Tommy Malone Of the Subdudes Signs With M.C. Records

First Solo Recording In 12 Years To Be Released in June

Northport N.Y. - M.C. Records is proud to announce the signing of the lead voice and guitarist of the Subdudes, Tommy Malone. His first solo recording in 12 years is slated for a June release and will feature Tommy's outstanding songwriting, inviting vocals and amazing guitar playing. He will be touring throughout 2013 to promote the new album.

The sessions for the new album were recorded in New Orleans and produced and mixed by 10 Time Grammy Award winner John Porter (Buddy Guy, Keb Mo, B.B. King, R.L. Burnside, Ryan Adams). On the new recording Tommy Malone works with some of New Orleans finest ; Drums - Doug Belote,

Bass - David Hyde, Guitar - Shane Theriot and Keys - Jon Cleary.

Tommy Malone has had a musical love affair with fans for over 30 years. As the 'heart and center' front man of the legendary Americana act The Subdudes, he has carved his way as a gifted singer, player and songwriter with a distinctive musical voice.

In Tommy’s solo band, as lead guitarist and singer, he punctuates soulful, heart-felt vocals with playing that is at turns joyful, incendiary and melancholic.
A musician’s musician, he has recorded with Rosanne Cash, Shawn Colvin and Anders Osborne, and has impacted markets with hit other projects including Tiny Town and the Continental Drifters.

Tommy's songs have been recorded by Joe Cocker, The Radiators, Tab Benoit and many others, but it’s his ability to perform his own stories and turn them into vivid musical images that sets him apart from other performers.

Click on the photo to check out the new song, "Home" recorded earlier this year at Tipitina's.

Tommy has a new website.

http://tommymalone.net

Anders Osborne: Black Tar

Anders Osborne: Louisiana Gold

Video Wednesday

Today we feature Anders Osborne.

Video Wednesday:

Anders Osborne and his three man band.

French Quarter Fest: Anders Osborne

Anders Osborne closed out the day on Saturday at the Abita Beer Stage.  From his last appearance at Jazz Fest Anders has changed his appearance somewhat.  He now sports a full beard.  But whatever his appearance Anders provides a great show of music.  He has a new album, American Patchwork coming out in time for this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  He opened with a song from the album "On the Road to Charlie Parker."

In a recent issue of Offbeat Anders talks about his drug problems and his coming clean and that his new music is a reflection of that.  Anders was originally from Sweden and as a young man made New Orleans his home.  Since than he's released some great music and works part time in Nashville as a song writer.  Tim McGraw's number one song "Watch The Wind Blow By" was written by Anders.

Anders band consisted of him on guitar, a drummer and a sousaphone player.  No other guitars were on stage.  But you'd never know it, the band rocked.  Anders mixes rock, funk, americana and blues all into a gumbo that's uniquely his own.  He slowed things down with his crowd favorite "Louisiana Rain."

At the end he brought out Brian Stolz to play on a couple songs with him.  The two traded licks back and forth.

SONG OF THE DAY

Today we feature an artist from this past weekend's French Quarter Fest.  Anders Osborne singing his "Louisiana Rain" from the 2004 live Jazz Fest album.

Amanda Shaw

She’s Not A Bubble Gum Pop Princess

She’s just 17. She’s cute. She sings. She’s from Louisiana. You probably think you know who I’m talking about, but you’re wrong. It’s Amanda Shaw. This young girl is a far cry from the processed music of Brittney. Amanda plays cajun music with a fiddle. She covers everything from a traditional cajun song to a cover of Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” to the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go?”.

She’s been playing for years and she’s only 17 now. This last year marked her third appearance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. She’s a popular favorite. Her excitement on this live album is infectious, you can tell she is having the best time of her life up there on the stage singing and talking to the audience. She’s released two of her live shows from the Jazz Fest. On her studio album she sings songs in French and then turns around and sings the punk classic by the Clash.

She’s recently been signed to Rounder Records and has just released a new studio album last week. Rounder has paired her with some veteran singer/songwriters from Louisiana like Shannon McNally and Anders Osborne to work on material for this album. Before this she had released two cds on small independent labels. Her previous album was entitled “I’m Not A Bubble Gum Pop Princess” and covers songs from traditional Cajun music as well as songs from the Ramones and the Clash.

Amanda picked up the violin at the age of three and started to play. At the age of seven she’s the youngest person to solo with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Amanda’s early training on the violin was in a classical mode, but she soon discovered Cajun music and found her true calling. She’s appeared on the Rosie O’Donnell show and starred in two Disney movies.

The mention of Disney shows how her path diverged from another Louisiana singer. Amanda decided that movies was not the path she wanted to go in and went back to her music. Amanda wants to focus on her music and not the celebrity that goes along with it.

She was featured in the 2006 IMAX movie “Hurricane on the Bayou” alongside other local artists. If you ever have a chance to see her live don’t miss it. She puts on one of the most fun shows you’ll see.

The Best of 2007

I'm not going to make a top ten list, because there's no way I could make a list like that. My top picks change day to day, sometimes within the hour. One day I would swear to you a certain album is the best album of the year, catch me the next day and I'll be telling you it's a different album. So what I'm going to do here is just list what I think some of the best albums of the year were. This list will continue throughout the month, as I remember other ablums that were put out this year. If you have any suggestions feel free to comment.

1. Lori McKenna "Unglamarous"

If I was going to make a top ten, this would be somewhere in that top ten. Lori has been a favorite of mine for years, her music has been coming out on small labels until this year. Faith Hill discovered her and recorded three of her songs for her last album and that led Lori to a big label contract with Tim McGraw producing the album. They did a pretty good job of not over producing the music and trying to make her fit into what's hip. It's not my favorite album by Lori, but it's still very good and better than a lot of stuff out there.


2. Jesse Malin "Glitter in the Gutter"
This is Jesse's third solo album. He was the lead singer of the punk group D-Generation. Anyone following him from that group looking for the same will be surprised. Here he's making pop more in the vain of Ryan Adams than the loud angry punk from his former group. Ryan had a hand in this album, as in the previous three. One song "Broken Radio" is a duet with Bruce Springsteen. Jesse writes some really good story songs and his album actually is filled with a lot of hope.

3. Maria McKee "Late December"
Maria started off in the americana group Lone Justice when she was barely out of her teens. The group was destined for super stardom but never seemed to make it. Since the break up of the band she has recorded several excellent solo albums. One of her early songs ended up on the Dixie Chicks first album, giving her the financial freedom to record how she wants. She is not content to merely stick to one genre. One ablum will be her roots rock, the next could be labeled alternative. This album is almost threatrical, close to opera in some instances. Maria has a voice that can pull just about any style of music off. I enjoyed this album but I have to admit I'm more of a fan of her roots rock style.

4. Susan Cowsill Band "Live at Carrollton Station: Covered In Vinyl Series Vol. 1"
Susan is a favorite of mine. She's been around years, from the family band, The Cowsills, to the New Orlean's based Contintental Drifters, to finally her own solo career. She's still based out of New Orleans and at the local club Carrollton Station she does a monthly show where her band covers an album from someone else. They do the entire album at the show. This is cuts from different shows where she covered Joni Mitchell, Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zepplin. Hopefully this is just the first in what will be a series of releases. I'd like to see a release of one entire show, where she redoes the entire album.

5. Amanda Shaw "Pretty Runs Out"
Amanda is another local favorite and this is her big label debut. She's a 17 year old fiddle playing sensation. She's released two previous albums on small local labels until Rounder Records decided to grab her up. This is a good album, but not the Amanda Shaw album I was hoping for. It starts off good, with the title song, as close to theme song for Brittney as could be written. Rounder wisely teamed Amanda up with some veteran local artists in helping her craft some songs, Shannon McNally and Anders Osborne each have a hand in writing some of the material on this album. But they also try to make Amanda into a more contemporary vocalist, singing material written by popsmith Dianne Warren. In concert she does covers by such artists as the Clash and Charlie Daniels, it would have been nice to see that ability to stretch more on this album.
6. Elizabeth Cook "Balls"
The title for this album is short for the song "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman". This is straight ahead old fashioned country music produced by Rodney Crowell.

Theresa Andersson

She put out one of the best albums of the year in 2006, but most people have never heard of her. Outside New Orleans she is hardly known, if at all, by most listeners. Her name is Theresa Andersson and she is another transplanted native to the crescent city. Originally from Sweden Theresa moved to New Orleans with her boyfriend at the time Anders Osborne. Anders is another local singer/songerwriter. After living together the two broke up and Theresa went her own way, first moving to Nashville than Austin until she finally found her way back home to New Orleans.

Theresa is a singer and multi-instrumentalist, playing everything from guitar to the banjo to her preferred choice the violin. But don’t expect sweet classical sounds to come from her violin. She makes her violin wail like a heavy metal guitarist does his guitar. Her singing style is reminiscent of Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams. She can sing anything from a sweet ballad to a more rocking tune.

To date she’s released four albums, from the debut titled Vibe to the now out of print No Regrets to Shine and her latest the self titled ep. Her most recent was supposed to be a full length but a little something called Katrina interrupted the recording process. Afterwards she decided to release what she had finished as a five song ep. This small album was one of the best pieces of music that was put out in the year 2006. Every song on it was a gem, from the Lucinda Williams cover of “Jackson” to the surprise cover of the Madonna song “Boderline”. If you’re not a fan of Madonna, don’t worry, this song does not sound anything like the Material Girl. I listened to it twice before I realized where I had heard the original song.

Theresa is not a writer of her own material, but she has a great ear for picking wonderful tunes to record. I think this is important. Too many singers want to write their own material, even if they’re not capable of it. I think it shows great wisdom for a singer nowdays to chose other writer’s material and not think they have to write all their own material.

In concert Theresa shows a lot harder rocking side than she has so far on disc. She makes her violin wail like a banashee in concert. Her version of Gillian Welch’s “I Want to Sing Rock and Roll” is a classic that deserves to be recorded.

She is currently working on a new record that should be out by the end of summer. This is a release you should mark down and make a point of getting when it comes out. If it’s half as good as her last one it will be great.

"Borderline"