Franke Swain - Isaiah Sharkey - Pauline Andrès

Franke Swain has a new video for her latest single 'Emergency Alarms' where her melodic and quite intimate vocals are supported by a gentle musical backdrop.

I realise not everyone has access to Spotify in which case Isaiah Sharkey and the recently released album 'Love is the Key' is worth searching out elsewhere, especially for lovers of refined and timeless soul music, RnB and blues, as this collection of songs is absolutely wonderful. Back in the day this guy would have been serious competition for the likes of Marvin Gaye through to Curtis Mayfield, and some! 

Pauline Andrès has released the wonderfully titled 'Hoping For The Best At The Springwater Supper Club' a refined and atmospheric piece of Americana that just exudes quality.
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Franke Swain - Emergency Alarms.

Frankie Swain has just released the emotive video for her new single Emergency Alarms.

Directed by Alan Dunne and produced by Stubborn Monkey Media, Emergency Alarms reflects on how important it is to reach out to friends in time of need. “It’s so important today that we reach out to friends and family or even sometimes strangers  to make sure we mind both ourselves and each other. Never forget what you mean to others as sometimes this can be your saviour. We have all been in the same place at some stage, so trust in others, you are never alone – make sure to reach out for the helping hand of friendship.”

Citing influences such as George Ezra, Ward Thomas and Passenger. Emergency Alarms follows the success of Frankie's first single “Hook, line and Sinker” which got a number of radio plays and playlists from all around Europe.

Emergency Alarms was written with PictureHouse songwriters Dave Browne and Yann O’Brien over the past year and has already seen support from Janice Long (BBC) and on RTE in Ireland.


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Isaiah Sharkey - Love is the Key (Album).

A native Chicagoan, 29 year old Isaiah Sharkey spent his early years living in Cabrini Green. Perhaps as a precursor to his future career, he lived with his parents in a row house on a street that is now named for Curtis Mayfield.

Coming from a musical household, Sharkey was introduced to music at the age of four. He decided he wanted to be a guitarist and asked his parents to purchase one. Shortly thereafter, Isaiah started learning music under the close instruction of his father, Michael Sharkey. He would learn about different musical genres/styles from gospel music, which came from growing up in the church, to jazz, R&B, blues, rock and funk music. It wasn't long after that Isaiah would become noticed by other musicians in the Chicago area for being a hot new talent. Soon after, he started doing concerts in the church as well as sitting in local jazz club jams.

At the age of 14, Isaiah, along with his father and brothers, released their first album entitled "Skyliner." This album displayed Isaiah's ability to play covers and some transcriptions from greats like Wes Montgomery and George Benson.

Subsequently, he started his recording career and served as a sideman for gospel artists such as Smokie Norful, Donald Lawrence and Vanessa Bell Armstrong. He also toured as lead guitarist with Ronald Isley and recorded two albums with him.

In 2009, Isaiah started working with artist D'Angelo on his third album, Black Messiah, which won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best R&B Album. Based on his work and contribution to the project, Isaiah received his first Grammy.

Isaiah also has worked, recorded, and toured with several world-renown and Grammy award winning artists including John Mayer, Patti LaBelle, Christopher Martin of Coldplay, Paul Simon, Corrine Bailey Rae, Mike Posner, Keith Urban, Brian McKnight, Boyz II Men, Lalah Hathaway, Raphael Saadiq, Chris Dave and the DrumHedz, Regina Bell, Ruben Studdard, Lupe Fiasco, Kelly Price, Faith Evans, Rance Allen, The Winans, The Clark Sisters and many others.

Isaiah Sharkey is poised to take center stage as he fuses together his background in rock, gospel, jazz, R&B, blues, and funk to create an original sound with an unmistakable dose of soul. His highly anticipated debut album “Love.Life.Live." was released in September of 2017 and earned him the iHeart Radio Artist of the Month Award in November for his single “It’s a Shame” featuring  DJ Jazzy Jeff.

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Pauline Andrès - Hoping For The Best At The Springwater Supper Club.

“Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club”, the new single from musician Pauline Andres, calls out to a distant love from the half-lit corner of a Nashville dive bar. Melodies capture daydreams of cigarette smoke aimlessly drifting away from the table’s ashtray. It pays homage to the notable local dive bar, the Springwater Supper Club. If the building had its own soundtrack, the single would embody the smooth, soulful twang that is embedded into every nook and cranny of the walls. “Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club” is out for release August 5.

“Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club” is one of several songs Andres wrote about emblematic Nashville dive bars. Surrounded by other gentrified bars of the city, The Springwater and its loyal patrons cling onto its charm, hoping to never see it fade under the spell of modern society. The gritty interior, the unreliable sound quality, and the rowdy bar stories all make it an oasis of authenticity for songwriters like Andres. Written at the Springwater Supper Club, the single oozes with lucid heartache and longing to be with someone hundreds, or even thousands of miles away. Thoughts of “what could have been” sway back and forth under neon lights as the whiskey sting settles in.

Musically, the single epitomizes the dark, cool, energy that swells behind the chipped walls and rickety floorboards of the Springwater. With oozing soul and leisurely tempo, trumpet, steel pedal, and dobro all stumble upon the open door, inviting themselves in to mingle with the classic Americana twang. Trumpeter David Peña adds a Mexican flare to the sound, further creating a sweltering, southern atmosphere. The pairing of uplifting trumpet with crooning steel pedal and Andres’ rugged vocals embodies both liveliness and serenity as day turns to night at the Springwater Supper Club.

Pauline Andres is an Americana artist born in France as a coal miner’s daughter in a family of Hungarian, Slovenian and Spanish descent. Andres has moved from London to Berlin, Paris to New York, and now Nashville, where she currently resides as a working songwriter and musician. Her latest release, Fearless Heart (2017) is the first of her endeavors since planting roots in Music City, and this summer she is set to release the first of her Dive Bar Tales, which features Dillon Napier (Margo Price band) and Andy Ellison (Jon Pardi, Brooks Dixon). Her single, “Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club,” sets the tone for a musical project that is all about capturing the essence of the local scene while telling stories of hope, longing, hard luck, and hard truths. “Hoping For the Best at the Springwater Supper Club encompasses all the ingredients that make the local alternative and Americana scene: heavy drinking, chain-smoking, pieces of broken hearts mixed with common trash on the floor, and it set for release August 5, 2019.


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