The Good Graces are based around songwriter, singer and guitarist Kim Ware, with core band member Jonny Daly contributing guitar, and a cast of interchanging band members on banjo, mandolin, steel guitar and piano. This song gently unfurls over five and half minutes with fiddle, softly strummed acoustic guitar and Ware’s pleading vocal. The overall effect … Continue reading
Justin Townes Earle + The Morrisons @ The Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney 04/09/19 He’s been a regular visitor to these shores since 2008 and even though each tour has shown a new stage in the evolution of Justin Townes Earle as a songwriter, it was that first show at the Annandale Hotel that, for me, remains the most vital … Continue reading
Creating a mood is so important to this kind of music. Atmospheric folk where there are ghosts in the air and spirits in the glass. There’s a really nice warmth to this track from Dawn Riding‘s new album Last Spring. They describe the sound as part ‘Unknown Legend’, part ‘Car Wheels on a Gravel Road’ … Continue reading
Super sweet and soulful sounds on this new track from The Painted Roses. There’s a folk-rock undercurrent but it’s draped in honeyed harmonies, whiskey-soaked vocals and a rolling rhythm section. Nice stuff indeed from the Utah quartet. Continue reading
There’s a nice bluesy and folkish soul groove to this track from David Place. He’s an Australian singer-songwriter based in Italy and this track brings to mind songwriters such as Jason Molina, Davey Craddock, Jo Meares and Perry Keyes with it’s stark and emotive treatment. The song comes from his 2019 album Rollercoaster, his third … Continue reading
D.C CROSS ECSTATIC RACQUET No Drums Records D.C Cross is the latest chapter in the career of Darren Cross, he of Gerling fame and more recently as a solo artist and one half of the folk noir duo Jep and Dep. His solo albums have been sonically varied affairs with alt-country, folk, electronica and psychedelic … Continue reading
Sweet pastoral sounds abound on this new slice of Americana from Party Of The Sun, the musical project of New Hampshire songwriter Ethan McBrien and producer/multi-instrumentalist Rory Hurley. ‘Slide Away’ has a weightless quality that brings to mind the clear-mindedness of an early spring morning, built on lightly strummed acoustic guitars and melodies that drift … Continue reading
Bug Martin is a Philadelphia-based songwriter who has just released his new album Gutterball via Pyrrhic Recordings. Here’s one of the tracks, ‘Bartender’, an ode to many a person’s saviour and/or downfall. Over sparse acoustic guitar, banjo and pedal steel Martin sings in a haunting twang, an afterthought of a voice from another time, calling … Continue reading
Melbourne songwriter Mon Coeur has unveiled a wonderful video (directed by Willy Pleasance) for her song ‘Evergreen’, taken from the EP Grief Journal which is out now. The song deals in autumnal colours where wistful melancholia drifts warmly from the speakers, enriched by her exceptional alto vocal melodies. There’s a strain of traditional English folk … Continue reading
Rocky Bottom is the work of Alex Hernandez who hails originally from New Jersey but made the shift to Nashville and dove deeper into country and folk music after earlier years dealing in a more punk-framed sound. His latest album, Mr. Nothing follows the more acoustic offering American Man and finds his songs further fleshed out … Continue reading
Big Thief U.F.O.F. 4AD What started with a debut album in 2016, that introduced a fragile and poetic songwriter and her band, has blossomed into a fascinating and quickly evolving career for Adrienne Lenker and the rest of Big Thief. They’ve been touring relentlessly, Lenker even having time to record a well received solo record … Continue reading
Tiny Ruins Olympic Girls Milk! Records “We were only inches away but still I had a long way to go” sings New Zealander Hollie Fullbrook on the opening title track of her new album. It’s a hallmark of Tiny Ruins songs, those lines that hang in the air with poetry and grace, cutting to the … Continue reading
Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Albi & The Wolves hit a sweet melodic strain of folk music on their new single ‘This Is War’. It bristles and keens like dancing firefly, circling a relationship in dissolution and emerging with resolve and optimism. The acoustic trio will be over here in Australia in a couple of … Continue reading
Slow and sad folk music is something we love and Canadian Zach Kleisinger fits the bill perfectly with a sound that recalls Tindersticks, Dan Michaelson and Will Oldham. There’s a twist of country in the mix as well, in the way the song rolls along with a pastoral quality amid the harmonica and pedal steel … Continue reading
Hard grooves aplenty on this Americana soul track, the title cut from Toronto native Jeremie Albino‘s debut album Hard Time, out August 9th. It’s a more polished and more tightly produced sound than another of our current favourites, Charley Crockett. Albino has a folk voice but he’s doing some interesting things by placing it in … Continue reading
