This week’s Lost in Transmission show features a double helping from Jake Blount‘s new album, who is also our current Artist of the Month. As mentioned in our review here, The New Faith is Jake’s follow-up to his 2020’s breakthrough debut, Spider Tales. It’s an awe-inspiring album on so many levels; you can order and listen to it here.
We also have a track from Flight Paths (a Featured Album of the Month that Glenn Kimpton reviewed here), the collaborative efforts of the multi-talented Siskin Quartet featuring Scottish-Finnish duo Sarah-Jane Summers and Juhani Silvola and Anglo-Swedish folk duo Leif Ottosson and Bridget Marsden. You can order the album via Bandcamp.
Another Featured Album of the Month is Sew Change (reviewed here) from Rezo, featuring Colm O’Connell and Rory McDaid. This album is even more remarkable than their sensational Travalog album of 2020.
There’s also a double-helping from Geoff Muldaur, first off being that classic Minglewood Blues with John Sebastian. This is taken from a Smithsonian Folkways compilation titled Down Home Saturday Night (2007). The liner notes state:
John Sebastian was one of those influenced by Smith’s Anthology. He has had a long career, both as a solo artist and as the leader of the Lovin’ Spoonful, a hit-making rock group. He has always had a love for jug-band music, so in recent years he has toured and recorded with his J Band, which includes Geoff Muldaur and the late Fritz Richmond, alumni of the renowned Kweskin Jug Band. Other members are the blues duo Paul Rishell and Annie Raines.
“Minglewood Blues” was featured on the Anthology of American Folk Music performed by Cannon’s Jug Stompers. In recent years, it has been performed by the Grateful Dead.
Further on, we have a new track from Geoff’s new album His Last Letter. ‘His Last Letter’ is the most ambitious project he’s ever undertaken; an 18-song tour de force in a long line of highly-acclaimed recordings by this venerable and highly respected musician. Recorded in the Netherlands, Muldaur takes us on a wide-ranging musical journey, collaborating with some of the finest classical and jazz musicians in that country to present stylish renderings of tunes from the American folk and jazz ‘songbag’, musical settings for the poems of Tennessee Williams, tributes to heroes such as Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington, plus original compositions. Order it here (Double CD and Double Vinyl).
There is also new music from:
- Bill Callahan‘s new album YTI⅃AƎЯ (Bandcamp) which we reviewed here.
- Field Guide‘s (aka Dylan MacDonald) new self-titled album, his inviting voice and warm textures were recorded in the depths of winter to form his most engaging habitat yet. Recorded in rural Canada in the company of good friends, it lives in a place between darkness and hopefulness with unshakeable melodies at its heart.
- Noon, Twain‘s first double-album & fourth official release with Keeled Scales, offering a collection attempting to balance soul-fantasy with self-scrutiny, to erode the barrier between those two places, and to find the liminal state between the spirit’s ambition for itself and the often harsh truth of the present.
- Fortune By Design, the debut duo album from Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh on which they combine their talents for an extraordinary collaboration of British folk and Americana roots music.
- Mouth Full of Glass, the debut album by Chicago singer, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Macie Stewart. Their story is one of finding solace and strength in solitude, where lush arrangements search for the meaning of self, both within and without partnership. Exploring loneliness, as well as the growth and beauty blooming from it, Macie’s inner meditations reassess their own relationships in a singular voice that could ring true to anyone.
- The new single from Adrian Crowley feat. Brigid Mae Power from Bring Your Own Hammer, a new project in which historians and composers collaborate to create new and original song cycles based on historical sources (read more here).
- Bonny Light Horseman–the trio of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric D. Johnson, and Josh Kaufman. Someone To Weep For Me is the breezy and bittersweet final single from their anticipated sophomore album Rolling Golden Holy (7th October).
- from Wayfare, the new album from Patrick Stefan (23 Sept). Stefan says: “Wayfare references my 16th century Dutch ancestors who were whalers; some went on several year-long expeditions to gather fuel for pre-industrial cities. The album references the book Moby Dick and its archetypes as I see them reflected through me; Ishmael’s wanderlust, the ambition of Captain Ahab, the mixed crew of Americans, Europeans & Africans, the timeless wisdom of the nourishing, lurking Whale. Wayfare comes to terms with my mixed heritage and reveals pockets of references to family heirlooms, childhood memories, wisdom scars, my shadow self, west African Rhythms & Brazilian percussion. The album quilts together tones, expressions and rhythms into a well-fitting suit, as if made of different sized & coloured threads. (Bandcamp).
- The Cinder Sheet is the new EP from Sairie (Emma Morton on vocals, autoharp, Jon Griffin on vocals, guitar and Andy Thomas on bass, from East Sussex). The Ep inspired by Emma and Jon’s life-long love of cinema. They recorded their own arrangements of a couple of favourite movie songs including ‘Run Man Run’ here – originally by Audrey Stainton/Ennio Morricone for the film The Big Gundown.
Music Played
Ralph Stanley – Oh, Death
Jake Blount – The Downward Road
Geoff Muldaur & John Sebastian & The J Band – Minglewood Blues
16 Horsepower – American Wheeze (Live)
Bill Callahan – Natural Information
Rezo – Boy on a Bridge
Field Guide – You Could Be Free
Edith Judith – Bridge
Twain – King of Fools
Geoff Muldaur – The Whale Has Swallowed Me
Brooks Williams & Dan Walsh – Columbus Stockade Blues
Macie Stewart – Finally
Adrian Crowley feat. Brigid Mae Power – Golden Streets, Bitter Tears
Sairie – Run Man Run
Erlend Apneseth Trio – Linjer
Siskin Quartet – Midnattssol
The Bonny Light Horsemen – Someone To Weep For Me
Jake Blount – Once There Was No Sun
Patrick Stefan – Just another love song