Chroma - The Accidentals & The Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra - Sara Syms - Lowell

Chroma - Weithiau / Caru. Cyffuriau.

'Weithiau' (Sometimes) is an emotionally powerful song that is one half of Chroma's Double-A single 'Weithiau / Caru Cyffuriau'. This is the group's first release after joining the Libertino label. The songs were recorded live to capture the versatile and energetic sound of the Valleys trio by producer Kris Jenkins (Cate Le Bon, SFA, Gruff Rhys).

“‘Weithiau’ is about ending a relationship with someone that you love deeply. The process of coming to terms with the fact that the relationship doesn’t work, and putting your self first in that situation.” - Katie Hall, Chroma In perfect musical contrast to the sometimes melancholy 'Weithiau', 'Caru Cyffuriau' is a non-stop 'in your face' punk song about being a teenager in the South Wales Valleys.

“Caru Cyfffuriau is a song about being a naughty teenager in the valleys experimenting with drugs and sex because there’s not much else to do. I think there needs to be more stuff going on so young people don’t feel so isolated. We wanted to write a welsh language punk song that reflects young people's lived experience today.” - Katie Hall, Chroma.

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The Accidentals & The Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra - Lady Of The Lake.

Critically-acclaimed folk pop band The Accidentals, whose founders Sav Buist and Katie Larson met in orchestra class at age 16, have partnered with Cleveland-based student orchestra Kaboom Collective to release an album on July 29 called Reimagined. The first single, "Lady Of The Lake," a whimsical love story, is out tomorrow.

The Kaboom Collective Studio Orchestra (founded/directed by Liza Grossman and Joe Weagraff) is a Hollywood-style studio ensemble made of 40 students between the ages of 15-25, who get hands-on training in scoring, arranging, recording, and more for everything from video game and film soundtracks to accompanying artists on their albums.

It was a no-brainer for The Accidentals, who hold dear the mission of music education, to partner with Kaboom - a while back, they even founded Play It Forward Again and Again, a music education nonprofit. They gave the orchestra 11 of their most popular songs to score and arrange, the band went into the studio with the students, and made an album.

Not only is there an album - The Accidentals are taking the *entire* student orchestra on tour, kicking things off with a performance at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on August 3, and making stops at Wrigley Field, the Mile Of Music Festival, and more. It's going to be priceless experience for these students, are are learning that there are many ways to make a career in music.

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Sara Syms - Unknown Road.

This latest track from Sara Syms, “Unknown Road,” brings those haunting vocals and almost outlaw-esque guitar progressions fans have come to expect from much of her work. A steady and constant drum backing is joined with those guitars and hints of organ and other trappings to create a unique and chilling auditory experience. 

There’s an ear-catching effect layered on Syms' voice in some parts of the track that makes it sound as though it’s coming through an old radio; this definitely adds to the track’s ambiance, making it sound older than it actually is, creating the folky ambience that we know and love from Sara Syms.

Syms brings us on a sonic and visual journey, tying the single and music video perfectly. The video visualizes all of the places Sara is describing on this "unknown road," taking us right alongside her as she tells the story.

When Syms sings “I’m here/I’m there/I’m everywhere” she truly means it as her vocals in this track surround you. They are quiet and gentle, but possess a silkiness that tiptoes against your skin. The chill electric guitar that carries the track transports you somewhere else entirely.

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Lowell - Hamptons City Cowboy.

“Lowell is no ordinary pop chanteuse" says The New York Times, which is more than an understatement. In addition to being an artist in her own right with two critically-acclaimed solo albums, and her turn as a screenwriter (her debut Bloodthirsty premiered at Cannes in 2020), Lowell is a go-to songwriter for an eclectic collection of pop stars, including Demi Lovato, Charlie Puth, The Backstreet Boys, Alice Longyu Gao, and most recently, Charli XCX, co-writing the song “Yuck” on her 2022 album Crash.

After focusing on her writing for other artists over the last several years, Lowell is beginning to release new material under her own name, and today has shared the new single "Hamptons City Cowboy".

A follow up to her single “Guess I’m Going To Hell”, Lowell continues to effortlessly fuse classic 60s doo wop sounds with modern pop elements; but in contrast, “Hamptons City Cowboy” gives an upbeat yet mysterious take on the lure of a new relationship: "I wrote this song about a light love, the early stages of a relationship when everything is still all a mystery. Unlike some of my other more introspective songs this is really just a fun and flirty Friday night out."

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Bar Pandora - KiKi Holli - Quasi Qui - Julianna Riolino

Bar Pandora - Vice Vice Vice.

Ahead of the release of her debut self-titled EP on July 5th, Bar Pandora has shared new single 'Vice Vice Vice'. Bar Pandora is the alt-pop project of Coventry based artist Charlie Tophill, who has previously released music under her own name and also plays in York band The Howl & The Hum. The project owes its name to a literary cafe in La Latina, Madrid, where in 2017 she used to hang out with her friends talking literature, life and feminism over red wine and fizzy sweets.

Drawn to the idea of collaborating with a producer who works outside of the musical world she usually inhabits, Tophill began working on her debut EP with jungle producer Simply Dread. The result is deliciously off-kilter yet melodious alt-pop, playfully sewn together from the offcuts of personal experience; field recordings, journal entries and improvised fragments which bop along to a rich undercurrent of harmonic synths, guitars and dynamic beats.

New single ‘Vice Vice Vice’ is an unapologetically catchy pop anthem. “The song is a remonstrance to a neglectful lover. It’s about that push and pull you feel when you’re putting everything into a relationship and still being taken for granted," says Tophill. "It’s a crazy-making situation that I know too well, so it’s fun to be able to sing it out loud along to a pop beat and shout a bit at the end,” she continues.

The songs that make up Bar Pandora’s debut EP are penned with mischievous frankness, delivering confessional composites of personal histories, inner monologues and self-building proclamations which are simultaneously singular and familiar. "My lyrics are made up of my inner voices,” explains Tophill, who regularly uses lines from her diary in her songs.

Bar Pandora · Vice Vice Vice

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KiKi Holli - New High.

Los Angeles indie-pop vocalist KiKi Holli creates stunning and soulful music woven with intricate emotive storytelling for a truly captivating and cathartic listening experience with an eclectic musical aesthetic. Holli draws on inspiration from her rich theatrical background, as well as from iconic artists such as PRINCE, Dusty Springfield, The Cure, Stevie Nicks and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Crafting a unique sound, KiKi Holli’s music is beautifully vulnerable and nurturing, with themes of connection, healing, personal growth, and living in the moment. If her delivery seems genuine—empathetic even—that’s because it is. She’s been there. “You know, Amor fati — love your fate, love whatever is in front of you and embrace the moment,” she says.

Holli’s debut single was a breathtaking cover of Roxy Music’s “More Than This”, a raw and intimate version of the celebrated 80’s hit. Collaborating with acclaimed producer Ethan Allen (Throwing Muses, Tricky, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club), she was inspired to release her own version of the song in the midst of dealing with intense grief and loss.

Her new release, her first original song, “New High” is a celebration of simple pleasures, finding solace in your happy place and a returning to love after a time of hardship. With soaring vocals singing sunshine-dipped melodies over lush and blissful pop rock soundscapes, “NEW HIGH” is a welcome sonic escape, collaborating again with Allen to create a landscape of music that pulls the listener into the neon glow of a surreal joy ride down the coast of Malibu.

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Quasi Qui - Directorial Debut.

British alt-pop duo Quasi Qui has shared new single ‘Directorial Debut’ via Parisian tastemaker label microqlima records (Isaac Delusion, L’Impératrice, Pepite, Fils Cara). The now Paris-based duo, comprised of acclaimed music producer Yehan Jehan and his sister Zadi, have released two singles so far, both shimmering alt-pop gems and new single ‘Directorial Debut’ continues in the same vein. Quasi Qui describe the composition of these songs as dreams, "collages of cinematic films".

On their new single and video, Quasi Qui say: “‘Directorial Debut’ is a manifestation of hair-pulling frustration. A galloping attempt to escape one's demons (as portrayed by the ominous white sphere). A realisation occurs when the enemy was merely self-inflicted and what was in fact happening, was the ego’s movie script, being witnessed by the true self. Now it may be re-written.”

For years now, Yehan has turned heads with his production nous, making a plethora of bands sound more expansive and technicolour, though he’s more than just a slick producer. Before joining forces with Zadi in Quasi Qui, Yehan released three solo EPs earning him kudos from tastemaker publications like The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Clash as well as radio play from Elton John on his Apple Radio show.

The pair have a knack for taking sophisticated musical ideas and chord progressions and making them accessible. As well as extending the lineage of classic songwriting, drawing inspiration from everything from British synthpop to the great American songbook, Quasi Qui’s influences are modern and eclectic: Zadi loves Frank Ocean, Blood Orange and Sade, while Yehan is a disciple of the great and the good of production: Trevor Horn, William Orbit, Nellee Hooper and Bjork. “Everyone in our family is musical,” says Zadi, “and the list goes way back.”

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Julianna Riolino - Lone Ranger.

Toronto-based artist, Julianna Riolino has just shared her new single, "Lone Ranger" alongside announcing her debut full-length record, All Blue which is out via You've Changed Records on October 14, 2022. While also moonlighting as part of Daniel Romano's The Outfit, Riolino has slowly but surely been building a solo career of her own over the past few years with this debut LP following on from her 2019 EP, J.R. which helped to establish Julianna's musical direction while finding her open for the likes of Julie Doiron, Daniel Romano and Born Ruffians across North America.

Riolino knows how to capture and highlight beauty before it fades. She spent her days running up to the recording of her solo debut album helping restore the stained glass windows at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. Surrounded by symbols configured in bits of 19th-century French glass, Riolino couldn’t help but reflect on her own past and the memories of pains, healing, and love strewn through it. “It made me think about life as a balancing act, and we're all just trying to do our best to navigate it,” she says. That focus on morality and the stretch of time seeped naturally into Riolino’s Americana-indebted songwriting, resulting in the golden, fluid All Blue.

The true religious fervor both in Riolino’s life and in the LP is directed towards icons like Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and The Band. Inspired by those artists, Riolino asked for a guitar as a child, and began teaching herself how to bring similar life to the melodies in her head. And while she honed her voice by participating in school musicals, songwriting remained a deeply personal venture. “I sang at every opportunity, but I didn’t share my songs with people until I was 18 or 19,” she says. The first song she decided to play for friends was “Lone Ranger”, a reimagining of which now acts as the lead single for her debut solo album ten years later.

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Heavy Gus - Raven Shelley - Josh Rouse - Old Crow Medicine Show

Heavy Gus - Still To Be.

California-based indie/rock trio Heavy Gus have shared their new single “Still to Be” along with the accompanying music video. The latest track to be released from their debut album Notions (out August 5th via BMG Records), the infectious song finds beauty everywhere it looks. The band stated, “‘Still to Be’ is about the roller coaster of falling in love and staying there. It’s an apocalyptic ode to dying hand in hand presented as a summertime love song.”

“Still to Be” follows the release of the high energy single “Weird Sad Symbol,” that Under The Radar called “genuine live-wire indie rock sound.” The long-distance-love-song “Dinner For Breakfast” is also out now along with the group’s psychedelic-tinged debut track “Do We Have To Talk?”

Formed in the high desert town of Bishop, CA, Heavy Gus is led by singer, songwriter, guitarist Dorota Szuta along with multi-instrumentalist Stelth Ulvang of The Lumineers and percussionist Ryan Dobrowski of Blind Pilot. The band took shape during the pandemic when couple Uvlang and Szuta (a marine scientist who also has a background in music playing with Laura Gibson and Gill Landry) took a socially distanced road trip to Nashville — picking up Dobrowski in Colorado along the way — to record at The Creative Workshop. The resulting collection of songs blur the lines between grungy garage band fare, hazy desert surf, and dreamy, sun-soaked indie rock.

Their debut offering calls to mind everything from Meat Puppets and The Breeders to Yo La Tengo and Acetone in its artful balance of hope and fatalism, loneliness and desire, strength and vulnerability. While all three bandmates came to Heavy Gus from very different worlds, they fit together like puzzle pieces, bound by the kind of love and trust that can only grow from years of deep kinship. Notions was engineered and mixed by Parker Cason (Margo Price, All Them Witches, Coin) and mastered by Pete Lyman (Chris Stapleton, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile).

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Raven Shelley - Sink In Solitude.

Raven Shelley tells us about herself and her beautiful new song - "I am a singer-songwriter based in Manchester. I write ethereal and poetic alt//indie-folk songs, inspired by a love of literature, poetry and visual mediums. I have a very broad range of influences, from Bob Dylan to Ani DiFranco, and Schiele to Nicolas Roeg.
 

I grew up in a rural part of the south of France, and educated myself in English Literature from a young age by raiding my parents’ bookshelves. Reading in English became my own private world, and I went on to study it at The University of Manchester. This is what impacted my desire to create lyrics that can also be described as poetry. 

I try to be honest in the music that I write; I hope that all the hurt, all the anger, all the love, everything that runs through me can be found somewhere in my songs. 

My first single, ‘Sink in Solitude’ will be released with The Animal Farm on the 24th June. It is heavily influenced by lines from Shakespeare and Shelley, and is about time passing by without achievement."

The Animal Farm Label · Raven Shelley_Sink In Solitude

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Josh Rouse - She's In L.A.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Josh Rouse shares the summer-ready new single “She’s In L.A.,” from his upcoming album Going Places, out July 29 via Yep Roc Records. Featuring a laid-back groove, the song is accompanied by a camcorder-style music video inspired by Townes Van Zandt. Rouse recently spoke with Magnet Magazine, who called the album “feel-good strumming, off-the-cuff hooks and a mildly exotic groove that should translate perfectly to the live setting.”

"In June of 1993, I dropped out of college, planning on a move to Los Angeles,” explains Rouse. “The idea was to move there and start a band with a few friends, things you do when you're in your early 20's. I went to South Dakota for a few months to save up some money while living with my family. In late July, my bandmates decided not to go to L.A. I moved to Tempe, AZ, interning in a recording studio on an impulsive whim. While it proved to be a fruitful adventure (I also bussed tables at a Scottsdale resort), I moved back to Tennessee and re-enrolled in college six months later. I often wonder what would have happened had I gone to L.A."

Going Places came together over the last two years when Josh Rouse found himself unable to tour and hunkered down with his family in Spain. Together with his Spanish band, he began workshopping new songs in a small local venue owned by a friend, resulting in ten road-ready tracks with a looser, more relaxed vibe than his previous work. Where 2018’s Love in the Modern Age saw him take a left turn to keyboard-based retro-new wave territory, Going Places is steeped in classic guitar melodies, with touches of organ and horns, layers of backing vocals and a distinctive southern twang. Rouse has shared two previous singles, including the guitar-driven “Hollow Moon” and the 1970’s-inspired “Stick Around,” which BrooklynVegan called “a song that's warm, welcoming, unpretentious, and serves as a promising taste of the new LP.”

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Old Crow Medicine Show - Used To Be A Mountain.

Two-time GRAMMY award-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show has shared the music video for “Used To Be A Mountain” off their critically acclaimed new album Paint This Town (ATO Records). A galvanizing meditation on environmental catastrophe, the video shines a light on the impact of mining in the Appalachian region.

Along with the video, the band has announced their partnership with Cumberland River Compact, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing water resources through education and cooperation. The partnership serves to bring awareness to the effects of climate change, connecting fans with ways to get involved in the local climate movement through local action. Cumberland River Compact will be present to share more information at the band’s upcoming June 25 performance at The Caverns Amphitheater in Grundy County, TN. 

"I’ve been playing Appalachian music in Appalachia since I was a kid. West Virginia, Kentucky, Southwest Virginia, and East Tennessee are the places I love to play most. When you saw a fiddle in these settings it always feels like a homecoming. But time has dealt a hard hand to the region that gave birth to country music, and 'Used To Be a Mountain' is a song that wrestles with the issues facing Appalachia today,” explains Ketch Secor. 

"I think that the Intrepid spirit of the mountaineers of the coal fields of the Southern Highlands and Appalachia are some of the hardest and most important for bearers of the American dream. I think that when you take away the natural beauty and destroy the ecology of places, you don't have a whole lot left to rebuild with. I know there's a lot of folks that are hurting right now in the communities of the coal fields. This song is there to both reflect that hurt and to ask the question, can we do something better for these folks? Can we do something better for these mountains, these hills, the flora and fauna, for anybody who wants to breathe clean air and drink clean water in Appalachia?"

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The Hooten Hallers - Pearl Diver - Rogue Jones

The Hooten Hallers - Heal It.

The Hooten Hallers forthcoming album Back In Business Again is due out September 9, 2022 and heres the first taste! For the past fifteen years, The Hooten Hallers have been crisscrossing the country as inveterate road warriors, bringing their peculiar vision of Americana–a fiery rock and roll fever dream birthed in Missouri’s fertile musical heartland.

They’ve put so many miles into the road that they’ve burned through multiple tour vans and left twisted metal and frayed rubber strewn across the road behind them. With their aptly named new album, Back In Business Again, the trio roar back on to the international stage with ten incendiary new original songs drawn from their many travels and inspired by the hardships that all touring musicians have faced throughout a seemingly never-ending pandemic.

There’s hope in these new songs, but tinges of madness too, driven by the raw drumming of Andy Rehm, the infernal growl and swirling guitars of John Randall, and the low rolling baritone and bass saxophones of Kellie Everett.

The Hooten Hallers have always been musical colliders, smashing together everything from pre-war jazz to Chicago blues with jaunts around New Orleans and garage rock explorations with hints of anti-racist punk and Oi!. It’s Morphine meets ZZ Top along St. Louis’ Mississippi waterfront. Produced by bassist Dominic Davis (Jack White, Greensky Bluegrass), Back In Business Again takes a match to The Hooten Hallers’ fuse and explodes the renegade power trio to the edge and back again, one vigorous, swinging, perfectly peculiar song at a time.

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Pearl Diver - Look For The Light.

Marking the Summer Solstice yesterday, “Look For The Light” is the radiant new single release by Pearl Diver. The lead single and title-track of what will be the Oxford trio’s debut EP (released 15 July), it's a stately piece of lysergic rock that nods to the classic works of Radiohead, Pink Floyd and The Beatles.

As drifting and dreamy, as it is ethereal and elatory, “Look For The Light” pairs lucid arrangements with lyrics that celebrate the transcendent nature of the human soul and the flame that flickers within all of us.

Written by lead singer and guitarist Matt Sage whilst on retreat in a hut overlooking the North Cornish sea; mesmerised by his shimmering surroundings and at one with the natural world, he found himself in a consummate state of being. As he explains: “I was in a pretty deep and peaceful space within myself, in this beautiful setting, and I wanted to try and capture something of that feeling, and to express the simple truth that we all come from Love.”

An expression of the blissful feelings he felt at that moment, the sunshine-gilded words and melodies of “Look For The Light” fell naturally into place. Just as the Summer solstice opposes winter, day opposes night; the resultant Pearl Diver release finds a band creating a beacon of light and catharsis capable of counteracting the encroaching darkness of recent times.

“It feels to me to be a necessary antidote to all the pain and suffering and woes that we create in the world, out of our separation and forgetting what it is that we really are.” says Matt. “If we can connect to the Peace that is our essential nature, we are more readily able to cherish that in ourselves, and in each other.  I am hoping that this very simple song might serve as a healing reminder of that.”

Chiming with the themes explored within the song, “Look For The Light” arrives with an affecting DIY video shot by Matt during the first lockdown. Simply filmed in his local park in Oxford, it offers a unique document of that surreal period where the balance between mother nature and humanity felt like it was shifting in her favour once more.

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Rogue Jones - Englynion Angylion.

Englynion Angylion (The Poetry of Angels) is an euphoric call to arms with a message of empowerment, liberation and rebellion. It’s Rogue Jones "getting in touch with their inner witch and embracing nature”.

This, the bands first single taken from their sophomore album, started life as a Fiona Apple / Kate Bush brooding piano-led verse before being dragged to The Loft in 70s New York by the ghost of David Mancuso. Like the music that Mancuso loved and played, Englynion Angylion is ‘soulful, rhythmic and impart words of hope and redemption.'

Rogue Jones (Bethan Mai and Ynyr Morgan Ifan) returned to their second creative home of Ty Drwg Studios with longtime producer Frank Naughton to work on the foundations of Englynion Angylion. Llŷr Pari ‘The Melin y Coed Metronome’ was on drums and mixing, Elen Ifan on cello, Mari Morgan on disco violin, recorded in Caernarfon by Gruff Ab Arwel.

The Guardian called Rogue Jones "a charmingly quirky band who deserve a cult following". By the evidence of Englynion Angylion, Rogue Jones are overflowing with charm and wider recognition won’t be far behind. As the band explained, Englynion Angylion "is our attempt at making straight-up 1970s orchestral disco but like everything we do, it comes out a little stranger. Country people trying to make big city music" and succeeding in bringing nature's rainbow palette with them to lighten the darkest of urban streets.

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Kyshona - Cat and The Queen - Rose Ranger - Hackensaw Boys

Photo - Nora Canfield

Kyshona - Rise The Tide.

Nashville-based, critically-acclaimed artist and activist Kyshona has released "Rise The Tide," today. The track is a swampy, foot-stomping anthem about how when one of us is supported and excels, the tide rises for everyone, inspired by her fellow artists, activists, and change-makers.

Of the song, Kyshona says, "Over the past three years, I have seen it all around me from acknowledgment of things that are wrong in the music industry to people lending support, giving space, and making strides. As artists in our community are finally being placed in the spotlight, with each success we have individually, we rise the tide together. This song acknowledges and celebrates that--and is meant as a call of encouragement to keep doing the work that isn’t always easy."

Kyshona's latest album, Listen, was lauded by NPR, Billboard, No Depression, Rolling Stone, Rolling Stone Country, The Bluegrass Situation, and more. Listen came out right as everything shut down, but over the past year, Kyshona has performed at Newport Folk Fest, gone on tour supporting Allison Russell, appeared on late-night television singing with Margo Price, released a song with Adia Victoria, Margo, and Jason Isbell called "You Was Born To Die," and recorded a cover of "Mississippi Goddam" with Adia and Kelsey Waldon. She made her NPR Mountain Stage debut in April, will be featured on PBS twice this year, AND she founded a charitable organization called Your Song which provides music therapy services to marginalized communities (Kyshona is a licensed music therapist and has a degree in Music Therapy from UGA!).

She's a total powerhouse who is tirelessly using her gifts to change the culture to make the world a better and safer place for everyone in it.

 

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Cat and The Queen - Leave Here Tonight.

CATQ is Cat Montgomery, Toronto-based musician and multidisciplinary artist. The keyboard aka The Queen, is Cat’s first friend and has been her primary artistic outlet.

Her musicality, live stage presence and on-camera persona is playful, raw, vibrant; she’s a straight up fire fueled rock ‘n’ roll good time when you see her perform. Her voice and stage antics are reminiscent of art rock turned stadium artists like Grace Slick, David Byrne, Kate Bush and Nina Hagen.

CATQ’s songwriting skills and performance style swim from power ballads to indie art rock to banging pop anthems. With a raw and animal stage like presence, Cat cuts up the stage. She has a powerful vulnerable yet playful and raw interactive style – engaging with audience members – feels somewhere between cabaret and punk rock. Think 70’s style Bette Midler meets raw fire of Kathleen Hanna’s Bikini Kill and the costume action of Gaga. CATQ loves to perform with her backing band THE NEW ROYALS (Graham Mackey on drums, Jess Roveda on bass) – that’s when the party is in full effect.

CATQ has produced 2 LPS (Loba Loca: 2018, I Caught a Fish: 2021) and 3 EPS (Heart For A Ride: 2019, Heart For A Ride Live-Off-The-Floor: 2019, Blizzard on Bear Mountain: 2017). A few of her tracks are featured on acclaimed web series, “Avocado Toast” and “Barbelle”, and recent indie flick, “Discretion”. CATQ and her co-producer Radio Logic Records will be scoring the upcoming feature film “Satisfaction” this coming fall.

Cat is a trained theatre artist (MFA at York University), voice and singing teacher (Centre for Indigenous Theatre) and kids show creator (The Cat in Space Show, currently in post-production). When Cat isn’t hustling gigs, as the indie artist she is, she works in film, cleans houses, takes naps and waters plants in her sweetheart Parkdale apartment.

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Rose Ranger - Confessions (Album).

"I feel that music is the most powerful medium in our culture because it is a universal language. Music has the ability to move us into our heart and out of our fears."

Hailing from Vancouver's North Shore, Rose Ranger's creative process is inextricably linked with the ocean and mountains that are stone's throw away from her front door. Combined with her love of all musical genres and her utmost appreciation for all the creative arts - the blend creates a dynamic vibrancy in her songwriting process. And that sentiment is a testament to her new music. The lush songs are an ode to self-discovery, and to the subtle yet profound moments of life - with the results being unpredictable, vulnerable, strident and sincere. “I was always musical, I didn’t really follow any one type, I absorbed it all. I grew up dancing as a kid: ballet, tap and jazz. And with dancing there is a different style of music for each dance form. With ballet it was classical, tap was mostly Broadway show tunes and jazz dancing had pop and rock. So, I’ve been influenced by a lot of different styles of music and creative art forms.”

Now with six studio albums under her belt (including a Christmas album) the multi-talented artist is thrilled to be releasing new music into the world. This year also marks the 20th anniversary since she released her debut album back in 2002. Rose Ranger’s first single on her new eight-song album Confessions, aptly titled Confession draws on a mix of musical influences from the 1990’s but with a current 2022 era production feel. The falsetto vocals on this track are reminiscent of 90’s era artists like Kate Bush and Prince combined with a catchy piano hook in the vein of Bruce Hornsby and chill lounge pop vibes of Sade. The song is a musical love letter to someone from the past where there was an undeniable chemistry and connection with but couldn’t make it work. “I think most of us have, at some point in our life felt that we weren't ready for a something because we needed more time to get to know ourselves better and figure out what we want,” she says. “Sometimes in the process of doing that we might confuse or hurt people around us because we can’t completely express what we’re feeling because we don’t entirely know either.” The artist has also released an electro pop radio remix of Confession, remixed by Grammy winning Mixer, Phil Larsen of Manhattan Clique who has worked with some of the biggest names in pop and dance music.

Rose explains, “this album similarly titled Confessions - and there are many of them, is about speaking my own truth. It’s about resiliency and learning how to find strength in vulnerability and finding one’s inner hero.” The album was produced by Juno award winner Ryan Stewart and Rose Ranger as co-producer. Together they worked in Stewart’s recording studio last summer through the peak of COVID. She shares, “we had protection glass set up between us and wore masks until we got vaccinated. Then we had the crazy summer heatwave and we were working on the hottest day of the year. At some point into recording my vocals, I started loosing my voice which has only happened to me once before in 2012 after overuse of my voice. I had to stop speaking for the month of August to save my voice for singing, so there was a lot of unpredictable changes going on.”

ROSE RANGER · Confessions

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Hackensaw Boys - Only On The Brightside.

Hackensaw Boys' latest album is out this week. After twenty years together in various forms, their first self-titled is likely their strongest. Americana UK just reviewed and said it "...will probably go down in the band’s history as a watershed moment," and we agree. 

A huge spectrum of American roots music is covered on the eleven song album. Fom indie folk to dive bar country to traditional roots their songs pack a wallop like a young David Sickmen just walked out of Virginia yesterday. 

We have a theory that it's his age, though, his wisdom, his time in the trenches, decades of perpetual touring and even his years of time away with vocal issues that make the songs as strong as they are. Some of these were penned around the time of the formation of the band. 

Steeped into some psychic medicinal tea, this brew of heady, hopeful jams could be the best effort ever from the still-punk, still-diy, still-hot band.

Hackensaw Boys · Only On The Brightside

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