B-Sides & Badlands

Songs of the Week: Water Weight, Estella Dawn & more. The latest round-up goes hard into Americana and indie-folk.

Lauren Scott-Phillips – “Handsome Woman”

Love songs typically fall into an overly sentimental trap, sticky with little actual substance. Fortunately, Lauren Scott-Phillips‘ “Handsome Woman” is a threadbare dedication to her wife, pulling the listener close and allowing for a glimpse into their undying love. “Everyday and night, I’ll be your handsome woman” is a stunning refrain, woven over acoustic guitar. 

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Sometimes, we burn through memories and experiences like we’re stoking a campfire. Other times, we tuck away those that mean more to us in brown paper packages for safe keeping. Indie-folk storyteller David Burchfield places his new song “State to State,” premiering at B-Sides & Badlands, firmly in the latter thematic box. “The way across the way / From state to state / This one that I / Keep close to me,” he lugs around the intangible ghosts and physical mementos, his knapsack brimming with the past. READ MORE…

Relationships are rarely easy sailing. Storms will come, and the waves will crash violently agains the hull. Those aboard are then faced with a choice: to jump ship or endure for the long sea-bound haul ahead. Just as quickly, the clouds inevitably roll away to reveal baby blue sky as serene and calm as the watery depths below. Rachel Plating, known professionally as Van Plating, forges a story of two lovers nearly pulled undertow from the storm’s clutches. With her song and video “Too Late,” premiering today, she wades neck-deep into the raging sea herself to properly contextualize the push and pull. “So, tell me what’s wrong / Maybe I’ll get it right this time,” she observes, gazing out of the eyes of one lover to another.

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The Book of Jonah stands noticeably apart from other prophet accounts for its predominantly narrative structure. Hebrew prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, is instructed by God to travel to the town of Nineveh and prophesy against the city’s wickedness and oncoming destruction. Feeling uneasy with such a mission, Jonah flees on ship from Jaffa to Tarshish, but in route, an unexpected storm bubbles and wreaks havoc on the lonely, sea-tossed vessel. The ship’s crew begin casting lots and soon discover Jonah is to blame for their troubles. He soon convinces them to toss him overboard into the troubling sea below, and there, he is swallowed whole by a giant fish, often referenced as a whale in later translations. Jonah spends three days and three nights inside the belly of a whale knelt in prayer, and he recommits himself to God.

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