Wednesday – Chosen To Deserve

From North Carolina, Wednesday are an abrasive Americana band comprising Karly Hartzman on vocals, Jake Lenderman on guitar, Xandy Chelmis on lap steel and Alan Miller on drums. They are signed to the Dead Oceans label and forthcoming album ‘Rat Saw God’ is their fifth in as many years but one listen to this taster track, ‘Chosen To Deserve’, I think shows there is something definitely stirring in the Wednesday camp. This is such a great song, one of those ones where you can’t believe someone hasn’t painted this particular picture before; “I’m the one that you have chosen to deserve” hints at multitudes of destructive tendencies within the central relationship of the lyric, which just happen to be built around a thwacking great country-rock tune. Check out these opening lines; “we always started by telling all our best stories first, so now that it’s been a while I’ll get around to telling you all my worst”. This is just such great song writing, a song I was breathless with excitement about when I heard it…

Ron Gallo – I Love Someone Buried Deep Inside Of You

This version of a track from Ron Gallo’s new album ‘Foreground Music’ was recorded live at Tournament Studios in Nashville. The former Toy Soldiers front man is now releasing music on the Kill Rock Stars label and, as heard in this brilliant piece of film, he is channelling the same garage-punk energy that first brought him attention as a solo act nearly ten years ago, without sacrificing any of the sweet melodic instinct he brings to his best music. It is all as good as this, powerful, crunching and sugar sweet, all elements that seem to hit the listener in unison…

Brigid Mae Power – Dream From The Deep Well

This is set to be the title track from Brigid’s new album, released on 30th June on Fire Records. She is a stately singer-songwriter performer whose songs are often hymn-like meditations and by now, with what is about to be her fourth album, there is a track record of dependable excellence starting to build. In fact the previous album, ‘Head Above The Water’, was one of my favourite records in 2020 (one that seemed to really glow with warmth and texture on the vinyl pressing) so this is eagerly anticipated. This song, wherein the lyric seems beaten down by people falling short of the idealised testimonies they bestow upon themselves as Brigid pools her resources to continue aiming high, even as others go low, suggests another must-have LP is on its way…

Ron Sexsmith – Former Glory

The Canadian singer is seen here in a recent live clip performing a song from his latest album, ‘The Vivian Line’, released on Cooking Vinyl. Somehow Ron still feels like one of the exciting fresh talents on the scene despite the fact that he is into his fourth decade as a well-known performer and is now actually 59 years of age. That might have something to do with the fact that with every new album, Sexsmith continues to find some gorgeous low hanging fruit from the great song tree all musicians reach to pick from, causing a situation where every Sexsmith album has at least three or four songs that sound like immediate classics and a supporting cast that hardly let the side down. There is a simplicity to what he does, a craftsman-like ability to carve out exactly what the song needs without any superfluous decoration, he is always a delight…

Meredith Moon – House Full Of Sparrows

A home recording uploaded by the artist Meredith Moon, one of the daughters of Canadian folk legend Gordon Lightfoot, she has a new album out called ‘Constellations’ on True North Records. This is quite a haunting piece, the imagery is dark and a little claustrophobic and the lyric has a nice apocalyptic edge, it is undoubtedly a great little song. What I like about the video clip is that you sense it captures an artist in the early days of their relationship with a song, it is still quite raw as Meredith is feeling her way around the lyrics and the chord progressions, pulling out the nuances and threads, this holds your attention…

Abbie Finn Trio – A Real Job

This County Durham based trio are made up of Abbie Finn leading everything on drums and percussion, Harry Keeble on tenor sax and Paul Grainger on double bass. So much is spoken of the exciting Jazz scene coming out of London these past few years, it should be noted that way up north there are also young folk breaking out with classic Jazz templates and vigorously searching, as the form demands, to unlock new directions for the music to travel in. And as this is a unit that leads from the rhythm section up, there is plenty of punch to the way they take a charge at their own interpretation of the classic Bebop sound…