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
THE FELICE BROTHERS UNDRESS Yep Roc Records At their core, The Felice Brothers have always centred on the songwriting of Ian Felice and the musicality of brother James, plus the influence of Simone Felice in the band’s early days, before he moved on to a solo career. They’ve had a revolving door of drummers but … Continue reading
Andrew Phelan is an Australian who relocated to Canada (received a Canadian Folk Music Award nomination) and last week he released his new six song EP Everything Rattles When I Breathe. This one from it, ‘That’s How’ is a catchy and rousing folk dispatch about the perils of booze. He’s got a fine line in … Continue reading
From Tyler Childers‘ forthcoming new album Country Squire, produced by Sturgill Simpson, here’s a new track ‘All Your’n’. Great sound on this song, reminiscent of The Band. It’s a lusher, more country soul sound than much of his last LP Purgatory. Below you can also check out the first single from the album, ‘House Fire’. … Continue reading
Stepping out of the haunting shadows of the likes of Songs:Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co, and Sparklehorse, Danish songwriter Jacob Faurholt delivers on this new track that combines lilting, swaying pedal steel with dark and melancholic folk music. The song comes from the upcoming album Shake Off The Fear, due for release on September 6th. Faurholt … Continue reading
Oliver Ray has a brand new album out now called Out Passed Nowhere. It’s his debut record and features Howe Gelb, musicians from Sugar Candy Mountain, The Myrrors, Xixa, and China, as well as a very special appearance by the poet laureate of punk, Patti Smith, who Ray has worked with as her longtime guitarist. ‘Ol’ … Continue reading
One positive to come from the recent lineup changes for The Felice Brothers is that we get to hear more new music from the talented members taking flight under their own names. Greg Farley was the fiddle player with the band for a decade and late last year he released his debut solo album Taker … Continue reading
The sound of The Doors, psychedelic blues, gothic country, Lee Hazlewood and even Julian Cope collide on this new song from Australian Jordan Merrick. Also a member of Brisbane band Fugitive & The Vagabond, Merrick has dialled into a swirling, pulsing, dark folk-rock vibe on ‘Low Country’, which bodes well for his forthcoming debut album. … Continue reading
Hailing from Nashville, TN, here’s a song about NYC from singer-songwriter John Burnette. It has the beautiful lines “New York City are you doing alright, do you taking your pills?” and “He lost her in a lucid spell he was trying to preserve. Now they’re standing on the salt flats, babe, disappearing at the edge … Continue reading
TOWNES VAN ZANDT SKY BLUE Fat Possum Records/Inertia Early in 1973, Townes Van Zandt visited his journalist and musician friend Bill Hedgepeth in Atlanta, Georgia, as he often would through his life, and recorded these stripped down acoustic songs in Hedgepeth’s home studio. Some are instantly recognisable TVZ classics while two are unreleased tracks, others … Continue reading
UK singer-songwriter Franc Cinelli has a new single out called ‘Horses’, a wonderfully warm and lush ballad that comes from his new LP Night Songs, out in September. It blends acoustic guitar, mellotron organ and mandolin in a magical way, topped off with a finely weathered voice that reminds me of Tex Perkins and NZ … Continue reading
