Albums of guitar duets are rare. Albums of guitar duets featuring one American and one Englishman, synthesizing their particular geographically specific approaches in a collection of new compositions, are even more rare. Not since Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn's partnerships of the 1970s has there been such a happy reconciliation of Merrie Old England and the good old USA, in which baroque meets the blues, music-hall steps out to ragtime, and Benjamin Britten sits down with Blind Blake.

James Elkington moved from London to Chicago around the turn of the millennium and has since released a string of albums as leader of The Zincs for Thrill Jockey Records.  After dissolving the band in 2008, Elkington has concentrated on acoustic, folk-tinged music with his band The Horse's Ha (that he shares with Freakwater's Janet Bean), culminating in the release of their debut album, Of The Cathmawr Yards in 2009. He is also the owner/operator of a clunky solo career, and moonlights convincingly as the guitar player in Jon Langford's (of The Mekons) Skull Orchard.

Nathan Salsburg is best known as an archivist and producer for the Alan Lomax Archive, curator of the Twos & Fews vernacular-music imprint on Drag City Records, and host of the "Root Hog Or Die" program on East Village Radio. But after a 2007 move from New York City back to his childhood home of Louisville, Kentucky - and the inclusion of a track on Tompkins Square's "Imaginational Anthem, Volume 3" compilation - he discovered adequate time, space, and energy to devote to guitar playing.

Elkington suggested a leap of faith into a collaboration, despite the fact that the two had never previously played guitar together. Avos, then, hither and thither over several seasons, between a porch in Louisville and a kitchen in Chicago, slowly took shape. Aptly, the name comes from the Russian word for the confident approach to new situations, and the faith that nothing tragic will occur once in them.

James Elkington & Nathan Salsburg play their record release show on Sunday, October 9th at The Hideout in Chicago. More shows will be scheduled in the coming weeks.

Jeff Tweedy fronting Deerhoof? You might be surprised just how natural the voice of Wilco sounds amidst the eccentric, swirling chaos of the Deerhoofian musical universe.

The Wilco-Deerhoof connection goes back a long way. They toured the midwest together in 2004. Wilco guitarist Nels Cline's "Suspended Head" from Instrumentals (2002) was the guitarist's raucous tribute to Deerhoof. Frontman Jeff Tweedy has been name-checking Deerhoof records in best-of lists for years. And when Deerhoof recently pointed to Wilco as the inspiration for their song "Behold A Marvel In The Darkness,” the idea was hatched that Mr. Tweedy should actually have a go.

Which brings us to "Behold A Raccoon In The Darkness," the fourth installment of Deerhoof’s collaborative 7” series in which guest vocalists perform over an instrumental track from the band’s latest full-length, Deerhoof vs. Evil.

The instrumental track, the melody, and the lyrics for "Behold" are unchanged from the original. But in place of Deerhoof chanteuse Satomi Matsuzaki, we hear the immediately identifiable pipes of Jeff Tweedy, with harmonies by his son Spencer.

Side B features "Own It," an original song by The Raccoonists, a group comprised of Tweedy and his two sons, Spencer and Sam. Although the band originally began as an instrumental duo (consisting of Jeff and Spencer), it has since evolved into a trio with Sam providing vocals. Recorded in Spencer and Sam's bedroom, "Own It" is the first Raccoonists song to be released. However, the group does have plans to record more tracks later this year.

You can listen to the 7” and watch the video for “Own It” now.

"Behold a Raccoon in the Darkness" comes out October 11 on Polyvinyl Records. It is limited to 2000 copies on clear pink vinyl and it is available for pre-order now.

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TOUR DATES

aug 07 - Katowice, Poland - OFF Festival (Scena Lesna stage)

sep 15 - San Francisco, CA - Atrium at SFMOMA (Adam Pendleton & Deerhoof present BAND)

sep 20 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg (White Suns, Mick Barr)

sep 21 - Philadelphia, PA - World Cafe Live (Joshua Stamper)

sep 22 - Charlottesville, VA - Jefferson Theater (Gull, Invisible Hand)

sep 23 - Cincinnati, OH - Know Theatre (Midpoint Music Festival)

sep 24 - Champaign, IL - Polyvinyl's 15th Anniversary Party at Pygmalion (Braid, Xiu Xiu, and many more)

sep 25 - Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge (Trin Tran, The Cloak Ox)

sep 26 - St. Louis, MO - Luminary Center for the Arts (Sleepy Kitty)

sep 28 - Ithaca, NY - The Haunt (Keir Neurings, Powerdove)

sep 29 - Cambridge, MA - Middle East (The Toughcats, Fat Worm of Error)

oct 01 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club (Benjy Ferree)

oct 02 - Asbury Park, NJ - ATP - Asbury Park Convention Hall & Paramount Theatre (w/ Portishead, Mogwai, Battles, Earth, and more)

Z2 Entertainment is proud to present Ott. at the Fox Theatre on Thursday, October 13^th , 2011.  Tickets go on sale Friday, August 5^th for $16.50 in advance & $20.00 day of show.

Ott, the veteran electronic producer known for his evolving sound of roots and dub, returns to the United States to tour in support of his latest album “Mir”. The new album finds this trusted producer taking his music to new heights. His prolific career with influential UK label Twisted Records, has seen two successful full-length releases including collaborative work with Simon Posford (Shpongle) and his world renowned “Hallucinogen In Dub”. The direct-to fan release, “Mir,” has been regarded by many as his best work to date. Ott will perform a reformatted live PA of the music spanning all of his releases as well as new unreleased material.

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Ott. (Twisted Records)

Fox Theatre

Thursday, October 13th

Doors:  8:30 pm

Show Time:  9:00 pm

The Deep Dark Woods wake the ghosts of Appalachia with their prairie gothic pyre-side tales. On their new record, The Place I Left Behind, the band finds continuity in themes of temporal and geographic alienation, neglected inward trails, and the scars of abandoned intimacies.

Buoyed by the success of working with mastermind recording engineer Darren Van Niekerk, on their self produced CBC Songquest single “Charlie's (is Coming Down)” the band decided to approach their new album the same way. Recorded in Halifax with Van Niekerk behind the board once again, The Deep Dark Woods’ first self produced album allowed them to experiment in the studio as never before. Toying with numerous reverbs, vintage amps, instruments and mellotron, they also tried some never before played versions and arrangements of some of the album's songs. While more physically and mentally exhausting than previous albums, it turned out exactly the way the band wanted it to and the reward is their most realized album to date.

The record opens with a song about Saskatoon’s rougher edges. “West Side Street” is a study in contrasts – finespun vocals and a gently rolling melody cushion the gloomy story. “The Place I Left Behind” is loosely based on an old folk standard. Gorgeously morose, the title track confirms that The Deep Dark Woods capture lonesome yearning at its loveliest. “Sugar Mama” is a sweet and lively invitation to tap toes and shake off the blues; a seeming coming-of-age story is treated with playful banjo and an airy gait.

A rainstorm over the desert of modern music, The Place I Left Behind offers murder ballads alongside scrappy rockers, lovesick hymnals and slow-dance waltzes. The album illuminates folk traditions without stripping the shadows of roots music history. The Place I Left Behind echoes with traces of time and space that are never fully abandoned or forgotten.

The Place I Left Behind will be released on Six Shooter Records in Canada on August 2nd and Sugar Hill Records in the US and worldwide on October 18th.

It’s difficult to decide which was the most remarkable facet of pioneering blues chanteuse Alberta Hunter’s incredible career. Was it her role in the vanguard of the “classic blues” movement of the early 1920s, when she recorded prolifically for Paramount and other labels during the industry’s first foray into the idiom? Her entertainment of grateful U.S. troops during not one war, but two? Or her heartwarming late 1970s/early 1980s comeback on the New York cabaret circuit after more than two decades away from singing professionally, when she was well into her 80s? One fact is inescapable: when she died on October 17, 1984 in New York at age 89, Hunter was a genuine star once more.

In 1974, the singer had largely retired from music due to health concerns. But musical pursuits called once again when club owner Barney Josephson invited her to star for six weeks at the Cookery, his hip Greenwich Village cabaret, in October 1977. The live recording of a subsequent 1981 Cookery performance resulted in Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery, which will be released on both CD and 180-gram vinyl August 30, 2011 on RockBeat Records, a new label focused on quality reissues and new recordings by heritage artists, distributed by eOne Distribution. Musicologist Bill Dahl contributed liner notes. (The title was previously available on CD, but has been re-mastered and will now be available on CD and 180-gram vinyl for the first time.)

Born on April 1, 1895 in Memphis, Hunter was weaned on W.C. Handy’s pioneering blues. By 16 she was in Chicago in the midst of a celebrated five-year residence at the city’s Dreamland club, singing in front of King Oliver & His Creole Jazz Band with Louis Armstrong. Hunter made her recording debut in 1921 for Black Swan Records, one of the first black-owned labels, with “How Long, Sweet Daddy, How Long” b/w “Bring Back the Joys.” From there she went to Paramount Records, cutting half a dozen sides including the original “Down Hearted Blues,” which she wrote with piano accompanist Lovie Austin and forcefully revisited on the 1981 live album.  (Bessie Smith, the immortal Empress of the Blues, ended up scoring a bigger hit with the song in 1923.) Hunter continued to record prolifically for Paramount, backed by Fletcher Henderson and, on 1923’s “Stingaree Blues,” Fats Waller.

Having conquered Chicago, Hunter moved to New York in 1923. She recorded for Gennett, OKeh, RCA Victor and Columbia. During this time she ventured to jazz-obsessed France in 1927, where she co-starred with Paul Robeson in a production of Showboat and recorded into the ’30s for HMV. When she returned to the U.S., she recorded for ARC, Decca and Bluebird.  She hosted a radio program in the ’30s and Broadway welcomed her back in 1939, when she shared the stage with Ethel Waters in Mamba’s Daughters. When World War II broke out, Hunter boldly served her country in the USO, entertaining troops across the globe. She continued into the Korean conflict.

There were scattered post-war sessions. But when her beloved mother died in 1954 and after starring in a Broadway flop, Hunter bowed out of performing to train as a nurse. Upon graduation in 1957 at age 62 — an age at which many folks contemplate retirement — she began a new career at a New York hospital. Other than recording a couple of Chris Albertson-produced LPs cut two weeks apart in 1961 (Songs We Taught Your Mother, a set for Prestige Bluesville also featuring Victoria Spivey and Lucille Hegamin) and Chicago: The Living Legends for Riverside, she kept a determinedly low profile for more than two decades — afraid the hospital would learn how far past mandatory retirement age she was and let her go.

In 1974, Hunter was forced out of her job by hospital regulations. It was October 1977 when Cookery’s Josephson invited her to headline his room. Next, legendary A&R man John Hammond cut an album’s worth of her classics (with a few new ones) for the Columbia soundtrack of director Alan Rudolph’s 1978 film Remember My Name. Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas invited her to brighten their TV talkfests, 60 Minutes profiled her, and Columbia recorded three more albums.

The live recordings that form Downhearted Blues: Live at the Cookery are from one of her many triumphant evenings at the club. Her sense of swing and theatricality remained impeccable, with longtime pianist and arranger Gerald Cook and sturdy upright bassist Jimmy Lewis providing sterling accompaniment. Hunter glided through saucy double-entendre-loaded numbers (“Handy Man,” “Two-Fisted Workin’ Man”), time-honored standards (a rip-roaring “I Got Rhythm,” the tender “Georgia On My Mind”), and the touching ballads “The Love I Have From You” (from Remember My Name) and “You’re Welcome To Come Back Home.”