Hearth Music Promotions is going strong this month with two albums of compelling folk and roots music. Plus we're incredibly proud to announce that our artists Pharis & Jason Romero and Ivan Rosenberg & The Foggy Hogtown Boys are at NUMBER ONE and NUMBER THREE on the international Folk-DJ Charts for September. Sandwiched right around Gillian Welch, who's at number two. Yay!!

Pharis & Jason Romero: #1 Top Albums and Songs of Sept 2011 on Folk-DJ Charts, #4 and #5 Top Songs ("Forsaken Love", "Hillbilly Blues"), #3 Top Artists!

Ivan Rosenberg & The Foggy Hogtown Boys: #3 Top Albums and Songs of Sept 2011 on Folk-DJ Charts, #7 Top Artists

FOLK-DJ RADIO CHARTS
 

October Promotions: 

Misner & Smith's California Folk Roots, Kyle Alden's Vision of Yeats' Poetry


Misner & Smith: Live at the Freight & Salvage

Misner & Smith are a gem of a musical pairing, offering a refreshing take on contemporary folk music. Their lovely harmonies and perfectly blended voices fit within classic American traditions, and their songwriting and storytelling transport the listener to a world of their creation. That is the hallmark of any folk singer worth his or her salt, but Misner & Smith have a truly unique quality in the chemistry of their duets that set them apart from the field. Perhaps it’s a shared appreciation and connection to the musical history of their Bay Area home, or maybe it’s simply fate that brought these two artists together, but whatever the impetus for their musical journey, we are unquestionably the better for it.

The duo’s new album Live at the Freight & Salvage is both a testament to their undeniable talent and the quality of their live performances. Recorded at Berkeley’s famed acoustic venue, the Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Misner & Smith’s album sounds as good as most studio albums, but with the added energy of a live show. Upon first listen, it’s a pleasant surprise when the audience breaks into applause at the end of “Greyhound Days”, the memorable first track; aside from the album’s title, you would never know everything was recorded live in one take. That’s how tight their harmonies are and how impressive the performance is. The true beauty of Live at the Freight and Salvage is that you can hear for yourself how much Misner & Smith love their audience and how much fun they're having.
 

Misner & Smith: Madeline (Paradise Cracked)


Misner & Smith: Piccolo Pete

 

Kyle Alden: Songs from Yeat's Bee-Loud Glade

The jester walked in the garden:
The garden had fallen still;
He bade his soul rise upward
And stand on her window-sill.

Reading these lines from Irish poet W. B. Yeats, Bay Area musician Kyle Alden felt the words leap from the page as a song. He had just been to Ireland on tour with his Irish folk band, the Gas Men, and it seemed like Yeats was following him around. While traveling through County Galway, Alden stopped at the house where Yeats used to live, and at Coole Park, immortalized in the poem “The Wild Swans at Coole.” Back home in San Anselmo, California, Alden pulled down a dusty collection of Yeats’ poems and found a trove of potential songs. It was if they were just waiting for a melody and a voice. Alden picked up his guitar and soon had “The Cap and Bells,” a touching allegory of love between a jester and a queen.

Kyle Alden has deep ties in the Bay Area roots music scene, with feet firmly planted in both folk rock and Irish traditional music. After growing up on the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, Alden turned his rich voice and his talent on the guitar and mandolin towards Irish music as well as his own work. He also has a notable solo career, having brought out three of his own albums in the past six years. After twenty years of collaborating with some of the top talent in the business, Alden called in some favors, and has brought master mandolinist Mike Marshall, former Frank Zappa bassist Scott Thunes, and violinist Athena Tergis, a featured soloist with the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra, to lend a hand with this tribute to Ireland’s greatest poet.

Songs from the Bee-Loud Glade takes thirteen of Yeats’ poems and sets them to Alden’s signature modern folk style. Irish tradition weaves in and out, but so does the fingerpicking and slide guitar, along with beautiful harmonies and instrumentation. Brought to life with passion and skill, Yeats’ poems don’t feel a day old. Some burst with energy; some drift peacefully—all capture some part of the magic of Ireland and its incomparable bard.

 
Kyle Alden: Brown Penny


Kyle Alden: The Cap and Bells