Americana UK

‘Northern Lights‘ is the debut single from Mad Crush’s new album of the same name which is out on  November 16th.  It’s a dreamy folk ballad about loneliness and loss, and is songwriter John Elderkin’s attempt to capture the essence of loneliness, and draws inspiration from every story of disappointment that he could recall.  As he says “some friends of mine had a lively conversation about times when they’d been let down, and all kinds of funny examples came up, like ordering x-ray glasses as a kid only to find that they didn’t actually let you see through people’s clothing. One of the heavy examples came from a friend who’d gone to Scotland to see the Northern Lights but they didn’t really show up, and when they did, they were underwhelming because of the weather (as I recall). That really stuck with me, and the idea came back as I was trying to write about a person as lonely as I could make up. Sometimes I set writing tasks for myself like that, to maintain focus or simply to see what turns up. I didn’t want to figure out why this person was lonely, only to describe her aloneness. For whatever reason, the Northern Lights story came to mind, and when I tweaked the story to be about a person watching the Northern Lights by themselves, that did the trick. Then I could throw myself deep into the song. All of which is to say, this song is about how we keep on going, even when we’re really hurting.“…….READ MORE

 

Illinois folk trio The Deep Hollow are releasing their latest LP ‘Weary Traveler’ next month and they’ve shared the track ‘Real Life’ from it this morning,  a dark and brooding folk tune led by acoustic guitars and intricately-layered vocal harmonies.  The band’s Micah Walk told AUK: “This song is simply about unabashedly living life knowing who you are and pursuing what you know you are meant to do.  I’m a big fan of Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell and Shovels & Rope. I think all of those artists influenced this song in some way, especially in terms of harmonies and production style.  I know our producer was trying to channel some Rolling Stones, too, which I didn’t mind at all! Personal life experience definitely inspired this song, though, as well. It isn’t always literal for me, but in this case, it is.”…..READ MORE

 

The second full album from Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters is an enjoyable southern country rock romp, offering a varied selection of lively toe-tapping songs and melodic, reflective pieces. What holds it all together is Dittmeier’s authentic storytelling. These ten character-driven tales are packed with arresting details and bear repeated listening. The opening track ‘Love Me Like You Did’ starts and finishes with the vocal, drawing the listener in immediately and ensuring the focus is on the lyrics. The song’s narrator complains about his new lover: “She don’t understand Townes Van Zandt…She don’t know me like you did,” which seems to make an early statement about Dittmeier’s country credentials.

The opener sets the tone for much of the album. Jaunty, upbeat rhythms and melodies often mask bleak lyrics and sharp phrasing, such as: “He worked real hard and he worked real smart, Got a pretty good spot at the city graveyard” from ‘Head to Rest’. The longer, more introspective songs are punctuated by short, rocky numbers with a higher tempo and simpler structures, including the title track, which chugs along, while Dittmeier sings about hard physical labour and: “…hammering rocks, all damn day.”
One of the album’s highlights is the reflective tale ‘Two Faded Carnations’,in which the narrator visits a family cemetery to lay carnations at the graves of: “The only one I’ve ever loved and the daughter I never met.” But the song is ultimately hopeful because: “Spring’s around the corner, I can feel it in the wind, it rips right down a soy bean plain and the rows grow strong again.”” 

This is ‘country’ music and so it is only right that Dittmeier’s stories are full of references to rural living and landscapes. The characters are chopping wood, sitting on porches, fishing, staking out deer and complaining about the……READ MORE

Southern Indiana alt-country/Americana outfit Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters have announced the October 26th release of their latest LP ‘All Damn Day’ and have released the lead single ‘Love Me Like You Did’ which Wide Open Country described as “heartland rock riffage meets classic country storytelling.” Frontman Nick Dittmeier says of the new record: “I look at this record as a continuation of a lot of storytelling by these writers. Their themes touch on a lot of forgotten people, working-class people and characters that have impossible situations in front of them.”…..READ MORE

So, it was with some surprise and no little trepidation that a request to review Ben Fisher’s Folk/Americana album ‘Does the Land Remember Me?’ dropped into the in-box. Why the trepidation?  Well, it’s not every day that you get asked to review what is described by Fisher’s PR company as “an entire concept album” focused on the subject of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict!  Don’t let that put you off though. Seattle based Fisher, who has a degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies, has crafted a simply brilliant and hugely moving piece of work.

Fisher should certainly know what he’s talking about.  After graduating from the University of Washington, he upped sticks and moved to Jerusalem where he found work as a bartender as well as reporting and travelling for the Jerusalem Post.  However, this isn’t an album focused on his personal experiences borne of three years living in the no man’s land between the Arab East and the predominantly Jewish West of that conflicted city.

This is instead a bleak but honest portrait of the Israeli and Palestinian people, who have been locked in a cycle of violence for the better part of the last century. “One of the biggest issues is that people are no longer interested in what happens there,” Fisher says. “It’s gone on for so long, the peace process is so gridlocked and there have been so many people killed. The world has become numb to it.”

‘Stud Farm’ might sound like some gay muscle porn flick but it’s also the new album from Brooklyn indie-folk project Owlbiter aka Matt Cascella which Americana UK is delighted to premiere this morning. Influenced by artists such as John Prine, Ivor Cutler & Harry Nilsson, who often tell stories that lead with humour first before sneaking the pathos in there without the listener even realizing, the 12 track album is full of gently plucked acoustic guitars and ukuleles, drowsy brass and the occasional keyboard atmospherics, but very little percussion—a result of the keep-it-simple approach Cascella sought when Owlbiter was in its nascent stages.  READ MORE…

 

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