NEWS FLASH: the Coal Porters mighty NPR concert from the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky is now up-loaded, click here to listen. So please do have a listen and hear alt-bluegrass at its finest!

Besides banjo virtuoso & all around nice guy John Breese joining the Coal Porters line-up the big news is the CPs will be recording their long-awaited fifth album in the late fall or early winter! The recession dictates it will be recorded in Europe but the songs are soundin’ great and the band is chompin’ at the bit to get into the studio and wax trax (as they say in Variety).

Durango has been such a success that after knockin’ ‘em dead at SxSW, Americana & the Folk Alliance festivals in the USA the Coal Porters are in the best shape of their career(s). Durango  is the fourth and best “alt-bluegrass” album by ex-Long Ryder Sid Griffin’s outfit, The Coal Porters, an album Mojo, Uncut, Q, The Daily Mail and others have given four star reviews! Featuring the amazing fiddle of Carly Frey, the songs and mandolin of author/broadcaster Sid Griffin as well as the witty songs of Scotland’s fine guitarist Neil Robert Herd ’tis no wonder Durango is one of the choice musical highlights of the year.

Produced by the amazing Ed Stasium (Ramones, Smithereens, Jeff Healey Band, Belinda Carlisle, etc., etc.) the album features two key guest appearances: the first being Tim O’Brien who plays a wild mandolin solo on Roadkill Breakdown and the second being Peter Rowan who duets with Miss Frey on his own song Moonlight Midnight. This is the sound of a bluegrass Clash, of a Bill Monroe for the 21st century, of a folk Goddess, two ex-punks, an Americana founder and …errr…a London lawyer making the best music of not just their careers but their lives. Read what the critics have already said about Durango:

“Griffin’s breakneck bluegrass band has made the album of their career”
**** (four stars) Q magazine

“a feast of highly crafted ensemble playing with the odd virtuoso turn”
**** (four stars)Uncut

“the audio equivalent of a feel-good movie”
****  (four stars) Mojo

“a wonderful achievement by a band that is going from strength to strength”
**** (four stars) Country Music People

You can buy Durango now at the Sid Griffin Store or via amazon.co.uk or amazon.com you can also now download all Coal Porters releases on iTunes

listen to a sample here;

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Sid Griffin now scheduling solo troubadour shows for the first time in three years

Friends,

After a break of a couple of years Adastra in the UK are formally booking solo acoustic troubadour solos for me again. Indeed, I am gonna be pursuing this worldwide while we work on the next Coal Porters album (with John Wood, the legendary engineer of Beth Orton, Fairport Convention, Pink Floyd et al).

Check out http://www.adastra-music.co.uk if you have time!

Native Sons is the album which Jeff Tweedy, Chris Robinson, Kurt Cobain and Gary Louris all bought and loved, influencing their own styles. It was a huge hit on the College Radio/Alternative Charts in the USA in 1984 and by spring 1985 it was number two on the New Musical Express Indie Chart, held off the top spot by the Smiths’ Meat Is Murder.

Arguably the most influential and long-lasting release of Sid Griffin’s career Native Sons is now re-released with the entire 10-5-6- EP added as well as three tracks fromt the abandoned 5 By 5 sessions at A&M Studios, the Long Ryders’ first three demos and the B-side Close To The Light, a completely different mix to the LP version. This is the LP which kickstarted Americana and put the “alt” into Alt-Country!

Final Wild Son/ Still Get By/ Ivory Tower/ Run Dusty Run/ (Sweet) Mental Revenge/ Fair Game/ Tell It To The Judge On Sunday/ Wreck Of The 809/ Too Close To The Light/ Never Got To Meet Her/ I Had A Dream/ Join My Gang (first of sixfrom tracks 10-5-60 EP)/ You Don’t Know What’s Right, You Don’t Know What’s Wrong/ 10-5-60/ Born To Believe In You/ The Trip/ And She Rides/ Time Keeps Travelling (first of three tracks from abandoned “5 by 5″ sessions) / I Can’t Hide/ Masters Of War/ Still Get By ( first of three tracks Radio Tokyo sessions, 1983) / 10-5-60/ And She Rides/ Too Close To The Light (b-side mix, UK only)

You can buy it here on sidgriffin.com via the links below or in the Sid Griffin Store with a host of other Prima Records releases.

“One of history’s unjustly neglected groups, the Long Ryders sprang from LA’s Paisley Underground scene and quickly moved from neo-psychedelia to a tough form of country rock. This Waylong Jennings cover from their debut full-length, Native Sons, is (newly reissued) alt-country before alt-country existed.”
Michael Hann, The Guardian

Buy it now:

£10 including P&P (UK customers)

£11 including P&P (Rest of world)

You can also buy Native Sons via amazon.co.uk or amazon.com and you can now also download Long Ryders releases on iTunes.