April Artist: Points North

May was a good month for me in the new music department.

A new project featuring favorite guitarist Steve Morse along with some other big-name talent, Flying Colors, saw release last week.  It sounds great and may turn into a classic.  Musically it falls in the wide and eclectic space between Toy Matinee and 90125 (Yes) with a bit of Queen thrown in for good measure.

Two weeks prior to the release of Flying Colors, a new instrumental trio called "Points North" released its debut.  It's pretty easy to sell me on instrumental music that takes cues from Steve Morse and/or Eric Johnson.  Points North gets the nod as the April artist, edging Flying Colors thanks to the fact that the latter has no ReverbNation embed gadget.

Listen to Points North here, check out Flying Colors at Facebook or Amazon.com. I recommend the tune "The Phoenix." 

Hrm.  ReverbNation has changed the embed to make it 95 percent less groovy.  No fancy graphics or mini-jukebox appearance.  On the plus side, "The Phoenix" appears to play first by default.  Good choice!

Here's a Points North video featuring the song "Steve's Morsel's":




Addendum: 

Popular artist Frankie Rose (actually literally popular) also caught my ear in a big way in May, garnering honorable mention here.  Rose's solo  album ("Interstellar") has 60s girl-group pop sensibilities combined with fractured guitars reminiscent of those found in the music of Tonio K and T-Bone Burnett, all delivered on a sumptuously atmospheric palette.  Good stuff.



Correction 4/2/2012:  I should have known better than to put an "e" at the end of "T-Bone Burnett."  It didn't look right and I should have double-checked.  Apologies to Mr. Burnett.