, a pioneer of the Moog synthesizer, would soon abandon the instrument in favor of a more organic sound) that makes up side two doesn’t come close.

And speaking of “Vergegenwärtigung” (and this is the part where things get tricky), you won’t hear it in the film, nor will you hear two others songs on the LP. I know, I know, kinda changes things, doesn’t it. But in a sense it doesn’t, because one of the unused songs sounds of a piece with the music used by Herzog, and the other is lovely beyond words.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Guy Clark documentary Without Getting Killed or Caught to premiere at 2021 SXSW Film Festival. The film, which chronicles the relationship between Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, pulls from Susanna’s personal diaries as well as Tamara Saviano’s 2016 Clark biography.

​Diehard fans and musicians alike have long shared myths and legends about the late-greats amongst themselves, but it’s rare for any of those tall tales to be corroborated. Rare, but not impossible. Enter Without Getting Killed or Caught, a remarkable documentary film about the mythical, complicated relationship between legendary songwriters Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, and the art it inspired; a film with enough charm to create new fans of Clark and his music and enough depth to appease long-time followers.

Without Getting Killed or Caught—which will make its virtual World Premiere at the 2021 SXSW Film Festival March 16-20—was produced and directed by longtime Americana music producer and executive Tamara Saviano and filmmaker Paul Whitfield. The film was originally scheduled to debut at SXSW in 2020 before the pandemic shuttered the festival, and for those not already attending SXSW 2021, stay tuned for additional information on public screenings with Kessler Presents, YETI, SiriusXM Outlaw Country, and more.

Without Getting Killed or Caught is the true story of Guy Clark, the dean of Texas songwriters, who struggles to write poetic, yet indelible songs while balancing a complicated marriage with wife Susanna, and a deep friendship with singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt, on whom Susanna forged a passionate dependence. Clark, who died in 2016, wrote and recorded unforgettable songs (“L.A. Freeway,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train”) for more than forty years. His lyrics and melodies paint indelible portraits of the people, places, and experiences that shaped him, and no one inspired Guy more than his wife, painter, and songwriter Susanna Talley Clark, and their best friend, fellow songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Garage rock legend Radio Birdman founder Deniz Tek has announced the reissue of the groundbreaking album Take It To The Vertical. The album will be released for the first time on vinyl, digitally and on DSP’s on 19th March via Wild Honey Records.

​Take It To The Vertical, originally released by Redeye/Polydor Records Australia in 1992, was Deniz Tek’s first solo album. Recorded at historic SugarHill Studios in Houston, Texas, the album features Radio Birdman’s Chris Masuak on guitar and keyboards; and The Stooges’ Scott Asheton on drums. There are extensive liner notes, never before seen photos, and a bonus track that was not on the original release. This amazing album has been long out of print, rare, and nearly impossible to find. It will now be available worldwide from Wild Honey as part two of a series of archival releases of Deniz Tek’s work.

Deniz has now shared the first track from the album. “Press On,” a ripping rock and roll anthem about air combat, was recorded live in the studio during the Vertical album sessions. This rare, unreleased track features Deniz and Chris Masuak, veteran Radio Birdman guitar slingers doing what they do best, and a smoking hot rhythm section led by the legendary Scott “Rock Action” Asheton on drums.

Deniz Tek is a guitarist, singer/songwriter and record producer from Ann Arbor, Michigan. His career in music, grounded in late-60s Detroit rock, extends through several decades and across continents. He is best known as a founding member of the influential and groundbreaking Australian independent hard rock band Radio Birdman.

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Celebrating Sergio Mendes on his 80th birthday with a look back at our conversation from last year with the boss nova superstar. —Ed.

Six decades after the rise of bossa nova, and more than a half century since the heyday of Brasil ’66, the music of Sergio Mendes is poised for another serge in popularity with the release of a new documentary and album.

John Scheinfeld’s new documentary Sergio Mendes: In the Key of Joy premieres Saturday, January 18 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Next month it will be accompanied by a new album of the same name, In the Key of Joy on Concord Records, with a slate of new songs with guests stars that include Common, Hermeto Pascoal, and Joe Pizzulo among others.

“One aspect of Sergio’s long and impressive career that has impressed me is how he has successfully navigated the career peaks and valleys encountered by most artists,” says Scheinfeld, whose previous films include The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)? and Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary. “Amazingly, he has found a way to push the envelope and transform his sound from decade to decade while always remaining relevant and staying true to his musical roots.”

A three-time Grammy winner, Mendes has released dozens of albums over the years, had some top 10 singles with remakes of “The Look of Love” and “The Fool on the Hill” in 1968, and returned with a hit 15 years later with another Top 5 hit, “Never Gonna Let You Go.” He remade his “Mas Que Nada” with Black Eyed Peas in 2006 and earned an Oscar nomination for a song in the 2012 animated Rio. We caught up with Mendes, 78, this week over the phone in a call from his home in Woodland Hills, California.

How long did it take to put the documentary together?

Two years. John Scheinfeld did the John Coltrane documentary and Harry Nilsson. He’s a great guy, very musical. We went to Brazil, we interviewed a lot of people down there, we got a lot of old, great footage. And it’s just great. I’m very, very happy about it.

And you recorded a new album to come about the same time?

Yes, It’s got a lot of young artists—newcomers—and a lot of new songs, no covers. And of course vinyl, which I love. I have a 26-year-old, he buys two records a week. And his deck, you know, the turntables…the other day I had dinner with my friend, the great engineer Bernie Grundman, and he was talking all about the resurgence of vinyl. We are all very happy about it.

It’s part of your legacy too, with those great albums of the ’60s and their great artwork. You don’t get that impact in smaller formats.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Or streaming—you hear one thing and throw it away. It’s kind of weird for me.

You’ve never taken a break, have you? You’ve been performing pretty consistently for six decades?

As long as God allows me to do it and gives me the health, I’m there and ready.

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