After the success of 2017’s There Are No Saints, things just seem to keep getting more and more exciting for this Scottish songwriter, Siobhan Wilson. Siobhan was recently granted a PRS Momentum Music Fund grant, had her song featured on prime time television, and appeared in session on BBC Scotland. All of which might just seem like a sideshow to the upcoming moment of excitement that will be the May release of her upcoming album, “The Departure”.
Ahead of The Departure’s release, Siobhan has this week shared her, “defiant hymn to female empowerment”, April. The track, perhaps unsurprisingly from the title, focuses on the idea of re-birth, and regeneration, and how that gives us all a chance to decide who we want to be; tough, beautiful, even both, as Siobhan sings, “be a mountain if you want…or a mountain flower”. Of the track, Siobhan suggests, “It’s my way of trying to send a direct message out to do whatever the hell you want with your body, your time, and make your own decisions about your life.” Some of the possibilities Siobhan points out seem quite generic, ideas that could be aimed at anyone and everyone, however others feel deeply personal, there’s a certain sense of the pressure women are under to be mothers, and her own desires, to be loud, to fear failure and to embrace success, “you make your own rules, you break the ones you choose”. Siobhan Wilson is walking her own musical path, and sounding this exciting that’s exactly how it should be.
The Departure is out May 10th via Suffering Fools Records.
Quickly becoming one of the year’s break-out new voices, Toronto-based songwriter Dana Gavanski has been operating in the fringes of the folk scene since her 2017 EP, Spring Demos, which came out on Fox Food Records. Now signed to Full Time Hobby, Dana looks destined for great things, yet it could all have been so different if Dana had stuck with her original plan to follow her father into the film industry. Thankfully film’s loss was music’s gain, after an ex-partner left Dana with a guitar and she began crafting the songs that would maker her name.
Late last year I had the opportunity to work with Mike Lindsay (Tunng and LUMP) in seaside Margate, England and it was a beautiful and unforgettable experience. ‘One by One’ was written as a tender embrace of the feeling of being alone in the world and moving on with it. Of the dark interiors of the mind and remembering to open the windows.
This week Dana will share her first release for Full Time Hobby in the shape of a 7″ single, “One By One”, a track described by Dana as, “a tender embrace of the feeling of being alone in the world, and moving on with it”. The track has a gorgeously wistful quality, the unwavering, stoic vocal accompanied initially by a gentle flutter of acoustic guitar, the whole track gets gradually weirder and more intriguing, as a simplistic, and unusually prominent, bass-line propels the track, while synths and backing vocals drift in and out of earshot.
The accompanying B-side, Do You?, is an exploration of moving cities; of struggling to connect with new people and a new place in the world, set to a delightful piece of finger picked guitar and that rich, Joan Baez meets Sharon Van Etten vocal. Not content with all that, Dana also has some upcoming high-profile shows in the UK supporting Chris Cohen and Tomberlin, as well as contributing three songs to the final instalment of the, Song By Toad Split 12″ series. A songwriter as busy as she is brilliant, Dana Gavasnki won’t need any introduction for long.
Hannah Cohen will release her third album “Welcome Home” on 26th April via Bella Union Records.
“It was the beginning of September and NYC was in the midst of a big heat wave.” Cohen says of the track. “I was staying with my partner at the time and had locked myself in the bathroom to work on this song. It was very early in the morning, the air conditioner was buzzing away. At the time we were searching for our first apartment together, and had seen about 27 apartments in person. All were gross or out of our price range. It was definitely a catalyst for wanting to move out of the city – and it all came rushing at me. I really needed a change. Locked in a boiling hot bathroom, playing my nylon-string guitar, I realized that this is it… my life is crazy, it’s time to make a big move.”
Hannah Cohen has arrived home. From the title of her new album to the depth and beauty of the music, the Woodstock, NY-based singer-songwriter’s third album, “Welcome Home”, displays a new level of confidence and comfort with the many creative tools at her disposal. Cohen’s remarkably evocative voice is surrounded by dreamy, swooning incantations, from the rippling ‘This Is Your Life’ and the slow-burning, forthright statement of ‘All I Want,’ to the soul swagger of ‘Get in Line’ and dramatic vocal leaps of ‘Wasting My Time.’
With Welcome Home, “I don’t feel I have to cover up anything, or not be able to share,” Cohen says. “There’s less to interpret, I’m more visible. And as to reflecting on the past when things didn’t go well, I’ve left that behind. It was all worth it, to make my way to this point.”
Produced by Cohen’s partner Sam Owens, the producer/writer who performs as Sam Evian, the artist began developing the material that became Welcome Home in 2017. Taking her time with the songs, she wrapped herself in the fulfilling quiet of a new home, and a new creative partnership that supported finding a clarity in her writing and vocals. Many of the songs were written on an old, nylon-string guitar painted with Hawaiian scenes of beaches and palm trees (which can be heard on ‘This Is Your Life’), that, no matter the final arrangement, gives the songs a lighter touch, a warming glow that suffuses the whole album. Listeners may find echoes of folk and R&B, radiating with vocal-powered pop production, electronic accents, and bursts of pulsing guitar/bass/drums energy. Irresistible echoes of soul enchanters such as Carrie Cleveland (an early touchstone for Cohen and Evian), Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers and their friend and sometime collaborator Nick Hakim blend with the reflective shadings of singer/writer forebears such as Carole King and Harry Nilsson.
Welcome Home is almost brutally honest in its self-examination, as Cohen couches home truths in velvet-lush settings. As she explains, “A lot of the album is about checking in with reality and taking the wheel, being honest with myself and my intentions. Being transparent as much as possible. They’re about exploring why I’m here. And the songs question love – if it’s real or something else, finding love that’s healthy, mature and supportive.”
All of Cohen’s new material was crafted in Brooklyn except ‘Big House,’ which was written in an isolated stone farmhouse in upstate New York where they sometimes recorded, preserving the intimacy at the core of Welcome Home. The album was mostly tracked with a live rhythm section: bassist Brian Betancourt (from Evian’s live band) and drummer Vishal Nayak (Nick Hakim). Says Cohen, “We wanted to capture the essence of the song, quickly, and not toil over details for two years.”
That straightforward immediacy marked an important change in Cohen’s relationship with her music and the recording process. After growing up around professional musicians, she moved to New York from the Bay Area at 17, an intrepid adventurer who was drawn to New York’s singer-songwriter world. “New York became my world and my community, and formed me as a person, though I have never felt settled here until the last two years.” Her first two albums, Child Bride and Pleasure Boy, document the sound of a young artist finding her feet on a stage populated by established performers, a very public evolution toward the lived-in experience and command of Welcome Home. The desire to live on her own terms has recently led her to the less-crowded vistas of Woodstock, NY, a no-less iconic musical destination.
‘Old Bruiser’ documents that feeling of escape, specifically a west coast road trip (“Made it back to the city by daylight and we turned to each other as if to ask why /did we make something special just to go and leave it all behind?”). ‘Build Me Up’ also reflects Cohen’s desire to move: “Living in the city has such extreme effects on your body, your nervous system, the constant grind, living on top of people and never really having any true personal space. I am naturally a very sensitive person, I feel a lot of energy and people are really intense in NYC. I have been inspired by that energy but after fifteen years it became exhausting trying to keep up with the grind and hustle. I wanted a change of scenery and a new pace. It was hard to let go after putting so much time and work into building my life and community, and in a way I went from one extreme to another. But I felt I needed to make a big move to break free from all the noise. Welcome Home chronicles my last year in New York City before moving on. Onward and upwards.”
There is a warm haziness in the musical landscape of the song. Melchor’s vocals wax emotion while the backing vocals punctuate and echo the sweet sentiments. Though the time difference from the East Coast to the West Coast coast may seem like a mere three hours, many of us know just how much of a difference those few hours can make. We’ll be looking to hear more from this precocious new artist!.
“I Don’t Wanna See You Cryin’ Anymore” is a simple folk sound with a brilliantly played acoustic guitar lines that pulls from elements of jazz, blues, and folk music. The slow picking, sets a perfect tone for Adam Melchor’s gorgeous voice to float on top. In reality the song is an apology type song. Adam is singing to a close friend that he has let down, and he is owning up to the mess that he had made with this beautiful song. He comes across as being a caring and genuine person through the emotional and heartfelt delivery of the vocals. The acoustic nature of the song gives more room for the lyrics to really be heard and digested, and hopefully that means Adam Melchor’s apology has been accepted. Adam Melchor is a singer-songwriter from New Jersey who is currently based in Los Angeles, CA. “I Don’t Wanna See You Cryin’ Anymore” is the closing song on his 2019 EP titled “Plan on You.”
I Don’t Wanna See You Crying’ Anymore – Adam Melchor
‘May Your Kindness Remain’ is a year old today. It has been a magical and wild journey of a year. Thank you to all who’ve been a part of it.
After a decade spent at the height of the music industry, touring solo and with large pop bands, she realized her desire for a place to come home to. She found that in a small rural town in the deep forests of Washington State. There, she posted up at a local bar, slinging drinks, basking in the simplicity and reflection it allowed.
Thank you to Rolling Stone magazine for naming my song “May Your Kindness Remain” the number one country/americana song of the year. I write music with the intention of connecting with myself and others through words and feelings, and I’m so happy to know this song has resonated with so many folks this year.
Memphis, TN-based songwriter Julien Baker is the latest addition to the Matador Records roster. The 21-year-old’s devastating and vulnerable debut album, Sprained Ankle, which was originally released in 2015 and now gets re-released by Matador. The album was recorded at Spacebomb Studios, though Julien’s songs don’t share the down-home gloss of the other albums produced there. Instead of beefing up her honest tunes with rich layering like Natalie Prass or Matthew E. White, Baker pares her songs down to their simplest possible format: alone, singing and playing acoustic guitar directly into the microphone, sometimes in a single take.
That decision resulted in a remarkable record, one full of beautiful, personal explorations revealed in stark intimacy. That choice makes a lot of sense for Baker’s voice, both in the literal and figurative sense. Rather than Prass’ sweet, soaring tones or White’s blue-eyed soul, Sprained Ankle is delivered in reedy whispers and chilled coos. Released just before she turned 20 years old, the record still sounds raw – not that her voice lacks control or power, but rather that the weariness of songs about death, breakups, and existential questioning are sung with incredible presence. They’re coming of age songs from someone still coming of age, the wounds still fresh, the big truths currently being revealed. There are the struggles of depression, drugs, loneliness, but the clear-eyed way she faces it all supersedes any platitude.
LP – The album comes with a new 7″ Funeral Pyre. Only Baker can make a song with such a darkly macabre title so heartbreakingly gorgeous, with her signature hushed-yet-lofty vocals soaring over a quietly fingerpicked melody that crescendos into layered, almost-orchestral beauty. The B-side, Distant Solar System, is another unheard song from the Sprained Ankle sessions.
The twenty-four-year-old London-based musician created a self-care protagonist named “Miss Universe,” the voice of the (fictional) organization We Worry About Your Health (WWAY Health). The 24/7 care program “worries about you so you don’t have to,” as she puts it, subduing symptoms of paranoia, anxiety, and all-around unhappiness.
The storyline that surrounds her zapping, intricate rock songs questions the commodification of mental upkeep. “They’re saying they care, but they don’t really care, and they’re just trying to sell you things that you don’t need,” she tells me.
We have been anticipating the debut album from British singer songwriter Nilüfer Yanya since 2016, when she first made a splash with the idiosyncratic singles “Small Crimes” and “Keep on Calling.” The debut album “Miss Universe” delivers on the promise made by those early releases, with 17 tracks of bright, soulful pop that’s like nothing else you’ll hear this year.
One of the album’s most raw, subdued tracks, “Monsters Under the Bed,” self-awareness and the perceptions of other people butt heads. “They all think I’m not okay / Such a shame, never felt so good,” she sings. Yanya tells me that’s the oldest song on the record. “I don’t know how it ended up on the album. It makes sense, but I didn’t plan to [include it]. I was a different person when I wrote it, and it’s kind of crazy it’s on there. I like that, as well—that the younger me is on the album.” She explains how it was revised for a documentary her sister was making about their grandmother who suffered from mental illness. “I wrote it from her perspective, or was trying to write it with her mind,” Yanya says.
Nilüfer Yanya’s debut album, Miss Universe, is out March 22.
This is a Woozy, lovelorn, plaintive, playful, tender, a list of all things. It could be any of them. It could be all of them. All and so much more. Love is never normal but it’s all I wanted us to be. Normal people, together and apart, finding comfort in the small things: a candle on a birthday, the click of the latch on the door when you return with the groceries. Plaintive components of a spellbinding journey, small cogs across the breadth of a relationship, from learning to love, to watching it all fall apart.
Recommended on a whim, I recommend this album with an utmost certainty that this is music for all ears and listens, among my most anticipated albums of 2018 when it was finally released . “There’s Always Glimmer” by Gia Margaret . And I can already say it’s gonna be one of those few albums that will leave quite an inspiring mark . I just love the sound and mood, subtle use of electronic parts, the overall warmth. Just beautiful.
On the surface, Gia Margaret’s music is somber, glistening songs might seem gloomy — especially when her lyrics revolve around alienation, anxiety, depression and memories she wishes would fade already. But as its title suggests, There’s Always Glimmer is about letting slivers of appreciation and light pierce the melancholy. “Birthday” is downright intoxicating, as Gia Margaret’s drowsy voice nestles comfortably against tender guitar lines.
All songs written, performed and produced by Gia Margaret
Recorded and mixed by Nicholas Papaleo and Gia Margaret at Inside Voice, in Gia’s bedroom and at Decade Studios Smoke and West recorded and mixed by Doug Saltzman
Additional musicians:
Brendan Losch — additional guitar + backing vocals (2)
John Morton — backing vocals (2), drums (2, 3)
Scott Jacobson — additional guitar (10)
Ivan Pyzow — trumpet (3)
Quinn Tsan — additional vocals (7)
Bob Buckstaff — bass (2, 5)
Nicholas Papaleo — bass (6, 10), additional keys (2, 5, 10)
Molly Rife — cello (4)
Doug Saltzman — drum production (4, 12)
Chris Dye — drum production (10)
The singer and songwriter artist Vilma Flood from the steel town of Avesta in Sweden started her career in the blues world and appeared around many of Stockholm’s and Dalarna’s blues scenes. but Vilma found her greatest source of inspiration in the folk / indie genre through artists like Melanie, Alela Diane, Buffy Saint-Marie, Leonard Cohen and Ane Brun. She has since created her very own mix of blues, folk and pop together with fellow musicians Lars Knutas and Pontus Lundin.
Vilma has shared a new track called “Green Eyed Moron” with her powerful, dark and vibrating voice, combined with big marching drums, acoustic guitars and slide guitar to deliver a really compelling and intoxicating slab of melancholic, bluesy Americana. It reminds us of Jolie Holland or Gretchen Peters no less.
Her next single is released this Friday! Vilma and Pontus Lundin wrote the song sitting cross legged on a carpet in a big unfurnished room .
Her first album ‘Before Sunrise’ was released in 2016 and received a very nice reception by both the audience and the media and it has taken her on both big and small gigs around the country. Now Vilma is up to date with the second album ‘Moodswinger’, which will be released on April 26th, The pillars are pedal steel, slide guitar, big drums,plus Vilma’s vibrant, directly recognizable powerful voice
Band: Pontus Lundin, Lars Knutas and Roger Gustafsson
No Words Left was recorded in Brighton, produced by Tim Bidwell and mixed by Cenzo Townsend.
We last heard from Lucy Rose with the release of 2017’s “Something’s Changing”, a record that heralded a new outlook for the musician who was re-evaluating what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it.
If Something’s Changing was an artist rediscovering their voice, No Words Left is Lucy Rose using that voice to devastatingly frank effect. Lyrically and musically fearless, this record is a beautifully intense, but often unsettling listen. It’s a body of work, a fine modern example of the enduring strength of the album format.
Describing the record and its process, Lucy explains: “Releasing this record feels entirely different to every other record I’ve released. But to try and sum up my emotions is virtually impossible. “I don’t believe this the best album I’ve ever made because I don’t believe in making comparisons when it comes to music. But it’s different.
“In every way I’ve approached writing, recording and now releasing music, it’s been different. I’ve lost all consciousness in caring and it’s been liberating. It is what it is. It’s a feeling, it’s a song, it’s a sound, it’s a part of me which I can’t decipher whether it’s good or bad, but it’s sincere. I recently learnt that the word sincere is derived from the Latin sine = without, cera = wax due to dishonest sculptors in Rome or Greece covering flaws in their work with wax to deceive the viewer. So, a sculpture “without wax” would mean honesty in its perfection.
“That really struck a chord with me as sincerity really is the key to this record. It’s my truth. Sincerity is the truth of a person, not just the good but the bad: the flaws, the realness, which can never be ‘perfect’. This album reflects the reality of my life, the toughness life throws at you, and for a period of time it did become too much for me to handle alone.
“I could try to explain more about each song but in all honesty, I can’t particularly remember writing them, the feeling being too strong and too big for me to comprehend. But songs came out and through writing them and working through my thoughts I saw the truth lying in front of me and a way to move forward.
“I always hope my music would be a comfort to someone, however this record may not be the easiest listen. But it’s in its discomfort I believe a different form of comfort can be found. I’m certain of it. “
Wow, time has really flown and it’s only one week until you will be able to hear ‘No Words Left’ and what’s been in my head this last year. Today I want to share with you another song from the album, which is so important to me.
‘Treat Me Like A Woman’ was written one afternoon in Munich after a combination of events which pushed me to think about the way people interact with me purely based on my gender. I’ve often thought things like, ‘Would that have happened to me if I was a man?’ and a feeling of lack of respect at times purely because I’m a woman.
The Fat Angel Sings 