singer-songwriter
SEE: Emma Miller – ‘Set Me Down’: piano-led lusciousness from Elgin
EMMA MILLER is a folk singer-songwriter with a very delicate and potent touch to her tunesmithery who, as so many of us do, left for the bright lights of London – but who also had the perspicacity and vision to shut that door again and leave for another, better way. She’s been releasing music entirely …
SEE: Josephine Foster’s take on Daniel Blumberg’s ‘On & On’: reinterpretations album next month
YOU HAVE to say, Daniel Blumberg is one of the absolutely most interesting, unconventional songwriters to emerge on the British scene in many a long year. His album from a month or two back, On & On, pretty much has it all: confessional, heartfelt beauty; melodic simplicity; outside-the-pocket impro composition, taking the songs right to …
SEE: Alex Jayne – ‘Pictures’: grand introspection about letting go
LONDON songstress Alex Jayne, who’s released a triptych of potent, observational pop nuggets this year, is drawing down the curtain on 2020 with one final single, “Pictures”, again penned from the heart. Watch the Laurie Barraclough-directed video below. It’s a slow burn with a grand vocal performance: fragile, yet still soaring, you can really feel …
TRACK: Lizzie Reid announces debut EP; hear ‘Always Lovely’
YOU HAVE to say, rising Essex indie imprint Seven Four Seven Six can count its blessings in enticing emerging Glasgow songwriter Lizzie Reid to its ranks. She’s announced her debut EP, Cubicle, for the label, which’ll be out on January 22nd; in celebration of which she’s shared a track from it, “Always Lovely” – which …
ALBUM REVIEW: Laura Fell – ‘Safe From Me’: an incredible voice, a brilliant debut
A truly splendid and gorgeous debut set from this incredible new singer-songwriting talent demands room in your life
TRACK: Skinshape – ‘Arrogance Is The Death Of Men’: shimmering bliss with a wise message about where we’re at
NOT AN artist content to rest on his laurels, ever restless, ever exploring, Will Dorey, who records as Skinshape, is set to release his second full-length album of the year; his second in three months, in fact. It was only at the beginning of September, the very end of the summer heat, that he dropped …
TRACK: Brooks Hudgins – ‘February’: fine ‘n’ free-associating Americana
BORN in Dallas, baptised in Tennessee, raised in LA, Brooks Hudgins had seen a lot of the States by an early age. It was also pretty early on that he discovered all the good stuff that could come from guitars, the booze, and writing; he had plenty to express, sparring with his folks, who were …
SEE: Tom Joshua – ‘This Still Life (Live Session)’: Stockton singer rings clear as a bell
STOCKTON-ON-TEES songsmith Tom Joshua grew up with a wealth of inspiration around him – the industry, the history, the landscape – all of which he’s channelled into his debut EP, Undergrowth, which is out now. “I’ve always considered the skyline you can see from the flyovers between Stockton and Middlesbrough pretty epic and unique – …
TRACK: Marie Bashiru – ‘Joyride’: a little Afrofolk-soul sun to help us through
DEARLY beloved, gathered here today: let’s let a little smooth Afrosoul sun into our lives to keep the harsh bite of Lockdown 2: The Return at bay. And what better antidote for crawling those winter isolation walls than the first taste of what we have to come from Marie Bashiru, a singer-songwriter who has signed …
TRACK: The Dawdler – ‘Sign Of Growth’: a sad, cruciverbalist shoegaze rush
THE DAWDLER is the low-key musical alias of Tyneside singer-songwriter John Edgar, who describes himself on his Twitter profile as “Ambient pop. Sad.” He’s more than made us sit up to attention with the brace of songs he’s released since signing to London indie Akira Records: the heart-wrenchingly sad “Lava Lamps”, about the collection of …