singer-songwriter
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Album Review: Jackie Leven – Straight Outta Caledonia…The Songs of Jackie Leven
I remember vividly the first time that I heard ‘The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ’ by outsider, Scottish troubadour Jackie Leven. It was 2001 and I was totally unprepared for and utterly mesmerised by the sheer audacity of Leven’s artistic reach and the epic sweep of his lyrics and music on that track. I couldn’t …
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Album review: Dusted – ‘III’: A cross-country relocation blows the dust off an intimate, autumnal beauty
THERE’S a very strong argument to be made, in the sphere of the more introverted singer-songwriter and that of Americana, that the best music is the living music, the real music, captured in the moment, not fussed with in any way – far removed from the sheen and multi-tracking and the endless possibility of the …
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Album Review: Saint Sister dazzle on ‘Where I Should End’
When Where I Should End found its way to my email, so to speak, I welcomed it with a huge smile. I feel compelled to share my own personal connection, if you will, dear reader, with the talented duo. I first heard Saint Sister live in London, in a small but perfectly intimate setting of …
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See: Rianne Downey seizes the day with the honeyed country of ‘Do Or Die’
INVOKING the righteous bluegrassy, feminine country strength of a fine line of songwriters that stretch back through First Aid Kit and Shelby Lynne, and right on back to Dolly back herself, Scottish country chanteuse Rianne Downey is back and proud with her strumsomely lovely new single, “Do Or Die”, in which she moves on from …
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See: Montreal singer-songwriter Geoffroy arrows to the heart of you with ‘Cold World’
GEOFFROY is a Quebecois singer-songwriter, surname elsewhere Sauvé, who has a brace of lush EPs and a similar number of albums under his belt for Bonsound. He’s one of those artists – and there’s so many on the Canadian scene over the past years, let’s cite Leif Vollebekk, Sing Leaf, Patrick Watson as just three …
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Track: Jared Alto drops the haunting piano essay, ‘Stranger’
THE DRUNKEN phone call or text. Maybe to your ex, or a friend you’ve had recent beef with, or whomever; the advice the world over is simple; don’t do it. Nuh-uh. Never. But London-based LGBT+ singer-songwriter Jared Alto proves a serendipitous exception to the golden, drunken rule. Always inherently possessed of a proper singer’s voice, his …
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See: IMOGEN ascends from intensive surgery in the piano catharsis of ‘Bloodbag’, her haunting debut single for Stay Loose
STAY LOOSE are more than a little pleased to welcome a new Tyneside talent to their burgeoning roster of excellent song-crafters in IMOGEN, a singer-songwriter with a voice that alternates between confessional soothing and a powerful soar, singing out the pain in healing catharsis. Pain? Well the single’s title, a one-word, two-syllable image of stark …
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See: The home studio video for the acoustic warmth of Yuma Abe’s ‘Omeamo’
WE’VE thrilled to the stream of Japanese psych bands that have been melting our heads over the past few decades – Acid Mothers Temple, Ghost, Bo Ningen, Kikagaku Moyo; embraced fully and irrevocably Japanese ambient formalism, in the shape of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Chihei Hatekeyama, et al. Perhaps it’s time we drew back from the exploratory …