Canadian songsmith Jerry Leger released a new double-album Nonsense and Heartache on 31st of March. I actually haven’t listened to the whole thing yet. So much great music and hardly any time to listen to new music these days. I definitely plan to check it out, so this little blog post is also kind of like a note to self. I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from the album so far, which are the songs on his Youtube. The latest entry there is this excellent brand new stop-motion animated video for album song Things Are Changing ‘Round Here. Nonsense and Heartache is out on Latent Recordings / Warner Music Canada.

Jerry Leger Website

I was lazy all winter and spring and therefore there’s still lots of gorgeous records that have not been mentioned. This one sat a while on that right column, but I haven’t written anything about it or shared a song. Time to do that, because it’s a damn good album and I keep on returning to it on a regular basis. Hatteras Night, A Good Luck Charm is Will Johnson’s new album that came out in March on Undertow Music Collective. Will Johnson is a musician that probably doesn’t need an introduction, if you have been even a little bit interested in American indie rock and alt.country during the past twenty years. Will has been making wonderful music at least since the mid-nineties. Centro-Matic, South San Gabriel, a collaboration with Jason Molina, gorgeous solo albums and a lot of other things. The new album is a magnificent addition to that impressive discography. I’m blissfully lost in the beautiful surroundings of this last song Hatteras and I have absolutely no intention of finding a way out.

Will Johnson Website

A long time favourite Micah Schnabel dropped a new solo album yesterday. Your New Norman Rockwell is a great addition to the Micah Schnabel collection that contains both excellent solo albums and bunch of albums with his rock’n’roll band Two Cow Garage. The new album contains a lot of passionate spoken word songs that turn out to be just as impressive as Two Cow Garage’s energetic rock anthems. The only possible issue that might rise in the future is that the albums spoken word folk poetry side might not stand the test of excessive repetitive listening as well Two Cow’s (should-be) hits. I’m not going to worry about what will happen in a few months time though, because at the moment the album feels and sounds extremely powerful, thought-provoking and impressive. Here’s the first single Jazz and Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the video for album cut called The Interview. The album is now out on Last Chance Records in the states (probably on At The Helm in Europe).

Why haven’t I been properly listening to Gold Star until tonight? Gold Star aka L.A. based country-folk musician Marlon Rabenreither is a pretty damn good songwriter and vocalist. His latest album Big Blue came out on 24th of March on Autumn Tone Records and I’m thoroughly enjoying it at the moment. Lucinda Williams also seem to think highly of him and his songs and well who am I to disagree with Lucinda. This is rather brilliant west coast americana. I need to buy either a download or physical copy asap and let myself sink deeper into the songs of Gold Star. Here’s a couple of songs that first caught my ear, but any of the album cuts would do equally well.

Gold Star Website