Stony Plain Records Newsletter #40 - May 14/07

In this issue...• •

Four great new releases from Stony Plain • • Rave reviews for "Naughty Bawdy & Blue"• Harry Manx & Kevin Breit: We Get Letters• Corb Lund set to play UK's Glastonbury Festival • Ian Tyson to receive honorary Doctorate of Letters degree• Duke Robillard news file • Blind Pig artists play north of the border• Keeping in touch with Stony Plain

Busier than a single-armed wallpaper hanger, that's the story at Stony Plain these days. For starters, how about all these wonderful new releases? Please read on.

HOLGER PETERSEN
Stony Plain Head Wheel and President

Four great new releases from Stony Plain

MARIA MULDAUR: "NAUGHTY, BAWDY & BLUE" (SPCD-1319)

Already released in Canada, and due May 15 in the rest of the world.

The third in Maria's wonderful exploration of classic blues material. With Jim Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band in rip-roaring support, she explores classic black blues from the '20s, 30s and 40s when Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter were superstars and their songs titillated, shocked, and amused their audiences. Bonnie Raitt joins in on a Sippie Wallace classic, "Separation Blues."

DUKE ROBILLARD: "WORLD FULL OF BLUES" (SPCD-1323)

Released May 15 in Canada, June 26 in the rest of the world.

This is another special album of soulful blues from Duke Robillard, who has contributed so much fine music to the Stony Plain catalogue ever since "Duke's Blues" (SPCD-1195) was released in 1994. This is one for blues guitar fans all over the world. As if one CD isn't enough, this contains a free bonus CD with 11 more tracks of great music - well over two hours of great music for the price of a single CD. As our ads say: All killer, no filler!

HARRY MANX & KEVIN BREIT: "IN GOOD WE TRUST" (SPCD-1320)

Released in Canada April 10, due May 15 in the US and the rest of the world.

Harry Manx plays the blues with a south Asian accent; Kevin Breit is one of the most in-demand session players anywhere - and after CDs and world tours with the likes of Cassandra Wilson and Norah Jones, is anyone surprised? This unique pairing of two remarkable guitarists features original material, a surprising Bruce Springsteen cover and a traditional song, "Death Have Mercy."

VALDY & GARY FJELLGAARD: "CONTENDERS TWO: STILL IN THE RUNNING" (SPCD-1321)

Released in Canada April 24

Seven years ago, these two veterans of Canada's long-running folk and country music scenes got together for some laid-back, easy-going, tuneful recording. The result, "Contenders" (SPCD-1262), was a surprise best-seller, and the follow-up is every bit as good - simple, strong and sincere songs, shot through with the truth. This release is a must for folk and country fans and radio people.

Rave reviews for "Naughty Bawdy & Blue"

"Maria Muldaur's newest CD on Stony Plain honors the memories and music of groundbreaking blues women Ma Rainey, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, Bessie Smith, and Alberta Hunter. 'Naughty, Bawdy & Blue' features a dozen songs straight from the urban parlors, backrooms and bordellos of the 20's, 30's and 40s, and offers a more polished sound than these blues women's more rough-hewn Mississippi Delta contemporaries.
Maria's got James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band on most of 'Naughty, Bawdy & Blue;' Dapogny, a Professor of Music at the University of Michigan, is a world-renown musicologist and authority on ragtime and Jelly Roll Morton. That expertise shines through on this CD, and it's a reunion of sorts: James and his band backed Sippie Wallace, along with Bonnie Raitt, on Wallace's 1982 W.C. Handy-award winning Atlantic release, 'Sippie.' On 'Naughty, Bawdy & Blue' Bonnie joins Maria on a soulful version of Wallace's 'Separation Blues.'

'Naughty, Bawdy & Blue' is another solid example of Maria's tireless quest to keep the music of early blues women current: Both 'Richland Woman Blues' (2001) and her tribute to Memphis Minnie, 'Sweet Lovin' Ol' Soul' (2005), earned W.C. Handy and Grammy nominations."
- Eric Steiner, Editor, Washington Blues Society's Bluesletter

"After 45 years of exploring nearly every corner of American roots music, Maria Muldaur has come full circle, returning to the blues - and the blues singers - that pulled her into the music in the first place.

Muldaur gets some help on the new record from fellow blues archivist Bonnie Raitt, who teams up with her on Sippie Wallace's 'Separation Blues.' Wallace influenced both Muldaur's and Raitt's careers during the early 70s." - Will Stewart, Ann Arbor News

Harry Manx & Kevin Breit: We Get Letters

Stony Plain and Newsletter editor Richard Flohil recently presented Harry Manx and Kevin Breit in concert at Hugh's Room, the city's pre-eminent acoustic music venue. Wrote Mark Neveu, a southern Ontario music presenter and enthusiast:

"Thank you for being able to present one of the most unforgettable and amazing concerts. Even though I've been fortunate enough to present Harry about six times in my former little listening room Readers (in Dunnville, Ontario) and having seen him at least a dozen times at various venues here and there, last Friday's spectacular concert certainly goes down in my book as one of the absolute best ones, period.

The pairing of Kevin's playing (how can we say it: Eccentric? intergalactic?) alongside Harry's warm and spiritual vocals and tones, all from a magic place where the Mississippi meets the Ganges, was simply perfect.
Thanks again. I Iook forward to seeing them this summer somewhere on the festival circuit."

Corb Lund set to play UK's Glastonbury Festival

Corb Lund and his band, The Hurtin' Albertans, will perform at this year's Glastonbury Festival on Sunday, June 24th. Held in south-west England, Glastonbury is the largest annual outdoor music and performing arts festival in the world - and this year's festival sold out almost instantly, with more than 100,000 tickets snapped up the day of sale.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Corb Lund has been deeply involved in a special set to air on "Great American Country TV" as a part of "The Edge of Country" series. The show will be seen on Saturday, June 30th @ 1:00 pm EST, and on Monday, July 2nd @ 1:00 pm EST.

After a three month spell to continue working on songs for his next Stony Plain CD, Corb played dates in Colorado, Texas, Arizona and California in April, and more shows have been set in Texas and Tennessee starting May 26. Then he's heading off to the UK; In addition to the Glastonbury gig, Corb and the band play shows in Glasgow, Leicester, Leeds, Chichester and London.

Meanwhile pre-production has started on the new recording - with Nashville's Harry Stinson once again producing. Sessions for the new CD will begin at the end of this month.

Ian Tyson to receive honorary Doctorate of Letters degree

Ian Tyson will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree at a Convocation ceremony at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, on June 7.

A Stony Plain artist since 1988, Tyson has released a dozen CDs on the label. Along the way, in a career that began in the early 60s, he has hosted a long-running TV show, earned numerous awards (most importantly, the Order of Canada), and he continues to tour in Canada and the US.

"Ian Tyson is an icon in Canadian music," said Thompson River University President and Vice-chancellor Roger Burnsley. "We will be very proud to have him as an alumnus."

Watch for a long-in-the-works Ian Tyson tribute album, due in July.

Duke Robillard news file

Excellence in the Arts

On June 2, Duke Robillard will receive the 2007 Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts, which recognizes artistic excellence in Robillard's home state and on the national level. Additional award winners honoured that night will include Academy Award-winning actress Olympia Dukakis. Previous Pell honorees include actors Jason Robards, Robert Redford, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, as well as Stephen Sondheim and Beverly Sills from the music world.

On the festival circuit Duke will be performing at numerous blues festivals this summer. Among them:

June 3 - Mike Arnone's Crawfish Festival, Augusta NJ

August 8 - Mont Tremblant Blues Festival, Mont Tremblant QC

August 18 - Madison Ribberfest, Madison IN

August 19 - White Mountain Blues Festival, North Conway NH

August 25 - Calgary International Blues Festival, Calgary AB

September 9 - KSDS Ocean Beach Jazz Festival, Ocean Beach CA

Top 10 with a bullet

Duke's video, "Duke Robillard and Friends Live at the Blackstone Theatre", is #10 on the Real Blues magazine's list of best blues, soul and gospel DVDs released in the last 12 months.

Blind Pig artists play north of the border

Stony Plain is the Canadian distributor for Blind Pig's excellent catalogue of contemporary blues artists - and there's plenty of touring activity north of the border.

Big Bill Morganfield is playing dates later this month in Ontario and Quebec. This man's not to be missed; the spirit, legacy, talent and charisma of his father, Muddy Waters, is intact.

May 24 - The Casbah, Hamilton, ON

May 25 - Legion 560, Kingston, ON

May 26 - Silver Dollar, Toronto, ON

May 27 - Bub's Bar & Grill, Cobourg, ON

May 28 - Centre D'Art, La Chapelle, PQ

May 30 - Café Campus, Montreal, PQ

May 31 - The Rainbow Bistro, Ottawa, ON

Other Blind Pig artists are on the Canadian festival circuit.

Elvin Bishop will play the Labatt Blues Festival in Edmonton, AB, on August 24. Otis Clay and James Cotton will both play the Burnaby Blues Festival in BC on August 12. Norton Buffalo will play July 11 at the Ottawa Bluesfest (and comes back to Canada for some rare appearances with guitarist Roy Rogers in November in Calgary and Edmonton.

Keeping in touch with Stony Plain

REACH OUT TO STONY PLAIN

Check the new Stony Plain website to buy music, check the back catalogue, get bio information on our artists, and read news from past newsletters: www.stonyplainrecords.com

Snail-mail goes to P.O. Box 861, Edmonton, AB, T5J 2L8, Canada

Phone: (780) 468-6423

FAX: (780) 465-8941.

Write to Stony Plain's head man, Holger Petersen, via e-mail at holger@stonyplainrecords.com.

The new man in our too-busy stock room is Peter Chapman. Mail orders, web enquiries, occasional coffee making - this guy does it all!