Wednesday 30 October 2013

The JosieJo Show 6

JosieJo's Great Big Pair of Tips
The JosieJo Show 6

I write this blog because I love great music and I want to share some of it. You're reading this blog and you're looking for great music. I'm JosieJo and this is The JosieJo Show. Each show includes two tracks by two different artists.
The first of the two in this show is The Undercover Hippy. The Undercover Hippy is Billy Rowan from Bristol in the U.K. and he does the whole nine yards. He writes a politically aware blog, creates great, feel-good live videos and delivers deep, yet upbeat, heartfelt music. Teaming up with Alex Crane, Andreas Millns and Joe Gaywood Billy's band The Undercover Hippy creates a sound rooted in reggae, hip-hop and a musical enjoyment that is even more infectious live. I discovered them at Farmer Phil's Festival in 2012 and Billy was the first act I saw. I'd met up with my dear friend, Lisa Greer and her family and both me and her son Adam were immediately interested in the bouncing beats and playful, catchy, semi-acoustic sound. Adam bought the four track E.P. “Why We Fight”and I was hooked. It's Billy's rhymes woven into the music that are the real genius of the stand out sound. The track “Why We Fight” has a brilliant couplet :
“The U.S. Think Tank
Well they tend to think tanks”
I could just recite Billy's lyrics for the whole show, but it's better if I let him do it.
I'm going to play Adam's favourite track “Boyfriend” and it is full of these great rhymes. The Greer family know all the lyrics to this track and sing it loudly altogether in the car. Listen out for “ecstasy” rhymed with “sex for me” and the saturated image that he creates as he rhymes “lips” with “chips”. Also he uses the word “procrastinating” which will always get my vote. With backing vocals by Chloe Laing and Jessica Langton this is The Undercover Hippy and “Boyfriend”


Billy is in the process of trying to record a new album “Monkey Suit” and you can help make that happen by pledging towards it www.undercoverhippy.com and in return you get exclusive news and pre-release perks and, depending on how much you pledge, they range from just the download through signed copies and t-shirts right up to your very own song written for you if you pledge £500.
You don't have to wait very long at all for the next band's new release because Scowlin Owl have a CD coming out called “These Strange Companions” on the 23rd November 2013. Scowlin Owl are a band of harmonies and stories, but no twee, sugary hearts and flowers for these ladies. They are Nina Lovelace, Yvonne Borden, Sally Gainsbury and Karina Zakri and they have a astonishing ability to expand the versatility of the human voice as well as giving me in a lesson on the gymnastics of the violin. Their songs are about their favourite places, films and inspirational stories. While you're waiting for the physical copy to be formally released, you can actually listen to the tracks from the new E.P. By going to www.scowlinowl.com You'll find there a track about the inspirational frontierswoman, Alice Tubbs who ran a poker house in the 1800s, a track about the fight between the grey and the red squirrels, a song about a Japanese John Wayne and this track, “Sugawara and the Sunflower” which tells the story of a Japanese man Mr. Sugawara who managed to sail his boat Sunflower over the 2011 tsuami and survive. There is an absolutely delightful photo of Mr. S. and his wife holding the CD of the song of his story that Scowlin Owl sent him. His grin is infectious, his story inspirational and the song is genuinely beautiful and moving. Like many of Scowlin Owls songs it starts with a remarkable soft sound. The track rises gently and invites you to come through until the end washes over you with the lap of a wave. Scowlin Owl and “Sugawara and The Sunflower”


For news, events gigs and releases follow me on twitter @josiejoshow and go and like my Facebook page for extra content including videos and photos. For links to all the bands I've played on the JosieJo Show visit www.josiejoshow.com


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