Category: Tracks

Idiosyncratic Americana troubadour Micah P Hinson returns with a new album Presents The Holy Strangers, out on Full Time Hobby on 8 September.  Oh, Spaceman is the first track made available from it – and it’s the weariest sounding song you’re ever likely to hear.

There is, perhaps, an explanation for the all pervading weariness and the feeling that Hinson hasn’t slept in a good long while – when talking about Oh, Spaceman Micah has said “It was the first song I wrote for my boy, Wiley Tex, after he was born, and the only song I played for about half a year after his birth. It is the only song where the melody and words came before sitting behind a guitar. Which is not a way I’ve ever written.”

What do you get when you mix trained operatic vocals with Joe Cocker’s soul shrieks and blend that vocal with a lo-fi vibrato heavy rockabilly country sensibility?  You get Hayley Thompson-King.  And what do you get if you’re both in Hayley Thompson-King’s band and seeing her socially – and then there’s a harsh break up?  You get to inspire the red hot Large Hall, Slow Decay.

The song features on Hayley Thompson-King’s upcoming new album Psychotic Melancholia which is out on the 1st of September on Hard To Kill Records.

Not that this going to become a habit – although it very possibly could – but following on from yesterday’s Real News about Van Morrison’s upcoming album Roll with the punches (due out this September) it is a genuine pleasure, nay a privilege, to feature the first track made available from what is Van’s 37th studio album.

Oh, and when Van says “take it one more Jeff”, that would be Jeff Beck getting a name check.  Thought you’d like to know, you’re welcome.

Following on from yesterday’s news story here’s the chance to hear the first track from Ian Felice’s upcoming solo album, put together with the help of the original Felice Brothers line-up of James Felice on keys, Simone Felice on drums and Josh Rawson on bass.

Following the success of his fourth album “Copenhagen” earlier this year, Scandinavian born Benjamin Folke Thomas is back with a new album for his fans, a live album featuring tracks from his extensive back catalogue. “I wanted to make an honest record, something that reflects my solo live shows in a realistic way, so I decided to record a live album in my living room. I wanted to have the friendliest audience I could think of and my biggest fan is probably myself, no matter what others may think. So I was my own audience. I recorded each handclap, each chuckling laugh, and every excited call for more. It’s all me. Me me me…”  Hear for yourself whether that’s as awesome as it sounds on the track Sex Addict taken from the new record.

Uncut describes The Last Dinosaur’s music as “Elegiac, cathartic, rewarding, and beautifully moving” and 6 Music describes them as “One of the most underrated bands in the country” possibly because when you type their name into Google it brings up a 1977 B-movie about a wealthy big-game hunter who has a multimillion-dollar company which drills for oil under the polar caps with a manned laser drill, and basically it all goes wrong – a man dressed in a dinosaur suit makes an appearance, the precursor to Barney.  Anyway the new single is full of indie-folk loveliness so you should listen to it, and then watch the film.

I’ll Cry is the latest single to be taken from “America”, the debut solo album by Brighton based Juanita Stein, available on the Nude label from the 28th July. Already well known as the singer-songwriter with Howling Bells, Juanita recorded the album with Gus Seyffert (Beck, Ryan Adams) in Los Angeles. She hits the UK for dates shortly which you can check out here.

Hans Chew has travelled a long way from Tennessee to Georgia to New Orleans to East Harlem, and sang many songs along his journey. But what happens when a ramblin’ man stops moving? Find out when Chewy releases his fourth studio album “Open Sea” later in the year on At The Helm Records, or catch him around the UK on tour in July. In the meantime, here’s the new single “Give Up the Ghost” a nice slice of piano based americana.

Since the release of their second album “Vinyl and a Heartache,” Darling West have been played more than two and a half million times on Spotify, been booked to the biggest festivals in Norway and Americanafest in Nashville and won a Norwegian Grammy.  Outrageous. New song While I Was Asleep was begun in Brooklyn and finished in the Ål mountains. “A song where Mari’s pop sense created the lovely chorus, with elements of light country-psychedelia in the rest of the song.” Imagine how good the songs they write while they’re awake will be.