DC's June 28 New Release Recap

Need a fix of quality music? May we suggest our picks for releases this week including Red, Hot and Rio 2, Jeff Golub, Gillian Welch, Eilen Jewell, Rave On Buddy Holly and Jolie Holland? Hmm? Plus we have some additional titles in our listing. Click below to read, link and stream:

Red Hot + Rio 2 - Successor to the '96 Bossa Nova compilation from the Red Hot HIV/AIDS charity again combines well known Brazilian performers with American musicians, this time for an exceptional look into Tropicalia -- a late 60's style that combined jazz, psychedelica, folk and blues with traditional Brazilian music...Beck, Bebel Gilberto, Alice Smith (pictured above), Beirut, John Legend, Of Montreal, David Byrne, Marisa Monte, Aloe Blacc, Mia Doi Todd and Jose Gonzalez are among the notable list of collaborators // Release: Red Hot + Rio (E1 Music) // Sounds like: a fascinating primer on Tropicalia -- and one that keeps the music surprisingly authentic even as the various stylistic references from the guests seep into the mix...more DC

Jeff Golub - Known primarily as a jazz guitarist and rock sideman, the in-demand New York instrumentalist pays tribute to the "Kings" of the blues guitar -- B.B., Freddie and Albert -- with help from fine New Orlean's pianist Henry Butler on keys and vocals...fellow fretmen Robben Ford and Sonny Landreth also guest // Release: The Three Kings (E1 Music) // Sounds like: Golub continues the strong work he initially delved into with 2009's Blues for You as he unleashes more impressive riffs and smoldering solos...Butler proves to be the perfect collaborator, adding boogie-woogie fire and finesse to the backup while putting his  stamp on classics such as "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Have You Ever Loved A Woman"... more DC

Gillian Welch - The latest from  Gillian Welch may be ten tracks representing "ten different kinds of sad", according to longtime musical partner Dave Rawlings, but it is also a welcome and long overdue return from one of the undisputed queens of American folk/roots music. After an eight year break summed up as something of a creative dry spell for the duo, The Harrow and the Harvest may not take us down any unexplored roads but it confirms with striking, easy authority that Welch and Rawlings together make music that is light years beyond what usually passes for contemporary Americana. The back porch tradition of simply presented, rural country folk songs may not strike some as sophisticated fare -- but this is music that is all the better for it's unmannered, straight-to-the-heart approach, achieving greatness with a gentle, but assured, touch...more DC

Eilen Jewell - Boston-based Americana singer/songwriter is back with her fourth album, a generous and inspired collection of spunky country-meets-roots/rock produced by Jewell and her band that just happens to be one of the nicest surprises of the year... the successor to Jewell's 2009 release Sea of Tears also follows up her fronting the Butcher Holler tribute album to Loretta Lynn last year // Release: Queen of the Minor Key (Signature Sounds) // Sounds like: Alt-country just doesn't get jazzier than this...Jewell possesses a glistening voice able to turn the simplest phrase into a sultry come on...the liberal use of horns mixed in with the roadhouse steel-guitar-twanged energy give the album an appealing, moody duality -- it takes us back to the days when country, pop, blues and early rock n' roll were shaken and served with a twist... more DC

Jolie Holland - New ten track collection from the critical darling of stylish indie/pop once again finds her working with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily...the follow up to 2008's The Living and the Dead is her fourth studio album since her 2003 bedroom-recorded debut Catalpa and finds her back recording at home, albeit this time in her own studio with The Grand Chandeliers // Release: Pint of Blood (ANTI-) // Sounds like: Holland's smoky, slurred vocals and interesting phrasing brought early comparisons to the jazzy inflections of Billie Holiday but she's developed into her own singular style...a welcome blurring of genres again -- spanning blues, country, folk -- gives her literate art/pop music a loose, freewheeling and impressionistic feel...more DC

Rave On Buddy Holly - More than fifty years have passed since the the tragic death of 22-year-old rock-meets-pop pioneer Buddy Holly, a songwriter who helped put a respectable (and spectacled) white face on what seemed, at the time, as a rough, dirt-smudged and hormone-fueled budding musical genre with indelible black roots...Holly's simple, concise three-chord basics and innate gift for a hummable melody have served as a blueprint for generations of songwriters particularly for those that chose the Beatles over the Stones and McCartney over Lennon...New collection gathers up some big names -- Fiona, Cee Lo, Black Keys, Lou Reed, Kid Rock -- for nineteen covers of gems from the Holly catalog // Release: Rave On Buddy Holly (Concord/Hear Music) // Sounds like: the simple, 2-minute pleasures of songs like "Words of Love", "Rave On", "Oh Boy" and "Peggy Sue" work the best when things are left as stripped and uncluttered as Holly's originals: eg. Fiona Apple and Jon Brion's "Everyday", She and Him's "Oh Boy", Julian Casablanca's "Rave On"...more DC

More for your perusal:

Barbie Hatch - Hypertrophic Heart
Beyonce - 4
BoDeans - Indigo Dreams 
David Cook - This Loud Morning
Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken - TN EP
Efren - Rise On Up and Melt
Jill Scott - The Light of the Sun
Marianne Faithful - Horses and High Heels (U.S.)
Mighty Clouds - Mighty Clouds