NEW! HONEYCUTTERS – When Bitter Met Sweet
The Honeycutters are excited to introduce their second full length studio release, When Bitter Met Sweet. Like their first release, Irene, When Bitter Met Sweet features singer/songwriter Amanda Anne Platt, who has been hailed as “one of the best songwriters coming out of WNC these days” by WNCW programming director Martin Anderson. Peter James accompanies her on lead and rhythm guitar as well as harmony vocals. They are backed up by Tal Taylor’s signature mandolin playing, Ian Harrod on bass, and Jon Ashley on drums creating an original brand of americana that has proved equally appealing to both the musician and the music lover, the country and the city, and the old and the young. Platt’s songs are shaped by a raw honesty that comes straight from the heart and emits a sort of melancholy happiness. The album features 11 tracks that touch upon childhood and loss of innocence, finding a sense of belonging and one’s voice, truth, love and patience, traveling and embarking on new life-journeys (and the fears that go along with these), and the understanding that comes about when life’s circumstances come full circle.

The title track, “When Bitter Met Sweet” is a song about the end of love looking back at the beginning. Platt says, “I think it’s important not to lose sight of what was good about something even if it is ending.” “For Eleanora,” was inspired after reading a biography of Billie Holiday and reflects on a similar thought of polarities that, “It seems like so often the partners of extreme talent and specialness are self-destruction and doubt.”

The song “90 Miles (The Tennessee Song)” is featured on Blue Ridge Outdoors Trailmix for 2012 Merlefest Artists. It was written after her first trip to International Folk Alliance in 2010, an event that can be quite overwhelming at first. An admitted introvert, Amanda was faced with the challenges of how to be heard amongst all of the activity of events such as these. And make herself heard is exactly what she went on to do; becoming a finalist at 2011 Merlefest’s Chris Austin songwriting contest for her song song “Little Bird” (unrecorded). She was asked to return as a guest judge for the contest, along with Jim Lauderdale, for the 2012 Merlefest (Where The Honeycutters will also be performing a few sets this year). The same song won first place in the Great Lakes Song Contest in February 2012.

“All I Got, ” is a song Amanda calls, “a love song I wrote a long, long time ago, before I had actually ever been in love” and was selected for WNCW’s 2010 Crowd Around the Mic Vol. 14.

“Fancy Car” features Platt’s father on harmonica. He also sits in on “Not Over Yet” which she says that when she sings it she imagines a child leaving home for the first time, wanting freedom but scared of what it might cost.

When Bitter Met Sweet was co-produced by Amanda and Peter with the assistance of Aaron Price, and was recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville NC after securing funding through a successful Kickstarter campaign. Along with the full band, many special guests make appearances on the album including Matt Smith (pedal steel and dobro), Nicky Sanders (fiddle), Mark Platt (harmonica), Je Widenhouse (coronet), and on drums Mike Rhodes and Richard Foulk and for various songs. The album was engineered (and partially mixed) by Jon Ashley with the assistance of Julian Dreyer, mixed by John Keane and mastered by Dave Harris at Studio B Mastering in Charlotte, NC.

Their first full length studio release Irene, released in May 2009, has landed them in Ian Hughes’ NoDepression Podcast’s Top 20 of 2009, Fret Knot Radio Hour’s “Nine you need to know from ’09″, and #32 in WNCW’s listener voted Top 100 of 2009.

Since putting out Irene The Honeycutters have shared the stage with such Americana favorites as Tony Rice, The Greencards, Jill Andrews, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Donna the Buffalo, and The Seldom Scene. They have been voted Western North Carolina’s favorite local Americana act (2011 Mountain Xpress reader’s poll) and delighted audiences from upstate New York to Seattle, Washington. They are currently touring around the release of When Bitter Met Sweet.

The HONEYCUTTERS – When Bitter Met Sweet on CD/LP

4:15 – MOUNTAINWALKER Aaron Berg is Mountainwalker and Mountainwalker is Aaron Berg. His hip hop alias slings lyric stream of creative rap and Free Style to thumpin beats and a mic.
Keep a watch on MOUNTAINWALKER’s Facebook page

5:00 – MOUNTAIN HOMES one of Greenville current faves pulling elements of Archer Vs Gunman and a brand of folk into something altogether different
MOUNTAIN HOMES resides here on Facebook

Will “Righteous Cobra” Wong – Guitar, Vocals, Banjo
Jason “Thunderbolt” Hudson – Guitar, Vocals, Banjo
Lauren “Night Saw” Stapleton – Cello
Brian “Turbo Wolf” Loos – Trumpet, Vocals
Kevin “Deth Stryke” Mavis – Drums
Shaun “Dove Blood” Williams – High-Strung Guitar, Vocals

JIM WHITE – Where It Hits You, on CD/LP

Read NY Times blog & watch the HOSPTIALITY set from Rolling Stones Rock Room at SXSW

Singer Amber Papini’s idiosyncratic songwriting and incisive lyrics coupled with the band’s rich arrangements on its self-titled debut explore youth, New York, and the bittersweet commingling of past and present in a way that feels just right, right now. Papini’s singing has a wisp of an English accent via Kansas City (she learned to sing by imitating Richard Butler on The Psychedelic Furs’ Talk Talk Talk), and her lyrics create a moonstruck, even cinematic vision of New York City, where the band formed in 2007.

The production by Shane Stoneback (Vampire Weekend, Sleigh Bells) and band member Nathan Michel imbues the entire record with an intimate yet prodigious sound, layering period keyboards with horns, synthesizers, and treated guitars.

HOSPITALITY ABC News Interview by Stephanie Rutkowski, abcnews.go.com/blogs

Hospitality released its self-titled debut album with Merge records. The release show at The Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn started off with a stroke of bad luck — two of the band members were pulled over on their way to the venue and a surprise visit from the health inspector delayed their set. Once the group came on stage and started the night with “The Right Profession,” the soldout crowd knew it was worth the wait.

Hospitality recorded the album before signing with Merge. It tracked everything live in a studio over the course of four days, mixed it and sent the album around to record labels. Brian described Merge as “a nice family to support you,” and said that releasing the record had been “effortless” and “painless.” The result is 10 dynamic songs showcasing the band’s talent and originality.

Many reviews have compared Hospitality’s sound to that of Belle & Sebastian. While Amber admits they like Belle & Sebastian, they don’t completely agree with the comparison. Nathan explains, “The very opening ["Eighth Avenue"], sounds like Belle & Sebastian, so the fact that it’s the first [song] people hear I think they tend to focus on that.”
ht hospitality ll 120308 wblog Hospitality Interview: Band Discusses Debut Album, Betty Wang, and Arrested Development

In speaking to their musical influences, Amber says “they’re really diverse and broad.” The band members list Elvis Costello, Neil Young, the Clash, the Beatles and Robert Wyatt. They also listen to a lot of classical music and jazz. In her lyrics, Amber aims to draw on universal themes and use eclectic characters to tell stories that anyone can relate to.

The song “Betty Wang” celebrates a strong, inspirational woman, who is “the only girl on the team.” Betty Wang is based on someone who Amber used to work with, but don’t expect to see her make an appearance at a Hospitality show anytime soon. Amber says, “She’s a pretty private person. … I’m not sure if she even knows about all the attention the song is getting right now.”

Another catchy, character-driven song is “Friends of Friends,” the first single off the album. The music video, directed by Scott Jacobson, takes a fun approach to a long-distance breakup. The role of “girlfriend” is played by Alia Shawkat, who played George-Michael’s crush-worthy cousin Maeby in “Arrested Development.”

Hospitality is Brian Betancourt, Nathan Michel, and Amber Papini.
Follow Tweets at @horizonrecords @hospitalityband
Facebook pages at horizonrecords and hospitalitylives

HOSPITALITY – Hospitality, on CD/LP

One of our FAVORITE artists delivered a rare in-store set to celebrate his new CD/LP “Long Ride Home”. We couldn’t be happier. The magic happens anytime Darrell plays and shares his amazing songs.

Read DARRELL SCOTT’S interview with GoUpstate.com’s Vince Harris. Also: Read the Garden & Gun feature.

LONG RIDE HOME
this is a country recording- 16 songs that travel as far back as 30 years- 2 songs (The Country Boy and You’re Everything I Wanted Love To Be) written at 16, with my dad, Wayne Scott, when he rented a cabin in big bear lake, california just for us to write (we each finished the others’ song) – there is a duet with Guy Clark (Out In The Parking Lot) on a song Guy & i wrote together – there are guest vocals from Rodney Crowell (Hopkinsville), Tim Obrien & John Cowan (No Love In Arkansas & Too Close Too Comfort), and Patty Griffin (You’ll Be With Me All The Way)

Video: Darrell Scott Live at Horizon Records in Greenville, SC. “Pay Lake” written by DS and Marcus Hummon from the album “Long Ride Home” Feb. 2012. YouTube Video by obrennan53

THE PLAYERS
i recorded the album at home where we sat up around the grand piano where THE pianist of country music, Hargus “pig” Robbins, presided (pig started recording in nashville in 1957 – the 1st hit he played on: George Jones’ ‘White Lightnin’) – on drums, my kayak/bicycling friend, Kenny Malone, a studio legend since 1975 (his 1st hit was Dobie Gray’s ‘Drift Away’) – on upright bass: Dennis Crouch (we’d played together in Steve Earle’s Bluegrass Dukes & Dennis has played on virtually all T Bone Burnett’s recordings for the last 10 years & toured with Elvis Costello, Elton John, Robert Plant & Alisson Krauss) – we 4 were the tracking band – then i stayed with legends: Lloyd Green on pedal steel (Don Williams, Charlie Pride), on harmonicas: Charlie McCoy (everyone from Dylan to Cash) & Mickey Raphael (Willie) – then singers, Marcus Hummon, Jonell Mosser & Kathy Chiavola (from Dixie Chicks to Emmylou Harris) and mixed & mastered by Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Malcolm Holcomb).

It is country music how i remember it – with some of the players that made the very music that was both lifting & breaking my heart as a kid – what i find is the country music industry has changed, but country & working people have not changed so much – they still love country music when they hear it – i hope they get to hear this.

COUNTRY MUSIC
the old country music of cheating, drinking, working, longing- pre-garth, pre-video, pre-urban-cowboy country music – the voice of working people- people of the land – it is their poetry country music and king james – the country music cuts the deepest.

KENTUCKY
my people came from kentucky – poor tobacco farmers of first half 20th century and harlan county coal miners decades ahead of that – descendants of scots & irish – they brought their music with them.

BAPTIZED
from silver haired daddy to momma’s hungry eyes i was baptized in country music – our first vacation (after my dad working in gary, indiana steel mills for 6 years) was to nashville, tn. & the grand ole opry we’d been listening to on radio – i got my first instrument at a pawn shop on broadway (1965) the following year, my mom dressed her kentucky best and marched into the 4 big labels in nashville (rca, capitol, columbia, decca) and got as far as the desk receptionist to leave a 45 of Wayne Scott & The 3 Ds (my brothers and i were the 3Ds) – i was 7 then – country music was the background music of my childhood.

—DARRELL SCOTT – “Long Ride Home” on CD & LP (on Full Light Records)

Since Meadow (2006), fans of Richard Buckner have been clamoring for new material and wondering what was keeping their hero from releasing the new songs he would perform on the road. Well, it’s a long story!

First, there was the score to a film that never happened. Then there was a brief brush with the law over a headless corpse in a burned-out car that had all eyes in Buckner’s small hometown in upstate New York turned toward him and his long-suffering truck. Shortly after a move to a safer, less popular corpse dumping ground, the death of his tape machine led to yet another reboot. After Richard called in pedal steel and percussion players and put new mixes on his laptop, his new “safer” place was burglarized. Goodbye, laptop.

Buckner says: “Eventually, the recording machine was resuscitated and some of the material was recovered. Cracks were patched. Parts were redundantly re-invented. Commas were moved. Insinuations were re-insinuated until the last percussive breaths of those final OCD utterances were expelled like the final heaves of bile, wept-out long after the climactic drama had faded to a somber, blurry moment of truth and voila!, the record was done, or, let us be clear, abandoned like the charred shell of a car with a nice stereo.”

And so finally, we present Our Blood…

RICHARD BUCKNER – Our Blood, on CD & LP (on Merge Records)

We celebrated RECORD STORE DAY in all it’s sprawling collecting shopping thronging music infested tribal sonic fun-ness. Of course we had an amazing array of the usual must-have goodies of limited edition VINYL (LPs, 7″, 10″ & 12″) CDs DVDs and BOOKs that are now the stuff of RECORD STORE DAY. This was the 5th year of one of the most fun holidays in America.
THANK YOU to all the bands that performed:

HOSPITALITY
JIM WHITE
ANDY THE DOORBUM
MOUNTAINWALKER
MOUNTAIN HOMES

The Bohemian Cafe served festival-style RECORD STORE DAY food specials with beverages of all types complimented the RECORD STORE DAY experience.

We stocked nearly all of the over 300 + Record Store Day special releases: mostly VINYL but also interesting CDs, DVDs, Books. Here is just a teaser sampling of some of them.

LUNA – Romantica, [Double Feature] LP, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES
Luna’s sixth album, produced by the band with Gene Holder (dB’s) and Dave Fridmann (MGMT, Flaming Lips). Originally released in 2002, this was Luna’s first album with new addition.
Britta Phillips. First time ever on vinyl, this is a limited edition of 1,000 on 180-gram vinyl. 12 tracks on the vinyl, plus a free download of the entire album with 3 bonus tracks.

LUNA – Rendezvous, [Double Feature] LP, LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES
Luna’s seventh and final studio album, originally released in 2004. Available for the first time on vinyl. This is a limited edition of 1,000 copies in 180-gram vinyl.

PAUL WELLER – That Dangerous Age, [Yep Roc Records] 7″ LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES
“That Dangerous Age” is the first single off Paul Weller’s new album, “Sonik Kicks”. The b-side, “The Piper” is a new, previously unreleased song. This 7″ is limited. to 1,000 copies on red vinyl for Record Store Day.

RA RA RIOT & DELICATE STEVE – Valerie b/w The Big Ship, [Barsuk Records]Split 7″ LIMITED TO 400 COPIES
The 7” is pressed on white vinyl with hand-numbered sleeves. “Valerie” is a Steve Winwood cover, and “The Big Ship” is a cover of a Brian Eno song.

TORTOISE – Lonesome Sound & Mosquito, [Thrill Jockey] 2×7″ LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES
1993: Tortoise release their first material into the world in the form of two 7” singles. Lonesome Sound was released on Thrill Jockey and features a cover of the Freakwater song of the same name. Mosquito (also the band’s original name) was released on David Sims’ (Jesus Lizard) Torsion Music label.

ARTIST: VARIOUS – WTNG 89.9fm: Solid Bronze, (CD)

ARTIST: VARIOUS – From the Vaults of Ric and Ron Records Rare and Unreleased Recordings 1958-1962, 10×45 + booklet LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES

PETER TOSH – LEGALIZE IT: Echodelic Remixes [Delicious Vinyl]
The 10-inch release is backed with “Legalize It (Secret Circuit’s Echodelic Shockblast Mix)”. The inspired work of Secret Circuit (aka Eddie Ruscha), this version comes with its own voltage-altering, spliff-building dub. “Judges smoke it / even the lawyer too,” noted Peter Tosh in his immortal song. In a time when Peter Tosh the prophet is at last being heeded by society, Delicious Vinyl is proud to refresh the message: Legalize it!!

LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY – Blackboard Jungle Dub: Get On Down Deluxe 10″ Vinyl Edition
The package contains the full length album spread across three pieces of 10″ red, yellow, and green colored vinyl , a 30″ x 30″ giant poster of the album’s cover art, and is housed in full color hinged box secured with a magnetic clasp. We even went a step further with this release and sent the original version to our audio labs to be painstakingly remastered a second time to ensure 100% flawless audio sound quality.

Louisville, Kentucky’s Nathan Salsburg is a folklorist, producer, and presenter of vernacular music for East Village Radio, the Drag City imprint Twos & Fews, and the Alan Lomax Archive, among other outlets. With his first solo record as a performer — entitled Affirmed, after the 1978 winner of horse racing’s Triple Crown — he enters a wholly new interaction with the corpus of American (and British) musical folklore. The album, seven original instrumentals and one trad arrangement, is a startlingly diverse synthesis of guitar traditions — from Gary Davis to Sam McGee; Peter Lang to Nic Jones — refracted through a compositional sensibility long on melodic adventurousness and short on repetition and drone, those shibboleths of the American Primitives. Affirmed is a remarkably confident, emotional debut by one of the most original and gifted young guitarists playing today.

NATHAN SALSBURG – “Affirmed” on CD

Records Everywhere!
Expect rare and budget items of all genres and styles.
Over 45 tables (the entire Handlebar concert area) of VINYL action and 45’s, CDs. 12’, memorabilia — HOLY COW it’s a music collector’s festival. From the bargain basement steals to hard to find deals the sonic fun is wall to wall.

DJ ACTION!
DJ set by CULTURE PROPHET brings the heat playing from his secret rare records vault.-at 12 noon, and at 1pm DJ KING HAROLD will be blasting some soul, then…

For dealer or general inquiries contact Horizon Records at 864.235.7922

On the media-crunked “Black Friday” Horizon Records, like last year, will open at 8am unveiling the crates of limited edition recordstoreday.com goodies for the I-ain’t-going-to-no-dang-mall music fans to swoop in on, and for all to enjoy a festive early start to our big all day SALE. There’s more details coming soon plus there’ll be a slew of special offers, giveaways, bonus swag, free coffee & donuts and just plain good times to be had in ye olde record store as we kick off the Holiday Season. Gasp! It’s our 37th. Hope to have chance to show you why independent retail is the best way to enjoy yourself when not busy eating or watching sports.

Here’s some of the BLACK FRIDAY goodies we expect to have for you…