Browsing Tag americana
Additions to the Carte Blanche Music playlist (week 34)
Not all, but only the *best* new music. Added to the playlist this week (alphabetically):
- Brooke Alexx – Never Liked Your Name
indie | pop
- Noah Bates – Coffee In Japan
indie | pop
- The Beaches – What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Paranoid
indie | rock
- Rye Catchers – Stupider
indie | pop
- Cookin’ On 3 Burners feat. Stella Angelico – I’m Coming Home To You
indie | pop | r&b | soul
- Astrid Cordes – Surrender
indie | pop
- The Darcys feat. Mae Martin – You Up?
indie | pop | rock
- the ghost tapes – Ballad For The Twenty Something
indie | pop | rock
- Glass Violet – Too Late To Come By
indie | pop | rock
- Mishell Ivon – Wild
funk | indie | pop
- Jaxxee – Gone
indie | pop | soul | trip hop
- Hevi Levi – Expecto Patronum
dance | electronic | indie | instrumental
- Los Leo – GTFO
indie | pop
- Linebeck – Give Us A Try
indie | pop | rock
- Mowgli May – Streets Calling
dance | indie | pop
- Rio 18 & Young Gun Silver Fox – She’s In LA
indie | pop | soul | tropical
- Pam Ross – You Don’t Know My Name
americana | indie | pop | rock
- Phebe Starr – One Step. Two Step.
indie | pop
- Twam – Identity Crisis
indie | pop | rock
Check them all in the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music Spotify playlist.
Follow (click ‘♥’) to hear the best new music first.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 15)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to new music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Get Well Soon – My Home Is My Heart
(Wildcard this week)
- Placebo – The Prodigal
(Wildcard last week)
- Bash! – Mental Hygiene
- La Pegatina feat. Youthstar – Where Do We Go?
- Oliver Pesch – Shelly (Lollapalooza)
- Two Year Vacation – Lemons
- youproblem – Wasting Time
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Aurora, Nerina Pallot, Palace Winter, Vance Joy, and more.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Oliver Pesch – Shelly (Lollapalooza)
Oliver Pesch is a singer-songwriter who grew up a stone’s throw from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. His songs are a mix of the old and modern American Westcoast sound.
This year, he’ll release his debut album Kid With The Dice. It brings together everything that drives him in music. The long-player will contain 11 fresh, critically thought out songs, accessible and convincing. Shelly (Lollapalooza) is Pesch’s second single. It has a seemingly carefree, vintage sound, but lyrically it goes deeper than that. As always, he shares his most personal stories with his audience.
Can you imagine a sound somewhere between The Jayhawks and Don Dixon? If that’s your thing, Oliver Pesch is your man!
Follow Oliver Pesch on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Tiarni Hope – Salt In The Wound
Tiarni Hope is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who works as a session drummer, among other things. On the Australian Gold Coast and in Brisbane, she built up a strong reputation with her powerful live shows. Now, it’s time to spread her wings.
Three years after her debut single Resist, she drops her second track. Salt In The Wound is a powerful song with influences ranging from country and blues to rock. Americana from down under, is that even possible?
About the meaning of the track, Hope says: “When I was writing this song, I felt like I was drowning under the weight of so many expectations, self-imposed or otherwise, that I couldn’t see a way out the other side. It became a way to tell myself that despite the doubts and the harsh words I harbored for myself, that I could pull through, even if better seems a ways to go.”
Salt In The Wound doesn’t only showcase Hope on drums and percussion, bass, guitars (both acoustic and electric), banjo, mandolin, and a plethora of vocal layers. It also features indie jazz songstress Hazel Mei on keyboards and organs, and slide guitar from producer Jared Adlam.
Follow Tiarni Hope on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 11)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Monowhales – He Said/She Said (I Wait) (Wildcard this week)
- Kalie Shorr – Amy (Wildcard last week)
- Ali Barter – You Get In My Way
- Eyjaa – Don’t Forget About Me
- Louis & The Shakes – How Badly Do You Want It?
- Lucy Daydream – Fast Forward
- Penfriend – Cancel Your Hopes
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Dua Lipa, London Grammar, Tom Grennan, and more.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Louis & The Shakes – How Badly Do You Want It?
Louis Antoniou (lead vocals), Jamie Lawson (lead guitar), Manny O’Donnell (drum) and Will Finnerty (bass) are Louis & The Shakes. They may be a London four-piece, but their music sounds as American as can be. In their infectious, hard-hitting songs they combine blues, Americana, and psychedelic indie-rock into a distinctive cocktail.
Up-tempo new single How Badly Do You Want It? is no exception to the description above. In other words: it’s one’s for fans of Queens Of The Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys and The Black Keys. It even adds a Long Train Runnin’ kind of funky guitar to the mix.
Front man Antoniou says of the track: “I’ve always had a bluesy streak and I think you can hear that in this tune particularly – the simplicity of the claps and the ‘tribal’ backing vocals in the verses. (…) Lyrically it’s all about keeping going, keep believing and never giving up. Instead of resting on our laurels [after COVID-19 came] we thought let’s get in the studio and record this album.”
How Badly Do You Want It? is the first single from the band’s upcoming same-titled debut long-player.
Follow Louis & The Shakes on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Werner’s Weekly (week 43)
This is Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters, containing the two most recent Carte Blanche Music Wildcards, and the best of the other new releases in alphabetical order:
- Palace Winter (feat. Penny Police) – Richard (Says Yes) (Wildcard this week)
- Little Quirks – Florence’s Town (Wildcard last week)
- A Girl Called Eddy – Been Around
- Charles – Far Gone
- Creature Comfort – Woke Up Drunk
- Genes – Super Single
- Lauran Hibberd – Boy Bye
Click the links for more info and listen to each of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player below.
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist. Also added last week: Icona Pop & Sofi Tukker, Nothing But Thieves, Pearl Jam, Smith & Burrows, and more.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
The Calicos – Heartbreaker
Although they never went away, The Calicos’ single Nova felt like a comeback last Spring. Two years earlier, the Belgian band followed their victory in Humo’s Rock Rally contest with three singles. Next, they took their time to fine-tune their songs and sound. Nova was the first result of their collaboration with producer Tobie Speleman (Geppetto & The Whales, Blackwave. and others).
Now, The Calicos serve up their new track Heartbreaker. I don’t know if it’s because of that title, but I hear Tom Petty all over it. It may not be a lockdown song, but lyrics like ‘Another day wasted on the window sill’ and ‘Another day passes by and you lost count’ sure give it that atmosphere. In reality, it’s a classic sad love song, including broken hearts, unanswered love and what not. But, frontman Quinten Vermaelen tells Humo magazine, “the violins in the outro make for a hopeful ending.”
Heartbreaker is the second single off The Calicos’ upcoming debut album, which has been pushed back to next Spring.
Recommended as well:
The Calicos – Nova
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.
Creature Comfort – Woke Up Drunk
Creature Comfort produce music that sits somewhere between country and americana. Although both are not my favourite genres, their new single is simply beautiful. Woke Up Drunk drips with melancholy, courtesy of a gorgeous string arrangement, wonderful choirs and acoustic fingerpicking. These ingredients make this one of the band’s most intimate tracks.
Woke Up Drunk is the latest cut that Creature Comfort are sharing from their upcoming album. Titled Home Team, it’s set to be released on 30 October.
Lead singer-songwriter and guitarist Jessey Clark tells PopMatters: “This is probably the most personal of all the songs on the record. It’s about when you break up with someone, even if you’re the one who ended the relationship, there’s still like that curiosity of whether or not that was the right decision.”
For more great new music, follow the constantly updated Carte Blanche Music playlist.

I’m a music industry watcher and journalist. Worked at a CD club, a record store chain and was editor in chief of an entertainment trade magazine. Have been in the radio business since 1987, producing and presenting shows. Was music director of several stations. Also, I developed the European Border Breakers Chart, Music Moves Europe Talent Chart and ESNS Chart. CEO of Werner Bros. tekst | uitleg.