Red Kite Records

Our New Artists!

Jeb Loy Nichols

Red Kite are proud to announce that Jeb has signed a multi-album deal with us and we will begin to record his debut album with us this winter

A modern-day Renaissance Man, Jeb Loy Nichols is a musician, songwriter and visual artist whose creative path has taken him from his birthplace in the Midwestern USA, to London and on to rural Wales.

Born in Wyoming and raised in Missouri, Nichols absorbed the sounds of both rural America and the records played around his house and the radio...to continue CLICK HERE to go to Jeb's page on our website.

The Nostalgia Sessions

‘The Nostalgia Sessions’ is the latest project from pioneering new jazz producer Ben Lamdin aka Nostalgia 77. The plan is to produce a series of albums featuring collaborations between members of his Nostalgia 77 Octet and some of the best-loved and established jazz artists in the UK. Volume 1 will bring the young producer together with doen couple of the British improv scene, Keith & Julie Tippett. The recording will weld his groove based, urban funk-jazz sound with the sweeping improvisational vision gleaned from the many decades experience of the Tippetts...to continue CLICK HERE to go to the Nostalgia Sessions page on our website.

The latest from Dave Sutherland!

Dave's Red Kite debut is progressing well, but as with any project, a few new ideas crop up and the recording has stretched into August! As this goes to press, Dave is on his way back to the studio to continue what we think is an album that will have a big appeal to anyone who loves great words and melodies. The record now also has a name 'On The Waiting List', please CLICK HERE to view an early press preview.

Red Kite in MySpace

Red Kite now has its own MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/redkitemusic , where you can find lots of information, news, sound clips of some of our albums and view our friends. If you want to be our friend, or know someone else who would like to, why not sign and send us a request? We are also in the process of setting up MySpace microsites for each of our albums so do check those out.

New Team Members

We are sad to announce the departure of Toby Levan, son of Red Kite chief, Martin, for pastures new. Toby, who has been co-label manager and house engineer here for 4 years, has decided the excitement of the rolling hills of mid Wales is all too much for him and has headed back to the South East with his wife, Charlotte and their daughter Bea! We all wish him the very best of luck.

We are also sorry to see our part-time book keeper Mo Rapley head off. Mo has been a valuable member of our office staff here since 2005 and has helped put our computerised finance systems into operation. We wish her too, the very best for the future.

So in come two new members to bring us back to full force:

Andy Thomas is a recent graduate of the prestigious Leeds College of Music, with a BA (Hons) in Music Production. Andy is a highly motivated and enthusiastic person, passionate about his music and thrilled at the chance of working here at Red Kite. He will be taking up house engineering duties under the watchful eye of Martin and will also be working with label manager, Ron, to help develop new talent. We're really looking forward to working with him.

Liz Wellicome is our new book keeper and PA to Martin and his wife Karen, and brings her years of experience working with accountancy firms to help us streamline and upgrade our financial systems. In her PA role, she'll also be keeping an eye on us all and making sure we don't get up to too much mischief!

So welcome aboard to Andy and Liz and let's look forward to a bright future for Red Kite!

New signing!

After a lull, Red Kite are about to embark on several new projects. In all we are looking seriously at 6 or 7 new recordings and the first of these is the extremely talented singer/songwriter Dave Sutherland Born in London, Dave has been recording and touring since the mid 90s, sharing stages and bills with the likes of Glenn Tilbrook and Bert Jansch, who took the young artist under his wing and recorded and produced Dave's first album, 'Navigator'. With a further two well-received studio albums, 'Comfortable Junction' and 'American Refrigerator' (which incidentally grabbed the attention of the legendary Willie Nelson), Dave has the potential to become one of the UK's finest ever singer/songwriters.

With an easy going charm and great guitar style (the days with Bert certainly must have paid off!), his live shows are always a joy and we're really looking forward to creating a great record with Dave, which we hope to begin work on this summer. We'll keep you in touch with progress.

Kreg Viesselman's chart success

More great news from Europe! THE PULL has reached #1 on the Euro Americana Chart for January! Likewise, Kreg went to #8 on the Free Form American Roots (FAR) chart out of Texas! The support of all the DJs, journalists, and listeners in Europe, particularly from Holland, has been crucial to this success, so a big, big thank you goes out to them. We know Kreg is really looking forward to getting out and playing shows for all his supporters.

Red Kite Studio News

As many of you will know, Red Kite is not only a label, but we have beautiful, residential studio facilities, much sought after by a variety of bands, musicians and other labels. A recently completed project is the recording and mixing of the latest album by, in this writer's opinion, the finest female interpreter of traditional song in the UK, if not the world, June Tabor. The band features Andy Cutting on accordeon, Mark Emerson on violin, viola and piano, and Tim Harries on double bass.

Red Kite boss, Martin Levan engineered the album, and we're all looking forward to the release of the CD, which is due out on the Topic label sometime in early Spring, so keep a look out for that.

Coming up we have one of the leading lights on the new jazz scene, Nostalgia 77, who have been grabbing the attention of a diverse group of media and music biz movers, including Radio's 3 and 1(!), Newsnight, DJ Format, and the Brand New Heavies. It will be fun to see what the band come up with while out here and we shall keep you posted.....

Kreg Viesselman's European tour dates coming together

Kreg has his first confirmed dates of 2007 and we're proud to announce that one of these is supporting the legendary Willie Nelson at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on 23rd January! He will then link up with fellow American songwriter, Danny Schmidt with a further date at the Paradiso and concerts in Paris supporting Iain Matthews.

The full list can be seen on Kreg's artsit page here.

Welcome to our November newsletter and several little nuggets of information on the Red Kite roster…..

Kreg Viesselman

After a quiet period for Kreg, things are about to speed up considerably for the Minnesota-born songwriter. Keen interest and airplay in Holland, France and Belgium have led to a European agent coming aboard and firm plans are now being put together for a tour on mainland Europe in early 2007.

We are also in the midst of discussions with a UK agent with view to continuing the tour into Britain in March/April. With a few dates also lined up in the USA Mid West in May, 2007 looks to be a promising one for Kreg

Gary Boyle

We are pleased to announce that after his successful tour to Japan, Games has now been licensed to & Forest Music,Inc. for release over there. Gary is also busy gigging over the coming weeks. The current list is available by clicking on Gary’s name above and going to his own pages on the Red Kite website.

Luca Luciano

Luca has secured a position as visiting tutor at Britain’s largest music college, Leeds College of Music. Fellows of the college include Alan Barnes, Django Bates, Sir John Dankworth CBE, David Newton, Courtney Pine OBE and Stan Tracey. We are sure that his students will appreciate Luca’s enormous skill and passion for the clarinet.

Luca was interviewed by Francesco Sciarretta of Radio Citta Futura in Rome on Saturday October 28th where he talked about his career and recordings.

Neapolis has also had rave reviews from Barry O’Sullivan of the CRN Network in Australia. Barry described Neapolis as ‘romantic, soulful and technically superb’ and goes on to say that Luca and his accompanist Franco ‘have produced a work of true musical art’. Praise indeed! The CD will be heavily featured on Barry’s shows over the coming months.

Anna Brooks

Anna’s new MySpace website is now up and running, which you can find at http://www.myspace.com/annabrooksquintet. She has also been picked up by Quasar Management and is busy working on ideas for a new record in 2007, so watch this space!