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Best Folk Music Blog & Promotion

Denim Dan created a capsule of 70s folk-pop-rock nostalgia in their sixth studio album, This Way, That Way, The Other Way

Posted on 26 April 2023

NYC’s Denim Dan fortified the folk-pop-rock realm once again with their sixth studio album, This Way, That Way, The Other Way, which will ricochet you back to the 70s via an aural time capsule you have never experienced the like of before. Under the heart-on-sleeve influence of Tom Petty & The HeartBreakers, Lou Reed & Leonard Cohen, you will also be able to reminisce on the slightly zanier production styles of Zappa and the Legendary Pink Dots in this warm vignette of fond memories forged in an era of personal freedom and revelation.

There are few things as sonically sweet as coming-of-age tales after decades of retrospect. The kaleidoscopically honeyed soundscapes in This Way, That Way, The Other Way allows you to cruise right back to the 70s while allowing your perceptions to shift around the pearls of wanderlust wisdom.

“This Way, That Way, The Other Way is our sixth studio album. A non-fiction coming-of-age narration of loosely factual true events from my time in New Mexico in the mid 1970s. The title track and first four songs were written in Florence, Italy during the pandemic when I felt inspired to write about my experiences of four decades earlier. The next eight songs – also written about that period – including Let Your Love Fall Down On Me [too] were recorded in 2001 right after 911 in Boulder, Colorado. They were forgotten…but my son, Marcello, found them in an old computer.”

Stream This Way, That Way, The Other Way on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Different Places: Adam Monaco bides his time with a cuppa on Nevermind

Posted on 20 April 2023

Turning on the kettle and staying warm away from the temptations lurking outside, Adam Monaco sends our hearts into a more content place to find that happy home again on Nevermind.

Adam Monaco is a Long Island-born Philadelphia-based indie folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who is known for his inspirational sounds and for assisting the local music scene.

”Monaco is currently recording and releasing singles with his seven-piece band, and plans to release a full album at the end of 2023. Monaco recently entered the world of film when he scored the documentary Burden of Memory which won Best Director at LA’s First Glance Film Festival.” ~ Adam Monaco

Sung with an intensely felt honesty and soothing all worries away, Adam Monaco is that radiating hero we all needed. Reminding us to zen and have a warm cup of tea, as the wild world shows us the darkest sides of humanity outside.

Nevermind from Philadelphia-based indie singer-songwriter Adam Monaco is a rather glorious experience which is surely one of the most calming tracks so far in 2023. Taking us away from the bright lights and all the false narrative outdoors, this is a mind-my-own-business classic to chill next to the fire with.

Listen up deeper on Spotify.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Frances Cleave explored the Pepsi and Coke of suffering with her Southern Gothic single, ‘Freedom vs. Loneliness’.

Posted on 4 April 2023

The sophomore single, Freedom vs Loneliness, from the indie songstress Frances Cleave, is an ethereally arrestive shoegazey Clannad-ESQUE exploration of sufferance. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter takes inspiration from her haunted city of Charleston, SC; it doesn’t get much more Southern Gothic than her latest single, which will drive you to breaking point in the presence of her harbingering vocal lines that effortlessly gel with the phantasmally reverb-soaked pensive synths and evocatively plucked acoustic guitar strings.

The lyrics subtly explore the triadic trauma imparted by religious trauma, sexualisation and objectification but there’s enough ambiguity within the lyricality for the listener to apply their own contexts of freedom and loneliness. It’s a poignant reminder that the grass isn’t always greener, especially when the ground is hallowed whichever way you turn.

We can’t wait to hear what else she has in the melancholic pipeline; her debut LP is due for release late 2023, following her next single, which is primed for release in May.

Freedom v Loneliness debuted on April 1. Stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Plain White Dress: Saskatchewan folk artist Jackie K sends us into a timeless dream on Sister Of Stone

Posted on 1 April 2023

Taken from her brand new 10-track album called She’s a Story, Jackie K guides us deeper into that Brandy Clark-like class and passion with the supreme new single Sister Of Stone.

Jackie K is a Saskatchewan, Canada-based indie folk singer-songwriter who makes those profound soundtracks which might invoke sentimental long-lost feelings.

“This album is more personal than anything else that I’ve recorded before,” says Jackie K, “but most of the stories aren’t mine.”

Dropping us into a meaningful story which has a carefully snow-bound feeling which will open up more love, Jackie K is brilliant form and sends us into a whole new universe to calm those weary eyes.

Sister Of Stone from Saskatchewan, Canada-based indie folk singer-songwriter Jackie K is a rather emotional single which is rather cinematic and vocally stunning. Pure all the way throughout and sizzling with so many calming melodies made from the heart, this is a supremely soul-healing effort for us all to calm our nerves for the better.

Turn this up on SoundCloud.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Welcome Stranger set an intimately artful indie-folk score with ‘You Need Me’

Posted on 31 March 2023
https://soundcloud.com/user-853304457/you-need-me/s-ZPUmj7J2TKU?si=5a1550f8f29f44ce8fffbf3b65c94e6a&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

From chamber strings to honkytonk Americana tones to indie art-rock crescendos, Welcome Stranger rolled with all the evocative punches when instrumentally composing their latest single, You Need Me.

After taking inspiration from the likes of Ben Howard and Justin Vernon, the devilishly talented duo scribed their own eloquently indie folk signature in You Need Me, the lead single from the debut album, Running Out of Miles. The LP title is heartbreak material alone.

With the whisky and melancholy-soaked vocal lines, you will lock into the lyrics from the first hit of this stunningly orchestrated single, which definitively proves that beauty still thrives in the world, regardless of the entropy and disillusion that so easily manifests whenever the full picture is in view. Yet, with this poetically candid single, Welcome Stranger exhibits that intimacy and intricate detail is everything.

You Need Me will officially release on March 31st. You can hear it via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Malcolm Duff brought us right back down to humble ground with his quiescent folk score, Leaving

Posted on 29 March 2023
https://soundcloud.com/user-883383372/leaving

Along with his paramour co-creator, Da Silva, the folk singer-songwriter Malcolm Duff reminded us why his sound is so unforgettable with his latest single, Leaving.

To do this feat of melancholically sweet folk justice, I’ll refrain from the tired Cohen comparisons and lean into the cinematic fluid grace of the orchestration that wouldn’t be out of place on the Wild at Heart soundtrack. The evocative movie script ending of a score entrenches you in its sentimentality, which alludes to how distance is as much of a state of mind as it is a matter of miles.

Some may say that searching for unconditional love is simply being in love with the idea of love itself, but Malcolm Duff put those romantic cynics to shame, by proving that only love can save us all. In a time when it is so easy to fixate on arbitrary notions of success, the gentle acoustic strings and breezy harmonica blows in Leaving will bring you right back down to humble ground.

Stream Leaving on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dolly Mavies – I’m All Sugar: Get Your indie Anthem Fix

Posted on 24 March 2023

Oxford, UK singer-songwriter, Dolly Mavies, set the indie anthem bar impossibly high with her latest single, I’m All Sugar, which surges with the same rhythmic and vocal energy of Somebody to Love by Boogie Pimps in spite of the folky flavour.

Taken from her debut album, The Calm & The Storm, the stellar single from the artist who takes influence from the likes of Patti Smith, The National and Daughter, created a uniquely exhilarating listening experience that makes no bones about pulling you through an ardently visceral arrangement where a curveball lies on the edge of every progression.

If Dolly Mavies isn’t as big as Mumford & Sons by the end of the year, someone may as well scorch the earth of the music industry so we can start again. It’s punk as fuck, yet, Mavies still maintains that ever-addictive girl-next-door appeal.

I’m All Sugar will officially release on March 24th. Hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jakob the Liar – H E A R T B E A T: The Only Heartbreak Hit You Need to Hear This Year

Posted on 19 March 2023

Considering that we’re living in a post-truth world, we may as well tune into a reality falsifier, especially if they’re as endearingly magnetic as the alt-indie singer-songwriter Jakob the Liar.

His latest single, H E A R T B E A T, is his first contribution to the airwaves since the successful launch of his 2020 EP, Crystallised in Moonshine, and it is a melodic dream. The concept of running away from your own heartbeat won’t be foreign to anyone that has known heartbreak, but few can bring that world-shattering sensation into poetic motion as well as the Danish London-residing artist.

If The National, Bon Iver and Springsteen had a riff-soaked lovechild, the sonic result would be just as sweet as the anthemic intimacy in H E A R T B E A T.

H E A R T B E A T is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Reverend James Elmore Jenkins keeps the devil at bay in his blues rock jam, Diapsalmata Blues

Posted on 16 March 2023

Few artists do bluesy rock n roll as reverently as Tennessee-born, South Carolina-residing artist Reverend James Elmore Jenkins, as proven by the unadulterated groove-driven swagger in his latest single, Diapsalmata Blues.

His red-hot vintage overdriven tones make The Black Keys sound like cultural appropriation while he’s blazing through the raunch-laced jam riffs that any blues rock fan will want spread across their speakers. If you can tear your attention away from the audible smoky beguile, you’ll hear the minister’s intent to push sermonic gospel through his root-wrapped hits. I may be of the impious inclination, but the uplifting soul entwined with worldly well-intentioned wisdom in Diapsalmata Blues did more than hit the wholesome spot. For your own sake, hit play.

Diapsalmata Blues will be available to stream from March 16th. Hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Beau James Wilding’s latest single, The Dove, spread its wings through artfully gritty folk-rock beguile

Posted on 10 March 2023

For his latest Waitsy roughneck folk-rock release, The Dove, the enigmatically captivating singer-songwriter Beau James Wilding collaborated with the violinist, David Stone, to create a gripping trip through unadulterated emotion.

With the folky strings bringing a touch of The Levellers to the single, the bluesy acoustic guitar tones and the devilishly innovative percussion, The Dove spread its wings through a fair amount of artful beguile while Wilding vocally riffed from his almost sermonic soul. The lyricality of the gritty release, which only lets the light in through the high timbres of Stone’s strings, is enough to make Nick Cave’s discography sound like Gospel.

Usually, Cali-hailing artists spill sun into their soundscapes; it is beyond refreshing to hear an artist resisting the atmosphere and perusing his affinity for dark Bukowski-ESQUE poetry.

The Dove is due for official release on March 10th. Hear it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast