Folk Roots Radio Episode 358: Rob Lutes & More New Releases

Montreal singer-songwriter Rob Lutes joins us on Episode 358 of Folk Roots Radio for a wonderful conversation about his latest album, “Walk In The Dark”, a blues roots delight and our favourite album of 2017. As always, we also check out more of the great new folk and roots releases we’ve received. Check out the full playlist below.

Interview

Rob Lutes fabulous new album, Walk In The Dark, perfectly showcases his wonderful voice and fingerstyle playing. The album finds Lutes, a Kerrville New Folk winner, Maple Blues and Canadian Folk Music Awards nominee exploring a wide range of subjects and paying homage to some heroes: James Cotton (on “There’s No Way to Tell You That Tonight”) and guitarist Joseph Spence (on the instrumental “Spence”) alongside a couple of co-writes with award-winning Americana songwriter Dale Boyle and a cover of John Prine‘s “Rocky Mountain Time”. Walk In The Dark also features support from some of the finest blues and roots players in the business, including regular side player guitarist Rob MacDonald, keyboardist Bob Stagg, Guy Bélanger on harmonica and Joe Grass on mandolin. The album is, truly, a tour de force and a worthy choice for our favourite album of 2017. You can visit Rob Lutes online at roblutes.com.

Check out more of our favourite albums of 2017 on Episode 356: Best of 2017 – The Top 10 HERE and on Episode 357: Best of 2017 – The Next 15 HERE.

Show Notes

Notes about some of the new music on our radar that made it into Episode 358 of Folk Roots Radio.

Portland, Oregon songwriter Anna Tivel, writes a lot of her songs on the road but also between shifts at occasional waitress jobs or driving for Meals on Wheels. Her latest album “Small Believer” features a lot of stories that come from people she meets along the way.

“When you’re touring, you’re naked onstage each time. You’re doing this vulnerable thing in front of strangers and it encourages people to open up themselves.”  

Small Believer was produced by Austin Nevins (Josh Ritter, Della Mae), who brought together some Portland collaborators to supply the slow-driving fiddles, accordions, and electric guitars that complement Tivel’s gentle lyrics.

Visit Anna Tivel online at annativel.com.

This episode’s instrumental “Land So Sweet”, comes from fiddler and composer Dina Maccabee who has released an instrumental album with film composer Mark Orton that features tracks from the musical, “Sweet Land” which is all about the story of Scandinavian immigrants settling in the Midwest US in the early part of the 20th century.

And that’s all we have time for, this time around. Thanks to all the artists who share their music with us, and thank you for listening. We have a lot of great music and interviews to bring you on future shows. I hope you’ll join us!

Listen

You can listen to this episode again on Soundcloud by following the link below. You can also listen to episodes of Folk Roots Radio, on demand, via iTunes, Mixcloud, Stitcher and Tune-in Radio. (Click on the highlighted link to reach your chosen platform.)

Playlist

Nicolas & The Iceni (Theme)
Lucy She Rises (Demo)
Roll Right (Pre-release, self)

Anna Tivel
Illinois
Small Believer (2017, Fluff & Gravy Records)

Dawson Rutledge
Thief Of A Lover
Monsters (2017, Rusty Doc Records)

KC Groves
Annabelle
Happy Little Trees (2017, Self)

Dina Maccabee
Land So Sweet
Land So Sweet – Instrumental Tunes from Sweet Land, The Musical (2017, Self)

Rob Lutes
A Little Room
Walk In The Dark (2017, Self) CDN

Interview: Rob Lutes joins Folk Roots Radio to talk about his latest album “Walk In The Dark”, our favourite album of 2017.

Rob Lutes
Believe In Something
Walk In The Dark (2017, Self) CDN

Rob Lutes
Rabbit
Walk In The Dark (2017, Self) CDN

Rob Lutes
Walk In The Dark
Walk In The Dark (2017, Self) CDN

Janie Burnett & Blue Room
Walk It Out Of You
You See This River (2017, Minor Regret Records)