Rod Picott – Hang Your Hopes on a Crooked Nail!

Hang Your Hopes on a Crooked Nail - Rod Picott

Rod PicottRod Picott has been friends with Slaid Cleaves since they first met in the 2nd grade in the Maine town of South Berwick where they both grew up. Slaid left South Berwick went to Tufts University and eventually ended up moving to Austin, Texas with wife Karen in  1991, where he has lived and recorded since then. Picott left Maine and spent a few years in Colorado, before moving to Nashville in 1994. Where spent several years playing at local clubs and sharpening his skills as a songwriter, he wrote songs for the likes of Fred Eaglesmith and worked and occasionally opened for Alison Krauss. Read More

Norway's Christina Skjolberg – Come and Get It

Christina SkjolbergSo right now Christina Skjolberg may be one of Norway’s best kept secrets, but after this years Blues Caravan  Tour rolls across Europe and around the world she may not be. Skjolberg is a dynamite blues woman who Ruf Records has signed and released her début album Come and Get It!
The left-handed young female guitar wiz was born and raised on  the island of Smøla outside Kristiansund on the northwest coat of Norway.She has been playing guitar since she was twelve and was inspired by fellow lefty Jimi Hendrix. Night after night Christina would wow them at clubs across Norway, where she caught the eye of Thomas Ruf Records who saw her talent signed her and paved the way to her début release and a spot on his Blues Caravan 2014. Accompanying he on the Caravan are fellow blues artists Albert Castiglia and Laurence Jones, and her band composed of Brynjulf Blix on Hammond B3 organ. Blix has been playing Blues, Jazz and Rock across Norway with various bands for the last 40 years!, and Tore Slåttsveen who plays rhythm guitar and provides background vocals. Like Blix, Tore has played across Norway with various bands like Little Andrew & the Blue Masters, Triple T and The Mojo Workers.
Come and Get ItCome and Get It is a great album, Christina’s guitar is smoking when it needs to be and her vocals are hard-rocking or sultry when the song calls for it. Blix on organ really is an added bonus on several tracks!! All in All the album is a winner and I’m confident that you’ll be hearing a lot more from Ms. Skjolberg in the future!!
Links

Artist Website
Ruf Records
Facebook
MySpace
Here’s a performance by Christina on Blues Caravan 2014 at the Musiktheater Dortmund Germany

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Yesterday in Music – Feb 21, 1980 – Trumpeter Takuya Kuroda was born!!

About the same time that the Safari discovered Aynsley Lister, I also discovered the music of Japanese-born trumpet player Takuya Kuroda.That was several days ago, and yesterday Takuya celebrated his 34th birthday. While I had listened to a little of his latest album Rising Son, when I first heard about his music, but today I listened to the full album and it was a treat!! Read More

The Safari Explores the Music of Germany’s Frequency Drift – Over!

Over the last few days I’ve been exploring the music of the German Grossover Prog Band Frequency Drift; I stated with their current release Over. On my first few listens I wasn’t to sure about the vocals. The female lead singer’s voice was just a little too high and operatic sounding than I  like. What I was sure of was the music,I know I heard some instruments that you don’t normally hear like violin and flutes.Here’ what I read about the band at their website: Read More