New Music Musings

Happy Saturday and I’d like to welcome you to part 2 of my 2023 in review series. This second post highlights some of my favorite new songs that were released during the second half of the year. In case you missed it and are curious, part 1 is here.

The Arcadian Wild/Shoulders

Led by songwriters Isaac Horn (acoustic guitar, vocals) and Lincoln Mick (mandolin, vocals), with Bailey Warren on fiddle, The Arcadian Wild from Nashville, Tenn. have their roots in formal vocal music and influences from progressive bluegrass and folk. They have been around for about a decade and released their eponymous debut in 2015. From their third and new full-length album Welcome, here’s Shoulders – love that warm and beautiful sound!

Cordovas/Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll

If you’ve followed my blog or know my music taste otherwise, you won’t be surprised to see Cordovas in this post. I’m a fan of this East Nashville, Tenn.-based Americana and country rock band. They were formed in 2011 by singer-songwriter, bassist and vocalist Joe Firstman after a six-year stint as bandleader for former NBC late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly. Cordovas who have named The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band as influences released their fourth and latest studio album The Rose of Aces in August. Here’s the fantastic opener Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll co-written by Firstman and Cory Hanson, frontman of Los Angeles rock band Wand. If I would be asked to pick my favorite song of 2023, this would be it!

The Natvral/A Glass of Laughter

The Natvral is a music project of Kip Berman, who previously founded American indie rock band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and was their main songwriter during their active period between 2007 and 2019. In April 2021, Berman released his debut solo album Tethers, and I included one of the tracks in a previous installment of this weekly feature. His sophomore project is titled Summer of No Light. Here’s A Glass of Laughter, a great folk rock tune penned by Berman. Just as I felt when listening to the above song from his debut album, I can hear a Bob Dylan vibe. Gosh, I love it, we need more artists like him!

Tré Burt/Traffic Fiction

Tré Burt is a Sacramento-based singer-songwriter I first included in an October 2020 installment of this series. During his childhood, he was exposed to music by The Delfonics, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations. As he became a musician himself, he tapped into American folk and blues. Bits of those and other roots were reflected on the August 2021 studio album You, Yeah, You, the result of what Burt’s website calls his “first proper studio sessions.” His latest, titled Traffic Fiction, is an “alchemy of soul, dub, and more than a little punk.” Here’s the great-sounding title track penned by Burt – so good!

Jake Thistle/The Dreamer

Among young music artists I’ve come across, Jake Thistle is the one I feel most excited about. The 19-year-old singer-songwriter from New Jersey first entered my radar screen on Facebook in 2021. Last summer, I saw him perform a Jackson Browne tribute show at a free summer outdoor concert. Browne is one of the artists who’s not only an influence but who Thistle actually has met, along with the likes of Tom Petty, John Hiatt, Stevie Nicks and Foo Fighters – in fact, he played or shared bills with most of them! Following his June 2021 home-produced debut CD Down the Line, Thistle is now out with his first studio EP The Half Left Out (see my reviews here and here, respectively. My favorite track off the latter is The Dreamer, which reminds me of a young Jackson Browne.

Harp/Country Cathedral Drive

This brings me to my final pick in this 2003 songs in review mini-series. Harp is a music project created by musician and songwriter Tim Smith, which also includes his wife Kathi Zung. According to their AllMusic profile, Harp combines British folk rock, vintage alternative rock and prog rock. Smith initially gained prominence as the primary songwriter of Texas indie rock band Midlake who he co-founded in 1999. After his departure in 2012, he met and married Zung, an artist and puppet fabricator with a career in stop-motion animation, who also is a musician. Off Albion, Harp’s first album, here’s the gorgeous Country Cathedral Drive.

Following is a Spotify playlist of the above songs and 16 additional picks from the second half of the year. I hope you’re going to check out the playlist, which includes many other great songs I didn’t get to feature in this post.

Sources: Wikipedia; AllMusic; YouTube; Spotify

The Sunday Six

Happy Sunday and I hope you’re all spending a lovely weekend. As I’m putting together this post, it’s a rainy day in my neck of the woods in central New Jersey, U.S.A. – in other words, a perfect opportunity to get of this place and embark on another imaginary trip through space and time to visit great music of the past and the present. It’ll be fun, so come and join me!

Oliver Nelson/Passion Flower

Let’s ease into our journey with soothing jazz by American saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger, composer and bandleader Oliver Nelson. This takes us back to the beginning of Nelson’s recording career as a solo artist and his 1959 debut album Meet Oliver Nelson. It seems Nelson was destined for music. He began to learn the piano as a six-year-old, followed by the saxophone five years later. By 1947 at age 15, Nelson already performed in local bands in the St. Louis area. In the late ’40s and early ’50s, he played alto saxophone with the Louis Jordan Band. Over his 25-year-plus career, Nelson also worked with many other jazz greats, such as Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery and Buddy Rich. Sadly, Nelson’s life was cut short by a heart attack at age 43 in October 1975. Going back to his aforementioned solo debut, here’s Passion Flower, a beautiful composition by Milt Raskin and Billy Strayhorn.

Cordovas/Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll

I know prior to embarking on this excursion I cheerfully declared leaving the present behind, but at the end of the day, these Sunday trips are all about great music. And to me, this next contemporary pick by Americana and roots rock band Cordovas perfectly fits that mold. Fallen Angeles of Rock ‘n’ Roll is off their latest album The Rose of Aces, which dropped on August 11. The East Nashville, Tenn. group around singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Firstman, who initially gained prominence as bandleader from 2005 to 2009 on NBC’s former late-night TV show Last Call with Carson Daly, has been together since 2011. Fallen Angeles of Rock ‘n’ Roll was co-written by Firstman and Cory Hanson, frontman of Los Angeles rock band Wand. I can hear The Band and The Wallflowers in this country rock gem!

Mighty Baby/Egyptian Tomb

It’s time for another out-of-left-field pick, which once again was suggested to me by my not-so-secret-anymore weapon, aka Gerd. My dear longtime buddy from Germany is a music encyclopedia, and I feel he should consider starting his own blog! I had never heard of British psychedelic band Mighty Baby who were born in early 1969. Among others, they included vocalist Reg King and keyboarder Ian Whiteman, both formerly with The Action, a London-based R&B group discovered by George Martin. According to AllMusic, they were “long considered one of Martin’s best discoveries this side of The Beatles.” Mighty Baby released two studio albums before breaking up in late 1971. Here’s Egyptian Tomb, a cool song from their eponymous November 1969 debut album. Or should we call it mighty?

Blur/No Distance Left to Run

Next the magical music time machine shall take us to March 1999 and 13, the sixth studio album by English alternative rock and Britpop band Blur. They only entered my radar screen in July this year when I featured a song from their ninth and latest album The Ballad of Darren, their first new release since an 8-year hiatus. Blur’s name perfectly reflects the black box that the ’90s largely are to me when it comes to what was then-contemporary music. I noticed some of the group’s most streamed songs on Spotify come from 13. Eventually, this led to my pick, No Distance Left to Run, credited to Damon Albarn (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Graham Coxon (guitar, saxophone, co-lead and backing vocals), Alex James (bass, backing vocals) and Dave Rowntree (drums, percussion), who remain Blur’s members to this day. I realize the lyrics aren’t particularly upbeat, but I still dig this song!

Thin Lizzy/The Boys Are Back in Town

Time to kick it up a notch, both in terms of tempo and the lyrics, with a classic by Irish rockers Thin Lizzy. For this stop we go back to March 1976 and the group’s sixth studio album Jailbreak, which overall became their most successful, both in terms of chart performance and sales. Undoubtedly, the single The Boys Are Back in Town had something to do with. It became the band’s biggest U.S. hit and won them the 1976 NME Award for Best Single. Yes, the song hasn’t exactly suffered from underexposure, but I still get a kick out of it, especially that neat dual lead guitar action. Like most of their songs, The Boys Are Back in Town was penned by the band’s frontman, lead vocalist and bassist Phil Lynott.

Peter Gabriel/Shock the Monkey

Once again, we’re reaching the final stop of yet another Sunday Six. To wrap up things, let’s jump into the next decade to September 1982. That’s when England’s Peter Gabriel released his fourth self-titled solo album, aka Security or Peter Gabriel 4: Security. My Peter Gabriel journey started with his next album So, released in May 1986. At the time, his only other song I knew outside his earlier work with Genesis was the catchy Solsbury Hill. As such, Shock the Monkey and other songs from Security were a bit of an acquired taste. But it didn’t take long for me to come around!

Last but not least, here’s a link to a Spotify playlist featuring all of the above tracks. As always, I hope there’s something for you there and that you’ll be back for more music time travel next Sunday!

Sources: Wikipedia; AllMusic; YouTube; Spotify

Cordovas Demonstrate Staying Power on New Album

When first listening to Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll, I had a good feeling Cordovas would deliver another compelling album. The Rose of Aces, which dropped last Friday (August 11), once again features the kind of warm-sounding Americana and roots rock that together with their multi-part harmony singing made me embrace the East Nashville, Tenn. band in 2018 when I saw them during a free outdoor summer concert in New Jersey.

Before getting to some music, I’d like to provide a bit of background on the group. Cordovas were founded in 2011 by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Joe Firstman after he had put out a series of solo projects and served as bandleader from 2005 to 2009 on NBC’s former late-night TV show Last Call with Carson Daly. Following their self-released 2011 eponymous debut and various line-up changes, Cordovas signed with ATO Records, entering their next stage.

The group’s August 2018 label debut That Santa Fe Channel, which I reviewed here, was followed by Destiny Hotel in October 2020. The Rose of Aces marks their third release with ATO Records and their fourth studio album overall. In addition to Firstman (vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, Fender Rhodes, piano, synthesizer, Wurlitzer), Cordovas’ second core member is Lucca Soria (acoustic and electric guitar, bass, vocals) who Firstman on their website calls “the one soldier that understands what I’m doing best.”

Current press photo of Cordovas: Joe Firstman (fourth from left), Lucca Soria (second from left) and “co-conspirators”

Otherwise, Cordovas are in a state of constant flow, relying on various co-conspirators gathering in their twin outposts — a farm in Nashville, and a hideout in the artist community of the Baja California town Todos Santos — to jam out ideas. According to this review in Glide Magazine, The Rose of Aces was produced by Cory Hanson, frontman of L.A. rock band Wand. Time to take a closer look at the goodies!

Since I already covered the aforementioned Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll in my most recent New Music Musings installment, I’m skipping the standout opener and lead single here and go right to What Is Wrong? Credited to Firstman and Sorie, the tune is a sunburnt twilight sigh of a song, notes the group’s website, originating with some ideas of Soria’s that the band then toyed with, adding some lyrics (“Are you ready?/ If you’re free enough to do it on your own”) that Firstman worked on with his girlfriend. The song well represents the mellow, laid-back feel that is present throughout most of the album.

High Roller, penned by Firstman and country songwriter Mark Cline Bates, tells the story of the narrator and his compatriot Stanley having a chaotic bender at a casino. In an interview with Holler Country, Firstman explained the song is about his spending spree in Las Vegas after Atlantic had signed him as a solo artist early in his career. Check out that mighty sweet pedal steel guitar! High Roller first appeared on July 11 as the album’s second upfront single.

Deep River, co-written by Firstman and Bates as well, is another tune that spoke to me right away. A song that starts with the lines Red tractor and a green pasture/Silver pickup knobs on my blonde Telecaster was bound to get my attention! I can hear a bit of Tom Petty in here. During the above Holler Country interview Firstman acknowledged the tune is about learning and growing from past indiscretions.

On Love Is All It Takes, the speed and intensity pick up, providing a welcome contrast. Solely written by Firstman, this track has a southern rock feel reminiscent of The Allman Brothers Band, one of the influences Cordovas have acknowledged, along with The Grateful Dead and The Band.

The last tune I’d like to call out is the beautiful closer Somos Iguales featuring Marisol Hernandez, aka. La Marisoul, lead vocalist in Los Angeles-based Mexican-American band La Santa Cecilia. Hernandez was also one of the co-writers, together with Firstman, Adrian “Ace” Campos and Jimmy Messner. I like the song’s simple yet powerful message about human equality. BTW, nopales, the pads of the prickly pear cactus, are a staple in Mexican dishes.

If you like what you’ve heard, I’d encourage you to check out the full album. With a total playtime of less than 35 minutes, no daunting time commitment is required. I think including another more rock-oriented tune among the 12 tracks could have added a bit more variety. It’s a minor wrinkle in an otherwise solid album that has a timeless feel.

Sources: Wikipedia; Cordovas website; Glide Magazine; Holler Country; YouTube; Spotify

New Music Musings

It’s Saturday and I’d like to welcome you to another installment of my weekly new music revue. This time I ended up picking six tracks, which are all included on albums that dropped yesterday (August 11).

Les Imprimés/You

Les Imprimés is the moniker of Norwegian artist Morten Martens. According to his Bandcamp page, he keeps a low profile while making his heartfelt, highly infectious, and unique music. Martens explains it’s “soul music, but I don’t exactly have the soul voice,” adding, “But I do it my own way, in a way that’s mine.” While Martens has been making records for decades as a hired gun, R​êverie is his solo debut. Here’s the beautiful You, which blends elements of ’60s and ’70s soul and doo-wop.

Bonnie “Prince” Billie/Crazy Blue Bells

Joseph Will Oldham is an American singer-songwriter and actor who since 1998 has released music as Bonnie “Prince” Billie. His music has been compared to Americana, folk, roots, country, punk and indie rock. Off his latest album Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You, here’s Crazy Blue Bell penned by Oldham. The tune first appeared as a single on July 10.

Cordovas/Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll

Cordovas are an Americana and country rock band from East Nashville, Tenn. They were formed in 2011 by singer-songwriter, bassist and vocalist Joe Firstman after a six-year stint as bandleader for former NBC late-night show Last Call with Carson Daly. Cordovas who have named The Allman Brothers Band, Grateful Dead and The Band as influences are now out with their fourth studio album The Rose of Aces. Here’s the fantastic opener Fallen Angels of Rock ‘n’ Roll co-written by Firstman and Cory Hanson, frontman of Los Angeles rock band Wand.

Andy Frasco & The U.N./Iowa Moon

Andy Frasco & The U.N. are a Los Angeles band blending soul, blues, jazz and rock into an upbeat sound. Led by lead vocalist and keyboarder Andy Frasco, they were formed in 2007 and have released six studio albums to date. Their latest is titled L’Optimist. I like that title! And here’s a tune to match it, Iowa Moon, co-written by Frasco, Kenny Carkeet, Steve Poltz and Paul McDonald.

Caskets/Better Way Out

Originally formed as Captives in 2018, Caskets are a band from Leeds, England. AllMusic describes their sound as melodic and synth-heavy, combining elements of post-hardcore and emo with a poppy edge. From their sophomore album Reflections, here’s Better Way Out. The tune is credited to band members Matthew Edward Flood (vocals), Craig Robinson (guitar), Benjamin Wilson (guitar), Christopher Mcintosh (bass) and James Lazenby (drums), as well as Phillip Strand and producer Dan Weller.

Hurry/Something More

Rounding out this week’s New Music Musings are Hurry. Their Spotify profile notes this Philadelphia-based group fuses the melancholic jangle and tunefulness of classic power pop with a fuzzy, ’90s-inspired indie rock aesthetic. Hurry grew out of a solo project by Matthew Scottoline, former bassist of Philly Emo and indie rock band Everyone Everywhere. From their sixth and latest studio album Don’t Look Back, let’s listen to the pleasant Something More, penned by Scottoline.

Sources: Wikipedia; Les Imprimés Bandcamp page; Bonnie “Prince” Willie Drag City artist page; Cordovas website; Andy Frasco & The U.N. website; Caskets website; AllMusic; Hurry Bandcamp page; YouTube; Spotify