Release Day Picks: April 14th New Album Highlights

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 The String Cheese Incident, John Mayer, Leslie Mendelson, The Last Revel, Sam Outlaw and Formula 5. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

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The String Cheese Incident – Believe

The Scoop: Colorado-based jam veterans The String Cheese Incident are out today with their seventh studio LP. The band recruited Talking Heads multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison to produce the record, which was recorded in the recently opened SCI Sound Lab Studio. Many of the songs were written during a weeklong retreat in Sedona, Arizona in 2015 in which the members of the band spent time working together in a rented house. Elephant Revival’s Bonnie Paine added vocals to one of the nine songs making up the follow-up to 2014’s Song In My Head. Listen to Bonnie on “My One And Only” below:

Label: SCI Fidelity

Producer: Jerry Harrison

Number Of Tracks: 9

Running Time: 42:19

Guest Musicians: Bonnie Paine, Tyler Grant, William “Skip” Lynch, “Hazel Miller, Sheryl Renee

Tracklist:

1. Believe
2. Sweet Spot
3. My One and Only
4. Down a River
5. Get Tight
6. Stop Drop Roll
7. Flying
8. So Much Fun
9. Beautiful

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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John Mayer – The Search For Everything

The Scoop: Guitarist John Mayer started work on The Search For Everything in 2014 shortly after wrapping a tour for Paradise Valley. Then, in 2015, he took a break from the project while he hit the road with Dead & Company featuring members of the Grateful Dead. Last year, Mayer went back to work on his seventh studio album and today has unveiled the 12-track The Search For Everything. The album finds John joined by his John Mayer Trio bandmates drummer Steve Jordan, who also executive produced the LP, and bassist Pino Palladino. Mayer also recruited keyboardist Larry Goldings to contribute to the album, while vocalist Tiffany Palmer, drummer/percussionist Aaron Sterling and keyboardist James Fauntleroy each make cameos. Watch the video for the album’s second single, “Still Feel Like Your Man”:

Label: Columbia

Producer: Steve Jordan, John Mayer, Chad Franscoviak

Number Of Tracks: 12

Running Time: 44:12

Guest Musicians: Steve Jordan, Pino Palladino, Larry Goldings, Aaron Sterling, James Fauntleroy, Tiffany Palmer

Tracklist:

1. Still Feel Like Your Man
2. Emoji Of A Wave
3. Helpless
4. Love On The Weekend
5. In The Blood
6. Changing
7. Theme From “The Search For Everything”
8. Moving On And Getting Over
9. Never On The Day You Leave
10. Rosie
11. Roll It On Home
12. You’re Gonna Live Forever In Me

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Leslie Mendelson – Love & Murder

The Scoop: In the years following her acclaimed 2009 debut album Swan Fathers, singer-songwriter Leslie Mendelson stayed active as artist-in-residence at TRI Studios – Bob Weir’s facility in Mill Valley, California, while also sharing many live stages with a number of talented musicians including Steve Kimock. Her long-awaited sophomore LP features seven new originals penned with longtime collaborator Steve McEwan. The other three tracks making up the sparse, Mark Howard-produced record are covers, including Jimmy C. Newman’s “Cry, Cry Darlin’,” Bob Dylan’s “Just Like A Woman” and Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou.” Weir was a special guest on the recording of “Blue Bayou,” stream it below:

Label: Royal Potato Family

Producer: Mark Howard

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 39:35

Guest Musicians: Bob Weir

Tracklist:

1. Jericho
2. Coney Island
3. Murder Me
4. Chasing The Thrill
5. Crazy
6. Blue Bayou (Feat. Bob Weir)
7. Love You Tonight
8. Just Like A Woman
9. The Circus Is Coming
10. Cry, Cry Darlin’

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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The Last Revel – Hazard & Fate

The Scoop: Minneapolis-based trio The Last Revel headed into the woods of Michigan’s upper peninsula to record their third studio album, Hazard & Fate. The three-piece used a small, family cabin to lay down a series of 10 earnest and beautiful folk songs they produced with the band’s FOH engineer and tour manager Jordan Lillibridge. With three multi-instrumentalists, the members of The Last Revel played each and every part on the album which also shows off their haunting harmony vocals. Watch the video for the single “Engine Trouble”:

Label: Self-Released

Producer: The Last Revel and Jordan Lillibridge

Number Of Tracks: 10

Running Time: 38:34

Guest Musicians: N/A

Tracklist:

1. Blind In The Fray
2. Engine Trouble
3. California, Be Kind
4. Two Lives
5. Almighty Amen
6. Sleepy Gary
7. Honest Man
8. Homestead
9. God Knows Where
10. Sundown, Kick Around

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Sam Outlaw – Tenderheart

The Scoop: Over the last few years Nashville has been the epicenter of the country music revival that’s been spearheaded by the likes of Sturgill Simpson and Margo Price. But don’t tell that to Sam Outlaw, who is putting his own spin on the genre from the sunny, palm tree-lined confines of Los Angeles, arriving at something he’s dubbed “SoCal Country.” Outlaw’s sophomore effort, Tenderheart, is awash in a sun-drenched laid back vibe than his raucous whiskey-soaked contemporaries to the East. The album melds classic country laments with L.A.’s country-rock past and even nods to the city’s Mexican population with Mariachi band horns. Check out the touching video for “Everyone’s Looking for Home”:

Label: Six Shooter Records

Producer: Sam Outlaw, Martin Pradler

Number Of Tracks: 13

Running Time: 42:47

Guest Musicians: Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Bo Koster (My Morning Jacket), Molly Jenson, Jeremy Long, Danny Garcia, Erwin Vasquez and Mariachi Teocuitatlan

Tracklist:

1. Everyone’s Looking for Home
2. Bottomless Mimosas
3. Bougainvillea, I Think
4. Tenderheart
5. Trouble
6. She’s Playing Hard to Get (Rid Of)
7. Two Broken Hearts
8. Diamond Rings
9. Say It To Me
10. All My Life
11. Dry In The Sun
12. Now She Tells Me
13. Look At You Now

Stream / Download / CD/LP

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Formula 5 – All Points North

The Scoop: Among the various up-and-coming acts on the jam scene, what makes Formula 5 particularly enjoyable is that they don’t tend to rely on one specific formula. On their third album, All Point North, you get doses of all flavors of the jam band scene. At times the band sounds like old heroes like moe. and God Street Wine, while at other times they veer into more modern terrain like electronica and fusion. They clearly celebrate all corners of the musical landscape and the album makes no bones about incorporating long segments and heady instrumental acrobatics. For anyone looking for something new in their jam band rotation, Formula 5 is one of the more promising new bands on the circuit. Importantly, the album showcases that the band can write a reined-in shorter tune as well as relying on the longer improvisational format, which is where many other jam peers often fall flat. Have a listen to “Sad Bed” off All Points North:

Label: Self-released

Producer: Bryan Brundidge, Overit Studios

Number Of Tracks: 9

Guest Musicians: Philippe Chow (trumpet), Bryan Brundidge (trombone and vocals)

Tracklist:

1. Foulo
2. Come Along
3. Sad Bed
4. Trout Waters, Pt. I & II
5. It Goes…
6. Excalibur
7. The Birch Tree
8. Q&A
9. Do Tell
10. Figure Out A Feeling

Stream / Download / CD/LP

Compiled by Jeffrey Greenblatt, Ryan Dembinsky, Andy Kahn and Scott Bernstein.

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