The Mezcaltones Release Album ‘Big Hat No Cattle’

"The Mezcaltones Release Album ‘Big Hat No Cattle’"

Big Hat, No Cattle is the fifth studio album from the Mezcaltones and it comes together for an early 2025 release.

The Mezcaltones’ songs are mined from the rich seam of Alt Country, Roots, Rockin’ Blues and Surf Guitar with a nod to two of their favourite artists; and it’s all wrapped up in their inimitable Mezcaltones Hillbilly Surf Music Style.

Big Hat, No Cattle was recorded at Damien Gerard studios in West Gosford with Andrew Beck at the engineering controls; mixed by Russell Pilling; mastered by William Bowden; produced by the Mezcaltones; and artwork by Stephen Awdry & Melinda Nassif.

The CD is available for purchase at gigs and The Mezcaltones website or can be streamed via your favourite online format.

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Northern Beaches Band The Mezcaltones perform regularly at Sydney venues – The Orient (The Rocks), Marrickville Bowlo, Collaroy Beach Club, Brighton RSL to name a few. They have also performed at eight Tamworth Country Music Festivals; Groundwater CMF; Blues on Broadbeach; Sydney Blues & Roots Festival; Dashville Skyline Festival; and Greazefest.

Their last album ‘Agave Soirée’ entered the Australian Blues and Roots airplay charts at #7 before spending five months embedded in the Top 20.

Their sound can be difficult to describe – mixing original songs with rare tracks you might find on Robert Rodriguez/Tarantino movies or B-Grade 60’s Sci-Fi Flicks the guitars are richly infused with surf tones and 60’s Twang served up with a healthy dose of Cowpunk brashness. One booker described them as “Mexican Hillbilly Surf Music”. One punter said “lf Johnny Cash surfed he’d have sounded like you guys”.

Their antics are captivating. The band is fronted by vocalist Col Padre (who engages in tongue in cheek choreography) and dancer/singer/percussionist Mimi. Mimi is renowned for her routines involving gymnastic ribbons used as whips, hula hoops, fans and whatever else she can lay her hands on. Big Daddy K from 2RRR’S Sydney Sounds show described the Mezcaltones as the best live band in Sydney.

The costumes make for an outstanding visual – four guys dressed as party hire Cowboys and two girls dressed as Spanish gunslingers with several minor costume changes throughout the show involving masks, veils and mirror shades. Sounds corny… sure is.

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Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels Release Album ‘The Road To Tibooburra’

"Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels Release Album ‘The Road To Tibooburra’"

Steve Kilbey: During the early days of Covid 19, I met a guy called Julian who asked me to be in a short silent film he was making called ‘Space Junk’. ‘Space Junk’ was about a stranger (moi) who comes to a remote-ish Australian town during the pandemic and has a number of adventures including aliens and angry villagers and other various kinds of weirdness.

The film got kinda finished and had a couple of screenings in a room but then seemed to be abandoned and never properly completed. Julian then repurposed it for a musical about a washed-up and ageing rockstar called Lord Jim (moi again) who takes a strange crew off to Tibooburra searching for his comeback.

Julian asked me to write all of the songs for the musical, which I did and enjoyed doing too. I recorded them all with a wonderful band of players who also appear on my albums 11 Women and The Hall of Counterfeits, whom I dubbed the Winged Heels.

Well then after sitting in the can for ages I have decided to release this weird collection of tunes. They are in no particular order so you’ll just have to figure it all out for yourself. Or just make up your own plot and story and sit back and enjoy. I have also thrown into the mix some contemporaneous songs I was working on with the Heels at the time but I now look upon them as perhaps part of the musical and let you try to make some sense of all this.

Steve Kilbey, band singer, songwriter, bassist, painter, writer, poet, actor, sage, dispenser of
arcane wisdom is one of Australia’s most loved artists.

The popular song “Under the Milky Way” won the “Best Single of the Year” award at the
Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards event in 1989. For his work with
The Church, Kilbey then accepted, together with his bandmates, an induction into the ARIA
Hall of Fame.

Steve got his first bass guitar at age 16, joined a band at 18 and went on to form a number of different groups before forming The Church in 1980. He has gone on to release many solo albums and collaborations with recording artists from around the globe.

“Kilbey’s solo recordings are challenging and evocative. . . joyous and dreamy to saturnine
and sardonic” – Ian McFarlane.

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The Bentley Project Releases Album ‘Kind As The Shade’

"The Bentley Project Releases Album ‘Kind As The Shade’"

“Kind As The Shade” is an Ambient Tone Poem and expression of love for the Earth inspired by the epic American poet John Neihardt and his poem, “The Sound My Spirit Calls You”.

As you listen, notice the hints of early music combined with Impressionism and romanticism. These influences blend with world music, traditional New Age music and jazz chords to create a hauntingly beautiful ambient album.

“The Bentley Project music is magnificent! It is so hauntingly beautiful that it makes me unexplainably emotional. Their music gives me a soothing, ethereal backdrop to everything I am doing and makes me feel like everything is going to be ok. I love the group’s amazing talent and appreciate them sharing it with the world! “

– Linessa, The Frazier Collaborative, Founder

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The Bentley Project is an innovative harp and guitar duo that seamlessly blends the sounds of new age, classical, and folk music. Formed in 2018 and based in Parkville, Missouri, the group features the combined talents of Theresa and Mark Bentley. Together, they compose, record, and perform throughout the Midwest, bringing a distinctive fusion of traditional and contemporary sounds to venues large and small.

A classically trained musician, Theresa Bentley performs on Celtic Lever Harp, Pedal Harp, Italian Baroque triple harp, synthesizers, piano, and voice. Holding a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA in Finance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, her experience includes membership in The Kansas City Symphony Chorus, The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and The St. Joseph Symphony, as well as engagements with The Kansas City Symphony, Roger Daltrey, Ray Charles, and John Tesh’s Olympic Orchestra. She currently serves as a driving force behind The Bentley Project’s creative output.

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Mark Bentley, owner of Bentley Guitar Studios, is accomplished on classical and acoustic guitars, mandolin, Baroque guitar, and ukulele. With a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, he has served as a Professor of Guitar at Missouri Western State College and Park University. His professional history includes roles as the Kansas City Hyatt Regency’s staff guitarist and as a touring artist for the Missouri Arts Council, performing throughout the United States and Europe.

Produced by Bentley Guitar Studios, The Bentley Project offers listeners a refined yet adventurous musical experience that spans centuries and continents. Their performances invite audiences to “listen with intent,” capturing the essence of an ambient, soulful journey in sound.

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Matthew Labarge Releases Album ‘Windy Starry Blue’

"Matthew Labarge Releases Album ‘Windy Starry Blue’"

The sky is never bluer than on a crystal clear evening half an hour or so after the winter sun has gone below the horizon. The moon won’t be up for hours yet and the heavens express a sweet melancholy.

On my last visit to Montreal, I spent time in four fantastically beautiful cathedrals and recorded ambient sound in each of them. The music of Windy Starry Blue is built on these sounds.

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Matthew Labarge has released seven albums of solo piano music, eight albums of mixed instruments as Larkenlyre, and an album of pirate-themed lounge music as Cane Bay Cabaret. He works tirelessly in a tiny studio in Blacksburg, Virginia to bring you albums that unfold like a novel, are worth listening to carefully, and still yield new insights after many listens.

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Orchestra Indigo Releases Album ‘Hearing Visions’

"Orchestra Indigo Releases Album ‘Hearing Visions’"

Hearing Visions is a deeply emotive and sonically transcendent journey crafted by Orchestra Indigo. Inspired by the artist’s mother, who experienced vivid aural hallucinations in the decade preceding her dementia diagnosis, this album explores the mysterious interplay between memory, imagination, and sound. Her “visions” of orchestras, Christmas carols, and fleeting melodies—sounds she often joyfully embraced—became a profound source of inspiration for this evocative release.

Blurring the lines between the real and the imagined, Hearing Visions invites listeners into a world where music acts as a bridge to the subconscious, a way to connect to beauty and solace even amidst life’s most challenging transitions. Lush orchestral layers, ethereal melodies, and an undercurrent of heartfelt nostalgia come together to create a soundscape that is as meditative as it is emotionally stirring.

Through its blend of serene harmonies and evocative instrumentation, Hearing Visions reflects not only the wonder of its inspiration but also celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the healing power of music. Orchestra Indigo has created a work that resonates deeply with anyone who has found solace in sound and seeks to honor the invisible threads that connect us through memory and love.

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The fascinating story behind the emergence of new age artist Orchestra Indigo and its beautifully melodic and deeply inspiring debut album Farewell to Memories, has its roots in the lockdown early in the pandemic, when musicians around the world, with their regular gigs suddenly stripped away, were trying to figure out their next creative steps.

Having released his fifth blues rock oriented album Night Songs in February 2020, multi-talented singer/songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist Rick Randlett had every intention of hitting the road in support of the project. That had been his m.o. for years, playing up to 125 regional club and festival dates in and around his adopted home state of Florida for nearly a decade and a half after launching his solo career in 1999 with All Alone. Three of his releases reached the Top Ten on the Roots Music Report charts, and he collaborated on the album Hauntings with fellow blues singer Cassie Keenum in 2017.

Turning his anxiety over the sudden work stoppage into a fresh stream of creativity, he began exploring ambient, new age style compositions on a home studio setup that includes a Mac Book Pro, Studio One for DAW, Roland Juno synthesizer and a Modal Cobalt 8 synthesizer. His first idea was to create short instrumental pieces for music libraries, but besides learning about the fierce competition in that field, he realized there were too many restrictive rules. Rick embraced the freedom of composing longer pieces combining piano melodies with an array of dynamic colors he created using synthesized strings. Extensively researching the new age genre, he realized not only that these pieces he was composing were a perfect fit, but also that the audience for instrumental music was much more expansive than that in the blues world that was his home for so long. In creating his albums, he chose the artist branding name Orchestra Indigo because, after considering various word combinations, he thought it sounded unique and a little mysterious – and he didn’t want to confuse fans of his work in either genre by using his given name on the new age material.

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Peter Sterling Releases Album ‘Heaven Sent’

"Peter Sterling Releases Album ‘Heaven Sent’"

Sedona, Arizona – Renowned New Age musician and harpist Peter Sterling proudly announces the release of his 17th album, Heaven Sent. This latest collection of celestial instrumental harp music offers a transcendent journey of healing, love, and divine connection, set against the serene beauty of Sedona’s autumn landscapes. With a global ensemble of talented musicians, Heaven Sent is a stunning blend of lush orchestration, ethereal textures, and heartfelt melodies that invite listeners into a world of heavenly visions and inner peace.

Heaven Sent emerged during the Thanksgiving season, when Sedona was bathed in golden autumnal light. Peter describes the album’s creation as a profound spiritual experience: “The music on this album came to me like a divine gift from heaven the day after Thanksgiving. In a moment filled with gratitude for the many blessings in my life and a tender sense of loss in love, I felt a profound connection to my angels. Their message was clear: set up the microphones and let my harp speak the emotions of my heart.”

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Peter Sterling is a visionary musician, artist, author and spiritual guide whose work seamlessly blends the realms of sound, light, story and soul. His musical journey began with his debut record, Harp Magic, which was recorded after only 10 months of playing the harp, without any formal lessons. This remarkable album was nominated for the NAIRD Indie Award for Best String Album of 1994, setting the stage for a prolific career. A string of albums followed, many of which received prestigious awards and ascended to the top of international radio charts. With a profound connection to the mystical landscapes of Sedona, Arizona, Peter’s journey into music began after a series of life-changing experiences —hearing the ethereal music of angels while meditating deep within the forest and canyons of Sedona. These divine encounter’s led him to embrace the harp as his instrument of choice, channeling music that transcends the ordinary and resonates with listeners on a deeply spiritual level.

Peter Sterling’s musical artistry has been widely recognized. His album Harp Dreams went to #1 for 8 weeks on the ZMR Top 100 international radio chart and received a nominations for Best New Age album in 2005. His 2012 release, Patterns of Reflection, soared to #1 on the ZMR Top 100 International Radio Chart and was also nominated for New Age Album of the Year. The following year, Twilight Serenade ascended to the #1 position on the ZMR Chart, while the track “Isle of Light” earned a bronze medal in the Global Music Awards for 2016.

The accolades continued with the 2021 album Sanctuary of Light, which won the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best New Age Album, along with the Silver COVR Visionary Music Award. In 2022 his release The Winding Way secured the Gold COVR Visionary Music Award for Best New Age Album of the year, further cementing Peter Sterling’s status as a leading figure in the New Age music genre. His most recent album, Mystic Voyager, has garnered critical acclaim, winning the Best Contemporary Instrumental Song at the Intercontinental Music Awards as well as winning Best New Age Album at the COVR Visionary Music Awards for 2024.

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David Joseph Jennings Releases Album ‘Love Is’

"David Joseph Jennings Releases Album ‘Love Is’"

We abide in Love, we are combined by Love, we are made of Love, we simply are Love.

When I say Love Is, there are an infinite number of words and phrases to finish a statement. I chose 8 ways to conclude this statement, in naming 8 out of the 9 tracks on this album. The ninth and final track is called Love Is, which says it all. Music for peace, beauty and meditation is the intention of the recording Love Is. There are nine movements, and each movement is an expression of love.

The recording features myself on vibraphone and the vocalist KONISHI. The vibes and voice are integrated into lush virtual sounds to express love, and create a beautiful and organic listening experience.

Peace and Love, David

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David Joseph Jennings is an acclaimed international recording artist whose music has been heard all around the world. He has been part of the vibrant Chicago and Los Angeles music scenes as a composer, vibraphonist and drummer for over 40 years. David has led his own groups and performed with world class musicians throughout the world. Among David’s numerous recordings, his 2019 recording Peace Be was nominated for Contemporary Instrumental Album of the Year in the 2020 One World Music Radio Awards. David’s 2022 recording Faith of a Flower reached number 16 on the Zone Music Reporter top 100 albums chart. His compositions and recordings have spanned different genres including a Symphony, String Quartets (Peace Be), Chamber Music, Jazz (A Clear View, Eternity, and No Words), Ballet (Dancing As Life), New Age/Ambient (Essence Of The Soul, Faith Of A Flower), and his latest release Love Is. David has shared the stage at various festivals with Bela Fleck, Bruce Hornsby, Roy Hargrove, Paquito D`Rivera, Gary Willis, Marco Mendoza, Terrance Blanchard, War and Three Dog Night. His performance credits include Eric Marienthal, Brandon Fields, Kim Stone, Ernie Watts, Chuchito Valdez, Don Menza, Albert Wing, Jeff Nathanson, Ernie Denof, Chris Clemente, Samuel Del Real, Erkan Ogur, Michael Miles and Carl Coan.

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Neil Patton Releases Album ‘The Small Hours’

"Neil Patton Releases Album ‘The Small Hours’"

One night, many stories. These are musical narratives of the nighttime hours as they are experienced the world over. Spawned largely during the stressful months of pandemic shutdowns and social turmoil, these pieces were a source of solace and peace as Neil intentionally composed in a quieter vein.

“Musically, Neil is at the top of his game. The album is perfectly produced and the tone of Neil’s piano is to die for. How he created the tone is a mystery. The Small Hours is a perfect solo piano collection. Highly recommend.”

– Fonz Tramontano of Clouzine, Contemporary Music Magazine

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About Neil

Neil Patton is a pianist, composer, singer and teacher in Eugene, OR. His music for solo piano is a unique fusion of Classical, Folk and Rock influences that has emotionally impacted listeners around the globe. He is an honors graduate of the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, and has released six critically acclaimed collections of original solo piano music since 2007.

His 2015 album, Between Shadow and Light (#13 on Zone Music Reporter Airplay Charts) was awarded Album of the Year at MainlyPiano.com, and his 2022 album Holy Ground won Christian Album of the Year 2022 at SoloPiano.com. His single Water of Life (from his debut album, Impromptu) reached the #23 spot on the Whisperings top 100 in 2012, and was one of 16 tracks included on the popular Whisperings Vol I: Music to Quiet Your World album released in 2011. Clockwork, a duet composed and recorded with legendary pianist David Nevue, was released on Nevue’s critically acclaimed album, Winding Down, and was named Song of the Year, 2015 at MainlyPiano.com.

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Jeff Johnson & Phil Keaggy Release Album ‘Spinning On A Cosmic Dime’

"Jeff Johnson & Phil Keaggy Release Album ‘Spinning On A Cosmic Dime’"

 Ambi-coustic, jazz-age fusion, with generous touches of art-rock, Jeff Johnson and Phil Keaggy’s fifth studio recording, ‘Spinning on a Cosmic Dime’, features a richly textured and deeply melodic confluence of eight lengthy instrumental tracks that the popular duo has become known for.

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Spinning on a Cosmic Dime continues the same exhilarating musical stylings that Jeff and Phil first exhibited on their earlier and highly-successful duo albums  — Frio Suite (2009), WaterSky (2012),  Cappadocia (2019) and Ravenna (2021).  Both musicians have lengthy and illustrious careers as solo recording artists, as well as making albums with a variety of others.

Jeff Johnson’s early work was vocal progressive-rock, but his sound evolved to focus more on jazz, new age, contemporary instrumental, contemplative-spiritual and Celtic styles. He has collaborated over the years with Wendy Goodwin, Janet Marie Chvatal, David Friesen, Dave Hagelganz, Mark Schulman, Derri Daugherty, Sandy Simpson, the Coram Deo Ensemble, John Fitzpatrick, Jozef Luptak, Dallas McKennon and poets, Malcolm Guite and Scott Cairns.

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Phil Keaggy, one of the world’s most acclaimed and admired guitarists, first started playing when he was ten-years-old.  He took to the national stage with his touring rock band Glass Harp that recorded seven studio albums (some as reunion projects several decades later) and a Live At Carnegie Hall disc in 1971. For three years in a row, Keaggy was voted one of the top fingerstyle guitarists in the world by Guitar Player magazine readers. Some of his collaborations have been recordings with Randy Stonehill, Mike Pachelli, Wes King, Scott Dente, Kyle Jones, Jack Giering, John Sferra, Shannon Hayden, Tony Gerber, Tony Levin and Jerry Morotta.

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