One of the best discoveries for me over the last couple of years is Mark Wynn. Apparently he’s from York but looking at his tour schedule i’m not sure how much time he spends there, he is constantly on the road playing shows the length and breadth of the UK and often travelling pretty big distances between one show and the other and then back again. His latest, self released offering is Stories, Rags & Stomps, a 9 track country/blues album that is as good as anything i’ve heard all year. His previous album Lovers, Losers & Wasters is an album i have played hundreds of times and this carries on in very much the same vein.
Resembling a young, skinny Keith Richards, Mark writes songs with titles like Friday Night (fallin’ down), Wreckheads and World Can wait which come across like a direct response to his life on the road and the people he meets rather than a sad attempt to appear cool and showing how ‘rock n roll’ he is. A quite brilliant songwriter with a sharp eye for the easily overlooked he reminds me of a young Townes van Zandt, a certain vulnerability belies his incredible talent but he can you stop you dead in your tracks with many of his songs, I Don’t Mind, Factory Girls and the rather reflective Sad Stoned (fallin in the street) are all worthy of your full attention. With the amount of gigs and the variety of venues he plays you just know that many of the characters and the stories he sings about are true. Too many late nights and not enough early mornings i suppose are the key ingredients to writing songs as good as this. Not in it for the fame but like most musicians wouldn’t mind making an ok living from it, songwriters like Mark Wynn deserve to be heard now and not in twenty years time like the aforementioned Mr van Zandt and many others like him. Discover him today and be thankful that you did, there’s not many like him around.
You can buy his album(s) either as a digital download or as a cd for no more than the change in your pocket here and i urge you to do so. In the meantime here’s a little taster.
One of the most anticipated albums for me this year is The Deep Dark Woods. Their 2009 album Winter Hours was in my top albums of that year and their new one, The Place I Left Behind is now becoming a firm favourite of 2011. There are many things to love about TDDW. Their consistency for one. In all their four releases so far they have yet to make a bad one, in fact it’s very difficult to put them in order of preference because they are all outstanding. Like some of the old songs they have covered in the past they make music that i think will stand the test of time, albums that you will return to time and time again. In fact, their albums are very much like that, they don’t always grab you on your first lesson but over a period of a few, but each one brings something new, a favourite new track or a missed lyric that makes you go back and listen again until you realise that you are listening to one of the best bands around. However, it’s impossible to miss, be it on first or last listen the sad, wistful voice of lead singer and main songwriter Ryan Boldt. Does anyone sing a murder ballad better? Also, everyone in the band can really play as the video below clearly shows (also on the new album). Not many bands are making music as good as TDDW as far as i’m concerned.
Now signed to the brilliant Six Shooter Records the new records is out on 2nd August (Canada) and Sugarhill records are releasing it worldwide on 18th October. Their next shows are Edmonton F0lk Festival and then various dates across Canada and beyond. Go see em.
If you really can’t wait for the album to be released you can stream it here.
Although the The North Farm Sessions EP by Jonny & Lucy came out in February it’s only now i’ve been able to find time to post about it. Just finished wowing audiences supporting the magnificent Unthanks on a european tour they are now lined up to play some major festivals, namely Larmer tree, Green man and the best festival in the uk, The End Of The Road Festival. As an added bonus they will also be playing for us here in Brighton as part of a drifter promotions show straight after the end of the road gig, come along.
Even Jonny & Lucy can’t agree on how they would describe their music, Jonny say’s melancholic Lucy say’s thoughtful. Either way, it’s folk music drenched in an old traditional sound, it could easily be music from 100 years ago, however, apart from hares on the mountain, all other tracks on this six track EP are all their own. Jonny sings and plays guitar very sensitively to support Lucy’s fabulous voice and fiddle.It’s also nice to hear jonny sing in his accent (Geordie, like me) and along with Lucy’s sweeter, southern perhaps posher tone it works amazingly well. It’s all the things you’d expect, delicate, sparse, even mournful but together they create something really quite wondrous. None of them are trying to take the limelight, the balance is perfect, when they sing together it’s a combination that feels totally organic. So now the secret’s out, they are being haled in some press as the next big thing to hit the REAL folk scene, one word describes them for me, genuine.
Try and see them play if they come by your town but if this is too long a wait you can buy their debut EP here. Enjoy.
It’s been a long long time since I have posted anything. Never enough hours in the day it seems…work, eat, listen to music, sleep. Repeat…..but I had to make a little time to tell you all Nathaniel Rateliff‘s new album “In Memory of Loss” was released today…and trust me, it is a stunner. I purchased it this morning and I have been obsessively playing it over and over. Love at first listen.
I have Olly to thank for sharing this wonderfully talented artist with me. He blogged about Nathaniel on YCD here last year.
I had the pleasure of seeing Nathaniel live a few weeks back opening for The Low Anthem here in Chicago and I was completely blown away. My only complaint was that the set was too short. I wanted him to play all night! I’m pretty excited I will get to see him again so soon opening for The Tallest Man On Earth in May. Do check out his tour dates and see if he is in your town. Really, you have to see this guy live. His band is amazing too.
Below is a video of Nathaniel performing “Boil & Fight” which is on his new album. I’ve watched this one at least 15 times in the last few days. Yep, I’m hooked.
I know I know, it came out in September and yes I am aware other blogs may have written about it, am I bothered? Not in the least, this blog has never been about being the first to post about someone although many times we have been but in the case of Mr Bondy I feel his new album, When the devil’s loose, deserves to be blogged about by as many people as possible as it’s an amazing piece of work. Recorded mostly in Mississippi by Bruce Watson of Fat possum records who has produced for the likes of Andrew Bird and the Black Keys as well as others and partly in New York by Jeremy ‘searcher’ Backofen (The Felice Brothers). In fact the brilliant Felice Brothers make an appearance on two tracks, namely When the devil’s loose and the final track of the album The coal hits the fire and you could argue they are the two stand out tracks on the album but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of it as it’s full of acoustic gems. From the gentle opening track The mightiest of guns where his slightly croaked voice telling you to see the stars falling down like burning rain that were fired by the mightiest of guns, to the above mentioned final track bringing this fine album to a brilliant end. Of course with the Felice brothers connection there is some of their trademark sound to be heard here but I also hear in his voice similarities to Justin Rutledge and also just hear a later Josh Ritter singing I can see the pines are dancing. This is a must have album in my opinion by a singer/songwriter on the up who I think can only get better and better.
I saw Mr Bondy support the Felice brothers recently here in the UK and I urge you to go and see him on his current U.S tour as he’s a must see live act that will leave you astounded. Also, his new album is available on vinyl and it comes with a free mp3 download so please, without going into how right now, you are supporting these smaller artists by buying their vinyl so do it.
He has also done another session for hearya which is going to be up soon but you can still grab his previous one here. Enjoy.
I first came across Hush Arbors around a year ago when Uncut magazine put one of their tracks on a compilation cd they give away each month. Signed to the brilliant ecstatic peace label I was immediately struck by the sadness in Keith Woods voice, it reminded me a lot of the late Saint Thomas who I am a massive fan of and the second track (Lisbon) on the new album which just came out this week in the U.K yankee reality is uncannily similar. This is completely accidental as when I saw Keith play a solo set recently in London he said he’d never heard if him when I asked him.
Hush arbors earlier albums blends fuzzy lo-fi psych-folk with country but on the new one, which is produced by Dinosaur jr’s J Mascis there’s an added rockier edge to it, namely on fast asleep and the blistering final track Devil made you high but it still manages to maintain the default sound on so they say and one way ticket. If I had to pick out my favourite track from this album which quite frankly doesn’t have a bad one on it, i’d probably go for take it easy only because it’s completely different to any other they’ve done, more country sounding in the style of say The Byrds but you could ask me again tomorrow and I could plump for coming home with it’s chugging along riff and mellotron (played by J Mascis) with the first line ” I was thinking about the country, walking down these city roads, thinking about the space between, the silent and my soul” I love shit like this, it resonates with me.
When I was in London and I saw Keith play rue hollow I remember sitting completely transfixed by him and coming to the realisation that I was in the presence of a genius. He’s got that certain thing no one can name or put a finger on, the same as Elliott Smith had or Nick Drake, just that something. His songs seem to come from somewhere deep within him very few of us ever reach, the bit where the real honesty lays and he’s bearing his very soul. Very few songwriters do this in my opinion, it takes guts to lay it all out on the line for everyone to hear and that leaves a certain vulnerability, it’s risky because it seems so fragile and any criticism could easily break it, or at least try to. Criticism must be hard to take when you’ve just bared your soul.
Now based in London there’s a couple of dates in Italy and then London at the end of October. Info here
Kindly I have been allowed to put up a couple of mp3′s for you to download but please please please, if you like it go and buy it here, you will not be disappointed I promise you. Enjoy.
Another installment of “Song o Day” for you folks – and yes, another winner from the Great White North (or Canada as I know it). This time we have the title track from the upcoming album “Burnout” that is due out on November 10th.
OX’s previous album (American Lo Fi) was considered a bit of a tour de force of the indie stoners – huh? Yeah, described as “weed infused” it was a pretty decent hit across Canada’s College/University radio scene. While I tend to shy away from describing music by indicating an intoxicant of sorts is needed to enjoy (because it isn’t) – the new album obviously is following the theme with a title like “Burnout”. They have brought a bit of country folk into the fold from the sound of the below track and I even though I enjoy the previous work, I like the direction of the mellowed out, day after vibe that this crew are putting forth.
“Burnout” – OX, from 2009′s “Burnout” album – due November 10th
You can always swing by their Website or visit iTunes for a copy of American Lo Fi HERE.
~Smansmith
p.s. If you like this track, swing on by my Slowcoustic postfor a bit of back story on OX!
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