JANUARY 2012 News

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1/1/12 – Black Bamboo Recordings news from the north shore of Kauai.

Surfline.com, the top website for current info on surfing related news and conditions mentions my Andy Irons tribute song ‘The Longest Ride’: http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/press-release/allan-thomas-releases-song-for-andy-irons-the-longest-ride_66013/

The new ‘Deep Water’ CD is off to a good start with radio play especially in Europe, also see December 2011 News http://www.allanthomas.com/wordpress/?p=1444.

DJ Bart van der Po of the acoustic Americana radio show Acoustic Rain in the Netherlands is still playing title track ‘Deep Water’. http://acousticrain.rtvkatwijk.nl/?p=103

DJ Peter van Zeijl of the Americana/singer songwriter Folk en Zo radio show out of Winschoten, the Netherlands is playing title track ‘Deep Water’. http://www.folkenzo.net/Playlists.html

Wildman Steve of the Auburn Alabama web based radio show Wildman Steve Radio is still playing ’The Longest Ride’ from the new ‘Deep Water’ CD. http://www.wildmansteve.com/

Mr Blue Boogie of the Dutch music review website Billy Bop reviews ‘Deep Water’. http://www.billybop.be/admin/CDdetail.asp?ID=10593:

Allan Thomas is already active in the music scene since 1966 and has worked with some of the biggest names around. Many artists open shows for big names in their lives, but seldom they are asked to co tribute to albums of those they opened. For Allan Thomas things are different. He did not only open for the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, Weather Report, Richie Havens, Taj Mahal, and elder blues men Bukka White and Arthur Cruddup but he worked also with some of them. Especially with Cannonball Adderly things worked out quite well and as a result he was asked to contribute on the Cannonball Adderley Quintet song ‘Behold’, which appeared on the groups ‘Soul Of The Bible’ concept album.

Allan Thomas has always been busy working for and with others, but in his long carreer he hasn’t got much time to make recordings himself. Deep Water is only his fifth album, and features long time pals David Crosby & Graham Nash. Furhtermore the record also features members of the Bonnie Raitt, Neil Young, Van Morrison, James Taylor, CSN, and the Yellowjackets bands.

Brought to you in laid back style crossing borders between Americana & Jazz, Deep Water gives us some nice songs like the title track Deep Water, The Longest Ride (featuring Crosby & Nash) and Homegrown. Not for the lovers of common Americana & Roots Related music, but if you dig something different, you might find it on this record.

Mr Blue Boogie.

 

1/8/12 – Honolulu Star Advertiser – John Berger review of ‘Deep Water’: A requiem for pro surfer Andy Irons is one of several memorable songs on this recent project by Kauai resident Allan Thomas. “May you rip in peace, brother Andy, in waves that never end,” he sings in “The Longest Ride,” no doubt expressing the feelings of Irons’ family, friends and fans.

Several of Thomas’ musical arrangements evoke memories of  Steely Dan’s early work. Other songs stand out on the strength of Thomas’ lyrics. Take “The Downturn,” a horrifying look at the continuing aftermath of America’s economic meltdown. Or “Monkey Business,” where he assumes the persona of a burned out drug smuggler. A third song “Soldier Of Misfortune,” is neatly constructed around a clever mutation of an age-old phrase.

Thomas harks back to the beatnik poets of the late 50’s with “Other Than That,” an acerbic shopping list of personality flaws and unidentified annoying people which he recites over brisk percussion tracks.

The title tune is a gentle love song reminiscent of Dan Fogelberg, as Thomas compares the emotions stirred by a first kiss to “diving into deep water from the highest cliff.” He also explores the toxic fallout of bad relationships with a dark philosophical tune, “Everything Happens For A Reason.”

 

DJ Michael van Bruggen of the Dutch Americana/ Roots radio show Landslide is playing ‘Deep Water’. http://www.rootsparadise.nl/landslide/index.php

DJ Frederico Fonseca of the Ao Correr Do Tempo radio show on Diana FM radio in Portugal is playing ‘The Longest Ride’. http://www.myspace.com/fredericofonseca/music/playlists  – www.dianafm.com

The French community radio show Crossroads at Radio Arverne is playing ‘The Longest Ride’. http://www.radioarverne.com/

DJ Johanna J. Bodde of the Dutch-based, long-running and very diverse Americana/Singer songwriter/Alt Country radio show RadioGirl is playing ‘Fall In Love Too Easy’ on both the Netherlands-based Dollard Radio and Insurgent Radio network shows.  http://www.dollardradio.nl/index.php?pagina=programmas&id=1&actie=blogitem&bid=68

DJ Jos van den Boom of the Americana and roots music radio show Crossroads is playing ‘The Longest Ride’ on the Netherlands-based Roots Paradise radio network. http://www.rootsparadise.nl/crossroads/index.php

DJ Paul van Gelder of Dutch Americana, soul, singer/songwriter radio show Roots Paradise is playing ‘Other Than That’ from the ‘Deep Water’ CD. http://paulvangelder.com/playlists.htm – http://www.rootsparadise.nl/paulvangelder/index.php

DJ Rein Wortelboer of Peelgrass Radio in the Netherlands is playing ‘Homegrown’ and ‘Fall In Love Too Easy’. http://peelgras.home.xs4all.nl/playlistboard/playlists/play2908.htm – http://peelgras.home.xs4all.nl/playlistboard/playlists/play2910.htm

DJ’s Raymond Swennen and Theo Geenen of the Americana and singer/songwriter Radio Goud RootsRevival radio show based in Belgium is playing ‘Deep Water’. http://rootsrevival.webklik.nl/page/voorpagina

German Americana radio show Free FM is playing ‘Monkey Business’.

Americana Radio is playing ‘Other Than That’.

Italian radio show Happy Trails on Susa Onda Radio is playing ‘The Longest Ride’ and ‘Homegrown’.

 

Dutch rock magazine and internet magazine Strutterzine reviews ‘Deep Water’:

Mixed by MIKE SHIPLEY (JOURNEY, IRON MAIDEN) and featuring a massive guest list, which includes MICHAEL RUFF as well as the legendary DAVID CROSBY and GRAHAM NASH on backing vocals during the song “The longest ride” and members of acts like BONNIE RAITT, NEIL YOUNG, VAN MORRISON, JAMES TAYLOR, the 5th CD ‘Deep water’ from American musician ALLAN THOMAS is at forehand already a high quality CD. Allan is a professional musician since the 1970s, releasing several records, doing recordings with many musicians and now on his latest CD we can hear smooth and quite soft Westcoast meets Jazz/Fusion that really has that late 1970s/early 1980s L.A. Sound. It is not that strange it sounds quite a lot like MICHAEL RUFF, because he plays on most songs piano, organ, etc. Allan’s vocals are very strong, perhaps even better than Michael and sometimes the material even sounds like a laid-back version of DAVID ROBERTS/TOTO/earlyAMBROSIA, AMERICA, POCO and such acts from the late 1970s LA Scene of Westcoast, yet with a sort of jazz/fusion instrumental back-up. Anyone who misses that late 70s LA westcoast sound, just listen to “Everything Happens For A Reason” and “The Longest Ride”, grab it here! A song like “Deep Water” also has a typical acoustic tingled singer/songwriter style, but mainly this is late 70s soft Westcoast Pop music with Jazzy influences. http://strutterzine.angelfire.com/
Rootstime a well-regarded music website in Belgium has reviewed ‘Deep Water’:
The list of musicians who sing and play on the new album “Deep Water” by the New York singer-songwriter Allan Thomas is truly impressive. There are the ‘credits’-list names of musicians who have worked with such musicians as Van Morrison, Neil Young, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor. Especially the fact that he succeeded in getting David Crosby and Graham Nash to sing backing vocals on the song “The Longest Ride” on this CD may be a strong persuasive example of this musician. But Allan Thomas is also not a beginner in this business, which he has over the years has built up a large circle of friends. His first album “A Picture” was released in 1971 and several albums and forty years later there is now “Deep Water”, his fifth and newest CD with ten original compositions and two songs he has composed in a partnership: “The Gift “with Randy Handley and” Soldiers Of Misfortune “with guitarist Bryan Kessler, who is also on three tracks playing electric guitar. His second studio album, “The Island” was published 18 years after the debut album in 1989, the third album “Coconut Culture” in 1997 and 2007 there was only one fourth album “Making Up For Lost Time”.
The songs on “Deep Water” are a musical hybrid of folk, country and jazz and evoke some memories of times we know from artists like James Taylor and Crosby, Still & Nash. The two songs “Deep Water” and “It All Comes Down To Love” feature singer Anjela Rose for melodic backing vocals. The contribution of Judd Miller on trumpet in the song “Deep Water” and harmonica on “Boyish Man” are worth a special mention. The more jazzy tracks like “Fall In Love Too Easy”, “Homegrown”, “The Gift” and “Other Than That” and the blues and rock tones drenched “Monkey Business” complete this beautiful new album by Allan Thomas.
With an interesting mix of folk and jazz music, New York’s singer and songwriter Allan Thomas is offering a pleasant time to anyone listening to his fifth album ‘Deep Water’. Five records is not that much in a musical career which is lasting more than 40 years, but when the qualitative level is as high as on this record, we don’t mind to wait a bit longer to welcome his next release. http://www.rootstime.be/

Anyone wishing to purchase a copy of the ‘Deep Water’ compact disc directly from Black Bamboo Recordings can always e-mail us @ allant6@gmail.com or send a check for $12.00 plus $3.00 shipping & handling per CD in USA – and $12.00 plus $5 for S&H outside USA to: Black Bamboo Recordings – po box 785 – Hanalei, HI. 96714 – USA

For those interested in purchasing more than one copy of ‘Deep Water’ – or any of Allan’s other CD’s for that matter – we are offering discounts of $10.00 each CD plus shipping.

Downloads of the album and single-song tracks are now available at The Allan Thomas Music Store @http://allanthomas.bandcamp.com/album/deep-water – Here you can can listen to all tracks in their entirety, read stories about the writing and recording of the songs, plus find lyrics, credits and photos. Bandcamp offers downloads in 6 different compression file sizes to suit your bandwidth and preference, and you can pay by credit card or PayPal should you so desire. If you plan to download give Bandcamp a go, as they offer the highest-quality downloads, and host a great platform for independent artists to sell their music.

‘Deep Water’ downloads of the full album and single-song tracks are now available at CD Baby @http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/AllanThomas – The babies are carrying the compact disc.

The record is now also available for listening and digital downloading through the Allan Thomas Music Facebook PAGE @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Allan-Thomas/168576603179719?sk=app_204974879526524

iTunes and Amazon.com,  are now also offering ‘Deep Water’ downloads with most other digital music distributers also online.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN/B005ZXMMXA