Bass CDs
Brian Eaton To Release, The Known Space Project
The Known Space Project…
The Known Space Project, by Brian Eaton, features bass guitar as the lead instrument for much of the instrumental album including the proggy, upbeat “Four String Theory,” in which all the tracks for the entire song (including the drum/percussion sounds) were created using bass, making it quite unique.
Brian Eaton will release his third full-length album, The Known Space Project, on Friday, September 17. Though a bit of a departure from his usual vocal rock sound, Eaton is no stranger to jazz/fusion. The new instrumental album consists of nine original compositions showcasing the multi-instrumentalist’s diversity as a multi-genre artist.
Fans can pre-order on iTunes and Bandcamp (in Hi-Res), and pre-save on Spotify to stream/download upon its release at: smarturl.it/Eaton
Eaton’s new project is an eclectic expanse of ethereal atmospheres and fields of magnetic, lyrical melodies orbiting a core of contemporary jazz and prog idioms. Listeners will find elements of jazz, prog rock, nu-jazz, world, R&B, ambient big spaces, and soundtrack vibes within the record. The opening track, “Trans-Neptunian Dust,” features hypnotic, harmonizing horns with an infectious, smooth, jazzy groove, while “Superheavy Metals of Ceres” rocks with saturated guitars and keyboards trading solos over a syncopated, weighty rhythm section. The latter features Eaton’s brother, Bill, on lead guitar, who’s played with former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke.
The ballads, like the captivating “Alone on Top of Ahuna Mons” and the majestically optimistic “Jovian Empyrean,” with its ever-rotating key signatures, revolve around piano and strings and feature electric bass guitar performing lyrical melodies. In fact, the bass is the featured lead instrument for much of the album including the proggy, upbeat “Four String Theory,” in which all the tracks for the entire song (including the drum/percussion sounds) were created using bass guitar making it quite unique.
Regarding the inspiration for The Known Space Project, Eaton comments, “I had begun an appreciation for jazz and fusion at a very early age, and I fell in love with Jaco’s expressive bass sound the moment I first heard it as a kid in the ‘70s on Metheny’s Bright Size Life. It just seemed natural for me to gravitate to the bass guitar’s potential energy when it came to lead instrument selection for this project.”
The overall sound of the album was shaped using a Grammy Award-winning engineered recording from a sophisticated and successful jazz-rock band as its reference. And employing techniques from famed mastering engineer Bob Katz to achieve a wide dynamic range, depth, and dimension with minimal use of compression. The result is a recording with excellent transient clarity and dynamics that sounds clear, sharp, and open.
Currently based in Portland, Eaton started his music career in Chicago studying music theory, composition and jazz piano in college. After college, he opened a recording studio and indie label, Eatin’ Records, producing and recording scores of artists including jazz saxophonist Frank Catalano, Usurper, Cuttlass, Dave Uhrich, Eaton’s band North, and T.D. Clark (Dee Snider guitarist) who toured with Bad Company and Ted Nugent while promoting his debut Eatin’ release. Eaton has also played in several original bands throughout the 90s and early 2000s and produced several tracks of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack for Carnivore. Kelly Simms of the Illinois Entertainer called Eaton, “a multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist with multi-tasking abilities,” and radio host/DJ Tim Lamping proclaimed, “Brian Eaton is a one in a million solo artist, producer and music arranger.”
For more information, visit online at BrianEaton.com
Well-respected roots rock/Americana sidemen; drummer JIMMY LESTER (Billy Joe Shaver, Webb Wilder, Los Straitjackets), bass player/songwriter/singer/bandleader MARK W. WINCHESTER (Planet Rockers, EmmyLou Harris, Brian Setzer), and keyboard player KEVIN MCKENDREE (Lee Roy Parnell, Delbert McClinton, Brian Setzer) form super-groove-group LESTER WINCHESTER MCKENDREE to go it alone, together, on their debut collaborative release, THEY GOT IT ALL (Times Three Records/MAY 29, 2026).
The drum, bass and piano (with vocal) trio recorded over two “live” days at McKendree’s Rock House studio in Franklin, TN early this year, focusing on a collection of Winchester’s original songs the three had been performing together on local club dates, brand new material (the unique origins of which we’ll get to), as well as two instrumentals collaboratively conjured in the studio.
Originally feeling the power of their locked-in, feel-based natural groove while backing E. Street Band bassist Garry Tallent on his solo album and brief tour in 2017, Winchester says he wanted to feel that again. “On that tour, Garry would let his musicians do an original song or two of their own, and I never forgot how great it felt and sounded to sing my songs with Kevin and Jimmy, or how Jimmy and I backed Kevin’s instrumental piano romps.”
In recent years, as Lester Winchester McKendree began performing live, an evolution began taking place with regard to Winchester’s instrument of choice. “I was changing strings one day and started thinking about the band Morphine, and how their frontman Mark Sandman, rest in peace, played a 2-string bass. So I took a YouTube deep dive, got inspired, and only put two strings back on my own bass”, Winchester explains. The sonically unique, melodically interesting result made the decision for the band to record an album a no-brainer.
Songwriters will often say a guitar new to them will “have songs in it”, or that writing on an instrument one is not totally familiar with can open up new creative possibilities. Winchester described it this way: “Songs just started falling out of that thing. Sandman played with a slide, but I just used my long fingers. The 2-String is tuned in fifths, and I started finding melodies and riffs, and for the first time ever, really, wrote all the music to pieces before any lyrics came.”
About a year after stringing his own bass with only two, Eastwood Guitars serendipitously (for Winchester) brought to market a replica “Sandman Model” 2-String bass. Winchester immediately ordered one. “When I got it, it was tuned in a different key than my Silvertone, but sure enough, songs started falling outta that thing too.” The songs that ‘fell out’ of that Sandman Model 2-String bass, by way of Winchester’s creative mind, make up the bulk of THEY GOT IT ALL, and the sparse fire and crisp energy that McKendree’s piano and Lester’s drumming bring to these tunes infuses them with, well, ‘cool’. The 2-String bass running separately, but simultaneously through bass and guitar amps, gives the trio a guitarish crunchiness you wouldn’t expect with no 6-stringer in the fold.
All three of these accomplished musicians’ careers started commingling in Nashville in the late 1980s.
JIMMY LESTER, a Nashville, TN native, moved from Billy Joe Shaver’s band to the original drum chair for Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks. Lester also established himself as a master of surf-rock drum style as a founding member of Los Straightjackets, which coincided with the
formation of roots rock cult hero band The Planet Rockers, of which Winchester was a founding member on upright bass.
Originally from Monroe, NC, MARK W. WINCHESTER moved to Nashville in 1988. He went on to join Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers, before a stint as a Music Row staff songwriter, where he penned a hit for Randy Travis (‘Would I?’). He later joined the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and has had several of his songs recorded by Setzer, including ‘Rooster Rock’ on which Setzer had Winchester sing lead vocal.
KEVIN McKENDREE, from the Washington D.C. area, came to Nashville as the piano man for Lee Roy Parnell and quickly established himself as a real-deal roots and blues keyboardist, eventually playing on multiple Grammy-winning albums. McKendree (as well as Winchester) played with blues mastermind Mike Henderson, Brian Setzer’s Rock-A-Billy Riot, and The Brian Setzer Orchestra. McKendree’s 20+ year partnership with Delbert McClinton, as musician/co-writer/producer/engineer, led to the 2020 Grammy-winning McClinton album TALL, DARK, & HANDSOME -recorded by McKendree at his Rock House studio.
It was there at the Rock House, with McKendree on keys and control board, that he, Lester, and Winchester, with no bosses, no agenda, and no pressure, laid down the live, loose, properly boned, expertly fleshed, lyrically interesting, groovy aural document that is THEY GOT IT ALL.
Maybe they do.
Visit online at www.markwwinchester.com
Oteil Burbridge & Lamar Williams Jr. Champion Love Over Hate in New Single “Hush” | New Album ‘The Offering’ Out May 1.
Bassist Oteil Burbridge and vocalist Lamar Williams Jr. continue the rollout of their forthcoming collaborative album The Offering, with the release of its second single, “Hush”. A slow-burning Southern soul meditation rooted in love, peace, and emotional clarity, the track is a centerpiece on the album with a potent, thematic statement, in Williams’ words to “block out all of that nonsense” and “remember that there is more love in the world than hate.” The full-length album arrives May 1 via Flóki Studios, recorded on Iceland’s northern coast and produced by drummer, engineer, and Soulive co-founder Alan Evans.
While much of The Offering grew out of Burbridge’s banjo-based writing, “Hush” emerged from he and Williams’ shaping a deliberate sonic vision. Burbridge says they were “trying to capture a more old school Memphis, Macon, Muscle Shoals vibe,” leaning into a Southern soul feel that fits Williams’s phrasing. The end result is a song that is unhurried with a deep pocket that allows the groove and the song’s message breathe and stand at the forefront.
The album features an all-star lineup of drummer John Morgan Kimock, percussionist Weedie Braimah, organist Melvin Seals of the Jerry Garcia Band, pianist and violinist Jason Crosby, guitarists Tom Guarna and Jaden Lehman — musicians whose overlapping histories connect the Allman Brothers Band, Dead & Company, the Jerry Garcia Band, Soulive, and West African percussion traditions.
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Pops Magellan unveils her debut live EP, DAMAGE (Live at EastWest Studios), a three-track performance project recorded at the legendary EastWest Studios. Captured in Studio One using one-take camera performance, the session offers a raw and intentional introduction to Magellan’s artistic world as a solo artist, bandleader, and producer.
The live EP features three compositions from her DAMAGE era:
“Misunderstood,” featuring Taylor Graves and Robert Sput Searight
“Deep Thoughts,” featuring Noa Kahn
“Drive Complaining,” featuring Robert Sput Searight and Artur Menezes
Originally released as a series of live performance videos on YouTube, the session now lives as a body of work, highlighting Magellan’s ability to merge high-level musicianship with groove-driven, emotionally resonant compositions. Each track unfolds as a conversation between players, balancing technical precision with spontaneity.
Recorded in a single day at EastWest, the session reflects Magellan’s commitment to capturing music in its most honest form. With a focus on raw live interplay, DAMAGE (Live at EastWest Studios) sets a clear tone: this is an artist building her identity in real time.
The session features a handpicked group of collaborators. Robert Searight, founding member of Ghost-Note, brings his signature groove, alongside virtuoso Noa Kahn, acclaimed guitarist Artur Menezes, and Grammy winner Taylor Graves, who co-produced two songs on the original EP.
“It was a way to start a strong foundation for the world I’m building.” says Pops. “I wanted to make something beautiful, strong, and honest, something I’d be proud of looking back.”
Pops leads every aspect of the project, from curating collaborators to shaping the sonic and visual identity. The result is a refined yet powerful debut live statement that positions her at the intersection of musicianship, artistry, and modern performance culture.
With more music on the way and live shows to be announced soon, DAMAGE (Live at EastWest Studios) marks the beginning of a larger vision still unfolding.
Stream DAMAGE (Live at EastWest Studios) HERE
Watch the Live Session HERE
Martin Wind celebrates 30th Anniversary and release of new CD “September”…
Bassist/ Composer Martin Wind celebrates the 30th anniversary of his move to NYC with the release of his new album “September” (Laika Records) at these Tri-State concerts:
April 9: Smalls, NYC (sets at 6 and 7:30 pm)
April 10: Puffin Cultural Forum, Teaneck, NJ (7 pm)
April 11: Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA (7 – 10 pm):
He will be joined by the partners of his acclaimed Gravity Trio – Peter Weniger on tenor saxophone and Jonas Burgwinkel on drums.
The trio’s special guest will be pianist Glenn Zaleski, who’s been playing for artists such as saxophonist Melissa Aldana and vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, among others. Together, Martin and Glenn used to work frequently with the late, great clarinetist and saxophonist Ken Peplowski.
The group will be performing selections from the new CD “September,” which is now available as of March 6 on all streaming platforms and for sale at
www.laika-records.de and www.martinwind.com (U.S. only).
As leader and co-leader, Wind has released more than 30 albums, among them Turn Out the Stars – Music Written or Inspired by Bill Evans (2014), My Astorian Queen (2021), and New York Bass Quartet – Air (2022), which DB Magazine heralded as “a bass manifesto”.
Also available as of January 30: Newvelle Records release of Martin Wind’s LP “Stars” featuring the
All-Star line-up of Anat Cohen (clarinet), Matt Wilson (drums) and Maestro Kenny Barron on piano.
Bassist Nate Edgar and The Nth Power have released their latest single, available on all major streaming platforms.
“Simple Life” showcases Nate’s deep-pocketed, country-funk groove, locking in seamlessly with bandmates Nick Cassarino (guitar/vocals) and Nikki Glaspie (drums/vocals). The tune also features the brass power of The Soul Rebels.
“Simple Life” is the second single from The Nth Power’s upcoming album, out May 1. The album “Never Alone” marks the band’s first release on the GroundUp music label, and includes contributions by:
Nicholas Payton
Skerik
Courtney Smith
Dominique Xavier
Jon Deas
And The Soul Rebels
The Nth Power:
thenthpowermusic.com
https://ffm.bio/thenthpower
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-nth-power/657446657
https://soundcloud.com/the-nth-power
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95_b9RpVDiTUt1EpPI3OEQ