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Serbian-Canadian musician Dana Gavanski will release her debut album, Yesterday Is Gone, on March 27th via Flemish Eye Records (Canada), Ba Da Bing Records (Americas) and Full Time Hobby (Rest of the World). This weekend she presents “Small Favours”, the final single before the album release later this month. Dana shared her state of mind when she wrote “Small Favours” and how it came to her in a song. “Small Favours expresses cheekiness. A playful dismissal of heaviness and getting bogged down by emotions, acknowledging how things may seem small when they’re big and big when they’re small.”
By turns break-up album, project of curiosity, and, as Dana puts it, “a reckoning with myself,” Yesterday Is Gone is an album of longing and devotion to longing, and of the uncertainty that arises from learning about oneself, of pushing boundaries, falling hard, and getting back up. Moments of beguilement splinter a backdrop of tenderly picked guitar, bass, synth, and poppier elements, which commune to produce her own kind of wall of sound. Each component is meticulously placed, yielding a deeply sincere response to the chaos of human emotion.
Yesterday Is Gone was co-produced between Dana, Toronto-based musician Sam Gleason, and Mike Lindsay (Tunng and LUMP w/ Laura Marling). While Sam helped Dana bring out the tunes, Mike’s input marked the beginning of developing Dana’s sound. The two kept stripped it down to the essentials, keeping things bare and letting the songs speak for themselves. The album shapeshifted as it passed through the hands of Dana, Sam, and Mike, taking on different tastes, feelings, and visions. When Dana performed the songs with a band, they found new form again. She was intrigued by performers like David Bowie and Aldous Harding, who inhabit different personalities on stage, physically tuning themselves to their music.
“Often we have to go a little far in one direction to learn something about ourselves,” Dana says. The months of solitary writing and self-doubt testify to this, but they’ve led to Yesterday Is Gone: an optimistic, steely-eyed gaze into the future.
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Jakob's Ferry Stragglers are eager and ready to release their first live album into the world, titled "The Straggle is Live". The album is a curation of the group's greatest hits and was recorded live at The Church Recording Studio by Dana Cannone. The set was performed on 10/9/19 with a private, invite-only intimate audience. It was mixed & mastered by Will Shenk at Metier Mastering in Front Royal, VA.
“The Straggle is Live'' started with an idea to capture the animated onstage energy of the band, in a controlled studio environment. It’s not often that a recorded bluegrass album truly matches the sights and sounds of seeing the talent live in-person.
The team took this task to heart and has produced an outcome where the at-home listener can truly understand what it means to be at a live Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers show. "Poison River (LIVE)" will be released ahead of the full album, which is set for a drop date of May 22, 2020, at their first-time appearance at legendary The Station Inn in Nashville, ahead of their weekend at DelFest in Cumberland, MD.
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Glenn Thomas new song is called "Catherine Ames," named for the antagonist of Steinbeck's East Of Eden. In it, Glenn sings to Catherine and cathartically tells her he's let her go. The song is about resolution and moving forward.
Glenn says of "Catherine Ames": "This song takes it name from the antagonist in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Cathy Ames. She’s pretty evil and causes a lot of pain for the main character. This song is about holding on to pain and anger as though they are part of your identity.
Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting, and as with any kind of healing and moving forward, it takes time. There was a moment for me when I realized I wasn’t holding onto something in my past that hurt me and had become part of me for years, and it was a really cathartic thing to write about. I pulled Steinbeck’s character name because there is a similar theme of resolution and moving forward in that story that was relatable, and he’s one of my favorite American authors."
He's such a poetically clever songwriter, and his sound is like Brit-pop-inspired folky vintage sunshine. Would you be willing to share this one? The song is out officially on 3/20. We'd be so grateful for the support!
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Unfair is representative of our sound – a hybrid of pop, rock and electro, as if these genres never split apart but remained a single, fused supercontinent.
The track is a good way to discover our music.
It’s a ballad, maybe our most subtly mutant song, one you can curl up in and sail away, as smooth as Black’s ‘Wonderful Life’ blended with Garbage and Archive.
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Jennah's new single is entitled 'Rocket'. Quote from Jennah: "Rocket is about acting on impulse and saying things you can’t take back."
"Rocket" comes from the gorgeous Jennah Barry LP Holiday, coming March 27th 2020 on Forward Music Group. Majorly recommended for fans of Andy Shauf, whose bandmate Colin Nealis produced the LP, the songs here are built to last, with echoes of those soft-rock classics often referred to as "AM gold."
Barry's vocals are warm and weave through the arrangements with so much skill. The arrangements are full and pillowey but always pull up short of being cloying or overdone, more-so than the source material she's referencing. This record is like catnip for me, honestly, just a true pleasure to listen to.
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