Press Release

Music Road Records Unveils New Website, Hones Innovative Business Model and Adds To Impressive Roster

Heralds Summer 2010 Releases from Stonehoney and Kevin Welch

Music Road Records, Austin, TX - Music Road Records (MRR) launches a new website at www.musicroadrecords.com with an exciting roster of artists and upcoming releases. With their involvement in the Cherokee Creek Festival and their commitment to representing artists with integrity, MRR has established itself as a trusted resource for great music and hard-working artists.

Musician Jimmy LaFave, recording engineer Fred Remmert and Dallas businessman Kelcy Warren founded Music Road Records in 2007. Realizing that the traditional idea of a record label had changed, the three saw an opportunity to create a more collaborative and healthy partnership between artists and labels. They developed their business model to provide a multi-faceted support system for their artists. They also focus on high-quality projects about which they are passionate, only working with what Warren calls "true artists." The result is a brand with heart, smarts and faith in the superb music they represent.

MRR owns and operates two Texas-based recording facilities: Cedar Creek Recording in Austin and Cherokee Creek Recording in the Texas Hill Country. These studios are utilized by artists on the MRR roster, along with such notable artists as The Dixie Chicks, Shawn Colvin, Reckless Kelly, Ben Kweller and Cross Canadian Ragweed.

As a way to help the community, partner Kelcy Warren founded Cherokee Crossroads, Inc. in 2007 as a nonprofit organization to raise money for children’s charities and local public service organizations by hosting an annual music festival in Cherokee, Texas. The 2010 Cherokee Creek Festival was held on May 14-15 and saw nearly double the attendance from last year, raising over $100,000 to benefit children in Texas and across the country. Featured performers included all of the MRR artists, as well as Paul Thorn and Bob Schneider, Delbert McClinton and Robert Earl Keen.

This summer, MRR is presenting The Cedar Creek Sessions, the debut record from country rock band Stonehoney. Comprised of veteran songwriter/musicians David Phenicie, Nick Randolph, Shawn Davis and Phil Hurley, the group started out as a "songwriters in the round" and quickly became a special blend of country, rock and folk tied together with unbelievable harmonies. Also released this summer is Patch of Blue Sky, the first solo offering in eight years from respected singer-songwriter Kevin Welch as well as Jimmy LaFave’s Favorites 1992-2001, choice songs from Jimmy’s days on Bohemia Beat Records.

These releases and more will be available on MRR's new website, with a one-stop digital store offering all the great music for which MRR is known and other items to cement their brand identity. Completing MRR's current roster are Slaid Cleaves and Sam Baker. “This is not a vanity label,” says LaFave. “We’re talking about real artists. Our guys are on the road, playing house concerts, arenas and clubs. And we want to help them get their music out there.”

Music Road Records has the desire and drive to support their artists on their terms, and the result is a future of fantastic releases. For more information and to purchase merchandise, visitwww.musicroadrecords.com.

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Buddy Miller

(Buddy Miller on tour with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant)

This week’s voice to hear is Buddy Miller. Buddy calls Nashville home and is an in demand session player and producer as well as a superb songwriter and singer. He also records with his wife Julie. Besides country music Buddy considers himself a Christian singer, though it might not be quite the church music you’re used to.

Buddy started out playing in a bluegrass band in high school. After traveling the country playing his guitar he ended up in New York with the Buddy Miller Band with a young Shawn Colvin singing and playing guitar. After a few years of this he ended up moving to Nashville. Along the way he met and fell in love and eventually married Julie.

Buddy is the leader of Emmylou Harris’ band and has helped produce her more recent albums. She has called Buddy one of the best guitar players of all time. He has gained fame as a songwriter, with artists such as the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack and Brooks and Dunn covering his songs.

Buddy is not just a behind the scenes person though. He has stepped out front to write and sing his own songs, as a solo act and with his wife Julie. He has released 7 albums between his solo career and with Julie.

His most recent disc is Universal United House of Prayer. It’s a country album that rocks, a protest album, a gospel album…there are many things this album could be called, among them I would call it great. This is a theme album and the theme is the soul. He writes of the problems the word is facing today and their impact it has on the soul. The centerpiece of the album is his covering the Bob Dylan classic “With God on Our Side.”

Even more recent Buddy has produced a new album for soul great Solomon Burke called Nashville. His album Universal United House of Prayer won the 2005 Album of the Year award from the Americana Music Awards. Currently he's touring with Allison Krauss and Robert Plant. The final issue of the great Americana Magazine No Depression named him the Artist of the Decade.

Buddy is widely sought after for his musical skills and knowledge, both as a guitar player and a producer in Nashville. He continues to tour with Emmylou Harris and record with others as well as put out his own music and record with his wife Julie. It’s been a few years since he put out his last album so hopefully he has something new coming out soon.

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.

Buddy Miller

This week’s voice to hear is Buddy Miller. Buddy calls Nashville home and is an in demand session player and producer as well as a superb songwriter and singer. He also records with his wife Julie. Besides country music Buddy considers himself a Christian singer, though it might not be quite the church music you’re used to.

Buddy started out playing in a bluegrass band in high school. After traveling the country playing his guitar he ended up in New York with the Buddy Miller Band with a young Shawn Colvin singing and playing guitar. After a few years of this he ended up moving to Nashville. Along the way he met and fell in love and eventually married Julie.

Buddy is the leader of Emmylou Harris’ band and has helped produce her more recent albums. She has called Buddy one of the best guitar players of all time. He has gained fame as a songwriter, with artists such as the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack and Brooks and Dunn covering his songs.

Buddy is not just a behind the scenes person though. He has stepped out front to write and sing his own songs, as a solo act and with his wife Julie. He has released 7 albums between his solo career and with Julie.

His most recent disc is Universal United House of Prayer. It’s a country album that rocks, a protest album, a gospel album…there are many things this album could be called, among them I would call it great. This is a theme album and the theme is the soul. He writes of the problems the word is facing today and their impact it has on the soul. The centerpiece of the album is his covering the Bob Dylan classic “With God on Our Side.”

Even more recent Buddy has produced a new album for soul great Solomon Burke called Nashville. His album Universal United House of Prayer won the 2005 Album of the Year award from the Americana Music Awards.

Buddy is widely sought after for his musical skills and knowledge, both as a guitar player and a producer in Nashville. He continues to tour with Emmylou Harris and record with others as well as put out his own music and record with his wife Julie. It’s been a few years since he put out his last album so hopefully he has something new coming out soon.

Patty Griffin

This week’s voice to hear has been recording since the mid nineties. She’s had a fair share of acceptance, her most recent album debuted at #34 on the charts, but she still is far from a household name. She’s Patty Griffin, currently living in Austin Texas and one of the most accomplished singer/songwriters currently working.

Her newest album Children Running Through was released in February of this year and a lot of magazine critics were already calling it the best album of the year, only two months in the year, but they felt it was such a strong album. Patty has always been a great singer, but on her new album her voice goes places she’s never visited before to bring the emotion for these songs. The album is more a stripped down affair, with some horns and strings, that bring to mind classic R&B and gospel music.

One of the songs from her new album “Up To The Mountain” was sung by Kelly
Clarkson on the special edition of American Idol with guitar accompaniment by Jeff
Beck. Patty’s songs have been widely covered by other artists. The Dixie Chicks have sung three of her songs on their albums. Other artists that have covered her material are Martina McBride, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, Solomon Burke and Bette Midler.

Patty was living in Boston waiting tables and taking guitar lessons when her teacher persuaded her to accompany him on stage one night. This helped her overcome the stage fright she had and enabled her to start performing in public. She soon landed a spot at A&M Records and her first album Living With Ghosts. The album was basically her stripped down demos released after trying to cut more elaborate studio versions failed. Her next album Flaming Red brought more sound to her songs and was somewhat of a surprise to her fans after hearing the more low key first album.

Her next album became a casualty of the ever changing world of the music business. The album was recorded in 2000 and was never released. Two years later she signed with Dave Matthews’ label and released the folk inspired mostly acoustic album 1000 Kisses. This was followed shortly by a live CD/DVD A Kiss In Time.

2004 she came out with a new album entitled Impossible Dream. “Top of the World” from this album was covered by the Dixie Chicks and the song “Kite” was used in the television show Joan of Arcadia in one of the best uses of a song for a show I think.

Her current album came out at the start of this year and is considered to be her best music to date. Her singing has never been better and the album finds her mixing gospel and R&B influences with her folk leanings. While I think it is too early in the year to call it the best album of the year like some critics have already done so I will safely concede that it will be one of the top albums of the year.

"Kites"