Samantha Crain — Kid Face

Folk
Zach Hale
Take away the album name — and its cover — and you’d never know Kid Face was released by a 26-year-old. The most alluring weapon in her arsenal, Samantha Crain’s voice resides somewhere between Nico’s husky croon and Joni Mitchell’s tuneful elegance.

 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Chelsey Cope — A Deeper Root

Folk
Joshua Boydston
Oklahoma has no shortage of talented female singer-songwriters, and with A Deeper Root, you can add Tulsa native and Oklahoma City-based musician Chelsey Cope to the ranks.

 

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Parker Millsap and Michael Rose — Palisade

Folk
Joshua Boydston
Fledgling singer-songwriter and Purcell native Parker Millsap builds quite a foundation with stand-up bassist Michael Rose on their debut, Palisade. From the sounds of it, a monumental career is in the works.

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Independence 76 — Magpie Parables

Folk
Matt Carney
It’s been a long while since I’ve heard a work of Americana as sprawling and ambitious as Independence 76’s debut album, Magpie Parables.

 

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Laura Gibson — La Grande

The cure for the common Lana Del Rey.

Folk
Matt Carney
I’ve come up with a great cure to having to read Lana Del Rey’s name every 45 seconds I spend on the Internet, you guys!

 

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Seeker Lover Keeper — Seeker Lover Keeper

Classic folk tunes from some young Aussie gals.

Folk
Matt Carney
Just when I was about to write off the debut LP from Australian lady-singer collective Seeker Lover Keeper as a collection of overly subdued, wannabe Feist mishy-mash, a shocking and attention-grabbing drum machine hooked me back in on the sixth track, “Rely on Me,” midway through the album.

 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Riley Jantzen and the Spirits — Feathers

A focused, rich indie-folk LP from Mayola’s former front man.

Folk
Matt Carney
I once knew Riley Jantzen as that harsh-voiced dude from that band with the even-harsher guitar tones, Mayola. Even when he wasn’t grunting or guttural, he sounded like a mean ol’ son of a rock ’n’ roll gun.

 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Terra Lightfoot — Terra Lightfoot

This dream-folk debut will induce dead sleep.

Folk
Matt Carney
As the common people have progressed over the last 50-plus years, so has the topicality of their music. Since the development of genres in popular music in the 1950s, contemporary folk music has skewed apolitical, alluring and beautiful.

 

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Zach Winters — They Were Longing For a Better Country

Folk
Matt Carney

Redemption, peace, fate and desire. Banjos, harmonicas and handclaps. God and man. Stillness.

 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know

Womanhood told by a lovely English nymph.

Folk
Matt Carney
Labeling Laura Marling and her British ilk with the awful tag of nu-folk makes about as much sense as nu-metal does, in general. Which is to say, very little.

 

Monday, September 12, 2011

Jackie-O Motherf***er — Earth Sound System

Earth to Jackie-O: Do you read me? No? OK, then.

Folk
Matt Carney
Naming your band Jackie-O Motherfucker is the titling equivalent of purchasing a license to record whatever the hell music you want, as far as I and the Americana-experimentin’ Portland indie collective are concerned.

 

Friday, August 5, 2011

Matt the Electrician — Accidental Thief

Maybe the Avetts’ long-lost brother?

Folk
Stephen Carradini
Banjo-playing Matt the Electrician actually was an electrician before he took up music full-time. This sort of earnest, workingman’s dignity powers his pop folk.

 

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Paleo — Fruit of the Spirit

Outsider folk with gems to unearth

Folk
Stephen Carradini
Paleo’s acoustic guitar songs on “Fruit of the Spirit” call to mind a lot of different artists, for good or for ill.

 

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Brandi Carlile — Live at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony

Singer/songwriter's powerful voice successfully gets the 'with strings!' treatment

Folk
Stephen Carradini
Brandi Carlile’s singer/songwriter tunes subsist on two things: her powerful voice and pop sensibility.

 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Robert Johnson — The Centennial Collection

All of the blues great's tunes on two CDs.

Folk
Stephen Carradini
I don’t like blues. I appreciate that it beget most music I listen to, but I just can’t stand to hear the repetitive form.

 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011