Playing guitar and digeridoo, THE PELICAN BABIES are Standish-based acoustic folk-blues duo Lea Nixon and Mark Connelly, their new self-released three-track EP being Judas Goats. With a scuffling rhythm, the title cut adopts the farmer’s goat that befriends sheep and cattle so they can lead them to slaughter as a metaphor for how we put our trust in politicians who “bending rules and breaking laws/Dirty dealings down the corridors/ Self preservation is their true cause/They only want your votes”. Coughing didgeridoo prominent, the slow and steady tribal walking rhythm ‘Pelican Babies’ isn’t self-reflective but rather a song about endurance and resilience as they “ride out the storm waiting for the sunrise”, the third track being the five-minute, strings-backed fingerpicked ‘Time Is…’ about the nature of time passing and making the most of it. www.pelicanbabies.co.uk
Airs On A Sixstring is the new EP by Leeds singer/songwriter ROBERTA SMITH. We suppose we must call Roberta a veteran although her profile has been relatively low of recent years. Her EP contains lyrical fingerpicked songs with minimal additional instrumentation by producers Aeron Z Jones and Chris Pepper. There is a warm, domestic feel about her songs, exemplified by ‘Old Clothes’ although there is an edge to ‘I Am Alone’ and ‘Howling At The Moon’ (anyone who can share a writing credit with Boo Hewerdine deserves to be noticed). The closing ‘The Lost Song’ is a clever idea, superficially simple but with a philosophical undertone. Give this a couple of spins and you’ll be hooked.
https://www.robertasmithsongs.com/
A session drummer by trade, Shropshire-based WALKER JAMES makes an impressive claim to be an outlaw country singer-songwriter of note too with his debut EP A Crying Shame (Bohemian Poet Records). Drawn from a turbulent five years that saw him go through divorce, an estranged relationship with his son, anxiety, mental health issues and depression, it doesn’t though seem to have impacted his dark humour as evidenced on the title track’s opening line “First you take my girl when she was mine/But when you stole my drink I draw the line”, a twangsome Johnny Cash number in which the singer’s woman leaves him for another then comes crawling back after being abused. Riding a Texicana shuffle, ‘To The Ground’ again deals in a lost relationship and being unable to let go (“Every now and then I think I see you round/But you live a thousand miles away/And it burns me to the ground/That everything we did is not around…If only once I told you how I really felt/Maybe you would still be here with me”). By contrast, given a similar Frankie Laine chug, ‘The Beast From The East’ spins a supernatural tale with a mysterious figure who appears in a blizzard and leaves no footprints warning the singer about changing his ways (“Listen up, watch where you tread/Follow me, you’ll end up dead”).
www.instagram.com/
This is a bit complicated. Not To Be Found is an EP derived from a multi-media project inspired by the 17th century Scottish witch trials and recorded under the name of THE CHARMERS. The all-female band describe it as a Sci-Fi folk ballad in which the accused witches transport themselves to the present day (and presumably form a band). The first track, released as a single, is ‘Song For The Leaving’ and it’s pretty weird on first hearing but stick with it and all will become clear.
‘Swift Song’ has hints of traditional song and describes the journey to the modern era and is the most conventional song in the set. The strangeness returns with ‘Ballad In Transfigured Time’ and reaches its apotheosis with ‘If You Say So, So Am I’ full of whispering voices and percussion. The songs are written by vocalist Anne Robinson, the driving force behind the project and Not To Be Found is difficult to sum up in a few words. If you’re fortunate enough to be in Edinburgh on 21st October you should see them live.
https://gracenotesproject.org/
Trump’s domestic policies continue to provide fuel for protest songs, LETICIA VAN SANT responding with ‘Home Of The Brave’ (Free Dirt), a steady handclap slow military march rhythm as, joined by pedal steel, cello and David McKindley-Ward on vocal, she sings “From Sandy Hook to Sandtown/The one thing that is clear/We’re all living at gunpoint/But we don’t answer to fear… From Los Angeles to El Salvador/From Atlanta to Ferguson/They’ve fought for the kind of justice/That doesn’t need so many guns/From Guantanamo Bay to the border/Listen to their tales/We want the kind of freedom/That doesn’t need so many jails”)”, ringing guitars carrying the chorus “We are not free but we are brave”, ending with “Wherever you are Sunday morning/Wherever you get your news/No matter what books your school banned/We’re all searching for truth/And we all know of a few things/That have never been televised/And no one can take the freedom/That we stoke down in our minds”.
www.letitiavansant.bandcamp.
Likewise, also with pedal steel, Kansas City–based EMMA JO delivers the jaunty, piano honky tonk shuffling Americana of ‘Say Can You See’ expressing similar sentiments with “Well wondering if your government/could send you to a prison in El Salvador/I don’t think that’s the kind of freedom/that our great granddaddies fought the Nazis for” as she declares “this ain’t about politics/I don’t care if your hat is red or blue/You have a right to live a life where no one/takes away the process you are due…It’s my duty to say/Because I live in a place/Where you can write a song and take a stand”.
www.emmajo.bandcamp.com/
From out of the west came JOHN MERVINI, originally from California but now living in New York. ‘Four Leaf Clover’ is a single recorded live in advance of an EP, accompanied on a big acoustic guitar to match his big voice with some haunting fiddle somewhere in the background. The song is about the danger of drink-driving – a drama compressed into a few short minutes.
https://www.johnmervini.com/
While originally not planned to be released until next year’s album, MICHAEL WESTON KING has brought forward the country-styled ‘La Bamba In The Rain’ in response the hostility towards immigrants manifested in the current spate of flags being hoisted on lampposts around the country. To jangled guitars and a walking beat rhythm, he sings “There’s no hope for us this time/When every little thing is treated as a sin or crime/When the Union Jack’s unfurled/And placed around the waist of every teenage boy and girl” for a country divided and fractured (“From every doorstep we stand and applaud/You’re worth so much more than we can afford/But all the king’s horses and all the king’s men/Can’t put us back together again/ Only you can/ It wasn’t the end of the world but I could see it from there”).
www.michaelwestonking.bandcamp.com/track/la-bamba-in-the-rain
THE MAGPIES release the third single, ‘All Night’, from their forthcoming EP, The One Thing That I Know. Written by Bella Gaffney, it is pure country and comes from the road as Bella contemplates the loneliness of travelling and the anticipation of returning home.
https://www.themagpiesmusic.com/
THE CORACLES are an indie folk-pop quartet from mid-Wales, fronted by John D’Storme alongside classically trained violinist Eleri Vaughan, Twm Ellis on bass, mandolin and harmonium and Siôn Caradoc providing percussion and electronics . Their fifth self-released single this year, ‘Paper Boats’ (Zentara UK) is a steady rhythm number about unspoken feelings and unsaid goodbyes, of loss, longing and unexpressed feelings in a relationship’s end (“They might sink or sail for miles/But I still send them just in case you smile/Paper boats on restless seas/Carrying parts of you and me Not every truth can reach/Not every truth can reach the shore/Not every heart stays what it swore/But still I float this fragile fleet”).
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579430589245
Taken from his forthcoming album, due early next year, SEAN TAYLOR releases a digital single, ‘First Light’. This track is essentially a two part suite; the first part being Sean’s voice and piano accompanied by Brian Standefer on cello with the second opening up as dawn breaks over the Northumbrian landscape. It’s quite short but packs a lot in.
https://www.seantaylorsongs.com/
The first single from their Underwater Sky debut album, KYSON POINT release ‘Dark River’ (The Recording Booth), a rhythmically jogging number built around synth, drum, acoustic guitar and double bass, vocals shared between Kelly and David Booth in a love song to rivers (“I have stared down the estuary glinting sun on the quiet beaches finding patience and your beauty in blue”), inspired by the River Deben in Woodbridge, Suffolk, as “places of sanctuary, navigation, wisdom and endless stories.”
www.kysonpoint.com
Taken from his upcoming album, Winnipeg’s gravelly voiced WILLIAM PRINCE releases ‘For The First Time’ (Six Shooter), a slow Americana ballad of loss, grief and remembrance (“Watching TV with the sound off/Waiting for a sign/I’d give anything to see you one more time”), moving from thoughts of suicide (“Driving home with no seat belt on/Ignoring every sign/Maybe I’ll just come to you instead, leave this all behind/And there you’d be/And I’d be happier than ever”) to finally reaching a point where “For the first time in a long time/It don’t break me like it used to”.
www.williamprince.com
Following her debut album, Clever Rabbits, ‘Letters’ is a bonus single by ANN LIU CANNON. It’s perhaps more pop than folk but it makes for entertaining listening. Despite indications to the contrary, Ann was born in Wiltshire and is now based in London. She could be a name to watch.
https://www.facebook.com/annliucannonmusic/?locale=en_GB
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