ANGELA DESVEAUX & THE MIGHTY SHIP

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Key Tracks:....

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1. Other Side....

2. Sure Enough....

3. Hide From You....

4. The Way You Stay....

6. Mighty Ship....

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Think notes: Think version includes an exclusive bonus track,
“You To Remind Me”, a fantastic
song not available on the original Thrill
Jockey relesase.....

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Angela Desveaux…....

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Angela Desveaux was born near ..Montreal..,
but grew up in her family's home of ....Cape
Breton.., ..Nova Scotia..... ..Cape.. ..Breton..
is an island made up of small fishing towns and mountains, with a rich musical
tradition close to that of ....Ireland....
but with a strong French influence. In addition to the rich musical environment
of ....Cape.. ..Breton...., Angela’s parents were big pop
country fans so she grew up surrounded by the likes of Hank Williams, George Jones,
Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. ....

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Although she has been
living and playing in Montreal for the last few years, those maritime stories
of loss and death and those classic country tales of wrong doers and wrong
doing continue to haunt and inspire Desveaux. “The Mighty Ship” borrows its title from a traditional folk ballad
about the Titanic, but it also refers to Desveaux's Grandmother, with whom she
is very close and who sadly lost her first husband at sea. ....

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When Desveaux moved back
to ....Montreal....,
she got her start playing in country and bluegrass bands singing backing or
lead vocals, and playing a bit of guitar. She was quietly writing songs and
meeting a wide array of country musicians. It was in 2005 when she met Howard Bilerman, producer and drummer
of The Arcade Fire. He was blown
away by her voice and her songwriting and took her under his wing, introducing
her to a whole new crop of musicians. With a bit of help, Desveaux got her band
together and Bilerman began recording her debut, 2006's ‘Wandering Eyes’, released on Thrill
Jockey Records. The results were songs that combined elements of a
contemporary rock band sound with pedal steel and other instruments that
underscored her country leanings. ....

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The
Mighty Ship…....

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The band remains
primarily guitarist Mike Feuerstack
(Snailhouse, Wooden Stars), bassist Eric
Digras and drummer Gilles Castilloux.
Desveaux spent months on the road in ..Canada..,
the ..US.. and ..Europe..,
touring with artists ranging from folk to indie-rock including Bruce Cockburn, Archer Prewitt, Califone
and Howe Gelb. Through it all, Desveaux
grew confident in her role as bandleader. Her confidence and the cohesiveness
of a well-toured band are both very apparent on ‘The Mighty Ship’. It is a bold step forward for her: the song
writing is assured and, as always, her remarkable voice and range takes centre
stage. ....

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"For me, real country music focuses on the storytelling"
says
Desveaux. With her newly developed confidence as a songwriter and bandleader,
the stories she tells on ‘The Mighty
Ship’ are ones of strength in the face of adversity, including the story of
her grandmother on the album’s title track, a young girl struggling to define
herself on “For Design” and her own
self-affirmation on “Red Alert”. ....

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Desveaux and her band
recorded the album at Castilloux's Treatment
Room studio in their ....Montreal....
neighbourhood. She asked Dave Draves
to handle the recording, struck by the clarity of sound on his recordings for Wooden Stars, Kathleen Edwards and Howe
Gelb's ‘‘Sno Angel Like You’.
Songs are decorated with her beloved country flavours of pedal steel, piano and
viola, but new to the mix are flourishes of horns, and a bolder interaction
between rhythm and lead guitar. Also striking are Desveaux’s vocal harmonies
with Feuerstack, whose voice is familiar to many from his ‘Juno’ Award-winning work in Wooden
Stars. ....

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While on ‘Wandering Eyes’ Desveaux claimed the
influence of great women of country music like Gillian Welch and Lucinda
Williams, she now points to Chrissy
Hynde, Wayne Coyne and Neil Young as sources of inspiration.
These bolder rock influences are apparent on ‘The Mighty Ship’ in her lead vocal choices and her guitar playing,
as well as her arrangements. These bolder influences compliment Angela Desveaux’s strong sense of
melody, her incredible voice and her abilities as a storyteller. ‘The Mighty Ship’. Mighty Indeed! ....

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Press…....

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“Angela Desveaux reconciles the bluer-than-blue tone of
old-time country with the sun-kissed pastels of classic ....California.... rock – pulling off that
alchemical fusion with a guileless grace seldom seen among more doctrinaire
alt-country troops” – Harp ....

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“Manages to stand out among the constant stream of
alt-country records with similar pedigrees… these songs are so fleshy and real
that it’s a simmering triumph” – Magnet ....

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For
more information go to www.angeladesveaux.com....

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WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY TOURING OZ & NZ IN SEPTEMBER!

WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND TOUR!

Robert Fisher, the singer, songwriter, bandleader and mythmaker behind America's great Willard Grant Conspiracy, will be making his way to Australia and New Zealand in September to showcase songs from their incredible new album, 'Pilgrim Road'.

'Pilgrim Road' continues Fisher's journey down the deep, dark path of Gothic Americana. This time around he is aided and abetted by a cast that includes Scottish folk icon Jackie Leven, as well as member of Lambchop and The Walkabouts.

Tour Dates, 2008:

Australia, September:

Wed 24 – Troubadour, Brisbane, QLD

Thu 25 – Annandale Hotel, NSW

Fri 26 – Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba, NSW

Sat 27 – Northcote Social Club, Vic

New Zealand, October:

Wed 1 – TBA

Thu 2 – TBA

Fri 3 – TBA

Press:

**** "Full of dark grandeur... Sombre, imperious, awash with lush orchestration, gospel choirs, and poignant songs of yearning and redemption – Pilgrim Road sounds like a magisterial career high... Exceptional"

– Uncut (Americana Album of the Month)

"Stately dark folk, with a twist... A whole new league of glowering, sombre Americana"

– MOJO

"Gothic majesty matching the Bad Seeds at their glorious heights"

– Bucketfull of Brains

"The sound is epic, florid, grandiose; the mood dark; the achievement great"

– Time Out

"Powerful, intense and provocative"

– American Songwriter

'Pilgrim Road' is released on THINK in June.

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WILLARD GRANT CONSPIRACY ’PILGRIM ROAD’

Key Tracks:

2. The Great Deceiver

4. The Pugilist

5. Phoebe

7. Painter Blue

8. Malpensa

Willard Grant Conspiracy…

Willard Grant Conspiracy is the musical collective that surrounds songwriter Robert Fisher. Over six albums, the band has quietly gone about putting together one of the most impressive catalogues in the Alt.Country/Folk-Rock canon. The records have all met with critical acclaim and have been included in many critical best-of lists.

The band has a loose configuration that allows its members to be involved as they are available. Currently based in the California desert where Robert lives, musicians from Massachusetts, Arizona, New York, London and Holland are all part of the ensemble. This flexible lineup along with a dedication to improvisational playing ensures that every show is truly unique.

The current list of folks considered part of the roster is around 30. A live show may be Robert playing solo or having as many as 14 members, or any number in between, on stage. Instruments include acoustic guitar, mandolin, pump organ, violin, cello, viola, piano, trumpet, drums, bass, accordion, electric guitar, and lap steel. The sound can be as quiet and warm as 3am on a winter's morning before the last embers in the fireplace or as soulful and boisterous as a Sunday morning Gospel service.

WGC was formed by accident in 1995 by Robert Fisher and Paul Austin, while helping a fellow band member test his new home studio. Robert and Paul had played in numerous bands since 1982 and had developed a writing partnership that would last until 2001. Although songs and songwriting have always been the basis of their musical focus, volume, attack and more physical elements of sound were explored in their earlier bands. These included some of the best musicians in their adopted home of Boston. Years of playing gained them respect among their peers, and is why so many talented musicians pull up a chair under the WGC tent these days.

WGC's songs ring out with emotions born of personal experience and observation and are simultaneously universal and personal. It's the kind of music that seems to have been here forever; brought down out of the ether and channelled through the musicians pure and unadulterated. It's music that has been described as causing the spirit to soar and to make the knees go weak. It's the music of real life from real people.

The way to 'Pilgrim Road'…

During our 2003 tour we played a show at Glasgow's Barfly. It was a rough night. The kind of night on tour where it seems as though no one at the club had any idea that we were coming and had done nothing to make any of us feel any different right from the very beginning when there was no sound person available. For three hours after we arrived we waited for someone to answer the various calls being made to secure a soundperson. And when they finally found someone to do sound, he was obviously just beginning to take classes in basic sound reinforcement and, though perfectly willing to give it a try, had no idea how to deal with the odd assortment of acoustic and electric instruments let alone how to run his own board and PA! A few of our band members had to do double duty by taking over and trying to coax a sound into the room that wouldn't make us all run and hide. We had to hold the door while we tried our best to wrestle the room into submission and were glad we had when we discovered that there was a pretty full line up of people on the other side waiting for the show.  We probably should have taped the controls at the board down during the set because it seems our well meaning sound student tried to "adjust " things as we played and, though the resulting moments of feedback and distortion threatened to derail everything, the band was in a good mood and by sheer energy, volume and more than a little frustration put on one of the best and most fiery shows of the tour.

After the set, I was standing at the side of the room doing my best to deflect the comments regarding the sound when I turned to find myself face to face with a slightly serious looking fellow with a good sized smile on his face who informed me in no short order that if I ever wanted to do something with strings or an orchestra, that he was willing to take the challenge on. How he heard that out of the set we'd just played, I will never know but that person was Malcolm Lindsay and in the next few years during many post gig evenings and a few emails we would hash out a plot to try to write some songs together that would use orchestral instruments along with our regular ones in an integral and organic way.

In 2006, we started passing ideas back and forth over the internet but it became clear to me that we needed the experience of being in the same room if this was going to work out the way I hoped. Before the start of the first duo tour in Europe in the fall of 2006, Malcolm freed up some of his time and hosted a lovely ten day period where we worked everyday for hours writing and recording as we went in his home studio. By the end of the ten days we had the better part of a record sketched out and after about 5 weeks of touring I returned to Glasgow with another couple of songs written on the road. The one that made the record was written in an Airport in Italy in transit from Zurich to Malta!

The songs on this record are the result of Malcolm and I following our collective and individual instincts, resulting in something neither of us would have arrived at wholly on our own. During the following 11 months we would invite people from WGC and from the Glasgow music community to participate with their instruments either in Glasgow or from their home studios until we had all of the arrangements executed and ready for mixing.

In May of 2008, some five years after Malcolm first suggested working together, Pilgrim Road will be released. The May tour dates will include a ten piece version of the band, a sort of Pilgrim Orchestra to present the sound of the record. Because of the difficulty in organizing a tour with so many members of the band we will be doing a limited number of shows during the May tour. We hope that one of them will be near you!

Best Regards,

Robert

For more information go to www.willardgrantconspiracy.com

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MARTHA TILSTON TOURING AUSTRALIA!

Martha Tilston touring Australia!!!

Martha Tilston, one of the UK's fastest rising young stars of folk music, is heading to our shores for the first time in March, and right on the release of her new album, 'Of Milkmaids & Architects'...

Martha will bring a smaller version of her band, The Woods, with her. These shows will be special and are not to be missed!

The dates so far include appearances at the Port Fairy Folk (March 8^th & 9^th) and Brunswick Music (March 15^th) Festivals, as well as a couple of shows with Eddi Reader in Sydney (March 12^th) and in Bulli (March 19^th), with further solo shows to be announced, stay tuned...

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Martha Tilston ’Of Milkmaids & Architects’

Key Tracks:

1. winter flowers

2. artificial

4. music of the moon

5. milkmaid

8. songs that make sophie fizz

Think notes: The Think version of 'Of Milkmaids & Architects' includes a bonus 7 track CDEP, ''Til I Reach The Sea', featuring a selection of songs from Martha's prolific output of independent and digital album releases, providing a wonderful introduction to a stunning new artist.

Martha Tilston…

Martha Tilston is something of folk royalty, being the daughter of revered songwriter Steve Tilston, and stepdaughter to folk singer Maggie Boyle. Her mother also an artist, Martha's childhood was spent surrounded by art, music, theatre, siblings and an upright piano. It was also spent around the bright lights of the folk revival scene, and inevitably musical seeds were sown.

Martha first emerged on the scene a few years ago with the cult acoustic duo Mouse, which gathered a large underground following and released one album, 'Mouse Tales', before going into hibernation.

Martha's talented and eclectic new band, The Woods (which features on her new album) includes bazoukis, mandolins, strings, harmonies, Cuban and Brazilian percussion, and fretless bass. In 2006, Martha and The Woods toured UK venues with their quirky show 'Into the woods', complete with visuals and a pretend campfire. Whether Martha plays on her own or accompanied by her band, her songs send shivers down the spine in a way that recalls the best qualities of the genre's finest.  

Martha has been creating a storm within the 'new folk' and festival scene in recent years, including much bespoke performances at The Glastonbury and Cambridge Festivals. She has performed at many of the UK's most acclaimed venues, including The Shepherd's Bush Empire, The Borderline, and gained a large word of mouth following in the UK and beyond, always leaving the audience touched by her spellbinding voice and beautiful songs.

As a solo artist, she has also toured with artists such as Damien Rice, Fairport Convention, Roddy Frame, Hem, Nick Harper, and of course her father, Steve Tilston. Martha will soon visit Australian shores for the first time as she's been invited to play at 2008's prestigious Port Fairy Folk Festival.

In 2007 she was nominated for the 'Best Newcomer/Horizon award' at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Quite a prolific artist, Martha has released a total of four solo albums, two of which, 'Rolling' (2002) and 'Ropeswing' (2006) are available as download-only releases, and her first properly distributed album, 'Bimbling', being released on the Squiggly label in 2004, which preceded the new album…

'Of Milkmaids & Architects'…

The title of the album was inspired by a conversation Martha had with her grandfather about her great-grandmother (also Martha Tilston) who was a "milkmaid" and one of seventeen children. It inspired thoughts of where she comes from – the "architect" in the album title and song of the same name is a reference to her other grandfather, renowned architect Eric Lyons – and opened the album up into a work that explores folk, family, love and landscape, as well as gently questioning the present social and political climate. The musicianship is beautifully organic and played largely by The Woods and Martha, with guest musicians John Thorne (from Lamb) and Maggie Boyle sprinkling a little magic too.

A few notes on some of the songs… 'Artificial' is a song written from the point of view of an office worker who imagines running across the office tables and keeps "running 'til I reach the sea"… 'Winter Flowers' describes the delicate nature of relationships… 'Scientist' and 'Good World' offer hope and a future full of "free range children"… 'The architect' is perhaps the most weirdly wonderful of all, musically speaking – a hypnotic song in 5/4 time… The couple of traditional folk songs on the album have a truthful yet quirky slant – one of them, 'Silver Dagger', Martha learnt from her stepmother Maggie Boyle. Says Martha: "Sophie and I would listen to Dad and Maggie rehearsing in the back room and this song and her voice totally captured my imagination".

Martha is also an artist, painter and photographer. She is responsible for all her own artwork, including the beautiful paintings that cover this album and its inside sleeve…

For more information go to www.marthatilston.co.uk

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