I followed Scottish folk-pop maestros Randolph’s Leap quite closely in the beginning of their career, but had lost touch a little bit. Thankfully their latest album Worryingly Okay caught my ear a week ago. It was released on the 25th of May by Lost Map Records. Here’s the music video for the gorgeous and poignant album closer Television.

Randolph’s Leap Website

Planes on Paper released their debut album Edge Markings on the 1st of June. They are a folk duo from the state of Washington and their video song is also called Television. If two wonderful albums that came out a week apart have such similarity, my super clever move is obviously to showcase them on this same blog entry. So here’s Planes on Paper’s take on the subject matter. Ok, in the end this might be more about us than that box in the corner. Well actually so is Randolph’s Leap song. Great songs and great albums. I highly recommend listening to these records instead of watching the television, but whatever feels good.

Planes on Paper Website

Some Finnish alt.country and folk rock this time around. Well actually the lead singer Peter Tierney is a British Finn originally from Wolverhampton who has also worked as a legal aid for death row convicts in New Orleans. So looks like the background check for a country singer will be passed with good marks. The band was actually formed a day after Richmond Fontaine’s concert in Helsinki, so that’s another one to the plus column. However, these fun facts wouldn’t carry that much weight, if the music itself wasn’t any good. There’s no worries though, because this new single Didn’t It Rain is rather excellent. They also released a pretty damn good album Stories from the Foot of the Mountain late last year. So check that out too, if you fall in love with the folk rock storytelling of Didn’t It Rain.

Eden Prairie Website

Dogwood Tales are Kyle Grim and Ben Ryan from Harrisburg, Virginia and their debut album Too Hard To Tell came out in February on Crystal Pistol Records. They recorded it live to 2-inch analogue tape and the album sounds warm and delicate. The whole thing is gorgeous, but I’m especially fond of the opening song Living In a Shadow and the final song Spiritless Machine. I just love the singing on the album. Both the beautiful lead vocals and the delicate harmonies. You can hear and almost feel their presence when listening with headphones. It’s like Quiet is the New Loud all over again, but this time from a country angle.

Dogwood Tales at Facebook

This song The World Is On Fire has been a huge favourite of mine lately. It’s an outtake from the forthcoming American Aquarium album Things Change that is due out 1st of June on New West Records. Especially that last line of the chorus We must go boldly into the darkness and be the light is powerful and inspiring and manages to find the positive, hopeful side of the current world events and further encourage it. People being the light, spreading love and standing up against the lack of compassion and empathy. We can’t give up. Eventually love will win.

American Aquarium Website