Under the moniker Adeline Hotel, New York-based musician Dan Knishkowy has spent nearly the last decade releasing one fantastic album after another. A benchmark identity of the project is that no release ever repeats quite the same sonic foray, a deliberate approach taking creative inspiration from the likes of Jim O’Rourke and Arthur Russell, the musician revealed to AD last year. After hearing that sound mutate from fingerpicking guitar to the jazzy orchestral pop of Hot Fruit to last year’s personal concept album Whodunnit, Adeline Hotel’s inaugural Lagniappe Session reveals everything on full display.
Category: Lagniappe Sessions
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Yves Jarvis
Reviewing Yves Jarvis’ All Cylinders, we wrote, “Where once was a loose attempt at art gospel or chopped-up soul, now there is a conscious, sincere engagement with the classics Jarvis clearly adores—Paul McCartney, Love, Stevie Wonder, and Prince.” Those are clearly classic touchstones, but Jarvis does more than tap into them: he taps into their spirits and synthesizes them into something brand new. Jarvis is a melodic polymath, which is made clear by his first ever Lagniappe Session, which finds him covering material from Porter Robinson, John Mayer, and a standard from Frank Sinatra.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Ezra Feinberg
Since Ezra Feinberg’s return to making and releasing music at the close of the last decade, he’s been on an unbelievable run. Feinberg’s contributions to our ongoing series of Lagniappe Sessions square the circle of his sound, offering up covers of the shimmering folk-pop vocal group The Roches, on the one hand, and minimalist composer and Philip Glass Ensemble stalwart Jon Gibson, on the other. Feinberg’s gift has always been to endow minimalist process and ambient expansion with a real emotional weight, so the balance here between lovelorn romanticism and new music abstraction seems particularly on point. Feinberg’s covers are alternately heartbreaking and harrowing.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Styrofoam Winos
Hailing from Music City, USA, Styrofoam Winos are Lou Turner, Joe Kenkel and Trevor Nikrant. Following up one of our favorite albums of 2024, the Winos return this month with their debut Lagniappe Session. With four covers as eclectic and malleable as their collective influences, the trio lean into the Roches’ 1979 s/t cult classic, the wonder that is “Blue” Gene Tyranny, peak and primal Exene Cervenka, and a cut via Link Wray’s inestimable 3-Track Shack era.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Rich Ruth
Earlier this year saw the return of Rich Ruth via the Nashville based artist’s third long-player, Water Still Flows, an album we described as “absolutely audacious in its musical fusions and amalgamations… a woozy kaleidoscope of spiritual jazz, post-rock, chiming minimalism, Berlin school synth sequencers, metal and drone.” For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, Michael Ruth and co. reimagine the Boognish via a cover of Ween’s “A Tear For Eddie,” and take on Black Sabbath outlier “Planet Caravan,” via the band’s sophomore effort, 1970’s Paranoid.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Caravan 222
“…I’m your toy, I’m your old boy.” Country-fried Los Angeles outfit Caravan 222 continue to put the honk in the tonk. For their Lagniappe Session, the septet works up stalwart ’70s British pub-rockers Brinsley Schwarz’s “Country Girl,” Danny O’Keefe’s 1972 chestnut “I’m Sober Now,” and a faithful rendition of Gram’s “Hot Burrito #1.”
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Caleb Dailey
Phoenix songwriter Caleb Dailey’s voice is a warm, enveloping thing. On his solo debut, 2022 LP Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings: Beside You Then, he applied it to a survey of country and western music, covering songs by Gordon Lightfoot, Waylon Jennings, Blaze Foley, Chip Moman, and more. But the album was far from an exercise in retro country—in these timeworn songs, Dailey finds a site for experimentation, ambient textures, and smoked out soundscapes. For his Lagniappe session, brings a similar sense of vision and mystery to selections by Skeeter Davis and NRBQ, Leroy Van Dyke, and Lucinda Williams.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Bobby Lee
Cosmic country rambler Bobby Lee takes the controls and sets a course for the heart of the cosmos with these covers of songs by Don Williams, Fred Eaglesmith, and funk legends Cymande.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Sam Moss
In the midst of a northeast tour Sam Moss stopped in to Pale Moon Services in Cambridge, NY for an afternoon where he spent some time meeting, working with, and being guided by studio proprietor Jared Samuel and assistant engineer Victor Pacek. The day culminated in the following four covers, including Townes Van Zandt’s anthropomorphizing a window, 1979 Leonard Cohen, a Willie Nelson chestnut, and Jenn Wasner’s Flock of Dimes.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Chet Sounds
Last fall saw the release of the Sydney, Australia based DIY artist Chet Sounds’ sophomore LP, Changes Happen to Everyone, Everywhere. At a dozen tracks, it’s a lo-fi glossy and groove-laden trip across 70s-am pop, yacht rock, private press outsider folk, library funk, and Rundgren-esque psychedelia. For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions we catch up with Chet (Tucker) as he works his way through a grip of disparate favorites, ranging from a mid-60s fantasy sit-com theme, to reinterpreting Judee Sill and the undisputed majesty that is Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: The Reds, Pinks and Purples
Through some sort of infernal jangle-pop sorcery, the ever-prolific RPP mainman Glenn Donaldson continues to come up with the goods; in fact, the latest LP, Unwishing Well, may well be his best effort yet. It’s a record that blends 16 Lovers Lane shimmer with Felt-like melancholy, heartfelt sentiments with occasionally hilarious barbs. Lovingly crafted, world weary, expertly bittersweet — just like heaven. For this excellent Lagniappe Session, Donaldson takes us on a tour of a few favorites old and new-ish.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Orions Belte | Second Session
Orions Belte return with their second Lagniappe Session, a follow up to their 2021 entry which found the Norwegian trio transfiguring material from the likes of Mac Miller and Danzig. This time out they transmute tunes by two disparate American artists: the late rapper XXXTentacion’s 2017 single “Jocelyn Flores”, and roots iconoclast Lucinda Williams’ “Copenhagen” via her 2011 LP, Blessed.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Jeffrey Silverstein
Songwriter Jeffrey Silverstein joins the Lagniappe Sessions with inspired country funk covers of tunes by Chip Taylor, Steely Dan (via Waylon Jennings), Jim Ford, and Tom T. Hall’s immortal “That’s How I Got To Memphis.”
The Lagniappe Sessions :: En Attendant Ana
Principia, the third album from Parisian quintet En Attendant Ana, was one of 2023’s most enduring pleasures. Throughout its 10 extremely catchy / sneakily sophisticated tunes, the LP contained elements of vintage 1990s indie, dashes of Stereolab-esque motorik pop and a hint of the classic French yé-yé style, all centered on the winning vocals of Margaux Bouchaudon. Those ingredients are all on display in the band’s debut Lagniappe Session, as they tackle tunes by Tim Gane’s pre-‘Lab band McCarthy and Britpop synth-sters Dubstar, in addition to a delightful French language rendition of the old Frank ‘n’ Nancy Sinatra chestnut “Somethin’ Stupid.” C’est magnifique!
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Reverend Baron
The Lagniappe Sessions return in 2024, this time stepping into the world of Reverend Baron, the nom de tune of LA based singer-songwriter Daniel Garcia. For this installment of the series, the multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and producer reflects on early ’70s Randy Newman, the title track from British singer-songwriter Labi SIffre’s 1972 LP, Paul Simon’s “Nobody”, via the 1980 film One-Trick Pony, and the enigmatic Lewis Baloue’s “Let’s Fall In Love”.