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 [...]