12.16.04
(MusicPortal.com)
Matador Records has announced the signing of acclaimed artist and radio personality
LAURA CANTRELL to a worldwide recording agreement. The Nashville-born, New York-based "proprietress" of
WFMU's long-running "Radio Thrift Shop" is currently working on the follow-up to her 2002 release, "
When The Roses Bloom Again." Long-time supporter
John Peel called her first CD "my favorite album of the last 10 years, and possibly my life." Cantrell's two previous albums were released by
Diesel Only Records in the U.S. and
Shoeshine/Spit & Polish in the U.K. Over the past four years, she has opened U.S. tours for
Elvis Costello and
Joan Baez, appeared on the
Grand Ole Opry, the
Newport Folk Festival, and the
Late Show With Conan O'Brien, recorded five Peel Sessions, and has been profiled in
The Wall Street Journal and
New York Times, among other publications. Cantrell's still untitled upcoming album is scheduled for a late Spring release and will include such new originals as 'Khaki And Corduroy,' a meditation on her experience as a transplanted southerner attending university in New York City, and 'California Rose,' inspired by the life of California country music pioneer
Rose Maddox. The album will also feature a version of the Appalachian murder ballad 'Poor Ellen Smith,' which was collected and published in the 1927 book "
American Mountain Songs" by Cantrell's great, great aunt,
Ethel Park Richardson, a "songcatcher" from Chattanooga, TN who later moved to New York like Cantrell did. The new sessions are being produced by
JD Foster, whose production credits include
Richard Buckner and
Marc Ribot, and has recorded and toured with artists including
Patty Griffin and
Dwight Yoakam.
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