Gov't Mule, Phil Lesh & Friends, Los Lobos, Bela Fleck, Jackie Greene, Kevin Kinney Planet of the Abts and plenty others heated up Asheville on a chilly pair of nights, Dec. 9 and 10. Watch video clips to accompany the text, below.

By Fred Mills

The musical symbolism was as obvious as the calendar date was proximate: for the 23^rd annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam, held this past weekend in Asheville, NC, the spirit of the Beatles clung reassuringly to the festivities like a freshly-washed Snuggie. Or, to be more precise, the spirit of John Lennon, whose death anniversary arrived just one day prior, December 8, and whose legacy message of peace and love (and definitely no shortage of good will towards men...) clearly found its way into the Jam's musical aesthetic as well as the overall vibe of the Jam

No less than four Lennon-penned tunes dotted setlists at the pre-Jam (Friday, Dec. 9) and the Jam (Dec. 10): "Don't Let Me Down," "Dear Prudence," "She Said She Said" and "I've Got A Feeling" (and before anyone points out that the latter is often largely credited to Paul McCartney, the Let It Be number is actually a combination of one song by Paul and two by John). It couldn't possibly be a coincidence, particularly when armed with the knowledge that Christmas Jam founder Haynes is a massive Beatles and Lennon fan, and plenty of the other performers this year - among them, Jackie Greene, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, Kevn Kinney and the members of Los Lobos - have gone on record in the past as claiming similar allegiance.

And, per my comment above about Lennon's "legacy message," knowing that the Christmas Jam is a benefit for the regional chapter of Habitat For Humanity and that all the musicians who play the Jam are donating their talents (along with scores of other people who also volunteer their time and services to help bring the event off smoothly), well... actions do speak louder than words. This was my 10^th Christmas Jam, having attended regularly since 2002, and I'm continuously impressed by the level of commitment put forth by the organizers, artists and volunteers. The cumulative total raised thus far over the years for Habitat was closing in on $1 million prior to the final tally this weekend, so I think that dollar amount speaks volumes as well.

Let's get to the music. To view a gallery of images shot by Dino Perrucci from both the Jam and the pre-Jam go here on the BLURT website.

***

The 2011 Warren Haynes Christmas Jam pre-Jam, The Orange Peel, Dec. 9

With local radio station WNCW-FM (www.wncw.org) broadcasting live, the pre-Jam at the Orange Peel kicked off promptly at 6pm with Haynes, as always, doing a couple of acoustic numbers (one of them, "River's Gonna Rise," is a standout cut from his soul/funk-infused solo record from earlier this year, Man In Motion, which he also did in electric form at the 2010 Christmas Jam with the full Warren Haynes Band). Following that came the first surprise - and to everyone in attendance, it a huge one - in the form of Planet Of The Abts, not previously announced by the Jam organizers, a power trio formed by Gov't Mule drummer Matt Abts along with Mule bassist Jorgen Carlsson and Carlsson's guitar-slinging Swedish buddy T-Bone Andersson. They served up a mostly instrumental hi-nrg set laden with deep grooves (and, on one song, Mule keyboardist Danny Louis on trombone) and no shortage of hard rock flourishes - one song suggested a prog/fusion take on Ted Nugent's "Stranglehold," if you can dig that - with occasional vocals shared by Abts (!) and Andersson. Speaking to Abts the following evening I learned that the group had only formed a few months earlier and had just a handful of gigs under its belt to date - and that he was very pleased at the response from the pre-Jam crowd. "That was a ton of fun," he enthused, grinning broadly. "We hope to keep doing it."

Following POTA was Kevn Kinney who brought his Christmas Jamboree to the Orange Peel stage (highlight: an elegant "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"-styled "Here Come The Regulars," with Johnny Irion & Sarah Lee Guthrie on co-vocals); as is Kinney's tradition, he was also hosting a similar gathering during the day on Friday and Saturday at a local pub. This gently segued into Jackie Greene & Friends, a powerhouse ensemble steered by Greene and featuring Carlsson, Louis, Mike Barnes, Jeff Chimenti and Jay Russo (the latter two would also serve as keyboardist and drummer for Phil Lesh & Friends). His take on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind" was sharp and sassy, but it was when Haynes came out to join the group for the aforementioned "Don't Let Me Down," the two guitarists swapping both vocals and lead guitar licks, that provided the Jam weekend's first big mass singalong from the crowd. The looks of pleasure that Haynes and Green exchanged were priceless. And the Bela Fleck/Jeff Sipe team-up for a rollicking prog/n�-grass set (it culminated in "The Ballad of Jed Clampett") kept patrons constantly in motion as the evening wound its way to the halfway point - or so everyone thought.

Typically, the pre-Jam at the Orange Peel lasts until about 11pm, a sensible hour when you consider that these same musicians will probably be playing the next night until 3 or 4 in the morning. And that's how it looked, scheduling-wise, for this pre-Jam when Los Lobos launched into a 7-song mini-set. It was highlighted by a Haynes-augmented tribute to the late blues guitarist Hubert Sumlin courtesy a pair of songs made popular by Sumlin's boss Howlin' Wolf, "Killing Floor" and "300 Pounds of Joy" (Lobos singer Cesar Rojas was literally growling like Wolf during the latter), guitarist David Hidalgo engaged in some primal dueling with Haynes. With the entire packed house now wired to the gills, Gov't Mule took over, serving up first the low, grinding blooze of signature song "Trane." Several songs later, the hour nearing 11, what had become the worst-kept secret of the night thanks to a lightning round of excited text messages zipping through the audience walked onstage to ear-splitting applause: erstwhile Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (and longtime Haynes musical collaborator), who wasn't specifically expected until the next evening. Haynes looked at the musicians, which now included keyboardist Chimenti plus Lobos' Hidalgo, and with a nod they launched into a soulful, delightfully psychedelic Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy."

That would have been treat enough, but as I said to myself as I glanced at my watch, "This gonna keep going..." And sure enough, Jackie Greene,  and Jay Russo came out to join Haynes, Lesh and Chimenti - making the ensemble officially "Phil Lesh & Friends" - for an intense but celebratory Dead-centric jam on "New Speedway Boogie," Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" and "Franklin's Tower," which on paper is technically only 3 songs but by the clock lasted over 45 minutes. From the rapturous expressions on many of the faces in the crowd, not to mention a few pockets of ecstatic twirling along the perimeters, the room was more like an old-time tent revival nearing its peak than a rock concert.

And whether in the audience at the Orange Peel or at home listening to the radio - or even if taking to Twitter to tweet about it all in real time - it's likely that no one minded at all being kept up past their planned bed time. As one fan, apparently sitting at home and taking in the WNCW-FM broadcast, posted in perfectly deadpan fashion to the PhilZone.org message board shortly after the show, "Good shit for a warm-up."

You got that right.

***

The 23^rd Annual Christmas Jam, Asheville Civic Center, Dec. 10

It's only 5:30 the next afternoon, but outside the Civic Center there's already at least a thousand people lined up and milling around awaiting entry to the 7000+ capacity arena doors to open. Backstage, with the Christmas Jam scheduled to start in a couple of hours, musicians toting guitar cases (or in the instance of virtuoso fiddler Casey Dresden, who's performing with Bela Fleck's ensemble this weekend, a violin case) are hustling around, some of them racing up the steps to the arena floor for quick soundcheck. Others are just hanging out, chatting, and greeting familiar faces. I spot Warren Haynes across the room, deep in conversation with someone; very soon he'll be at center stage, greeting the sold-out Civic Center with a swaying, soul-infused cover of Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me." The highlights for the evening, which extended to 3am, would be many. Among them...

*Kevn Kinney & The Christmas Family Band (Jackie Greene on keys, guitarists Audley Freed and Mike Barnes, bassist Robert Kearns, drummer Brad Pemberton. A hard-to-imagine, yet brilliant-in-execution, extended segue from Pink Floyd's "Breathe" through Elton John's "Rocket Man" into the Beatles' "I've Got A Feeling." If you're counting, that makes the second Fab Four song of the weekend, and synched up with the other two covers, it takes on a deeply emotional, oddly wistful quality that actually has some concertgoers dabbing at their eyes.

*Bela Fleck/Jeff Sipe (joining the banjoist and drummer were fiddler Driessen, guitarist Jimmy Herring, sax fiend Bill Evans, bassist Taylor Lee): Following a solo improv from Fleck the entire ensemble blazes brightly, Herring and Fleck in particular hitting the g-spot for "bliss" around the time of "Soulgrass" that spills off the stage and onto the arena floor in the proverbial performer-audience transfer of energy.

*Los Lobos: By now the Civic Center appears to be as packed as at anytime during previous years' Jams, with even the cordoned-off VIP section full of dancing, bouncing revelers. As the Lobos get cranked up, security staff find it necessary to clear some buffer zones on the left and right sides of the arena floor, and it's to their credit that even some of the wilder-eyed concertgoers - there were plenty I observed, including one twirling gal dressed as a Victorian-era Mrs. Claus who at one point flopped down like a rag doll - are handled respectfully, leading to no noticeable confrontations or incidents. Tonight, Lobos rages more like punk rockers than Americana icons - "Don't Worry Baby," natch - and when Haynes joins them for a medley of "Mona" and "Bertha," the crowd explodes.

*Phil Lesh & Friends: That Lobos-powered Grateful Dead cover proved a highly effective setup for what is probably the most anticipated set of the night, and Lesh plus his Friends (Haynes, Greene, Chimenti, Russo) do not disappoint over of course of nearly two hours' worth of classic Dead songs - plus the Beatles' "She Said She Said," dropped into the middle of "Dark Star" and sung by Haynes. Also in the mix is Jimmy Herring (Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers, The Dead, etc.), greeted like a conquering hero by the crowd and lending his licks to several numbers, notably an elastic, throbbing "The Other One." Surveying the scene from the Civic Center balcony, I'm struck at how hardly an inch of the arena floor between the stage and the soundboard is visible; it's that crammed with bodies, and those bodies are clustered in mini-pockets given to frenzied surges of activity, as if an electric current was being run through the house and shocking groups of people randomly.

*Gov't Mule: A/k/a Haynes, Abts, Carlsson and Louis. The Mule is doing its first show in about six months, having taken the bulk of 2011 off while Haynes promoted his solo release. It's now about 1:30am, and the band was supposed to go on at 12:25 based on the setlist times posted backstage, but hey, that's Christmas Jam Time we seem to be on tonight, and no one seems to care. There's a funny moment right when the band starts: most of the people who have been lounging around in the artist area backstage and downstairs in the Civic Center now make a beeline upstairs so they can plant themselves in the special viewing section set aside for the artists, friends and family members. And while it may have been some time since the Mule played, there's no doubt Haynes & Co. have come loaded for bear, starting with a lengthy brace of originals (among them a luminous "Beautifully Broken" and groove-monster "Thorazine Shuffle").

Then, with the arrival of Phil Lesh and Bill Evans, the patented Mule covers treatment begins. A moody, bluesy jam slowly coalesces into a hypnotic, pulsing, nearly 18-minute version of Traffic classic "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" (Evans in particular channeling the late Chris Wood with his sax lines). Next, after Haynes welcomes Jimmy Herring back to the stage, Louis starts in on a strangely familiar guitar riff on his keyboards, the rest of the band gradually chiming in on what turns out to be "Dear Prudence" (Jam weekend Beatles tune #4, kids). It's almost like the entire Civic Center lets out a collective sigh, and at points during the White Album nugget you can see nearly every mouth in the venue open and singing along.

 Some time later, as the Mule wraps things up with a more-than-appropriate (yet even to these Mule-primed ears, completely unexpected) 15-minute cover of the Doors' "When the Music's Over," the 23^rd annual Christmas Jam comes to a close. There's nothing but smiles on the faces of patrons exiting the arena - here and there, a few dilated-pupils twirlers don't seem to want to let the moment fade just yet, but their friends gently guide them outside into the cold and all is right in the world.

[Photo by Dino Perrucci; see more of his Jam and pre-Jam images at our photo gallery]

[With the exception of "When the Music's Over," the above videos were posted to YouTube by rohbear4; check out his YouTube video channel, which includes plenty more clips from the Jam]

With openers Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin in tow, the Americana combo served up the twang at Portland, Oregon's Mississippi Studios on Dec. 6.

By Tim Hinely

Both of these bands originally hail from Springfield, Missouri and had apparently met in their formative years and have been friends and occasional touring partners ever since. In Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin you've got three of the most normal looking dudes ever to grace a college campus, plus a rhythm guitarist who looks like he walked out a  Kyuss video. Their pop sound is both generic and completely unique, sometimes both qualities popping up in the same song, and they wowed the enthusiastic crowd (apparently full of folks from Missouri ?!?) with a  handful of cuts from their latest record, the odds and sods collection Tape Club.

I missed Ha Ha Tonka on their last swing through town earlier this year and I must say I was bummed. Their latest record, Death of a Decade, is a terrific collection of homespun Americana and on this evening they brought their A-game. Vocalist/guitarist Brian Roberts pours his heart and soul into the tunes but not without a looseness, bouncing around the stage the whole time, while the others guys follow his lead. Ace cuts like "Westward Bound," Death of a Decade," Usual Suspects' and "Lonely Fortunes" were coupled with older tunes like "St Nick on the Fourth in a Fervor," "Hangman," "Caney Mountain" and plenty more.  At three records in, these guys play like seasoned pros. They've earned their keep (and if the drummer's name really is Lennon Bone, well, that only ups their stock in my book).

No more trips to Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, eh?


By Blurt Staff


This weekend Brooklyn hip-hop duo Das Racist dropped the video for "Brand New Dance". It's the second single off Relax (which you'll find on a number of year-end list, no doubt, given the buzz and hype surrounding the band).


It's a pretty awesome track, indeed.

Taken from concurrently released live album.


By Blurt Staff


Radiohead drops a new single next week, Dec. 19, titled "The Daily Mail" b/w "Staircase". The same day a digital edition of The King of Limbs: Live From the Basement arrives - the DVD/Blu-ray physical version will not be in stores in time for Christmas, sadly. Look for that on Jan. 31.


A couple of months ago Radiohead performed "Staircase" on Saturday Night Live, incidentally.

Charting the "history and weirdness" of his adopted home town, San Francisco.

By Blurt Staff

Chuck Prophet pays homage to the city he calls home for his twelfth studio album, Temple Beautiful. Set for February 7 release on Yep Roc Records, the album is named for the ill-fated San Francisco club of the same name, "Temple Beautiful is a long closed punk rock club located in the old Reverend Jim Jones' People's Temple. Where I saw my first gigs," says Prophet, who co-produced the album with Brad Jones. "This record was made in San Francisco, by San Franciscans about San Francisco." 

Co-written with klipschutz at Prophet's "non-internet-having office space," the 12-track album's odes include  "Castro Halloween," "Willie Mays Is Up At Bat," "Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life (1880)," and the title track which boasts Roy Loney on of the original members of The Flamin' Groovies, on guest vocals.

Compelled to pay tribute to the history and weirdness that brought him to the city nearly 30 years ago and inspired by current San Francisco artists, Prophet entered the studio with James DePrato (guitars), Rusty Miller (bass, vocals) and Prairie Prince (drums, percussion) to record  "an unsentimental (though loving) tour of San Francisco," says Prophet. "My effort to tap into the history, the weirdness, the energy and spontaneity that brought me here in the first place. All the songs are San Francisco related somehow." The album also features Stephanie Finch (vocals); Chris Carmichael (cello, violin); Jim Hoke (woodwinds, flute).

The album is the followup to 2009's neo-political rocker, ¡Let Freedom Ring! (Yep Roc).


Track List:

1. Play That Song Again
2. Castro Halloween
3. Temple Beautiful
4. Museum Of Broken Hearts
5. Willie Mays is Up at Bat
6. The Left Hand and the Right Hand
7. I Felt Like Jesus
8. Who Shot John
9. He Came From So Far Away (Red Man Speaks)
10. Little Girl, Little Boy
11. White Night, Big City
12. Emperor Norton in the Last Year of His Life (1880)

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo theme song gets a bonus Fincher treatment.

By Blurt Staff

If you've been anywhere near a movie theatre in the past 6 months there's a good chance you saw the official trailer for the David Fincher-directed The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - on the trailer soundtrack was Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O shrieking/moaning her way through the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross treatment of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." With the movie due in theatres Dec. 21, the duo's soundtrack album has just dropped digitally and will be out on CD Dec. 27.

Yesterday Pitchfork posted a new video for the song, a surreal/unsettling collage created by Fincher himself. Check it out:

The Jigsaw Seen and Allen Clapp & His Orchestra enthrall a small mob with uncommon tales of California at the Hotel Utah on December 2.

By JUD COST

You may think California's all about swaying palm trees and endless summer. But the Jigsaw Seen, representing greater Los Angeles, and Allen Clapp & His Orchestra, wearing the colors of the San Francisco Bay Area, are here to tell you to think again, pal. Both aggregations have new albums (Jigsaw's Winterland on Vibro-phonic and Clapp's Mixed Greens on Minty Fresh) that rank among the best material they've ever recorded. And there's not a surfboard, go-kart or pair of in-line roller skates anywhere in sight. Their music is more about taking a long walk in foul weather with your hands jammed into your windbreaker to keep warm. And you've probably just lost your girlfriend, too.

Because they have a grinding drive ahead of them before tomorrow night's pit stop in San Diego, the Jigsaw Seen are slotted as the evening's opener. With their longtime rhythm section of bassist Tom Currier and drummer Teddy Freese back in harness, singer Dennis Davison and guitarist Jonathan Lea, the perennial core of the group, have never played a better set. And, believe me, I've seen plenty of their live performances over the past 20 years. "This is our career retrospective," Davison says only half-kidding over a beer upstairs in the tiny minstrel's gallery of the Hotel Utah. "You know, that means the only big musical event left is your memorial," I tell him. "Hopefully, not for a while yet," he smirks.

The set is composed mostly of material from their last three albums-Zenith, Bananas Foster and Winterland-the stunning trilogy that's put the band back on the map just when it seemed it might be time to play out the string. "We just finished a short east coast tour," says Lea, "and we had large crowds of young kids everywhere we played. Totally unexpected."

Jigsaw jumps right into the fire with "Where The Action Isn't," one of their rockers that everybody loves whose title is a play on a ubiquitous Dick Clark TV show from the '60s. "What About Christmas?" replaces traditional Yuletide icons like Santa Claus, sleigh rides and Frosty the Snowman with loneliness, isolation and depression. The cryptically titled "Snow Angels Of Pigtown" is Davison's mythologizing of a working-class district of Baltimore, his hometown. "Fiddlesticks" once again exhumes the story of mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, a man who, unfortunately, was not a vegetarian.

They wind things up with a devastating one-two punch to the jaw and you're down for a mandatory eight count. "My Name Is Tom" is the manic tale of a sinister peeping tom making his midnight creep, done up in a bone-rattling raga-rock style that's never been topped. It's such a great vehicle, you can close your eyes and hear John Coltrane wailing away on it with his soprano sax for at least half an hour. Freese on drums is a revelation all night long. He's not Elvin Jones, but he may be the closest thing I've seen to Keith Moon since I first witnessed the real item back in 1969 at Fillmore West.

Keeping the holiday season in mind, "Tom," the usual set-closer, is followed by a rousing, yet accurate, reading of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," featuring Davison's patented, slightly evil choirboy vocals and Lea's ripping sitar-like fretboard work.

Kudos are due to the Hotel Utah, who apparently have upgraded their sound system recently. But the curb appeal of the joint, not so much. As the boys are loading their gear into the van on the Bryant St. side of the club, the garbage from six large refuse cans, stuffed to the brim and lined up on the sidewalk like giant tin soldiers, is blowing over our heads. "Hope you enjoyed your trip to San Francisco, and have a safe drive home," I tell Davison and Lea after a stiff gust pelts us all with an oil-stained paper bag full of styrofoam peanuts. "Hey, don't feed the monkeys!" says Davison in a parting shot.

I get back inside the Utah just as Allen Clapp, dressed in a festive orange, brown and white-striped bulky sweater, is trying to get a decent soundcheck for his new, seven-member combo, now re-christened Allen Clapp & His Orchestra. This is where I came in with Clapp, 17 years ago at an off-the-map S.F. venue called 21 Bernice, a place that hasn't been heard from since.

The soundcheck, as Clapp is finding out tonight in the new band's debut Bay Area performance, is easier said than done. Large chunks of what sounds so good on the band's new LP, Mixed Greens, are not making it into the mix. Clapp looks nervous most of the night, making uncharacteristic onstage remarks that aren't quite up to his usually buttoned-down Bob Newhart stand-up style. Perhaps he's expecting too much from a live show that still has to shake a few kinks out of the garden hose.

In addition to Clapp and his wife, rock-solid bassist Jill Pries (the only Orange Peels holdovers) the Orchestra features co-front person/ukulele-wielder Karla Kane, lead guitarist Khoi Huynh, baritone guitarist KC Bowman, William Cleere on piano and Charlie Crabtree on drums. All but Clapp and Pries also serve time in squeaky clean rockers the Corner Laughers and its psychedelic alter-ego the Agony Aunts. They do not throw TV sets out hotel windows when they are on tour. Which they may be doing shortly if Clapp's plans to buy an old school bus for cross-country jaunts pan out. All they'll need to complete the plan is a few snapshots of "Furthur," Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters bus, and a battered old copy of the Who's Magic Bus LP for inspiration, along with a few cans of dayglo paint.

To ease into uncharted waters, Clapp opens with the familiar. "Mystery Lawn," one of his earliest numbers, was a staple of the Orange Peels, the outfit that's flown his autumnal flag for years. But then he's off and running into the lovely new stuff: "Downfall No. 3," "All Or Nothing" and "Treeline." They're representative of Clapp's daring venture into a bold new world of soulful sound dominated not by guitars but by keyboards, with most of the set finding him perched behind a bank of ivories that includes a Fender Rhodes electric piano, an organ and an iPad Mellotron.

Clapp's added a good half octave to the top end of his vocal range, and the total effect is something like Brian Wilson wailing away late at night, hunkered down in front of his piano, pouring out his heart a la Stevie Wonder. Or Todd Rundgren from his "Hello It's Me" days with the Nazz and later solo ventures like Something/Anything? It feels like a direction he's always meant to take: walking through virgin forests, half-blinded by New World sunsets of uncommon beauty. 

Mark your calendars for Feb. 28, fans: Toward The Low Sun, due from Drag City.

By Blurt Staff

The gentlemen of the Dirty Three have an announcement:

"Dirty what then? Ohh...Dirty Three. Right! Jesus fucking God- ­it's been seven years since the last Dirty Three album. Warren's always sawing away at something that kind of tightens our chest and gives us that ol' thousand-yard stare; Mick wanders hollow-bodied from abstract and dreamy to punishing hard chord rock in the space of a breath, and then there's Jim White. He's doing something that no one else does back there. Plus, he's drumming! The crusty troika are back, for the first time ever on Drag City Records Feb 28th 2012!"

Oh yeah. We are there! Meanwhile, let's review....

Offers tons of visual - and video - plus sonic features.

By Blurt Staff

It's one of the most fan-friendly Apple-meets-Apple summit to date. An exclusive new Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' book for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch offering up the Fab Four's psychedelic sights and sounds is available for free download on Apple's iBookstore worldwide starting today. The iBookstore is available via the free iBooks App for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, and at www.iTunes.com/iBookstore.

According to EMI, this exclusive "takes the reader on a kaleidoscopic, music-filled journey with The Beatles to an underwater dreamland." Among the goodies:

-animated illustrations and text from the 2004 book

-14 full-color video clips from the original 1968 film

-audio clips of classic Beatles hits and Sir George Martin's original score

-original dialogue from the film

-"read aloud" functionality to follow along as actor Dean Lennox Kelly narrates

-interactive features that let you tap the story's array of butterflies, starfish and sea monsters to make them come alive. 

A video trailer for the book is available for free streaming starting today at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles. The book was designed by Fiona Andreanelli using Heinz Edelmann's original artwork from the film, and its story has been adapted by Charlie Gardner from the film's original screenplay, co-written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Eric Segal.  

"Duluth" taken from acclaimed album These Open Roads.

By Blurt Staff

Singer-songwriter Haroula Rose, who first pinged the indie radar in 2009 with her debut EP Someday and subsequently wowed critics earlier this year with her Andy Lemaster-produced These Open Roads, has just unveiled a video for the luminous album track "Duluth." It's got a take-your-breath away quality that's as powerful as it is haunting, and if you spotted it as being a Mason Jennings cover, bingo. Check it out:

As noted, the album was produced by Andy Lemaster (Bright Eyes, The Good Life, Now It's Overhead, REM, Azure Ray, Conor Oberst), who recorded it in Athens, GA at Chase Park Transduction Studio as well as his living room. Its  twelve tracks feature contributions from John Neff (Drive By Truckers, Japancakes) on pedal steel, Heather Macintosh (Elf Power, Neutral Milk Hotel), Brian Wright (Waco Tragedies), Blair Sinta (Damien Rice, Stevie Nicks, My Brightest Diamond, Annie Lennox) Jason Kanakis (Rachael Yamagata, Brett Dennen, Joshua Radin) Sad Brad Smith, Joseph Karnes (Jesca Hoop, John Cale), and Zac Rae (Pedestrian, Sara Lov, My Brightest Diamond) who co-produced and played on "Duluth." In addition her friend Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, O+S, Art In Manila) appears providing additional vocals.   Fink also connected her with Lemaster.

Says Rose, of working with Lemaster, "At Andy's house we could hear birds chirping and trains passing by, and Athens has such an atmosphere that it was easy to find inspiration.   Most of the time we would just stay up all night writing, trying out ideas or hanging out and recording different sounds.  At the studio I was stoked to be in a space where so many other bands and artists that have inspired me got to work and had made amazing records." 

Rose performs this Sunday, Dec. 11, in Los Angeles. Dates, etc.: www.myspace.com/haroularose