Folk
Track: Anne Reburn – ‘Everywhere And Nowhere’: a sweet country-folk sentiment homespun for you
COMIN’ atcha from the state that likes to think of itself as The Native America, Oklahoma, Anne Reburn grew up singing, dancing and playing the piano from a young age. Her music is filled with the verve and excitement that comes from such an early joy, never lost. Her latest single drop, “Everywhere And Nowhere” …
Track: John Smith – ‘Hold On’: a plea to stay hoping with The Staves’ Jessica
AT LEAST once in recent times, Essex-born, Devon-raised folk troubadour John Smith has received the epithet “the guitarists’ guitarist”. And with a CV like his, you couldn’t argue; as a session musician he’s has played with Joan Baez, David Gray, Joe Henry, Lianne La Havas and Tom Jones. He’s also in possession of a voice …
Premiere: Naomi In Blue reveals the beautiful country tinged folk of her debut EP, An Experiment
British-Chilean singer-songwriter Naomi In Blue is gearing up for the release of her debut EP, An Experiment, this coming Sunday (28th February) via Walking Blacksmith Records, and we’re delighted to be able to premiere it right here on Backseat Mafia today. Mixing up the more experimental (but no less melodic) side of Americana, Naomi wrote …
See: Sarah McQuaid – ‘Charlie’s Gone Home’ (The St Buryan Sessions)@ folk excellence from the far west
FOLK singer-songwriter Sarah McQuaid undertook a perigrination from Madrid to the States to Ireland before arriving in mainland Britain’s ultima thule, the deep Penwith peninsula. She’s releasing a series of intimate single videos under the banner the St Buryan Sessions, which will ultimately lead to a full album later in the summer; but for today, …
Album review: A. Smyth unveils the imposing and beautiful album ‘Last Animals’
‘Lost Animals’ by Irish artist A. Smyth has an intriguing mix of acoustic and electronic instrumentation that creates a delicate fusion between a folk songwriting tradition and more rugged indie rock roots. The golden thread throughout, though, is an ear for the sweetest of melodies and an indelible melancholia that permeates every track. The result …
Track: Cameron Knowler & Eli Winter share the spiralling guitar wonder of ‘Parapraxis of a Dragonfly’
TWO ADEPT young guns of the fingerstyle guitar, Cameron Knowler and Eli Winter really came to appreciate each other on a winter tour of the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. The Trans-Pecos is a land of stark beauty, of ghost towns and mountain ranges. The pair spent the winter of 2018 gigging through the small …
ALBUM REVIEW: Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
Memphis-born Julien Baker returns with her haunting, ballad-filled 3rd studio album, that you would have to be oblivious to not be enamoured with. In her first solo album since Turn out the lights in 2017, Julien Baker is showing that she is back and better than ever before with a slowcore, self-produced album that is …
Track: Brooks Williams, Findlay Napier, Boo Hewerdine and Kris Drever – ‘Farewell To Gold’: cult singers in quartet for a dream made reality
IT’S PRETTY much a cult, folky singer-songwriting dream; despite the lockdown and the all of it, that Cambridge Americana adept Brooks Williams, former The Bible! man Boo Hewerdine, Scotland’s Findlay Napier and Lau singer and potent artist in his own right, Kris Drever, should combine forces in song. … And so it came to pass, …
Track: Bill MacKay and Nathan Bowles – ‘I See God’: that old time religion beautifully recast for guitar and banjo
KEYS, the soon-come long-playing conversation between Chicago’s Bill MacKay on guitar and North Carolina’s Nathan Bowles at the banjo, ranges back and forth across the great bluegrass and guitar soli traditions, both pushing forward with free-flying chemistry and grounding their essaying in the canon of the form; and it’s the latter angle they’re examining on …