I think it will go close to Christmas (or even after) until I have the albums and songs of the year lists ready, but I thought I post a couple of quick round-up posts before that. Maybe I should ask Suburban Home is that Micah Schnabel album coming out before the end of the year, before choosing the album of the year. At the moment it seems to be a contest between The Deep Dark Woods and Glossary with Dawes lurking on the 3rd spot and Mummypowder leading the local contest. But last minute changes are always possible.

I’ve become more and more addicted to folk singer-songwriters during the year and Jeremy Quentin (Small Houses), Raphael Cutrufello (Hezekiah Jones), Chris Bathgate and Yann Tambour (Stranded Horse) are new musical heroes of mine. I think I’ve found the first three from the wonderful Canadian blog Slowcoustic and if you like these videos below you should bookmark it (or just make it your home page).

Without further ado, I’ll bring you these great folk songs. Also known as the most beautiful songs of the year 2011 here at the onechord.net headquarters. I’ve listened these so many times that you need master’s degree in mathematics to be able to count that far. The albums are also fantastic. Well at least the first three. I don’t actually have the Stranded Horse album yet, which is criminal because I love that song. I have to do something with that if the rest of it is even half as good.

Small Houses: Late July (from the album North)

Small Houses – “Late July” from Spencer Wells on Vimeo.

Hezekiah Jones: Lift The Shadow From This Heart (from the album Have You Seen Our Fort?)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjHZuOZyelA]

Chris Bathgate: Poor Eliza (from the album Salt Year)

Chris Bathgate : Bridgehouse Session Pt. 2 from Mostly Midwest on Vimeo.

Stranded Horse: And The Shoreline It Withdrew In Anger (from the album Humbling Tides)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN578CMWAq4]

Hezekiah Jones: Have You Seen Our New Fort? (Yer Bird Records, 2011)

Lately I’ve been getting more and more addicted to Hezekiah Jones. It’s a Philly-based folk collective led by Raphael Cutrufello. Their latest album Have You Seen Our New Fort? came out a couple of months ago on one of the best labels there is Yer Bird Records. They don’t have the financial muscle to release a huge amount of stuff, but each and every release is like a handpicked little treasure.

Hezekiah Jones have more instruments and more people than I can name and that could lead to a horrible mess, but that is not the case, because they are all there for the sake of the song. Have You Seen Our New Fort? is definitely another little treasure and contains beautifully arranged alternative folk music. My favourites are the beautiful and slow folk tunes like Lift The Shadow From This Heart and The Last Parade On Ann St that somehow brings to mind another album that I really love, Norfolk & Western’s Dusk In Cold Parlours. It’s all pretty fabulous (apart from Some Things To Help You maybe) and makes you wonder why such a talented guy like Raphael Cutrufello is still relatively unknown. Hopefully this new interest towards folk music means that wonderful folk musicians like Chris Bathgate and Raphael Cutrufello will soon get the recognition they really deserve.

Listen to Lift The Shadow From This Heart:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjHZuOZyelA]

Listen to a absolutely stunning new song Borrowed Heart

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo10gRImsWE]

Hezekiah Jones at Facebook

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjHZuOZyelA]

Hezekiah Jones at facebook ]]> 2899