Maisy Owen, a Nashville native, has been surrounded by music and the art of songcraft just about all her life. First came the viola at age nine, then guitar where she embraced fingerpicking, soaking in influences from Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Mazzy Star and David Olney. Maisy’s unique sound, musical truth and stirring vocals inhabit Dark On a Sunny Day, her debut album, produced by Robin Eaton (known for his work with Jill Sobule and co-writer of “I Kissed a Girl”)
…Lead single, ‘My Youth Is All for You’, is a perfect opening track. Delicate finger-picked folk guitar and Owen’s lilting, crooning, whispering vocal immediately invite you into her world. “I cannot bear the weight of your affection / I cannot walk with all these shadows behind me”.
Category: folk
The poet and artist Barbara Guest, an original member of the New York school of poetry, ended her final collection, The Red Gaze (2005), with the following words by Theodor Adorno: ‘In each genuine art work something appears that did not exist before.’ It’s a quote so pertinent to how we view human creativity today that it seems almost like a manifesto in miniature. Of course, when he wrote those words, Adorno wasn’t thinking of artificial intelligence, at least not in the way we know it, but nonetheless, it seems like a succinct argument for the human over the machine. When a human being makes a work of art, they put something new into the world, something that may draw from a wealth of influences but, at its best, ignites those influences with a creative spark.
Deluxe double LP reissue of The Head And The Heart’s debut album. Featuring the original album remastered on the first LP, plus seven bonus tracks on the second LP. The bonus tracks are a combination of previously unreleased demos and live tracks, plus one live track available for the first time physically, and one previously unreleased studio track. The Head and the Heart is the self-titled debut album from Seattle folk-rock band The Head and the Heart, originally self-released in 2010 before being picked up and re-issued by Sub Pop in 2011. Built around harmonious vocals, piano, violin, and folk-rock instrumentation, the album captures themes of connection, wanderlust, and introspection across tracks like “Lost in My Mind,” “Down in the Valley,” and “Rivers and Roads.”
Hiss Golden Messenger’s I’m People is the aural equivalent of comfort food. It’s warm, goes down easy, is simple at the core, and hits many of the right spots. The title alone suggests a universality, the common rhythms of life, the pendulum of emotions, and connection. As you likely know, Hiss Golden Messenger is the moniker for North Carolina singer-songwriter MC Taylor. Taylor penned these songs in a farmhouse on the edge of a bay in California, at his home in the North Carolina Piedmont, and in a motel room in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Taylor was searching for inspiration, an elusive kind of magic, but instead found himself writing about running toward and away from things, about realistic expectations and slivers of hope in these trying times,…
1. Caroline Polachek – Look at Me Now
2. Mike Polizze – Cheewawa
3. Royal Trux – Waterpark
4. King Kong – Scooba Dooba Diver
5. Steve Gunn – The Handshake
6. Red Red Meat – Gorshin
7. Oneohtrix Point Never – Krumville
8. The Halo Benders – Virginia Reel Around the Fountain
9. Jessica Pratt – World On a String
10. Kim Gordon – Dirty Tech
11. Viktor Vaughn – Vaudeville Villain
12. Stress Eater – Giving Back to the Universe
13. Sun Ra – Trying to Put the Blame On Me (Live)
14. Sunburned Hand of the Man – Nimbus
15. Kurt Vile – Constant Repeat
Having previously cast themselves as 19th-century American vagrants, Anglo-American duo Ben Parker and David Berkeley, aka Sons of Town Hall (named for a ’90s “junk raft” built by octogenarian nomad Poppa Neutrino to cross the Atlantic), present a new concept and fictional world on Of Ghosts and Gods. Here, Victorian-era explorers Josiah Chester Jones (Berkeley) and George Ulysses Brown (Parker) travel the world on a self-built, mythical raft. They are joined, musically at least, by Jordan Katz, variously on trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone and tuba, David Felberg, Elizabeth Young, Kimberly Fredenburgh and Dana Winogradhorns on strings, percussionist Mathias Kunzli, woodwinds by Elizabeth VanArsdel, Kevin Vigneau and Jesse Tatum, with Will Robertson…
The most important inventions of the 8th century are often considered to be agricultural (horse shoes and collars, the heavy plough) or military (certain types of Viking sword and Native American arrowhead). While some of these things may have been revolutionary in their own way, this narrative plays down the advances that were being made in the social sphere, the arts, and, in particular, the realm of music. Depictions found on Pictish decorated stones suggest that thirteen hundred years ago, people in what is now Scotland were playing a harp-like instrument. That instrument became known as the clàrsach.
The striking thing about the clàrsach – other than its long history – is its potency as a political symbol. Both the Irish and Scottish forms of…
Kahan surprise dropped The Great Divide: The Last of the Bugs – an extended version of the new album, featuring four new tracks and bringing the track list to a massive 21 songs.
Instead of tacking the new songs at the end of the album, Kahan decided to sprinkle them throughout. “Lighthouse” is the first of the new songs, landing at No. 5 on the tracklist, sandwiched in between the already released “Downfall” and “Paid Time Off.” The next track added is “Staying Still,” which comes after “Paid Time Off” and before the album’s titular track. The final two new songs, “A Few of Our Own” and “Orbiter” land much further down the album at No. 19 and No. 20, respectively.
The Great Divide serves as the follow-up to Kahan’s breakthrough hit album…
Insomnia and Seven Steps to Grace, is U.S. Poet Laureate and musician Joy Harjo’s debut for Smithsonian Folkways. In the album’s liner booklet, she relates her initial inspiration for assembling music with poetry: Her mother sitting at the kitchen table writing songs on an Underwood typewriter. Her mom was “inspired by the poetry she heard in the two-room schoolhouse that she attended in rural Arkansas and the music she heard in Tulsa dance halls and on the radio.” She is this album’s Muse; Harjo offers tribute in a version of her mother’s song “My Guy,” that was discovered by Harjo’s sister. This recording was produced and arranged by bassist/ vocalist Esperanza Spalding. Harjo’s saxophones and flutes, are also accompanied by guitarist…
Peter Case at McCabes: My Life to Live is not the usual career retrospective of a veteran artist. Granted, the former leader of the Plimsouls spans his canon here, but in doing so over the course of the seventy-one-plus duration of this twenty-two cut sequence, he plays, sings, and speaks with a tangible sense of rediscovery.
Not coincidentally, there’s also a palpable sense of pride arising from the reimaginings of songs like “I Shook His Hand” off Case’s eponymous solo debut. Recorded over two nights at his home-away-from-home venue in Santa Monica, CA, the performance bristles with energy because Peter’s self-penned songs, much like the traditional “Flying Crow Blues,” have aged so well over time.
And not only does the artist seem to know…
Official 5CD box set featuring all of the surviving British radio and television appearances by the legendary Strawbs between 1966 and 1984.
The roots of Strawbs go back to 1963 when Dave Cousins and Tony Hooper founded the bluegrass duo The Strawberry Hill Boys. The first Strawbs’ album was issued in May 1969 and saw the band embark on a wonderful career which produced a series of classic albums. Dave Cousins was the visionary, gifted musician and songwriter at the helm of many line-ups of the band which at various times featured such notable members as Ron Chesterman, Tony Hooper, Rick Wakeman, Richard Hudson, John Ford, Blue Weaver, Dave Lambert, Chas Cronk, Rod Coombes, and John Hawken. Cousins’ musical vision…
Lowell George may well be the most underrated and underappreciated figure in the history of rock ’n’ roll. As a writer, guitarist, singer, and producer, his influence spanned genres—rock, R&B, country, blues, and the adventurous rhythms of West Coast jazz—and seemed to know no bounds.
Born and raised in Hollywood, California, George mastered multiple instruments at an early age. His prodigious talent soon caught the attention of Frank Zappa, leading to a stint with The Mothers of Invention. In 1969, after parting ways with Zappa, George formed Little Feat. With Zappa’s support, the band secured a deal with Warner Bros. Records and quickly became a musicians’ band, revered for its originality and virtuosity. Alongside George were standout players…
Scottish-born singer songwriter Sam Grassie has had a rocky journey in recent years, with a car accident resulting in serious injury and a debilitating ME diagnosis, as well as familial tragedy. All of this hindered but did not halt a promising musical career that was ignited when Sam was a child, secretly listening in on his family’s living room sessions.
Sam’s recovery saw him relocate to London in 2022 and immerse himself in the folk scene there, as well as sharing bills and stages with a wide range of musicians, from Ryley Walker, with whom he toured the UK, to Martin Carthy, Gwenifer Raymond and Robert Plant. This led to a series of EP releases, before Sam eventually put together Where Two Hawks Fly, his debut album,…
Doing This for Love is an album blessed with one of those artfully considered covers that visually informs the precise experience from which these songs have risen. What at first glance looks like an indistinct melange of colours reveals, after a lingering glare, to be the sight of over-congested traffic, headlights on before sunrise, rain hitting the windscreen as the working masses advance on another long, exhausting day.
As Kris Drever himself has stated ahead of the record’s release. “These ten songs are mediations on the unglamourous 4am alarm clocks, ungrateful shifts, the quiet sacrifices made for love.” That alone should illustrate the extent to which Kris has evolved artistically over the years, no more limited to the inherited, traditional…
Being a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles will always draw comparisons with the early to mid-’70s, when the so-called golden age of California Sound ruled, well, the airwaves then. In the days of streaming the newer generations, one might not be sure what that means, but with his second album Cherry Picker, L.A. singer-songwriter Spencer Hoffman just might give them a very good hint what that sound can offer when it is both thoughtfully and carefully done.
What that would mean is have an individual, but at the same time a diversified sound that doesn’t simply stick to possible set formulas, even if there is inspiration from greats of the sound that are well-known (Jackson Browne) or not so well known (David Ackles).
…featuring two brand-new recordings of ‘So, So’ and ‘There Is a Stone’ from the ‘Gatherings’ sessions.
It’s been 20 years since the John Smith embarked on a career as a singer-songwriter, paying his dues opening for John Martyn, and to mark the occasion his new album, Gatherings, featuring Nick Pini on double bass, Jessica and Camilla Steveley-Taylor on backing vocals, alongside several very special guests, including Lisa Hannigan, The Staves, Siobhan Miller, Dan Mangan and more, sees him revisiting and reimaging songs – personal and audience favourites – from his first three studio albums.
Taking them chronologically, there are three numbers from his 2006 debut,…
The Pacific north-west of the USA has been called home by many giants of the blues, rock, and grunge scenes, but alongside these, there’s long been a fertile seam of indie folk and alt-country music. Fleet Foxes and Brandi Carlile hail from Seattle, and from Portland, there’s The Delines, The Decemberists and The Dandy Warhols, while in recent years you might spot Jerry Joseph or Patterson Hood in the local deli. Vegans and cyclists are welcome in this city, proud of its reputation for being weird. Some twenty years ago, this attracted several musicians from Anchorage, Alaska, who each separately found their way to Oregon before coming together as The Builders and The Butchers in 2005.
With the ramshackle acoustic folk-rock sound…
Staying positive is an incredibly difficult skill to maintain. With all the negativity and palpable tension thickening the air, stirring up a fog so dense we sometimes forget to look at our fellow humans and share a smile, being the one to break the mold and share a technology-free moment with someone, or anything, is a scary undertaking. It is much easier to fall victim to the downtrodden nature that seems to plague the world around us, and thankfully, Scott Kinnebrew has never been fond of the easy route. The road-tested veteran and member of the beloved country rock outfit Truth and Salvage Co has always brought a complexity to his art that is both welcoming and compelling. On the other hand, his solo work under the moniker Sounding Arrow is getting…
You don’t essentially need to be an innovator that breaks boundaries to come up with good music that could reach quite a number of listeners.
As a solo artist, you do need a hefty dose of musical talent, an excellent voice (and/or instrumental ability), good songwriting skills, and a taste in arrangements and collaborators you use for your recordings.
Born in Alaska and now based in Cape Cod, singer-songwriter Kim Moberg presents all of the above in abundance on her new album All That Really Matters. Sure, there’s nothing overly fancy or drastically new here — yet Moberg has a strong songwriting sense that includes good lyrics too, possesses an excellent singing voice, and she exhibits an impeccable taste…
The excellent quintet WÖR utilises violin, bagpipes, accordion, guitar and saxophones to reimagine 18th-century tunes from the Flanders region of Belgium. Swedish women’s self-styled ‘Folk’appella’ quartet Kongero honour the folk traditions of their home region, Jämtland, in northern Sweden, in a similar manner.
Here, these two ensembles combine for a tantalising project. The sonic landscapes on display are beautifully produced and virtuosically played. ‘Var är du?’ rolls with bucolic wonder, the instruments of WÖR blending perfectly with the voices of Kongero. ‘Schoon Lief’ is a wistful, soft and gently evolving number evocative of winter mists and bright, clear skies, while ‘Ridder & Jungfrun’ presents a drifting…