Todd Snider – Conservative Christian….

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Singer-songwriter Todd Snider was born October 11, 1966, in Portland, Ore., and lived there until his family moved to Houston. When he was 15, he ran away from home with a friend and went back to Portland. After high school, he moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., to be a harmonica player. Then his brother, who lived in Austin, Texas, bought him a ticket to move there. After seeing Jerry Jeff Walker in a local bar, Snider decided that he didn’t need a band to be a musician.[3]
After moving to Memphis in the mid-1980s and establishing residency at a club named the Daily Planet, he was discovered by Keith Sykes, a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band. A longtime acquaintance of John Prine and Walker, Sykes began to work with Snider to help advance his career. Prine hired him as an assistant and then invited him to open shows. In time, Buffett heard Snider’s demo tapes and signed him to his own label. On his music, Snider has said “I was just trying to come up with the best… most open hearted … well-thought-out lyrics I could come up with. I wanted every song to be sad and funny at the same time, vulnerable and entertaining at the same time, personal and universal at the same time. I wanted every song to be as uniquely written as possible and then I wanted to perform them in a studio loose and rugged and hopefully as uniquely as I could. My hope is to be hard to describe and/or new…I’m not saying I am. I’m just saying that’s the hope
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Simon Stokes & The Nighthawks – Jambalaya (On The Bayou)

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Raised by his grandparents in Reading, MA, Simon Stokes was seen by his peers as a loner or solitary child. By the age of ten he had become a sleepwalker. His grandfather would often take Stokes to see the Harry D. Stokes Orchestra, which was his introduction to music. In his teenage years, Stokes became influenced by the blues, often listening to a local DJ named Sid Symphony and attending all-night concerts. Stokes saw Big Mama Thornton and Hank Ballard among countless others, each having an impact on him. After entering a local songwriting contest and winning the top prize, Stokes ventured to Los Angeles in his early 20s. Beginning in 1965, Stokes recorded a number of 45s under names such as the Flower Children and Heathen Angels. At the same time, Stokes became a staff writer at Elektra Records. Forming a band called the Nighthawks, Stokes and MC5 signed to Elektra on the same day.
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The Broken Family Band – You’re Like a Woman

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An Americana act from the tweedy university town of Cambridge, England, might sound like a bad idea from the start, but then the Southern gothic missionaries the Band were four-fifths Canadian, so clearly Americana is as much a state of mind as it is a geographic necessity. The Broken Family Band formed in Cambridge in 2001 with the initial intention of being one of those bands that’s more of a collective than anything else, with members drifting in and out according to need and whim, but although friends and invited guests regularly contribute to the group’s live shows and albums, the core of the band quickly stabilized as singer and guitarist Steven Adams, lead guitarist Jay Williams, bassist Gavin Johnson, and drummer Mick Roman.
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Blind Atlas – Kodiak Bear

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Hailing from Manchester alt-country Americana band Blind Atlas‘ debut album Kodiak Bear is full of foot-stomping delta-riffs and prog rock crescendos.
There is a dim light from a low hanging moon, glimpsed through the whispering branches of ghostly trees. There is a swirling heat that engulfs you and there is music. A sticky swarming delta stomp that drags you through the night and gets your feet tapping.
This, then, is the feeling the debut from Manchester-based Americana band Blind Atlas elicit. A perfect evocation of steamy nights in the deep south, effortlessly throwing Led Zep-style riffs and languid prog rock cascades into the mix.
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The Telescopes – Flying

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Dream pop cult icons the Telescopes formed in Burton-on-Trent, England, in 1986 — singer/guitarist Stephen Lawrie, guitarist/singer Jo Doran, lead guitarist David Fitzgerald, bassist Robert Brookes, and drummer Dominic Dillon comprised the original lineup, which in 1988 issued its first single, Forever Close Your Eyes, a split flexidisc with Loop issued on Cheree in honor of the two groups’ joint New Year’s Eve performance. the Telescopes’ official debut single, Kick the Wall, followed a year later, its feedback-laden trance-rock earning the band critical comparison to the Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 — 7th # Disaster appeared in the spring, and in the summer of 1989 the group issued its breakthrough effort, The Perfect Needle, its debut for the American indie label What Goes On. the Telescopes’ debut LP, Taste, closed out the year, and in 1990 the Fierce label also issued a live LP, Trade Mark of Quality.
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