Month: February 2023

Old Fellas New Music Episode 42 Notes

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Episode 42

Rina Sawayama – This Hell

Lemon Twigs – Anytime of the Day

Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint

Blues Lawyer – Chance Encounters

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

Yo La Tengo –  Aselestine

Horace Andy – Watch Over Them

Brad Mehldau – Your Mother Should Know

Pony – Très Jolie

Bob’s notes

Lemon Twigs – “Anytime of the Day”   from the Everything Harmony  being released on May 5th

This is the second Lemon Twigs number to have aired on the podcast.  We played one from their previous album back in the Old Fellas “Jurassic” period.  The band are principally Brian and Michael  D’Addario.  Their music and sartorial style seems frozen in about 1972 but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  “Anytime of Day” could have been lifted off a Todd Rundgren or Carpenters album.  Blogger Burning Wood elaborates:

https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2023/02/hello-its-them.html

Whenthehornblows concurs: https://whenthehornblows.com/content/2023/2/19/the-lemon-twigs-any-time-of-day

Blues Lawyer – “Chance Encounters” from All in Good Time

Although this podcast is about listening to new music and pithy penetrating conversation, sometimes we all learn something.  I picked Blues Lawyer because of their intriguing name.  Well… who knew there’s a whole story there?

https://killerguitarrigs.com/what-is-a-blues-lawyer/  As a semi-musician, I had never heard this term before.  Oakland-based Blues Lawyer are anything but “Blues Lawyers”.  Chance Encounters is wonderful punchy song with a great retro video 

.    Here’s the story behind the new album.  https://rockandrollglobe.com/indie-rock/blues-lawyer-and-the-art-of-patience/

Yo La Tengo –  “Aselestine”  from This Stupid World,

Critics’ faves Yo La Tengo have been kicking around for almost 40 years now.  They have released fifteen studio albums, six compilation albums, fifteen extended plays, twenty-two singles, two film score albums, four collaborative albums, and one album of cover songs.  Hoboken’s finest (not counting Frank Sinatra) have just released This Stupid World. Drummer Georgia Hubley takes lead vocals on “Aselestine”  

Pitchfork evaluates: 

On their liveliest album in at least a decade, indie rock’s most steadfast institution squares up against ubiquitous darkness.

To fully dig the manifold charms of This Stupid World, it’s best to take a single step back into Yo La Tengo’s 38 years-and-counting catalog. In July 2020, amid that first summer of extreme pandemic disorientation, the trio surprised devotees not only with a new Bandcamp page but also with a fresh album, captured at their Hoboken practice space just weeks earlier and offered up like a timely postcard from a friend you’ve missed—we’re OK, and we hope you’re OK, too.

 https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yo-la-tengo-this-stupid-world/

Yo La Tengo rocking out in 2013 at the Pitchfork Festival  

Brad Mehldau – “Your Mother Should Know” from Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays the Beatles

Everybody artist at some point tackles a Beatles cover;  it’s inevitable. Bradford is an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.  As a jazz guy, he takes a fresh approach covering one of Paul McCartney’s minor songs.  Mehldau doesn’t, like many jazz guys, stretch the original tune in length or go off on fancy tangents.  The actual playing time is very close to the original track.  Here he playing live. 

Hey it’s the Burning Wood Blog again! 

 https://burnwoodtonite.blogspot.com/2023/02/your-mother-should-know.html

Tidal magazine provides insight.  

Paul’s Notes

Rina Sawayama – This Hell (Official Music Video)

Don’t know if I would call this a country song, but it certainly is a banger as the kids say. The lyrics are really interesting to, so I had no problem making this my first pick this week.

About the song – from Wikipedia

“This Hell” is a “glammy, country pop inspired” song which contains references to numerous country and western motifs such as cowboys and horseriding.[3] It was produced by Paul Epworth and Clarence Clarity, and written by Sawayama alongside Vic Jamieson, Epworth, and Lauren Aquilina.[10]

Sawayama has noted Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves as inspirations for “This Hell”, as well as Shania Twain, whom Sawayama has described as “The queen of country pop”.[11]

Sawayama wrote “This Hell” while reflecting about attacks against LGBT people, which are often motivated by religious beliefs, stating: “When the world tells us we don’t deserve love and protection, we have no choice but to give love and protection to each other”.[12] The song contains a guitar solo which was described as “over-the-top” by NPR.[3] The singer makes references to some gay icons such as Britney Spears, Princess Diana, and Whitney Houston,[10] and references Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” with the beginning line, “Let’s go, girls”, as well as Paris Hilton‘s signature catchphrase “that’s hot”.[12] Sawayama stated: “I put in as many iconic pop culture moments as I can, but the song is more than that.” [13] Upon the song’s release, Sawayama posted to Twitter: “I wanted to write a western pop song that celebrated COMMUNITY and LOVE in a time where the world seemed hellish.”[11]

Arctic Monkeys – Body Paint

Another band that has been around for a long time that I didn’t know about. Body Paint, like all the songs on their latest album is so interesting, certainly a cut above the music I was hearing on the Top Lists this week. The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ seventh album.

 

a bit about the song – interesting notes here.

Musically the song has been described as a “lounge-y piano ballad”, and Beatlesque,[6] with “gorgeous string arrangements” reminiscent of Burt Bacharach and George Martin‘s work with said group.[2] The band has been said as being “in introspective lounge lizard mode over sparkling piano and slowed-down drums.”[7] Robin Murray of Clash, thought there was a “sense of Bowie‘s mid 70s peak in the arrangement”.

Ethel Cain – American Teenager

[Verse 1]

Grew up under yellow light on the street

Putting too much faith in the make-believe

And another high school football team

The neighbor’s brother came home in a box

But he wanted to go, so maybe it was his fault

Another red heart taken by the American dream

More and more I am choosing songs that I think we have played before, but I checked and we haven’t. We have (I forgot) played Arctic Monkeys beforte – different song.

I like everything about Ethel Cain. Bob thinks her last name comes from a Band Song – that is pretty interesting, but I couldn’t find anything on that.

A bit about Ethel Cain from Pitchfork.

“Growing up I was surrounded by visions of NASCAR, rock’n’roll, and being the one who would change everything,” Cain said in a statement. “They make you think it’s all achievable and that if nothing else, you should at least die trying. What they don’t tell you is that you need your neighbor more than your country needs you. I wrote this song as an expression of my frustration with all the things the ‘American Teenager’ is supposed to be but never had any real chance of becoming.”

Pitchfork

Horace Andy

Yet another long-time famous musician I hadn’t heard of before. Bob talks a lot about him during the podcast – I am adding a few notes, mainly for me so I can catch up. This for me would be a great album to pick up soon. I have included below an NPR episode featuring some discussion of his latest album. Plus I found – again from NPR – a great session including Horace Andy and a great group of musicians.

NPR’s favorite music of April, from broken-hearted R&B to paranoid post-punk

Horace Andy is a reggae legend and a beloved Massive Attack collaborator. On his new album Midnight Rocker, producer Adrian Sherwood sticks to the basics: a full band adorns Andy’s golden voice with rich arrangements, as he offers messages of care in an uncaring world. We open the best music of the month show with “Watch Over Them,” and it’s easy to get lost in Andy’s voice.

Today, right here, we get to peek into the decked-out living room of producer Adrian Sherwood’s home and watch masters of reggae playfully chill. We hear Horace Andy‘s gruff tenor tell stories with 55 years of experience, rasp and wear.

“You’ve got to live, live, live for today, for tomorrow might never come your way,” he pleads as he sings “Today Is Right Here,” a track on his 2022 album Midnight Rocker. And then the lines I love best, “My mama told me when I was a child, said all the best things take a little while. But mama was wrong, wrong, wrong, the best things in life come and they go in the blink of an eye.” All the while, a single snare drum and hi-hat keep the beat, and the band of bass, guitar, keyboard, sax, trumpet and cello warmly support the emotions pouring from Horace Andy.

Horace Andy: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

NPR All Songs Considered

Pony – Très Jolie

a great way to finish off the show. One line from the reviews sets the song up nicely

“Spunky, sprightly, and positively infectious, ‘Très Jolie’ is basically the perfect song for a summer that hasn’t come yet.”

Far Out Magazine

PONY – “Très Jolie”

From their album “Velveteen” 

Out May 19th via Take This To Heart Records

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Old Fellas new Music Episode 41

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Episode 41 on Mixcloud

Episode 41

Big Joanie –  Confident Man

Orville Peck – The Curse of the Blackened Eye

Macie Stewart – Maya Please

Wet Leg – Ur Mom

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen

Portugal. The Man – What, Me Worry?

The No Ones – Phil Ochs is Dead

Fireboy DML, Ed Sheeran – Peru

Jah Wobble – Trinidadian Chinese New Year

Orville Peck 

Paul’s Notes:

Orville Peck is originally from South Africa and is now based in Canada. Last year he released his second album Bronco on April 8, 2022. Between South Africa and Canada, he moved to London to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and later starred in a play on the West End.[7]

Though he’s never revealed his identity, it is commonly accepted that Orville Peck is the alter ego of Daniel Pitout. Over the past 15-odd years, has gone from punk drummer to stage actor to the world’s most mysterious cowboy crooner. He’s a talented enough singer, but more importantly he is a calculated aesthete. Peck has committed to a cartoonish persona, turning his public life into an endless performance. 

Peck grew up in the badlands outside of Johannesburg. He was a lonely child, friendless and bullied, so he clung to old movies: Clint Eastwood spaghetti Westerns and The Lone Ranger, films about outsiders who turn into heroes, anonymous vigilantes who come out of nowhere and save the town and charm the girl and choose solitude anyway. At 15, Peck’s family moved from South Africa to Vancouver. Peck has said in interviews that he played in punk bands in his youth. Pitout, his suspected alter ego, was the drummer in the Vancouver band Nü Sensae, which achieved some recognition in the early 2010s but went on hiatus in 2014 after he decided to pursue an acting career in England. He entered a two-year acting program at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and landed a role in a 2016 West End production of Peter Pan Goes Wrong. 

Wet Leg

Wet Leg a British band founded in 2019 has already been shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize. Wet Leg has already won Best Alternative Music Album for their debut and Best Alternative Music Performance for “Chaise Longue”, and were nominated for Best New Artist at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Pretty amazing.

Here is a live performance by Wet Leg at Glastonbury in 2022.

From the Guardian 

Wet Leg seemed to come out of nowhere. Silly name. Lyrical double (and single) entendres. A Domino record deal off the back of a couple of tracks on SoundCloud. Within weeks, their June 2021 debut single Chaise Longue had flung the Isle of Wight duo from unknowns into the buzziest band around on just the basis of a few minutes of stupidly catchy guitar-pop.

That song hinted at how Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers could shove new wave, post-punk and incessant hooks into a raucous embrace. And yes, Chaise Longue set a high bar, with its Mean Girls reference and a bucolic music video (now watched more than 8.5m times). It was widely rated as one of the best songs of 2021. Could their first record make good on its promise? In April, their self-titled debut answered, conclusively, yes.

Peru

Peru: How Ed Sheeran helped Fireboy DML’s hit go global

BBC

When Fireboy DML was told to check his DMs, he had to be convinced Ed Sheeran’s message was real.

Ed had sent the Nigerian singer a note saying he was a fan and wanted to collaborate on a remix of his Afrobeats hit, Peru.

“He had apparently been listening to the song for weeks,” Fireboy tells Radio 1 Newsbeat, from his studio in Lagos, Nigeria.

“Not only had he heard the song, but he’d already recorded a verse for it too.”

‘Everything you do is for the culture’

The 25-year-old is aware of critics who say having such a big name on the track dilutes the song’s origin.

“People were saying Peru was already big. It was already good enough without him,” he says.

But he says the “only thing” on his mind when he got Ed Sheeran involved with the remix was how it was “going to be amazing for Afrobeats.”

“It’s the selfless mind-set that comes with being an Afrobeats artist. Everything you do is for the culture.”

In the song, Ed sings a couple of lines in Yoruba, a language predominantly used by millions of people across West Africa, especially in south western Nigeria.

“He did great,” says Fireboy, who’s real name is Adedamola Adefolahan.

Portugal. The man

How did they get their name?

The band’s name is based on the idea of David Bowie‘s “bigger than life” fame. They wanted the band to have a bigger-than-life feel but did not want to name it after one of their members. “A country is a group of people,” guitar player and vocalist John Gourley explains. “With Portugal, it just ended up being the first country that came to mind. The band’s name is ‘Portugal’. The period is stating that, and ‘The Man’ states that it’s just one person” (any one of the band members). The name has a more personal meaning as well: Portugal. The Man was going to be the name of a book that Gourley had planned to write about his father and his many adventures.[5][6][7]

A critical and commercial success, “Feel It Still” earned Portugal. The Man a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Returning in 2020, the group turned in a pair of unlikely tracks: first, a cover of “Tomorrow” from the musical Annie for the children’s compilation At Home with the Kids in August, followed later that year by “Who’s Gonna Stop Me,” a collaboration with Weird Al Yankovic that honored Indigenous Peoples’ Day. A live studio recording from 2008 emerged in 2021, originally taking place after the tour for their third album and before the recording of their fourth; released as Oregon City Sessions it captured the live energy they had built up from playing stages worldwide.

Led by the single “Feel It Still,” [Live/Stripped Session] it was named in honor of the 1969 festival and the group’s attempt to “say something that mattered” in a context of sociopolitical unrest. A critical and commercial success, “Feel It Still” earned Portugal. The Man a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.

Bob’s Notes:

Big Joanie –  “Confident Man”  

from the album Back Home

Big Joanie is a British punk trio formed in London in 2013. Big Joanie was formed when by Stephanie Phillips in 2013,  posted online asking for bandmates with whom to start a black feminist punk band.  They signed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth. 2018 saw the release of their debut Sistahs.  Back Home, released in 2022 on the Kill Rock Stars label, contains the number, “Confident Man”.

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/big-joanie-unveil-new-cut-confident-man

Rolling Stone magazine discusses:  https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/big-joanie-confident-man-1234596046/

Macie Stewart – Maya Please 

from the album  A Mouth Full of Glass  (bonus track)

Macie Stewart is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter based in Chicago.  From what I can tell, they has had an amazingly diverse career.  Starting as a child prodigy on piano and violin, Stewart has played with both avant- garde jazz improvisational groups and toured with as back up musician with Japanese Breakfast, The Weather Station, Chance the Rapper and Jeff Tweedy.   “Maya Please” is a single form last summer.

Personal Trainer – Texas In the Kitchen 

from the album “Big Love Blanket”

Personal Trainer are a collective of musicians who hail from the Netherlands.  From what I can tell, this track is from their first full length album.  “Texas in the Kitchen” is a jaunty little number that would sound out of place on a mid-90’s Pavement lp.

There’s not a lot of info on these folks so I’ll post this article from Read Dork. 

Personal Trainer have shared a new single, ‘Former Puppy’, from their upcoming debut album, ‘Big Love Blanket’

Peter Buck/ Luke Haines 

– “Phil Ochs is Dead” from the album All the Kids Are Super Bummed OutThe No Ones  is a collaboration featuring Scott McCaughey, Frode Strømstad, Peter Buck and Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen, is a band that stretches from the southwest of Norway through Athens, Georgia to the northwest corner of the USA, consisting of members from I Was A King, The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and R.E.M.  This track features primarily REM’s Peter Buck and Luke Haines formely of the Auteurs.  Dangerous Minds elaborates:  

https://dangerousminds.net/  For the record, Phil Ochs is dead .  He tragically took his own life in 1975 at the age of 35. Just for the heck of it, I am including my favourite Phil Ochs song.   

Jah Wobble – “Trinidadian Chinese New Year”  from the album  Guanyin

Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He was born John Joseph Wardle in London. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He later left the band after two albums and has since enjoyed a lengthy and fruitful career exploring all sorts of genres of music.  Check out this lengthy discography.   https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jah-wobble-mn0000107259/discography

The track, “Trinidadian Chinese New Year”  continues Wobble’s exploration of Jamaican dub  and World Music.  It’s taken from 2021 album Guanyin   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp3yxFKEoaY

Here’s a tidy little guide to his career.  https://thevinylfactory.com/features/jah-wobble-10-records/ 

Old Fellas New Music Episode 40

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Episode 40 right here

Julian Taylor – Opening the Sky

Ty Segall – Saturday Pt. 2

Adam Baldwin – Causeway Road 

The Bros Landreth – Stay

SG Goodman – All My Love is Coming Back to Me

Laura Veirs – Eucalyptus

Days Of Lavender – People Who Care

Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Loves The Rain

The Dead South – People Are Strange

Bob’s notes

Ty Segall – Saturday Pt. 2 

Ty Segall is an American musician and producer. He is extremely prolific as exemplified by the sheer amount of his album, ep and single releases.  Check out his Discogs entry.  https://www.discogs.com/artist/1265284-Ty-Segall?limit=250&type=Releases&subtype=Albums&filter_anv=0&page=1  . I suppose he could be pigeonholed into the “garage-rock” genre but his latest lp, “Hello Hi” is anything but that.   Pitchfork Magazine explains: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ty-segall-hello-hi/

Here he is performing Saturday Pt. 2 live  

The Bros Landreth – Stay  – from 2022 lp Come Morning

The Bros. Landreth is a group from Winnipeg Manitoba.   Their debut album “Let It Lie” won the Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year at the Juno Awards in 2015 so they have been around for a while.   In 2022, Bonnie Raitt released a cover of “Made Up Mind”, which appears on her album “Just Like That” Her recording of the song won a Grammy Award for Best Americana Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in 2022

Bonnie Raitt gave the guys a shoutout at the Grammys.  Stay is a soulful number with a nice kooky video.   

The whole album is solid. https://atthebarrier.com/2022/05/24/the-bros-landreth-come-morning-album-review/

Laura Veirs – Eucalyptus from the lp “Found Light”

Laura Veirs is an American singer-songwriter based out of Portland, Oregon.  She is known for her folk/alternative country records and live performances as well as her collaboration with Neko Case and k.d. lang on the case/lang/veirs project. Check this album out.  It’s a treasure.  https://www.allmusic.com/album/case-lang-veirs-mw0002925163

Veirs has been releasing music since 1999.  Her producer was usually her husband Tucker Martine.  However, in 2019, Martine and Veirs separated.  Found Light is considered by some as an album still dealing with the ending of that relationship.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/08/laura-veirs-found-light-review.  The featured track Eucalyptas seems to reflect this 

Robyn Hitchcock – The Man Who Loves The Rain from “Shufflemania”

Cult figure Robyn Hitchcock has been making music since the late 1970’s  first with The Soft Boys, then The Egyptians and for many many years as a solo artist.  He has released close to 30 solo albums.  Hitchcock’s  lyrics are often absurd in the best Lewis Carroll vein.  He has been both an acoustic performer and full out rock and roller.  “The Man Who Loves the Rain” shows he hasn’t lost a step. 

I’ve included 2 of my fave Hitchcock song from the past. 

Here he is on Letterman in 1980s. The quality of the video isn’t great but the performance is.  Watch for the broken string!

Robyn Hitchcock was a favourite of the late film director Jonathan Demme. They made a documentary in 1998 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storefront_Hitchcock

The wonderful song “1974”  is taken from this movie…   This is probably my favourite Hitchcock song.  

Paul’s Notes

This guy is amazing, I love the song and his voice. I can’t believe that he was ready to pack things up (read below).

Another Covid artifact – he had a great video series – Cross Country Chin Up – pretty amazing, I have included a bit of this series with my notes.

Playing in Wolfville this April!!

Baldwin Cross-Country Chin Up IX

Hey gang. I’m gonna broadcast live on the World Wide Web this Friday night at 9pm ATLANTIC. You can find the program here, hit SET REMINDER to be notified. I hope you can join me for the Cross-Country Chin Up. Hope you’re all staying well.

Baldwin credits fellow singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright with “kinda setting me straight” in a long conversation over dinner when they chanced across each other on the same Québécois TV show and encouraging him not to give up.

After that cathartic encounter, he vowed to keep it honest and “write some songs about this part of the world” and the “unique kind of nuts” to be found in the darkest corners of the Atlantic Provinces. After that, the vivid rural character studies that would eventually make up “Concertos & Serenades” — stories of fishermen dabbling in fiery revenge and the cocaine trade, stoic miners drawing their last breaths underground in Springhill and the colourful regulars stopping by “Gerald Burgess RaceTrac Full Serve Autobody” for gas, a pack of smokes and some chit-chat — started spilling out of him.

Toronto Star 

Singer-songwriter Adam Baldwin has been a mainstay of the Atlantic Canada music scene for over a decade. Starting as a member of rock combo Gloryhound before joining Matt Mays & El Torpedo in 2009, Baldwin’s own music has continued to evolve since his award winning self-titled solo debut EP in 2013.

Julian Taylor – Opening the Sky

Another incredible voice and songwriter. I think we have featured Julian Taylor three times on our show and that is fine with me. This current song is getting lots of airplay on North Americana radio

The lyrics are really interesting on this song, good to give this one a second listen.

JULIAN TAYLOR PRESENTS BEYOND THE RESERVOIR

Story by Howard Druckman | Monday October 17th, 2022

(Full disclosure: My wife happens to be Julian Taylor’s Canadian publicist. So, after a brief introduction, it’ll be just Taylor talking about his album. And I’d be writing this story, this way,  regardless of who his publicist is. Some quotes have been edited for length and clarity.)

It looks like Julian Taylor is poised on the verge of broadening and deepening his international breakthrough of 2020.

That year, his album The Ridge earned more than five million plays on Spotify, praise from the press worldwide, and airplay from Canada and the U.S. to Australia and the U.K. Loaded with soulful Americana and country twang, The Ridge won Taylor the Solo Artist of the Year honour at the Canadian Folk Music Awards; was nominated for two JUNO Awards (Contemporary Folk Album and Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year); and made the Polaris Prize Long List of the 40 best albums in Canada. He also won Best Male Artist at the International Acoustic Music Awards.

https://www.socanmagazine.ca/features/julian-taylor-presents-beyond-the-reservoir/

The final track, “Opening the Sky,” hits fast-forward and imagines the end of life, both the final struggles of a body breaking down and the memories of the life that’s come before. But most urgent is the desire to make sure learnings are passed down to the next generation: “Always love beyond your own comprehension. / In a world that may not see you for all that you are, never forget you have so much power.” The flood of final words of advice and encouragement end with “find time to simply stay still.” When the words repeat, they become the last living moment of the narrator and also a reinforcement of his lasting presence despite death: “Time to simply stay … still.”

https://www.adventuresinamericana.com/the-music-distillery-blog/music-review-julian-taylor-beyond-the-reservoir

SG Goodman

S.G. Goodman’s Southern Storytelling

Again, yet another amazing voice! This time from Kentucky. Glad I found this one, I don’t know much about her, but I would be happy to see her in concert – this would be great! This is from a feature on her in Rolling Stone.

Prior to her solo career, Goodman was part of the band The Savage Radley.[7] Her debut album, Old Time Feeling, was co-produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket.[5] The album has been described as Americana, folk, country, and rock.[8] She is signed to Verve Forecast Records. In 2021, she, as a solo artist, was inter alia part of the Newport Folk Festival in July.[9]

In June 2022, Goodman released her second album, Teeth Marks, on Verve Forecast.[10] She usually plays with her guitar tuned down a whole step, though some songs on the record were played in this tuning with a capo.[6] The fifth track on the album, “If You Were Someone I Loved” deals with the opioid crisis.[11] Because her debut album was released during the COVID-19 pandemic, Goodman did not headline a tour for the album. As such, her tour for Teeth Marks was her first solo tour.[12]

Kentucky farmer’s daughter writes songs so the world can hear what life is like where she grew up

WHEN S.G. GOODMAN was growing up, her farmer father would plant an annual crop of sweet corn for his three kids, which they later harvested by hand and sold for money to buy their school clothes.

The farm isn’t Goodman’s home anymore: “I live in a house where the backyard is too shaded by these maple trees so that I can’t really grow anything,” she says. But the Murray, Kentucky-based singer-songwriter, 31, maintains a deep connection to the place that shaped her on her debut album, Old Time Feeling. Produced by Goodman with bandmates S. Knox Montgomery and Matthew Rowan, plus fellow Kentuckian Jim James of My Morning Jacket, it’s at once earthy and otherworldly, relaying her personal experiences alongside razor-sharp social commentary about the South.

Rolling Stone

The Dead South – People Are Strange

This band is so incredibly good. I don’t know how I found them, but their music is really different. I didn’t expect to find a blue grass band in Saskatchewan, but happy to feature them. Truly a great band that deserves more exposure.

The Dead South on Bluegrass Purists, New Album ‘Sugar & Joy’ and Being Canada’s “Night Off” Band

The Dead South are arguably Canada’s best-known “bluegrass” band. Their video for “In Hell I’ll Be in Good Company” has been viewed over 150 million times on YouTube, and the band have toured across North America and Europe. They just released their new album, Sugar & Joy, and will be hitting the road hard to support it.

On the surface, the band look like a typical bluegrass ensemble: the members play banjo, cello, guitar and mandolin; they sing in four-part harmony; and their songs tell stories of hard times and broken hearts; and they won the Juno for Traditional Roots Album in 2018 for Illusion & Doubt. But despite what you might have heard, the Dead South aren’t bluegrass — at least, not according to purists.

“We don’t know how to define our sound,” lead singer, guitarist and mandolinist Nate Hilts tells Exclaim! “We’re definitely very inspired by bluegrass music — that’s what kind of started the band. The instrumentation that we brought in was to play a bluegrass style; however, our own personal forms came in, we just started playing music and this is what we came up with. We don’t really know what to identify it as, because it touches on a lot of different places.”

The group have been together since 2012, and although there has been some interchanging of musicians over the years, original members, Nate Hilts, Scott Pringle (mandolin/guitar), Danny Kenyon (cello) and Colton “Crawdaddy” Crawford (banjo), remain in the current lineup. The group recently embarked on their “Served Cold” tour, which Nate expects to last until January 2021, and will see the foursome performing their unique variety of traditional Canadian folk on stages in Germany, the UK, and even the birthplace of bluegrass music, Raleigh, NC.

Easy Listening for Jerks Pt. 1 and 2 (2022-present)

Days Of Lavender – People Who Care

The lead singer of Days of Lavender grew up here in Ottawa. Daniela has a magical voice and it is great to listen to them at the beginning of a very creative musical career – I hope!

🔮We’re a band that plays wholesome electronic music in Vancouver 

Days of Lavender is the Vancouver-based duo project of producer and bassist Stephen Clarke and singer/songwriter Daniela Mae. They mix their love of 80s synth pop, electronic, gospel and folk music to guide you on a meditative sci-fi ride you won’t want to get off. In the last year of playing together they have released 6 songs, played for private parties, public events and two BC music festivals. In March 2022, they started an event series in collaboration with DJ Chachøu called InnerSpace: A Cosmic Arts Journey, which showcases the work of local visual artists and includes wellness classes, dance performances, DJs and their own live music.