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.
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.
We have to say goodbye to the winter olympics this weekend, but thankfully The Olympic Symphonium will stay on our side throughout the year. They are a Canadian folk quartet from the New Brunswick area and their latest album Beauty in the Tension came out a few weeks ago on Forward Music Group. It’s a charming and moving folk album that really hits the core of my heart. I’m very fond of the song Careful even though the opening lines absolutely floor me and then everything will stay still for the duration of the song. The song is truly emotive, poignant and powerful and perhaps might not seem like a good match with my irrationally and continuously worried mind, but instead of wrecking me it somehow ends up comforting me. What a song, but it’s still only a little part of the story and the rest of the material is pretty much on the same level. All four songwriters have written beautiful songs. The album opener Coat Of Arms is a stunner that reminds me a bit of Mark Eitzel and Comedy is a compelling song that revolves around joking in an unsmiling manner. They would all be worth mentioning, but music speaks louder than my pointless ramblings. Here’s a couple of standouts from the new The Olympic Symphonium album Beauty in the Tension.
