Quietly Blowing It is an intimate and introspective offering that finds M.C. Taylor ruminating on themes of growing up, alienation, obligation, hope, purpose, family, class, self-discovery, healing, and rebuilding, fashioned with impressionistic tones.

He says the record “feels like the most personal album that I’ve made because I’m not trying to explain anything to anyone except myself.” Taylor reckons with these turbulent times in deeply personal terms and seeks to inspire listeners to do the same.

Musically, the new songs are steeped in gospel, Southern soul, indie folk, and alt-country with tinges of blues, rock, and jazz influences running throughout. Highlights include the minimalist R&B of “It Will If We Let It,” the rolling country groove of “The Great Mystifier,” and the heartfelt, smoky lament of “Painting Houses” (co-written with Gregory Alan Isakov).

Quietly Blowing It features special guests that include Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes, Zach Williams of The Lone Bellow, Nashville guitar great Buddy Miller, and producer/musician Josh Kaufman of Bonny Light Horseman.

Pre-order now for late June delivery – available from Merge Records. There is an exclusive vinyl version available through indie record stores as well.

Jazz fusion ensemble Matthew Alec and The Soul Electric has released their new album Cleveland Time via Cleveland Time Records, and vinyl pressing by Gotta Groove. Working alongside Cleveland-based producer Jim Stewart, the album is finally ready to be released after being recorded in multiple sessions because of the ongoing pandemic.

Cleveland Time marks the first album release from the group that features Matthew Alec (tenor saxophone and EWI), Brian Woods (piano, keyboards, organs, plus vocals on “Give What You Take” and “Baby You Got Me”), Steven Forest Sanders (guitar, plus vocals on “Enigma Man”), Jared Lees (bass), Jeremiah Hawkins (percussion, plus drums on “Baby You Got Me”), and Leon Henault (drums). The album also features special guests Tom ‘Bones’ Malone (trombone and horn section on “Cleveland Time”), MINUS THE ALIEN (vocals on “Cleveland Time”), and Tim Coyne (trumpet on “Blues For McCoy” and “Enigma Man”).

New album – available April 9. Pre-order from an indie retailer near you now!

GGR 180 Gram wax, and packaged in GGR’s exclusive 100% recycled/recyclable polybags!

Walkers Beware! We Drive Into the Sun is a call for fearless sensuality – a subtle revelation of longing, desire, and bliss. Wrapped in a simple pop song, every guitar note, every groove of the bassline is engineered to move us into romance, and acceptance that dressing and undressing is a pattern we are aching to repeat. Stab/Slow carries over the same sensuality of Walkers into a more danceable form, a slow house influenced track with retro vibes yet unpredictable in signature Sweet Trip style.

Available now from Darla.

Holographic Prism is the final chapter of The Sky Trilogy by Purl – a three chapter volume of works, exploring collective dreams of celestial origin. features mixes from SVLBRD, Lav, Slow Dancing Society, Coppice Halifax, Warmth, Deflektion, Innesti, & Svartholtet.

Available soon from Past Inside The Present.

Fromthing Somethat is the best complete the black watch record that the band has ever made. Available on download, CD and 12” vinyl. Haunting melodies, dance beats, flashes of 80’s synth pop, Beatlesque resemblances and shoe gazey in all the right places describes the brilliance of the band’s 19th full length release. No longer teaching full-time, band leader John Andrew Fredrick has been on a creative hot streak making multiple records in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Academia’s loss is the world’s gain in great new the black watch music.

World-renowned performing and recording artist David Sancious, was an original member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. He has toured and recorded with greats Peter Gabriel, Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Santana, Seal and an expansive list of A-level musicians. Sancious also wrote, produced and performed ground-breaking progressive music with his band Tone, mixing rock, fusion and gospel.

He explores new territory with the release of his 10th album “Eyes Wide Open.” Eight energetic compositions feature dynamic performances by legendary names such as premier drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, Living Colour’s Will Calhoun (drums), and Prince alumnus Michael Bland (drums).

A balanced mix of four vocal and four instrumental compositions, “Eyes Wide Open” is what Sancious describes as “a movie for your ears.” Spoken word is interspersed with political commentary and newsbreaks to create a musical and “visual” landscape addressing today’s volatile racial and political issues head-on through his signature sound.

Sancious describes his new album as, “The best work I’ve ever done.”

A live album (recorded 11/15/91 in Nashville) and a studio album of new and unreleased tracks from the best band you never heard.

On November 15th of 1991, at the height of the band’s musical powers, Chagall Guevara‘s live show was recorded to 24 tracks of analog splendor in front of a very rowdy hometown crowd at Nashville’s legendary 328 Performance Hall. With the band’s full cooperation, it has now been lovingly mixed by Russ Long, who began his illustrious career as a recording engineer and producer by mixing Chagall Guevara’s live shows. That live album, now entitled The Last Amen, is finally ready to be heard. 

Is that it? No, actually… 

Despite the band’s break-up three decades prior, everybody has stayed friends. And a certain pandemic has provided time for some vault-digging, which uncovered a total of four tracks that were being prepped for the band’s follow-up album and have never been heard outside the inner sanctum. And then there are those rare tracks like “Number By Heart,” “Treasure of the Broken Land,” and the original demo recording of “Tale O’ The Twister” that could make this three-decades-in-the-making project even more support-worthy.

But wait — there’s more?

What if the band reunited with acclaimed producer Matt Wallace, who helmed their debut, for a couple of brand new tracks that prove the band never lost its mojo? And what if the packaging was created by Grammy nominee Tim Stedman (who was art director for Chagall Guevara’s debut) using images from photographer Ben Pearson (who documented the band’s brief and brilliant career)? And what if all those new and unreleased and rare tracks were combined into a full-length album entitled Halcyon Days? Would all this sonic bounty compensate for the awkward timing of a Kickstarter campaign that drops in the midst of a worldwide crisis?

You tell us.

In Waves is the debut album for U3, a supergroup birthed by three heavy hitters of the ukulele community.

Helmed by multi-instrumentalist and YouTube sensation Cynthia Lin (based in Honolulu), this project centers around a kinship built on a trans-Pacific musical collaboration. Together with Berklee-trained Na Hoku winner Abe Lagrimas, Jr. (based in Los Angeles), and Kala Artist Ukulenny (based in the San Francisco Bay Area), U3 joins forces to create an island-inspired cross-cultural album.

Bridging the individual artist’s skills and versatility, the 9-song collection features genre-fluid arrangements ranging from jazz and bossa nova, to Hawaiian classics, to island reggae remixes, that stretch the ukulele into new territory. Layered with Cynthia’s luscious vocal harmonies, Abe’s virtuosic solos and percussion prowess, and Ukulenny’s U-bass rhythms, this supergroup’s debut is an awakening to new world of ukulele.