News From Hemifran September 2019

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!

Slowman – En Romantisk Idiot

Svante “Slowman” Törngren reste sig från skivbolagssoffan i Danderyd och avslutade sin musikkarriär i mitten av 80-talet, eller rättare sagt, tog en paus på 23 år. Efter många tysta år fick han åter lust till musiken. 2008 släppte han sitt första egna album, “The Best Of Slowman”. Lysande recensioner inspirerade honom till att fortsätta.

Efter 4 kritikerrosade album, spelningar på klubbar och festivaler runt om i Sverige, både som soloartist och med band, har han fått en ny nytändning det senaste året. Tack vare en ny kärlek, nytt band, nytt språk (svenska) och en ny medproducent i Jörgen ”Jugglo” Wall, har han gjort sitt mest personliga album hittills. ”En Romantisk Idiot” är inspelad till största delen i Fimta Recordnings i Södermanland. More information at Hemifran.

Spike Flynn – Just This Side Of Here

Spike Flynn has released 2 albums of original songs. Both have been very well received. His 1st album “It’s Alright” reached number 10 on the Euro Americana Chart. He won the alt country section of the Tamworth Australian National Songwriting Competition in 2017 and had 3 songs in the 2018 finals. He is an accomplished finger picking guitarist in the style of Doc Watson and plays rack harmonica. His strongest interest however is the lyrical side of songwriting. More information at Hemifran.

Bianca De Leon – Dangerous Endeavor

Bianca De Leon is an Austin, Texas, based singer songwriter dubbed ‘Queen Of The Border Ballad’ by John Nova Lomax, and ‘A Voice From Texas That Does It Right’ by Guy Clark. She has been touring Germany, Holland, Finland, Belgium, Scotland, England and Italy since 2001. Bianca has had 5 European releases and a worldwide release, “Love, Guns & Money”, and “Dangerous Endeavor”, which reached # 5 on The Euro Americana Chart.
 
She was invited to perform at Berklee College of Music in 2015 in the round with Eliza Gilkyson, and Betty Soo. Upcoming tours of the US midwest and Europe are slated for 2019. She has a sultry and mysterious voice that complements her writing and she is an accomplished guitar player, utilizing both finger picking and flat picking. More information at Hemifran.

Gibrish – Andrahandssånger

Gibrish från Sundsvall har rötterna i de mörka skogarna i Medelpad och influeras bland annat av rock, blues, visa och teatermusik. På nya albumet fortsätter de arbetet med att sudda ut de musikaliska gränserna.
 
“Andrahandssånger” innehåller en rad starka låtar som inledande ”Leds Av En Blind” till avslutande ”Vilse Bland Stjärnorna”. Men även svängiga ”Ingen Fri Lunch” theremindoftande ”Säger Aldrig Farväl” och tunga ”Gud Gått Och Fiskat” sätter sina avtryck på albumet. More information at Hemifran.

Annie Gallup – Bookish

Annie Gallup is the winner of numerous songwriting awards, including Kerrville New Folk. She grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, immersed in the arts. By the time she recorded her first album in 1994, she had internalized a songwriting style all her own, that evolved from her fascination with country blues, her love of words, and a dancer’s sense of rhythm. More information at Hemifran.

Ranzel X Kendrick – Texas Cactus

Part rambling man, part hill country gypsy, Ranzel X Kendrick sounds like nobody else. Original. Fresh. Passionate. Real, raw and different. Honing his songwriting skills as a youth with tips from multi Grammy winner and country legend Uncle Roger Miller, Kendrick often jammed with Miller as a teen when he was in town visiting family.

Living in Texas, Tennessee, Colorado, California and Maryland, Kendrick continued developing his original genre blending music. Performing randomly at places like the historic Bitter End in Greenwich Village, New York. Where many famous singer songwriters of renown that played the venue are memorialized in paintings on the back wall. More information at Hemifran.

Bobbo Byrnes – The Red Wheelbarrow

That was the motivation behind my new cd. I went to Nashville, TN and in 5 hours Ken Coomer and I recorded 5 songs that became the framework for everything else. I’ve been a fan of Ken’s since way before he was in Uncle Tupelo and Wilco and I knew we were going to keep it rocking and loose. Then I met up with my buds in New Hampshire and Morgan Keating, Jon Grant and Gary Young added some backing vocals to a couple songs and Will Walker played the Wurly piano and Hammond on a song. I got back to California and shockingly got Phil Manzanera to play guitar on my cover of Roxy Music’s “Virginia Plain” and then Rami Jaffee put Hammond on four more songs. And then I thought – let’s keep this loose and fun, I know what I sound like playing guitar but I know a bunch of great guitar players. What would it sound like if I got a bunch of my friends to join me and it sounds like way more fun. And that’s how Travis King, Django Rowe and Tom Bremmer all played guitar on here. More information at Hemifran.

Jim Pattton & Sherry Brokus – Collection: 2008-2018

Berkalin Records is proud to announce the summer 2019 European Release of Jim Patton and Sherry Brokus‘s “Collection: 2008-2018”, compiled from the folk-rock duo’s four acoustic CDs.

Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus have sung together for 40 years. They led the folk rock band Edge City from Baltimore to Austin where they recorded with Lloyd Maines, the guru of Texas record producers. In 2006, a supporter in Atlanta asked which of the four CDs on the merchandise table sounded most like what he had heard that night. And there were none. They had played as a duo and all their recordings were with bands.

They released “Plans Gang Aft Agley,” an all acoustic CD, in 2008 as “Jim Patton & Sherry Brokus”, and it broke into the top 30 on the Folk charts. Their next CD, “Ray of Hope” another acoustic CD, made the top 100 on the Americana charts. They made 2 more acoustic albums in the next decade, and “The Great Unknown” was named one of the Top 100 CDs of the Year by legendary music critic Geoffrey Himes in Paste Magazine.

There are bands that go the distance. And then there is Diesel Park West. In a tale of Homeric proportions, the group from Leicester, UK, have kept faith throughout a career that stretches back, unbroken, to the era of major label deals, MTV and music industry excess. Now, 30 years after their first album “Shakespeare Alabama”, a new chapter begins with the release of “Let It Melt”, an album of savvy, street survivor, sign of the times rock’n’roll that only a band with their immense experience, resilience and know how could have written and recorded. More information at Hemifran.

Coyote Brother – S.T.

J. Hardin and Hayward Williams decided to band together and create Coyote Brother. They love sad songs and harmonies. More information at Hemifran.