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Wes Tirey’s The Midwest Book Of The Dead, is an intimate study of the Midwestern condition. A double album, it tells of silos like chapels, spiders in the cane, of drunkards and saints and fugitives; it speaks of wild geese, and the good life, rhinestone suits, Coca Colas, and dishes drying on the rack. Sincerity, sensuality, and humor all reside in the candor and weight of these songs — its playing and arrangements, rich but unfettered, and Tirey’s voice grown several feet deeper and more sonorous. It is a sublime expansion of a trademark style he has come to call “rustic minimalism”.

The Midwest Book of the Dead finds Tirey both solo for acoustic laments and backed by close collaborators for barroom ballads, with Ryan Gustafson (Hiss Golden Messenger, Phil Cook, Charlie Parr) taking the helm as producer.

This assemblage of strangers and stories and snapshots of lives that make up The Midwest Book of the Dead, Tirey likens to “the book of photographs that you find at a Goodwill” — perhaps in Dayton, or Fayetteville, or in any of the stops on the highways that separate them. And while there are clues laid out across these lyrics, he believes there is an open-endedness to these songs. Still, the clues carry us on, into this land of high corn and pool halls, of farmboys, rusty Fords, and fathers like Elvis. Blue herons, hearts of steel, vinegar and piss; a land where people might rise “with everything to show, strong and comely as a colt.” They are songs told straight and sincere, but that are nonetheless beguiling; the work of a master songwriter, a craftsman, an artist; a man who will always be part of the Midwest.

Wes has been working in and around the Berkshires for some time, performing solo, duo, or with full band. His music stretches out quite a bit, sometimes offering a more homespun, traditional mountain bus folky type feel, other times extending outward toward Dead spaces or even Arkestra-esque freakouts. He’s released records with Michael Hurley, self released CDs, and been collected on CD by the wonderful Mystra label. His record with us, The Towering Ground, will be his first LP and we’re very excited about it. The songs collected here maintain a bit of his folky character, but they offer something more in the way of a hazy, If I Could Only Remember My Name / Fred Neil’s 'The Dolphins' languor. The songwriting chops Wes displays are strong, and while he’s a New Englander, there’s a California sunset melancholy running through these tunes, recalling a bit of FJ McMahon’s mournfulness or John Wonderling’s knack for somehow still chilled-out grandiosity..."—Half A Million Records

Earth Tones is the debut record from folk artist Izzy Johnson
Izzy Johnson is a musician, artist, and producer born and based in Southeast Michigan — lands stewarded by the Anishinaabe peoples, who include the Odawa and Potawatomi. A self-taught guitarist, they started writing songs in their late teens as a way to process living with chronic illness. But since the beginning, guitar-playing for them expanded beyond a mechanism for coping or self-expression. It became a source of healing, freedom, and awareness: a practice by which they could both transcend and ease the ailments of their physical body; an embodied experience of music as an always already unfolding of nuanced continuities and disruptions. In their songs Izzy usually finds themself reflecting on the uncertainties and complexities of life, using guitar to translate the subtleties, pains, and pleasures of their growth.

Social Joy records is very pleased to present Burkina Azza's debut Album Wari bo - a musical tale that covers every aspect of Burkina Azza's values and world view. The album takes us to the very soul of Burkina Faso, giving us a taste of the deep connection of the artists to the beauty and culture of this country. The Burkinabe collective, from Nayerina in the Djibasso region, was born from a lineage of Balafonist and Percussionist musicians called "The Griots", often referred to as a "living archive of the people's traditions". Wari bo was Produced in January 2020 on the brink of the coronavirus pandemic in Ouagadougou, after Label owner Guilhem Monin discovered an outstanding street performance via the African Drumming Facebook group. Two years later, this release is the result of a friendship and love of music that connects two continents and travels across borders, space and time.

Quietly contemplative sophomore LP refines & elaborates their debut, offering an airier, more spcaious second chapter. Recorded live to tape without overdubs.

A truly unique Gospel stylist - Isaiah Owen's plays guitar and sings in his own very distinctive and otherworldly way. Isaiah plays loud and with quite a bit of dissonance, his voice floating above beautifully. This LP features some of his finest performances captured from his radio broadcasts in Montgomery Alabama and from studio recordings. Mississippi is very proud to present this material. Liner notes by Kevin Knutt (of the greatest radio show of all time, Sinners Crossroads, as well as the Case Quarter label).