tribune salutes local musicians

Music Tampa Bay and Sticks of Fire applaud the Tampa Tribune’s Friday Extra last week for publishing a list of 15 new CD’s by local artists. This was an impressive collection of fresh new music by established and emerging local talent, well deserving of the attention provided by the publication.

We are especially pleased to note the Tribune report includes new albums that have recently been featured at MTB and SOF.  These include the new album, Tainted, by Judy Tampa and Bunko Squad, and Come Out of the Rain by Leigh Humes, both of whom are being featured this week with one track every hour by both artists, who are also both planning CD release events this weekend in Tampa. The Tribune report also included Steve Vaclavik’s latest CD, The Roof Needs More, a recent MTB feature artist and part of the first live streaming event ever on Music Tampa Bay just a couple of weeks ago.

What is interesting in the Tribune’s list are those new CD’s by artists that were not mentioned, including the current release by Richard MacLemale called Every Single Day, which was also part of the live streaming webcast in late October, and Have Gun Will Travel, also with a new album release event planned this weekend in Ybor City, though the newspaper list did include the group’s previous CD release, Casting Shadows Tall as Giants.

A number of Bay area artists who also told us they have new CDs include Fremont John (Guitar Songs), Bob Lever and Crossbridge, with a new CD called Rumor Has It that will be featured in coming weeks, Soulshaker Wendy Rich and her new album called Driver, and smooth jazz maestro Winfield Davis and a new album called Bass and Beyond.

Other new albums not mentioned in the published report include CDs by David J. Potts, The Double M Band, Francillia, and the artist who has been heard recently describing himself as “the artist formerly known as Molten Mike”, soon to be releasing an album under his given name, Michael Deselle.

In addition to new albums, Music Tampa Bay has also learned of new singles or collections of singles by Rich Whitely’s Earth Bombs Mars, Dean Johansen’s Human Condition, Cindy and Frank LaRosa’s North 2 South, Just Plain Folks driving force Jerry Jakala, recent MTB feature artist Alex Wolfe Parnes, and a new artist in the MTB playlist, Bill Flatch.

We here are grateful to the Tampa paper for compiling its latest list of new music by local artists, including the online version which also has an impressive list of past releases.  The Tribune’s summary of new music by local artists is a tribute to the enormous pool of great talent in the Tampa Bay music scene, and an encouraging sign that original music by local artists deserves greater recognition by the mainstream media.  We hope big media will continue to update and report on the creative effort by local artists all around Tampa Bay.

And of course, all these artists have a home, all day, everyday, on Tampa Bay’s online source for all original music by local artists all the time, Music Tampa Bay.com.