Holly is an emerging singer-songwriter who grew up in the moors of the Durham Dales. Her debut EP ‘Ilex’ has seen radio play from Radio 6 Music, a feature on Tom Robinson’s BBC Introducing Mixtape listening to the music of Holly Rees, we’re instantly transported back to a simpler time. With acts like Laura Marling, Emmy The Great were at the forefront of a folk-led movement, acoustic guitars and beautiful words ruled the roost and it felt like the start of a quiet revolution. but Holly Rees reminds us folk is not a dirty word in the pantheon of pop.
Holly also released her excellent EP, Slow Down, a few months back, and now this week shared a brand new single, “Stick Around”. Holly’s music has that certain wide-eyed rural sheen that only a sky full of stars without the distraction of cars and street lights can bring. “What’s this thing in my chest skipping in circles”, Holly sings with a beautiful simplicity and raw honesty; this is music that makes a connection with no bells and whistles, just a personal truth laid bare for all to see.
Two albums in, Erin Costelo seems destined to establish herself alongside the top tier of today’s most expressive soulful singers. It’s a quick ascent to be sure, especially since her debut album Down Below, The Status Quo was released only two years ago. Nevertheless, given its flood of rave reviews and the anticipation for what would follow, this Canadian chanteuse clearly has the craft and charisma needed to sustain her momentum. For the most part, Sweet Marie maintains a more nocturnal ambiance, a sound that’s well in keeping with a jazzier inclination. Smooth and supple, her voice manages to create an emphatic impression simply by manipulating the mood, veering from sensual and suggestive one minute to playful the next.
The upbeat appeal of “All In Your Head,” with its bouncy rhythm, Stax-style organ and soaring brass, adds a decidedly dazzling appeal, while the bluesy inflection of “Hands on Fire” asserts Costelo’s confidence as a torch singer of creedence and conviction. Likewise, the pulsating piano framing “Epilogue” adds an emphatic energy to the proceedings. then there’s “My Love,” a song which emerges from a slow build to a triumphant refrain to become one of the standouts of the set overall.
Musicians: Erin Costelo – vocals/keyboard/Producer Clive MacNutt – guitar Leith Fleming-Smith – organ Anna Ruddick – bass Glenn Milchem – drums Andrew MacKelvie – saxophone Andrew Jackson – trombone Leanne Hoffman – background vocals Kwento – background vocals
Taken from the documentary film based on the making of Erin Costelo’s 5th album, “Sweet Marie”.
Almost a year after the release of her extraordinary self-titled fourth album, Jen Cloher releases a gorgeous acoustic EP ‘Live at The Loft and Loew’s’.
The live EP features exquisite performances captured at Wilco’s famous Loft studios in Chicago and from within the decaying glory of New Jersey’s iconic Loew’s Theatre. These are performances of sparse beauty, laying bare the elegance, simplicity and rawness of Cloher’s songwriting. They are a reminder that the multi-award-winner’s recent albums have established her as one of the most important song-writing voices in the country. l love Jen stripped back to acoustic, you can hear her gentle, luring vocals that take you into the beautiful songs, she sings with feelings and emotions.
The Live at The Loft and Loew’s EP will be available as a super-limited edition vinyl pressing available only at Cloher’s upcoming shows.
Last time we heard from singer songwriter Billie Marten was back in September when she released the delightfully morbid track ‘Mice’. She returns with ‘Blue Sea, Red Sea’, which sees her feeling equally dejected and out of sorts but fortunately this is the zone from which she writes her most poignant songs. Speaking of ‘Blue Sea, Red Sea’, she says:
“I get S.A.D disorder real bad so my head was a bit blue. I decided to sit and write the happiest, simplest pop song I could. I was really missing my family at the time and felt like I needed to fall into a clear blue sea or something. I liked the idea of the Jewish pilgrimage to the Dead Sea, where salt strips your skin clean and everything is new again.”
This combination of forcing herself to write a happy song when in a low mood has created an interesting result; like sun shining through rain to create a rainbow, ‘Blue Sea, Red Sea’ manages to capture a broad spectrum of feelings and colours. Billie Marten’s imagery and thoughts flip from the beautiful to the hollow on a moment’s notice: “snow is falling heavy/ wish my mother would come and get me.” These varied emotions ping pong around the flutteringly gorgeous track, until she reaches the carefree “la la la” chorus that carries away in a stream of weary satisfaction.
Whim is the stage moniker for indie-pop songwriter, Sarah Isabella DiMuzio. She first caught our ear at Fluff and Gravy Records a few years ago when she recorded a 4 song ukulele-based ep in our studio. She was 17 years old at the time and her earnest songwriter and propensity for writing unforgettable hooks was already apparent. Now at age 22, we are teaming up with her to produce and release a full-length LP, “Abuzz in the Abyss” due out in early Summer of 2019. The first song that we worked up and recorded was “Mouths” and it is first and foremost a callout song— a song Sarah wrote to call herself out for taking the silent observer position in too many situations where being vocal is imperative. In the days of social media where fake news and political opinions abound, it’s easy to feel like you simultaneously have a voice, and that it’s impossible for you to ever be heard over the clamoring masses. It becomes an existential pitfall when you either say nothing, or you say something and it turns out to be ignored.
Singer-songwriter Sarah Isabella DiMuzio, who records under the name Whim, is gearing up to release a new full-length LP on Fluff and Gravy Records sometime next year, which will be the follow-up to her debut album, 400 Days. The first song from the forthcoming record is a siren call that begs the listener to use their “mouth” and make their voice heard. “Mouths” surfaces as a bouncy, riffy guitar tune, but listen carefully, and you’ll find DiMuzio is making a strong statement on top of all that shine. It’s a catchy indie-rock anthem arriving just in time for the midterm elections, which is a great time to make one’s voice heard. “What is this silence about?” DiMuzio sings. ”’Cause we are the people who shout.” “Mouths” sounds like the spirited soundtrack to a bipartisan effort to encourage voter registration. DiMuzio reminds us that it’s okay to be a little unsure, as long as you use your voice when it becomes imperative to do so. “Everyone has doubts when they’re screaming out into the void,” she sings.
Warren Zevon was a very clever songwriter. He went were other songwriters don’t often go. This song was off his critically acclaimed album “Excitable Boy” released in 1978.
Zevon wrote this with guitarist Robert “Waddy” Wachtel. When Zevon was working with The Everly Brothers, he hired Wachtel to play in their backing band. At one point, Phil Everly asked them to write a dance song for the Everly Brothers called “Werewolves Of London.” Wachtel and Zevon were good friends and were strumming guitars together when someone asked what they were playing. Zevon replied, “Werewolves Of London,” and Wachtel started howling. Zevon came up with the line “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand,” and they traded lyrics back and forth until they had their song.
In 2000, a fight broke out while Zevon was performing this at the Bowery Ballroom in New York. Zevon stopped, waited for the fight to end, said “I bet this never happens at Sting concerts,” and continued the song.
This track was produced by Jackson Browne. The songwriters were LeRoy Marinell, Waddy Wachtel, and Warren Zevon. John McVie and Mick Fleetwood played on this song.
On this day in September of 2003 we lost one of the great singer songwriters, after a year long battle with Lung Cancer Warren Zevon passed away leaving a legacy of some amazing songs, including one of his most well known “Werewolves of London” with bouts of depression, drugs and alcohol dependecy, fame and wealth and financial strife Zevon experienced everything throughout his nearly 40 years career with a dark and somewhat outlandish sense of humour in his songs, he was praised by many other musicians he was also keyboard player and orchestrater for the Everly Brothers he roomed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham
His songs include“Johnny Strikes Up The Band”, “Excitable Boy”.”Roland the Thompson Headless Gunner” and “Accidently Like A Martyr and “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”
Singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov’s new album, Evening Machines, showcases his emotionally evocative songwriting style; rich in narrative detail and beautifully contemplative.
Isakov was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He and his family immigrated to the States in the mid-1980s and settled in Philadelphia. As a teenager, he began touring and moved to Colorado to study horticulture. He self-released his debut album in 2003, and he’s built a following on a series of lush, honest, ethereal songs that embody modern folk, influenced along the way by Leonard Cohen and blues-folk musician Kelly Joe Phelps. Over the years, Isakov’s songs have appeared in a number of television shows. His songs often have atmospheric, cinematic qualities and while placements in shows like Girls, Californication and Rectify have served his career well, the recent use of “If I Go, I’m Goin” (from 2009’s This Empty Northern Hemisphere) on the final episode of the new Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House is a perfect example of how Isakov’s sense of narrative and quiet intensity can elevate a visual medium.
The video for “San Luis,” a cut from Isakov’s newest album. It’s a mesmerizing, sprawling road video beautifully shot by director Andy Mann, who filmed it with his fellow video and photography colleagues, Keith Ladzinski and Chris Alstrin.
Isakov had this to say about the song:
“I started this song in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, a place I often draw from when writing. The song followed me around for about a year and finished itself in California, on the central coast. Andy called me soon after I had returned to Colorado and said he was shooting a short film about artists and wanted me to meet him at Great Sand Dunes National Park for a few days. Any chance I get to hang out with him, I’ll take. He, along with some other National Geographic photographers and friends were traveling the Southwest, documenting the artist’s process. We camped a couple nights and talked about writing, photography–and got caught in a gnarly sandstorm, our tents blowing away in the distance. It was a surreal and beautiful few days.
I reached out to Andy a few months back, to ask if we could use some of the footage for a video for the song. I wanted to make sure the landscape that we had experienced together made it in. I loved collaborating with him; he really is a master at what he does.”
The photography for “San Luis” is wondrously expansive and moody. It seductively captures the wide open sky above the Great Sand Dunes National Park, as well as the land and wildlife found there. The video opens on a shot of morning breaking, before following Isakov in his camper through the park. A campfire roars. A spectacular night sky twinkles brilliantly. As a banjo gently strums, Isakov’s pensive guitar pushes the song into stirring solitude.
“Weightlessness, no gravity. / Were we somewhere in-between? / I’m a ghost of you, you’re a ghost of me. / A bird’s-eye view of San Luis”
Simply put, the video for “San Luis” invites you in to a place that you never want to leave.
The Australian singer-songwriter has a knack for packing an emotional punch with her deceptively fragile sound, exhibited on Jacklin’s 2016 debut Don’t Let the Kids Win. While a follow-up release has yet to be announced, it seems that something is on the horizon, as seen in the release of a new video, “Body”
The song’s visual treatment directed by Jacklin’s high school friend Nick McKinlay, who also shot the videos for “Don’t Let the Kids Win” and “Coming of Age” — places the viewer in the passenger seat of Jacklin’s scenic drive through the New South Wales countryside.
Julia Jacklin is the best artist in Australia right now. She is consistently brilliant in both her musical and visual output. Her voice is a rare gift, and her songwriting is magnificent. These are all facts that I state and therefore are total and irrefutable truths. I know the last time we had a woman named Julia leading the country it didn’t work out so well, but I think if Jacklin gave it a go, we’d be in good hands. Nothing she can’t do. Julia Jacklin 2019 (or whenever the government randomly decides to throw the next election). You heard it here first.
“Nick and I drove out to the Hay Plain, which is one of my favourite parts of Australia, and filmed this clip,” Jacklin says. “We spent about 14 hours in the car, jumping out when something looked beautiful. Whenever I listened to this song, I knew the clip had to be a driving one, destination unknown.”
“Body” is equal parts rugged and elegant, mirrored by Jacklin wearing a formal dress against the backdrop of the austere landscape in the video. The track evokes an overwhelming feeling of defeat, as Jacklin repeats the phrase, “Well I guess it’s just my life / And it’s just my body.”
“The song speaks for itself, but I’d say it’s just a very long and exaggerated sigh,” Jacklin says, “Born from feelings of powerlessness when it comes to the impossible task of representing yourself the way you think is right, personally and professionally; when you feel like everything is for the taking, no matter what you do.”
Kate Teague’s debut album won’t arrive until 2019, but the indie singer-songwriter out of Oxford, Miss., is sowing the seeds of a standout release, the latest of which is her heartwarming new single “Gilly.” The deeply personal track finds Teague reaching out to console a loved one, doing her best to be there for her from afar. Teague sings softly over a bright, yet restless lead guitar line that roams both high and low, not unlike the peaks and valleys of a life. She reassures her heartbroken sibling that the best is yet to come, promising, “Gilly, you’ll be alright/ Let it end/ Don’t let your willful heart win/ Tomorrow’s man will be all in.” The song is a moving attempt to bridge the kind of gap that can’t help but exist between two adults, with Teague reminding the song’s namesake that when she needs a loving sister to lean on, there’s no distance too far.
Kate Teague is fast becoming one of the most exciting rising artists around, consistently delivering beautifully-crafted songs that flourish with captivating melodies and honest lyricism.
Across her first two albums, Emma Louise mainly sang in her own voice, a clear soprano offered up without much overt processing. While this Australian singer/songwriter was in the studio making her debut record, 2013’s Vs. Head Vs. Heart, she heard a snippet of her backing vocals slowed and pitched down to a tenor range. A new character named Joseph was born in her mind and, five years later, she’s released the first single off an album in which Joseph sings lead.
This is from the new album, Lilac Everything; A Project by Emma Louise. She tells us, “Just The Way I Am” is my favourite song from the album, and it means the most to me. I wrote it after having a falling out with a friend and I came to realise how special it is to have people in your life who love absolutely everything about you.”
“Wish You Well,” taken off the album “Lilac Everything”, is a straightforward and mournful piano ballad that makes creative use of the “audio drag” technique pioneered by sound artist Laurie Anderson in the 1980s. “Lie to me/Say there’s still some place we can meet/But if not/I wish you well,” Louise sings as Joseph. She sounds different not just because her voice is lower and shrouded in woozy effects, but because she’s adopted new, slightly more masculine vocal tics, like repeated “woah-ohs” and notes that trail off half a beat early.
She gets to explore a new kind of confidence and play out romantic dramas in a fantasy space, relieving her of the notion that singers—especially female singers—must always be writing in the confessional mode about things that have happened to them. By inhabiting this character, Louise is free to explore a whole new side to her craft, and “Wish You Well” proves it to be an exciting one.
The Fat Angel Sings 