Search - J Shogren :: American Holly

J Shogren
American Holly
Genre: Country

Track Listings (17) - Disc #1
1. American Holly
2. Early in the evening
3. Everyman
4. Salt Lakrits
5. Hand grenade
6. Holes
7. Deny me
8. French Creek
9. Well-fed man
10. Spilt Whiskey
11. Relativity
12. She's with me
13. Baby on the tracks
14. God's 9:05
15. JJ Polka
16. Hardwood floor
17. Come all this way

CD Details

All Artists: J Shogren
Title: American Holly
Members Wishing: 2
Total Copies: 0
Release Date: 12/2/2008
Genre: Country
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 751937345527

Synopsis

Album Description

Music for your inner grifter Hard acoustic roots music from a life lived in loud proportions. American Holly is the second release from Wyoming's favorite applied philosopher J Shogren, who made a splash overseas since his '07 debut, Jahamericana. Shogren is getting press across a wide field: "Brilliant storyteller from Wyoming. Hard Boiled, sometimes dark humorous stories delivered with a voice that clearly have lived through them." Lennart Persson, Rootsy "Blending more styles than we can list here Shogren ... He's traveled the world and the stories are plentiful in these grooves. At the end of the day though it's Americana at its best."- Village Records. Top 20 americana cds in 2008-Rootsville (Belgium) #13 Feb 09 & #15 Jan 2009 on the EuroAmericana Chart #16 on F.A.R. Chart for Dec 2008 #41 on the Folk Music Radio Chart for Feb 2009 #150 or so on the Americana Radio charts in Jan/Feb "Like a garden full of wildflowers...there's something undeniably endearing about Shogren's ramshackle ramblings." Performing Songwriter, Feb 2009 "American Holly is an absolute masterpiece." Moors Magazine Jan 2009. "There are two other times I can remember when a singer's voice prompted in me the same reaction I had when I first heard J Shogren's. Those were when I first heard Randy Newman and Leon Redbone. I had to keep looking at the album cover to assure myself that the singer was indeed white. Shogren's voice sounds like one of those great bluesmen from ninety years ago. American Holly is produced by J Shogren and D Tinker; mastered by J Wilson (Richard Thompson, The Gourds, Joe Ely, Bob Mould); featuring Grammy winner Sally van Meter on resonator, fingerpikkin maniac Jalan Crossland on banjo, the dynamo Shaun Kelly on bass, and country blues chanteuse Birgit Burke on backing vocals. ?Thanks for giving us a fair hearing?

Member CD Reviews

Jason S. from CENTENNIAL, WY
Reviewed on 3/29/2009...

from The Quiet Corner Jersey Beat
http://www.jerseybeat.com/quietcorner.html

J. SHOGREN has a voice that’s a bit gravely and rough-hewn. Americana can absorb that if the songs hold up, and on “American Holly” (Jaha!, c/o jshogren.com), they do just that. The opener, the album’s title cut, is obviously meant to be the “single,” but it was the third cut, “Everyman,” that caught my “ear.” As the CD glides along, it really started to reach me. The songs are catchy in a folky singer-songwriter pop kind of way, with melody lines that stay with the listener. There is really nice horn work here, like where they counterpoint with the banjo in “Holes.” Another piece that caught my attention was a sort of revisioning of “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” with the biting “Hand Grenade” (“I’ll be a hand grenade for Jesus / And spread His word like shrapnel”). It is also amusing (or can be seen as such) that a “women is bad” song like “Relativity” is followed by the romantic “She’s With Me.” While many of his songs are poignant, it is his closing number that touched me the most in my life right now, “Come All This Way.”