Why Bonnie - Thallo - Vök

Why Bonnie - Sailor Mouth / Hot Car.

New-York-by-way-of-Texas transplants Why Bonnie release two tracks, “Sailor Mouth” and “Hot Car,” off of their forthcoming debut album, 90 in November, out August 19th on Keeled Scales. Following the sunny “90 in November” and previously-released single “Galveston,” album opener “Sailor Mouth” crashes into existence with a squeal of feedback and a burst of distorted guitar. The track is “about growing around your memories. Your foundation never changes but your relationship to it is always evolving,” explains Blair Howerton. The hazy “Hot Car” is sweltering, with a hypnotic synth line mimicking the way a mental loop of dormant thoughts that surface in the warm cocoon of a car speeding towards its destination in the dead of night. Howerton elaborates: “We wanted to include a contrast to the sunny disposition of the album. ‘Hot Car’ is meant for those quiet, contemplative, solo night drives.”

90 in November is inspired by fellow Texans Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, alt-rock like the Lemonheads and the Replacements, the eccentric pop of Sparklehorse, and Sheryl Crow. Although its tracks were mostly written in Brooklyn,  where Blair Howerton moved from Austin in 2019, they made the record in Texas in early 2021 with Tommy Read (Lomelda, alexalone).

Often, 90 in November is a trip through Howerton’s inner world, but it’s also a road trip through Texas. Often it is both at once. The songs are full of poetic, cinematic lyrics that flash like colorful scenes glimpsed from the window of a car as it barrels along an interstate highway cutting through the Lone Star State, each one a road stop revealing a different facet of Howerton’s experience. The album is a dynamic introduction to a more raw-edged indie sound from a band who have matured from bedroom dream pop into a sophisticated rock act, their evolving sound a reflection of the journey undertaken by Howerton on this vividly rendered collection of songs.

By looking back on her past with fearlessness and compassion, Howerton propels her songwriting forward into new realms of emotional sincerity and her band to new heights of sonic adventurousness. Yet no matter where the group goes from here, one thing will remain the same. “We’re a Texas band,” says Howerton. “We always will be.”

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Thallo - Carry Me.

Welsh artist Thallo returns with the startlingly beautiful single Carry Me, a mesmerising jazz-infused slice of ethereal alt-pop inspired by Thallo’s personal experience of immobility.

Carry Me is first taster from Thallo’s forthcoming English/Welsh language Crescent EP which follows on 28 October 2022. The EP is themed around Thallo’s own story of chronic pain, which at the time of writing Carry Me left her often unable to stand or walk after suffering unexplainable and debilitating knee pain. As she expands “I wrote ‘Carry On’ in lockdown which was a strange time of losing my work, social life, and then what felt like losing my body to constant pain. I felt completely hopeless and saw a familiar wave of depression approaching. ‘Carry Me’ is about this exact moment of realisation and panic.”

Musically, Carry Me was initially inspired by Thallo wanting to write “a dark ukulele song,” and ended up being improvised due to the pain Thallo was experiencing, making it, as Thallo says, “the fastest song I ever wrote”. The chords, lyrics and vocal melody were done in one take, and the arrangement created after by layering clarinets and synths before sharing the other parts of the instruments in the studio. The effect is a glorious, rich rush of multi-instrumentation and Thallo’s sublime vocal whirling in a jazz-infused dream before it’s emotive crescendo.

Thallo is Elin Edwards, based between her homelands of Gwynedd, North Wales, and London. In 2021 she released three singles, Mêl, Pressed and Preserved and The Water, receiving much early acclaim with an invite to perform at The Great Escape and play SXSW (the latter reschedule for 2023 due to her immobility). At radio she has fans in Sian Eleri (Radio 1 The Chillest Show) and Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music, Radio Wales), with Thallo also recording a session at Maida Vale; whilst she has garnered press coverage in Wonderland, Noctis, God Is In The TV Zine, When The Horn Blows and many other blogs both UK and Stateside.

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Vök - Illuminating.

Icelandic trio Vök have shared their poignant new single Illuminating, which follows their recent releases Miss Confidence, Lose Control and Stadium and is out now via Nettwerk.

Illuminating was written with the producer Ben Christophers (Bat for Lashes) in London and is an emotive and euphoric ballad with a passionate message about love and how it can make everything shine a little bit brighter. Margrét says;

“I wrote Illuminating a couple years ago and it truly holds a special place in my heart. We did two magical sessions and finally we had a song both of us could cry to. This song is dedicated to my wonderful fiancé and how love can illuminate everything around you, like thousands of fireflies stuck in your eyes.”

Illuminating follows recent singles Miss Confidence, Lose Control and Stadium alongside the tracks Running Wild, No Coffee at the Funeral, Skin and Lost in the Weekend, all of which made up the band’s unique and lushly layered EP Feeding on a Tragedy. Recorded in their Reykjavík studios, the EP was the follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 album In the Dark, which was written and recorded by the band in collaboration with producer James Earp (Bipolar Sunshine, Fickle Friends, Lewis Capaldi).

Vök continue to cement their position as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking alternative bands right now. Following two critically acclaimed albums, Feeding on a Tragedy marked the first new musical moment in an exciting new era for Vök with lots more still to come and a new project announced soon.

Vök · Illuminating

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Guise - The Shipbuilders - Vök - Lynne Hanson - Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet - Rosanne Baker Thornley

Photo - Ben Morse

Guise - Don't Come Back.

‘Don’t Come Back’ is the first instalment of what will be their debut studio album and it sees frontwoman Jess Guise tackling a complicated love affair with uptempo chord progressions, and emotive lyricism to stop you in your tracks.

Talking about the single, Jess says: “This isn’t a song about one particular person so much as a string of disastrous decisions. It’s about the brutal transience and sheer depressing turnover of romantic entanglements I found myself in living in London during my 20s, and about crashing headlong into people who just bounce off and bounce along like dodgems. It’s also about sometimes being the dodgem myself, and not giving myself too much of a hard time about it.”

‘Don’t Come Back’ sees GUISE hone down their staple acoustic sounds, with a touch of nonchalance. Having initially had plans to leave ‘Don’t Come Back’ out of the album, Jess teases that collaborator and husband Frank Turner, “told me I was an idiot,” for not considering it in the album. “And into the record it went” she says.  With a country/pop hybrid in mind, Jess enlisted a cast of friends to bring her vision to life, with Callum Green thrashing out the drums in just two-takes, Lukas Drinkwater bringing his upright bass to the party (plus its stunning acoustic guitar solo), enlivening guitar licks courtesy of Titas Halder, and all underpinned with the deliriously catchy  “bababa” backing vocals from Laura Hanna.

Praised for their 2020 EP ‘The Fun Part’ which saw the group do a UK tour with Frank Turner, this year GUISE will enter a new chapter with a debut studio album two years after their last project and all the mania that has passed in the interim. Released on 29 April, 'Youngest Daughter' is a record filled with affecting singer-songwriter tunes written from the heart, during a particularly poignant passage of personal reflection, self-love and more. As Jess says: “Youngest Daughter is a (mostly) autobiographical, story-so-far record. It’s home to memories and moments spanning decades of my life; it includes some songs I’ve been carrying around safely in my back pocket for years, and others that I’ve recently finished and am throwing straight out into the world. It’s an honest, personal, and self-deprecating wander through the various ways I’ve tried to follow my heart over the years.”

Across its 13 tracks, Youngest Daughter takes the listener on a voyage of love, loss, hope and personal growth; offering tender reflections on music, friends, family and all the twists and turns life can throw at you.

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The Shipbuilders - The Moon.

The Shipbuilders exist as a melting pot where the surreal meets the sublime. Since releasing their first EP, 'Something in the Water' in 2016, the band have continuously expanded their sound and scope of influences to create a world where sparkling pop wonders are nestled between Spanish Civil War laments, gypsy arias, and chaotic, shambolic odes to drinking, death and everything in between. All of this is done with added lashings of melody and the writings of Garcia Lorca and James Joyce, dictating that the wonder of the beauty of the world - and beyond - is never overlooked.

The Shipbuilders' universe is one all are welcome to explore, as the band have also established their own 'Shipwrecked' club nights which over the past four years have played host to some of Merseyside's finest bands and spoken word artists, while raising funds and food for local food banks and charities. Such is the success of Shipwrecked, Summer 2021 saw the inaugural Shipwrecked Festival, a sold out all-day multi-stage event in Birkenhead's Future Yard, before the band took the event to Newport and Bristol in the autumn. 

Naturally, all rivers have led to the ocean - that being the groups upcoming debut album, 'Spring Tide’ (out 6 May 2022). But ahead of the full length release, The Shipbuilders will be unveiling their next single, 'The Moon', released digitally on Mai 68 Records on 25th February 2022. Recorded by Danny Whitewood (BC Camplight, Ladytron), the song is an urgent, fiercely passionate, chest-thumping song with a flamenco flavour that soars as it builds into a chaotic, all-conquering crescendo. It’s a prime example of the band’s frenzied, irresistible sound, the song is a staple of the band's live shows, and has been cemented as a firm fan favourite.

Speaking of the track, singer Matty Loughlin-Day explains: "I've long been fascinated and drawn towards the concept of 'Cante Jondo', the folk music of Andalusia that literally translates to 'deep song'. Moon' came from a contemplation of all of this. It's a song written from the perspective of a soldier in the Spanish Civil War who, while standing underneath a haloed moon, can hear "the wailing of this life and the next collide" while lamenting his love's death and pondering if the same fate will fall on him..."

With ‘The Moon’ appearing, ‘Spring Tide’ starting to rise, and a UK wide tour in the works, The Shipbuilders are diving headfirst into new year, and making mighty waves. Come on in, the water's lovely...

The Shipbuilders · The Moon

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Vök - Lose Control.

Icelandic trio Vök have shared their bold, candid and euphoric new single and video Lose Control, which follows their recent release Stadium and is out now via Nettwerk Records.

Lose Control is a forward-thinking alt-pop song that incongruously blends a buoyant melody with profound lyrics. The track continues the personal story of lead singer Margrét, as told across the whole of the band’s recent EP, with the short film style video portraying a character losing her grip on life and allowing the distraction of partying to give a false sense of security. Margrét says;

“Lose Control'' was one of those songs that just came to me in an instant. It was so much fun writing it because I was stuck in a total fantasy world while creating it. This song is originally just me fantasizing about my girlfriend. Being with a woman is an extraordinary thing. But diving deeper into the story with Einar we found a bit of a darker road so we took it.  It’s my ultimate lesbian appreciation song and may all of you sexual beings find it enjoyable.”

New track Lose Control and recent single Stadium follow recent singles Running Wild, No Coffee at the Funeral, Skin and Lost in the Weekend, all of which made up the band’s unique and lushly layered EP Feeding on a Tragedy. Recorded in their Reykjavík studios, the EP was the follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 album In the Dark, which was written and recorded by the band in collaboration with producer James Earp (Bipolar Sunshine, Fickle Friends, Lewis Capaldi).

Vök continue to cement their position as one of the most exciting and forward-thinking alternative bands right now. Following two critically acclaimed albums, Feeding on a Tragedy marked the first new musical moment in an exciting new era for Vök with lots more still to come.

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Lynne Hanson - Hip Like Cohen.

Too tough for folk and too blues-influenced for country, Lynne Hanson’s brand of porch music with a little red dirt can turn on a dime from a sunshine, blue sky ballad to a full-on thunderstorm of gritty Americana swamp from one song to the next. Her hard-living music has garnered her the nickname “Canada’s Queen of Americana.” And while her deep, bluesy croon has drawn comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, it’s the poetry of her lyrics that reallysets her apart.

Hanson is known for her high energy, roots guitar driven live performances, whether playing solo or with her band the Good Intentions. She has an uncanny way of connecting with her audience with an authenticity that is as entertaining as it is disarming bringing her sense of humour and spontaneity as a storyteller to the fore.

The prolific songwriter has released eight studio albums along with two books of poetry over her 16-year solo career, toured extensively across North America, Europe and the UK appearing at leading international festivals including Take Root (Netherlands), Glasgow Americana (Scotland), Maverick Festival (UK), Kerrville Folk Festival (US) and Winnipeg Folk Festival (Canada). She has also toured as support for Grammy-nominated artists like Gretchen Peters, Steve Forbert and Albert Lee.

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Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet - 45 Bucks (Live Performance Video).

GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Becca Stevens and GRAMMY Award-winning Attacca Quartet have announced their collaborative album Becca Stevens | Attacca Quartet, out April 22nd via GroundUP Music. Nearly a decade ago, Stevens was approached to reimagine a selection of her songs with string arrangements for a performance at San Diego’s Mainly Mozart Festival.

It would end up being a life-changing opportunity—introducing Stevens to her future husband, the acclaimed violist, composer, and Attacca Quartet member Nathan Schram. The concert would also inspire a career-spanning passion project—one which blossomed alongside her relationship with Nathan and resulted in what will be the couple’s first collaborative full-length, Becca Stevens | Attacca Quartet. The album announcement comes with the first single “45 Bucks” and an accompanying live performance video shot at Skillman Studios in Brooklyn, NY.

In 2013, pianist, composer, and conductor Steven Prutsman proposed the initial string arrangement appearance to Becca. In collaboration with her father, composer William Stevens, they arranged material from her first two albums: 2008’s Tea Bye Sea and 2011’s Weightless. The following summer, as the festival approached, they enlisted string players from the heralded Decoda ensemble, including Nathan. There was an immediate connection between the two musicians, but it would be another year before they met again in a serendipitous twist of fate.

In 2015, Becca traveled to her hometown of Winston-Salem, NC, where her brother—producer, engineer, and composer Bill Stevens—was set to record string arrangements at his studio, Ovation Sound. This time, the stars were aligned for Becca and Nathan. While those early recordings were never released, they set the stage for Becca Stevens | Attacca Quartet and ignited a romance between the two musicians, who married in 2017.

The couple would then return to Bill’s studio in December 2018, but this time, they were joined by Nathan’s Attacca bandmates: cellist Andrew Yee and violinists Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga (whose seat is now filled by Domenic Salerni). Hailed for their stylistic versatility, the quartet was the perfect foil for Becca, who had long explored a wide range of genres—from folk and jazz to funk and pop. With more than a decade’s worth of music to choose from, the breadth of Becca’s capabilities was more palpable than ever, and the members of Attacca were ready for the challenge.

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Rosanne Baker Thornley - In Paris.

“The narrative that runs through this album is – life and the pieces of that journey. The insights. The moments of awe. The losses. The lessons. The determination to continue on” says Rosanne Baker Thornley. ”My inspiration comes from everywhere. From experiences and of people both good and bad. From the simplicities that live between the complexities, I have an inherent want to capture those moments and describe them.” So began a new creative journey for Thornley, and in this journey, a quiet and extraordinary shift occurred; fuelled by the magnetic musical pull that she has fed for years.

Based in Toronto, Thornley has been evolving and expanding her relationship with music (and writing) for quite some time. With her new album, Sorry I’m Late, she further delves into her craft, cultivating songs from an intensely personal space. “As my songwriting years have evolved, my writing is more grounded in writing what I know. In searching my heart and writing that. To be honest. To be vulnerable. To be brave.“ She has worked to distill those emotions that are experienced across generations, and she sheds light on the experiences and stories that have the ability to be profoundly moving. “There’s prescience in what I do. I’ve written many songs on the premise of what I thought I was writing about only to find days, months, sometimes years later that I wrote the song from the future. And though I don’t yet fully grasp the how of that, I simply let myself go with where it takes me and write it all down.” It is precisely those joys, discomforts, and authenticities that accompany vulnerability – and she has channeled those feelings into an expansive and intimate collection of songs.

Emerging on the Canadian music scene years ago, Thornley established herself as the lead vocalist and principal songwriter for ‘Daystar’, ‘Niteskool’ and ‘Bakersmith’, a critically acclaimed album “Courage” via Sony Music – as well as through repeat tours of North America and Europe – garnering both national and international media attention. From her base in Toronto, she established her reputation one show at a time, and had audiences connecting to her stories. Over the past few years, Thornley has continued to hone in on her exceptionally gifted writing talents by working with (and co-writing on) a myriad of artists albums, EPs and standalone singles. With brand new music on the horizon, Thornley has her sights on reconnecting with fans and igniting a renewed interest in her music.

The lush new songs are an ode to self-discovery and to the subtle-yet-profound moments of life. The result is an unpredictable, vulnerable, strident and sincere album, built upon strong lyricism and dynamic musicianship. As she says about the album “My hope is that my music and I will reach and fit into people’s lives, everywhere. That my songs will resonate with people who are struggling with, to or from something. That my songs will tell their stories and pull them into a space that is healing, hopeful, familiar, inspirational, safe. That people will feel seen, comforted, moved, heard.”

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Vök - Central Heat Exchange (feat. Stephanie Smith) - Lexie Roth (feat. Willy Mason)

Vök - Skin.

Icelandic trio Vök have shared the stunning video for their enchanting and reflective new single Skin, which is out now through Nettwerk Records.

New single Skin follows recently released single and video Lost in the Weekend, which gave an early taste of their new material recorded last year in their Reykjavík studios. The single was the follow-up to their acclaimed 2019 album In the Dark, which was written and recorded by the band in collaboration with producer James Earp (Bipolar Sunshine, Fickle Friends, Lewis Capaldi).

With every track, Vök continue to develop their progressive alt-pop sound and Skin cements just how intricately captivating the band can be. Opening emotively and delicately, the song builds to an ethereal and pensive chorus that lyrically conveys someone not knowing who they are and being stuck in their own ‘skin’. The expansive video, directed by Arnar Helgi, shows the band performing in a stunning location at Rauðhólar outside of Reykjavík amidst a backdrop of mountains and neon lights as the sun sets.

Lead singer Margrét says; “Our character has been living by the standards of her community but feels like she is betraying herself. She is afraid of who she is becoming, as that person is someone that she doesn’t relate to, and she feels trapped and doesn’t know who or what she is – she is stuck in her own skin.”

Through their unique and lushly layered sound that blends electro and indie with forward-thinking pop and a self-assured aesthetic, that is just as striking as their sound, Vök continue to cement their position as one of the most exciting alternative bands right now. Following two critically acclaimed albums, Lost in the Weekend and Skin are just the first musical moments in an exciting year for Vök, with further new music announced soon.

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Central Heat Exchange (feat. Varsity's Stephanie Smith) - Directly Down.

Central Heat Exchange (C.H.E.) is a collaborative project by musicians spread throughout the US & Canada, primarily in the Central Time Zone. Split across Austin, Chicago, & Winnipeg, its core members are Adam Soloway of Living Hour, Santiago RD of Daphne Tunes and Jacob and Paul Stoltz of Varsity and Pool Holograph, though their forthcoming recorded output involves a broad network of collaborators that include members of Broken Social Scene, Lala Lala, Fran, The Weakerthans, Sun June, Do Make Say Think and many others. Today they are formally announcing their self-titled debut album (due out September 10th on Birthday Cake, Citrus City and Sunroom Records) and sharing the single "Directly Down," which features lead vocals from Stephanie Smith of Varsity and drums from Lala Lala's Abby Black.

"'Directly Down' started as a demo for another project, Discus," says Paul Stoltz. "It was initially tracked in March at the beginning of quarantine while Jake and I were planning to record the second Discus LP. As it became apparent that we were not going to be able to record in person for quite some time (still haven’t), I added this song to the mix for CHE."

The drum machine, rhythm guitar, bass, and post-chorus ambient sounds were all tracked by Paul on a Tascam 4-track tape machine. Jake tracked some loose vocal melodies for the song in addition to his lead guitar, but was unsatisfied with the way they turned out. That's when we turned to Stephanie Smith from Varsity, an amazing singer and frequent collaborator or ours. The whole track has a stumbling, spiraling vibe that Stef highlights in her lyrics beautifully, taking Jake's initial lyrics about a depressive spiral and morphing it into a song about humans destroying the earth."

"It's a song about humans destroying the earth," Smith continues. "We’ve destroyed it so much by now that maybe we're past the point of no return but maybe we’re not."

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Lexie Roth - Western Skies feat. Willy Mason.

Like many artists, acclaimed pop-folk singer/songwriter, Lexie Roth, found inspiration in the world shutting down and then slowly coming back to life. Roth is dropping a poignant new single, “Western Skies,” set for release on July 9, via American Songwriter.  Roth plans to release the official video for “Western Skies” later this month.

"I wrote Western Skies after spending a significant time on the west coast and on the road driving across the country, over six times now,” shares Roth.

“There is a certain innate grief that comes over me when driving through small desolate towns. I wanted to imagine what my personal pain would feel like through the lens of a husband being widowed by his beloved wife and being left to raise their children without her. I wanted to depict how moving it is for him to see her."

Produced by Roth, “Western Skies” features vocal contributions from Willy Mason, as well as ethereal slide guitar riffs from Roth’s father, Arlen, a virtuosic guitarist who has performed and recorded with the best artists of his generation, including Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Simon and Garfunkel, The Bee-Gees and Phoebe Snow. The soon-to-be-released video for “Western Skies” was directed by David Henry Gerson, whose work has won prizes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Sundance Film Festival, and has been acquired into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NY.

Raised between Westchester, New York and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, Roth released her eponymous, bluesy debut album in 2012, which included the song ‘Call You My Hon,’ featured in the award-winning film Maria My Love. Roth, who is often compared to artists like Lucy Dacus and Jenny Lewis, has a way of creating music that is soul-inflected, with the wisdom and weight of American music history in an eminently listenable contemporary package.

Lexie Roth · Western Skies feat. Willy Mason

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Vök - Carley Arrowood - Spud Cannon - Zoe & Cloyd

Vök - Lost in the Weekend.

Icelandic trio Vök have shared the bold and cinematic video for their dynamic new single Lost in the Weekend, which is out now through Nettwerk Records.

Following the release of their acclaimed 2019 album In the Dark, which was written and recorded by the band in collaboration with producer James Earp (Bipolar Sunshine, Fickle Friends, Lewis Capaldi), Vök have been nestled away in their Reykjavík studios working on new material. The result is some of their most atmospheric work yet and Lost in the Weekend is an early taste of their progressive alt-pop sound.

Based around a semi-autobiographical character, Lost in the Weekend focuses on the ease of over-indulgence when you’re living in the moment and the purposeful loss of a sense of self. Mixed by David Wrench (Frank Ocean, Goldfrapp, The xx), it builds playfully, launching into a bold chorus, which musically echoes the meaning behind the song. The video, directed by Einar Egils, portrays the story of a man who loses himself in the weekend to celebrate who he is and conveys an overall message of everyone accepting who they are and being who they want to be.

Lead singer Margrét says; “With the video for ‘Lost in the Weekend’ we wanted to focus on the importance of showing your true self and letting one’s inner personality come out. Whatever you are on the inside, don’t be afraid to show it. Let’s celebrate our diversities.”

Through their unique and lushly layered sound that blends electro and indie with forward-thinking pop and a self-assured aesthetic, that is just as striking as their sound, Vök continue to cement their position as one of the most exciting alternative bands right now. Following two critically acclaimed albums, Lost in the Weekend is just the first musical moment in an exciting year for Vök, with further new music announced soon. Vök are Margrét Rán (vocals), Einar Stef (bass/guitar) and Bergur (drums).

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Carley Arrowood - My Kind of Nightlife.

Following the demonstration of her fiddle virtuosity on the instrumental “Ducks On The Millpond,” Mountain Home Music Company’s Carley Arrowood returns to form with a strong vocal performance that builds on the success of last year’s “Goin’ Home Comin’ On” by offering a different angle on a similar theme.

Written by producer-bassist Jon Weisberger and Music Row hitmaker Jenn Schott, “My Kind Of Nightlife” gently contrasts crowded downtown streets and “cafes and honky tonks full of sound and light” with the glow of lightning bugs “dancing in the air” and “the call of the nightbirds.” “That’s my kind of nightlife,” Arrowood sings with a self-assurance born of her own experience and preferences, while the song’s relaxed tempo, lush harmonies and subtle instrumental backing all combine to transport the listener to the chorus’s front porch swing and an idyllic night in the country.

"It was a fun day getting to write this with Jon,” recalls Schott, whose long list of credits includes cuts by Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, Mickey Guyton, Pam Tillis and the Eli Young Band. “I’m so thrilled Carley recorded it — and her singing and playing are both fantastic!”

Backed by the same crew that recorded “Goin’ Home Comin’ On” with her, including Steve Martin Banjo Prize and five-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year recipient Kristin Scott Benson, Wayne Benson on mandolin, Daniel Thrailkill (guitar, harmony vocals) and her sister, Autumn (harmony vocals), Arrowood sings and plays not just skilfully, but with an interpretive sensitivity that belies her youth and suggests that she’s already a fully mature artist.

“‘My Kind of Night Life’ paints such a beautiful picture of simplicity,” she enthuses. “It captures the very essence of nostalgia and, for me, reminds me of my childhood with every line. I grew up on a dirt road in western North Carolina, and my summer evenings were spent barefoot in the backyard, playing endless pretend and catching lightning bugs with my sister and brother with nowhere in particular we had to be.”

“During the pandemic, and especially now that I’m planning my wedding,” she notes of her recently-announced engagement to Thrailkill, “I’ve come to cherish the nights when my whole family is home together, and I look forward, Lord willing, to the days when I can raise a family in the same way: running barefoot in the yard, catching lightning bugs, and just simply loving the life that God gives us.”

Syntax Creative · Carley Arrowood - "My Kind of Nightlife"

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Spud Cannon - Juno.

Today, Poughkeepsie rockers Spud Cannon are sharing "Juno," the first single off of their forthcoming LP, Good Kids Make Bad Apples, out June 25th via Good Eye Records.

Recorded as a part of an all-nighter, one-take, not-campus-approved sessions on a squash court at the band's now alma mater, Vassar College, "Juno" captures the undeniable energy of a night out on the rails with your friends.

"It was the spring of 2019: we were on the verge of breaking up," the band's Jackson Walker Lewis detailed to Consequence of Sound. "I was on the verge of graduating, and we had no budget for a third album. After every legitimate venue on campus was booked up, we opted instead to throw a secret show in the squash courts at the suggestion of Lucy, who thought the court’s location would make it easier to evade security.

The show sounded terrible, but during our ‘soundcheck’, I thought the court sounded magnificent. I’ve always adored the Beach Boys wall-of-sound style, and suddenly the mere thought of recording an entire record in the squash courts consumed our imaginations.

That summer, we’d hang out at Meg’s house in Poughkeepsie, write, party, and on the final day of each ‘mini-vacation’, head to the courts. We’d wedge a door, wait till after closing time, and then sneak in with all of our gear and record from 12am-6am before they opened in the morning. We wanted to capture our live sound, so we recorded together, sans metronome, and decided we’d need to get pure takes of each song.

While some came easy, 'Juno' was arguably the hardest. It took two separate nights, and I think in the end we did something like 70 takes overall to get one we were happy with."

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Zoe & Cloyd - Chestnut Mountain.

Despite its distinctive flavor, the appeal of bluegrass music is broad enough to have gained fans literally the world over. Still, direct, personal ties to the music and the communities in which it originated can lend an extra dimension to a performance, and just such a connection underpins the latest single from Organic Records’ Zoe & Cloyd.

With its themes of memory and the losses created by suburbanization and rural dislocation, “Chestnut Mountain” is a moving tale that’s all the more compelling for being based on John Cloyd Miller’s family history — one that not only embodies the lyric’s themes, but connects to bluegrass’s earliest days through his grandfather. Jim Shumate was not only the inheritor of the family’s Chestnut Mountain homeplace, but also a one-time fiddler for iconic bluegrass artists Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs — in fact, it was he who brought Monroe and banjo legend Scruggs together in late 1945, paving the way for the explosive musical combination that created bluegrass itself.

"‘Chestnut Mountain’ is a song I wrote about our family homeplace in Wilkes County, NC,” says Miller, who sings lead on the song. “My late grandfather, bluegrass fiddler Jim Shumate, was born there in 1921. There is so much history on that mountain. When I was young, the whole area was relatively remote and undeveloped aside from a few almost impassable roads. Later, a developer came in and tried to get my grandparents to sell their part, but to no avail. To my grandparents, that land was priceless. I'm so thankful that they held out and that my cousins and I have this place to share with the next generation.”

“I remember Grandpa saying he used to hear his Uncle Erbie playing fiddle from across the holler when he was a boy,” he continues. “When I'm up there, I always try to imagine what it was like for him growing up there. I picture the cabin, the farm animals and the garden, and I always listen for the sound of the fiddle wafting on the breeze."

Deeply nostalgic, yet precise in its sentimentality, “Chestnut Mountain” matches the elegant minimalism of its words with a sensitive ebb and flow in the harmonies and instrumental backing from Miller (guitar), Natalya Zoe Weinstein (fiddle, vocals), banjoist Bennett Sullivan and bassist Kevin Kehrberg. With its empathetic solos, delicate touches of dialogue between vocals and instruments, and a finely tuned build-up that culminates in an emotional, alternating repetition of the narrator’s basic wish — “I want to go back in time” — that’s echoed by the rise and fall of unison lines from banjo and fiddle before the final, restrained closing, this is a performance that exemplifies the authenticity that lies at the heart of Zoe & Cloyd’s music.

Syntax Creative · Zoe & Cloyd - "Chestnut Mountain"

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