The Deslondes - Scorie - Tyler Ellis - GrooveGalore MuziK ft. KASTICK & Valentino Music - Conscious Pilot - Maren Davidsen

Photo - Selwyn Figg

The Deslondes - Try Again.

The Deslondes return with Don’t Let It Die Vol. 1 May 22, 2026 via New West Records. The 12-track set was recorded on analog tape and features renditions of songs by Swamp Dogg, Shelby Lynne, Johnny Cash, Clifton Chenier, and more. It was produced by the band’s John James Tourville and Ajaï Combelic (Sabine McCalla) at the band’s studio in New Orleans and follows their 2024 studio album Roll It Out which was met with wide critical acclaim. 

The Deslondes didn’t want to simply exalt their heroes and catalog their influences while recording the new covers album. They wanted to also give their friends a boost as well. The poignant and powerful collection includes new interpretations of old songs by artists who’ve guided the band for years, alongside new songs by peers, tourmates, and collaborators including Nick Woods, Pat Reedy, and more. “We have so many friends who are songwriters, and we just love their music so much,” says Tourville. “Riley (Downing) and Dan (Cutler) are always kicking around awesome, inspiring old songs for us to do, but for this album we really wanted to play some friends songs, too.” Downing says “These songs are very much a close part of our lives. They’re all part of our circle, this big organism that keeps influencing itself.” 

Regarding “Try Again” the band’s Dan Cutler said, “I heard the Kernal and his band play this song for the first time many years ago. It was just this lost, epic soul song, stuck into their set of mostly country numbers. It stuck with me. It’s got a very simple message of persistence, and maybe even redemption. It sounded like a plaintive plea for another chance. You wanna hope he got one." 

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Scorie - Gallodrome (EP).

Scorie is a beef bourguignon where the red wine has been replaced by two bottles of cognac. It’s a sunset drive with one wheel missing. It’s a tank top in the dead of winter and a  100% polyester turtleneck in the middle of a heatwave. After more than a year of meticulous distillation, the band release their first 5-tracks EP “Gallodrome” today via Géographie.

The first single from the EP, "The Leash and The Fury," was released back on June 5,2025. Halfway between a perverse prayer and a political spit-take, the track evokes voluntary servitude and the murky pleasure of being walked all over. With a catchy chorus, hypnotic keys, and a relentless groove, it already showcases a strong, unapologetic identity. 

In September 2025, the band doubled down with the equally sarcastic “Legitimate Violence,” depicting a new, cold-blooded, and violent character, continuing their streak of blending  satire and cynicism. The track is driven by raw instrumentation, oscillating between a frantic urge to dance and an irrepressible need to scream into a microphone. The third single, “Room Full Of Gangsters,” arrives this coming February—a 5:33-minute crescendo set in a stifling Western atmosphere, recounting the confessions of a man staring  his existence and his death straight in the eyes. 

These first three tracks layed the foundation of their aesthetic: a brand of rock that borrows its energy from the current post-punk scene and its love for cinematic atmospheres from the Nick Cave wave. This is an EP with a fierce identity, fueled by a desire to push ideas to their limit and a certain radicalism in both lyrics and sound.

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Artwork - Danika Ellis

Tyler Ellis - Union Song.

Award-winning Toronto singer-songwriter and extraordinary storyteller Tyler Ellis has crafted a new single, “Union Song,” that serves as a tonic for our troubled times. It’s the first single from his ninth album to date, Hardwarestore, coming out in June. “Union Song” is out today April 24th and available on all major platforms.

A heartfelt anthem of unity in the face of division, with a small but powerful choir of voices emphasizing the point, "Union Song" channels the spirit of the late, great Woody Guthrie, as we face current times of hellish late-stage capitalism. As Ellis sings, "I got my brothers and my brothers got me, I got my sisters and my sisters got me," he champions the idea that "there are no others, there's just us," people of "every shade and every hue." He's not only amplifying the idea of strength in numbers but pointing to a path forward for peace on a global scale.

"It's not just about unions and protests," says Ellis. "It's about people in general coming together, and working side by side for the common good. In the end, we're all brothers and sisters. who can stand together and help each other."

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GrooveGalore MuziK - I Could Have Lied (ft. KASTICK & Valentino Music).

A reggae reinterpretation of the rock classic song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, “I Could Have Lied” is powered by the deeply felt vocal delivery from KASTICK and a warm, steady groove anchored by Rudy Valentino Jr.’s soulful edgy guitar, bringing a distinct emotional edge to the track.

Inspired by reflection and reinvention, this track blends reggae rhythm with alternative rock roots, creating something both familiar and newly felt. “I Could Have Lied (ft. KASTICK and Valentino Music)” carries a deep emotional gravity, speaking directly to anyone who understands the weight of regret and the silence that follows words left unsaid.

KASTICK’s vocals cut deep and raw, emotionally present, and fully embodied. Bringing real weight and honesty to the performance. The continued collaboration with Valentino Music strengthens the project’s reggae identity, while Rudy Valentino Jr.’s guitar stands out with an edge... gritty in all the right places, fluid where it counts, and consistently driving the emotional tone of the track.

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Conscious Pilot - Face Down.

While earlier singles like ‘Internet Support’ and ‘Human Poultry’ hit with a heavier, more direct edge, ‘Face Down’ reveals another side of the band—brighter and more energetic, driven by urgent guitars, propulsive momentum, and an unexpected warmth. It’s a left turn that hints at the wider scope of what’s to come on their debut album Human Poultry.

Lyrically, ‘Face Down’ explores mortality through humour rather than despair. Written from observations during frontman Joe Laycock’s time living in Mount Florida, Glasgow, the song turns fear of death into something strangely uplifting, using wit as a shield for deeper anxieties. That tension reaches its peak in the chorus, where the narrator imagines slipping away “in the silence”, “facedown”, “in this grey, old mount” — bleak imagery delivered in a way that feels oddly comforting.

Joe Laycock says: “Inspired by my time living in Mount Florida, it’s a glass-half-full take on dying. It came from a real fear of mortality, but uses gallows humour to cover that dread and insecurity. It’s about trying to laugh through something heavy — which feels true to both Glasgow and Yorkshire. Sometimes people make light of a bad situation to comfort everyone else while hiding how they really feel.”

‘Face Down’ is the final offering from the preview releases leading up to their upcoming debut, Human Poultry—a record shaped entirely by place and circumstance. Written and rehearsed at the ‘Workshop' — drummer Chris McCrory's studio in the heart of Glasgow — Human Poultry documents the band's first two years in the city: the strange, funny, occasionally grim texture of daily life refracted through a set of songs that span employment, crime, religion, sport, technology and art. The connective tissue running through all of it is a particular kind of modern helplessness — the sensation of being quietly reshaped by your environment whether you like it or not. Every song finds a new angle on the same basic feeling — the sad made funny, the mundane made strange, the personal quietly universal.

Conscious Pilot · Face Down

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Maren Davidsen - Tennessee On My Mind.

Maren Davidsen is a singer-songwriter from Stavanger, Norway, whose music blends Nordic americana with country influences, rooted in honest storytelling and an organic, song-led sound. After spending eight years in London, she moved to Oslo in 2023 in search of the space and clarity to write new music. Having picked up the guitar at six years old and grown up listening to artists such as Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson, songwriting has long been part of her life, but it was during her early adult years in London, especially immersed in Mayfair’s party district, she began pursuing music more seriously. These experiences, both the vibrant highs and personal upheavals, led her back to Norway, where she found the clarity to write her debut album.

Her new single, “Tennessee On My Mind”, is the first release from her upcoming debut album This Is Where I Leave You, produced by Martin Vinje and released via AWAL. The track captures a turning point in Maren’s life, shaped by distance, emotional exhaustion and the first real sense of leaving a painful chapter behind. Written during a solo songwriting trip to Nashville, the song emerged at a moment when she felt both inspired and completely unsteady, caught between the excitement of somewhere new and the weight of everything she had brought with her.

“I remember arriving in Nashville feeling completely drained, physically and mentally, and suddenly very far from home,” Maren says. “I felt lonely and lost, but also excited and inspired. Looking back, that trip became the beginning of letting go, not just of a relationship, but of that entire phase of my life.”

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Max Aurora & The Southern Lights - Klimt 1918 - Cello - Scarlett Macfarlane

Max Aurora & The Southern Lights - How I Know It's Right.

There is a particular kind of clarity that comes after walking away from a fractured relationship. Naarm/ Melbourne outfit Max Aurora & The Southern Lights capture that sentiment with their indie/ pop-punk anthem ‘How I Know It's Right’, out Thursday, April 23. For the unfamiliar, Max Aurora & The Southern Lights blend their dreamy, bittersweet indie rock with the punch of pop-punk and emo. Winners of Melbourne's Women in Music mentorship for their 2023 debut single, Max Aurora & The Southern Lights promise a stack of new music in 2026.

Blending driving indie instrumentals with the punch and immediacy of pop-punk, 'How I Know It's Right' is loud without losing control, as explosive arrangements meet Max Aurora’s unfiltered take on messy heartbreaks. Produced by Cry Club's Jono O'Tooke, the track is built on a tight, restless interplay between its members. The tune's beating heart brings overwhelming energy and a sense of craziness after a heartbreak as Jack Eden’s heavy, overdriven guitar riffs cut through the mix, grounded by Sonja Down’s punchy, controlled drums and Damon Brammall’s gritty basslines.

Paired with Max’s considered disposition and melodic hooks, the song explores the pull toward connection in the aftermath of an unstable relationship. 'How I Know It’s Right' unpacks these emotions through vulnerable lyricism set against the dynamic, explosive instrumentation. Speaking on the track, Max shares: “'Written in a single night, 'How I Know It’s Right' explores the quiet relief of leaving a fractured relationship and the curiosity of what a wholesome love could feel like. It explores the urgent, wide-eyed wonder of what a truly wholesome connection feels like, and the restless patience in searching for it.” 

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Klimt 1918 - Aventine.

Rome's post-rockers Klimt 1918 present their most introspective, sky-gazing side with the stylish video noir 'Aventine' as the next advance single taken from their forthcoming new full-length "Àmor". The Italians' fifth album has been slated for release on June 12, 2026. The band comment: "If 'Aventine' were a color, it would be a shade of cobalt", frontman Marco Soellner muses. "It would have the cool tones of night and moonlight piercing through the canopy of maritime pines in summer. It is a solitary gaze from the top of a hill. It is the city below, sleeping silently and obliviously."

The burning pulse of the sun's nuclear fire scorching the desert. The smooth sliding of glistening skin over other skin in a throbbing rhythm. The swelling hum of motion in a mass of bodies. Klimt 1918 capture many such fleeting moments in time and preserve them through cascading walls of sound and the elegant drone of guitars.

The Italian's fifth album, "Àmor", represents a climax of their acclaimed previous work into a most melancholic, sensual, and majestic collection of captivating music. "Àmor" was born out of silence, solitude and social distancing. Yet as a deliberate artistic counterpoint, Klimt 1918 decided to have all their new songs revolve around carnality, ardour, physical contact between bodies, and the urgent, compelling feelings that keep people awake at night.

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Cello - We Do What We Want (When We Want When We Want To).

Brighton-based artist Cello has released her defiant second single, “We Do What We Want (When We Want When We Want To)”. Ahead of her forthcoming album ‘Kung Fu Disco’, Cello returns with a raw, high-energy new single titled “We Do What We Want (When We Want When We Want To)”. Channelling that feeling that anything is possible, the track captures the chaos, camaraderie, and freedom of teenage rebellion.

Opening with the defiant declaration, “Hey! We ain’t coming back to the shack, out the back,” the song sets the tone immediately: a refusal to return to the places and expectations that try to hold you in place. Instead, the track plunges listeners into the gritty world of basement handouts and late-night gatherings – cramped, damp spaces where rules dissolve and the night stretches endlessly ahead.

The hook becomes a rallying cry for youthful independence – that fleeting moment in life where the boundaries feel breakable and the future feels wide open. More than just a song, the track serves as a snapshot of a feeling: the rush of youth, the thrill of breaking away, and the belief that for one night – or maybe forever – you can do exactly what you want.

Cello · We Do What We Want (When We Want When We Want To)

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Scarlett Macfarlane - Sorry.

Scarlett Macfarlane shares her latest single, “Sorry,” a deeply personal and emotionally charged pop-rock single that leans into themes of regret, self-reflection, and the complicated path toward forgiveness. Balancing pensive introspection with soaring, cathartic release, “Sorry” captures the weight of late-night thoughts and the quiet courage it takes to face them head-on.

“I wrote the song based on a bad night’s sleep due to some negative inner voices and an overactive mind,” Scarlett explains. “I wanted to be vulnerable about my inner demons and hope that anyone who heard it could feel seen, feel safe to recognize that we all make mistakes, big and small, and join me in the journey of self-acceptance.” Originally titled “Regret,” the song evolved into something more direct and universal. “It was always an apology: to others, to the world, to myself.”

What makes “Sorry” especially striking is its duality: a song that feels both humbling and empowering in equal measure. While it confronts the discomfort of accountability, it also embraces the strength required to be honest without diminishing one’s own experience. That tension runs throughout the track, building from hushed vulnerability into a powerful, full-bodied release.

The recording process itself mirrored that emotional intensity. “I wrote the first draft of this song in my car crying outside my gym,” Scarlett shares. “Recording it was liberating. Making the voices I heard in my head exist in real life was profound.” Those voices remain embedded in the song’s DNA; most notably in the layered, whispered intro where fragments of real, unspoken apologies are woven into the texture as a deeply personal and largely hidden detail.

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Samantha Harlow - Brontës - A-100s - Spencer Krug - Night Swimming - Valo Ato

Samantha Harlow - Ready to Run.

Welcome to the brave, new world of music, performance art, and cinema that is Samantha Harlow’s new project,  By A Thread. Or rather, meet Veronica LaMorte, a dreamy-eyed lounge singer, murdered and then rebuilt by her mad scientist husband. Don’t worry, no spoilers here! As a collection of songs alone, Harlow’s By A Thread, produced by Grammy-nominated, Dex Green, sonically leans into mid-century pop/rock n roll somewhere in the orbit of The Ronnettes and Nancy Sinatra. “I wanted to stretch out beyond Nashville country, and felt more drawn to the sounds of 60s girl groups, beach pop and surf sounds,” says Harlow. 

But it wasn’t until the album was fully tracked at 3Sirens Studio in Nashville, that Harlow had a broader vision to create a companion short film series, where she stars as Veronica LaMorte, and takes inspiration from filmmakers like Ed Wood and Mel Brooks. The result is a Song Cinema collection exploring horror, humor, vulnerability and not being bound by societal norms.

Make no mistake, midwestern Harlow, raised in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, is no typical “girl-next-door.” She may have spent Sunday mornings singing in church alongside a large extended family, but on other days found fascination with 80s hair metal and the oldies station. “I wanted to be Steven Tyler,” says Harlow. An artsy kid that enjoyed dressing up, Harlow went on to study classical and jazz vocal performance in college, followed by an intensive program at Martha’s Vineyard for songwriting and recording. She then moved to Nashville, found disenchanting work at a mattress factory, until one day walked into the legendary honky-tonk, Robert’s Western World and asked for a bartending job. Harlow says this is where her Nashville music education began and grew into working with some of Music City’s finest musicians. 

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Photo - Stephanie Gibson

Brontës - Brontës (Album).

Glasgow band Brontës have released their self-titled debut album via Last Night From Glasgow. Recorded at Beetroot Studios in Airdrie with producer and engineer Stuart MacLeod, Brontës’ eponymous album is a sassy slice of sophisticated pop. Imagine the Tom Tom Club jamming with Chrissy Hynde. A band that has been maturing and building live buzz since their very first single, this promises to be a huge crowd pleaser. 

“Writing, recording and playing this album has been incredible,” the band shared, “Working with Stuart MacLeod at the beginning of the year on the tracks was a special experience, it felt surreal and close to magic. Having the opportunity to use a studio like Beetroot and record with someone who believed in the music as much as we did was truly extraordinary. The album is sassy and jangly, but it is also the most vulnerable we have presented ourselves in our music, which as a band is a big step for us in the new direction. We are ecstatic for people to finally hear what we have been working on together with Beetroot and LNFG, and for what we do next".

Brontës are Eva on vocals/guitar, Amelia on drums/vocals, Erin on guitar/vocals and Katie on bass/vocals. With a brand new look, attitude and sound Brontës have reinvented themselves as a 4-piece rock/pop band influenced by generations of classic pop music such as Sabrina Carpenter, Blondie and The Ronettes.

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A-100s - Too Rad To Be Sad.

Southern California’s A100s are a brand new band nearly a decade in the making from the core songwriting duo of Matt Hensley (accordionist of Flogging Molly) and Sean Wheeler (vocalist of Throw Rag), playing music inspired by vintage ska & reggae with a touch of Conjunto accordion. 

The band have just announced pre-orders for their debut LP Rude and Lovely, co-produced by The Aggrolites’ Roger Rivas, via Pirates Press Records. The LP is scheduled for release on July 10, 2026. The album is available for pre-order from Pirates Press Records (and Coretex Records in Europe). Lead single “Too Rad To Be Sad” is now streaming on all major platforms.

Although their best known projects are known for their distinctive takes on Celtic punk and desert punk, respectively, both Hensley & Wheeler have a deep love of classic Jamaican reggae & ska. Hensley even previously played guitar & keys in the early 90s ska band Spy Kids, several members of whom contribute to A-100s in the studio and onstage. Hensley first pitched the idea for A100s to Wheeler nearly a decade ago in 2017, framing it in the context of vintage ska & reggae sounds with a touch of Conjunto accordion. In the ensuing years, the duo worked on songwriting in between tours by their main bands, and Hensley worked on building a studio.

Over time, an impressive array of collaborators coalesced, and the combined pedigree of the band is truly legendary in the annals of underground music: members of Mariachi El Bronx, Mad Caddies, Smoke & Mirrors Sound System, and folks who have played alongside greats such as Jimmy Cliff, Symarip, Roddy Radiation, and even Tom Petty have all left their mark on this record!

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Spencer Krug - Berserker Mode.

Canadian songwriter Spencer Krug returns with “Berserker Mode,” the second single from his forthcoming album Same Fangs, out May 15 on Pronounced Kroog. Where the album’s first offering leaned inward, “Berserker Mode” shifts the perspective outward. It’s restless, sharp, and a little unpredictable. A song about watching someone move through the world at full tilt, consequences trailing just behind them. Written in the summer of 2024 and first shared as a stripped piano demo, the track went through several iterations before landing in its final form. A synth version came and went. Another piano version reshaped the structure. What stuck was the pulse. A tight, percussive piano performance, locked in with percussion and lifted by the vocal presence of Elbow Kiss, which gives the song its sense of motion and release.

Lyrically, “Berserker Mode” centers on a familiar type. The friend you can’t quite reach, even when you’re right there beside them. The one who keeps blowing up their own life in slow motion, not out of malice, but momentum. They make enemies without meaning to. They move constantly, maybe because standing still would mean facing something harder. 

They don’t really self-censor, and they don’t adjust course. They stick to the version of themselves they’ve chosen, even as it starts to crack. “Your only rose is your own secret rose,” Krug offers, a line that captures both the beauty and the distance at the core of the song. “Musically I love playing this one,” Krug says. “I love the groove. The shapes and patterns on the piano are incredibly pleasing to play, in terms of movement, ergonomics, and tactility. And it’s a fun one to sing.”

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Photo - Derek Bremner

Night Swimming - Nothing Safe Is Technicolour.

UK-based risers Night Swimming share new single 'Nothing Safe Is Technicolour', the final reveal from their forthcoming second EP 'Melting, Sometimes Bleeding', out 22nd May via Venn Records. Following their 2024 breakout debut EP 'No Place To Land', which cemented them as a vital addition to the country’s new wave of dream-pop acts, Night Swimming have since drawn admirers from some of the genre’s original icons and toured extensively with the likes of Heartworms, bdrmm, Miki Berenyi and Pale Blue Eyes.

New single and EP opener 'Nothing Safe Is Technicolour' moves from a shadowy, trip-hop-leaning opening into a surge of crushing shoegaze, anchored by Meg Jones’ soft, close-up vocal - capturing the rush of new connection alongside a creeping sense of disorientation, as questions of perceived identity begin to surface ("Am I real, or a hologram?")

Speaking on the release of new single, vocalist and lyricist Meg Jones said: "‘Nothing Safe Is Technicolour’ is about opening yourself up again to love and also the possibility of being hurt. It is about meeting a person who sparks something in you, and makes you feel alive in a way you haven’t done for a long time. It is laced with unease at the idea of being rejected once the initial glow fades and less desirable parts of yourself are revealed. The song is a commitment to showing up as your full self, and expresses anxiety at the thought of losing yourself in an effort to meet another person’s needs or ideals."

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Valo Ato - 1 & 1/2.

Valo Ato began as a series of loose studio sessions, where Melby's Matilda Wiezell and Lucifer Sunshine's Jonas Persson set out to explore ideas and genres they hadn’t previously had the space to pursue in other projects. What started as an open-ended experiment quickly took shape, evolving into a full five-piece featuring some of Stockholm’s most compelling indie musicians.

Drawing on influences from shoegaze and grunge, Valo Ato’s sound moves between hazy textures and heavier, more grounded passages, something the band themselves describe simply as “stoner indie.” 

Jonas explains that the name Valo Ato is a tribute to his South Sámi family roots, combining Valovardo, the mountain behind the family’s summer house where he spent much of his childhood, and Atostugan, one of the first Sámi-built houses allowed to remain standing after his great-grandmother fiercely defended it from demolition. While the songs do not necessarily deal with these themes directly, the landscapes of Lapland remain a constant source of inspiration in the songwriting.

Debut single "1 & 1/2" is out now via Rama Lama Records. On May 30th Valo Ato plays the Echo Three Fest in Stockholm alongside Cabaret Voltaire, Bo Ningen, Makthaverskan, Ulrika Spacek and more.

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Chalcedony - Dysmusia - Izzy Oram Brown

Chalcedony - Dollandia.

Chalcedony’s single Dollandia off recent ep “capsule” is a distorted dream state tangle of live-off-the-floor trippy noise, moody yet tempting lead vocals, and haunting doll lullaby backups. 

With the aesthetic and lyrics inspired by cult classic film “Valley of the Dolls”, the song is also a nod (pun very much intended) to mental health and prescription medications for depression, anxiety, insomnia and sleep disturbances such as night terrors, sleep paralysis and hypnogogic hallucinations. Dollandia, being the escape...but with overuse, consequences follow.

The single and ep was recorded and mixed by producer Felix Fung at Little Red Sounds in New Westminster, BC last summer. Dollandia’s single art features an original custom painting by drummer Vanessa Gidden. Cate Whatever, Gillian Callander and Vanessa are also currently self-producing the forthcoming music video for which they will be directing and art directing.

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Dysmusia - Where Does This Road Go.

Dysmusia is an Irish musician whose sound blends the heart of Antrim folk traditions with a modern edge of indie-rock. Based between Antrim and Dublin, he carries the influence of both rural roots and city creativity in everything he creates. Born into a deeply musical family, he picked up the guitar at just eight years old, teaching himself to play while surrounded by the rhythms and melodies of Irish country and show-band culture. His father performed in show bands, one brother took to the drums, and the other to bass—music wasn’t just a hobby in the household, it was the family language

I grew up in a mixed corner of Ballymena, though the wider town carried strong voices and stronger traditions, where difference could feel quietly magnified. On warm, still early‑summer evenings you’d hear drums drifting across the air, part of the atmosphere, even if not our world.

I never felt fully one thing or another, always slightly out of step, a lifelong minoratist. Later in Dublin I was still gently set apart, a ‘Nordy’ by shorthand, as if belonging always came with a small condition. My music comes from that in‑between place, the margins, the echoes, and the quiet ache that settles in as youth slips into memory.

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Photo - Nico Hedley

Izzy Oram Brown - Love U the Same.

released today we have the first single "Love U The Same" from the debut full-length by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Izzy Oram Brown. As a fixture in the Brooklyn indie scene, Izzy Oram Brown has been featured as a collaborator in rising bands such as Why Bonnie and Youbet. Stepping into her own with her full-length, What I Want is full of unexpected surprises and moments of instrumentation and sound design that go way beyond a singer-songwriter affair. 

 “Love U the Same”—a plainspoken, broadly strummed pop ballad and the emotional highwater mark of Izzy Oram Brown’s new LP What I Want—sketches out a journey toward accepting emotional paradox. Singing in hushed but soulful tones that bring to mind Christine McVie, the Massachusetts-born, Queens-dwelling songwriter returns to chords that she reframes in every verse, setting up a resolution that never comes, mirroring the lost promise of a broken compact between lovers who really tried to make it work. 

An ambiguous chord, neither bright or despairing, frames both an admission of hurt and bittersweet statement of re-devotion (“But no matter what I do or say, you’re with me.”) It is only after the narrator accepts that only time can make mutual empathy and acceptance possible that the harmony settles and the arrangement expands: “If we tire of the work/of finding who’s to blame/I will remember/I love you the same.” With its nostalgic, carefully arced melody and lyrics, the song holds pain, contradiction, and a genuine warmth of spirit easily. It’s a combination which often eludes even the greatest artists who write about romantic wires getting crossed.

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Orange Animal - Zach Seabaugh - Shooter Jennings

Orange Animal - Place for Me.

Orange Animal's new single Place for Me, is a song that begins in emptiness and slowly fills with something deeper, warmer, and harder to let go of. It feels like sitting alone in a dark auditorium, staring into a low-burning fire. The air is heavy. The silence stretches. And then, without warning, something shifts. The flames rise. The room fills. Voices return. The people you love find their way back in.

What starts as isolation becomes connection. What sits heavy in your chest begins to move.At its core, Place for Me is a question. A vulnerable one. One that lingers long after the music fades.

“My mind falls down to a lonely place - My eyes no more to see your face - If you feel me near to some degree - Will you hold a place for me?”

There’s a raw honesty here. Regret, longing, and the quiet hope that even when things fall apart, something of us remains with the people we love. But this isn’t just about loss. It’s about release. About taking what sits heavy inside and letting it transform into something that makes you stronger, fuller, more open than before.

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Photo - Emma Golden

Zach Seabaugh - Eastern Time.

Nashville artist Zach Seabaugh has shared a new single “Eastern Time” on Cloverdale Records (Evan Honer, Winyah, Sam Burchfield). Glide Magazine premiered the homesick tune, noting “Steel guitar, gorgeous harmonies, and a triumphant piano serve as a perfect complement to Seabaugh’s heartfelt and soulful lyrical tale of pining for home.”
 
Written on tour somewhere along the West Coast, “Eastern Time” paints a stark picture of a rambling man longing for home. Seabaugh’s soulful vocals glide like honey over a growling electric: Goodbye California / Like the west coast sun / I’m a man-on-the run / She’s living on Eastern Time. As the song unfolds, his ache billows out over impassioned piano, giving way to a howling chorus.
 
“I’m not one to stay in the same place for too long,” Seabaugh shares. “I enjoy travel, the adventure of it, but I have to recharge my battery for it,” he shares. “No matter where I go, where life takes me, I’ll always go home to Georgia.”

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Shooter Jennings - When I'm Stoned ft. Willie Nelson.

Today, Shooter Jennings pays tribute to his longtime friend Jason Boland with a cover of “When I’m Stoned” featuring Willie Nelson. Shooter Jennings explains, “I’ve known Jason Boland for more than half my life. I saw him playing songs in bars. I opened for him the day we got thrown in jail in Baylor County for weed. So naturally, when they asked me to do this project, I enthusiastically agreed and called Willie Nelson to help me out. Boland is a diamond and he’s one of the guys that influenced a lot of what is going on in today’s country music, so it was my pleasure to honor my old friend.”

The cover of “When I’m Stoned” marks the second release in the Hellponies Archives series, named after Boland’s fanbase The Hell Ponies. Late last year, the series began with Flatland Cavalry’s take on “Somewhere Down In Texas” that led Whiskey Riff to proclaim, “While the music [Boland] is creating today is well worth listening to, there is something about the songs on that debut project that proved Boland would be a timeless staple of the red dirt scene. So timeless that new artists are revisiting these tunes and breathing new life into them two decades after their release.”

Last year, Jason Boland & The Stragglers released their Lloyd Maines-produced LP The Last Kings Of Babylon, which garnered widespread acclaim from No Depression, The Tennessean, American Songwriter and Rolling Stone who profiled the “Red Dirt King” in an extensive feature saying, “Nearly every force driving the current renaissance in country music is one that Boland embodies so thoroughly that it cannot be construed in a buzz word.”

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