Norway only has a population of 5.3 million people, but it has an impressive musical heritage which includes Norwegian folk, jazz with internationally recognised artists such as Jan Garbarek, classical and modern classical music ranging from Edward Grieg to Arne Nordheim and Norwegian Black Metal has been an international influence since the late ‘90s . All this goes to show there is more to Scandinavian music than just Abba. What may be surprising to those not in the know, is that the 2000 film, ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’, sowed the seed for a local americana music scene to develop. This scene has continued to grow over the years and now has it’s own sub-genre, Nordicana. Malin Pettersen is one such artist. She started her career in 2018 Continue reading “Interview: Norwegian Malin Pettersen on americana and Ella FitzGerald”
This is a bit of a surprise. Delta Spirit released their fourth album, ‘Into The Wide’, in 2014 to general critical acclaim and some commercial success. Since then, vocalist and co-founder Matthew Logan Vasquez has released three solo albums and it was assumed Delta Spirit were no more, though they had not officially announced they had disbanded. It is not clear why the band have re-activated their career, though their publicity states that they brought “..with them the change of perspective and inspiration gathered from exploring other creative avenues” following their variety of solo work. 
Grant Lee Phillips has been a critic’s favourite ever since the days of Grant Lee Buffalo in the ‘90s, and is known for his sweet and soulful vocals and excellent songwriting. However, this acclaim has not translated into significant commercial success. With ‘Lightning Show Us Your Stuff’, his tenth album, this may be about to change. While the album fits seamlessly into Grant Lee Phillips’ discography, the quality of the album and songwriting is just that little bit better, just a touch more relaxed and with just enough subtlety to make this probably his best album. Grant Lee Phillips, who is of Indian descent, got the idea for the title from “The words of my daughter, as she thrust a manzanita branch toward the night sky. Kids being kids, I figured….then I heard the thunderclap.”. 
Dylan has been one of the most covered songwriters since the ‘60s. In fact, in 1965, Columbia Records ran a media campaign with the message “No one sings Dylan like Dylan”, as covers were outselling Dylan’s original versions. While many artists have covered his songs, few artists have recorded whole albums of them. Recently Maria Muldaur, with ‘Heart of Mine: Maria Muldaur Sings Love Songs of Bob Dylan’, and Betty LaVette with ‘Things Have Changed’ have both released complete albums of Dylan songs and into this company steps Australian born East Nashville based singer-songwriter Emma Swift.