Maurice Tani - All In! El Cerrito, Calif. – Monday, March 28, 2022 – After a solid life as a working pro in large, touring dance bands, preceded by a long stint in the indie rock world with Flamin’ Groovies front man Roy Loney, Maurice Tani wanted to play his own music. As a [...]
Silent Partners -- Tony Coleman (drums/vocals), Russell Jackson (bass/vocals) and Jonathan Ellison (guitar/vocals) -- boast more than a century’s worth of experience playing the blues. Their individual resumes include stints with B.B. King, Albert King, Bobby Blue Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Clay, Denise LaSalle, Matt “Guitar” Murphy and a host of other blues heavyweights. But Changing Times on Little Village [...]
Phantom Blues Band - Blues for Breakfast For all his considerable musical talents Taj Mahal has always been shrewd. And smart. In the early 1990s he knew he’d assembled something special in his backing band. He dubbed his secret weapon the Phantom Blues Band. After helping Taj [...]
Silent Partners - Changing Times As natural as a steady pulse, Silent Partners make their debut on the Little Village label with Changing Times, a 10-song collection of blues that never misses a beat. Members Tony Coleman (drums and vocals), Russell Jackson (bass) and Jonathan Ellison (guitar [...]
Diunna Greenleaf - I Ain't Playin' You might want to put on your hat and slicker, because Houston blues singer Diunna Greenleaf’s I Ain’t Playin’ is about to rain down on you like a gushing Texas oil well. Her new Little Village album (Release date: May 20, 2022) captures a [...]
Henry Kaiser & Rome Yamilov - The Lenoir Investigation Rome Yamilov & Henry Kaiser's new release The Lenoir Investigation may well turn out to be the archetypal Little Village (LV) release, a beautiful mélange of brilliant, crosscultural playing grounded in a profound respect for musical tradition seasoned with a diabolically creative dash [...]
Mighty Mike Schermer - Just Gettin' Good The opening title cut of Mighty Mike Schermer’s 8th solo album and Little Village recording debut describes the 55-year-old guitarist/singer/songwriter’s musical journey perfectly. “It ain’t gettin’ old, it’s just gettin’ good!” Recorded throughout the pandemic at Greaseland in San Jose, [...]
Marina Crouse - Canto de mi corazón Vocalist Marina Crouse Celebrates her Chicana Heritage with New Tribute Album to Eydie Gormé El Cerrito, Calif. – Monday, March 28, 2022 – Accepting one’s identity and ethnicity, and in turn, that of others is becoming more embedded in the cultural [...]
DaShawn Hickman w/ Charlie Hunter - Drums, Roots & Steel Little Village Releases DaShawn Hickman’s Debut Album, Putting the Pedal Steel Center-Stage with Hunter on Bass Guitar and Backed by West African Percussionists Atiba Rorie and Brevan Hampden and Vocalist Wendy Hickman Greensboro, North Carolina – Wednesday, March 30, 2022 [...]
Bobby Black - Seventy Years of Swinging Steel! Best-known for gracing the pedal steel chair in Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, Asleep at the Wheel, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Bobby Black is one of the greats at his chosen instrument and [...]
Memphissippi Sounds - Welcome to the Land Two young men playing authentic original blues, the one-chord trance drone chanting form that preceded what most folks think of as the traditional 12 bar/ AAB lyric structures, might seem like a musical anachronism. But when the song’s vocal chant [...]
Nic Clark - Love Your Life / Songs for the Whole Family Not Your Average Children’s Music Nic Clark had a fairly unconventional childhood, which is perhaps one reason why his first album, Love Your Life / Songs for the Whole Family, came out youth-centric. It wasn’t that [...]
Gary Vogensen - Shot of Hope RELEASE DATE: JULY 1st, 2021 It takes enormous talent and skill to be good enough to be on the stage at all—stars are well and good, but without the musicians outside the spotlight, you don’t have much. Gary Vogenson has been one [...]
Aaron Lington - 4 Bari x Bach RELEASE DATE: JUNE 19th, 2021 Aaron Lington's normally busy life as a music professor and Coordinator of Jazz Studies at San Jose State, composer, arranger, session musician and family man slowed down slightly during the pandemic. He utilized the downtime as an excuse to hone his [...]
Tia Carroll - You Gotta Have It! We are so excited to introduce you to the amazing vocals of Bay Area blues singer supreme, Tia Carroll. Tia has been performing steadily with her own band for decades in California, and made some successful recordings before (rock, gospel, [...]
ZINDAGI “Zindagi” (fyi, pronounced zin-duh-gee) means life. And it starts like this: “Walk with the dreams that lie in your heart/ Don't look back, keep moving forward./ Your ambitions are a melody. / Become its voice.” We live in such dark times that Aki Kumar, whose lyrics usually [...]
Join us at home for a free virtual show featuring performances from the 20x20 singer/songwriters compilation! Watch on your favorite streaming site as these incredibly talented artists perform their new songs on the legendary Freight and Salvage stage Find where to watch at: https://www.thefreight.org/stream/ or check the Facebook Live Stream Event Page.
"Even the most imaginative numerologist is going to have trouble putting a positive spin on 2020, four digits that will long be associated with COVID-19, quarantine and political turmoil. But a new album seeks to reclaim the infamous figure by showcasing a score of singer-songwriters baring their hearts from home. The latest release by [...]
Tune in November 22nd via www.facebook.com/cantstoptheblues for the memorial benefit and CD release party for the great Ron Thompson, featuring Alabama Mike, Chris Cain, Tommy Castro, Tony Coleman, Franck Goldwasser, Cathy Lemmons, Mike Schermer and Marcel Smith. With Kid Andersen, Scott Griffin, Sid Morris, Gary Rosen & Jim Pugh. Can't Stop The Blues is one [...]
Beset as we are with fire, pandemic, and social and political turmoil, we know that what carries us through is our connection to other people. We also know that music, among other things, makes that bond tangible: Heart and art. The Little Village Foundation, a unique, non-profit record company dedicated to shining a light [...]
20 x 20: THE LVF SINGER SONGWRITER COMPILATION Fire, pandemic, social and political torment…hard times indeed. What gets us through? A connection to other people, of course, the knowledge that we’re not alone. What makes the connection palpable? Music, among other things. Heart and art. Little [...]
VALLEJO, CA – JULY 2: Sons of the Soul Revivers, from left, Dwayne Morgan, Ronnie Smith, James Morgan, Walter Morgan and Quantae Johnson are photographed in Vallejo, Calif., on Thursday, July 2, 2020. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group) Hundreds of thousands of music lovers will have to break from their regular tradition [...]
Sonny Green - Found! One Soul Singer Produced by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studio, USA We are beyond excited to announce the new recording from Little Village Foundation – the debut full length album from the best real deal soul singer you've never heard…SONNY GREEN!!! We truly [...]
Sons of Soul Revivers will be performing as part of "Let The Music Play On", Hardly Strictly Bluegrass’ journey to bring the music we all enjoy in the park to you in your living rooms and backyards. The one-time broadcast will air on October 3, from 2-5pm PT, 5-8pm ET. Tune in to watch [...]
Ron Thompson - From the Patio: Live At Poor House Bistro Vol. 1 Recorded live at the Poor House Bistro, San Jose, CA on June 4 and August 6, 2014 Produced by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studio Little Village Foundation and San Jose’s Poor [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week’s episode features Cookie Segelstein and Joshua Horowitz, founding members of Veretski Pass. Founded in 2002 by Segelstein, the band takes its name from the mountain pass in the Carpathians through which the emigrating Jews [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week’s episode features Casey Van Beek and the Tulsa Groove, carrying on the legendary Tulsa sound of forerunners like Leon Russel, JJ Cale, and Elvin Bishop. Their new record, Heaven Forever, is out now on Little [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week’s episode features 75 year-old blues singer and Little Village recording artist John “Blues” Boyd of Redwood City, CA, accompanied on guitar by the one and only Kid Andersen. John worked hard labor all his life, starting as [...]
Check out the interview with Jim Pugh in the June 25th, 2020 Issue of Blues Blast Magazine. "There is little doubt that Jim Pugh is one of the elite keyboard players in blues music. His resume and recording discography is a virtual who’s-who of legendary blues artists as well as some top-selling rock musicians. [...]
THE SONS OF THE SOUL REVIVERS - SONGS WE'LL ALWAYS SING - A TRIBUTE TO THE PILGRIM JUBILEES Gospel music has a fundamental heart magic, a soulful joy in the positive things in life that summons a response from believers and nonbelievers alike. That joy is embodied in the [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. Aki Kumar left his native home in Mumbai, India for the United States with the intention of working as a software engineer. Then he discovered the sounds of the blues, and his life changed dramatically. One of [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week’s episode features Cajun dynamo Wilson Savoy at home in Lafayette, Louisiana, bringing you a little bit of everything — from traditional Cajun accordion and fiddle to rockin’ Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles tunes on [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week's "Working From Home" features award-winning Portland, Oregon-based singer/guitarist/songwriter Mary Flower, a prodigious talent whose seasoned skills have established her as one of America’s foremost roots performers. So much so that legendary Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week’s episode features three generations of La Familia Longoria from Brownsville, Texas. Juan Longoria Sr. has performed for over 50 years throughout the Rio Grande Valley and the state of Texas as the accordion player and [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week "Working From Home" features a fan favorite: The Sons of The Soul Revivers. Walter, James, and Dwayne Morgan grew up singing together in San Francisco. Living now in Vallejo, Ca. their love for quartet [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. This week we present C.J. Chenier, coming to you straight from his backyard with a short set of zydeco and blues. Behind him are some personal mementos and a photo of his famous father: the late [...]
PLEASE JOIN US IN SUPPORTING THESE WORKING MUSICIANS WHOSE ART AND SPIRIT CONTINUE TO UPLIFT AND SUSTAIN US. First in the series will feature sisters Xóchitl and Anaí Morales of Mariachi Mesitzo singing and playing from their family's home in Delano, CA, accompanied by their father Juan. Note: Xóchitl and Anaí self-quarantined for 14 [...]
WORKING FROM HOME TRAILER Just about everyone has been affected by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the music world, no one knows when the box office will open again, and even as many of us return to work in the coming weeks and months, working musicians will continue to [...]
Last week 34 Little Village musicians gathered online to deliver this powerful message: Music Binds Us Together Musicians everywhere have lost their means of making a living due to the pandemic. This loss of performance income has made the sale of artist's recordings more critically important than ever before. Help us [...]
Sporting events, concerts, schools closings, businesses big and small requiring stay at home telecommuting, all are directly affecting our lives. This has had a major impact on Little Village and more specifically it’s artists. For the past week or so there’s been a steady stream of emails coming in canceling concerts and festivals. For [...]
Check out this insightful interview with LVF founder Jim Pugh at Sound and Soul: "Little Village has never actually sold one CD because we don’t own any of the CDs. I give them– and downloads in any format– it’s all owned by the artists. It’s not by the record label. I don’t pay them. [...]
A.P.U.M.E.C. HALL I’d shlep my stuff out of my broken down van and through the backdoor. I’d beg somebody to help me gorilla the Hammond B3 organ up the few steps to the stage. APUMEC Hall- it stood for something I never knew what- was a rickety old Mexican dance hall on East 14th (now [...]
Casey Van Beek and the Tulsa Groove - Heaven Forever Casey Van Beek was born in Holland but raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, and fit right in to the burgeoning local ‘60s rock scene. By his teens he was playing bass [...]
The Mike Duke Project - ... Took a While Acclaimed Musician/Songwriter Mike Duke Unleashes Southern Soul Sounds on First-Ever CD, ...took a while, Due October 11 from Little Village Foundation NICASIO, CA – Singer/keyboardist/songwriter Mike Duke has flourished as an in-demand musician and performer for over 45 years, [...]
PURCHASE AT JUNIOR'S WEB SITE Junior Watson - Nothin' To It But To Do It “I have never heard any guitarist combine the blues with such jazz-tinged playfulness and unpredictability, and with such a seductive fat and greasy tone. Instantly recognizable and 100% original. There is no [...]
We are proud to announce the second annual Arhoolie Awards and Benefit Concert, to be held November 22nd at San Francisco’s The Chapel. Proceeds from the event will go to support the Awards program and help further the mission of the Arhoolie Foundation. This year's award recipients - who each receive $10,000 to support their [...]
MIKE DUKE PLAYS RANCHO NICASIO ON SEPTEMBER 29th! VISIT RANCHO NICASIO WEBSITE FOR INFO Hit songwriter for Huey Lewis finally has an album of his own, after 40 years West Marin singer-songwriter Mike Duke wrote some of the biggest hits of the 1980s for Huey Lewis and the News. He’s spent most [...]
Date And Time Thu, October 3, 2019 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM PDT Description: It's Really Simple Free Food Free Drink Free Music Performances By: Aireene Espiritu Aki Kumar Marina Crouse Maurice Tani and special guests All in support of Little Village Foundation JOIN US! (RSVP For Address) ATTEND
Little Village Foundation Announces Five New Albums Featuring Empowered Multi-Generational Voices of The West Coast’s Foremost Women Artists - Out August 17, 2019 Betty Reid Soskin: A Lifetime of Being Betty (Chosen as one of Glamour Magazine’s “Women of the Year 2018”) Skip The Needle: We Ain’t Never Going Back (Featuring Vicki Randle, Percussionist/Vocalist of The [...]
It's Simple. Sunday, September 8, 2019 from 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM Free Food. Free Drinks. Free Music. Stunning Vista Sunset. Junior Watson. (OC) Sean Wheeler. (PS) Whitney Shay. (SD) Igor Prado. (Ipanema) Attend Event
Skip the Needle to bring its joyful funk metal to debut album release show Vicki Randle was no fresh-faced ingenue when she joined Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Mavis Staples as a percussionist and backup singer in 2010. Well-established as a top-shelf Los Angeles studio musician with dozens of albums and major tours to [...]
AUGUST 17, 2019 FREIGHT & SALVAGE 2020 ADDISTON STREET BERKELEY, CA BUY TICKETS ARTISTS PERFORMING: Mary Flower Guitarist, singer and songwriter Mary Flower is that rare breed of American roots artist. Her devotion to the art form is both lovingly and historically accurate, yet her creativity lends it vitality and energy that it might [...]
Anaí Adina - Espérame En El Cielo 18-year-old vocalist Anaí Adina reveals a visionary mix of tradition and originality on her debut album with Little Village Foundation, Espérame En El Cielo. The youngest of three daughters of noted mariachi musicians Leticia and Juan Morales, Anaí grew up in [...]
SKIP THE NEEDLE - WE AIN'T NEVER GOING BACK On their debut album, We Ain’t Never Going Back, the formidable female powerhouse known as Skip The Needle bring a depth of personal insight and performing experience to their politically astute hard rock/funk songcraft. Throughout We Ain't Never Going [...]
SAIDA DAHIR - THE WALKING STEREOTYPE “Saida Dahir’s blistering spoken word performance about her fear of school shootings and the political hypocrisy that follows electrified the crowd at Salt Lake City’s March for Our Lives.” –Mother Jones An 18-year-old Muslim Somali refugee living in Salt Lake City, Utah, [...]
MARY FLOWER - LIVIN' WITH THE BLUES AGAIN "a world-class finger-style guitarist and lap slide player." -DownBeat "There are few musicians in the genre bringing as much creative spark and low-key mojo to this century-old music." -Acoustic Guitar "[Flower] plays the blues with the soul and wit they were created [...]
BETTY REID SOSKIN - A LIFETIME OF BEING BETTY A Glamour Magazine “Women of the Year 2018” Honoree "Betty Reid Soskin is a revelation; her story, a window into a more complicated, heroic, inclusive 20th century; her life a testament to affirmation in the face of adversity. That [...]
Congratulations to these nominees that are part of the growing Little Village Foundation family: And to those who lent their support:
MAURICE TANI - THIS IS IT! Live Acoustic Performance In-Concert Recording NEW ALBUM FROM SINGER-SONGWRITER ON LITTLE VILLAGE Singer-songwriter Maurice Tani’s second album on the Little Village label, “This Is It!”, is a live, acoustic recording capturing the excitement and spontaneity of a live concert. Known for his [...]
New album 'This Is It!' is here. Official release date 2/7 at the scene of the crime: Freight & Salvage. Pre-release copies available at mauricetani .com READ MORE BUY TICKETS
Little Village Foundation Benefit Show featuring Kevin Burt, Mariachi Mestizo (small ensemble), Marina Crouse, Maurice Tani, Sean Wheeler, The Sons of the Soul Revivers w/Marcel Smith, Raise Your Voice - The Sound of Student Protest Thu, February 7, 2019 Doors: 7:00 PM / Show: 8:00 PM Freight & Salvage Berkeley, CA This event is [...]
The students of Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are raising their voices for good. In February, the lives of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students were changed forever when an active shooter took the lives of 17 students and staff within the school. Since then, the survivors have launched the March [...]
A new album protesting gun violence includes students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school performing the original song, 'Shine.' WATCH VIDEO AT CNN
I’d been at Kenney’s house the day before. Back then we had lived near each other out in The Richmond. He knew a secretary at Warner’s that would send him new releases every month. Like clock work. Kinda pissed me off but we would sit and listen to some stuff while we talked and drank [...]
As the major record label system continues to evolve, different sounds and different artists have become more marginalized than ever before, thanks to the never ending search for the quickest, easiest hit record possible. Songs get more and more formulaic and homogeneous sounding and artists are cast aside quickly, easily disposable in a world where [...]
MAKE A DONATION TO THE RAISE YOUR VOICE PROJECT LISTEN TO THE ROUGH DRAFT DIARIES PODCAST VARIOUS ARTISTS - RAISE YOUR VOICE The courage and moral clarity shown by the student survivors of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida struck [...]
MAKE A DONATION TO THE RAISE YOUR VOICE PROJECT The courage and moral clarity shown by the student survivors of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida struck an immediate emotional chord with the American public, bringing home the reality of [...]
On the Bandwagon stage earlier in the day, students from all over the country came together to perform songs and poems featured on “Raise Your Voice,” an album released nationally on Friday, Oct. 5, by Jim Pugh‘s nonprofit Little Village Foundation, written in response to the recent spate of school shootings. Madison Yearsley of New [...]
We’re very excited to share this huge musical talent to the world with this much-anticipated, stunning debut recording from Kevin Burt - HEARTLAND & SOUL out October 29th on Little Village Foundation Records! The Iowa based Burt’s vocals are absolutely amazing – extremely powerful, rich, warm, expressive and exploding with SOUL!! Another killer sounding album [...]
KEVIN BURT - HEARTLAND AND SOUL 2018 International Blues Challenge Winner in 3 categories!! 1st place Solo/Duo, best Solo/Duo guitarist, & best harmonica player award!! BIG MAN, BIG VOICE, BIG HEART, BIG LOVE! We’re very excited to share this huge musical talent to the world with this much-anticipated, stunning [...]
In 2016, Aki Kumar turned heads with Aki Goes to Bollywood, an unprecedented project that fused blues with Bollywood- style Indian pop—two genres not known for breaking with tradition. The unlikely union led Jason Ricci to lovingly pronounce it a “marketing nightmare” in the album’s liner notes, but it went on to establish the Mumbai [...]
Sacramento singer and multi-instrumentalist Marcel Smith was still in his 20s when he first recorded back in 1993 for the hometown Have Mercy imprint as a member of a group called the Soul Prophets. With Smith’s soul-searing vocals and Robert Nakajima’s fire-spitting guitar, that set, Coming From the Old School, ranks as a serious contender for the Best Album That Nobody Heard award, but [...]
After a group of students from Parkland, Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School crisscrossed the nation this summer on their "Road to Change" tour, they will now lift their voices before the November midterm elections on an inspiring collection of songs titled Raise Your Voice: The Sound of Student Protest. The 11-track album, due Oct. [...]
Jim Pugh, who many of our readers know as the longtime keyboard player in the Robert Cray Band, has recently embarked on a very exciting and interesting endeavor called the Little Village Foundation. I sat down with Jim recently and we talked about this project, his life in music and his own road to the [...]
Aki Goes to Bollywood, is an unexpected and unexpectedly wonderful meeting of American blues and Indian pop. The meeting happened, though, in California’s Bay Area. The project is part of the Little Village Foundation’s mission to uncover the hidden cultures and music of the state. Other releases have covered folk, blues, mariachi and Latin American [...]
LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW Aki Kumar moved to Silicon Valley at the age of 18. His goal, like many others, was to be a successful software engineer. But, something happened along the way. Kumar discovered the blues — the music of Howlin' Wolf and of blues clubs in the San Francisco Bay area. Eventually, [...]
Little Village Foundation Releases Eclectic Series of Seven New Recordings Featuring California’s Foremost Underground Artists "Nonprofit helps worthy California musicians get wide attention.” -San Francisco Chronicle “[Little Village] label boasts some of the best musicians you’ve never heard of.” -San Jose Mercury News Now in its third year of nationally releasing critically-acclaimed recordings [...]
WHITNEY SHAY - A WOMAN RULES THE WORLD A two-time San Diego Music Award winner for “Best Blues Artist,” vivacious young vocal phenom Whitney Shay sings with a commanding authority that's usually associated with artists twice her age. No less an authority than soul legend Candi Staton called Shay "one [...]
MESTIZO - XX ANIVERSARIO Mariachi Mestizo is a modern ensemble that preserves and expands Mexico's centuries-old mariachi tradition. The youthful players, mentored by the veteran mariachi master Juan Morales (Los Camperos), dig deep into the music's history and timeless emotional appeal to make the music vital and current. The young [...]
ADA PASTERNAK - SWEET DREAMS Ada Pasternak is that rare artist who lives and breathes music while expressing her singular life experiences through unforgettbale art. Born in Moscow to musician parents, Ada came to the U.S. with her family at the age of six to escape persecution along with many [...]
UNITED BY MUSIC - YES WE CAN CAN “There's nuthin' like it! I love everything about it. HOPE! United By Music gives people HOPE! I can't wait to get back to playin' with them.”-Bobby Rush: GRAMMY Award-Winner, UBMNA Mentor “These guys are off the chain! I just love playin' with [...]
MARCEL SMITH - EVERYBODY NEEDS LOVE Marcel Smith's debut solo album, Everybody Needs Love, marks the belated emergence of a commanding, massively talented vocalist who’s been honing his skills on the gospel circuit for decades. Everybody Needs Loveshowcases a persuasively soulful voice that's been burnished through years of high-energy [...]
AKI KUMAR - HINDI MAN BLUES Indian-born, San Jose-based Aki Kumar, aka "The Only Bombay Blues Man," left his home in Mumbai with the intention of working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley. Then he discovered the blues, and his life dramatically changed. Singing and playing harmonica, he steeped himself in the music and [...]
MARINA CROUSE - NEVER TOO SOON Opera isn't normally thought of as a path to success in the world of jazz and blues, but it's the route (with some detours) that Marina Crouse took to become one of the most notable rising talents on the San Francisco/Bay Area music scene. Her early classical training is reflected [...]
On August 1st, Little Village Foundation will celebrate the release of 7 new LVR releases at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA with a Summer Showcase performance featuring LVF artists Ada Pasternak, Aki Kumar, Marcel Smith, Marina Crouse, Mariachi Mestizo, Maurice Tani, Whitney Shay. Six singers and a Mariachi! Doors open at 6:00 and [...]
The eclectic nonprofit record label Little Village Foundation, which exists to shine a light on underground artists in and near California, has found its voice. From a young age, Marcel Smith’s dynamic vocals—transitioning from smooth, tender and soulful to raw and feverishly uplifting in short order—have electrified churchgoers for years with undeniable conviction and passion. [...]
Congratulations to all these people who have recorded/produced or performed with LVF for their 2018 Blues Music Award Nominations! Wee Willie Walker The Paul deLay Band June Core Tony Braunagel Chris Cain Christoffer “Kid” Andersen Rick Estrin Nancy Wright Jim Pugh Curtis Salgado
On January 19th, 2018 Little Village Foundation Artists gathered at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA featuring Aireene Espiritu (Aireene Espiritu & The Itch), Aki Kumar, Chris Cain, Howell Devine, Maurice Tani (Maurice Tani & 77 El Deora), The Sons of The Soul Revivers, and Xóchitl Morales. Watch the video here:
The Desert Sun Bruce Fessier Wheeler has led more than a dozen bands over 36 years, playing hybrid genres he’s invented, such as “political sleng teng,” “proto-emo jangle rock” and “glam-inspired punk pop.” He might have set the precedent for desert rockers such as Josh Homme and Brant Bjork to feel it’s more important to [...]
HOWELL DEVINE - HOWL “…a real King Biscuit Time vibe in sound, groove, and attitude. Joshua Howell, the band’s guitarist and harmonica player, plays wicked harp loosely in the Rice Miller tradition, with traces of Jaybird Coleman and Little Walter… emotive, straight blues, with sharp and superb guitar sliding & [...]
Music reviewers have had a delicious time with the name of this Bay Area-based blues trio ever since their first record came out in 2012. Their “divine howl” is official now with the Oct. 13 release of HOWL, their fourth album and debut release on renowned musician Jim Pugh’s new label, Little Village Foundation. "These [...]
Check out the latest video from Sean Wheeler for a track off of the album 'Sand In My Blood'.
There is a great feature on Xochitl Morales on the California Report. "Seventeen-year-old Xochitl Morales has been surrounded by music since she was in the womb. “It’s eat, breathe, sleep mariachi,” she says, as she points out trophies and event posters in her family’s music studio. On the California mariachi scene, everybody knows the Morales family of [...]
Little Village Foundation was featured in The San Francisco Chronicle today! "Listening to the radio as he drove home that night to Santa Ynez (Santa Barbara County), Pugh heard a classic ’50s Frank Sinatra orchestral track recorded at Capitol Records in Hollywood, where Pugh decided on the spot to record the young mariachis because he [...]
Featuring Bay Area, Coachella Valley and Central Valley Artists, Bringing Backroads Music from the Fringes to the Masses Santa Ynez, CA – Thursday, April 20, 2017 – Every year, thousands of North American artists release new music vying for the spotlight, trying to break through the noise to get heard and build their fanbase. Through [...]
WEE WILLIE WALKER AND THE GREASELAND ALL STARS - LIVE! NOTODDEN BLUES FESTIVAL, NORWAY “If enough of the right people hear If Nothing Ever Changes, Wee Willie Walker’s world will change, and he will become the award-winning, highly sought-after soul/blues singer he has deserved to be since the 1960s……. Not enough good [...]
17-year-old Central Valley high school student Xóchitl Morales is a rising voice amongst the California spoken word scene after her poetry went viral with Buzzfeed’s Pero Like Facebook page spotlighting her piece “Latin-Americans: The Children with a Dark Past.” A member of the Los Angeles “Get Lit” slam poetry group, Xóchitl has performed for California [...]
MAURICE TANI - THE LOVERS CARD Writing a sentence is hard work. One with a clean line and a nice shape. Good luck with that. So too is writing a melody that’s musical and appears original. Combining both into a song involves talent. Real talent. Like jumping from the [...]
SEAN WHEELER - SAND IN MY BLOOD Desert Legend Sean Wheeler is an American musician and singer-songwriter whose music is generally characterized by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences, and theatrical, charismatic live performances. He is best known as the frontman of Throw Rag. A lifelong resident of California’s Coachella [...]
XOCHITL MORALES - DESCANSOS Xochitl Morales is a 17 year old high school student from Delano, California. She the assistant director and trumpet player for Mariachi Juvenil Mestizo, and she plays all of the instruments in the mariachi as well as sings. During the week, she teaches mariachi music to the children [...]