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The Playlist: Americana The Playlist: Americana
(35 minutes later)
Strand of Oaks – Goshen '97Strand of Oaks – Goshen '97
Some of my favourite songs mingle themes of youth, isolation and the transformative power of music (see of course the Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner as our most superlative example). Here, Philadelphia’s Strand of Oaks (Timothy Showalter) pays tribute to his teenage years, his father’s old tape deck and the magic it began. “I was lonely, I was having fun…” he sings. It’s spirited, gasolined, heartland rock, and to my ear pretty irresistible. The song’s been knocking around for a little while, but the full album sees its release later this month, and is a another fine example of the brilliant music lately springing out of Philly (see also: War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Peter Matthew Bauer). Some of my favourite songs mingle themes of youth, isolation and the transformative power of music (see of course the Modern Lovers’ Roadrunner as our most superlative example). Here, Philadelphia’s Strand of Oaks (Timothy Showalter) pays tribute to his teenage years, his father’s old tape-deck and the magic it began. “I was lonely, I was having fun … ” he sings. It’s spirited, gasolined, heartland rock, and to my ears pretty irresistible. The song’s been knocking around for a little while, but the full album sees its release later this month, and is a another fine example of the brilliant music lately springing out of Philly (see also: War on Drugs, Kurt Vile, Peter Matthew Bauer).
Julie Byrne – Prism SongJulie Byrne – Prism Song
Seattle-based Julie Byrne writes the kind of soft, fragmented, finger-picked folk that sounds somewhere between otherworldy and other-timely. But for all its dreaminess it never seems fey or contrived — there’s a grain to her voice that almost catches a Karen Dalton hardness, a Sibylle Baier grief. This song is just a taste of her stunning full-length record, Rooms With Walls and Windows. She’ll also be playing Green Man Festival this August. Seattle-based Julie Byrne writes the kind of soft, fragmented, finger-picked folk that sounds somewhere between otherworldy and other-timely. But for all its dreaminess, it never seems fey or contrived – there’s a grain to her voice that almost catches a Karen Dalton hardness, a Sibylle Baier grief. This song is just a taste of her stunning full-length record, Rooms With Walls and Windows. She’ll also be playing Green Man festival this August.
Naomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens – SinnerNaomi Shelton & the Gospel Queens – Sinner
One of the sweetest parts of my weekend involves listening to the WWOZ Gospel Hour, broadcast out of New Orleans (you can find the playlists here). It’s fed my growing love for gospel over the past few years, and some of my favourite tracks are those that seem to sit at the crossroads between the sacred and the profane. Naomi Shelton, Alabama-born, but a Brooklyn resident since 1963, is a prime example of this style. Shelton releases a new album, Cold World, this summer, on the Daptone label (home of course to the mighty Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings) but in the meantime we’ll have to make do with this track: the lyrics might carry that Church-heft — all talk of rivers, crosses, the impurity of mankind, but the delivery is glorious, earthly grit — soulful, funk-tinged, and showcasing Shelton’s silty, heart-dredged voice. It’s a little Dorothy Love Coates, a touch late Solomon Burke, and a smidge Alabama Shakes to boot. One of the sweetest parts of my weekend involves listening to the WWOZ Gospel Hour, broadcast out of New Orleans (you can find the playlists here). It’s fed my growing love for gospel over the past few years, and some of my favourite tracks are those that seem to sit at the crossroads between the sacred and the profane. Naomi Shelton, Alabama-born, but a Brooklyn resident since 1963, is a prime example of this style. Shelton releases a new album, Cold World, this summer on the Daptone label (home, of course, to the mighty Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings), but in the meantime we’ll have to make do with this track: the lyrics might carry that Church-heft — all talk of rivers, crosses, the impurity of mankind, but the delivery is glorious, earthly grit — soulful, funk-tinged, and showcasing Shelton’s silty, heart-dredged voice. It’s a little Dorothy Love Coates, a touch late Solomon Burke and a smidge Alabama Shakes to boot.
Matt Kivel – InsignificanceMatt Kivel – Insignificance
A little sublime West Coastness from Matt Kivelfor you here. Kivel’s songs have a kind of airborne quality, a sense of suspension, that is sometimes at odds with the hard-knuckled nature of his subject matter; it’s a bewitching combination. His last album, Double Exposure, showed he is capable of that remarkable musical feat of creating a world or an atmosphere that engulf the listener — it’s a similar sensation to listening to the War on Drugs’ Lost in the Dream, or Kevin Tihista’s Don’t Breathe A Word, albums that wrap you up in the wonderfully sticky web of their music. His new album, Days of Being Wild, was recorded over six weeks last summer with Paul Oldham (brother of Will and Ned) and is out next month. A little sublime west coastness from Matt Kivel for you here. Kivel’s songs have a kind of airborne quality, a sense of suspension, that is sometimes at odds with the hard-knuckled nature of his subject matter; it’s a bewitching combination. His last album, Double Exposure, showed he is capable of that remarkable musical feat of creating a world, or an atmosphere, that engulfs the listener – it’s a similar sensation to listening to the War on Drugs’s Lost in the Dream, or Kevin Tihista’s Don’t Breathe a Word, albums that wrap you up in the wonderfully sticky web of their music. His new album, Days of Being Wild, was recorded with Paul Oldham (brother of Will and Ned) over six weeks last summer and is out next month.
Bonnie “Prince” Billy and The Cairo Gang – We Love Our Hole Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and the Cairo Gang – We Love Our Hole
By my measure, Will Oldham is one of our finest living songwriters, and I’m always surprised and delighted by his work. This track is one of two Oldham recorded with Emmett Kelly for the soundtrack of Spirit of Akasha, a documentary toasting 40 years of the Australian surfing film Morning of the Earth. It’s a perfectly disharmonised, bongo-pattered, happy howl of a song, with that golden, congregational quality of Harpers Bizarre’s Witchi Tai To.By my measure, Will Oldham is one of our finest living songwriters, and I’m always surprised and delighted by his work. This track is one of two Oldham recorded with Emmett Kelly for the soundtrack of Spirit of Akasha, a documentary toasting 40 years of the Australian surfing film Morning of the Earth. It’s a perfectly disharmonised, bongo-pattered, happy howl of a song, with that golden, congregational quality of Harpers Bizarre’s Witchi Tai To.