Dropkick Murphys news

Dropkick Murphys will release their 10th full-length studio album, Turn Up That Dial, April 30 via band-owned Born & Bred Records. The album was produced by Ted Hutt and is available for pre-order, with the new single “Middle Finger” out now.

The band plans to preview some tracks from Turn Up That Dial during their Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021...Still Locked Down to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday, March 17 at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT. The free streaming online concert – with no in-person audience – will be simulcast worldwide via www.DKMstream.com and will feature Dropkick Murphys performing socially distanced on an arena-sized stage with a full LED screen and a brand new video show.

“On this record, the overall theme is the importance of music, and the bands that made us who we are,” explains DKM founder and co-lead vocalist Ken Casey. “We just hope [the album] takes people’s minds off their troubles. We’re so fortunate and grateful to be in the position to share a little happiness in our own way. Our gratitude levels are off the chart. 25 years ago, somebody bet me 30 bucks I couldn’t form a band with three weeks’ notice to open for his band. As kids, we’d never been out of New England and here we are – we’ve made ten records and have been all over the globe. If there’s a message to this album, it’s ‘put your fist up and play it loud.’”

Over the last two years, following a surgery, bassist/co-lead vocalist Casey stopped playing, passing bass duties to longtime friend and road crew member Kevin Rheault. Working out of Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA with longtime producer Hutt, they recorded Turn Up That Dial in shifts of two members at a time.

For the final weeks of recording, Hutt ran the sessions via video conference from his studio in LA. For background vocals, the guys set up separate mics in five different rooms so they could all simultaneously sing safely. “We were all looking at each other out the window, at least,” recalls Casey.

The title track, “Turn Up That Dial,” includes the lyrics "You’re my inspiration, you got something to say / Now turn up that dial ‘til it takes me away.” Then there's new single “Middle Finger,” where Al Barr sings “I could never keep that middle finger down.” And Casey offers this reflection: “Thinking of my younger days, I made things a lot harder for myself than they needed to be – and still pay for some of those mistakes now.”

The band closes the album with a tribute to Al’s late father Woody Barr on “I Wish You Were Here” with accordion, bagpipes, and a drum march. “Al’s dad was just an incredible man,” Casey explains. “He and Al had a very special bond. To watch Al grieve his death was heartbreaking. He persevered through it, even when we had to go back on the road, away from family. He kept his head held high. We’ve never ended an album with a slow song, but we had to end it with a tip of the cap to pay our respects to Woody and so many others. It’s a moment to stop, count our blessings, and remember those who we’ve lost, including the 400,000-plus people to this virus.”

“We’ve all done plenty of lamenting, so the main goal was to keep this fun,” Casey adds. “The darker the times got, the harder we fought to uplift with this music. Whatever we’re potentially giving to fans, trust me, they’re giving it to us tenfold. Now, turn up that f*cking dial.”

While awaiting the release of Turn Up That Dial, join Dropkick Murphys to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day during Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021...Still Locked Down, which is presented by Boston-area tech company Pega (a leading provider of digital transformation software) and sponsored by YOU. Instead of charging for tickets, the band will “pass the virtual hat” to take donations to help support their efforts to keep paying their employees, and a portion of donations will go to charity as always. Those who donate in advance or during the stream (via www.DKMstream.com) will see their name scroll across the ticker at the bottom of the screen during Still Locked Down.

Dropkick Murphys have a long history of giving back and finding creative ways to connect with fans, and they’ve continued this tradition throughout the pandemic. On St. Patrick’s Day 2020, just as COVID-19 was hitting critical mass in the United States, Dropkick Murphys held their Streaming Up From Boston live stream event in lieu of their normal Boston Blowout St. Patrick’s Day celebration. To date, it’s been watched more than 13 million times across platforms, was featured on CBS This Morning Saturday, CNN, NBC Nightly News, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and in the Wall Street Journal, and raised more than $60,000 through the band’s charitable organization, The Claddagh Fund.

In May 2020, they masterminded the historic Streaming Outta Fenway live stream presented by Pega. Taking the infield at Fenway Park instruments in-hand, it stood out as the first-ever music event without an in-person audience at a major U.S. sports venue, and the first music performance directly on the infield at Fenway. Bruce Springsteen joined on the Jumbotron for a two-song “Double Play” of DKM’s “Rose Tattoo” and his “American Land.” Most importantly, they hauled in $700,000-plus to benefit charities such as Boston Resiliency Fund, Feeding America®, and Habitat for Humanity, Greater Boston.

Dropkick Murphys are: Al Barr (lead vocals), Tim Brennan (guitars, tin whistle, accordion, piano, vocals), Ken Casey (lead vocals), Jeff DaRosa (guitars, banjo, mandolin, vocals), Matt Kelly (drums, percussion, vocals), James Lynch (guitars, vocals), Kevin Rheault (touring bassist) and Lee Forshner (touring bagpipe player).

For more information on Dropkick Murphys, visit: www.dropkickmurphys.com.

Track Listing:

Turn Up That Dial
L-EE-B-O-Y
Middle Finger
Queen Of Suffolk County
Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding
H.B.D.M.F.
Good As Gold
Smash Shit Up
Chosen Few
City By The Sea
I Wish You Were Here

Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida craft first duo album, 'making of' film

Teaming up musically for the very first time, husband and wife—Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and artist Chantal Kreviazuk and Our Lady Of Peace frontman Raine Maida—officially introduce their new musical project Moon Vs Sun.

Together, they present a new feature-length documentary entitled I’m Going To Break Your Heart and its accompanying album. The film will be available on streaming platforms and in select theaters on April 23, while the record hits DSPs on the same day.

Check out the trailer HERE.

Watch the video for the first track “St. Josephine” HERE.

Listen to “St. Josephine” HERE.

The film examines the couple’s relationship as they create a record together for the first time after 22 years of marriage. It marked their first trip away from their three sons and a turning point in a 25-year relationship.

About I’m Going To Break Your Heart, Chantal comments, “There’s a big message that comes from the music we’re creating. When you see the movie, you’ll see us being a regular couple annoying the shit of each other. When we make music together, this beautiful thing happens. If we can conduct ourselves as harmoniously as we’re able to when we’re writing, there’s hope. In the beginning of a relationship, love is a feeling, but it becomes an active practice. It’s a grind, but it’s worth it. To connect through conflict isn’t the end of us; it’s an opportunity. The music was the result of that connection.”

The initial track unveiled, “St. Josephine,” features lyrics in French and English. See the accompanying music video HERE.

Pre-save the album HERE.

Raine founded and fronts platinum-selling alternative rock band Our Lady Peace and has garnered four Juno Awards. Chantal has received two Juno Awards and released eight critically acclaimed solo albums. Behind the scenes, Chantal has worked with acts like Kendrick Lamar and Drake, while together the couple has penned hits for everyone from Kelly Clarkson to Carrie Underwood. In recognition of their contributions to charity and the arts, Raine and Chantal were both appointed to the Order of Canada in 2014.

David Cook’s 'The Looking Glass' EP due in April

Musician/actor David Cook’s EP The Looking Glass will be released on April 16. The six-song set was preceded by three singles: “Reds Turns Blue” and “Strange World” in 2020, and “Fire” to be released on March 19. The EP was recorded in Nashville.

Although the songwriting and recording process began before COVID, its effects were felt throughout the process and are reflected in some of the songs. “Reds Turn Blue” is a nod to the manic highs (reds) and lows (blues) of anxiety, something David has struggled to overcome since his Season 7 win on American Idol.

As David told People.com, “This song became a therapeutic process for me, as a way to personify my anxiety and make it something other than me — which in an odd way has helped me navigate my relationship with it.” To capture that struggle, David worked with artist Justin A. Nixon to create a visual that was, “sci-fi and sinister” but left open-ended to represent “that constant battle between anxiety and myself.”

Second single “Strange World” is “my homage to this year,” said David. “Staring out of windows at the world outside, feeling disconnected from it, and trying to find those moments that would normally exist outside, inside.”

“Fire” is about starting over - taking something, or someone, important to you, and building something new around it. “The song actually started as more of a slower ballad,” says David. “It wasn't until we got into the actual recording process that my producer, Andy Skib, pushed for it to be sped up. It gave the track such a different energy. One that I can't wait to dig into live."

With touring on hold for the moment, it will be a while before fans can hear these songs in person. But, David has continued to perform online including an upcoming livestream performance on Spin’s ‘Noise Pollution” series on Monday 3/15 at 4 pm PT / 7 pm ET via TWITCH.

The release of the EP is supported with an ongoing pre-order campaignwith exclusive experiences and merch items.

Long out of print album by Lloyd Cole to get reissue

Lloyd Cole will re-issue his critically acclaimed 2006 studio album "Antidepressant" on April 16 in America via earMUSIC. Having been out of print since then, it becomes available on vinyl for the first time ever and features an exclusive bonus track on both CD and vinyl. “Antidepressant” is the first album in a series of carefully crafted re-issues to be released worldwide via the label following his 2019 studio album “Guesswork.”

Mostly recorded by Cole himself, it was a change from the stripped-down experimental sound of its predecessor “Music In A Foreign Language.”

Says Cole, “There isn’t a single song on it I regret recording and ‘The Young Idealists’, ‘Woman In A Bar’ and ‘Rolodex Incident’ can stand shoulder to shoulder with my very best, I think. I never tire of singing the first two and I wish I could figure out a way to perform Rolodex.

“There was only one completed outtake from the recording sessions – ‘Coattails’. This track has aged well and I should probably have figured out a way to include it in the original running order but I didn’t. So we’ve included it as an extra track at the end of the CD and as a bonus 7” Single with the album.”

“Antidepressant” will be available again on CD Digipak and on LP, in gatefold edition including a 7” single featuring the previously unreleased song ‘Coattails’ from the original album recordings.

Track listing:

01. THE YOUNG IDEALISTS

02. WOMAN IN A BAR
03. NYC SUNSHINE
04. ANTIDEPRESSANT
05. I DIDN’T SEE IT COMING
06. HOW WRONG CAN YOU BE?
07. EVERYSONG
08. I AM NOT WILLING
09. SLIP AWAY
10. TRAVELLING LIGHT
11. ROLODEX INCIDENT
12. COATTAILS (7” bonus single)

Crowded House news

Crowded House have revealed a new single “To The Island” and announce their forthcoming album Dreamers Are Waiting will be available June 4 from BMG. The album is available for pre-order HERE.

The video for “To The Island” can be seen HERE and was filmed at various locations including New Zealand, Los Angeles and Ireland with Neil Finn and Mark Simon Brown serving as directors.

The band also begins a tour in New Zealand next month with founding members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour along with producer and keyboardist Mitchell Froom, guitarist and singer Liam Finn and drummer Elroy Finn.

Following Neil Finn joining a world tour with Fleetwood Mac, Neil and Nick Seymour began a new chapter in Crowded House's long career with new music.

“We were fortunate to be recording in the studio right before lockdown and so began this album with band tracks recorded live in a room, all brimming with character and energy. We then spent our strangest year, 2020, at distance from each other but connecting daily, swapping files and making those tracks complete. We’re so excited and grateful to be back in one room together now, rehearsing, first to play live in front of audiences in NZ and soon we hope for the rest of the world,” said Neil Finn.

TRACKLISTING:

1. Bad Times Good
2. Playing With Fire
3. To The Island
4. Sweet Tooth
5. Whatever You Want
6. Show Me The Way
7. Goodnight Everyone
8. Start Of Something
9. Too Good For This World
10. Real Life Woman
11. Love Isn’t Hard At All
12. Deeper Down

Still 'Riding the Tide': An interview with Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue

I conducted Deacon Blue's first U.S. media interview in 30 years for the American Songwriter article below (I spoke with singer Ricky Ross in 1993, but nothing was ever published. The brief Q&A can be found elsewhere on this blog). I'd be interested in hearing what American fans think of the new release.

Ricky Ross usually pens Deacon Blue songs alone or with musicians from his inner circle. Yet during an initial trip to Nashville some years ago, another songwriter’s live performance proved so memorable that a future collaboration seemed preordained.

The award-winning tunesmith was Tia Sillers, whose credits include Lee Ann Womack, Dixie Chicks and Kenny Wayne Shepherd hits.

Watching Sillers, her late husband Mark Selby and others in the round at The Bluebird Café moved Ross to tears. He thought he’d “reached the Holy Grail” and felt “these are obviously the people you need to work with.”

“I just made it my job - I want to write with this woman,” recalls the Deacon Blue front man, in a recent interview from home in Glasgow. “She’s just amazing...a really great storyteller.”

He later met Sillers, returned to Nashville with Deacon Blue guitarist Gregor Philp and the trio wrote “Not Gonna Be That Girl” together. The elegant adult contemporary song is among several standouts amid Riding on the Tide of Love, the Scottish pop/rock group’s refined new album available digitally Friday, with physical CD and LP formats due March 5.

Ross brings to mind early Jackson Browne as he sings vivid lyrics to subtle piano and acoustic guitar eventually giving way to breezy horns:

I saw her standing beneath the streetlamp

Gold beams falling down on her hair

Made it look like she was wearing a halo

She was surely heaven sent

The sextet released its impressive 10^th studio album City of Love (a top 5 charter in Scotland and the U.K.) last March shortly before the first COVID-19 lockdown went into effect abroad. Ross calls it “the album of my life. I honestly felt that I’d pored everything into City of Love that I could. I was disappointed that we couldn’t see it through and do the tour.”

Riding is a continuation - three songs were completed during the City sessions and the rousing title track was rediscovered by Ross while “going through stuff on my computer.” Boasting a joyous vibe, it contains background chatter partially inspired by “Rainy Day Women #12 & #35.”

“I always loved that bit” in the Bob Dylan song. “I nicked it,” Ross admits. “Always made me laugh.” When time came for the musicians to flesh out the remaining City demos individually in quarantine, they decided to leave the effect intact because it “just puts you in a good mood.”

Since starting the band in the mid-1980s, Ross says his songwriting process has gone from not giving it “any thought whatsoever” to now asking himself “have we done that before” and “are we going over old ground?”

A romantic atmosphere often envelops Deacon Blue music thanks to sublime vocal interplay between Ross and wife Lorraine McIntosh. Key Riding examples include “Look Up” and “Send a Note Out.” The latter effortlessly evokes Memphis soul of the late ‘60s. It revolves around “the importance of telling people” what’s on your mind before it’s too late. Once Philp added tasteful guitar lines to James Prime’s organ work, the result “gave it sort of an (Otis Redding/Stax Records vibe) and felt great. That’s the kind of music we love,” says Ross.

Deacon Blue – also comprising original drummer Dougie Vipond and current bassist Lewis Gordon - first emerged on the Glasgow music scene with 1987 debut album Raintown, an earnest ode to working class life in Glasgow that drew comparisons to Bruce Springsteen. The group followed up with sleek international breakthrough When the World Knows Your Name, eventually notching half a dozen top 20 U.K. hits and several gold or platinum albums at home before breaking up in 1994. They reunited five years later.

Due to U.S. label problems and a decision to focus efforts squarely on the U.K./European market, Deacon Blue hasn’t toured America since 1989.

“We should have just got in the bus and done it,” Ross concedes, adding that they “never felt we quite got the support we wanted. There was (a lot of) bad luck.” He recalls “the first (time) we ever played in America was an amazing night. We probably needed to put in more time.” The missed opportunity “was a real shame.”

Now, with better worldwide label distribution, Ross would jump at the chance to tour here once concerts are back to normal.

“We’ve often talked about doing a coastal thing there,” since he often goes to Nashville. “If someone could offer us a few gigs and we could not lose money, we would be there “at the drop of a hat.”

The original article was published at americansongwriter.com here: https://bit.ly/3jJACNk. Photos courtesy earMusic/Edel Records

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot releases debut full-length effort

"I wrote this song with Lauren Daigle and my brother a while back. Time passed, and I forgot all about the song. Then one morning I woke up with the chorus stuck in my head. I went looking for it and rediscovered this lost gem. I love the longing expressed in this song. The yearning that this song embodies is a common feeling for me, one that feels especially poignant during these times of unrest and pain and suffering. I’m so glad that this lost song was resurrected for this project." - Jon Foreman, on "A Place Called Earth"

Multi-platinum recording artist Jon Foreman has released his debut solo full-length album Departures, today via a return to RE:THINK, the first label he ever signed with. He's also shared a collaboration with vocalist Lauren Daigle - watch the lyric video now.

Earlier today, he was on SiriusXM's PopRocks for an interview.

Click here to stream 'Departures' via your preferred listening service
Click here to watch the video for "Education" - which is currently climbing at AAA Radio now!
Click to watch an acoustic rendition of "Side by Side" by Jon and Madison Cunningham which radiates warmth!

In addition to the Daigle song, Foreman is joined on the album by fellow SoCal singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham. Departures was recorded at Melody League Studios in San Diego, CA, produced by Foreman with additional production from Keith Tutt II and Aaron Redfield (Elton John, Sia).

Foreman uses the 12 tracks on Departures to grapple with what he describes as a year that hit him hard and turned his life upside down.

“For me, 2020 has been a year of departures. And I’m not alone in this, For many of us, this has been a season of death. Of decay. Of fear and doubt and uncertainty. For Americans. For humans. For friends and relatives around the world.” He found himself face to face with existential questions of doubt, purpose and meaning. “I fought hard against this year. And the year has won…. But the journey that brought me here was not completely in vain. In fact, I would not trade it even if I could.”

He continues: “During the lowest moments, I turned to meditation, prayer, and songs, attempting to find a vehicle to sing into this new storm of doubt and despair. That’s where this album was born. Departures is not a record of bold proclamations, but instead of whispered confessions. Attempting to come to terms with who I am and who I am not. This is the soundtrack for the uncertain questions. These are odes to the open door. Songs of wander and wonder. Songs of loss and lament. An album that attempts to embrace the moment we’re in.”

Foreman is best known as the front man and lead vocalist for the GRAMMY Award-winning alternative rock band SWITCHFOOT, who boast several Hot 100 hits, a massive international following, and music featured on Grey’s Anatomy, ESPN, One Tree Hill and more. He has built a formidable resume as a writer and a solo artist as well, with nearly 60 million streams and 300,000 albums sold for his solo music to date. A prolific songwriter, he’s written for everyone from Mandy Moore to Meat Loaf to Echosmith to Amy Grant to American Idol winner, Kris Allen.