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JOHN SHUTTLEWORTH: '4 RATHER TASTY TRACKS' (EP)
CHIC KEN PRODUCTIONS: CHIC KENCD015
RELEASE DATE: ' OUT NOW' JUNE 2007
# Also available as a download from 11th June 2007
www.shuttleworths.co.uk
# 'I Cant Go Back To Savoury Now' Video available
on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8eh72REd_s
John Shuttleworth's Savoury Dilemma !
Mmmmm...4 Rather Tasty Treats !
John Shuttleworth, the North Country entertainer and wit (a persona created by Graham Fellows) is to release a brand new EP entitled 4 Rather Tasty Tracks, coinciding with some sell-out UK tour dates.
I Can't Go Back To Savoury Now presents a dilemma that all of us can relate to - a minor Greek tragedy, wherein our hero is trapped between the Scylla and Charibdis of being presented with more of a delicious main course meal when already having consumed dessert. Shuttleworth voices his concerns over an inimitable keyboard accompaniment - a vocal of soulful lamentation that speaks to us all.
John Shuttleworth is to the uninitiated, a Sheffield based singer-songwriter who hopes to succeed in the world of popular music. He has presented several series on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 4, has appeared on TV shows such as Saturday Zoo (with Jonathan Ross), Christmas With Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, and had his own four-part 'rockumentary' series on BBC 2, entitled 500 Bus Stops. He was also nominated for a prestigious Perrier Award at the 1992 Edinburgh Festival.
Truly, John Shuttleworth is a Yorkshire Renaissance Man.
Graham Fellows, the Shuttleworth alter ego, first rose to greater public prominence in 1978 as Jilted John, and has appeared in Coronation Street, an episode of the Steve Coogan series 'Coogan's Run', and will be in an episode of the popular series Heartbeat in July of this year. Amongst his other creations are Rock Music nearly man Brian Appleton, and John Shuttleworth's support act on the current tour, Dave Tordoff.
John Shuttleworth is available for interview in support of both the new EP and
the remaining shows.
Please contact Alan Robinson or Lesley Shone at Indiscreet PR on
07813 290 474 or via this web site for further details.
John Shuttleworth is currently on his 'WITH MY CONDIMENTS' tour in the UK,
with the following dates remaining:
JUNE 2007:
10th HULL: TRUCK THEATRE ~ 01482 323638 # SOLD OUT
11th BUXTON: OPERA HOUSE ~ 0845 1272190
12th SHEFFIELD: CRUCIBLE ~ 0114 249 6000
16th MANCHESTER: DANCEHOUSE ~ 0161 237 9753 # EXTRA DATE
18th LONDON: BLOOMSBURY THEATRE ~ 0207 388 8822 # EXTRA DATE
26th LERWICK: GARRISON THEATRE ~ 01595 692114
DIESEL PARK WEST: 'BLOOD & GRACE'
DANVILLE: DANVILLE CD001
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 11TH JUNE 2007
'They make heartfelt well-crafted music that rarely puts
a foot wrong' ~ Americana UK: May 2007
'...an album of catchy guitar driven pop rock, full
of impassioned vocals, driving rhythms, and cutting
guitar work' ~ Classic Rock Society: June 2007
'...positively bristles with memorable choruses ringing twelve string guitars - containing ten dynamic examples of their tuneful art' ~ Guitarworks online: June 2007
Diesel Park West are:
John Butler (guitar, vocals) Rick Willson (guitar, vocals)
Geoff Beavan (bass, vocals) Rob Morris (drums).
Diesel Park West are to release Blood And Grace, a brand-new, ten-track album on Monday 11th June 2007. The album will be released on their own Danville label and distributed via Voiceprint. Them are the basic facts; however, Blood And Grace happens to be the finest album released under the Diesel Park West name in their twenty-year history.
Slam the disc into your CD player, crank up the volume, and let the guitar waves of the album’s opening track, When They Turn The Lights On crash into view, and you may just find yourself agreeing with me. The signature elements of classic DPW are present and correct; John Butler sings with a controlled passion; his left-hand guitar conspirator Rick Willson punches home Butler’s lyrical ruminations with his customary fire and skill, whilst the Beavan / Morris rhythmic axis underpin the whole with understated aplomb.
Those fans who boarded the DPW bus way back when will acknowledge that this is something that the band have always done, except on Blood And Grace, DPW are informed by a renewed sense of purpose, a focus that delivers an album that’s all killer, no filler, and takes their unapologetically guitar-based rock into areas that are almost cinematic in their scope and range. Take, for example, Men Of Blood, which has Butler deliver arguably his most intense vocal ever, whilst both he and Willson construct an intricate guitar raga; or the first single, There’s A Grace, which takes the West Coast guitar template vividly into the here and now, with Willson chipping in a twelve string break of ringing majesty, atop an insistent rhythmic propulsion that has ‘winner’ written all over it. Indian crashes out of the speakers with the kind of gutsy six-string clangour that is supposedly the preserve of teenage garage bands. The band do not stint across the album’s ten tracks; The Groovin’, in its tom-tom heavy, fiercely focussed drive has echoes of their debut single, When The Hoodoo Comes but is firmly of the here and now.
Blood And Grace is a timely reminder of the lasting appeal of cogent, guitar-based rock music. This album says more with the grit and grain of its guitar tones, the conviction of John Butler's vocals and its compulsive rhythmis shapes than I could with mere words alone.
If you’d cut an album as good as Blood And Grace, you’d want to talk about it, and Diesel Park West are available to do just that. John Butler and Rick Willson will be available for press and radio interviews in support of this fine release.
Please contact Alan Robinson and Lesley Shone at Indiscreet PR on
07813 290474 or via this website for
further information.
JONAS & PLUNKETT: 'THIS IS WHO WE ARE'
ROCKMASTER RECORDS: ROCCDA 1
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 11TH JUNE 2007
Heartbreak, love, loss, joy, ordinary girls, music business machinations, and spaceships – all grist to the singer-songwriter mill as performed by acoustic duo Jonas Hurst and Adrian Plunkett (and cellist Francesca Pierce) on their sparkling debut album, This Is Who We Are.
A breathtaking fourteen-track affair that shuffles effortlessly a varied and vivid pack of musical styles, This Is Who We Are is the culmination of several years’ hard work by the duo, writing and performing on the London singer-songwriter circuit.
From the bluesy shuffle of the opener, Mr Brown, by way of sweet (but not saccharine) ballads such as It Was You, through to darker entries such as What Have I Done, This Is Who We Are mixes passionate, soulful performances, assured song craft and quality musicianship in one magnificent package.The duo are masters at a close harmony sound, a pop staple from The Everly Brothers, Simon And Garfunkel and others; but Jonas And Plunkett approach the classic sound with a refreshing contemporary feel, predominantly acoustic, but rich in texture and atmosphere, by turns soulful, allusive, witty, and on occasions, painfully direct. The singer-songwriter genre is scarcely under-populated these days, as ever, but there is also room for rare talents such as Jonas And Plunkett, who don’t come with massive record company promotional budgets, wear their musical hearts on their sleeves, and do what they do with a huge dash of honest-to-goodness charm.
So who are Jonas and Plunkett, then? Well, accomplished singer-songwriters for a start, this we’ve already told you - but away from their music, they bring a raft of diverse experiences and influences to the table. Jonas was something of a child star, in the pre X Factor days, appearing in the TV series Mini Pops, and has also been a sports reporter for Channel 5 news. Adrian Plunkett is a doctor at the world-famous Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London. They’re also great friends, and their infectious, self-deprecating wit is just one of the keys to their in-concert appeal.
This Is Who We Are is the first album release on the Rockmasters label, set up by music business legend Mike Hurst. Mike was one third of The Springfields, along with Dusty Springfield, and discovered and signed Cat Stevens in his role as House Producer for the Decca label in the mid-1960s. In recent years, Mike has also set up the Rockmasters ‘Rock School’ events.
Jonas and Plunkett are available for interviews and radio sessions in support of This Is Who We Are, an excellent debut album, with much, much more to come from this richly-talented duo.
Please contact Alan Robinson and Lesley Shone at Indiscreet PR for
more information.
JOHN KEENAN: 'FOOLS CRUSADE'
TIDBIT MUSIC: EAN 00471
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25TH JUNE 2007
First, a few basic facts. John Keenan is a singer-songwriter from Scotland. He is in possession of a richly expressive, soulful voice, writes honest, emotive, lyrically direct songs, and, with his brand new album, Fool’s Crusade, presents a fresh and appealing take on contemporary rock and roll.
He is in a long tradition of excellent Scottish writers and performers – he writes the kind of lyrical, heartfelt ballads in the tradition of such illustrious forbears as Gerry Rafferty or John Martyn, yet can also rock out with the kind of gutsy grit of the likes of Frankie Miller or Alex Harvey.
So far so good, but Keenan is also an excellent interpreter; Fool’s Crusade contains an imaginative reworking of the Gordon Lightfoot classic, If You Could Read My Mind, which is brought directly into the here and now by way of a warm and intimate reading, and a contemporary arrangement carefully tailored to frame Keenan’s interpretation. It can often be a difficult task, to take a very familiar song and to wring new layers of meaning and feeling from the lyric, but Keenan does just that. In this regard, he is aided and abetted by his German producer and arranger, Markus Wagner, who magisterially manicures the impressive musical backdrops to suit Keenan’s voice brilliantly. Wagner also co-writes the original songs on the album, carefully crafted, by turns melodic and punchy. Take, for example, Wishing Well, a gutsy rocker that positively swaggers with a bristling musical confidence, then contrast that with mellower moments such as Bus Ride Away, and the recorded evidence of a winning musical partnership is plain to see and hear.Fool’s Crusade is the second John Keenan album, and it represents a positive progression from his debut, Hell No. Fool’s Crusade boasts a greater stylistic diversity, and a more clearly defined sense of confidence radiates from finely-crafted songs such as Not Too Late To Turn and South of The River Crowd. John Keenan is a talent that has been carefully developed, and allowed to mature in collusion with producer Wagner.
Mention must also be made of the excellent musical contributions made by guitarists Ralf Blaschke and Mike Harwood, whose varied tones and playing styles add much tasteful musical colour and texture, on an album that surprises and enthrals in equal measure.
For all radio programmers out there, may we guide you to the following tracks as suitable points of entry for Fool’s Crusade:
Track 1: If You Could Read My Mind – soulful reading of the Gordon Lightfoot classic
Track 3: Bus Ride Away – subtle, warm and winning ballad, with a Latinate, bossa nova rhythm
Track 10: Just A Kid – parental advisory – contains strong language!
Track 12: Not Too Late To Turn – tougher, more rocking track
John Keenan will be available for radio interviews and sessions in support of Fool’s Crusade.
Please contact Alan Robinson and Lesley Shone at Indiscreet PR on
07813 290474 or via this website for
further information.