What a lovely surprise. A new single from the great Portland-based singer-songwriter Anna Tivel. I’m actually still living under the influence of Anna Tivel’s tremendous 2017 album Small Believer. To be honest, I haven’t made any plans to move on, because I’m quite happy staying here with these misfortuned characters of her songs. The characters of her songs may not have luck on their side and their own misguided actions may even drive them further into darkness, but Anna always tells their stories with empathy, warmth and heart. The new song Dust and Magic is a rare love song in her captivating songbook. Sure there’s a bit of that dark too, but it’s overshadowed by the devoted love. It’s an incredible song and further proof that Anna Tivel is one of the finest songwriters and storytellers at the moment.

Anna Tivel Website

MAITA is a singer-songwriter from Portland, Oregon and her magnificent Waterbearer EP was one of my favorite new finds last year. MAITA just released a new single Japanese Waitress and this outtake from her forthcoming album is extremely powerful and emotive. It reminded me of a tweet by Cale Tyson that I just read the other week where the point was that if you want to make it in the music industry, you first have to make it in the food service industry. This song of course goes way deeper into the subject than that painfully real joke and has far more layers. It’s not just the idea of needing these day jobs in order to be able to make art. The song is about her own experiences from working in a Japanese restaurant as a half-Japanese woman and therefore it’s also about gender roles, femininity and racial prejudice. It’s a courageous and effective song that really demands to be heard. MAITA is definitely one to watch and I’m super eager to hear her full-length sometime in 2018. While waiting I will keep this song and the earlier EP on repeat.

MAITA at Facebook

John Cathal O’Brien is an Irish folk singer-songwriter who is living in Brooklyn, New York and Sun Followers is the first single from his forthcoming 2018 album. This fascinating song revolves around the themes of escapism, truth and the everlasting pursuit of them both. It will remain to be seen whether I can discover them, but I did find beauty on first listen. I’m very fond of the song and I look forward to hearing the full album sometime in 2018. So far neither release date or name have been set. This is Sun Followers by John Cathal O’Brien.

John Cathal O’Brien Website

Jeremy Squires is a singer-songwriter from New Bern, North Carolina. He has been creating quietly mesmerizing and haunting folk songs for several years and he has been featured here frequently since I stumbled upon his magnificent Central Nervous Station EP back in 2013. His songs often tend to be fragile and evocative, sometimes even poignant and devastatingly sad. Somehow the songs still always manage to bring me comfort, because the warmness, the softness and the serene humanity of them divide my own darkness into something manageable. That’s how even the downhearted moments of his songs have given me something to lean on and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Currently Jeremy Squires is releasing a series of music videos that will eventually lead to the release of his new album entitled Poem. The first one Somersault has been out for a few weeks and I’m proud to premiere the latest video for the song Gift. This is a serene, heartwarming and emotion-filled song that leaves me a little teary-eyed, but for all the right reasons. Jeremy himself explained: “It’s about two people who are lost and somehow found their way to each other. It is from both perspectives. The first verse is meant to be comforting and gives an example of someone leaving a beautiful path to follow to lead the other out of the dark. The second verse is from the perspective of being lost or in a dark place and finding love.”

The single Gift will be available everywhere on the 16th of February. There’s not yet a release date set for the album Poem, but you can count on it to be featured here once it’s available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkIJ7UIXLZI

Jeremy Squires Website