THE GREAT BOOK OF JOHN is led by Taylor Shaw, founding guitarist of Birmingham, Alabama's late, great Wild Sweet Orange. Shaw's music is eminently lyrical – recalling Jeff Buckley!s psychedelic soul, Leonard Cohen!s poetic (and lacerating) wordplay, and fiery fretwork influenced by Stevie Ray Vaughn and David Gilmour as much as it is by Radiohead. Big names to drop, but this is big music – emotional, cinematic, but never pandering. Dreams writ large but still cryptic and surreal. And though these songs almost ceaselessly flow from Shaw, The Great Book of John is very much a band – and a formidable one at that. Along with fellow WSO alumni vocalist Bekah Fox, bassist Alex Mitchell, and drummer Chip Kilpatrick, The Great Book of John can conjure the sublime in any setting – with or without electricity. The Great Book of John is the debut long-player from Birmingham-based label Communicating Vessels. It released digitally and physically (CD and limited-edition 180-gram clear vinyl) on August 16th via Burnside Distribution.

"We dare you not to like this..." raves Brooklyn's Indie Naked Magazine to the single "Counting Backwards," from the new self-titled EP. Touring the South can be hard for other bands but The Grenadines tell their tale in striking clarity, creating hauntingly orchestral moments and contagious melodies as they travel. They've forged their way onto the music scene with a striking presence which cannot be ignored, opening for Jenny Lewis and The Heartless Bastards in the summer of '09 and continuing to move forward. Two EP's have been released, a Lynn Bridges and Grenadines-recorded collaboration known as "Carousel" and another self-titled collection recorded by Andy LeMaster. Since their 2009 performance at SxSW, they've been working with Jim Eno from Spoon to release a full-length album.
Michael and Lauren Shackelford, Bama-born, from multi-generational musical families and visionary artists, immerse themselves in the chronicles of love and loss they craft. The songs simply hypnotize as a "...psychedelic rock and roll trip. Sometimes slow and droning and sometimes upbeat" - NPR. The Grenadines' stories are hard-earned. They've expertly crafted their vocal interchanges while performing with Andy LeMaster (Bright Eyes), Orenda Fink (Azure Ray), and Bear In Heaven. They've been heard from The 40-Watt in Athens, Nashville's The Basement, and The Bottletree in their very own Birmingham. The Grenadines intend to find ever wider landscapes for their impressive musical backdrops. As one singer put it, "It's make or break time".

Luke Elliot is a young songwriter with an old soul. On his second disc, “Death of a Widow”, Elliot creates predominately dark-hued musical landscapes which serves as backdrop to his tales of love, heartbreak and obsession. There are elements of Americana (specifically Faulkner, Dylan and Cohen) in this disc’s five tracks but Elliot ‘modernizes’ the classic Americana sound into something that is both delicate but dangerous. Elliot’s clear vocals drive each song (in addition to driving home the lyrics) and the vocals are
complemented by brooding piano and guitar arrangements. The end result has Elliot carving out his own niche where he sounds more like an alt-folk “cousin” to John Cale or aless-deranged Nick Cave than the aforementioned Americana artists. -BROOKLYN ROCKS