Tokyo Rosenthal - "Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression"

Singer Songwriter Tells The Tale of Great Depression 2

February 2, 2009 - Chapel Hill, NC - Picture it's 2040 and a young kid is asking an old geezer, "What happened back in '09 when you lost your house and job and why?" That's what Tokyo Rosenthal's new single "Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression" is all about.

"We spent it all on war and oil, put our heads in the mortgaged soil"

Rock & Sock Records recording artist Tokyo Rosenthal, fresh off the critical acclaim of his last CD, "Love Won Out" is now taking on the economic woes of the U.S. with his latest recording. "Like most boomers I heard the tales of the 'first Great Depression' from my Grandparents but never thought we?d see another," said Rosenthal recently. "So I wondered what it was going to be like if I'm asked the hard questions 30 years from now, assuming I live that long(lol. Next thing I knew I put it all to song."

"We voted them our public trust, and they turned it all to rust"

Tokyo explained that he felt compelled to record the song immediately much the way Neil Young felt the urgency to record "Ohio" after he wrote that. So he ran over to Chris Stamey's Modern Recording in Chapel Hill, phoned up Bobby Britt to bring over his fiddle and two days later "Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression" was a reality on CD with Stamey also playing bass as well assisting on the production. Toke sang it and played guitar, mandolin, drums, piano and organ.

"Seems like we hadn't learned our lesson, Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression"

Rosenthal premiered the tune live on WCOM's Wrecking Ball radio program to a great reaction from DJ Jayson Sanders several weeks ago. He followed that with a performance on the award winning radio show State Of Things on WUNC. Now the song is being played by Americana DJs the world over and threatening to cross over to mainstream and country stations. Rosenthal embarks on a 2 week promotional tour of Holland and Scotland on January 26th where the tune is a welcome comment on Europe's economic stress as well. Far from a ballad, the song is a solid country rocker that both delivers a message and a beat.

Keeping in line with present trends the song is only available as a down load from CD Baby, iTunes and other down load services. The song can be sampled on Rosenthal's web site (www.tokyorosenthal.com) and his MySpace site (www.myspace.com/tokyorosenthal).

To hear "Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression" please go to reverbnation

To download "Mister Tell Me 'Bout The Great Depression" go to CDBaby

Tokyo Rosenthal - "Love Won Out"

Euro-Americana Chart No 11 in November 2008

Free-Form Americana Chart 111, No 14 in October 2008

Press about "Love Won Out"

"If you can imagine The Doors as a bluesy, folky, country-rock band, this is Rosenthal's equivalent of their first and best album" 4/5 John Conquest, Third Coast Music Magazine, November 2008

"Compulsory purchase, a must have cd, it's a cracker!!!" Rootsville.be Review, October 25, 2008 (translated)

"Toke needs to up his game and produce some more albums of this quality. I’m about to track down his previous album "One Score And Ten" and see what I’m missing out on. I suggest you do the same." 8/10 Americana-Uk.com October 31, 2008

"Love Won Out" is the brand new album from North Carolinian Tokyo Rosenthal. This album has already reached no 14 in the Free-Form Americana Chart, and no 11 in the Euro Americana Chart and received a glowing 8/10 on Americana-uk.com

“Love Won Out” contains ten finely crafted songs including the highly acclaimed single “St Patrick’s Day” While Tokyo duplicates his feat of playing most of the instruments as he did on his last CD "One Score And Ten", he is joined by guest artists as well including famed steel guitarist Al Perkins (Manassas, Flying Burrito Bros, Jim Lauderdale, Kevin Montgomery), legendary bassist Chris Stamey, and flautist Jeff Taylor. "The Master of the electric bass" Alex Little returns to back Tokyo on most tracks. The CD is produced by Rosenthal with assistance from Chris Stamey.

This review, from Music Tap, perfectly describes the CD:

"... a very polished and well-executed slice of Americana. While the Byrds' influence is buried (this is primarily an acoustic effort), I was surprised to hear some very distinctive Gene Clark phrasings and textures. ...this is a SOLID effort that can be a breakthrough disc for this artist. If you had to apply a label to TR, it might be in the progressive country real. I picked up a sense of Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson in the tracks for this album. There’s some damn fine work on this release 'Word for You' and 'Goodnight Carrie, I’m coming Home' are just pretty tunes and feature some great mandolin work. I’m giving this a **** ½ star rating and have no hesitations in recommending 'Love Won Out' to our readers." - Music Tap

Hardly an overnight success, "Toke" has spanned the music scene for three decades recording and touring the world over. He's released an EP and last year's critically acclaimed smash CD 'One Score and Ten', in which one music reviewer hailed as "one of the years's best albums, no matter what the genre!" The pinnacle of Rosenthal's recent acheivements came with the receiving of the keys to the city of Edmonton in Canada. This honor was bestowed upon Rosenthal in January 2007 by the city's mayor for Toke's song "Edmonton" as an award for cultural and artistic contributions to Alberta's capital city. "I was playing this club in Stamford, CT that had adopted the Edmonton Oilers as their Stanley Cup team during the 2006 playoffs," says Tokyo. "It seemed that everytime I would play 'Edmonton' the Oilers would score. Pretty soon they had me playing the song over and over during the playoffs and the song took on a whole different rhythm... Soon it was on the radio in Alberta and I was getting the key to the city from the mayor for writing it."

Proceeding Tokyo's prestigious award for "Edmonton" came a month long tour of Canada. The artist made many TV and radio appearances along with an opening slot for several nights in Toronto for Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Famer and former Byrd and Burrito Brother, Chris Hillman. Tokyo was personally picked by Hillman to share the bill. "As a kid, he was my idol," gleams Toke, "Opening for him was like going to fantasy camp!" He also opened for the likes of America, Rick Roberts and Come On In My Kitchen in additon to headlining shows. His recent festival work includes The Edmonton Fringe Festival, The Carrboro Music Festival and Tyler's Americana Festival. Likewise, Tokyo recently completed a successful tour of Great Britain including an appearance on the BBC.

"There's fake country music and then there's Tokyo Rosenthal!"

While content to let the critics compare his style to others, Tokyo doesn't hesitate to point out his influences, including The Band, The Byrds, Gene Clark, Emmylou Harris, and believe it or not, Janis Joplin. Toke's version of "Piece Of My Heart" always sets off a crowd reaction. Always on the move, Tokyo Rosenthal just arrrived back home after several successful gigs in Japan. With the release of "Love Won Out", Toke's preparing to tour the US in November along with making several live radio appearances. He will be performing at the upcoming World Music United 2008 festival, as well as a tour of UK, Scotland, the Netherlands and US Heartland Tour. For upcoming tour dates and more info on Tokyo Rosenthal visit his website: www.tokyorosenthal.com

Tokyo Rosenthal's 'Love Won Out' is available from independent CD retailers in the US and Canada, as well as CD Baby, iTunes, DigStation, Amazon.com and his official website.

To purchase a hard copy or to download  the CD 'Love Won Out' go to: CDBaby.com 

To hear the song  “Love Won Out” go to: YouTube

For more reviews please visit www.tokyorosenthal.com