Kim Ware and the Good Graces “Overflowing” Strikes a Haunting Vibe (Premiere)

[Repost from PopMatters; by Jonathan Frahm, October 26, 2022]

Kim Ware and the Good Graces premiere the lyric video for their atmospheric indie folk tune, “Overflowing”.

It’s been 16 years since Kim Ware and the Good Graces made a splash in the Atlanta indie scene. The songwriter has since blossomed into an intuitive folk artist, attuned to crafting atmospheric works that have carried her around the country and back to her Georgia and now North Carolina home. Ware recently moved back to her hometown of Kings Mountain, a small town where she first picked up her musical streak through drumming. Alongside the move, Ware teed up for the September release of the Good Graces’ sixth album, Ready, produced by Jerry Kee (Superchunk, Polvo).

“Overflowing” is an ethereal rambler that plays out like an offbeat sum of parts: grungy guitar tones, a neo-western flourish, and some indie folk harmonies. Ware’s straight-shooting vocal delivery brings it all together, casting haunting reflections over the tune. The Good Graces’ accompanying lyric video for the single drives the mood further, complete with washed-out yellows and reds across a smoky landscape.

Ware tells PopMatters, “‘Overflowing’ is one of a few songs on the record that I wrote while I still lived in Atlanta before the pandemic. I was listening to a LOT of Jaimee Harris’ ‘Red Rescue’ during that time; I feel like a bit of her influence may have seeped in. The creation of the song was pretty organic, though, with the lyrics being mostly stream of consciousness, save for a line or two.”

“At the time, we were trying to get our old house ready to put on the market, which turned out to be a huge endeavor. So the line ‘we’ll never make it out of Georgia’ was reflective of how I felt at the time, with the ‘speed trap’ being all the obstacles life was throwing at us. It’s one of the first songs we finished for the album, and I really love all the atmospheric touches Jerry brought to it. Sonically, it’s probably my favorite song on the album.”

We've got a Facebook account!

For those of you who use Facebook, you can now follow Fort Lowell Records on that platform, here: https://www.facebook.com/fortlowellrecs

EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE: Haji P. "So Regular" ft. DJ MF Shalem

Happy Halloween! 🎃  Here's a very special *treat* for you: 

Fort Lowell Records is proud to share with you the first single from our next edition of the This Water is Life series: Haji P. "So Regular".  Officially being released this coming Friday, November 4th on all digital streaming platforms, you can enjoy Haji P. "So Regular" ft. DJ MF Shalem all week here on our site.

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Haji P. (AKA: Illustrator, HP Fangs) is the hip-hop artists for This Water is Life, Vol. II, while Color Temperature (AKA: Photographer, Ross Langdon Page) is the indie rock musician.

This Water is Life is in partnership with Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group, made possible by Dock Street Printing, Gravity Records, Persephone's Farm, Satellite Bar & Lounge, and Wild Phoenix Salt Cave, and features artwork + photographs provided by Josh Putnam, Ross Langdon Page, and Pufferfish Print Shop, 

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER THE VINYL RECORD

Haji P.

Tonight, we dance!

LET'S DANCE at The Opera Room tonight (Oct 30) at 8pm

Tonight, we rock!

Kicking Bird perform live in concert tonight (Oct 29) at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington NC, along with The Beehive Blondes.  Stayed tuned here to Fort Lowell Records for more information to follow (soon) regarding the release of Kicking Bird’s debut album. 🎸

OUT NOW: Lauds "24" [Digital Single]

Lauds’ debut full-length Imitation Life is a lush, aural tapestry of blissed-out guitars against a backdrop of rhythmic tension woven by the five-piece, Wilmington, NC-based band. The lyrics of the 10 tracks ping-pong between anxious introspection and the search for fleeting bits of contentment in life, like the best empathetic, reflective autumnal rock of the second Brit invasion era. On songs like "Wasted Hours", "24" and "Rust", the elegantly anguished vocals wash over the listener like the waters of Cape Fear and the Atlantic Ocean that dominate the Wilmington landscape, evoking the “post-surf stupor” that songwriters J. Holt Evans lll and Mckay Glasgow feel after a day riding its waves. 

The first single "24" from Lauds' Imitation Life is out today.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER LAUDS' DEBUT ALBUM ON VINYL

JPW - Wealth of the Canyon (Live from The Dirty Drummer)

JPW performing "Wealth of the Canyon" from the debut album 'Something Happening / Always Happening' at The Dirty Drummer in Phoenix, Arizona from the Album Release Concert held on Saturday, September 10, 2022. Video by Becky Bartkowski.

Taco Tuesday

Join Fort Lowell Records every Tuesday Night at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington, North Carolina from 6:30-9:00pm as we spin a variety of our favorite records from our own personal vinyl collection, while we all enjoy dinner at Block Taco and a beverage-of-choice or three from the bar!  See y'all tonight!

Pre-Order Now: This Water is Life, Vol. II ft. Haji P. + Color Temperature

This Water is Life is a self-sustained and ongoing series of split EPs with two express purposes: to highlight new hip-hop / indie rock music from Southeastern North Carolina, as well as to provide a platform for Cape Fear River Watch and Coastal Plain Conservation Group to deliver up-to-date authoritative reports on the health of the Cape Fear River Basin for both human beings and wildlife.

Volume II of our This Water is Life project featuring hip-hop artist Haji P., along with indie rock artist Color Temperature, and is scheduled to be released this Winter Season.

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

Audio Explorations 'ActionReaction'

Hello!  James Tritten here, of Fort Lowell Records.  Audio Explorations was my own band with Steven Haley from 1996-2002.  Our sophomore album ActionReaction was originally released on Compact Disc twenty years ago.  But now, Fort Lowell Records has made Audio Exploration ActionReaction available on vinyl record for the very first time.  

There are only (50) copies of this album available on vinyl, so if you want to add this to your collection, do not wait to order it later; they are already over half-way sold out.

Some of the feature of the 20th Anniversary Vinyl Edition of Audio Explorations ActionReaction include:

• 135-gram heavyweight vinyl
• Orange colored vinyl
• Lyric Sheet
• Tour + Studio Photographs
• An original 2002 Tour Poster

Thank you in advance for the support! -- James

CLICK HERE TO ORDER NOW

Singles

[Repost from Independent Clauses; by Stephen Carradini, September 7, 2022]

“Wealth of the Canyon” – JPW. This track sounds like an effortless, casual, wonderfully tossed-off take on Laurel Canyon-style West Coast folk/country. It take significant work to make it sound so easy, and so JPW’s work is your benefit, listener.

Kim Ware & The Good Graces - Ready

[Repost from De krenten uit de pop; by Erwin Zijleman, September 22, 2022]

De Amerikaanse muzikante Kim Ware trok nog niet heel veel aandacht met haar band The Good Graces, maar levert met het onder haar eigen naam uitgebrachte Ready een geweldig album vol zonnestralen af

In een overvolle releaseweek als de afgelopen week krijgt een album helaas niet heel veel tijd om indruk te maken, maar Ready van Kim Ware had gelukkig ook niet veel tijd nodig. Mijn eerste kennismaking met de muziek van de Amerikaanse singer-songwriter was direct raak en levert me een album op dat hier nog heel vaak langs gaat komen. Ready van Kim Ware staat met één been in de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek en met het andere been in de collegerock en folkrock uit de jaren 90. Het levert een origineel geluid op, maar ook een geluid waarvan je alleen maar heel erg vrolijk kunt worden. Kim Ware tovert op Ready het ene na het andere onweerstaanbare popliedje uit de hoge hoed en vertolkt ze op zeer karakteristieke wijze.

Ik kon de afgelopen week kiezen uit een flinke stapel nieuwe albums, waaronder veel albums van vaste waarden of op zijn minst vertrouwde namen, maar er drong zich ook een album op van een tot voor kort voor mij totaal onbekende muzikante: Kim Ware. Als Kim Ware & The Good Graces heeft de Amerikaanse muzikante wat mij betreft een album afgeleverd dat de nazomer glans moet gaan geven en daar voor mij al mee is begonnen. 

Kim Ware werd geboren in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, en dat is sinds kort ook weer haar woonplaats. De afgelopen vijftien jaar maakte Kim Ware als lid van de band The Good Graces muziek vanuit Atlanta, Georgia, maar wist ze de cultstatus niet te ontstijgen en dit ondanks een handvol prima albums, die mij tot deze week overigens nooit zijn opgevallen. Het ontstijgen van de cultstatus zou wat mij betreft moeten gaan gebeuren met Ready, wat een onweerstaanbaar lekker en ook erg goed album is. 

Ready, het eerste album dat Kim Ware onder haar eigen naam uitbrengt, werd gemaakt toen de coronapandemie het openbare leven in de Verenigde Staten lam legde en werd voor het overgrote deel gemaakt door Kim Ware, die tekende voor de songs, de gitaren en de zang, en Jerry Kee die tekende voor het grootste deel van de rest van de instrumentatie en de productie van het album. Hiernaast duikt een keer een viool op en twee keer een hobo, maar dat is het. 

Kim Ware en Jerry Kee hebben lang en in alle rust gewerkt aan het lekker vol klinkende album en dat hoor je. Ready is een ontspannen maar ook mooi klinkend album en het is bovendien een album dat driftig strooit met zonnestralen. Het is een album dat voor een belangrijk deel past in het hokje Amerikaanse rootsmuziek, maar Kim Ware heeft haar muziek ook voorzien van een bijzondere twist en van invloeden uit de indie-folkrock uit de jaren 90. 

Ik moet bij beluistering van Ready meer dan eens denken aan de muziek van 10,000 Maniacs, maar ook de namen van Neko Case en The Cranberries kwamen direct bij mijn eerste beluistering van Ready voorbij en zijn sindsdien blijven hangen. Het betekent overigens niet dat de muziek van Kim Ware heel erg lijkt op die van de genoemde namen, want hoewel Ready op een of andere manier direct bekend in de oren klinkt, kan ik geen vergelijkingsmateriaal bedenken dat echt in de buurt komt van dit album. Ik hou het er maar op dat Kim Ware Amerikaanse rootsmuziek met een jaren 90 twist maakt. 

Het is een geluid dat zowel liefhebbers van Amerikaanse rootsmuziek als liefhebbers van meer richting indierock neigende muziek moet kunnen aanspreken en het is muziek waarvan je alleen maar heel vrolijk kunt worden. Zeker wanneer Ready met flink volume uit de speakers komt vliegen de zonnestralen je om de oren. Deze zonnestralen komen vooral uit de gitaren op het album, al kunnen deze gitaren ook best weemoedig klinken. 

Het past allemaal prachtig bij de opvallende zang van Kim Ware, die heel af en toe en zeker in de wat ruwere tracks wel wat doet denken aan Kirsty MacColl, maar ook beschikt over een stem die is gedrenkt in de Amerikaanse rootsmuziek. Ik had een flinke lijst met kanshebbers voor een plekje op de krenten uit de pop de afgelopen week. Kim Ware stond daar niet tussen, maar is wel een van mijn favorieten van de afgelopen weken of zelfs maanden. Erwin Zijleman

De muziek van Kim Ware is ook verkrijgbaar via de bandcamp pagina van het label van de Amerikaanse muzikante: https://fortlowell.bandcamp.com/album/ready.

The Friday Five

[Repost from Aarik Danielsen; September 16, 2022]

JPW, “Something Happening / Always Happening” / Jason Woodbury ranks quite high among my favorite thinkers and conversationalists on music. In his writing and podcasting, the technical serves the spiritual and vice-versa. Great critics and essayists don’t always make great musicians, but Jason shows off his all-around skillset with two releases this year—his work as guitarist for Kitimoto sounding through “Vintage Smell” and, now, his solo effort.

There are many descriptors to float toward “Something Happening”: Psychedelic rock, a sort of jammy, trippy vein of folk. To me, it’s interior soul music. The gentleness and attention inside Jason made manifest in melody and rhythm.

Thought provoking words, and dreamy guitar based music that grows on you with a few listens.

[Repost from Americana UK; by Tim Martin, September 22, 2022]

Ready is an album made up of pre-pandemic songs mixed with a few written under Lockdown.. Opening song ‘Capital R’ would perhaps have been better placed further down the running order. The relaxed groove of ‘Like A Bottle’ makes a better introduction to her dream pop inspired guitars and distant vocal. Ware’s voice comes across as a Kirsty MacColl from the Southern States. She’s been described by earlier reviewers as having a warbly Georgia drawl. If that was the case she has lost a lot of the “warble” on these two songs.

She calls ‘U2 (Means to An End)’ a “breakup rocker”, and it is a fairly grungy piece. Following that with the much quieter ‘So Many Questions’, a tribute to her late father is a bit of a sudden gear change, but the Neil Young flavoured song is one of the best on the album. ‘Stopped Making Plans’ is one of the most overt lockdown songs to emerge recently. “I booked a trip to Germany. Late last year, 2019. I should have known it wouldn’t come to pass. I hunkered down and wrote some songs. But they’re too sad, and way too long”. Ware seems to do best on these less rock oriented songs, her voice seems suited to them and the chiming guitars complement it well.

‘Recurring Dream’ is a less obvious pandemic song: “I have this recurring dream, I wish you’d tell me what it means. I’m in a car but there’s no driver, somehow I’m still safe. I think it’s about control or lack thereof, it’s hard to know. I can’t seem to make out the place”. Ware’s lyrics are mostly thoughtful as shown on ‘Odds and Evens’, her response to the events in Washington of 6^th January 2021. “I couldn’t stop thinking, even though I don’t have kids, how the hell do we explain ourselves to our kids?” Ware says.

As is maybe inevitable with songs written over such a long period of time there are a few that are a bit patchy, but the second half of the album is all great tunes and especially lyrics. It’s well worth spending time with this album and getting to know Ware’s songs.

We are kinda' really freakin' excited about this

JPW's debut album Something Happening / Always Happening sold out prior to the release date (September 9, 2022); pretty much, we've only got two copies of the original pressing left in stock.

So, we've decided to repress JPW Something Happening / Always Happening... but this time we are making it available on a beautiful vibrant yellow vinyl wax (to match the sticker on the cover, of course).

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER YOUR YELLOW JPW VINYL

Records should be available in about two months, and we will ship them out to customers as soon as they are delivered to us.  This second pressing is limited to only (100) copies, so don't sleep on this — place your order today to reserve your copy!

Join us every Tuesday night at Satellite Bar & Lounge in Wilmington NC

Yours truly will be DJing our favorite vinyl records.  See ya' there!

 

In Conversation with Kim Ware

[Repost from Chunky Glasses; by Kevin Hill, September 17, 2022]

For over a decade, singer/songwriter/Southerner Kim Ware has been crafting indie-folk songs full of heart and twang with her project Kim Ware and the Good Graces. On her latest album Ready, she’s digging deeper inside then ever before. The result is an album overflowing with brutal honesty, (often hilarious) youthful angst, and an emotional core that could melt even the most hardened of hearts. Join us as we sit down with Ware to discuss the new album, making music in isolation, working with producer Jerry Kee (Superchunk, Polvo, Tift Merritt), and much, much more.  

JPW – 'Something Happening / Always Happening'

[Repost from Ears to Feed; by Jesse Locke, September 15, 2022]

Dance the Mutation - September 2022

As the host of Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast, I’ve become so accustomed to hearing Jason Woodbury’s high, tender voice in my ears that his singing sounds instantly familiar. Something Happening / Always Happening ventures into the heart of cosmic Americana with a sound as serene as the Arizona deserts that Woodbury calls home. The sputters of the Rhythm Ace drum machine are a key element, adding a timeless quality to the band’s shimmering, mirage-like arrangements. “Always Happening” closes the album with a vast 10-minute sprawl, becoming more vaporous as its ambient synths radiate a feeling of awestruck reverence – the same quality Woodbury brings to his interviews.

September shows (HIGHLY recommended!)

[Repost from Sac.Indie.Music; September 2, 2022]

September 30, 2022 @ The Starlet Room – Desario (Record Release Show) w/ ghostplay + Fawns Of Love

Desario has been a long-time staple of Sacramento, and they released a brand new album titled Signal and Noise on Fort Lowell Records! They will celebrate their new album with a record release show at The Starlet Room (located just above Harlow’s)! Desario has always been strong at crafting their songs. Simply put, they are great songwriters. This new album is a triumphant return that features carefully crafted songs full of brilliant layers of crunchy shoegaze guitars and lovely delays, all topped off with the soft, airy vocals of frontman John Conley. There is an excellent reason why this talented band has graced the Ace of Spade’s stage opening for bands like Echo and the bunny men, Jonny Marr, and The Charlatans (UK)! It’s an absolute treat to have them back with this new album. Go pick up the vinyl copy while you still can by clicking here!

OUT NOW: Kim Ware and the Good Graces 'Ready' [Digital LP]

Singer, songwriter, and drummer-turned-guitarist Kim Ware of the Good Graces is known for her unique brand of raw, folk-leaning “southern indie” music. Performing with a rotating cast of musicians, Ware has been crafting tracks with both guts and heart since picking up her first guitar in 2006. She’s one of those rare artists whose melodic lines and candid lyrics feel so natural they’re almost unnatural; she’s been praised as a “songwriter’s songwriter” as well as “an Atlanta treasure” by local musicians and press alike.

Ready is Kim Ware and the Good Graces' latest studio album, and it is official out today on all digital platforms.  Click here to order Ready on compact disc, care of our friends at PotLuck Foundation.

Something Happening/Always Happening: In Conversation with Jason P. Woodbury

[Repost from Meow Meow Pow Pow; by Douglas Menagh, August 26, 2022]

“All my favorite stuff is sad and funny and cool and weird,” says Jason P. Woodbury. “That’s what I love in art. I don’t want it to be just one thing, and that’s not what I want to hear right now.” 

Woodbury is no newcomer when it comes to writing about music. As the music editor for Aquarium Drunkard, the Arizona native is a veteran of interviewing both musicians and comedians alike. I spoke with Woodbury on the phone and what soon became clear in our chat was the writer who elicited humor from idiosyncratic voices of standups comedians and musicians in his writing. When it came to our interview, however, it was Woodbury who was answering questions, this time as a musician about his own forthcoming debut album Something Happening/Always Happening. 

“I've played music pretty much my entire life,” says Woodbury. “Ever since I was a teenager I played guitar in my spare time or whatever, mostly just goofing around, but at various points I actually did have other bands.“ 

While Something Happening/Always Happening is Woodbury’s first solo release, it is not, however, his first time with music itself. Woodbury is also part of the band Kitimoto , whose album Vintage Smell is out on Fort Lowell, the same label set to release Something Happening/Always Happening. 

“What was funny was this album was born out of me stepping into the role of a guy whose job is just add cool parts and make exciting little sounds and accompany his songs,” says Woodbury. “I found myself charged by this idea that I had spent so much of my youth trying to play music, whatever that means, in a really kind of self-conscious manner.” 

Something Happening/ Always Happening synthesizes Woodbury’s different modes of self expression. It is an acoustic rock record with folk elements and sometimes island vibes reminiscent of both his interview subjects and album reviews of similar albums of the genre. It is also reflective of Woodbury’s interest in science fiction in that Something Happening/Always Happening presents music evocative of the 60s and 70s with a twist. Woodbury also creates the feeling of those past sounds emerging in the present.

“I’m playing with a lot of traditional kind of sounds and nostalgic sounds,” says Woodbury. “I wanted it to have a sense of that sort of idealized nostalgia but really playful about it. Some of the musical touches get to nod to that, and that was a part of it that was really fun for me.” 

Though a native of Arizona, Woodbury insists that his album is not a desert record. “I didn’t want it to be the desert music with a capital DM because that’s kind of an aesthetic, and it’s definitely an appreciated one on my part,” says Woodbury. “The sound of the desert for me is Lee Hazelwood and Al Casey and Duane Eddy. So, it was like, I’ll lean into that too. I did want it to have a mid, Space Age kind of element to it, kind of as the Space Age is fading into folk rock. That’s definitely a sweet spot for me melodically and in my record collection. That was an important thing.” 
 
Everyone brings their history with them in what they do, and even though Woodbury tapps into his experience as a writer, he also fully leaned into making music as a musician. 

“I realized I had been pretty self-conscious in my approach to music and was very self-critical about a lot of stuff,” says Woodbury. “I was nervous about being cool or whatever! And the side benefit of the pandemic was it kind of just robbed me of the fear of being not cool enough to do something in a weird way. That's what this record really was born out of, that spirit.” 

Woodbury adds, “Part of what makes for good art as I understand making it is not taking yourself too seriously.” 

What follows is a discussion about each song from Something Happening/Always Happening. Woodbury’s debut solo album arrives in September. 

• “Something Happening” 

I couldn’t help but think of [“Something Happening’] as a writer in addition to a musician. it's funny when the tricks [pour] over from thing to thing in a certain way. End where you started is always a good trick as a writer and it's a way to give a feeling of a complete, certain narrative. I didn't want the album to be extremely prescriptive where it tells you exactly what to think. “Something Happening” is kind of upbeat and it’s very free sounding. It's a really bright, melodic moment and that doesn't really repeat on the record. I was nervous about even including it, but at the same time, it just felt like that it was a recognition of the song that birthed that spirit. That song was birthed in 15 minutes or whatever, maybe less time than that. When that happened, I thought this was a cool thing. That doesn't normally work that way for me. 

• “Wealth of the Canyon” 

Most of the lyrics on the record I wouldn't say aren't particularly autobiographical necessarily. They all are in whatever senses, you know what I mean, but “Wealth of the Canyon” is an autobiographical song. There's an eagle sample in it! It's goofy. That's a very silly choice but it's also a really deliberate choice, because I wanted this record to be fun to listen to in addition to whatever else it was. 

I thought a lot about sound design, and I'm a big fan of Arthur Russell and a big fan of him as a composer and a big fan of him as a thinker. I read this great book by Matt Marble where he was talking about Arthur Russell basically incorporating his mediation practices into his music. That’s one part of it. It’s a meditative record, but I also wanted there to be eagle caws and occasionally a breakbeat, you know what I mean? Just because that’s the world we live in. 

I love paying attention to the way a place sounds and I wanted there to be some of that on the record. I got to embrace story telling without even having to even ascribe words to it. I could scene-set just by asking Zach [Toporek] to play a farfisa organ or Michael Krassner, who produced the record and is sort of the Obi Wan, to go off on guitar or whatever. A song like “Wealth of the Canyon,” which was built on a sample of Krassner and Danny Frankel and Stephen Hodges, one of my favorite drummers, we treated it as sample. I stripped it down and I arranged it with my buddy Zach. We added drums and [some] organ and added guitars, kind of like this whole thing. So yeah, it was another freeing moment where it was working with someone else, a real collaborator like that. 

I’m based in the Sonoran Desert area. Phoenix is a part of it. The Phoenix-Metro area is like a defiant suburban sprawl against the Sonoran desert, which is not my favorite part about living here. “Wealth of The Canyon” absolutely is inspired by trips out into the desert, but specifically to a place called Sycamore Canyon. 

[Sycamore Canyon] is this canyon where I've had all sorts of profound experiences from slicing my hand open on accident to just experiencing a mystical awakening, that feeling of true one-ness with the universe. I wanted that to be in the song, but I also wanted it to be funny because I also drink a lot of beer there with friends. That to me is the feeling of that song. We often separate those high and low experiences, but they’re all part of it. I’m really so proud of that song. It’s one of my favorites. It’s one where I just sing on it. I didn’t write the chords or whatever. I got to feel like Mick Jagger! 

When people talk about desert movies, of course they’re thinking about Paris, Texas or Until The End of the World, these Wim Wenders movies. I absolutely love that stuff. That’s a huge influence on me. I won’t deny it is. I also think of Bevis and Butthead Do America or whatever. That’s also a style I like. I think I wanted it to have a sense of that sort of idealized nostalgia but really playful about it. Some of the musical touches get to nod to that, and that was a part of it that was really fun for me and made me feel like it wasn’t because I didn’t want to be the guy who wasn’t taking itself too seriously. 

• “Cruel in Time”  

“Cruel in Time,” the next song on the record, it tumbled out of its own. It was like a bunch of halfway finished songs that I had and it tumbled out. It was right after we got done finishing the Kitimoto  record. When the songs come like that, for me at least, when they come so easily and seem to present themself, it was just like, you’ll figure out a way for this to have a narrative as it comes together, and that’s definitely what happened. Then we hand it over to collaborators like the people we work with, [like] Laraine [Kaizer-Viazovtsev] who plays strings on it. 

Part of the whole thing of not taking yourself seriously is allowing yourself to open up to people too and playing with them, because playing music with people is just such a great thing. The bass player on two songs, Zane Gillum, I’ve been playing with this dude for more than 20 years. We play together on Kitimoto . We literally learned how to play the guitar together in Coolidge, Arizona. It just felt so good. I was just like, “I’m not gonna beat myself up. I’m not gonna be so serious about this.” That was crucial, and I also wanted to make sure it sounded like me. For good or bad, this is me. 

• “The Road That Knows No Law”  

We were definitely thinking of a [producer] Daniel Lanois thing in a lot of ways, whose influence I’m not embarrassed of. I grew up listening to his stuff, be it U2, Emmylou Harris, Willy Nelson. I did want to play with some of the tones on that song. It’s a real collage-y one too. I grabbed a Spain Rodridguez comic book and pulled some words off the cover. I think it was something like, “Raw action on route… the road that knows no law.” 

I just started thinking about the I-17, which is a freeway here. It’s not hard for that song to be post-apocalyptic. I found myself sort of imagining this weird kind of world and that was the sound of it and I was really excited. 

I was thinking of the outlaw. Judee Sill is one of my favorite songwriters, and I love the way she talks about the outlaw, the person who is outside of the line. Obviously, we have been thinking so much with concepts of the law as a society as we’re taking fascistic turns often in terms of these ideas of the law. I wanted to play with that archetype and the sort of desert Southwest Apocalypse, Terminator 2 style. Krassner played such cool guitar on it. I really like that one. It’s a weird one. 

• “Guesswork at Sundown”  

“Guesswork at Sundown’ is you’re setting up camp and daylight is dwindling. It’s a joke! It’s a joke about death a little bit too. The idea of fake it til you make it or whatever. The ultimate making it is when you’re done. There’s a little bit of goofiness to it. 

That was a meditation jam with me, Zach, and Zane, the guy who I’d mentioned I’ve been playing with for the last couple decades. We were sort of doing this endless summer kind of thing in our head. We just played that loop for a long time and let it roll and selected a little bit of that. Krassner re-arranged and brought in Larraine Kaizer-Viazovtsev. She did that beautiful raga like string arrangement, sort of this weird L.A. noire thing, but also very much about setting up camp as your daylight is running out. 

There were words to it and they felt extraneous. I was kind of like, “Well, I don’t want to necessarily put an instrumental.” “Something Happening” and “Always Happening” are pretty limited vocally, but they both have words. So I was kind of like, “I don’t know if i want a straight up instrumental on the record.” Ultimately, it felt like a nice thing to do. 

Krassner, independent of me mentioning the Verde River and places like Sycamore Canyon, was like, “This really gives me the feeling of the 1970s.” He grew up here too. 1970s on the Verde River on a Friday night. I could imagine these Phoenix kids driving in their Camaros or whatever to the Verde River. I was like, “That’s a good image.” So, when he said that it was a weird metaphysical cue that that one was good. I stopped thinking if I whether or not I should come up with words. 

• “Clarifying Word” 

I was thinking side-A and side-B the whole time as well. Something Happening/Always Happening, I was thinking of it as A/B, this two syllable mantra. I wanted “Clarifying Word” to have sort of like an introductory quality. I grew up leading songs in church and it would be an Introductory hymn kind of thing, which is sort of what I’m playing on there, maybe subconsciously. 

Krassner plays, again, beautiful piano on it. His piano work on it is gorgeous. He really brought so much care and skill to the record and accentuated my melodies so honestly. He was a real generous musical ear. The fact that the record sounds as good as it does is entirely due to him and the other guys who play on it with me, even though a fair amount of it was me in my room. I don’t want to not give myself any credit, but also think they deserve much more for sure. 

• “Halfway to Eloy” 

It’s not even specifically about Eloy, Arizona. It’s just a scene that I imagined in my head. Some sort of Philip K Dick kind of thing where a guy’s been awakened to the cosmic light and is driving to Eloy or from Eloy. I’m pretty vague about it. That one was a lot of fun. That was in a jam with Zane and Zach. Then we fade into that Beastie Boys breakbeat. That was so much fun. I love that one. 

I did grow up in Pinal County and I do feel like there is a sense of this. You have to drive through Pinal County to get to Oracle where Kitimoto  recorded. Driving that road with Zane down for the Kitimoto  record, before this one even started, I think those trips were real inspirational to the record. There is a sense of place about it. It is sort of a Pinal county record in a weird way. 

You create your own world in your head. That’s a lot of what Dick writes about, and with something like this, you have this beautiful excuse to do so and to populate with all sorts of weird scenes or whatever. That one was a lot of fun. That’s a good collaboration with Zach, especially on that back half, and then with Zane really holding on that bass on the first one. That’s a fun one. 

• “Addressed By The Multi-Formed Image” 

This was one where it kind of came later in the album. I have a weird, fitful relationship with singing. Just like everything else I’m talking about, it’s taken me a long time to admit how much I love doing it. This album was a great chance to re-engage that with myself. Like I said, I grew up singing in church, and for all the weirdness that might bring to the table, it has implied for me the relationship between expression and spirit and all that stuff. I really do think that singing is a form of expression that does mean a lot to me. It was always tough to come up with anything that I felt comfortable putting word wise to melodies. 

• “Always Happening” 

It’s the third thing that was recorded for the album actually. It’s a drone that was built on this loop of a Link Cromwell song, “Crazy Like a Fox,” which is Lenny Kaye, the music writer and guitarist of Patti Smith’s band, and assembled the Nuggets compilation. Just a huge icon in this world of record dude culture that I’m a part of or whatever. I looped just a small sample of that and wrote the mantra over it. I knew I was almost risking psych-rock… parody is hopefully not the right word… but I knew I was really explicitly invoking most of those psych moves. 

The loop of the Link Cromwell thing also puts it into a sort of tape loop setup which lends itself well to the psych rock thing, which again, I let it go. It was incredible because I reached out to him. When it comes to incorporating a sample, it can be difficult and a lot of people opt to not try to contact the rights holder. I decided I was going to and reached out to him and he was kind enough to respond and allow for it to happen and he seemed to like the song. If the guy who produced Nuggets doesn’t hate the song, who am I to argue. I love that song. It’s a lot of fun. We’ll probably release it at some point, but there’s an extended cut too that goes on even longer and it’s beautiful! That’ll probably come out when the single comes out. 

I remember being a teenager in Coolidge and learning how to play guitar and reading something in Guitar World that was like, one of the best things you can do is leave the audience wanting more. So, I did want to put a really cool one on the end to reward people who spent time listening to the record. It was that way for me. I always sort of knew that the book ends were going to be “Something Happening” and “Always Happening.” This was such a fun project and I’m really excited it’s getting out and that some people will hear it. It’s a pretty fun thing to finally be on this side of sharing something. 

Premiere: Kim Ware & the Good Graces spin heartbreak tale with "U2 (Means to an End)"

[Repost from B-Sides & Badlands; by Bee Scott, September 7, 2022]

Kim Ware revisits a heartbreak from long ago.

“I should’ve known it would fade,” groans Kim Ware. “U2 (Means to an End),” premiering today via B-Sides & Badlands, finds Ware and her band the Good Graces untangling heartbreak and finally putting all the pain six-feet deep. “It was fucked up in hindsight how you stood me up in the dorm room that late night,” Ware reopens wounds as an avenue to healing. Part of that process, the letting go, Ware has learned, “means letting you know,” she sings, burning up the past with lyrical wildfire.

In her work, Ware frequents the heartbreak well, including across 2017’s Set Your Sights. When mulling over the past, the singer-songwriter realized that one relationship had never been immortalized in song. So, she set about writing “U2 (Means to an End),” a vivid depiction of pain and “what I learned from it,” Ware says. “But I’m not sure I actually learned all that much — my husband and I were friends first, so…” Ware cheekily references “some friends of mine who had recently become romantically involved,” as well as “anyone that might relate to it, really.”

“Years later, I married, and you followed that jam band around the whole country,” continues Ware, further dismantling the once-bright and hot romance. “Were you thinking I’d follow you too / I bet you still haven’t found something true…” Her words consume in relentless sole-licking flames, accentuated with a “rocking and noisy” arrangement that “made me chuckle,” she shares.

Producer and musician Jerry Kee injects a jangly vibration with his guitar work. “The first time I heard it with Jerry’s guitars, I kind of felt like that guy in the old Maxell ad. That took a little getting used to, but now I really love it,” she continues. “One of the most fun parts of making this album was tracking the backing vocals to this song. I really didn’t have a solid part in mind. I just was sort of trying whatever came to me. If I remember correctly, I did the ‘around the whole country’ part, all the way until the end, in one take. It was so fun, singing harmonies to all the noisy stuff going on in the background, and I felt like the harmonies brought out the country vibe just a bit.”

“U2 (Means to an End)” samples Kim Ware & the Good Graces’ forthcoming Ready, out next Friday (September 16) on Potluck Foundation (CD) and Fort Lowell Records (digital).

Listen to “U2 (Means to an End)” below.

Follow The Good Graces on their socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website

Kim Ware; photo by John McNicholas

Weekly Listening: September 2022 #2 | JPW – Wealth of the Canyon

[Repost from Various Small Flames; by Jon Doyle, September 12, 2022]

What better schooling can there be in music than consistently talking to the best? As the writer and host behind the ever-present Aquarium Drunkard, Jason Woodbury has had the opportunity to do just that, and his debut solo record Something Happening / Always Happening, out now on Fort Lowell Records, suggests he has been taking notes. Under the moniker JPW, Woodbury creates songs dialed in to both the surrounding landscape and the mystical dimensions above and beyond it. Classic cosmic folk rock which might well beam you up, if only to get a better look at the world below. Take single ‘Wealth of the Canyon’, its sound rich and enveloping, its easy rhythms so laidback as to be practically horizontal. But within the warmth lies something mysterious, something quite possibly sublime. A cloaked thing which you can only hope to catch in glances as time goes by.

Something Happening / Always Happening is out now via Fort Lowell Records. Get it now via Bandcamp.

Audio Explorations

[Repost from Nashville Scene; by C.J., February 26, 2002]

Audio Explorations These synthpop merchants’ well-recorded and -executed CD ActionReaction could be filed somewhere between Chick Corea’s Elektrik Band and The Cure. They’ll check the pulses of the culturally comatose at Springwater.

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Fort Lowell Records is very proud to share with you that for the 20th Anniversary, we will be releasing Audio Explorations' ActionReaction on vinyl record for the very first time! 

CLICK HERE TO PRE-ORDER NOW

OUT NOW: "U2 (Means to an End)" by Kim Ware and the Good Graces

The third single from the upcoming album Ready [co-released with PotLuck] by Kim Ware and the Good Graces, titled "U2 (Means to an End)" is out today on all digital platforms!  For fans of Bettie Serveert, Bright Eyes, and The Mountain Goats. 🎸