Trying to catch up on all great albums before it’s time to make those year-end lists in late December. Therefore I purchased a lot of albums last night. One of them was Zach Schmidt’s new album The Day We Lost The War. Only listened to a little bit of it so far, but seems to be filled with excellent american songwriting. Zach Schmidt is originally from Pittsburgh, but is currently living in Nashville, Tennessee. Here are my early favourites Dear Memphis and Company Man. I think I relate to the latter one a little more than I would prefer. You can buy/listen to whole thing on his Bandcamp.

Zach Schmidt Website

I saw Al Scorch live at Capitol, Stockholm a few months ago and really enjoyed the concert. I also brought home the vinyl copy of his new album and it’s been on heavy rotation during this fall. Al Scorch is a Chicago-based banjo player, songwriter and storyteller and his latest album Circle Round the Signs came out on Bloodshot Records in the spring of 2016. It ranges from fast tempo banjo picking to beautiful ballads and everything works wonderfully. This is Everybody Out from the new album.

And here’s an album cut City Lullaby from Half Top Sessions Performed by Al and Jess McIntosh. The same line up was on their recent Euro tour where I saw them.

Jess McIntosh also has her own solo album Long Time Exhaling. I need to focus on that sometime soon, because everything I listened tonight on Bandcamp sounds extremely good. Here’s a song called Bigger. You can buy / listen to all of it Bandcamp.

Al Scorch Website
Jess McIntosh Website

I struggled with North Carolinian Hiss Golden Messenger for a rather long time. Everyone whose taste I trust kept on praising M.C. Taylor and his music, but somehow I just failed to hear the greatness of it. Looking back that seems ridiculous and that ignorance might take away the little credibility I still had left. But yeah, it took me until the song Brother, Do You Know The Road couple years back when I finally heard the light and understood that my heart is a good match with the music of Hiss Golden Messenger.

The new Hiss Golden Messenger album Heart Like a Levee came out on Merge Records on October 7th and it has been a big favourite lately. I’ve spent hours just lying on the floor with headphones on listening to this album. Sorta like my very own yoga session. Might not fix my sore muscles, but sure takes care of the soul. The songs are great and it’s so beautifully arranged. I’m especially fond of the title track Heart Like a Levee, Happy Day (Sister my Sister) and the album closer Highland Grace, but it’s all magnificent.

Hiss Golden Messenger Website