originally published: 11/18/2023
Percy Howard, a NorCal based singer-songwriter and product of the New York no-wave avant-garde, has performed and or toured with members of Living Colour, King Crimson, Swans, Guns N’ Roses (Buckethead), Oxbow, Henry Cow, This Heat, and Brand X. Percy has also shared European festival stages with Brazilian music legend Caetano Veloso and ambient pioneer Stephan Micus.
Percy is the generator of the Meridiem project, which has included collaborative input from Bill Laswell, Vernon Reid, Charles Hayward, Trey Gunn, Fred Frith, Robert Rich, Buckethead, Jarboe, Happy Rhodes, and Jill Tracy, amongst others. Percy's Genre-defying mix of rock, jazz, soul and classical influences have drawn critical attention and praise from all over the planet. Percy has recently started the record label Necessary Angel, which he sees as an archival entity whose sole mission is to spread as much sonic beauty across the world as possible.
Influenced by the Laurel Canyon Sound, Bowie, Steely Dan, Richie Havens, and Scott Walker, but created in the context of my own experience, Percy’s new album “The Stars and The Well” is unabashedly nostalgic, consumed with Romance and unafraid of the fragility of love. It’s a retrospective of the impact of love in my life, in all its forms… From the heights (The Stars) to the depths (The Well).
Please listen with your ears, mind and heart open. The album is available for purchase online.
Produced by Joe Chiccarelli at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, CA. October 2022
COLUMNS
Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites...11/6/25
"That's been a while, at least five or six years," chuckled Candice Night of Blackmore's Night. "With "Winter Carols," we put one out originally and then there are so many amazing Christmas songs that we love that we didn't get a chance to put on so we recorded and put them out again and then a few years later we recorded again and put some more out (Laughs). So, that one has been out a bunch of times and I'm glad you brought that up because of course Winter is coming and so is Christmas time so it's always great to break out "Winter Carols" and listen to that one, especially over the next couple of months, there's lots of Christmas music to delve into. A lot of the songs are very, very old songs which of course is right up our alley so it's great to take some of those songs from the 1200s, 1300s, 1400s and moving all the way up and they fit right into the Blackmore's Night style of sound and our genre, whatever we've created is as far as our genre is but yeah, they fit perfectly at home so we love playing them, it's probably our favorite time of the year."
