Mear - Tom Jenkins - Charm Of Finches - Charlotte Rose Benjamin

Photo - Jen Squires

Mear - I'll Love You.

Mear is an indie pop collaboration between singer-songwriter Frances Miller and electronic composer Greg Harrison. Together, their music combines catchy melodies and poignant lyrics with their shared love of experimental music. Their  debut LP Soft Chains was released on Friday. 

"I'll Love You," tells a make-believe story about a breakup during the apocalypse. The song itself is meant to take on a cinematic feel. Miller was inspired by blockbusters like Armageddon and Titanic. The idea of leaving someone you love behind, the idea of heroes, and the sacrifice that people make for others left a weirdly profound impact on her.

We wanted this song to take listeners on an emotional journey. The song has three distinct sections which could be best interpreted as Anticipation, Storm/Conflict, Loss/ Mourning. We also wanted to leave space for the music to tell a story when the lyrics are absent, which allowed us to emphasize the moods of these sections. – Greg Harrison

Soft Chains was self-produced and recorded in Harrison's home studio in Toronto and was a result of the band being able to experiment and explore their sound over the years. There is a prominent theme of personal struggle and growth with mental health. Mear's shared experiences allowed them to pour everything they had to offer into these songs.

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Tom Jenkins - Magic Mushroom Island.

Following his recent signing to Xtra Mile Recordings, ex-Straight Lines frontman Tom Jenkins has unveiled an anthemic new single that veers towards fresh sonic territory. Straying slightly from his acoustic folk-tinged roots, “Magic Mushroom Island” is an exhilarating new cut with larger-than-life instrumentals and an exultant earworm chorus. Building to an electric crescendo with roiling riffs and a colossal guitar breakdown that nods to the legendary works of Led Zeppelin, Jenkins is also joined at the track’s climax by esteemed Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell.

Where previous single “Back Roads” was a softly simmering country-tinged track that paid homage to Jenkins’ affinity for agriculture, “Magic Mushroom Island” bubbles over with blistering vocals and rip-roaring riffs. Buoyant and broiling in equal measure, the track’s influences are as multifarious as its sound, with everything from cult Leonardo DiCaprio film ‘The Beach’ to hallucinogen-hungry university students and iconic rock artists of old cited as influences.

Speaking on the story behind the single, Tom explains: “When writing the new album I wanted to slightly break the singer-songwriter mould and go against the indie-folk sound of my first album. “Magic Mushroom Island” draws influences from some of my favourite rock bands, such as Fugazi, Silverchair and Manic Street Preachers.

Lyrically, the song is a celebration of strangers in the depth of lockdown. I had not left my farm in the hills of the South Wales Valleys or seen a soul for weeks, until a number of random people started showing up and scouring the fields. Apparently word was getting around a local uni that our fields were rich in Magic Mushrooms and it was quite the hot spot. It reminded me of the film ‘The Beach’ which influenced the title. This random occurrence did bring much joy and laughter with strangers to a somewhat lonely time.”

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Charm Of Finches - River.

Ahead of their first-ever UK headline tour - Charm Of Finches - are releasing a spine-tingling rendition of Joni Mitchell’s classic single: “River”. Nodding to one of the natural world’s most beautiful and life-nurturing features, the release of “River” coincided with this year’s Earth Day.

Adorned with the hymnal vocal harmonies and spacious arrangements that define the duo’s trademark sound, Charm of Finches conjure a breathtaking version that showcases the band’s singular talents, while also paying fitting homage to one of the all time songwriting greats.

Initially recorded as an exclusive for their Patrons last year, the track is now being made available as part of an upcoming acoustic EP entitled ‘Bluest Colour’, which will feature a mixture of covers and alternative versions of previously released tracks. Full release details will be revealed in due course. 

Speaking about the choice of cover, Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes say: “We’ve been listening to a lot of the artists from Laurel Canyon and that era for a secret project we are working on. We’ve loved diving into the lyricism of Joni Mitchell, and felt an immediate affinity with the lyrics “I wish I had a river so long, I would teach my feet to fly” - we have had itchy feet to travel with our music since forever, and now, with our UK/Europe tour finally upon us, we get to fly… Our song “Canyon” carries the same longing to leap into the unknown, to get going on an adventure. ”

 

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Charlotte Rose Benjamin - Louis.

Brooklyn-based artist Charlotte Rose Benjamin self-released her debut album Dreamtina. Taking influence from the likes of Liz Phair, Sheryl Crow and Courtney Barnett, Benjamin pairs roaring guitars with blunt and honest lyrics about love and heartache and the blurred line in between. Benjamin has also released a music video for her single “Louis.”

“My straight male friend had this running joke where he would refer to hot neighborhood girls as ‘Tina’s,’” says Benjamin, explaining the inspiration behind the album’s title. “‘Coffeeshop-Tina’ was the cute girl who worked at the coffee shop, a  girl literally riding by on a bike was ‘BLT (Bike Lane Tina).’ ‘Dream-Tina’ obviously meant dream girl,'' she continues. “The ‘Dreamtina’ concept is kind of a study on wanting  to be desirable. I’ve never felt like the cool girl at the party and as far as I’m concerned, romantic love is the most important and exciting thing in the entire  world. I still feel like a teenager in that way.”

For her debut album, Benjamin chose to go without a label, which, she says, “is an amazing amount of work and money, but I made absolutely no compromises and I’m  prouder of it than anything I’ve ever done before.” Self produced alongside her bandmates, Nardo Ochoa, Matti Dunietz and Zoe Zeeman, the album was funded by Benjamin’s day-job working as a model in New York. Under the Radar broke the news of the album in February, premiering the pyromaniac-puppet-show video for her song “Satisfied,” calling the song “an irresistible power pop hook, paired with instantly quotable lyrics.” 

Vanyaland reviewed her single “Slot Machine,” simply calling it “a catchy ass song.” The album’s singles have received praise from Clout Magazine, God Is In The TV, We All Want Someone to Shout For and more. Early singles “deep cut” and “Cumbie’s Parking Lot” were released last year and spent more than 10 weeks featured on Spotify’s Fresh Finds: Indie playlist. Most recently, Benjamin played alongside Japanese Breakfast and Weyes Blood as part of The Unfinished Fest at SXSW.

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Tamar Berk - John Salaway feat. Chelsea Gilliland - Terry Emm

Tamar Berk - June Lake.

The indie pop singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Tamar Berk has released the music video for “June Lake” the focus track from upcoming full length album Start At The End, which was just released yesterday. Following the release of her acclaimed debut solo album The Restless Dreams Of Youth, which was recently nominated for Best Pop Album and Album of the Year 2021 at the San Diego Music Awards, this new album was written and recorded during the pandemic lockdown and in the wake of the death of Tamar’s father, but Start At The End is not as morose or downtrodden as that subject matter would imply, as Tamar has found a way to create liberating, emotionally captivating indie pop / rock catharsis from personal tragedy.

Unlike previous singles from the album “Tragic Endings” and “your permission” (the latter of which was featured on NPR’s new music friday playlist), “June Lake'' is one of the softer and more introspective tracks on the album, and indie folk ballad that shows off the range of styles Tamar is able to incorporate into this new album. Discussing her inspiration behind this song, Tamar writes “‘June Lake’ is track 5 off of my new album “Start at the End.” 

It’s a song about my deep desire to escape to an ever-elusive destination that I always talk about but never get around to. Though June Lake is a real place, I’ve never actually been there...and so in my mind, it’s become a symbolize for a place that might exist or only exists in my mind…it’s about the confusion of wanting to move forward but also go back, and actually feeling stuck and unsure of which step to take. My dad passed away last June and so in many ways…’June' is always going to have a significance for me.”

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John Salaway - Toxic Lovesick feat. Chelsea Gilliland.

Since moving to Nashville in the early 2000s, John Salaway has become one of the city's most accomplished musicians, holding down a weekly residency at BB King's Blues Club while also playing shows with Peter Frampton, Ben Folds, Anderson East, Zach Williams, and Denny Laine from the Moody Blues and Paul McCartney's Wings. 

He's a multi-instrumentalist who can easily switch between drums, guitar, and piano. With 2021's Salvation, he was able to show the full range of his abilities, recording the album with members of the Foo Fighters, Cage the Elephant, Smashing Pumpkins, and Peter Frampton's Band.

His forthcoming single, "Toxic Lovesick," featuring Chelsea Gilliland of Nashville rock band CHLSY, has a unique origin story. "CHLSY and I were pitted against each other in the Lightning 100 Music City Mayhem competition. We both admired the other's song submitted to the competition," explains Salaway. "I ended up winning the round, but we decided to get together and collaborate and this song is the result. Chelsea made a post on Instagram about noticing a pattern of being attracted to toxic relationships so when we got together to co-write, I thought that should be what we wrote about."

Along with playing all of the instruments on the track, Salaway produced "Toxic Lovesick" at his Murfreesboro, TN studio Music First Productions.

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Terry Emm - Wish You Were here.

‘Wish You Were Here’, the new single from Hertfordshire singer-songwriter Terry Emm is both a trip down memory lane and the start of a new era for the artist.

His first release since 2018’s ‘Ornate’ EP, the poignant single sees Emm revisit a song from his second album from over ten years ago, with new collaborator Lukas Drinkwater (Emily Barker, Annie Howie, Jacob & Drinkwater) on production duties and adding new instruments. The track is now taken in a stunning new direction with a carefully crafted velveteen 70s vintage sound that tugs on the heart strings with its wide-eyed sentiments of love and loss.

“The song is a reworking of a track called ‘Here’ from my 2012 ‘Petals Fallen Off The Sun’ album”, says Emm. “That album was my ‘difficult second album’ in many ways and I always felt like ‘Here’ was one of my best songs that hadn’t quite been realized yet and one day I’d revisit it. The idea stuck with me for some time, niggling away, so I felt like it must be done. So now, in a way to introduce myself back into the world of music, I thought why not touch on the past but also bring things up to date at the same time.”

Like all of his previous works, the single draws lyrically on Emm’s unique take on the world and again exhibits his non-routine way of structuring and composing songs. Now wrapped in a classic Americana singer-songwriter coat, with Lukas Drinkwater’s superb Fender Rhodes & double bass flourishes, ‘Wish You Were Here’ has been enriched.

“Every recording is subjective and captures a creative moment in time as it is and that’s what can make re-visiting songs years later in a new production setting really fun. When demoing material, I always end up with so many versions of songs and you almost want to release all of them with all their variations.” Emm explains. “Lately, I have also been relating to this particular song’s themes again and it has been cathartic to open up to it again. It felt like the song maybe had more to say or do somehow in the world at this time”, he adds.

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Art Moore - Martin Leary - Certain Animals - Fe Salomon

Art Moore - Snowy.

Art Moore, a new project from Taylor Vick (best known as the songwriter behind Boy Scouts) and Ezra Furman collaborators Sam Durkes and Trevor Brooks, are announcing their signing to ANTI- and the release of their debut single "Snowy."

Durkes, Brooks and Vick first set out to collaborate with the intended goal of pitching their music for film and television projects. Durkes, a member of Furman’s band, had just completed work on Furman’s soundtrack for the Netflix series Sex Education and knew Brooks through his own work with Furman. The pair were already familiar with Vick, who had established herself as a prolific cult solo artist with Boy Scouts, and asked if she would be interested in assisting for their gestational soundtrack project. The idea of Art Moore, as a band, or Art Moore was still a ways away.

“We all met up at the studio, and it was never even like, ‘Let’s be a band’, that was never a thing,” recalls Durkes. “It was more like, ‘Let’s write for movies and art projects’ — let’s think of a movie scene or a photograph or still image and see if we can write some shit around it to see if we can pitch it.”

Decamping to a studio in Oakland in January 2020, it quickly became clear that the three musicians worked well together. They fell into an easy rhythm: Brooks and Durkes would work on a track from the instrumental demos they had made together, while Vick sat outside, writing melodies and lyrics. When she was done, she would come inside, lay down what she had written, and the process would repeat. The trio’s remarkable efficiency gave them confidence that they could work on something with more depth than what had been the projects initial scope.

“Four songs in, I think, after the first recording session, we realized it was going well, and it was pretty efficient,” says Brooks. “Making music with both Sam and Taylor has always been so easy. I record other artists, and it’s pretty rare to be so quickly on the same page with people. We don't have to say much — we kind of get where each other is coming from. It happens way too easily.”

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Martin Leary - Waiting For.

Martin Leary is an indie rock and alternative artist based in Glasgow. Releasing debut EP “The Fear” in late 2019, Martin became a bit of a studio artist working in the HQ Glasgow, with producer and owner Gregor McPhie, through lockdown releasing “All in Good Time EP” and various singles such as “

Both official music videos for “Angel” and “Sleeps Alone” were shortlisted on the Weekender Music Video of the Year for 2021 and 2020 respectively. These can be streamed on Youtube channel.

After playing various semi acoustic gigs with Calum Doherty joining on lead guitar towards the gig of 2021. The pair are now joined with JP (bass) and Craig Lennon (drums) to complete a full band ready for gigging. Debut gig as a band will be in Glasgow - Audio - 4th of June.

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Certain Animals - Grief.

Grief begins as a piano ballad based on classical songwriters, where, as it turns out, the venom is in his tail. Echoes of Abbey Road and fragments of Electric Light Orchestra merge into an extremely warm track, about a romance that has gone cold.

Beatlesque choirs sing that sometimes love means letting go. With their hearts on their toes, and both feet firmly rooted in the old-fashioned concept of just making good songs, Certain Animals march on to a crescendo of harpsichord and glockenspiel to finally play the final chord on a piano that, like the song of love, has not withstood the times. 

With the release of their last two singles Midnight TV and Angels In Disguise, Certain Animals has now reached a larger audience in their home country of the Netherlands. The band has already been invited twice to play songs live on national TV. 

Hold On, Sun King and Younger Than Now, the first three singles have also been very well received by the media internationally. The singles were added to playlists on national radio stations. In Belgium single Younger Than Now was on the playlist of national radio VRT 2 and played on Studio Brussel the national pop station. 

In the US and the UK you still can hear all singles on Amazing Radio USA and Amazing Radio UK. Other countries where Certain Animals' music was played on radio are: the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Belgium, Croatia, Canada, USA, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Poland.

TCBYML · Certain Animals - Grief

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Fe Salomon - All Or Nothing.

Continuing an arc of lyrically evocative and sonically adventurous single releases so far in 2022, Fe Salomon, returns with a brand new track: “All Or Nothing”. Released on 20th April, the new single finds the rising solo artist conjuring a cinematic alternative/pop masterclass from painterly reminiscence. Taking the listener back to a period strewn with precarious paths, toxic friendships and difficult choices, it’s a song that ultimately finds Salomon summoning strength from sour times. 

“‘All Or Nothing’ is a song about a shared journey coming to an end” affirms Fe. “It’s inspired by a group of friends. Friendships that were often toxic, yet comforting and familiar.  Set in the imagery of walking from the Holloway Road in London, to the east coast of England with the hope of turning over a new chapter.” 

With her back against the wall and faced with the decision to go “All Or Nothing”; Fe’s gamble has evidently paid-off in dividends, with this resultant single making for a richly rewarding listen, laced with a resonant emotional gravity. 

Initially written in a hotel room, the track was fully finished in 2021 with the assistance of esteemed classical arranger: Johnny Parry, of whom Fe was once a member of the Johnny Parry Trio with. Featuring soaring classical strings and makeshift drum kits, the track’s stuttering percussives owe their origins to household kitchen curiosities including woks and pans; offering a delectably avant-garde counterpoint to the track’s lush orchestral stylings.

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Bob Marston & the Credible Sources - Coltura - Sister Ray - Death Bells

Bob Marston & the Credible Sources - Real Magic, Good people.

Bob Marston & the Credible Sources, the pride of Birmingham, Alabama, released their new single "Real Magic, Good People," yesterday. The track is from their debut LP, So Long, out on June 3rd. Fun fact - Matt Slocum (Susan Tedeschi, Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers, Railroad Earth, and more) plays keys on the album!

Fronted by troubadour Bob Marston, this group is truly a whole greater than the sum of its wildly capable parts. The band makes music that sits comfortably at the intersections of folk and rock with a penchant for improvisation--intricately-woven guitar parts, tight and compelling bass and drum grooves, and pure, emotive vocals, a sound that garners comparisons to The Grateful Dead, Wilco, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and more. "Real Magic, Good People'' is a head-bobbing, reggae-tinged, all-around good time.

One day, Bob was walking his dog at a Birmingham nature preserve, processing a difficult breakup, and the groove for the song bubbled up through his soul. "The first half of each verse presents my attempt to balance my love of Birmingham with what I had, at the time, recently learned about her history of labor injustice, including convict-leasing and union-busting," Bob explains of the track. "The chorus is a rallying cry to believe in ourselves and our potential as a community, realizing that for all of our differences we share more in common." The inspiration came from his hometown's troubling history, but the overall themes are universal: the power of honest expression, understanding, complete forgiveness, and acceptance is what really connects and unifies our communities.

Bob's been on a journey of self-discovery, and with the help of therapy, meditation, and cannabis, his empathic creativity comes shining through the lyrics of every song on So Long. The album’s tracks explore love and devotion through the lens of managing challenging relationships and processing life-altering heartbreak to pondering life’s big questions and issues of social injustice. Ultimately, So Long is about striving to find humanity in ourselves, our communities, and in society as a whole.

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Coltura - R U Content.

In advance of the release of their debut album And Then I’ll Be Happy arriving this Friday, April 22, New York City trio Colatura have shared a new single and video, “R U Content,” a relevant comment on our current culture consumption.

Colatura headed down to Austin to make their SXSW debut, with five performances. Austin Town Hall said to file them under the “band I wish I had seen,” while calling their “Kids Like Us” single, "solid gold indie pop.” The band will celebrate this Friday, album release night, at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn, and have announced a summer tour taking them across the Eastern half of the U.S., culminating at DZ Fest outside Chicago on July 9.

Discussing the single, guitarist/vocalist Digo Best noted that, “‘R U Content’ is about the monetization of the individual as a brand. In order to be successful these days you have to sell an alternate version of yourself that usually has no basis in reality. Authenticity as a marketing ploy. Yet we all line up, pretending aesthetic photos will make up for the hole that we are creating inside of ourselves. The lyrics 'Are you content or are you content?’ play with the two different pronunciations of the word to ask an important question.

The backdrop of the music video is a combination of every previous music video we have made for this album, superimposed over each other to make a sort of super-content visualizer. Since the song is an examination of the role of content in our society and whether it is actually an indicator of our reality, authenticity, and happiness as humans or just a 'story with a market price', we thought it appropriate to have us be sort of halfway human and constantly fighting being swallowed by all the content we ourselves have made."

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Sister Ray - Good News.

Sister Ray, the project of Edmonton-born songwriter, Ella Coyes (they/she) is today sharing their new single, "Good News" which follows recent singles tipped at Paste Magazine, Exclaim and more. The new track comes as the final advance single to be lifted from Sister Ray's forthcoming debut album, Communion which is set for release on May 13 via Royal Mountain Records (Alvvays, Wild Pink, U.S. Girls). They will support Communion with a full tour – TBC – but for now, have confirmed US dates opening for The Rural Alberta Advantage, these come off the back of recent slots opening for Hurray for the Riff Raff and dates as part of SXSW. 

Communion is a raw, meticulously-crafted portrait of momentous, ordinary moments; experiences that define your past and instruct how you move through the world. It’s also a break-up album invested in exploring the motivations behind actions, rather than attempting moral judgment. It’s about “shitty shit” says Coyes. Backed by Ginla, the Brooklyn-based duo behind early Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker and Lorely Rodriguez (Empress Of), Communion is anchored by guitar melodies that bear an undercurrent of turmoil and echoes with the wisdom of hard-won lessons.

"Good News" thematically marks the darkest song on Communion despite being the lightest in sound. Speaking about the track, Coyes explains: "This song is about my frustration watching me, members of my family and the people around me experiencing issues that have affected us intergenerationally – and continue to do so – and see many suffer in silence. It’s written like a series of vignettes about a few moments that have really stood out in my memory. At first, it didn’t click with me that this song sounded so light because it felt heavy to me, but I feel now that a big part of this song is the freedom that I feel in the actual act of airing out those things that I would have willfully ignored or hidden from.”

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Death Bells - Lifespring.

Death Bells — the long-running musical collaboration between Will Canning and Remy Veselis — are thrilled to announce their third full-length album, Between Here & Everywhere. Set for release on July 29th via Dais Records, the LP captures the cross-section of Southern California’s shadowy hidden interzones, outside of the lights and luxury. 

The group teased this new full-length with the pre-release of “Intruder” and "Passerby" singles — now, they’ve unveiled another new track from the album, “Lifespring.”  Of the song, Canning comments, “We initially wrote ‘Lifespring’ at a friend’s studio, before the last record was even an idea. I thought I had lost the stems, but discovered them recently on a USB that had been sitting in my jacket pocket for the last few years, so we were able to finally finish the song.”  He continues, “The lyrical inspiration for 'Lifespring' came from reading about a fairly spurious organization of the same name that were around until the mid-90s. Musically, it feels very different from anything we’ve done before; sleazier, groovier.”

Adopting a collaborative approach for the recording of Between Here & Everywhere, the LP features nine new songs that represent Will Canning and Remy Veselis’ continual growth, as well as accompaniment by an experienced cast of contributors on keys, strings, piano, and operatic backup vocals. Recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios, and mixed by Mike Kriebel at Golden Beat, Between Here & Everywhere bristles with immediacy and emotion, with every element tactile, balanced, and elevated. 

Between Here & Everywhere sets out to map the potent mess of Los Angeles. Canning cites the “vastness” of the band’s adopted home as a constant muse, and much like the city itself, the album ebbs gradually from harrowing to hopeful over its 35-minute runtime. The lyrics are categorized as “narrative, but not autobiographical,” born of intrigue, intimacy, and a sense of “looking outward.” 

Formed in 2015 in Sydney, Australia, Death Bells has proven to be a mainstay in the alternative underground musical landscape both in their homeland and overseas. Death Bells released their sophomore full-length and Dais Records debut New Signs of Life in September of 2020.  On this record, the group embraced their diverse tastes to deliver unforgettable hooks and more expansive sounds across its nine graceful songs.  Following, and in direct response to the pandemic, Death Bells secluded themselves at Bombay Beach to record and release 5 live recordings of songs from New Signs of Life in April of 2021 —  the gorgeous live performance and recording Live from Bombay.

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For Breakfast - Jo Schornikow - Christine Sweeney

For Breakfast - Orfordness Lighthouse.

London 7-piece For Breakfast today release new single "Orfordness Lighthouse", the second track to be lifted from new EP 'Trapped in the Big Room' out 20th May via Glasshouse Records. The new EP follows the band's debut EP ‘Songs in the Key of O’, released in June 2020 to fervent praise from The Quietus, Loud and Quiet, So Young Magazine amongst others.

Emerging in their current form in 2019 in North London after a string of line-up changes, For Breakfast pull together seven musicians from varying musical backgrounds, bolting together elements of dream pop, post-rock, jazz, noise rock and psychedelia together to form an aural experience like no other.

New single "Orfordness Lighthouse" along with forthcoming EP 'Trapped in the Big Room' were recorded on a decommissioned Cold War airbase in Suffolk in the Autumn of 2021. A crescendo of horns, flutes and trip-hop imbued post-rock, For Breakfast execute the marriage of influences with aplomb; "Portishead with a splash of Cocteau Twins and Mogwai to taste" – the band suggest.

Speaking on the release of the new track, vocalist Maya and bassist Sam commented:

Maya: "As with most of our songs, I didn’t write the lyrics to Orfordness Lighthouse with a specific meaning in mind. They came about in the same way as most of the music - on the spot in our rehearsal space. They’re there for the feeling and the sound of the words more than a narrative or anything, but looking back on them there’s a sense of holding and being held, tension and release that is a reaction to the music and the journey of the song."

Sam: "Orfordness Lighthouse went through a few iterations before becoming what it is now. It was built around a chord progression and piano melody that Maya brought in - around the time that we were going off to record the first EP we’d made it into a Portishead-esque drifty trip hop tune, but we felt it wasn’t quite there yet. We came back to it during one of the first lockdowns and beefed it up a bit - we made some melodic tweaks to the first half, wrote the climactic end section, and couldn’t resist closing with some cute gang vocals."

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Jo Schornikow - Plaster.

Australian songwriter Jo Schornikow (now based in Nashville) releases “Plaster,” the third single from her forthcoming album ALTAR out May 20th. Both of her wrists were broken and bandaged in plaster when she wrote the song, which is about the idea of magic in plain sight, and the dual giddiness and loneliness of moving to the other side of the world.

The song, which follows “Visions” and “Lose Yr Love” is accompanied by a video directed by Joshua Shoemaker and filmed at the East Nashville church wheSchornikow is the organist. The video culminates with Schornikow at a decorated altar with pieces from her life: a life that led her from jazz bars to church organs, performing on tour around the world with partner Matthew Houck and Phosphorescent, and home to their two children. It recalls her personal altar that gave title to the forthcoming album.

ALTAR was recorded between Nashville and Melbourne and is co-produced by Schornikow and Selwyn Cozens. The nine track album centers Jo’s songwriting, which Gorilla Vs Bear proclaimed “smouldering” and her piano playing, which Pitchfork has praised as “sensitive [and] impressionistic.” It follows 2019’s Secret Weapon, which Rolling Stone hailed as “excellent.”

ALTAR is a joyously vulnerable pronouncement of her protean spirit. The seeds of this album were tended to by Jo throughout loud, intense years of heavy touring, and quiet, intense years of early motherhood, growing through whatever cracks were found in those foundations.

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Photo - Shannyn KT

Christine Sweeney - Better Parts.

How did stop-you-in-your-tracks vocalist and songwriter Christine Sweeney go from singing along with R&B radio and tapes by Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Destiny’s Child as a kid; to choice slots at the Connecticut Folk Fest and Falcon Ridge Folk Fest, WFUV DJ John Platt’s tastemaker On Your Radar concert series, on bills with Graham Parker and Jill Sobule, and in a Paste Magazine 2021 session?

She sets the scene: “I had some cassettes and would also tape songs from the radio. I would play them over and over again, focusing in on singing to a small part of the song. Rewind, play, repeat.” To her, the R&B vocal influence isn’t unnatural in the folk setting. The result of this influence reminds her fans of Susan Tedeschi, Brandi Carlile, Sheryl Crow, KT Tunstall, or Grace Potter with music that grooves and rocks but also tells her story.

“I was an alto voice part. I really appreciated the alto harmonies. They’re always complex and stanky. We’ve got the nasty dissonant harmony notes because they’re so nice in the middle,” Christine says. She would go on to refine her voice as well as study music theory and songwriting at SUNY New Paltz.

Her new album ‘Heart In a Hurry’ is a culmination of this pairing of folk and soul, with generous dashes of blues, pop, Americana, and yes, R&B, in sharp, open-hearted new songs, some drawn from life lessons learned the hard way and shared with her listeners. “I hope by hearing some of the more personal details or the more raw emotional descriptions in the songs like in ‘Anywhere Anyway’ and ‘Down to the River’ and ‘Denial,’ that the listener will be able to connect with their own experience. I feel like these songs talk a lot about states of feeling, either abandoned or confused or tired of trying. I hope that whoever might need that message, that they take it as a sign that other people feel like this, too. They’re not alone,” she says. The message has connected with her fans, who have told her they can relate with things going on in their own lives. She’s had fans approach her after concerts to tell her hearing her song helped with something they were experiencing. Even when telling a deeply personal story, Christine has the ability to tap into universal feelings. ‘Heart In a Hurry’ tells a tale of perseverance.

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