A long time favourite John Calvin Abney is preparing a release of his new full-length album Coyote that is due out 18th of May on Black Mesa Records. He is a great songwriter and musician from Oklahoma and his 2016 album Far Cries and Close Calls is very dear to me. Since then he has toured as the lead guitarist for John Moreland, but somewhere along the way he also found the time to write a new magnificent solo album. The first outtake Every Now and Then premiered earlier in the week at Glide Magazine and it sounds marvellous to me. He also has a new split single with Tim Easton on the Different Folk label. A lot more about Coyote and John Calvin Abney closer to the release date.

John Calvin Abney Website

Time flies too fast and I struggle to feature all the beautiful music that is being released. I’ve been meaning to write a longer piece about this, but let’s at least do a quick return to The Village Ordinary album The Needle Spins. Louisville musicians John Pedigo and Chad Acton have written a great banjo-driven folk album and I absolutely must share the song Partly Cloudy on this blog. It’s very affecting, heartfelt and it’s kind of like a shoulder to lean on. One of my absolute favourite songs of 2018 so far. Follow the bandcamp link to listen/buy the whole album.

The Village Ordinary at Facebook

One more for tonight. DJ Biggie Boutte from Swamp Jacuzzi praised Buckley on FB earlier in the week and I always listen to people who know far more than I do. So I went and listened to Buckley and fell rather badly especially for this song Bakersfield. It’s the lead track of his album Las Cruces that is due out March 2nd on Rum Bar Records. Bakersfield is a brilliant countrified rock’n’roll song and I look forward to hearing the full album in a week or so. You can already listen to half of it on Bandcamp and it’s all damn good. Bio namedrops Neil Young, Whiskeytown, Flying Burrito Brothers as influences/comparisons so I suppose it’s no wonder this is my kind of music. This is the gorgeous Bakersfield. Follow the Bandcamp link if you need to hear more and/or pre-order the album.

I Am Oak is a folk band from Utrecht, the Netherlands. The frontman Thijs Kuijken has an incredible voice and he is always able to write ethereal and dazzlingly beautiful songs. They just released a new single Will I Wake on Snowstar Records and it comes with a gorgeous hand-drawn animated video that Thijs made himself. It only took him about 80 hours and 2000 drawings to make it according to the label’s website, so the least that we should do is to watch this adorable video. The song is wonderful too, so it’s a winning combination where both the song and the video are a sweet work of art.

I Am Oak Website