Browsing Tag

americana

Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns harbingered the ‘Beginning of the End’ in their expansively influenced single

Posted on 5 July 2023

Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns may be alt-country at their core, which their single, Beginning of the End, efficaciously signifies but written into the rich tapestry of a single are elements are folk, grunge, psych and new wave indie to create a genre-bending odyssey.

Their stylistic fluidity is one thing; the way they allow emotion to drive the momentum and paint a panoramic portrait of the human psyche and all that defiles and uplifts it is quite another. The Beginning of the End takes a raw and real anxiety for the people prolifically questioning the sustainability of our societies and enraptures the listener away from it all with the unshackling nature of the stellar songwriting.

Beyond the Slash-style soaring guitar solos, the Eddie Vedder-esque gruff vocal timbre, the gangly indie melodies that will appease any fans of the Psychedelic Furs, and the rugged folk elements which reminisce with the tones made iconic by the Levellers lies the true beauty of Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns. For your own sake, experience it for yourselves.

Beginning of the End, along with their latest album, Monarch Sessions, from which it was taken, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Some Kind of Poison: Bobby Fire found her body with buzzing flies for company on Hounds Hunting Me

Posted on 15 June 2023

With a truly sad single which will cause tears to flow like the rains coming during the winter, Bobby Fire drops a cinematic tree-climbing single which will summon our deepest emotions from the basement on Hounds Hunting Me.

Bobby Fire is a UK-based indie folk/Americana storyteller who makes the kind of real music which is massively memorable for its outstanding authenticity.

Inspired by greats such as Leonard Cohen, Roky Erickson and Sixto Rodriguez, Bobby Fire has created one of the most eye-opening singles of modern times. This is real to the core. It shows us deep inside the nature of current days with money, greed and poor decisions in such a kind world, which is currently caged by evil deeds from invisible suits.

Hounds Hunting Me from UK-based indie folk/Americana artist Bobby Fire might be a classic which might only be appreciated in decades to come. That’s the point. This is a single made with so much love and care. Each word means something. The vocals are hauntingly beautiful and the melodies will make many think deeper, about where our planet is actually headed.

They’re killing us baby.

Listen deeper to the truth on YouTube.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Changing Times: Sun-Pinned Leaves sees the smoke in the rainfall on City’s Got Soul

Posted on 28 May 2023

Seconding the emotions on offer from a special human, Sun-Pinned Leaves lights up the happiest way possible on the delightfully honest song to vibe with on any day of the week on City’s Got Soul.

Sun-Pinned Leaves is an award-winning Deal, England-based indie folk/Americana duo who return after blessing our souls with the terrific single from 2022, Summer Of Love.

Guiding us back to 1975 and powering in with something rather memorable, Sun-Pinned Leaves have the kind of vibe which many will find truly fascinating. Showing us the experience and thousands (or more) hours of practice, we find a single which belongs in any era.

”Sun-Pinned Leaves are a popular live act with most recent gigs including Dublin Castle, London and Sandwich Folk & Ale Festival, Kent.” ~ Sun-Pinned Leaves

City’s Got Soul from Deal, England-based indie folk/Americana 2-piece band Sun-Pinned Leaves is another bonafide gem when we all needed it most. This is a superbly delivered single which shall ease all pain away, to show us what excellent music sounds like in 2023.

When you feel the vibration of your local city, everything changes forever.

Spark up the passion again on SoundCloud.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Lucas Pasley put his audience in the saddle of injustice in the roots release, Icelandic Horses

Posted on 21 May 2023

The authentic but by no means archaic Americana luminary Lucas Pasley twanged plenty of timeless soul onto the airwaves with the release of his third album, Ponies Back Home. The serenely composed release, which carries all the Grammy-nominated allure of Bonny Light Horseman’s debut LP, starts with the standout single, Icelandic Ponies. 

With melodies that sway in the breeze of his songwriting which pays homage to his Appalachian Mountains roots and a voice so soothing it could placate a rabid raccoon, there’s no overstating the arresting allure of Icelandic Horses.

His slide guitars reach the pinnacle of sonic catharsis as the lyrics lament the inherent unjustness of the universe while showing you the beauty within it in the same breath. The fragility of life is laid out in a series of short and bitter-sweet vignettes to brim you with gratitude for the burdens you don’t bear and fill you with empathy for the ones who do.

Stream Lucas Pasley’s album, Ponies Back Home, on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Fretbenders – Wandering Soul: An Americana Beacon for Wanderlust Dreamers to Follow Home

Posted on 11 May 2023

Taking you simultaneously to a veranda in Sicily and a back porch in Louisiana, the soundscape in the standout single, Wandering Soul, from the singer-songwriter duo The Fretbender’s seminal album, Long Overdue, is a beacon for the wanderlust dreamers to follow home.

Between the harmonicas, slide guitars and folksy vocal lines which sugar the atmosphere with compassion for the world-weary to savour, Wandering Soul is a timeless rootsy Americana offering which will nestle you within its euphonic comfort.

The husband-and-wife duo, Diane and Bob Kordas are known for their homely senses of soul and their unique roots infusions, which allow heritage sounds to resound on contemporary airwaves. Following their hotly anticipated LP, we hope there’s plenty more in the pipeline.

Wandering Soul is available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The World Doesn’t Make Sense: Brian Berggoetz Band feels the wicked frustration on It’s Gonna Rain

Posted on 7 May 2023

After blessing us with an incredible interview recently, Brian Berggoetz Band is rather lonely and wants to feel the fresh water drizzle all over his tired body with the thunderbolt that is, It’s Gonna Rain.

Brian Berggoetz Band is an Arizona-based alternative artist who loves to fuse in Americana and certainly keeps it sentimental and is quite simply excellent in delivery.

”My sound is a combination of Dave Matthews and Bruce Springsteen. On the new EP, Familiar Sounds there is a touch of the Moody Blues as well. Recently I have been playing with a cello and violin players and that project found it’s way on to the album. There’s an orchestral rock song as well as a straight orchestral piece I did with some help from the Tucson Symphony. I’m very happy with those two pieces.” ~ Brian Berggoetz Band

Blessing all wary hearts with a rather special single to get excited about, Brian Berggoetz Band rips through the carpet and shall be that entertaining act who isn’t afraid to tell us the truth no matter what. This is epic stuff from the desert residing underground legend.

It’s Gonna Rain from Arizona-based alternative artist Brian Berggoetz Band is a booming song to turn up loud and proud when everything seems to be shattering beyond belief. Stunning all veins with a superbly lit performance for the masses to enjoy who love it loud, we are thrilled to the core by this heartbeat of a soundtrack to believe in.

Listen up on Spotify.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Jeff Livingstone augmented Americana in ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’

Posted on 28 April 2023
Jeff Livingston

In his latest single, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You, the Cypress, California-hailing folk-rock singer-songwriter, Jeff Livingstone, augmented Americana to pay an ode to quintessential country while giving the roots a kiss of life.

With the rapturous riffs and energy of All You Need is Love by the Beatles against the heart-on-sleeve influence from the icons Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Jerry Garcia, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You is a riot of twangy sentiment-heavy soul that won’t fail to pull you right into its visceral core. With vocal cords that connect with your heartstrings with every harmony, you’re damn right I shed a tear over this stellar feat of virtuosic songwriting.

I don’t whip out the V word for just anyone, but after bringing his extensive vocabulary in music theory and strong musical foundation together in a tapestry of ingenuity, I can’t think of many other contemporary artists worthy of that accolade.

Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You will officially release on April 28. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tom Seth Johnson projected adoration through indie rock anthemics in Anywhere in the World Right Now

Posted on 19 April 2023

If indie rock n roll has a soul, it resounds in the magnetic sincerity of the latest single, Anywhere in the World Right Now, from Oxford’s prodigal son, Tom Seth Johnson.

With only an edge of 90s Britpop, there’s plenty of room for an Americana tinge that poured in the same foot-stompin’ vein as The Black Keys. So many postcards get sent to Britpop, but Johnson put his own swaggering stamp on his. Especially, through the sweeter-than-sugar line, “I’ve finally found a reason to play my guitar, ‘cos usually I’m down in Dixies midnight bar”. I legitimately shed a tear.

The rock n roll lifestyle is subject to prolific glamourisation; Johnson put that toxicity to bed and wrapped it up in soulful anthemics to prove all the vacuous sex and drugs in the world can’t parallel the high of coming home when it is a person that defines home instead of four walls.

Anywhere in the World Right Now is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Welcome Stranger set an intimately artful indie-folk score with ‘You Need Me’

Posted on 31 March 2023

From chamber strings to honkytonk Americana tones to indie art-rock crescendos, Welcome Stranger rolled with all the evocative punches when instrumentally composing their latest single, You Need Me.

After taking inspiration from the likes of Ben Howard and Justin Vernon, the devilishly talented duo scribed their own eloquently indie folk signature in You Need Me, the lead single from the debut album, Running Out of Miles. The LP title is heartbreak material alone.

With the whisky and melancholy-soaked vocal lines, you will lock into the lyrics from the first hit of this stunningly orchestrated single, which definitively proves that beauty still thrives in the world, regardless of the entropy and disillusion that so easily manifests whenever the full picture is in view. Yet, with this poetically candid single, Welcome Stranger exhibits that intimacy and intricate detail is everything.

You Need Me will officially release on March 31st. You can hear it via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Unravel to D’Arc’s Family Jams’ psychedelically sweet vintage soul in ‘Unwind’.

Posted on 9 March 2023

After hearing the debut album, if someone told me D’Arc’s Family Jams is the new sonic moniker of Duncan Trussell, I wouldn’t hesitate to believe them. The eccentric synth lines that are drenched in retro Americana soul are sweeter than honey, but there’s no sugaring away the artistic merit of this spacey psychedelic country-rock-rooted LP, which will undoubtedly see the South Jersey-residing brothers go far.

Anticipate Beatles-ESQUE dual harmonies by the smorgasbord with aperitifs of funk-riding bass, kaleidoscopic guitar melodies and lashing of vintage tones in the standout single, Unwind. If you’re sick of hearing egos take the lead, and you’re desperate for a soul-lightening sonic experience, slip into the delectable ease of this devilishly promising debut. If anyone has what it takes to knock Jack White off his perpetual pedestal, it is D’Arc’s Family Jams.

The debut album from D’Arc’s Family Jams will officially release on March 9th. Catch it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast