Four Arms to Hold You: Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus, MeriTuuli, Kielo Kärkkäinen & Amuri

The weather is too hot for staying inside blogging so instead I went outdoors to do the exactly same thing. Quite frankly it’s too hot here as well, but let’s do a small Finnish language special, because so much wonderful Finnish music has been released during the past month or so.

Starting from Tampere with the new Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus album Maapallon hautajaiset. It just came out last Friday 31st of May on Lumpeela Julkaisut and I’m very fond of it. The whole album is really good and contains engaging folk rock songs with a lot of pop sensibility. The biggest treasure on the album is the song called Kaikki oli paremmin ennen and this one should be a radio hit on every station.

Janne Tapion Sisäinen Avaruus Website

I’ve managed to miss MeriTuuli until their recent run of singles. I’m sort of ashamed about that, because based on these songs in question, not knowing about them feels like a criminal offence for a Finnish music blogger. Anyway, MeriTuuli is a Finnish folk/pop band led by twin sisters Meri and Tuuli Wallenius. They are releasing their new EP Yö Saimaalla next week and the early singles Ruusut and Minä Odotan are both wonderful. The first one also appeared in a form of a beautiful music video.

MeriTuuli Website

There’s also a new folk single from Kielo Kärkkäinen and this one is quietly spectacular. A light breeze of the music carrying the heavy burden of the lyrics. So easily and instantly enjoyable, yet there’s so much depth & detail. Keitä me olemme is the first single from a forthcoming album that will be released by Texicalli Records in the fall of 2019.

Kielo Kärkkäinen Website

This last song for today has been out for several months, but I think I’ve only posted it on the playlist. And well that’s just not right, because this is probably my favourite Finnish song of the whole year. It’s the debut single Halla from a new band called Amuri. The musicians aren’t actually newcomers though, because if you look at that cover photo above you might recognise some usual suspects. I love everything about this starting from that Asko Raivio homage in the cover art. A glorious wistful pop song that reminds me of Kaseva. What’s not to love. I hope there’s more on the horizon and Helmi Levyt will bring us more Amuri music during the coming months.

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

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Four Arms to Hold You: RF Shannon, Will Beeley, Aaron Beckum and TK & The Holy Know-Nothings

Hey another night, another blog entry of magical music numbers. This time I’m sort of having a very loose desert / driving theme. Our journey starts from Wild Rose Pass, which is also the title of the wonderful lead single from the forthcoming RF Shannon album. The full RF Shannon album of desert blues with mellow psych-moods will be released on the 2nd of August by the awesome Austin-based label Keeled Scales.

RF Shannon Website
Keeled Scales Website

Next we are driving on U.S. 85 with truck driving country songwriter Will Beeley. US geography isn’t my strongest suit, but if the RF Shannon album is for long drives between Texas and LA and on this Will Beeley song we see El Paso on the left, I think at least for a moment we can’t be too far off. Anyway, Highways & Heart Attacks is Will Beeley’s first album in 40 years! A couple of years ago Tompkins Square released his albums from the 70s and suddenly we have a brand new album coming out on the 14th of June. The first single is called U.S.85 and it’s so damn good. I look forward to hearing the whole thing in little over a week.

Tompkins Square Website

I’m not sure did I ever post Aaron Beckum’s short movie Born Forlorn to the blog or was it just social media. Well it doesn’t really matter, because a) it fits so well to this blog entry b) Aaron Beckum just released his lo-fi cosmic americana album Obsolete that also contains this gorgeous song. Super high recommendations both for the new album and the dry humour adventure short movie where the singer gives his best shot of driving through the desert.

Aaron Beckum Website

On the last entry, I’ll forget the driving and start searching for Desert Rose together with TK & Holy Know-Nothings. The frontman Taylor Kingman released an excellent singer-songwriter album Wannabe a couple of years ago, but this time he wanted to flavour his storytelling with some rock’n’roll, groove and bar boogie and therefore put together a band called TK and the Holy Know-Nothings. Both the earlier solo album and this new band album Arguably OK came out on Mama Bird Recording Co. Here’s an excellent Live from the Laurelthirst version of Desert Rose. There’s two more of those live videos on Youtube, so if you enjoyed this one, you know where to go next.

TK & The Holy Know-Nothings Website
Mama Bird Recording Co Website

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

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Four Arms to Hold You: Matthew Ryan, Jeremy Squires, Ryan Tanner and Craig Finn

A bit darker set of songs today, but like Matthew Ryan sings in this first one, hope is not absent from these songs. The song in question is called On Our Death Day and it’s one of the best and most striking songs I’ve heard in 2019. It might even feel a bit too heavy at first, but there’s so much love shining through that darkness that it’s able to carry all that weight. A deeply human song that stays with me long after the last breath of the song has vanished into the air. On Our Death Day is the lead song on his new maxi-single that also contains a new version of And It’s Such A Drag and a Leonard Cohen cover Steer Your Way (cover is only on the digital single, not on the 7-inch).

Matthew Ryan Website

Jeremy Squires from New Bern, North Carolina is a long time favourite. His hauntingly beautiful and poignant new album Poem saw the light of the day on the 17th of May. It’s a brave, vulnerable and a deeply human collection of songs. The hushed quiet beauty of the music gently collides with the dark themes of loss, aging and mental anquish. Towards the end the clouds start to drift away and the light begins to fill the heart of the listener. Here’s a couple of personal favourites from Poem. A heavy one called Orchid and the serene, heart-warming album closer Gift.

Jeremy Squires Website

I sure won’t let you easy this time around, because here’s another one that takes my breath away. Ryan Tanner from Salt Lake City, Utah released his new album These Electric Streets on the 8th of March. He has written some magnificent gospel-tinged americana albums over the years, but it is still way too uknown at least in this corner of the world. This new album is excellent once again and then there’s this one song A Hymn For Me And You in particular that hits me really hard and I don’t think there can be a human soul who isn’t deeply moved by this song by the time the last lines flow through the headphones. The lyrics, the backing vocals. Oh my. Everything about this song.

Ryan Tanner Website

I think it’s better to end this chapter in this Four Arms to Hold You story with Something to Hope For. It’s an outtake from the new Craig Finn album I Need a New War that came out on Partisan Records on the 26th of May. I think you all know The Hold Steady frontman and his solo adventures too, so I’ll just say that the new album is again a masterclass of songwriting and one hell of an album. Extremely highly recommended. Just like everything else in this little blog entry.

Craig Finn Website

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

Continue Reading