An excellent banjo and slide guitar player playing bluegrass infused with Celtic, Jazz, Folk and of course the blues. Tony Furtado is quite a regular and well acclaimed musician in the Jam music circuit giving regular shows. He is as good on electric guitar as he is on acoustic and electric banjo. His improvisations on guitar has a bluesy feel which kind of captures me.
Railroad Earth is a roots and Americana-based jam band whose particular brand of new grass music is simply mind blowing!
Those of you who are like the Garcia-Grisman type of music will surely like this band. Their name was inspired by Jack Kerouac's short story "October in the Railroad Earth", by which the band also has a song. Railroad Earth's music combines elements of bluegrass, rock and roll, jazz, celtic and more, and the group is also known for its extensive live improvisation and lyrical songwriting within an acoustic base.
The six band members first came together in January 2001. Originally line-up was:
Todd Sheaffer - vocalist/guitarist/songwriter;
Tim Carbone- violinist/vocalist;
John Skehan - mandolinist;
Andy Goessling - multi-instrumentalist;
Carey Harmon - drummer/vocalist;
Dave Von Dollen - bassist.
Here is an extract from the web:
<< the group kicked off by rehearsing a handful of original songs, mostly written by Sheaffer, the former From Good Homes songwriter, just to get together, hang out and play some music. But after just three weeks of rehearsing, they decided to go into a local recording studio to track a five song demo. Recorded live with no overdubs except backing vocals, this untitled demo set Railroad Earth's career in motion. Within a week they had manager Brian Ross on board, who sent their demo out to several festival promoters...quickly landing them a slot at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That appearance was the new band's tenth as Railroad Earth. The previous nine gigs had been little more than warm-ups at small North Jersey bars and Elks lodges.[1] In early April 2001, the band returned to the same local studio and tracked another five songs to complete an album. The Black Bear Sessions was released to the public in June 2001, one week before their appearance at Telluride. The album contains what are still some of the most popular songs in Railroad Earth's repertoire, including "Seven Story Mountain," "Head" and, of course, "Railroad Earth." Immediately following their appearance at Telluride, Sugar Hill Records approached the band and offered them a record deal.
In June 2002, Railroad Earth released its follow-up album on Sugar Hill entitled Bird In A House, featuring songs such as "Like A Buddha," "Mighty River," and the album's title track. Throughout that year Railroad Earth's touring schedule increased dramatically and their growing fanbase began to emerge as something tangible to promoters, radio stations and other media. They were garnering raves for their unique sound and exciting live shows and had become a staple act on the line-up of any Roots, Folk or jam-band festival. Their fans, who were now calling themselves "Hobos," began to grow quickly in size, and the venues were getting larger along with them.
In late March 2003, Dave Von Dollen was replaced by Atlanta-based bassist Johnny Grubb. The following year, the band released its third studio effort, The Good Life, featuring "Storms," Mourning Flies," and "Goat." The band continued to tour throughout the country, and its first live album, "Elko," was issued in late January 2006. They performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on September 15, 2007.
The band's fourth studio album, entitled Amen Corner, was released on June 10, 2008. The album features songs such as "Been Down This Road," "Hard Livin'," "Waggin' The Dog," and "Lovin' You."
On November 11, 2009, Grubb announced his departure from the band after Railroad Earth's New Year's Eve run of shows in Portland, OR. In February 2010, Andrew Altman of the Codetalkers and Blueground Undergrass was named as his successor.
The band's self-titled fifth album was released on Oct 12, 2010.[2] The album featured Andy Goessling, for the first time playing electric guitar, and new songs from Todd Sheaffer including "Jupiter and the 119" and " Too much information" plus a 11-minute instrumental, written by John Skehan, "Spring-Heeled Jack." SHJ is John Skehan's initials backwards. It is the longest studio track to date for the band.
The band was announced to perform the self-titled album in its entirity and video tape it to send to the fans. >>
Visit their official website here. To read more about them visit wikipedia.
This Tunisian is a virtuoso of the instrument Oud, playing it for more than 35 years now. His instrument and its music is very captivating and deeply meditative in nature. It really calms you down and takes you on a journey... a journey of self exploration in my case.
Apart from playing Arabian classical music, he has been playing a fusion of jazz and Arabian folk and classical music. He is regarded as an innovator of the instrument that he plays and has played with Dave Holland, John Surman, Jan Garbarek and Shaukat Hussein among others.
For those of you who has heard Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, his classic experimental album of late 60's which opened up a separate genre of jazz music, must remember the dark voodoo sound of a bass clarinet coming in and out of the brewish sound that was cooking.
Well that was Bennie Maupin, the great bass clarinet player, whom miles hired for those experimental sessions. His dark magical notes of the instrument added to the awsome sound that the band was creating at that time. Maupin had led a solo career thereafter and recorded a few albums on his own, apart from playing as a session musician and sideman for a lot of other musicians of repute. Apart from Bass Clarinet, he played flutes, saxophones and piano too.
A very talented song writer and singer who has been quietly delivering good tuneful music of country genre for a few decades now. Some of her songs with their deep soulful lyrics are bound to touch the soul of any serious listener. Her deep observations in life is expressed in poetic elegance. She has recorded many albums during her career, but I am posting 2 of her albums which I like the best. I am sure her music is going to have a spell on you!
Click here to visit her official site. Follow this link to read about her bio.
Jack Rose was an outstanding guitarist who played 6 and 12 string finger style and steel guitars. His career was cut short by his untimely death at the age of 38 by a heart attack. During his career, which span over a few years only, he recorded a few albums which is all we have of his brilliant musicianship. He started off with a band named 'Pelt', and then moved on to a solo career.
You can read more about Jack Rose by visiting the following links:
Here is a cool jiving album of Juju music from 1981. Beautiful soulful vocals accompanied with soothing Afro Pop percussive music. The albums has only two long tracks of smooth jamming. Very good music for parties!
Came across this marvelous album on the net while surfing. I remember buying an LP record of this back in 1979 and it really blew my mind. I heard this again after so many years, and believe me it sounded as impressive as ever. This is surely a great album and one of the best 100 rock albums of that era. 'Circles', 'California' and Dylan's 'Mighty Quinn' are true gems.
