Today’s New Albums: Brandi Carlile, Strand Of Oaks, Pond, Daniel Donato & More

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 Brandi Carlile, Strand of Oaks, Pond, Daniel Donato, The Daptone Super Soul Revue, , Yes, Grateful Dead and Neil Young. Read on for more insight into the records we have all queued up to spin.

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Brandi Carlile – In These Silent Days

The Scoop: Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile today released her new studio album, In These Silent Days, through Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Like her previous album, 2018’s By The Way, I Forgive You, the new LP was co-produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings. In These Silent Days was recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A with Carlile accompanied by her longtime bandmates, “The Twins” — bassist Phil Hanseroth and guitarist Tim Hanseroth, cellist Josh Neumann and drummer Chris Powell. Cobb also contributed guitar and Jennings added additional keyboard parts. Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius added backing vocals to “You And Me On The Rock.” Carlile co-wrote the 10 songs on In These Silent Days with the Hanseroths last year while on COVID-19 lockdown. Carlile shared the statement below regarding In These Silent Days:

“Never before have the twins and I written an album during a time of such uncertainty and quiet solitude. I never imagined that I’d feel so exposed and weird as an artist without the armor of a costume, the thrill of an applause and the platform of the sacred stage. Despite all this, the songs flowed through—pure and unperformed, loud and proud, joyful and mournful. Written in my barn during a time of deep and personal reckoning. There’s plenty of reflection … but mostly it’s a celebration. This album is what drama mixed with joy sounds like. It’s resistance and gratitude, righteous anger and radical forgiveness. It’s the sound of these silent days.”

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Strand Of Oaks – In Heaven

The Scoop: “In Heaven was created with so much love and my greatest hope is that it connects with people and provides a momentary space for reflection, joy, catharsis and whatever else someone might be looking for in their life,” Strand Of Oaks (Timothy Showalter) said regarding the new album out today on Thirty Tigers. “Music is magic and I feel like the luckiest person in the world that I’m allowed to share it.”

In Heaven was recorded in October 2020 at Invisible Creature in Los Angeles with Showalter again tapping producer Kevin Ratterman, who also produced the last Strand Of Oaks album, 2019’s Eraserland. The sessions followed Showalter’s relocating from Philadelphia to Austin, Texas and the unexpected deaths of Showalter’s wife Sue’s mother in a car accident and the couple’s beloved cat Stan. Additional Eraserland alum, My Morning Jacket guitarist Carl Bromel and keyboardist Bo Koster, were part of the sessions in Los Angeles, with Ratterman playing drums alongside bassist Cedric LeMoyne. Violinist Scott Moore and guitarist James Iha (The Smashing Pumpkins) appear on the new record as well.

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Pond – 9

The Scoop: Australian psych-rockers Pond released their ninth studio album, the aptly named 9, today via Spinning Top Records. The Fremantle five-piece helmed the album themselves with mixing from Jay Watson and James Ireland. Pond frontman Nick Allbrook detailed 9 in a press release:

We sort of gave ourselves permission to make something stuffed this time. We’d settled into a pretty tight routine with the last few albums and wanted to shake a boat with this so we started off with filling a few tape reels with some absolutely heinous improvised sonic babble which, after much sifting, became the first few songs of the album. We also wanted to up the tempo. The last few albums have a neat little mantra or repetitive theme. If I was forced to find something like that in 9, I guess it would be ‘biography’ or ‘observation’ – a lot of the lyrics seem to focus on single people’s lives, or the lives of small moments or small things when you zoom real close up and they reveal something deeper.

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Daniel Donato – Daniel Donato Presents: Cosmic Country & Western Songs

The Scoop: Nashville-based singer-songwriter Daniel Donato released his sophomore LP, Cosmic Country & Western Songs. Recorded in Music City at the famed Sound Emporium, Donato co-produced Cosmic Country & Western Songs with Jon Radford who also played drums and percussion. They were joined by fellow Nashville-based musicians, guitarist Nicolas Fry, bassists Jake Bostick and Joe Fick and keyboardist Robbie Crowell. The album contains covers of Buck Owens’ “Love’s Gonna Live Here,” Stan Jones’ “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” the traditional “Why You Been Gone So Long?” and “Darlin’ Cory,” Willie Nelson’s “Sad Songs and Waltzes,” Gene Watson’s “Fourteen Carat Mind,” Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s BlueS” and Tom T. Hall’s “Fox On The Run.” Describing the follow-up to last year’s A Young Man’s Country, Donato stated:

At the age of 14, I discovered one of Nashville’s best-kept secrets, The Don Kelley Band at Robert’s Western World. This legendary house band played five nights a week, four hours a night, and regularly hosted Music City’s finest guitarists. The band’s approach to their 100+ song setlist of classic country and bluegrass music was unique and packed out Nashville’s most famous Honky Tonk on a nightly basis. For three years, every Saturday, I gave the band my business card, in hopes that I could join their legendary roster.

I got the gig.

464 shows, 1856 hours, and 20,880 songs later, the ways of this band live and breathe in every note I play and sing. The COVID-19 pandemic ended this band’s career, and in tribute to the immense inspiration they brought to Nashville, “Cosmic Country & Western Songs,” was born.

The songs and sounds from this album are the sounds of Nashville’s finest country band rocking the house in Music City’s most famous Honky Tonk on a Saturday night, with a twist of #CosmicCountry woven in.

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Various Artists – The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live At The Apollo

The Scoop: Renowned soul, funk and gospel label Daptone Records celebrates its 20th anniversary with the release of The Daptone Super Soul Revue Live at the Apollo. The live, triple LP captured at the famed New York theater in 2014 serves as a celebration of 20 years of Daptone but also as a tribute to some of the label’s late great artists: Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Naomi Shelton and Cliff Driver.

The Super Soul Revue boasts incredible performances from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings including “Get Up And Get Out” as well as an electrifying cover of “There Was A Time” from legendary Apollo performer James Brown. The album also features a standout performance of “Let Love Stand A Chance” by Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires along with additional entries from Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens, Antibalas, The Budos Band, Menahan Street Band, Saun & Starr, Como Mamas and The Sugarman 3.

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Doobie Brothers – Liberté

The Scoop: Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductees The Doobie Brothers return with Liberté, their 15th full-length album, released today through Island Records. Longtime members Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons and John McFee prepped 12 new songs for the LP. John Shanks (Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Miley Cyrus) served as producer and co-writer on the group’s follow-up to 2014’s Southbound and first album featuring new originals since 2010’s World Gone Crazy.

The legendary rock band previewed Liberté by issuing four tracks from the album as a self-titled EP in August. 2021 marks a big year for the group as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first concerts with a tour featuring former member Michael McDonald. Johnston and Simmons co-founded The Doobie Brothers and McFee came aboard in 1979. The tour with McDonald is currently underway and continues through July 2022.

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Yes – The Quest

The Scoop: Prog-rock pioneers Yes return with The Quest, an 11-song collection of all new material marking the renowned group’s debut on Sony Music subsidiary InsideOutMusic. The Quest contains 8 tracks on the main disc as well as 3 additional cuts on a bonus CD. The current lineup of Yes is guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jon Davison and multi-instrumentalist Billy Sherwood with touring member Jay Schellen providing additional percussion. Howe produced The Quest, which he detailed in a press release:

“It is simply an honour for me to have the opportunity to bring together the band members in the development of a well-refined set of songs that capture the band’s true potential,” Howe said. “Much of the music was written in late 2019 with the rest in 2020. We commissioned several orchestrations to augment and enhance the overall sound of these fresh new recordings, hoping that our emphasis on melody, coupled with some expansive instrumental solo breaks, keeps up the momentum for our listeners.”

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Grateful Dead – Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 12-10-71

The Scoop: Today, the Grateful Dead issued previously unreleased audio featuring their December 10th, 1971 concert at St. Louis’ Fox Theatre through Rhino as Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 12-10-71. The show is one of seven complete previously unreleased GD performances in St. Louis recorded between 1971 and 1973 included in the forthcoming live archival audio box set, Listen To The River: St. Louis ‘71 ‘72 ‘73. At the time of the 1971 show, the band’s lineup featured guitarists Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, multi-instrumentalist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, bassist Phil Lesh and keyboardist Keith Godchaux. Keith joined the Dead just weeks earlier.

Fox Theatre, St. Louis, MO 12-10-71 is available digitally and as 3CD and 5LP sets. Highlights include an 18-minute “Good Lovin'” featuring Pigpen on lead vocals, an exploratory “The Other One,” a rare take on “Run Rudolph Run” and a bevy of songs the Dead has recently premiered such as “Playing In The Band,” “Bertha” and “Loser.” Listen To The River: St. Louis ‘71 ‘72 ‘73 also contains the band’s December 9, 1971 and October 17 – 19, 1972 performances at the Fox as well as GD concerts recorded at Kiel Auditorium on October 29 – 30, 1973.

“There are only few truly great eras in the Grateful Dead’s performing history that span more than a year and one of the very best is the transitional period that covers December 1971 through Fall of 1973,” said Grateful Dead archivist and producer David Lemieux regarding the full box set. “This was a period during which the Dead solidified their touring format (several distinct, somewhat short, geographically defined tours every year), where every night the Dead would wow their fans with a mix of over six years of music that clearly demonstrated their many transitions and transmutations. The seven shows in this boxed set perfectly summarize 22 months of Grateful Dead music, performances, and growth.”

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Neil Young – The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series — Carnegie Hall 1970

The Scoop: A legendary Neil Young concert recorded on December 4, 1970 at New York City’s Carnegie Hall gets an official release today via Shakey Pictures Records and Reprise Records. The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series — Carnegie Hall 1970 features Young’s early show and first ever performance at the iconic venue. Young played a total of 22 songs during the solo acoustic show including such classics as “Down By The River,” “After The Goldrush,” “The Loner” and “Only Love Can Break Your Heart.” He also previewed “Bad Fog Of Loneliness,” “See The Sky About To Run” and “Old Man” before they were recorded for future studio releases.

The set marks the first installment of The Neil Young Official Bootleg Series with five additional volumes plotted for 2022. Carnegie Hall 1970 is sourced from the analog multitrack recording. Neil Young and Niko Bolas — “The Volume Dealers” — mixed the live album. Young considers the early performance “a much superior show” to his late concert, which began at midnight the following morning.

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Compiled by Scott Bernstein, Nate Todd and Andy Kahn.