Gitika Partington - Susto Stringband - Derby Hill

Gitika Partington - Call Your Name.

Gitika Partington just dropped a new lyric video for ‘Call Your Name’ from her record breaking ‘Twelvefold’ project. As a reminder: Songwriter and choral director/arranger Gitika Partington has released thirteen albums simultaneously, and without originally setting out to, she has broken the current world record for the most albums released in one day, which as of 2025 stood at twelve.

Comprising 130 original songs written and recorded over a five-year period, the project began with the idea of nine albums. Then ten. Twelve became the structure. Thirteen turned up anyway.

Thirteen albums, crafted over five years and released simultaneously, represent more than just a prolific outpouring of music. This act is not intended as a grand statement or a play for acclaim, but rather as an invite, open permission for everyone to embrace their creativity without having a critic in the room or in their head. It also feels like a proper ‘release’ akin to setting a huge flock of birds free all in one go in one sky, rather than drip feeding the algorithms. The simultaneous release encourages us all to let go of the need for approval or traditional measures of success, reminding us that art can exist purely for its own sake in whatever form we like. And that it is bloody good fun. One little piece of fun can turn into a volume of work if you just keep doing it regularly and steadily.

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Photo - Mia Al-Taher

Susto Stringband - Hard Drugs Ft. Morgan Wade.

Susto Stringband, the alt-country group led by frontman Justin Osborne, announces the release of Susto Stringband (Volume 2) on May 29 via Missing Piece Records. This LP follows last year’s Susto Stringband (Volume 1), which featured bluegrass and old-time reworkings of seven SUSTO favorites alongside two new compositions in collaboration with Asheville’s Holler Choir. The upcoming album continues this collaboration, with a solidified line up of Clint Roberts, Jackson Grimm, Nat Copeland, Helena Rose and Joey Brown plus with the added help of friends Morgan Wade, Joshua Hedley and Madeline Dieruaf.

To preview the project, the group has shared first single “Hard Drugs (featuring Morgan Wade)”, a heart wrenching reimagining of the classic Susto track.On the upcoming LP, Osborne reflects: “This album was so much fun to make over the last year. The band really came together on the road after the release of Volume 1, and this new record naturally came together too, along the way. Between shows we were writing songs in the van, and squeezing in studio time whenever we could. It was a really fun and natural process, and I’m really proud of the finished product.” 

About “Hard Drugs (featuring Morgan Wade),” he shares: “Having Morgan join us for ‘Hard Drugs’ was a dream come true. I’ve been a fan of her music and who she is as a person, for a long time, and I was so glad she was interested in collaborating for this project. She picked ‘Hard Drugs’ as the song to feature on, and I’m so glad she did, because her vocals brought that song to life for me in a whole new way, and I’m excited to finally be sharing this version with the world!”

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Derby Hill - Restless and Forgiven.

Derby Hill is a Detroit-born, Chicago-based singer-songwriter recognized for his "Neo Sincerity" approach to Americana and folk music. His work is deeply rooted in the imagery of blue-collar neighborhoods and the "grit and glitter" of everyday life. Hill’s music blends elements of folk, country, roots, and rock. 

Drawing inspiration from legendary storytellers like Steve Earle, Leonard Cohen, and John Prine, he focuses on narrative songwriting that explores themes of family, love, struggle, loss, quiet hope and redemption. Hill describes his artistic mission as documenting "ordinary lives with uncommon" observation, seeking to provide a sense of connection through unvarnished, truthful storytelling. 

Indie Dock Music Blog noted that his music "wears its working-class credentials not as affectation but as essential DNA," adding that he "understands that the most profound truths often emerge from the least adorned spaces". Illustrate Magazine wrote that "Derby Hill leans in close, as it reminds you that resilience often leaves you feeling, somehow, a little less alone".

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Dustaphonics - Slow Burn Drifters - Kensie Coppin - Susto Stringband

Dustaphonics - Gasolina (Album).

The Franco-British band, Dustaphonics, proudly announces the release of their fifth album, Gasolina today, through KingAling Production London. With 12 tracks that dance through the realms of Rock , Pop Rock, Surf, and Garage Soul, Gasolina promises to be a captivating addition to the band's eclectic discography.

About the Album: Gasolina is not just an album; it's an experience where the raw energy of rock 'n' roll meets contemporary flair. Led by the charismatic Yvan Serrano, Dustaphonics have crafted a sound that pays homage to the roots of rock while exploring new musical territories. The album features collaborations with renowned artists like Lisa Kekaula and Bob Vennum of The Bellrays, and psychobilly legend Mark Robertson of The Meteors, adding diverse and dynamic layers to the tracks.

The Band: Founded in London in 2008 by guitarist, producer, and composer Yvan Serrano (also known as DJ Healer Selecta), Dustaphonics has always been about the fusion of various musical influences. Their sound, a cocktail of rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, surf rock, garage rock, and soul, has captivated audiences worldwide. Noted for their dynamic live performances, the band continues to blend the old with the new, making Gasolina a testament to their evolving musical journey.

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Photo - Darko Todorovic

Slow Burn Drifters - Golden (Album).

Singer-guitarist Ray Vale of Slow Burn Drifters selected their tantalizing band name “for what someone’s about to hear,” exemplifying his dark, dreamy, elegiacally timeless vocals and guitars. He’s joined by the resplendent piano playing of Violet Booth on their album Golden, out today March 7th, 2025. Vale’s dramatic and passionate wide-screen vocals and songs and playing will please devoted fans of artists like Nick Drake and Scott Walker, and of the kind of music that haunts the frames of David Lynch films.

Vale grew up in Northern NJ looking at the Manhattan skyline, and now he’s living in Austria looking at a very different boundary between earth and sky. Vale has written all the songs for Golden, the debut full-length for Slow Burn Drifters, but this is Vale’s 12th album. “In comparison to the other records I’ve put out, this one is more personal; it’s also more melodic,” Vale reveals.  “Additionally, Violet’s piano plays a key role in most songs, whereas it was more textural and decorative in the past.”

The jouissance behind the band name is how it resonates with the beauty and terror of literature, cinema, and other, esoteric forms of expression. “On top of that, when I look around, it seems like the average attention span is shrinking by the hour,” Vale says. “A film, book, or song that's a ‘slow burn’ is on the verge of extinction, but it's exactly what we cherish: things that need to be absorbed and lived in to be understood: Romance, tragedy, and transformation …”

As for what the ten-song cycle Golden is about, Vale explains “I heard an interview once where someone was asked about eternity,” Vale says. “I think it might've been Joseph Campbell, and he said something like, ‘Eternity isn't a long time; it's what stands outside of time.’ That always stuck with me—the album title refers to that state of being, or a part of us that remains unchanged by time and moves past the appearance of separateness, like sunrise and sunset, it's a song about pain and loss, hope, or anything in between, that's the golden prism through which the album's songs are being viewed.”

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Kensie Coppin - Texas in Me.

Kensie Coppin’s new single “Texas in Me” is smokin' hot! Kensie’s talent and love for her native state is deep seated in this song.  She’s  a  CMA of Texas Artist of the Year and she penned Kin Faux’s #1 single “My Kind of Weathered”.  With “Texas in Me” Kensie cuts loose with her own vocal in her own song and reminds us why we love our Texas Country music!

Kensie Coppin is a powerhouse singer and songwriter born and raised in Texas. Her first Grand Ole Opry performances were at ages 11 & 12. While living in Nashville, Kensie spent her time writing with award winning songwriters and building a catalog of songs of her own that are being recorded by other up and coming artists. Now back in Texas, Kensie just received the #1 song in Texas for 3 weeks in a row across 3 different charts performed by Kin Faux.

Kensie also won CMA of Texas Artist Of The Year for 2022. Kensie has her own music out and continues to release new music alongside her career of performing, touring, recording and writing songs for herself and other artists. Kensie has many aspirations, and has accomplished much in her career thus far. She has been her own boss for over a decade, and fights for the independent artist and songwriter. She continues to expand her horizons, including touring internationally. Co-writers include: D. Vincent Williams, James LeBlanc, Phillip White, Curly Putnam, Dale Dodson, Jeff Silvey, Bernie Nelson, Lance Carpenter, Big Vinny, Barrett Baber, Helene Cronin, Scott Sean White, Emma Zinck, Blue Foley, Trick Savage & more.

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Susto Stringband - Never Losing Me.

Susto Stringband will release their debut album, Susto Stringband: Volume 1, on March 28, 2025 via New West Records. The 9-track set was produced by Ryan Stigmon and recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, NC. The debut album is a collaborative work between Justin Osborne, frontman of the acclaimed rock outfit Susto, and the Asheville-based Americana band Holler Choir. It features nine of Osborne’s ballads, refrains, and heart wrenching confessions, now drenched in the singular Appalachian sound of Holler Choir’s verdant harmonies and stringed arrangements.

Seven Susto staples have been reworked with bluegrass arrangements in Holler Choir’s company alongside 2 new compositions. Osborne’s introspective musings on love, devastating loss, mortality, and transcendence are steeped in the emotive punch of traditional string band sound. Susto Stringband presents an Arcadia like vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature, but with Osborne’s lyrics, there are landmines to dodge and mountains to climb.

Susto’s Justin Osborne says, “This is the first song that I’ve ever written with the specific intent of recording it as a stringband. In the last several years I’ve navigated a lot of major changes in my life, and the most profound of those has been becoming a parent. As a touring musician, I am always coming and going, and it can be tough to balance work and family life. I wrote this song for my daughter (who was 3 at the time) as a message she could reflect on later in life. Now, as a father of 2, I really think of both of my kids when I sing this song, and it serves as a way for me to feel close to them every time I sing it. It’s a promise from me to them, that although I may be gone often, I’m always there for them and they will never lose my deep love for them.”

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