Karen Jonas - Said The Whale - Seafoam Green
On August 20, 2021, Karen Jonas will release Summer Songs, a four-song EP, along with “Gumballs,” a collection of poems. Known for her stellar songwriting, sultry vocals, and compelling stage presence, Jonas hearkens back to her song crafting heroes Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, with a sonic nod to modern greats like Gillian Welch and Jason Isbell.
Karen is a two-time Wammie Award winner for Best Country Artist, a Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest Winner, and Dale Watson’s Ameripolitan award nominee. Her long-time collaboration with dazzling guitarist Tim Bray, joined by bassist/vocalist Seth Morrissey and drummer Seth Brown, has produced five full-length records, beginning with 2014’s internationally-acclaimed Oklahoma Lottery. Her much-lauded 2020 LP The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams is a gutting but “warmly nostalgic” (American Songwriter) masterpiece - proof of her ability to weave creative depth into everyday stories. Covered by everyone from Rolling Stone Germany to Country Music People UK to American Songwriter, Jonas’ investment in artistic excellence continues to pay off with her upcoming release Summer Songs.
The EP is a collection of three Jonas-penned songs and a show-stopping update of Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” “Thunder on the Battery” paints a picture of a fierce thunderstorm with swooping pedal steel and bluesy guitar, while “Summer’s Hard for Love” sounds like sipping a glass of bourbon and watching the fireflies with gentle cross-stick and lush harmonies. “Summer Moon” is a sweet acoustic love song, tracked live in the studio.
Jonas reflects on how writing her vastly personal autobiographical collection of poems, “Gumballs” allowed her to find a more vulnerable place to embrace these gems from her old songwriting notebooks. “I began to hear flashes of these songs as I was writing my poetry collection, songs I started writing years ago. I reconnected with them and spent a lot of time reprocessing and editing,” she explains. “I was able to update them to my current songwriting sensibilities while maintaining the sweet vulnerability of the inspiration for these summer-themed tunes.”
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Following on the heels of successful singles "Honey Lungs," "Everything She Touches is Gold to Me" and "Show Me Everything," Vancouver indie act Said The Whale are now sharing "99 to the Moon" with listeners. The band have also announced that their seventh full-length album, Dandelion, will be released on October 22nd.
Said The Whale have earned their place in the Canadian music pantheon. They’ve won a JUNO Award, topped the alternative radio chart, and amassed a devoted base of fans who affectionately describe themselves as “SaidHeads” — all the while maintaining their resolute independent spirit. Now, more than a decade into their career, the Vancouver group are opening their most ambitious chapter yet.
Throughout 2020, lockdowns meant that the band members were at home, away from the relentless touring cycle that had defined most of their 14-year career. Singer-songwriters Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester, plus keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown and bassist Lincoln Hotchen, threw themselves fully into working on new material with producer Steve Bays (Hot Hot Heat) at his Tugboat Place Studio, resulting in the most towering, maximalist music of their careers.
“Steve is an incredibly detail-oriented producer,” says Tyler. “We would work until four or five in the morning. Then sleep at his house and work the next day until late into the night. It was exhausting, but each song came to life in such an amazing way with so many layers.”
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Seafoam Green’s sophomore album ‘Martin’s Garden’ was released in June to huge critical acclaim including 8/10 from Classic Rock Magazine and a glowing 4-star review from MOJO who described it as ‘a near faultless album’.
Produced by Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Tyler Greenwell, the album is a colourful melting pot of Americana, rock, folk and psychedelia with Seafoam Green’s and own musical identity, by way of their Irish & Liverpool roots, fully stamped over it. The album is available to now on CD, vinyl or download.
Seafoam Green’s next single from the album, is perhaps the most eclectic and exciting yet. ‘Swimming In The Paint’ is an instantly loveable quirky slice of psychedelic pop driven by a groovy organ with the distinctive swirling fun machine keyboard/clav sounds of Spencer Pope colliding beautifully with the band’s vocal harmonies. It’s a pure retro throwback that never sounded so fresh.
On the new single the band said, “’Swimming in the Paint’ narrates the daily ups and downs of our human experience through a kaleidoscope of colour. We all have different associations towards certain shades and this is an attempt at articulating some of our own. We ponder the strive towards ‘uniqueness’ and the ’perfect’ scenario."
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