Nashville, Tenn. (April 30, 2015) - The Lonesome Trio, featuring Ed Helms, Ian Riggs, and Jacob Tilove, is set to release its long-anticipated self-titled debut album June 16 on Sugar Hill Records. The album, announced yesterday on Rolling Stone Country, blends acoustic folk, bluegrass and a hint of lovelorn country.

The group features guitar/banjo player Ed Helms, bassist Ian Riggs, and mandolinist Jacob Tilove, who have been creating music together for over twenty years after meeting at Oberlin College in the early ‘90s. Since then, their lives and careers have gone in wildly different directions - with Helms a successful actor, Riggs a full-time musician, and Tilove an architectural historian. But playing music and writing songs always brought them together. This is their first full-length album release.

Music truly is the tie that binds these three old friends, which is why this album – a chance for the world to finally hear the songs the trio has shared and tinkered with for years – is simply calledThe Lonesome Trio.
The Lonesome Trio is a set of 12 original songs recorded with Sugar Hill’s own Vice President of A&R Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss, Steep Canyon Rangers, Sarah Jarosz) acting as engineer and co-producer. To create the record, the band chose to spend two weeks immersed in writing and recording at the Echo Mountain studios in Asheville, North Carolina.

Nashville, TN --- April 30, 2015 --- Critically acclaimed rock artist Jonathan Tyler is scheduled to release his highly anticipated sophomore album on August 7. HOLY SMOKES is a rockin’, groove laden follow up to the rock opus PARDON ME, which put Tyler and his band The Northern Lights on the map when released in 2010. 

The new album reveals a more pensive and sophisticated Tyler who’s learned his lessons while navigating the rollercoaster of life on the road, major festivals, major labels, drugs, booze, great love, great loss and the heartbreak of mistakes you can’t change and time lost that you can’t take back.

The album was co-produced by Tyler and Thom Monahan (Chris Robinson, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver) in both Tyler’s native Dallas, Texas and his adopted hometown of Los Angeles, California. The album features contributions from pedal steel player Ricky Ray Jackson (Phosphorescent), drummer Matt Pence (Justin Townes Earle, Centro-matic) and a rotating cast of backing players that includes members of JT’s longtime band The Northern Lights and the Dallas based Texas Gentlemen collective.

HOLY SMOKES delivers a solid dose of the sexy swagger, blistering rock guitars and rebellion that fans have come to expect from Tyler and his band.  Also present is an older and wiser Tyler who tips his hat to the Gram Parsons style of country that set the Hollywood Rock scene ablaze in the late 60’s.  Tyler wrote or co-wrote the bulk of the tracks on the album including the infectious groove of “Honey Pie,” the gorgeous duet “To Love Is To Fly,” featuring Nashville’s up and coming Nikki Lane, and “Hallelujah,” in which Tyler sings his praise for rock-n-roll, how it changed and ultimately saved him.  Added in for good measure is a co-write with renowned Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard “My Time Ain't Long” and the destined for AAA and Alt-rock airplay “River Bottom,” penned by Tyler’s long time guitar player Brandon Pinckard (formerly of The Northern Lights).

The albums closing track, “Everything Was Cool in 2002” was released for fans only on Friday, giving them a glimpse of what’s to come. Tyler headlined Bay Jam in Islamorada in the Florida Keys last week before heading out on tour with Butch Walker.  JT will open for Walker for the remainder of his tour crisscrossing the national in April, May and June.

For more information log onto www.jonathantylermusic.com.

Nashville, Tennessee - (April 30, 2015) – The stars are aligning for the 25th Annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game, a fan favorite event and longstanding tradition of CMA Music Festival! Suiting up to play in this year’s game are country traditionalist and Billboard albums chart topper Aaron Watson; “Nashville” star and singer/songwriter Charles Esten; “Stealing Cinderella” singer and national radio morning show co-host Chuck Wicks; rising country star and “American Idol” finalist Lauren Alaina; guitar slayer and country music vocalist Lindsay Ell; reigning ACM and CMA Vocal Group of the Year Little Big Town; and hitmakers Love and Theft.  After a twenty-year run playing in the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game, country music icon Vince Gill is returning to the field for this special milestone event. The full line-up of celebrity players stepping up to the plate on the Grand Ole Opry and iHeartRadio teams will be announced in the coming weeks.

Taking place on June 13 at 9 a.m. from the state-of-the-art field at First Tennessee Park in Nashville, Tennessee, the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game is gearing up to celebrate 25 years of striking out cancer. Tickets for the City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game are on sale now at Ticketmaster.

Each year, the Celebrity Softball Game regularly features some of Country Music’s biggest and hottest stars. Over the years, Carrie Underwood, Darius Rucker, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Scotty McCreery, Vince Gill and many more have taken to the field in support of City of Hope’s lifesaving mission.

City of Hope is an independent biomedical research institution and comprehensive cancer center where scientists and physicians quickly transform scientific discoveries into better treatments and prevention strategies for people around the world. Support from the Nashville community and its country music artists directly benefit City of Hope’s mission to find cures for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

Get more information on the game and the line-up of celebrities at www.cityofhope.org/softball. Those not able to attend the game can still support the cause. A variety of unique merchandise and experiences, including meet-and-greets with the hottest artists, will be available for bid at charitybuzz.com. The proceeds will benefit City of Hope’s mission to eradicate cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

Northport N.Y.  - Dayna Kurtz visited Mountain Stage earlier in the year. That performance with Eric Bibb, Hey Mavis and more will start broadcasting after May 1. The program will air 150 NPR Stations nationwide, and overseas via the Voice of America. Dayna will be playing songs from her just released recording Rise And Fall. More info about the show can be found here.

Rise and Fall's soul-baring song-craft and impassioned performances are the product of an extended period during which the artist experienced a series of major life changes. "These songs are the product of the last few years of my life, which were pretty heavy," Kurtz notes. "My father died.  My marriage ended. I moved from Brooklyn to New Orleans. I had a couple years of wild oat-sowing, and then I found a grand new love.  There's been a lot to think about and a lot to write about, and all of that is in these songs."

Watch the official video from the release "If I Go First."
This weekend Dayna packs her bags and heads out west to record a performance for the unique syndicated radio program eTown. She'll be with Eric Bibb. More info on that show can be found here.

Willie's Reserve wishes a very happy birthday to founder Willie Nelson.

When his family asked what he'd like for his birthday this week, he answered "for the fed bill to pass to help all the families!" in reference to the bi-partisan Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act introduced in Senate in March, and the companion bill introduced in the House.

The act would allow states to legalize marijuana for medical use without federal interference, and allow Veterans Administration physicians to recommend medical marijuana to veterans, among other important benefits.

In honor of the occasion, son Micah Nelson created commemorative artwork to be featured on limited edition Willie's Reserve T-shirts, for sale at the willienelson.com store. Proceeds will benefit The Realm of Caring, an organization devoted to research and support for medicinal marijuana.

Pre-orders of the T-shirt are available at: http://shop.willienelson.com/index.php/willie-s-reserve-tee.html

Willie's birthday celebration rolls on for two days this week. Born near midnight on Apr. 29, he celebrated on that date throughout his childhood. When he joined the Air Force and received his birth certificate, the date was listed as Apr. 30. But his sister Bobbie Nelson and other family members are positive that he was born on the 29th. Today, Willie and family honor his birthday on Apr. 29th, with no regrets when the celebration spills over into the 30th.

About Willie's Reserve
Willie's Reserve is Willie Nelson's soon to launch cannabis brand, reflecting his longstanding experience and his commitment to regulated, natural and high quality strains of marijuana.www.williesreserve.com

About The Realm of Caring
The Realm of Caring is a 501c3 non-profit organization that has been formed to provide a better quality of life for those affected by disorders and diseases, including but not limited to, Cancer, MS, HIV/AIDS, Epilepsy, Parkinson's, through the use of concentrated cannabinoid extracts. www.theroc.us
The Realm of Caring Foundation was informally established by the Stanley Brothers whosecannabidiol (CBD) project became known as the Charlotte's Web™ breeding project after meeting the Figi family in early 2012, and discovering 5-year-old Charlotte Figi's dramatic success in her battle with epilepsy. After receiving several inquiries from families seeking help around the world, the group recognized the need to create a formal organization to not only collect research and data on individuals using cannabis products; but also to educate and advocate about this often misunderstood form of therapy.  

There are shows and then there are shows. If you're a fan of the early days of the Grand Ole Opry or The Louisiana Hayride then you are sure to love this.The first man to ever drum a line at Sun Records with the likes Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley is the irrepressible WS "Fluke" Holland.  WS was the only drummer with Johnny Cash for his entire career.  Chances are if you saw Johnny on stage WS was right there with him.  For darn near sixty years "Fluke" has held the backline together and performed with a virtual who's who of the Rockabilly world.  Don't let his age fool you this American gem is still shining and harbors a hankering for the road like few before him. Not wanting to hang up his sticks WS has crafted something very unique. He's assembled a show that reminds the audience of the good ole days of growing up in America.  He's got a show that includes the likeness of Johnny and Carl with two men that really know the music. They should as one of them is Stan Perkins, Carl's son, and the other is none other than Johnny Counterfit, the man of a thousand voices. Together, these men along with the WS band have rebuilt an era that has never died and as a bonus audiences also hear how the songs came together from the men that were there. 
 
Tour dates can be found at www.wsflukeholland.com    

WES SHARON-PRODUCED ALBUM GLORY BOUND, PLUS 
CODY DICKINSON-HELMED LIVE ALBUM & FILM RATTLE THE HOCKS 
Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and musical migrations inspire train-riding adventures in song; May 19 releases include contributions from John Fullbright, Turnpike Troubadours, Dickinson brothers, Duwayne Burnside

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Alyssa and Doug Graham have spent nearly their entire lives exploring music together. Friends since she was 7 and he was 9, they became a couple in their teens, then husband and wife. Somewhere along the way, they also became The Grahams, a dynamic Americana duo who’ve married their love of adventure with a desire to build on foundations laid by their musical forebears. Their first song-crafting expedition, along the Mississippi’s Great River Road, became their 2013 debut, Riverman’s Daughter. For its follow-up, they rode the rails — and wound up recording not only a studio album, but a documentary and live album on the move and in venues from Sun Studio to Amtrak’s famed City of New Orleans train.

Their new long-player, the explosive and aptly named Glory Bound, was helmed by Grammy-nominated producer Wes Sharon (John Fullbright, Parker Millsap) at his 115 Recording studio in Norman, Okla., and will be released on May 19, 2015 on 12 South Records via RED Music (through Sony Music).. Recording in Oklahoma holds special significance for a couple raised as Dylan-loving New York City suburban kids who spent weekends strumming campfire songs in the Adirondacks. Like many Dylan fans, they traced their way back to his greatest inspiration.

Simultaneously, the band will release Rattle the Hocks, a musical documentary focusing on the live recording and the relationship between the railroad and American roots music. Both film and album (which will be released digitally on May 19) were directed and produced by Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. The Grahams debuted the film at this winter’s Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City.

“After we recorded Riverman’s Daughter, we were listening to a lot of Woody Guthrie,” Alyssa explains. “The song ‘Farmer Labor Train’ kept sticking in our minds, so we wanted to write a song about trains. We wrote ‘Glory Bound,’ then decided that we really wanted to ride the trains in honor of Guthrie, Lead Belly and other old folk legends who used the train system to bring voices together. We had to go to Oklahoma, obviously, because Woody was our mentor.

Adds Doug, “The river was the original way that people got around and moved through the country. And moved music around the country. The rivers are the arteries. And now, here we are on trains, the next means of motion — the veins of America that brought people and music and cultures together. So that had to be the next progression for us.”

Iconic singer-songwriter, activist, educator, visual artist, and multi-award winnerBuffy Sainte-Marie will release her new album Power In The Blood next month on May 12th via True North Records.  This bold new LP is her 16th studio album and a reminder that, five decades on, Sainte-Marie is a voice as vital and significant as ever.  Earlier today, TIME Magazine premiered the newly re-imagined version of"Not The Lovin' Kind," a song which she wrote during "the blacklist years" that originally appeared on her 1972 album Moonshot.
 
LISTEN: Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Not The Lovin' Kind" on TIME Magazine:
http://time.com/3838185/buffy-sainte-marie-not-the-lovin-kind/
 
"It’s a musician’s kind of song, a real groove, lots of room for hot playing, not too fussy," Sainte-Marie told TIME.  "And believe it or not, it also has only two chords.  Musicians love it.  As for the words, this song is the Bible of how to let go of a jerk. It’s passionate for sure but you can tell she’s clear about saying 'See Ya!'  I wrote it in the mid-1970s during what media has re-named the 'blacklist years' when I could get no airplay no matter what I sang about."
 
Power in the Blood is a sculpture of an artist ever-evolving and a statement of a life’s work realized - challenging, empowering, and celebrating the listener with each and every song.  Recorded in Toronto, Sainte-Marie enlisted three different producers, a first for her, to help shape the album; Michael Phillip Wojewoda (Barenaked Ladies, Rheostatics), Jon Levine (Nelly Furtado, K’NAAN), and Chris Birkett (Sinéad O'Connor, Bob Geldof).  Featuring all but two original tracks, the album starts with a re-imagined version of “It’s My Way,” which premiered on NPR Music upon the album's first announcement.  Writer Ann Powers stated "The song is a blessing, ever renewing itself — as relevant as the voice of the glorious elder who offers it."  The song originally appeared on her acclaimed debut album and demonstrates how her work can transcend generations while still inspiring individualism and self-expression 50 years after it was written.

Collaborators include Wade Bowen, Jon Dee Graham, Heather Morgan, Owen Temple, Reckless Kelly’s Dave Abeyta and other top Texas artists; Bowen and Wilson duet on co-written “Just Some Things”

AUSTIN, Texas — Jamie Lin Wilson wasn’t planning to carry her third child and first full-fledged solo album, Holidays & Wedding Rings, simultaneously, but if there’s one thing this Texas singer-songwriter has learned from her experiences with the Gougers and the Trishas (and motherhood), it’s that life has a way of going in unexpected directions. And when it does, little bumps in the road (or the belly) wind up making the journey even more special.

Wilson’s son, Thomas Roy, chose to arrive on the birthday of his pre-selected if-it’s-a-boy namesake, her late father-in-law (she and husband Roy like to learn their babies’ sexes the old-fashioned way: at birth). The album, produced by John Ross Silva and Kevin Szymanski, arrives May 19, 2015. Picking up where her 2010 EP, Dirty Blonde Hair, left off, Holidays & Wedding Rings finds Wilson marking milestones large and small in 12 country-leaning Americana tunes, many written with collaborators including Jon Dee Graham, Heather Morgan and Wade Bowen — who also duets on his co-write, “Just Some Things.”

The imagery within these songs is so rich, listening feels almost like flipping through someone’s photo album — one filled with images reflecting the strong bonds of a woman whose roles include daughter, wife, mother, relative and friend. Those relationships fill almost every track, in soul-baring lyrics that touch the heart, yet never overdose on sentimentality. 

If we could peek inside a similar history of Wilson’s music-making career, we’d find evidence of a rather fabulous trajectory, though it traces back less than 15 years. Wilson first picked up a guitar during her sophomore year at Texas A&M after watching Natalie Maines do a solo tune during a Dixie Chicks concert. By the time she was a junior, Wilson was writing songs and performing in the Sidehill Gougers, which morphed into the Gougers. (She’d also dumped engineering to study agricultural journalism.) Together, they released two albums and an EP, and toured extensively. They were regulars at MusicFest, the annual music-and-skiing shindig in Steamboat, Colo., where Wilson sometimes played solo as well.

At the 2009 MusicFest, she gigged with the Gougers and harmonized with friends Kelley Mickwee, Liz Foster and Savannah Welch in what was supposed to be a one-off performance in tribute to Savannah’s dad, singer-songwriter Kevin Welch. They so wowed listeners, booking offers immediately flowed in — for a “band” that didn’t have a name until forced to pick one before going onstage. They became the Trishas, in homage to a Welch-penned Trisha Yearwood hit. 

WIMBERLEY, Texas — When it comes to down ’n’ dirty roots ’n’ roll, nobody in the wide world of Americana music today does it better than Ray Wylie Hubbard. Except, it seems, for Hubbard himself. After riding a decade-long career resurgence into the national spotlight with 2012’s acclaimed The Grifter’s Hymnal and his first ever appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman (“I didn’t want to peak too soon,” quips Hubbard, 68), the iconoclastic Texas songwriter is back to continue his hot streak with The Ruffian’s Misfortune — his 16th album (and third on his own Bordello Records, via Thirty Tigers) — was released April 7.

From his humble beginnings as an Oklahoma folkie in the ’60s to his wild ride through the ’70s progressive country movement, and onward through the honky-tonk fog of the ’80s to his sobriety-empowered comeback as a songwriter’s songwriter in the ’90s, Hubbard was already a bona fide legend by the time he really found his groove right at the turn of the century. That’s when he finally felt confident enough in his guitar playing to dive headlong into his own inimitable take on the blues, a form he’d admired but steered clear of for decades, thinking its mysteries were beyond his grasp as a basic chord strummer.

“I used to go see Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mance Lipscomb and Freddie King, all those cats, but I never could play like them — I guess because I never took the time or effort to try — until I was in my 40s and learned how to finger pick,” says Hubbard. “Once I learned how to finger pick, I started going, ‘Oh, OK, this is how they did all that!’ Then I started learning open tuning, and then slide, and it was just this incredible freedom that gave all these songs a door to come through that wasn’t there before. It was like all of a sudden having this whole other language or a whole other set of tools to add to my arsenal.” 

In lieu of drugs and alcohol, that language became Hubbard’s new addiction — and the title of his 2001 album Eternal and Lowdown somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophecy: 14 years further down the road, he’s still chasing hellhounds deep into the underbelly of the blues, with a Lightnin’ Hopkins gleam in his eyes and a Rolling Stone swagger in his boot steps. The Ruffian’s Misfortune is his latest missive home from this leg of his long journey. Its message? Don’t wait up.

Packing 10 brand new songs into just under 34 minutes, The Ruffian’s Misfortune is the tightest and most focused record of Hubbard’s career; it will also be his first record to be pressed on vinyl in more than 30 years. But its grooves cut just as deep in digital form, every track rumbling like muddy water over a bed of lethal rocks and gnarled roots. The terrain ain’t exactly pretty, but every record Hubbard’s fished, fought, and dragged from those waters — including such fan and critic favorites as 2002’s aptly-titled Growl, 2006’sSnake Farm, and 2010’s A. Enlightenment, B. Endarkenment (Hint: There is no C) — has only strengthened his resolve to follow his gypsy muse closer and closer to that dark river’s source. Hubbard hints that he may someday find his way back to less rocky ground, admitting that he keeps a 12-string on hand “thinking I might go back to more Gordon Lightfoot type stuff … every once in a while the old folkie guy will rear his ugly head” … but The Ruffian’s Misfortune finds him still a long way from that.

“I really liked The Grifter’s Hymnal, and I think The Ruffian’s Misfortune is still kind of a part of that,” he offers, noting that he likes the way both titles would look just as fitting on a dusty old book jacket — or perhaps at the start of a silent movie — as they do on an album cover. But the similarities don’t end there. “This record is pretty much where I am as far as trying to make records that work on a couple of different levels, by laying down a groove with cool guitar tones and vicious nasty licks with lyrics that have a little depth and weight and even a little humor thrown in, too, as life is pretty much like that.”