This summer, I haven’t really had much time to go through my mailbox. Therefore it is now full of promo emails and it would take hours to go through them all. I’m not prepared to do that. However, songwriter Will Schwartz from Queens and his New Haircut EP on Monkfish Records somehow managed to lure me into listening to the music and I kind of instantly liked his bedroom folk pop. Therefore it found it’s way on my playlist and have managed to stay there for several weeks. Well-written stories and well-crafted songs. New Haircut EP came out on Monkfish Records in june 2013. This is the opener Strangers.

Will Schwartz at Monkfish Records

A note to self. You need to get familiar with The Parson Red Heads. I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from them, but I still don’t own any of their albums. Something needs to be done. This just so my kind of music. In a way it feels like they’ve had the same musical education that I’ve had. A bit of The Byrds ,The Jayhawks, a lot of harmonies. And obviously it’s not just their style and the delivery. They are excellent songwriters. Here’s one proof. A wonderful song Times from their 6 EP that came out few months ago.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBem13arAEg]

The Parson Red Heads Website

If you were reading this blog back in 2009, you might remember that I was seriously addicted to young German folk singer-songwriter Haruko aka Susanne Stanglow. Her debut album Wild Geese received full five hearts and ended up as #5 on my best of 2009 list. It has been a while since that, but now there’s finally a new Haruko full-lenght Feathers & Driftwood out and available. During the first few weeks listening to this beauty, it has become quite clear that the relationship between me and Haruko’s folk songs was strong enough to battle through those few years without a new Haruko album. Sure that early crush and overexcitement of finding something new and thrilling might have faded away, but I still have deep affection towards her music. This is beautiful, hauntingly beautiful. This is the opener Come Home. Listen to / buy the whole thing on her Bandcamp.

Haruko Website
Haruko at Bandcamp

Some great British americana / alt.country that I’ve been listening to all summer long.

Peter Bruntnell: Retrospective (Loose Music, 2013)

Peter Bruntnell might well be the finest British americana singer-songwriter. I was a big fan some years ago and especially the records Normal For Bridgewater, Ends Of Earth and Ghost in A Spitfire have gotten a lot airtime in this household. I’ve kind of lost touch during the last few years. Probably mostly because the last few albums haven’t been that easily available around these parts. Loose Music reminded me about the greatness of this tunesmith by releasing a career spanning Peter Bruntnell Retrospective on 17th of june and it is a great compilation. Ok, a couple of my own favourites are missing, but that’s usually the case with every retrospective and there’s nothing wrong with the ones that made the cut. This guy just have too many good songs to choose from. This is one of them, Handful of Stars.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeEuYylBpnI]

Peter Bruntnell Website

The Wynntown Marshals: The Long Haul (Wynntown Recordings, 2013)

Scottish alt.country group The Wynntown Marshals came to my attention with their excellent album Westerner few years back. Follow-up The Long Haul hit my heart early this summer and it’s another damn good release. They recently signed a deal with Blue Rose Records and therefore you should be able to get this beauty in Finland as well sometime in the fall. Meanwhile you can listen to / buy it on their bandcamp. This is Whatever It Takes.

The Wynntown Marshals Website