Missed some great music in January? Check out the RGM Spotify playlist.
January was a busy month at RGM with loads of news, new albums and tours announced. If you've missed anything, or just have a hunger to check out some new music, why not take a listen to our first Spotify Playlist that showcases artists featured during the month.
2018 got off to a great start with the arrival of the first EP by Walker McGuire and continued with strong releases from Glen Hansard, Mary Gauthier, Althea Grace and the debut from Dane Joneshill. Amongst the newcomers featured in January were folk duo Percival Elliott who bought us 'Forever' which bodes well for an upcoming album and multi-national country/pop duo O&O released a new single. Elsewhere Norwegian Torgeir Waldemar won't release his new album in the UK until March but for those of you who prefer things with a little more rock edge 'Streets' should fit the bill. On the soundtrack front, 'American Folk' looks like a cool film and the soundtrack is folktastic. January concluded for RGM with a trip down to Islington Assembly Hall to catch Deer Tick play two sets, one quiet and one not so quiet which was pretty cool. February is just around the corner and who knows what'll turn up, all I do know is a new favourite song/artist is waiting to be discovered.
To quote John Surge, “These five songs represent a real cross-section of the music we make”. John is referencing a new EP aptly titled, ‘Maybe You Don’t Know Me’. The ‘Almost Time’ album from last year was well received, but Surge still had a host of material that wasn’t quite right for that record but worked well in his live set. A live set that had gotten John noticed on the LA country scene in the first place. Surge re-connected with highly regarded Texas producer Tommy Detamore {Doug Sahm, Jim Lauderdale, Sunny Sweeney, Jesse Daniel} and reenlisted many of the ‘Almost Time’ crew including his right-hand Haymaker guitarist Randy Volin, plus Brennen Leigh on harmony vocals, Brad Fordham (Dave Alvin/Hayes Carll) on bass, Tom Lewis (Junior Brown/Raul Malo) on drums and Floyd Domino (Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard) on keyboards.