Pravda Records – Queen City Sounds and Art

Queen City Sounds Podcast S4E28: Steve Dawson

Singer / Songwriter Steve Dawson, photo by Matthew Gilson

Steve Dawson is a Chicago-based songwriter who released his most recent, and sixth, solo album Ghosts on June 7 via Pravda Records on CD, LP vinyl, digital download and streaming. Though perhaps best known for his membership in alt-country band Dolly Varden, Dawson’s solo work on the new record infuses his songwriting with power pop sensibilities, fitting for ten songs that explore ideas of how the past weighs on the present and influences how we live life and understand the world around us as well as the people we’ve lost along the way whose presence lingers in our hearts whether they have passed on to the great beyond out simply out of our lives. Dawson also examines times in his life that he remembers vividly that impacted the course of his own path as a human as an artist. For instance “Leadville” which so accurately captures life in various small towns in America that it could be about some place you’ve lived and not the songwriter’s hometown in Idaho. Dawson doesn’t romanticize that time in his life even as the country rock song has a touch of nostalgia to its sound. Each song is a poignant portrait of a space and time and the people that make up where we come from, where we’ve been and to some extent guide where we’re going.

Listen to our interview with Dawson on Bandcamp and follow the songwriter and musician at the links below.

stevedawsonmusic.com

Steve Dawson on Instagram

Steve Dawson on YouTube

Steve Dawson on Facebook

Steve Dawson on Twitter

Queen City Sounds Podcast S3E12: Brian Krumm

Brian Krumm is the frontman of Chicago-based Americana/alt-country band The Great Crusades and like most musicians at the beginning of the pandemic lock downs he found himself with ample time to think, consider and stew about the state of things and contemplate about the future of his chosen path in life. So in an effort to stay sane he drank a shot of whiskey every evening at 5 p.m. and tried to write a song. 25 days later he had 25 songs and over the course of the next two to three years he identified 11 that he could shape into an album and develop the material with band mates and other musical colleagues. The result is Just Fade Away, released as Brian Krumm and his Barfly Friends, out now on Pravda on digital, 12” vinyl LP and CD as well as streaming platforms. The record is a deeply introspective and poetically observed set of songs that get into an assessment of one’s life and one’s shortcomings, triumphs and the moments of joy that illuminate existence. Fans of Tom Waits will appreciate Krumm’s vulnerable rasp and the frank and witty storytelling is reminiscent of the likes of Robyn Hitchcock and Warren Zevon.

Listen to our interview with Brian Krumm on Bandcamp and connect with the artist at the links below.

briankrumm.com

Brian Krumm on Instagram

Brian Krumm on Twitter

Brian Krumm on Facebook

Brian Krumm on Bands In Town

Brian Krumm on Songkick

Brian Krumm and his Barfly Friends on Pravda Records Bandcamp

Queen City Sounds Podcast S2E21: Nora O’Connor

Nora O’Connor, photo courtesy the artist

Nora O’Connor is a singer, songwriter and prolific musical collaborator from Chicago who has made a name for herself as go-to talent for greatly augmenting the recordings and performances of other artists. People like Mavis Staples, The New Pornographers, Iron & Wine, Jakob Dylan, The Decemberists, John Wesley Harding and Neko Case (with whom she has recently been a member of the touring band) have benefited greatly from O’Connor’s gifts and ability to listen well and become a noteworthy part of the work at hand. But for the last few decades O’Connor has occasionally released records under her own name including 2022’s My Heart (Pravda Records). The beautifully eclectic record hearkens to country rock of the 70s but also great folk pop artists like The Roches, Norma Tanega and Margo Guryan whose 1968 song “It’s Alright Now” O’Connor covers for the new album. My Heart, song for song, showcases O’Connor’s vibrant voice, her keen ear for songwriting nuance and ability to evoke a broad range of complex emotions.

Listen to our interview with O’Connor on Bandcamp and connect with the artist at the links below.

noraoconnormusic.com

Nora O’Connor on Facebook

Nora O’Connor on Twitter

Nora O’Connor on Instagram

Queen City Sounds Podcast Ep. 34: John Baumgartner of The Trypes

The Trypes is an experimental, psychedelic folk band that began in 1982 in Haledon, New Jersey. It’s instrumentation began with an eclectic mix of sounds and textures so that its music was difficult to narrow down to an established genre. Fans of Savage Republic (who were contemporaries) and Stereolab will find something to like in The Trypes’ unconventional use of rhythm and composition at times seeming to favor compound time signatures and textural atmospheric elements. Its brand of folk and psychedelia sounded like it had tapped into a bit of the minimalist post-punk of the early 80s like Young Marble Giants and the more avant-garde Swell Maps whose own use of noise collage has some resonance with what you hear in a song by The Trypes. Around the mid-80s Glenn Mercer and Bill Million of influential post-punk band Feelies joined The Trypes for a time when their own band was on hiatus adding to some of this group’s artistic legacy. In 2012 Acute Records released the collection Music fore Neighbors which collected the group’s 1984 EP The Explorer’s Hold as well as unreleased demos and a compilation track not so easy to come by. But now in 2022 that compilation has been reissued on Pravda Records to celebrate the band’s 40 year anniversary and now includes songs from a 1984 showcase at the Bottom Line in New York and two tracks recorded when the original Trypes performed a reunion show in 2017. The CD is available now with a gatefold vinyl to be issued later in 2022. This interview was conducted with founding keyboard player John Baumgartner and delves into the group’s early days in New Jersey and its development and for many rediscovery.

Listen to the interview with Baumgarnter on Bandcamp linked below and for more information on The Trypes and to order the CD/download of Music For Neighbors visit the links below.

The Trypes on Facebook

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