New Music 2018 - Part 18 - Living Room Worktapes EP - Tenille Townes

It's never been rare that I feature artists from Canada performing in the folk, roots and Americana space. This is another one of them - the artist here hails from from Grande Prairie, Alberta. It is an EP as good as I have heard this year but perhaps not something I might have expected to be released on a major label. It is acoustic.

Tenille Townes - Living Room Worktapes EP (Columbia Nashville, 13 April 2018).

• Where You Are
• Jersey on the Wall
• Somebody's Daughter
• White Horse

Four tracks is all you get but it is a triumph of quality over quantity.  I'm not in the business of making comparisons but I'd say a full album is worth the wait, however long that may be.

I'm minded to take an audio 'road trip' through recent Canadian music sooner rather than later. There's plenty on my mind, several of which I am looking forward to seeing play live at festivals this summer. 

Ian Tyson - Carnero Vaquero

There is so much 'new music' to be discovered and it is easy to make comparisons that are unwarranted. Then there is the deadly 'genre' debate.
It is not something that I'm inclined to visit anyway but this is one album that tempts me towards that trap even less than most. The best thing is to keep your ears, and your mind, open to all possibilities and see what comes along.

It is a newish release, by Stony Plain Records on 16 June 2015.

Not new at all is the style of music or indeed the artist for that matter. Ian Tyson was 81 years-young when this album was recorded and as well as being an active, touring musician he still runs his stock ranch in a remote part of Alberta, Canada, that is far removed from the bright city lights of Calgary.
You might be interested in his previous recording history too, for it is a long one, but that is not in any way a prerequisite to listening to this. It might actually be better to listen to this first and then, should you be so inclined, follow the trail back through time. Carnero Vaquero comprises ten original vignettes of a life well lived:

• Doney Gal
• Colorado Horses
• Will James
• Jughound Ronnie
• Darcy Farrow
• The Flood
• Shawnie
• Chantell
• Wolves No Longer Sing
• Cottonwood Canyon

If I were to be snowed-in at home, which is unfortunately rather unlikely, I'd be listening to this sooner rather than later.