Matt Woods – How To Survive

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This has been an incredible music year. It feels like there’s 3-5 excellent albums coming out each Friday. I probably would struggle to keep up even if onechord.net was a full-time job. Unfortunately it’s not, but I’ll do my best (which isn’t very much at the moment). October 7th brought us new excellent albums from Matt Woods, Dan Edmonds, Zachary Lucky, Hiss Golden Messenger and Zach Schmidt. Plus all the great stuff that I’m not aware of.

I’ll start going through this latest new music Friday with Matt Woods from Knoxville, TN and his new album How To Survive. I’ve had it on heavy rotation and think it’s a wonderful country / americana album. Matt has the perfect voice for this kind of music and his singing would carry even weak song material into my heart. The songwriting is far from weak though. It’s damn good all the way through the album. Matt Woods also has an all-star or should be stars cast playing with him on the album. Including some of my personal heroes like Aaron Lee Tasjan and Todd Beene. Here’s the music video for the first single The American Way and a couple of outtakes from the album. You can hear/buy the whole thing on his Bandcamp or buy physical copies from his website.

Matt Woods Website

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Itasca – Open To Chance

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Life has been busy and hard and my whole body aches, but thankfully there are things that have the ability to stop time and take care of me. Usually these things are songs and albums. L.A. based Kayla Cohen aka Itasca has written an absolute stunning album Open To Chance that came out 30th of September on the always magnificent Paradise Of Bachelors label. I bought a download when it came out and have lived the past week wrapped into the mesmerizing serene beauty of this album. It takes me back to that period in time in the early 00s when I bought everything I could find from artists like Sibylle Baier, Vashti Bunyan, Bridget St.John, Judee Sill, Linda Perhacs and I’m pretty confident that this amazing album can stand the test of time just as well as those classics have. This deserves a whole lot of love and longer, better actual review, but all I’m able to do right now is put the headphones on and let this captivating timeless music guide me into sleep. Here are a couple of standouts from the album, but you really need to hear the whole album.

Itasca Website

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Kalispell – Gary, IN (video)

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One more for the weekend before another exhausting work week. Kalispell’s new album Printer’s Son came out in June on Cartouche Records. Joshua Ford directed a great music video for an album outtake called Gary, IN and I’m not going to miss such a good opportunity to post this amazing song one more time. I highly recommend listening to the whole album as well. It’s been on rotation in my head and heart for a year or so, because I got the early download as a kickstarter backer and I still find it thrilling each and every time. Shane Leonard is the man.

Shane Leonard and Kalispell Website

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John Calvin Abney – Far Cries and Close Calls

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I already briefly mentioned John Calvin Abney’s new album Far Cries and Close Calls some weeks ago, but a revisit is in order because the album is now out and available. I’ve spent countless amount of hours listening to it during the week and I think it’s magnificent.

John Calvin Abney is an Oklahoma-based songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist. Far Cries and Close Calls is a very impressive collection of songs and his best album so far. Actually I probably should throw John’s denim jacket on that album of the month slot, because I haven’t changed that in ages and I’m really loving this one. There’s a good amount of variety in here as well. I’ll Be Here, Mairead wouldn’t feel out of place on a Pete Molinari album and Way Out is far closer to someone like Elliot Smith (this is far less Elliot-like than his Vice Versa Suite EP though). All that namedropping is rather pointless, because John has found his own voice and is more than ready to present his own unique combination of folk, americana, rock’n’roll and indie pop. I hope this one will get the recognition it deserves. In my books, Far Cries and Close Calls is one of 2016’s finest. Here are a couple of personal favorites from the album that is now out on Horton Records in USA and CRS/Continental Record Services in Europe. Album opener Beauty Seldom Seen and In Such A Strange Town. You can hear/buy the rest on his Bandcamp page.

John Calvin Abney Website

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