August Program Titles Released This Week:
BJ The Chicago Kid – 1123 CD/LP (Motown)
Soul music legend-in-the-making Bryan James Sledge aka BJ The Chicago Kid returns with the modern yet deeply moving 1123 which follows-up his Grammy-nominated 2016 major label debut In My Mind. “Worryin’ Bout Me”, “Time Today” and “Close” are all sonically stellar examples of what listeners can expect to hear on the star-studded affair, which boasts features from Offset, Anderson .Paak, J.I.D, Rick Ross and Afrojack, and includes production from Cool & Dre, Danja, Dre Harris and longtime collaborator, Jarris “J.Mo” Mozee. With melodies galore and an elastic voice that sounds like a sample, BJ The Chicago Kid is one of the most explosive, yet mature, soulful artists/writers of our young generation.
Dude York – Falling CD/LP (Hardly Art)
“There are two ways things can fall,” says Dude York’s Claire England. “They can fall and be ruined, or they can fall gently like a feather and be fine.” On Falling, the Seattle trio explores that sentiment – evoked by the broken cake on the album cover and the soft confetti on the inside sleeve – through impossibly catchy and emotive songs that investigate the ways you can fall in and out of relationships, and sometimes fall back together. Recorded at Different Fur Studios in San Francisco with producer Patrick Brown, Falling finds Dude York sounding bigger and more fully-realized than ever with hits that would feel perfectly at home sandwiched between Jimmy Eat World and Third Eye Blind in early 2000s alt-rock radio rotation, while somehow still sounding utterly their own.
Delbert McClinton and Self-Made Men + Dana – Tall, Dark, & Handsome CD/LP (Hot Shot)
“Roots music visionary” (Rolling Stone) Delbert McClinton returns with the swaggering and swingin’ new album, Tall, Dark, & Handsome. Featuring 14 new, original new songs – all written or co-written by Delbert – the album dives deep into the blues, Americana and beyond, bursting with horns, fiddle, accordion, blazing guitar work, back-up singers and McClinton’s charismatic rasp, proving Lyle Lovett’s claim that “if we could all sing like we want to, we’d all sound like Delbert McClinton.” Tall, Dark & Handsome features Delbert’s band the Self-Made Men + Dana: Dana Robbins (saxophone), Jack Bruno (drums), Mike Joyce (bass), Bob Britt (guitar), James Pennebaker (guitar), Kevin McKendree (keyboards), Dennis Wage (keyboards). It’s evident from the first downbeat that McClinton and company had a blast making the record, shining a raucous light on the swinging, jazzy virtues of Texas blues.
