Small Town

Small Town presents guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan in a programme of duets, the poetic chemistry of their playing captured live at New York's hallowed Village Vanguard. The album is released on both CD and 180g vinyl (with a free download code). Frisell made his debut as a leader for ECM in 1983 with the similarly intimate In Line. The guitarist's rich history with the label also includes multiple recordings by his iconic cooperative trio with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano, culminating in Time and Time Again in 2007.

A four-piece serving up raw, guitar-driven Country and Americana Rock from a tiny town in Oklahoma, Gypsy Store Troubadours is a band that thrives on contradictions. Their music often combines opposing elements, bringing the sweet and the dangerous together seamlessly, a talent best summarized by a lyric from their soon-to-be-released debut single “Local Honey”: smooth as lightning.

Small Town Life, captures the essence of everything that makes this group of musicians incomprehensibly great: talent, soul, and heart. In the album's liner notes, journalist and radio broadcaster Daniel Mullins writes, "While the themes embedded in Small Town Life are timeless, Summer Brooke & Mountain Faith are not afraid to showcase their youthful exuberance with vibrant musical arrangements, breaking rules in all the right ways. The exquisite musicianship and vocal prowess only aide in bridging the gap between their old hearts and a 21st century audience.” Released just over a month ago, the album's first single, "Umbrella," was reported to have significant airplay; enough to shoot it to #3 in its second week of radio life and charting every week since. If "Umbrella" is any indication, Small Town Life will be this summer's big hit.

Joining New Model Army's seminal 1984 debut, Vengeance, with a collection of tracks recorded for BBC Radio 1 around the same time, Small Town England is the ideal representation of the group's pre-Capitol/EMI output. Replete with original bassist Stuart Morrow, who gave singer/guitarist Justin Sullivan's charged anthems a dark, powerful bottom, this two-disc set chronicles a fiery post-punk band on the brink of greatness. Early singles like "Bittersweet" and "Vengeance" are preserved in all their glorious thump (thanks to merciless kitman Rob Heaton), but the real reward for diehards is in the rarely heard radio sessions.

Hurray for the Riff Raff will release 'Small Town Heroes,' its debut for ATO Records. The album features frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra - who settled in New Orleans after leaving her native Bronx at age 17- with twelve new, original songs all written or co-written by Segarra, with support from a vivid cast of Crescent City musicians. NPR has said that Hurray for the Riff Raff 'sweeps across eras and genres with grace and grit,' never more so than on 'Small Town Heroes.'

Clark applies her writerly touch to songs that are bold, relatable, and rich in detail. Big Day in a Small Town finds the GRAMMY®-nominated singer/songwriter following up her acclaimed solo debut 2012’s 12 Stories with a set of big, beautifully realized country narratives that includes shimmering, hair salon melodrama (“Soap Opera”), brash but subversive rock (“Broke,” “Girl Next Door”), Patsy Cline-like honky-tonky (“Drinkin’, Smokin’, Cheatin’”), and haunting ballads (“Since You’ve Gone to Heaven,” inspired by her father’s death in a logging accident.)

This album, sung by an American girl, played and produced by Australians, gives us some clue to the simpatico nature of our two cultures, and our shared small town experiences. No matter where you grew up, no matter what the roots of your raising, Jenny Queen’s SMALL TOWN MISFITS is a record to hit you where you live.