My heart found a new home in the comfort of these songs. I pretty much fell in love with this the second I hit play. Perhaps that’s a little weird, because bare, intimate lo-fi folk usually isn’t the most instantly catchy form of music. However, I found this instantly charming, warm and timeless. I don’t know a whole lot about John Thumb. He is a Canadian songwriter who used to play in The Good Hunters and now released this solo record on Other Songs Music Co. Other Songs is pretty much the reason why I found him, because I trust their taste and I love or at least like everything they put out. It looks like this one will fall into that love category. This Nowhere Bound for example is incredible. A small song can be a mountain.

Other Songs Website

A year ago the world lost two gifted musicians way ahead of their time. Chris Porter and his bandmate Mitchell Vandenburg passed away in a tragic car accident that shook the music community. I didn’t know Chris personally, but he was someone I admired from a far. Both as a songwriter and maybe even more importantly as a really kindhearted human being. To me he always stood out as a man who had his heart in the right place.

Before his untimely and horribly unfair passing, Chris had recorded a new album called Don’t Go Baby It’s Gonna Get Weird Without You. Will Johnson produced it and Shonna Tucker, John Calvin Abney and The Mastersons helped Chris to record this awesome set of songs. It’s a wonderful album and I’m grateful that his fiancée Andrea Juarez, friends and Cornelius Chapel Records teamed up together and released Don’t Go Baby It’s Gonna Get Weird Without You on the 20th of October. Listening to his music is the best way to remember this beautiful man and especially here in the beginning these songs will make a tear or an ocean fall from the corner of my eye. Thankfully these song also have the power to kick my ass, if I’m in danger of falling too deep and in the end I will smile when I think of you Chris.

Porter & The Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes at Facebook

Anna Burch signed a deal with Polyvinyl Records and debuted with 2 Cool 2 Care single and music video. I’m going to miss not hearing her voice on the future Frontier Ruckus albums, but hey what’s not to love about all of this. Frontier Ruckus is able to make stunning music without her and it sure sounds like Anna is also more than capable of creating fabulous pop music on her own. So in the end, my world gets even more phenomenal music than before. Damn Pitchfork already made all the pointless namedropping I had come up with, so I can’t use them. So I’ll just leave you with this wonderful pop song that I really love.

Anna Burch Website

I also have to use this opportunity to post a Frontier Ruckus song/video that I haven’t posted on the blog. Sorry about that. It’s my favourite band in the world, so what can one do. This is a very moving music video for the title track of the latest Ruckus album Enter The Kindgom that came out early in 2017 and have kept its place among the finest throughout the year.

Frontier Ruckus Website