Joe Purdy – Who Will Be Next?

joepurdy

Due to recent events, Joe Purdy’s new album Who Will Be Next? again feels painfully relevant and important. It’s a strong album that isn’t afraid to deal with difficult issues like gun violence, refugee crisis and police brutality. This is a worthwhile lesson, even though everything it teaches should already be naively obvious to all of us. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case and the lack of empathy seem to be almost like a running theme in this current world. Time to forget the hatred, love one another and listen to Joe Purdy.

Joe Purdy Website

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Michael McDonald – The Last Day

mcdonald

This is a welcome surprise and also a major news event on the One Chord to Another scale. Ladies and gentlemen, we finally have a new Michael McDonald album The Last Day ready, willing and able to charm us with its gentle beauty. And no, this is not that Michael McDonald. This is even better than that. This is the originally North Carolinian master of sweet pop songs who is living in Finland. His previous album Finally was the album of the year 2006 on this little blog of mine and the long time readers know the degree of love I have for that album. Damn hard to believe it’s been ten years though. Feels like that was yesterday. Perhaps because my heart is once again filled with Michael’s serene and timeless pop songs. This beautiful album is available at least on his Bandcamp page. This is Will I See You Again from the album. This matters.

Michael McDonald at Bandcamp

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Kalispell – Printer’s Son

kalispell-printersson-front

Kalispell’s wonderful album Printer’s Son came out yesterday on Cartouche Records. I’ve loved this record for about a year now, because I took part in the Kickstarter project. However, the bond I’ve created with this beautiful recording isn’t showing any signs of weakening and Printer’s Son is something that I still listen to on a regular basis. The man behind Kalispell is Shane Leonard, a multi-instrumentalist and producer from Eau Claire, WI. He has worked with great acts like Field Report, J.E.Sunde, Stray Birds etc. Hopefully Printer’s Son will turn him from liner note wizard to a head line artist. This is a magnificent song called Gary, IN from the new Kalispell album.

Kalispell Website

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Album of the Month – Daniel Markham – Disintegrator

markhamm

Daniel Markham’s new album Disintegrator has been sitting on that Album of the Month slot for so long that it’s probably already time to choose the next one, which will probably The Party by Andy Shauf. First I need to praise this one a little bit. Disintegrator has been on heavy rotation for the past month and it’s among the finest releases of the year so far.

I really fell in love with Daniel Markham’s music when the previous one Pretty Bitchin’ came out and our relationship is still going strong. I’m magnificent at turning into sort of a miserable fellow for no apparent reason and therefore it’s good to have guys like Daniel kicking me around in a good way. When the needle drops on Disintegrator, the previously mentioned miserable fucker turns into a smiling lunatic who is playing air guitar and singing along to these short but great rock’n’roll tunes. For example the song Zelda is so wonderful. Oh how I love that one. The little chorus is a pure bliss for a power pop fan. Melodic distortion is always my thing and some of these take care of that department perfectly. Calling it power pop would still be very far-fetched, but there’s a whole lot of 90s alternative rock influence there. And a lot of slower, darker and folkier stuff as well. Call it what you will, I just call it an album that I love wholeheartedly. Here a couple of great songs from the album.

DANIEL MARKHAM – Disintegrator from Judd Myers on Vimeo.

Daniel Markham Website

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