Watkins Family Hour's 'Brokedown Palace' Premieres at LA Times
By: Caryn Robbins Jun. 30, 2015
Watkins Family Hour's rendition of "Brokedown Palace" premiered yesterday at the Los Angeles Times' Pop & Hiss blog and can now be streamed/shared via SoundCloud and purchased at iTunes. The song is from the band's debut, self-titled album, which will be released July 24 on Family Hour Records via Thirty Tigers. The world-renowned collective features siblings Sara and Sean Watkins along with Fiona Apple, Benmont Tench, Don Heffington, Greg Leisz and Sebastian Steinberg. Of Sara and Sean, Randy Lewis of the Los Angeles Timescomments, "...they've nurtured a communal spirit that seems rarer and rarer. Their Watkins Family Hour shows have featured a long string of friends and admirers who pop in, often unannounced, simply for the joy of playing music with like-minded musicians."
To celebrate the release, Watkins Family Hour will soon take their "variety show of epic proportions" (Los Angeles Times) to cities across the U.S. kicking off with a performance at the Newport Folk Festival on July 24 and including an official Los Angeles release show at the Largo on August 13. The tour also includes dates in New York City, Nashville, TN, Chicago, IL, Berkley, CA, Seattle, WA, Alexandria, VA, and Asheville, NC. Tickets are on sale now. See below for complete details.
Already receiving critical acclaim, Watkins Family Hour's "Not In Nottingham" recently premiered at Entertainment Weekly; while the first single, "Steal Your Heart Away," premiered on The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog. Of "Steal Your Heart Away," Consequence of Sound praises, "...a lovely take on the Fleetwood Mac original. Sara's lilting vocals lead the affair, backed by a warm, yearning mix of strings and piano," and Rolling Stone Countryasserts, "...features Sara's crisp vocals...and chugs along with slinky steel guitar and her signature lyrical fiddle."
Watkins Family Hour, recorded live over three days in the studio of their friend and producer-engineer Sheldon Gomberg, captures the freewheeling spirit of the collective's live shows. An all-covers affair, the album additionally includes Sara leading vocals on the Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace" and Apple singing "Where I Ought To Be," originally performed by Skeeter Davis.
Of the album and tour, Sara comments, "Taking the Watkins Family Hour on tour and releasing this record feels like the right next step. The show is about a community of players and that community stretches across the country. If we can't get everyone to L.A. to do our show, we'll come to them. We are coming to towns where we have friends and we can have those moments, even if it's not our home club. It's the people on stage who make that happen; it's just a matter of getting the right group of people together. We are being thoughtful about where we are going so we can have that sort of flexibility. It will be a very different show in every town."
Watkins Family Hour began in 2002 as a monthly musical residency hosted by Sara and Sean and held exclusively at Los Angeles' Largo at the Coronet. Of the performances, Forbes praises, "This combination of seeing a marquee talent, the element of surprise and the congeniality of an evening of friends makes for a great night out, where the artists appear to be enjoying themselves, and enjoy seeing their friends perform. It feels like a 21st Century version of the Greenwich Village folk scene at clubs like the Bitter End in the 1960s. Mostly, what it feels like is-well-like Largo," while American Songwriter asserts, "Inside the Largo, a funny thing happens: along with her brother, Sean, and friends like Fiona Apple and Jackson Browne, Watkins leads an evening of folk tunes, bluegrass jams and good old-fashioned musical revelry, a joyful room that brings wailing voices and acoustic strings to an electric city..."
WATKINS FAMILY HOUR TRACK LIST
1. Feelin' Good Again (written by Robert Earl Keen, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
2. Where I Ought To Be (written by Harlan Howard, lead vocals by Fiona Apple and Sara Watkins)
3. Not In Nottingham (written by Roger Miller, lead vocals by Sean Watkins)
4. Steal Your Heart Away (written by Lindsey Buckingham, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
2. Where I Ought To Be (written by Harlan Howard, lead vocals by Fiona Apple and Sara Watkins)
3. Not In Nottingham (written by Roger Miller, lead vocals by Sean Watkins)
4. Steal Your Heart Away (written by Lindsey Buckingham, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
5. Prescription for the Blues (written by Saunders Montgomery, lead vocals by Benmont Tench)
6. Going Going Gone (written by Bob Dylan, lead vocals by Sean Watkins)
7. Hop High (traditional, arranged by Watkins Family Hour, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
7. Hop High (traditional, arranged by Watkins Family Hour, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
8. She Thinks I Still Care (written by Dickey Lee Lipscomb, lead vocals by Sebastian Steinberg)
9. The King of the 12 Oz. Bottles (written by Lee Ving, lead vocals by Don Heffington)
10. Early Morning Rain (written by Gordon Lightfoot, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
11. Brokedown Palace (written by Robert C. Hunter and Jerry Garcia, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
11. Brokedown Palace (written by Robert C. Hunter and Jerry Garcia, lead vocals by Sara Watkins)
WATKINS FAMILY HOUR CONFIRMED TOUR DATES
July 16 /// Los Angeles, CA /// Largo at the Coronet
July 23 /// Newport, RI /// Jane Pickens Theater
July 24 /// Newport, RI /// Newport Folk Festival
July 28, 29 & 30 /// New York, NY /// City Winery
August 1 & 2 /// Nashville, TN /// City Winery
August 4, 5 & 6 /// Chicago, IL /// Old Town School of Folk
August 8 /// New York, NY /// Lincoln Center Out of Doors
August 13 /// Los Angeles, CA /// Largo at the Coronet
August 14 & 15 /// Berkeley, CA /// Freight & Salvage
August 16 /// Redding, CA /// Cascade Theatre
August 19 /// Jacksonville, OR /// Britt Pavilion
August 21 /// Portland, OR /// Aladdin Theater
August 22 & 23 /// Seattle, WA /// Tractor Tavern
August 28 /// Boulder, CO /// Boulder Theater
August 30 /// Fayetteville, AR /// Fayetteville Roots Festival
September 8 & 9 /// Alexandria, VA /// The Birchmere
September 10 /// Carrboro, NC /// Cat's Cradle
September 11 & 12 /// Asheville, NC /// The Grey Eagle
September 13 /// Atlanta, GA /// Terminal West
September 15 /// Athens, GA /// Georgia Theatre
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