James Morrison

This week’s artist comes from across the pond where is has made a name for himself in the UK. James Morrison was introduced to me by a friend who was so affected by Morrison’s voice that even her husband was became a little annoyed. After hearing his music I couldn’t blame my friend for being so moved by it. James Morrison’s soulful and raspy voice as well as his passion filled song-writing make for music you can’t help but love.

James Morrison was born in 1984 in England and in the short years since he started his musical career has already, performed for Prince Charles, toured with Corinne Bailey Rae, and has recorded duets with Nelly Furtado and Jason Mraz. You can find the duet with Furtado, “Broken Strings” on Morrison’s new album and with Mraz, “Details In The Fabric” on Mraz’s latest album. Morrison is currently on tour in the U.K. and Europe. While he hasn’t taken the U.S. charts like he has in the UK it is only a mater of time before he takes the red, white and blue by storm.

Morrison attributes his unique voice to a case of whooping cough that almost killed him as a baby. It was years later as a teenager that his uncle introduced him to the guitar teaching him how to play a blues riff. Eventually Morrison started writing his own songs and began playing at a local pub in England for several years building up a following until he was signed to a record label. In 2006, his debut single "You Give Me Something" became a hit in Europe, Australia, and Japan, peaking in the top five in the UK and New Zealand. His first album Undiscovered came out that year and in 2007 he had several U.S. television performances which resulted in is album reaching #24 on the charts when is was released here. His second album, Songs for You, Truths for Me, was released in September of 2008 and it did tremendously well on the UK charts.

http://www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com/

http://www.myspace.com/jamesmorrisonmusic

I hope you have enjoyed this week's featured artist. Be sure to leave you comments below of what you think. Also, if you would like to help and support this artist be sure to share this with your friends. There are some new buttons below to help with that. Have a wonderful week!

Molly Jenson

Most of the artists featured on MMM have only been in my music library for at most two years. This week’s artist, however, has been on my radar for the last twelve years. My history with Molly Jenson goes all the way back to the summer after freshman year of high school at Hume Lake Christian Camps. Molly was the back up vocalist for the worship band Everybodyduck and all of us girls were in total awe of her. She was beautiful, had an amazing voice and we all wanted to be just like her when we grew up. Her powerful vocals and harmonies are what inspired my own singing and I learned to harmonize by singing along with her on the band’s album. Years have passed since those summers at Hume but I never forgot Molly. When I heard she was releasing her own album last year I was pretty excited and am even more thrilled to share Molly’s music with you today.

Molly Jenson is a San Diego native who didn’t plan on pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter. It came about when Greg Laswell, not only a singer/songwriter himself but one of my absolute favorites, offered to co-write and produce Molly’s first album. That album, Maybe Tomorrow, was released in March of 2009. The album also features a duet with Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot, on the track, “Do You Only Love The Ones Who Look Like You.” Not only has Molly been signed to Bully!Pulpit/Nettwerk Music Group but she is also working on a second album with Greg Laswell producing again. Laswell has been a featured here on MMM and he just released his new album last Tuesday. You can preview the whole album on his website and I am purchasing it tonight!

Back to Molly, who has not only made waves in Japan and London with her music but is taking her tour away from the west coast and conquering the rest of the U.S. soon. She’ll be performing at the Lilith Fair in Arizona this summer as well. There is no date set yet on the release of the new album but I can only anticipate good things from it. You can find her album for download on Amazon.com and iTunes.

I hope you have enjoyed this little walk I took down memory lane to bring you an artist worth hearing. Check out more on Molly on her website, Myspace and Twitter.  

Make sure to leave your comments below on what you think and if you like it share it with your friends!! That is what this blog is all about! I've even added some new buttons below to make that easier. 

Molly's Website

Molly's Myspace

Molly's Twitter

Photo 1 by Christian Rios Photography

Photo 3 by Joseph Llanes

Live Photo – unknown

My Current Obsession - The Civil Wars

If they don't come and play in L.A. soon I might have to go to them. Nashville trip to see The Civil Wars perform anyone?? We can help with some flood relief while we're there.

The CO

Before I even begin to talk about this week’s featured band I want to send out my prayers to the Nashville community. A devastating flood has hit, destroying homes and lives with no mercy. I know that during and after this crisis we will see the community of Nashville all coming together to help its neighbors. I have seen what an amazing community of musicians are there supporting each other in their careers so I know without a doubt they will be supporting each other during this time. Already as I’ve been researching this week’s band I’ve seen their efforts to help their town by setting up sand bags and helping friends who have lost their homes. This week’s band, The CO, are some amazing guys who met at a local university in Nashville and have stayed there to pursue their careers as musicians. Another Brite Revolution find, the band supports the Dalit Freedom Network which you can learn more about at the bottom of the post.

The CO began with Collin Brace, lead vocals, and Troy Akers, keys and vocals, who started writing songs together during college. The two decided to form a band and were joined by Nate Fleming on drums and later Will Harrison on guitar and Jordan Hester on bass. The band is a pop/rock group that reminds me of One Republic with a little Kris Allen thrown in. Their songs sing of rough times and struggling faith in their tracks, “Keep It Together” and “Hold On,” as well as love in their track, “Come In Closer.” The song writing of this band shows great promise and I can easily see them going far in their careers.

The CO has one album out available for $7.92 on Amazon here and iTunes here. If you are enjoying this band I would recommend buying it through the links provided or through their website links below since it will not be easy to find their music just searching for it. I tried and quickly gave up and found it through the provided links on Brite. Since CO is a very common word when googling The CO you will find a million other companies and websites before finding anything related to the band, which made it a bit hard to research. Even a search on iTunes and Amazon resulted in so many other options before I found them. So, if I had one recommendation for this band it would be a name change. I know that sounds quite brazen of me to suggest that a band change its name but I believe that you want potential fans to find you easily online. If I had heard a friend mention them or heard them playing on the radio I don’t know that I would have had much luck following up with their music. For now I’m making it easy for all of you readers to find more of their music. I hope you can use this as a resource to share this music with your friends because The CO is really a great band that deserves to be heard. And boys, if you ever read this, know that my intentions are not to bash your name choice but help you to be even more successful they you already are.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s featured band. You can follow them on Twitter to get updates on the Nashville flood and learn more on their website, facebook and myspace page. Make sure to leave your comments below on what you think of the music.

The CO Website

The CO on Myspace

The CO on Twitter

The CO on Facebook

Dalit Freedom Network - Approximately 250 million Indians (a full 25% of the population), are Dalit. In a country where everybody is supposed to have equal rights and opportunities, one out of four people is condemned to be untouchable.

The Dalit Freedom Network partners with the Dalits in their quest for religious freedom, social justice, and human dignity by mobilizing human, informational, and financial resources. Learn more from the website.

Photo 1 & 3 - by michael sloane of strategic blend

Ben Rector

This week’s artist, Ben Rector, is another great find from Brite Revolution. Brite is a great site to get new music and support some amazing causes. The best part is that it is now FREE!! Brite is changing some things around and will be pursuing other ways to support the charities and making the music free for you! So if you haven’t signed up yet you are passing on some amazing music. Seriously, sign up. Now. I’ll wait. Click here. Did you do it? You won’t regret it. Free remember? Done? Good. OK, now that you’ve signed up let's get back to Ben. Ben Rector is an amazing unsigned singer/songwriter out of Nashville who has been touring around with Dave Barnes recently and recording some fantastic music.

Ben started his songwriting while at University of Arkansas and has made his way to the top of the iTunes charts. His recent album, Into The Morning, released February 2010 made it to #5 in iTunes Pop and #10 overall. Ben supports Mocha Club on Brite, which raises funds for Africa by asking you to donate just $7 a month, the price of two mochas at Starbucks. Pretty easy I think. In addition to his new album and the tracks you can get free on Brite (another plug), you can download his other releases, Songs That Duke Wrote and Twenty Tomorrow as well as his holiday release, Jingles and Bells for Christmas time.

Ben is back touring on the Eastern regions of the U.S. but I’m hoping he’ll make his way out to L.A. soon so I can check out his live show. Ben looks to be a great piano player and I have a bit of a weakness for men who play the piano… oops, did I just share that with you all?

I hope you enjoyed this week’s artist. There isn’t too much info on Ben out there but his music is really all you need. Check out his websites and make sure to comment below and let me know what you think.

http://www.myspace.com/benrector

http://www.benrectormusic.com/

All Photos by Chris Galegar

Caroline Smith And The Goodnight Sleeps

In the world of music there are some living legends. Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Aretha Franklin and B.B. King just to name a few. Now, if you were just fifteen years old and you were opening for B.B. King that would be pretty amazing right? How many fifteen year olds are at a level with their music that they could open for a music legend? Well for Caroline Smith this was reality. As a teenager she opened for a blues player so great he has a Sirius Satellite Radio station dedicated to him. Caroline Smith is a singer/songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota accompanied by The Good Night Sleeps with a sound similar to Ingrid Michaelson and Katie Herzig.

At a very young age Caroline was taught guitar by her father who bought her first guitar. Her mother didn’t discover her guitar playing until she was fifteen and immediately had her playing in restaurants. Her style is a mix of blues, country and acoustic all rolled together in tunes simple and sweet.

Caroline Smith And The Goodnight Sleeps released their first album, Backyard Tent Sets, in August of 2008 which you can download on Amazon for $8.99 or iTunes for $9.90. Band members are Caroline Smith, Arlen Peiffer and Jesse Schuster.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's feature! Tomorrow will be one year since I started this music blog. I have loved every minute of it and am so blessed and thankful to all of you who follow.

http://www.myspace.com/carolinesmithmusic

http://www.thegoodnightsleeps.com/

Photo 1 & 3 - Lilly Ball

Photo 2 - Nicole Marie Photography

Frightened Rabbit

It’s late as I write this week’s post and I can actually hear the rain pouring down outside my window. It is so calming that the music has been turned off and I’m listening to nature’s melody instead. I’m looking forward to the rain temporarily washing away the L.A. smog. This week we are going global again and featuring another international band from Glasgow, Scotland. Frightened Rabbit is an indie rock band with Fat Cat Records who released their third album last month. The new album, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, is an album of tracks filled with songs about feeling alone, lost and on the edge but pushing through. I believe we’ve all felt that way at one point or another and I don’t know about you but it’s always been nice to hear songs written by others who have gone through the same things. Somehow though the subject matter sounds severe the music itself is light, upbeat and encouraging.

Frightened Rabbit started in 2003 when lead singer/guitarist Scott Hutchison started playing solo shows under the band name. He was soon joined by his brother, Grant Hutchison on drums, and Billy Kennedy on bass/guitar to form the band. Andy Monaghan joined in 2008 on guitar/keyboard and Gordon Skene joined in 2009 for the new album on guitar/keyboards. Each new member is a significant part in developing the band’s sound and according to Scott, “A lot of the new record is heavily layered and it felt like too much for the four of us to do. We need another member to get them at their full impact. I dunno, we're kind of bored of each other. We just need to add some fresh meat.” Early years of a band’s life involve the development of their sound, which you can often hear if they release several albums though that period. This new album has definitely showed how much Frightened Rabbit has progressed when you hear their older recordings.

The band is touring extensively throughout Europe and the United States and will be playing at Coachella this Spring with a collection of other great bands and artists. If you are enjoying Frightened Rabbit make sure to check out their other two albums, Sing the Greys released in 2006 and The Midnight Organ Fight from 2008.

http://wearefrightenedrabbit.com/

www.myspace.com/frightenedrabbit

Photo 1 by Danny North

Photo 3 by Gordon Burniston