Ever since she started putting music out in 2011, singer-songwriter Jennah Bell’s unique sound has been impossible to pin down. Her signature style has been described as showing influences from soul, r&b, folk, hip-hop and bluegrass, to name a few, and she leans right into the uncertainty. Rather than succumb to the pressure of falling under the appropriate label, her music is most comfortable exploring the gray areas and settling happily where there was originally no room. READ MORE…
The indie-folk of The Good Graces is produced by songwriter, singer and guitarist Kim Ware, with core band member Jonny Daly contributing guitar, and a cast of interchanging band members on banjo, mandolin, steel guitar and piano. ‘Sit on Your Hands‘ comes from The Good Graces’ new album ‘Prose and Consciousness.’
Judy Blank is about to achieve a milestone for Dutch artists, set to be the first one to perform at AmericanaFest later this month. Blank has since garnered international acclaim for her emotive songwriting. Blank’s 2018 LP, Morning Sun, is awash with American folk influence, inspired by a trip to the U.S. that she had taken following the release of her debut album. Present on the album is “1995”, a nostalgic folk song that has Blank mournfully reflect on the feelings of entrapment that she had felt with a past love. Sweet acoustic instrumentation works alongside Blank’s warm vocal delivery to delicately craft each heartfelt rumination, making for an ensnaring listen.
Dutch Artist Judy Blank said anyone who matters in music plays at Americanafest. “It’s what everyone in Nashville talks about year-round,” she said. Still, she wasn’t sure if she was good enough to make the Americanafest roster simply because so many of her heroes were playing there.
One of the most exciting areas for new weird Americana is in the land Down Under, believe it or not. And after over 40 years of being largely defined by Nick Cave, INXS and AC/DC, it really is damn good to see the influence of such long established acts as Paul Kelly & The Messengers and Midnight Oil imbued through the sounds of modem artists like Ruby Boots and Henry Wagons bringing new life to the concept of country music and roots rock on a global scale. Heck, speaking of INXS, even Andrew Farriss is getting in on the country game with his forthcoming solo debut.
As one half of the internationally acclaimed folk duo The Ahern Brothers, Josh Rennie-Hynes has surely played a key role in the evolution of Australian Americana. But for his third solo LP Patterns, he took full advantage of the Nashville Songwriters Residency grant bestowed upon him by the Australian Council for the Arts. With the blessing of his continent, Rennie-Hynes headed to Tennessee and set up shop at the legendary Sound Emporium Studios. And like any wayfaring stranger worth his or her salt breezing through the Music City streets, Josh rounded up a new generation of Nashville Cats to create his grittiest and most compelling work yet.
Atlanta-based indie rockers Quiet Hounds are gearing up to release their sixth record, Everything Else is Noise, on Oct. 11. In a single-day recording session circa summer 2018, the quartet drafted about a dozen ideas that eventually became the bones of Everything Else is Noise over the course of the next year. The forthcoming EP trades the low-tempo tones of 2017’s Characteristics of Living Things for more pop-forward sounds and introspective lyrics.
The latest single, “Antioch,” which leans a little more indie-folk, was the “catalyst for the record as a whole,” according to frontman Eric Toledo. He also cited Michael Stipe as a strong influence, linking “Antioch” to R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.” The song uses the ancient Greek city of Antioch, aka the “cradle of Christianity” that eventually receded into ruin as a result of war and natural disasters, as a symbol of loss.