“And you’re off into the burning blue” songwriter Dave Benton sings on “Ponies,” the centerpiece of Trace Mountains’ fourth full-length album Into the Burning Blue. Decorated with retro textures and violet flowers, the album begins with the crackle of a fire, as if something is burning and hatching into a new form. As Benton grappled with the end of an 8-year romantic relationship, songs were pouring out of him in quick succession, often urgently before he had logically processed the emotions himself.
Collectively, the songs are imbued with a spectrum of weighted emotions, but the blue continued to burn, with each song adopting its respective hue – a violet reclaiming of passion, a deep sea blue of sorrow, the sky blue moments of relief…
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Luv in the New World is the title of Canadian artist 
You probably know 
For her third album, Nashville-based 
There was an almost unnerving promise displayed on Once Now, Then Again, the breakthrough EP from Vermont based singer-songwriter 
Music is by its very nature a mysterious phenomenon. The question of what drives people to make it (and what drives people to listen to it) has occupied philosophers, anthropologists and scientists for centuries. And it raises other questions, such as why do different people like different music? Why does one of my children like vaporwave while the other one likes Yann Tiersen? How is it that some artists become immensely popular while other similarly talented ones remain in relative obscurity?
The closer you listen to the stories 
The opening of Prize Hunter, the lead song and single from Emma Pollock’s first album in 9 years, is sung over a sprightly bass line that belies a rich compendium that is the songwriter’s most personal and expressive collection to date. Recorded over five years against a backdrop of personal tumult, family grief and self-revelations, 
Originally released in the UK on September 19th, 2005, 
In 2023, while the singer/songwriter/composer was touring in support of the previous year’s Better in the Shade, Patrick Watson woke up after a show in Atlanta and couldn’t speak. It turned out that he had hemorrhaged a vocal cord while singing. Uncertain, per his doctors, if he’d ever be able to speak or sing again, he continued to work on music in the months to follow and eventually had the idea to invite some of his favorite singers to perform the songs he was writing. With Watson slowly regaining limited use of his voice after several months of silence, the resulting set of hushed chamber pop, 
It’s been over 25 years since 
After some turbulent late teen years in her former pop punk band, Mixtapes, Maura Weaver needed a break. Months became years and the songs still weren’t coming. It wasn’t until being thrust into personal heartache in 2020 that she began to write songs again and the result was her 2023 solo debut I Was Due For A Heartbreak.
As if cosmically enacted, every handful of years Neko Case breaks to the surface with a new album and reminds listeners that she is one of our greatest living songwriters – perpetually becoming more fearless and adventurous. This has been true throughout her more than twenty-five-year career, during which her ferocious indie-rock and country-noir sound has swelled and shrunk to fit the mood, but the walloping impact of the universes she creates has never wavered. Listening to Case’s music will teach you about this world-human nature’s cruelty, perseverance and terrifying beauty, but the natural world as well – the moon and the stars, bees, lions and magpies. Should you encounter a wayward soul who has never heard her music, you might respond…
Nashville-by-way-of-Arkansas musician Drew Pulliam hinted at his potential with his 2023 EP.
This is 
For over 20 years, Hayden Desser has been making music on his own terms and on his own schedule. The three-time JUNO nominee has produced, engineered and mixed most of his records at home, creating a world of his own, exploring themes ranging from love lost and found to bear maulings and home invasions.