Michelle Billingsley’s new single “Once in a While” is a sparse, gorgeous folk ballad—a duet with country & Western revivalist Wild Earp that sounds plucked straight from ’70s Nashville-outsider doc Heartworn Highways. As evidenced by this track, at her best, Billingsley channels Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark & John Prine as well as anyone working today.
In follow-up to her 2019 release Scorpio Moon, indie/Americana artist Sara Rachele (pronounced “ra-kelly”) is set to release her new album Scorpio Sun, on June 5, 2020. Whilst described as a sister album, sonically it’s far removed from the complexity of her previous offering, instead, delivering a stripped-back affair, she provides ample room for her lyrics to shine through.
Duncan Barlow came to prominence in the mid-90s Midwestern punk scene as the guitarist of Louisville hardcore pioneers Endpoint, as well as the Victory Records-signed Guilt and By the Grace of God. Recently, Barlow released Colony Collapse, the first album under his own name, which features contributions from bassist Jason Loewenstein (Sebadoh) and drummer Joe Plummer (The Shins, Cold War Kids, Modest Mouse). READ MORE…
His new album A Sweet Thing is a cathartic emission of everything he thought he knew about life, himself and what it meant to process such overwhelming heartache. The heaviness in his heart spills out onto the record in spades, but is never overwrought or too grim. Rather, it’s as much an emotional release for the listener as it is for Rossi.
“Be Your Man” is a laid-back folk ballad carried by layers of piano and electric guitars awash in reverb. It details a failed romance in which both partners are unable to let go, still texting and communicating on regular basis while both knowing full well that there’s no hope for a long-term romance.
Seneca Creek is the new single from West Virginia-based songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin, a deeply introspective character sketch about the oft-romanticized agrarian lifestyle of Appalachia. It’s a threadbare tune featuring acoustic guitar and Godwin’s singular vocal delivery, as he croons about a life he has lived and left behind. It’s neither a positive or negative outlook on such a life–rather a “call it as you see it” offering to listeners. The video shows Godwin performing in-studio, letting the song speak for itself. This version of the song is the last track on his debut album Seneca, (out on 15th February) a moving snapshot of his 26 years of life and well-soiled roots in the Appalachian hills.
Weary Traveler is a view of life taken at an age where a certain amount of knowledge and experience has already been earned. We have a package of love, love lost, untimely death and personal reflection, all good Americana themes and all available here.
This is The Deep Hollow’s sophomore album as they say (though I probably wouldn’t) and a movement on from the earlier more acoustic sounding album. The harmonies are good, and the bigger production does not swamp the words, ever important with these songs.
The Weary Traveler of the album title reflects the feeling that everywhere you go there are things that have to be dealt with, relationships come and go, places come and go, but this is Real Life, and the aspirations of youth are viewed with a certain amount of disdain: “What are you waiting for – real life to begin?” This is it. This is what it is.
Perhaps nowhere is Real Life more clearly seen than on the streets. On Freedom Street, where the prostitutes, the drug pushers, the users and the drunks mix with the homeless and they are all called to be saved by the Bible carriers. However, the response can usually only be “If you’re saving souls, don’t worry about mine – its always going to be for sale anyway. What I need ain’t no lesson.”
Relationships feature in this collection. Well, I say relationships, but the story is in the breakdown, or, as in the case of Now I See, the possible unravelling of one. It starts out as if it is new love but becomes quite clear that it is a longer relationship and one that might be about to enter that angry and anguished final stage….READ MORE