Solo Acoustic Guitar

Justin Taylor's debut album "From Tienie Street" is as raw and honest as they come. Recorded with a single acoustic guitar and a single vocal, the songs were written with the intention that they would be able to stand unassisted by production. A risky and daring thing to do, since many respectable listeners crave the fullness of a band and the synergy and musicality which occurs between the various instruments. Some people, however, can hold a deep appreciation for a song in its most vulnerable and raw state, un-seduced by the temptation to become 'better'.

Folk / Alternative

Almost a solo accoustic recording. That was the idea, but a number of the tracks have gh on electric and Gary Craig joins in on almost half the recording which took place over 3 days in October, 2008. Just a couple of microphones in the room that you see to the left here and that's it– a raw and honest capturing of the songs.

Hailing from Prince Edward Island, on Canada s East Coast, 25 year-old Brooke Miller's brand of songwriting can best be described as timeless. Brooke's soothing voice bathes the listener in warmth and honey-like sweetness, while her lyrics paint vivid pictures of her life and experiences. A compelling guitarist as well, Brooke's style of acoustic playing is clear and strong, a perfect harmonic compliment to her tone.

Acoustic / Alt Folk

A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Matthew Santos is currently based in Chicago where he is becoming known as one of the Windy City’s most promising musical talents. “Matters of the Bittersweet," is a collection of 12 live solo acoustic recordings and duets with fellow band members, Aviva Jaye and Robert Tucker.

Folk

Traces of Silver was recorded and filmed in Nova Scotia, Canada in 2007 in a old barn at the Silver Glen Resort. The cd is a collection of vocal and instrumental songs with a single duet performed with Gillian Boucher.

Folk / Celtic

Andrew White - Live was released in early 2005 and was recorded by CBC Radio Canada for the Atlantic Airwaves program. While technically brilliant, his guitar work and soulful vocals is not just out to impress - it has a pleasing, highly melodic structure.

Blues / Folk

Nicholas Barron is Chicago music. He sings like those blues cats that used to play on Maxwell Street. He performs and writes a mix of Acoustic Folk, Blues and Soul music ; spiritual, real, and deeply poetic. He plays guitar in a style that is truly his own; at once percussive and highly rhythmic with big beautiful chords and in funky tunings with his original one man band attack.

Folk / Anti-Folk

Regina Spektor’s last album, 2004’s Soviet Kitsch, garnered praise from Time, Rolling Stone, Spin, Vanity Fair, The New York Times and many others. But this Russian-born, Bronx-bred singer-songwriter-pianist, who emerged from the NYC café circuit, continues to expand her vision. On Begin To Hope, produced by David Kahne (The Strokes, Sublime, Sugar Ray), she broadens here palette with electric guitar, drum machines and seductive electronic loops, finding new canvases for her provocative vocal style. Hope for pop has arrived with Regina Spektor.

Folk / Alternative

The arrangements here are kaleidoscopic and rich. "White Tooth Man" rocks with a desperate, menacing intensity while "Boy with a Coin", the album's first single, is darkly playful with a handclap hook tumbling under its cascading melody. The whole album breathes.

Folk

“There are few albums made today in which every track is exceptional.  There are few albums which the listener immediately wants to replay again and again.  But this is one of those rare albums.” — Sidestream radio program, Brisbane, Australia

Alt / Folk

In Our Nature sees González coming into his own as a songwriter – with songs that are as instantly accessible as they are brimming with darkness and brooding intensity. "I like playing with symbolism," says González. "On this album I’ve wanted to bring out the primitive aspects of human beings." In addition to González on guitar and vocals are Erik Bodin, percussion and Yukimi Nagamo, backing vocals.

Rock / Alternative

Manuok is the solo moniker of Scott Mercado, who devotes most of his time to Via Satellite, the San Diego-based band that has recently released its excellent debut, Cities are Temples. Somehow, Mercado also found time to write and record his own superb debut album at the same time, and it's as innovative and fresh as his work with Via Satellite.

Rock / Alternative

There have been other incarnations of Via Satellite. Another lead singer. Two bassists long gone. But the Via Satellite that Drew Andrews, Scott Mercado and Tim Reece currently call home has become more than an assemblage of musical talent, it’s become a brotherhood. The experimental rock symphony that the Via Satellite trio are conducting with their samplers and loops and laptops and guitars is rocketing the band past conventional musicality and into a universe all their own.

Alternative / Electronica

Out on Heap’s own label, Megaphonic, ‘Speak For Yourself’ has an almighty cast of just one, but it is a triumph of Oscar-winning proportions. Startling lead single “Hide And Seek” is already taking the States by storm.

Folk Rock

The album opens with “Fiery Crash,” which Bird describes as a superstitious incantation to protect him from plane crashes (“just a nod to mortality before you get on the plane”). As the album progresses, songs of “Dark Matter” (“do you wonder where the self resides, is it in your head or between your sides, and who will be that one who will decide its true location?), “Heretics” and “Plasticities” are sung with humor and lightness that belies their lyrical depth.