International music, News

Grand Salvo – In The Water (song)

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One of my most anticipated albums for these last months of 2018 is the new Grand Salvo album Sea Glass that will drop into our hearts on the 2nd of November. Paddy Mann from Melbourne, Australia is an extraordinary songwriter and I’m sure this new album will be one of the finest of the year. It will be released by Mistletone. Grand Salvo never plays it safe and the first single from the forthcoming album is this exceptional, epic and beautifully arranged 10 minutes long baroque folk song In The Water. This is so serene, beautiful and devastatingly sad. Incredible song. Listen to In the Water below and check out the latest single on the new weekly playlist that I posted earlier today.

A lovely live version of the same song from On Random TV.

Grand Salvo Website

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Playlist

OCTA Weekly Playlist – Episode #10

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Another week, another weekly playlist.

This little blog reached 17 years earlier this week, which is a pretty insane number. When I started in 2001, I never thought I would still be doing this in 2018. I guess I’m bad at letting go and well I still love this and despite all the struggles it still gives me more than what it takes. So I will probably keep on making it for as long as I breathe. Of course, the day job took a bit too much energy during the current week, so progress was again minimal. But it is what it is. You’ll just have to bear with me.

A pretty exciting week for new music once again. Kristina Murray’s wonderful new album is now out and available. Mark Andrew Hamilton (aka Woodpigeon) and Kathryn Calder (The New Pornographers) released their new album under the moniker Frontperson. Adam Faucett’s new one is finally available in Europe and Richard Swift’s posthumous album is remarkable. Then there’s also great new albums from Advance Base, Joe Nolan, The Artisanals, Mountain Man (very much love that they covered Baby Where You Are by Ted Lucas, such a perfect song. That classic Ted Lucas album will actually get a vinyl reissue soon) and Bad Moves. A couple for the soul fans too, because the trusted labels Colemine and Daptone dropped new albums from Ben Pirani and The Sha La Das. Some exciting stuff from Finland too. A new single from the all-time greats Penniless and a great debut album from Mahonies. And on the EP front Jay William Henderson released a new beauty.

All the new singles would be worth namechecking, but the biggest ones for me were the new ones from Megan Palmer, St.Lenox, Grand Salvo and Colter Wall. I’m so looking forward to those albums from the last three and I’m 100% sure I’m going to love them. I’m not sure is there already a new Megan Palmer album on the horizon, but her new single Stetson is the most moving and powerful song of the week. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, but is thankfully now declared cancer-free. So many hats sittin’ at the table / Cover my head with one at a time / Which one do I wear for this occasion? / I want you to think I’m feelin’ fine. A really important and deeply moving song that leaves a mark on your heart.

1. Megan Palmer – Stetson (single, Blue Rose Music, 2018)
2. Kristina Murray – Tell Me (Southern Ambrosia, Loud Magnolia Records, 2018)
3. Frontperson – U.O.I (Frontrunner, Oscar St Records, 2018)
4. St. Lenox – First Date (single, Anyway Records, 2018)
5. Jay William Henderson – Devil at My Door (Overgrown, VALO, 2018)
6. Grand Salvo – In The Shade (single, Mistletone, 2018)
7. Adam Faucett – Dust (It Took The Shape of a Bird, Last Chance Records, 2018)
8. Richard Swift – Dirty Jim (The Hex, Secretly Canadian, 2018)
9. Run Coyote – Night Rider (single, 2018)
10. Advance Base – Care (Animal Companionship, Run For Cover Records, 2018)
11. Bad Moves – Spirit FM (Tell No One, Don Giovanni Records, 2018)
12. Penniless – Anthem For The Suckers (single, Soit Se Silti, 2018)
13. Mahonies – Apology (Pouring From an Empty Cup, Iso Pinkki / Running Moose, 2018)
14. Empty Arms – Why I Run (single, Get Party Records, 2018)
15. I Am Oak – Golden Pavillion (single, Snowstar Records, 2018)
16. Kate Teague – Gilly (single, Muscle Beach Records, 2018)
17. Cat Power – Stay (single, Domino Recording Co, 2018)
18. The Pollies – Lonely (single, This is American Music, 2018)
19. Ben Pirani – Try Love (How Do I Talk To My Brother?, Colemine Records, 2018)
20. The Sha La Das – Okay My Love (Love In The Wind, Daptone, 2018)
21. Mountain Man – Baby Where You Are (Magic Ship, Bella Union, 2018)
22. Colter Wall – Thinkin’ on a Woman (single, Young Mary’s Record Co, 2018)
23. Nickel & Rose – Life Goes On (Americana EP, 2018)
24. Goshen Electric Co – The Gray Tower (single, Secretly Canadian, 2018)
25. The Artisanals – Angel 42 (The Artisanals, 2018)
26. Lauren Balthrop – We Fell (This Time Around, 2018)
27. Scott Orr – Fall Apart (single, Other Songs, 2018)
28. Chris Velan – Danger Dreaming (Amateur Hour, 2018)
29. The Other Years – Sinks of Gandy / Mayswille (single, No Quarter Records, 2018)
30. Dusty Stray – You Couldn’t Wait To See Me Cry (single, Great Waters, 2018)
31. Carson McHone – Don’t You Think I Feel It Too (single, The Next Waltz, 2018)
32. Joe Nolan – Stand Up For Your Love (Cry Baby, 2018)

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.

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

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International music, News

Vanessa Peters – Fight (song)

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I meant to do a lot more blog stuff this week, but the reality threw a couple of curve balls and I just had to use my energy to fight through the week. Thankfully weekends are still mine and thankfully there’s always new music to hold me. This song Fight from the forthcoming Vanessa Peters album Foxhole Prayers has been my go-to song when it feels like the walls are closing in on me, whether it’s due to miserable world/Finland politics or personal struggles of the everyday life.

Fight is a personal song written from a perspective of a musician temporarily worn down by the music industry and the difficulties of trying to sell and hype your own music. Even though the song is personal, there’s something very universal and relatable in it. It’s a good song to have and to hold close to your heart, because we all need a little bit of encouragement and fighting spirit. Some more often than others. Fight feels relatable to me, because it acknowledges my fears and vulnerabilities and kinda says that hey it’s ok, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do this or that. I have a master’s degree in self-doubt, I’m super shy and quiet, but the last thing I need is to someone overly positive to tell me that I need to be someone who I am not. This song on the other is a good compassionate companion that lets me be the shy, quiet and socially clumsy person that I am. Fight just reminds me that while all that is part of my identity, I shouldn’t let it take too large role and hold me back from achieving my dreams that are worth fighting for. And that those dreams are always within my reach even if there’s a temporary hiccup in my happiness. That works.

Foxhole Prayers is out on October 5th of Idol Records.

Vanessa Peters Website

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General, News

Onechord.net turns 17

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Hurray for One Chord to Another. This little thing is now 17 years old. Of course this so-called blog birthday is hardly a reason for a big celebration, because it’s pretty much just showcasing my insanity, resilience, passion and stubborness. It would be easy to argue that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to spend 17 years and hundreds and hundreds of hours in something that pays absolutely nothing and doesn’t really have a whole lot of significance either. Especially because it’s been a continuous struggle to keep this labour of love project alive in the midst of the realities of the everyday life. In some ways things like these are definitely more suitable for the studying days when the dayjobs aren’t hanging over one’s shoulder draining away all the time and energy. I seriously thought about quitting for years, but fuck all that. I love this. This matters to me, this is a significant part of who I am and I’m somewhat proud of doing this for such a ridiculously long time and at the moment I don’t have any desire to quit. This has given me way more than I could ever had hoped for. I’ve met so many lovely warm-hearted people from all over the world both online and in person and many of them have become dear friends.

All this might change and I don’t give any definite promises. I’m sure there will be times when the everyday life throws more curve balls than what I can hit and I just don’t have what it takes to update frequently. The introduction of the weekly playlist seems like a good thing at the moment, because even though they are hardly viral, making it every week adds some much needed rhythm and structure to the blog. During the years I’ve come to realize that it’s so easy to let things slide and so hard to start again. A writing break so easily just carries on and on, because after a while there’s dozens of new songs and thousands of unread emails and you don’t even know where to start again and therefore things just slide and the situation only gets worse. So even though, it may sound rather strange, for me writing this continuosly seems to be far easier than taking some weeks off and then be completely overflowed with the amount of new music. This way I will do at least one post every week and it also encourages me to do other posts, because I don’t want this to become just a playlist thing.

A couple of things I’ve considered are trying to give interviews a go and dropping or changing the subtitle ”A Finnish Pop Site”. Nothing might come out off either. Maybe some kind of Q&A type of thing might not be that hard, but it’s difficult to find a unique or even remotely interesting angle. So self-doubt might be too strong for that. The problem with the Finnish Pop Site subtitle is just that it gives a bit wrong impression and therefore might not be a good thing. After all, this is closer to an americana blog these days. But sure, I’ve gotten a bit too attached to it during the years (even though it was a little different for a little while), so I might not have the heart to change it.

I think that’s enough of pointless yearly ramblings. I think I owe a beer to anyone who read all of this. But hey, I have to share some music with the seven people who read this far. After all, this blog has nothing to do with music critique, but it has everything to do with loving music passionately. So here’s a couple of songs from the album that I’ve loved the most during this current year. This is The Lonesomest Sound That Can Sound by Clay Parker and Jodi James. Such a brilliant record from this folk duo from Louisiana. They also have musical role on Blaze, the new 2018 movie about the legendary songwriter Blaze Foley.

Clay Parker and Jodi James Website

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