MP Media Congratulates Its Artists for Garnering 8 Blues Blast Music Award Nominations

Mark Pucci Media is happy to announce that our artists have received 8 nominations for the upcoming Blues Blast Music Awards! Here’s the entire list of our nominees & we’d appreciate your consideration in voting for these well-deserved artists. Information on how & when to vote is listed at the end.

2015 Blues Blast Music Award Nominations

Traditional Blues Album

·         Mud Morganfield & Kim Wilson - For Pops (A Tribute to Muddy Waters)

Soul Blues Album

·         Otis Clay & Johnny Rawls - Soul Brothers

·         Tad Robinson - Day Into Night

Rock Blues Album

·         Tinsley Ellis - Tough Love

Acoustic Blues Album

·         Big Dave Mclean - Faded But Not Gone

·         Rory Block - Hard Luck Child

Live Blues Recording

·         John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Live in 1967

Historical Or Vintage Recording

·         John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - Live in 1967

Voting Is Open To The Public - Fan voting begins July 15, 2015 and continues until September 15, 2015 on our website at www.BluesBlastMagazine.com. Voting is free and open to anyone who is a Blues Blast Magazine subscriber. You do not have to be a current subscriber to vote! You are automatically signed up as part of the voting process on our website if you are not currently a subscriber. Blues Blast Magazine subscriptions are FREE and you may unsubscribe at anytime!

2015 Blues Blast Music Awards Ceremonies - The 2015 Blues Blast Music Awards ceremonies will be held at The Fluid Events Center in Champaign, Illinois on Friday, September 25th, 2015. The awards ceremony will feature music by the artists nominated. Tickets for the event will go

Charlie Parr on tour - "Stumpjumper" film trailer premiering at PASTE

Charlie Parr Film trailer for "Stumpjumper" premiering at Paste Magazine Filmed on location in Minnesota and North Carolina Narrated by Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) "The raw metallic resonator guitar sound of Charlie Parr registers as a magnet of sorts – in the same way we’re drawn to the curious sounds of Tom Waits and even the indie folk of The Mountain Goats." - Glide Magazine June 18, 2015:  Charlie Parr's new album, Stumpjumper, was not only the first album the folk blues artist has recorded outside of his native Minnesota but his first to feature a full band. The album was recorded in rural North Carolina with producer Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger). Cook put together a band of local players, setting up in an old outbuilding on the “Down Yonder Farm” near Hillsborough, NC to record the album.  Now, Cook and filmmaker Adam Heathcott have put together a short film trailer of the sessions, using additional footage shot around Duluth by Maxwell McGruder.  Phil Cook, a longtime friend and fan of Parr's, provides the narration and captures the feel of the North-South musical collaboration.  "Phil is such an important person to me, so the fact that he's taken the time to do that film is a big deal to me - I feel pretty lucky to be working with him," says Parr. "That part of Hillsborough, NC really reminded me of home and that's what made the record what it is. The first hour we played together there it felt like we'd been playing together for years, the guys were just so comfortable and accomodating. They all give off that 'everything is OK' vibe, and you can hear it in the music." View the trailer now at Paste Magazine.  Listen to the first single, "Over the Red Cedar" While a legend in some circles, Northwoods songwriter/guitarist Charlie Parr may be a new name to some music fans. Long a part of the vibrant Duluth, MN, music scene (Alan Sparhawk and Low, Trampled by Turtles), Stumpjumper is Charlie's first album on Grammy-winning Minnesota indie label Red House. Parr has announced extensive tour dates through 2015; scroll down for a complete listing. Press: "Parr is a picker -- whether on National resonator guitars, dobro, or banjo -- who cut his musical teeth on Charley Patton, Woody Guthrie, and Lightnin' Hopkins, and his actual teeth on the canned meat packed at the Hormel plant in his hometown. A product of both elements, Parr's songs ring out with a working class ethos and a welcome home energy."   - The Bluegrass Situation "Stumpjumper is a deep blues album first and foremost, but it’s Charlie Parr’s master craftsmanship at fingerpicking rhythms, and his folk-leaning songwriting that has liberated him from specific categorization."  - Saving Country Music "The native Minnesotan’s style can best be described as new music from an older time – sometimes dark and desolate, sometimes raucous and danceable."  - Dan Forte (Vintage Guitar) “Parr may have been born during the Nixon era, but you can taste the grit of the Dust Bowl in his music.”  - Dusted “Among the contenders in the every burgeoning indie folk, or new folk, genre, there are a lot of pretenders and acts trying desperately to “look and play the part”, but five seconds in front of Charlie Parr and you know you’re dealing with the real thing.”  - Jim Beckman (KEXP) “John Fahey described the music he collected on American Primitive Vol. 1 as ‘made under the influence of enthusiasm.’ The enthusiasm he spoke of was a kind of possession, whether Christian or diabolical he couldn’t be sure; a mode of ecstatic communication that intervened in the delivery of sacred and secular messages alike. Charlie Parr’s recordings, which make splendid companions to Fahey’s anthology, are similarly enthusiastic.”  - Popmatters Tour Dates: WE 6/24      Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle TH 6/25       Charlotte, NC - US National Whitewater Center FR 6/26       Wilmington, DE - World Cafe Live SA 6/27       Windham, VT - The Frendly Gathering TU 6/30       Ann Arbor, MI - The Ark WE 7/1        Nashville, IN - BigWoods Brewing TH 7/2         Cincinnati, OH - Washington Park FR 7/3         Berwyn, IL - Fitzgerald's-Berwin SA 7/4         Stoughton, WI - Stoughton Opera House TU 7/07       Cleveland, MA - Beachland Tavern TH 7/9         Cambridge, MA - Atwoods Tavern FR 7/10       New York, NY - Rockwood Music Hall 2 SA 7/11       Greenfield, MA - Green River Music Fest SU 7/12       Saratoga Springs, NY - Caffe Lena FR 7/17       Remer, MN - Double Barrel Blues Fest SA 7/18       Stillwater, MN - Stillwater Log Jam SA 7/18       Minneapolis, MN - Patrick’s Cabaret TH 7/30       Dubuque, IA - The Lift FR 7/31       Red Wind, MN - Falconer Vineyard SA 8/1         Somerset, WI - Somerset Amphitheater SU 8/2         Marquette, MI - Ore Dock Brewing FR 8/7         Shell Lake, WI - The Potters Shed SA 8/8         Appleton, WI - Mile of Music SU 8/9         Appleton, WI - Mile of Music FR 8/21       Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train SA 8/22       Durango, CO - Durango Blues Train SU 8/23       Lyons, CO - Oskar Blues Grill & Brew TH 8/27       St. Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair FR 8/28       St. Paul, MN - Minnesota State Fair SA 8/29       Friendship, IN - Whispering Beard Folk Festival WE 9/2        Minneapolis, MN - Midwest Music Showcase @ Target Field SA 9/5         Duluth, MN - Red Herring Lounge SA 9/12       Ames, IA - DG's Taphouse SU 9/27      Johnsville, CA - Lost Sierra Hoedown WE 10/14    St Cloud, MN - Pioneer Place on Fifth Theatre SA 10/24     Austin, MN - Paramount Theatre SA 12/19     Lake City, MN - Oak Center General Store Charlie Parr on the web: Facebook Twitter Web Site

Lucky Street Music artist: Marty Manous - Transcendence - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Transcendence, from Marty Manous and it shows real promise. Opening with Bird In A Cage, a fluid blues rocker with shades of Blue Oyster Cult, it's a great opener. Cleanly executed guitar riffs by Manous, joined by Sean O'Rourke on drums, Evan Breedlove on bass and Joe Morgan on keys beef up the track. Driving blues rocker, For A Few Dollars More, has a metal feel but never crossing over from a blues bass. Fluid guitar riffs and a driving bass line are the trick here. Cool! Silence Of My Day is a quiet track with modern dynamics and a slick hook. Morgan on B3 fuels Manous' guitar fire leading to some scorching riffs. Pop rocker, Living, has strong bones and is a sure fire radio track. Lucky Street is an interesting instrumental composition with bends and volume swells nicely articulating a nice melody. Very nice! Straight up blues guitar ballad, Not Worth Another Song, is definitely the crowd pleaser on the release with fat, hot guitar lead and nice slow pacing. Again, fast riffs, volume swells, bluesy vocals and a heavy bottom make this my favorite track on the release. Excellent! Wrapping the release is Fate, another solid radio oriented track. A memorable melody and cleanly executed instrumentals are the secret here. Nicely done!

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”

 

Willis Earl Beal announces new album | XL Records / Tender Loving Empire

Willis Earl Beal announces new album, Noctunes, shares "Flying So Low" Album due Aug. 28 via Tender Loving Empire STREAM: "Flying So Low"  SoundCloud / Pitchfork  Willis Earl Beal was born on the South Side of Chicago. He would never consider it home. An odd kid, he spent a lot of his youth talking with his grandmother, who would entertain his endless questions about the universe and encourage his love of drawing. He developed an obsession with Batman that would last well into his teenage years, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army as a form of vigilante training. Willis Earl Beal died on an army base in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. After a rocky TK weeks of boot camp plagued with physical and mental abuse, health complications (which would later require surgery and the removal of large portions of his intestine) forced his discharge. He moved back home. "When that all broke down," Beal says. "I lost a piece of myself." Willis Earl Beal was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After a stint of homelessness there, he worked odd jobs and rented a studio apartment. Though he'd never learned to play any instruments, he began to record raw, lo-fi albums with hand-drawn covers that he'd leave at coffee shops around town alongside flyers seeking a girlfriend with his phone number written on them. Those artifacts would eventually find their way to the cover of Found magazine, then to Jamie-James Medina at XL Recordings. Beal signed with XL's Hot Charity imprint in 2012. Willis Earl Beal died in New York City. Despite the release of two critically well-received albums on XL-Acousmatic Sorcery, a collection of his early home recordings, and a fully orchestrated studio album he recorded in Amsterdam called Nobody Knows-he was a mess. "I'd drink myself into stupors," he says. "I'd walk around in the daytime, crying, then I'd go downtown. The police would bring me home in the morning." Willis Earl Beal was born on a lake twenty miles outside Olympia, Washington. After ending his contract with XL, Beal went to live in the woods, and began an artistic transformation entirely of his own design, from rough-edged outsider-art provocateur to the kind of mysterious crooner one might expect to haunt the outskirts of Twin Peaks. "People had all these ideas about what I was supposed to be," he says. "I had only ever wanted to make lullabies." Beal's development played out over two self-released EPs and a full-length album, and then Beal built the patient, ambient-leaning Noctunes. The album's twelve songs are moving and meditative, thoroughly soaked with mournful synth strings and simple lyricism that Beal says is intentionally minimalistic. "I wanted to create this persona that could say everything perfectly with very little," Beal says. "The record, to me, is a perfect record. I listen to that thing a lot, and it helps me." Willis Earl Beal has yet to be born. Critics and publicists defined him before he'd had a chance to define himself. Their expectations were inextricably linked with race and gender, two concepts Beal thoroughly rejects. Now, two extremely productive years removed from the spotlight, Beal doesn't feel pressure to define himself against anything. His new music is shockingly original, utterly confident, and as ephemeral as Beal himself. He levitates above definition, concerned only with self-discovery and truth-seeking. "I know it sounds falsely altruistic," he says. "But I think a simple voice like mine can serve as an example of some kind of freedom." (Photo by Rodrigo Melgarejo)

Noctunes  (Tender Loving Empire) Street Date: Aug. 28, 2015  Pre-order it here Tracklist: 1. Under You 2. Flying So Low 3. Like a Box 4. Lust 5. No Solution 6. Stay 7. Say The Words 8. Love Is All Around 9. Able To Wait 10. Survive 11. Start Over 12. 12 Midnight

WILLIS EARL BEAL LINKS: FACEBOOK OFFICIAL SITE

City Hall Records artist: Bey Paule Band - Not Goin' Away - New Release Review

I just received the newest release, Not Goin' Away, from Bey Paule Band and it's rich. Opening with Black Bottom, a soulful track featuring Frank Bey on lead vocal and Loralee Christensen, Lisa Leuschner and Larry Bastiste on backing vocals. Soft cradling horn work by Nancy Wright on sax, Mike Rinta on trombone and Tom Poole add a really nice additional dimension. High stepper, Kiss Me Like You Mean It, has a cool melody and nice organ work from Tony Lufrano. Anthony Paule's clever guitar riffs give the track extra sting against Paul Revelli's tight drums and running bass line from Paul Olguin. Slinky blues track, Right In Front Of You, has a great bottom and Lufrano lays down a really nice piano groove and Paule takes center stage for a clean precise guitar solo. Soul ballad, Next To My Heart, gives Bey a nice platform to show off his soulful vocal chops, with Lufrano and Paule both adding sweet soulful riffs. Very nice! Someone For You is a nice easy R&B track along the lines of the Impressions. Bey has great command of the sound nicely adorned by Lufrano's Hammond work and a wicked solo by Wright. This Party's Done is an eased back high stepper with Paule softening it even more with resonator slide work. Well written and nicely blended, this is a solid radio track. Nobody's Angel is a very solid soul track highlighting Bey on vocal, nicely cradled in the backing vocals of Christensen, Leuschner and Bastiste. Title track, Not Goin' Away, has a nice swing and features a super trombone solo by Rinta and nice horn work by Wright, Poole and Jack Sanford overall. One of my favorite tracks on the release, Ballad Of The Lover Man is a great high stepper with a smooth, Al Green feel. Olguin really lays down a nice bass riff on this track and Paule lets a clean streaking solo of his own go. Excellent! Noel's Haze, with it's walking bass line and trumpet emphasis sets a really nice groove. This instrumental track is one of the strongest tracks on the release and each of the artists is featured with an opportunity to lay it down. Really nice! Slowed down blues track, Don't Ask Me How I Feel, continues to raise the bar for the release and Bey is more than pulling his weight. Nicely blended horn backing gives the track nice dynamics and Paule has hot riffs right at his finger tips just waiting to burst. Wrapping the release is R&B track, If I Could Reach Out, and Bey is so much in his world here with his solid front vocal and Christensen, Leuschner and Bastiste holding up the harmony. A very nice conclusion to a solid new release!

  If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”