Telarc and Concord Music Group GRAMMY Nominations
Thursday, December 22, 2011
See the official complete list of nominees here
Concord Music Group, one of the world’s leading independent music companies collected an impressive 16 nominations at The GRAMMY® Nominations. The nominees represent a broad range of genres from the label’s storied family of imprints including Concord, Hear Music, Rounder Records, Concord Jazz, Fantasy, Stax, and Telarc International.
“We are blessed to work with immensely talented artists,” stated Concord Music Group President and CEO Glen Barros. “The continued support and recognition from NARAS is a testament to their enormous creativity and unwavering dedication. The nominations also exemplify the continued hard work, ingenuity and passion of the entire Concord Music Group team.”
Winners will be announced at the 54th Annual GRAMMY® Awards, airing live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 12th, 2012. Below is the complete list of nominations for the Concord Music Group.
New classical title from Paul McCartney out soon
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Check out Ocean's Kingdom here
Ocean's Kingdom is the first time Paul has written an original orchestral score or any kind of music for dance and is the result of a collaboration between Paul and Peter Martins, the Ballet Master in Chief of the New York City Ballet, who have worked together to present the world premiere of a new ballet for the company's 2011/2012 season this September.
Though the work is Paul's first ballet, he approached the project in the same way he writes all other music, driven by his heart rather than his head and inspired by feeling rather than specific technical knowledge. While this may have been another new turn for his staggeringly varied career to take, Paul knew it had to be influenced by his own personal experience and that he needed to create a story the audience would find equally compelling and moving.
Paul's first step was to visit the Royal Opera House to see Adolphe Adam's Giselle, danced by the Royal Ballet. Afterwards, Paul met the dancers and discussed the work with them, realising as he did so that he was still without a central theme to his work. Keen to tell a story through his music, Paul decided to focus on the purity of the ocean and within just two months, the first draft had been completed. He then went through the music again thinking specifically of the ballet itself, thereby creating a world featuring distinctive characters and a vibrant underworld kingdom. Finally Paul spent many more weeks working alongside Peter Martins to refine the work, before Peter created the choreography with the NYCB dancers.
An hour long score featuring four stunning movements - "Ocean's Kingdom," "Hall of Dance," "Imprisonment" and "Moonrise" - the ballet tells of a love story within the story of an underwater world whose people are threatened by the humans of Earth. A potently expressive and richly varied work, the score is Paul's most challenging and emotionally complex yet. As he explains: "What was interesting was writing music that meant something expressively rather than just writing a song. Trying to write something that expressed an emotion - so you have fear, love, anger, sadness to play with and I found that exciting and challenging."
Win a custom motorcycle helmet from Moreland & Arbuckle
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Since their beginnings in the Kansas heartland a decade ago, guitarist Aaron Moreland and vocalist/harpist Dustin Arbuckle have captured the visceral spirit of the early 20th century Delta blues and the raw energy of post-World War II urban blues and distilled it all into a hard-driving and powerful garage-rock configuration of guitar, vocals, harp and drums. Moreland & Arbuckle build on that solid foundation with the release of their second album, Just A Dream. The 12-song set showcases Moreland's dynamic and compelling guitar work - two tracks were recorded on his cigar-box guitar consisting of three guitar strings and one bass string - Arbuckle's emotionally charged vocals and edgy harp, and drummer Brad Horner's rock-solid backbeat. Just A Dream adds a few layers of sophistication to the rootsy sensibility previously captured in the band's acclaimed 2010 debut, Flood.
"The clear objective was to retain the gritty, raw feel that we created on our prior release, but push everything up about four notches as far as sound quality, the selection of songs, the production and every other aspect of the record," says Moreland. "Everything we've done in the past was set up in one big room and recorded in a couple days. On this record, we spent far more time, and our quality control was far more stringent than it's ever been. And it shows. When this record was finished, I thought, `Yeah, this is what I wanted to achieve.' This record is fourteen steps beyond anything we've ever done before."
This heightened polish is partly the result of an ambitious tour schedule over the past 15 months. Since the release of Flood, Moreland & Arbuckle have crossed paths on the road with the likes of ZZ Top, George Thorogood, Jonny Lang, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Los Lonely Boys and other veterans who have mined the rich vein where the blues and rock intersect. Along the way, they picked up a few pointers about showmanship and how best to deliver the message, meanwhile, logging 82,000 road miles in just nine months in their Chevy Suburban.
Tab Benoit - Medicine Giveaway!
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Check out the giveaway on CTown Blues here
Tab Benoit Prescribes A Dose Of Musical Medicine On April 26 Telarc Release
Medicine co-produced by ace songwriter Anders Osborne and features drummer Brady Blade, keyboardist Ivan Neville, bassist Corey Duplechin and the legendary Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil
You’ve tried the rest, now try the best! Tab Benoit’s amazing new Medicine, 100% pure musical snake-oil. A melodic potion that provides immediate and satisfying relief for all aches and pain. Benoit’s Medicine is a guaranteed cure for heartache. It’s the genuine article – this Medicine is for whatever ails you.
Medicine, Benoit’s seventh solo release on Telarc International, a division of Concord Music Group, successfully joins two gifted guitarists/songwriters in a session that proves greater than the sum of its very talented parts. Set for April 26, 2011, the 11-track recording features seven new Benoit originals co-written with ace songwriter Anders Osborne (his song “Watch the Wind Blow By” was recorded by Tim McGraw in 2002, hitting No. 1 on the country charts for two weeks and selling over three million albums, and Keb’ Mo’s 1999 GRAMMY-winning album Slow Down, featured two songs he had co-written).
“Anders and I have been friends for years, and we have a very comfortable relationship,” says Benoit, a GRAMMY®-nominated songwriter, as well as a guitarist and singer with a repertoire that ranges from swamp-pop classics to gritty blues and rootsy jams. “Songwriting needs to feel natural. It needs to flow easily. When he and I went out on the bayou, we came back with seven songs! Anders also played most of the rhythm parts on the album. He does a good job of not stepping on what I’m doing and making it fit the song.”
SINGER SHEMEKIA COPELAND CROWNED QUEEN OF THE BLUES
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Check out Shemekia's latest release
On June 12, 2011 at the Chicago Blues Festival, singer Shemekia Copeland was presented with Koko Taylor’s crown and officially given the honor as the new “Queen of the Blues” by Taylor’s daughter, Cookie Taylor. Taylor, whose mother passed away two years ago this weekend, was assisted by Marie Dixon, widow of Willie Dixon.
By official proclamation of the Chicago Blues Festival, the Governor of Illinois and the City of Chicago, Copeland was presented with Koko Taylor’s actual crown on stage in the middle of her set.
For more than a decade, Copeland had been paving a road that would inevitably lead to her crowning as “Queen of the Blues.” By some standards – numerous blues awards in the U.S. and elsewhere, a GRAMMY nomination, a resumé that includes work with musical titans like Dr. John and Steve Cropper and film giants like Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders – she had already arrived there.
Never Going Back, her 2009 debut on Telarc, a division of Concord Music Group, captured Copeland at a crossroads on that artistic path. While Copeland will always remain loyal to her blues roots, Never Going Back took a more forward view of the blues, and in so doing pointed her music and her career in a new direction. Produced by Oliver Wood, guest players included John Medeski, Marc Ribot and Chris Wood.