Johnny Rawls won Most Outstanding Blues Singer in the 21st Annual Living Blues Critics’ Poll announced August 7, 2014. Remembering O.V., by Johnny Rawls with special guest Otis Clay, was selected Southern Soul Album of the Year — it was the third time Johnny has won Southern Soul Album of the Year, and the fourth time in the past six years the award has gone to a Catfood Records Album.

Johnny Rawls’ and Otis Clay’s new album Soul Brothers shipped this week, and will be released in October.  Keep a close eye on Catfood Records to order a copy!

Charlie Hunter and Dionne Farris have planned to work with each other since they met on a Hip Hop tour working for two different groups in 1991. The inspiration for this project came in part from a mutual admiration for Dionne’s namesake, and an instant musical chemistry. Charlie would play his guitar at soundchecks and Dionne would improvise vocally. Those special moments confirmed that a recording session would bear fruit. 

Hunter plays a custom bass/guitar hybrid instrument which feeds it’s signal into separate amplifiers. He helped innovate it in the 1990s, allowing him to hold down the high and low ends using an athletic fingerstyle technique all his own. Farris brings her one of a kind vocal stylings, uncanny intonation and precise pitch accuracy to the duo. She compares singing jazz with an accompanist to the classic ice breaker exercise “the trust fall”. 

Pre-order DionneDionne by the Dionne Farris Charlie Hunter Duo now!

Jon Camp is a guitarist and composer who resides in the Washington, DC region. He combines experimental elements such as drone and alternate tunings with the rhythmic elements of rock and blues.  His new album – Earwig – is available on vinyl now!

Joan Shelley‘s music is startling, but not for its racket. It startles because of its closeness, the near-instant sense of familiarity we feel when we hear it. Her songs  fill up the air around us, echoing like a voice lost in the later American and British  folk revivals – some Anne Briggs here, a little Hedy West there. But none of them are  “trad arr. Shelley.” Joan wrote them all. Listen to her sing and it’s evident. You’ve  never heard that voice before, either.

The new LP – Electric Ursa – was recorded in Louisville, Kentucky and marks Joan’s first release for No Quarter Records. It includes collaborations with new labelmate Nathan Salsburg, as well as  several other of Louisville’s fine musicians. In the eight songs that make up this record,  we are seeing an artist in her stride, able to move seamlessly between darkness & light, attempting to reconcile the wild expanse of the future with the burdens of memory. At the center of it all are songs of a nature beautiful, precise, and clear, delivered to us by  her singular voice.

We are pleased to announce the pre-order of David Bazan + Passenger String Quartet / Volume 1.  All new studio recordings of Pedro The Lion and Bazan solo songs:

Bands With Managers
How I Remember
Wolves At The Door
The Fleecing
I Do
When They Really Get To Know You…
Lost My Shape
Cold Beer & Cigarettes
Priests & Paramedics
Strange Negotiations

Pre-order is up now via Undertow Music Collective — all pre-orders will be signed by David Bazan (limit two copies per customer).

Pre-order the new JP Harris LP – Home Is Where The Hurt Is and get a free, immediate download of the entire album from Cow Island Music!

Check out one of the new tracks here, and be sure to catch it live near your hometown!

BRIZBOMB: real time experimental visual audio

One human and one rack – all audio & video are generated live in real time with no edits, no overdubs, no computer, no keyboards, no samples, and no pre-recorded material. Pre-order it now.

Into Weather is an independent band based in San Francisco. The band consists of Marc Perry (vocals, bass, guitar), Ameya Mhatre (percussion) and Joshua Cano (vocals, synths, guitar).

Marc and Josh first met in high school jazz-band in Texas. They spent their weekends going to shows in the South Texas punk rock scene playing little songs and rocking out. Time moved on and several musical projects later, they found themselves years later both living in San Francisco and in need of a drummer. As fate would have it they met Ameya, a kindred spirit. Ameya had played in a few bands in his native Ottawa and New York City and was the product of a deeply musical family. Into Weather began in 2009.

Their new LP Wake Up will be available starting Sunday August 24 at their record release show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.

Minor Characters is an indie act from Chicago whose music is a mixture of well-crafted songwriting, pop sensibility, and a rare earnestness that’s difficult to overlook. The resulting combination is a carefully composed sound with classic pop leanings that ends up sounding both familiar and fresh.

The brainchild of the former folk singer-songwriter, Andrew Pelletier, Minor Characters was born of the desire to grow beyond performing solo, to create a more engaging and further reaching experience. Pelletier, Shelby Pollard (guitar), Adam Schneider (bass), and James Ratke (drums), bonded quickly over their love for Fleetwood Mac, Grizzly Bear, and Blonde Redhead.

Voire Dire is their new LP, and is available now!