Horizon is pleased as punch to have just set out a stack of CDs from our own Aaron Berg (and 3 of our favorite upstate musicians). This post modern Americana opus is the result of 2 years of sonic work spanning a recording session in Chicago, then a mixing episode in Nashville and finally pressed up and released this month to us and the world. Read on or find out more, listen and download stuff at www.aaronbergmusic.net

THE SINGER: Raised in South Carolina, Aaron Berg grew up in a household that owns one of the South’s oldest independent record stores. So, it wasn’t surprising when at a young age he began playing bass and at 18 moved to New York City to study jazz bass at New School University. Soon the sonic direction of Berg began to veer as the Greenwich Village folk scene worked a spell on him blending his thoughts of the Carolinas back home with the blasts of life on the streets of Brooklyn. Berg abandoned jazz and dived into the teaming waters of Brooklyn’s post-modern singer songwriter scene. His first record “Songs for Madame X” debuted in 2007 -a flurry of recording and touring was followed by a self-published book of prose”Midnight Shining Sun” (an autobiographical travelogue packaged with a 14-track CD).

THE ALBUM: “Exiles In Paradise” is the second full-length studio album by Aaron Berg. Recorded in Chicago, and mixed in Nashville, “Exiles…” features: Mike Bagwell (pedal steel), John Byce (drums), and Chris Garrett (bass). Special guests include Jim Becker of Califone and Tim Joyce of Lesser Birds of Paradise. Instrumentation also includes upright piano, Fender Rhodes, violin, bowed bass, Hammond M3 organ, various percussion, dance hall drum machine, and ambient loops.

THE SOUND: While Berg draws on a mixture of Appalachian folk, 90′s grunge, delta blues, and contemporary Americana and hip hop, his sound is anchored in the singer/songwriter contemporary folk tradition. Aaron Berg’s style and lyric composition reflect several decades of influences (including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, John Prine, Jackson Browne, and Daniel Lanois). The Heavy Love pay homage to these influences in a sound that spans from tender acoustic to angry garage slabs. “Exiles In Paradise” delivers reverb-drenched ballads, highway-ready rockers, dobro/fiddle-laced hymns, and pop hooks all layered upon poetic lyric and soulful melody.

AARON BERG &THE HEAVY LOVE, “Exiles In Paradise”

“Bunky Moon is a group of accomplished musicians exploring the boundaries of improvisational music within the framework of …classic rock songs. Fearless and with reckless abandon, they add new twists to familiar tunes and take you on an unexpected journey. Very interesting indeed…” –-Bon Lozaga, guitarist (Gong, Gongzilla, Happy Rhodes)

Bunky Moon is a new instrumental rock trio based in the Charlotte, NC area. The group performs unique arrangements of some popular rock classics and an assortment of original material.

“Bunky Moon pulled together an eclectic collection of cover tunes and originals, stripped away the lyrical window-dressing and allowed the music to speak for itself. It’s a progressive rock masterpiece.” –-Jeff O’Kelley, entertainment photojournalist (USA Today, Creative Loafing, Go Far)

It’s a free show in celebration of their new CD, Be here! Tell yer friends.

BUNKY MOON – Schtuff we like, on CD

This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark is a special 2 CD set released to celebrate Clark’s 70th birthday. The collection was lovingly produced by GRAMMY-winning producer Tamara Saviano (Beautiful Dreamer: The Songs of Stephen Foster)–who is also working with Clark on his definitive biography–and frequent Clark co-writer Shawn Camp (“Sis Draper,” “Magnolia Wind”).

The tribute includes 30 tracks by 33 Americana artists who are friends and colleagues of Clark or who have been influenced by his remarkable compositions.

“Guy’s songs are literature,” says Lyle Lovett, among the venerable artists who eagerly gathered for This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. “The first time I heard Guy Clark, I thought it made everything I’d heard up to that point something other than a song. His ability to translate the emotional into the written word is extraordinary.”

“Guy Clark is like a dancer with the way he talks and a photographer with the way he writes,” noted Texas indie artist Terri Hendrix says. “He’s the epitome of American songwriting.”

For This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, artists brought two key instruments: a guitar and a profound reverence. Individual investments quickly emerged. Perhaps most notably, Vince Gill claims a haunting bond. “Giant tears were falling all over my guitar as we were playing,” the country star remembers about serving as guitarist on Clark’s original “Randall Knife” recording nearly thirty years ago. “My dad was a lawyer, and he died when I was forty. Guy and I are tied at the hip through that song.” READ MORE here put in Recent interest what we’re into not featured

“Let’s give her a good go and make ol’ Guy proud of us…” said Rodney Crowell kicking off the collection on the first day as he readied to record “That Old Time Feeling.” The double CD set was recorded live in studio with a core house band that included multi-instrumentalist Shawn Camp, guitarist Verlon Thompson and pianist Jen Gunderman. The tribute was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and Austin, Texas with a rotating cast of other musicians including multi-instrumentalist Lloyd Maines, bass players Glenn Fukunaga, Mike Bub and Glenn Worf, and drummers Kenny Malone and Larry Atamanuik.

Volume 1
1. That Old Time Feeling – Rodney Crowell
2. Anyhow I Love You – Lyle Lovett
3. All He Wants Is You – Shawn Colvin
4. Homeless – Shawn Camp
5. Broken Hearted People – Ron Sexsmith
6. Better Days – Rosanne Cash
7. Desperados Waiting For A Train – Willie Nelson
8. Baby Took A Limo To Memphis – Rose Flores
9. Magdalene – Kevin Welch
10. Instant Coffee Blues – Suzy Bogguss
11. Homegrown Tomatoes – Ray Wylie Hubbard
12. Let Him Roll – John Townes Van Zandt II
13. The Guitar – Ramblin’ Jack Elliott
14. Cold Dog Soup – James McMurtry
15. Worry B Gone – Hayes Carll

Volume 2
1. Dublin Blues – Joe Ely
2. Magnolia Wind – Emmylou Harris & John Prine
3. The Last Gunfighter Ballad – Steve Earle
4. All Through Throwing Good Love After Bad – Verlon Thompson
5. The Dark – Terri Hendrix
6. LA Freeway – Radney Foster
7. The Cape – Patty Griffin
8. Hemingway’s Whiskey – Kris Kristofferson
9. Texas Cookin’ – Gary Nicholson, Darrel Scott & Tim O’Brien
10. Stuff That Works – Jack Ingram
11. Randall Knife – Vince Gill
12. Texas 1947 – Robert Earl Keen
13. Old Friends – Terry Allen
14. She Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – The Trishas
15. My Favorite Picture of You – Jerry Jeff Walker

We are also sharing the love with 2 great FREEBIES of very cool music. First the MATADOR RECORDS Intended Play LP is either buy it outright for a whopping $2 or simply buy any vinyl in store and we’ll GIVE YOU FREE. That’s an 11 track fully loaded LP FREE, while they last and they won’t for long so do get on in here and claim your copy. PLUS we got a card from MERGE RECORDS that directs you to FREE DOWN LOAD sampler, not too shabby- thanks to MERGE you can taste test tracks from WILD FLAG, HOSPITALITY, CROOKED FINGERS, RICHARD BUCKNER and more. Yes Free, while it’s available.

Also, relax, as a help to summarize & clarify what actually happened musically last year and guide you to any magic you may have missed, Horizon has posted a blog by John “Indicator” Byce gathering and suggesting his own sonic trendy gourmet Top 20 selections of 2011. Forget New York Times, NPR or Pitchfork – we have JB and he knows. Yeah we have them all in stock on CD & VINYL.

It’s time to say:
COME SEE US!

Wednesday March 14 at The Peace Center!

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis — Jazz the way it was meant to be heard. The world’s ambassadors of jazz are coming to town, led by legendary trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis.
Tickets: $25, $35, $45, $55

JASON ISBELL & The 400 UNIT with Archer Vs. Gunmen on February 2 at The Handlebar!

Alabama songwriter delivers with hard-driving, soul, rockin’ alt-country
It is Groundhog Day, and Jason Isbell’s consistently growing shadow is a sure sign that you’ll get a spring back in your step. Firmly establishing himself as much more than an ex-Drive-By Trucker, Jason Isbell and his band, the 400 Unit, have found success with his Alabama-edged poetry and electrifying guitar chops. His third album, Here We Rest, released in 2011, finds the songwriter returning to his roots and winning even more critical acclaim. Says the Austin Chronicle: “Few songwriters today write with Isbell’s combination of lyrical economy, deep-seated empathy, and masterstroke axe melodies.” When Jason and the boys played Canada’s legendary Horseshoe Tavern, the small club where the Rolling Stones had once rehearsed, “the band had the crowd hooked from the start,” Americana Review said, adding, “They could work seamlessly from hard-driving, soulful and rocking alt-country, to a wonderful ballad.”