"Wolf Song"
Melody Duncan
Atlanta, Ga.-based singer-songwriter/violinist/multi-instrumentalist Melody Duncan released her debut solo album, "Wolf Song," March 12. With hints of Americana, indie-pop, chamber-pop and folk woven together into a compelling mix, the songs on the album also feature Duncan's unique vocals -- a slightly gravelly beckoning into the depths of her music. With a clear vision and focus, "Wolf Song" was entirely written, performed, recorded and produced by Duncan.
True to her upbringing, her original music is a mix of genres, a taste all its own. Accompanying her unique musical vision, she has begun to create what she calls her "Wolf Pack," a community of people and music fans who gather together in person, in spirit, or both. "I think wolves are amazing creatures," Duncan says. "They run strongest in packs, and they need community to be their best. They also connect through song, howling together in harmony despite any distance between them. ... I want to encourage people, connect with people and share light and love through music. We all need more light."
"Emigrant"
Kishi Bashi
Joyful Noise Recordings
Kishi Bashi released his new EP, "Emigrant," April 2 as a companion release to his critically acclaimed 2019 album "Omoiyari." The EP's wistful, seasonably-named first single "Wait For Springtime" is "a song about the anticipation and hope of the equinox that is to come after the pandemic," explains Kaoru Ishibashi, who records as Kishi Bashi. "Even though the longing to hug and cry in each other's arms may be a faint memory right now, in our core we know that we will bounce back in a lush way in our proverbial springtime."
The timely, new six-song collection contains four original compositions and two covers -- of Regina Spektor's "Laughing With" and Dolly Parton's "Early Morning Breeze," both released earlier this year. The lush, bluegrass-inspired songs were arranged and recorded over the last year, with the "Emigrant" EP serving as a time capsule of 2020 as it meditates on the anxieties of the covid-19 pandemic, the comforts of nature, the pains of resource-fueled conflicts and the resiliency that emerges from struggle.
"Leftover Feelings"
John Hiatt & The Jerry Douglas Band
New West Records
John Hiatt with The Jerry Douglas Band released a new 11-song set, "Leftover Feelings" May 21. A meeting of two American music giants in a legendary setting, "Leftover Feelings" is neither a bluegrass album nor a return to Hiatt's 1980s days with slide guitar greats Ry Cooder and Sonny Landreth. There's no drummer, yet these grooves are deep and true. And while the up-tempo songs are, as ever, filled with delightful internal rhyme and sly aggression, The Jerry Douglas Band's empathetic musicianship nudges Hiatt to performances that are startlingly vulnerable.
John Hiatt's lyrics and melodies have graced more than 20 studio albums, have been recorded by scores of well-known singers, and have earned him a place in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, a BMI Troubadour award, and a lifetime achievement in songwriting designation from the Americana Music Association. Jerry Douglas has performed on more than 1,500 albums by artists including Ray Charles, George Jones, Alison Krauss, Earl Scruggs and James Taylor, and none of those works sound a bit like the new and masterful "Leftover Feelings."
"Penelope Three"
Penelope Trappes
Houndstooth
"Penelope Three," released May 28, is the third and final installment of Australian-born Brighton-based musician Penelope Trappes' trilogy. She completes her ambitious and other-worldly triptych with an album of healing, on which she looks to release herself from fear and into love, evoked in Trappes' signature ambient gothic dreamlands that are equal parts shoegaze pop and surrealist soundscapes.
Where "Penelope One" explored aspects of birth and rebirth and the power of the female body, and "Penelope Two" was centered around the acknowledgement of grief and how we carry our own stories of loss, "Penelope Three" is about healing the stories held in her body by surrendering to universal love. In it, she explores her metamorphosis through tales of motherhood, the divine feminine, anxiety, healing powers and their spiritual connections through vocal loops, piano and guitar drenched in reverb, all underpinned by subterranean drones.
"This is my most personal album to date," Trappes says. "I'm digging up the underworld with visual motifs, and a mystical, gothic darkness that symbolizes my struggles. Yet the universal message is that of overcoming our fears to allow the love in. This is the healing."
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This spot will continue to be filled by news and reviews of new albums, both local and national. Send information about your new releases to Jocelyn Murphy at [email protected].
