I start off so many posts this way but it’s hard to avoid. So here goes: I’m a big fan of Michael Holland. In the past his music has been a bit hard to find/purchase but now his new recor dis available through Bandcamp here. The new record is called Rhythm of Love and it has a nice sunny disposition.
“Home With My Darling” is a good example of that feeling sunniness and joy.
If there’s anything I should do with this blog is support other music bloggers. There have been a wave of music bloggers going the record label route and by and large these have been small success stories. Now the fine folks at Muzzle of Bees and More Cowbell have come together to form a limited edition vinyl only record label. The first release from Ten Atoms is by Conrad Plymoth and as they say in the description it has a certain hardworking midwestern feel to it. “Fergus Falls” is the song they recommend so that’s the one I went with.
Btw the artwork and presentation of the 10″ vinyl looks wonderful so this is really something you want to get your hands on, literally.
I hope I’m not jumping the gun but I just stumbled upon the new record by Austin based Yer Bird artist Caleb Coy. Caleb’s been around and been in a number of semi-experimental projects. This new record is a more traditional Texas lofi americana thing (think Townes et al). It was recorded in Caleb’s airstream out in desert outside of Marfa. It’s called Wild Desert Rose. Lots more info on this Sept 7 release here on Yer Bird’s site.
Attic Abasement is super lofi sorta in the Silver Jews/Mountain Goats realm. The new record is called Dancing Is Depressing. Looks like you can get it free here.
Louise Mosrie is a Southern singer-songwriter with roots in Britain. As a result you can hear a bit of the traditional folk of England mixed with the rural americana of the South. On the song “Battle Of Blair Mountain” Lousie tells the story of what turned out to be “the largest open class war in US History”. This tale recounts the bravery of coal miners fighting mine owners and eventually the Federal government in an early attempt to unionize the coal mines of West Virginia.
Home is the new record. It can be ordered here through Elderly Instruments or here through CD Baby.
I found the band Gasoline Stove trolling around MySpace looking for good new music. With the number of promo emails I get and ignore ever increasing it’s always a pleasure to find a band I actually want to write about. Gasoline Stove is a Chapel Hill based folk roots band led by Scott Morgan that features members of Memphis the Band.
The band sounds a bit like The Jayhawks in their prime. The songs “Love & Rockets” features harmonica, stand up bass and guitar as well as beautiful harmonies by Shannon and Scott Morgan. The new CD Vultures on the Mainframe is available here via Cd Baby.
Hans Chew is an improbable name for a alt-country artist. It should come as no surprise then that Hans is not your typical roots rocker. Hans is a member of the Brooklyn psych-country band D. Charles Speer & the Helix. He’s pretty well known as a ragtime and boogie piano player and is even an accomplished drummer.
The new record is called Tennessee & Other Stories… and arrives in stores on Sept. 7. Pre-order it here now thru Three Lobed Recordings.
Quick story. I like Matt The Electrician. I know I’m not the only one. But I really had no idea. At a cafe during last years SXSW conference I picked up an Austin Chronicle to plan my trip. It just so happened it was their annual local music award issue (Best Album, Best New Artist, etc etc). I hoped to see some of my Austin based friends in there like Sam Baker, Danny Schmidt, and Jess Klein, but I was shocked to see Matt The Electrician at the top of nearly every relevant category. He was nominated for Best Austin Musician, Best New Record, Best live Show, etc. etc. I know that shouldn’t change the way I feel about Matt and his music but it did. It made me appreciate him a little more, love his new record Animal Boy a little extra, and admire his beard growing skills that much more 
Matt’s played the Songs:Illinois house concert before and when I tell anyone that he’s coming back inevitably I hear the same thing – “Great, I loved that guy!”. I feel the same way and am looking forward to Matt and his songs and his stories on Sunday, September 19. Doors will open at 7pm and music should start at 7:30pm. Please RSVP by emailing back yes to cbonnell@gmail.com and we’ll save you one of the comfy chairs. As always a donation will be accepted to pay the artists.
Here’s some recent press about Matt’s new cd Animal Boy:
“The disc is pure brilliance from the rich horns that open the first song— and you have to have cojones muy grande to open with a cover of Journey’s Faithfully and pull it off the way Matt does—right on through to the end. Matt somehow manages to consistently spin the equivalent of a multi-plot novel in four minutes or less, and he can rhyme and sing while he’s doing it. The imagery in his songwriting is nothing short of cinematic so that you find yourself in each song, interacting with the cast of characters that inhabit his tales: a naked valedictorian at graduation, an arrogant leash-loathing dog owner, giddy girls on bicycles in Osaka in the rain, an underpaid yet terribly kind Walmart employee saving the day, a truck driver peeing into a Gatorade bottle. In Animal Boy (the song) we get a spectacular view of a child looking back at some of the curious rules and choices offered by the grownups at dinnertime.” Austinist
“Matt The Electrician is one of a handful of brainy, somewhat quiet Central Texas singer-songwriters who write with considerable plainfolks wit, down-to-earth blue-collar common sense and smart-folks ideas. What emerges are songs like “Change the Subject” and “One Right Thing,” delivered somewhere between Paul Simon’s New Yorky folk-pop and Waits’s back-alley sandpaper growl. There’s just the right mix of vulnerability and strength, ennui and hope to make women want to take him home and mother him. The Electrician makes it earthy and ethereal, and that’s a hard trick to pull off.” Houston Chronicle
“Animal Boy” sounds like ex-working electrician Matt Sever and co-producer Mark Addison, who each also play about a dozen instruments, couldn’t wait to get into the studio every morning. They’ve made a big little record that gently, warmly takes the listener from a rainy night in Osaka, Japan, to the customer service department of Walmart. The album’s most representative instrument is the breezy “banjolele,” which tells its own story of a hillbilly buying a one-way ticket to a tropical paradise. It’s been a great couple of months for singer-songwriter albums in Austin, with Lee Barber, Bob Schneider, Robert Earl Keen and Sam Baker putting out music that sounds like it will last. Put “Animal Boy” in with that bunch, and give it a gold star if you’ll take Squeeze over Leonard Cohen every day of the week but Sunday.” Austin Music Source
Songs from Animal Boy (video “For Angela”)
We’re lucky to have Mike Behrends making the trip down from Madison as well that night. Mike is fresh out of college. He has just released his debut lp New Feet. I’ve written about his stuff over the last few years and have been excited by his progress. He’s known for his story based songs (like little novels dressed up as songs), his gifted musicianship (he plays nearly any/all stringed instrument) and his lanky appearance (I can relate to that!). I was truly enamored with his early demos and then a little EP he put out (which shipped inside a piece of flannel) and now his debut LP New Feet. There’s some nice press, interviews, and CD reviews here, here, and here.
Song from Mike Behrends’ New Feet:
Older songs
If I Grew Out My Beard
Sally Gal
Alright that’s my whole spiel, but needless to say I’m excited about this show. We should be in for a treat with good songs, great stories, interesting instruments (Matt sometimes plays a banjolele – a combination banjo and ukelele), nice eats, and plenty of beer and wine.
Alright I’m taking the easy way out today with a repost of today’s featured band up on Swedesplease (my other site). With a sound somewhere between Elliott Smith and Richard Buckner (yet with a slight Swedish accent) The Bitter and Sick and Die Alones are a perfect fit for Songs:Illinois.
I suppose with a name like that and a song titled “Vultures” you can at least guess at the sound and the lyrical content of this Swedish duo. But it would still be hard to anticipate the emotional outpouring and musical dynamics of this band from Gothenburg. If you are a fan of The Tallest Man On Earth (and who isn’t at this point) or The Swell Season than you should like this as well. Check out The Bitter and Sick and Die Alones on MySpace or live in Stockholm on Nov. 11.
Hurt Is All I Get (Live)
It’s been awhile since we had a good honky-tonk Friday but I think Kim Beggs from the upper Yukon in the wilds of Northern Canada is a perfect artist to continue the tradition with. This song is a duet and it features Kim’s lovely voice, as well as some tearful pedal steel.
Blue Bones is the new release and you can buy it here from Kim.
I couldn’t pass up this song off the new record by Winnipeg singer-songwriter Del Barber. The song is called “Chicago” from the record Love Songs for The Last Twenty. The reason is simply that I call Chicago my home. The song (sounds a bit autobiographical) is about a guy more in love with the northern prairie winds than he is with this girl from Chicago.
I think you’ll like the whole record. Buy it here via CD Baby.
“Home To Manitoba” video
Just a quick note in between picking up my son at summer camp and delivering him to swimming lessons. I’ve always loved what I have heard from Birdie Busch (a rave here and here). As a songwriter she has been able to connect with me. And as a woman from a particular place (Philadelphia) I’ve always been impressed with how she has been able to capture that particular place in song. Although this song is “just” a cover it’s another example of how she puts here feelings for her city into song.
This song is from a little EP called Everyone Will Take You In available here.
City of Brotherly Love (via the excellent Philebrity)
Truckstop Honeymoon continues to quietly self release some great acoustic based roots music. Their new record Homemade Haircut is out now. The title track is pretty self explanatory but it’s a bunch of fun.
Buy it here.
Bonus
“Honky-Tonk Friday” is such a roaring success that for this week, and this week only, I’ve added “Western Swing Thursday”. Asleep at the Wheel had one of the best traditional country records of the last few years with their release Willie and the Wheel featuring Willie Nelson (here). Now they’re back but this time they are featuring the vocals of 82 year old and former Bob Wills’ GREAT Texas Playboy vocalists Leon Rausch. The new record is called It’s A Good Day and this tune features all of the above plus more Willie Nelson.
This record comes out in a couple of weeks but you can preorder it here through Amazon.
Harely Dean is an unlikely Texas troubadour. He’s a college educated man with degrees in Biology and Animal Science. He isn’t one of those guys that sat on his Dad’s knee absorbing all kinds of Texas country music. He didn’t pick up the guitar at 3 years old and he didn’t write his first song at 12. He took a more mature approach buying his first guitar at age twenty five and getting his first gig for beer and tips shortly thereafter. He released a record in 2003 and tried the whole go-on-the-road-with-a-band-and-play-shitty-clubs-for-no-money-thing but tired of it. He’s now working on a more acoustic singer/songwriterly thing.
His new record Brighter Days was produced by Walt Wilkins (wrote about his new one yesterday!!). This song features Harley’s rich vocals and splashes of organ and pedal steel. Buy the new record here.
Walt Wilkins and the Mystiqueros have been one of the best bands out of Texas for the last few years. They don’t often get out of Texas so I’ve never seen the whole band but I was impressed by Walt’s solo stuff one year at SXSW. The band’s new record, Agave, was released recently. You can hear why the band is a favorite in beer halls and roadhouses on the track “You’ve Got a Way”. I’m told this will be on an upcoming episode of my new favorite show Friday Night Lights.
Hard not to follow up this weeks post of Black Coyote’s “Of Strippers and Cowboys” with Paul Thorn’s “Pimps and Preachers”. This is a decidedly more muscular track which should come as no surprise from this former boxer turned singer-songwriter. Get the new Paul Thorn record Pimps and Preachers here.
To be completely honest with you I’ve kinda given up on all the new/next wave bluegrass inspired bands except for Chatham County Line. I’m still open for some unknown up and comer to shock my system, but for now I’m bored with all the other contenders and hanger ons. Save for Chatham County Line.
The new record is on Yeproc yet again and is titled Wildwood. Here’s a song off it, as well as the Yeproc preorder page.
The old man continues his recent rash of productivity by releasing his new record 10 Songs For The New Depression. If only his offspring were as prolific it’d be great. Loudon Wainwright III’s new song “Cash For Clunkers” is a bit of a silly throwaway (what do you expect from the guy who wrote “Dead Skunk”) with a real message thrown in for good measure.
Get the new record here.
Bonus – “Dead Skunk”
