Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Midweek Roundup: John Heart Jackie, Milk Carton Kids, Garrett Pierce

We find these things, we get these things, we'd like to share with you...

John Heart Jackie is a Portland duo which makes well-played acoustic folk with sweet vocal harmonies. Their latest album is We Are Gold Mounds (actually released in 2010), and here's a free download of the song "You've Been On My Mind" from that album.

They've released a new single and will be touring out West throughout October before going back to record for their next album:

10.06.11 - San Francisco, CA @ Viracocha
10.09.11 - Venice, CA @ The Compound (House Show)
10.10.11 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hotel Cafe
10.11.11 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
10.12.11 - Tempe, AZ @ The Sail Inn
10.14.11 - Santa Fe, NM @ The Cowgirl
10.16.11 - Boulder, CO @ Laughing Goat
10.17.11 - Denver, CO @ The Walnut Room
10.18.11 - Fort Collins, CO @Everyday Joe's
10.19.11 - Provo, UT @ Velour
10.20.11 - Missoula, MT @ The Badlander
10.22.11 - Tacoma, WA @ The Warehouse
10.23.11 - Seattle, WA @ Columbia City Theater

Here's a video for "We Will Be Wild":

John Heart Jackie - We Will Be Wild from Ben Moon on Vimeo.


They've got a new single out, and you can download it here.



Milk Carton Kids are a Minneapolis-based folk duo: Joey Ryan and Kenneth Pattengale, and they are terrific. Here's how I discovered them. We received a nice comment on our review of Joey Ryan & The Inks' new album, making reference to a song from a Nature Valley Granola commercial which plays a pretty song that someone eventually discovered was sung by a Joey Ryan. Well, what are the odds of there being two Joey Ryans who make music? Probably not that long. So, we find ourselves featuring both. Like the Tall Ships (found both in California and the UK), we don't feel the need to choose... Both are well worth hearing. But this is the guy who made the Nature Valley commercial.

In praise of the Milk Carton Kids, I couldn't write anything better than the piece Joe Henry wrote on their website:

I listen and, try as I might, forget to hear them as distinct collaborators in song and story. Instead, they move to become a single, shadowy persona within the frame of Prologue –like young twins cast to tag-team one demanding role in a terse-but-tender film by Elia Kazan, haunted and hounded across a lonely landscape in search of the love that might provide their collective character a fleeting taste of both redemption and self-recognition.

You can download their last two records, Retrospect and Prologue (both 2011 releases) on the website, and here's a video for the song "As It Must Be" from Retrospect:



They're on tour, too:

LEG 3 - MIDWEST & NORTHEAST 9/26 THRU 10/6

9/26 - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern****
9/27 - Rochester, NY - Bug Jar****
9/28 - Buffalo, NY - The Ninth Ward****
9/30 - Ithaca, NY - Delilah's on Cayuga****
10/1 - Burlington, VT - Monkey House
10/2 - Montpelier, VT - Skinny Pancake
10/3 - Montreal, QC - Divan Orange****
10/4 - Toronto, ONT - Horseshoe Tavern****
10/5 - Syracuse, NY - The Nelson Odeon****
10/6 - Pittsburgh, PA - Club Cafe****
**** - w/ Gaby Moreno

LEG 4 - EAST COAST & SOUTHEAST 10/13 THRU 10/28

10/12 - Nashville, TN - Music City Roots(AMA Music Festival)
10/13 - New York, NY - Rockwood Music Hall (Stage 2)****
10/14 - Boston, MA - Cafe 939****
10/15 - New Hartford, CT - Beekley Memorial Library****
10/18 - Providence, RI - The Spot Underground****
10/20 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live****
10/21 - Vienna, VA - Jammin' Java****
10/22 - Easton, MD - Night Cat****
10/23 - Carborro, NC - Casbah****
10/25 - Asheville, NC - The Grey Eagle****
10/26 - Decatur, GA - Eddie's Attic****
10/27 - Birmingham, AL - Moonlight On The Mountain****
**** - w/ Gaby Moreno
MOUNTAIN STAGE - SPECIAL APPEARANCE ON THE NPR SYNDICATED PROGRAM
10/30 - Charleston, WV - Culture Center Theater (buy tickets)

Milk Carton Kids Website (with two free downloads!)

Finally, staying in the vein of folk music we've hit this week, here's a new single from California-based artist Garrett Pierce... "Everybody Breaks" - the title track from a new EP which is a precursor to an album, City of Sand, due out later this year:

Everybody Breaks by Riot Act

Garrett Pierce Website
Narnack Records Website

No comments: