SINGLES BAR 110 – A round-up of recent EPs and singles

Singles Bar 110ANDY SMYTHE is an amazing wordsmith songwriter and has proved this over and over again through the years.  Hot on the heels of his critically acclaimed last album (early 2024) Poetry in Motion – his latest single ‘The Drought Is Coming’ was intuitively written before the tragic Los Angeles fires happened and are still burning now. I believe it should be sent to various environmental and government organisations to highlight their concern of global warming, as it is so good and hard hitting and gives the message.  Fossil fuels need to be banned globally.

With climate change and global warning threatening to devastate our planet – our home – Andy has made an excellent job of passionately highlighting this worrying time for our planet and future generations.  The music blends with his distinct voice adding synths, strings, bass and piano to complement.

‘The Drought Is Coming’ has a delightful piano intro leading into Andys stunning, mellow, and clear vocals with further vocals from fiddle player Beatrice Limonti and additional instruments as the track progresses.  Just beautiful but with a sincere and chilling message.

‘The Drought Is Coming’ is over 4 minutes long and worth every second. Produced by Dave Palmer and stunning artwork on the cover by Gary Brady, which perfectly matches the lyrics of the track and sent shivers down my spine, as it definitely is an album picture that cleverly paints a thousand words.

Andy has the last word: “Having children and working with young people fills me with a sense of responsibility for the future, as a trained scientist, it’s also frightening. I remember Carl Sagan’s programme about the ‘pale blue dot’ (The Earth) being viewed from Saturn by Voyager. We’re the only living planet we know of and we’re putting it all at risk.” The single can be purchased from February 7th.
www.andysmythe.com

Frontwoman of Tin Bird Choir, Pennsylvanian singer-songwriter HEATHER HURLOCK makes her solo debut with ‘Winter Birds’, a keening, fiddle-shaped Americana ballad that offers hope for those who feel stuck in the pain of trying too hard to fix what cannot be mended, a reminder that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is let go and simply be.
www.heatherhurlock.com

The dark days of winter do seem to be the perfect milieu for Lunatrakors – there is frequently a sense of doom about their music. Their alter-egos, YULATRAKTORS, tend to be a little jollier as their new single, ‘Wassail’, demonstrates. They pull in ideas from several sources but the song is definitely their own with a pipe-and-tabor style accompaniment that takes us back several centuries.
https://www.lunatraktors.space/

A prelude to their third EP, Solitude, Birmingham duo THE MISSED TREES, guitarist Joe Peacock and violinist Louisa Davies-Foley, release ‘I Am Water’. Their most immediately accessible and radio friendly track to date, it’s inspired by the story of Manfred Gnadinger, a German hermit who dropped out and went to live on a beach in the Galician fishing village of Camelle, where he was known as Man, creating sculptures (“in splendid isolation”) out of things that washed up and living in tune with nature until an oil spill from the sunken Prestige tanker covered his sculpture garden and he died, ostensibly of a broken heart.
https://www.facebook.com/TheMissedTrees/

Philadelphia based CHARLOTTE MORRIS is working on her third album, Both Sides, and if that suggests something to you, you’re quite right. ‘As Is’ is her new single taken from that album, a plea to be accepted for all her faults. Starting with nicely jangly acoustic guitar, then piano, the jaunty song builds up to a big finish and Charlotte remains positive through it all.
https://www.charlottemorrismusic.com/

Taken from her upcoming new EP of songs inspired in some way by the theme of water, London-based Americana artist Tricia Duffy aka LITTLE LORE self-releases the  melodically uplifting, chorus-friendly ‘I Can Breathe Underwater’, a song of resilience inspired by her falling into a swimming pool, when she was two  and, despite having no recollection, refusing to learn to swim until she was a teenager, While to this day she won’t put her  face in the water (“Liquid razors shred my neck/Perhaps the bloodshed won’t last”), it’s a testimony to overcoming pain, suffering and not allowing it to destroy you, letting you metaphorically breathe underwater.
www.littlelore.co.uk

There is no stopping REG MEUROSS these days. ‘Woody Guthrie’s Chains’ is the third single taken from Fire & Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story. Reg’s great skill is in the authenticity of the song. He doesn’t attempt an imitation of Guthrie’s voice, there would be little virtue in that, but the lyrical style is Woody’s except when it’s Bob Dylan’s – just the odd phrase here and there. Given the link between Guthrie and Dylan that’s no surprise and the result is a big, powerful song with a fine cast of supporting musicians including Marion Fleetwood, Geraint Watkins and Katie Whitehouse.
http://www.regmeuross.com/

A slow and doomy folk epic at six and a half minutes, named for the Trojan priestess who gave truth prophecies that were fated to never be believed, ‘Cassandra’ has been on the back burner since 2009, too long for his albums, but Melbourne musician LEIGH SLOGGETT is now releasing it as a standalone single. Exploring our denial of the ways in which the world is changing  and our contribution to that (“take heed all you doubters, for the world is changing/The word has been spoken but it seems no one is listening/We’ve let influence and power, fall into the hands, of a few greedy men/And they’re lining their pockets, with the misfortunes of others/And they’re dragging this world, to a tragic end”), it opens in acoustic form before gathering into a  searing intense rock groove and climactic lap steel solo.
https://leighsloggett.bandcamp.com/track/cassandra

Gentle vocals over acoustic guitar and an accompaniment that sounds like a synthesised theremin characterise ‘Daybreaker’, the band new single by KATHERINE PRIDDY in collaboration with SIMON ARMITAGE, the poet laureate. It’s a gorgeous piece of songwriting and performance that looks forward to the end of winter.
https://www.katherinepriddy.co.uk/home/

Nice rolling electric guitar introduces ‘Stars Turn Cold’, the new single by RED SKY JULY. That gives way to grungy bass notes and striking country harmonies from Ally and Shelly. There is a gorgeous solo towards the end and all together it’s a lovely song. They sound so authentic that you wouldn’t know that they are British.
https://redskyjuly.co.uk/

Following last year’s live album, SERIOUS SAM BARRETT returns with his first studio material since 2021 with ‘The Ballad Of Mic And Susie’ (Crow Lane Records), a slow strummed swayalong acoustic tribute (with a lengthy intro) to Mic and Susie Darling, a couple  well-known and respected in the Traveller Community and an important political voice in its struggle  to be heard and “defend ancient freedoms for their will to provide for the love of their people so long cast aside”.
www.serioussambarrett.bandcamp.com

Birdsong is the new single from GRACE ELIZABETH HARVEY, taken from her forthcoming debut EP. Accompanied on acoustic guitar with cello in the background (she plays that, too), there is something of Joni Mitchell in Grace’s flowing voice, particularly at the top of her range and even a hint of Paul Simon in her writing. Hers is a name to watch.
https://www.canaryrecords.com/grace-harvey

The combination of MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER, JULIE FOWLIS AND KARINE POLWART is one to stir the senses. Their new single, written by Carpenter and taken from their new album, Looking For The Thread, ‘A Heart That Never Closes’ is everything you would expect from such a trio. Smooth, with excellent lyrics and a restrained accompaniment that nevertheless drives the song on.
https://www.marychapincarpenter.com/

If there is such a genre as “country-grunge” then LARKIN POE surely represent it. ‘Easy Love Pt.1’ is clever country song with an accompaniment that would have Neil Young considering a return to Mirrorball. The song is taken from their new album, Bloom, in advance of this year’s world tour.
https://www.larkinpoe.com/

Irish singer-songwriter NIALL McCABE reflects on his life and that of his family beginning with the day of his birth on ‘Valentine’s Day 1981’. It’s a clever song with a rich arrangement that reflects the sound of forty years ago without being a pastiche..
https://www.facebook.com/niallmccabemusic/

Liverpudlian OWEN MORTON is a new name on the country singer/songwriter scene. ‘Mine’ is his second single release of 2025 which is impressive: a jolly song confusingly set in autumn with a chorus that is either insistently catchy or irritating depending on your point of view.
https://linktr.ee/owenmortonmusic

A bit of silliness to finish with at the hitherto unimagined point where sea shanty meets ragtime in ‘Rum Soaked Buns’ by Manchester’s SUGAR CREASE. Exactly what it’s about rather eludes us so if you figure it out please let us know.
https://www.facebook.com/sugarcrease