The turn of century proved to be a fertile time for the Americana music scene. The early 2000s saw the likes of Drive By Truckers and Ryan Adams stamping their name on the scene internationally with their early, widely acclaimed albums and Lucinda Williams was starting to capitalise on the success of Car Wheels on …
WATTY THOMPSON WATTY THOMPSON CHEATIN HEARTS RECORDS It’s a rare thing for an artist to arrive on the scene as fully formed and creatively realised as Victorian Watty Thompson. Most songwriters take a few albums to figure out how to craft their music into its ideal shape. Thompson has done it on his first swing. …
Gram Parsons is something of a golden inter-connector, a conduit between the worlds of country music and rock ’n’ roll. You can add folk music to the mix to, given his late teen years as a member of the Shilohs in South Carolina. Through the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, …
Matt Joe Gow has a brand new album out tomorrow (Fri, March 10th) and between his just completed Aotearoa/NZ tour and the start of a new run of dates in Australia, Matt kindly took the time to answer our Six Strings Q&A. The new album, Between Tonight & Tomorrow is a superb collection of Americana …
In the ever-changing world of digital advances, the question and viability of how to preserve, enhance and share one’s music continues to be a conundrum for artists. From box-sets to anniversary concerts, documentaries to reissues, everyone is looking to find new ways to monetise their back catalogues. In recent years, the Neil Young Archives website …
THE DELINES THE SEA DRIFT LOVE POLICE RECORDS + TAPES Once considered a side project of Richmond Fontaine songwriter and frontman Willy Vlautin, on album #3 The Delines have comprehensively proven themselves as their own bittersweet and soulful microsystem, where damaged souls battle on against life’s twists and turns. Little beacons of hope amid the …
Erin Rae is currently on tour in Australia with Courtney Marie Andrews on what might be one of the very first international tours we’ve seen in the last two years. Rae has just released a beautiful new album, Lighten Up, that complements her sublime and nuanced songwriting with cosmic, lightly psychedelic and baroque folk sounds …
Melbourne-based songwriter Riley Catherall has just released his debut solo album When I Go and as far as first records go, this is one of those where the artist arrives seemingly fully formed. The evidence of that is in the way Catherall delivers such well-crafted songs with consummate ease. When I Go has a clear …
GRITTY SNAPSHOTS AND SAD BALLADS An interview with the the king of moving on, songwriter and author Willy Vlautin of The Delines. By Chris Familton In the wake of singer Amy Boone’s 2016 accident where she was hit by a car, there were a few years, during her long and painful recovery, where songwriter Willy … Continue reading
photo by Dana Triple Allison Russell has announced that her new album The Returner will be released on September 8th via Fantasy Records. The Returner was written and co-produced by Allison along with dim star (her partner JT Nero and Drew Lindsay) and was recorded over Solstice week in December 2022 at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, CA. It features Russell’s “Rainbow Coalition” … Continue reading
Sydney songwriter and musician Looch Lewis already has an EP and single under his belt but Whiskey Helps The Sun Go Down is the first release with his six-piece band The Press Gangsters and his first release on the local Stanley Records label. We’re very happy to be able to premiere the video clip for … Continue reading
Melbourne-based Aotearoa/NZ songwriter Skyscraper Stan is back with a brand new single, his first release since the 2020 single ‘Words Like Repression’. ‘21st Century Lullaby‘ is a beautifully rendered baroque folk ode to a new family member, draped in melancholic strings courtesy of a string quartet comprised of members of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and … Continue reading
‘Bananas‘ is the first single from Bonny “Prince” Billy‘s new album Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, out via Drag City on August 11th. Heavenly swooning vocals over skeletal fingerpicked guitars. It’s Will Oldham as you’ve come to love him – the obtuse yet heartfelt bard who continues to create beautiful and mystical musical vignettes. Album pre-orders … Continue reading
Possessing a voice like no other and stories and songs that other songwriters would beg borrow and steal to get remotely close to, Malcolm Holcombe has had a battle with cancer, come out the other side and thankfully we have new music from the Western North Carolina artist. Gritty, earthy folk music and a side … Continue reading
Ballarat, Western Victorian songwriter Jeremy Beggs has just released his new spacious and graceful Americana single ‘Hurtful Ways‘, co-written and recorded with Matt Joe Gow, who PTW readers will be familiar with. For Jeremy, the song was written after a period of both celebration and challenge as he searches for the never-ending balance between career … Continue reading
Sydney songwriter Steve Smith and his band Fallon Cush are back with a brand new single, their first release since their excellent 2019 LP Stranger Things Have Happened. ‘Grain Of Salt‘ drifts along beautifully, richly imbued with space and grace – sonic props to producer/engineer Josh Schuberth in that regard. The band have always navigated … Continue reading
NSW Central Coast songwriter Mark Moldre has come along way since his early releases with his band Hitchcock’s Regret in the early 2000s. Now four albums deep into his solo career, he continues to refine and develop his craft of songwriting, arranging and playing, and on the new album Nambucca Fables he dives deep into … Continue reading
With her band The Pony Boys, Caitlin Harnett has been kicking up a storm on the live circuit these last couple of years. Pandemic be damned, the band have been scoring some sweet support slots (Orville Peck and Charley Crockett) and plenty of headline shows as they continue to build a devoted audience across this great southern … Continue reading
Last month Fanny Lumsden released the upbeat single ‘Millionaire’, which we rightly assumed was the precursor to a new 2023 album from the Australian Americana artist. Today she has revealed ‘Hey Dawn‘, the title track for that album which will be released on August 4th. The new single is a beautiful meditative ode to nature … Continue reading
Melbourne band Cold Irons Bound have a new single out today called ‘Conversation‘ and we’re very pleased to be able to premiere the video for the song on PTW. The reassuring sound of warm and burnished, distorted alt-country guitars ring out as ‘Conversation’ takes flight. There’s a jangly power-pop strain coursing through the song that … Continue reading
A new name for us descended in a cloud of hazy smoke into our inbox this morning. Hailing from East LA, this gang of stoner country reprobates take the slow and easy backstreets and tumbleweed desert trails with their appropriately red-eyed take on Neil Young’s classic ‘Roll Another Number (Roll The Road)‘. Check out their … Continue reading
HENRY WAGONS SOUTH OF EVERYWHERE CHEATIN’ HEARTS RECORDS He’s a bandleader, a radio and TV host, a raconteur and one hell of a singer, songwriter and performer. The third solo album for Henry Wagons, who originally came to fame as the frontman for the band Wagons, finds him focusing his lens on his home country. … Continue reading
Minor Gold create their own offbeat, folkloric universe in the video for their song ‘Don’t Change’, the third single released from their upcoming debut album. The characters in the clip represent classic opposites and ultimately offer the conclusion that only love can conquer all. It’s a take on the classic fable, but it’s one you can dance … Continue reading
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