We leave you this weekend dear reader with a clip (filmed in portrait, the humanity of it…) of 2019 UK Americana Award Winner Brandi Carlile’s new song ‘Cowgirls’ which she played at California’s Pacific Amphitheatre earlier this week. In the song she focuses on various targets including the male-dominated music business and the NRA. As she sings, “I don’t believe in wealth and excess and I have had debt the size of Texas, but I didn’t follow my dreams to dump my money in your slot machine.” Amen to that. Have a good one.
Category: Tracks
Pick of the Political Pops: Tracy Chapman “Remember the Tinman”
Our Pops-Master Mr Villers is taking a break at the moment so no witty commentary sorry but following Trump’s sideways move into out and out fascism this week at that rally, this particular track from Tracy Chapman’s excellent ‘New Beginning’ album from 1995 seemed appropriate: “Who stole your heart who took it away, Knowing that without it you can’t live? Who took away the part so essential to the whole, Left you a hollow body, Skin and bone? What robber, what thief, who stole your heart and the key?”
Track Premiere : Owen Tromans “Burying The Moon King”
And who, you might ask, is the Moon King? Owen Tromans’ new single sounds like the stuff of legend, and in a way it is. Not a mythological figure though, the Moon King is a reference to the castle building Bavarian monarch Ludwig II and the song is the story of his life – and death – through the eyes of one of his servants. Continue reading “Track Premiere : Owen Tromans “Burying The Moon King””
Silver Lake 66 “Ragged Heart” – Listen
Maria Francis and Jeff Overbo, for Silver Lake 66 is them, offer a slice of clear as crystal non-ironic classic pedal steel drenched country on ‘Ragged Heart‘. It’s the kind of song that a cheerfully inclined Patsy Cline might have recorded – it burbles and bounces and overflows with lovin’. It’s also the title track of their most recent album.
Songs for the apocalypse: Great Lakes “Precious and Reckless”
Occasionally here at AUK we get sent an album which we probably wouldn’t have come across in a million years had someone not thought to wing it our way but which blows our collective mind. ‘Diamond Times’ by Georgia’s Great Lakes (not be confused with Great Lakes-Wimmers) is one such record – the arrangements, the composition, the songs themselves, not to mention frontman Ben Crum’s vocals and harmonies. For me it’s as perfect a record as we’ve ever been sent and the track ‘Precious and Reckless’ from the album might not be the most reckless thing you’ll ever hear, but it’ll certainly be one of the most precious.
Nicholas Altobelli “Red, White And Blues” – Listen
Nicholas Altobelli has been through some changes in recent years – a divorce, a return to college for a degree in literature, and now working as an educator. This didn’t leave much room for music, but four years since his last album he’s returning with a new collection of songs ‘Vertigo‘ which is out at the start of August. Continue reading “Nicholas Altobelli “Red, White And Blues” – Listen”
Eilen Jewell “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” – Listen
Eilen Jewell’s new song from her album ‘Gypsy’ (out on Signature Sounds on August 16th) takes a light touch to a serious subject. Have you ever wondered why some people get 79 cents when other people get the full dollar? Eilen Jewell certainly has wondered: “I was trying, and still am trying, to make sense of what it means to be a woman in a country that somehow elected a self-professed pussy grabber as head of state. What does this mean for my daughter? What does it reveal about the way this country views women? Regardless of whether one accepts the data regarding the pay gap, it continuously feels like I am worth less than a man in our culture, in both subtle and blatant ways. Lately I can only face the patriarchy with humor, which I’m sure will offend many. But, well, at least I’m not grabbing pussies.”
Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow cover Dylan’s “Everything Is Broken” – Listen
Sheryl Crow has covered Bob Dylan songs in the past such as ‘Mississippi’ and ‘Tombstone Blues’, and she keeps up that tradition on her forthcoming ‘Threads’ album, due next month, where she covers Dylan’s ‘Everything Is Broken’ but recasts the song as a duet with Jason Isbell. As RS describes it, “their rendition opens with some fierce guitar runs from Isbell, before Crow sings about “broken lines,” “broken strings” and, in a nod to her album title, “broken threads.” Isbell steps in on the second verse, lamenting “streets filled with broken hearts.” It’s a true duet, with the vocalists eventually swapping lines and harmonizing together.” Have a listen below.
M.Cambridge “The Fisherman’s Wife” – Listen
‘The Fisherman’s Wife’ is a Ewan MacColl song that captures the lonely on-shore life of those who married Herring fishers, it comes from his BBC recording ‘Singing the Fishing’, from 1960. And why, one has to ask, aren’t the airwaves full of today’s talented singers being commissioned to document worker’s lives in song? Talented singers like Mark McCambridge – who also records as part of the band Arborist. Their second album is out this year, but his solo album of fishing and sea themed songs was released at the end of June under the M.Cambridge moniker. Based on this deep, dark and rewarding song its a collection worth checking out further.
Josh Rouse “I Miss You” – Listen
We leave you this week dear reader with a surprise new single from Josh Rouse who describes this as a tune “In time for your summer playlist… a new single. I Miss You is the first collaboration between myself and singer-songwriter Tim Fagan.” Of which on the basis of this track we hope there’s more. We’ve missed you too Josh. Have a good one.