Carsie Blanton + Dawn Landes May 19, 2012

Following her heart has worked out pretty well for Carsie, earning her widespread critical acclaim and a coast-to-coast fan following for her clever wordplay and indelible melodies. The remarkable new Idiot Heart represents the Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter's finest work thus far, a panoramic collection of exuberant, expansive folk-pop, crafted with uncommon spirit and ingenuity.

Further inspiration came from such contemporary artists as Patty Griffin, Ani DiFranco, and Joan Osborne, as well as a burgeoning interest in jazz. She began with iconic singers like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone but soon went down "the rabbit hole," delving into the dazzling sounds of New Orleans via such masters as Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. In 2005, Carsie recorded and self-released her first CD, Ain't So Green, simply to share her music at shows and open mic nights. She relocated to Philadelphia the following year and was soon drawn into the City of Brotherly Love's thriving café community.

Carsie began gigging frequently, acquiring a manager and more importantly, a fervent fanbase. She recorded and self-released a second album, 2009's Buoy, this time mixing classic soul and R&B into her own idiosyncratic sound. She also started opening for other like-minded artists, including The Wood Brothers, with whom she formed somewhat of a mutual admiration society. In May 2011, Carsie reached out to the band's Oliver Wood to see if he'd be interested in producing her new record. He agreed and the two began doing pre-production via e-mail, exchanging songs and ideas through the spring. In July, they spent four days at a studio in Wood's native Atlanta, with Wood serving as both producer and guitarist, accompanied by Carsie's longtime bassist Joe Plowman, drummers Jano Rix (The Wood Brothers, Marc Broussard, Damien Marley) and Tyler Greenwell (Susan Tedeschi, Col. Bruce Hampton & The Codetalkers). Additional instrumentation and backing vocals were added in August, including contributions from banjo player Joe McGuinness.

Carsie has mastered her craft the old-fashioned way, by playing over a hundred shows a year both as headliner and as support to such artists as Joan Osborne, John Oates, David Wilcox, Jimmy Webb, and Loudon Wainwright III. In addition, she's toured Europe, performed on NPR's famed Mountain Stage, and taken part in stage productions of Anaïs Mitchell's acclaimed Hadestown: A Folk Opera. Blessed with a distinctive voice - both as performer and songwriter - and an unfettered passion for making music, Carsie Blanton is truly something special, a marvelously original artist who is as forthright as she is ambitious.
http://www.carsieblanton.com/

Titling her third album Sweet Heart Rodeo might appear a calculated risk but singer-songwriter Dawn Landes, Kentucky-born and Brooklyn-based, swears she didn't have the Byrds' pioneering 1968 country-rock classic "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" in mind.

Though she grew up in Louisville her perfect variations on country and folk music have all been recorded in her adopted hometown of Brooklyn. The culture clash of urban and rural traditions is an intriguing base for Landes' material and audience. She spent most of 2008 touring with a variety of country/folk and indie-rock stalwarts like The Tindersticks, Midlake, Josh Ritter, Jason Isbell (of the Drive by Truckers), Alexi Murdoch and the Swell Season, to name a few. And though she might recognize kindred spirits in contemporaries like Conor Oberst and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Landes is blessed with a voice as pure and ringing as any folk or country diva.

The voice has always been there, but it's taken a while to be heard. Her first self-released records, simply called Dawn's Music and the EP two three four effectively proved her talent, but it was 2008's acclaimed Fireproof that revealed it to the world. Around that time her splendid bluegrass cover of Peter Bjorn and John's instant classic "Young Folks," performed with an elderly group of Texans called The WST Band ("It stands for ‘we sorta tried'"), became a YouTube favorite. "Straight Lines," one of her best-known songs, sound-tracked in adverts on both sides of the Atlantic.
http://www.dawnlandes.com/

Official Website: http://www.jamminjava.com/