News From Hemifran July 2015

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!

Eric Sitbon – Erik Sitbon And The Ghost Band

After sharing the stage with Carl Perkins, the Stamps Quartet and also Terry Mike Jeffrey, Erik Sitbon releases in 2004 his first folk-rock album with country sounds, ”Tame The Ghosts”. In 2007, he releases a DVD of his concert at “l’Européen Paris”. In 2010, Erik Sitbon writes in collaboration with American author Christopher T George, a 2nd album, ”Rusty”. This album is loaded with more rock influences. The following year, Erik is surrounded by a new team and forms the Ghost Band to release a pure country-americana album, ”Lost & Found”. In 2012, the group returns to the studio to record a double album, simply titled ”Acoustic Sessions – Electric Sessions”. The same year, an album featuring 12 standards of rock’n’roll, ”Back To The Roots – A Great Sun Session”, is recorded in the legendary Sun Studio in Memphis, TN. The double album recieves 2 CMA Awards France in 2014 for ’Best Male Artist’ and ’Best French Country Music album’. More information at Hemifran.

The Coffis Brothers & The Mountain Men – Wrong Side Of The Road

The Coffis Brothers & The Mountain Men are five young men from the Santa Cruz Mountains. They play a style of music that is rock and roll in the most classic sense. Melodic, rootsy and heartfelt, the songwriting duo of Jamie and Kellen show an obvious love for a bygone era of music and for groups like the Beatles, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Neil Young & Crazy Horse, as well as a sense of maturity and experience beyond their years. More information at Hemifran.

Sun Soul Orchestra – What Matters Most

Sun Soul Orchestra is an inspired project that features a rotating collection of artists performing original music and covers arranged by Stevo Théard and Ginger Murphy. Their debut album, “What Matters Most” has been a labor of love over the past 5 years and finally releases worldwide, physically and digitally. On the surface it would seem that Los Angeles, CA, based Stevo and Ginger could not come from more disparate planets in the musical universe. Ginger came up in the highly structured, extremely regimented world of classical music training, while Stevo got most of his training on the job, at first playing nightclubs and gigging locally, then graduating into the world of international touring and recording. More information at Hemifran.

Scott Albert Johnson – Going Somewhere

Born in St. Louis and raised in Jackson, MS, Scott Albert Johnson was bathed in the wide range of the American songbook, as well as the sounds of his 70’s and 80’s childhood. The soul and spirit of that diversity is at the core of his new album, ”Going Somewhere”. Johnson incorporates elements of rock, jazz, blues, funk, country, and world music, mixed with thoughtful, often poetic lyrics, strong vocals, and virtuosic harmonica playing, to create a unique, modern concoction of sound. More information at Hemifran.

Various Artists – Singer Songwriters from Home

“I’m sitting here listening to the four-point musical compass of various works by Barry Ollman, Bob Cheevers, Greg Copeland and Keith Miles. Fine artists all and, I must admit, fellow recording artists of whom I knew little before this morning’s listening session. And yet in spite of that unfamiliarity, I immediately felt an undeniable affinity for each of them, long lost brothers, comrades fighting the same battle, fellow members of the Don Quixote tribe. Upon first listen, I found myself nothing less then a fellow-conspirator within their confessional lyrics, a fellow neo-philosopher in their search for meaning in a meaningless world, and, above all, ceaselessly trying to personalize a very impersonal world within the confines of a simple, hopefully catchy, song. And that’s because no other genre in popular music can contain such intimacy, such poignancy and host so many divergent musical universes, as that of the singer-songwriter. A name, by the way, I have always felt entirely uncomfortable with. Come on, if there’s a nerd term in music that’s it. But maybe that’s part of the attraction. More information at Hemifran.

Jack Tempchin – Learning To Dance

Famed songwriter Jack Tempchin is known for penning some of the most durable tunes in American music for a variety of artists that includes the Eagles, George Jones, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, Glen Campbell, Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood and many others. He’s also co-written with a who’s who of American roots, rock and r’n’b composers that embraces Tom Waits, JD Souther, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Lauderdale and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Now Tempchin steps into the spotlight with two new solo releases, the EP ”Room To Run” that’s just been released, and the 11-song album ”Learning To Dance” out on August 21st, 2015, from Blue Élan Records. More information at Hemifran.