I like Josh Rouse, Josh Ritter, Ron Sexsmith, Brett Dennen, Mason Jennings, Tom Brousseau, etc., etc., etc. Something about this group of guys with their unusual delivery, solid songwriting, and indie folk tendencies appeals to me. Sean Hayes deserves to be in that group, but I’m not sure if he is yet. His new record is due out March 16 and is titled Run Wolves Run. Perhaps with this release he’ll enter this upper stratosphere of singer-songwriters.

He does some unusual things with both of these songs off of Run Wolves Run. On “Garden” he uses an odd assortment of percussion, bass and guitar (including a slow searing electric lead). On “When We Fall In” the instrumentation is simple enough but this time he adds a slightly unusual call and response section. Point is Sean Hayes is willing to take risks with his music. Take a risk yourself and pre-order the new record here (there’s a cool option to get the vinyl, a download code and a free ep).

Garden

When We Fall In

Video for “Garden”

The Providence based band Brown Bird has been blowing up my Twitter feed thanks to Slowcoustic (posts here and here). The band plays a gloomy blend of americana and indie folk. David Lamb’s voice is deep and resonant, his songs are suitably dark and are laden with many intense images and appropriate instrumentation. The band sits somewhere between the slow dark folk of J. Tillman and the punk spirit of O’Death.

The band’s new record The Devil Dancing is out November 10th and can be preordered now through Peapod Recordings. Here are two songs from the new record that show the depth and range of Brown Bird’s music.

Muck And Mire

Bonus:

Danger and Dread

“Bottom Of The Bottle”

I suppose a drummer announcing he’s leaving a band is a common and rather mundane thing. But if at the same time that drummer announces his new project and it’s as promising as The Duke & The King it’s cause to celebrate. Simon Felice of the Felice Bothers just released this news:

Dear Friends and Family, this is just a little note to show my deepest gratitude for all the letters and concern I’ve received over my absence from The Felice Brothers stage over the past few months, and for the boundless love and belief you’ve shown for our music over the years.

This winter has been a time of tragedy, sadness, and regeneration in my life. I’d been working on a new book and recording some songs with my dear old friend Robert close to home in the Catskill Mountains and my long time love and I were expecting our first child. Then in late January out of the blue we lost our baby girl and it really broke my heart and turned my world inside out. In the process of mourning it helped a lot to turn some of the sorrow and revelation into songs and after a while I came back to Robert and I’s cabin/studio to put them down and to finish the other recordings we started…

(full letter here)

So the result of his work with long time friend Robert ‘Chicken’ Burke (George Clinton, Sweet Honey and the Rock) will come out in the summer in the UK as the lp Nothing Gold Can Stay. There’s also a 4 track 7″ being released May 9. You’ll find out all you need to know at the band’s Loose Records page here. I’m proud to present you with the song “If You Ever Get Famous” that eloquently describes the ups and mostly downs of fame. The band has three upcoming shows:

May 20 2009 7:30P UNION HALL – NEW YORK BROOKLYN
May 26 2009 8:00P THE BUSH HALL – LONDON
May 27 2009 10:00P MADRID – TBA

If You Ever Get Famous

P.S. Comments are now closed on Songs:Illinois. You can get in touch with me at cbonnell@gmail.com or twitter.

I’ve got a love hate relationship with music blogs that simply take all the incoming mp3 links of the week and add them without comment at the end of a post. For one thing, music linked to without any context seems purposeless. Secondly, I think the role of the music blogger is to give some guidance and attempt to create a curatorial atmosphere. So I was a little bummed when I did a search and found links to a few new songs from the Colorado based experimental indie folk outfit PEE PEE already on a popular blog. However the lack of context allows me to at least add to that post.

This band plays a genre they’ve coined called “pure porch-core”. They have just released their debut full length titled Castile Jackine is Vooded at Broonus Mousin: Volume 1 (don’t ask!). They pall around with members of gypsy punkers DeVotChKa and 1920′s swing-folk experimentalists Paperbird (not as bad as palling around with terrorists, I guess). I’m pretty sure the song below is an epic-length orchestral folk ballad about a getting a new cat.

Buy the new record here.

I Hope My New House Feels Welcoming To You

Bonus songs from Paper Bird

Livin Lucky
Blue Sparks

I had no idea that when I started this week it would turn into a feature on the small Michigan college town of Ann Arbor. Frontier Ruckus was the start of it all, followed by yesterdays post on Charlene Kaye. And unless something comes up at the last second Anna Ash & The Family Tree will be the last (unless you have any Ann Arbor band recommendations).

There’s a Mason Jennings album called Use Your Voice. I love the record, but I love the sentiment in the title more. If you’re a singer sing. If you’re not, then what are you doing in this racket. Anna Ashe can sing. Now, maybe her voice is slightly unusual, but she does so many interesting things with it in the course of just one song, that I for one, was entranced.

The new record is called Hello Friend (from bird above). Order it now from Cd Baby here.

Ann Marie (or a whispered lover overheard at the foot of the mountain)
The Birds Don’t Care

Rachel Harrington released her critically acclaimed debut record in 2007 called The Bootlegger’s Daughter. She’s now ready to follow that up with her sophomore effort – City Of Refuge. It features Tim O’Brien on fiddle and Holly O’Reilly and Pieta Brown on backing vocals. The song I have for you reminds me of the melancholy female characters in the AMC series Mad Men. In fact if there was any justice in the world this would be their theme song.

City of Refuge comes out on September 30 on Rachel’s own label, but you can pre-order an autographed copy now here.

Housewife’s Lament

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I got a refreshing email from an artist today; refreshing because it didn’t ask me to write about his music. Instead it just asked if I knew of any great places an indie folkish musician might play in and around Chicago. Besides all the obvious places (Schubas, Uncommon Ground, Hideout, Old Town School) I don’t have an easy answer. But despite not being asked to, I’m still going to tell you a little about the music of Mike Behrends.

Mike is an unsigned artist from Minneapolis now living in Madison. He plays a variety of stringed instruments, but it’s his lyricism and plaintive (often to the point of breaking) vocals that steal the show.

“Sally Gal” sounds like it was written eons ago; both the lyrics and the banjo playing. While “If I Grew Out My Beard” fits nicely within the burgeoning indie folk movement with it’s undrstated delivery and nice, closely-miced hand claps. These are both demos that should appear sometime on a record titled The Bicycle Corp Of America.

Sally Gal
If I Grew Out My Beard

Would you like a band that combines the laconic indie folk of Will Oldham and the literate English folk of Nick Drake? If the answer’s yes than you should check out Chicago’s Mean Sea Level. The band is the work of Brian Barton and a revolving cast of Chicago music luminaries and Cardboard Sangria label mates.

Bret is also in house engineer for Cardboard Sangria and you can hear that in the atmosphere he creates in the song “See What You See” from the new record. Vocals on this song are luminous and rich, the guitar sound is recorded beautifully and all the sparse elements added to the mix are just perfect. Now that I’ve listened even more I hear a little of early American Music Club and the earnest songs of Mark Eitzel.

See What You See

P.S. I went a little overboard yesterday on Swedesplease and proclaimed the new song from Erik Hallden as the Swedish song of the year. Click here to hear this indie pop gem.

In the entire 4 year run of Songs:Illinois I can count on one hand the number of times I found a song on another blog (here or here) and re-posted it here. But with the new song from Gregory And The Hawk I couldn’t resist. Musically “Grey Weather” sounds a bit like the song title. All minor keys and somber swaths of sound, but it’s Meredith Godreau’s childlike voice that lifts this song from a angst fueled downer into a light and airy tale of lost love.

Pre-order this Sept. release here now.

Grey Weather

A music blogger needs a couple of go to labels for when the well runs dry. These labels need to have obsessively good taste, need to be free and easy with mp3′s, and for me they need to release music that speaks to the heart. Team Love is one such go to label for me. Amazingly I could probably live happily ever after with just the records they’ve released over the past few years.

The guy from McCarthy Trenching (Dan McCarthy) has been opening for and playing with many of the successful projects on Team Love including playing with Cursive, Tilly, Bright Eyes etc etc. The label has extremely high hopes for hi sophomre solo outing Calamity Drenching. The songs offered up are a combination of Bright Eyes earnestness and Felice Brother rootsyness. I know I’ve compared a number of artists to him of late but on “Roasting Song” there is a serious nod to John Prine. These songs were recorded in Dan’s living room on an 8-track which adds to their warmth and sincerity.

McCarthy Trenching is a band on Team Love. In some ways that’s enough said. Pre-order Calamity Drenching here.

Roasting Song
Mormon Girl Blues

The blogosphere was in a bit of a tizzy a month back with the announcement of the debut record from UK “folk singer” Ed Laurie. The track “Albert” was such a nice approximation of Leonard Cohen meets Gilberto Gil that it rightfully stoked a few fires in bloggers searching for tangible, authentic music. For now things have calmed down but expect to hear more from this artist as release date approaches.

In the meantime here are a couple demo’s. One from the new record and a bonus one that didn’t make the cut. As I’ve said before sometimes a demo is the best way to judge an artist. Stripped of any studio wizardry these songs are usually a good indication of whether the artist has the songs and the chops to succeed.

The new record, Meanwhile In The Park, comes out October 2 on Dangerbird. It was originally released in the UK in 2006.

Andalucia

Bonus demo

Midsummer’s Night Dream

And the title track from the new record

Meanwhile In The Park