Category: News

On April 19, 2019, Anna Tivel will be releasing her 4th solo album with Fluff and Gravy Records, titled The Question. That’s a long way off, so we decided to release the first single, “Fenceline”, today, premiered by Folk Alley.

“Fenceline” focuses on the impulse humans have had across generations and societies, to build walls in an effort to keep unwanted people out. Tivel found herself wondering: What is at the core of this need to construct barriers between ourselves and others?

“I heard an interview awhile back with a border guard,” she says. “He was in charge of a two-mile stretch of old fence and every morning he would walk along the fence line and find wire cutters and holes. He talked about the people he met, the people he helped through and those he had to send back, what their lives were like, what they were hoping for, what they were scared of. It was right after the election and it felt so good to hear someone talk about how deeply complex borders issues are, how security is important but so is humanity.”

Contemplating walls, fences, and gates brought her to the story of St. Peter at Heaven’s gate, only letting the chosen through. “Some people believe that you arrive at the entrance to Heaven and have to prove that you belong there,” she says. “Even in death we’re drawn to the idea of some kind of great wall.”

Give the track a listen (below) and then pre-order the record here. You’ll get a download of “Fenceline” immediately.

Whim will be releasing a new record in early Summer of 2019 with Fluff and Gravy Records, but we just couldn’t wait to get the lead single out to you. “Mouths”is first and foremost a callout song— a song Sarah wrote to call herself out for taking the silent observer position in too many situations where being vocal is imperative. In the days of social media where fake news and political opinions abound, it’s easy to feel like you simultaneously have a voice, and that it’s impossible for you to ever be heard over the clamoring masses. It becomes an existential pitfall when you either say nothing, or you say something and it turns out to be ignored.

The parallels to our current social and political climate were too great to ignore, and although we have not yet even finished recording the LP, we felt like this track needed to be public sooner rather than later. Paste Magazine premiered the track here as their Daily Dose and we will be officially releasing the track digitally on November 2, 4 days before the mid-term elections.

Give it a listen, and spread the word. “We are the people who SHOUT!”

In October of 2013, 17-year old Sarah Isabella DiMuzio walked into a hidden recording studio, armed with an acoustic guitar, a banjolele, and a wistful voice that was impossible to ignore. That studio was the recording arm of Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records, and label head John Shepski and recording engineer Juniana Lanning were both immediately taken by the earnestness and immediacy of Sarah’s music. Under her stage moniker, Whim, she self-released the 4-song Small Infinity – EP via Bandcamp, catching the attention of the Portland Mercury as well as Northwest Music Scene. It also caught the attention of independent filmmakers, Sean & Matthew Kohnen, and Sarah was hired to write and record 4 additional songs for the feature film, The Funeral Guest.

At age 19, Sarah would move to Galway, Ireland, where she recorded her first full-length album, 400 Days. At the same time, she began licensing her music regularly for television (her songs have appeared in New Girl and Catfish among others). Upon moving back to the US and residing for a time in Nashville, the world of music publishing became a reliable source of income, and a career in music began to look sustainable. 

Now at the age of 22, Sarah has moved back to Portland and will be partnering with Fluff and Gravy Records for a full-length Whim album, titled Abuzz in the Abyss, to be released in the Spring of 2019. The first single is the impossibly catchy indie-pop gem, “Mouths”, to be released on November 2, 2018.

Glide Magazine has the premier of “Angels”, the second single from Hillstomp‘s forthcoming Monster Receiver LP (due October 19).

It’s “a slowburning nugget of soulful blues that makes you want to stomp your feet as much as it makes you want to sit back on the porch with a tall glass of whiskey. These fellas may hail from the Pacific Northwest, but “Angels” makes it abundantly clear that they possess a uncanny ability to conjure up the kind of spiritual reckoning present in blues and gospel of the deep South. ”

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files

Son of the Velvet Rat will be touring the West Coast in October.

“Hagler” is the first single from Hillstomp’s October 19 release, Monster Receiver, and it has been making the social media rounds this week.

Here’s what people are saying:

“Terrifyingly good” – American Standard Time

“‘Hagler’ which sounds like Lee Ranaldo getting loose in the Bayou before the song bursts into a glorious haze of momentary distortion.” – Post to Wire

“Full of piss, vinegar and whiskey” – Joy of Violent Movement

The song itself fell out of a new guitar – a used Gibson ES 135 that Henry Kammerer recently acquired. “New guitars tend to do that”, Kammerer explains. “The song sounds tough, and it needs to. Marvelous Marvin was the toughest guy from my childhood and he always stuck with me. He was just a bad ass. I’m so happy now I get to sing his name for the rest of my life.”

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files

After a few self-released records that McCue recorded while attending college in Seattle, PANGAEA marks a milestone for him. Released on Portland’s Fluff and Gravy Records in the Spring of 2018, the record marks the end of his career as a Student, and the beginning of his focus on being a full-time musician. The transition actually began a year earlier, in March of 2017, when McCue competed in the Museum of Popular Culture’s Sound Off! competition for artists 21 and younger in the Pacific Northwest. Armed only with his dad’s acoustic guitar, a wispy tenor voice-box, and more than a few starkly provocative lyrics, Jason ended up impressing the competition’s judges, comprised of Seattle music industry veterans, enough to earn him first place. The prizes included a drum set, an electric guitar, a synthesizer, which he used to record PANGAEA, as well as performance slots at Bumbershoot and Timber Outdoor Music Festivals.

His September/October dates mark his first prolonged tour, and these will be the first of many more to come.

Jason McCue Tour Dates

If by some chance you’ve been asleep for the past 17 years, let me introduce you to Hillstomp. They’re a 2-man band based out of Portland, OR, comprised of Henry Hill Kammerer and John Johnson. Henry plays guitar and banjo like a hurricane, and if you close your eyes you’d swear he’s playing 2 parts at once. John Johnson beats mercilessly on his drum kit (which often contains a bucket, brake drum and broiler pan) with the fury of a demon loose from hell. But once you get past the pure ferocity of his playing, you notice that the parts are intricately crafted patterns that provide the framework for Kammerer’s guitar and banjo sorcery. Save for a couple of outlier tracks, there’s just no room for bass guitar, and no-one misses it enough to ask for it. This is folk music in its purest form – from loud and gritty, to intricate and poignant, and most importantly, always heartfelt and true.

We are proud to announce that on October 19, we’ll be releasing a brand new full-length, Monster Receiver. Recorded over the spring of 2018, the album finds the band challenging the stereotypes once again. Producer, John Shepski, and mixing engineer, John Askew (Richmond Fontaine, Laura Gibson, Wild Flag) teamed up to drive the Hillstomp sound into more experimental territory. The drums and guitar are pushed to the limit on screamers like “Hagler” and “Snake Eagle Blues”, while the gentler sounds in “I’ll Be Around” and “Dayton, Ohio” seem to stop time for a few minutes. Featuring guest appearances by Anna Tivel on violin, Erik Clampitt  (Hook & Anchor)on pedal steel, and David Lipkind (I Can Lick Any Son of a Bitch in the House) on harmonica, the record flows seamlessly between grungy folk, garage rock, and tender ballads.

You can pre-order the record now – available here as a Limited Edition “Sky Blue” LP (limited to 100), Black LP, CD, or digitally. Record will ship third week of October, along with digital files.

Daytrotter has jumped onto the Year-End List frenzy with their Best of 2017 Folk/Americana list, and it features none other than out own Mike Coykendall. The track “All That I Wanted” from his 2015 album, Half Past, Present Pending was recorded over a recent visit from Coykendall to the Daytrotter studios. Give it a listen!

Ann Powers includes Anna Tivel’s “Small Believer” on her annual Top 10 Unheard Albums list for NPR’s The Record. The single, “Alleyway”, clocked in at #67 on NPR’s Best 100 songs of 2017 list. Powers opines that the album “repeatedly achieves this exquisite balance of the quotidian and the sublime with imagery that’s deeply poetic without being fussy, in musical arrangements that form like intuition around Tivel’s insights.

Anna Tivel’s fourth studio album ‘Small Believer’ is a collection of patchwork stories drawn from conversations with strangers, on the road, in restaurants, bars, and rest stops. Produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell), the songs float on a raft of electric guitar, pump organ, and sparse bass and drums.

‘Small Believer’ is spacious and honest, a lyric-driven exploration of the things that move within us. Tivel takes great care with every syllable and every story, chipping away until what remains is blindingly true and deeply affecting.

The record is available now on lp, cd and digital formats, as well as at Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

Limited edition gold vinyl, hand-numbered to 125 is in short supply.

Anna Tivel’s “Alleyway” clock in at #67 on NPR’s Best 100 songs of 2017 list. Jacob Ganz writes “Anna Tivel has one of those voices that shivers with intimacy, so even when she’s singing about cars and the weather, you lean in to hear how she puts the words together.”

Anna Tivel’s fourth studio album ‘Small Believer’ is a collection of patchwork stories drawn from conversations with strangers, on the road, in restaurants, bars, and rest stops. Produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell), the songs float on a raft of electric guitar, pump organ, and sparse bass and drums.

‘Small Believer’ is spacious and honest, a lyric-driven exploration of the things that move within us. Tivel takes great care with every syllable and every story, chipping away until what remains is blindingly true and deeply affecting.

The record is available now on lp, cd and digital formats, as well as at Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

Limited edition gold vinyl, hand-numbered to 125 is in short supply.

This morning (11/17/17), The Parson Red Heads are releasing a new single, “TV Surprise”, recorded during their Blurred Harmony sessions. Accompanying this single is an announcement that the album will be released in a digital Expanded Edition on 12/8 via Fluff and Gravy Records, featuring 2 bonus tracks – “TV Surprise” and “It’s Hard For Me To Say”.

Here’s how Evan Way describes the new single…

“TV Surprise” is a song that’s been around for probably 10 years at least, maybe more. It’s got a real Felt / Feelies vibe to it that I really like – those are two bands that we were just starting to get into around the time I wrote the song, so it’s no surprise that was coming through. The abstract feel of the lyrics is the thing that ended up making it not a perfect fit for inclusion on the Blurred Harmony album sequence, but Danny (O’Hanlon, who mixed the record), did a really great job creatively mixing the song – he added a lot of the textures that make this recording of the song have such a cool atmosphere and mood.

Fun fact – the ambient sound drone that opens the song is a combination of a Casio Keyboard, vacuum cleaner, bass guitar, and Evan’s 5 year old son George recorded into my Tascam 4-tracker and slowed down.

Thanks to No Depression for taking the time to interview Fluff and Gravy Records Co-Founder, John Shepski. Dig in right here and read up on the history of the label, new and exciting upcoming projects, and find out how John feels about FnG being pegged as an Americana label.

Nick Jaina visited the Daytrotter studios back in June to record songs and stories with Stelth Ulvang, including “All the Best Fakers” from his FnG release, Primary Perception. Perhaps the highlight of this set though, is a haunting version Phosphorescent’s “Song for Zula“, during which Nick recounts a famous exchange between Johnny Cash and Ray Charles on the Johnny Cash Show. Charles had reportedly kicked heroin recently, but Nick ponders whether he was really clean, based on his body language and performance. “If he is on drugs, it is quite an argument for doing drugs”, Jaina concludes.

Give a listen to the entire session here

In Today’s installment of NPR’s Songs We Love, Anna Powers highlights Anna Tivel’s “Illinois”, from her most recent LP, Small Believer.  “A compassionate chronicler of those lives often overlooked, Tivel is simultaneously clear-eyed and open to dreaming”, Powers suggest. We couldn’t think of a more fitting description.

Anna Tivel’s fourth studio album ‘Small Believer’ is a collection of patchwork stories drawn from conversations with strangers, on the road, in restaurants, bars, and rest stops. Produced by guitar mastermind Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Anais Mitchell), the songs float on a raft of electric guitar, pump organ, and sparse bass and drums.

‘Small Believer’ is spacious and honest, a lyric-driven exploration of the things that move within us. Tivel takes great care with every syllable and every story, chipping away until what remains is blindingly true and deeply affecting.

The record is available now on lp, cd and digital formats, as well as at Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

Limited edition gold vinyl, hand-numbered to 125 is in short supply.

“If you’re looking for elegant sorrow, for compelling and gracious misery, for poetic sadness, then Jeffrey Martin is the musician you need.” So says the today’s review at Folk Alley.  It’s not an uplifting album, at least on the surface. The songs are “dark and sad and real. And that – that realness – that’s what’ll make you want to listen to the next story. And the next. And the next.”

After Jeffrey Martin released 2014’s Dogs In The Daylight, the Portland Mercury posited that he “might be the best songwriter in Portland.” No Depression called the record “as close to a masterpiece as a folk album from an emerging singer-songwriter can get.” One Go Around is the long-awaited follow-up to that record.

There’s a quiet dignity to the 12 new tracks on One Go Around, but a kind of quiet desperation as well. With subjects ranging from the shocking story of William Burroughs’ casual murder of his wife during a drunken party, to themes of love found and lost, the stories hit hard, because we know we may not be far off from them ourselves in this time of uncertainty.

The record is available now on LP, CD and digital formats, at the Fluff and Gravy Store, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes and Amazon.

In addition to black vinyl there is a Limited Edition run on Red vinyl, hand-numbered to 123.