Posts Tagged folk
new music: Friendly Fires; Molly Burch
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on November 26, 2018
Infectious beats and an uplifting song. The video stars British actor Jeremy Irvine (War Horse and Mama Mia). He dances through the streets of London’s Docklands. more info on Friendly Fires.
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new music: Isla Craig
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on June 7, 2018
Isla Craig , “Love Song”
–a gorgeous, meditative song with ethereal vocals and varied instrumentation with organ, saxophone, bass and synth. It’s a dreamy eclectic soundscape, a genuine auditory treat. I’m looking forward to hearing the entire album from the Toronto-based multi-dimensional vocalist and songwriter.
The Becoming, the third album from Isla Craig, will be released on June 22, 2018 on Pleasence Records.
Track List:
- Intro
- The Becoming
- Out Of A Dream
- Love Song
- I’m Lost
- Faraway Blue
- Who Am I
- The Becoming (reprise)
- Bird Of Paradise
- There Is A Hole
- Messages (garden Edition)
- Gregory
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new music: Eliza Rickman, Sarah Blasko, La Luz
Posted by Amy Steele in Music, Women/ feminism on May 14, 2018
If you like Amanda Palmer, you’ll like Eliza Rickman. The talented piano player, writes weird, dark and beautiful chamber pop songs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music and orchestration. Rickman is currently on tour. I saw her perform six years ago!
Sarah Blasko, “Read My Mind”
If you like Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos and St. Vincent, you might like Sydney singer/songwriter Sarah Blasko. Her sixth studio album is Depth of Field. She wrote this gorgeous, heartfelt and rather infectious song, “Read My Mind,” for her son.
Sarah said: “Read My Mind is about unspoken connections, the special ways we communicate with people we love. It was written about my son Jerry & the wonder experienced in getting to know him & looking after him when he was very small. It was as though he was not yet human, very primal, so switched on to me & I to him. We communicated in a very unique way. He spoke to me in a kind of half-speak that was so adorable & I felt like we understood each other perfectly.”
La Luz, “Mean Dream”
New video and another dreamy cool single from La Luz who are on tour now and will be at Once Ballroom in Somerville, Mass. on June 6, 2018. La Luz is: Shana Cleveland [vocals/ guitar], Marian Li Pino [drums], Alice Sandahl [keyboards], and Lena Simon [bass].
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new music: Sarah Mary Chadwick; Roxy Rawson
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on March 19, 2018
“Sugar Still Melts in the Rain,” Sarah Mary Chadwick
–if you like Amanda Palmer, you probably like Australian visual artist and songwriter Sarah Mary Chadwick. It’s a beautiful altfolk song with sparse piano and bold speak-singing which conveys heartbreak and emotional depth—“I float here on a cloud of pain but I would do it all again.” Sugar Still Melts in the Rain [Sinderlyn] is due out May 11, 2018.
“Rounded Sound,” Roxy Rawson
–Bay area artist and classically trained musician Roxy Rawson impressively fuses varied elements and vocal stylings for an artistic, eclectic result. She studied violin and piano at University of Paris VIII. Rawson’s vocals remind me a bit of St. Vincent. Her full-length album Quenching the Kill is out March 23, 2018.
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new music: Robert Earl Thomas
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on January 24, 2018
–“What Am I Gonna Do” is a beautiful, wistful song from Widowspeak guitarist Robert Earl Thomas. The song sets a particular mood of options and choices with its dreamy and winding melody and soothing vocals. This song reminds me of “Watching the Wheels” by John Lennon. The vocals also make me think Daniel Ash of Love and Rockets. The new black and white video finds Robert wandering alone around lower Manhattan at night, the vast skyline flush with opportunity behind him.
Robert said: “’What Am I Gonna Do’ is more about an era of my life than any particular relationship, although some really concrete endings had me scrambling during that time. I was sort of lost without any obvious sense of self, either as a lover or as the person I thought I moved to New York to become. The song’s central question still dogs me, but what am I gonna do? I mean everyone has those moments of doubt. For the video, it made sense to shoot in lower Manhattan because a lot of those memories are set against that part of the city; and to do it with Otium who has been a friend since I was that other me.”
His solo debut, Another Age [Captured Tracks] will be released on February 16, 2018.
Another Age
Track listing:
1 – Another Age
2 – I Remember
3 – Cryin’
4 – The Weather
5 – Wednesday Morning
6 – Winona Forever
7 – My Fault
8 – What Am I Gonna Do
9 – Word of Mouth
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new music: Lean Year; Misty Boyd
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on November 2, 2017
“Come and See,” Lean Year
–a meditative and profound song with lilting vocals and a mesmerizing melody. Powerful and elegant. Lean Year is Virginia-based singer Emilie Rex and filmmaker/musician Rick Alverson [The Comedy, Entertainment]. The duo co-wrote the album at home in Virginia and recorded it at the home studio of Chicago musician and engineer Erik Hall [In Tall Buildings, NOMO]. Lean Year’s self-titled album is out now.
“Oh Marie,” Misty Boyce
— This is an aching, sad, beautiful, winding song. The Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter’s full-length album, Get Lost, will be released on February 16, 2018. As a popular keyboardist, Misty Boyce backed Sting, Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles and BØRNS. She recently lost her brother to an opioid overdose and her step-father to suicide. The indie-folk artist turned to writing music to work through the varied emotions she felt after these losses and hopes to reduce the stigma associated with drug addiction, mental illness and suicide. Boyce said: “Sometimes, I write to get the things I don’t want to feel out. And then maybe somebody else hears it and feels the same way, and it makes us both feel less alone. I get very frustrated with how disconnected we all are from each other, and how we’ll use whatever we can get our hands on to other people, whether it’s religion or our phones or what you like on Pinterest—anything to make us feel right and prove other people wrong. And then we don’t have to listen anymore. We can just tune out and focus on our own self-obsessed worlds. Nobody’s listening. It’s a scary thing.”
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music news: Lloyd Cole at City Winery on November 15, 2017
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on October 30, 2017
Hey if you have middle-aged nostalgia, there are plenty of good shows! UK native Lloyd Cole will be in Boston on November 15, 2017 for an acoustic set at City Winery for his Retrospective Tour. New venue and should be an excellent setting. I ‘m most familiar with Lloyd Cole for his solo work from the 90s– he released an eponymous album in 1990 and Don’t Get Weird on Me Babe in 1991 and Bad Vibes in 1993. Revisiting. It’s solid. Brooding, assured. Bit of glamrock/Britpop elements combined with folk style. Although I didn’t remain tapped in on The Easthampton, Mass.-based musician’s career throughout the years, he’s not stopped regularly putting out music. I really like the song “Women’s Studies” which came out on Standards in 2013.
$22-26, Wednesday, November 15, 8 p.m., City Winery Boston, 1 Canal Street, Boston, citywinery.com.
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music news: Fleet Foxes online-exclusive Live from the Artists Den video
Posted by Amy Steele in TV on October 2, 2017
After a six-year hiatus and several days before releasing its third album, Crack Up, Grammy-nominated Fleet Foxes performed at the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York as part of Live from the Artists Den. Live from the Artists Den is a critically-acclaimed television and digital music series best known for presenting secret concerts in non-traditional, often historic settings.
The episode airs this month. Check your local listings.
Regarding the band’s six-year hiatus, lead singer and guitarist Robin Pecknold explained: “I felt like I wanted just a broader range of experience as a person and a musician to draw from in direct and indirect ways, so it seemed like something worth being open-minded about.”
Fleet Foxes formed in Seattle, Washington in 2006. The band released its self-titled album in 2008 and Helplessness Blues in 2011.
Fleet Foxes is:
Robin Pecknold [lead vocals/guitar]
Skyler Skjelset [guitar, mandolin, vocals]
Casey Wescott [keyboards/ mandolin/ vocals]
Christian Wargo [bass guitar/ guitar/ vocals]
Morgan Henderson [upright bass/ guitar/ woodwinds/ violin/ percussion/ saxophone]
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new music: Jason Wilber; Samantha Urbani
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on July 14, 2017
Wistful, upbeat and comforting, it’s kick back with a beer or a glass of wine and soak it in music from a talented songwriter and guitarist. Indie-folk/Americana artist (and longtime John Prine guitarist) Jason Wilber will release a new album, Reaction Time, on August 11, 2017. His music is in the vein of Neil Young, Replacements, Father John Misty, Son Volt and Old 97s.
The Bloomington, Indiana-based musician said:
“Making records, for me, is a process of discovery. Often, the song you thought was gonna be great turns out to be okay, and the one you thought was just okay turns into something amazing. And that’s because of all the collaboration—with the producer, with all the other musicians—and also the unknown, the mystery of what’s gonna unfold when you start working on a song. You can never predict what’s gonna happen. So as you go through the process, you have to keep your ears open for the things that are magic.”
Looking for a fun, catchy summer song? With sweet vocals and heavy beats this is a good choice. New York pop singer Samantha Urbani wrote, recorded and co-produced the song and directed the video. Urbani is the front-woman for conceptual punk pop band friends and this is her solo project. Urbani said “Go Deeper” is about “how necessary visibility and accountability are – getting to the bottom of things, transformatively: the harder it is, the more worth it. The only way out is to go through.” Debut EP out soon.
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new music: Tomten; American Opera
Posted by Amy Steele in Music on June 22, 2017
Tomten, “Weissnichtwo”
I’ve been listening to the new Ride and Slowdive albums quite a bit lately and this song falls in nicely with its Brit-influenced shoegaze, swirly sound. There’s lots of layers with the opening part establishing a gentle calm while an underlying guttural churning bubbles up to maintain the soothing vibe. The Seattle pop band also mixes in organ, electric piano and analog synthesizers for its electro-folk sound. The artistic, eclectic result works on several levels on the upcoming album—some songs ring a bit clearer than this track, others are much more upbeat and there’s lots of wistfulness. Tomten is: Brian Noyes-Watkins (keys, guitar, vocals); Jake Brady (drums) and Dillon Sturtevant (bass, vocals). The trio will release its third full-length Cremation Songs [ Plume Records] on July 7th, 2017 on CD, vinyl, and digital formats.
“I first thought of the name Cremation Songs as a bit of a joke to poke fun at our previous record The Farewell Party,” says Brian Noyes-Watkins. “It later dawned on me that it fit the songs well, seeing as most are vaguely about death in some way or another, excluding ‘First Song of Spring’ and ‘Mette’s Tune.’ I just hope our next record doesn’t mark the Born Again / Embracing a Cult phase.”
“I became obsessed with drawing extended arms (usually blue) posing inside of little boxes,” Noyes-Watkins reveals about the cover artwork. “I did a few versions: a hand drowning in the sea, another with a crystal ball, one juggling a rainbow. I settled on the apple/applecore because I liked the idea of having a sunrise/sunset theme on the jacket. I’m hoping to complete a collection of 20 or so to release in a booklet for a limited edition of the record.”
American Opera, “Monsters Among Men”
A beautifully melodic and thoughtful song with powerful vocals and an urgency in its message, reminiscent of Joan Osborne’s “One of Us.” American Opera is New York singer/songwriter John Bee’s project. He said that “Monsters Among Men” is: “about getting older while trying to stay true to who you were when you were young. I was raised in the church. Three things happened in my life that made me question everything I ever believed. My friend took his own life, my cousin’s life was taken from him, and the Sandy Hook shooting. I still don’t know what to believe. But I know what I want to believe.”
American Opera’s full-length album Small Victories is out June 30, 2017.
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About Me
covering mostly music and books. focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College.
Entertainment Realm by Amy Steele is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at entertainmentrealm.comCopyright © 2009. All writing, unless otherwise noted, by Amy Steele.
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