Featuring Michael Chapman, Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino, Spencer Cullum, The Felice Brothers, Alex Rex, Margo Cilker, Native Harrow, Brigid Mae Power, Matt Patershuk, Ryley Walker, Henry Parker, Asha McCarthy and Cate Le Bon.
This week’s show is from our Lost in Transmission series. Amongst several new and recent releases, we also pay a small tribute to Michael Chapman, who recently passed away (read our tribute here).
From Native Harrow, we have their new single Turn It Around, which is released on Monday ahead of their UK tour; read more here. From Spencer Cullum, one of Nashville’s most in-demand session cats, we have a track from his new album Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection, which is released on 24 Sept via Full Time Hobby (we’ll have more on that soon).
Jazz on the Autobahn is the opening track from The Felice Brothers new album ‘From Dreams To Dust’, which Mike Davies reviewed here and called it “Their most ambitious, densest and experimental work to date, it may also be their finest hour.”
The Felice Brothers are not alone in delivering their best…The Dark Inside The Shadow is from Alex Rex’s (Alex Neilson) ‘Paradise’, released at the back-end of July. In his album review here, Thomas Blake concludes: “His aphoristic approach to songwriting means that every line he writes sounds like a defining statement, but on Paradise, those statements come together (albeit in a ragged and even contradictory way) to form perhaps his most rewarding piece of work to date.”
Oregon singer-songwriter Margo Cilker is probably a new name to many. ‘Barbed Wire (Belly Crawl)’, is the second single from her forthcoming album ‘Pohorylle’, which will be released on Loose on 5th November via Loose. The track shows Cilker in an introspective and measured light than the upbeat exuberance of last month’s album single ‘Tehachapi’. Barbed Wire takes its inspiration from the writings of Oregon poet and essayist Kim Stafford.
“Sometimes I read a line in a book that just sticks to me, like this line about barbed wire from writer Kim Stafford: “I guess a man goes over a barbed wire fence, a child under, and a woman through.” I couldn’t help but see the metaphor at play of a woman “going through it”.” The song poured out of me very quickly, which isn’t always the case. I think the open range out here in eastern Oregon- the same country Stafford describes- gave me that canvas I needed for this one. It’s country that isn’t quite comfortable for me. I’m always aware of my surroundings: an expanse where the mind wanders freely for miles in any direction, but the body is immediately obstructed by a nasty tangle of wire.”
From her latest EP of covers ‘Burning Your Light‘ (reviewed here), we have a Patsy Cline cover from the sublime vocals of Brigid Mae Power. From An Honest Effort, the new album by acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Matt Patershuk, which is scheduled for release on November 19 on Black Hen Music, we have Sunny – a song about “…a woman trapped in a bad situation. She should split. What does she do?“
It’s also a great pleasure to share once again the title track of Henry Parker’s new album “Lammas Fair”, the video for which we premiered here.
Another new name to many will be the multi-faceted cellist-singer-producer Asha McCarthy. The track Drift is taken from her debut album Epitaph (out now), an eclectic and uplifting collection of songs written to help process experiences of postnatal mental health challenges. You can grab it via Bandcamp here.
There’s also a track from Cate Le Bon’s 2013 album Mug Museum, an album of psych-pop goodness.
Music Played
- Cat Clyde & Jeremie Albino – You Were Born To Die
- Native Harrow – Turn it Around
- Michael Chapman – You Say (2011 Remaster)
- Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection – My Tree
- The Felice Brothers – Jazz on the Autobahn
- Alex Rex – The Dark Inside The Shadow
- Cate Le Bon – No God
- Margo Cilker – Barbed Wire (Belly Crawl)
- Brigid Mae Power – Leavin’ On Your Mind (Patsy Cline)
- Matt Patershuk – Sunny
- Michael Chapman – Among The Trees
- Ryley Walker – The West Wind
- Henry Parker – Lammas Fair
- Asha McCarthy – Drift
- Michael Chapman – Caddo Lake
- Michael Chapman – Bon Ton Roolay
Photo by Alex Gallacher