Playlist

OCTA Weekly Playlist – Episode #68

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Another week, another weekly playlist.

The year end is getting closer, but the hits just keep on coming. Or should-be hits at least. This week we got a new solo album from Micah Schnabel and that is a big deal. It’s a very powerful album where anger & frustration collide with hope & empathy. Super highly recommended. Also Elijah Ocean, Hurt Valley, The Country Side of Harmonica Sam and Lannie Flowers released great new albums. Then there’s the awesome Little Wings album that first came out in the summer, but I haven’t seen it before on this controversial streaming app. Yola’s album also got an extended version and Shotgun Jimmie and Rue Snider released EPs.

As for Finland. There’s the new album from Pekko Käppi along with a revisit to the wonderful Liila Jokelin album that started last week’s playlist. The new Pintandwefall single is absolutely wonderful and another single treat comes from Pietarin Spektaakkeli feat Yona.

International singles ruled the week too, because there was such treasures like a new John Moreland song, a new Jennah Barry song, a new Possessed by Paul James song and Tre Burt’s debut single on Oh Boy Records. Just to name a few. You’ll find the rest from the list below.

That’s it for this week. I may or may not do this next week. Kind of depends is there enough new stuff. Or maybe I’ll just add them on top of this one, if there’s some but not enough for a whole playlist. Mostly I try to start working on the pointless EOTY lists. First a couple of those round-up thingies during the next few days, then on to the lists. No definite promises about anything though. Love love love.

1. Micah Schnabel – Gentle Always (The Teenage Years of the 21st of Century, Here You Go! 2019)
2. Elijah Ocean – Came Down From Denver (Back to the Lander, New Wheel Music, 2019)
3. Tre Burt – Caught It from the Rye (single, Oh Boy Records, 2019)
4. Hurt Valley – Bothers (Glacial Place, Woodsist, 2019)
5. Little Wings – Cliff’s Face (People, Digsquad, 2019)
6. John Moreland – Harder Dreams (single, Old Omens, 2019)
7. Jennah Barry – Pink Grey Blue (single, Forward Music, 2019)
8. Pintandwefall – Ah-Ah-Ah (single, Soliti, 2019)
9. John Prine – The Ways of a Woman in Love (single, Oh Boy, 2019)
10. The Country Side of Harmonica Sam – Patches on My Heart (Broken Bottle, Broken Heart, El Toro Records, 2019)
11. Pekko Käppi – Tulet palaa (Finnish Folk Songs Vol. 1, Helmi Levyt, 2019)
12. Possessed by Paul James – Be at Rest (single, 2019)
13. Shotgun Jimmie – A Flower From Yesterday (VHS EP, You’ve Changed Records, 2019)
14. Kacy & Clayton – How To Fight Loneliness (single, New West, 2019)
15. Rue Snider – Speak My Mind Live (Pete’s Candy Store Pt 1 EP, 2019)
16. Ana Egge – We Are One Live (single, StorySound Records, 2019)
17. Bart Budwig – Sock Song (single, Fluff & Gravy Records, 2019)
18. Luke De-Sciscio – I’m a Dream Fighting Out of a Man (single, 2019)
19. Fortitude Valley – Wreck (single, Fika Recordings, 2019)
20. Lannie Flowers – Running (Home, 2019)
21. Nadia Reid – Best Thing (single, Spacebomb, 2019)
22. Yola – I Don’t Wanna Lie (Walk Through Fire Extended, Easy Eye Sound, 2019)
23. James Hunter Six – I Can Change Your Mind (single, Daptone Records, 2019)
24. Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – Texas Sun (single, Dead Oceans, 2019)
25. Son Little – Mahalia (single, Anti, 2019)
26. Pietarin Spektaakkeli feat Yona – Siivet (single, Roihis Musica, 2019)
27. Liila Jokelin – Tulet kohtaamaan taistelun (Kaamos on huono esileikki, Helmi Levyt, 2019)
28. Alan Barnosky – Beer Cans and Quarters (single, 2019)
29. Trey Burnart Hall – Mosaic (Story Songs, 2019)
30. Heather Valley – Seasons (Desert Message, 2019)
31. Twain – Star Mate (Adventure, Keeled Scales, 2019)
32. Bill Fay – Love Will Remain (single, Dead Oceans, 2019)

Playlist link

Oh and do buy the vinyl/cd/download. Spotify and other streaming services are perfect for these introductory purposes, but try to buy at least the music that matter the most to you

If you are looking this after a week has gone, the embedded Spotify will show the latest playlist. I’ll just update the same playlist because a) if someone wants to follow it, they can just follow that one list and will get a new set of songs each Sunday b) so that I don’t have a trillion of different playlists on my Spotify account.

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Finnish music, International music

Iron Country Sisters, Erin Enderlin, Sarah Lee Langford and Kassi Valazza

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A couple of these quick round up posts and then finally moving on to the EOTY lists. Not that I’m ever able to catch up, because I kinda missed a couple of months. Tonight this starts from Helsinki, Finland with some of the finest Finnish roots music. The long-awaited debut from Iron Country Sisters came out on the 27th of September on Soit Se Silti and it’s a great americana album with strong songwriting and exceptional singing. Iron Country Sisters is a roots trio of three actual sisters who share the lead vocal duties and back each other with stunningly beautiful harmonies. Here’s my new favorite Riverside along with the older favorite Go Slow. Both can be found from their new album The Blue Hidden In.

Iron Country Sisters Website
Iron Country Sisters at Facebook

Moving across the ocean to Nashville, Tennessee to hear a song from one of the best country albums of the year. Songwriter Erin Enderlin first released 4 EP chapters and then wrapped them together. The end result is an album called Faulkner County and it came out on the 1st of November. It’s a remarkable collection of beautiful country tearjerkers. I posted the videos for I Can Be Your Whiskey and Tonight I Don’t Give a Damn before, so let’s go with another brilliant song Broken on this little blog post. Such a heartrending song.

Erin Enderlin at Facebook
Erin Enderlin Website

A small trip down south to Birmingham, Alabama. The new Sarah Lee Langford album Two Hearted Rounder has also been in heavy rotation in this household. It came out on Cornelius Chapel Records on the 8th of November and is filled with excellent songwriting. Here’s a couple of personal favorites. A music video for the powerful song Big Women and another album outtake Watch Me. Hit the links on the bandcamp player to hear/buy the whole record.

Wrapping this night’s round up in Portland, Oregon with a revisit to Kassi Valazza’s album Dear Dead Days. There’s a couple of good reasons for this a) I still love it to bits and it’s one of my favorites of the whole year b) Amy Leona Havin directed a video for album cut A Fine Colour and it just surfaced a couple of days ago. I highly recommend checking out the whole thing, because this is a damn impressive record. Country, psych and Hazlewood and so forth.

Kassi Valazza at Facebook

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Finnish music

Kielo Kärkkäinen, Hulda Huima, Tvärtom and Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly

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Tonight’s round up is a quick Finnish music video post. Starting from Tampere with a song from the new Kielo Kärkkäinen album Keitä me olemme. It came out on the 6th of September on Texicalli Records and therefore got a little bit buried under the 18 year anniversary festival stuff. However, it’s one that I’ve been returning to all fall long and I love it to bits. This is Laulun Aika from one of my favourite Finnish albums of the year.

Kielo Kärkkäinen Website
Kielo Kärkkäinen at Facebook

Actually these could all be filed under that finest Finnish music of the year category. Next we have a song from the latest Hulda Huima album Maa that came out on the 16th of August should-be legendary Helmi Levyt. Jalat laahaa tätä maata is the brightest diamond of the record and Liina Kuittinen made this great music video for this particular song.

Hulda Huima at Facebook

One of my latest obsessions is this next song/video from the self-titled EP from Tvärtom. Iltariennot is such a perfect indie pop song and this music video by Virpi Stjerna is a perfect companion to the song. And because I have a masters degree in self doubt, this song also resonates within me rather deeply. In fact, I might be this song. Plus there’s a cat on the cover of their self-titled EP. So what’s not to love. Hit the links on the bandcamp player to hear/buy whole EP.

Tvartöm at Facebook

Wrapping tonight’s round-up with something completely different, but equally brilliant. I fell in love with the music of Anne-Mari Kivimäki & Palomylly last summer at Ilmiö Festivaali. I knew Pekko Käppi and Ville Rauhala and how awesome musicians they are and that’s why I went to see them despite having some doubts. I had a silly assumption that this might not be for me, because quite frankly I haven’t spent a lot of time listening to etno music. Maybe I even had some prejudiced barrier, but if I did, that damn thing fell down the minute they started playing and I ended up loving every second of the show. Easily one of the best concerts I’ve seen this year. Their new album Hämeen lauluja came out on the 2nd of September on Kihtinäjärvi Records and it opens with this gorgeous earworm Killiäinen Lemmenlintu that gets blissfully stuck in your heart for a long time. Oh and there’s also a new Pekko Käppi album coming out this week on Helmi Levyt, but let’s get to that one some other time.

Anne-Mari Kivimäki Website
Anne-Mari Kivimäki at Facebook

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International music

Twain, Andre Ethier and Humbird

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Some very quick round-up posts this week before starting to make the pointless year-end lists. Starting with a wonderful artist that will be heavily featured on all of those lists. You will find Twain in the albums, EPs and songs list. The new album Adventure came out on Keeled Scales on the 22nd of November and it’s again magnificent. Here’s my early favorite Royal Road, but the whole thing is a beautiful treasure. Listening to Twain is good for me and divides my thoughts into something manageable. What a song, what a record.

Twain at Facebook
Keeled Scales Website

Moving on to Canada and into the arms of Canadian songwriter Andre Ethier. I’m not familiar with his former band The Deadly Snakes or the earlier solo albums, but thankfully I somehow stumbled upon this new inspiring album called Croak In The Weeds that came out on the 12th of October on Telephone Explosion Records. It’s the second part of a trilogy that he has been making with producer Sandro Perri. Here’s my personal favorite Two Dogs from the album. Hit the links on the bandcamp player to hear/buy the whole blissfully strange record.

Telephone Explosion Records Website

Tonight’s small round-up ends in Minneapolis, MN with a song/video from the new Humbird album Pharmakon that came out on the 30th of August. Siri Undlin wrote wonderful songs and one of my favorite producers Shane Leonard made them shine even more brightly. Here’s one of the highlights Wolf Alice that was inspired by Angela Carter’s fairytale of the same name.

Humbird at Facebook
Humbird Website

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