LAKE STREET DIVE BASSIST BRIDGET KEARNEY RELEASES HER FIRST SOLO ALBUM, 'WON'T LET YOU DOWN'
In the 12 years she has toured the world as a member of the soul-pop sensation Lake Street Dive, Bridget Kearney has fine-tuned many things -- voracious collaborating, acclaimed bass playing, and harmonizing to name a few. But the skill she has honed most obsessively is songwriting. While still a student at The New England Conservatory of Music, Kearney won the grand prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, a harbinger of things to come. Now, Kearney steps into the spotlight with her first solo effort, a wry, big-hearted pop album entitled Won’t Let You Down. The record, like its title, promises not to disappoint. Shades of The Beatles, Wilco, Fleetwood Mac and even Nick Cave can be detected, as the album swerves from ‘60s pop to modern indie-rock.
THE SUITCASE JUNKET RELEASES HIS FIRST FULL-LENGTH FOR SIGNATURE SOUNDS, 'PILE DRIVER'
From the salvaged sounds of American juke joints, back porches, honky tonks and rock clubs, The Suitcase Junket conjures an entirely new sound in this essential rock collection, Pile Driver. The Suitcase Junket is Matt Lorenz: artist, tinkerer, swamp yankee, one-man band. His is the road-worn voice rising over the grind of a tube-amped dumpster guitar, and the wild double pitches of throat singing. From The Suitcase Junket's penchant for thrift and ingenuity comes this full-length album -- his debut at Signature Sounds -- of original rock anthems, mountain ballads, blues manifestos and dance-hall festivity, played on instruments built of broken bottles, twisted forks, dried bones, gas cans, shoes, saw blades, a toy keyboard, and an overhead compartment’s worth of luggage.