For the Record
Chris Shiflett - Hard Lessons (Ltd. Ed. Collector's Bandana)
Vinyl LP pressing. Raised alongside the California coastline in Santa Barbara, Chris Shiflett kicked off his career in seminal pop-punk groups like No Use For a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. As the '90s gave way to the 2000s, he joined the Foo Fighters' lineup. He's since become one of the band's longest-running members, flying the flag of modern rock & roll for two decades. Hard Lessons follows West Coast Town as the second solo record to bear his name alone, and it's perhaps the most Shiflett-sounding album in his entire catalog, with songs that nod to the classic Bakersfield sound one minute and Keith Richards' greasy guitar style the next. Recorded between Foo Fighters tours, Hard Lessons reunites Shiflett with Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, who also oversaw the tracking sessions for West Coast Town. It was Cobb's idea to track down a Marshall JCM800, a vintage guitar amp that became a popular piece of gear during the '80s hard rock scene. Plugging his Telecaster Deluxe and Les Paul Gold Top into that amplifier added a heavy dose of grit to Shiflett's material, which he'd written while touring and during songwriting sessions with co-writers like Elizabeth Cook, Brian Whelan, Kendell Marvel, and Aaron Raitiere.
The Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger
The Raconteurs - Jack White, Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence, and Patrick Keeler - return with Help Us Stranger, which is the Grammy Award-winning rock band's third studio LP and first new album in more than a decade. Help Us Stranger sees the mighty combo reassembled, stronger and perhaps even more vital than ever before as they continue to push rock 'n' roll forward into it's future, bonding prodigious riffs, blues power, sinewy psychedelia, Detroit funk, and Nashville soul via Benson and White's uncompromising songcraft and the band's steadfast musical muscle. With Help Us Stranger, The Raconteurs have returned right when they are needed most, unified and invigorated with boundless ambition, infinite energy and a collectivist spirit operating at the peak of it's considerable powers, once again creating a sound and fury only possible when all four of it's members come together.
Ian Noe - Between The Country (Autographed)
Recorded at Nashville's RCA Studio A with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb, Between The Country includes 10 new songs written solely by Noe. In addition to Noe (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals) and Cobb (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), the album also features Adam Gardner (bass, organ piano), Chris Powell (drums, percussion) and Savannah Conley (backup vocals).
Jr Jr - Invocations/Conversations (Ltd. Ed. Color 2XLP)
The time between albums for any band or artist usually comes with a few minor twists and turns at a minimum, or in the case of Jr Jr (f.k.a. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.), quite dramatic ones. Since the release of their last full-length in 2015, the band fronted by Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott fought their way out of a major label deal, assessed certain lifestyle choices affecting one's mental health, and in Zott's case, fostered to adopt two children only to be surprised with a biological one as well within the span of three months. It has been a wild ride, and it only makes Jr Jr all the more proud to announce the formation of Love Is EZ Records in partnership with Secretly Distribution. The newly minted label's first release will be the band's forthcoming double album Invocations / Conversations, due out May 31st. The aforementioned challenges and life events, as well as the calamitous political and social upheaval that has taken place over the past few years, are just a few aspects of the beautiful, complicated, and messy story behind two discs worth of excellent, introspective, and emotional songwriting.
Mavis Staples - We Get By
Mavis Staples TITLE: We Get By - Mavis Staples returns with a brand new studio album produced and written by Ben Harper. Backed by Mavis' critically acclaimed live band, We Get By features 10 songs of longing, strength, and spirituality, presented with simplicity, grit and sublime beauty. Highlights include the buoyant, "Anytime", the cathartic, "Change", and the title track, an uplifting duet with Ben Harper.
The Head and the Heart - Living Mirage (Ltd. Ed. Green/Black Vinyl)
Early last year, The Head and the Heart came together in the Mojave Desert's Joshua Tree where they decided to shed old skin before writing their fourth album, Living Mirage, a sweeping, artful expansion of the earthy folk rock that once defined them. This recent "rebirth, a spirit quest of sorts," as bassist Chris Zasche describes it, came from growing pains after their last album, Signs of Light: the amicable departure of guitarist-vocalist Josiah Johnson, replaced by Matt Gervais (husband to singer-violinist Charity Rose Thielen), and the return of keyboardist Kenny Hensley. With a new beginning underway, the writing and recording process continued out of the desert, moving to Appleton, Wisconsin's The Refuge Fox Cities, West Seattle, Omnisound in Nashville, and Barefoot Recordings in Los Angeles with the help of Tyler Johnson and Alex Salibian (Harry Styles, Sam Smith, Cam) and engineer Ryan Nasci.
Justin Townes Earle - The Saint of Lost Causes (Ltd. Ed. 150G Autographed Blue 2XLP)
The Saint Of Lost Causes is the eighth album from American roots troubadour, Justin Townes Earle. Earle's latest album finds a songwriter and artist who is unflinching and unequivocal in his truth. When writing this collection, Earle focused on a different America - the disenfranchised and the downtrodden, the oppressed and the oppressors, the hopeful and the hopeless. There's the drugstore-cowboy-turned-cop-killer praying for forgiveness ("Appalachian Nightmare") and the common Michiganders persevering through economic and industrial devastation ("Flint City Shake It"); the stuck mother dreaming of a better life on the right side of the California tracks ("Over Alameda") and the Cuban man in New York City weighed down by a world of regret ("Ahi Esta Mi Nina"); the "used up" soul desperate to get to New Orleans ("Ain't Got No Money") and the "sons of bitches" in West Virginia poisoning the land and sea ("Don't Drink the Water"). These are individuals and communities in every corner of the country, struggling through the ordinary - and sometimes extraordinary - circumstances of everyday life.
