New Music 2015 - Part 32 - Samantha Crain - Under Branch & Thorn & Tree

Today is Record Store Day 2015 on both sides of the Atlantic. The press will be covering that on all levels without the shadow of a doubt. I will leave them to it, at least for now, in favour of the tenets that underpin it.

There would be none of this without the independently-minded artists and the labels, venues, festivals and stores that support them, and hopefully the mutual benefit they derive from that. It takes a certain mentality for all of this to exist, let alone thrive. I decided to choose one artist to represent all of this. From the many possibilities it is Samantha Crain.
I first heard about her a couple of years ago, although I forget quite how, but last summer I saw her play twice at festivals.
She is a story-telling songwriter above anything else and that scenario often works best in an intimate live setting. Here she is playing the Tipi stage at End Of The Road Festival 2014.

She releases her fourth studio album 'Under Branch & Thorn & Tree' this coming summer on Ramseur Records in North America and Full Time Hobby Records in the UK.
This recent interview, first published in the Tulsa Voice (OK, USA), is too interesting to miss out on.

New Music - 2015 - Part 5 - Small Houses - Still Talk; Second City

While it was some time ago that I became vaguely aware of Small Houses, which is the vehicle for the work of Michigan native Jeremy Quentin,  only now has it come to my attention again and then somewhat by chance. The song from the forthcoming album 'Still Talk; Second City' features guest vocals from an artist who was one of my favourite discoveries of 2014 festivals - Samantha Crain - and is 'Seventeen in Roselore'.
This prompted me to listen to Small Houses' first LP, 'Exactly Where I Wanted To Be' (2013) several times in the last couple of days. My feeling here is that I like this a great deal. Acoustic guitar, mostly picked, accompanies his songs about the trials, tribulations and delights that are just part-and-parcel of life in, probably, a small town. This certainly is not work that tells of the bright lights of a metropolis.  Here is the song that made me take notice and dig deeper.

If I had to choose a favourite from 'Exactly Where I Wanted To Be' then it would be the last of the eight cuts and that is 'Homes and Photographs'. It is a tough call I have to say and this has only served to enhance my anticipation of the forthcoming release. This is the artwork and track-listing for it.

The slated release date is 10 February 2015 in North America.

There is no doubt that I would like to see Small Houses live at a 2015 festival in the UK and I can think of some possibilities. Just as aside, can anyone think of other album titles that have a semi-colon in them?

My 2014 in Music - Albums - Part 2

I seem to have the bit between my teeth at the moment as regards remembering, researching and writing so it is my inclination to just go with it. This list of ten albums is in no way a second-tier one in comparision to the first. The emphasis is slightly different however. The first list, viewed simplistically, comprised six UK artists, three US ones and a Canadian one. This next regarded similarly consists of six US artists, three UK ones and again a single Canadian one. It is also less heavily biased towards acts that I have seen live, at least in 2014, and more heavily towards those that I wish to see live in 2015; quite how this might influence my festival choices in 2015 remains to be seen.

• Angaleena Presley - American Middle Class
• Barr Brothers - Sleeping Operator
• Chloë Warren - The Midnight Novel
• Hannah Aldridge - Razor Wire
• Hurray For The Riff Raff - Small Town Heroes (*READ THIS!)
• Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker - Nothing Can Bring Back The Hour
• Otis Gibbs - Souvenirs of a Misspent Youth
• Red Molly - The Red Album
• Samantha Crain - Kid Face
• The Willows - Amidst Fiery Skies

In this list I have seen six of the above live at least once. Of the other four one of them is UK based but I've got it covered. That band is The Willows and playing Behind The Castle Festival on 13 June 2015.
This is the sole Canadian act in this list and the second time that I have seen Barr Brothers live. They are playing seven UK dates at the end of January 2015.

Tipi stage, End of The Road Festival, 30 August 2014.

When I took this picture, at one of the smallest stages, I knew almost next to nothing about the artist. I did however implicitly trust the curators of the stage because I was familiar with it and them. I wasn't to be disappointed.

Otis Gibbs - Saloon stage, Truck Festival 2014.

This next artist is one in the above list that at the start of the 2014 UK Festival season might have been regarded as a very long shot for inclusion here. This is how live music plays such a huge part for me;  I saw her twice in three weeks. I was it would seem far from the only one to come away with a very favourable impression. I wonder if I will be able to take a photo quite like this again...

Samantha Crain - Tipi stage, 30 August, End Of The Road Festival 2014.

Her recent touring, supporting First Aid Kit in the US and beyond has been very well received indeed and I hope has propelled her to a new level. Be that as it may, the album Kid Face is certainly worthy of all the praise that it has gathered.

This next one may be a curiosity: Amazon UK will tell you it is to be released in 2015 and also offer it for near immediate delivery. 

That might matter but it is so good and legally available that it shouldn't; I don't much care for this apparent nonsense of geographic distribution.

She, nickname 'Holler Annie', is the least known member of the Pistol Annies and the last to release a solo album. Does this matter?

On the basis of this recording the answer is a resounding NO and that is exactly why it is here. 

The challenge for this weekend.

Is to not see any live music at all.
I can do that, probably.
Also to listen, by any legal means, to as many of the albums of 2014 that I have intended to listen to but still haven't. My focus just now is those by artists that I have seen live in 2014. I think I'm going to keep Spotify busy...

Without rhyme or reason I started with The Voyager - Jenny Lewis. Here she is.
Woods Stage, End Of The Road Festival 2014.

I'm having my Saturday lunch while listening to Fear In Bliss - Horse Thief. Lead vocalist Cameron Neal chatting to fans after the set on the Tipi Stage, End Of The Road Festival 2014.

This next is a bit worse as admissions go. I saw Samantha Crain live twice this summer and I still don't have the album 'Kid Face' to call my own. This mistake will shortly be rectified.

Again this the Tipi Stage at End Of The Road Festival 2014. I promise to choose another location soon.

'The Hum', the third LP by O'Hooley and Tidow, is yet another case in point. Booked for the subsequently cancelled Frome Folk Festival 2013, this was another act that I had never seen live before. I was rushing between stages at this point, and so I didn't take as many pictures as I might have liked, but being there just to listen was very well worth the effort.

Walled Garden Stage, Green Man Festival 2014.

They have just finished a year also involved in supporting Lucy Ward as part of her touring band and are now focussing attention on their fourth album as O'Hooley and Tidow. Lucy Ward is another whom I have never yet seem live and, as it happens, she was also booked to appear at Frome Folk Festival 2013... I do however have both albums, 'Adelphi Has To Fly' (2011) and 'Single Flame' (2013) and I recommend both very highly. Seeing Lucy Ward play live is one of my ambitions for 2015.

You might gather that my thread here is that there is just so much available means just to keep abreast of it, treading water if you will, is quite some exercise in memory if nothing else.
Then I found something new - a 2014 album by a Canadian artist that I had never ever heard of before. This needs to have a new post of its own...
'New Music 2014 - Part 40 - ...'.
The last in this post therefore will, as promised, be from a different stage and indeed a different festival.  A different artist too; one that, particularly outside the UK, is far less well known than the above.

Mary Epworth. Veterans and Virgins Stage. Truck Festival 2014.

Three to see twice - Green Man and End Of The Road 2014

I mentioned this earlier in the week. Now, having caught up with sleep and the pictures, I'm no longer in la la land. Well mostly I'm not; to be quite honest a part of me is still at EOTR 2014!
I made a deliberate policy of seeing three acts that I saw at Green Man all over again, just a fortnight later, at EOTR. The three are Samantha Crain, The Rails and Alice Boman. The curious thing is that all appeared on the Walled Garden Stage at Green Man and on The Tipi Stage at EOTR but, in the latter case one each day. I intend to illustrate this post with pictures I took at both festivals.
When it comes to the stage the Walled Garden wins over the Tipi for its outdoor ambience, but when it comes down to the bottom line it is the band that really matters. I had high expectations of The Rails before I saw them live for the first time at Green Man. They blew me away then --- and then they did it all over again, only more so, last Sunday afternoon. 'Fair Warning' (2014) is the début album and it more than delivers on the promise.

'The Rails' Tipi stage, Sunday afternoon, End Of The Road 2014.

As regards photography, well for all that I am learning faster than I thought I might, it is very much a case of simply handling the cards one is dealt as best one can: everything changes, every time.
One thing that few people seemed to disagree about, at either festival, is the perfection of Alice Boman's vocals. She may not yet be an artist that people buy festival tickets on the strength of but either that time will come or perhaps equally importantly, the strength in depth of the offering will.

Alice Boman, Walled Garden Stage, Green Man 2014, Friday afternoon, squinting into the sun.

Alice Boman, Tipi Stage, EOTR 2014, 10:40 pm Friday.

Here she is selling and signing CDs thereafter. She got through most of that box come the end of the line.

Last but certainly not least, and with more released recordings than either of the aforementioned, this is Samantha Crain from Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Tipi Stage, End of The Road 2014, early Sunday evening.

Samantha Crain, Walled Garden Stage,  Sunday afternoon, Green Man 2014.

Three acts from different countries, UK, Sweden and the US respectively, that exemplify the increasing strength in depth of the folk-roots revival in recent times.