Dean Friedman has released a second single, ‘I wish You Joy’ from his new album.

Back in week 10, we heard ‘American Lullaby’, the title track from Dean’s album. Dean Friedman is one of the pre-eminent songwriters of his generation. He has now announced the release of a new single, ‘I Wish You Joy’. It is from that ninth studio album, ‘American Lullaby’.

“There’s no question that the emotional toll from the pandemic has been palpable, if not always recognized,” says Friedman. “The new single, ‘I Wish You Joy’, was written specifically to acknowledge and offer up some small measure of hope and optimism to all those folks who’ve been impacted by the emotional trauma resulting from months of lock-down and uncertainty.”

The angelic choral vocals, featured on the recording, were the product of remote contributions from a ‘virtual’ choir.  That choir included Friedman’s daughter, Hannah Friedman, plus singer-songwriters Katy Rose Bennett, Charlotte Campbell, Zolene Mayberry and Catherine Hamilton.

Dean will be touring in the UK, in 2022. Tour dates and how to buy tickets, and his album, are on his website at www.deanfriedman.com

 

The Pocket Gods are aiming for the weirdest ever Christmas number 1 with their new single ‘I’m Dreaming Of A White Noise Christmas’ which is out now.

After the band have been campaigning for fairer royalties from Spotify with their series of 30 second song albums, they have now decided to stop making music completely and just release 30 second tracks of white noise instead!

The idea of the 30 second song came after US Music Professor Mike Errico challenged bands to adapt to the media of today. Errico said there was no need to carry on writing 3-minute pop songs; that format came about because of the length of 7 inch vinyl. He argued that songwriters should adapt to the streaming media of today. This pays out a royalty once a track reaches 30 seconds and then no more. He asked, “As it’s only such a derisory royalty of around £0.003p per stream why write longer songs?”

Mark accepted the challenge and recorded the first of 9 albums. Each album had at least 100 songs and each song was just 30 seconds long. Along the way they gained Guinness World Records for most tracks on a digital album; the May 2021 album ‘Morse Code Days In Lockdown’.

The band continue their quest for fairness and clarity from music streaming services. They gave evidence to the recent parliamentary inquiry into music streaming. They included evidence showing that, since Spotify became a public listed company, the band’s royalty rates had halved.

The band have effectively downed tools with the Christmas single and album. They are aiming to take on Ed Sheeran, Adele and Mariah Carey for the coveted Christmas number 1 spot. Plus, aiming to raise awareness and put pressure on Spotify to increase their royalty rates for independent artists.

The Pocket Gods are on Facebook and Twitter.

 

James Zada is releasing his new single, ‘A Christmas Love’ on 17^th December.

Recording artist James Zada follows up his recent single and album ‘Fame’ with a festive, upbeat, original Christmas song. ‘A Christmas Love’ is a catchy, funky, soul groove that leaves listeners with that much needed feel-good vibe. James once again writes, performs, and produces almost everything on this celebratory track. Bassist Dan Hawkins adds that toe tapping, essential, funky groove on bass. Juliana adds beautiful harmonies that crescendo on the final chorus into Christmas heaven. James has sold over 1.5 million albums worldwide in his 27-year-old career. He now ventures into the world of dance pop music, with his nostalgic 80s and 90s vibe with a modern commercial twist.

James has a website at jameszada.com and is on Facebook and YouTube.

 

On 17^th December, Metronomy will release ‘It’s Good to be Back’.

Metronomy have announced details of their seventh studio album ‘Small World’, which is coming out on 18th February 2022. The Joseph Mount fronted collective also share the album’s lead single ‘It’s good to be back’. This is a spiky synth-laden return with a video.  The video is by directing duo Dreamjob. It finds all of Metronomy’s band members in an uncanny Truman show-esque universe, each of them trying to hold onto a chaotic kind of joy while existing in a Groundhog Day scenario of dying and then living the same thing over and over.

‘It’s good to be back’ gets its name because, Mount says, “Part of me was thinking, ‘what is the lamest platitude people are going to be saying coming out of the past two years?’. But at the same time, I was thinking how it will be true and how it might feel doing things again. I’ve been remembering what it was like as a kid when I’d be sitting in the back-seat of my parents’ car and they’d be playing their music and I’d think ‘this is awful’, but there’d be one or two songs I would like. I thought it would be fun to make that kind of album, and this is the song the kids might like. This is the ‘cool’ song”.

Metronomy will be touring in the UK and EU

The album, ‘Small World’, can be pre-ordered and tour tickets can be purchased on-line.

Metronomy have a website at metronomy.co.uk and are on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

 

On 17^th December Quill will be releasing ‘Riding Rainbows’.

Quill are a seven-piece outfit who blend rock, folk and Americana styles. They have a unique blend of drums, percussion, violin and vocal harmonies. They hail from Birmingham and feature the legendary drummer Bev Bevan. In 2017 Bev was inducted into The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. He has notched up over 50 million album sales with a music career that spans more than 50 years performing with ELO, The Move and Black Sabbath.

Riding Rainbows is an album reflective of Quill’s renowned energetic and polished live performances. With ten songs it is a collaborative effort between Bev, Joy Strachan-Brain (vocalist) and guitarist Lee Evans. It finds the septet in great form, whatever the choice of musical mood is. The sublime vocals of Joy Strachan-Brain demonstrate an amazing versatility; the articulate arrangements by Loui Clark Jr. are sure to please fans of the classic ELO sound.

Quill will be touring the UK in early 2022 and they have a website at quilluk.com.

 

Wills & the Willing will release ‘Skin – Love Don’t Hate’ on 17^th December.

Featuring the vocal talents of sports journalist and broadcaster Reshmin Chowdhury and professional football manager Gareth Ainsworth, with legendary goalkeeper Petr Cech on drumming duties, the new single from Wills & the Willing is a timely, all-inclusive, anthemic call for common sense to prevail.

Originally written in 2005 (albeit in a very different format) in direct response to the senseless, brutal, and racially motivated murder of 18-year-old A-Level student Anthony Walker, Ian dedicated the song in an emotional and poignant moment each night of his Edinburgh Fringe concert run that same year.

Then in 2007, Premiership football star Didier Drogba heard the track and was blown away by the lyrics. With the help of his then Chelsea FC teammate Michael Essien and with Ian Wills, they produced an updated version of the song. It was released in support of the FA’s ‘Kick It Out’ anti-racism campaign, to huge acclaim.

The late spring of 2021 saw the long-awaited gradual return of fans to stadiums; plus a quite spectacular summer of sport. Yet the nonsensical and spiteful spectre of racism once again reared its ugliest of heads and proved that very little, if any, ground had been made since Wills & the Willing’s original release. Spurred into action, and after years of fielding requests to re-release the track, Ian has finally revised the song. Once again he has joined forces with modern day celebrities to stand up against the ignorant few bringing a voice to the masses.

Wills & the Willing have a website willsandthewilling.com and are on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Soundcloud.

 

The Fundamental Sound are releasing a new album, ‘Lofi Christmas’ on 17^th December from which ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)’ is taken.

The Fundamental Sound is a project by producer and multi-instrumentalist, Dan Klug. With a jazz drums background, this project started after one too many humiliating nights on the NYC jazz jam session scene for Klug to stand. As the body of work has accumulated, the use of vintage pianos like the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer 200 have been the focus. This canted the initial releases from this project in the instrumental soul genre. Foot tapping and positive nostalgia required for each track.

While it might not be common for artists to release a Christmas album as their début record, ‘Lofi Christmas’ is an album the author just could not wait any longer to release. Recorded in his bedroom studio in Brooklyn, Dan Klug aka The Fundamental Sound, plays each instrument you hear on the record. Multi tracking and layering them on top of one another creates the sound of an instrumental soul trio that doesn’t quite exist.

Lofi Christmas is available for the 2021 holiday season in digital formats. The physical formats are in the plan for next year and beyond. Fundamental Sound are on Instagram.

 

‘Something About the Way You Look Tonight’ is being released on 17^th December by Stevie Lee woods & The Nashville Roadhouse Band.

Stevie Lee Woods was born and raised in Bluefield, Virginia, in a family with extensive musical background. He decided to move to Nashville in the early 90’s. The move to Nashville ended up being good for Stevie as he landed his first record deal in 1993. He then released two charted singles. From that Stevie began his career appearing and touring with a variety of artists. He has enjoyed success in music, plus he has a show which is available internationally. He also has a full world class Nashville band that works to back Stevie and his celebrity guests.

Stevie is on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Jesse Butterworth has recently released ‘Thinking About Christmas’.

From the highs of three #1 hits, multiple award nominations and critical acclaim to the lows of shattering his leg in the middle of a show and starting over again after the demise of the band and record deal, Jesse has learned to embrace all that makes up his life and find the specks of gold in just about anything. Now he is back with a brand-new festive song for 2021 ’Thinking About Christmas’.

Jesse has a website, at jessebutterworth.com and is on Facebook, YouTube, AppleMusic, and Spotify.

 

On 17^th December, Nave are releasing ‘This is Hell’.

Nave, aka Nathan Evans, is an alternative / electronic, singer / songwriter and music producer. His dark and eerie styles deliver an infectious and emotive punch, creating an intriguing and unique sound. His tracks are written as snapshots or diary entries of his present life, the world he observes and the expression of his mental health.

Nathan’s observation of the recent tragedy at Travis Scott’s Astroworld and the aftermath driven by social media fuelled the writing of Nave’s ‘This Is Hell’.

Nave has a website, at iamnave.com and is on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

 

Liam Price will release ‘You’re My Best Gift’ on 17^th December.

After gaining huge plaudits for his début single ‘Disappear’ – which we played in Week 23 (1^st December) – 15-year-old Liam Price has thrown his hat into the ring for this year’s prestigious Christmas No.1 slot. ‘You’re My Best Gift’ is another self-penned song that oozes class and radiates a maturity in his voice and composition skills well beyond his age.

Liam is on Twitter and YouTube.

 

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