Brooklyn singer-songwriter Nick Watt released his new album a few weeks ago and one of its highlights is ‘Chimes in the Wind’, a Cohen-esque folk ballad that won us over with metronomic and percussive finger-picking, warm bass notes and his austere and rich vocal intonations that add the requisite drama and forlorn mood to the … Continue reading
Man I love this track. It’s all in the rhythm, the way it leans back, pauses, drops the gears and takes off again down the highway with the sun in the rear view mirror. Simple melodies and structure executed perfectly with that snaking groove and cosmic, laidback vocal. Superb! This is The Deltaz second single … Continue reading
Evening Records out of Sydney town are slowly but surely building a wonderful roster of artists and releases, the latest of which looks to be Iain T. McKelvey and the Midnight Tangos. ‘Raise Your Wine’ has a wonderfully warm and rolling feel to it. Circling around the piano (Carl Manwarring of River Dreams), the guitar … Continue reading
Hot off the press and released today is the brand new single from band The Redlands, on the still fairly new label Cheatin’ Heart Records (Fenn Wilson) ‘Falling Down’ finds the North West Victorian trio achieving a symbiotic blend of country, folk and bluegrass with its sonic pot pourri of banjo, pedal steel and acoustic … Continue reading
Kyle Jenkins Love Lost Love Near Enough Records Kyle Jenkins, the prolific songwriter and frontman for Toowoomba alt-country band Suicide Swans, has also found the time to release his second solo album. His debut, Meltdown, shared a lot of similarities with Suicide Swans but on Love, Lost Love, things get darker and starker. Predominately acoustic … Continue reading
Some songs just roll along with a near perfect vibe and melodic flow and we recently came across the gem from the group Toler Gibson. They describe themselves as a “group of mountain dwellers living high above the clouds in California.” Their back story is that it all started when Gibson, a Canadian born, Texas raised … Continue reading
This track reminded me of Robert Ellis when I first heard it. The Athens GA songwriter Tyler Key has a similar vocal tone that cuts through the sweet country stylings on this really great new single that balances rough swagger and nuanced playing. As Key explains, “Most everyone I know in their mid-to-late twenties has … Continue reading
Ahead of the release of his new album My Friend Defiance (Blind Date Records) next week, Jeb Cardwell has shared these two tracks – ‘Blood Moon’ and ‘Storm Clouds’. The former is a low-slung rhythmic delight, steeped in the effortless cosmic country sound of Tony Joe White and J.J. Cale with it’s loping groove and … Continue reading
A very cool slice of talking blues with a country folk heartbeat courtesy of Griffin Winton out of middle Tennessee. You can hear Blaze Foley, Townes Van Zandt and Dylan running through Winton’s delivery on the track, accompanied by a perfect blend of strummed acoustic guitar and a chorus that’s right on the money. Winton … Continue reading
From the get-go this new single from Swedish band Carnation Blue reminded us of a really great mix of peak Houndmouth, Hurray For The Riff Raff and Shovels and Rope in the way it revels in its sparse instrumentation and thrills with the character-filled lead vocal of Helene Åhström. There’s pop, country and folk in … Continue reading
The Weeping Willows are Australia’s finest exponents of the stripped-down duo format. One guitar, two superb harmony-rich voices and a talent for both their own songwriting and the interpretation of other’s songs. They’ve just announced the release of a brand new EP called Southern Gothic, which is out this Friday (June 4th), and it finds … Continue reading
This new single from Ghost Prom is a wonderfully unassuming slice of country folk that rides some sweet melodies and harmonies over a shuffling backbeat and loosely strummed guitars. There isn’t much info on the Hurley, New York band but their Bandcamp page does state that “two kids from a missing milk carton never got … Continue reading
Who woulda thought rejection could sound like so much fun. That’s what Los Angeles duo The Deltaz have done on this slice of 70s style country funk. Check that bass-line and try not nod along as a smile slowly spreads across your face. ‘I’ve Been Rejected’ was inspired by a night of drinking and line … Continue reading
Ruby Gilbert recently released her new single ‘No Vacancy’, a song that nestles beautifully between dreamy country and a more soulful, vintage Americana sound with electric slide guitar and trumpet. Noir aesthetics of bruised romance and helplessness run through the song. “’No Vacancy’ is about the early stages of a romance and the inevitability of … Continue reading
On the back of a lonesome harmonica comes the voice of QLD artist Sue Ray. It’s a warm and rich voice she possesses too, melodically draped as it is across the minimal country sound – a great mix of noir and campfire in its atmosphere and intimacy. ‘All The Lonely Ones’ was co-written with Sean … Continue reading
