Austin Craig & Timid The Brave

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Austin Craig’s debut EP A Country Dark was released in June 2012, but I completely missed it back then. I think I just picked up Austin Craig from another favourite Austin a few weeks ago. Austin Lucas mentioned him in some tweet and because I love Austin and trust his judgement, I went and checked out this singer-songwriter over at Bandcamp. I found something brilliant and I’m fairly sure that this guy should be famous at least in the folk, americana communities. A Country Dark is indeed dark and therefore it might not be the most comfortable thing to listen to, but it is a very impressive record and the songwriting is world class. This is the amazing title track A Country Dark.

Austin Craig at Bandcamp

I’ll add another 2012 release. Sometimes in the blog world it kind of feels that you should write about something the week it came out or it’s yesterday’s news and not worth of a post anymore. Sometimes I’m guilty of that too and that’s just incredibly stupid. A lifespan of a record or a song shouldn’t be a week or a month what it often seems to be. It’s just as valuable to me, if I find it on the release date or if I find it two years later. Anyway, this song below is from Timid The Brave’s self-titled album that came out on Canadian Other Songs Music back in November 2012. Timid, The Brave aka Tim Selles has written an album full of amazingly beautiful folk songs and all of the songs would be worth posting. I will go with Colors this time around.

Timid, The Brave Website

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Bandcamp addiction + Jordan Nichols – Songs For Leaving

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I love Bandcamp and I love browsing it aimlessly. There’s always some exciting new arrivals on the front page and the fan accounts are just wonderful. I love seeing the collections of other fans who have similar taste, because it’s a great way to find both new and old releases that you have missed. Nothing beats an actual record store, but Bandcamp is the next best thing. It just encourages you to buy music. Like some other bloggers (Hi54lofi) have said it makes you even want to buy albums that you already own, because you want to see the record in your fan collection.

I also found folk singer-songwriter Jordan Nichols with the help of Bandcamp. A week or two ago I was again browsing the new releases in the folk category and this beauty was there. I hit that play button and instantly liked it. I added his new release Songs For Leaving to my wishlist and after a week or so, play button wasn’t enough anymore and I had to hit that buy now -button. During the last few days I’ve spent literally hours listening to this excellent album. I think all the songs are rather amazing. My own favourite is probably Never Been One, but this is the opening track Trouble Comes Trouble Goes.

Jordan Nichols at Bandcamp

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Dave Gerard & The Watchmen – Wooden Castles

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It looks like I’m not following British folk music closely enough. I didn’t know anything about Dave Gerard & The Watchmen until I found this magnificent album Wooden Castles at Bandcamp a few weeks ago. I’ve had this on heavy rotation for the past week and I have especially fallen in love with this song called Broken Horses. A modern take on traditional british folk music maybe. Not that I’m really an expert, but the song and the vocals kind of reminds me of Kevin Ayers (not the experimental side, more like the Kevin who wrote beautiful songs for the first three classic solo albums). This one below is Broken Horses. Listen to / buy the whole beautiful thing at bandcamp.

Dave Gerard & The Watchmen Website

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Album of The Month: Widower – Fool Moon

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My biggest addiction right now. Widower’s Fool Moon has been out for a while now, but I just bought it a week or two ago. I don’t know why I waited so long, but thankfully I saw the light now. This is going to be a last minute entry to my albums of the year list. It’s just so beautiful. Almost spiritual, because sometimes the melodies might be as close to Finnish church hymns as american folk rock songs. I find the album amazingly beautiful, but maybe it’s fair to warn that the beauty of the album is often rather devastating. Actually Kevin Large kind of rips your heart out sometimes. But even then he does it delicately and compassionately and he doesn’t forget to put the heart back in and make you feel more whole than before. I’m not sure has any record moved me as deeply as this one during the year. There’s a couple of songs that are not that special and therefore this has to settle a place in the top 10 and won’t be the album of the year contender. However, the finest songs like Thoroughbred, Grasp, Oh Catherine, My Catherine and Almost, Always, All Yours are just heavenly.

This is Oh Catherine, My Catherine from Fool Moon that was released by the great Mama Bird Recording Company on 30th of July.

Widower at Facebook

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