Scissor Tail Records

Matt Kivel’s eighth album, Escape from L.A., is his most autobiographical offering—a nine-year labor of love weaving personal memories with cultural touchstones. Like Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks, it plays with time and perspective. From the gentle shuffle of Santa Monica to the ominous throb of Tidal Wave, Kivel has crafted a widescreen reflection on home, memory, and place.

Suspended in time, yet charged with a power and purpose for today, Tobacco City’s ‘Horses’ examines running free to the sound of pedal steel guitars and the timeless vibrations of youth.

Joshua Massad & Dylan Aycock’s Two Improvisations is absolutely fascinating music that is as mercurial as it is rhythmic and steady. Imagine Ry Cooder and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt’s A Meeting by the River with the experimental knob turned right up and you’ll get close. Spellbinding.

This month, Scissor Tail Records release Gary Peters’s “Beginnings: Collected Pedal Steel Works”, a rewarding album that both challenges and engages.

Spirituum Terrae is a new release on Scissor Tail Records and marks Denmark-based guitarist Anders Holst’s first excursion into acoustic guitar compositions. Listen to opening track Water Woman.

Fire and Earth is the latest offering from guitarist Joseph Allred. It’s released on Scissor Tail Records who speak highly – There’s a sincerity in Allred’s music and way of life that has been missing from modern life for a long time. Dig deeper and listen in full to the album.

I can only say that I loved this album, and probably will for as long I can imagine. You can find virtuoso playing, imaginative composition, wonderful arranging and a sense of ‘I’m taking this music where I want it to go, without forgetting the roots of its being.’ What more could you ever want?

On Black Wind, songwriter / guitarist Wes Tirey makes the case for quality over quantity. Whereas his previous releases were turned inward, this album opens out like Terence Malick meditating on prairie grass. The arrangements are spacious, simple structures of voice and acoustic guitar, with sparse backing from a Telecaster and a trap kit.