Whilst We Were Asleep - Part Two

Some more recent new music that I wanted to share, again in no particular order and genre hopping, however I was reliably told many years ago that 'variety is the spice of life', shame I had such a misspent youth as all that 'variety' seems to have come back with a sting in the tale. Anyway down to business...

Alborosie Meets King Jammy is a historic pairing of one of Jamaica’s most pivotal dub legends King Jammy with the modern day Italian-born dubmaster Alborosie.

Last month they released 'Dub Of Thrones' a mostly instrumental collection of material and very fine music we think. If you like Dub or reggae or anything remotely in that direction this is for you!

Mixed by Alborosie at his Shengen studio and King Jammy at his studio in the Waterhouse district of Kingston, this old-school meets new-school clash delivers an authentic dub reggae listening experience. With speaker-shaking, neighbor-waking and no-prisoner taking bass, this is designed to be played at high volume for maximum effect.

Alborosie and King Jammy plan to tour in support of this release throughout the summer. Dates will be announced at another time. They are already booked for California's 31st Annual Reggae On The River Festival. - Album available from VP Records/Greensleeves.


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OK I'm quoting here - Los Angeles indie pop favorite Layne has released the moody new video for “Somebody,” her ode to musicians who leave the serenity of rural life for the challenging pursuit of success in the city. “Somebody” is the newest single from Layne's third EP, Warrior.

When Layne was fifteen, she released an album entitled Better Than Me. Two years later she released an EP called Mind Games. By this time she was playing almost every weekend at different venues throughout South Dakota, and was featured twice on public radio and multiple times in the newspaper. Immediately after graduating high school, Layne relocated to Los Angeles.

Layne co-produced Warrior with Devon Corey (Comeback Kid, The Material). The young indie artist has a very clear idea of how she wants it all to sound: “I want people to see the production we’ve spent so much time creating come to life, and to hear the huge wall of sound - even if there are only two or three players on stage.”

The music is what it is, great indie pop that Beehive Candy just happens to love. If you are in the US of A then Layne's spring tour has a few more dates:

May 2015
02 Sat - Charlotte, NC – Muse
05 Tue - Raleigh, NC – The Pour House
09 Sat - Brooklyn, NY – Rock Shop  w/ Zoe Wrenn
12 Tue - New York, NY – Pianos w/Negative Death
14 Thu - Woodbridge/Boston, MA – The Cannery
20 Wed - Rochester, NY – California Brew House Sage

Website HERE & video below.



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I am intrigued by The Dirty Bourbon River Show. These guys play bluesy, Lisztian piano-driven ballads, and punk-ish street music, straight out of New Orleans (not my description but it fits, so I will go with it!).

The promo that accompanied the music was rather lengthy however being bone idle here's a copy and paste of some of it -  Step right up. Dirty Bourbon River Show winks at the old-time medicine show, with music to draw in crowds. But there’s no snake oil on offer, just sounds enough to fascinate, enthrall, and heal. Tubas tango with feral-voiced crooners, punkish numbers bump into the sweet plunking of a ballad.

These wonderful madmen play the gospel of New Orleans song, and they preach it loudly on their ninth album, Important Things Humans Should Know (release: April 7, 2015), then taking the word on the road with a four-month U.S. tour.

Band leader and multi-instrumentalist Noah Adams came late to music; he was 20 when he began playing the piano. But it was drifting into the Crescent City that really changed his life. Finding himself in a place where music drips from the pores likes summer sweat, he knew he’d discovered his calling, and began proselytizing like a convert. “I got swept away by amazing players like Dr. John, Fats Waller, Huey Smith,” Adams recalls. “I spent three years just shedding and absorbing stuff.” And from that start the Dirty Bourbon River Show was born in 2009.

“Our very first gig was at Tipitina’s Homegrown Night, where you can get your start,” Adams says. “It’s free, you just try to get people to say your name at the door. We told everyone. It was an hour slot, but we only had 30 minutes of music. We got an amazing turn out, went all out, and it just grew from there.”

A mix of New Orleans natives and people drawn from farther afield, the show mixes its influences like a roux. Jimmy William’s tuba and Dane "Bootsy" Schindler’s drums on “Animal” make Caribbean vibes collide with a booming brass dirge. “Wicked,” a paean to the Big Easy’s seamy side, tips its hat to songwriters like Dr. John and Randy Newman. The album is a love song to the city on the Gulf Coast.

Phew! and that's not even half of it. Anyhow I am amazed by there music and reassured that somewhere, some people are doing music they love and entertaining many. The video below is but one of many dimensions to this band, so go search YouTube for some more.

Website Here.


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I have received getting on for a dozen emails since last November regarding Janine and The Mixtape and when putting this little compilation of artists together, thought maybe if I do a feature I will be left alone. Then I checked back and realised each promo was for a different song, so on a totally selfish level keep sending the songs promo's.

Again plenty of fine variety and all to the highest of standards and very enjoyable may I say.

Website HERE. A few words on their background here - Building up to the release of her new EP (coming May 12), Janine and the Mixtape has been releasing new content every Monday as part of her Little Mixtape Mondays campaign. Starting in February with a Nirvana cover, she drew inspiration from Eckhart Tolle for "This Moment, debuted the video for her buzz single, "Hold Me," and most recently releases "Lose My Mind" audio and visual. 

Now based in Brooklyn, Janine and The Mixtape – known to friends and family as Janine Foster – began performing at open mic nights in her native Auckland when she was but 14 years old. She soon developed her own unique amalgam of pop, indie, R&B, and hip hop, all built around her emotional song craft, otherworldly vocals, and utterly individualistic persona. Released initially by her own Little Mixtapes Records in 2013, her debut EP, Dark Mind immediately shot Janine and The Mixtape into the spotlight – as well as the top 2 on the iTunes Store’s “Top R&B Albums” chart. The EP – which also includes the hit single/video, “Little Bit” (featured on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop Hollywood) – received worldwide applause, with high praise coming from such outlets as MTV, Billboard, VIBE Vixen, Complex, and VIBE, which ranked Janine and The Mixtape among their “R&B Secret Society: 26 Acts You Should Be Listening To.”  The New Zealand-born singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/producer's acclaimed debut EP Dark Mind was re-released via US-based DSP’s on November 4th, 2014 (after joint venture with Atlantic Records). 




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I remember reading a comment left on Beehive Candy a few years ago that said something along the lines that 'I was just a shameless music promoter'. I remember being a little 'ruffled' by the comment and felt the desire to exact revenge on the anonymous individual. Well maybe I am a promoter of sorts, I do not get any money for it, this remains a labour of love for the most, however yes I do encourage you to checkout these artists and their music. So if that makes me a promoter then I am guilty as charged, however I am most defiantly not shameless! Just enjoying the musical journey, hope you are to.

Gram Parsons - The Lost Rehearsals Tape 1972.

This is a fascinating selection of Gram Parsons rehearsal tapes from 1972, and I will quote a little from the liner notes that accompanied this CD version which surfaced on 'Golden Eagle Records' in the USA in 2003. I have included a separate file with the artwork and notes as these are well worth a read.

The record companies holding Gram Parson's material have more or less exhausted what material there is from his sadly short life and as Chris who provided these recordings to me pointed out (by the way, thanks Chris) a lot of the bootleg material for Gram Parsons is of fairly average audio quality.

The five audio tapes that this CD was compiled from, were included in an auction lot at Christies that was bought by one of Gram Parsons biggest fans and were part of a selection of Gram's personal belongings that went to auction.

The five cassettes dated from 1972 and include Emmylou Harris and others on some of the tracks that were most likely recorded through a condenser microphone into a portable tape player, however the audio quality suggests that a little more sophisticated equipment may have been used for some of the songs. It is proable that Ric Grechs English home was used for some of the sessions along with hotel rooms for others.

All of this material is another reminder of 'what could have been' if Gram had stayed with us a little longer, it's also another reminder that a personal musical favorite of mine Emmylou Harris developed her talent with some of the best.

Source: CD of original cassette tapes.

Sound Quality: Good & average (all very listenable) mp3@192kbps.

Genre: Country, Alt country.

Set: Various rehearsal sessions.

Session List:

01. A Song For You Intro
02. Kentucky Blues
03. Streets Of Baltimore
04. Folsom Prison Blues
05. Lovesick Blues
06. The New Soft Shoe
07. How Much Ive Lied
08. Still Feeling Blue 1
09. Still Feeling Blue 2
10. Ain't No Beatles Ain't No Rolling Stone
11. How Can I Forget You - Cry One More Time
12. A Song For You
13. Streets Of Baltimore
14. That's All It Took
15. Some bodys  Back In Town
16. More and More
17. Teaching Emmy to Sweep out the Ashes
18. Daddy's Fiddle
19. We'll sweep out the Ashes in the Morning
20. Cold Cold Heart
21. That's All It Took
22. A Song For You

Website: Official HERE. Unofficial informative HERE.




Reloaded 01/05/2015 - download link in comments.

Joni Fatora - Navigator EP

Playing catch up here on Beehive Candy does have it's upside. Today I was going through getting on for 100 artists and their music, playing a little piece from each and deciding whether to feature them, delete & move on, or play again and see if my mood just didn't fit the music at the time.

Well I must have been in a pretty good place because as I have around thirty artists I have short listed to feature and that's in addition to the many that deserve a mention still, whilst we were 'sleeping'.

Joni Fatora was a real stand out artist amongst the many I listened to today, taking nothing away from the rest, she just grabbed my attention the most. I remember the first time I heard First Aid Kit singing Cross Oceans a good few years ago, I am certain I was not the only person who thought they would reach greater heights back then. Well I'm not directly comparing the music, rather the freshness and distinct charm of Joni Fatora's music, and that feeling that this is something quite special.

Her background tells us - A crystalline voice and sentiment as clear as a child’s conscience –this is the marrow of folk singer-songwriter, Joni Fatora. At 22, her songs lure the heart like a siren and whisper with history as old as fisherman’s tales. There is no loud diversion; she is a writer in its purest form, a storyteller, and her life is the inkwell.

The daughter of a Sailor, Joni’s childhood carried her on a voyage across the world, always tied to the ocean. From the Mediterranean to the Sea of Japan and both the Atlantic and Pacific, her comfort lies in the uprooting. Her new five-song EP, aptly titled "Navigator," explores that unrest. Growing up, Joni’s parents couldn’t offer their young daughter much musical aptitude. Instead they offered her an acoustic guitar and a life worth writing about. It was with this alchemic uncovering that she began to spin her stories into songs.

In 2012, Joni found herself on a surprisingly different radar with a song called "Bullet Train;" a song she wrote at the request of a friend, Stephen Swartz. The track broke into the top 10 iTunes Electronic charts and sold over 100,000 singles to date. Her emphasis on lyrics is what separated her from the crowds. This success gave way to other electronic collaborations –uncharted water for a girl who grew up on The Beatles and Paul Simon. And so began the trend of Joni floating into a vast sea of genres while keeping her heart anchored deeply in a love of folk and indie rock.

Joni took close to a year to create "Navigator," finding a muse in Dreamland Recording Studio and enlisting the help of her close musical collaborators, Noise Club (Chris Petrosino and Rob McCurdy). The mystic air of an old church turned recording studio helped inspire some of Joni’s favourite records including Fleet Foxes’ ‘Helplessness Blues’ and The National’s ‘Trouble Will Find Me’. With the aspirations to expound upon her previous release (Blue Road) and explore open waters she sings, “I wish I could be a ship out to sea.” What she doesn’t realise is that she is the ship and we are her eager passengers.



You can find Joni on iTunes and Spotify.

Dioni - 'Dont Let Me Down'

Get in there quick folks, here's a chance to download a free copy of a really great song from Dioni Sydney’s Sweet, Soulful, Sassy Chanteuse - Australian Pop Singer! (someone else's words after 'Sydney's' - but hey they work). 

You only have a few days and I have to say if you love Dusty Springfield or Sandie Shaw, this is a must.

Quoting elsewhere - "Blessed with a heavenly voice and showing her masterful use of a huge range while incorporating warm beautiful lows and powerful honey dipped highs."
-O Kosmos

Her promo tells us that - Dioni has traveled extensively throughout Greece, performing in ancient theatres and stadiums in support of bands such as Faithless, Soft Cell, and The Chemical Brothers. She has also collaborated with many other respected European electronic artists. Dioni has performed as a solo artist in Australia, France, Germany, Greece, and Qatar. Dioni is an extraordinarily versatile artist who has a multilingual repertoire (including seven languages) and the ability to sing in multiple genres. 

More information on Dioni and her upcoming EP set for release on May 19th, 2015. is available on her official site.

Beehive Candy's verdict - love it, simple as that! Download HERE.