Great Spirit is a unique culmination of a wide-variety of musical influences, from The Flaming Lips to Tony Rice and beyond. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Great Spirit combines poetic lyricism with equal parts folk-rock, bluegrass and funk. Their debut album Front Porch to Frontier (out January 13, 2015) combines tasteful blends of musical ability with distinctive, original songwriting showcasing an honest portrait of the people that compose the band itself. Great Spirit is composed of Tom Conneely, Will Durkee and Peter Domenici.

Tom, Will, and Peter laid out a rough plan to record an album while attending a bluegrass festival. Days later the group emerged from the studio with Front Porch to Frontier and followed up the recording session with a run of shows up and down the California coast. What started as a short run of five shows in three days, snowballed into an ongoing tour through the West Coast.

[audio:Road Less Traveled.mp3|titles=Road Less Traveled|artists=Great Spirt]
“Road Less Traveled” by Great Spirit

Montreal-based First You Get The Sugar has released its third effort, a brand new EP called Foreign Lands. Visit Soundcloud and Bandcamp to download/stream for FREE.

A prominent thematic thread can be found in the way the five tracks unfold on the new record: alienation, confusion, and a struggle with the dark unknown. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The ecstasy of making it through the darkness and returning to balance is reflected by the time the record clocks out.

[audio:Foreign Lands.mp3|titles=Foreign Lands|artists=First You Get The Sugar]
“Foreign Lands” by First You Get The Sugar