New Music 2018 - Part 4 - Julia Lucille - Chthonic

My next offering was actually released last year but for reasons that I might explain later it is totally new-year vibe for me.  It has, at least on the face of it, a very peculiar title indeed and also it just snuck up on me from somewhere!
This is certainly not the first music released by Texas-based artist Julia Lucille but it is a benchmark by any standards. If that all seems rather complicated and also awfully depressing for this time of year then please read/listen on. The title, Chthonic, a word derived from ancient Greek denotes things from, offered to, or happening below the surface of the earth and thus the Underworld of classical mythology, albeit not always to the Olympian standard. 

Julia Lucille - Chthonic:

• Eternally
• Darkening
• Plot of Ground
• Ariadne
• I Don't Think I Can
• Finery
• Lie and Wait
• Beneath the Spring
• Let's Climb Up on the Car

Julia Lucille's faintly Southern lilt drifts in and out of the nine mostly acoustic songs. Guitars, Julia and Paul Mitchell's both, are prominent and there is some pedal steel courtesy of Luke Dawson but in no way is this country of any kind and it most certainly is not bluegrass inspired. It's dream-indie with roots in pop and modern folk.
Charon making the rough crossing of the Styx memorable, and also one for which return tickets are totally invalid, may not be a true reflection of that other life. It is a soothing thought and welcome balm in the cold, mean days of winter.

Chthonic - Julia Lucille (Keeled Scales Records, 7 April 2017).

The cover illustration of the LP, by artist Aimee Lusty, suggests that this version of the underworld is at odds with how it was envisioned from above: Persephone - the undisputed queen of the underworld - skinny dipping.

So that's fine as regards mythology. What does Julia Lucille sound like live? Well I want to hear her live for real too, but this will have to suffice for now.

'Ariadne', recorded at a Sofar house concert in San Antonio, Texas.

New Music 2017 - Part 24 - Iona Lane - Pockets EP & Solace EP

One principal artist and two releases make up this little pot of gold. I should have mentioned the first months ago but I didn't, which is entirely my fault. With another now available to pre-order the time is right.

This is the forthcoming one (1 September 2017)...  you can order it here.

With Iona on acoustic guitar and vocals and Abi Plowman on violin and backing vocals this release consists of six tracks.

Iona Lane - Pockets EP:

• Weighted Dice
• The Loch Tay Boat Song
• Living Life out of Pockets
• Carved by Another
• Northern Town
• The Leaving Song

This is the first song to be released from it.

Back in February of this year she released the EP Solace. It was recorded with more of a full band sound.

Iona Lane - Solace EP:

• Amsterdam
• Sometimes
• Fly or Fall
• I'll Run Without You

Which of the four songs here is my favourite very much depends on my mood at the time. I'll go with opening song 'Amsterdam' that has an guitar intro that reminds me of many things and also nothing at the same time, which is very appropriate to the lyric.

The same is true of the seven songs on the 2015 'Dry Stone Walls EP'. 

Taken in total this amounts to a considerable body of original work and one that I enjoy listening to very much.
If you have none of the above you can get all 3 EPs (and a cover of Joni Mitchell's 'A Case Of Me') for £12.60 here. If I were you then I would.

New Music 2017 - Part 19 - Wrangled - Angaleena Presley

When 'The Pistol Annies' hit the world with a delightfully sardonic take on country, back in 2011, it would be fair to say that Angaleena Presley was the least well-known of the three and, perhaps actually rather importantly, the oldest. Miranda Lambert and Ashley Monroe were already better known.
She was also the last of the three to release a solo LP and that when it came was the brilliant, off-kilter 'American Middle Class' in 2014. It immediately caught my attention, in the time before Margo Price was known-about, for it's uncompromising take on the grubby underside of the American Dream.
The two have rather different takes on what at the end of the day is discrimination, inequality and sheer frustration. The thread is that they are both brilliant about putting them to words and then weaving those words into songs. Songs that people far away can still relate to. 
I'm not afraid to write this and not least because Britain has plenty of the same problems and I'm not one to try and deny that. It is a big issue and also a massively divisive one: Poverty be that of food or culture, history suggests, does not tend to bring people together.

What I will say is that, of the most recent solo albums from each of the Annies, this is (and the others both guest on it, so its very clear they are still in touch) the the point when 'Holler Annie' finally becomes Angaleena the outlaw Annie.

Angaleena Presley - Wrangled (Mining Light Music/Thirty Tigers, 21 April 2017).

Pretty much nothing that she turns her lyric to, and therefore her voice also, comes out smelling of roses. That is telling it nicely; she often doesn't.
I don't even need to include the track-list because, in true old-school fashion, it is on the cover of the record. This release has multiple issues and one of them is that it may turn out to be amongst the best albums of 2017.
Yes, of course I would like to see Angaleena play live again. Not least because I know that she is astonishing. She is far better than my photography.

Stage 1, Cambridge Folk Festival, 31 July 2015.

New Music 2016 - Part 57 - Frida Hyvönen - Kvinnor och barn

I have posted about my forays into listening to music sung in foreign languages a few times in the past. On the other hand I don't think that Swedish (a language that I don't understand a word of) has ever before been one of them.
Frida Hyvönen the artist I was well aware of through her three English language LPs:

• Until Death Comes (2006)
• Silence Is Wild (2008)
• To The Soul (2012)

In addition to songwriting and singing her principal instrument is piano and this album is no exception. One thing I have discovered is that its title 'Kvinnor och barn' translates as 'Women and children'.

Frida Hyvönen - Kvinnor och barn (4 November 2016).

 The twelve tracks are as follows:

• Sjön
• Imponera på mig
• Balkongmannen
• Förlotat dig
• Alla vet att det är vakert i Paris
• Vänner i vardagen
• Kommer du?
• Drömmer om dig
• Min stad
• Kvinnor och barn
• Fredag morgon
• Amors förkastliga pilar

I have as yet been unable to divine the label by which it is released (on vinyl, CD and d/l) but it is available to stream on Spotify (here in the UK, at least at the time of writing).
Sometimes not understanding the lyrics allows one to appreciate the melody and structure of the music more easily. This was one of those times for me and I very much enjoyed it. It has also reminded me that I really must revisit all the earlier albums. 'Silence Is Wild' tackles some rather unusual subjects in popular music, if I remember correctly.

New Music 2016 - Part 41 - Rachel Laven - Love & Luccheses

Yesterday morning I returned from Truck Festival, a fairly small festival held on a farm in Oxfordshire, that has as its smallest stage (there were seven stages this year) The Saloon Bar. I have mentioned it many times; to be quite honest it is pretty well the reason that I go to Truck Festival. Here is an artist, new solo album in tow, that I saw play there on Sunday afternoon with family members The Lavens (mentioned here).
I don't normally buy albums immediately after hearing an artist or act live for the first time. There are exceptions and this was destined to be one of them.

Rachel Laven - Love & Luccheses (self released, 16 May 2016 in the US).

• Finish Line
• Each Other's Shoes
• Do You Dare
• Love & Luccheses
• Only Thing Familiar
• The Moon (Rachel Laven & Jana Laven)
• Don't Put Me In A Town
• Something Like Heaven (Walt Wilkins)
• Someone Like You
• Wrong Time
• Song For Mary (Rachel Laven & Mary Cooper)

Eleven songs, all by Rachel Laven except as noted above, on which she sings lead vocals and plays guitar. 

Rachel Laven - live at Truck Festival. Sunday 17 July 2016.

I don't have the equipment to do live video. Indeed I think that I if I had I really wouldn't bother because I'm there to listen to the music. Still photography doesn't impinge on my enjoyment but I think that trying to record video certainly would. This therefore is not my work. It is the title track of the album and also explains 'Luccheses'. I didn't have the faintest idea either but at least I could ask there and then!

Rachel Laven is currently on tour in the UK. Dates and venues are here.
Note added 14 June 2017:
Rachel is touring England and Scotland in July and early August 2017, including a gig on The Saloon Bar Stage, at the sold-out Truck Festival 2017 on 22 July. The full list of dates and ticketing information is here.

New Music 2016 - Part 33 - Alice Phoebe Lou - Orbit

I listen to and read about far more music than I ever write about. I'm going to make absolutely no secret about why I have chosen this right now. De krenten uit de pop, a blog based in the Netherlands, with which I seem to share more than a little musical affinity, mentioned the South African artist Alice Phoebe Lou and her recent release 'Orbit' only this morning. I knew absolutely nothing at all about any of this but, despite my very sketchy ability to read Dutch (maybe I have a reason to try harder now?) it seemed interesting.
The acid test was of course to listen to it, whilst also trying to find more about the places and influences from where this is coming. It also made me think a bit more about artists from South Africa...
I think that I might have mentioned only one such specifically in the almost 1200 posts that I have published to date and surely that can't be a fair reflection of the situation? That act was Dear Reader, the vehicle of Cherilyn MacNeil, that I saw live at Latitude Festival 2009 and in particular the album 'Replace Why with Funny'. I mentioned that here and clearly I was of the impression that my thoughts about this might have been in the minority though I cannot remember why that was. It's been a long preamble but there is a reason. Why did both artists ultimately choose Berlin?

Alice Phoebe Lou - Orbit (6 May 2016, OMN).

• Girl on an Island
• Society
• Red
• Take Flight
• Haruki
• Walking In The Garden
• Amsterdam
• Orbit
• The City Sleeps

I must say that I am struck by this release on the basis of just a couple of listens. What makes me even more impressed, and it is probably more reliable guidance as regards my impression of where this might be going, is just how this is a reflection of her live performance roots on the streets of European cities. This video of a performance near Warschauer Str. railway station in Berlin is actually two years old now. 

I always have an eye and an ear for live potential. This is just tailor-made for a certain kind of music festival.

New Music 2016 - Part 32 - Hattie Briggs - Young Runaway

When Hattie Briggs' début LP 'Red & Gold' was released in April 2015 I remember thinking that whatever releases the rest of the year was to bring this was sure to remain amongst my favourites. I was quite right and, given the reviews that the album and her live performances have received in the months that followed, many others feel the same way.

Clearly not one to rest on her laurels and a prolific song writer, just as the spring of 2016 was struggling to get going the 'Here's to Hoping EP' came our way.

This consisted of Tilly's Song, the original release of which pre-dates Red & Gold, and three news songs as a taster of a forthcoming LP. This is that record.

Hattie Briggs - Young Runaway (Wise Dog Records, 8 July 2016).

• The Lake
• Lift Me Up
• Here's to Hoping
• On Your Way
• Digging to Australia
• Have We Met Before?
• Castle On the Sand
• Talk To Me
• You Only Live Once
• The River

The ten songs are all new and self-written. 'Red and Gold itself only had a single cover, that being 'Fields of Gold'. The team behind it, including producer Peter Waterman, remains much the same as that featured on the first record. It is however clear that the team had learned a lot during the making of the first.  It shows in a number of ways, from the more intricate use of supporting musicians to the production. The other feature that sets it apart is that it is a set of songs all written over a fairly short period of time. I haven't really listened to it often enough to chose any particular favourites but I suspect that this may not really be possible because, despite countless times of listening, my favourite tracks on 'Red & Gold' tend to be quite mutable depending on the circumstances prevailing at the time.

Whilst I whole-heartedly commend 'Young Runaway' to your attention I very much suggest that you take any opportunity you get to see Hattie Briggs live - be that busking solo, which she often does, or playing with the full band.

New Music 2015 - Part 75 - Bella Spinks - Debut EP

It was a journey without any destination. One thing that I most certainly did not expect when I started this little project in September 2006 was ever to be able to review releases that few have yet had the chance to hear.  This is the latest stop on the way.

Bella Spinks is a 22 year-old and from Brighton. She writes songs with a notable literary bent. This is music that simply won't stay in the background. It will ensnare you - the piano might catch you first but it is the words around which it ebbs and flows that soon become the challenge and thus reveal the true worth in this. I could make comparisons with other artists but I don't feel the need to do that. I think that spoon-feeding would be unhelpful and possibly even insulting, both to the artist and to readers who I hope will also become fans and listeners.

Debut EP - Bella Spinks. Released 27 November 2015 by Sublime Music.

I can suggest music that you might like, the choice is entirely yours, rather than try to tell you what music you should like. I will also mention, as a champion of the revival of the EP format, that less is so often more. The early release of a small collection of well chosen, carefully honed tracks is the way to go. It focuses attention and allows the music to speak for itself.

This is the track list:

• Call You Home
• Regenerate
• George Of The 5th Of September
• Laura Save Yourself

You can't be expected to make a judgement for yourself without anything to listen to. 

A live version of  'Call You Home' recorded in a church in Brighton. December 2014.

New Music 2015 - Part 52 - Hannah Grace - Meant To Be Kind

Continuing my theme of artists I'm intending to see at forthcoming festivals here is one who plays the new Palm City Stage at Truck Festival 2015. 
She hails from Bridgend, South Wales, and this is her first EP. 

It was released by Never Fade Records in 2014 and is available to buy digitally (from the usual sources) and on CD and 12" vinyl either from Never Fade or from Rough Trade. The vinyl pressing is quite unusual in that it is single sided.

The background to Never Fade Records is an interesting example in the changing face of music in the digital age. It was founded in 2010 by Gabrielle Aplin and James Barnes so that the former could self-release her first EP (it was followed by two others). In time it has evolved to do the same for a small, but growing, group of other artists now that Aplin's LP releases (of which more in due course) are released by Parlophone, which is now part of major label Warner Music Group. [I have chosen Wikipedia links over those of the respective companies simply for the reason that they are more informative in the historical perspective, whereas the websites of the companies themselves are understandably pre-occupied with the here-and-now.]
'The First Time' - recorded live at The Unitarian Church, Dublin, in 2013 - is one of Hannah's own songs and it bodes very well for her performance at Truck Festival I think. It is not one of the four included on the aforementioned EP. Those songs are:

• Meant To Be Kind
• Broke
• Walk Away (The City)
• Chasing Butterflies

There are also several interesting cover versions to be found on-line and this - The Staves' 'White Winter Trees' is one of my favourites.
In the light of this recent blog post from Breaking More Waves, and the various sources it mentions even if they do not meet the rigorous guidelines for peer-reviewed sociological research, I shall continue not to worry about mentioning female artists as long as I deem the music worthy of inclusion. I don't think that I'm likely to suffer a crisis of logic any time soon.

New Music 2015 - Part 49 - Will Hoge - Small Town Dreams

It is no secret that I like a great deal of folk, roots and alt/indie-country music that is being produced on both sides of the Atlantic these days. In that vein I shall continue with this, the latest LP from Will Hoge, a native of Franklin, Tennessee and maybe the small town of his musings, at least in part. It was released by independent label Cumberland Recordings (Nashville, TN) - about which I can find little information but would like to if not least to hear more of their artists - on 15 June 2015 (in the UK).

Since then I have listened to it, from start to finish, a number of times and I like it. I like it a lot, to be honest. I am planning to listen to as much folk, roots and Americana as I can over the summer festival season. If Will Hoge turns out to be playing then I'll be there if I possibly can. This comprises eleven songs, none are covers, and I can't say that I have a particular favourite yet and that is no bad thing. I can safely say however that there are none that I would skip. This is the track-list:

1. Growing Up Around Here
2. They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
3. Better Than You
4. Little Bitty Dreams
5. Guitar Or A Gun
6. Middle Of America
7. All I Want Is Us Tonight
8. Just Up The Road
9. Desperate Times
10. The Last Thing I Needed
11. Till I Do It Again

This time next week 'The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts 2015' will be heading towards the closing night. As mentioned before I shan't be there but, while looking forward to the coverage and hearing all the tales, it does mark a certain kind of start to the summer. The weather forecast for the next week in these parts looks fairly benign too.
It is also, a tradition on my part, the time that I start to think about my end-of-year lists. My reason for this is that, with half of the year done, it should be possible to determine at least some trends...
Why bother? Well, having thought about it I then have the summer, and the festivals, to see if my ideas hold up and also still the time to explore new ones.

New Music 2015 - Part 24 - Pip Mountjoy - Call To Arms

Another singer and another song...
For those of you that remember Pip Mountjoy at Marnhull Acoustic Sessions in February 2014 or maybe before then as I did, at Deer Shed Festival 2012, here is a new song  played live and with a video. It is one of four that I believe are to appear during the coming Spring...

The first, filmed in a Yorkshire Dales cottage in need of some restoration, is 'Call To Arms'. It is a rallying cry to a number of her friends that in recent times have given up on their dreams of making a career of music.

The next video, which will accompany the song 'Hunter Moon' will be made available tomorrow (4 April) so watch this space. More news from this week is that Pip Mountjoy has been confirmed for North Dorset Folk Festival 2015 at Marnhull Village Hall on Saturday 24 October.
Here is 'Hunter Moon' and the video to accompany a couple of hours early...

New Music 2015 - Part 21 - Hattie Briggs - Red & Gold

UK music is combustible. In fact it has been a raging fire for several years now. The sparks have even taken root far beyond these shores and the incoming influences vice versa.
As long as it remains as such I don't think I will ever tire of it and, in particular, the tidal wave of acoustic.
It has become very obvious to me these last few years that the artists playing this music were becoming ever younger than their audiences. I have the inkling, particularly recently, that this is finally starting to change too - in the sense only that that they are also attracting younger audiences. Where once Celtic or Celtic-influenced music was the mainstay of UK and Irish folk output, whether traditional or contemporary, the balance has become more even in recent years too. To put it another way, English folk, similarly categorised, has found its sense of purpose and it has become to be realised that it is not, however it may have been perceived to be, simply the accompaniment to Morris Dancing.  Whether these thoughts and observations are relevant only time will tell. It is however a preamble to this - an interesting story of an astonishing change of career direction.

Hattie Briggs is from the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire. This is her soon-to-be released, as on April 6, début LP and there is an involved story behind it.

This is the official video to 'A Beautiful Mind', taken from it.

She is now confirmed for Cambridge Folk Festival 2015 - Den Stage, Friday so I believe.

New Music 2015 - Part 10 - Clara Engel - A Little Slander, A Little Lace

I suppose that Saturday lunchtime is an odd time to write a post but never mind.  It is a cold, grey blustery day and I have done all the things I needed to do that involved being outdoors so now I'm at home and doing domestic things while listening to music, of course.
This, released digitally today by Canadian artist Clara Engel who I have mentioned several times before and most recently here, caught my attention immediately.

The download [from US $2] also includes track 'What's The Damage'. Pay 50% more than the minimum asking price and it is still no more than really good coffee. It is bottomless too - you can have another dose as often as you like, for as long as you like. You won't find a deal like that at any coffee shop that I've ever come across. 

New Music 2014 - Part 24 - Bella Gaffney

I am not at Priddy Folk Festival, and Bella Gaffney is not in so far as I am aware one of the artists advertised to play there either. That said I have somehow become aware of her music and, I have to say, I like it. She is from Bradford and to be quite honest the North Midlands of England have been giving UK folk a rare treat over the last decade and more.
If I could find a Bella Gaffney LP or EP to tell you detail about then I would do so; at the moment I can't but that is just how it is and simply count this as another 'artist to watch', if you will.

I don't think, for one moment, that this is the last that we shall hear from Bella and probably sooner rather than later. It is not a summery song in the slightest. The really frustrating thing is that I know that there is an album 'The Clock That Didn't Stop' and I currently can't find it to buy for love nor money in any format. I can find some of the songs from it but that is not quite what I was looking for. If you know more then please write a comment. [Please note that any comment might not appear at once - all comments are moderated by me, but at least that way you know that I have read them.]

New Music 2014 - Part 6 - Harriet Jones

Barely a week after I discovered one new act from Plymouth (WHOANOWS) as I was listening to Kathryn Tickell's show, on Amazing Radio this evening, along came this statement of intent from 20-year-old singer-songwriter Harriet Jones also from Plymouth.

The track Dealin' Man Blues is released as a single today and is as good a slice of soul-blues as I have heard in some time. It is remarkable for, amongst other things, the minimal accompaniment to her vocal and that works because it simply doesn't need more. Another one to watch in 2014 and I would love to see her play live.

If I were to meet her I should be very wary: If I am reminded by this of any one other song in particular then it is a cautionary tale, with a moral ending - 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' and I'm not convinced that I would come out on the right side of this.
It may seem a curious comparison but it works for me. What she might conjure up next is anyone's guess but hers. I'm fascinated by the possibilities.

2013 in Music - My favourite list so far...

I have read many lists of 2013 music and shall read many more I expect, in part as a reference to compiling my own humble additions to the canon. Of all of them this is the most interesting so far by a country mile...

I shall return to this list and what I think it means for 2014, perhaps beyond, in the coming weeks.

Jem - Down To Earth - UK availability.

Several people have asked about this and the best answer I can currently give is 'no but yes'! You probably won't yet find Jem - Down To Earth in your local supermarket, HMV store and the like. If you do it will, more likely than not, cost extra as it is nominally available only on import (and I don't mean from Wales) only! Amazon.co.uk list it, at £12.49 on CD, with a delivery time of 2 - 3 weeks.

Here are two totally legal, and as far as I have found through regular use reliable (although I can't guarantee it) options you might try:

http://caimanzone.co.uk/details.cfm?ASIN=B001CR49IE
It is currently on sale there at £7.94 + £1.24 delivery (in the UK) and, if my recent experience is representative, it will arrive by Royal Mail in 2-3 working days after the one on which you order it.
If you already deal with amazon.co.uk, and would prefer not to use your card with Caiman directly, then you can also get it from caimanzone.co.uk using amazon.co.uk 'Marketplace Sellers' and might not cost you much, if any, more.

I hope this helps...