Here are some of the cool things you can spend your hard earned cash on…
Hot off the press! “Song of Sons” is the band’s brand new, celebratory 25-year Anniversary album (2017), already making the radio rounds to great acclaim. We’re on a roll with this 10th recording and we’re not stopping now. This CD features our best crew of supporting musicians plus a very special guest appearance by the formidable Elsa Harris of the Jessy Dixon singers (who toured with Paul Simon for 7 years), who arranged and plays an amazing gospel piano on our song “Standing at the Hand”. The gorgeous strings of the Chamber Blues String Quartet add their licks to our ever alt-folk Sons stylings on these all new songs… already a favorite with the family! Enjoy… a 25-year gift to you.
And here is Deborah’s new very beautiful poster commemorating our 25th year concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago…
The 8th CD from Sons called “KING FISHER KING” Waterbug Records (2012) is the crowning achievement of our 20 year anniversary year. This year found Sons releasing two CD’s… Richard Milne from WXRT said of Sue’s song “Eve” “… the best vocal performance of 2012” and from MIDWEST RECORD “…just one of the best folk bands of our time, pushing the envelope once again with some of the most literate, provocative lyrics around. Easily the band at their mind blowing best… this is contemporary folk that others could learn from. Killer stuff!”
$15.00
On A Good Day, I Am… This our 6th release (Waterbug 2009) is Sons at their best; experimental, poetic and harmonic. It is home to a surprisingly lush sound with the very talented Kairos Quartet on most songs, making this album a magical listening experience. Songs like Bruce’s “Prodigal Son” will have you thinking of home, Sue’s “Twiggy Little Bird” will make you wanna fly and Deborah’s “Pass It On” will move you to sing along and take action. What makes this a true to form Sons album is that it delivers their distinctive 3-part harmonies driven by traditional folk instruments and a beautiful string quartet arranged by Cathy Kuna. Songwriting icon Micheal Smith says this is Sons’s best CD to date. We think you’ll agree.
$15.00
Nuthatch Suite… the fifth CD in nearly 15 years, again on Gadfly Records (2005). Here Sons produces an album where most of the musicians were playing live with few parts added later. Songs like “Good For Her with M. Miles’ fretless nylon string banjo give a very back porch feel and Deb’s acoustic “Tea Tale” and Sue’s blazing “Wind/Tree” and the closing track called “Little Brown Puppy” all do as well. This is pure Sons in which our fans will find comfort and those new to the band will find, well, Sons!!! “Though very, very few and far, far between, it is discs like Nuthatch Suite that quickly exhaust a pundits descriptive dictionary while giving hope to the musically starved… you owe it to yourself to hear this…” Mike Jurkovic, Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
$15.00
4 Ever On… our 4th CD, also on Gadfly Records (2002). Just before we made this record, one day we all woke up and realized no longer were we singing just about love gone wrong, but other things that’ll ruin a good day! Now we hesitate to call this our “dying” or “dead” album, but sung always with a wink and a smile, it’s the lighter side of death… you’ll be tapping your toes and watching the clock. But on a more serious note, Sue and Deb step up and offer more songs than ever before, Bruce throws in one or two about love gone wrong anyway and Steve Jerrett of Sunday Morning Coffeehouse, KOPN, 89.5 FM – Columbia, MO has raved, “This CD, in my opinion is pure genius!”
$15.00
One if by Hand… our third CD, released on Gadfly Records (2000) . With this CD, Sons tries to find middle ground between the acoustic sense of our first CD and the production value of our second. Also the CD finds Deborah Lader joining the band with her multi-instrumental abilities, her well placed vocals and yet another odd take on song writing… “My Last Boyfriend”, “Magnetic Poetry”. Sue’s song “Comet” is stunning if we do say so ourselves, and other favorites include “Teva” and “Madame Butterfly” which the AP Wire Service just called “…a near perfect song!”
$15.00
Consequence of Speech… Our second CD on Waterbug (1997), finds us deep in thought and production… well, at least production. Here we tried to push the vocal trio thing a bit, up-tempo and ever changing, varied in style and content. Many tell us they still think this our best, with danceable tunes like “Maybe Just Maybe” and “Small Bird”, with change ups like “#253 n The Red Book/Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Nancy’s beautiful “Modern Dating” and the forever popular Sue-penned “Girl Shanty” which has been sung everywhere from track meets to christening, included in high school plays and pom-pom routines! It has inspired people to adopt and a guy in Alaska had some dental work done with no other anesthetics… a cult classic to be sure, that song!
$15.00
Three Good Reasons… This started it all for Sons, released by Waterbug Records (1995). Sons burst on the scene with a CD called “Best Folk Album Of The Year” by Front Porch Music. An odd mix of three people (original members Nancy Walker, Sue Demel and Bruce Roper) came together to create something a bit off kilter and a bit down home. Songs like “Doin’ What I Like To Do” ended begin reprinted in Sing Out magazine, “Dead On The Highway” was played heavily on “Folk On Two” on the BBC in England, Nancy’s “Place” and Sue’s “Lovin’ Ground” were instant favorites. The title song set the tone and “Carpenter SOng” foretold what we would all come to find in song, in life and in love, none easy but we’d do it all again. And to this day, Sons still closes almost all it’s shows with “Set All Children Free” now some 20 some years on…
$15.00
Church Of The Never Wrong… One of two CD’s Sons have released to celebrate their 20 years as a band! This release is a project Sons have wanted to do for a long time. The idea of a CD called Church of the Never Wrong was just too good to pass up! We invited all our great Chicago friends to come into the studio with one of their songs that would be somehow “churchy” and let us “Sonsify” it. Along with the Nuns of the Never Wrong Chapel Band, which consist of many local musicians, the CD has songs by: Michael Smith, Corky Siegel, Andrew & Casey Calhoun, Steve Dawson, Mark Dvorak, Al Day, Don Stiernberg, Ed Holstein, Bob Long, Megon McDonough, Jenny Bienemann, Robin Bienemann, Pat Roper, Charlie Madigan, Nancy Walker, and Michael Miles! A great collection of music from the Chicago folk scene circa 2012! Please Note: this CD will not be available for download via iTunes, etc. you can only get it here!
$15.00
Always just in time for Christmas… the “We Three Sons” Christmas CD! In a similar vain as our much loved “Church of the Never Wrong” CD, “We Three Sons” is a collection of traditional and not so traditional Christmas songs sung by many of our Chicago musical family… including, Jon Langford, Robbie Fulks, Corky Siegel, Typhanie Monique, John Erickson, Emily Hurd, Dennis Cahill, Jonas Friddle & the Majority, John Abbey, Gerald Dowd, Elaine Moore & Jim Dewan… Sons and more!
$15.00
Accidental English… The first CD released by one of the Sons as a solo effort! After all these years, Bruce had a bunch of songs that Sons would probably never record, so he recorded them by hisself with many great Chicago musicians. You won’t find any girl voices on the whole CD! Kind of a mid-life meditation on the broken heart, about which the reviewer for Sing Out magazine said…”brilliant and moving…”
$15.00