Jon contacted the label and asked to work on this beautiful Linda Perhacs song from The Headless Heroes ‘The Silence of Love’  covers album.. the result is a blissed-out electronic ambient classic … 

Some new european dates just announced including a special performance with BON IVER in HYDE PARK,LONDON….AMAZING!!!

Fri 26 Jun
FRANCE
EVREUX
ROCK DANS TOUS SES ETATS

Tue 30 Jun
UK
BON IVER/ALELA DIANE
LONDON HYDE PARK – SERPENTINE SESSIONS
0844 576 5483
www.serpentinesessions.com

Fri 3 Jul
FRANCE
BELFORT
LES EUROCKEENNES
www.fnac.com / www.ticketnet.fr
www.eurockéennes.fr

€37 euros for a day

Sun
5 Jul
SWITZERLAND
MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL
www.montreuxjazz.com

Thu 9 Jul
FRANCE
NIMES
Les Arenes de Nimes
www.fnac.com / www.ticketnet.fr / http://www.ticketsud.com
www.festivaldenimes.com
€35 / €49

Fri 10 Jul
FRANCE
LE CANNET
FESTIVAL DES NUITS BLANCHES
www.fnac.com / www.ticketnet.fr / 00 33 4 94 60 10 94
www.les-nuits-blanches.fr

Fri 17 Jul
FRANCE
CARHAIX
LES VIEILLES CHARRUES
www.fnac.com / www.ticketnet.fr / www.elca-services.ch/tnsa7/live/shop/1/2009_INTERNET/ts/event/event_details.php?
www.vieillescharrues.asso.fr
€32 for a day / €75 for 3 days

Tue 21 Jul
IRELAND
DUBLIN
CRAWDADDY
00353(0)1 6486000 / www.ticketmaster.ie

Sat 25 Jul
UK
DORSET
CAMP BESTIVAL
Ww.ticketline.co.uk
Www.campbestival.net

Sun 26 Jul
AUSTRIA
KREMS
Glatt & Verkehrt
www.glattundverkehrt.at/festival/programm-09

Tue 28 Jul
UK
BRIGHTON
OLD MARKET
0844 576 5483 / www.livenation.co.uk
www.theoldmarket.co.uk
£12

Wed 29 Jul
UK
NORWICH
ARTS CENTRE
01603 660 352
www.norwichartscentre.co.uk
£9/£10

Thu 10 Sep
UK
BRISTOL
ST GEORGES
0845 40 24 001 
www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk 
£14(£12); £10(£8)

Fri 11 Sep
UK
CARDIFF
THE GATE
0871 230 0010
www.thegate.org.uk
£12 Adv

Sat 12 Sep
UK
DORSET
END OF THE ROAD FESTIVAL
0844 847 1742
www.endoftheroadfestival.com
£115

Sun 13 Sep
UK
EXETER
PHOENIX
01392 667080
www.exeterphoenix.org.uk
£12 & £10 conc

Tue 15 Sep
UK
SHEFFIELD
MEMORIAL HALL
0844 576 5483 / www.livenation.co.uk
www.sheffieldcityhall.co.uk
£12

Wed 16 Sep
UK
BIRMINGHAM
TOWNHALL
0121 780 3333 
www.thsh.co.uk 

Thu 17 Sep
UK
LONDON
O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE
08444 77 2000
www.o2shepherdsbushempire.co.uk

nice..

by Michael Quinn
05 March 2009

Alela Diane’s new record may come as a pleasant surprise to those who haven’t checked in on the Portland-based singer-songwriter since 2006′s The Pirate’s Gospel. On that charming but demo-ish jumble sale of an album Diane sorted through familiar folk forms (sea shanty, blues lament, narrative ballad) with a couple of chords and some sleepy arpeggios. If neither her vision nor her musicianship changed the conversation about the then-full-flowering new folk scene, Diane’s arresting voice– simultaneously vehement and serene– put plenty of people on notice, including, apparently, a sizeable chunk of France. (Her Blogotheque Take-Away Show illustrates why big in France isn’t necessarily aspersive: With her mass of dark hair and chic short boots, the girl was born to busk Paris’ boulevards.)

Still, Diane thus far has played in the shadow of better-known Nevada City, Calif., product (and childhood friend) Joanna Newsom. As inevitable the comparison, it’s not a very sensitive tool for evaluating either artists’ work. Newsom, after all, pens wildly idiosyncratic songs for the harp and sings them in… a voice that takes some getting used to. On the aesthetically focused, meticulously arranged To Be Still, Diane is a traditionalist, partial to broad, universal themes– nature, childhood, family, friends– and gentle, lilting melodies that recall traditional ballads. She’s also ditched many of the vocal tics and lower-pitch ranges that lent Pirate’s Gospel a haunting melancholy and drew adjectives like “eccentric” but, in retrospect, better suit someone like Jolie Holland.

Diane demonstrated her broad range and flexibility, interpreting songs by artists as disparate as Vashti Bunyan, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Daniel Johnston on 2008′s The Silence of Love, which she recorded with some musician friends as Headless Heroes. To Be Still will never fire up any parties, but its emotional range is as wide as that covers project’s– from “Age Old Blue”, a wistful duet with craggy-voiced troubadour Michael Hurley about Diane’s sharecropping Scottish ancestors, to the flushed-cheek, string-surging “My Brambles”. Lead track “Dry Grass and Shadows” sets a playful tone, the sigh of steel pedal underlining her languid, country-twangy come-on: “I like to look at your teeth lined up in perfect rows… Where the flatlands stretch inside your mouth/ And when you laugh all the star thistles tumble out.” A little hippie-dippy, but also utterly enchanting.

The album’s first single, “White as Diamonds”, best showcases her expanded musical ambitions and the record’s pristine sound (coproduced with her bluegrass musician father in his studio). Two years ago, accompanied by acoustic guitar, Diane previewedthe newly hatched song for Daytrotter (second station of the cross for up-and-comers after Blogotheque) and claimed “Diamonds” is about silence and uh, snow. Disingenuous-sounding, for sure, but it’s not like she’s the first artist who’d prefer not to parse lyrics. She’s also absolutely right: Simplicity is key to the song’s stark power, and its uncluttered vocabulary of fiddle, cello, guitar and drawn-out, warbled “wooooahs” are as head-clearing as a cold February morning. Fill its white spaces with what you will.

When people speak of Diane’s voice Sandy Denny’s name comes up with increasing frequency, and the young American certainly shares her British predecessor’s grace and gusto. But To Be Still is rooted in a different geography– jagged California hills and faded towns that might be populated by doomed Steinbeck characters. In “The Ocean”, the thick thump of bongos and a nervous flutter of mandolin sketch the numbing existence of a mountain woman who, landlocked by “dirt ditch paths and pine cones… old hubcaps on the picket fence,”  dreams of the sea. It’s a hybridized folk idiom and undeniably American.

Working with material hog-tied to the past and performed with traditional trappings puts Diane at some risk for creative stagnation and worse– the kind of anonymity and irrelevance enjoyed by vast swathes of the contemporary folk universe. To Be Stillavoids these traps thanks to Diane’s spectacular voice and, well, the little, mostly indescribable things. The record’s best moment comes somewhere in the center of the cautiously joyful “The Alder Trees”. As Diane, easy-swaying sings “girls clapping,” a ragged clap– hollow and a touch behind the beat– emits from the back of the room. It’s the kind of perfect little flaw that makes a record almost perfect, almost flawless.

• MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/alelamusic

‘ You would truly be hard pressed to find a more delicate, unassuming, original, and comforting voice active in folk music today’- Other Music NYC

‘ Alela’s ‘pirates gospel’ was our album of the year for 2007, and it seems that she has surpassed even that with this amazing album’ – Rough Trade Shops

‘ This is a timeless-sounding record and whether you’re a fan or a stranger drawn in by the hype, this is certainly worth a purchase’ – Music Magazine

‘ It’s her purposeful knack of combining melody with her own effortless ability to cultivate a delicious vocal harmony which makes To Be Still so remarkable’-Fact Magazine (8/10)

‘ Alela Diane is a name that should, and no doubt will, be perched high on top of the pack for a long time to come’-Clash Magazine (8/10)

‘ This release is stellar stuff’ -Music Week

‘ Honestly I could probably gush about every song on this album, but for the sake of brevity I’ll just say that it is pretty much all fantastic’- Culture Bully

‘There’s a lot of female singer/songwriters about at the moment, but Alela Diane stands head and shoulders above them all’ – Music OHM

‘She’s a musically literate Scout Niblett, a fledgling Nina Nastasia, a lone rival to Anni Rossi for release of the month. She’s really rather good’ – Subba Cultcha

‘ Alela Diane’s ‘To Be Still’ is a lyrical masterpiece, a body of work that is as restless as the sea’- Pamplemoose

Download “White As Diamonds” for free here

Pre-order “To Be Still” from Play.com here  or Amazon here

Alela Diane UK Live dates:

25th March – The Sage, Gateshead

26th March – ABC2, Glasgow

27th March – The Deaf Institue, Manchester

29th March – Howard Assembly Room, Leeds

30th March – St Giles Church, London (SOLD OUT)

17th September – Shepherds Bush Empire, London

The Guardian , Saturday 31st January 2009

She Keeps Bees, Gimmie (Names)

A young lady singing (while playing guitar) as her own boyfriend plays drums? It could never work – imagine the arguments! Still, full marks to Brooklyn’s SKB – Jessica Larrabee and Andy LaPlant – for giving it a go. A little like Jack ‘n’ Meg (with the self-regard and general air of grim humourlessness removed) “sitting in with” – it’s what jazz people do, I saw it on the telly – PJ Harvey, even the Breeders, this is, literally, raunchy (“Give it to me daddy, work me like my back ain’t got no bone,” – well, excuse me!), a loosely hammering, bluesy howl that sounds like it was as exciting to make as it is to listen to. I wonder if she really does keep bees?

because we want to…. so eat it!