Watch Robert Finley perform "Livin' Out A Suitcase"

Check out "Livin' Out A Suitcase" off Robert Finley's latest album Black Bayou (Easy Eye Sound) which you can get right here. 

One For The Weekend: The Velveteers

Check out "Go Fly Away" off The Velveteers' new Dan Auerbach & Pat Carney-produced album A Million Knives out February 14.

Here's the scoop from Velveteers HQ...

The Velveteers bring a visceral energy to their explosive sophomore album, A Million Knives, loaded with blistering rock anthems infused with melodic indie songwriting. With Grammy grabbing producer Dan Auerbach at the helm, the Denver, CO trio encapsulates the raw, forceful, and profoundly heavy power of their live performances and laser-focuses a spotlight on tightly crafted songs as they carve out their own distinctive niche.

Driving The Velveteers is the commanding presence of frontwoman Demi Demitro, a no-bullshit, five-foot-something spitfire with thunderous guitar riffs and soaring vocals, backed by the incendiary duo of Baby Pottersmith and Johnny Fig on drums. The band's signature dual drum setup creates a thunderous foundation that propels their gritty, dynamic garage rock sound. On A Million Knives, this setup melds seamlessly with a more modern indie rock influence–the attitude of Wolf Alice, the colossal sound of Queens of the Stone Age, and the singular lyrical voice of Hole.

The Velveteers have built a dedicated following through relentless touring and electrifying performances, sharing stages with renowned acts such as Smashing Pumpkins, The Black Keys, Greta Van Fleet, Guns N' Roses, and Des Rocs. With A Million Knives, The Velveteers offer a compelling testament to their rising stardom, a rock 'n' roll album as beautiful as it is electrifying. 

Catch The Velveteers on tour in October – see dates following the clip for "Go Fly Away." Read a recent Billboard article about The Velveteers by Gary Graff right here. 

 

The Velveteers on tour

OCT 11 – Kung Fu Necktie Philadelphia, PA w/ Alex Vile

OCT 12 – Warehouse XI Somerville, MA w/ Alex Vile, Exit 18

OCT 13 – Mercury Lounge New York, NY w/ Alex Vile

OCT 14 – Pearl Street Warehouse Washington, DC w/ Alex Vile

OCT 16 – Neighborhood Theatre Charlotte, NC w/ Alex Vile, Kadey Ballard

OCT 18 – The Masquerade (Altar) Atlanta, GA w/ Alex Vile

OCT 19 – The Whirling Tiger Louisville, KY w/ Alex Vile

OCT 22 – HI-FI Indy Indianapolis, IN w/ Alex Vile, The Orchard Keepers

OCT 23 – Cobra Lounge Chicago, IL w/ Alex Vile

OCT 24 – Shank Hall Milwaukee, WI w/ Alex Vile

OCT 25 – Underground Music Venue Minneapolis, MN w/ Alex Vile, Ghost Kitchen

You can pre-order a copy of The Velveteers new album A Million Knives from your platform of choice right here.

One For The Weekend: The Black Keys w/ Noel Gallagher

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney recorded "On The Game" with Noel Gallagher for their Ohio Players LP at Toe Rag Studios. 

Shannon & The Clams preview new album with "Bean Fields" video

"Bean Fields" is off the new Shannon & The Clams album "The Moon Is In The Wrong Place" out May 10 via Easy Eye Sound. 

You can pre-order the new Shannon & The Clams album "The Moon Is In The Wrong Place" right here. 

Take a trip down to the Black Bayou with Robert Finley

Here's a short video about the vinyl manufacturing of Robert Finley's new Black Bayou album and a couple of great new songs. 

Get a signed copy of Robert Finley's new Black Bayou album on swamp splatter vinyl from Easy Eye Sound right here. 

Robert Finley previews Black Bayou album with "Sneakin' Around"

Robert Finley's new Dan Auerbach-produced Black Bayou album – due Oct 27 – features the Black Keys' Pat Carney on drums.  

Here's the scoop...

Robert Finley has just released “Sneakin’ Around,” the second single to his highly anticipated fourth studio album, Black Bayou, due October 27 via Easy Eye Sound. Check out the accompanying music video directed by Andy M Hawkes, starring the 69 year-young Finley below. You can pre-order Black Bayou right here: https://click.ees.link/blackbayou

 

Finley recorded Black Bayou at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville. It’s the fourth time the duo have worked together, although for this record they did things a little differently. Rather than write songs beforehand—as they did on 2017’s Goin’ Platinum and 2021’s Sharecropper’s Son—they devised everything in the studio, with Auerbach leading a band of some of the finest players around: drummers Patrick Carney (The Black Keys) and Jeffrey Clemens (G. Love & Special Sauce), bassist Eric Deaton, and legendary Hill Country blues guitarist Kenny Brown along with vocalists Christy Johnson and LaQuindrelyn McMahon—who just happen to be Finley’s daughter and granddaughter. They worked quickly, devising their parts spontaneously and getting everything in one take.

 

Black Bayou, is a portrait of North Louisiana from an insider who’s lived there all his life. It coalesces all of the vibrant genres bubbling in the bayou from southern soul, jazz, folk, blues, rock and roll and more. A vivid collection of songs that depict life in North Louisiana, with Finley playing the role of charismatic and knowledgeable tour guide. Tales include surviving the jaws of an alligator on “Alligator Bait,” a true story of his grandfather using him as bait to catch an alligator when he was a child. “Nobody Wants To Be Lonely” is a poignant track spotlighting the generation forgotten in nursing homes across the nation. Songs like “Miss Kitty,” a  tale of lust and love are an instant induction into the canon of the blues tradition. In all, a collection set to establish Finley as perhaps one of the last true bluesmen of our time and a truly original Louisiana storyteller who evokes the place and its unique culture for the rest of the world.

 

“It’s amazing to realize how much of an impact Louisiana has had on the world’s music,” says Dan Auerbach, “and Robert embodies all of that. He can play a blues song. He can play early rock and roll. He can play gospel. He can do anything, and a lot of that has to do with where he’s from.”

 

If Finley’s previous albums established him as a formidable blues and soul artist - overcoming losing his sight in his 60s to become a music star - Black Bayou Finley hopes will help put North Louisiana on the musical map and launch the next generation of stars. Finley still plays small clubs around the region—even the occasional nursing home. Rather than move to where the music industry is, Finley is bringing the industry down to Bernice and working to boost regional acts and has plans for a new local recording studio in the works. “We got a lot of good talent down here in North Louisiana, but nobody’s really done much with it.” Finley stated, adding, “A lot of people just haven’t had a chance to record—or even just be heard. It worked for me, so I might as well try to help someone else get discovered, too.”

Watch the video for "Sneakin' Around" following his previous single "What Goes Around Comes Around" and the Black Bayou tracklisting. Check out Robert's tour dates for October and November below.

 

Black Bayou – Robert Finley

01. Livin' Out A Suitcase

02. Sneakin' Around

03. Miss Kitty

04. Waste Of Time

05. Can't Blame Me For Trying

06. Gospel Blues

07. Nobody Wants To Be Lonely

08. What Goes Around (Comes Around)

09. Lucky Day

10. You Got It (And I Need It)

11. Alligator Bait 

ROBERT FINLEY TOUR DATES

Thursday October 26, 2023 - New York, NY - Knitting Factory 

Saturday, 4 November 2023 - Groningen, NL - Take Root Festival

Sunday, 5 November 2023 - Brussels, BE - Rotonde @ Botanique 

Wednesday, 8 November 2023 - London, UK - Jazz Café 

Thursday, 9 November 2023 - Manchester, UK - Blues Kitchen 

Friday, 10 November 2023 - Pandrup, DK - Blues Heaven Festival

Tuesday, 14 November 2023 - Toulouse, FR - Salle Nougaro 

Wednesday, 15 November 2023 - Saint-Nazaire, FR - VIP

Thursday, 16 November 2023 - Amiens, FR - La Lune des Pirates

Saturday, 18 November 2023 - Šumperk, CZ - Blues Alive Festival

Monday, 20 November 2023 - Tourcoing, FR - Le Grand Mix

Tuesday, 21 November 2023 - Paris, FR - Maroquinerie

Thursday, 23 November 2023 - La Roche-Sur-Yon, FR - Quai M 

Friday, 24 November 2023 - La Rochelle, FR - La Sirène

Saturday, 25 November 2023 - Castres, FR - Lo Boegason

Sunday, 26 November 2023 - Saint-Etienne, FR - Le Fil  

One For The Weekend: Dan Auerbach

Watch the clip for Dan Auerbach's "Every Chance I Get" off the new Easy Eye Sound sampler "Tell Everybody!" out August 11.

Here's the scoop on Tell Everybody!

Recorded by Dan Auerbach at Easy Eye Sound studio, Tell Everybody! (21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound) spans the diverse blues spectrum, a payment of respect and admiration for the musicians carrying this American tradition into this century and beyond. Includes new recordings from Dan Auerbach, The Black Keys, RL Boyce, Gabe Carter, Robert Finley, Jimmy "Duck" Holmes, Moonrisers, Nat Myers, Glenn Schwartz feat. Joe Walsh, and Leo "Bud" Welch.  

Tell Everybody! 21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound

Side A

RL Boyce - Coal Black Mattie

Robert Finley - Tell Everybody

Moonrisers - Tall Shadow

Dan Auerbach - Every Chance I Get (I Want You in the Flesh)

Jimmy "Duck" Holmes - Catfish Blues (Mono)

Gabe Carter - Anything You Need

Side B

Nat Myers - Willow Witchin'

Leo Bud Welch - Don't Let the Devil Ride (Mono)

The Black Keys - No Lovin'

Glenn Schwartz - Daughter of Zion (Featuring Joe Walsh)

Gabe Carter - Buffalo Road

Glenn Schwartz - Collinwood Fire

You can pre-order a copy of Tell Everybody! directly from Easy Eye Sound right here. Watch the Ub Iwerks-inspired animated clip for Dan Auerbach's "Every Chance I Get" below.

 

Dan Auerbach vs. Helene Smith

Dan Auerbach does a fine job with Helene Smith's "A Woman Will Do Wrong" on his new Arcs album Electrophonic Chronic - but it's tough to top Irma Thomas.

Here's the scoop on Dan Auerbach's new Arcs album...

The Arcs just released their first full length album since 2015, Electrophonic Chronic, featuring the band’s full line-up of Dan Auerbach, Leon Michels, Nick Movshon and Homer Steinweiss, alongside the late Richard Swift. Also featuring artwork from their collaborator, El Oms, and animated videos from Robert "Roboshobo" Schober, the album has been met with advance praise from NPR Music, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and more. Esquire notes the album is "…a woozy mix of synth pop, celestial guitar riffs and plodding rhythm sections that feels like driving a Ford Bronco through the cosmos." You can get a copy of The Arcs new Electrophonic Chronic album via Easy Eye Sound right here. Check the link below for the full Dan Auerbach interview in Esquire. 

 

Co-produced by Michels and Auerbach, Electrophonic Chronic was largely recorded with Swift before his untimely passing in 2018. After a period where, as Michels puts it, "I think all of us couldn’t really listen to the music, couldn’t really face it and try to finish it," The Arcs revisited their old recordings, picking up the pieces and finding meaning in times that felt most difficult. “This new record is all about honoring Swift," Auerbach adds. "It’s a way for us to say goodbye to him, by revisiting him playing and laughing, singing. It was heavy at times, but I think it was really helpful to do it.” 

 

Born of the band's mutual obsession with recording and crate-digging, Electrophonic Chronic pulls inspiration from vast sonic archives: vintage soul – featured on the album is a gender-flipped cover of the would-be South Florida star Helene Smith's, A Woman Will Do Wrong (listen to both versions along with a stellar version Irma Thomas cut at Muscle Shoals below) – to old school garage rock,  including the album’s namesake "Electrophonic Tonic," the once-lost gem from Fred "Sonic" Smith and Sonic's Rendezvous Band, and the space age pop made famous by producer Joe Meek in the pre-Beatles 1960s. The record is a tribute to the shared passion that originally brought the three bandmates together. 

 

Auerbach and Michels have also been spinning selects from those sonic archives in a series of intimate DJ sets across London and Paris, plus upcoming shows in New York (Brooklyn's Sultan Room on January 28th) and Los Angeles (Gold Diggers w/ DJ Breezy on February 3rd). 

The pair also recently sat down with Vulture for a dive further into the multifaceted inspirations of Electrophonic Chronic, in a piece that breaks down newly-released, Only One For Me, co-written by two indie rock greats gone-too-soon in David Berman and Richard Swift, alongside Auerbach and Michels. Check it out here.

LINKS

Esquire Dan Auerbach knows it when he hears it

Hank Williams Jr. chats about his Rich White Honky Blues album

 After playing "Georgia Women" with Dan Auerbach and pals, Hank Williams Jr. can't leave the Bobby Bones show quick enough.

Bluegrass great Del McCoury & Sierra Hull salute John Anderson

Listen to Del Mcoury & Sierra Hull's update "Would You Catch A Falling Star" followed by a 1983 John Anderson performance.

The new John Anderson tribute album Something Borrowed, Something New – produced by Dan Auerbach – is available here. 

Hank Williams Jr. vs. R.L. Burnside

Bocephus got some help from Dan Auerbach in taking on "Georgia Women" by the late Mississippi blues great R.L. Burnside. 

Get yourself a copy of Hank Jr.'s new Dan Auerbach-produced album Rich White Honky Blues right here. 

Hank Williams, Jr. previews Dan Auerbach-produced album

Hank Williams, Jr's ".44 Special Blues" is off Rich White Honky Blues out June 17th via Easy Eye Sound. Have a listen below. 

Here's the scoop...

Larger than life, capable of summoning “all his rowdy friends” with a couple crashing downbeats and a blaring guitar riff, Hank Williams Jr., has been one of country music’s truest outlaws for over half a century. But more than the swaggering singles, roughneck fantasy videos or relentless sense of blue-collar boogie, at his core, the 72-year-old legend is a bluesman. Pure, unqualified and unadulterated, the only son of Hank Williams has the same down low lonesome in his veins as the man Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne taught to play guitar as a small child growing up in Greenville, Alabama.

 

With Rich White Honky Blues – set for release on June 17 – the second-generation Country Music Hall of Famer makes good on his legacy with a turpentine and rough wood take on the hill country blues that informed his father’s raw-boned style of putting his pain out there. GRAMMY-winning Producer of the Year, Dan Auerbach, recorded the set live, with a dozen songs reprising classics from Robert Johnson, Lightnin’ Hopkins, R.L. Burnside, Muddy Waters, Big Joe Turner and a few from Bocephus himself.

 

“The blues is where it all comes from,” concedes Williams. “It’s the start of everything musical in my family; everything starts with Tee-Tot and flows from there. I’ve always flirted with this stripped back blues – all the way back to the ‘80s. But I finally made an album that’s just that, and I like it.”

 

Blame it on the owner of Easy Eye Sound. Auerbach went straight to the essence. Assembling a wicked core band of electric slide guitarist Kenny Brown, claimed as “my adopted son” by R.L. Burnside, bassist Eric Deaton, who first toured with Fat Possum’s Juke Joint Caravan, backing up T-Model Ford and Paul “Wine” Jones, plus drummer Kinney Kimbrough, son of North Mississippi blues legend Junior Kimbrough, they tapped into the lifeblood of the blues at its most randy.

 

It started with a phone call, discussing what these sessions could be. Nothing definitive, no commitments made. But then Auerbach started receiving text messages the week leading up to the dates: pictures of Hank Williams, Jr. stationery, each with the title of a song he wanted to sing. Back and forth. Songs. Influences. Touchstones to draw upon.

 

And then it was Day One.

 

“First thing he said to me when he walked in was, ‘I don’t really feel like fucking with this shit!’,” Auerbach recalls. “And he walked into another room.”

 

Undaunted, the producer had the band start playing; grindhouse blues, sweltering hill country shuffles, juke joint altar calls. Before too long, the man whose alter-ego is Thunderhead Hawkins emerged, curious and hungry.

 

“If you wanted to play this kind of music, you couldn’t have better players,” Auerbach explains. “The first time I ever saw Hank Jr. on TV, I was a kid raised on Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, Sr. records, and those things came through so clearly watching him. So, I tried to assemble the right parts to just sit in that piece of who he is.”

 

Over the course of just three days, Rich White Honky Blues was done, with Williams punctuatingly declaring “I hope you got all of that. I bet YOU did. I’m going to listen – and smoke...”

As Williams prepares for the release of his 57th studio album, his family has been struck by tragedy with the sudden passing of his wife of 31 years, Mary Jane Thomas. While Williams considered delaying the project’s announcement, time with his family led to one conclusion: music offers solace in the most difficult times.

 

In this sense, it seems almost predestined that Rich White Honky Blues ends with a prayer for redemption as Williams invites the Savior to bring whatever grace He might have, to sow solace and forgiveness, suggesting the larger than life amongst us transcend mortal limitations. After all, Country blues informed his father’s raw-boned style of putting his pain out there, epitomizing the unquestionable truth that there is always a time for music in moments of need.

Check out ".44 Special Blues" following the track listing for Rich White Honky Blues which you can pre-order right here. 

Rich White Honky Blues – Hank Williams, Jr.

1..44 Special Blues

2.Georgia Women

3.My Starter Won’t Start

4.Take Out Some Insurance

5.Rich White Honky Blues

6.Short Haired Woman

7.Fireman Ring the Bell

8.Rock Me Baby

9.I Like It When It’s Stormy

10.Call Me Thunderhead

11.TV Mama

12.Jesus Will You Come By Here 

 

Watch the Black Keys' video for "Wild Child"

"Wild Child" is off The new Black Keys album Dropout Boogie out May 13th. Check it out here. 

One For The Weekend: Ceramic Animal

"Tangled" by Philly's Ceramic Animal is off their new Sweet Unknown album for Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label. 

Watch Robert Finley's video for "Sharecropper's Son"

"Sharecropper's Son" is the title track off Robert Finley's new Dan Auerbach-produced album out May 21st via Easy Eye Sound. 

Robert Finley shares Dan Auerbach collaboration "Souled Out On You"

"Souled Out On You" is off Robert Finley's new album, Sharecropper's Son out May 21 via Easy Eye Sound. Get it here​.

Tony Joe White home recordings set for May release

Tony Joe White's Smoke From The Chimney will be issued by Easy Eye Sound on May 7. Watch the clip for "Boot Money" below.

Here's the scoop... 

On May 7, Smoke from the Chimney, a nine-song album of never-before-heard Tony Joe White tunes, will be released on Easy Eye Sound. Produced by Dan Auerbach and rounded out by Nashville’s most seasoned studio musicians, Smoke from the Chimney started out as a number of unadorned voice and guitar demos from White’s home studio before being transformed into full band arrangements harkening back to the albums he recorded in the late 60s and early 70s in Nashville and Muscle Shoals – just as he was emerging as an internationally recognized songwriter and recording artist. 

It takes a keen eye and a steady hand to restore something great from the past; to take the time to examine, catalog, and care for every last task without resorting to bolt-on mail-order parts and cheap paint. What was always great deserves that extra care and attention to detail, and when the time came for White’s son and manager, Jody White, to revisit his dad’s catalog of unreleased songs, he knew Auerbach was the one to make them shine once more. 

In the last 10 to 15 years of his life, White would preserve new compositions or revisit older tracks in his home studio with only a guitar – usually his Fender Stratocaster – and that inimitable voice. Most of that material would ultimately wind up on his late-career albums. But when an unproven song didn’t make the cut for a release, or if he couldn’t get another artist interested, the song stayed right where it was as Tony Joe moved on to other things. This dismissal was not a reflection of the song’s quality; in fact, it meant quite the opposite, as he would often reserve his best material for other artists. 

After his father’s death in 2018, Jody started transferring those multitrack home recordings to digital files. Looking back on the moment he unearthed the demo of Smoke from the Chimney, he recalls a mix of happiness, gratification, and shock. As he continued to find other songs that didn’t make an album, he moved the material into a separate folder. Within a year, those select recordings would evolve into Smoke from the Chimney. Jody says that even in those basic tracks, that definitive Tony Joe White groove instantly stood out. “He always finds a tempo and a pocket that is exactly right. and it’s a little bit different than anybody else would choose themselves,” he says. 

Ever since meeting Tony Joe backstage at an Australian music festival in 2009, Auerbach sought to make a record with him. For nearly a decade, Jody tried to line up session time for them but Tony Joe demurred. “For one reason or another, my Dad would never just want to go into a studio and write with somebody, or go work with somebody,” Jody says. “He liked to do it at his place, and his way, and it turned out how it turned out, you know what I mean? So, this album really all worked out perfectly. He was making these tracks for Dan all along, but we just didn’t know it.” 

Auerbach agrees. “Jody and I had been talking about this record for so long, and it didn’t happen for a reason,” he says. “It’s because it wasn’t supposed to happen. I was in a nervous cast of characters until the last few years, and if you’d given it to me any earlier, it wouldn’t have been right. I felt like all these people on the record were the right people and they laid in there behind Tony Joe. It felt really magical when we were making it happen.” 

“These songs feel like a collection to me and they all seem to work together, in a weird way, even though they’re so different,” says Auerbach, who is releasing the album on his Easy Eye Sound label. “There’s some heartbreaking ballads and some really raunchy carnal blues. But it all works together like scenes of a movie.” The cast of musical characters brought in by Auerbach to accompany White’s guitar and vocal recordings includes legendary keyboardist, Bobby Wood (Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, Wilson Pickett), Nashville pedal steel ace, Paul Franklin, next-generation guitar hero, Marcus King, and Grammy and ACM award-winning fiddler, Stuart Duncan, just to name a few. 

Jody believes that his father would love the way Smoke From the Chimney turned out. “I feel like it’s validation that Tony Joe was one of the greatest of all time,” he says. “That he could make something so potent, even so late in life, is something that not many people can do. I think it’s going to make people who loved him already love him even more.” 

Across five decades as a performer and storyteller, Tony Joe White (a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox”) left an indelible mark on American music. His catalog offers indisputable classics such as, Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia, and his songs have been recorded by Ray Charles, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Dusty Springfield, and Tina Turner.

 

 

Tony Joe White – Smoke From The Chimney 

1. Smoke from the Chimney

2. Boot Money

3. Del Rio, You’re Making Me Cry

4. Listen to Your Song 

5. Over You

6. Scary Stories 

7. Bubba Jones 

8. Someone Is Crying 

9. Billy

You can pre-order a copy of Smoke from the Chimney right here. Check out Robert Schober's animated clip for "Boot Money" below. 

Merry Christmas from Robert Finley!

Check out the video for Robert Finley's "Merry Christmas, I Love You"  

John Anderson previews Dan Auerbach-produced Years album

Listen to the title track off John Anderson's forthcoming Years album out April 10th via Easy Eye Sound. You can pre-order it right here.

New Jimmy "Duck" Holmes album Cypress Grove due October 18

Blue Front Café boss Jimmy "Duck" Holmes – last of the Bettonia bluesmen – cut his new album with Dan Auerbach for Easy Eye Sound.