This month’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month is Little Broken Hearts by Norah Jones.

From Rolling Stone:

Norah Jones sometimes gets derided for being too downtempo – which, really, is like hating on peaches for being juicy. But her fifth album is a brand-rejigging songwriting collab with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton that both picks up her pace and pumps up her palette. See “Happy Pills,” the bouncy single that triangulates the sexy bounce of the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket” with a lite-soul kiss-off ballad and an AM-radio bubblegum tune. Call it Norah in Neon. Jones’ sweet-smoky purr has always sounded great with meaty grooves: Talib Kweli’s “Soon the New Day,” Wax Poetic’s “Angels.” Here, she frolics through reverb and gets frisky over Burton’s midtempo beats on “Say Goodbye,” savoring the word “misbehave” like a toddler with her hand in the cookie jar. It was fun to hear Jones, the archetypal girl-you’d-take-home-to-Mom, play the fallen woman on Burton’s RomeLP from last year. That project echoes through “All a Dream,” a ghostly mix of dub-reggae groove and spaghetti-Western guitar. On the best songs, the Danger Mouse thumbprint is fainter: “She’s 22″ sets Jones against wisps of guitar and piano, while “Travelin’ On” mates her with a moaning cello. It’s a balancing act, which the lyrics occasionally upend – Jones as a murderous lover on “Miriam” is a near-comic stretch. But even good girls need revenge sometimes.

This morning, Rick Olivarez and Jeff Cheers stopped by the WNRN studio and spoke with Anne Williams about what lead them to this point in their musical careers, playing in the rain, and some other stuff. Check out the podcast below to hear the full interview and hear them play 3 songs (one of which was inspired by band member Dave Berzonsky’s daughter, Luna) live!

And don’t forget: the Olivarez Trio is playing live, for free, tonight after 5pm on the steps of the McGuffey Art Center as part of the Tom Tom Founders Festival kickoff!

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Locked Down by Dr. John is Anne Williams’ pick for April’s CD of the Month.

From Greg Kot at the Chicago Tribune:

Mac Rebennack has been making records since the ‘60s and has been a revered figure in New Orleans music for just as long. In reinventing himself as Dr. John, he took the city’s funk tradition deeper into the swamp of his imagination, mingling soul, blues and Afro-Cuban mysticism for some of the trippiest music ever to come out of the deep South.

One of his fans, the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, guides John back to that shadowy “Night Tripper” era with a batch of fresh songs. The legendary pianist sounds reinvigorated on “Locked Down” (Nonesuch), in part because he’s not plugging into a formula, but animating it with some feisty new sidemen. Auerbach’s terse, reverb-encrusted guitar and the studio band he assembled for this project play vital roles, particularly drummer Max Weissenfeldt and bassist Nick Movshon. They keep things syncopated and slippery, and Auerbach tosses off an ornery solo on “Getaway.”

The Doctor plays less piano and more electric keyboards, which means he’s less inclined to draw on his tourist-friendly Professor Longhair mannerisms. Instead, he soaks “Revolution” in Farfisa-organ eeriness and conjures voodoo imagery from an Optigan (a vintage sampling keyboard) on “Big Shot.”

“My Children, My Angels” and “God’s Sure Good” allow the 71-year-old artist to close the album on a reflective note, but the cracks, imperfections and mystic weirdness of this music are where his personality truly lies. “Let’s all pray on it, right now,” he mutters before digging into his keyboard solo on “Revolution.” He brings the trickster god “Eleggua” out of the murk, and presides over the “Kingdom of Izzness.” It’s Dr. John’s world, in all its voodoo inscrutability, rediscovered.

Our Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month for March is Break It Yourself, the latest from Andrew Bird.

You can get your copy of Break It Yourself by joining the CD of the month club or by picking it as your premium in our upcoming fund drive!

The Hard Road Trio stopped by the WNRN studio this morning to talk with Anne Williams about song-writing, the inspiration they’ve received from New Mexico, and their new album, Monticello, coming out next Wednesday. They also played “You Got Me Thinkin’,” “Steadfast Deliverance,” and “Break Free,” so check out the podcast below!

No plans for tonight? See them play live in Charlottesville! Find out more information at their website!

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Steel Wheels stopped by the WNRN studio about a week ago to celebrate the release of their new album, Lay Down, Lay Low, which is coming out on March 5th. Listen to them play “Halfway to Heaven,” “Breaking Like the Sun,” and “Rain in the Valley” live and talk to Anne Williams about their tour, the underlying themes of their new album, and some of their band’s history in the podcast below!

Want more Steel Wheels? See them live at the Clementine in March or at the Southern in May!

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Phillip St. Ours stopped by the WNRN studio this morning to play a few songs live and talk to Anne Williams about Pantherburn’s listening party this Saturday at the Blue Moon Diner and their CD release party on March 10th at the Southern. Check out the podcast below!

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Tim O’Brien was here before his show at the Mockingbird on Wednesday morning. He chatted with Anne about his travels and career, as well as played two songs!

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Sally Rose stopped by the WNRN studio this morning to play a few songs live and talk to Anne Williams about her music career, Valentine’s Day, and her Candy Hearts show with Sarah White and the Pearls and Phillip St. Ours tonight at the Southern! Can’t make it to the show? Check out the podcast below!

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Bearfoot stopped by the WNRN studio this morning to play four songs live and talk to Anne Williams about the history of the band, writing songs, and some other things . Check out the podcast below and don’t miss them at Mockingbird’s Roots Music Hall tonight!

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Punch Brothers’, Who’s Feeling Young Now?

Completed over three weeks at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Who’s Feeling Young Now? was produced by Grammy Award winner Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Tom Waits, Modest Mouse). Ten songs from the album were written by Punch Brothers, with the band’s friend Josh Ritter co-writing lyrics on two tunes (“Hundred Dollars” and “New York City”). Additionally, the album contains the band’s interpretations of Radiohead’s “Kid A” and the Swedish group Väsen’s “Flippen.” The new album is Punch Brothers’ follow-up to 2010’s Grammy-nominated Antifogmatic.

Legendary producer T Bone Burnett recently said of Punch Brothers, in an interview with American Songwriter magazine: “That’s one of the most incredible bands this country has ever produced. Chris Thile, their mandolin player, is probably a once in a century musician, like Louis Armstrong was a once in a century musician. Chris is one of those kind of cats.”
-review from nonesuch

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It’s been about a week since Scott Miller stopped by the WNRN studio, played three songs live, and talked to Anne Williams about his life and career. Even if you missed his concert, it’s not to late too listen to his interview! Check it out below!

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January’s Acoustic Sunrise CD of the Month is “Voyageur” by Kathleen Edwards.

From Amazon.com:

Kathleen Edwards’ ‘Voyageur’ is the acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter’s fourth album, and her first since ‘Asking for Flowers’ (2008). Produced by Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) and Edwards, ‘Voyageur’ is less of a departure than it is a journey, and like any transforming trip, it demands that we let go of any preconceptions about the destination. ‘Voyageur’ evokes a spectrum of overwhelming feelings within the atmosphere of a lucid dream. Edwards’ characters speak to the grief, loneliness, shock, and confusion that come with endings as well as the hope and irrepressible joy that accompany new beginnings, but the stories are told with a seductively quiet strength. Aided by the musical support of fellow travelers Justin Vernon and Norah Jones, ‘Voyageur’ features standout tracks such as “Change the Sheets,” “Mint,” and “A Soft Place to Land.”

Acoustic Sunrise December CD of the Month: “Wolftown” by Carl Anderson

WNRN is celebrating Virgina native Carl Anderson’s first full-length album “Wolftown” with a CD release party on Saturday, December 10 at The Southern Café and Music Hall. The Carl’s album was recorded at White Star Sound in Louisa County and produced by Dave Stipe.
Ticket information here

Tom Waits’s, Bad As Me

Waits, of course, is an expert at feeding the mystery surrounding his deeply weird but strangely accessible music; to interview the man is to be led into a catacomb of misdirection and non sequiturs. But on his 20th album Bad As Me, out Oct. 24, Waits and Brennan continue to craft songs marked by uncommon empathy. Waits’ first all-new studio record in seven years, it toggles constantly between heartsick vulnerability and hell-bound defiance: He may attempt to wake the devil in the stomping title track, commiserating with a lover who’s “the same kind of bad as me,” but a few songs later, he’s grimly mourning his status as “the last leaf on the tree” — a survivor, but a lonely one.

For Waits, vulnerability and defiance are two sides of the same coin anyway; just listen to the blisteringly ramshackle “Satisfied,” in which satisfaction and death are practically interchangeable. He may exude fatalism in “Pay Me” — a punch-in-the-gut ballad in which he memorably sings, “All roads lead to the end of the world” — but his delivery is a carefully controlled mix of ruefulness and realism. For Waits, ugliness and beauty both find ways to persist against all opposition. But in the end, amid these 13 songs’ furious clatter and gutter-level grime, beauty improbably wins out.

-NPR.org

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Check out our interview with Blitzen Trapper! They chatted with Anne Williams and played five songs from their latest album American Goldwing.

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Tune in at 9AM to hear our full session with Blitzen Trapper! They talked with Anne Williams and played five songs. Check out the first video from the session and don’t forget to tune into Acoustic Sunrise to hear everything.

This time out, we have a happy (we hope) and clean (we’ll take his word) Adams, making perhaps his sparest, mellowest record to date. His wife makes an appearance, singing a lovely, high harmony, and his friend Norah Jones pitches in, too. At the controls is the venerable Glyn Johns (father of Adams’ sometime producer, Ethan Johns), who, at nearly 70, has records to his credit by The Who, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and more.

The result, Ashes & Fire, is soulful and low-key; not without edge but certainly more lean and hushed than, say, Easy Tiger. The lyrics are considerably softer — “I will shelter you with my love and my forgiveness,” he sings, later adding, “Do you believe in love?” — but he’s allowed to have a honeymoon record, right?

It helps that Ashes & Fire, out Oct. 11, features the delicious work of keyboardist Benmont Tench, on loan from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Tench adds color and character, particularly in “Dirty Rain.” It’s not his first time working with Adams, and here’s hoping it’s not the last.

-NPR.org

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Irish folk/pop songstress, best known (still) for the seven years she spent touring and recording with Damien Rice, follows her acclaimed, Mercury Prize-nominated debut Sea Sew with this new ten track project produced by Grammy-winning producer Joe Henry (Solomon Burke, Allen Toussaint) and engineered by Ryan Freeland (Ray LaMontagne)…Hannigan says the new songs (and album title) come from the “loves, heartbreaks, confusions and friendships that we take with us through life”…Ray LaMontagne duets on the stark lament “O Sleep” // Release: Passenger (September 20, ATO)// Sounds like: the luxury of time played a big part on the songwriting as Hannigan says she “took her time” in putting the songs together…a low-voltage but palpable energy permeates many of the tracks — notably on the bristling “Knots” and “What’ll I Do”…

Quote: “Many of [the songs] were written while I was away from home or on the road, and the feeling of transience and nostalgia that this constant traveling evoked seemed to seep into every song.” // What we like: there’s an air of mystery in the lead track (and free download) “A Sail”, some dark shadows creeping into the wistful melody…the title track is typically wonderful Hannigan fare, sweet and unassuming…”Paper House”, with a whispered intensity, is one of our faves…while she put some time into the songwriting, Passenger has the urgency of a project that has tried to capture a live feel to the production and arrangements — we can’t remember an album that has such an extraordinarily intimate vocal mix and presence…

-Direct Current

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