A Tale of two countries
“James Maddock is one of rock’s best kept secrets. An Englishman in New York: he moved to the East Cost a decade ago and he never went back. His music sounds american, as he was born there - pure, clear songwriting in the vein of Bruce Springsteen.
He debuted in the early noughties leading Wood, then came back later as a solo artist, releasing a couple of records (“Sunrise on avenue C” and “Wake up and dream”), as well as a couple of live albums recorded at NY’s Redwood Hall, where he's almost a resident artist.
He’s been touring both with his band and with David Immergluck - guitarist and mandolinist with Counting Crows (and in the past with Cracker, John Hiatt among the others). The duo renamed themselves Jimmy & Immy and have been touring together for a year, releasing also a live album. We saw them for the second time in a year in Milan, at Nidaba Club. And should they ever pass near your town, go see them too. You could discover one of today’s best “classic” songwriters - with a soulful, graspy, Rod Stewart-like voice.”
Except taken from Rockol.com, 2012
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From their humble beginnings as a surrealist spin-off “Imaginary Band,” through their hard working days as veteran DIY road warriors, on to their arrested state of suspended animation and later re-birth, Monks of Doom remain one of the classiest, heaviest and most strangely unclassifiable bands to emerge from the late 1980s independent music scene. When the band put themselves on ice in 1993, they left behind five virtuosic, rocking albums that somehow fused post-punk sensibilities with prog rock decadence and folk tradition elegance… Learn more..
Kasey Anderson spent the first decade of the 21st century writing songs that drew praise from the likes of Paste, No Depression, The A/V Club and many others, and touring alongside Jason Isbell, Steve Earle, Counting Crows, Peter Case, BJ Barham/American Aquarium, Joe Pug and fellow songwriting luminaries. Known as a “songwriter’s songwriter,” Anderson counted the aforementioned greats among his fans - his songs covered on albums by Counting Crows and Star Anna - and carved out a niche for himself as one of Americana’s most revered, if underrated, songwriters. Then he disappeared. A relapse and personal and legal problems saw Anderson fade from view - no albums, no gigs, the only traces of him found in Counting Crows continued performance of the Anderson-penned “Like Teenage Gravity.” Had it all ended there, Anderson would have been just another name on a long list of songwriters whose careers ended in relative obscurity or, in Anderson’s case, infamy. Now five years sober and with a prison stint behind him, Anderson has re-emerged as the frontman and primary songwriter of the band Hawks and Doves, whose album, From a White Hotel, will be released August, 2018… Learn more…
At SXSW 2015, aged just 25, Brian Holl was hit by a panic attack that would act as the catalyst for one of the most difficult periods of his young life. Brian had already achieved a great deal as one half of electronic-folk duo Foreign Fields - national tours, festival appearances, releasing a critically-acclaimed debut album - but an anxiety fueled by self-doubt, estimations, measuring up and counting trophies had finally reached tipping point. What happened next was bravely and honestly exposed in Foreign Fields sophomore record Take Cover which ended with the first glimmer of hope since that fateful night. Fast forward 18 months and Brian is ready to continue the story with his first solo release under the name Boy Bjorn. Learn more…
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