#kristen englenz

[krispyweiss]

Quarter Notes: Blurbs & Briefs from Sound Bites

- In this edition: Willie Nelson; Van Morrison; Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite; and Kristen Englenz

WILLIE PASSES MORE HITS: Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits, a 22-song collection spanning “Crazy” to “Ride Me Back Home,” will be released Nov. 3.

ONE MORE MOONDANCE: Van Morrison’s Moondance will get the three-disc deluxe treatment. Due Nov. 3, the expanded LP includes a Steven Wilson remix of the original album, an instrumental mix and the 2022 Atmos mix.

GET UP AGAIN: Ben Harper Charlie Musselwhite’s Get Up! will be the subject of a Nov. 3 vinyl reissue in celebration of the album’s 10th birthday.

KRISTEN ENGLENZ RETURNS: Kristen Englenz will release her Aaron Lee Tasjan-produced single, “Silly, Silly, Silly,” Oct. 13, marking her first original song since 2020’s “Shelf Life.”

9/25/23

[kristenenglenz]

So excited to share the new music video for my premiere single “Got Me With Goodbye”!

[kevinjmann]

UK Independent: Episode 116 is now here on Mixcloud https://www.mixcloud.com/kevin-mann3/uk-independent-episode-116/ This episode is featuring 1. CuriousHour - She Lies 2. aJna - B’ 3. Kristen Englenz - Pray For Rain 4. Everyday Heroes - Standing Stones 5. The Winachi Tribe - Funky But Chic 6. Silver Nightmares - The Wandering Angel 7. The Lastrumpet - Running Out Of The Darkness 8. Outside the Shadows- Division 9. Nige Silvestri Music - For Her 10 Jake Aldridge feat. Leanne Louise - Partners In Crime 11. Erin Bloomer - Second Best 12. Phoebe’s Music - Butterflies 13 lilith.singersongwriter - Silver And Gold 14. Gillian Tuite - Something We Should Try Don't forget an Episode of UK Independent is broadcast on: KrystalRadio Station www.krystalradio.net Friday at 3pm Sword Radio UK www.swordradiouk.com Wednesday at 9pm! Access North West www.accessnorthwest.org.uk Sunday at 1pm and Thursday at 2am Warm Radio UK - http://warmradiouk.wixsite.com/tunein Sunday 12 pm Pop Radio UK - www.popradiouk.co.uk - Monday 8pm , Tuesday 8pm and Wednesday 8pm Bunka Radio - https://www.bunkaradio.com/ - Monday 1am Also can now support UK Independent via our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/UKIndependent ALSO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT AND UNSIGNED MUSICIANS - PLEASE BUY THEIR MUSIC - KEEP THE SCENE ALIVE! #radio #submission #uk #ukradio #internetradio #internetradioshow #internetfriends #internetradioshows #online #onlineradio #onlineradioshow #onlineradioshows #youtube #youtuber #ukindependent #ukindie #ukindies #independentartist #independentmusic #indie #indiemusic #indieartist #indieartists #unsigned #unsignedartist #unsignedartists #unsignedartistspotlight (at Wickford, Essex) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pXS9uHDTQ/?igshid=aa8fuo04ivbv

[americanahighways]

Video Premiere: Kristen Englenz “Pray For Rain” feat. Blind Boys of Alabama

Video Premiere: Kristen Englenz “Pray For Rain” feat. Blind Boys of Alabama @kenglenz @blindboysofalabama @Saturn5records

Americana Highways brings you this video premiere of Kristen Englenz’s “Pray For Rain,” featuring Blind Boys of Alabama.  “Pray for Rain” is from Englenz’s forthcoming album, Ingénue, which was produced by Ken Coomer with executive producers Richard J. Lenz and Willie “Chuck” Shivers; engineered by Ken Coomer and Geoff Pillar; mixed by Joe Costa and mastered by Jonathan Pines.  Ingénue will be…

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” (Live, 2019)

If you’re anything like Sound Bites - and besides having impeccable taste in music, here’s hoping (for your sake) you’re not - the dearth of live-music experiences is one of the biggest regrets of 2020.

As the year began, the blog was hoping to catch Kristen Englenz as she promoted her full-length debut, ingénue. With that a seeming impossibility for the foreseeable future, her just-released live video of “Pray for Rain” - the LP’s standout track - landed like a balm.

As on the album, this version features the Blind Boys of Alabama on essential backing vocals. Englenz’s voice is more authentic on stage than in the studio, giving her deep, searching lyrics even more resonance.

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me/or have they already cried out salt to the sea/pray for rain or pray move on, she sings, with the Blind Boys chiming in on the last line.

Jimmy Carter does his wailing thing on the outro and though this live rendition skips the a cappella coda that graces the record, this unexpected little gift is a charmer. Sound Bites’ll be purchasing tickets to Englenz’s next (first?) Ohio date - whenever that might be.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” (Live, 2019) - A

9/15/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz - “Shelf Life”

Kristen Englenz is ostensibly singing about a doll on “Shelf Life.”

But the subject could just as easily be an abandoned pet, a jilted lover or Englenz herself.

That’s the beauty of the elastic, country-leaning number: despite its seeming clarity, it’s vague enough to apply to many things.

“It’s for the forgotten, the discarded, those lost, the marginalized,” the singer said in a statement. “In today’s world with so much isolation and separation, it’s hope for unity.”

It’s also one of Englenz’s best, most original, tracks to date.

A surprising leftover from Englenz’s full-length debut, ingénue, “Shelf Life” takes its time in revealing its depth.

Again helmed by former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, the recording benefits from low-fi, slightly wobbly production that puts the focus on Englenz’s voice and lyrics.

Oh to have the time to sit there forever and wait for you/oh to never die, to sit there satisfied on loving you/oh a doll’s life/oh shelf life, she sings as the music fades.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz - “Shelf Life” - A-

6/24/20

[krispyweiss]

Album Review: Kristen Englenz - ingénue

Debut albums often go one of two ways.

They can be a career apogee as the artist uses up her best material saved over years of writing. Or they can be the harbinger of a musician to watch as she finds her sound and grows on subsequent releases.

Kristen Englenz’s ingénue is likely the latter - a solid debut full of songs that continue playing in your head long after the stereo is off.

The full-length LP is produced by former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer and follows her 2016 EP Extent of Play. It finds Englenz channeling Tigerlily-era Natalie Merchant on “Got Me with Goodbye;” two sides of Alanis Morissette on the angry “Rebound” and the tender “Good Enough;” Tori Amos on “Striking the Same Chord (At the Right Time);” and Fiona Apple on “Globe in My Room.”

While much of ingénue reveals Englenz’s influences, the haunting, existential “Pray for Rain,” featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama, hints at what might be her stylistic core. While the Blind Boys’ presence is delightful, it’s the songwriting, not just the guests, that make this moody meditation not only the LP’s brightest light, but among the best tracks to emerge in 2020 thus far.

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore?/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go?/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me?/or have they already cried out salt to the sea?, Englenz sings before the gospel group joins on the chorus.

Englenz is a woman of many voices, employing a breathy whisper on “Georgia Peach” and snarling on “Rebound.” And ingénue’s nine tracks are the sound of that woman searching for what will ultimately be her signature.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz - ingénue - B

2/28/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain”

Kristen Englenz has a bunch of questions on her mind:

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore?/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go?/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me?/or have they already cried out salt to the sea?, she sings on “Pray for Rain,” her new single featuring Blind Boys of Alabama and previewing the Feb, 28, 2020, release of her debut LP.

With wobbly, ’90s production courtesy of former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer; a low-key, atmospheric arrangement loaded with existential queries; and the Blind Boys’ harmonies on the chorus and the a cappella coda, the single from ingénue begs for repeated listens as it slowly reveals its many layers.

It’s as mysterious as the questions it poses. And nearly as impossible to fully digest; in fact, Sound Bites barely made it through his initial spin, fully absorbing the song only upon revisiting it the next day, when “Pray for Rain” hit him like a train.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” - A

11/27/19

[krispyweiss]

Tracy Chapman Returns with a Message: Go Vote

- SCOTS, Kristen Englenz, Aoife O’Donovan and Rhiannon Giddens also encourage balloting

More than 30 years on, Tracy Chapman is still “Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution” - this time at the ballot box.

Returning to late-night television on Election Day eve with a videotaped performance for “Late Night with Seth Myers,” Chapman rejiggered the final line of her 1988 number to bring the song smack into November 2020.

Talkin’ ’bout a revolution, go vote, she sang to close the solo-acoustic rendering.

“This is the most-important election of our lifetime,” Chapman added in a statement. “It is imperative that everyone vote to restore our democracy.”

——————————

Chapman wasn’t the only artist urging Americans to vote:

“SCOTS says ‘Use Your Voice - Make A Choice! Vote!,’” Southern Culture on the Skids wrote on Facebook.

“I voted and I implore you to as well,” Kristen Englenz wrote on Facebook.

“I voted for my sisters and brother and parents. I voted for my extended family. I voted for my friends and community. I voted for our country. I voted for our world. I voted for those in our past and present and future. I voted for love and hope and kindness and positive change.”

“Folkin’VOTE!!!,” Aoife O’Donovan tweeted.

“They don’t give you stickers when you vote overseas but I did it anyway,” Rhiannon Giddens tweeted from her home in Ireland.

11/3/20

[krispyweiss]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz - “Rebound”

Kristen Englenz swallowed a Jagged Little Pill in making “Rebound.”

The followup to “Pray for Rain,” an existential set of musings recorded with the Blind Boys of Alabama, “Rebound” finds Englenz getting her Alanis on in both style and substance as she prepares for the Feb. 28 release of ingénue.

It’s half my fault for the hookup/and all on me for the fall, she sings in setting up the 2:48 track, which tells the story of a doomed dalliance with plenty of snarling guitars and smashing drums helping to set the mood.

There’s a touch of Aimee Mann in there, too. But mostly, “Rebound” ricochets back to Morissette.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz - “Rebound” - B

1/31/20

[kristenenglenz]

“Pray For Rain” now out!

[kristenenglenz]

Hi! Kristen here with some news from Music City Nashville. My debut full-length album produced by drummer extraordinaire Ken Coomer is coming out in early 2020, but you can get a first listen with my premier single, “Got Me With Goodbye” on Spotify now. Thank you for listening and please follow me so you can be the first to hear the album when it drops. 💙

[kristenenglenz]

Pre-save "Pray For Rain" featuring Blind Boys of Alabama to be the first to hear the new single when it drops. 

[kevinjmann]

UK Independent: Episode 116 is now here on Mixcloud

https://www.mixcloud.com/kevin-mann3/uk-independent-episode-116/

This episode is featuring

1. CuriousHour - She Lies 2. aJna - B’ 3. Kristen Englenz - Pray For Rain 4. Everyday Heroes - Standing Stones 5. The Winachi Tribe - Funky But Chic 6. Silver Nightmares - The Wandering Angel 7. The Lastrumpet - Running Out Of The Darkness 8. Outside the Shadows- Division 9. Nige Silvestri Music - For Her 10 Jake Aldridge feat. Leanne Louise - Partners In Crime 11. Erin Bloomer - Second Best 12. Phoebe’s Music - Butterflies 13 Lilith SingerSongwriter - Silver And Gold 14. Gillian Tuite - Something We Should Try

Don't forget an Episode of UK Independent is broadcast on:

KrystalRadio Station www.krystalradio.net Friday at 3pm

Sword Radio UK www.swordradiouk.com Wednesday at 9pm!

Access North West www.accessnorthwest.org.uk Sunday at 1pm and Thursday at 2am

Warm Radio UK - http://warmradiouk.wixsite.com/tunein Sunday 12 pm

Pop Radio UK - www.popradiouk.co.uk - Monday 8pm , Tuesday 8pm and Wednesday 8pm

Bunka Radio - https://www.bunkaradio.com/ - Monday 1am

Also can now support UK Independent via our Patreon page here: https://www.patreon.com/UKIndependent

ALSO SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENT AND UNSIGNED MUSICIANS - PLEASE BUY THEIR MUSIC - KEEP THE SCENE ALIVE!