At Judd and Maggie’s show Monday night with Steven Delopoulos, I picked up a copy of their new EP, Acoustic . Judd told me they decided to put this out while they’re working on their next studio album, due this fall. There are four tracks on the EP, with Judd playing keys and acoustic guitar and joining Maggie on vocals. The best track is Kingdom of Noise, which along with He Wants You is a song from their live show that I’ve been wanting a recording of. You can listen to a couple of the songs on their myspace page here. Oh, and the cover art is great.
Steven’s new CD, Straightjacket, is finished and he got the final mastered copy this week, but details are still being worked out for its release. So to have something new for this tour he had another pressing done of his live CD, Live at the Bluebird. One of the highlights is Ruin of the Beast (video here), and I also enjoyed hearing the stories behind a couple of the songs. This is a limited pressing, so get this now if you can. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, Steven’s EP Work to Be Done is available for free download here. Last time I asked Steven how many times it had been downloaded, I was surprised at how low the number was. Like Derek Webb said when I was talking to him after the show Monday, there should have been at least another 200 people at the show. Both Steven and Judd and Maggie are making great music, on another level of most of what’s out there. I highly recommend their music.
Steve is in the middle of recording a new CD, his 27th, I think (that’s not counting the first White Heart CD in ‘82 where he was the lead vocalist). Phil Naish (of Naishing Teeth Productions) is producing again, the seventh album he’s worked on with Steve, so I dropped by the studio when the rhythm tracks were being recorded two weeks ago to hear a couple songs. While I wish there were more original songs on it (it’s a Praise and Worship album), the song selection looked pretty good. I’m not sure what the release date will be for this, but anything with Steve’s voice on it is worth having.
On May 23rd, Andy posted a blog titled “Let’s make some music!” where he announced his plans for recording a new acoustic EP. He wrote “Here’s what I’m thinking: I’m going to write and record the songs, that’s my part. What I would love for you guys to do is to inspire me. Send me ideas for songs, whether they’re stories you’ve heard, a word you think sounds cool, an idea you’ve wished somebody had written about. Send me paintings or drawings you’ve made, a photo you took that you can’t stop looking at, whatever you think could inspire a song. I’m going to make my goal for this project to base every song off something from you guys.”
On Monday, two and half weeks later, Andy uploaded the completed 6 song EP, Letters to the Editor, Volume 1, to his website. It is a free download, but he is asking for a donation of $6. This is what I’ve had on repeat in my iTunes since I downloaded it. The songs are killer, with some really cool vocals (multiple passes panned to different sides and then layered). Click here to download it.