Today’s New Albums: Bonnie Raitt, Railroad Earth, Old Crow Medicine Show & More
Particle Kid, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Primus, Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, Dave Matthews Band, Dawes, S. Carey and Ebunctions also have new releases out today.
By Team JamBase Apr 22, 2022 • 5:41 am PDT
Each week Release Day Picks profiles new LPs and EPs Team JamBase will be checking out on release day Friday. This week we highlight new albums by Bonnie Raitt, Railroad Earth, Old Crow Medicine Show, Particle Kid, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Primus, Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder, Dave Matthews Band, Dawes, S. Carey and Ebunctions. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.
Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That…
Renowned musician Bonnie Raitt put out a new album entitled Just Like That… today via Redwing. Recorded last summer in Sausalito, California, the 10-track LP marks Raitt’s 21st album and first since 2016’s Dig In Deep. Bonnie was backed by longtime band members bassist James “Hutch” Hutchinson and drummer Ricky Fataar along with recent additions keyboardist Glenn Patscha and guitarist Kenny Greenberg. Additionally, Raitt was joined by old friend and collaborator George Marinelli on their co-written song, “Livin’ For The Ones.” Raitt produced the album with mixing engineer Ryan Freeland.
“I’m really aware of how lucky I am and I feel like my responsibility is to get out there and say something fresh and new—for me and for the fans,” Raitt said regarding Just Like That…. “It’s really daunting not to repeat yourself, but I have to have something to say, or I wouldn’t put out a record.”
Railroad Earth – All For The Song
Veteran jamgrass act Railroad Earth headed to New Orleans to record their first album since the tragic death of co-founding member Andy Goessling. The resulting 10-track LP, All For The Song, arrived today. RRE tapped Anders Osborne to produce the long-awaited follow-up to their last full-length album of original material, 2014’s Last Of The Outlaws. Guitarist/vocalist Todd Sheaffer shared the following in regards to All For The Song:
“From the beginning, the vision was more than just the music. We looked at this like a ‘destination’ record. Our past records were all made close to home or, in fact, at home. Andy’s passing was very much in the center of our thoughts and our hearts in the writing and recording of this album. Things were so shaken up that we thought it’d be a benefit to go away from all of the distractions and be together. In New Orleans, there is great food and there are great spirits to be shared. I’ll leave the music part of the equation for others to judge, but we surely succeeded in making the bonding part of the vision come to fruition!”
Old Crow Medicine Show – Paint This Town
Old Crow Medicine Show returns today with Paint This Town, their first studio album since 2018’s Volunteer. The new LP also marks Old Crow’s first captured in their own Hartland Studio, an East Nashville space the band bought in early 2020. OCMS teamed up with Matt Ross-Spang, who has worked with John Prine and Jason Isbell, to co-produce Paint This Town which “relentlessly pulls off the rare and essential feat of turning razor-sharp commentary into the kind of songs that inspire rapturous singing along,” as per press materials for the album. Old Crow Medicine Show previewed Paint This Town with several singles including the title track, “Bombs Away” featuring Molly Tuttle and most recently, “Gloryland.”
“Over the years we’ve spent a lot of time and money in professional studios,” frontman Ketch Secor recalled, “but this was the first time we’d worked in our own place since back in the late ’90s, when we’d hang a microphone from the rafters and record a cassette on our TASCAM 4-track. Doing it ourselves was a lot more fun with a lot less stress or pressure, and because of that we were way less precious about it. It all just felt less like a chore and more like a complete joy.”
Particle Kid – Time Capsule
Particle Kid (the project led by Micah Nelson) released a new album entitled Time Capsule today through Overseas Artists. Nelson recruited several guests to contribute to the 26-track double-LP includig his father, country legend Willie Nelson. Other musicians who appear on Time Capsule include J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Margo Price, Jeremy Ivey, Sunny War, Sean Ono Lennon, Mickey Raphael, Moskito, Paul Bushnell, Nikitia Sorokin, The Lovely Eggs, Raman Steve, Eric Sullivan, The Nerfs and Dave Ralicke. Particle Kid recorded Time Capsule over the past five or six years in locations ranging from home bedroom studios, to hotel room laptops, to full fledged recording facilities.
Originally conceived as three separate EPs, Micah eventually took a, “Fuck it, let’s put it all on one big record,” approach, hoping that “the songs would be like cut-out pieces from magazines and the little weird segue interludes would be the glue that holds it all together … I was thinking about how all of the art and music we make are like little time capsules, tangible forms of memories captured and frozen in time, like little plot points in our lives that exist now and we get to dig them up years later and revisit them.”
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Omnium Gatherum
In March, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard revealed their new double album, Omnium Gatherum, would be released “soon.” The Aussie-rockers stayed true to their word with today’s release of the sprawling 16-track double LP. Their first double album was preiewed via its 18-minute lead single, “The Dripping Tap.” The band recorded the follow-up to 2021’s L.W. and Butterfly 3000 as well as 2020’s K.G. at their Melbourne headquarters and at their now-shuttered 253 Lygon Street clubhouse, as well as at band members’ home studios. King Gizz’s Stu Mackenzie shared the below statement regarding Omnium Gatherum:
“This recording session felt significant. Significant because it was the first time all six Gizzards had gotten together after an extraordinarily long time in lockdown. Significant because it produced the longest studio recording we’ve ever released. Significant because (I think) it’s going to change the way we write and record music – at least for a while… A turning point. A touchstone. I think we’re entering into our ‘jammy period.’ It feels good.”
Primus – Conspiranoid
Primus released a new EP, Conspiranoid, today via ATO Records. The three-track EP is the renowned Bay Area trio’s first record of original music since 2017’s The Desaturating Seven, which in turn marked the band’s first original LP since 2011’s Green Naugahyde, making Conspiranoid just the band’s third original recording in a decade. Primus — bassist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry LaLonde and drummer Tim “Herb” Alexander — previewed Conspiranoid with the EP’s 11-minute opener, “Conspiranoia.” Conspiranoid also includes the tracks “Follow The Fool” and “Erin On The Side Of Caution.”
“I’d been itching to record an opus–basically a long, winding, bastard of a song, reminiscent of some of the compositions I cut my teeth (or ears) on, in my music-hungry adolescence,” Claypool told Consequence of Sound. “‘Conspiranoia’ was sprouted from a seed I had planted in my notebook a year or so ago–a few lines commenting on the mental state of the contemporary world.”
Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder – Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee
Half a century has passed since longtime friends Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder last put out a collaborative album. The drought ended today with the release of Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee through Nonesuch Records. Get On Board features Mahal on vocals, harmonica, guitar and piano, while Cooder provided vocals, guitar, mandolin and banjo. Mahal and Ry Cooder first teamed up in 1965 — when Cooder was just 17 — signing with Columbia and recording an unreleased LP. Widely bootlegged, the Columbia sessions were finally officially released in 1992. Cooder contributed to Mahal’s 1968 self-titled debut album and marked the duo’s last collaboration. Joachim Cooder contributed drums and bass across the new record’s 11-tracks. The songs on Get On Board were chosen from recordings by harmonica player Sonny Terry and guitarist Brownie McGhee. The pair teamed up in 1939 and their style of Piedmont blues was influential on the folk revivals of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
“I started hearing [Terry and McGhee] when I was about 19, and I wanted to go to these coffee houses, ‘cause I heard that these old guys were playing,” Mahal said “I knew that there was a river out there somewhere that I could get into, and once I got in it, I’d be all right. They brought the whole package for me.”
Dave Matthews Band – Live Trax Vol. 59: MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Dave Matthews Band’s latest archival recording, Live Trax Vol. 59: MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, arrived today. The live offering documents the group’s July 16, 2014 concert in Tampa, Florida. DMB’s summer tour that year featured an altered format that saw the band delivering two sets rather than one long one with the first set boasting an acoustic DMB that began with bassist Stefan Lessard busting out the bow on standup bass for opener “27.” Other stripped-down highlights include “Ants Marching” “I’ll Back You Up,” and “Crash Into Me” as well as drummer Carter Beauford providing some tasty percussion work on “Sweet.” The electric second set got going with “Don’t Drink The Water” into a big “Seek Up” at over 16 minutes followed by favorites like “Satellite” and “Crush.” The electric frame also saw a standout “Good Good Time” as well as a cover of the Talking Heads classic “Burning Down The House.”
Dawes – Live From The Rooftop (Los Angeles, CA 8.28.20)
Out today from Dawes is the new album Live From The Rooftop (Los Angeles, CA 8.28.20). As the title implies, the collection features a career-spanning set the band played on a rooftop in their hometown of Los Angeles on August 28, 2020. The 15-song performance was initially presented as a livestream special on the Noonchorus platform. Dawes’ set featured performances of “St. Augustine At Night,” “Still Feel Like A Kid” and “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” from Good Luck With Whatever, a studio album that arrived a little over a month after the rooftop concert took place. Additional Live From The Rooftop tracks include beloved staples “Time Spent In Los Angeles,” “A Little Bit Of Everything,” “When My Time Comes,” “All Your Favorite Bands” and more.
S. Carey – Break Me Open
Break Me Open is the first new S. Carey (Eau Claire, Wisconsin-based multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer Sean Carey) album in four years. Recent life events informed the music on Break Me Open as Carey was influenced by a recent divorce, the death of his father, the growth of his children, the pandemic and more. Carey, who is the second-longest tenured member of Bon Iver, co-produced Break Me Open with Chris Messina and Zach Hanson. Recording sessions were held at Carey’s home studio in Eau Claire as well as at a studio facility in Gualala, California. The album’s 10 songs feature string arrangments by Rob Moose and horns arranged by CJ Camerieri (CARM). Carey shared the below statement regarding the follow-up to 2018’s Hundred Acres:
“Change is good. Fucking hard, but good. For many, to say the last two years have been difficult would be an understatement. Stress and uncertainty about life in general, family, friends, kids, even Mother Earth has grown exponentially. There is a heaviness to human consciousness right now, a darkness at the surface. Break Me Open is about love – past, present, and future. It’s about fatherhood – the overwhelming feeling of deep love for my kids and the melancholy of watching them grow up right before my eyes. It’s about accepting my faults and wrongdoings, exposing myself, and trying to know myself better than I did the day before. But above the darkness, it’s a message of hope, honesty, and growth. It’s a call to be vulnerable: Break Me Open.”
Ebunctions – This Just In
Self-described “yacht soul supergroup” Ebunctions released their debut album, This Just In through TudorTones Records. The band is led by veteran Los Angeles-based session musicians, vocalist/saxophonist Woody Mankowski and keyboardist/songwriter Jeff Babko (Jimmy Kimmel Live! band, Frank Ocean, Toto, James Taylor). The project began when Mankowski began assembling “quarantine tunes” with Babko, (who can be heard on the Billboard #1 hit, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Disney’s Encanto). Mankowski and Babko were joined by drummer Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Average White Band, John Mayer), bassist Ethan Farmer (Lionel Richie, Aretha Franklin, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake) and guitarist Shane Theriot (Dr. John, Hall & Oates). The 12-song album was co-produced by Mankowski and Babko and recorded by Eric “ET” Thorngren (Talking Heads, Robert Palmer) and Pete Min (Vulfpeck, Meshell N’Degeocello).
“I had a dream several years ago that I was a contestant on American Idol,” Mankowski said. “It was during an early season of the show, and it seemed like all the contestants had crazy names. I was nervously waiting in the wings to go onstage. When it was my turn to sing, Ryan Seacrest made the announcement, ‘and now ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for…Ebunctions Hef!’ That made me sit up in bed and laugh. I always wanted to use that name for something. Jeff suggested we use it for this band, and I said heck yes. I guess my dreams are coming true.”
Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.
