Hemifrån is an independent A&R, promotion and marketing company, based in the heart of Sweden, specializing in, what they call, “gut music” – The kind of music that you can feel in your gut, no matter what. Hemifran is promoting a lot of singer-songwriter, westcoast-pop, country, AOR and more. Here are featured some of their latest news – it is not all west coast, but dig into it!

Bev Grant – It´s Personal

It’s Personal” is a heart filled album by Bev Grant, a long time feminist and labor social activist, who has been creating and using music for social change since the late 60’s. She was founder of a popular political band called The Human Condition, which played around the New York City area for 19 years and currently is founder and director of The Brooklyn Women’s Chorus, which will be celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

This album is her 1st solo album in a number of years, although she did record an album in 2014 with singer songwriter Ina May Wool, called “Wool & Grant”. Bev’s music is extremely eclectic in style, ranging from acoustic folk to country, jazz and world music, and she has a knack for getting her political points across through the use of personal stories about other peoples’ lives. More information at Hemifran.

LL Goat – S.T.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio , 1957, to Cleveland Indians baseball slugger Al Rosen. Mother Terry died from a long battle with emotional illness, a suicide, I was 13. Mom sang and painted and took me to the art museum often. I have an older and a younger brother, making me the middle child. I was good at sports, but didnt like coaches. My granparents had a player piano and thats were it all started for me. I wound up in New York via Las Vegas and started playing in local bands. Got a gig playing piano with Otis Blackwell, legendary Hall Of Fame songwriter, Smithereens and I were the band. Then branched off into my own writing and performing.

I was signed by Interscope as Goatboy, and then went Ruffhouse as Goat. Had a little hit with my song and recording of ’Great Life’, many of my recordings have been licensed to movies, film,and television. I did some opening work for Madeleine Peyroux and changed directions from Goat, rock’n’roll, hip hop, to jazz and blues, pop kinda stuff. Madeleine sang a song with me on my critically acclaimed self produced record, ’Dont Tempt Fate’. ’Who Doesn’t Call’, an acoustic guitar and vocal song from the record, garnered 250,000 hits on YouTube with the same titled video.

Most recently I recorded a record for Jazz Legacy Productions, featurung Cyrus Chestnut on piano. When I do the jazz thing its as Andy Scott, when i do the Goat thing, its as myself. More information at Hemifran.

Janet Martin – Eve Sessions

Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Janet Martin has been dividing her live performances between the US and Europe since 2004. Janet is a multi published writer with over 30 original songs written and administered through BMI and GEMA in Europe. Janet has recorded and released 8 CD’s to date with critical acclaim. Her 2010 release “Passage” was a huge success in Europe receiving airplay in more than 12 different countries. Janet has earned high praise from the European musical press with overwhelmingly positive reviews and an ever expanding base of European fans who keep up with her through social media when she’s stateside. Currently, Janet has released her very first solo, self produced and recorded CD, “Eve Sessions”, a personal and emotional odyssey.

The “Eve Sessions”, are songs written without genre boundaries or guidelines straight from the source and soul baring with Janet playing all of the instrumentation. More information at Hemifran.

Judy Kass – Beyound The Ash And Steel

New York based singer songwriter Judy Kass quickly draws in her audience with soulful vocals, no-nonsense lyrical storytelling and genre bending exploration of guitar and piano. Her original music blends generous amounts of folk, jazz and blues, with songs that cover the full gamut of mood and experience, ranging from whimsical musings of relationship challenges to her own personal journey of healing from post 9/11 trauma and the loss of numerous colleagues to the terror attacks.

Featuring 9 original songs and an interpretation of “The Snows They Melt The Soonest”, Judy’s 2nd album, ”Beyond The Ash & Steel”, pushes past the celebrated intimate acoustic portrait of her 1st CD to reflect even more of her jazz and blues influences. The result is a pleasingly eclectic mix that includes several driving ’foot tapping’ tracks. More information at Hemifran.

Carrington MacDuffie – Rock Me To Mars

Carrington MacDuffie is not your typical Americana singer songwriter, she is an Award winning voice actor, a spoken word performer and a widely published poet. Her music embodies a passion for language and sound, shaped by her carefree spirit and the richness of her alto voice. While comparisons have been made to americana folk singer songwriters, such as Neko Case, Patty Griffin, and Lucinda Williams, and her live performances have been described as ‘alt cabaret’ and compared to Nina Hagen and Laurie Anderson, perhaps Middle Tennessee Music best grasped MacDuffie’s lighthearted warmth and infectious charm when they described her as a ‘female Jimmy Buffet’. More information at Hemifran.

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Sandra Marielle – Six Stories Seven Years

Sandra Marielle started to sing and perform at an early age, and today an experienced singer songwriter with music roots in the southern part of Sweden and France. More information at Hemifran.

Susan Kane – Mostly Fine

New York based singer songwriter Susan Kane releases her 4th CD in April 2017. ”Mostly Fine” represents something of a departure from her previous efforts. Recorded over a couple of months with local musicians at Fred Gillen Jr’s Woody House studio, it is a largely acoustic record with nary an electric guitar within earshot. This album is filled with dobro, fiddle, mandolin, accordion, and lap steel, with a sprinkling of banjo layered over acoustic guitars. Nevertheless, listeners will find themselves in familiar lyrical territory, with songs that amuse or evoke deeper emotions. But they will notice that even the humorous tracks reveal subtle insights into human foibles. The album features 7 original songs, including a co-write and an adaptation of a poem, and 3 covers. The title originates from a lyric in one song and is not meant to be negative, says Susan. She believes if well into adulthood you can honestly say that everything is ’mostly fine’, that is really fine. Produced by Jeff Eyrich (Dave’s True Story) and mastered by Scott Hull. Guest artists include Abbie Gardner (Red Molly), The Levins, Lisa Gutkin (Klezmatics) and David Bernz. More information at Hemifran.

By Published On: april 1, 2017Categories: In Focus, Miscellaneous

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About the Author: Kbremer

Good music enriches your life. At BLUE DESERT we are passionate about this particular yet wide-ranging style of music we call West Coast Music. This site is a modest tribute to the music and the performing artists, who through the (many) years have given us - and continue to give us - endless hours of musical enjoyment. As long-time fans we want to share our enthusiasm, experiences and views with fellow connoisseurs as well as curious newcomers. If we can do our bit to help promote this great music and all the gifted artist – well, then we have succeeded.