Country & Folk

New album: The Hello Darlins || Go By Feel

By / / Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

Vocalist/producer Candace Lacina and keyboardist/producer Mike Little and a few of Canada’s other popular roots music session musicians decided to make music together, to combine their skills and influences to forge a hybrid of country, gospel and blues, to create something new on their own. As The Hello Darlins they have now released their debut full-length album Go By Feel. In that context, opening track Catch That Train is significant, because it is about changing the direction of your life: “We wanted the music to reflect a sense of excitement that change brings, but also a heaviness that sometimes comes when you realize here are no other options and you have to leave things behind in order to ‘get on board’ with something different.” Thanks to this “supergroup”, the Americana genre is 11 timeless quality songs richer, tunes that are compelling and have an eye for detail.

Stream the full album below.

Go By Feel is out now digitally and on CD and vinyl LP through Continental Record Services.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || The Hello Darlins

New album: Eric Stephen Martin || Dreamlike

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Eric Stephen Martin is a multi-talented artist from Dartmouth (Canada). I recently wrote about his side project Rick The Loser. Under that moniker he plays timeless pop songs disguised as slack indie rock and garage pop. Dreamlike is his first full length under his own name, and the record has a more traditional sound, somewhere between singer songwriter and folk. It’s the kind of music I seldom get excited about. Dreamlike is an exception to that rule. These songs are gorgeous in all their heartbreaking glory. Above all, they sound heartfelt and real and a strong support cast, including Joel Plaskett, Mo Kenney, and Bill Stevenson (the award- winning jazz and blues pianist, not the drummer of Descendents), take the songs to another level.

Unsurprisingly, Eric Stephen Martin describes the record the most meaningful and personal collection of songs he’s written in his life. I, for one, am grateful for Martin’s willingness to share these songs with the world.



Add the wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Chris Acker || Odd, Ordinary & Otherwise

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Like so many of us, country-folk singer / songwriter Chris Acker also took many steps during the long period of isolation during COVID quarantine. “I started taking walks to neighborhoods that I’d never been to because there wasn’t much to do,” he says. “It felt like falling in love with New Orleans in its in solitude, just by wandering around and randomly meeting people.” He started spending the rest of the time with bandmate Nikolai Shveitser, drinking beer and making music together in a fury of creation that came without the pressure of having to perform outwardly to an audience. It led to third full-length release Odd, Ordinary & Otherwise. The 13 original songs, arranged and performed with the Growing Boys, are sensitive, personal, honest, and elegant. Beautiful stories, delivered professionally.

Odd, Ordinary & Otherwise is out now digitally, on cassette, CD and vinyl LP through Gar Hole Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Gar Hole

New single: Fantastic Cat || Fiona

By / / Alternative Rock, Country & Folk / 1 Comment

To the huge roster of good songs with girls’ names in the title – Allison, Angie, Barbara Ann, Beth, Sweet Caroline, Debra, Gloria, Iris, Jolene, Lola, Long Tall Sally, Darling Nikki, Mandy, My Michelle, Peggy Sue, Proud Mary, Rosalita, My Sharona, Valerie, and so on and on – New York four-piece Fantastic Cat now adds a really nice one. All women named Fiona can dream away for a moment that it is being sung to them: “I’m gonna miss you until I’m with you again” (watch the lyric video below or click here for the live version). This is the great alt-country / folk-rock debut single from this new supergroup, made up of critically acclaimed NYC songwriters Brian Dunne, Anthony D’Amato, Don DiLego, and Mike Montali (there‘s a Spotify playlist with their solo work). After this first single, an album by the four instrument-swapping and harmony-trading friends is also on the way. The Very Best Of Fantastic Cat reportedly mixes electrified 60’s folk and 70’s AM radio gold with 80’s heartland rock and 90’s alt-country. One to look forward to!

Out now digitally and on a limited edition 7″ vinyl EP through Velvet Elk Records.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Sonny & The Sunsets || New Day With New Possibilities

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop / 1 Comment

Every time garagepop band extraordinaire Sonny & The Sunsets release a new album is a good time in my book. One of the things I love about the band is that none of their albums sound the same, but you still identify them instantly as a Sonny & The Sunsets record. New Day With New Possibilities, the band’s eight album, is no exception, although it is sonically similar to Longtime Companion (2012). Sonny again goes full country, fueled by a stay in a free recording studio where, instead of painting, he read old western paperbacks, went on walks, and wrote country tunes about “being alone, songs about failed men, some dark tales of longing.”

The returns are maximal. New Day With Possibilities is a very strong collection of darkly comedic, sad countrypop. Country perfectly matches the smart wordplay of Sonny Smith, who needs few words to evoke powerful images and break you heart. Perhaps the best illustration of this is the opening line of Earl & His Girl : “His name is Earl // You can tell from his girl // That he likes to hit women.” Or what about Love Obsession, with lines like ” and “I’m on the board of depression // And I’m up for re-election.” Like I said, anytime Sonny releases new music is a good time.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Rocks In Your Head Records

New album: Leopardo || Malcantone

By / / Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Jangle Pop, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

If you have some time to spare for a record that upon multiple listens will ultimately grow on you and get under your skin, would you be interested in such delayed rewards? I am talking about Malcantone from Leopardo, which is a delightfully weird yet strangely accessible record. It’s the kind of record I did not expect to write about, but somehow I keep returning to. It’s also the kind of record I lack the vocabulary for to explain in full. Leopardo are from Schwitzerland, but they may just as well reside in the Chelsea Hotel (NYC) in the seventies. Comparing Leopardo to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground is kinda lazy, but it also kinda makes sense. Malcantone is an eclectic mix of styles, including folk (Malcantone, Bitter Man), psych (Country Side Love, Hardship), punk (Tell Me, I Belong To You), garage (Put Me In Jail), and rock-‘n’- roll (Throwback in The Snow). I was quick to dismiss this record and I was wrong.



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Feel It Records || SDZ Records || Le Pop Club 

New album: Joe Bourdet || Meadow Rock

By / / Blues & Roots, Country & Folk / Leave a Comment

Meadow Rock is not a forgotten Americana treasure from the 70’s, but the brand new debut album from Californian singer / songwriter Joe Bourdet. “Sometimes I read a picture like a book, then I close my eyes and take a second look // The images take on a strange new life, colors flying in the moonlit night,” he sings in Morning Light. Something similar happens when you listen to the music on this record, you hear something different every time: a surprising poetic phrase, female backing vocals or one of the vintage instruments (Hammond organ, double bass, pedal steel, mandolin, Moog Rogue, Fender Rhodes or Wurlitzer piano, etc.) that complement the drums, bass and various guitars (in the video for El Capitan you can see the musicians in the studio). This is beautiful, quiet folk rock, with an authentic sound and optimistic lyrics. Experiencing the nine songs on this album is like a journey through a virgin alpine meadow: “Wide awake lost in a dream.”

Out now digitally, on CD and 12″ vinyl LP. Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New EP: Green Mohair Suits || Sink or Sing

By / / Country & Folk, Indie Pop / Leave a Comment

Green Mohair Suits are a country / folk outfit from Sydney, Australia. After their last album Evans St (2016) it remained silent, but now there is suddenly the (digital) EP Sink or Sing with four new songs. Jason Mannell, Brian Campeau, Richard Cuthbert, and Ben Romalis have outdone themselves. Especially opening track Don’t You Mind is a very beautiful song. The country of Gram Parsons is a little further away, here it is as if The Byrds meet Brian Wilson. as if it has always been there. Nice that new classics are still being made.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Horseloverfat || Greetings From Nowhere

By / / Country & Folk, Garage Rock, Glam Rock, Indie Rock, Jangle Pop, Psych, Punk / Leave a Comment

Horseloverfat is an unusual name. That also applies to their music, which is all over the place and kinda awesome. The band from Italy self-desribes as “a psichedelic (sic) krautrock group, a transnational and stateless parody that encompasses all without regards to purism and coherence.” On their new record Greetings From Nowhere, Horseloverfat goes from postpunk to psychedelic to protopunk to country to kraut to glam in their songs. Somehow, the band manages to pull it off without creating a unlistenable mess. They recorded Greetings From Nowhere in March in an old school fashion: as a live band, and with limited digital intereference. The result is a time portal to the music of the ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s. Step in, if you’d like!



Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

New album: Cody Barcroft and Shoot Ya || Get Loaded

By / / Country & Folk / 1 Comment

This is the kind of music that I find hard to resist, hard to sit still with. Shoot Ya is a “trash country” band from Buffalo, New York, lead by singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Cody Barcroft, joined by Sean McNamara, Patrick Jackson, Ryan Campbell, Jamie Sunshine, and Dalton Sharp. Their album Get Loaded has eleven varied original songs that swing, that rock, that captivate, that surprise. Great distinctive vocals, wonderful back up harmonies, nice to hear a saxophone here too. I’m sold. RIYL American Aquarium, Drive-By Truckers, Hayes Carll.

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp

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