This new Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints album have kept me smiling when some silly age crisis is trying to bring me down. Later this year I will be 40, this blog will be 17 and Karate Kid will be 57. Time sure flies, but let’s not get into that now. I should focus on this delightful album that contains sweet old-fashioned originals and carefully selected covers. Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints are from Seattle and they deliver wonderful early rock’n’roll, swing, country, trad jazz and Western Soul. I’ve been following them since the very first single, because one of my online musician friends from the area Lincoln Barr followed Birch Pereira on FB and I went and listened to Whose Honey Are You? and instantly loved it. I can’t remember did I write about the first record on this blog, but if I didn’t, it’s definitely about time to feature this lovely band on this little blog now when this sophomore album is out and available. The beautiful ballad The One You Think You See, the super entertaining, jivey and jazzy A Love I Can’t Explain and a gorgeous rendition of the all-time classic St. James Infirmary are my personal favourites, but everything else also works beautifully.

Birch Pereira & The Gin Joints Website

I Need to Start a Garden by Portland-based folk songwriter Haley Heynderickx is now available everywhere on the great Mama Bird Recording Co. This is one of my personal favorites of the year. The songwriting is intriquing and unique and then there’s that voice that has such an emotional range. The depth of that voice cuts through me like a knife. Which is a pretty horrible analogy, because this doesn’t hurt me. Quite the opposite actually. The emotional range finds even the parts of me that you can’t find from human anatomy encyclopedia and fills them with something pure and eventually healing. The whole album is marvellous, but for me the highlight of it is Untitled God Song. Profoundly captivating, completely addicting and dazzlingly beautiful song that describes the appearance of God in an unconventional manner. It’s both moving and amusing and I’ve listened to it dozens of times. What a great record. I’m not really an outdoor type, but I’m pretty sure I need to start a garden.

Haley Heynderickx Website

Stop the press! We have a new Daniel Markham album on the horizon. Well truth to be told, there’s really no need to stop, because there hasn’t been anything going on in this silly blog during the past weeks. However, I love Daniel Markham and I’m thrilled that he has a new album Hyperspeed coming out on the 25th of May. The first single and music video from the forthcoming album surfaced on Friday and it’s once again magnificent. I’ve had Velvet Elvis on repeat during the weekend and can’t wait to hear the whole album in month and a half.

And here’s the music video that premiered at New Slang. They also have Q&A with Daniel so hit this link to get some background information.

Daniel Markham Website

My blogging activity has again been next to none. I meant to do a lot this week, but a couple of 4 am wake ups due to the day job have turned my brain into a foggy mess and I’m incapable of forming a sentence. I will still hang on and continue no matter how infrequently. Of course, if I was wiser, I would let this slide into oblivion. This post would have been a good opportunity for that, because there’s probably not a better way to quit than share a song from possibly the finest album that I’ve covered here during the 16+ years of onechord.net. I’m still madly in love with the self-titled The Weather Station album that came out last year on Paradise of Bachelors / Outside Music. The album will be relevant for years to come, but this week even more so because there’s a new captivating music video available for the song Impossible. The new video was directed by Colin Medley. Watch it below and then go and listen to the whole powerful album.

And here’s another magnificent song that I probably haven’t shared. Actually I should probably write a blog entry about every single one of these songs, because they are all so dear to me.

The Weather Station Website