Best of What’s New

Happy Saturday and welcome to my latest new music revue. Lately, I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record. Once again, I found more releases than I can possibly cover – not sure whether this reflects an increased volume of new music, my evolving taste, or a combination of both. All featured tunes are on releases that came out yesterday (June 23).

Ayron Jones/Blood in the Water

My first pick is Ayron Jones, a guitarist and singer-songwriter from Seattle I first featured in a May 2021 Best of What’s New installment. Jones has been active since the age of 19 when he started performing at local bars. In 2010, he formed Ayron Jones and the Way, a trio influenced by the likes of Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, and Prince and the Revolution. Their debut album Dream appeared in October 2013. Later Jones was signed as a solo artist and has since released two albums under his name, including his latest, Chronicles of the Kid. Here’s the cool-sounding Blood in the Water, credited to Jones, Blair Daly, Marti Frederiksen, Scott Stevens and Zac Maloy.

Corvair/Shady Town

Portland, Ore.-based Corvair are an indie rock duo and married couple of Brian Naubert and Heather Larimer. According to their website, between the two, they have played in various bands and can be heard on more than 20 albums. They started Corvair in 2019 and have released two albums to date. The new one is titled Bound to Be, which their website characterizes as veering “from muscular rock songs to languid pop confessionals, from stunning atmospherics to raw intimacy, held together by sharp lyrics and potent imagery.” Based on what I’ve heard thus far, I like their music. Here’s the opener Shady Town, which first appeared as the second single on May 19.

Emily James/New Name to Heartbreak

Emily James is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter. From her website: Singer-songwriter Emily James began writing her own music when she was 10 years old, inspired by such musical influences as Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, and Adele. At 16, James moved from New York to Nashville and, a year later, released her self-written EP, Emily James, produced by Grammy award winners Ian Fitchuk (Kacey Musgraves) and Jacquire King (Kings of Leon). She relocated to Los Angeles in 2017 and, soon after, put out her project, Til the Morning, written by James and produced by Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Vance Joy). Off her new release, her third EP called Grey, here’s New Name to Heartbreak, a lovely-sounding ballad about a less-than-cheerful topic.

Pecos & The Rooftops/Bricks

While Pecos & the Rooftops have a website, unfortunately, it doesn’t include any background. According to a recent review by The Music Universe, this Lubbock, Texas-based country rock band was formed in 2019 by college friends and includes frontman Pecos Hurley, Zack Foster (lead guitar), Brandon Jones (rhythm guitar), Hunter Cassell (guitars & keyboards), Kalen Davis (bass) and Garrett Peltier (drums). Their self-released debut single This Damn Song appeared in April 2019. The group’s first EP, Red Eye, came out in January 2020. The latest release is their self-titled full-length debut album. Here’s Bricks, co-written by Hurley, M. Wallace, producer Andrew Baylis and frequent collaborator Michael Whitworth.

Nat Myers/Pray For Rain

Nat Myers is a Korean-American blues poet, according to his website. When he was a child, his mother gave him a guitar, trying to keep him away from his rowdy friends. While Myers developed “a deft picking style,” he didn’t intend to become a musician and was much more interested in poets like Shakespeare and Homer. He ended up studying poetry in New York City while playing music on the side in the subway and on street corners. After COVID had put an end to his public performances, Myers began uploading videos to social media. Eventually, these clips caught the attention of Black Keys frontman and record producer Dan Auerbach who produced Myers’ new debut album Yellow Peril. Let’s listen to Pray For Rain. I love everything about this story and the tune!

Trophy Eyes/Life in Slow Motion

Wrapping up this post are Australian pop punk rock band Trophy Eyes. Formed in 2013, they currently consist of co-founders John Floreani (lead vocals) and Jeremy Winchester (bass, saxophone backing vocals), along with Josh Campiao (lead guitar) and Blake Caruso (drums). Since their November 2014 full-length debut Mend, Move On, Trophy Eyes have released three additional albums including their latest, Suicide and Sunshine. Off the latter, here’s Life in Slow Motion. The song is credited to the group’s former and recently departed lead guitarist Andrew Hallett, Caruso, Winchester and Floreani, as well as producers Fletcher Matthews and Shane Edwards. It’s an edgy, yet quite catchy song!

Last but not least here’s a Spotify playlist of the above and a few additional tunes.

Sources: Wikipedia; Corvair website; Emily James website; The Music Universe; Nat Myers website; YouTube; Spotify

Bon Jovi Turn Political on New Album 2020

Bon Jovi released their long anticipated 15th studio album 2020 on Friday, October 2. Predictably, the reviews I’ve seen thus far are mixed. After some 37 years into their recording career, I think it’s safe to say at this stage the band isn’t going to change many minds one way or the other. And opinions about the Jersey rockers have clearly been divided for a long time.

While Jon Bon Jovi is no Bruce Springsteen, I’ve always liked Bon Jovi for their catchy brand of pop rock. In that regard, 2020 doesn’t break new ground. What’s different are the outspoken political lyrics of some of the songs. Eight of the 10 tracks were solely written by Jon Bon Jovi. Together with the album cover, which is the first to feature Jon Bon Jovi only since the band’s eponymous debut from January 1984, this makes it feel more like a solo record.

Bon Jovi (from left): Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Hugh McDonald, Phil X and Tico Torres

2020 clearly is a reflection of the current unsettling times America is going through. Why did Jon Bon Jovi turn political now? Is it all a calculated move not come across as tone-deaf during what increasingly looks like an unprecedented period in the country? I would argue that Jon Bon Jovi has supported political and social causes for a long time, so it’s not like he suddenly decided to raise issues because it looked convenient. Plus, given how divided the U.S. is, if anything, I could see him lose some fans over his turn to political lyrics. With that, let’s get to some music.

Here’s the opener Limitless, a classic Bon Jovi rocker with a memorable guitar theme and a catchy melody. Co-written by Jon Bon Jovi, the band’s touring rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist John Shanks, and Billy Falcon, a frequent Bon Jovi collaborator since 2009, the song was first released as a single in February. Unlike most other tracks on the album, while the tune addresses the uncertainties of daily life, it has an upbeat outlook in the chorus: On a night like this/One prayer one wish/step out of the edge/It’s worth the risk/Life is limitless limitless. Perhaps this makes it a more typical Bon Jovi lyric.

Things definitely get darker in American Reckoning, one of the two songs that initially weren’t part of the album. Jon Bon Jovi penned this compelling tune about police brutality against African Americans during the COVID-19 quarantine. Like the opener, it also appeared first as a single, in July. America’s on fire/There’s protests in the street/Her conscience has been looted/And her soul is under siege/Another mother’s crying as history repeats/I can’t breathe/God damn those 8 long minutes/Lying face down in cuffs on the ground/Bystanders pleaded for mercy/As one cop shoved a kid in the crowd/When did a judge and a jury/Become a badge and a knee/On these streets/stay alive, stay alive/Shine a light, stay alive/Use your voice and you remember me/American reckoning…

Lower the Flag is about senseless school shootings we all too often witness in this country. The 2019 shooting in Dayton, Ohio inspired Jon Bon Jovi to write this tune. Perhaps the song’s most powerful part is toward the end when he lowers his voice, switching from singing to speaking. If there’s something we can talk about, let’s talk about it/If there’s something we can figure out, let’s figure it out/ If there’s something we can talk about, let’s talk about it/If there’s something we can figure out, let’s figure it out//El Paso, Texas/Dayton, Ohio/Las Vegas, Nevada/ Sebring, Florida/Orlando, Florida/Penn State University/ Aurora, Illinois/Virginia Beach, Virginia/Gilroy, California/Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania/ Marjory Stoneman Douglas High/ Columbine/Columbine/Sandy Hook Elementary… One really wonders how many more shootings and deaths it will take until those in charge have the backbone to stand up against the NRA and institute sensible gun control laws.

Next up: Blood in the Water, which addresses another big issue the country is facing: the plight of immigrants…Once I came across your border/Now they come to take me back/I sleep with one eye open/I don’t make waves, I don’t leave tracks/For my daughter and my three sons/It’s the only life they’ve known/To me it’s my asylum/These stars and stripes my home…

The last tune I’d like to call out is Unbroken, the album’s closer. Yet another track solely written by Jon Bon Jovi, the song is about military veterans and their struggle with PTSD and other challenges. The song first appeared last November and was written for To Be of Service, a documentary about war veterans and their service dogs…We were taught to shoot our rifles/Men and women side by side/Thought we’d be met as liberators/In a thousand-year-old fight/I got this painful ringing in my ear/From an IED last night/But no lead-lined Humvee war machine/Could save my sergeant’s life…

2020 was co-produced by Jon Bon Jovi and John Shanks. Other musicians on the album include the current core members of Bon Jovi: Phil X (lead guitar, backing vocals), Hugh McDonald (bass), Tico Torres (drums) and David Bryan (keyboards, piano, backing vocals). Everett Bradley, a touring member like Shanks, provided percussion and backing vocals.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube