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The new Sampler is here!
We'll include one *free* with any order, so browse around and find some new music. The new Sacred Shakers (featuring Eilen Jewell) album, perhaps? Or Crooked Still's hot new album, Still Crooked? Oh, and speaking of Crooked Still...you won't want to miss this sampler because it's got an exclusive track from Crooked Still that's not on any other album!
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Anais Mitchell
"And the big horns blowed and the pianos played/And the music rose to the old mans ears/I guess those were the olden days/I guess those were the golden years, sings Anaïs Mitchell on her new record The Brightness. This earnest nostalgia trip says a lot about the kind of art that this Vermont native has been creating since entering the underground folk scene in 2002. At a time when the music industry is playing the role of the slickest of defense attorneys, using flash and dazzle campaigns to distract us from the fact that their clients are terrible, Mitchell is an artist who grew up on a sheep farm. She makes small-sounding, big-thinking folk albums that play like a front-porch serenade. If she feels in a bit of a time warp, you cant blame her.
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Crooked Still
Crooked Still became a quartet for this new album, adding fiddler Brittany Haas and cellist/fiddler Tristan Clarridge. If the first album from the new line-up is any indication, success for this young band will be explosive. Crooked Still continues to perform one of the most compelling forms of alternative bluegrass and string band music today.
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Sam Baker
With his raspy, almost spoken word vocal style and his literate, poignant, and carefully observed songs that grapple with the beauties, complexities, and little tragedies of this world, Sam Baker has much in common with other Texan songwriters like Robert Earl Keen, James McMurtry, Townes Van Zandt, and Guy Clark, although his approach to narrative probably comes closest to an artist like John Prine. Baker grew up in Itasca, TX, a prairie town southwest of Dallas and Fort Worth on Interstate 35. He was exposed to a wide array of music as a child (his mother was a local church organist), not the least of which was his father's collection of country blues artists. The defining moment in Baker's life came in 1986 when he was traveling on a train to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. A terrorist bomb exploded on the train and Baker was gravely injured, losing most of his hearing and suffering serious injuries to his left arm. He had 18 corrective surgeries performed on him over the next decade at hospitals in San Antonio and Houston, and the consequent physical, emotional, and spiritual journey Baker experienced helped him form his quiet and passionate view of the world. Baker had to completely relearn how to play the guitar with his mangled left hand, and singing was extremely difficult for him because of his severe hearing loss, but he overcame these obstacles to develop his uniquely hushed and quietly powerful performance style. Baker has self-released two critically acclaimed albums, 2004's Mercy and 2007's Pretty World.
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The Sacred Shakers
For The Sacred Shakers, there's nothing finer than old-time, country and blues-influenced gospel music. Think Hank Williams, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Beginning in 2005, that music drew a small but ever-widening circle of some of Boston's finest musicians and vocalists together at the Country Gospel Brunch concert series. In short order, The Boston Globe described the group as "a local Who's Who of all-star roots musicians." And last summer, after hearing a single live performance by The Sacred Shakers, indie Signature Sounds label owner Jim Olsen encouraged the group to record their repertoire. On their eponymous debut, The Sacred Shakers offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that inspires them.
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Jeffrey Foucault
A landscape of ghost horses and cowboy elegies, weary lovers and leaving trains. An existential drive-in theatre
where memories and icons flicker across lowering skies. With the release of his sophomore record STRIPPING CANE, Jeffrey Foucault presents a collection of bright, spare songs; an Americana bus tour that moves from Country Blues to Murder Ballad, Twelve-Bar to Gospel.
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 | Kitchen Radio
Kitchen Radio is the highly anticipated new album from celebrated singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey, and his first album of new material since 2000s The Trouble with Poets.
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 | Still Crooked
The new five-member version of Crooked Still converged to mingle their creative processes at Allaire Studios in upstate New York, with producer Eric Merrill for Still Crooked. The album balances unknown traditional material with three new tunes from the band, along with "Did You Sleep Well?" by fellow old time musician Nathan Taylor, and a Mississippi John Hurt standard. The entire album was recorded "live" in one big room, with everyone playing together. Merrill captured most songs in one or two takes. "I was outside in the hallway, because my voice is so quiet," O'Donovan says. "Recording live, you don't have an option to overdub; that always makes a better album."
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| The 2006 Collection
2006 was a great year for Signature Sounds. This special package features all 7 albums that we released this year plus a copy of Eilen Jewell's fabulous debut album Boundary County. You also get a copy of the Signature Sounds Collection Volume 11. Here are the titles included:
The Mammals Departure
Mark Erelli Hope & Other Casualties
Peter Mulvey The Knuckleball Suite
Jeffrey Foucault Ghost Repeater
Kris Delmhorst Strange Conversation
Crooked Still Shaken By A Low Sound
Chris Smither Leave The Light On
Eilen Jewell Boundary County
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 | The Sacred Shakers
For The Sacred Shakers, there's nothing finer than old-time, country and blues-influenced gospel music. Think Hank Williams, The Carter Family, The Stanley Brothers, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Beginning in 2005, that music drew a small but ever-widening circle of some of Boston's finest musicians and vocalists together at the Country Gospel Brunch concert series. In short order, The Boston Globe described the group as "a local Who's Who of all-star roots musicians." And last summer, after hearing a single live performance by The Sacred Shakers, indie Signature Sounds label owner Jim Olsen encouraged the group to record their repertoire. On their eponymous debut, The Sacred Shakers offer new life to the gospel genre by revisiting the stripped down country and bluesy gospel material that inspires them.
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 | Hope & Other Casualties
Mark Erelli has establishing himself as one of the best young male singer/songwriters on the scene today. Hope and Other Casualties is an unapologetic and timeless collection of deeply personal and affecting songs, effortlessly moving from songs of love, politics, family, resignation, and redemption. Infused with heartfelt song-craft, invigorating tempos, and arresting melodies Erelli has crafted a near-perfect and career defining album.
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 | Shotgun Singer
With Shotgun Singer, Kris Delmhorst has trained her voice on a series of gracefully open lyrics and figures that transcend genre, ranging into the borderlands between indie-rock and folk, that nameless territory inhabited by such hard-to-classify artists as Juana Molina, Feist, Iron & Wine, and Laura Veirs. Adventurous, elegant, lucid, and haunting, the record is the work of a musician at full stride who has found a musical language equal to her vision.
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| The New Old-Time Collection
Some of the most esciting acoustic music being made today is by young bands mining the traditional American music repetiore but bring a whole new kind of spirit and energy to old time music. The Mammals, Crooked Still and Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem all bring exciting new ideas to traditional music. Check out three great albums at a special price:
Crooked Still Shaken By A Low Sound
The Mammals Rock That Babe
Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem Gambling Eden
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 | Departure
They travel America in a large diesel van filled with drums, amps, an upright bass, fiddle, guitars and banjos. They have crafted a show that connects indie rock, bluegrass and alt. country in a very organic way. Fine song writing pulls these players to the front of the pack, and their bold arrangements risk the outer boundaries of sparseness and mayhem. Theres no question about it, The Mammals are one of the music exciting young bands in US.
The Mammals new album Departure is just that; a work that shows the band moving towards a completely unique sound. The rocking energy of fiddles and banjos has been augmented with electric guitar, keyboards and a heavy rhythm section. The songs are political in tone yet completely accessible.
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 | Ghosts
Mark Geary's Ghosts is a strikingly fluid work, abounding with tranquil melodies and the type of understated playing that seems effortless. Geary's rich warble of a voice reveals years of romantic woe and astonishingly smart songwriting. Whether crooning a ballad or a gentle rocker, Geary invests in his songs an emotional throughness bordering on fanatical. Fans of Damien Rice, David Gray and Jeff Buckley will find a kindered spirit in Mark Geary.
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 | Heartache Boulevard
If you've seen Eilen Jewell and her band lately in concert, you've probably heard their cover of the great Billie Holiday song "Fine & Mellow," which is one of three previously unreleased tracks included here. You'll enjoy every minute of this EP--don't miss out!
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 | Innocent When You Dream
Innocent When You Dream is Mark Erelli's sixth release, a collection of lullabies and love songs. It features hushed, still-of-the-night solo acoustic performances of originals and songs by Tom Waits, Wilco, Shawn Colvin, Townes Van Zandt and many others. It makes a great gift for folks with new babies or young children, or for any fan of unvarnished acoustic music.
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 | Keep Your Silver Shined
Keep Your Silver Shined is the new collection of songs from 25-year-old guitarist and songwriter Devon Sproule. Produced by Jeff Romano in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains, Keep Your Silver Shined highlights Sproule's talent for combining Appalachian, folk and jazz influences. From the front porch thump of "Old Virginia Block" to the high lonesome traditional "The Weeping Willow, featuring fellow Virginia-native Mary Chapin Carpenter, this record finds Sproule making another important contribution to the Great American Songbook.
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 | Lantana
Caroline Herring confidently returns to the forefront of the American roots music scene with her new album Lantana. The Mississippi-born, Atlanta-based singer/songwriter took the producing helm for the first time on the new record, co-producing with long-time collaborator Rich Brotherton (Robert Earl Keen).
Intimate, powerful and honest, Lantana is a masterpiece of understated intensity. Hear for yourself why fellow artist Dar Williams called Caroline Herring "the elusive 'real thing.'"
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 | Leave The Light On
Chris Smither's Signature Sounds debut album, Leave the Light On (his second with producer David "Goody" Goodrich) features seven new songs as well as a few choice covers and arrangements of traditional songs. The album also features the young neo-gospel group Ollabelle, who bring a complementary loveliness to Smither's "Seems So Real" and additional resonance to the traditional "John Hardy." The renowned roots musician Tim O'Brien plays mandolin and fiddle all over the record, and also harmonizes with Smither, Sean Staples and Anita Suhanin on the lilting title track. Atypically, Chris tackles topical themes on "Origin of Species" (which he says is "making fun of dummies") and the edgily political "Diplomacy," which harkens back to his roots in the '60s folk scene. Also different this go round is Smither's bold and surprising decision to arrange Dylan's "Visions of Johanna" in 6/8 time (he credits his friend Steve Tilston for the suggestion) which results in a track of otherworldly beauty.
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 | Letters From Sinners & Strangers
Once in a great while, you put on a CD by an artist you've never heard of before and time stops. The voice is new, yet timeless. The lyrics are all original yet feel immediately familiar, lived-in, knowing. And the melodies expertly performed by a first-rate band carry the easy groove.
This is the story of Eilen (rhymes with feelin') Jewell and her new album Letters From Sinners and Strangers, which promises to show the rest of the world what the buzz is about.
Jewell's achingly hushed style and intimate grasp of roots music's are revealed in the CD's provocative, melodic originals and timeless country and blues classics. Set to a swaying, irrepressible groove, the subdued emotion in her soft soprano feels like music straining beneath skin.
And the band evokes classic country, folk and swing without feeling nostalgic. Nothing about roots is retro in Eilen Jewell's universe.
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 | Notes From Elsewhere
Peter Mulvey's latest album, Notes from Elsewhere is a retrospective collection of 17 of the very best songs Mulvey has written and performed over his 11 year recording career. Recorded solo in a studio, these are fresh takes on songs that have become fan and critic favorites over the years. While Mulvey's previous band-backed albums showcased the songs, these solo versions allow each song to shine on its own demonstrating Peter's strengths as a songwriter.
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 | One More Night
On a late Spring evening in 2007, Chris performed two concerts for an intimate audience in Lyme, Connecticut. These shows, as well as footage from a rare concert with a full band at The Somerville Theatre in Boston and a personal interview in Chris's home, come together on this long-awaited concert DVD.
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 | Redbird
REDBIRD is both the name of an album and a loose affiliation of three of our favorite songwriters KRIS DELMHORST, JEFFREY FOUCAULT, and PETER MULVEY. After spending 3 weeks touring the UK together a couple of years ago, they decided to make a record. In keeping with the spontaneous nature of their original sessions, they did it in a living room, around one microphone, in three days in August of 2003. What emerged is a love letter to the body of American song.. The bulk of the record speaks from the common tongue of music: traditional tunes, old jazz standards, country songs, and things that blur the line between those forms. There are a handful of songs by contemporary writers (Greg Brown, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits) who are well entangled in the great briar patch of this music.
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 | Shaken By A Low Sound
Rock energy coexisting with old-time mountain soul. Spooky backwoods melodies combining with hip hard-hitting beats. Raw, searing blues riffs intermingling with high heavenly vocals. Sound good? Here's the catch: No electricity. No drums. Meet Crooked Still, the hot young alternative bluegrass group on a mission to bend the boundaries of traditional music. The unlikely combination of banjo, cello, and double bass drives this low lonesome band, whose soaring vocals and high-wire solos have enraptured audiences all over North America and Ireland since 2001.
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| The Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer Collection
The late Dave Carter will be remembered as one of the most remarkable songwriters of his generation. Along with his partner Tracy Grammer, Carter released three internationally-acclaimed albums that are considered classics in the folk community. The collection features all three of the original Carter/Grammer recordings plus the recently released final recording by the duo, Seven Is The Number.
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 | The Light Divides
"...that sound -- that ice-filigreeing-the-bare-trees sound, cold and achingly beautiful -- is what sets this group apart....Downright glorious." Washington Post
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 | When I Go
If this recording contained only the brooding and breathtaking epic title track, it would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dave Carter was a songwriter with few peers. On ten classic songs, Carter's muse is embellished perfectly by Tracy Grammer's gorgeous harmonies, violin, and mandolin lines.
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 | Winterpills
Northampton's Winterpills play haunting, delicate, dynamic. room-hushingly beautiful music with aching melodies and acid lyrics. Think Elliott Smith, Cat Stevens, Iron & Wine, and the Innocence Mission all get drunk and fall asleep in Joni Mitchell's backyard. One of the finest debut albums of 2005.
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 | Big Old Life
Here is Big Old Life: twelve songs from a band that has learned to count its blessings. You could call it agnostic gospel. You could call it reverent (except when it's not). You could call it a foot-stompin' musical shout-out to the universe. You could call it a recording of four people playing songs they like, together, as they've done for the past seven years. Big Old Life is also everything Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem fans have always loved about the band: live energy, dry wit, great grooves, smart lyrics, and a wild ride through a blend of roots music styles, from blues to bluegrass to old-time, folk, funk, and swing.
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 | Flower Of Avalon
Tracy Grammer and her late partner Dave Carter were one of the most celebrated young acts in folk music. In just four years they released three critically-acclaimed albums, toured with Joan Baez and earned a solid following with their indelible live performances at festivals and venues all across North America. Despite Carter's sudden death in July 2002, Grammer's career as an interpreter and instrumentalist continues. "With the release of Flower Of Avalon, Tracy Grammer begins a new story while continuing to champion the songs of her former partner. While the album features 9 brilliant previously unheard Dave Carter songs, the spotlight is clearly on the gorgeous vocals and instrumental prowess of Tracy Grammer.
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 | Seven Is The Number
The long-awaited final album recorded by Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. Seven Is The Number features nine songs that first appeared Dave Carter's out-of-print solo album, Snake-Handlin' Man, plus two new songs heard here for the first time. The recording process began in 2001 at the duo's home studio, Tracy's Kitchen, and mixes were only partially completed at the time of Carter's death in 2002. In 2006, Tracy and the project's engineer, Mark Frethem, finished the tracking, mixing, and mastering in Portland. An essential recording for collectors of the duo's work.
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| The Big Box The Ultimate Signature Sounds CD Collection
This is the ultimate gift for the Signature Sounds fan. This package features 21 of our favorite titles hand-picked by our staff plus copies of our 10th Anniversary DVD and CD collections. You get 23 titles for just $199...almost 1/2 off the retail price!
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 | The Knuckleball Suite
The sheer breadth and depth of this collection speaks of the years Peter Mulvey has spent avidly, joyfully honing his craft; soaking up the juju of masters past and present, and (like a knuckleballer) attending to details. File the fingernails. Practice the scales. Stretch the arm. Listen to Louis Armstrong and Latin Playboys. Learn ten Ellington tunes; twenty by Greg Brown. Call your friends and argue about art. Play. Play music on stage and off, day and night.
The Knuckleball Suite was recorded in two and a half days, with a cadre of world-class improvising musicians who had not rehearsed a single note of the songs together. Each track is a warm, large-format photograph of a gifted musical posse, caught in the very moment of Making It All Up. Out of thin air. For real.
That's Knuckleball Suite: now just try and pin it down.
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 | Ghost Repeater
Holed up in Iowa City for the coldest week of the year, Jeffrey Foucault teamed with legendary blues guitar player and producer Bo Ramsey (Greg Brown, Lucinda Williams) to create Ghost Repeater, a country and blues album at the crossroads between love and lament; exploring the hopefulness of new love and the seasickness of contemporary American living.
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 | Wonderland - A Winter's Solstice Celebration
Signature Sounds is proud to present Wonderland - a Winter Solstice Celebration. Rather than reprise the same tired material heard on so many Christmas albums, all of the Signature artists and some special guests have generously offered an eclectic collection of songs for the holiday season including many original compositions. In the spirit of the season, partial proceeds from the sale of this album will benefit the Food Bank Of Western Massachusetts.
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 | Signature Sounds 10th Anniversary Collection DVD
For two nights over Thanksgiving weekend of 2004, Signature Sounds celebrated its 10th Anniversary by gathering most of the musicians that have recorded with the label for a pair of very special concerts in Northampton and Boston. These shows featured some of Americas finest singer-songwriters backed up by an all-star band and included many one of a kind collaborations. This DVD collects 75 minutes of the highlights from the concerts and includes interview segments, backstage photos and an in the studio feature with The Mammals.
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 | Stripping Cane
Jeffrey Foucault is a young man with an old soul. His music is at once contemporary and timeless. Born and raised in a musical household in Wisconsin, Foucault was inspired at an early age by the music of Bob Dylan and John Prine. He hit the open mikes while still in high school, and was touring the US and UK in his early twenties by himself and with the songwriter collective Redbird featuring Kris Delmhorst and Peter Mulvey. In 2001 Foucault self-released the album Miles from the Lightning to great critical acclaim.
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 | Tanglewood Tree
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer call their music "postmodern mythic American" music that's heavy on mysticism and storytelling, but also deeply rooted in folk, bluegrass and country idioms. Carter conjures romantic, true fictions
set amid vivid wild-west landscapes, while Grammer counterpoints his expert guitar, banjo and voice with beautifully intoned violin, guitar, mandolin and spine-chilling harmonies.
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 | Boundary County
Eilen Jewell's debut album Boundary County is the best debut album we've heard in 2006. A young singer/songwriter armed with a voice and sensibility far beyond her years, Jewell's music is an evocative resurrection of the musical styles most commonly associated with early-20th-century rural Appalachia.
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