R.I.P. Curtis Fowlkes, 1950-2023

Sadly, trombone great and Jazz Passengers co-founder Curtis Fowlkes has passed away at 73. He'll be greatly missed. 

LINKS

The Free Jazz Collective Curtis Fowlkes

One For The Weekend: Jeb Loy Nichols

Jeb Loy Nichols wrote "People Die" during the winter of 2021... catch him in Wales on March 18th.

Get tickets for Nichols & Phillips at the Mid Wales Art Centre on March 18th right here. 

Jeb Loy Nichols reunites with pal Adrian Sherwood for latest album

Apparently, Jeb Loy Nichols' new album The United States Of The Broken Hearted has been 40 years in the making. 

 

Here's the scoop...

Produced by On-U Sound mainman Adrian Sherwood, with careful arrangements framing twelve beautiful, acoustic-based songs, the new Jeb Loy Nichols album The United States Of The Broken Hearted features contributions from Martin Duffy (Primal Scream/Felt) and Ivan “Celloman” Hussey, fresh from his work on the massively acclaimed duo of Horace Andy albums, Midnight Rocker and Midnight Scorchers, both of which featured songwriting contributions from Jeb Loy.

Says Jeb Loy: "The United States Of The Broken Hearted has been forty years in the making. I’ve known Adrian, and considered him one of my closest friends, for that long. During that time we’ve spent more hours listening, and talking about, music than anything else. Reggae, Country, Folk, Jazz, Soul; it’s been the backdrop to our friendship. Adrian introduced me to some of my favourite music; Count Ossie, Culture, Harry Beckett, Mulatu Astatke. Through the years we’ve listened to Sun Ra, Lee Perry, Ornette Coleman, Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie. A couple years ago, on a visit to Adrian, I mentioned Gram Parsons’s concept of ‘American Cosmic Music’, the melting mix of musical genres that constitutes a uniquely American sound. We talked about recording a record that incorporated all the influences I’d gathered, from Bluegrass to Jazz to Reggae to Soul. The United States Of The Broken Hearted is that record. We wanted to include Folk (Deportees), Country (Satisfied Mind), protest songs (I Hate The Capitalist System), and songs of my own that bore the marks of those that had gone before. I sang the songs and played guitar; Adrian brought in friends and fellow travellers to finish them. It’s all there, Soul, Jazz, Country, Folk; and underlying everything, Adrian’s Reggae infused production.”

Adrian Sherwood adds: “This is Jeb’s ‘Great American Songbook’, he’s become such a great singer and songwriter over the years. This is a beautiful piece of work reminiscent of our mutual love for the Miracle album I made with Bim Sherman. I’m really proud of this record and it’s a fitting follow-up to Long Time Traveller.”

The first single taken from the album, “Big Troubles Come In Through A Small Door”, comes accompanied by a striking video shot by Jackson Mount, who recently made a short film about Jeb Loy, documenting his art making in an isolated part of rural Wales. For this song, they went to the Abergavenny Sports and Social Club and enlisted the help of local line dancing troupe The Rhinestone Cowgirls, coming up with a coordinated routine for the track.

More about Jeb Loy Nichols

Jeb Loy Nichols is a musician, writer and artist who has, for the past twenty years, lived on a remote smallholding in the Welsh hills. Born in Wyoming and raised in Missouri, he went to New York City at the age of seventeen where he worked in a record store and fell in love with the emerging hip-hop culture. 

In the early 1980s he moved to London where he shared a squat with Ari Up from The Slits and made the acquaintance of Adrian Sherwood, at that time starting his record label On-U Sound. Jeb Loy (with his then backing band the Oil Wells) contributed a track to early On-U Sound compilation Wild Paarty Sounds, and twenty-nine years later (!) finally made his first album for the label, the country-reggae hybrid Long Time Traveller, described by one writer as "like Lee Hazlewood if he'd made an album with The Wailers”. 

In the 1990s he formed the country-dub band Fellow Travellers, who recorded five CDs and toured extensively in Germany. He has since gone on to record fifteen solo records, his most recent album Jeb Loy was released by Finnish soul label Timmion in 2021. He has also published three novels and exhibited his distinctive woodcut artwork internationally. 

Jeb Loy Nichols' The United States Of The Broken Hearted is available via Bandcamp right here. Check out "Big Troubles Come In Through A Small Door" and his Under The Willow Tree live session following a short film by Jackson Mount below. 

More about Adrian Sherwood

“Someone once described me as just a fan who’d got his hands on a mixing desk, They were probably trying to be nasty, but I took it as a compliment – that’s exactly what I am!”

For over 40 years now, forward-thinking sound scientist and mixologist Adrian Sherwood has been dubbing it up, keeping the faith when others have fallen away and blowing minds and speakers alike.

Producer, remixer, and proprietor of the British dub collective/record label On-U Sound, Adrian Sherwood has long been regarded as one of the most innovative and influential artists in contemporary dance and modern reggae music. His talent for creating musical space, suspense, sensations and textures have enabled him to pioneer a distinctive fusion of dub, rock, reggae and dance that challenges tradition not only in roots circles, but also in the pop world at large.

“I’d rather try and create a niche amongst like-minded people, and create our own little market place be that 5, 50 or 500,000 sales and also be true to our principles of making things, and to your own spirit that you put into the work.”

Born in 1958, Sherwood first surfaced during the mid ’70s and formed On-U Sound in 1981. While the On-U Sound crew’s original focus was on live performances, the emphasis soon switched to making records and Sherwood began mixing and matching lineups, resulting in new acts including New Age Steppers, African Head Charge, Mark Stewart & Maffia, and Doctor Pablo & the Dub Syndicate.

All of these early records, according to Rock: The Rough Guide were “phenomenal, generally bass-heavy with outlandish dubbing from Sherwood, who worked the mixing desk as an instrument in itself.”

Long influential and innovative on the UK reggae scene, Sherwood’s distinctive production style soon began attracting interest from acts outside of the dub community and by the early-’80s Sherwood was among the most visible producers and remixers around, working on tracks for artists as varied as Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Einsturzende Neubaten, Simply Red, the Woodentops, and Ministry. He became increasingly involved in industrial music as the decade wore on, producing tracks for Cabaret Voltaire, Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, and Nine Inch Nails, and although On-U Sound continued to reflect its leader’s eclectic tastes, the label remained a top reggae outlet.

In 2003 he launched his solo artist career with Never Trust a Hippy, which was followed in 2006 by Becoming a Cliché. Both were released by On-U in conjunction with the Real World label.

Still one of the most sought-after producers in the contemporary music industry, Adrian Sherwood and his progressive style and interest in developing new ideas continue to propel On-U Sound’s ongoing success. In 2012 he issued his third solo album Survival & Resistance, and began an ongoing collaboration with Bristol-based dubstep don Pinch. This brought two different generations of bass together and in 2015 the pair released their debut album Late Night Endless. Behind the mixing desk he has been working with the likes of Spoon, Roots Manuva and Nisennenmondai; and delivered remixes of Halsey, Congo Natty and Django Django. His production and remix works has also begun to be anthologised by On-U Sound with the critically acclaimed Sherwood At The Controls series.

“Music is lovely because it stimulates people, superficial music doesn’t. If you make something that you put your heart and soul into and really try to push it so it leaps out the speakers at you, and if there’s a good feel to it, then you’ve achieved something.”

Michael Weston King releasing new album The Struggle

Michael Weston King is joined by Steve Nieve & Jeb Loy Nichols on his new album, The Struggle, out April 1st via Cherry Red. 

Here's the scoop...

A musical departure for Michael Weston King from his My Darling Clementine day job of the past decade, The Struggle is a pure singer/songwriter album, rooted in the late ‘60s / early ‘70s and inspired by artists and writers such as Mickey Newbury, Jesse Winchester, John Prine, Bobby Charles, Jim Ford and early Van Morrison.

Michael Weston King is one of Britain’s most prolific troubadours within the world of Americana/country, both as a solo artist and with country duo My Darling Clementine. Back in the day, he was the leader of Alt country band The Good Sons; his songs have been covered by the likes of American folk icons Carolyn Hester and Townes Van Zandt.

Recorded Spring 2021 in a remote studio in mid Wales, this self-produced recording of new original compositions (including two co-writes with old friends Peter Case and much missed friend and collaborator Jackie Leven) was very much a collaboration with wunderkind engineer/musician Clovis Phillips. Mixing took place at Yellow Arch Studios in Sheffield with Michael’s long-time collaborator/ producer Colin Elliot (Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker).

Guests on this new album include Steve Nieve (keyboardist, Elvis Costello & The Attractions), Jeb Loy Nichols and British jazz trombonist Barnaby Dickinson, along with Michael’s wife and musical partner Lou Dalgleish, and their woodwind-playing daughter Mabel Dalgleish-King.

Michael will be touring the UK, Europe and the US with My Darling Clementine from February 2022. Each show will encompass a short solo set, during which Michael will perform songs solely from ‘The Struggle’. He will also be playing a few selected solo shows in 2022 accompanied by Clovis Phillips, his collaborator on the new album.

You can pre-order Michael Weston King's forthcoming album The Struggle via Cherry Red Records right here. Check out Michael Weston King's song "The Final Reel" recorded for the Jackie Leven tribute album The Wanderer. 

Jeb Loy Nichols tightens up with a soul swinger for Timmion

Jeb Loy Nichols got down with Timmion studio crew Cold Diamond & Mink and came up swingin' with "Can't Cheat The Dance" 

Here's the scoop...

Straight outta the green hills of the Welsh countryside comes Jeb Loy Nichols, the newest sensation in Timmion's growing roster of accomplished soul belters. A seasoned and versatile music scene veteran who has knocked out 13 albums under his own name over the past 25 years – apart from his work with The Fellow Travellers, Okra All-Stars and Strange Faith (with Nostalgia 77's Ben Lamdin), Jeb has all the skills required to polish Cold Diamond & Mink's rough grooves into shining gems and provide tasteful production-ready sleeve art to boot. Yes, apart from being a top-notch singer/songwriter and guitarist, Jeb is also an in-demand graphic artist. 

"Can't Cheat The Dance" on the A side is a rolling southern-style soul cooker in an Eddie Hinton vein, which the Wyoming-born singer attacks effortlessly with his praise for an honest dance over a stone-solid "Tighten Up" groove from  Timmion's reliable studio crew Cold Diamond & Mink. The slow-burn flipside "We Gotta Work On It" kicks off with a churchy sweet organ groove and a simple acoustic guitar which gives Jeb all he needs to tell his story of overcoming life's little ups and downs in a way that recalls Charlie Rich at his bluesy best. You can get a copy from Timmion's Bandcamp page right here. Listen to "Can't Cheat The Dance" below. 

Perhaps even better news than the new double-sider is that Jeb and Cold Diamond & Mink have cut a whole 10-track album of soulful goodness for Helsinki's Timmion label dropping June 11th which you can now pre-order right here. While you're waiting for it to arrive in the mail, check out Jeb's great 2019 recording with the Westwood All-Stars, June Is Short, July Is Long on Compass Records, his previous album Country Hustle (City Country City) from 2017 – available here, and the two stellar volumes of Country Got Soul – featuring Tony Joe White, Dan Penn, Townes Van Zandt, Bobbie Gentry, Jim Ford, George Soulé, Travis Wammack, Donnie Fritts and others – which Jeb compiled for Casual Records back in 2003 and 2004. 

Born in Wyoming and raised in Missouri, Nichols absorbed the sounds of both rural America and the records played around his house. “We got it all”, he says, “my mom played jazz records, Don Shirley and Ella Fitzgerald, while my dad played bluegrass and Hank Williams.” But it was from the radio that Jeb received his most lasting education. Through the day and late into the night Jeb would listen and take to heart the disparate sounds of the airwaves. “The main station I listened to was out of Kansas City and played country music all day, then at nine o-clock at night they’d switch and become a soul station. It was magic, all this great music; Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, The Staples Singers, all of it right there, in my bedroom, for free.”

When Jeb was fourteen the family moved to Austin, Texas. “The best thing I learned in Austin”, Jeb says, “was how great live music could be. I saw everything from Funkadelic to Bob Marley to George Jones to The Ramones.” It was in Austin that he first heard, and was knocked out by, The Sex Pistols. “That was all new, the sound, the fury, the politics, all of it.” And it led straight to the road again, this time to New York. “I was seventeen”, recalls Jeb, “and New York was like nothing I’d ever seen. I’d always felt like an outsider and then there I was, in a town of outsiders. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.” In New York he was awarded a full scholarship to study painting at Parsons School of Design. He also started hanging out at clubs like Tier 3, The Loft and the Mudd Club where he became friends with members of the Slits and Neneh Cherry. “It was a great time to be in New York, the whole scene was so wide open.” It was the emerging hip hop scene that was most fascinating for him. “It was 1979 – and nothing in the world was more exciting than rap. The Treacherous Three, Funky Four Plus One, Grandmaster Flash – that stuff was so great! And then you had DJs like Larry Levan, it was fantastic.”

After three years in New York, Jeb hit the road again, this time to London. He shared a house with Ari Up from the Slits, Neneh Cherry and producer Adrian Sherwood, and, as he had in NYC, dove into London’s artistic community. “I formed a country band with Joe Brack and we played every kind of show you can think of. We did some bluegrass, some country, a lot of old protest songs.” In 1990 a tape of songs ended up at OKra Records, a small label in Columbus, Ohio. OKra offered Jeb a deal, and Jeb put together a band that included his wife Loraine Morley, On-U Sound man Martin Harrison, and jazz trombonist John Harbourne. The Fellow Travellers merged country-tinged, acoustic-based songs with a dub bottom. “It was fun”, says Jeb “it just worked. We all played what we wanted and stayed out of each others way, and it sounded great. I’ve never had more fun.” The Fellow Travellers released three more albums and were described in Spin as “the lonesome children of Merle, Marley and Marx”.

In 2000, after releasing three solo records, Jeb Loy and Loraine Morley moved to Wales where they’re slowly reclaiming ten acres of neglected scrub land, renovating a barn and putting in a large garden. “I’m sure I’ll move again”, he says, “but not just yet. This feels good, feels like something close to home.”

Listen to "Can't Cheat The Dance" below. 

Country soul hold-out Jeb Loy Nichols keeps it simple on new album

Jeb Loy Nichols forthcoming album June Is Short, July Is Long is due October 4 from Compass Records. Listen to "You Got It Wrong" below.

Here's the scoop...

Jeb Loy Nichols, the UK-based, Wyoming-born graphic artist and songsmith, has been putting out his own singular brand of smoky retro soul for over two decades, gathering a fervent cult following along the way. Nichols, backed by his touring band, the Westwood All-Stars, will release his latest album June Is Short, July Is Long in Canada on October 4th via Compass Records distributed by Outside Music.

Having spent brief periods in Missouri, Texas, New York and London, Nichols found his home in a remote smallholding in the Welsh hills in the ‘80s. This back-to-basics, rural lifestyle is mirrored in his approach to music and the art that graces his album covers and informs his videos. His eleventh solo release, June Is Short, July Is Long is a cross-genre collection that documents his journey from being born and raised in the American Midwest through to his current life in the rolling hills of rural Wales.

“It’s full circle,” he says.  “I started off in the Ozark hills and now here I am, in the hills again.”
His new music is a record of that journey. Raised on bluegrass and country & western music, Nichols discovered southern soul when he was a teenager. From there it was off to New York City and hip-hop, then over to London and reggae and dancehall.  It was this potent mix of genres – his love of classic American roots music and Jamaican reggae, dub and dancehall – that’s since been his signature. He’s spent the past 25 years making music, of which he smiles and says, “It’s all roots music. Three chords and a good story.  Don’t overthink it ... just get in the groove and let it happen.”

June Is Short, July Is Long was recorded in Wales with The Westwood All-Stars for an organic, capturing-a-moment feel. “It was all done in five days," he says of the sessions. "One day setting up, one day learning the songs, three days recording… it was great. The best music is a conversation, and this was a conversation between old friends.”

The resulting “musical conversation” has the lived-in, comfortable feel of a classic. It could sit comfortably alongside vintage albums by Ry Cooder or Van Morrison with its stripped-down, real-deal mix of joy and pain.  “If you keep it simple,” he says, “there’s less to go wrong.” The resulting collection of songs proves his point. “You take a little country, some soul, some old friends and few good stories, and what can go wrong?” Listen to the album's lead off track "You Got It Wrong" following the album release trailer below. Pre-order a copy of Jeb Loy Nichols' forthcoming album right here.