Folk
New Music : Chris Darby’s “Don’t Look Back”
The Chicago-based singer/songwriter Chris Darby first hit my radar back in late 2014. A friend and music aficionado in her own right had invited me to the big city of Fort Wayne to come see Mr. Darby play a small, intimate show. I wasn’t able to attend the show, but said friend and generally pretty …
Album Review: Dar Williams – Emerald
Dar Williams’ music professes a great deal of heart; there’s little doubt for the listener that this songwriter sees and feels keenly, and wants to communicate her observations and conclusions. On her most recent release, and my first brush with her since 1996’s ‘Mortal City’, the most noticeable change is in Williams’ voice which seems to …
Track: Bacchus releases new track Hope, from EP The Rich And The War
Quiet is the new loud. You only have to look at the careers of artists such as Lucy Rose and Passenger to see that as a nation we have become lovers of the more sensitive and delicate acoustic tracks. Well here’s a new name that you may not have heard yet. If you want to …
New Music: Dreampop quartet I Know Leopard release new single Close My Eyes
I wrote about I Know Leopard, after the release of their debut single, ‘Picture Perfect’ late last year and saw it as a perfect antidote to the Northern Hemisphere’s winter. Now, six months or so later, at my desk at the Backseat Mafia’s antipodean offices in Sydney, it is the Southern Hemisphere’s turn to be …
Meet: Fairport Convention’s Dave Pegg
Folk music is as hip now as it has ever been so it’s timely that Fairport Convention are back on the road because they completely revolutionised this most traditional of genres. Fairport may have been going 48 years, but once again they are on their traditional Spring tour of smaller venues and according to long …
Video: Samuel Ford records exclusive session for Backseat Mafia
London based, but born in Rye, Sussex, Samuel Ford has been performing only a short time, but he’s spent his life immersing himself in music. Ahead of his debut EP, out on July 28th, we managed to persuade him to take time out from performing at Live at Leeds, to record us a couple of …
Meet: Fink: music business is a big gamble
In the world where music is a product of consumption, often cheap, short on nutrition values, and is easy to dispose of when one gets bored of it, finding artists with timeless compositions, gently and with care sewn together, making you leave all your work and thoughts aside and dive deep into the intricate world …
See: Australian quartet Immigrant Union release new video for ‘In Time’
Australian quartet Immigrant Union (featuring Brent DeBoer from the Dandy Warhols) are back with a new single, “In Time”, taken from their sophomore release ‘Anyway’, which drops on May 29th. Describing their sound as being “Spiritualized being baptised in a river of Creedence Clearwater,” By frontman DeBoer, the band recorded the album with producer Gregg …
News: Steve’N’Seagulls announce UK tour dates
It’s one of those videos everybody’s seen. Well, 12 million and counting anyway. There’s these hillbilly dudes, one of them arriving on a motorised grasscutter or some such contraption in a beaver hat, playing a mandolin – who’s joined by an acoustic guitarist/vocalist; a banjo player; a double-bassist and a cajon-straddlin’ percussionionist, and they proceed …
Album Review: 10,000 Maniacs – Twice Told Tales
‘In my Tribe’, the third album by Jamestown, New York band 10000 Maniacs released in 1987 remains in my top 50 albums of all time. The Wishing chair, their second album is in my top 100 and the MTV Unplugged sessions from 1993 still makes me shudder slightly…for the right reasons. So imagine my joy …