S/D: Tompkins Square Records

Eh, you can see and hear the worthy trailer on youtube, look up Entourage: Ceremony Of Dreams Tompkins Square Promo

Also, the youtube link is on the xpost soundcloud page for that *good* alt take of "Tarbox Poltergeist."

Legendary Guitarist Duck Baker Releases 'Les Blues Du Richmond : Demos & Outtakes 1973-1979' for Record Store Day

Stream the album via SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/sets/duck-baker-les-blues-du-richmond-demos-outtakes-1973-1979/s-ZoJCj

Post / Share a Track: https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/pretty-girl-milking-a-cow

“Duck Baker is a true genius of the guitar.” – Stefan Grossman
“Duck has discovered a way to write which is purely and originally beautiful. I think he sets a standard we all can aspire to.” – Leo Kottke
“Listening to Duck Baker makes me feel good.” – Charlie Byrd
“One of the most interesting pickers around” – Chet Atkins

Les Blues Du Richmond : Demos & Outtakes 1973-1979
All tracks previously unreleased
TSQ 5517 (1000 LPs for Record Store Day)
TSQ 5500 (CD)

Duck Baker is one of the most highly regarded fingerstyle guitarists of his generation. His repertoire ranges from traditional Irish music through old-time mountain music and bluegrass to blues, gospel, and ragtime to swing and modern jazz, to free improvisation, and while he is best known in the guitar world, he has made a reputation in several other camps, including the Celtic music world and the avant-garde scene. He explains this eclecticism by pointing out that folk musicians have always been more eclectic than folklorists want to admit, and noting that his approach to American music is similar to that of a classical musician to that tradition. Baker is also a prodigious composer, having written well over 200 pieces, mostly for guitar, and an even more prodigious arranger for the instrument. His recording career spans five decades and includes some 29 records under his own name, another 8 in duo or trio settings, and a further 32 appearances on anthologies or as a sideman. He has also authored 12 music books and a similar number of instructional videos.

Tour dates :

March 27th - Freight & Salvage, Berkeley CA
April 10th - Vortex Jazz Club, London
May 20th - Wonder of Nature, Brooklyn NY

"Hulburt’s gentle, somber plucking is more than enough to capture the soul like Nick Drake would." - Stereogum

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Ryley Walker discovered John Hulburt's 1972 private press LP, Opus III, in a Chicago record store, loved what he heard, and teamed with Tompkins Square to produce a reissue in 2015. Ryley co-conspirator Bill MacKay then released a tribute album to Hulburt.
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/sunrise-bill-mackay-plays-the-songs-of-john-hulburt

Now, John Hulburt's sister has located lost tapes from the late guitar master. Recorded in 1998, Leap Frog is released today on every digital service, worldwide....
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/leap-frog

John Hulburt (1947-2012) was a member of legendary mid-60's Chicago garage rock band The Knaves, whose records were reissued by Sundazed. Opus III showcases his exceptional talent on the acoustic guitar, proving somewhat of an anomaly in a city not known for its solo guitar recordings during this era.

Ryley Walker writes in his liner notes, "Solo acoustic guitar music was adopted by several in the Berkeley school and the ever-expansive roots fanatics in the South, but here in the middle of the country with harsh winters and the landlocked prison of corn fields, it was almost destiny that the amplifier assault of electric blues and controlled chaos of dance music came from the South Side."

"Within these forty minutes, Hulburt makes a case for inclusion alongside the better-known names of the time." - PopMatters

Out :
Gwenifer Raymond - You Never Were Much of a Dancer
Rick Deitrick - Home Grown : Recordings 1969-1979

Coming Sept 14th : Harmony Rockets w/Special Guest Peter Walker - Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos (w/Nels Cline, Steve Shelley)

Harmony Rockets with Special Guest Peter Walker
+ Nels Cline (Wilco), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) et al
Available Worldwide on Tompkins Square
LP: TSQ 5555
CD: TSQ 5548

Peter Walker came up in the Cambridge MA and Greenwich Village folk scenes of the Sixties. He recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late Sixties in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary's musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.”

Tompkins Square is proud to have the following records in our catalog :

A Raga For Peter Walker - 2006 tribute ft. original tracks by James Blackshaw, Jack Rose, Thurston Moore et al
Echo of My Soul (Peter's first full album after a 40-year recording hiatus)
Long Lost Tapes 1970 (free-flowing date with a group, recorded in Levon Helm's house)
Remembering Mountains : Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton (Liner notes by her good friend, Peter Walker. Note : Peter plays Karen's Gibson on the new Harmony Rockets LP !)

LISTEN TO / SHARE A TRACK : "Atropos"

ORDER Harmony Rockets/Peter Walker LP/CD

"Mercury Rev and special friends tune into Woodstock space rock . . . the lineup gel beautifully."
-- MOJO * * * * stars

"a casebook on the nature of true collaboration; everyone here places himself at the service of music made in the moment from mutually assured trust and goodwill; it sparks creation at every turn. God knows we need more albums like this. What an unexpected pleasure. "
-- All Music Guide * * * * stars

"it’s a seriously beautiful slice of gently throbbing, contemplative psych-folk brilliance."

-- The Line of Best Fit 8/10

“Peter Walker was actually a bigger influence on my acoustic playing than John Fahey or Robbie Basho.”
– Ben Chasny, Six Organs of Admittance

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"…this small town (Woodstock), housing as it did so many maverick talents, fostered a scene of damage and dysfunction that endures to this day. It pulled in all manner of wannabes and hangers-on, alcoholic philanderers, dealers in heroin and cocaine, and left at least one generation of messed-up children with no direction home."
-- from 'Small Town Talk' by Barney Hoskyns

Longtime Woodstock resident, guitarist Peter Walker recorded two albums for the Vanguard label in the late Sixties in a style best described as American folk-raga. He studied with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, and was Dr. Timothy Leary's musical director, organizing music for the LSD advocate’s “celebrations.” He was also a close friend of fellow Woodstock resident, the late folksinger Karen Dalton, and helped produce Remembering Mountains : Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton (Tompkins Square), which features unrecorded Dalton compositions brought to life by Sharon Van Etten, Patty Griffin, Lucinda Williams and others.

Rediscovered by Tompkins Square in 2006 after decades out of sight, Walker has remained active into his 8th decade, recording for Jack White's Third Man label, and now, collaborating anew with fellow Upstaters, Harmony Rockets. Joined in a mighty super-session with Harmony Rockets (Mercury Rev), Martin Keith, Nels Cline (Wilco), and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos is a mind-melting inter-generational collaboration that could only have coalesced around the wool sweaters, warm teacups and moldering bookstores of "Old Old Woodstock", both the real and mythologized versions.

Fricke's Picks:
Harmony Rockets with Peter Walker, Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos (Tompkins Square)
The upstate-New York psychedelic rangers Mercury Rev, here under a periodic alias, take on extra crew for this studio excursion in galactic instrumental travel: Wilco-etc. guitarist Nels Cline, ex-Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley and a Sixties cult legend, guitarist Peter Walker...
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-frickes-picks-rem-arthur-buck-soft-machine-peter-walker-748566/

Kinloch Nelson
Partly on Time : Recordings 1968-1970
LP (Ltd Ed 500) /CD/Digital
Available Worldwide March 22nd

Unheard Recordings from Secret Rochester Guitarist

HEAR / POST A TRACK
https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/solitudes-by-kinloch-nelson

Kinloch (sounds like "kin-law") Nelson (b. 1950) studied classical guitar privately with Stanley Watson, jazz guitar with Gene Bertoncini at Eastman School of Music, and music theory at the University of Rochester. In 1973, he began teaching both privately and at The Hochstein Music School where he was on the faculty for twenty-five years. In 1985, Nelson co-founded the Guitar Society of Rochester, which during its ten-year run presented many of the world's greatest guitarists. Nelson is the author of a book, Alternate Guitar Tunings. He currently teaches privately, conducts guitar workshops and maintains a performance schedule.

Nelson came to the attention of Tompkins Square via Duck Baker, who visited Rochester in 2018 supporting his own Tompkins Square archival release, Les Blues Du Richmond : Demos & Outtakes, 1973-1979.

Kinloch Nelson live dates
April 6 Rochester / Bop Shop in-store
April 8 WFMU 10-11am ET
April 8 Brooklyn / Troost
April 11 Phili / TBA
April 12 DC / Rhizome (w/ Max Ochs)
Arpil 14 Harrisburg / Artisan Guitar Festival
April 15 Boston / Lilypad

Some time in the turbulent summer of 1968 I went to visit my sister who was studying theater at Dartmouth College that semester. Big stages, spotlights, cat walks, backstage access - it was pretty exciting stuff for a high school kid from a small town. One night we walked across campus to check out the college’s radio station, WDCR. She had a friend, Dave Graves, who was doing a nightly radio show there and she figured I needed to see this. I walked into the station and time stopped. I had spent many an hour, pretty much from the crib on up, glued to AM radios, soaking up the music and the mystery. And now, here was the real deal. I took a look around: there was a production room with a couple Ampex tape recorders, a mixing console, fancy microphones and a recording room. Hmmm... So, I called up my high school friend Carter Redd and said, “Get on a bus and come on up and record.”

Since late 1967 Carter and I had been playing guitars together, working on songs of the day: Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Donovan. Before long we were writing songs and instrumental guitar tunes. We borrowed someone’s Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder and started making recordings. But, WDCR raised the bar. Somehow we persuaded Dave Graves to record us, and that’s how these recordings came about. Recorded at various times in the summers of ’68, ’69, and ’70, and in the winter break of ’69-’70, three of the songs in this collection are ones we did together, the rest are solo tunes of mine.

The first two songs we recorded were "Funky Susan” and “Partly On Time.” “Funky Susan” was Carter’s invention; I added the harmonica part and the second guitar part. “Partly On Time” we wrote together. “Lazin’ In my Sleep” was done a year later. Dave engineered the first two, and a few months later he took a chance and sent them off to John Phillips of The Mamas And Papas. Phillips was looking for new acts to produce and, sure enough, he liked what he heard. Months went by…then out of the blue he sent word for us be at a recording studio in Connecticut one day in January of 1969 to record a Mason Williams song which he figured we could learn and record. It never happened. Carter, a year ahead of me, had already graduated and taken off for a drive across the country. He was nowhere to be found, and there were no cell phones in those days. Weeks went by. Phillips, engrossed in producing the film “Monterey Pop” eventually lost interest. I’ve often wondered what might have happened had we recorded all these tunes for him and put them out way back then…

In the summer of 1969 I went back and recorded some more, this time alone, and was there when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. The first rumors of the coming Woodstock Music And Art Fair were circulating. FM underground radio was emerging. Music genres were cross pollinating. It was an exciting time to be writing music. Carter and I went back to WDCR to record again that winter, and I went again by myself in the summer of 1970 to work at the station and record some more. But after those days, we pretty much went our separate ways. Sadly, somehow during all this the master tapes got lost or erased. The tapes that survived are copies.

So, one night in the summer of 1970, after I recorded “Kittens,” Tom Siebert’s Boat,” and “Winnipesaukee Night,” a friend of mine and I were listening to the tapes on my crummy little stereo and decided to take them over to his house to play them on his dad’s amazing hi-fi set. Off we drove with the tapes, my new tape recorder and my guitar in our family car. There’s an intersection in my hometown where a town road crosses a highway. That night as we were crossing the highway, a drunk driver, running from an accident he had caused at the previous light, ran the red light and hit us broadside. Wham! The car folded in half, the windows shattered, our car spun around 180 degrees and the tape recorder and all my tapes flew out the window and landed all over the highway. I should have been killed, but fortunately the driver hit the brakes and crashed into the passenger door just behind me. Amazingly we survived with only whiplash! My guitar, a 1960s era Gibson J-50, was in the back seat and didn’t fare as well, taking the full brunt of the crash. But the tapes and the recorder survived, and no one ran over them. I never met the driver. He was immediately taken to the hospital. He never showed up in court. They jailed him. The insurance company replaced our car, gave us some cash and I bought a brand new Martin D-18. And, they let me keep the J-50, which I later fixed.

That tape recorder has long since failed, but the tapes held up. I never thought they could be released commercially because, being copies, the quality wasn’t that good. Over the years I figured I would re-record the songs. But ultimately I never did, because how can one recapture the original mindset, feeling, vibe of the times and in particular the sound of that now-replaced studio? But thanks to the digital era the tapes have cleaned up reasonably well and the songs have come to life.

As I write this, I am sitting in a hotel room in, of all places, Woodstock NY. At the concert here last night I happened to play one of the songs from those tapes, “Kittens.” And now, looking back, it occurs to me that the wrecked family car was the same one my sister and I drove in to that infamous Woodstock Music And Art Fair…that same summer in which I wrote and recorded that song...back when all of these songs were spinning constantly in my head. Now, half a century later, I guess they still are… Cheers, K. Nelson

Media inquiries / interview requests
info [at] tompkinssquare.com

TSQ 5609 (CD) / TSQ 5616 (LP) Ltd Ed 500

Teodross Avery - After the Rain : A Night for Coltrane out May 10th on Tompkins Square Gatefold LP (Ltd Ed 500) / CD/ digital)
Liner Notes by Ben Ratliff

WBGO Premiere by Nate Chinen https://www.wbgo.org/post/hear-first-track-teodross-averys-potent-after-rain-night-coltrane#stream/0

HEAR/POST A TRACK https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/blues-minor-by-teodross-avery

In the beginning there was John Coltrane. Growing up in a family that listened to a vast and global array of music, Teodross Avery experienced an epiphany at 13 when he first heard Trane’s epochal harmonic steeplechase “Giant Steps.” Taking up the tenor saxophone, he emerged in the mid-1990s as one of the most powerful young voices on the scene, with two critically hailed releases for GRP/Impulse! Avery’s long and productive journey has taken him down many musical paths, from gigs with jazz legends and hip hop stars to sessions with NEA Jazz Masters and platinum pop albums. With his Tompkins Square label debut After The Rain: A Night for Coltrane, Avery has found his way back home, reasserting himself as a supremely eloquent exponent of the post-Trane jazz continuum. Recorded live at Oakland’s Sound Room, the album is slated for release on May 10, 2019.

“It is a return to my roots,” says Avery, 45, who possesses a huge, brawny tone and a capacious harmonic imagination. “Listening to Trane’s music was my foundation, and this album is definitely a reintroduction to this area of my career. I’ve been busy with a lot of other stuff, but I was always playing acoustic jazz with top level cats. I wasn’t putting out albums. I was on record dates, but not my own albums. This was the perfect opportunity to make my own statement.”

He found an ideal outlet with Tompkins Square. Over its 13 years, the label has released new and reissued recordings by renowned jazz masters such as Calvin Keys, Charles Gayle, Ran Blake, Terry Waldo, Bern Nix, and Giuseppi Logan. The label recently releasedThe 1960 Time Sessions by the Sonny Clark Trio featuring George Duvivier and Max Roach (2LP/2CD set), which received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Album Notes (Ben Ratliff). It was Tompkins Square’s eighth Grammy nomination, and the first for Mr. Ratliff, who also wrote the liner notes for After The Rain.

For the Sound Room concert Avery reconnected with some of the Bay Area’s most formidable improvisers, joining forces with pianist Adam Shulman, Oakland-reared, New York-based drummer Darrell Green, and bassist Jeff Chambers, who played on the Yoshi’s album release gig for his seminal 1996 hip-hop inflected album My Generation.

“I grew up hearing Jeff with Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Ahmad Jamal and other heavyweight players,” Avery says. “He’s one of the greatest bassists around, but after he made the date at Yoshi’s we didn’t play together until about 2014. He was the logical choice, and so was Darrell, who I played with in the Bay Area and New York. I always love his feel. And I’ve played with Adam since the early 2000s when I did gigs with Marcus Shelby.”

With the highly cohesive band Avery delves deeply into Coltrane’s songbook, opening with a brightly burning run through “Blues Minor.” Maintaining a steady level of energy throughout the nine-minute sojourn, the quartet offers a master class in the power of a briskly swinging mid-tempo groove. The set’s longest piece, “Africa,” is also drawn from the classic 1961 album Africa/Brass, Coltrane’s debut release on Impulse! orchestrated by Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner. It’s an epic performance that builds to ecstatic heights and then simmers back down with Chambers’ eerie arco bass solo backed by Green’s clackety trap work.

Cal Massey’s Latin-tinged “Bakai” is a piece introduced on the 1957 Prestige album Coltrane, the saxophonist’s first session as a leader (an underrated composer, Massey is due for rediscovery). Opening unaccompanied, Avery hints at the sing-song theme with a series of smeary ascending figures. As the band joins, he’s off, pushing against Green’s deft cymbal work with some extra grit in his tone. Shulman, a sought after arranger and first-call Bay Area accompanist, takes a particularly graceful, soul-steeped solo.

“Coltrane was one of the first records I bought myself, and I’ve been listening to that album ever since,” Avery says. “I liked that 12/8 rhythm. It relates to my mom, with an Ethiopian rhythmic feel. It’s a song that almost no one’s recorded. I felt like it was time.”

Of all the music that Avery explores, Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue” is the piece that Coltrane played most frequently. First released on 1964’s Live at Birdland (Impulse!), the tune also appears on several posthumously released live Trane albums (but interestingly a studio version has never surfaced). Like Coltrane, Avery trades his tenor sax for a soprano and also lays out quickly after stating the theme. The rhythm section steadily ramps up the momentum and when Avery rejoins he’s at full sprint. It’s a cathartic, impassioned performance that leaves no doubt about his prowess on the wily horn.

He follows the thunderous “Afro Blue” with a gorgeous rendition of Coltrane’s ballad “After the Rain.” Back on tenor, he caresses the melody, which unspools over Chambers rumbling bowed bass and Green’s shimmering cymbals. Quietly majestic, it practically begs for another ballad or two, but Avery gets back to burning. He closes the set with a blast of spiritual sustenance, offering an extended take on “Pursuance,” the third movement of Trane’s devotional masterwork A Love Supreme.

“I’ve studied all areas of his music,” Avery says. “I was just trying to take songs that were important to him and important to the real connoisseurs of his music. Africa/Brass was a really important album for him. ‘After the Rain’ isn’t his most popular ballad, but it’s a very beautiful piece and a brilliant composition.”

As Ben Ratliff writes in the album’s liner notes, the band approaches Coltrane’s music with reverence and freedom, revealing themselves in the act of interpreting iconic compositions. “The synthesis achieved here is the result of scholarship…But it is also the result of relaxing an academic mind-set, something that comes later in life—a little bit of forgetting what you’ve learned, or of finding meaning beyond the limited binary thinking of structure/no structure.”

Born July 2, 1973 in Fairfield, California, Avery grew up in Oakland and Vacaville, where he spent most of high school. Looking for more rigorous musical training he attended Berkeley High his senior year played in the school’s award-winning jazz band under director Charles Hamilton (a mentor for future jazz stars such as Joshua Redman, Dayna Stephens and Justin Brown). Wynton Marsalis recognized his oversized talent and purchased him a saxophone. Berklee College of Music made a similar judgment, giving him a full scholarship. At 19, he found another champion in eminent A&R executive Carl Griffin, who signed him to GRP/Impulse Records. His 1994 debut album In Other Words focused on his original compositions, and earned widespread critical praise. Sought out by stars like Aretha Franklin, Betty Carter and Ramsey Lewis, he soaked up head-turning bandstand experiences and still managed to finish college while on the road in 1995.

It’s hard to overstate the impression Avery made when he hit New York. Within a week of moving to the city in 1995 he was playing at the Blue Note with piano legend Cedar Walton’s sextet featuring trumpet great Art Farmer. Over the next few years, he performed and recorded with veteran jazz masters such as Hank Jones, Ben Riley, Harold Mabern, Bobby Watson and Dee Dee Bridgewater, while also working with rising stars like Cyrus Chestnut, Lewis Nash, Donald Harrison, and Roy Hargrove. With the manifesto-like My Generation, a guitar-centric session featuring John Scofield, Peter Bernstein, and Mark Whitfield on alternating tracks, Avery embraced his Ethiopian heritage and the protean power of hip hop (with Black Thought of The Roots rapping on the title track).

While Avery has kept a relatively low profile on the jazz scene over the past two decades, he’s never put down his horn. After touring internationally with Lauryn Hill in the late 1990s, he started recording prolifically as a session musician in New York City, contributing to hit albums by Amy Winehouse, G-Unit All Stars, Joss Stone, and Talib Kweli. Returning to academia, he completed a PhD in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California in 2016, and is now assistant professor of Jazz Studies and Commercial Music at California State University Dominguez Hills in Los Angeles.

Avery started gaining attention again in straight ahead circles as part of a powerhouse tenor sax tandem with Howard Wiley on Hammond B-3 great Doug Carn’s 2015 album My Spirit (Doodlin' Records). He revealed a different side of his musical personality on 2017’s Post Modern Trap Music (Katalyst Entertainment), a duo collaboration with drum master Marvin “Bugalu” Smith, who has played with the likes of Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, and Chet Baker. In many ways, the project was a primal scream of freedom after years battened down in grad school.

“I had this sense I need to record an album and not be guided by piano and bass,” he says. “I needed to be in the driver’s seat as to where the harmony was going. It was like a release. When I was at USC, everything was very regimented. That’s part of the point of pursuing a doctorate. I needed to clear my intellectual palette.”

The saxophone/drums duo was pioneered of course by John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, and Post Modern Trap Music paved the way for After The Rain. A major addition to his slim but growing discography, the album catapults Avery back into jazz’s top ranks as a fierce and captivating improviser ready to reclaim his vaunted reputation.

Teodross Avery 'After the Rain : A Night for Coltrane'
Gatefold LP (Ltd Ed 500) - TSQ 5630 / CD - TSQ 5623

Listen to songs from many of our releases via SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare

responses to xpost Kinloch:

Fricke's Pick (4/26)
Kinloch Nelson, Partly on Time: Recordings 1968–1970 (Tompkins Square)
“It was an exciting time to be writing music,” Kinloch Nelson, a guitarist-composer-teacher based in Rochester, New York, writes in the liner notes to this album of his earliest footprints: 12 pieces recorded as the Sixties ended and his style of solo finger-picking composition was receding with the folk boom. Nelson tells how he missed one shot at the big time — John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas was briefly interested in producing him — and details the modest odyssey of these tapes, made at a college radio station in New England. The rolling poise and cumulative harmonics of “Pearl St.” and “The Eyes of the Fair Molly” are partly descended, inevitably, from John Fahey. But there is some David Crosby — his penchant for jazzy, gently angled chord progressions — and a refreshing, unhurried pace in “Kittens” and the ’68 title piece. In a genre where players often seem to rush to mysticism, Nelson plays here as if he has all the time in the world to leave his mark. It just took more than he knew.

"This is an American guitar music born not of the blues, but glistening, plaintive chaconnes and tone poems with their roots in Segovia medievalism, European folk music, and the Northern renaissance. Beguiling and strange, this is a real find."
- MOJO (4 stars)

"Nelson is an original; he rambles but never meanders, wanders but never gets lost. A total gem."
- Aquarium Drunkard

"The joy of the music comes in its defiance of easy categorization."
- DUSTED

Will Beeley - Highways & Heart Attacks - out June 14th on Tompkins Square. The Texas songwriter's first album in 40 years

Rolling Stone Country premieres the first single, U.S. 85:

HIGHWAYS & HEART ATTACKS is a remarkable return from a singer-songwriter whose work might well have been lost to dusty record crates and the secret annals of Americana musical history. But with Tompkins Square’s 2017 reissues of Beeley’s two stunning albums, 1971’s Gallivantin' and 1979’s Passing Dream, the Texas-based troubadour finally earned the applause his distinctive songcraft long deserved, with Noisey praising his “deeply felt, little heard, folk music” and Paste noting, “With the re-release of these fine LPs, we can spend some time more fully appreciating them before (Beeley’s) very welcome return to the music world.”

“The music business is one of those things where you expect it to happen now,” Beeley says. “When it takes 40 years to happen, it kind of makes you sit back and go, I’m surprised it ever happened.”

Born at Southern California’s March Field Air Force Base, Beeley traveled the world with his family before they finally settled down in San Antonio, TX. His natural love of music was further fueled watching Townes Van Zandt performing regularly at local bars and honky tonks, inspiring him to try his own hand at singing and playing songs for a living. Though only 200 copies were printed and sold from the stage and back of Beeley’s car, 1971’s stark Gallivantin' was undeniably marked by Beeley’s emerging lyrical voice, comparable to such contemporary Lone Star State peers as Van Zandt and Michael Martin Murphey. Beeley signed an artist contract with the Mississippi-based soul label, Malaco Records, recording sessions in 1971 and 1973, with a single released in 1974.

Beeley was then given a release to concentrate on his songwriting but in 1977, he reunited with Malaco and backed by the label’s house band – which by a stroke of good fortune included such young Texas studio musicians as guitarist Larry Campbell (Bob Dylan, Levon Helm), keyboardist Carson Whitsett (Paul Simon, Z.Z. Hill), and drummer James Stroud (Mickey Newbury, Eddie Rabbit) – recorded Passing Dream. The LP saw Beeley taking a far more ambitious approach than his debut, imbuing his deeply personal songcraft with an edgy psychedelic outlaw energy. Most strikingly, Beeley’s singing voice had evolved, colored by experience and struggle.

“But nothing ever happened,” he says. “It just kind of dissolved. I was pretty discouraged.”

Beeley withdrew from his own musical career and went about the business of real life, raising a family in New Mexico whilst working as an over the road truck driver. His guitar and pen sat untouched for years, his dreams of being a working musician long relegated to his personal back pages. But when Tompkins Square reached out about reissuing Gallivantin' and Passing Dream, Beeley was inspired once again. He reached out to Tompkins Square founder Josh Rosenthal, wondering if the label might be interested in new material. The answer was of course an enthusiastic ‘Yes!’ and plans were made for Beeley to hit the studio for the first time in nearly four decades.

Recorded at San Antonio’s Blue Cat Studios with producer Jerry David DeCicca (Chris Gantry, Ed Askew, Larry Jon Wilson), GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer Joe Trevino (Flaco Jimenez, Los Lobos, Los Texmaniacs), and GRAMMY® Award-winning mix engineer Stuart Sikes (Loretta Lynn, Cat Power, Phosphorescent), HIGHWAYS & HEART ATTACKS sees Beeley backed by a combo of Americana all-stars that includes accordionist Michael Guerra (The Mavericks), guitarist Don Cento (Sarah Jaffee), bassist Canaan Faulkner (The Black Swans, Ed Askew), drummer Armando Aussenac (Neon Indian), organist Richard Martin, and GRAMMY® Award-winning violinist Bobby Flores (Freddy Fender, Doug Sahm, Willie Nelson). Songs like “Been A Drifter” and “Don’t Rain On My Parade” are both wistful and warm-hearted, Beeley’s rough-hewn vocals the ideal vehicle for his one-of-a-kind tales of a road well traveled and a surprise ending hard earned.

“I feel this is really the best stuff I’ve written,” Beeley says. “I recorded Passing Dream more than 40 years ago. I’m just thankful I got another chance to go in the studio and lay down some more of my tunes.”
Album Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvNpvh0Ka2U

update: good little Beeley interview, musical bits---stream, download:
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/13/741391179/will-beeley-on-trucking-and-songwriting

Ryley Walker Presents ...
Imaginational Anthem Vol. 9
CD/LP/Digital out Sept 20th, 2019

"If you're reading this, you've cracked open a deep fried black hole to some of the most far out guitarists on the planet. Some real heads in the mix. The future of the axe all on one nice and easy record to spin around. Super excited to have the chance to compile some pals of mine for this one. I searched near and far and the results are dope! My hope is that you'll continue to support all the artists here by going to their gigs and buying the music. Music biz is a shit biz but guitar players are pretty intuitive at making it work. Thanks so much for your patronage to the future of solo gtr tunes!"

-- ryley walker

Tompkins Square label's very first release in 2005 was the acoustic guitar compilation, Imaginational Anthem Volume One. The concept was to showcase new talents alongside first-gen American Primitive guitar legends, a formula that stuck across the first three volumes. Volume Four, released in 2010, featured all contemporary players, giving many folks their first taste of William Tyler, C Joynes, Chris Forsyth and Tyler Ramsey. The label then started farming out curation duties : Sam Moss for Volume 5, Chris King for Volume 6 (Origins of American Primitive Guitar), Hayden Pedigo for Volume 7, and Michael Klausman & Brooks Rice for Volume 8 (The Private Press). Tompkins Square recruited label alum Ryley Walker to compile Volume Nine. Given his deep Rolodex and exquisite taste, it's no surprise that this comp is probably the most diverse of the series. Nine of the eleven artists were previously unknown to us, so we get to discover new artists just like our label fans do.

Track List :
Mosses - Om Ah Hung
Shane Parish - Leicester Hwy
Eli Winter - Woodlawn Waltz
Dida Pelled - Walkin' My Cat Named Dog
Kendra Amalie - Boat Ride
Matthew Sage - Camaro Canyon
Pete Fosco - Variations on Themes for Blind Dogs
Fire-Toolz - World of Objects (Guitar Edit)
Lucas Brode - Knots Where Never Was
Dave Miller - Seedlings
Matthew Rolin - I Used To Sing
Art by Darryl Norsen
https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare

xpost so far disappointed in the new Beeley album--the pickers are really into it, but his voice usually doesn't hang onto my attention span, such as that is. Some of it works, though. Will listen more.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Documentary film Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho available on Blu-Ray/DVD December 13th. 5-disc boxed set of previously unreleased Robbie Basho music in the works

ABOUT THE FILM :

Before his bizarre death at the hands of a chiropractor, Robbie Basho was sure that his compositions would not outlast him. Orphaned during infancy, diagnosed with synaesthesia (a union of the senses that caused him to interpret sound as colour) and claiming to be the reincarnation of a 17th century poet -- the Baltimore-born guitarist and singer's musical output was as equally as outlandish as his persona.

In his brief and troubled life he laid the foundations for radical changes to the musical landscape of America during the 1960s and 70s but reaped little more than a sparse (if fervent) following during his lifetime.

Voice of the Eagle: The Enigma of Robbie Basho is a journey into the heart of an artist's lifelong struggle -- designed to illuminate and satiate existing fans while serving as a perfect starting point for the uninitiated.

Featuring interviews with Pete Townshend and Country Joe McDonald as well as Basho's former students, contemporaries, religious associates and few close friends, the documentary integrates new information and anecdotes on Basho with previously uncovered archival material and photography of the natural phenomena and landscapes that informed his work.

Available via MVD Entertainment
RELEASE DATE : DECEMBER 13th, 2019
PRE-ORDER

-----------------------------------

ABOUT THE BOXED SET :

Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what's commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho's path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of musicians, from William Ackerman and Pete Townshend to Ben Chasny and William Tyler.

Liam Barker first became aware of Basho having purchased Tompkins Square's reissue of Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho's life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film, Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho.

During the research process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes recorded throughout his career, ranging roughly from 1965-1985. By arrangement with Basho's Estate and the original custodians of the tapes, Tompkins Square is set to release Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material. The label will release a single disc vinyl LP as well. The set includes notes by Barker, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Glenn Jones and Richard Osborn, as well as many unseen photographs.

Release date TBA.

tompkinssquare.com

LISTEN to our 14th Anniv Playlist on SPOTIFY
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uiu05uzg7qB17xNRBee7c?

Their 14th anniversary show the other week was very good.

Anti: The debut album by Daniel Mandrychenko. Recorded by Bill Frisell collaborator Adam Munoz. One of the last records made at Fantasy Studios. Listen to/download "Chicken Tenders" via All About Jazz:
https://media.allaboutjazz.com/media.php?id=12081
Daniel Mandrychenko is a guitarist and a member of the Bay Area jazz community. For his debut album, Anti, Daniel chose producer Adam Munoz, known for his work on multiple Grammy-nominated Bill Frisell records, as well as projects by Herbie Hancock, Joanna Newsom, Branford Marsalis and many more. Daniel assembled a crack team to accompany him on his debut. Evan Williams (drums) has cut his teeth playing in the Bay Area’s vibrant jazz scene. Danny Castro (upright and electric bass) has played with Tiffany Austin, Calvin Keys, and Justin Rock. Dann Zinn (tenor saxophone) has become one of the most sought after sax players around, with a discography that includes over 100 appearances as a featured soloist and sideman. Anti is one of the last records ever recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, CA. A remarkable musical statement from this promising young guitarist.

Tompkins Square has released jazz albums by Charles Gayle, Ran Blake, Giuseppi Logan, Sonny Clark, Teodross Avery, Terry Waldo, Bern Nix and more.

Daniel Mandrychenko - Anti
CD : TSQ 5685
Available February 21, 2020
---------------------
Recent :

Sam Burton - "I Can Go With You" - 7"

No Other Love : Midwest Gospel, 1965-1978 4 Stars - MOJO

Ten Year Gone : A Tribute to Jack Rose Best of '19 pick - Folk Radio UK

Listen to songs from many of our releases via SoundCloud

Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981
Limited Edition LP (500) and digital out April 10th.

Guitarist Wall Matthews is surviving member of experimental 70's collective, Entourage. Sampled by Four Tet, their name whispered in reverence through the decades, Entourage forged bold musical ideas on their two rare ’70s Folkways LPs. Tompkins Square released Ceremony of Dreams : Studio Sessions and Outtakes, 1972-1977, in 2018 to wide acclaim. Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews, 1967-1981 is a collection of unreleased or obscure music by the master guitarist. This volume will be released as a limited edition LP, along with four other digital volumes of Wall's music, chronologically mapping his career. All five albums will be released on April 10th, 2020.
Praise for Entourage :

"A three-hour stream of instrumental riches, whether you’re looking to find samples or get lost in a trance....These 30 tracks alternately conjure the ecstatic minimalism of John Cale and La Monte Young, the billowing clouds of Arvo Part, the aleatory intrigue of Derek Bailey, and the strange guitar beauty of Sandy Bull" - Pitchfork

"As seriously as they clearly took their playing, the music never lost its sense of playfulness and joy" - PASTE (8.7/10)

"This is essential and irresistible vintage American weirdness." - All Music Guide (4.5)

"...it's transporting stuff." - Rolling Stone

"Erring between Alice Coltrane-esque spiritual jazz, Steve Reich’s minimalism and stunning instrumental folk, Ceremony of Dreams highlights 30 tracks from a fiercely creative period between 1972 and 1977 that did not appear on the two Folkways albums released at the time." - Vinyl Factory

"New age gongs, drones, sax, pastoral guitar, scraped violas … Think Third Ear Band's druid rock meets early Popol Vuh with the obvious chops of a less slick Weather Report"
- Record Collector (4 stars)
See more about them upthread.

"Music Is The Healing Force of the Universe" - Albert Ayler

Despite all the terrible news, we solider on. We have never felt closer to the music we love - in our record collection, or on our roster.

Today only, bandcamp is waiving their commission so all sales go directly to vendors. Please support the labels you love today, including ours ! You can also get ALL 63 Tompkins Square titles up on bandcamp for 75% off. Just click on any album and scroll down for offer.

We made a Spotify playlist for these times - 'Hermit's Delight' - hope it takes you elsewhere for 2 hrs and 48 min.https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cFEIERvFa1MZyfPn3SfUM?_php=1

NEWS :

Robbie Basho - Selections from Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes LP will be out on Record Store Day - June 20th, 2020. A 5CD box set of unreleased Robbie Basho music will follow later in 2020.

Sam Burton's debut single, "I Can Go With You", is out now on all digital platforms, and a 7" with two songs from his June debut album is available now. Produced by Jarvis Taveniere (Woods, Purple Mountains).

"Dave Miller has a penchant for melodies that stick with you, in a good way. His latest album provides the joy and the lift we all need right now-- through his bad ass guitar playing, a myriad of unexpected shifts reveal a brilliant sonic universe." - Mary Halvorson

Guitarist Dave Miller releases self-titled album on Tompkins Square, May 22, 2020

HEAR / PRE-ORDER https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/dave-miller

Guitarist and composer Dave Miller (Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade, Dustin Laurenzi’s Snaketime, Joe Policastro Trio, Algernon, Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls), has been a prominent fixture in the Chicago music scene for nearly two decades. His last record, Old Door Phantoms (ears&eyes Records), hailed by Audiophile Audition as “the multi-genre instrumental album of the year”, as well as “a complex and beautiful piece of work” by New City, explored themes of nature, spirituality, and the human condition through the lens of an instrumental psychedelic garage rock band.

Echoes of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and guitarist ‪Marc Ribot‬ continue into Miller’s new album, Dave Miller, though he has expanded his focus to now include detailed arrangements and more refined production techniques. With the opening of Miller’s new recording studio, Whiskey Point Recording (co-run with ace pianist/engineer, Dan Pierson (V.V. Lightbody)), Miller’s music has become even more alive and exploratory. Beautiful mellotrons collide with fuzzed out guitars over swampy drums and non-ironic bongos, as if ‪Brian Wilson‬ got into a bar fight with The Meters and ‪Link Wray‬ before realizing they were kindred spirits, with Miller composing the score. Miller’s music, above all, aims to create its own utopic universe where all the cool music coexists.

Dave Miller - guitars
Matt Ulery - fender bass (Wild Belle, Greenleaf Music)
Dan Pierson - keyboards (V.V. Lightbody)
Devin Drobka - drums (Field Report)
Juan Pastor - percussion (Howard Levy, Fareed Haque, Miguel Zenón)
Mikel Patrick Avery - tambourine (Joshua Abrams Natural Information Society, Theaster Gates)
Mike Harmon - fender bass (track 4)(V.V. Lightbody)

Dave Miller is featured on Ryley Walker Presents Imaginational Anthem vol 9
http://www.tompkinssquare.com/ia9.html

this looks promising

Yeah---impossible comparisons, but/and promising.

And a new virtual screening possibility that looks to be ov virtue:
Tompkins Square was really looking forward to today. We had hoped to celebrate Record Store Day with a beautiful LP of unreleased music by Robbie Basho. That will have to wait until the new RSD date, June 20th.

Meanwhile, you can support indie record stores by screening a new documentary about New York City's iconic and very missed Other Music. Our label has NYC roots, and we spent many hours at this store.

You can purchase the film from the indie record store or theater of your choice listed on this site. 50% of net proceeds will go to indie record stores, who could use our support at this time.
http://www.factorytwentyfive.com/other-music/

Listen to our Hermit's Delight playlist via Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3cFEIERvFa1MZyfPn3SfUM

no bandcamp link for this yet:

Tompkins Square Releases A Benefit Album for Groceries For Seniors with exclusive music via bandcamp, this Friday May 1.

As part of bandcamp's campaign to waive their fees for artists and labels on Friday May 1, Tompkins Square releases a compilation to benefit Groceries for Seniors. Heroic even in the best of times, this organization is providing vital outreach to seniors in San Francisco during the pandemic.
http://www.groceriesforseniors.org/

The compilation features 15 tracks, EIGHT of which are previously unreleased digitally, including exclusive tracks by Luther Dickinson, Nathan Salsburg, Gwenifer Raymond, Duck Baker and more.

We would very much appreciate your posting our news !
Thank you.

Tracks :

* = Available for the first time digitally

Nathan Salsburg - Blues for Eight Belles (early version) *
Josh Kimbrough - Backyard Hawk (from the forthcoming album, 'Slither, Soar & Disappear'. Out June 5th) *
Wall Matthews - Roping 1 (from Spine River : The Guitar Music of Wall Matthews 1967-1981)
Sam Burton - Everything Must Make It On Its Own (demo) (B side of new 7") *
Kinloch Nelson - Solitudes (New 2020 version. 1968 version appears on 'Partly on Time : Recordings 1968-1970) *
Bill McKay - Freak on the Black Harley (from 'Bill Mackay Plays the Music of John Hulburt')
Bob Brown - In These Flames (from 'Willoughby's Lament')
Dave Miller - Fellow Man (from the forthcoming self-titled album. Out May 22)
Rick Deitrick - Gabrielle (previously unreleased) *
Daniel Mandrychenko - Anti (from 'Anti')
Max Ochs - Imaginational Anthem (1969 version) (from 'Imaginational Anthem vol 1')
Duck Baker - Sheebeg and Sheemore (from the forthcoming album 'Plymouth Rock : Unreleased & Rare Recordings, 1973-1979.' Out July 31) *
Will Beeley - The Homeless Ain't Just Hobos Anymore (from 'Highways & Heart Attacks')
Gwenifer Raymond - Deep Sea Diver (from 7") *
Luther Dickinson - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen/Peace in the Valley (from the Tompkins Square 78RPM record) *

xxxxpost Echoes of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and guitarist ‪Marc Ribot‬ continue into Miller’s new album, Dave Miller, though he has expanded his focus to now include detailed arrangements and more refined production techniques...Miller’s music has become even more alive and exploratory. Beautiful mellotrons collide with fuzzed out guitars over swampy drums and non-ironic bongos, as if ‪Brian Wilson‬ got into a bar fight with The Meters and ‪Link Wray‬ before realizing they were kindred spirits, with Miller composing the score. Miller’s music, above all, aims to create its own utopic universe where all the cool music coexists.
Well, first listen does not bring Brian to mind--Neil maybe implicitly, in some of the surprise turns of the first 12 minutes, first three tracks---no Crazy Horse cave stomp, maybe cave art--but the rest of that, incl Ribot's more acerbic hipster jazz turns, in there w Neilian jolts---yeah, and there are at least three tracks, past the first three, that immediately summon Link Wray's speculations, and yeah, picking up the Meters in mid-70s NOLA, heading toward yon high plains truck stop after midnight--but not quite, because the drumming, bongos or whatever, is simpler/stricter than Z. Modeliste's with the actual Meters---most of it is stricter than that, also than the first 13 minutes, although most music is, and "simpler" prob isn't quite the word: more a matter of nerve and focus on just. these. notes, played just so, w/o getting anal about it.
(First 12 minutes might be called "flowery," in sense of tunneling through flowerbeds, coming up and going back in.)
He prob also likes Shuggie Otis, Santo & Johnny, the band Man, Rainbow Bridge---but I'm not enough of a liftologist to spot any lifts. in the spirit, but never the letter, of the Sunwatchers too. O Vintage Youth!
(I may live to regret such effusions, but for now, what the hell.)
Out May 22.

40 minutes, 30 seconds, calm and eventful.

xpost Groceries For Seniors---slight return, now w link:

As part of bandcamp's campaign to waive their fees for artists and labels today, Friday May 1, Tompkins Square releases a compilation to benefit Groceries for Seniors. Heroic even in the best of times, this organization is providing vital outreach to seniors in San Francisco during the pandemic.

The compilation features 15 tracks, EIGHT of which are previously unreleased digitally, including exclusive tracks by Luther Dickinson, Nathan Salsburg, Gwenifer Raymond, Duck Baker and more. The album is only available for a limited time.

Here is a link to the album
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/a-benefit-album-for-groceries-for-seniors

Please consider giving above the minimum donation - it would be greatly appreciated !

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3539788696_10.jpg

See complete tracklist in orig. post here.

Josh Kimbrough - Slither, Soar & Disappear. Out on Tompkins Square, June 19th, 2020

Josh Kimbrough is a fingerstyle guitarist and composer from Chapel Hill, NC. For the last 15 years he’s been a core member of the NC collective, Trekky Records (Lost in the Trees, Phil Cook, Sylvan Esso). He learned to play by studying Freddie King instrumentals and Fernando Sor classical guitar exercises. Josh has teamed up with producer and bass player Jeff Crawford (The Dead Tongues, Big Star’s Third) for the first full length under his own name. Slither, Soar & Disappear is an intimate and immersive song cycle inspired by the natural world, fatherhood, and the joy of solitude. On it, small ensembles of double bass, flute, strings, mandolin, banjo, and drums adorn his nylon and steel string guitar work.

words about the record . . .

Slither, Soar & Disappear is an instrumental, fingerstyle guitar record. It’s an ode to fatherhood and the restorative power of the natural world.

The music came to me on my back deck, where I would go to find solitude while my son, Simon was sleeping. I found that the rustling of squirrels in the leaves, and the hooting of barred owls, among other sights and sounds, would bring me a sense of peace and belonging. I imagined myself and my guitar as part of the chorus of natural sounds.

Fatherhood, I was finding, forces one to abandon parts of the self--a heavy proposition in a society that emphasizes individualism. Cultural critic, farmer, and novelist, Wendell Berry in his book A Native Hill muses, “In order to know the hill, it is necessary to slow the mind down to the hill’s pace.” This principle applied to me at the time as I was adapting to a new speed of life and striving to be present as a father. On the deck, as my mind slowed down to take in the chirps and wind gusts these songs began to blossom.

The following musicians appear on the record:

Casey Toll - bass (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Nathan Bowles Trio)

Jeff Crawford - bass (The Dead Tongues, Big Star’s Third)

Andrew Marlin - mandolin (Mandolin Orange)

Peter Lewis - drums (Skylar Gudasz, Loamlands)

Leah Gibson - cello (Bowerbirds)

Bobby Britt - fiddle (Town Mountain)

Wilson Greene - banjo (Mipso)

Rachel Kiel - flute

Out of the Ashes : A Benefit Album for Minneapolis is out today exclusively via bandcamp. The album features newly recorded tracks by Steve Tibbetts, Charlie Parr, Paul Metzger and more, compiled by local guitarist Matt Sowell. 100% of the proceeds from this album will benefit two organizations in Minneapolis :

MIGIZI acts as a circle of support that nurtures the development of Native American youth in order to unleash their creativity and dreams. Migizi's building was destroyed by fire on May 28th.

Association for Black Economic Power is partnering with PIMENTO to provide black businesses without insurance relief after white supremacists set them on fire during the protests.

Imaginational Anthem Vol. X : Overseas Edition is out today via every digital service ! Buy via bandcamp and receive a pdf booklet with artist photos and notes by compilation producer Marcus Obst (Dying for Bad Music).

Josh Kimbrough - Slither, Soar & Disappear - Exclusive pre-order via bandcamp. Album out June 19th.

100% of Josh Kimbrough's sales today via bandcamp will go to BUMP, a NC-based non-profit education organization fostering urban youth empowerment through African Diaspora music.

Chicago-based guitarist Dave Miller drops two new songs from the sessions that produced his recent, acclaimed self-titled Tompkins Square debut, exclusively via bandcamp. If you haven't heard the album, today is a good day to get it.

100% of proceeds from the single today will go to Black Lives Matter.

"Dave Miller has a penchant for melodies that stick with you, in a good way. His latest album provides the joy and the lift we all need right now-- through his bad ass guitar playing, a myriad of unexpected shifts reveal a brilliant sonic universe."
- Mary Halvorson

Mossy Kilcher’s 1977 Private Press Double-LP ‘Northwind Calling’ out digitally worldwide via Tompkins Square, July 10

Hear/Post A Track: https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/coyotes-cry-by-mossy-kilcher (some related tracks after that)

Over the years, unearthed folk records by lost sirens have made their way beyond hardcore collectors into the collective consciousness of the indie music-buying public: Vashti Bunyan, Linda Perhacs, Sibylle Baier, Tia Blake, Connie Converse, to name a few.

One such artist recorded a self-released (and now, very expensive) double LP in 1977, issued under her name at the time - Mossy Davidson - mainly for her family and friends. What sets Mossy Kilcher apart from the other Lost Women of Song is that she is from . . . Alaska. And the album is a love letter to the land outside of Homer where her family built a homestead and lived as pioneers beginning in the late 1930’s, and where she resides to this day.

Some may remember the Kilchers from a reality show, ‘Alaska: The Last Frontier,’ which premiered on Discovery Channel in December 2011. A musical family, the Kilchers also produced Alaska’s most successful recording artist of all time, Mossy’s niece, Jewel. Jewel lived with Mossy at Seaside Farm in Homer as a teenager. “Jewel would be my horse-riding sidekick, helping me out on the farm,” Mossy said. The two performed together on a televised Christmas special filmed in Nashville in 2016.

Musically, ‘Northwind Calling’ is fascinating all on its own, even without the backstory. The gentle accompaniment of 12 and 6-string guitar, harmonica, banjo, flute and piano is so sympathetic and exquisitely placed. Mossy’s reedy woodwind of a voice is full of feeling and seemingly untainted by and firmly outside the era’s commercial singer-songwriter machinery or conventions. A tinge of unintended psychedelia and natural sound effects take it all over the top.

Tompkins Square’s Josh Rosenthal made a special trip with his daughters to Homer last summer and spent time with Mossy at Seaside Farm. It was an unforgettable experience, and the beauty of Mossy’s album coupled with the natural surroundings and Kilcher Homestead - it all came together. Tompkins Square is very proud to bring this album to many more ears – in Alaska and all around the world!
----------------
From the original liner notes:

These songs are for you ~

My dear children, family, and friends, and for all who have felt the enchantment of the North Country ~

for my 7 sisters and brothers
and the close times we shared singing together ~

songs of our hopes and dreams,
and the adventures of growing up in a log cabin in the wilderness ~

where we learned to make our own music

~ singing along with the music of nature
~ with the coyote's cry,
and the calling of the seabirds ~

for times of travelling by
horse and wagon
along the beach of
Kachemak Bay ~

where the Fox Sparrow sings high above the windy shore ~

where the eagle soars ~

and where the melody of the Hermit Thrush echoes
from the deep, wild canyons
and mossy forests ~

the true music of Alaska~

for my pioneer parents, Ruth and Yule,
who came from Switzerland
to homestead in Alaska in the 1940's ~
and who taught us the folksongs of the old country ~

for the last wild places where someday our children also may go to daydream and explore nature,
for the salmon returning,
for the old timers who have gone,
for all who live close to the land,
for the seasons and the times ever changing ~

Love,
Mairiis (Mossy)

Exciting things happening today ! It's June 19th (Juneteenth), and bandcamp is donating its revenue share to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. We will match their % of today's sales and donate it to the NAACP as well. Among the new offerings on our bandcamp page :

> North Carolina guitarist Josh Kimbrough's new album, Slither, Soar & Disappear is out today !

> Several catalog titles added to our bandcamp page for the first time, including albums by Charles Gayle, Giuseppi Logan and Teodross Avery (duo album w/Marvin "Bugalu" Smith (Sun Ra, Archie Shepp))

> A digital pdf booklet designed by Grammy-winner Susan Archie has been added to No Other Love : Midwest Gospel 1965-1978. We add this today because the notes by producer Ramona Stout are extremely powerful and relevant right now.

> Thanks to many of you, we have raised many thousands of dollars for causes in Minneapolis in the aftermath of destructive fires through bandcamp purchases of Out of the Ashes : A Benefit Album for Minneapolis. If you have not purchased it yet, today is a great day to do so, because you will be supporting Migizi (Native American org whose facility was destroyed), ABEP (Black businesses torched by white supremacists) AND the NAACP. 100% of proceeds will go to those organizations.

It's all happening today on bandcamp.

Thanks as always for your support !

> "Sky Breaking, Clouds Falling" from Brooklyn-based guitarist Mason Lindahl is available on every digital platform, worldwide. His Tompkins Square debut album will be out October 16th (Digital/ Ltd Ed LP).

Bandcamp Spotify Apple Amazon Tidal

> Several catalog titles added to our bandcamp page for the first time, including albums by Michael Chapman, Roland White and Sonny Clark.https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/
Also got all of https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/imaginational-anthem-vol-x-overseas-edition
and xpost thee amazing D-D-D-Dave Miller, Brothers and Sisters! https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/dave-miller

Robbie Basho - Selections from Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes - Vinyl LP Exclusively Available at Independent Record Stores for Record Store Day (Drop #2), September 26th

Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what's commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho's path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of musicians, from William Ackerman and Pete Townshend to Ben Chasny and William Tyler.

Liam Barker first became aware of Basho having purchased Tompkins Square's reissue of Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho's life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film, Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho.

During the research process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes recorded throughout his career, ranging roughly from 1965-1985. By arrangement with Basho's Estate and the original custodians of the tapes, Tompkins Square is set to release Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material, on December 4th, 2020. The set includes notes by Barker, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Glenn Jones and Richard Osborn, as well as many unseen photographs.

Selections from Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes vinyl LP will be exclusively available at independent record stores worldwide on September 26th. The best way to obtain a copy is to ask your favorite record store in advance if they plan to carry the set. A full list of participating record stores is HERE.https://recordstoreday.com/Stores

TSQ 5722 - Robbie Basho / Selections from Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes - vinyl LP

Some goood shit here, good range too, don't sleep on Roscoe and Roland:
The following CD's are $6 each thru Friday, October 30 !! :

Polk Miller & His Old South Quartette
(Grammy-nominated historical set. Mark Twain-approved)
Face A Frowning World : An E.C. Ball Memorial Album
(w/Michael Hurley, Jon Langford, Bonnie "Prince" Billy)
Philip Lewin - Am I Really Here All Alone ?
Charles Gayle - Time Zones
Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye
Roscoe Holcomb -San Diego State Folk Festival 1972
Max Ochs - Hooray For Another Day
Imaginational Anthem vol 8 : The Private Press
Bob Brown - Willoughby's Lament
(Produced by Richie Havens)
Daniel Bachman - Jesus I'm A Sinner
Tim Buckley - Live at Folklore Center, NYC - March 6, 1967
Brigid Mae Power - The Two Worlds
Harvey Mandel - Snake Pit
Duck Baker - Les Blues du Richmond : Demos & Outtakes, 1973-1979
Roland White - I Wasn't Born to Rock 'n Roll
John Hulburt - Opus III
(Reissue produced by Ryley Walker)
Lena Hughes - Queen of the Flat Top Guitar
(Liner notes by John Renbourn)
Imaginational Anthem vol. 5
(Exclusive tracks by Steve Gunn, Bill Orcutt, Daniel Bachman et al)

15th Anniversary Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uiu05uzg7qB17xNRBee7c?si=qE12oHGNS-aVD7AGi9E1uw

2020 : A Couch Odyssey is a sampling of our output thus far this year.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GUymsKmbgK6lqfQxWLut6

Lena Hughes - Queen of the Flat Top Guitar

incredible record

yeah so nice — she's on this comp, too, which scratches the same itch: https://www.discogs.com/Estil-C-Ball-Earl-Blair-Lena-Hughes-Lewis-Thomasson-Rural-Parlor-Guitar/release/12120837

Oho: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/selections-from-song-of-the-avatars-the-lost-master-tapes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2505370611_10.jpg

Oh here's thee whole:

Robbie Basho - Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes - 5CD set Available Now

All tracks previously unreleased

"I think anybody, any young guitar player that hears his music today, would be influenced by him. It's beautiful and eloquent and profound, and full of love and devotion and melancholy."
- Pete Townshend

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 - ALL MUSIC

★ ★ ★ ★ - MOJO

ORDER via Tompkins Square (US Only)

ORDER via AMAZON

NPR Morning Edition Feature

Hear 'Selections from . . .'
Spotify / Apple / Tidal / bandcamp

Robbie Basho (1940-1986) is widely regarded as one of the progenitors of what's commonly known today as American Primitive guitar. Growing up in Maryland alongside neo-traditional guitar explorers John Fahey and Max Ochs, Basho's path would take a decidedly different turn, bringing Hindi, Indian, Japanese and Native American musical traditions into his work. His albums for Takoma and Vanguard have left an indelible trail of influence across generations of musicians, from William Ackerman and Pete Townshend to Ben Chasny and William Tyler.

Liam Barker first became aware of Basho having purchased Tompkins Square's reissue of Venus in Cancer, released in 2006. This led him on an incredible fact-finding expedition, unraveling the many layers of mystery surrounding Basho's life and death, all deftly compiled and depicted in his documentary film, Voice of the Eagle : The Enigma of Robbie Basho.

During the research process, Barker came across a large cache of unheard Basho tapes recorded throughout his career, ranging roughly from 1965-1985. By arrangement with Basho's Estate and the original custodians of the tapes, Tompkins Square has released Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes, a 5CD set of previously unreleased material. The set includes notes by Barker, Henry Kaiser, Steffen Basho-Junghans, Ronnie Dawson, Glenn Jones and Richard Osborn, as well as many unseen photographs. The box set package featuring gold foil inlay, poster and extensive booklet, was designed by Barbara Bersche, known for her work on the 2009 Grammy-nominated Alan Lomax in Haiti box, as well as the new Dust-To-Digital Harry Smith B-Sides box.
https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/snbDxbbsa8kmsLVtUXEtRyaR6B7jQpgSCQwRhFtGwrT5cV6GbS3Jyi1S9_rIpID2UmT76094wNsnfA0J71XA0jE-0Et-lghR4OdnE6jTaPNWG90WlQNnIoDjNoMaoHg4gURfRqPwzuaf=s0-d-e1-ft#https://files.constantcontact.com/877158f6001/94985d17-9261-41b1-9508-7003784b554d.jpg/

SHEFFIELD UK - BASED MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST BOBBY LEE RELEASES ORIGIN MYTHS via TOMPKINS SQUARE.

March 5th digital, May 7th vinyl LP (Ltd Ed 600)
(Note : The digital version has 8 songs ; the LP will have 12 songs)

Hear/Post A Track:
https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/broken-prayer-stick
Bobby Lee trades in a wide screen brand of cosmic country-folk, full of space and pawn shop guitars. There are touches of JJ Cale's analogue Americana, the swampy groove of Tony Joe White and Richard Thompson's sinewy, modal guitar work. Amps hum in the warm afternoon sun, kids and dogs snooze on the grass and broken drum machines keep time with the universe…Open sky/scorched earth improvisations recorded to four track tape during the rare moments of solitude afforded by lockdown and early fatherhood. Bobby Lee’s “worn-denim psych-country” remains, but the ancestral spirits of Ashra, Popol Vuh and Terry Riley are present here too. Time and technological limitations have been embraced. A song dreamt up, tracked and mixed in an afternoon, never to be tampered with again. Imperfections allowed to stand; knowing that nothing is ever truly finished. The Bob Ross school of philosophy.

“Overdriven drum-machine low slung choogle" - MOJO

“The further Bobby unmoors himself from songs and heads towards long-form abstraction, the more engrossing it becomes” - UNCUT

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3484584777_10.jpg

Robbie Basho - Song of the Avatars : The Lost Master Tapes sold out in a flash. Today, the entire 5CD set is available via bandcamp. Download includes a pdf of the 48p booklet.
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/song-of-the-avatars-the-lost-master-tapes

https://www.npr.org/2020/12/04/940190972/song-of-the-avatars-resurrects-guitarist-robbie-bashos-lost-recordings

Happy 70th Birthday, Will Beeley ! To mark the occasion, we are releasing 1970 Sessions exclusively via bandcamp today. https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/1970-sessions (A portion of proceeds will benefit hunger relief in NM and TX) This album was recorded as the follow up to Gallivantin', and never heard until today.

OurGallivantin' reissue and Will's 2018 "comeback" LP Highways & Heart Attacks are both on sale today via bandcamp.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/13/741391179/will-beeley-on-trucking-and-songwriting

That Bobby Lee record is great. Kinda came outta nowhere

Tompkins Square label's Spring Sale !
Thru April 30, grab $5 CDs

"Not undermining records, but CDs are just plain cool.”
- Ryley Walker

All hail the CD. We still love 'em. Take advantage of our Spring Sale.

Buying is EASY. Select the items you want, add them up, and PayPal us the total using this link. List the items you want in your PayPal notes. Shipping is FREE in the US ! Add $15 for Canada. Add $25 everywhere else.

**A minimum order of two items is required for this sale **

The following CDs are $5 each, this week only :

Harvey Mandel - Snake Pit
Gwenifer Raymond - Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain
Tim Buckley - Live at the Folklore Center, 1967
Will Beeley - Gallivantin'
Harry Taussig - Fate Is Only Once
Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye
Roland White - I Wasn't Born to Rock & Roll . . .
Duck Baker - Les Blues du Richmond : 73-79
Imaginational Anthem vol. 8 : The Private Press
Philip Lewin - Am I Really Here All Alone ?
Will Beeley - Highways & Heart Attacks
Harry Taussig - Fate Is Only Twice
Spencer Moore - s/t
Richard Osborn - Endless
Polk Miller - & His Old South Quartette
Sam Burton - I Can Go With You
Bob Brown - Willoughby's Lament
John Hulburt - Opus III
Brigid Mae Power - The Two Worlds
Ryley Walker Presents Imaginational Anthem vol 9
Daniel Bachman - Jesus I'm A Sinner

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Recents:
Bobby Lee
Mason Lindahl
Will Beeley
Gwenifer Raymond
Robbie Basho

Listen to songs from many of our releases via SoundCloud

link for sale: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/TompkinsSquare

harry taussig -fate is only twice is a good un

LONDON-BASED MUSICAL POLYMATH ELSA HEWITT RELEASES 'LUPA'

VINYL LP on Tompkins Square

Listen / download / pre-order LP via bandcamp
https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/lupa
released April 30, 2021

Elsa Hewitt is a London-based music producer and writer hailing from Sussex, via Yorkshire. Beginning as a young singer-songwriter producing demos on a four-track, she progressed through fronting post-punk bands and solo electronic songwriting, all the while developing a passion for album-making which would ultimately lead her to electronic production, establishing her name producing avant-garde, experimental & ambient, leftfield dance, and lo-fi, psychedelia. Since her 2017 official debut ‘Cameras From Mars’, stepping onto the scene as a Future Bubbler and Lynsey de Paul Prize winner, Hewitt has amassed a series of distinct yet interlinked philosophical worlds; each one holding its own tones of joyful beauty and abstract darkness. With a boundless approach to merging elements of dance & ambient, Hewitt’s adventurous approach remains pinned by her earthy voice, idiosyncratic songwriting style and sharply poetic lyricism.

Tompkins v. generous w streams on bandcamp.

RECORD STORE DAY NEWS !

Tompkins Square will release Ruthann Friedman - Hurried Life : Lost Recordings 1965-1971 for Record Store Day (NA) July 17th, 2021 (Aug 20th outside NA)

Limited edition of 1000
Her first music on vinyl LP since 1969 !
"Windy blue" colored vinyl

This LP will be available exclusively at independent retail stores for Record Store Day. Find a participating store near you here.https://recordstoreday.com/Stores

In 1967, the folk-pop group The Association had a massive hit with a song called “Windy” penned by an unknown young woman named Ruthann Friedman. Two years later, she released her own album Constant Companion on Warner/Reprise Records that sounded nothing like “Windy” – it had more in common with her labelmate Joni Mitchell or cult-hero Linda Perhacs. Decades later, Ruthann would be declared an “astral folk goddess” and championed by the likes of Devendra Banhart.

Around that time, reissue producer Pat Thomas compiled a collection of previously unreleased demos, home recordings, and lost songs circa 1965-1971 from Ruthann's personal archive including the original version of "Windy."

Titled Hurried Life, Ruthann recently declared, “That’s the one that I really like - that was the first time going back into the archives to find songs that might be reissued. I think those were representative of me.”

** HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RUTHANN who turns 77 today (July 6th) ! **

Notes by Pat Thomas
Produced for reissue by Nathaniel Russell and Pat Thomas

1. Hurried Life
2. That's All Right
3. Sky Is Moving South
4. Looking Glass
5. Silver Bird
6. Between the Lines
7. I'm Askin'
8. Windy
9. Typical Sunday
10. Southern Comfortable
11. Alone At Last
12. Boy Took A Ticket
13. Method Madness
14. Little Girl Lost & Found
15. To Treat A Friend
Limited Ed LP : TSQ 5814
Tompkins Square is distributed in NA by Ingrooves and Revolver, Cargo UK for Europe
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NEW : Russell Potter reissues -
A Stone's Throw (1979) / Neither Here Nor There (1981)

This LP will be available exclusively at independent retail stores for Record Store Day

for Record Store Day (NA) July 17th, 2021 (Aug 20th outside NA)

Cool. This stupid fucking "holiday".

The recent Russell Potter is streaming here: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/a-stones-throw
Buy one or both of RUSSELL POTTER's private press LPs via our site or bandcamp, get a FREE CD of Imaginational Anthem vol 8 : The Private Press - the one that started it all !!! - plus we'll throw in one "mystery" CD ! (Good thru Aug 27)

BUY Russell Potter's LPs via bandcamp / via Tompkins Square

PRAISE FOR RUSSELL POTTER :

“One listen to Potter’s lone albums will make you wish the guitarist’s recording career hadn't ended so abruptly. His playing is articulate but warm, proficient yet soulful.” - Vintage Guitar

“He’s a deft guitarist putting his own youthful spin on the music, combining the processional melodies of UK folk with the rawer dirges and dissonance of Appalachian music.” - UNCUT

"Both are fantastic. The earlier LP is crackling with energy and the excitable spirit of someone who has cracked a musical code and wants to share his findings with the world. The latter is much more controlled and contained as Potter’s studies of his chosen instrument allowed him to explore more textured compositions and traditional folk music from Europe.”
- PASTE

"Two excellent and obscure guitar soli LPs from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Russell Potter showed up a few years ago on the mind-bending Imaginational Anthem: The Private Press, and it’s great to hear more from his fertile imagination. On this pair of albums, Potter proves himself to be an extremely versatile player — there’s 12-string mysticism a la Basho, warm Kottke-ish moments, glances across the pond at Renbourn and Jansch … Whatever he gets up to, there’s always a sense of playfulness and a lightness of touch. Most interesting of all is the electrified, almost punk-ish rendition of Fahey’s “Dance of the Inhabitants.” Kind of hilarious, but kind of awesome, too.”
- Tyler Wilcox (Doom & Gloom / Aquarium Drunkard)

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The latest in a series of reissues spawned from Imaginational Anthem Volume 8 : The Private Press, following Conklin/Blum - Jackdaw, Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye, and Rick Deitrick - Gentle Wilderness/River Sun River Moon.

Limited Ed LPs (500)
A Stone's Throw - TSQ5791 / Neither Here Nor There - TSQ 5807

PRE-ORDER Rick Deitrick - Coyote Canyon - out Aug 27th !!
bandcamp /Tompkins Square

Bola Sete - Samba in Seattle : Live at the Penthouse, 1966-1968 - a 3CD set of previously unreleased live recordings. Available worldwide December 3, 2021 via Tompkins Square.

Bola Sete - Samba in Seattle : Live at the Penthouse, 1966-1968 is the first official release of the legendary and influential Brazilian acoustic guitarist BOLA SETE's live recordings at the Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, WA featuring bassist SEBASTIÃO NETO and drummer PAULINHO MAGALHÃES.

Produced by Grammy-nominated jazz detective Zev Feldman, and remastered from the original tape reels in cooperation with The Bola Sete Estate, this deluxe 3-CD set includes an extensive 40 page booklet with rare photos from The Penthouse; essay by music critic Greg Casseus (aka Greg Caz); new interviews and statements by guitar icon Carlos Santana, legendary composer/pianist Lalo Schifrin, Sete's friend, pianist and producer, George Winston, and Bola Sete's widow Anne Sete; plus an effusive tribute by the late guitar great John Fahey.

Samba in Seattle is a significant addition to the recorded legacy of an oft–sampled musician (A Tribe Called Quest, J Dilla and Dan The Automator) whose career straddled bossa nova, jazz–pop and early New Age.

TSQ5852

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osLby9iruK8

Rick Deitrick - Coyote Canyon - Available TODAY
on every digital platform worldwide and on Ltd Ed Vinyl LP (500) (TSQ5838)

BUY LP via bandcamp
BUY LP via Tompkins Square

Coyote Canyon is the fourth Rick Deitrick album released by Tompkins Square, and the eighth album of guitar music spawned from the label's 2016 album, Imaginational Anthem vol. 8 : The Private Press. Others include Conklin/Blum - Jackdaw, Tom Armstrong - The Sky Is An Empty Eye, Rick Deitrick - Gentle Wilderness, Homegrown and River Sun River Moon, and Russell Potter - A Stone’s Throw and Neither Here Nor There.

Coyote Canyon was recorded 1972-1975 (except "Three Sisters" recorded 1999)

From Rick :

Coyote Canyon is a wilderness area behind my daughter's house where coyotes gather and howl before taking off for their nightly foraging. Little Tujunga (pronounced "Tuhunga") is a river running through the Angeles Forest near a house I lived in five decades ago. Half my ideas for this piece came from onshore guitar ruminating. The rest was improvised in studio. Emma was my close and sweet companion during this period, a lifelong deep friend. I composed her song one evening at the kitchen table of our place while she was cooking. Tumbleweedin' describes a desert tumbleweed storm. I menaced every inch of the Yamaha, recreating the effect of these windblown monsters screeching along boulders, smacking into cactus and anything else in their way at often impossible speeds, following the whims of the heavy winds. This song was completely improvised at the moment in studio and forgotten. Roy's Rain is a tribute to my great good friend and musician killed in a car accident in 1973. I found For Marsha (Version 2) on a well-worn studio tape. It's a variant of the same composition on the Gentle Wilderness album. I like this loose and flowy version. Movin' On has one thing on its mind -- getting away fast and now. Going Home is my improvised take on an American root song. The above seven were recorded between 1972-1975. Three Sisters was recorded on a 20-minute studio break in 1999 describing three barren red hills somewhere in the Arizona desert, a cherished location.