Browsing Tag folk
Lucy Spraggan – Today Was A Good Day
At 19, Lucy Spraggan had the guts to play her own song Last Night (Bear Fear) during her participation in X Factor 2012. While still in the show, it became a Top 20 hit, and her self-released debut album hit the charts as well.
A month ago, she put out her fifth long-player Today Was A Good Day. It’s a confident album full of musical stories, inspired by real-life themes such as marrying her girlfriend and fostering children together. Spraggan explains: “We’ve had 14 kids stay with us so far. We are also trying for our own child so we will see what happens. All this has played a huge part in my writing. It’s an album about growing up.”
The title track is one of the quieter songs on the record, where the singer is accompanied by only an acoustic guitar and strings, to great effect. This would be a wonderful single!
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.
Bess Atwell – Swimming Pool
Bess Hildick-Smith, known by her stage name Bess Atwell, grew up in the English countryside, one of four children to an eclectic family of artists, songwriters and doctors. Soon after starting her own musical career, she was described in the press as ‘a promising folk poet of suppression and inner anxiety’ and ‘a gifted singer-songwriter with a voice like slow, cool water’. Eventually, her former solo project evolved into a full band affair, incorporating traces of traditional folk music with newer indie-rock influences.
Atwell’s just-released EP Big Blue includes the new tracks Harvested and Ventnor Villas. The other three songs have been issued as singles via Spotify, but were never actively promoted outside her home country. Swimming Pool, which was met with praise in late 2018, now gets a proper promotional treatment outside the UK. A romantic yet realistic song, influenced by the likes of The National, Fleet Foxes, and Sharon Van Etten.
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 15)
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. No complaints about diversity, I’d say, 6 out of the 7 being female(-fronted) acts:
- Georgia – About Work The Dancefloor (Wildcard this week)
- Maggie Lindemann – Friends Go (Wildcard last week)
- Moddi – Kriegspiel
- Self Esteem – Girl Crush
- Stefanie Heinzmann – You Get Me
- The Veronicas – Think Of Me
- Yonaka – Lose Our Heads
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: Alex Lahey, Circa Waves, The Heavy, Vampire Weekend, whenyoung, and many 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.
Moddi – Kriegspiel
Moddi is the stage name of Pål Moddi Knutsen, a progressive folk musician from Norway. I first heard about him in 2016, when he released the album Unsongs, comprising songs that had been banned throughout the world. I was especially struck by the song A Matter Of Habit, originally by Israeli singer Izhar Ashdot and at the time forbidden because of its anti-military lyrics.
Last week, Moddi released Kriegspiel. His cheeriest tune to date, which also has one of the darkest backdrops. In an Instagram post, the singer explains the song is about the former Norwegian border inspector Frode Berg, who is facing a Russian court this week, charged with attempting espionage against the Russian Navy on behalf of the Norwegian Intelligence Services. Ever since his arrest, Norwegian politicians and government officials have remained silent about the case and referred to it as ‘a consular matter’.
Moddi, however, wants to tell Frode Berg’s story and wrote this wonderful song about it. A song that needs to be heard.
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.
Mighty Oaks – Driftwood Seat
Eight years have passed since Ian Hooper, Craig Saunders, and Claudio Donzelli of Berlin-based band Mighty Oaks self-released their first EP Driftwood Seat. Although the collection was never officially released – not supported by a label anyway – the songs garnered several hundred thousand plays on SoundCloud.
While working on their third album, the band decided to have another go at the four songs on the EP that started their career, and whose title track closed almost every show over the years. The new recording reflects the current change over time: not a radical rework but a natural evolution.
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.
Evil Edna – Isle Of Dogs
Evil Edna are Paul Cockerham (vocals, harmonica), Joe Thompson (drums), Sam Taylor (bass), and Simon Land (guitar), a rockabilly punk band from London. They have a unique, genre-crossing sound, which blends gypsy harmonica, psychobilly guitar, thumping bass and upbeat drums, as if Madness, The Pogues and the Bintangs were put in a blender. Gogol Bordello fans will be delighted!
If you’re ready to stomp your feet and shake your hips, please meet Evil Edna!
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.
Judah & The Lion – Quarter-Life Crisis
Nashville band Judah & The Lion broke out in 2016 with their single Take It All Back, which reached #1 on Billboard’s Alternative Songs chart. After subsequent singles Suit And Jacket (2017) and Going To Mars(!) (earlier this year), they just put out two new tracks: Pep Talk and Quarter-Life Crisis.
Pep Talk is a two and a half minute long folky instrumental/chant. But confusingly, it’s the other one, the Mumford & Sons-like folk rock song Quarter-Life Crisis, that prominently features the line ‘I need a pep talk’ in its lyrics. The single questions truth in emotions, self-confidence (or lack thereof), and is a plea for help from family and friends. It contains a strong ‘yeah yeah yeah, oh’ part, that will doubtlessly do well in their live shows.
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.
Locks – The Hangover Song
London-based Locks released The Gin Song two years ago and it always made people dance. For this winter season, they wanted to release something in the same vein, but a bit more light-hearted and carefree. Enter The Hangover Song. A knees-up, foot stomping track.
They call their music ‘skeleton blues’, because they write – in their own words – ‘parts of murder ballads, which see gin drinkers rubbing shoulders with the damned, murderers burying bodies in the back yard and family secrets being whispered through the night’. Musically however, it sounds like pure folk to me…
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 47)
Last week a great diversity of new music saw the light. There were very good releases in every thinkable genre. After applying heavy criteria, I added the likes of Chvrches, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Hozier, The Kooks, Rita Ora, and The Vaccines to my Carte Blanche Music playlist on Spotify, alongside a host of emerging artists you probably haven’t heard of before. And Jennifer Lopez as well. Listen to her new single Limitless without prejudice and you’ll hear it’s a really good song.
And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Below, you can find my ‘best of the best’ selection Werner’s Weekly, your compass to the music that matters. Via the links you can access my original recommendations and you can listen to all six of the tracks via the Werner’s Weekly player in the sidebar. Here you go:
- Jonas Brøg feat. Laura Mathilde – I Think Of You I Cry (Wildcard this week)
- Jade Bird – Love Has All Been Done Before (Wildcard last week)
- 1010 Benja SL – Ultimaybe
- Audio Adam – Emma Watson
- Hollydays – Minuit (La Baie Noire)
- Moscow Apartment – Orange
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.
Moscow Apartment – Orange
Moscow Apartment are a promising Canadian teen duo, consisting of Brighid Fry (14) and Pascale Padilla (16). After releasing their self-titled debut EP in 2017, they decided to submit the demo for their track Orange to the Canadian Songwriting Competition. It won them the Under 18 category.
After picking judge Joel Plaskett’s brain about music, song writing, and production, they went back into the studio and co-produced the final version of their winning song. “The recording experience was fun because we had really strong ideas of what we wanted Orange to sound like and we were able to manifest those ideas with engineer Guillermo Subauste’s help.”
About the track itself, a tune that mixes indie folk with triumphant pop, the duo explain: “Orange is about the weird twilight-zone feeling that happens sometimes at sunset – when things suddenly don’t feel real, like everything around you is a movie.”
Moscow Apartment’s second EP is on its way.
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.
