Westchester-based country band Raquel and The Wildflowers have release their new single, “Freedom,” on Thursday, February 10, a tune ripe with fiddle, electric guitar and a driving beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQGe2Alh4qQ
The song had previously been performed at the band’s various live shows around both New York state and the country. After requests from fans who had heard the song live the group decided to record the song and release it as a single.
The cover art for “Freedom” gives the band’s fans the opportunity to customize the single’s corresponding artwork.
The downloadable file mimics a postcard. With blank space, a “To:” line, and the spot for a postage stamp in the top right corner encourage listeners or prospective doodlers to design a postcard.
Raquel and The Wildflowers is a three-person band that features the eponymous Raquel de Souza as lead singer, Cat Lines on fiddle, and Luis Cruz on guitar.
The band is currently on tour with stops in New York in Monticello at Resorts World Catskills on March 25, Tioga Downs Casino Resort in Nichols on April 8, and Trivia Fest in Elmsford on May 1. They will also be performing at the Country Fest music festival in Cadott Wisconsin with headliners Florida Georgia Line.
The Mike Block Trio is back again for their first tour of 2022 and they plan to play at Caffe Lena, Saratoga Springs, on February 11th. This American Roots group recorded an album last month and have lots of new tunes to share.
Mike Block Trio Press Photo
The trio consists of Joe K. Walsh (mandolin/vocals), Zachariah Hickman (bass/vocals), and led by Mike Block (cello/vocals), they are a supergroup of unique and virtuosic players. Using their American roots music with contemporary and international influences, they bring a personal perspective to their acoustic music. For example, all members of the band are heavily experienced in music and have brought an equally professional perspective their songs. Their music is artfully compoed and pleasant to listen to.
Mike Block Trio Press Photos
Mike Block is a pioneering cello player, singer, composer, and educator. He is committed to inspiring individuals and connecting with individuals across communities. Using his patented design, The Block Strap, Mike was the first standing cellist to perform at Carnegie Hall. Touring extensively throughout the world, he has been featured in shows as a cellist and vocal soloist. Likewise, he has contributed arrangements and compositions, and even earned a Grammy Award in 2017 for the album, “Sing Me Home.” The NY Times characterized the performance as, “Breathless … Half dance, half dare.”
Joe K. Walsh is a Bluegrass mandolin player and singer known for his work with the legendary Gibson Brothers band. Furthermore, the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) has named The Gibson Brothers Band winner of awards for Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year, Vocal Group of the Year, and Song of the Year. After being the first mandolinist to graduate from the Berklee College of Music on the mandolin, Joe returned to Berklee in 2011 as both a mandolin instructor and as a Managing Director of the “American Roots Music Program.”
Mike Block Trio Press Photos
Zachariah Hickman is a double bassist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer based out of Boston, MA. In addition, he received his formal training in jazz performance and composition from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Similarly, as a producer, Zachariah as made records with many talented singers including Rose Cousins (for which he won a Canadian JUNO award), Mark Erelli, Laura Cortese, Miss Tess, and his own bluegrass band Barnstar. He has even made Television appearances including five David Letterman appearances, Conan O’brien, Ellen Degeneres, and Late Night with Jools Holland for the BBC.
The Mike Block Trio has also collaborated with musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, a popular American cellist. Mike is a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble (SRE), having joined in 2005 while a student at The Juilliard School.
Mike Block Trio are working alongside the finest venues to do everything they can to make sure it’s safe for their fans to go out to their upcoming shows. As a result of these safety precautions, all shows will require masks and proof of vaccination. Tour dates and more info can be found on their website. Tickets to the Caffe Lena show can be found here.
Peter Stone’s debut EP, “Unlabeled“, delivers an eminently listenable and creatively integral album. It’s a work whose influences are clear—R&B vocals, 80’s synthesizers, pop beats—but who’s originality and creative vision are even more evident.
Stone’s work features a knack for melodies that are sonically complex and rich with texture but that are, nonetheless, earworms that stick with you as you listen. Even though he recorded the album in 2020 during lockdown in his native Italy “when he couldn’t have any contact with anyone [which] was a really tough time” his ability to guarantee head-bobbing tunes belies the conditions under which the EP was recorded.
Although his ability to do so appears effortless the quality of the music suggests it likely wasn’t. Rather it was the product of a detailed process of intentional musical choices from his myriad influences. On “Cold,” the album’s likely hit, his mix of R&B crooning and 80’s synthesizers combine to make what is ultimately a pop song of the highest order.
Stone doesn’t have an aversion to pop music. Even if we admits that it’s not one of the guiding inspirations of his musical process.
“Pop is one of the genres I’m up to put myself in even though [I’m not] mainly inspired by it when it comes to the writing and the production of my songs,” acknowledged Stone.
Even if it isn’t his main inspiration there’s no denying that it’s the outcome. On “Lead Me”, the first song on Peter Stone’s debut EP, he sings “She’s dancing on the floor/She’s moving on the floor” over pulsating synths and basses.
His obvious talent for creating uniquely creative, yet accessible music is on delves into new spaces with “Save Me” and “Trust.” The first is an emotional piano ballad, with Stone playing the keys, that while still feeling slightly like a young artist’s imitation of what they think an emotional song should sound like; has lyrics that effectively portray a person that’s fractured and realizing that they have to put themselves back together.
On “Trust” Stone exhibits a mature understanding of song composition that is reflexive of a clear creative vision, executed with purpose. The song is a three-parter but to say more would spoil the mix of delight and intrigue one feels at its transitions. All of which are unlike both each other and the rest of the songs on Unlabeled offering a glimpse into Stone’s multidimensionality as an artist.
His multitude of influences might have created a genre blending debut but ultimately all that matters is that once you listen to Peter Stone’s debut EP…you’ll want to listen to it again.
Mad Dabber710, an American musician, hip hop artist, funk producer. and cannabis activist born in Bandera, Texas, will be the host with the most at Alien Opera House for “Its A Party Festival” on January 15 from 3 PM till 2 AM in Syracuse. 2 stages. Green Skylines stage upstairs and Exotic Pop/ Slapwoods stage downstairs.
This past December the Alien Opera House hosted a performance of the Frank White Experience with Lil Cease of Brooklyn artist Notorious BIG. Expect the same variety at the Opera house on January 15 with all day performances by funk, NEO soul, hip hop, reggae, delta blues and indie jazz lounge artists of New York State.
The Alien Opera House is located on 211 Catawaba Street in Syracuse’s historic Little Italy district. Legendary Italian Conductor Vincent Falcone of Frank Sinatra’s band first cousin Frank Romano’s home is located around the corner in Washington Square Park. The neighborhood is still a sweet melting pot of fine art and rich culture. PhokOuttaHere offers the best blend of Vietnamese cuisine in New York State. Fresh Kola Nuts from the rain forest are available on Salina St at the African & Caribbean Central Market.
Sponsors for ” Its a Party” fest are Exotic Pop, Green Skylines, Slapwoods, Party105, 3D Grow, The Wallflower Hour. The Higher Calling THC and production provided by PVM Entertainment. The Green Skylines stage will be upstairs and the Exotic Pop/Slapwoods Stage will be downstairs at the Alien Opera House.
